Prominence

Part 3 - War of Attrition

Relv paused for a moment and concentrated on his breathing, as the nausea from the long jump enveloped him. Jump sickness was supposed to get better over time with constant exposure, but if anything it had gotten worse over the years. It was now to the point where he had to do a short pseudo-meditation after each jump.

His executive officer Commander Ibek knew the routine well and waited patiently for his Rear Admiral to recover. After about a minute of concentration the nausea subsided and Relv sat straight in his commander's chair.

"Status report," ordered Relv.

"All systems fully operational, Rear Admiral," replied Ibek. He still sounded tense and on edge.

"She's been through hell and back, but the old girl is still as reliable as the day we snatched her from the Fleet Admiral," replied Relv quietly so that only Ibek could hear. It was a personal joke between them and it still brought a smirk to Ibek's face.

"Yes sir and I bet he still wants the Prominence back."

It was good to see Ibek relax for a moment. They had been fighting side by side in this never ending war for the past 6 years of their own personal timelines and a little over a century in real time. It was starting to take its toll and this last mission in particular had been hard on Ibek. Their losses had been significant and it was no certainty that anyone was coming home alive at one point.

With no decisive victory fought and no end to the war in sight Ibek was starting to become demoralized and he was not the only veteran feeling that way in the fleet. Some of them, including Ibek, would have completed their tour of duty and would be eligible for discharge when they returned home to Vaslus. He was going to lose a lot of good people from his task force this time around. Of course that was assuming Vaslus was still even there.

"Let's see if we still have a home to return to shall we. Have the fleet hold position while we hail the perimeter base."

As per a safety protocol written a thousand years ago Relv had jumped his task force to the edge of the home solar system. When hundreds of light years away from home on a mission there was no practical way to communicate with Vaslus or the high command, so there was always a tense wait for the outer perimeter base to confirm Vaslus had not finally been destroyed by its suns ever erratic solar flares.

It took about two minutes each way for the signal to travel to the deep space star base, but it felt like forever. Ibek drummed his fingers on his console impatiently while they waited. It was a nervous habit that after 6 years Relv found so annoying that he had to forcibly keep his mouth shut and started grinding his teeth. Finally Ibek pumped his fist in relief at his console.

"Transmission received sir, we have a green light to jump to a safe orbit distance around Vaslus!"

The rest of the tired crew on the bridge cheered in response.

"Inform the crew Commander, then inform all the other ships, we are going home!"

~*~

A short jump was not nearly as bad as the longer ones and Relv shook off the slight nausea quickly. His holographic displays showed the bright blue green orb that was Vaslus. Despite the fact that anyone he'd ever known was long dead and that he had not set foot on its surface for over two hundred years, it still felt like home.

"Make sure the medical ship gets docking priority and medical teams are on standby. Then broadcast the docking order. I want to make sure the ships with the most critical damage are safely docked first. I don't want to lose any more people due to decompression accidents or engine core leaks," he ordered.