Return of the Star Raiders (The Long Road Back Book 1)

by Dietmar Wehr

“My apologies, Professor Heppner. The Bridge gets very hectic in preparation for a jump, and I decided that having one visitor there during the transition was enough.” Corso nodded in Strider’s direction as he talked. Heppner’s expression changed from a smile to almost a scowl as he turned his gaze to Strider.

  “You allowed Captain Strider on your Bridge?”

  “Professional courtesy,” said Corso.

  “I see,” said Heppner in a tone that suggested he really didn’t. “Perhaps on the next jump?”

  Corso hesitated before responding. “Perhaps. Are your quarters satisfactory, gentlemen?”

  “Well, I was surprised at how small my quarters are considering how big this ship is,” said Ogilvy.

  Heppner jumped in before Corso could reply. “You have to remember, Assistant Deputy Minister, that Savannah is a ship of war, not a passenger ship. From an engineering perspective, equipment gets first priority, and accommodations come last. At least, that’s how we’d do it,” he hastily added.

  “Professor Heppner is quite right,” said Corso. “The designers chose to divide up the available space into several smaller cabins instead of one very large cabin. I’ll see if I can convince my superiors to charter a passenger ship for your trip back to New Caledon when the time comes.” Corso looked around the room and nodded. “I see that many of my officers are here now. Let’s take advantage of that, and I’ll introduce them to you.”

  Corso asked his officers to form a line and introduced each one. He then introduced the three delegation members to his officers. Their expressions were mostly stoic when Ogilvy and Heppner were introduced but became friendlier when Corso introduced Strider, not only as an officer in the New Caledon Planetary Aerospace Force but also as the commanding officer of the ‘impressive’ cruiser Fearless. Strider wondered if he was blushing. When all the introductions were finished, Corso told his men to carry on, and most of them immediately came over to Strider to shake his hand and engage him in conversation. Ogilvy and Heppner were left standing next to Corso.

  Strider was flattered by all the attention. Corso’s officers had lots of questions for him, and he did his best to answer in a friendly manner without giving away sensitive military information. Savannah’s third ranking officer, Lieutenant Commander Morgon, who Strider had met two days earlier as one of Corso’s two officers, left the huddle and came back a minute or so later. Holding two glasses, he offered one to Strider.

  “Here you go, Captain. Try this. I told my fellow officers here about that marvelous drink your General served us two days ago. What was it called again?”

  “Revvo,” said Strider as he accepted the glass.

  “As yes, Revvo. As I said, marvelous stuff. Too bad you didn’t bring some with you.”

  Strider allowed himself a big smile. “Oh, but I did. I was intending to bring it to the Wardroom later. Two bottles were all I had room for in my luggage, but that’s enough for every officer to try some.”

  That got a very favorable response from all the officers within earshot. One of them even patted him on the shoulder just as Strider was taking a sip from his glass. He managed not to spill any.

  “That’s very thoughtful of you, Captain,” said Morgon. “I think the officers of Savannah should return the gesture with a gift of our own, eh men?” The response was a unanimous and enthusiastic affirmative. “Excellent. I’ll come around later and ask for suggestions as to what the gift could be. Do you feel like a game of cards, Captain?”

  Strider spend the next four hours or so learning how to play Bridge, which he found confusing, and Rummy, which he learned quickly, along with a game of chess, which he lost but still enjoyed, before the Steward announced that dinner was ready to be served. Everyone shifted to the Dining Room and found seats. Corso arranged for Strider to sit on the Commander’s right, while Ogilvy and Heppner sat on his left. The seven-course meal was delicious, and Strider noticed that Corso did not let Ogilvy and Heppner monopolize his attention. The Commander spent a fair amount of time talking with Strider, as did Morgon who was on Strider’s other side. After dinner, everyone stayed for the cigars and sweet liquors. Morgon confided to Strider that dinners this extravagant were rare.

  He and Strider ended up talking a lot about ship operations, both Havenite and New Caledonian, as well as about theoretical space combat scenarios. Having never been on a ship that had fought a space battle, Strider felt a little out of his depth on that subject. Morgon had once, as a junior officer, against a particularly crafty pirate. He admitted to Strider that he had been scared during the battle. Strider told him about his father’s actions during the last two Star Wolf raids. Several of the other officers, who were sitting close enough to hear, also listened to the story. They all agreed that his father was a genuine hero.

  When Corso stood up and told everyone he was retiring to his quarters, Strider suddenly realized how much time had passed. Beginning to feel a bit sleepy himself, he decided to take advantage of the fact that, with the Commander gone, others were starting to quietly slip away too. He thanked Morgon for his hospitality, nodded to Ogilvy and Heppner and made his way back to his cabin.

  Over the next few days, he settled down to a comfortable routine. He had a late breakfast, after which he did some reading. Lunch was usually with one of the Savannah officers. The afternoon was spent in the Wardroom either playing cards or chess. Dinner, though far less opulent than the first one, was still a quite pleasant meal, and the evening was a mix of more reading, card playing or chess. He quickly got to know all of the ship’s officers, who paid far more attention to him than they did to Ogilvy or Heppner.

  Chapter Ten

  Strider made sure he was on the Bridge when Savannah dropped out of hyper-space into the outskirts of the star system containing the planet Tarawa. The transition to normal space was so smooth that if he hadn’t known it was happening, he wouldn’t have been able to tell. The ship was still a long way from the planet, and Corso didn’t seem to be in any hurry.

  “We’ll wait here a bit while we scan for radio or other EM transmissions,” said Corso to Strider, who was standing next to the Command Station. “If this planet has a high enough technology to be a potential threat, then my approach will be different from a situation where they can’t hurt us.”

  “No artificial signals of any kind,” said one of the technicians.

  “Karl, take us in to the no-jump zone boundary, please.”

  “Yes, sir. Okay, Astro, you know what to do,” said Jaeger.

  After a few minutes of preparatory calculations, the jump drive was spun up again for an almost instantaneous micro-jump further into the system and as close to Tarawa as the physical universe would allow.

  “Still no signals, Commander,” reported the com technician.

  “Very well. Let’s head for the planet. Radar scanning on,” said Corso. Turning to Strider he said in a lower voice. “We’ll probably find a planet that hasn’t yet recovered electronics, perhaps not even industrial machinery. There’s always a remote possibility that the humans on Tarawa died out too. Our social scientists have theorized that if a colony’s population were small enough, their technical level could spiral down to Bronze Age or less, and then natural disasters, natural predators or even just plain human stupidity might result in everyone dying. Our information on Tarawa is sketchy. It’s relatively close to New Caledon, which is why we’re checking it out.”

  The flight through normal space to the planet took almost an hour. Strider knew that Savannah could have done it faster, but Corso made it clear that he was being careful. When the ship did finally slip into a high orbit around the planet, the situation became a little bit clearer. As it passed into the planet’s shadow, Jaeger looked up from the console he’d been monitoring with a grin on his face.

  “We’re detecting heat and light sources from locations that appear to be small cities. The biggest one is here.” He gestured to the main screen, where a computer-enhanced map of the planet’s surface appear
ed with a flashing yellow dot on the coast near the mouth of a river.

  “Do we have a preliminary estimate of population yet?” asked Corso.

  “From the night-time light sources we’ve detected so far, and there over a hundred of them, the computer is estimating about Twenty thousand at the low end and as many as two hundred thousand at the high end. As we fly over more of the planet, that number will go up I’m sure.”

  Corso nodded. “I’m sure it will too. So then, we’ll keep orbiting until we’ve scanned the entire surface under both daylight and night time. When we have that data, we’ll try to figure out where the political power resides on this planet, and then we’ll make contact. Karl, you have the Bridge. I’m going to the Wardroom for coffee and a snack. You’re welcome to join me, Captain. Or not, as you wish.” Strider accepted the invitation.

  When they were settled in the Wardroom, Corso with his coffee and a donut, Strider with just a coffee, Strider leaned forward and said, “What would be the point of contacting the people down there if they can’t possibly contribute to the war against the raiders?”

  Corso took a sip of coffee before answering. “They may not be able to help us physically the way that your planet could, but it’s just possible, even likely, that the raiders have attacked this planet at some point. Knowing when they attacked and how many ships were involved might give our planners some insight into raider capabilities. There’s also another reason for contact. It opens up the possibility of us, and by that I mean Haven, being able to help these people recover their technology faster. If we can do that, we’ll have made them our friends, and that’s a long-term goal that is worth striving for. My superiors are aware that not every technically advanced planet will greet us the way your planet did. There may be planets as advanced as Haven, maybe even more advanced, that have ambitions to extend their power and authority by force. The raiders that you call Star Wolves could be part of a long-range plan of conquest that starts with combining reconnaissance, resource acquisition and weakening potential rivals all at the same time.”

  Strider pondered that answer for a while before asking his next question. “Do your civilian leaders have any empire-building ambitions, Commander?”

  Corso smiled but took his time answering. “Our King has not made any kind of official pronouncement that suggests that he has those kinds of ambitions. However, he is a very capable and intelligent leader. He may have come to the conclusion that the best way that Haven can defend its independence is by becoming too powerful for a potential adversary to risk attacking. Military power can only be sustained by having economic power, and one way to achieve that is by expanding the Kingdom to include other planets. I personally hope that our King would achieve that goal by enticing other planets to join voluntarily. I joined our Navy to defend civilians, not to threaten them. Does that answer your question, Captain Strider?”

  It didn’t, but Strider was convinced that Corso was being honest, and that he really didn’t know what plans his King might have. “It’s not the definitive answer I was hoping for, but it’s good enough for now.”

  Corso had finished his donut but not his coffee, which the Steward kept refilling.

  “Care for a game of chess, Captain?” asked Corso.

  Strider hadn’t played chess with the Commander yet and was curious to see how good he was. “Yes, let’s do that.”

  The game lasted almost an hour, and Corso won, but Strider didn’t feel that he was outmatched. He could tell that his own skill level had improved just in the few days he’d been aboard Savannah. It was taking opponents longer and longer to beat him. With the game over, Corso leaned back and lit a thin cigar.

  “That was an enjoyable game. There were a couple of times when I thought you had me beat. I enjoy a game of chess every now and then, and with the exception of Karl Jaeger, who is already senior enough that he doesn’t have to worry about repercussions to his career if he beats his superior, my officers tend to play more poorly with me than they do against each other. I can’t help wondering if they’re afraid to beat their Commanding Officer.”

  Strider laughed. He could understand that kind of mindset in a junior officer. The officer in command of a ship like Savannah had to have a lot of authority, and authority could be abused by men with fragile egos. Strider decided to shift the focus of the conversation.

  “When do you expect you’ll have the data you need for the next phase, Commander?”

  “Oh…I’d say…twenty-four hours should do it. That’ll be enough time for the planet to rotate once—or at least close enough—and we’ll be completing one orbit every three hours or so. Are you anxious to see what it’s like down there?”

  Strider shrugged. “Maybe. My knowledge of the Collapse is not very extensive. Seeing first hand what it did to other planets would help fill in some of the gaps. I’ve been reading about it in books from your library, but I haven’t been able to find out why the Collapse happened. Do you know?”

  “What I know is based on a few confirmed facts and lots of unconfirmed postulations. What we know for certain is that the Federation was showing cracks. Economic activity was declining steadily for over a decade, with no end in sight. The impact of that decline was not felt evenly throughout the Federation. Some planets suffered more than others, and that caused resentment and tensions. As the Federation Navy shrank due to budget cutbacks, there were fewer and fewer patrols out on the edge of Federation territory, and piracy began to rear its ugly head. That caused some planets to build their own ships to protect their merchant fleets. Eventually they began to clash with each other in minor, unofficial skirmishes. What might have happened next, if the Plague hadn’t appeared, is anyone’s guess. And that’s where the confirmed facts end, and the deduction begins. The Plague appeared on Earth. No one knows where the virus came from. It was easily transmitted from person to person and had a long incubation period, which meant that thousands were infected even before the first victim started showing symptoms.

  “Once the outbreak was confirmed, it was too late to try to contain it. We think some of the nearest colonized systems were also hit by the virus, but none of the planets that were further away were because infected crews died before their ships arrived at their destinations. Interstellar travel very quickly came to a halt, and planets that relied on imported food, equipment and supplies started de-civilizing almost immediately. We haven’t visited Earth or its closest colony planets because of the fear of possible infection. I suppose that we’ll have to find out what’s happening there at some point, but I hope my ship won’t be the one they send. That’s about all I can tell you. Anything else would be mere speculation.”

  Strider shifted the conversation by asking about Haven’s post-Collapse history. Corso told him that as the level of technology began to decline, so did communication and travel between various parts of the planet. Eventually, isolated populations declared themselves as sovereign entities. During the recovery, populations grew large enough that control of territory became a point of contention and wars broke out. After a series of wars, the last of which was fought with early 20th century level weapons, the planet was united once again. Shortly after that, the raiders attacked. From that point on, resources that previously had been devoted to armies and navies were re-deployed to research and development, and Haven quickly became a space-faring civilization again. The discussion ended when lunch was served. Strider spent the afternoon hours reading more about Haven’s history and its wars.

  The next day, Strider arrived at the Bridge to find that Corso had finally invited Ogilvy and Heppner there.

  “Ah, good. You’re all here,” said Corso. He pointed to the display, which showed the planet’s current night side. “We’ve finished our visual scan. Total planetary population is somewhere between one and two million. There is one urban center that is clearly bigger than any of the others. We’ll drop down there and hover over the city while a shuttle takes a contact team down the rest of the way. Executive Offi
cer Jaeger will lead the contact team. You’re welcome to join the team if you so wish, Captain Strider. Assistant Deputy Minister Ogilvy and Professor Heppner—”

  Whatever else Corso was about to say was lost when Ogilvy interrupted. “I have no wish to spend hours among these people, Commander. How about you, Professor?”

  Heppner shook his head vigorously. “No. My expertise is engineering. I doubt if there’s anything down there that would interest me from that stand point. How long will Savannah remain in this system, Commander?”

  Corso, whose expression now clearly showed his annoyance at being interrupted, replied in a lower than normal voice. “Not long, perhaps a few hours. Half a day at the most.” Corso looked at Strider.

  “I’ll go along, Commander. Thank you for the offer,” said Strider.

  As Strider followed Jaeger out the exit, he heard Corso explain to Ogilvy and Heppner, in a less than friendly tone, that staying on the ship didn’t include staying on the Bridge.

  Jaeger chuckled. “Your Assistant Deputy Minister is rather full of himself, isn’t he?”

  “Yes, he is.” They both laughed.