Carinae Sector: 02 - Admiral's Fury - Part 1 - Purple Blood (29 page)

Omerio calmly followed Gindane down the rear ramp of the Barus shuttle and quickly looked around the small hangar bay of the human destroyer Linares as Gindane introduced him to the two human admirals.

‘Thomas, John this is my friend Omerio, a Flag Captain of the Barus fleet. He has command of sixteen full strength cruisers in star system nearby.’

After the obligatory bows were exchanged, Omerio commented with approval on the Linares as they all strode over to a nearby large table surrounded by a handful of junior human officers.

‘The destroyer appears very similar to Trader sneak ships, not that I have ever been onboard one of those. The design changes appear to be very well considered and do lead to questions from us.’

Thomas gave Omerio an approving glance as he took in the sleeveless white uniform that the Barus wore as he replied.

‘Well Omerio we have had considerable time to adjust the design to our liking. We sought to make improvements but keep the mass increase well down, and I think the designers got it right. Please ask away with your questions as we all know time is short.’

Omerio calmly activated his data tablet and hauled up a schematic of a Barus destroyer and then placed it over a recent photo of the Linares.

‘Now I have seen the simulations on the Rupane and I am impressed by the way. I think you have set cruiser class spinal mount weapon into the long axis of your ship. The thickened hull and the extra in-line generators led us to initially think your shields were substandard, so can you confirm my question please?’

Omerio noted the suddenly still and calculating nature of a couple of the junior human officers, and then watched in concern as one of the humans sneezed and rubbed his nose. Thomas calmly spoke again to defuse any tension.

‘Yes Omerio, the spinal mount weapon is a dual use particle beam and mass driver weapon. We aim to use the weapon on the shields of hostile ships and I can supply the weapons yields if required….’

In moments Omerio was keying the supplied information into his data tablet for his own weapons simulations. Afterwards he sat back in quiet thought for several minutes as Gindane now spoke.

‘We only have this research fleet and the squadron of cruisers able to interdict these systems and later protect the Earth. The Cephrit are recovering from a protracted war with the Tilmud, and the Deltas Vass may possibly arrive here at a later stage. I have just sent ships elsewhere to the Jerecab to advise them to adhere to edicts and leave these systems. However I am not optimistic about their likely responses to my instructions, as we also run the risk of being destroyed by the Jerecab as well.’

John now replied after a cautious nod from Thomas.

‘We understand that no assistance is coming from the other races and we have taken steps to protect ourselves if necessary. Of course we seek to avoid a full battle with the armada at all costs. The longer we delay the Jerecab here the better our options are in protecting Earth.’

Gindane knew that the humans had been dealt a cruel roll of the dice by the presence of the Jerecab armada, but she was careful in her next comments.

‘The probability of your race surviving this attack is not good, however the only chance you have is to do what you have stated and hope that another vassal race comes to your assistance. Your ships appear to offer you a slim chance of survival, whereas other races at your stage of development would have no chance at all.’

Omerio now spoke as he followed Gindane’s line of reasoning, and he again noted the evaluating glances from both human admirals.

‘So apart from these two ships, you must have an extensive support operation in other systems, and the rest of your fleet must be commanded by someone else as you two are here now.’

Gindane gave start as she realised that she must have already met the hidden human admiral, and she now gave both Thomas and John a calculating smile they returned.

‘I briefly spoke with female officer much earlier, an Admiral Mary Neilson; she must be your best battle field commander from what we now understand of the scenario.’

Thomas made to reassure both Gindane and Omerio as they looked across at one another in deep thought.

‘Well you are both correct and the rationale is both to adhere to our standing orders to offer diplomacy and to mislead the Jerecab. The fact that Mary is female is an added bonus from what we understand of the Red Jerecab.’

Omerio gave a loud coughing laugh that had the humans looking around them in alarm before they detected his mirth.

‘Your plans have merit as you have though long and hard about how to deal with this scenario. The Jerecab may yet be brought undone by their aggression and arrogance. Now let us see what else we can do to assist you noting that shortly we will be moving our research ships away from this system.’

The Barus and human officers now went over the information they had to hand and the combat scenarios were revised further. Omerio noted that the same human that had sneezed earlier had then coughed before excusing himself as one of the admirals glared at him. Gindane noted the silent exchange between the two humans but merely glanced thoughtfully at Omerio.

The briefing continued for two more hours before Omerio and Gindane returned to the Rupane. A forlorn looking Gindane looked over at a still Omerio before she spoke a simple sad statement.

‘Those humans in the two destroyers are going to die to mislead the Jerecab and there is nothing we can do to protect them Omerio.’

Omerio gave a resigned reply as he glanced out the side window at the Linares.

‘The humans have thought through the situation, but still the death toll could be very high with no guarantee of successfully protecting their home world. Also I am concerned that the humans might pose a biological threat as some of them may be ill.’

Gindane was feeling tired, but she put it down to the pace of the last few days as she replied on the last point.

‘That may well be true, but even if all our crew become ill we are still expected to uphold the edicts and protect the humans.’

The two Barus officers completed the trip back to their ship in stony silence as they thought about the resolute courage of their new friends.

                                                                     ***

Joel Everson looked over the view screen that showed the four rapidly approaching Jerecab frigates and quickly checked the status of the two other destroyers undocking from either side of the Auckland. Both the Newport and the Madrid had completed their refuelling operations and the engineering officer reported back to the bridge.

‘Commander, the refuelling tank in the hold is near empty and is being de-pressurised and made safe. We are green across the board for either flight or combat, with our shields at full strength.’

Joel thanked him and turned to speak to his bridge.

‘Communications officer, continue broadcasting non-aggression and neutrality clauses. Also give me the commanders of both the other ships. Tactical officer, select the right central, or lead frigate and pass the targeting information to the other ships, but do not attack.’

Joel found himself speaking with Brigit Dawes and Rod Cordova, the two other commanders in moments.

‘Brigit, Rod, the Jerecab are on an attack vector and we will hold our fire and let them overrun us when we head in the opposite direction. Target the lead Jerecab frigate only on my orders to attack. The second target is the other central frigate. We will now stop broadcasting our peaceful intentions.’

The three destroyers accelerated straight towards the Jerecab frigates and did not immediately fire their weapons. As the two groups of ships approached, the frigates opened fire with their forward batteries and attempted to change course to prevent the destroyers from extending a break and escaping. For three minutes a cascade of light weapons fire rained down on all three ships and their shields started to edge down in strength. The Jerecab ships fired several missiles, but the human ships had point defences more than equal to the task, and the missiles exploded several kilometres distant from their targets.

By now Joel considered he had given the Jerecab enough chances and he gave the fateful order.

‘All ships target the lead frigate and open fire with all beam weapons. Hold all missiles until we select the second target.’

The tempo of the battle suddenly increased as more powerful beams of light, backed by pulses of force from the spinal mount weapons, lashed out from the three human destroyers at the lead Jerecab frigate. The Jerecab commander was conscious of three large blasts striking his ship in quick succession, and the shields beginning to dangerously weaken before the rest of the human weapons impacted.

Suddenly the shield generators failed under the savage onslaught and the next burst of weapons fire tore into the unprotected hull of the frigate. In seconds the containment shields for the fusion reactor failed and a mini-sun blossomed inside the frigate. The remaining frigates were far enough away from the lead frigate so that the explosion caused no problems for them, even as the three destroyers switched to their secondary target.

Joel watched with keen professional interest as the combined flight of twelve human missiles raced for the next target, even as he noted the timer counting down the five minutes needed to recharge the spinal mount weapon. He could see both that the missiles would take nearly a minute to cross the distance and that the distances between the two groups of ships were now already increasing. The Jerecab point defences effortlessly claimed nine of the twelve missiles, though the delayed auto destruct ensured that when four of the missiles exploded they did not cause any problems to other missiles.

The proximity charges exploded within twenty metres of the rapidly evading frigate, and Joel noted that the engines of the second Jerecab ship now appeared to be offline. The weapons fire from the destroyers continued to lash at the second frigate and Joel thought it was likely to be destroyed in minutes if they continued. He gave the next order and a curt well done, as the two groups of ships continued to increase their range from one another.

‘Cease fire and we will start to broadcast our peaceful signals again. Well done to the crew of all three ships.’

The battle was over as soon as it had begun and Joel quickly began collating the various reports he had to prepare for Admiral Neilson. Inside he was feeling a heightened awareness both that they had all seen combat now and that their ships had accounted for themselves very well.

Neanres sat back stunned in his command chair onboard one of the undamaged frigates as he evaluated what had just occurred during the battle. The two frigates were going to the aid of the disabled frigate, as he nervously established that the human destroyers were continuing to flee the star system. The Jerecab commander was nonplussed by the fact the humans were leaving, as they could handily destroy the remaining frigates, even as he noted the humans had resumed broadcasting their standard non aggression messages.

                                                                     ***

Captain Narindestat looked over the bridge of the Resuria, as the Trader ship slowly moved away from the faintly glowing patch of interstellar space where it had arrived in the Perseus arm from the Arranen star system. He noted that several Maveen gate ships followed him through the gateway, but he was relieved to see that none of their larger fighting ships had arrived as well. In minutes he found himself speaking with the Maveen sector delegate again.

‘Captain we are deploying several of our gate ships on associated missions towards remote areas of space near the Carinae sector border. There are independent races along the Perseus arm we wish to monitor after an absence of hundreds of years. We will ensure that these gate ships have departed before we arrange to leave here in an hour.’

Narindestat confirmed the message and sat back to marvel how his ship still had all her resources intact, but had instantly travelled three thousand light years from the outer arm of the galaxy. He looked over at Garendestat, who for some reason was going through the sensor readings on their docked sneak ships yet again. His son was about to speak, but went silent when Narindestat briefly held up his hands with his two thumbs pressed towards one another and the three fingers of each hand splayed out.

The Trader gesture to wait was not lost on Garendestat and he quickly returned to studying his console and the sneak ship readings again. Narindestat now verified from his own console the same readings for himself, before keying the video feed to the main hangar and giving the two blocks of human built weapons systems a further long appraising glance. He was just doing a series of estimations on their performance when the main view screen again spoke the mechanical tones of the Maveen sector delegate.

‘Captain Narindestat, cut all engine power to your ship as the next gate way transfer will occur shortly.’

Narindestat and his bridge crew watched as the gate ships formed the now familiar alignment around his ship. The globe of light again engulfed the Resuria as they were transported into the next arm of the galaxy.

                                                                     ***

Admiral Baunrus looked around the bridge of his flagship and noted that neither of the junior commanders even looked like challenging him as he made an observation.

‘Well our own supply areas are intact and the humans still persist in transmitting ceasefire and non-aggression clauses. They are fools and this will cost them first their lives and then their home world.’

One of the two commanders quietly handed over a data tablet with reports of the inner Dradfer worlds. The Jerecab admiral studied them silently for several minutes before offering first another observation and then a curt order.

‘So we have two human ships meeting with the Barus research fleet according to our scout ships. Well they have a lot to talk about, not that I am interested in listening. Also if that Barus destroyer turns up again ordering a ceasefire we will fire a warning shot.’