The Return: The Conglomerate Trilogy (Volume 1)

by William S Frisbee Jr

  More pressure signified an increase in deceleration, which felt like acceleration with their engines pointing at where the wormhole should be.

  “Missiles separating. Warheads deploying,” the Lieutenant said, there was resignation in his voice. Everyone was going to die.

  Leonessa smiled. “Good job engineering!” she said.

  “Cut deceleration! Rotate and open the wormhole!” Leonessa said trying to keep the feral grin off her face as the deceleration stopped. Gravity fled and everything started to drift up off the ground to obscure vision.

  Space in front of the ship twisted and changed color, throwing out red and green light as the edge of the wormhole lit up like a ghostly wall, an ethereal curtain. It was many kilometers in size but ships with the right frequency could traverse it now it was opening. The gravity manipulation generators allowed the Shrike to open the worm hole and fall inside. It was where their sensors said it would be and Leonessa held her breath as she made the second transition in her life, falling into a wormhole and nobody knew if it even had an end.

  The JAS Shrike slid into the unknown wormhole, bleeding and barely alive.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Chonka System, JAS Shrike

  Janissary Amir Serkan swore.

  “Cursed, filthy, pig dog eating infidels, Allah O’ Merciful, why do you challenge me so,” he said to the ceiling and then to his tactical officer. “Assemble the fleet.”

  “Yes Amir,” said the tactical officer. Serkan couldn’t care less about his name.

  “Shall we pursue Amir?” asked the lead Engineering officer. An older man, less strong in his faith but a valuable engineer nonetheless. If he could have been replaced, he would be dead now. Serkan did not tolerate those who lacked faith.

  “Not yet,” the Amir said and ground his teeth. “We will allow our frigates to catch up.”

  “The infidels might escape,” the Weapons officer said.

  “Insha’Allah,” the Amir said. “I think it unlikely they will go far or live long. They are crippled and bleeding air. There is nobody to save them. They plunged into the wormhole unknowing of its strength or destination. It was an act of desperation. They are probably already dead, Allah willing.”

  “Insha’Allah,” the bridge crew echoed.

  “Bring the fleet closer and place it in formation. Then we will transit the wormhole and confirm their death if the slaves confirm it is safe.”

  “Insha’Allah,” the bridge crew replied.

  “Navigation,” the Amir said. “Notify me when the fleet is ready to transition.”

  “Insha’Allah Amir,” the Navigation officer replied.

  Amir Serkan stood looking at the screen. His mind turned to long ago and being the young weapons officer aboard a frigate when it had been ambushed. Ten proud, valiant Caliphate eagles of war, full of brave Jihadi on their way to crush an infidel colony.

  His was the only ship that survived. Crippled and bleeding they had still killed one of the two ships. Incompetence had robbed him of the ability to kill the second infidel ship but he had heard the conversation between the two infidels in their last minutes. He still listened to the recording, and it brought a smile to his face. If only all enemies of Allah could hear the recording, they would understand a small fraction of the pain and suffering they would face if they did not submit.

  Allah was indeed great to inflict such pain and suffering on his enemies. Janissary Amir Serkan was a slave of Allah and he would be favored in the afterlife.

  He turned to go to his room where his wife would be waiting. She was almost sixteen and she should stop crying. The woman was the wife of one of the most powerful Caliphate fleet officers, not a concubine or slave. She should be appreciative of his attentions but she complained she was going crazy, alone in his quarters, but he did not have the time or inclination to escort her around the ship, he was a busy man. If he did not have the needs of a man, he would divorce her and send her below decks to serve the other Mujahedeen aboard the ship.

  Until then he would suffer her poor attitude, perhaps this was another test from Allah? Even beatings did not seem to help. He would have to find another solution then.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The Fourth Planet

  “Not good,” Lieutenant Burke said, his shoulders slumped. “She’s burned out. Nothing short of a full dock can repair her. We can limp along, maybe, if she holds together through the worm hole."

  “So far so good,” Leonessa said, and Burke nodded, his face hidden by his helmet. They still couldn’t remove their helmets.

  “It’s not over yet,” Leonessa said, and patted Burke on the shoulder. He was tired; they all were tired, running on stimulants and will power. Most had not eaten since yesterday and nobody had slept except the wounded who were drugged.

  “How’s sickbay?” Leonessa asked the petty officer the doctor had sent because of his missing arm. He was of limited use now, and his eyes were glazed from the pain medication. What he could do was stand in for the doctor who was busy taking care of the dying. Leonessa couldn’t see the rest of his face or his soot covered name tag.

  “Bad,” the petty officer said. “Not enough people, not enough supplies, not enough beds. We are doing what we can. I know of three people who will die, regardless. Too much internal bleeding and maybe some brain damage from decompression and-“

  “Do what you can,” Leonessa said. She should not have cut him off, but she was powerless to help, and the bad news would just make her feel more helpless, robbing her of what little hope she had. “Do your best and save as many as you can. We can pull through this if we stick together. We aren’t defeated yet.”

  The petty officer nodded. His eyes were wet and not focusing. Not for the first time in the last day, she wished she had spent more time learning people’s names.

  “Weapons?” she asked looking at Ensign Carmichael. Her eyes were tired, not focusing except when she was talking.

  The ensign shook her head. “We have nothing except a forward point defense laser at half power. Maybe with a full crew and a few days we could get a missile tube up and working but you know better than me ma'am. We are screwed. Combat wasn’t our mission.”

  Leonessa looked at Carmichael. Leonessa had been the senior Weapons Officer until she had been forced to take the mantle of command. Now Carmichael, her assistant, had to take over her old job. It would be easy to focus on what she knew, but now she had to know what was going on everywhere, and make life and death decisions. She just had to concentrate on one thing at a time. It wasn’t the first time she had been in a nasty situation, but there had always been hope. Now? She didn’t know what their chances were, she had to keep everyone going for as long as possible and hope something changed the situation for the better. There were no other options.

  “Nav?” She asked looking at the last Lieutenant and her second in command. Lieutenant Bebchuck, was a broad solid man of Russian descent who usually seemed unfazed by everything. Now he looked tired and scared. “Any idea on the wormhole?”

  “Nothing,” Bebchuck said, his accent barely noticeable. “Our sensors are toasted from that near hit. We are lucky we did not lose the wormhole generator. We could come out any minute. I believe this is a two-way worm hole but when we first saw it, we had full sensors but not enough time.”

  Leonessa nodded. She looked at the tired, frightened eyes around her and knew she did not look any different. Leonessa wasn’t sure if she could see their full face whether that would help or hurt her.

  “We have time people,” she said trying to sound confident. “Only the Caliphate flag ship had a wormhole generator and he will wait for the rest of his fleet to catch up. Nav, if you can’t get me information on the worm hole get me some estimates, best and worst, of when the Caliphate fleet will follow us, because you know they will. Maybe we can find another wormhole or a place to hide before they catch up. Also, if you can pull up anything from archives about who we were facing and what he is like I would a
ppreciate it.

  “Burke,” Leonessa said. “Engineering has priority. Get engines working as best you can. Use your best judgment with the time and resources. Also, get me some sensors. We must have sensors, right now we are blind. Full life support will remain secondary for now. We can live in our suits for a few weeks if we must. As long as sickbay is pressurized.”

  “Weapons,” she said to Carmichael. “I want two people to report for body cleanup, all other weapons division personnel are to report to engineering to help there. Rotate the body team as you can. Put the bodies in hold 3.”

  She looked at the petty officer from Medical. “Anyone else Engineering can’t use is to be sent to help in Medical. We have to get the ship survivable or we all die.”

  “We can do it people,” Leonessa said, putting enthusiasm in her voice and a grim smile on her face she hoped would reach her eyes where they could see. “We aren’t defeated yet. Let’s drag those Caliphate bastards all over the universe.”

  “Aye, aye, ma'am,” they echoed, at least trying to share the motivation Leonessa was trying to impart. It was halfhearted. People were too tired, they had suffered too many casualties, and the ship was too crippled for any of them to feel any optimism.

  * * *

  They were only in the wormhole for slightly over a day and as soon as the ship transitioned, Leonessa sent EVA crews out to repair the sensors. Engines were barely functional and there was not much more they could do. They would be lucky if they could coax half speed out of them, but they had half speed. It was a small blessing, but every bit helped.

  Out of a crew of eighty, there were only thirty survivors; space combat was brutal and unforgiving. The close hit by the nuke had almost made it one hundred percent casualties. Nobody onboard could process the losses just yet, too many people were still nauseous and suffering from radiation sickness. Moving bodies and removing wreckage was just a task that tired bodies performed. There was no recognition of the horror lurking just below the surface of their thoughts.

  Carmichael had a good idea of using the drones as sensor platforms and initial scans showed they were in a dispersed asteroid belt. The wormhole appeared to be the gravity rift of a massive gas giant and the nearby sun.

  The JAS Shrike accelerated as best it could, following the orbit of the gravity rift, hoping to find another potential wormhole. It was not fast and they could not get far enough away. Any second she expected to get warning the Caliphate ships had exited the wormhole. The ship was beaten, but she made sure they went through the motions. Fighting as best they could, it is what their training had burned into them and Leonessa gave them no choice.

  What they could tell was there were several planets. The important thing about finding the planets is they would help identify a possible gravity rift where wormholes might lurk and their sensors could find them.

  “Captain?” Bebchuck said from navigation.

  Being called captain was still new to Leonessa, and she did not respond for a second as she had been calculating speed and distance.

  “Go Nav,” she said when his words sunk in and she realized he was talking to her.

  “I’m getting some odd signals,” Bebchuck said. “I think I’m detecting ships and activity around the fourth planet.”

  “What kind of ships?” Leonessa asked her heart skipping a beat. She checked the chart, they were pretty far from the fourth planet, and detecting ships in orbit should be impossible at this range.

  “Bringing on main screen now,” Bebchuck said and a cloudy looking orb appeared on screen. At first Leonessa did not see anything, and then she did. Small dots appeared to be moving, smaller dots clustered around them.

  “How big are they?” she asked. They had to be huge to be visible at this distance.

  “Huge,” Bebchuck replied. “Freaking huge. I’m guessing the smaller dots are massive ships and the larger ones are space stations. The planet has an ambiance too, like cities under all those clouds or some natural light source. Looks like lots of storms too.”

  Leonessa looked at it, calculating. The Caliphate forces would pursue. But who owned those ships and stations? The lost New Alamo colony? Had they really taken the entire asteroid colony into a wormhole and survived? Were they aliens and how would they handle humans bringing their war here?

  If they were from New Alamo, they had done very well in the forty-five years since they had disappeared. They had been busy if they had made the massive constructs. Theoretically, they could have expanded quickly; they might have built robots that built bigger and bigger robots. New Alamo had been a robust and growing colony forty-five years ago, full of pioneers and heroes like the industrialist Joel Carlson, Admiral Sylvester Day, Captain Luke Kishi, the scientist Kevin Droud, the industrialist Joel Carlson, the artist Amanda Cray and so many others. They had been ambitious and proud.

  However, for the crew of the JAS Shrike, there were few options. The fourth planet was still too far away.

  “Set course for the fourth planet,” Leonessa said. “Full speed. See if we can pick up any communication traffic.”

  “Set course for fourth planet, Full speed aye,” Bebchuck said and relayed to engineering.

  “Also see if there is anything big we can put between us and the wormhole to help shield us and also start sending a mayday.”

  “Aye, aye ma'am,” Bebchuck said.

  “Weaps, prep a recon drone and send it to the fourth planet,” Leonessa said. “I want more information.”

  A thought occurred to Leonessa. “Weaps, can you rig a drone to leak radiation, comm signals and pretend to be us? We can’t do much but maybe we can plant a red herring hidden on an asteroid.”

  “I’ll see what I can arrange ma'am,” Carmichael said.

  “Found a small planetoid,” Bebchuck said. “If we have a day, we might be able use it as a sensor shield. It is not on a direct course to the planet, but it won’t be a major detour.”

  “We probably don’t have a day,” Leonessa said.

  “That’s all that’s nearby,” Bebchuck said. “The area is remarkably absent of anything we can use.”

  “Fine,” Leonessa said. “Head for it and do what you can. Now let’s pray those towel heads give us a day. Nav, I want to know as much as you can about that fourth planet.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” Bebchuck said.

  “Maybe we will survive this,” Leonessa said, but it would take too long to get to the fourth planet.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Tea

  “This is good tea, thank you Amir,” Masam said. Serkan nodded, it is not like Masam would say it was bad tea, even if it were.

  Imam Khulus sat quietly savoring his tea.

  Sadah took the plate away and returned to the kitchen.

  “We are almost ready, my Amir,” Masam said after taking another sip. “The Aashif is almost repaired. It was very bad luck those coils over heated. Insha’Allah.”

  “Insha’Allah,” Serkan repeated. “I want to know who caused it and I want them punished.”

  “My cousin is the Tegmen,” Masam said. “He is a very great man. He will find out. If it is Allah’s will there is nothing we can do.”

  Serkan nodded. He remembered Tegmen Shayan. He was a blundering idiot who was only a captain of the vessel because of family connections. His family was from Afghanistan where the great Jihad had begun and people like him carried a lot of weight in the Caliphate. Blaming the will of Allah was easier than finding the real reason.

  “Do you think they survived the wormhole, Amir?” Masam asked.

  “Yes,” Serkan said. “I have no doubt. This is a test by Allah the Merciful.”

  “Insha’Allah we will not be found wanting,” Masam said. “Please forgive my forwardness brother, but you seem very intent on hunting them down and making sure they are dead. Allah will insure their destruction.”

  Serkan looked at Masam in silence until his first officer began to fidget.

  “Yes,” Serkan eventually said.
“I failed with New Alamo. They escaped the sword of the conqueror and that is a blight on my soul that I must face Allah the Merciful for. If we had captured the colony and spread Islam to those heathens, we would have had an excellent base to launch our attacks against the Jupiter Alliance. Those cowards have cost us forty-five years of conquest.”

  “It is Allah’s will,” said Imam Khulus speaking up.

  “Insha’Allah,” the two naval officers said in unison.

  “There was nothing you could do good Amir,” the Imam said. “We are Allah the Merciful’s humble slaves and only doing his will.”

  “Insha’Allah,” the two intoned again, waiting for Serkan to continue. When he did not Masam did.

  “I have not heard you speak of that before,” Masam said.

  Serkan looked at Masam and the Imam. Masam watched Serkan carefully, hoping for a story, the Imam watched his tea, contemplating the Koran most likely.

  “You know the story,” Serkan said. “I was but a young weapons officer on board the Saqr, when the filthy dogs attacked us from behind. Like cowards and thieves, they snuck up behind us, using the Naantali asteroid as a shield from our sensors. I was just coming on duty to relieve another officer when I saw the board. The fool had been sleeping at his post but I saw the incoming ships. It was almost too late for us. I threw him from the chair and sounded the alarm.”

  Masam nodded. Eyes glowing.

  “I ordered our navigator to perform evasive maneuvers while I called the captain and asked for confirmation from the flagship Dizhwar. That was all that saved us. The others took too much time to respond and were slain by the infidel’s attack.”

  “Allah the most Merciful and most compassionate favored you that day my Amir,” Masam said. “You must have a great destiny.”