The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3) (40 page)

“Yes sir.”

Linda looked at him. He admired her beauty. They were married for more than six months now. There were objections but in the end they won and he managed to place her under his command. There was gentleness in her eyes but she was also determined not to let personal feeling interfere with their duty.

“We have several more hours until we do the exercise all over. Perhaps you should take some rest.”

He flashed a smile at her offer.

“You are right as usual.”

“I will retire to my room in the next few hours and take some rest. You have the bridge.”

“Thank you Admiral.”

He rose and headed towards his cabin.

The Essex didn’t offer a luxury quarters for no one not even the captain. His room was sixteen square meters and it was by far the largest one on the ship. He remembered the cabins on all the other ships he had a chance to command. If he excluded the Deadalus all the others were far better and bigger, but he didn’t complain. The walls inside the ship were painted white. There were no windows, nowhere on the ship, except the dual kinetic platforms that were manned. He poured some scotch from the bottle he kept in the drawer of his desk and he sat down on the chair.

He turned the video that Anaya made about the Dacarians and started listening.

They apparently came from a high gravity world and were several times stronger than humans. The first contact was made late in the war with the Farsians, a race that enslaved them and used them as cannon fodder. After the destruction of the Farsian Empire they were not heard until the first Icarian and later Alteran- Dacarian war when they nearly wiped out the Icarians.

As he read and looked at the images of the two long vanished races he wondered about them as well. And about all the other races that were mentioned in the report. He knew that some of them still existed thanks to the Sicarian that was fund in one of the ships that were destroyed.

As he read he was fascinated by the scale of the conflict and by the skill of the Alterans. The report about the last battles in the war, the battles that all three remaining ships were part of was astonishing. Even though the            dacarians had huge advantage in numbers they suffered such big losses that it must have impeded their plans. After an hour of listening and reading he went to bed. He needed the rest.

But as he laid there the dream just wouldn’t come. Instead in his head plans were constantly forming. He resisted for the first ten minutes and tried to sleep, but at the end he gave in and just closed his eyes and started reviewing them one by one. He already had a planned plan for action so he started looking for additional options that he could use that would make the plan better. And as he thought he thought about the mine field around the warp point. The mine field, he smiled at that thought. It was a nuclear field, and one that with the power it had could break a planet in two. He stood up and opened a representation of the system. He planned to hide the more powerful part of his fleet close to the star. But as he watched the warp point he remembered that the Demetrion as soon as it exited the warp point detected the life signs on all planets and the signs of intelligent life on Proxima lit up its sensors like fireworks. That meant that the Dacarian sensors would be the same. They were almost as advanced as the ones on the cruiser. At least the ones on the cruiser they had on Earth. A ship that thanks to the constant research and the help from the AI was giving large amounts of information.

“
I’ll be damned if they don’t come to investigate. And if I give them a sign, a tale of my fleet, they will come.”

The plan was forming in his mind even as he thought of that. He suddenly realized that he will need a resupply of nuclear warheads. He smiled a shark’s smile as he stood up and exited the cabin. He covered the distance to the bridge fast.

As he entered everyone stood up, and his wife gave him a loving smile, accompanied with a questioning look.

He returned the smile and went to his seat.

“What happened? I thought you will take the next couple of hours and use them to rest.”

“I thought so too, but my mind didn’t agree. You can say I had an epiphany.”

As he said that she looked at him with look that said that he has to speak. And so did the others on the bridge.

He smiled, cleared his gave them his plan. As he spoke he saw that their faces lit up. It wasn’t much but it was something new, a challenge, and one that will have to be timed perfectly to the last detail.

When he finished a silence engulfed the bridge. It lasted for just a moment but it seemed like a lifetime.

“That is a great plan admiral. It will be a challenge but it is doable. And when it works…”

The comment drew a smile on everyone’s face.

“Thank you Markus. Let’s just hope that it will work.”

The young lieutenant smiled.

“O it will work sir. They might be more advanced but the bastards are over confident and arrogant. I was there when we fought that cruiser and I saw that. We can take them…and we will.”

Jennings looked at the young man, Lieutenant Markus Davidson. He was a recent addition, coming on a transfer from the Demetrion. His record showed that he served on the Kinkaid, one of the rail gun equipped battle cruisers.  He was injured during the battle, when one of the enemy rounds got a hit on the Kinkaid but he stayed on his post and continued firing until the battle was concluded. He nearly lost his life for that and got a medal of honor for the act. He wore it proudly and he was close with the marines that served on the ship. They knew how he got the medal, and what he did to get it. That went a long way. And considering that he saw them in battle his comment had merit.

“From your lips to God’s ears Lieutenant…”

“Yes Sir.”

“But in order for this plan to work we will need mines…the nuclear ones of course.”

He turned to his coms officer.

“Contact the Farragut and give captain Kirkpatrick the layout for the new plan. And inform him that he has command of the fleet. Tell him we are leaving the system.”

The officer quickly relayed the order.

Several minutes later the Prometheus left the formation and headed towards the warp point.

At the speed it was going, it would take several hours to reach it. This time Jennings decided to really take a rest. He retreated to his cabin and in a short time he fell asleep. It seemed that the epiphany was over.

Simonson was drinking his coffee on board the Demetrion when the alarm sounded. He jumped and spilled some of it on the floor.

“Damn.”

“Sorry commander.”

“It is ok Aria. What do we have?”

“It is the Prometheus. They just transited in the system.”

Simonson scratched his head. He knew that Jennings was in command and that the Prometheus was the flag ship of Third Fleet. And that at the moment Third Fleet was conducting exercises in the Proxima Centaury system. It had to be important for the admiral to return at this moment.

“Contact the Prometheus and tell the admiral that I await his arrival.”

“Yes sir.”

The AI shimmered out of sight, and Simonson smiled. The way she appeared and disappeared looked like magic.

She returned a moment later.

“Commander Jennings will be on board in twenty minutes. He said he has a plan he needs to discuss, and a request.”

“O…well I guess it is something really important then. Return to your duties Aria. I have some reports to look at, and as it seems only twenty minutes to finish them.”

The AI smiled.

“Yes Admiral.”

Before he could respond she disappeared. He smiled and returned his attention to the reports on his desk.

Most of them were evaluations of the exercises of the fleet, the latest results. From what he could see he could say that the results were surprisingly good. They were still far from perfection but they were close. The new ships were integrating with the old ones and the greatest problem was coming from there. He knew from experience how much the integration is important, the knowledge that you can trust the others that they will do their job and be there when you need them. As for the fire power the results were excellent, better than even the greatest expectations.

The mine field was finally finished. The last warheads were placed the previous day. Two thousand four hundred and eighty warheads were placed around the warp point. They were deactivated now but it only took a second to activate them. They ranged in power from twenty to five hundred megatons, and there were ten with a power of one gigaton each.

It was an awesome power, one that frightened him when he thought of it.

As he looked at the reports he didn’t notice the time.

When the door opened he looked at the clock and noticed that the twenty minutes were almost done.

“Sir the shuttle from the Prometheus will be docking in two minutes.”

“Thank you. Tell captain Telford that he should wait for the admiral and then escort him to my office.”

“Yes sir.”

The young officer retreated and Simonson stood and took care of his uniform. He always did that but especially when he was meeting Samuel Jennings. They were old friends and if he had even a scratch on it he knew he would get a beating from the newly appointed admiral.

Jennings smiled as the pilot landed the shuttle with ease. It was a relief. He knew that he could have complete confidence in the pilot but he always felt a little awkward when he was in a shuttle. He suspected that the memory of the old shuttles that they flew couple of years ago was the main reason for that. He missed those old birds.

As the door opened he noticed a lot of movement in the bay. The vipers were having an exercise and everyone was running somewhere, both pilots and the crews that worked on the birds. He noticed a group of marines and an officer waiting for him.

As he exited they saluted and he returned the greeting.

“Admiral…”

“Captain…”

“If you would come with me Sir, Admiral Simonson is waiting for you in his ready room.”

“Lead the way captain.”

“Yes sir.”

Telford turned and so did the marines and they all went towards one of the doors on the other side of the bay.

As they passed the crews they received several salutes but most people just ignored them and continued their work. He approved of that.  They all had jobs and they were more important than him, or any other officer.

He looked at the captain that was leading him. He didn’t know much about Telford just that he was in command of a destroyer back on Earth. He was forty nine years old and it showed both on his face and in his hair, through the gray hairs that were starting to show.

He was named captain on the Demetrion just couple of months earlier but considering that he was here at the request of Simonson himself he had to be good. His friend was a good judge of character.

That and his excellent knowledge of tactics and ambition was the reason for his rapid advancement through the ranks.

The marines left them alone when they left the hangar. He remembered the previous times he walked this same corridors in the past months. Compared with the corridors on the ships that humanity built today these were big and spacious. So were the cruisers. He smiled as he remembered that the launch bay of Argus could house the whole Deadalus and have room to spare. His old ship was now on the edge of this system going towards the distant gas giant and its moons. The command now was in the hands of Peter Sellers, one of his colleagues at NASA. He wished them luck.

“We are here sir.”

He was caught by surprise by the captain’s comment. He was so deep in his thoughts that he never noticed that they were close to the bridge. Same as on the Argus, the captains quarters were connected directly with the bridge. They could be accessed both from the bridge and from the outside corridor.

Jennings flashed a smile at the captain.

“Thank you Captain Telford.”

The captain saluted and went to the bridge. He opened the door and noticed Simonson looking at the door.

“Well you are a pleasant surprise Sam.”

“Ha-ha not as big as you Jack. But at least you can’t bully me with your rank anymore.”

“Congratulations for that Sam. You earned it, more than anyone I know. Want a glass Scotch?”

“Thanks.”

Jennings took the glass that Simonson gave him. He took a sip and looked at his colleague. He looked tired and considering the number of ships he was commanding, and the experience he had with his small fleet he knew the reason. It was exhausting command.

“You look tired.”

“Well you don’t look much better. We both know the reasons. And it will be harder as the day approaches.”

“Yea it will.”

They both emptied their glasses together and Simonson poured them a second tour.

“So how is your fleet forming? I guess you have a little excitement and trouble with the integration of the new ships.”

“They are doing fine. By the time the Dacarians show up, they’ll be ready. As ready as i can make them.”