The captured escort had been relatively easy to pacify once the bridge had been secured. The crew of one hundred thirty-two had been ferried across in stages, and were now secured in a locked cargo hold aft of the port hangar deck. Casualties had been fairly light, with two marines killed, three wounded, plus one of Bondarevsky’s officers. And, most importantly, they had captured the computer files intact, and extracted the communications codes and protocols they needed without difficulty. Dahl had put together a soothing message from the picket boat to the Cats at Baka Kar, declaring that the carrier they had encountered was friendly and headed in to the capitol to refit after their long ordeal in space. Encoded with the picket ship’s burst signal encryption tag, the transmission would read as a completely genuine message from Vharr.
Tolwyn checked a status display. The last shuttle load of crew and passengers for the escort was on the way over. He had decided to put a prize crew aboard, a mix of trustworthy Cats from Murragh’s party and human crewmen. They would keep the picket boat on station for the time being, with orders to run if anything came after them looking for trouble. It gave him a way of keeping watch over his rear as he went through to Baka Kar…and a place to offload his few remaining noncombatants. Armando Diaz was probably glad to be off the carrier as it spaced into battle. He and his two top computer experts, Voorhies and Mayhew, had done wonders extracting the authentication codes and transponder signals from the old computer records, and their work on the simulacrum of Admiral dai Nokhtak had been about as good as anyone could have produced on either side of the frontier. But there wasn’t much more they could do at this stage of the game, so they were aboard the escort, clear of Mjollnir’s upcoming fight. But many of the crew detailed to the picket ship had been reluctant to go. Even though they knew the odds against them, their morale was high. Even the casualties from the firefight had refused the chance to go.
Murragh and the other Kilrathi were just as adamant, too. Tolwyn was beginning to get a renewed faith in the loyalty and support of a good crew. The Belisarius Group had shaken that faith once, but Mjollnir’s officers and spacers proved that not everyone was tainted with that kind of corruption.
“Sir, multiple disturbances in Jump Point Nine,” Kittani reported. After a moment, the Exec went on. “First trace is the Xenophon. It’s the battle group.”
He nodded. “Right on schedule. Pass on an update of our situation to Admiral Richards, with my compliments, Lieutenant Vivaldi.”
“Aye aye, sir,” the Communications Officer responded.
“What’s our status, Exec?” he asked.
“Four hours to Jump Point Two,” Kittani responded. “All systems are nominal. Mr. Deniken reports that he’s come up with a solution to that gunnery problem you posed him yesterday, and he should have it in operation by the time we reach Baka Kar. And the Wing Commander passed the word that he’s got two Zartoths and a Kofar ready to launch. He recommends you delay dropping them until we’re ready for the jump.”
“Very good.” He stood slowly, stretching weary limbs. Suddenly he felt that he might, after all, be able to sleep for a little while. Everything was running smoothly…and if he didn’t rest now, while he could, he’d certainly have no opportunities later. Once they hit Baka Kar, rest would be impossible for any of them. “Call me when we are ready to make the jump. You have the bridge, Mr. Kittani.”
The Turk nodded solemnly. “I have the bridge, sir,” he said formally, taking the command chair.
Geoff Tolwyn left CIC, striding with his back ramrod-straight. They might be about to engage in their last battle, but he was damned if he was going to show the least sign of strain or worry.
Right now, he had everything he could want-a good ship, a good crew, and the prospect of striking a blow for freedom.
For Geoff Tolwyn, that was enough and all else, all the other things were at last, for this moment, forgotten. Things were again as they once were.
CHAPTER 19
“Consider the story of Karga the Hero, which tells of the rewards of honor and duty. Consider the story of Vorghath the Hunter, and reflect on the perils of complacence.”
Flag Bridge, KIS Dubav
Deep Space, Gorkhos System
0410 hours (CST), 2671.042
“A message, Lord Admiral. Passed on by Fleet Command.”
Ukar dai Ragark turned to face the speaker. “What is it, Communications Officer?” he asked, glowering. He was beginning to feel frustrated and impatient at the annoying problems that had cropped up over and over since the task force had departed from Baka Kar.
They had made a round-about voyage of it, traveling by way of Dharkyll, Khrovat, and Preesg to pick up additional ships for the strike group, including the escort carrier Larq, which replaced Klarran in his tactical dispositions. The idea had been to move slowly enough to let the Landreichers know they were coming, yet quickly enough to hit Ilios ahead of any possible response, but in practice it hadn’t worked that way. First there had been the delay in assembling the reinforcements, including Larq, at Khrovat, where the ships had recently been involved in the suppression of a rebellion. They had reported resistance completely ended on the colony, when it fact they had still been in the last stages of putting it down when the task force jumped in. He would have left them to their work and gone on, but Ragark had found that the falsely optimistic reports weren’t the only thing wrong at Khrovat. He suspected the System Administrator of entertaining notions of making his own bid for power within the province and using the rebellion as an excuse to retain those ships under his own command, so Ragark had been forced to intervene directly and clean out the corrupt administration before carrying on. It would not have been wise to take the fleet onward leaving a nest of traitors behind him.
Then the Hravik had developed jump drive problems at Preesg, which necessitated hasty repairs. Over an eight-day behind schedule, they had finally arrived at the designated staging area here at Gorkhos. Ragark had decided to hold back for a few hours longer, though, and send a scout ship ahead through the jump point to Ilios. Even if the Landreich had mustered a fleet to meet him, he calculated that he had the strength to defeat it, but Ukar dai Ragark was not the kil to leave things to chance. He wanted to know his opposition, rather than allow himself to be taken by surprise as Thrakhath, curse his name, had been time and again in battle against these unpredictable humans.
But the petty frustrations had been building, and he was feeling less than patient.
“Lord Admiral, a report from Vordran. The picket there. Captain lan Vharr has reported the arrival of the carrier Karga, believed lost over a year ago. It apparently was damaged and had to make repairs deep behind the human frontier, and is now on the way to Baka Kar for a more thorough refit at the docks.” The Flag Communications Officer gave him a triumphant upraised fist. “Yet another addition to our strength, Lord Admiral! Karga is one of the newer supercarriers…”
Ragark raised a hand and made a slashing motion, cutting off the report. Karga…he seemed to remember the name. Yes, a carrier…he had used Baka Kar as a staging area for a raid by a small battle group. One of Thrakhath’s worthless sideshow campaigns, intended to exact vengeance for the Landreich leader’s support of the Terrans in the Battle of Earth. The entire battle group had disappeared across the border, never heard from again.