The Slaver Wars: Galactic Conflict (20 page)

Telleck let
out a whistle realizing the mammoth task the Carethians had set for themselves.
The elevator came to a stop and they began walking toward the Command Center. “I'll contact my people back on Ceres and see if there is anything they can
send to help with the construction. We have some spider-like robots that are
very good at building things. They might be of use in building your new
shipyard.”

“Robots?” spoke
Grayseth, stopping to look at Admiral Telleck curiously. “Lieutenant Johnson
once mentioned the construction robots used inside Ceres. She said they are not
like the AIs.”

“The robots
are controlled by Humans,” Telleck explained. “They are very useful in
construction. They can perform many tasks and work almost nonstop. I think in
this case their programming can be modified so that Carethians can issue
construction orders. I believe you'll find them extremely useful.”

“If it will
make construction go faster than I see no reason for us not to use these
robots,” Grayseth replied. The sooner the new shipyard started building warships
for his people the sooner they could take the war to the evil ones. “I will
speak to my people about this.”

Admiral
Telleck nodded. He did not mention that the construction robots were only used
inside Ceres and at New Tellus; the rest of the Federation had never grown to
accept them. Telleck suspected fear of the AIs was at the root of the problem. However,
the construction robots only had very primitive cognitive abilities. They could
never become a threat.

Reaching the Command Center, the two went over to the main command console. Since the arrival of the two
new Federation fleets the female Carethians had been allowed to return to the
station and go back to their duties. Malith was back at Communications and
Karalle was back at her computer station. Admiral Telleck had been introduced
to both and was deeply impressed by their knowledge of their respective
positions.

“Have you a
design for your new warships?” Telleck asked. He knew that due to the size of
the average Carethian a Federation designed vessel was not practical.

“Yes,”
Grayseth responded. “I have already turned the design over to some of your ship
building engineers for them to study. It will be a medium cruiser class of
eight hundred meters. We are also designing a battleship to act as a command craft.
I have spoken to Admiral Streth and our new battleship will have to be
constructed at New Tellus. We just don’t have the technology or construction
facilities to build such a large ship.”

Admiral
Telleck nodded. He wondered how that would go over with the Federation Council.

“We have a
number of ore freighters inbound,” Malith reported to Colonel Malang, who had
taken over the duties of Colonel Millburn, who had left for the Federation with
Fourth Fleet.

Colonel Malang
was a young woman of Chinese ancestry. She was twenty-eight years old with dark
black hair. “Have them hold just outside the gravity well until a light cruiser
can rendezvous with them, then they can continue on into the station,” she
responded. Malang was still in the process of setting up regular convoys within
the system that would be escorted by Federation light cruisers as a safety
precaution.

Admiral
Telleck nodded his head as he listened to the conversation. The Carethians had
reactivated their mines on some of the moons and asteroids in the system; they
would soon need the raw materials for construction. Unfortunately, they did not
have a large number of ore freighters available to them and it would take time
to build new ones.

“I will
contact Fleet Admiral Johnson at New Tellus and see if she can find some
additional ore freighters to send our way,” Telleck added as he turned to face
Grayseth. He would rather see the Carethians constructing warships than
spending precious time building ore freighters.

“That would be
deeply appreciated,” Grayseth responded, pleased at the offer. “We are already
constructing more small ships in our underground cities, but they will only be
useful in helping to defend our system. They are too small to deploy on a long
term mission.”

“I received a
message from Senator Barnes yesterday,” added Telleck, recalling the surprising
information it had contained. “He is one of the two Federation Senators that
represents Ceres on the council. Two of our allies will soon be sending
warships to help defend Careth. Their ships are currently being updated and
should be arriving within the next two weeks.”

“Their help
will be greatly appreciated,” Grayseth responded with a nod of his head. “We
will make Careth a bastion of war against the evil ones. The more heavily
defended it is the more ships of the evil ones we can destroy if they ever
attack us here again.”

Telleck was
pleased that the Kessels and the Darvonians were going to provide warships. It
would lessen the burden on the Federation. He'd already decided that his
executive officer, Kathryn Barnes, would be the fleet officer responsible for handling
any problems that might occur with having five races in the same star system.
Her father was the senior senator from Ceres so she well understood the importance
of diplomacy. He knew she could be depended on to smooth out any
misunderstandings that might occur due to cultural differences. He just hadn’t
told her yet of her new job duties.

-

Hedon was in
the officers' mess eating with Janice. The few crewmembers in the large room
carefully kept a discreet distance between the admiral and themselves, allowing
them some privacy.

“Everything
seems to be going well,” Janice commented as she took a bite of her Caesar
Salad.

“Much better
than I expected,” Hedon responded with a smile. “Admiral Strong and Grayseth
have done wonders preparing the Carethian system for war with the Hocklyns. In
the four short weeks we've been here we have already repaired the damage to the
station, brought the defense grid back up to full strength, and the Altons are
helping with the radiation problems in the three cities that were nuked.”

“I am glad
that the Altons are able to help the Carethians with the radiation problems,”
Janice replied. She had been saddened when she learned that Careth had been hit
by three Hocklyn nukes. She still found it hard to understand the reasoning for
nuking civilian populations. However, the Hocklyns had done it numerous times
in the past and would do it again in the future if they weren’t stopped.

“The Altons
have assured the Carethians that there will be no trace of lingering radiation
when they are through,” Hedon added, pleased with the effort by the Altons to
help the Carethians. Admiral Cleeteus had instantly volunteered the service of
his warships to remove the radiation as soon as he learned of the Hocklyns' use
of nuclear weapons on the surface of the planet.

“The Hocklyns
have been strangely quiet since our arrival,” Janice spoke as she cut up the
hardboiled egg in her salad into smaller pieces. “There have been no reports of
contacts or even FTL detections from the buoys deployed in the different star
systems.”

Hedon took a
deep drink of his unsweetened tea and nodded. “They’re undoubtedly updating
their fleet. I believe they’re avoiding contact with our forces, particularly
after their recent defeats.”

“I spoke to
Malith today,” Janice continued. “She's responsible for communications as well
as setting up patrol routes for their fighters. I was very impressed with her.
If possible, I'd like to go aboard the station and actually meet her.”

“That can
easily be arranged,” Hedon replied with a nod. “I want our people to get used
to being around the Carethians. Besides the Altons, they are going to be our
most important ally in this war.”

“I spoke briefly
with Lieutenant Kelsey Grainger before they left to return home,” Janice added
recalling the conversation. “She is the first one of the Special Five that I
have ever spoken to. She seems so normal, just like anyone else.”

“They are
normal,” Hedon responded with an enigmatic smile. “From what Admiral Strong
told me, he and Kelsey intend to get married while they are back in the
Federation.”

“That’s
great!” Janice exclaimed her eyes lighting up. “The Federation will be abuzz
with excitement when that engagement is announced.”

“But it poses
a problem,” responded Hedon, dourly. “Married couples are not supposed to serve
together on warships, particularly officers.”

“They’re the
Special Five,” explained Janice, patiently. “No one expects rules to apply to
them.”

“But it
should,” Hedon replied. He knew that he had made exceptions for Amanda and
Richard on occasion though now they were assigned to different duties.

“I’m sure
everything will work out,” answered Janice, reaching across the table and
squeezing Hedon’s hand. She pulled it quickly back, not wanting any of the crew
to notice any signs of affection between her and Hedon. “Perhaps the rules
should be changed since the fleet is now going on such long deployments. I
think married couples should be allowed to serve together as long as children
are not involved.”

“We’ll see,”
Hedon responded as he picked up his ham sandwich and took a bite. “It will be
close to six months before they return, I have that long to figure something
out.”

He also knew
that he and Janice were close to violating that same fleet regulation about fraternization
between ship officers. Janice was also right about the long deployments. It
might be necessary to change the rules slightly to accommodate this new reality
of space combat. With mixed crews on warships being deployed for such extensive
lengths of time, there were bound to be some romantic relationships formed.

-

Deep inside
the boundaries of the Hocklyn Slave Empire, a Federation stealth scout dropped
out of hyperspace and exited the swirling blue-white spatial vortex in the next
system on its long search list. So far, they'd found very little of strategic
value. A few evacuated bases and several slave worlds guarded by a solitary Hocklyn
escort cruiser.

This system
was more interesting as it had a yellow G type star, and records from Resmunt’s
fleet base indicated that it contained at least two inhabited worlds.

“Initiating
scans,” the sensor operator reported as the stealth’s systems stabilized and
everything came back online.

“All stealth
systems are activated,” the ensign in front of another console reported as he
adjusted several controls, feeling satisfied that the scout was as undetectable
as he could make it.

“I’m moving us
in system at sixty percent sublight,” Captain Brentwood spoke as she adjusted
the controls on the flight console. “Keep me updated on the scans.”

The small
scout leaped forward as she accelerated the ship to sixty percent power on the
sublight drive. That brought them up to a speed of nearly nine thousand
kilometers per second.

After a few minutes,
the sensor operator was ready with his initial report. “There are ten planets
in the system with two in the liquid water zone. I am also detecting three
different asteroid fields as well as numerous moons. There seems to be a
thriving mining operation going on throughout the system as I see over eighty
ships in transit between the systems moons, asteroids and the two planets in
the liquid water zone.”

“Are those
eighty ships cargo ships?” asked Captain Brentwood, arching her eyebrows. That
sounded like an awful lot of ships.

“They seem to
be,” the sensor operator replied as he studied the data. “I am also detecting
two large space stations in orbit over the two habitable planets.”

Captain
Brentwood nodded to herself. She was under orders to search for targets for the
fleet. She had a growing feeling that she might just have found one.

“We will
continue in system on our sublight drive until we can get better readings on
those two inhabited planets. Then we will reverse course and initiate an FTL
jump to return to Careth with the information.”

-

Twenty hours
later, Captain Brentwood let out a long breath of satisfaction. This was
exactly the type of target that Admiral Streth was searching for. There were
over one hundred Hocklyn warships in orbit above the two planets. It was
obvious the Hocklyns were mining the system for its abundance of natural
resources. There were also a large number of heavy transports docked to the two
space stations above the planets. They had observed several depart the stations
and after leaving the gravity well, jump into hyperspace.

“This is it,” Brentwood informed her crew. “Let’s plot a course back to Careth and inform Admiral Streth.
He will be highly interested to learn of what we have found.”

The small
stealth scout reversed course and once Brentwood was satisfied they wouldn’t be
detected, she activated the stealth’s jump drive. Instantly a small blue-white
vortex formed and she expertly maneuvered the scout into the center of it. Moments
later, the vortex collapsed and the scout was gone.

-

None of the
Hocklyn ships in the system had detected the presence of the scout or its jump.
The two Hocklyn War Leaders in the system were not concerned. They were far
behind the front lines and in another three weeks, their fleets were to report
to Kenward Seven for upgrading. Little did they suspect what would be coming
their way in just a few more days.

Fleet Admiral
Streth studied the tactical data being sent by the four stealth scouts he had
in system K-108. It showed the two inhabited planets as well as the numerous
freighters. It seemed like a robust system totally under Hocklyn control.

“No wonder the
Hocklyns didn’t abandon this system,” Colonel Trist commented as he studied the
data being projected on the tactical display. “From our scans, there must be
over sixty active mining operations going on. In the last two hours, we've
detected two cargo ships jumping out to some unknown destination.”