by David Buck
The assault leader sent her children through to await her outside the landing field, as she anxiously surveyed the landing field for the presence of other Vorinne, or most especially Zronte drones. Now satisfied that she was in no immediate danger, she turned to the Vorinne officer and chirred in high Barus as she made a full bow.
‘Lieutenant Dreshe’ahal, you claim to both knowing my mate of record and needing my assistance, yet I rank very low in the great system compared to yourself.’
Dreshe’ahal kept still this time because he did not want to attract further attention to himself by bowing again in full respect to a Cephrit female. He spoke to her softly in high Barus in a voice devoid of any authority.
‘I was the former military attaché for Lord Temeroth and I fled for my life after I uncovered his actions and he tried to assassinate me. I have already killed two Zronte assassin drones sent to terminate me. The Cephrit base of your mate is as good a hiding place as any, with the benefit that the second envoy Thatak’siema may be present. The envoy’s cousin is also either with the envoy or on Caliph Three.’
The Cephrit quickly had the gist of the Vorinne lieutenants’ story, and she gave several series of harsh clicks with her hind legs as she took in the dire details, especially about the Fenshilla. The Zronte Lord had apparently tried to later kill both the envoy’s cousin and the lieutenant with assassins after they fled. But the two young Vorinne had managed to separately flee to safety, with the female Vorinne later making her own way to the second envoy with a warning about Temeroth.
The assault leader was soon won over by Dreshe’ahal and she arranged to take him along with her back to the star base. She knew her return journey had suddenly become highly dangerous, especially with a short side trip now required for Caliph Three. The seasoned marine quickly directed the Vorinne lieutenant to board the waiting shuttle under her authority, before she rejoined her family. She knew that her presence here was now dangerous to her offspring and that she would have to shorten her visit. Her two oldest daughters looked at her anxiously as she recovered her back packs and armed herself with a pair of laser blasters.
The assault leader reassured her family before she led then to a restaurant at the edge of the space for a meal together. She did not relax until she had returned to the shuttle and it had returned to space eight hours later. Dreshe’ahal also looked relieved as they left, and provided her with additional information on Lord Temeroth’s earlier schemes involving the recently ended war with the Tilmud.
***
Joel Everson finally relaxed as he sat back in his command chair after the Auckland had entered the outskirts of the Silver system. The four pursuing Jerecab frigates had been left behind when the destroyer had fled Dradfer six, or the Diamond system. At no stage had the pursuers come even close to combat range, as the Jerecab had been deep inside the system when the Auckland had fled from the outskirts of the last system. He was not too concerned about his own ship, but the Newport had gone into the Gold system and the Madrid had drawn duty in the Topaz system.
Joel felt more relaxed as the first sensor reports came in and arrived at his console. The Newport had drawn a total blank in the busiest system, in that plenty of Jerecab freighters were present, but the armada itself was nowhere to be seen, and with strict orders not to engage in the Gold system the Newport had quietly left. The Madrid was also present, and the commander noted with alarm that her shields were only at half strength. He quickly ordered both the Newport and the Auckland to close with the Madrid even as he sent an urgent message to the commander.
‘Auckland to Madrid, Rod, please report on the status of your ship.’
Long minutes passed as the brief message travelled across the star system to the Madrid. After fifteen minutes Joel was starting to get worried as he noted it would still be two hours before both the Auckland and the Newport could reach the Madrid.
A lieutenant highlighted something on one of his scanner reports and sent it over for Joel’s attention. The commander noted that the Madrid was both increasing speed towards them and the ship’s shields were now slowly increasing in strength, as he again set a brief message.
‘Auckland to Madrid, Commander Cordova, please report on the status of your ship as we can detect battle damage.’
Another fifteen minutes went by, certainly time for the message to reach the Madrid and start to return, and Joel considered that the Madrid’s communications systems must be damaged. The lieutenant forward a long distance photo of the Madrid to his command console and Joel see that the forward sections of the ship had a charred look.
The commander was speculating about the cause of this damage when the main view screen lit up with the image of Rod Cordova replying to his earlier messages.
‘Madrid to Auckland, Joel, we have just been in battle in the Topaz system and engaged and destroyed a Jerecab frigate picketing the jump location at very close range. We have lost fifteen crew with another twelve are injured, and we have two damaged shields and a damaged communications array. During the engagement two other frigates picketing the other jump points nearby attempted to join the battle. The two distant frigates were heavily damaged and driven away as they were at a longer range. We suffered most of our damage when the first frigate exploded just outside our shields. As we left we noted that over sixty frigates had just arrived at the far side of the Topaz system and immediately began heading our way. I recommend we withdraw from this system as soon as we are able to do so.’
Joel did not need any further convincing as he ensured that both the Newport and the Auckland altered course as a temporary measure for the far side of Silver system. He sat back and noted that the Madrid was trailing both the other destroyers by about an hour, so he reduced speed slightly to allow the damaged ship to close up ranks. The commander noted that the numbers of Jerecab ships that Rod had listed in his reports, for it looked like the Jerecab Admiral had a quarter of his forces against Joel’s three destroyers.
‘A pity that we did not have our full fleet here or we would have taken them apart…’
Joel speculated to his bridge, as he noted that the engagement had not materially altered his own plans. He reviewed the deployment further before issuing the expected orders for a course change that this time would take all three ships into the Diamond system. As the three destroyers resumed formation, he wondered how Admiral Neilson was going with her own efforts.
Mary Neilson had taken twenty destroyers to Pearl, or Dradfer one, on a flying raid over a three day period. They had destroyed several lone frigates in hopelessly one-sided battles as she drove her ships hard across the intervening star systems. The admiral knew that the Gold system was a trap, and was worried about the next two hours, as they were crossing the Pearl system at the closest point to the jump location for the dangerous Gold system.
Mary knew that if she could get through the Pearl system she could raid the rear supply locations for the Jerecab Armada. Long seconds turned to longer minutes and eventually the two hours had gone past. She was just getting around to feeling relief that they had passed the choke point, when Lieutenant Benson at the tactical console called through an urgent report.
‘Admiral, we have a coded report from one of our stealth robots further out of the system, approximately four hundred million kilometres away. The report states that four large lifters and several smaller transports are entering the Pearl system from a system outside the combat zone. I am now scanning for any of their frigates and will have an answer shortly.’
The admiral waited patiently as the lieutenant went about searching for the smaller fighting ships. She knew that the Jerecab lifters were much larger than her destroyers, and also that the Jerecab did not place many weapons on these ships. She was more worried that the lifters could have several frigates each docked to their pylons, but Lieutenant Benson’s continued report brought her only hope.
‘Admiral, there are no frigates on any of the larger lifters and I can detect only the screen of eight fr
igates. They are already coming forward to get between us and their transports even as the larger ships attempt to reverse their course.’
Mary knew that the Jerecab transports would take time to leave and knew that this gave her a welcome opening. She stood tall in front of her command chair and issued the order she had been looking forward to giving to her fleet.
‘All lead sections are to attack the screening frigates and attempt to drive past them at a distance. Section four ships are to continue attacking frigates until the enemy are destroyed.’
The admiral settled back in her command char in satisfaction as she studied the tangled weave of Jerecab ships still over an hour away from her own ships. By habit Mary scanned reports of the rest of the system and noted that no other Jerecab ships were present.
***
Robert Seville sat at the engineering console of the older frigate and looked over the latest search reports with frustration. He was briefly aware of the age of their space ship and how the Earth authorities had not used surface ships for many years. The researcher watched with detached interest as they flew over a larger commercial surface ship, increasingly rare these days, as it heading towards Fremantle.
The four searching space ships had recovered two large fragments from a frigate sized space ship that seemed different than the ship that had been recently destroyed. He noted that the reports stated the fragments had recent temperature scouring from passing through the atmosphere at speed. However the team’s initial searches of the Trader information and also their own now outdated data had only increased the confusion Robert was experiencing.
‘The fragments are from a larger ship, most likely a Tilmud frigate, or even two frigates as the metals vary slightly between the fragments. The fragments each weigh about thirty tons and are in poor condition. Yet a frigate is several times larger than the ship we detected in space….’
Robert had a suspicion or inkling that humanity was being misled, but he was unsure as to both the intention and the scale of the misdirection. The search for wreckage was being wound down and was due to finish shortly, even if they did find smaller fragments of the ship. He now plugged in the details of the wreckage, plus added another twenty tons of smaller wreckage, into a beta program he had just developed.
He then added the recent intercept vectors and ran a simulation based on the results he copied across from the beta program.
Robert ensured that the two pilots were busy flying the ship back to Perth as he viewed the simulation in amazement. He knew now what he was looking for and in moments had a confirmation from the Trader information on his data tablet.
One of the pilots broke into his concentration as he discretely shutdown the data tablet.
‘Sir, the search has just finished for the day and only two smaller fragments have been recovered by two other ships. Are we continuing to search further tomorrow based on these new discoveries?’
Robert forced himself to give a genial answer as his mind continued to race in the background with the possibilities.
‘No Mick, we will close off the search for now and back to the institute as I am satisfied with the results. I am looking over the fragments for a few days before heading off to space. We are expecting uninvited guests before long and I have been seconded to space duty as a commander.’
The answer interested both of the pilots, and Robert endured a good natured lobbying for assignment to combat patrols from both of the older men. He gave them both a polite smile as replied and casually stowed his data tablet in his back pack.
‘Okay Mick and Bob, I will speak with my contacts and get you up into space. However this slow old crate may not be of much good in an actual battle, even if we have plenty of crew and weapons.’
The two pilots seemed happy with Robert’s answer and an easy silence followed as the old ship made the short journey back to the research institute. As they began the landing approach, Robert considered the ramifications of actually knowing which race had just landed on Earth.
***
Chapter 2
Altarebe kept perfectly calm as he was introduced to the middle daughters, Helisphan and Isphara. The two youngest females, Cliade and Armuen, had already swum off to fetch the Maveen probe. Seliandre had swum off a short distance under the massive suppression field, which had impressed him from the moment he entered the facility. Nearby he see the slumbering form of the oldest sister, Gementer, now braced against movement on a flat section of the seafloor.
Altarebe watched as Seliandre then placed the damaged sled carefully in a docking cradle and connecting diagnostic lines through the service ports. He was now distracted and knew that the middle two daughters were still young, but that did stop them from taking an interest in him. Isphara stopped circling him closely and swam back a distance before she asked a question.
‘So Altarebe, you have been travelling in the galaxy for many centuries, and you must have seen many an amazing sight? You will already be aware that we have never left this planet.’
Isphara was about to speak again, but Angwene quietly instructed her and her sister to remain silent as she then addressed Altarebe.
‘Isphara and Helisphan please remain quiet, as the probe and I need to speak at length with Altarebe. Surely you both have not finished your assigned tasks for this watch period. Altarebe, we need to go through all your information again, especially any briefings you have from the Maveen.’
Angwene was about to continue again, but paused for a moment as Seliandre returned to take close station next to him. Her possessiveness was not lost on her mother, who now remained silent. She now decided that this aspect of Altarebe’s arrival would have to be dealt with after the briefings. The Maveen probe now arrived trailed by the two youngest ancient females. After brief introductions, Altarebe repeated his earlier reports that he had given Queen Angwene.
‘Probe three, the Earth probe, the Dradfer probe, and the sector delegate probe have instructed me to pass on this information to you. The damaged sled over in that cradle is for your use and this is what the senior probes would like you to do …’
Probe three looked over at the nearby sled and established a blue laser communications line to the forward console of the device. He then interrogated the damaged sled as Altarebe continued to speak at length. The probe soon established that the sled was heavily damaged and would take concerted repairs to get it functional. He placed the repair times against the most likely future time he would need the sled and decided to interrupt Altarebe.
‘Excuse me Altarebe, but I will move closer to the sled and commence repairs of the device immediately. Please follow me over to the cradle and continue speaking.’
Angwene gave a soft subsonic call of irritation, but they all slowly followed the Maveen the two hundred metres or so over to the cradle. A soft blue light bathed the sled as probe three set to work on the damaged underside. Altarebe ignored the soft calls of distress from the females as he told the story of the surprise Tilmud attack long ago that had injured both his father and himself.
Angwene interrupted Altarebe with two questions as the Maveen probe quietly worked on the sled.
‘So your father, Delprebe, is still alive and hiding on a remote asteroid? Yet you state you both were academics before you reached this galaxy so long ago?
Altarebe was about to reply when the Maveen probe gave an answer of his own.
‘Your majesty, Altarebe and his father were originally brought to this part of the galaxy by my team many centuries ago. After we lost touch with them we arranged to search for them with the assistance of the Traders. So now you finally know of my original mission.’
Queen Angwene sat back in thought as she took in the significance of the Maveen probe’s answer. Probe three ignored the soft subsonic calls of amazement that the daughters made as he continued to work on the sled. Seliandre make an observation of her own as Altarebe also remained silent.
‘The Maveen are up to something else and the probe just stated wh
at I had worked out earlier. I think we still do not know all of their plans, but I think it is something to do with their role as makers of worlds.’
The Maveen probe was listening in but gave no acknowledgements as Altarebe spoke again.
‘Well I did travel with a Sspol cruiser many years ago to a remote part of the galaxy and a massive nearby Maveen facility was preparing for something…’
Angwene listened with heightened interest as she took in this information. Surely the Maveen would not act until she had fled this world with her daughters, and she wasted no time worrying about this later concern as she steered Altarebe back to her immediate fears.
‘Well we are definitely leaving in one hundred and fifty years time so the Maveen will have to postpone their plans for this star system until then. Now Altarebe we need to go through the report on the humans and their journey to the former Dradfer colonies. For all our future plans are invalid unless the humans survive the onslaught of the Jerecab.’
Angwene was aware that the Maveen probe had stopped working on the sled and regarding Altarebe through his blue vision strip. Altarebe remained silent as probe spoke to the ancients in a soft sub-sonic whisper.
‘Your majesty, my limited tactical data supports the human decision to confront the Jerecab well way from this planet. Altarebe, the queen earlier predicted that the Jerecab would be the most dangerous race to confront the humans. We know now that the humans are building ten addition ships to add to the forty they took with them on their mission.’
Altarebe was trying to establish how the ancients had discovered this information as Seliandre modestly spoke.