A King's Ship (Empire Rising Book 2) Read online

  “Someone else?” Maximilian said confused. “You mean you think this might be a first contact situation?” he continued with incredulity.

  “As farfetched as it seems, that’s our best guess at the moment,” Harris answered. “I contacted you to get your permission to put our defenses on high alert and to send out two destroyers to intercept the ship.”

  “Right,” Maximilian said as he paused to gather his thoughts. Suddenly his desire to keep Haven secret and isolated from the rest of the human nations seemed like wishful thinking. If mankind was not alone in space, then everything was about to change.

  “You have my permission to bring our military to full alert. Though don’t send any military ships. I want you to commandeer an unarmed civilian freighter and send out a team to make contact with the ship. If it isn’t human I don’t want to antagonize it.”

  “Yes Sir, I’ll see to it immediately,” Harris responded.

  As the COM channel closed Maximilian stood and called for order from the councilors. When there was silence he spoke, “I’m afraid we are not yet done today. I have just been made aware of another situation that may need our attention.”

  *

  Maximilian was still sitting nervously at his podium several hours later. Every councilor had stayed in their booth; they were all frantically discussing the latest development with their aides and others outside the chamber. Maximilian had been monitoring the Haven newscasts. Already there was panic in many of the main cities and it would soon spread to the outlying towns and villages. He had left the chamber to make a brief appearance on the news but it had produced little effect. The fact was that he didn’t yet have enough information to appease himself, never mind the public.

  Finally his chair alerted him that Admiral Harris was requesting a COM link. “Yes Admiral, what has your team found out?”

  “It’s confirmed, they are aliens,” Harris said. “They call themselves the Vestarians.”

  For a long moment Maximilian was left speechless. First contact? How can this be? he thought. Shaking himself he blurted out the first question that came to his mind, “Your people have been able to speak to them?”

  “Of course they have,” Maximilian corrected himself, already angry that the shock of the situation was affecting his thinking. “How else could you know their name?”

  “That is correct Sir, or at least, they have been able to speak to us and can understand us. I have been getting mixed reports. Some of their technology seems to be more advanced than ours. For instance, their ability to translate our language so quickly. Yet their ship seems to be decades or even centuries behind ours. They don’t appear to have access to valstronium and whatever drive system they are using is much slower than our impulse drives.”

  “What do they want?” Maximilian asked.

  “Technology. They say they have come to our system in the hopes of trading for military technology. Supposedly their planet is under the control of another alien species and they want help overthrowing them and gaining their freedom.”

  “Supposedly?” Maximilian said.

  “Well Sir, if you wanted to trade military technology with someone wouldn’t you make up some kind of sob story to gain their trust? It may be true, but how are we to know they won’t just turn round and use our technology against us? The report from my men was clear on one thing. These aliens aren’t very good at diplomacy. They are practically demanding that we hand over everything we have, and as far as my analysts can tell, they aren’t really offering us much in return. Apart from their translation technology, I’m not even sure they have anything we would want.”

  Whether they have anything of value or not is irrelevant, Maximilian thought to himself. There is no way I am giving an unknown alien species any military technology. What am I going to do now?

  “Stand by Admiral,” he began, “I need to address the council. We will have to take a vote on this. Alert your team on the freighter that we will be sending a diplomatic response to this request for technology. Tell them to prepare for the aliens to be disappointed. There will be no trading today.”

  Once the COM channel closed Maximilian turned to address the gathered councilors once more. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have another vote to take, this one may be the most important in the history of our colony. Yet there is only one choice before us.” Impartiality be dammed, he thought as he laid out the alien’s request.

  Chapter 1 – HMS Endeavour

  Throughout the First Interstellar Expansion Era warships got ever larger and larger, yet many historians believe it was the exploration ships that proved to be the most important.

  -Except from Empire Rising, 3002 AD

  20th January, 2466 AD, HMS Vulcan, Earth Orbit

  Captain James Somerville, Duke of Beaufort, sat behind his desk in his briefing room. Fighting back a yawn he reached for another datafile. Glancing at his holo clock he was startled to see he had come on board HMS Endeavour over eight hours ago. After going through the official procedure of taking command, he had settled into his office and reviewed every piece of information he could find on his new ship.

  Officially classed as an exploration cruiser, she was still more powerful than his last command, the destroyer HMS Raptor. Endeavour boasted two extra missile tubes in each of her broadsides and she had three plasma cannon turrets that were a caliber heavier than Raptor’s. He had also been happy to see Endeavour had been outfitted with two flak cannons. When she had begun construction flak cannons had not been a part of her armament. Yet the success of the flak cannons in the war with China had led to a hasty design change for all new Royal Space Navy construction. Having just left the RSN shipyard Vulcan two months ago, Endeavour had benefited from this new design policy.

  Despite his tiredness James was determined to continue working his way through the files and familiarizing himself with the crew of his ship. If he stopped his mind would only turn to Christine. It had been six days since her wedding to Na and it was still all over the news outlets. The new Emperor and Empress of China were causing a sensation not just in Britain and China but all across the globe. Yet James wanted nothing to do with the whole affair, his emotions were still too raw. After spending months in the Void fighting the Chinese fleet he had dreamt of coming home to Christine. In the war he had won glory for himself and redeemed his family name. At last he had been in a position where he would have been considered worthy to make a proposal to the Princess of England. Instead, Christine had found herself with a choice between her heart and her duty and James had lost out. He knew she had made the right decision. It was the only decision she could have made as a British princess. Nevertheless, it didn’t ease his pain and the sooner he was able to take Endeavour out on her maiden voyage the better.

  With a stretch and another yawn he reached over and tapped a button on his desk. Outside his office a chime rang, alerting the waiting officer that she could enter. After reviewing the files on Endeavour he had scheduled an interview with each of his senior officers. On his first command, the exploration ship Drake, he had made a bad start with his officers, something that had taken almost two years to remedy. He was determined to do things differently on Endeavour.

  The exploration cruiser had four commissioned officers to oversee the crew. Only three were currently on board and James had not known any of them. He hoped the informal interviews would speed up the process of breaking down the barriers that always existed between a captain and his officers.

  Thankfully he wouldn’t need one with his Fourth Lieutenant when she came on board. The most junior lieutenant position had been vacant when James had taken command and he had been delighted to see a file from Vulcan that included a request from Lieutenant Becket to be assigned to Endeavour. She had been a Sub Lieutenant on board his last two commands, Drake and Raptor. When James had been off enjoying some rest and relaxation in the South Pacific, she had taken her Lieutenant’s exam. James hadn’t been surprised to see she had passed with flying colors. He h
ad immediately approved the request and was looking forward to greeting her when she came on board.

  For now though, he switched his focus to another female officer, one he didn’t know what to make of. After the discovery of the Void, the Admiralty had decided to make a new position on all their exploration ships. Among the science community there were all sorts of weird and wonderful theories about what was out there in the dark of space. Up until a year ago, a dark matter bubble – what the Void was, had just been another one of these theories. James’ discovery of one had sent the theorists into overdrive. Everyone was now wondering what else was out there. Presently humans had only explored less than one one-hundredth of a percent of the galaxy. The possibilities were endless. In response to all this hype the Admiralty had decided to appoint a Science Officer to each of their survey ships. The Science Officers would command a small team of astrophysicists and analyze all the sensor data the ship collected. Yet they would remain outside the official chain of command, meaning the officer wouldn’t hold any authority over the rest of the crew. As a result James wasn’t sure what he thought of the new position.

  As the door to his office alerted him that someone was about to enter, he stood to greet Lieutenant Rachael Scott. He had already seen a picture of her from her personnel file, but as she walked in he was still taken aback. She had long, thick blonde hair and bright green eyes that sparkled. Even though she looked nervous to be meeting her captain for the first time she still gave off that air of confidence that reminded James how nervous he got when in the presence of a beautiful woman.

  As she came close, James held out his hand. “It’s good to meet you Lieutenant,” he said with a smile. “There’s no need to be nervous, this is just an informal meet and greet.”

  “Thank you Sir,” Rachael responded. “As you no doubt know this is my first ship so I’m still a little green.”

  “That’s ok,” James said. “You’ll pick things up quickly. So sit down, I want you to tell me a little about yourself.” As he spoke James sat himself and waved at a chair for Rachael to take.

  “Well, I don’t know if you know this Sir, but we actually shared some classes together back at the academy.”

  Surprised, James blurted out, “Really, which ones?” before he realized he was admitting he didn’t remember her.

  “That’s alright Sir, I didn’t expect you to recognize me,” Rachael said when she saw the embarrassment on her captain’s face. “We only shared some of the basic classes. I entered the academy because I wanted to join the Navy’s astrophysics department. After taking first year I pursued my degree and doctoral studies back on Earth.”

  “Yes, I saw your degrees listed in your file,” James said, “You seem to have done very well for yourself. May I ask, how did you end up aboard Endeavour? Forgive me for thinking this, but I would imagine someone with your skills would be more useful back on Earth, not spending months at a time on the outer edges of space.”

  “Actually, I chose this assignment,” Rachael replied. “To be honest, I always wanted to serve on a navy ship. It was my father who pushed me into studying astrophysics. That’s not to say I don’t love my field of study. But I love space too. Endeavour will allow me to pursue both my loves. You maybe don’t realize it, but Endeavour is kitted out with some high tech labs and a state of the art central computer. I can continue to work on my theoretical models aboard Endeavour.”

  “And they won’t get in the way of your duties?” James asked with a little concern. He had encountered enough scientists in the past to know that when they got caught up in their studies, the rest of the world seemed to fade away.

  “I hope not Sir. I realize that I have duties aboard Endeavour, they come first of course. Though I’m sure you’ve been wondering what a science officer will be doing with themselves during extended cruises. Even when Endeavour is out mapping the unexplored dark matter, the majority of our sensor data will be of no interest scientifically. As I understand it, these science officer posts were designed to give young researchers field experience that will benefit them in the future while also giving them the space to pursue their scientific studies. In fact, as part of my request to join Endeavour, I had to present a proposal on what areas of astrophysics I will be researching.”

  James wasn’t sure he liked this answer any better. It was sounding more and more like Rachael was just going to be a passenger he or one of his officers would have to babysit. A navy ship came with enough responsibilities for its officers without adding babysitting inexperienced officers to the list.

  To her credit Rachael seemed to sense his concern. “If you don’t mind me asking Sir,” she began, “but I get the impression you don’t approve of the Admiralty’s decision to post science officers to survey ships?”

  James paused before he answered, he choose his words carefully as he didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot with Rachael, “I wouldn’t say I don’t approve. It’s just; I’ve spent more than two years aboard a survey frigate. I know how monotonous the daily routine can be. There is almost never anything of significance that comes up, especially something that would interest someone of your intellect. I’m just afraid you will get bored and have wasted your time aboard my ship.”

  Rachael smiled, and when she did James saw something else in her. Her initial nervousness had been genuine; he was sure of that. Yet now, behind this new smile, he saw a more confident woman, a woman who knew how to get what she wanted. “It’s funny you say that,” she began, “because I actually wanted to make a request. You already know how I wanted to join the navy and serve in a ship, but what I didn’t tell my father was that I want to command one someday.”

  James almost laughed but the earnestness in her voice caused him to forcibly suppress any such notion. “Command? But you only studied a year at the academy, how do you expect the Admiralty to change you from the science track to the command track?” he asked instead.

  Rachael smiled that smile again, and James knew he would have to watch her closely. He trusted her motives, but she was obviously skilled in getting what she wanted.

  “Actually, that is where you come in. I know the Admiralty will never consider me for a command post without any experience. I was hoping to convince you to allow me to command the occasional watch. I could relieve you or the First Lieutenant, maybe once or twice a week. Of course, it would only be during watches when there is no potential danger. When we would be traveling through known shift passages. But over time, especially if we are assigned to a long survey mission, I could build up some command experience. In a few years, I could then request a transfer to a survey frigate as a second lieutenant. In time I might be promoted to command one. I’m not deluded. I don’t have any aspirations of commanding a warship, but maybe one day I could have my own survey frigate.”

  James was taken aback. This wasn’t exactly how he had expected this interview to go. He had been worried that he would have to babysit an untrained officer. Instead, he thought with a chuckle, he might have to watch his back in case she tried to steal his command from him.

  He was pleased though; she obviously felt comfortable enough to open up with him. That was something James had noticed more and more since he had returned to Earth just over a week ago. Almost everyone in Britain had grown up knowing his family name and by association with his father, he knew that he had become almost notorious. Yet after the discovery of the Void, especially the events that surrounded the Chinese attack on the Swedish colony ship, he had found himself a public figure in his own right. His brief association with the now Empress of China had added to that of course. Since his return to Earth, he had found that many people already felt they knew him and so were much more open.

  Turning his mind back to the problem at hand, James knew Rachael’s request would fit in well with his plans. Yet he also saw one major problem.

  “Your aspirations are praiseworthy, but there is likely to be one issue that may stand in your way. The Royal Space Navy is designed
for war. Even our survey frigates are designed to have a role in times of war. My first command, Drake, demonstrated that. Even with all the command experience you could get here on Endeavour, I’m not sure the Admiralty will see you as command material. You will still lack the tactical training cadets at the academy get.”

  Rachael looked deflated by his comments and so James held up a finger to halt her thoughts, “However, I think I can help start you in the right direction. You may not like it but it is the best I can do for you. Once we leave Earth I plan to introduce a secondary watch using the auxiliary bridge. The secondary watch will be solely for training purposes. The idea is that the Sub Lieutenants who are off duty can take it in turns manning the auxiliary bridge, as if they are running their own watch. Some can man the command consoles while one of them acts as the officer of the watch commanding the ship. I also plan to make up some training scenarios for them to go through.

  “I can’t put you right in as the officer who commands the watch as almost all the Sub Lieutenants have more experience than you. However, I can put you into the rotation. You will have to take your turn manning the command consoles but you will also get to command the watch. I’m sure you’ll quickly pick up the necessary skills and in time, depending on how you do, I’ll be able to consider allowing you to take some real watches on the bridge. In the meantime you can review the tactical training cadets get at the academy and develop your skills as you man the tactical console on the mock bridge. How does that sound?”