Milor!

by Thomas DePrima

  "If the three forces must unite, and fight as one in Stewart's sectors, who will command?" Admiral Hubera asked. "The regs assign command to the sector commander, but a one star cannot be put in command over two Upper Halves."

  The admirals at the table looked around to see if anyone had a suggestion for that one. Admiral Moore finally broke the silence with, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We can't possibly unite the forces within two to three years. It will take that long for them to reach Stewart."

  The Admiralty Board met again in emergency session two days later, after the message from Jenetta arrived in which she informed Supreme HQ of the two other Milori fleets. They already knew the contents of the vid message but they watched it again on the large monitor before beginning the discussion.

  "This doesn't change things very much," Admiral Moore said. "Orders have already been issued to the fleet, immediately reassigning half our warships to the border and ordering them to proceed with all haste."

  "Will it be enough?" Admiral Platt asked.

  "It'll have to be. We can't release the other hundred thirty-five warships or the very situation that Admiral Carver warns against, privateers, will become a reality. They also serve as Earth's last defense if the Milori get past our fleets."

  "The real question now is, 'where are the two Milori fleets'?" Admiral Ahmed said.

  "We need to get our intelligence people on this immediately," Admiral Plimley said. "Somebody has to have seen these fleets. Even in the Frontier Zone, a fleet of a hundred ships is going to be noticed by a mining survey crew— a freight hauler— or someone."

  All eyes went to Admiral Bradlee.

  "I'm on it," he said. "I sent out a priority message to all my section heads to get their people working on it as soon as I heard the message last night. It'll take time for the messages to reach everyone, but within two weeks, every SCI agent in the galaxy will be checking with his or her contacts. We're offering a reward for confirmed sightings of the Milori fleets."

  "What more can we do to help Admiral Carver?" Admiral Platt asked.

  "There's nothing more that we can do in the short term," Admiral Moore said. "They'll either get their ships repaired and return to Stewart, or they won't. If the Milori show up before they're ready to evacuate the area, we might lose the fifteen ships in her task force. It's unlikely that Admiral Carver can trap any more ships. They won't be blindly following a Judas goat this time."

  "What's that, a Judas goat?" Admiral Woo asked.

  "Sorry, Lon," Admiral Moore said. "It's an old term from the days when stockyards slaughtered sheep. You see, sheep would just mill around in a pen and wouldn't enter the chute that led to the butchering place, so the stockyards used a trained goat that led the sheep into the chute. At the end of the chute, a special door let out the Judas goat, but the sheep continued down the chute to the slaughter. The term refers to anyone that leads others into a deadly trap, as the Ottawa did."

  "And this time the Milori won't be pursuing a GSC ship," Admiral Woo said. "I understand."

  "If Admiral Carver sent out ships as decoys, they might achieve the same thing," Admiral Ahmed said. "As soon as they were sighted they could retreat. With any luck, the Milori would pursue."

  "No, the Milori have been alerted now about the entrapment," Admiral Moore said. "They won't fall for it again. Besides, according to the information that we received, Admiral Carver cleaned out the armory on Stewart. I've already approved requisitions for replacing the mines, torpedoes, and new WOLaR weapons. Admiral Carver will have to get by with whatever torpedoes the ships are still carrying. Her mines and WOLaR weapons have all been deployed."

  "Perhaps it's time again to speak of incorporating the Nordakian Space Force into Space Command," Admiral Platt said. "They've changed a lot of the restrictions that caused us to reject that idea in the past. They treat their women almost as equals now, and don't force them to wear outlandish costumes while on duty. Incorporating the Nordakian ships would add twenty warships and thirty-some support vessels to our forces. At least half of their warships have been built since Nordakia joined the Galactic Alliance, and they've included the new technology that we've shared with them. They also have a dozen more warships under construction."

  "One of the main problems still exists," Admiral Ahmed said. "The Nordakian officers are inadequately trained, by Space Command standards. The new Space Command Academy on Nordakia will correct that in time, but for now it's an incontrovertible fact."

  "It'll take generations to slowly replace their entire Space Force with Academy trained personnel," Admiral Platt said. "We need the ships now. There must be some way that we can integrate them into Space Command."

  "What if we were to pass a restriction that Academy trained officers couldn't serve aboard a Space Command ship unless the Captain was a graduate of a Space Command Academy?" Admiral Ressler suggested. "It would prevent the frustration that an officer might have towards serving under an inadequately trained captain."

  "Mixing officers and crews with different educational backgrounds will still be a problem. A captain that doesn't have confidence in his crew will be as bad as the reverse," Admiral Woo said.

  "I agree that it wouldn't work," Admiral Hillaire said. "I've given this matter a great deal of thought. The Nordakians that have graduated from the two Academies on Earth occupy regular Space Command posts, either aboard ships or on bases, so there hasn't been a problem. Graduates from the new school on Nordakia will also be posted to regular Space Command positions. However, if their old school continues to produce officers, we can never achieve full integration. At some point the old school must be closed."

  "I don't think that you'll get any argument from the Nordakians," Admiral Moore said. "They've already recognized that a serious problem exists. For ten years, the best and brightest have been entering the Space Command Academies on Earth. With the opening of the Academy on Nordakia, the only enrollees at their old Academy are the ones that couldn't pass our entrance exams. The Academy Board of Governors, headed by Arnold here," he said, gesturing to Admiral Hillaire, "wisely chose to maintain the minimum entrance qualifications used on Earth, so they were only able to fill about half the available freshman class slots on Nordakia this year."

  "The sweeping changes that they're making on Nordakia will bear fruit in a few years," Admiral Ahmed said. "Embracing technology rather than shunning it, as the clerics promoted, will bring us a bumper crop of enrollees soon."

  "We still have the problem of transitioning the present Nordakian Space Force into a Space Command entity," Admiral Platt said. "If we don't, their military will begin to degrade at an increasing rate as their old academy turns out Space Force officers that weren't able to get into the Space Command Academy."

  "It looks like a 'damned if we do and damned if we don't' situation," Admiral Hillaire said. "In order for this to have a chance of working, the Nordakians will have to accept a Space Command officer as the most senior officer of their Space Force during a transition period. All present Space Force officers must be required to attend special classes to learn Space Command rules and regs. Finally, we need to familiarize them with our command structure."

  "I can only think of one Space Command officer that has a chance of being accepted as their most senior officer," Admiral Platt said.

  "No, don't say it, Evelyn," Admiral Hubera said, covering his eyes with his hand.

  Admiral Platt smiled. "See, even Donald realizes it. Admiral Carver is the only one that the Nordakians would accept to head their Space Force during a transition. She's officially a captain in the Nordakian Space Force, she holds their planet's highest military honor, speaks Dakis like a native, and she's a citizen of Nordakia. Perhaps most importantly, she's an Azula and a Lady of the Royal House of Nordakia. She's revered on Nordakia almost as much as their King and Queen."

  Admiral Hubera groaned loudly, his eyes still covered with his hand, causing the others around the room to chuckle. "You had to say i
t, didn't you?" His comment sent another round of chuckles around the room.

  "What about Admiral Yuthkotl?" Admiral Ahmed asked. "He's not going to appreciate being pushed out of the Nordakian Space Force top spot."

  "We don't push him out," Admiral Hillaire said. "We bring him here and treat it like a promotion, although he'll only be a Lower Half. The Nordakians are going to need representation on this board anyway, and at Supreme Headquarters. Yuthkotl is charming, very intelligent, and speaks Amer."

  "Are you suggesting that we bring the entire senior staff of the Nordakian Space Force here?" Admiral Ahmed asked.

  "Not at all," Admiral Hillaire said. "That decision would have to be made by Admiral Carver."

  "Wait a minute," Admiral Hubera said. "You're already assuming that Admiral Carver will be made the senior officer of the Nordakian Space Force. She's just a Lower."

  "That would have to change," Admiral Moore said. "She'll have to have the rank of Upper at least."

  "She won't accept it," Admiral Holt said. He had sat listening to the conversation with interest, and had said nothing until now. "She'll resign her commission and take a job as a freighter captain or passenger ship captain."

  The other admirals stared at him with stunned expressions on their faces.

  "She'd refuse the appointment?" Admiral Moore said incredulously.

  "She'd resign her commission?" Admiral Hillaire said, even more incredulously.

  "Admiral Carver wants to be on a military ship in space," Admiral Holt said. "She'd take a demotion back to ensign if that's what it took. But if that isn't possible, she'd take a job aboard a commercial ship in space."

  "But she accepted the promotion to Rear Admiral, Lower Half," Admiral Burke said.

  "I'm quite sure that she did that only because it's a brevet rank. She'll revert to the rank of Captain at the end of her duty tour, and she'll then be eligible to receive a ship. Admiral Carver has accepted posts at two bases and functioned as their base commander because she's a good officer, but how long can you expect someone to put duty over personal happiness? How long can they remain an effective officer?"

  The room was silent for a full minute as everyone thought about Admiral Holt's words.

  "The matter may be academic," Admiral Moore said. "She's in very real danger of not returning from her current assignment. We've had a brief respite from thinking about the Milori when we got sidetracked on the issue of the Nordakians, but we have to get back to the threat of invasion again. I think that we should still consider the appointment of Admiral Carver to Upper Half though. The reassignment of ships puts her in command of almost a hundred warships, and an equal number of support ships. As base commander of Stewart, a post normally held by an Upper, we could brevet her with a second star without any formality. May I have a show of hands for all in approval?"

  Each admiral at the table, except Admiral Holt who could speak but not vote, raised their hand. Even Admiral Hubera reluctantly voted in favor of the temporary appointment. The words from Holt that Jenetta might resign her commission if the Board assigned her to head up the Nordakian Space Force played over and over in his mind.

  "Good, it's unanimous," Admiral Moore said. "I'll inform Admiral Carver when I respond to her latest message."

  * * *

  Emperor Maxxiloth, enjoying a quiet evening meal with a few dozen guests, stopped eating and listened intently as an aide whispered a message. He excused himself and walked quickly from the dining room. Ten minutes later, he was standing in a special communications room beneath the palace as vid messages continued to pour in from the third fleet. Because of the distance, it had taken more than two weeks for the messages to arrive from the battle site.

  The communications chief played back the messages from the trapped ships, one at a time, for the benefit of the Emperor and senior ministers that had collected in the room.

  On every ship, it was the same story, death and destruction on an unprecedented scale. Some reports were sent with the last breaths of the com operators, and some continued to report until the com operators ran out of things to say. Most messages included data from external sensors and special cameras.

  The Emperor watched and listened intently until all the reports had been replayed. By then it was clear that their third fleet had been destroyed. All evidence indicated that they had faced just fifteen Space Command warships. The Emperor had known that the invasion schedule had been advanced after Space Command detected the presence of their ships inside the Frontier Zone, but he had merely felt that the destruction of the Galactic Alliance would occur that much sooner.

  Emperor Maxxiloth called an immediate meeting of the war council. It took several hours to convene, and by then he was over his initial shock and was fuming.

  "Exalted Lord Space Marshall Berquyth," he screamed at the commander of all space operations, "can you explain this disaster? You have assured me for years that we would sweep through the Galactic Alliance like a broom through a nest of insects. So confident were you, that we have changed all the maps of space to show that part of space as being part of our Empire. I had ceased to think of the Galactic Alliance as still being in existence. On your advice, we sent two thirds of our entire complement of warships. You assured us that it would be more than adequate for the job."

  "I'm most sorry, my Lord. This has been as much a surprise to me as to everyone else. It will take some time to examine the data that we've received. My first impression is that our intelligence has been faulty. The Alliance must have far deadlier weapons than we were led to believe."

  "What of our other fleets?"

  "We've received no reports of other encounters or engagements."

  "They must change course immediately and destroy this Space Command task force. We can't afford to have them at our back when we encounter other forces."

  "I'm sure that Supreme Lord Space Marshall Dwillaak will alter course as soon as he hears of the battle. Since he's much closer, he must already be on his way to destroy the task force that surprised our fleet."

  "Send him orders anyway. Make him understand how important it is to destroy this force and erase this embarrassment from the annals of our history. And I want the head of whoever is in command of that task force."

  * * *

  Chapter Nineteen

  ~ March 3rd, 2277 ~

  Repairs to the Prometheus, Chiron, and Thor should have easily taken over a month, but with the combined energetic efforts of all the engineering crews, they were approaching completion after only two and a half weeks. Engineers had completely rebuilt the hull areas destroyed by the torpedoes, and patched the major damage from laser weapons. They would tend to hits that had self-sealed, and didn't present a problem to the ship's structural integrity or safety of the crew, only after major repairs to the rest of the task force were completed. The Prometheus' hull was now completely pressurized. They would have the Chiron and Thor likewise fully pressurized in another day or two at the most. The engineers aboard the Prometheus were busy replacing the third, inside layer of tritanium panels after installing new self-sealing membrane in the most heavily damaged areas.

  Jenetta was on the flight bay running track completing her morning workout when a com operator notified her that there was a Priority-One message from Supreme HQ waiting for her. She grabbed her towel from the rack by the door and hurried back to her quarters with her cats. Plopping down into the chair in her private office, she called up her messages and selected the one from HQ. She had already received a reply to her original message, so this had to be a reply to the message about the two, yet unseen, invasion fleets.

  "Hello, Admiral," the image of Admiral Moore said.

  "The Admiralty Board was already concerned that there might be other Milori in the Frontier Zone and had formulated certain plans. We've sent out a general alarm and reassigned half the fleet to your border sectors and the sectors on your flanks. It's unlikely that the Milori would travel beyond those sectors to launch a surprise invas
ion. Of the hundred thirty-five reassigned warships, sixty-five have been assigned to Stewart and thirty-five each are being sent to Admirals Martucci and Rhinefield.

  "Naturally we hope that they won't be needed, but the situation dictates that they be sent. Those reassigned ships closest to the Frontier Zone, have already begun their trip. Most will need to stop, for provisioning and rearmament, before making the long journey. They'll be filled with as much ordnance as possible, to replace your exhausted stocks. We've re-tasked ships further away, to cover the areas vacated. It will leave us a bit short handed elsewhere, but we must continue to patrol all sectors.

  "Intelligence agents have been notified to put everything else aside to seek information on the two Milori fleets, so by now every agent in galactic space is making contact with their informants in an attempt to locate the enemy.

  "With the assignment of the sixty-five ships to Stewart, your task force has grown to a fleet of ninety-six Space Command warships, plus the three Nordakian cruisers. Although we previously overlooked the requirement that a Rear Admiral, Upper, be made the base commander of Stewart, the size of this fleet absolutely requires that the most senior officer hold that rank. Therefore, effective immediately, and with the full endorsement of the Admiralty Board, I'm promoting you to the rank of Rear Admiral, Upper Half. This appointment is in accordance with the regulations allowing Brevet Promotions since you were already the base commander of Stewart.

  "A press release has been prepared, and is being released today, so don't be surprised when congratulations start flowing in. We are notifying all ship captains in the fleet, as part of the regular daily update traffic. The news services have broken the story about your defeating the Milori invasion force with just fifteen ships so your name is once again filling all the news shows. We haven't yet informed the press about the two other Milori fleets, and don't intend to unless the Milori begin new hostilities.