Planet Killer (A Captain's Crucible Book 4)

by Isaac Hooke

  “That could very well be true,” Robert said. “But I’m not so sure. It seems to me like they were helping us get back, in their own way. After that scavenger ship attacked, we were completely stranded. If 12.5.2 hadn’t arrived, we would have never made it here.”

  “Well,” Jonathan said. “I’m very glad the Elder machinations worked in your favor that time. By the way, how goes the reverse engineering of the alien fighters?”

  “Harv has made basically zero progress,” Robert replied. Lieutenant Harv Boroker was the chief weapons engineer.

  “Does he want to give another group of engineers in the fleet a crack at them?”

  “He says he’s close to a breakthrough,” Robert replied.

  Jonathan chuckled. “He said that the last time I talked to him all those months ago. When we reestablish contact with NAVCENT, I have no doubt we’ll have to give up those fighters to any reinforcements, for eventual handover to the fleet scientists. Probably have to give away a few of the active alien fighters, too.”

  “Is that what happened to the humanoid environmental suit you brought back from the Elder galaxy?” Jonathan said. “And the Raakarr darkness device?”

  “Those are the property of NAVCENT now, yes.”

  “I don’t suppose you know if the fleet scientists made any headway on them?” Robert asked.

  “No idea,” Jonathan said. “The admiral hasn’t kept me in the loop. Then again, she probably doesn’t know herself. Even so, I somehow doubt their scientists are making much progress on reverse-engineering the alien tech, given how much trouble Harv is having, and he’s one of the smartest people I know.” Jonathan folded his arms and glanced at the bulkheads of his office. “I still can’t believe I’m back aboard the Callaway. And in command. It all feels like a dream to me. I never thought I’d see the day.”

  “It’s a little surreal to me as well, Captain,” Robert replied. “But I have to ask you now to return the favor, and update me on what’s happened during the long months I’ve been away. I take it your inquiry went well?”

  “There was no inquiry,” Jonathan said. “NAVCENT skipped straight to a court-martial.”

  Robert sat up straighter. “You’re joking. But the court acquitted you?”

  “The court did, yes,” Jonathan said.

  “Well there you go,” Robert said. “I told you that you had nothing to worry about.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Jonathan said. “They were fairly serious about the charges. For a while there it seemed like I was going to lose. Especially considering that they had regenerated Maxwell from the backup copy of the cores, and brought him out to testify against me.”

  Robert glanced toward the ceiling and said, in mock seriousness: “How could you, Maxwell?”

  “My apologies, sirs,” the Callaway’s AI responded via their aReals.

  “Ah, Maxwell,” Jonathan said. “How are you, my old toaster?”

  “I’m fine,” the voice of the Callaway’s AI responded. “I’ve missed burning toast for you, sir.”

  “And I’ve missed scraping the burned portions away.”

  “Did Rail and Rodriguez testify?” Robert asked, obviously wanting to get back on topic.

  “They did, but Rail had a change of heart and testified for me rather than against. Either way, my lawyer managed to get me off. I’ll get you access to the trial logs if you’d like to view it.”

  “I would, sir, thank you,” Robert said.

  “I also had a word with Levieson, regarding your relief of Scott from command. The vice admiral reviewed the footage from Maxwell’s core, and it was obvious to him that Scott unduly froze up in the middle of the battle. He’s seen to it that you won’t face charges, or even an inquiry. Scott, on the other hand, has a full inquiry scheduled for tomorrow morning aboard the admiral’s ship.”

  “Probably a good thing,” Robert said. “Maxwell caught him trying to stir dissent among the crew. I had to confine him to quarters for plotting sedition, along with a handful of the crew.”

  Jonathan shook his head. He remembered the two MAs Robert had placed, one at the entrance to the bridge officers’ staterooms, and the other outside his own quarters. “You really did have it bad out there, didn’t you?”

  “It was one of the worst two months of my career,” Robert replied. “So what else happened after you returned to our galaxy?”

  Jonathan told him of the fierce resistance the Talon had encountered in the border systems, culminating in the arrival of Battle Group 35.1. He told of his incarceration and subsequent acquittal, and then the long return voyage to Vega 951.

  “So wait, you haven’t actually mentioned why you’ve come back to Vega 951,” Robert said. “What is our mission? Or is that classified?”

  “You’re my first officer,” Jonathan said. “I’m certainly allowed to reveal our mission to you.” He inhaled deeply, and let the air our just as forcefully. “We’re here to destroy a key Raakarr colony world, as a form of deterrence to prevent the Raakarr from ever attempting an incursion into our space again. The Dammerung carries a planet killer.”

  “A planet killer?” Robert said. “So we’ve made another, then.”

  “We have.”

  “What’s the civilian population of this colony world we intend to destroy?” Robert asked.

  “Five million.”

  Robert seemed stunned. “We’re going to kill five million civilians?”

  “Alien civilians,” Jonathan clarified.

  “What difference does it make?” Robert said. “We’ve already had discussions about this in the past. Human or alien, that number of deaths can never be justified.”

  “Don’t forget, they destroyed all the colony worlds between Prius 3 and Beta Ursae Majoris,” Jonathan said. “The loss in human lives measures in the hundreds of thousands.”

  “That still doesn’t justify our actions,” Robert said. “Even if we were only planning to kill an equal number of aliens, which we’re obviously not. Five million.” He shook his head. “We can’t participate in this.”

  Jonathan nodded slowly. “I suspected you wouldn’t agree. I didn’t at first, either. But you have to look at it from the point of view of the fleet. If we don’t do this, there’s a good chance the Raakarr will attack us again. And instead of five million alien lives lost to a preemptive strike, five million—or more—human lives will be lost.”

  “Can’t we just increase border security?” Robert said. “Place more ships in the perimeter territories?”

  “We could,” Jonathan said. “But I suspect NAVCENT is worried they’ll simply overwhelm any perimeter territories. I think another objective is to secure a foothold in Raakarr territory so that we’ll have advance warning of future incursions.”

  “What’s to stop them from staging a revenge attack at some point?”

  “According to Valor,” Jonathan said. “The colony we’re destroying produces much of the fuel the Raakarr use for their starships. It plays the same role Tau Ceti does for the Sino-Koreans. We’ll be severely crippling them by destroying that colony and occupying the system.” When Robert hesitated, Jonathan continued the moral assault. “Valor shared with us the total Raakarr population number... it’s about the same as humanity. A loss of five million is equivalent to less than 0.005% of their population.”

  “According to Valor,” Robert said. “Valor... never have we put so much trust in the word of an alien. Keeping in mind that we can’t communicate with that alien directly. Who knows how much Barrick has been bending the truth, either unintentionally by misunderstanding them, or intentionally?”

  “We can’t know,” Jonathan said. “Not until Wethersfield works out a way to translate their language directly.”

  “Wethersfield?”

  “The official liaison officer aboard the Talon,” Jonathan explained. “An Artificial.”

  “And how long until the Artificial has a translation solution in place?”

  “Another year, at least,�
� Jonathan said.

  Robert shook his head. “I still can’t believe you’re going to take this lying down. That you’re not fighting this order.”

  “I’ve already had one court martial in my career, Robert,” Jonathan said. “And that was quite enough. I’m not in the mood for another. Look. If this is a mission you can’t perform, I’m prepared to relieve you of your duty. And that’s not a threat, but a mercy.”

  “No, I’ll do it,” Robert said. “You’ll need me at your side now more than ever. But I’ll have to note my disapproval in the logs.”

  “I’d expect no less,” Jonathan told the commander.

  “One question,” Robert said. “How do we know that deploying the planet killer to that colony world won’t piss off the Elder? They did say they would be watching to see if we were worthy of the weapon.”

  “The converse could also be argued,” Jonathan said. “How do we know the Elder won’t be offended if we don’t deploy the weapon against the Raakarr? We really have no idea either way, so we can’t let it factor into our decision-making. If the Elder attack us in retribution for what we do or do not do, then we’ll fight them and that’s all there is to it. But until then we can’t worry about whether every little decision we make is going to piss them off.” He knew his words echoed what the vice admiral had told him in the previous months, but Jonathan had come to believe them himself.

  The captain stood. “Well, we should really wrap it up here. The admiral’s conference is in an hour and a half. I’d like to have a short meeting with the department heads, and then make an announcement to the crew before then. Dismissed, Commander.”

  eighteen

  Jonathan conducted his virtual meeting with the department heads and made plans to personally follow up with most of them. He initiated a similar call with the captains of Task Group 72.5 and updated them on the mission. Like Robert, a few of the captains expressed disapproval regarding the planned civilian casualties, but for the most part they accepted the task ahead of them stoically. At the meeting, the Talon, represented by Wethersfield, reported preliminary results from the scan of the system beyond 3-Vega. Jonathan forwarded the data to Admiral Ford.

  When that was done, Jonathan spoke over the main circuit to the crew and asked for their patience in the months ahead.

  “I know it seems like it’s been an eternity since you’ve all had leave,” Jonathan said after officially announcing his return. “But I ask for your patience in the days to come. We’re on an important mission against the enemies of humanity. We must all remain vigilant for a while longer. And if you want the truth, it will probably be at least another year, if not longer, before any of us goes home. It’s a small price to pay for the safety of Earth and its colonies. Nonetheless, I’ve seen to it that you’ll all be given extra rejuvenation credits as compensation for your efforts and devotion. Captain Dallas out.”

  At the requisite hour, Jonathan joined the fleet-wide meeting of the captains hosted by Admiral Ford, and took his place around the virtual conference table.

  “Greetings Captains,” Ford said, on her feet at the head of the table. “And thank you. Your performance and devotion to duty thus far have proven exemplary. I have never been more proud of a fleet.” After another minute of preamble, mostly devoted to welcoming and introducing the new members of the fleet, she switched gears. “3-Vega has thrown a small wrench in our plans. The Talon has completed a preliminary scan of the system beyond the wormhole, and they’ve detected Raakarr comm node equivalents, a few shipyards on an asteroid and a moon, and several dart vessels. The latter are situated near a farther Slipstream roughly two point two billion kilometers from the endpoint, and so far the enemy doesn’t seem to be preparing for another attack from that vector. Captain Dallas reports that our Zarafe allies are attempting to reprogram one of their fighters to act as a comm node; they intend to dispatch it into 3-Vega, where it will pass in and out throughout the standard day, giving us much needed warning of any incoming attacks. If the reprogramming proves successful, we’ll have the Talon install a similar fighter at 2-Vega.

  “In the meantime, we’ll leave a contingent of ten destroyers guarding the entrance, in addition to the mines. I’ve already dispatched another ten ships to re-mine 2-Vega and initiate similar guard duties.”

  “We saw how well mines worked the last time,” Bane said.

  “At least it will slow them down,” Levieson said. “In addition to offering another early warning of attack.”

  “What about the mission?” Bane said.

  “I’m operating under the assumption that the mission is still a go. We’ll complete the Gates at 1-Vega and 2-Vega, and when communication is restored with NAVCENT, you’ll be the first to know if our mission status changes.”

  The admiral discussed the shifting logistics of the operation thereafter, and listened to casualty reports. She assigned Rodriguez the Dagger, and Rail the Salvador, their old commands in Task Group 72.5. The admiral also transferred Chief Galaal and LPO Johnson of the MOTHs from the Leviathan to the Callaway, because the former vessel had too many MOTHs aboard, and Jonathan would “need someone with the ability to pilot the Knight mechs we’re going to be sending you.”

  In the following days the fleet contributed materials, engineers and robots to help initiate repairs on some of the Callaway’s deferred damage, which included the bank of still-offline port and starboard Vipers and one of the reactors. The fleet also shared with them Avenger fighters, nukes and kinetic kills, which Jonathan distributed evenly among Task Group 72.5. He was also given the promised Knight mechs, though he doubted there would be a need to utilize them. Lieutenant Connie Myers requested a transfer to the Callaway and got it, so that the cruiser once more had its old chief scientist aboard.

  Those first days passed in a blur as Jonathan readjusted himself to life aboard the Callaway. At times he still couldn’t believe he was back, but the feeling soon subsided as he fell into his usual routine as captain. He had wanted to continue his psi defense lessons, but the sheer exhaustion he felt at the end of each day made him forgo the trainings, and a few times he even forgot about them entirely. Eventually he dismissed the routines from his mind entirely: there didn’t seem much point in them without a telepath currently aboard. And once he had his compartment lined with psi shielding, as per the new recommended spec, it wouldn’t matter anyway.

  With Connie aboard the Callaway and under his command, he directed the chief scientist to work on a more permanent solution to the problem of penetrating the Raakarr darkness shields. The current solution required them to steal a tartaan and reprogram the laser rifles of any combat troops to match its settings, and hope that the Raakarr didn’t change the modulation frequency of their darkness shields in the interim. She had some ideas involving local beam LIDAR, so Jonathan put her in touch with Barrick and ordered the telepath to get the Zarafe to reveal as much as they would, which Barrick thought would be very little. Barrick promised he would try to stash some tartaans aboard a Dragonfly shuttle during one of the supply runs so that she would have something to experiment with.

  When he was properly readjusted, Jonathan invited Stanley, Robert and his wife Bridgette to join him in the captain’s mess. The ship’s food stores had been fully replenished courtesy of the fleet, and the AI chef had gone all out, preparing a meal of Canard à l’Orange with all the trimmings.

  A culinary robot served Jonathan a piece of the roast duck, which was sprinkled with judicious amounts of rosemary, thyme and marjoram sprigs. The thick orange sauce oozed down the meat while the robot filled Jonathan’s plate with the sides: smoked garlic mashed potatoes, cardamom-glazed carrots, and creamed chard.

  Jonathan waited until the robot served the others, and then he cut himself a piece of the duck and took a bite. The gamey flavor of the meat was tempered by the orange sauce, which contained hints of caramelized sugar and rosemary.

  “Superb,” Robert said after sampling his own duck.

  “Stupendo
us,” Jonathan agreed. “The chef has really outdone itself this time.”

  “It’s good,” Bridgette said.

  Jonathan glanced at Stanley, but the chief engineer merely grunted.

  They ate in silence for a few moments.

  “Did they learn how to make anything other than gruel aboard the Talon?” Bridgette asked.

  “No,” Jonathan said. “I can’t tell you how good it is to eat real food again.”

  “Oh, I understand completely,” Bridgette said.

  Robert reached across to her, and Jonathan thought the commander was holding her hand under the table. Was she still traumatized by her kidnapping and confinement aboard the alien vessel, even after all that time? Probably. It couldn’t have been easy, especially considering she was pregnant at the time.

  “Pity we only have water to drink,” Stanley commented.

  “I’m sure you’ll remedy that later,” Robert said.

  Stanley smiled sardonically. “I’m sure I will.” The chief engineer downed a mouthful of creamed chard and then turned his attention toward Jonathan. “I’m not sure whether to be happy you’re back. Or disappointed.”

  Jonathan glanced at the lieutenant commander and when he finished his current mouthful he said: “Oh?”

  “I suppose on the plus side,” Stanley continued. “We get to dine on extravagant meals in the captain’s mess on occasion—when you deign to invite us, that is. Robert refused to eat anywhere else but Wardroom Five when he was in command of the Callaway. Like he didn’t really feel he was the true captain. I’m telling you, I was so getting sick of the food, I sometimes sneaked down to mess hall three just for a change.”