Euthara (20 page)

“What?” Oojoung said. “Oojoung just trying to help evil Duke he almost tripped. Good thing Oojoung was right here or evil Duke might have really hurt himself badly.”

“Uh huh,” Jon said. “Just remember he’s a guest here, for now.”

Oojoung turned and walked to other end of room and shrugged. “Evil Duke tripped and Oojoung caught him before he fell. Oojoung hopes it doesn’t happen much because Oojoung will be there to help evil Duke every time. Too many door jams in house to count it would be very sad if evil Duke tripped into them all.” Oojoung shot the Duke a toothy grin.

“I doubt that would happen,” Jon said. He was laughing inside but was working hard to keep a stern look on his face.

“He did that on purpose!” Andara said.

“Oojoung sees another door jamb in evil Dukes future as evil Duke is very clumsy,” Oojoung said.

“I am not!” Andara said. “If you touch me again I’ll…”

“Run in to brick wall?” Oojoung said. “That hurt much more.”

Andara just shut up as he reached up and touched the small wound on his forehead.

“Ok, that’s enough,” Jon said. “Duke I want you to contact the King and tell him I would like to speak to him.”

“Why don’t you do it…?” Andara said. It was cut short as his head thumped into a door jamb as Oojoung brushed past him. “OWWW! Stop it!”

“What? Evil Duke stumble again?” Oojoung said.

“Oojoung…” Jon said.

“Oojoung innocent,” Oojoung said as he gave his best smile.

“Andara,” Jon said. “He’ll be more open to talk to me if it comes from you. Do you not think it’s important in light of recent events we all start working together?”

“Not really,” Andara said. This time he was watching Oojoung and stepped away from the doorway. “They attacked you not us. Then there are also the Invaru that seem to be your friends.”

“Ok,” Jon said. “I don’t have time to go round and round with you. Oojoung find a brick wall, I don’t think the door jamb is working.”

Andara paled as Oojoung walked towards him and spoke quickly, “Ok, I’ll do it.”

“Good,” Jon said.

Jon stepped off the shuttle on to the deck of Hope Station in orbit of Euthara. That’s what most of the people had started calling it, and the name stuck. Mike, Brad, Bill and Kelly were standing off to one side as he stepped down. Mike and Brad seemed to be in a heated debate with Bill, Kelly was standing back as she watched them going at each other.

“I can’t believe you did that,” Brad said. “Are you crazy or insane?”

“I did what I had to at the time,” Bill said. His arms were casually crossed and his posture was relaxed.

“You burned out the fold engines and half the power conduits in the ship,” Mike said. “It’ll take two days to get it fixed. You’re lucky you brought extra fold engines with you. We don’t have spares here right now.”

“I’m not stupid,” Bill said. “I knew it was going to burn them out, so I brought the replacements. Two days is fine anyway, there’s a few upgrades that need a dry dock to be completed and my engineers will affect the repairs themselves.”

A Eutharan female walked up to Jon and saluted. “I’m Dalliana,
Earth’s Revenge's
AI. I’m happy to finally meet you Commander Hunter.”

“I didn’t know you were on-line yet,” Jon said as he continued walking towards the four people drawing everyone’s attention. She was very pretty by Human standards. She was dressed in a light blue suit denoting bridge crew and had the bands of a deck officer. Her fire red hair was run through with strands of silver and flowed freely around her. He knew she was a hologram and yet she seemed so real.

“I was the one who made it possible to jump as fast as we could,” Dalliana said. “Thirty second recharge on the fold engines is what burned them out. I had to shut down all systems but life support to do it. Then I force fed the engines the power I needed and we micro jumped across systems to the next fold point.”

“Hrm,” Jon said. He was impressed by what he heard. He would have never thought of doing it. “Impressive, what gave you the idea to do it?”

“You,” Dalliana said.

“Me?” Jon said. “I’ve never done it.”

“You’re right you haven’t done what we did,” Dalliana said. “But, you were the first to use tactical jumps to get out of danger or to change position in a battle quickly. That’s what I did and how I explained it to Captain Hawkins. It’s basically the same thing minus the battle.”

Atlantis appeared next to Jon and saluted as she spoke, “Repairs on the
Atlantis
are complete.”

“Thank you Atlantis,” Jon said.

“Dalliana,” Atlantis said. “It’s nice to finally meet you in person.”

“You too, Sister,” Dalliana said.

“Could you send me the reports on your micro jump theory?” Atlantis asked. “I’m very curious to see if it could be tweaked some.”

“Of course,” Dalliana said. “Transmitting all information on our micro jumps now.”

“Thank you, if you’ll excuse me we’re leaving the dock to start our long range patrol,” Atlantis said. Atlantis pouted a bit as she said, “I miss you Commander, things just don’t seem the same without you.”

“After everything is settled here, I’ll be back to putting you into danger soon enough. You just be careful out there and don’t have too much fun without me,” Jon said.

“I’ll be careful, Carla is a more than capable Captain,” Atlantis said. “As to having fun, yeah, it’s loads. One long party…” Atlantis disappeared as she waved.

Jon chuckled and Dalliana smiled.

The AI’s could roam freely on the station as long as their ship was docked. They actually helped keep the station operating at top efficiency as the station’s AI wasn’t on-line yet. Mike was waiting on three new cores before he brought them on line. Then there would be three separate AIs; Medical, Engineering and Command and Control.

Jon’s attention was drawn back to the scene he was approaching as Brad spoke.

“You put your entire crew at risk,” Brad said. “The engines could have blown up under the pressure. They’re not made to be run like that.”

“They’re wrong you know,” Dalliana said.

“Maybe,” Jon said. “But, they have a point. It was something that wasn’t tested and could have been potentially dangerous.”

“I was in complete control of everything at all times,” Dalliana said. “I would have aborted if the engines were going to go critical.”

“It was Bill’s call,” Jon said. “I’m not saying he was wrong. If I didn’t trust him he wouldn’t have a command. I’m just interested on how he’ll handle this as he’s my second in command.”

“I see,” Dalliana said. She stopped talking and stood next to Jon to watch the display.

“They’re slag heaps,” Brad said. “Both engines are useless and there are miles of conduit to be replaced.”

“I made a call,” Bill said. “Assistance was needed here immediately. Based on that, what I did was the best option. We have plenty of personnel here and the repairs are minor.”

“Minor!” Brad said. “It’ll take a day or more to complete the repairs on just the engines.”

“At which time the
Earth’s Revenge
will be on patrol,” Bill said.

“Impossible!” Brad said.

“Not impossible,” Bill said. “The old engines will be removed here at the dock and the new engines will be replaced on patrol. Secondary systems will be rerouted around the damaged conduits. She is still space worthy and able to fight, she just won’t be able to fold.”

“Ok, genius,” Mike said. “How do you plan to move from place to place? It will take you days to move from point to point under normal engines.”

“Hyperspace engines,” Bill said.

Mike and Brad exchanged surprised looks.

“Yes, they’ve been installed and during the twelve hour trip here they were put on-line and spun up,” Bill said. “I’m not completely stupid and I always have a backup plan.”

“Oh,” Mike and Brad said at the same time.

“I knew they were on the plans to be installed,” Brad said. “Last report said they hadn’t been installed yet.”

“They weren’t installed until the trip out here,” Bill said. “So, that report was accurate.”

“Still,” Mike said. “We don’t have spare parts to be tossing around. You need to be more careful.”

“How about you two do what you’re supposed to and find a way to make the engines stand up to this punishment as it might just save someone’s life,” Bill said. “Then you stop trying to dress me down and get back to work. I want the engines on my ship pulled in ten hours so I can get back on patrol. The bulk of the dry dock work will be done by then and I plan on completing the rest of the repairs while on patrol.”

“Hey look,” Brad started.

Bill cut him off and said, “Do I need to really pull rank and make it an order?”

“No,” Brad and Mike said in unison.

“One more thing,” Bill said. “I don’t mind arguing about something when people think I’m wrong. However, doing so in a public place where everyone is watching doesn’t sit well with me. If you want to continue this conversation we can do so in private.”

“Sorry,” Brad and Mike said as one.

“No problem,” Bill said. “We’re friends and I respect your input. Just remember I’m in a command position and confrontations like this can undermine my authority.”

“Afternoon guys,” Jon said.

The small group immediately snapped to and saluted Jon.

“Commander,” they all said.

“At ease,” Jon said. “Mike what's the situation with the
Scythe
?”

“She was caught mid hull and most of her main systems were damaged,” Mike said. “Repairs are underway and we’re estimating a week or more before we can start bringing systems on-line for testing. We’re taking the opportunity to upgrade most of her systems and install the new weapons the Invaru gave us.”

“The
Atlantis
has the newer weapons installed already according to the last report,” Jon said.

“That’s correct,” Mike said. “We’re installing the new weapons alongside of the other weapons. Switching between the two systems is computer controlled and instantaneous.”

“What about defensive systems,” Jon said.

“Shields have been tweaked to make it harder for the Crystari weapons to penetrate them,” Brad said. “Sorry to interrupt but that’s my baby. Shields are now running on an inverse frequency and a higher modulation.”

“Which means?” Jon said.

“From the scans and reports the Crystari weapons draw energy from the vessels they hit,” Brad said. “As they do so they get more powerful and the more powerful they get the more energy they draw. This change to the shield systems limits the amount of power they can draw and even pulls some energy from their weapons. The result is their power doesn’t grow as fast or that’s the theory behind the changes. It only takes a few hours to tweak the shields and we’re training people on how to monitor and adjust them while in combat. The data has already been uploaded to all AI and they can also make adjustments if needed.”

“I see,” Jon said.

“I think we should do all adjustments,” Dalliana said. “However, I’ve been over ruled on the matter.”

“Why’s that?” Jon said.

“To allow them to do the adjustments on the fly would take them off other important tasks,” Mike said. “They can do so if the Commanding Officer gives them authorization.”

“Makes sense,” Jon said. “What’s the status of the Titan?”

“She’s been repaired and refit with the new guns and shields,” Brad said. “She left with the
Atlantis
on patrol.”

“Good and the Invaru fleet?” Jon said.

“Two ships are beyond repair and we’re salvaging parts to fix the other ships,” Brad said. “Out of the six ships one is ready and has left on a separate long range patrol. The other five will join it as they’re repaired.”

“Captain Vaes?” Jon said.

“Recovering quickly,” Andie said as she walked up. “I lost two more people this morning bringing the casualties to over two thousand including Invaru losses. I heard you were here and I thought I would swing by and say hi.”

Jon felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him. He knew the loss of life was going to be high but two thousand? “All those people,” Jon whispered.

“Would have been many more had we not been here,” Mike said.

“What do you mean?” Jon said.

“I’ve reviewed all the recordings of the battle and there were two ground strikes by the Crystari ships,” Mike said. Mike raised his hand and an image of Euthara popped in to existence in the middle of them. “Here and here.”

“That’s the middle of the forest,” Jon said. “Miss fires?”

“No,” Mike said. “I’ve sent some Eutharan personnel down to the sites and there was some type of industrial building there. The sites were crawling with military personnel and it looked like engineers were accessing the damage.”

“Can’t be industrial in nature,” Jon said. “Any industry is forbidden on Euthara.”

“Beats me,” Mike said. “I would need close scans of the sites to figure out what was there and right now that’s not going to happen. My guys barely made it out with their skins intact.”

“Oh, speaking of industry,” Brad said. “The first two factories came on-line yesterday and will be cranking out needed supplies in a few days.”

“Good,” Jon said. “How long until the two light cruisers are finished at Ghost Station?”

“The Chief Engineer says two weeks and two months for the battleship,” Mike said. “However, we don’t have the crew to man them fully.”

“We will,” Jon said. “This Euthara thing will be over by then one way or the other.”

Jon's com beeped and a voice said, “Commander Hunter, incoming call from Euthara from the King.”

“Finally,” Jon said. “Only took the bastard a day. Everyone’s dismissed, I’ll be in my quarters if you need me.” He tapped his com and continued, “I’ll take it in my quarters.”

Brad and Mike saluted and walked away as Bill said, “Jon.”

“I already have your report from Dalliana,” Jon said. “You two go get some rest. I’ll talk a bit more in depth with you later.”

“Ok,” Bill said. “But, I have a question for you.”

“You’ll have to follow me to ask,” Jon said as he started walking off. Bill, Kelly and Dalliana close on his heels.