by David Buck
Several minutes of static buzzed through the communications line before Captain Hammond himself replied with considerable irritation.
‘Admiral, now what is this all about? We have another busy trade run planned and we are picking up further high grade ore from our mines. Also I am moving some of my equipment further into space to protect it from being possibly later destroyed.’
Mary waited a few seconds to ensure Hammond had stopped speaking before she spoke again.
‘Captain Hammond, I do note your earlier report but I reject the statements you made with regards to training and a ship inspection. Therefore you will alter course immediately to dock at the Tau Ceti space dock. Note that I will leave with the fleet in a week and I am in no mood to be mucked around.’
Another pause came over the communications line before Hammond replied again with resignation evident in his voice.
‘Okay, Okay, We will pull in at the space dock as ordered in about three hours. Now while we are there I will show you over the ship as we have made some further changes.’
Mary thanked Captain Hammond and arranged to go aboard in four hours time. She sat back and thought unsuccessfully for a moment what the changes on the mining ship would involve. She then turned her attention back to the multitude of other jobs that were awaiting her decisions, and took in the ships’ engineering officer who was trying to catch her attention.
‘Well Lieutenant Grayson, spit it out. So have you managed to locate three more shields you need for the last two new destroyers we are taking with us?’
The capable and usually confident lieutenant looked both flustered and annoyed as he replied.
‘Sorry Admiral, the last transport that arrived did not have the three shields onboard. From what I can tell they will not arrive until after the fleet leaves.’
Mary ran her fingers through her long brown hair in exasperation as she paused to think before she replied.
‘I am going to look up fleet logistics when I get back to Earth and they will not enjoy the visit. Surely we can arrange an alternative lieutenant?’
Both the admiral and the lieutenant then looked at the same time at the approaching mining ship on the view screen, before the admiral spoke again.
‘Lieutenant, you will come with me to inspect the shields of Hammond’s miner to see if we can use them. I am sure that is the least the captain can do for his earlier stubbornness.’
Four hours later the lieutenant joined the admiral, as she led several other junior officers aboard the Long Reach after delegating the repeated training exercise to another commander. She gave a polite nod to Captain Hammond who looked at her with some suspicion that she felt could turn to cold anger later. The captain gave her a brief overview as he led the space fleet officers down to the large cargo holds in the Long Reach.
‘The Long Reach is only a few years old and is one of the largest and fastest non military ships around. We even have destroyer rated guns in single mounts and good shields though our generator capacity is too light to allow us to operate as a fighting ship. Now Admiral I have recently made alterations to the sides of the holds and the significance should be apparent to you.’
In moments the new arrivals were being shown around the first cargo hold and they quickly agreed with the captain’s earlier comments. Lieutenant Grayson certainly picked up the point very quickly as he spoke.
‘Admiral, Captain, the four holds are arranged around the centre of the ship on the axis of the ship, as in most miners. The new large rails on the sides of the holds allow the Long Reach to carry four of the larger prospector ships with their manipulators and hold doors protected inside the bigger ship. Interestingly, their lasers, bigger shields and engines will remain outside the hold. Indeed the prospectors will function like Trader sneak ships in providing extra thrust and shielding.’
Captain Hammond gave the fleet lieutenant a look of approval as he replied.
‘Correct lieutenant, we can even launch the prospectors quickly at damaged enemy ships as they have a formidable cutting laser for use at close quarters.’
Mary led her officers around the hold and they verified the quality of the alterations even as an inventory of the ship was handed over. She cast a critical eye first over the readiness of the ship before she noted the spare parts listings. Without a word Mary handed to the data tablet over to Lieutenant Grayson who quickly verified the cross compatibility of the spares.
‘Admiral we can certainly use all those shields listed, the fusion generators are underpowered and the ship lacks spare lasers.’
Captain Hammond interjected angrily and his tall two metre frame loomed over the fleet officers.
‘Now just a minute, I do not care if you have emergency orders and can take what you want. You are not helping yourselves to my ship’s spare parts list….’
Admiral Neilson was having none of it though and kept her calm as she interjected in turn.
‘Captain, on the contrary we will help you more than you help us if you hear me out.’
Captain Hammond choked back his anger and glared at the admiral as she continued.
‘Now we are awaiting three of our new fast charging one gigawatt shields from Earth, and without them two of my destroyers are useless. You have five spare shields and I only need three immediately and you will get the new shields in exchange when they arrive.’
Hammond looked somewhat mollified as he took in the offer, and his shrewd merchants mind now took over as he changed tactics.
‘Look Admiral, my best shields are fitted on the ship and I should supply those shields. I was going to fit the spare older shields over the prospectors when they are docked as they have an onboard conduit that will allow them to be powered. Also would you supply me with any of your military issue lasers and fusion generators?’
Mary took a deep breath, decided to take a friendlier tone, and qualified what the miner captain was asking with a gentle warning.
‘Mark, you are generous to offer the best shields, but note there are restrictions on the use of space weapons by civilians. I will have to class you as an auxiliary and you will be given a fleet reserve captaincy. We do have the surplus equipment but you have not left yourself a lot of time to have it all installed on your ship.’
Mark looked chagrined as he spoke again.
‘Well Admiral, I was concerned that my ship would be drafted to go with your fleet and I was not going to allow that to occur.’
Mary noted the deflated attitude of the miner captain and kept her manner genial.
‘Well the only civilian ships we are taking have had a lot longer to be prepared, and they will be operated in part by fleet personnel. So your ship is reasonably safe from being requisitioned. However we are still concerned about Tau Ceti’s defences and your ships’ capabilities are a pleasant surprise.’
Mark now led Mary and her officers through a side door and they soon found themselves in a well appointed meeting room. After refreshments were offered they set about negotiating again with Mark speaking first with his hands half raised.
‘Okay Mary I agree to your offers and you will have the shields as soon as we can remove them. Also if the dockyard can change my lasers to double mounts and add several of the better generators it would improve my confidence immensely. Fortunately the mounts are easily changeable and the conduits will support the upgrades.’
Lieutenant Grayson whistled softly as he took in the upgrades and counted out the resulting armament tally as he reported.
‘Admiral the ship when it is fully fitted out will be stronger than two of our destroyers from a laser weapon perspective. The shields will total seven by one gigawatt shields, once the prospectors are fitted out, and the ship will have fourteen double mounts to give twenty eight lasers. As you know we only have four shields, and four double and four single lasers on the destroyers. Also the Long Reach will still be fast but not as quick to accelerate as the destroyers.’
Mary considered the information carefully and
several ideas came to mind. She quickly instructed Grayson and two other lieutenants to head off towards the dockyard office with concise instructions.
Finally Mary turned to regard Mark who calmly returned her gaze as she spoke.
‘Okay Mark, you now have an urgent upgrade in the pipeline for your ship, but there are three conditions to this arrangement. You will sign whatever paperwork we place in front of you, you will obey all orders given to you, and you will return the loaned weapons upon completion of service, however long that may be…..’
Without hesitation Mark stood and gave a passable salute to the admiral before he calmly replied.
‘Well as you would know I was in the fleet many years ago before I chose to go mining so it is no problem. Now we do have a shortage on the ship of weapons rated crew members.’
Mary in turn stood and returned the salute calmly before she replied.
‘Now Captain your auxiliary cruiser, for only a few Earth ships are stronger, will have around thirty fleet crew members brought onboard to look after your weapons. I will also supply you with a fleet officer for engineering, possibly Grayson, who has a varied background, plus a tactical officer if you have no objections.’
Mark replied that he was just getting around to that request as well and then stated he had no concerns before Mary spoke again.
‘Well your ship will be out of action for four to six weeks by my estimates as we make the changes. You are then to proceed to your mining station further out of the system to recover four suitable prospector drones. Unfortunately you will not have time now to move your other equipment and indeed I want you to focus your efforts on doing the following tasks.’
Mark listened avidly as Mary ran through a series of instructions on what she wanted the Long Reach to focus on if invaders arrived at the colony. The two of them then went through any last items of importance for the next half an hour, but the key points of the upgrade remained the same.
However Mark did come up with the idea to send a remote signal at four of his robot prospectors to head further into the Tau Ceti system to a rendezvous point. Mary also suggested he send a similar signal for his remaining mining prospectors to abandon the mining station and hide in the outer asteroid belt near a likely entry or exit point. After he led the admiral and her remaining officers back to the dockyard hatch, Mark evaluated as he strode back towards the bridge of the Long Reach that the admirals’ reputation as a hard nosed and brilliant fleet officer was well founded.
***
Chapter 3
Admiral Baunrus was talking with a pair of his researchers and quietly going over the reasons for the conquest of the former Dradfer colonies and later Earth. He looked across at the bridge timer and knew they would arrive at their destination shortly as he then gave a lengthy analysis.
‘Firstly, note that neither the Cephrit nor the Tilmud can interfere and if we retain most of our fleet we should be able to hang onto anything we seize. Otherwise either of the other two races will seize these worlds and our expansion zone will be compromised. The next reason is that the human population can grow very quickly and there is a chance they will number in the tens of billions in the foreseeable future. Now if the humans later colonise out in this direction then both us and the Tilmud will be at risk from them. Note that their world is truly staggering in biological diversity and this will surely threaten our own survival.’
The admiral listened patiently as the older researcher agreed with him, and then added a few points of his own after ensuring he waited for Baunrus to stop speaking.
‘Yes Admiral, I evaluate the same answers from the data we obtained at the Barus Research Institute. The humans appear still vulnerable as they are divided and they are always in conflict with one another. Also note that the humans are innovative as was proven when they drove away the Barus cruiser squadron.’
The researcher was too careful to mention how badly the Jerecab had faired by comparison many thousands of years ago when a Vorinne cruiser squadron first came to their home world. The researcher was about to continue, but a series of alarms sounded stridently around the bridge. Admiral Baunrus swiftly took command and barked a series of urgent orders to his squadron commanders as the armada arrived at the latest star system. The two researchers quickly fled the bridge as the flag ship urgently altered course.
The admiral now glared angrily around his bridge on his flagship, as the Jerecab armada moved away from the entry point for the star system and the frigate’s collision alarms were silenced. He watched as the lead scout ships increased their distance from the rest of his ships. The library data for the first of the former Dradfer colonies was confirmed as a system that held a barely habitable world. He knew that his race would have little interest as it was a cooler world with rather more ice than oceans or land, though this was not why he was upset.
Baunrus was really annoyed and alarmed by the recent alarms, as he knew that the commander of the left wing squadron had been tardy with his commands. The affected squadron had obviously drifted wide of its assigned station just before the hyper drive jump was initiated and the first ships left the previous star system. The resulting confusion had just led to three near collisions on arrival in the new system with other ships in the massive armada.
The Jerecab admiral pointedly berated the hapless squadron commander over the video link before demoting him to lieutenant. The sound of a laser pistol came across the video link as the former commander walked to the side of the bridge on his ship and sought to preserve his honour by taking his own life. After a few seconds a nervous lieutenant commander stood in front of the screen to report the expected and hoped for death to the admiral.
For his diligence the junior officer was rewarded both with a ship command and the command of the left wing squadron. The admiral turned from speaking with the new squadron commander to ask his communications officer to patch in the rest of the senior commanders.
The new commander, Neanres, kept his expressions neutral as the experienced commanders gave a quick start, followed by appraising and evaluating glances at his inclusion in the video conference. Neanres knew that the newly dead commander had been highly regarded by his peers and he would have to earn the respect of the other commanders. He was aware of their critical gaze even as he paid careful attention to the admiral.
Admiral wasted no time as he launched into a series of orders on how he wanted the first of the former Dradfer colonies searched. He felt a small amount of satisfaction as he noted that the senior commanders appeared to be especially attentive to his briefing. He also noted that none of them so much as asked a question and he felt that this was as it should be at all times.
***
Mary sat back tiredly in her command chair on the bridge of the destroyer Exeter and noted that her bridge crew also seemed tired, even if poised to respond to any threat. The still new and younger lieutenant commander, a tense John Griggs, eyed her with concern before he handed over his data tablet. Mary perused the tablet and stifled an oath before dropping the device in her lap. She then immediately requested a communications line to the destroyer Linares.
‘Admiral Neilson to Commander Ferguson, can you confirm the state of your second fusion reactor in terms of unacceptable temperature variances?’
The communications viewer was blank for several seconds, before the heavily bearded form of Stuart Ferguson came into view, and gave a puzzled reply.
‘Well Admiral, the diagnostics are also showing errors with the variances higher the more power we draw out of the second reactor, which is the new one by the way.’
Mary appeared thoughtful for several seconds, and John Griggs took the opportunity to offer an opinion.
‘Admiral, I have seen this before with the more recent reactors, and I led a team at Mars that isolated the problem as software related to the differing sensors we use between reactor revisions. We can prove this by idling down the reactor and accessing the reactor sensors individually based on their install dat
es. We are looking for an invalid mix of sensors.’
Mary now looked again at the data tablet for several seconds before handing it back to the now more relaxed lieutenant commander. She gave him a cool grin of appraisal that he nervously returned before he moved to his console nearby. Mary looked at her own navigation display as she now spoke to the patiently waiting commander.
‘Stuart, we will reduce speed again as you implement the lieutenant commander’s suggestions. John will also advise the other destroyers of the problem as an advisory.’
The fleet of forty human destroyers, flanked by a handful of older and smaller missile frigates and trailed by several large tankers, then slowed further as they continued past the outskirts of a star system sixty light years from Earth. The limited data from the new system indicated a common M class star in the system with a small terrestrial planet further in, and a gas giant that the fleet was altering course to bypass at a large distance.
Mary now asked a question of the navigation officer, Lieutenant Lara Samuels, who was diligently cataloguing what she could see of the star system.
‘Lieutenant, the system appears to be a moderate tactical risk profile based on our course now. So under exactly what circumstances would our presence in this system be unwise from a tactical perspective?’
The young lieutenant gave the admiral a tight smile as she responded carefully.
‘Well Admiral if we are close to the inner planet and an enemy fleet comes in from both sides of the gas giant at high speed we could risk being cut off from our escape route out of the system. If an attacking fleet was inside the line of the gas giant we would have problems deploying a defence as the inner system is not well charted yet.’
The lieutenant now kept silent and impassive as the admiral viewed the new system on her own console for several minutes before she replied.
‘Well lieutenant I am in agreement with you on your tactical evaluation, and well done with your accurate explanation. Now I will let you research the best way to drive out a fleet of twenty smaller ships, assuming both sides are roughly equal numbers, with minimal losses. You can submit this research to me on the next watch please.’