“Would you pour the wine?” asked Layla.
Derrick took the bottle from the ice and opened it. He then poured modest glasses for all three of them.
“Let’s eat!” said Krista, as she sat. “I’m starving.”
Layla laughed. “You’re always hungry. I don’t see how you stay so slim.”
“Exercise,” replied Krista, as she filled her plate. “I can eat all I want as long as I follow my workout routine.”
Derrick smiled to himself. The two Princesses, when they were by themselves, seemed like any other young women.
They continued to eat their meal and to engage in small talk. Every so often all three of them would burst out laughing.
When the meal was over, Krista volunteered to clear the table. Layla led Derrick back into the living area, and both sat down on comfortable sofas across from one another.
“What was your life like before you joined the fleet?” Layla was curious to learn more about Derrick’s background.
“My father was a professor at the Imperial University on Golan Four, and my mother was involved in the legal profession. My parents said I was always starstruck, wanting to someday travel to the stars. When I got old enough, they arranged for me to take a trip to some of the nearer star systems with some other students. When I returned, I knew I would join the fleet. I transferred to the Fleet Academy on Golan Four and finished my studies there in four years and was then assigned to a light escort.”
“When did you get the Destiny?”
“Several years afterward I was assigned to the escort. I had just met your brother at a fleet seminar. I didn’t realize who he was, and the two of us spent nearly an hour discussing tactics and the Druins. A week later I was assigned to the Destiny as its captain.”
“Aiden,” murmured Layla with a sad look. “I really miss him. He would be a great help in our current situation. He was well trained in being a fleet admiral. I wonder what his life was like on Earth.”
Derrick looked thoughtful. “Would you like to find out?”
Layla’s eyes widened. “Is it possible?”
“Let me talk to Andrew Wilcox. He’s a member of my crew and an Earth Imperial. From what he’s told me, some secret history books about the Earth Imperials have details from their early years on Earth. I’m sure your brother would be mentioned.”
“Can you find out? I would greatly appreciate it.” Layla really wanted to know what had happened to her brother. She hoped he had lived a long and pleasant life on Earth.
Derrick nodded. “I’ll talk to Andrew and see what he can do.”
Krista came back into the room and sat next to Layla. “What did I miss?”
-
For the next several hours the three talked as if they had known one another for years. Finally Derrick stood. “I better be going. All three of us will probably be busy tomorrow.”
Layla walked Derrick to the door. “I really enjoyed tonight. Perhaps we can do this again.”
Derrick nodded. “I would like that.”
Layla stepped forward and gave Derrick a light hug. “Just don’t ever be a stranger.”
As Derrick left, he wondered what that light hug had meant. He decided not to read a lot into it. However, he could not prevent his mind from wandering.
-
“I saw that!” said Krista, grinning. “For a moment I thought you would kiss him.”
Layla turned slightly red. “I’m a Princess. I don’t kiss on the first date.”
Krista laughed. “I have a feeling we’re going to see a lot of Rear Admiral Masters.”
Layla shook her head. However, she hoped Krista was right. Layla had really enjoyed her time with Derrick tonight. She hoped it was only a beginning.
Chapter Twelve
Rear Admiral Cleemorl was on board his flagship, the Themis. His fleet had been greatly augmented, as had been decided in the last admiral’s meeting. They had decided the current fleets were too small to adequately respond to a Confederation attack.
“That’s better,” commented Captain Fulmar, gazing at the main tactical display, showing the 507 ships of what was now being called the First Fleet. On the tactical screen, a large grouping of friendly green icons surrounded the Themis, some 490 Imperial battlecruisers and 17 dreadnoughts.
“Now we just need to get all these captains to understand how important it is to rapidly change fleet formations,” said Dylan, knowing they had a lot of work ahead of them. The bigger the fleet, the harder it was to handle.
“We need to keep it simple,” suggested Fulmar. “This fleet is far bigger than anything we’ve handled in the past.”
Dylan nodded in agreement. “We’ll work on three basic formations to begin with. A globe formation for defense, a wedge formation for attacking, and a basic line formation which can be used for defense or offense.”
“Sounds good,” replied Fulmar. “Which do you want to do first?”
“The globe formation. We’ll make a short hyperspace jump to just outside the orbit of Mars and then see how quickly we can get into formation without crashing into one another.”
Fulmar turned toward Lieutenant Trent Newsome, who sat in front of the communications console. “Inform the fleet we’re about to make a short hyperspace jump. Coordinates will be transmitted from the Themis. As soon as the jump is complete, all ships are to move into formation G1 as quickly as possible without endangering other ships. Jump will be sometime in the next five minutes.”
Dylan leaned back in his command chair. He had plans for nearly a week of drills before the fleet would return to Pallas. He already missed Cheryl. Since moving in together, their relationship had returned to what it once was before she fled Lydol Four. It was almost as if they were on a long honeymoon.
“Stand by to make the transition into hyperspace,” said Fulmar. He looked at Navigation, now linked to all the other ships in the fleet. “Take us into hyperspace.”
Almost instantly the Themis made the transition into hyperspace, exiting a few seconds later, just beyond the orbit of Mars. Around the Themis other Imperial warships began to appear. As soon as the entire fleet was present, the ships began moving into the globe formation.
-
In space, a number of ships had emerged from hyperspace out of position. Their captains, upon seeing this, quickly tried to move back where they were supposed to be. Several vessels nearly collided, but fortunately safety measures built into the navigation system prevented any collisions, though there were several near misses. A number of crewmembers suffered minor injuries due to the sudden course corrections made to avoid other vessels.
Several captains could be heard over the comms, screaming at one another after a number of near misses. Ships seemed to be going in every direction with little semblance of order.
-
Admiral Cleemorl now stood, watching in disbelief as the fleet struggled to get into the proper formation. He winced when a battlecruiser cut right in front of a dreadnought. With a deep sigh, he realized this would be a long week.
Captain Fulmar was on Communications, directing any ship moving too slowly or in the wrong position. Several times he swore, as captains just didn’t seem to understand what he wanted. Finally the fleet was in a globe formation, but it was ragged.
“Well, that was interesting,” commented Dylan cryptically to Fulmar. “I’m just glad a Druin fleet wasn’t waiting for us, or we would have lost a lot of ships.”
Fulmar nodded in agreement. “A few of those captains need a good dressing down.”
“I’ll address the fleet, and then we’ll make a transition to the orbit of Venus and try again.”
Dylan pressed the button on his command console that allowed him to address all the fleet captains. “This is Admiral Cleemorl. I have never seen such a poor job of ships getting into a defensive globe formation in my life. If the Druins had been waiting for us, many of you would be dead. We’ll do this again and again until we get it right. Keep in mind that someda
y your lives may depend on this.”
Captain Fulmar gave the fleet half an hour to prepare for the next transition. During that time both he and Captain Fulmar spoke to a number of fleet captains, explaining what they had done wrong. At the end of that time Dylan gave the order to jump once again.
-
For the next week, the First Fleet made short hyperspace jumps all over the Solar System. After each jump the fleet would rapidly move into one of the three formations that Admiral Cleemorl was determined they learn. At the end of the week he was satisfied that, in most situations, the fleet would be able to perform as he wanted.
“Take us back to Pallas. We’ll let everyone have a two-day pass. Then we’ll come back and go through all this again.” He wanted these formations to become automatic with his ship captains. There could be no hesitation or doubt, or lives would be lost.
Dylan leaned back in his command chair. His gaze was focused on the tactical display, showing the entire Solar System. Numerous green icons were everywhere. Some were Imperial ships on patrol, and others were civilian cargo, passenger, and mining vessels. Once he returned to Pallas, he had a meeting scheduled with Admiral Reynolds and the other fleet admirals. Cheryl had also promised him something special upon his return. He couldn’t wait to find out what it was.
-
Rear Admiral Leeson was on patrol just outside the Kuiper Belt. His fleet was stationed in the most likely region a Confederation fleet would approach from. His fleet had also been greatly augmented. He now had 623 Imperial warships. He had 580 battlecruisers and 43 dreadnoughts. His fleet was heavy in dreadnoughts, as they would be the first to engage the enemy.
Also on board his flagship was Linda Martin and Alicia Morr, who had brought on board a new computer program to use against the Confederation.
“Explain to me again how this will work?” asked Leeson. He wanted to ensure he understood what the two wanted to do.
Linda frowned. She wished people understood computers as well as she did. “As you know, we captured several Druin warships. We managed to download a considerable amount of information from their computers. We also found out they have extremely weak firewalls protecting their computer systems. The Confederation uses highly networked ships, so they can limit their crew sizes.”
“What we want to do is take advantage of the vulnerability currently in their ships,” added Alicia. “We have constructed a new computer virus—or a worm, if you want to call it that.”
“And what will this worm do?” asked Leeson.
Linda grinned. “It will completely shut down their ships. We’ve set it up so the first thing it will do is disable communications and then weapons. After that it will work itself through the ship, shutting down all the systems one at a time, until the vessel is completely defenseless.”
Rear Admiral Leeson leaned back in his chair, looking stunned. “It will make them totally powerless.”
Alicia nodded. “It should. Or at least it has in the tests we ran.”
“However, there is a problem,” said Linda, her brown eyes narrowing.
“What’s that?” He suspected there would be a catch. There always was.
“It will probably only work once or twice,” replied Alicia. “Once the Confederation figures out what we’re doing to shut down their ships, they will install much stronger firewalls in their computers. Once they do that, our virus will no longer be effective.”
Rear Admiral Leeson looked thoughtful. “So, for one or two battles, we can annihilate whatever Confederation fleet we’re facing?”
Both girls looked at each other and nodded.
“So, why are the two of you on board my flagship?”
“Admiral Reynolds believes there is a good possibility of a second attack against the Solar System by the Confederation. We have the new virus with us. If an enemy fleet does appear, we will attempt to use a weaker form of the virus against it. Hopefully it will allow you to destroy the fleet, and the Confederation will never hear what happened. The fleet will just have vanished, for all they will know.”
“Why a weaker form?” asked Leeson. “What if it doesn’t work?”
“We want to use a weaker form, so, if the enemy fleet does manage to get the word back to the Confederation of what we’re doing, they will underestimate us. If the weaker form doesn’t work, we also have the full-strength virus with us as well. One way or another we’ll shut down the enemy fleet.”
Rear Admiral Leeson nodded. He hoped the enemy wasn’t coming again, but it looked as if Admiral Reynolds and others in command thought there was a good possibility of a second attack. One thing Leeson knew. Since the first attack by the Druin fleet had failed, the second attack would be much stronger.
Captain Phillip Newman looked at Rear Admiral Leeson after the two women left. “A virus,” he said, shaking his head. “I hope the damn thing works.”
“So do I,” replied Leeson. He looked at the closed hatch and then spoke. “I learned years ago to trust Linda Martin. Her hacking program gave us control of the eight stations of the Druin interdiction system. The woman is brilliant where computers are concerned.”
Newman nodded. “Let’s hope she is this time too. If not, we may have one hell of a battle on our hands.” Newman looked as if he would say more and then continued. “Do you think command would be willing to let us send out some battlecruisers to set up an early warning system? Ten battlecruisers placed abut twenty light-years toward the Confederation would cover a wide area of space with their sensors. Just maybe they would pick something up.”
Leeson shook his head doubtfully. “Don’t forget. Ships can’t be traced while they’re in hyperspace unless they’re very close together.”
“I know, but, just maybe, the Confederation fleet will drop out of hyperspace before attacking. If they did, we would have a decent warning that they were coming, as well as an estimate of their ship strength.”
Leeson considered Captain Newman’s suggestion. “I’ll pass on your recommendation to command and see what they say.”
Looking up at the main viewscreen, all he could see was a sea of stars. They were close to one of the battlestations, and occasionally a pair of attack interceptors would appear out on patrol. Currently Leeson had his fleet patrolling back and forth between station two and station three. It had been quiet so far, and he wondered how much longer that would last.
-
Rear Admiral Stella Barnes gazed at the largest of the many viewscreens on the front wall of the Command Center of the dreadnought Phobos. The planet Mars was in the center, and she marveled at the changes that over sixty years of terraforming had brought. Now nearly 32 percent of the planet was covered in water. The atmosphere was nearly Earth normal, and a slight atmospheric retention field surrounded the entire planet, keeping the atmosphere intact and at a reasonable pressure.
“Two hundred and twelve million people,” commented Captain Kerry Borrel. Her deep blue eyes gazed at the viewscreen. “I’ve heard they want to hold the population around three hundred million.”
Rear Admiral Barnes nodded. “Yes, they feel that’s a good-size population for Mars. Remember. It’s much smaller than Earth.”
Stella turned her gaze toward the tactical display. Her fleet was set up in ten squadrons, each patrolling above the planet at an orbit of thirty thousand kilometers. Her fleet had been augmented some. She now had three hundred battlecruisers and twelve dreadnoughts.
“Have you been to Venus recently?”
Rear Admiral Barnes shook her head. “No, but I hear it’s changing rapidly.”
“Massive rainstorms,” replied Kerry. “I heard one of the terraformers comment that some days it rains as much as twenty inches in some regions.”
Rear Admiral Barnes knew the water was coming from the massive ice asteroids being dropped into its thick atmosphere. The terraformers claimed, in another twenty years, people would be able to walk around on the surface of Venus. It would have a tropical climate and probably consi
derable rainfall. A special energy field was already in place around the planet to reduce the radiation from the sun.
“I wish we had another twenty years to prepare for this war,” said Captain Borrel.
“We’re ready,” replied Rear Admiral Barnes. “The battle against the Druin fleet proved it. From what I’ve been told, no Confederation fleet has ever been defeated.”
Kerry nodded. She had been raised on Pallas and knew in detail what the Druins and the Confederation had done to the Human Empire. She hoped Earth was never on the receiving end of that.
-
In the Confederation, above the planet Lamothia, a massive fleet had gathered. Nearly two thousand battlecruisers and seventy battleships were preparing to set out for the Bacchus Region and eventually the planet Earth. In the center of the fleet were six hundred large cargo vessels. These ships would bring back over twelve million Humans to serve as food in special feasts on the six Lamothian worlds. That fleet would be sent back time after time until all the Humans had been removed from their planet. There would be huge feasts for years to come. Feasts like the Lamothians had not celebrated in thousands of years.
In orbit, the Lamothian admiral pushed a control button on the panel in front of him with one of his appendages. “All ships prepare to enter hyperspace. We are ready to begin our journey to the food world of Humans. May your feasts be enjoyable and filling.”
Moments later the fleet vanished from orbit as it entered hyperspace for its four-week journey to the Human planet Earth.
-
On board Earth’s space station Gateway One, Colonel Loren Henderson had just approved the expansion of the attack interceptor facility. He would feel much more comfortable with several hundred of the interceptors to help defend the now-massive station. The station had a full-time crew of 2,200 who worked around-the-clock, servicing ships going to various destinations in the Solar System. Most ships simply stopped by to resupply and for minor repairs. Anything major was done at one of the two huge civilian shipyards in orbit around Earth.
Leaning back in his comfortable chair behind his desk, he looked across it at Major Patricia Marcus. “It’s been quiet since the Druin attack. I don’t like it.”
The Forgotten Empire: Earth Ascendant: Book Two Page 16