Time Commander (The First Admiral Series) by William J. Benning
Authors: William J. Benning
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throughout the universe by the Garmaurians prior to their ruinous civil war.
The Administrative Centre, deep in the heart of the planet itself, had now become Sownus’ second home. Not that Sownus really had a first home. With his entire family now dead; killed in the Thexxian Exodus, Sownus really had no roots or commitments to tie him to any one location. He did, however, have one commitment in life that he hoped would give him the kind of stability that he found himself desperately craving: Her name was Shula Targianen, and she was a Theatrical Stage Manager back on New Thexxia.
In his usual tongue-tied, insecure and bashful way, he had tried to strike up a stunted conversation with the most beautiful creature he had ever seen in his life. Shula, slightly concerned at the attentions of this odd, bow-legged young Alliance officer, had done her best to ignore Sownus. That had been almost a year previously, and as was the way of most things Thexxian, the formal courtship would take several more years before Sownus could consider a “Bonding”.
To his credit, Sownus, however, made sure that his romantic attachments did not interfere with his duties. Karap Sownus considered himself scrupulously fair in his professional endeavours. Shula kept her private and professional life separate, so he should be able to do the same. As he thought about Shula, he dragged his mind back to the situation on the Tergus Star System. The last report he had sent to First Admiral Caudwell, with First Fleet, was that there was a dangerous build up of Ganthoran forces in the area. The pattern had been apparent for many weeks now. However, First Admiral Caudwell had still insisted on leaving Third Fleet badly exposed around the planet of Tergus. Sownus hoped that the First Admiral wasn’t making a terrible mistake.
It was the job of the Senior Intelligence Officer to provide as much relevant information as possible for the First Admiral to make big decisions. Yet, with the Tergus System situation, the First Admiral seemed to be going against all the indications and advice that Sownus’ Intelligence Command was sending him. Well, the First Admiral must know what he’s doing , Sownus considered, but it did seem that he was taking a tremendous risk. The decision and judgement of the First Admiral made those decisions.
That, after all, was what First Admirals were paid to do.
Chapter 8: The Star Cruiser Aquarius, Tergus System
“Hello?” Billy Caudwell stared intently at the three-dimensional image on the War Table. “And, what do we have here then?”
Billy zoomed in on a small formation of vessels approaching the right flank of the Ganthoran “Six-Cigar” Carriers.
A group of thirty vessels, in a ragged cluster formation, snapped into sharp focus. Billy recognised the vessels immediately as Universal Alliance Ranger-Class Long-Range Patrol vessels. The short, squat Ranger was used to patrol the isolated and desolate frontiers of the Universal Alliance, and looked very similar to toads back on Earth. With a crew of twenty, the Ranger patrolled out in the inhospitable wastes of the Alliances’ ever expanding frontiers; maintaining as much law, order, and political control over the areas as their lightly-armed vessels could muster.
Not specifically designed as a combat vessel, the Ranger did have Force Shielding and a Trion Drive, but was burdened with a badly underpowered engine capacity, two medium-yield and six low–yield pulsar cannon. In terms of combat effectiveness, the Ranger was very poorly equipped. Designed for long range patrol, the original Garmaurian designers had considered that the Ranger was going to be doing nothing more dangerous than chasing off joy-riders, and dealing with angry mobs of poorly-armed, protesting colonists. Scraping together any, and every, vessel that could carry a pulsar-cannon, Parbe’an was using the battle in front of his formation to draw attention away from this ragged group of Rangers.
The Administrative Centre, deep in the heart of the planet itself, had now become Sownus’ second home. Not that Sownus really had a first home. With his entire family now dead; killed in the Thexxian Exodus, Sownus really had no roots or commitments to tie him to any one location. He did, however, have one commitment in life that he hoped would give him the kind of stability that he found himself desperately craving: Her name was Shula Targianen, and she was a Theatrical Stage Manager back on New Thexxia.
In his usual tongue-tied, insecure and bashful way, he had tried to strike up a stunted conversation with the most beautiful creature he had ever seen in his life. Shula, slightly concerned at the attentions of this odd, bow-legged young Alliance officer, had done her best to ignore Sownus. That had been almost a year previously, and as was the way of most things Thexxian, the formal courtship would take several more years before Sownus could consider a “Bonding”.
To his credit, Sownus, however, made sure that his romantic attachments did not interfere with his duties. Karap Sownus considered himself scrupulously fair in his professional endeavours. Shula kept her private and professional life separate, so he should be able to do the same. As he thought about Shula, he dragged his mind back to the situation on the Tergus Star System. The last report he had sent to First Admiral Caudwell, with First Fleet, was that there was a dangerous build up of Ganthoran forces in the area. The pattern had been apparent for many weeks now. However, First Admiral Caudwell had still insisted on leaving Third Fleet badly exposed around the planet of Tergus. Sownus hoped that the First Admiral wasn’t making a terrible mistake.
It was the job of the Senior Intelligence Officer to provide as much relevant information as possible for the First Admiral to make big decisions. Yet, with the Tergus System situation, the First Admiral seemed to be going against all the indications and advice that Sownus’ Intelligence Command was sending him. Well, the First Admiral must know what he’s doing , Sownus considered, but it did seem that he was taking a tremendous risk. The decision and judgement of the First Admiral made those decisions.
That, after all, was what First Admirals were paid to do.
Chapter 8: The Star Cruiser Aquarius, Tergus System
“Hello?” Billy Caudwell stared intently at the three-dimensional image on the War Table. “And, what do we have here then?”
Billy zoomed in on a small formation of vessels approaching the right flank of the Ganthoran “Six-Cigar” Carriers.
A group of thirty vessels, in a ragged cluster formation, snapped into sharp focus. Billy recognised the vessels immediately as Universal Alliance Ranger-Class Long-Range Patrol vessels. The short, squat Ranger was used to patrol the isolated and desolate frontiers of the Universal Alliance, and looked very similar to toads back on Earth. With a crew of twenty, the Ranger patrolled out in the inhospitable wastes of the Alliances’ ever expanding frontiers; maintaining as much law, order, and political control over the areas as their lightly-armed vessels could muster.
Not specifically designed as a combat vessel, the Ranger did have Force Shielding and a Trion Drive, but was burdened with a badly underpowered engine capacity, two medium-yield and six low–yield pulsar cannon. In terms of combat effectiveness, the Ranger was very poorly equipped. Designed for long range patrol, the original Garmaurian designers had considered that the Ranger was going to be doing nothing more dangerous than chasing off joy-riders, and dealing with angry mobs of poorly-armed, protesting colonists. Scraping together any, and every, vessel that could carry a pulsar-cannon, Parbe’an was using the battle in front of his formation to draw attention away from this ragged group of Rangers.
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