by Gary Caplan
“Two Star Cities? What type?” Kaglar asked.
“They are the larger Royal class,” Kra’ag responded, “I have distributed the Kadjiah-class ships to support our actions throughout this galaxy. I have kept the first ship as my flagship.”
“You should not allow those Talcon to gain a foothold in that galaxy, Lord Kra’ag,” Kra’mog said. “Their presence may require a preemptive military action, as we are currently at war with one of their factions.”
“Or it could be a massive colonization effort,” Solg said. “That particular galaxy is generally stable. In any case, you should not allow the Talcon to mobilize and establish any bases.”
“Hum, the Royal class are world ships and are larger than many of our own Jiyarr space installations,” Kaglar said. “Such a mission by the Talcon could be for several purposes.”
“I will arrange for ships to intercept the first Star City now,” Kra’ag said. “I will have Mor’ag, my regional governor, arrange a strike fleet.”
He could tell the communication was over; the delays were perceptible even with using the slipstream wormhole interface. After the communication ended, Kra’ag muttered. “I have already started military campaigns against several enemies, and now I have to tell my cousin Mor’ag to locate and redirect some of the ships to deal with this new problem. A Star City is a difficult adversary, but a Royal type can only mean colonization.”
CHAPTER 6
ALLIANCE
OPERATIONS
Meanwhile, on Star One, the Alliance’s headquarters preparations for construction of additional starships continued, and Grand Admirals like Jeroloh, Pendragon, Scorislac, and other senior tacticians made plans to retake most of the subsectors of Rhendal and Mercan sectors that had been previously captured by the Varlon. They were completing a briefing for the involved officers, including acting Admiral Sheppard. Even the Prime Minister was present for part of the briefing.
Star One was a totally self-sufficient, multispecies base with a 120-kilometer radius and over a quarter that in depth. It was one of the Alliance of Worlds’ main orbital colonies. The Star One facility included several communities that had their own hydroponics, aquaculture, and gardens for food production. The huge space city inside Star One included multiple housing facilities for representatives of every member civilization and its families. Star One also contained the main campus of the Alliance of Worlds Academy as well as two other universities. There were even training grounds for the starship officers and the space marines within the vast space station complex. Star One had an internal ecosystem of housing areas, complete with trees and plants.
Additionally there were all manner of public, corporate, and support facilities, as well as over two hundred embassies. There were life support systems and areas for several different species, and small communities for their habitation. There were medical facilities for health maintenance and construction and docking facilities for starships. The hull design of Star One, like that of most of the other starships, had an improved carbon nanotube alloy embedded and interlaced with the reinforced trans-titanium alloy in both the outer and inner hulls.
Grand Admiral Pendragon watched from his station on Star One as live icons representing commodores, vice admirals, and other higher fleet officers filled the briefing hall. There were newly developed transmission protocols and security measures to allow a secure virtual interlink broadcast as if they were all present in the meeting. Over one hundred officers were present for this virtual meeting, representing almost every civilization in the Alliance of Worlds.
Only a few months ago, saboteurs had internally attacked Star One. Then the Alliance of Worlds had called upon a former academy professor and reserve officer to help fix the problem. Pendragon looked around and noticed that Vice Admiral Garfield had an icon and was attending virtually. The Karratin had agreed to be a science liaison officer for the sixth fleet, and as per exchange officer protocols, he could take command of the sixth if Sheppard were killed in action. However, now he was doing double duty, representing the Karratins and the Hegemony. Garfield was presently working with Ambassador Cerus Alotar, representing the Alliance of Worlds and the Karratin as an ambassador to the Rhyn in Tashar sector. Pendragon realized that, if it worked out, then after the Alliance of Worlds helped the Rhyn, the Rhyn would in turn help the Alliance stand against the Varlon.
Sheppard had joined the meeting virtually and looked outward, using his avatar at the other avatars of the attendees; the briefing had been going on for a half hour. The attendees were a mix of various life-forms that made up the Alliance of Worlds. Sheppard had time to virtually attend this meeting, since it was still about fifteen hours before the Phoenix would come into contact with the Star City. He had already sent hellos to Commodore Brandon Avery and Fleet Admiral Braddock, who were actually friends of his. He had even actively forwarded a status report to Grand Admiral Pendragon. Most of the meeting’s secure data was streaming to his commlink and being recorded as Sheppard sat in his office aboard the Phoenix.
For a moment, Sheppard’s mind drifted back. As he contemplated Star One, he recalled a magrail ride from the security conference complex to the stop near Qualen’s, a favorite restaurant where he would dine on excellently prepared, nonsynthesized food. He also recalled looking up at the rising curve of Star One’s inside hull and scenery, including the trees, the internal river and streams, and the buildings and personal dwellings within Star One that he passed during his magrail travel.
Fleet Admiral Braddock’s interlink avatar was active at the meeting. Since the ramping up of starcraft construction, even the civilian construction companies such as BradCorp were involved. Sheppard observed Braddock comment that his company could help with ease of design or alteration of starships using the recently upgraded starship design facility of BradCorp. One other thing caught Sheppard’s attention when Fleet Admiral Peregrine said, “The Varlon are building long-range torpedo-launching facilities inside some planets and a few asteroid bases in Rhendal sector.” Sheppard thought, Now that will be a problem, since from Rhendal, they will be close enough with their chameleon technology to make more accurate torpedo strikes on Alliance of Worlds’ main home worlds and colonies or even against some of the Hegemony worlds.
* * *
Meanwhile, in Tashar Sector, negotiations continued on a Rhyn orbital base above the Rhyn home world with Alliance of Worlds’ ambassador Alotar and one of the senior Rhyn leaders, Nombrin. Alotar was dressed in a robe version of an Alliance Ambassador’s uniform. Executor Nombrin was a senior minister in the Rhyn government. Nombrin was dressed in a black suit with small lapels and a large back collar. The Rhyn were a humanoid species whose mildly tanned skin had a hint of orange color. Their two eyes were somewhat tapered, and they had more noticeable ears than humans. Nombrin had been discussing terms with Ambassador Alotar, and a few of the negotiations included Ambassador Garfield. Nombrin had convinced Garfield to look at an ailing power-generating facility, since he had heard of the Karratin’s renowned scientific knowledge. Garfield had agreed to examine the facility and make recommendations, since he wanted to show he was willing to help.
Garfield returned to the negotiation table in time to hear Nombrin mention part of what they really wanted. Being a Star Knight and from a telepathic race, Garfield had a good idea what Nombrin was maneuvering Alotar to do. He might have even asked Garfield to help with the power facility during some of the negotiations just to get him out of the way, having some knowledge of his psionic abilities.
“Ambassador Garfield, please sit,” Nombrin said. I was about to show some tactical briefs to Ambassador Alotar.”
“Thank you, Executor Nombrin. I have sent a technical brief to your engineers and forwarded a summary to your office about a possible solution to your weakening power stations,” Garfield said.
“I look forward to reading it,” Nombrin replied. “Now, allow me to demonstrate how we have come to defend ourselves from the Varlon. I will show you u
sing something similar to your Trivid projection.”
“Yes, I would be interested in that information,” Alotar said. A few support staff in the rooms moved to get a better view as the projections began. Images began to appear in the display area, and both ambassadors watched. The images showed three-dimensional displays of Varlon ships at the edge of Rhyn space.
Ambassador Alotar and his assistants watched the tactical display as Varlon ships, including the dreaded H class, maneuvered to attack a large Rhyn ship that was surrounded by other vessels. The Alliance had settled on Earth designations for the Varlon ships, since their geometric figures were roughly similar to English letters from Earth. The H class was designated a super dreadnaught with a rhomboid structure over fifteen thousand meters at its largest diameter. It was much larger than the Alliance of Worlds’ Galaxy- or Constellation-class starships, and since the Alliance had very few Warbase- or similar-class ships, it took five standard dreadnaughts just to battle an H class. The H class’ primary cannons tended to rip lesser ships apart. If the Varlon H class successfully targeted and hit an Alliance Heroic-class heavycruiser twice with its plasma weapons before that cruiser type could divert auxiliary power into shielding energy, the cruiser would essentially be destroyed.
The imaging device expanded and projected into half of the room as they watched the ships move. First the Varlon task force of eight ships, including two H class, moved into Rhyn space after revealing themselves and destroying a Rhyn asteroid orbital defense base. The Varlon had to detour along a skillfully placed minefield, which detonated, damaging the Varlon ships. The Varlon plasma cannons, energy disruptors, and antimatter torpedoes were blasting the base apart. Alotar watched as some images fast forwarded. The Varlon began to assault the colony, first taking out communication satellites or arrays along with orbital defense cannons or torpedo-launching facilities. Occasionally, the Rhyn weapons would miss an intended target, but this occurred less often than with Alliance weapons of similar type.
The observers with Ambassador Alotar noticed that the Rhyn had weapon energy systems very close in power levels to those of the Varlon. Garfield raised an eyebrow when the defenses in the Rhyn colony succeeded in moderately damaging one of the H class and inflicted critical systems damage on the J-class battlecruisers. Then a huge vessel arrived, which the Rhyn called a Tuebor-class ship. It was a few thousand meters longer than the Varlon H class. The ship seemed to separate into multiple smaller cruiser-sized ships. These were the Rhyn drone ships, and several detached and tried to ram into the Varlon starships. Within minutes, the Varlon were being driven back. Their ships were damaged by Rhyn exploding drone ships’ debris and deployed mines. It was clear that the Rhyn were willing to sacrifice large amounts of equipment to maintain their defenses.
Alotar noticed, looking at the tactical readouts, that the Rhyn were able to target the Varlon more often than he knew Alliance ships could. It took only two Rhyn ships to deal with one equal class of Varlon ships. The drone carrier or base ship the Rhyn used was actually equal to the Varlon, and its tactics were effective in damaging the Varlon; it could approach and then detonate or actually ram one of the Varlon starships.
“However, we cannot necessarily detect them all the time when the Varlon use their chameleon defenses,” Nombrin said. “As you know, Varlon ships pretend to be asteroid debris or try to mimic other ships or perhaps even bounce scans, which result in false readings.”
“Yes, they have caused havoc in the Alliance of Worlds in the same manner,” Alotar commented.
“To obtain clearer firing solutions, we use our drone carrier ships,” Nombrin said. “That, combined with large numbers of mines released, is enough to drive the Varlon back. Our mines even disrupt the Varlon targeting scans for a few moments.”
“So, essentially, you are filling space with armed decoy ships and explosive space mine devices to stop the Varlon,” Alotar said.
“I suppose one could say that,” Nombrin said, “but for morale purposes, we prefer to say we are defeating the Varlon.”
“The Rhyn have been using vast amounts of raw materials and energy to keep the Varlon at bay,” Garfield said.
“Yes, that is correct,” Nombrin said. “We are using vast amounts of materials to make new ships and repair those that can be repaired; we also reconstruct drones from the debris. We are using various energy resources, including antimatter, to power the explosive effects.”
“However, now with the Varlon reorganized from recent internal problems,” Alotar responded, “they have begun once again to strike at not only the Alliance but the Rhyn Republic.”
“Correct, Ambassador Alotar; the Varlon previously tended to attack us primarily by striking convoys of escorted transport ships in the space between our colonies, where our defenses were weaker,” Nombrin said. “Recently, we have been attacked more often and at main colonies. The increase in attacks is interfering with the transfer of raw materials and commerce between our colonies.”
‘The Varlon have also returned to attacking even my people, now that they have resolved some internal political affairs and are reinforced by their new ally, the Accad,” Garfield said.
“Yes, that will be troublesome now that these Accad are involved,” Nombrin said. “The only other threat that we have encountered is an occasional threat on one border by the Ceyloom, who are neutral and trade with the Varlon.”
“We presently have neutral relations with most of the elder races, such as the Ceyloom,” Alotar said, “with the exception of the members of the Hegemony, Karratins, Estrians, Lyramenians, and Quarran, with whom we trade and have affiliation treaties. It’s only with the Varlon—and occasionally with the Saldron, in the opposite end of the galaxy—that we have problems.”
Nombrin nodded; he was aware of the situation. “Recently, we were attacked by sabotage groups that managed to infiltrate the surface of some of our main colonies,” Nombrin said. “Our internal security was able to eventually repel them as well.”
“We had an internal security problem close to a year ago with Androsynths and some Varlon allies known as Quarlusians, who were shape shifters. Lord Garfield and some other Karratins helped us several months ago with locating the Androsynths and Quarlusians who had infiltrated Star One,” Alotar said.
“Initially, we had some problems with those same foes,” Nombrin added, “but we did not call upon the Hegemony for aid; we were able to deal with them ourselves.”
“I am sure the Alliance of Worlds would have eventually been able to deal with the security problems,” Garfield said, “but time was a factor, and I rarely give up the opportunity of a challenge when asked to help—as you, of course, know, Executor Nombrin.”
Not wanting to cause any insults to the Rhyn, Alotar tried to get past or avoid the Rhyn’s past penchant for isolation and worked to secure military aid from them. “Perhaps we can continue, Executor Nombrin,” Alotar said. “There is still the matter of our joint plan that the Alliance of Worlds can help you extract some ships and colonists outside to a safe region of space.”
“Of course, once we complete the defense strategy, we can proceed,” Nombrin said. “I realize Alliance forces have a different battle strategy and are not quite as technologically advanced as the Rhyn as a whole; however, we still need to determine how we can operate effectively together.”
It was then that Garfield’s telepathy connected with his sentient ship Zeloc, an upgraded and unique Karratin battlecarrier. It’s time to proceed to our rendezvous with the Phoenix near the Star City, sent Zeloc. Garfield had agreed to Commodore Sheppard’s request that he be present for first contact with the Talcon.
“Executor Nombrin, Ambassador Alotar, I agreed to be involved with a first contact mission, so I must be leaving now,” Garfield said. “I am sure Commodore St. John can help with the battle strategy coordination plans.”
Nombrin stood and bowed slightly to Garfield in what approximated a formal Karratin good-bye. Garfield made a hand gesture of fa
rewell to Nombrin in Rhyn style as he looked at both. “I know that the Rhyn will require some raw materials that have become scarce during the centuries of defending against the Varlon, and I’m sure the ambassador will be able to arrange something with a treaty.” Garfield nodded at Alotar, shook his hand in an Earth-style good-bye manner, and left the chamber.
Once clear of observers, Garfield used an advanced psycho-portive Star Knight discipline that allowed him to moderate distance translocation and traveled to his sentient starship, the Zeloc, which was orbiting the base station where the meetings had taken place. Once onboard, he thought his course, and Zeloc linked the information with options for Garfield to select a course for the rendezvous with the Phoenix and the Talcon Star City. As the Zeloc activated its hyperspace slipstream drive and entered hyperspace, a communication message activated, which had previously been sent from his associate Kalst of the Cynz Confederation.
The Cynz were crystalloid, silicon-based life forms and like the Karratins were counted among the most advanced space-faring civilizations. The message from Kalst indicated that the Accad, along with some Varlon support, had begun attacks against the Cynz.
Once Garfield accepted, a telepathic link formed. My friend, the situation has escalated; the Accad are using Jiyarr ships, sent Kalst. Before we could deal with the Accadian Kadath, dreadnaughts, and Keden battlecruisers, three Jiyarr starships arrived. Data streams showed starships in battle.
I am mildly anxious about the actions of the Accads especially their supreme leader who damaged a Quellien dimensional barrier, Garfield thought-sent. If I had not assisted with the repair, future problems would have arisen. I even discussed the problem with my higher self and Malbane of the Jiyarr, who is also a separate percept of my higher self; we agreed. We will need to arrange things to curb or modify the Accad’s desire for Quellien.