Hunt for the Saiph (The Saiph Series Book 3) (13 page)

The shocked expression on the face of the captain caused any who heard Diane's final option to turn away in distaste.

Vela leaned in close to Diane, fighting to control his anger. "I will not abandon these people to their fate, Diane. I don't care how you do it, you get every last one of them off that rock and back on board. Do you understand me?"

Diane nodded in understanding. Nothing further was needed, the captain had given his orders.

Vela took a deep breath as he regained control of himself. "Communications. Open a link to those ships.” Comms quickly obliged. “This is Captain Vela. I’m about to launch shuttles to recover the colonists. This is not a sign of aggression. I repeat. It is not a sign of aggression, I’m simply doing as you requested. I’ll also launch a communications drone to inform my superiors of your request, there are no weapons onboard and it is of no threat to you. Please acknowledge."

Only stony silence broken by moments of static came from the bridge speakers. Nothing more than Vela expected. He cut the link and addressed his bridge crew, "OK people, we are about to get really busy, really fast. Many angry colonists will be arriving here soon so let’s be as pleasant as we can but remember! We are on the clock. Let's get it done!"

#

The next six hours passed at an accelerated rate as the shuttles raced back and forth between the massive freighter and the surface of Selene in a vain attempt to corral the widespread colonists.

Vela had to admit, Diane performed minor miracles as she planned pick-up points and timetables for the colonists to converge on them on the hoof. All the time under the open mouth of the Turak warships’ guns. It took only one hard look at the numbers in his display to tell Vela everything he needed to know.

Despite Diane’s and the shuttle pilots’ heroic efforts, they simply were not getting the colonists onboard at the breakneck speed they needed to. Current projections overran the Turak deadline by at least nine hours.

"Status on the Turak ships?"

"No change, Captain. All three remain stationary at 100,000 kilometers off our starboard quarter. No reply to our hails and our sensors have detected no transmissions between them."

Vela ground his teeth in frustration. He was trying to raise the Turak to explain his need for an extension on their deadline but the ships remained stoically silent. Well, the Turak could go to hell. The
Charlotte Dundas
was staying exactly where she was until the colonists were safely back on board and that was the end of it!

In the blink of an eye, the tactical read-out in the holo cube changed.

"Status change! Fifteen new contacts... correction twenty... computer is calling them warships, Captain."

Vela’s shoulders slumped. His ship had little chance of defying three Turak warships, but twenty-three?

"Receiving a general broadcast, sir."

"Put it through the bridge speakers," said Vela as he resigned himself and the colonists to their fate.

"Turak warships, this is Admiral Analisa Chavez, Commanding Officer of First Fleet, Commonwealth Union of Planets. The
SS Charlotte Dundas
and the colonists on the planet below are under my protection. Any attempt to fire on either the
Charlotte Dundas
, the planet’s surface, or my vessels will result in my immediate and deadly retaliation. I order you to withdraw your vessels beyond the orbit of the second moon where you may remain and observe the evacuation of the planet. Failure to comply with my orders will result in the use of deadly force. You have five minutes to comply. Chavez clear."

The loud cheer echoing round the cramped bridge was nothing compared to the relief washing over Vela. For the first time today, he allowed himself a smile. "Communications. Update First Fleet on the status of our recovery operations and our projected timetable." Addressing the bridge in general, he said, "Back to work people, we still have a lot of colonists to move."

#

TDF
RESOLUTION -
SELENE SYSTEM - 272 LIGHT YEARS FROM EARTH

"Admiral. The
Cutlass
is signaling its arrival. Ambassador Schamu reports he is ready to proceed."

Analisa Chavez lifted her eyes from her tactical repeater where she was reviewing the latest from her intelligence section’s best guess as to the Turak ships’ weapons and capabilities. The section chief came to some surprising conclusions. In his estimation, the Turak were also equipped with a form of gravity drive not too dissimilar to those employed by the CUOP. The data collected by Captain Vela regarding the Turak weapon capabilities were not too far off the mark either. Each ship had two rows of missile tubes, and the covering for each launch tube was smaller than those on an equivalent CUOP heavy cruiser, which meant the missile itself had to be smaller. However, there were more missile tubes on the Turak ships so having smaller missiles may be offset by having a greater number in each salvo.

The section chief then highlighted the number of heavy grazer points. With five grazers, a Turak cruiser would outgun one of her cruisers five to three, meaning at energy weapon ranges, the Turak would have the advantage but at longer ranges, her cruisers could throw a heavier missile weight.

At this particular moment in time, it was a moot point. When the flash signal from the Hub was received at First Fleet, it had been akin to kicking over an ant nest. First Fleet forwarded the flash signal to the Combined Joint Chiefs where Admiral Jing was heard to repeatedly curse CSG
Itus
, the unit specifically designed to deal with exactly this kind of incident, and which was still three months from being operational.

Never a man to hesitate when time was of the essence, Jing ordered Analisa, his replacement as CO First Fleet, to assume command of the ready BatFor and prepare for immediate departure. Analisa and the navy's speedy response had all been for naught as the Commonwealth Council refused permission for the fleet’s deployment.

Clearly, they were wary of repeating their mistake in sending First Fleet rushing to the defense of Alona during the war against the Others. That move had left Earth open to the surprise attack which ended in the destruction of Fifth Fleet and the near extinction of the human race. The Council was refusing to authorize the deployment of a single BatFor until each of the member states of the Commonwealth agreed.

Even with the speedy comms drones feeding information to politicians, the Council decision delayed any action until each government considered the pros and cons of deployment. Minutes became hours while Analisa and her relief force could only cool their heels and await their political masters’ decision. When it came, a long five hours later, Analisa did not wait for Jing to terminate the communications link before she folded for Selene.

Much to her relief, she arrived to find the stalemate between the hulking freighter and the Turak still in place. With the firepower of an entire BatFor to back up her demands for the Turak to withdraw, whoever was in charge over there decided withdrawal was the better part of valor. The three warships withdrew to just beyond the second moon where they had remained, silently, for the last thirteen hours.

Analisa's sensors detected numerous launches from the center vessel of the three-ship formation. The analysts called it the flagship. The frequent launches, they figured, and Analisa agreed, were most likely communications drones, as almost immediately after launch they accelerated sharply and disappeared into fold space. Analisa wondered if they were calling for backup. She could be in for a shooting war yet. This possibility was the main reason she greeted the news of the
Cutlass’
arrival with a sense of relief.

"Inform the ambassador he may continue." Unconsciously, Analisa's fingers sought out the delicate gold necklace she always wore. A gift from the widow of her late mentor and friend Stephano Ricco killed in the bloodbath of 70 Ophiuchi four years ago. The blue icon representing the
Cutlass
moved away from the massed ships of her BatFor on course for the three unmoving Turak cruisers.
Good luck, Ambassador. For all our sakes
.

#

Nicholas Schamu outwardly appeared not to have a care in the world as he sat on one of the few spare seats on the bridge of SurvFlot One’s flagship, TDF
Cutlass
. Only two hours ago Nicholas had been enjoying... perhaps “enjoying” was too strong a word... dinner with his sister Madeleine and her insufferable husband, Senator Mathias Grant III. A priority call summoning him to the austere offices of the Head of the Diplomatic Corps himself had come at a most opportune moment as he had about had enough of the self-inflated ego of Mathias Grant III and he was just one more bland sound bite away from telling him where he could politely shove his ideas of the Earth First movement.

The military flyer which landed on the back lawn of his sister’s house made an unsightly mess of the blustering senator’s immaculate rose bed and elicited a chortle from the normally mirthless ambassador as he watched the politician mouthing a curse and shaking a fist at the flyer as it took off. The last remaining heads of the roses were separated from their stalks and blown across the neat, now scorched, lawn.

Whatever small amount of joy Nicholas may have taken from his brother-in-law’s futile efforts to save his beloved roses was thoroughly suffocated as he opened the secure briefing package on the PAD the crew chief handed to him on boarding. Nicholas, over the years, developed a talent for speed-reading any document and picking out the salient points. In his opinion, the situation at Selene was a hair’s breath away from going from a standoff to armed conflict. As the flyer broke the sound barrier in its headlong dash for distant Geneva, Nicholas tapped a key on his armrest activating his link to the flyer’s pilot.

"Change of destination. Get me to the Geneva spaceport and don’t spare the horses."

"But Ambassador, I have direct orders from Secretary Beckett to take you to the Diplomatic Corps headquarters."

Ah, these military types, always following orders
. "And I'm changing those orders. Don’t worry, I’ll sort it out with the secretary, just get me to the spaceport
tout de suite
."

Terminating the link, Nicholas could tell the pilot was not happy but he felt the little flyer bank and knew he was on course for his new destination. A few more taps of his armrest controls and he established a link to Secretary Beckett's private number. The lined, balding head of Aaron Beckett appeared in the display mounted in the headrest in front of Nicholas. Before he could say anything the Secretary wrong footed him.

"I see you’re headed for the spaceport, Nicholas. Luckily I requisitioned a courier ship and it’s warming up on the landing pad."

Instead of replying immediately, Nicholas gave one of his rare chuckles. "I see you understand the importance of haste in the current situation, Mr. Secretary."

Now it was Aaron's turn to laugh. "I only ordered the flyer to bring you here to see if you were still willing to follow your gut instead of blindly following your superiors’ instructions. I'm glad to see, even after knowing you for thirty-odd years, you are still willing to question, if not downright ignore, those instructions."

Nicholas tipped an imaginary hat at the pick up. "I learned from the best, Mr. Secretary."

"Sycophant," laughed Aaron before his demeanor turned all business again. "Back to the matter in hand, Nicholas. The courier ship will take you to Charon Base, where Admiral Papadomas has put the
Cutlass
at your disposal..."

Aaron must have seen the quizzical look on Nicholas’ face.

"The admiral was quite insistent. If you’re going into a potential war zone, then you will be aboard one of his cruisers, not an unarmed courier ship. He made some reference to a Benii carrier and a shuttle craft, as I recall"

Nicholas smiled ruefully. "Yes. Christos will never let me live that one down, I fear. In this case, he may be right. Tensions appear quite high and perhaps being on board an armored warship is better than being on a defenseless shuttle craft."

"Let's hope you don't have to find out, Nicholas. However, enough of this melancholy talk.
Cutlass
will be at your disposal and I've already sent word to Admiral Chavez, you will be joining her as expeditiously as you can. All the latest information we have is already loaded onto your PAD, including your mission specifics."

Nicholas cocked an eyebrow at the image of the secretary in his display. “Which are?"

"In a nutshell, to make sure we don't find ourselves in another shooting war. Find out as much about these people as you can and try to establish some form of peaceful relations with them."

"From what I've seen, the Turak come across as pretty belligerent, Mr. Secretary."

Aaron frowned and the mood turned somber. "That’s what I'm afraid of, Nicholas. Do your best."

Nicholas looked into the tired eyes of his friend for a second before replying. "Yes, of course, you shall have it, Mr. Secretary."

With a nod, Aaron terminated the link. Nicholas picked up the PAD again and began going through the data line by line, hoping to glean even the smallest detail that could help him with the Turak as the flyer sped onwards.