Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles 7: Renegades (6 page)

“Catherine Kimbridge, you, the crew of the
Yorktown
as well as the captain and crew of the
Relentless
are ordered to stand down and prepare to be boarded.”

“Admiral,” Cat said dryly with the barest nod of her head. “Let’s cut to the chase. You know I am not about to stand down. There real question here is how far are you willing to go to press the issue?”

Imera’s smile broadened. “Cat,” he said while holding his hands apart in a gesture of exasperation.  “I have six ships… you have,” he held up two fingers. “This is a battle you cannot win. Any good commander knows when a battle is lost. Spare your crews the pain of defeat. I assure you they will be treated fairly and honorably.”

“Like you were about to treat the Mardarians honorably?” Cat said leaning forward. The GCP had been prepared to decimate the planet and would have had the
Yorktown
taskforce not intervened. That fate had doomed the planet anyway was beyond Cat’s control.

“An example needed to be set,” Imera said calmly. “You of all people should be aware of what happens when order is not enforced. War is a horrible thing. But what is one planet weighed against a civil war threatening trillions of lives?”

Chapter 6: A Dirty Little Secret…

“If I have learned anything Admiral,” Cat answered dryly. “It’s that every life is precious to the one who holds it.”

Senior Fleet Admiral Imera’s image appeared to lean forward. “A noble thought I’m sure,” he said dismissively. “But not every life is significant in the grand scheme of things. The lives we would have spent on Mardarus III would have bought the survival of the GCP.”

“So your argument is that the wholesale genocide of an entire planet is justifiable to protect the GCP?”

“You see,” Admiral Imera continued, “Our goals are not so dissimilar. Stand down. Allow my officers to board your vessels. Once again let us put the madness which was Mardarus III behind us. We have lost all communication with our agents in that system… but I’m sure you know that. Restore our communication links and allow us to take control of that system. We can end this war before it even begins.”

“You’re a pompous...,” Cat began before she could stop herself. “The GCP was founded to protect the peoples of the Coalition… not the other way around.”

Imera shrugged. “Times change Cat. The GCP is an entity and force unto itself now. The lives of countless individuals and corporations are tied to its continued survival. Surely you can see that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?”

Cat smiled as she leaned back in her command chair. “The needs of the many do generally outweigh the needs of the few. Where we disagree is ‘who are the many’ and who are the few’. The GCP has lost its way Admiral. This is a situation I am committed to correcting. And Admiral… You should know I do not stand alone.”

The main door to the
Yorktown’s
bridge opened and Admiral Bud Faragon walked in. Cat had subvocalized a request for him to come to the bridge the moment contact had been made with the attack force. The GCP’s most esteemed and venerable admiral stepped down to the captain’s chair where Cat was seated.

“Admiral Imera,” Bud Faragon said by way of acknowledgement.

The holographic image of the senior fleet admiral paused as he did a double-take. “So the rumors of your demise were exaggerated.”

“I think we both know what happened that day so many years ago. Your sponsors that have their collective hooks in the Grand Senate were not amenable to the technology the Hupenstanii were developing. They had too much invested in controlling the commerce that had built up around fixed jump points to tolerate something that would disrupt that market. The only solution they would accept was to silence me and the Hupenstanii.”

Admiral Imera leaned forward in his command chair. “What you say is pure speculation and I might add, libelous. There is no proof that your accident was anything other than that. And the Hupenstanii were isolated to control a plague that ravaged their home world and threatened the very existence of the GCP.”

Admiral Faragon nodded but it was not in agreement. “From what I have read, a very convenient plague for the factions that would benefit from the suppression of Hupenstanii hyperfield research,” Bud answered dryly.

“Decades of independent study by the best scientists in the Coalition has failed to corroborate a single aspect of the theories you presented to the Grand Senate all those years ago. No my friend, the simple truth is the Hupenstanii engaged in dangerous biomedical research and they made themselves plague carriers. Their continued isolation is the only way to keep the Coalition safe and it has nothing to do with a now thoroughly discredited conspiracy theory involving suppressed jump technology.”

“Then it might interest you to know that we have successfully tested the jump technology not only once but twice,” Bud answered matter-of-factly.

Cat gave her friend a stern look. She would not have shared that last piece until they had determined the exact fate of the ‘peek’ probe they were still trying to locate.

“Admiral Kimbridge, is this true?” Imera asked in a pained voice. Cat noticed it was the first time he had used her rank during their entire discussion.

“The technology has proven effective and viable,” Cat confirmed without revealing the very real shortcomings they had discovered.

“That is unfortunate,” Admiral Imera said as he made a slashing motion with his hand directed to an officer off screen. His holographic image dissolved.

“Admiral,” Ben said to Cat, “They are powering up weapons systems and preparing to fire.”

“Well I suppose that puts to bed any doubts as to why the Hupenstanii have been cut off,” Ken Kirkland mused from the engineering station he was at. “Their dirty little secret is out of the bag.”

“Shields up!” Cat barked. “Signal the
Relentless
to make best speed for the nearest jump point. Helm, position us to run interference for them.”

“Admiral, I have Captain Purohit on channel one.”

Cat nodded to the communications officer. “Open the channel.”

The captain of the
GCP Relentless
shimmered into view. The holographic tracking camera showed he was making his way quickly through a corridor on his way towards his own bridge. His harried appearance seemed to indicate he had been in the middle of a sleep cycle when the emergency klaxons had gone off. He was still buttoning his uniform coat as he was making his way down the corridor.

“Admiral we are preparing to launch fighters. We can’t stop six heavy cruisers but we can buy you time...”

“Negative Vigit, your orders are to make best speed to the secondary site. Hook up with the
Brown Recluse
and rendezvous with the rest of the taskforce.”

“Admiral…,” Captain Vigit Purohit began.

“This is not a debate Captain! You have your orders,” she added more gently. “Don’t worry Vigit. I have every intention of joining you at the rendezvous.”

“Very well Admiral, but at least let me launch a full spread of decoy drones.”

Cat smiled. “Tie them into the
Yorktown’s
control systems and launch fully cloaked. And Captain… Thanks”

“My pleasure Admiral. Purohit out.”

Ken looked up. “Admiral we having incoming fighters.”

She nodded. “Signal the CAG, I want our fighters to hold in the bay… Do NOT launch fighters.” Cat turned to Ken. “Captain, we need to find that probe. Launch a full spread of both decoy drones and reconnaissance probes. Tie the drones into the ones from the
Relentless
and have them emulate two fighter wings. Push the probes as hard as their drives will allow and get me a location on our ‘Peek’ probe.”

“Admiral,” Ben asked, “what if the ‘Peek’ probe failed to make it back?”

“Unfortunately that’s something we need to know too. I want all systems on standby for an immediate jump on my go.” This last was directed towards Sassi.

“Aye Aye Admiral,” the Ashkelon started to acknowledged…

KA’BOOM!
Cat braced herself as the floor seemed to drop away. Many of her officers were not as fast and were thrown several feet across the deck.

The lighting system flickered and the bridge of the
GCP Yorktown
shook as the ship’s systems struggled to shed several thousand petajoules worth of energy washing over the ship’s shields.

“Shields at eighty three percent and regenerating,” Ben reported from his station.

“That was three of their ships firing at once,” Ken added. “If they take turns firing on us, my guess is they believe they can bleed our shields down to nothing.”

“Replacement emitters available to come online in ninety seconds,” Ben interjected.

“A warning then,” Cat agreed. “Imera wants us to know he means business.”

Ken looked over at the Admiral. “It’s almost as if they don’t know we with have full Heshe enhancements available.”

“Oh they know, they just have forgotten what that means. Three hundred years is a long time. Which presents us with an opportunity,” Cat added with a smile. “Ben, bring the fusion reactors online and up to 110%. Bleed their secondary containment fields 0.002 percent.” She paused to look directly at the
Yorktown’s
First Officer. “And Ben, keep those new shield emitters offline.”

As Ben moved to comply, he asked a question. “Admiral, our singularity power core is fully charged. We don’t need the fusion systems and deliberately bleeding their secondary shields will erode the lining of the containment chamber. The resulting x-ray emissions will light us up like a candle on a birthday cake in a dark room. Can I assume there is a method to your madness?”

“You could say there is a madness to my method to be sure,” Cat acknowledged. Turning in her chair she faced Ken. “Captain, what would happen if we were to target all six of our friends out there with our beam weapons using only our fusion power systems?”

“Not much I’m afraid Admiral. The fusion cores can’t push our plasma beams much past 40% of their rated capacity. In theory our weapons are more powerful than theirs but only because our Heshe tech gives us access to our singularity power systems. Without it we are on equal footing with each of Imera’s ships. We might be able to take on one or two if we were willing to fully commit ourselves but the likelihood that we would overload our older fusion power systems on the
Yorktown
are pretty high. We could not hope to take on six ships at once,” Ken answered. “We’ll need to use our singularity power core to have any chance of taking them out.”

“That’s my assessment as well,” Cat agreed with a coy smile. “Weapons… Target the primary shield emitters on each of the six ships out there. Keep the focus as tight as possible. Continuous fire until our core begin to overload. Load the railguns and fire them as well.”

“Aye Admiral. Locking weapons on multiple targets. Rigged for continuous fire. Share I tie-in our primary power systems?”

“Negative that!” Cat barked.

In unison, Ken and his first officer raised an eyebrow.

Cat smiled. “I want them to see our fusion systems fail. The moment they do, I want you to cut power to everything but grav plating and environmental. Let’s see if we can’t lure them in closer. When they pull closer we’ll bring our weapons and shields up to full power and selectively target their weapons and shields. I want to disable them without causing undue loss of life.”

Ken grinned. “Let’s give them a little incentive to close the gap. With your permission Admiral I’m going to order our fighter decoys to circle wide and come in towards Admiral Imera’s flagship from the rear. That should draw off a few of their fighter wings to provide close combat support and at the same time encourage the Admiral to close the distance to the
Yorktown
once our shields and fusion power systems go down.”

“Make it so Captain,” Cat agreed.

“Helm plot a jump to Hupenstanii space and load it in the jump buffers. We may need to bug out quickly.”

Ken looked up from his board. “That’s pretty risky given that we don’t know what happened to our test probe.”

“That it is… but it is a risk we may need to take.”

***

Senior Fleet Admiral Imera signaled his aid, Commander McMillian, to step over to his command chair on the bridge of his newly commissioned flagship the
GCP Denali
.

“Commander, alert our friend Mr. Drago that we will be needing his services sooner rather than later.”

McMillian stiffened but said nothing beyond a curt nod as he headed off the bridge to make his way towards a special communications center that only the most senior staff had access to.

“Helm, bring us about to course 1-1-2 mark 4. Forward shields to maximum. Time for talking is over. I want the
Yorktown
out of my sky… permanently.”

Chapter 7: Civil War

“The
Denali
is advancing at flank speed,” Lieutenant Sassi reported from the helm.

“Ken, how are our shields holding out?” Cat asked.

“Shields are down to 15% and starting to buckle,” the
Yorktown’s
captain responded from the engineering station he was currently manning.

Incredible energies were roiling off the ship’s deflector screens. Periodic waves of plasma would penetrate weak spots in the shielding and attack the ablative armor on the
Yorktown’s
hull. When this happened the ship shuddered. What had been an occasional rumble was now a nearly continuous roar.

“The fusion cores are beginning to overload!” Ben yelled. “If I don’t take them offline soon we are going to lose ten decks when they go critical.”

Cat leaned forward in the captain’s command chair. “Direct all power to the forward shields. Cut energy feeds to the aft side then three seconds later cut the port side. Make it look like a cascading power system failure. Flicker the shields and then hold the forward facing shields only on battery reserve. Be ready to tie in the singularly power systems and full shielding in a millisecond’s warning if it looks like they are going to take us out. My guess is Admiral Imera is just compassionate enough to allow us to stand down once he thinks we are defeated.”

“Acknowledged Admiral,” Ken said from his station as his hands flew over his console to make Cat’s orders happen.

“Officially entering possum mode,” Ben said as he adjusted the power feeds per her instructions.

“Ziggy,” Cat said, “signal the attacking fleet… Ask to parley. Audio only… let’s let them guess how badly hurt we are.”

“Admiral, they are taking the bait. Both the
Denali
and the
McKinley
are moving closer,” Sassi reported. His attention drifted to his long range sensors. His high-frequency antenna was twitching. That was never a good sign.

“Weapons… do you have a lock?”

“Aye Admiral!”

“Yorky,” Cat addressed the Yorktown’s AI. “On my mark flood the FTL communication links to Imera’s flagship with random noise. Shutdown their ability to communicate. Everyone else, prepare to fully engage power systems, shields and weapons in that order. I want those two ships disabled as fast as possible and with as little loss of life as possible.”

“Aye Admiral,” echoed through the bridge.

“MARK!” Cat yelled.

Instantly the background hum that was the heartbeat of the
GCP Yorktown
changed pitch. The shields firmed and the plasma beam emitters ramped up to 106% of rated capacity. Two sets of twin beams lashed out from the
Yorktown
and struck the shields of both the
GCP Denali
and the
GCP McKinley
. The two ship’s shields held against the onslaught for the better part of five seconds before they began to buckle.

Admiral Imera and the captain of the McKinley fired back with their own plasma canons and railguns but the fully regenerated
Yorktown’s
shields shrugged them off with little or no effort.

As the
Denali’s
shields failed the
Yorktown’s
AI immediately dialed back the intensity of the beam weapons and surgically excised the primary weapons systems and shield emitter power couplings. Imera’s flagship could run… but it could no longer fight or defend itself.  The
McKinley
who was further away lasted only a few seconds longer but the result was the same. 

“Ma’am the other four ships in the
Denali
taskforce are closing,” Sassi yelled. “And I’m showing a jump point forming. Something big is coming through. There is no way it’s our probe.”

“Understood,” Cat answered. “Helm, Come about to 2-1-9 mark 3. Full thrusters. Let’s give ourselves some room to work.  …and Sassi… the minute you have an ID on that new ship let me know.”

“Aye Admiral,” the Ashkelon navigator answered.

“We have fighters inbound,” Ken announced. “The CAG is requesting permission to launch our fighters.”

“Negative that!” Cat yelled. “I don’t want them trapped in system if we have to emergency jump.”

WHUUUMP
!

The bridge shook again.

“That was a hell of a hit,” Ben said dryly.

“Our friends are coordinating their fire,” Ken reported. “They are trying to penetrate our shields.”

“Can they…”
WHUUMP
!

“Can they succeed?” Cat finished asking.

WHUUMP
!

“Shields are down to 53% again,” Ken reported. “They are hitting us faster than we can regenerate… so the short answer is yes.”

“Fire everything we have at the closest ship. Let’s see if we can’t even the odds,” Cat ordered.

“Admiral I have an ID on those new ships,” Sassi yelled. “They are not broadcasting transponder ident codes but their configurations match those of several Talus Pirate League ships… including Sharn Drago’s flagship the
AM Blackbeard
.”

“How many and what are they doing?” Captain Kirkland asked from the engineering station.

Sassi checked his board before answering. “Captain, they are moving to intercept. I count fourteen ships in total.”

“Fourteen plus four… that’s eighteen against one… Gotta love them odds,” Ben said from his station. “Unless of course you are the one.”

“Admiral!” Sassi yelled. “I have a location on our Peek Probe. It’s four AU out. It appears damaged. Its repair systems report it was hit by a micro meteor milliseconds after its return jump. We didn’t receive telemetry because its FTL communication node was damaged in the impact.”

“How long until the pirates are in firing range?”

Ben answered before Sassi could check his board. “Three minutes Admiral. It’s anybody’s guess as to whether or not our shields…”

WHUUMP
!

“…will last that long,” Ben continued.

“Admiral,” Ziggy interrupted. “We are receiving a line-of-sight laser transmission from the
Blackbeard
. It’s for our ears only.”

“On screen,” Cat ordered. She waved Ken to join her down at the Captain’s chair. As he moved down the forward viewscreen flickered and the face of a middle-eastern man with a thin face and a tightly cropped dark beard appeared. The laser comm signal did not really have enough bandwidth for a proper holographic display so the image was two dimensional.”

“Admiral Kimbridge! It is so nice to finally meet you. Our mutual friend has had nothing but good things to say about you.”

Ken looked at Cat and raised an eyebrow.

“I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage. I’m assuming you would be Sharn Dragos but as far as a ‘mutual friend’… I’m not sure I know who that would be.”

The turbo lift door opened on the bridge of the
Yorktown
and ‘Retired’ Admiral Sherry Melbourne stepped forward.

“That would be me,” she said with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “Hello old friend.”

The image of the Pirate King smiled in response.

***

“Keep us out of range of her weapons. That bitch still has some teeth,” Senior Fleet Admiral Imera barked across the bridge of the
GCP Denali.

“The
Blackbeard
is closing on them from the flank. They are not going to last much longer,” Commander McMillian yelled over the continuing alarm klaxons. “The other pirate ships are encircling the
Yorktown
. She has nowhere to run!”

The
Denali
had been so badly stung in that last attack that the computer interlinks to the damage control systems had been severed. The result was the blaring alarms could not be immediately silenced… adding to the frustration the bridge crew of the Admiral’s flagship felt at having been duped by Admiral Kimbridge.

Admiral Imera leaned back in command chair. The end of a most distasteful chapter in his career was just about over. He had grown up admiring the woman he was about to destroy. Hell, the whole universe admired her… well… maybe not the Hupenstanii… not any more anyway. But to know that he was to be the instrument of her death? He was not sure how he felt about that. He had offered her every opportunity to be a part of the new world order but she had refused. He had offered her every opportunity to surrender but again she had refused. He shook his head. No at the end of the day her fate was in her own hands.

“Order all ships in the taskforce to fire one last barrage and then back off. Let the Pirate League finish them,” he said quietly from his seat. The klaxons had finally been silenced. At least he could claim the pirates had been the ones to end the legacy of the
Yorktown
and her mistress.

***

Captain Harry Bedmore stood up from his command chair and took two steps forward. He put a steadying hand on the shoulder of the young Lieutenant John Grissom. “Hold your course tightly. If this is going to work we need to be in perfect sync with the
Yorktown
.”

The
Brown Recluse
was one of fourteen ships converging on the stricken
GCP Yorktown
. Like the other thirteen ships, their mission was somewhat different then might be expected. While their official role in the grand scheme of things was to pillage and plunder; they were in fact, part of a larger vigilante peace-keeping force loosely affiliated with the group known as Melbourne’s Maniacs. 

The
Brown Recluse
was unique in that she alone had a secure quantum entangled communication link to the
Yorktown
. This allowed the two ship’s AI’s to exactly time the fireworks that were to follow.

“Yorky is signaling they are ready to jump,” Sam Eddington said from the comm station.

“Very good,” Harry said. He turned to face Rhino at the weapons station. “Our load of dirty nukes ready to go?”

The big man’s only answer was a wicked smile.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’,” Harry said. “Honey, if you would be so kind as to signal Yorky to proceed we can get this show on the road.”

Moments later all fourteen pirate ships fired highly collimated plasma beams on the
Yorktown’s
position simultaneously.  The instant the beams hit the Yorktown’s weaken shields the shield immediately surged a brilliant violet then white. Within a fraction of a second this too was replaced with an expanding fusion generated fireball such as might be formed by a suddenly overloaded power system.

When the ambient radiation faded to tolerable levels all that remained at the
Yorktown’s
position was an expanding ball of superheated matter.

The fourteen ships that composed the pirate league armada paused briefly and then turned as one to advance on the crippled
Denali
and
McKinley
.