The Black Sheep (A Learning Experience Book 3) (35 page)

“I’m on my way,” he said, rising.  “I’ll be there in five minutes.”

He shut down his terminal, then walked through the hatch and up to the Captain’s cabin, slipping past a number of crewmen working on the ship. 
Fisher
hadn't been
badly
damaged, he’d been assured, but the hammering she’d taken had inflicted enough harm to force the crew to spend weeks repairing it.  Max had a private suspicion that the damage was worse than he’d been told, although he’d kept that theory to himself.  There was no point in adding it to the reports when losing two cruisers was already quite bad enough.

No one would notice the loss of two cruisers back home
, he thought.  It wasn't
entirely
true, but the Solar Navy operated over two
thousand
heavy cruisers.  Hell, they made up the backbone of the fleet! 
Here, losing a single cruiser damages our ability to fight
.

The hatch leading into the cabin hissed open when he approached, allowing him to step inside.  Captain Stuart was sitting behind her desk, reading yet another report; she looked up, then nodded to the sofa.  Max sat down and waited, patiently, until she was finished.  He wasn't
quite
sure why the XO had been dispatched to Martina, but reading between the lines of a couple of ambiguous comments, he had a sneaking suspicion that there had been a major clash between them.  Why else would Captain Stuart have sent her strong right arm light years from the squadron.

“Max,” Captain Stuart said, putting the datapad aside.  “I viewed your report.  It was as concise and detailed as always.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Max said.  “I try to embed as much data within the reports as possible.”

“Thankfully, local morale has not been
too
badly damaged by the bruising encounter,” Captain Stuart added.  “It would have been worse, I suspect, if they’d lost a great many warships in the fighting, but as it turned out casualties were quite low.  However, we still need to retake the offensive as soon as possible.”

“Of course, Captain,” Max said.  “You want to convince the aliens that we’re not going to allow the Druavroks to intimidate us.”

“More or less,” Captain Stuart agreed, with a thin smile.  She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk.  “The Druavroks, I suspect, have started to class us as a more dangerous race than anyone else within the sector, but they don’t seem to have learned caution yet.  I need to hit them before they start thinking we’re not so dangerous after all.”

“I’m glad to hear that
your
confidence hasn't been shaken,” Max said, truthfully.  “I was afraid you might have lost your nerve.”

“Bad rolls of the dice are inevitable, to borrow a line from my grandfather,” Captain Stuart said.  “It’s what you make of those rolls - and how you recover from them - that shows what you’re made of.”

She tapped her fingers together, thoughtfully.  “I checked and rechecked the records,” she added.  “There was no sign of
anything
before the enemy fleet uncloaked, Max; there were no reports of energy disturbances that we overlooked, nothing that might have suggested they were there before the shit hit the fan.  The analysts think they actually had their drives stepped down and main power largely deactivated, just to make it harder for us to detect them.”

“Brave,” Max commented.

“Very brave,” Captain Stuart agreed.  “If we’d known they were there, Max, we would have slaughtered them before they managed to power up their shields and return fire.  A hundred freighters, crammed with single-shot missile launchers, would have
obliterated
a fleet of battleships.  They took that risk just to get at us!”

“And they would have succeeded, if you hadn't charged straight into the valley of death,” Max pointed out.  “You saved the fleet.”

“I didn't overlook anything because there was nothing to overlook,” Captain Stuart said.  “We will take more precautions in future, just to be very sure we don’t miss anything, but my nerve has not been harmed.”

She smiled.  “And you can put that on your next report before we leave the system.”

“Aye, Captain,” Max said.  He smiled.  “When are we leaving?”

“Two days from now,” Captain Stuart said.  “I’m just waiting on a very special ship.”

***

“Captain,” Biscoe said.  “The crew of the
Vengeance
is reporting that they are ready to depart.”

Hoshiko looked up from her command chair.  The former Tokomak ship was resting in the centre of the display, surrounded by the remaining seven ships of her squadron.  She
was
pretty, Hoshiko had to admit, but her design lacked a certain practicality.  A
human
ship of the same size and weight would have
much
more firepower crammed into her hull.  She was surprised the Tokomak had rejected modular construction to such an extent, even on one of
their
ships.  Repairing the ship had been a pain in the ass.

And if we didn't have a use for her
, she thought,
we wouldn't have done anything more than turn her into a suicide-runner.

“Very good,” she said.  “Communications, inform the squadron that we will depart in ten minutes, then signal Commander Rogers and inform him that he is now in command of the Grand Fleet.”

“Aye, Captain,” Lieutenant Bryon Yeller said. 

Hoshiko sat back and forced herself to wait.  She hadn't admitted it to anyone - with Commander Wilde gone, there was no one she could confide in - but the ambush had rattled her more than she cared to admit.  The Druavroks had pulled off a successful ambush and her fleet had come far too close to total destruction.  Launching a second mission against the same star system was chancy - she had no idea how many of the enemy ships were still there - but she needed to know she could still win.  And the volunteer crew ...

She winced, inwardly.  Her grandmother had told her the stories, but she’d never quite believed that someone could
volunteer
for certain death.  But then, the crew no longer had anything to live for.  A chance of revenge was all they wanted.

“Take us out,” she ordered, when the timer reached zero.  “And fall into pursuit patterns once we’re well clear of the star.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

Oklahoman Police arrested over a thousand individuals for treachery against both the United States and the Alliance for the Preservation of the United States; these individuals include liberals, communists, race-baiters and a number of politicians.  The fate of these individuals has yet to be determined, but as a number of them are also on the Texan ‘enemies’ list it is quite likely that they will be extradited to Texas.

-Solar News Network, Year 54

The humans were clearly
vicious
prey.

Warlord Joist studied the display, feeling a grim sensation of dissatisfaction.  Ambushed, trapped, the humans had turned on their foes and fought like ... they’d fought like Druavroks who
knew
there was nothing left for them, but to inflict as much damage as possible before they died like cornered beasts.  And it had paid off for them; the main body of their fleet had escaped an inescapable ambush, while their devilishly capable human cruisers had inflicted vast damage during their passage through the ambushing fleet. 
And
, to cap it all, they’d managed to escape alive.

The only advantage, as far as he was able to tell, was that the arrival of the ambush fleet had brought enough firepower to complete the conquest of Palsies.  His forces had torn through the remaining orbital defences, soaking up losses as they struggled to overcome and destroy them and finally taken control of the high orbitals.  This time, there had been no attempt to land troops and come to grips with their foe.  The planet’s cities had been nuked from orbit and every lone radio transmitter that dared squawk a signal into the void was smashed by a KEW.  By the time a settlement fleet was dispatched from the homeworld, the planet would be largely denuded of its formal population and any survivors could be hunted down at leisure. 

“Warlord,” the sensor operator said.  His voice was awed.  “There is a ship of the
gods
approaching our system.”

Warlord Joist started.  If the Tokomak were on the way, he had to prepare a proper reception, a reception fit for the gods themselves.  The sense of effortless mastery the Tokomak extruded demanded no less.  And yet, a ship of the gods
now
?  What did it mean?  Had the Tokomak decided to intervene in the war?  Or had they come to bless the cleansed world and open it up for settlement?

“Order the fleet to assume a welcoming formation,” he said.  “We must show full respect to our guests.”

The sensor operator looked nervous.  “My Lord, there is a flight of human ships in hot pursuit.”

“Show me,” Warlord Joist ordered.  The display changed, showing a golden icon pulsing its way towards the system, followed by seven bright
red
icons.  It looked, very much, as though the Tokomak were running to safety.  How
dare
the humans chase them?  “Order the fleet to assume a defensive position instead.  We must cover the Tokomak as soon as they emerge from FTL.”

“Understood,” the communications officer said.

Warlord Joist barely noticed as he contemplated the implications.  The humans attacking the Tokomak?  There had been rumours, but all such rumours had to be nothing more than lies spread by weakling prey.  What sort of fool would believe a tiny system could actually pose a threat to a race that ruled two-thirds of the galaxy?  No, the prey lied to themselves to make themselves feel better about their role, while the predators of the galaxy knew better than to let themselves be deceived. 

Let them come
, he thought. 
We will defend the Tokomak with our dying breath
.

***

“Twenty seconds to emergence, Captain,” the helmsman said.

“The squadron is in formation,” Yeller confirmed.  “We’ll be following the
Vengeance
as soon as she leaves FTL.”

“Make sure it looks like we fucked up,” Hoshiko reminded the helmsman.  “We don’t want to actually
succeed
before the
Vengeance
has a chance to get into position.”

She leaned back in her command chair as the final seconds ticked down to zero.  The plan was chancy, she had to admit, but everything she’d read about the Druavroks suggested they’d fall for it without hesitation.  Their
worship
of the Tokomak bordered on idolatry: it was unlikely, she’d been assured, that the Druavroks would fail to move to protect their former masters.  Humans wouldn't have been so accommodating, but then humans wouldn't have been such ruthless servants either.

“Transit complete, Captain,” Lieutenant Sandy Browne said.  “
Vengeance
dropped out ahead of us.”

Hoshiko nodded.  The Druavroks had massed a powerful formation - twenty-five battleships - in position to cover the
Vengeance
as she emerged from FTL.  They’d done a good job too, she noted; they weren't in
quite
the right position, but it was close enough to ensure she couldn't hope to run the
Vengeance
down before they overwhelmed her with missile fire.

And if I’d been genuinely interested in destroying the Vengeance
, she thought,
I’d be really pissed at this moment
.

“Continue on present course,” she ordered, as the
Vengeance
continued her passage towards the enemy fleet.  “Prepare to bring us about when they open fire.”

“Aye, Captain,” Browne said.

Her console bleeped.  “Captain, this is Henderson in Tracking,” a voice said.  “The planet has been bombarded.”

Hoshiko swore under her breath as she looked at the report.  The planet hadn't just been bombarded, it had been devastated.  There had been over three hundred large cities on the planet, a handful larger than the largest megacity on Amstar, and now they were gone, blasted into blackened ruins.  The Druavroks had nuked every last major settlement on the surface, judging by the pattern, then presumably sent down ground troops to finish the job.  She had no idea just how warlike the planet’s inhabitants had been, before the Druavroks had begun their offensive, but it was unlikely to matter.  Most of them were dead and the remainder would soon join them, unless they knew how to live off the land ...

She shuddered.  It was a crime, a crime on a scale she couldn't even begin to grasp.  There had been three billion sentients on the planet, a number beyond her ability to understand ... for the first time in her life, she truly understood why one death was a tragedy and a million was nothing more than a statistic.  Countless lives had been wiped out of existence in a single bloody spasm and there would be no one to put names and faces to even a handful of the dead.  It was hard, so hard, to feel
anything
for the dead.  There would be no Anne Frank on Palsies.

And the largest single asteroid in the Solar Union has a mere ten thousand residents
, she thought, numbly. 
How do we explain the death of over three billion sentients to our population?

“The enemy fleet is moving forward to engage us,” Biscoe reported.  “They’re charging weapons.”

“Launch probes,” Hoshiko ordered.  She’d do what she could to ensure the dead were not forgotten, after the war.  “I want a full shell of recon birds surrounding the squadron at all times, half of them going active.  They are
not
to be allowed to sneak up on us again.”

She sucked in her breath as the two fleets converged, the
Vengeance
running ahead and overheating her drives in a desperate attempt to escape.  Lighting up the recon drones was
certain
to get them killed - the beancounters would make a fuss about the waste, when she got back home - but she was damned if she was risking a second ambush.  The enemy had had plenty of time to set one up, if they wanted.

“The enemy are broadcasting welcoming messages to the
Vengeance
,” Yeller said.  “It reads very much like dreadful flattery, Captain.”

“Oh,
good
,” Hoshiko said. 

She glanced at the live feed, then rolled her eyes.  She’d met too many flatterers in her career, mostly men and women who thought she could ask her relatives to promote them, but none of them had ever literally promised to kiss her ass.  The Druavroks, on the other hand,
had
offered to kiss the Tokomak’s ass - as well as a number of other humiliating submissions to superior power.  No doubt the beating the Tokomak had handed out, when the two races had met for the first time, had been truly epic.  Centuries later, the Druavroks
still
hadn't recovered.

They must really have accepted the Tokomaks as gods
, she thought.  In truth, she’d heard it from the intelligence officers, but she hadn't wanted to believe it.  And yet now the conclusion was inescapable.  The Druavroks were practically crawling on their bellies before their masters. 
We need to get them to think of us in the same way
.

“Open fire as soon as we enter missile range,” she ordered.  Opening fire at long range only gave the enemy more time to plot intercepts and deploy countermeasures, but for once it didn't really matter.  All that mattered was keeping the Druavroks from noticing that the approaching Tokomak ship wasn't replying.  “And then break away when they return fire.”

“Aye, Captain,” Biscoe said.

***

“The humans are spitting fire,” the tactical officer reported.  “Their missiles are unusually fast.”

“We already knew that,” Warlord Joist snarled.  He studied the display for a long moment, then relaxed slightly.  The humans might have faster missiles than anyone else, at least for the time being, but they’d fired them far too early.  “Deploy countermeasures, then return fire.”

He licked his teeth as the Tokomak ship approached.  He’d greeted them in the standard manner - he was their slave, after all, and so was everyone under him - and they had not replied, which didn't surprise him.  He was not so important, after all, that they would rush to greet him.  And besides, they
did
have to worry about being caught by the alarmingly-swift human ships.

“The human ships are breaking off,” the tactical officer reported.  “Their missiles will enter engagement range in twenty seconds.”

“Engage them the moment they enter firing range,” Warlord Joist ordered, coolly.  His computers had had
more
than enough time to calculate how best to take the missiles down before they slammed into his ships.  “But remember to cover the Tokomak ship.”

“Of course, My Lord,” the tactical officer said.  “They didn't
fire
on the Tokomak ship.”

Warlord Joist froze.  Very few races in the galaxy would fire on a Tokomak ship, knowing that defeating one ship wouldn't be anything like enough to defeat the rest of their overwhelmingly powerful navy.  And yet, if there was
any
truth in the rumours at all, the humans
had
engaged the Tokomak - and
won
!  Maybe they hadn't fired on the incoming ship because the rumours were false, yet they’d definitely chased her into his arms.  Their missiles, if fired in a single volley, could have overwhelmed her defences and blown her into atoms ...

He stared at the icon on the display, thinking hard.  It was a
Tokomak
ship.  The humans had chased her, but not killed her ... and they
could
have killed her.  And that meant ...

His mouth was suddenly dry.  Obedience to the Tokomak was ingrained into his race, backed by the certain knowledge that only the Tokomak had the power to crush them like bugs.  It wasn't
right
to question such a superior race, the only
predator
the Druavroks feared.  And yet, if that ship hadn't been destroyed, it suggested the humans had not
wanted
to destroy the ship.  And if that were the case ...

“Contact the Tokomaks,” he ordered.  “Tell them ... tell them that we need to verify their identity.”