by Dietmar Wehr
“Like what, dad?”
“I don’t know,” said Strider as he looked up at ceiling just as Samantha entered the room. “What’s another word that means the same thing as nemesis?” he asked.
“Nemesis? Let me think. Avenger, vengeance, vindicator, retribution—”
“Hey! Retribution sounds good,” said Strider. “What you think, Troy?”
“Yeah, dad. I like it too. Are they going to let you pick the name?”
“Not exactly, but I’m going to push for Retribution to the people who do get to decide the name. As her first Commanding Officer, I think my choice will carry a lot of weight.”
Two days after suggesting the name to Terrington and the other senior officers, Strider learned that they had accepted his suggestion.
The following weeks passed quickly. Strider was pleased to see that the designers had listened to the recommendations from him and other AF officers about offensive capabilities. Retribution wasn’t as big as a Haven Navy heavy cruiser, but she was bigger than their light cruisers. She would carry 14 forward-facing missile tubes with enough storage capacity to carry 280 missiles. It also would include sufficient cargo capacity to allow the ship to operate for up to eight months at a time, which would enable it to travel to New Atlantis and back if needed. The penalty for using up so much of the ship’s internal space along with the large jump-drive engines and bigger power plants was that the space available to the crew was limited. Unlike Corso’s Savannah, which had plenty of crew space and large, comfortable quarters, crews were going to find Retribution’s crew quarters to be smaller with less room for recreational activities. Strider had heard talk about a larger design that would be even bigger than the Savannah-class of heavy cruisers. Given that Retribution was also being described as a heavy cruiser, Strider wondered what the bigger design—if it ever got built—would be called. Battlecruiser? Battleship? Super-heavy cruiser?
Eventually the ship was finished and tested, which included several micro-jumps within the New Caledonian star system. The ship was christened by Terrington’s wife this time, which was fine with Samantha. Strider’s new crew was chosen and ready. Jaeger was on Haven, Montoya was promoted to Captain as one of the two alternating COs of Fearless II, Lieutenant Pavlov was assigned as Retribution’s new Executive Officer, and Lieutenant Mannheim—much to Strider’s relief—was not assigned to Retribution.
With the ship christened, loaded with missiles and supplies and ready to go, Strider and Pavlov were called to a briefing by Terrington.
“Your first stop will be Haven in order to see what their Navy is doing, and, if possible, you’ll try to fit Retribution into their operational plans in terms of seeking out and destroying raider ships and bases. If their plans don’t allow for Retribution joining in, then we want you to consider heading for Draconia, the closest of the two other bases—that we know about—and attempt to ambush raider ships either on their way into or leaving that base.”
What about attacking the base itself?” asked Strider.
“Simply blowing the place up would result in short term gain at the cost of long term progress. Once word got around that the base was destroyed, raiders would stop coming there. I’d rather we used the base as flypaper for the time being. Capturing the base would be ideal, but Retribution doesn’t have the spare capacity to carry more than a squad of ground troops, and that wouldn’t be enough. On the other hand, if Haven wants to capture Draconia—or Katmandu for that matter—and is willing to transport a company or two of their marines with combat armor, then so much the better. That way we could capture more ships instead of blasting them to atoms. Any questions so far?”
“Yes, General. Will I have the flexibility to pursue Wolfgar’s ship if I come across some clues to his whereabouts?”
Terrington looked a bit annoyed. “I’m certain that you understand that you weren’t given command of Retribution in order to pursue your own personal quest for vengeance. Having said that, I’m going to assume that you’ll be able to choose whatever course of action will generate the best long-term gain for civilized planets in general and for New Caledon in particular. If you think you can accomplish that goal by going after Wolfhound, then fine. Just be prepared to defend and justify any action you take when you’re back and are debriefed. Does that answer your question, Major?”
“It does. Thank you, General.”
Five hours later, Retribution was in hyper-space on its way to Haven, and Strider was wondering if Terrington really had answered his question. Pursuing Wolfgar might lead to other raiders too. And how would he justify a decision that was based on a gut feeling? Was he willing to risk his career in order to take Wolfgar down? It didn’t take him long to decide that he would, and consequences be damned. If he had to command a desk for the rest of his life, he could live with that. And it would make Samantha happy.
Chapter Twenty-six
Arrival at Haven was a proud moment for Strider, especially when Retribution landed at the Navy’s spaceport. He was shocked when Morningside came out to the spaceport to greet him personally as he walked down the ramp with his officers. Strider saluted, and Morningside returned the salute with a smile.
“Welcome back, Commander, ah…Major Strider. I see you’ve brought a warship with you and that she has an interesting hull geometry too. Our radar didn’t pick her up until her hull orientation was just right to bounce the radar signal back to us. I remember you telling us about this hull geometry, but we didn’t pursue it, and now I’m sorry we didn’t.” Morningside offered to shake Strider’s hand, and Strider took it.
“Thank you, Admiral. It’s nice to be back on Haven. Did we finally pass the test?”
Morningside’s look of confusion suddenly disappeared as he realized what Strider was referring to. “Well, let’s just say there was a betting pool on whether New Caledon would build a hyper-ship at all and if so, when. I’m pleased to say that I won my bet. So did Jaeger, if I remember correctly. He’s still on convalescent leave at home, but I have a feeling he’ll find a way to come to HQ to say hello at some point. Will you and your people be staying on Retribution, or would you prefer local accommodations for a change of scenery?”
Strider’s first impulse was to stay on board Retribution, but the fact was he was already more than a little tired of his small cabin, and if he didn’t take advantage of the offer, he might regret it later.
“We’ll be glad to accept Haven’s hospitality, Admiral, thank you.” Strider was also glad that he had ordered the crew and himself to switch to Haven’s day/night cycle during the trip. From Morningside’s perspective, the day was about to turn into evening.
“Wonderful. I’ll have my staff make the arrangements including transportation. I suggest you and your people get settled at the hotel, have a nice dinner—on the Navy’s tab of course—and then we’ll meet tomorrow morning to discuss the situation.”
“That sounds perfect, Admiral.”
“Excellent. I’ll let you get your people organized while I head back to my office. Until tomorrow then, Major.”
“Until then, Admiral.” They exchanged salutes and Morningside got back into his air car.
It took the rest of the day to get the crew settled in the same hotel that Strider and his team had used before. Two volunteers had stayed on Retribution, as a precaution against a surprise raider attack more than anything else, but the Admiral had also arranged for Naval marines to stand watch outside the ship during the night.
When Strider got up the next morning, there was a message waiting for him that he and his officers were invited to a breakfast meeting at Naval HQ at 9am. He asked the hotel staff to send a reply that their invitation was accepted and hustled to get his people awake and ready in time to be picked up by several navy air cars.
They arrived at Naval HQ on time and were shown to one of the larger conference rooms that was set up as a temporary Dining Room with a very impressive buffet breakfast along one wall. Strider entered and immediately not
iced Karl Jaeger standing next to the table where coffee and tea, or at least the local versions, were available. Jaeger had his back to Strider and didn’t see him right away, which gave Strider a few seconds to notice that Jaeger had a cast on one leg, a knee brace on the other and one arm in a sling.
Morningside, who was standing next to Jaeger, did notice Strider and said, “Look who’s here, Commander.” Jaeger turned and immediately put down the cup he’d been holding in order to turn and greet Strider, who had come over to him.
“It’s great to see you alive, Karl,” said Strider. He took note of the shiny new medal pinned to Jaeger’s chest and the fourth stripe on each shoulder. Jaeger was a full Commander now.
“It’s great to be alive, Richard, and it would be even greater if I could take these damn things off,” said Jaeger with a grin as the two of them shook hands. Some of Strider’s officers, who had also gotten to know Jaeger, had joined the two of them and were taking turns shaking Jaeger’s hand and expressing their joy at seeing him again.
Morningside waited patiently for the handshaking to be finished and then cleared his throat. When he had their attention, he gestured to the oval conference table. “I understand how all of you feel about seeing Commander Jaeger again, but we do have to start this meeting soon. So, if you’ll all get a plate of food and something to drink, we’ll get started.”
Strider made sure he sat beside Jaeger, even though that was on the side of the table where the Haven officers were sitting, with Retribution’s officers sitting on the other side. Morningside had brought some of his staff officers instead of the senior admirals that Strider had seen in the past. When everyone was seated and had started eating, Morningside cleared his throat again.
“I decided to make this a working breakfast because this gathering is both a professional meeting and a social gathering. To start with, Commander Oppenheimer, who heads up our Strategic Planning Group, will brief our guests on the current situation. He won’t be able to eat while he does that, but the rest of us certainly can. Go ahead, Commander.”
“Thank you, Admiral,” said the stocky officer as he stood up. “I’ll start with the status of the three raider bases. The destroyed Olympus base is still being visited by raiders who don’t know about its new condition. We know this because one of our light cruisers is on overwatch duty, plus we made arrangements with some of the locals to keep their eyes and ears open. When they have something to report, they radio the information to our cruiser using equipment we gave them. As you know, Major Strider, the Royal Haven Navy has two light cruisers, and they’re being shuttled back and forth between Haven and Olympus so that we get reports from the locals on a regular basis. With regards to Katmandu and Draconia, we’ve managed to covertly insert teams on both planets. They have set up near the raider bases and have deployed listening devices within most of the raider-occupied buildings.” He stopped when he saw Strider raise his hand.
“How the devil did your teams manage that?”
All the Haven officers smiled. “Several ways actually. One way was to bribe some of the locals who interact with the raiders to plant the devices. The raiders may have more or less willing co-operation from the leaders of those planets, but the general population are not overly happy having them around, no doubt in part because the raiders tend to treat them poorly. A second way was to use long-range listening devices to catch raider conversation when they’re out in the open, and the third was to drop listening devices that look like insects from small, remotely-piloted drones, at night. Our teams then send regular reports to one of our heavy cruisers that maintains overwatch from a discrete distance. We’ve set up a regular relief schedule where all three heavy cruisers take turns, first at Draconia, then Katmandu, then back to Haven to change crews.”
“So, who’s guarding Haven against a raider attack?” asked Strider.
Oppenheimer looked at Morningside for direction. The senior admiral nodded ever so slightly.
“We’ve developed missile pods; unmanned units containing one anti-ship missile have been placed in orbit around Haven. Right now, we have twenty-one deployed, and we’re deploying another one every four days. They can be fired simultaneously. With twenty-one missiles in orbit now, and an initial goal of fifty, we’re confident we could defend against more than one raider by overwhelming their anti-missile defenses.”
“Very ingenious,” said Strider. “I can see the advantages over building non-jump-capable ships like our Fearless II. Missile pods are cheaper to build, can be mass produced”—he looked at Oppenheimer for confirmation and got a nod,—“and can be deployed more quickly. I’ll definitely be recommending to General Terrington that our Aerospace Force do the same thing. Would the Navy be willing to share the design and operating specifications with us?” Strider looked over at Morningside.
The admiral took a sip of his coffee before answering. “We have no objection to sharing the technology. We’d definitely be willing to trade it for more enriched uranium. Based on the last message we received from your government, New Caledon has about as much promethium as it expects to need in the next couple of years and isn’t interested in any more right now. We, on the other hand, can make use of all the enriched uranium we can get. I’m sure we can work something out, Major.”
“Thank you. Please continue, Commander,” said Strider.
“What we’ve learned so far from our covert operations is that there are at least ten raider ships operating at the moment. Our analysts think that number does not tell the whole story. They believe that the actual number may be twice as high. Wolfhound visited Katmandu after apparently raiding Valhalla. It stayed for four days and sold its loot for ammunition, missiles, supplies, etc. Our people overheard Wolfgar tell another raider captain that he was going back to Valhalla to raid it again since it was now wide open and hadn’t been completely picked clean yet. That other captain agreed to bring his ship, Stormbringer, along for the ride.”
“How long ago was this conversation? Is there any chance that they could be intercepted at Valhalla?” asked Strider quickly.
Oppenheimer shook his head. “Even if Retribution were to leave right now, the two raiders ships would have finished their raid and left by the time you got there.”
No one spoke while Strider processed that information. “Any idea where Wolfhound will go after the second Valhalla raid?” he asked.
“Well, he did say that he wanted to have some extensive modifications done to Wolfhound after the second Valhalla raid. We were only able to catch a piece of a comment he made about doubling something on his ship.”
Strider leaned back and looked at Morningside. “I can only think of three things that Wolfgar might want to double: the number of missile tubes, missile storage capacity and anti-missile defenses. Given what we know about the design of a typical raider ship, do we know how doable those three things are?”
“The Commander’s staff came up with the same list. If we assume that Wolfhound has the same overall design as Nemesis, then the answer is yes, all three of those capabilities could be doubled, but it wouldn’t be easy. I’ll let Commander Oppenheimer explain the details,” said Morningside
“Yes, Admiral. Ah, the hangar bay could be converted to missile storage. Moving missiles from there to the dedicated missile storage magazine for use with the existing missile tubes would be time consuming. If Wolfgar was willing to sacrifice half of Wolfhound’s ability to carry ground troops and their combat armor, another six missile tubes could be installed. The design as it stands now has cargo space between the hangar bay deck and the deck where the combat armor for the ground troops is stored. Some of that cargo space could also be used for storing missiles to be used by the new missile tubes. Adding six additional point-defense auto-cannons could be done relatively easily. That would bring the total to twelve.”
“He’s getting ready to attack New Caledon again,” said Strider.
Both Oppenheimer and Morningside nodded. “We agree,” said Oppenheimer.
“Are these bases capable of that kind of modification?” asked Strider.
“We think so. We’ve overheard base engineers talk about repairing damage to the CM armor of a couple of ships. How they got that damage we don’t know. Somebody somewhere also appears to have the technology to build fission warheads.”
“And how long would it take to make those modifications?” asked Strider.
“Our engineers estimate a minimum of six weeks,” answered Oppenheimer.
Strider now leaned forward again. “Okay. Let’s assume he raids Valhalla again for the second time, then goes to Draconia for the modifications. I pick there over Katmandu because it’s closer to New Caledon. He gets the work done, then heads for my planet. What’s the earliest that we should expect his attack?”
“Eighty-nine days from when Wolfhound leaves Valhalla, which is roughly fifty-five days from now,” said Oppenheimer.