Battleship Avenger (Conquest of Stars Book 2) (11 page)

Commodore Raptor
invited his entire command room staff to a formal officer’s dinner. It was a
tradition in Starfire Army for a celebratory dinner, a formal feast, for all
officers and soldiers after a major victory. The rest of the crew of Starship
Conquistador
had their own formal celebrations scheduled and Commodore and Vice-Commodore
attended one for each section to show their appreciation for the crew’s courage
and combat efforts. For this reason they were usually scheduled at different
times. Raptor intended to dine with different sections of the starship crew and
he first started with his command officers. However he had another reason to
hold this gathering, he had kept the lid on the events of the ambush during
their transit too long and it was now time to bring it out in the open amongst
themselves, lest some impatient officer talked and leaked the news to the rest
of the ship.

They were
assembled in a separate room adjoining the forward cafeteria located near the
command room. The two tables were set in an inverted ‘T’ form where the first
long table stretched down from the Commodore’s chair at its head and the second
long table was set perpendicular to it. The tablecloth was of the same red
color as the Starfire Army uniform and the carpet was black. The plates, cups
and utensils on the table were all made of pure silver with a slight mixture of
iron to give it strength. The army stewards were busy setting up food and
drinks on the table and finished two minutes ahead of the scheduled time.

Commodore Raptor
and VC Barryett entered the room followed by the rest of the command room
officers. Raptor walked over to the chair at the head of the table, VC Barryett
stood on his right and Colonel Tollvyk to his left and Capitan Alvina was right
next to Tollvyk. Raptor’s and Barryett’s seats were fixed but he had choice
over the rest of the seating and he had asked stewards to seat Tollvyk and
Alvina right next to him. There were about forty chairs set facing opposite to
each other on the table in front of Raptor. These were for senior officers of
the command room:  colonels and capitans – senior rank; officers who had final
command responsibility for a particular weapon, tool, section, information or
action. On the perpendicular table below were chairs set in the same opposite
facing order for about hundred and ten junior officers: all capitans – junior
rank; officers who assisted a senior officer who would be assigned zero to
three juniors to aid them in their task. The juniors were all trained to take
over command of their section if necessary but didn’t have sufficient
experience to progress to the first rank. 

All of them, a
little more than hundred and fifty in all, stood facing their chairs in
attention and at the exact second of the dinner’s beginning Commodore Raptor
said, “Please be seated and commence your meal.”

All of them sat
down except for Raptor and began eating voraciously. The fattest of the
livestock from the starship’s ranch section had been slaughtered and served for
this evening and the finest of whiskeys and ales broken out of the ship’s
cellars.

Raptor picked up
his glass and raised it high, “Warriors, today we celebrate our first victory
as a starship and as a crew. I am proud of the distance you have gone with me
and all the work you have done. Please enjoy the feast to your heart’s
content.”

Raptor joined them
thereafter and a steward had placed a big bowl of mutton which he started
devouring with great relish. Tollvyk had picked a big slab of barbequed ribs
for himself but he was smiling at Raptor, “Ever since I have known our
Commodore, and I have known him for a great many years now, mutton has been his
favorite.”

“It was Colonel
Sthykar’s favorite too,” Raptor said.

“I do remember
reading books about him with great interest when I was a child,” Barryett said,
“But I don’t recall reading of his favorite meal.”

“Commodore here is
the biggest admirer of our old hero Sthykar that I know of,” Raptor said.

“He is the one
responsible for me joining the army,” Raptor said, “After reading his stories I
made up my mind to become a soldier. Toll, but do not indulge in too much of
your favorite,” Raptor pointed to the whiskey glass in Tollvyk’s hand.

They guffawed and
many others joined in the laughter. The dinner continued for half an hour as
planned. Occasionally they would sneak a glance at the large display screens on
the walls of the room that relayed information from the command room. But the
happenings outside the spaceship were uneventful. They were orbiting Nestor and
the only movement was Battleship
Avenger
preparing for departure.

After the dinner
got over, stewards cleared the plates and cups and brought in desserts. They
served pastries along with coffee and cigars and replenished the liquor bottles
on the table.

“Officers, we will
be talking confidential matter over desserts and the stewards will be leaving
after the first round of servings, so take as much now, pig out…” Raptor said
and the room laughed. The stewards finished serving the desserts and cleared
out. The officers sat back relaxed and slowly sipped coffee and puffed cigars.
Raptor was still standing and he looked around the room and saw all eyes were
fixated on him.

“Earlier, I called
this our first victory because I do not take any credit or joy in defeating the
ambush and destroying the starship that was very likely one of our own,” Raptor
said. Now the room paid apt attention and all the smiles disappeared from the
faces and were replaced with grim looks on many. “All of you know that
spaceships have multiple fail-safe systems to prevent collisions that
automatically kick in. Some of them are specifically designed to prevent a
crash against one of our own army starships. That one kicked in during our
battle near that star. There were other signs too but this is mechanical
evidence and I don’t have to tell you the meaning of it.”

Vice-Commodore
Barryett stood up, “Com. Raptor has decided that rules of discussion today are
frank and open but the army decorum still applies.” He looked at Tollvyk as he
spoke the last words and sat back down.

“Our own army
wanted our mission to fail?” Capitan Dorrvyk asked.

“Not our army,”
Raptor said, “but a small number of conspirators ensconced inside. Let me
remind everyone, accusing other army officers of crime, even speculating
thereof, without proper evidence is against army’s rules of discussion no matter
how frank. I will not have anyone pointing fingers at particular names. Unless
you have evidence, we will refer to them as conspirators.”

 “Commodore
Raptor, why aren’t we filing a formal complaint with Army Investigations
Department or the House of War against the said conspirators?” Tollvyk asked
placing emphasis on the last word.

“We don’t know how
high up or what parts of army’s chain of command have been infiltrated,” Raptor
said.

“Are we going to
just let it slide?” Flyptar asked.

“No, capitan
Flyptar,” Raptor replied, “Com. Antrar, who was our guest abroad this ship, has
decided to investigate the matter further and escalate it to House of War on
our behalf. He is retired from army and his fame means he doesn’t have to go
through the army hierarchy.”

“Have we heard
anything from him yet, Commodore?” Barryett asked.

“Not yet,” Raptor
replied, “But I am confident he will send a message as soon as he finds out
more.”

“What if he fails?
What do we do?” Horyett asked.

Raptor stayed
quiet for a few seconds. He had anticipated various questions his officers
could ask him but hadn’t expected this one and it stumped him.

“If we are right,
then there is one starship missing from one of our fleets,” Raptor said slowly,
“one that we destroyed. For all we know it could be from our own Sixth
Frontier. People will notice, people will ask questions. There will be inquiry
about that. We will have our chance then.”

“Commodore, could
there be an innocent explanation for this?” Hedgewyk asked, “I don’t want to
believe it. Perhaps someone stole three of our starships?”

“I won’t discount
it entirely,” Raptor said, “But that is unlikely. Even theft of one starship
would raise alarm across the empire, you are talking about three.”

“We should start
asking who could authorize overrides for fail-safes that prevent one starfire
spaceship from firing on another,” Tollvyk said, “There are a few in the army
hierarchy with that power but in our frontier region only Commander Carvyk…”

“Toll…” Raptor
raised his voice.

“I do not
speculate on criminal culpability,” Tollvyk protested.

“You are veering
close to the borders of army decorum,” Raptor said, “Anyhow, I don’t believe
mere speculation on our parts, sitting as we are almost two hundred light years
away from Starfire space, will be productive in shedding light on this
conspiracy. I called this confidential session because I want everyone to be
aware that me and vice-commodore have no intention of letting it slide. But we
can’t have the rest of you distracted from your duties. And we certainly can’t
have the rest of our ship getting even a whiff of this. It will destroy morale;
it may induce panic and can even incite a mutiny.”

The officers were
listening to him intently and gravely. Raptor looked across the breadth of the
room and firmed up his posture.

“I am continuing
the silence order on this matter,” Raptor said, “There will be no talk of it
even amongst yourselves. If you believe you know something, or suspect
something that will help expose this scheme, you can only approach VC Barryett
or myself and then too in private. I want everyone’s mouths shut. Is that
clear?”

“Yes sir,” the
room echoed.

“Dismissed,”
Raptor said.

“Stay behind VC
Barryett,” Raptor said when Barryett too got up to leave, “We have to head over
to the laboratory to get the examination report on that Nestorian spy Roofus.”

“Oh yes,” Barryett
sat back down, “Had forgotten about that for a moment.”

Rest of the
officers cleared out of the room while Raptor sat back in his chair relaxed
with one leg over the other knee puffing his cigar. Capitan Alvina however
stayed behind and looked at him. Capitan Dorrvyk also walked over to him and
stood by Alvina. Raptor didn’t like that even after being ordered to disperse
they were still going to stick around. He couldn’t have his orders treated
nonchalantly but he also wasn’t the type of officer who wouldn’t give his
subordinate officers a leeway if something important came up.
This better be
important
, Raptor told himself, or he was going to penalize both of these
juniors. The room cleared out and Raptor pushed his cigar into the ash tray and
sat up straight.

“What is it
Dorrvyk?” Raptor asked the communications officer first.

“I apologize and I
was going to wait,” Dorrvyk said, “but I overheard you and VC Barryett that you
will be gone for a while. Happens that I just received official communiques
from both the Regional Star Commander’s office and the House of War. We are to
standby for new orders.”

“Now that I needed
to hear,” Raptor said and Barryett nodded his head. “Bring them to us at once
if we don’t return. Messages from our superiors are always urgent. Dismissed
Dorrvyk.”

“Thank you, sir,”
Dorrvyk saluted him and left the room. Raptor looked at Alvina. She was
slightly nervous and her fingers were twitching. This was not good. He hoped he
didn’t have to punish her because his desire for her had not reduced a bit.

“What is it,
Capitan Alvina?” Raptor asked.

“It is about that
ambush during our transit and Commander Carvyk…” Alvina began to speak
anxiously.

“I told you there
will be no talk of it,” Raptor said.

“You said we can’t
talk about it except with you and VC Barryett,” Alvina protested fearfully.

“She is right
about that, Com Raptor,” Barryett nodded his head.

“You know
something that the rest of us don’t?” Raptor asked her.

“It could be
nothing, but it could be something,” Alvina said and looked at Barryett.

“I can leave and
go on ahead…” Barryett said getting up.

“No, I will talk
to Capitan Alvina later,” Raptor said to her, “Schedule a visit to my personal
quarters later in the day.”

“Yes sir,” Alvina
saluted her and left the room.

Raptor and
Barryett got up and fetched a hovercraft outside and programmed it to their
destination. The hovercraft flew for a few minutes and then came to a stop in
front of a hallway that was patrolled by over a dozen armed starship guards.
They saluted Raptor and Barryett and stood aside. They came to a thick metallic
door and Raptor slid his card and entered his code and it opened. There was a
second thick, metallic door that he opened likewise. This was the ‘Chemical
Weapons Section’ of the Starship and thus had the requisite security and very
restricted access. The walls and the two doors of this section were made of
special metal alloys that were plated with solidified inert elements to prevent
any chemicals from seeping out into the rest of the starship during an
accident.