Exodus: Empires at War: Book 7: Counter Strike (34 page)

“Any major problems?”

“It seems that we can’t use hyper VII, for the
moment,” said Len, his eyes narrowing.  “In fact, our ships within forty light
years of the blast can’t even use hyper VI.”

“What do you mean, can’t use?”

“We can’t open holes in the dimension of hyper
VII at all,” said Len.  “Any of our ships that are within hyper VII can’t
leave, and nothing can enter.”

“Are the ships in VII in any danger?”

“Not unless they run into a hyper barrier.  The
ships in VII can remain there for a couple of weeks, or whenever the turmoil is
reduced enough to allow translation again.  All wormhole equipped ships have
been warned, and told to warn whatever other ships are with them in hyper that
don’t have wormhole coms.”

“I really didn’t expect us to be denied the use
of VII,” said Sean, his mood sobering.

“Neither did anyone else, your Majesty,” agreed
Len.  “But it is what it is, and we have to accept what we can do.  And
remember, the Cacas also won’t be able to use VII, graviton communications are
almost shot, and we know what we’re doing, while they don’t.”

“Put that way, Grand Fleet Admiral Lenkoswki, I
guess we have nothing to worry about.  This thing ought to be a walk in the
park.”

“Except the park is still filled with
carnivores, your Majesty,” said Len with a slight smile.  “Always remember
that.”

“Oh, I will, Admiral.  And I’m going to make
sure they know it too.”

* 
   *     *

REPUBLIC SPACE.
DECEMBER 25
^TH
, 1001.

President Julia Graham studied the tactical
holo that showed her forces in relation to the enemy they were chasing. 
Technically, they weren’t exactly chasing them out of the Republic.  The Cacas
were retreating on their own, trying to get back to their main base in the New
Terran Empire so they could reinforce their primary battle fleet, which had
recently taken a pounding at the hands of the Imperials.

Unfortunately, even as it took them out of her
Republic’s territory, it also took them out of range of her own fleet and the
forces of their Crakistan allies.  All of the Caca ships, every single one, was
a hyper VII vessel, while less than five percent of her own forces could
navigate that dimension.  The Cacas could cover space four times faster than
her own ships, and there was no way around that.  Her only hyper VII ships were
battle cruisers and light cruisers.

At least we don’t have to worry about them
right now
,
she thought, standing on the flag bridge of the heavy cruiser that had just
jumped into the New Washington System, once the home of the Republic’s
capital.  That was good, since her force, the cruiser and ten destroyers,
really weren’t enough to stand up to any kind of Caca raiding force.

“We killed four of the enemy supercruisers,”
said the voice of the Crakistan Admiral who went by the designation of
Admiral in Charge of Republic Third Battle Fleet.  The
reptilian beings face looked out of another holo, not showing the least inkling
of emotion.

They like for everyone to think
they’re cold bastards
, thought the President, looking into the eyes of a reptilian
predator. 
And they sure act like they are.  But underneath they still have
feelings, even if they have suppressed them with their logical thinking.

“Unfortunately, we were only able
to get the one salvo off in passing, and they moved by too quickly for us to
get a second one in.”

And that’s the problem
, thought
Graham, nodding her head.  All of the ships were carrying the new hyper VII
capable missiles, as the prewar stockpiles of VI weapons were almost gone.  The
hyper VII missiles, while capable of opening a hole into the highest transport
capable dimension, did so at the price of having a lower range than the VI
missiles.  They could be launched at oncoming targets and get in one approach,
as long as the enemy was coming toward them.  If the enemy was at high
acceleration, there was no way the VII missiles could catch them from behind. 
And the only way to get a head on solution was to launch on a Caca force with
perfect timing, which only happened when they had been spotted ahead of time,
by a wormhole com ship that could send the signal to the ambushing force.

Which means that nine times out
of ten we don’t get an effective shot, and half the time when we do, we still
don’t accomplish as much as we would wish.

“What are your orders, Madam
President?” asked the being who was the first alien to be put in charge of a
Republic battle fleet.

“What are our options, Admiral? 
Can you get into Imperial space in time to help Sean against the forces leaving
our territory?”

“Unlikely, Madam President. 
While I cannot say for sure that we would arrive before the Emperor initiates
his offensive, since we have no way of knowing when the requisite supernova explosion
is to take place.  But, given the most recent prediction, we would not arrive
in time to be of aid.  The other possibility would be to marshal our forces
within your Republic, and await developments.”

And that would be the very
definition of ingratitude
, thought the President.  The Empire had
given her Republic almost immeasurable aid, including several thousand ships
that, while they might have been of an obsolete design, still possessed state
of the art electronics and power generation capabilities. 
They need us now,
as we needed them before.  But where can we be of use to them.

“Madame President,” came a call
over the com.  “I think you need to be aware of this.”

“Excuse me for a moment,
Admiral,” she told the Crakistan female.

Another tactical holo sprang to
life beside the original.  This showed a region outside her space, stretching
between her borders and those of the no longer extant New Moscow.  There were
two lines of ships indicated on the holo, one, two hundred light years from the
New Terran Empire border, made up of ships from that military.  And two hundred
light years further out from them was a task force made up of ships from her
own fleet, one light cruiser and five destroyers.

And a number of icons were
approaching that outer picket.  A number that she really couldn’t count, due to
so many icons being right on top of each other.

“Are you seeing this, Madam
President?” asked the voice of
Commodore Natasha Romanov, the commander of the outer
picket, on board the light cruiser
Orleans.

“Yes, yes I am, Commodore,” answered Graham. 
“How many of them are there?”

“We’re counting at least five hundred of them. 
It looks like a major reinforcement effort.  From their heading, it looks like
they are on a course directly into the Empire.”

“I need to issue some orders, Commodore,” she
told the picket commander.

“Hopefully something to discomfit this enemy,”
said Romanov with a tense smile.

“You might say that,” she told the Commodore,
just before blanking the com.  She looked back at the holo of the Crakistan
Admiral.  “You saw that, Admiral?”

“I did indeed, Madam President.  My tactical
staff are plotting their location and probable future locations along a time
frame.”

“The question is Admiral, can you do something
about them?”

“I can have a battle force in their way in a
day and a half, if that is what you mean, Madam President.  We should be at
stop before they get within detection range of our hyper. And,” the Admiral
looked off holo for a moment, “I believe we can have wormhole equipped scouts
well enough ahead of them to give our force targeting information.”

“Then those are your orders, Admiral.  Get in
position to light them up.  And good hunting.”

The reptilian smiled, a predatory grin that
showed more emotion than Julia was used to seeing on those visages.  But one
she had seen before.  She had given the alien a hunt, one of the few things the
carnivores truly enjoyed, as long as there was a logical reason for it.

*    
*     *

SECTOR IV SPACE. 
DECEMBER 26
^TH
, 1001.

“The five trailing ships in our force just,
blew up, my Lord.”

“What?” gasped High Admiral Kellissaran
Jarkastarin, looking up from the holo he had been studying of the system they
were about to enter.  “How do you know?”

“We picked up faint graviton emissions that
could only mean a catastrophic translation.  Five of them, directly behind us.”

“What about the rest of the force?”

“All safely in VI, as far as we can tell,” said
the Tactical Officer who had first spoken.

“What do you mean, as far as you can tell?” 
And
what did he mean by faint graviton emissions?  Those ships translating
catastrophically should have been the loudest things on our sensors.

“We are having trouble tracking the other
ships, my Lord.”

“But, they’re right with us.  How can you be
having trouble tracking them?”

“Right now hyperspace if full of random
graviton fluctuations,” said the Tactical Officer.  “I’ve never seen anything
like it.  It defies explanation.”

“So you have no idea what’s causing this. 
Could it be some new weapon of the humans?”

“If so, my Lord, we have already lost this
war.  The amount of energy that would be needed to produce this kind of
distortion would be nothing short of astronomical.”

“We’re getting ready to drop to V, my Lord,”
said the Helmsman.  “Orders?”

“Drop to V, you dolt.  Or did you plan on
pushing us through the barrier?”

“Yes, my Lord,” said the chastised male,
looking back at his board.

The ships dropped down through V, IV, III, II,
I, and then prepared for the final jump to normal space.  On each shift the
crew became more and more ill.  Ca’cadasans were among the hardest hit of
species during jumps, which made for excruciatingly hard translations.  The
High Admiral sat in his command chair, clenching his fists and holding his
breath, trying to get over his nausea as he waited to see how much of his
command he still had with him.  The hole opened, the ship made it through with
the normal horrible nausea.  The Admiral tried to get himself back under
control, while waiting for the report of his younger Com Officer.

“They all seem to be with us, my Lord,” said
the Com Officer.  “All except the five that didn’t make the transit back to VI.

And if whatever had caused this had happened a
few minutes earlier, we all would have run into the barrier, and my force would
be gone.

“What do you have on the system?” asked the
High Admiral of his Tactical Officer, looking over at the male, then back at
the central holo tank, which showed, nothing.

“We are not tracking anything in this system,
my Lord,” said the Tactical Officer, looking over his shoulder with a confused
expression.

“What?”

“Nothing, sir.  No heat signatures.  No
graviton emissions.  Nothing.”

“And the planet?  The one we came to smash?”

“It’s on the other side of the star, my Lord,”
said the Tactical Officer, pulling up what they knew about the system on his
over the board holo.

“By the Gods, so we know nothing about what
might be in this system.”

“Do you want to decel back out and go into
hyper, my Lord?” asked the Helm Officer.  “We could get around the star much
quicker that way.”

Jarkastarin looked at the other male as if he
had grown a second head, and both were now babbling nonsense. 
I would
rather stick my head in the mouth of a Janaka
, thought the Admiral,
thinking of the large predator that lived in the seas of the homeworld.

“No.  Put us on a straight line course for the
planet that bends us around that star.  Just keep us far enough away to be
safe.”  He looked over at the Com Officer.  “And order all ships to keep on the
alert.  I have a bad feeling about this place.”

“Then maybe we should just leave, my Lord,”
said the Tactical Officer.

And have these vermin think we are afraid of
some unusual stellar phenomenon.  Not on your life, Tactical.  Or mine, or the
entire force’s.
 
“Follow my orders, Helm.  You too, Tactical.  I believe there is human life on
that planet, and I intend for there to be none when I leave this system.”

*    
*     *

MASSADARA, SECTOR IV
SPACE.

“Welcome to Massadara, General,” said the
Liaison Officer to Baggett as he stomped out of the wormhole in his heavy
combat armor.  The armor itself massed a ton, and five hundred kilos of
munitions, batteries and rations had been added.  Every man and woman of the
division was carrying extra gear, every vehicle was loaded down with everything
they could carry.  They were here to stay, and to fight, and though resupply
would be coming through the hole, no one wanted to take any chances that they
might get cut off and run out.