Sholan Alliance - AU Bk. 03 Ch. 02

The following morning Amanda and Ike walked to the Barque and were admitted. This was the first time Amanda had been on it and was fascinated by it as well as all the Sholan's. They really intrigued her because of the varied fur coloring. Also as much as she hated to admit it she loved cats and they had several. It was all she could do not to hunt one down just to pet and see if they reacted like a cat to the petting.

Ike glanced down at his wife and couldn't help but grin at her. He knew that look and knew she was working hard to keep from doing anything silly. "Maybe later you can pet one of them." He whispered that in her ear only to get an elbow in the ribs. He laughed quietly at her as he showed her to Ceolura's offices.

When they walked in her assistant looked up and smiled. When he noticed Amanda he stood and came around the desk and gave her a light hug. "I am so pleased to finally get to meet you Lady Amanda. The Ambassador has said some very nice things about you and welcome aboard. If your life mate is going to be in meetings all day I would be more than happy to give you a good tour."

She was slightly startled with the hug but went with it and had to smile. "I am definitely getting used to the hugs. Your fur is so soft and nice. When Ceolura comes over she and Ike tend to sit on either side of me and it feels so nice." She looked up at Ike and leaned against him.

He grinned at her. "I can tell that and I am glad that you like Ceolura. She is a great person and it has been my pleasure working with her. Now she did mention a meeting she wanted you to go to with the other females. I am going to leave you here and when done they will contact me." He gave her a kiss before leaving her there.

Right after he left Ceolura came out and smiled at her. "Good morning Amanda and you look very nice and that is a wonderful dress. The meeting is going to be in one of the conference rooms so if you come with me I will take you there." She looked at her assistant. "Please ensure the drinks and snacks are there and have the ladies escorted over in five minutes." Once he nodded she offered Amanda her arm and headed towards the room they were going to be using.

Amanda was looking around and was quietly asking questions about the ship. It was obvious she was quite interested in the ship and everything aboard it. "I would love to go and see the mother ship one of these days. I have seen it on the news and some of the footage Ike has shown me but I still have problems believing it is that large." When they walked into the room she carefully settled down in one of the chairs and had to rub her hip.

Ceolura gave her a concerned look. "If your hip was bothering you I could have rescheduled or sent a vehicle for you. Is there anything I can do for you?" She looked and sounded concerned when she came over and settled down next to her on the couch. "Our doctor is going to be coming in with the ladies and if there is anything she can do for you ask."

Amanda narrowed her eyes slightly when she mentioned the doctor. "I will be fine and if needed I have some pain medications I can take." She really didn't want a fuss made over her.

Ceolura shook her head. "I did not invite you over here just to trick you into seeing the doctor. She is here to give a medical opinion on the ladies request. I invited you over to get your opinion and nothing else. I told you that it is your choice if you want our doctor to look at you and I meant that." She turned as her assistant came in and showed one of the crew where to put the drinks and snacks. "Can I get you something to drink?"

Amanda sighed. "Sorry but I am just so tired of everyone other than Ike trying to get me to see this doctor or that one. As I said last night as far as earth goes there isn't anything they can do for me. I am considering your offer but I need to think about it." When the two Sholan's came in she quit talking about it and then nodded. "Ike finds the cshar bland but I find it easy on my stomach so a cup of that would be appreciated."

Shortly both had something to drink and a few moments later the four remaining ladies came in. Ceolura had moved over to the table and was sitting there waiting. "Good morning ladies and you have all met Amanda. She is here at my request for opinions on what you are requesting. Amanda this is Dr. Desjean who has been taking care of the ladies. Please get something to eat and drink if you want and then we will get started.

Once everyone had what they wanted Ceolura pulled out some documents. "I have the request you sent to me and I have reviewed it. My question for the four of you is why are you requesting to move to Shola?"

Bitty straightened slightly. "The others have asked for me to speak for them. One reason is human males scare the crap out of us. We all know that is simply a reaction to what happened to us but it isn't something we can get over in a day. We have been keeping in contact with Crystal and she has had very good things to say about her treatment. Just reading her letters and seeing her video's we can see that she is doing better than we are. Also we know that Billy will keep an eye on us and take care of us. Speaking for both myself and the others we want to go to Shola at least for the treatment that Crystal has talked about."

She looked down at her hands which were clenched together on the top of the table. "Speaking for myself I am tired of being scared all the time when human males are nearby. I want to be able to get back to my life. Dr. Desjean has been a great doctor but she has told us that she can only give us some basic therapy for our issues. It isn't her field of specialty and in her medical opinion our best bet is to go to Shola."

Amanda sat there and listened to what they were saying and found it hard to blame them for their fears. Heaven knew she had enough of her own thanks to that accident and that was years ago. Was that why Ceolura had asked her to come with? To listen to the women and give her opinion on what should be done for and with them? For now she was simply going to listen to what was being said.

Ceolura nodded at the important points that Bitty was making. "Thank you for that brief overview of why you want to go to Shola. Now Dr. Desjean what is your opinion?" She turned her attention to the doctor and waited.

~~~

The battle fleet all appeared at the designated rendezvous point and immediately went into stealth mode. Several of the scout ships were sent in-system to verify any and all changes to the system status. That took somewhat over a day for them to go in and get back out. When they returned to the command ship all reported what they had found.

As of now there had been a few changes of ships but the combatants were still the same, or in the same class. From what they had picked up there weren't more than ten or twelve combatants and two fighter carriers. The rest of the ships all seemed to be transports and support ships. As far as the base it appeared to be in the asteroid field and not planet based. That could be both good and bad.

The General finally issued orders after discussing the status of the system. The two carriers he had were going to be coming in-system from both above and below the ecliptic with several escort craft for protection. All the fighter craft were to be launched including what was on the command ship and focused on any ships trying to escape. The main force was going to be heading straight for the base. Since there wasn't anything large enough to do major damage to any of his capitol ships he was settling for a killing blow.

He stood up. "Everyone to battle stations and prepare to launch on my mark." He strolled out of the conference room and to the bridge. Once he had taken his chair he glanced at the chronometer. "Send my mark in five minutes."

~~~

The station commander damn near shit a brick when the alert went up. As he rolled out of bed he kicked the slave out as well and told her to get to the slave section. If she didn't her collar would alert and she would be nailed with a tazer quality charge and it would keep getting worse. She didn't even hesitate other than to grab what was loosely called clothing before hurrying out.

He was jerking on his ship suit while he was checking the repeaters in his room. When he did that he paled since it looked like they had been discovered and the ships coming in-system were heavy combatants. As he was finishing the connections for the suit he had to frown since none of the ships had been classified by type. They were symbols next to the ship symbols that indicated they didn't match anything in the database. "What the fuck and how could they have gotten new classes of ships built without us being informed."

The system commander didn't know where the information came from but any time there were changes to the fleet they were informed. The information had to be from high up since it was rarely wrong. That wasn't even mentioning it covered the three major polities as well. This was not good and once all the connections had been made he grabbed his helmet and ran to the bridge.

As he entered he called out. "What are we looking at and what is the status of evacuation?" Their orders were first and foremost to destroy any data and to run depending on the size of the attacking force. While he was waiting for the status update he settled into his chair and secured the helmet.

"Sir we are only about twenty percent done. The combatants just came in-system a short time ago and we just now were able to get decent reads on them. The ships are not in any of our databases. In addition their power ratings do not match anything, civilian or military, on record. They are showing higher overall power settings than on record and their mass is larger as well. As far as we can tell these appear to be alien vessels based on all the data processed." He was sweating bullets as he was trying to refine the data with his outdated sensors.

The commander froze and stared at him. "Excuse me? Aliens? Are you talking as in the Sholan's? We have been given what date we have on their ships we, human's, have encountered. Same goes for that human ship with strange readings." If the idiot tried to tell him that they weren't Sholan's he was going to consider shooting him.

"No sir, none of the readings I have acquired so far match any readings at all. The ship configurations are not matching up with anything. It is possible it might be Sholan's helping the authorities but I don't have any way of telling." He knew that if the commander got pissed off he tended to shoot first and ask later and he really didn't have the urge to get shot. "As far as I can tell these ships do not belong to human's or Sholan's."

The commander frowned as he moved down to the large display and checked the details. This was significantly larger than the one he had in his room so there was far more detail. As he was looking at the repeater he had to agree that the information displayed definitely wasn't anything he had seen before. "Expedite the evacuation of the critical staff. Send two of the Light Cruisers forward to get a more detailed scan and have the data constantly updated on the evac ship."

As he was talking there was a strobe around one of the symbols for one of his ships indicating it was being attacked. "What the fuck is that? How are they being attacked?" There hadn't been anything showing on the boards before the attack though now there were some ghost signals that came and went.

~~~

The captain aboard the Light Cruiser that was being attacked had been a fleet officer till courts martialed. He had been charged and convicted of abusing his rank by encouraging junior females to service him. Once he had been drummed out the Organization had picked him up and given him pretty much all the tail he could want.

When the attack started they had just finished buttoning up the ship and the crew was in their assigned stations. The first hit had definitely let them know someone was out there. It didn't penetrate the shields but it was a reasonably powerful strike. "Captain that appeared to be a L3 ion beam or the equivalent. The ship it came from appears to be in some sort of stealth mode. Orders sir?"

"Fire a nuke missle back along the beam path. See if we can paint the ship with radiation. It might help us track it." As he was talking several more beams hit the shields and they took it but the damage was starting to mount up.

"Firing solution generated and firing." The ship bucked as the missile flashed out. When it reached the predetermined location it ignited and came to life in a flare of radiation. For a brief moment the ship was detected and a follow up strike launched. "Sir that partially worked but they are only absorbing a fraction of the radiation. I sent a follow up strike which appeared to do some damage but the ship is still moving."

"Crap!!" This time when the beam hit the shield it impacted buckled and the beam penetrated. The ship bucked as armored plating shattered under the force. "Sir, that took out one of the forward sensors. Down twenty percent on scanning ability."

At this point he didn't have much expectation of surviving the fight so he might as well go out kicking and screaming. "Weapons free on any target identified. Set course Delta 3 to cover damaged shields. Contact Damage control and see what the status of the breach and..." That was the last thing he said as several capitol class missiles impacted. The bomb pumped x-ray lasers cut through the armor plating as if it didn't exist.

~~~

When the strobing stopped and the icon for the ship vanished he knew that ship was done for. "Status of incoming forces." He bellowed as he went back to his chair. Once seated he started calling up commands and subroutines on his console. Since he was the only one with the authority to set the timer for the demolition bomb he entered his code and set it for thirty minutes on a silent countdown. It was enough time for him to get aboard his ship and get far enough away not to be damaged by the blast.

"Moving command to secondary conn. I will establish communications upon arrival. In thirty minutes head towards your assigned evacuation pods." He couldn't have them freaking out by telling them they had no escape possible. It was better to give them hope so they would keep doing their jobs. After grabbing his helmet he calmly left the bridge and hurried to his ship.

The staff on the bridge looked at each other and then the repeater. "Give him five minutes and then we will leave. If he senses that we might jump ship that just means he will blow the station sooner." They all traded looks again and started setting all the controls on automatic. Everyone knew that there wasn't going to be any loyalty except amongst the individual ships crews. In their case the XO they trusted to an extent so they would follow him till he betrayed them.

~~~

The enemy had been heading in-system for the last half hour and the various combatants were encircling the ships they had detected. The fighter craft were heading in-system in their formations. As of now three of the foreign combatants had been destroyed in trade for a handful of fighters. So far the combat was going as smoothly as he had expected.

The General was still calling out orders as needed to 'ensure' the battle went as he wanted. When the logs made it back to the Emperor he would see the General had been in charge the entire time. That would look good for him and bad for others. When he came back covered in glory there were several senior officers he was going to have removed.

"Status update General, the enemy is starting to fall back towards the asteroid belt. They appear to be forming up on one of the asteroids that has a high energy signature." The male was not going to speculate on what they were doing or why. That was a damn good way to get handed to the priests and once was more than enough for him.

The General looked at the massive repeater and typed in some commands. An estimate of arrival time was shown. The ships were slower than any of his but not by that much. If they really ran for it they might be able to out run his fighters. "Tell all ships to increase speed by .002 light and to tighten up on the light combatants. Send the fighters after the support ships and troop ships. Tell them to save some of the ships and the aliens. We need to find out if these are the enemy or someone new to conquer."

The comm. officer punched the orders in and sent them along with a follow up verbal set of orders. It would take some time to reach the other ships but not nearly as much time as the enemy needed. "Orders sent General, awaiting receipt confirmation."

~~~

The commander had made it to his ship and slowly moved away from the base. He ensured the ship was not heading in any direction that contained any of the base components. Once the ship was away he had them power down to the minimum power possible to reduce his signature. The asteroid he was aiming for was heavy with radioisotopes and should hide his ships signature without problem.

Once they were away from the base he adjusted the destruction orders. If any of the heavy combatants came within range of the base the bomb would detonate. He rather hoped they would be close enough since it was a new type of bomb and the implosion should do extensive damage. It would also take out the computer core as well as the entire base and slave cages. He had to admit he was going to miss that sweet little squeeze he had in his bed earlier but there were always more.

Ships were starting to shoot out in all directions from the base. Most of them were smaller vessels that were used for transporting cargo and small loads of slaves to other locations. As of now he was pretty sure that most of them were packed to the gills with the pirates. For half a moment he contemplated activating the bombs implanted in the ships but the information they had needed to get out. The best way to ensure that was to allow as many ships as possible to escape.

~~~

On the edge of the system an expected transport had arrived and the moment the battle was picked up the captain ordered the ship to get out system. Since at the moment he didn't have anything illegal onboard he decided to head straight to earth. He should be able to come in as a tramp freighter inbound to pick up a load. While there he would send a message that the base was no more.

As they were turning the ship in a direction they could use to escape the system his comm. was picking up the omnidirectional broadcast. It was the ongoing data from the system scanners and he was receiving every bit of it he could. As they were heading back towards the jump point selected his sensors picked up several ships headed in his direction. "Get us the fuck out of here. All power to the drives and if needed take the safeties off."

The ship surged forward and the moment the hyper drives were ready they jumped.

~~~

The message about the ship that had come in-system and then jumped reached the command ship to late to do anything about it. "General we have received a report from one of our light combatants that a ship dropped out of hyper and jumped again. Several fighters tried to intercept but weren't close enough."

The General snarled. "Tell the egg licking captain he had better catch that ship or he is going to be given to the priests for the rest of his life." If that ship escaped it could cause all kinds of problems. It would let the enemy know that they were out there. If that happened the Emperor wouldn't be happy and the General might get handed over to the priests. If that happened all of his plans went out the window.

"Orders are on their way General. It appears the ship is already heading to the jump point the enemy ship used." If they jumped from anywhere else it would be much harder to chase and intercept the enemy ship.