Or regird your loins and sally forth
Striving to the next objective with all your worth
Chapter 1. Resolute over Q2, 2340, 6 September 2513
First Lieutenant (1st Lt) Crystal Wong had drunk far too much earlier in the evening at the so called celebrations after their victory over the Third Rogan Imperial Fleet (RIF). But her one-on-one with her boss, Captain Dave Warner, and her subsequent bout of introspection and grief had somehow sobered her up.
Now she lay on the bed in her cabin and could not sleep, even though she was dog tired. The last 48 hours had been a rollercoaster ride of emotion and stress. It had begun with anxiety over her lover’s safety. She could see 2nd Lt John Conrad’s face right now in her mind’s eye. He was grinning at her just as he had done so many times before.
But now each time she saw that grin she felt a huge pang of guilt come over her. He was now dead and it was because she had chickened out when Dave had asked her to volunteer to man the battle systems control on the doomed rock that was so prosaically referred to as ‘Q2’. John had shamed her when he volunteered instead and now he was dead and she was alive. She hated herself for this.
“Why!” she called out in anguish. She rolled over onto her stomach and pulled the pillow over her head in an attempt to block out the thoughts and the pain. But they came from within and so there was no relief to be gained from this outward, physical activity. “Why” she said again but with less force. No sound escaped from the pillow but still the words penetrated deep inside.
The tears flowed, soaking into the sheets. She sobbed hard but eventually the outpouring petered out. She recalled Dave’s words ‘You are worthy. John knew that, didn’t he?’ And this started her crying again, just as it had earlier.
‘Am I? Why am I worthy?’ she implored silently to herself. She rolled onto her back. ‘What does he see in me that I don’t?’ she asked herself.
Captain Dave Warner, commander of the Federation Fleet Ship (FFS) Resolute and of the 17th Flotilla, also lay on his bed in his cabin, a minute’s walk away. He too was reflecting on the state of things following the battle. He too was feeling guilty, especially about John’s death. But his guilt was not borne of some perceived personal shortcoming. Rather it was the product of what some may perceive as a personal strength and that was his sense of duty. It was his sense of duty that caused him to order the deployment of the battle systems centre to Rollinium and it was his order that put John in harm’s way and for that he felt guilty. But he knew he had done it for the right reasons. He knew that he may feel guilty but he was not culpable.
‘Why is that argument wearing thin?’ he asked himself. The long procession of deaths, occasioned by his orders, was taking their toll on his psyche and he knew it. For nigh on two years now men and women that he cared for and those he had barely come to know had either died or been maimed implementing his orders.
He thought of 2nd Lt Kat Holbrook in her neck brace as she boarded the hospital ship and the distraught state her lover, LCmd Chase Hanlon, was in. ‘At least she’s out of it now’ he said to himself. But he knew it was unlikely she would ever fly again. ‘How many under my charge are now incapacitated and robbed of being able to lead a life to the full?’ he asked. ‘How many more yet to come?’
‘Stop it Dave’ he remonstrated with himself. ‘It’s just commander’s guilt and it’s going to get a lot worse before this war is over. You have to come to terms. One hundred percent commitment, zero percent attachment.’
He swept the bed next to him with his hand searching for his beloved Rihan. He came up empty. ‘But she is coming to me’ he reminded himself. ‘How I long for you my love.’
He rolled over onto his side and closed his eyes. ‘Yes detachment’s the key’ he said to himself. ‘Detachment’s the key’ he repeated till he fell asleep.
Chapter 1. Kiev in warp to Q2 1200, 6 September
Twelve hours earlier, when the Resolute was burying its dead, Admiral Phil Yomoto had sat at his desk aboard the Federation Fleet Ship (FFS) Kiev. He commanded the Federation Combined Fleet comprising two carriers, seventeen capital ships and 22 frigates plus a convoy of transports and a huge base force, that provided mobile logistic support.
He was reading a message from Evie Plentun, while trying to down a sandwich at his desk. It had been sent nearly a week ago. That was how long it had taken to reach him and it would take him even longer to warp to his current objective in the Qwantum system.
His main force was made up of second generation ships. They lacked the new drive and comms tech that enabled the third generation ships in his advance group, the 17th Flotilla under Captain Dave Warner, to travel the huge distances from Chelora to Qwantum in just ten days. He was only five days in a twenty six day warp. Thankfully his flagship had the new comms suite which enabled him to communicate in warp. But right now Phil was feeling that perhaps ignorance would have given him more bliss.
The sender was Evie Plentun, a young rogan resistance leader who had made contact with the human Federation seeking assistance. Phil had helped her get to the rogan home world of Cheklin where she had made contact with the Resistance leader there, Meelanda Orocash. It was at their request that Phil’s combined fleet was now warping into rogan space.
When he got to the part of her message about subordinating his fleet to a rogan admiral he had to exercise all his discipline not to spit out the mouthful he currently had. He swallowed it without relish.
“For crying out loud!” he exclaimed. Commodore Alex Peabody, his Chief of Staff (COS), was in the adjacent office. He heard his boss and came in with a wary look on his face. Phil swivelled his screen and Alex read it. Alex sat down and, as was his practice in dealing with these moods of his boss, he said nothing.
“Of all the bloody ingrates” said Phil, still fuming. He looked to Alex hoping for some empathy but got none. “You think I’m a tad over reacting?” asked Phil but the tone of annoyance was still there. Alex shrugged his shoulders and opened his palms out in a gesture Phil interpreted as a ‘yes’.
Finally Alex piped up “She makes a good point.”
“Which one?” blurted out Phil indignantly.
Alex didn’t rise to the occasion. Instead he forced himself to be calm. The long pause served to calm Phil down enough for Alex to respond. “If we want long term peace then we should comply. Otherwise she’s right. We will undermine the legitimacy of any new government and we’ll be back here again in ten years or less having to deal with another dictator.”
At this stage Captain Greta Oppenheim, Phil’s relatively new Communications and Intelligence (CI) officer came in and Alex pointed to the screen. She bent over and read it. Every now and then she glanced at Phil. Finally she stood up. She was about to say ‘And you don’t like it?’ but thought better of it. She opted instead for “Interesting.”
“And?” demanded Phil.
Greta looked to Alex for a lead. But before he could give one Phil added “Come on, I want your opinion. I’ve already got his.”
“It makes sense. What does it matter anyway?” she replied.
“Well it matters to me” retorted Phil.
Greta raised one eyebrow and gave him a disapproving look. “This is too big for bruised egos, don’t you think?”
Phil’s head recoiled back like he had just been slapped. But before he could respond Greta stared at him “That’s what’s at play here isn’t it?” Then she added “Thankfully we’re all mature and wise” and topped it off with a sweet smile.
Phil leaned back in his chair, for a moment before leaning forward. He raised a pointed finger at Greta and said “Oh you’re good…very good. You may just get away with it.”
“I usually do” said Greta cheekily while Alex smiled. It was nice to see his boss bested and it reminded him of Dave Warner’s wife, Captain Rihan Kabel, who was Phil’s operations (OPS) officer.
Phil shook his head and turned to Alex and asked “why do I seem to attract women like this?”
>
“Just lucky Sir…just lucky!”
As if on cue, Rihan poked her head in the door. “So this is where everyone is hiding out” she observed. Phil made a flourish with his hand inviting her to read the message. She did so and then looked around at the other faces. They were all dead pan. “Good move I say” said Rihan full of confidence.
Phil rolled his eyes as he leaned back in his chair. The others were all smiling.
Chapter 2. Cornacopia to Polaris 1345, 6 September
Commander (Cmdr) Charles Chen looked anxiously at the blood pumping out of his body through the tube and into the container that was attached to the machine that in turn was attached to the gurney he lay on.
He was not regretting undergoing this operation in transit from Chelora to Polaris. No it made sense to have his ear reconstructed before he arrived in Polaris. There would be so much to do then. He knew his mother was already in full swing preparing the ground work that would see him make a run for the Chief Minister’s office next year.
He had been told since as far as he could remember that it was his destiny. Amelia Hubbard, his mother and wife of Harry Chen, the current Federation Treasurer, had never let him forget it. He realised that he was but a proxy for her own stymied ambition. But before his assignment as XO to the FFS Resolute, Dave Warner’s ship, he had made it clear to her that he would be doing so on his own terms.
In part, this medical operation was a way for him to stamp his authority. He had received a signal before his departure from his mother. She advised him not to have the surgery ‘The war hero needs a visible reminder of his exploits’ she had written.
He was fading fast now, the anaesthetic was claiming him. The image of the young doctor leaning over him dominated his last moments of consciousness. It was an easy face to like. It was not a stunning face or classic or chic but Charles found it very pleasing.
The gurney he was on was soon wheeled into the operating theatre. 1st Lt Merry Li brought the gurney to a halt for the senior surgeon. He turned to her and asked “Any complications?”
She shook her head. She studied the face of the patient and noted that he actually looked content. She put that down to the drugs coursing through his system. “No we’re good to go!”
Chapter 3. Kiev to Q2 1500, 6 September
Phil Yomoto was enjoying a well-earned coffee break in his office when the priority message came in from Earth advising him of the gelk military commitment. His face lit up and his wide mouth stretched a little further as he grinned. “You beauty!” he exclaimed.
The gelk occupied a string of systems on the inner portion of the Orion Spur and shared a common frontier with the human federation. Despite some initial difficulties the humans and gelk had been coexisting and trading peacefully for many generations.
For months since the war began with the rogan empire the gelk had begged off taking sides. But less than two weeks ago the Federation foreign Minister had successfully secured their commitment to the fight. The signal provided the details Phil needed to integrate them into his strategic plan.
The 1st Gelk Expeditionary Fleet (GEF), including a carrier and 100 fighters and the entire Gondo Corps of crack troops were on their way. But they had a long way to warp in their second gen ships.
Phil pulled up his star charts on his terminal and began computing their earliest arrival time. The grin dissipated as he read the dates on his screen for each of the waypoints.
‘Polaris – 1 Oct 2513
Chelora – 2 Nov 2513
Q2 – 1 Dec 2513’
“Too late for this battle. Oh well, it will be a nice Xmas present” he said to himself out loud.
The news reminded him of a message in his queue from Dr Mani Govinda, head of new ship construction at Deathly Hollows on Polaris. He opened it and went straight to the production schedule. He scanned down the list of new craft under construction. He noted with a smile that at the end of the month another Resolute class cap and two more Phantom class frigates would be ready for trials. He knew that it would be another six weeks before he would see them in Chelora, four weeks if he really pushed it. A smile came over his face because he knew he would push it.
But the piece de resistance was the FFS Audacity a stealth carrier around which he could build an entire third gen fleet. But this depended on the Lightning stealth fighters. He opened the message he had received yesterday from the Electra Corporation and double checked the delivery dates. He already had forty five lined up along the underground apron of the Electra Corp facility at Bright Waters some 300kms west of Deathly Hollows on Polaris. The name was in stark contrast to its arid mountainous region. Phil smiled again as he remembered the quip by Sheila Shu, the program director at Electra that ‘Dark Waters would have been more apt’.
He began drafting his signal to Polaris HQ instructing them to form by whatever means necessary enough skilled personnel to crew the new ships. ‘If necessary mothball those second generation ships still under repair from the battle of Polaris and use their crew.’
Chapter 4. Cornucopia to Polaris 0400, 7 September
‘Why?’ asked Charles Chen within his subconscious. ‘Why do they keep hitting me? Why’ He tried to move his hand to his ear to stop the blows but it would not respond to his commands. He tried to shake his head but it too refused to comply with his wishes. “Stop” he screamed. “Stop it. Stop it!”
He felt the hand on his arm. It was cool. He heard the voices. He tried to open his eyes but the image swam, folded in on itself and swirled in a chaotic motion. Pounding feet…a new voice…’Aagh’…the hand on his brow was cool too. He tried harder to see. Out of the swirl appeared that face, that nice face.
Charles drifted back into sleep as the top up drugs were administered.
Merry Li turned to the nurse “He’s burning up. That extra 20 should do it. Check in on him every ten till his temp comes down. Call me if it doesn’t.”
Charles woke again just after 0700, though he had no concept of what the time was. He felt tired and weak. He opened his eyes. There was no swirling but it was dark save for a few red, blue and green dots and a faint white light over a panel on a machine. He tried to turn his head but then realised he was in a head brace. ‘Oh yes’ he said to himself as his memory flooded in.
He couldn’t move his hands. They were in a restraint too. In fact, now that he applied his wakening sensors he realised they had him in a full harness. “Terrific” he said out loud. He felt incredibly thirsty. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the tubes hanging down from the bag of liquid hanging on his left. His mind deduced that if he was on a drip he shouldn’t be thirsty. But he was nonetheless.
“Water” he called out. He called out several times before a shadow appeared through the curtain that surrounded him and said “Awake are we?”
“Thirsty” he muttered.
“How are you feeling, still got that headache?”
Charles had no idea what she was talking about. “OK I suppose. Can I get a drink.”
The nurse deemed it safe to remove the restraints on his limbs. She was not going to remove the head brace. But she did unclamp it so he could at least raise his head.
Charles appreciated the drink. With his thirst quenched he felt hungry. But the nurse shook her head when he asked about breakfast. “Not until the doctor sees you. That won’t be long.”
Twenty minutes later Charles saw that face again. Merry Li was tired but she managed a smile. She asked him some questions, checked his stats and said “You’re still running a bit of a temperature. We need to monitor that. I’m going to keep you in the ward for another day.”
Somehow that news didn’t worry Charles at all. “Will you be checking up on me?”
“Till 0800 anyway. But another doctor will be on duty then.”
Charles managed a smile. He didn’t even complain when she told him it would be best if he avoids solids for now. She reassured him that the glucose gave him all the energy he needed for now. He wasn’t re
ally paying attention to her words but he enjoyed the sound of her voice. It carried a softness that he liked.
After she left the room he lay there thinking about the sound of her voice as he closed his eyes. ‘No edge to it’ he thought ‘not like mother’s.’
Chapter 5. Resolute over Q2 0610, 7 September
Dave Warner had woken early. John Conrad’s grinning face had haunted him. Dave forced himself out of bed and meditated for half an hour. This brought him a measure of peace. ‘One hundred percent commitment…zero percent attachment’ Dave had muttered to himself as he came out of meditation.
Normally at this stage he would go to the gym but instead he took the elevator up to A deck and entered the command centre.
“Sir?” queried 1st Lt Val Gomez, the ship’s quartermaster, who had the dog watch. She was surprised to see him at this hour.
“Morning Val” said Dave as he sat down in his commander’s chair. “Nothing’s up” he reassured her as he checked the time on his terminal. “It’s almost dawn.”
Val checked her terminal and confirmed “yes it is, why?”
“How would you like to see it?” Dave had an almost mischievous smile on his face.
“We’ll have to decloak” advised Val.
“Yeah we will.”
Val smiled back at him. “Sure why not. Allow me.” She hit the control to raise the shields over the circular windows that surrounded the circular command centre. From their current perspective they were looking eastward towards where the sun would rise but the rim of the planet was barely visible. “Lower the nose?” asked Val.
“Yes that would be nice.”
Val adjusted the controls to nudge the angle of the ship down relative to the planet. The ships thrusters compensated to keep the ship in geo stationary orbit over Rollinium. So now the first glow of the morning was appearing in the centre of the planet’s rim in front of them.
Audacity (Warner's World Book 5) Page 41