Alpha One - Chris Burton [39]
“Great shot, old man,” said Steve.
Jake and Steve targeted another satellite each, both successfully, before they received their clearance to return to Earth. The two jump ships followed each other down slowly having exhausted their main power cells through four hours of relative inactivity. Ahead of them, a further three jump ships were already clearing the shields. Steve was just about to go though himself when their clearance was cancelled and they were asked to make way for the return of a star ship.
The Viceroy was a Type 15 interstellar star ship. The huge Class A ship of the line was the epitome of Alpha’s new fleet. She was testing in the Jupiter void and was being brought back to Earth for her official commissioning. Jake and Steve looked on in awe. This was Jake’s passion. It was the raison d’être for his existence in Alpha, and the prospect of commanding such a powerful—and yet somehow beautiful—thing was almost spell-binding. This was why he had joined Alpha Fleet; one day he would command a star ship…
The star ship cleared the shields and quickly disappeared from range. Steve and Jake were then given their clearance, and they began their descent to Earth. The two Rapier 6’s came down together, landed, and came to a stop just outside the Academy training hangar. They cleared their decks and headed straight to debrief. They would find out who was the most observant.
Chapter Nineteen
The Partacian Dilemma
Admiral Koenig was troubled. The logistics of planning a two-pronged attack on the Sentinels’ Southern Fleet had met an obstacle in the form of the Partacians. They blocked a request for Alpha to attack the Sentinels from within Partacian Space. This was unexpected. The Partacians had no quarrel with Alpha or the APF in general, but they would not grant Alpha access to their territorial space. This was despite the fact that, militarily, the Partacians were defeated by the Sentinels and they wanted nothing more than a successful Alpha campaign against the Sentinels.
The Partacian ambassador’s directive to the APF was specific: Any insurgence into Partacian air space would be treated as an offensive stance against Partacia and would be resisted by force. The physical threat by the Partacians was not relevant thanks to the Sentinels, but they were associate members of the APF and were not a warring race by any means. The Partacians were commodity traders. They expressed interest in the Tri-Star region because of the wormholes, and entered the region with a view to opening one or both of the wormholes and going though them. They could not know what lay on the other side, but there was sure to be a new supply of natural resources which could be traded. They had no prior knowledge of the Sentinels’ claim to this region, and at the time they certainly had no intention of going to war over such an issue.
The Partacians didn’t make good warriors. They were not technologically advanced, and their armed forces were limited by the physical attributes of the Partacians themselves. Small in stature and with limited instinctive fighting capability, they were always going to be on the losing side; and so it proved against the Sentinels. What remained of their fleet was heading for a confrontation with Alpha, then to regroup and head back to bolster their defenses on their borders with the Sentinels’ air space.
Koenig summoned a meeting of his Inner Cabinet. Admirals Kohn and Clarke were Koenig’s closest supporters and, with Koenig as CIC, they formed the quorum that made up the unofficial Alpha Fleet Inner Cabinet. They met periodically when summoned by Koenig.
“Admirals. We need to persuade the Bench that we have to enter Partacian space no matter what happens. I know I can count on your support, but how likely is it we will engage the support of others?”
Kohn replied “We won’t. As I see it, we have three alternatives.