by Selby, Caleb
“They could be operating with new ship designs that can cover further distances between refueling,” Colby suggested as he too leaned over the chart, trying to figure out how this tactical nightmare was happening.
“Or perhaps the Krohns have setup a supply depot right before system thirteen?” Drezden suggested pointing at the little known star system. “Our intel past thirteen is sketchy at best. Who knows what they’ve got in there?”
Fedrin raised his hands to quiet the commanders. “It doesn’t really matter how the Krohns managed to pull this off at the moment. As far as I’m concerned they did, and we need to stop them from wiping out the Voigt colony.”
“So you want to bring what’s left of our ragtag fleet to stop a full force Krohn battle force?” Mick asked derisively.
“We wouldn’t be alone,” Colby corrected. “The colony has some defenses of her own too.”
Mick tapped the chart and looked at Colby as if he were an idiot. “First of all, the colony’s defenses are a joke. Counting on them for anything is nothing short of reckless! Secondly, even if we headed there right now, looks to me like we’d still get there several hours after the Krohn ships! Getting there after is fine, if all we are going to do is put people in body bags!”
“We’ll be four hours and fifteen minutes late, to be precise,” Fedrin clarified. “Assuming we leave within the next half hour.”
Mick tossed his hands in the air. “You’ve already done the math I see. So are we just going to post some signs asking the Krohns not to attack the colony until we get there? I don’t understand what your thought process is!”
“Great idea Mick!” Sanders exclaimed. “We’ll post signs! Any other clever words you’d like to share with us or would you rather just shut up and let us sort this out like adults?”
“Ok, that’s enough!” Fedrin said raising a hand. “It is true that we can only get to the colony once the battle has already begun but the battle will be far from over when we arrive. We will still have plenty of opportunity to engage the Krohns, save what’s left of the colony and retrieve the data device. Granted it sounds far fetched, but I’m failing to see other choices at this juncture.”
“And don’t count out the Voigt defenses so hastily Mick,” Kendrick added. “Between the Ilo Battle Station and the fighter squadrons stationed on the planet, she’ll be able to hold her own for quite awhile.”
“And what of the Idok?” the tactical wizard Colby added, pointing to the blue dot one star system above Sibid. “Maybe she could help during the initial attack to buy time for the rest of us to get there?”
Drezden looked up sharply at Fedrin, realizing the personal implications of Colby’s suggestion. Yet Fedrin did not show any hint of emotion on his face. If everyone in the room hadn’t known better, they would have never guessed that Fedrin’s wife was the commander of the Idok. In contrast to his complacent appearance however, Fedrin was a wreck on the inside. He had known it was only a matter of time before someone would bring up his wife’s ship.
“I was actually planning for the Idok to rendezvous with us once we enter Sibid and engage the Krohns with us,” Fedrin replied. “It’ll make our force that much more formidable when we engage them.”
“Ha!” Mick exclaimed. “Doesn’t mind letting everyone else die, but mention his wife’s ship and suddenly he’s all conservative and playing it safe!”
That was it! Fedrin had been patient, understanding, and even went out of his way to ignore the dissident commander. But this was the last straw! Before anyone knew what was happening, Fedrin had reached across the table, grabbed Mick by the collar, and slammed him down, face first, into the table. Mick struggled to free himself but was no match for Fedrin.
“You’ve crossed me for the last time!” Fedrin said before rolling him over the table and onto the floor. “Guards! Escort Mick back to his shuttle.”
Two guards ran up from the doors and pulled Mick to his feet and held him firmly.
“Mr. Mick, as of right now, your rank and commission are withdrawn! You will be escorted back to your ship where you will surrender your command authority to your first lieutenant and then be placed in the brig!”
Mick looked at Fedrin with disdain, and then glanced around the room at the other commanders for someone to voice their objections or back him up. Only silence and hardened faces answered his pleading gaze. Without another word spoken in protest, Mick turned and walked out of the room, escorted closely by the guards.
“You did the right thing,” Kendrick said after Mick had gone. “Mick has crossed the line once to often. It’s about time someone put him in his place.”
Several of the other commanders nodded in agreement.
Fedrin, too, reluctantly nodded and was just about to continue with his briefing when the doors leading into the room were swung opened by the two remaining guards posted outside. Coming through the doorway was the legendary former Admiral Grider. Several commanders gasped at the unprecedented sight of the one-legged, old man sitting in his hover chair as he approached the table. He pulled up to a place where he could see the chart and quickly spotted the Krohn fleet marker in star system thirteen. He instantly analyzed and understood the entire situation at hand and then looked up at Fedrin.
Grider was the oldest living member of the Namuh Fleet. He had been a commodore when the Refrac War began and finished the war as Vice Admiral over the Second Fleet. At the start of the Krohn War, he still held the rank of Vice Admiral. Due to health issues, extensive age, and generally acknowledged eccentricity, he was asked by the then Chief Admiral Nebod, to relinquish his responsibilities and serve as an advisor, a course of action that Grider initially resisted but eventually agreed to when faced with his other option, forced retirement. Although his position was more nominal then anything else, it was the least Nebod could offer the man that was credited with holding back the Refrac advance for the three critical months during the infamous ‘Refrac Spring Offensive’ and holding on until the Sions came to the rescue.
Although old and justifiably accused of being crazy by most commanders, Fedrin knew Grider was a true genius, which is why he had invited him to attend. Even though Fedrin had pretty much used up all of his own ideas, he wanted to try and tap Grider’s brilliant, strategic mind once more. Perhaps with Grider and the other commanders, they could find an option that solved all the dilemmas currently facing them. It couldn’t hurt to try.
Grider nodded again toward Fedrin and then gave an inclusive nod to the other commanders as he situated himself at the table.
Fedrin nodded in reply before continuing. “As I was saying, the Voigt defenses, weak or not, will hopefully take down several of the enemy capital ships and I’m optimistic that many of the Krohn fighters will be destroyed by the colony’s own fighter squadrons, which will give the Hornell and Idok fighters reign over the battlefield once we arrive.”
“What about the Ilo?” asked Sanders as he looked at the marker positioned atop the colony, representing the infamously obsolete battle station.
“At best, maybe the Krohns will waste some of their long range missiles shooting it down,” Searle said sarcastically although she wasn’t far from the truth of the situation.
“The Ilo will buy us valuable time by simply existing,” Fedrin agreed. “She’ll take a long time to bring down and may just be the extra thing we need to get to the colony in time to help.”
Fedrin and the commanders talked on and on, trading points and offering ideas while dismissing others. Grider said nothing. His attention was lost in the chart draped over the table. He gazed at it, carefully scrutinizing every detail he could find. Several of the commanders inadvertently tuned out Fedrin and watched as Grider pointed to various star systems and planets and then squinted as if he were doing arithmetic in his head.
Fedrin was still talking about his plan of attack when he noticed the distraction and looked down at the former admiral. “Admiral Grider,” Fedrin said, bringing the old man out of his tran
ce.
Grider looked up, seemingly perplexed. “Everything ok?” he asked Commander Colby, who was standing beside him.
“More or less,” Colby replied.
“Why is everyone suddenly so quiet?” he whispered.
“We are listening to the admiral’s plan,” Colby answered.
“The admiral’s plan!” declared Grider looking terribly upset. “I haven’t finished my plan yet so how can I be telling it to you?”
“Not your plan,” Colby patiently said. “Admiral Fedrin’s plan, remember?”
“Of course I remember you, you young punk!” Grider snapped back at Colby. “I know how the chain of command works and I think it’s high time you did as well! You wouldn’t have lasted a week in my Navy back when I was in charge. We had no room for disrespectful commanders when facing a fleet of Refrac warships!” Grider finished his rant and sat back in his hover chair and crossed his arms, still looking intently at the chart while periodically offering a disdainful glare at Colby.
Colby didn’t mind the admiral’s rudeness, and was rather amused by it. Grider had, after all, likely saved Colby and most of the other commanders in the room during the Refrac War in some way or another. There was no reason now to let the aged warrior know that his former subservient comrades were now his superiors.
Fedrin was about to begin again when Grider suddenly spoke up. “Admiral,” he said looking at the map. “Why have you not committed the Idok to the colony’s defenses yet? You and I both know it is the answer.”
Fedrin looked at Grider at a loss for words.
“The Idok is powerful and her fighters are fast enough to distract any Krohn fleet of consequence for hours by simply running evasion tactics,” Grider continued. “You could easily buy three to four hours that way, giving our fleet enough time to reach the colony in time to stop the massacre which is sure to ensue if we don’t.”
Fedrin thought for a moment before answering. “Sacrificing the Idok would not be prudent. We were, in fact, just discussing this before you arrived.”
“What did you discuss?” Grider asked looking around the room as if he were just insulted.
“We discussed deploying the Idok over Voigt to help buy time for the Sixth Fleet to arrive,” Searle said.
“That’s not exactly what I had in mind,” Grider said shaking his head.
“What did you have in mind then?” Drezden interjected on behalf of the Admiral.
“What I had in mind was to place the Idok directly on the warp-point leading into Sibid from thirteen,” Grider said looking at Drezden and then back at the star map.
Fedrin turned from Grider and looked at the map. “Why?”
“I can see you know already by the look in your eyes,” Grider replied. “You need to buy a few hours and cut this enemy fleet down to a manageable size.”
Fedrin nodded.
“By placing the Idok on the warp-point, she’ll engage the Krohn forces right out of the jump. The Krohns will be vulnerable and unprepared for battle. The Idok will buy precious hours for your ships to arrive and she will damage many of the enemy vessels in the process.”
Fedrin looked at the Star Map and then back at his commanders. They quickly saw the merit in Grider’s plan. The Idok and her fighters could destroy several of the Krohn capital ships and hold the rest in combat for quite sometime before being overrun. Such a course of action would allow the Sixth Fleet to get to Voigt before the Krohns caused too much, if any, damage.
Fedrin’s heart broke as he put the pieces together that he had been trying so hard not to think about. He shook his head slowly, as if in pain as he looked at the map, desperately trying to come up with an alternative. There was none. Grider had found the best possible answer. It satisfied all the criteria; fewer Namuh ships would be lost in the long run, more colonists would be saved, and the odds of retrieving the data device would be much greater.
Fedrin clumsily turned to Grider in a daze. The two great warriors, one old, one young, looked at each other for several moments saying nothing and so much at the same time.
The other commanders awkwardly watched their Admiral suffer, not knowing what to do or say. Drezden badly wanted to say or do something not as a commander, but as a friend. He could think of nothing. Colby and Sanders carefully scrutinized the star map to find a flaw in Grider’s plan, for the Admiral’s sake. No flaw could be found. Kendrick replayed the strategy over and over again in his mind. It worked, plain and simple. Tears formed in Searle’s eyes, the memory of her husband’s untimely death in the Second Fleet still fresh in her mind. She missed his him so terribly. How much worse it would have been for her to essentially order his death like the Admiral was even now contemplating for his wife.
Grider finally broke the silence. “I’m sorry Fedrin. I truly am sorry about all of this. I’m sorry your wife is the commander of that ship. I’m sorry it’s your decision to decide who lives and who dies. I’m sorry for everything your position demands of you.” Grider’s eyes began to get moist and he quickly looked out a nearby window to hide it from the others.
“At the peak of the Refrac Spring campaign, still several months before the Sion intervention, I had a similar decision to make,” Grider continued, still facing away. “My son was the commander of the Drewin II, an old Constellation class frigate.” He cleared his throat and continued. “Right before the battle of Asar, a unique opportunity arose to place the battle group he was part of in an asteroid field for an ambush of a strong Refrac fleet headed for one of the colonies,” Grider paused and looked down at the table. “The ambush wouldn’t have destroyed the entire fleet, but it would have cut it down and given my own ships the time to get into optimal position to defend the colony. The situations are remarkably similar actually.”
“What happened?” Commander Searle asked when no one else did.
“Well...” Grider said and again cleared his throat. “I opted on forgoing the ambush because, although it would have certainly devastated the Refrac fleet, it would have also surely condemned all the ships that participated. And as I’m sure you’ve already guessed, I was not willing to sacrifice my son, even for the off chance of a solid victory.”
Fedrin knew where the story was going but tried to focus as Grider continued.
“I ordered my son’s battle group to stand down and join my own battle group over the colony in an attempt to engage the enemy there in force.”
A tear escaped Grider’s eyes and he casually brushed it away like it was never there and continued. “There’s not much more to tell than that. You’ve all read the history books. You know what happened. The full strength of the Refrac Fleet entered Asar and headed straight for the nearest colony. When they arrived, they did something no one anticipated, myself least of all.”
“They opened fire on the domes,” Colby said quietly, recalling his military history.
Grider nodded. “They ignored our warships that tried so desperately to engage them! They didn’t even turn to fire as we closed to point blank range with them! Those bloodthirsty monsters wanted the colony at any expense! Some of the nobler commanders in my fleet tried to save the innocent civilians by actually placing their ships in the line of fire to buy time for colonists to escape. All attempts were futile.” Grider shook his head. “The colony was lost that day. We also lost two destroyers and one frigate commanded by the bravest men I have ever known.” Another tear appeared on his cheek. Grider wiped it away, not as discretely as before, only for it to be replaced by several more, which he ignored. “My son died that day. He died bravely, saving the lives of thousands of colonists who managed to get to transports or bomb shelters. Fate, or god if there is a god, had decided that my son was to die that day regardless of the choice I made. Yet, had I chosen not to gamble and place my son’s battle group in the ambush setup instead of trying to save it by merging forces, the colony could have been saved and thousands more could have been spared. I was selfish and got nothing in return for it, save a broken heart an
d a weighted conscious.”
Fedrin held back tears of his own as Grider finished his tale.
“I don’t envy your position Admiral. But know this. I would give my life to change that one decision I made so many years ago. I pray you have wisdom in your own decision.”
And with that, Grider backed up his hover chair and made his way to the door leaving the Sixth Fleet commanders alone with their Admiral.
Fedrin paused for only a moment after Grider’s departure before activating his link.
“Lieutenant Tenith,” Fedrin said. “Set up a priority two coded transmission with the Idok, care of her Commander. Link it with my personal quarters and have it ready when I return,” Fedrin finished and looked up at his commanders. “Please return to your vessels and prepare for a fast and hard journey. We will be running our engines hot. Be sure all safety precautions that can be made, are made. There is no time to lose!”
The commanders quickly began to file out of the room. Several thought of saying something to the Admiral on their way out but none knew what to say. Even Drezden just passed the Admiral in silence. What does one say to one that is about to say goodbye to his wife?
“Formations, battle protocols and contingency plans will be forwarded to your vessels when they are made available,” Fedrin added followed by silent nods of acknowledgment.
Drezden had taken several steps out into the hall when he suddenly stopped and turned back. All the other commanders were gone as he walked up to his friend. “You knew,” he said quietly. “You knew this was the only option, didn’t you?”
Fedrin slowly nodded, obviously fighting an emotional battle. “Any third year strategy cadet could have found that as the only plausible option.”
“But most cadets don’t have their wives commanding the ship needing to be sacrificed,” Drezden added thoughtfully.
“I...I didn’t want to suggest it myself,” Fedrin blurted out. “I wanted to tell my self that it wasn’t me making the decision.”