“I can speak for myself…,” Valisia put in.
“Oh…yeah…sorry. But she really is very good.”
Valisia rolled her eyes and said, “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“Well hey, everything you’ve done has come to you without any shortcuts. I readily admit that I’d probably be a bum slumming in Mom and Dad’s basement without the Blessing.”
“I won’t disagree. But anyway, you’d best talk to the Admiral. It was good meeting you Captain, and hope to talk again sometime.” Her window blinked off.
“I know you think I’m a bad sister for talking over her, but if you get on the subject of her Alden you’ll never get a word in edgewise.”
“Sounds like my Companion.”
“Huh, not mine. You’re lucky to get a complete sentence out of that guy the entire day.”
They touched down on the Uhlinder’s deck and a gold-rimmed window appeared on Feln’s screen next to Katashka’s: Adm. Goro Lenz, Francescan Imperial Star Navy Commanding Officer I.F.S.N. UHLINDER, Battle Fleet #169, Task Force #18 Commanding Officer. A thin middle-aged man with a relaxed posture greeted Feln and Katashka.
“Hello, Lieutenant…and Captain. Captain, am I safe in assuming you’re here for the same reason we are?”
“Yes, sir. I’m escorting Colonization Fleet #198. We were a couple days from our destination in jump space when we got pulled here.”
“And this alien menace. Have you faced it as well?”
“Yes, Admiral, but by the looks of it, we’ve only been here a short time longer than you. Hours at most.”
“So it would stand to reason that whatever grabbed you got us as well. No doubt the enemy is responsible.”
“Sir, we might be able to get a rough idea of where we are if we triangulate the two fleets’ points of origin and destination.”
“Yes, but only a rough idea since we can’t see any stars here to compare to our star charts. I think we can safely assume by the amount of gas and debris, and taking into account your idea of triangulation, we’re somewhere in the Shoal Zone.”
“Yes sir. By the way sir, are your jump drive coils intact? Or at least the replacement coils?”
Lenz’s face darkened. “No, as a matter of fact, they’re not.”
When Feln’s shoulders slumped, Lenz said, “And it would appear by your line of questioning and response that yours are in the same condition.”
“Yes sir.”
Lenz had been standing, but walked over to his chair and sat down hard. “Well, I guess that’s life.” He glanced down for a moment before he straightened and said, “But we’ll get out of this. Take us to your fleet and let’s see if we can’t put our heads together and get out of here.”
Feln, who had said something similar to Katashka a little while ago, smiled. “Yes sir.” But then he remembered something painful. “Sir, I regret to report that I gave the order that resulted in the loss of two of your ships and the damage to another. We didn’t know you were out here and we were still fighting those aliens. So when I gave the order, we had no idea if we were even going to hit anything at all, much less something friendly. Of course, that is no excuse and after leading you back to my fleet, I place myself in your custody to do with as you see fit.”
Lenz stared at Feln with an expression that was hard to read, but it was obvious his mood had changed. Finally he said, “Captain, you know as well as I do that a Space Knight is not answerable to the regular military. Only the Imperial Household is able to pass judgment on you.”
What was Lenz getting at? Did he think Feln was offering an empty promise with the knowledge that Lenz really couldn’t do anything? “Yes sir, I know. But I waive that special treatment and place myself in your hands.”
Lenz seemed to consider this and said, “Well, let’s just get out of this system first. Then we’ll see what can be done. Until then, I’m not about to go against Imperial Edict even if I wanted to.”
“Yes sir.” Did Lenz want to punish Feln or was he giving him a way out by passing off judgment until they could reestablish communications with the Empire? Either way, Feln could always try for the defense of “Fog of War”, but he felt that would be a hollow attempt. No matter what, the deaths of those people were on his hands and he’d find a way to make it up.
“Captain?” Lenz broke Feln from his thoughts.
“Yes sir?”
“Your fleet. Lead us there.”
“Ah! Yes sir, at once,” Feln said, embarrassed. He took off and Katashka followed.
“Lieutenant, I would appreciate it if you stayed here,” Lenz said.
“No, I don’t think so,” Katashka said. Lenz started to say something but was lost to interference.
Feln looked over at her as Ganxeiter came up next to Denxeiter, passing Valisia’s Alden on the way. “Wow.”
“What?” she asked innocently.
“I’ve just never seen a Space Knight use Imperial Prerogative before. You shut him down.”
“Well, to be honest, I’ve never used it until now. But you made an honest mistake. And if he’s going to use me as some kind of tool to punish you…well, that’s not happening.” She shivered. “It was both exciting and scary. The admiral has some friends in high places. This could really bite me.”
“Then why’d you do it?”
“I told you before, I’d also open fire in your shoes. I meant it.”
Feln blinked, “I’ll say it again. Wow.” She smiled gently and he said, “Y’know I would really like to get to know you better. If that’s okay.”
Her smile grew naughty. “I bet you would.”
“Oh, come on!”
She laughed. “I’m sorry, and I’ll explain what happened when we get some more time.” Then her smile lost its edge and grew gentle again. “But yes, I’d like to get to know you too.”
Chapter Five
Thanks to the lack of navigation and visibility, Feln was worried he might be leading the fleet on an entirely different course than where he wanted. He just aimed for the same light source his own fleet had been going for when the attack started.
He breathed a sigh of relief when they came across a navigation beacon. Every Francescan ship carried at least one to use in an emergency where a ship might be destroyed and the crew would have to abandon ship in spacesuits without the aid of escape pods. The navigation beacon would be used by rescue parties to locate the survivors.
There were no Francescans floating around in spacesuits here, so one of the ships from the group Feln had collected together earlier must have left behind its beacon specifically to help Feln find his way back to the fleet. Of course, the enemy could also use the beacon, but Feln tried not to focus on that. As he approached, he picked up the beacon in Denxeiter’s hand. The beacon’s ID tag identified it as belonging to the I.F.S.N. Artemis.
Feln smiled, “Achren.”
“A friend of yours?” Katashka asked.
“A…colleague,” Feln said. “A Nymph commanding a missile ship. Kinda weird, in a way.”
“A Nymph! Should I be jealous?”
“Oh, are we already to the stage where you’re allowed to be jealous?”
“I dunno, maybe not if you’re already getting together with a Nymph! I don’t know if I can keep up with that kind of action!”
“I get the feeling you can more than keep up and maybe surpass that action.”
Katashka laughed and started to say something before her expression sobered. “Wait. You said a missile ship? Was that the missile ship that fired on us?”
Feln wanted to die. As usual, his lack of skill at small talk had made things awkward. Why did he have to mention the missile ship? Idiot.
With a sigh he said, “Yes, that’s the ship. I’m sorry.”
“No, I told you it’s okay. My mind picks up on certain details at the most inopportune times and in this case, it was the missile ship.”
“For what it’s worth, my mouth says things at the most inopportune times, s
o… Still, I hope your admiral won’t hold the Artemis crew accountable for the friendly fire. They were acting on my orders.”
“Hmm, that’s a fair concern. He can’t go after you, but he can go after them since they’re regular Navy. Let’s just hope he doesn’t think about that idea.”
“By the way, I’m glad you were able to intercept a lot of those missiles. As soon as I saw the red beams instead of green I knew something was up. If you wouldn’t have been there…”
“If I could actually see in this part of space, I would have gotten all of them. Then again, if we could see here, you wouldn’t have fired in the first place.”
“Very true,” Feln said. “Okay, your fleet is keeping up pretty well, so let’s get going.”
At first, the search was encouraging as they came across debris of destroyed alien ships, and unfortunately, Francescan as well. But then the debris started to run out and Feln was worried he’d gone the wrong way when Katashka suddenly pointed. “There!”
Feln had to squint to see where she was indicating, but eventually made out something large. It was a good thing Katashka had seen it, because he would have missed it completely as he was looking somewhere else entirely. Just above his normal sight line and to the left was something large and round.
“That must be the colony,” Feln said. But as they got closer, Feln was discouraged to see it was actually a planet. The details of the planet got sharper as they approached. It was rocky and dead with no atmosphere. “Damn, we might have to backtrack now since this was a little off from where I thought we had to go.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just, I thought I felt something… I still…” Her eyes glazed slightly before she suddenly shouted, “There they are!” Ganxeiter shot out ahead and Feln had to struggle to keep up.
“Hey wait! You’ll lose your fleet!” Feln said just before Katashka’s window got fuzzy and flicked off from being too far way. He looked back at the ships still picking their way along trying to keep up.
Ganxeiter slowed down and waited. When they were all together again and Katashka’s screen came back on, she said, “Sorry. It’s just that I know where they are. I can feel them orbiting the planet. Straight ahead.”
After following along for a few more minutes, Feln could make out the colony orbiting the planet. And then some of the larger ships in his fleet. Feln prayed they didn’t open fire due to any twitchy trigger fingers, but luckily everybody stayed calm. Soon the ships of the two fleets were intermingled; the Uhlinder pulled up to the Tannhauser. Feln was glad to see communication boosters dotted throughout the fleet. It still wasn’t perfect and anyone venturing outside of the little sphere of boosters would be lost to silence again, but it made things a little better, quadrupling the distance the comms worked inside. Feln brought up Lenz and Kesh on his screen.
Kesh said, “Welcome back, Captain. You’ve brought friends.”
“Yes sir, presenting Admiral Lenz of the Uhlinder, 169th Battle Fleet, Task Force #18.”
The two admirals saluted each other and Lenz said, “I understand you’ve also had a rough time, Admiral.”
“Yes, Admiral,” Kesh replied. “We’re still tallying the numbers, but it seems that half of our fleet is either destroyed or missing. We’ve had some stragglers arrive and we hope others will also find their way here as we lay out more navigation beacons around the fleet. How did your fleet fare?”
“We’ve been lucky. Only twelve ships lost.” Lenz looked sideways at Feln. “Three to friendly fire, although we were able to save the survivors from one.”
At Lenz’s look at Feln, Kesh also glanced at him. Feln pursed his lips and said, “I’ll have my report to you within the hour, sir.”
Kesh nodded and said, “Admiral, I believe we should have a strategy meeting to figure out a way from this system. The Tannhauser has adequate facilities—”
“That won’t be necessary,” Lenz broke in. “The Uhlinder is much better equipped to host such an event. We’ll meet here.”
Although Lenz was the same rank as, and was younger than, Kesh, being the commander of a fleet carrier gave him an edge in chain of command over Kesh. Fleet carriers had more prestige than assault carriers and thus were commanded by officers who had noble connections. Still, to flaunt that fact so brazenly was poor form. Feln had to keep himself from gaping.
Kesh seemed to take it in stride. He was likely already a captain for years before Lenz was even an ensign. This probably wasn’t the first time he’d had to contend with an upstart with noble connections. Kesh said, “I agree. As a lieutenant, I served on the Uhlinder almost thirty years ago under Lord Gavik during the Cucla War. She was the queen of the fleet. And yes, her meeting facilities were the best.”
Lenz’s face reddened, “They still are.”
“I have no doubt,” Kesh said gently before growing stern. “We will be there. We will arrive at 1800 hours.” His tone gave no room for argument over the time.
Lenz looked like he wanted to take a step back even though he was in a whole other ship and nowhere near Kesh. “Yes, 1800 hours. Lenz out,” he said quickly before ending his transmission.
Lenz’s screen flicked off and Katashka’s switched on. “Ha ha! You sure told him, sir! I’ll never forget that as long as I live!”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Kesh said.
This only made Katashka laugh harder. “I’ve heard people say the Ssalss have no sense of humor but I know that’s wrong. My father’s best friend was a Ssalss and he was the funniest person I knew. You do his memory proud.”
“By the way,” Feln interrupted, “may I present Space Knight Lt. Katashka Nonn, Hyper Battle Machine #40, Ganxeiter.”
“I’d gathered as much by the title on her screen,” Kesh said with what Feln could swear was a wry smile.
Huh, maybe he does have a sense of humor, Feln thought.
Katashka reddened briefly for failing to introduce herself properly, but soon cracked up laughing again. “It’ll be a pleasure serving with you, sir.” She saluted.
“The pleasure is mine,” Kesh said. He saluted them both and his window closed.
“Well, that was interesting,” Feln ventured.
“Yeah… Hey, want to switch ships?”
“Uh, no, I’m good.”
“Smart man.” Katashka turned and looked at the Uhlinder. “Well, I’d better get back. It’s been fun. I’m looking forward to continuing our chat from before.” She winked.
“Okay, see you later.”
Chapter Six
After returning to the Tannhauser and reporting to Kesh about what he’d seen (including the friendly fire incident), Feln had to calm down a tearful Aaltskog who leapt into his arms the instant she saw him and almost knocked him down.
“Don’t do that again!” she wailed.
“Don’t do what?”
“The whole thing! Flying off, getting out of communications range, disappearing from sight, not coming back for a long time. I was terrified!”
“Darling, you know it is part of the job…”
“No! You didn’t even let us know you were leaving! Suddenly I’m hearing second-hand that some Nymph in a missile ship last saw you heading off into who-knows-where.” She waved her hand back and forth between herself and Feln. “That’s not how we operate!”
Feln suddenly realized that this was the first time since Aaltskog entered his life that she was out of communication with him on a mission. On any previous mission, they were always able to keep in touch. But for the first time in fifteen years, Feln had disappeared from her completely.
The most devastating thing that could happen to a Companion was to lose his or her Space Knight, either from being killed in battle or to not know what happened to the Space Knight in the fog of war. It was the curse of the synching bond between Companion and Space Knight.
Feln had seen a Companion who had lost his Space Knight in an anti-piracy mission. The Companion walked around in a haze and just seemed not quite “right”.
He found out later the Companion threw himself in front of a street car and killed himself. Still, that Companion was one of the lucky ones.
Even worse were Companions who didn’t know if their space Knights were alive or not. Dubbed “The Alone”, they could be seen haunting the outskirts of Hyper Battle Machine facilities, talking to themselves, wailing uncontrollably, mangling themselves… Feln heard about a Companion who ripped her own eyes and tongue out and simply screamed at the top of her lungs until she was taken away to a facility in the hopes of helping her. As far as Feln had known, no Companion had ever been successfully treated.
With this in mind, Feln suddenly became acutely aware of just how scared Aaltskog was and pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry. You know I don’t want you to be Alone. It’s this damn system. And you know I don’t like it either. But I’ve got to do what I can.”
She sniffed. “I know, I know. I’m sorry I’m such a baby.” She wiped her eyes under her hair. Feln was glad he couldn’t see her eyes just now. They were beautiful and the few times he saw tears in them broke his heart. “Just promise you won’t do anything stupid. I want to Leave when you Leave. That’s how it’s meant to be.”
“Absolutely. ‘Always and forever, the Space Knight and Companion are linked and shall never be separated even unto death.’” Feln recited the Companionship Mantra and Aaltskog buried her head in his chest.
“Leaving” was the term given to when a Space Knight’s life came to its natural end. The Companion would sit with the Space Knight and as he died, so too would the Companion. The belief was that the Companion’s soul would then be complete and could spend the rest of eternity with the Space Knight as his friend or lover— whatever they were in life, forever in the afterlife.
After a few more soft sobs, Aaltskog finally shook her head and balled her fists. “Okay… Okay. Time to focus…” She looked up. “Alright, I think I’m good. So tell me about the battle. How’d Big Brother do?”
Francescan War Chronicles 1: Space Knight Denxeiter Page 7