Audacity (Warner's World Book 5)

by Dave O'Connor

  Amelia winced. She felt the pain, but she was determined to have the last word here. “Yes do it for yourself Charles. Stay safe and succeed. I have had enough disappointments for one life.” She then turned and exited.

  Another half-smile came over Charles Chen’s face. ‘Oh I’ll succeed alright’ he thought to himself. ‘Whatever it takes.’

  Chapter 2. Nova Vista, Polaris 1800, 5 July

  Lieutenant Commander Sheldon Brice shifted his weight in the chair by the bed in ward 1202 of the North Shore Hospital as the attendant wheeled in the trolley with the meal. Being an active man Sheldon hated sitting for any length of time but his duties as the Comms and Intel (CI) Officer had taught him to control the urge to rise.

  His best friend First Lieutenant (1st Lt) Jake Holman winced as he adjusted his position in the bed. The bubble wrap dressings around the right side of his face, neck and shoulder groaned under the adjustment. They were designed to be flexible while still protecting the burned skin but the noise they made did not suggest flexibility at all.

  “Do you need me to move the pillow?” asked Sheldon.

  “No” barked back Jake angrily.

  Sheldon just nodded. He’d seen this before. He knew his buddy was going through the post trauma anger stage. Jake had been the engineering officer on board the FFS Auckland, Admiral Rudi Holland’s flagship during the recent battle for Polaris. He had been badly burned when the Auckland had been hit with rogan missiles during the opening salvoes.

  Sheldon was the senior CI on the Auckland. He and Jake had served together now on three different ships since graduating from the Academy nine years ago. It had stressed him no end when he heard the damage report after the enemy strike and even more when he was told to stay at his post.

  Sheldon knew that to pass through this anger stage, Jake needed support and that was why he was here. Prior experience had taught Sheldon not to react to the displays of anger, just to be quiet and most of all just to be there.

  The attendant gave a weak smile and placed the tray of food on the adjacent bedside trolley, rotated the arm so the meal was now in front of Jake and said in a quiet and measured manner “You good?” Jake nodded and the attendant left.

  Jake pulled off the lid revealing the usual hospital fair. Tonight it was sliced roast lamb, carrots, beans and the ubiquitous mashed potato with gravy. He let out a sigh of disappointment but still lifted his fork and dove it into the mash.

  Sheldon’s communicator chimed. “Do you mind if I take this?” he asked Jake. Jake shook his head ever so slightly. Sheldon stood up and went out into the corridor. He walked down towards the lounge area which was currently deserted. “Yes” he answered.

  “Commander Sheldon Brice?” asked the voice on the other end.

  “Yes.”

  “It’s Captain Alex Peabody, PERS (Personnel Staff Officer) for Admiral Yomoto. Can you talk?”

  “Yeah, go ahead.”

  “I have a new assignment for you. It’s effective immediately. Report to my office 0800 tomorrow and I’ll fill you in.”

  “Have you cleared this with Admiral Holland?”

  “Yes. He’s the one who recommended you. Don’t worry. I think you’ll like it” said Alex with a wry smile on his face.

  “OK Sir 0800 tomorrow.”

  As Alex put down his communicator on his desk in the Combined Fleet Alpha HQ he said to himself “and who wouldn’t like being the commander of the Spectre.” The Spectre was the second in the new series of Phantom class stealth frigates.

  “Now who am I going to get to command the Raptor” he added. The Raptor was the third in the series.

  Chapter 3. Nova Vista 2240, 5 July

  LCmd Meg Songa rolled out of the bed careful not to disturb her latest conquest. She instinctively brushed away her frizzy black hair from her forehead. ‘I should have had it cut this afternoon’ she chastised herself. She was tall, athletic and her dark complexion looked positively shiny under the glow from her communicator. She threw on a robe, grabbed the communicator and exited the bedroom into the main living area of the two bedroom apartment high up in the Sea Breeze complex overlooking the bay.

  She made her way out onto the balcony of her lover’s apartment. A breeze had finally picked up and the smell of saltwater wafted in. She sat down on the cane chair and briefly caught site of ground zero, where the rogan nukes had impacted in the north of the city some fifteen kilometres away. The arc lights from the decontamination crews could be seen clearly. ‘Pity’ she thought ‘the view would have been lovely before the rogan ruined it.’

  She glanced down at her communicator, recognised the sender and double tapped the urgent message.

  ‘URGENT NEW ASSIGNMENT. Report to F1 CFA HQ, 0800 6 July ready to deploy. CONGRATS!’ It was from Captain Alex Peebody.

  A beaming smile came over Meg’s face. “Yes!” she exclaimed out loud. She sat back in the chair and started to think of all the things she had to do. Through all the different strands of thought one came that forced itself to the fore. ‘Oh yes’ she thought.

  She crafted her thankyou email to her aunt beginning with her normal term of endearment for her. ‘Bumbles, I got it. Thank you so much. I won’t let you down…’ The recipient would have to be careful and ensure she opened it in private lest word got out that the Federation Health Minister was referred to as ‘bumbles’ by those that knew her the most.

  Meg crept her way back into the bedroom and let the robe fall to the floor. The night light penetrated through the partially opened curtains but she couldn’t find her underwear. She bent over and began feeling for them under the sheet.

  She got a shock when she felt his hand on hers. Her lover rolled over onto his side and looked up to her admiring the light playing off her trim body. “Do you have to go?” he asked quietly.

  “Sorry, new orders” she replied. She liked this one. He was a country mile ahead of the rest. But now was not the time for attachments she reminded herself. She leant forward and kissed him on the cheek.

  He took advantage and pulled her on top. “Surely you have time for a farewell embrace” he said.

  Meg smiled. “But that’s not an embrace I’m feeling is it?”

  “What can I say” and he chuckled.

  Meg leant closer to him and rubbed her breasts over his chest. She felt his hands squeeze her ample bottom holding her in place while he thrust up to meet her. She arched her back up and with real pleasure took all that he had to give.

  Chapter 4. Nova Vista 1115, 7 July

  Admiral Phil Yomoto looked out through the door of his office hoping to catch sight of Alex Peabody. But he wasn’t there. He returned his focus to the voice of Dr Mani Govinda, head of Deathly Hollows where his new fleet of stealth ships were under construction.

  “Yeah I get it Mani” said a frustrated Phil “but you’re not the only facility to get itself nuked here OK. We’re pulling out all stops here and I expect your team to do the same.” Phil was referring to the nuclear strikes against Deathly Hollows and against Nova Vista in the recent battle for Polaris.

  Mani was not impressed and remained silent. He used it like a weapon. It had proved effective before with Phil and if the strumming of his fingers on the desk was anything to go by it was proving effective today. Finally Phil broke his resolve. “Alright then 1 August it is but I want Tenacity ready for operations. I don’t want a repeat of what happened with the Resolute.”

  “Of course Admiral” said the smooth voice of Mani “ready for operations on the 1st. Will that be all?”

  “Yes, that’s all” and Phil terminated the call as he caught a glance of Alex through his doorway. “Alex” he bellowed.

  “Sir” acknowledged Alex who about turned and marched into his boss’ office.

  “Any news on Rokosky?” asked Phil.

  “Yeah but you’re not going to like it. The doctors won’t give her a clean bill of health. She may have to be invalided out. Apparently the op never got all of it out.”


  “Shit. Why do we always loose the best?” demanded Phil. “Who’s next on our list?”

  “Mad Dog.”

  “Right” said Phil drawing the word out as he thought about the suitability of Commander Jeb Wilson.

  “He’s available right now.”

  “He’s also a bit of a loose cannon.”

  “He did alright with the Rikter – two verified kills” said Alex referring to the recent battle over Polaris.

  “Yeah but that was a frigate and he nearly lost it. Can we trust him with a new capital ship?”

  “That’s your call Sir. If it helps the next one on the list is Soulis.”

  “What we’re down to Bumbling Barnaby?”

  “Afraid so.”

  “Alright then get Wilson in here. I need to have some strong words with him before he takes charge.”

  Chapter 5. Konkorda to Qwantum 1300, 23 July

  Retna was large even for a sleth. He sat hunched over in the co-pilot’s seat, his big reptilian hands worked the station in front of him. He glanced across at Chungisium Sleck, the rogan he had put his faith in. By comparison Chung, as he preferred to be addressed, was about half Retna’s size. Only Chung’s large head provided any offset in relative sizing.

  “We’ll be there soon” said Chung. “We come out of warp in seven minutes. Make sure you are ready to launch the probe immediately if required.”

  “Of course” said Retna. He glanced at the screen in front of him and confirmed the probe was ready. “Do you think they will have done it already? They have had three hours head start.”

  “Yes, yes they have” replied Chung a little exasperated. “We’ve gone through this how many times? Yes they may have initiated it but that is not what our Resistance friends reckon. We still have six hours to the scheduled time.”

  Retna was getting decidedly uneasy as the countdown ticked over to five minutes. He shifted his significant frame in his seat. It was a rogan seat in a rogan ‘Starjumper’ class spacecraft. Ostensibly designed for the executive passenger market it was now an older craft and most commonly used by the gun runners and anyone else who wanted a small, fast nimble craft capable of warping between systems with small but high value cargo.

  That cargo in this case was a probe. An old Mark 42, no longer in service with the Imperial Rogan Fleet (IRF) but heavily modified for this particular mission.

  “Make sure you set it for delayed broadcast” directed Chung. “We want to give us the best chance of escaping.”

  “Done. One day should do it.”

  “Whose day?”

  “Does it matter” replied Retna. His tone was terse. “We’ll be in and out well before even the shortest day.”

  “On all frequencies?”

  “Yes, yes. It’s all done. I just hope it works and that we are not too late.”

  “Well we will find out now. Exiting warp.”

  The starjumper transitioned to impulse drives very smoothly. Chung immediately applied reverse thrusters to slow the craft to loiter speed and then finally to dead stop. Chung scanned the sensors for signs of their prey. He was only using passive sensors to avoid giving away their position. “There’s quite a lot of activity” he stated. He filtered out the usual mining vessels found around the big gas giant that lay before them. His sensors were now tuned to locate the signature of an Imperial Rogan Fleet Hedjling class corvette and in this case one matching the signature of the IRS (Imperial Rogan Ship) Fustus.

  “There it is” announced Chung excitedly. “I told you they’d come in behind the second moon.”

  “That is good” said Retna. “Gravity readings appear normal. They haven’t initiated yet.”

  “No, we are lucky so far. Hopefully they have not detected us.”

  “Launch or wait?” asked Retna.

  “We wait. It looks like our friends were correct. By my calculations we have six hours before the fourth planet reaches its closest point.”

  “I still cannot believe they would do this to one of their own systems” said a confounded Retna.

  “It’s only been under rogan rule for nineteen years. Hardly one of ours” said Chung and then quickly added “I mean one of theirs.” He smiled awkwardly at Retna.

  “It’s still genocide.”

  “Yes, but as far as they see it, the beings within this system have already chosen. Maybe it would have been better to have stayed their hand.”

  “And what of your friends?”

  Chung felt a great weight of sadness on him. “There is nothing we can do for them. You know that.” Retna shrugged his shoulders. “But hopefully this probe can let everyone know that it was the Imperialists who did it and not the Resistance.”

  “I need to stretch out” said Retna. “Call me for the launch.” Chung nodded. Retna extracted himself off the seat and while still crouching exited the cockpit. Even in the main cabin he still had to crouch. He laid down on the bedding he had been using and stretched out his long legs and then his long arms in the opposite direction. It felt so good to stretch. He sighed as the tension eased in his muscles. He knew it would be difficult to sleep this close to the initiation. But years of hard military experience had taught him the value of taking what opportunity you could to rest. So he closed his eyes and focussed on his breath.

  At 2215 the comms relays within the Qwantum system were all slaved to an overriding protocol that had been embedded within the AI of all Imperial comms relays. From here on all comms out of the system would be vetted. Those complying with the new protocol would be processed and all others rejected without a reply. The Qwantum system was now in a comms lockdown.

  At 2225 the Fustus surged forward.

  “Retna wake up!” yelled Chung a few minutes later.

  It took a moment for Retna to respond. To his surprise he had slept. “What is it?” he asked.

  “They’re moving. This is it, their run in.”

  “Well launch the probe now” barked Retna as he began bringing himself upright.

  Chung leaned over and hit launch on the co-pilot’s screen. The probe dropped out of the underbelly of the craft and initiated its engines. It powered to full speed and began closing with the Fustus.

  “It’s recording now” said Chung as Retna sat back into his chair. It was then that the alert sounded. “We have incoming missiles” he yelled. He engaged the impulse drives and began banking towards the outer edges of the system. Then he could fire the warp drive. With no defensive systems of their own their only choice was to escape.

  Chung was cursing the fact that the warp drive needed to power up. He should have done so earlier. As he looked at the screen and saw the missile paths arcing towards them, he knew they were not going to make it. “Abandon Ship” he barked.

  Retna had just got himself seated. He looked at Chung dismayed but he knew he must act and not question. He extracted himself out of the seat while Chung engaged the autopilot. He willed his tall frame through the hatch and down the main cabin. At the rear end was the corridor off of which were the two escape pods.

  Chung was right behind him now and impatient to get into his pod. “Move Retna” he yelled.

  Retna went for the far pod leaving the nearest to Chung. Chung was inside his and engaging the escape pod’s ejector while Retna struggled to squeeze himself into the pod. It had been designed for two rogan but it would barely accommodate him.

  He closed the pod’s hatch even though his long right leg was still over the dividing panel between the two seats. His left shoulder and arm were pressed up tight against the wall and his head was crouched over and in contact with the ceiling. The automated warning system was speaking in rogan to him. He did not need a translation to realise that he had to launch now. He hit the launch button and shot out into space.

  The pod was programmed to put as much distance as quickly as possible between it and the mother craft, while also avoiding the enemy craft and missiles. It was now hurtling at incredible speed at right angles to the Konkorda’s trajector
y. Retna’s head was rubbing against the pod ceiling while he craned to see the screen in front of the seat. The Konkorda was destroyed under the impact of six missiles. But there were more missiles now and these were targeting the pods and the drone.

  His only viable course of action was to kill the engines, kill all emissions and pray they lost him in the void of space. Only his right arm was free to reach the screen. The other was jammed in against the wall. He strained and punched the necessary commands. He was no longer accelerating but his momentum would continue.

  He scrutinised the screen as best he could. He saw one missile explode near the probe but the probe continued. “Yes” said Retna out loud. But his elation was cut short when he realised Chung’s pod was still powering away. With dread he saw the missile hit Chung’s pod. He knew there was no hope for Chung. But his thoughts were not with his brother in arms but on the missile that had targeted his pod. He knew it would be trying to actively scan for him. He prayed his signature would be too small. It was.

  However, the default action of the missile having reached the last known location of the target was to explode. It was almost three kms away but Retna felt the outside of his pod peppered with some shrapnel.

  His heart was still pounding when the screen reported the anomaly. It only then dawned on Retna that he was not out of the woods yet.

  Chapter 6. Konkorda Pod 2 in Qwantum, 2000, 25 July

  ‘They must have gone by now’ thought Retna. He tried to move his right arm but it did not respond, having gone numb with discomfort. He willed it to respond. Finally it moved after he shifted his weight a little.

  He conducted a scan with his passive sensors. There seemed to be plenty of activity but no sign of the Fustus. ‘Time to reactivate the engines.’

  He hit the control but got no response. He hit it again. Still no response. “No!” he yelled. He did a systems check and there it was – his engine control had been hit by the shrapnel. “Fuck it!” he yelled.