Hero's Return, page 4
“Comms, send a signal to the remaining destroyers. Have them meet us at the debris field. We need to comb through the wreckage to see if there’s anything that might help us understand these bastards.”
“Astrogator, you heard the admiral. Plot a course to the debris field for the main body,” Captain Wheeler ordered.
Chuck stood, his body feeling stiff and weak. Since he’d already run the numbers, he knew it would take nearly two hours for them to arrive at where the Eesni force had died. That gave him time to take care of at least some of the after-battle actions required of him.
“I’ll be in my cabin, putting together the preliminary after-action report,” he informed the entire bridge. “Captain Wheeler, keep an eye on things.”
“I’ll keep us out of trouble.”
Chuck nodded and trudged to his cabin. He knew he should be ecstatic about the results of the battle, but all he could think about was the thousand officers and spacers he’d be leaving behind in the system.
What was it that old Earth general said? Oh, yeah. “I don’t know what it is to lose a battle, but certainly nothing can be more painful than to gain one with the loss of so many of one’s friends.”
* * * * *
Chapter 3: Hero Returned
Pegasus System
Federation Space
Empire Date: Jan 1049
Old habits die hard, Julie Adams thought as she stood at the rear of the destroyer Dagger’s bridge. I have to be on the bridge whenever I enter or leave hyperspace.
Imperial Fleet destroyers were too small to have flag bridges or the assorted cabins and conference rooms associated with carrying the staff of an admiral. A single VIP suite was all they boasted, with rooms comfortable enough to carry mid-grade officers and diplomats on various missions.
Julie, her wife Annalese, and their baby son Henry were happy to have that extra space. When the small family had traveled back to Britannia to allow Julie to report to the Imperial government, they’d traveled on Julie’s flagship, the dreadnought Revenge. Circumstances had forced the leader of the newly formed United Federation of Planets to leave her flagship behind to protect a convoy of transports. That had forced them to make part of the return trip crammed aboard a small courier ship.
Designers had not built the small but extremely fast ships to carry passengers. The original plan was for a crew of two to operate the ships, but over the century-long war with the Swarm, the demand for bodies to replace battle losses forced Fleet Headquarters to reduce that to a single pilot. That left a second cabin available to hold a passenger. The bathroom on Julie’s flagship was bigger than the cabin. So two adults and a baby had crammed themselves into a space designed for one for the four-week trip between the Baldor and Serenity Star Systems.
Henry wasn’t an issue, Julie remembered. We just took the door off a storage locker and pulled out the drawer to act as a makeshift cradle. And Anna being tiny was a blessing, as well.
A single Federation destroyer squadron acted as the picket force for the independent Serenity Star System. When they’d arrived, Julie had used her authority as the head of the UFP to borrow a destroyer for the trip to Pegasus. Their ultimate destination was the Tau Ceti System, but Dagger didn’t have the range to make the trip. Hence, the refueling stop in Pegasus.
Julie felt like an intruder on the destroyer’s bridge. For her, it felt like it had been a lifetime ago, but once upon a time, she’d commanded a destroyer. And she’d always hated it when she had a senior officer aboard who hung out on her bridge. That’s why she stood as far to the back of the ship’s command center as she could, to minimize any disruption of the ship’s operation.
Fat chance of that. You’re the Federation president and former fleet commander.
“There’s quite of bit of activity in the system, Madame President,” Dagger’s captain said.
Julie tore her eyes from the main display screen mounted on the command center’s forward bulkhead to look at the captain, who’d spun her command chair to face aft.
“I can see that,” Julie answered, eyes shifting back to the display as it continued to update. “It’s been a while since we passed through on our way to Britannia, but this much increase makes me think something is up.”
“Constellation is in the system,” Dagger’s tactical officer announced. “Her transponder shows she’s carrying Admiral Evers.”
“Captain—” Julie looked at the destroyer’s skipper, who still faced aft, and made a hand gesture “—may I step up?”
“You have the run of my ship, Madame President,” the captain said as she rose from the command seat.
“Please, sit back in your seat and command your ship, Captain,” Julie insisted as she stepped up next to the central seat. “I just wanted to get a better look at what’s going on.”
“Constellation isn’t the only surprise visitor in the system, Captain,” the tactical officer announced. “The diplomatic ships Churchill and McDonald are also in the system. McDonald’s transponder is squawking that Viceroy Kane is aboard.”
“Curiouser and curiouser,” Julie whispered.
“What was that?” the captain asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Julie responded. “Just wondering what is important enough for the viceroy and the head of the Federation Fleet to be here in Pegasus. Are we broadcasting that I’m aboard?”
“Comms?” Dagger’s captain forwarded the question to the communications officer.
“We are, ma’am,” the young ensign in charge of the destroyer’s communications responded proudly. “Dagger’s transponder currently shows us as the flagship of the Federation.”
Julie couldn’t help but smile at the response.
“Thank you, Ensign.”
So many questions. Why are Aiden and Viceroy Kane in the system? Who traveled here on the other diplomatic ship? And what are they all doing, orbiting the planet Pegasus? I can understand the diplomatic ships. This star system is part of Kyle Kane’s Human Confederation, so I understand him being in orbit. He could be here to see how the planet’s doing.
But Aiden aboard Constellation, so deep in the system, makes no sense. Even pushing her to the limit, it would take the battle carrier almost three days to get out of the gravity well to a jump point. Aiden wouldn’t put herself or her flagship in that situation unless it was absolutely necessary.
It was then that Julie took notice of where all three of the ships were. They orbited near the fleet mobile shipyard in orbit above the planet Pegasus. And there was a large ship sticking out of the repair facility. Thomas O’Riley had sent the mobile shipyard as part of the first reinforcements he’d sent to then-Prince Henry on his Earth expedition.
Fleet engineers had designed the shipyard to be able to work on ships up to the size of a heavy cruiser inside its cavernous, enclosed, internal bay. That allowed workers to repair ships without needing to wear space suits. To work on the fleet’s larger ships—dreadnoughts and battleships—the dock could leave its massive doors open and allow the yardmaster to dock one end of a damaged warship inside for repairs. Engineers couldn’t pressurize the dock, so workers would have to work in hard suits, but that allowed repairs on the largest ships in the fleet.
“Can we tell what ship is in the shipyard?” Julie asked the destroyer’s bridge team.
“Hang on, Madame President,” Dagger’s tactical officer said. “She’s not showing a transponder, so I’ll have to pull records.”
Julie nodded and turned her attention back to the display. She scanned the rest of the ships in the system. With the formation of the United Federation of Planets, Pegasus now found itself far back from the front lines, and its defensive force showed it. Only a single squadron of destroyers patrolled the outer system, with another destroyer squadron in orbit around the planet. Then Julie noticed a ship missing, and she knew which ship was in the dock.
“Superb is in the dock, President Adams,” the tactical officer confirmed what Julie had just figured out.
“The yard finally got caught up with repair work, and crews have finally started cutting away the damaged bow section of the ship so a rebuild can start.”
“Thank you, Tactical,” Julie responded absently.
They started working on fixing up Hazard’s old flagship. Now, the current Federation Fleet commander, the head of the human faction government, and deities know who else is here, in orbit near the space dock. Could… Julie cut that thought short, refusing to even think about the possibility.
She also refrained from sending a message to ask what was going on.
They’ll see the light of our arrival in another two and a half hours. Aiden won’t hesitate to send me a message.
“Captain, I’d greatly appreciate it if Dagger could provide me with a quick trip to Connie. I’m guessing something important is going on.”
“We’ll kick the old girl in the ass and get you there as quick as we can, President Adams.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Julie responded and headed toward the back of the bridge and its access hatch. “I’ll get out of your hair for now. Admiral Evers will probably message me as soon as she sees the light of our arrival. I’ll be in the VIP quarters, so forward the message to me there.”
As Julie walked through the open bridge hatch, she heard the captain acknowledge her request.
* * *
“You go on to bed, love of my life,” Julie told Annalese. “I’m going to wait up for messages.”
After having dinner, Julie had informed her wife of what they’d found when Dagger had entered the system. After putting their son to bed, the two sat and talked well into the night.
“Before this trip, I’d never been with you to see you work,” Annalese said. Then she waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. “Oh, sure, we traveled together many times. But those trips were never longer than a week, and you concentrated on being with me. This time, it’s different. We’ve been together for, what, almost half a year? You couldn’t ignore all your responsibilities for that long, so I got to see you work.
“Something’s up,” Anna pressed. “You’ve known you’d be getting a message in the middle of the night before, but you didn’t wait up for it. That makes me wonder why you’re staying up now.”
Julie stared at Anna. “I can’t put my finger on it, but something’s going on, and I’m too hyped to even think about sleeping.”
Annalese started to say something, but Julie pressed her left index finger to her wife’s lips.
“I don’t know what it is, but Constellation and the two diplomatic ships are right next to the mobile shipyard, and Superb is in that shipyard. The dock finally got caught up and has begun working on her.”
“So it’s something about Superb that bothers you?”
Julie could tell the ship’s name meant nothing to Anna. “The Bears blew the bow and most of the front end of the ship off at the beginning of the Zenkarr Conflict. Engineers plan to cut away the damaged sections and rebuild Superb.”
“And something happened. You think they found something in the wreckage?”
“I think they found someone in the wreckage. Anna, Superb was Hazard’s flagship.”
Anna’s hand rushed to cover her mouth, stifling a groan.
“I’m worried they might have found him. It would be like he died all over again, and I’m not sure I could handle that.”
Anna leaned in and kissed Julie. It wasn’t a kiss of passion, or one a husband and wife would share. It was a kiss of caring. An I’m here for you kiss.
“Thank you, my love. Now go on. Go to bed. Let me sit here and deal with my feelings.”
Annalese gave Julie another kiss, this one of the typical husband-and-wife variety. Then she rose from the sofa they’d shared and disappeared into the bedroom.
Deities, please don’t let it be his body.
Julie jerked awake when the comm device chirped.
Damn, I must have fallen asleep. What time is it?
Still trying to fully wake up, she looked at the wall clock.
0200. It obviously took Dorothy longer to compose the message than I thought it would.
The comm device on the coffee table chirped again. Since Julie had fallen asleep where she’d sat with Anna earlier, she only had to reach forward to answer.
“Adams.”
“Sorry to bother you, Madame President, but we just received a priority message for you from Admiral Evers. The captain left orders that it was to be delivered to you regardless of the time.”
“It’s okay. I was expecting the message and asked your captain to forward it to me as soon as it arrived. Send the message to my tablet.”
“Uh, ma’am…” the comms specialist hesitated, “… the message is Priority One and eyes-only for you.”
Damn, Julie thought, now fearing the worst.
“I have a secure terminal in my office. Forward it to me there,” Julie ordered.
“It’s on its way, ma’am.”
“Thank you, Comms,” Julie responded. “And thank you for doing your job, even though talking to me probably scared the shit out of you. I know it would have scared me years ago when I had to stand comms watches in the middle of the night.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Julie could hear both pride and relief in the young specialist’s voice now. She closed the channel and rose from the sofa. She immediately discovered how stiff she’d become, sleeping in the sitting position, and hobbled toward the small office just off the VIP suite’s sitting room.
Julie booted up the computer, entered her security codes, and then opened the incoming message folders. At the top of the list, highlighted in red, was the eyes-only message from Dorothy. She just sat and stared at the message, not wanting to open it. Fearing what it might say. Then she noted the file size.
What the fuck? Julie thought. It’s tiny. It can’t say much.
Julie opened the file and discovered it indeed said little.
Get to Connie as quickly as you can. We’ve been waiting for you to arrive. Can’t say anything else till we meet in person. Dot.
I waited up for this? Dammit.
Julie used her computer to tap into the bridge’s navigation feed. She’d asked the captain, and he’d of course taken it as an order, to get her into orbit around Pegasus as quickly as possible. A quick glance at the navigation screen showed he was doing just that. Dagger was screaming through space at her best acceleration.
Seventeen more hours to reach orbit. There’s no way to improve that. And based on Dot’s message, she won’t say anything except face-to-face.
Julie shut down the computer and stood.
Might as well go to bed.
As she left the office and transited through the sitting room toward the bedroom, Julie was already feeling sorry for everyone around her, including Anna.
“I’m going to be a bear tomorrow. I don’t enjoy waiting, especially when I’m certain I won’t like the news,” Julie grumbled as she touched the entry pad for the bedroom.
* * *
Julie had been correct. It hadn’t been a fun day and a half for her, for Anna and the baby, or for the crew of Dagger. She’d tried hard, really hard, not to bite anyone’s head off, but in the end, Julie had isolated herself in the VIP suite’s tiny office. It was either do that or risk having Annalese divorce her. That’s how bad it had gotten.
Now she waited with as much patience as she could muster for the shuttle to land aboard the Connie. Julie, who at the best of times didn’t like pomp and circumstance, prayed to the deities that Dorothy wouldn’t do something stupid, like having a full arrival ceremony planned.
I’m definitely not in the mood for that. I just want to know what the frick is going on.
Julie wasn’t routinely a vulgar person, though she recognized the effect of a well-placed f-bomb. But over the last day, she hadn’t been dropping the occasional fuck to show displeasure, she’d been carpet-bombing anyone who crossed her, which included almost everyone aboard Dagger. But after a scolding from Anna, she’d promised to clean up her language.
“Looks as if Dot was smart enough to follow your instructions,” Anna said, pointing at the display mounted on the passenger compartment’s forward bulkhead. “You can put your dull knives away. You won’t need them.”
Julie checked out the display, and sure enough, there was no welcoming ceremony. In fact, the enormous hangar bay, designed to handle the launching of Constellation’s many shuttles and fighters, was empty except for a three-person welcoming committee. Dorothy Evers stood in the center, wearing her everyday admiral’s working uniform. Kyle Kane stood to her left, looking dapper in a three-piece suit. To Dorothy’s right stood Scott Conners.
“That answers the question of who was on the second diplomatic ship orbiting near the space dock,” Julie said to Anna as they waited for the shuttle to finish its landing sequence. “I knew Viceroy Kane was aboard. The diplomatic ship McDonald is his. But Churchill routinely carries several people around the Federation. Both Scott and Snake use it.”
Julie and Anna felt only a slight shudder as the shuttle set down.
“Ramp coming down,” the pilot announced over the intercom.
Julie unfastened her harness, and helped Anna with hers, then both headed toward the ramp. The armored arm of a Marine suddenly barred her way.
“Sorry, ma’am, but the skipper, and more importantly, my gunny, would have my ass if I let you leave the shuttle before we sweep the area,” the buck sergeant Dagger’s captain had assigned as her security detail stated. When circumstances had forced Julie to travel by courier from Baldor to Serenity, there’d only been room for her, Anna, and baby Henry. She’d had to leave all of her staff, as well as her Marine guard force, behind. Assuming everything had gone according to plan, Like that ever happens, she thought, they should be on their way aboard the dreadnought Revenge by now.
“I could probably fix any problem that would cause with the captain,” Julie stated, “but even I know better than to cross a gunny. Deploy your squad, Sergeant.”
