Star Man 2: Star Rise

by I. G. Roberts

  Colin said, “Theseus, call Captain Daron on FNS Dolarsu. Ask him if he is available to have a short chat with me.”

  “Initiating contact now Captain.”

  A few minutes later, the link was established, and Captain Daron came online, looking just a little worried.

  Daron asked, “What can I do for you, Commander?”

  “First, Ricarn, I haven’t called you to give you any grief though I will ask how your repairs are going.”

  “Repairs are progressing on schedule, Sir. Why did you call?”

  “Two things, first, tell me about the political situation on Sankarah. Is there anything I should perhaps know about, maybe something that may impact our ability to defend the Federation?”

  “There is a little unrest in certain quarters on Sankarah, mostly about the attacks on lightly defended planets. Admiral Dalkasan has been under a lot of pressure from certain people on the Council. Interestingly, they are the same parsimonious idiots who have been gradually pulling the Navy budgets back over several years, limiting our ability to keep ahead with technology. I suspect the Admiral is becoming worried about his job.”

  “Makes sense Ricarn. We have the same problem on Earth. Politicians cut the military off at the knees then want to blame the military when it can’t do the job they want. Now, for my second question. Would you feel offended if I spoke to Captain Hamilton on the same subject?”

  “Sir, you don’t need to ask me this. I do not have the option of being hurt or offended.”

  “Perhaps, but I’ve made you the authority for the Destroyers in our little task force. As such, I have no wish to go behind your back. I intend to bring both of you plus my other Captains into a conference call later, but for now, I’m trying to understand something Admiral Dalkasan said earlier.”

  “Well, Sir, I don’t see how I could be hurt or offended. You’ve effectively asked my permission and told me what you want to talk to him about. That tells me you’re worried about something and you’re trying to understand what’s happening. It also tells me that you could be a dangerous person to upset.”

  Colin chuckled before replying, ”I’m usually only dangerous to people who try to harm someone or something that I care about. Though I must admit, I did threaten to space an immigration official when I first arrived at Cambridge. You, Ricarn, are completely safe from my ire.”

  “I am relieved to hear that, Sir. In answer to your question, I have no objection if you speak to Captain Hamilton.”

  “Thank you Ricarn. I’ll speak to you later.”

  Theseus closed the Comms channel to FNS Dolarsu. Colin leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and let his mind assemble everything he knew so far into a coherent whole. He was aware that his thinking would change with each new piece of information he absorbed but needed to understand what he’d learned at each stage to be able to fully appreciate things when all the data was in. After about a half hour of thinking, Colin asked Theseus to connect him to Captain Hamilton on FNS Salander.

  When Hamilton came online, Colin said, “Hello Simon, how are things going over there?”

  “We’re good, Sir, no problems.”

  Simon had a quizzical look on his face as he looked at Colin, wondering what the purpose of the call was. Even though all the other Commanding Officers in this fleet had been in the service had been in the Navy longer than Commander Gordon, he outranked them. Colin had achieved more against the Federation’s enemies in the short time he’d been in the Federation than anyone else ever managed in their entire career, and Simon knew it. Simon firmly believed that if anyone could end the threat against the Federation, then Colin Gordon would be the one.

  Colin continued, “Simon, I spoke to Captain Daron a short while ago. I talked to him first because I made him my 2IC and needed to make sure he didn’t feel like I was going behind his back with this. You’re a human so while we may have some cultural differences, I would expect that our view of the universe would be a little closer than Daron’s is to mine.”

  “Yes, Commander. Where are we going with this?”

  “I want to ask you about the political situation on Sankarah. How stable is it? What pressures is the Navy facing? Is the Federation Council working with us to protect the Federation or do they have a different idea of what we should be doing? Of course, there are lots of other questions I could ask, but these should make a good start.”

  With a relieved look on his face, Simon Hamilton began telling Colin everything he’d seen and heard about the situation on Sankarah. As Simon gave his opinions, Colin could see a disturbing picture begin to emerge, a picture that told him a major victory would be needed sooner rather than later or the Federation could unravel from the inside. If that happened, the Pirates would win. Colin was not willing to stand idly by and let that happen, not if he could help it. The Federation wasn’t perfect, it had its faults, but it was better than anything else Colin had ever seen, even on Earth.

  After Simon was finished, Colin thanked him and cut the link. Now Colin understood why Admiral Dalkasan came to Cotoni personally. The Admiral needed some victories. Dalkasan needed to show the Council he was beating the Pirates, or at least that he could beat them.

  Chapter 18

  FNS Magni

  Kirkor Wolf sat at his Command Console watching the Pirates run through a series of exercises on his Passive Scanners. For Wolf, what he was seeing was quite disturbing. Since beginning to tail the Pirates to find out where they were going, it became apparent that someone on the Pirate side had an idea of how to fight a battle in space. By the time this fleet arrived at their target, wherever that might be, they were going to be a formidable force. It was evident, the intent was to be able to catch somebody in a pincer maneuver. This, in turn, suggested whoever they were going to hit, was likely to have a credible defensive capability. The only places Wolf could think of with that level of protection were the core worlds, or a small number of other locations that had been able to establish a significant industrial capacity, places like Cambridge, Cotoni or Doublern plus a limited number of other Systems.

  Still, Wolf could not work out who these Pirates were planning to attack. The route they were following right then could’ve ended in any one of several Systems so Kirkor had no idea who he could warn. In the meantime, all he could do was to sit here and record everything in the hope it might become useful later. The Comms Panel lit up with an incoming Laser Comms Signal from FNS Kurama. When Kirkor accepted the call, he found himself looking at the face of Kurama’s Captain, Commander Lani Camon.

  Lani said, “This doesn’t look good Kirkor, not good at all. This many ships, if they all attack a System at the same time, few Systems would be able to stand up to them, only a small number of the Core Systems perhaps only Sankarah.”

  “You’re right of course Lani, but what do we do? If we leave now, who do we warn? Do you have any ideas?”

  “No Kirkor, I don’t. I was hoping you would have some. The problem is, we can’t hang around for too much longer, or we risk running out of food. At the least, we need to put a limit on how long we wait.”

  “You’re right of course. If the Pirates haven’t moved from here in three days, we’ll head for; where do you suggest? Somewhere with a good size Navy presence, I think. That leaves where, Cambridge, Cotoni, Sankarah, Doublern?”

  “Not Sankarah, it’s too far. We’ve made quite a loop, Cambridge and Doublern don’t have a big enough fleet to be able to do much against this. I think the best System for us to report this is Cotoni. Okay, we give it three days, then we head for Cotoni, do you agree.”

  “Yes, yes, I agree with your thinking Kirkor, three days, then we go to Cotoni and let someone with more rank than us make the decision.”

  With the choice made, Commander Camon signed off, and Wolf sat back to watch, and wait.

  FNS Vasta

  Captain Silmar Cadapon sat listening as his heads of department reported the state of the ship. Almost all possible repairs had been c
ompleted. Cadapon now had to decide what to do next. There was some disagreement among the Officers in the compartment about how to proceed, and it was the Captains job to take a decision on the way forward. For his part, the Captain was beginning to doubt his abilities as a leader. They had all been severely shaken by the ambush not least of all Cadapon. Too many people had been killed, and those losses weighed heavily on Cadapon’s mind, but still, the ultimate decision was his alone.

  When everyone had finished delivering their reports, and been given a chance to provide an opinion about the next move, Cadapon dismissed them to give himself the time, and the peace he needed to come to a decision. The ambush that Vasta blundered into had severely dented Silmar’s confidence in himself, and he needed to get his head back into the game if Vasta was ever going to make it home.

  Engineering had been able to work miracles in the month since they ran from the Pirates. Many of the hull breaches were sealed now, and the Shield-Nodes were largely replaced in the damaged areas. They were still down a few Point-Defense turrets, but they could still fight if they weren’t blindsided. The ships Command Crew knew where the damage was and could protect those parts of the ship by the way they positioned her. The worst remaining problem for Vasta was that Engineering had only been able to repair two of the eight missile launchers that were damaged during the battle. This was a loss that would severely hamper Vasta’s offensive capability.

  Cadapon worked his way through all the opinions he’d been given, considering every point that his staff made, weighing up the pros and cons of each of the available options. In the end, it was evident, if the Pirates were still at the Jump-Point, FNS Vasta was going to have to fight her way out of the FD-5101E System before they could set course for Cotoni and safety. Once the decision was made, Cadapon looked at his chronometer and realized he needed to sleep before they started preparing the ship for departure. Besides, Silmar wanted to re-examine his decision in the cold light of day when he was more rested, just to make sure he was comfortable with what he intended to do.

  Cotoni

  The injured from FNS Hidacki had been transferred to the Station medical facilities and some of the crew shortfalls made up by available staff who were between postings. Captain Sydnasi had expected to be beached when he made it back here to Cotoni, but that hadn’t happened. Sydnasi didn’t even have a black mark on his record which was something that really did surprise him. Once FNS Hidacki was locked down in the yard, the crew had left her there while the yard workers completed the repairs and installed some upgrades. FNS Hidacki would be in the yard for a month, at least, that was what Captain Sydnasi was told. All he had to do was to keep his people busy while they waited. After talking to his XO, Haflon decided to ask for any data or training material that was available on the upgrades. He decided his crew would be trained on the updates and study the recent Battle for Cotoni. Haflon wanted to make sure his crew made the best use of their downtime. Of course, all of them were due some leave, and they would be given it while on the Station but only in small groups. Having an entire Destroyer crew running loose on the Station at the same time with nothing to keep them occupied could only lead to trouble. Haflon considered bringing FNS Hidacki home with so much damage was bad enough, he didn't want any more attention focused on his leadership abilities right then.

  Before leaving the ship, Hidacki’s Captain and Executive Officer arranged accommodation for the crew, training materials, and rosters. He also knew he would be expected to provide a full briefing to the Admirals somewhere along the line and had been preparing that as well. Finally, FNS Hidacki was secured in the yard, and the crew began disembarking to be taken back to Cotoni Station as they did so. Captain Sydnasi was the last person off his ship, and as he exited the hatch, he formally signed FNS Hidacki over to the yard superintendent. After completing the sign over, Hidacki was the Yard’s responsibility.

  Haflon had barely settled into his quarters on Cotoni Station when he was summoned to meet with Admiral Hanadon. Anyone in the Federation Military knows you don’t keep an Admiral waiting when he wants to see you, so Sydnasi left his quarters headed for the Admirals office immediately. When the Captain arrived, he was shown into Admiral Hanson’s office immediately. When he entered the room, he could see Admiral Dalkasan was there as well and began wondering if the axe was about to fall.

  Haflon’s concern must have shown on his face, because Dalkasan said, “Relax Commander Sydnasi, you’re not in trouble, in fact, the findings from the Inquiry, and our personal opinions are that few could have escaped an ambush as lightly as you did. We have reviewed your Scan-Records and bridge logs. The only thing you could have done differently would have been to not enter the System at all, and we all know, that was not really an option. No, the reason you’re here is to give us your opinions on the current Pirate activity and to talk to you about what happened here while you were away.”

  “Yes Sir, I understand. I’m not sure how to tell you what happened without it sounding like I’m whining, or at least trying to justify my actions. I’m sure I made mistakes both before and during the engagement, but I haven’t been able to identify what they were. If I knew what I did wrong, perhaps I could learn and not do something like that again.”

  “Don’t worry too much about the engagement itself. Your bridge logs and Scan-Records have shown us all we need to know about that part of it. What we want, is your thoughts on what was going on from the Pirate perspective. I’m not asking you to tell me what they were thinking, clearly, that would be impossible, but we would like you to tell us what you think they are doing.”

  “Admiral, we were attacked by five ships, numbers like that have been unheard of before now. I believe they were trying to destroy us, or at least disable Hidacki. Why I can’t be sure, but if you put the attack on Cotoni together with what happened to us and the attacks on the nearby Colony worlds, I would have to say the Colony attacks and the attack on Hidacki were about reducing the number of ships available to defend Cotoni. I suspect it would have been a smash and grab raid. If they could destroy or drive off the Naval presence here, it would set the Federation back years. They may have even been able to grab some of the munitions that are stored here, not to mention slaves. This System had to be the primary target, who else could it be?”

  “It might interest you to know Commander, that this isn’t the first attack on this scale, although it is the first where they’ve hit multiple targets in a way designed to draw off another System’s defenses, at least as far as we know it is. They hit Lahoshar about a year ago now. The Lahoshans were lucky that Commander Gordon arrived in the System before the Alliance ships could reach the planet. With the help of another Cobra, he destroyed that Fleet in detail, then sent a fast Courier back to Cambridge asking for help. Commodore Nicholson put together a task force and left Cambridge to give Gordon some backup. In the meantime, Commander Gordon waited around in the System in case there was a follow-up force. There was, and it was somewhat larger than the previous one. Commander Gordon and Commander Fraser attacked the Pirates even though they were short on munitions. The two Cobras were in the middle of a battle when Commodore Nicholson’s task force arrived in System.”

  “Sir, how many of those little ships do we have? If they’re that good, they will be a game changer.”

  “Not enough, not yet anyway, Cambridge has been building some for their own System Defense and to interdict Pirate activity near them. The Lahoshans ordered some, and now the Federation Council has commissioned a significant number. Unfortunately, the type is so new, Cambridge doesn’t have the shipbuilding capacity to build all the Patrol Boats they have on order quickly enough for my liking.”

  “So, Cambridge will be another potential target in this region.”

  “Yes, it will. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough ships to spread out and look and still have a useful fleet to send to trouble spots. I’m afraid, unless we get lucky and some intelligence comes our way suggesting an attack on Cambridge, they�
��re on their own, in the short term at least. We’re playing catch up, and quite frankly, I don’t like it. Now, one of the upgrades your ship will be receiving is a shield modification so that your Shields will automatically come up in stages as you exit Jump. During your recent engagement, they would not have been at full strength when the first missiles hit, but our analysts consider they would have held up well enough that you would have sustained a lot less damage.”

  Cambridge Naval Headquarters

  Henry sat at his desk looking over the endless reports he’d been receiving. The munitions manufacturing rate was improving as the longer lead time items began arriving, and the secret storage depots were being filled as fast as completed munitions could be shipped to them. By then, there were six in total, and they were being loaded two at a time. All the System’s ships had a full load out of weapons, and there were pairs of Cobras on the other side of each of the two Jump-Points. Henry’s mind wandered to his protege, Sonya Nicholson. The woman was as happy as a pig in muck out there on her Cruiser. Henry couldn’t blame her, he wanted to be in space himself, but his preference was for the ship to be a Destroyer, they were a much tougher nut to crack, and he knew how to use one.

  There was a knock on the door, and Ensign Wheeler poked his nose in to report on the progress of the supply base construction activities that he and his two compatriots were managing. Henry had to admit, these three young Officers had really risen to the challenge. If they only had another few months seniority, Henry would’ve been able to promote them but they still needed a little more seasoning, or so the regulations thought. Never mind, the lack of seniority didn’t seem to be holding these three young men back at all, so Henry made sure their records had glowing performance appraisals.