Audacity (Warner's World Book 5) (48 page)

“Chelora” announced Julian “that’s where they should go. We take people to Chelora and bring supplies from there back here. An efficient shuttle-run, don’t you think?”

Hec was caught aback by the suggestion. His mouth remained open while he digested the logic of it. Then he realised and shut his mouth only to reopen it with a question “But surely we can’t just front up there with masses of rogan civilians. The government will need to be consulted. Won’t they?”

“My dear Mr Shoebridge, that is why I am here…to make those types of decisions. Rarely are they countermanded by the High Council.” Julian paused, waiting for Hec to respond, but when he got no reaction Julian added “You better hurry then don’t you think?” Hec looked incredulously at the Commodore. So Julian stated “someone’s going to have to make the offer to those people down below.”

“Me Sir?”

Julian smiled “Yes and you’ll do a fine job too. Commander” said Julian looking to Meg “if you please?”

“Yes of course Sir” said Meg “Well off you go Hec, take our warthog. I’m sure Commander Brice will give me a lift back.”

“Glad to” said Sheldon who was quite enjoying the turn of events.

“Right then” said Hec and he left the briefing room for his cabin before heading down to the hangar bay.

When he got there the Commodore was already strapped into one of the warthog’s seat. “Sir!” said a very surprised Hec.

“Oh I’m just here to observe” said Julian straight faced. But on the journey down Julian and Hec worked out a suitable address, well one that the Commodore deemed suitable anyway.

It was nigh on 2100 when Julian and Hec followed Art into the old Assembly building in downtown Rollinium. “All those people outside. Is that normal?” asked Hec.

“What’s normal?” responded Art as they walked briskly. “But it is getting uglier. Hopefully you can placate them.”

“Gee, no pressure then” said Hec. He turned to the Commodore. “Don’t you think it would carry more weight if this came from you Sir?”

Julian smiled weakly. “But it does Mr Shoebridge. You’ll be fine. I have every confidence in you.”

Hec looked to Art for any form of help but got none and so he marched on behind Art who was extending his stride a little down the corridor.

They were greeted by lieutenant Colonel (LCol) Hanza Beglitus, Col Rentra Kaant’s deputy. He looked extremely puzzled when it was explained to him that 1
^st
Lt Shoebridge would be addressing the assembly and not the Commodore. But he eventually nodded without saying anything and led them through a series of corridors to the side entrance to a huge stage. As they got nearer they could hear the voice of a political leader rising in volume to make a point over the ever increasing noise from what must have been a large crowd.

In the wings of the stage Rentra was introduced to the Commodore and Lt Shoebridge and she too was puzzled that it would not be the Commodore making the address. She whispered something in Art’s ear. Art just nodded and she made a ‘oh well then’ expression on her face.

A few minutes later Rentra waved for them to follow her onto the stage. It was only then that Hec realised the magnitude of the assembly hall and that it was filled with thousands of rogan. He gulped. As they walked over to the podium, Julian said to Hec without looking at him “You’ll be fine Mr Shoebridge…just fine.”

He was introduced as the spokesperson for the Human Federation, something he felt unqualified for but he knew there was no backing away now. He swallowed, took a deep breath and began.

“Rogan of Qwantum” he began. The voices in the crowd began to stop. “I come here tonight to address you, our allies in the fight against the Imperialists, and to offer tangible help to you, our friends, in your hour of need. Above us now, three of our most advanced ships stand guard over your planet. More are on the way. We will do our utmost to defend you.” This kicked off a low hum of voices from the crowd.

“We also recognise the need for long term evacuation, given the gravitational anomaly so cruelly inflicted by the Imperialists. And we are not alone in wanting to help. The Likta Corporation has sent the first batch of transports that will be made available for this purpose. More will follow.”

“The big question is where you shall go to resettle. We are offering to resettle you on Chelora until a more permanent place can be found. This will allow us to bring more forces here to defend you while evacuating you out of harm’s way. To that end we can commence transport services immediately.”

At first there was deadly silence, followed by some murmurings and then a flurry of motion as individuals pressed the controls in front of their seat to request an opportunity to ask a question or pass comment.

Despite his trepidations Hec was able to respond and to do so in a positive manner. The mood slowly turned from deep suspicions to one with a glimmer of hope. Hec seemed to grow in confidence as he fielded the questions and if he had looked around behind him he would have seen that the Commodore was feeling a lot more confident too.

At 2200 the public meeting was declared over but no sooner had the people started to exit when the three human officers were ushered into a huge conference room to work through the planning of the first convoy.

At 2315 Julian and Hec boarded Art’s buggy bound for the spaceport. Julian gave Hec a warm smile and said “If you ever wish to become a political officer Mr Shoebridge you can count on my support.”

Those words sent warmth through Hec’s body.

Chapter 6. Raptor over Q2 1700, 2 September

It had been a long day for Hec coordinating the first flights back to Chelora. With so many different fingers in the pie there was a lot of ‘two steps forward, one step back’ before a definitive passenger list was agreed on. Finally at 1600 he was free to return back to the Raptor.

“Nice to see I have my XO back on board” said Meg. “Though you look pretty done in” she added.

“I am bushed” conceded Hec as he sat down into the visitor’s chair of her office.  “At least the first convoy is all set to depart tomorrow. What a mess though. It would be alright if you only had one organisation to deal with.”

“Looks like you impressed the Commodore” said Meg.

Hec nodded and then added “You know he’s not the cold, hard martinet that he likes to convey.”

“Really?” questioned Meg. “I’m glad to hear that. We’re hosting him for dinner at 1900 – dress uniform and all.” Hec rolled his eyes. “You better check on the mess staff and get yourself cleaned up.”

Chapter 7. Phantom over Q2 1800, 2 September

Tola had just taken over the watch when Evie’s message came through. She saw that it went on for several pages. She quickly scanned it and realised that this was above her pay grade. She hailed Aubrey and a minute later she and Julian walked into the command centre.

Tola watched the Commodore reading the message and in particular his habit of pulling on his chin as he paused and pondered something. He did this several times oblivious of his observer. Finally he looked up from the terminal screen and said “I need to go to Cheklin.”

Aubrey had already considered this as she read through the message herself, but she had quickly discounted it as an option. “I can’t take the Phantom away Sir…or commit the Raptor or the Spectre. Our mission is to secure here and I need every one of our few missiles here.”

“Then it’s obvious” said Julian “transfer your missiles to the other ships. Two frigates with the same paltry supply of missiles are just as good a piquet as three. Don’t you agree?”

“Well…I suppose. But…”

“Good. Then I think we need to make preparations for warp now.” He tilted his head forward confirming that this was not really a request.

“All right Sir but I need time for the missile transfer and to hand over to Commander Brice.”

“Excellent” said Julian as he stood. “Don’t let me detain you.” He turned and walked out.

Tola turned to Aubrey who shrugged her shoulders and said “Rank obviously has its privileges. Get the Spectre on the line and have Martin do the transfer as quick as you can.”

“Yes Maam” said Tola with a smile.

Chapter 8. Qoniz, Cheklin 2205, 2 September

“Well that Slirinus came good tonight” announced Erkum to his fellow passengers aboard their hopper. Meelanda nodded.

“A pleasant change,” added Evie, “though if this keeps up I’m going to need to start doing some exercise”.

Erkum laughed. “Pretty good crowd too. What do you reckon 50,000?”

“Maybe more. They stretched all the way back down the concourse. What do you reckon?” asked Evie of Meelanda.

Meelanda’s focus was elsewhere. But she could see Evie looking at her. She eventually nodded. “One night without Security is not really enough.” She cast a look at Erkum but not even his aunt’s concerning look could dampen his buoyant mood.

“Well I think it’s a good start. May it continue” and he took a swig from his drink container.

“What’s in that?” asked Evie with a suspicious smile.

“Would you like some?” said Erkum in a conspiratorial voice.

Evie took the container and her swig confirmed her suspicions. “Very refreshing” she said with a grin and offered Meelanda the container.

Meelanda shook her head. She was deep in thought. ‘What if the humans were not prepared to fight under rogan colours?’ She had asked herself that same question several times now and she still did not have a good answer. Then another thought struck her ‘what if the rogan admiral won’t fight with the humans?’ It was all getting too much for a tired mind. ‘Rest is what I need’ she advised herself. With that she turned her head to the window and with her hand against the headrest supported her head and closed her eyes.

Evie looked to Erkum, who just shrugged his shoulders and leant forward and took the container. He then gulped a mouth full before exhaling “Haah.”

Evie shook her head in mock disapproval followed by a smile. “It’s nice to have things go right for a change!”

Chapter 9. IRS Guglin to Q2 1100 3 September

Admiral Hatzu Swenegil commanded the 3
^rd
Rogan Imperial Fleet (RIF). His nic was ‘scrapper’ and unlike many monikers it was very apt. Born a second tier aristocrat he had to fight hard all his life to get ahead. There were no easy pathways to the top when first tier aristocrats clogged the upper ranks.

Yet he had prevailed and risen to one of the most senior commands in the fleet. He had achieved this by being tougher, more ruthless and more dogged than his compatriots. Once he set his sights on an objective he would not let go or give up till he had secured it. This had made him a favourite with the First Consul and that was why he had been assigned to the task of retaking Qwantum.

It was not that Qwantum was useful. Far from it. Now that it was on a downward spiral into oblivion its long term prospects of making a valuable contribution to the empire were non-existent. But, and it was a big but, it could not be allowed to serve as a base, even a temporary one, for the humans.

So his orders were to retake control of Qwantum, deny it to the humans and punish the Resistance there. Under no circumstances were any of the populous to be allowed to evacuate. They had chosen their side and now they must suffer the consequences. It was important after all that an example be set.

And so with these objectives in mind Hatzu pondered how he should best go about it. He lamented the fact that he had to leave behind his flagship, the carrier IRS Nonomon. It was in service. In fact the whole fleet had been in service and his crews were supposed to be enjoying a well-deserved rest. But that was before the First Consul called him directly and so now he had just five caps and five lights. The rest would rejoin him at Q2 in a month’s time or thereabouts.

All he knew from the last report sent by the two frigates he had sent earlier was that they were under attack from human stealth ships. It didn’t say how many nor of what class or size and so he had very little to go on. He had studied the database on these new human stealth ships – well, on the one they called the Resolute anyway. They were a formidable challenge but he had his engineers working on something he thought might even up the scales.

The trick was to detect them. Then he could use superior numbers and firepower to destroy them. From all accounts they were invisible to radar except at extremely close range but they could be detected by ladar under the right circumstances.

But Hatzu knew that to detect something at great distances with ladar was problematic at best. It took a long time for the ladar lasers to scan in all directions. The further out it scanned the more space that had to be scanned and the less likelihood of detection. His chief engineer, Commander Wiglenum Spoltus, had surprised him with his rather ingenious solution.

He had convinced him enough to try it and so Spoltus had been constructing the components of what he referred to as a ladar array. Now it was time to put it to the test. The fleet had come out of warp deep in the space. The probes carrying the modified ladar systems had been deployed. It had taken them three hours to get into position. Now was the moment of truth.

“I believe we are ready Sir” advised Wiglenum.

“Proceed” commanded Hatzu.

“Elanwul commence moving” instructed Wiglenum.

The frigate Elanwul was 100,000 kms (100K) away at a location they did not know. Its commander had been directed to stop all emissions and so was running without its active radar and all transmissions blocked.

Wiglenum looked to the holo. “Mmm…” he muttered. There was still no detection of the Elanwul. “Increase speed” he hailed. Still no detection. “Faster.” A detection icon appeared on the holo. “Ah ah!” exclaimed Wiglenum. Then the detection icon disappeared. It fired again a few seconds later. Wiglenum allowed the test to go on for a couple of minutes. “Stop” he hailed. He turned to Hatzu. “Well Sir it’s not perfect but it’s a good start. At least it gives an intermittent detection capability.”

“Well that’s a lot more than we had. Very good work. Can it be improved upon before we arrive?”