Call to Arms (Black Fleet Trilogy, Book 2) (23 page)

“Ahead full, aye!” the helmsman said gleefully, slamming the throttle forward and flipping up the controls for the auxiliary boosters. Jackson was pressed back into his seat momentarily as the deck shuddered from the engines at full power and the solid-fuel auxiliary engines ignited.

The auxiliary boosters were four relatively simple, solid rocket motors mounted in the stern, but unlike virtually every other solid fuel motor, they were able to be throttled. The fuel and oxidizer were pelletized and fed at high speed into the combustion chambers at variable rates, giving Jackson incredible flexibility when needing to augment the
Ares
’
s
max performance acceleration profiles.

“Tactical, feed course corrections directly to the helm,” Jackson said. “Let’s hit that gap hard. Nav, be ready to jump in and get us in position to fly by the shipyards at the proper speed, altitude, and orientation.”

He received a chorus of affirmative responses as he watched the green icon of the
Ares
bearing down on the picket ships at an acceleration that very few people in Fleet knew she was capable of. He smiled tightly as he imagined the chaos taking place on the bridges of the Fourth Fleet ships.

****

“We’ve been captured by DeLonges’s gravity, Captain,” Specialist Cortez reported from the nav station. “The
Icarus
is in a stable, high geosync as ordered.”

“Thank you.” Celesta took in a breath before her next order. “Tactical, bring all weapon systems online, and quick charge the forward laser battery.” The lieutenant at tactical looked over his shoulder at her, but to his credit (and hers) began executing the order without any comment or complaint.

“Forward battery is fully charged and primed. All projectors deployed,” he said. “Missiles and point defense will be up momentarily, and the auto-mag power bank is at fifty percent.”

“Belay that,” Celesta said. “Laser batteries and point defense only.”

“Aye aye, ma’am. Weapons are deployed and ready, Captain.”

Celesta looked around and, while she saw confusion and concern, she didn’t detect any distrust in the looks the bridge crew gave her. She allowed herself a fleeting moment of pride that they trusted her and assumed that she was doing the right thing.

“Tactical, give me a firing solution into the upper atmosphere of DeLonges,” she said. “I want it terminating out over the ocean and with a zero percent chance of damage to the surface. Maximum power.”

“Firing solution calculated and locked in, Captain,” the tactical officer said with obvious relief.

“Fire.”

The four massive laser projectors that had deployed from the nose of the
Icarus
opened up, their beams invisible in space but wreaking havoc as they intersected the water vapor of the upper atmosphere. She knew the vapor trails would be clearly seen in the early evening over the capital, and the sonic booms of the shockwaves created by the flash-heated water droplets would echo across the continent.

“Keep firing,” Celesta ordered. “Adjust your firing solution to ensure the safety of the population. We’re just putting on a bit of a show.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

****

“We’re approaching their maximum assumed weapons range,” Lieutenant Hayashi said.

“If they wanted to hit us, they would have needed to fire well before now,” Jackson said. “But let’s keep the point defense active anyway, Tactical. How long until we’re through the formations?”

“One hour, twenty-seven minutes,” Hayashi said.

“Helm, shut down the auxiliary boosters,” Jackson ordered. “OPS, tell engineering to purge the fuel lines and secure the booster engines. Do we have any movement from the opposing ships?”

He’d intentionally not referred to them as the “enemy” during the engagement. He needed to get the Black Fleet ships out of dock and out to the Frontier, but he flatly refused to escalate hostilities with his fellow humans. He just hoped his slapdash plan of surprise and misdirection would keep the Fourth Fleet commanders on their heels long enough for him to minimize the collateral damage.

The
Ares
, still accelerating under full power, shot through the formation of Fourth Fleet ships that had been drifting loosely just outside the orbit of the fifth planet. The helmsman automatically began reducing power and altering their course to intercept New Sierra while the ships they’d just zipped past began to turn and accelerate ponderously toward DeLonges.

“The entire formation is heading to DeLonges?” Jackson asked in disbelief.

“It appears so, sir,” Barrett said. “I think they know they wouldn’t be able to mount a pursuit given our velocity.”

“That makes little sense, Mr. Barrett,” Jackson said. “It will take them even longer to get to DeLonges, and they’ve given us a clear path to attack the shipyards—the only thing of strategic value in this system. Why would they…” He trailed off and narrowed his eyes as he looked at the tactical display.

“Sir?”

“Coms, get in contact with Lieutenant Commander Essa’s team,” Jackson said. “Ask him if the ship yard’s automated defense systems have been reactivated. Helm, maintain course and speed.”

“Aye, sir.”

It took over an hour to get a response from their query given the communication lag from the distance and the fact that NOVA Team Four was still trying to defend its position inside the control room.

“Captain Wolfe, the automated defenses have indeed been reactivated.” Amiri’s voice came over the bridge speakers with sporadic weapons fire punctuating his words. “It was done discreetly. My tech had to dig deep to find out, and he is unable to shut them down. The station personnel know we’re here, and they are systematically reclaiming control. The Marines are mostly content to leave us trapped in here… for now. Please advise, sir.”

Jackson’s original plan had been to have his Marines aboard the
Ares
take one of the two assault shuttles over and give the NOVA teams enough breathing room to disengage and withdraw, but with the orbiting facility regaining the ability to defend itself, that was no longer an option. He couldn’t even get the
Ares
in close enough without opening fire on the weapons emplacements. Worse yet, the stranded Black Fleet ships now couldn’t leave dock without being fired upon.

“Tell him to stay where he is and not to risk any direct contact with the Marines unless they have no choice.” Jackson resisted the urge to punch a hole in his monitor. “Helm, all reverse one quarter. Cut our forward velocity by fifty percent, and then go no-thrust. We need some time to sort this out.”

“All astern one quarter, aye.” The helmsman made the adjustments.

“Coms, send a flash message to the
Icarus
. Tell Commander Wright to wait until the Fourth Fleet ships cross the halfway mark, then stand down and make best time for the Haven jump point,” Jackson said. “Tell her not to wait for us. If she doesn’t hear otherwise, she’s to take the
Icarus
back to Jericho Station.”

“Message going out now, sir,” Keller said. “Standard encryption via the high-power array.”

“What are our options now, sir?” Davis asked.

“Not many, Lieutenant,” Jackson admitted. “Not without destabilizing the Confederacy. We could blast our ships out of New Sierra, but that would galvanize the position of New America and Britannia. It’d be plausible they would secede, and we’d be without the two most powerful enclaves on the eve of an all out war with the Phage.”

“With all due respect, Captain,” Hayashi spoke up. “New America fired the first shots when they denied our ships free passage.”

“Understood, Ensign,” Jackson said. “But that will matter little if the end result is a fractured humanity before an enemy that cares for nothing except our annihilation.”

“Things would go so much more smoothly without dipshit politicians fucking everything up,” Chief Green said from where he stood near the hatchway. “Sir.”

“Let’s all agree that things have gone sideways on this mission and move past that,” Jackson said sharply. “Complaining about the situation doesn’t solve it. I want options. Can we get our people out without demolishing fifteen percent of humanity’s ship building capability? Can they get out on their own? Get your backshops involved, and get me some answers. You have one hour.”

Three hours later, and they were no closer to a solution than when they started. The only options were to abandon the Black Fleet ships and the NOVA teams at the shipyard or go in hot and risk damaging an irreplaceable resource, damaging the
Ares
herself, and getting a lot of good people killed. Halfway through the conversation, Jackson knew what his next course of action would be, but they were many hours away from New Sierra still, so he let his crew try and work through the problem, if nothing else, then for an exercise in problem solving.

“Lieutenant Keller, send a com request to the New Sierra government,” Jackson said as the conversation hit another lull. “Tell them I wish to discuss the terms of our withdrawal.”

“Aye, sir,” Keller said.

“So we’re going to cut our losses and bug out, sir?” Davis asked.

“We’re going to try and agree to terms with the regional government of this system,” Jackson said sternly. “New America is still a member state of the Confederacy until I’m otherwise notified. This was supposed to be a discreet intervention in which we would be flying out before anyone realized we’d been here. That plan is obviously scrapped, so now it’s time to open official channels and talk this out before someone does something that can’t be walked back. We already have a handful of dead troops on that construction platform.”

“Sir, a Governor Tellaride is responding to our request,” Keller said. “His confirmation codes check out with our database.”

“Put him through,” Jackson said.

They were now close enough to the planet that there was a significant, but workable lag in communications. The governor had opted for high-bandwidth video coms, and Ensign Hayashi put him on the main display. A video transcript of the conversation would almost certainly be used in the hearing he was sure to be called into for this stunt.

“Captain Wolfe,” Tellaride said with a polite nod. “I’d always hoped to meet you one day, obviously under much different circumstances. May I ask why you’ve now decided to make contact with us?”

“Governor Tellaride, I’d like to speak plainly about this incident so there are no misunderstandings,” Jackson said. “I’d like to offer my sincerest apologies for the aborted salvage operation that has taken place in your star system. Currently we are standing down and will negotiate with you directly. As a show of good faith, I’d ask that you also have the Fourth Fleet warships in the system stand down.”

Tellaride stared at him for a moment before nodding to someone off screen.

“An interesting choice of words, Captain,” he said. “We appear to have different definitions of the term ‘salvage.’”

“Recovery effort, if you prefer.” Jackson kept his irritation in check. “Whatever the term, let’s be clear that we’re here to secure the release of sixteen Seventh Fleet ships currently being held illegally in the docks of the New Sierra Shipyards.”

“Plainly spoken indeed,” Tellaride said. “An argument could be made about the legalities of the situation…” The governor trailed off as someone handed him a tile. Without another word, or even a look to Jackson, the channel was terminated.

“What the hell?” Jackson muttered.

“Com drone has just appeared on sensors,” Barrett said. “It came in from Haven jump point.”

“Incoming transmissions from the drone addressed for the
Ares
, Captain,” Keller reported a moment later.

“Sort and store them, Lieutenant,” Jackson said. “They can wait until we see what this is all about.”

“Com channel request coming in, sir,” Keller said after a few more minutes of tense waiting. “Same address as before.”

“Put it through.”

“Captain Wolfe, I am Administrator Hoff,” an officious looking elderly man said. “Governor Tellaride has been called away on a matter of utmost urgency and asked me to relay his message to you.”

“A potential civil war within a Confederate star system isn’t the most pressing matter the governor has?” Jackson asked in disbelief.

“We have issued an immediate recall of all Fourth Fleet warships currently in the DeLonges System,” Hoff went on, ignoring Jackson. “The security force on the New Sierra Shipyards platform has been ordered to stand down and allow the invading force safe passage to the nearest docked Seventh Fleet vessel. Furthermore, all Seventh Fleet vessels are being commanded to prepare to leave dock. They will be towed out of orbit as quickly as can be managed. Afterward, all Seventh Fleet ships are requested to depart the system. Are these terms acceptable to you, Captain?”

“They are,” Jackson said. “We will halt our approach to New Sierra, and I will order my other ship to leave orbit over DeLonges and form up on the
Ares
.”

“An appreciated gesture, Captain,” Hoff said, almost sneering.

The channel again terminated abruptly but, despite the rudeness, Jackson blew out a sigh of relief.

“Nav, I want a heliocentric course that maintains our current distance and orientation to New Sierra. I want to chase it around the primary star,” Jackson said. “Plot it, and send it to the helm.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

“Coms, issue the recall order to the
Icarus,
and try to get in contact with both NOVA teams. Send all classified com traffic to my office, Lieutenant Davis, you have the bridge.”

“I have the bridge, sir,” Davis said to Jackson’s departing back.

****

“Hopefully this message finds you not engaged in a running battle with a full Fourth Fleet squadron,” Pike’s voice said from the terminal speakers. “I dispatched this com drone as soon as I found out New America had discovered you’d been deployed to recover the two battlegroups from New Sierra. They’d hoped to goad you into some rash action that could be used as leverage in the Senate. Willington thinks you’re too smart for that. I figured I’d better send a message anyway.

“I also needed to tell you that Dr. Allrest has disappeared. I’m actively trying to find him, and the fact that I can’t lets me know that something fairly horrible has likely happed to him. I know he thought he was being sneaky—hitching a ride onto the Ares to talk to you—but I’m afraid he’s not quite the spy he thought he was. Whatever he gave you must be radioactive… I wouldn’t take it as an insult if you were to share that information.”