Tipping Point in the Alliance War (11 page)

“Helm,
Take us to the Brutus,” orders the Captain.  He wonders why he is moving
closer.  His logic says that it is better to have the two ships firing
from different positions, but his heart says that he needs to get over there
and relieve the pressure on the Brutus.

“Moving
sir,” responds the Helm.

As the
Courageous moves toward the Brutus, it becomes clear that there are fewer
Confederation vessels still in the fight.  The number of enemy ships still
firing is down to six.  The rest are either destroyed, or burning, or are
‘dead in the water’.  The Captain would bet that the ‘dead in the water’
boats have been boarded by Marines, and are now too engrossed in internal
turmoil to take part in the ship-to-ship fighting.  The Admiral’s flagship
is one of those ‘dead in the water’ boats.  The Captain doubts that the
Admiral is paying much attention to the rest of his fleet.

The
Courageous comes alongside the Brutus on its port side, where the damage is
most severe.  That will shield the Engineering section and relieve some of
the stress.

Major
Dawkins hails the Captain on the ship-to-ship com link.  “Thank you for
the cover, Captain.  We are a little exposed on that side.”

“My pleasure, Major.
 
Status?”

“Heavy
damage in most areas, sir,” reports Major Dawkins.  “Our shields are down
to eight percent and our life support systems are ‘out’ in about half of the
ship.  Warp drive is offline.  Two thrusters damaged.”

“We
would have little hope, except for the fact that the boarding parties have
taken control of three Confederation ships.  And my Marines are about to
turn some of their captured weaponry on the other Confederation vessels. 
All of that simulation training is paying off.  Each boarding party has at
least one person, who could maneuver a starship, and every Marine can fire the
Confederation ship’s weapons.”

“There
are Marines still fighting for control of four more vessels, none of which can
be self-destructed.  One of the captured ships is the Admiral’s flagship,
and I have been told that the Admiral died fighting, but so did our Captain
Baarg
.”

“Look! 
Our captured ships have begun to fire on the remaining enemy vessels.  We
have them surrounded.”

“Amazing,”
says the Captain.

And it
is amazing, too.  Once again the Marines have saved the day.  There
will be at least seven more captured vessels.  The six remaining enemy
ships are now taking fire from 5 Alliance controlled vessels.  All
Alliance weapons fire is being concentrated on the Engineering section, and all
Alliance controlled weapons target the same Confederation ship, until it is
destroyed – and then they move on to the next.

In a
matter of minutes, one of the enemy vessels explodes and another is spewing
flames.  The battle is now down to four enemy ships, against five Alliance
vessels.

The
battle continues for a couple of more hours, but the outcome is already
decided.  Two more captured ships begin to fire weapons, against the
remaining Confederation vessels.  That overwhelming volume of firepower
quickly finishes the battle.  The enemy ships that were not boarded fight
to the death, as ordered.

***

“What
to do,” thinks Captain Niles?

-
Well,
the first goal is to get the Courageous and Brutus back into stable condition,
with the warp drives working.  Time to prioritize:

1)  
Search the launch wreckage for surviving Marines, and care for the wounded on
both ships.

2) 
The Courageous, which is less severely damaged, will send help to the Brutus.

3) 
Shuttle all seriously wounded Alliance personnel to the medical facilities on
the Courageous.  (Auxiliary medical teams will be dispatched to the
recently captured ships, and will purpose to reestablish those ship’s medical
facilities - with the Confederation medical staff providing the care for
wounded Confederation sailors.)

4) 
The next thing to do is to dispatch more Marines, along with some Navy security
personnel, to the seven captured vessels so that the POW’s can be properly
secured.

5)  
Next on the priority list is to get the warp drives - on all vessels - into
working order.  The new Alliance fleet needs to get out of the area, in a
hurry.

6)  
There need to be ‘interviews’ – aka ‘interrogations’ - with the senior
officers, from the captured vessels.  Captain Niles needs to know how the
Confederation fleet knew where to look for the Courageous, while they were in
warp.

7)  
Visit the wounded.

8)  
Schedule, and take part in, burial-at-sea ceremonies for all Alliance
personnel.  (Burial-at-sea ceremonies for Confederation sailors will be
facilitated, but the POWs will conduct the burials.)

-
And,
what to do with all of those prisoners-of-war?  There are over 6 thousand
of them - not counting the former POW’s from the Brutus.  Guarding and
caring for that many prisoners, for any length of time, is going to be a real
burden to the Alliance force.  The Captain is considering options:

a) 
Drop them off on some habitable planet, with enough supplies and weapons to
insure their survival. (Note: order Navigations Officer to search for habitable
planets, in the area.)

b) 
Put them all aboard one of the captured vessels, with weapons and warp drive
disabled, and leave them to take care of
themselves
. 
(The problem, with this method, is that the Confederation will find out about
the Marine boarding parties, when they debrief the crews.  That tactic
should be kept secret for as long as possible.)

c) 
Put them all aboard one of the captured vessels, with supplies and weapons, and
all communications devices disabled.  Program the ship’s computer to take
them to a remote system, which is known to have a habitable planet.  And
then cause the warp drive to be disabled, at the conclusion of the journey. 
The crew can then make its way to the habitable planet and survive.

Well,
that list is enough to start with.  The Captain immediately dispatches the
critically needed personnel and equipment, to the Brutus.  Next he issues
orders to search for wounded Marines and to care for the seriously
injured.  Then, he orders the Navigations Officer to search for a
habitable planet in the area.  Then, he issues the list of tasks to his
Senior Officers and to Major Dawkins.  Following that, he falls asleep at his
desk.

When
the Captain wakes up, he is in his bed and Doctor Mei Kei is asleep next to
him.

On his
computer, there are status reports about each ship and a note from the
Navigations officer saying that there is a habitable planet in the nearby
system.  Much of the planet’s vegetation is edible and the native
population is still in a primitive state of development.  The Captain
would hate to dump the Confederation POW’s on the natives, but he might need
to.

He
begins reading the status report, as he orders breakfast from the
replicator.  Courageous is in relatively good condition, considering the
battle that she has just been through.  There are over 65 more dead and
hundreds of injured – some critically.  Life support is OK.  The warp
drive is online but needs to have diagnostics run on it.  The Top thruster
is still down.  Only one fire is still burning and that is under
control.  Courageous is better than expected.

Brutus
is still alive.  Life support has been restored.  Lives lost on the
Brutus are primarily in the area where the former POWs live. 
(Most of
the Marines were wearing Space Armor and were well protected.)
  The
former POW’s have 42 dead and a couple hundred injured – some critically. 
They have their medical facility up-and-running, and only need help with the
critically injured.  Those have already been taken to the Courageous for
treatment.

The
Brutus’ warp drive is down, along with two thrusters.  Courageous
maintenance crews are working on them, with the highest priority on the warp drive. 
There were lots of hull breaches, with most sealed by this time.  Fires
are still blazing but all are being fought – with a lot of help from the former
POW’s.  The captured crew is assisting, right along with the Alliance
sailors.  It doesn’t look like any of the fires threaten the life of the
ship.

(After
speaking with Major Dawkins, Captain Niles issues orders, which give the former
POWs more freedom onboard the Brutus and more responsibility.  ‘Trust must
be earned,’ - and the former POWs have earned it.)

Next -
moving on to the status reports about the recently captured ships.  There
are seven of them, and they all have names but the Logistics Officer has been
smart enough to assign a number - 1 thru 7 - to each vessel.  Numbers will
be easier than names in the short term.

Ship
#1 has a moderate amount of damage to the Engineering section, but the warp
drive and all thrusters appear to be functional.  (“Perhaps we can get
some help testing the drives from the former POWs on the Brutus”, thinks the Captain.) 
Ship #1 is in useable condition.  The Marines had boarded it early, and
hence, it wasn’t in the battle for very long.

Ship
#2 has taken more damage.  The warp drive is offline, but it doesn’t
appear to be physically damaged.  The port thruster was destroyed and
needs to be replaced.  (“Perhaps we can cannibalize one of the wrecks for
a replacement thruster,” the Captain thinks.) There is more damage throughout,
but if the warp drive is functional the ship can be taken to Alliance space.

The
status reports are there for the remaining ships, but the synopsis contains the
information, which the Captain needs.   He will read the full reports
in his spare time
(probably never).

Of the
seven captured ships, four appear to have functional warp drives.  Additional
testing is needed.

All
seven have damage to at least one thruster and one vessel has damage to two
thrusters.  The thrusters are still fixable in space, if they can
cannibalize replacement parts.  The Captain writes a note to the Logistics
Officer, instructing him to have maintenance look at the destroyed vessels in
order to determine how many thrusters are usable.  It would be good to get
those parts now.  They can be stored in the ships and installed
later.  The only drives that are necessary, right now, are the warp
drives.  The Captain adds another comment, on the note, stressing the
‘warp drive repair’ as the critical item.  Cannibalization is priority 2.

“Wow,”
he thinks.  “Now I have a fleet of 9 ships, under my command.”  He
has to give the Marines credit, for 8 of those.  And, he reminds himself,
it would be better not to ‘count the chickens before they hatch’.

The
Captain assigns his First Officer, Lieutenant
Znnu
,
the
task of developing a timeline estimate, to determine the
earliest date when the whole fleet can be ready to warp out.  If there are
one or two ships slowing them down, they just might have to destroy them and
depart with the functional vessels.  The Captain feels an urgent need to
get out of this place, before the Confederation comes looking for them.

He
also assigns Lieutenant
Znnu
the tasks of
coordinating the ship repair and organizing the crews for the new fleet. 
The Captain wants each ship to be minimally functional - that means that they
can enter and exit warp-space; they can maneuver in real-space; and they can
fight in a battle. 

The
Captain doesn’t expect the new ships to be able to fight like the Courageous or
Brutus, but they should be able to fight with computer assistance.  Most
of the weaponry is automated and can be controlled from the ship’s
computer.  The only requirement for the new skeleton crews is that they
have been trained on simulators.

Captain
Niles still doesn’t know how the Confederation Navy has been able to find them
in warp-space.  The interrogations of the senior officers on the
Confederation ships revealed nothing.  Only the Confederation Admiral knew
that information and he took it with him to his death.  That leaves the
Captain with sleepless nights, worrying about the safety of his fleet.

***

The
area of space where the battle took place doesn’t have a name on Alliance Star
Charts.  The Captain needs to give it a name, so that he can refer to that
location in his reports. 
(Oh, there will be no end, to the reports.)

He
decides to name it the ‘
Baarg
Sector’, after Marine
Captain
Baarg
, who was killed during the boarding
attack against the Admiral’s Flagship.  The Marines are broken hearted
about the loss, and have renamed the captured Flagship the ‘Captain
Baarg
’, in her honor.  Her newborn baby is an orphan,
now.  The child will never lack for love or attention.  She has been
born into the Marines and they take care of their own.

***

The
Captain now has enough of a fighting force, that he can take a little
risk.  He has a faster-than-light probe loaded with reports of the last
battle - highlighting the fact that the Courageous was pulled out of warp, by
the Confederation fleet.  Captain Niles feels that it is imperative that a
Confederation vessel reaches Alliance Navy Headquarters, so that the new
technologies can be reverse engineered. 

This
probe is addressed to Fleet Admiral Walls and tells him that one of the newly
acquired Confederation vessels is going to attempt a direct warp-space trip, to
the Headquarters sector.  Captain Niles includes the coordinates where the
vessel will emerge, so that the defenses will recognize the ship, as being
friendly. It is a risk, but there is no telling how long it will take for the
rest of the rag-tag fleet to get home.

***

Two
days after the probe is launched Captain Niles addresses Lieutenant
Trasbern
, who is ‘acting Captain’ of the captured vessel
Nebos
.  The
Nebos
is the
ship that has been selected to make the direct flight to Alliance Navy
Headquarters.  The warp drive works but the
Nebos
has 2 thrusters out.  That is not a problem, because the ship shouldn’t
need to maneuver during this mission – if everything goes well.

 (Lieutenant
Trasbern
had, until recently, been the ‘director of
food services’ on the Courageous.  His high simulator scores have earned
him a shot at glory - or death.)

“Captain
Trasbern
,” Captain Niles says.  “Your mission is
of the highest importance to the Alliance System.  Delivering the
Nebos
to Navy Headquarters will enable the Alliance to
obtain the new technologies, which the Confederation has used to decimate our
fleets.  Completion of this mission can turn the outcome of the war in the
Alliance’s favor.”  

“As
you know, your journey is hazardous and your resources are limited.  The
courage displayed by you and your crew is a credit to the Alliance Navy and to
all Alliance System citizens.
’God speed’ to you and your
valiant crew, Captain
Trasbern
.”
 

“Aye
sir,” says the nervous ‘acting Captain’.  “And, ‘God speed’ to you, sir -
and to the Courageous.”   He turns to his three person Command Bridge
crew, and says; “Helm, engage the warp drive.”  And they melt into
warp-space.

“It’s
a long shot,” thinks the Captain.  “But one worth taking.”

***

Safe
Harbor

The
Marines had boarded 4 vessels so quickly, that the ships had seen relatively
little battle action and their warp drives were undamaged.  Warp drives on
the other ships need to be tested, and repaired as necessary.  Since the
warp drive on the Courageous is one that still needs to be tested, Captain
Niles decides to hop to the system with the habitable planet, as identified by
the Navigations Officer.

***

The
short hop to the system goes as planned.  It would still require a 5 day
real-space journey to get to the habitable planet.  Captain Niles doesn’t
want to spend that time, but he does want more information.  Engineering
has prepared a probe and loaded it with habitat measuring devices and camera
equipment, which will enable the Captain to observe the native civilizations. 
In 5 days the probe will begin transmitting data and images, as it circles the
planet. 

This
system is just a warp ‘hop’ away from the
Baarg
Sector battle-space.  It seems good to hop the ships to this system, while
they get things in order for the long voyage home.  The Captain names the
system ‘Safe Harbor’ and heads back for the rest of his fleet.  He then
begins to apply a little pressure to the ‘repair work effort’.

Captain
Niles also issues orders to scavenge life boats from the wrecked vessels, and
to pack them onto the Alliance fleet.  The Alliance now has over 8,000
prisoners and they keep finding survivors among the wreckage.  Some of the
life boats will be used to get those prisoners to the planet’s surface. 
In the mean time, the POW’s are being housed on two of the wrecks, which still
have life support, functional medical facilities, and safe environments. 
The POW’s are taking care of themselves, with the Alliance troops bringing them
food and supplies.

***

The
warp drives are almost ready - just one more to go.  Captain Niles decides
to leave that one ship behind, with orders to follow when the warp drive is
functional.  He orders all of the prisoners onto the healthy Alliance
vessels and they hop, one at a time, to Safe Harbor. 

***

At the
Safe Harbor meeting place, Captain Niles sets about the task of unloading the
prisoners onto the habitable planet.  Information coming back from the
probe brings good news.  The habitat is livable and the native
civilization looked like it is strong enough to defend itself against 8,000
alien invaders. 

The
prisoners have decided that they all want to land in the same area and they
pick a place that they like. The POW’s are loaded onto the life boats and are
sent on their way. 

The
former POW’s from the Brutus were, of course, not included with the POW’s going
to the planet.  Captain Niles had given each of them a choice and they all
chose to remain with the Brutus.  That might be a decision that they will
regret.  They are betting that Captain Niles’ fleet will make it safely
home to Alliance space.

Some
of the Brutus POW’s have chosen to join other ships crews.  They are given
jobs in medical, food services, ship support, and engineering.  Captain
Niles has grown to put more trust in them, but not enough to trust them with
weapons or command.

The
Marines and the Courageous crew are being spread thin, as they are split up
into crews for the new ships.  Good scores on the simulators will get you
a good spot on a starship crew.  And it didn’t matter, whether you are
officer, or enlisted, or Marine, or Navy, or human, or some other
species.  Captain Niles’ navy is an equal opportunity employer.

Warp
drive repairs are completed on the ship that had been left behind in the
Baarg
Sector, and it warps over to Safe Harbor.  The
fleet then begins to make final preparations for the voyage home.  There
is a need to get some ‘shakedown training’ before they leave Safe Harbor. 
Crews have already been trained and tested on real-space maneuvering, and fleet
formations, and have been educated on chain-of-command responsibilities for
their new ranks.

Captain
Niles is now working on fleet battle exercises.  The ships are learning to
flow together and to change quickly, as a new ‘gambit’ is called. 
Exercises, with different ship combinations against mock enemy formations, are
giving the fleet more confidence.  Exercises teaching the ‘coordination of
weapons firing’ and ‘gang attacking’ have made the small fleet much more
potent.