He lowered his head for a moment.
“Merritt’s marines smashed half a dozen carriers under construction and a hell of a lot of equipment. Our task force has downed over seventy enemy fighters, four corvettes, one orbital base, along with a number of probabilities and damaged. I’m proud of you, and the Confederation is proud of you. All damage control officers, weapons officers, and engineering officers report to the temporary bridge in one half hour. Thank you and keep it up, Tarawa. I’m damned proud to be part of this team.”
He clicked the intercom off, not even noticing the looks of pride in his staff.
“I’m taking a half hour off,” he said quietly. “Call me if anything comes up.”
He left the bridge and went into the tiny cubical that now served as his wardroom and closed the door. Jason lowered his head, covering his face with his hands, and wept.
Prince Thrakhath turned away from the holo screen.
“It won’t be a pleasure reporting this to the Emperor,” he said quietly, looking over at the Khantahr in direct command of his flagship.
“Sire, might I remind you that you expected the enemy carrier to use the planet as a slingshot, that they would loop around and come straight back towards Kilrah, not to dive into its atmosphere.”
Prince Thrakhath looked at the Khantahr.
“I admire courage, and I admire truth,” he said. “You are right.”
The Khantahr visibly relaxed.
“Is there a probability that they have gone around the far side of the planet, masked by the EMP of the antimatter explosion?”
The Khantahr looked over to his executive officer in charge of navigation.
“If so, they will emerge from under the south pole of the planet within the next ten minutes. If they should then choose to close ram scoops and go to full acceleration, they could leap ahead, perhaps even close on Kilrah before we can stand back to defend her.”
Prince Thrakhath looked over at the holo display as the navigator plotted out a possible course.
“Masterful maneuver. I expected them to dive straight back to Kilrah, to seek death while doing maximum damage, now that we have covered their probable exit jump point. Now I am not sure if they are hiding beneath us or at this very moment are circling around.”
He studied the screen intently.
“Pull the carrier back to a high polar orbit around Kilrah. Detail the destroyers to orbit this planet and to try to pick up a trace if they are indeed down there. The cruisers and corvettes are to form a picket line between here and Kilrah. If they are going straight back now, I want to be ahead of them. If they are hiding below us, we’ll wait them out. They’ll have to come up sooner or later and when they do we’ll finish them.”
The Khantahr nodded his agreement and left the room followed by his staff.
The commlink on Prince Thrakhath’s desk blinked.
He looked over at it, noticing the bright yellow flash that meant it was a scrambled message from the Imperial Palace. He took a deep breath and punched down on the button.
The image of the Emperor appeared in the middle of the room.
“Yes, Grandfather.”
“The enemy carrier?”
“We’ve lost it for the moment, sire. It has either dived into the atmosphere of Igrathi to hide, or even at this moment is circling around for a return attack. I am pulling back to cover Kilrah. If he is hiding, he’ll have to come back up at some point, and then we will close for the kill.”
“I have seen the damage reports. I am not pleased.”
Prince Thrakhath was silent.
“Six carriers, six construction yards, a cruiser construction center, and four thousand of our best trained technicians are casualties. Do you know what this means?”
His voice reached a cold pitch of anger.
“Yes, Grandfather, I am fully aware of what it means.”
“A third of all our carrier construction facilities smashed by this noisome fly of a ship, and you let it elude you!”
“Sire, if you had followed my recommendation and pulled the entire home fleet back this never would nave happened. And tell me, Grandfather, what is the latest from Vukar?”
Prince Thrakhath waited.
“The landing is still going according to plan, but there has been a problem detected.”
“And that is?”
The Emperor hesitated.
“What is it, Grandfather?”
“An enemy fleet has been detected, closing in on the landing operations, the first report just came through.”
Prince Thrakhath felt a sudden chill of dread.
“Order them to retreat at once!”
The Emperor shook his head.
“By the time the signal arrives the issue will already be decided.”
“I will find this carrier, Grandfather. It will not replace what we have lost, but at least it will pay for its crimes.”
CHAPTER X
“All right, let’s have the status reports,” Jason said wearily, struggling to keep awake after nearly two days without sleep. He gratefully accepted the cup of coffee from Doomsday, trying to hide the fact that his hands were shaking slightly, either from too much caffeine or just from simple exhaustion.
He looked over at the damage control officer, who, by good fortune for the Tarawa, was an old petty officer with twenty-five years fleet experience; another transfer from the Concordia. His senior, a young cadet straight out of the academy, had died on the bridge, and as a result the most qualified person had risen to the job.
“We’ve welded durasteel plating over the breach in the hull, your suggestion of cannibalizing it from that wrecked Ferret was a damned good one. It’s definitely not air tight, so I’m keeping the airlock force fields up, and I’ve ordered everyone still working in that area to keep their pressure suits on, even though we’ve pumped air back in.”
“Shield generation is ready to go back on line, though the phase generator is still not synching quite right, so I don’t suggest pushing her up to the max power setting.”
“How high then, Jim?”
“Seventy-five percent and that’s pushing it.”
“Keep working on it.”
“I’ve got people on it now.”
“We’ve reestablished a pressurized and secured corridor back to the engine room, and the last of the electrical fires was tracked down and contained in the aft crew quarters. Still some toxins in the air though, both from the fire and from the ammonia and sulphur atmosphere leaking in, so I think crew quarters should be off limits for at least another couple of days till our air filtration cleans it all out. Also, anyone in the aft deck areas should wear filter masks as well.”
Jason sighed and looked around the room.
“I take it that’s the good news, chief.”
Jim nodded and blew out noisily.
“We’ve got structural cracks running down three of the six main keel beams—this ship is leaking air like a sieve from hundreds of microscopic structural cracks. We could very well start running short on air pressure by the time we get home. I’ve talked with our environmental chief and he’s dropping internal pressure down to 4.5 pounds per square inch and jacking up the oxygen content but increased oxygen means increased chance of fire if anything flares up again. If we take any neutron hits and they get through the shielding, the resulting electrostatic discharge could cause a flare out.”