Talosian Chronicles 2: Star Dancer Read online

  “Do I have a problem working with Dr. Punjab? Not at all. He is a brilliant scientist and a good person. If he wasn’t he would not hold the respect he does, nor would you have made him the Governor of this research colony.

  “What we are doing here is so far above those petty squabbles of the politicians on Earth that it really just makes all of it look meaningless. What we are doing here means something to me. This is something I can believe in and support.”

  “Thank you, Major. I just needed to put my own mind at ease about it. I would hate to have placed someone in a position that would be objectionable to them,” Ian said. “Amal told me he was very impressed with your work, and that I would be hard pressed to find anyone better at this job than you have been. He admits not knowing you very well, but looks forward to getting to know you once the crisis is over.”

  “Dr. Punjab is a very understanding man. I am not the first Muslim to come here, but there are still not that many of us. He made sure we had appropriate worship places and made sure we were all comfortable,” Major Borhiem replied. “That will go a long way towards countering any animosity should any of my former countrymen join us here.”

  “Thank you, Major. That certainly sets my mind at ease. I would much rather have people in positions where they want to be. With any problems of the past either taken care of or left in the past where they belong,” Ian said.

  “That is a very good way to think about it, Sir. Leave the past in the past where it belongs,” Major Borhiem replied.

  Ian smiled. “Anything new I should know about while I’m here?”

  “Nothing that isn’t already in the production reports, Sir. Talos has really gotten into it and are trying their best to surpass us. The new production facility should be coming online next week, but that really doesn’t help us all that much at this point. The Shadow fighter project is actually running slightly ahead of schedule; the first ten fighters are finished and going through acceptance trials, while two more of them will be coming off the line any minute. Two more should be finished by late this evening, or early tomorrow morning, giving us four more.

  “Pilot training is going well, but the first batch of weapons officers won’t be ready until later today at the earliest. I spoke to the training officers, and they told me that since this was the first batch through the training, they have been working the kinks out of it so to speak, and the next batch should be ready faster,” Major Borhiem finished. “All that being said, at least the first ten fighters should be ready for deployment by the time the enemy arrives.”

  Ian nodded. He had already known about the production stuff, but the pilot and weapons officers training was news to him. “The addition of those ten fighters may not seem like much compared to what we’re going to be facing, but at this point, I’ll take everything I can get.”

  Major Borhiem smiled. “As part of their acceptance trials, we have the Shadows towing several of the gun platforms out to deployment range and then jumping back. Even with the Shadows helping, we’re building more platforms and missile launchers than are being deployed. I was going to call and ask you if you could spare another wing of fighters. A Hornet can’t really tow that much, but they could easily pull one or two of the platforms as long as they picked them up in orbit. Maybe I’ll be able to get replacement Wasps built for them to take back when they’re finished,” Borhiem replied smiling.

  “How will that effect overall production?” Ian asked.

  “In order to do them as fast as we can, I would have to use one of the bays currently set up for the Shadow fighters. Now, Tinker and her team have not yet approved the design for use, but she did comment that the problems she ran into the first time have been addressed. However, considering the time constraints we are operating under, I thought I would give you the option of getting at least a few other stealth capable fighters.”

  Ian nodded thoughtfully. “Even with her comments, I don’t think I’d feel comfortable having our people fighting in experimental craft. We’re rushing dangerously fast with the Shadow fighters as it is. Thanks for the suggestion, though. Fighters are easier to replace than people are.”

  Borhiem nodded. “I thought as much, but I thought I would ask. My former government would not have batted an eye at this, they would have proceeded with production as quickly as possible and not worried about the living people actually flying the ships.”

  Ian nodded. “I’m certain all the governments would have done that, not just your old one. But that’s not what we’re about up here. Yes, we may have to give our lives to defend the planet, but I want to make damn sure we’re not cutting any corners and getting people killed needlessly.”

  “Thank you, Sir. I will make sure that doesn’t happen,” Major Borhiem replied.

  On his way out to where his and his escort’s fighters were parked, he walked past the parked Shadow fighters that were waiting for a crew. He had never actually seen one of these in person, so he took the opportunity to look it over.

  Sitting there, in the darkened hanger, the ship looked almost black. It looked nothing like the much smaller hornets sitting across the hanger. These sleek craft had a much deadlier look about them. Lower main wings swept forward and canted down at the ends. Dual stabilizers reminiscent of the SR-71 stood atop the power section and slanted in toward the center line of the craft.

  The power section seemed a little large to Ian, but then again, it was a completely new type of power system, and it had the added feature of a small hyperspace engine buried in there somewhere. The dual cockpit sat at the end of the ‘neck’ with small canards, or stabilizers jutting out right behind the rear cockpit.

  Under the cockpit, and somewhat recessed into the underside of the nose were the twin barrels of the forward mass driver. The second mass driver was mounted on the top of the craft on the neck just forward of the power section, and couldn’t be seen from the ground. When deployed, the weapon was extended out from the craft to give it more of an arc for firing.

  Just under where the main wings connected to the top of the power section, two large, open bays that looked more like intakes for an air-breathing fighter held the missile launchers in a revolving turret. The tips of each of the rear wings, including the short upper stabilizers, had lasers mounted on them. The stabilizers had ‘small’ lasers and the main wings had the newer ‘medium’ pulse lasers. All of this wrapped in an energy producing, reflective armor that was far superior to the current armor being used. All in all, the Shadow fighter looked mean and the weapons mounted on it guaranteed that it could follow through on its promise.

  F.S.S. Star Dancer

  Selene (Earth’s moon) Orbit

  Sol Sector.

  Bringing the probe back to the trench where Jenny suspected the Caldarian base to be, she parked the small drone on the top of the exchange station and tried to use passive sensors to probe the trench. There was a very faint power reading, so faint that Jenny couldn’t consider it to be conclusive.

  It was frustrating. She knew the base was down there, but she needed to find proof and not just rely on her gut instinct. The problem was, she couldn’t get that proof without exposing the probe to Caldarian detection. She either needed a new type of passive probe, or she need Ian’s permission to use the one she had and the Caldarians be damned.

  She decided to talk to Ian before ordering a new probe, considering almost all of the manufacturing capacity was in use at the time. But, what if she could prove that there was a base down there? What would they do about it?

  If the base did indeed exist down in the trench under Neptune’s Massif, then very few Terran built craft would be able to reach it, none of them armed or armored. If there was a base down there, it would be up to Star Dancer to get rid of it.

  While it was possible to get craft down that deep under salt water, none of the weapons were designed to be fired underwater and most likely wouldn’t be very effective even if they could be fired. They would need to design a new craft built speci
fically for underwater combat. Off the top of her head, she couldn’t remember anyone pursuing that line of research, but maybe they should. She would have to check her files to see who might be the most qualified.

  She sighed. Ian would be back in a couple of hours, and she made a note to talk to him about all of this. She knew he didn’t need more added to his plate, but the underwater base had to be taken into account if they were going to kick the Caldarians off the planet.

  As had become the habit of the command section, she looked at the monitor displaying the estimated time to the arrival of the Caldarians as well as the other targets the hyperspace sensors had detected. With every passing minute, the chances that the secondary tracks were just ghosts got lower and lower.

  According to the tracking folks, if they were coming here, they would have to enter a deceleration profile very soon, or they would overshoot the system. So, even if they were really ships, if they didn’t begin slowing down, then it would be less for them to worry about for now.

  As if her thoughts had become reality, her comm beeped at her. “Command, tracking! Track aspect change. Targets Beta one and two have begun a hard deceleration profile. They seem to be in a big hurry to get here, computer says they pushed it right to the last minute. ETA forty-nine point three hours, vicinity of Jupiter orbit, far side entry. Targets Delta one through five are still on intersect track but have not begun deceleration.”

  “Tracking, this is Command. How long until the delta targets need to decelerate if they are coming here?” Jenny asked.

  “At least another twenty-four hours, Colonel. They are much further out than Beta,” came the reply.

  “Okay, any clue as to the size of Beta?” Jenny asked. Noting that the icons on the displayed screen had the new data added to them.

  “Negative, this far out they could be as small as a fighter, or the size of a fleet and they would display the same. We’re still working with the designer on refining the system, but until we can do some controlled tests, it’ll be very hard to know exactly what we’re looking at,” the man replied.

  “Understood. Good work, I’ll let the Commander know as soon as he gets back. Command out.”

  The comm simply closed as the man said nothing else and switched off.

  She sighed and looked at her very nervous looking bridge crew. “Let’s not borrow trouble. We have no idea if those other tracks are hostile or not, and they’ll be getting here well after the Super Nova. If you remember, Janet’s vision only had the Super Nova in it, she said nothing about other ships.”

  “With respect, Colonel, maybe her vision didn’t last that long. As I understand it, she said it was uncertain towards the end because there were too many variables. Maybe this is one of those variables she mentioned?” The comm officer said.

  “I don’t doubt that they are, Wendy. But, the one thing you have to remember about these visions, which I get too, by the way, is that if those ships arrived safely and had a bearing on the upcoming situation, she would have seen that. Nor has she had any other nightmares since telling her that anything has changed. These abilities are very fickle, and sometimes I wonder if they are really any good at all.”

  “Well, I would say they are good, we wouldn’t have had any warning about the Caldarians at all if it hadn’t been for her,” Chekov countered. “Still, it would be nice if we knew if the new ships were friendly or not.”

  Star materialized on the bridge in her normal place. “I think they might be, if not friendly, then at the least not hostile. The track for the Caldarians comes in on a trajectory that is clearly extra-galactic in origin. While the other tracks can be traced to points of origin here in our own galaxy. That implies to me, that the incoming tracks have to be one of the other races that the Caldarians had been fighting.”

  “The Caldarians defeated the Talosians by destroying their home world. What are the odds that they did the same to the other races as well, and the beta tracks are simply Caldarian reinforcements?” Wendy asked.

  “The odds of that are very low. Of all the races fighting the Caldarians, the Talosians were the first hit with the Nova weapon. That would have given the other races time to counter the same type of attack on their home systems. It is far more likely that the combined races fighting the Caldarians somehow prevailed against them and either a stalemate was reached or they are still fighting.

  “How can you know that? Didn’t you lose comms right after the Talosian nova?” Chekov asked.

  “We lost comms with our people yes, but we did not have the ability to speak to the other races to discover their fate. I have to believe that the general distress call issued from the destruction of Talos alerted the other races in time to save them.”

  “I still think these are Caldarian reinforcements. We should feel flattered,” Chekov replied, morosely.

  “No, even that supports the theory that these are not Caldarian ships. A Super Nova would be considered over kill in this situation, even if there were three ships my size here. Any interference by other forces would be an insult to the Caldarian Super Nova Commander’s honor, and he would destroy them as soon as we were dealt with,” Star replied. “Caldarians have a very strong sense of personal importance.”

  “So beta track could be nothing more than scavengers to pick the bones after the smoke clears,” Jenny asked.

  “No, The Caldarians do not plan to leave immediately. They will strip the planet for everything they can before leaving the system, if they leave the system and decide not to colonize the planet. If they stay, the surviving population will be enslaved and the hydrocarbons mined. They are very aggressive miners caring little for the surrounding environment,” Star reported. “They cannot be allowed to win.”

  “No, they cannot, and they will not,” Ian replied from the door to the bridge. “We will worry about the two new inbound tracks later. I do not cherish the idea of having more hostiles in the system at the same time as the Caldarians, but Major Star is correct. The Caldarians would be just as inclined to attack anyone else as they would us. They already consider this system their property, or they wouldn’t be coming here, so to them anyone else arriving here would be a trespass on their territory.

  “The most likely reason for the Super Nova to be coming here is that they received a report from someone here of the presence of advanced equipment. We know that there is no way for them to be aware that Star Dancer is fully active, but they would have to assume that we salvaged her for her technology at the very least.

  “This is the situation I want them to believe is correct one. I want them so confident that they can smack us down that they don’t notice the fact that they are dying for no apparent reason. The weapons and missile platforms I ordered are covered in enigma armor and tinted as darkly as we could get them. Even if that weren’t the case, they are so small that they probably wouldn’t even show up on a scanner. The Shadow fighters and the Wasp variant will likewise be invisible to their scanners until it’s far too late for them to do anything about it. Yes, they will see our Hornet fighters, they will see our shuttles and our Centurions, but they won’t see what kills them. If any of them actually leave here alive, I want them so scared of this sector that they will never set foot here again.”

  “What of the ship, Sir? Won’t they be able to see us? Unless I haven’t heard, we’re not even going to move unless we are actually attacked,” Chekov said.

  “They won’t see us, and we will be moving, in fact, later tonight I will have you move us to our final position for this battle, but after that, we will not be moving unless everything starts to go to hell. Which it probably will, since no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” He had stepped forward while he was talking and kissed Jenny on the cheek. “There is one thing I want the both of you to remember, and to pass it on to anyone you hear wondering about how we’re going survive.”

  “What’s that, Sir?” Wendy asked.

  “We are not only going to survive, but we are going to k
ick some serious ass in the process. I don’t just have that hope, I know it to be a fact,” Ian said. He turned to Star, “Major, could you come to my ready room please?”

  Star nodded and followed him, walking across the floor like she was a corporeal being. Jenny caught Chekov checking out her ass and grinned at him. Wendy laughed when he blushed.

  Ian closed the door and motioned Star to a seat, which she took. “With all the preparations we’re making for the upcoming battle, I’ve had a few ideas for modifying the bridge and command sections of the ship. Modifications I almost wish we had now.”

  “What would you change, Sir?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

  “Well, our existing bridge feels more like a large cockpit than an actual bridge. So, for one thing, I’d move a flight section, operations, weapons control, and tracking up to the bridge, along with a small engineering section to monitor the new armor and for direct management of repairs and rescue operations.” He typed on his computer for a moment, and the existing bridge configuration appeared as a hologram over his desk between them.

  “I would make the existing bridge larger to accommodate the extra departments, as well as creating a second bridge in almost the exact same configuration in another part of the ship, far away from the main bridge. During combat, this would be the First Officer’s duty station. Ready to take over the ship if something happens to the main bridge.

  “In Terran aircraft carriers, there is a CIC or Combat Information Center that actually handles most of the operations during combat, but with Operations and Tracking on the bridge with us, I don’t see the need for something like that here. Since the main bridge would serve the same function, however, I might have to revise my opinion on that if we ever decide to go through with all of this.