A King's Ship (Empire Rising Book 2) (31 page)

The missiles weren’t nearly as inconspicuous as the tungsten spears as the high acceleration from their engines made them jump out on the Vestarian’s gravimetric sensors. Combined with
Endeavour’s
forward velocity, the speed at which they were shot from their missile tubes and their own acceleration,
Endeavour’s
first missile salvo approached the enemy resupply ship at 0.7C. As James watched he saw a number of the closest warships try to target the approaching missiles with their point defenses. One was destroyed, yet the missiles were going too fast for the ships to power up their defenses in time to target them accurately. Significantly, no point defense fire was coming from the resupply ship.
It mustn’t have any defenses
, James thought,
it’s doomed
.

“Target the second starboard broadside at two of the cruisers,” James ordered.

Even as he spoke the port missile tubes fired their own missiles at two more cruisers as they came to bear.
Endeavour
was already passing through the middle of the enemy formation.

“I’m detecting energy spikes from some of the nearest warships,” Malik shouted from the sensor station. “I think they are powering up their lasers.”

“Jennings,” James called to the navigation officer. “Try and keep us between as many Vestarian ships as you can. Some of those ships may hold their fire if they fear hitting each other.”

“Detonation,” Julius called as the first missile salvo reached their targets. “Resupply ship destroyed!” he shouted with a whoop when the sensor feed cleared. “There were six warships docked with that ship, they all went up with it.”

“Incoming laser fire,” Ferguson shouted.

A few seconds later a number of alarms went off around the bridge. “We took two grazing hits,” Ferguson said as he looked over his command terminal. “No serious damage, I think the gaseous shields helped.”

“Second broadside is away,” Julius shouted over the din of the alarms.

“Shut those alarms up,” James ordered, as he switched his focus to the holo display to watch the missiles’ progress. They were so close to the enemy formation that the missiles took less than thirty seconds to close in on their targets and explode. Three more cruisers disappeared, they didn’t have time to launch any AM missiles to defend themselves.

“The warships are beginning to launch their own missiles,” Jennings reported but James had already seen the launches on the holo plot. The enemy fire was totally uncoordinated, with each ship firing their missiles as soon as they were ready. Some ships even fired their missiles in ones and twos. James wasn’t immediately worried about any of the missiles.
Endeavour
was closing at such a speed that the missiles would have to accelerate for more than twenty minutes before they would even be able to match her velocity. Only then could they begin to close with her.

“We’re passing through the middle of their formation,” Jennings informed everyone.

James didn’t respond. Everyone knew what that meant. Their weapons would be a lot less effective now. Despite the missile tubes being able to fire their missiles out at 0.2C, the missile would still have to accelerate hard to overcome
Endeavour’s
momentum which was now pulling them away from their targets. The plasma bolts would also take longer to reach their targets and so would be less accurate.

Julius launched another missile salvo and the Sub Lieutenant assisting her at the tactical station destroyed three more frigates with the plasma cannons.

Several more grazing hits from the enemy lasers meant there were alarms going off constantly. Just when James thought they were going to make it without taking any major hits an immense ripping sound drowned everything else out and
Endeavour
spun wildly, throwing everyone around in their harnesses.

As James regained his senses he remembered feeling his ears pop and he reached up to feel them. When he took his hand away he saw they were covered in blood. “What happened?” he shouted, barely able to hear his own voice.

“W… too… amid...” Mallory’s muffled voice said from his command chair.

“Repeat that,” James shouted after turning up the volume on the COM channel to full.

“We took a direct laser hit to our port amidships,” Mallory said. “It burnt its way through three decks and almost hit the bridge. Missile tube four isn’t responding and over ten percent of the ship is open to space. I fear we have lost a lot of crewmembers.

“We’ve taken control of navigation here on the auxiliary bridge, we’re leveling
Endeavour
out now. You still have control of the tactical station and our point defenses.”

“Ok, you’ve done well,” James said. “Plot us a course to the Kulthar shift passage and jump as soon as we cross the mass shadow. We’ll take care of the Vestarian missiles.”

Satisfied that they were on top of things James let out a sigh of relief. In the time it had taken Mallory to wrestle
Endeavour
under control they had passed out of laser range of the Vestarian fleet. The sensor log indicated that the Vestarians had managed to get one more grazing hit with their lasers but
Endeavour’s
wild roll had made it difficult to target her.

The plasma cannons would be in range for another sixty seconds and as soon as
Endeavour
was under control Lieutenant Julius and her Sub Lieutenant opened fire. They destroyed one more light warship before getting out of range. They shifted their focus to the remaining missile tubes and got off another two broadsides.

Once their offensive weapons were useless James and the rest of the bridge crew turned to dealing with the incoming Vestarian missiles. There were now over two hundred of them desperately accelerating towards
Endeavour
. Thanks to
Endeavour’s
superior velocity the gap between the missiles and the ship was still growing. The closest missiles eventually managed to match
Endeavour’s
velocity and then exceed it allowing them to begin to close in on their target.

“Roll the ship to bring our starboard point defenses to bear on the incoming missiles,” James ordered Mallory over the COM channel. “They are in the best condition.

“Julius,” James continued, “hold your fire with the flak cannons until there is a particularly dense swarm of incoming missiles. Our AM missiles and point defense plasma cannons should be able to handle the first few waves.”

Due to the haphazard way the Vestarians had fired their missiles they were coming towards
Endeavour
in groups of four or five. Given the Vestarians inferior ECM and missile seeker heads, they wouldn’t pose too many problems. On the holo projection James could see several larger groups of missiles near the back and he wanted to ensure the flak cannons had enough ammunition to take them out.

“Have you got an updated damage report?” James asked Mallory to take his mind off the incoming missiles.

“Yes Sir,” Mallory began. “As I said missile tube four has been destroyed. The laser burnt its way into the ship right through the tube itself. All ten of the gunners were killed in the initial blast. The laser beam burnt its way through decks nine, ten and eleven. There are a further twelve crewmembers missing from those areas. We have sealed off the hull breach and are re-pressurizing those areas but we aren’t expecting to find anyone alive I’m afraid.”

“What about the shift drive and its capacitors, they are near missile tube four aren’t they?” James followed up, trying not to think about the deaths.

“Yes Sir, a couple of the capacitors were destroyed but Chief Driscoll says the shift drive is fully functional and we have enough spare capacitors that we shouldn’t need the damaged ones. We’ll reach the mass shadow in thirty minutes and we should be able to jump as soon as we get there.”

“Very good, thank you Mallory,” James said. “Put together a list of the causalities and keep me updated on the search of the damaged areas.”

“Aye Sir,” Mallory responded.

“Engaging with the point defenses,” Ferguson said a minute later as he opened up on the first missiles with the point defense plasma cannons.

By now James had the bridge crew well trained and he had nothing to do but watch as Ferguson and the Sub Lieutenants manning the defense terminal coordinated the point defenses. The first thirty missiles were all easily dispatched as they came in ones and twos. The skillful use of
Endeavour’s
point defenses quickly dispatched almost all the rest. Even though they were gaining on
Endeavour
the velocity differential between her and the missiles wasn’t very large and the gunners had plenty of time to pick their targets and make sure every missile was taken out.

The second to last group of missiles was the largest at thirty two. They weren’t all closely packed together or else they would have posed a real danger to
Endeavour
. As it was, they were still a threat. Ferguson opened up at maximum range with the flak cannons, taking out thirteen. Then the plasma point defense cannons joined the fight. Because of the slow closing speeds Ferguson was able to fire off three rounds of bolts. When the third round took out five missiles, leaving only seven, James allowed himself to relax. The point defense AM’s would easily handle the rest.

“That’s the last of them Sir,” Ferguson reported two minutes later. “We’re clear to jump as soon as we reach the mass shadow.”

“Good shooting Lieutenant,” James said with a big smile. “You see, I knew we could do it!”

“Yes Sir, you were right,” Ferguson conceded somewhat reluctantly.

“Sub Lieutenant Malik,” James said turning to the sensor officer. “What has the Vestarian fleet been up to?”

“A few ships from the squadron we hit tried to give chase after we flew through their formation but they turned back when it was clear they couldn’t catch us Sir. The rest of the squadron broke up and has now been split between the other three squadrons.”

“And what are the other three squadrons doing now?”

“As near as I can tell they are continuing to refuel their ships. Though I think they have picked up their pace. The ships that have already refueled are actively scanning the area around the refueling ships and carrying out patrols.”

“They have learnt a costly lesson,” James said. “How many ships did we get in the end? I lost track of the full count.”

James would review the sensor logs carefully on their way to Kulthar to see if there was anything he could learn about his enemy but he wanted to know the raw numbers now.

“We destroyed ten of their cruisers and sixteen frigates ones along with the resupply ship,” Malik reported.

James was taken aback. After the first heavy plasma cannon shots he hadn’t been following what the plasma cannons had been up to and he hadn’t seen all of the missile salvos hit home, yet twenty seven ships was way beyond what he had hoped of destroying.

More than a few of the bridge crew let out gasps of surprise at Malik’s count. Everyone had been too focused on their field of responsibility to fully grasp how well the battle had gone.

“Twenty seven ships,” Julius said before letting out a long whistle. “That has to be the most one sided battle in the history of human space warfare.”

“Quite possibly,” James said. “You have all done me proud,” he continued, addressing the entire bridge crew. “But sadly the danger isn’t passed yet. There are still one hundred and seventy nine out there. Now we need to find a way to help the Kulreans destroy the rest of them.

We have found many allies among the stars, we have also found many deadly enemies. One thing many of them seem to have in common, they can all be very stubborn.

-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD

8
th
August, 2466 AD, HMS
Endeavour
, Kulthar system

Three days later
Endeavour
limped into the Kulthar system. Mallory and the damage control teams had sealed off the damaged sections to allow the ship to jump into shift space but once there, their ability to repair the ship had been limited. She still had a large gash along her port amidships with a number of her decks open to space.

As soon as they exited shift space the repair crews got to work realigning the valstronium armor to cover the gash and sealing off the damaged sections. The fourth missile tube was beyond repair but the point defenses and damaged hull sections would soon be back to something resembling their original condition.

James’ thoughts were elsewhere though for he didn’t have a clue how
Endeavour
was going to be received by the Kulreans.

“It’s unbelievable,” Malik said as the main holo display continued to update with the images from the sensors.

“That’s an understatement,” James said.

The system was a hive of activity. It looked like there were major industrial nodes in orbit above all the planets in the system. Three of the inner planets were also showing signs of civilization. The one that sat right in the middle of the habitable zone looked like the entire planet was one large city. Between the various planets and what must have been a number of significant mining facilities in the outer asteroid belts there were literally thousands of ships moving back and forth. What was even more impressive was the size of some of them. A number of ships looked like they out massed the entire Royal Space Navy all by themselves.

“I think it’s safe to say the Kulreans are a bit more advanced than the Vestarians,” Ferguson said.

“Agreed,” James responded. “Does it look like they have detected us yet?” he asked Malik.

“No Sir,” Malik responded. “Our stealth technology isn’t working at full capacity but there is no sign from the movement of the ships in the system that they have noticed anything unusual yet.”

“Very well. Jennings, take us out of stealth and towards the second planet at 0.1C. King, transmit our prepared message.”

“Yes Sir,” both Sub Lieutenants said.

The prearranged message contained a brief introduction to humanity, information about the attack on Haven, the Overlord’s fleet orders and a sensor feed of
Endeavour’s
battle with the fleet from three days ago. James had also included a personal message pleading with the leaders of the Kulreans to take the threat to their planet seriously.

“Are there any signs of a military presence in the system?” James asked once the message had been sent. It would take several hours for it to reach the Kulrean’s homeworld so they had plenty of time to wait.

“Not as yet Sir,” Malik replied. “Our passive sensors are only able to get a good read on the closest ships but as yet none of them appear to be armed with any weapons. It’s possible some of the orbital installations around the planets are armed with weapons, they are certainly giving off enough power readings to suggest that. However, we won’t be able to tell for sure until they activate them.”

“I guess they have gravimetric sensors,” Julius said. “I think they just spotted us.”

James could see Julius was right. Almost as soon as
Endeavour
accelerated, giving away her position, the nearest Kulrean ships veered away from her and deeper into the system.

“No signs of an attempt to open communications from any of the nearby ships?” James asked.

“No Sir,” King answered. “They are all quiet.”

“One ship has stopped fleeing us,” Malik said. “It appears to be holding station with us about thirty light seconds off our starboard bow.”

“Interesting,” James said. “Try hailing them.”

“No response Captain,” King said a minute later.

“Well I guess we’ll just have to wait until someone from their government wants to speak to us,” James said.

*

Four hours passed as
Endeavour
slowly moved deeper and deeper into the Kulthar system. James had spent the time growing more and more amazed at the size and extent of what the Kulreans had built in their home system. Even the smallest of orbital stations looked like they could provide comfortable living space for more than a million humans. Or if they were all used for industrial production, the Kulreans could out produce all of Earth’s colonial powers with ease.

“I’m picking up a tachyon beam from the second planet,” Malik reported.

“Where is it directed?” James asked.

“Right at us Sir,” Malik answered.

“Is it doing us any damage?” James quickly asked.

“Nothing that I can detect,” Ferguson answered from his command chair.

“Can you detect any form of communication in the signal King?” James said to the Sub Lieutenant at the communication station.

“There definitely seems to be a pattern in the tachyons,” he responded, “but I can’t make heads or tails of it.”

“Wait,” she continued, “we’re being hailed by the Kulrean ship that has been shadowing us. It’s in English.”

“Put it on the holo display,” James said.

“Greetings human Captain,” a blue face with three eyes said. “I am Superintendent Hallock. I have been given permission by my people to speak to you on their behalf.”

James had been trying to prepare himself for meeting another alien race. With the Vestarians at least he had been able to look at the dead bodies from the attack on Haven before he had met any living ones. He knew meeting the Kulreans would be an entirely different kettle of fish.

“Greetings, my name is Captain James Somerville,” James said in reply, sure that his shock was as plain as day. The alien actually looked very human. It had a mouth, a nose, two ears and even wispy blue hair that hung down over its back. Yet its blue skin and three eyes gave it a hideous look, like something out of a holo cartoon meant to scare young children.

“I am sure this is very unsettling for you,” Hallock said.  “Meeting a member of another race face to face for the first time is always difficult. But you did come to our home system. May I ask why you are here uninvited? We Kulreans count such uninvited visits as the height of rudeness.”

“My sincerest apologies,” James began. “My race does not wish for anything but peaceful friendship with the Kulreans. However, I felt I had to bring my ship here to warn you about a threat to your people.

“If you have looked over the information I sent you in our initial communication you will know that the Vestarians have built a large battle fleet and intend to use it to conquer your people. They attacked one of our worlds so I know firsthand the damage they are willing to cause. When I learnt of their plot to attack your homeworld I felt duty bound to come here and warn you. You will see in the information I sent you that this fleet is just days away. They could actually be right behind us for all we know.”

“My people have looked over the information you have sent,” Hallock said. “We have had contact with the Vestarians for almost five hundred of their years. Under our guidance they have become somewhat of a peaceful people. We find your information hard to believe. Besides, they do not have the capacity to build a war fleet such as the one you speak of. We have also observed your people, though the last time we visited your planet you humans were traveling around on horse and foot, not in space ships. I must congratulate your ingenuity. We didn’t expect to see your race reach the stars so soon.

“Nevertheless,” Hallock went on, not allowing James any time to acknowledge the minor compliment. “We did observe your race’s behavior. You are a warlike people and we can see nothing has changed. Arming a spaceship with weapons of destruction is not an honorable thing to do. Why should we trust you when you come to us with such stories of war and death? Maybe you are the one who comes here to conquer us?”

“That is not the case Superintendent,” James said. “If you wish us to leave we will do so. Yet we must impress on your people the need to prepare for the Vestarians. Their fleet is real. We sent you evidence that they have built a secret construction yard on the outer edge of their system.”

“Images can be faked,” Hallock said. “The Vestarians are slowly learning the way of peace. We have given them many impressive technologies that have improved their lives. Soon they will come to their senses and embrace the unity we introduced and join us again in friendship.”

“I know you have a satellite over Vestar,” James said. “Haven’t you seen what the Overlord has done to his people? And haven’t you seen the recent rebellion that has overthrown him? The Vestarian threat is real.”

“I am sorry Captain but I simply cannot accept your view of the facts. From our information the Overlord’s aggression against his people only started with this rebellion. Something that I believe your ship instigated. We have seen your ship bombard the Vestarian planet with our own eyes. How can we ever trust someone who uses violence to achieve his aims?”

“I confess, I regret having to bombard the Overlord’s military installations and the lives that were ended. Yet that was the lesser of two evils. I did it to protect my people and to free the Vestarian people. Those whom I killed would have done far worse to my people and would have kept the ordinary Vestarians in slavery. Would you have preferred to see the Vestarians continue to be the Overlord’s slaves?” James asked.

“You don’t understand human,” Hallock said, with a distinctly human sigh of exasperation. “My desires do not justify the use of violence. The Overlord was evil, on that we agree. Yet the lives of the normal Vestarians were still better with the technology we introduced than they ever were before we made contact with them. In time they would have come to realize this and fully embraced the friendship we offer. Now you have set them down the path of war and destruction again.”

“I did not come here to debate philosophy with you Superintendent. My people wish nothing but friendship with you,” James said, trying again. “If you will not heed our warning there is nothing else we can do for you. The history of my people has taught us that sometimes violence is needed so that the strong can protect the weak. I fear that is a lesson your people may learn too late. If you will not listen to me, then maybe you will listen to Jil’lal,” James said as he stepped to one side, allowing Jil’lal to take his place.

Upon James’ request Tak’ar had sent Jil’lal with
Endeavour
to speak to the Kulreans on behalf of the newly formed Vestarian government. Government was a bit of a stretch as it was just Tak’ar and some of the resistance leaders who were overseeing the cleanup of the devastation the rebellion had caused. Nevertheless, they were planning a planetary vote in just a few months to decide what type of government their people should adopt. After that, another vote was scheduled to decide who would govern the planet. James strongly suspected that whatever the Vestarians decided, Tak’ar would be playing a central role. After the images of his attacks on the Overlord’s soldiers had been sent around the planet he had become a living legend.

Importantly for James, he knew that Tak’ar would honor any agreement Jil’lal made with the Kulreans. Tak’ar trusted her implicitly and she had been the natural choice. It had helped that Jil’lal had been demanding to come on board
Endeavour
to see Scott as soon as she had woken up from the electrical shock that had knocked her out. Sadly, Jil’lal didn’t remember anything from the attack on the Omen facility but the survivors had told her of how Scott had carried her out of the burning facility. Since she had come onboard she had spent most of everyday at Scott’s side. That hadn’t stopped her making fast friends with almost everyone. James just hoped that some of that natural charm could make a difference with Hallock.