by David Buck
‘Admiral, we are five minutes from entering the hyper drive point and we should make it after the sacrifice of the Tokyo and the Buenos Aires.’
Mary straightened her tunic and resolutely stood to address the bridge.
‘All ships are to go into hyper space at the allotted time. We will be holding a service for our fallen ship mates in six hours time. Lieutenant Commander, we will go over our preparations to leave these worlds after the loss of our key transport ships. We have held out here for weeks but now it is time to return home.’
A subdued silence feel over the bridge of the Exeter as the fleet prepared to enter hyper space. Two more transports received heavy damage as the rapidly approaching armada opened fire at long range. Mary knew that the bad day that they had experienced could have been a lot worse, as Griggs walked up to her and handed her the requested plans stored on his data tablet.
***
Admiral Baunrus fumed as he considered the loss of several frigates across the centre sections of his armada. He corrected that estimation as he noted that Commander Neanres had not experienced any losses, yet had been instrumental in their partial victory. However he was not done yet in berating his commanders.
‘Now with the exception of Neanres, who I will speak to later, I consider the actions of my remaining commanders to be very poor. If my own commanders displayed half the courage of the two fallen human commanders then we would have been able to engage the main human fleet.’
The admiral had then ordered three deployments each consisting of forty ships to follow the humans into the next system but he was not confident of engaging them again unless his ships arrived right on top of them. He gave them a limit of eight hours to complete the intercept and now turned his attention to Neanres.
‘Commander Neanres, congratulations on your section’s destruction of the two destroyers, though I understand that four of your ships are badly damaged.’
Neanres had waited a few seconds to ensure the admiral was no longer speaking before offering a deep bow and a reply.
‘Thank you admiral, it was the cohesion of the commanders in my section that allowed us our victory. We have not lost any ships but four of them are badly damaged as you say. Admiral I think it is likely the humans will withdraw from this battle after our destruction of their supply ships.’
Admiral Baunrus was still annoyed about the initial breach of discipline and he was in no mood for Neanres’s opinion.
‘Commander, I do not care for what you think, even if you are possibly right. Now you have disobeyed my orders despite your victory, and you will take our damaged ships back to the Dradfer three system and also secure that system. If our reinforcements are present you are to bring them to the human world at all costs.’
Commander Neanres could see the logic of the admiral’s orders, for he had divested himself of a troublesome but capable commander and damaged ships of little use in conquering the human world. He gathering up the damaged ships still capable of moving and much later set a course to leave.
Baunrus watched the damaged frigates slowly move away, even as he gave instructions for several other crippled frigates to be blown up. He did not bother himself in the least with the slowing tumbling wrecks of the two human destroyers. The armada now set a course for the outer areas of the colony zone and the likely human supply bases.
***
Chapter 7
Mary Neilson let her shoulders drop in relief as the first reports of their escape came through. The Jerecab had pursued them with smaller numbers of ships that had arrived some distance from their own position. The admiral could have engaged these frigates easily enough but she was worried about her fleet being cornered again. The destroyers had merely led the supply ships across the star system to avoid being intercepted. After several more hours the Jerecab ships had returned to their entry point and moved off to yet another star system.
Lieutenant Commander Griggs walked over with a report on the state of their supplies, and Mary knew that their recent change of plans would have to be implemented. The admiral locked over the information with forced detachment, before she asked a question.
‘So if we strip down echelon base before we leave then we should have enough supplies to return to Earth?’
Griggs gave a confident answer as he highlighted separate items of importance on the data tablet.
‘Yes, Admiral we need most of our fuel and other reserves at echelon to allow this to occur. I also recommend we setup hidden supplies in case Joel returns in several days time.’
Mary had not forgotten the desperate mission she had sent her best commander on, and she called the main view screen to illustrate a point.
‘Hopefully Joel can disrupt the Jerecab in the Gold system enough to buy us more time. We will retreat and arrange to ambush the Jerecab at possibly two strategic star systems. After that we are back at our handful of colonies and Earth itself is only two hyper drive jumps away afterwards.’
Griggs looked over their plans and made a series of comments of his own.
‘The Jerecab will no doubt attempt to consolidate their conquests and this could buy us the time we need for more vassal races to intervene. Our losses on the expedition amount to five destroyers, and eighteen transports. I estimate we have destroyed over forty Jerecab frigates and scores of their transports.’
Mary looked over the summary of losses with considerable hope, for up until their last battles their mission had been going reasonably well. She looked the star map of the surroundings systems and she offered a direct opinion.
‘I sure hope you are accurate, and the Gold base needs to be damaged for us to tie down the Jerecab. Basically everything needs to also break with us on our retreat home. Fortunately the star systems close to home should confer us an advantage, however we will not be able to defend the colonies.’
The bridge clock chimed an alarm and Mary authorised the change of bridge crew. The officers and crew not on duty were soon packed in the small cargo hold with pallets of food and supplies stacked behind them. The pastor waited until the admiral nodded in approval and the ceremony of remembrance for the fallen began.
***
Freya Paulson rested against the wall of the corridor and tried to ignore the persistent headache she was experiencing. She knew that most of her crew were now dead and that the Buenos Aires would soon freeze into a lifeless hulk of metal. The commander had managed to find several additional crew members after leading the survivors of her bridge crew into the lower sections of her ship.
The survivors had managed to don spacesuits and now carried an assortment of hand weapons. However their suit air supplies would soon run out with no possibility of replacement. She tried not to think of the dismal situation that they were all in with the life support gone and all other key systems either destroyed or offline.
A younger female crew member whimpered in both pain and fear for several moments, and Freya slowly went to her side.
‘Just try to hold on Emma, as the first aide station ahead looks intact and we will try to do something about your broken arm.’
The commander noted with pride that Emma steeled herself and gave a nod to thank her. Freya was slowly moving forward again with her own vision suffering, when a series of sharp clangs resonated through the wreck of the ship. She gestured for all surviving crew members to take defensive positions as she listened again. The surviving engineer, Phil Peters, a large and hard nosed Canadian, slowly spoke into radio.
‘Commander that was something joining onto our standard docking hatch, and I do not think it is one of ours. The design of the hatch was unchanged from the Trader ships to allow future access. There is also no signal or the Morse rescuer code being used.’
Freya knew now that their supposed rescuers were not human and she gave the necessary orders.
‘We are to assume Jerecab marines and we are out of time with our air. We will attempt to clear a path to the cargo hold and the self destruct charges.’
&nb
sp; Freya changed the direction of her travel and headed down a jumbled side corridor in the dark with the rest of the survivors slowly trailing her. She was only two levels from the hold when a series of shouts erupted behind her. The commander did not look back, but not increased her pace towards the forward hold access door.
Freya could hear a series of laser shots from her crew as they tried to give her the time she needed to get into the hold. The recent space battle had buckled the access door, and Freya frantically struggled with it, as she realised that she could hear no more weapons fire behind her. The darkness in the ruined destroyer seemed to now reek of threats as she slowly forced open the door.
Freya was suddenly thrown against the door jamb with heavy force and then forced down to the deck. She raised her laser pistol to fire and it was knocked away from her, spraining her right wrist in the process. The commander lashed out in the clumsy suit with her feet, but they were quickly pinned by three of the attackers. A face mask was dislodged, and Freya screamed as she took in the form of the strange aliens attacking her. The commander could see that these unknown aliens were naked apart from tool harnesses and respirators. She knew that their attackers would have had greater mobility than the space suits her crew were forced to wear.
The commander strained against her attackers as they produced laser cutters and proceeded to remove her from her space suit. Freya gagged as her suit was compromised and the fetid stench of the aliens reached her nose. She knew that these aliens must be the Fenshilla for the Traders had briefly mentioned them so long ago. The long limbed aliens were covered in a sloughing grey skin covered with sparse black hair and had long fingered hands tipped with claws. A rat like face, with four tendrils rather than whiskers, and tufted ears completed the image Freya could see. She then mercifully blacked out from oxygen loss, exhaustion and shock.
The Fenshilla platoon leader carefully cut the rest of Freya’s suit from her body and then proceeded to do the same with her clothes. All items were bagged for later analysis and they would search the ship for any items they could use to keep the humans alive. Another Fenshilla slowly wrapped a thermal blanket around the still and naked form of the human before attaching one of their modified oxygen masks. The platoon leader attached a tracking bracelet around Freya’s ankle and issued terse orders to his troops.
‘Careful with this human, for she is their commander and possibly a female of breeding age.’
Freya was carried away to the Fenshilla cruiser as the soldiers now started to search the rest of the ship. The Fenshilla bagged any dead bodies they found for either research or food as they moved through the ship. The platoon leader soon found the first aid stations and methodically looted them of their supplies, as his troops called in with reports of finding the food stores and other items of interest. He was well satisfied with their efforts and knew that the commandant would be as well.
The former commander of the Earth destroyer Buenos Aires, Freya Paulson, woke up in the dimly lit hold of a Fenshilla heavy cruiser. She wrapped a blanket around her body and noted that the hold air stank of Fenshilla. The strange bracelet around her ankle was inspected next and she gave it an experimental twist before evaluating it would not be easily removed. Freya quickly stood and made her way around to the other survivors clustered around one end of the hold. She counted over forty survivors and realised that crew from the Tokyo made up some of the numbers.
Freya knelt down in one corner of the hold and recognised Ben Takayima laying one his back surrounded by some of his crew. Ben was naked like the rest of them and she noted his broken right lower leg. Ben looked at her in surprise and he gave a yelp of pain as he moved. Freya rested a hand on his shoulders and spoke carefully.
‘Try to remain still Ben while I see what I can do for you and the rest of the crew. Hopefully we can organise a splint for that leg as we try and work out what is going on.’
Ben kept still and gave an accurate report that mirrored the capture of Freya and her own crew. She was looking around the bare metal floors and walls of the hold, when a side door opened and several armed Fenshilla walked into the hold. The tall aliens carried electric prods and their presence made the captured humans gag at the stench that came with them. Their jailers dropped a series of boxes along one wall of the hold and Freya recognised both food and medical supplies, including pain killers and splints. Phil Peters limped over and Freya noted the dragon tattooed down the left side of his body. The powerfully built engineer pointed around the upper part of the hold, and she noted the cameras and a large window set high in one end.
Freya ignored the watching Fenshilla and proceeded to organise the survivors to help the injured and set up basic services in the hold. She looked over the lower section at the far end of the hold and noted that the crew support area provided cold water only for drinking and showers, and basic toilets. The commander later walked over to see how Ben was going and noted he must have blacked out when the other crew members set his broken leg.
Emma was huddled in fright in one corner and Freya went over with two other women attend to her injuries. Later the commander rationed out the food and allocated a series of watches for the crew to take. After a sombre meal, the few living lieutenants of both ships huddled around her as she issued a series of instructions that no left no doubt in their minds about her intentions.
***
Joel Everson looked over the sensor data showing the oncoming Jerecab frigates with unease. The three Earth destroyers continued to cover the small convoy even as long range weapons fire was exchanged between the humans and the Jerecab. Already two of the troop transports had been damaged by the Jerecab and the Auckland had been forced to attack frigates in reply. Joel knew that this response in turn placed the Auckland at greater risk of damage from the other frigates.
Lieutenant Chandra kept updating the status of the destroyer as they continued to travel to the next hyper jump point only twenty minutes away.
‘Commander, our shields are down to sixty percent and the frigates have launched another twelve missiles. The Newport and the Madrid are faring better with each of them having over eighty percent shield strength.’
Joel looked impatiently at the discharge timer for the spinal mount weapon, and noted that it still had three minutes until the weapon was recharged. He was confident that they would escape unharmed when he noted the targets of the oncoming missiles and gave sharp orders to counter their threat.
‘All ships to engage those missiles for the frigates are attacking the troop carriers.’
The three destroyers again altered course to protect the transports and their point defences claimed eight of the missiles as they raced past. Another two missiles were shot down by the transports before the last two missiles struck the two transports damaged earlier. Joel swore to himself as he noted that the engines of both the Bowman and the Achilles had been destroyed. Suddenly both the commander and Lieutenant Chandra noted a new development in nearby space.
Joel looked at the footage a side camera had obtained even as Lieutenant Chandra identified the new ships.
‘Commander, a Trader ship has entered the system about two hundred thousand kilometres from our position. She has launched her sneak ships and they are an intercept vector with the Jerecab frigates.’
Joel felt great relief with the news and immediately gave a curt order across his bridge.
‘Open a link to the Trader ship.’
The commander waited the few moments it took to establish the link and noted that their main screen now showed the impassive features of a Trader captain standing tall on the bridge of his command. Joel gave a deep bow of respect as he spoke, for he knew the likely name of the captain.
‘I am Commander Joel Everson from Earth in command of the destroyer Auckland. I presume you are Captain Narindestat and I thank you for your rescue of my small fleet of ships.’
Narindestat answered with a polite bow of his own and now gave urgent instructions.
‘Commander, I
regret I cannot aid you defending your home world, but we are able to help you here today. Fortunately we arrived in time to help you with those frigates. Now two of our sneak ships are being operated by Barede colonists and they will come to the aid of your transports. I suggest you stay with your transports and prepare to leave here as soon as we destroy these frigates.’
Joel watched as the Jerecab broke off their attack and raced for the far side of the star system. He could see that the Trader sneak ships should overhaul the Jerecab frigates in a couple of hours. The formation of ten sneak ships trailed by the larger wing ship shot past the small collection of human ships with over twenty thousand kilometres separation. The commander could also see two more sneak ships heading towards his location, and in moments he was talking with a Lieutenant Rick Greene.
‘Commander Everson, it is good to hear from our home world after so long. We are permitted to exchange key information; however as Captain Narindestat stated the Traders cannot interfere at Earth. We will go alongside the transports in fifteen minutes as my commanding officer, Commander Paul Burgess, will lead the evacuation of the injured from those ships.’
Joel was feeling relieved with the news and he added information of his own in reply.
‘Lieutenant, we have much to discuss if possible at a later stage. For now I will send a transport over to each ship to take off the survivors. The injured are to be moved across to one of our destroyers at a later stage.’