Hold the Star: Samair in Argos: Book 2 (55 page)

              The Tyseus system had four planets, three of them frozen balls of rock.  The fourth was a gas giant that was rich in exploitable resources, and as such, two centuries
before
the war with the Federation broke out, the Republic had built a helium 3 gas mine in the system as well as a large orbital station around the third planet, which was rich in strategic metals.  Personnel, military and civilian had come here to live and work, and the orbital station was expanded.  Twenty thousand people were here, a mix of humans and zheen, mostly, with a sprinkling of other races.  A small yard was built here to accommodate the freighter traffic, which was again expanded as time went by.  At the height of the Republic here in the Cluster, the population had ballooned to as high as fifty thousand, but then the war broke out.  People had stayed because they believed Tyseus offered a degree of security and the Republic had ships stationed here to protect the station, the mine and the yard.  Once the war broke out, those ships were quickly recalled, leaving only two small corvettes to protect all the real estate.  Over the decades, the place had fallen into disrepair as fewer and fewer ships trolled the spacelanes.  No one needed fuel, no one had goods to sell. 

              All that changed eight years previous to
Legacy
’s and
Ravage
’s arrival in the system.  The pirate Verrikoth had come here in force, and with two hundred of his most capable and vicious fighters, he boarded Acarian Station.  In fact, his forces got aboard so quickly they managed to take the station with only a few dozen civilian casualties.  The leadership quickly folded under the zheen’s onslaught and within six hours, he’d taken the station.  His ships went to the mine and installed new overseers, only to discover, to his ire, that the gas mining station had fallen into serious disrepair since the days of the Republic.  Many of the parts had degraded or outright broken and patches and temporary fixes had become the norm.  As it was, the station was refining helium 3 fuel at barely eight percent of its maximum output which would be only just enough to fuel up his ships.

              The real win for the zheen pirate lord, though, was the shipyard.  It was big, capable of working on heavy cruiser-sized warships if it was building nothing else.  There were yard workers here, but the amount of processed materials were low.  Verrikoth, therefore, spent the next several years gathering up the resources needed to build himself his grand flagship.

              “I’m showing the station in orbit of the third planet, Captain,” Drommen reported.  “And there is a destroyer-class vessel about sixty thousand kilometers, holding position.”

              “Navigation, set course for the station, bring us in, but be sure to stay clear of the planetary bodies.  Take us below the plane of the ecliptic.  And keep an eye on that corvette.  If he twitches, I want to know.”

              “Aye, sir,” the ensign replied.

              “Comms, open a channel to the
Ravage
,” Harth ordered, turning to look to that station, where Petty officer Khovik sat.

              The zheen worked his console for a moment.  “I have Lieutenant Tran for you, sir.”

              “Lieutenant, what do you have for us?”

              Tran chuckled.  “Captain,
Legacy
’s sensors are better than
Ravage
’s.  You should be the one telling me what we’re seeing here in the system.”

              Harth smiled.  “Understood, Lieutenant.  What I actually meant was, what can
Ravage
’s data banks tell us about what the pirates have in this system?”

              Tran looked off to the side, as though he was looking to another person on the corvette’s bridge.  A second display window popped up in front of Harth, showing the data from
Ravage
’s computers.  “According to what the pirate databases tell us, there’s corvette and a destroyer here in system to keep an eye on things, and these are among the biggest forces the pirate Verrikoth has in his arsenal.  I guess he’s really trying to keep this place safe, though from what or from I don’t know.  I haven’t gotten all the way into their files yet.  Other pirates?  The Republic?  I don’t know, sir.  But, there’s a yard here in the system and it’s big enough to build a heavy cruiser.”

              “Well, if it can, then the question becomes, if they could build a heavy cruiser, did they?  And if they did,” Harth went on, absently rubbing the bridge his nose with one finger, “Why didn’t they have it with them at Ulla-tran?  Three light cruisers and a heavy would have put the odds way into their favor.”

              Tran nodded.  “Yes, sir.  With the seven ships they already had, not counting this one,
Legacy
would have been hard pressed to win that fight.”

              Duncan sighed.  “Yes, you’re right.  So, we have some questions to answer.  How is your ship holding up?”

“Looking good so far, sir,” Tran replied.  “Though I admit that we could use some time in yard hands.”  His voice was a bit rueful.

Harth chuckled.  “I’m sure.  Call in immediately if there are any new problems.”  He straightened in his command chair.  “All right, Lieutenant.  Maintain your current station relative to
Legacy
and follow us in.  As I said, we have some questions to answer.”

“Yes, sir,” the commander of
Ravage
replied with a stalwart look.

“Captain Skygexx, we have an incoming ship on sensors, relayed from the
Wrath
,” the sensor operator aboard the destroyer
Ironhide
reported.

Captain Skygexx, an elder zheen male with scarred magenta carapace, turned to his sensor operator.  His position as commander of Verrikoth’s fleet forces here in the Tyseus system had been a boring, tedious and thankless job.  Tyseus was near to two different well-populated systems, something of an oddity here in the Argos Cluster, having three such systems all within a few light years of one another, which meant that a place as important as this needed to have protection.  At first, when he had accepted the position here, Skygexx believed that this would be a prestigious post.  This was one of five shipyards under the pirate lord’s control, but this was the only one big enough to construct heavy cruisers, which meant it needed to be protected.  Skygexx understood that and was honored by Verrikoth’s faith in him. 

But after sixteen months of the endless patrol here, the honor was starting to run thin.  For months, there had been a steady stream of Verrikoth’s freighters coming here bringing in processed materials and supplies for the shipyard.  The technicians and yard workers had been diligently continuing with the construction of the ship in the yard, but it was slow going.  The yard was understaffed and the pirate lord was unwilling to bring in slaves to work on such an important vessel. 

And now, it seemed that the Commander himself was going to go forth and take on the Republic’s main base, pulling in most of his forces to be able to do so.  But he had decided to leave Skygexx here to guard the shipyard, which meant that this zheen was out of luck.  Oh, he understood why he was being left behind, but it still bit deep.  It was going to be an interesting time for the Republic, he knew, for with a flotilla of eight ships, four of them dedicated warships bigger than most of what the Republic Navy had out here.

“What kind of ship?” Skygexx asked, with dim interest.  No one ever came to Tyseus, no one unexpected that is.  There was a convoy of cargo ships scheduled to arrive from the Home Base eight days from now, but it was possible they might be early.  But the sensor officer had said one ship.

“Checking, sir,” the young zheen replied.  “It’s a warship, sir.  A big one, from these readings.”  He paused.  “It’s a Republic ship, sir.”

“Confirmed, Captain!” the comms officer nearly screeched.

“Stow that, Kezzin!”  The Captain’s voice cracked like a whip.  The comms officer, another young zheen, shrank in his chair.  He was the youngest officer on the bridge, the offspring of a senior government official on one of the worlds that openly supported their lord Verrikoth.  Which meant his brood mother and her consort were important people; people that Verrikoth wanted to keep happy.  That cut two ways of course.  If they continued to please Verrikoth, he would continue to do little favors for them, like assign one of their offspring to one of his warships.  If they displeased them, he’d drop rocks on their heads from orbit and then dream contentedly while he slept that night.  Which meant that Skygexx got to deal with a very green, very pompous and very entitled little shit who couldn’t control his voice when unexpected things happened.  “We’re in close quarters here on the bridge; there is no need to shout.”

“Sorry, Captain,” the ensign replied, his carapace flushing a mauve color in his embarrassment. 

“Good,” Skygexx said, holding his gaze on the junior officer for a long moment before speaking.  “Now, report.”

“Yes, Captain,” Ensign Kezzin replied.  “We’re showing beacon ID for the ship, it’s confirmed; a Republic heavy cruiser, the
Legacy
.”

Skygexx’s antennae twitched.  “Now, what the hell are they doing here?” he said softly.  This was not good.  With the available forces they had here, Skygexx would be hard pressed to fight them off and there was every reason to believe that he would have to fight, eventually.

“Hyper footprint!” the sensor officer called, interrupting his captain’s thoughts.

“Talk to me, Sensors,” Skygexx pressed.

“Working, Captain,” the officer said, refusing to be rushed.  Skygexx had to suppress a chitter of amusement.  Kufazik was not the offspring of anyone important; he was one of eighty born in his clutch; his brood mother was the owner of a skellig farm on Rho-Medusa.  The skellig was a type of beetle which was prized for its flavor and ability to breed quickly, and was a delicacy on any zheen table, but the farm his brood mother owned was small.  Kufazik had to fight to get to the position he held, which spoke to his competency and his iron will, two things that Skygexx appreciated.  If only he had ten more officers like his sensor officer, the captain lamented for perhaps the millionth time since taking command of
Ironhide
.  “I’ve got it, sir.  It’s a corvette.”  But then the male zheen’s antennae straightened slowly in confusion.  “Sir, I’m getting conflicting reports here.”

“Oh?”

“Well, sir, the sensor profile we’re getting shows it to be the
Ravage
, sir,” Kufazik said, gesturing to his display.  “That’s one of the ships that is supposed to be with Lord Verrikoth’s forces.”

“Right,” Skygexx replied, nodding slowly.  “But…?”

“But,” the officer went on, “they’re also showing Republic ID.”

“Ensign?” Skygexx asked, turning to Kezzin.

“Confirmed, sir,” the comms officer answered.  “Showing Republic beacon ID, though the name of the ship is unchanged.”

Skygexx felt his thorax fill with ice.  There was only one real possibility for that.  He saw Kufazik stiffen at his console.  “You understand, don’t you Mister Kufazik?”

The zheen turned to look at his captain.  “Yes, sir.  That the
Ravage
has been taken as a prize.”

Which meant a very difficult tactical problem just got a whole lot worse.  “All right.  Contact the
Wrath
.  Tell them we’re on our way to meet up with them and they are to maintain scan.  Make sure they report any activity as soon as they see it.”

“Aye, sir.”  There was a slight nervousness to his voice, but the ensign clearly understood.

“Navigation, set us a course for the
Wrath
.  Once the course is set, helm, take us there.”

A chorus of acknowledgements came from his officers and a few moments later, the hum of the engines could be heard, as the ship accelerated.

“Captain, the destroyer is moving,” Ensign Drommen reported.  “They’re accelerating in our direction.”

“For an intercept?” Harth asked.  They were all still long way to go before the ships entered engagement range, two days at present speed.  There was plenty of time to start maneuvering.

“I don’t think so, sir,” the ensign replied.  “It looks like they’re moving to link up with that corvette.”

“Continue on course,” Harth ordered.

The four ships continued in toward each other over the next twenty hours, as both sides grew a bit more anxious.  Finally, they reached communications range and Harth ordered a channel open.  “This is Commander Duncan Harth of the Republic cruiser
Legacy
to incoming ships.  We have no hostile intent.  We are in pursuit of a bulk freighter that we believe has come to this system and we would appreciate any assistance you could render in that regard.  Please respond.”

Skygexx received this message and didn’t know what to think.  “They’re coming here for a freighter,” he said, disbelieving.  “There’s no way they’re coming here, carrying a prize pirate corvette chasing a
freighter
.”

The other officers were showing signs of agreement.  It was simply too ridiculous that the Republic would use a heavy cruiser to chase down a wayward freighter.  No, they were here to deal with this system.  Though, Skygexx mused upon further reflection, that didn’t quite make sense either.  Sure, the Republic were arrogant fools and their tech was several generations better than what was available to people here in the Cluster.  In fact, it was probably at least three levels better, possibly even four which made this whole tactical problem more like a disaster.  He was already outclassed, but now it was becoming apparent just
how
outclassed he really was.