The Khruellian Encounter Read online

  The commander explained the situation in graphic detail during his first staff meeting after returning from Khruell. The highest ranking members of his staff would share in whatever fate awaited their leader. They knew this and had understood the consequences of failure when they had joined his staff. Hydrol looked upon it as a powerful motivator to see that their commander succeeded.

  The first and only item on the agenda was how fast they could recall the thousands of small scouts searching the Perseus arm in the direction of their planned expansion. Before he had been given new orders by the Absolute, he had instructed his fleet to send every available scout far ahead of the advancing domination fleet. Usually, they explored no more than a hundred light years ahead of them, but since the attacks on their homeworlds, he had increased that distance to five hundred light years. That distance was the maximum distance his ships could jump without stopping to recharge their capacitors. It had been a logistical nightmare trying to keep such a scattered fleet supplied with weapons and provisions.

  One of Hydrol’s squadron commanders requested an opportunity to present an alternative plan. He encouraged this if a plan of action had not already been determined. He was aware that this officer, Velik was considered a critical planner by his peers and for that reason he allowed him to introduce a possible new plan.

  Velik rose without the least sign of nervousness, which Hydrol considered remarkable considering the stress they were all under. The young commander said, “Sir, I believe there is a way we can continue our expansion responsibilities and at the same time obey the Absolute’s orders to search this distant star system.”

  “You tread on dangerous ground, Velik,” The fleet commander said. “The Absolute’s orders were very specific.”

  The young commander had gone this far, and he was not going to back down without first stating his case. “I believe, Sir the Absolutes orders said we should use the expansion fleet to scout the suspected area where these attacks supposedly originated. Let us send our scout carriers to do this job. My battleships and cruisers are of little use for such a task. They could remain and continue the expansion.”

  Hydrol held up his hand to silence the objections coming from the rest of his staff. The officer had demonstrated great courage in speaking up, and his idea deserved some consideration. Silence settled over the room as Hydrol considered all sides of the brash proposal. What intrigued him the most was it represented a possible way to keep his head attached to the rest of this body.

  Finally, he asked the brash young man, “What about the scouts we need to cover the impending expansion area?”

  Velik visibly relaxed. He had passed the first hurdle. The supreme fleet commander was at least considering the plan. Even if he rejected it, his immediate superior could hardly sanction him for suggesting a plan the fleet commander had at least considered worthy enough to ask a follow-up question.

  He plunged ahead, “Sir, we have scouted everything within five hundred light years, especially those system scheduled for immediate subjugation. No surprises are waiting for us in these areas.”

  Another silence followed while Hydrol considered his statement. After a moment, he turned to his flagship commander, Wemish, who acted as his executive commander and said, “Study Commander Velik’s idea and give me a feasibility report tomorrow.” The rest of the meeting was devoted to planning the details of the original plan. If it were adopted, only a token fleet would remain on the Hegemony frontier while more than ten thousand Khruellian ships of all sizes would begin the tedious process of traversing fifteen thousand light years to an area far removed from the Hegemony. Most of the members of the staff fervently hoped the fleet commanders would adopt the young commander’s plan.

  Chapter 51

  Aboard the CSF Constitution

  Jon read the latest flash reports from Newhope while he ate a late lunch in the ship’s mess hall. Included was a note from Annika. She had been assigned to patrol the perimeter of the ADO’s frontier closest to the Perseus Arm. The sensor developed by the labs at Gruenwald during the Muhyba war to detect a spaceship entering hyperspace had been improved to detect such activity up to one thousand light years. Annika told him the study of the Captured Khruellian scout had revealed the small ship could only jump in five hundred light year increments. They would have plenty of warning if anything approached the CSF using a wormhole type FTL drive. Jon smiled at her description of day to day life aboard her ship. He had married a spacer. He knew it was something they would always have in common, a love of space and the space force.

  Adalan-Kyfor came in and plopped in the chair across from Jon. He smiled at the Hyloxian who had become a good friend. Jon considered her personal fealty to him a rare honor and knew he would do all that he could to live up to his new role as the Hyloxian supreme commander. It had taken them a month to learn how to carry on a conversation without Talor being there to translate. The silver globe made it easy for Adalan to understand Jon, but he had had to learn how to interpret her empathic messages as well as the words she spoke. The Hylox language was half verbal and half empathetic. The combination made their communication rich beyond a purely verbal system and in many ways better than pure mind talk, which was just another form of communicating words.

  “I’m bored JonJon, I need to hunt,” the beautiful cat-like woman said. She had adopted his childhood nickname as her private name for him. He had no idea how she had discovered it but suspected her empathetic skills had gathered it from his idyll thoughts.

  “Soon, my friend,” Jon said. “We are just about ready.”

  She grinned in pleasure and then got a mischievous look on her face. “It is too bad you are too big for me. We could have passed the time playing.”

  Jon was no longer embarrassed by her blatant sexual reference to his anatomy. He knew she was just teasing him. It was the Hylox way. He held up his ring finger and said, “Annika.”

  Adalan’s large green eyes drooped expressively, and she said, “Lucky woman.”

  “And we are lucky to have you as our friend,” Jon said.

  Jon got up and sent her a mental image of a burning Khruellian warship. He told her, “Get your warriors ready.”

  On the bridge, he reviewed the status of all systems with Ben who had just completed a status meeting with the Hooshag engineers over the final adjustments to their shield device.

  Ben was smiling, “All systems are green, Jon. We are ready for any action.”

  Jon asked his constant companion, Talor, “Do you have any suggestions on which star system the Khruellian are going to attack next?”

  Talor pointed at the holographic display. The leading edge of the Khruellian Hegemony appeared, and he pointed at one area and said, “Based on their previous pattern, this star system is most likely the next target. From what Talo learned from the captured ship, this government has already refused to negotiate with the Khruellians. That makes them a prime target.”

  Jon turned to Ben and said, “Let’s find a spot to hide near their capital world. If the Khruellian fleet shows up and this world still wants to fight, we’ll give them a helping hand.”

  Ben gave the order, and his XO sounded general quarter. The next step would be battle stations. By now the Constitution’s seventy-five man crew had grown comfortable in their assigned positions and the ship hummed of efficiency. Even the Hooshag engineers looked impressed at how quickly the crew prepared for possible enemy action. Once again Jon marveled at how well the different species had worked together. Jon wondered what the cooperation level would have been had it not been for the common threat of Hegemony domination. Early on each species had discovered one other thing they all had in common, a love of gambling games. The current rage going around the ship was a version of a complicated Hooshag card game. Jon had issued an order that absolutely forbid wagering anything of value. He did not want fights breaking out over gambling debts, especially between species.

  Jon and Ben toured the ship for the last inspection be
fore they went into action. In the fighter bay, thirty Hylox warriors were checking their ships’ weapons and doing last minute checkups on the little, three-man fighter ships. As a pilot, Jon was intrigued with the small, sleek ships. The engineers had done an excellent job of taking out the old gravity-well drives and installing the far more effective Alphan local propulsion systems. As an added benefit they had gained enough space to add another bank of capacitors that gave the little fighter a bigger sting. The ships were equipped with short-range PBWs, but the most dangerous weapons aboard were the Hylox fighters themselves. They were all female. Adalan-Kyfor had explained that on Hylox only the females fought. The males were smaller and took care of the young. What intrigued Jon and Ben the most about the Hylox warriors were the gloves they had donned in preparation for combat. They contained ten, five-centimeter long, retractable blades for hand-to-hand combat. It was unlikely there would be any ground action, but if there was, Jon decided he would not want to be in the Khruellians’ position.

  Finally satisfied they were as ready as they could be, Ben gave the order to jump to the subject system. Under stealth cover, they settled on the smaller moon circling the capital planet and waited.

  # # #

  Wemish had given the final order for the Hawk Squadron to proceed. Now Velik had the opportunity to put his brash plan in action. Hydrol had approved his plan to strip the fleet of most of its scout carriers and send them with fifty support vessels to the inner galaxy. The fighting core of the expander fleet remained to carry out the primary directive, extend the hegemony as demanded by the Legend. Success in both areas would surely lead to glory. He didn’t even bother to consider the consequences of failure either here or in the inner galaxy.

  The next jump would take them to the vicinity of the target’s capital world. The five planet empire was hardly worth using a squadron, but they had defied the negotiators, and that was all the reason the Khruellians needed for a show of destructive force. What happened here would be shown to future targets as a warning of the consequences of defying the Hegemony. It would also be broadcasted throughout the Hegemony because news of the attacks on the Khruellian home planet had leaked out and several subjugated empires had made sounds of unrest. Hydrol knew the Absolute would react quickly and violently to any semblance of a rebellion. He was titled the Absolute for good reasons.

  The Hawk Squadron consisted of twenty-five large battleships, an equal number of midsized cruisers and seventy-five destroyer class ships. The one hundred scouts that normally accompanied the fleet were now on their way to search the inner galaxy for the mysterious fleet that had attacked the Khruellian homeworlds. Velik had ordered his destroyers to perform the functions of the missing scouts. He recognized that such an action would leave his big ships unprotected during their attack runs, but based on all the previous reconnoiters he did not expect that to be a problem. At best, the defenders of this planet would deploy missiles, which the battleships and cruisers could easily defeat.

  Most of the heavy bombardment would be carried out by the battleships. The cruisers would provide the protective cover usually supplied by the destroyers. It had taken a few drills to reorient the crews to their new responsibilities, but Velik felt confident they would carry out their duties with a minimum of difficulties. Satisfied that all was in place he gave the order to jump to the target.

  # # #

  Jon and Ben watched the holographic display change as twenty-five large Khruellian warships assembled into a formation for an attack on the capital city just over the horizon. Another twenty-five ships, similar in size to the CSF’s cruiser class moved into a defensive ring around the larger ships. They watched the destroyers high above the formation spread out in orbit to create a protective umbrella. Jon would never have considered trying to penetrate that defense in the Islandia, but the newly modified CSF Constitution was another matter.

  Ben gave the order, and The Constitution lifted off from her base on the tiny sister moon. Under stealth cover, they easily evaded the patrolling destroyers and moved into low planet orbit above and behind the assembled Khruellian fleet. At this range, the destruction from the Constitution’s PBW guns would be incredible. A four-second firing burst could literally cut one of the large ships in half. Jon knew they would not be immune from detection once they opened fire. The Khruellian weapons systems would immediately triangulate the source of the particle beams and focus on that spot. No shield could long withstand a concentrated assault by multiple particle beam weapons so they would have to strike hard and move and then strike again.

  He had been concerned about unleashing the small fighters against the large Khruellian capital ships. The little fighters could hold their own against scouts and even destroyers now that they were equipped with the Alphan’s local-drive and inertia dampers, but large capital ships were heavily armed, and even a glancing hit by one of the heavy PBWs would completely obliterate the small ships. He and Adalan-Kyfor had discussed his concerns, and she told him she was ready to take the risk. Jon was not. They finally settled on a plan where the fighters would focus their attack on one battleship and attempt to disable it. As soon as the Khruellian battleship started to return fire, they were to break away and take on the destroyers which were in high orbit. Jon was reasonably certain that once an attack started on the Khruellian battleships, the destroyers would descend from orbit to help defend their fleet. The Hyloxian fighters’ job was to keep them off the Constitution’s back.

  The Constitution picked up speed and began to close on the formation. Ben ordered the fighters into action. The huge bay doors opened on the port and starboard side of the ship, and within seconds the ten fighters were streaking toward the last Khruellian ship on the right side of their formation. Ben selected the left side ship. A streak of energy erupted from the forward PBW guns and the huge Khruellian ship staggered under the attack. They quickly moved to the next ship as the first one fell toward the surface in a ball of flame and explosion.

  Jon watched the action unfolding on the forward screens. He was especially curious to see how the Hylox-manned fighters performed with the new type of drive and more powerful weapons. It was immediately apparent why they called themselves warriors; they were fearless, but there was a logic behind their seemingly reckless attacks on the big ship. As powerful as their new PBW guns were, they were still no match for the battleship's shields and armor. To counter the Khruellians’ superior armament, the fighters systematically disarmed the big ship by knocking out all the PBW external pods. The lack of streamlining on the Khruellian design made it an easy task. Over the centuries, the Khruellian engineers had simply attached another pod to the exterior of the original Ugly Blunt Object whenever they developed a new system or weapon. Talor had shown Adalan a picture of which pods to eliminate. Her first target was now a toothless tiger except for any internally stored missiles.

  The little ships broke off and headed toward space in perfect unison. Jon and Ben knew that was a signal that the destroyers were leaving orbit. They hoped the fighters could keep them occupied long enough to let the Constitution inflict some serious damage to the Khruellian fleet. The second ship in line suffered the same fate as the first casualty. The Constitution shuddered as the shield absorbed a series of hits. The Khruellian weapons systems had begun to lock in on their location.

  “Time to move,” Ben called out to his XO. Firing ceased, and under cover of their stealth cloak, the Constitution moved to the starboard side of the formation. Jon was still amazed at the lack of sensation from moving so quickly from one location to another. It was no wonder why the Khruellian had never been able to capture one of the Alphan observation ships.

  Jon was very surprised the Khruellian commander was maintaining formation. It told him a lot about their combat arrogance. They assumed they were invincible and the loss of two ships was somehow luck on the part of the enemy. Ben placed the still invisible Constitution between the starboard flank of the central formation and the circling array of interm
ediate-sized ships that were moving in erratic formation trying to locate the mysterious threat attacking their battleships. Ben instructed his weapons officer to deliver dual broadsides, left and right. At a distance of less than a kilometer, the Constitution’s portside guns all erupted simultaneously cutting a Khruellian battleship in half. It exploded violently damaging the next ship in the formation. At the same time, the gunners on the starboard side zeroed in on three cruisers ten kilometers away, destroying one and causing the other two to move away. As before, the Khruellian weapons’ system quickly zeroed in their attacker's’ location, and this time the Constitution shuddered violently. Even with the new damper system in place, the command center personnel had to grab something.

  “Time to move,” Ben called out and then added, “Damage report.”

  The damage control officer sang out, “Structural damage to the port side amidships. No penetration, Weapons all intact.”

  Before Ben could give his next order, the threat officer said, “Unknown ships arriving in orbit starting to descend on our location.”

  Talor spoke up. “They are this planet’s defenders. The inhabitants of the capital had evacuated their city and their fleet has been waiting for the Khruellians to attack so they could engage them when they were occupied destroying the capital.”

  Jon didn’t bother to ask how Talor knew this. After visiting the Ankh and seeing the display of their technical prowess, nothing the Ares did could surprise him.

  He asked the android, “Can you inform them of our presence and ask what their intentions are?”

  Talor said, “They are aware that something or someone is attacking the Khruellian ships. They intend to join in the battle.”

  Jon said, “Explain briefly who we are and ask them to help our small ships fight the enemy destroyers descending from orbit and, if possible also concentrate their weapons on the cruisers on the perimeter of the main formation. We will focus on attacking the central formation.”