Retribution (44 page)

Chapter 4. Nova Vista 1115, 7 July

Admiral Phil Yomoto looked out through the door of his office hoping to catch sight of Alex Peabody. But he wasn’t there. He returned his focus to the voice of Dr Mani Govinda, head of Deathly Hollows where his new fleet of stealth ships were under construction.

“Yeah I get it Mani” said a frustrated Phil “but you’re not the only facility to get itself nuked here OK. We’re pulling out all stops here and I expect your team to do the same.” Phil was referring to the nuclear strikes against Deathly Hollows and against Nova Vista in the recent battle for Polaris.

Mani was not impressed and remained silent. He used it like a weapon. It had proved effective before with Phil and if the strumming of his fingers on the desk was anything to go by it was proving effective today. Finally Phil broke his resolve. “Alright then 1 August it is but I want Tenacity ready for operations. I don’t want a repeat of what happened with the Resolute.”

“Of course Admiral” said the smooth voice of Mani “ready for operations on the 1
^st
. Will that be all?”

“Yes, that’s all” and Phil terminated the call as he caught a glance of Alex through his doorway. “Alex” he bellowed.

“Sir” acknowledged Alex who about turned and marched into his boss’ office.

“Any news on Rokosky?” asked Phil.

“Yeah but you’re not going to like it. The doctors won’t give her a clean bill of health. She may have to be invalided out. Apparently the op never got all of it out.”

“Shit. Why do we always loose the best?” demanded Phil. “Who’s next on our list?”

“Mad Dog.”

“Right” said Phil drawing the word out as he thought about the suitability of Commander Jeb Wilson.

“He’s available right now.”

“He’s also a bit of a loose cannon.”

“He did alright with the Rikter – two verified kills” said Alex referring to the recent battle over Polaris.

“Yeah but that was a frigate and he nearly lost it. Can we trust him with a new capital ship?”

“That’s your call Sir. If it helps the next one on the list is Soulis.”

“What we’re down to Bumbling Barnaby?”

“Afraid so.”

“Alright then get Wilson in here. I need to have some strong words with him before he takes charge.”

Chapter 5. Konkorda to Qwantum 1300, 23 July

Retna was large even for a sleth. He sat hunched over in the co-pilot’s seat, his big reptilian hands worked the station in front of him. He glanced across at Chungisium Sleck, the rogan he had put his faith in. By comparison Chung, as he preferred to be addressed, was about half Retna’s size. Only Chung’s large head provided any offset in relative sizing.

“We’ll be there soon” said Chung. “We come out of warp in seven minutes. Make sure you are ready to launch the probe immediately if required.”

“Of course” said Retna. He glanced at the screen in front of him and confirmed the probe was ready. “Do you think they will have done it already? They have had three hours head start.”

“Yes, yes they have” replied Chung a little exasperated. “We’ve gone through this how many times? Yes they may have initiated it but that is not what our Resistance friends reckon. We still have six hours to the scheduled time.”

Retna was getting decidedly uneasy as the countdown ticked over to five minutes. He shifted his significant frame in his seat. It was a rogan seat in a rogan ‘Starjumper’ class spacecraft. Ostensibly designed for the executive passenger market it was now an older craft and most commonly used by the gun runners and anyone else who wanted a small, fast nimble craft capable of warping between systems with small but high value cargo.

That cargo in this case was a probe. An old Mark 42, no longer in service with the Imperial Rogan Fleet (IRF) but heavily modified for this particular mission.

“Make sure you set it for delayed broadcast” directed Chung. “We want to give us the best chance of escaping.”

“Done. One day should do it.”

“Whose day?”

“Does it matter” replied Retna. His tone was terse.  “We’ll be in and out well before even the shortest day.”

“On all frequencies?”

“Yes, yes. It’s all done. I just hope it works and that we are not too late.”

“Well we will find out now. Exiting warp.”

The starjumper transitioned to impulse drives very smoothly and then came to a dead stop. Chung scanned the sensors for signs of their prey. He was only using passive sensors to avoid giving away their position. “There’s quite a lot of activity” he stated. He filtered out the usual mining vessels found around the big gas giant that lay before them. His sensors were now tuned to locate the signature of an Imperial Rogan Fleet Hedjling class corvette and in this case one matching the signature of the IRS (Imperial Rogan Ship) Fustus.

“There it is” announced Chung excitedly. “I told you they’d come in behind the second moon.”

“That is good” said Retna. “Gravity readings appear normal. They haven’t initiated yet.”

“No, we are lucky so far. Hopefully they have not detected us.”

“Launch or wait?” asked Retna.

“We wait. It looks like our friends were correct. By my calculations we have six hours before the fourth planet reaches its closest point.”

“I still cannot believe they would do this to one of their own systems” said a confounded Retna.

“It’s only been under rogan rule for nineteen years. Hardly one of ours” said Chung and then quickly added “I mean one of theirs.” He smiled awkwardly at Retna.

“It’s still genocide.”

“Yes, but as far as they see it, the beings within this system have already chosen. Maybe it would have been better to have stayed their hand.”

“And what of your friends?”

Chung felt a great weight of sadness on him. “There is nothing we can do for them. You know that.” Retna shrugged his shoulders. “But hopefully this probe can let everyone know that it was the Imperialists who did it and not the Resistance.”

“I need to stretch out” said Retna. “Call me for the launch.” Chung nodded. Retna extracted himself off the seat and while still crouching exited the cockpit. Even in the main cabin he still had to crouch. He laid down on the bedding he had been using and stretched out his long legs and then his long arms in the opposite direction. It felt so good to stretch. He sighed as the tension eased in his muscles. He knew it would be difficult to sleep this close to the initiation. But years of hard military experience had taught him the value of taking what opportunity you could to rest. So he closed his eyes and focussed on his breath.

At 2215 the comms relays within the Qwantum system were all slaved to an overriding protocol that had been embedded within the AI of all Imperial comms relays. From here on all comms out of the system would be vetted. Those complying with the new protocol would be processed and all others rejected without a reply. The Qwantum system was now in a comms lockdown.

At 2225 the Fustus surged forward.

“Retna wake up!” yelled Chung a few minutes later.

It took a moment for Retna to respond. To his surprise he had slept. “What is it?” he asked.

“They’re moving. This is it, their run in.”

“Well launch the probe now” barked Retna as he began bringing himself upright.

Chung leaned over and hit launch on the co-pilot’s screen. The probe dropped out of the underbelly of the craft and initiated its engines. It powered to full speed and began closing with the Fustus.

“It’s recording now” said Chung as Retna sat back into his chair. It was then that the alert sounded. “We have incoming missiles” he yelled. He engaged the impulse drives and began banking towards the outer edges of the system. Then he could fire the warp drive. With no defensive systems of their own their only choice was to escape.

Chung was cursing the fact that the warp drive needed to power up. He should have done so earlier. As he looked at the screen and saw the missile paths arcing towards them, he knew they were not going to make it. “Abandon Ship” he barked.

Retna had just got himself seated. He looked at Chung dismayed but he knew he must act and not question. He extracted himself out of the seat while Chung engaged the autopilot. He willed his tall frame through the hatch and down the main cabin. At the rear end was the corridor off of which were the two escape pods.

Chung was right behind him now and impatient to get into his pod. “Move Retna” he yelled.

Retna went for the far pod leaving the nearest to Chung. Chung was inside his and engaging the escape pod’s ejector while Retna struggled to squeeze himself into the pod. It had been designed for two rogan but it would barely accommodate him.

He closed the pod’s hatch even though his long right leg was still over the dividing panel between the two seats. His left shoulder and arm were pressed up tight against the wall and his head was crouched over and in contact with the ceiling. The automated warning system was speaking in rogan to him. He did not need a translation to realise that he had to launch now. He hit the launch button and shot out into space.

The pod was programmed to put as much distance as quickly as possible between it and the mother craft, while also avoiding the enemy craft and missiles. It was now hurtling at incredible speed at right angles to the Konkorda’s trajectory. Retna’s head was rubbing against the pod ceiling while he craned to see the screen in front of the seat. The Konkorda was destroyed under the impact of six missiles. But there were more missiles now and these were targeting the pods and the drone.

His only viable course of action was to kill the engines, kill all emissions and pray they lost him in the void of space. Only his right arm was free to reach the screen. The other was jammed in against the wall. He strained and punched the necessary commands. He was no longer accelerating but his momentum would continue.

He scrutinised the screen as best he could. He saw one missile explode near the probe but the probe continued. “Yes” said Retna out loud. But his elation was cut short when he realised Chung’s pod was still powering away. With dread he saw the missile hit Chung’s pod. He knew there was no hope for Chung. But his thoughts were not with his brother in arms but on the missile that had targeted his pod. He knew it would be trying to actively scan for him. He prayed his signature would be too small. It was.

However, the default action of the missile having reached the last known location of the target was to explode. It was almost three kms away but Retna felt the outside of his pod peppered with some shrapnel.

His heart was still pounding when the screen reported the anomaly. It only then dawned on Retna that he was not out of the woods yet.

Chapter 6. Konkorda Pod 2 in Qwantum, 2000, 25 July

‘They must have gone by now’ thought Retna. He tried to move his right arm but it did not respond, having gone numb with discomfort. He willed it to respond. Finally it moved after he shifted his weight a little.

He conducted a scan with his passive sensors. There seemed to be plenty of activity but no sign of the Fustus. ‘Time to reactivate the engines.’

He hit the control but got no response. He hit it again. Still no response. “No!” he yelled. He did a systems check and there it was – his engine control must have been hit by the shrapnel. “Fuck it!” he yelled.

He then scanned the media channels. “Damm it.” There was no broadcast from the drone. In fact there were no broadcasts on any channel bar one which was broadcasting a message about a system wide curfew.

A good minute later after the initial shock had passed he pondered his options. Sending out a signal would mean death or worse. He knew that if he were caught alive they would make him talk and he would be killed later anyway. He would not dishonour his name that way.

He checked his ship’s status and noted with alarm that instead of an outward trajectory the craft was now heading back towards the gas giant. He did not have the necessary sensors to confirm it but he knew that the device had succeeded in its purpose.

After a few more touches with his fingers the screen reported that the gravity from the gas giant would pull him in to a fatal conclusion in just over a month. He checked the survival stock. If he stayed awake he would run out of oxygen in just under three weeks. Going into cryo for two weeks would stretch it out just long enough. He then pondered whether to go into cryo now or later. ‘Better to die in my sleep’ he concluded.

‘I should have just stayed on board.’

Chapter 7. Resolute over Chelora 2300, 1 August

Captain Dave Warner, commander of the Federation Fleet Ship (FFS) Resolute lay horizontal and naked on his large bed in his cabin. Beside him lay his wife, Acting Captain Rihan Kabel, commander of the now captured Imperial Rogan Ship (IRS) Mailon. She was also naked and had a satisfied smile on her face.

“Now I know that was pretty good but you’re smiling about something else, aren’t you?” asked Dave.

Rihan turned her head and brushed back her long fair auburn hair. Her green eye peered out from behind the soft curl and with a twinkle she replied with a teasing expression “My ship IS bigger than yours.”

“Yeah but it lacks a stealth capability, is crewed mostly by rogan and its cabins are as a cramped as all hell.”

“Mmm…there is that.” She stretched out extending her feet and then spread her legs. She rolled over onto her side and hooked her topside leg over Dave’s body. She brought her head up close to his, her breasts resting on his chest. “I do like this bed.”

Dave shook his head. “You’re incorrigible.” With his left arm he grabbed her buttock and pulled her on top of him.

She arched her head back and shook her hair loose. With his free hand he gently pushed her hair back out of her eyes and caressed her cheek. She locked her eyes onto his. “Yes I am. But you like me that way don’t you?” She felt him being aroused. “See!”

Ten minutes later with an exhausted Dave sound asleep, Rihan lay on her back and her mind turned to tomorrow. The Kiev group was due in late morning and she would be returning to Polaris, back home and to a staff position at Polaris HQ.