The Carlson Chronicle Chapter 1
Chapter 9

12-Apr-2329

Alex and Leo looked at a detailed defense mapping of the Taucente star system. Three minefields ringed the main world, home to Taucente’s prestiges Engineering school. The 100 mark was home to an asteroid belt, with some rocks the size of small Euro-zone countries. Ships either jumped just slightly outside the belt or a few diameters inside. Either way, the belt was home to one of the best funded and best trained system defense forces in known space. All of their ships were non-FTL versions of modern day escorts and gunships, including Perry’s, Burkhalter’s, Dragoon’s and Champions. These ships, with their FTL engines removed, were extremely formidable in battle, as the excess tonnage saved by not needing FTL drives, and assorted support gear, made room for better shields and weapons, along with better reactors and faster sub-light drives. Still, against ships like the ‘Graf Spee’, they’d be woefully out-gunned.

“Ok, what I’m thinking is a constant harassment strategy: Hit them, disengage, then hit them again. Force them to never stand down from full combat readiness. Destroy a few of them, vaporize a base or two, and withdraw. Then you come in, and do the same thing.” But Leo simply frowned.

“Why bother Alex? The tech edge we have is so formidable, why not just take the system out? We go in with my ship, your ship and that new guy you recruited out of Summer, Kyle Storm, and we just pound the ring flat. Then we move in system, and pound flat anything that tries to oppose us. Remember, I have no love lost for humans, present company accepted, so I’d just as soon pound their asses hard, and screw the lube.”

“Well, that’s always a possibility too. I was looking at playing cat vs mouse for a bit, really frustrate their generals and demoralize their people. If we go in guns blazing and simply pound all the military targets flat, it won’t sink in right away that the war is over. But spread their losses over a few significant battles, and it’ll hit home a lot harder. Plus, they’ll pull forces off the border worlds and give the Bastard a chance to retake a few key worlds, like Carstairs. Once they lose enough key systems, they’ll be forced to surrender.”

“You do know who runs their military right?” Leo asked. Alex shook his head.

“Eric Kinsman, of Kinsman Industries, on Center.” Alex whistled.

“Doesn’t he have an older Austrian as a flag? The ‘Valkyrie’ I think?” Leo nodded.

“Ok, let’s see if we can bring him out of hiding. We’ll do the cat & mouse game for now, but if things start to go badly for us, we go back to scorched earth, ok?”

“Leo? Things can only go badly for them, tech edge considering.” Alex countered with a laugh.

“True. So, let’s get to it. I’ll give you first crack.” He said with a toothy grin.

“Gee, thanks, you’re all heart.”

As Leo banked his ship away, Alex powered in-system, Ericka on Ops and Amy on Tactical. Elisha called up from engineering, stating all was as it should be.

“Alex? At some point, we will need a more competent ship. These ships are nice, but if we’re to be taken seriously going against those crazy bitches, we’ll need something with more teeth. Besides, it would be nice to have everyone under the same roof, as it were.” Ericka suggested. He thought about this for a few moments, as one of the larger asteroids began launching craft.

“Point noted and accepted Adviser.” He said with a smile, as she turned and stared at him, slack jawed. Amy turned and grinned at them both.

“Yep, she was my first choice too!”

“Wow, thanks for that honor. I’ll try not to let you down.” E said with a smile.

“Oh, you won’t. Let’s just get the O.C.’s back into the fold, so we can get everyone focused on the Garshans. Defenders incoming! Amy, let’em have it! Raise shields to full strength!” He ordered as Ericka barrel-rolled them toward the approaching defenders, shifting the color of their hull from black to a deep, glossy crimson...

Commander Perkins looked at his screen as a ship class he was completely unfamiliar with bore down on his group of defenders at the unprecedented speed of nearly 30c.

“Whoever these bastards are, their ships are hella fast! His sensor man said from her station. His ship, a Dragoon, rolled slightly to port, bringing his dual quartet of disruptors to bear, eight barrels of 304mm.

“Target acquired! His gunner yelled as the enemy ship fired 6 coherent beams of deep blue energy, both of his wing men’s ships exploding violently.

“Fire!” He yelled, as his ship seemed to come apart around him, his last sight that of his sensor man’s body being sucked through a hole the size of a basketball, the last thing he heard being the sound of his own scream, cut short in the harsh vacuum of space...

“Too easy.” Amy said from her station, as she laid her fifth defender to waste.

“Don’t get too cocky, we’re still outnumbered.” He said reassuringly. She nodded, turning to point out an object for Ericka to get closer to. E nodded, turning the ship, a dozen or so defenders tailing them, but outside of their own weapons ranges.

“Hun, what have we got for stern chaser duty?” She asked.

“Leo.” He answered with a smile, as half of the dozen ships behind them exploded.

“Yee-haw!” Flow yelled, gutting two more of the defenders gunboats, Jett maneuvering them to over take Alex and take point for awhile.

Over the next several hours, they looped Taucente’s outer belt, destroying everything the O.C.’s sent up to deal with them, vaporizing over 90% of their belt bases, and waiting patiently for Kinsman’s raiders to arrive.

4 hours into their belt rape, he did.

“Well now, young sir, let’s see if’n ya can stand against true cruisers.” Kinsman said to his view screen, as his flight of 20 ships, mostly ‘Austrians’, but a few refitted ‘Vegas’ class battlecruisers, circa 2235, refitted with today’s engines, shields and disruptors, joined the exchange. Over a hundred fusion torpedoes ripped from the forward launch bays of the battle cruisers, all targeting on Alex’s ship...

“JESUS!” Jett yelled, as her sensor screen literally jammed with new contacts, all torpedoes inbound for Alex’s ship at nearly 30c...

“Holy!” E began, as she got tracking tones on more torpedoes then even she thought their ship could deal with.

“Stand at ease Ericka. Speed of incoming torps Amy?”

“I have the lead elements moving at 25c, trailing elements now slowing, also at 25c.”

“Increase to maximum thrust, take us on a long loop of the out-system, and then angle us back toward Leo and these OC sonsabitches!”

Amy cheered, as E banked their ship, kicking it up to max, 30c. The torpedoes tracked them, but were unable to match speeds with them, 25c being their maximum velocity.

As the torps fell further and further behind, their limited sensor suites lost all sighting and one by one, the chasing torps began detonating. After the third one exploded however, the fourth one caused fratricide, it’s detonation detonating all of the others around it. The view screen on their ship dimmed at the explosion of some 90+ fusion warheads.

“YES!” Amy and E cheered, she leaning over and hugging Ericka, E returning her loving hug. Banking them into a tighter turn, E lined up a shot for Amy onto the lead ‘Vegas’, it’s IDent squaking as the ‘Atlantic City’...

“Captain! That ship’s got us locked up!” Cried out the sensor man on the AC.

“Auxiliary power to the shield generators! Divert all power from all non-essential systems to the shields! All stop! Weps, give me a shot damn it!”

“Weps aye! Turrets 1 and 3 have a firing solution! 2 and 4 need 10 seconds!”

“We got 5 so hurry!”

“Target locked! Firing!” Amy yelled from her station, stabbing the firing button on her console. 6 deep blue shafts of energy arced out from emitters on both sides of their ship’s hull, while two beams left the center engineering pod, down and below the main ship hull. All 8 struck the ‘AC’ squarely, their shields gone in the first second of impact, the rest of the energy ripping their entire port side open to space, from bow to stern. Explosions could be seen coming out of the hull, as weapons capacitors, parts of engineering and the amidships venting precious atmosphere, the ship rolling over onto it’s starboard side.

“All stop!” Alex roared, Ericka all but slamming on brakes, the ‘Spee’ dropping from nearly 30c to 0 in under 30 seconds. The ‘AC’ then exploded, catching an Austrian in the blast.

“Aye! Dammit! Hail that ship! I wanna know who we be dealin with!”

“Aye skipper!”

“Channel open!”

“This is Eric Kinsman, of the starship ‘Valkyrie’, who are ya?”

“Incoming COM Alex. It’s Eric Kinsman!”

“Put it on the main screen.” Alex said. Kinsman’s Irish features filled the view screen, as Alex left his chair and moved to stand closer to the main screen.

“Ah, who you be laddie, and what problem do you have with us?”

“I’ll make this short and to the point Kinsman, Surrender.” Alex said, looking as the big Irishman’s face reddened.

“Aye laddie, and why would I be surrendering to you? Who do you represent?”

“Nominally, myself. But since I gave 3 and a half years of my life to the service of the Empire, you could say by proxy I represent the Bastard. They’ll be no terms, just a formal reunification, a formal declaration to the end of hostilities, and no war tribunals. The colonies rejoin the Empire as though they never left. Taxation will be reduced to pre-succession rates of 12% per capita per colony world, with all defense funds earmarked for the construction of a new fleet, with technology provided by Center.”

“Wait, back up. Technologies provided by Center? Since when do you speak for the lass Lorelei?”

“She’s my sister. I am Alex, son of Barnard and Claudia.”

“You! You’re the one was supposed to go to Marrok!”

“Marrok can rot. I have no cares or needs of a race of spear chucking felines. The Garshans will pound them flat in due time. But it’s the Garshans I plan to pound flat first. Which is why I need, no, WE need to stop fighting each other. If the Empire and the Colonies continue to pound each other, when the Garshans do arrive, looking for the Marrokians, and replace us, we’re dead.”

“What proof do you have that these Garshans are indeed such a threat?”

“No, you didn’t. You didn’t just ask for proof. Amythyst!”

“Yeah hun?”

“Come here.” She stood, and moved to stand next to her man, hugging him tightly. Looking up at the screen, her green eyes shining, she smiled to Kinsman.

He took one look at her sheer beauty, was about to re-adjust his trousers, when he noticed her nearly foot long ears...

“Wait, what? What are you??”

“My people are called Galhadians. We built Center, created the Garshans, the Vor’Gosh and the Marrokians. We created the Eternals, and now we need to destroy both the Garshans and the Vor’Gosh before they overrun this part of the galaxy.”

Kinsman stared slack-jawed at the two of them, thinking that the whiskey had finally rotted his brain.

“I’d rather not have to prove what I’m saying by violent means. My adviser here gets upset when I go off and wantonly destroy stuff.” He said, casting a smile to Ericka. She smiled back.

“I only speak for their military, I’ll need time to consult with the leaders and...” But Alex just shook his head.

“Nope, sorry. Unacceptable. Today, today you speak for the Colonies. If that’s too hard for your booze-addled brain to comprehend, maybe I should just vaporize you where you stand, and go to Taucente, and replace whoever IS in charge, and make my pitch to them.”

“As if that were possible. You make bold claims laddie. You get a lucky hit on one cruiser, and suddenly you’re the scourge of the galaxy.” Kinsman challenged. Alex arced an eyebrow, moved back to his chair,

and called up the registers on all the ‘Vegas’ class ships nearby. The ‘Monte Carlo’ was closest, so, locking all weapons on her, he gave Amy the nod to fire, despite Kinsman’s sudden plea not to.

10 minutes later, in orbit of Taucente...

Act-9B: “Sometimes a simple gesture is required...”

Kinsman walked beside Alex. In some ways he did look like his father Barnard, though he was easily broader then his father, and definitely smarter. Arriving at the cargo hold on the ‘Spee’, the arriving shuttle disgorged three figures;

Chancellor Ian McDugal, First Regent of the Colonies,

Council Member Red Sullivan, of Taucente’s engineering corps.

Elder Science Liasion Delilah Saxon, Assistant Director, Taucente School of Engineering. Alex smiled upon seeing her.

“You! I want my computer drive back!” Delilah shrieked at Alex. Arcing an eyebrow, he made an implant COM call to Amy.

{Amy?}

{Yes lover?}

{When we bought Delilah and the rest, did she come with some kind of computer drive?}

{Yes. I gave it to Lorelei. It was the computer core from Barnard’s ‘Commercant’. A lot of bad things on that drive, things that Humanity shouldn’t learn yet. It would only destroy them.}

{Ok, thanks hun. You ok?}

{For now. I think you did me in though.}

{Oh?}

{Well, I keep vomiting up my meals. Ericka says I’m pregnant, but I don’t believe her.}

{::laughter::}

{You believe her?}

{She was a nurse and doctor most of her life. If she says you’re preggers, you probably are. After this rabble is finished, I’ll come see you. Rest now.}

{Love you too babe.}

“Yes, though I no longer have it. I turned it over to Lorelei, and no, you’re not getting it back, Ms. Saxon. The technology on that drive would destroy Humanity. All things in good time. For now, the Big Gun will have to wait. I’ll see to it that the rest of the Good Package is dispersed to all, be they Empire or Colony.” He said, referring to the tech on the computer core in terms gleened from an old movie he and Karen watched over and over again, because she was hung up on one of the characters, even if he was centuries dead. You can’t dissuade an 11 yr old of anything, especially a pre-teen crush...

She glared at him. The rest of the OC entourage watched their exchange, though only Red seemed annoyed at her failure to obtain the drive.

“So, who is the Empire’s rep?” McDugal asked, seeing only Alex and Kinsman standing before them. Turning to the wall closest to them, he pushed a stud near the door. The wall then became a screen, the seal of the Empire showing first, then a groggy looking Emperor Tiberius sitting at his desk, still dressed in his PJ’s.

“Yes? Who is this?! How did you get this number?!” He demanded as Alex stepped in front of the screen.

“Emperor Tiberius, my name is Alexander, son of Barnard and Claudia of the Galhadian Hegemony. My terrestrial parents are James and Rebecca Carlson. Lorelei, my sister and controller of Center, sends her love and regards. Before me I have the leaders of the Outer Colony Alliance of Taucente.”

Tiberius’ nostrils seemed to flare at the mention of the O.C. leadership.

“James’ son? Ahh, the small ship that handed Kinsman his ass, yes, now I know you.” He said, waking with a laugh. Eric bristled from the comment.

“What can I do for you, young man?”

“Emperor, I come with the surrender of the Colonies, with special terms. But, before you reject them out of hand, and try to demand they surrender unconditionally, understand that I have brokered this meeting on certain flexibilities on your part. There is a great evil heading our way, and should it get here while we continue to wage a pointless war with ourselves, not even the fury of Center’s guns can save us. Earth will burn under the guns of the Garshans.”

“Garshans? Who the devil are the Garshans?” He asked, as McDugal and his associates moved closer to Alex, staying out of camera view, but trying to hear what was being said better.

{Amy, I need you in the cargo bay.} Within seconds, she appeared in a transport beam. This made several jaws drop, all except Alex’s actually. She was dressed in a string bikini, showing off her awesome curves, her hair brush in her hand, as she brushed out her scarlet locks.

“Yes lover?” She asked. He smiled, pulling her into a hug, she cooing softly in his embrace. Tiberius was stunned!

“Is she a member of this Hegemony you mentioned? She looks like an elf!” He declared, which got a few chuckles from those assembled. Amy looked at the screen, and cast him a disparaging glance.

“You’re just lucky you’re so far away, or I’d leave you a rack of lamb for awhile. Yes, I am Galhadian. Elf indeed...” She said in a huff, until Alex knelt in front of her, considering their height differences. Pulling her close, he hugged her tightly, whispered something into her ear no one could hear, though it did make her smile and giggle, then pushed back away from her, kissing her nose. She then vanished in another transport beam.

“Ok, so you have a thing for this race, what does it have to do with these Garshans?” Tiberius asked. Splitting the screen, he pulled up footage provided by Lorelei, of a Garshan task force, as they laid waste to a race known as the Strahnans.

The Strahnan’s were a bi-pedal, plant based race of humanoids, highly evolved but peace-loving. When the Garshans showed up, the Strahnan’s offered them peace and friendship, but the Garshans simply crushed them under their bootheels. Everyone saw their ships, their awesome weapons and shields, as the Strahnans threw everything they had, which was considerably better then what Humanity currently had.

The Garshans swept them aside like they were nothing! Switching off the split screen, Alex turned first to Tiberius, then to McDugal.

“As you can see, the Terran Empire, with or without the Colonies, is surely doomed, And if the Empire falls, so shall the Colonies.”

“Bah, what if we took you hostage, forced you to give us these technologies, and to hell with that ass?” Red Sullivan spat, first at Alex, then to Tiberius.

“Try. Please, try. As you can see, I am unarmed.” He responded, though as he did, there was a brief moment of nausea suffered by all, though no one lost their lunch, and Amythyst came back into the hold, this time wearing her mage robes. She still looked fantastic, as they seemed to hug every curve as though they were in love with her as much as Alex was. Most everyone turned to see her. Looking to Alex, she cast him a knowing smile, he nodding back to her, and Tiberius disappeared from the screen!

And appeared still clothed in his smiley face PJ’s standing between Alex and Amythyst! The shock of this played across everyone’s face, with Alex and Amy the exception.

“Emperor? I believe you know Chancellor McDugal? McDugal, I present Emperor Tiberius the First.” Alex said, introducing the cobra to the mongoose. Kinsman simply stared at all of this, thoroughly wishing he’d remembered to bring his flask with him, because if this wasn’t a drunken hallucination, he’d most surely have gone round the bend...

“As to kidnapping me, I doubt your shuttle would make it out of Earth’s orbit before a squadron of ‘Black Birds’ blew you to hell, Chancellor.” Alex finished, as with a wave of his hand, the forward cargo hatch opened, the S.I.F generators humming, keeping the air and heat INSIDE the ship, as Earth spun slowly on the other side. Africa could be seen clearly as it slowly rotated into view. Sullivan dropped the hold out pistol he’d been holding in his hand, as a pair of Cutlass fighters slid into view in front of the bay doors. They made no hostile actions however.

“Holy! Is that McDugal!?” Blue Streak said to his wing commander.

“Aye, it is! Bad Ass, is this your idea of a joke man?”

“Neg Reg, I’m here on the bridge of this techno marvel, man, if you guys could see this beauty in action, she’s really something!”

“Ok, so why are WE here?”

“Oh no reason, other than to convince that OC bastard Sullivan that running is NOT an option.”

“Roger that!” Blue Streak said, locking his laser cannons on Sullivan’s head...

Sullivan saw Earth first then the two Cutlass fighters and turned back toward Alex and Tiberius. He was considerably paler.

Tiberius stood at his tallest, considering he was only 5′9", looking down his nose at McDugal, then turning to Alex.

“I’ll forget that you just kidnapped a head of state to make your point boy, so what is it you want?”

Alex smiled, laying out the same pitch he made to Kinsman. The Emperor took it all in, and while it left the colonies essentially unpunished for all the Empire’s losses over the decades long war, it would go far better for his shrinking popularity numbers (19% and falling weekly) to end the war forever. Looking first at McDugal, then to Alex, he extended his hand to the OC Chancellor.

As McDugal took it, Tiberius smiled.

“Welcome back into the fold, Brother. Time to kick some Garshan ass I think.”

And celebrations broke out on Earth that lasted days, for as soon as Tiberius was beamed aboard the ‘Graf Spee’, Ericka had the whole bay wired and broadcast to every network on the planet, and re-broadcasting it via FTL Radio to Center, where Lorelei re-broadcast it to all of the Colonies...

James sat back in his study, stunned. He watched it all, rewound the tape and watched it again, as Klaus also watched it stunned.

“That little sob. Klaus, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I’d have never believed it.”

“I dare say I still don’t believe it. If only Mattie were here to share in this joyous occasion.” Klaus finished. James laughed.

“Mattie is up there, with my son. That little redhead? That’s the real Mattie old friend. Don’t ask. I’ve known for years, but she took good care of our children, and now she takes special care of Alex. I won’t begrudge her a thing.”

As Klaus collected his wits over that revelation, James made a few calls.

A few days later...

“Ok James, I suppose I can see your point. Karen is still off limits, and she wants nothing to do with you, considering.” Alex said to his adopted father, as they sat around the officer’s lounge on the ‘Spee’.

“I accept that. So, what are your plans with regards to the whole fleet rebuild?”

“Center has almost a thousand of these ships built. Once we have trained crews for them, we start sweeping space between here and Galhadia Prime, or whatever is left of it, and try to replace them. As for the resource count, everything mined, made or drilled for, will go straight to Center. Her shipyards make even the vaunted GSE yards seem like tinker toy yards by comparison. After reviewing some of the archive footage from Japanese television, along with some of the ships in the Galhadian archives, I have two designs I’ll be having Lorelei add to the queue.

“Oh?”

“One is a battleship, modeled after a ship from the ‘Space Cruiser Yamato’ series, and no, I don’t mean dredging up the Yamato. I mean the ‘Andromeda’ class. With Lorelei’s tech, it’ll be a formidable fighting ship.”

“And the other?” James asked, smiling inwardly as his son continued to mine his youth for clever ship ideas.

“The other is a ship solely my own. Battle cruiser by tonnage, but armed to the fucking teeth, and I mean that literally.”

“Got a name for it?”

“Sort of. I’m thinking something along the lines of Struggle something, considering it’s going to be an up hill struggle to get on the same playing field as the Garshans. I have no idea how much time we have, so the quicker we get something resembling a high tech fleet built, the better off we’ll all be.”

“Kinsman tells me there’s this race Barnard wanted you to go see or help or something.”

“Yes, the Marrokians. Supposedly, they’re like the racial enemies of the Garshans, yet how a race as technologically backwards as they are ever avoided being pounded flat by the Garshan’s is a surprise even to me. Besides, with everything that’ll be going on at Center, plus using half of the Spee fleet to keep tempers from flaring between old school units of the Empire and the Colonies in check, I’ve got my hands very full. Plus, on top of all of that, Amy’s pregnant.”

“Amy?”

“Mattie?”

“OH! Amythyst! Yes, congratulations on that son!”

“Yeah, thanks I guess. I should have kept her on Trike. Oh well, still thinking with the little head at times I guess.”

James nodded with a soft chuckle.