Merkiaari Wars: 01 - Hard Duty

• A word on language and pronunciation
  
• 1~Discovery
  
• 2~Memories
  
• 3~Undercover
  
• 4~Sanctuary
  
• 5~Survey
  
• 6~New Life
  
• 7~Abducted
  
• 8~Decisions
  
• 9~Checkmate
  
• 10~Visitors
  
• 11~Discovered
  
• 12~The Next Step
  
• 13~Predator and prey
  
• 14~The Chase
  
• 15~Gifts
  
• 16~Contact
  
• 17~Answers
  
• 18~Doomsday
  
• 19~Desperate Measures
  
• 20~Hope
  
• 21~Extermination
  
• 22~The Wilderness
  
• 23~Going Underground
  
• 24~The Keep
  
• 25~Rescue
  
• 26~Blown
  
• 27~A Cry for Help
  
• Other titles by this author
  
• Copyright
  
• Acknowledgments
  

This book was written and produced in the United Kingdom and uses British English language conventions. For example the use of 'ou' in the words colour and honour instead of the American spellings: color, honor. Another example would be the interchangeable use of ize and ise in words such as realise or realize. Both are correct.

The Shan are an alien species with their own verbal and written language, but for story purposes all Shan dialogue is translated into English. However, names of characters remain as close as is possible to the actual alien name. See examples below for pronunciation:

Shima = Shee-muh

Tei'Varyk = Tie-va-rick

Kajetan = Kah-jet-an

Fuentez = Foo-en-tez

Aboard ASN Canada

Year 216 AST (Alliance Standard Time)

“Captain to the bridge!”

Captain Colgan turned over and slapped the intercom button. “What is it, Francis?” he said, still groggy from sleep and squinting at her in the glare of the comm’s screen. “Lights one third!” he barked in annoyance, and his cabin brightened.

“Sorry to wake you, sir,” Commander Groves said contritely, but the excitement Colgan heard in her voice did not diminish. “We’ve picked up a transmission.”

He frowned at that. They were a long way from the core, and even the Border Worlds were a distant memory out here. Only exploration vessels such as
Canada
herself dared venture into the deep this far.

He sat up and began pulling on his uniform. “Source?”

“Mark has categorised it as unknown sentient, sir. I’ve logged a possible first contact,” Groves said for the log, but then she broke procedure and grinned. “This is it, Jeff, I can feel it!”

He understood her excitement, but kept his own voice neutral. “I’m on my way. Continue first contact procedures and log everything to chip for immediate transmission. Better download what you have so far to a drone… just in case.”

Groves straightened her shoulders, gave a crisp nod and cut the circuit.

That had wiped the grin from her face, and well it should. The last time anything like this had happened, the Alliance had been embroiled in a war with the Merkiaari that had nearly seen Humanity exterminated. That could not be the case here; Merki transmissions would have been recognised instantly. Not only that, the ship would be at battle stations and running for home at max. That they weren’t doing that was reassuring. Groves knew what she was doing, but what was to stop these transmissions coming from another murderously vicious species?

Nothing.

Colgan made his way to the bridge; by the time he reached it, he knew what he had to do. He racked his helmet beside his command station and took his seat.

“Anything further, Francis?”

“Nothing yet, sir. Our course and speed are unchanged. We have a transmission from an unknown source bearing zero-niner-zero by one-three-two degrees approximately thirty light years out. Mark is coddling his computers while they chew on the data, but I doubt we’ll know much for a few hours.”

Thirty lights? Maybe a day to get there… not very far at all.

He pursed his lips as he considered his options.

Survey missions were considered hard duty stations since by definition ships and their crews were out of contact for prolonged periods. His orders left him a good deal of leeway because of that, but if he chose to go with his first impulse of abandoning their current survey in favour of investigating Mark’s transmission, he had better be right about his reasons for doing so. He needed more data.

“What can you tell me, Mark?”

“Well, sir, they’re definitely not Human,” Lieutenant Ricks said, ignoring the laughter coming from helm and tactical. “They’re not Merkiaari either.”

That sobered everyone. The fear of meeting a Merki warship was very real, but it went with the territory. No one ever found anything by staying home.

“You’ve told me what they aren’t, now tell me what they are.”

“Sorry, sir, my analysis is incomplete. I’ve isolated multiple sources and they all seem clustered in the same region of space. At this range it’s difficult to tell, but I think they’re mobile. Call me crazy, but I have a hunch what I’m receiving originates aboard a convoy of alien ships. Sorry, sir, that’s the best I can do from here. I can’t make head nor tails of the language. It’s a miracle we received anything at all—I’m getting mostly leakage.”

Colgan winced. Leakage was dangerous. Unsecured communications was one reason the Merki had found the colonies so quickly. Nowadays, where tight beam comms (TBC) couldn’t be used, foldspace drones were to eliminate leakage. TBC was secure, but it was limited to ships in close proximity. It was essentially a modulated laser pulse… like blinking flashlights at one another.

Drones were different. Given enough time their foldspace drives had enough capacity to cross the Human sector of the galaxy. They were slower than using courier ships, but where speed was not an issue, drones were the best way to keep Alliance worlds in contact with each other.

He wished there was a faster way to inform HQ of Mark’s discovery, but they were too far out for speedy communication. The closest Alliance world to
Canada’s
current location was Northcliff. He doubted they had a courier ship on hand. If he sent the drone there, Northcliff Port Control would simply re-upload the data to another drone and pass it up the line. No, it would be better to launch straight to HQ and damn the delay. He instinctively felt that the fewer people who handled Mark’s data the better.

It would take a drone maybe five months to reach HQ, and that was pushing its drive to the max—not really a good idea in this instance. Drive failure could leave the Admiralty ignorant of his intentions and whereabouts until he launched another drone with an update.

“I want a full diagnostic run on the drone,” Colgan said. “Make absolutely certain that its self-destruct is armed and functioning.”

Groves cocked her head in surprise.

It was extremely unlikely for anyone to track and run down a foldspace drone in flight. Theoretically they could be intercepted, but Fleet had ensured that anyone tampering with one would get a nasty surprise.

Yeah, like a nuke in the mega-tonne range going off in his ship!

It was locking the barn door after the horse had bolted as far as the Merkiaari were concerned, but who knew who else might be listening?

“Who else indeed?” he muttered under his breath.

“Diagnostic complete, Skipper,” Lieutenant Ricks said. “All systems nominal. Self-destruct is in the green.”

In the green meant that the nuke was primed but safe. It would become active and dangerous the moment it reached minimum safe distance from
Canada
after launch.

Colgan swivelled his station forward again. “Download everything to the drone—ship’s log to date as well. Set drive parameters to eighty percent.”

“Updating the drone now.
Destination?”

“Destination Sol. Alliance HQ.”

Lieutenant Ricks keyed the drone active with his command codes, and programmed its computer. “Destination set. Ready to launch, Skipper.”

“Launch.”

“Aye, sir, launching… drone away… drone has entered fold space.”

“Very good.” Colgan turned to the helm. “Plot a course for me, Janice. We
are
going to have a look at these people, but I don’t want a whisper of our presence to reach them. Clear?”

“As crystal, Skip!” the helmsman, Lieutenant Wesley said.

“Very good.”

He waited for the course to be laid in, all the while wondering if he was about to go down in history or down in flames. Had Captain Tibet wondered the same thing when he hailed the first Merkiaari ship to enter the Human sector of the galaxy? Somehow, he thought he probably had.

And we all know how that went. Please God, don’t let me be responsible for another war.

“Course laid in, Skipper. Foldspace drive is hot.”

“Execute,” Colgan said without the tremor in his voice he felt must surely be there.

“Executing.”

* * *

Approaching Alpha Orbital Station, Thurston System

Fire. The dream always began with the memory of fire. The buildings burned unattended, the bombardment never ending and ongoing. The shrieks of incoming shells and explosions a constant background noise to accompany Eric’s panting exhausted breaths. He didn’t have the time to worry about the falling glass and steel. None of them did. The Merki troops were also oblivious to the danger. Both sides had been killed by it, neither side could avoid it. The city was dead except for the combatants. Most of the population centres had suffered the same fate.

The battle of San Luis seemed never-ending. The war had brought it here months ago, and neither side seemed able to overcome the other or admit defeat. The Merki had lost hundreds of ships and millions of troops. The Alliance had lost hundreds of ships and millions of citizens and troops. The system itself had changed hands many times while the ground war continued unabated. The Alliance was currently in ascendance in space, and had managed to fend off the last Merki push. For the first time, the Alliance had prevented reinforcements reaching the planet’s surface and it was having the desired effect. Slowly, the Merki had been pushed back and whittled down.

The regiment was here entire. That never happened. Never. The risk of losing every combat capable Viper by committing them all to one place and battle had always been deemed too high. Yet the madness of San Luis had needed something to smash the stalemate, and when General Burgton had seen the pathetic remnants of San Luis and its people, most half mad and starving, that madness had gripped even him and infected the entire regiment. There was no going back now, no strategic withdrawal, not after seeing the cities carpeted with the bodies of their people.

 Eric and the others had gone a little crazy then, and the General had let them. Vipers never allowed themselves to lose control. Their stability relied upon discipline, and the loss of it could lead to malfunction and death. It need not be enemy action that killed a Viper. In the event of serious malfunctions a unit would be scrapped for the good of the regiment. An insane Viper would be a horror to behold.

Eric ran up the street screaming his wrath, not mimicking Merki battle cries as he often did, but simply letting out the berserk rage he felt at the fate of this world’s people. He fired his rifle from the hip into the stampeding Merkiaari’s backs as he ran. His comrades were doing the same thing, and roaring their hate. None cared that they were running into their own artillery barrage. The other Alliance forces with them faltered and halted their advance, not willing to follow them into that hell. None to blame, and no shame in it. It was sense for them to stop and consolidate the gains they had made, but Eric and the others were all in melee mode and boosted to the maximum their enhanced bodies could take. To them, the world had slowed to a crawl. It seemed easy to dodge the flying plascrete and falling steel from buildings being blown apart by high explosive rounds pouring in upon the enemy. All illusion of course. The world hadn’t slowed at all; the Vipers had sped up, and they did take casualties despite their speed, but nothing like as many as unenhanced soldiers would. Melee mode meant every resource Eric had was reserved for offence with nothing saved for defence except speed. It was god mode for a Viper, and rarely used because it threw caution to the wind. Wounds were ignored, everything but battle was ignored until a unit reached that critical point when he would go into automatic shutdown and hibernation. Hibernation in the midst of battle was death all too often.