Wing Commander #07 False Color by William Forstchen (novels for students TXT) 📗

. . . and before Ragark rolls over us or the Confederation changes policies again and decides we're a threat to the peace," Richards said. "Geoff's right, it is a tall order. But it's something we have to try. And you gentlemen are going to be involved . . . under the leadership of your humble servant, of course."

"What do you have in mind?" Tolwyn asked.

'We've been getting pretty good at salvage ops, Geoff. Have a whole team that can work miracles. We're going to take a battle group out to the Vaku system and take a look at that wreck. If there are any Cats still out there, we'll take them down. Then we'll put the salvage team aboard and see what we can do. Assuming we can reactivate her, I'll command Karga's battle group as senior admiral. You'll be skippering her, Geoff. It's a step down from leading a fleet, but we need talented ship-captains a hell of a lot more than we need senior flag officers. Interested?"

Tolwyn leaned forward and gave a nod, more animated than Bondarevsky had seen him in a long time. "Just point me to the bridge," he said. "If that thing'll fly, I'll take her anywhere you want to go!"

Richards chuckled. "Easy does it, Geoff. If this doesn't pan out, you're likely to end up commanding some outpost . . . Hellhole, maybe. And we still don't know if we've really got any hope of making it work."

"And me, Admiral?" Bondarevsky asked.

"You'll have to take a cut in grade too, Jason," Richards told him. "But I think it's a job you'll be able to sink your teeth into. Wing Commander, with an acting rank of captain and all the pilots we can scrape together to fly off that oversized tub."

"Odds are she won't be carrying much that'll fly, sir," he pointed out. "If she went down fighting, her squadrons would have been deployed."

"We'll shuttle in fighters if we have to," Kruger said. "We're sending you out in our one large carrier, the Independence. Once you've decided what you need, the carrier will bring in additional birds to fill out your complement just as fast as we can get them mobilized."

Bondarevsky nodded slowly, his mind already racing ahead to grapple with the problems he knew would face them on the salvage mission. But while he was by no means confident of success on the venture, given everything that might go wrong, he realized that this was just the kind of challenge he'd been looking for. Win or lose, he'd put his best into it.

"That's the plan in a nutshell, gentlemen," Richards concluded. "Karga's just waiting for us out there. She's named for a Cat folk hero. His story reads something like David and Goliath, except Goliath's the good guy and David gets beat to a bloody pulp. But in honor of it, we've designated this as Project Goliath. May it be successful!"

"Hear, hear," Kruger said, clinking his beer can against the admiral's. "The battle group's almost assembled, so you'll be leaving in a day or two. Start thinking of anything you think we'll need . . . or anyone, for that matter. Goliath has top priority. And God help us all if you fail out there."

CHAPTER 4

"Brave comrades are the Warrior's most cherished gift."

from the Fifth Codex2:17:38

Shuttle Independence Alpha Orbiting Landreich, Landreich System 1447 hours (CST), 2670.298

"We're ready to begin final approach now, sir. Would you like to be tryin' your hand at the trap?"

Bondarevsky turned to look at Aengus Harper across the narrow confines of the shuttle cockpit. "It's been a while since I flew a shuttle, Lieutenant," he said. "And onto an unfamiliar carrier deck . . ." Despite his words he was sorely tempted. Taking the stick on a spacecraft, even a slow-moving, antiquated shuttle, would be a taste of everything Bondarevsky had lost in the last few months and years. But he was out of practice, and it wouldn't do at all for the newly appointed Wing Commander of the Goliath Project to crack up the first time he tried to make a landing . . . and on someone else's ship at that!

"Maybe not so unfamiliar at that, sir," Harper told him. "If you'll be lookin' at your monitor . . ." Bondarevsky glanced down at the display in the center of his console. The shuttle was taking them up to the Independence, the pride of the Landreich fleet. Admirals Richards and Tolwyn, together with a small Cadre of staffers, were riding in back, but Harper had extended the invitation to Bondarevsky to join him in the cockpit for the flight. It was the young lieutenant's way of thanking him for wangling him a spot on his personal staff, with the promise of an assignment to the Goliath Project Flight Wing if and when such an organization materialized. With the priority status President Kruger had granted the operation, it had been easy to arrange Harper's transfer from Themistocles.

For an instant he didn't see anything special on his monitor, but then Bondarevsky did a double-take. He knew the ship that was framed in that screen, knew every line and curve the way a man might know his lover. Even the regular pulse of the ID beacon was familiar. Every one had its own special character, and Jason Bondarevsky had learned this one by heart in years gone by.

"Tarawa," he said softly. It wasn't just an escort carrier of the same class . . . it was Tarawa herself.

"Aye, sir, that it is," Harper said with a grin. "We picked the old girl up for a song when the confees started scrapping the fleet. She wasn't in very good shape, I'm afraid . . . but Old Max turned his salvage crew loose on her, and now she's ready for action."

Bondarevsky didn't respond. He was studying the magnified image on his monitor, thinking about all this old