Against All Odds (29 page)

* * *

The return trip to Quesann took twelve days at Light-9375. As soon as they entered the solar system they knew they were approaching a well-protected base. The fifty M-designate ships assigned to the Second Fleet had arrived several months earlier, joining the dozen that had arrived in June of the previous year. The twelve Mars-built pre-DS ships assigned to the fleet were slower and so had only arrived a week earlier, just one day before the new group of ten S/D's and three new DS Prometheus-class battleships. With the arrival of these warships, the size of the Second Fleet had grown to ninety-nine, when the scout-destroyers were counted as separate warships. It was a far cry from the size of the expected Uthlaro armada, estimated at roughly five hundred, but it couldn't fail to impress anyone approaching the planet.

This time Jenetta was unable to avoid the formal greeting afforded a victorious officer of her exalted rank. The unconditional surrender of the Tsgardi, the Hudeera, and the Gondusans, the freeing of the Flordaryn people, and the annexation of a massive amount of new territory demanded a hero's welcome even though the fight was far from over. Jenetta would have preferred saving any celebrations until after the war, but she bowed to protocol and accepted the tribute. She hoped there would be reason to celebrate after the Uthlaro arrived because she knew that most of the fighting and dying was still ahead of them. The Enemy would not foolishly divide their forces again. When they came, they would be coming en masse.

Although all vessels are required to always have sixty percent of the ship's company on board during times of war, the sheer number of off-duty crewmen had swelled the base's population to unexpected proportions. Most required accommodations during their R&R time and the base housing officer had shoehorned them into all available surface housing before starting to fill the underground complexes. There was more than adequate space underground for everyone on the base, but who wanted to spend their time in windowless environments when they could be in surface quarters. Being housed underground was like being back aboard ship.

From the size of the crowds, it appeared to Jenetta that everyone who was off duty had come to participate in, or simply observe, the welcoming ceremony. Jenetta quickly formulated a speech in her head as she exited the shuttle and the band began to play. She was greeted first by Admiral Poole, the new commander of the base, and spent a couple of minutes trying to hear and be heard above the sounds from the nearby band before being introduced to Admiral Buckner, her new Supply & Logistics Director. Admirals Sprague, Colsey, and Mendez were there, as well as the senior officers on the base. When the introductions and greetings were completed, Admiral Poole gestured towards the podium. Jenetta stepped up to the lectern as the band finished the marching tune it was playing.

"Good morning. Thank you for this wonderful greeting. It's great to be back on Quesann and feel the sun on my face. I'm delighted to have met Admiral Poole, our new base commander, and Admiral Buckner. And it's wonderful to see my old friends, Admiral Sprague, Admiral Colsey, and Admiral Mendez. Admiral Kanes has, of course, been with me while we've been off
kicking
Tsgardi and Uthlaro butt."

Jenetta had to pause as the crowd erupted in applause and yelling.

"It's wonderful to see Captains Barletto and Neveho again, who have both done an excellent job during my time away from Quesann. I'm especially impressed by the progress our engineering folks have made. It's hard to believe this is the same place I visited a couple of years ago when we were scouting for a headquarters location. This planet is as much like Earth as any I've seen or heard about and our people have turned this into more than just a base— it's become a home to many of us." Jenetta paused for effect and changed the focus of the speech. "But now, treacherous outsiders have invaded our territory with plans to evict us from our new home. The Uthlaro believe they are powerful enough to make us run back to Region One. Well, my answer to that is that Space Command doesn't run from
anyone
."

Jenetta paused again when a tumultuous cry of assent issued from the crowd.

"It's we who will do the evicting. We'll evict the Uthlaro from our territory and inflict such losses that the survivors will never even consider coming back here again."

Jenetta waited until a new outburst from the crowd died down.

"Those of you who are on leave should enjoy yourselves and get your systems recharged because, when you return to your ships, you should be prepared to spend as much time as possible preparing for the arrival of the Uthlaro. Know your way to your battle station so well you can get there while blindfolded and spend as much time in the simulators as you can afford because when we confront the enemy we have to be perfect. Every minute you devote to practice now will pay off when the Uthlaro arrive. The Uthlaro are a dangerous adversary but, together, we're going to send most of them to
Hell!
God bless you all!"

Her last few words were almost drowned out by the reaction from the crowd to her words about the Uthlaro and then by the thunderous applause and yelling that followed. She waved to the crowds while she walked to a waiting vehicle, and continued to wave until she was away from the area. Admiral Poole, Admiral Kanes, and Lt. Commander Ashraf accompanied her in the driverless vehicle.

Admiral Poole conducted a drive-by tour of the base and Jenetta marveled at the dramatic changes. At the conclusion of the tour, the vehicle returned to the shuttle so Jenetta could get her pets, and then brought Jenetta and her aide to the palace. Admiral Poole was dropped off at his office and Admiral Kanes was dropped off at his new residence on Admiral's Way.

"It's a little intimidating, isn't it?" Jenetta said to her aide as the two Marine guards came to attention at the front door. "I mean, all this space for so few people."

"After the cozy quarters on the Colorado, it does seem spacious. But I'm sure it will seem like home after a while. And you'll never be lonely. At any one time there's an entire company of armed security people on duty, discretely hidden in security rooms for the most part, and I'm sure you'll always be able to find a mess steward or two."

"Admiral Poole said the palace has been completed. Would you like to take a tour with me?"

"Of course, Admiral."

"I just hope they have the beverage synthesizers working by now," Jenetta quipped as they began their tour of the first floor.

Two hours later they wrapped up their tour at Jenetta's enormous third floor apartment.

"If the intention of the designers was to impress, they've succeeded.
I'm
certainly impressed. It's a lot like the palace on Nordakia, but at least I won't have to wear those tight, floor-length dresses here."

"I understood that the practice had ended there."

"It's not mandatory anymore, but I'd wager there are still some older women stubbornly clinging to the old ways. There are always people who refuse to alter their behavior when sweeping changes come about. Please schedule a meeting of the base's most senior officers for tomorrow morning and then go relax for the rest of the day."

"Aye, Admiral. I'll be in my new quarters in the east wing if you need me."

"Okay, Lori."

* * *

When Jenetta entered the large meeting room in the recently completed Headquarters Building with her pets, it was like walking into an Admiralty Board meeting. The building had in fact been patterned after the Admiralty Board hall on Earth. Seated around the horseshoe-shaped table were all six of the other admirals currently in residence on the planet, Admiral Poole, the new base commander, Admiral Buckner, the new Supply & Logistics Director for Region Two, Admirals Sprague, Colsey, and Mendez, the base commanders forced to evacuate their commands, and Admiral Kanes, the head of Intelligence. Arrayed behind the admirals were their aides and clerks.

"As you were," Jenetta said, in response to the movement to stand up by the officers and personnel in the room and everyone resettled themselves into their chairs. A clerk attempted to bring Jenetta a steaming mug of Colombian coffee as soon as she sat down but had to wait until the cats sniffed him before they'd allow him close enough to hand it over. Jenetta took a sip before starting.

"Good morning. Thank you for the warm reception yesterday. I hope we have equal cause for celebration in the years ahead. As most of you know, we've lost contact with the Uthlaro armada. We believe they're on their way here to confront us and demand we leave this territory. Our intelligence information indicates their fleet is five times the size of our Second Fleet so this encounter will be a defining moment in this war. If we're not victorious, we'll sure make them know they've chewed on something they should have left alone and I guarantee few of them will be returning home."

"Are we just going to stay here and wait for them to come at us?" Admiral Colsey asked.

"If we knew where they were, we'd go out to meet them," Jenetta said. "But without such information, we can't leave the planet unprotected while we scour the entire territory. They've stopped trying to gobble up planets, so we can't track them by knowing who is still able to communicate with us. I imagine they've established a rendezvous point somewhere and all their small battle groups are proceeding there at their top speed. Five-hundred ships make an incredible armada, but Region Two is so vast a thousand such armadas could easily be hidden in it. Given that we have no patrols out there and that freighter operations are only now resuming, we can't rely on receiving any reported sightings. If we assume they'll want all their ships to participate in the attack on Quesann, then we know they can't be here before the end of next year at the earliest. It would take that long for the ships we were attempting to locate just after they changed their tactics to arrive here if they came straight in."

"Couldn't we send out the newest ships to search for them?" Admiral Mendez asked.

"Now that the base has been so well supplied, I've issued orders that a Distant DeTect network of sensors be placed out as far as a hundred billion kilometers from the planet. We'll have sufficient warning of their imminent arrival to prepare a suitable greeting. Additionally, scout-destroyers will constantly patrol out as far as twelve light-years from the base. They can return here in less than half a day if they sight any of the enemy ships approaching, giving us ten full days to prepare for the attack. The DS ships will provide our first line of defense, so I hesitate to send any of them out any further than that. It could prove to be an impossible task to find the armada in Region Two without information about their location. It sometimes took us days to locate the battle groups when we knew their approximate location and course."

"What's your assessment of the Uthlaro ships and the fighting ability of their personnel?" Admiral Sprague asked.

"Their ships are extremely well-built for the purpose of waging war, with hulls as strong as our pre-Dakinium Prometheus-class battleships. Their crews are fierce and fight to the death rather than surrender. Once we engage them, the battle will only end when one or the other of us is no longer able to fire a weapon."

"Whew! I'm almost sorry I asked."

"Although we outnumbered them in each of our encounters, the Uthlaro fought smart and with all their being. They only tried to break ranks when the outcome of the battle was decided. I suspect it was only so they could relay information of the fight back to their command. We blocked all IDS bands so they couldn't let anyone know what had happened."

"Would you have defeated them if you'd been outnumbered?" Admiral Poole asked.

"It would probably have depended upon the size of the battle group."

"Say five to one."

"Like the odds we're facing now? I doubt it. I'd naturally like to think we'd have been victorious, but realistically I believe we would have been badly damaged in such an encounter. The number of torpedoes coming at us would have meant that at least some of them would have gotten through."

"So you're saying we don't stand a chance of beating them if they arrive as one armada?" Admiral Buckner asked.

"No, I'm not saying that at all. I'm just trying to make you understand it won't be easy. It won't be like fighting the Tsgardi. Perhaps we'll come up with something to even things up a bit. We have more than eighteen months to consider every possibility. I'm also expecting the arrival of at least sixteen additional DS ships before the end of this year. The Admiralty Board has said we'll receive ten more scout-destroyers, four destroyers, and two cruisers. If we receive no other ships before the Uthlaro arrive, the forty-one DS ships we will have should be able to take out over two hundred of the Uthlaro ships on their own, leaving the rest of the fleet outnumbered by only three to one."

"
Only
three to one?" Admiral Mendez echoed. "Three to one with an enemy whose ships are more solid and well-built than most of our own."

"I'm trying to put as positive a slant as possible on the situation. I'm confident we'll prevail. I won't accept that the Uthlaro can invade our territory and absorb it while I live."

"What can we do to help, Jen?" Admiral Colsey asked.

"I'm afraid there's little any of us can do right now except wait. We mustn't allow ourselves to become too complacent if nothing happens for awhile because I can assure you the Uthlaro are definitely coming."