Chapter 2: Having Escaped
Yes, we got away. Outmatched, outgunned, and I had little doubt we would have also been outmaneuvered, had we tried to stick around and put up some kind of pointless resistance.
The FV we used took us to Vega, not far from the Star Station Docking Platform, affectionately abbreviated as "Dock Plat," or "DP" if you don't mind sounding the slightest bit perverse.
The legend went that the engineers who designed it couldn't settle on a name, and the whole thing was referred to as "Docking Platform Project #1," so the name stuck. In the end, no one cared about the name, and at least it was easy to translate into alien languages, since all the sparefaring peoples we encountered had a similar concept.
So, in no time, it became a hub for commerce. In times of war, it made an excellent staging ground, being a mere two jumps from Earth. Staging military ops from our home system always seemed like a bad idea--it would motivate our enemies to find an FV path to Earth. Not something most of them cared about, generally, with Earth being a bit off the beaten path: no strategic FVs leading to other interesting star systems were found in the Sol system. Terran Intelligence thought of this as a blessing, but our more businessy folk considered it a competitive disadvantage. But, hey, that's why most of them set up shop on the Dock Plat.
The station itself was a gigantic, flattened, rotatic disc. From a distance, it didn't look that big, until you realized its thickness represented over two hundred levels. It could house a quarter million people in relatively close quarters for an indefinite period of time, but it usually boasted "only" eighty-thousand permanent residents, and about three times that in weekly traffic.
All that said, the station remained heavily defended at all times. Perhaps the greatest achievement of human engineering in history, never to be left to chance. Both the Compton and the Hammer stood guard here, the latter of which coasted out to greet us upon our arrival.
Both ships were like the Protector: large, moderately armed, able to hold off a fleet of lesser attackers for quite a while. Until we encountered that peculiar alien ship, I believed the only thing that could dispatch a ship like mine easily was an Oolian Cruiser.
Lt. Arnold gave them all the standard, friendly "hellos," and they guided us toward the station. We pulled into one of its massive ship bays, big enough to hold a dozen ships this size, and waited for the Lieutenant's report of "docking completed, sir."
The console on the arm of my chair began to beep at me, signaling an incoming communication. I accepted, and saw the familiar face of Admiral Marianne Degenstein, commander of the Docking Platform.
She sighed before even saying "hi." "I should have guessed you'd be the first one to run into the Koraxians. I'd like to see you in my office as soon as it's convenient."
"The what?" I had never heard that name before.
"I'll explain once you get up here. Don't keep me waiting, Robert." The screen went black. Funny, I didn't remember her having that much gray hair the last time we talked.
I gave some more thought to the Admiral on my way up to her office--there were, after all, various elevators, escalators, and conveyors involved. Having left my ship in the hands of station engineers for service and repair, I knew I had a least a few hours before they'd give the all-clear and let us be on our way. Standard procedure after any combat encounter: report to a base for inspection and repairs, even if no damage is known to have been inflicted.
So, back to the Admiral. I married her, once, back in 2089. We'd just beaten the Cranions after six years of war, and there was a huge celebration on Dock Plat. She commanded the station at that time, too, and the two of us--drunk off our asses, mind you--stumbled into the Salmaxian Temple of Finance, hands all over each other, and I'm not even sure the poor alien priest understood anything we said, but he put one and one together and decided we were trying to get married. And, just like that, we had a valid marriage. Thanks to interlocking treaties with the Salmaxians, it was recognized by the Terran Alliance, too.
Needless to say, our superiors were less than pleased, and it took a minor diplomatic incident to get the whole thing straightened out. I think, as punishment, they would never promote the Admiral beyond this post. Since she was my superior, and I had just basically won a war, I got off lightly.
All this floated around in my mind as I stood there in her office. I wondered if she still blamed me for everything. I mean, I can't help being this attractive. It seemed a little unfair.
I kept my hands clasped behind my back, maybe one of those nervous habits picked up as a side effect of military training. "You look uncomfortable," she said flatly, only glancing up from her desktop display.
"Eh, a little."
She stopped what she was doing and looked up at me. She took a familiar tone, in an attempt to make me more comfortable, I suppose. "How have you been, Robert?"
"Not bad. Not much to complain about, other than being shot at unprovoked."
She nodded. "What's beyond the Non-Aligned Region has not been common knowledge at any level below the Admiralty. The Oolians didn't want word to get around, and they convinced the Salmaxians and others to keep it under wraps. But now, the gauntlet has been thrown down. The Koraxians have attacked."
"To be fair, all they did was take a potshot at one ship. Are we really that concerned about it? We're not thinking of going to war again, are we?"
"So, no one's told you yet? A few hours ago--about the same time you were attacked, I gather--a small Koraxian fleet appeared in the Borderline sector. They wiped out our listening post there. There have been other, unconfirmed reports of encounters with unknown ships, as well. We have lost contact with the Lavinia, which was patrolling Rigor Vulcanis. We do not believe these are isolated incidents. We have conferred with the Oolians and agree that this is a prelude to a full invasion."
"But... why us? Why now? If their ships are all as powerful as the one I saw, we don't really pose a threat to them. Do we have something they want?"
"We've been trying to get a straight answer from the Oolians on that. They claim not to know what the Koraxians want with us, but we think they're stalling. They have agreed to commit a few token Cruisers to try to scare the Koraxians off, but we have no guarantees that will work, either. The Oolians have assured us diplomacy is useless, but we are sending an envoy anyway. Things are moving very quickly and I have been given authority to reassign vessels from the 3rd Fleet to defensive maneuvers."
"And, of course, the Protector is part of the 3rd."
"Yes. I want you guarding Earth. I remember what you did during the Cranion War. This is no time for reckless heroics, Robert. We need to be very, very careful here. The Cranions were an inferior enemy. The Koraxians, by all our measures, are not. We want to avoid a full-scale war with them at all costs."
I frowned. "I don't like being kept away from the action."
"There won't be any 'action' if we can help it."
"No offense, Mary, but they've attacked us. They've declared war. All this--envoys, defensive maneuvers, shows of force--it's just wasting time."
"You're an expert on Koraxian psychology now?"
"No, but I do know war, and nobody attacks first and then asks to talk. If they thought negotiation would get them what they want, they wouldn't have opened with attacks."
She sighed, lowering her voice. "Be that as it may, it is out of my hands. After everything we've been through, no one wants to fight another war. They will do anything possible to avoid it. President Cuerva has made her mandate very clear: if there is any alternative to war with the Koraxians, we will pursue it. The Oolians have backed this policy. If war cannot be avoided, all known space will be engulfed in multilateral conflict. Once the Oolians and Koraxians start taking swings at each other, they will not care who is standing between them."
I crossed my arms, admittedly being a little defiant. "And so, instead of preparing, we are just going to pretend this isn't happening."
"You have your orders, Captain."
"And I will carry them out, like always. But when things start to get out of control, I am not going to sit around and wait for the Koraxians to reach Earth."
"If things get ugly, you have my assurances that you will be on the front lines."
I smiled. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
She went back to her desk display. "Good day, then, Captain."
"You, too," I murmured on the way out of her office. I knew the official orders would be on my console aboard the Protector. The crew would be filled in on the nature of our new mission, but also forbidden from discussing it with their families, be they on Earth or a colony. The last thing we needed was widespread panic, or worse--the media picking up on it, and sparking mass hysteria.
I wondered if Mary was right, that we could avoid war. She didn't really seem to believe it, herself.
I've always thought, too, how much all that early stalling cost us. Would things have turned out differently, had we simply gone straight to war and met the Koraxians with the full force of our power? Would my role have played out the same way?
I gave fleeting consideration, many times, to revising the scenario. In the end, I just felt I could do more good elsewhere, elsewhen.
Chapter 2
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Hahaha I like it! Especially
Yeah, he's not the kind of
Excellent.
In the second paragraph, why is docking platform itallicized (or however you spell it...) ?
In paragraph three, The sparefaring peoples....did you mean spacefaring?
This is going to be a good story.
I'm glad I get to read it....
The name is italicized
The other thing is a typo. Thanks for pointing it out!
I am enjoying the stories I
What's perverse about DP?
"DP" is short for "double
Oh, hah,
The legend went that the
So, (The 'so' doesn't sound quite right. It kind of implies that what follows is a result of what you were just talking about, but I doubt the stations name had anything to do with it becoming a commerce hub.)in no time, it became a hub for commerce. In times of war, it made an excellent staging ground, being a mere two jumps from Earth. Staging military ops from our home system always seemed like a bad idea--it would motivate our enemies to find an FV path to Earth. Not something most of them cared about, generally, with Earth being a bit off the beaten path: no strategic FVs leading to other interesting star systems were found in the Sol system. Terran Intelligence thought of this as a blessing, but our more businessy folk considered it a competitive disadvantage. But, hey, that's why most of them set up shop on the Dock Plat.
The station itself was a gigantic, flattened, rotatic(Do you mean rotating?)
All that said, the station remained heavily defended at all times. Perhaps the greatest achievement of human engineering in history, never to be left to chance. Both the Compton and the Hammer stood guard here, the latter of which coasted out to greet us upon our arrival.
Both ships were like the Protector: large, moderately armed, able to hold off a fleet of lesser attackers for quite a while. Until we encountered that peculiar alien ship, I believed the only thing that could dispatch a ship like mine easily was an Oolian Cruiser.
Lt. Arnold gave them all the standard, friendly "hellos" ('hellos' seems a little awkward. I'd suggest using 'greetings' instead.)and they guided us toward the station. We pulled into one of its massive ship bays, big enough to hold a dozen ships this size, and waited for the Lieutenant's report of "docking completed, sir."
The console on the arm of my chair began to beep at me, signaling an incoming communication. I accepted, and saw the familiar face of Admiral Marianne Degenstein, commander of the Docking Platform.
She sighed before even saying "hi." (The quotes around 'hi' are kind of unecessary.)
"I should have guessed you'd be the first one to run into the Koraxians. I'd like to see you in my office as soon as it's convenient."
"The what?" I had never heard that name before.
"I'll explain once you get up here. Don't keep me waiting, Robert." The screen went black. Funny, I didn't remember her having that much gray hair the last time we talked.
I gave some more thought to the Admiral on my way up to her office--there were, after all, various elevators, escalators, and conveyors involved. Having left my ship in the hands of station engineers for service and repair, I knew I had a least a few hours before they'd give the all-clear and let us be on our way. Standard procedure after any combat encounter: report to a base for inspection and repairs, even if no damage is known to have been inflicted.
So, back to the Admiral. I married her, once, back in 2089. We'd just beaten the Cranions after six years of war, and there was a huge celebration on Dock Plat. She commanded the station at that time, too, and the two of us--drunk off our asses, mind you--stumbled into the Salmaxian Temple of Finance, hands all over each other, and I'm not even sure the poor alien priest understood anything we said, but he put one and one together and decided we were trying to get married. And, just like that, we had a valid marriage. Thanks to interlocking treaties with the Salmaxians, it was recognized by the Terran Alliance, too.
Needless to say, our superiors were less than pleased, and it took a minor diplomatic incident to get the whole thing straightened out. I think, as punishment, they would never promote the Admiral beyond this post. Since she was my superior, and I had just basically won a war, I got off lightly.
All this floated around in my mind as I stood there in her office. I wondered if she still blamed me for everything. I mean, I can't help being this attractive. It seemed a little unfair.
I kept my hands clasped behind my back, maybe one of those nervous habits picked up as a side effect of military training. "You look uncomfortable," she said flatly, only glancing up from her desktop display.
"Eh, a little."
She stopped what she was doing and looked up at me. She took a familiar tone, in an attempt to make me more comfortable, I suppose. "How have you been, Robert?"
"Not bad. Not much to complain about, other than being shot at unprovoked."
She nodded. "What's beyond the Non-Aligned Region has not been common knowledge at any level below the Admiralty. The Oolians didn't want word to get around, and they convinced the Salmaxians and others to keep it under wraps. But now, the gauntlet has been thrown down. The Koraxians have attacked."
"To be fair, all they did was take a potshot at one ship. Are we really that concerned about it? We're not thinking of going to war again, are we?"
"So, no one's told you yet? A few hours ago--about the same time you were attacked, I gather--a small Koraxian fleet appeared in the Borderline sector. They wiped out our listening post there. There have been other, unconfirmed reports of encounters with unknown ships, as well. We have lost contact with the Lavinia, which was patrolling Rigor Vulcanis. We do not believe these are isolated incidents. We have conferred with the Oolians and agree that this is a prelude to a full invasion."
"But... why us? Why now? If their ships are all as powerful as the one I saw, we don't really pose a threat to them. Do we have something they want?"
(I'd suggest breaking up the dialogue with a brief mention of how she seemed to be reacting, her expression, something like that. No biggie, though.)
"We've been trying to get a straight answer from the Oolians on that. They claim not to know what the Koraxians want with us, but we think they're stalling. They have agreed to commit a few token Cruisers to try to scare the Koraxians off, but we have no guarantees that will work, either. The Oolians have assured us diplomacy is useless, but we are sending an envoy anyway. Things are moving very quickly and I have been given authority to reassign vessels from the 3rd Fleet to defensive maneuvers."
"And, of course, the Protector is part of the 3rd."
"Yes. I want you guarding Earth. I remember what you did during the Cranion War. This is no time for reckless heroics, Robert. We need to be very, very careful here. The Cranions were an inferior enemy. The Koraxians, by all our measures, are not. We want to avoid a full-scale war with them at all costs."
I frowned. "I don't like being kept away from the action."
"There won't be any 'action' if we can help it."
"No offense, Mary, but they've attacked us. They've declared war. All this--envoys, defensive maneuvers, shows of force--it's just wasting time."
"You're an expert on Koraxian psychology now?"
"No, but I do know war, and nobody attacks first and then asks to talk. If they thought negotiation would get them what they want, they wouldn't have opened with attacks."
She sighed, lowering her voice. "Be that as it may, it is out of my hands. After everything we've been through, no one wants to fight another war. They ('They' who?) will do anything possible to avoid it. President Cuerva has made her mandate very clear: if there is any alternative to war with the Koraxians, we will pursue it. The Oolians have backed this policy. If war cannot be avoided, all known space will be engulfed in multilateral conflict. Once the Oolians and Koraxians start taking swings at each other, they will not care who is standing between them."
I crossed my arms, admittedly being a little defiant. "And so, instead of preparing, we are just going to pretend this isn't happening."
"You have your orders, Captain."
"And I will carry them out, like always. But when things start to get out of control, I am not going to sit around and wait for the Koraxians to reach Earth."
"If things get ugly, you have my assurances that you will be on the front lines."
I smiled. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
She went back to her desk display. "Good day, then, Captain."
"You, too," I murmured on the way out of her office. I knew the official orders would be on my console aboard the Protector. The crew would be filled in on the nature of our new mission, but also forbidden from discussing it with their families, be they on Earth or a colony. The last thing we needed was widespread panic, or worse--the media picking up on it, and sparking mass hysteria.
I wondered if Mary was right, that we could avoid war. She didn't really seem to believe it, herself.
I've always thought, too, how much all that early stalling cost us. Would things have turned out differently, had we simply gone straight to war and met the Koraxians with the full force of our power? Would my role have played out the same way?
I gave fleeting consideration, many times, to revising the scenario. In the end, I just felt I could do more good elsewhere, elsewhen.
On the whole, nice chapter. Excellent portrayal of the relationship between Max and Mary.
Still good.
Good flow, nice continuity. Laying the groundwork for upcoming events, deepening the development of the protagonist. Some minor stuff to be ironed out which I am sure you’ll catch ...
But I need to point this out :
I have noticed in several places you us *So* an intruding word... when you edit this I suggest removing all if not most of them.
j.
I'm going to write a program
Did I mention I often write programs to help take some of the grunt work out of it?
I envision that someday a writer will be armed with a bunch of technological tools to improve their writing, but like any tool, it is only as effective as the person wielding it.
Okay, one more, then I have
Okay, one more, then I have to go take a shower and will have taken enough time away and my mind off it long enough to venture back into my own hard-worked synopsis and try to perfect it. (Haha! As if!)
Okay, firstly, as a continuation from the previous chapter, I don't think the first paragraph here is necessary, it reiterates what we already know.
Haha, I also got a little confused there as I read Vega as Vegas. That's just me though.
Sparefaring people, I'm sure should be spacefaring people. Yeah, it might have been pointed out already, I don't know. I always avoid reading other people's comments, in case it influences my own, so perhaps I'll repeat what has already been said here.
She sighed before even saying "hi." "I should have guessed you'd be the first one to run into the Koraxians. I'd like to see you in my office as soon as it's convenient."
Definitely lose that "hi" here. Just restate it as something like 'She sighed before even greeting me'.
So, back to the Admiral. I married her, once, back in 2089.
I find this a strange statement. You don't have to say 'once', unless he married more than once. And that 'so, back to the admiral' sounds trés awkward. It feels disjointed and jumpy.
I can't put my finger on it, but this doesn't feel as polished as other chapters. Perhaps it's because this one is very speech-heavy, perhaps it's because I'm tired, but it doesn't flow so smoothly. I'm not sure what advice to give to improve the flow, and after all, it may just be me being overly critical.
Good work again.
I'm not quite sure how to add