Ep.#5 - "Rise of the Corinari" (2 page)

“Yes, sir,” the guard responded, immediately removing the restraints from Ensign Willard and placing them in the pouch on his utility belt. “Shall we continue to guard him, sir?”

“From out here,” Nathan instructed in no uncertain terms.

“Thank you, Captain,” Ensign Willard said as they entered the briefing room.

“Not at all,” Nathan told him. “I expect your experience in the service of the Ta’Akar will provide us with some valuable intelligence.”

“I will help in any way I can.”

“Your Angla is quite good,” Nathan commended as they walked the few meters from the hatchway to the briefing room table.

“My mother was a strong follower of the legends,” he explained. “She taught us the language so that we would know the truth.”

“I see.” Nathan kept walking along the row of chairs, leaving Ensign Willard to take his seat at the only other chair that was left empty, which was at the opposite end of the table from where he, as the captain, usually sat. Everyone else was already seated and waiting for Nathan to arrive, still chatting amongst themselves as he worked his way around to his seat. It occurred to him that Tug, who was currently sitting at the chair to the left of the captain’s chair, was right. If Captain Roberts had walked into this room, everyone would have snapped to a position of attention out of respect for his position; at least the fleet personnel would have done so. Maybe he
was
being their friend more than their captain. “As you were, everyone,” he said sarcastically as he took his seat.

Jessica looked from side to side as she grasped his subtle hint, but it was already too late, as Nathan had taken his seat and was about to start the briefing.

Nathan paused for a moment before speaking, making sure he had everyone’s attention. “For the last two weeks, we have been operating in a state of occasionally controlled chaos. Obviously, events left us very little choice in the matter, but this in and of itself has led to a breakdown in communication between departments, as well as a breakdown in the general chain of command. This has to end, now.”

“Nathan,” Jessica started. Nathan glared at her. “My apologies, sir. I meant Captain.” She paused for a moment, checking Nathan’s expression to be sure it was safe for her to continue. “It’s a little hard to have a proper chain of command when we’re down to a crew of twenty-three.”

“Perhaps, but we’ll soon have considerably more crew joining us from Corinair. If we don’t set a proper example, how can we expect them to follow us?” Nathan looked at Jessica, who nodded her concession to his point. Nathan turned to Tug. “Speaking of volunteers, how are we doing on that front, Mister Tugwell?”

“So far, we have nearly four thousand volunteers. According to the last communiqué from Chief Montrose, it has yet to show any signs of letting up.”

“What kind of people are volunteering?” Nathan asked.

“All types, it appears. Everything from simple laborers to physicists.”

“Anyone with experience in space?”

“A few,” Tug said, “but you have to remember, Captain; most of the young men that are forced to serve in the ranks of the Ta’Akar never make it back to their home worlds. Less than ten percent, I would imagine.”

“Are you saying that ninety percent of them die in combat?”

“If I may?” Ensign Willard interrupted. Nathan nodded for him to continue. “Yes, some do die in the service of the Ta’Akar, but most of them just end up somewhere else. You see, when your time has been served, the Ta’Akar tend to just let you off on the nearest world for you to find your own way home, which is not an easy task.”

“Nice folks,” Jessica mumbled.

“Precisely,” Tug agreed. “This is why there are so few on Corinair with experience on a combat space vessel. Since most of their tours end in the Takaran home system, the majority of them end up stranded there. It also serves to provide the Takarans with a low-income worker-class to do the jobs that Takarans themselves do not wish to do.”

“There are at least twenty of them still amongst the Yamaro’s crew, Captain, and probably many more from other worlds that might be willing to serve your cause in exchange for a promise to be returned to their homes. And they do have experience aboard a combat space vessel.”

“Yeah, a
Takaran
combat space vessel,” Jessica chimed in. It was obvious to all that she was not in favor of the idea.

“Exactly my point,” Ensign Willard stated in response to Jessica’s snide remark. “With you, it would be their choice. With the Ta’Akar, it was not.”

“I’ll take the idea under advisement,” Nathan told Ensign Willard. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jessica’s disapproving glare, but chose to ignore it. “Doctor,” he began, looking to Doctor Chen next, “how is Commander Taylor doing?”

“Remarkably well,” Doctor Chen admitted with obvious astonishment. “The nanites they used did incredible work. It will take several weeks for them to finish, and then a few weeks more before they are all flushed from her system. She is looking at about a month of recovery time, at least according to her Corinairan doctors. On Earth, if she had survived, it would’ve taken nearly a year of therapy and even then there would probably have been permanent motor and cognitive deficits.”

“Is she well enough to do some interviews?” Nathan asked.

“As long as they are done close to the hospital, so she can easily return to her room if she tires, which I suspect she will quite easily, at least for a few more weeks.”

“Very well. Tug, forward your application lists to Cameron for review. She’s still the XO on this ship, and I want her to pick the crew.”

“As you wish.”

“How are your other patients, Doctor?”

“What other patients?” Doctor Chen stated. “The Corinairans took care of all of them. The worst cases were taken down to the surface, and the rest were treated on board by Corinairan medical staff. The ones on the surface may be out of action for awhile, but the twelve treated on board will be ready to return to duty in a few days.”

“What about Josh?”

“He was treated on board as well. He’ll be ready to rub everyone the wrong way again in another day or two.”

“That’s good to hear, Doc.” Nathan turned his attention to Jalea, the next person seated on that side of the table. “Jalea?”

“Six Karuzari have reported in so far.”

“How many do you think are on Corinair?” Nathan inquired.

“There is no way of knowing,” she warned. “I know of at least that many who escaped the attack on Taroa. There were at least a dozen more that were already on Corinair at the time of the Yamaro’s attack. If they survived, we may yet hear from them. The situation on Corinair is still somewhat chaotic in most places. I should also point out, Captain, that one of the Karuzari that reported in stated that he heard there may be a dozen more in the Savoy system. Apparently one of our recruiters passed through this system on his way to Savoy several months ago. If he made it to Ancot, the Savoy system’s only inhabited world, then there could be additional volunteers there as well.”

“Understood.”

“Captain,” Ensign Willard interrupted again, “the Yamaro was due to arrive in the Savoy system in about forty standard days. We were scheduled to pick up a batch of inductees before we returned to Takara to complete our patrol.”

“And if the Yamaro doesn’t show up as scheduled?” Nathan asked.

“Once the Yamaro is at least a few days overdue, the local military commander will either send out a patrol in search of the Yamaro, if any are available, or send word to the home world that they are overdue, which would also result in some type of action.”

“What’s the flight time between Savoy and Darvano?” Nathan wondered.

“About thirty of your days, if I am making the conversion properly. I still do not fully understand your method of time measurement,” Ensign Willard admitted.

“So if there
is
a ship in the Savoy system when the Yamaro becomes overdue,” Nathan said, “it would take them a month to reach us,
if
they had reason to fly directly here.”

“Correct. As our standard patrol route took us quite close to the Darvano system, it would be logical to look here, in case we had problems and had to make port in the Darvano system.”

“So, we’ve got about seventy days before another Takaran ship comes snooping around,” Nathan concluded.

“I would be more worried about the comm-drone on its way to Takara, Captain,” Ensign Willard reminded.

“What comm-drone?” Jessica asked.

“I told Ensign Mendez about all of this,” Ensign Willard assured them. “Sergeant Weatherly was there as well.”

“Why am I only hearing about this now?” Nathan asked as he shot a glare Jessica’s way.

“I’m sorry, Captain,” Jessica said. “Sergeant Weatherly was pretty shaken up by what happened. Those were some ugly firefights, and he and Enrique had gotten pretty chummy in the last couple of weeks. I hadn’t gotten around to debriefing him yet.”

“Not good enough, Ensign,” Nathan told her. “Tell the sergeant to suck it up. Nobody sits on intel, understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Tell me more about the comm-drone,” Nathan told Ensign Willard.

“We intercepted it as we were passing the system. It was carrying word of your presence in the Darvano system back to Takara. When the message reaches command, they will dispatch a battle group.”

“And how long will it take for the battle group to reach us?” Nathan asked. He didn’t much care for the direction the conversation was headed.

“It depends on where the battle group is located,” he explained. “Command keeps a battle group wandering the cluster at all times. Only the admiralty knows its route. If the battle group is nearby, it could take as little as thirty days. If not, it could take much longer. If the battle group is too distant, they will send ships directly from Takara, which would take about one hundred and sixty days.”

“Ensign Nash, I want this man fully debriefed as soon as this meeting is over. I want us to know everything he knows.”

“Yes, sir,” Jessica answered.

“I’m assuming we can count on your cooperation, Ensign Willard?”

“Of course, Captain.”

“Sir, if I may?” Jessica interrupted.

It was not like Jessica to ask permission to speak. Nathan knew that his own more formal demeanor was the cause of her behavior. “Go ahead.”

“No offense to Ensign Willard,” she began, nodding politely at him, “but I would advise not taking information from
any
source without independent verification.”

“A wise precaution,” Nathan admitted, turning to Tug. “How much help can you provide in that area, Mister Tugwell?”

“Some,” Tug admitted, “such as travel times, ship strengths, common patrol routes; all these things we have known for some time now. However, much of the information that Ensign Willard provides will be unverifiable by any means currently available to us.”

“Very well. Do what you can.”

“Of course.”

“Ensign Kamenetskiy,” Nathan said, turning to Vladimir sitting to his right, “how bad off are we?”

“It is not so good, I am afraid. We have one good reactor. The other three will be online within a few days. So power is no problem. Maneuvering is online, but many systems are not at one hundred percent. Response will be sluggish, and she will fly, but like a turtle. We also have problems with life support, gravity plating, and the hangar bay is a mess from the firefight—not to mention the burn by that crazy medevac pilot. He nearly melted the bulkheads.”

“What’s wrong with life support?” Nathan inquired.

“I do not yet know. Some intermittent problem with CO2 scrubbers. I have not yet checked. The worst news is that we cannot jump, as there are at least six emitters that are damaged or gone. And of course, do not forget about the big hole in our bow.”

“But this is all repairable, is it not?” Nathan wondered.

“Mostly, yes, but it will take time. And I do not know about the emitters. I do not think I have the parts to assemble replacements. Our fabrication facilities were not yet installed when we left Earth.”

“How much time are we talking?”

“If I can replace or repair all parts, maybe two to three months, if we have more technicians. With what we have now, maybe a year or more.”

“Captain,” Ensign Willard interrupted, “you could use the Yamaro’s fabricators.”

“Come again?” Nathan said. Ensign Willard just stared at him, confused. “What fabricators?” Nathan added, prompting the confused Ensign for a more detailed explanation.

“All Ta’Akar ships carry fabricators in order to create replacement parts while on patrol. We are usually a long way from support and have to be very self-sufficient. If given the correct specifications and raw materials, the fabricators can produce just about any component you might need.”

“How many of them does the Yamaro have?”

“Four. Two for large components, and two for smaller ones.”

“Can you operate them?”

“Unfortunately, no. The officer in charge of the fabricators was one of the nobles that assaulted the Yamaro. He was killed. However, I’m sure the Corinairans could figure out how to use them in no time.”

“I thought their technology was less advanced than the Ta’Akar,” Nathan said.

“Their technology, yes,” Tug explained, “but not their knowledge. There were restrictions on what technologies they could possess, but there were no restrictions on what they could know or understand. I am sure that Ensign Willard is correct in his assertions. The Corinairans should be able to utilize the Takaran fabricators quite easily. In fact, if they can be used to build additional fabricators, then it could greatly diminish the time needed to complete your repairs. Furthermore, all the raw materials you might need are available throughout the Darvano system, especially in the asteroid belt. That is why it was so heavily mined. It is also one of the reasons the Ta’Akar seized control of this system in the first place.”

Nathan thought for a moment before speaking. “Ensign Willard, earlier you stated that the Yamaro intercepted a comm-drone from the Darvano system on its way to Takara. How exactly did you intercept it?”