Return to Haven (Empire Rising Book 3)

by D. J. Holmes

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Suzanna said, reaching out and placing her hand on Mallory’s arm. “But on the bright side, it means you are available. Endeavour’s First Lieutenant would be quite a catch on Haven. Especially after you have beaten the Indians. The women would be lining up for you. And you know, I’m sure one of the richer families on Haven would love to marry into the British nobility. If James and I had to get married for political reasons, there is no reason why you shouldn’t too.

  “What type of women do you like?” Suzanna followed up. “I’m sure I can think of a few of my friends who would be perfect for you.”

  “I, eh, ah, I’m not sure,” Mallory stumbled.

  “Don’t be silly,” Suzanna said. “I’m sure you know full well what you like. Maybe it is Haven that doesn’t tickle your fancy? You know, as the latest Duchess to join the British nobility I have been mingling with a lot of young noblewomen, maybe I could set you up with someone here on Earth?”

  “That’s enough of that,” James said, rescuing his First Lieutenant from his wife. He could see by the look in Suzanna’s eyes that she was having too much fun tormenting Mallory. “I came to see how the re-provisioning is going.”

  “It will be done within the hour Sir,” Mallory responded, relieved to be talking about something else.

  “Good,” James said. “We already have our orders. We will be rendezvousing with Rear Admiral Rooke’s Fast Reaction Fleet in orbit over Mars. After that we will be heading into Indian space.”

  “We’re not taking the Gift to Haven?” Mallory asked.

  “Not right away,” James said. “That is all I’m permitted to reveal at the moment.”

  “I think I understand Sir,” Mallory said as he thought about what Rooke’s mission might be.

  “Suzanna and I will be dining in my dining room in two hours, I was going to invite all the senior officers to join us. After that we will be departing for Mars,” James explained.

  “Very good Sir,” Mallory said. “I’ll pass the word along.”

  “We will retire until then,” James responded. “I’m sure you can finish overseeing the final provisions.”

  “Aye Sir,” Mallory replied.

  When they got to James’ quarters his steward, Fox, already had two cups of coffee waiting for them. “So,” Suzanna said. “Tell me about your final meeting with your uncle. How are his plans progressing?”

  “Everything is in place,” James said. “The ships my uncle sent for from our colonies arrived just before Endeavour got back. They have been drilling with Blackwood’s fleet since then. I suspect Blackwood will be departing for Indian space within the next couple of days. After that it is up to him. He will have complete operational freedom to harass the Indians as he sees fit.”

  “Do you think your uncle’s plan will work?” Suzanna asked.

  “It should,” James said. “The Indians have already removed some of their ships from Haven after the invasion. Blackwood has enough ships to take Haven if we went straight there through the Gift. He wouldn’t be able to hold it though. That’s where my uncle’s plan will come in. If Blackwood can draw the Indian fleet to the edge of their territory, we can run back to the Alpha system and be in orbit for a couple of weeks before they could hope to come and engage us. With reinforcements from the home fleet, the Indians might realize they have been beat and give up. Though such level headedness is unlikely.

  “Will Endeavour be in the thick of the fighting?” Suzanna asked, changing the subject to the real question on her mind.

  “I imagine so,” James answered, not wanting to lie to his wife. “She is a raiding cruiser after all. She was designed to operate behind enemy lines. I suspect Rooke will want to use her to disrupt Indian shipping around their colonies.”

  “Well, you will just have to promise to stay safe,” Suzanna said as she came over and sat on his lap. “You will break a lot of hearts back on Haven if you don’t make it there in one piece to liberate everyone from the Indians.”

  “Just on Haven?” James asked coyly.

  “Well maybe one or two here as well,” Suzanna said as she leaned in to kiss him.

  *

  “Do you think she will work out for us?” Fairfax asked the two other men in Admiral Somerville’s office. They were all standing by the observation window watching Endeavour detach from Vulcan and boost out of orbit. On the observation deck, just above where Endeavour had been docked, Duchess Somerville was plainly visible as she stood and watched her husband’s ship depart.

  “She has a genuine desire to help her people,” King Edward said. “I’m not saying she is above seeking after her own political power. But she will use that power for their good. As long as we don’t seek to take advantage of the people of Haven, I think she will be on our side. She knows we are the best chance they have.”

  “For now we are,” Fairfax said. “But after British lives have been spent to buy their freedom, how long will she or her people continue to think that? They are going to have to get used to the idea that we are coming to stay. We will have paid a price in blood for the privilege.”

  “She knows that we have long term plans for her people and her planet. She didn’t get into bed with us blindly,” Admiral Somerville said. “It sounds more like this Pennington could be a problem. If she continues to successfully lead the resistance against the Indian military she will have a lot of political capital to spend once order is restored. She could become a real thorn in our side.”

  “That is why we need Duchess Somerville,” King Edward said. “She will be our counterweight to any Havenite popular support for total independence. She has joined herself to us and look how well she has done out of it. She is a Duchess now, and a rich one to boot.”

  “We will need to make sure James is at the forefront of the liberation effort all the same,” Fairfax said. “We need the people of Haven to know who saved them.”

  “Don’t worry,” Somerville said. “Admiral Cunningham knows what he is about. When his fleet makes its move, James will be front and center.”

  “Good,” Fairfax said.

  “How are the public taking to the latest visuals James brought back from Haven?” Somerville asked to change the subject. He had grown fond of his nephew’s wife and had entertained her at his own residence more than once in the weeks Endeavour had been away. She was fast becoming one of the family. He didn’t like talking about her as a political pawn any more than he did his nephew.

  “Very well,” Fairfax said. “There has been outrage at what the Indians have done to a peaceful planet. We are running the latest images alongside the visuals of what Liberty looked like the first time Captain Somerville visited the planet. After the court martial and the emergency declaration of war, support for intervention is almost as high as it was after the Duchess’ speech to parliament.”

  “Then you will be announcing the decision to send in the Fast Reaction Fleet soon?” Somerville said.

  “Yes,” Fairfax said. “If Rear Admiral Rooke is ready to depart, then I will announce our plans later today. You can draft your final orders for him and send them once we are done here. He can depart as soon as I go public.”

  “I just received his final readiness report,” Admiral Somerville said. “As soon as Endeavour rendezvous with Rooke’s fleet they will be ready to break orbit.”

  “Good,” King Edward said. “The sooner this begins the better. We won’t have popular support for this war forever. Especially if the initial stages of your plan work out as expected. You do insist on going forward with it?” Edward asked, not for the first time.

  “I think it is the best chance we have,” Somerville said. “If we want this war to end quickly then we need to present the Indians with a situation they can’t win. That is only going to work if they give us enough time around Haven to fortify it. And that is only going to happen if we can draw their fleet away from Haven and give them a victory.”

  “And you think you can hold public opini
on in our favor even if we lose the first round of the war?” Edward asked Fairfax.

  “Yes,” Fairfax said. “For a while at least. That is all we will need. Even if support for intervention wavers after Blackwood returns, it will be to late. By then Cunningham will be on the move.”

  “Very well,” Edward said. “Then we go forward. If this works, we will be the undisputed power of our area of space. We may even come to rival the Americans in time.”

  “I am sure they will love that,” Somerville said, chuckling.

  Epilogue

  Prime Minister’s Residence, New Delhi, India.

  “I have just received word from our ships stationed at Mars, the British fleet has broken orbit,” Admiral Kapoor said as he walked into the Indian Prime Minister’s office.

  “Then it has begun,” Prime Minister Slaman Devgan said. “I hoped it wouldn’t come to this.”

  “As did we all,” Kapoor said. “That damn woman riled the British up. There was no way we could have factored her presence into our plans.”

  “I know that,” Devgan said. “But that won’t matter if the British manage to beat us. Parliament will have me impeached within a week if that happens.”

  “That’s a long way off yet,” Kapoor responded. “Admiral Khan should be able to stop the British from getting to Haven. It will likely be a costly battle, but it is one we can win.”

  “Can we?” Devgan asked. “The British have proven they can do the impossible. I still haven’t heard a reasonable explanation of how they got images of our invasion of Haven back to Earth so quickly. We just heard from the invasion force yesterday.”

  “The visuals the British have are troubling I agree,” Kapoor said. “It is likely the British had a ship hiding in the Haven system when Admiral Kumar attacked it. She must have missed the British ship, just like she let Captain Somerville’s ship slip past her.”

  “And lost us some vital warships to boot,” Devgan jumped in. “You said we could take Haven without any losses.”

  “I predicted we would take Haven without any losses if their defenses were as our scouts indicated,” Kapoor corrected. “If was the critical word. Clearly the Havenites had a trick or two up their sleeves Kapoor hadn’t counted on. However, the losses she suffered to that damned British ship are inexcusable.

  “If it wasn’t so difficult to send out a replacement commander, and her latest report wasn’t so positive, she would already be removed from duty. At least now she largely has the planet under her control.”

  “Largely,” Devgan said. “And just what does that mean? Her report was a touch vaguer than I would have liked.”

  Kapoor bit back a curse. He had been hoping Devgan hadn’t picked up on Kumar’s careful choice of words. He had already sent a messenger freighter back to Haven demanding a clarification on how the occupation was going. He didn’t want to give his Prime Minister any bad news before he had too.

  “You may be right Sir,” Kapoor said. “Hopefully Kumar’s next update will go into more detail.”

  “And you predict that Admiral Khan can stop the British?” Devgan said. “Just what ifs are in that statement?”

  “Nothing is certain in war Prime Minister,” Kapoor answered. “I have told you as much before. I laid out all the risks to you before we set off down this path. We always knew that if the British chose to openly oppose our move on Haven, then the outcome would not be certain.”

  “I know, I know,” Devgan said. “But now that it is happening I can’t help second guessing myself. This will make or break our colonial ambitions. Either we defeat the British and put a curb on their expansion. Or they beat us and box us in, leaving us nowhere to go. We have been a second rate power for too long. The philosophies of our past have hampered us for centuries. Our people may not see if fully yet, but if we are going to ensure the Indian Star Republic endures for many more centuries, we need to be able to be aggressive when the opportunity presents itself. Yet, if we cannot beat the British now, when they are in such a weak state, we never will.”

  “We will just have to beat them,” Kapoor said. “Our people may not see the need for territorial expansion, but my Captains do. They all know the importance of Haven and what it means for our future. I know they can beat the British if we give them the chance.

  “Well we are about to find out,” Devgan replied. “Have you sent a warning to Khan that the British are on their way?”

  “Yes,” Kapoor answered. “A messenger freighter is already on its way to our colonies. It should give Khan at least a couple of days to prepare for the British. I have ordered him to meet them in the Aror system. I don’t want the British ships slipping past him into our colonies.”

  “Good,” Devgan said. “We can’t afford to rebuild our infrastructure in the colonies. We have spent too much of our recent budget expanding your fleet.

  “Speaking of which,” Devgan continued. “I have been reviewing Home Fleet. Surely there are more ships you could send to reinforce Khan’s fleet?”

  “I am working on it,” Kapoor said. “I have already sent Khan all the ships I can. Many of the ships in Home Fleet haven’t been out of the system in over a decade. We are scrambling to get them ready to depart. The main hold up is our final battlecruiser, Centaur. She needed her shift drive replaced. As soon as the repair work is finished, I will be dispatching her to New Delhi. She may be too late for the first battle with the British, but if we lose that, she can meet up with the survivors and reinforce Admiral Kumar. With two fully functional battlecruisers she should be able to beat back the British, even if they beat Khan.”

  “When she is ready I want you to take command of Home Fleet,” Devgan said.

  “Me?” Kapoor asked in shock. “But my place is here.”

  “Your place is where I send you,” Devgan said raising his voice. “My neck is on the line here. It is time you risked something as well. Besides,” Devgan said, calming down. “You know how important this is. If we lose the first battle we cannot afford to lose any others. It will be your job to ensure the British do not defeat us, for if they do, your life will be on the line just as much as mine.”

  “And what if Admiral Khan has defeated the British before I get there?” Kapoor asked.

  “Then go on the offensive, attack the British colonies. You aren’t to take any risks, but if you can hurt them, then the British are much more likely to come to the peace table ready to accept our claims on Haven.”

  “I understand,” Kapoor said. “If you don’t mind, I will retire. If I am going to take command of Home Fleet I have a lot of arrangements to make.”

  “You may go,” Devgan said. “Just make sure you don’t fail me.”

  The End

  You can follow James, Gupta and all the others in the next book in the Empire Rising series where the dispute over Haven will break out into full scale war – coming early 2017.

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