Forlorn Hope
"SLNS Arcturus hailing, Ma'am. Admiral Tregaskis." Saya called.
Rebecca looked up from the last shreds of her hash browns. She hated missing out on every morsel. Was it her fault potatoes were her favorite food? She patted her mouth with the napkin, and allowed Wagoner to remove the tray, though she kept her coffee. "On my screen please, Saya." The time delay would slow things down. Six minutes between exchanges. She was saving the Hermes buoys and recon drones for 'Kiss Me Kate' after all.
The man looked like a thinner leaner blond Santa Claus. Of course the goatee handlebar musctache gave her some a little more... sinister to compare him to. She looked at him, smiling slightly as she sipped. "Rebecca Duvalier, Captain and Baroness Duvalier, commanding HMS Witch Maiden. How may we be of assistance Admiral?"
He smiled, and she felt a chill. Was it merely the file she had read that made a frisson of fear run down her spine? "From what my recon drones have told me, it looks like you need our help. Oh, one thing, please. Stop destroying them as they approach. After all they are rather expensive." He looked as the repeater by his left knee. "It looks like you were torn up in a battle. Two things. First, what are you doing fighting a battle in Solarian space, and two, may we help you?"
She set down her cup, and Os filled it for her. "Actually we were investigating a delivery of illegal weaponry by a Jessyk combine vessel. The battle came when he fired on us, and we had to return fire. As for assistance... no, thank you, sir. We're awaiting a relief force from Maya Sector which should arrive soon. Thank you for the offer."
He smiled again, a broader 'let's be friends' smile. "Illegal weapons?"
"Yes. For an operation that the League would also call illegal."
"Then we can help you. You might have noticed we have fleet repair ships with us. Is your damage extensive?"
"Well yes, actually." She inwardly smiled. He'd done exactly what she had expected so far. "Our hyper generator was destroyed, some of her frames were shattered, and we can't form a forward sail. We have some mobility. But not a lot." Wriggle little worm. The fish is looking interested.
"Then I insist that you let me help you. And we can confiscate those weapons when we do."
"I think, not, Admiral." She set down the cup, and it was whisked away. "After all, you were coming to collect them to carry out that illegal operation."
His face didn't change, but she could sense his sudden caution. "I don't know what you're talking about, Captain Duvalier. I chose this system for some fleet maneuvers."
"Oh come now, Admiral." She grinned. "We may be 'neobarbs' to you, but that doesn't make us stupid. You see, before we sent off the two dispatch boats that were here, we read your mail."
His smile slipped at that. "This is becoming tiresome, Captain. We will send Marines to board your ship. Once she has been repaired, we'll send you on." He gestured. Rebecca hit the mute button before looking to De Frees.
"Seventeen assault shuttle are detaching from the lead Tarawa. Looks like a full battalion."
"I see you have detached small craft. I am sad to say, if they approach, we will be forced to kill them."
Now the Light Cruiser SLNS Brisbane and eight destroyers also began to move. Before, she noted, her words could reach him. Slowly, barely 2 kilometer a second.
"You are going to kill us, start a war with the League, just because we're trying to help?" He chuckled as if it were really help he was sending. "I did say you would be sent on your way. I am willing to promise it."
"Of course you could promise it. But we both know 'sending us on' can also mean 'on to God', as in killing us all. And the operation you are on precludes witnesses." She purred. "I said I read your mail. That included your orders from your control carried by the Mesan dispatch boat. So let us cut to the chase. You are to carry out three missions. Operation Quorum, which is occupying Smoking Frog so the man you are no doubt carrying can assume the role of governor for Maya Sector. Operation Clean Sweep, which is the Congo system, and Operation Valentine's Day, which is Erewhon." His smile was gone now. "I know you can't usually assume anything from a Code Name. But when we've found records of Mesan involvement in attacks on our system, we have noticed a distinct lack of intelligence in the choices of code names."
"Enough of this! You will allow my marines to board your vessel without resistance. If you do; if a single man under my command is killed, I'll space all of you as pirates!"
"But you're going to space us all anyway, admiral. We both know that. But I have a question. Not for you, mind, but for the men and women under your command. I seriously doubt you told them the full ramifications of your orders under Clean Sweep, have you?" She waited for the reply, which came as the channel was closed, and now everything was moving into the system at a steady 2 kilometers a second.
"As soon as you are ready, Saya, begin 'Kiss Me Kate'."
"A minute, skipper."
Rebecca had been surprised on her first mission to discover the ship had it's own theatrical company. A good portion of those people had been send to other assignments, but the Sidemorans had leaped into the fray there. She had been walking past one of the cargo holds and noticed a pair of her senior enlisted men in conversation.
She'd been a bit worried. Usually when two men close to the same rank wandered off where no one could see them, it was because they were going to have an unofficial 'disagreement' meaning medical got some work, but there would be no actual legal notice. But to her amazement, they began a song and dance routine she later learned was named 'Brush Up your Shakespeare'. The new producer was going to stage the Musical Kiss Me Kate, and these two men who both honestly looked like someone you avoid in a dockside bar were practicing for two of the parts. It was like some of Shakespeare's plays, a play within the play, with all of the backstage goings on being set before the audience so they could follow it.
That first glimpse had been enough that she was front row center for every day it was performed, and those two men had noticed she loved that specific song. Cole Porter may not get as many standing ovations as Gilbert and Sullivan, but on her ship, that one song had them frantically creating new verses.
She sang softly to herself. "'If she says your behavior is heinous/Kick her right in the Coriolanus'."
She only hoped her 'audience' would appreciate the effort she was putting into keeping them alive with their honor intact.
"Now, Skipper."
She said softly. "Open mike."
Revelations
Captain Sylvia Overman sighed as the channel was closed. The more she had seen of the Admiral, the less she liked about him. While assigned to him as Flag Communications officer was a promotional bell ringer, she had not wanted that position if it meant dealing with him specifically... She looked at her console. The Mantie officer was still talking, even though the channel had been closed. She ran a quick check. Odd, she had switched from the dedicated channel to the commanding officer of the task group to an omnidirectional 'all ships' one. She ran another quick check. Everyone was listening including... The command Bridge. She put in her earbug, and listened with dawning horror.
She spun around. "Admiral!"
"I want that bitch brought to me alive. Tell the Marines if she isn't alive, the god damned wounds had best be self inflicted!"
"Sir!"
"What?" He spun his chair around to glare at her.
"The Mantie is still broadcasting. She sent a data packet, and is now transmitting on an all ships header."
"Let me guess," He grinned. "Begging for all of them to protect her from me?" He chuckled.
"No, sir. She is going on with the conversation you were having with her. With additional information."
"On screen and full audio." He snapped.
Duvalier's face came up. She had the kind of earnest face you'd expect from a used aircar salesman, or a true believer. "-I want you all to understand, there is no way the League is going to cover you if the plan I have enumerated is carried out. Every officer and man in this task group will be tarred with the same brush even if you don't actively violate the Eridani Edict-"
"Order all ships to ignore this tripe! Send that now!"
"Sir, every ship in the task group has been listening for four minutes now-"
"What? We're three light minutes from her! There is no way she has noticed that our line had been shut down, and set up another!"
As he spoke, she had spun back, running the data packet that had been sent, less than four seconds after she had verified the end of his receiving her communications. She brought up the data packet, and clear text came up on her screen.
"Damn it, have you obeyed my order?"
Instead of answering, she brought up the text package. He glared at the screen, and his face paled noticeably. "Jam all frequencies."
But sir-"
"Jam them all you ignorant bitch!" She turned, obeyed her orders, then brought up the start of the damning transmission.
Duvalier sat there, looking into the pick up. Her tone was not the cool crisp 'captain to admiral' it had been before. There was more warmth, as if she were speaking to friends, or at least someone who might accept that friendship. "I am Rebecca Duvalier, Captain and Baroness Duvalier, commanding HMS Witch Maiden. Most of you were not privy to the discussion I was having with your Admiral Tregaskis, so the second part of the data packet we sent was that conversation. The packet was transmitted using our communications system, which you will note by checking the time and date header is FTL. I know you have been told we are lying, or the capability is minimal, but by using it now, I can cut the delay time. I am not doing this as an attempt to plead for our lives. Rather it is an attempt to save as many of you as possible from either death or condemnation for Crimes Against Humanity before your own courts martial.
"First, before you read the data packet, we have recon drones in the outer system along with Hermes repeater buoys that will automatically begin transmitting using whisker lasers so that when your Admiral decides to jam all transmission, you will still be able to hear me until our first missile fires.
"I must warn SLNS Brisbane and her leading destroyer elements that in twenty-two minutes, you will be within range of the missiles we have deployed. At that time, we will open fire, and your ships will be either damaged or destroyed. A lot of them are dog-fighting missiles designed to kill the LACs of the Republic of Haven, our most recent enemy, and I can assure that those of you in the assault shuttles will die long before you can even see my ship with the naked eye because they were designed to assume human minds in the defense. If they cannot 'see' your hull, they will approach and destabilize your wedge. For something as small as a pinnace, that is just as lethal as the warhead. They are not smart missiles, they are brilliant ones." She leaned back, and someone out of the shot handed her a coffee cup. She paused for a moment.
"Once you have looked at the packet, I direct your attention to Janes, specifically the ones that list our fleet before the First Haven War ended. If you look up the original specifications for this ship under her old name of Genji, you will see that we were supposedly converted from merchant cruisers to fleet colliers since. However this vessel was the last of those ships, and our capabilities have been unaltered. This ship by herself with her LACs killed six Superdreadnoughts in Capwell this last year. We may not do as much or as well here, but let me assure you every ship that continues to approach will be treated as an enemy, and we will damage or destroy all we can before you even reach missile range.
"By now you have probably read the data package I sent. We took that data directly from a dispatch boat we caught in this system. A Mesan dispatch boat. I direct your attention to paragraphs two and three. Two gives an estimate of forces that matches those in defense of Torch. Three gives his orders, and as you can see, we fully expect to die here because he cannot leave witnesses behind, either here or in the Congo system. That boat was sent to Smoking Frog, and when you come over the hyper wall there, it will not be a 'legal replacement' of a Sector governor. It will be the brutal oppression of your own people on the Verge at the behest of someone your government is not even willing to admit is pulling the strings from offstage.
"The Solarian dispatch boat has been sent to Torch, and I will tell you now, they will not listen to talk of 'fleet visits' and 'friendship'. They will know they are in a struggle not only to be free, but to survive at all. You will not find them that easy to kill, and here, all we are doing by selling our live is so that we can to give your own people in Maya Sector and those in Torch their best chance of living to see the day after you arrive.
"Those orders, given at the behest of a corrupt planet and a rogue multinational corporation has signed the death warrant of almost three million people. And your fingers will be on the button that kills them. I want you all to understand, there is no way the League is going to cover you if the plan I have enumerated is carried out. Every officer and man in this task group will be tarred with the same brush even if you don't actively violate the Eridani Edict. Millions will die, and you will shoulder the blame.
"Let me say it again. There is no way the League can paint your acts as heroic. It is all on you. Because there is no way you will leave this system in obedience to those orders without carrying out one first act of mass murder; the destruction of this ship and her crew. And even as we die, we will destroy the station where those missiles are resting even now. All you will get from this farce is the blame of murdering two hundred and fifty-one of us, and all the damage we will inflict on you before you do." She sipped her coffee, and Tregaskis fumed as she gave that same gentle smile she had given him right before asking about Clean Sweep.
"We know Admiral Tregaskis is not acting alone here. At least three, perhaps six Squadron Commanders must be working with him. We do not know, nor do we really care what coin was used to pay these men their thirty pieces of silver. But they should beware one point we have discovered in our dealings with Solarian Admirals who have slipped their chain to attack us at Mesa's behest. Their paymasters place safeguards to assure that their puppets do not face a court in the light of day.
"Admiral Sandra Crandell who led 71 SDs and their escorts into the hell of Spindle was murdered by someone on her own flag bridge before she could be taken into custody. Admiral Patrice Tshombe commanding the Superdreadnought squadron at Capwell was killed by an explosion in his own flag bridge just before our missiles arrived to destroy it. Admiral Admiral Massimo Filareta who led the Solarian 11th fleet in the attempted attack on the Manticore system lost his life along with over a million men and 296 SDs when someone aboard his own ship launched missile pods at our Allied Grand Fleet. 1.4 million dead merely to hide the secret."
She set down the cup, and again a hand came in, and returned with a fresh one. "So just turning around might kill you if you are aboard one of those ships with suborned officers. But you face 120 of the lighter missiles from those we have deployed. You face 640 more in the magazines of our LACs, and some of them have grasers equal to your battlecruisers. Any who survive that will then face five thousand capital ship missiles in our own magazines here.
"Edmund Burke, an Irish politician back in the 18th Century CE said it best. First he said, 'When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle'. He also said' 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing'." She set down the cup.
"So it comes to this. We know what your Fleet Academy teaches. Words of honor and sacrifice for the good of the League, just as Saganami Island taught me in defense of the Star Kingdom I swore to defend unto death. And it comes to a simple question for you officers from your own class on Military Ethics in first year as it was for us. Is it proper to carry out an illegal order?" She looked to the side. "Those of you aboard the closer destroyers and assault craft, the clock is now 17 minutes and forty seconds. That is the deadline we all face. Because once we fire those missiles, we must assume you are all insane, and will force us to kill you. When that line is breached, our LACs in the out-system will attack and kill your fleet train and whoever they can before they die. Forty-five minutes after that, your remaining ships will be in range of my missiles, and I will send as many of you to hell as I must before you die.
"The choice is yours. Honor, or obedience to an illegal order. Witch Maiden clear."
Tregaskis ground his teeth. "Communications, send to all ships of the task force. Close on the enemy. Tell the Marines they had best bring this mewling quim to me alive!"
What price is worthy of honor?
Rebecca stared as hell approached. "May God succor us in our hour of need." She said softly. Then she spoke loud enough that all heard her. "Prepare to open fire at my command." She smiled, and she looked around her bridge, at those she loved above all in the galaxy. "As first the Confederate states, then Britain said before the Battle of Britain, may god defend the right! If all do as honor demands, we will not fail! For our queen, victory or death!"
She could hear the screams of defiance as her crew replied. The enemy approached, less than ten minutes from immolation...
"Captain! God be praised!" Abbie screamed. Rebecca stared. Brisbane, her destroyers, the assault shuttles, all had reversed course at over four hundred gravities!
"Guns, ignore them! Target any enemy ship that crosses deadline!"
Failure
Tregaskis glared as the destroyers and their lead cruiser refused his order. "Cruiser element TF 4175.3. You will fire on the traitorous destroyer units or by god I will order you destroyed as well!" He almost screamed as they also began decelerating. "Admiral Duncan-" The order was not completed Peel had taken two steps, and smashed her fist into his stomach. As he lurched forward, another hand, this like a blade came down and snapped his collarbone.
She turned, seeing the Marine sentry at the door. "Dohenny, have someone take this man to the brig. Draw your side arm, now!" The man was confused, but her voice had that 'you will obey' tone. "Everyone on the bridge and flag bridge! Stand away from your consoles, now! Dohenny. If they don't move kill them! Marines on the bridge, if they do not move away, kill them!"
"Stand down, Adrienne." It was Chrakrabati O'Niell, flag captain of Arcturus. "All of you on the bridge, and in Aux Con, do as she told you. Have relief crews sent to those stations now. If you would have someone broadcast the Fleet order, Commander Peel."
She motioned to a rating who had been at the tactical station, then spun as her own assistant said, "Oh my god..." Henry hadn't moved far from his station. He stepped back, and tapped a single button. On the main screen the once neat formation of ships was a shambles. All but three of the battlecruisers had broken away from each other and were decelerating. SLNS Seydlitz, flagship of the second squadron had fired into SLNS Moscva, and as she watched the stricken vessel broke in half. A moment later her aft fusion bottle let go. SLNS Percival Lowell suddenly shut down her wedge; indicative of a ship where the inertial compensator had failed.
God, what a clusterfuck. She thought.
Reprieve
"Except for two of the battlecruisers, and two SDs, all ships are heading for the hyper limit, ma'am." De Frees reported.
Suddenly Abbie shouted. "Hyper footprint!"
That shout was drowned out when Saya screamed, "Captain, someone is hacking into the recon drones!"
"What?" Rebecca spun her chair. No one could hack into them! You needed to examine them and know their computers-
"Broadcast on all channels, from our recon drones!"
For a moment, there was silence. Then a Chorus sang:
O Fortuna
velut luna
statu variabilis,
From the still glorious energy bleed of the hyper sails, dozens of smaller contacts appeared.
semper crescis
aut decrescis;
They shook out into squadrons, then moved forward, forming what looked like a giant animal's head with two wide ranging outthrust horns.
vita detestabilis
nunc obdurat
et tunc curat
ludo mentis aciem,
Now they were charging forward at over 8 kilometers per second.
egestatem,
potestatem
dissolvit ut glaciem.
Sors immanis
et inanis,
rota tu volubilis,
status malus,
As they closed on the hyper limit, the entire formation suddenly began to decellerate.
vana salus
semper dissolubilis,
obumbrata
et velata
As they came two rest, two of the LACs on the edge of those horns fired a single missile that raced away at 42,000Gs of the Mark 16.
michi quoque niteris;
nunc per ludum
dorsum nudum
fero tui sceleris.
They were obviously warning shots clearly missing the Solarian vessels still racing toward the hyper limit.
Sors salutis
et virtutis
michi nunc contraria,
est affectus
Now the LACs stopped, poised directly on that limit. Suddenly the LACs of her own ship came out of stealth. Sixty silent threats to the Sollies.
et defectus
semper in angaria.
Hac in hora
sine mora
corde pulsum tangite;
quod per sortem
sternit fortem,
mecum omnes plangite!
And then the warning shots exploded in unison.
Several more seconds passed. Then a quiet voice came from the speakers as a man in Solarian Uniform stood there. "All Solarian vessels, this is Rear Admiral Luiz Rozsak, Commander of the Frontier Fleet vessels assigned to the Maya Sector. This ship, the light CLAC Raphael Semmes allowed me aboard to come to the assistance of HMS Witch Maiden. Between them, the LACs under their command carry five thousand missiles designed by the Manticoran Alliance, and while I do not know their full range, they are longer ranged than anything in our arsenal, including those missiles Mesa has been selling to Battle Fleet command.
"All ships in this system will immediately slow to rest within the system. Any attempt to come within one million kilometers of the hyper limit will cause them to open fire and kill you. Any ship closer than that will decellerate immediately; if you cross the hyper limit, they will kill you before you can deploy your sail to even attempt to escape.
"This is your only warning."
Rebecca stared in shock at the screen. How the hell did he get a Sidemoran CLAC here in time!
"Captain, we're receiving a hail from the prison." Before the captain could ask, she had already flipped the switch.
"Witch Maiden! I've done it! We can throw every one of these missiles at them when you run dry!"
Rebecca reached down, tapping the key. "That's good to hear, if a bit late, Chief Lithgow. Maybe you should get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow." She turned to Gill. "Saya, tell the people in their control room to make sure he gets some sleep."
"Yes, ma'am."
She looked to De Frees. "I think I will go back to bed, Friday. You have the conn."
"That I didn't expect."
"What?"
He waved at the scene on the tactical repeaters. "I knew captains had godlike powers. But I didn't know you could make requests."
She gave him a tired smile. "You'll learn, Number one. Trust me."
She went down in the lift, nodding to Ryan, and went into her office. Wagoner had already had lessons in the Oscelli school of teleportation she mused as the girl came out with a bottle of whiskey and a glass.
"Pour me one, Cynthia. I have something I have to do first."
If she was surprised, Wagoner didn't show it. "Yes, Ma'am."
The hatch to her sleeping quarters closed behind her, and Rebecca fell to her knees. Her father's church back home was so old school it might have been built back before the Vatican Two ruling. The service when he attended (Which he did, pardon the pun, religiously) was not in Latin or Basic. It was in ancient Scots Gaelic. She clasped her hands, bowed her head, and said a Hail Mary.
"Fàilte dhut a Mhoire, tha thu lan de na gràsan; Tha an Tighearna maille riut. Is beannaichte thu am measg nam mnà, agus beannaichte toradh do bhronn, Iosa. A Naoimh Mhoire, Mhathair Dhè, guidh air ar son ne na peacaich a nis, agus aig uair ar bàis. Amen."