Voltran Unchained: Guns of the Federation Book 3, page 7
The second city had been deserted like the first and the drones had flown across the Kijol buildings for an extended period, gathering information that Grisham hoped would make it harder for the Unity cabal to claim that surrender was the best option for the Human Federation.
Following the exploration of the second city, Grisham had ordered Maxwell to scan a third. Now the shuttle and the drones were safely back on the Voltran.
“Are we heading to the HF with what we’ve found, Captain?” asked Commander Deneuve.
Grisham had been agonising over his next step for most of those ten hours and he still wasn’t sure what to do for the best. Now, the decision was upon him.
“Planet Savixor is eleven days from Vinxilkx,” he mused. “Plus the time we spend there, and then a fifteen-day return journey to Loxor.”
“We’ve been away for six-and-a-half days already,” said Deneuve. “By the time we return, the total mission time will be more than twelve days.”
“While a journey to Savixor will ensure we’re away from the Human Federation for more than thirty-two days,” said Grisham. “We could send a comm to Admiral Danner asking for guidance, but the travel time from Vinxilkx to Loxor and back again is five days in total.”
“You’d prefer to go to Savixor,” said Deneuve.
“I would,” Grisham admitted. “I have a feeling the Voltran – and me with it – is the equivalent of a red rag to a bull. I would hate to think that the presence of this warship would inflame tensions.”
“It’s only Senator Maynard and a few of his buddies that have a problem with you, sir,” said Adler.
“If Maynard isn’t the leader of Unity, then he’s damn well near the top,” said Grisham. “He isn’t known for his rational behaviour. It’s possible he might stir something up and then assign blame elsewhere, or at least muddy the waters enough that he wriggles his way out of punishment.”
“I wonder if you’re overthinking it, sir,” said Deneuve. “The recordings we’ve taken from Vinxilkx may be enough to sway the undecideds away from surrender. Once support for the war returns, the Unity cabal will become no more than a fringe group. And rest assured that Senator Maynard will blow with the wind. The moment it becomes clear he’s lost this fight, there’ll be no one shouting louder in favour of war.”
“I hear what you’re saying, Commander, but I think Maynard has pushed too far this time. I don’t know if he can afford to back down. He’ll have made promises and if those promises aren’t kept, he’ll find himself with more enemies than he can handle.”
“Admiral Danner has plenty of dirt on Maynard,” said Lieutenant Adler. “For example – the funding for the Church of Everlasting Serenity on Xaros and the provision of military-grade hardware that Ivey Metz used to contact not just the Kijol, but the Ax’Kol as well. I think I agree with the Captain on this one – Maynard can’t change course. Not now.”
“So if we manage to sway those in the middle back towards support for the war, Maynard will provide the Kijol with the location of our worlds,” said Lopez. “Maybe he’ll start by telling them how to locate a single far away planet with a low population. As soon as we lose one of our worlds, all those people in favour of the war will start thinking about surrender again.”
“And here we are, days away from it all,” said Grisham.
“I’ve still got no idea what decision you’re going to make, Captain,” said Deneuve.
One part of Grisham – the part which had accepted that his fate was always to be in command of Tibor-class warships and his missions to always be high risk – wanted to be away from the conflict within the Human Federation. A mission to Savixor would no doubt provide additional useful evidence regarding the Kijol struggles against the Ax’Kol and such a mission would also keep Grisham far from the mire of politics.
Savixor offered an escape.
“Damnit,” said Grisham. “For years I’ve wanted a say in my own fate, and now I’ve been granted that wish, my life – our lives – are more complicated than ever.”
Adler laughed. “Did you truthfully expect things would be easier once you took Admiral Danner’s shilling?”
“I wanted change, and that’s exactly what I got,” said Grisham. “Let’s head back to Loxor. We’ll exit lightspeed at the fringes of the Altarn-4 system and I’ll speak with Admiral Danner. If he wants us to head for Savixor, then that’s what we’ll do.”
Now that his course was set, Grisham felt a mixture of invigoration and trepidation. When it came to combat he rarely struggled with indecision, but with all the machinations happening in the Human Federation, the stakes were much, much higher. Screwing up when in command of a warship meant death. If Grisham screwed up in politics, he might well be responsible – at least in part – for enormous upheaval that could potentially affect his entire species for the foreseeable future.
“Ready the Voltran for lightspeed,” said Grisham.
“Yes, sir,” said Lieutenant Adler.
Grisham kept his hand on the interface post and mentally prepared himself. The lights on the bridge dimmed and the hum of the propulsion faded deeper into the background. A feeling of calmness descended upon Grisham and he closed his eyes. His brain thought of little – certainly it was far more sanguine about the future. The respite would be short-lived, Grisham was sure.
“One minute and we go,” said Adler.
The Voltran entered lightspeed, though Grisham wasn’t aware of it happening. He dreamed and, after a time, his wandering consciousness once more came upon the wall of grey. It didn’t seem important and he retreated. The dreams returned.
Grisham opened his eyes, feeling an unpleasant disconnection with reality. He focused on his hand which remained flat on the interface post. The metal was solid and his connection with it seemed to re-forge his link to the physical. He shook his head and grimaced. Everything clicked back into place.
“Status reports!” he shouted.
Recovery from lightspeed travel on the Voltran was rapid and the warship’s crew were ready for action in moments.
“Checking the sensors,” said Lopez. “According to the Voltran’s positioning system, we’re in the right place.”
“Scanning for hostiles,” said Bishop. “There shouldn’t be anything out here.”
Grisham interfaced with the sensors. The Voltran was way out in Altarn-4 and the star was little more than a pinpoint of light, approximately five billion kilometres away. Planet Loxor would be 160 million kilometres closer than that, and it was out of effective detection range.
“Scans complete,” said Bishop. “We’re alone out here.”
“Get me a channel to Admiral Danner,” said Grisham.
“Requesting channel,” said Lopez. “Channel does not exist.” She swore. “Requesting channel…channel does not exist.”
Grisham’s alarm bells were ringing. “What are the possible explanations?” he asked.
“Our request is hitting the orbiting comms relay network, but the satellite is unable to route to Admiral Danner,” said Lopez. “Either he’s no longer comms-enabled – through death or imprisonment – or the relay network has been subverted or shut down.”
“Shit,” said Grisham. “Is there any way to determine which it is?”
“We could request a channel to the flight control station and ask them what’s going on, sir,” said Lopez. “But if we aren’t welcome on Loxor – for whatever reason – there’s a chance the routing data contained in our outbound transmission will give away our approximate location.”
“Even though we aren’t using HF hardware?” asked Grisham.
“It’s a possibility not a certainty, Captain,” said Lopez. “I’m warning you of the risks.”
“If the comms relay network has been subverted, won’t our first inbound transmission have been detected already?”
“Probably not, sir,” said Lopez. “If you recall, when we first claimed the Voltran and made contact with Admiral Danner, he created a secure comms tunnel that would link us directly with his personal communicator. Maybe the secure link is compromised, but I don’t think so. Even finding it in the first place would require a full audit of the comms system. That takes time.”
“It’s much easier to simply block inbound comms, sir,” said Bishop. “It’s possible the relay satellite network has been configured to return a false status report to anything it receives.”
Grisham closed his eyes. “Maybe we should have gone to Savixor,” he said. “Lieutenant Lopez, based on your knowledge of comms, what is your best guess as to what’s happened here?”
“If you had the right people in the right places, it wouldn’t be difficult to disable a planet’s inbound and outbound comms for a time,” said Lopez. “It’s keeping them locked down that’s the hard part.”
“The comms would only need to be offline long enough for a hostile force to secure the Fremont base and the assets stationed there,” said Grisham.
“Yes, sir,” said Lopez. “We could be witnessing the beginning of armed conflict within the Human Federation.”
“We can’t stand on the side lines,” said Grisham. “We’re here and we have to act.”
“Should I ready the Voltran for lightspeed, Captain?” said Adler.
“Yes, Lieutenant. Target an emergence point one hundred thousand kilometres from the planet. I want us to exit lightspeed with full visibility on the Fremont base.”
“You could be putting us right in the firing line, sir,” said Deneuve. “We won’t avoid detection for long if we’re only a hundred thousand klicks from the planet.”
“I know,” said Grisham. “This is a calculated gamble.”
“There’s a high chance that hostilities have already commenced, sir – on the ground if not in the air,” Deneuve persisted. “If we show up in the middle of it, who’s to say what might happen?”
“If there are hostilities, they’ll be aimed at removing Admiral Danner from office,” said Grisham. “There’ll be no combat between our warships.”
“You can’t be sure, Captain.”
“No, Commander, I can’t be sure,” said Grisham. “But this is what we’re going to do.”
Deneuve smiled thinly. “In which case, let’s get on with it.”
“Is the order still to ready the Voltran for lightspeed, sir?” asked Adler.
“Yes. Please proceed.”
“The command is sent. Four minutes and we’ll be on our way to Loxor.”
Grisham wasn’t sure what exactly would happen to him during such a short lightspeed journey. There wouldn’t be time for sleep, that was for sure. The usual serenity came, and it somehow overwhelmed the agitation he was feeling. Events had clearly moved on during the mission to Vinxilkx and he hoped he’d returned in time to prevent what he expected was a pre-emptive attempt by the Unity cabal to seize power from their opponents.
“One minute,” said Adler.
The seconds counted down and the Voltran entered lightspeed for a time too short for Grisham’s brain to register. He didn’t sleep and the usual sense of dislocation didn’t come. The entire event was over in the blink of an eye.
“I’m connecting to the sensors,” said Grisham.
The Voltran had exited lightspeed in the exact position he’d asked for. One of the underside arrays was already locked on the Fremont base and Grisham requested an immediate enhancement of the feed.
“Five warships parked at a thousand-metre altitude, right over the base,” he said. “I recognize the Eldan Blade and the Star Runner.”
“I think the third battleship is the Eidolon, sir,” said Lopez. “The other two are Nexus heavies. I don’t know their names or who commands them.”
“Our sensors have detected other warships, sir,” said Bishop. “There’s the Damocles battleship, the Stalwart and the Pulveriser heavies, a couple of cruisers and seven Tibors.”
“What a damned mess,” spat Grisham.
He watched the feed for a short time, aware that soon one of those spaceships would detect the Voltran. Before that happened, he had to figure out what was going on here.
Certainly a shitstorm had descended upon Loxor and the chance of it dissipating seemed remote. Grisham hated what was happening within the Human Federation and he hoped he might play a part in diffusing the situation before him.
EIGHT
“We know Captain Avery is a Unity man,” said Grisham. “The Eldan Blade is his, and I’m convinced all five of those warships over the base are commanded by surrendering assholes like Avery. I’d guess a couple of those Tibors are in it with them as well.”
“Best rein in that anger, sir,” said Deneuve.
“Thank you, Commander, I’ll try my best.” Grisham took a breath. “This looks like classic strongarm tactics. Captain Avery will be spewing threats and lies like they’re going out of fashion, on order to keep the local forces from taking any direct action.”
“Meanwhile, there’ll be a force on the ground trying to either kidnap or eliminate Admiral Danner,” said Deneuve.
“Why doesn’t Captain Ravil do something?” asked Lieutenant Kinsey. “The Damocles is the equal of the Eldan Blade.”
“Aside from the fact that Avery brought two additional battleships and a couple of Nexus heavies with him, any exchange of fire here will be a complete disaster,” said Grisham. “Captain Avery will have made all sorts of bullshit excuses about what he’s doing here and he’s relying on the local forces blinking first.”
“Which they have done,” said Kinsey.
“Because the consequences of armed conflict between members of our own fleet, in the skies above one of our primary military facilities do not bear thinking about, Lieutenant,” said Grisham, fighting to keep the anger from his voice. “And who wants to go down in the history books as being the officer to start the first war since the Human Federation was founded more than a century ago?”
“I guess nobody wants that, sir.”
“Which is why Captain Avery is getting away with what he’s doing,” said Grisham. “And remember – those are fleet warships. Assuming they’ve received orders from an officer with the right authority, they have – in theory - every right to be here at Loxor.”
Kinsey kept his mouth shut.
“Lieutenant Lopez, now we have line of sight, we can aim a channel request directly at the hull receptors on the Damocles, right?” said Grisham.
“Yes, sir.”
“Then do so at once.”
Lopez didn’t get that far. “We have an inbound channel request from Captain Avery, sir,” she said. “He wants to speak with you.”
Grisham was in two minds. This wasn’t going to be a social chat and he doubted Avery was intending negotiation. “Accept the request,” said Grisham after a moment. “Open channel.”
“Grisham, what rock did you crawl out from under?” asked Avery. “I thought you’d been sent to do your master’s bidding.”
“And what do you call your visit to Loxor?” asked Grisham. “The Kijol are at war with another species and it’s a war they can’t win,” he said, pretending knowledge he didn’t have. “And you would have us surrender.”
“We will fight with the Kijol as equals,” sneered Avery. “You call it surrender, others call it a partnership. This is an opportunity, Grisham. While you and your ilk would have us fight until our worlds are in flames, there are others of us looking to the future.”
“The Kijol are getting their asses handed to them by the Ax’Kol,” said Grisham. “The same Ax’Kol who built the Voltran.”
“The Voltran must be thirty billion tons down on the Eldan Blade. Armour is king, Grisham, and your warship doesn’t have nearly enough of it.”
“If the Kijol are having it so easy, why do they need us?” asked Grisham. “You’re proposing we become vassals of our enemies.”
“There will be no vassalage,” snarled Avery. “Without a partnership, we will be forever at war, until our children and their children know nothing but fighting.”
As the conversation went on, Grisham found himself gaining a greater understanding his opponent. Avery was hostile and prickly as hell, but he really believed what he was saying. While Grisham had been told the Unity cabal was pushing for surrender, Avery was convinced they were seeking an alliance of equals.
Well I’ll be. We think of Unity as the Surrender Party. They probably think of us as the Annihilation Scumbags.
Grisham teetered and the only thing which kept him on an even keel was his knowledge – his unwavering certainty – that Senator Herschel Maynard was an asshole of the highest order. And yet Maynard was charming when it suited him. He was fiercely intelligent and persuasive.
On the surface of it, Maynard’s proposal – surrender to an alien species – was wholly unattractive, and yet he’d gathered enough people to his cause that the Human Federation was in real danger of being torn apart. It appeared that the Unity cabal was selling a more nuanced version of surrender than Grisham had been led to believe.
Confronted by knowledge of his own naivete, Grisham was momentarily at a loss. Doubts flooded in – perhaps he’d been manipulated by Admiral Danner. After all, just the mention of the word Maynard would have Grisham fuming in anger, ready to believe any accusation levelled against his enemy in the Senate.
And, if Danner had been looking for an ear into which he could whisper poison, the choices didn’t get much better than Grisham. Grisham, a man with few friends and many enemies. An officer full of resentment who was looking for a way to take control of his own destiny. A man who had already willingly volunteered for missions in the name of Danner’s cause. Pull his strings and watch him dance.
What actions such a man might undertake didn’t bear thinking about.
A wave of dizziness swept through Grisham and he sucked in a lungful of air to steady himself. All of sudden, he had no idea what to believe.
Captain Avery was still in the channel.
“What are you here for?” Grisham asked.
“I have my orders,” said Avery. “I suggest you keep your nose out of this, or it will not turn out well. For any of us.”
