Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles 7: Renegades

by Andrew Beery

  Ben reached forward and adjusted a display interface on his First Officer’s console. “Active scans have picked up a fleet of six GCP Heavy Cruisers on an intercept vector from the primary jump point. They are running silent. If we had not gone to active scanning to find our probe I’m not sure we would have spotted them before they came into weapons range.”

  “How did we not detect their jump signatures when they entered the system?” Sassi asked.

  Cat swiveled her chair to face the forward viewscreen. “Yorky, bring up the main display. Show me those approaching ships.” Turning to face the young Ashkelon Lieutenant. “The GCP hasn’t been idle in the several hundred years we have been out of the time loop. I would imagine that being able to cloak the hyperfield signature of a jump would have been a high priority for the boffins working for the Coalition… especially given the fact that jump points are easy targets for the Galaxy’s less savory elements.”

  Ken leaned forward. “That’s probably a good thing for us to remember. We can’t make too many assumptions about the GCP’s level of technology or current tactics. Our knowledge is dated and even though we may have access to the information that the Heshe provided, that is no replacement for actual experience.” He scanned the bridge making eye contact with everyone. “We need to stay sharp. What we lack in knowledge we need to make up for in vigilance.”

  “Ben, continue to scan for our probe. I don’t want to risk an unconstrained jump into Hupenstanii space until we have that data,” Cat ordered.

  She turned to face the communications officer. “Ziggy, try to raise that armada. Maybe we can talk ourselves out of this mess.”

  A moment later the holographic image of Senior Fleet Admiral Imera floated in front of Cat. The man smiled. There was no benevolence in his eyes.

  “Catherine Kimbridge, you, the crew of the Yorktown as well as the captain and crew of the Relentless are ordered to stand down and prepare to be boarded.”

  “Admiral,” Cat said dryly with the barest nod of her head. “Let’s cut to the chase. You know I am not about to stand down. There real question here is how far are you willing to go to press the issue?”

  Imera’s smile broadened. “Cat,” he said while holding his hands apart in a gesture of exasperation. “I have six ships… you have,” he held up two fingers. “This is a battle you cannot win. Any good commander knows when a battle is lost. Spare your crews the pain of defeat. I assure you they will be treated fairly and honorably.”

  “Like you were about to treat the Mardarians honorably?” Cat said leaning forward. The GCP had been prepared to decimate the planet and would have had the Yorktown taskforce not intervened. That fate had doomed the planet anyway was beyond Cat’s control.

  “An example needed to be set,” Imera said calmly. “You of all people should be aware of what happens when order is not enforced. War is a horrible thing. But what is one planet weighed against a civil war threatening trillions of lives?”

  Chapter 6: A Dirty Little Secret…

  “If I have learned anything Admiral,” Cat answered dryly. “It’s that every life is precious to the one who holds it.”

  Senior Fleet Admiral Imera’s image appeared to lean forward. “A noble thought I’m sure,” he said dismissively. “But not every life is significant in the grand scheme of things. The lives we would have spent on Mardarus III would have bought the survival of the GCP.”

  “So your argument is that the wholesale genocide of an entire planet is justifiable to protect the GCP?”

  “You see,” Admiral Imera continued, “Our goals are not so dissimilar. Stand down. Allow my officers to board your vessels. Once again let us put the madness which was Mardarus III behind us. We have lost all communication with our agents in that system… but I’m sure you know that. Restore our communication links and allow us to take control of that system. We can end this war before it even begins.”

  “You’re a pompous...,” Cat began before she could stop herself. “The GCP was founded to protect the peoples of the Coalition… not the other way around.”

  Imera shrugged. “Times change Cat. The GCP is an entity and force unto itself now. The lives of countless individuals and corporations are tied to its continued survival. Surely you can see that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?”

  Cat smiled as she leaned back in her command chair. “The needs of the many do generally outweigh the needs of the few. Where we disagree is ‘who are the many’ and who are the few’. The GCP has lost its way Admiral. This is a situation I am committed to correcting. And Admiral… You should know I do not stand alone.”

  The main door to the Yorktown’s bridge opened and Admiral Bud Faragon walked in. Cat had subvocalized a request for him to come to the bridge the moment contact had been made with the attack force. The GCP’s most esteemed and venerable admiral stepped down to the captain’s chair where Cat was seated.

  “Admiral Imera,” Bud Faragon said by way of acknowledgement.

  The holographic image of the senior fleet admiral paused as he did a double-take. “So the rumors of your demise were exaggerated.”

  “I think we both know what happened that day so many years ago. Your sponsors that have their collective hooks in the Grand Senate were not amenable to the technology the Hupenstanii were developing. They had too much invested in controlling the commerce that had built up around fixed jump points to tolerate something that would disrupt that market. The only solution they would accept was to silence me and the Hupenstanii.”

  Admiral Imera leaned forward in his command chair. “What you say is pure speculation and I might add, libelous. There is no proof that your accident was anything other than that. And the Hupenstanii were isolated to control a plague that ravaged their home world and threatened the very existence of the GCP.”

  Admiral Faragon nodded but it was not in agreement. “From what I have read, a very convenient plague for the factions that would benefit from the suppression of Hupenstanii hyperfield research,” Bud answered dryly.

  “Decades of independent study by the best scientists in the Coalition has failed to corroborate a single aspect of the theories you presented to the Grand Senate all those years ago. No my friend, the simple truth is the Hupenstanii engaged in dangerous biomedical research and they made themselves plague carriers. Their continued isolation is the only way to keep the Coalition safe and it has nothing to do with a now thoroughly discredited conspiracy theory involving suppressed jump technology.”

  “Then it might interest you to know that we have successfully tested the jump technology not only once but twice,” Bud answered matter-of-factly.

  Cat gave her friend a stern look. She would not have shared that last piece until they had determined the exact fate of the ‘peek’ probe they were still trying to locate.

  “Admiral Kimbridge, is this true?” Imera asked in a pained voice. Cat noticed it was the first time he had used her rank during their entire discussion.

  “The technology has proven effective and viable,” Cat confirmed without revealing the very real shortcomings they had discovered.

  “That is unfortunate,” Admiral Imera said as he made a slashing motion with his hand directed to an officer off screen. His holographic image dissolved.

  “Admiral,” Ben said to Cat, “They are powering up weapons systems and preparing to fire.”

  “Well I suppose that puts to bed any doubts as to why the Hupenstanii have been cut off,” Ken Kirkland mused from the engineering station he was at. “Their dirty little secret is out of the bag.”

  “Shields up!” Cat barked. “Signal the Relentless to make best speed for the nearest jump point. Helm, position us to run interference for them.”

  “Admiral, I have Captain Purohit on channel one.”

  Cat nodded to the communications officer. “Open the channel.”

  The captain of the GCP Relentless shimmered into view. The holographic tracking camera showed he was making his way quickly through
a corridor on his way towards his own bridge. His harried appearance seemed to indicate he had been in the middle of a sleep cycle when the emergency klaxons had gone off. He was still buttoning his uniform coat as he was making his way down the corridor.

  “Admiral we are preparing to launch fighters. We can’t stop six heavy cruisers but we can buy you time...”

  “Negative Vigit, your orders are to make best speed to the secondary site. Hook up with the Brown Recluse and rendezvous with the rest of the taskforce.”

  “Admiral…,” Captain Vigit Purohit began.

  “This is not a debate Captain! You have your orders,” she added more gently. “Don’t worry Vigit. I have every intention of joining you at the rendezvous.”

  “Very well Admiral, but at least let me launch a full spread of decoy drones.”

  Cat smiled. “Tie them into the Yorktown’s control systems and launch fully cloaked. And Captain… Thanks”

  “My pleasure Admiral. Purohit out.”

  Ken looked up. “Admiral we having incoming fighters.”

  She nodded. “Signal the CAG, I want our fighters to hold in the bay… Do NOT launch fighters.” Cat turned to Ken. “Captain, we need to find that probe. Launch a full spread of both decoy drones and reconnaissance probes. Tie the drones into the ones from the Relentless and have them emulate two fighter wings. Push the probes as hard as their drives will allow and get me a location on our ‘Peek’ probe.”

  “Admiral,” Ben asked, “what if the ‘Peek’ probe failed to make it back?”

  “Unfortunately that’s something we need to know too. I want all systems on standby for an immediate jump on my go.” This last was directed towards Sassi.

  “Aye Aye Admiral,” the Ashkelon started to acknowledged…

  KA’BOOM! Cat braced herself as the floor seemed to drop away. Many of her officers were not as fast and were thrown several feet across the deck.

  The lighting system flickered and the bridge of the GCP Yorktown shook as the ship’s systems struggled to shed several thousand petajoules worth of energy washing over the ship’s shields.

  “Shields at eighty three percent and regenerating,” Ben reported from his station.

  “That was three of their ships firing at once,” Ken added. “If they take turns firing on us, my guess is they believe they can bleed our shields down to nothing.”

  “Replacement emitters available to come online in ninety seconds,” Ben interjected.

  “A warning then,” Cat agreed. “Imera wants us to know he means business.”

  Ken looked over at the Admiral. “It’s almost as if they don’t know we with have full Heshe enhancements available.”

  “Oh they know, they just have forgotten what that means. Three hundred years is a long time. Which presents us with an opportunity,” Cat added with a smile. “Ben, bring the fusion reactors online and up to 110%. Bleed their secondary containment fields 0.002 percent.” She paused to look directly at the Yorktown’s First Officer. “And Ben, keep those new shield emitters offline.”

  As Ben moved to comply, he asked a question. “Admiral, our singularity power core is fully charged. We don’t need the fusion systems and deliberately bleeding their secondary shields will erode the lining of the containment chamber. The resulting x-ray emissions will light us up like a candle on a birthday cake in a dark room. Can I assume there is a method to your madness?”

  “You could say there is a madness to my method to be sure,” Cat acknowledged. Turning in her chair she faced Ken. “Captain, what would happen if we were to target all six of our friends out there with our beam weapons using only our fusion power systems?”

  “Not much I’m afraid Admiral. The fusion cores can’t push our plasma beams much past 40% of their rated capacity. In theory our weapons are more powerful than theirs but only because our Heshe tech gives us access to our singularity power systems. Without it we are on equal footing with each of Imera’s ships. We might be able to take on one or two if we were willing to fully commit ourselves but the likelihood that we would overload our older fusion power systems on the Yorktown are pretty high. We could not hope to take on six ships at once,” Ken answered. “We’ll need to use our singularity power core to have any chance of taking them out.”

  “That’s my assessment as well,” Cat agreed with a coy smile. “Weapons… Target the primary shield emitters on each of the six ships out there. Keep the focus as tight as possible. Continuous fire until our core begin to overload. Load the railguns and fire them as well.”

  “Aye Admiral. Locking weapons on multiple targets. Rigged for continuous fire. Share I tie-in our primary power systems?”

  “Negative that!” Cat barked.

  In unison, Ken and his first officer raised an eyebrow.

  Cat smiled. “I want them to see our fusion systems fail. The moment they do, I want you to cut power to everything but grav plating and environmental. Let’s see if we can’t lure them in closer. When they pull closer we’ll bring our weapons and shields up to full power and selectively target their weapons and shields. I want to disable them without causing undue loss of life.”

  Ken grinned. “Let’s give them a little incentive to close the gap. With your permission Admiral I’m going to order our fighter decoys to circle wide and come in towards Admiral Imera’s flagship from the rear. That should draw off a few of their fighter wings to provide close combat support and at the same time encourage the Admiral to close the distance to the Yorktown once our shields and fusion power systems go down.”

  “Make it so Captain,” Cat agreed.

  “Helm plot a jump to Hupenstanii space and load it in the jump buffers. We may need to bug out quickly.”

  Ken looked up from his board. “That’s pretty risky given that we don’t know what happened to our test probe.”

  “That it is… but it is a risk we may need to take.”

  ***

  Senior Fleet Admiral Imera signaled his aid, Commander McMillian, to step over to his command chair on the bridge of his newly commissioned flagship the GCP Denali.

  “Commander, alert our friend Mr. Drago that we will be needing his services sooner rather than later.”

  McMillian stiffened but said nothing beyond a curt nod as he headed off the bridge to make his way towards a special communications center that only the most senior staff had access to.

  “Helm, bring us about to course 1-1-2 mark 4. Forward shields to maximum. Time for talking is over. I want the Yorktown out of my sky… permanently.”

  Chapter 7: Civil War

  “The Denali is advancing at flank speed,” Lieutenant Sassi reported from the helm.

  “Ken, how are our shields holding out?” Cat asked.

  “Shields are down to 15% and starting to buckle,” the Yorktown’s captain responded from the engineering station he was currently manning.

  Incredible energies were roiling off the ship’s deflector screens. Periodic waves of plasma would penetrate weak spots in the shielding and attack the ablative armor on the Yorktown’s hull. When this happened the ship shuddered. What had been an occasional rumble was now a nearly continuous roar.

  “The fusion cores are beginning to overload!” Ben yelled. “If I don’t take them offline soon we are going to lose ten decks when they go critical.”

  Cat leaned forward in the captain’s command chair. “Direct all power to the forward shields. Cut energy feeds to the aft side then three seconds later cut the port side. Make it look like a cascading power system failure. Flicker the shields and then hold the forward facing shields only on battery reserve. Be ready to tie in the singularly power systems and full shielding in a millisecond’s warning if it looks like they are going to take us out. My guess is Admiral Imera is just compassionate enough to allow us to stand down once he thinks we are defeated.”

  “Acknowledged Admiral,” Ken said from his station as his hands flew over his console to make Cat’s orders happen.

  “Officially entering po
ssum mode,” Ben said as he adjusted the power feeds per her instructions.

  “Ziggy,” Cat said, “signal the attacking fleet… Ask to parley. Audio only… let’s let them guess how badly hurt we are.”

  “Admiral, they are taking the bait. Both the Denali and the McKinley are moving closer,” Sassi reported. His attention drifted to his long range sensors. His high-frequency antenna was twitching. That was never a good sign.

  “Weapons… do you have a lock?”

  “Aye Admiral!”

  “Yorky,” Cat addressed the Yorktown’s AI. “On my mark flood the FTL communication links to Imera’s flagship with random noise. Shutdown their ability to communicate. Everyone else, prepare to fully engage power systems, shields and weapons in that order. I want those two ships disabled as fast as possible and with as little loss of life as possible.”

  “Aye Admiral,” echoed through the bridge.

  “MARK!” Cat yelled.

  Instantly the background hum that was the heartbeat of the GCP Yorktown changed pitch. The shields firmed and the plasma beam emitters ramped up to 106% of rated capacity. Two sets of twin beams lashed out from the Yorktown and struck the shields of both the GCP Denali and the GCP McKinley. The two ship’s shields held against the onslaught for the better part of five seconds before they began to buckle.

  Admiral Imera and the captain of the McKinley fired back with their own plasma canons and railguns but the fully regenerated Yorktown’s shields shrugged them off with little or no effort.

  As the Denali’s shields failed the Yorktown’s AI immediately dialed back the intensity of the beam weapons and surgically excised the primary weapons systems and shield emitter power couplings. Imera’s flagship could run… but it could no longer fight or defend itself. The McKinley who was further away lasted only a few seconds longer but the result was the same.

  “Ma’am the other four ships in the Denali taskforce are closing,” Sassi yelled. “And I’m showing a jump point forming. Something big is coming through. There is no way it’s our probe.”