Steele's Demon Star

by Dietmar Wehr

  “Good! Give me a few minutes to confer with Intrepid’s HO about programming the bravos. I have a few options in mind depending on what they find.” He stopped talking when he saw Hara shake her head.

  “Not necessary, Mac. That three-ship squadron is going to need someone leading them who has experience in system exploration. None of the three COs has that, but you do. I can’t order you to go but if you were to volunteer…”

  “As an advisor? Sure, I’ll go.”

  Hara smiled. “Not as an advisor. As an Acting Squadron Leader. I have the authority to make field promotions like that, you know. Your orders will be simple. Avoid combat even if it means abandoning the survey. Try to identify the location and destinations of any wormholes, and if the system happens to have a planet that can support life, use the bravos to get as much intel as you can without being detected. Any questions?”

  “No questions, Admiral.”

  “Good. Get yourself down to the Hangar Bay while I arrange for your transfer over to Intrepid.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  By the time Steele was aboard Intrepid as the Acting Squadron Leader of the three heavy cruisers, Dauntless, Intrepid and Fearless, the two alien ships had boosted to FTL velocities. Hara was confident that the LR system had managed to pin down the alien vector accurately enough to determine their destination. AstroComp had identified a red super-giant 277 light-years away that lay on the alien FTL flight path. As the squadron resumed acceleration along the same FTL vector, Steele checked the tactical display and noticed that Sierra1 was still decelerating utterly unaware of the danger that she had briefly faced. The alien vessels’ pre-FTL velocity had been tracked, and NavComp had estimated how long their FTL trip would take. Steele then ordered the squadron to make the journey slightly longer to arrive at the super-giant later to minimize the risk of combat. The trip would take 10.6 days, and Steele used the time to get to know Intrepid’s officers and especially her Captain, Alexander Montgomery. After some initial signs of resentment that a Reserve Officer had been made Acting Squadron Leader, Steele soon managed to smooth over any ruffled feathers.

  As per Steele’s pre-FTL instructions, all three ships went sub-light at a distance from the red super-giant that was further than Pluto’s orbit from its sun. The LR system made finding each other easy. It also showed two ships that Steele assumed were the two alien ships seen in AG38. They were much closer in and were almost a third of the way around the sun. Ninety-one minutes later, they suddenly disappeared. Steele ordered a Bravo drone sent to scan that area. If it detected a wormhole, it was to enter it at a slow velocity, do a position scan of the surrounding starfield at the other end to determine where it was and then return. The disappearance of the drone at the same spot confirmed the existence of a wormhole. Montgomery was standing beside the Command chair that Steele was using.

  “It could take days for the drone to return if it finds itself in the black hole system,” said Montgomery. “It’s also possible it never returns. How long will you wait before writing it off, Captain?”

  “Seventy-two hours should be enough; thirty-six there and another thirty-six coming back. In the meantime, we sit and wait. Do you play chess, Captain?”

  Montgomery didn’t, but his XO did. As he waited, Steele made up his mind that if the first Bravo drone didn’t return after 80 hours, he would send the other one through and wait another 72 hours. He didn’t tell that to Montgomery.

  Fifty-six hours after the drone disappeared, a ship emerged from the wormhole. Steele watched it decelerate then return to take up a position close enough to the wormhole to be within laser range. Steele thought he knew what was going on.

  “I’m willing to bet that that ship detected our Bravo drone entering the wormhole from the other side and decided to pass it in transit to ambush it on this side when it emerges,” he said to Montgomery.

  “That means we’ll lose whatever data that drone has gathered. It won’t transmit the data as soon as it comes out. We programmed it to rendezvous with the squadron first,” said Montgomery.

  “Unless we neutralize that bogey,” said Steele in a somewhat distracted voice as he continued to look at the tactical display.

  “I don’t see how we can do that without violating the Admiral’s orders to avoid combat at all costs,” said Montgomery.

  Steele leaned back and looked at Montgomery. “Put yourself in the boots of the commander of that ship for a moment, Alex. You’re sitting there waiting for an alien drone to emerge so that you can either destroy it or perhaps try to capture it. Now your sensors detected signals from three unknown ships. The Doppler on those signals is telling you that those three ships are accelerating, and the constant bearing of those signals tells you that they’re coming directly at your ship. What are you going to do?”

  Montgomery chuckled. “I see what you’re getting at. I’d retreat through the wormhole again. A show of force could work if that alien commander thinks the same way we do but what if he doesn’t?”

  Steele looked back at the display for a few seconds before answering. “If he doesn’t back down, then we always have the option of veering off before we get within combat range. There’s no downside that I can see. Worst case scenario, we lose the drone and return without that data. I had made up my mind to send in the other Bravo if the first one didn’t return, but if it’s ambushed, then they'll likely keep that wormhole under observation and a second drone would almost certainly be ambushed too either on this end or the other end.”

  “When do you want to try your strategy?” asked Montgomery.

  “How about right now? Signal to the squadron. Turn on IDs and match Intrepid’s maneuvers. Helm. Head straight for that bogey at max acceleration.”

  As the three-ship squadron began its run in, Steele tried to present a calm demeanor to Intrepid’s Bridge personnel, but he was worried. There was no way to know when the Bravo drone would emerge, and the ship ID signals needed almost 233 minutes to reach that wormhole. If the drone returned before that time, the alien ship wouldn’t have detected the incoming threat and would complete the ambush. As it turned out, the drone didn’t return that quickly. When the signal wave reached the alien ship, it very quickly responded by entering the wormhole. Steele ordered the squadron to decelerate. The Bravo drone emerged 266 minutes later and was ordered to rendezvous with Intrepid. Once aboard, the squadron accelerated on an FTL vector that would take them back to AG38. Steele was pleased with the examination of the drone’s data.

  “The other side of that wormhole is the black hole system,” he said to Montgomery. The aliens knew that, and that’s why they decided to come here first. We now have one more piece to the black hole wormhole network puzzle. I think Admiral Hara will be pleased too.”

  When the squadron arrived back in AG38, Steele was shocked to learn that Hara was no longer there. Vice-Admiral Evan Saville had come in the battlecruiser Forerunner with orders to take over command of the Task Force and for Hara and Relentless to return to Caledonia. After much arguing with Saville, Steele managed to convince him that a heavy cruiser should take him and the drone data back to Caledonia. Vanguard would remain in AG38 with her two Bravo drones. Steele transferred to Fearless for the trip back.

  Fifteen days later:

  DeChastelain entered the briefing room to find Admirals Christopher Stoner and Frank Slade already there. Stoner was his Operations Deputy while Slade was in charge of Logistics & Personnel. The CSO wasted no time in getting down to business.

  “I hope both of you got the addendum to Admiral Hara’s report containing Captain Steele’s report and the drone data. I’m scheduled to brief the President and the Cabinet in two days, and I wanted to get an update on where things stand with our current plans. Are we on track to have the Midi Task Force ready by the 14th?”

  “Yes, but it’ll be close. Any last-minute hiccups, and you know there always are, will delay the deployment. It would help if I knew who was going to command the TF,” said Stoner.
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br />   DeChastelain looked at Slade who shrugged. “Kettering’s been offered the command, but he hasn’t made up his mind about whether he’ll take it or not.”

  “That’s what happens when you give people a choice,” said DeChastelain in apparent disgust. “I’m sorry I let you two talk me into doing that.”

  “Well, considering that we might as well be throwing spitballs at these alien bastards for all the good our KE missiles do, whoever takes command of that Task Force is going to be taking one hell of a risk,” said Slade. “Under the circumstances, giving someone a choice still seems to me like the right thing to do.”

  DeChastelain wanted to refute that claim, but deep down he knew Slade was right. Assigning the command to someone who didn’t want it was asking for a disaster to happen.

  “I shouldn’t have given Kettering so much time to decide. His procrastination is affecting the deployment. Tell him he’s got twenty-four hours to make up his mind. If he doesn’t give you an answer by then, offer the command to Zeitzev and tell him he’s got twenty-four hours. Who’s next on the list?”

  “Fletcher has the seniority and a decent combat record as you know, but I can tell you right now that he’s not interested. There isn’t one flag officer, other than maybe Akane Hara, who’s expressed any real interest,” said Slade.

  “Then we’ll start asking Captains if they’re interested in a field promotion,” said a now clearly angry DeChastelain. He quickly calmed down before turning to Stoner. “Let’s talk about the destroyer courier link to AG38. I’m going to want it set up fast, Chris. When do you think you’ll have that in place?”

  “The outward leg will be in place in thirteen days the return leg six days after that. If we’re going to be setting up more of these courier links, which I think we’ll need to do, we’re going to need more ships. Destroyers can do the job but so could a smaller, faster ship. Tom Biggio’s planning staff are already kicking around design concepts for a dedicated courier design.”

  “Yes, I know. We’ll need that in the long run, but for now, all we have are destroyers, so that’s what we’ll use. Speaking of which, what do both of you think of Akane’s recommendation of sending a destroyer to Socorro to inform King Pierre of the alien attack?”

  “He won’t believe us,” said Stoner shaking his head. “At the very least he won’t want to believe us after we tell him that his task force of battlecruisers was suckered into plunging into the black hole. Of course, he may not believe us about that either. On the other hand, I think it’s worth a try if only because he’ll be convinced eventually and if we attempt to tell him now, he’ll realize that we tried to play straight with him.”

  “Chris?”

  “I agree with everything that Frank has said. The only thing I would add is that maybe we should send a heavy cruiser instead of a destroyer, just in case that ship stumbles across an RSN system patrol that shoots first and asks questions later.”

  “Hm. I’ll take that under advisement. Our civilian masters haven’t approved that mission yet. I think they’re still shell-shocked by the news of the attack and the wider implications of it to have given much thought to informing other star nations. It’s the SA that I see presenting the biggest problem in terms of convincing them. They’re already well on their way to completing Phase One of their wormhole strategy. God only knows how news of a hostile alien race will affect that strategy and Phase Two. I’ve heard suggestions that they’ll demand that all Rim Navies be amalgamated into the SAN in order to put up a united front. Intellectually it makes sense, but politically it’s a non-starter. Our politicians certainly aren’t going to give up Caledonian sovereignty just because some Stellar Alliance politician asks them to. If we can organize a Rim military alliance fast, then maybe the SA will be amenable to a partnership instead of a merger. Destroyers are already on their way to inform Emperor Holliman and the other Rim star nations that have navies worth the name.” DeChastelain saw that Stoner was about to say something and held up his hand to stop him. “I know what you’re going to say, Chris. Between that and the courier link, we’ve just about used up our available destroyer assets, but there’s no other choice if we’re going to get the word out fast. By the way, speaking of destroyers, I’ve signed off on Hara’s hands-off policy regarding that RSN destroyer that she let return to Socorro. By not revealing her Task Force’s existence, she protected the LR system advantage. It’s too bad she isn’t available for the Midi Task Force, but she deserves a break after all those months at AG38.” He paused to check his memory. “That covers everything I wanted to talk about. Either of you has anything else you want brought up?”

  “Yes,” said Stoner. “What’s happening with adding nukes to our missile inventory?”

  “Well, as you both know, the HRCN has nuclear warheads that we decided not to dismantle after the treaty was signed. Unfortunately, they were designed to fit on top of our older Mark-5 missile, which has been taken out of service and scrapped. It’s not yet clear if or how quickly, the existing warheads can be adapted to our current inventory of Mark-6s. The capability to build new warheads is still available, but the equipment has to be taken out of mothballs and re-activated. That’s only part of the story. Uranium stockpiles are low and will take time to build up. Whatever nuclear-tipped missiles we might be able to deploy quickly will be all we’ll have for at least three months but probably longer.”

  The expressions on the two admirals’ faces showed they understood the ramifications of what the CSO has just said, as did he. If a determined alien fleet armed with nuclear-tipped missiles moved fast enough, it could conquer Caledonia or other star nations before defending forces could be equipped with comparable missiles. There were no more questions.

  Hara saw that Steele had already arrived for their lunch at the designated café. When he saw her, he started to get up, but she waved him back down.

  “You’ve picked up a nice tan since you’ve been back,” he said as she sat down.

  “Yes, spending a few days sitting on a white sand beach will do that for you. How long have you been back?”

  “Not long, just eight days. I spent the first four being debriefed extensively by DeChastelain and his senior staff. I also overheard some of the more junior staff speculating that the CSO was going to cut your leave short and hand you the Midi Task Force.”

  Hara snickered. “I’ve heard the rumors too. He’s having trouble finding someone to take on that assignment. Everyone who’s any good is turning it down, and he can’t afford to give it to someone likely to fuck it up. If he calls me back and tells me I’m the Task Force Commander, I’ll do my best with it, but I’m not going to short-change my leave by volunteering. I’ve damn well earned my days on the beach, and I haven’t had enough of them yet.”

  Steele laughed. “I know how you feel. The prospect of getting a heavy cruiser command right now doesn’t look that good anymore. In six months or a year when we have our nuke missiles to even the playing field, I’ll feel different. The destruction of Diamond K showed me that unarmored ships have no business snooping around any system that these aliens might be in. When I looked back at what happened around that demon star, I realized how lucky I was. That’s why I recommended that exploration and survey ships be designed from the ground up for that mission and that they be as heavily armored as possible.”

  “I read your report, and I agree with that recommendation. Unfortunately, the senior people in the HRCN seem to feel that we can’t wait until those ships are built. They’re already putting out feelers for buying freighters and modifying them to come up with something similar to the K. I was even approached about having my company buy and modify one that the Navy would then lease under a long-term contract. I told them no. The terms were quite good, but I wasn’t comfortable risking the lives of employees that way again. We lost two people, and half a dozen were so badly injured that they’ll never fully recover. This new war will be like nothing we’ve ever experienced before.” After a pause, she leaned
back and said. “No more shop talk for now. We’ll be back in action soon enough. Let’s order some food and drink and enjoy our leaves while we can.”

  This is the end of book #2 of The Glory Game. The series will continue so follow me on Amazon or Bookbub for news of when the next book is published.

  Author’s Comments:

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  D.A.W.