Orion Gambit - Traci Ganner series book 2

Orion Gambit - Ch 9

Chapter 9

An Internal Affair

“We’ve received another report from Pollux, Admiral. Our favorite duke has struck again.”

Scott Pearson slammed his fist on the briefing room table as Captain Veiga closed the communication channel. Commodore Santos shook his head. “That’s the second picket force he’s destroyed outright, Scott. They didn’t even get a chance to surrender.”

“The man’s a menace,” Admiral Pirelli said. “Doesn’t he know we’re fighting the Valdi?”

“He doesn’t care,” Scott said. “He wants to be emperor of the Terran Empire. It doesn’t matter to him that he’s destroying his own people.”

Admiral Charleton looked at Scott. “What are we going to do, sir? If we park our entire fleet at Pollux, he’ll strike at Regulus. He’s trying to reduce our fleet strength a piece at a time.”

“No, I don’t think that’s his plan,” Scott said. “His recent bravado indicates he’s rebuilding his fleet to match ours. I think he’s planning to meet us on the field in full force soon. He may even be waiting for us to engage the Valdi, to strike when we’re weakest.”

Scott turned to face Charleton and Santos. “Do we have the fleet strength to stop him?”

“We believe he has a few more units than we do, but he doesn’t yet match us in raw tonnage. He did manage to repair some of his heavies after our engagement, but we lost several ships when we were pushed out of Antares. According to the latest reports we’re getting out of Altair, he’s planning to pull the defensive forces away from his side of Sol in order to bolster his fleet strength.”

“Aye, and he’ll do it, too,” Pirelli said. “His lust for power doesn’t consider that this will leave a hole for the Valdi to invade even further into our heart worlds.”

“We’ve got to meet him now, before he gets any stronger.”

“Admiral, if we don’t continue pressing the Valdi, they’ll continue to oppress Earth.”

“That is what he’s counting on. If we attack the Valdi to relieve Earth, we’ll take heavy losses, even with the Orion fleet to support us. That’ll leave Mihialovich with the stronger fleet, and he’ll continue to strengthen it while we take losses.”

The first marshal seemed to make up his mind. “The Valdi will have to wait. We must attack him now, before he grows stronger. Santos, notify the vice chancellor of our intentions. I’ll meet with Nagao and set up a timetable for our assault. In the meantime, put together some possible attack strategies and we’ll review them in…” he looked at the chronometer on the wall, “six hours.”

* * *

“I’m sorry, Admiral, but our agreement was to repulse the Valdi invasion, not help you defeat other Terran warships.” Admiral Nagao looked back at Scott from his bridge. Scott’s wall monitor showed Nagao bent over a tactical plot, busily coordinating an exercise with his cruiser commanders.

Scott Pearson was not pleased with the other admiral’s response. That was putting it mildly. Without the Orion fleets to bolster his own strength, he and Duke Mihialovich would be at near parity. Had this been Nagao’s plan all along? String him along until the two Terran admirals reduced each other to fragments that could be easily defeated in detail?

“You know we are not able to defeat him without our combined strength. Do you want Mihialovich to prevail? There will certainly be war if he becomes the next emperor.”

“First Marshal, we can provide a blockade to prevent the Valdi from returning to this side of Sol. We can also provide humanitarian aid for the worlds that are now free of Valdi influence. But as for patrols and peacekeeping, those are clearly Terran duties. By taking sides in a civil dispute, we will be violating your sovereignty as a star nation. Surely you see the difficulty that presents for us.”