by D. J. Holmes
“Thank you,” James repeated before sitting in a chair opposite his bed. It had been a gift from Suzanna. She had said it was a place for him to sit and think. As he relaxed into the embrace of the seat’s cushions, James was happy to let his mind wander. Whatever this new frigate meant, there was nothing he could do about it until more information was available. For now, allowing himself a few moments to relax was the best thing he could do for his fleet.
“Is there anything else I can do for you Admiral? Perhaps a sandwich or some other snack? You could be on the bridge for several hours at least.” Fox asked.
“That would be good,” James replied. Fox had read his mind again. “I’ll take a sandwich now and a nutrient bar for the bridge, that would be perfect.”
As Fox left to fetch what James had asked for, he allowed his mind to wander again. As it often did, it went to Suzanna. The contents of her latest letter were easy to recall. Now that she was the First Councilor of Haven, her workload had increased. Despite that, and all of the strains and stress she was enduring, she still found time to write to James and, for the most part, her letters focused on things other than work. She knew James appreciated having a connection to the world outside of politics and naval affairs.
As soon has his coffee and sandwich were finished he thanked Fox and left his quarters. When he got to the bridge the rest of the staff were already there. Captain Becket was obviously taking the new contact seriously for she was there herself along with a full complement of bridge officers. “Any update?” he asked as he moved towards his command chair.
“Nothing yet Admiral,” Becket replied. “Still no gravimetric pulses from the frigate. We sent a COM message to them requesting an immediate update but it won’t reach them for another forty-five minutes. If they sent us anything we should receive it by then as well.”
“All right let’s bring the fleet to alert status one. Miyamoto, get one of the battle simulations you have prepared going, we may as well give everyone something to do while we wait,” James instructed.
As the message was transmitted throughout Golden Hind and the rest of the Outer Defense Fleet, James pulled up the details of the scout ship that had been assigned to X-40. Only one frigate had been left to monitor the system just in case something unexpected occurred. A quick survey of the frigate Captain’s record, a native of the American Omaha colony, told James he wasn’t one to overreact. Captain Miller had worked his way up from an ECM technician to the rank of petty officer and then, through pure merit, had been transferred onto the command track. From there he had begun as a lowly ensign and worked his way up to the rank of Captain. Miller had a wealth of experience behind him which suggested that whatever he was up to, he had good reasons.
As his staff and the rest of the Outer Defense Fleet distracted themselves with the battle simulations James had requested, he tried to think of what might have caused Miller to leave his assigned station. In the end, he couldn’t think of anything but another Flex-aor fleet. That was more than worrying. Without a salvo of multistage missiles, James wouldn’t be able to pull off another one-sided victory. Plus, if there was a second Flex-aor fleet in the vicinity, it suggested there would probably be more fleets behind it. At least if they are out there, they can’t stop us getting to X-38 this time, James thought. He could pull his fleet back behind the fixed defenses built around the planet. With luck, another shipment of multistage missiles might have arrived.
“COM message is coming in from the scout frigate, it is Sparrow. Captain Miller has sent a full report, transferring it to you all now,” Golden Hind’s COM officer reported.
James waited while his subordinates sifted through the report. When both Becket and Scott raised their heads from their command consoles, they had identical looks on their faces. “How bad is it?” James asked as he prepared himself to hear that multiple Flex-aor fleets had been discovered.
“It’s not Flex-aor,” Scott answered. “At least, I hope not.” She looked back at her console as if to check Miller’s report again.
“Well, come on someone, spit it out,” James demanded.
“Miller detected a large fleet of over four hundred warships entering the system,” Miyamoto explained. “They were traveling at acceleration rates far higher than what we’ve seen the Flex-aor achieve. They were heading straight for the shift passage to this system. Sparrow was already near the shift passage and Miller fled as fast as he could. He maxed out his shift drive on the journey and when they jumped out of shift space some of their systems were badly damaged. Including their gravimetric relay. That’s why they didn’t inform us immediately. As far as Miller is concerned, the fleet is either a significantly more advanced Flex-aor battle fleet, or some new alien race. Either way, they didn’t appear friendly. As soon as they detected Sparrow’s movements, two smaller ships were detached from the large alien fleet and tried to pursue Sparrow. Their acceleration rates were even more impressive. Miller reports that he was lucky to escape.”
“Given that we have already fought a Flex-aor battle fleet that wasn’t any more advanced than six years ago, Miller’s data suggest this is another species,” Scott finished. “Given their impressive acceleration rates, they could be significantly more powerful than we are. And if they are hostile…” Scott didn’t finish, she didn’t have to.
“Dispatch two clippers back to X-38 with Miller’s data immediately,” James snapped. “Tell them to make their way to X-38 in stealth mode. Dzedzyk, turn the fleet away from our current heading. If this is a hostile alien fleet, we don’t want them knowing where the shift passage out of the system is. Put us onto a new heading and bring us to a halt relative to the system’s star. We will await whoever this is.”
“Is that wise Admiral?” Becket asked. “We don’t know if this fleet pursued Sparrow through shift space. Nor do we know when they might arrive if they did. We could still pull back to X-38.”
“If they are as advanced as they seem, they probably have screening ships in the system ahead of their main fleet already. It may be too late to stop them from guessing where we were headed. But just in case, I want to be cautious. That goes for returning to X-38 as well. This fleet outnumbers us significantly. If they out match us ship for ship as well, they could easily blow through us and X-38’s defenses. Our colonies would be wide open to attack. The best thing we can do to defend our colonies is wait here and see what this fleet wants.”
“I understand Admiral, at least, I think. I hope that whoever this is, they prove to be friendly. Having the Flex-aor as enemies is bad enough,” Becket replied.
“Agreed,” James said. “Let’s call a Captains’ conference and update everyone on the situation. I know we have some first contact protocols from the UN, but I think we should refresh ourselves on the best approach if this does prove to be another alien race. Scott, can you take some time now and go over the UN protocols to update us all?”
“No problem Admiral, I will focus on that now. Emilie, you can arrange the Captains’ conference,” Scott responded.
“Aye Commander,” Emilie replied without lifting her head from her command console. When James glanced at her he saw her fingers were dancing over its interface.
Sitting back in his chair, James let out a slow breath. Then he rolled his shoulders and wiggled his fingers to work out the tension that had suddenly gripped him. He had been the first to meet the Vestarians and the Kulreans. Neither first contact had been by the book, not that a first contact protocol book had been written back then. He hoped that if this was going to be a similar situation, it would go a little better. The last thing Humanity needed was another war. He could imagine what the UN Admirals would say when they heard what was going to happen. They had placed him on the frontier to keep him out of trouble. If they had known there was the potential of meeting an alien race other than the Flex-aor, there was no doubt they would have appointed someone else to command the Outer Defense Fleet. At least they will have a ready scapegoat if things go badly, James t
hought. He had no doubt that if this new race proved hostile, he would get the blame. After all, he was a known warmonger according to many at the UN. If this does go badly, it’s not going to be because of me, James decided as he thought back to his first meetings with the Vestarians and Kulreans. Though they hadn’t been exemplary, James knew that he had ingratiated himself to each species. I hope the same can happen here.
Chapter 5
There is an old diplomatic saying, while friendships between two species meeting for the first time can develop quickly, animosity appears in an instant. Sadly the history of the Empire’s attempts to reach out to its neighbors confirms this again and again. Despite our best intentions, some species have decided we were their enemies without waiting to listen to what our diplomats have had to say.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.
UNS Golden Hind, X-40 system, 14th June 2478 AD.
Despite the sudden and unexpected tension and fear Miller’s report had brought, there was no immediate resolution to the feelings that had forced themselves on everyone in the Outer Defense Fleet. For as time dragged on, no subsequent contact report came in. After James’ Captains’ conference, he had met with his own staff. Then they had all returned to Golden Hind’s bridge. Three hours later, there had been no developments.
“What do you think Admiral?” Miyamoto asked.
James didn’t know if he wanted to answer. Though he had no hard data, his gut was warning him that something wasn’t right. “They’re out there,” he said. “I don’t know how I know it, but they are. At least some scouts, perhaps even the entire fleet Miller detected. If they have advanced acceleration capabilities, they probably have pretty good stealth technologies as well. Probably at least as good as ours. I’m sure that whoever is commanding the alien fleet dropped out of shift space well beyond the system’s mass shadow. They will be cautious coming into an unknown system. But they’re coming.”
A serious look descended on most of his officers’ faces as they turned back to their consoles or to the bridge’s main holo projector. James nodded. He needed his best from his officers today. No doubt all of them were scared at the prospect of facing an unknown enemy, as was he, but they were too professional to show it.
After another hour of waiting, James’ patience was running thin. He was certain there was an unknown fleet out there, but it was growing more and more apparent that its commander was very cautious. Which may be a good sign, James figured. If the unknown fleet came charging at them it would suggest they were confident in their superiority. If they were being cautious, either they feared James’ fleet, or they didn’t know what they were up against.
“It’s time to poke the hornet’s nest I think,” James said. He had been waiting around long enough. The clippers he had sent to X-38 should have already jumped out of the system. There was no point delaying things any longer. “Fire a spread of recon drones towards the shift passage to X-43. Program them to go active with their scanning as soon as they are launched. Let’s let whoever is out there know that we are expecting them.”
“Aye Admiral, I’ll get on it right away,” Miyamoto responded.
A couple of minutes later more than one hundred recon drones were catapulted into space and immediately released hundreds of kilowatts of electromagnetic energy as they scanned space all around them. It only took a few minutes to get a response. “Multiple new contacts!” Golden Hind’s sensor officer snapped.
Everyone’s head whipped towards the holo projector showing the data from Golden Hind’s gravimetric sensors. The tension on the bridge spiked. Whilst the alien fleet wasn’t accelerating directly for the Outer Defense Fleet, they were clearly maneuvering onto a trajectory that would bring them into missile range. As the numbers firmed up, it was clear there were at least four hundred contacts. Nearly double the number James had under his command.
“They’re accelerating at over six hundred gravities,” Miyamoto reported, awe filling his voice.
James understood. The fastest ship in his fleet could manage just over five hundred. The aliens certainly had a propulsion tech advantage. That was worrisome.
“There’s no way they are Flex-aor,” Scott commented.
“We’ll see soon enough,” Becket replied. “It looks like three of our recon drones will get pretty close to them even with those acceleration rates.”
James swallowed the lump in his throat. Now that the fleet was confirmed to not be composed of Flex-aor warships, he was second-guessing the recon drones he had dispatched. If the alien fleet wasn’t hostile, it might interpret his drones as an aggressive move. If they didn’t want their fleet to be closely scanned, the only thing they could do was destroy the recon drones. That was an escalation James didn’t want to see. “Send orders to those three drones to self-destruct. Let’s show whoever this is that we intend them no harm. Order the rest of the drones to power down their sensors and return to their ships.”
As soon as the drones self-destructed, the alien fleet reduced its acceleration rate. However, they also turned onto a heading that meant they were closing with James’ ships even faster. Both Becket and Scott looked up from their command chairs. James shrugged. He had no answers for them. “Send the fleet to battle stations and transmit the UN’s first contact COM message.”
“Transmitting now Admiral,” Emilie replied.
James nodded to his niece and looked back to the main holo projector. The UN first contact message was brief and to the point. It introduced Humanity and informed the alien species that Humans had no interest in conquering or attacking other species. They only built military ships to defend their own borders. That seemed fair enough to James, but he suspected that an alien fleet meeting a Human war fleet for the first time would want a little more reassurance than a pre-recorded COM message.
“They should have received the COM message by now,” Emilie reported five minutes later. “There doesn’t seem to be a reply coming back.”
“Keep the UN first contact message on repeat,” James instructed her.
“They’re decreasing their acceleration rates again,” Golden Hind’s sensor officer reported. “It’s only a small decrease, but it’s something isn’t it?”
“It is,” James said, though it wasn’t necessarily positive sign. The alien commander could be taking his time to pick out what targets he wanted to kill first in the opening missile salvos. “I think it’s time to put our plan into action,” James continued. “The closer our two fleets get to each other, the more likely something will go wrong.”
“Are you sure Admiral?” Becket said, she spun round her eyes widening. “They haven’t exactly appeared friendly. So far every action they’ve taken would suggest they are prepared to engage our fleet.”
“It could also be the actions of a cautious commander wary of encountering an alien war fleet,” James replied. “I don’t think we’re going to know until we get into missile range and give them a chance to fire.”
James’s words didn’t exactly remove the look of concern on Beckett’s face. “Well you know my concerns Admiral, if this is what you think is best, Golden Hind is at your command,” she responded.
“Scott?” James said turning to his Chief of Staff.
“You know my concerns as well Admiral. If this is the alien race I suspect has been arming the Flex-aor, then we are going to our deaths. Yet if it is not, this is the best way we can ease the situation. Given we know practically nothing, I don’t see that we have a better option,” Scott replied.
“Very well, take Golden Hind out of the fleet and put us on a direct intercept course for this alien fleet,” James ordered. In his discussions with his staff, they had been unable to come up with a better option. Whoever was coming into the system, James desperately didn’t want to start a shooting war with them. With two battle fleets approaching one another, the slightest misunderstanding or mistake could cause just that. As a result, he intended to take Golden Hind towards the unknown fleet alone. That way at l
east if shooting started, his main fleet would be in a position to get away or engage if they had an advantage.
“Some of their impressive acceleration rates are starting to make sense,” Miyamoto commented fifteen minutes later. “We’re close enough now that we can do some visual analysis.”
“Let’s see,” James asked, his interest was piqued.
On the holo projector blurred images appeared. If James didn’t know better he wouldn’t have been able to say for sure if they were warships or freighters. He turned to Miyamoto to ask what his tactical officer was talking about, but he needn’t have bothered, Miyamoto had already continued his analysis.
“As yet the ships are too far away for us to make much out, but the computer can analyze them. It seems there are no ships in the alien fleet larger than one of our heavy cruisers.”
“It would certainly help your acceleration rates if you didn’t have to go at the pace of a battleship like Golden Hind,” Becket said as she patted her command chair affectionately. “Though, I think I’d rather have her missile salvos on my side of any battle.”