Resilience (Warner's World Book 6) (50 page)

A silence had descended on the group but eventually Aubrey decided to stir the pot saying “especially her fiery temperament.” Sue and Crystal both nodded in agreement.

“And her stubbornness” added Sue with equal mischief. Now Aubrey and Crystal nodded with a smile.

“And the lust. Don’t forget the lust” contributed Crystal. All four again broke into laughter.

“What about ‘Pirates of the Crimson Tide’” proffered Aubrey. “I so loved Heather McKlusky as Rose in that. I took up fencing after seeing her wielding that blade across the quarterdecks.”

“In those tight leathers!” contributed Sue.

“Yeah” said Rihan with a big grin on her face.

“I didn’t know you fenced” said Crystal.

“Since I was 13” replied Aubrey.

“Is that your fencing bot in the gym?”

“Sure is and guess what her name is?”

“Rose?”

“Yep.”

“Could you teach me?”

“I could, but Rose is a better teacher. Would you like to have a go?”

“Yeah for sure.”

“Now I can’t take any responsibility if you end up in pieces.”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t let that happen” said Crystal.

“Well I usually have a session in the evening when that lovely Dr Lin will be doing his workout. He could patch you up if things get out of hand.”

“Could we do it at some other time?” asked Crystal.

Aubrey was a little surprised but she opted not to pry further. “Sure and I’ll ask Rose to go easy on you.”

“Thanks.”

Chapter 1. Kiev over Q2 1100, 22 October

“Well you needn’t worry” said Phil out loud in his office as he read the signal just in from Felis. Alex, who was sitting opposite, gave him a ‘what’s up?’ expression. Phil hit the control to mirror the signal onto the wall display, while he continued reading it himself.

“Just check out his new rank and title” said Phil, getting more annoyed. “If he thinks that allows him to call the shots then he’s mistaken.” Alex cut his boss a withering look. “Don’t you look at me like that! Don’t you see what their trying on here?”

“I thought we went through all this?” asked Alex, cocking his head up at an angle towards Phil and focussing at him with his top eye. “All I see is the senior military commander of our ally…”

“Telling me to suck eggs” finished off Phil. His face was flush as he shook his head.

Now Alex shook his head. “No, he’s just making sure we stick to the plan and reminding us of the real need for doing so by conveying their latest intel.”

“I got that intel too.”

“You’re taking it personal now.”

“No I’m not.”

Alex just looked at him sternly.

“All right, I might be” said Phil, his voice flustered. Alex continued to stare directly at Phil. “How am I supposed to win an argument with you?”

“You’re not arguing with me” said Alex. “I’m on your side, remember.”

“Doesn’t sound like it from here.” Again Alex just stared at Phil. “Oh!” said Phil exhaling long.

“We done?” asked Alex.

“Yes, yes” said Phil, calming down. Alex smiled.

Chapter 2. Audacity over Cheylista 1500, 27 October

The Audacity group came out of warp early morning over the sleth home world of Cheylista. They celebrated Mandy’s birthday at lunch time with a cake while the sleth chief minister, Fowlsit, hitched a lift on board a warthog. He and his commanders were introduced, given a partial tour of the ship and then led into the briefing room on A deck for a planning conference. By 1500 they had been at it for over an hour and half.

Dave sat in his chair around the holo in the briefing room. It was not designed to take this many people, especially when a third of them were sleth. He noted Fowlsit, the sleth chief minister, shifting his weight on his chair. Despite the fact that the chair’s arms had been retracted Fowlsit was finding it not so comfortable. It was not designed for such a big frame and Fowlsit was not the biggest sleth there.

Dave recalled how he had felt sitting in rogan chairs and took pity on Fowlsit’s predicament. “Perhaps we can take a break” suggested Dave.

“Excellent idea” replied Fowlsit, who immediately stood upright and stretched his 2.2m tall body. That gave permission for all the other sleth in his party to follow suit.

“This way” said Dave as he led the way down to the B deck officers mess where Cranky and his stewards were ready to provide afternoon tea. Dave was thankful that B deck was in fact tall enough to allow the sleth to stand upright without the need to stoop.

“Would you prefer to sit or stand?” asked Dave.

“Stand if you don’t mind” said Fowlsit.

They grabbed coffee from one of the stewards and after savouring his first sip Fowlsit said “This is a mighty impressive ship you have, Dave. We must make sure you don’t lose it in service to our cause. One on my conscious is enough.” Fowlsit was of course referring to the loss of the Hermes over Fulmar.

“Agreed” said Dave “besides I don’t think Admiral Yomoto would be as forgiving this time around” and he gave Fowlsit a knowing smile.

“I do believe you’re right there” said Fowlsit with a bit of a smile.

“Right about what?” asked Rihan as she joined them. Her head was craned up to look at Fowlsit.

Fowlsit explained what had just been said to whit Rihan added with a serious voice “Oh yes, this is his pride and joy. Better we all go down with the ship I say!”

Fowlsit wasn’t quite sure how to take Rihan’s last statement until her expression changed to a big smile. Then he grinned and added “very good but best if we bring back the good admiral’s ship in one piece.”

“Agreed” said Dave keen to change the topic. “Your commander’s seem confident.”

“They have good cause to be” responded Fowlsit. “They have just successfully liberated three home worlds. There is nothing like success and I’m sure with your help we will succeed over Slenthsl. Then we’ll be able to produce our own ships and defend ourselves and help bring down the imperialists. I am so looking forward to that day.”

“We all are.”

“You know I want to thank you both for all you have done” said Fowlsit. With a most sincere expression on his reptilian face he added “our people are in your debt.” His eye caught Sue and Art as they joined their little group. “Oh Sue” he said and bent down to envelope her in his long arms. Sue gave him a peck on his cheek which brought a big smile to his face. “I hear you’ve had some adventures?” he asked Sue.

“Just a few.”

“And you are now married no less” said Fowlsit as he extended his hand to Art.

“Had to make an honest woman of her” said Art.

“I have always found her to be honest” said Fowlsit slightly confused.

“Too right” piped up Sue. She cut Art a disapproving look and added “it’s just his sick humour but I love him anyway.”

“Ah, I see” said Fowlsit with a smile. He turned to Rihan and asked “How’s my Gret?”

“Oh he’s doing fine. He keeps the good admiral on his toes” replied Rihan with a smile and then added “that’s just another one of our expressions. He is well. He was persuasive enough to convince Admiral Yomoto to commit us.”

“Good, but I think most of the persuading was done by the commitment of our three brigades, no?” said Fowlsit with a wry grin.

“That helped I’m sure” said Rihan with a smile.

“We are prepared to do our bit” said Fowlsit seriously. “You have borne most of the burden so far. Let us shoulder it together from here on.”

An hour and a half later the planning conference ended and Dave said his goodbyes to Fowlsit and his commanders. He watched as their shuttles departed either for the surface or to the transports that were now carrying three sleth brigades.

But Dave’s work day was not yet finished. He made his way back up to the briefing room where he had asked his ground force commanders and staff to wait. As he entered Gordon was answering a question from Capt Chip Andrews, the commander of his 1
^st
Battalion. “The plan doesn’t call for us to go in with the first lift” said Gordon.

“That’s right” said Dave as he took his seat. “In fact, if we don’t commit any ground forces I’ll be happy and more importantly so will Admiral Yomoto. We let the sleth brigades carry the fight on the ground. I know you are all itching to blood your troops but it’s more important that we maintain our strength for Istridium.”

Chip shrugged his shoulders and had a disappointed expression on his face. He was of the strong opinion that it was better to provide his inexperienced troops with valuable combat experience in this operation where the level of intensity would be less than on Istridium. But his fifteen years of experience in the service taught him that it was pointless to argue against an Admiral in front of a crowd.

Capt Ryba Polansky, who commanded the 2
^nd
Bn of the 3
^rd
Bde, was less inclined to hold back. She had a pugnacious temperament and rarely took a step back in an argument. She had a quick brain and was usually one step ahead of any sparing opponent. Her biggest trouble though was knowing when not to step up to the plate. “Sir, with all respect, I think this is a big mistake.”

Gordon cut her a disapproving glance but she ignored it and focussed her gaze on Dave as she added “Surely it’s better to provide our troops with some battle experience here than in the shit fight we’re likely to be in on Istridium. They’ll be better for it and more able to prevail on Istridium.”

Dave nodded at her, acknowledging the point she had made. Often he found this response took out much of the heat from the argument but not this time. Ryba continued “then why can’t we be committed?” Her eyes bore in on Dave’s.

“This is Yomoto’s call” piped in Capt Dong Vang, who commanded the 3
^rd
Bn. Dong shifted his weight in his chair, uncomfortable with Ryba’s argument.

“That’s right” said Dave “and that should be enough to end the discussion. We all must work within the constraints of our orders. In this case, there is a good reason for those orders. We’re a long way from Polaris and it takes months to bring replacements forward. What we lose here won’t be replaced before Istridium. Also, we’ve already lost many marines getting this far. We are part of an Alliance and it’s time for our Alliance partners to share in the pain. So, we only commit if the sleth can’t handle things. Is that understood?” Dave looked directly at Ryba.

Ryba had at least the sense to accept Dave’s decision. “Yes, understood Sir” she responded. Dave was someone she had admired greatly. But that was all based on second hand accounts of what he had done. Now that she was getting to know him first hand she wasn’t so sure. She leaned back into her chair and responded to Gordon’s gaze with a slight shrug of her shoulder.

“It’s been a long day” said Dave “and we all need to get some rest. We warp into Slenthsl tomorrow. Thank you everyone.” They all filed out except Gordon, who closed the door so he could have a word in private with Dave.

“Sorry about that. Ryba can be…” said Gordon.

“Forthright?” suggested Dave.

Gordon tilted his head a little. “Yes, forthright is a good description. But she’s probably my best commander.”

“I don’t mind forthright. I would rather they speak their mind so long as they accept I make the final decision.”

“I’m sure they do. You at least explain your reasoning. You and I both know there are many Admirals who don’t bother.”

“Yeah, but you and I also know that there will come a time when I don’t have time to explain. I need to know that my subordinates will still follow my orders.”

“I know. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure they do.”

Chapter 3. Audacity over Slenthsl 2150, 28 October

Crystal had the watch and they had warped in five minutes ago, 100K on the far side of Slenthsl and in line with the system plane, so they were well masked from its sun’s rays. The holo showed two enemy caps and one frigate over the planet on the far side in geo about 30K altitude.

“Still no detections?” queried Crystal.

“Can’t see it anywhere” replied Mandy, the offensive BS. “It’s probably on the other side of the moon.” She was referring to the second enemy frigate that they knew should be in the system.

“Or on the other side of this planet or any of the others for that matter” chimed in 2nd Lt Felix Sumter, the defensive BS.

“Well if they were behind Ninthsl (the fourth planet in the system) we would know by now” countered Crystal. “Nothing from Spectre or Falcon?” she asked Cindy, who shook her head. The Spectre and Falcon had warped in on the far side of Ninthsl with the transports. Their SOP was to hail if there were any enemy encountered on warping in.

“Well we should launch probes to the others” said Felix.

Crystal was aware of Dave and Rihan’s gaze upon her but she ignored them. They were allowing her time to make the decision herself and she appreciated that. But she knew she needed to act. She looked to Cindy and directed “launch a probe around Slenthsl, make sure it’s route can allow it to see the far side of the moon as well.”

“What about the other planets?” asked Cindy.

“Too far away. If it pops out of the shadows, we’ll have time to react” said Crystal she cast a quick look to Dave and saw him nod. That reassured her. “So we sit and wait for how long?” she asked Cindy.

Cindy was already programming the probe’s mission profile. She glanced at the route on her terminal and replied “70 minutes till recovery.” Crystal gave her a nod and Cindy hit the commit control. “Launched!” she announced.

Aubrey had been waiting patiently at her station. She knew they had a contingency plan for a split enemy force and she had already pulled it up. She just needed the location of the missing frigate. Without it she knew Dave would not risk committing to the attack.

But she was also conscious of the fact that their target locations were steadily rotating with the planet towards their next sunrise. The first of these was Nenrit, the ship production centre. Its sunrise was scheduled for 0710.

Aubrey knew it was imperative to insert at night to reduce the risk of visual detection. But before that could start they needed to destroy the enemy ships and warp the transports to geo over Slenthsl. She also knew that to insert the entire 1
^st
Sleth Bde would take two lifts, each of which was estimated to take an hour, maybe more as they had not had time to do a full rehearsal. She had allotted three hours for the insertion just to be sure. The warp time for the transports would be four hours. She knew that the attack on the enemy ships would take the best part of an hour to close, prosecute and regroup.