Flagship (22 page)

"I will."

Cole waited until Chang informed him that the squad was outside the door, and then he and his crew left the office. There wasn't much visible damage in the corridor, but when they took the airlift to the roof the damage was extensive. The shuttle that had brought them down from the docking station was a twisted piece of metal, buried in the rubble of a collapsed air vent.

"We're not going anywhere in that thing," said Val as the Security squad withdrew, their job done.

They stood there for a moment, then realized that their position was totally exposed to enemy fire, and began returning to the airlift when a shuttle rose up above the edge of the roof. A panel opened and the pilot gestured for them to approach.

"I can't land," he said. "The roof won't hold the weight. Just come to the edge and you should be able to get in."

When they were all aboard, the shuttle took off to the east, and only after it had gone a quick fifty miles did it begin climbing.

"The whole planet's one enormous city," said the pilot. "If they're bombing the court and the parliament, they're familiar with the design of the city, so it made sense to get out of the line of fire. I'll signal ahead and find out which docking station you're at. They try to make them orbit at the exact speed of the planet, so it's always the shortest route down to your destination and back up, but they haven't got it perfected yet."

They reached the required altitude, and the pilot frowned. "Half of the docking stations have been blown to hell and gone." Another few seconds passed. "If yours is still there, it's not answering."

Cole pulled out his own communicator. "Christine, are you there?"

"Yes, sir," she said. "But the
Sabine Nova
was hit. We managed to transfer the crew to the
Teddy
R,
but I don't think you can get the
Nova
running again."

"That's okay. We'll be there in a couple of minutes. Have someone standing by to open the shuttle bay."

"Yes, sir."

Cole turned to the pilot. "You know which station we want?"

"Yeah, I've got it programmed here," he said, patting his control panel.

"Then let's go."

As the shuttle jumped ahead Cole turned to his crew and Lafferty's men.

"I assume you all heard that?" he said.

A general nodding of heads.

"It means that a century-old ship that should have been decommissioned eighty years ago is about to become the flagship of what's left of the Republic's Navy," he continued. "The very same Republic that we came here to destroy." An ironic smile crossed his face. "As I remarked once or twice to the late Commander Forrice, we seem to live in interesting times."

They made it safely to the
Teddy R.
The shuttle elected to stay docked in orbit, on the reasonable assumption that
any
location was safer than the surface of Deluros VIII.

"Where's Jacovic?" asked Cole as he walked onto the bridge.

"His shift finished a few hours ago," answered Christine.

"Get him up here. He's had more experience at this kind of thing than any of us. I'm going to want his expertise."

"Yes, sir."

"Val, take a nap."

"The hell I will," she said. "If we're going to get blown apart, I want to see who did it so I can hunt them down in hell."

"Your logic is impeccable," said Cole, "but there's every chance we
won't
get blown apart in the next eight or ten hours, and I want you fresh and alert when Jacovic starts fading."

"Well, I'll grab a beer and a sandwich," she said, heading off to the airlift. "But I'm not sleepy."

"Christine, as difficult as this will be for you to believe, the
Teddy R
is now the flagship of the Republic's Navy. I don't have codes, IDs, or even positions for any of the ships, so you're just going to have to broadcast whatever orders we have for them and hope the attackers don't speak Terran."

"I speak English, sir," said Rachel, who was at one of the stations.

"And I speak Swahili," added Christine.

"There
might
be a few people on the receiving end who speak one or the other, but we can't count on it." He lowered his head in thought for a moment. "Contact Aloysius Chang—he'll be in the Secretary's office—and tell him we really need the codes, IDs, everything. We have to have some safe channels."

"Will he respond, sir?" she said. "I mean, we came here to depose his superior."

"He's a sensible man," said Cole. "He'll respond—and Egan Wilkie isn't superior to anyone."

"I'll get right on it, sir."

Cole walked over to Jacovic. "You've been watching the ships?"

"Yes," said the Teroni.

"Ever see anything like them?"

Jacovic shook his head. "They're very similar in outline to the Molarian Class XB," he replied. "But that may not mean anything."

"They didn't fire any Level 5 thumpers or burners, at least that I could tell from my vantage point," said Cole. "Is it possible they're holding back?"

"I don't think so," said Jacovic. "This is a surprise attack, and it caught Deluros off guard. But the Republic
does
have more than three million ships. Probably ninety-five percent of them are engaged against the Federation and can't be relocated, but that still leaves well over one hundred and fifty thousand ships that the attackers can't account for. You and I know that most of them are patrolling their own sectors, and probably a few thousand are in the Inner and Outer Frontiers, but
they
don't know that. It makes sense that they'd hit Deluros with everything they have and then leave before reinforcements arrive. Clearly this isn't a war of conquest, not with only a thousand ships."

"So we shouldn't wait for reinforcements," said Cole. "They figure to do their damage and run."

"That would be my conclusion, yes, sir," said Jacovic.

"Rachel, capture an image of one or two of those ships, and see if the computer can identify them," said Cole.

"I've been trying, sir," she replied. "That was the first thing I thought of when they flew by and started attacking. But so far I haven't had any luck."

"Okay, don't bother anymore," said Cole. "If the computer can't find them in its data banks in a minute or two, they're not there." He turned back to Jacovic. "If all they've got are Level 3s, we ought to be able to move with impunity. If they have Level 4s, how many hits do you think we can take? Twenty? Thirty?"

"I believe we'll have to check with Mr. Odom, sir," said the Teroni.

"Do that, please," said Cole. "Where's Mr. Briggs?"

"I think he's sleeping, sir," said Rachel.

"Wake him up. I need him here."

"Yes, sir."

Cole walked over to the main viewscreen and watched it, hands on hips. There were perhaps two hundred enemy ships, swarming like bees, over the section of Deluros VIII he'd just left. He couldn't spot a single Navy ship.

"Sir," said Jacovic, walking up to him, "Mr. Odom says it will depend on the proximity of the other ships, and the angle of attack, but our defenses can take a minimum of twenty Level 4 pulse strikes before any portion of the
Teddy R
loses its structural integrity."

"How about Level 4 burners?"

"Unless the pulse attacks weaken the shields and screens, we should be practically immune to Level 4 laser cannons."

Cole grimaced. "I distrust that word 'practically.'"

Jacovic looked at the viewscreen. "We could safely withdraw from this position now, sir. Have you any instructions for Wxakgini?"

Cole shook his head. "Where would we go? We're probably safer here than as a moving target. We need to devise some sort of strategy before we show ourselves."

"As you wish, sir."

"I don't suppose you ever found yourself in an analogous situation?"

"One ship, momentarily safe, surrounded by perhaps a thousand enemy ships?" said Jacovic. "No, never."

"Somehow I'm not surprised," said Cole.

Malcolm Briggs came onto the bridge, rubbing his eyes. "Welcome back, sir. I'm glad to see you're all unharmed."

"I'm sorry to wake you, Mr. Briggs," said Cole, "but we need your expertise."

"What would you like me to do, sir?"

Cole looked around the bridge. "Christine and Rachel are at the main computer stations. Take the small one in the corner, or go down to my office and use mine."

"And do what, sir?" persisted Briggs.

"You and Christine are my two best computer operators, and I'm going to keep her busy for the next few hours. I want you to try to capture any enemy messages—they're acting in concert, so they must be communicating with each other—and see if the computer can make any sense out of them. If not, tell Mr. Aloysius Chang that you're acting on my behalf—Christine will give you the contact information—and get permission to tie in to the Master Computer down on Deluros. Maybe
it
can translate them if our own computer can't."

"Yes, sir," said Briggs. "If you don't mind, I'll use your office. There will be fewer distractions."

"Fine," said Cole.

"Ground crews are firing up at the ships, sir," noted Jacovic when Briggs had left, "but they're too far away. They've only made two hits in the last few minutes." He paused. "On the other hand, the ships have moved their center of operations some four hundred miles to the west."

"Rachel?" said Cole.

"Sir?"

"This is clearly not a war of conquest. It's more like the kind of punishment party the Navy sent up to Singapore Station, maybe a little larger but the same principle. Have the computer scan all the news reports for the past five years—and not just the local ones. Let's see if it can figure out who would be mad enough to try to destroy Deluros VIII."

"And who has the technology to avoid detection," added Jacovic. "After all, they just suddenly appeared. As far as I know, no one reported seeing them approach, and no one tried to stop them."

Cole frowned. "You have a point. We've been so busy ducking we forgot to ask the operative question: how the hell did they get here?"

"They had to use a wormhole, sir," said Jacovic. "It's the only way they could get this far undetected."

"Pilot," said Cole, "is there any wormhole that would let a ship out within the Deluros system?"

"Infrequently," answered Wxakgini.

Cole frowned. "What do you mean: infrequently?"

"The Stutz Wormhole is extremely unstable. It occasionally exists in the Deluros system, between Deluros II and III."

Cole and Jacovic exchanged looks. "That explains it," said the Teroni. "All of the Navy's defenses were geared to stopping an invasion from outside the system, not from within."

"Just a minute," said Cole. "If Pilot knows it, and damned near every ship in the Navy has a member of his race on it, why didn't they all know it?"

"I told you," said Wxakgini. "The Stutz Wormhole is unstable."

"How often does it exist inside the Deluros system?"

"It exists for an average of thirty hours once every seventeen years," answered Wxakgini. "This time frame is only an estimate. The interval has been as short as fourteen years and as long as thirty-four."

"That's your answer," said Jacovic. "You don't build your defenses around a weakness that occurs one day every seventeen years."

"That's a long time to hold a grudge," remarked Cole.

"How long have you held yours?" asked Wxakgini.

"Not quite that long," said Cole. "But I'm young yet. Relatively speaking."

"How much longer will the Wormhole remain here?" asked Jacovic.

"Twenty-seven hours, eleven minutes, and sixteen seconds," answered Wxakgini.

"Where does the other end let out?

"I don't know," said the pilot. "It has never been charted. Well, not by any member of the Republic, which is where the navigational computer draws its information."

"Wonderful," muttered Cole.

"Sir?" said Christine.

"Yes?"

"I have most of the codes and contact information you requested, sir."

"Good. Send a message to our ships right now. Tell them if they're within twenty-five hours of the Deluros system to get here as fast as they can. Tell them that they'll be taking their orders from the
Teddy R
, and if they have any problems with that, to check with the Secretary's office."

"Right away, sir."

"Summoning all those ships isn't going to help much," Cole confided to Jacovic. "The enemy will deliver its ordnance and get the hell out of here. They're not going to stick around till the last minute."

"I know."

"Can you mine a wormhole, I wonder?"

Jacovic shook his head. "I wouldn't think so, sir. Normal time and space don't exist in wormholes. I wouldn't think explosives do, either."

"Ships work in them."

"Ships cannot accelerate in a wormhole," replied Jacovic. "The momentum is supplied by the wormhole, not the ship." He paused thoughtfully. "It's entirely possible that a ship does not produce oxygen or water for the crew in a wormhole, but we traverse them so quickly we don't notice because we're not inside them long enough to run out."

"I know," said Cole. "I'm just grasping at straws."

"I beg your pardon, sir?"

"I'm hoping for a solution, other than the obvious one."

"The obvious one, sir?"

Cole nodded. "If we can't find out where they're from in the next hour or so, we're going to have to enter the hole before it moves. And if
we
know that the hole leads to their home system, or at least near it, they know it too."

Jacovic nodded his agreement. "And if they have this many ships here, on a surprise mission, how many ships will they have protecting their home when they know the Navy will be able to find it by traversing the wormhole?"