Chapter 38: Unexpected Company

A week later and things were once again going rather smoothly. Debby had gone into her pod with Vicky completely confused, but emerged ten hours later to pick up Orlando a confident and changed lady. She still was nervous approaching Orlando, but the young man refused to accept her protests and threw himself at her feet once he learned about her earlier ordeal. The next day the trio showed up for their welcome party arm-in-arm and glowing, which brought a cheer to everyone's lips. Debby blushingly accepted the cheers of the other concubines as they welcomed her into 'The Tradition'.

We did find that Debby and Mike had trouble getting along, but that soon proved to be a non-issue. Debby wanted to be active and became our second female sponsor fitted for battle armor. She struggled more than Xavier did in climbing the lasers, but her calm voice in the simulations made it clear that she was ready to participate in any action.

Yvette, Terrence and I were in the briefing room going over a few minor details when Candi called out. "I have multiple jump points opening near Isis. They appear to be from Confederacy jump engines."

I looked over at Yvette. "We don't have anything scheduled, do we?"

Yvette shook her head. "No. Randi, any communications from the ships?"

Randi sighed. "Not yet, none of the ships have completed their transitions."

I looked over at Terrence in surprise. "With transitions that slow..."

I heard a gasp from Randi and Candi as Terrence nodded. "Battle damage, probably severe."

Yvette and I burst from our chairs. "AI, give me the whole enclave."

There was the usual ping and I started calling orders. "Guys, we have multiple Confederacy ships arriving and it appears like they have heavy battle damage. I need everyone to get to their stations. Linus, Tyson, get the lasers ready just in case. Tamara, Tif, Louis, Gina, get to command. Timothy, I need you on your space defense station. Fred and Xavier suit up for the lasers. Brad and Debby can back you up."

Yvette joined in as we dashed out. Candi was still trying to refine the picture, but we could get a quick count. "We currently have eight jump points. Medical, we might not need you, but get the pods ready. Heather, I hate to ask, but can you and Philippe do your magic in the multi-use room again, we just might need the space. Bren, if you can, help them set it up for medical needs just in case."

The ships were starting to emerge and Candi managed to refine the scan on the second ship through. I could feel Terrence stiffen beside me. "Dear god! It hasn't blown up yet?"

I could not even nod as one of Candi's screens started to list the visible damage to the wreck of a Hero class battle cruiser. The damage readings were massive and I turned to Randi. "Anything?"

She shook her head, but then froze as Tamara dashed into the command post and started to assist Candi. A moment later Randi hit a couple of switches and a very stressed voice came out over the overhead speaker. "This is the battle cruiser Sigurd calling Ishtar control. Please come in Ishtar control."

I nodded to Randi who was staring at me and she calmly responded as the twins dashed in. "This is Ishtar control. We read you, Sigurd."

"Thank god," the voice said. "We need repair and rescue. All of us."

I looked over at Tamara who was rapidly hitting buttons. Suddenly she turned to Randi and Tiffany, who had followed her sister into the command post. "What's the name of the other Hero class and have they called in?" she shrieked.

The voice from the Sigurd spoke. "It's the Lugh? Why?"

Tiffany and Randi were both rapidly checking frequencies. "I've got nothing from them," Randi called out.

"No! No. Get the corvettes away from her and someone tell her crew to abandon. Now!" Tamara cried out.

The voice from the Sigurd snapped. "We have to save her!"

Candi hissed. "Oh god! No, no, no ... We've got a resonance between a damaged coil on her starboard rail gun and her fusion bottle. Do we have any signal from her!?"

Tiffany was checking. "No answer on any of our frequencies. All I get when I try to ping them is static. Even their IFF is out."

Tamara had tears streaming from her eyes. "We've got maybe thirty seconds. The resonance is too strong."

"Would a shot work?" I heard the Sigurd ask.

"Too late!" Candi screamed as a series of lights appeared indicating that some of the crew had come to the same conclusion and were abandoning their doomed ship.

"Maker!" shouted the voice from the Sigurd. I could see the other ships start to separate as a burst of static cut through the command post just as Timothy and Louis arrived.

I looked over at Tamara who was still trying to get a reading. "Fuck!" she shouted. "The Lugh took out most of our close-in scanners. We need to route new ones in so we can start scanning the damage."

Tiffany was checking the communications. "We've heard from the battle cruisers Sigurd, the Athena and the Morrigan. The carrier hasn't called in, Tam, do you know which one it is?"

Candi sighed. "We have no ping on its IFF. The corvettes are two Castle and two Patrician ships."

Louis and Timothy ran in and took over their stations. Louis immediately turned to Tamara. "I'm bringing the repair docks online, pass me details as you get them. I'll get the tug going, just tell me where to send it."

"I think ... I think ... Ishtar," a faint voice said. "This is Captain Hughes of the Corvette Pebble Beach. We took a hit on the bridge. My navigator just died and I know that I won't last much longer. We have no guidance. I can set up one more burn, but that's it."

The voice stopped and Tiffany gasped. "Sir! Captain! Damn! We lost the signal!"

"Which ship is that on the grid?" Louis asked. "I can send the tug and find out."

"Bloody hell," Terrence said. "This is chaos."

I nodded. "Everyone slow down for a second. We have a commander trying to call us, so let's take a moment and talk to him. Tiffany."

Tiffany nodded. "Sorry Sigurd, we are trying to get full details. You seem to be senior. What can you tell us about the situation?"

There was a sigh. "This is Commodore Sprague. I was commanding the screen for the carrier Andrew Jackson. Admiral Tirpitz commanded the task force, but I believe the flag bridge on the Jackson took a direct hit early in the raid. We had been sent to Wolf three-six-seven to root out a Sa'arm infestation. The plan was for us to clear space so that a second wave containing the marine assault ships could reach the planet. But we ran into two hive ships and more than thirty support craft. We lost the carrier David Lloyd George almost immediately and her screen was cut off. I have no idea what happened to them. I ordered Captain Smythe of the Jackson to aim for Ishtar and jump, but before their engines could cycle the Pollux and the Gilgamesh both blew up. We also lost both of our Africa class Destroyers, the Congo and the Libya."

Tamara sighed, "Sigurd, I've only got long range scans, but it appears your port rail gun is unstable. Do you have anyone who can shut it down? We don't need another magnetic field failure."

We could hear some shouting and the Commodore replied. "Sorry, damage control central is gone, and our in-ship communications are in flux. I have someone checking it."

"Damn." I sighed. "Well, we now know the carrier, and the two Goddess class cruisers have signaled back, what about the corvettes. We need to sent a report to Borneo."

There was a pause. "The other Patrician should be the Torrey Pines. The Castle ships are Pembroke Castle and Tintagel Castle. I have no scanners left so I can't see them."

"Anyone?" I asked.

Randi was shaking her head. "The Athena has lost all but her IFF channel and one telemetry channel. I know she's there but right now I'm signaling using a Morse pulse back on the telemetry channel."

"Maker," the commodore said. "What about the Morrigan."

Tiffany sighed. "Her IFF just failed. Someone on her has set up a feedback loop on her battle frequency. They can hear one frequency but that's it."

The commodore sighed. "Commodore Johnston warned that the Goddess class needed better protection for their communications relays. Anything on the Jackson?"

Candi shook her head. "When the Lugh's fusion bottle blew up it took out every scanner we had nearby. Right now we are routing in new scanners, but we just have long range and the resolution is poor. Right now it looks like she took hits on both the bridge and the flag bridge. I'm not sure she's got anyone controlling her."

"A dead stick?" Louis said. "I only have the one tug and it's on its way to the Pebble Beach. I need three hours before I can send it back out if you want the Pebble Beach brought in on this run."

Suddenly a very scared female voice spoke. "Um ... Oh god I hope this is going out ... This is Ensign Bernadette Werfel ... I'm in the auxiliary control station on the Jackson ... We need help."

There was silence in the command post for a moment and I sighed. "Ensign, can you give me a status?"

"Well..." the voice began. "I'm on damage control. This is my first cruise. The flag bridge is gone, and the main bridge took some strange metal shard missile. It's all blood and twisted metal up there. Auxiliary control appears relatively intact, but everyone is dead. A bulkhead gave way and sprayed the room with more metal slivers."

"Maker," the commodore hissed. "Ensign, have you any navigation training?"

"Some," the voice said. "And one of the reserve pilots is trying to make her way here, but it's bad. And the medical bay is overflowing."

"Commodore, we need to try to signal Borneo, it sounds like none of your ships have any long range communications systems up. After that hopefully Tamara and Louis will have a better idea of what repairs are needed and where to send each ship," I said.

"That sounds good, but what about medical. No ship's medical bay is ready to handle the volume we have up here. Can we send you some of our critical cases?" the commodore replied.

"Donna? You connected?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied. "We can take a few, but remember we only have eight medical pods, so if we take too many major cases we can't help much. Although Bren and Michael are setting up an infirmary in the multi-use room."

"Understood," I replied. "Commodore, we do have teleport capability here, How about you send four people for now, and we'll try to get status from the other ships."

"Thanks. I can contact my medical officer and have him get in touch with you about sending them," the Commodore replied.

Terrence moved. "Route that signal to the teleport room Tiffany, I'll deal with it there. Donna!"

"Gurneys on the way," she said.

"Got it!" Tamara suddenly shouted. "Randi, tell the Torrey Pines to hold vector for a moment."

There was a pause as Randi attempted to signal the ship. Silence reigned for a moment and then Tamara sighed. "Louis, I've got the readout on the Pines. I'm going to route her to Inanna. Minor damage, but we need to be careful. She's got a missile jammed in one of her port tubes."

Louis nodded. "Understood. I still need a reading on the others, although I see the Pembroke has managed to line up behind the Pines. Should I slot her in at Inanna as well?"

A new voice spoke. "Please, this is Lieutenant Mitchell on the Pembroke. We've ... Our commander is injured and in our medical bay. We've lost both turrets. Communications are spotty, but our navigation still works. We've been listening in and can follow the Pines."

Tiffany smiled. "Any telemetry channels left? If we can get your computerized damage report it will make repairs quicker."

The Lieutenant sighed. "We've lost just about all computer functions. My navigator is rewriting guidance code as we speak and working with the engineering crew who are making adjustments by hand."

I looked at Yvette. "This is bad," she whispered.

Just then Randi jerked. "James, I got through to Borneo. Admiral Himmel is on the way."

There was a moment of silence and then Admiral Himmel spoke. "I understand that we have an emergency. This better not be a joke!" he growled.

"Sir, this is James from Ishtar. We just had nine Confederacy ships jump into our space. We are still gathering details, but the reports we have so far is that a raid sent to Wolf three-six-seven ran into more than they expected," I reported.

"What?!" the Admiral snapped. "But that was a major attack. We sent two full carrier task forces. Who is in charge?"

I sighed. "We had contact with Commodore Sprague on the Sigurd, but his ship is a mess and we lost our connection. Our communication crew is trying to reestablish the link. We've only managed contact with half the ships that appeared, and some of that has been temporary. The two Goddess class battle cruisers in system have lost just about all communications, the corvette Pebble Beach signaled, but the officer who signaled was dying and said all bridge personnel were dead. The carrier Andrew Jackson took hits on the bridge, flag bridge and auxiliary control. Right now we have contact with an ensign who was on damage control and says that auxiliary control can be brought back up, but she's on her first cruise. We still have no signal from the Tintagel, but two other corvettes are under power and being routed to repair bays."

"That's eight," Admiral Himmel observed. "You said nine appeared."

"The Lugh managed to appear, but a resonance between her rail gun magnetics and her fusion bottle destabilized the fusion bottle. She blew up less than a minute after appearing in system," I replied.

The Admiral sighed. "Any other losses you know of?"

Tiffany replied. "We are trying to get battle reports through telemetry, but the Commodore confirmed the loss of the carrier David Lloyd George, as well as the battle cruisers Pollux and Gilgamesh and the destroyers Congo and Libya."

"God," the Admiral swore. "That's half of the task force, and doesn't include any of the George's screen. Any word there?"

Tiffany answered. "Sorry, Sir. We have had no contact with the ships of her screen. I've got a partial download from the Athena, it's one of her long range portside sensor scans. But it clearly shows a Goddess class battle cruiser making a jump escorted by a single Africa class destroyer. From the position it appears both were part of the George's screen, but the destroyer was bleeding air badly. The Goddess was fighting the whole way."

The Admiral sighed. "Goddess class ships are durable, but most likely her communications are out, which means we will be waiting until she can find a repair station."

I sighed as Randi froze. "Oh god. James, we have General Montgomery calling. What do I do?"

I looked around as the still frantic work by everyone trying to get detailed information on the ships in-system and sighed. "Yvette, we need to start breaking this problem down. Get Amanda, Mike and anyone else with communications and tracking experience and we'll start routing signals into briefing room stations. Each person can handle one ship until we get them docked."

"On it," she said.

The Admiral sighed. "I need a few minutes to alert the rest of the base and see if we can find our missing ships. Talk to the general and I'll call back."

Tiffany sighed as the connection was cut. "I'll try to get the Tintagel," she said. "Randi, put the general through while we have time."

I heard the ping and sighed. "General, I hope you can keep this short. We are extremely busy here," I said.

"That's just it. I just got some kind of priority alert that Ishtar was reporting damaged ships jumping in-system. What are you talking about?" the General snapped.

"Sir, a naval attack force arriving at Wolf three-six-seven was mauled and forced to jump out. Right now we have eight ships in system, and are trying to get them to repair docks. Two are currently dead sticks with no one handling navigation and only three have vocal communication working and none work consistently," I replied as I watched everyone.

"I found the Tintagel!" Candi suddenly cried. "Looks like her engines died. I have no power readings."

"Louis!" Yvette cried. "How long can the crew last without life support?"

He looked over in confusion, but Amanda was just arriving and paused. "What class?" she asked.

"Castle class corvette," Candi observed. "No air bleeds, but the engines are definitely out. The port one is gone and the starboard one lost the primary power coupling."

Amanda thought for a moment. "Six hours if there is no air bleed, but it will be freezing inside after four. Unless they have blankets many will die before the air runs out."

Louis moaned. "I've already got my only tug heading to the Pebble Beach. There is no way I can get her to a dock in time."

"Damn!" Candi cried. "It's not fair!"

"What about our remote teleporters? Could we send one and get the crew off?" I asked.

Louis nodded. "But I'm tied up and can't guide one right now!"

"Who knows how?" Yvette asked.

"Maggie does, she helped me develop the idea after the incident with the Nassau," Louis admitted.

I nodded to Yvette as I turned to Amanda. "Great help. Now take briefing station one and help guide the Morrigan to a dock, Tam will tell you which one."

The General was snorting and huffed. "Can you at least give me a bit more information?"

"Sorry, Sir," I responded. "We've added a couple refugees, but we still only have twenty-one marines down here, and this is a bit hectic. Again, the strike into Wolf three-six-seven failed. We've talked to the Commodore who was in charge of the screen for the carrier Andrew Jackson and it sounds like they ran into multiple hive ships. Right now our main concern is saving as many crew and ships as we can."

"Wolf three-six-seven?" the general hissed. "But we have two full assault ships boosting there. Sir Bors and Sir Ector! We'll lose all those marines! Can we alert them at the staging site?"

I hissed as well as Gina ran into the room, still trying to pull her top on. "Gina! Get to briefing station two, we need to contact the assault boats Sir Bors and Sir Ector and turn them around. They're probably in jump but keep signaling until they respond and turn back!"

Gina cried out. "That class has no fold-space comm. We can't talk to them! Do they have an escort that does?"

The General groaned. "They should have a small screen with one Hero class, they carry a comm., and I believe the plan is to stop just outside the system and wait for clearance. We'll try to signal the escort from here as well, but I'll have someone forward you the coordinates so you can send a signal. Anything more I can do?"

I looked at the chaos that was our usually quiet command post. "We'll need a new shipment of spares after this is done," I said. "Beyond that I can't think of anything right now."

"Son, if your people can save those ships, I'm sending your whole colony a ship full of booze. Make it happen," the general said.

"Signal cut off," Randi said. "We have renewed contact with the Jackson, no signal from the Sigurd."

Tamara sighed. "They had a small explosion from the rail-gun overload. Scanners indicate it may have cut the primary antenna for their voice communications."

"Terrence?" I shouted.

"They cut out while we were still organizing," he confessed. "I have a good contact with their teleporter."

"Try a teleport draw. See if they have anyone," Yvette cried.

Mike had just arrived and Yvette immediately sent him to the briefing room with instructions to set up as good a link to the Athena as he could manage. As she did Terrence activated the teleporter and gave a cry of victory followed by one of horror.

"Fuck! Medic!" he cried.

I turned to look and found three figures on the pads. One was a young female concubine standing over two prone and bloody figures. She looked down and then looked over at Terrence who was striding from the controls to check on the injured.

The concubine gave a gasp as Terrence ran up. "I'm sorry. I was just checking them. I thought..."

Terrence ignored her to kneel down as I took a quick peek outside to see if the gurneys had arrived. I could hear David shout in the distance and turned back to the teleport room. "David is on his way," I said.

The girl took a deep breath. "We need to be careful with them. Torvin here has taken metal shards through his chest. They appear to have missed his heart, but they hit just about every other organ. Lewis has massive tissue damage to his leg, we have a tourniquet on his leg to keep him from bleeding out, but he needs a pod now."

Terrence looked up. "Donna, did you get that?"

There was silence and I sighed. "I think we've overloaded our communications system," I observed as David burst into the room pushing a gurney.

"Nathan will be just a moment," David gasped. "Which do I take first?"

Terrence looked at the girl who pointed at the man with the leg injury. With a nod to David, Terrence immediately grabbed the gurney and they started to load the man. I waved to get the concubine's attention. "Excuse me, but do you know what's happening on the Sigurd?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "I help in the medical bay because I was a nurse on Earth and can save the medic's time by dealing with the minor injuries. All I know is that the crewman at the teleporter was swearing about communications being lost, so I stepped up to check on Torvin and Lewis and suddenly found myself here."

I nodded. "Go with David then. He'll take you to our medical bay. We'll return you to the Sigurd later."

The girl gave a sob and followed as David rushed the critically injured man from the command post. A moment later Nathan arrived with a second gurney and Terrence helped him lift the second man into his gurney and sent him on his way.

I stepped over to the communications station to listen to Tiffany. "Ensign Werfel, stay calm. We can guide you through this, but we need you to stay calm."

She saw me and switched the signal to the overhead. "I'm sorry ... its just there is so much blood ... and we lost so many," a sniffling voice said.

I nodded to Tiffany. "Ensign, I have to ask, do you have your pilot friend helping and who is in charge."

Another sniffle was heard. "Ensign Earhart is here, but she has to concentrate on navigation. We lost a lot of thrusters and she said that the ship isn't responding properly."

"Do you have a captain or lieutenant in charge?" I asked.

There was a sigh. "We have Lieutenant Watt down in engine room, but he can't leave. He said the fusion containment field is damaged."

"God!" Louis hissed. "If that loses stability the explosion will be massive."

I looked over the assembled figures. "Tam, get Paula in here to handle the Jackson as fast as you can. We need to get her into a dock fast."

Yvette smiled as I looked around. "So except for getting in touch with the Sigurd and the Tintagel we have all ships with someone on them. And the Tintagel we have Maggie running a teleporter to for now. What's the word on the Sigurd?"

Terrence who had returned to the teleporter and was attempting another contact gave a cry of triumph and we could hear the system cycle. We turned to find two more prone figures accompanied by a young ensign who saluted sharply. "Ensign Livingstone reporting! Who do I give the report to?" he said.

Yvette stepped forward as Terrence shouted down the hall for additional gurneys. "Step over here Ensign and we'll see what you have."

The young man looked around in surprise at the crowd of people in the command post, but then turned to look at Yvette as I joined her. "We have found a number of serious breeches that make travel around the ship unsafe. However, damage control believes that vocal communication can be restored in one hour," he reported.

I sighed just as Tiffany shouted. "Call for you James!" and switched on the overhead.

"James!" Admiral Himmel's voice cried. "Tell me you have status!"

I sighed. "Some good, some bad," I admitted. "The corvettes Torrey Pines and Pembroke Castle are heading to repair docks under their own power and control. We are a bit worried that Torrey Pines has a missile jammed in one of its tubes, but both corvettes appear to have only suffered minor damage. The corvette Pebble Beach is a dead stick, we have our only tug going to collect it and bring it in, but our last communication with her was that her bridge had taken a direct hit and all except the captain were dead. We have no telemetry. Tintagel Castle has been found, but her engines have failed. We are running an evacuation teleporter to her to get the crew off until our tug finishes with the Pebble Beach."

"Dear god," the admiral sighed. "Tell me the news on the capital ships is better."

"I wish I could," I admitted. "Athena and Morrigan are coming in, but we have no vocal communication with either. The Morrigan can receive and her helm responds to our instructions, but we have resorted to Morse Code over a telemetry link to talk to Athena. The Sigurd lost its communication capability when a coil on the portside rail gun overloaded. But we just teleported in an ensign from their ship who confirmed they should be able to restore it in one hour. The good news is that we have confirmed that the Jackson is back under control, but the highest ranking officer left alive is a Lieutenant working in engineering, so we are working through an ensign to guide her in."

"Any idea of a casualty count?" the admiral asked.

"None so far, unless Ensign Livingstone has one for Sigurd. Most of the other ships are so badly damaged we are just trying to get them to repair docks so we can stop the bleeding," I admitted.

Candi called out. "I have counts for Torrey Pines and Pembroke Castle. Neither has fatalities, but both have multiple critical and serious injuries. We do need to get one off the Pembroke. Their two medical pods are full and they have a crewman with serious bleeding from metal fragments through the lower torso."

"Louis?" I asked.

"I'm tied up and Maggie has two of our emergency teleports she's guiding to the Tintagel. We have two more, but I can't do it right now," he admiltted.

Tamara called out. "Claire! You worked with Maggie that one day, get into the briefing room and get a teleporter to the Pembroke!"

"On it," I heard Claire call out. I realized I had little idea of the comings and goings as the command post was once again becoming chaotic.

The Admiral coughed. "It sounds like you have it mostly under control," he said.

I coughed to hide my own laugh. "I wouldn't say that. This may be why we are here, but this definitely is a bit more than we expected for a first time disaster."

The admiral laughed as a female voice cut in. "Ishtar control ... Do you read me Ishtar ... Damn it Bell! ... Are you sure that this patch will hold? ... We can't wait much longer for Jessica and Tad!"

I looked over at the command post when Mike hissed. "It's the Athena. They've routed a vocal call through what's left of her IFF."

"Open the channel back; I hope they can hear me! Athena, this is Ishtar control. We read you. If you can get your two crewmen to a teleporter we have space here!"

"Ishtar control! ... Damn! ... What do we do, Bell! ... We can't hear them!" the voice screamed.

I called out to Terrence. "Terrence, how many teleport rooms does a Goddess class have?"

"One!" he called back. "Want me to try?"

"Do it!" I shouted back. "Mike, route the signal to your station. Report if it changes or you get through!"

The voice died immediately and I could hear the Admiral sigh. "Oh, we do have news. The Goddess class you saw jump out on the Athena's telemetry was part of the George's screen. She's the Sif. The destroyer with her is the Morocco and fired off its message drone after they emerged from the jump. They'll be making their way back to Borneo. The message we received did confirm the losses of the Goddess class battle cruiser Asase Ya, as well as three destroyers. They were the African class Egypt, and the Asia class Kashmir and Bangladesh."

"Any word on the second wave?" I asked. "General Montgomery was worried about his assault boats?"

"Nothing," the admiral admitted worriedly. "Even their escort has been silent."

Just then Gina gave a cry of frustration. "Commodore, this is no joke, break off the attack on Wolf three-six-seven. The first wave failed to clear the path. I repeat the first wave retreated with heavy casualties, break off."

"Gina?!" I called out.

"I've got Commodore Duncan. He claims to be leading the screen for the assault ships, and he doesn't want to listen. I can't convince him that the first wave failed."

Admiral Himmel spoke. "Guy speaks in a heavy Scottish accent? He should be on the Beowulf. Let him know that Borneo is aware and also repeating a retreat order."

"On it," Gina said.