Carrearranis (Fourth Fleet Irregulars Book 5)

  Carrearranis

  S J MacDonald

  Copyright © 2017 S J MacDonald

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13: 978-1545130896

  ISBN-10: 1545130892

  DEDICATION

  For Brent Busby, the kindest of neighbours and a true gentleman.

  One

  ‘Alex!’ The president of Telathor swept through the airlock and embraced the captain. The floaty-sleeved garment she was wearing engulfed him as she flung her arms around him, stooping to plant hearty kisses on each of his cheeks. ‘You hero!’

  Alex looked up at her and cracked into a grin. Even his cold demeanour in formal situations was not proof against Joy Arthas.

  ‘Ma’am,’ he greeted her, attempting to retain at least some fragment of dignity. He was acutely aware that every pair of eyes on the ship was focused on him right now, and was aware, too, of the rising surge of giggles.

  President Arthas laughed too.

  ‘Brilliant, Alex!’ She told him. ‘Just brilliant.’

  She had some cause for her excitement. The Fourth had just navigated through space no other human ships had ever penetrated. There, they had discovered a lost colony under the protection of an ancient alien vessel. It was Joy Arthas who had fought to have the Fourth assigned to that exploration, beating many other demands for their time. The Fourth Fleet Irregulars was, after all, a very expensive resource and there was huge demand for them to undertake law enforcement and exodiplomacy missions. Often, they were expected to do both at the same time. Even here, they were juggling the exploration mission along with handling a challenging exodiplomacy visit from the quarian ambassador. They were also actively engaged in high powered research and development carried out by the Second Irregulars team they had aboard.

  And they were also, now, hosting a visit from a system president, which would in itself be considered a major undertaking on most warships.

  On the Heron, though, they took that kind of thing in their stride. They had been expecting ships to arrive from Telathor by about now, as their corvette Minnow had raced off to give them the news that the Fourth had found an inhabited world. They had been expecting to see their corvette returning, hopefully with a supply ship or two as they were by then living on emergency rations and whatever the biovat could produce.

  Instead, they had seen a convoy of eight ships following the Minnow, chief amongst them the official transport of the Telethoran president with the emblem on the hull lit up to announce her presence aboard. There had only just been time for them to sparkle the frigate ready to receive VIPs and to dig out what little they had left to offer in the way of refreshments.

  The Fourth had been on this mission for nearly four months now. The only other ships they’d seen were the Exploration Corps vessel and the superyacht Stepeasy which were effectively part of their own squadron, and the League Intelligence Agency ship the Comrade Foretold, which had stalked them through the mission and then raced off in a fury. The Comrade Foretold was in fact one of the ships in the returning convoy. If ever a starship could look haughty and indignant, that one was. There was also a Fleet destroyer, another Excorps ship, three bulky supply ships and a Diplomatic Corps vessel in addition to their own corvette. It felt a little overwhelming. And President Arthas, embodying the enthusiastic hospitality of her people, was overwhelming just by herself.

  Behind her, though, more VIPs were crowding through the airlock with huge smiles and outstretched hands. Finding Alex monopolised by the president, they were shaking hands with and embracing anyone they could reach. Even the two ratings providing an honour guard at the airlock were greeted effusively and reduced to sheepish grins by the hand-pumping, arm-slapping, hugging and kissing from the surging visitors. All the officers present were physically grabbed by people eager to congratulate and question them. Within moments, the airlock area was crammed full of over-excited people.

  Commander Buzz Burroughs restored order with his gentle touch. He was himself being hugged and shoulder pounded by Port Admiral Froggy Croker for a few moments, but very soon got the visitors to understand that they were to move on to the command deck. A smile here, a subtle shepherding movement there, and he soon had the gaggle of visitors moving through to the command deck as if they’d decided to go there themselves.

  Buzz had made plans, since as Executive Officer he was responsible for shipboard hospitality. Amongst other things, anticipating that the visitors would be in a state of high excitement, Buzz had ensured that Silvie was kept away from them until they’d been calmed down a little.

  ‘Is Silvie all right?’ Joy Arthas was looking around expectantly as Alex led her onto the command deck. She spoke with some proprietorial concern. Telathor had achieved what many in diplomatic circles had considered impossible, hosting a visit from the quarian ambassador which had been declared a triumph. True, there had been a few blips along the way, some minor injuries and a handful of resignations, but nothing like the system-wide pandemonium her brief visit to Chartsey had generated.

  ‘Fine,’ Alex assured her, with another smile as he thought about Silvie. ‘She’ll join us a little later,’ he explained, and gestured at the still very noisy crowd, now filling up the command deck as a second shuttle disgorged another wave of eager visitors. ‘Not a good idea to bring her into this.’

  Joy glanced around, realised what the result would be of bringing the highly empathic quarian into such an environment, and laughed. Silvie not only picked up emotion from those around her, but reflected it back to them in a way that could spiral into an emotive frenzy. A pang of distress had once left her and everyone around her engulfed in heartbroken sobs.

  ‘Best not,’ she agreed, and turned her attention back to Alex himself. There, too, her manner was somewhat proprietary. She had assumed an aunt-like care of him during the Fourth’s visit to Telathor, particularly after the assassination attempt which had left him bruised and shaken. She had also the distinction of having found a way to get him through media calls without his infamous freezing into a formality which was chillingly inhuman at best and, at worst, apparently psychotic. ‘And you?’ she asked, with a searching look at him.

  Alex gave her a frank grin. The atmosphere was so very informal that even he didn’t feel the need to stand on ceremony. The grin made him look boyish, a gleam of mischief in his grey eyes and a burst of happy energy radiating from him.

  ‘Having the time of my life!’ he told her, and Joy laughed. This, she believed, was the real secret of the Fourth’s success. Other commanders, faced with near impossible missions and all the responsibility of attempting to figure out how to achieve them, might dig deep with grim determination. Alex von Strada, however, thought it was fun.

  ‘I bet!’ she said, and asked immediately, ‘Have you heard any more from them?’

  Alex shook his head.

  ‘We can’t expect to hear from Carrearranis till next week at the earliest,’ he explained. ‘The nanoweb takes five weeks to transmit signals. We have asked for permission to bring a ship up closer to facilitate communication, and the Second are working on improving transmission speeds, but for now we’re…’

  He broke off as she interrupted him, indicating with a gesture that she already understood the technical situation.

  ‘Even that, astounding!’ she observed. ‘I never thought that direct intersystem comms would be something achieved in my lifetime. And just like that…’ she snapped her fingers, ‘an incredible leap forward in nano technology.’ She gave him another of her keenly searching looks. ‘I won’t ask if you had help with it you can’t talk about, of course…’ Seeing his expression become professionally blan
d and unreadable, she laughed again. ‘Understood! But amazing, Alex, just brilliant. I’d love to meet Professor Parrot and the team.’

  She pronounced his name correctly, as the professor himself was at pains to point out that his name was Par-roh and rhymed with marrow, not carrot.

  ‘They’ll be joining us shortly,’ said Alex, aware that their liaison officer was still in the process of prising them out of the lab and persuading them into some reasonable standard of dress for the presidential reception. Alex himself, like all the officers and crew involved in the visit, was wearing the smart version of Fourth’s uniform known as groundside rig. The grey jacket was modestly adorned with silver captain’s insignia and the Fourth’s emblem was just a small badge pinned to the collar. It didn’t look at all impressive. Alex, though, carried Ambassador’s credentials as well as flag rank and had twice been appointed Presidential Envoy to represent the League in first contact missions. The only reason he hadn’t been appointed Envoy for this particular mission was that nobody, least of all the League President, had wanted to put their names on a mission sending a task force of warships hunting for a space monster. Now that the monster had been identified as a real ship, there would inevitably be a scramble at the highest levels to assert ownership of the mission. In reality, though, it was Joy Arthas herself who had made this happen, and she had every right to be proprietorial about it.

  ‘We’ve arranged drinks on the interdeck,’ Alex told her, and it was also a question, as he looked at her for her reaction. Her smile and slight nod confirmed that she would be happy to go along with those arrangements.

  ‘We’re sending catering over, though,’ she said, and chuckled at the slightly wary look which betrayed how he felt about that. It was a matter of pride for him to be able to offer hospitality to his guests, and a matter of principle that he would not tuck in to five star catering while his crew was on emergency rations. ‘Enough for everyone!’ she assured him, with a large gesture indicating that this meant everyone in the squadron, not just aboard the flagship. ‘Allow us, please,’ she asked, and cajoled, ‘A tiny gesture of appreciation, no offence to your catering at all.’

  Alex laughed. He had put on five kilos during the courtesy visit to Telathor and at that had done rather better than most of his crew.

  ‘Tiny?’ he teased, with a glance at a screen which told him that catering supplies were already being brought through the cargo airlock, consisting of several crates and an accompanying team of chefs.

  ‘Tiny!’ Joy insisted, with her finger and thumb slightly apart to reinforce what a very little thing it was. ‘You just wait till you get back to Telathor,’ she told him, laughing. ‘The parades in your honour will be going on for weeks!’

  Alex actually flinched, wincing at the images this conjured up. Then professional concern overtook personal dismay as the implications of this sank in.

  ‘But…’ he said. ‘You won’t…’

  ‘Already have,’ said Joy, with immense satisfaction. ‘Executive decision,’ she pointed out, as he stared at her in alarm. ‘My call.’

  She was right, of course. As system president, she had the right and the responsibility to decide whether to announce the discovery of an inhabited world – a decision founded largely on an analysis both of how dangerous that world might be to the League in reality and on how the people of the League might react to it. The news, after all, would not be confined to Telathor but would be carried world to world as fast as news couriers could take it. And while the people of Telathor would undoubtedly rejoice at the discovery, other worlds might be thrown into devastating panics. It was, therefore, a decision which Alex himself would always make on the side of caution.

  ‘Partial disclosure, of course,’ Joy assured him, seeing his anxiety. ‘We haven’t said anything about the ship – just that you found an inhabited world at Aseltor, pre-industrial, human, and that a quarantine cordon has been placed around it until such time as decisions are made about how to proceed.’

  Alex gave her a dubious look. ‘We don’t know yet that they are human,’ he observed. ‘And they’re not really pre-industrial, either.’

  ‘I know that,’ she said. ‘But it’s a narrative the public can understand and not be terrified by even on the most paranoid worlds, and it’s close enough to the truth for now.’

  Alex accepted that. It wasn’t as if he had a choice in the matter, after all. As it sank in, though, that President Arthas had actually announced that the Fourth had made this discovery, a look of horror was creeping onto his face.

  ‘But… you announced that we…’

  ‘Well, yes, of course,’ Joy confirmed. ‘Nobody would ever believe, would they, that Excorps had made this discovery and that the Fourth’s presence in the sector was just a coincidence? Come on, Alex, nobody is that dumb. Besides, you deserve the credit – perhaps this might even go some way to show people what heroes the Fourth really are.’

  Alex started to speak, then gave up. Time would tell whether she was right or whether it would, as he expected, end up with them being even more vilified than they were already. Telathor was almost unique amongst League worlds in that their media had accepted from the outset the Fleet’s explanation as to the true state of affairs with the Fourth. Almost everywhere else, they were portrayed either as a brutal black ops unit using prisoners as expendable in dirty operations, or as wild louts giving prisoners a five star champagne lifestyle and letting them run riot. Everywhere they went, both right and left wing organisations demonstrated against them furiously, for their very different reasons. Even animal rights activists had got in on the act since rumours had spread that the Fourth experimented on animals aboard their ships. As Alex and the Fleet had learned the hard way, attempting to convince such people that they were mistaken was not only pointless but counter-productive, as the harder you tried to tell them the truth the more convinced they became that you were trying to cover it up. As Alex had also learned, though, there was no point worrying about any of that. All he could do here and now, as always, was focus on the task in front of him.

  ‘Sounds like you’ve a lot more to tell us than we have to tell you,’ he commented.

  A great deal more, as it turned out – Admiral Froggy Croker was already hovering at the president’s elbow, clearly impatient to speak to Alex himself. The moment her smile gave him permission to join the conversation he plunged straight in with a hearty handshake and huge grin.

  ‘Well done, Alex, well done!’ he exclaimed, beaming with vicarious pride. He too would share in some of the glory, after all, as the port admiral who’d supported the Fourth on their operations. ‘Excellent! Just excellent!’ And then, before Alex could even begin to speak, he hurried on, ‘Need to tell you that I’ve borrowed Harry Alington – needed him as port captain, you know – so I’ve lent you Milli Walensa.’

  He was trying to speak as if that was a trivial matter, though there were undertones of apprehension and defensiveness in there too, as if he was anticipating a protest from the captain.

  Alex stared at him. They had already had confrontational discussions about Froggy’s wanting to take the corvette skipper from the Minnow and give them an officer from the Telethoran defence squadron instead. At the time, that had been because he was far from impressed with Harry Alington and trying to relieve Alex of an officer he considered to be obstructive and untrustworthy. Alex, however, had stuck firmly by his officer and Froggy had been obliged to back down. The situation was a tricky one, after all – while Froggy had, technically, the authority to remove officers and post replacements to any Fleet ship in port, the Fourth’s irregular status gave Alex far more say in such decisions than usual. As he had observed, Harry Alington had been in training for this mission for months and there was just no way that a replacement, however brilliant, could just step in and take over without delaying their mission.

  For Froggy, therefore, to remove Harry Alington from his command and put in one of his own protégés to replace him was more t
han a little controversial. Alex would have been perfectly within his rights to respond with some equivalent of an indignant, ‘You did what?’

  Instead, he took a moment to think. He knew Froggy well enough to understand that the admiral would not have made such a decision either lightly or to score a point. Something had happened, something which had made it imperative to move Harry out of the Minnow command – something, clearly, which Froggy would not want to discuss in these surroundings. Alex, therefore, inclined his head slightly and gave the admiral a look which conveyed that they would discuss that later. And not too much later, either.

  Froggy looked relieved – at least he’d got past the initial giving of the news without triggering one of Alex’s ferocious fits of Principle. The Fourth had been created as an irregular unit in the first place after Alex had taken exception to what he considered an outrageous injustice, battering down every authority up to and including the First Lord in his determination to get it put right. His loyalty to his officers and crew was legendary, beyond fierce, as it was well known he would go to the wall for any one of them.

  ‘Sir,’ he acknowledged in a noncommittal tone, which was the best Froggy could hope for in the circumstances. Others were already crowding forward, anyway, competing to shake Alex’s hand.

  As congratulations began to turn to questions, Buzz ushered them off towards the interdeck, again, with no more than a murmur and a smile.

  All of the visitors had been aboard the Heron before. The flagship had been obliged to provide extraordinary levels of hospitality while they were at Telathor, as thousands of VIPs and officials had wanted to visit. Since it was impossible to cope with that using the normal protocol for official visitors, they’d offered informal visits instead in which guests could wear shipboard rig, have refreshments on a mess deck and have a go at a variety of experiences including firing a cannon and using a freefall ladder. There was a lot of exclaiming and reminding one another about the fun of those visits as they were escorted down to the section of the ship known as the interdeck.