Hunt for the Saiph (The Saiph Series Book 3) (14 page)

#

"All stop."

"All stop, aye, Captain."

Captain Denise Parks spun her chair until she faced the dapper diplomat in his seat along the rear bulkhead of the
Cutlass
. To her surprise, he was sipping tea from a bone china cup and looked as if he was completely unperturbed by the sight of the three Turak warships hovering 500,000 kilometers dead ahead. Admiral Papadomas had given her strict instructions before departing Charon regarding the ambassador’s well-being.

Ambassador Schamu was in charge of the mission and she was to follow his orders to the letter. If the ambassador’s orders compromised the safety of the
Cutlass
and her crew Parks was to use her best judgment, the admiral would nonetheless take a very dim view if she were to allow said ambassador to come to any harm by reckless behavior by, say, taking an unarmed shuttle and heading out to meet three warships. If Schamu's reputation for grandiose gestures were anything to go by, those instructions may prove a hard task to complete.

"We are at the limit of what we think is the Turak effective weapons envelope, Ambassador."

Schamu put his cup down carefully on a small table by his chair and put on his best game face. "Thank you, Captain. Perhaps you would open a video and audio link to the Turak ships."

Parks gave her comms officer a nod and the link was established.

"Turak vessels. I am Ambassador Nicholas Schamu of the Commonwealth Union of Planets and I have come here at the request of the Commonwealth to hopefully establish peaceful relations between our peoples and avert any accidental misunderstandings."

There was no reply from the Turak, just stony silence.

"Comms, are we sure the link is still open?" Parks asked.

"Yes, ma'am. My board shows the link is good. The Turak are receiving both our audio and video feed."

"Let’s give it a minute, Captain, if you please," said Nicholas.

The seconds crept by and as the bridge clock ticked four minutes later, the harsh, Standard English of the Turak erupted from the bridge speakers.

"You have infringed on the territory of the Turak. You will remove yourselves from the planet or suffer the consequences."

"As you can see, we are doing as you ask and we apologize for any offense we may have caused. We did not know the Turak claimed this system. If I may make a suggestion? So we may avoid any further misunderstandings in the future, perhaps an exchange of information, a list of systems under Turak control in this quadrant of space to prevent any unintentional ingress. We would of course reciprocate and supply you with a list of systems occupied by the Commonwealth." With a small nod from Nicholas, the comms officer transmitted the pre-prepared data.

Again, the seconds seemed to stretch as Nicholas awaited the Turak's reply.

"Captain, we're receiving a data packet from the Turak... looks like navigational data."

Nicholas let out a small sigh. Progress at last. "Thank you. May I request we establish video communications as well as audio?"

The answer this time was immediate. "No. We have supplied the data you need. Ensure there are no more intrusions into Turak territory. Next time, no opportunity to retreat will be given and if you believe we have taken no action because of the presence of your warships, behold the strength of the Turak!"

The wailing of alarms filled the bridge of the
Cutlass
and the tactical holo cube filled with the blood-red icons of Turak ships. Ten. Twenty. Thirty. Forty. Fifty capital ships, each the size of a Bismarck class battleship filled the holo cube.

Mocking laughter reached Nicholas through the sound of the alarms. "Go now and do not return unless you want war!"

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Misunderstandings

BALAT - SYSTEM 23890 - 22 LIGHT YEARS FROM ALONA

The Alonan colony world of Balat circled the GV type star, the system’s primary, at the outer edges of the life-giving Goldilocks zone. Balat was the youngest of the three colonies the Empire rushed to establish in the face of the feared Commonwealth expansion.

From his vantage point high on the ridgeline, Major General Siloz drank in the lush green valley, the home of the courageous all-volunteer colonist force.

The valley floor looked like a maze of construction. Ranging from accommodation buildings to the bio-domes where they cultivated the colony’s seedlings before implanting them in the newly rotovated fields surrounding the colony proper.

Siloz came up to this vantage point alone on an almost weekly basis. He told his subordinates it was to check the outstation’s progress, but really, he needed time away from the never-ending hubbub that governorship of an ever-expanding colony generated.

Siloz was no fool. He knew the Empire was poorly prepared to establish colony worlds outside of the home system. It had taken a long and arduous thirty years to develop Geta, the second habitable planet of the Alonan home system, into a self-supporting entity. But times were changing.

When the merciless Others attacked the Empire, the Commonwealth fleet’s intervention alone saved Alona. At the time, the sparseness of gravity drive cruisers limited the Empire’s own naval capability, a grave circumstance that led to a dishonorable act. The Emperor was forced to go cap in hand to the Commonwealth for assistance. When the Commonwealth chose to conceal the existence of the Others from the Empire, they also concealed the real danger they posed to every living thing.

Things were different now. The Empire would never again be treated like a poor relation to the all-powerful Commonwealth. The Emperor aimed to make the Empire a multi-star system affair, complete with the teeth to defend what was theirs. They used technology procured by various government agencies in a race to match the Commonwealth’s technological edge. Volunteers filled the colonist ranks as they established habitats in suitable worlds, posts filled almost as quickly as worlds could be found.

Siloz well remembered the list of volunteers wishing to be Balat colonists – the list had been oversubscribed tenfold! Kathan and Opera were equally popular with the volunteers. These three colony worlds secured the immediate future of the Alonan Empire, though deep suspicion remained over the Commonwealth’s true intentions toward the empire.

In Alonan tradition, the people had put their shoulders to the wheel. Construction of naval vessels was at an all-time high and there was no shortage of willing recruits. Siloz’s heart swelled with pride as he pictured his own beaming children in their shiny new uniforms of the Imperial Navy.

A gust of cool wind brushed over him and with it, a drizzle of rain settled on his soft brown fur. Siloz looked westward beyond the towers of the atmospheric purification plants, which would one day render the small re-breather over his mouth outdated. He saw burgeoning black clouds rolling toward the valley. The fading light indicated an almighty thunderstorm was imminent. The first clap and then roll of thunder reached him through the heavy air. He sighed as he headed back to his all-terrain ground car. The rich, fertile soil would soon turn to a thick, sticky quagmire under his feet and the dirt track back to the colony would be difficult even for his ground car.

The chirp of the communicator at his waist reached him through the drip, drip of the steadily increasing rain. Lifting it from his belt he pushed accept. It was his adjutant, Major Froli.

“General!
Kuna
reports four warships have exited fold space. They are shaping an intercept course for him!
Kuna’s
sensors indicate the unknowns are in the heavy cruiser range and are powering up weapons.
Kuna
is preparing to engage!”

Siloz stood stock-still in the rain as it ran in rivulets down his face.
Kuna
was one of the Empire’s first fold-capable frigates, it was simply visiting Balat as part of its shakedown cruise and the cruisers would have it massively outgunned. Siloz would not waste the crew’s lives in some futile gesture. “Order the
Kuna
to break orbit and return to Alona now! Appraise Fleet Headquarters of our situation and return with reinforcements. I’m on my way to Colony Control now and will be with you shortly.”

Siloz cut the link and headed for the ground car, pausing he allowed his eyes to feast on the darkened landscape one last time, knowing in his heart he would never look upon the view again.

#

INS
KUNA -
ORBITING BALAT

Captain Warat and the crew of the
Kuna
raced to prepare the frigate for departure. The trip to Balat had identified a slight variance in the primary fusion generator, prompting Warat to grant the Chief Engineer time to investigate the problem before continuing to Opero. Despite the fact that the yards in Alona could find and fix the issue in half the time his crew could, Warat decided the crew needed the experience. Now that four unknown warships were closing in, he regretted his decision.

On the tactical display, Warat saw the fast-closing icons and realized the
Kuna
was out of time. Even if the chief got the reactor online right away, it wasn’t enough time to avoid entering the advancing warships’ firing range.

“Communications! Get the drones away now!”

The comms officer’s eyes met and briefly held her captain’s she understood the unsaid implications. She turned back to her board and set about downloading the destination coordinates into each of the drones’ computer brains.

“Download complete, Captain!”

Captain Warat stole a glance at the tactical display, his heart sank as he saw the wave of smaller icons separate from the larger masses representing the warships. Missiles were heading for his poor
Kuna
, he must tell those at home what was happening here.

“Launch the drones! Tactical. Weapons free. Give them everything we’ve got!”

Five communications drones burst from the belly of the
Kuna
. In their wake, the spread of anti-missile fire from the
Kuna
seemed pitiful in the face of the avalanche of missiles falling on her. Two drones succumbed to enemy energy fire but three made the transition to fold space. Two headed for Alona, the third did not.

In her haste, the comms officer missed the fact that Drone 5 was still locked into the war game the Tactical Section had been playing before real life interrupted. The drone followed its pre-programmed instructions. It headed for Waypoint 4, the nearest Commonwealth base. The final navigation checkpoint before entering Alonan space which, after the breakdown in relations between the Empire and Commonwealth, became the home to a complete Commonwealth Battle Force and the base of its Empire surveillance operation.

#

WAYPOINT 4 - 5000 LIGHT YEARS FROM ALONA - INTERSTELLAR SPACE

The Operations Center was a picture of quiet efficiency. Commander Talan, Duty Officer at Waypoint 4, sat relaxed in his chair on its raised dais. The Garundan flicked his eyes around the various workstations filling the small room. All seemed tranquil and sedate as the assorted watch officers tried to fight off the onset of boredom.

The tactical plot remained virtually unchanged since the departure of BatFor 4.1 earlier in the morning. As tended to happen when you coordinated military units over such vast distances, the replacement BatFor, BatFor 2.3, encountered an unexpected delay in its departure from Janus. A delay of twenty-four to thirty-six hours and was late to relieve the Persai covering force of BatFor 4.1.

The commanding officer of BatFor 4.1, Force Leader Palas, was well aware of the Combined Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) decision that BatFor 2.3 would be the last Commonwealth capital ship unit deployed to Waypoint 4. The colonization program was gaining momentum, as was the operation to secure the last of the Others’ bases. The waning plan of CJCS commenced with the re-prioritizing of the use of capital ship heavy units such as the BatFors.

They planned for a future where the BatFors remained primarily in the home systems and the CJCS relied on smaller, more flexible destroyer and cruiser squadrons to police the colonies. The first of this new breed of destroyers was already at Waypoint 4. TDF
Sorcerer
, fresh from yard hands, was refurbished and upgraded with the latest offensive and defensive systems.
Sorcerer
was the lead ship of four in the new Destroyer Division 5.1.1.

Force Leader Palas was happy with this plan, in fact so much so, he saw no measure of danger in folding for home as scheduled without waiting for the now-delayed relief force. After all, the only other ships he’d observed in the area in three months were cargo ships, hauling goods between the Empire and the Commonwealth. Palas was certain the new, secretly deployed Dupin surveillance platforms dotted around the Empire’s three colony -worlds should give Waypoint 4 adequate advance warning of any suspicious activity by the Alonans. The Dupin platforms were specifically designed to be as stealthy as possible, while remaining capable of keeping an eye on the Empire.

Commonwealth and Alonan affairs had taken a nose-dive after the attack on Alona by the Others. Even though First Fleet responded to the Empire’s call for help, it was obvious the Empire blamed the Commonwealth for the attack in the first place. In the aftermath of the attack, the Empire placed even more stringent conditions of entry than before into what it saw as Alonan space. The regions around the three colony-worlds became a no-go area for Commonwealth shipping. Commonwealth ships were now only allowed as far as the outer marker of the Alonan system, where they transferred their cargoes to Alonan transports at the partially completed Emperor Yalo IV spaceport. The expanding Imperial Navy performed constant sweeps of the inner system for any intruders, so it was deemed too risky to place any Dupin platforms in the Alonan system itself, but by employing the stealth capabilities of a long-range Talos shuttle, the Commonwealth managed to place the Dupins in position around the colony systems.

Talan’s lower jaw dropped slightly as he quietly chuckled.
How the universe changes, one day they hail us as heroes for saving them from the Others, the next? We’re banned from their systems like lepers!
He unintentionally snorted, a little too loudly, and surreptitiously looked around to see if any of the other staff had noticed. The beep from his terminal alerted ‘status change.’ Talan hauled himself upright and tapped a key to expand the message. The detection grid was picking up a small object that had just folded back into normal space.

The seaman at the Tactical Station called out, “Commander! Computers are calling Bogey One an Alonan communications drone, it’s holding at 500,000 kilometers.”

Talan scratched his lower jaw with one pointed claw, “Communications! Lock onto the Alonan drone and send an interrogation query. Let’s see what it’s doing here.”

The Garundan petty officer operating the comms desk carried out his orders and the reply took just seconds to arrive. “Commander! I’m receiving a reply in plain language…Computers are translating now.”

“Throw it across to my screen, PO.” Talan toggled his screen from tactical display to comms read-out. The translation of the Alonan message popped up. “Holy shit!” The profanity favored by one of his human navy instructors inadvertently escaped him. Talan read the message again. He flipped up the clear plastic cover over the large red button on his desk and without hesitation, he mashed his finger down on it.

The battle station’s alarm whooped throughout Waypoint 4.

#

TDF
SORCERER -
2000 KILOMETERS OFF WAYPOINT 4

Sorcerer’s
corridors gleamed almost as brightly as the fresh commander’s leaf on Kenichi Sutou’s collar. He walked briskly through the Havoc class destroyer, heading for the bridge. Crewmembers dodged around him as they rushed for the battle stations the klaxon called them to.

Kenichi’s pace slowed as he approached the bridge entrance, the armed marine on duty by the door keyed in the lock sequence and granted him entry.

It was unusual for a ship of
Sorcerer’s
size to have her own marine complement on board, but her original task in the Sol system was to board and inspect merchantmen, and to do so they required a full platoon of marines. With her new policing role in Waypoint 4 space, the admiralty had deemed it prudent to keep them aboard.

Kenichi marveled that the
Sorcerer
was still in commission at all. After the damage the destroyer had sustained as part of Admiral Chavez’s desperate defense of Earth, Kenichi fully expected to see his ship scrapped. The authorities, it transpired, had other plans for Kenichi and
Sorcerer
. Once emergency repairs were completed, the
Sorcerer
folded out to Janus. The colony’s undamaged shipyards repaired the damage to the little destroyer.

Kenichi’s eyes were drawn to the seamless, gleaming roof of the bridge where the Others X-ray laser had once penetrated it. The single hit nearly destroyed
Sorcerer
. The bridge was opened to vacuum, the comms officer and three crewmembers were lost before they had the chance to seal their helmets, but that wasn’t the worst of it. The powerful laser carried on through the deck plates until it reached the forward missile hold. Only the quick thinking of a bosun’s mate prevented the
Sorcerer
from becoming nothing more than stellar dust as two of the multi-megaton missile warheads went critical. The bosun locked down the hold and activated the emergency decoupler. A large section of
Sorcerer’s
outer hull armor explosively detached to allow the entire forward missile hold to be ejected from the ship, accelerating clear on chemical rockets. Kenichi rolled the ship away deploying his still-intact side armor over the rapidly moving hold and only just in time. The missiles detonated at a distance of less than eighty kilometers, rocking the
Sorcerer
to her core. Bosun’s Mate Ashley Dison and two missile specialists were still in the hold when it detached. Their sacrifice saved the rest of the crew, a cold comfort to the bereaved families, but one Kenichi stressed in his letters to them.