Ep.#5 - "Rise of the Corinari" (41 page)

“Understood,” Nathan said. “Feel free to remind me of that during action.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Abby?”

“The jump drive is fully charged and ready. I’ve run diagnostics and rechecked the calibration of all emitters. The system is in better shape now than it’s ever been. I’ve got Deliza and Loki calculating a series of likely jump points and entering them into a database. If we are anywhere near one of those points, it can reduce our plotting time by up to ten seconds by using the nearest pre-plotted jump point and adjusting for the difference in our position relative to that point.”

“How is the navigator’s jump drive control interface doing?” Nathan asked. “Is it ready to use?”

“I believe so, yes,” Abby responded. “However, I’d like to remain at my post on the bridge for now in order to monitor the system in case there are any unforeseen problems in the new interface.”

“Good idea, Doctor. I expect we’ll be making quite a few short range combat jumps, so I’d appreciate it if you’d warn me ahead of time if our remaining charge becomes low.”

“Of course, Captain,” Abby promised. “However, I would not be too concerned if I were you. Based on the length of your previous combat jumps, you could make hundreds of such jumps without having to recharge the energy banks.”

“That’s good to know, Doctor, but I’d appreciate knowing that you’re keeping an eye on the levels just the same.”

“I shall,” Abby promised.

“Doctor Chen, how is medical?”

“Fully staffed, sir,” Doctor Chen responded, “fully stocked as well. The Corinairans are also sending up several combat medic teams to be deployed throughout the ship. We’re as ready as we can be at this point.”

“Major Prechitt?” Nathan stated, inviting the major to discuss his readiness.

“We are ready, Captain. I admit I would have preferred more time to conduct additional drills and training sorties, but my pilots had a lot of time in the simulators on Corinair while we were waiting for our spacecraft to be modified. During that time, we concentrated on fighter interception as well as attacking large warships.”

“What about your deck teams?” Cameron asked. “Are they ready?”

“This is going to be a pretty straight-forward operation for the flight deck, Commander,” Master Chief Montrose stated. “I do not expect a significant amount of recovery and re-launch. While it has been a long time since the Corinari have fought such a battle, history tells us that the battle will be measured in minutes, not hours.”

“I hope history is correct, Master Chief,” Nathan responded.

“How are we on supplies, Commander?”

“Fairly close to full loads. I’ve requested that we top off all fuel, life support, water, and other consumables, just in case. While I agree that the battle will most likely be short, we have no idea of the outcome. There may not be a resupply available afterward, so I’d prefer that we’re fully stocked and ready for any contingency.”

“Agreed.”

“To that end, I’ve also asked that the Corinari send up some additional combat teams just in case. They might also prove useful if the Ta’Akar attempt to board us again.”

“God, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Nathan said, “not again.”

“Let’s hope. However, if it does, we will be ready to respond.”

“Hell yes,” Jessica agreed. “A couple dozen nukes and a ship full of Corinari spec-ops. Now that sounds like a party.”

Nathan cast a cock-eyed grin Jessica’s way as he continued.

“Major, any chance of getting additional air support from the Corinari ground bases?”

“There are only a handful of orbital intercept missiles left in operation,” the major explained. “But their warheads were scavenged for use in our nuclear torpedoes. They were replaced with conventional warheads, but against a shielded Ta’Akar warship they would be of little use.”

“What about fighters?” Nathan asked.

“There are at least one hundred interceptors left on various ground bases across the globe. However, they are currently outfitted for orbital interception only, so unless you can get the target into orbit over Corinair, neither will be of much use.”

“Well, we’re going to try and keep them away from Corinair, if possible,” Nathan assured him. “They’ve taken enough of a beating.”

Major Prechitt nodded his agreement as Nathan turned his attention toward Tug.

“Tug, what can you tell me about these ships?” Nathan asked.

“The Loranoi is one of the empire’s newest patrol frigates. She is a significant advancement over the previous models, like the ones you faced in the Korak system. While she has no fighters, she does have four missile turrets placed fore and aft on her top and bottom sides. Each turret can fire up to eight missiles per load and can fire both high-speed short-range missiles as well as the slightly slower long-range type. She also has advanced sensors and weapons targeting systems, with multiple redundant arrays in order to maintain combat effectiveness even after taking several hits. We believe her design was in direct response to the original tactics of the Karuzari in which we targeted their weapons systems only in the hopes of capturing the ships relatively whole.”

“What about guns?” Jessica asked.

“She has a significant number of rail guns as well,” Tug answered. “However, they are remotely operated by individual gun crews located deeper inside the ship. This design was also in response to our earlier methods. We used to try to infect their weapons control systems.”

“Nice,” Jessica commented.

“It was never very effective, to be honest. It should be noted that their rail guns, while effective and capable of causing significant damage, are more for defense against fighters than for ship-to-ship actions. For that, they depend on their missile batteries, and they usually use them from a distance.”

“How many missiles do they carry?”

“That is unknown,” Tug admitted. “However, I have never heard of a frigate running out of missiles, if that tells you anything. They do have a weakness, however. Their missile batteries take several minutes to reload.”

“That’s not much of a weakness,” Nathan observed, “not with four batteries.”

“No, it is not.”

Nathan leaned back in his chair, looking at the faces of his staff as he considered their statements. “People, we are going to be outnumbered and outgunned. Our best, possibly our only hope is our jump drive and the element of surprise. To the best of our knowledge, the enemy ships that are about to arrive are completely unaware of the events that have transpired in this system over the last few months. If we’re lucky, they’ll come in without shields, expecting only fear and subservience from the Corinairans—no offense intended, Major.”

“None taken, sir,” Major Prechitt answered. “My people have cowered down to the Ta’Akar for more than three decades. In my opinion, the time for resistance is long overdue.”

“Mine as well,” Master Chief Montrose added.

“That’s good to hear,” Nathan admitted. “Not all of your political leaders seem to share in your sentiment, however.”

“They are afraid,” Master Chief Montrose stated without reservation. “That same fear is what led them to surrender to the Ta’Akar decades ago. With your help, we now have a chance to correct their mistakes.”

Nathan took in a deep breath. “It is my intent to strike fast, strike hard, and strike without warning.”

“Without declaring intent?” Major Prechitt wondered.

“Why give them cause to prepare?” Nathan defended.

“
I
do not disagree with you, sir,” Major Prechitt explained. “However, I suspect that the Corinairan government will.”

“He is correct, Captain,” Tug agreed. “The Corinairans are quite rigid, both politically and in their interpretation and application of law. They will insist on making some sort of declaration prior to the commencement of hostilities.”

“Well that’s just dumb,” Jessica commented.

“Not from the perspective of the Corinairan people, I suspect,” Tug countered. “And this is their system, after all.”

“Yes, but we do not want to lose the element of surprise,” Nathan argued.

“You may not,” Tug said. “As arrogant as they are, I would not expect a Ta’Akar nobleman in command of a warship to take any such declaration seriously. He will most likely respond with an arrogant threat of his own. If you attack at that moment, you may still have your element of surprise.”

“And the Corinairan people will have their honor,” Master Chief Montrose agreed.

“Very well,” Nathan acquiesced, “but unless they immediately turn tail and run, I’m attacking. I’m not waiting around for the Prime Minister to grant his permission.”

“I am confident the Ta’Akar will not ‘turn tail’ and run, Captain,” Tug insisted. “This battle will take place, rest assured.”

“I expect so, Tug,” Nathan agreed. “Now, we’ve got about ten hours until the frigate arrives, and we still haven’t confirmed the arrival time of the Wallach yet, so we have to assume that either ship could arrive at any moment. Meanwhile, I think we should check and recheck all systems, maybe even take the time to conduct more drills in order to better prepare the…”

“Captain, pardon me, sir,” Master Chief Montrose interrupted, “but I disagree. The ship and the crew are ready, sir. Right now, they need two things; they need to rest, and they need to know that you believe they are ready. If you believe in them, they will believe in themselves. Stand them down as soon as we finish our replenishment. Let them rest. Let them mentally prepare for what lies ahead.”

Nathan looked at the master chief, realizing he was right. He looked at Tug, who had become something of a mentor to him over the last few months, sort of like the commanding officer he had never really had. Tug nodded his agreement with the master chief. “Very well, Master Chief,” Nathan agreed. “We’ll stand down after the replenishment, but first we’re moving the ship to Karuzara. I want the system to look helpless when the Ta’Akar arrive, and the sooner we go into hiding the better. We have no idea how deep in the system they will be when they come out of FTL, and I don’t want our old light to give us away.”

* * *

Nathan had always been a sound sleeper. Ever since he was a child, he had slept through the night, every night, without waking. Even in the academy, his roommate, Luis, had envied Nathan’s ability to simply lie down, close his eyes, and drift away into blissful slumber.

Unfortunately, that had ended when he came to the Pentaurus cluster. These days, he was lucky if he slept even a few hours in a row. Occasionally, he would get a full eight hours, but never in a row, and never without waking at least once. He had tried everything to get back into his normal pattern of deep sleep: exercise, meditation, herbal teas, even white noise. None of them seemed to help. So it was no surprise that with the pending confrontation looming on the horizon that Nathan Scott, captain of the UES Aurora and leader of the Earth-Darvano Alliance, could not sleep.

Nathan sat up and swung his feet off the side of his bed, turning on the light on his night stand. He looked at the clock. It had only been thirty minutes since the last time he had checked. He had been trying to sleep for two hours now, and he was still wide awake. Resigning himself to the inevitable, he rose, went back into the main room, and pulled a bottle of water from the mini-fridge in his kitchenette.

The door buzzer sounded and Nathan walked to the entrance, turning on the main lights before opening the door. Standing in the corridor, looking as haggard as Nathan felt, was his chief engineer and friend, Vladimir. “You couldn’t sleep either?” Nathan asked as Vladimir entered carrying a coffee pot and a couple mugs.

“I did not even try,” Vladimir admitted. “I brought coffee, or at least what passes for coffee in this part of the galaxy. I knew you would not be sleeping.”

“Thanks. How did you know?”

“You forget, Nathan; before you became captain, we shared a cabin together. It was not long, I know, but I know you better than you think. Besides, we are alike, you and I. If I were in your position, I would not be able to sleep either. Not possible.”

Nathan sat down on the couch across from Vladimir and poured himself a cup of the dark liquid that the Corinairans had gotten them all addicted to over the past months. It wasn’t coffee—it was more nutty and sweet—but it had the same effect, and that was what he needed right now.

“So how would you like to pass the time?” Vladimir asked. “We can a watch movie, or maybe a sporting event? I am sure there are many programs in the database that we have not yet seen.” Vladimir could tell by Nathan’s lack of enthusiasm that he was not in the mood for mindless diversions. “
Bozhe moi
, Nathan. You look like a little boy who was just told that he could not go outside and play.” Still there was no reaction. “You are worried about the battle,
da
?”

“
Da
,” Nathan responded, choosing to mimic his Russian friend as it usually irritated him to no end.

“What do you have to worry about? You are the mighty Na-Tan!”

“Funny.”

“Seriously, Nathan, what is it?”

“Is it wrong to feel guilty?” Nathan asked.

“Guilty about what?”

“Guilty about wishing that someone else was captain. Wishing that I would’ve ended up on the Reliant working the D-watch like I’d planned, instead of facing down a couple of Ta’Akar warships on the other side of the Milky Way.”

“Are you joking? Who would wish for your responsibilities? Certainly not me, my friend,” Vladimir insisted. “Seriously, Nathan, only a crazy man would want this responsibility.”

“Then I guess I’m not crazy because I sure as hell don’t want it,” Nathan admitted. It felt good to say it to someone, especially to himself.

“Of course, life never asks us what we want,” Vladimir added as he sipped his coffee.

“Now you’re starting to sound like Tug.”

The door buzzer rang again.

“Expecting company?” Vladimir asked. “Hey, we should have a party, invite some of the Corinairan nurses over,” Vladimir joked. “There are some really cute ones, I hear.”

Nathan opened the door and found Commander Taylor standing there.