The Star Cross (23 page)

Kurt thought
about it for a moment. The shipyard needed that energy shield. One well-placed
hypermissile and the entire structure would be toast. “Do it,” he ordered. While
he felt confident he could protect Newton Station, he didn’t want to take the
risk of losing everything due to a single missile slipping through their
defenses.

“Does it
matter which destroyer?” asked Colonel Hayworth.

“Use the
Callisto
,”
suggested Kurt, as he mentally went over the destroyers under his command.
“She’s one of the newer ones, and its emitters should be the easiest to
modify.”

Hayworth
nodded and turned toward Lieutenant Vargas, who was the station’s traffic
controller. “Lieutenant, have the
Plymouth
brought into the repair bay
and have the munitions specialists present unload and store its cargo. Then
contact Captain Deming on the
Callisto
. I want that destroyer in the
repair bay as soon as the
Plymouth
exits.”

“Yes, sir,”
replied Lieutenant Vargas, as he contacted the captain of the cargo ship.

“Colonel, the
Carlsbad
has entered the construction bay,” reported Lieutenant Jeannine Haley
from her sensor station.

Hayworth
nodded. “I’ll have a shuttle take the necessary missiles from the
Plymouth
to the two battlecruisers, along with a work crew to get the systems
working correctly.”

“We’ll leave
you to your work,” Kurt said satisfied with the progress Colonel Hayworth was
making. “Let me know if there are any problems with the missiles or the
Callisto
.
I’m also giving Captain Marsh’s crew a forty-eight-hour leave. Can you make the
necessary arrangements to transport them to Newton?”

“There won’t
be any problems, and I’ll make the transportation arrangements immediately,”
promised Hayworth as he saw another engineer with a confused look enter the Command Center.

-

Kurt made his
way to the medical center to find Keera explaining to several doctors what had happened
to Private Dulcet.

“What did this
mind probe do to her?” Kurt asked, after listening for a few moments.

“If used too
long, it can scramble the pathways in the brain used to recall memories. The
best way to explain it is to say, everything is just jumbled up. For instance,
if she were to smell a flower, she might instead think about the color blue.”

“If her
memories are that bad, how did she manage to function in the pleasure house where
Grantz found her?” Kurt still found it disgusting what Private Dulcet had been
forced to endure. This was bound to have a profound effect on the rest of her
life.

“The Dacroni
used another illegal device, which implants a new personality in her short-term
memory.”

“Is there any
way to bring back her old memories?”

“Yes.” Keera sighed.
“It’s complicated. She will need to be exposed to familiar stimuli, and, over
time, her old memories should gradually reestablish their normal neural
pathways. She needs to have visits from family or people who know her well. If
they just sit and talk to her and describe some of the things they’ve done
together, it will help.”

It sounded to
Kurt as if Private Dulcet had a long road ahead of her. At least she was back
home and safe. “Can you come with me to the surface of Newton?” Kurt asked. “I promise
to have you back here within twenty-four hours.”

“That won’t be
necessary, Admiral,” one of the doctors said. “We’re transferring Private
Dulcet to Newton to one of the better medical centers. They can give her the
type of personalized treatment and care she needs. I’m afraid that, as her old memories
return and she realizes what went on at the pleasure house, she may have some
other mental issues.”

“I’ll help get
her situated,” Keera said. “Then, once I’m sure she’s safe, we can talk.”

Kurt nodded.
Even though he wanted to talk to Keera, she was correct in making sure that
Private Dulcet was taken care of first. The young Marine private was much more
important business to deal with.

-

On his way to
his shuttle, Kurt stopped by the construction bay, where the
Carlsbad
was fastened to the metal deck as a safety precaution. Large magnetic grapples
were attached to the bottom side of the large eight-hundred-meter-long exploration
ship. In hindsight, the North American Union had probably made a mistake in not
arming the exploration ships more heavily.

The
construction bay was full of dockworkers. Many were moving equipment to the
ship, and some were already busy installing scaffolding. It was sad to know
that all five exploration ships were now being converted for war. Even when
this was all over, if it ever was, the people of Earth and Newton would never
look at the galaxy the same again. If they did explore in the future, it would
be with heavily armed ships and probably as part of a small fleet formation.

With a deep
sigh, Kurt turned to go to his shuttle. He had a few more things to take care
of, and then he would head to Newton. It was time to introduce Keera to Denise.
He also needed to meet with Governor Spalding and General Mclusky one more
time. There was no doubt in Kurt’s mind that it might be a while before he
could afford personal time on the planet again. He had a prickly feeling on the
back of his neck that the Profiteer attack would happen sooner rather than
later.

-

Late that
afternoon Kurt walked to the door of his sister’s house with Keera following
nervously behind.

“Your world is
so strange,” the young woman said, as she looked curiously around her. “You
have no Controllers. Most of your people are unarmed, and there’s no pollution.
I can’t believe how clear the air is. It’s actually safe to breathe!”

Kurt allowed
himself to laugh. He had picked up Keera at the medical center and then taken
her on a quick tour of the capital, finally ending up at his sister’s house.
“I’m glad you came to Newton.”

“Really?”
asked Keera, her gaze shifting to Kurt. “I wasn’t sure if you would want to see
me again. After all we only had that one evening together.”

“I definitely
wanted to see you again,” Kurt assured her. “I planned on seeing you again when
I returned to Kubitz.”

The door to
the house opened, and Denise stood there with a big smile on her face. “Hello,”
she said. “I’m Denise, Kurt’s younger sister. You must be Keera.”

Keera looked
slightly embarrassed and nodded her head. “I hope I’m not intruding.”

“No way,” Denise
said, indicating for them to come inside. “I’m fixing one of Kurt’s favorite
meals.”

Kurt led Keera
into the living room, where a wide-eyed Bryan waited in ambush.

“Are you an
alien?” he asked excitedly, walking up to Keera and examining her from head to
toe.

Keera laughed
and slowly shook her head. “No, I’m just as human as you are.”

Bryan nodded with a disappointed look on his face. “I was hoping you had a tail or extra
arms.”

Sitting down
on the sofa next to Kurt, Keera looked at Bryan. “There are actually aliens who
have tails and two sets of arms.”

“Really?” said
Bryan, his eyes shining with excitement. “Can you tell me about them?”

“We can talk
about aliens later,” Denise said, as she sat down across from Kurt and Keera. “Bryan, why don’t you go outside and wait for your dad? He should be home shortly.”

Bryan ran outside and took a watchful lookout on the front porch.

“You have a
good-looking son,” commented Keera, shifting her focus back to Denise. “On
Kubitz the children stay indoors most of the time.”

“Thank you,” Denise
replied. “Kurt says you’re a medical doctor?”

“Yes, I
attended the medical training center on Karash, which is one of the more enlightened
worlds and a considerable distance from the Gothan Empire.”

“Why did you
go to Kubitz? I understand that world is very dangerous.”

“I wanted to
treat different humanoid species, and there are more on Kubitz than anywhere
else in the galaxy. I went there with my brother, and we ended up staying.”

“Where’s your brother
now?” asked Kurt. He had forgotten that Keera had an older brother.

Keera sighed
and looked disappointed. “He works for one of the larger Profiteer groups,
helping to sell the items they bring to Kubitz.”

“The
Profiteers,” said Denise, as she looked sharply at her brother.

“A different
group than took over Earth,” Kurt quickly said. He realized he really wanted
Denise to like Keera.

Denise nodded.
“What was it like to live on Kubitz?”

Keera explained
what her life had been like as a medical doctor on the diverse planet, while Kurt
listened. He found her revelations highly interesting. He was pleased that
Denise seemed to be going out of her way to be friendly to Keera. For tonight,
he would just enjoy being with Keera and his sister’s family. Once he returned
to orbit, he might not have another opportunity for quite some time.

High Profiteer
Creed sat in his command chair and glared at the
Ascendant Destruction
’s
main viewscreen, which showed the blue-white world it was orbiting. The latest
news from the last convoy he had sent to Kubitz fueled his anger. It seemed the
humans were buying every captive he sent to sell on the planet.

“Twenty
million credits this time!” he swore in a loud voice, glaring at Second
Profiteer Lantz. “Added to the forty million for the first two groups.”

Lantz took a
step back and then responded. “They paid it to our representatives on Kubitz.”
His large eyes waited for Creed’s response. “We still made credits off the
deal.”

“With gold
that should have been ours, not exchanging it for the slaves,” rumbled Creed, standing
and striding to the front of the Command Center to stare at the viewscreen.
“All over this planet, they’ve either hidden their gold reserves or sent it to
their colony world, and who knows how much they’ve deposited with the
Controllers in our own empire.”

“They pay up
when we threaten them,” Lantz pointed out. “Only last week the leaders of Japan turned over two hundred bars of gold and ten thousand carats in gems.”

High Profiteer
Creed turned toward Lantz, his light-blue-colored skin turning darker. “I
believe most of the gold on this planet has been sent to their colony world.”

“Then let’s go
take it,” suggested Second Profiteer Lantz. His eyes glowing with greed.

“We shall,”
Creed replied. He would need the Dacroni clan leader’s battleships if he wanted
to take the colony. “I’ll contact Jarls and tell him it’s time to move on the
colony world. He has agreed to 40 percent of the gold we find. That will give
him the necessary encouragement and incentive to risk his battleships in the
attack.”

“Forty percent
is a lot,” Lantz pointed out discontentedly. “He might do it for less.”

“No, Jarls won’t
settle for less,” Creed responded. “We need to plan an attack to hold our
losses to a minimum.”

“The humans
can’t have much of a fleet,” Lantz said, his large eyes narrowing. “We know
they have the one battlecruiser and six or eight escorts. I say we just jump in
with some of our ships and half the Dacroni battleships, wipe them out, and
then take over the colony. If the gold is on the human colony world, it
shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

“What about
that truly large ship that was in their shipyard?” Creed responded, not fully
confident Lantz’s plan was practical or economical. He looked at another
screen, which showed the partially disassembled human station. He had wanted to
finish that ship, and sell it and its technology to the arms dealers on Kubitz.
“What if they’ve managed to complete it?”

“The Dacroni
will destroy it,” Lantz said confidently. “Remember how the humans fled when we
returned with the Dacroni battleships? They may even flee from their colony
world, once they see we’ve brought the battleships with us. As for that large
ship, I doubt that the colony world has the resources to commit to finishing
its construction, considering the costs of buying back their people.”

“I wouldn’t be
so sure,” replied Creed, letting out a deep and frustrated breath. Creed
pointed to the viewscreen, which still showed the blue-white globe of Earth. “We’re
meeting constant resistance to our every demand. These humans aren’t like other
races we’ve subdued in the past.”

“We could make
examples of some of their cities,” suggested Lantz. “A few well-placed nukes would
be the proper encouragement.”

High Profiteer
Creed was silent for a long moment. He had renewed Clan Leader Jarls’s contract
for a second ninety-day period, and it already looked as if it would be necessary
to renew it for a third time. Each time he did so, it was more costly. It was
essential he get the gold from the colony world.

“Contact Clan
Leader Jarls and tell him that I want to meet. It’s time we paid this colony
world a visit.”

-

President
Mayfield was once more in the situation room with Fleet Admiral Tomalson and
General Braid.

“What’s going
on now?” asked Mayfield in a tired voice. He had a pounding headache from all
the stress he had been under. It was all they could do to keep the civilian
population from revolting against the Profiteers. Already a few isolated
incidents had occurred with well-armed civilians ambushing the aliens and even
killing a few of them.

Over the last
few weeks, the tension across the planet had mounted. After the attacks in South Africa and Australia, the entire planet was on edge. Mayfield feared, if there was one more major
incident, the lid could blow off everything. He and his Cabinet had even talked
about evacuating the major cities, but the sheer magnitude of such an operation
was too daunting. If word were sent to evacuate, the civilian population would
panic. More people would die leaving the cities than if a Profiteer nuclear missile
struck.

“Some of the Profiteer
ships and Dacroni battleships are moving from Earth orbit,” reported defensive
coordinator Colonel Stidham, gesturing toward a sensor screen with numerous red
threat icons encircling Earth.

They all
watched as a large group of ships assembled and accelerated away from the
planet.

“Are they
leaving?” asked Mayfield, his eyes lighting up with hope. Perhaps the
Profiteers had given up on collecting the remaining gold and other valuables
still on Earth, grown tired of the people’s resistance and disappointed in not
finding as much gold as the aliens had hoped.

Fleet Admiral
Tomalson shook his head. “I think they’re preparing to attack Newton. It looks
as if two Profiteer battlecruisers, six of their escort ships, and ten Dacroni battleships
are forming an attack fleet.”

“Can we get
word to the
Vindication
?” asked Mayfield, looking at the fleet admiral.
He knew the light carrier was hiding out in the Kuiper Belt.

“I’m sure
Captain Watkins has already detected the ship movements. He’ll recognize it for
what it is and will jump into hyperspace, so he can warn Fleet Admiral
Vickers.”

“How many
fleet personnel have we sent to the
Newton Princess
so far?” asked
Mayfield. Over the last few weeks the military—still under their control—had
fanned out across the North American Union, seeking the individuals who Fleet
Admiral Vickers needed.

Fleet Admiral
Tomalson looked at the president. “Nearly 1,400.”

“All fleet personnel?”
asked Mayfield. He knew that most of them had families on Earth. That’s why
they had stayed originally and not gone to Newton during the evacuation.

“Fleet or at
least military,” replied the admiral. “We promised most of them that we would
get their families off Earth shortly, plus look to their well-being until we
could do so.”

“They’re
preparing to jump,” Colonel Stidham said, as the enemy fleet accelerated
rapidly away from Earth. Several alarms sounded, and then the red threat icons
on the sensor screen blinked out one by one.

“They’ve
jumped,” Stidham said, shifting his gaze to the president.

President
Mayfield looked at the remaining red threat icons on the sensor screen. “It’s a
shame we don’t have some way to take out those ships while their fleet’s
reduced.”

“We couldn’t
take out even one of their ships with our planet-based weapons, as long as
their energy shield is up,” General Braid said, folding his arms across his
chest. “However, with that many ships no longer in orbit spying on us, now
would be a good time to gather up more of the people needed by Fleet Admiral
Vickers.”

“If he can
defeat the fleet that’s headed his way,” said Mayfield with a trace of concern
in his voice.

“If I know
Vickers, he has some tricks up his sleeve,” said Tomalson. “The Profiteers and
their Dacroni friends might very well be jumping into a trap.”

“Let’s hope
so,” Mayfield said, checking the sensor screen showing the remaining orbiting
alien spacecraft. “If he loses this battle, then Earth has no hope. They’ll
strip us of everything, and leave us with a broken and desolate world.”

-

A few minutes
earlier Captain Watkins had been summoned to the Command Center of the light
carrier
Vindication
.

“The
Profiteers and the Dacroni are forming up into a possible attack fleet,” reported
Lieutenant Anthony Dries, the executive officer, as Captain Watkins stepped
through the hatch.

“Bring in the
CSP and inform the
Sultan
that we’re leaving. Also let Captain Mertz on
the
Newton Princess
know.”

A few more
moments passed as the CSP was recalled.

“The enemy
fleet will be entering hyperspace shortly,” Lieutenant Julie Jenkins reported
from her sensor console.

“CSP is in,”
added Lieutenant Dries, as he received confirmation from the flight bay.

“Set course
for Newton and take us into hyperspace,” ordered Watkins. He knew that, at
their best speed, they might only arrive a few minutes ahead of the enemy.
However, in a battle of this type, even a few minutes of warning could be the
difference between victory and defeat.

“Course set,”
Lieutenant Dries reported.

Watkins heard
the telltale sound, as the powerful sublight engines of the light carrier
accelerated the ship, and then he felt the gut-wrenching sensation as the
Vindication
jumped into hyperspace.

“We’ll go to
Condition One twenty minutes prior to emergence,” he said to Dries. “Arm our
bombers with Hydra ship killers, and have them ready to deploy.” The Hydra
missiles carried a ten-kiloton warhead, quite deadly to a ship that had lost
its energy shield. He had ten Scorpion bombers on board along with ten Lance
fighters. All would be deployed as soon as the
Vindication
emerged from
hyperspace.

-

Fleet Admiral
Kurt Vickers awoke instantly, as alarms sounded and red lights flashed in his
quarters.

“Admiral
Vickers, please report to the Command Center,” Lieutenant Evelyn Mays said over
the comm. “We have an inbound ship detected by the hyperspace buoys, tentatively
identified as the
Vindication
.”

Pressing the
comm button, Kurt replied, “I’ll be there shortly. Bring the fleet to Condition
One and contact Governor Spalding. Tell him we expect a Profiteer attack
shortly.”

“Yes, sir,”
replied Mays.

Kurt hurriedly
dressed, and it didn’t take him long to reach the command deck. There was no
doubt in his mind that, if Henry was returning with the
Vindication
,
then the Profiteers wouldn’t be far behind.

Striding into
the Command Center, he saw that Captain Randson had already arrived and was in
deep conversation with Lieutenant Lena Brooks.

“It’s
definitely the
Vindication
,” Andrew said, turning toward Kurt. “She
should be dropping from hyperspace in slightly over five minutes.”

“All ships,
except Rear Admiral Wilson’s command, are to form up in attack formation
Alpha,” Kurt ordered, as he sat down in his command chair. “Send word to the
Dallas
,
Birmingham
, and
Johnas
to get underway and take point in the
formation. Notify the rest of the fleet to stand by for combat operations.”

After a few minutes
Andrew notified Kurt that the messages had been sent and that the three light cruisers
were moving into their assigned positions in the Alpha formation.

“
Vindication
has dropped from hyperspace,” reported Lieutenant Brooks. “Distance is twenty thousand
kilometers, and she is launching her fighters and bombers.”

“Incoming
message,” added Ensign Pierce. “Captain Watkins is reporting that a combined
Profiteer and Dacroni fleet will be dropping from hyperspace shortly.”

“Order the
Vindication
to join our formation,” Kurt ordered. “Put her off our starboard side. Move the
destroyers
Starburst
and
Kline
to cover her.”

“Message
sent,” replied Ensign Pierce after a moment.

An alarm sounded
on the sensor console, indicating the hyperspace buoys had detected more ships.

“Inbound enemy
fleet detected,” Lieutenant Brooks reported. “Confirmed eighteen contacts.”

“Governor
Spalding wants confirmation this is an attack,” said Ensign Pierce.

“Inform him we
have eighteen inbounds,” Kurt responded, as he gazed at the tactical screen,
which now showed the red threat icons.

Alarms would
sound shortly on Newton, and the population would go to their shelters. Around
the larger cities, General Mclusky would activate his air defenses to take out
any missile that might get through, though Kurt doubted they could do anything
to stop a hypermissile.

“Captain Simms
reports that the energy screen for Newton Station is operational and functioning
as expected,” Andrew said, as he listened to various reports from fleet
captains plus the shipyard.

Kurt
acknowledged the report, relieved that the temporary energy screen idea worked.
They couldn’t afford to lose Newton Station. Without it, he had no way to
repair his ships or build new ones.

“All ships are
in formation,” reported Andrew, as he studied the tactical screen. It took but
a few minutes for the fleet to form up.

“I have ships
exiting hyperspace,” stated Lieutenant Brooks, as more alarms sounded on her panel.
She quickly reached forward and silenced them, looking questionably at the admiral.

“Give me
numbers and types,” Andrew ordered. He felt his heart hammering in his chest
and knew they were about to enter combat.

“Two Profiteer
battlecruisers, six escort cruisers, and ten Dacroni battleships. Current range
is two hundred thousand kilometers.”