Empire in Crisis (23 page)

Hood was relieved that she didn’t have to look up that
information. “Tatyana Anakova, My Emperor. Her service record is quite good
which is why she was given that command by Fleet Group Comm—“ She stopped when
DeChastelaine waved her off.

“Fine. I remember our discussion of her when Logan made
that decision. Now let’s move on the big question. What happened to the 107th?”

Hood cleared her throat before answering. “Without having
had my Working Group look at that question, I can only give you two possible
answers right now, My Emperor. Either the Ring is some kind of weapon that
destroyed or crippled the 107th, or it’s some kind of transportation device and
the 107th is no longer in RCP01. I can’t think of any other possibility off
hand.”

DeChastelaine looked over at Bishop. “What’s your
assessment, Admiral?”

“I regret that I can’t add anything new to what Admiral
Hood has already offered, My Emperor. I have to admit that I had not considered
the possibility that the Ring is actually a transportation device. Whatever it
is, it’s obviously still active. The question that occurs to me is who, if
anyone, is controlling it now? Is it the race that built the Ring, or have the
Gorgon’s figured out how to control it, or is it just operating autonomously?”

“I really would prefer to get answers instead of more
questions,” said DeChastelaine in a tone that combined annoyance with a hint of
sarcasm. “Let’s try another question. What should we, and by that I mean what
should I, do now?” He looked at Hood.

“Well, My Emperor, I would recommend that the first order
of business is determining who should be in command of Fleet Group-R. Admiral
Anakova has assumed that position, but Admiral Raonic in command of the 477th
is actually senior to Anakova based on length of service. If My Emperor
confirms Raonic as Fleet Group Commander, then the 337th and the 477th might
have to swap positions in order for Raonic to use the back door wormhole into
RCP01. On the other hand, My Emperor certainly has the authority to confirm
Anakova as FGC in order to take advantage of the current situation. In terms of
capability, neither Raonic or Anakova are in Admiral Logan’s league, but it
would be my assessment that they are more or less equally competent. Once that
decision has been made, I would recommend ordering the FGC to keep her fleets
in a defensive deployment for the time being until additional reinforcements
can be sent forward in order to replace the lost combat strength of the 107th.”

DeChastelaine nodded. He seemed calmer now. Turning to look
at Bishop, he said, “Admiral?”

“I concur about reinforcing Fleet Group ‘R’ before resuming
offensive operations. With new construction and upgrades already in the
pipeline, a fourth fleet could be at the FGC’s disposal in approximately six
weeks, My Emperor. With regards to the question of seniority versus position,
I’m of the opinion that seniority should prevail even if that means two fleets
swapping positions. If the Fleet Group is going to revert to a defensive
posture anyway, the shifting of positions should not present a problem.”

After a few seconds of silence, DeChastelaine tapped the
top of his desk. “Here is my immediate concern. Admiral Logan managed to get
the 107th either destroyed or sent God knows where, and he was one of the very
best commanders the Empire has. You tell me that Admirals Raonic and Anakova
aren’t in his league, and yet I’m supposed to confirm one of them as the new
Fleet Group Commander. If Logan had trouble handling the situation, how much
more dangerous would it be to put someone less competent in charge?” Before
either Hood or Bishop could respond, he continued speaking. “Do I remember
correctly that Akoni Burke is assigned to one of the other three fleets in
FG-R, Admiral Hood?”

Hood felt her pulse speed up. Was the Emperor seriously
considering promoting Burke over the heads of dozens of higher-ranked officers
to command that fleet group? “You are correct, My Emperor. Commander Burke is
in command of a battlecruiser in one of the 477th’s squadrons.”

DeChastelaine nodded as he stared at the wall display. Hood
took a quick glance at Bishop. She clearly understood where this conversation
was leading, and her expression showed that she didn’t like the idea, but she
knew when to keep quiet. When DeChastelaine spoke, his question caught Hood off
guard.

“Has Burke been given the Fleet Combat training materials,
Admiral?”

Hood had to do a quick check on her data tablet to be sure.
“No, My Emperor. He would have gotten them if and when he was promoted to
squadron leader.”

DeChastelaine hated making these kinds of difficult
decisions. Putting the wrong person in charge of Fleet Group-R could be
disastrous to the point of putting the whole Empire in jeopardy. On the other
hand, he had let it be known throughout the Space Force that favoritism and
patronage would no longer determine promotion. Promoting Burke from a mere
Commander to a 3-star Fleet Group Admiral in one jump, even only temporarily,
would undermine that message and the trust that he had worked so hard to build
over the these last few months.

“I’ve made a decision,” said DeChastelaine. “As
soon as the next battlecruiser squadron is sent to that Group, Burke will
assume command of it, with a field promotion to Senior Commander. At that
point, I want him to get the Fleet Combat training material. Admiral Hood, you
make sure that he knows that he better study that material as soon as possible
because he’s going to be getting a lot more responsibility far more quickly
than he expects. When a new fleet is organized, I’ll make a decision on who
will command it, and Burke will be on the short list. For now, Anakova can
retain temporary command of FG-R, the operative word being ‘temporary’, and not
only is she allowed to stay on the defensive until the Group has made good the
loss of the 107th, I’m ordering her to stay on the defensive whether she wants
to or not. Any questions or comments?” To his surprise there were none. He
wasn’t happy with the results of the meeting
but felt he
had made the best of a bad situation.

Logan just happened to be on the Main Bridge when the
Flagship emerged from the artificial wormhole into normal space again.

“We’re through!” said McKeon in a triumphant voice.

Logan understood the feeling. He checked the display’s
elapsed time indicator. It had been 27.3 days since they were sucked into the
Ring. When he had asked the FAO for a guess as to how far away from RCP01 they
were, the officer’s hands had literally started to shake. When he spoke, his
voice was almost hoarse from stress.

“We could be in another galaxy for all I know, Admiral.
Every time I run some estimates I feel like throwing up.”

Logan himself had been dangerously close to despair on
several occasions during those 27.3 days, but at least they were out of it now.
Calculating where they were was obviously high priority, but not first
priority.

“Let’s get a count of how many ships came through with us,
Commander. While we’re doing that, I want our Astrogators to put their heads
together and figure out where we are. We should have some data for the tactical
display now. Activate your display; I want to see if we’re near something.”

The Main Bridge’s display was almost as large as the Flag
Bridge’s. Logan was relieved to see a star in the center. It was a red
supergiant star, which was somewhat surprising. Red super giants, as a rule,
did not have planets and therefore offered little incentive to space-faring
civilizations. Before Logan could bring that up in conversation with McKeon,
the display pinged to indicate a status change. A yellow icon appeared part way
around the star, but the sidebar didn’t show any data on it. That was very
unusual. There was another ping and another yellow icon. Then a third ping was
followed quickly by more pings and more icons.

“What the hell?” asked Logan. He looked at McKeon who was
already huddled with his Astrogator. As more and more icons appeared in what
looked like a circular pattern around this star, McKeon came over to where
Logan was standing. His expression was one of shock.

“From our interpretation of visual data, all those icons
are rings, roughly the same size as the one that brought us here, Admiral.”

Logan shook his head is bewilderment. The display was no
longer pinging, but new icons were still appearing as the ship’s opticals picked
up reflected light from rings that were further away.

“God, what have we stumbled into? How many of these things
are there?”

McKeon looked to one side and said, “We’ve detected over a
hundred so far, and the number is still rising. Ah, we have a count on ships
now. It looks like the entire 107th came through with us, Admiral. At least we
didn’t lose anybody.”

Logan felt conflicting emotions over that news. While
having the fleet together did offer a little bit of comfort over the
possibility of meeting the Race that built these rings, it also meant that the
fleet’s disappearance would be a complete mystery to the 337th. If at least one
of his ships had managed to avoid being sucked into the Ring, they could have
told Anakova what had happened. And speaking of the ring that sucked them in…

“Let’s make sure we have an astrogational lock on the ring
that brought us here,” said Logan. “I don’t want to confuse it with any of
these other rings and end up God knows where when we try to go back through it.”

“God, yes! I’ll see to that, Admiral,” replied McKeon.

“I want to see the fleet in relation to the ring that we
just emerged from, Commander,” said Logan.

The display zoomed in to the local area. With the scale
shown, Logan could see that the 107th was only a few thousand kilometers away
from the ring and moving at the relatively slow pace of less than two
kilometers per second. That surprised Logan. His recollection was that the
fleet had been moving a lot faster than that when it had been sucked into the
ring. He wondered if the duration of the transit determined exit velocity or
was there something special about an artificial wormhole. What concerned him
more now was how to get back to RCP01. If he was designing an artificial
wormhole device, he’d program it to ignore ships moving away from it, even if
they were within its activation range.

“FGC to FAO. Let’s get the Fleet turned around. Maybe if we
start moving towards that ring, it’ll take us back,” said Logan.

The FAO acknowledged the order, and within a minute, all
ships were moving slowly towards the ring. Nothing happened.

“Maybe we’re too close,” said McKeon.

Logan shook his head.
How in the hell could ships be TOO
close to an artificial wormhole? That made no sense, but the race that built
this thing might have a different way of thinking.
Whatever the reason was,
he had to make a decision quickly before the Fleet passed right through the
center of the ring and out the other side. Logan moved to where McKeon’s
Astrogation Officer was seated.

“Check with the FAO. Find out how far away we were to the
ring when it activated. Then bring the Fleet around and move us away so that
we’re beyond that range. We’ll then turn again and see if that will activate
this thing,” said Logan. With his instructions being executed, he headed back
to the Flag Bridge where Fleet Group Commanders really should be. Ship
Commanders hated having flag officers literally looking over their shoulders on
the Main Bridge.

The Fleet was just about to turn back towards the ring
after moving the required distance when the tactical display pinged for
attention. A new icon appeared, and it wasn’t another ring. It was a very large
object that had been orbiting the red super giant and was now accelerating out
of orbit…and towards the 107th.

“Why are we only detecting this object now?” demanded
Logan.

The FAO answered. “It was too far away to detect via active
scanning. We just noticed it visually when its orbit brought it around in front
of that star, Admiral.”

Logan checked the sidebar data. They didn’t have precise
data on its size, but the approximate size was shocking. That object was huge.
At least it wasn’t moving very fast. At its current rate of acceleration, it
would take roughly nine minutes to get within effective energy beam range of
the Fleet’s weapons, not that Logan had any intention of firing on it, at least
not first. He was hoping the Fleet would be sucked into the ring again before
the object got that close. The Fleet was now moving toward the ring again. Logan
was just about to say that nothing appeared to be happening when the FAO turned
to face him.

“Warp stresses around that ring are starting to increase,
Admiral, but it’s not happening nearly as fast as it did the first time!”

Logan was watching the estimated interception time for the
approaching object count down. It now looked as though they were in a race to
see if the ring pulled them in before the object got close enough to do
whatever it intended doing.

“Ring stresses still increasing!” shouted the FAO.

Logan stepped over to the FAO’s station and put a hand on
the officer’s shoulder. “Let’s stay calm, Lieutenant,” he said in a low voice.
The reply was equally low.

Yessir. Sorry, Admiral.”

“Any idea when the ring will pull us in?”

The FAO shock his head. “I’d just be guessing, Admiral. I
really have no idea.”

Logan looked around the Flag Bridge. All the personnel were
looking at the main display with worried expressions. All they could see was
the dropping time to intercept indicator. He needed to distract them from that.

“Switch the display to visual. I want to see the ring
optically,” said Logan.

When the image shifted, everyone in the room, Logan
included, gasped. The ring was now giving off light and a lot of it. The space
inside the ring was still dark, but not exactly the black of space. As he
watched, that darkness gradually got lighter and lighter until the color was
more blue than black. Time to intercept was now down to 94 seconds, and that
was only an estimate. If that approaching object intended to fire a weapon at
them, it might have a weapon that could fire from much longer range than the
Empire’s beam weapons.

“Come on, come on,” muttered Logan under his breath.

“Ring stresses still increasing,” said the FAO in an almost
normal voice.

Logan was just about to order a fleet-wide announcement to
make sure no one fired at the approaching object unless it fired first when the
blue area inside the ring suddenly took on the shape of a whirlpool of swirling
energies just as Logan remembered it from the first time. The ship jerked
forward so suddenly that Logan almost lost his footing.

“WE’RE BEING PULLED IN!” shouted the FAO. Logan decided
that under the circumstances it was okay for the FAO to shout.

The trip back took exactly the same 27.3 days. The FAO had
pointed out during the trip back that the duration of the first transit was
exactly how long it took Earth’s moon to complete one orbit. At first Logan had
dismissed that fact as mere coincidence, but when the 107th emerged from the
ring back into RCP01 after a transit of exactly the same duration as the first,
Logan began to have doubts about the timing.

The emergence itself was actually quite hectic as Logan
tried to get the Fleet up to Battle Stations as quickly as possible. There
hadn’t been time to pass on the precautionary orders after the whirlpool
formed, and communications during the transit were impossible once again. But
Logan had given a lot of thought during the trip back as to what he should
expect to find, and being ready for battle seemed the wisest thing to do. As
the first ship to emerge from the ring, his flagship began actively scanning
the surrounding space. This time there were lots of objects within scanning
range. They seemed to be drifting, and some were clearly tumbling. Logan’s
first impression on seeing the tactical display was that he was looking at a
debris field left over from a major battle. The thought that these debris
pieces might be what was left of the 337th made his shudder.

“FAO, see if you can identify any of those pieces of
debris. If they were Empire ships, I want to know about it,” said Logan.

“Understood, Admiral,” said the officer in a somber tone.

Before Logan could say anything else, the display pinged
and shifted from short range tactical to long range tactical. A yellow icon
with the number 366 inside appeared. The sidebar data showed that 366 ships had
suddenly engaged their warp drives, and speed was rapidly increasing. But it
wasn’t the speed that surprised Logan. It was the fact that this fleet had
reacted immediately after the 107th emerged from the ring. They were too far
away to see any light from the ring’s activation that quickly, and therefore
they had to have detected the warping of local space from the formation of the
incoming wormhole. But the distance from that fleet to the ring was twice as
far as the estimated maximum detection of the Gorgon ships that humans had been
fighting since the war began.

He was tempted to assume that they were Empire ships, but
his gut told him no. Their starting position was off to one side of the vector
that the 107th had taken to get from the RG25 backdoor wormhole to the ring 55
days ago. While it was theoretically possible that this alien fleet was coming
from a previously unknown wormhole, that didn’t seem likely. There was no star
in that direction to anchor a wormhole at the other end. Travelling in that
direction would lead to inter-galactic space and not to any part of the Milky
Way galaxy thereby making the likelihood of there being a rocky planet out
there somewhere extremely small. If that fleet was an Empire fleet, there was
no reason for it to station itself in that direction and at that distance. In
addition to those considerations, it would have been necessary to combine all
three of the other Group-R fleets and then some to come up with 366 ships.

“Have all our ships emerged from the ring?” asked Logan.

“Affirmative, Admiral,” replied the FAO.

“Okay then, let’s get back to the RG25 wormhole asap. Can
we beat them to it if they try to intercept us?” Logan was now looking at the
alien fleet’s speed. It was under 4.6C, but it was still slowly increasing.