Chapter 39
Beware the Ides of March
The Adamant sailed through space on the edge of the Obduros star system, moving at just over half the speed of light. Garret Atrix, Rear Admiral of the Republic Navy, and Speaker for House Atrix in the Deliberatorium of the Republic sat in his command chair on the bridge, reading through the messages just transmitted from the battleship Kogu. The battleship was from the House Ito bolt-hole, but was here under the flag of Lefhaus Admiral Kinsey, who was relieving Garret as Commander, Obduros Blockade Fleet.
In the last three days Garret’s fleet had intercepted twelve ships trying to return to Obduros from the battle at Androsia. Only two of those ships made it safely back to the planet. The rest had been destroyed by Garret’s forces while Garret had only suffered one destroyer being heavily damaged. Two other destroyers had towed it to jump speed and it had jumped back to the reserve area where two fleet mobile repair yards were waiting to patch it up.
Captured officers from Leonev’s fleet, taken at Lemos, had confirmed the fears that Leonev was still tapping into communications sent over wave-fold guides. As a result, the Republic Navy no longer used them for anything but the most critical of transmissions. It wasn’t until Admiral Kinsey had arrived in the area that Garret had received word that he would be returning home to Calos for at least two months. The Republic needed that long to lick its wounds before it tried to tackle Obduros. He was to return to his home planet, repair his ships that needed repair, and train for the invasion. Along the way home, he’d pick up the remaining ships from his bolt-hole that would serve in that invasion.
“Signal from Hornet.” Markal said from his station. “They are up to speed and we can go home.”
“Signal our ships to prepare to jump.” Garret said softly. Neal walked over and sat in his lap. It was habit now for Garret to wrap his arms around the boy and pull him in tight. The truth was that as much as he enjoyed being in space, he was looking forward to going home and spending some time with his son, and his wife.
“All ships report ready.” Harrington confirmed a moment later.
“Jump.” Garret said in a sigh, and for a moment reality winked out before returning with them some sixteen light years away from Obduros. “Begin maximum acceleration.”
“The Chief Engineer is going to be griping again.” Harrington warned.
“Let him, I want to get home as soon as possible.” Garret said wearily. He was tired, and so was his crew. They hadn’t even had time to do more than lick the most superficial of their wounds after what was already being called the Second Battle of Lemos before they had been ordered to Obduros. True, he’d lost few ships in that battle, but not one of his ships had been undamaged afterwards, and most had simply put band-aids on the damaged equipment. They’d need a few good weeks in the Calosian yards to get all these ships back to true battle-readiness.
“Can we go to bed yet?” Neal asked with a sleepy sigh.
“You have the bridge.” Garret said to Harrington who nodded wearily. She’d probably turn the bridge over to the night watch officer minutes after Garret left the bridge. Neal followed Garret out into the corridor and up to his cabin. Garret had to remind Neal to strip off his black coveralls before crawling into bed, and both of them were asleep almost as soon as they had curled up against each other, with Neal’s soft breaths falling on Garret’s nose.
The next morning, Garret spent his bridge shift going over tactical reports from his fleet as well as the information forwarded to him from the Hornet via secure laser communication. Interrogation from prisoners had resulted in a figure of sixty to eighty torpedo boats left in Leonev’s fleet with approximately twenty-six frigates, a dozen destroyers, a handful of cruisers, a battleship and a single escort carrier. By the time the Republic had enough forces ready for an attack, he’d probably have another forty torpedo boats ready, all of them armored with citeesium taken from Lemos before Garret had arrived.
Garret had left the escort carrier Yarsolav back at Obduros to help with the blockade fleet. With her he’d also left four destroyers. The Clemenceau was operating with half of its normal complement of fighters, but a full wing of bombers. Adamant and Tarawa had lost half their fighters each, but would be able to re-supply with reserves from the Atrix fleet they were rushing to rendezvous with before heading to Calos. Clemenceau would have to wait until a supply ship brought more fighters and pilots from Peladon.
Garret was tasked with coming up with a new battle plan for the Obduros invasion in nine weeks time. The plans would then be sent to fleet command via courier ship. Nothing was to be trusted to wave-fold communication, which was why Garret didn’t bother to wait for incoming transmissions as soon as his ships were up to speed again. They jumped as soon as they could, and began moving out again, although at a slower pace this time because a destroyer was having problems with its engines.
“What are you doing here?” Garret asked Lukas as he entered his cabin that night with Neal right behind him.
“I thought…” Lukas paused with a look at a grinning Neal.
“You need some fun.” Neal said with a smile. “I’ll be in my room.”
“Oh.” Garret said with a blush as Lukas also blushed while Neal went into the room that had been his before the assassination attempt. Garret had noticed in the last day that Neal seemed to be moving some stuff back in there. He looked back at Lukas who was wearing standard coveralls.
“He’s a little devil sometimes.” Lukas said softly with a sly look at Garret.
“Yes, he is.” Garret said tiredly, wondering why Neal thought Garret had needed this. All he really needed was sleep, but when Lukas crossed over to him and ran a finger down Garret’s chest, a shiver ran up and down Garret’s spine.
“You look exhausted.” Lukas said softly. “How about a backrub?”
“That would be nice.” Garret admitted in a voice suddenly grown hoarse. Lukas took his left elbow and led him into Garret’s bedroom where he proceeded to take Garret’s uniform off of him. Within minutes, their clothes were on the floor and Garret was lying face down on his bed while Lukas straddled him and began to rub his back.
It was an hour later that Lukas left for the night, a slight swagger in his step. Garret felt like every muscle in his body was rubber, but he had a smile on his face when Neal climbed into his bed, scrunching up his button nose. Still, Neal had a smile on his face.
“It stinks in here.” Neal muttered before turning the lights out and cuddling up to Garret. Neal was wearing only a pair of skimpy briefs tonight, and his body was warm against Garret’s nude form as they went to sleep with Garret’s arms around Neal.
“You are a little devil.” Garret whispered the next morning when he felt Neal’s erection poking out of his briefs and into Garret’s abdomen. Neal blushed but got up and stretched before scampering into the shower. Garret joined him a few minutes later, taking the soap and rubbing it into Neal’s flawless creamy skin. He almost wished he’d change his mind about sex with Neal, knowing it would happen eventually, but he held back, knowing the time was not right yet. The boy was growing a little more each day, developing physically and mentally. Garret wanted to see what kind of young man he’d grow into before the sex started.
“My lord, we’re ready for you.” Devin said as soon as they exited the bedroom fully dressed. Garret nodded, and followed the 10 model clone out of the cabin. Today, Garret was having a breakfast with several of the senior enlisted crewmembers. They were somewhat informal affairs, generally meant to give Garret and his senior non-commissioned officers a chance to get to know each other better. This morning it was also a chance for Garret to hand out a few medals to several of them who had distinguished themselves during the battle at Lemos.
After breakfast he went to the bridge for his duty shift while Neal sat down at an unused station to work on his coursework. Garret was doing his best to make sure that Neal kept up with his studies, but couldn’t help feeling like the boy was losing out on some education. Atrix Prime didn’t use implant readers quite the same way as the rest of the Republic. They also didn’t consider young men to be adult until they reached sixteen while the rest of the Republic normally considered fourteen to be old enough for most adult responsibilities. On Calos it was age eighteen.
This time as they prepared to make their jump, Garret let them turn on the wave-fold communications system to update their entertainment programs. Harrington had reminded him that many of the crew liked to keep current with some entertainment programs, and of course they always liked fresh news reports. However, the first thing to come through was a priority message for Garret, and when they responded, it only took sixty-four seconds for Supreme Commander Lumbardon’s haggard face to appear on the screen. He had dark circles under his eyes and looked years older than when Garret had talked to him that time in New Prejat, at the theater.
“Admiral, this is a surprise.” Garret said when the link had been fully established.
“Yes, well we’re encrypted and all that, but this can’t wait.” Lumbardon said gruffly.
“What’s going on?” Garret asked.
“How far are you out from Calos?” Lumbardon asked and Garret felt a knot developing in his chest right about where his heart was located.
“I’m preparing to jump to the rendezvous with my uh, reinforcements.” Garret said, trying not to be too precise with his information in case Leonev decoded this transmission as well. “After that, we can be at Calos in two jumps.”
“Good.” Lumbardon said with a shake of his head. “You sent your wife back there, didn’t you?”
“And my son.” Garret said through gritted teeth. Neal was up in a flash and at his side, a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “What’s going on Admiral? I don’t care if Leonev hears this, I want to know, and I want to know now.”
“Watch it, Rear Admiral.” Lumbardon’s rebuke was mild, and did nothing to calm Garret down. The Supreme Commander let out another sigh and his shoulders slumped while the bridge crew looked at Garret with real concern. “Yesterday, Calos just dropped off the network. Their communications ship went totally dead. All attempts to contact ships in the area failed and I was preparing to order a cruiser to go investigate when communications with Calos were reestablished. It was through a limited-capability drone, but they report that a terrorist bomb has damaged the communications ship. It will be a few days before it gets repaired and back up to speed. A Captain Melmaker reports that the military drones were sabotaged so they have to use a civilian drone with limited bandwidth. They’re requesting to be put on a receive-only mode so they can keep up civilian entertainment networks, which will eat up most of their available bandwidth. He says if anything else goes badly wrong, they’ll signal for help. Melmaker also reported that your manor house was also bombed and there are several injuries. Your wife is in intensive care, but alive. The Captain reassured me personally that your son is alive and well, being cared for by a local dignitary.”
“Did he say who?” Garret asked, willing the tears out of his eyes. “What about Billy’s wife? She’s on the planet as well with their son.”
“Imaline Lars is also in the hospital, but not as severely injured as Masako.” Lumbardon said with a frown. “
“Thank you for the information.” Garret said as Neal squeezed his shoulder.
“Be careful, Garret.” Lumbardon said tiredly. “Something about this just doesn’t feel right to me. I know you’re going to be worried about your wife and son, but keep your eyes open. If I had more ships to send you, I would, but everything’s tied up right now.”
“Don’t worry, Admiral, I’ll have enough ships to take the planet even if there’s an Imperial fleet there. More than likely though it’s just a few terrorists. We’ve been having a few problems with them over the last couple of months.” Garret said confidently although he doubted that was what happened. As soon as the Admiral was gone from Garret’s screen he turned to Harrington who nodded at him after giving him a look of sympathy.
“Signal the fleet to jump immediately!” Harrington roared out and Garret barely noticed the effect of the jump.
“Have the ships top off their fuel tanks with the supply tankers.” Garret ordered as he looked at the new data flowing in from their sensors. His Atrix reserve ships were sitting there waiting for him. “Also, call the Retribution and invite Commodore Lars over for a chat.”
“Will do, sir.” Harrington said softly as Garret stood up and walked out of the bridge, Neal following in his wake. Harrington looked around at the bridge crew after he left, seeing the concern and love in their eyes, all directed at the now-gone Garret Atrix. “Okay people, pass the word, something’s wrong at home and we’re going to go fix it. Do everything double-time.”
“Yes, sir, Captain sir.” Darenal said with a hint of humor in his voice, but his eyes were as serious as ever. The two of them reached out to each other and clasped hands for a moment before returning to their work. Garret may not have an intimate relationship with his wife, but he did love her a lot.
They left the Derek Mulroney behind as they accelerated. The destroyer had lost one of her thrusters and couldn’t keep up with the acceleration rate that Harrington set for the fleet after Commodore Lars had left Garret’s cabin, his eyes still moist and tear tracks on his cheeks. She had been waiting outside to deliver a report and winced at the look in Commodore Billy Lars’s eyes.
Garret didn’t look much better. He just took her verbal report without showing an expression while Neal rubbed his shoulders. As soon as they were up to speed, he wanted to call Melmaker on Calos and then they’d jump. She left his cabin hoping he’d break out of this catharsis before they arrived on Calos.
He was back on the bridge as soon as they were at the required speed and ordered a call be placed through to Calos. It took twenty minutes, but Melmaker finally appeared on the screen. The man looked well-rested, but had a worried look in eyes.
“Report, Captain.” Garret ordered tersely and Harrington winced, glad that tone was not directed at her.
“It’s good to see you sir.” Melmaker said officiously. The man was a boor, and extremely insensitive to the emotions of others, but a damn good administrator, Harrington knew. Garret barely restrained a nasty comment. “I assume you have spoken with Fleet Command?”
“Yes, I have and I want to know how my wife and son are doing!” Garret barked angrily and the bridge crew got busier with their tasks.
“Your wife is still in critical care, sir.” Melmaker said as if he was offended. “The bomb blast at your manor was bad. I am sorrowed to report that your clone Davin was killed, as was Mika Melstein and most of your senior staff. The children were protected from harm by their governess who is now tending them at Jean Vierre’s home.”
“That’s some good news at least.” Garret reported.
“I’m afraid I have more bad news, sir.” Melmaker reported. “We’ve lost contact with our patrol ships along the border. These terrorist attacks may be a prelude to invasion by Earth. Folks are pretty nervous on the planet, sir.”
“We’re on our way there, Captain.” Garret assured the man and Harrington cringed, thinking he’d say too much over an open channel. She should have known better. “We’re about to make a jump, but we’ll get back in touch with you as soon as we’re ready to jump back into the system.”
“We’re relieved to hear that, sir.” Melmaker said with a very slight smile. “I’ve got a team piecing together a drone that can be used for system traffic control until the communications ship is back in operation. It should be operational by the time you’re ready to return.”
“Very good, Captain.” Garret said. “Keep me apprised of the situation.”
“Aye aye, sir.” Melmaker said before switching off the transmission from his end. Garret let out a sigh of relief.
It was another tense twelve hours after that jump as they accelerated again. This time the
“Lukas, you’ve been with us since we left space dock over Peladon as a passenger liner.” Harrington told the sturdy 07 Model clone. He grinned at her statement. The young man had a right to that grin. He’d been there, like her, from the beginning. He’d seen Garret go from being a minor businessman to a major player in the Republic, and a fine military leader. She knew she could have had any command she wanted by now, but she’d stayed on Adamant because she wanted to see how far Garret would go before the end. It was an old adage that the brightest candle went out earlier than the slower burning candle, but she hoped that just once the bright candle would burn for a long time.
“You mean he knows me and likes me enough that he probably won’t bite my head off before I hand him the report.” Lukas said with a grin.
“You also have a way of distracting him when he needs that.” Harrington added and his grin grew a little sly.
“There is that.” Lukas agreed, taking the pad from her. As he walked out, he knew she was watching him and added a slight skip to his gait. It always irritated her, and he enjoyed tweaking her nose whenever he thought he could get away with doing that. While he rode the lift up to the deck where Garret’s cabin was located, he took several deep breaths to stay calm. He loved Lord Atrix, as did most people, but he knew Garret in a way most of those who followed him would never know.
Some were jealous of the physical relationship he occasionally had with Lord Atrix over the last year or so, and sometimes he reveled in that jealousy. He spent at least an hour every day in the gym, keeping his legs in good condition, knowing full well they were what had first attracted Garret to him. Lukas enjoyed the sex, but he also enjoyed those moments after Garret had had an orgasm deep inside Lukas. Garret’s face would soften, and his emotions would shine forth out of his green eyes, and in those moments they would experience a deep communion of souls, souls that many other humans claimed clones didn’t have.
It was in those moments that Lukas felt his life affirmed; felt that while he was made by humans, he was also human. Garret was different than any other clone in existence, more human, more a connection between the rest of cloned humanity and those born to living beings instead of a gestation chamber. As a child in a G&E facility, Lukas had never imagined his life would take him here, to this place, or allow him to love Garret the way a moth loved a flame.
“What is it?” Garret snapped as soon as Lukas entered the cabin. Most would have quailed at the tone, and Lukas’s legs did feel like rubber, but he strolled across the cabin with a smile plastered on his face. Neal took one look at Lukas’s face and got up to head into his room. Garret barely noticed as Lukas handed him the pad.
“It’s the fleet readiness report that you wanted, Garret.” Lukas said, taking a deep breath before he said the name aloud. Garret barely noticed as he took the pad and began to review it immediately. Nor did he notice Lukas going to his knees and crawling between his legs. He did notice Lukas opening up his coveralls.
“What are you doing?” Garret asked with surprise.
“You need to relax, Garret.” Lukas said determinedly as he rolled down the blue underpants and pulled out Garret’s soft cock. Garret started to protest, but it turned into a moan as Lukas sucked the cock into his mouth where it began to harden. Movement out of the corner of his eye showed that Neal was watching, but he didn’t care as Garret put the pad down and ran a hand through Lukas’s short hair. Garret had given him so much, a life when he thought he’d be forced back into a G&E, a second career in the military, a warrant officer’s bars, and those precious moments when he’d feel like a full human instead of some second-class creation. If he could help Garret in any way, he’d do it, and he knew this was one way as Garret pulled him up off of Garret’s erection and began to kiss Lukas.
Oh yes, helping Garret was usually anything but onerous.
Garret watched Lukas’s powerful legs disappear into his uniform coveralls and let out a sigh. He hadn’t realized how bad his thinking had been until he’d looked deep into Lukas’s eyes after he’d come inside the young man. Every time they had sex, afterwards he’d look into those eyes and see such joy there that he’d feel instantly refreshed, renewed, and invigorated to do what needed to be done next.
“You can come out now.” Garret said with a laugh in his voice as Lukas gave him one last kiss on the cheek before walking out of the cabin. Neal came out of his room smiling, but the slight bulge in his coveralls told Garret all he needed to know. “So, did you enjoy watching?”
“I always enjoy watching.” Neal said with an unashamed shrug. “I think you and Lukas are so beautiful when you do it together, and afterwards, its like you both look into each other’s eyes and you just go all happy inside. It’s really nice to see.”
“It is nice.” Garret said with a fond smile towards the door that Lukas had left through. Sometimes he felt guilty that he rarely invited Lukas to stay the night, but then again Lukas had never expressed a desire to do that. It was almost like after that intimate moment when they stared into each other’s eyes, there wasn’t a need for more intimacy, and Lukas rarely presumed upon whatever relationship they did have. That brought up another wiggle of worry as he wondered if Aaron was okay. He was no longer lovers with Aaron, but they were friends, and Garret enjoyed his friendship.
“Well it worked for a few minutes, at least.” Neal sighed.
“Oh, did you arrange his visit this time too?” Garret asked him playfully and Neal sighed with relief as the haunted look left Garret’s face.
“No, but I bet Alex did.” Neal replied, referring to the ship’s X.O., or captain when Garret wasn’t on board.
“She probably did.” Garret said with a smile. “Have I ever mentioned that both Harrington and Lukas are original members of the original Adamant’s crew? So many of the others are dead, like
“Who was
“I sure hope that we’re blowing things out of proportion here.” Harrington said as they prepared to open communications again with Calos. Garret sat in his command chair, idly watching Neal as he sat at one of the engineering consoles while the crewmember whose station it was leaned over his shoulder and explained what he did there. By the time the boy was sixteen, he’d have a damn good idea of what went into making a ship, and a fleet run. That led to a course of thought Garret didn’t have time for right now. Eventually he’d have to figure out what role Neal would play beyond companion and pseudo-child.
Not today though.
“I have Captain Melmaker on the line now, Admiral.” Markal said from his station.
“On screen.” Garret said and it was a measure of how distracted he was that he began to wonder at the history of that phrase. The Republic hadn’t used video screens, ever. Most combat displays were holographic in nature, ever since the invention of the Derlin transformer that made the energy cost of a hologram about the same as an image on a flat screen. Garret shook his head as he realized the hologram of Melmaker now stood in front of the helm station and had said something to him.
“…traffic control is no longer backed up, Admiral.” Melmaker finished saying and Garret was able to piece together what he’d meant by the end of the sentence. “You can bring your ships through at anytime.”
“We’re slightly delayed, Captain.” Garret said with a frown. “
“Sir, I must be honest with you.” Melmaker frowned as he spoke. “The doctors can’t promise your wife is out of danger yet. She’s improving, but not that much. Your presence at her side could make all the difference in the world.”
“It’s only an hour more, Captain.” Garret snapped angrily. “We’ll update our position with the transponder every five minutes. Adamant out.”
The image of Melmaker disappeared from the hologram and Garret turned to look at Harrington who was rapidly pressing commands into her keyboard. The false anger slipped from Garret’s face and he waited slightly impatiently until she finished typing in commands and looked up to nod at Garret. Then he turned around fully to look at the situation table, aware that every pair of eyes on his bridge was looking at it as well, and he was quite certain every other bridge in his fleet was the same, including the Tarawa, which cruised one kilometer away from the Adamant on her port side.
“By the Richters, it’s worse than we thought.” Montagne whistled slowly as the image of the Calos system appeared above the table.
“Observation satellites three to twenty were not responding.” Harrington said, referring to the military observation satellites that had been in orbit around Calos. They were either destroyed or shut down now. “The four satellites you had me place in orbit without local military command knowing are still in place and operating in passive mode. Observation satellites one and two are still operational, but are being controlled directly by the Braxix Fire Control base. We tapped into their signals from one of your special satellites for this image. It’ll update every five minutes when we transmit our position update to the traffic control transponder.”
“Let me guess where the coordinates they sent us will place us.” Garret said sourly as he got up from his chair and went to stand in front of the table for a closer view. Neal was at his side, hugging him tightly and looking at the same ring of ships that Garret was studying.”
“What’s that big ship there?” Neal asked, pointing to what looked like an old double-barrel shot gun with a long series of control towers down the middle.
“That, young man, is the most feared ship in the galaxy: An Imperial Space Control Ship.” Captain Harrington said as she got up and went to stand on Garret’s other side.
“How many of those things does Earth have?” Darenal asked as he moved to stand on the other side of Harrington.
“The Republic saw six of them during the war.” Garret answered softly as floating heads began to appear along the bottom of the holographic table.
“The Republic saw the first one when the Empire successfully took Calos the first time.” Montagne answered with dread in his voice. “Those barrels are actually launch tubes. That thing carries more fighters and bombers than four fleet carriers. In addition, it has massive point defense batteries that will obliterate over a hundred torpedoes in the blink of an eye, and laser cannons capable of scrapping any ship that gets in range.”
“Don’t forget its missile batteries capable of launching a thousand missiles at one time.” Harrington added.
“Four of them were destroyed during the war.” Garret reminded them as the last group of officers appeared on his screen.
“The Federation lost three Mother Ships taking one of them down.” Billy’s voice said from the holographic table.
“The battle carriers Janus and Mollari got another one after they rammed the thing.” Devers, the captain of the
“Are those troop carriers in orbit already empty?” Leondra, the commander of the Anwhal asked with a frown. “How many troops do they represent?”
“One hundred and twelve thousand troops on those ships, and it looks like they are still conducting landing operations.” Mjolnar said. “We’re still pulling up the logs from the satellites, but it looks like this all started about the time we went to Obduros. Melmaker ordered Republic units to stand down as the Imperial fleet rolled into Calos. The Paul Richardson tried to break orbit and head to the accelerator, but it was fired on and destroyed by Calosian defense satellites. The order to fire came from the local Republic HQ, transmitted under Captain Melmaker’s authority.”
“He is a traitor.” Garret breathed hoarsely as his mind tried to gibber in panic. His son was down there, and his wife. Was Masako really in intensive care? Had the damn Imperials put her there? Or was she alive and prisoner? He had no way to know. As for Paul, he was certain his son was probably alive, and being held as a potential hostage.
“Admiral?” Harrington said softly, and Garret realized he had zoned out from the conference.
“My apologies, I was a little distracted.” Garret said softly. “Please repeat that.”
“We do not have the ships or the firepower to take on this fleet.” Horace Batlan, commander of the Clemenceau said stiffly. “We must contact Fleet Headquarters on Peladon and request immediate reinforcement.”
“The fleet doesn’t have the resources to take them on head to head, with them knowing that we know.” Billy said fiercely. “We must attack now, while they do not know that we know they are there!”
“That would be suicide!” Batlan countered. “Your son and wife are down there as well! Gentlemen, I have the greatest respect for the both of you, but you must recuse yourselves from this situation.”
“No!” Several voices shouted at once, and Garret was grateful for their support. A plan began to form in his mind as he studied the image. It was close to a suicide mission, but they had the element of surprise on their side, an element that may just be strong enough.
“Montagne, get precise fixes on these locations.” Garret ordered after pushing the button that would mute the voices of the call in all directions. With his other hand he circled several locations. “We need to be able to jump ships into those locations at a very exact position. The jump calculations have to be precise, I’m talking within meters.”
“I’ll need
“Shut down every non-essential system that is using her resources, except for the calculations, the data feed from Calos, and this conference call.” Harrington said in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. Garret nodded at her before turning the mute command off. For a second he thought it was still on because all of the ship commanders remained silent.
“I will not recuse myself from command.” Garret said in a firm voice. “I will not lie to you. The fact that my wife and son may be dead, or in enemy hands does worry me, but I will not decide a course of action based on their safety. My decisions over what we will or will not do from here will be based on the best interests of the Republic and the planet of Calos.”
“Fine words, but do you really expect us to believe them?” Batlan said scornfully.
“I do.” Harrington said in a firm voice. “I have served with Admiral Atrix for longer than any of you except his brother, Commodore Lars. He means every word of that.”
“I do as well.” The captain of the Pollux said firmly.
“He has my full faith as well.” Devers said from the bridge of the
“What are your orders, Admiral?” Batlan said with a sigh when they were all done. “I hope you will not send our crews to fiery deaths on a suicide mission.”
“We will lose many ships, but they will not be lost in vain.” Garret said with a deep breath as Montagne finished the calculations for the first position. “Watch your screens as they are updated, you should begin to see the shape of what I have in mind. First, let me say that I would dearly like to inform Republic Fleet Command of this situation, but I don’t dare do that for several reasons.”
“What are those reasons?” Batlan asked in a very neutral tone.
“First, we know Leonev has broken nearly every code we’ve come up with for wave-fold communications.” Garret answered. “If he knows, and guesses that we are diverting forces to Calos, he’ll know he’s got breathing room and may strike out again while the rest of our fleet has to deal with the Imperials here. Second, if we do it, you can assume that Melmaker has the right codes to get the message we send, and his Imperial masters will know that we know they have taken Calos. Any attack from that point on will be expected. Right now they believe that we do not know, and that we are about to jump into that ring of ships they have waiting for us. The coordinates they sent put us right in the middle of them, sitting ducks for them. If we had jumped to those coordinates, they would have destroyed all of us in mere minutes, and taken a good portion of the Republic’s fleet down. Calos would be theirs, unchallenged for at least five years or more, depending on if the Republic was able to take Leonev before the Empire sought to take another planet.”
“They must be working in concert with Leonev.” Billy said firmly. “If we had not had to send the fleet to Lemos, Melmaker would not have been able to betray us like this, and we’d have had enough firepower to last long enough for the Republic to send reinforcements. As it is, we are stretched too thin. If the Empire gets a firm foothold on Calos, the Great War will look like the good old days. The Federation can’t even be counted on to come to our aid. They have their own problems with the Pembry rebellion.”
“So you’re saying we have to throw our lives away now?” Batlan asked. “We might take a few of them with us, but we’ll still be dead and the Republic will still have lost an entire fleet.”
“Half of a fleet.” Garret said with a frown. “That is my opinion on how heavy our losses will be, and they’ll lose almost every ship in their fleet in return.”
“You’re good, Admiral, but are you that good?” Batlan said with wide eyes. Even he had to admit that their fleet wasn’t the most powerful in the Republic. For the Empire to lose a Space Control Ship and so many other capital ships without the Republic losing a battle carrier would be a victory, any which way you looked at the situation.
“Yes, I am.” Garret said with a smile, and began to prove it as he laid out the bare bones of his battle plan. They had less than thirty minutes to complete it, because Garret doubted he could allay Melmaker’s suspicions longer than that. Batlan may not have wanted to die in a fiery death without good cause, but he was a Republic officer, and when Garret finished his plan he nodded his approval before making a suggested change. That opened the flood gates, and after fifteen minutes Garret cut them off, giving his approval to the best of the ideas. That left fifteen minutes for them to issue briefing orders to their own crews and pilots. The conference ended as they went to work, and Harrington began issuing orders to the Adamant’s crew.
Can you do your part? Garret asked
I can.
Have you found any mention of Masako or Paul in the intercepts from the satellite’s log? Garret asked.
Masako was alive as of a day ago, in Imperial custody.
How do the Imperials come into this? Garret asked her.
Cartwright claims to have accepted an offer from the Prophet-Emperor to protect Calos and allow the planet to determine its own future.
Do the people of Calos really believe this drivel? Garret asked rhetorically.
No.
“Admiral, you’ll want to hear this.” Montagne said from his station at the table and Garret turned to face him.
“What is it?” Garret asked.
“Republic troops at four bases have broken out of confinement with the assistance of Calosian National Guard troops.” Montagne said with a wide grin. “They’re fighting back and the Imperial ships in orbit are trying to maneuver in order to bomb them, but at least one of the bases has gotten its planetary defense batteries operational. They just shot down a Sampson-class troop transport that appears to have been almost completely full! That’s eight thousand troops down!”
“Transmit to Captain Baltan that I want his group to move in support of these positions.” Garret ordered just as his time ran out and Melmaker’s call came through the communications board.
“Aye sir!” Montagne said, and Garret had to trust the man knew the rest of the proper orders to give. He was having a hard time with trust at the moment, but he had no other choice. A nod to Markal put Melmaker’s holographic image back on his bridge. Behind him Montagne had shut down the holo-display so Melmaker could not see that Garret knew about his treachery.
“Admiral, any update on when you’ll be coming through?” Melmaker asked. “Traffic control is complaining that they have to hold up two freighters until your fleet has appeared. Also, the doctors just sent some good news. Masako may be waking up anytime now!”
“That’s good news.” Garret said with a false smile. What he really wanted to do was kill the man right here and now. “
“I’ll have a hover-car waiting for you at the space port.” Melmaker said with a happy smile. “It will take you directly to the hospital.”
“Thank you, Captain.” Garret said with a smile of his own. “I look forward to seeing you very soon.”
“Likewise, sir.” Melmaker said. Garret had said six minutes so they could get one last update from the satellites.
“I want to kill him.” Harrington said softly.
“If he’s still alive when we re-take the planet, he’s mine.” Garret growled, looking around for Neal. The red-haired teen walked back onto the bridge at just that moment with his damn holo-camera on his shoulder. Garret almost told him to turn it off, but decided that he would let Neal have his fun. The smile on the boy’s face was too much for Garret at the moment. A surge of grief broke over him as he thought of his son, and his wife, but he pushed that aside. He needed to focus on the battle as the countdown clock someone had put up above the helm station reached zero.
“Jump.” Garret ordered and reality winked out for a second before returning and placing Garret’s fleet in the middle of hell.
As both the Empire and Republic knew, Calos was a system full of asteroids. That meant ships jumping into the system had to appear several hours conventional travel away from the planet itself. Earth had sent the pride of its fleet on this venture to retake the world that was the Gateway to the Republic. On the bridge of the massive Space Control Ship Fury of God, God’s most awesome weapon, the commander of the Earth fleet strode his bridge, waiting for his quarry. His stark, red and black uniform was tailored to fit him like a second skin, and he knew he looked every inch the Imperial Officer leading the forces of God to victory. Already today they had captured eight Republic freighters, including one carrying important military components to the Calosian shipyard. That freighter, the Merlinda was under escort now to the planet where its cargo containers would be stripped bare.
“We have jump events!” One of his crewmen called out and he turned to look at his tactical hologram. It showed four ships appearing in the target zone. From their sensor readings it was the lead ships of the force commanded by the abomination Garret Atrix. He smiled at the computer images of the Adamant, Retribution, Clemenceau, and
“Open fire!” He ordered and smiled as the ring of twenty-six ships opened fire with long-range missiles and lasers. His own ship fired two thousand independently-seeking anti-ship missiles, more than enough to destroy the enemy fleet without any other weapon hitting a target.
“We have more jump events happening!” The same crewman called out and the Earth Admiral smiled again. The new arrivals were just in time to be hit by his first volley. If he was lucky there would be no need to fire a second. Then he frowned as the computer image updated with the positions of the new arrival. His frown deepened as the images of the four primary targets disappeared to be replaced with the images of small scout vessels that were even now accelerating. They were too small for his missiles to target, and fast enough to escape before the lasers retargeted them.
“Orders?” His ship’s commander asked him, and for one fatal second, he was struck speechless by his surprise.
Garret wasn’t speechless as Adamant appeared exactly five hundred kilometers directly below the behemoth Space Control Ship. His ship was pointed ‘upwards’, so that the maw of his fully charged mass driver cannon was pointing directly at the lower hull of the enemy’s greatest ship. All of his ships were oriented like his, either above or below their targets in a random pattern.
“Open fire, all weapons and launch all fighters.” Garret ordered. The Imperials had six squadrons already in the air, and the ground-attack fighters from his ship, the
All around the ambush site, Republic forces turned the tables on the Imperial ships with an ambush of their own. Imperial commanders were trained to wait for orders, while Republic commanders were trained to follow battle plans and orders, but to also think for themselves. The element of surprise as well as the inherit pause before the Imperial ships adjusted to the new situation meant death for the Imperials.
The
Eight Imperial destroyers and two cruisers blew up from the first salvo of the Republic vessels. The victorious Republic captains ignored the cheers of their crews, ordering their ships to accelerate and head for their next targets, larger ships that had not yet blown up. The Imperial Admiral recovered from his moment of speechlessness and began issuing orders, beginning with his lower laser batteries to open fire on the abomination’s flagship. A corner of his mind noted the small group of Republic ships that had made a very dangerous jump deeper into the Calos system. From what his screen showed, at least two of them had tried to appear in space already occupied by asteroids, and were no longer in existence. The rest, including a Republic escort carrier and three heavy transports towing eight full containers each accelerated towards the planet and the near-defenseless Imperial ships in orbit there.
They weren’t his immediate concern. Once he dealt with the gnats biting at him from below, he could take care of them. Focusing on the situation, he winced as one of his battle cruisers exploded from shots fired by two Republic destroyers. He was thrown from his feet by the impact of the mass driver rounds fired by the Adamant. The first one had been destroyed by his point defenses, but it had taken nearly all of them on that side of the ship to destroy it, and the next two slammed into his fighter launch tubes on both sides. Before he picked himself up off of his deck, he began to sweat, and a niggle of fear shot through him with the realization that the gnat wasn’t really a gnat, but a very pissed off hawk with very sharp talons.
“How long until mass driver recharge?” Garret demanded as he smiled at the explosion from the Space Control Ship’s two launch bays.
“Three minutes.” Darenal replied. “Torpedoes are reloaded.”
“Target the same points and fire.” Garret ordered. “When the mass driver cannon is ready, target the centerline, one thousand feet forward of their stern. That should be their missile bays.”
“Yes, sir.” Darenal said with fierce pleasure.
“Shift laser targets to their anti-ship lasers and open fire!” Garret ordered, praising the fact that Imperial ship designers placed no missile launchers on the underside of their massive ship. On the top, in the front, the rear, and on either side the ship had dozens of launchers, but not down here. Also, the massive behemoth couldn’t maneuver nearly as well as his beautiful ship, which began shaking with the impacts of the larger ship’s laser cannons.
“Armor’s holding, by a hair!” Harrington reported. “Give it another minute and they’ll boil it!”
“Darenal, target those lasers!” Garret reiterated, and when the hologram showed another ship approaching he bit off a curse. Then he smiled as the Imperial destroyer was devastated by fire from a Republic destroyer claiming its second kill of the day. The Republic destroyer then accelerated quickly, heading to support the flagship of its fleet. “Tell that destroyer to focus its fire on the SC ship’s laser cannons!”
“On it, sir!” Markal reported.
“Eighteen enemy ships destroyed.” Montagne reported. Not bad for less than three minutes of battle.
“Sir, should we maneuver?” Harrington asked.
“No.” Garret ordered. “We need another mass driver shot before we maneuver.”
“Armor’s starting to boil.” Harrington said as the ship shook again and
The giant Space Control Ship stopped firing and Garret sighed with relief. The modified virus wasn’t one the Imperials had yet countered, and their flagship had left communication ports open so it could issue orders to its fleet. More ships stopped firing as the virus spread.
“Yes!” Harrington crowed in delight.
“Don’t relax now, pour it on!” Garret ordered and the crew of the Adamant bent hard to the task of taking out the enemy’s laser cannons while they waited for the mass driver to rearm. More Imperial ships blew up, decimated by their enemies while the computer virus shut down their weapons systems and put them through a diagnostic cycle. It wouldn’t last long, but it would last long enough that the Imperials lost another battleship and two more battle cruisers.
“Their commander has ordered them to pull back!” Meritz, one of the communications specialists called out. “They’re using the same encryption as they did at the battle of Galundon!”
“That’s why we try not to let them know we can hear them.” Garret said aloud, but he was letting a sliver of hope flicker in his chest. “What’s our fleet status?”
“Clemenceau’s group is moving.” Montagne reported. “They lost two ships, both destroyers in the jump. We’ve lost six destroyers and the
“Their weapons are powering back up!” Lukas shouted.
“Mass driver ready to fire!” Darenal added.
“Fire, and follow with torpedoes!” Garret ordered. This time the mass driver fired all three rounds at the same target, and four torpedoes followed them. The huge ship’s weapons came back online just in time to open fire two seconds before the first mass driver round impacted the ship’s armor. It tore through it like it was paper, and exploded two hundred feet inside the ship. The second round penetrated another hundred feet and exploded just as the third round hit the outer armor fifty feet from the first round’s impact. Four torpedoes followed the second round, although one was destroyed before it could enter the gaping hole. The other three ignored the fire as it fed on the ship’s oxygen and reached up deep into the ship, piercing the vessels weapons magazine. The third torpedo exploded inside the magazine itself, setting off three thousand anti-ship missiles from inside the heart of Earth’s greatest warship.
“Back us off! Back us off!” Garret shouted when he saw the explosions. His gut told him he wanted to be as far away as he could. Adamant was at a dead stop when he gave the order, and as his helmsman flipped the ship over on its keel and engaged all engines at maximum thrust, it shook with renewed laser fire from the massive Imperial ship. Behind them the massive ship shook as the missiles in its aft magazine exploded in a chain reaction from his torpedoes. That explosion caused more, and a huge shockwave emanated from it as four of its main reactors and the entire contents of its fuel bunkers exploded at once. The Republic destroyer Rob Fire reacted too slowly, mostly because it was heading towards the Fury of God at its top acceleration speed. It couldn’t reverse speed and head away like the Adamant, and the shock wave shook the small destroyer apart.
On the Adamant, the ship shook as the shock wave hit, and system after system overloaded with energy discharges. Fires started on multiple decks while other decks lost all their air as the hull breached in several spots already weakened by laser fire from the Fury of God. Sixty-three crewmembers died, and the ship’s Chief Engineer dispatched damage control teams as he tried to keep his own ship’s reactors from overloading.
On the bridge, Garret looked around the bridge, noting that almost half the stations were not operating, and blessed the fates that the holographic display in front of the helm was still working. The Republic had just destroyed a fifth Imperial Space Control Ship. If nothing else, history would remember that fact from this day.
“What have we got left?” Garret asked Harrington when she had taken a minute to review the damage control reports.
“We’ve got half-power for now.” She replied first. “Hangar bays are both still operational, and we have all of our weapons systems. I won’t vouch for how much of a pounding we can still take, and we lost about a third of our point defenses.”
“Helm, set course for that battle cruiser, bearing three-six-nine, azimuth plus fifty-three.” Garret ordered with a grim smile. “Maximum acceleration we can manage.”
“Aye sir.” Came the response.
“Alex, have Mjolnar’s marines standing by.” Garret ordered. “We’ll provide covering fire with torpedoes for them.”
“Aye sir.” Harrington said with a sigh, wiping the sweat from her brow. Even the Imperials knew they were defeated at this point, but they fought on in a fighting retreat towards Calos. Clemenceau turned around with three of her escorts, launching her fighters after decelerating and then beginning to accelerate away from the planet. Her change in direction meant the Imperial ships that had planned to ambush Garret were now caught between Garret’s main battle fleet and the escort carrier. Meanwhile the rest of the destroyers and the cruiser that had jumped deeper into the Calos system continued their charge towards the planet.
Forty minutes later, the first part of the battle was over.
All but four of the Imperial battle cruisers that were still alive fell to the weapons of Garret’s fleet. The other four were boarded by Marines from the Adamant and the Anwhal. Battles still raged in the corridors of two of those ships, but two of them were now in Republic control. That didn’t mean the Marines were ready to fly them into combat, but their crews were either dead or surrendered, and the Republic would later be able to take the ships apart for valuable intelligence data. Half of the ships in Garret’s fleet had been destroyed by the Imperials, but he formed the remainder up and set a course for Calos at half of his ship’s normal acceleration rate. Retribution was still leaking air from two hull breaches, but Billy’s crew had gotten most of the fires out from the pounding they’d taken by the last Imperial battle cruiser. His ship was down to less than half of its weapons systems, but its engines were actually in better shape than Adamant’s.
The Clemenceau had taken minor damage but was recovering its fighters, even as Adamant was recovering the four surviving fighters from its own wing. They would be rearmed and prepared for launch when they reached Calos orbit in four hours. First though, Garret had to deal with the fire control base on Braxix.
“Attention Braxix, this is Rear Admiral Garret Atrix. Please respond.” Garret transmitted an hour later as they neared the orbit of the planet. His forward most ships had slowed down, allowing Garret to catch up to them. Now they moved in a group, even as the Imperial ships still in orbit began to recall their troops instead of dropping them onto the planet. Already four of them were headed for the accelerator, which would hurl them to jump speed before Garret could get near them.
“This is Braxix base, Commander Derrick Freeman in command.” The base responded to Garret’s hail on audio only. “Do not approach Calos. You are not wanted here.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Commander.” Garret said calmly. “By your statement, I am forced to declare you acting in treason on the battlefield. Under Article 63, as senior officer in system, I sentence you to death. Any crewmember of your station who does not immediately execute you and assume command will also be considered acting in treason on the battlefield. If in five minutes I have not heard that command of the station has changed and the base is standing down, we will open fire.”
“You served on this moon.” Freeman’s voice held a sneer. “Drop nukes if you want, we’ll still shoot your ships down.”
“Braxix has three minutes remaining.” Garret said calmly. Harrington looked at him with a frown. Devin wasn’t on the bridge, but if he had been he’d be smiling right now. It was he who had planted a little surprise on Braxix while Garret and Aaron had visited the room Garret had once shared with Arthur Lewis. He’d never told Aaron about the real purpose of that visit, and a little voice he hated now said that might have been a very good thing.
“Your time is up, Braxix.” Garret said when the clock had reached zero. “What’s the decision?”
“If you approach any further, you will be destroyed.” Freeman’s voice said sternly.
“Very well, every person on that base is to be considered a traitor, and I hereby order their execution.” Garret stated in accordance with military law that gave a battlefield commander the right of summary execution of any Republic soldier or officer who failed to obey orders. He leaned forward and typed in a series of commands into his console before leaning back and closing his eyes. When he opened them, the moon was erupting with multiple nuclear explosions as her planetary defense batteries exploded. Two more explosions announced her planet-based laser cannons overloading. The combined force was more than enough to destroy the entire base, and rip apart whatever atmosphere was left on the moon. From this moment on, it would be just another lifeless planetoid with only the memory of life.
“Holy shit.” Darenal whispered. “What was that?”
“A backdoor program inserted into the base’s computers last year.” Garret said softly, regretting having to do that. Then again, not too far behind him floated the wreckage of nearly fifty ships, and the bodies of nearly thirty thousand human beings. He was not the one who had put all those people in harm’s way.
“Stand down as much as possible.” Garret ordered. “Two hours rest except for damage control crews.”
“Aye aye, sir.” Harrington reported. Neal got up from where he’d been sitting all this time next to Montagne and sat in Garret’s lap, hugging him.
“You okay?” Neal asked softly.
“Yes.” Garret said. “Just worried about Paul and Masako.”
“They wouldn’t dare hurt them now.” Neal said confidently. It was a confidence Garret could only wish he possessed. Two hours later the ship was in slightly better condition, and its crew had relaxed a little bit. They were more confident now, and Garret was wishing he shared their renewed confidence as Markal opened up a general broadcast channel.
“Attention Imperial ships currently in orbit of Calos.” Garret said calmly while watching the dot that was Clemenceau, flanked by two undamaged destroyers as they headed to the accelerator at top speed. They’d beat the first of the Imperial ships there, and would have more than enough firepower to destroy anything the Empire had left in the system. “This is Rear Admiral Garret Atrix of the Republic Navy. Your defensive fleet has been destroyed. You are outgunned. We will destroy your ships if you do not surrender. Any Imperial troops on the planet’s surface should lay down their arms and surrender immediately. President Cartwright, Captain Melmaker, and any member of Cartwright’s government is to be arrested immediately, as are all officials from the Empire, including religious leaders. Failure to comply will result in immediate and swift action.”
Garret motioned for the channel to be cut, and Markal complied while Garret studied the front holo-display. Two more ships were leaving orbit, racing to the accelerator. Obviously they had not yet seen the Clemenceau, and did not know their flight was in vain.
“Message coming in from the planet’s surface.” Markal stated. “It’s video.”
“On screen.” Garret replied and his hands tightened on the arms of his chair as Neal screamed out from where he was again sitting next to Montagne. He recognized the lean, silver-haired Archbishop Frunze that had been sent as the Empire’s ‘ambassador’ to earth. Next to him was Bishop Torrellini. Torrellini was holding Paul so that the child’s face was towards Garret. Another priest, one whom Garret did not recognize was holding
“Greetings, Abomination.” Torrellini said in an awful, cheerful voice. “The Archbishop will not soil his office by speaking with the likes of you. As you see, we have your child, and the child of your so-called brother, William Lars. You have won the day up there in space, but we hold precious cards here on the ground. Our terms are simple. You will allow our remaining ships to depart without being molested. In return, we will leave these children in an escape pod before we enter the accelerator. I suggest you reply immediately.”
“I…I can’t do it.” Garret whispered while making a gesture to tell Markal to put the transmission on mute. He turned to Harrington with tears in his eyes. “Alex, I know what I should do, but I can’t give the order. I…I step down from command. You respond.”
“I…I can’t do it either.” Harrington said softly, lowering her head.
“Captain Batlan on the line for you, sir.” Markal’s voice was filled with sympathy. Garret felt both pain and hope at those words and nodded to turn and face Batlan’s image.
“You heard?” Garret asked unnecessarily.
“I heard.” Batlan said.
“Good, I’m putting you in command.” Garret said firmly. “I can’t do it, and I won’t make Billy make this choice either.”
“Oh no you don’t.” Batlan said with a shake of his head. “You’re the one who put us in this place, and you were right. I’ll support and abide by whatever decision you make, but it will be you that makes that decision, Admiral.”
“I can’t do it.” Garret protested, pounding the arm of his chair and staring at the image of his son in the hated Bishop’s arms that was still on the forward holo, next to the image of Batlan who was looking at him with sympathy, as was everyone on the bridge.
As with all my stories, E provides immeasurable input, grammar checking, and all those other lovely editing thingies that make the story so much better!
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