Against All Odds (25 page)

"And every Uthlaro you encountered fired at you?"

"Affirmative. They don't want to be rescued."

"Then we'll respect their wishes because we're not simply going to release them and let them go on their way." Walking to her bridge chair, she took her seat. "Com, hail the Nile."

"Lt. Commander Sammuthy is standing by," the com operator said.

"Put him up on the monitor." When his image appeared, she said, "Commander, it appears that all our people were executed within minutes of entering the ship."

"Yes ma'am. We were watching the feed from the helmet cams."

"Since the Uthlaro don't wish to be rescued and we can't just leave them here, we're left with only one option."

"Yes ma'am. I can definitely live with that."

"They were your fellow crewmembers. Would your gunners like to finish our business here?"

"I'm sure they would."

"Then have at it, Commander."

The Nile's laser gunners opened fire on the Uthlaro ship and didn't stop until there was no doubt every part of the ship had been depressurized. It was possible some Uthlaro could have survived in EVA suits, escape pods, stasis beds, or shuttles, but there were no pressurized corridors they could use to spring ambushes. The Danube's tug joined the Nile's tug for the trip back to the original site of the battle. The tugs would continue to jam the IDS band until the Uthlaro ship was searched again. The Nile and the Danube would return to the battle site at Light-9375, while the tugs would proceed there at their top speed of Light-75. It would take them almost an hour while the scout-destroyers would be back in less than thirty seconds once their envelope was built.

* * *

The situation at the original battle site was progressing normally except that it appeared several Uthlaro ships were in considerably worse shape than when the Danube left.

"How did you make out, Captain?" Jenetta asked when Commander Durland contacted her.

"I have bad news, Admiral. Commander Stephan Cross and six of his crew are dead."

"Dead? What happened? Did the Uthlaro ship come back to life and get off a torpedo?"

"No ma'am. Commander Cross led a rescue party aboard the Uthlaro ship before we returned. It appears they were captured. The ship tried to escape using their Sub-Light engines while telling the Nile's First Officer they would kill the rescue party members if the Nile took any steps to incapacitate the ship further. When I caught up with them, I took it upon myself to destroy their Sub-Light engines. The Marines I sent in found the bodies of the missing rescue party. According to the reports filed by the platoon leader, the rescue team had been executed by laser pistols fired at close range. Their suit monitors indicate they were dead before we even left the Boreas with the Marines. The Marines encountered heavy resistance so once they had recovered the bodies I ordered them out."

"And the Uthlaro ship?"

"We couldn't leave them and they refused rescue, so I allowed the crew of the Nile to finish our work there. Our tugs are hauling it back and it should be here within an hour, but there are no pressurized areas remaining in the ship."

Jenetta nodded. "Good work, Captain. We've had similar experiences here. Our search and rescue parties were also fired upon and we had no choice but to end the careers of the Uthlaro warriors who refused to surrender. We also have no survivors to worry about."

"Do you suppose it will be like this with every Uthlaro battle group, Admiral?"

"I don't know, but it certainly looks that way. We'll be prepared now if that turns out to be the case. What was Commander Cross doing aboard the Uthlaro ship?"

"Commander Cross was a— bold officer, who sometimes failed to follow the strictest interpretation of the orders he was given. When he offered to have his people search the ship for survivors, I repeated your standing orders that only Marines conduct the search-and-rescue missions. I ordered him to wait there with his prize to ensure it didn't suddenly come to life. He did remain with the Uthlaro vessel as ordered, but he chose to conduct a rescue mission personally."

"And his boldness cost him his life and that of six of his crew."

"Yes, ma'am. I can't say what he was thinking when he undertook that mission."

"Thank you, Captain. Your crew can stand down for a while. We'll be here for at least several days, perhaps a week. I want our engineers to survey every part of the Uthlaro ships looking for weaknesses we can exploit the next time we encounter them and they can't start their examination until our Marines have eradicated every last vestige of resistance."

"Aye Admiral. Danube out."

"Colorado out."

As Jenetta returned to the report she was working on, she shook her head slightly and murmured to herself, "There are old pilots and there are bold pilots."

* * *

"The surrender of the Tsgardi Empire has been amply confirmed," Senator Prime Emmeticus said, addressing the Gondusan Planetary Senate in special session. "We have received a communication from Prime Warlord Kalisnacos himself. He admits he doesn't know how she could have destroyed his fleet so easily, but every word Admiral Carver spoke has been verified as accurate. We should assume her threats to destroy our planet and annex our entire territory will be likewise true unless we recall our ships and cede the recovered territory to her immediately. We don't know how much longer she will wait. I leave it to you, senators."

"Carver may have destroyed the Tsgardi fleet," Senator Neodeet Literamus said, "but that doesn't mean she can beat the Uthlaro. We know how powerful their ships are. They promised us their protection if we joined the pact."

"The Uthlaro are far away, trying to absorb Region Two. Carver can come here, do what she has threatened, and be gone before any of our ships can return, or the Uthlaro can arrive," Emmeticus said. "One of the battle groups sent by the Tsgardi was destroyed not far from our border. Carver could have come here already if she wished."

"You can't know that," Literamus said. "She might still be on Quesann, hundreds of light years from here."

"And she might be a light year away, just waiting to hear our answer, or preparing to strike if we don't respond."

"We can't simply surrender unconditionally. Not without firing a single shot," Literamus said.

"We can and should," Emmeticus said. "Our involvement in this pact should never have happened and the sooner we're out of it, the better off we'll be."

"But she insists we surrender all the territory we took back from the Milori. That was our territory to begin with."

"And that's the price we'll have to pay for starting this foolish venture. It's better than losing all our territory and witnessing the destruction of our world."

"I move we put it to a vote," Literamus said.

* * *

"Their military ships are an order of magnitude above the stuff they sell to others," Commander Davis Swarth, senior engineer aboard the Themis said, as he pointed to the large image of an Uthlaro destroyer hovering above the holo-table at the front of the room. The conference room was the largest available aboard the Themis and it was crowded. Every officer at or above the rank of Lt. Commander was in attendance. Many were forced to stand around the outer walls of the room.

"Their hulls are composed of three layers of tritanium with self-sealing membrane, making even their destroyers as resilient as our pre-Dakinium hulled Prometheus-class battleships. Each frame section is a separate airtight compartment. Additionally, no crucial functions are located outside the core of the ship, so punctures and torpedo strikes kill very few key personnel. We have to hope we hit vital areas that will incapacitate the ship because simply opening sections to the vacuum of space won't do it.

"We have identified several areas we should concentrate on during our battles. They're the most vulnerable points and will stop the Uthlaro ships faster than random strikes. Of course, targeting their engines will stop their movement, but it doesn't incapacitate their laser arrays or prevent them from firing torpedoes."

Swarth said, "Computer, change image to wire representation." The solid holo-image of the Uthlaro destroyer immediately changed to a wire view of the same ship. Using a pointer to indicate a spot on the image of the Uthlaro destroyer, he continued with "All gunners should concentrate their fire on this area amidship, just above and behind the maneuvering engine nacelles, and pour everything we've got into that point. The central computer for the ship is located there and if they lose that, they lose all shipboard functions. It's well shielded with tritanium, so we really have to clobber that spot. Other than that, target their temporal envelope generators so they can't escape, and their torpedo tubes so they can't fire on us. We can pretty much ignore the laser arrays until the other points are neutralized because they have no effect on the Dakinium. That's all we have, Admiral. The Uthlaro have done an excellent job on the design of these ships."

"Thank you commander," Jenetta said. "In how many cases did we stop the Uthlaro by destroying the central computer during the most recent engagement?"

"In almost every case, Admiral. Although we weren't targeting it, we lucked out in eight out of ten ships. From examining the logs, we've learned that the ship that managed to reach Light Speed probably had the least damage in that part of the ship until the Nile peppered it following the recovery of our people."

"Is everyone clear on the points to target?" Jenetta asked.

Everyone in the room nodded or voiced their understanding.

"I've appointed Lt. Commander Soren Mojica of the Yangtze to replace Commander Stephan Cross as commanding officer of the Nile, and Lt. Adel Baran will advance to first officer of the Yangtze. All except the captains and their first officers are now dismissed."

Jenetta waited until most of the officers had left and the doors of the conference room were closed before continuing.

"As you all know, the electronic debris field didn't work with the Uthlaro, so we'll discontinue use of that procedure. We got that system from the Raiders and the Raiders do a great deal of business with the Uthlaro, so the Uthlaro may have even developed that system originally. When we activated the sending units, the Uthlaro simply continued as if unaffected. I also expect that their helmsmen have been trained to override the ACS system as soon as they sense the debris field because the Uthlaro ship the Nile chased couldn't be stopped when a ship crossed its path. The ACS had to have been deactivated by that point. They must have stopped solely to engage us. If we assume other Uthlaro captains are as eager to engage, we'll simply use our presence to stop them.

"We've recovered the WOLaR torpedoes we fired, refueled them, and returned them to our armories. We'll discontinue their use in
stopping
the Uthlaro, but we shouldn't ignore their use in
fighting
the Uthlaro once we engage since we now know how difficult it is to destroy their ships and that they won't surrender while they have an ounce of strength left.

"Now that we've been briefed on the points our gunners should target, I'd like to have each of the scout-destroyer captains assign two of their best gunners, one each on the larboard and starboard sides, to concentrate solely on the temporal generator. If a shot at the generator is impossible due to the tangential track, those four gunners should concentrate solely on the torpedo tubes until a shot at the generator is possible. I'd like you battleship captains to assign half a dozen gunners on each side of your vessel to target the same points. Our first goal must be to stop the Uthlaro from escaping the battle site. The envelope-merge maneuver is too dangerous to make it a regular part of our plan. By stopping them from leaving the battle site, or limiting them to Sub-Light speeds, we can simply pound them until they can't fight anymore."

"I know that in the past," Captain Sandor Erikson said, "we hesitated to use the WOLaR torpedoes on single ships because there wasn't very much left afterwards, but I think we should change that policy towards the Uthlaro, Admiral. We've seen they won't surrender while alive, so we know we have to utterly destroy them."

"Yes, you might be right. Admiral Kanes, have your people had any luck with the computer cores we recovered?"

"Not yet, Admiral. As Commander Swarth said, we stopped eight of the ten Uthlaro vessels by destroying their central computer. The cores were damaged in all eight. In the other two, the cores were damaged in the later destruction of the ship when the crews refused to surrender and continued to fight. We'll keep working on them, but we have very little intel so far, except for our knowledge of their ship construction and their ferocity. Based on what we know of the previous border crossing points, we should pretty well be able to predict where we'll find the next Uthlaro/Gondusan battle groups."

"I wonder if the Gondusans we allowed to pass unmolested even know their shadow is gone?" Jenetta mused.

"I suppose it depends on how closely they're working together," Kanes said. "Were the Uthlaro their coconspirators or their guards?"

"You think the Uthlaro were there to drive them on?"

"Perhaps that's the intent if they falter. The Uthlaro have to know the Gondusans aren't as aggressive as they are. I was surprised they were involved when I learned of the pact's signatories. The Uthlaro must have promised them protection from us."