Frank thought this was strange, at first, as they would usually use the open comms link. Then deciding it must be urgent he tapped the Weapons Icon first.
“Yes, Mark?”
“Frank, I don’t know if Andromeda’s detected anything strange. But Jefferson’s weapons blisters are open, and their Collimator heaters are hot.”
Frank zoomed in on the Jefferson until a single weapon’s blister filled his screen. Mark was right, he could see that the blisters were open. He mentally ordered a heat scan. And, sure enough, the scan confirmed that the Collimator was indeed, powered up.
“Maybe they’re just ready for action,” Frank suggested trying to sound as if he was confident.
“Action against whom, Frank? Remember, we all heard Jack and Tony’s messages.”
“I know,” he agreed. Well, it seems that all Capital ships now come under Admiral Winton… Fleet Admiral, Christopher Winton, to be correct.”
“So, Frank. Seeing as we are the only two not flagged as combat ready. Am I right in thinking that all our ships, except Andromeda and Neutron, are now classed as capital ships?”
“That’s correct, Mark,” he agreed, then looked at his screen again.
“Sorry, Mark. I’ve got Ned champing at the bit. So, Mark, you and Andromeda need to keep an eye on their weapons status.”
“Will do, Frank,” Mark replied, then his Icon dimmed as Frank tapped Quantum Engineering’s Icon.
“Yes, Ned?”
“Hi, Frank. We’ve carried out a covert scan on the Jefferson, and we reckon the ship’s potentially as good as the Crillon Battleship, out there.”
“OK. So, can I feel there’s a ‘but’ coming, Ned?”
“Well, the background Quantum field is what we generally use to detect active particle beam generators or other active weapons.”
“And?”
“It isn’t present around all of the blisters… That means, either some are faulty?”
“Or dummies,” Frank suggested.
“My thoughts exactly, Frank… So, in my opinion, we shouldn’t don’t take what we see, as gospel. By the way, Andromeda’s already checking my observations.”
”Excellent work, Ned.”
“I’ve got something else that’s puzzling me, Frank. Perhaps your two young ladies can look into it for me?”
“And that is?”
“The number of crew members on each of the ships, in particular on the Jefferson.”
“Why? That’s nothing to do with your field of expertise.”
“I know, but even so, there seems to be something odd. Perhaps, more people than would be sustainable, long term.”
“Maybe, but no doubt they’ve got a large contingent of Marines,” Frank ventured.
“One other thing, Frank. The Jefferson, in particular, has a massive hanger deck, but nothing in it.”
“Perhaps there’s a reason that we’re not privy to, Ned?”
“Yea, no doubt.”
“We’ll look into it, anyway, Ned.”
With that, he tapped Quantum's Icon to Off.
Frank thought about it, for a while. Then came up with the beginnings of another plan. Knowing, however, that this would once again be considered a risky option.
“Andromeda. What are the odds of success for us, on letting a Garoden ship tag one of ours? Then, we Jump to a point that is predetermined by us. Where, we then have enough of our ships waiting, to intercept the Garoden ship, and take it out?”
A few seconds later his AI answered. “Well, seeing how easy it was for the Garoden’s to tag the Solveron ship. Then, the odds of success are eighty to ninety percent. After all, they seem to think that it’s a sure way for them to find the location of either Earth or Crilla.” she said, then paused.
“But, and here’s the bad news, from the information we’ve obtained on the alien ships, so far. The odds of us being able to destroy them are practically nil.”
He hadn’t wanted to hear Andromeda’s last statement. But, wanting to go ahead with his plan anyway, tapped Astrophysics Icon.
“I heard it all,” Tim Watson replied.
“Then you know what I’m going to ask you to do?”
“Yes, to find a star, or something that’s far enough away from here, for it to be a believable destination for our home planet?”
“Correct, Tim.”
“Understood, Frank,” Tim said. Then Frank tapped Astro’s Icon to Off.
“Frank, Admiral Winton is calling,” Andromeda warned him.
He glanced at Susanna, Charlotte and Cindy, and mentally asked them not to speak, no matter what he said, before ordering Andromeda to put him through.
Admiral Winton’s live image then appeared on his screen.
“Glad you could make it, Admiral.”
“Don’t be flippant with me, Richardson,” Winton sharply replied.
“No disrespect intended, Admiral… I imagine you’ll need everything we have on the Garoden ships?”
“I would have expected you to have organized that already, Richardson.”
Frank was fuming inside. After all, he was the Captain of the Andromeda, so Winton should have the courtesy to address him as such.
Susanna, sensing that Frank was struggling to hold himself back from telling Winton where to go. Sent a mental caution. Frank, then managed to calm himself enough to continue the conversation.
“Your AIs should have all the data shortly, Admiral,” Frank advised him, his voice sounding hard.
“I hope that you have also noticed that you have a real-time view of what the Garoden ships are doing. Courtesy of the Argonaut’s drones,” he added.
“Uh. Yes. That was well thought out by Argonaut,” Winton said.
“The Crillon fleet did extremely well, Admiral. You should talk to their Commander Procard. I’m sure he’ll be happy to tell you about it,” Frank finished.
“Oh, and by the way, we’re operating an open, tight-beam comms link with all ships. That way, everyone gets instant information.”
“What do you mean, when you say, everyone?” Winton asked, looking horrified. “Surely, you mean just our ships?”
“No Admiral. The Crillon ships as well.”
“No. That stops now, Richardson… The Space Navy's taking over, and that’s final.”
Then Procard, having heard everything, decided to join in. “Admiral. You may talk to Richardson like that. But not to me,” he snapped over the comms system, his voice sounding stern.
Frank sensed that Admiral Winton had been taken aback momentarily, by Procard’s reaction.
Procard then said, “I would advise you to keep the All-ships tight-beam coms link open if you want our cooperation, Admiral.”
“Very well, err…Com,” Winton started to reply. Then, having realized that Procard was only a Commander stopped speaking momentarily.
“If you are a Commander, who’s in charge of your ships, Procard?” He asked.
“I am, of course. A Crillon Commander does exactly what the title implies. I Command a group of vessels.”
Winton didn’t reply.
“Can we leave rank, out of this?” Frank irritably snapped.
Admiral Winton dropped the subject but showed his displeasure at Frank’s tone of voice.
“Richardson,” he forcefully directed. “I understand that you have two assets that now come under my control. I want them transferred immediately to the Jefferson.”
“Well, we do have two people, if you can call them assets.”
“You will transfer them now, Richardson. Now,” he huffily ordered.
“If I must, Admiral. I’ll have a couple of my Marines bring them across to you straight away.”
“Good… I take it, you are not without a plan, Richardson?”
“We think we have one.”
“Send it across as well. Sharpish,” With that, Winton broke his connection, forgetting that the live link was still open.
Frank saw grins lighting up Charlotte and Cindy’s faces as he called
the Marines.
“Yes, Sir?” Marine Captain Thomas answered.
“Thomas, I want a couple of you to take our two dignitaries, and their property, over to the Jefferson. You’d better tell Horatio and Andrei that they should easily be able to get back to Earth on one of the Navy ships.”
“My pleasure, Captain. Can Andromeda arrange the transit authority to get them aboard the Jefferson?”
“Andromeda’s dealing with it all, as we speak.”
“Then I’d better get a move on, Sir.”
“Indeed, Thomas… Oh, and one other thing. Now that the Navy has taken over. I assume that, as Marines, you may all want to join the Jefferson. Especially, as it appears that we do not fall into the category of a Capital ship.”
“Thank you, Captain. But no, we’ll be happier staying with you, no matter what happens,” Thomas replied.
Frank was relieved, at hearing this, even so, he couldn’t help feeling that Thomas may have felt hurt by his offer.
“Very well. Thank you, Thomas. Good luck, and don’t hang around over there,” Frank told him, then ended his call.
“That was a risky move, Frank,” Cindy commented.
“Yea, wait till Winton realizes who they’ve got,” Susanna remarked,
“Don’t worry. It’ll take Jefferson’s staff some time to find out that Horatio and Andrei have nothing to offer the situation.” Frank replied. Then he grinned, and said, “After all, Horatio and Andrei could be called assets. And, let’s face it, nobody else knows what or who you two really are.”
“It’s still risky, Frank,” Charlotte added, but smiled to herself, as she pictured the predicament that Horatio Stevenson and Andrei Sergei Volkov would find themselves in.
Not forgetting the difficulty, they would have, in trying to prove that they really weren’t anything special.
Chapter 34
Navy Preparations
Viceroy Verice visibly winced, as Captain Stugron’s Star-Destroyer’s warp core finally exploded, sending out a shock wave that rocked his massive ship, even though it was nearly two light-minutes away.
“What a waste, Excellency,” his science officer Griken, murmured.
“It is indeed, and a sad day,” Verice agreed. Then shrugged, knowing he had to forget this loss and carry on with his plan to exterminate these aliens.
Verice then heard his Companion brain inform him that the rest of his Fleet was exiting warp.
“Excellency, our Fleet is arriving,” Cratic then announced, ignoring the fact that he knew Verice’s Companion had already updated Verice.
Cratic noted, however, that, even though Verice had ignored him, his expression had changed to show a more positive feeling, now that the last six of his fleet of Star Destroyers had exited warp, just five light-minutes from his ship’s new location.
Verice’s expression changed again as he suddenly saw, out of the side of his vision, his Star Destroyer Z185 captain’s image flickering. Then the image stabilized, and Captain Plank was standing next to him.
“Viceroy. What have you done with our Pathfinder, and with Stugron’s ship?” He asked.
“Plank. You took a risk teleporting over that distance. And, you know my feelings about just dropping in without warning,” Verice irritably snapped.
“Come to that. I didn’t do anything with the ships,” he angrily added.
Then Verice’s attention was diverted away from Plank. As he glanced at his display and saw that two of his ships were generating wormholes. Then, to his horror, they were gone.
“Where are those two ships goi…?” He started to ask. Then stopped, remembering that he’d set up an auto-upload containing a modified plan and instructions.
All of which was to be automatically transmitted and seen by his ships captain’s, on exit from warp. On receipt of which, his Star-Destroyers, Z187 and Z188, were to immediately jump again, and follow the homeward bound alien’s blue ship, and destroy their planet.
“Why have you sent them away?” Captain Plank asked. Even though he already knew, having read Verice’s, modified plan, and his explicit instructions for when they exited warp,
“A bit fool-hardy, don’t you think, Verice?” he suggested, wanting to show his disapproval.
“We hadn’t been attacked when I set that auto-command up,” Verice snapped back. While wishing that he’d waited until all of his ships had arrived, and had been properly checked in. Instead of sending two of his precious vessels straight off.
-Ω-
“Lieutenant Gort. Turn that contact alarm off,” Admiral Winton snapped at Jefferson’s weapons system controller.
Gort looked briefly at Captain Garret, but Garret didn’t say anything, so he quickly complied.
Meanwhile, Garret was studying the AI’s updated information that was now being displayed on the bridge’s main monitor. He was feeling pretty disgruntled at the moment and hoped that Admiral Winton would stop interfering in the operation of his ship.
As for Winton insisting that the ship’s AI should be named for his own wife, Anna. Garret thought that was a bit much, and that it would have been better, for the crew’s morale, to have involved his officers in coming up with the AI’s name.
Still, he knew that Winton was a hard nut. That had been evident by his behavior during the ship’s battle simulation runs on Earth.
“Two enemy ships have just warped out,” the Jefferson’s AI, informed.
“Perhaps the Andromeda might have an answer, sir,” Lieutenant Farrow, the Ship’s science officer suggested to the Admiral.
Winton considered this suggestion. Then tapped the icon for Andromeda’s captain. “Richardson,” he called.
Frank heard him but made sure that the All Ships link was still active before answering.
“Yes, Admiral?”
“Do you know why two of the alien ships have just warped out?”
Frank chose his words carefully, before answering. Not knowing what the Argonaut’s captain, Hector, might have told the Admiral.
“Well, it seems that the Solverons tried out a new attack sphere against the Garoden ship. But this failed, and one of the Solveron ships was lost.
We think the Garoden’s, then managed to attach some sort of torpedo shaped tracking device to the surviving Solveron ship. So presumably, their two vessels are now following the Solveron’s.
Unfortunately, due to an electromagnetic pulse, the Andromeda failed to register this device. However, the Argonaut’s sensors did, so they performed better than ours.”
“Huh, now you see why Andromeda’s not rated as a Capital ship, Richardson,” Admiral Winton matter-of-factly stated, ending the conversation.
Frank was annoyed at this, having noticed that Winton hadn’t even bothered to comment on the info he’d given him.
Then he shrugged and got back to dealing with their own situation.
‘The um…, asset transfer is underway,’ came Andromeda’s mental update. ‘Captain Sitrea has also sent us an update on his status. In that, he is now preparing to leave DPav5.’
‘Get the Solveron captain, on the secure one-to-one link. Blanking field on now.’
‘One moment.’
Frank waited until the Solveron Captain, Sitrea’s live image appeared on his tactical pad. Then waited again, while the audio damping field established.
“We have the Garoden’s exit thread, Frank,” came Sitrea’s voice. He paused a moment, then continued.
“The Gatherer on your ship will join us at the jump point, for about a minute. To enable it to sync with us, and get a real-time data upload. After which, it will return to you Frank, with all the data you’ll need to be able to follow my ship.”
“Excellent Captain… Could I ask a favor, assuming you can spare another of your Gatherer units?”
“Name it,” Sitrea replied.
“Could you place a Gatherer on Commander Procard’s Crillon ship, as well? Making sure that it has identical information to ours. And, that Procard would be ab
le to interact with his Gatherer, as we can with ours.”
“A strange request Frank… So, not on one of your ships?”
“Unfortunately not, Sitrea. I think the Earth’s new Space Navy will go their own way no matter what. But I know that I can work with Procard without being worried about being stabbed in the back.”
“Then you’d better tell this Commander Procard that a Gatherer will be aboard his ship, in uh…in five minutes.”
“Thanks, Captain Sitrea. It’s been a pleasure knowing you. Hopefully, we’ll meet at the other end. Good luck as we earthlings say.”
“Indeed, and good luck to you, Frank.”
Then the secure one-to-one link ended, and Sitrea’s image vanished from Frank’s pad.
Is that what Charlotte’s comment, ‘At the end,’ meant? He wondered to himself.
Then he tapped the Encryption department’s Icon on his pad, and Brian’s Waters face immediately appeared.
“Brian? Is the secure one-to-one link to Commander Procard still available?” he asked.
“I think so, Frank. Neither of us has closed it yet.”
“Good, link me now please.”
“Will do,” Brian confirmed, and Frank once again, felt the comfort of Susanna, Charlotte and Cindy’s presence. Even though they still hadn’t made any comments.
Frank had been relieved to find that the one-to-one link was still open. And, that the connection to the Crillon ship was only available through his Encryption department, and not through Andromeda. After all, Andromeda had an All-Ships comms link that was open to everyone, all the time.
As Procard’s live image appeared on his tactical pad, he noted how clear the signal was and the lack of background sounds.
“Yes, Richardson?”
The Garoden War. (SpaceFed StarShips Series) Book 6. An action-packed follow-on story that sees the Earth's Space Navy in action.: ‘Into the Fire.’ Page 20