“Thank you, Sir. I don’t think I deserve as much credit as you give me. I didn’t do all the job, not by a long shot. Without the people, the crews in our ships, I couldn’t have done anything.”
“You, Commander Gordon, are far too modest. The crews of those ships believe in you. When you arrived back in the System, they were a beaten force. You re-energized them, and with that, they took the fight back to the enemy. By the deity Commander, a Pirate, captured by you at Lahoshar is now a hero on Cambridge. He saved your Presidents life.”
Colin saw Henry nodding and asked, “Dave Bach?”
“Yes, it was. Mr Bach was critically wounded at the time, but the surgeons say he’ll make a full recovery. Apparently, he’s asking for Julia, but nobody knows where to find her.”
When Colin looked in Henry’s direction, Henry winked so Colin said, “I know where she is Sir. At least I know where I expect her to be. With your permission, I’ll go retrieve the girl after this meeting is over.”
“You have it, but you will be taking security with you. Commodore, I think a platoon of your Marines should do it.”
“Marines? I’ve never heard of any Marines.”
Henry replied, “Colin, this is highly classified. We have a small cadre of highly enhanced Troops that we’ve been slowly growing over the last five years. These people are the elite among the Federation forces. They’re faster and tougher than anybody else and more highly skilled. As it happens, I agree with the Admiral. These people will protect you like nobody else can. They will go with you, we cannot afford to lose you.”
“Very well, Sir.”
Cambridge
Colin stepped out of the shuttle to find a familiar looking Lieutenant waiting for him. The man wore a uniform that Colin hadn’t seen before. The uniform almost seemed to make the man blend into the background. As he moved, the patterns on the uniform changed subtly as well.
The Lieutenant said, “Welcome back Commander. I’m Lieutenant Stark. I’ll be in charge of your escort. We’ll be taking a troop shuttle over to wherever you want to go. Before we leave, though, there are a couple of people you need to talk to and then we need to get you into some of our equipment. I’m told your ground combat skills are reasonable, so we’ll be going in loaded for bear. There are still quite a few Pirates running loose around the planet.”
“Lead the way Lieutenant. Is there a secure location where I can have a quiet word with you?”
“This way, Sir.”
When they were secure, Colin said, “If I may make a suggestion Lieutenant, and forgive me if you’ve already done so, but it might be worthwhile sending people to my home to secure the surrounds before we arrive. I don’t think your people are likely to find our missing people, but the terrain above my house is quite rugged, so if there are any Pirates around my house, they may be hiding up there. I’ll need to go into my house to find the people we want.”
Stark nodded and led Colin off to see Dave. What Colin didn’t know was that Stark was giving the order for three-quarters of his team to head out to Colin’s house and secure the environs as the two men walked. When they arrived in Dave’s room, Keg was sitting beside the bed while Dave lay there, apparently high on the pain blockers, his eyes drifting in and out of focus, as he asked for Julia. When Colin entered the room, Keg jumped to his feet and braced to attention. Colin waved him back to his chair.
When he was sitting again, Colin asked, “How is he?”
“He’s getting better Commander. At least, the doctors say he is. He needs Julia, but we can’t find her, or my brother and two sisters. I’m worried about them all.”
“So, your siblings were with Julia, were they?”
“Yes, Sir. Julia said she had an excellent secure location for them all to hide in. She told me you knew about it, but she wasn’t allowed to tell anyone where it was unless they would be in there with her. You do know where they don't you?”
“Well, I know where they should be. If Julia took them where she should have, we'd have them back soon, I promise.”
Colin left with Stark to be outfitted with the same light body armour that Stark was wearing. When everything was ready, Colin boarded a shuttle with some of Stark’s team and Stark himself. The trip to Colin’s house only took minutes then the shuttle settled onto the road in front, causing considerable damage because it was too heavy for the paving.
Some of Starks people exited the shuttle and entered the house to secure it. Ten minutes later Colin entered his house, feeling pissed at the wanton destruction someone had done when they looted it. He went down to the basement and checked each room there, checking that all the windows would open and close. Stark, who was with him, found this curious but made no comment. Then Colin went into what was his office and plugged a device into a small jack in the wall.
Moments later, a female voice issued from the device, asking, “Is that you Colin?”
Colin removed his helmet then replied, “Yes, it is Julia. We have troops here to help us and transport in to Harmon. It’s safe to come out now.”
“We’ll be out in a few minutes, as soon as I can open up.”
Up on the hill above Colin’s house, one of Starks fire teams were carefully stalking a small party of suspicious looking people. Whoever they were, seemed to be lugging something quite heavy into position.
A few minutes after talking to Colin, Julia emerged from the cellar with the other people who’d sheltered with her in the refuge. All appeared safe and well, so Colin concluded the money he’d spent supplying the room was money well spent.
He asked, “Have you secured everything down there?”
Julia nodded so Colin turned to Stark and said, “This is it, we can go back now.”
Stark led the group back to the shuttle for the trip back to Harmon.
Up above Colin’s house, the Marine fire team had worked their way into position and realized the people they were stalking had a High-Velocity Missile (HVM) capable of blowing the shuttle out of the sky if it launched. They sent a signal to the Lieutenant telling him what they were seeing. The missile was already set up ready, and there were no guarantees that even killing all the Alliance people would allow the shuttle to safely depart, not if the HVM was set to auto fire. Worse, another one of the teams could see a reasonable sized force working their way up through the town.
When Stark told Colin what was going on, Colin thought for a few moments then asked to speak to the pilot. Truthfully, Colin wanted to fly the profile himself but knew that wasn’t appropriate. Colin gave his instructions, the pilot nodding as he listened. When everyone understood what needed to be done, Colin returned to the passenger cabin to make sure everybody was adequately strapped in.
The entire plan required the shuttle to get out of the line of site of the weapon before the missile could reach it. The shuttle thrusters fired and took the weight off the landing gear then hovered while the landing gear retracted. Then the crew fired the mains, driving the shuttle forward as they unloaded a curtain of flares, chaff, and every other countermeasure they had. The HVM fired just as the shuttle reached the cliff and plummeted toward the sea below. The HVM only had a tenuous lock on the shuttle anyway so when the shuttle dropped below the cliff, the weapon streaked by overhead and out to sea. Meanwhile, the shuttle turned and headed along the coastline below the cliff for twenty kilometres before turning out to sea and gaining altitude. The Pirates on the hill died in a hail of bullets from the Marines as soon as they saw they had failed. Those approaching through the town were soon hemmed in by militia troops. Many of them died in the ensuing firefight, but a small number survived, only to be tried and executed months later.
Chapter 21
The aftermath of the invasion of Cambridge was profound. The people of Cambridge had been becoming complacent, thinking themselves secure with their Cobras and Taipans to defend themselves. After the invasion, the Government vowed, never again would they allow something like this to happen. Of course, Commander Colin Gordon
became a hero once again, but this time, he wasn’t alone. The surviving crews from the System Defence were all given the adulation they deserved. Medals were struck and handed out to all the brave participants. The President’s popularity went up when somebody leaked that he’d been effectively on the front line.
After consulting with the judiciary, and the Navy on Cambridge, President Constantin pardoned Dave Bach as a reward for his extraordinary and selfless service. Soon after, the Navy sent Dave to Officer candidate school when they recognized his leadership abilities. Kegs family adopted Julia, because she alone, had saved ten other people who had nowhere else to go. Commodore Sonya Nicholson was given her first star as was Henry Fraser while Colin was promoted to Commodore along with Siobhan Fraser who held things together after her husband was wounded in action.
Too many people died in this war, too many had disappeared probably taken as slaves and perhaps killed when the ships they were held on were destroyed. The hospitals were filled to capacity with the people who were injured. When Admiral Dalkasan eventually returned to Sankarah, he left half his task force at Cambridge to bolster its defenses while it rebuilt. There were quite a few human troops among the Pirates, some who knew no better because they were born as slaves and had no other life to base a judgement, others who acted out of fear for what their masters would do to them if they didn’t follow orders.
Colin handed over command of FNS Theseus to Lieutenant Commander Sam Harland. Colin knew he needed a break from all the fighting anyway and his next posting was to help define the capabilities of the new Destroyer and Carrier class ships that Cambridge had been contracted to design. This was a challenge Colin was relishing. In the meantime, he went back to his house to survey the damage, only to find teams of people from the local community helping Julia to restore it. When Colin offered, nobody would accept any money for their efforts. They all told him that this was their gift to him, their way of thanking him for all he’d done to save them. Much of the material for the seven Freighters Colin captured in FR2-955E was shuttled down to Cambridge to help in the rebuilding efforts while the insurance companies paid out a lot of money for the recovery of the ships. After talking to the Captains of the ships involved, half the money for the recovered ships was placed into a trust to help the people of Cambridge, the other half was evenly distributed among the crews of all six ships.
Construction of a second and third orbital shipyard commenced, and the existing one was enlarged so more ships could be built at the same time. Some months later, workers began arriving as the construction of the Cobras and Taipans ordered by the Federation began to ramp up. That order alone, comprised four years work at the current level of Manning, even with the hefty amount of automation used in the construction phase.
The End
*****
Chapter 22
Colin Gordon will return in Star Strike, Book Three of the Star Man Series.
If you’ve read this story, please leave a review. The feedback can only help me improve my writing.
Other books by the same author:
Star Bourne, Book One of the Star Man Series
Star Man 2: Star Rise Page 42