Athena Lee Chronicles 10: War to the Knife

by T S Paul

  The information in the files was so dry that I actually fell asleep on my console and the CATTs let me do it. I awoke to find a stylus stuck to my head and drool running down my chin. I could hear snickers to my left. Turning my head, I could see Dar and my CATTs playing some sort of game together.

  “Nice nap?”

  I scrubbed my face on the sleeve of my uniform and sat up. “Whatcha playing?”

  “It’s a variation of chess my family taught me. I think the Bee and Tree are cheating at it.”

  “No, we just are better than you.” Their voices still surprised me.

  “Do you know the Fleet’s status?”

  “Yes, Athena. The ships should drop out of jump within the next half hour. We have been studying the readouts from engineering.”

  “Find anything interesting?”

  “Not yet. The crew itself is clean of corruption. Bellona said to tell you that you were correct in your assumption. The Admiral was in the employ of the Cabal. Both he and the Captain refused to believe anything bad about Earth. They intended to take the fleet and jump to Capital not Celtica.”

  “I hate it when I’m right.” That would have meant the loss of the ships and given Earth our best technology to reverse engineer.

  The ship gave a slight vibration. “Check with engineering. I think we are about to come out of jump.” At the CATTs nod I stood up and headed for the bridge.

  As I walked through the main hatch Commander Tasman began speaking. “Captain, I mean Admiral, engineering reports we are about to come out of jump.”

  “Thank you Abigail. I felt the vibration in my Ready Room. As soon as we come out of jump, set condition two in the fleet. We should be right on the edge of the system but they may have sensors out this far. I would.”

  Chapter 11

  The screeching alarm woke up the command watch on duty in the control room. Last night the poker game was longer than expected and adding in dancing girls to the mix made it run even longer. Commander Jordan squinted at the readouts on his console. Damn, that Michaleen Flynn. That whiskey he sloshes about is the God’s worst. That was all the commander could think about. Making and drinking various forms of Irish Whiskey was a national sport on Celtica. He squinted at the console again. That cannot be right he thought to himself.

  Thump! He whacked the console with his fist and regretted every moment of it. His head was killing him! No more whiskey late at night! He knew he was lying to himself as soon as he thought it. He shook his head to clear it. There was no way those readouts were right. He punched a button, and the information transferred to the main screen. According to sensors, a large fleet of unknown ships just jumped into the system. He cursed as he read through the readouts a second time. Not a lie and not anything they had in the area unless Siobhan was back from patrol early. That wasn’t likely. For the moment the ships were just sitting on the edge of Celtica space. He stretched his arms out in another attempt to wake up. Feck! The Taoiseach was going to freak! Reluctantly he hit the emergency button on the top of his station.

  Loud alarms began to sound. Very loud alarms. His ears ringing, Commander Jordan immediately regretted hitting the button. He looked down as a voice from the floor began to yell and winced.

  “What the fecking hell! Eddie turn it off! For god's sake and the state of my poor brain, please turn it off!” Lieutenant Forbes was under his desk moaning in pain. He watched the man clutch his head and pass back out. Wimp!

  A small older man staggered into the room and fell against his desk. “Is this your punishment for the whiskey? Just shoot me now then because my fecking head is about to explode!” Michaleen Flynn was only a Lieutenant at the moment. He had achieved the rank of Captain twice only to be demoted back to lieutenant after being caught drinking the rotgut he makes and sells on duty. Like now.

  “Michaleen, get on your console! A large fleet just jumped into the system, and it’s not one of ours!”

  “The Hell you say! Don’t they know this is Monday?” The little man rubbed his head and moaned. His headache had returned, and he felt like he was going to be sick. “Oh, Feck! Have you told herself yet?”

  The commander looked over at his crewman. “I was just about to send the message. I thought maybe the alarm might have told her already.”

  Michaleen shook his head. “No, she disconnected that button over there. It only sounds in here. She wanted a live person to tell her news, not a machine. She has trust issues.”

  “None of us are alive in here.” He looked around the room. The rest of his unit were still all passed out on the floor or desks. “They are too hung over for that! OK, I’ll contact her. Maybe she won’t shoot me.” He hit a sequence of buttons on his console and waited for a moment.

  A screaming woman’s voice came over the comm causing those in the command center to clutch their heads in pain, again. “What the Fecking Hell made you call me at this Fecking hour? Did you not realize what Fecking hour this is? I was up half the night celebrating the wedding of my daughter! So what is so fecking important you lazy bastards!”

  “Kate! A huge fleet just popped up in sector eight!” The officer prayed she wouldn’t shoot him.

  “What! You better not be lying to me! Whose ships are they? Sent the alert signal, wake those lazy bastards up and get them in the air! Tell them to stick to the planet until we figure what we are dealing with here.”

  The commander kicked the lieutenant hard in his gut. “Get your lazy drunk ass Up! We have work to do!” He stepped over the drunkard’s station and punched in an override code. Sirens began echoing across every settlement on the planet.

  ~~~~

  Celtica was one of the last planets settled during the United Nations forced settlement phase. Entire neighborhoods were swept up in the raid and packed on board ships and sent into space. When it was Ireland’s time, they took from both the North and the South regardless of religion or creed. It may have been on purpose. Like many of the other colony ships in this period, the ship was incredibly overbooked. In any case, ten thousand were expected to die after the first jump. Space travel was for the young, at least in those early days.

  That estimate was very low for those unlucky colonists on the UN Ship Boyne. More than fifteen thousand died during and after the first jump. Many of the suburbs and high population areas that were pillaged for colonists were retirement communities. After the mass funeral and body disposal, began the war. North vs. South, the Irish made war upon each other inside the shell of the colony ship. The Gen-Mod pilots and crew could only watch in horror as the potential colonists made war upon each other. It wasn’t just religious or politics that fed the violence. Battles were fought over control of food, better cabins, and access to the crew. Fighting Irish was not just a term of endearment. Of the forty thousand settlers that left Earth only twenty thousand or so survived the trip mostly young adults and children. The ship's crew off-loaded them as quickly as possible. The heartbreaking decision that many ships colonists had to deal with was taken out of their hands. The Boyne’s Captain and crew didn’t tell the colonists that the elderly wouldn’t survive the trip down. To the colonists, this became one more way that the UN and British were conquering them. At least to them, they saw it that way.

  As soon as the colonists were offloaded, the pilots sent the ship into a death spiral aimed at the sun. The pilots escaped in a small scout ship. Leaving ship technology in the hands of warlike colonists was forbidden. For almost forty years they were completely forgotten about by the galaxy at large. Until one day a small freighter detected the colony and came down for a visit.

  Whatlys Rover was a small trading vessel out of Mars. They were exploring each system in consecutive rings out from Mars searching for possible mining or trading ventures. They detected very primitive radio signals where there shouldn't be any, so they investigated. What they found was a lost Irish colony. After losing most of their teachers and educated adults, the colony reverted to clans and clan chieftains as a government stru
cture.

  The various clans made war on each other for resources and protection. The freighter's crew made the mistake of befriending the wrong clan. The Rover’s surviving crew was forced to give up the secret of space to the primitive warriors. The age of the Irish Space Pirates had begun. Slowly their constant raiding of the distant space-lanes brought the planet up to close to modern standards by boot-strapping it. Agriculture was still the primary industry on the planet. In orbit was where the real power lay. After years of stealing or buying wrecks, the clans had built an effective shipyard and had a large defensive fleet of over forty vessels. It was these ships that powered up and formed a perimeter around the planet.

  ~~~~~

  Kicking his way through a pack of drunken fighter pilots Captain Peter Lonergan pried the door open to the bridge and stepped inside. “What the hell is that noise?” Some system on his ship was screaming out a pulsing alarm that caused excruciating pain in his head.

  “Sir, it’s the general alarm from the planet! A fleet just jumped into the system. We have been instructed to take off and form a perimeter along with the other ships.”

  “Turn the bloody thing off!” The sound died, and his head stopped throbbing. “We have? By whose orders?”

  “The Taoiseach herself, Kate O’Malley.”

  The Captain spit on the deck. “That is what I say to Kate O’Malley. We will obey her orders for now. Wake up the Wild Boy and the Mallow, tell them to meet us in orbit! Somebody wake up that pile of drunken sods out there and pour them into their birds. We might be going to battle boys!”

  For all his bluster and drunken crew, Captain Lonergan’s ship the Inisfree was one of the most effective pirate ships. In the past, his clan had ruled Celtica for four generations. His cousin lost the throne to Kate O’Malley in a fair fight. Lonergan had to admit she had done much to help civilize the planet. Constant clan war took a heavy toll on the people. If only she weren’t a woman!

  Commander Jordan updated the battle board as he saw clan Lonergan’s ships lift from the planet. He jumped in surprise when the hatch door slammed open, and the Taoiseach stepped through followed by her bodyguards. “What do we know?”

  “Ma’am over half our ships are responding and are slowly forming the perimeter. The other half are missing crew or are still asleep.”

  “Wake the lazy bastards up! Goddamnit, we won’t have a planet by the time those idiots wake up!” She looked at one of her people. “Lincoln! Get out there with some of our troops and force them to lift. Use our people if you have to. Just get it done.” Lincoln Hawk saluted and ran for the hatch.

  “Ma’am, are you sure that using Hawk is a good idea? He can be a bit too over-the-top for some to deal with.”

  Kate looked at the commander. “He gets the job done. What do you know about them? Any ship IDs yet?” She pointed to the fleet at the far corner of the screen.

  “Our sensors say it’s four capital ships and a mess of smaller ones. The only planets close enough to come at us with that many ships is either Mars or the Empire. I can’t be totally sure. Most of this junk in here is left over from Interstellar War two.” He thumped the console with his fist.

  Ignoring her officer’s comments. She studied the battle plot for a moment. “What is your best guess as to their identities?”

  “Mine? It's the Empire of Man. Those wankers get their panties in a twist every decade or so. Last time they hit us like this we paid them off, and they went away. Those Imperial pricks have no backbone, but they do like money!”

  Kate continued to stare at the battle plot barely listening to her commander. “This worries me. Send orders to all the schools and childcare facilities. I want them on lock down and start prepping the shelters. If this is an attack, let’s make sure we have something to rebuild with this time. Tell the shipyard to evacuate and get those workers planetside.”

  Lights started to blink on the main console followed by the sound of a chime. Both pirates heads came up as they tracked the sound. Michaleen was on the communications station just staring at the blinking lights. He put on his headphones and listened carefully. “We are receiving a message on all frequencies. It’s addressed to you, Kate. They want to speak to Taoiseach Kate O’Malley.”

  Kate stood and walked to the communications console controls and activated them. “This is Kate O’Malley. Who wants to know?”

  ~~~~~~

  “Ma’am we have the pirate planet in view.” I looked to the main viewer. Celtica’s main planet was pretty with visible extensive farm plots. In many ways, it was similar to my home planet of Hong Kong. A shipyard was in orbit around their lone celestial body. It was too abnormally shaped to be called a moon. It may have been an asteroid once. Celestial mechanics has never been my strong suit. If I was interested, I’m sure Wilson can dig up the answer.

  “There are ships leaving the planet.”

  “Are they coming out to meet us?”

  “No, Ma’am. They aren’t. They are forming a small perimeter.”

  “Do we have ID’s on any of those ships?”

  “Yes, Ma’am. Our computers have spotted five destroyers, several mine layers, ten converted freighters, and three cruisers.”

  “Where did they get cruisers?”

  The intelligence officer leaned in and just stared at the screen for a moment. Shaking her head, she looked at me. “Ma’am those ships are ancient! They appear to have been upgraded numerous times, but they are of Rus design from the first Interstellar War. Their IFF is blinking that they are the Mallow, Wild Boy, and Inisfree. Our systems are also reading their original names as well. The pirates either didn’t care or couldn’t shut them down. They were the Navarin, Sissoi Veliky, and the Tri Sviatitelia before the pirates got their hands on them. According to our records, those ships were recorded as being destroyed and scrapped following IS1.”

  I stared at the plot. My ships could blow that pitiful little fleet out there into space dust. But we need those pirates and their ships intact if possible. “Communications, send a message to the planet. Address it to Taoiseach Kate O’Malley. Inform her we are only here to talk. Track those ships and be sure to update our records on them. The Rus are notorious for selling things they are not supposed to.”

  Chapter 12

  “Who did you say that was?” Kate O’Malley just stared at the console in front of her in shock. The name Athena Lee was not what she was expecting to hear.

  “She said her name was Admiral and Ambassador Athena Lee. She is here under a flag of truce and does not wish to fight us.”

  “I heard that part. It was the fecking name I didn’t believe! Why is she here? The last time I saw that woman she was trying to kill me and mine! What fleet did she say they are?”

  “Martian. If the sensors are right, it’s one of their newer fleets too. We don’t stand a chance against them.”

  Kate cocked her head to one side and considered what she knew of Mars. Why would they have a Hong Kong officer in charge of one of their newer fleets? Something was off here. “Ask them why they are here?”

  Michaleen sent the message and looked at his Taoiseach. She looked down at the little man and made a come on motion. He shrugged his shoulders, so she made the motion again. “Give it up!”

  “Fine.” Resigned the little man handed his leader and commander his last bottle of whiskey from his back pocket.

  Slugging down a portion of the bottle, Kate smiled back at him. “Here, take it back. That’s good stuff! If we survive this, we may be able to work a deal.” The man’s console beeped and then lit up with flashing lights.

  “Ma’am, we are receiving a coded message from the Martian Fleet.”

  “Well, what is it?”

  “It’s in code, Ma’am.”

  “Why did they do that? Did they send a key?”

  “No… Ma’am, it’s in you personal code!”

  “How?” Kate stared at the console in shock. How in the hell did they get her personal code?

  ~~~
~~

  “Good job Tree. How much did Wilson help you with that?”

  The CATT sat on his haunches next to my chair and refused to answer. I heard in my ear, Wilson make a comment. “I think you hurt his feelings. He did that one all on his own.”