by Neal Jones
Kathryne stood and slowly walked the perimeter of the bridge, nodding to her officers as she passed them, occasionally receiving an update about systems status. She paused at the food processor long enough to order a cup of evergreen tea, then frowned after the first sip. The processors just couldn't get the flavoring right, no matter how many times McKenna adjusted the recipe. She returned to her command chair and looked for a holder for the cup but found none. McCoy cracked a smile and leaned forward so Gabriel wouldn't hear.
"Marc never had a cup of coffee on the bridge. He said he thought it was too casual, but I think he was just afraid of spilling it on the consoles."
McKenna smiled. "Well, I'll just have to have Mister Wolfe make a modification to this chair." She crossed her legs once more and sipped her tea as she waited for Voorhees to announce their arrival at their holding coordinates.
The commodore was now conversing with Zamora, and they were discussing the same upcoming tournament which Lee and Benson had been talking about in the wardroom earlier while they waited for the briefing to begin. Apparently, the tactical officer and the chief science officer were the resident fencing champions, and there was a tournament next week where they would face off and a new ship's champion would be crowned. There was also a betting pool, and scuttlebutt said that the pot total had passed the three hundred dollar mark, although McKenna had yet to learn the name of the officer who was taking the bets. So far, the odds appeared to be in Zamora's favor, but as McKenna glanced at Benson, she decided to put her money with Gabriel's paramour, if only to support one's own gender.
Gabriel moved on in his tour of the bridge, and McKenna watched him look over Voorhees' shoulder. The commodore nodded approval at whatever it was he was checking, and then patted the ensign's shoulder in a fatherly gesture of support and encouragement. McKenna wondered for the third time how long Gabriel would last at his new posting. He certainly showed no outward signs of his internal conflict, at least not to his crew. He was skilled at keeping his emotions in check, at putting forth a good poker face, and that was an essential quality that every captain must acquire. Still, there was a tightness around his eyes, and he wasn't fooling McKenna with his "tour" of the bridge. He was restless, anxious, and she didn't blame him. He folded his hands behind his back as he moved to Juarez's station, and his left finger tapped rapidly against his right thumb.
They were almost to their holding coordinates, and nothing unusual had appeared on sensors, else Zamora would have announced it. There was palpable tension seeping from Gabriel, and the closer the Dauntless got to her destination, the more rapid his finger tapped against his thumb. He ended his "stroll" by finally taking the seat to McKenna's left. The command center of the bridge had three chairs – one for the captain, one for the first officer, and an extra for high ranking guests. Gabriel sat back, pulling resting his left ankle on his right knee. His index finger resumed its nervous rhythm against the side of his boot.
"You can have a cup of coffee if you'd like," McKenna murmured.
Gabriel smiled and shook his head. "I'm just not used to sitting in this chair."
There was more to it than that, of course, but McKenna didn't press him. She glanced at her chrono. They had ten minutes before they arrived at the holding coordinates.
"Now in visual range of Exxar-One," Voorhees announced.
All eyes turned to the forward viewscreen, and there was no need for McKenna to request a close-up view of the station. Voorhees' fingers danced lightly over his console as he inputted the commands which magnified the station's image by a factor of twenty.
Gabriel stood and walked slowly to a point behind the navigator's chair. McKenna caught a glimpse of his expression as he rose. His jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed, and the hand which he rested on the back of Ensign Voorhees' chair clamped like an eagle's talon. As for her own reaction, Kathryne couldn't help but be amazed and awed by the technological wonder which filled the Dauntless' forward viewscreen.
Exxar-One consisted of two massive spheres joined by an equally large central, cylindrical hull. Extending out from the central hull were six smaller hulls of the same shape, three on each side. Attached to each of these was another sphere, not as large as the primary two, but still quite massive when compared with the size of a heavy cruiser like the Dauntless. These were the docking spheres, so named because of the pylons which extended from each of their poles vertically. At the end of each pylon was two docking ports, making twenty-four in all.
Starbases, in general, were designed to be self-contained cities in space, equipped with all the amenities of a military outpost as well as a civilian port-of-call. Exxar-One was no exception. Like the Dauntless, Exxar-One was equipped with everything: state-of-the-art science and medical labs, multiple trauma centers, a promenade which spanned four decks with more than two hundred shops, four hydroponics bays, two security sectors, each capable of housing eight hundred prisoners at any one time, a rec center with two gymnasiums, two major and two minor athletic arenas, an engineering sector with a reactor core that spanned fifty decks, and a command deck which was rumored to be three times the size of a Delta Class bridge. For defense there was a fleet of two thousand hornets, five deflector grids, fifteen missile tubes, and eighteen pulse disruptor arrays, a.k.a PDAs.
Captain McKenna wondered again how it was possible that the Haal'Chai had managed to cripple the defense network of a station this size. According to the limited tactical data which accompanied Major Saveck's report to CMC, the raiders were only twice as large as a mark three hornet. A dozen of them attacking Exxar-One was comparable to a dozen flies buzzing about one's head. They should have been no more than a mild nuisance, a horde of pests that could easily be squashed with a few choice shots from a pulse disruptor array.
"We're coming up on our holding coordinates," Voorhees said.
"All stop," McKenna ordered as she stood and walked up beside Gabriel. "Mister Zamora, report."
"Nothing except the station within sensor range, ma'am. All appears to be quiet on this particular galactic front."
McKenna nodded and lingered a moment, taking one last look at Exxar-One. "Mister Voorhees, please return screen magnification to normal." She brushed her hand against Gabriel's wrist and gave it a gentle squeeze before walking back to her seat. The commodore understood her signal and returned to his own chair at her left. They both sat, and the bridge crew settled in for what they hoped would be a short wait.
( 6 )
Gabriel was right. They didn't have to wait long. The Dauntless had been sitting still and silent for almost three hours before Zamora's voice shattered the anxious silence.
"Sensors are detecting multiple energy signatures which match the Haal'Chai raiders. Nine of them, bearing 834-mark-762, on a direct intercept course for the station."
"Red alert. Let's see it," McKenna said, sitting up and reverting to her hawk stance.
Voorhees punched up the screen magnification, and the raider fleet zoomed into view, spreading out as they got close to the massive hulk of Exxar-One. Sparks of light flared as they opened fire, striking the station's deflector grids at point blank.
Zamora muttered a curse in his African tongue, and McKenna was startled by the vehemence in his tone. "Captain, I can't explain this, but Exxar-One's forward deflector grid has just lost twenty percent of its mass! The aft grid has lost fifteen!"
Gabriel stood. "What the hell are they firing?"
Zamora rapidly accessed his readouts, calmly digesting multiple sources of information with the speed of a computer processor. "Unknown. Their weapons are not standard phase disruptors."
Gabriel walked to his customary position behind Voorhees, fists clenched at his sides. "Mister Voorhees, target one of those ships. Relay the coordinates to tactical, then move us to a position directly over the target. Mister Zamora, when I give the word, I want you to open fire with disruptors only. Try taking out the raider's engines, but leave the ship intact. They're probably using some kind o
f multi-phasic shielding so alternate the disruptor frequencies."
There was a brief moment of silence following the commodore's order, and Voorhees didn't dare turn around to look at McKenna. But Zamora did glance in her direction, and she nodded her approval.
"Do as he ordered," she instructed her officers, and then shot Gabriel a look of mild disapproval. He had relinquished command, and it was no longer his place to be giving orders on her bridge. One the other hand, he was the most senior officer present, and he probably reacted out of habit. She had been guilty of the same thing more than once in her career, so she couldn't be too angry with him.
"I've got one!" Voorhees crowed. "Relaying coordinates to tactical!"
On the viewscreen, the battle had been joined by two fleets of hornets, but they were losing fast. No matter the evasive maneuvers, no matter the amount of firepower that was being thrown at the Haal'Chai, they managed to pick off the stingers one by one, and much too quickly for McKenna's taste.
"Taking us in," Voorhees stated. "Forty seconds to target."
"Standby with the tractor beam," McKenna ordered as she glanced at her own small display which had arisen from the innards of her chair's right arm. Voorhees had selected a raider which was moving sluggishly, as though damaged, and it was trying its damndest not to fall back while keeping its left rear flank out of the hornets' line of fire.
"Disengaging cloaking shield," Voorhees said, inputting the command with one hand as he brought the heavy cruiser to a full stop with the other.
The air above the damaged raider shimmered and rippled as the towering hulk of the Dauntless materialized like a desert mirage. The raider's pilot veered sharply to the left to keep from slamming into the ship's hull and steered directly into the path of a phased disruptor pulse. Three more pulses pummeled the tiny ship, knocking it about like schoolyard bullies playing keep away with a backpack. The raider found an opening and took it, zooming away as fast as its pilot could manage, but a tractor beam suddenly lanced out and snagged the ship. Another volley of disruptors slammed into the tiny craft, but had no effect on the raider's shields.
"The rest of the fleet is retreating," Zamora stated, his tone laced with puzzlement. "However, I am unable to destroy the shields of the captured vessel."
"I think you can cease fire," Benson said, glancing over her screen. "The pair of bio-signs just vanished. The crew has either committed suicide or cloaked themselves."
McKenna stood and faced Zamora. "Are you able to tow it into one of the secondary shuttledocks?"
"Yes."
"Do it. Stand down from red alert." She tapped her intercom panel. "Bridge to engineering."
"Wolfe here."
"This is the captain. Please send a diagnostic team to –" she craned her neck to glance at the tactical officer, and he held up three fingers – "shuttledock three."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Bridge out." McKenna tapped her comm panel one more time. "Bridge to security control."
"Commander Lee."
"Commander, please send a team to shuttledock three."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Bridge out."
"We're being hailed by Exxar-One," Ensign Juarez said.
"Activate holo-comm."
Seconds later the small, circular platform in the space between Voorhees' station and the forward viewscreen lit up, and a holo-image of a tall, burly Chrisarii with a four inch scar across his left cheek appeared.
"This is Major Saveck, commanding officer of Exxar-One."
"I'm Captain Kathryne McKenna of the EarthCorps starship Dauntless. Pleased to meet you, major."
There was the barest flicker of surprise in Saveck's eyes as he glanced to the captain's left and saw Gabriel. But the major quickly reverted his gaze to McKenna. "Thank you for your intervention," he replied in an exhausted tone.
"We managed to capture one of the raiders," the captain said. "Please have one of your engineering crews standing by as soon as we dock."
"Understood." He glanced to his right for a moment, then looked at McKenna. "You're cleared for docking at port five. Station out."
Saveck's image disappeared as the connection was terminated. McKenna turned to Gabriel, but the commodore was already headed for the PTL. She walked back to her chair and sat, wondering if Major Saveck had been told of Gabriel's assignment. There hadn't just been surprise in that expression, there was recognition as well.
"Initiate docking procedures, Mister Voorhees," the captain instructed. She suppressed a smile as she watched the docking pylon expand in the forward viewscreen.
This was definitely going to be an interesting assignment.
Chapter 3
____________________
( 1 )
AS GABRIEL ENTERED THE crossway tunnel he saw only two officers waiting to greet him, and neither of them was Major Saveck. The commodore kept his expression stoic, but inside he was seething. Admiral Hazen told Gabriel that Saveck had received a memo from Admiral Piller two weeks ago, informing the major of Gabriel's posting to Exxar-One as commanding officer. Saveck had also recognized Gabriel a few minutes ago, on the Dauntless bridge, but whether or not the recognition came from twelve years ago at the battle of Rigana-seven or from Piller's communiqué, it was hard to say. Either way, there was no excuse for Saveck not to be present. This was a deliberate act of insubordination on his part, and Gabriel would definitely make a note of it in his log. However, he had to admit that if the roles were reversed - if he was the one who was going to be serving under Saveck - then he would probably do the same thing.
On either side of Gabriel was Decev and Rosenberg, and as the trio got closer to the station side of the tunnel, the other officers stepped forward to greet them. One was a male DrayH'M, dressed in the standard emerald and gold uniform of the Commonwealth Space Navy, with three pips placed along his right shoulder seam, close to his neck. The other man was a Mykahrian, but garbed in an EarthCorps uniform, wearing the gold stripes of an engineer. The rank on his collar was lieutenant commander, and his name patch said "Garrett". Both men came to attention at the same time and saluted.
Gabriel returned it, then said, "At ease, gentlemen. I am Commodore Gabriel, Exxar-One's commanding officer. This is Doctor Rosenberg, CMO, and Commander Decev, chief science officer."
The DrayH'M was the first to reply. "I am Krael Zar, chief of security." Krael was the DrayH'M rank equivalent to the Navy's lieutenant commander.
"I'm Lieutenant Commander Garrett, chief engineer."
Gabriel nodded to each of them in turn. "Is there a specific reason that Major Saveck is in violation of military protocol by not being present for my arrival?"
Zar and Garrett exchanged a quick glance, and neither seemed eager to speak. The DrayH'M cleared his throat. "He is very busy on the command deck. The situation aboard this station for the last several weeks has been...hectic."
"Yes, I imagine it has," Gabriel replied. It made no sense to chastise these men for the actions of their superior officer. He glanced behind the engineer to where a group of officers, also wearing gold stripes on their uniform sleeves, were waiting. "Commander, I assume that is your diagnostic team?"
"Aye, sir." There was excitement in his tone, and he flashed a grin. "Now that we can tear apart a raider, I intend to find out exactly what makes those bastards tick. I'll have a preliminary report on your desk by oh-nine-hundred tomorrow."
Gabriel nodded, pleased by the young man's enthusiasm. "There will be a staff briefing at oh-eight-hundred. Have it for me then."
"Yes, sir."
"Carry on." Gabriel turned to Decev and Rosenberg. "The two of you are free to go."
They nodded and walked ahead of Gabriel and Zar to enter the PTL. Once the car was gone, Gabriel pressed the button for the next one and then faced his security chief. They were alone in the short stretch of corridor.
"Krael, tell me exactly how 'hectic' things have been around here since the station became operational."
"The
re haven't been any major incidents such as a suicide bombing or acts of sabotage, if that's what you're asking. However, I have had my hands full with numerous bar brawls involving the Chrisarii and Federation military personnel, particularly the EarthCorps Marines." He glowered as he spoke. "Last week alone there was two dozen casualties admitted to the ER. Both Colonel Bryant and Major Saveck have issued reprimands to their officers, but that is as far as they are willing to go concerning discipline."
Gabriel wasn't surprised by this, and, from the tone of his voice, neither was Zar. Exxar-One had only been operational for a little over a month, and until today a third of the senior staff had not yet arrived. The station was essentially a house where the parents were out of town, and the children were running amok. The attacks by the Haal'Chai weren't helping matters any, and in fact, that was probably the whole point. As he stepped into the PTL, Gabriel said, "I will have a conversation with Saveck and Bryant. I assume there's one or two establishments on the promenade that are favored by the soldiers?"
Zar nodded as he punched their destination into the lift's com panel. "Grax's and Margiano's have seen the most action."
"Then shut both of them down immediately. Draw up a declaration ordering all off duty military personnel confined to their quarters until further notice. Put my name at the bottom as authorization."
Zar's expression bore just a hint of a smile as he replied, "Aye, sir. Grax has already closed his restaurant to military officers, and Celeste – she's the owner of Margiano's - promised to close hers completely after one more incident. You do understand, of course, that half of this station's population is military. By confining all off duty personnel to their quarters, you will be receiving several complaints from the Promenade Merchants Association about the loss of business."