Carinae Sector: 02 - Admiral's Fury - Part 1 - Purple Blood

by David Buck

  ‘Attention, human admiral, the Jerecab may interdict these systems in days and are known to attack other races when they hold the military advantage. As an article of good faith between us you should also know they possess at least two hundred and fifty frigates in their armada. I suggest you withdraw and use all your ships to defend your home world.’

  Gindane now sat back to confer with her bridge crew as the two Barus cruisers slowed to the meeting point. The two human destroyers slowed to within a hundred kilometres and still had not yet replied to her messages. The Barus researcher was feeling rising concern at this ominous portent and after ten minutes she asked the communications officer to replay her two messages to the humans.

  After a few minutes, an image of a human female, in a sharp blue and grey uniform, came onto the screen and her reply came across clearly.

  ‘Captain Gindane, Admiral Mary Neilson from Earth. We thank you for the two messages and you are advised that what ever you say to us will stay confidential. We have not yet decided to leave this system as we are analysing your messages and information we already have available. Note that we are not considering attacking your fleet and we offer non aggression and neutrality to the Barus race. We will talk with you further after we have decided on our course of action in exploring these systems and confronting the Jerecab.’

  Gindane now considered the human message as the screen now went blank again. She evaluated that the humans would do well in galactic affairs if they could survive the attentions of the Jerecab. Now reassured that the humans would likely negotiate, she settled back to study the human message, as she felt the last sentence of the message now raised more questions.

  ***

  Mary Neilson looked around her bridge on the Exeter for a moment, before she confidently walked back into the meeting room and the waiting two senior admirals. She took her chair and noted the display on the screen showing the innermost or the most distant of the former Dradfer colonies from Earth.

  During the long journey the three admirals had renamed all the star systems, after either precious metals or precious stones, and Mary again looked over the complete list in front of her:

  The fourteen Dradfer colonies Human system name

  Innermost or most distant colonies

  One Pearl

  Two Opal

  Three Gold

  Four Ivory

  Six Diamond

  Nine Topaz

  Central colonies

  Five Silver

  Seven Emerald

  Eight Jade

  Outermost or closest to Earth colonies

  Ten Platinum

  Eleven Sapphire

  Twelve Aquamarine

  Thirteen Onyx

  Fourteen Zircon

  Note that four other nearby star systems hold worlds shattered by the overlords.

  ***

  Mary knew that the innermost worlds would be the worlds the Jerecab would first claim if they were indeed on their way. The view screen now split to show the three central star systems, with most of the sensor data listing details for the current Emerald system. The sub cluster were the humans arrived held the five remaining former Dradfer colonies listed as numbers ten to fourteen inclusive. Mary looked over the list in thought and commented.

  ‘The renaming will help as we are basing the names on attributes of planets in these systems. For example the Traders listed a water world for system twelve and so we renamed it Aquamarine. All the other systems listed are intact and even the four systems with planets destroyed by the Zronte are as described.’

  Thomas Stanford also looked at another smaller screen in front of him showing a copy of the Trader information about these worlds. He looked at the three central star systems again from an evolving tactical perspective as he replied.

  ‘Well the information we already have from the Traders appears to be largely correct as you have mentioned Mary. At this point we should be grateful they came to our world one hundred and fifty years ago, for I would hate to think of the Jerecab attacking if we were still confined to the solar system. I recommend we hold the centre cluster for as long as we can before we fall back to the larger cluster on the way back home.’

  John Beresford stood and reviewed for several minutes what they had surmised over the last few days. The urbane and gifted fleet officer now offered a pithy observation.

  ‘The technical data we have is very accurate and we have a good match as you stated Thomas. I am most concerned with how the estimations of the Traders and Barus unfortunately agree about the nature of the Jerecab. However our political leaders insist that we offer a peace treaty to the Jerecab, even if we now know this is unlikely to occur.’

  Mary smiled in quiet concern at both Thomas and John and now ventured her own recommendations.

  ‘Now we are in contact with yet another race and are reasonable certain that the Jerecab will fight. I recommend that both of you go across to the destroyer Cannes when she comes alongside at the first opportunity. I will give orders for the Linares to come forward and I will withdraw the Exeter after you both transfer.’

  John suppressed a wry grimace as he gave his assent with a qualified observation.

  ‘I agree, and Mary you should have a powerful counter ready to go, and for obvious reasons we do not require the details. You are now in covert command of our fleet and you will make your own decisions. Thomas and I will misdirect and delay the Jerecab to the best of our abilities.’

  Mary sombrely listened before she again gave voice to her chief source of angst.

  ‘We now know that the Jerecab will attack, surely we should just treat them as hostile right from the onset of encountering them?’

  Thomas paused from packing his backpack and looked across at John with a calculating look before he quietly replied.

  ‘Mary your objection is noted and commended for the record, however our decision to adhere to our political instructions is resolute. We also have to show the galactic races that we observe a rule of law even to our own likely detriment. The crews of the Linares and the Cannes are all volunteers for this reason. You have your orders and good luck Admiral.’

  Mary now silently trailed the two senior admirals from her bridge down to the hangar bay. She decided that protocol could be damned and gave both men a quick embrace before she braced and saluted them both. No one had trusted themselves to speak, and in moments Thomas and John had boarded a shuttle craft and were making the short journey across to the approaching destroyer Cannes.

  Mary sombrely retraced her path to the bridge and her command chair, and then sat back for a few minutes to recall her long years in the fleet. Always it seemed to her that both John and Thomas had been strong presences in her life as they all sought to build up Earth’s defences. Mary gave a quiet prayer for their safety and that of the volunteer crews of the two destroyers. She then called up her console screen and issued her first orders as admiral of the fleet.

  ‘Ensure full encoding protocol on all further transmissions between our ships. We will take the Exeter and the rest of the ships here back to the rest of the fleet at the refinery location. Hopefully the other reconnaissance ships will have returned and we can begin our preparations for delaying the Jerecab.’

  The human bridge crew flashed anxious glances at one another as they kept at their tasks over their consoles. Mary noted their mood, but knew that now was not the time to comment about their situation. The Exeter took two hours to rejoin the rest of their ships at the hyper point, while the Cannes and the Linares remained behind in the star system. Soon afterwards the Exeter led off the other ships as they moved towards the hyper jump point for the Emerald system.

  A series of bright lights crowned the fleet of human ships as they left, and Gindane quietly reviewed the changed situation. She considered that Omerio with his full military training might see something she had missed, even as she spoke on the communications channel to the two male human admirals that had recently introduced themselves. She wonder
ed idly if the human female she had spoken to was the senior officer or the junior officer. Her thoughts came back to the more immediate concerns as her tactical officer came forward with yet another report.

  ***

  Commander Joel Everson rechecked the sensor data arriving on the bridge of the Auckland himself, as he was sceptical about the lack of escort for the obviously civilian ships further inside the star system. He had earlier ordered the other two destroyers to remain in formation with him as they skirted the edge of the Ivory star system.

  By habit, he also rechecked the estimated distance and time to the hyper drive point as Admiral Neilson’s instructions had stressed that important requirement. Joel also looked over the fuel status of all three ships with satisfaction, as they had been the first destroyers to be fully refuelled when the full fleet had earlier arrived at the Platinum system.

  A series of incoming signals from the Tokyo and the Newport were relayed to a side console near his command chair, and he considered them impassively before he spoke.

  ‘Lieutenant, raise a channel to both our other ships and ensure the transmission is encrypted.’

  After getting a nod of acknowledgement, Joel turned and spoke to the other two commanders.

  ‘I see we are in agreement with each other about these ships present in this system with only two Jerecab frigates present, as the other twelve ships appear to be their armed freighters or lifters. We will transmit the neutrality and non aggression clauses but we will not get with two hundred million kilometres of the Jerecab at all times.’

  With acknowledgements coming from the other two commanders, Joel had the clauses sent off to the Jerecab and continued to diligently analyse the sensor information as the three destroyers cautiously edged into the star system. He noted that one of the Jerecab atmospheric lifters had just flown up from the surface to orbit around the second planet, a terrestrial planet two thirds the size of Earth. The commander noted the close correlation between the old Trader information he had and what their latest scans could tell him about the planet.

  Obviously the Jerecab had just commencing refining operations on the planet, as several other lifters appeared to be constructing an orbital tank farm in high orbit around the planet. To keep the bridge alert he now spoke to Lieutenant Nick Schrader by way of a challenge.

  ‘So Lieutenant, in light of the Admiral’s instructions what is an acceptable attack vector for us against these ships? Also what other alternatives open to us at this stage?’

  The tactical officer only paused long enough to make his own time and distance calculations before he replied.

  ‘Commander we are over two hours and four hundred million kilometres short of an intercept based on current standing orders. Also we cannot engage any stragglers as we are not at war at this stage with the Jerecab.’

  Joel gave Nick a curt nod of approval as he glanced around the bridge. Joel then spoke again as he indicated a new location on the tactical overlay for the star system.

  ‘Succinct as always Lieutenant, now given the marked location, I want a time and distance calculation from all officers present for the hyper drive point at flank speed. You are to assume two scenarios consisting of several Jerecab ships arriving from these points…’

  The bridge crew kept about their tasks in scanning the system as Nick divided them up into two teams and they worked in relays on the complex problem. Joel sat back in his command chair and considered the message timer in brooding silence, as his earlier peace clause messages were still crossing the star system to the Jerecab. He told himself that he was as worried about them not replying at all as he was about increased numbers of their ships suddenly arriving at the star system.

  Commander Neanres anxiously eyed the signals from the three distant and strange ships his frigate had detected. The resemblances of these unknown ships to the dangerous Trader sneak ships they obviously were modelled upon were uncanny. He noted the greater size, speed and mass of these probably human vessels with considerable unease. The Jerecab commander had only one other frigate with him as the entire armada was preparing an ambush that would likely to destroy the humans closer to their home world. He noted the signal structure matched an older but still acceptable format for stating neutrality and non aggression, and he had the presence of mind to append the records to his own secure personal storage. The commander knew that if senior galactic races made a formal inquiry into the actions of the Jerecab it would be too late to help the humans, but his own diligence could still save the lives of himself and his crew.

  The commander then noted a questioning look from the communications officer and he sat back to twist his long whiskers in amusement at the lieutenant’s discomfort. Neanres knew that many of the junior officers held the fleet admiral in both high awe of his skills and abject fear of his rage. He pushed that observation to one side as he now gave curt and specific instructions to the still anxious lieutenant.

  ‘We transmit nothing to the humans; I repeat we make no transmissions at all. Note that we will not actively scan the destroyers as I do not want to trigger an attack. Finally we record all human transmissions for later analysis. The admiral has his own views but I command here and this is what we are going to do.’

  The bridge crew kept their eyes down as they were well aware that the commander, by convention, was the only armed officer allowed on the bridge of the Jerecab frigate. By habit Neanres caressed the holstered laser pistol he had inherited from the previous commander as he scanned the latest information on the human ships. He was quite concerned about what he could glean from this limited information. For a moment he quickly evaluated then discarded the observation that the humans appeared to be dealing from a position of strength.

  Neanres made a series of idle observations by habit around his bridge, and noted that the crew both listened in silence and kept about their duties.

  ‘We know from our own limited intelligence from the Barus, that the researchers had spoken of the humans being planet bound on one home world one hundred and fifty years ago. Yet already the humans had travelled one hundred light years out into the galaxy. We should be comforted by the fact that no matter how fast these humans had developed they could only have a finite number of these ships backed by their home world and little else.’

  Neanres sat back to consider the situation further, and he noted that the humans appeared to be coming no closer, and were in fact now moving back out to another hyper drive point to one side of their entry point into the system. He took the opportunity to do his own time and distance study, and the figures he calculated to the hyper drive point made him wince.

  The Jerecab had assumed that their frigates would be faster than any larger ships they might encounter, but if his calculations were correct these human destroyers would be at least as fast as his frigate. Idly he wondered if the humans had traded off on weapons and shields to obtain this high speed. However as he looked at length over the first detailed images of the three destroyers he now lashed his long green dander coated tail in a rage that the bridge crew took pains to ignore.

  ‘First we establish that these new ships are fast before we then establish that they are well armed. If they are also heavily shielded then they will not be easy to destroy. At least they have not actively scanned our ships so they at least know how to adhere to galactic protocols.’

  Neanres sat back to consider all this new information, as he knew that Admiral Baunrus would be seeking out the humans in other Dradfer star systems. He got the inkling that he was overlooking something vital, but for all his recent insight then anger he could not establish what was bothering him about this situation.

  Back onboard the Auckland, Joel Everson looked at the expired timer count with mixed feelings. He soon gave the expected order as the three human destroyers continued to swing outward towards the hyper drive point.

  ‘Well we have established both that this system is a main refuelling point and that the Jerecab have not transmitted neutrality or non a
ggression clauses. We will go into hyper space shortly to continue our mission.’

  The commander sat back and reviewed the information sadly, as he was well aware of the potential sacrifice in lives they could soon be making. Two more hours crept slowly along before arcs of light surrounded each of the three destroyers as they left the star system.

  After a lengthy wait to ensure an ambush was not apparent, Neanres sent the other frigate present off on the long journey to find Admiral Baunrus. As the Jerecab commander sat back in his chair he again scanned through the long range images of the human ships with renewed concentration.

  ***

  Mary Neilson strode in deep thought back to her cabin to have a few hours sleep and freshen up as her fleet again entered hyper space. The fourteen destroyers had briefly re-entered the Platinum star system and had quickly transferred across to another hyper drive point that took them to a remote star system seven light years distant. The earlier forays on the approaches to colonies had paid dividends and they had located several large ice asteroids in the outer halo of the remote system. The fleet had selected one of these asteroids, now designated Echelon, as their main resupply base. After a quick meal and shower Mary turned in to get sleep after first quickly verifying the status of the destroyers.

  Mary had then looked at an image from one of the external cameras and admired for several moments the remote beauty of the star system the fleet was transiting. Now satisfied that everything was satisfactory, Mary looked longingly at a large picture of her husband Mark and her now grown children as she drifted off to sleep.

  Several hours later, Admiral Baunrus sat back and glared in open challenge around the bridge of his flag ship. He had brought the bulk of the armada, comprising of two hundred ships straight at the expected entry point for the humans in the Platinum system. He was hoping to catch them by surprise and end their miserable existences immediately before he then claimed their home world.