Tree of Liberty

by Wayne Basta

  “Saisee, reverse course. Bring us back to the disabled frigate and get us behind her,” Saracasi ordered. “Arz, ready the tractor beams. Engineering, stand by for emergency engine thrust.”

  Arzesaeth relayed her orders to the tractor beam crews, giving her a concerned look. Tractor beams couldn’t be used while shields were up, and they would be defenseless without the shields, but she didn’t think they’d survive another extended exchange between two ships. She had to do something outside the box.

  “Tractor beams ready.” Arzesaeth’s tone was flat. Quieter, he said, “You know we’ll have to lower the shields to use them. We won’t last long without those.”

  Saracasi gave him a nod but then ordered, “Helm, line us up with the cruiser. Activate tractor beams and then engage emergency thrust.” She took a deep breath. “Saisee, ramming speed.”

  The unorthodox order made Saisee pause for a moment, his eye stalks fully extended in a look of shock. But, to his credit, the reaction only lasted a moment before he turned around and oriented the ship. The ship shuddered as all of her available propulsion systems kicked in at their maximum potential acceleration. With the additional mass of the other frigate attached via the tractor beam, the acceleration proved to be well under their normal.

  Seeing the derelict form of their former frigate hurling toward them, the Alliance cruiser began going evasive. Unfortunately for them, the recent engagement had brought all three ships very close to one other. The cruiser slowly moved out of the way of the incoming frigate. Once the angle grew, they once again had a line of attack on Audacious and began firing.

  Blaster fire started to impact the hull, but there was nothing Saracasi could do about that for the moment—not without abandoning her best hope for taking out the cruiser. “Saisee, rotate our thrust ninety degrees. Adjust tractor beam angles to keep them at the same position relative to us.”

  Rotating the ship, Saisee pointed the main engines toward the cruiser again. Their previous vector would have passed them directly beneath the cruiser, but with their momentum along that path still going, plus the thrust from the ninety-degree offset, they now began moving toward the cruiser at a sharp angle.

  The sudden shift in approach occurred faster than the cruiser could compensate for. A collision was now inevitable, unless the cruiser did something drastic. As Saracasi watched, it did just that. The shields on the large ship dropped and a tractor beam of its own appeared. Audacious’s acceleration suddenly slowed dramatically, as they were now pushing against two ships and her engines were unable to move that much mass.

  Saracasi smiled. “Disengage tractor beam! Saisee, get us a shot on the cruiser! Shields up!”

  No longer tethered to the other ships, Audacious shot forward from a relative standstill. Only careful control by Saisee kept them from ramming the frigate. Now clear of the cover provided by the disabled frigate, both warships began laying into each other with blaster fire.

  Several shots made it through to Audacious’s hull before her shields came up, but after only a handful of seconds, their protective barrier was fully in place. This close to the cruiser, the massive ship could hardly miss, and her wide array of guns pounded into the smaller one, puncturing the shields on a few occasions. However, the advantage was clearly to Audacious.

  While the cruiser had a few clear seconds of time to bombard Audacious’s unshielded hull, Audacious had several minutes while the frigate was unable to raise her own shields, as her momentum toward a collision hadn’t yet been fully halted, and then she had to contend with the usual delay in standard shield formation. The shield layers, forming gradually, were continually punched through by Audacious’s insistent barrage.

  After several minutes of fire, Arzesaeth reported, “They’ve stopped firing. Engines and hyperdrive are offline.”

  Saracasi nodded and called out, “Damage report!”

  The maneuver had taken out the Alliance’s main ship but had also given them a number of clean shots to Audacious. And there was still another frigate out there.

  “One gun battery down. Capacitor systems disabled. Damage to the reactor control systems,” Arzesaeth summarized.

  Other than hearing that they had become disabled, that news was the worst she could have gotten. Saracasi cursed to herself and then said, “Begin moving all nonessential personnel to escape pods. Change course to begin pursuit of the frigate, all batteries constant barrage. XO, you have the bridge.”

  “Aye, I have the bridge,” Arzesaeth replied.

  She turned away from the tactical display, trusting Arzesaeth to handle the details of the coming fight. Moving to the aft part of the bridge, she stood by the engineering monitoring station. A quick look told her that her fears were coming true.

  The regenerative power system for the shields required some unconventional power transfer systems. The capacitor cells they had installed to prevent any reactor trouble from overloading and destroying key systems had been destroyed in the engagement. Matters were worse now that the reactor had also been damaged. In a matter of minutes, they would reach an unstoppable overload.

  Working with the ship’s engineering staff, Saracasi tried to reroute past damaged systems and even started jettisoning spare anti-matter pods. Their magnetic containment fields were incredibly resilient, but once the end came, they would fail. No sense in allowing more anti-matter/matter explosions than necessary.

  When she had done all she thought possible for them to do, she ordered the engineering staff to get to the escape pods. She turned her attention back to the rest of the bridge. Arzesaeth had already dismissed most of the crew, leaving only him and Saisee manning weapons and helm controls.

  “We’ve managed to disable the frigate’s hyperdrive,” Arzesaeth said. “But that’s about it.”

  “That will have to do.” Saracasi’s shoulders slouched as she accepted her defeat. She caressed the tactical table and whispered, “Goodbye, old girl. You’ve served us well.” Then she activated the ship-wide comm. “All hands abandon ship. All hands abandon ship.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “What did you do?!” Valinther shouted as soon as Bryel dropped them off back at the apartment. He had turned to Zoeko, his fur standing on end and a wild look in his eyes. As he advanced on Zoeko, Lahkaba suddenly felt very sure the confrontation was about to turn physical. Fortunately, Lionell intervened and stopped Valinther before he could get too close.

  “What are you talking about?” Zoeko exclaimed, her eyes narrowed.

  “You know exactly what I’m talking about!” Valinther growled. “You betrayed us!”

  “What?” Zoeko said, her tone showing evident confusion.

  Lahkaba cleared his throat and then moved between the two. Lionell still held onto Valinther, but the Terran man was much older and frailer than the Kowwok. Valinther had spent many years working in a mine, and while machines did much of the heavy lifting, it had still been more physical work than Lionell had likely done in his entire life.

  Glancing at Lionell, Lahkaba gestured his head toward the jamming device on the table behind him. Lionell glanced quickly at Valinther before easing his grasp. When Valinther didn’t resume his advance on Zoeko, Lionell stepped back and picked up the jammer, turning it on.

  Once the indicator light flashed that the device was working, Lahkaba said, “Our meeting with the Kowwok resistance operative was disrupted by a Dotran raid. They arrested our contact, along with everyone else in the club.”

  He watched Zoeko as he spoke, but her expression of shock appeared genuine. He continued, “All except us. What made that particularly surprising was that Bryel treated it like we were working with them. Apparently, the Dotran believe we took this meeting in order to identify members of the resistance.”

  “That’s because you told them,” Valinther spat. “You’re the only one who could have done it.”

  “No, she’s not,” Lahkaba said as he turned to Lionell.

  The Terran man’s shoulders drooped an
d he looked down at the floor, unable to meet anyone’s gaze. Lahkaba’s accusation hung in the air for a long minute—Lionell made no effort to refute it.

  “No, Lionell would never do this. He believes in Kowwok independence. Tell them you didn’t do this,” Valinther said, his voice becoming more pleading toward the end.

  “I’m sorry, Val,” Lionell finally said. “I do believe in Kowwok freedom, but not at the expense of Ailleroc’s. That’s where my responsibility lies. Working with the resistance is noble, but it would also likely end up causing a war with the Confederacy. We might not be able to beat the Alliance without their help. We certainly can’t defeat both of them.”

  For a moment, Valinther stood there, staring at Lionell, a look of exasperation on his face. Lahkaba began shifting his position as subtly as possible so that he could be between the two, should Valinther decide to renew his earlier charge. Fortunately, the other Kowwok remained standing there.

  “I owe you my life, and that’s the only reason I’m giving you this chance to explain yourself. But it didn’t have to go this way. We could have just told them ‘no.’ Why betray them? Why do it in secret?” Valinther asked.

  “It was an opportunity to get a treaty out of the Dotran. I took it,” Lionell said.

  “A treaty?” Lahkaba asked, shocked.

  Lionell nodded. “In exchange for helping to identify members of the resistance, along with other intelligence sharing and trade rights, the Confederacy has agreed to send a fleet to Kreogh to combat the Alliance. The matter of the shield technology was tabled for now.”

  Valinther looked like he was trying to decide what to say, but Lionell pressed on. “We got what we came here for. All it cost us was some trade concessions we were prepared to give anyway and turning over a few minor resistance members. If they’re organized properly, they won’t be able to reveal anything important. If not, then they would have failed eventually anyway.”

  Letting out a low growl, Valinther said, “A few minor resistance members? Everyone in that bar was arrested. I can guarantee most of them were innocent. I doubt any of them will see the light of day again. The resistance had a plan to take over the Dotran fleet that was going to be sent to us. They would have helped us with our Alliance problem before returning and reclaiming our homeworld. But now, the Confederacy is likely going to execute every Kowwok on that fleet as a potential traitor. You’ve likely caused the deaths of thousands of my people.”

  Lionell’s face went white. “Surely the operative they captured won’t reveal anything. Even if he does, he can’t know all the names of the people involved.”

  “It won’t matter who’s involved!” Valinther shouted, and Lahkaba was forced to put a restraining hand on him. “The Dotran won’t care who’s involved. A Kowwok planned to mutiny, so therefore all other Kowwoks are guilty. They’ll take every single Kowwok off that fleet. At best, they’ll be sent to a work camp. At worst, they and their entire families will be killed. And it’s your fault.”

  “It makes no difference,” Zoeko said, interrupting Valinther’s tirade. “The mutiny never would have succeeded. All involved would have ended up dying anyway.”

  Things were quickly spiraling out of control, Lahkaba saw. Valinther was nearing a state of uncontrolled rage at both Lionell and Zoeko. Zoeko’s attempt to support Lionell’s decision would only make the situation worse. As much as he might disagree with the whole ugly mess, it fell to him to resolve it.

  “Enough!” Lahkaba bellowed, momentarily grabbing everyone’s attention. “Why anyone did what they did, or what might have happened had things gone differently, makes no difference now.”

  Looking each of them in the eyes, Lahkaba said, “The Confederation needs to think we’re united on this. It doesn’t matter how we feel about it—what’s done can’t be changed. The Union will get the support it needs. We need to focus on that and only that. We can deal with the rest of it when the war’s over.”

  Zoeko was the first to nod consent, but she was the one Lahkaba was the least worried about. Valinther and Lionell were at the heart of this matter. They had been friends, he thought. Would that be enough to get them through this, or would it just make the inevitable confrontation more terrible?

  Finally, both men nodded, and Lionell reached down and deactivated the jammer. Watching him, Lahkaba couldn’t decide if he hated the man or felt grateful. Lionell had done what Lahkaba had thought might be necessary, saving the Kowwok from facing that choice himself. But he didn’t have to like it.

  “The station is yours now,” Solyss said, extending a hand to Kueth Kahl-Amar.

  “Thank you, Captain. I mean that sincerely,” Kueth responded, casting a glance sideways toward his wife as he spoke.

  It had taken longer than Solyss would have preferred, but they were finally preparing to depart Okaral. Securing all the station’s Alliance personnel and transporting them to the surface had proven to be a difficult task. Training the locals on the station’s basic operations had turned out to be equally challenging.

  He had briefly considered leaving a contingent of his crew on the station. Securing the Union a foothold in Trepon might be useful in the future. In the end, it had come down to a manpower issue. After injuries, he didn’t have any crew to spare to leave behind, especially for an unknown period. Besides, everyone aboard had joined to free the Kreogh sector from Alliance rule. No one wanted to waste away on a lonely space station in Trepon.

  Solyss released Kueth’s hand and started to turn toward the airlock, but Kueth stopped him by saying, “What should we do when the Alliance returns?”

  That was the one question he’d hoped the man wouldn’t ask. It had been the other reason he had decided not to leave any crew behind. Grimly, he said, “That depends on how much force they bring. This station is fairly well defended. If you don’t make the mistake of letting them board you, you should be able to hold off one frigate. And the one we fought won’t be combat capable for some time.”

  He left unsaid what would happen if the Alliance, inevitably, sent more than a single ship. A sense of guilt rose in him, despite knowing that what happened next wouldn’t be his responsibility. The people of Okaral had decided to follow Josserand and rise up against the Alliance all on their own, even if they hadn’t done this until Gallant had showed up and taken out the orbiting warships.

  Still, he felt as if he were abandoning them. One space station wouldn’t be enough protection. “The station has a few hyperspace-capable transports. Why don’t you use them to get your family off Okaral?”

  Kueth looked at his wife, and she said, “Despite it all, we actually have a home here. It was a prison planet, yes, but it wasn’t all bad. The only thing missing was Kueth, and we have him now.”

  “I’ll tell you what,” Solyss said, still feeling as if he should do something more, “I’ll take the Gallant to the coordinates that we found in the station’s computer. It’s where they’ve been sending all the food shipments from Okaral. It looks to be in the middle of deep space, so it’s likely just a transit jump point, but maybe we can learn something about what kind of forces you’ll be up against, or do something to slow them down.”

  Mirel smiled and squeezed Kueth’s arm as he said, “Thank you, Captain. You’ve already done more than enough for us. I can’t begin to repay you.”

  Glancing around them, as if checking to see that they were the only three people in the airlock, Kueth added, “I will warn you, though: don’t trust Josserand. I started working for him in order to free my family. I thought it was the only way. I got to know what kind of man he is. Don’t turn your back.”

  Solyss said, “Thank you. I knew what kind of man he was when I started this mission. But, like you, I don’t have any choice. Gamaly knows how to handle him, though. We’ll be fine.”

  Kueth nodded in reply, and Solyss added, “It’s different for you now, though.”

  Both Kueth and Mirel gave him a curious glance.

  “You don’t have to rel
y on Josserand anymore. He’ll be gone from here for at least six months—possibly years—fighting the war. You could convince the rest of your people not to follow him anymore. Okaral could be truly free. You could even choose to join the Union, or form a similar one here in Trepon. Your future is open.”

  Deciding that was enough pep talk and good sentiment for now, Solyss shook Kueth’s and Mirel’s hands one more time and then stepped through the airlock. As the airlock cycled, he put the people of Okaral behind him. He had other things to deal with now.

  When the door slid open, granting him access back aboard Gallant, Solyss let out a sigh. He had been hoping to put off dealing with at least one of those things for a while still, but when he saw Asheerah waiting for him, he knew he wouldn’t be able to wait.

  “You can’t put this off any longer,” she said unnecessarily.

  Grumbling, Solyss said, “I know. I know.”

  As the pair of them started walking down the corridor, Asheerah continued, “I don’t see why it’s so hard. Isaxo engaged the enemy. This is war. He did what he’s supposed to do. If you feel it’s necessary, give him a slap on the wrist and be done with it.”

  “It’s not that simple and you know it,” Solyss said, irritated. He understood Isaxo’s desire to fight the Alliance and could sympathize with his desire for vengeance for his lost brother, Owrik. But there was more to it. “Isaxo is a senior officer. He disobeyed a direct order from Tess to return to the ship and then a direct order from me. How would you handle one of your marines running off on his own and almost getting several people killed?” Solyss asked.

  “If he succeeded, I’d reward him. If he failed, I’d shoot him.” After a moment, Asheerah grunted and said through gritted teeth, “But you’re right. That wouldn’t be a very good way to run a military.”

  They made their way to the forward section of the ship, where the officers’ quarters were. Solyss pressed the buzzer outside Isaxo’s door. When the reply to enter came, he stepped into the tiny room with Asheerah.