Battleship Avenger (Conquest of Stars Book 2) (14 page)

Commodore Raptor
and Vice-Commodore Barryett had returned to the command room. Raptor had asked
Col. Jarvyk to send him a copy of the report of Nolfus’ autopsy and he was
reviewing it on his terminal. He had found it unusual when he had first heard
that the leader of the coup had been found dead but the battle against
Mercurians had totally occupied his mind. He had meant to read the report then,
but now he had some free time. Half of the command room officers were on break.
Raptor had decided to reward his crew and to get them rested and recuperated.
He had ordered the Crew Admin section to be generous with grants of furlough.
Conquistador
was floating in the orbit around Nestor like a leisure resort space cruise and
the only required work were the minor repairs on the shields and routine
maintenance.

 “VC Barryett, I
didn’t realize that Col. Jarvyk thinks the coup leader Nolfus Berrum had
co-conspirators,” Raptor said. Barryett hadn’t seen the report yet and he
walked over and up the stairs to the Commodore’s station.

“That is
interesting,” Barryett said, “Unfortunately we can’t do anything about it.”

“I know and I
don’t like it,” Raptor relaxed back in his chair, “They could try again and we
will have to impose ourselves again.”

“You can make a request
to the Nestorian chancellor to carry out an extensive investigation,” Barryett
said, “after all he owes his chancellorship to you.”

Raptor laughed, “I
won’t save him next time if he allows another insurrection to fester.”

“You won’t have
to,” Tollvyk chimed in from his section, “He is bringing in his own soldiers to
save his hide.”

“Huh?” Raptor
blurted.

“Tune your
terminal to any Nestorian channel,” Tollvyk said, “I was scanning their motion
picture relay stations to see what type of entertainment these folks make and
all of them are carrying the same news.”

One of the
commodore’s assistant sitting below the station sent him a channel frequency
and Raptor switched his terminal to receive transmission from it. Their
starship carried powerful receivers to grab an entire planet’s signals.

The Nestorian news
broadcast was announcing that Chancellor Solus was scheduled to speak in a few
minutes and asking everyone to standby.

“Commodore, we are
picking up twenty-five troop transports just outside the solar system on our
long range gravitron scanners,” Horyett said, “Computer indicates Nestorian
manufacture, largest transport ships in their inventory, and total capacity is
ten thousand soldiers per ship.”

“Just as Col.
Tollvyk said,” Barryett said, “Solus is cleverer than we give him credit for.”

The local news
channel now changed focus to the inside of the Senate building where Chancellor
Solus was standing behind a podium getting ready for his speech.

“Capitan Dorrvyk,
put chancellor’s speech on one of the big screens,” Raptor said.

Dorrvyk switched
the display of one of the big, front screens to show Solus live on air fiddling
with his mic.

“I will bet
thousand stars that the first word out of his mouth is peoples,” Tollvyk
chuckled.

“Peoples of
Nestorian Republic,” Solus began and the Starfirian command room guffawed.

“We were beset
upon by two enemies,” Solus said, “One from the outside whom our brave soldiers
in our battleships defeated.” Many Starfirians scoffed at his negligence in
mentioning their role. Solus continued, “and as I have always said, soldiers
are just peoples with fancy costumes.” This elicited a small laughter from many
including Raptor and Barryett.

“But we also have
an inside enemy. Its name is elitism and the coup is just a manifestation of
it. Some in this Republic think they are better than others,” Solus scoffed on
the podium, “their types were behind the coup attempt. The Republican Guard is
an organization that is staffed by their types. Children of the rich, the
wealthy and the officers. It is not the common peoples army. The Senate has
prevented my bill to disband it from passing. However, the Senate cannot stop
me as a Chancellor from commanding the army. I have ordered two hundred and
fifty thousand soldiers of Nestorian Infantry Corps to Nestor and they should
be here in a few hours. They will protect this peoples republic from the
elites.”

Solus gave a final
serious look to the cameras and then walked away from the podium.

“Cut it off,”
Raptor said to Dorrvyk and he switched the screen back to the original display.
“What do you think?” Raptor turned to Barryett.

“Like I said,
Clever,” Barryett said.

“But he doesn’t
trust their Army,” Raptor said, “We put him up to it.”

“Look at this
screen Commodore,” Barryett pointed to a terminal showing the troop transports
in space with identifications and numbers attached to them. “Their call sign:
N-27; that is their 27
^th
planet
Hope
, home planet of
chancellor Solus, he is the senator from Hope.”

“Not much hope for
those poor folks,” Tollvyk chuckled.

“Toll…” Raptor
said and Tollvyk muttered sorry under his breath but he was still grinning.

Raptor pressed a
few keys and pulled up information on planet Hope. “Population is around 700
million, one of the five most populated. The strength of Infantry Corps there
is half a million, or was before Solus grabbed half of them.”

“We gave him
lemons and he made lemonade,” Barryett said, “The way it is, Nestor is
protected by a hundred thousand strong Republican Guards while rest of their 59
planets have garrisons of Infantry Corps. What is significant is that the
entire infantry force on a planet is made up of soldiers originating only from
that planet. That means they are very sympathetic and loyal to their own senator.”

“Solus has his own
personal army and elections are coming fast,” Raptor said, “Nestor has the
largest population and most votes and it is here that Remus can win big and win
the chancellorship. But Solus’ loyalist troops could stuff ballots and we can’t
do anything but watch, gawk like owls from above.” Raptor slammed his fist on
the table in front of him, “I installed Solus expecting him to lose the coming
election. Now the Constellation is going to flip out on me.”

“Don’t worry
Raptor,” Barryett put his hand on Raptor’s shoulders. Raptor turned to look at
him and realized that Barryett could have been a much older brother.
“Constellars can grit their teeth, but you won a huge battle and Starfirians
have always loved a warrior hero above every other type of man, above even gods
when our ancestors believed in such.”

“Commodore,”
Dorrvyk spoke excitedly, “A direct message from House of War by the Supreme
Commander. Topmost priority.”

“Secrecy level?”
Raptor asked.

“None,”

“Read it aloud,”
Raptor said.

“Starfire Empire
is dispatching fifteen starships from the Sixth Frontier to Nestorian Space to
protect it from any further Mercurian incursions and invasions…”

Before Dorrvyk had
even finished reading the full message there were joyful cheers in the room and
Raptor and Barryett smiled at their officers.

“… and they have
appointed Commodore Segwyk Rafter of Starship
Masterpiece
as the Battle
Star Commander of all Starfirian forces in Nestorian Republic.”

Raptor instantly
turned his head to look at Alvina who bit her finger at the mention of Segwyk
and appeared disturbed, looking around restlessly.

The cheers in the
room died down right away and many officers looked at the Commodore.

“Hell? Segwyk has
no battle experience…” Tollvyk blurted out.

Raptor was angry
but he kept his face calm. He looked at Barryett whose face muscles had all
tightened displaying a completely serious expression and his eyes were wide
with anger of his own.

“It is good news that
our Supreme Commander has decided to send a large force to reinforce us,”
Raptor announced to the room. He didn’t say anything about Segwyk. “I will be
in my personal quarters for those who have scheduled an appointment,” he said
glancing at Alvina and catching her eye for a second, “VC Barryett, you have
the command.”

Barryett saluted
him and Commodore walked down to the command room floor and walked out. He
couldn’t wait to meet Alvina. He had apparently misjudged her and she had some
explaining to do.

Raptor sat in his
large, spacious living room behind the round table smoking his cigar and
waiting for Alvina. He was going to offer her whiskey but the latest revelation
had made him change his mind, it had even made him angry at her. He had thought
of her as a sweet and lovely lady whom he yearned for. But at this moment he
felt no desire.

Alvina knocked on
the door and Raptor pressed a button on a remote to open it for her. She walked
inside and stood in front of him in attention.

“At ease, Capitan,”
Raptor said and she relaxed a bit. But he did not offer her a seat because he
intended to grill her. He looked at her carefully. She was a tall girl and he
liked tall girls. She wore her long, lush hair in a ponytail. She had a long
face that narrowed triangularly at her chin. She was attractive but no great
beauty. But Raptor had no eyes on any strikingly beautiful women. He had always
wanted a woman who would be a great companion not one who would be an arm
candy. But all these thoughts had to take second place now.

“What did you want
to tell me about Commander Carvyk?” Raptor asked matter of factly.

“It is him…” she
stuttered, “and Segwyk too.”

“It cannot be a
coincidence Capitan Alvina,” Raptor said, “That you were romantically involved
with Commodore Segwyk, then get assigned to my spaceship by Carvyk and now he
picks him, a man with no battle experience, to lead a war? He must have planned
it out in advance, to send him over here. And that strange ambush…what to say
of that?”

Alvina did not say
anything but stayed quiet and bit her lips. She tried to speak a couple of
times but could not start. He saw that she was getting distraught.

“I am
sorry…Commodore,” Alvina said, “I did not know it would come to this.”

“Tell me what were
you planning on saying to me about Com. Carvyk?” Raptor said.

“I wasn’t demoted
because I had a falling out with Segwyk,” Alvina said while fiddling with her
fingers, “That was Commander Carvyk’s idea. He told me that he had a special
mission for me. He told me that certain army officers were taking big bribes
from smugglers to allow contraband to pass through the frontier space during
their patrol duties. He said he had a plan to pack them all on one starship and
catch them red handed working with the smugglers.”

“Commander Carvyk
said having us – allegedly the corrupt crew – all together would mean that we
would turn our starship into a smuggling ship?” Raptor asked incredulously.

Alvina nodded her
head.

“Ridiculous,”
Raptor stood up. He threw his cigar at the wall, “Conquistador has a total crew
of 50,000; you couldn’t have believed Starfire Army would have that many crooks
and all packed in one fleet.”

“I had to follow
orders,” Alvina said.

“And how did he
plan to catch us in cahoots with the likes of Jiggermaster and other space
junk?” Raptor asked.

“The ambush…”
Alvina stopped, “That is when I started doubting him. That was supposed to be a
stop and search, just like we do to the spaceships suspected of ferrying
contraband. When they attacked us without warning I couldn’t believe it. I
thought there might have been miscommunications or misunderstanding. But the
war with Mercurians was real and after your words over the dinner, I decided I had
to come clear. Corrupt soldiers or not, we can’t fight and kill each other.”

Raptor could not
believe what he was hearing. He wished Tollvyk was here to say it out loud what
he himself was thinking but dare not express: Carvyk was one cunning rat bastard!
It was impossible that officers like himself and Tollvyk could aid the
smugglers; they were stuck on a starship that was reduced to permanent orbital
patrol of planet Bravo. But then again Alvina would not have known this.

“And what was
supposed to be your mission? To disable the LaserStorm system?” Raptor asked.

“No, that would
have been pointless, the juniors can take over,” Alvina said, “And you and VC
can override. I was to provide my codes and access cards to another of his
officers whom he put on this spaceship to disable its superweapons.”

 “That’s who
attacked Com. Antrar,” Raptor said. He walked over to his terminal and raised
his finger at her, “I am not arresting you, but you are as of now reassigned to
help find this saboteur.” Raptor turned on his terminal, entered his code and
connected to Capitan Styx who appeared on the screen a couple of seconds later.

“Capitan Styx
reporting sir,” he said.

“Capitan, round up
ten starship guards and come to my room at once,” Raptor said, “And bring
Detective Hartar along with you. But wait outside the door till I call you in.”