The Sacred Stars (The Shadow Space Chronicles Book 4)

by Kal Spriggs

  In a newly commissioned, first-of-her-line, ship integrating a number of new technologies, he thought wryly, and we still have civilian engineers aboard. It would certainly be an interesting cruise.

  ***

  Chapter II

  UCS Constellation, Faraday System

  United Colonies

  June 22, 2407

  “Alannis,” Ensign Scott Yamahito called out, “come commiserate with your fellow ensigns.”

  Alanis shook her head as she saw him. He and Ensign Ashtar Shan sat at a table in the officer's wardroom. She nodded at Ashtar and then Scott. “Scott, I thought you were supposed to go to the Champion.”

  “I was,” he replied, “I traded with Andrew Terrapin when I heard the Constellation was headed for Shogunate space.”

  “Oh?” Alannis asked.

  “Yeah, I have some cousins who live back there still, I might be able to meet them, depending on how long we're there,” Scott said. “Plus I'd kind of like to see where I come from, you know?”

  She remembered then that Scott's parents had been refugees from the Dai Yamato system, what was now part of the Shogunate. As far as she knew, Scott hadn't shown any preference to return, until now. Beside him, Ashtar Shan rolled her eyes.

  Sounds like he's got another of his wild hares to chase, Alannis thought. This wouldn't be the first time that Scott had become incredibly excited about something odd. In his time at the Faraday Military Academy he'd developed a number of odd hobbies ranging from Close Quarter Combat Competition to detailed historical military vehicle models to a variety of games.

  Scott seemed to get interested, build up a serious skill level or proficiency, and then lose interest and move on. It didn't exactly surprise her that he would have changed assignments just to look into one such interest.

  “Well, it's good to have you here,” Alannis said. “How are you two settling in?” She'd already talked with Ashtar since the two of them shared quarters. The female officer from the Tehran System had been on an accelerated course of instruction at the Faraday Military Academy and they'd actually become good friends and Alannis had come to appreciate the woman's abilities.

  “They put me in the tactical department,” Scott said with his goofy grin. “I'm in missile telemetry, working with the Interceptor Mark Nineteens and I'm secondary lead with the new Moljnir Mark Ones and the Arrow Mark Twelves.”

  “Oh,” Alannis said and forced herself to smile, “that's great.”

  “Where did you end up?” Scott asked.

  “She's assigned to communications,” Ashtar said before Alannis could reply.

  “Oh...” Scott's face fell. “Geez, wow... uh, why'd they do that? I mean, I'm a technical type, but I thought you were on a fast-track for tactical.”

  “It's an assignment,” Alannis shrugged. “It's not my business and I'm sure they'll move us around a bit.” She tried to keep the disappointment she felt out of her voice. She knew she wasn't entirely successful from how Scott shook his head.

  “That's just crazy,” Scott said. “I can't believe they did that. What kind of idiot would send you to communications...”

  “Ensigns,” a calm voice interrupted.

  All three of them looked up to see that Lieutenant Busch stood over their table. Alannis's face went pale as she recognized the head of the communication department. “The Captain and the XO made the assignment determinations. If you have any constructive criticism, I'm sure they would both like to hear your opinions and draw from the depths of your experience.”

  Alannis winced. This was hardly the way to look good for her new boss.

  “Sorry, ma'am,” Scott said.

  The Lieutenant ignored him and looked at Alannis. “Ensign Giovanni, there's a lot of message traffic to sort through since we're heading out. I just finished approvals for the next update packet. You need to get down to the department and verify those approvals.”

  Alannis winced. She had just finished an eight hour shift already. Every ship in the Fleet updated their communications packets on the hour and they uploaded and downloaded that information by priority. Orders came through with the highest priority, personal communications with the lowest. When they left, the ansible would have only so much bandwidth, especially as they drew further away from Faraday.

  While some of those priorities were easy enough, others were a bit more complicated. Maintenance reports from different departments, systems malfunctions, ammunition and fuel reserves, and dozens of other updates would wait in the queue until there was time. Prioritizing different data points over others would take both attention to detail and a great deal of time.

  And most of what I'll be doing is double-checking what Lieutenant Busch already did. “Yes ma'am, I'll get right on it.” She looked down at her tray. She hadn't eaten anything yet, but she didn't want to look bad by finishing it. She stood and gave her friends nods and then hurried out.

  She just hoped this wasn't an omen or something.

  ***

  “Ma'am,” Tech Specialist Spurlock nodded at Alannis. Normally Spurlock would report to Alannis's Petty officer or Chief Petty Officer, but the communications department was still a little short on personnel and her Petty Officer hadn't reported yet. “I've got the latest updates for transfer, our update system still has the link-up issue.”

  “Right,” Alannis said as he passed over the data chip. While most of the systems aboard the Constellation were fully functional, there were a few hang-ups... like the update system for the fire control system. The system itself worked fine, but the update software for the entire system didn't seem to want to talk with the maintenance and update system. Which meant taking reports in hard copy and transcribing them back to digital.

  It was a mind-numbing process and Technical Specialist Steven Spurlock, as the lowest ranking member of the Tactical Division, drew the short straw.

  “How are things in Tactical?” Alannis said as she uploaded the data, more to make small-talk than anything else.

  Tech Specialist Spurlock looked like a deer in the headlights, “Uh, good, ma'am.”

  Alannis restrained a sigh. It was one of the things about the military that annoyed her at times. The last thing Spurlock wanted to do was make small talk with an officer. Not that she could blame him. There were rules against fraternization and it was generally better to err on the side of caution.

  Alannis finished transferring the data and then passed the data chip back over. “Here you are, let me know if there's any other issues.”

  “Thank you, ma'am,” Spurlock said. As he turned away, Lieutenant Busch looked up from her station, “Ensign, I know you feel the need for interpersonal communications, but I'd advise you to keep that to a necessary minimum.”

  “Yes, ma'am,” Alannis said. She restrained a sigh as she went back to her work. Other than two put-upon Communications Techs, it was just her and Lieutenant Busch here in the communications section. They had work stations for two petty officers and a chief petty officer, but they were still short those personnel. From what Ashtar overheard, she thought, the Fleet is having difficulty filling those slots before we depart.

  Alannis leaned forward as her terminal pinged to tell her that it had finished its update. While Lieutenant Busch handled most of the high priority transmissions, it fell to her to sort the rest. First, however, she had to screen for high priority orders, since those couldn't wait in the queue.

  Her eyebrows went up as she saw not just one, but two such orders in the queue. “Ma'am,” Alannis said, “High priority orders received, should I notify the Captain?”

  “What?” Lieutenant Busch asked in surprise. She shook her head, “That's got to be an error in the priority system.” She looked at the two messages on her screen, “They're both flagged for his eyes only and encrypted for his biometric print... Mostly likely human error. Reflag them to moderate and just forward them on, no need to interrupt his meeting with the XO.”

  “Ma'am,” Alannis said, “the Captain's standi
ng orders clearly state that all high priority traffic should be forwarded and he should be notified immediately.”

  Lieutenant Busch glared at her, “I understand the regulations and the standing orders, Ensign. While that might be the letter of the orders, it takes experience in this position to make judgments.”

  “Ma’am, I understand that,” Alannis said, “but what if this is serious? If we don't pass the information along and it wasn't flagged incorrectly...”

  “Fine,” Lieutenant Busch snapped, “you will notify the Captain, Ensign.”

  Alannis swallowed nervously as Lieutenant Busch glared at her. The two communications techs had practically buried their heads in their consoles. Alannis activated her comm and pulled up Captain Beeson's link.

  Captain Beeson appeared, “Yes, Ensign?”

  “Sir,” Alannis said, “We have two high priority messages for you.”

  “Thank you,” Captain Beeson said. “Let Lieutenant Busch know I'll acknowledge receipt and I'd also like her to do a general recall of crew.”

  “Yes, sir,” Alannis said.

  He cut the link and she looked up. Her boss had a sour expression on her face. Great, she thought, she thought the Captain would rip my head off and now she's angry at me for being right.

  “Should I send the recall, ma'am?” Alannis asked in a neutral voice.

  Lieutenant Busch's left eye twitched, “No, Ensign, I'll do that. I think that comm array issue Petty Officer Johnson brought up earlier needs some oversight. Go and make sure that's coming along properly.” The comm array that Petty Officer Johnson's team worked on lay aft in a narrow maintenance corridor. That section of the ship was depressurized for some calibration of other machinery, so she'd have to suit up, crawl through several narrow access shafts, all in order to “oversee” a petty officer who knew his job better than her.

  She meant it as punishment, but right now there was nothing that Alannis would like better besides getting out of the compartment. “Yes, ma'am,” Alannis said. “I'll head there right now.”

  ***

  Sanctuary Station, Faraday System

  United Colonies

  June 26, 2407

  “Well,” Captain Daniel Beeson looked up, “it's official. The first message is orders for immediate departure and the second one frocks me as the squadron commander for the convoy.” It wasn't a complete surprise. From what Daniel had heard, the Shogunate's diplomats had pushed hard for the tech upgrades. They would soon be in the middle of a nasty fight with the Colonial Republic and they remained under a serious threat from the Balor. They needed new weapons systems, new ships, and the people and equipment to build both.

  His Executive Officer grimaced, “We're supposed to get another forty personnel in tomorrow.”

  “They'll be reassigned,” Daniel said with a shrug. “We're short-handed, but we'll manage.” As it was, he'd been surprised at the slow trickle of sailors to the vessel. Their entire Marine contingent had showed up, everyone but Lieutenant Thomas, but they still had only token presences in several departments.

  “We'll need to do some balancing and transfers throughout the ship,” Daniel said. “If necessary, I've been authorized to pull from the Regent and Crossbow. I'd prefer not to do that since both ships are also low on personnel.” Both destroyers had small crews to begin with as well as being short of their full complements. In fact, most of the Fleet was low. Many of the Dreyfus Fleet men and women had left the military after the full extent of Admiral Dreyfus's betrayal became evident.

  While the Fleet had begun to recruit to make up for those losses, the flood of new systems signing on to the United Colonies had stretched their ships and personnel very thin.

  “Right, sir,” Daniel's XO made a face, “I'm pretty certain you'll say 'I told you so' but I'm going to have to recommend shuffling a few of our junior officers as a result.”

  “Oh?” Daniel asked.

  Commander Bowder sighed, “We need an officer with the Marines, for command authority if nothing else.” That was a vital slot. Normally a Marine Lieutenant would have that duty, as a direct representative for a ship's Captain. ““Ensign Shan is probably our best bet. She served in Tehran's resistance and has combat experience. Since we'll be short several other officers, I may pull Ensign Giovanni out of communications. Lieutenant Cassat will need help in sensors.”

  Daniel nodded in reply at that. In reality, the ship could function fine with just the one officer in communications... as long as that officer had a well-trained section and knew his job well. Lieutenant Busch hadn't particularly impressed him so far, unfortunately. He knew his technical skills very well... but his personal skills left something to be desired. Daniel was willing to let his XO handle that issue... as long as it did get handled. “Very well,” Daniel said. “Let me know before you make any final changes.”

  He pulled up a list of their supplies, “Now then, let's dig into our supply situation...”

  ***

  Chapter III

  UCS Constellation, Shadow Space

  July 5,2407

  Staff Sergeant Dawn Witzke dove through the doorway and opened up with her Nova Roma M-121 carbine. Two of the enemy went down while the third returned fire from the opposite side. Dawn cleared the doorway, though and two sharp shots from over her shoulder took him town as Corporal Arduino engaged.

  She and her squad cleared the rest of the compartment and she kicked weapons away from the downed enemy as she passed, sweeping for any potential threats. “Bulldog Two Six, room is secure, moving on,” she said, even as her squad reported in.

  Dawn and her entry team stacked on the next door. Close quarters combat was always hard and vicious, but the smoother her team moved, the less time it gave their enemies to respond and the less causalities they would take.

  Their briefing had suggested five enemies and so far they had encountered one on outer security, the three in the previous room, and that left one more. “Breach!” Dawn shouted even as Lance Corporal Sutton detonated the breach charge. Dawn followed the blast wave in and swept for more targets.

  “Trap!” One of the security team shouted from behind her just as she finished moving into the next room. A heartbeat later she heard a detonation and her heads up display showed three of her four Marine security team were down. She faltered for just a second and that was when the last enemy opened up.

  The enemy rounds caught her from her left side and she felt the hard, sharp impacts, a spray of automatic fire that had to have come from a machine gun. Dawn went down and behind her, Corporal Arduino fell. Lance Corporal Sutton and Private Antio both fell a moment later.

  The machine gun fell silent and Dawn grimaced as she heard Ensign Shan sigh, “Well, that could have gone better.”

  Dawn waited as patiently as she could while the Ensign and the Fleet Corpsman came over and gave them antidotes for the paralytic training rounds. As the drugs cleared her system, she sat up, wincing at the bruises where the training rounds had found gaps in her armor. She glared over at the one surviving enemy. “That was a dirty trick.”

  “You should be saying, 'that was a dirty trick, ma'am,'” Ensign Shan said. “And you'd be right, it was a dirty trick.”

  The surviving Opposing Force member stood from behind her makeshift gun pit. The short woman wore combat armor identical to Dawn's, other than red markings to show that she was a hostile. “Well,” the officer said, “you relied on the breach charge to disorient your enemy targets in your previous engagements and speed rather than overwhelming force to bring down your targets. There was only one way in and out of this room and you'd given me just enough time to ready myself.”

  Dawn grimaced, but she didn't argue. There would be a more formal after action review from the drill later on... but this was the first time her squad had failed to complete the objective. She knew training should be hard... but she hated it when she didn't win.

  “What about the trap in the outer room?” Dawn asked looking back at where her secu
rity team were starting to stand up.

  “One of the outer OPFOR had a suicide device, which I detonated when your men moved him,” the officer replied. “I waited to detonate it until after you came in on the breach in order to provide maximum disruption.”

  Dawn bit her tongue. Suicide devices like that were rarely used by conventional forces. Then again, she supposed they should train for all contingencies. “And the machine gun?” She couldn't help but ask.

  “I just modified a standard Freedom Arms M-11,” Ensign Shan replied. “Took me fifteen minutes in the machine shop. It shoots two-thousand rounds a minute, but you need a mount to steady it when you fire that way.”

  Crap, Dawn thought, that's just the kind of thing some back-world insurgent could do, too. The M-11 was one of the most common rifles in the known universe, Freedom Arms made millions of the rifles and they sold to just about everyone. Clearly Ensign Shan had drawn from her personal experience.

  “Thank you for your assistance, Ensign Giovanni,” Ensign Shan said. “We'll let First Squad take their run at the exercise and then we'll do a review.”

  Dawn liked Staff Sergeant Grable. He was a good non-commissioned officer and she trusted him to have her back. Even so, she hoped he got reamed just as bad as she had.

  ***

  “So,” Gunnery Sergeant Tam grunted, “What did we learn?”

  “That Ensign Shan and Ensign Giovanni are conniving,” Lance Corporal Sutton muttered from behind Dawn.

  “What was that Staff Sergeant?”

  “Just congratulating the Ensign on an excellent training scenario, Gunny,” Sutton replied.

  Dawn restrained a sigh as Gunny Tam glared at her Lance Corporal. She was going to have to bail him out of an ass-chewing. She opened her mouth to speak, but then Ensign Shan did.

  “I planned that scenario from an actual event on Tehran during the Chxor occupation,” Ensign Shan said. “I purposefully used the actual name of the terrorist organization and details from the scenario in the briefing you received, so that you could do research.”