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Day 194/2556
Sparta Orbital Space:
No sooner had Coral Sea and the rest of the fleet emerged from hyper-space than the Ether detection system picked up a ship that was accelerating away from Sparta. The bogey, which the Weapons Officer designated as Sierra1, was still inside Sparta’s hyper-zone but wouldn’t be for much longer. Projecting trajectories based on long range detection was problematical, but they could tell what general area of Federation Space it was headed towards, and there were several large population colonies it could be aiming for.
“Can we intercept Sierra1 before it crosses the boundary, Astro?” asked Molitor quickly.
After some fast calculations, he turned to her and said, “It’ll be damn close. There’s not enough time to triangulate with data from the other ships for a close approach. If you want to catch that bogey, Coral Sea has to jump right NOW!”
“Do it!” she responded. The A.O. initiated the jump himself instead of letting the Helm Officer do it as per tradition. The relatively short micro-jump took less than a second. Molitor had just enough time to notice that her ship had emerged from hyper-space less than 500 kilometers from the hyper-zone boundary and just under 1,000 kilometers from Sierra1.
“Guns, charge our X turret and fire as soon as you can!” shouted Molitor. The A.O. was right. It was going to be damn close. Sierra1 would pass out of Sparta’s hyper-zone in 36 seconds. As soon as it did that, it could jump away, which meant that they had to hit and cripple it or damage its jump drive with their one and only shot. There wouldn’t be time to recharge and fire again. She was certain that Sierra1 was an Empire ship. The zoomed-in optical image that was now on one of her Command Station screens showed a ship with flat sides. Only warships had hulls like that, so there was no doubt as to who that ship belonged. They might be too late to save Sparta, but she still might be able to prevent that ship from inflecting other colonies.
“Turret is locked on! At this range we can’t miss! Ready to fire in...three...two...one...NOW!” yelled the W.O. This was immediately followed by, “We got a hit! She’s gone ballistic! Sierra1’s gone ballistic!”
Molitor realized that she was holding her breath and exhaled. The fact that the bogey’s acceleration had dropped to zero was a good sign. It suggested that the ship’s power plant had been damaged by the x-ray blast. No power meant no jump capability too. Its crew would now be working frantically to repair the power plant. Coral Sea had to cripple that ship while it was still here.
“Good shooting, Guns! Keep firing the X turret. Helm, I know we’re going too fast to prevent ourselves from passing Sierra1, but I want you to adjust our vector so that we keep the range as short as possible. Got it?”
“I understand what you want, Commander. Recommend we set up an emergency micro-jump just in case that ship fires missiles at us.”
Molitor wanted to slap her forehead. How could she have forgotten that possibility in the rush to stop that ship? “Yes, nothing fancy. A short jump to let us catch our breath. We’re close enough that we should be able to see them launch at us. Helm, put the visual on your station screen, and if you see a launch, make the jump. Don’t wait for me to give the word.”
The H.O.’s reply was drowned out by the Weapon’s Officer’s shout that they were firing again and had made another hit. Molitor was about to order the Com Technician to try to contact that ship when the tactical display pinged and four ships emerged from hyper-space approximately two thousand kilometers away. The new icon on the display immediately changed from unknown yellow to friendly green. Of course, those ships were the rest of the fleet that she hadn’t had time to give orders to. Yeager must have taken the initiative and ordered the fleet to come to Coral Sea’s aid.
“Sierra1’s venting a lot of atmosphere!” said the excited Weapons Officer.
Molitor nodded. It was impossible to see x-ray lasers, but the sudden damage to the enemy ship could only have been caused by multiple hits from the fleet’s lasers.
“Commander! I’m picking up a distress beacon and an offer to surrender,” said the Com Technician.
Molitor knew what she had to do. “Tell that ship they have ninety seconds to abandon her with the lifeboats. That’s all the time we’ll wait before we blast that ship to pieces. Guns, pass the word to the fleet to hold fire, but be prepared to resume when the grace period is over.” Boarding a ship carrying plague was not an option. The lifeboats would be ordered to land in a remote area, and the crew would be kept under quarantine until it was clear whether or not they were infected.
She watched as lifeboats started to leave the drifting ship. When the 90 seconds were up, she nodded to the W.O. who transmitted the command to resume firing. This time the laser shots were aimed carefully to dismember the ship as much as possible. After five minutes, the enemy ship was a slowly expanding cloud of debris of various shapes and sizes. Its momentum would carry it clear of Sparta’s gravity well. The lifeboats were already dropping down towards the planet. It was time to turn her attention to Sparta itself.
She ordered Coral Sea’s Com Station to broadcast repeating warnings about a deadly bio-weapon infecting cargo that had been dropped off by the Empire ship, along with a report on the collapse of the Empire and the devastation of Hadley. The warnings were being transmitted across hundreds of radio channels. It didn’t take long before ground transmitters were broadcasting messages that denied there was any danger. The officers commanding the Empire troops still occupying Sparta were clearly skeptical of her claims that Majestic was trying to kill all humans regardless of their loyalty to the Empire.
When half an hour passed without any change in the situation, Molitor was at a loss as to what she should do next. The Empire forces on the planet had tens of thousands of troops with combat armor, plus armored vehicles including tanks with railgun cannon powerful enough to punch through the unarmored hull of her ships if they tried to land. Landing would have been pointless anyway since her ships weren’t carrying any troops of their own. Her ships might be able to destroy Empire tanks and troop carriers, but the troops themselves would still be there and were unlikely to make themselves easy targets.
She was just about to order the fleet to head for the next nearest colony when the Com Tech notified her that someone on the planet wanted to talk with her. When the video channel was switched to the main display, she saw a civilian with a military weapon slung over his shoulder.
“I’m Commander Rachel Molitor in command of this Resistance fleet. Who are you?”
“Terence Russell. I used to be Deputy Speaker of Sparta’s Assembly before the invasion. I guess I’m the defacto leader of the uprising that’s happening now. It started when we heard your broadcast about the Empire’s collapse and the bio-weapon. Some of the Empire troops decided to get away from the capital and the bio-weapon. Pretty soon the desertions turned into a rout. I saw what was happening and organized an ad hoc militia. When we started showing up with captured weapons, the rest of the troops realized they’d lost the initiative and surrendered. We’re getting reports of the same kind of thing from all over the planet now. I have to know, Commander. Is the bio-weapon real?”
“We didn’t make up the broadcast if that’s what you’re wondering. The only things we know for certain are that orders were given to spread the bio-weapon to as many colonies as possible and that the Capital of the Empire is now totally devoid of all human life. You should assume that the ship that tried to get away was carrying infected cargo. I strongly recommend you quarantine your capital city right now. Don’t let anyone out. If you can contain the contamination to your city, the rest of Sparta will have a chance of making it through this.”
Russell’s face showed that he understood the implications of what she was saying. Everyone in the city, including himself, was at risk of succumbing to the bio-weapon. It would take more courage than most people possessed not to yield to the impulse to leave the city right now. Finding enough police and volunteers to risk their own lives and their families’ lives to stay in the city and blockade the exits would be a horrendous challenge.
“I understand. Do you have room on your ships for some of our people, Commander?”
Molitor shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry, I can’t risk carrying the plague to another planet by landing at your spaceport.”
“No no, Commander. That’s not what I had in mind. My family is in Sheffield. It’s a town about 1500 kilometers to the west. There hasn’t been time for anyone or anything to get there since the ship unloaded its cargo, so those people are clearly uncontaminated if you take your ships there quickly. I’m begging you, Commander. Please get my family off this planet. I’ll do my damnedest to quarantine the city, but you know how difficult that task will be.”
Molitor thought fast. Coral Sea and Gambier Bay had started life as freighters, and even after conversion to missile boat carriers, they still had a lot of cargo space available. They could probably carry 500 people each, but they would need enough food and other supplies for their crews and the passengers to last until they reached Excalibur.
“Here’s my problem, Terence. My ships are low on consumables. We were hoping to resupply here if we arrived before the plague did. We can make it to another colony if we have to, but not if we pick up hundreds of extra mouths to feed, unless... If that town can provide us with the supplies we need for our crews AND additional passengers, then we’ll take your family and as many others as we can fit off planet.”
“Others? I wasn’t thinking of you taking others but...yes, I understand. You can’t take just half a dozen if you’re able to save more. My brother-in-law is the Mayor of Sheffield. I’ll call him. He’ll order the police to round up the supplies you need. His name is Mitchell Dreyfus. I’ll tell him to call you on this frequency to work out the details, okay? He’ll get my family ready.”
“Okay, Terence. I’ll tell my ships to head for Sheffield right now.”
“Thank you, Commander Molitor, thank you.” The image dissolved and Molitor looked over at her Helm Officer.
“I’m already working on it, Commander,” he said.
It took several hours for the fleet to travel the millions of kilometers that made up the hyper-zone around Sparta. By the time they dropped down into Sparta’s atmosphere, contact with Dreyfus had been established and the details worked out. The four ships would set down on the side of town closest to the Capital in order to monitor and, if necessary, prevent air traffic from the Capital reaching the town. The local police had commandeered dozens of cargo vehicles, and volunteers were busy loading them with requisitioned supplies from local stores and warehouses. When Molitor asked Dreyfus how he was able to raise so many volunteers so quickly, he answered that the volunteers had been promised room on the ships for themselves and their families too. That solved the problem of deciding who could be evacuated and who had to stay behind. It was all very ad hoc and unfair to those who didn’t know someone in the town government or police and therefore wouldn’t find out about the evacuation until it was too late, but Molitor wasn’t in a position to do anything about it. When all the supplies had been loaded aboard the ships, Molitor gave the okay to begin loading the volunteers and members of Dreyfus’ and Russell’s families. She eventually was told that most of the police and their families came aboard as well.
With their cargo holds full, there was nothing left to do except head for Excalibur. By the time the fleet was approaching the hyper-zone boundary, Russell made one last call to Molitor and told her the bad news. All the off-loaded cargo from the Empire ship had been tested, and most of it had tested positive for an unknown virus. The cargo handlers were already starting to complain of symptoms. He saved the really bad news until the end. Efforts to quarantine the city were failing. Hundreds were getting past the roadblocks. Small groups of Empire troops that had not yet surrendered were forcing their way out of the city at gunpoint. Molitor assured him that his family was on aboard. She arranged for his family to be brought to the Bridge for one last chance to talk and say good-bye. The jump to Excalibur put an end to that heart-breaking exchange.
Day 307/2556
Excalibur:
“Midgard.” Drake looked around the conference table to gauge the reaction to his announcement that M2 had predicted Majestic would re-establish its new base in the Midgard star system. It was a logical choice. Midgard had roughly a million colonists, far fewer than Hadley and therefore easier to ‘control’, while still numerous enough to supply whatever skills or labor the machine might require. And Midgard’s moon had all those abundant mineral resources too. In fact, the choice was so obvious that Drake wondered if it was too damned obvious. As he looked at the faces around the table, he could see that he wasn’t the only one wondering if Midgard was too obvious a choice.
His wife’s expression was carefully neutral. The two of them had already discussed the prediction plus its implications, and she shared his skepticism. Molitor looked skeptical too. Yeager, on the other hand, quickly got over his initial surprise and was nodding in agreement. Crusero and Foxman also seemed to accept the prediction. Yeager was the first to comment.
“Ja, that makes sense. Just enough people to be useful and plenty of metals. When do we go back there, Fleet Commander?”
“Not so fast, Ernst. M2 has also confirmed our suspicion that a spherical ship a kilometer in diameter will have enough room for lots of other things besides the computer itself, such as missile launch tubes. We know the Empire developed jump-capable missiles with Ether homing systems. We have to assume that Majestic’s ship has that same capability.”
“Ach, even with their new missiles, we beat four of their cruisers at Hadley. Therefore we can beat one ship, and if it’s bigger, that just means it’ll be easier to hit,” said Yeager.
Drake waited until he was sure that Yeager was finished speaking and then turned to look at Molitor. “I’ve read your After-Action report. Given what you had to work with, the tactic you used was the only one that had any chance of success. I’m impressed that you managed to pull it off, but I have to say I think you were lucky to get the results you did. Majestic wasn’t at Hadley, or at least wasn’t controlling the Empire ships there, but if your cruisers encounter it at Midgard, you won’t be facing a fallible human commander. We know that these kinds of sophisticated planning computers can out-fight even the best human tactician. I’m not prepared to authorize a mission to Midgard unless we can engineer some kind of tactical advantage. I’ve spoken to the technical people who developed the Ether detection system. They told me that it should be possible to make the equipment more sensitive so that it’d be able to detect ships from further away. That would mean that our ships could stay beyond Majestic’s detection range and still triangulate its position precisely enough for accurate long range shots using our superluminals.”
Molitor pondered that idea for a couple of seconds before responding. “The problem I see with that tactic is this. How will we know if we’ve hit Majestic’s ship, and how much damage we’ve caused, if we’re that far away? The only way to know for sure is to micro-jump closer, and if we haven’t knocked out that ship’s offensive capability, we’ll still be vulnerable to missile fire. Why don’t we develop our own jump-capable, Ether-homing missiles? Then we’ll use the longer detection system to pinpoint Majestic’s general location and let our missiles home in the rest of the way after they micro-jump closer.”
Drake nodded. “I thought of that too. I checked with the few experts we have with missile design expertise. There’s a major problem with that idea. Designing a missile body that is big enough to hold the maneuvering engine, power plant, guidance system, warhead and jump drive, plus have a hull shape that scatters radar waves to avoid radar detection, will be too big to fit into the missiles tubes that our cruisers have now. Ripping those tubes out and replacing them and the loading mechanisms with something that can handle the larger missiles bodies will take months. If we forget about making the missiles stealthy, then we can continue to use the missile tubes we have now, but then we run the risk that Majestic’s ship’s radars and anti-missile lasers will stop our missiles before they hit.”
The following two seconds of silence was broken by the snap of Yeager’s fingers. “I have the solution. We replace the standard fission warhead with a fission-powered x-ray device. We already have the schematics on how to build those from when we evacuated the volcano base on Midgard. It’s the same device used on defense satellites that Earth deployed. The only thing we’d have to work on is calibrating the Ether detection system data so that the warhead lasing rods would know where to aim. As soon as the missile emerges from jump-space, the detection system will pinpoint the target, the warhead will aim at it and then detonate. If we fire multiple missiles, some of them are bound to hit, and the concentrated energy in the x-ray beams will punch right through even a ship that big. If we aim the missiles so that they bracket the target and fire at it from all sides, I think the chances are that Majestic’s computer components will suffer a lot of damage, in addition to the damage to the ship itself. Having a dozen holes drilled into your brain is bound to have an impact on your ability to think, right?”
The group laughed. “Well, when you put it that way, Ernst, your argument makes a lot of sense,” said Drake. “I’ll check with the weapon techs to see how quickly they can build and test a prototype. No one is going anywhere for a couple of weeks anyway while we repair Coral Sea and Vixen, but there’s a bigger issue involved here. Up until now we knew where to find Majestic, and the fact that our location here was secret was an advantage that more than offset the fact that it takes us months to travel to and from Federation Space, even with the faster hyper-drives. However, now that Majestic is mobile, Lorelei and I think the overall dynamic has changed drastically. Suppose we send a couple of cruisers to Midgard and they find that Majestic isn’t there? Then what do we do? We’re too far away, and we don’t have nearly enough ships to search every possible hiding place in a reasonable period of time. And the longer we take, the more time Majestic will have to rebuild a fleet that might be able to take us on and win. Being this far away is now actually a disadvantage, and I think we have to change that. If the Brain Trust and the shipyard operation relocate to Midgard, we’ll be able to respond much more quickly to any news concerning Majestic, and if it’s already at Midgard and we kill it once and for all, then there’s no longer a need for a colony this far out. Many of the Brain Trust people have been hoping that living here was just a temporary situation anyway. Therefore, as Fleet Commander and Acting Colony Leader, I’ve decided that when we’ve repaired our ships and are ready to take on Majestic’s ship, all eight cruisers will be accompanied by as many of our cargo-carrying ships as we can find crews for.”
“Not everyone will want to go,” said Crusero. “I know that some of the farmers, and even a few of the professionals, are quite happy here and will probably want to stay.”
“Some of the Brain Trust people too,” said Yeager. “They’ve developed relationships with some of those same farm people.”
Drake nodded. “I have no intention of forcing anyone to relocate to Midgard who doesn’t want to go, but everyone has to understand that once we leave, it may be years or even decades before a ship comes back here again, if it ever does. There may be more than one trip to Midgard if we can’t take everyone who wants to go all at once, but as far as regular contact is concerned, this is it. When we’re done moving, we’re not coming back. If Majestic is already at Midgard and we destroy it, then Midgard is the perfect place to start building a new interstellar civilization. It Majestic’s not there, then we’ll build a powerful enough ambush to destroy it if, or rather when, it shows up later.”
“You really think Majestic will wait until later to attack Midgard?” asked Molitor.
“I do, and more importantly so does M2. I’d be very surprised if Majestic isn’t there already. That star system is just too valuable in terms of mineral and human resources to ignore completely. Even if Majestic has decided for its own inscrutable reasons not to exploit the Midgard star system itself, it’s unlikely to leave the system intact for us humans to exploit. By staking claim to arguably the most valuable star system in explored space other than the abandoned Franklin Tri-system, we’ll make Majestic come to us instead of us chasing it over millions of cubic light years of space.”
“In that case, shouldn’t we send armed ships there as quickly as possible?” asked Yeager.
“No. It’ll take Majestic months to even begin to build more ships. That’ll let us take the time we need to develop the weapons that will tip the odds heavily in our favor. We’ll only get one crack at this battle, and therefore we better get it right.”
“Have you determined command assignments yet?” asked Yeager.
“I have. Commanders Molitor and Crusero will command Europa and Vixen respectively. I’ll exercise overall command from Europa. Ernst, you’ll take Coral Sea and supervise the carrier/freighter squadron until we get to the initial rally point. When the fleet’s back together, Deputy Fleet Commander Remington-Drake will transfer from Europa to Coral Sea and assume responsibility for the carrier/freighters. Commander Foxman will still command Gambier Bay. I’ll be promoting some of your Execs to command of other freighters as needed. Any questions?”
Molitor shook her head.
“Ja, I have a question,” said Yeager. “How come Rachel gets all the interesting assignments?”
“Because she doesn’t ask any questions,” replied Drake. Everyone laughed including Yeager. Drake checked with both Crusero and Foxman, but neither of them had any questions, which generated another round of laughter
As Lorelei and Drake watched the others leave, she turned to her husband and said, “You could’ve exercised Fleet Command from Coral Sea to begin with. I don’t like the idea of us being separated if there’s a battle.”
“The exact opposite goes for me. If you’re shepherding the colonists at a safe distance, I’ll have one less thing to distract me from managing the battle. And before you ask, no, I can’t delegate this battle to Molitor. What kind of example would I be setting if the Fleet Commander stayed back where’s it’s safe and let his subordinates take all the risks?” He paused, and Lorelei waited knowing that something more was coming. “There’s also one other reason. I commanded the missile boat that fired the first shots that started this whole damn war. With everything that’s happened since then, that fact has weighed heavily on my mind. One way or another, I have to finish this battle and this war myself.”
Lorelei felt a chill go down her spine. She didn’t like the sound of that, but understood there was no way she was going to be able to change his mind. She sent a silent appeal to the Gods of War to watch over her husband and not demand too high a price from him.
