Talosian Chronicles 2: Star Dancer (37 page)

“Oh! I forgot! Chloe, could you pipe one of the nose cam feeds from a Shadow, down to engineering? I promised Chief Dommer he would be able to see one of the mass drivers in operation,” Ian said.

“Feed available on Combat Twenty, Sir.” Chloe said tapping out commands on her tablet.

“Thanks, Major,” Ian said, and touched his comm. “Command to Engineering.”

“Engineering here, what can we do for you, Commander?” Chief Dommer’s voice replied.

“Just fulfilling a forgotten promise, Chief. If you set a monitor to Combat Twenty, you should have a gun view from one of the mass drivers mounted on a Shadow fighter,” Ian explained.

“I knew you forgot it Sir, but I also knew you were kinda busy. Thank you for remembering,” Dommer replied.

“It’s a quiet feed right now, Chief. But they will be scrapping a carrier in the next few minutes, so you should get to see some of the fun at least. They are everything you said they would be, and more. I’m sure you will be impressed,” Ian said, before shutting down the comm channel.

Ian sighed. “Major Eischens, Something is really bothering me.”

“This was
far
too easy?” Eischens replied.

Ian nodded. “It doesn’t make sense, every sim I ran said we should be dead by now. What are we missing?”

Eischens shook his head. “Nothing I can see, Sir. The only thing I can think of is the Caldarian Commander is grossly incompetent, or their tech is actually worse than it was four thousand years ago.”

“Let’s think about this, why did the Super Nova come in on the vector that it did? If it was coming from the area that was occupied by the Caldarians, then it
should
have had a different approach vector...”

The younger Eischens had been listening. “The approach vector it used leads to deep space, Sir.
Intergalactic
deep space.”

“Intergalactic?” Ian asked rhetorically. “What the hell are they doing out there? Could they have come in from another galaxy?”

“Unlikely Sir. With current hyperspace propulsion technology, minimum transit time is over a thousand years in relative time. Either they have a new type of jump engine, a better temporal compensator, or they are really old.”

“Could this be the ship that the freighters were jumping to?” Ian asked. “They were a rendezvous point away from hostile space? That explanation seems more likely than any of the others.”

Major Eischens shook his head. “Not really, Sir. If that were the case, it seems to me they wouldn’t risk exposing their operation like that. Another ship would have been sent. Based on the available evidence, sometime in the last forty-five hundred years, the Caldarians got their asses handed to them, and they fled to another galaxy using new jump engines that we had no knowledge of. Since then, they have been returning to this galaxy to collect supplies instead of searching for them in the new galaxy. It could also explain their lack of technological advances.”

“Sir, Cobalt will be in range in ten minutes. We will be activating the drones in nine minutes, thirty seconds,” one of the techs said over her shoulder.

“Thank you, proceed as planned.” Ian turned back to Major Eischens. “Could it be that this is the last Caldarian ship? If we destroy them, will we be committing genocide?”

Eischens shrugged. “There’s simply no way to know anything for certain at this point, Sir. We just don’t have enough information. But I do know that we cannot assume they are the last of their kind. There would have had to be some civilians alive, even if their military was utterly defeated. All that aside, we have the right to defend ourselves, even if doing so, removes the Caldarian race from the universe.”

Ian frowned. “I know, and I agree, it still just doesn’t sit well with me.”

“If they did flee the galaxy, perhaps they simply didn’t want to risk losing more than one of these super ships,” Chloe suggested. “If they have to return here and take hydrocarbons from our world as sustenance, I would be willing to wager that they no longer have the ability to produce this class of ship anymore.”

Ian thought about that for a time, then shook his head. “Well, we may not understand their motivation, but these guys are not acting like typical Caldarians. They still out gun us, so we’ll continue as we have for the time being. In the meantime, let’s try to collect as much information as we can on them.”

After the attack that destroyed the carrier near the moon, all the carriers in the system returned to the Super Nova and docked. Ian grinned when he saw how many empty births there were on the outside of the ship.

Cobalt flight returned and very quickly destroyed the carrier. It didn’t launch fighters, and Ian wondered if it had any left. A couple of the carriers had lost all their fighters in the earlier attacks. Once Cobalt flight finished with the Carrier, they landed on the moon without problem.

The entire system was quiet after that, the big ship simply sat there, and it didn’t appear to be doing anything.

“Huh, now that’s odd. I never expected them to pull everything back, then just sit there. What are they waiting for?” Ian asked.

Major Eischens agreed with him. “This is definitely not what I thought to expect from a Caldarian Commander. I would say things have really gone though some changes since our books were written.”

“Well, if they’re going to be quiet for a while, would someone get a report on Talos?” Ian asked. An aide brought him a tablet of his own, and he began reading.

Surprisingly enough, the US Marines held the Caldarians back without losing too many people. However, Ian credited the questionable decision of Ty Anders to put advanced weapons in the hands of United States troops. At least the ploy seemed to work for him, when the unit returned all the rifles. Now all they had to worry about was everyone keeping their mouths shut about all the advanced tech that Ty had exposed them too.

Ian wasn’t happy with Ty’s decision, but he could understand it, and he did tell him to do whatever he needed to do to keep the people safe, and he did exactly that. Finishing the report, Ian noticed that Ty had other, secondary motives for letting the cat out of the bag with the Marines. Recruitment, and well as a ‘protection’ against further Governmental interference. Ty said that having the trust and understanding of the Marines, would go a long way in keeping the rest of the government out of their hair.

Ian could only hope Ty knew what he was doing. Ian was completely unfamiliar with the military mind and how it worked, but Ty was ‘one’ of them. Ian had to admit that, so far, it seemed to be working very well.

––––––––

F
.S.S.
Star Dancer

Selene (Earth’s moon) Orbit

Sol Sector.

Combat location:
Dark Palace

––––––––

D
ue to the vagaries of space travel, and the effects of relativity in normal space, what few battles that did take place over the next week were long and drawn out. However, for the most part, it was eerily quiet. The Caldarians seemed to pull back into the big ship, and simply wait.

Ian and company took advantage of the lull to repair or replace the drones lost or damaged in the first round of battles, and get more fighters upgraded or built. They still had to be careful, because whenever something unshielded took place, the Caldarians did respond by jumping a carrier out to see what was going on.

The defenses around Earth were added to, and Talos refitted two of their three Centurions with the new enigma armor. By the request of the corporation running Talos, the Marines that had protected them were left there to ensure the community’s security until the reasons for the attack could be discovered.

Ian finally understood what Ty had been doing by taking the Marines into his confidence when the request was approved. Stipulations required the Community to agree to supply the unit with utilities during their stay. Of course, Luke readily agreed to that stipulation since most of that was already being done.

Ty did request permission to have the Marines fitted for armor and to train them in Talosian and Caldarian tactics. He also requested that Ian come down to the Community to meet with the commander of the Marines, Colonel Petrie.

“Command to Ops,” Ian called over the comm.

“Ops here,” Chloe Brighton replied.

“I have need to travel down to Talos for a quick visit. Do you think Talena could give me a ride down in her new Shadow fighter?” Ian asked.

After a pause, the Operations Chief replied. “Yes Sir, she is available. Do you think it’s advisable to leave the ship at this time?”

“It’s important, Chloe. I wouldn’t ask otherwise,” Ian replied.

“Understood, Commander. Issuing the alert for a special patrol to the flight commander and her wing mate. Orders will be ready by the time you get to Alpha launching bay. Safe flight, Commander,” Chloe replied. Ian could tell she wasn’t happy about him leaving the ship, but she wouldn’t argue with him over it. Jenny, however, did.

He was halfway through changing into his flight suit when Jenny entered the ready room. “Ian, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I need to go down to Talos for a couple of hours. Ty wants me to meet a couple new allies, and it’s very important that I do so,” Ian explained.

“The Marine commanders? Ian, Ty and those commanders both should know how dangerous it is for you to go anywhere at the moment. They’ll understand if you waited until the Caldarians leave,” Jenny said.

Ian sighed and looked at her as he fastened the closure on the front of the suit. “Jenny, you can run things just as well as I can; you know everything going on, and you know how I want everything to go. These men are violating an oath to the United States Government in order to keep us safe. For Marines, that is a very big thing and completely unheard of. If they want to meet me, they are entitled to. I’m going, and that the end of it.”

Jenny pursed her lips and sighed deeply through her nose. She was clearly unhappy, but he had given her an order, and she could not argue any further. “If you get your ass shot off, I’ll never speak to you again!”

“I’m riding down with Talena in her Shadow with her wingman as an escort. I’ll be fine; just let me know immediately if there is any change with our guests,” Ian replied.

“That you can count on!” Jenny replied. “Cindy is acting CAG (Commander, Air Group) then?”

Ian nodded. “She is the second in line. It’ll give both of you some time in the saddle during combat.”

“Well, there are about twenty shuttle loads of supplies to go down as well, why don’t we load up a couple of shuttles and you can escort those down. That way, we can kill two birds,” Jenny suggested.

“Get them to hurry. I want to get this done and get back as soon as I can,” Ian replied. Jenny nodded once and left the room. Ian sealed his boots to the flight suit and headed for fighter country.

––––––––

W
hen Ian entered the pilot’s ready room, Talena and two of her pilots were there, suited up and waiting for him. He could tell she wasn’t happy about him leaving the ship, but she was excited to get out and fly.

“Slight change in plans, we’re going to be escorting a couple of shuttles down to Talos. They’re loading them right now, and we should be ready in a few minutes,” Ian said.

“What do we need to take down that they can’t make for themselves?” One of the pilots asked.

Ian shrugged. “I have no idea, but these loads have been waiting until it was safe to move them. Since I needed to go down, the XO thought it would be a good excuse to send this stuff as well. I only worry about blowing stuff up, logistics isn’t my job.”

They all got a chuckle out of that. While they waited, Talena took Ian off to the side to speak to him privately. “I know you’ve probably been grilled about this already, so I’m only asking for my own curiosity. Is this a good time for you to be leaving the ship? What if the Caldarians decide this is the time for an all-out attack?”

“That’s why I asked for you to take me down, you and the protection of your Shadow fighters. It is important that I go down right now, because we have a couple of new allies that Ty asked me to meet. These guys are protecting the community down there. If they want to meet me, than I will do what I can to accommodate them,” Ian explained.

“The Planetary Marines? I didn’t think it was safe to let them in on the secret?” Talena asked.

“Ty made the call, and he knows them better than I do. If it had been up to me, no, I wouldn’t have trusted them. But Ty seems to have them convinced of our mission, and he tells me they’re trustworthy,” Ian replied.

Talena nodded. “Ty is a good man. I don’t know him very well, but from what I’ve seen, he knows what he’s doing. Thank you for explaining it to me, you know we’ll protect you no matter what.”

“I know sweetheart,” Ian replied.

She glanced up at the ready board, and grinned. “Okay Foxbat,” she said using the other pilot’s call sign. “Let’s get the birds preflighted – we’re on deck!”

Talena quickly and efficiently performed a preflight inspection of the fighter and showed Ian what she was doing at the same time. Then she went over to talk to the four pilots that would be flying the two shuttles. As flight leader, Talena was in command of the trip, and she wanted to make sure the pilots knew what to expect if something went wrong.

“Shouldn’t the Commander ride with one of us?” one of the shuttle pilots asked.

Talena shook her head. “If you were the enemy commander, and you caught us out in the open, two fighters escorting two cargo shuttles, what would be your primary target?”

The other pilot nodded his head. “The shuttles. I would think there must be something important on these shuttles in order to justify an escort. I would work to draw off or destroy the fighters, then take out the shuttles.”

“Exactly,” Talena replied. “Besides, I think he really wants to ride in one of the new birds.”

“Can’t argue with that,” the first pilot said. “I want to ride in one too!”

“Okay, let get this show on the road. Remember, cloak as soon as you are clear of the air skin.” She indicated the slightly glowing field that covered the opening to space. Cloaking before going through it would disrupt the shield and kill everyone in the bay when it depressurized.