Heart of Steel: Book II of the Jonathan Pavel Series (27 page)

On the bridge where the echo of the crewman's cheers could be heard but the celebration was more sedate, Jonathan slumped in his chair. He allowed himself a moment's respite, and slowly let go of the deep sense of dread which had gripped him throughout the entire engagement. Each time Jonathan had taken command of a ship he’d lost half his crew. First on
Valiant
and then
Titan
that had cost him a serious injury as well one he was still recovering from. Now though, that irrational fear that had gripped him was seeping away like a piece of old gnarled driftwood being carried out to sea by the unstoppable tide of his relief. One of the worst parts about being Captain was that you could never let anyone see what you were thinking. Fear and self doubt had to be buried, and buried deep. This made command of a warship the most desirable but loneliest profession. Returning his mind to his duty, Jonathan called up the read out of the convoy and its escorts. The situation was manageable. Faced with the threat of an
Olympian
class destroyer
New Bolobo
and
Sonki
had turned to flee.
Sonki
was too badly damaged to make a clean getaway and had surrendered.
New Bolobo
was making a run for it, but she was bleeding atmosphere, and Jonathan doubted the ship would make it very far. On the Solarian side,
Oeillet
had taken several hits and was reporting over 200 casualties.
Charon
and
Cronus,
on the other hand, had only sustained minor damage and reported a dozen casualties each.

The convoy fortunately was fully intact and was moving to rejoin its escorts. Jonathan's read out showed a new contact moving out of the debris field. The lidar painted it as a CSS
Maltese,
a Colonial auxiliary ship and heavy collier.

“Sir transmission from
Maltese
. Colonial crew cooperating. Colonial Marines not so much. Stand by to receive wounded,” Heath said.

“Very well, put the medical bay on stand by and get me the COs of all ships. We’re going to need to redistribute the POWs and transfer some supplies.”

It took the next few hours to get things sorted out. All told, the three Colonial warships that had surrendered had about 3,200 service men, not to mention the 300 plus reservists who would be manning the
Maltese.
As the victors of the battle, it fell to Jonathan and the rest of the Solarian forces to provide food, medical care, and comfortable transports for all those prisoners. Jonathan sent off a transmission to Dante to see if they could temporarily accommodate a new influx of prisoners. The Solarian Prison Service, though not known for their efficiency, got back to him almost immediately with a message that said while they technically could, they really didn't want to and provided a six page memorandum on why. Jonathan was not impressed. It was decided that
Fury
would convey the Colonial officers to Matosa, while the majority of the Colonials would be taken aboard the
Maltese
after her cargo had been off loaded onto the convoy’s transports. The captured freighter
would be manned by a prize crew as would the captured Colonial warships, with the
Oeillet
serving as escort.  The Colonial ship
Sonki
was so badly damaged there was a good chance it would have to be scuttled. From Dante, the
Oeillet
and captured Colonial vessels
would head back to Yimir and it dockyards for repair and replenishment. As POWs were the purview of the Solarian Army, it would be up to them to come collect the POWs on Dante, but in the interim they would be fed and housed in spartan but not harsh conditions. One of the advantages of a Penal colony was that a frozen moon didn't need walls. While hardened criminals were kept in a supermax facility at the pole, most prisoners were housed in domed settlements that received regular shipments of supplies in exchange for the minerals the convicts excavated. If the convicts didn’t work, they didn’t eat, simple. It took some haggling but Jonathan arranged for the Colonials to be housed in one of the facilities that was currently vacant, and to receive food shipments without having to work for it. There were very strict conventions in place for the welfare of POWs and had been for centuries. Jonathan had no intention of breaking them.

The next few hours went by slowly as Jonathan with the help of Mao reorganized the convoy. Damage control parties were deployed to the captured Colonial ships, and volunteers from the freighters were taken aboard to man them. The captured vessels would be taken back to Macran where a Navy survey team would assess their value and decide if they would be put into dock and recommissioned as Solarian Naval ships. Or it would transfer the ships to the Department of Client Relations to sell them to the local system to reinforce their domestic astratime patrol forces. Normally, Solaria kept its clients disarmed of warships, but that policy was beginning to shift with more developed clients being encouraged to expand their system defense forces to included older spacecraft. Not enough to fight off an invasion, but more than enough to help protect commerce and enforce custom laws while also helping ships in distress. Whatever became of the ships, the crewmen aboard each Solarian vessel were pleased. The Solarian Navy would either pay them a set percentage of the ship's value, or transfer a portion of the proceeds from the ship's sale, before expenses, to the crews of the vessel that had captured it as prize money. By Jonathan's math, that could come to about 2,000 Solars per man, a tidy sum. NCOs would get about 2,500 and Officers would net about 4,000 with Jonathan earning about 10,000. The Captain's prize was always the largest. Even the merchant mariners manning the freighters would also receive some prize money, though not as much since they were only assisting in the processing of the vessels not their capture. The size of the prize would only increase if the ships were found to be hauling valuable cargo, and indeed a survey of the
Maltese
revealed it to be loaded to the brim with nonperishable food, depleted uranium slugs, missiles, small arms and everything else a warship needed for long deployment. It took some doing, but finally the freighter crews, ever the consummate professionals, managed to get enough of the hull cleared out to accommodate 3,500 prisoners. Moving the men on and the cargo off would still take several hours, but everything was in place to start the process.  The Freighter’s heavy cargo shuttles and
Fury’s
gunships  began transferring POWs aboard along with selected cargo items off the
Maltese
. Jonathan ordered the Officers and NCOs to be separated from the crewmen and transferred aboard the warships. The NCOs would spend the voyage in
Oeillet’s
brig
and the officers would come aboard
Fury.

Closing out the com relays now that things were figured out Jonathan turned to George, “I suppose we ought to get a side party together to receive our new guests?”

“I’m sure they would enjoy that. Colonials are known to love their pomp and circumstance as much as we Solarians,” George replied.

“Is Major Kern back aboard yet? I’d like to see how many Marines she can spare for the ‘Honor Guard’.”

George nodded.  “She is but she’s in sick bay. She was among the wounded.”

“Not seriously I hope. Her people did a cracker jack job,” Jonathan said.

George said nothing for a moment checking his memopad, “Says non-critical. Doctor Perkins calls her injury not serious.”

“Oh very well then, I’ll swing by and congratulate her on a job well done after we get our new passengers stowed. I assume you’ve made sure they’ll be given comfortable NCO quarters?”

“Yes indeed, Knowles saw to it with some relish. Officers even captured one's ‘needs quarters befitting their dignity.’ I believe is how he worded it,” George said.

“I sometimes wonder if we have a Bosun or a Maitre d’.”

“It’s still up for debate Skipper,” George replied.

“Well shall we go receive our new guests,” Jonathan said rising and straightening his uniform.

“I suppose we should,” George said following the Captain down the corridor.

As they walked to the docking tube where the side party was already assembling, George gently tugged Jonathan's elbow causing him to stop, handing him the memo pad.

“These are the personal files of the officers we are receiving.
Cronus
Marines pulled them from the
Abouet’s
hard drive. They crashed the system, but didn't melt down the drive itself.”

“Good thinking of Will to get the Marines over that quickly. OMI is going to love getting their hands on this,” Jonathan said.

“If they can decrypt it. They were on the Captain's desk in an unsecure file. The rest of the drives are heavily encrypted,” George replied.

“We’ll that's OMI’s problem not ours,” Jonathan said “The drives are aboard?”

“Yup, we captured three intact drives, the primary and two back ups. One is locked down in auxiliary control with two of the ugliest Marines I’ve ever seen guarding it. One is on
Oeillet,
so on it’s way to
Macran
eventually, and one is on
Cronus,”
George said.

“Good. The sooner we get these off my ship and to the spooks the better. I don't care for this skullduggery. Give me a straight up fight any day.”

“Don't care for skullduggery, cloak and dagger... oh indeed,” George said sarcastically. “And here I was fondly remembering how it was you who figured out how to sneak those prostitutes into the dorm for Cadet Tylo’s bachelor party.”

“George I swear..” Jonathan began, but was interrupted by a sudden movement to his left. Out of nowhere Frigate came scurrying across the floor and scampered up George’s trouser leg reaching into his pocket to withdraw a ration bar. After the small Gremlin, his erstwhile supervisor/owner Spacer Jung came running skidding to a halt when he saw the two officers.

“Apologies sir, I don't know what came over him. He was off like a shot.”

Both George and Jonathan laughed, and George lifted the critter by the scruff of its neck and placed it on his shoulder.

Frigate squeaked at the indignity, but resumed happily munching on the ration bar as soon as he was on his new perch.

“Don't worry about it Jung, your enterprising charge simply smelled the XO’s mid afternoon snack. I believe crewman Frigate is happily content for now. The XO will return him as soon as we receive our new guests. Your off duty now aren't you Spacer?” Jonathan asked.

“Yes sir.”

“Why don't you go get a cup of coffee from the canteen and take a load off. I promise no harm shall come to your furry friend while he’s in the XO’s custody.”

“Aye sir, thank you sir,” Jung said somewhat reluctantly.

As he left, Jonathan and George took their places at the aside party .

“Why does this thing keep following you?” Jonathan asked the XO who was now stroking the Gremlin’s skull between its two large ears.

“No idea sir. He just likes me I guess. Gremlins are very perceptive creatures.”

“On point as always XO,” Jonathan said only half joking.

“Thank you sir.”

The actual boarding of the Colonial officers was a bit anticlimactic. They were a disheveled bunch, and most were still in their vac suits though a few including their Commodore wore the White and Blue Colonial undress uniform. Their eyes were downcast. No man likes living to feel the shame of defeat. The CO of the wolfpack Commodore Sebastian Mont-Clare presented Jonathan with his sidearm a real antique 2612 Colt Revolver. Jonathan returned it to the Commodore who seemed grateful.

“
Bon Mon Capitan,
I am grateful.” Mont-Clare said holstering the unloaded weapon. “You and your crew demonstrate once more the Solarian Navy’s legendary graciousness in victory.”

“Thank you Commodore,” Jonathan replied. “I am afraid you and your officers will need to be quartered in the NCO quarters under guard at least until we reach our destination. If any need medical attention our ship's surgeon will see to them.”

“I thank you sir, I hope if our positions were reversed I could be as gracious,” said Commodore Mont-Clare.

Jonathan quirked a smile, “I have no doubt you would be Commodore.”

George piped up, “Sir if you’d like, I can escort the Commodore and his people to their quarters so you can swing by the medical bay.”

Jonathan grinned inwardly. George knew him only to well. Jonathan was a bit vain yes, but he really wasn't much good at ego stroking. He’d much rather go make sure the wounded had everything they needed, and that
Fury’s
other departments were ship shape.

“Yes thank you George, Commodore,” Jonathan said saluting.

“
Captain,”
the Commodore replied returning the salute.

The officers, about 30 in total, followed George to the NCO quarters, which was even now being made more comfortable for their habitation. Jonathan meanwhile turned and strode to the medical bay.

Arriving he found Perkins and his assistants administering first aid to the handful of lightly injured crewman.