by Terry Mixon
The rear hatch came down and a medical team raced out with a woman on a stretcher. She was burned, but obviously alive. Annette took a single step after her, but stopped.
“I can’t help her now. I’d only be in the way.”
Four other pilots came down the ramp at a much more sedate pace. They saw their commander and headed over toward her.
Brandon stepped back to give them the time and space they needed to grieve.
Thirteen pilots dead, then. Maybe one more if the injured woman didn’t make it. It sounded like good numbers when considered analytically. They’d be down to fifty-four fighters. Still three quarters of their combat strength intact.
But that didn’t count the human cost. The price these people had willingly paid for that victory. In that light, the loss of those people was a tragedy. One he’d undoubtedly think of as light when something truly awful happened at some later point.
He sighed. War was hell.
The next incoming ship was a cutter. Based on the number of marines lined up, it was filled with prisoners.
The captured Rebel Empire Fleet personnel came out one by one, each with their hands bound behind them. Most had their heads down, but one was looking around with an air of suspicion.
It was the officer that had surrendered to Captain Anderson. She sensed something off.
He went to pull the enemy officer from the line. “Commander Giguere, you’ll be coming with me.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but an expression of rage washed over her. She growled and hurled herself at him.
“I’ve got her!” he shouted before anyone brought their stunners to bear.
Brandon used his leg to trip her, but grabbed the woman to keep her head from hitting the deck. She tried to bite him.
Oh, yeah. They’d triggered her resistance program somehow.
He yanked her up and bodily carried her away from the other prisoners.
One of the marines came with him, seemingly uncertain how to help.
“I’ve got her,” he told the man. “Pass the word. Stun anyone that looks aggressive like this, and don’t let them talk to one another.”
The marine nodded. “Aye, sir. Do you need an escort?”
“If I can’t handle a bound woman that doesn’t seem to have her facilities about her, then I deserve what happens to me.”
He carried the growling woman down to the medical center. They were working on the injured pilot, so that was good news. The woman hadn’t died. He prayed she made it.
Doctor Zoboroski was busy, but one of his assistants came over. She eyed the struggling officer and gestured to a handy table with restraints. Together, they got the frenzied woman strapped down.
“So this is what the implant override programming looks like,” the doctor said. “I’m Lieutenant Commander Lisa Osborne, Commander.”
“Pleasure to meet you. Yes, I think she figured out we weren’t what we seemed. I assume there’s a means of reversing it.”
She nodded. “The procedure is already worked out. Let me get some equipment and I’ll overwrite the corrupted code. It took them about four hours the first time, but we’ve cut that down to about two hours now. She’ll be in no danger.”
“Good. Get that started now and expect to have more soon. How many can you handle at once?”
“Five,” Osborne said. “We didn’t plan on having a lot of people to do. The other ships all have similar equipment, so we can have more units on hand shortly.”
He shook his head with a sigh. “That’s going to take forever. Luckily, only their officers are implanted. Which, come to think of it, it probably what tipped her off. We have the marines implanted. She’s a command officer. She knows that’s wrong.”
Once the doctor brought back the equipment and started overwriting the woman’s programming, Brandon gestured to the operation in progress. “What’s her status?”
“Not good,” Osborne said. “She has severe burns over most of her body. We’ll be able to regenerate the damage, once the doctor assures she’s strong enough to make the transition to the regenerator. Physically, she’ll almost certainly make it. Emotionally, she’s going to have a long, hard recovery. She was burned alive before she ejected.”
“That won’t be easy to deal with,” he agreed, “but she has a tremendous support system. Every single member of this crew is there for her, every step of the way.”
The doctor smiled a little. “That probably will help. Would you like to watch the surgery?”
He hid his shudder. “No, thank you. I’d best go see to the rest of the prisoners. Until we have them all locked down, we won’t know what might set the next one off. Thank you, Doctor Osborne.”
Brandon headed back to the landing deck. A check of the scanners showed that the battle further into the system was about to be joined. He hoped the admiral had a good plan to shut the enemy down.
* * * * *
Jared watched the attacking Rebel Empire warships closing with the destroyers he’s had lying in wait for the freighter. Since they hadn’t revealed themselves, he could use them now.
“Execute Bravo,” he said.
The rest of his fleet came out from behind Erorsi and accelerated to catch up with Invincible. They’d get to him before any enemy missiles could. Barely. He’d cut it as close as he possibly could.
The four destroyers that had been sitting quiet opened fire and bolted toward the superdreadnought’s protection. If the enemy decided to engage them, they’d be committing to a face-to-face meeting with his fleet. Something he was willing to bet they’d decline.
“What’s the status of the other fight?” he asked.
“It’s over, sir,” one of the people around him said. “Audacious reports they have accepted the surrender of six destroyers. They’re putting prize crews on board.”
“The enemy formation is veering off,” Marcus said. “They’re going after the freighter, or at least turning in its direction.”
The two light cruisers and eight destroyers wouldn’t be able to slip away, but they would be able to take out the freighter.
“Signal Kelsey to abort her operation. Keep in narrow beam. I want to deny them any information we can. And open a channel to the enemy fleet.”
“You’re live in three…two…one…”
Jared leaned forward. “Your other vessels have failed to break through my blockade, and you will fail, too. Don’t throw the lives of your crew away. Surrender.”
A few minutes later, they received a reply. The officer giving it sat on a bridge Jared recognized as belonging to a light cruiser. His uniform marked him as a commodore. He must be the overall commander of this operation.
“I don’t know who you are, traitor, but I will not surrender my ships to you. If you want me, come catch me.”
Jared grimaced when the transmission ended. “Well, that could have gone better. What can he hope to accomplish? Even if he breaks contact, he’s not getting out of the system.”
“He is likely not aware that you have probes shadowing him,” Marcus said. “If he continues on this course, only our fastest ships can keep up. He might turn on them, or simply escape into deep space to wait for a better time.”
“Catching up to him is going to be challenging,” Jared admitted. “Not impossible, though. Just time consuming. Is the freighter clear? Did Kelsey respond?”
“Negative to both. They’ll be in firing range of the freighter in just a few minutes.”
As soon as the ships entered extreme missile range, the freighter turned on them and charged. It was a pretty anemic charge, but still. That didn’t change the results of the engagement one bit, but showed that someone had balls. While that could have been his sister, he was counting on her having already fled.
The warships fired a spread of missiles that obliterated the freighter on the first try. The ten warships again altered course and sped toward the outer system.
He smiled. They’d just miscalculated. They were runni
ng for the only unoccupied flip point. The one leading to Pentagar.
A check of flight times showed they would arrive before Audacious could get any blocking ships in place.
Perhaps they thought they could still carry out their mission. Considering the forces that would be waiting for them, that was almost as good as them coming to him.
* * * * *
Once the Rebel Empire ships had turned and accelerated away, Kelsey opened a low power com to the other cargo shuttle.
“Keep your transmitter on low. You programmed the helm to charge them?”
“I did,” Stoecklein said. “It was camouflage to make them think we were still on board.”
“Good work. We’ll wait until someone on our side gets here before we announce ourselves. I’d rather not spook them into coming back.”
Their support arrived soon than she’d hoped for when Persephone announced herself via low powered com twenty minutes later. The Raider ship must’ve been pushing her stealth to the very edge to get here so quickly.
The pinnaces popped up moments later, closing on the shuttles. A signal from Paulson told her that the woman had discovered her ruse.
The visual showed the woman was seriously pissed, but her voice was deceptively calm.
“Colonel. There you are. We seem to have misplaced you during the evacuation.”
Well, that was delicately put.
“Stuff happens. Thankfully, everything worked out.”
“Uh huh. We’ll see how things work out when the admiral finds out.”
That was true. Jared was going to be angry.
“I suppose it’s too much to hope for that you’d keep this between us.”
“Sorry, Colonel,” the woman said, not sounding even the least bit sorry. “Far too many people know what happened now. I’d imagine word will get to him one way or the other. Besides, you wouldn’t want me to falsify a report, would you?”
Kelsey smiled wryly. “I’d never want to get someone in trouble, and we all know what a big proponent of rules I am. Tell you what. I’ll let my brother know what happened and find some way to make my little deception up to you. I happen to have some Raider implants that need a good home. Can you think of some people that might need them?”
Chapter Twenty-One
Annette really wanted to stay with her people, but one didn’t ignore orders to meet with the admiral. The superdreadnought was trailing the remaining enemy ships toward Pentagar, but Annette was on a cutter with Captain Anderson and Commander Levy heading for Invincible.
Personally, she wasn’t sure pulling the carrier’s top people away at the same time was the best call, but it wasn’t her decision.
She used the time to go over the scanner readings from the battle. She’d made mistakes. There were things she might have done better. Part of her worried that she had cost some of her people their lives.
By the time the cutter docked with Invincible, she had some changes she wanted to make to the training. She walked off the cutter behind her commanding officer. She really should’ve let the XO go next, but it would’ve felt rude after he gestured for her to proceed.
The admiral wasn’t waiting on them, thank God, but Marcus chatted with them as they walked. Apparently, the princess had been simultaneously more successful than they’d hoped, and less. They’d gotten another AI, but far less Raider supplies than they’d wanted.
The three of them walked into the admiral’s office and he rose from behind his desk. “I’m glad to see all of you. Please, have a seat. Princess Kelsey will be joining us shortly and is listening in.”
Annette sat, more than a bit uncomfortable with the idea of doing so in front of a flag officer.
Admiral Mertz walked around his desk and sat down with them at the comfortable chairs. “I’m both pleased that you stopped the Rebel Empire ships with so few casualties and sorry that your pilots died. Tell everyone how proud I am of them, Commander Vitter. You and your people saved a lot of lives today.”
She nodded. “On behalf of my people, thank you, Admiral.”
“I’m hoping we can get some other, though perhaps lighter, carriers back into service to increase your striking capability. With that in mind, please run through the battle for me. I need to know what worked and what didn’t.”
Annette listened to Captain Anderson run through everything from the carrier group commander’s point of view. She’d heard a lot of it already, but it was good knowing what the other woman had been thinking.
Commander Levy’s story was interesting, too. He’d jumped right on to getting the carrier’s weapons and defenses into the action. Honestly, he’d worked hand in glove with her people. His missiles had precisely complimented her fighters. Together, they’d overwhelmed the enemy.
That wasn’t to say that they couldn’t do better. There was room to be a lot smoother going forward.
The admiral finished debriefing Levy and turned to her. “How is your injured pilot?”
“She’s out of surgery. The long-term prognosis is good, but she’s going to have a lot of difficult recovery ahead of her.”
He nodded somberly. “What jumps out at you after the first real engagement with fighters?”
“That there aren’t enough of us,” she said. It came out more bluntly than it had sounded in her head. “We need more carriers and many more fighter pilots. We had the advantage this time. With fighters, the more you have, the fewer you lose. If we get into another fight before we recover, we might lose every trained pilot the Empire has”
“Harsh,” he said, “but probably true. In our defense, we never expected to find ourselves in quite this position. We thought we’d have more time to work into our roles. To expand the fighter corps. Let that be a lesson for us. We need to act as though we’re going to war with what we have.”
The hatch slid open and Princess Kelsey came in. “Sorry I’m late. No need to stand on my behalf.”
Annette stopped part way to her feet and resumed her seat.
“As Jared said, I was listening in over my implants. Annette, I’m very sorry you lost so many good people. They will be missed, and they will be avenged. Please continue.”
Admiral Mertz nodded. “The word I have from Audacious is that all the enemy personnel have been removed from the captured ships, and that others have been rescued from the wreckage of the ships lost in combat. Kelsey, there were no survivors on the destroyer you took out.”
The princess nodded. “It happened fast. They never had a chance, but I can live with that.”
“Tell us about what you recovered.”
“The take from the freighter is both more and less than we’d hoped. On the minus side, there wasn’t very much in the way of Raider implants. This was an ambush, so they only had enough on hand to fool the AI for a very short time. We can make maybe a thousand Raiders.”
Considering what the princess could do, that sounded like a lot to Annette.
“On the plus side,” Princess Kelsey continued, “they brought a full-blown AI to take over ruling this area of space. We’ll be able to add one more AI to the friendly network. I’m inclined to give it to the Pentagarans.”
Admiral Mertz nodded slowly. “That would definitely cement the alliance, and we could use an AI in this neighborhood. Honestly, we could use one or more back on Avalon, too.
“That, however, is a discussion for another time and audience. I want to focus on the carrier group, and how to make it more effective. To do that, I’ve been researching how the Old Empire did business, and how other navies in history did.
“In particular, I’ve been reading about how the wet navies on Terra worked. There are some interesting examples of how operations were handled that might be better than what the Old Empire did.”
“Really?” Captain Anderson asked. “That seems counterintuitive.”
He nodded. “The Old Empire had a lot of firepower. In the end, that’s what brought them down. They operated in huge groupings of vessels, particularly com
pared to what we use today. Powerful, but unwieldly. We need to be a lot more flexible, and to do that each command needs more autonomy.”
That was above Annette’s pay grade, but she understood it.
“I’ve already discussed how the carrier group should be commanded with Admiral Yeats,” Admiral Mertz said. “Nothing against you, Zia, but he was unsure you were the right person to have overall command. That’s why he placed an experienced officer like Commander Levy with you. The call on which one of you was better suited for overall command is my decision.”
“With all due respect, Admiral,” Levy said, “I might know how to run a ship, but I’m behind the curve in fighter operations. Captain Anderson has it down cold. As much as I wish I could say I’m your guy, I’m not. Not yet.”
Admiral Mertz smiled. “I agree with you on all counts, Commander. You’re making up ground fast, but you don’t have the mindset for carrier group command. You will one day soon, but not yet. So, with Admiral Yeats’s concurrence, I’m bumping you to commodore, Zia. Congratulations.
“To go along with that, you’re confirmed to command your carrier group and all its escorts.”
He turned his attention to Levy. “That brings me to you, Commander. She’s going to be far too busy commanding her task force, so you inherit command of Audacious. To go along with that is a promotion to captain. Not as extravagant as to flag rank, but someone will need to command future carrier groups.”
Levy didn’t look perturbed. “I’ll make you proud, sir.”
“I know you will. And that brings us to you, Commander Vitter. I picked up from the Terran wet navies that I think will help us. The United States, a powerful pre-spaceflight nation, had an interesting way of balancing their ships and the fighters stationed on them.
“The commanding officer of the carrier and the commander of the air wing were co-equal and both reported directly to the flag officer in overall command. Usually an admiral, but Zia is going to have to make do. So, you are also hereby promoted to captain and will now work with Captain Levy to carry out the operations ordered by your commodore.”