Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Pursuit (30 page)

 Elco spared a second to look at the holo
field and the pair of Enkarrans fighting the other two Priman vessels.  Each
side was down one vessel.  A Priman and Enkarran vessel were floating
lifelessly side by side; he couldn't tell if there were anchor cables, the
superstructures were caught on each other or something else.  Had one rammed
the other?  Had there been an attempt to board one of the ships?

Either way, the last Priman was running
and the Enkarran ship broke off the chase to go investigate the paired-up
Priman and Enkarran cruisers. 

"Now what do we do?" Ravine
asked Captain Vol quietly so as not to show the whole bridge crew her fear and
self-doubt.  Their EMP torpedoes had failed.  Their decisive edge was gone and
it had only lasted a few weeks.

"We leave," Vol said without
emotion, and walked to the helm station to give orders.

The torpedo hit had shaken Ravine; she'd
been in capital ship combat before, but it sent a shiver down her spine as she
remembered the sounds the ship had made as the Confed torpedo had struck home. 
Never had she been on the receiving end of such damage.  The ship screeched,
seemed to yowl in pain.  She'd heard crew down the corridors as they yelled and
fought fires, died in explosions or from oxygen deprivation or smoke
inhalation. 
Is this what
continued war with the Confederation, much less the whole galaxy, would lead
to?
she wondered.  Was
forcing everyone to admit her race should be in charge worth the carnage to her
people and those they ushered along in centuries past?

She'd have a long trip back to Priman
space to ponder those questions. 

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN

 Commander Loren Stone stood at the big
diagnostic board at the rear of the bridge in the sensor shack.  He let his
thoughts wander as he tried to take stock of the damage and somehow formulate a
plan. 

Avenger had been damaged again, a
situation that was all too common these days.  Before the war, if your ship hit
a micrometeor or tore off a gun barrel while docking, your FITREP was going to
say so and your career would grind to a halt.  These days, anything short of
major yard work was hardly deemed worth reporting to Navy HQ in the Delos system. 

Still, there were issues to consider. 
Chief Engineer Fyr was badgering him to take the main reactors completely
offline for a day or so to complete his repairs on the hyperdrive section. 
They'd have to vent and recharge all the lines and it just couldn't be done
with the reactors running.  The problem was that Avenger needed power for her
other systems, and the standby power units had been damaged as well.  They'd
been at an impasse until someone had suggested ripping apart the captured Priman
cruiser that the Enkarrans had left behind.  The Enkarrans had taken their
wrecked cruiser in tow and had left the Priman ship in orbit with Avenger and
Majestic to do with as they pleased.  Captain Elco and Admiral Bak had
considered giving it to the Faarians as a gesture of goodwill, but then they'd
had a better idea.

Chief Fyr offered to take his engineers
over to the ship.  The Priman crew had departed in their lifeboats before the
Enkarrans could capture anyone, and the small Marine detachment aboard Majestic
had cleared the ship and sealed off what they couldn't verify as 100% secure. 
The Chief had promised to tear the ship apart more efficiently than pack
predators on a wounded member of the herd in order to get parts and materials
to feed to the 3D printers.  Meanwhile, he'd jury-rig power connections so the
Priman ship's generators could power Avenger.  It had all seemed like such a
neat and tidy idea at the time.

Now, six hours later, Loren was
flustered.  They couldn't risk long range travel in their current condition,
even with a battleship escort, so the repairs had to commence.  They'd dragged
the stricken Priman cruiser out-system and were parked low over the surface of
a tiny rogue planet that orbited the system in an eccentric orbit, something
which the Faarians would no doubt not care for if they'd been able to detect
the activity.  He'd watched the connections go green and then Chief Fyr
scrammed the reactor after verifying the ship was on external power.  Avenger
had seemed to deflate with an anguished sigh, like a person blowing out a weary
breath and then holding out as long as they could before drawing another one.

Captain Elco had shuttled over to
Majestic to talk strategy with Admiral Bak, and Loren wished he'd return so he
could concentrate on a few small tasks at a time instead of trying to manage an
entire ship. 

"Commander," he heard the comm
tech say from the front of the bridge.  Loren turned and walked over by his own
command chair before replying.

"Yes?"

"Message from the Governing Council,
sir," the tech said with a puzzled expression.  "It's on the Primary
Defense circuit."

Loren's brow furrowed.  That was the
seldom-used encrypted frequency that allowed the Confed government to
communicate directly to its warships, bypassing or supplementing the naval
chain of command as it were.

"I can't even take that up here, can
I?" he asked.

"Only three places on the ship,
sir," came the confident reply.  "Captain's quarters, C3 conference
room, or the Emergency Control Center."

"Then I guess I'm heading down to
C3," Loren acknowledged.  "Send it down in a minute, if you
please."  Why couldn't Captain Elco get to deal with whatever those
headcases wanted now?

Captain Elco walked slowly with Admiral
Bak through the bridge tower of Majestic.  Battleships were intended to be
command ships, and as such, in addition to the large main bridge there was a
flag bridge immediately aft of it in the tower.  If it had been his ship,
Admiral Bak would have set up his shop there, but as he was only along for a
short ride he'd let things be and simply requested a station on the upper level
of the main bridge.  He believed that the crew should see senior officers among
them, that they shouldn't just be shadowy figures hidden in secret compartments
who never came out for air.

It was on the upper port side level of
the bridge where Elco and Bak stood now, elbows resting on the railing as they
both leaned over to look at the bridge proper below them.

"I wanted to tell you first,"
Admiral Bak began, "before you got it in your daily briefings."  The
admiral paused, gathered his breath, as if what he was about to say would
physically hurt him to do so.  Maybe it would.

"We had our first real live,
knock-down drag-out fight with the Secessionists," Bak admitted.  Elco
could only respond with a look of shock.  "The worst part was that Senator
Dennix sent that little rodent Enric Shae to observe.  More likely it was to
make sure nobody felt like they could trade a few shots and then break off. 
Basically, Shae was there to make sure the fight was on.  We lost two cruisers
and they lost an escort carrier and a destroyer."

"This is insane!" Elco replied,
trying his best to not raise his voice or show his reaction to the crew. 
"Why are we fighting each other?"

"Because then we're not fighting the
real enemy," Bak said through gritted teeth.

Neither knew what to say, Elco simply
staring into the top of the large 3D holo field on the bridge level below them
for a minute.

"So what did you think of Garrett's
message?" asked Elco softly, trying to change the subject to something
that had a better ending.

Nodam Bak chuckled.  "Somehow he got
it printed out hardcopy and inserted in a sealed envelope with my daily
updates.  Imagine my surprise when I saw that you wanted volunteers to charge
headlong into an ambush.  I thought, that's a horrible idea, but we should do
it anyway and see what happens."

"Well, I'm glad you came.  I'm sorry
the weapon and AI mission didn't pan out, either," Elco admitted.  He'd
told Bak about the AI who'd left him the message and had also delivered a copy
of the EMP vaccine, but attempts to isolate any potential AI bio signs on the
surface were met with failure.  They'd quickly accepted that whatever the real
story with the mysterious life forms was, they were going to stay out of the
limelight and had nothing to offer towards defeating the Primans.

"It sounds like there might have
been something there, to be honest," Bak said with regret in his voice,
"but with all those Primans bearing down I guess I'd rather have anything
at all that could be useful blown to the elements than fall into Priman
hands."

They said nothing for a minute after that
as they both worked through their own mental checklists of things that needed
to be handled.

Finally, Admiral Bak spoke again. 
"Give me a minute at that station over there, ok?  I'll cut Avenger some
new orders to head to a repair yard and then we'll go from there."

Elco nodded and stayed put as the Admiral
walked across the deck to an unused terminal and started entering commands.  At
least their work was done for a while.

Loren strode quickly into the C3
conference room and tapped the wall tab on the viewscreen that was oriented
towards the table Captain Elco used.  He remained standing, though, a cross
between wanting to not give the impression he had time to sit and chat and
barely concealed displeasure at having to talk to Senator Dennix or one of his
people in the first place.  If only the man knew that right now there were
people in the process of obtaining the data that would show just how corrupt
and treasonous he was.  No amount of media bias, spin control or blame-shifting
could hide the stark truth about what Confed's leadership had been up to.  No;
this was the end for that bunch, and Loren only hoped that their punishment
would be adequate.

He turned around to see there was already
somebody waiting on the other end.  It was Enric Shae.

"Commander Stone," Shae said,
fake smile on his face.  Loren remembered when Shae had actually been his
senior in the navy, but that seemed like a decade ago, before the man had
abandoned the service to ride the coattails of Senator Zek Dennix.

"Mr. Shae," Loren replied
coolly.  "You're using the highest-coded frequency Confed has; I assume
something important is in the works."

"It is, Commander, and I'm glad you
answered, because what I have to say is for you, not your captain.  Captain
Elco is a fine officer, of course, but a bit, well, rigid, for the times.  We
need flexible people.  Like you, Commander.  You've been all over and thought
up plenty of interesting schemes since the war began."

Loren didn't know what the man was up to,
but he didn't like it.  The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up and
he felt like he needed a shower after talking to the man for barely a minute. 
He simply raised an eyebrow in response to Shae's words, and so the man
continued.

"Today, Commander, is where you and
Avenger decide how you're going to help Confed with this war.  You can't afford
to be stuck in the old ways; you need to see that only by coming to an
agreement can we stay in control of the Confederation."

"You're referring to your treaty
with the Primans," Loren said without inflection.  Even Shae must be able
to read Loren's opinion on the matter.

"Of course, Commander," Shae
said, waving a hand in the air as though swatting an insect that was buzzing
around his face.  "We need the military's assistance to stay in control. 
Things are getting hot in some parts of the Confederation, and this ridiculous
secessionist movement is making it worse.  We need the military to stand with
us and help maintain order."

Still, Loren said nothing, preferring to
see Shae's frustration grow as the man realized Loren wasn't biting on whatever
implied offer was out there for the taking.

"You don't see it, do you?"
asked Shae.  Loren shook his head.

"Avenger and a select few others are
one of the biggest problems in our negotiation with the Primans.  Your ship's
name angers them, and you needed to keep a low profile while we were at the
table.  Now, I see a report that you were engaged in come sort of covert
operation while supposedly on a diplomatic procurement tour.  You engaged and
destroyed Priman warships and even dragged Captain Montari and Majestic into
your web of troubles.  You disobeyed orders today, Commander, along with a host
of other issues we've had with Avenger; it's time to pay up and decide where
you go tomorrow."

"I was attacked on the surface of
Faaria by Priman agents," Loren began.  "How am I to blame for
that?"

 "Because you weren't there on a
diplomatic mission," Shae countered.  "Let's look at the footage,
shall we?"  Shae then went on to commit his biggest mistake yet; showing
Loren video camera footage that could only have come from a Priman source.  The
camera angles of the night club shootout and Merritt and Cory at the
collector's mansion, the resulting explosion; by paying attention to what the
footage showed or omitted it was clear that it was provided to him by the
Primans.  Proving it, of course, was impossible, but nothing discussed here was
for the courts anyway.          

"I want to use your crew's
talents," Shae said, trying to calm down and look reasonable.  "I
want Avenger and select other senior officers to come to Delos and help take
charge of the Confederation."

"In what capacity?" asked
Loren, fearing the answer.

"You, Commander Stone, specifically,
can help hold the Confederation together.  Captain Elco is too old-fashioned to
see that we need a new type of leadership in the military, so this offer is yours,
not his.  If we can get our house in order, the Primans will leave us alone. 
But the citizens are getting restless with us and the war; we need someone to
impose order.  The offer is this: you run a military-controlled pacification
program in the Confederation and keep the populace in line.  In exchange,
Senator Dennix, his Committee and I stay in office.  We get to run Confed as we
all see fit while the Primans can go burn down the galaxy around us.  But we'll
be ok, Commander.  We'll share that power with you, but that's the only offer
you'll receive."

Loren couldn't even begin to react. 
Dennix and Shae wanted to run a military dictatorship in Confed?  Worse yet,
they felt confident enough of that plan to simply tell him that?  "You
know," Loren finally replied, "that's the second time in the last few
days that someone has offered to let me run a chunk of the galaxy.  It's sort
of scary, really."

"But maybe you're the right person,
then!" Shae replied.  "Imagine reshaping Confed the way you know it needs
to be!  You could set things right.  We'll have peace in the
Confederation."

"I don't know what's best for
everyone; no one person does.  And if the population is on the edge of revolt,
maybe that's a sign you're doing something wrong.  Besides, you call this
collaboration a peace?"