Warren C Norwood - [Double Spiral War 03] Read online

  Final Command

  The Double Spiral War

  Volume Three

  United Central Systems

  Auxiliary Forces

  Specialists

  Planetary Forces

  Space Forces

  (12)

  Admiral

  (11) Marshall

  Meister

  Vice-Admiral

  (10) Commander

  Force Meister

  Commander

  (9) Vice-Marshall

  Brig Meister

  Vice-Commander

  (8) Group Leader

  Force Leader

  Group Leader

  (7) Attack Leader

  Brig Leader

  Sub-Group Leader

  (6) Actual

  Warden

  Captain

  (5) 2nd Actual

  Volk Leader

  Vice-Captain

  (4) 3rd Actual

  Chief

  1st Volk

  Lieutenant

  (3) Miker

  Petty Chief

  2nd Volk

  1st Lieutenant

  (2) Timino

  Enseeoh

  Cell Leader

  2nd Lieutenant

  (1) Leo

  Connor

  Celler

  3rd Lieutenant

  Non-Officer

  (17) Ax

  Barman

  Coord

  (16) Attack Coord

  Ringer

  Range Coord

  (15) 2nd Ax

  Keyman

  Boater

  (14) Gunner

  Locker

  Boater 2nd

  (13) Piper

  Bunker

  Boater 3rd

  (12) Flager

  2nd Bunker

  Crewer (12 grades)

  (11) Niner (9 Grades)

  3rd Bunker

  (10)

  Ace (6 grades)

  Yarder (4 grades)

  Sondak

  Planetary Forces

  Flight Service (Corps)

  Warrants/Specialists

  Space Forces

  (12) Commander-General

  Pro-Avitor (never used)

  Admiral

  (11) General

  Avitor

  Fleet Admiral

  (10) Post-General

  Avitor Once

  Post-Admiral

  (9) Quarter-General

  Avitor Duce

  Quarter-Admiral

  (8) Brigadier

  Flight Leader

  Commander

  (7) Colonel

  Co-Flight Leader

  Post-Commander

  (6) Captain

  Pilot

  Chief Warrant Officer-4

  Captain

  (5) Post-Captain

  Fleet Pilot

  CWO-3

  Fleet Captain

  (4) Co-Captain

  Ship Pilot

  CWO-2

  Ship Captain

  (3) Lieutenant

  Rank Pilot

  CWO-1

  Quarter Captain

  (2) Post-Lieutenant

  Co-Pilot

  Warrant Officer

  Lieutenant

  (1) Co-Lieutenant

  Nav-Pilot

  Ante-Warrant

  Fleet Lieutenant

  Non-Officer

  (17) Sergeant

  Fleet Tech

  High Tech

  (16) Post-Sergeant

  Fleet Gunner

  Tech

  (15) Gun Sergeant

  Flight Tech

  Tech Help

  (14) Tech Sergeant

  Flight Gunner

  Tech’s Mate

  (13) Co-Sergeant

  Ship Tech

  Gun Tech

  (12) Squader/Brevet Sergeant

  Ship Gunner

  Watch Leader

  (11) Co-Squader

  Rank Tech

  Watch Help

  (10) Trooper (8 grades)

  Rank Gunner

  Watch Mate (3 grades)

  (7)

  Gunner/Tech (7 grades)

  Spacer (5 grades)

  Chronology

  NINETY-TWO YEARS AFTER THE SIGNING of the treaty that officially ended the Unification Wars, Earth sent forth the first two generation ships to seek new homes for mankind in the stars.

  The Bohr and the Heisenberg together carried a total of three thousand seven hundred eighty-three pioneers and crew members. Each ship was powered by ten linked Hugh drives that eventually pushed them to a speed of one-point-four times the speed of light relative to Earth. At that speed their Benjamin drives took over, and they crossed Einstein’s Curve where relative speed could no longer be measured.

  Two hundred forty-one ship years later, the descendants of those first pioneers celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of their landing on the planet they named Biery after the woman who led their forebears from Earth. Much to their mixed surprise and fear, that celebration was interrupted by the landing of an alien ship containing a race called the Oinaise. To everyone’s relief---including the Oinaise’s-the contact was peaceful.

  Nine years later the Kobler calendar was established and set the date of the first landing as New Year 2500. The following chronology gives a brief listing of major events dated according to that calendar.

  2530 ― First contact with the Oinaise.

  2575 ― First pioneers arrive on Nordeen, the most Earthlike of any planet ever discovered in the galaxy.

  2599 ― Approximate date the last generation ship left Earth, carrying fourteen thousand new-human pioneers, genetically altered people known as homo communis, whose major difference from homo sapiens was a greatly extended longevity.

  2648 ― The anti-intellectualist riots.

  2657 ― Beginning of the early expansionist movement seeking other planets and star systems suitable for human settlement

  2664 ― Last known message from Earth indicating war, famine, and increasing chaos.

  2681 ― A group of Nordeen’s brightest people call themselves homo electus and leave aboard the Mensch in search of what they hope will be a better home for the intellectually elite.

  2723 ― The Gouldrive tested and proven. Marks the beginning of the Great Expansionist Movement, the settling of many independent systems, and the establishment of true interstellar trade. The phrase, “a planet for every clan,” became popular at this time. During the whole movement scientific research and technological progress were extremely limited.

  2774 ― News reaches Nordeen from the so-called homo electus’s first contact with the alien Verfen, a reclusive race inhabiting a cluster of star systems near galaxy’s center.

  2784 ― First contact with the crab-like, methane-breathing Castorians.

  2846 ― Discovery of Cloise.

  2862 ― Foundation of Sondak, a loose federation of fifty eight sparsely inhabited planetary systems. Homo electus demanded and received recognition as a separate human race as the price of joining the federation.

  2893 ― Foundation of the misnamed United Central Systems, twenty-seven planetary systems inhabited mostly by homo communis. The establishment of the U.C.S. marked the end of the Great Expansionist Movement.

  3021 ― The first galactic war between Sondak and the U.C.S.

  3024 ― The U.C.S., unable to match Sondak’s capacity for producing the tools of war, sued for peace. After extended negotiations during which the fighting continued, the U.C.S. promised to pay heavy economic reparations to Sondak and the independent systems, and also agreed not to produce new war materials for one hundred years. Neither promise was kept.

/>   3029 ― Seemingly spontaneous civil disorder broke out on several planets populated mostly by the fair-skinned, racially distinct, politically fractious pikeans. Although called by some the Pikean Civil War, the dissidents had neither the numbers nor the equipment to fight a true war, and consequently were forced to leave their home planets. Many of them chose to go to systems controlled by the U.C.S., where they quickly aligned themselves with the political factions that supported a new war with Sondak.

  3033 ― The Cczwyck Skirmish occurred when U.C.S. Admiral Nance made an officially unauthorized attempt to take control of that independent system just as a Sondak border squadron was making a courtesy visit. There was no serious fighting, but the political repercussions caused the U.C.S. to accelerate its secret rearmament program; caused Sondak to increase its economic pressures on the U.C.S. and also on the independent systems that refused to join the confederation; and caused Cczwyck to become more isolationist.

  3034 ― 3042-Sporadic raids on U.C.S.-chartered freighters by unknown agents were blamed on Sondak despite fierce diplomatic denials and a total lack of evidence.

  3038 ― Long-range plans began in the U.C.S. for a new war against Sondak

  3046 ― The so-called “Double-Spiral War began with raids on ten isolated Sondak systems and several independent systems. During the year the U.C.S. captured the independent systems of Fernandez, Cczwyck, the water planets of Thayne-G, the three systems in the Ivy Chain, and Ca-Ryn. The aliens of Oina and Cloise found themselves drawn unwillingly toward participation in the war. Matthews system, strategically located midway between Sondak and the U. C. S., was the target of an attack and invasion planned and directed by U.C.S. Commander Frye Charltos. The attack failed due to the planning of Sondak Admiral Josiah Gilbert, with the help of Admirals Pajandcan and Dawson, and a great deal of luck. The system was saved, but with a great loss of ships and personnel on both sides. Matthews system’s principal planet, Reckynop, was rendered a watery ruin by U. C. S. neutronic missiles that exploded over its poles and melted its icecaps. However, the battle for Matthews was considered a victory for Sondak.

  3047 ― The year opens with the launching of new U.C.S. subspace hunter-killers-the hunks. Sondak’s forces on Sutton strongly resist the U. C. S. occupation force and with the aid of a newly reformed Polar Fleet defeat the U.C.S. there and in a space battle for the Satterfield system. The prototype for Sondak’s Ultimate Weapon is deliberately lost, and the aliens begin bargaining for a neutral alliance.

  3048 ― U.C.S. Admiral Frye Charltos and Bridgeforce declare a victory at Satterfield and commence planning for a final series of strikes against Sondak, while Sondak’s Admiral Gilbert and General Schopper begin their plans for a counteroffensive.

  Prologue

  CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER HENLEY STANMORTON, Combat Teller, keyed his thoughts into his computer diary:

  One day this war will be over, and no one knows what the long-range consequences of its outcome will be. But we are again learning the most fundamental lessons that these galactic wars should always make clear to us.

  We are again learning that some people fight with great courage under fire and some do not. We are learning that right, truth, and honor are the possessions not of the powers that rule, but of individuals who hold those values in trust and guard them with their lives; and that small units of resolute combatants guarding those values can ofttimes have an effect totally out of proportion to their size.

  We are again learning that morale is one of the most important factors in any lengthy war and that nothing increases morale so much as superior weapons and training effectively used to overwhelm the enemy in battle.

  We are again learning that exceptional military leadership is usually far more important on the stage of battle than it is in some distant headquarters half a galaxy away; that even the most carefully devised plans can never allow for the chance events and accidents that can alter the course of any battle and thus change the outcome of a whole war.

  Finally, we are learning that the heat of war can forge the strongest bonds of love and allegiance between those who fight it side by side but that it will always be a harsh, cruel waste of lives and resources that darkens the life-spirits of everyone it touches.

  He paused for a moment, thinking of Mica Gilbert. Allegiance? Yes. Love? No. Love was the wrong word.

  Love was a casualty of war – at least that kind of love. It died in battle faster than anything else. Yet allegiance by itself wasn’t a strong enough word for the bonding that took place in war--or for what he felt about Mica.

  With a dismissive shake of his head he turned away from that thought and leaned back with a sigh. There was more he wanted to write, more he wanted to say about the new alien alliance; about the bravery and heroism he had seen on Sutton, about how this war – regardless of its outcome--would alter Caveness Galaxy forever.

  He knew even if the Flag Report accepted what he wrote; there was too much evidence that little or none of it would make any difference. These were not new lessons. He hadn’t made them up on his own. They had been learned before by other people in previous wars over countless centuries. Yet no one seemed to remember them from one war to the next.

  Why? That was what Henley wanted to know. Why?

  1

  “MY FATHER DIED IN A UKE PRISON. My mother died defending Ca-Ryn,” Rasha’kean lngrivia said. “I ca’not keep sittin’ behind a logis-desk somewhere like I been doin’ for the past two years and let others fight this war. I hope you ken that, Sir.”

  “I understand it only too well, Colonel.” General Schopper gave her a reassuring smile. “And I think, perhaps, that you might be just the officer I’m looking for.”

  Rasha’kean brushed a loose strand of long blond hair back from her face. “As long as I can be of service in some ‘active’ capacity, sir, I’m willin’ to try almost anythin’.” Just get me into the fighting, she thought.

  “Unfortunately, the job I need you for won’t be active in the way you mean it. In fact, it will require even more desk work than you’ve been doing.”

  “But sir, I’ve been tryin’ to tell you that I d’not-”

  Schopper held up a heavy hand. “Let me finish, Colonel. I’m working on a plan for the Planetary Force to play a major role in the rest of this war, but I need the best logistics officer I can find to make that work. Your dossier tells me that you could be that officer.”

  Rasha’kean held her emotions in check. She had to convince Schopper to give her a combat command, and this might be her only chance. “Do you ken what my name means, sir? Rasha’kean means ‘she who is born to battle.’ I took fooly-pride in that when I was a-growin’, but now’s time to live up to the name my parents gave me. I’m a trained combat officer, sir, trained to fight, not to be some superclerk routin’ supplies around the galaxy. I d’not want to be your logistics officer or anyone else’s. I want a combat command. I owe that to my parents – and to Sondak.”

  “Now listen, Colonel, if we need-”

  “No,” she said, angered by his tone. “You listen, sir. I have a free commission-purchased with my parents blood. Since they both died in service, you ca’not hold me in. I can resign my commission any time I damn well please.”

  She paused and caught her breath, fighting the frustration that boiled inside her – knowing she had not convinced him yet. “Either you find a combat command for me in the Planetary Force or I’ll resign this stinkin’ colonelcy and enlist as a common spacer on a line ship. At least there I stand a chance of gettin’ in the middle of it.”

  Schopper stared at her for a long moment after she stopped speaking. “Tell you what,” he said finally, ‘I’ll offer you a compromise. You join my logistics staff now and help work on the plans for invading the U.C.S., and when we put those plans into action, I’ll find a command for you. Is that fair enough?”

  “A combat command,” she insisted.

  “Yes, Colonel Ingrivia, a combat command.”

  S
he wanted to believe him, but the Service had made other promises to her that were broken as easily as cheap glass on a hard floor. “You’ll warrant that, sir? No tricks, I mean.

  “Damn it, Ingrivia, I said I would do it. What more do you want?” His anger and impatience were clear in his voice.

  Rasha’kean instinctively sensed it was time to ease her pressure on him. She tilted her head and blinked quickly as she gave General Schopper the smile her mother had called “the charmer.” ‘‘I’m sorry, sir. I d’not question your integrity,” she said as she watched the lines in his brow soften. “But, the Service has broken promises before, and I just want to be sure I get to help fight this war.”

  “I know you do, Ingrivia, but you can help most by doing it my way and joining my logistics staff first. There will be time enough for you to get into the fighting.”

  How easy men are to disarm, she thought. The right smile on a pretty face and their resistance is cut in half. Schopper was no more resistant to that cheap tactic than most other men she had known. “All right, sir. I accept.”

  “Good, Ingrivia. Report here tomorrow morning and I’ll introduce you to the rest of my team. And Colonel?”

  “Yes, sir?” As she stood up, Rasha’kean tried to read the expression on his face.

  “I suggest that you not overuse that disarming smile of yours. Use it too often and it won’t be as effective.”

  For the first time in a long time Rasha’kean blushed. It was only the barest hint of warmth spreading through her cheeks, but she knew it showed. She also knew that she had underestimated General Schopper and would have to be careful not to do that again. “Thank you, sir. I’ll remember that.” She saluted, a natural smile fighting for control of her face.

  “See you in the morning,” Schopper said, returning her salute, “about ten hundred hours.”