AL:ICE-9 (14 page)

The initial threat reports he received from his analysts indicated the smaller destroyers displayed a significant number of guns for so small a craft. The images provided supported the opinion that these ships were armed to the teeth.

As they were behind both, the analysts had somehow managed to get imagery from the planetary feeds. He suspected that they were getting the same feed as Jake was back home. The good news was most of those guns were pointed forward, the bad news was they had plenty of time to turn before a preemptive strike could be launched.

They still didn’t have a good theory on what all that orbiting junk was, the current guess was abandoned trash, as it didn’t appear to have any pattern. There was quite a bit of movement amongst the larger pieces, creating a blurry image and making it hard to see.

----*----

Jake sat in the command center of the ALICE-1 facility. He was not alone, as the entire room was filled, each open workstation occupied by some duty personnel performing a task. Patti had shuffled off Sandy with the help of a few others to the conference room Jake had been using for staff meetings. Her grilling preformed both in person and remotely from several locations.

From the holographic feed they were getting from the Wawobash, Jake could make out both destroyers and
Revenge
on approach. His team had been in constant communications with Brian and his crew, so Jake felt no need to insert himself needlessly. It was the most frustrating thing he had ever done.

The destroyers were less than one hour from orbit, and as far as Jake knew, they did not attempt to contact the Wawobash or
Revenge
. That did not really surprise Jake, as the NeHaw hadn’t proven themselves to be big talkers. The destroyers seem fixed on a specific target.

On a whim Jake asked, “Hey can we get a visual from
Revenge
? I’d like to see what they are seeing.”

After a few moments, the hologram changed and Jake could make out the sterns of both NeHaw ships. He had some trouble at first, as they were lost in the backscatter of clutter orbiting the Wawobash home world. As the image cleared Jake’s heart skipped a beat.

At that moment, Patti burst from the conference room where she had been working with Sandy and they both announced in unison, “It’s a ship yard!”

Chapter 14

KoHac directed his ships to a particular area of the shipyard where he knew they perform civilian construction. As all military construction was exclusively NeHaw, he knew this was the safest place to start punishing the Wawobash for rebellion. If he inadvertently destroyed a NeHaw executive’s possession, well the Wawobash would have to make good on the inconvenience.

He presumed the pursuing NeHaw cruiser was an inbound repair, as all of its passive identification systems were nonresponsive. It wasn’t unusual for military repairs to continue while commercial activities were in dispute. This shipyard was the largest in NeHaw space and handled all major builds and upgrades for 60% of the fleet. From his location, he could make out dozens of NeHaw combat vessels including cruisers and destroyers. All of these ships either were in repair or newly constructed. The latter held, awaiting final payment before delivery.

Moreover, that payment, well, it was beyond understanding for a mere underling like himself. Only the High Council knew the exact amount paid for each vessel, but he believed a NeHaw could live very well in retirement for what they paid for a single cruiser. That was why most were still here, as they were ordered on credit. The NeHaw used this as a storage facility and only paid, as needed for each ship.

Which was why he was over in the civilian section. He did not want to risk damaging or even delaying delivery of a single military ship. Once both destroyers were in position, he had both ships present broadsides to the planet surface allowing for the greatest number of guns to come to bear.

KoHac then had his communications officer broadcast a planetary wide transmission.

----*----

With the realization that they were seeing hundreds of ships under construction, Jake reeled under the implications. From this viewpoint alone, he identified over a dozen NeHaw cruisers and twenty-five destroyers. Why they were still parked there, in space dock, was something he definitely wanted to know. However, what was more important to him was how he could acquire some.

While everyone around him was counting and cataloging, they all heard the NeHaw transmission.

“This is Commander KoHac, renounce this revolt immediately or we shall begin destruction of these ships.”

Jake got a little panicky as he thought of all those warships, demolished before his very eyes. He did a quick scan of the room, asking everyone for suggestions. When none were offered, he was about to speak to Brian, when there were several flashes on the display.
Revenge
had arrived on scene.

----*----

Having heard the same transmission, Brian had his crew go to general quarters. Fortunately, the NeHaw seemed to consider him no threat, as they had completely ignored him to this point. The NeHaw had taken their time getting in position to harass the Wawobash, making a grand show of their weapons. With
Revenge
still at full ahead, he had closed the distance sufficiently to use the energy cannons to get their attention.

As their shields were up, he didn’t expect to do much damage at this range, but he knew he needed to stop the destruction of those vessels. Up to this point, this NeHaw captain was doing things exactly by the book, as they all did, so they would turn to face him, ignoring the shipyard. He was just glad Jake had required all combat commanders read the NeHaw combat manuals. Everyone considered it recommended reading for the entire crew as well.

Their initial volley hit both ships, though all it did was rock the destroyers. Hopefully, it might disable a few gun control systems, but nothing they wouldn’t quickly recover from.

----*----

KoHac, knocked from his chair with the blasts, was taken completely by surprise. He had been unprepared for the Wawobash to respond in such a fashion. It was then his tactical officer announced.

“Sir, we are being fired upon from the inbound cruiser. What are your orders?”

The NeHaw cruiser had fired on them? It was then KoHac remembered the peculiar notes in the mission outline. He then commanded, “All guns, return fire!”

It took several seconds for the weapons officers on both destroyers to reposition the guns 180 degrees. During that time, the cruiser fired several more volleys at both destroyers. As the cruiser came to a halt just outside their orbit, all three ships exchanged fire in rapid succession.

While being rocked about quite a bit, both destroyers were holding their own against the cruiser. KoHac knew that with both sides equally matched in firepower and defensive capabilities, his two ships could eventually wear the cruiser down. Watching his tactical display for signs of deterioration, it didn’t look as if the cruiser was wearing down at all.

----*----

Brian had his forward batteries pounding both destroyers. They actually seemed to be absorbing it better than he expected. He could see, though, where they were starting to degrade in both firepower and shielding as the engagement progressed. He knew they were trying to wear him down.

However, he knew something they didn’t. With the forward stasis shields up, they weren’t even reaching his hull with most shots. The only hits they achieved on
Revenge
were the small number that passed as he fired in return.

The fire control was like the old World War 1 and 2 fighter planes that fired through the propeller. The guns were stopped, just at the time the propeller was in front of the barrel, and then allowed to continue firing once it passed. In this case, the shields dropped for the split second, allowing the guns to fire.

----*----

KoHac was not at all pleased with what his tactical display was reporting. Even with both destroyers firing at maximum rate, the cruiser was holding strong. At this rate, he would lose this exchange in a matter of micro cycles. He needed to disrupt this trend before he couldn’t fire at all.

“Planet side guns, fire on the ships in the yard!” he ordered.

With that, the few guns unable to be brought to bear on the cruiser, started shooting at the ships in the space docks. Their fire was not discriminating between civilian or military ships, all targets were fair game.

----*----

“NO!” Jake shouted as the ships in the yard started to explode. He darted to the communications console and slapped the transmit button.

“Brian, launch the Rogers!” he ordered.

As everyone watched from the planet side video feed, the hangar bay door opened on
Revenge
and four fighters emerged at break neck speed. Flying in pairs, they split and circled around the ends of the line created by the destroyers, positioned end to end. As they closed on the NeHaw ships from front and rear, they opened fire, raking both destroyers with their rail guns.

----*----

With damage reports coming in from all over the ship, KoHac never heard his tactical officer’s last words. All he saw were the two small craft streaming fire at his ship. As the projectiles split the bridge windows, he took several chunks of shrapnel in the chest. Within seconds of his passing, the ship exploded around him.

----*----

As Jake watched, both NeHaw destroyers exploded in bright masses of flying debris, one after the other. Someone gasped as one of the fighters nearly collided with a large piece of ship, it cascading off into space. He and the staff observed as the four Jolly Rogers fighters returned to
Revenge
, its hangar closing behind the last one. The entire room was dead quiet.

“Jake, what just happened?” Sara asked after a minute, “Why did they explode?”

“If I didn’t know any better I’d say we were played. Those ships were wired to blow if we won.”

“Why would they do that?” someone asked.

“ALICE, could you tell from
Revenge’s
sensors if the standard NeHaw death dump was sent?”

“It is confirmed, Jake, both destroyers transmitted their entire status to the NeHaw network. I was even able to capture one of the transmissions. Now that I know what to look for it’s a simple matter, if you’d like to see it I can replay now,” ALICE replied.

“Maybe later, but yeah we got played. They wanted us to tip our hand. They now know we can leave earth, travel in support of other planets and can still out shoot them when we get there.”

“OK,” Patti said, having stayed to watch the fight, “but how did you do that? We can’t have ferrous ships in faster than light fields.”

“They weren’t in a faster than light fields, they were in a stasis fields,” Jake said smugly.

“I don’t understand,” Sara replied.

“I had ALICE install a stasis field system that enclosed the entire hangar in a stasis bubble. It was similar to what they did for me in the first fight with the cruiser. Just before going to faster than light, they evacuate the hangar of personnel and turn on the stasis field. The ferrous materials in the hangar don’t disrupt the faster than light field in stasis and it functions as normal. Once back on repulser, the stasis field is shut down and they are good to go.”

“Why don’t the NeHaw do that?” someone in the room asked.

“It’s like Patti said before, we invented it. They don’t have it.”

At this point ALICE interrupted, “Jake, the Wawobash are calling again.”

Without caring whom they saw Jake ordered, “On main display please.”

“President Thomas, you do not disappoint,” The same figure as before declared, in what Jake interpreted to be a happy mood.

“I am glad you approve,” Jake replied with a smile of his own, and then added, “I am sorry there was some damage to your ship yard. I had hoped to prevent such.”

“Oh, it was far worse the last time the NeHaw chose to teach us a lesson. There was a revolt here due to working conditions and compensation for our production. It took us years to recover on the commercial side. They never touch the military docks as it’s exclusively their ships there.”

“On that subject, may I inquire as to why there are so many ships there of a combat nature, was there a large order placed prior to our emergence on the scene?”

“Oh no, those ships were ordered ages ago. The NeHaw have a nasty habit of ordering things they don’t have an immediate need for and then require you to hold them until they decide to pay. Some of those vessels have been in storage for over 10 years.”

“Might any be for sale, to a new paying customer? Say a cruiser, like the one we have there now,” Jake asked cautiously.

The Wawobash had a distinct change of posture, which suggested to Jake he might have overstepped his boundaries. He seemed to be doing something, however, and in a few seconds, the Wawobash replied.

“That would be possible, however please understand, these ships are configured for the NeHaw, so alterations would be necessary for your occupation. Considering both the storage, build costs and then alterations, I would expect each cruiser to require, say 200 pounds of gold or platinum based on your planets gravitational standards. Moreover, I must say we are not making a huge return at that price. Smaller ships, like destroyers, would be slightly less but we still have to pay our suppliers.”

Jake had to swallow his excitement, at that price they could buy 20 cruisers with just what Bonnie had in her storeroom.

“OK, we find that to be a reasonable price, let me have our people here put together a shopping list and we will see what we can do to place the order properly. In the meantime do you wish us to maintain a ship there for your protection or would you prefer we weren’t hovering over you?”

“The NeHaw have never harassed us a second time so soon, you may recall your ship. I assume we can alert you should the need arise again? I look forward to hearing from your people about the orders.”

With that the connection dropped.

Jake turned to look at Patti, clearly speechless. She in turn, had a look of astonishment of her own. Finally, Jake was able to utter, “We need to train more crew!”

----*----

That evening Jake had a casual little celebratory dinner in the living room portion of his quarters. With news of the day’s events spreading throughout all the facilities, it was one of many. Between the victories over the NeHaw destroyers, the success of Jake’s nested vessel theory and the new opportunities opening with the Wawobash, there was a lot to celebrate.

For this gathering though, he had limited the guest list to what he considered local family. Patti, Sara, Sandy, were all in attendance, with Linda and Kathy toting the babies. He asked ALICE via the “bots” to set up a buffet and made sure there was comfortable seating for all attendees.

With everyone fed and seated, the mood was light and the conversation flowing.

“So Patti,” Jake said while taking advantage of a lull in the conversation, “What did we learn from Sandy today?”

At the question, Sandy started to turn bright red. While everyone was well aware of Sandy’s misunderstandings during the alien negotiating, not everyone knew what Patti was about to divulge.