Ep.#6 - "Head of the Dragon" (The Frontiers Saga) (8 page)

“Yes, sir.” Major Prechitt had a sinking feeling in his stomach. He did not like where things were headed.

“Officer of the Watch,” he called out. The lieutenant commander immediately turned his attention to the major. “Prepare to launch all fighters, low level reconnaissance and contact over Corinair.”

“Yes, sir,” the lieutenant commander responded smartly. “Shall I open the deck first, sir?”

“No, we’ll do that after we get our birds away. Tell the senior chief he gets an extra fifteen minutes.”

“Yes, sir.”

A moment later, the status lights on the walls of the flight operations center turned blue, signifying that flight operations were underway, and an alert klaxon sounded through the corridors and the hangar bays. Major Prechitt worried about his pilots. Although they were not about to go back into combat, they were going to fly over the devastated cities of their homeworld. It was going to change them; of that he was sure.

* * *

“Captain on deck!” the Corinari guard at the entrance to the flight operations center announced. As flight ops was an active duty station, no one currently working a console was expected to acknowledge his entrance, and Nathan much preferred it that way. He made his way aft toward the main windows, peering down into the hangar bay. Major Prechitt moved from the center of the room aft to join him.

“Captain,” Major Prechitt greeted.

“Major Prechitt. You know, I’ve never been in here,” Nathan admitted. Nathan felt a little odd about that fact, but then again, flight operations was not run by the captain of the ship. That was the CAG’s domain. Nathan made a mental note to himself that, at some point, he should try to familiarize himself with every compartment on his ship.

“What brings you to flight ops, sir?” Major Prechitt inquired.

“Same as most of them I imagine,” Nathan said, pointing to the numerous technicians and junior officers who were standing around trying to look like they were there for a reason. “I’ve never seen an open deck before.”

“Apparently, none of us has,” Major Prechitt stated.

“How long until you begin?” Nathan asked.

“We just finished depressurizing all bays. It took a while for us to override the safeties in order to begin depress while the doors were open between the main hangar bay and the fighter alleys, but with the help of Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy, we were able to manage. Now we’re just waiting for clearance from the deck chief.”

“Senior Chief Taggart?” Nathan asked.

“Yes, sir. Since the fighter alleys were not designed to run open to space, he’s got teams locking down all the hatches that lead into the fighter alleys and painting them red to make sure no one accidentally pops open a hatch that leads to a vacuum.”

“How are people going to get in and out of the alleys?”

“Through the tool rooms at the aft end of the alleys, sir. The Senior Chief has turned them into airlocks using breaching boxes. They’ll serve as changing rooms for the deck crews as well.”

“Makes sense,” Nathan admitted, “but that’s a long haul for someone to make in an emergency, especially if they’re at the forward end of the bay.”

“We’ll have another breach box airlock forward, sir. We’re also going to bring up a few passenger pods from Corinair to put along the sides of the hangars to be used as emergency pressure shelters. That way, unless someone has a complete visor breach, they should be able to make it to an airlock before they lose all breathable air from their suit.”

“Good idea,” Nathan agreed.

“Chief of the Deck reports all pressure doors are sealed and ready. Deck crews are suited up and standing by,” Lieutenant Commander Iverson reported.

“Very well,” Major Prechitt stated. “Notify the bridge that we’re opening the deck, and stand by to open all inner doors.”

“Yes, sir.”

A moment later, Naralena’s voice came across the ship-wide address system. “
Attention all hands. Stand by to open the flight deck. Repeat, stand by to open the flight deck.
”

“Sound the warning,” Major Prechitt ordered.

Nathan could hear the warning klaxons in the corridors. He knew they were sounding inside the hangars as well, but no one would hear them as all the bays were now in a vacuum.

“Open inner doors for transfer airlocks one, two, and three,” Major Prechitt ordered.

Nathan watched as all three of the inner doors began to rise. Normally, they would rise just enough to allow whatever ship was in the bay to pass under them. This was actually the first time he had seen them lift all the way up.

“Inner doors up and secured, sir,” Lieutenant Commander Iverson reported.

“Very well, open all outer doors.”

“Opening outer doors.”

The Aurora’s current course and attitude had her back to the Darvano system’s sun as they made their way toward Corinair. As the three massive outer doors rose, light from the Darvano sun came spilling into the main hangar deck, casting a pattern of light and shadow that the deck had previously never seen. It then occurred to Nathan that, although the main drive section blocked most of the direct sunlight from entering the hangar bay, they might need to pay attention to such angles in the future, especially during flight operations, as the unfiltered light in space could be somewhat blinding.

Everyone in attendance watched in awe as the final step began, and the two walls that separated the three transfer airlocks were lowered into the deck. A minute later, the entire aft end of the main hangar deck was open to space. Nathan thought about the pros and cons of operating an open flight deck. The flight decks on the Earth’s larger Defender-class ships were all open design, with the deck opening from both the bow and stern of the ship with transfer airlocks and hangar bays on either side of the deck. Of course, those ships were much larger and had plenty of space for such an operation. His Explorer-class ship was considerably smaller, and her flight deck had been intended for primarily defensive and support operations.

As soon as the deck was completely open, deck hands in full pressure suits began to come out from the aft end of the flight deck on either side. Most of them went directly to their work, but more than one took the opportunity to walk out onto the flight apron and look out into space. Nathan understood their curiosity, as this might be the only opportunity they would ever have to witness the vastness of outer space first hand.

A minute later, two fighters landed on the flight apron and rolled into the main bay. The major had launched several fighters in order to run recovery drills. He had every intention of getting the bugs worked out of their open deck procedures as soon as possible, which was just fine with Nathan, as they had no idea when another imperial ship might appear.

The two fighters split, one rolling to starboard and the other to port. They entered the mid-deck airlocks on either side, the doors closing quickly behind them. Nathan watched the monitors showing the view inside the mid-deck transfer airlocks as the platform descended to the lower level as it pressurized. By the time it reached the bottom, the atmospheric pressure within the tube was normal, and the door to the lower deck opened allowing the fighter to roll into the cargo bay below.

“We were able to move most of the cargo to other compartments,” Major Prechitt stated, “so we have enough room in the cargo deck to use it as a hangar. We’ll be able to use the fighter alleys for quick recycles during combat, which we’ll be practicing fairly heavily for the rest of the day. Otherwise, we can do most of our work down below.”

“Excellent work, Major,” Nathan praised. “I’ll leave you to it, then.”

“Thank you, sir.”

As he made his way out, Nathan watched the next two fighters roll in from the flight apron and immediately turn into the fighter alleys where they would be recycled and launched again. He wished he could jump into the cockpit of one of those Corinari fighters and go shooting out the launch tube, even if only to turn around and immediately land, but he was the captain now, and he had other responsibilities.

* * *

“Based on the time it took them to repair the hull breach in our bow, Vlad estimates it will take at least two weeks to patch the hole in our port side,” Cameron reported. “And that’s if we are docked inside the Karuzari asteroid base.”

“I don’t see that happening any time soon,” Nathan said. “From Jessica’s initial report, it sounds like we won’t be getting any more help from the people of Corinair—at least not from their industrial sector, that’s for sure.”

“Well, we’re still pretty good on rail gun ammunition,” Cameron stated. “Simple slugs, but plenty of them. We’ve also got more than forty missiles and ten nuclear torpedoes.”

“Yeah, those missiles didn’t seem very effective. Their point-defense systems kept taking them down. We need torpedoes more than anything else. It takes at least two of them to take down one of their ships, and that’s if the first two are lucky shots. With what we’ve got, we can take down five ships at the most, less if they’re heavy cruisers. How many ships do the Ta’Akar still have? About a dozen?”

“I think they’re down to fourteen now,” Cameron clarified.

“So we can only take out about a third of their fleet,” Nathan surmised. “I don’t think that’s going to be enough to bring them to their knees.”

“Maybe we’ll find something of use on the Loranoi,” Cameron suggested.

“Doubtful,” Nathan disagreed. “You saw her; she was all missile batteries.”

“Nevertheless, we should send a team over to check out her armaments and weapons stores. We should check out her weapons targeting systems and electronic countermeasures while we’re at it.”

“Send Mister Willard along with them,” Nathan ordered. “He knows the Takaran systems pretty well.”

“Yes, sir,” Cameron acknowledged.

The hatch alarm beeped. “Enter,” he called out.

Major Prechitt stepped through the hatch, closing it behind him. “Excuse me sir, but we’ve completed our initial assessment of the Corinari forces still operating on Corinair.”

Nathan could see the distress on the major’s face. He could hear it in his voice. “What is it, Major?”

“They must have known exactly where to hit us, sir,” Major Prechitt began. “They knew where every command center was located across the entire planet. As best we can tell, they hit them all at once.”

“How bad is it?” Cameron asked.

“The most senior man to report in so far has been a captain running an ordnance disposal unit. According to the survivors on the surface, Corinari Command has been off the air planet wide since the initial attack. We’ve flown over all major continents on the planet multiple times and made contact with over a hundred groups of Corinari, but they all tell the same story. There are men left to fight and some equipment and weapons to fight with, but there is no one to lead them.” Major Prechitt took a deep breath, looking the captain straight in the eyes. “Right now, I’m the most senior Corinari officer known to have survived the attack.”

“What does that mean?” Nathan asked.

“It means, sir, that as of now, I’m in command of all remaining Corinari forces.”

“You’re kidding me,” Nathan responded, his mouth agape.

“No, sir, I’m not.”

“Any word on the government? Did anyone survive?” Cameron asked.

“Nothing yet. There’s a rumor that the Aitkenna bunker survived the strike but is buried under the debris. A team is on their way there now to see if they can determine if anyone is still alive down there.”

Nathan looked at the major, knowing full well how he felt. Having that much responsibility suddenly thrust upon you was not a pleasant feeling. Fortunately, Major Prechitt had over a decade of experience in the Corinari, so Nathan was pretty sure he could handle it. “We’ll be entering orbit over Corinair in about ten minutes, Major. We can have comms broadcast to all Corinari units on the surface. Let them know that you have taken command. It will take us a few orbits to get the word out to everyone, but it will be faster than flying around in fighters and shuttles, at least until some sort of communication network is re-established on the surface.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you,” Major Prechitt answered, turning to exit the ready room.

“It probably goes without saying, Major,” Nathan continued, “but the first priority should be to your available forces and resources.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And quickly,” Nathan added.

Major Prechitt nodded and continued through the hatch.

As soon as he had left the room, Cameron spoke again. “You know what this means, don’t you?”

“What?”

“You’re his commanding officer. That makes you indirectly in charge of all the Corinari.”

“I did not need to hear that, you know,” Nathan stated, casting a disapproving look her way.

Chapter Three

Tug sat in the dark, cold cockpit of his interceptor as he coasted through the Takaran system at eighty percent the speed of light. It had taken his interceptor five jumps to traverse the four point six light years that separated the Darvano and Takaran systems. After his initial journey, it had taken him three additional jumps in order to enter the system on a trajectory that would carry his stealthy spacecraft through the heart of the Ta’Akar Empire and allow him to gather as much intelligence as possible. He would then reach the far side of the system and begin jumping his way back to Corinair.

It had seemed an impossible mission to him at first, as the Takaran home system was protected by a vast network of sensor stations that could detect any ship headed toward the imperial homeworld long before it entered the system. However, the grid itself had been designed to defend against the known propulsion technology of the time. Since his interceptor had been equipped with the Corinairan’s prototype jump drive, he had been able to jump inside the sensor grid, thereby avoiding detection.

His course and speed at the moment of arrival had been precisely calculated. Now, more than sixteen hours later, he was passing between the orbits of Takara and her sister world, Davonmur. His course had taken him slightly above the system ecliptic, therefore keeping him out of the normal navigation corridors in order to avoid being spotted by civilian, or even worse, military traffic traveling between the two busiest worlds in the system.