Carinae Sector: 02 - Admiral's Fury - Part 2 - Hidden Menace (2 page)

‘Altarebe, I thank you for your formal pledge of allegiance. You are now protected from summary execution and your presence on this world now has my blessing. So you claim to be from a distant clan, one that is only distantly related to our own? This is a fortunate occurrence in the present circumstances, but first I really must know what you know of the recent events elsewhere in the galaxy.’

Altarebe began by passing across all the intelligence he had learnt in his long search and later on the journey to Earth. Angwene was relieved to know of the end of the Maveen-Sspol war that had lasted many tens of thousands of years. She was also amazed in Altarebe’s direct part in ending the war, though she was initially concerned about the presence of the Sspol colony on Neptune. The queen soon found herself in easy agreement with the logic and the initiative of Altarebe, but she knew that there could be further problems for all of them.

After three hours had passed, and with her youngest daughters starting to look bored with the whole question and answer session, Angwene led her daughters and Altarebe back to her underwater facility. She sent a terse observation to Altarebe that the male wasted no time addressing to her satisfaction.

‘So Altarebe, you know you risk death from the humans, death from me, and death from the Vorinne and Zronte, yet you have made it to this world.’

‘Your majesty, the only way forward for our race is for a rebirth to occur far from the reaches of our enemies. Fortunately our list of enemies is now reduced, some may become allies, and the remainder have become complacent. Indeed even the most powerful of our enemies have become more vulnerable over time.’

The queen now brooded in deep thought over his response, but for now she decided that any further questions she had would first await a detailed discussion with the Maveen probe. The deep blackness of the southern ocean closed behind the ancients as they made their way back to the well hidden underwater facility.

                                                                     ***

The Cephrit assault leader stretched her two newer legs by habit as the long range shuttle came to rest on the landing field. She had been replaying in her mind her recent fraught meeting with the senior Vorinne envoy. Once again she had felt only gratitude that she was still alive and now on one of their main colony worlds, Seraph four.

The landing bell chimed, and in moments she had secured her two backpacks and now stood waiting patiently as the rear hatch on the shuttle was lowered. The assault leader thanked the younger male pilot for the landing and time planet side, before she disembarked as the pilot then set about replenishing the shuttle.

The assault leader started walking towards the public platform where she knew several of her children would be waiting for her. She remembered each of them well by brood number, for the Cephrit race, the un-named ones, by custom avoided the pride of having a special personal name. She could see that One, surely a senior male in the making, stood in front of his younger sisters, Three, Four and Six. Her two younger sons, Seven and Nine stood to the rear and kept quiet, again by custom, as they were still in guild school.

The assault leader kept quiet and dropped her backpacks, before motioning both Seven and Nine to come forward. For both her youngest sons were still young enough to response to her mothering. Her older children remained silent and gave her full bows she found delightful, before she gave the distinctive half bow of a parent back to them. Now permitted to speak, One made his apologies for the absence of her other children.

‘Mother, welcome home to Seraph four and it is a relief and pleasure to see you again this day. Your other children send their apologies for they are either off world, like Two and Eight, or remain in guild school with no permission to leave their studies today. I have taken the liberty of preparing a data tablet for you with messages from each of us.’

Flanked by Seven and Nine, the assault leader took the offered tablet from One. She quickly looked through the tablet and was relieved to see that all her children were doing very well. Her oldest daughters, Three and Four, each effortlessly lifted one of her back packs and silently formed up behind her. The assault leader now took turns to speak with her youngest children in turn before offering a general comment.

‘Seven, I understand you are doing well in engineering school and that you are to major in ship design. Nine, you are now enrolled to be a pilot, and I am well pleased with your efforts. Indeed I am well pleased with all your efforts and look forward to spending time with all of you over the next two days. Now let us find a place to relax and take a meal together.’

The collection of Cephrit had started to move towards one of the side exits, before a lone Vorinne male in a rumpled space fleet cloak stood in front of them. The assault leader kept perfectly still and chirred a stern warning for no violence, mainly for the benefit of her impulsive older daughters. The Vorinne gave an un-necessary full bow, as he was the senior galactic present, before speaking with her in urgent hushed tones.

The assault leader sent her children through to await her outside the landing field, as she anxiously surveyed the landing field for the presence of other Vorinne, or most especially Zronte drones. Now satisfied that she was in no immediate danger, she turned to the Vorinne officer and chirred in high Barus as she made a full bow.

‘Lieutenant Dreshe’ahal, you claim to both knowing my mate of record and needing my assistance, yet I rank very low in the great system compared to yourself.’

Dreshe’ahal kept still this time because he did not want to attract further attention to himself by bowing again in full respect to a Cephrit female. He spoke to her softly in high Barus in a voice devoid of any authority.

‘I was the former military attaché for Lord Temeroth and I fled for my life after I uncovered his actions and he tried to assassinate me. I have already killed two Zronte assassin drones sent to terminate me. The Cephrit base of your mate is as good a hiding place as any, with the benefit that the second envoy Thatak’siema may be present. The envoy’s cousin is also either with the envoy or on Caliph Three.’

The Cephrit quickly had the gist of the Vorinne lieutenants’ story, and she gave several series of harsh clicks with her hind legs as she took in the dire details, especially about the Fenshilla. The Zronte Lord had apparently tried to later kill both the envoy’s cousin and the lieutenant with assassins after they fled. But the two young Vorinne had managed to separately flee to safety, with the female Vorinne later making her own way to the second envoy with a warning about Temeroth.

The assault leader was soon won over by Dreshe’ahal and she arranged to take him along with her back to the star base. She knew her return journey had suddenly become highly dangerous, especially with a short side trip now required for Caliph Three. The seasoned marine quickly directed the Vorinne lieutenant to board the waiting shuttle under her authority, before she rejoined her family. She knew that her presence here was now dangerous to her offspring and that she would have to shorten her visit. Her two oldest daughters looked at her anxiously as she recovered her back packs and armed herself with a pair of laser blasters.

The assault leader reassured her family before she led then to a restaurant at the edge of the space for a meal together. She did not relax until she had returned to the shuttle and it had returned to space eight hours later. Dreshe’ahal also looked relieved as they left, and provided her with additional information on Lord Temeroth’s earlier schemes involving the recently ended war with the Tilmud.

                                                                     ***

Joel Everson finally relaxed as he sat back in his command chair after the Auckland had entered the outskirts of the Silver system. The four pursuing Jerecab frigates had been left behind when the destroyer had fled Dradfer six, or the Diamond system. At no stage had the pursuers come even close to combat range, as the Jerecab had been deep inside the system when the Auckland had fled from the outskirts of the last system. He was not too concerned about his own ship, but the Newport had gone into the Gold system and the Madrid had drawn duty in the Topaz system.

Joel felt more relaxed as the first sensor reports came in and arrived at his console. The Newport had drawn a total blank in the busiest system, in that plenty of Jerecab freighters were present, but the armada itself was nowhere to be seen, and with strict orders not to engage in the Gold system the Newport had quietly left. The Madrid was also present, and the commander noted with alarm that her shields were only at half strength. He quickly ordered both the Newport and the Auckland to close with the Madrid even as he sent an urgent message to the commander.

‘Auckland to Madrid, Rod, please report on the status of your ship.’

Long minutes passed as the brief message travelled across the star system to the Madrid. After fifteen minutes Joel was starting to get worried as he noted it would still be two hours before both the Auckland and the Newport could reach the Madrid.

A lieutenant highlighted something on one of his scanner reports and sent it over for Joel’s attention. The commander noted that the Madrid was both increasing speed towards them and the ship’s shields were now slowly increasing in strength, as he again set a brief message.

‘Auckland to Madrid, Commander Cordova, please report on the status of your ship as we can detect battle damage.’

Another fifteen minutes went by, certainly time for the message to reach the Madrid and start to return, and Joel considered that the Madrid’s communications systems must be damaged. The lieutenant forward a long distance photo of the Madrid to his command console and Joel see that the forward sections of the ship had a charred look.

The commander was speculating about the cause of this damage when the main view screen lit up with the image of Rod Cordova replying to his earlier messages.

‘Madrid to Auckland, Joel, we have just been in battle in the Topaz system and engaged and destroyed a Jerecab frigate picketing the jump location at very close range. We have lost fifteen crew with another twelve are injured, and we have two damaged shields and a damaged communications array. During the engagement two other frigates picketing the other jump points nearby attempted to join the battle. The two distant frigates were heavily damaged and driven away as they were at a longer range. We suffered most of our damage when the first frigate exploded just outside our shields. As we left we noted that over sixty frigates had just arrived at the far side of the Topaz system and immediately began heading our way. I recommend we withdraw from this system as soon as we are able to do so.’

Joel did not need any further convincing as he ensured that both the Newport and the Auckland altered course as a temporary measure for the far side of Silver system. He sat back and noted that the Madrid was trailing both the other destroyers by about an hour, so he reduced speed slightly to allow the damaged ship to close up ranks.  The commander noted that the numbers of Jerecab ships that Rod had listed in his reports, for it looked like the Jerecab Admiral had a quarter of his forces against Joel’s three destroyers.

‘A pity that we did not have our full fleet here or we would have taken them apart…’

Joel speculated to his bridge, as he noted that the engagement had not materially altered his own plans. He reviewed the deployment further before issuing the expected orders for a course change that this time would take all three ships into the Diamond system. As the three destroyers resumed formation, he wondered how Admiral Neilson was going with her own efforts.

Mary Neilson had taken twenty destroyers to Pearl, or Dradfer one, on a flying raid over a three day period. They had destroyed several lone frigates in hopelessly one-sided battles as she drove her ships hard across the intervening star systems. The admiral knew that the Gold system was a trap, and was worried about the next two hours, as they were crossing the Pearl system at the closest point to the jump location for the dangerous Gold system.

Mary knew that if she could get through the Pearl system she could raid the rear supply locations for the Jerecab Armada. Long seconds turned to longer minutes and eventually the two hours had gone past. She was just getting around to feeling relief that they had passed the choke point, when Lieutenant Benson at the tactical console called through an urgent report.

‘Admiral, we have a coded report from one of our stealth robots further out of the system, approximately four hundred million kilometres away. The report states that four large lifters and several smaller transports are entering the Pearl system from a system outside the combat zone. I am now scanning for any of their frigates and will have an answer shortly.’

The admiral waited patiently as the lieutenant went about searching for the smaller fighting ships. She knew that the Jerecab lifters were much larger than her destroyers, and also that the Jerecab did not place many weapons on these ships. She was more worried that the lifters could have several frigates each docked to their pylons, but Lieutenant Benson’s continued report brought her only hope.

‘Admiral, there are no frigates on any of the larger lifters and I can detect only the screen of eight frigates. They are already coming forward to get between us and their transports even as the larger ships attempt to reverse their course.’

Mary knew that the Jerecab transports would take time to leave and knew that this gave her a welcome opening. She stood tall in front of her command chair and issued the order she had been looking forward to giving to her fleet.

‘All lead sections are to attack the screening frigates and attempt to drive past them at a distance. Section four ships are to continue attacking frigates until the enemy are destroyed.’

The admiral settled back in her command char in satisfaction as she studied the tangled weave of Jerecab ships still over an hour away from her own ships. By habit Mary scanned reports of the rest of the system and noted that no other Jerecab ships were present.