Chapter Nine
Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, 83 Leonis, January 11
“It doesn’t look like any more of the Ssselipsssiss are coming,” noted Captain Sheppard. “Recall the fighters, please, and ask Lieutenant Rrower to report to the bridge.”
“Recall the fighters, aye, sir,” said Lieutenant Commander Brighton.
“Lieutenant Rrower to the bridge, aye,” added the operations officer. Lieutenant Rrower was the senior Mrowry officer onboard the Vella Gulf. Having served in combat with the Terrans on a couple of occasions, he was the logical choice to have onboard the ship as their liaison.
Several minutes passed by in a tense silence.
“Sir!” the communications officer called. “We are being hailed by the Night Hunter.”
“Put it on the front view screen, please,” said Captain Sheppard. The screen split into two, revealing two nearly identical Mrowry standing on their bridges. Both of them were royalty, as they were completely black in color. The only difference visible between them was that the one on the right wore the uniform of an admiral; the one on the left was Captain Yerrow.
The admiral spoke first. “Welcome humans to Mrowry space,” it said. “We gave you some time because Captain Yerrow guessed that your Lieutenant Commander Hobbs would be in one of the fighters that you just recovered. Is he currently back and within viewer range?”
“Yes, I am,” said Calvin, walking onto the bridge along with Lieutenant Rrower. “I’m Lieutenant Commander Hobbs. Is there something that I can do for you?”
“No,” said the admiral. “There is actually something that I wanted to do for you. I wanted to thank you. As I understand it, I have you to thank for returning my brother to me.”
“It was hardly me alone,” replied Calvin. “The entire crew of the Vella Gulf and the Emperor’s Paw all did their parts. I didn’t do any more than anyone else.”
“Your modesty becomes you,” replied the admiral; “however, my brother told me briefly about your idea to use the battleship that was still in the replicator to destroy the lizard battlecruiser. In all of my time fighting them, I have never heard of a Ssselipsssiss ship surrendering before. Well done!”
“Thank you, but I didn’t do that all by myself, either,” said Calvin. “In fact one of your officers, Lieutenant Rrower, was instrumental in running some of the cabling that made it possible.”
“He did, did he?” asked the admiral. “I will have to speak with him about it and get his side of the story.” The admiral turned to look at Captain Sheppard. “Regardless, I am Admiral Krrower, and on behalf of the emperor, I welcome you to Mrowry space. You are indeed very welcome, even if you hadn’t come bearing my brother. Any ally in a storm is welcome, and we are in one of the worst storms ever.”
“Thank you,” said Captain Sheppard. “We greatly appreciate your taking care of the Ssselipsssiss ships that were following us.”
“It was our pleasure,” replied the admiral. “Actually, I was just talking with my brother, and he thinks that by splitting the forces on the other side of the stargate, we ought to be able to go through and finish off the remaining forces there.”
“Without a doubt you could finish off the ships that are there,” said Captain Sheppard. “There is only a battleship and some battlecruisers remaining. The problem will be the minefield. It was rather extensive when we went through.”
“We have been preparing for an opportunity such as this, and we have many mine clearance craft to send in ahead of us,” said Admiral Krrower. “We just didn’t know what enemy forces were on the other side of the stargate. Now that we know, and have already destroyed some of them, we are going to go through and capture the system. We have enough mines and other area denial weapons to ensure that once we take that system, barring a major offensive by the Ssselipsssiss, we won’t give it back up to them again. They got the system by surprise; we will not let them surprise us again.”
Captain Yerrow finally spoke. “I would like to stay here for the assault. There are many members of my former battle group whose spirits cry out for revenge. I would like to help get it for them.”
“As much as I would like to go to battle with you again, brother,” said the admiral, “this is not the time. Word of your demise has already gone back to Grrrnow. You need to get back to the capital as soon as possible, not only for our parents, but also so that all of our subjects can see that the heir is alive and well. Now is not the time to have people restless and worried about the succession. This war is not close to over; there will be plenty of time for us to fight together.”
“You are right, of course, admiral,” said Captain Yerrow. “We will head back now to prepare the way for the humans. Emperor’s Paw, out.” His half of the screen went blank, and the picture of the admiral expanded to fill the screen.
“My brother also told me that you are here to request aid in your fight against the Drakuls,” the admiral said. “I am very much afraid that we do not have any aid to give, as we do not have enough assets for all of our borders, much less to send to a nation that we did not know existed until today. It is not that I don’t want to help you; I just do not have any ships that I can spare. I can, however, send you forward with some indication of our support and good will, as I will send my son along with you. When he’s not getting into trouble, he will serve you well as an ambassador of our civilization. Hopefully he will be able to ease your entry into relations with the Archons. They can be...difficult....at times.”
“Thank you,” said Captain Sheppard. “When will he be available to travel? Our need is urgent, and we must be off as soon as we are able.”
The admiral looked at Lieutenant Rrower where he stood next to Calvin. “I am ready to go whenever they are ready to leave,” Lieutenant Rrower said. “My things are already aboard this ship.”
“Good,” said the admiral with a nod. “Make sure you call your mother when you stop on Grrrnow.”
“Yes, father,” said Lieutenant Rrower.
The admiral looked back at Captain Sheppard. “Good luck,” he said. “I look forward to speaking with you in better times.”
“Good luck to all of us,” agreed Captain Sheppard. The view screen went blank.
“So, you are the son of the admiral and the grandson of the emperor?” asked Calvin.
“Yes,” Lieutenant Rrower answered with what Calvin had come to recognize as the Mrowry version of a shrug. “I am 13th in line for the throne. Well, 14th now, since one of my uncles had a son while I was in your system. I’m expendable. I’m looking forward to continuing on with you. Your race is...interesting. You are learning things that we forgot long ago. I think it is time that we relearned some of them.”
“I don’t get it,” said the ambassador, trying to understand Mrowry society. “If Captain Yerrow is the crown prince, how is it that his younger brother outranks him and can order him around?”
“It is a matter of positional authority,” said Lieutenant Rrower. “My father is in the military full time and has been promoted past the crown prince, who has other ceremonial duties that take some of his time. Still, we are warriors first, so he must continue to spend time in command to show his worth. If he cannot command the loyalty of a cruiser’s crew, how could he hope to command a nation spanning many star systems?”
“Good point,” said Calvin. “I wonder how we could get that practice implemented back home?”
Bridge, TSS Terra, Earth Orbit, January 14
“We are doing everything possible to prepare additional defenses for the stargate,” Admiral Wright said on the front view screen. “We are making additional mines and missile launchers as fast as we can. The replicator should finish the next battlecruiser tomorrow, giving us a second one of those. Going forward, we ought to be able to pump them out much more quickly, too.”
“Why is that?” asked Captain Griffin, the commanding officer of the Terra.
“The battlecruiser was held up in the replicator for 9 days, blocking all progress, because it needed about 100 pounds of protactinium,” replied Admiral Wright. “We didn’t know ahead of time that we were going to need any. Protactinium is naturally radioactive and highly toxic; however, the aliens have some way to treat it that makes it safe to handle. Protactinium is used for some of the superconductive circuits in the fire control system, so we couldn’t do without it. We had to put down a civil war in Zaire to get it; that’s the only place it’s mined. Until we could, the missing 100 pounds held up the 800,000 ton ship.”
“Well, we need that ship and a lot more like it as fast as you can get them out here,” said Captain Griffin. “In the meantime, there’s one other thing that we can do to prepare.”
“What’s that?” Admiral Wright asked.
“We need to take the Terra through the stargate,” Captain Griffin replied.
“I don’t think the government will go for that,” Admiral Wright said, looking puzzled. “Why do you think you need to do that?” he asked.
“Because,” Captain Griffin said, “all other things being equal, I’d much rather fight them there.”
“OK, I’ll ask again,” said the admiral. “Why is that? All of our defenses are on this side of the stargate. If you go through it, you lose all of that protection and support.”
“I’m sorry sir,” Captain Griffin said, “but I’ve got a lot more experience in fighting space battles than you do. We’ve got to go through the stargate and see what’s there. It doesn’t make sense not to. There might be a battle group waiting for us there, but it would be a lot better to fight the Drakuls in a place where they can’t shoot missiles at Earth while we’re fighting them. Having to choose between saving the planet and finishing off one of their ships would be a bit distracting, don’t you think?”
“That’s true,” the admiral replied. “I see what you mean; I’d rather fight them there, too, if I had a choice. But our defenses are here.”
“The defenses are here now,” Captain Griffin agreed, “and that’s the problem. We need to go through and attack them in the other system if we can. If we go through and find ourselves overwhelmed, we beat a hasty retreat. But if we can go in there and take the system from them, we get the ability to fight a defense in depth. We can mine the other stargate in the system and make them have to bleed twice to get to the Solar System. Hopefully, we can buy enough time for the Vella Gulf to bring aid. Even if it doesn’t, it will at least give us more time to build ships of our own. If we let the Drakuls get into this system, all hope is lost. Perhaps if we hit them now, we can destroy at least a part of their force before it gets to be too large for us to beat.”
“You are in command of our only battleship,” Admiral Wright said. “We absolutely cannot afford to lose you.”
“How about if I do the same maneuver the Drakuls did,” asked Captain Griffin, “where I enter the stargate backwards? That way I am prepared to exit back to the Solar System if needed. I can get a quick look. If it’s good, I’ll continue in-system and will mine the other stargate. If there are too many Drakuls, I’ll run rather than engaging them in battle. How is that?”
“That might work,” said Admiral Wright thoughtfully. “That just might work...”
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