Talosian Chronicles 2: Star Dancer (40 page)

“Nope, haven’t seen anything. Tracking lost them when they dropped out of hyperspace just inside the orbit of Neptune. None of our other sensors have picked them up either. We registered the hyperspace event, and so did the Caldarians, but after that, nothing,” Jenny replied.

“That’s not very comforting information, Jen,” Ian said. “We really need to know where they are, and what they’re up to. The last thing we need is for two more Caldarian ships to surprise us when we’re playing cat and mouse with that Super Nova.”

“I know, Ian, and they’re working it. But they have really good cloaking generators. Even with all the sensors we have in this system, they aren’t showing up on
anything
.” Jenny said.

“Okay, have Chloe set up a Shadow fighter patrol to try to locate and identify those two ships. But they’ll need to be quick about it. If the shit hits the fan here, we’ll need them back to fight.”

“Okay, I’ll get right on that,” Jenny said.

“Okay, we should be back in a little bit. The shuttle we’re escorting has a bunch of new people on it, so you should have something to do once we land, since I know how bored you get,” Ian teased.

“Wow, the planet is under attack, and you want to start a new career as a comedian!” Jenny replied. “Be safe, love.”

“You too,” Ian said and closed the channel.

––––––––

F
.S.S.
Star Dancer

Selene (Earth’s moon) Orbit

Sol Sector.

Combat location:
Dark Palace

––––––––

F
or the rest of that week, the Caldarian ship simply hung in space. It didn’t launch any ships, nor did it move. There was furious activity though, as the Centurion that was on picket close by reported.

Occasionally, one of the carriers would detach, move to the big bay doors and be taken inside for a while. Ian agreed with Major Eischens that they were repairing the Carriers, and rearming them with new fighters. The older carriers had no launch tubes and the fighters could be clearly seen mounted along the sides of the craft. So the truth of the rearming idea was upheld the first time one of the older carriers returned to its original position.

What was troubling, was that two new, older style carriers left the big bay and took the vacated positions of destroyed carriers just before the damaged ones started being taken inside. Were they able to produce those carriers? If so, how fast could they do it? If pressed, Star Dancer can replace her own fighters, but there was a limit to what could be done.

Nothing in the history files Star had indicated the Super Nova class ships carried, or utilized, an automated assembler of fighting ships. Caldarians did not have replicator technology. So how could they rebuild the destroyed ships so quickly?

The question remained unanswered as Ian and his people also took advantage of the break to reinforce their defenses. Ian had a bad feeling something big was about to happen, but he had no idea what.

One important thing that did happen during that week was the arrival, and introduction of Admiral Joshua Hawkins. USSPACECOM, Commanding. Ian ordered something special for the Admiral. When he arrived at Talos and was given his tour, the underground hanger was the last stop. At this point, he was put on a Centurion as a passenger and brought up to the ship.

Leaving Jenny in charge, he met the VIP in the hangar bay and once again gave the older gentleman a tour of his ship. The Admiral was impressed and stopped several times to speak to random people about what was going on, and how they felt about being a part of this. Ian even let him speak to people in private, so he knew that Ian wasn’t influencing their answers.

The final parts of the tour were the bridge and the operations area. In the makeshift CIC, Ian led the Admiral up to the big holographic tank and introduced him to the crew. He had Majors Brighton and Eischens give the man a briefing on the current situation.

The Admiral asked questions and got straight answers. When he felt he had a grasp of the current situation, he nodded and thanked the two officers.

He turned to Ian. “This is a very troubling situation, Commander. I thank you for giving me all this information, and for the tours and such, but I have to ask, why you went to all this trouble?”

“Well Admiral, during our last fight, we lost a lot of your pilots. My folks did try to warn them off, and for the most part, they did stay out of the battle, but their loss still hurts. We would like for you to know what’s really going on, so you can help to avoid that in the future.” Ian explained. “There is also the fact that those assholes aren’t finished with us yet. I don’t know what the future holds, but I can tell you that so far, their actions have not been following what little we do know about this race.

“They
will
hit us again. I don’t know if it’ll be the community on Earth, or if the fight will be up here and away from Earth. Yes, they hit our community on Earth because they figured out that the town is part of us. There is far more to this story than you know.

The Caldarians have been on the planet for some time. They have been stealing crude oil, and we think that they have been taking slaves, but we haven’t found any proof of that yet. During our investigations, mostly done by Alan Carlson whom you already met on Earth, we found a solid link between the Caldarian operations to the intelligence services of the United States. We can’t tell you how deeply they are involved there, but we do know that they are deep enough to authorize military operations against our community on Earth.

“We knew we had to let someone in Command know what was going on, and you checked out as clean. Of course we didn’t know that until we made the connection between Colonel Petrie and you, but when we did, we decided to ask if you would visit us.

“Firstly, we wanted to show you that we have no interest in invading anything, or taking over any governments. We have all sworn a duty to protect Earth from it enemies, and in some cases from itself. We will not let any of the advanced technology, especially the weapons technology, out of our control. Simply put, we don’t trust any of the governments down there to not use it against other nations. We like to consider ourselves as the
planetary
military, not one nation’s.

“Although most of the people up here are Americans, we do have some people from other countries as well. We would like to add more people from other countries, especially in the military. We know that you could help us with that, if you chose to. We hope that we have shown you enough to know our only purpose and motive is to help Earth as a whole.

“The function of the town on the surface is to develop repressed or available technology to make life easier, safer, and cleaner, at the same time to try to develop technologies to repair the damage that’s already been done to the planet.” Ian held up his hand. “I know that makes us sound like a bunch of tree-huggers and hippies, but I like to speak plainly, and everyone knows that there is a lot of pollution down there to clean up.

“But first, we have to deal with this situation,” Ian finished, grinning. “We’ve even discovered that we can create a colony in the Centauri system!”

The Admiral nodded his head. “Well, you’ve certainly given me a lot to think about. You’re right about the US wanting to take all this from you. Unfortunately, I can agree with what would happen if that came to pass.” He was thoughtful for a few minutes. “I’ve been in the military for some time. In that time, I’ve seen a lot of things change, and I’ve seen a lot of things that still don’t make any sense even to this day. The intelligence community has gradually altered into what it is today. By that I mean that most of the stuff coming out of that mess has little to do with National Security, and more to do with oil and power. Although it’s difficult to believe what you’ve told me about the intelligence community, the proof is there.” He snorted. “What am I saying? I’ve seen nothing today that is easy to believe!” He was thoughtful for a few minutes again, and glanced at his watch. “I need to be getting back soon, can we head back now?”

Ian nodded. “Certainly, Sir. I’ll walk you back to the landing bay.”

“Thank you, Son.” Admiral Hawkins replied and followed Ian to the door after nodding to the men and women in the CIC. As they walked to the maglev, he spoke again. “Are the ship and the community all the assets you have?”

“No Sir, there is a large base on the moon as well; it’s mostly a place for research, but there is a large military presence there. In the future we plan on having the Military Academy and flight school down there, as well as a few training facilities for our Marines,” Ian said. “The current population is almost five thousand people. Although, as I said, most of them are scientists and support personnel.”

The two men talked more and got to know one another better. When they arrived at the ready rooms on Alpha landing bay, Major Star Dancer met them there with a small package that she handed to Ian after saluting the two officers.

“Admiral, may I introduce you to the oldest, and probably most important member of my crew, Major Star Dancer,” Ian said introducing the AI Avatar.

“She has the same name as the ship?” Hawkins asked.

Ian grinned, “In all the ways that matter, she
is
the ship, Sir. Major Dancer is the holographic Avatar of the resident Artificial Intelligence of the ship.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you Admiral,” Star replied. “Welcome aboard.”

“You are an impressive vessel, Major. You should be very proud,” Hawkins said without missing a beat.

“Thank you, Sir, but I cannot take the credit, I have an excellent crew,” Star replied, blushing.

“For what it’s worth, Son, you have my support. It would be kinda dumb of me not to offer it. I don’t know what I can do for you that you can’t already do for yourselves, but I’ll do what I can,” Hawkins said, getting ready to leave.

Ian handed the Admiral the small communicator Star had given him. “This is a communit, Sir. When you want to get in touch with me, simply put this in your ear, press the button, and ask for me. You’ll most likely get Star first, but she will put you through to me.”

“Thank you. I’ll make sure to keep it hidden,” Admiral Hawkins replied.

“It won’t matter if you do, Sir. First off, I made sure it looks and functions just like a standard cell phone ear piece, and second, if they did try to open it to see how it works, it would simply melt down into a puddle of plastic,” Star replied smiling.

“It works just like my current ear piece? I’ll just replace the one I normally use then, smart thinking Major,” Hawkins took the other ear piece out of his pocket and handed it over to Star. “I don’t imagine the cells work up here anyway.”

“On the contrary, Sir. They work just fine. The locator function will register as being at Talos, though,” Star said. “The Centurion is ready to take you back now, Admiral. Have a safe flight, Sir.”

The older man nodded at her. “Thank you Major. I hope we’ll see each other again, but if not, it’s been a real pleasure for me to make your acquaintance.”

“It has been a pleasure for me as well, Sir. The last Admiral I had on my decks was four thousand, seven hundred and ninety two years ago. I hope that this time, it won’t be as long until the next visit,” Star said, smiling.

Hawkins grinned and turned to Ian. “I don’t envy you your job, Son. I know that what you carefully didn’t tell me was that you are out gunned in this. I can only wish you good luck, and offer my hopes and prayers for your success.”

“If we fail Sir, I would recommend getting your family and finding a nice sheltered place to hide. Caldarians are not nice conquerors, they’ll nuke the cities, destroy all the military, and take the survivors as slaves. All the oil will be taken off planet, and it will be mined into a dead hulk,” Ian said. “I can assure you, that if that were to happen, every one of us will be gone, because we will fight to the last man to defend our home.”

––––––––

C
enturion
Odin

Combat Location
Briar Patch

Picket Duty near Planet Venus,

Sol System.

––––––––

“
Star Dancer
, this is the
Odin
on Picket,” the young man called.

“
Star Dancer
here, go ahead
Odin
.”

“You better wake up the Boss. Something’s happening out here,” he replied. “They’re launching all of the carriers, and the bay doors are opening. I’d say that they are going to launch some assault carriers too.”

“What heading are the carriers taking,
Odin
?” Major Chloe Brighton asked, letting the man know that Operations was now online as well.

“They haven’t left the area, they have launched, but seem to be waiting for the rest of the ships.”

“That’s not good. Are you still safe?” Major Brighton asked.

“Well, we’re still here, so I would say that, yes, we are still safe and undiscovered,” the man chuckled. “We’re well within their weapons range.”

“Yeah, we know,” Major Brighton said dryly. “Never mind. I want you to do everything you can, without getting discovered, to get the hell out of there in a hurry if you need to.”

“Don’t worry, Major. This buggy has been ready to scoot since before the neighbors moved in next door. If the compost interacts with the rotary turbine, we’ll be out of here before you can finish giving us the order,” the young man replied. “Stand by, Operations, something’s going on out there. Stand by for a data feed.” 

The man watched the scanners, and typed in the commands to forward all the data to
Star Dancer
Operations Command. While he had been talking to Major Brighton, the Super Nova had indeed launched assault carriers as well as more fighter carriers. In addition to that, several fighters also dropped out of the belly of the beast, and took up formation as escorts to the larger ships.

“
Odin
, Guardian One orders you to drop a spy sat, and get the hell out of there. You are to report back to Talos and rearm for fighter suppression and interdiction duty,” Major Brighton ordered. “He wants you out of there ten minutes ago, understand?”