Chapter 38 - Unexpected Company
Content: MF Mf FF Ff cons group ScFiA week later and things were once again going rather smoothly. Debby had gone into her pod with Vicky completely confused, but emerged ten hours later to pick up Orlando a confident and changed lady. She still was nervous approaching Orlando, but the young man refused to accept her protests and threw himself at her feet once he learned about her earlier ordeal. The next day the trio showed up for their welcome party arm-in-arm and glowing, which brought a cheer to everyone's lips. Debby blushingly accepted the cheers of the other concubines as they welcomed her into 'The Tradition'.
We did find that Debby and Mike had trouble getting along, but that soon proved to be a non-issue. Debby wanted to be active and became our second female sponsor fitted for battle armor. She struggled more than Xavier did in climbing the lasers, but her calm voice in the simulations made it clear that she was ready to participate in any action.
Yvette, Terrence and I were in the briefing room going over a few minor details when Candi called out. "I have multiple jump points opening near Isis. They appear to be from Confederacy jump engines."
I looked over at Yvette. "We don't have anything scheduled, do we?"
Yvette shook her head. "No. Randi, any communications from the ships?"
Randi sighed. "Not yet, none of the ships have completed their transitions."
I looked over at Terrence in surprise. "With transitions that slow..."
I heard a gasp from Randi and Candi as Terrence nodded. "Battle damage, probably severe."
Yvette and I burst from our chairs. "AI, give me the whole enclave."
There was the usual ping and I started calling orders. "Guys, we have multiple Confederacy ships arriving and it appears like they have heavy battle damage. I need everyone to get to their stations. Linus, Tyson, get the lasers ready just in case. Tamara, Tif, Louis, Gina, get to command. Timothy, I need you on your space defense station. Fred and Xavier suit up for the lasers. Brad and Debby can back you up."
Yvette joined in as we dashed out. Candi was still trying to refine the picture, but we could get a quick count. "We currently have eight jump points. Medical, we might not need you, but get the pods ready. Heather, I hate to ask, but can you and Philippe do your magic in the multi-use room again, we just might need the space. Bren, if you can, help them set it up for medical needs just in case."
The ships were starting to emerge and Candi managed to refine the scan on the second ship through. I could feel Terrence stiffen beside me. "Dear god! It hasn't blown up yet?"
I could not even nod as one of Candi's screens started to list the visible damage to the wreck of a Hero class battle cruiser. The damage readings were massive and I turned to Randi. "Anything?"
She shook her head, but then froze as Tamara dashed into the command post and started to assist Candi. A moment later Randi hit a couple of switches and a very stressed voice came out over the overhead speaker. "This is the battle cruiser Sigurd calling Ishtar control. Please come in Ishtar control."
I nodded to Randi who was staring at me and she calmly responded as the twins dashed in. "This is Ishtar control. We read you, Sigurd."
"Thank god," the voice said. "We need repair and rescue. All of us."
I looked over at Tamara who was rapidly hitting buttons. Suddenly she turned to Randi and Tiffany, who had followed her sister into the command post. "What's the name of the other Hero class and have they called in?" she shrieked.
The voice from the Sigurd spoke. "It's the Lugh? Why?"
Tiffany and Randi were both rapidly checking frequencies. "I've got nothing from them," Randi called out.
"No! No. Get the corvettes away from her and someone tell her crew to abandon. Now!" Tamara cried out.
The voice from the Sigurd snapped. "We have to save her!"
Candi hissed. "Oh god! No, no, no... We've got a resonance between a damaged coil on her starboard rail gun and her fusion bottle. Do we have any signal from her!?"
Tiffany was checking. "No answer on any of our frequencies. All I get when I try to ping them is static. Even their IFF is out."
Tamara had tears streaming from her eyes. "We've got maybe thirty seconds. The resonance is too strong."
"Would a shot work?" I heard the Sigurd ask.
"Too late!" Candi screamed as a series of lights appeared indicating that some of the crew had come to the same conclusion and were abandoning their doomed ship.
"Maker!" shouted the voice from the Sigurd. I could see the other ships start to separate as a burst of static cut through the command post just as Timothy and Louis arrived.
I looked over at Tamara who was still trying to get a reading. "Fuck!" she shouted. "The Lugh took out most of our close-in scanners. We need to route new ones in so we can start scanning the damage."
Tiffany was checking the communications. "We've heard from the battle cruisers Sigurd, the Athena and the Morrigan. The carrier hasn't called in, Tam, do you know which one it is?"
Candi sighed. "We have no ping on its IFF. The corvettes are two Castle and two Patrician ships."
Louis and Timothy ran in and took over their stations. Louis immediately turned to Tamara. "I'm bringing the repair docks online, pass me details as you get them. I'll get the tug going, just tell me where to send it."
"I think...I think...Ishtar," a faint voice said. "This is Captain Hughes of the Corvette Pebble Beach. We took a hit on the bridge. My navigator just died and I know that I won't last much longer. We have no guidance. I can set up one more burn, but that's it."
The voice stopped and Tiffany gasped. "Sir! Captain! Damn! We lost the signal!"
"Which ship is that on the grid?" Louis asked. "I can send the tug and find out."
"Bloody hell," Terrence said. "This is chaos."
I nodded. "Everyone slow down for a second. We have a commander trying to call us, so let's take a moment and talk to him. Tiffany."
Tiffany nodded. "Sorry Sigurd, we are trying to get full details. You seem to be senior. What can you tell us about the situation?"
There was a sigh. "This is Commodore Sprague. I was commanding the screen for the carrier Andrew Jackson. Admiral Tirpitz commanded the task force, but I believe the flag bridge on the Jackson took a direct hit early in the raid. We had been sent to Wolf three-six-seven to root out a Sa'arm infestation. The plan was for us to clear space so that a second wave containing the marine assault ships could reach the planet. But we ran into two hive ships and more than thirty support craft. We lost the carrier David Lloyd George almost immediately and her screen was cut off. I have no idea what happened to them. I ordered Captain Smythe of the Jackson to aim for Ishtar and jump, but before their engines could cycle the Pollux and the Gilgamesh both blew up. We also lost both of our Africa class Destroyers, the Congo and the Libya."
Tamara sighed, "Sigurd, I've only got long range scans, but it appears your port rail gun is unstable. Do you have anyone who can shut it down? We don't need another magnetic field failure."
We could hear some shouting and the Commodore replied. "Sorry, damage control central is gone, and our in-ship communications are in flux. I have someone checking it."
"Damn." I sighed. "Well, we now know the carrier, and the two Goddess class cruisers have signaled back, what about the corvettes. We need to sent a report to Borneo."
There was a pause. "The other Patrician should be the Torrey Pines. The Castle ships are Pembroke Castle and Tintagel Castle. I have no scanners left so I can't see them."
"Anyone?" I asked.
Randi was shaking her head. "The Athena has lost all but her IFF channel and one telemetry channel. I know she's there but right now I'm signaling using a Morse pulse back on the telemetry channel."
"Maker," the commodore said. "What about the Morrigan."
Tiffany sighed. "Her IFF just failed. Someone on her has set up a feedback loop on her battle frequency. They can hear one frequency but that's it."
The commodore sighed. "Commodore Johnston warned that the Goddess class needed better protection for their communications relays. Anything on the Jackson?"
Candi shook her head. "When the Lugh's fusion bottle blew up it took out every scanner we had nearby. Right now we are routing in new scanners, but we just have long range and the resolution is poor. Right now it looks like she took hits on both the bridge and the flag bridge. I'm not sure she's got anyone controlling her."
"A dead stick?" Louis said. "I only have the one tug and it's on its way to the Pebble Beach. I need three hours before I can send it back out if you want the Pebble Beach brought in on this run."
Suddenly a very scared female voice spoke. "Um... Oh god I hope this is going out...This is Ensign Bernadette Werfel...I'm in the auxiliary control station on the Jackson...We need help."
There was silence in the command post for a moment and I sighed. "Ensign, can you give me a status?"
"Well..." the voice began. "I'm on damage control. This is my first cruise. The flag bridge is gone, and the main bridge took some strange metal shard missile. It's all blood and twisted metal up there. Auxiliary control appears relatively intact, but everyone is dead. A bulkhead gave way and sprayed the room with more metal slivers."
"Maker," the commodore hissed. "Ensign, have you any navigation training?"
"Some," the voice said. "And one of the reserve pilots is trying to make her way here, but it's bad. And the medical bay is overflowing."
"Commodore, we need to try to signal Borneo, it sounds like none of your ships have any long range communications systems up. After that hopefully Tamara and Louis will have a better idea of what repairs are needed and where to send each ship," I said.
"That sounds good, but what about medical. No ship's medical bay is ready to handle the volume we have up here. Can we send you some of our critical cases?" the commodore replied.
"Donna? You connected?" I asked.
"Yes," she replied. "We can take a few, but remember we only have eight medical pods, so if we take too many major cases we can't help much. Although Bren and Michael are setting up an infirmary in the multi-use room."
"Understood," I replied. "Commodore, we do have teleport capability here, How about you send four people for now, and we'll try to get status from the other ships."
"Thanks. I can contact my medical officer and have him get in touch with you about sending them," the Commodore replied.
Terrence moved. "Route that signal to the teleport room Tiffany, I'll deal with it there. Donna!"
"Gurneys on the way," she said.
"Got it!" Tamara suddenly shouted. "Randi, tell the Torrey Pines to hold vector for a moment."
There was a pause as Randi attempted to signal the ship. Silence reigned for a moment and then Tamara sighed. "Louis, I've got the readout on the Pines. I'm going to route her to Inanna. Minor damage, but we need to be careful. She's got a missile jammed in one of her port tubes."
Louis nodded. "Understood. I still need a reading on the others, although I see the Pembroke has managed to line up behind the Pines. Should I slot her in at Inanna as well?"
A new voice spoke. "Please, this is Lieutenant Mitchell on the Pembroke. We've...Our commander is injured and in our medical bay. We've lost both turrets. Communications are spotty, but our navigation still works. We've been listening in and can follow the Pines."
Tiffany smiled. "Any telemetry channels left? If we can get your computerized damage report it will make repairs quicker."
The Lieutenant sighed. "We've lost just about all computer functions. My navigator is rewriting guidance code as we speak and working with the engineering crew who are making adjustments by hand."
I looked at Yvette. "This is bad," she whispered.
Just then Randi jerked. "James, I got through to Borneo. Admiral Himmel is on the way."
There was a moment of silence and then Admiral Himmel spoke. "I understand that we have an emergency. This better not be a joke!" he growled.
"Sir, this is James from Ishtar. We just had nine Confederacy ships jump into our space. We are still gathering details, but the reports we have so far is that a raid sent to Wolf three-six-seven ran into more than they expected," I reported.
"What?!" the Admiral snapped. "But that was a major attack. We sent two full carrier task forces. Who is in charge?"
I sighed. "We had contact with Commodore Sprague on the Sigurd, but his ship is a mess and we lost our connection. Our communication crew is trying to reestablish the link. We've only managed contact with half the ships that appeared, and some of that has been temporary. The two Goddess class battle cruisers in system have lost just about all communications, the corvette Pebble Beach signaled, but the officer who signaled was dying and said all bridge personnel were dead. The carrier Andrew Jackson took hits on the bridge, flag bridge and auxiliary control. Right now we have contact with an ensign who was on damage control and says that auxiliary control can be brought back up, but she's on her first cruise. We still have no signal from the Tintagel, but two other corvettes are under power and being routed to repair bays."
"That's eight," Admiral Himmel observed. "You said nine appeared."
"The Lugh managed to appear, but a resonance between her rail gun magnetics and her fusion bottle destabilized the fusion bottle. She blew up less than a minute after appearing in system," I replied.
The Admiral sighed. "Any other losses you know of?"
Tiffany replied. "We are trying to get battle reports through telemetry, but the Commodore confirmed the loss of the carrier David Lloyd George, as well as the battle cruisers Pollux and Gilgamesh and the destroyers Congo and Libya."
"God," the Admiral swore. "That's half of the task force, and doesn't include any of the George's screen. Any word there?"
Tiffany answered. "Sorry, Sir. We have had no contact with the ships of her screen. I've got a partial download from the Athena, it's one of her long range portside sensor scans. But it clearly shows a Goddess class battle cruiser making a jump escorted by a single Africa class destroyer. From the position it appears both were part of the George's screen, but the destroyer was bleeding air badly. The Goddess was fighting the whole way."
The Admiral sighed. "Goddess class ships are durable, but most likely her communications are out, which means we will be waiting until she can find a repair station."
I sighed as Randi froze. "Oh god. James, we have General Montgomery calling. What do I do?"
I looked around as the still frantic work by everyone trying to get detailed information on the ships in-system and sighed. "Yvette, we need to start breaking this problem down. Get Amanda, Mike and anyone else with communications and tracking experience and we'll start routing signals into briefing room stations. Each person can handle one ship until we get them docked."
"On it," she said.
The Admiral sighed. "I need a few minutes to alert the rest of the base and see if we can find our missing ships. Talk to the general and I'll call back."
Tiffany sighed as the connection was cut. "I'll try to get the Tintagel," she said. "Randi, put the general through while we have time."
I heard the ping and sighed. "General, I hope you can keep this short. We are extremely busy here," I said.
"That's just it. I just got some kind of priority alert that Ishtar was reporting damaged ships jumping in-system. What are you talking about?" the General snapped.
"Sir, a naval attack force arriving at Wolf three-six-seven was mauled and forced to jump out. Right now we have eight ships in system, and are trying to get them to repair docks. Two are currently dead sticks with no one handling navigation and only three have vocal communication working and none work consistently," I replied as I watched everyone.
"I found the Tintagel!" Candi suddenly cried. "Looks like her engines died. I have no power readings."
"Louis!" Yvette cried. "How long can the crew last without life support?"
He looked over in confusion, but Amanda was just arriving and paused. "What class?" she asked.
"Castle class corvette," Candi observed. "No air bleeds, but the engines are definitely out. The port one is gone and the starboard one lost the primary power coupling."
Amanda thought for a moment. "Six hours if there is no air bleed, but it will be freezing inside after four. Unless they have blankets many will die before the air runs out."
Louis moaned. "I've already got my only tug heading to the Pebble Beach. There is no way I can get her to a dock in time."
"Damn!" Candi cried. "It's not fair!"
"What about our remote teleporters? Could we send one and get the crew off?" I asked.
Louis nodded. "But I'm tied up and can't guide one right now!"
"Who knows how?" Yvette asked.
"Maggie does, she helped me develop the idea after the incident with the Nassau," Louis admitted.
I nodded to Yvette as I turned to Amanda. "Great help. Now take briefing station one and help guide the Morrigan to a dock, Tam will tell you which one."
The General was snorting and huffed. "Can you at least give me a bit more information?"
"Sorry, Sir," I responded. "We've added a couple refugees, but we still only have twenty-one marines down here, and this is a bit hectic. Again, the strike into Wolf three-six-seven failed. We've talked to the Commodore who was in charge of the screen for the carrier Andrew Jackson and it sounds like they ran into multiple hive ships. Right now our main concern is saving as many crew and ships as we can."
"Wolf three-six-seven?" the general hissed. "But we have two full assault ships boosting there. Sir Bors and Sir Ector! We'll lose all those marines! Can we alert them at the staging site?"
I hissed as well as Gina ran into the room, still trying to pull her top on. "Gina! Get to briefing station two, we need to contact the assault boats Sir Bors and Sir Ector and turn them around. They're probably in jump but keep signaling until they respond and turn back!"
Gina cried out. "That class has no fold-space comm. We can't talk to them! Do they have an escort that does?"
The General groaned. "They should have a small screen with one Hero class, they carry a comm., and I believe the plan is to stop just outside the system and wait for clearance. We'll try to signal the escort from here as well, but I'll have someone forward you the coordinates so you can send a signal. Anything more I can do?"
I looked at the chaos that was our usually quiet command post. "We'll need a new shipment of spares after this is done," I said. "Beyond that I can't think of anything right now."
"Son, if your people can save those ships, I'm sending your whole colony a ship full of booze. Make it happen," the general said.
"Signal cut off," Randi said. "We have renewed contact with the Jackson, no signal from the Sigurd."
Tamara sighed. "They had a small explosion from the rail-gun overload. Scanners indicate it may have cut the primary antenna for their voice communications."
"Terrence?" I shouted.
"They cut out while we were still organizing," he confessed. "I have a good contact with their teleporter."
"Try a teleport draw. See if they have anyone," Yvette cried.
Mike had just arrived and Yvette immediately sent him to the briefing room with instructions to set up as good a link to the Athena as he could manage. As she did Terrence activated the teleporter and gave a cry of victory followed by one of horror.
"Fuck! Medic!" he cried.
I turned to look and found three figures on the pads. One was a young female concubine standing over two prone and bloody figures. She looked down and then looked over at Terrence who was striding from the controls to check on the injured.
The concubine gave a gasp as Terrence ran up. "I'm sorry. I was just checking them. I thought..."
Terrence ignored her to kneel down as I took a quick peek outside to see if the gurneys had arrived. I could hear David shout in the distance and turned back to the teleport room. "David is on his way," I said.
The girl took a deep breath. "We need to be careful with them. Torvin here has taken metal shards through his chest. They appear to have missed his heart, but they hit just about every other organ. Lewis has massive tissue damage to his leg, we have a tourniquet on his leg to keep him from bleeding out, but he needs a pod now."
Terrence looked up. "Donna, did you get that?"
There was silence and I sighed. "I think we've overloaded our communications system," I observed as David burst into the room pushing a gurney.
"Nathan will be just a moment," David gasped. "Which do I take first?"
Terrence looked at the girl who pointed at the man with the leg injury. With a nod to David, Terrence immediately grabbed the gurney and they started to load the man. I waved to get the concubine's attention. "Excuse me, but do you know what's happening on the Sigurd?" I asked her.
She shook her head. "I help in the medical bay because I was a nurse on Earth and can save the medic's time by dealing with the minor injuries. All I know is that the crewman at the teleporter was swearing about communications being lost, so I stepped up to check on Torvin and Lewis and suddenly found myself here."
I nodded. "Go with David then. He'll take you to our medical bay. We'll return you to the Sigurd later."
The girl gave a sob and followed as David rushed the critically injured man from the command post. A moment later Nathan arrived with a second gurney and Terrence helped him lift the second man into his gurney and sent him on his way.
I stepped over to the communications station to listen to Tiffany. "Ensign Werfel, stay calm. We can guide you through this, but we need you to stay calm."
She saw me and switched the signal to the overhead. "I'm sorry... its just there is so much blood...and we lost so many," a sniffling voice said.
I nodded to Tiffany. "Ensign, I have to ask, do you have your pilot friend helping and who is in charge."
Another sniffle was heard. "Ensign Earhart is here, but she has to concentrate on navigation. We lost a lot of thrusters and she said that the ship isn't responding properly."
"Do you have a captain or lieutenant in charge?" I asked.
There was a sigh. "We have Lieutenant Watt down in engine room, but he can't leave. He said the fusion containment field is damaged."
"God!" Louis hissed. "If that loses stability the explosion will be massive."
I looked over the assembled figures. "Tam, get Paula in here to handle the Jackson as fast as you can. We need to get her into a dock fast."
Yvette smiled as I looked around. "So except for getting in touch with the Sigurd and the Tintagel we have all ships with someone on them. And the Tintagel we have Maggie running a teleporter to for now. What's the word on the Sigurd?"
Terrence who had returned to the teleporter and was attempting another contact gave a cry of triumph and we could hear the system cycle. We turned to find two more prone figures accompanied by a young ensign who saluted sharply. "Ensign Livingstone reporting! Who do I give the report to?" he said.
Yvette stepped forward as Terrence shouted down the hall for additional gurneys. "Step over here Ensign and we'll see what you have."
The young man looked around in surprise at the crowd of people in the command post, but then turned to look at Yvette as I joined her. "We have found a number of serious breeches that make travel around the ship unsafe. However, damage control believes that vocal communication can be restored in one hour," he reported.
I sighed just as Tiffany shouted. "Call for you James!" and switched on the overhead.
"James!" Admiral Himmel's voice cried. "Tell me you have status!"
I sighed. "Some good, some bad," I admitted. "The corvettes Torrey Pines and Pembroke Castle are heading to repair docks under their own power and control. We are a bit worried that Torrey Pines has a missile jammed in one of its tubes, but both corvettes appear to have only suffered minor damage. The corvette Pebble Beach is a dead stick, we have our only tug going to collect it and bring it in, but our last communication with her was that her bridge had taken a direct hit and all except the captain were dead. We have no telemetry. Tintagel Castle has been found, but her engines have failed. We are running an evacuation teleporter to her to get the crew off until our tug finishes with the Pebble Beach."
"Dear god," the admiral sighed. "Tell me the news on the capital ships is better."
"I wish I could," I admitted. "Athena and Morrigan are coming in, but we have no vocal communication with either. The Morrigan can receive and her helm responds to our instructions, but we have resorted to Morse Code over a telemetry link to talk to Athena. The Sigurd lost its communication capability when a coil on the portside rail gun overloaded. But we just teleported in an ensign from their ship who confirmed they should be able to restore it in one hour. The good news is that we have confirmed that the Jackson is back under control, but the highest ranking officer left alive is a Lieutenant working in engineering, so we are working through an ensign to guide her in."
"Any idea of a casualty count?" the admiral asked.
"None so far, unless Ensign Livingstone has one for Sigurd. Most of the other ships are so badly damaged we are just trying to get them to repair docks so we can stop the bleeding," I admitted.
Candi called out. "I have counts for Torrey Pines and Pembroke Castle. Neither has fatalities, but both have multiple critical and serious injuries. We do need to get one off the Pembroke. Their two medical pods are full and they have a crewman with serious bleeding from metal fragments through the lower torso."
"Louis?" I asked.
"I'm tied up and Maggie has two of our emergency teleports she's guiding to the Tintagel. We have two more, but I can't do it right now," he admiltted.
Tamara called out. "Claire! You worked with Maggie that one day, get into the briefing room and get a teleporter to the Pembroke!"
"On it," I heard Claire call out. I realized I had little idea of the comings and goings as the command post was once again becoming chaotic.
The Admiral coughed. "It sounds like you have it mostly under control," he said.
I coughed to hide my own laugh. "I wouldn't say that. This may be why we are here, but this definitely is a bit more than we expected for a first time disaster."
The admiral laughed as a female voice cut in. "Ishtar control...Do you read me Ishtar...Damn it Bell!...Are you sure that this patch will hold?...We can't wait much longer for Jessica and Tad!"
I looked over at the command post when Mike hissed. "It's the Athena. They've routed a vocal call through what's left of her IFF."
"Open the channel back; I hope they can hear me! Athena, this is Ishtar control. We read you. If you can get your two crewmen to a teleporter we have space here!"
"Ishtar control!...Damn!...What do we do, Bell!...We can't hear them!" the voice screamed.
I called out to Terrence. "Terrence, how many teleport rooms does a Goddess class have?"
"One!" he called back. "Want me to try?"
"Do it!" I shouted back. "Mike, route the signal to your station. Report if it changes or you get through!"
The voice died immediately and I could hear the Admiral sigh. "Oh, we do have news. The Goddess class you saw jump out on the Athena's telemetry was part of the George's screen. She's the Sif. The destroyer with her is the Morocco and fired off its message drone after they emerged from the jump. They'll be making their way back to Borneo. The message we received did confirm the losses of the Goddess class battle cruiser Asase Ya, as well as three destroyers. They were the African class Egypt, and the Asia class Kashmir and Bangladesh."
"Any word on the second wave?" I asked. "General Montgomery was worried about his assault boats?"
"Nothing," the admiral admitted worriedly. "Even their escort has been silent."
Just then Gina gave a cry of frustration. "Commodore, this is no joke, break off the attack on Wolf three-six-seven. The first wave failed to clear the path. I repeat the first wave retreated with heavy casualties, break off."
"Gina?!" I called out.
"I've got Commodore Duncan. He claims to be leading the screen for the assault ships, and he doesn't want to listen. I can't convince him that the first wave failed."
Admiral Himmel spoke. "Guy speaks in a heavy Scottish accent? He should be on the Beowulf. Let him know that Borneo is aware and also repeating a retreat order."
"On it," Gina said.
Admiral Himmel then sighed. "Hopefully, he'll either turn back or call here to confirm soon. It sounds like at least he followed procedure and emerged about a light year out to verify that the system was clear. Orders are should he fail to get the signal to advance the force will return to base. We don't have the ships or marines to spare on suicide missions."
I was about to agree when an alert started sounding in the command post. I turned to ask, but Timothy was already shouting. "We have a Sa'arm ship emerging spinward! Looks like one heavy raider!"
"What!?" Yvette cried. "Tell me we have defenses in place!"
"Sorry, Admiral," I said. "We need to cut this communication for a moment so we can deal with our latest crisis."
"Understood," he replied as I stepped over to view Timothy's readouts.
"What do we have?" I asked.
He sighed. "It emerged about where the other attacker must have. Its moving fast, but we have defenses. I just want him to get a bit closer first."
The dot representing the Sa'arm raider continued to get closer as the command post quieted down. The sound was still broken by short reports from the various stations as they continued to guide the crippled task force to repair docks. The quiet must have lasted about ten minutes when Timothy gave a cry of triumph.
"Take that!" he shouted and hit several buttons. The display in front of him lit up as a dozen of the rocket bombs erupted into life close on the Sa'arm ship. The ship had no time to dodge and it was clear that it was doomed. Just before the first rocket reached it, it launched three missiles of its own as a small courier boat burst from its rear to head back towards the jump point.
"Damn!" Tamara cried as the missiles appeared. "Something's wrong? Why would they fire from that far out?"
Timothy was trying to refine his targeting and cursed. "Those things are reinforced. The Sa'arm wasn't aiming at the repair station. Those are intended for us."
"You can tell?" Yvette asked.
I could see Timothy continue to try to refine the information as Terrence called out. "Oh god! Medic! We have two more!"
"Terrence?" I called.
"What's going on," I could hear the female voice from the Athena cry, only this time from our teleporter room.
"Chaos," Yvette said. "Timothy?"
"Those missiles have an acid resistant coating. I can't tell how much, but the scanners clearly show that they aren't standard bare metal. They might make it through our atmosphere. I think..." he hit another button and a moment later one of the three missiles disappeared. "Damn! They are definitely reinforced. That blast should have gotten at least two, and I have nothing more on that vector."
"Linus! Tyson!" I called out.
"We're on it," I heard Linus reply. "Fred and Xavier are standing down though. Brad and Debby will be on the lasers."
"Keep me posted when you send them up. Remember we might get six shots before the acid kills our lasers," I said as I turned to the teleporter room.
Terrence was helping Robert and Jacques wheel in a pair of gurneys as a rather confused looking woman stepped into the command post and looked around. I immediately stepped forward. "Sorry for the lack of a welcome. This is Ishtar control, but I'm afraid we are a bit overwhelmed," I told her.
She just waved in confusion. "It's ok. I'm Captain Monique de Wynter from the Athena. I was just checking on Jessica when suddenly I found myself here."
Yvette stepped up as I sighed. "We'll get your two crewmen to medical pods, but will your disappearance unsettle your crew?"
The lady shook her head. "They are veterans and very steady. Right now Alex is just following the Morrigan in. Your Morse code trick worked, but we couldn't talk back and were hoping you could take the wounded. It would have been nice to have warning though."
Terrence had just watched Robert leave with the second gurney. "Sorry, we heard your call for help for two crewmen and I decided to try a draw from your teleporter. I didn't realize you might be on it."
I just smiled. "Well, can you give me a quick status?"
Captain de Wynter took a deep breath and was about to speak when Claire cried. "I have a good seal with the airlock on the Pembroke. Tell them to get their wounded crewman on the pad!"
Terrence ducked back into the teleport room as I turned back to the Captain. She just smiled. "Everyone seems to have an idea of what to do," she said. "Well as for my report. The Athena has lost most of its communications and the entire port side of the turret grid. The engines are actually good, but we have no long-range sensors and even the mid-range sensors are damaged severely. We have lost fourteen crewmen and another six are in our own medical pods. The gunners fared the worse and we only had fourteen alive when we pulled in our remaining turrets to jump."
Tiffany must have been listening. "I'll send that to Borneo. I just hope it matters."
"No pessimism about your fellow colonists," I quipped. "Brad and Debby will take care of the incoming."
"Ok everyone! We need to put together another report for the General. Let's go from largest to smallest on the ships," I called out. "Paula you have the Jackson!"
"The engines are holding stable, but she is definitely losing thrusters. She can't dock without the tug, she just isn't responding to the helm anymore. I've received conformation of a death count of forty-nine out of the one-hundred-twenty man crew. All fighters were lost at Wolf with their crews as well. Lieutenant Watt is now the senior officer aboard," Paula replied earning a brief hug from Jillian who was sitting next to her.
I sighed. "Sigurd? Who is handling her?"
Randi spoke. "I guess I'm still guiding her. The ensign reported they had lost communications. Visible damage is severe, but not critical, although both rail-guns have major damage. No word on total casualties, but we do have four critical from their ship in our medical bay."
"We have a report for Athena, how about the Morrigan?"
Amanda sighed. "They are playing with a telemetry feed to send me simple signals, but I'm not getting much. They do have full power to all propulsion and I have no signals of distress. Tamara's scans show the forward half of the ship has no turret grid remaining, and I'm guessing her scanners are scrap as well."
I sighed. "Ok, let's go through the corvettes. Maggie tell me what we have on Tintagel Castle."
"My teleporters are about one hour out. The ship has no power but the tug won't be free for at least six," she replied.
"On that note, what is the status of the tug and the Pebble Beach?" I asked.
Louis nodded. "The tug is almost there. We are lucky that the ships emerged as close as they did. But it will take more than an hour to tow the Pebble Beach to a repair dock. We've had no communication since the first one."
Before I could say more, Tamara spoke. "Torrey Pines and Pembroke Castle are both about twenty minutes from their slots on Inanna."
I nodded and turned to Captain de Wynter. "We have a couple spare chairs in the briefing room you can claim for now." I had a thought and looked around. "Yvette? Do we have any concubines that can run and get food for everyone?"
Kitty must have been standing near the door because I heard her giggle. "Bethany is already organizing that. Food should be delivered shortly."
I shook my head and looked around. For several minutes the command post was mostly whispered commands and checks now that the immediate danger was gone and most of the ships were under control. I was going to double-check on the food when I heard Timothy carrying on a conversation with Linus and Tyson.
"We should try to hit them before they get into the atmosphere," he said. "Right now they are coming in ballistic and we should be able to gauge the shot, especially since they are coming almost directly at us."
I could hear Linus reply. "That gives us an extremely small target."
Tyson joined in. "True, but the missile profile isn't going to get much bigger once they hit the atmosphere. Once they do that we'll have only seconds to hit them. Let's do it now."
Timothy looked at me, but I merely shook my head. "It's your call Linus," I said.
There was a pause and Linus sighed. "Very well. Debby! Get mounted up. You'll go up first. Brad get strapped in because you'll be ascending once Debby is done shooting."
I could hear the assents of Debby and Brad and the command post grew almost deathly quiet as activity ground to a halt. Everyone seemed to understand the importance of the use of the lasers and conversation stopped as we listened.
"All set," Debby said.
Linus replied. "With shots into space, the air will bend the shot. We have a formula to estimate how much, but your first shot is going to be mostly for calibration. As soon as I send the laser up, aim pretty much straight up and fire, after that I'll bring up the display."
"Understood," Debby's voice said with her usual calm.
Linus sighed. "Tyson, I'll link you in so you can see how this works. Debby, here you go."
There was a short pause and then Debby spoke. "Man, Fred wasn't kidding about the green up here. Firing calibration shot."
Linus snorted. "Near miss actually. Okay, calibration done, you should have good targeting now."
Debby giggled. "Oh, its cute. Firing again!" Suddenly she gave a loud snort, and groaned. "I'm done, the joystick just snapped," she moaned.
Timothy gave a joyful cry. "She got one! Only one to go."
"Brad," Tyson started. "You've practiced this many times. Stay calm and we'll get through this."
"Roger," Brad said. There was a pause and then Brad said. "Ouch! Damn, the door for the laser jammed and I took it in the left shoulder."
Tyson sounded concerned. "Brad, I'm getting a bad seal reading from that shoulder. Come back down!"
Brad merely snorted. "We don't have time. No one else is in armor. Firing one."
"Close, but it just missed. Brad! The armor seal is definitely gone. Come down now!" Tyson said.
"We need a hit!" Brad replied. "Firing two!"
There was a strange cracking sound over the radio and then Brad cried out in pain. "Oh god! Oh god!"
"Tyson!" I shouted.
"His left shoulder seal just vanished!" Tyson replied. "I've already hit the drop. We need a medic!"
I did not pause. "Candi, Randi get to laser two and your master!" I looked around to see Bethany, Janice, Tina and Meiko bringing trays of food and setting them on the briefing room table. "Tina, take the communications seat Randi just left, Janice, take Candi's spot on sensors," I said. Candi and Randi burst for their chairs with joint wails of dismay and dashed out of the room.
Meiko came over and gave me a hug. I hugged her back briefly. "Get to medical and get a status on Brad," I told her.
Meiko dashed from the room and I turned to Yvette who was staring at me with a white face. "What about the final missile?" she asked.
Timothy did not look back. "We didn't get it."
I was about to call a question when Linus spoke up. "No joy on sending anyone else up. Laser one has no joystick. Laser two works, but Brad's injury is right where the door hit his shoulder when it failed to open. We ran a diagnostic and one of the motors that opens up the door is jammed with sand. Until the auto-repair can get that motor fixed, the door won't open properly."
"How long do we have?" I asked.
"Four minutes at the missile's current velocity," Timothy said.
I sighed. "Everyone, let's prepare for the worst. Get your ships set up on automatic guidance if you can, and let them know the score. We can only hope that Brad damaged that missile enough."
The eerie silence in the command post continued as I wandered over to the table to find Ensign Livingstone and Captain de Wynter sitting and eating. I joined them for a bite and sighed. "We can try to send you back if you want."
The ensign looked scared, but Captain de Wynter shrugged. "I have every confidence that your gunners did enough," she said. "Besides, the Athena won't get out of here if this command post doesn't make it, so here or there makes little difference."
I felt myself nodding. The silence continued while we ate until Donna's voice interrupted us. "James, we just got Brad into a pod."
"How is he?" I asked.
Donna seemed to smile. "He's in a lot of pain and the stories of how nasty our atmosphere is will only get worse. Even with the wash from the laser pod and the protection of the armor the burn went down to his bone all along his clavicle. I need three hours to get him out of danger and another two to completely fix the damage."
I sighed. "If the General does deliver the booze, he gets the first drink," I quipped. "What about our other pods?"
Donna sighed. "Everyone will be fine, but all are four to eight hour stays."
"What about Jess?" Captain de Wynter asked suddenly.
"You mean the young Lieutenant?" Donna asked.
"Yes," Captain de Wynter said. "She's my daughter."
"Dear god," Donna replied. "Well, the good news is that the pod will be able to fully heal her. However, her neck and shoulder injuries will require some rehabilitation after she leaves the pod. I recommend that she shorten her hair while that goes on."
The Captain sighed. "She loves having her hair that long. But tell her when she comes out."
I looked around and saw Amanda smiling. "I have voice from the Morrigan. They should be slotting into their repair dock in seven minutes. The butcher's bill was high. Sixty-one dead, no wounded. Basically they lost every turret gunner they had as well some of their support. They have only half of their bridge watch and their engineering departments left."
Captain de Wynter sighed. "I love the Athena; she's a great ship, but the turrets are so easy to damage. And you can't always save the gunners."
I nodded as Timothy called out. "Sa'arm missile has reached the atmosphere. Let's pray that Brad did enough."
I turned to look out of the briefing room and Brittany ran over to throw her arms around me. I held her close and waited for Timothy to start a final count when he gasped. Tamara immediately gave a trill of joy. "It just blew in the upper atmosphere. Brad must have winged it!" she cried.
I released the breath I had not realized I had been holding and then gave Brittany a long kiss. She merely smiled as I looked over at Yvette. "Someone get me General Montgomery," I called out. "We should give him the updated report before things get too hectic with repairs."
I could hear Tina's assent and looked over to find Ensign Livingstone falling asleep at the briefing table. I gave Brittany a kiss and whispered. "Why don't you take the ensign to the visitor's dorm and let him crash on a mattress. He'd be more comfortable." Brittany smiled and after stealing one last kiss from me dragged the tired ensign to his feet and led him from the room. Captain de Wynter watched him go with a laugh.
She was about to say something when General Montgomery's voice rang out. "James, I hope you have some good news for the marines."
"I'll let you judge that, Sir," I replied. "The good news is that we are starting to get the damaged ships into repair docks, but I don't have any estimated repair times yet, and we still have no contact with two of the corvettes. We did get in touch with the Commodore commanding the support ships for Sir Bors and Sir Ector. You might need to confirm with the navy, but I believe that they turned back in time to avoid conflict. The only other news is that the Sa'arm don't like our base on Ishtar. We just got fired on again by a Sa'arm raider."
"Isn't this your third visit?" the General asked.
"Yes. This time we had space-based defenses and were able to destroy the attacker, but he launched three reinforced missiles on us. None reached us thanks to an incredible job by our gunners, but its pretty clear the Sa'arm consider us a threat."
The General chuckled. "Perhaps you aren't a thorn just in my side. However, I have one piece of news for you. The Navy wants the ships repaired fast and are going to reroute the AKF Dogsled to bring you another shipment of supplies in about ten days. Be generous with the supplies you have, you'll get more soon."
"Understood," I replied as the signal cut out.
I sighed. "Tina, might as well try Admiral Himmel now. He's probably wondering what the status is."
I had barely finished saying that when Admiral Himmel's voice rang out. "You're damn right I want to know what the status is. Last I hear some Sa'arm ship appeared in your system. Did we lose anything more?"
"One marine who is now in a medical pod after his armor broke and two system defense lasers that are out until acid damage can be repaired, again," I replied. "The Sa'arm ship appeared on a vector we had mined and we managed to take out the ship, although a courier escaped."
The Admiral sighed. "They will probably try again. They don't take being stopped well."
I could hear Captain de Wynter giggle and turned to her, but the Admiral heard the sound. "Who's that?"
The woman sat at attention in her chair and replied. "Captain Monique de Wynter, commander of the Athena, reporting."
"What are you doing on the base instead of on your ship?" the Admiral asked.
"Sorry, Sir. We had moved two crewmen to the teleport in the hope we could transfer them to Ishtar. I was checking their status personally when the teleport activated and I found myself in their command post," Monique replied.
"And you didn't insist on going back?" the Admiral asked.
"James offered, but I thought it might be best to provide any details I had. My crew is veteran and we were following the Morrigan into the repair docks."
There was a sigh. "Very well. Do we have any repair estimates yet?"
Just then Louis could be heard speaking through the communications system. "Torrey Pines and Pembroke Castle cut your engines and allow the tractor to pull you in. I have you."
I smiled. "No," I replied to the Admiral. "But we just got two of the corvettes into repair docks. If all goes well Morrigan and Athena will be another hour, Sigurd and Jackson will be closer to two. Sigurd has communication issues and it will take a tug to get Jackson into dock, they have no docking thrusters working. The Pebble Beach is being towed in and is about forty minutes out. Tintagel Castle we have to go retrieve, her engines failed completely. We're going to offload the crew and then send the tug out after we get the Jackson docked."
The Admiral was silent for a moment. "Do that. If you can, have your people put together a complete report. We'll need it for the records."
"Can do, Sir," I replied.
"I better let you get the work," he said. "By the way, when will you be sending me a rabbit?"
I could feel Captain de Wynter's eyes on my as I shook my head. Tina turned to call out, but I waved her off. "He just had to get that last sentence in," I said with a smile.
I could see Monique wanted to say something, but Louis spoke up. "We have telemetry finally from Torrey Pines and Pembroke Castle. Only serious damage is the jammed missile. Both ships need about three days to repair damaged armor and to check on circuits."
Just then the AI announced. "Devil Hour is about to begin."
Yvette looked up. "Shit! We've been at this over eight hours!"
I nodded. "We need to start rotating people. Yvette contact Kate, Kelly, Ulla and Veronica, they can help spell people here. For now let's continue to plan. Once the Tintagel's crew is off, set them up in the dorm, but once we have the Jackson and Sigurd docked we should try to get a senior representative from each ship in here for a short conference. Meanwhile, call Barbara up to watch the command post, and you and I need to sleep until the conference."
Monique sighed. "Now is not a good time is it?" she asked.
Someone snorted as I shook my head. "After more than eight hours of stress I think we all need a break first," I replied.
She nodded and a moment later a tired looking Marie escorted her off to the multi-use room and its many mattresses as I staggered to my own pod and collapsed into bed next to my weary concubines who were already sleeping peacefully.
Next Chapter | Table of Contents | Allan Joyal's Stories |