O’Brian, his knees wobbly, came down on to the deck and looked over at Jason.
“Was that deliberate?”
“Oh, no, sir. I had to check the engine and controls out on the run over; the ship’s regular pilot said that the throttle and stick were mushy. It’s standard procedure to do that, sir, I assure you.”
“Oh.”
“I think you need to freshen up a bit sir. The head is over against that far bulkhead; I’ll meet you in the briefing room.”
Glad to be rid of the rather foul smelling O’Brian, Jason set off, knowing the way so that he could do it blindfolded. Everywhere there were familiar faces and he felt a warm tug of nostalgia at each greeting. He had never known much of a home life before the military, his older brother and he fending for themselves most of the time while their mother worked. Lying about one’s age to join at sixteen, and then working up through the ranks, leaping from 2nd class flight deck hand to a wing commander in eight years was no mean feat. But almost all that time had been aboard either the Gettysburg or the Concordia and he felt like a kid coming back home who had finally made good.
He hit the main deck and reached the briefing room. He hesitated for a moment; it was crawling with brass and he suddenly felt very junior indeed at the sight of so many captain’s stars, and the gold insignias of commodores and rear admirals. He took a deep breath and plunged in.
“Jason.”
“Admiral Tolwyn, sir.”
He came to attention and the Admiral, smiling, motioned for him to be at ease.
“You’re part of the brass at this little briefing, so relax, son.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“How do you like being in command?”
“A challenge, sir.”
“I knew you were the right officer for the job. Tarawa’s crew is young, mostly fresh scrubbed lads out for their first look at the madness. I thought it best that they have a young fellow like you running them and from what I’ve picked up, I was right. So what do you think of the Tarawa?”
“It’s a fine ship, sir.”
Tolwyn smiled.
“Listen, son. First commands sometimes turn out to be like your first really true love. Not the infatuation with a beautiful young girl type of thing, I mean the first really true love of your life. In the beginning you can never understand what anyone might see in her, she’s not flashy or anything, and then one day you get hit over the head, and for the rest of your life you’ll never forget her. I think you’ll feel that way about the Tarawa if things work out.”
He hesitated, as if he had suddenly said too much.
“I’ll be talking to you later, son. Admiral Banbridge is coming in now.”
“Banbridge?”
The call for attention swept the room, and Jason stood rigid, a bit surprised at the sight of Admiral Tolwyn standing as stiffly as everyone else.
The Admiral was old, balding, his remaining hair long since gone to white. But his carriage was trim, still spry and erect as he strode down the length of the room. As he gained the podium he smiled.
“All right folks, stand at ease and be seated.”
His voice was pleasant, holding a touch of an American southern accent, but filled with a certain determination.
He walked over to the holo screen and held up a small hand controller and pointed it. The screen snapped to life, and Jason looked at it with surprise. It was the Vukar Tag Sector.
“Gentlemen, this is Vukar Tag,” Banbridge began. “Three days ago, nine regiments of marines, supported by two of our new escort carriers, stormed the planet and seized it.”
“This, gentlemen, is the opening move in Operation Back Lash.”
So something bigger was afoot. Jason looked around the room and saw Big Duke One, the marine commandant, and by his side were Svetlana and Colonel Jim Merritt, commander of the First Marine Commando battalion. So Big Duke had come back with the Bangor. If he was leaving the mop-up operation on the planet, it meant that there was definitely some larger plan at work. He settled back and listened as Banbridge ran through a brief review of the assault, swelling a bit with pride when mention was made of the ground support provided by Tarawa. From the corner of his eye he saw Tolwyn look over at him and nod his head with approval.
“I should now clarify something here. Our objective was not, and never was, to seize this planet. As a jump point into the Kilrathi Empire it is but a secondary approach, a single line of jump points with no branch-offs. To approach this way would be a slugging match and we simply don’t have the resources. Our main objective was this.”
He turned back to the holo screen and the image shifted to the ancient palace which was destroyed in the assault.
“Eight months ago intelligence ascertained that this building was the ancestral home of the Emperor’s mother, the Dowager Empress Graknala. Our Kilrathi Psychological and Societal Profile Sector reported that such sites are considered to be sacred and out of bounds in time of war. The Kilrathi Empire has been wreaked by numerous civil wars down through its history, but never have such historic sites been violated. We have changed that approach.”
He clicked the screen again and the ancient home disappeared in a fireball flash.
“We allowed a Kilrathi comm center to stay in operation throughout the assault and we are certain that this same image, of the Empress’s home going up in flames, has already been viewed by the Emperor himself.”
“We knew that the Empress was back on her home world of Kilrah at the Imperial Palace, but the Kilrathi don’t know that we are aware of this. They can only assume that we came to destroy that sacred place, and perhaps to seize or kill the Empress as well.”
He paused for a moment.
“Needless to say, we can assume that the Emperor is now rather thoroughly pissed off.”
“We’ll make his palace a low-rent district as well before we’re done,” a rear admiral growled from the back of the room, and there was a chorus of cheers at his comment.
Banbridge smiled and nodded.
“Our action has caused a tremendous loss of face for the Imperial family and has undoubtably struck at a raw nerve. It is a defilement undreamed of. Our Psych Profile people have assured my staff and me that the only response possible will be a sortie of the entire home fleet, a crushing display of force to retake the planet as quickly as possible and to slaughter any and all humans who dared to step foot on the planet. We’ve noticed a standard profile that when a deep insult has been offered, the only response possible is a crushing retaliation; to do otherwise is to show a lack of strength and resolve.”
“Deep space drone surveillance has already detected a threefold increase in sub space transmissions on their fleet channels. Gentlemen, the Kilrathi fleet will move and it will come straight here.”
He paused and pointed back at the holo screen, “straight in to Vukar Tag.”
He smiled softly.
“And we shall be there to meet them with this entire task force.”
There was a nervous shifting of chairs, a low hum of whispers.
“We have spent half a year planning this campaign, making sure ever piece was in place. Here at this rendezvous point we have assembled the largest task force in nearly a decade, four major carriers and over seventy other ships. We will position ourselves one jump point back from Vukar Tag. A number of drones and several corvettes are already being vectored over to the Enigma Sector to establish a heavy pattern of false transmissions, to lead the Kilrathi into believing that our fleet is weeks away from Vukar.”