“ This ship is much more than just a ship, it has become a symbol of hope and strength to the E.D. F; it needs to be back in orbit doing what it does best.”
“ My engineers are working flat-out trying to get it spaceworthy again as soon as possible. We know how important this ship is to the E.D. F,” Kalidis replied.
“ Good, so what’s this peace deal the Krenarans are going to sign anyway?”
“ Apparently, te’ Krenarans want to sign a non-aggression treaty with E.O.C. A, tey are saying that both sides have already lost too much in this war. An E.O.C. A diplomatic team are arriving in about tree hours time,” Kinraid replied.
“ Think they’ll keep it?” Michael asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
“ I’m not really sure to be honest; yeah, the Krenarans were te’ ones who started this whole thing in the first place. But te’ new head o’ the Krenaran military, this Dalvosh, isn’t like Axus or Alax, it looks like he just wants to put ‘tis whole sorry mess behind him and go home I tink.”
Michael laughed, “well I’ve heard it all now, a Krenaran who’s tired of fighting. That’s a new one on me.” Looking across to the heavily damaged spaceport and half-demolished loading area, he noticed that it was completely clear of Krenarans, they must have cleared out, linked up with the rest of them outside the base, he thought.
“ The negotiations are to take place in a temporary headquarters, set up in number 1 tank factory, apparently it is more historically fitting.” Kalidis said, rolling his eyes.
Michael harrumphed, “well is it now,” a sarcastic tone to his voice. “I hope that history remembers that the vast majority of the atrocities in this war were caused by them, Aurelias and Sigma XI spring to mind.” He remembered those horrific attacks during the first days of the war, thousands perished within minutes. Michael reserved a special hatred for these Krenarans, for what they did to mankind, and for the deaths of his wife and son. The war had embittered him, and he didn’t think the hatred would ever pass. In fact, he didn’t really want it to. He changed to subject to bring him out of his dark thoughts, “anyway, what happened to those Krenarans on the spaceport?”
“ Tey retreated as soon as the fighting stopped, and re-joined the main force outside te’ gates,” Kinraid answered.
Later that day a single Washington class heavy cruiser glided slowly towards the orbital shipyards, the lights from the facility played along its newly upgraded high powered upper laser turrets, and equipped with under-slung torpedo launchers underneath its sloped almost pyramid like frontal section as used by the Ghandhi class destroyers. Considerably smaller than the huge Danitza class battleships, its weapons lacked their range. Up close, the Washington class could unleash a powerful salvo of its own, and those torpedoes made it a dangerous foe for any ship to face, its weaknesses where that it could be picked off rather easily from distance as, being a heavier ship, it lacked the manoeuvrability of the faster Ghandhi class, and could be vulnerable to enemy bombing runs.
Captain Ericsson was temporarily in command of the shipyards, and watched the relatively tiny ship approach through the viewer, when the face of a young and rather inexperienced officer appeared on the screen displaying the rank of commander. The captain was shocked that the man had attained that rank so early, he appeared to be barely mid-way through his twenties. Just a sign of the times, he thought.
“ E.D.F. S Hornet requests permission to dock,” a rather authoritarian sounding voice came over the speakers.
“ E.D.F. S Hornet, you are cleared for docking on bay 6, please be aware that some of the docking facilities are under repair, station operations will inform you of the current interim docking procedures.” Ericsson had to say this to any ship wishing to dock with the station after the Krenarans took out all the docking ports during the battle, some were more damaged than others. Fortunately, work teams on-board had temporarily repaired bay 6.
“ E.D.F. S Hornet understands and confirms, glad to be here echo base.”
The communication ended, replaced by the image of the Hornet slowly advancing, the two smaller inter-system boosters of the three it possessed, briefly flared as they gently accelerated the ship for an instant before powering down. As it approached bay 6, small controlled bursts of reverse thrust from its forward thrusters, slowed the ship. Until finally with a deep ‘thunk’ its forward docking arm magnetically clamped onto the docking port.
A full diplomatic team arrived on the station, escorted by a squad from the 69th Sicarian guards.
Ericsson, Vargev and several other commanders had made their way to the docking area to formally greet the party.
“ Welcome to echo base, ambassador…”
“ Lataf,” the ambassador corrected in a rather rude fashion. Vargev was already taking a dislike to this man, but said nothing.
Without a word the assembled men all began the walk to the nearest elevator.
“ Where is the Krenaran representative?” he continued.
“ He is in private quarters on-board the station, under guard. We have prepared an area to facilitate negotiations on the planet surface below,” Ericsson replied.
“ Very good, I shall prepare for the negotiations immediately.”
“ Quarters have been made available for your stay on deck 18.”
“ Thank you, captain.”
With that, the ambassador left the assembled men, and headed to the elevator, with his entourage in tow.
“ Who the hell does that guy think he is?” Vargev asked.
“ An ambassador,” Ericsson replied.
“ I hate ambassadors, especially pricks like him.”
Vargev and Ericsson returned to the command centre and waited for Lataf’s signal, after several hours of waiting around for the ambassador, and Vargev becoming ever more frustrated with the man, the signal finally came that he was ready.
Ericsson and Vargev both returned to Lataf’s quarters and met up with the escort party and the ambassador. “We will escort you to your shuttle, if you would follow me,” Ericsson said.
“ Of course.”
The twelve strong party all made their way to the nearest available shuttle, Ericsson ushered them all inside, before taking a seat at the flight console. He keyed in a control that opened an internal comm. channel to the command centre.
“ Shuttle echo six requests permission to disembark.”
“ Shuttle echo six, permission has been granted, good luck captain,” the reply came over the speakers.
“ Thank you, echo six out.” Ericsson replied, we’re going to need it, he thought.
The small shuttle gently lifted off and banked left as the gigantic hangar bay doors opened, revealing the inky blackness of space and the twinkling of distant stars. The silent forlorn wreckage of the starship graveyard confronted them as its inhabitants drifted aimlessly amongst themselves.
The shuttle accelerated out of the hangar bay and down towards the emerald hue of gamma IV far below. It began to shudder gently as the friction from the upper atmosphere buffeted the small craft, gradually it punched through the atmosphere and descended through the cloud cover, revealing to the occupants the scattered metallic wreckage, deep craters, and scarred landscape from the intense battle fought a week earlier.
“ My god, what a mess,” Lataf said indignantly.
Vargev harrumphed, but said nothing, instead using discretion as the better part of valour, never mind that hundreds of men had fought and died on that mess as he called it.
Ericsson bit his lip hard, feeling exactly the same way as Vargev did.
“ Is there a problem captain?” The ambassador asked, baiting him.
“ Well actually…” Ericsson went to say, then stopped in mid sentence. “No, no problem.”