Royce nodded, clearly not sure what else he could say or do in this situation.
Bailey went on to add, “Look, son. You and I know this is going to be a tough war we now find ourselves in. In any war, they need heroes, people to believe in. Right now, that hero, that person to believe in, is you. You’ve seen the elephant and survived. Hell, you’ve survived more than one engagement with these beasts. People need to know they can be defeated, that we can win this war, and you represent that. So I’m going to need you to play your part once this award ceremony is done with, OK?”
The Delta nodded as he realized the depth of what was being foisted upon him.
For the next half hour, the officers and enlisted people in Bailey’s office talked for a bit more, catching each other up on what had gone on in New Eden and back here on Earth. A lot had changed in the few months they had been gone. A lot more was about to change.
*******
A day after Captain Hunt and his remaining crew members arrived at the station, Admiral Bailey was still trying to digest all the information they had brought back with them. He felt immense information overload. At the same time, he needed to have a better understanding of it all in order to be prepared to meet with the President tomorrow for Lieutenant Royce’s medal ceremony. She was going to ask some tough questions, and he owed it to her to have some answers.
This star map changes everything…but how do we best exploit this? How can we stand against these beasts when we don’t know how big their empire is, how many ships they have, or where their home systems are?
A knock at the door snapped him out of his thoughts. Looking up, Admiral Bailey saw Captain Hunt outside waiting to speak with him. At that exact moment, the PA function in his neurolink reminded him, Time for your meeting with Captain Miles Hunt, 0900 hours.
He made a mental note to set his meeting reminders for twenty minutes before upcoming meetings instead of the time they started. Though he was the fleet admiral, he was quite possibly the least adept at using this new NL technology. It might have had something to do with the fact that he had been a bit older when he’d received the implant.
Admiral Bailey waved Hunt in and told his aide he wanted to be left alone for the time being. The two of them walked over to a pair of chairs and took a seat. Bailey made sure the electronic jamming equipment was turned on before he finally spoke.
“Miles, thank you for meeting with me,” Bailey began. “I truly wish we were meeting under better circumstances. No one likes to lose a ship in combat, but I doubt you’ll be the last ship captain to experience this. I’ve read over the notes from Admiral Halsey. I think she’s right about us needing to launch a series of exploration missions throughout the Rhea system to find this stargate.
“However, I’ll be frank, Miles, I don’t know how we can do it right now. We’re stretched thin,” Admiral Bailey said bluntly. He’d known Hunt now for twenty years, so he felt he could be straight with the man even if he was a ship captain. The two had decades of history together.
Hunt leaned forward. “Admiral—”
“It’s just the two of us, Miles,” Bailey interrupted. “Call me Chester.”
Hunt nodded. “Chester, I’ve been gone for a few months. It seems like each time I leave Earth and return, something major has happened while I was gone. I can’t keep up with everything going on in Sol. I’m focused on what’s going on in the frontier. Right now, we need ships, sir, no way around it.”
Sitting back in his chair, Admiral Bailey let out an audible sigh of frustration. “This isn’t how I thought things would turn out, Miles. When we first sent you to the Rhea system, I truly thought we’d found a new Earth—a new home for our country. Now…I feel like we’ve opened Pandora’s box, and something hideous has crawled out of it and I don’t know what to do.”
Hunt seemed rather surprised to hear him admit this. Now he finally sees that I’m just as unsure about things as he is, Admiral Bailey thought. He’d been under a great deal of stress for some time, and he didn’t have a lot of people he could talk to about it—at least not honestly.
“Chester, we’ve been friends for a long time,” Hunt said. “You’ve got a tough job, but I can’t think of anyone more suited to lead our people right now than you.” He spoke with genuine respect.
Admiral Bailey smiled at his confidence in him. “Well, the President is the real leader. I just guide her where to go, but she ultimately makes the decisions.”
He paused for a second before adding, “I envy you, Miles. You get to travel the stars. Hell, you’ve set foot on a whole new planet. I’ve been stuck wading through more political red tape than I care to think about. Things are changing and shifting so fast around here it would make your head spin if it wasn’t attached to you.”
Leaning forward, Hunt prodded, “What’s going on, Chester? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this concerned or out of your depth.”
Bailey chuckled. “Where to even begin, Miles? OK, here’s one for you. The TPA isn’t sure if they want to get more involved in this fight. There are some rumors that they’re abandoning Earth for Alpha Centauri—going to leave Sol altogether and the entire defense of it to us—”
“What? They can’t do that!” Hunt interrupted angrily. “We need their help to defeat the Zodarks. We need their shipyards, their industrial capability, their soldiers and sailors to help us defend Sol. Are you sure this isn’t some sort of disinformation or rumor mill crap?”
Bailey shook his head. “I wish it were a bad rumor. About a week ago, we approached the Chairman in Beijing about the idea of forming a unity government here on Earth: a unified government and military to fight the Zodarks. I honestly thought they’d jump at the opportunity, especially since the Chairman would effectively become the new head of the government while the President would become the Defense Minister. He’d focus on unifying the world and the global economy while she worked with me on defending Sol and building the tools of war needed to win this fight.”
“So, what happened? They didn’t go for it?” Hunt asked, with a look of concern on his face.
Bailey nodded. “That’s exactly what they did. They rejected it,” he confirmed. “Despite his rejection, the Chairman reiterated their support for the war. However, after the meeting, my TPA counterpart told me members within the government were secretly making alternate plans. They were moving forward with their campaign to relocate their government to Alpha Centauri.”
Hunt had a dumbfounded look on his face, and he didn’t say anything for a minute.
Bailey went on to add, “Admiral Zheng assures me their shipyards are still going to produce warships for our joint fleet, but twenty-five percent of the new ships being built are going to be relocated to the Centaurus system. They’re going to build a new base and home world there in case things don’t turn out all right here on Earth.”
Hunt shook his head in disbelief, then suddenly seemed to have an idea. “Chester, this might actually present us with an opportunity, then.”
Bailey furrowed his brow. “How so? What are you thinking, Miles?”
“If the TPA government really is going to abandon Earth, then it may allow us to seize complete control of things here,” Hunt insisted. “We can then place the entire world on a war footing to meet the demands to build the ships and fleet we need. If we can convince those left behind that they should join us and abandon the government that’s abandoning them, we might be able to make this work.”
Admiral Bailey sat back and ran some of the scenarios over in his head, trying to figure out if and how they could make it all work. Finally, he responded. “Miles, this is an interesting idea, and I’m not saying I’m completely against it. It very well might be the path we pursue, but we’re probably years away from pulling something like that off. The TPA is still more than a few years away from having a decent fleet built to protect Alpha Centauri. Right now, they can only transport a million or so people a month to the new world, so it’s going to take them time
to get the needed industries built on Alpha to make it a fully self-sufficient place before they can abandon Earth. I fear the battle for Sol and New Eden will have already been decided by the time the TPA opts to abandon Earth if they fully choose to do so.”
“Then we need to win this war and convince them to stay and fight with us, Chester,” Hunt insisted. “We can’t let them abandon Sol or even think that’s a possibility.”
“Believe me, no one is giving up the fight just yet,” Bailey replied, placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Admiral Zheng does not strike me as the kind of man who will cut and run. The Chairman might, but not Admiral Zheng. He’ll do what he can to keep the TPA in the fight.”
Hunt thought about that for a moment, then nodded in acceptance. “OK, I trust you, sir. So, when do I get another ship?”
Bailey just grinned.
Chapter Eight
Full Mobilization
John Glenn Orbital Station
Musk Industries
“How fast is this new ship going to be?” Captain Hunt asked the lead engineer as he swiped past a couple of pages on the tablet containing more specifics on the ship.
The Musk Industries rep replied, “Three times the speed of the Rook and the Voyager. It’s a fast little bastard—perfect for either reconnaissance or hit-and-run operations against the Zodarks, just as Space Command requested.”
“What’s its armament like?” Hunt asked, continuing to survey the newest warship the shipbuilders had come up with.
Smiling, the man brought up a schematic of the ship on the holographic display for them to look at more closely. “We took apart the few dozen working plasma torpedoes you brought back and reverse engineered them with the help of the Sumerians. Now that we have a steady supply of Morean, we’re building them ourselves now. Apparently, the Morean is a key component in the conversion process from a regular torpedo to a superheated plasma weapon.”
The rep continued, “We took the liberty of outfitting the new raider ships with them for some added punch. The ships are still small, so they can only carry twenty-four of them. They’ll be fired from one of six forward torpedo tubes and two aft tubes, giving the ship three shots from each tube. Now, we’ve also equipped the ship with ten forward-facing Havoc missile launchers. Each launcher has a rotating three-missile magazine, so the ship will only be able to fire off a total of thirty missiles. The missiles can either be equipped with conventional HE warheads or variable-yield nuclear warheads, depending on the missile. The missiles will be operating on a rotary-style magazine, so they can be swapped out fairly easily to meet the mission requirements at the time of engagement. I think this gives the ship a lot of versatility and punching power well above its size.”
Hunt let out a soft whistle as the engineer went over the weapons complement. He was impressed with what they’d been able to pack into this little ship.
“What about magrails?” Hunt asked. “We know those are the most effective weapons we have against the Zodarks, but I don’t see any on here.”
The engineer nodded. “We thought about that, Captain. We really did. However, the raider ship can’t support any large-caliber magrails, not like what you had on the Rook or the Voyager. First, the recoil of the weapon is too much for this size of a ship to handle. Second, we just don’t have the room for them. We gave the raider ships a single twin-barrel, five-inch magrail turret, but this is really meant for taking on smaller warships or in support of defending a larger warship against fighters. The five-inch shells can easily be configured with proximity fuses to help deal with those Zodark fighters. We also added six CIWS systems for close-in point defense weapons. The raider ships don’t have a lot of armor on them because their primary mission is reconnaissance, but you could conceivably use them as picket ships for some of the larger warships if it came down to it.”
“You bring up a good point about the need for picket ships,” Hunt acknowledged. “Having fought against those enemy fighters, we’re going to need some kind of ship like that for the larger warships. I’m not sure if it’s possible, but if we can create another variant of this ship or maybe a larger version of it that’s more heavily armored and equipped with two or three times the number of CIWS systems and five-inch guns, then we may be able to intercept more of those fighters and plasma torpedoes before they have a chance to hit our capital ships. We would need to place these ships further away from the Voyager and some of the larger warships.”
The engineering rep nodded and scribbled down some notes on his tablet. “That’s a good idea, Captain. Let me work with my team and see what we can come up with. If you like our initial specs, then we can flesh out more of the details to see if Space Command would like us to move forward with it.”
Hunt nodded in approval. “That sounds good; I know we’d be very interested in looking at them. But back to this ship, I must say, I’m impressed with what your team came up with. I think we have to keep in mind that this raider ship wasn’t designed to be the battlewagons we need. This ship is supposed to be the eyes and ears of the fleet, much like a submarine was during the last century.” He crossed his arms and smiled. “So, my next question is, how fast can you start cranking them out?”
The engineers nodded and smiled at this question. “Well, this warship is a lot less complicated than the ones we’ve been building. It’s also much smaller, for a crew of only fifty-two. If Space Command is ready to move forward with these specs, then we can start work on them right away. From start to finish, the ship should take no more than six weeks to complete.”
Hunt shook his head in disbelief. “Six weeks? How the heck are you able to build them so fast?”
Now it was the engineer’s turn to smile. “Let’s just say our Sumerian allies have shared a lot of new technology and starship-building methods. As a matter of fact, they’ve helped us speed up our entire ship production by as much as three hundred percent. Plus, with the steady supplies of Trimar and Morean from New Eden, we’re starting to become flush with the resources we need.”
Captain Hunt took a deep breath in for a moment before letting it out. Since his return from New Eden two months ago, Admiral Bailey had made him the point man for Space Command’s new ship procurement and design program. Hunt was still working under another admiral, but Hunt was the one with the experience fighting the Zodarks, so what he said would work or wouldn’t work was usually implemented in any ship designs with the admiral’s full support and blessing—at least, until his own warship was completed and he transferred out to take command of it.
“OK, gentlemen, the Viper-class frigates are approved. We need one hundred and ten of these raider ships built as soon as possible,” Hunt finally said.
The jaws of the engineers practically hit the floor when he told them how many Space Command was requesting.
Hunt ignored the looks of surprise. “Can you give me a timeline for when you’ll be able to have them completed?” he asked.
The two engineers looked at each other and then talked for a few minutes before turning back to him. “Eight to twelve months for the entire lot; we need at least that much time.”
Hunt nodded, then took the tablet from them. He wrote a few things down on it and then signed it. “Done. Now, please hurry, gentlemen, and get them built. You have no idea how important these ships are going to be.”
With his immediate business for the morning done, Hunt made his way through the promenade of the John Glenn Orbital Station to the main walkway. Looking around, he eventually found the person he was looking for.
Hunt walked up to the beautiful woman who had her back to him, reached his arms around her and gave her a quick squeeze as he leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Hello, my love. How are you doing today?”
Lilly, his wife, turned around and gave him a quick kiss. “Much better now that my Prince Charming is here. Are you ready for some lunch?”
Since Hunt was without a ship, he was finally able to see his wife every day. He’d been gone
so much these last few years, and he’d nearly died several times. He wanted to soak up as much time with his bride as he could.
“I sure am, I’m famished,” Hunt replied good-naturedly. The two of them walked over to the Spacers Lounge and got a seat.
“Are Ethan and Piper going to be able to make it for Christmas?” Hunt asked, hoping he’d get a chance to see his two kids in person soon. His son had just completed his basic officer course and was preparing to receive his first assignment with Space Command while his daughter was in her junior year at the naval academy.
Lilly’s eyes lit up at the mention of their children.
They aren’t so little anymore, but I think they will always be little in her eyes, thought Hunt.
“As a matter of fact, yes,” Lilly replied. “Ethan was able to get a few days of leave while he awaits his next assignment. Piper also managed to get permission to leave Earth to come see you here. Apparently, having a famous ship captain for a father has its perks.” Lilly winked.
Hunt had been awarded the Medal of Honor the same day as Brian Royce. The PR department was promoting him and the Delta operator as the faces of victory against the Zodarks. He understood the need for heroes, but he sure didn’t feel like one. He’d lost hundreds of people and his ship.
Lilly squeezed Hunt’s hand when she saw him staring off blankly at the mention of his newfound fame. “I think this is going to be the first time in three or four years we’ll all be together for Christmas. I’m so excited, Miles—a real family Christmas.”
Their waiter came and took their orders and then left them alone to talk for a bit. He brought them some waters and then disappeared while their food was prepared.
“You know, Ethan won’t ask you this, but he really wants to be stationed with you,” Lilly said. “He wants an assignment on your new ship.”
Hunt smiled. Of course he does. Hunt was going to be taking command of Earth’s largest, most powerful warship soon. Every officer and enlisted person in the fleet wanted an assignment on this ship.
Into the Battle Page 11