Against All Odds (17 page)

The fire coming from the Tsgardi ships had already diminished considerably when the Colorado was jarred by a torpedo detonation.

Almost before the ship had stopped vibrating, the helmsman was announcing, "Admiral, we've lost the starboard Sub-Light engine."

"Can you compensate with thrusters?"

"Not with the type of maneuvers required."

"Are the stern engines intact?"

"Aye, Admiral, so far."

"Tactical, where's the task force?"

"They'll reach us in— eighteen seconds."

"Helm, get us out of here. Head towards the task force."

"Aye, Admiral," the helmsman said as he keyed in the information and engaged the engines.

Almost immediately the Colorado was speeding away from the fight as they accelerated towards the task force at Sub-Light-100. Seconds later the task force, heading towards the Tsgardi ships at Light-9375, passed them by so quickly they were just a blur on the sensors.

"Helm, all stop." Via her CT, Jenetta said, "Engineering, I want a damage assessment on the starboard Sub-Light engine immediately. Just the bad news, not a thorough assessment."

"Aye, Admiral," she heard, "Give us twenty minutes."

"You have five. There's still a battle being waged back there."

"Aye, Admiral, we'll have a preliminary report for you in five minutes."

"Carver out."

"Engineering out."

Jenetta sat in her bridge chair staring at an image of space on the large monitor while she waited. To an observer she was icily clam, but inside she was in turmoil. She hated being sidelined while her ships were engaged in battle, but she forced herself to appear calm for the benefit of her crew. In four minutes and forty-eight seconds, she received a message from Lt. Patricia Gorci, her chief engineer.

"We took a direct hit to the starboard nacelle, Admiral. The torpedo tried to fly up through the exhaust. It's pretty ugly, but it's still out there. If it had been a standard tritanium nacelle, it would have been ripped away, along with a good portion of the hull in that section, but the nacelle contained the force of the blast and the ship's hull is intact."

"Is the engine usable at all?"

"Negative. We'll have to break it down to see if anything is salvageable, but our preliminary look using a vid bot indicates it's had it."

"Thank you, Patricia. Are we all buttoned up again?"

"Affirmative, Admiral."

"Okay, we're heading back to the battle site then. Carver out."

"Engineering out."

"Helm," Jenetta said, "Take us back as quickly as possible, but stay wide of the site until we know what the situation is."

"Aye, Admiral."

In seconds, the ship had come to a stop a thousand kilometers from the battle scene. It only took one glance to determine the battle was over and the SC task force had been victorious. The outcome had ever been in question, but Jenetta was relieved to have her expectations proven.

"Message coming in from Captain Erikson, Admiral," the com operator said. "Now the other captains are hailing us as well."

"Put them all up on the front monitor," she replied.

Almost immediately an image of Captain Sandor Erikson of the Themis appeared, followed by images of the other captains.

"Is everything alright, Admiral," Captain Erikson asked as the eight-way conference setup was complete.

"We took a torpedo hit to our starboard Sub-Light engine," Jenetta replied, "so I felt it best to get out of the way before you arrived. We couldn't continue to fight without it because it restricted our ability to carry out the necessary maneuvers in sub-light."

"Was anyone injured?"

"No, the hull remained sealed, but we'll need some repair time before we can fight again. How about all of you? Any casualties?"

"We're fine," Captain Erikson said, a sentiment echoed by the captains of the other ships.

"Good."

Actually, you didn't leave much for us, Admiral," Captain Sandor Erikson of the battleship Themis said jokingly. "They were all either partially or totally out of commission when we arrived."

"There were only thirteen of them, Sandor," Jenetta said in the same lighthearted vein. "We'll try to find you a larger group next time." Then, turning serious again, she added, "From the way Admiral Kelacnius spoke, I'm assuming this is a full-scale invasion by the entire Tsgardi military. Our intel is that they have over three hundred ships and, while their ships are inferior to our own, they have a decided numerical superiority, so I don't expect them to turn around and head for the border. We'll have to drive them back or wipe them completely out."

"This is going to be a turkey shoot," Captain Neil Elder of the battleship Boreas said.

"Let's not get overconfident, Neil," Jenetta said. "As the damage to the Colorado shows, we still have to be very wary of torpedoes. Now that the shooting is over, let's do the grisly work. Send out your search and rescue parties to see if anyone is left alive aboard those hulks. Don't take any chances. If they don't want to be rescued, leave them, but make sure the ship is permanently disabled and unable to send any messages back to their headquarters after we leave."

"Aye, Admiral," the ship captains answered before beginning to organize search parties composed of Marines and Engineering personnel. The Marines provided the force in capturing prisoners and the engineers provided the expertise to rescue trapped Tsgardi from airtight compartments.

Once the Tsgardi ships were searched and cleared of any enemy warriors found alive, the dead were photographed and had their elbow prints recorded before being stored in empty shipping containers. While the grisly work progressed, engineers were busy uploading the contents of each Tsgardi ship's computer to the Themis' system where Admiral Kanes and a few of his intelligence people waited to begin their work. When the uploads had been completed, engineers began permanently disabling the ship's systems and anchoring the broken hulls together so the ships could be moved to Coleman Space Command Base once the station was again in Space Command hands. For the time being they would be left in space with a warning buoy about the navigational hazard and a warning not to board the ships. The warning probably wouldn't stop scavengers from trying to salvage the ships but, if caught aboard the ships or with scavenged parts in their possession, the charges against them would be compounded because they had chosen to disregard the trespassing warnings from Space Command.

Admiral Kanes and his people spent days interrogating the Tsgardi prisoners and combing through the computer files. Thousands of written documents and tens of thousands of vid messages had to be viewed, translated, and fit into the picture the intelligence people were trying to construct. The combination of efforts enabled Admiral Kanes to develop a clear understanding of the problem in front of them.

Aboard the Colorado, Jenetta raised the com screen in her briefing room when informed Admiral Kanes was calling.

"Hi Keith. How goes the effort?"

"We're only partway through the documents and vid messages, but I've got a pretty good idea of what we're facing, Jen. The situation is far worse than we expected. Are you available for a face to face?"

"Sure, Keith, come on over."

"I'll be there in twenty minutes."

Jenetta pushed the screen down and thought about Admiral Kanes' words. She almost wished she had made him tell her on the com what he had found, but she knew it must be so serious he didn't want to risk anyone overhearing him or somehow intercepting his encrypted transmission. His ominous words, 'The situation is far worse than we expected,' would echo in her mind until he arrived.

~ August 29
^th
, 2282 ~

Kanes entered Jenetta's briefing room when invited and sat in one of the two available chairs facing her desk. He sighed deeply while staring at the floor, making Jenetta think the news was so bad he didn't know where to start.

"I'm listening," Jenetta said.

Looking up he said, "It appears we are currently at war with the Tsgardi, the Uthlaro, the Gondusans, and the Hudeera. They've signed a mutual aggression pact in which they vow to expel us from Region Two and divide this territory up among themselves."

Jenetta stared at him for a few seconds before responding. "I understand now why you were reluctant to say that over an open line, even one with standard ship-to-ship encryption. Are you sure of your facts?"

"Yes. I got the story first from some of the Tsgardi we interviewed. They wanted to brag that we didn't stand a chance even if we had surprised their battle group with a new ship that could absorb hundreds of laser pulses and still manage to fight on. But I didn't totally believe it until we reviewed plans we found in their computers and viewed some of the recorded vid messages."

Jenetta said somberly, "I can accept the Tsgardi and the Uthlaro, but the Gondusan and Hudeera connection doesn't make sense. Their forces are limited. They can't make much more than a token contribution to such an effort."

"That's true, but the Tsgardi say the Uthlaro insisted they be involved to make the pact more acceptable."

"Acceptable?"

"I suppose they meant
acceptable
to the various alien races in Region Two. They apparently want to portray us as marauding conquerors and themselves as beneficent liberators. Of course, the planets in the territory will have to swear allegiance to the new government as soon as they're annexed and they have no choice about belonging to the new government."

"You're absolutely sure of all these facts?" Jenetta asked. "The Uthlaro, Gondusan, and Hudeera are definitely involved?"

"To the extent that the documents can be trusted." Handing Jenetta a data ring, he said, "Here's a transcribed copy of the plans we found, plus all other pertinent documents and messages we've decrypted so far. The ring also contains several of the more revealing interviews with Tsgardi prisoners. The Tsgardi have pledged three hundred ships, the Hudeera thirty, the Gondusans seventy, and the Uthlaro have pledged more than six hundred."

"
More
than six hundred?"

"Yes,
more
than six hundred."

"But I thought the Uthlaro only had half that many?"

"Apparently they have far more than we ever suspected."

Leaning back in her chair to look up at the ceiling, Jenetta said, "That means we're facing about a thousand ships."

"Nine hundred eighty-seven, as of now."

"Just a tiny drop in a very large bucket. Captain Elder said this was going to be a turkey shoot, but if they come at us in force we're going to be the turkeys. If the intel is correct, the Uthlaro Military warships are not only far faster and better protected than Tsgardi ships, but also faster and better protected than what they've been willing to sell the Raiders."

"The Uthlaro have promised that in exchange for their participation in this pact, the Tsgardi will get the help and materials they need to make their ships as powerful as ours. New developments have been non-existent in Tsgardi warship construction since their program began and they fall further behind everyone else each decade. The promise of new technology had to be the motivation behind the Tsgardi decision to take on an adversary far stronger than themselves."

"Have the Uthlaro discovered the secrets of Dakinium or Light-9375?" Jenetta asked, sitting up again.

"We don't believe so. One of the Tsgardi bragged that soon they will have tritanium hull plating and Light-375 speed capability that rivals ours."

"That's something of a relief," Jenetta said.

"Even when the rest of our M-designate ships arrive, we're going to be outnumbered almost fifteen to one, facing enemy warships with tritanium hulls and at least Light-375 speed. As you said, if they come at us in force like the Milori did, we're going to be the turkeys."

"I still have trouble believing the Hudeera and Gondusans are involved in this. We just helped them recover territory the Milori had seized during decades of confrontations."

"Apparently, the promise of a new, greatly expanded territory was too strong a motivation to ignore."

"It also doesn't make sense the Uthlaro would give a share to the Hudeera, who would only be contributing thirty ships."

"That is rather odd," Keith agreed.

"What's the plan? When did they intend to announce they had declared war on us and when do the Uthlaro plan to attack?"

"They don't plan to tell us about the war until they deliver the ultimatum in person at Quesann. They believe we'll have no choice but to sue for peace and agree to leave
their
space. The Tsgardi say the Uthlaro have also begun their part of the campaign. They're moving across the border and driving through our territory, absorbing space stations and treating our border like a collapsing balloon. They've also sent hundreds of ships to the Gondusan and Hudeera border areas to beef up the groups crossing the border there."

"If they already have forces positioned near the Gondusan and Hudeera borders, they've been planning this for some time— definitely before we defeated the Milori. Unless our intel is wrong and they've overcome the single-envelope speed barrier."