Exodus: Empires at War: Book 9: Second Front Read online

  “We can’t guarantee we’re going to beat them,” said Baggett, looking up at his commander to see if he had gone too far. Arbuckle nodded for him to continue. “We hope we can beat them. If we don’t, they will end us. Are you sure you picked the right people to hang your hopes on?”

  “You are the best chance we have seen since becoming slaves,” said Nightshadow, giving a very human head nod. “If we don’t take this chance, we may not get another, and the Cacas may end up as the rulers of the Galaxy.”

  “Fair enough. But aren’t you afraid that the Cacas will find out about your defection and take it out on your people?”

  “We must play the part of, how do you say, double agents, until our world is free,” said Nightshadow, his lips forming in a grimace. “The Cacas must not know that we are aiding you. We must play the game, pretending to still be on their side, while secretly helping you.”

  “The Maurids already have agents in the Empire, and they are feeding us information,” said Arbuckle. “This information is classified top secret cosmic,” he warned the other officers. “You are to talk with no one about it who is not on the need to know list.”

  Baggett nodded, then looked back at the Maurid. “So you, or one of your people, may contact me in the future with information about the enemy?”

  “That is correct. We need humans we can trust to be available to take our information. And it only makes sense to have that include those with enough rank to cover for us.”

  “And if it gets out to the Cacas that you are helping us, despite all the efforts we make to keep it secret?” asked Dagni.

  “That is a risk we must take. We do not think they will destroy us, though their trust may be eroded quite severely. But we feel like we have no choice.”

  Chapter Nine

  Enemies make you stronger, allies make you weaker.

  Frank Herbert.

  CA’CADASAN SPACE MAY 10TH, 1002.

  Great Admiral the Superior Lord Jarrashinata Karzott settled back in his chair on the bridge of his new flagship, The Fourth Emperor Hrrassaratat. Unlike the humans and most other powers, the Ca’cadasans made their flag officers pull double duty, also serving as the captain of the ship. He looked over his bridge crew, the pick of his fleet. They might not have formed an effective team at this point, but with the smartest males he could gather, he was sure he could whip them into that team. He had a reputation as a leader, one of the reasons he had risen to his present rank. That, and his civil rank as a scion of one of the most aristocratic families in the Empire.

  “We have another task force on the plot, my Lord,” said his Tactical Officer, looking over from his station. “Eight capital ships and twelve escorts.”

  The Great Admiral growled low in his throat. He wanted to be off on this expedition, especially now that he knew what they faced. But he had at least another week before all of the ships he had ordered here arrived. Already he had a fleet of over fifteen thousand ships, and it was in the back of his mind that he could probably do the job with what he had. In the forefront of his thinking was that the previous commanders of this front had, in their arrogance, challenged the foe with insufficient resources. That was not a mistake he was willing to make, and he would wait for the last ten thousand vessels.

  With a thought he changed the central holo from its view of the system they were in to the target. Gone was the G class star and the tens of thousands of objects in its space. Now the star in the center of the holo was a red dwarf, the most common star in the Galaxy, and the least likely to harbor a habitable world. Not likely, but also not impossible. Here was a brown dwarf, more of a super gas giant than anything, in close orbit around the star, and a large superearth moon in orbit around it.

  The distance from the planet-moon system to the star was a little over twenty-nine million kilometers. The local day was about ninety-one hours, with a two point six million kilometer orbit. The local year was point one five standard, or about fifteen of its days, while the planet received about point nine six luminosity from the primary, and another point zero five from the brown dwarf, at least on the hemisphere that was tidally locked to the larger body.

  The planet itself was a blue white gem, like most habitable worlds. There was massive orbital infrastructure; space docks, factories, habitats, and many ships. The LaGrange points of the brown dwarf were filled with antimatter production satellites, while the four massive asteroid belts were heavily mined. It was a perfect industrial setup, and one that no one in their right mind would suspect from such a system.

  The Pod Leader of the ships that had discovered the system, tracking the interstellar traffic coming to and fro, then sneaking in during the infrequent lulls to translate out of hyper six light months out, had gathered a wealth of information. The male had deserved recognition and elevation for his efforts, but he would get neither, since he had not made it back. He had gotten away clean, then had been tracked a hundred light years out. His ship had not made it. Only two of the eight ship pod had. They had brought back the information, and they had done so in a manner which gave no indication that they had ever visited the Klavarta home system.

  No, not Klavarta, he thought as he switched the image on the holo. The face on the holo was not one of what they knew of as the Klavarta. It was taken from a brief transmission within the system, one the inhabitants, the rulers, must have been sure would not be intercepted. But the image was unmistakable. He had seen enough of them from messages and news casts from the other front. Humans, he thought, his face heating with rage at the thought that more of them had gotten away from his people those two thousand years before, and had been waging war, unknown, against his Empire for the last quarter of a century.

  And he would be the one to wipe them out, to destroy their capital, and leave their warriors leaderless. Once that was done, this war would be all but over, and the strength on this front could be shifted to the other, and end those humans as well.

  * * *

  OUTSIDE OF KLAVARTA CAPITAL SPACE MAY 14TH, 1002.

  “Approaching final jump point,” called out the Navigation Officer, Lt. Commander Valerie von Speck.

  Commodore Natasha Sung nodded as she watched the plot. Nina was coasting at point two light, the maximum velocity she was capable of jumping to and from hyper. Her sisters were to either side, a half light second behind, and would be jumping five seconds after she did. Many of their escorts had jumped through the layers of hyper well ahead. Those ships were capable of translating at point four light, even better than the Caca ships that had attacked the Empire. Then again, everything about those ships had been designed around speed.

  “Are all weapons powered down?” she asked Fujardo.

  The Tactical Officer turned in his seat, his expression showing his anxiety. “They’re powered down, ma’am, but I really think we should be ready for anything.”

  “And you think our weapons will make a damn bit of difference if these people decide to light us up?” said Lt. Commander Picard, the Com Officer.

  “He has a point, Marko,” said the Commodore with a smile she used to hide her own anxiety. “Besides, we’re here to befriend these people, not start a short and violent war.” And one this task force, at least, would be doomed to lose.

  “I still wonder why they chose a red dwarf star for their home system?” said Commander Laaksonen from the VIP seat down from the Captain’s station. “I know that Slardra said it was so they would be inconspicuous to the search efforts of the Cacas, but it seems silly to do that, then have enough hyper traffic to lure the legendary monster of hyperspace in for lunch.”

  Sung laughed at that last. There was, of course, no legendary monster of hyperspace, at least according to the scientists. It was an old superstition to explain why ships just seemed to randomly disappear in hyper, though the Commodore believed that had more to do with human error than mythical creatures. But the Exec did have a point. They had been picking up vessels in hyper from thirty light years out, coming and going fr
om this point on a number of vectors.

  “Jumping, now,” called out the Helmsman, and the lights dimmed for just a moment while the nausea struck.

  Natasha had always wondered about that phenomenon, which had nothing to do with the ship losing power due to it being focused on the hyperdrive generators. Instead, it was because electrons were slowed during the process of jumping dimensions, and anything electronic lost some of its feed for that instant.

  As they entered normal space the bright pinpoint of the red dwarf star appeared in the viewer. All stars were bright at close range, even the relatively weak reds. They were still stars, and the hyper barrier was only a light hour out from the primary. In moments the tactical holo was filling with data, real time plots of vessels under grabber power. Visually enhanced returns of other objects, planets, moons, asteroids, space based industry, at least where they had been when the light had left them. It looked like a very rich industrial system, such as would be found around a G or F class star.

  They certainly have enough satellites in orbit around their star, thought the Commodore. Of course they were antimatter production facilities, and were in much closer than such satellites would be placed around a more energetic star. They were actually in multiple orbits, crowding many more in than even the most massive industrial system of the Empire would.

  And three asteroid belts, she thought, looking at the rings of objects in wide orbital swaths, where planets would normally sit. Makes this an extremely rich system.

  There were over a thousand vessels on the plot, most of them small warships like those that had escorted them here. The exceptions were the large ore haulers going to and from the asteroids, antimatter tankers rising from the solar plants, and huge freighters on their way outsystem with the products of the industrial muscle of the system.

  “We’re getting a message from the escort leader, ma’am,” called out the Com Officer.

  “Put it on my side holo.”

  “Commodore Sung,” said the Klavarta Alpha Commander. “We have received permission to proceed to the planet on your least time profile.”

  Sung looked at her Navigation Officer with the question in her eyes.

  “Thirty-three hours at our maximum accel-decel profile,” said the officer.

  “Our early arrivals transmitted to our leaders about you when they came into the system, and the leaders are very anxious to meet with their brothers from the stars.”

  “As we are to meet them,” said Sung, a smile on her face to cover her own anxiety. And to find out what they’re really all about.

  “Do not deviate from the profile,” said the Klavarta, her tone serious. “I must apologize, but until we can be sure you are who you say you are, we must be cautious.”

  The com went dead, and Sung stared at the space where the holo had been for some moments. She turned to her Com Officer. “Make sure all of our information is going out through the wormhole. And make sure that the commanders of Pinta and Santa Maria are doing the same.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” said the officer. A few minutes later he looked up. “Base wishes to remind you, ma’am, that as soon as we are down below point zero five light we can use the wormhole to evacuate out of here if necessary.”

  “Is that what they want us to do?” asked Sung, thinking of how their wormholes gave them an advantage over any other explorer in history. Even over thirty thousand light years from home, they still had instant contact and the ability, at times, to move physical objects across that distance. In fact, when they were in orbit around the moon, she had planned to bring through enough materials to upgrade her remaining six destroyer class explorers to hyper VII.

  “No, ma’am,” said Picard, looking back at his Commodore after a few minutes of listening to the com. “They wish to speak to you. To all of us actually.”

  The main viewer’s image of the system ahead faded, to be replaced by the head and upper body of a young man they all knew.

  “Your Majesty,” said Sung, stiffening in her chair.

  “At ease, Commodore. I just wanted to have a word with you and your crews. I’m sure you know we have a lot going on here, but your mission is just as important as ever. Perhaps more so than ever. Am sure you know that even though the bastards are gone from our space for now, they will be coming back. If we can coordinate with these other people, whether they are from one of the long lost Exodus ships or not, we can increase the odds of both of us winning.”

  “So you want us to forge an alliance with them?”

  “We have some reservations, Commodore, based on the information you have already transmitted to us. I really want to cement an alliance with this nation, especially if it is true that they have been fighting the Cacas for over two decades. We need that kind of success, that experience, on our side. But I must be sure they are someone we can ally with, while avoiding the taint of evil.”

  “And we are not to let them know we have any suspicions or reservations,” said Sung, nodding her head. “While trying to find out every dirty little secret they have. A tall order, your Majesty.”

  “And my order, nonetheless,” said Sean. “The reason I am telling you this in the open is because it is important for everyone aboard your vessels to understand. We need these people. They may be the only thing that stands between us and destruction. That said, I will not sell the souls of my people to bargain with the devil. Understood?”

  “Indeed, your Majesty,” said Sung, her eyes roaming the bridge for a moment to take in the wide eyes of her crew. She looked back at the monarch who had chosen her for this command because of the many skills she possessed, wondering if she was skilled enough to actually carry this out. “We will do our best.”

  “I know you will, Commodore. Just remember, you are not only an exploration squadron commander. You are the personal representative of myself and the people of the Empire.”

  The Commodore grimaced for a moment after the com ended. She knew very well why she had been chosen for this mission, among the squadron leaders that could have been assigned. She had a history in Fleet Intelligence prior to switching to Exploration Command, and had been both a field operative and an analyst. As a field operative she had to make tough decisions, and had taken some actions she was not proud of, necessary as they were. Exploration Command had given her a chance to do something she was proud of. She had accepted a reduction in rank to become the tactical officer on a light cruiser, working her way up to battle cruiser commander. But her past had come back to haunt her, and she was again a spy on an intelligence gathering mission.

  “I want to have a staff meeting in the main conference room,” she said aloud, knowing that her command would go out to all of the senior officers and department heads on all three vessels. The staff of Pinta and Santa Maria would attend through wormhole com, and the Klavarta and their masters would be none the wiser. She smiled for a moment, wondering how much easier things would have been back when she worked intelligence if they had such secure communications.

  “Let me know if anything comes up,” she told her bridge crew as she stood up and walked toward the hatch. Like they wouldn’t, she thought with a silent laugh as she walked through the open hatch and the door swished shut behind her.

  * * *

  The being known as Lieutenant Senior Grade Lila Abernathy, Engineering Watch Officer, sat in her cabin and thought about the communication from the Emperor. That is a target we cannot seem to hit, the Yugalyth thought, looking at its very human hand, totally unlike the member that it would normally use. The creature was feeling paranoid, cut off from its kind, hiding out among humans, many of whom knew the being it was imitating to the point where it was constantly worrying about doing something that would give the game away.

  It had been a near thing getting on this mission in the first place. Security had been tight, but the Empire had yet to implement the detection measures they were now using. And once the creature was aboard and the mission underway, there were no worries of attempts at dete
ctions, as long as it didn’t give itself away.

  I could use some help, it thought, wringing its hands. Unfortunately, a ship was a difficult place to attempt an abduction and replacement. It took days to completely process the biomass and create another Yugalyth to mimic that human. With duty rosters and shifts aboard the ship, people couldn’t go missing for more than their down time, or command would become suspicious. But it had to do something. It’s Knockermen masters had been defeated in their bid to take over the Elysium Empire. The large aliens that had allied themselves with the Knockermen had been ejected from human space, and these ships were here to make an alliance with more of the hated humans. And there was little a single engineering watch commander could do, not when her every move would be monitored when around something as potentially hazardous as the engines.

  The Yugalyth had learned its lessons well. It knew the procedure for detonating the engines in self-destruct, but did not know the bypass codes to do so, except for its own single personal code. So that method of sabotage was out. In fact, it could think of no way to stop these humans from contacted the other humans said to be on that planet ahead.

  The moon, thought the Yugalyth, a smile stretching the human features of Lt. Abernathy. The creature had a cerebral implant, taken from the Spacer it had imitated. That had been a delicate procedure that had required the aid of others of its kind, but it did interface with its very alien brain in a way that made whatever it connected to think the mind behind it was human. Now it interfaced with the ship’s computer database, just like any crew person could do. It looked through the database, the great majority of which were available to all. They were Exploration Command, after all, and everyone was supposed to have access to information that they might be able to work on, to come up with new ideas. And so the Yugalyth did, just not in the way the human crew had intended.