Against All Odds (18 page)

"I think we would have heard something if they had. I believe your first assessment is correct— they've been planning this for a very long time. Our war with the Milori must have upset their original plans and they're simply adjusting to fight a different force."

"If that's true, then they must have felt confident they can defeat the M-designate ships in a toe-to-toe."

"That's true. Oh, and I learned how you were able to learn of the invasion before they planned. A Tsgardi officer failed to activate the jamming equipment in time at Ekoqulith. He paid for the mistake with his life."

"If not for that message, we might still be completely ignorant of this
undeclared
war."

"Forewarned is forearmed, but I'm not sure it's going to make much of a difference. How can we defeat an armada of a thousand ships?"

"Nine hundred eighty-seven," Jenetta said, correcting him.

"
You
said it was just a tiny drop in a very large bucket."

"From now on I'm going to keep very close track of every single drop. Despite our edge in hull strength, we can't beat a force that outnumbers us fifteen to one, so we certainly can't wait until they reach Quesann. Our best chance is to search them out now while they're attempting to move through our territory from border crossing points in small groups and whittle down their forces a bit at a time. They've been using jamming techniques to suppress news of their attacks and we'll do the same. I jammed the IDS bands during this engagement to hamper their ship-to-ship communications, but it also served to keep them from transmitting a message home once they saw they had underestimated the durability of the Colorado. We must keep the enemy from learning about the strength of our new hulls for as long as possible. From now on we jam all IDS communications whenever we engage any THUGs."

"Thugs?"

"Tsgardi, Hudeera, Uthlaro, and Gondusans. Good thing the Ruwalchu aren't involved," Jenetta said smiling, "I would have had trouble working them into a suitable acronym."

"I'm glad you can still joke about it," Keith said.

"The news is grave, but there's always a silver lining."

"You see a silver lining?"

"Yes," she said smiling again, "I'm going to be away from Quesann a
lot
longer than I anticipated."

Keith shook his head a little, then chuckled in spite of his intention to remain perfectly serious.

"If you're ready," she said, "we should get underway for Coleman. We have a great deal of work ahead of us."

"Just give me twenty minutes to get back to the Themis," he said, standing up.

"Keith," Jenetta said, "good job. I'm glad you're here."

Smiling, he said, "As am I. I've always known we'd make a good team."

As Admiral Kanes left the room, Jenetta raised the screen on her com unit and began reviewing the contents of the data ring.

* * *

The SC task force reached Coleman Space Command Base in twenty-two hours. Jenetta would have preferred to bring the destroyed Tsgardi ships with them to secure them under the guns of the station, but it was impossible because the top speed they could be towed was Light-75. When the time came to move them, it would take tugs more than seventy-six days to drag them there.

The enormous space station, in orbit around an F5 Blue/White Class IV Subgiant without any inhabitable planets, was dark. Only basic navigation lights were illuminated, but that didn't mean the station was uninhabited. Jenetta ordered the task force to remain twenty-five thousand kilometers away while several squadrons of Marines fighters went in to investigate. When no fire was forthcoming, several shuttles containing Marines and engineers were sent in.

It took hours for the Marines to search the station, but they came up empty. Marine Captain Haines reported in as soon as they had completed their initial sweep.

"No Tsgardi, Admiral, but we've seen lots of signs they've been here. They probably couldn't get anything operational so they moved on. We'll do another, more complete sweep as soon as we have more forces."

"Thank you, Major. We'll begin docking procedures immediately. Carver out."

"Haines, out."

* * *

For the very first space stations put into orbit around Earth, functionality was everything. The incredible cost of putting materials into orbit meant nothing unnecessary was sent up. Most of those first stations were cramped and uninviting. By the time the Galactic Alliance had been formed, the situation had reversed. Putting enormous payloads into space had become dirt-cheap when compared to costs before the development of opposed-gravity engines. Designed by different teams of architects, each eager to leave their stamp on the universe, the new stations sacrificed functionality to accomplish distinctiveness. Most stations were so unique in appearance that they could be identified by their silhouette. The three stations currently orbiting Earth were jokingly referred to as giant Christmas tree ornaments. There were three only because of their lack of usable space. With the first station, myopic designers and administrators didn't plan for sufficient docking piers to accommodate the eventual volume of traffic and number of ships that would want to moor at the station. A second station, not much larger than the first, was discovered to be inadequate before it was even finished, necessitating construction of a third station. Plans were currently in the works to replace the three stations with one enormous station. The three small stations would be dragged by space tugs to inhabited planets with less traffic where a smaller station would suffice.

In recent decades, most new stations had taken on an appearance like that of Higgins— at least until Jenetta had started converting former Raider stations for Galactic Alliance use. Housed inside an enormous asteroid, the former Raider stations were the ultimate in functionality, with little thought given to external esthetics. Ideally suited for locations in hostile space, serious consideration had lately been given to having all new bases follow a similar model. There certainly wasn't any lack of giant asteroids in Galactic Alliance space.

The station facing the small taskforce now was another unique form. It had the appearance of a gargantuan ice cube. It was boxy, with slightly rounded corners. Docking piers jutted out around the entire station, although only on the bottommost level, and appeared almost like small rivulets of ice melt that had begun to flow away from the main body.

A second sweep of the station using ten platoons still failed to turn up any Tsgardi. All ships docked without incident and the engineers immediately began to work on re-enabling the systems and reversing the efforts of the SC engineers when the station had been evacuated. Most systems were restored in hours, but it took two days to get everything back on line. The laser arrays were once more operable and a number of Milori torpedoes carried back to Quesann when the station was evacuated were unloaded from the Themis and stored in the station's armories where they could be accessed by the station's automatic loading systems in an instant. Minor damage caused by frustrated Tsgardis far too ignorant to get the systems working again was repaired quickly.

As soon as the Colorado docked, its engineers began work on the starboard Sub-Light engine. There were no enclosed docks so the engineers had to work in full EVA suits. Senior engineers from the other ships joined the repair effort, as much for the learning experience as the desire to assist. This would be the first attempt at making emergency exterior repairs to a DS ship since it had left Mars. After three days, Lt. Patricia Gorci presented her report at a conference of the ship's senior officers aboard the Colorado.

"Bad news, Admiral; we can't repair the starboard engine. It needs to be replaced."

"Then replace it, Lieutenant."

"The nearest replacement engine is at Quesann, Admiral."

"Quesann?"

"Yes, Admiral, I'm afraid so."

"Any suggestions?"

"I'm afraid not, Admiral. Between the scout-destroyers and the battleships, we stock all parts likely to malfunction in our Sub-Light engines, but we never counted on having to replace an entire engine."

"I guess we have no choice then. The ship can't fight without its starboard engine. It will have to travel back to Quesann and be repaired. Make your preparations for the trip, ladies and gentlemen. I'll be remaining with the task force, so Lt. Commander Ashraf and I will transfer to the Themis until the Colorado rejoins us."

Lt. Commander Peter Gallagher and Lieutenant Maria Cruz, the ship's first and third officers, would act as captain and first officer for the trip back to the base and then again for the trip to rejoin the task force. Jenetta watched the ship leave from the station's docking ring before walking to the Themis. Her cats and luggage had already been moved into her new quarters that morning.

* * *

"This will make the task ahead more difficult, Keith," Jenetta said to Admiral Kanes when he joined her in the office attached to her V.I.P. quarters.

"Losing a ship for two months when we're already so shorthanded is a severe blow. Let's hope it's the last."

"We'll be getting five more scout-destroyers very soon," Jenetta said. "They'll help substantially."

"What will we do now?"

"Now? Now we go hunting for more groups like the one we found out here."

"We shouldn't have to look very hard," Kanes said. "The documents found in Admiral Kelacnius' safe identify the point on the border where every Tsgardi battle group crossed and its approximate route. The fool should have destroyed them."

"I think we took him too much by surprise. He probably never would have dreamt in a thousand years that one tiny ship could be responsible for the destruction of his battle group."

"According to the documents we found, this battle group was number three of twenty-two. The higher numbers extend towards the Gondusan border, with the lower numbers assigned to two groups back towards Region One. Each group is composed of between eleven and sixteen ships, depending upon the tasks established for each group."

"Assuming this intel is correct and they're maintaining a reasonably straight front on this
collapsing balloon
, as you called it, we'll remain somewhat parallel to the border as we head deeper into the territory, moving slowly towards the center of Region Two to keep pace with their advance. Now that we know their plans and we know where to look for more, our speed will allow us to cover forty times as much territory as they can while we search the designated areas looking for battle groups."

"What about the Uthlaro?"

"We should focus on fighting one enemy at a time, Keith. We know we can kick the stuffing out of any Tsgardi ship on a one-to-one basis."

"But shouldn't we concentrate on the Uthlaro while we're strong? They are definitely the most dangerous of the four pact members. If the Tsgardi get luckier with their torpedoes than this group did, they might knock out one or more of our ships."

Jenetta stood up and walked around her office as she thought. Finally she said, "No, let's stick with the Tsgardi. Even with Light-9375, it would take us months to cross to the other border and we'd lose the benefit of the great intelligence data you've accumulated if we don't act on it now. I think our best move will be to destroy as many of the Tsgardi battle groups as possible before they realize we're out here. Of course, the Tsgardi could get lucky and hurt us as you've said, but if they don't, we'll be almost twice as strong when the five new scout-destroyers arrive. Our number will jump from eight to thirteen. After we've knocked the Tsgardi completely out of this game, we'll destroy the Gondusan force and then that of the Hudeera. The Uthlaro will suddenly find themselves all alone in this 'undeclared war' and we'll only have one enemy on which to concentrate all our attention."

"We'll probably find Uthlaro ships with the Gondusans and Hudeera. And Tsgardi battle group twenty-two is very near the Gondusan border."

Jenetta nodded then shook her head. "I'm probably more angry about the Gondusan and Hudeera invasions than about the invasion by the Tsgardi or Uthlaro. They were our allies, albeit to a small degree, against the Milori."

"They were only acting in their own interests, as they're doing now. They owe us no loyalty. For us, the distraction to the Milori was worth returning their former territory to them. I don't think they owe us anything,
nor we them
."

"You're probably right.

* * *

The task force left Coleman the next day. Two platoons of Marines and a dozen engineers remained behind to occupy the station. Since the Tsgardi battle group assigned to take the station had already passed by and then been destroyed, there seemed little chance any invader would again attempt to take the station. The Tsgardi prisoners were immured in the station's brig. With the torpedoes returned to the armories and the laser weapons functioning, the station could defend itself from attacks by a small force.

A thousand ships make an impressive armada until you spread them out to cover three sides of a territory that stretches across fifteen hundred light-years. Then it becomes difficult to find any of those ships when they aren't trying to be found. The seven-ship SC task force spent three days crisscrossing space once they arrived in the area where they expected to find the next Tsgardi battle group before finally locating it.