by Jay Allan
Shiloh realized that Chenko was not likely to call him Skipper the way that Johansen did.
“Admiral Howard is anxious to get Task Force 79 up and running. Senior Commander Delvecio will be taking command of the Marathon soon and she should be ready to leave dock in less than a week. That means that I’ll be stepping in as SFE144’s Squadron Leader, and a squadron leader should be with his squadron, not sitting in a repair dock. I’m anxious to get the Old Girl fixed up and ready to dance as soon as possible.”
Chenko did not smile at the reference to the 344 as the ‘old girl’.
“I see your point, Sir.”
By this time, they were entering the Bridge. It looked pretty much the same as before and was unoccupied since the ship was still berthed in the repair dock. Shiloh walked over to his command station and manipulated several controls. The large Tactical display on the wall came to life and showed the overall deployment of Space Force vessels in the Solar System. There was a dense cluster of green dots in orbit around Earth with a scattering of green dots elsewhere in the system, including the asteroid shipyards where the 344 was located, as well as in transit between Earth and other locations. Shiloh made the display zoom in to the cluster around Earth. The screen filled with green triangles showing ship identification. Never before had he seen so many exploration frigates in Earth orbit at one time. Admiral Howard had called back virtually every frigate the Space Force had. Exploration had ground to a halt. Shiloh wondered how many years it would be before exploration efforts started up again.
With Chenko helping him, Shiloh was able to convince the shipyard to finish their repairs on the 344 before the new command ship Marathon was ready. So it was that when Sen. Cmdr. Delvecio officially gave up the post of Squadron Leader of SFE144, Shiloh’s ship was already back in Earth orbit and in formation with the rest of the squadron. Twenty-four hours after that, Task Force 79, under Sen. Cmdr. Yakamura, left Earth orbit.
CHAPTER 7: The Best Laid Plans Of Mice And Men
It took 16 days for them to get to SFB Bradley, and then there was another two weeks of careful jumping along the Zebra route. The previously deployed recon drones around each star system’s gas giants were checked for any signs of alien activity. None were found. When the task force arrived at Zebra 7 and confirmed that no enemy activity had been detected, Yakamura called an electronic conference with his squadron leaders.
“Well, we’ve verified that no enemy activity has been detected near this system’s gas giant in the five weeks since the recon drone was deployed. Quite frankly, I’m surprised by this lack of enemy activity so close to their mining system. But, I’ll take whatever luck I can get. However, that’s not the reason I called this conference. Whoever calculated our projected fuel consumption was overly optimistic. I’ve just checked the task force’s total remaining fuel supply and compared it to the estimated consumption that we expect to realize in jumping to Zebra 9, making our planned attacks, and then jumping back here. I’m concerned about the numbers. The plan calls for us to arrive back here with a minimum reserve of not less than 10%. If we continue with the Plan as it stands now, our reserve will be only 6.5%, and that’s for the entire task force. Individual ships’ reserves could be much lower. I’m not prepared to risk that. So here is what we’re going to do. Shiloh and Dejanus, you two will take your squadrons and escort all 12 tankers to this system’s gas giant, where they will skim heavy hydrogen until our estimated reserves are back up to 15%. You’ll then escort them back here, and when the task force is together again, we’ll proceed with the rest of the mission. Are there any questions or concerns?”
Cmdr. Dejanus spoke up. “Yes there is. Am I correct in thinking that as the senior Squadron Leader, I’ll have tactical command authority during this refueling mission?”
Yakamura nodded and replied. “You are correct, Commander Rolen, you’ll still have operational authority for the actual refueling of your tanker squadron, but in the event of contact with the enemy, you’ll follow Dejanus’s orders. Clear?”
“Clear, Sir.”
“Commander Shiloh, that goes for you too.”
“Understood, Sir.”
“Good. Now, if there are no other questions…”—there were none—“then let’s proceed.”
When the communication channel with the command ship terminated, Shiloh switched over to the open com channel with the rest of his squadron and gave them the news. By the time he had finished that, all of the ships involved in the refueling operation had received a data burst from Yakamura with detailed instructions.
Once underway, Dejanus issued his own orders regarding formation. SFE144 would lead the way, with the tanker squadron in the middle and SFE077 in the rear. Apparently Cmdr. Dejanus did not see the need to lead from the front. Shiloh didn’t think much of that decision, and he was certain that most of the other ship commanders wouldn’t either. With the transit to the gas giant expected to take almost 10 hours, Shiloh was glad that his command shift was nearly over. He wanted to be well rested and on the Bridge when they neared their destination.
As it turned out, the entire operation was completely uneventful and, in fact, quite boring. When all three squadrons joined the rest of the task force just over 32 hours later, Yakamura congratulated everyone on a smooth operation and ordered the task force to head on course for the jump to Zebra 9. Jumping past Zebra 8 directly to Zebra 9 took almost 50 hours. The tension aboard the 344 was palpable, and Shiloh was certain that it was the same aboard the other ships. The only person who seemed to be immune to the tension was Lt. Cmdr. Chenko. She remained as totally calm and serious as before. Shiloh found out that Chenko was an enthusiastic chess player. Wanting to get to know his new XO better, he borrowed a chess set from one of the crew and offered Chenko a game in the officer’s wardroom during their overlapping off duty shift. It wasn’t long before he realized that he was out of his depth. When Chenko moved her Queen all the way down to Shiloh’s end of the board in order to pressure his King, Shiloh experienced another vision. In it, he saw Task Force Leader Yakamura on a view screen saying, ‘I’m approving Commander Shiloh’s request that all frigate squadrons be refueled before they split up to start the attack.’
The vision must have made his expression change because Chenko asked, “Are you alright, Sir?”
Shiloh quickly regained his composure and replied in the affirmative. Four moves later Chenko declared checkmate, and Shiloh tipped over his King.
As he was putting the pieces and board away, he said, “Before we emerge into Zebra 9, XO, I’d like to see a calculation of the squadron’s fuel reserves and the estimated consumption for carrying out the mission and jumping back to Zebra 7.”
Chenko acknowledged the order, and Shiloh left the wardroom.
When TF79 finally arrived at Zebra 9, their sensors revealed a big surprise. The entire system was EM dark. No artificial emissions were detected at all. Yakamura immediately called another conference session with his squadron leaders. As Shiloh listened to him explain how the recon mission had definitely detected six strong point sources of EM emissions along with other signs of industrial activity, he reviewed once again Chenko’s report on SFE144’s fuel situation. Due to the detour of escorting the tanker squadron to and from the gas giant, SFE144’s remaining fuel was now below the minimum required for conducting the raid itself and the return jump. Once he had that conclusion clearly in his mind, he returned his full attention to the conference discussion. SFE153’s Cmdr. LaRoche was speaking.
“—appears that they knew we were coming and shut down all energy sources to make it harder for us to pinpoint them. That suggests we should reconsider this mission if the element of surprise is gone.”
SFE051’s Cmdr. Cabrera started to respond but Yakamura cut him off.
“This mission will proceed regardless of whether we still have the element of surprise or not. I will not abandon this mission merely because they might be expecting us. What kind of signal would that send them? Any othe
r comments?”
Shiloh spoke up. “Yes, Sir. I have a concern regarding my squadron’s fuel situation. Our tanker escort mission depleted our reserves to the point where we won’t have enough fuel to jump back to Zebra 7 if we’re unable to refuel after the attack. I’d like to request that all of the frigate squadrons be refueled now, prior to the start of the attack. That way there’ll be no risk that any ship will end up being stuck in this system and unable to jump back to Zebra 7. I realize that this request will delay the start of the attack, however it seems to me that we’re more likely to have time to refuel when the enemy doesn’t know we’re here, than after the attack when whatever enemy ships are in this system are alerted to our presence.”
Yakamura turned to the other screen and said, “What do the rest of you think of this suggestion?”
Only one squadron leader wanted to attack first and refuel later, and his argument was only half-hearted. All the others agreed with Shiloh. Yakamura nodded.
“Very well, in light of the support for this request, and because I feel the risk imposed by the delay is minimal, I’m approving Commander Shiloh’s request that all frigate squadrons be refueled before they split up to start the attack. My XO will coordinate the refueling. That’s all for now.”
After the conference ended, Shiloh passed the refueling order to his squadron and ordered his Helm Officer to follow the instructions of the tanker assigned to the 344. While that was going on, he called Chenko to the Bridge. When she arrived next to his Command Station, he turned toward her.
“You heard the news about the emissions blackout?”
Chenko nodded.
“Comments?”
She thought carefully and then replied. “I agree that they are probably expecting us, and that begs the question of how did they know we were coming.”
Shiloh nodded. “Yes, and the only answer I can think of that makes any kind of sense is that they detected our recon ship and figured out that we would follow up with a massed attack. But how did they detect the Gnat? She never approached the inner system, nor did she detect any enemy vessel. She was far enough out from this system’s star that any reflected light would have been extremely difficult to detect, unless an enemy ship happened to be relatively close. And the odds of that happening are literally … astronomical. I can’t help feeling that we’ve overlooked something. By the way, I’ve convinced Yakamura to let all frigate squadrons refuel now. I’ve passed the word to the squadron, and Lt. Verlander is looking after our refueling.”
He paused, still wondering what implications the latest vision had in store for them, and then continued. “When the 144th is ready to start its attack run, I’m going to stay on the Bridge but only in my capacity as Squadron Leader. You will take the Con for this ship. I’ll use this Command Station and you will con the ship from the Helm Station. Any questions?”
Chenko thought for a moment, then said, “No, Sir. That’s clear enough and I can see why you want to do it that way. Having responsibility for both the ship and the squadron in a combat situation might be overwhelming for one person to handle.”
“Excellent. You can wait until I send the Squadron to Battle Stations before you take over Verlander’s station.”
Chenko acknowledged that and left the Bridge.
When Shiloh returned his attention to the refueling, he saw that 2 of the 12 tankers were refueling each frigate squadron. As the fuel shuttle approached the 344, Shiloh felt himself getting impatient. His ship had refueled this way dozens of times before, but this time the process seemed to be going slower than usual, although a glance at the chronometer told him it wasn’t. It was his own sense of time that was off, and he wondered if he was experiencing a rush of adrenaline. It would account for his distorted sense of time, but as to why he would be feeling a rush of adrenaline now when their scheduled attack was still a couple of hours away, he had no idea.
In point of fact, 20 minutes later that all eight frigates in SFE144 were finished their refueling. Shiloh watched with satisfaction as the last fuel shuttle disengaged and returned to its tanker. He immediately activated the com channel to the command ship, and Yakamura’s face appeared on the view screen.
“All finished refueling, Commander?” asked Yakamura.
“Yes, Sir. Request permission for the 144th to leave the Task Force and proceed to the target.”
Yakamura’s face showed the barest hint of a smile as he said, “Permission granted. Good hunting, Shiloh.”
“Thank you, Sir. See you on the other side.”
“Absolutely! Yakamura out.”
The screen went dark. Shiloh turned to his squadron com channel and said, “Squadron Leader to squadron. Prepare to execute course change.”
He then waited for all his ships to electronically acknowledge their readiness for the computed course change. As soon as all eight ship’s Helm Officers had signaled ready, Shiloh touched the flashing amber EXECUTE symbol on his Tactical Command Screen. Maneuvering computers pre-programmed with the desired course took control of each ship and made the exact same turn. At these speeds, leaving the course changes for a formation of ships to manual control was asking for collisions. Shiloh watched the squadron’s actual course come around very slowly to the desired course. With the residual speed left over from the hyper-jump, making a micro-jump to the vicinity of the target would take only a few seconds. To retain the element of surprise for all of the targets, all six frigate squadrons would micro-jump at the same time, which meant that none of them could jump until all six were on the proper heading for their target. Shiloh checked a smaller screen, which showed the status of all the Task Force’s squadrons, and noticed that squadrons 098 and 102 were still listed as undergoing refueling. He also noticed that the Command Ship, all of the tankers, and the 16 frigates that were not finished refueling, had already changed course for the heading that the Command Ship and the tankers would use to micro-jump to the other side of the star system, where the rendezvous point was located. Shiloh was just about to make a comment that Senior Commander Yakamura was in a hurry to get to the rendezvous point, when the Com Tech suddenly sat up and yelled out.
“Firefly’s shuttle just reported that Firefly has suffered some kind of hull rupture!”
Shiloh looked over at him to see if more information was coming. The Com Tech started to say something and then stopped abruptly, but only for a second or two.
“No communication from—Dragonfly reports she’s taking laser fire!”
Shiloh was about to ask ‘from where’ when the Com Tech continued.
“Sprite’s shuttle stopped transmitting in mid-sentence!”
Shiloh looked back at the squadron status board. The yellow symbol indicating refueling operations beside the tanker squadron suddenly changed to flashing red, meaning they were under enemy fire. The symbol beside the Command Ship also changed to a flashing red. Shiloh switched on the main com channel that the Command Ship usually used.
“—ships, all ships, we’re under enemy fire! Ships from the 98th and 102nd are ordered to go active on all scanners and return fire at will! Cabrera, Dejanus, Shiloh and Laroche, you’re ordered t—”
The voice was cut off so abruptly that Shiloh was startled. He quickly checked to make sure that the interruption wasn’t a technical snafu on his end. It wasn’t. Yakamura’s ship had stopped transmitting. Shiloh touched the electronic screen pad that sent his ship to Battle Stations.
“Com, signal the squadron to go to Battle Stations with Condition—”
He was about to say, ‘One’, which would have resulted in all his ships actively scanning and immediately firing on any unidentified contacts, but then he realized that Condition One might not be the best thing to do. As far as he knew, his ships were not being fired upon, at least not yet. And that could be for a number of reasons, such as them being out of range, but it could also be because they hadn’t been detected yet. If they suddenly went to active scanning, not only would they detect enemy ships, but they wo
uld also be detected. He made a snap decision to give himself more options by saying, ‘Four’.
Condition Four put all ships at Battle Stations, but with passive sensors only, and holding their fire until ordered otherwise. Without him ordering it, the large display screen on the wall switched from long-range astrogation mode to short range tactical mode. The tactical situation was not good. SFE144 was heading away from the main body of the Task Force, as were Jessica Cabrera’s 051, Raphael Dejanus’ 077, and Hiram LaRoche’s 153. Mbutu’s 098 and Bettencourt’s 102 squadrons were still close enough to the tanker squadron that they could be considered part of the main body of ships. Shiloh could tell when ships from those two squadrons started actively scanning. A cluster of red triangles appeared at the Task Force’s 8 o’clock position at a surprisingly close range! Shiloh counted the red triangles. Twenty-eight! The hair on the back of his neck stood up. How did 28 enemy ships get this close, this quickly? Something wasn’t right. He tried to find out where the Command Ship was in the cluster of green hexagons that represented friendly ships. The Command Ship’s hexagon should have been a brighter green. Shiloh couldn’t find it, and suddenly he realized that the reason he couldn’t find it was because it wasn’t there! He also realized that some of his squadron’s COs were trying to talk to him.
“144 squadron, standby! I’m going to try to re-establish communications with the Task Force Leader!”
Turning to the Com Tech, he said, “See if you can raise the Valley Forge again!”
While he was waiting for the results of that effort, Chenko rushed onto the Bridge. Shiloh saw her, nodded, and pointed to the Helm Station.
“XO, take the Con,” he told her. “Lt. Verlander, the XO will be conning the ship from your station! Remain on the Bridge in case I need you! I’ll retain squadron command!”
Turning back to the Com Tech, he said. “Any word from Task Force Leader?”