Alexander the Great smiled knowing the Confederation’s rules and rights for those arrested much better than most. Hell, this wasn’t his first rodeo and being in prison was just another part of the game.
“I want a lawyer,” he said with a smile as his blue eyes flashed in mirth.
“See that’s the problem, if we let the Templars know we have you they will petition us to turn you over to them. I would recommend to the captain that they have an older claim to you and that to help keep our alliance with them he should do just that and hand you over.”
“You wouldn’t, you’re just bluffing,” he said his voice breaking a little as he protested.
“The Templars don’t have to follow the same rules as Confederation servicemen. Knowing them first hand, I don’t think there’d be much left of you for us to prosecute,” Collins said leaning back in his chair now that his cards were all on the table.
Peter Alexander let out a long breath and leaned back in his chair as well. He knew that he had been out maneuvered by this young pup of an officer.
“So what’s in it for me?” he asked wanting something for his cooperation.
“That depends on how helpful you are?”
“Great! So ask your god damn questions,” Peter said his caramel face looking like he had just tasted something sour.
With that said Hutton, Bannon and Gunny reentered the room to join in on the questioning.
“Alright, what do we know?” Captain Hope requested of his officers who were seated around his day cabin office.
Ensign Bre-Nan spoke first being anxious to share what he had found out.
“According to my fellow Believer followers, the station is controlled by the House of Tor. There are about four hundred Karduan personnel including at least a hundred males working in lesser capacities including station maintenance, slave supervision and ship restoration.”
“The House of Tor is one of the losing houses of the Karduan Civil War. At least four of them are believed to be sitting out this war with humanity,” Bannon commented looking down for a moment lost in thought at the idea of these four other houses entering the fight.
“It seems like too few people to run such a large forward operating base and repair station,” Hutton commented wondering if the Blue males’ information was accurate.
“That’s because there are over two thousand human slaves on board. Mostly Confederation servicemen and captured merchants,” Bre-Nan interjected.
“How do they control all of them?” Lt. Dover asked.
“Mostly through slave collars,” Lt. Cappillo suggested making it seem obvious.
“But that is a lot of people to be watching,” Alistair countered.
“There is a central slave computer that monitors the slaves’ actions. If they are in the wrong area or not doing what they are suppose to be doing, then they are shocked. If there is a revolt of any kind, all of them are shocked into unconsciousness. There are also explosives in their collars that can be activated individually or as a group,” Martin Daily explained having explored the technical aspects of the station and their control over their slaves.
“So with a flick of a switch they could shock or kill all of the human prisoners if we aren’t careful,” Commander Richards said voicing what everyone was thinking.
A moment of quiet followed his statement as they all thought about the consequences of failure.
“Something for us all to consider and work on avoiding,” Hope said breaking the silence. “What about those ships in dock and around her?”
Daily highlighted the ships in red on the holo projection starting with the largest ships.
“The two largest ships are the Star Tiger and the Ark Royal,” he said outlining both ships.
People shook their heads at the sight of the ships’ capture.
“It seems that the Star Tiger’s self destruct system failed to activate after the captain had called for the crew to abandon ship,” Daily informed having read the reports of the Karduans that had helped captured her.
“She looks in pretty good shape,” Mike commented.
“They have been working on her around the clock and have pulled work crews from other projects but we don’t know why.
“She is an attack cruiser,” Richards said leaving at that. A cruiser with stealth technology would be a great asset for the Blues. The unspoken question was can the enemy replace her stealth plating?
“What about the Ark Royal?” Dover asked recognizing the name as one belonging to historic ships that went all the way back to England’s defeat of the Spanish Armada and the first Ark Royal. That ancient ship was a 48-gun race galleon that was the flagship of the Queen Elizabeth’s fleet. This modern version though was a fleet carrier capable of carrying eight-six star fighters.
“She was caught at the Battle of Calipee Four. When the Confederation 26th Attack Fleet was caught from both gravity wells by two enemy fleets. Her fighters had already launched and she and the rear of the fleet had to face the second Karduan fleet’s main force with just her guns. The result was a crushed carrier,” Daily informed and zoomed in on the carrier’s port side. It looked like someone went over it with a cheese grater, a drill and a ball-peen hammer.
A few people in the room made a slight moaning noise at seeing the ship in such poor condition.
“They have been mostly working on her starboard side,” Martian said and changed the view to show an almost restored starboard side of the carrier.
“That’s the second largest carrier class in our fleet,” Hutton said and added “Why haven’t they rushed to get her repairs done?”
“Good question, it seems that the station mistress has orders to prioritize and repair Karduan ships first. If a Vanguard sloop comes in she has to drop work on the carrier and fix the smaller ship,” Lt. Daily answered.
“What about the other ships in the repair docks and those parked off the station’s side?” Hope asked moving the briefing along.
“The rest of the ships are all smaller destroyer escorts, frigates, destroyers and two light cruisers. There are also dozens of other ships in various states of damage in a sort of junkyard nearby. Some of them are awaiting repairs while others are nothing more than crushed hulks that are being stripped of their salvageable systems and their hull plating.”
Ensign Bre-Nan again jumped into the conversation.
“I’m told that they have six Spider type repair ships that are used for salvage operations, turrets and hull repairs. All of them are crewed by Blue males with only one female officer who is in charge,” he informed.
“They also have numerous cargo shuttles that are used to haul parts from the junkyard to the station,” Martin added nodding to the Blue officer.
“Are any of the ships repaired and in serviceable condition?” Richards asked wondering how many ships they might be facing.
“Yes, the four ships on the lowest spur are almost done or are fully repaired. There are also six ships off her port side that seem to be in operational condition and are at stations keeping,” Daily said changing the holo image to enlarge those ships.
“Of those ten ships they have two Karduan destroyer escorts, two standard destroyers and a vanguard sloop. The captured Confederation ships includes two modern heavy frigates, the ISS Sloat and ISS Truxtun. There is an older Battle class frigate the ISS Princeton which they have taken a page out of our play book and have mounted a heavier particle turret on her. There also are two light cruisers one older and one modern. They are the ISS Le Insurgent and the ISS Delaware.
Hutton had been busy with his palm pad and looked up.
“These ships are from several different fleets,” he reported sounding a little glum.
“Are they crewed?” Mike inquired staying on topic.
“We don’t know and would have to assume that they have at least a skeleton crew or bridge crew onboard.”
“What are their defenses?” Captain Hope questioned as he took a sip from his coffee cup.
“There is a good reason it called the Sargasso System as it has only one stable gravity well just off its red dwarf sun,” the commander explained.
“Only one way in and one way out,” Rufo said.
“Meaning that its easy to defend or to be trapped in,” Mike commented seeing the pros and cons of setting up a base in such a system.
“Correct, and they have mined the space around the bender point,” Richards said having taken the holo projector control pad and zooming in on the field of mines near the sun.
“Type and yield?” the Hawk asked having fought his way through mines a few times before.
“Unknown sir, only that they are anti-ship mines and that they are probably not nukes. They have advanced ECM or stealth tech as they off the scope and can’t be detected. They are also directional and will move to target,” Cappillo answered.
“How many mines?” Hutton asked.
“To cover the mouth of the gravity well in a spherical pattern they’d need at least five to ten thousand mines,” he replied sounding a bit glum.
“What about defensive ships?” Collins suggested wanting to know the opposition force they would have to face once they were through the mines.
“Well, besides the ten ships they have completed there are six system defense cutters each with about the fire power of a standard destroyer,” Cmdr. Richards said moving the holo image to the six system boats. They were smaller than a normal destroyer because they weren’t meant to bend and had no bender drives. Such ships were usually brought into a system by a ship tender and dropped off. This meant more room for weapons, armor and larger in-system drives.
“That’s a lot of firepower covering the mine field and the bender point,” Hutton remarked.
Bre-Nan looked like he wanted to say something and Cmdr. Richard spotted it.
“Go ahead,” he said with a nod.
“Sir, from what I’ve learned those ships aren’t crewed but are controlled by the station,” he revealed.
This got the room a little more excited.
“They’re drones,” Rufo announced with a big grin as the room broke out into smaller conversations.
This was surprising as the Karduan didn’t usually use drones or any type of remote controlling of their warships. It meant a different kind of fight if it came to blows as ships without crews have a harder time making repairs during battle that is unless they had a large compliment of droids or repair robots stationed onboard. It also meant they were unlikely to surrender.
“Calm down everyone!” Hope ordered, the room suddenly becoming silent. He then turned to the young Blue Officer. “How do you know this?”
“Some of my fellow Karduan males that had been on that station had noted that supplies were never taken out to those ships. One even said he saw the ships’ control room off of the station’s upper command center when he brought the operators their meals.”
Hoped nodded his gray head and leaned back considering his options.
“What do we know about the station mistress?” he asked after a moment of thought.
It was now Cmdr. Bannon and Lt. Collins turn to report their findings.
“Station Mistress Bie-Tor was once a Fleet Mistress during the Karduan Civil War. Her house had been on the losing side and have either been boycotting the High Council of Mistresses or have been ostracized from that body,” Bannon reported.
“From our interviews of the Karduan officers in our custody it appears she is not well liked. She seems to be obsessed with gaining ships and any of our tech that she can lay her hands on,” Collins stated.
“This could be why the House of Tor has allowed their station to be used and why they have it so close to the old border,” Jake Bannon commented and added, “I would guess she is seeking human technology and any ships for her fallen House while making repairs to the ships of other Houses as required.”
“That would explain why she has made a deal with human pirates to help her get ships and slaves,” Hutton remarked while nodding his head in thought.
“She is also a telepath or as the Karduans say a Prendere which means she is a thought seeker,” Mike revealed with a sigh.
Telepaths made any kind of clandestine operation much harder. You had to have training to trick them or be a Psi Void just to block them outright. Being Psi Void didn’t make you safe in fact when Mike had been a prisoner his ability to block Karduan thought probes brought him to the attention of the Fleet Mistress who was a Prendere. For someone with deception training you could still be discovered if the telepath grabbed you and did a deep probe. If the probe was deep enough or was just an outright forced violation of the person’s mind it could even leave the recipient with brain damage and diminished mental capacity.
“Well, that limits our options a little,” Lt. Cappillo said with a big frown.
“Maybe,” Collins commented drawing a question look from his friend.
“We did get one more thing from our pirate captain which we confirmed with some of Karduan officers,” Cmdr. Bannon said and added “Alexander the Great revealed that besides a minefield there is also a maser field set up covering the bender point.”
The room made a collected moan as the gathered officers knew that this would interfere with their ships’ stealth plating making harder for them to just sneak in.
“Very well,” Hope said his wrinkled face grimacing at the thought.
“Does anyone have anything else to add to this briefing?” Richards asked looking about the room.
No one responded as most of them were still thinking about all of the information they just received.
Commander Richards looked to Captain Hope.
“Sir?” he prompted.
“I want you all to brainstorm ideas, get some sleep and then work in your groups to determine possible courses of action. All ideas are on the table and we will meet back here in twelve hours. Let me make this clear I want everyone to get at least six hours of sleep. Clear heads create clear objectives,” the ancient leader said and then looked to his former first officer.
Richards nodded, turned back to the group and said in a raised voice, “Everyone is dismissed.”
Six hours for sleep and six hours to prep Mike thought as he hurried through the hallways to the ship’s medical center. He needed the sleep but he also needed to see his favorite French doctor more.
The sick bay seemed busy when he entered through the sliding doors. Numerous crewmen were there for normal treatment like sick call or for physicals including those that had been prisoners on the ships that had been recently captured and liberated. He saw a few men in the uniforms of New Briton waiting around for their call to be prodded and probed. One of them spotted him and looked like he was going to call the room to attention but Mike waved his hand signaling him not to. After all this wasn’t his ship and you don’t do such things in a hospital. Most of all his grandma like head physician one Commander Edie Beilor wouldn’t like such disturbances.
Passing through to the rear examination cubicles and surgical suites he walked through Ward One and was shocked at what he saw. Most of the beds were occupied with wounded crewmen. Most of them had severe wounds that even Heal-X couldn’t fix. Many of them had lost limbs or had taken other traumatic injuries.
The Star Wolf had an automated surgical center and the medical equipment that any hospital would have. The one thing she lacked was a regeneration tank. They had taken one from the SS Brittany when they had captured her from the Blues months ago but they left it at the Wolf’s Den to treat those injured in the Battle of Austro Prime. Even with a tank it took time to regrow limbs.
Seeing the injured he really wished they had a regen tank or at least some cybernetic prosthetic limbs but again the squadron didn’t have any on hand.
Reaching the exam rooms, he saw one of the doors was open and he glanced inside. Sitting next to the exa
m table was Commander Hutton in his grav chair. Doc Beilor was kneeling next to his chair and was looking at the stumps of his legs. Mike had previously seen the wounds that the commander had received but now he noticed that his legs seemed different.
The ancient doctor saw him staring and smiled.
“Come on in Lieutenant,” she said waving a wrinkled hand as she poked at the crippled man’s stumps with a probe.
Mike looked at the former navy commando.
“How’d you beat me here, sir?” Collins asked with a smile, knowing he had left the meeting just before the senior officer.
Hutton grinned, “It's a fast chair.”
“Nerve sensitivity seems normal and growth is progressing at a steady pace,” Dr. Beilor announced mostly for herself.
“Your legs are longer,” Mike said making the connection.
“Yes, the good doctor here has been given me low dose RenGen-X shots to get the regrowth process started,” Cmdr. Hutton revealed still smiling.
“It’s all we could do without a regeneration tank and even then this is the first time I’ve tried it,” she said recording the growth data in her medical palm pad.
Again Mike marveled at the wonders of the medicines that the Ameri- Corps company had provided. These advance drugs were very available in limited supply and were new to most physicians but they were a game changer.
“How long until the healing processes is complete?” Collins inquired with some curiosity.
Edie let out a huff, “No telling, I’m not even sure it will work.”
“Don’t listen to her,” Hutton said “she is always this optimistic.”
Mike nodded with a grin knowing the old doctor as long as the commander had. She was old, sometimes grumpy and often spoke as if the glass was half empty but she was their doc. She treated their injuries, baked them cookies and kicked them in the pants when they didn’t think they could do it. To him she was the grandmother he never had.
Wolf's Run: The Chase of War (Star Wolf Sqaudron Book 2) Page 41