Constitution: Book 1 of the Legacy Fleet Trilogy (12 page)

“Find one, Captain. Get on your comm to Lunar Base, the
Constitution
, the other ships—someone must have a spare. Do it now. That’s an order.”

Captain Day grit his teeth, but nodded.

“Yes, sir.”

Good. They were learning to respect his authority already. That would come in handy after his inauguration next week.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Earth’s Moon

Bridge, ISS Constitution

“Report,” barked Captain Granger, as the bridge doors slid back into their pockets.

The XO grumbled, “CENTCOM sounded the alarm a few minutes ago. Seems our approaching friends made a little pit stop at Mars. Before it blew, Phobos Station recorded images of the alien fleet.”

“And the Mars colony?”

Haws snorted. “Bastards took out the whole thing. In a matter of minutes.”

The entire Mars colony. Gone.

“Impossible. What did they use? Nukes?”

“No,” continued Haws. “See for yourself. Looks like ... well, not like anything I’ve seen before.”

Granger bounded towards the command console and tapped the video display showing the priority message received from CENTCOM. A zoomed-in image of Mars appeared, and a handful of grainy-looking ships snapped into orbit, decelerating at incredible speeds. After a brief battle with a handful of defending orbital patrol ships, a harsh white light appeared in the midst of the invading fleet. As the light intensified, the image started to pulse with static. Suddenly, the brilliant light disappeared in a flash.

Moments later, an enormous red plume rising up from the surface was all the evidence Granger needed of the colony’s demise.

“
Dammit,” he whispered.

Haws growled. “Close to a hundred thousand souls down there, Tim. Or, there were, at any rate, god bless ‘em.”

As they watched the video continue, the alien fleet accelerated to a huge speed, and the pixellated images grew larger on the screen, which pulsed with a regular static. Moments later, several bright green beams lanced out from the lead ship and the video went dark.

“Has CENTCOM analyzed this?” The captain glanced up at Haws.

“They’re working on it, they said. But they called a general red alert—the alien fleet will be here in minutes—sooner than they thought.”

“Why the static?”

“Tim?” The XO limped over next to him.

“That pulsing during the video. What was that?”

“Power surge?”

Granger stroked his chin. It had seemed like more than that. It was regular. Pulsing. “No, I don’t think so.” He walked over to the signals intelligence station in the tactical section of the bridge. “Ensign, I want a team analyzing that vid from Phobos Station.”

“What are we looking for, sir?” asked the fresh-faced young woman.

“I don’t know. Pull it apart. We need everything we can get at this point. Get me the highest resolution images of the alien ships you can, and see if you can determine the source of that pulsing.”

“Aye, sir.”

Granger turned back to Haws, but before he could say anything the communications officer caught his attention. “Sir, Lunar Base is signaling us. It’s Admiral Yarbrough, sir.”

“Send it to my station,” said Granger. At the terminal, he tapped the button to initiate transmission. Admiral Yarbrough’s weary face filled his screen.

“Tim, it’s time to get out of here. And you’re going to have some company. Vice President Isaacson requested that another capital ship accompany him back to Earth.”

“You mean,” Granger deadpanned, “he’s not comfortable with just the
Constitution
holding off an alien attack on his ship?”

“Something like that. The
Qantas
will join you—it’s a newer battlecruiser, and should set the Veep at ease.”

Granger thought it was a bad idea—the fleet’s flagship should be in the battle for Lunar Base, but nodded nonetheless—there was no time for an argument. “Will that leave you enough firepower?”

“We’ll be fine. Lunar Base is no sitting duck—we’ll hand their asses to them. Assuming they have asses.”

Granger chuckled—it was true, they’d never found so much as a finger from the Swarm vessels they’d managed to salvage. Even the most intact ships were completely devoid of life. Just a translucent mucus smeared everywhere.

“When you get back to Earth, report to Fleet Admiral Zingano. He’s heading up the defense of Earth. We’re not stretched so thin back there as out in the Veracruz Sector. These bastards won’t know what hit them. Get out of here, Tim.”

The tired face disappeared, replaced by the Laurel and Earth seal of IDF. Granger glanced up at the communications officer. “Is the caravan ready?”

“Aye, sir. All ships reporting in. The
Qantas
has moved into formation with us. Also, sir, the captain of the
Rainbow
would like to talk to you.”

“Fine,” he said, glancing at the countdown timer. They had less than fifteen minutes before the alien fleet showed up at Lunar Base. “Put it on my screen.”

An older woman appeared on his console’s screen. “What can I do for you, Captain?”

“Captain Granger, as you know, we’ve got a boatload of kids over here.”

“I’m aware of that, Captain.”

“This is a Cincinnati class corvette, but our q-jump capability was stripped a few years ago when I bought her. Too expensive to maintain. But all she needs is a quantum field coupler—if you have a spare, I can get it installed in under thirty minutes and be on our way. One less target for you boys to protect.”

He nodded. “We’ll look around for one. In the meantime, be prepared to head out with us. We’re your best hope for now. Granger out.” He leaned back to the comm officer. “Have operations look down in storage for a spare quantum field coupler. If they find one, get it down to Proctor and have her send it over to the
Rainbow
on a shuttle.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Good. Helm,” he said, turning to the navigation pit. “Get us out of here. Half-power to main drive. And get me on speaker to the caravan,” he called back to the comm.

Pausing for the comm officer to patch him through, he cleared his throat. “This is Captain Granger of the
Constitution
. Set your headings toward Earth, at an acceleration of two g’s. We’ll maintain that thrust for fifteen minutes and then we’ll coast the rest of the way in and make a coordinated deceleration. Stay close to either the
Constitution
, or the
Qantas
. If the alien fleet overtakes us, keep the two warships in between yourselves and the rat-bastards. Granger out.”

Haws nodded at him. “Short and pithy. Just how I like it.”

Granger motioned to the helm. “Take us out, Lieutenant.”

With a distant roar, the main engines surged to life as ultra-high-temperature plasma blasted out the rear thrusters. The internal gravity field took a few moments to adjust to the new acceleration and Granger swayed a bit. He noticed that no one else swayed—was he tired? Was the damn tumor spreading in his brain?
 

Hell—all he needed was a few weeks. Enough time to save his ship.
 

And his world.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Earth’s Moon

Bridge, ISS Constitution

The time inched forward slowly, but inexorably. On the main viewscreen was a split-screen image of the Earth, which loomed far off in the distance but grew almost imperceptibly larger with each passing minute, and on the left-hand side was the gray orb of the moon, with the Lunar Base complex still just visible, sprawling across Mar Tranquility.

Granger drummed his fingers on his console, watching the time tick down until the expected arrival of the alien fleet. Ten minutes, twenty-five seconds.

“Captain?” The comm buzzed on his console, and he tapped it in reply.
 

“Go ahead, Commander Proctor.”

“Sir, we now have sixty-two operational fighters. The remaining twenty will require at least another day, sir.”

Sixty-two. Better than nothing, he supposed, and better than he’d expected Proctor to pull off, though it was still woefully short of what he wanted. The
Qantas
brought another ninety-five fighters, all of which were far more technologically advanced than the
Constitution’
s, but in spite of their almost impenetrable smart-steel armor, Granger had deep misgivings about them. They’d never been tested in actual live combat. Not like the
Constitution’
s fighters. Granted, those hadn’t been tested in live combat for over seventy-five years, but still.

“Very good, Commander. Wrap things up there, and then head to RPO fire control. We’re up to twenty guns, but that’s still only half of what we’ve got.” Granger didn’t know exactly what she would do to speed things up, but she’d proved herself on the fighter deck—somehow, against all odds, they were going into combat with over three quarters of their fighters operational, up from less than a quarter just a few short hours ago.
 
Despite his earlier frustrations with Proctor, he was beginning to respect her.

“I’m assuming you want them all operational by the time the enemy fleet shows up, sir?” she replied with the slightest sarcasm in her voice. He let it pass. “Also, sir, we’ve confirmed—we have another quantum field coupler here in storage. Shall I arrange for transport to the
Rainbow
?”

“Of course. You have twenty minutes. Granger out.”
 

He glanced at Haws, who flashed a quick wink, and grumbled, “Putting her through the wringer, aren’t you, Tim?”

“She deserves it. As penance for stripping everything down for the past two weeks. But I’ve got to hand it to her: she’s good.”

“Let’s hope she’s good enough.”

Granger’s console beeped. He glanced: incoming transmission from Vice President Isaacson. In annoyance, he flipped it on. “Yes, Mr. Isaacson?”

“Captain, am I to understand you have a spare quantum field coupler on board?” The Vice President’s narrow face appeared on his screen.

“Mr. Isaacson, have you been monitoring the
Constitution’
s transmissions?” Damn old fool. Didn’t he have anything better to do?

“I haven’t. But Captain Day reported to me that you’re in the process of transferring a quantum coupler to the
Rainbow
.”

“That’s right. There are thirty kids onboard the
Rainbow
, and a war zone is no place for a child.”

“True, but it is also not the place for senators, government ministers, cabinet officials, governors, or the Vice President of the United Earth League. Captain, the
Winchester
is the same design as the
Rainbow
. You will order that shuttle to deliver her cargo to this ship immediately.”

Politicians. Several choice words and insults came to mind. He was half tempted to just switch the comm off, but they were out of time. Either send the damn thing over there, or be harangued and pestered until they did.

“I hope your new quantum coupler gets you safely to Earth, sir. I can’t imagine what we’d do without a tenth of our government. Granger out.”

He hoped the sarcasm didn’t come across too strongly. Hell, who was he kidding? He hoped it
had
been strong—strong enough to shame the bastard. This crisis was not improving Granger’s already dismal opinion of politicians generally, and the Vice President particularly. “Comm, order the shuttle to the
Rainbow
.”

Granger turned back to Haws.

“Disgusting old bastard, that one.” Haws flipped a middle finger at the dark display on his monitor. “Want to shuttle me over there so I can punch the piece of shit in the nose? I’m retiring anyway....”

Granger chuckled. “Politicians will be politicians. Truth be told, the kids might be safer with us at this point if the aliens are intent on pressing through to Earth. I just don’t—”

“Sir!” interrupted Lieutenant Diaz, the officer at the sensor station. “Lunar Base reports engagement with the enemy fleet!”

Granger snapped his eyes to the timer on his console, which said they still had five minutes before the aliens were supposed to show up. “Damn. Their drive tech is not just more advanced than ours—it puts us to shame.” He turned to his XO. “Sound red alert, combat stations. All retrofit and recovery operations cease immediately and all crew report to battle stations. Except the RPO gun repair crews—we still need every damn gun we can get operational in the next twenty minutes.”

Haws started barking orders to the various department chiefs. The bridge, which had been collectively holding its breath for the last half hour, now burst into a flurry of activity.

He watched the screen, which now showed a small cluster of tiny white dots converging on the moon. They were already far too distant to actually watch any of the operations—the resolution just wasn’t high enough—but perhaps one of the satellites....

“Lieutenant,” he said, nodding to the comm station, “tap into one of the science satellites in orbit around the moon. The Armstrong satellite I believe will do. Redirect it to the battle zone and give us a live feed.”

“Uh, sir, that’s a civilian craft run by the Unified Science Federation. We can’t just—”

“Actually, we can, Lieutenant. When asked for credentials, pipe it through to my console. Every captain in the fleet has backdoor access to every single spacecraft, satellite, defense platform, and data pod. If it’s in space, I can access it. A nice little feature we implemented after the Khorsky incident a decade ago.” He glanced around the bridge. “That’s classified top-secret, by the way.”

“Aye, sir. Sending it to your console now.”

The access authorization script appeared on his screen, and he entered in his personal red-level security code. He hoped against hope that IDF hadn’t already deactivated it. It was an irrational thought—they weren’t relieving him of his rank, just his command. But really, what was the difference?

“There you go, Lieutenant.”

Granger watched as the monitor on the side wall of the bridge flipped from a split-screen Earth/Moon image to a nightmare.

Eight alien ships, all larger than IDF’s largest carriers, lurked in stationary orbit over Lunar Base as the remnants of the IDF fleet engaged them. Remnant was the best word to describe the defenders, as at least a dozen smaller frigates and most of the heavy cruisers and carriers careened, broken and fragmented, through space.