"Helm, turn us about. Let's get the hell out of here," he snarled.
"Recall those cruisers now!"
Prince Thrakhath turned to gaze coldly at Baron Jukaga.
"Growing soft, my good Baron?"
"Your senseless barbarism will only arouse them further. You've made your point, now spare the second planet. Show mercy and it still might weaken their will."
"Terror breeds terror, Baron."
"Terror can also breed fanaticism and hatred. Your demonstration at Warsaw did not intimidate the humans, instead it caused them to stop their internal bickering and unite. You know nothing of humans. Senseless bombardments of their civilian populations have always tended to unite them. The deliberate destruction of entire worlds with radiation will cause them to fight us tooth and nail to the death rather than surrender."
"And that s what you wanted, wasn't it, surrender?"
The Baron attempted to control his loathing and rage.
"You are a barbarian," he snapped. "We could have undermined them, let their natural weaknesses play into our hands. You have gone on a rampage and destroyed eleven of their worlds so far, and their fleet is still intact.
"We just crippled it, or weren't you watching?"
"They still have fight left in them. Remember, Prince Thrakhath, the new fleet is to serve two purposes: one to win this war, and second to prepare us for the Mantu if they should ever return. You are now gambling that fleet in your drive for vengeance on the humans."
"Not vengeance, extinction."
Sickened, the Baron turned away. He knew now that the accusations were right. Study one's enemy for too long and in the end you might come to admire them. He did not admire the humans, the very essence of his nature prevented that, but he could acknowledge them as something more than mere prey to be slaughtered. His plan, if it had been allowed to be played out, might very well have resulted in a near bloodless victory, a Confederation completely divided, lulled by peace, and then psychologically overwhelmed when the dozen new carriers appeared. It all suddenly became very clear.
"You allowed that recon ship of the humans to slip into Hari space and then allowed it to escape. You wanted the peace ended, didn't you?"
"In spite of your claims of intellect, Baron, you are often rather slow at figuring things out."
"You wanted this war to end in a blood bath. You were the one who triggered the bomb in the human headquarters.
Prince Thrakhath smiled.
"You were never a prisoner of the humans. I was. You have not lost comrades to them, I have. I shall rise to the Imperial Throne, hailed as the conqueror of the humans and winner of this war, while as for you . . ." and he leaned over, touching a button on his console.
The doors to his wardroom were flung open and four Imperial Marine guards stepped in.
"Escort the Baron to his quarters and make sure he is very comfortable."
"Are you arresting me?"
Prince Thrakhath shook his head.
"Let us say that there are certain questions to be asked of you later, once the battles are completed and I am secure in my victory."
Baron Jukaga smiled coldly.
"Don't underestimate Tolwyn and his people. They are not finished yet."
"They soon will be, Baron," and he laughed coldly as Jukaga was lead from the room.
"How are you, Geoff?"
Geoff looked up in surprise as "Big" Duke Grecko walked into his private quarters.
Geoff started to get up from his cot and Duke motioned for him to relax while he pulled a chair around and sat down across from Tolwyn.
"What the hell are you doing out here, Duke?"
"Can't keep the Marines in port when the action starts. I'm not interfering out here, Geoff, but I thought I should come out and have a look."
"You got the after action report then?"
Duke nodded glumly.
"It was relayed up to my frigate a couple of hours ago."
"I screwed up, Duke. I should have fallen back from Sirius and then held here with Saratoga joined in for the strike."
"You couldn't abandon Sirius without a fight. Civilian morale would have gone off the deep end."
"So we lose two carriers and still lose Sirius."
"At least you bloodied them."
"One old carrier destroyed, one damaged and one of their new carriers reported heavily damaged, but no kills on the new fleet. Which is what I wanted.
"We're reporting that big carrier as dead for now," Duke said quietly.
"I never liked doing that."
"Sometimes we have to, and for all practical purposes it is dead at the moment."
"So what do you want, Duke?" Geoff asked, cutting straight to the point.
"I'm ordering you to fall back on Earth."
"What? Hell, Duke, if they break our line there they'll fry Earth in a matter of minutes.
"I know, but we've been busy. By the time you pull back, Lexington and Ark Royal will be on line."
"How? The jump engines on Lex and Ark Royal were fully out for realignment, and core reactors had been dumped."
"If we're fighting inside the home system we won't need jump engines and both ships have one reactor back up and running."
"They'll be sitting ducks."
"They'd be sitting ducks in the dockyard anyhow. At least they can still launch fighters."
Though neither one said it, they both knew as well that the two additional carriers would serve as targets, forcing the Kilrathi to spread out their attack.
"Mars is the closest planet in towards the jump line," Duke continued. "We've packed every landing field there full of every damn fighter, trainer, and even civilian light craft."
"You've got to be kidding. I stripped out every good plane and pilot before I left. Put what's left into space and they'll die like flies."
Duke nodded.
"And the Kilrathi will burn up ammunition while some of our people still get in for another strike."
He knew it was better than a desperate stand out here with no hope of winning. If he stood now, it'd only delay the inevitable by maybe a day or two at most.
"Our psych analysis people tell me that even if you abandon this key jump point, Thrakhath will not spread out into the inner worlds until he completes his kill of you and Earth. The bastard hates your guts, according to psych, for too many humiliations. He wants your hide almost as much as he wants Earth. He'll follow you straight in."
"You know, Duke," Geoff said quietly, "even with the additional material and manpower, they still have us. You saw what happened to my last strike, and those boys were the finest pilots in the fleet."
"I know, Geoff, I know. But there's one more idea I sort of cooked up on my own, that might help things out."
"What?"
And as Duke told him, Admiral Tolwyn came to his feet.
"You're mad, Duke, that's senseless murder. You're bloody mad to even think of it."
"And that's why it might work," Duke said with a cold smile.
"My lord Thrakhath."
He turned to look at a holo display of his bridge captain.
"The latest report, sire."
"Go on."
"The human fleet is turning about, retreating back towards Earth."
"Are you certain?"
"Yes, my lord."
That caught him slightly off guard. He had thought that Tolwyn would make his final stand here. One system past Sirius, eight jump lines diverged outward into the inner worlds of the Confederation and also back outwards towards the frontier. Control of the next system would be a major victory in and of itself. Yet he was abandoning it now without a fight. Damn him.
"Latest intelligence report?"
"Three carriers still confirmed with their Third Fleet. Intelligence is still working on their latest code but we have picked up a civilian channel reporting that a carrier left its Earth base six hours ago, and that a second carrier is moving up to join the fleet. The signal was from one of their news stations and its coding simple to break."