"I'm not sure how many tiny ships we have available, but I'll ask Commander Jacoby to speak with you. If we don't have anything small enough, take a bigger one off my hands and trade down to whatever you need. Are you staying in the station?"
"Yes, as soon as we book rooms."
"The housing officer will find first class accommodations for your team. Please extend my gratitude to the others for the excellent work you've all done."
"I will, Admiral."
With Commander Jacoby as a guide, Trader Vyx began a thorough scrutiny of every confiscated ship at Stewart. Space Command was converting the former Milori warships for their own use, but Vyx looked at everything else. When nothing inside the base proved adequate, they moved to the confiscated ships in the 'farms'. Maintaining a similar orbit in the system, although ten thousand kilometers closer to the sun to keep the traffic lanes to Stewart free of obstructions, the farms were guarded 24/7 by security forces. Most of the farms held cargo containers awaiting pickup by freighters bound for other points, but the base used one farm exclusively for impounded ships. The number of ships astounded Vyx as the shuttle approached and received clearance from security. Jacoby was one of the very few people on the base who knew Vyx was an officer in Space Command and an undercover agent. Derrick flew the shuttle very slowly between the rows of ships so Vyx could get a good look.
"I had no idea you had so many," Vyx remarked.
"Stewart has more territory to cover and more GSC ships on patrol duty than any other base in Galactic Alliance space. During the past year, the Admiral has really stepped up interdiction activities in the Frontier Zone. Many criminals still think the Zone is wide open and lawless like it used to be, but that isn't the case in our sectors. There's never been any legal reason why Space Command couldn't enforce the law in the Zone; we simply didn't have the resources, so we only answered distress calls, concentrating our search and seizure activities in what we generally call 'regulated' space. Admiral Carver has certainly changed that, actually stopping far more ships in the Zone for inspections than inside the inner border. Either the criminals are getting the word, or most of them have been locked up because we're seeing a markedly lower amount of illegal cargo smuggling."
"I remember every criminal on Gollasko leaving for the new border when the Frontier Zone was pushed out a hundred parsecs. They thought they'd be safe if they could make it into the new Zone."
"That was B.A.C."
"Bac?"
"Before Admiral Carver."
"You sound like her biggest fan."
"Perhaps not the biggest, but definitely a major fan. Just one of millions, I suspect, and not just because I owe my promotion to her. I've met a couple of other admirals during my time in the service, neither of which had their flag at the time I first met them, but she's nothing like them. They were mostly bluster and brass. She's more like a fellow officer than an apotheosis of Space Command regulations, but she does enforce the book."
Vyx chuckled.
"I wouldn't expect you to understand or share my opinion," Jacoby said. "You'd have to be around her and work in her command on a regular basis to understand what I mean."
"Quite the contrary, Commander. I understand exactly what you mean and I agree completely. It's just that it's so unusual for so many people to share a common opinion about a commanding officer. A good opinion, I should have said."
"Oh, I'm not saying that everybody likes her," Jacoby said. "I have a few Academy friends with whom I communicate regularly who simply can't understand my total devotion to a commanding officer, but they've never served under Admiral Carver. The fan club seems to be mostly limited to just the officers, NCOs, and crewmen who have served in her commands. I guess knowing that she's saved your arse more than once helps a bit."
"Were you in the first fight with the Milori?"
"No, but this station would have been in their sights next if the Admiral hadn't stopped them cold. I was aboard the station when the Raiders arrived to take it back. The Admiral turned what looked like certain doom into an incredible victory. Since then, no officer I know has ever questioned any order from her, even in private conversations among close friends. If she told me that I could get into a shuttle and drive it straight through the heart of a sun without even getting a mild tan, I'd believe her because I know how much she cares about her people. She does her level best to live up that that Ice Queen reputation, but I've seen the look in her eyes when operations are underway. If she could, she'd be out facing the enemy all by herself instead of sending other people to face them. Every life is dear to her. She'll do what she has to do, and order people into dangerous situations where their chance of survival is negligible, but she won't risk their lives unnecessarily. That's the kind of officer you want as a CO."
Vyx nodded. "Yes, I know her concern is genuine. She risked her career to search for me and two of my associates a few years back when an arms merchant left us trapped in an underground complex. I'll always go the extra kilometer for a commanding officer who values the lives of their people above career advancement. I hope we can find something here so I can get back to work. Time is too important right now for me to have to take a trip to Urgucet to get a new ship."
"Urgucet?"
"Yeah, I know a used ship dealer there who can always find what you're looking for, but it could take me away from here for as long as two years."
"I think the Milori will be here long before then. You'll miss all the excitement. Some officers are already taking bets about the tactics the Admiral will employ against the Milori this time."
"There's a very old saying that goes, 'Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.'"
Derrick chuckled. "What the hell does that mean?"
"People aren't as easy to fool the second time around. The Milori know we led them into a trap at our first encounter, and that we conned them into retreating in disgrace at the second. They won't allow us to trap them that way again, nor fall for any subtle tricks at our next meeting. It's going to be a toe-to-toe slugfest with warships, against an enemy that's just as powerful as we think we are. I'm sure Admiral Carver's present efforts are an attempt to whittle down the numbers that will be opposing us. The recent attacks took out fifteen of the enemy's best. Too bad we couldn't have gotten them all."
"Admiral Carver will find us an edge. She's at her very best when the odds against us are the heaviest."
"I hope she can, or there's going to be a memorial service that will make the one after the last invasion battle pale by comparison." Pointing to a ship, Vyx asked, "What's that?"
"That's a one-hundred-eighty-three meter transport made on Uthlarigasset, for the Raiders. It was just recently brought in by the battleship Chiron."
"Big ship."
"Yeah. Half the size of a GSC Light Destroyer. Almost three times the size of your last ship."
"Can she land on a planet?"
"No reason why not. She has retractable landing gear, but she's somewhat big for spaceports. Most landing pads are designed for ships no larger than a hundred meters."
"Uh-huh. What kind of condition is she in?"
"I haven't had time to completely survey her yet, but I did a preliminary check and she looked good."
"Is she available?"
Commander Jacoby punched a few numbers into the computer in front of him. "I'm sure she is. We found two-hundred-eighty tons of mining equipment stolen from a warehouse on Kethewit in her holds. Her crew is going to wind up being put away for a whole bunch of years."
"Was it damaged in the seizure?"
"No, her crew knew it was a choice between surrendering peacefully and spending some time on a penal colony, or dying horribly in the vacuum of space. They didn't have a chance of outrunning the Chiron, so they surrendered."
"What's its top speed?"
"Don't know for sure. I'd guess about Light-262 because the ship is only three years old and the Uthlaro have been making Light-262 ships for that long. The Raiders w
ould probably want as much speed as possible, although they still couldn't have outrun the Light-375 speed of the Chiron."
"Light-262? That's perfect. The Scorpion's best speed was only Light-187. Most of Space Command's old destroyers can barely make Light-262. What kind of weaponry does it have?"
"Twelve laser arrays and six torpedo tubes in the bow."
"No stern tubes?"
"No, such small ships never have stern tubes. Your old ship was the only one I ever saw rigged that way."
"It was a custom install. They saved my life at least once because my foe wasn't expecting it. Can we rig something up in this ship?"
"It would be tough from what I know of its construction, but we might be able to mount tubes externally and conceal them with a cowling to make them look like maneuvering engine nacelles."
"Would I have a way to reload them without landing?"
"Sure, we could construct an automatic reloading assembly that would appear to be a support strut. It would function like a conveyor, extending forward to where it would enter the ship. But if it jammed or was damaged, you'd have to stop to make repairs."
"Could the cowling be made from tritanium?"
"Sure."
"Good, that will help protect it from most damage."
"Are you saying that you want this ship?"
"No, not yet, but it's a good candidate. Let's look over the rest."
After finding two other possible ships and taking a tour in all three, Vyx decided on the first one, mainly because of its speed capability but also because of its young age. Commander Jacoby issued orders to have it brought into the base and put at an empty airlock at the far end of the habitat.
"I have to finish up work on the ships that suffered damage in the recent attacks, but we'll be able to get to your ship in a few weeks."
"Okay, Derrick, thanks. We'll just hang out in the station until you can get to her."
"I'll send over the specs on the ship and whatever information I can find that pertains to her; I'm sure you'll want to familiarize yourself with her. I'll arrange for access in case you want to get inside at any time."
"That would be great. We could start cleaning her up and preparing her for our use."
"How do you want her registered?"
"I'll name her the Scorpion. My old ship was completely destroyed so there won't be any conflict with the previous registered name."
"You've got it. This ship is now the Scorpion."
* * *
Chapter Ten
~ September 2nd, 2279 ~
Six weeks into construction, the North Pass wall was beginning to take definite shape. The floor of the pass where the wall was to be erected had been excavated down to bedrock and a four-meter wide foundation of steel-reinforced concrete had been poured. Stonecutters had delivered the first of the two-to-three ton granite blocks to the site, and the masons would place them as soon as the concrete foundation had set sufficiently. There would actually be two stone block walls built, with steel-reinforced concrete poured between them to make one very thick wall that should stand up to any pounding the largest dinosaurs could give it. The smelter, forge, and mill were working overtime to produce the cement and steel reinforcing rods.
Those not involved in the construction of the wall were harvesting food crops. Although the nights were getting progressively colder, they were still above freezing. The cold storage shelter was bulging with winter supplies and starvation wasn't a concern, although the variety of food was going to be a problem. It appeared that most meals would consist chiefly of gelk meat, potato-like tubers, and bread. Most fresh vegetables would soon be scarce and everyone was getting their fill before they were gone. The supply was adequate, but long-term storage was a problem without the ability to flash-freeze. After learning of something the fish would bite on, the fishermen had laid in a large supply of dinosaur flesh in the cold storage shed. Twice a week the entire camp enjoyed a fresh fish fillet dinner and there was no reason to suspect that fish wouldn't be available all winter. Things didn't look too bad, although everyone longed for rescue.
A few weeks later, work on the wall had slowed considerably. The first few rows of stone blocks were in position but it had become increasingly difficult to raise the new blocks up to the top of the wall. A jib crane made of wood had cracked as they tried to move a large block into place, very nearly crushing one of the masons. Only his quick reflexes saved his life. A steel crane would do the job properly, but that was a bit beyond their present capabilities. In the end, Lt. Commander McCloud designed a ramp system like that theoretically used to construct the ancient pyramids on Earth, and as the wall grew, so did the ramp. Constructed from a mixture of crushed limestone and stone chips from the granite quarry area, it easily supported the enormous stone blocks as they were rolled up to the new height of the wall using logs as rollers and a block and tackle assembly to pull them up the slope.
* * *
Among the many messages waiting for Jenetta when she arrived at her office in the morning was one marked 'Vertap.' She immediately bent over to provide a retinal scan and touched the ring on her left hand to the spindle in the media tray so that it could decrypt the message.
"Hello Admiral," the image of Vertap Aloyandro, the Minister of Intelligence for the Hudeerac Order, said. "I congratulate you on your outstanding success against the hidden Milori ships. To have located so many is a tribute to your intelligence services. It would behoove you to search out and destroy as many of the remaining ships as possible before the arrival of the invasion force.
"We have information that four Milori fleets entered your Buffer Zone on 4323-korei-293 on our calendar. On your calendar that would be the 14th of April 2279. We estimate they will arrive at Stewart on or about your 11th of May 2280. The coordinates of the point where they entered your territory are known only to the commander of the armada in order to keep them secret.
"Their target is Stewart. They will arrive in many dozens of small clusters after following different paths through your space to avoid giving you the opportunity to entrap them as you did their third fleet. They know that Stewart is the key to security in your sectors of space and will not leave it intact as they advance. We believe four-hundred-ten ships will make the assault. They have left only one fleet behind to protect their Empire, but as much as we would like to open a second front against them, one hundred ships is still too large a force for us to attack. We wish we could be of more help, but our inside contact was uncovered after passing this information to us and I may not be able to offer such detailed information for some time.
"Good luck, Admiral. We wish you success against the Milori invasion force.
"Minister Vertap Aloyandro. End of message."
Jenetta sent a quick reply thanking the minister and then leaned back in her chair. She had a date now, if not a planned course for the Milori fleet, but the Space Command fleet assigned to her would still be outnumbered four to one.
"That's not as bad as last time", she reminded herself aloud, "when we were outnumbered seventeen to one, but then we had the element of surprise on our side."
Leaving her chair, she prepared a mug of coffee to help her think about the message. There was always the possibility that the message was deliberately designed to mislead. After all, the Hudeerac's spy had been caught. She knew that meant someone had probably given their life to procure and transmit the information, but it could also mean the Milori intelligence services had intercepted the message and altered it before passing it along as disinformation. Still, she couldn't argue that Stewart would be the most likely target. While Space Command still held it, it would be as a dagger pointed at the backs of invaders who bypassed it to attack the planets of the Galactic Alliance.
Jenetta made her decision and immediately prepared a message to her captains. She sat up straight, looked directly into the lens of the vid camera in the com console, and tapped the record button.
"Priority One Stage-One message to the captains o
f all warships under my command, from Admiral Jenetta Carver, Stewart Base Commander.
"Captain, the contents and purpose of this message should be shared with no one except your first officer.
"It's imperative that you return to Stewart no later than the 30th of April, 2280. An arrival on or before April 15 would be preferable.
"Contact Stewart for additional instructions before approaching closer than one light year.
"Jenetta Alicia Carver, Rear Admiral, Upper Half, Base Commander of Stewart Space Command Base, message complete."
Jenetta sent the message and then went to stand at the SimWindow and stare out at the port while she thought. The development of a battle plan would never be out of her thoughts for very long over the next nine months.
* * *
At a hastily convened meeting of the Admiralty Board on a Sunday morning a week later, Admiral Moore greeted the other admirals.
"I assume everyone has viewed the secure message forwarded to you overnight?"
"I was at a conference on Supply Logistics and didn't have a secure com unit available to me until I arrived back here this morning," Admiral Ahmed said. "I haven't viewed it yet."
"Let's play it then," Admiral Moore said, nodding to his aide.
The head and shoulders image of Admiral Carver appeared on the giant screen and she began speaking. "I've received information from my contact in the Hudeerac Order that over four hundred Milori warships will attack Stewart from different approach paths on or about May 11th of this coming year. I have ordered all warships to return to Stewart no later than April 30th, specifying that a slightly earlier arrival date is desirable. I believe the Hudeerac message to be accurate and I am preparing my forces based on that assessment. I'll leave it to the Board to figure a way of alerting other commands about the invasion date. Base commanders should not take any overt action that will serve to alert either the Raiders or the Milori that we know of the planned attack. It would be best if the arriving Milori believe they have surprised us.
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