“What about freeing the worlds in this sector as you did last time?” Telleck suggested. He knew that none of the worlds in this sector, other than the Carethians, possessed an advanced enough culture to help in the war effort.
“Not yet,” answered Hedon, shaking his head. “The Hocklyns took them back easily enough the last time. This time, I want us to be able to hold them.”
Telleck let out a deep sigh. “That will mean more type two battle stations and defensive satellites,” he said, knowing the Federation would be hard pressed to furnish enough to protect any slave worlds that they might free.
“The scouts must go deeper into the evil one's territory,” Grayseth announced in his powerful voice. “We must go to wherever they are; we cannot wait for them to come to us.”
“I fear you are correct,” responded Hedon, looking over at the large bear. “We know from captured records at Commodore Resmunt’s former fleet base where some of those bases might be. I will send the orders to the scouts to go deeper into Hocklyn territory.”
-
Later, after the meeting, Admiral Telleck walked with Grayseth through one of the large flight bays on the station. Numerous bear pilots were excitedly checking over the new fighters and bombers that had been brought by the Federation and the supply fleets.
“Your people are brave warriors,” Admiral Telleck commented as they paused to watch several bear mechanics working on an Anlon bomber. They seemed very knowledgeable about what they were doing.
“As are yours,” Grayseth responded. “Admiral Strong has been made an honorary member of my clan on Careth. He is held in very high esteem by my people.”
“Admiral Strong is a good admiral,” Telleck agreed.
He knew he'd made the right decision in the beginning promoting the young man. Telleck watched in amusement as a bear pilot came over to the mechanics and started to complain about something. The two mechanics seemed to become agitated and began gesturing toward the bomber with their hands. It reminded him so much of Human pilots making suggestions and demands to their own repair crews.
“Repairs have been completed to the station,” Grayseth continued as they begin walking once more. “We now have eight of the type two battle stations surrounding the station as well as a large number of the more powerful defense satellites and missile platforms. I have spoken to my government and we will start construction on a new and larger shipyard next week. In time, we will go out with you to combat the evil ones wherever they may be.”
“We have four of the large repair ships with us,” Telleck said with a thoughtful look upon his face. If the bears could build larger warships and form a fleet, it would give a tremendous boost to the war effort. “They can help in the construction.”
“They helped in building this one,” Grayseth responded as they entered a large passenger elevator, which took them up toward the command level of the station. “The new one will be much larger and more heavily defended.”
“How large?” asked Telleck, curiously. The station they were on was already considered to be large even by Federation standards.
“There will be six construction and ten repair bays,” Grayseth responded in an even voice. “The repair bays will be able to handle both Carethian and Federation warships.”
Telleck let out a whistle realizing the mammoth task the Carethians had set for themselves. The elevator came to a stop and they began walking toward the Command Center. “I'll contact my people back on Ceres and see if there is anything they can send to help with the construction. We have some spider-like robots that are very good at building things. They might be of use in building your new shipyard.”
“Robots?” spoke Grayseth, stopping to look at Admiral Telleck curiously. “Lieutenant Johnson once mentioned the construction robots used inside Ceres. She said they are not like the AIs.”
“The robots are controlled by Humans,” Telleck explained. “They are very useful in construction. They can perform many tasks and work almost nonstop. I think in this case their programming can be modified so that Carethians can issue construction orders. I believe you'll find them extremely useful.”
“If it will make construction go faster than I see no reason for us not to use these robots,” Grayseth replied. The sooner the new shipyard started building warships for his people the sooner they could take the war to the evil ones. “I will speak to my people about this.”
Admiral Telleck nodded. He did not mention that the construction robots were only used inside Ceres and at New Tellus; the rest of the Federation had never grown to accept them. Telleck suspected fear of the AIs was at the root of the problem. However, the construction robots only had very primitive cognitive abilities. They could never become a threat.
Reaching the Command Center, the two went over to the main command console. Since the arrival of the two new Federation fleets the female Carethians had been allowed to return to the station and go back to their duties. Malith was back at Communications and Karalle was back at her computer station. Admiral Telleck had been introduced to both and was deeply impressed by their knowledge of their respective positions.
“Have you a design for your new warships?” Telleck asked. He knew that due to the size of the average Carethian a Federation designed vessel was not practical.
“Yes,” Grayseth responded. “I have already turned the design over to some of your ship building engineers for them to study. It will be a medium cruiser class of eight hundred meters. We are also designing a battleship to act as a command craft. I have spoken to Admiral Streth and our new battleship will have to be constructed at New Tellus. We just don’t have the technology or construction facilities to build such a large ship.”
Admiral Telleck nodded. He wondered how that would go over with the Federation Council.
“We have a number of ore freighters inbound,” Malith reported to Colonel Malang, who had taken over the duties of Colonel Millburn, who had left for the Federation with Fourth Fleet.
Colonel Malang was a young woman of Chinese ancestry. She was twenty-eight years old with dark black hair. “Have them hold just outside the gravity well until a light cruiser can rendezvous with them, then they can continue on into the station,” she responded. Malang was still in the process of setting up regular convoys within the system that would be escorted by Federation light cruisers as a safety precaution.
Admiral Telleck nodded his head as he listened to the conversation. The Carethians had reactivated their mines on some of the moons and asteroids in the system; they would soon need the raw materials for construction. Unfortunately, they did not have a large number of ore freighters available to them and it would take time to build new ones.
“I will contact Fleet Admiral Johnson at New Tellus and see if she can find some additional ore freighters to send our way,” Telleck added as he turned to face Grayseth. He would rather see the Carethians constructing warships than spending precious time building ore freighters.
“That would be deeply appreciated,” Grayseth responded, pleased at the offer. “We are already constructing more small ships in our underground cities, but they will only be useful in helping to defend our system. They are too small to deploy on a long term mission.”
“I received a message from Senator Barnes yesterday,” added Telleck, recalling the surprising information it had contained. “He is one of the two Federation Senators that represents Ceres on the council. Two of our allies will soon be sending warships to help defend Careth. Their ships are currently being updated and should be arriving within the next two weeks.”
“Their help will be greatly appreciated,” Grayseth responded with a nod of his head. “We will make Careth a bastion of war against the evil ones. The more heavily defended it is the more ships of the evil ones we can destroy if they ever attack us here again.”
Telleck was pleased that the Kessels and the Darvonians were going to provide warships. It would lessen the burden on the Federation. He'd already decided that his exe
cutive officer, Kathryn Barnes, would be the fleet officer responsible for handling any problems that might occur with having five races in the same star system. Her father was the senior senator from Ceres so she well understood the importance of diplomacy. He knew she could be depended on to smooth out any misunderstandings that might occur due to cultural differences. He just hadn’t told her yet of her new job duties.
-
Hedon was in the officers' mess eating with Janice. The few crewmembers in the large room carefully kept a discreet distance between the admiral and themselves, allowing them some privacy.
“Everything seems to be going well,” Janice commented as she took a bite of her Caesar Salad.
“Much better than I expected,” Hedon responded with a smile. “Admiral Strong and Grayseth have done wonders preparing the Carethian system for war with the Hocklyns. In the four short weeks we've been here we have already repaired the damage to the station, brought the defense grid back up to full strength, and the Altons are helping with the radiation problems in the three cities that were nuked.”
“I am glad that the Altons are able to help the Carethians with the radiation problems,” Janice replied. She had been saddened when she learned that Careth had been hit by three Hocklyn nukes. She still found it hard to understand the reasoning for nuking civilian populations. However, the Hocklyns had done it numerous times in the past and would do it again in the future if they weren’t stopped.
“The Altons have assured the Carethians that there will be no trace of lingering radiation when they are through,” Hedon added, pleased with the effort by the Altons to help the Carethians. Admiral Cleeteus had instantly volunteered the service of his warships to remove the radiation as soon as he learned of the Hocklyns' use of nuclear weapons on the surface of the planet.
“The Hocklyns have been strangely quiet since our arrival,” Janice spoke as she cut up the hardboiled egg in her salad into smaller pieces. “There have been no reports of contacts or even FTL detections from the buoys deployed in the different star systems.”
Hedon took a deep drink of his unsweetened tea and nodded. “They’re undoubtedly updating their fleet. I believe they’re avoiding contact with our forces, particularly after their recent defeats.”
“I spoke to Malith today,” Janice continued. “She's responsible for communications as well as setting up patrol routes for their fighters. I was very impressed with her. If possible, I'd like to go aboard the station and actually meet her.”
“That can easily be arranged,” Hedon replied with a nod. “I want our people to get used to being around the Carethians. Besides the Altons, they are going to be our most important ally in this war.”
“I spoke briefly with Lieutenant Kelsey Grainger before they left to return home,” Janice added recalling the conversation. “She is the first one of the Special Five that I have ever spoken to. She seems so normal, just like anyone else.”
“They are normal,” Hedon responded with an enigmatic smile. “From what Admiral Strong told me, he and Kelsey intend to get married while they are back in the Federation.”
“That’s great!” Janice exclaimed her eyes lighting up. “The Federation will be abuzz with excitement when that engagement is announced.”
“But it poses a problem,” responded Hedon, dourly. “Married couples are not supposed to serve together on warships, particularly officers.”
“They’re the Special Five,” explained Janice, patiently. “No one expects rules to apply to them.”
“But it should,” Hedon replied. He knew that he had made exceptions for Amanda and Richard on occasion though now they were assigned to different duties.
“I’m sure everything will work out,” answered Janice, reaching across the table and squeezing Hedon’s hand. She pulled it quickly back, not wanting any of the crew to notice any signs of affection between her and Hedon. “Perhaps the rules should be changed since the fleet is now going on such long deployments. I think married couples should be allowed to serve together as long as children are not involved.”
“We’ll see,” Hedon responded as he picked up his ham sandwich and took a bite. “It will be close to six months before they return, I have that long to figure something out.”
He also knew that he and Janice were close to violating that same fleet regulation about fraternization between ship officers. Janice was also right about the long deployments. It might be necessary to change the rules slightly to accommodate this new reality of space combat. With mixed crews on warships being deployed for such extensive lengths of time, there were bound to be some romantic relationships formed.
-
Deep inside the boundaries of the Hocklyn Slave Empire, a Federation stealth scout dropped out of hyperspace and exited the swirling blue-white spatial vortex in the next system on its long search list. So far, they'd found very little of strategic value. A few evacuated bases and several slave worlds guarded by a solitary Hocklyn escort cruiser.
This system was more interesting as it had a yellow G type star, and records from Resmunt’s fleet base indicated that it contained at least two inhabited worlds.
“Initiating scans,” the sensor operator reported as the stealth’s systems stabilized and everything came back online.
“All stealth systems are activated,” the ensign in front of another console reported as he adjusted several controls, feeling satisfied that the scout was as undetectable as he could make it.
“I’m moving us in system at sixty percent sublight,” Captain Brentwood spoke as she adjusted the controls on the flight console. “Keep me updated on the scans.”
The small scout leaped forward as she accelerated the ship to sixty percent power on the sublight drive. That brought them up to a speed of nearly nine thousand kilometers per second.
After a few minutes, the sensor operator was ready with his initial report. “There are ten planets in the system with two in the liquid water zone. I am also detecting three different asteroid fields as well as numerous moons. There seems to be a thriving mining operation going on throughout the system as I see over eighty ships in transit between the systems moons, asteroids and the two planets in the liquid water zone.”
“Are those eighty ships cargo ships?” asked Captain Brentwood, arching her eyebrows. That sounded like an awful lot of ships.
“They seem to be,” the sensor operator replied as he studied the data. “I am also detecting two large space stations in orbit over the two habitable planets.”
Captain Brentwood nodded to herself. She was under orders to search for targets for the fleet. She had a growing feeling that she might just have found one.
“We will continue in system on our sublight drive until we can get better readings on those two inhabited planets. Then we will reverse course and initiate an FTL jump to return to Careth with the information.”
-
Twenty hours later, Captain Brentwood let out a long breath of satisfaction. This was exactly the type of target that Admiral Streth was searching for. There were over one hundred Hocklyn warships in orbit above the two planets. It was obvious the Hocklyns were mining the system for its abundance of natural resources. There were also a large number of heavy transports docked to the two space stations above the planets. They had observed several depart the stations and after leaving the gravity well, jump into hyperspace.
“This is it,” Brentwood informed her crew. “Let’s plot a course back to Careth and inform Admiral Streth. He will be highly interested to learn of what we have found.”
The small stealth scout reversed course and once Brentwood was satisfied they wouldn’t be detected, she activated the stealth’s jump drive. Instantly a small blue-white vortex formed and she expertly maneuvered the scout into the center of it. Moments later, the vortex collapsed and the scout was gone.
-
None of the Hocklyn ships in the system had detected the presence of the scout or its jump. The two Hocklyn War Leaders in the system were no
t concerned. They were far behind the front lines and in another three weeks, their fleets were to report to Kenward Seven for upgrading. Little did they suspect what would be coming their way in just a few more days.
Chapter Eleven
Fleet Admiral Streth studied the tactical data being sent by the four stealth scouts he had in system K-108. It showed the two inhabited planets as well as the numerous freighters. It seemed like a robust system totally under Hocklyn control.
“No wonder the Hocklyns didn’t abandon this system,” Colonel Trist commented as he studied the data being projected on the tactical display. “From our scans, there must be over sixty active mining operations going on. In the last two hours, we've detected two cargo ships jumping out to some unknown destination.”
“I wish we knew where they're going,” Hedon spoke as he turned his head to look over at Colonel Trist. “It might be a good target for us.” He really wanted to take advantage of the current tactical situation the Federation held over the Hocklyns.
“From the latest readings from the scouts, both of those large space stations are probably capable of producing at least cargo ships and ore haulers,” Colonel Grissim added, her eyes focusing on Admiral Streth. Colonel Grissim had at one time been in charge of the Intelligence service at Ceres. “Neither station seems to be armed, and I'd guess that they're both being operated by the beings that inhabit this system.”
“What are they like?” asked Hedon, curiously. “Have we been able to find out?” Very seldom did the Hocklyns allow slave worlds to maintain this level of technology. Hedon wondered what the reason was for the deviance in this system.
“Their technology is far behind ours overall but still pretty advanced for a slave world,” Anne replied as she stepped over closer to Hedon. “One of the scouts has been able to pick up video broadcasts from the innermost of the two inhabited planets. Their technology is mid twenty-first century when compared to Earth. They're a Humanoid species, slightly shorter and of slimmer build than Earth Humans. There is a slight green tint to their skin, which hints at a different type of blood makeup, probably from their environment. Their ears are also further back on their heads and are a little larger than Human's. Their voices are also at a much higher pitch, perhaps due to something in their atmosphere.”
The Slaver Wars: Galactic Conflict Page 15