Carinae Sector: 02 - Admiral's Fury - Part 1 - Purple Blood (24 page)

BOOK: Carinae Sector: 02 - Admiral's Fury - Part 1 - Purple Blood
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Lahalm’siema looked alarmed at his information for a moment, thanked him with a bow, and then quickly led her young servants towards the spaceport as Dreshe’ahal made his own way back to the spaceport via another route. He watched from a discrete distance as a Vorinne overseer quickly readied the messenger’s ship with the last provisions being placed onboard.

After twenty minutes, Lahalm’siema’s fast scout ship lifted off and joined the stream of space ships leaving the heavily populated Vorinne world. The nervous attaché then walked towards his hover car, and he did not notice Temeroth’s drone leader standing with several other Zronte drones in a circle near a drink stand.

Dreshe’ahal knew that Temeroth was not stupid and he knew that he would now have to flee for his life. He soon spotted the Zronte drone following him and managed to lose him by taking a high speed detour through a manufacturing plant. The lieutenant then chose a different space port and had changed hover cars within ten minutes. Another hour saw Dreshe’ahal signed on as a second pilot, with no questions asked, on a Cephrit freighter and he left Reshahal well before the Zronte drone could pick up his trail

 

                                                                     ***

 

Chapter 9

 

Gindane came quickly to her feet from her console in amazement and asked the tactical officer to repeat his report. Her crew on the bridge of the cruiser Rupane kept their eyes down even as they also felt amazement at the report. The lieutenant coolly complied with her request.

‘Captain, I can confirm that four destroyer sized ships recently appeared across the system from us. The initial scans indicate they are unknown to galactic military databases. The ships are somewhat similar in design to Trader sneak ships but are considerably larger.’

The Barus research captain now started to pace the deck of her bridge in quiet contemplation for several minutes before she again took her seat at her console. She had still been expecting to meet only the Jerecab before they arrived at the star system, even though their latest reports mentioned the likelihood of human ships.

The discipline of her military training came to the fore as Gindane called up the strategic overlay of the fourteen remaining Dradfer systems, with the three central worlds prominent. Gindane now realised that her mission had now become increasingly difficult if these ships were indeed human. She looked at the tactical situation on the side screen as she questioned the lieutenant further.

‘So are they aware of our presence yet lieutenant?’

Gindane patiently waited a response from the tactical officer as she knew that her crucial next moves would depend on his response. She noted with approval that he was extrapolating the course of the unknown ships as he replied.

‘Captain, they have just detected our fleet and are reversing course to the hyper drive point. The unknown ships appear to be both agile and fast for their size.’

Gindane looked over at the listing or her own forces and now making a decision she asked for a communications line to another cruiser in her fleet.

‘Commander Dunerio, the Shumeen will follow the Rupane across this system to meet these possibly human ships. We will not actively scan these ships as we do not want to trigger a fight. The rest of the fleet will remain here in a defensive posture.’

Two more hours slowly progressed on the bridge before the tactical officer made another report.

‘Captain, several more of these ships have arrived from hyper space to join the four original ships. The sensors show twelve more ships…so a total of sixteen ships have now arrived. The ships have remained at the hyper drive point and are forming up in a defensive posture.’

Gindane quietly evaluated the information with approval, for obviously these ships must be human and there captains seemed to be both capable and cautious. Unwittingly an old memory of the human’s surprise attack on Admiral Baredios’ squadron at Earth came to mind, and she adjusted her orders accordingly.

‘Communications signal Commander Dunerio, we will meet the humans half way. No sense sticking our fur so it can be burnt off. Also raise a line to the humans as we have to get our peaceful intentions across.’

The bridge crew looked around at each other for a moment as they each remembered their own fleet training. They knew they had to adhere to governing edicts but they did not necessarily want to just throw their lives away either. Gindane now settled back in her command chair behind the console and now spoke slowly in English.

‘Attention human Admiral I am Research Captain Gindane from the Barus systems. Your fleet has entered the restricted zone for the former Dradfer colonies and are required to leave the fourteen systems immediately. We are a research mission that is also authorised to secure this system after the recent war between the Cephrit and Tilmud. As such our ships are not front line combat ships and further edicts would be broken if you were to attack us. Finally I should tell that we are here to provide the same message to the Jerecab.’

Gindane now settled down to await the human responses as the message crawled at light speed across the Dradfer star system. The tactical officer interrupted her quiet thoughts with an update.

‘Captain, the humans are sending forward just two ships to met with us. The rest of their ships are holding their positions at the hyper drive point.’

Gindane coolly considered how she would react if the humans refused to leave the former Dradfer colonies. She was hoping to avoid battle at all costs with the humans, as she realised that the Jerecab were likely to turn up in force later and destroy both the human and the Barus ships. A decision now made she called up the communications line again and spoke slowly in English.

‘Attention, human admiral, the Jerecab may interdict these systems in days and are known to attack other races when they hold the military advantage. As an article of good faith between us you should also know they possess at least two hundred and fifty frigates in their armada. I suggest you withdraw and use all your ships to defend your home world.’

Gindane now sat back to confer with her bridge crew as the two Barus cruisers slowed to the meeting point. The two human destroyers slowed to within a hundred kilometres and still had not yet replied to her messages. The Barus researcher was feeling rising concern at this ominous portent and after ten minutes she asked the communications officer to replay her two messages to the humans.

After a few minutes, an image of a human female, in a sharp blue and grey uniform, came onto the screen and her reply came across clearly.

‘Captain Gindane, Admiral Mary Neilson from Earth. We thank you for the two messages and you are advised that what ever you say to us will stay confidential. We have not yet decided to leave this system as we are analysing your messages and information we already have available. Note that we are not considering attacking your fleet and we offer non aggression and neutrality to the Barus race. We will talk with you further after we have decided on our course of action in exploring these systems and confronting the Jerecab.’

Gindane now considered the human message as the screen now went blank again. She evaluated that the humans would do well in galactic affairs if they could survive the attentions of the Jerecab. Now reassured that the humans would likely negotiate, she settled back to study the human message, as she felt the last sentence of the message now raised more questions.

 

                                                                     ***

 

Mary Neilson looked around her bridge on the Exeter for a moment, before she confidently walked back into the meeting room and the waiting two senior admirals. She took her chair and noted the display on the screen showing the innermost or the most distant of the former Dradfer colonies from Earth.

During the long journey the three admirals had renamed all the star systems, after either precious metals or precious stones, and Mary again looked over the complete list in front of her:

 

The fourteen Dradfer colonies            Human system name

 

Innermost or most distant colonies

 

One                                                             Pearl

Two                                                             Opal

Three                                                           Gold

Four                                                             Ivory

Six                                                                Diamond

Nine                                                             Topaz

 

Central colonies

 

Five                                                              Silver

Seven                                                           Emerald

Eight                                                             Jade

 

Outermost or closest to Earth colonies

 

Ten                                                               Platinum

Eleven                                                           Sapphire

Twelve                                                          Aquamarine

Thirteen                                                         Onyx

Fourteen                                                        Zircon

 

Note that four other nearby star systems hold worlds shattered by the overlords.

 

                                                                     ***

 

Mary knew that the innermost worlds would be the worlds the Jerecab would first claim if they were indeed on their way. The view screen now split to show the three central star systems, with most of the sensor data listing details for the current Emerald system. The sub cluster were the humans arrived held the five remaining former Dradfer colonies listed as numbers ten to fourteen inclusive. Mary looked over the list in thought and commented.

‘The renaming will help as we are basing the names on attributes of planets in these systems. For example the Traders listed a water world for system twelve and so we renamed it Aquamarine. All the other systems listed are intact and even the four systems with planets destroyed by the Zronte are as described.’

Thomas Stanford also looked at another smaller screen in front of him showing a copy of the Trader information about these worlds. He looked at the three central star systems again from an evolving tactical perspective as he replied.

‘Well the information we already have from the Traders appears to be largely correct as you have mentioned Mary. At this point we should be grateful they came to our world one hundred and fifty years ago, for I would hate to think of the Jerecab attacking if we were still confined to the solar system. I recommend we hold the centre cluster for as long as we can before we fall back to the larger cluster on the way back home.’

John Beresford stood and reviewed for several minutes what they had surmised over the last few days. The urbane and gifted fleet officer now offered a pithy observation.

‘The technical data we have is very accurate and we have a good match as you stated Thomas. I am most concerned with how the estimations of the Traders and Barus unfortunately agree about the nature of the Jerecab. However our political leaders insist that we offer a peace treaty to the Jerecab, even if we now know this is unlikely to occur.’

Mary smiled in quiet concern at both Thomas and John and now ventured her own recommendations.

‘Now we are in contact with yet another race and are reasonable certain that the Jerecab will fight. I recommend that both of you go across to the destroyer Cannes when she comes alongside at the first opportunity. I will give orders for the Linares to come forward and I will withdraw the Exeter after you both transfer.’

John suppressed a wry grimace as he gave his assent with a qualified observation.

‘I agree, and Mary you should have a powerful counter ready to go, and for obvious reasons we do not require the details. You are now in covert command of our fleet and you will make your own decisions. Thomas and I will misdirect and delay the Jerecab to the best of our abilities.’

Mary sombrely listened before she again gave voice to her chief source of angst.

‘We now know that the Jerecab will attack, surely we should just treat them as hostile right from the onset of encountering them?’

Thomas paused from packing his backpack and looked across at John with a calculating look before he quietly replied.

‘Mary your objection is noted and commended for the record, however our decision to adhere to our political instructions is resolute. We also have to show the galactic races that we observe a rule of law even to our own likely detriment. The crews of the Linares and the Cannes are all volunteers for this reason. You have your orders and good luck Admiral.’

Mary now silently trailed the two senior admirals from her bridge down to the hangar bay. She decided that protocol could be damned and gave both men a quick embrace before she braced and saluted them both. No one had trusted themselves to speak, and in moments Thomas and John had boarded a shuttle craft and were making the short journey across to the approaching destroyer Cannes.

Mary sombrely retraced her path to the bridge and her command chair, and then sat back for a few minutes to recall her long years in the fleet. Always it seemed to her that both John and Thomas had been strong presences in her life as they all sought to build up Earth’s defences. Mary gave a quiet prayer for their safety and that of the volunteer crews of the two destroyers. She then called up her console screen and issued her first orders as admiral of the fleet.

‘Ensure full encoding protocol on all further transmissions between our ships. We will take the Exeter and the rest of the ships here back to the rest of the fleet at the refinery location. Hopefully the other reconnaissance ships will have returned and we can begin our preparations for delaying the Jerecab.’

BOOK: Carinae Sector: 02 - Admiral's Fury - Part 1 - Purple Blood
3.36Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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