Call to Arms (Black Fleet Trilogy, Book 2) (18 page)

“Which would you prefer, Major?” Green asked.

“Neither.” Ortiz shrugged. “At least the techies keep to themselves, though. The guardsmen will be nothing but targets of opportunity to my Marines. I’ll be writing incident reports from here all the way to the Frontier. By the way, Captain, why would we be taking on a bunch of knuckle draggers?”

“Where did you hear we’re gaining infantry, Major?” Jackson decided to ignore the derogatory term for regular soldiers.

“I hear things,” Ortiz said evasively. “We’re not on com lockdown, and sixteen shuttles loading up and departing Jericho all at once tends to set tongues wagging.”

“We’re about to find out, sir,” the chief said as the lights around the airlock cycled from green to red, and then back to green as the intermediate space between the two hatches was quickly flooded with atmosphere. When the
Ares
’
s
inner hatch swung ponderously up out of the way, none of them were expecting what walked out.

“Fuck me sideways with a stick,” Chief Green let out softly. “Are they who I think they are?”

“Indeed they are, Chief,” Jackson said, enjoying Ortiz’s slack jawed stare. “Starfleet Special Forces. Two full teams of NOVAs.”

“Shit,” Ortiz muttered as he followed Jackson to greet their new passengers. “I’ll still be writing incident reports, just for a different reason.”

“Captain Wolfe.” One of the men in unadorned black fatigues came to attention and snapped a salute. “Lieutenant Commander Amiri Essa and NOVA Team Four reporting for duty.”

Jackson afforded him the respect of coming to attention himself and returning the salute.

“Welcome aboard the
Ares
, Lieutenant Commander,” he said. “This is Major Jeza Ortiz. He’ll be taking care of you and your men.”

“Of course, sir,” Essa said. “Major, I have twenty-four men and their gear I need to get off the shuttle and clear of the area so the remaining seven shuttles can dock.”

“This way, Lieutenant Commander.” Ortiz shook the Fleet officer’s hand before waving the rest of the NOVA team over to muster by the hatch leading out of the cargo bay.

On the
Icarus,
an identical introduction was likely taking place with equally astounded reactions. Out of the roughly twenty-one million people serving in the Confederate Armed Forces, there were only ten NOVA teams, each with twenty-five members. The best of the best of the best before even being selected, and then they were sharpened into a lethal instrument by grueling and often unorthodox training methods.

Unfortunately, NOVA were trained to fight other humans, so despite the intrigue of meeting living legends, Jackson was quite unhappy to have them aboard his ship. Their presence only reminded him that, despite the threat amassing along the Frontier, his ship was flying in the wrong direction and preparing to fight the wrong enemy.

The next two shuttles contained nothing but routine cargo for the
Ares
and the NOVA team that had just come aboard, but the fourth shuttle contained a few more surprise passengers.

“Dr. Tanaka.” Jackson came forward and shook the hand of the Tsuyo scientist that had introduced him to the
Starwolf
-class starships. “Welcome back aboard the
Ares
. What brings you out here?”

“Captain Wolfe, a pleasure to see you again,” Tanaka said. “I’m here to oversee the installation of some new systems that weren’t ready for deployment when the new destroyers left the shipyard.”

“New systems?” Jackson frowned. “Doctor, I’m not sure now would be the best time to install and test new hardware. The ship is about to fly into potentially hostile space.”

“These are already tested, Captain.” Tanaka argued. “Just not installed. At the time, it was more important to allow you and your crews as much time with the new ships as possible so all the software, wiring, and control subsystems for the new hardware is already installed on the
Ares
. We will simply be plugging in the new boxes and providing your crew minimal training on their operation.”

“Very well.” Jackson still wasn’t convinced. “Coordinate your efforts with Chief Engineer Singh. I will authorize no changes to this ship until he clears them.”

“Of course, Captain.” Tanaka bowed his head slightly. “If you will excuse me.”

The civilian doctor walked out of the cargo hold, punching an authorization code into the pad by the hatch to gain entry to the ship. It was entirely likely the scientist, who had been instrumental in the design of the
Starwolf
-class ships, had a higher level of access to the ship’s systems than he did.

“Excuse me, Captain Wolfe?”

Jackson turned as another civilian that had been aboard Tanaka’s shuttle approached him. “Dr. Allrest?”

“Yes, sir.” Allrest looked around nervously.

“What can I do for you, Doctor?”

“Is there somewhere we might speak in private?” Allrest asked.

Jackson gestured for the doctor to follow him over to the office, just behind the dockmaster’s control room.

“I’ve come here to give you this,” Allrest said once Jackson secured the hatch, handing him a generic looking data card.

“Couldn’t this have simply been transmitted, Doctor?” Jackson asked. “Take this in the spirit in which it’s intended, but you’re a little too important to risk losing in a freak shuttle accident because you were personally ferrying a data card up here.”

“My com transmissions are being closely monitored,” Allrest said. “I also couldn’t risk giving you this while on the surface of Haven, since the CIS has ears everywhere.”

Jackson looked down at the data card, now intrigued. “What’s on this?”

“The truth about the Phage,” Allrest said simply. “And more. I went through great trouble and copied this information at great risk to myself and family, so please take it seriously. I convinced Dr. Tanaka to bring me up under the guise of wanting to see the
Ares
in person so I could get it into your hands. There has been much information on the Phage suppressed as well as secret strategies to deal with the problem that I feel will only draw resources away from the war effort.”

“I’m not sure what to say to this,” Jackson said. “If what you’re saying is accurate, I would assume we now share the risk equally for processing this information. Why trust me?”

“I don’t think there is anyone else I can trust, Captain,” Allrest said. “You’ve already proven yourself a man unafraid to make the ultimate sacrifice. Please… just look over the information, and do what you feel you must. Now, I need to get back to the shuttle before it departs.”

“Perhaps I should have an orderly give you a tour of the ship, and you can catch the last shuttle back to Jericho,” Jackson suggested. “A tour of the cargo dock control room won’t be very convincing if someone is aboard these shuttles that can report on your actions.”

“Yes, of course.” Allrest nodded emphatically. “Thank you again, Captain.”

Jackson escorted the scientist over to where an enlisted spacer from the com department met them and began a quick walking tour of the destroyer. The young spacer, taking his job very seriously, was gesturing expansively to parts of the ship as they walked down the main starboard access tube, completely oblivious to the fact his charge wasn’t paying him the least bit of attention.

****

“All shuttles have cleared our orbital path, and the dock master is reporting all cargo has been secured,” Lieutenant Davis said as Jackson walked back onto the bridge.

He’d secured the data card Eugene Allrest had given him in his personal vault but had yet to view its contents.

“Very good, Lieutenant,” he said as he sat down. “Tell Engineering to begin prestart on the main engines. Coms! Signal the
Icarus
to prepare to get underway.”

“Aye, sir.”

It was only twenty minutes later when Engineering reported the plasma chambers on the main engines were hot, and the com officer verified the
Icarus
was ready to fly. Jackson ordered the formation to break orbit and set a course for the DeLonges jump point, the most direct route to the star system in which the New Sierra Shipyards orbited one of the two inhabited planets in that star system.

As the
Ares
accelerated to transition velocity, Jackson was painfully aware he was also flying toward a potential showdown with a sizable armada of Fourth Fleet ships—with nothing more than two destroyers. He could only hope that the New American captains wouldn’t actually fire on a pair of Terran ships.

Chapter 11

“So what has Dr. Tanaka been installing on my ship?” Jackson asked as he picked at the remains of his dinner.

It had been three days since they transitioned out of the Alpha Centauri System, and the warp flight routine was already starting to drag.

“Currently we’re installing the control systems for a new type of sensor,” Daya said. “It will work in concert with our radar, LIDAR, and optical sensors to give us a better picture of what’s in a system. You want the details or the broad strokes?”

“Aim for somewhere in between those two.” Although Jackson had studied engineering at the Academy, Daya’s technical explanations usually went a bit over his head.

“Well, the long and short of it is that it can detect gravitational waves of objects in a system.” Daya tossed his napkin onto the tray in front of him. “No matter how stealthy a ship is, or how dark it’s running, everything that has mass will cause ripples.”

“How the hell can something be sensitive enough to detect that while being bolted to a starship underway?” Jackson asked skeptically.

“Because it isn’t,” Daya said. “To set up the system, you deploy a series of twelve satellites that will fly themselves into a formation and deploy a laser interferometer network that can detect gravimetric waves on any axis. The data is then routed back to the
Ares
where the computers we’re installing now will interpret it and update the tactical computers.”

“Clever,” Jackson conceded. “They’ve been using a similar method to map deep space anomalies for centuries. I wasn’t aware they could be sensitive enough to detect something as small as a ship so close to a star’s influence.”

“The latest and greatest from the Tsuyo think tanks,” Daya said. “Dr. Tanaka seems to think this is a great advantage, but I’m not so sure. At best, it will give us marginally more warning than our conventional sensors.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Gravity waves move at the speed of light, the same as radio waves,” Daya said. “Theoretically, in a best case scenario, it will be twice as fast as radar and slightly slower than an optical sensor.”

“Yes,” Jackson said slowly, “but a radar can’t resolve a target at long range with a single pulse, and the degree of coverage we have with the optical sensors is woefully limited. If this gives us at least a warning on what direction we should be looking in, it might not be a total waste. But deploying and collecting twelve individual satellites isn’t exactly practical in most applications.”

“I told him that,” Daya said. “But he lives in a bubble. Real-world applications seem to be a bit of a mystery to him. There’s also a new instrument that can more accurately measure the energy output of an object like a Phage ship and a couple other little tweaks and upgrades to the existing systems.”

“Begin putting together a training package for my operators,” Jackson said. “I want it to be only on switchology. We don’t have time for them to learn the theory of operation on a bunch of brand new systems. They’re already overwhelmed just operating the new class of ship. Get the raw materials to Lieutenant Davis by end of first watch tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir.” Daya tossed his captain a mocking salute.

Fortunately, they were eating in the Captain’s Mess alone, so he didn’t have to reprimand his friend. Again. The pair sat in silence for a few moments before Jackson gave voice to something that had been bothering him since he’d taken command of the
Ares
.

“Are you as underwhelmed with the level of Tsuyo tech on the
Ares
as I am?”

Daya’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “You can’t be serious. This ship is generations ahead of the old
Raptor
-class—”

“True, it is,” Jackson said slowly. “But there aren’t really any major advancements, nothing
different.
This ship boasts the best from Tsuyo R&D, but there isn’t anything that isn’t just a smaller, more efficient version of what we had on the
Blue Jacket
. In some cases, that’s not even a good thing. The main engines are more powerful, but their total plasma capacity is decreased from the older MPDs, and they don’t respond as quickly. The lasers take less power, but the practical range of the projectors is still so pitiful they’re not really useful for anything other than point defense. The list goes on, but the point is that I was expecting something revolutionary in either propulsion or weapons. A smaller fusion warhead with a hardened nosecone was about the best we got.”

“I’ve never looked at it that way,” Daya said after a few seconds of silence. “I’ve been so enamored with smaller reactors, smaller warp components, and improved gravimetric generators, that I didn’t really look at them as the same thing we already had.”

“It’s just something that’s been bothering me since Tanaka told me that humans didn’t actually invent the warp drive.” Jackson waved the thought aside.

“That’s something else I was unaware of.” Daya now looked quite distressed. “I was taught that the first generation warp drive was a Tsuyo invention from the mid-twenty first century.”

“According to the doctor, they found a crashed alien ship in the Solar System and adapted the technology.” Jackson idly spun his water glass. “I suppose that’s what bothers me: even though everything on this ship is more advanced, it’s essentially the same technology, the same science from four hundred years ago.”

“Where are you going with this, Jack?”

“I don’t know.” He let the water glass drop with a
thunk
. “But after four years of living in fear of the Phage and waiting for Tsuyo to open their toy chest and give us a game changer… to find out that there might not be anything like that, it makes one think that maybe humans shouldn’t be out here in the first place. Maybe our colonization is a mistake that the cosmos is just getting around to correcting.”