Carinae Sector: 01 - Traders' Scourge - Part 3 - New Shores (28 page)

Gindane was waiting for the admiral’s views to be fully expressed as she now stepped into the conversation. She was being careful to remain calm and polite.

‘Admiral, the humans may attack us again either due to their unpredictable natures or due to a simple reason of some type, or both. My reports clearly indicated that the humans are no strangers to war. I also reviewed the edicts relating to battling haven worlds, and the legal precedent in the Cephrit and the Vorinne courts seems to be now based on the first contact with the Jerecab.’

Admiral Baredio now broke into a light sheen of sweat as he considered the underlying message before he gave each of them a sharp glance. He was well aware of the Jerecab precedent that involved several Vorinne cruisers visiting the home world of the Jerecab and being attacked. The cruisers had then responded with massive force and killed millions of civilians on the Jerecab home world.

An inquiry had eventually condemned and executed the Vorinne admiral, as a subsequent Barus research mission had revealed that the Vorinne were attacked only by the red or war faction of the Jerecab. The blue Jerecab academics and engineers had been against attacking the Vorinne but had been over-ruled. The resulting schism in the Jerecab had later led to the race sundering into the Red enclaves ruled by warriors and merchants, and Blue enclaves ruled by academics and engineers. The admiral now looked around the bridge for a moment before he spoke again.

‘The Trader ship is my main concern, and if we stay in a high orbit then the humans with their limited technology are no longer involved.’

Omerio now spoke again as he had an additional point to highlight.

‘Sir, if the interdiction just involved the Trader ship then I would consider we would have a chance of success. However the humans may fire further missiles and the Maveen are aboard the Trader ship. Also the Traders have never surrendered without a fight to my knowledge and it is common knowledge that they go down fighting hard.’

Admiral Baredio was waiting for this point to be raised and he answered it as best he could.

‘I have the fighting strength of the forces as roughly even with the Maveen ships factored into the calculations. But the main ship is one of their latest, so her firepower alone could easily account for six or more of my cruisers before we bring her down. I will not shy away from fighting them, but I want suggestions on what would make them surrender.’

Gindane had actually considered the role of that great unknown earlier in her quarters and she now answered him.

‘Admiral, the presence of the Maveen on their ship near a haven world will ensure that the Traders do not surrender. Remember that they must have traded equipment and technology to the humans, and then been party to the Maveen transferring significant numbers of the humans to a colony off world.’

The admiral was critical of the last sentence that Gindane had spoken, though he quickly acknowledged his agreement on what the Traders would now do.

‘Gindane, I agree you have a valid point with presence of the Maveen here influencing a Trader decision. However I do not think that we can prove yet that the Maveen have given the humans a colony world.’

Omerio now spoke again and he was careful to be educational in his tone.

‘Admiral, we both now can speak English and we have been following their news reports. There is specific mention of a new colony called Barede about twelve thousand light years away at the edge of the galaxy. Indeed their broadcasters have been advised not to show sky shots of the colony just in case the information should find its way to us.’

Admiral Baredio stifled his disbelief, though he did begin to pace his command deck briefly again before giving an order to the communications officer.

‘Lieutenant, I want a human broadcast channel placed on the main viewer, and both Gindane and Omerio will aid in the selection of the channel.’

In moments the main viewer was showing the news channel that both the younger Barus had found to be the most helpful. Gindane now carefully gave a translation as the Barus admiral listened in consternation.

‘… and most of the second set of colony gate ways were closed several hours earlier, before the Maveen gate ships and probes flew back to the Trader landing site and the last marine gate way.  …now just to repeat the news that the last of the marine gate ways have been closed, before the Maveen on Earth left via the last marine gate way…. An hour later the Trader ship lifted off in an impressive launch and is now flying over the central Pacific into space. Note that a news lockdown is in place due to the unwanted presence of the Barus invasion fleet and we will have further news at 10pm. Later tonight our panel of experts will discuss what we know of the new Barede colony and the risks the estimated 12 million new colonists will face.’

Admiral Baredio felt considerable unease as he started to digest the facts of the news report, and this unease showed in his next urgent comment.

‘So the Maveen did take care to be seen to leave this world to protect the humans. But 12 million colonists went through to what? Then why did they have the wait on the launch of the Trader ship? Also I feel the humans are hiding something as well due to this lockdown business. Finally Gindane, surely you would have mentioned earlier that we are vassals not invaders and we police parts of the galaxy?’

Gindane and Omerio were just starting to reply and add additional information to their earlier statements when the tactical officer yelled out across the bridge.

‘Admiral, the humans have launched swarms of missiles from the northern hemisphere and they are heading directly for our fleet.’

The admiral looked at both Gindane and Omerio with a new appreciation as he began issuing a series of urgent commands to his fleet. The Barus fleet turned and sought to change course, and the leading Barus scouts frantically began evasive maneuvers to place themselves to one side of the projected flight paths of the masses of missiles.

                                                            ***

Colonel Bill Ackerton viewed the status of the launched missiles and considered they had done well. The three teams in each country had not enough time to alter smaller submarine based missiles, but instead had just worked with the land based missiles, leaving each country’s nuclear deterrent largely in place. The US had managed to launch forty nine assorted missiles, the Chinese had launched twenty six missiles, and the Russians had launched forty one missiles. So the combined assault was only nine missiles short of the one hundred and twenty five missiles allocated in secret joint military meetings.

The teams of engineers in each country had ensured that their missiles could make the deep space intercept by further reducing the payload weight carried aloft. The teams first removed the reentry vehicle and warheads on each missile before mounting back a sole warhead on a jury rigged alloy adaptor plate for most of the missiles. This change effectively made the missiles faster and light enough to give the last stage escape velocity. All the last stages were already capable of engine restarts, so in theory they could perform space intercepts. The software on the missiles was then revised to allow for the deep space intercepts and was only slightly modified from their previous attempt on the sole Barus ship.

Bill also hoped that other interesting changes they had made to the missiles would work out as well. He now looked at the flight data and noted that two Chinese missiles had already failed and they were destroyed as their trajectory just cleared the atmosphere. He then commented to his launch control team as updated telemetry showed the mass of Barus ships well out past the moon.

‘We are going to let the missiles coast their way out further into space. We only have to get the missiles between the Barus fleet and the Trader ship and that could take a few hours at least.’

An air force sergeant was monitoring the radar data of the missiles and was viewing the data sets for the Barus and the Traders via a telemetry computer. He looked up with satisfaction and spoke to the patiently waiting colonel.

‘Sir, we are awaiting an update, but my calculations show we actually will interpose between the Barus fleet and the Traders.’

The further trajectory data came in, and Bill and his team relaxed as the projected path of the missiles was close enough to make things interesting within about six hours.

                                                            ***

Captain Narindestat had not wasted any time attempting to contact the Maveen Earth probe and instead he had firmly issued changed orders to his bridge crew.

‘Garendestat, increase the burn rate on the aero-spike engines to twenty percent above their rated thrust and we will not be maintaining a fuel reserve. Captain to sneak ship pilots, you will increase your thrust another ten percent across the board.’

Garendestat did not look up as he made several changes but he did reply.

‘Sir, I am lowering our trajectory and turning east to give us more time in the atmosphere as our fuel reserves of hydrogen are much higher than our oxygen reserves. When the reserves are at parity I take the ship into space and we can use the fusion drive engines to make the rendezvous.’

Captain Narindestat looked nervously at the drive readings for each of the sneak ships as he continued on again.

‘Just watch the shields as we go Garendestat, as we will be travelling twenty percent faster than our rated atmospheric launch speed. The course change will actually help us get to the rendezvous if the ship holds together in the meantime.’

Captain Narindestat then looked across at the lieutenant standing at the communications console and asked a brief question.

‘We are continuing to transmit our bridge conversations?’

The officer looked up momentarily as she replied.

‘Captain we are still transmitting, but the ionization of air around our shields means we are in a communications black out.’

Ian Mitchin nervously looked around at the rest of the mission team, who had fallen silent. The novelty of the launch had been replaced by uncertainly as the Traders had reverted to their own language and Garendestat had stopped translating for their benefit. Their concerns were ended when the metallic voice of the Maveen Earth probe broke into the actions of the Traders and the contemplations of the human mission team.

‘Captain Narindestat, we held our assistance until you fully committed your ship. We are ready to fire our engines shortly to clear the atmosphere. Each of our gate ships will provide two sneak ships worth of thrust for fifteen minutes. Advise me now if this is suitable.’

The Illuria continued to gain speed across the top of Earth’s atmosphere as Garendestat resumed calling off the speed.

‘Twelve kilometers per second and rapidly accelerating, we will go to fourteen kilometers per second before we turn out of the atmosphere Captain.’

Captain Narindestat had been feverishly entering the projected thrust of the Maveen ships into his calculations, and sat with satisfaction and relief as he replied to the Maveen.

‘Earth probe, my own calculations show fourteen minutes at the thrust you have mentioned then another three minutes at half thrust is optimum. Please proceed as instructed. I will contact you again later as I have a specific request of your ships.’

The captain looked at the thrust gauges with satisfaction as the added Maveen thrust came online. He had successfully resisted the urge to berate the Maveen as past experience had shown him that this was not productive. He waited patiently as Garendestat counted out again.

‘Fourteen kilometers per second and we are turning out of the atmosphere.’

Captain Narindestat now gave an additional instruction as he viewed the status of two of the sneak ship drives.

‘Sneak ships three and six need to reduce power to normal thrust immediately, and we will go to rocket mode on the aero spike engines at reduced thrust.’

The Illuria left the atmosphere and streaked past well below the antiquated international space station as it crossed into night-time over Central America. The ship now accelerated again as the additional power of the Maveen ships came fully online, and they flew around the other side of the planet from the Barus fleet and the human missiles.

Garendestat sat back at his console, adjusted his arm sling and relaxed for a moment, before he turned and favored the humans with a broad grin and gave them an update.

‘We are definitely on our way, but our fuel reserves on the Illuria are too low to attempt a landing, and that was what the Maveen probe was commenting on. The rendezvous is actually ahead of schedule at this stage.’

Captain Narindestat looked at additional telemetry data and he fixed Steve with a grateful look as he spoke.

‘Steve, your idea looks to have been implemented as over a hundred of your missiles are coasting west out from low orbit across the intercept path of the Barus fleet. They will have to think about that, and us, and the Maveen.’

Steve considered the news with relief as it appeared that the authorities on Earth were giving them full assistance to leave. However he felt that they still possibly might have missed something and he asked if any of his mission team recalled their briefings on the different vassal races and the edicts they obeyed.

                                                            ***

After four hours Admiral Baredio was now stuck in a quandary, as his tactical team had evaluated the threat of the missiles and arrived at a succinct conclusion. If they stayed put they would be fine, but if they attempted to intercept the Trader ship, now around the far side of the human planet and accelerating away, then the human missiles came into play. The situation was not lost on Omerio who carefully commented to Gindane.

‘We are forced into engaging the human missiles or backing down, and risking the missiles can only be a zero sum game if they destroy one of our ships.’

The admiral asked for the human news channel to be turned off, before he turned to Gindane and voiced some of his frustrations.