Carinae Sector: 02 - Admiral's Fury - Part 1 - Purple Blood (11 page)

The admiral now glared angrily around his bridge on his flagship, as the Jerecab armada moved away from the entry point for the star system and the frigate’s collision alarms were silenced. He watched as the lead scout ships increased their distance from the rest of his ships. The library data for the first of the former Dradfer colonies was confirmed as a system that held a barely habitable world. He knew that his race would have little interest as it was a cooler world with rather more ice than oceans or land, though this was not why he was upset.

Baunrus was really annoyed and alarmed by the recent alarms, as he knew that the commander of the left wing squadron had been tardy with his commands. The affected squadron had obviously drifted wide of its assigned station just before the hyper drive jump was initiated and the first ships left the previous star system. The resulting confusion had just led to three near collisions on arrival in the new system with other ships in the massive armada.

The Jerecab admiral pointedly berated the hapless squadron commander over the video link before demoting him to lieutenant. The sound of a laser pistol came across the video link as the former commander walked to the side of the bridge on his ship and sought to preserve his honour by taking his own life. After a few seconds a nervous lieutenant commander stood in front of the screen to report the expected and hoped for death to the admiral.

For his diligence the junior officer was rewarded both with a ship command and the command of the left wing squadron. The admiral turned from speaking with the new squadron commander to ask his communications officer to patch in the rest of the senior commanders.

The new commander, Neanres, kept his expressions neutral as the experienced commanders gave a quick start, followed by appraising and evaluating glances at his inclusion in the video conference. Neanres knew that the newly dead commander had been highly regarded by his peers and he would have to earn the respect of the other commanders. He was aware of their critical gaze even as he paid careful attention to the admiral.

Admiral wasted no time as he launched into a series of orders on how he wanted the first of the former Dradfer colonies searched. He felt a small amount of satisfaction as he noted that the senior commanders appeared to be especially attentive to his briefing. He also noted that none of them so much as asked a question and he felt that this was as it should be at all times.

                                                                     ***

Mary sat back tiredly in her command chair on the bridge of the destroyer Exeter and noted that her bridge crew also seemed tired, even if poised to respond to any threat. The still new and younger lieutenant commander, a tense John Griggs, eyed her with concern before he handed over his data tablet. Mary perused the tablet and stifled an oath before dropping the device in her lap. She then immediately requested a communications line to the destroyer Linares.

‘Admiral Neilson to Commander Ferguson, can you confirm the state of your second fusion reactor in terms of unacceptable temperature variances?’

The communications viewer was blank for several seconds, before the heavily bearded form of Stuart Ferguson came into view, and gave a puzzled reply.

‘Well Admiral, the diagnostics are also showing errors with the variances higher the more power we draw out of the second reactor, which is the new one by the way.’

Mary appeared thoughtful for several seconds, and John Griggs took the opportunity to offer an opinion.

‘Admiral, I have seen this before with the more recent reactors, and I led a team at Mars that isolated the problem as software related to the differing sensors we use between reactor revisions. We can prove this by idling down the reactor and accessing the reactor sensors individually based on their install dates. We are looking for an invalid mix of sensors.’

Mary now looked again at the data tablet for several seconds before handing it back to the now more relaxed lieutenant commander. She gave him a cool grin of appraisal that he nervously returned before he moved to his console nearby. Mary looked at her own navigation display as she now spoke to the patiently waiting commander.

‘Stuart, we will reduce speed again as you implement the lieutenant commander’s suggestions. John will also advise the other destroyers of the problem as an advisory.’

The fleet of forty human destroyers, flanked by a handful of older and smaller missile frigates and trailed by several large tankers, then slowed further as they continued past the outskirts of a star system sixty light years from Earth. The limited data from the new system indicated a common M class star in the system with a small terrestrial planet further in, and a gas giant that the fleet was altering course to bypass at a large distance.

Mary now asked a question of the navigation officer, Lieutenant Lara Samuels, who was diligently cataloguing what she could see of the star system.

‘Lieutenant, the system appears to be a moderate tactical risk profile based on our course now. So under exactly what circumstances would our presence in this system be unwise from a tactical perspective?’

The young lieutenant gave the admiral a tight smile as she responded carefully.

‘Well Admiral if we are close to the inner planet and an enemy fleet comes in from both sides of the gas giant at high speed we could risk being cut off from our escape route out of the system. If an attacking fleet was inside the line of the gas giant we would have problems deploying a defence as the inner system is not well charted yet.’

The lieutenant now kept silent and impassive as the admiral viewed the new system on her own console for several minutes before she replied.

‘Well lieutenant I am in agreement with you on your tactical evaluation, and well done with your accurate explanation. Now I will let you research the best way to drive out a fleet of twenty smaller ships, assuming both sides are roughly equal numbers, with minimal losses. You can submit this research to me on the next watch please.’

Mary now tried to relax and was still considering the incoming data and tactical evaluation on the star system, as both Admiral Thomas Stanford and Admiral John Beresford came onto the bridge. One of the ensigns promptly called out to the bridge.

‘Fleet Admiral is now on the bridge.’

Mary stood and saluted, and it was politely returned before she instructed her bridge.

‘Everyone at ease and remain at your stations please, for this is a new star system and we cannot get over confident.’

John Beresford ran a polite but critical eye around the bridge before he calmly spoke.

‘Thomas and I would like to sound you out on a few things based on what little we know of the Jerecab. We will have our discussion in the rear command room if that is convenient?’

Mary gave a polite nod and trailed the two senior Admirals into the command room, and in moments they were all seated around the small meeting table.

Thomas closed the sliding door by remote control and began to speak.

‘Mary, we looked through the old information the Traders supplied and it made mention of the Jerecab Red faction being a patriarchal system, namely all their ship crews and their armed forces are males. The only females of any importance apparently for the Jerecab species are the acolytes and engineers or scientists in the planet bound Blue faction.’

Mary parsed this statement for several moments before she offered a discrete question with a warm smile.

‘So Thomas from a biology and species interaction viewpoint the Red Jerecab might not relate to well to an intelligent female?’

John Beresford now took the opportunity to offer his own opinions.

‘That may well be the case from a diplomatic perspective Mary and we would be keen to avoid offending them if you can see my point. Also it may offer us a tactical advantage if it comes down to combat and they underestimate you as a result.’

Mary could see were this was going and did not like the implications one bit as she spoke now to John.

‘So if I command our forces this means that either or both of you two is then no longer alive? So just what are you and Thomas planning?’

John gave her a significant look, but Thomas now replied.

‘Mary, now do not get all determined with us, as John and myself will be offering a diplomatic solution to the Jerecab. The Earth council insists that the senior fleet officers first attempt diplomacy. Basically we could save ourselves an interplanetary war, and possibly thousands of lives, by doing so. Also we want to explore some of the former Dradfer systems as we think it has a significance we cannot understand from the Trader accounts. Now if the diplomacy goes wrong you will have to fight the Jerecab as we mentioned beforehand.’

Mary gave Thomas a glare of reproof as a now flustered John spoke again.

‘Heck Mary, your official orders will state what we want you to do. Indeed you are the best battle commander we have as most of our fleet preparations are to your guidelines. We are not going to stand on seniority here either.’

Mary glared at both Thomas and John with mixed feeling as she darkly muttered her reply.

‘Well I just hope you do not get your damn fool selves killed, and I reserve the right to recommend that you both desist if I feel your lives are in danger. Now how precisely do you plan on offering this diplomatic solution to a race we have not met yet?’

Mary now sat back and listened closely for two hours as the two men ran though a series of choices they would operate under to talk to the Jerecab. She knew that it all sounded fine from a human perspective, however she did point out that the Jerecab had never heard of the Geneva accords and had a reputation for being dangerous. After suggesting several points she hoped would be of assistance, Mary then made her way back over to her command console after the meeting ended a short time later and the two senior Admirals had left the bridge.

The fleet had left Tau Ceti nearly two weeks ago after Lieutenant Grayson had been seconded to the auxiliary cruiser Long Reach as the executive officer. She again wondered if John Griggs was as able as his more experienced predecessor, as the communications console now came alive with Commander Ferguson reporting back at the agreed interval.

‘Admiral, we isolated the problem using the Lieutenant Commander’s guidelines and it is indeed a problem relating to sensor versions. Apparently an old sensor was re-installed in the control chain for the new reactor on the Linares at Tau Ceti, as one of the junior engineers was concerned about a different problem with the newer sensor.’

Mary now stood from her command chair again and stretched as she replied.

‘This is good news Stuart. John, thank you for a good diagnosis, and I want the result send to all ships for urgent attention please. We cannot afford this type of problem when faced with a possible space battle. We will power down for six hours to allow any further changes to be made before we leave this system.’

The human fleet now coasted across the remote star system as the required changes and checks were made to their latest fusion reactors. After several more hours of cruising across the system the ships enabled their powerful hyper drive engines within seconds of each other as they headed for the next star system. Two more hours elapsed and a smaller Cephrit ship uncloaked and followed the path of the human ships at a discrete distance before it too enabled a hyper drive jump to the next system. The clouds of the gas giant swirled in an endless storm and remained featureless for another two hours, before the giant silver globe of a Sspol cruiser erupted into space and fled a high speed across the star system towards another quadrant of the sky and a much different destination.

                                                                     ***

Battle Lord Temeroth flexed his massive taloned hands and took several three metre strides to work off his impatience as he moved around the central atrium of his palace. The Tilmud guards at the two entrances kept rigidly still in fear even though his impatience was not directed at them. Rather the young Zronte battle lord was most put about by the contents of the data tablet he held. The Zronte had awoken from a five year sleep only four days earlier and he was still finding his way around the changes in the world that had happened.

Temeroth gave a low snarl of frustration and anger that rumbled around the atrium, before he spoke loudly in feral Vorinne pidgin.

‘This second envoy goes too far this time. I repeatedly told her that the war was to be left well alone. Now while I have been hibernating she takes it upon herself to end the war!’

The Vorinne military attaché paused for several seconds, to both ensure the high caste Zronte as not armed and had finished speaking, before it replied diplomatically in the same pidgin dialect.

‘Battle Lord, a protest has been lodged through to the Vorinne Imperial Defence Ministry and they will be following it up with the second envoy promptly. The initial reasons for the end of the war…’

The Zronte battle lord gave another loud roar of anger and the Vorinne attaché had the sense to remain silent. The military attaché, Lieutenant Dreshe’ahal, noted that the five low caste Zronte drone officers in the atrium also kept perfectly still, with their squat six metre bodies bent in servitude to their lord and master.

‘I can damn well read you moron. The reports also list some garbage about the rat like Jerecab getting too big for their whiskers and encroaching on forbidden zones, and a haven world, dirt or Earth it is called…how imaginative a name…’

Lieutenant Dreshe’ahal again awaited the Zronte to wind down before it spoke again equally as carefully. He was well aware that Temeroth had been incoherent, nearly blind and deaf for the first two days after he had awoken from the hibernation the Zronte used to regenerate their massive bodies. This awareness was never highlighted for he knew the Vorinne themselves had their own particular weaknesses that the Zronte both relished and fully exploited.

‘The forbidden zone is the former Dradfer colonies Battle Lord, and the second envoy has copied her correspondence through to the Zronte high ambassador himself.’