by D. J. Holmes
“Captain,” Johnston said as he lowered his hand. “I would like to request permission to remain on Haven when Endeavour breaks orbit. If the Indians manage to land troops, then I wish to be here to fight with the resistance.”
“You know you could be stranded here again,” James replied. “If the Indians land troops it means they will have driven off the fleet. It could be months before we gather enough ships to come back.”
“I know,” Johnston said. “I have come to think of Haven as a second home. If the people have to fight the Indians again, I would like to be here to fight alongside them.”
“Then you have my permission,” James said. “I’m sure we will manage without you, and, if it comes to it, I know you’ll make this fresh Indian army regret ever coming to this system.”
“Thank you, Sir,” Johnston said with another salute. As he turned, he took Clare’s hand and led her away.
“You see,” Suzanna whispered as soon as they were out of ear shoot. “I told you something was going on with them.”
“I’m glad,” James said. “Johnston deserves some happiness after everything he has been through.”
“As do we,” Suzanna said. “It’s not fair. These last three weeks have been bliss. Despite everything that has been on the line, I have loved every minute with you.”
“So have I,” James said as they stopped walking and Suzanna looked into his eyes.
“I can’t stand the thought of you going into another battle,” Suzanna complained as she blinked back tears. “I’ve hardly been able to think of anything else these last four hours. Sooner or later your luck is going to run out. I already thought I had lost you once. I don’t know if I could go through that again.”
“I know,” James said. He had been dreading this moment since they had heard about the Indian fleet. “But I must do my duty. This fleet comes to invade my wife’s home. I intend to see that they don’t succeed. I love you, I hope you know that.” As he spoke he leaned in to kiss Suzanna.
“I know you do and I love you too,” she replied moments later.
“Let’s say our goodbyes here,” James suggested. “You should go back to Fairfax and stay close to him. He will make sure nothing happens to you.”
“But I want to walk you to your shuttle,” Suzanna protested.
“I know,” James said with a smile. “But it wouldn’t do for all the navy personnel to see the fearless Captain Somerville all soppy and emotional. This will be easier for me.”
“Ok,” Suzanna said as she pulled him into another kiss. “I understand.”
“Here,” she said when they broke apart. “I brought you something.”
“What is it?” James asked as he opened up the ornately carved wooden box Suzanna handed him.
“A locket,” Suzanna answered. “Something of both our worlds for you to hold close to your heart.”
As James opened the locket he had to swallow and blink several times to control his emotions. “It is the rose you gave to Christine,” Suzanna explained. “And on the other side is a Onopordum acanthium, a Haven thistle. It is the Haven flower my family adopted as their insignia when they settled on Haven. I know Christine and Britain will always be your first love. But I hope I have come to take a place in your heart equal to what you once felt for her. The rose is to remind you of everything you have fought for and the Onopordum acanthium to remind you of what you have waiting at home for you.”
“You have,” James said. “I already love you more than I ever thought I would love someone. Thank you. I will always treasure this. It will give me courage.” As he spoke he lifted the locket and placed its chain over his head. “The rose of Britain and the thistle of Haven. There could be nothing more fitting to carry into battle.”
“Then go my husband, do your duty one more time,” Suzanna said as the tears began to flow freely down her cheeks.
“I will,” James said. He leaned in and kissed her one last time before spinning around and walking away as quickly as he could. He didn’t trust himself to stay any longer.
Chapter 37 – Final Showdown
In naval wars, years of ship design and construction, months of preparation, drilling and strategizing and weeks of maneuvering boil down to a few short hours. For one side or the other, everything that they have done usually comes to nothing.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD
5:00pm ISF Lakshmi, outer edge of the Haven system.
“All ships accounted for Admiral,” one of Admiral Kapoor’s flag officers reported.
“Take us in, full military acceleration,” Kapoor ordered.
He had jumped his fleet out of shift space just two light hours from Haven’s mass shadow. It had been risky, if the British had stationed their fleet at the edge of the mass shadow they could have been in a position to ambush him. However, his intel suggested the British weren’t expecting an attack. They thought they had us beat, Kapoor thought as he surveyed the holo- projector’s display of the system. Not yet they don’t. They’ll realize soon enough. In just a few minutes every ship in the Haven system would detect the accelerating Indian fleet on their gravimetric sensors.
As Kapoor sat back in his command chair it still felt odd. Having personally overseen Centaur’s refit, he had installed his own command chair. It had been lost along with the rest of the battlecruiser when the British fleet closed to plasma cannon range. Having seen the writing on the wall, Kapoor had abandoned Centaur just before the plasma bolts had started flying. Now he had transferred his flag to Lakshmi, the second battlecruiser that had been under Admiral Khan’s command.
Though Lakshmi was newer and more advanced than Centaur, Kapoor missed his old command. We’ll see who is missing their ships after today, he thought as he stared at the British warships on the holo plot.
“What is this group of ships here?” Kapoor asked. From their initial sensor readings, it looked like the majority of the British warships were in orbit around Haven. However, a small squadron of ships was accelerating into the system towards the colony. It looked like they were coming from the shift passage to Independence.
“We are still analyzing their gravitational signatures,” one of his aides replied. “It looks like a light cruiser and several smaller warships along with a number of freighters. A few of the other ships are proving harder to identify.”
“Designate them targets tango two, keep me updated on their progress,” Kapoor ordered. The British squadron consisted of almost twenty ships. If they were reinforcements coming from the British colonies, he didn’t want them joining the main British fleet.
“Tango two is accelerating,” Kapoor’s aid informed him a minute later. “No doubt they have detected our fleet.”
“No doubt,” Kapoor replied. All over the system ships were coming alive and reacting to the fact his fleet had so boldly announced its presence. Kapoor’s main concern was the British fleet marked as tango one. They were in disarray as various warships boosted out of orbit and tried to form up to confront his fleet.
“We’re getting a better read on those ships in tango two we couldn’t identify,” one of Kapoor’s flag officers reported. “We’re still not getting a hundred percent match; however, they appear to be four medium cruisers. Their gravimetric signatures are very similar to those produced by the British Navy’s latest class of medium cruiser, the Protector class.”
“They must be reinforcements,” Kapoor surmised. “Run the numbers, can we intercept them before they rendezvous with the main fleet?”
Lines from his fleet and tango two appeared on the holo projector, plotting out a potential intercept course. As one of his aides ran the simulation, it became clear Kapoor’s fleet was in a prime position. Unless the British medium cruisers abandoned the freighters they were escorting, Kapoor could intercept tango two just before the British fleet could come to their aid. With luck, they could smash the smaller British squadron and then turn and smash their fleet in quick succession. Four medium cruisers wouldn�
�t turn the tide of battle. Even so, if they and their smaller escorts managed to combine with tango one, the British fleet would be a much tougher nut to crack.
“Send the course change to the fleet, we’re going after tango two,” Kapoor ordered.
Kapoor was surprised the British didn’t react to his maneuver. Yes, the British fleet changed course to keep themselves between his fleet and Haven. Yet, tango two didn’t make any course correction. For an hour, Kapoor and his fleet charged into the Haven system unopposed.
*
6:04pm HMS Discovery
“Fire,” Gupta ordered.
Six plasma cannon bolts shot from her exploration cruiser. “Get us out of here, stay in stealth,” she followed up before she even knew if her attack had been successful.
“Maneuvering now,” Discovery’s navigation officer announced.
“Multiple hits,” a junior Lieutenant shouted from the sensor console.
Gupta didn’t need to look at the data to see what damage her shots had done. As the Indian fleet passed by her small ship the visual display said it all. The medium cruiser they had targeted erupted in a series of fire balls as its fission reactors overloaded.
“Now for our real mission,” Gupta ordered. “Let’s make sure we don’t miss anything.”
*
6:04 pm ISF Lakshmi
“What was that?” Kapoor demanded as a small shockwave washed over his flagship, sending a tremor through his command chair.
“Nehru is gone,” the sensor officer on Lakshmi’s auxiliary bridge reported. “Our sensors detected a series of plasma bolts just before they hit her.”
“Those damned British stealth ships,” Kapoor swore. “Increase our active sensors’ output. Launch a spread of drones around the fleet and ahead of our current course. Did you get a lock on where those plasma bolts came from?”
“Not a firm one,” the officer replied. “Though we did manage to get a good estimate of their trajectory.”
“Fire a spread of ten missiles down that trajectory,” Kapoor ordered. “Let’s see if we can’t flush them out of stealth.”
Damn them, Kapoor thought. Intel suggested the British only had two of their stealth cruisers, even so, they had done a great deal of harm to the Indian fleet. It was likely the ship that had just destroyed the medium cruiser Nehru was already getting as far away from their firing position as possible. It was also more than likely to be heading in exactly the opposite direction to his fleet, making it very difficult for his sensors to get a lock.
“Patel and Bose are firing their stern missile tubes now,” Lakshmi’s auxiliary tactical officer reported.
Kapoor didn’t respond, he didn’t have much hope they would hit anything. He was more concerned about any other ships that might be lying in stealth ahead of his fleet. Maybe that’s why tango two hasn’t maneuvered, they want me to head straight for them.
*
6:05 pm HMS Discovery
“Missile launch,” Discovery’s sensor officer reported. “I’m tracking ten missiles approaching from the Indian fleet.”
A tense few seconds passed on Discovery’s bridge, but when the ship’s computer estimated the course of the missiles, everyone let out a sigh of relief.
“Were our stealth recon drones successful?” Romanov asked.
“I think so,” the sensor officer replied. “There are still a few segments of data I’m analyzing but we got an eighty percent hit. After our attack the electromagnetic output of the second battlecruiser in the Indian line increased by nearly two hundred percent, double that of any of the other ships in the Indian fleet. I think we can designate it as their flagship.
“Good work,” Gupta commended. “We’ll send Cunningham this intel as soon as we get far enough from the Indian fleet. We don’t want them firing a spread of a hundred missiles at us. Good work all of you,” she repeated. “We may be out of the fight already, but hopefully our contribution will count for something by the time this day is over.”
*
6:12 pm ISF Lakshmi
“None of our missiles locked onto anything,” a flag officer reported.
“Very well,” Kapoor acknowledged. “Keep launching new recon drones around the fleet. I don’t want another ship getting that close to us until we close with the British fleet. Understood?”
“Yes Sir,” the flag officer responded.
Kapoor sat in almost complete silence as his subordinates focused on scanning space ahead of, around and behind his fleet. Whilst he was still concerned about another ship lying in stealth, his concern was turning more and more towards what the British Admiral was doing. Kapoor knew Admiral Cunningham was in charge of the British ships and Cunningham was no fool. So what are you doing? Kapoor asked his adversary, not for the first time.
Cunningham still had his fleet shadowing Kapoor’s, making sure Kapoor didn’t dash towards Haven and either bombard the planet’s surface or land the troop ships. Yet, Cunningham’s actions meant he was effectively sacrificing the smaller British squadron. It doesn’t make sense.
“Tango two is accelerating,” one of his subordinates announced, almost as if Cunningham was answering his unspoken question.
As the plot updated to show tango two’s new course, Kapoor smiled. So that’s it, he thought. If each fleet held to its current course and speed, Kapoor’s fleet would get into missile range of both tango two and tango one at the same time. His fleet, though numerically superior to the British, would be caught in a crossfire and have to divide its point defenses to take on missiles coming from both tango one and tango two. It’s risky, Kapoor thought as he looked at the acceleration profile of the ships in tango two more closely. The latest British medium cruisers could no doubt sustain their velocity, however, many of the freighters and smaller warships were risking a cosmic particle strike. It’s a good plan, Kapoor thought. His fleet was already travelling at their maximum safe velocity. If he didn’t want to get caught in a crossfire he would have to either slow or alter course. Either action would allow tango one and two to combine. It’s a good thing I have Admiral Kumar where I do isn’t it? Kapoor thought.
“Do you have any new orders for the fleet?” One of Kapoor’s flag officers asked.
“Not yet,” Kapoor responded. “If the British want to risk their ships to a particle strike, we’ll let them do it for a little while longer.”
Kapoor watched as events unfolded just as he expected. His fleet was three hours away from the point where he would be forced to engage both tango one and tango two. “Time to act,” he said to the auxiliary bridge. “Send orders to Admiral Kumar, tell her to take her squadron ahead of the fleet and destroy tango two. Then she is to wait for us to catch up and we’ll take on tango one together.”
“Kumar has acknowledged,” one of his flag officers announced several seconds later.
*
7:17pm ISF Shiva
“Bring us to our maximum velocity,” Admiral Kumar ordered with a feral grin. “Keep us on an intercept course with tango two.”
Alongside Kumar’s flagship Shiva, one heavy, four medium, and seven light cruisers and a number of smaller escorting ships shot forward. They were the newest ships in the Indian fleet. Kapoor had assigned them all to Kumar’s squadron. At first, she had been surprised her superior had given her command of so many ships. She had expected Khan to be given the place of honor in the fleet. Then she had remembered there had been bad blood between Kapoor and Khan’s fathers’ when they had both been Captains in the Indian Space Fleet. I hope that’s why Kapoor gave me this command, Kumar thought as she watched her ships break out ahead of the rest of the Indian ships and close with tango two. They would easily be able to intercept the smaller British squadron before the British fleet could interfere. He could have put me in charge of the lead elements as a ready scapegoat.
Try as she might she couldn’t dismiss such a thought. Given the mistakes she made when capturing Haven, and her failure to hold the colony, she would be a very ea
sy scapegoat if Kapoor was looking for one. Thoughts of the British fleet driving her away from Haven kindled her anger. Ever since that day it had never been far away. I’ll show the British, and Kapoor, Kumar promised herself as she watched tango two get closer. Once they’re under my guns everyone will forget about the past. Destroying tango two wasn’t going to win the day but it would tip the scales more firmly in the Indian fleet’s favor.
Dwelling on her anger made the next two hours pass very quickly as the object of her desire came closer. When one of the British freighters exploded, no doubt due to a cosmic particle strike, she was unable to hide the smile that spread across her face. Glancing at the counter on the holo plot, Kumar saw the British fleet was just five minutes away from missile range.