Federation Reborn 2: Pirate Rage (106 page)

The emperor's eyes cut to an image of his youngest daughter. He kept tabs on his children at all times, as much to protect them and his investment in them as to make certain they weren't plotting against him.

Judith had taken to wearing flowing fairytale princess outfits that seemed to enchant the public. She was their new darling while Catherine's martial lines were almost forgotten. “I have a large brood. There are more where they came from,” the emperor said coldly, eying the Deputy Prime Minister. “Everyone is expendable, even my children if necessary.”

“Yes, sire. I hope it doesn't come to that, however,” Markov replied.

The emperor eyed him but didn't reply.

The count gulped, Adam's apple bobbing in distress as he saw the cold resolution set on his liege's face. “My apologies for bringing it up, sire. Moving on, we were discussing the search for relics in Sigma sector. I'm afraid we haven't born any fruit finding anything left from New Alexandria, sire, not for a want of trying I am sure. There just isn't anything left. If there is it is lost, adrift in the void.” New Alexandria had been the capital of the Theta sector, on the other side but closer to the core of the galaxy. It had been started as a place of learning, scientific and engineering advancement, as well as a meeting place for various races to come together. Just some of the A.I. involved were legendary. Heron, Ctesibus, Philon, Archimedes, Su Song, Da Vinci, just to name a few of the Terran ones.

The star system had been a major target by the Xeno war and had been destroyed during the early stages of the war. Rumors circulated to this day that some ships and stations had flung themselves into the void and were out there, waiting to be found.

“Find it. We found
El Dorado
, but it may not be enough. We need a better edge. And put out a bounty on Irons. Another bounty on any sleepers that have been found or any left still in stasis.”

“Bounty, sire? As in a kill order? The assassins have been … untenable as of late,” the count said, squirming.

“Then find out why. To expand, I want Irons and his government
dead
. The same for any sleepers that have aligned with him. But any still in stasis I want found and brought to
El Dorado
.”

The count nodded. “In order to utilize their services for the benefit of the Empire. Wise my lord,” he said.

“Ah, you are catching on. Good.” The emperor put his fingertips together. “Very good. Next thing …”

---<>))))

Admiral Von Berk grimaced, fists clenching and unclenching behind his back as he watched the simulation of hyperspace flowing past the ship.
Ma Deuce
was a good ship or had been back in her day. Unfortunately for him that day was long past. The
Cutlass
class destroyer was agonizingly slow compared to the speed he'd only recently traveled.

But it was the best speed the transport and elderly destroyer could handle as they raced away with their precious cargo of water dwellers. He shook his head. He was also not happy about leaving his fleet behind. He knew that was going to come back and bite him despite the work with his reduced staff on damage control. Once they got back to the Empire, he might face a court martial and summary execution anyway. He wasn't certain how much damage control would be needed of if any sort of defense would do him any good at all.

He was depressingly certain some sort of court martial was in his future after losing all of his fleet. Oh, his family would do their best to shield him, but if they were pressed, they might cut their losses.

He grimaced as he examined every step, every decision he'd made to get to where he was now. Were there family members in the lost ships? He wasn't sure. He'd have to have someone do a personnel search to find out.

His jaw clenched before he caught himself and forced himself to relax. No need to break another tooth due to his temper he reminded himself. He had enough to contend with without a toothache. He frowned, seeing his reflection in the glass. He'd lost weight to the worry. There was little he could do to stop what was coming.

And leaving so many sailors behind to most likely fight and die while he ran away wouldn't look at all good. He knew his days might be numbered. Even if he was allowed to resign in disgrace or take some staff position, the ruling families who had family in Nuevo Madrid would never forgive him for abandoning their loved ones. They'd be waiting in the dark, sharpening their knives for any sort of opportunity.

His career was essentially stalled or over. He had to face that he thought bleakly.

But … but the empire might remain; a small corner of his mind reminded him as he looked on to video feed from Mara's compartment. His medical staff were doing their best to pamper them, keeping them alive and well, if not happy at least doped up enough to not be too depressed about their situation. Any of the water dwellers who had medical or psychological trouble had been stuck in a stasis pod for later retrieval. Even the bodies of the dead had been preserved. They may be of use with the genetics department later. He knew they had uterine replicators tucked away somewhere. With a bit of effort, the Empire's medical scientists would be able to finish what he started.

Most of the males would either serve the Empire or die. It was that simple. If they refused to submit and man the ships again, then they would be mated with the females, in some cases undoubtedly forcibly for both parties, then placed in stasis or dissected. Their seed would be stored.

The females would remain in the Empire. They would be cosseted and used as brood mares. It was a pity for he knew just how good Mara was at her job. Perhaps he could help her by setting up some sort of teaching position? He shook his head. He had his own hide to protect he reminded himself.

Genetics was hardly he forte he thought; mind drifting back to the larger breeding issue. He knew the scientists and handlers would have to be careful managing such a small gene pool. The experts would have to keep track in charts of the bloodlines much like they did with the ruling families to prevent inbreeding … at least until more could be acquired.

But it was quite the feather in his cap to have so many. And humanoids! They weren't as good as Ssilli but perhaps better in the long run. They would be easier to deal with, and their near human bodies would be more adaptable to the ships. They wouldn't require the massive tanks that the Ssilli required. It might stave off his court martial …

As long as the damn Feds didn't find a way to destroy the empire before the water dwellers could be put to effective use he thought darkly. His eyes cut to the countdown clock. He still had a week to get to B97a. A long week to brood he thought.

---<>))))

“We're ready, sir,” Catherine said, looking at her admiral.

“It's about time,” the admiral growled. He harrumphed. Their short layover had turned into a month long ordeal. “Then let's get this show back on the road. We can't run that ship down, not with the lead time they've already established. But we can get in there behind them, hopefully too soon for them to send in additional reinforcements,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” Catherine said with a nod. “Navigation, we're ready,” she intoned.

“Aye aye, ma’am,” the navigator stated. “Hyperdrives synched and charging … now,” he stated.

“Jump commencing in three … two … one … we have stage one ignition, entering octave one …” the helm rating intoned carefully.

“We're going to run them down,” the admiral said softly. “There will be no place to hide. We will be the light in the dark; we shall sear them from wherever they think they can hide in. We will be the hammer to shatter their defenses, the battle ax to cleave through them to ignite a fire within to tear them apart. This I promise,” he said.

Princess Catherine nodded, making a note of the statement for future reference. It might prove useful she thought.

---<>))))

Ma Deuce
translated out of hyperspace with her transport two weeks after the Retribution Fleet's departure. The destroyer's sensory techs noted the massive ion trail and alerted Admiral Von Berk and his staff.

“Sir, we know they aren't Federation. They have to be from the homeworld. Should we warn them?” Rick asked carefully. “We can go in pursuit …,” he started in hopefully.

“We do not. We have a mission to complete. They have theirs,” the admiral said carefully. Log that we noted their passage. Is CIC certain of the timing?”

“No, sir,” the captain said carefully.

“So, we don't know how long ago they left. We could jump back and miss them again, and so on and so forth. No, we stay on mission,” the admiral replied.

“Aye aye, sir,” his chief of staff said, giving a shrug to the captain before he nodded to the main viewer.

“Captain, plot a course to the next jump point. We have a delivery to make,” the admiral said simply.

“Aye aye, sir.”

Epilogue

Courier
UFDV-010S
arrived in Protodon with news of the conquest of Nuevo Madrid. The captain broadcast the news to the picket and then to the ansible for rebroadcast to the admiralty.

Celebrations were held in the wardrooms and galleys of the naval ships and fortresses. The good word spread over the internal news channels.

The news quickly spread through the star system to Protodon. Confirmation demands were made of the marines and naval officers on the planet. The demands started as a trickle but then turned into a storm as people began to mob the bases for news, holding vigils outside.

Lieutenant Colonel Pendeckle ordered a news release just before the official news release came through the ansible. The news kicked off celebrations and weeping of relief that the people who had battered their world had been destroyed.

Finished with its job as mailman, the courier refueled at the jump point and then returned to B95a3.

---<>))))

Admiral Irons smiled indulgently as he watched April doing her job. She was handling the reaction well. He caught the occasional infectious smile, but her co-anchor didn't seem to mind it. His new press secretary had handled the press release quite well he thought. They'd timed the release of the video and other supporting documentation to the tick to allow for impartial handing off to all of the media outlets without incurring any accusations of favoritism.

The news had come cold to everyone including April. He knew his ass would be grass over it but didn't care. He had to be impartial, which was why he'd left the release in the hands of the press secretary. He
had
to delegate; he just had to. She would hopefully understand … or at least get over her anger eventually.

She couldn't be mad at him forever, could she? He wasn't sure if he wanted to find out.

"We've received only partial reports on the casualties sustained by the navy. According to initial reports there are as many as seventy-two dead with another forty six wounded. The death toll on the pirate side is unknown. When we know more about which ships took damage we will release those lists," April said heavily.

John nodded and made a note to release the list in a future press release. Should he have the press secretary do it or the Naval Public Affairs Department? He wasn't sure. He also wasn't going to release specific names until the families had been properly notified.

“We take you now to a celebration gathering in Salutation Park in Doonsburg where thousands had come to pay their respects to the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform while also celebrating their achievements,” April said with a smile. “Illia?” she asked.

The feed cut to a Chimera reporter who blathered on, recapping the situation while interviewing excited people. The angst of ET and Protodon were forgotten apparently in the heat of the moment Irons noted. Everyone wanted to be on the side of the victor. He snorted at the implied hypocrisy involved in that thought.

Ah well, he thought, sitting back and toying with a stylus. “Give the people what they want,” he said softly.

“Indeed, Admiral,” Protector stated.

“And what about you, Lieutenant? Have you made up your mind?”

“No, sir. Not yet. I did come to think of one thing you've overlooked though.”

“Oh?”

“She hasn't mentioned it, sir, but
Commander
Sprite is past due for a promotion based on your accelerated timetable, sir,” he said respectfully.

“Commander Sprite knows that staff officers are promoted at a slower pace than field officers. Especially field officers who are in the line of fire,” the admiral said mildly. “Though I will consider it.”

“Thank you, sir. Slipping her onto the promotion board might appease some of the A.I. who have resented it, sir,” Protector said simply.

The admiral blinked at that statement then exhaled slowly. “That's news to me,” he said after a long moment. “And I don't like it coming at me cold. How bad is it?”

“Not bad yet, sir. But there has been some … discussion over the slight I suppose you can say. The commander has kept out of it of course.”

“Okay. But
she
is aware of it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Yet she hasn't put herself up for promotion. I think she's aware of the charge of nepotism if I promote her,” the admiral said mildly, his good feelings of accomplishment fading fast. “But we can solve this. I'm her commanding officer so I have to recommend her.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I'll do it. She'll have to face the promotion board, and I'll of course abstain from it. That means she'll have to wait until Vice Admiral Sienkov arrives next week. I think she has enough patience for that,” he said. He was still getting flack over promoting Monty, Thornby, Matilda, Horatio, Harris, and some of his other most-senior officers from some quarters. It would be nice if the nominations came from someone other than himself, but he knew it wasn't going to happen. All of the officers with one exception were under his direct command.

Come to think of it, he made a note to have Shelby bumped up a rank. She'd earned it. They were going to have to troll for more officers to promote soon. They needed to start pushing people up into more senior positions faster despite their lack of time in grade. Possibly even skipping a grade if it was required.

He felt for Renee. She'd deserved better.

“I think so. Why wait though?”

“I'd prefer it to be run through a flag board to make it official,” the admiral said simply. And since Amadeus and Horatio are out of contact, and I have to abstain, the duty falls on the vice admiral, Phil, and Jersey respectively.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

“Now, what other problems are lurking in the bush for me to find? I'd prefer to find out about them, you understand, before they cause any more undo problems,” the admiral said mildly.

“Aye aye, sir. Well then, the next topic is laying down the components of the next three divisions of super dreadnaughts now that Commander Sindri has gotten started on them. But he sent an email asking if you still want to prioritize the carriers over the battle line now that they've gotten the bugs out. It's going to take another month before they get the fleet carrier line fully debugged, and he wants to get a jump on the SDs.”

The admiral nodded. Vestri would want to keep the momentum going though once he had the SD lines fully running. He understood that, but he still saw the future in carriers. Then again, Pyrax was doing a bang-up job there, with the second fleet carrier half complete and two more in the pipeline.

Perhaps a compromise was in order? He frowned thoughtfully. It would make sense, he thought frowning. Pyrax had the better fighter ops and had the
Kittyhawk
production line going in full swing. Carriers could be built with 85 percent of the keys and resources they had on hand. Sending them the components the engineers couldn't fabricate with their current keysets was easier than for battle line capital ship. He nodded. Fine.

His eyes cut to the image feed. His eyebrow lifted ever so briefly. Apparently Toni Chamber's network was countering with stock footage of
Bismark's
launch from last week. The follow-up went into a bit more detail on
Quirinus's
launch in five weeks’ time than he'd like.

Harris was already agitating for him to take over more time in the fleet. He knew the game the captain was playing; he was pushing Irons to take over fleet command knowing he couldn't do it. The admiral's time was already too heavily scheduled to allow it, which meant someone else had to fill the role. That was falling more and more on Harris's shoulders.

He'd been tempted to frock him to Commodore, but Phil had made some noises against it. They were going to need to do something, he thought, even if it was to bring in more of the Bek officer cadre in to fill in some of the blanks.

Wouldn't Harris have a snit over sitting under a Bek admiral? he smiled slightly as he sat back and toyed with the idea. Yeah, it might come to that. Not yet of course, but it was possible. Five of the eight remaining Bek officers were on their way to Antigua. The Marine had been dropped off in Agnosta and was busy giving Jersey a run for his money with the two army officers.

Admiral Sienkov had made it clear he fully intended to hang onto his flag lieutenant Elvis Yaeger so that left three other officers. All of them had engineering training, though two had captain's experience. Captain SG Ch'ch'tt looked good on paper. He frowned, checking her file. She had seniority on Harris too. She wasn't that far away from a promotion he noted. He nodded. Then there was Lieutenant Commander Swish Clack and 1st Lieutenant Siobhan Blackyip. He plucked at his lower lip thoughtfully. The T'clock also up for promotion soon, while the Neodog was new to her rank. He nodded as he checked their respective records. Like the other officers they had diligently taken classes to get themselves up to speed and were ready to work. Fine. A little on-the-job training then. He'd throw them at Turner and Qr'll'ck with a pointed hint to give all three ship commands. He was curious if they would be able to sink or swim in the training exercises Harris was putting everyone through.

He nodded again ever so slightly as he slipped Harris and Vargess onto the next promotions list. If the Veraxin captain handled herself well in a battlecruiser or other command, he'd give her six months, then see about bumping her up as well.

Protector made a throat clearing sound, bringing him back to the here and now. "Sorry, thinking a couple steps ahead on a few things."

"So I see," the lieutenant replied, indicating the open files in front of the admiral.

"Continue," the admiral said, brushing the files aside for the moment.

"While you considered that change in yard priorities and personnel, there has been 264, now 265 requests for your presence at various functions on the planet and on Antigua. Another one 1,294 have come in from other star systems to date."

"Pass on all the requests for the moment. Go over the ones here with Commander Sprite later. We'll cherry-pick the ones I like. Perhaps a couple video interviews if necessary to keep the morale momentum going. Back to the SD versus carrier issue …"

---<>))))

Commander Nambi nodded as the crew grinned or signaled happiness in their own species way. The gamble had paid off. That was good.

His eyes roved to the other fortresses defending the jump zone. The second fortress had been commissioned, and the third was near completion. The fourth and fifth were already online even though they were only partially built and manned. Thousands of OWP's missile pods, and satellites were arranged around the jump point with more either drifting in a thin outer shell or housed in the growing orbital warehouses a light hour inward from the jump zone. He for one wouldn't want to jump into the concentrated firepower of the fortresses.

The people of Protodon were celebrating the victory as if they had participated in it. It was a relief to see them happy after being so miserable. There had been a lot of rancor over Admiral White and his decisions, and he knew that the admiral's departure to go on the offense hadn't sat well with many of the leaders starting to step up. Hopefully things would change there. He'd heard a few more people talking about joining the Federation. That was good.

Things were looking up.

---<>))))

Lieutenant Colonel Moira White Wolf, president of Kathy's World, grinned in her own way at the news. That they'd gotten the bastards was the cake. The fact that they hadn't lost any ships along the way and made it seem easy was the frosting. She heard howls and barks of celebration of a successful hunt going on throughout the city and felt the urge to join in.

After a few minutes of wrestling with the urges, she gave in and went to her balcony. She lifted her muzzle skyward and joined in.

---<>))))

Governor Clampett saw the dancing in the streets. He grinned, waving a hand as people cheered at the sight of him. A woman ran up to a boy in a naval uniform and kissed him soundly. He blinked in shock as she smiled at him, then she hooked his arm with her own and began to dance in a circle, laughing until he joined in.

Jed shook his head. They were acting like the war was over, but he knew better. But for the moment, he let them have their fun. Tomorrow would be another day. For now, the monster was dead or in retreat. He smiled indulgently again, waving to his daughter and family before he returned to wave to the crowd.

“Long live the Federation!” he bellowed.

That kicked off some more cheers and a few people waving the flag. He nodded. Perhaps it was for the best he thought.

---<>))))

Doctor Helen Richards heard people laughing and cheering and came out of her office to investigate. She finally had a proper office again and had only recently, in the spirits of space awful year, been able to make use of it regularly. Things were finally returning to normal, she thought.

Now this. “What's going on?” she demanded. Even the patients were laughing or crying. Many were standing in doorways chatting happily or wiping their eyes with appendages.

“Didn't you hear, ma’am?” An RN demanded, turning to her from her companions.