The Gathering Storm

by Chris Hechtl

  “Or at least fights there,” Sprite replied. “A battle and a win are two different things sometimes, Commodore.”

  “True,” Monty parsed that idea out slowly. He nodded after a moment. “We don't have any recent intelligence in Dead Drop. He does though.”

  “But it will still be weeks out-of-date by the time he gets it and then there will be that time period when he's in transit to Dead Drop that things can change.”

  “Point. Well, we'll just have to deal with it as it comes to us.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I suppose so will they,” Commander Lake murmured.

  :::{)(}:::

  B101a1

  It took a day for the battle cruiser to sail across the star system to the harbor station. Along the way, Protector made arrangements for the transfer to Federation One. Not everyone could fit however, so Admiral Irons insisted on only taking the senior-most admirals with him. They were going to Antigua anyway.

  While the arrangements were being made, Admiral Butley's engineering crew worked on tearing into the ship's damage. Information on the damage was sent to the station. The station had a limited store of replacement parts in her inventory. She also had one industrial replicator.

  “We need your help to get parts for the battle cruiser, Admiral,” Protector stated, interrupting the admiral as he read a brief from Antigua.

  “Hmm?” he asked with a frown.

  “The ship? The parts, sir?” Protector urged.

  “Oh, yeah, um, sure,” he said. He stretched as he got up and set the tablet down. “Damn.”

  “Sorry, I know you were focused.”

  “I needed the break. What do you need?”

  “I've got a list from the chief engineer. The replicators on board are doing their best now that we're out of hyperspace. The engineering teams have torn apart the damaged equipment and have salvaged what they could and sent the rest to the ship's replicators for rebuilding. But, that leaves the parts that can't fit in them.”

  “Understood. The list?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I've got it,” Proteus reported as Protector passed it the file. “This ship will hopefully not be delayed too long.”

  “Hopefully not. What about the other two ships? Did they arrive yet? I didn't see that in the log.”

  “You were looking at the Federation log, sir, not the local log. I checked, they arrived and already transited to Pyrax,” Protector stated.

  “Ah, good. Okay,” the admiral said as he looked at the list Proteus pulled up. His lips pursed in a thoughtful silent whistle as he noted some of the parts. There were two cracked spars and some hull buckling on the bow. Two external force emitters had been down checked. The crew were already at work pulling them from the hull.

  “Okay,” he said, rolling his shoulders. “Tell the engineers to strip each of those down and don't take anything for granted. Scan every part, especially those under any sort of strain for microfractures. I might as well replicate entire replacements though. Does the station have the materials?”

  “Some, sir. Not all. And not enough for two.”

  “Crap,” Admiral Irons muttered. “So, we are talking about a rebuild. Okay …”

  :::{)(}:::

  “Here we go again,” Coral said as they made their way through Federation One to their berth. They said hello to familiar faces along the way. “Nice to be back but geeze, can't we get a break? Some downtime,” she complained.

  “Apparently not,” Rish drawled. Coral gave him a sour look. “Yeah well, the good news is we're not going to do as many skips,” he replied.

  “Wanna bet?” Jamie asked dryly.

  “If I must. But I should warn you that Admiral Irons was having a conversation with a couple other brass, and I overheard them talking about stopping in Pyrax and elsewhere.”

  “And you didn't let me hang on that? How nobel of you,” Jamie said warily. “What will it cost me?”

  “Well, I didn't want you to welch on the bet so I guess we're even. Though I suppose I should make you take the first shift as compensation.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  :::{)(}:::

  “Finally bored with playing with your spanners, Admiral?” a familiar voice asked through the admiral's implants as he finished moving over to Federation One. He rather regretted not staying in the battle cruiser to help the engineers a bit longer. He couldn't justify it though. They had their job and he had his, or so Protector had reminded him. He'd reluctantly torn himself away from the work to return to his own duties.

  Admiral Irons raised his right eyebrow in surprise as Protector allowed the link to Sprite.

  “Don't get cheeky, missy. Even though we took it a little slower on the return trip, we still ran into trouble. That happens.”

  “I see that. I've read the report.”

  “Then you know what I mean.”

  “Yes, sir. And your plans remain unchanged?” she asked.

  “If you mean my plan to pop in at Pyrax and Agnosta and Triang along the way home, yes. That way I can pass some keys on and make some political statements while also doing some industrial replicator set up.”

  “Ah. Well, you might as well get as much bang for the buck I suppose,” Sprite replied.

  “Exactly. I don't know when I'll have this opportunity again.”

  “Hopefully not for a while,” Sprite growled.

  “No comment,” he replied.

  “And I see you brought friends with you.”

  “Yes.” Nearly three thousand personnel had come with him from Bek. He hated taking them out of the chain of command there; they were people that could be trusted. Well, most of them—some like those that had retired he wasn't so certain about. And Pashenkov definitely had a lot of ground to make up.

  “You can't fit all of them in Federation One.”

  “Obviously not. Senior officers only from Admiral Butley.”

  “So, you load up on brass. Nice.”

  “Again cheeky,” Admiral Irons drawled.

  “It's just, brass isn’t as useful as certain ranks, Admiral.”

  “Wow, you really are riding for a fall, aren't you?” he asked.

  “You know what I mean. Commanders and captains pass on their knowledge a lot more than a flag officer.”

  “Point.”

  “And I already had the passenger manifest, so I know who you intend to bring. I should warn Vestri but I won't.”

  “I will. He deserves a fresh challenge. The home yard has grown beyond a captain's slot anyway.”

  “Point.”

  “He is a hands-on person like myself. Unfortunately, we can't send him somewhere to do that.”

  “There is always the Ptah mission, Admiral. He's an engineer. He's light on commanding a starship though.”

  “True,” Admiral Irons drawled. “I suppose it can be considered or sending him to replace Phil in Pyrax.”

  “I don't know which is worse, losing Vestri or gaining another flag officer—another one. And this one is as prickly as a Nubian cactus!”

  “Penance for the cheeky crap you've been tossing, lady.”

  “Not yet,” the A.I. drawled. “But I suppose soon enough. The gift that keeps on giving,” she sighed. “Thanks,” she said.

  “You are remarkably … there,” the admiral said.

  “Thanks. I'm sending a script bot with my emotions. They are emojis translated into mannerisms. You are the test.”

  “Ah.”

  “It's not perfect,” she stated.

  “No. But it is one step closer to what we once had. Anything I should know before we get underway?”

  “Everything I know is in your inbox,” Sprite replied.

  “Yeah, we are going to talk about your lack of filtering, young lady.”

  “That's what Protector is for,” she replied. He snorted as she cut the channel.

  “Wait, was she serious?” Protector asked humorously. “Even I can't keep up with her!”

  That go
t Admiral Irons chuckling.

  Chapter 59

  B-95a3

  Captain Kiao Shenaka surveyed the past busy few weeks with a sense of satisfaction. His long fingers gently rubbed the padded arm rests just below the keypads built into them at the ends. Everything had worked out well, well, at least in his eyes. He could care less what the Horathians thought of the recent battle.

  He knew certain Naga captains were a bit disappointed at the lack of bloodshed, but again, he was fine with how it had all turned out. It meant his force had been preserved more or less intact.

  He watched his bridge team as they went through the final steps in preparation for their jump. They had just received confirmation from the ansible that the reinforcements were on their way to Protodon finally. More importantly, the Admiralty had signed off on what to do with his forces. Since they had done such a good job in trapping the Horathians and had finished mopping up, they were splitting up.

  His force was about to jump to join Second Fleet as a rear guard, minus the destroyers. Two of the tin cans had replaced the two light cruisers on picket duty so Shepard and Almirante Grau and the other three destroyers could carry the pirate prisoners back to Protodon for processing.

  That was fine; he'd take Ch'Lx'sinak and the division of heavy cruisers to fill the role Kittyhawk had been chosen to fill. They wouldn't make up for all the ships and lives lost, but they'd help kick some more pirate ass when Second Fleet moved on Garth. He was pretty sure that Admiral White had no intention of waiting for them to catch up to him for Dead Drop though. Again, fine. They'd get the leftovers.

  :::{)(}:::

  Dd01ns

  Kelly hid a smile as Kyle and Garfield pretended to high five. Kyle held his hand out low, and the Neocat tried for it but failed utterly. The little byplay had them all smiling.

  “You so need to work on your jump shot,” she said with a shake of her head.

  “Yeah, basketball isn't my thing,” the Neocat grumbled, swishing his tail in irritation. “Using certain OPS officers as scratching posts for raising the bar is.” He flexed his claws briefly as his ears went back.

  “Me?” Kyle asked, eyes wide and innocent. The Neocat pretended to extend his claws and make a flicking motion as Kyle pretended to cringe back. That earned another chuckle from the group.

  “So, Illustrious and her group have returned to the fold, and the cruiser force should be catching up to us in another few days if they kept to the same schedule,” Amadeus stated, calling them to order.

  The staff took their seats. In a rare bit of travel, Commodores Vargess and Harris had joined them physically. Both men entered behind the admiral and took their seats on either side of him.

  The Veraxin chief of staff had been bumped a seat, but he didn't seem to mind.

  "And the prowler returned with the report that SNHH is clean," Commodore Vargess stated. "We have reinforcements moving down the pipeline behind us as our rear guard. So, our rear is now covered. We can focus on the main course."

  “We're still considering the plan though. I like the idea of coming in on an unexpected course. I'm not keen about dividing our force however,” Amadeus stated.

  “You did set up the fleet to act as individual task forces,” Commodore Harris pointed out mildly.

  “He's right though, Dwight; coordinating forces isn't easy. There are too many points of failure in the plan, and it opens us up to defeat in detail.”

  “I know. I still think using the courier or another ship to keep in touch would work.”

  “You've obviously never tried to rendezvous in hyper then,” Aleck said wryly as he shook his head. “I've run the sims with the other navigators. It isn't easy. If they are off by a kilometer or two, you could miss a hook up. I honestly don't know how the old Federation did it.”

  “We had really good sensors and a lot more practice. We also had cetaceans and other water dwellers,” Commodore Vargess stated.

  “Ah.”

  “But yeah, I know it was a stone-cold bitch. I knew a couple people who were on ships that had to service hyperspace platforms. It was finicky.”

  “Ah.”

  “Normally, the platform would drop a pod and the pod would translate down from hyper to real space in a known area to be picked up. But sometimes you had to find a way to get on board one of those platforms. Otherwise, it came out on its own or was destroyed.”

  “Maintenance?”

  “Yes. The pod would carry a report as well as antimatter or whatever,” the commodore explained.

  “Whatever?” Garfield asked, ears perked up.

  “He means data or physics experiments, personnel, or power stored in hyper capacitors,” Amadeus explained. “Back to the discussion at hand,” he said pointedly. “I'm not going to go with the divergent task force option. And no,” he turned to the tactical officer, “I'm not going with the Trojan horse.”

  The Neocat flicked his ears, then flattened them briefly. He had known that idea of sending the courier in as a Trojan horse was a long shot at best.

  “Here is what I think we're going to do,” Amadeus stated, watching the group sit up straight.

  :::{)(}:::

  Two days after their meeting CruRon 1 and Desron 4 arrived in the star system. Desron 4 was short a single ship since Hachimaze had remained in B-95a3, but they were otherwise ready to go. Kyle made certain all ships were supplied and ready to go while the admiral processed Captain Tocci's report.

  The fleet train had to do the resupply mission on the crunch. They had just finished the resupply when the ansible transport arrived. Admiral White detached the orphan tin can from Desron 4 to picket the star system and babysit the transport while the fleet got underway to the jump point to Dead Drop.

  A single ship went in the opposite direction. The courier that had been captured was finally headed back to the Federation. She would bring word of their attack first to the ansible in B-95a3 before she went on to Protodon.

  “We've got a date for a rematch, folks. I intend for this one to be a knockout, so let's get it right,” Admiral White said in a broadcast to the fleet as they made their final preparations to jump.

  :::{)(}:::

  B-88R

  Rear Admiral V'r'z'll looked over the final report of the OTBP operation. The raiding force had done an excellent job, though she was not happy about the Marine and civilian casualties or loss of their equipment in the unauthorized landing.

  She grudgingly admitted it went to a good cause when she saw the recordings of their landings. The Horathians needed to be rooted out, not just ignored. She passed on the report up the chain of command through the ansible, as well as the medal recommendations. She received authorization for additional strikes and Marine raids, but they had to be volunteer only.

  She was gratified to see fresh reinforcements finally coming her way but so few! A single light carrier, two escort carriers, a single mixed cruiser squadron, and a single destroyer squadron, plus the six supply ships. Five other supply ships traveling with them were destined for the wolf packs. She was supposed to send a feint to punch out New Horizon, and the supply ships were to travel with them. But, in order for them to go on to Hinata, the task force that took on New Horizon would have to go on to Hinata as well.

  That wasn't in her original planning. At least she wouldn't lose the carrier force totally, they were supposed to meet a division or so of cruisers in Hinata and the cruisers would take on the escort duty of the convoy from there.

  But, before any of that could happen she had to get the prowler back from New Horizon. It was officially a week overdue. She didn't like to think of losing the small ship.

  What was wrong with the Federation yards? Why were they producing so few ships? She clacked her mandibles and instinctively did a mantra to try to release her inner tension. They wanted to fight the war, to win the war, yet they lacked the resources to do so. And they divided the resources on missions that could wait. If she'd been given command of the Tau mission units as well as
her own, she could have been in Garth and taken the Finagle jump chain by now she thought angrily.

  Again, she performed a mantra to sooth her agitation. Like before it didn't help much.

  She had to admit, having her homeland in the fight was important. Since she had been stuck sitting in the empty star system for months, she had run through what ONI had on the Horathian Empire. She hadn't known their tentacles had run so broadly across the galaxy. It was scary to consider the territory they encompassed. They were just consolidating it and getting their own yards up and running, which was a good thing for the Federation. But she was also aware that the pirates had been capturing, salvaging, and stockpiling ships of all types for centuries. The window before those ships entered service was most likely closing. She wasn't certain if they had the manpower to man them all, but with the territory they held, it was certainly feasible.

  And again, it only underscored her argument to get in there and cut them off fast before they became a bigger threat.

  “Admiral, we have a jump at the B-87R jump point,” the ship's A.I. reported.

  All four of her eyestalks looked up to the ceiling and then oriented on the holographic projector on her desk. The A.I. projected his avatar there. “Locus? Size?”

  “Numbers are still tentative. They jumped in dead center in the jump zone. Ah, tachyon emissions detected. We are getting a series of IFF's, ma'am. It is the Ark Royal task force.”

  “About damn time,” the admiral buzzed.

  “It will be a few moments before we have their initial report downloaded. Or, do you prefer waiting for the full report?”

  “Given the limits of the tachyon system, order them to send it by whisker laser. Relay it if they have to. I want to get a start on it. Have OPS look into what they need for resupply.”

  “Aye aye, ma'am.”

  “At least something is finally going right,” the captain muttered.

  :::{)(}:::