Here Is The News

Carstairs reviewed the repair logs for the fleet. The lack of the third Nova left a hard stone in his stomach. Jeff could be an arrogant pain in the ass, but most truly good captains were. He could still see him sitting in the ready room on the Scott.

"If it makes it easier for Hamato to finish the war, it's completely worth it."

I hope you really felt that way, Jeff. The intercom chime interrupted Carstairs' thoughts. "Sir," the comm officer began, "General Rosales wishes to speak to you."

A small shudder ran down Carstairs' back. His commanding officer's CO and Executive officer of the Liberation Navy, answering directly to Hamato? Carstairs had long ago ceased to be worried about communications from top brass but he knew that this call would be either really good news or really bad news. There was only one way to find out. "Count to ten and then put him through to my screen." He turned his chair to face the screen, pulled the bottom of his jacket to straighten out the wrinkles, ran his hand through his hair and waited for the image to come through.

Herve Rosales' image formed from the static. "Good morning, Admiral Carstairs." he said, slightly rolling his Rs, revealing the accent of his native Spain. "I hope I'm not disturbing you."

"Not at all, sir. How can I be of assistance to you today?"

"Actually, I will be helping you, I think."

Wheels turned in Carstairs' head. "I don't follow you, sir."

"First, let me say that you have done an excellent job of tying the Dilgar up in the Krish System and the intelligence you have provided us has been of great value in the war effort."

Carstairs inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, sir."

"For that, you are welcome. Even more importantly, little stands between us and Omelos. Preliminary strikes have already begun and we should begin the final assault within the next few days."

"That's wonderful, sir! Please confer my congratulations to Admiral Hamato."

With a slight smile beneath his this mustache, Rosales said "I shall do that. Unfortunately, I do not think that this news will be good for you."

"Sir?"

"Our scouts tracking their flagship, the Mancat class vessel 'Seat of Punishment', detected it jumping out of the system two hours ago. We have reason to believe that it is heading in your direction."

Carstairs wheels began to spin again. "It's arrival in system would confirm my belief that the Dilgar are trying to relocate to this system. I had hoped to dislodge them from the planet I believe they have chosen with our last attack but we failed. I wanted to overwhelm them with our force but it was much more heavily defended than we had expected. While we did sizable damage to their forces, it was not as valuable as what we lost."

"Esto es la guerra. But this is both bad and good. If the forces around Omelos feel they have a way out, they may not fight like caged wolves to the death. Good for us but not so good for you."

Carstairs showed a confident smile, but inside he was quite concerned. "I don't suppose you could help us with that, sir?"

"As luck would have it, yes. With the help we've been getting from the worlds we have liberated, we have been able to free up other resources to send your way. We begin with some more Sagittari to replace the ones you have lost. Along with the engineers and tech upgrades, we will have you in better shape. If 'Seat of Punishment' arrives, you'll need it. That thing is a monster. And once we have pacified Omelos itself, we will be able to dispatch more forces from the fleet to aid you."

"Sir, permission to speak freely?"

Rosales leaned back. "Granted."

"Sir, if I remember the specs on the Mancat correctly, I'm not sure we have the firepower to destroy it. And with the Centauri here, I'm loath to commit too much of our forces lest we leave them masters of the system and two jumps from Earth."

"Patience, Admiral. Once Omelos is disposed of, we can turn our attentions to your little problem."

But would we survive our little problem? That remained to be seen. But Carstairs knew Omelos was the most important mission of all. "Understood, sir. We will maintain resistance until more forces can be sent to aid."

"Very good Admiral. Oh, and one last thing, would you pass a message to Captain Cargano the next time you see him? It is not important enough to tie up a channel."

"I'd be happy to, sir." It was a little unorthodox, but everyone passed messages back and forth this.

"Tell Bill I said Queen's Knight to King's four. And that I will mate him in nine moves. Anything else you would like to say, Admiral?"

"No, sir. I have much to prepare for."

"Then I will leave you to it. Good luck, Admiral Carstairs. May God be with you. Rosales out."

As the screen went dead, Carstairs sat back and closed his eyes. Losing a Nova is now, officially, the least of my worries...