Alpha strike, p.28
Alpha Strike, page 28
“I’ll leave Beth here to command my detachment, and I’ll accompany you, sir. From what I’ve heard, our engineering area took quite a hit, and I’m not certain how easy it will be to get more assistance. In fact, I suspect things will get very complicated before much longer.”
The older man slowly stood. “When you’ve lived as long as I have, Colonel, you’ll find that the simplest way to cut through the things that don’t matter is to focus on what absolutely must be done. Everything else can sort itself out. We’ve got a lot of talented engineers and manufacturers on this planet. Whatever you need, we’ll provide. Your ship is the key to our salvation, and we’ll expend every effort to help you succeed.”
He smiled just a bit. “I realize that I don’t have the authority to promise anything like that and that our new president might have something of a reputation, but he’s not an idiot. In fact, as politicians go, he might be one of the smartest men I’ve ever met. He recognizes what’s in his own interest—and so he’ll recognize this as being critical.”
“I hope you’re right, sir. This is one of those times where we need all the help we can get, or humanity is totally and utterly screwed.”
“Well said, Colonel. Well said. Shall we make our way to your cutter? It might take me a while to reach it, and I don’t want to keep the president waiting.”
“I’ll call it over and shorten your walk, sir, but that’s still a good idea.”
He followed the older man down the ramp and called for the cutter to relocate. Nagle might be physically infirm, but his mind was still sharp, which would help them take New Copenhagen back.
At this point, he knew they could win this fight. The question was if they could do so in a way that kept the prisoners alive and got them the information they needed.
The final negotiations would be in Jack’s hands. Mac had no doubt Romanoff would be persuasive, but if the president of New Copenhagen proved obstinate, that would complicate their lives. It was time to pray for the stars to align because they needed a win right now.
37
Jack stood in front of his arrayed officers in small craft bay four. It had taken a direct order to get Kelly Danek to leave engineering, but she was there, even if she was grumbling under her breath.
The cutter with the dignitaries from New Copenhagen was settling to the deck in front of them, and the Marine guard came to attention. They held their rifles at a position of attention, forming a space between two rows the visitors could walk down.
They weren’t in their dress uniforms. He’d considered using them but had discarded the idea. Their standard uniforms would be formal enough.
When the cutter’s hatch opened, Jack was surprised to see Connor stepping out first. The smuggler came over with long strides until he stood by Jack’s side, then leaned over and spoke softly enough that only the two of them could hear.
“I’d take it as a personal favor if you didn’t mention that I had any connection to President Scazzosi before all this came around, Navy. While it wouldn’t embarrass me, he might find it awkward, which would put him on the wrong foot. We don’t want that.”
“I’m not an idiot, Connor,” Jack murmured as he watched everyone else begin filing out of the cutter. “I need to work with these people, and mentioning that their new president was running deals under the table with you is a bad idea. Your secret is safe.”
“Good. That said, you do need to have an idea of the kind of person you’re dealing with, so let me tell you about Francesco Scazzosi.”
Jack held up a hand. “Pass. You might find this hard to believe, but I think your view of him may be slanted. I’d rather come into this without any preconceived notions.”
Connor pursed his lips before nodding. “Have it your way, Navy.”
The man who had come out behind Connor was barely five feet tall. Physically intimidating, he was not. Nevertheless, he strode forward with a determined air and stopped in front of the assembled Navy officers.
“Welcome aboard Delta Orionis, Mister President,” Jack said as he saluted Scazzosi. “I’m Commodore Jack Romanoff, and these are my officers.” He went down the line introducing them.
Scazzosi introduced the people with him as high government officials, and Jack made a mental note of their names. These would be the people who made the decisions setting the course of humanity in the cluster, and he wouldn’t forget who they were.
Actually, no one would forget who they were because Christine came out of the cutter next, and he noted that she already had drones in the air. They must’ve come out right behind Connor, and he’d missed them. They were recording everything for posterity. Honestly, that was for the best, though he hoped they hadn’t captured his exchange with the smuggler.
“Just in case you hadn’t noticed, Mister President, there are drones recording us,” he said softly.
Scazzosi smiled, showing off his excellent teeth. “Miss Hooghuis told me she would be doing that, so I suppose we’ll all be on our best behavior, won’t we? Have no fear, Commodore. I’m not going to say anything awkward.”
Scazzosi followed that up with a hard look at Connor. The smuggler gazed back with an innocent expression.
“I don’t know if you’ve had the pleasure, but this is Mark Connor, the leader of Port Royale,” Jack said to defuse the situation. “He and his people have been assisting us in liberating New Copenhagen.”
The politician shook the smuggler’s hand. “And we’re grateful for your assistance, Mister Connor. I’m quite certain our systems will get along famously.”
It had taken a while, but Mac Turner exited the cutter and assisted an elderly gentleman in a military uniform down to the deck. Jack found himself more than a little nonplussed at the sight. It looked like the invasion was pulling people out of retirement homes now.
The older man came slowly up to Jack and saluted. He outranked Jack—even though he was in a different service—but Confederation military tradition had the salute to a commanding officer on his own ship taking precedence.
“Thank you for having us aboard, Commodore. I’m General Robert Nagle, commanding officer of the planetary defense forces. Your Marines did one hell of a job down there.”
“Yes, they did, General,” Jack said, returning the salute. “Yes, they did.”
Jack turned to India. “See about getting something to help get the general to the briefing room. It’s a rather long walk.”
“I’ll take care of it, sir,” she said, before stepping to the side and pulling out her comm unit.
He extended his hand toward the hatch. “Mister President?”
They started toward the main briefing room, and the president looked at the crew members hurrying down the corridor. “You got a tremendous ship, Commodore. I’m damned impressed and grateful that you came to free us. I’m sorry about the crew and Marines you lost making that happen. Whatever we can do to assist you, you have only to ask.”
“I’m grateful to hear that, sir. We’re in a bit of a bind, and the two of us will need to work closely together. I’ll give you the details once we arrive at the briefing room, but we took damage to our independent quantum drive. Until we get it fixed, we’re trapped here. There are other options for faster than light travel, but they’re risky, and I’m not sure I’m prepared to take those kinds of chances.”
Scazzosi grimaced. “That’s unfortunate. We have several manufactories on New Copenhagen that may be able to assist you in fabricating new parts. I have no idea whether that’s feasible, but we’ll certainly try. Unfortunately, many of the companies are in the largest population centers, and those are under the control of the Locusts. To gain access to them, we’ll need to push the bastards back into those fortresses they’ve built next to the space elevators.”
“I’m more of a space combat specialist, so I’ll leave the details of what’s possible on the ground to Colonel Turner,” Jack said. “We’ll need cooperation from the planetary defense forces to make that happen, though. We just don’t have enough Marines to make a difference in planetary combat.”
“General Nagle is an experienced and competent officer and was the commander of the planetary defense forces a few decades ago. He may be frail, but never doubt he has the spirit of a lion. He’ll work with your man, and they’ll get it done.”
It took several minutes to get everyone to the appropriate deck and a few more minutes to arrive at the briefing room. General Nagle had beaten them there and was seated near the middle of the table with India standing behind him.
“You made good time, General,” Jack said as he entered. “If everyone will be seated, we’ll get some water or coffee, and I can fill you in on what we know.”
Once everyone had taken their seats and been served, Jack went down the list of events—from his point of view—starting with their condition at the beginning of the war. He then went step-by-step, detailing everything they’d been through and discovered. He left nothing out.
He brought the wall monitor to life and showed them the aliens they’d captured and images of the wrecked ship. Once that was done, he laid out the complications, including that their spare parts and potential war-making gear were at Port Royale. The professor had said it was possible they could use the hyperdrive, but he wasn’t going to count on that, and he laid out how risky he thought the idea was.
Next, he emphasized that they needed the nuclear munitions to rearm his ship in case more Locusts attacked. It would only be a matter of months before the possibility of Locust motherships arriving via hyperdrive became a reality. It was a short window, and while it wasn’t likely any had departed from one of the other nearby systems toward this one when the gates blew, he couldn’t dismiss the notion out of hand.
“And that is the situation,” Jack said in conclusion. “We have something on the order of ten thousand missiles on hand that we can refurbish, but they won’t be as effective if we can’t get to the nuclear munitions. Also, if we can get back to Port Royale, we can set up a protected gate between the two systems and get some makeshift missile platforms put together for you. It was damned unfortunate that the gate we brought was destroyed.”
“Setbacks are to be expected in war,” Nagle said with a sigh. “I’d have loved it if you had a way to get there, but we don’t have any ships that could’ve used the gates anyway. From what you said, there might be a couple at Port Royale, but the majority are back in that first system you escaped to. You’d have to have a functional independent quantum drive to get there.”
Scazzosi nodded his agreement. “The first step to defense in space is to excavate the munitions site. It will take time and effort to get down to the weapons, but it’s time well spent. Some of the wilder sections of New Copenhagen often need areas cleared of debris, including large boulders. I think we can find some construction specialists to get to what we need.”
“That’s a good start,” Jack agreed, “but we also need to move against the aliens. The aliens have been learning our language via a children’s educational program. As you can imagine, we don’t have much of a shared vocabulary at this point, but where there’s a will, there’s a way. It may well be that we can find out what we need to know from the aliens we already have in hand, but that doesn’t alleviate our responsibility to rescue the prisoners. We don’t know what the aliens are doing to them, and I have to say that the possibilities fill me with horror.”
The politician frowned. “In what way?”
“I don’t think I mentioned that the aliens are symbiotic creatures. The humanoids we see also have another entity surgically implanted in their spines that increases their brainpower. I’m not certain if the humanoids are the ones in charge. What if the aliens are trying to do something similar to humans?”
“That’s horrifying,” Scazzosi agreed with a grimace. “And it makes getting them out an even higher priority.”
“Do we know why the aliens came to the cluster from wherever they originated?” Nagle asked. “People don’t just decide to migrate on a whim, particularly if it requires armed force.”
“That’s a great question,” India said. “I hope we’ll be able to answer it at some point, but that doesn’t mean we’ll understand the answer. Their motives may remain obscure.”
“If you have anyone on the planet that might be of assistance in opening lines of communication, we’d be more than happy to have help,” Jack said. “I’m sure Colonel Turner has already spoken with the general about needing to recruit replacements for the Marines we’ve lost. The same goes for our scientific efforts. The more, the merrier.”
Scazzosi rubbed his face for a moment and then nodded. “Whatever help you need, we’ll provide. Only by working together can we hold the Locusts off when they return. Considering the damage your ship took, I’m not sure how realistic our odds of fighting them are. New Copenhagen isn’t the largest system in the cluster—not by far—and I’m sure the Locusts didn’t invest us as heavily as other systems. You’re going to find more of them out there.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” Jack agreed. “Now we have access—of a sort—to the munitions we need to conduct offensive operations. It’s not going to be easy to get at them, it’s not going to be easy to get my ship fixed, and it’s not going to be easy to get back to Port Royale, yet we need to do all those things.”
He stood and made his way over to a rolling tray that he’d had set up in advance. It contained numerous whiskey glasses and the bottle of The Carstairs’ Reserve he’d sampled earlier. He poured generous glasses for all and made his way around, serving each of them personally.
That done, he raised his glass into the air. “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Confederation. May she ever stand.”
Everyone else stood and raised their various drinks, repeating his words. They drank, and there were exclamations on the quality of the whiskey and its origin, so that started him down the path of explaining what it was and how he’d gotten the bottle. He didn’t mention the ten cases stashed away for a rainy day, though. Some secrets were best kept close.
It looked as if he’d settled the situation with New Copenhagen, but a lot of hard work remained. If any of the goals they needed to accomplish were left unfulfilled, everyone would die or be enslaved.
Or worse.
That was something he couldn’t countenance. No matter the price he had to pay, he’d get his ship back into the fight and liberate the cluster. He’d sworn an oath to his dead to do so, and he would not fail them.
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J. N. Chaney is a USA Today Bestselling author and has a Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. He fancies himself quite the Super Mario Bros. fan. When he isn’t writing or gaming, you can find him online at jnchaney.com.
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J.N. Chaney, Alpha Strike
