The Slaver Wars: First Strike (The Slaver Wars Book Four) (26 page)

Smiling really
big and with a twinkle in her green eyes, Katie turned and pressed another
icon. Instantly, in the center of the room, a figure of a woman appeared. She
was slightly taller than Angela was, with dark eyes, shoulder length black hair,
and dressed in the full uniform of a fleet officer.

“Ariel!”
Angela screamed excitedly as she realized what Katie was up to.

The figure
turned to look at Angela with a look of confusion and then surprise as she
gazed about.

“Katie, how
are you doing this?” Ariel asked as she took several tentative steps in Katie’s
direction.

Katie turned
toward Ariel with a big grin on her face. “I have installed holographic
emitters throughout my quarters,” she replied, reaching up and moving a wayward
blonde curl from in front of her eyes. “I have written a new program that will
allow you to see everything from the hologram’s perspective, and I also set it
up so you can turn it on and off at will.”

Angela stood
up and, walking over to Ariel, reached out and touched her shoulder. She jumped
as her hand passed completely through it. “You look so real,” Angela said,
stepping back and gazing at the young woman in front of her.

“I really like
this,” Ariel said as she raised up her right hand and stared at it. “Thank you,
Katie!”

“You’re
welcome, Ariel,” responded Katie, feeling extremely pleased. “This is something
I have always wanted to do, but the technology just wasn’t there. In this new
day and age, it is.”

“Can we set
these emitters up anywhere else?” asked Ariel, realizing how great this would
be. She could interact with the crew much better this way.

“I’m going to
talk to Jeremy, but I would like to install them in the Command Center and the officer’s mess for now.”

Ariel nodded
as she walked slowly around Katie’s quarters. She marveled at how real this all
seemed. She knew now that she had been right so long ago when she had told
Jason Strong that Katie was something special.

“Now let’s all
sit down and talk,” suggested Katie, walking over and sitting down in a
comfortable chair. “You need to get used to associating with people in this new
way.”

Ariel nodded
and walked over to another chair. She hesitantly sat down and found it was no
problem whatsoever. Then she looked down and noticed that her right hand had
passed through the arm of the chair. She looked inquiringly at Katie.

“We may have
to modify the program a little,” Katie confessed as she watched Ariel. “It’s
bound to have a few bugs in it.”

“I think it’s
wonderful,” replied Ariel, looking over at Angela and Katie with a big smile.
“This is the best gift ever, Katie. How can I thank you?”

“Just continue
to watch over us,” answered Katie, nodding at Angela. “You seem to be very good
at that.”

Ariel smiled.
She would always watch over the Special Five. They were her connections to her
past, and they would always be important to her.

-

Jeremy watched
from the Command Center, a few hours later, as the Avenger entered a swirling
blue-white vortex. He felt the momentary queasiness as the ship jumped into
hyperspace, and then everything returned to normalcy.

Kelsey came to
stand next to Jeremy and asked a simple question. “How soon do you think it
will be before we launch First Strike?” The battle had made her nervous; all
the friends she had left at this time were on the Avenger. Even the few new friends
she had made on the ship would all be lost if something drastic happened.

Jeremy paused
for a moment. This battle had brought a lot of questions to his mind. He
thought about the personal messages his father and mother had left him. Perhaps
it would be a good idea for all of them to do some research just to see what
kind of family they still had living. It would give them a connection to home,
something they might need when they left to fight the Hocklyns.

“Probably four
to six weeks,” Jeremy answered in a quiet voice, his eyes focused on the main viewscreen,
which showed the swirling black and purple mass that was hyperspace.

He pressed a
button on his command console and the image vanished, to be replaced by one of
Ariel. Jeremy was surprised because Ariel looked as if she were preoccupied,
something he had never noticed before. Glancing over at Katie’s computer
console, he noticed an ensign was operating it. Whatever Katie was up to, he
was sure she was responsible for Ariel’s lack of attention to what was
happening in the Command Center. He had a sneaking suspicion he would
eventually find out, he just hoped it was nothing mind shattering. Then again,
this was Katie and mind shattering seemed to be the norm for her.

Then in a
quieter voice, that no one could overhear, Kelsey added. “When we get to New
Tellus and get everything sorted out, we’re going to spend some time at one of
the seaside resorts. I need a good tan and the beach will be perfect. It will
also be the last alone time you and I will have for quite sometime.”

“Sounds fine
to me,” Jeremy responded with a nod of his head.

It was hard to
be on the ship with Kelsey and keep his feelings for her hidden. Even though he
suspected that Colonel Malen knew what was going on. The colonel missed very
little of what went on aboard the Avenger.

-

The next day, Admiral
Streth was aboard New Tellus Station having a meeting with Fleet Admiral
Johnson and Admiral Teleck. They were discussing the battle above Caden’s
World. Admiral Teleck had arrived in the battle cruiser Ceres, which was his
flagship, so he could attend.

“I understand
why you held your ship units out as long as you did,” Admiral Teleck spoke. He
was totally in agreement with the need to send the Hocklyns a message, to enter
human space meant death!

“I know how
you feel about the Hocklyns,” Admiral Johnson spoke with a deep sigh. “But we
lost a lot of ships, ships we might need later.”

Hedon turned
to face Admiral Johnson with a deadly serious look upon his face. “Admiral, I
understand your concern. I hated sacrificing those ships as well, but you have
to understand the enemy we face. They understand one thing and one thing only
and that is brute force. From our latest count, we have eliminated four of
their fleets that were guarding the new fleet bases they are building. I don’t
expect those bases to be reinforced until they realize the fleets are not returning.
Even then, it will take them several months to receive new ships. By not
allowing a single Hocklyn ship to escape, we have ensured that we can strike
without warning and without having to worry about heavy Hocklyn fleet units
arriving shortly afterward. We will have months to prepare for the eventual counterattack
and that will occur at least six to eight hundred light years from the Federation.
That will buy you the time you need to finish your war preparations here.”

“Admiral
Streth’s right,” added Admiral Teleck, leaning back and folding his arms across
his chest. “I know it’s hard to talk about acceptable losses, but this battle
was necessary. The Hocklyns don’t know about us or what is coming at them. That
is absolutely necessary if we want Operation First Strike to succeed.”

Admiral
Johnson closed her eyes briefly and then opened them. She knew the two admirals
were right; it was just difficult to accept. “What were our final ship losses
from the battle?”

Rear Admiral
Bennett looked at his computer screen setting on the conference table in front
of him and called up the information.

“Our total
ship losses were four battle cruisers, two battle carriers, five Monarch heavy
cruisers, eleven light cruisers, and twenty destroyers.”

“Hocklyn
losses?” asked Admiral Johnson, grimacing at the loss of life on the destroyed
ships.

“Ninety-six
ships,” Bennett responded. “Eight dreadnoughts, twenty-four war cruisers, and
sixty-four escort cruisers.”

Admiral
Johnson nodded. She knew it was a decisive victory any way you looked at it.

She looked
over at Major Ackerman, seeking additional information. “What does Intelligence
have to say about all of this?”

Major Ackerman
looked around the group. “We believe all four of the fleets that the Hocklyns
used came from their primary base located 680 light years from here. We
recommend launching Operation First Strike as soon as possible to take
advantage of their ship losses.”

Admiral
Johnson looked over at Rear Admiral Stillson. “What have your scouts found,
anything new?”

“We have been
keeping about two hundred stealth scouts out at all times surveying Hocklyn
controlled space,” Stillson replied. Standing up, he walked over to a computer
console and, activating it, a detailed tactical hologram appeared.

A large area of
space six hundred light years from the Federation and extending back for about
four hundred light years and a thousand light years across began flashing in a
light yellow. Within that were a number of red and gold icons.

“The red icons
represent Hocklyn bases,” Stillson began. “There are twenty known Hocklyn bases
in this area. Six are toward the front of their expansion and pose the most danger.
One of these bases, this one here,” he pressed a button and one of the red
icons began flashing. “Is being heavily fortified. It was from this forward
base that the recent Hocklyn attack was launched. Whoever is in charge of this
base is no fool. He has built a substantial shipyard above a Tellus type planet
and is placing defensive satellites in orbit.”

“Is he
expecting an attack?” Admiral Teleck asked with a worried frown. “I have never
heard of Hocklyns using defensive satellites before.”

“We don’t know,”
Major Ackerman broke in. “We believe this base commander is deeply concerned
about what may be out past their controlled space. He’s taking no chances.”

Admiral
Stillson nodded, gesturing at the hologram. “If we can take out these bases
there are thirty-four slave worlds that we can free in this space.” Pressing
another button, all the gold icons began flashing.

Admiral Streth
nodded as he gazed thoughtfully at the display. “Then that’s what we will do.
We take that entire area of space from the Hocklyns and free those worlds!”

Hedon stood up
and walked over to the holographic display, gazing at it thoughtfully. “I want
to capture those six forward fleet bases,” he said after a moment.

“Capture them!”
Major Ackerman blurted out, surprised. “Why?”

“For our own
use,” explained Hedon, turning back around to stare at the group of officers.
“We fortify them and use those bases to control this area of space. We then let
the Hocklyns come to us. We can harass them all the way across the conquered
space until they reach the bases where we will have heavy defenses set up. We
will try to bleed them as much as possible before leading them to New Tellus
and their destruction.”

“Good strategy,”
spoke Teleck approvingly, looking over at the holo image. “But you will need a
lot of hyper detection buoys so you can spot the incoming. Even then, you might
not be able to locate them. They managed to sneak up on Caden’s World without
us detecting them.”

“I’m well
aware of that,” Hedon replied. It had taken them awhile to figure out how the
Hocklyns had managed that. “Colonel Grissim believes the Hocklyns were using
small nebulas and possibly dust clouds from which to jump their fleet.”

“That’s a
dangerous maneuver,” commented Admiral Teleck, arching his eyebrows. “One miscalculation
could have destroyed their ships.”

“Perhaps,”
Hedon said. “But keep in mind the Hocklyns have been navigating hyperspace like
this for thousands of years.”

“What are you
going to need to do all of this with besides the Ready Reserve?” asked Admiral
Johnson, suspecting she was about to get a new list from the Fleet Admiral.

She was
already beginning to feel uneasy about everything she had committed to this
operation, and now it sounded as if Admiral Streth wanted even more. She knew
she had no choice she never had. This operation had to succeed! The Federation
needed the extra time this operation would provide.

“Buoys, marines,
defensive satellites, and missile platforms.” replied Hedon, looking at Fleet Admiral
Johnson. “We’re going to need a lot of marines to take the bases and free those
planets.”

Admiral
Johnson leaned back, and her eyes narrowed as she thought of her choices.
“Would General Abercrombie do as commander for the marines?” she asked, looking
at Hedon.

“I think
General Abercrombie will do fine,” Hedon responded. From talking to the general
on Caden’s World, Hedon had been impressed by the man’s concerns for his people
as well as his professionalism. He was just the type of officer Hedon enjoyed
working with.

Admiral
Johnson turned to look at Admiral Freeman. “How soon before the Ready Reserve
is updated and ready to deploy?”

Freeman
checked a computer screen, calling up several different sets of data. “We are
ahead of schedule,” he announced. “We will have to repair the damage to the ships
in the battle at Caden’s World but the fleet should be ready to deploy in three
more weeks.”

“How soon
after that can we launch Operation First Strike?” Johnson asked Admiral Streth.
This was a question that President Kincaid wanted an answer to as well. The
entire Federation was on pins and needles after the battle with the Hocklyns
above Caden’s World.

“Three weeks
after,” replied Hedon, confidently. “I would like to have more time, but the
sooner we strike, the better,”

“Very well
then,” said Admiral Johnson, standing up. “I will inform President Kincaid and
the Federation Council that we launch the operation in six weeks. Are there any
objections?”

Everyone was
silent.

-