The Terran Fleet Command Saga BoxSet

by Tori Harris

  "We’re still nearly twenty light years from our next destination, Commander. If we make the next C-Jump, what are the implications for power availability after we arrive?"

  "I wouldn’t count on much, Captain. We’ll run the reactors at full power to recharge as fast as we can, but I doubt we’ll even be capable of a standard hyperspace transition, let alone a C-Jump for at least ten minutes or so. That will increase to twenty minutes plus if we charge the railguns as we discussed earlier. Full power should be available within an hour or so, but it’s not clear we’ll be able to make it all the way back to Earth without another recharge along the way. I’ll have better data after the next transition."

  "Understood. Make recharging the cap banks as quickly as possible the number one priority after the next C-Jump. If we’re in system long enough, go for the railguns next. Our orders are to get in and out as quickly as possible, so I’m hoping we won’t be there for much over an hour. How much time do you need here in Alpha Centauri to get us back to full power?"

  "Looks like about fifteen more minutes if we hold our current position with no other systems online. If we need to leave in a hurry, you can transition again before then, just keep it short range. I have modified Ensign Fisher’s Helm console display to give accurate range readings based on the reduced power availability."

  "Very good. Thank you, Commander. Prescott out."

  "Ensign Fisher, I think now is a good time to display that new C-Drive interface on the view screen. Let’s have it on the far right side, please."

  "Aye, sir," Fisher replied. "I think this is the part you are interested in."

  Fisher keyed in a sequence of commands, superimposing a semi-transparent bar graph on the starboard view screen. At the moment, the bottom portion of the graph displayed a slowly increasing C-Jump range of 17.35 light years. The top of the graph indicated that the standard one light year emergency reserve was also available as was a standard hyperspace transition. A simple timer in one corner counted down the time remaining until full power was available.

  "Thank you, Ensign. I love it. It’s clear and self-explanatory."

  "Yes, sir. I actually got to work with the UI team on this new screen. They spend huge amounts of time getting this kind of thing just right."

  "My compliments to you and the team then. When we get some time, I’d like us to sit down with Commander Reynolds and discuss some different UI configurations for specific situations, especially combat ops."

  "Absolutely, sir, it would be my pleasure," Fisher replied enthusiastically.

  Prescott paused to collect his thoughts and consider what he was likely to learn from Admiral Naftur. He had read the Fleet Intelligence Estimate based on Admiral Sexton’s discussions with Ambassador Turlaka just last week. There were several unsettling items in the report, but there didn’t seem to be any indication of an imminent attack. What had changed during the past few days that now had Fleet operating on a war footing? He was considering how precarious it would be dealing with a powerful enemy like the Sajeth Collective if they had indeed split into multiple factions when he noticed Commander Reynolds staring at him.

  "Sorry to interrupt your train of thought, Captain. I was thinking I should make an announcement to let everyone know what’s going on. That might ease the tension a bit, but still keep people on their toes," she said.

  "No, that’s okay, Commander, and an announcement is a good idea. Honestly," he said, lowering his voice so that only she could hear, "I keep having this feeling that we are riding the crest of some sort of unstoppable historical wave. It’s as if all the events of the past several centuries are converging at this time and place – and we’re caught right in the middle of it. It’s disconcerting, to say the least."

  "I understand what you are saying, but I wonder if it ever feels any different for people who just happen to end up in the right place at the right time, if you know what I mean. I’ve read lots of biographies over the years, and I remember a number of them expressing something similar. I think those of us who find ourselves caught in upheavals of one sort or another really have no choice other than doing the absolute best we can with the resources we have at our disposal. Granted, the scope of what we’re experiencing right now seems a little, uh, overwhelming, but don’t you think leaders throughout history experienced those same feelings when their time came?"

  "I suppose that’s true, and I agree that’s the right attitude to have, do the best you can and let history be the judge. You do have to admit, however, that the potential consequences of what we’re doing right now are a little mind boggling."

  "Maybe so, but how much of the true big picture can any one individual be responsible for anyway? I think the bottom line for the two of us is exactly the same as it’s been every day of our careers so far – don’t screw it up and you have nothing to worry about."

  Chapter 13

  Wek Flagship Gresav, Near Gliese 667 Cc

  (24 light years from Earth)

  The Gresav emerged from hyperspace in preparation for her rendezvous with TFS Ingenuity and immediately began extensive sensor scans of the system. Over the past twenty-four hours, Admiral Naftur had ordered a seemingly random series of hyperspace transitions in an effort to thwart any attempts to track his ship’s movements.

  The political and military situation within the Sajeth Collective had become unpredictable and extremely dangerous for both the organization’s membership and their potential adversaries alike. The exact series of events leading up to the current situation was unclear. It was all too obvious, however, that Wek influence over military operations had been diminished to the point where they were no longer in control of a significant portion of the Sajeth fleet. Naftur had voiced concerns for years that sensitive intelligence information gathered by Wek assets should be reviewed by their own analysts before being shared with other members of the Collective. His warnings had typically been met with either cool indifference or outright hostility that he would dare question his world’s adherence to the alliance charter. Now it appeared that information he had been gathering for months regarding the Pelarans’ Guardian spacecraft had been released to the Sajeth Collective’s Governing Council. The more aggressive member species, notably the Damarans, immediately began touting the Guardian spacecraft’s newfound "vulnerabilities" as an unprecedented opportunity for a preemptive strike. Naftur did agree in principle that there would soon be an opportunity to achieve some measure of military success against the Pelarans. What he found unacceptable was using the situation as a pretext for war against the Terrans, who had, so far at least, committed no offense other than being selected for Pelaran cultivation. On a personal level, the admiral also found it particularly infuriating that the Damarans, who contributed virtually nothing in the way of military assets to the Collective, were so quick to advocate the aggressive use of military force.

  In any event, over the past forty-eight hours, a splinter group calling themselves "The Pelaran Resistance" had made it clear that they would accept nothing less than an attack on Earth. They insisted that thousands of years of history left no viable alternative. If the Humans were allowed to continue their rapid technological and military advancement under Pelaran cultivation, this entire region of the galaxy would eventually fall under their dominance.

  Admiral Naftur was generally philosophical about most of the political posturing and saber rattling that took place within the Sajeth Collective. Warfare would occur, as it always did, regardless of which paths the various players elected to follow. What mattered, ultimately the only thing that mattered, was whether those players conducted themselves with integrity and honor. The rest, as they say, would take care of itself. For his part, he saw absolutely no moral grey area that might have allowed him to maintain some form of neutrality in the coming conflict. He would throw his full support, and that of his flagship, behind the faction advocating alliance with the Humans and warfare against the true aggressors, the Pelaran Alliance. The fact that this might ul
timately prove a futile course of action further clarified in his mind that this was indeed the right choice – the easiest path rarely being the correct one in his experience.

  Besides, he had a suspicion that the Humans were already well beyond the point of being the soft target expected by the hastily preparing forces of The Pelaran Resistance. The site of this rendezvous alone led him to believe that they were far more advanced than previously thought. The cultivated races tended to have powerful and reliable weapon systems and, perhaps more importantly, incredible power generation systems, but their ships were typically not as fast as those of the Sajeth Collective. All of the data he had seen so far put their top speed at five hundred times the speed of light. At that speed, the Sol system was eighteen days from here, yet it had only been just over three weeks since his first encounter with the Human starship. It seemed highly unlikely they had been traveling to this specific location during most of the intervening time. He sat for a moment, wondering how he might best advise Captain Prescott and whether the Terran leadership would have granted the young captain sufficient latitude to discuss military strategy in detail. His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of two new starships in system, neither of which were of Human origin.

  TFS Ingenuity, Near Gliese 667 Cc

  (30 minutes later – 24 light years from Earth)

  "Transition complete, Captain," Lieutenant Dubashi announced. "All systems in the green. No damage or injuries reported. The sublight engines are offline, pending recharge for the C-Jump back to Earth. We are 5.3 kilometers from our expected arrival point."

  "Contacts!" Lieutenant Lau yelled from the Tactical console. "I’ve got three ships, sir. Range to all three is about three hundred thousand kilometers. The AI has identified one as the Gresav, but one of the other two must be of the same class. The third vessel is similar to one of the Sajeth Collective ships destroyed near Sol a few weeks ago. She’s big, Captain, seven hundred meters plus."

  Prescott instinctively glanced at the readout from the Helm console still displayed on the starboard view screen. As expected, the news it delivered was not encouraging. The graph indicating C-Jump range was entirely red with flags indicating that neither type of hyperspace transition was currently available. The time to full power countdown displayed a painfully long sixty-three minutes remaining. His immediate thought, per Admiral Sexton’s orders, had been to run, and under ordinary circumstances, he should have been able to do just that. Instead, he was faced with the choice of either sitting idly for the next ten minutes until he could transition out of the system, or bringing his sublight engines and weapon systems online as quickly as possible and playing the situation out for better or worse.

  "Steady everyone. Let’s not jump to any conclusions just yet," he said aloud, addressing himself as much as the members of his bridge crew.

  "Sir, Gresav is hailing via secure channel – audio only," Dubashi said.

  "Put it through, please."

  After a very brief delay during which the ship’s AI established an encrypted channel and synchronized for real-time translation, Admiral Naftur’s deep voice once again filled Ingenuity’s bridge. "Hello again, Captain Prescott. I apologize for not providing a video signal, but the comm system we are using is less prone to eavesdropping. Unfortunately, it is rather primitive otherwise, and provides audio only. I assume we will be jammed shortly, so we must keep our conversation short."

  The Wek’s rather formal conversation style coupled with their species’ prolific use of nonverbal communication cues did not lend itself to short conversations. Prescott smiled inwardly at the irony. "Hello again, Admiral. I take it the other two Sajeth Collective vessels are hostiles, then."

  "I had hoped I would be able to reason with their commanders, but my efforts have been unsuccessful thus far. It seems I have been betrayed. These two vessels represent the breakaway faction of the Sajeth Collective calling themselves ‘The Pelaran Resistance.’ As you probably know by now, they have announced their intention to conduct a preemptive military strike on Earth. Although the captains of these two vessels see me as something of a traitor at this point, I have served with both of them previously and have been negotiating with them for the past half-hour. As you might imagine, they are demanding our immediate surrender. I convinced them to allow me a few minutes to implore you that you need not throw your crew’s lives away unnecessarily. May I assume, Captain, that surrender is not a course of action you are willing to discuss?"

  "You may indeed, Admiral," Prescott replied, forcing a smile in hopes that his confidence would be apparent in the sound of his voice. "What are your recommendations, sir?"

  "I’m an old soldier, Captain, and I did not become an old soldier by fighting when the odds are not in my favor. My preference would be for us to disengage from these two ships, by whatever means necessary, and then proceed to the 70 Ophiuchi system roughly eight light years away. I cannot guarantee they will not be able to follow us since I do not know how they learned of my destination in the first place. I believe, however, that 70 Ophiuchi should afford us sufficient time to discuss the situation. By the way, my tactical officer informs me that we are reading a very high power output from your ship’s reactors. Are you experiencing difficulty?"

  Prescott considered for an instant that this entire encounter might be a setup, but dismissed the idea based on the fact that his gut had told him from their first meeting that Admiral Naftur was worthy of his trust. In any event, the longer he talked, the closer he was to making his escape, if necessary. "We have run into a configuration problem with our hyperdrive. Unfortunately, we will be unable to transition for another fifteen minutes," he exaggerated. "We will need even more time than that if we are required to power our weapon systems and sublight engines."

  "Captain," Lieutenant Lau interrupted, "I’m getting unusual energy readings from the other two vessels. I think they are raising their shields, sir."

  "That is indeed unfortunate," Naftur continued, seemingly unfazed by the escalating situation. "Your officer is correct, the two vessels have raised their shields. They are unlikely to grant us fifteen minutes without firing on both of our ships. If we do find ourselves in battle, I must stress to you the importance of preventing these ships from escaping to warn the rest of their fleet. We must completely destroy them both."

  Prescott shot a quick glance at Lieutenant Dubashi, jerking his hand across his neck in a signal to temporarily mute the comlink. She nodded back instantly in reply. "Schmidt, signal Flight Ops to expect a green deck shortly. Once the shooting starts, get all eight Hunters airborne immediately. I want you to unload everything you’ve got on that second Gresav-class ship just like you did on the range."

  "Aye, Captain."

  "XO, signal Engineering to ignore the C-Drive. Bring the sublight engines online and charge weapons in the order we discussed."

  "Aye, sir."

  Prescott nodded once again at Lieutenant Dubashi to reopen the channel. "Understood, Admiral. We’re preparing for a fight over here. Any recommendations would be appreciated."

  Even over the encrypted comlink, Naftur’s voice was now accompanied by an unmistakably threatening growl. "We have a few advantages we might be able to exploit. They will be under orders to destroy the Gresav, but capture your vessel intact, if possible. In all likelihood, they will not see Ingenuity as much of a threat at first and will focus their attention on the Gresav. If and when they do fire on you, they will attempt to disable your engines first. Both of these young captains are young and arrogant. If they neglected to read my report carefully, they may not realize that your ship’s engines are protected inside its hull. That may only give you a few seconds of opportunity, so use them wisely. One last thing, their shields are weakest near the stern and there is a gap …"

  "Transmission terminated, Captain," Dubashi reported. "There is high intensity jamming from the second Gresav-class vessel."

  "Well, that’s a sure sign the negotiations are over. XO, sound an unmod
ified General Quarters for combat ops. Lieutenant Lau, designate the second Gresav as Delta 1, the larger vessel as Charlie 1, and bring up the tactical plot on the starboard view screen."

  "Aye, sir. Be advised that range bubbles on the plot will be estimates only."

  "Understood, thank you." Prescott had never been a fan of the tactical plot, but he acknowledged that the information it had provided Commander Reynolds during the range exercise had been invaluable. In a fight against superior forces, you had to take whatever advantages you could find and he was never opposed to learning a better way of doing his job. Both hostile ships were now displayed in an angry shade of red, with Ingenuity well inside their estimated weapons range.

  "Tactical, you heard what the admiral said about shields near their stern. He was trying to tell us something else when he got cut off. My guess is that there is a dead zone between their hull and their shields astern related to their sublight engine nozzles. If that’s the case, it’s a perfect opportunity for the C-Drive-equipped missiles. Just to be clear, Ingenuity will engage the cruiser, Charlie 1, while the Hunters assist the Gresav in taking down the destroyer, Delta 1. Questions?"

  "No, sir," both Lau and Schmidt replied in unison.

  "Sir," Lau continued, "the hyperdrive is secured. Sublight engines online, we are free to maneuver. Railguns now online in anti-ship mode. Missile tubes configured for anti-ship. Energy weapons available in four zero seconds."

  "That’s all good news. Just keep in mind that we are likely to remain power deficient throughout this engagement. If we’re firing energy weapons, particularly the plasma torps, we need to make every shot count."

  "Sir!" Lau yelled. "Energy spike on both hostiles – they are firing on the Gresav!"