“Okay, get back to what you were doing,” he said, seeing his crew had paused and seemed to be waiting for him to give them an order. “We can do nothing for the 508th and Captain Rawls is doing the right thing by following the Icarus down to meet over the planet; it’ll allow us to concentrate what firepower we have and assume a more offensive posture. Call your reliefs up and go get some rest.”
“I’ll be up to relieve you in four hours, sir,” Simmons said as he walked by; his relief was already reconfiguring the tactical station, having already been on the command deck.
“Make it six,” Jackson said. “I’ll have Commander Chambliss come up and cover the watch in a few hours to make sure we’re both ready for the planetary approach.”
“Yes, sir,” Simmons nodded.
After the bustle of the relief watch officers filtering onto the bridge and getting turnover from their counterparts Jackson was left in relative silence; he saw the lights had dimmed down and taken on a slightly red hue to signify night hours. The eggheads at Fleet R&S insisted that maintaining a sense of “day” and “night” was critical for humans who might not breathe natural air or see sunlight for over a year at a time. Jackson was skeptical, but since they were the experts he left things as they were.
He went to the back of the bridge and poured himself another steaming mug of coffee before settling into one of the two auxiliary stations that were tucked into the corner. After logging in, he pulled up all the data that had come over the Link regarding the engagement that had claimed the Racer with all hands aboard. Something just didn’t smell right to him about the whole thing and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He had to admit he had very little experience against this enemy, but he never ignored his instincts when they were screaming to him that something was not as it seemed. But what was he missing? Could it really be so clear cut as the Racer approaching too recklessly and getting hammered with a Darshik plasma lance? Maybe Celesta Wright, with her much more extensive experience facing the aliens, would have some other insight to the engagement he was missing.
20
“Something is … off,” Celesta said as her tactical officer went over the Racer’s engagement with her again. “But I can’t see what it is from the limited sensor coverage provided by the other two ships. The Resolute isn’t even using active sensors.”
“I really can’t give you any more than that, ma’am,” Adler apologized. “In addition to the limited coverage we’re only seeing sensor snapshots over the Link and not the full telemetry stream due to the com lag.”
“Do you think it would be worth having CIC go back through the raw data?” Celesta asked. The Link transponder continuously tried to keep the time stamps on the incoming data streams synced so that the crew could see events in a timeline in context, but what usually happened was that it could only put up snippets of data when one of the sources was as far away as the Racer had been. In order to get a complete picture of something that happened on the other side of the system, Celesta would have to assign someone the task of going back into the archived data and digging up the proper timestamp and data source.
“I’m not sure I see any benefit from that, Captain,” Adler said carefully, apparently not used to being asked her opinion. “The lack of detail is more from the sparse radar coverage on the target by the Relentless than us missing something in the Link stream. Captain Rawls was positioned so that the Darshik cruiser was directly behind the Racer, and when the destroyer exploded the debris completely obscured the area beyond to both radar and IR optics.”
“Understood.” Celesta kept the disappointment from her voice. She had been testing Adler with the question and, unfortunately, she hadn’t been impressed with her tactical officer’s answer. When facing a lack of answers one always wanted to err on the side of being thorough. Lieutenant Commander Adler’s tendency to take the path of least resistance apparently held true even if she wasn’t going to have to do the work herself.
“If you don’t mind, Captain, I think I’ll see if CIC can spare the manpower to do that analysis,” Barrett spoke up. “To satisfy my own curiosity while we’re transiting the system to meet up with the Aludra Star.”
“Very well, Commander,” Celesta nodded. “Proceed.” Commander Barrett had shown once again that he was very much in tune with her and could read between the lines of what she said and what she actually wanted. It was a rare gift to have an XO she could so completely lean on and it pained her to realize that he wasn’t going to be able to stay by her side on the Icarus for much longer. He’d grown beyond the role of executive officer and was ready for a command of his own.
“Mr. Accari … how far away from the Aludra Star’s presumed position are we?”
“We’re just shy of five hundred and fifty million kilometers away from where the tactical computer thinks the Aludra Star is currently, ma’am,” Accari said.
“Coms, please open a channel on the fleetwide,” she said.
“Go ahead, Captain.”
“Aludra Star, this is Captain Wright aboard the Icarus. We’re closing to within five hundred million of your assumed position on our way to Juwel. We’re currently reading three cruiser-class enemy ships in orbit with an unknown number still within the system. Please break com silence when you are prepared to coordinate your launch run with us. Icarus out.”
“How long do you think until we get a response, Captain?” Barrett asked.
“I’m not certain,” Celesta admitted. “Wolfe has been cautious since that assault carrier made transition. He may not want to tip his hand even now, maybe especially so since the Darshik have already taken out one of our ships.”
“I can imagine,” Barrett said, nodding.
After listening to Captain Wright’s message, Jackson looked at the main display to see where the Icarus was relative to the Aludra Star. The Icarus had put on an impressive display of acceleration and speed and was a lot closer to his ship than Celesta thought she was. The projected position on the Link showed him over half a billion kilometers away, but in reality the Icarus had already closed to within a hundred and fifty million and was still accelerating.
“Damn that ship is fast,” he muttered before turning back to his com officer. “Coms, open a channel to the Icarus.”
“Go ahead, sir.”
“Captain Wright, this is Wolfe aboard the Aludra Star. Welcome to the party. We’re activating our Link transponder now … there’s no real advantage in trying to hide right now since you’re about to overtake us on the way to Juwel. Has our favorite CIS spook made contact with you yet?”
“Link Transponder coming up now, sir,” Simmons said quietly after pointing to Dole. Jackson nodded his approval to his XO.
“It’s good to hear your voice, sir,” Celesta’s voice came back over the channel after a brief delay. “We have a lock on you now via the Link. I wasn’t aware the agent in question was in this system. Has he made contact yet?”
“I’m assuming he’s listening in right now,” Jackson said. “He hasn’t made contact yet, but we picked up a transition flash some days ago that didn’t correspond to anything the size of a Darshik cruiser and it certainly wasn’t one of ours. My assumption is that it’s his new specialized ship.”
“Sir … I’m sending you a sensor data file of a transition flash and I’d like your CIC to compare the two.” Celesta’s voice had taken on a tight, almost pained quality even as Ensign Dole nodded to indicate he was receiving the file in question.
“Stand by, Icarus,” Jackson said and made a chopping motion to Epsen.
“File being sent to CIC now, sir,” Dole said. “Lieutenant Maan has made it her highest priority.” The results of the comparison didn’t take long as it was only visual spectrum data being compared. CIC’s computers made quick work of chewing through it and comparing the two occurrences trillions of times once the answer made its way to the bridge.
“CIC puts the two transition flashes as ninety-six-point-two percent that they were ma
de by the same ship,” Dole said. “There’s some margin of error due to the Icarus having better sensors, the distance involved, and the region of space—”
“Thank you, Ensign,” Jackson cut him off. “So it’s the same ship … and judging from Captain Wright’s tone it isn’t from a Tsuyo Broadhead II. Coms, if you would reopen the channel.”
“Channel open, sir.”
“Captain Wright, this is Wolfe … my CIC has confirmed that these transitions flashes are from the same ship,” Jackson said. “Would I be correct in assuming you know who this ship belongs to?”
“It’s not ours,” Celesta’s answer came back a few minutes later. “The Icarus was on a mission to try and reopen talks with the Ushin, and when we arrived to meet their delegation this ship showed up. It took out the Ushin consular ship and punched a few holes in my hull before disengaging and disappearing. I’m sorry, Captain … I may have led that ship right to you.”
“I doubt that, Captain.” Jackson waved away her comment with his hand even though it was an audio-only channel. “I can’t imagine this invasion is a secret among the Darshik military hierarchy. Let’s focus on what we can control. What can you tell me about this new arrival?”
“It’s fast, sir,” she said. “Also nimble and very stealthy; we didn’t even pick up a thermal signature from its engines. It seems to be stripped down to the bare essentials to do just one job and that’s as a hunter-killer. I’m sending over the data from our encounter so you can see it for yourself. I’ll also have it forwarded to Captain Rawls’s taskforce.”
“Another unknown variable isn’t exactly good news,” Jackson said. “Are you going to be able to clear our orbital path yourself?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then let’s get to it,” Jackson said. “We’ll adjust course and speed to get down there as fast as we can and still brake to launch the drop shuttles. A word of warning: this ship is nowhere near as fast as a destroyer, much less one with an RDS.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, sir,” Celesta said with what sounded like a choked-off laugh. “We’ll escort you all the way down past the inner asteroid belt before breaking off and engaging the targets in orbit. It’s not likely the 508th ships will arrive in time for the festivities.”
“Very good, Captain,” Jackson said. “We’ll come up on the power and switch to active sensors for now. Once we get closer and have a more current picture of what’s happening over Juwel you can decide how best you want to proceed. Star out.”
“The file came from the Icarus over our direct connection and not the Link, sir,” Ensign Dole said. “I’ll need your command authorization to decrypt it.”
Jackson stepped to his terminal and provided the necessary access code and biometric reading to allow his OPS officer to access the decryption routines he needed to unpack the data Celesta had sent over.
“Let’s see what we’re dealing with, Ensign,” he said after giving Dole a few minutes to extract the files and get them on the Star’s servers.
“Stand by, sir,” Dole said and began furiously working on the controls at his station. A few seconds later and the image of a ship the likes of which Jackson had never seen popped up on the main display.
“Were these scaling marks made by the Icarus’s crew or us?”
“Captain Wright’s intel people did that, sir,” Dole said. “They also did the false color enhancement. In the original image all the detail of the aft end of the ship was obscured.”
Jackson took a moment to really take in the image of the hunter-killer ship that was even now in the system with them, likely stalking one of the ships in their small armada. The thought sent a chill up Jackson’s spine. He saw the hash marks along the front of the prow and recognized them for what they likely were: warpaint. This ship was captained by someone who saw himself as a warrior or, more likely, a hunter. If it had managed to get the drop on the Icarus and punch holes in her while escaping and making it all the way to Juwel he knew it wasn’t a ship to be taken lightly.
“Tactical, I want full active sensors,” Jackson said. “Coms! Get a message to the Relentless regarding this new player … get the data from OPS that the Icarus sent over and include that. I want to make sure it doesn’t get overlooked by just dumping it onto the Link.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Helm, maintain course but open up the taps.” Jackson sat back in his seat. “All ahead full. OPS, recheck our course once our velocity tops out.”
“All engines ahead full, aye!” The Star surged gently as her two active primary main engines throttled up. Jackson watched on the main display as the flashing green icon representing the Icarus also accelerated to catch them, the destroyer’s awesome speed causing him a moment of irrational envy due to his ship’s more modest capabilities. They were approaching close enough to the target now that he felt like something was about to happen. The Darshik would be foolish to let them get too close to Juwel now that they’d fought so hard to keep it. The question was, would it be the standard cruisers they were used to, or the new player that had already bloodied Celesta Wright’s nose?
21
“I feel I have to advise at this time that the Juwel System looks like a complete loss.”
“And you base this on what?” President Augustus Wellington said. The elected leader of the United Terran Federation had puffy, bloodshot eyes and his lips were almost a dark purple color. Pike was as concerned about the man’s health as he’d ever been since entering his service. He watched the exchange with a practiced indifference, trying to blend into the furniture as CIS Director Franco Sala made his case.
“We’re well overdue for any updates,” Sala said. “Not even so much as a com drone has made its way back to revise the original timetable for the operation. The Intrepid and Vega-class ships were never designed for this sort of extended duration mission without logistical support, which they’ve not called for.” The director slouched in his seat and heaved a dramatic sigh that Pike knew the man thought conveyed genuine concern but sounded more like he was trying to blow out a trashcan fire.
“In the absence of solid intel stating otherwise I think we have to conclude that our latest battlegroup met with the same fate as the previous two. Was this not the threshold we’d agreed upon in order to say that the Juwel System was not recoverable?”
“Perhaps, if we insist on only trying three times to liberate a Terran system from an alien invasion force, then we should try a little harder during these attempts,” Fleet Admiral Pitt said. Pitt was at the meeting as a replacement for Chief of Staff Marcum in his absence. He was on a trip that was supposed to be classified at the highest level, but Pike knew that Marcum was doing a progress inspection on the Federation’s newest generation of warships, three new classes getting ready to enter service.
He struggled to suppress a smile at Pitt’s bluntness. The man was a master tactician and yet he couldn’t grasp even the most basic tenets of safely navigating the political minefield he found himself in.
“Meaning what, Admiral?” Wellington asked, his eyes narrowing dangerously. Pitt either ignored or missed the warning signs.
“Only that we’ve sent three small expedition-sized taskforces comprised of mostly obsolete ships and reserve commanders, sir,” Pitt said firmly. “We have two Dreadnaught-class boomers sitting in orbit over New Sierra that could probably clear the system out on their own. If I might be so—”
“I think we’ve heard enough, Admiral.” Wellington waved him off then used the same hand to wipe at his face. “All I’ll say is that were it up to me, and only me, the Amsterdam and the New York would be flying to Juwel with you on one of them at this moment. But there are other considerations at play and those ships don’t belong to you or me.”
“I—yes, sir,” Pitt said, catching himself before he could lodge further protest. Pike thought he just might have a future in the snake pit of capital politics if he could see when he was already beat.
“What we need to discuss is wh
ether we—and by we I mean I—go before Parliament and announce that the effort to free the Juwel System was not only a failure but a total loss of the military assets we threw at it. A failure up to and including the apparent death or capture of one legendary starship captain we pulled out of mothballs as a morale booster,” Wellington ran out of steam quickly and looked around the room despondently. “Is that what we’re going to do?”
“I feel that any further delay would be counterproductive, Mr. President,” Sala said. “Captain Rawls’s taskforce is well overdue … if they’d been able to secure the planet or even push the Darshik out temporarily we would have heard about it.”
“Okay then,” Wellington said, standing and pointing at Sala and Pitt. “You two can go. I need to talk to Mr. Lynch a moment in private.”
Pike was actually surprised, having assumed that the deception was unnecessary as Pitt and Sala were well aware of who he really was, although legally Aston Lynch was just as real as Pike or any of the other half-dozen personas he wore like clothes.
“Why do I feel like I’m not going to like what comes next?” Pike asked as the door boomed shut to the Executive Office, as it was unoriginally named.
“What do you think happened in the Juwel System?” Wellington asked, ignoring the attempt at levity.
“I’ll admit that Director Sala makes a compelling case as to why we could safely assume the mission is a total loss,” Pike said carefully, sensing that a misstep on his part could see him flying off to someplace he’d really rather not visit.
“But?” Wellington prompted.
“But … I’ve learned to not bet against Jackson Wolfe,” Pike said, knowing he’d likely sealed his fate. “Given all he’s been through I have a hard time believing that it would be this enemy that brings him down.”
“We all get older, slower, sometimes a little too sure of ourselves,” Wellington said, hands clasped behind his back. The action drew his shirt and jacket tight around his torso, a decidedly unflattering look. “But in this case I agree with you. I’ll admit I’ve utilized the captain’s reputation and legend for my own purposes from time to time, but he seems to have a knack for turning what should be a route into a victory.”
Iron & Blood: Book Two of The Expansion Wars Trilogy Page 19