Starship Conquistador (Conquest of Stars Book 1) (14 page)

Commodore Raptor helped Antrar into his own
personal quarters and then offered him a sofa for respite. Antrar sat down on
the sofa and set his broken ankle on the extension in front of him and placed
his hands behind his head. Raptor poured both of them a couple glasses of
whiskey and handed Antrar one of them.

    “Liquor is perhaps the oldest
painkiller used by man,” Raptor said.

    “I will drink to that,” Antrar raised
the glass, “and to your first victory.”

    “Thanks,” Raptor said, “but how is your
pain?”

    “Medical Officers have lowered it down
to just a discomfort,” Antrar said, “Better that way though. I don’t want to
make it worse by use.”

    “Good, now what is it that couldn’t be
said in front of my officers,” Raptor asked, still standing and twirling his
glass in his hand, “the officers in the command room are authorized for very
high level of secrets.”

    “I know that,” Antrar said sitting up
straight, “But I don’t have a secret to share, only a suspicion and if I were
to utter it there it could spread like wildfire across this spaceship.”

    “What is it?” Raptor asked.

    “Secured the room fully?” Antrar asked
looking around.

    “You didn’t notice as I was helping you
to the sofa,” Raptor said, “I have made it sound proof, even though it already
is by default.”

    “There may be five or six spacefaring
powers in this galaxy,” Antrar began, “who would even dare to take a swing at
us. We are the most powerful empire in our galaxy and less than 35% of the
galaxy remains unexplored. I fought one of those empires at the Battle of
Kalahar and I spent my days studying tactics and strategies of the rest of
them. This ambush doesn’t mesh with any of their fingerprints.”

    “Could be an opportunistic swing at
us?” Raptor said, “they know that by the time Sixth Frontier Fleet gets here,
they could easily have disappeared back into deep space.”

     “Could be,” Antrar said, “But I don’t
buy that. The ambush spot they picked, their weaponry, their battle tactics,
hell they followed my textbook to the hilt, one that is a state secret, their
refusal to communicate, not launching spacefighter attack, all of it leads to a
disturbing conclusion.”

    “That they suspiciously sound like our own?”
Raptor asked.

    “So you are thinking those thoughts
too?” Antrar said.

    “Com Antrar, you are a war hero,”
Raptor said.

    “Now you are too,” Antrar said.

    “We will see, it’s not over yet,”
Raptor said, “But you are the type of man whose life will be made into a
holographic vision and shown to children. The Starfire Hero, the man in the
line of the legends like Commander Krratyk and Colonel Ryptar: the man our
nation used to call Iron Heart. You are duty and honor.”

    “I don’t know…” Antrar said.

    “But I am just an average officer,”
Raptor said, “I like Starfire Empire and I like the Starfire Army, but I don’t
think we are all honor and heroism. We have thieves, scammers, smugglers in our
forces, even conspirators. I would not put it past someone higher up to try to
botch our mission.”

    “You may think I view our entire Army
and the State with rosy glasses,” Antrar said, “but I don’t.”

    “I had to know,” Raptor said.

    “You have anyone in mind whom you
suspect?” Antrar asked.

    Raptor felt uncertain and hesitated for
a few moments. It seemed unlikely that Antrar was the spy him and Tollvyk were
suspecting. Indeed the strange fight that he had with the imposter and his
presence during the whole of the battle during which he could have been killed
made it very likely that he was genuine and the imposter was the spy. He had to
take the risk of taking him into confidence. There was also the great benefit
of having a war hero on his side.

    “Regional Star Commander Carvyk
Botlar,” Raptor said slowly but seriously.

    “Hmmm…” Antrar leaned back again and
his eyes widened with concern, “the Army takes great pains to make sure our own
Starships and their weapons don’t mistakenly strike our own spaceships. Or even
an intentional strike by a malcontent. There are mechanical, electronic,
robotic, procedural, programmatic and sensor based fail-safes to prevent our
Starships from attacking each other. The number of individuals who can override
those mechanisms in any given region of space can be counted on fingers and the
Regional Star Commander would be one of them.”

    “So you too…”

    “Not just yet,” Antrar said, “I don’t
know much about Commander Carvyk. I want to hear your reasoning.”

    Raptor told him about the conversation
they had with Com. Carvyk as well as the assassination attempt on Nestor’s
representative.

    “I got the feeling that Carvyk didn’t
want to dispatch any fleet for this mission,” Raptor said.

    “Perhaps he disagrees with aiding
Nestorians in their battle,” Antrar said, “But I can’t believe any Starfirians
would go as far as attacking their own Starship to prevent that from
happening.”

    “He also let the assassin escape,”
Raptor said.

    “What?” Antrar almost jumped up from
the sofa but then remembered his ankle, “the assassin was shot dead by the
rocket troops that guard his palace.”

    “No,” Raptor said, “he was on the moon
that orbits Bravo. I was assigned to Starship Victory at the time and we were
parked in the orbit and tracked the assassin’s flight as his spaceship made off
from the moon and ran for the frontier.”

    “Are you sure about that?” Antrar
asked.

    “Never seen a private spaceship gun it
that fast out of the system. I was the VC of Victory and my Commodore asked
permission to intercept and seize,” Raptor said, “as Army Starship we can’t
just grab a fellow Starfirian’s spaceship out of the blue but Commander Carvyk
denied us the permission. I didn’t think much about it at that moment because
he could have meant for one of the Starships patrolling the frontiers to stop
it. But it just kept going on our long range gravitron scanner, across the
frontier, into deep space, headed towards’ the Pirates Heaven.”

    “That means there were two assassins,”
Antrar said, “because I saw the official announcement about the assassin found
in the orbital resort hotel. Whoever was behind it must have sent the second as
a backup but the inferior one jumped the gun and botched it for both of them.”

    “Inferior one?” Raptor said.

    “Silencer is one of the best assassins,
and we are lucky that he didn’t take the shot because his laser would have
penetrated that shield,” Antrar said.

    “Silencer?” Raptor was becoming more
puzzled and Antrar laughed at this realization.

    “I know a bit more about Silencer,”
Antrar said, “Army used him once to take out an enemy spy that had gotten his
hands on one of our military secrets but was on a neutral world where we
couldn’t fly in with our Starships and lasers blazing. The long range laser
shot from space, even as far away as a moon, in his specialty. It had to be him
you saw on your scanner high tailing it to the Pirates Heaven. He is an honored
guest there, what with having shot a few witnesses that could identify pirate
leaders.”

     “This ship has enough firepower to
blast every asteroid in Pirates Heaven to bits,” Raptor said, “too bad I can’t
turn around Conquistador and fly there.”

    “But I can,” Antrar said.

    “You?” Raptor said.

    “I was loaned the fastest spaceship my
company owned,” Antrar said, “and Silencer won’t risk leaving his hideout till
the matters have cooled. I can catch him there.”

    “What about your injury?” Raptor asked.

    “I will get the pain reduced down to
zero before I leave,” Antrar said, “I will put a boot cast on that leg and will
get it operated after I reach our space.”

    “And what about your work?” Raptor
asked.

    “It can wait,” Antrar smiled, “If you
do decide to run a battle test of the plasma weapon, just hold on to the data
and the simulated test conditions. I have a feeling our journey together has
just begun. We will be meeting again in the future and hopefully it will be
before the House of War. I can get a direct appointment with Supreme Commander
and once I gather evidence from Silencer that is exactly who I plan to call
upon.”

    “You are going straight to the top,”
Raptor said.

    “It is that kind of a matter,” Antrar
said, “one Starfire Imperial ship firing on another intentionally and
purposefully could be a sign of a mutiny or much worse like a future rebellion
in the ranks.”

    “Too bad there is no way to test our
hypothesis conclusively,” Raptor said.

    “Actually there is, and I was just
going to recommend it to you,” Antrar said.

    “I can’t think of any,” Raptor said.

    “There is one fail-safe mechanism that
cannot be overridden even by a Regional Star Commander because dismantling it
would require lots of machinists and welders running around in a Starship with
large machines and torches. It would attract attention and draw notice of the
high command,” Antrar said, “It is not to prevent weapons misfire, but starship
collision.”

    “Electromagnetic Polar Collision
Aversion System,” Raptor shook his head, “don’t tell me that you want me to try
to ram my Starship into one of the two remaining ones.”

    “Far from me to tell a commander of his
ship what to do,” Antrar said, “I can just recommend, but the decision is
yours.”

    “What are the benefits?” Raptor asked.

    “An irrefutable proof,” Antrar said,
“We have circumstantial evidence so far and even though it is solid, it is not
conclusive. The Army will appoint its top level detectives to investigate and
the perpetrators will have time to maneuver. But if the Polar Collision System
kicks in to avoid the crash that is hard, scientific, material evidence that we
were attacked by another Starfire ship. House of War will have to move in
decisively with force to take direct control of these frontier regions.”

    “But if we are wrong and there is a
crash?” Raptor asked.

    “The manufacturers build in other
collision avoidance systems into spaceships and this should have multiple
ones,” Antrar said, “then there is the ship’s AI. It will pull away at the last
moment.”

    “And if it doesn’t, I am not certain
our shield can hold,” Raptor said.

    “Your call,” Antrar said, “risky as it
is, it settles the question of our enemies’ identities.”

    “If we do this, we will first have to
take VC Barryett and a few more officers into confidence,” Raptor, “I don’t
want to rely upon just their discipline.”

    “Of course,” Antrar said, “We should
only attempt it once we reach the inside of the Star System. The lower speeds
will make the collision less likely and less deadly if it happens. That gives
you time to talk to a few handpicked officers one on one.”

    “When do you leave for the Pirates
Heaven?” Raptor asked.

    “I am going to see this through with
you,” Antrar said, “But right afterward, have one of your trusted officers
escort me to my spaceship in the guise of helping me back to my quarters. You must
have a high ranking officer abroad with authority to release my spaceship who
was your friend and came in from Starship Victory?”

     “Yes, Col. Tollvyk,” Raptor said, “He
was the first one to suspect Com. Carvyk of playing a shadowy game. I will have
him help you to the containment bay.”

    “I thought Col. Tollvyk was your
friend,” Antrar chuckled, “If he was my rocket officer, I would have
disciplined him for his combative attitude.”

    Raptor laughed and said, “he has been
disciplined for his attitude a couple of times by Victory’s commodore.”

    “On the other hand, you need an
aggressive fellow on your primary weapons system,” Antrar said, “Now if you
will help me to the medical station, I can get a boot cast made and put upon my
leg.”

    “Let’s go,” Raptor said, “Then we will
try that stunt.”

    Raptor helped Antrar to his feet and
gave him support till the medical station that was within walking distance of
the officers’ quarters.

Spyship pilot Roofus Bolfus stretched his
arms, yawned and turned on the auto-pilot on his command console. Roofus was a
man in his early forties with a long mustache and curly hair. He had been one
of the top spacefighter pilots in his younger days, attached to the Battleship
Republic no less, and had been handpicked by General Bakus to be the pilot of
their latest spy ship. This spaceship had no name and was simply known by its
designation NR-22.

     He was glad to get this spaceship back
from VC Remus who had promptly returned it after his secret trip. He had access
to the flight data onboard NR-22’s computers and while he was not supposed to
he could not resist the urge. VC Remus had flown all the way to Starfire space,
no doubt to appeal for protection. Meanwhile, Roofus was back in the
operations, trying to collect more information about the mysterious aliens that
were attacking them.

    Amongst all the spy ship pilots he had
gone the furthest. He had finally made it to the solar system of the first
planet of these mysterious aliens that was populated. It was 87 light years
away from the outermost border of Nestorian Space. But before Roofus could
collect any more data he had been chased off by the alien battleships.

    The alien battleships could easily
exceed the 2,500 light speed that was the absolute-max of his own spaceship but
he had managed to evade pursuit each time. Due to their size they could only
sustain speeds above for a certain duration while he could make the whole trip
at his safe-max speed of 2,000 light years, the speed he was holding constant
now.

     This time General Bakus wanted some
data. The last battle, while not a disaster, had not gone well for Nestorians.
If they were to win decisively they had to acquire more knowledge and this ship
had been outfitted to the brim with the latest sensors available for this
mission.

    He had traveled 47 light years and had
40 more to go. It would be a week before he reached his destination. However
this time he planned on sneaking in by using the gravity of the large objects
in the system to mask his own approach. His sensors would need just a few
minutes to sweep the planet and grab a lot of the valuable information. As he
was contemplating his approach he fell asleep and was awoken a few hours later
by an alarm going off.

    “What happened?” he asked no one in
particular.

    His long range gravitron scanner
displayed a cluster of dots on the screen. He counted about six of them but the
computer algorithm had analyzed the data points and broken them into 15
different entities with their own distinct if subtle signatures.

    If they were grouped together so
closely, they must have arrayed themselves in a battle formation, Roofus
thought. They were traveling at 1,000 light speed and when Roofus tasked the
computer to plot their probable course, a straight line to Nestorian Space
appeared on the screen.

    This could be the larger invasion force
that General Bakus had been fearing. He had to find a way to get closer to them
and engage his sensors without giving himself away. He tasked the computer
attached to the gravitron scanner to search and identify large, material
objects near the probable path of the alien spaceships. The computer spit out
multiple results and he found one of them promising.

    It was a large comet and if the cluster
of spaceships kept their path they would pass the comet close enough for his
sensors to pick up their signals. He changed the plot of his spaceship towards
that comet and took it off the auto-pilot to fly it there himself.

    He accelerated his spaceship to the top
speed of 2,500 lights and felt the vibrations reverberate across the ship. But
the distance wasn’t far and the journey to the comet was short. He had done
this before many times and he dexterously maneuvered his spaceship onto the
comet while decelerating and brought it to a dead stop as he landed on the
surface. The comet was approximately fifty times bigger than his ship, was made
of a raggedy rocky surface with small craters – evidences of past collisions
with other comets – and had an icy tail of frozen methane.

    Landing small spaceships on comets,
asteroids and assorted space debris was part of the training and standard
operating procedure for a space spy. That is how spy ships monitored the
travels of the enemy battleships without being detected. They shut down their
engines to avoid getting picked up by the electronic scanners and the larger
gravity of the object shielded the spy ship from detection on the gravitron
scanners.

    Roofus waited patiently on the comet
with his engines shut, his lights off and his sensors tuned. He watched the
cluster get nearer on the gravitron scanner and slowly the dots expanded: six
became eight then twelve and then fifteen as they came closer. The computer was
right after all. The fifteen battleships passed the comet by in less than a
second. Much less than a second. That was how long the sensors had to pick up
any signals sent in between the ships and any signals inside the ships that
might leak and fray across space.

    Roofus checked his signal collection
computer and it spit out a sequence of unintelligible garbled mathematical
symbols on his screen. This was not a surprise. They had no knowledge of these
aliens and their electronic protocols and methods. He looked at the size of the
signal data file and this satisfied him. Even in far less than a microsecond
the sensors had collected enough data to fill up an entire normal computer’s
memory. But if this signal could be descrambled and understood there was only
one place in Nestorian Republic where it could be done: Whisper Station.

    But now he had a choice to make. He had
to warn General Bakus and Nestorians about the invasion force that would reach
them in two weeks’ time. He could beam the signal and continue onward. But if
the alien battleships had their own signal sensors they could pick it up and
try to jam it. He wasn’t that far away from the battleships for his signal to
bypass them by a wide margin. Or he could try to outrun them, get ahead of them
and then send a signal. But there was a risk of getting caught.

     He had to take the risk to make sure
the signal reached Nestorians. He could not take the other risk of leaving them
unwarned. The dangers of that were too terrible to contemplate.

    He made up his mind and with a stern
determination, fired up his thrusters and accelerated away from the comet and
away from the battleships. He would first try to flank them and then resume his
route to Nestorian Space.

    But even with his spaceship rushing
away from the battleships their long range scanners apparently picked him up
and one of the battleships broke off from the formation and took off after him.
Roofus switched full power to the engines and accelerated to the top speed of
2,500 lights. Amazingly the humongous spaceship that was approximately 15 miles
long also accelerated over 2,000 lights and steadily kept gaining speed.    

    When it was at 2,300 lights, Roofus
prepared his signal for transmission. He encrypted and concentrated it, then
encoded it over the gravity waves that could “tunnel” through space, and beamed
it off to the Whisper Station and another copy to Bakus’ command at the
Battleship Republic.

    He took a sigh of relief after his
signal was beamed and he was sure that it was out of the range for any jamming
device abroad the alien battleships. But his relief was short lived as the
battleship chasing him accelerated to 2,500 lights and went beyond hitting
2,600 and 2,700 lights in no time and closing in on him. His spaceship was
physically incapable of going faster even though it was the fastest Nestorian
spacecraft.

    Then his spaceship started rapidly
decelerating and his first thought was that his engine was finally coming off
at seams. But the computer displayed no warnings. He came to the conclusion
that the alien ship was utilizing some form of a magnetic beam and suctioning
his spaceship.

    A few minutes later his ship was pulled
into a large and empty bay of the alien battleship and he saw sharp blue lights
on the ceiling and a gray metallic floor and walls around him. There were no
aliens nor robots and they were probably remotely analyzing his ship. He had
heard of the crew of the other Nestorian vessels getting abducted and no one
had ever made it back. He took out his laser pistol and checked the charge, it
was full and he was going to go down fighting.

    “What is the latest update from the
Whisper Station?” General Bakus asked his signals officer Porkus Bellus. Porkus
Bellus was a fat man with big saggy piggy cheeks, curly hair, round eyes and
thick glasses laying low on the bridge of his nose.

    “Nothing general,” Porkus said, “They
still haven’t been able to decipher the alien signal.”

    “Damn it,” Bakus said. He was pacing
back and forth on the bridge of Battleship Republic where he had received the
signal from spy pilot Roofus whom he had sent on a deep space expedition to
retrieve data from the aliens. Republic was undergoing extensive repairs in the
orbit of Planet Hope, one of the centers of spaceship manufacturing in
Nestorian Republic.

    Two of them were the lone Army
personnel on the Republic now while workers and technicians worked round the
clock to restore it to its original condition. Bakus was due at Nestor to meet
with Remus; instead he had rushed to the Republic after hearing about the
signal and asked Remus to join him there.

    “General, deciphering the signals of a
new alien civilization into meaningful data usually takes the work of entire
university departments spread over many years,” Porkus said, “Whisper Station
is throwing everything they can at it, but it is the first signals from these
aliens. They have no references to cross check.”

    “We don’t have many years, we don’t
even have many weeks,” Bakus said, “The part of the signal in our language
makes clear that Roofus picked up 15 battleships steaming away over 1,000 light
speed at us. We will need every edge in the coming battle.”

    “VC Remus’s ship just docked,” Porkus
said.

    “Tell him to meet me in the officers’
quarters,” Bakus said, “he is familiar with this spaceships layout.”

    Bakus exited the bridge, hailed a
hovercraft and made it to officers’ quarters just in time to find VC Remus
pouring himself a glass of water. The quarters were much nearer from the
docking bay and were completely empty except for them two.

    “Where is everybody?” Remus said, “All
I see are welders but none of your crew.”

    “Sent everyone from officers to cooks
down to Hope for one last furlough,” Bakus said, “I have shifted repairs to top
gear and didn’t want the repair crew and ship crew stumbling into each other. I
also want my soldiers well rested and to enjoy what could be their last days,
speaking bluntly.”

    “It’s that bad?” Remus asked.

    “Fifteen battleships,” Bakus said, “I
had said they couldn’t have had only twelve capital ships since their populated
planets are so far away in space.”

    “Planets? We have spotted only one
planet,” Remus said.

    “What spacefaring civilization do you
know that can field multiple battleships from the resources of just one
planet?” Bakus asked, “None I know of.”

    Remus shook his head in negative,”
neither do I.”

    “They must be at least a 15 – 20 planet
spanning empire,” Bakus said, “but we can analyze them in leisure once Whisper
Station deciphers their signals that Roofus sent us. I called you here to
discuss the looming battle.”

    “This will be the big one huh?” Remus
said.

    “No doubt they are throwing their major
force against us,” Bakus said, “And we will have to respond with most of ours
to stand a chance.”

    “What do you need from me?” Remus
asked.

    “Everything,” Bakus said, “I need you
to convince the Chancellor to give me direct command of our entire battleship
fleet. I am going to throw everything at this battle. If we don’t win this, we
will lose a large part of our space.”

    “All the battleships under one
general?” Remus thought and scratched his chin, “That is going to take some
convincing.”

    “Not once he hears their target,” Bakus
grinned wickedly.

    “Do you know?” Remus asked.

    “I have guessed: Nestor,” Bakus
replied.

    “That would be terrible,” Remus was
taken aback and he poured himself another glass of water, “but how can we be
certain of that?”

    “We can’t but it is the obvious move,”
Bakus said, “Their battleships are significantly faster than ours. We can’t
catch them in deep space. Only inside the solar system where the gravity fields
severely reduce operational speeds their advantage is significantly diluted.
With our Starfire Cannon destroyed, they can pick and choose the star system
they want to fight us in.”

    “Why not pick off one or two
battleships in the outlying systems and then run back for another strike?”
Remus asked.