Battleship Avenger (Conquest of Stars Book 2) (10 page)

“I do,” Antrar
replied taking his seat on a single cushion on the side and Rockvyk sat down on
the sofa in front of Dartar. “And this is Chief Detective Rockvyk.”

“We are familiar
with each other,” Rockvyk said, “We usually meet at one or two parties a year
hosted by Commander Carvyk.”

“Yes, I know
Rockvyk,” Dartar said, “And I know he likes cigars, care for one yourself Com
Antrar?”

“Sure,” Antrar
replied. Dartar had already placed a decorated box of cigar on the small table
in front of him and he offered one each to Antrar and Rockvyk. He lit up his
own cigar then passed the lighter around and waved for the Starship Guards who
had escorted his guests to leave them.

“Sorry my VC could
not be here, he was promoted to his own starship and I have not been assigned a
replacement,” Dartar said.

“Actually, Com
Dartar it is because of Com Raptor Warwyk that we wanted to see you,” Antrar
said.

“You met him?”
Dartar asked puffing his cigar.

“But don’t ask
how,” Antrar replied.

“He told you to
come see me for something?” Dartar asked.

“It was something
he said,” Antrar said, “that you had tracked the assassin who tried to take out
Nestorian vice-chancellor on your starship scanners from the moon orbiting around
Bravo all the way to deep space.”

“Yes so,” Dartar
said.

Rockvyk almost
jumped hearing the nonchalant tone of Dartar’s reply, “Commodore, are you
really saying there was a second assassin?”

Dartar realized
what he had blurted out, put aside his cigar and leaned forward. The room had sound
proof walls but he whispered, “I see. Is SPASI investigating this?”

“No,” Rockvyk said
and looked at Antrar.

“But Army
Investigations should,” Antrar said.

“Look, since
Raptor has already told you, Com Antrar, and you have told detective Rockvyk, I
will confirm. There was a spaceship that rapidly accelerated away from the
moon. After Raptor was given command of
Conquistador
and had left, I
sent a team of Strike Soldiers from our starship to the approximate launch
location of the assassin’s spaceship and found an observatory nearby with two
dead astronomers and someone had used the telescope, probably as an enlargement
scope for a laser rifle.”

“Why is army
hiding this?” Rockvyk asked, “and why not share with SPASI. We know secrets
have to be kept to avoid embarrassment to the Army.”

“Embarrassment to
the Army?” Dartar picked up his cigar and leaned back, “More like embarrassment
to Commander Carvyk.”

“Is he the one to
put out the official version of a single, Nestorian assassin for that attempt?”
Antrar asked.

“Who else can slap
an official silence order on a starship commodore like myself?” Dartar said.

“But why?” Rockvyk
asked.

“You are a
detective, SPASI man, figure it out,” Dartar said, “Sounds pretty simple to
me.”

“Yes, of course,”
Rockvyk almost startled himself, “A Nestorian assassin means it was an internal
intrigue amongst themselves and this news of an attempted coup coming out of
Nestor only confirms that. But another assassin, a hired Starfirian one, means
there are individuals in Starfire Empire, powerful individuals, who didn’t want
VC Remus to invoke the protection clause.”

“Alright,” Antrar
said. His mind had been gasping towards this thesis and Rockvyk had laid it out
clearly. He knew more than either which only confirmed this theory further in
his mind. “Commodore Dartar, would you be willing to go on record in front of
an Army Board of Inquest about this?”

“If you can get
House of War to establish one,” Dartar said, “Why the hell not? Even if
Commander Carvyk comes out of it without blemish and his rank intact, he can’t
do jack to me. I am due to retire in a year or two anyhow. Indeed, this old
warhorse is due for decommission about the same time as my retirement, that’s
why my reassigned officers like Raptor and Tollvyk haven’t been replaced
either.
Conquistador
is meant to round up the standard thirty ship
frontier fleet after
Victory
.”

“You seem to be
convinced about Com. Carvyk’s malfeasance,” Rockvyk raised a brow.

“Off the record
and just between us, I never liked him,” Dartar said, “But this isn’t the only
strange behavior on his part.”

Antrar and Rockvyk
looked at each other and Rockvyk shook his head. He hadn’t heard of anything
else.

“You wouldn’t know
of this Rockvyk, these are internal army matters,” Dartar said, “First, he
promotes my VC Raptor to Starship Conquistador’s highest rank and selects
officers like Tollvyk? I am fond of my junior officers, but there is a reason
these boys were on this ship that is forever stuck in orbital duty, never being
assigned to chase smugglers or patrol our space borders where they may have to
do actual warfighting. Why not the best officers from the Sixth Frontier Fleet?
For that matter, why not the best officers from our whole Empire, all the top
graduates of Space Warfare Academy and battle experienced veterans majority of
whom stock the Central and Core Fleets?”

“Strange decision
on Carvyk’s part indeed,” Antrar said, “Though I have to say in Raptor and
Tollvyk and rest of that company’s defense they have stepped up to their
responsibilities big time and if I had to pick one Starship Commodore to fight
alongside me it would be Raptor.”

“Is that so?”
Dartar was slightly surprised, “I am glad my boys are doing great.”

“I wasn’t one of
those top ten percent graduate of the academy,” Antrar said.

“Neither was I,”
Dartar said, “But that brings me to the second strange matter. After Commodore
Raptor’s message of his battle reached our capital, House of War has decided to
send half of the Sixth Frontier Fleet to Nestorian Republic to defend it
against any further invasions from these Mercurians. However, they have
appointed Commodore Segwyk Rafter of Starship
Masterpiece
as the Battle
Star Commander. Can you believe that? Now I don’t want to sound sour, but you
know me, I fought in the late war Com. Antrar, although I was posted far away
from your location, at the far edge of our frontlines.”

“Yes, our
frontlines stretched almost a thousand light years across,” Antrar nodded.

“I am the only
Commodore in Sixth Frontier with battle experience, but Carvyk overlooks that,”
Dartar said.

“But appointing
the Star Commander for a battle theater is a decision for the Supreme Commander
of the Army,” Antrar said.

“Supreme Commander
doesn’t know the records and talents of officers posted in the far flung
frontiers, he stamps the recommendation he gets from the Regional Star
Commanders,” Dartar said, “For that matter, why not Commodore Raptor himself?
Given his past record isn’t exemplary, but it has always been the official
policy of Starfire Army to prefer actual combat experience over a better
peacetime record when it comes to assigning command and duties, especially when
the said combat experience is above expectations. But no, they choose an
officer whose talent is polishing boots.”

Rockvyk laughed
and Antrar looked at him surprised.

“Rockvyk knows,”
Dartar motioned to Rockvyk with his chin.

“He means Com.
Segwyk can be seen at the parties always hanging around Com. Carvyk and
flattering him,” Rockvyk said.

“He is Carvyk’s boy,”
Dartar said, “He isn’t even the best non-experienced commodore, more like the 5
^th
or 6
^th
amongst the 29 commodores of Sixth Frontier.”

“Then the reason
must be simple,” Antrar said, “Carvyk is trying to take control of the
situation and what better way than to have his own loyalist become the top
ranking officer of all Starfirian forces in Nestorian space. This is bad for
Commodore Raptor for he will have to take orders from Segwyk.”

“Exactly,” Dartar
said, “Whatever Carvyk is cooking, he is sending Segwyk over there to keep a
lid on it.”

“Alright Com.
Dartar,” Antrar said getting up and Rockvyk followed him, “I don’t need to
remind you that we can’t be on the visitor’s list.”

“Joking right?
Carvyk would blow a gasket on my face if he finds out I talked to a SPASI
detective,” Dartar said, “I can’t help further but you get that inquest going
and I will spill my guts to them.”

“Appreciate,”
Antrar said.

Antrar and Rockvyk
got up and took Dartar’s leave who remained behind in the room while the Starship
Guards posted outside the door escorted them to the space shuttle they had come
abroad. The guards had kept the rest of the crew away from this bay and they
departed the orbiting starship with few eyes noticing their exit.

After their
shuttle had started descending into Bravo’s atmosphere, Rockvyk scratched his
chin in puzzlement and said, “What I don’t understand is why send your protégé
Segwyk all the way to Nestorian space to silence commodore Raptor? He could
just as well slap a silence order on him and his officers like he did on
commodore Dartar.”

“Detective
Rockvyk, remember I said this matter was a lot bigger than just the
assassination attempt,” Antrar said as he reduced the speed of descent of the
shuttle. They would not get privacy like this anywhere else.

“What is it?”
Rockvyk asked.

Antrar gave him a
summary of the events beginning with when he boarded
Conquistador
as a
guest and representative of a plasma weapons company, however he described
their battle against unknown spaceships in transit in some detail and gave his
reasons for believing why they were Starfirian Army’s own battle vessels. Rockvyk
jaw’s hit the floor of the shuttle and his eyes widened to transform into large
circles of bewilderment with a slight tinge of fear, his fingers twitched and
he was at a loss of words.

“I…this is…Com.
Antrar this is more than just a coverup, it is treason if it’s true,” Rockvyk
muttered.

Antrar nodded his
head calmly.

“What are we going
to do? What should I do?”

“You wait,” Antrar
said.

“Wait, but why?”
Rockvyk asked.

“Because there is
one more person I need to meet,” Antrar said, “I need to know how the Lambda
Man is involved in all this. Then we can decide our next move. These people
have infiltrated our army, but SPASI may be clean, we will definitely need you
to run an investigation.”

“Who is Lambda Man
and can I meet him?” Rockvyk asked.

Antrar laughed,
“It’s a secret group not a person. And the man I am trying to meet, may not
talk with you. I need to go first, I will send you a secret, encoded message.
You can set that up, can’t you?”

“Yes, SPASI has
encoding machines to create one time ciphers,”

“Await my signal,
I won’t be long,” Antrar said.

They did not speak
afterwards while their shuttle slowly descended to the planet’s surface.
Antrar’s thoughts were on his journey ahead while Rockvyk was still grasping to
digest the dangerous revelations he had just heard.

Capitan Agnosis
Wornus saluted General Bakus in the hallway of the headquarters of Nestorian
Battlefleet. After Agnosis had been released by the Starfirians, he was ordered
to fly his spacefighter out here to meet with Bakus. He smiled at Agnosis and
said, “welcome back.”

“General, I really
did not know that the Mercurian battleship had been totally disabled and was
marked for capture…” Agnosis began to speak apologetically when Bakus waved his
hand in the air, turned around and muttered, “follow me.” They started walking
down the hallway.

“You did right,
Capitan,” Bakus said, “Do you really think the Starfirians would have shared
the secrets they might have discovered from reverse engineering that
spaceship?”

“Why not? We are
their allies,” Agnosis said.

“Allies,” Bakus
scoffed, “We are their protectorate. See how they detained you without as much
as consulting us.”

“That was some
bullcrap,” Agnosis said, “excuse my anger, General.”

“Of course it
was,” Bakus said, “how did they treat you?”

“They didn’t hurt
me,” Agnosis said, “But I was restrained with steel chains, or some strong
metal alloy like steel, and put in a small metallic cell onboard starship
prison.

“I will have you
examined by a doctor before our departure,” Bakus said.

“Our departure?”

“We are going to
hit the Mercurians right back,” Bakus said.

“Absolutely right,
General,” Agnosis said, “I would have hated to be left out of that mission. But
Battleship
Defender
was in no state to travel, let alone fight last I
saw her in space.”

“I had you
transferred abroad Battleship
Avenger
,” Gen. Bakus said, “I need a
spacefighter commander with the guts to lead an attack against planetary
defenses about which we don’t have the slightest clue. Who better than a pilot
bold enough to attack an entire battleship by himself?”

“I am your
spacefighter comm…”

“You are promoted
son,” Bakus took out his identification card and scanned it to open a big
metallic door that they had reached at the end of the hallway. It was a large
room containing a small auditorium and a multitude of battleship officers sat
upon the benches that faced down towards a central point with a large table and
a big chair behind it. A projector to create a holographic space map and a
stick were the only items on the table.

Everyone stood up
when they saw Gen. Bakus enter and saluted him.

“At ease
everyone,” Bakus said then turned to Agnosis, “take a seat anywhere.” Bakus
walked down the stairs towards the table where Major Joules was standing with
his hands behind his back. Bakus turned around and faced the room.

“Officers, all of
you have been chosen for a special mission,” Bakus said, “to crew our newest
and most powerful spaceship ever: Battleship
Avenger
. I will discuss our
goal in a minute, but first take a look around you, if you haven’t already. All
of you come from different battleships, but a majority of you are either from
Defender
or my own
Republic
. I deliberately selected many officers including
Major Joules who will be my second in command from a battleship that has had
extensive practice coordinating battle tactics with planetary defenses because
that is what we will be going against.”

Capitan Agnosis
looked around the room and sighted Tolus, Porus, Tagg, Jovus and Xanus amongst
others from
Defender
.

“Turn off the
lights please,” Bakus said and Joules flicked a switch on a small remote in his
hand and the room became near pitch dark. Then he pressed another button and
the projector came alive beaming a three dimensional space map above the table
with stars represented by blinking lights, planets as white circles and
Nestorian space bathed in green light. A red arrow connected to a bold, red
circle at the far end of the map. Bakus picked up the glow in the dark stick
and pointed to that red circle.

“That is our
target,” Bakus said, “That is the only inhabited planet of the Mercurians that
we are aware of. Our primary objective is to destroy the military
infrastructure on this planet. Depending on the damage we sustain, we may or
may not try to target the industrial infrastructure as well. That will be our
secondary objective. We only have one battleship for this mission but that
should be sufficient since Mercurian’s entire fleet took varying degrees of
beating. There is a good chance we may not make it back, but we owe it to our
people to avenge them. We lost over two hundred thousand of our battlefleet
crew with as many civilian deaths and their numbers are still climbing. The
actual attack plan and your roles in it will be finalized abroad
Avenger
.
The target is 87 light years from planet Blackskull and our journey will take
approximately three weeks. Any questions?”

“General, what is
the larger, strategic objective behind a rapid retaliation?” Porkus asked,
“There are rumors that Starfirians have dispatched a large fleet for our
protection. Why not wait?”

“First let me say
that those rumors are actually true,” Bakus said, “Their Supreme Commander sent
a message to our Chancellor that they are sending 15 starships. But they are
not going to attack Mercurian Empire but guard our space. With their
involvement, no doubt the Mercurians will be forced to negotiate. However,”
Bakus raised the stick to emphasize his point, “the terms of peace may not end
up favorably for us if we don’t display our own strength. We need for
Mercurians to believe that we can strike back at them, only then will they show
us respect and heed our interests during ceasefire talks.”

“We are assuming
that Mercurians don’t have any fresh battleships,” Agnosis said, “which is
unlikely since they wouldn’t have sent their entire fleet and left their home
planet unguarded.”

“Good observation,
Capitan,” Bakus smiled, “But by the same token, they aren’t going to send
battleships away from their home planet. By the time any reinforcements arrive,
we will be long gone. We aren’t planning on taking and holding that planet.”

The room stayed
silent after Bakus’ comment and Joules turned off the projector and turned on
the lights. He stepped forward.

“Battleship
Avenger has been towed to Nestor’s orbit,” Joules said, “the crew has begun
boarding. Me and General will lead you to it now. Follow us.”

General Bakus and
Major Joules walked up and out into the hallway and the officers followed them.
They walked up the stairs to the rooftop of the headquarters where a large
transport shuttle was waiting for them. They boarded the shuttle and it took
off skyward.

Their estimated
time of arrival was half an hour and Bakus and Joules took their seats in a
small, private compartment that was separate from the larger, open space filled
with the officers. When the shuttle settled into a steady ascent, Agnosis
walked over and knocked on the window in front of Bakus. Joules opened the door
and let Agnosis in.

“Sorry to disturb
you General,” he said.

“What is troubling
you, capitan?” Bakus asked with a wry smile.

“Will Roofus be
coming with us?” Agnosis asked, “He was the one who discovered our target
world. He was also inside a Mercurian battleship.”

“I know you
escorted him to the planet,” Bakus said, “and that was one more point in your
favor: you grasped the importance of Roofus’ spy work and were able to see the
larger picture. I had to trade him to the Starfirians for your freedom but he
has told us everything that he witnessed.”

“Trade him for
me?” Agnosis said, “I would rather you had left me a prisoner than…”

“Relax capitan,”
Joules chuckled, “He isn’t their prisoner. He is only there for examination and
will be returned to us.”

“Why aren’t we
waiting for him?” Agnosis asked, “He can be used as an advanced scout. He has
the fastest spaceship in Nestorian Republic and he has been there before.”

“I have a bigger
use for him back home,” Bakus said, “Just amongst us. I have left a message for
him when he gets back. He is to quietly investigate the late coup attempt and
find the top conspirators.”

“But…” Agnosis
said.

“That will be all
for now, dismissed capitan,” Bakus said.

Capitan saluted
him and went back to sit with the rest of the officers and Joules closed the
door.

Their shuttle flew
closer to
Avenger
and many of the officers got up from their seats and
walked over to the windows for a better view. Battleship Avenger was twelve
miles long at its longest and four miles wide at its widest. It was painted a
deep shade of green that would have been in place in a dense forest. The
structures protruding from the main hull were outlined in blazing gold.

The officers were
filled with pride at their latest and biggest spaceship and at being selected
to crew it for its maiden mission. They also renewed their determination to pay
the enemy back for the havoc it had wrecked on their home planet.