A voice came over the ship’s speaker system. “All hands, this is the captain. We will be coming out of our jump in sixty seconds from now. We will be on the right of the Constellation and will be going toe-to-toe with a Kurgan cruiser. I expect all of you to do your duty, and we will come out of this in one piece. Captain Rayat, out.”
It was out of Admiral Sheridan’s hands now. The task force commanders all the way down to the crewmen on the fleet’s ships knew what was expected of them. He took a seat and looked around the room at the faces of the men and women who formed his command team. Their eyes said it all. Each and every one of them was ready for what lay ahead.
“May the wind be at our back,” said the admiral as the Colossus ended its jump and opened fire.
From the launch bays on the Constellation, its five squadrons launched right into battle. Most of the pilots were barely out of the bay when their targeting computers told them they had a confirmed missile lock on their targets. Volleys of missiles streaked from underneath the attack fighters and shot straight at the enemy’s capital ships. Caught by surprise most of the Kurgan cruisers and destroyers were caught looking the wrong way. They had become so fixated on destroying the Ark Royal that they had left the back of their fleet wide open to attack.
The second their missiles fired, the fighter pilots dove under the enemy fleet and applied full power to their engines. Racing right under the enemy ships, the fighters rushed to engage the enemy fighters and ships clustered around the Ark Royal.
From his command center, Admiral Sheridan sat in his chair and watched as his ships locked their missiles and gun batteries onto the enemy ships opposite them and opened up a devastating barrage. Gaping holes were blasted into the Kurgan vessels. Only the carriers with their myriad of defensive gun batteries were able to ward off some of the missiles coming their way. Stopping a projectile fired by a railgun was another proposition altogether. It was not long before explosive decompression began to occur in the hulls of both Kurgan carriers.
The fight however was not all one-sided. Several cruisers and destroyers had to pull out of the engagement due to substantial damage to their outer hulls. It was the loss of fighter crews that was bothering Admiral Sheridan. He could see the losses climbing on the tactical display. Material could be replaced, but trained and experienced crews were hard to come by.
The Colossus shook violently as a missile made its way through the ship’s defensive shield and struck the engine room. Red warning lights flashed everywhere.
“Ask for a damage report,” said Sheridan to Roy.
A couple of seconds later, Roy reported, “Sir, the engine room has been breached. Casualties are high among the engineering crew. The jump engine has been damaged, but the sublight engine is still operational. Captain Rayat does not see the need to pull his ship out of the fight.”
Admiral Sheridan would not have expected anything less from one of his captains. “Please pass my compliments to Captain Rayat and tell him good hunting.”
Killam looked up from his console. “Sir, the Kiev has just jumped into position at the far end of the line. Her captain is asking if we have any new orders for her.”
“Tell her to have her fighters target the capital ships nearest the Ark Royal and then maneuver to give her mutual support. I don’t want to lose a carrier to the enemy.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” replied Killam enthusiastically.
Admiral Sheridan stood up and walked to the tactical display. With the Kiev in the fight, the battle had just swung irreversibly in his favor. The number of Kurgan ships destroyed or crippled climbed by the minute. He was happy to see the two Kurgan carriers among the casualty list. Soon, however, one by one, the enemy vessels tried to escape. Some made it, but most were too damaged to make the jump back to Kurgan space. Rather than allow themselves to be boarded, the Kurgan captains set their ships for self-destruct.
“Captain Killam, pull the fleet back,” ordered the admiral as the Kurgans blew themselves to pieces. “Keep a robust piquet on what remains of the enemy ships. The remainder of the fleet, however, will stand off at a safe distance. Please give me a casualty report as soon as one comes in.”
Killam nodded and got to work maneuvering the fleet away from the enemy.
With the weight of command weighing down on him, Admiral Sheridan took his seat and closed his eyes for a moment. He said a silent prayer for all of the people who had just lost their lives. His thoughts then turned to his son. He wondered if he was alive on the surface of the planet below. He knew that his people would keep a sharp eye out for Michael’s name on any casualty list sent to the Colossus. For good or bad, he would shortly know his son’s fate.
Chapter 55
The air smelt oddly antiseptic. Michael Sheridan slowly opened his eyes and saw that he was looking up at the roof of a tent. For a moment, he was confused. The last thing he could recall was the traitor Dalton with a long knife sticking out of his neck.
“Wake up, sleepyhead,” said Master Sergeant Cole, who was sitting in a chair beside Sheridan’s bed. “This is getting to be a bit of a habit with you, sir.”
Sheridan took a deep breath to clear the fog from his mind.
“Ah, you’re awake,” said a nurse. She filled a cup with water and handed Sheridan a couple of pills. “Take these, it’ll help with the pain.”
He took the pills and washed them down with the cool, refreshing water. He held out his cup and smiled at the nurse. “More please.”
After his second cup, the nurse helped Sheridan sit up in bed. His chest was bound in bandages. He saw that he was in a field hospital. Almost all of the beds had a patient in them. He looked at Cole and noticed that he was wearing a Marine Corps, not a Chosen, uniform.
“Berg and I turned ourselves in once the shooting died down,” explained Cole. “After an hour of pointless questioning, they finally believed my story, gave me a new set of fatigues and let me go looking for you. I found you unconscious on the floor of one those ore processing buildings.”
Sheridan’s mind was still foggy from the drugs in his system. “The Kurgan and the collaborator?”
“You got them both.”
Sheridan looked around. “Where’s Berg?”
“She was pretty shaken up by what had happened to her, so I sent her to the mental health specialist. They’re in one of the rooms around here talking the whole thing through.”
“How did things go for the invasion force?”
“Light to moderate resistance,” said Cole. “The fight was over before the ground forces ever got here. They really flattened the place before stepping foot off their landing ships. The Chosen and their officers, naturally, fought to the death. Your father’s plan worked perfectly. From what I’ve heard, the Kurgans lost two carriers and more than two dozen other ships during their attempt to relieve the blockade.”
“That is good news.” Sheridan went quiet for a couple of seconds while he thought. “What about the miners? What happened to them?”
“Can you believe it, some actual picked up weapons and fought to the death alongside the Chosen. Most, however, hid in their shelters until the fighting was over and then emerged.”
“Where are they now?”
“Back in their quarters, under guard. Why do you ask?”
Sheridan reached over and set a hand on Cole’s arm. “Master Sergeant, it is vitally important that I speak to my father before the fleet decides what to do with these men.”
“What are you thinking, sir?”
“If we are going to win this war we need to let these men decide their own fate. If we don’t, we’ll be playing right into the hands of the Kurgans.”
Cole shook his head. “Not sure I follow you, but I’m not as educated as you are. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Master Sergeant, don’t sell yourself short. You’re far smarter than me when it comes to soldiering. I just grew up in a home where Machiavellian scheming and politics were considered polite dinner conversations.�
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Cole stood. “Get some rest, sir. I’ll make sure that the admiral knows that you need to speak with him.”
Sheridan laid back and closed his eyes. He could feel himself beginning to slip away. Just before he fell asleep, he saw that he was standing in a wheat field. The sun shone down on him from above and warmed his face. Less than twenty meters away stood Tarina. She was wearing her survival suit. Her helmet was under her right arm. She seemed to see Sheridan looking at her. With a look of sadness in her eyes, she waved goodbye then slowly turned around and began to walk away. He called out her name, but she did not hear him and kept on walking. A few seconds later, she was gone and he was left standing all alone in the field. A feeling of horrible sadness and loneliness gripped his heart. Sheridan knew that something was wrong. However, there was nothing he could do about it as his body was trapped in quicksand. He began to slide beneath the ground. He yelled and pleaded for Tarina to come back to him. It was to no avail. Within seconds, a soul-crushing darkness consumed him.
Colonel Wright stared down at the open bottle of scotch on his desk. He had drunk almost the whole bottle by himself. He had been out three times and found nothing. It was as if Tarina, Wendy, and their fighter had vanished completely. When Lieutenant Colonel Tolinski told him that another day searching would be pointless as their oxygen supply had run out did he finally admit the inevitable and reluctantly called off the search.
There was a knock at the door.
Wright thought about hiding his bottle under his desk but decided that he did not give a damn today. If people saw that he was human, so be it. “Yes, come in.”
Tolinski stepped inside. In her hand was an unopened bottle. “I thought you could use a drink.”
Wright pointed to a chair. “Sorry, it looks like I got an early head start on you.”
Tolinski placed her bottle down, picked up the open one and poured out two full glasses of Scotch. “To absent friends,” she said, raising her glass in a toast.
“To absent friends,” said Wright, shooting his glass back in one gulp.
Tolinski refilled his glass. “What I don’t get, sir, is why we didn’t pick up any sign of debris from their fighter. If their craft was too damaged to fly home or was at risk of being captured, would it not have automatically self-destructed to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy?”
Wright mournfully shook his head. “Once the Kurgans used one of their own jump fighters to attack the fleet, the folks back on Earth did not see the need for an active self-destruct mechanism to be kept on the fighters and ordered it to be removed.”
“Oh, God, no. That means they could have been captured.”
Wright picked up his glass. “XO, as far as I can tell there are three possibilities. One, the Kurgan missile damaged their craft so bad that they died during the jump and are still out there waiting to be found. Two, they survived the impact but ran out of oxygen and died of suffocation. And three, they were found by the Kurgs and are now prisoners of war. I hate to say it, but I hope that they died during the jump. The other two possibilities are just too horrible to contemplate.”
Tolinski saw the sadness in Wright’s eyes and drank down her glass. She felt it burn all the way down. “Another one?” she asked.
“Might as well. I don’t think I’m going to bed sober tonight.”
Chapter 56
Admiral Sheridan opened the door to his quarters and smiled when he saw his son standing there with an uncomfortable look on his face.
“Come in, Michael,” said the admiral. He had been called directly by the ground force commander when Captain Sheridan had been found alive. For the second time in under a year, he thought he had lost his son, only to get him back.
Sheridan, his body still raw and bruised, slowly walked over to a chair and took a seat.
“Would you like a drink?” asked his father.
“Yes, please. Whiskey, if you have it.”
The admiral poured two glasses before taking a seat across from his son. “How are you doing?”
“My chest still feels like I was run over by a tank, but I’ll live.”
“That’s good. When I heard you were in a field hospital, I feared the worst.”
“It’ll take more than a few cracked and bruised ribs to keep me down,” replied Sheridan before taking a sip of his drink. He was hardly an expert on Scotch, but the drink went down smoothly.
“I read your preliminary report and was just amazed at how much they knew about you. The thought that the Kurgans have downloaded the fleet’s personnel files is troubling, to say the least.”
“Dad, Harry was a sleeper agent. I have no doubt Fleet Headquarters has a few in their midst and they don’t know it. At least not yet.”
“Michael, Master Sergeant Cole was quite insistent. He said that you wanted to see me. What’s on your mind, son?”
“It’s the miners. Dad, what have you been told to do with them?”
“I haven’t received any formal orders yet but my sources back at Fleet Headquarters tell me that they want to bring them back to Earth for debriefing and reconditioning.”
Sheridan shook his head. “Reconditioning! What a nice bureaucratic way of saying deprogramming. Sir, the problem is that if we send them back to Earth, the Kurgans will score a massive information operations coup.”
“Michael, I was always told by your teachers that you’re very smart. I’m sorry, but I’m not sure I’m following you.”
Sheridan looked his father in the eyes. “The Kurgans are always telling their human converts that we don’t care about them and that we have abandoned them. If we send these men against their will back to Earth, the Kurgans will be able to tell all the people they have captured so far during the war that we deliberately kept families from being together. By keeping these men, we have once again abandoned those that are already on the Kurgan side of the border.”
“What would have me do? I can’t just load them up on a ship and send them back across the Disputed Zone?”
“Dad, that’s precisely what you should do. It would reunite the men with their families and take the wind out of the sails of any Kurgan propaganda that may ensue.”
Admiral Sheridan listened intently to his son’s suggestion. “What if they don’t all want to go back, then what?”
“I don’t doubt that some will opt to stay here, but the bulk will not. You could have the medics screen each person in private. The counterintelligence people could be there and see if anyone wishes to remain behind. Don’t be surprised however if no more than a handful take you up on your offer.”
“I’ll run it by Admiral Oshiro and see what he thinks of your idea. He should be here in the next day or so.”
“Thanks, Dad,” replied Sheridan.
Admiral Sheridan placed his glass down and dug out a piece of paper. He read it over once before looking over at his son. “Michael, I’m sorry, I don’t know how to say this, but—”
“Tarina’s missing, isn’t she,” said Sheridan. His voice was calm.
“How did you find out? I did not think this was common knowledge.”
“It’s not. I just know.”
“Pardon?”
Sheridan looked over at his father. “For days I’ve had the same dream. Tarina is standing in a field. She is calm and looks as beautiful as ever. I can’t explain it, but I know that she’s not dead. Remember when I was a kid and I used to have that nightmare about that Kurgan coming to kill me?”
“Yes. You used to have it quite regularly when you were about five or six years old.”
“The truth is I never stopped having the same dream. I just stopped telling you and Mother about it. On Illum Prime, it came true. I was pinned down, unable to reach my rifle when a Kurgan officer jumped into the trench right beside me and bared his teeth. Just like in my dream.”
“My God. What happened?”
“Cole, my guardian angel, killed the Kurg.”
“So this leads you to believe
that your dreams can come true?”
“Yes, I do,” replied Sheridan, without trying to sound smug. “Not all of them, only the ones I keep repeating in my mind when I go to sleep.”
“Michael, she’s been missing for days. You have to be a realist. She and her navigator could not have survived out there for this long.”
“Dad, I know it all sounds fantastic. But you have to believe me. They did not die out there. They were taken by the Kurgans. I don’t know how or when, but I intend to get them both back.”
“You may get your chance. Word is that Admiral Oshiro’s visit is to coincide with a new strategy. It would appear that we’re going on the offensive to push the Kurgans out of our space.”
Sheridan expression turned cold. “That’s good, because I’m not finished killing Kurgans.”
– THE END –
Colossus (The Kurgan War Book 2) Page 24