Chapter 47: Deja Vu
*****
Just a little more than two weeks after departing the Picard city of Zarah, Jack stood on the prow of the
Destiny
looking due east.
Though the skies were vivid blue and the waters calm and sparkling, he could see nothing but an endless horizon as far as the eye could see. His own view was misleading.
Somewhere just on the horizon, the naval base of Quiller's Cove beckoned his force to come closer. The master of the base, Commodore Stanhope Lucas, had sent a coded message to him on a private comm line with an invitation to Quiller's Cove, an act of gross treason if discovered by Bancroft and his forces.
Jack knew why Lucas had acted the way he did. There was no love lost between Lucas and Bancroft, rivals of several decades going back to when Jack was just a boy. Bancroft usually had the upper hand in that quarrel, relegating Lucas to the backwater naval station without the chance of coming home.
It was this heavy-handed sleight that opened the door for Jack to gain Lucas' loyalty. And although he couldn't exactly count on Lucas as an ally just yet, he at least knew he wouldn't be an enemy.
And that meant denying the base to Javan forces who were still more than two weeks out from Quiller's according to Lucas.
Jack sighed briefly as he thought about the final war being upon them. Somewhere out there, the grandest Javan fleet that had ever set sail was waiting for him. It was full of ships that he was very familiar with, and staffed by officers that he'd once commanded. Many of those men celebrated his name after the Battle of Aberdeen, when the fleet achieved its decisive victory over the Occitanian force blockading it.
How fortunes had changed. Not quite three years after the battle, Jack was coming once more to meet that fleet as an enemy instead of a commander.
Was he ready for that action? Was he ready to treat his former comrades as foes?
At least he knew his fleet was as prepared as could be for the action in front of them. The grand armada of the Western nations stretched out for miles behind him, led by their dazzling warships with their powerful gun barrels pointed to the sky. Jack commanded a force that was made of nearly thirty-six battleships and some fifty cruisers, the largest such fleet he'd ever seen assembled in one place. Amongst those ships were eighty smaller vessels as well as the first dedicated aircraft carrier in history, the
Centurion
.
It was a fleet that dwarfed the size of the Javan fleet that was present at the Battle of Aberdeen. It was also one made of many nations, with the Galicians and the Swabians providing the most ships of the total.
It was also the first time that the Galicians and the Swabians had operated as part of the same alliance, uniting their forces for their first joint operation in their histories.
Their cooperation was duly needed. Though Jack still didn't have official numbers, he estimated the Javan fleet in front of him had a slight edge in terms of overall firepower. The Javans would be able to field nearly forty battleships by his calculations, along with a greater host of smaller ships. Like his force, it was also the greatest naval fleet assembled in Javan history, and it was bred for one explicit purpose--the destruction of Jack and the conquest of the entire Fourth Vector.
It was a mission that he couldn't allow to succeed.
Though outnumbered in firepower and suffering from longer supply lines, Jack had a few advantages that he hoped would tip the balance of power.
One was his number of airplanes. The
Centurion
was packed with naval airpower, with nearly eighty planes stuffed on its decks and in the hangar below. Twenty of those planes had recently joined the fleet after an emergency levy from Carinthia to replace those lost in the storm. The rest of his airpower was in the form of seaplanes attached to the various ships in his fleet, and with the recent advances in technology, Jack hoped to have a distinct advantage by controlling the skies above the seas.
Another advantage was his stockpiles of Sorellan fire. Recently replenished after a brief stop in Sorella, Jack had the stores distributed to his most powerful ships. Though the fire wouldn't strike a killing blow against the ships in Bancroft's navy, they would incinerate the crews unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast range.
The last advantage that Jack could count on was the moral superiority of his cause. Every nation in the Western alliance had joined together to fight against Bancroft, a tyrant seeking to rob them of their way of life and turn them into nothing more than slaves meant to power the Javan war machine. Jack's people were fighting for their freedom--freedom from an overseas emperor who thought nothing of their customs, their histories, their families, or their desires to live lives of their own choosing.
It was an incredibly strong motivator. These men had to win or their way of life would die. On the other hand, Bancroft's men were fighting for plunder and riches. They were fighting for resources that could be stripped from the West in order to power Java's industries at home.
In that regard, the Western alliance had every ounce of moral superiority over their enemy.
Jack hoped his advantages would be enough. There was nothing that was more at stake than their freedom, and he couldn't allow Bancroft to take it away.
He would not allow his people to become slaves.
"Jack?"
Distracted from his inner thoughts, he turned to see Abigail making her way toward the bow. Shunning her silken queen's robes, Abigail was dressed in the uniform of a Galician commodore today, a sharp look that made her look both imposing and sexy at the same time.
She stopped when she reached him, her hand resting against his back.
"You've been gone for some time," she said. "Are you okay? What are you thinking about?"
Jack knew better than to lie to his wife. "Just what's on the other side of that horizon."
"Do you mean Quiller's Cove? Or Java?"
Jack smirked. "Both, quite frankly. And the fact that the Javan fleet is somewhere in between."
"At least we're getting to Quiller's first, Jack. We can deny that to our enemy."
"True, but what kind of reception will we get from Lucas? Lucas has made it a point that he's not an enemy but will he be a friend? What about the forces under his command? Even if Lucas is friendly, will they obey his orders?"
"What will be, will be, Jack. You know that. There's no sense worrying about it now."
Jack turned to look at his wife, her face unusually serene and calm. Pregnancy had been good to Abigail so far. Though she was just over two months pregnant, she'd displayed a remarkable change since then.
Gone was the anxious Abigail of recent months, nervous and fretting constantly about her inability to become pregnant.
It was replaced by a calm and confident Abigail, thoroughly tranquil now that she felt her long-awaited goal had been achieved.
It was a quite curious change of pace, and Jack welcomed the changes in his brunette wife.
"Pregnancy has been great to you," he joked. "You're quite unflappable now."
Abigail let out a shy smile as her hand rested over her stomach. It was still too early to show, but Jack noticed that she quite enjoyed drawing attention to her midsection these days.
Almost as if she wanted the world to watch her belly grow alongside her.
"I just mean that I have every confidence that we're going to succeed," she replied finally. "And it all starts with Quiller's and Lucas. I am looking forward to seeing him again."
"I am too, although I have to wonder if he'll be any different than before. The last time we saw him, we both fought on the same team. Will our changing fortunes necessitate a change in reception?"
"I don't think that Lucas is that petty, Jack. He's not Bancroft."
"No, but he'll have his own interests as well. And he's about to be squeezed between two unstoppable forces, both of which could spell serious trouble if he picks the wrong side. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes right now."
"It seems to me then that his choice is easy."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "How do you figure?"
Abigail smiled. "Well, if there's the chance of trouble with either force that is approaching, at least the smart thing to do is to ally with the one that gives you the best chance for a better life. We can do that. If Bancroft wins, Lucas dies at Quiller's Cove an old man without ever seeing his home again. If we win, we can give him something he truly wants--a return to his home."
Abigail's words made sense, and Jack found himself nodding along to them. His side had so much more to offer Lucas that he hoped the commodore would see that upon Jack's arrival.
Still, Jack would count on nothing until he knew definitively where Lucas stood.
To that end, Jack wasn't surprised when Twitch came up behind them immediately after, offering the customary salute as soon as he stopped.
"Jack, we're within range of Quiller's Cove," said Twitch. "Our planes launched from the
Centurion
confirm the base is mostly unguarded except for a few light cruisers and destroyers. The Javan fleet is nowhere in sight. From the looks of things, we aren't meeting a hostile reception."
"Excellent, Twitch. I still want the fleet in battle-stations during our approach. I want the harbor at Quiller's completely covered, and I want regular patrols of the north, east, and south grids out from Quiller's. I don't want to be caught by surprise by the enemy until we can confirm friendly activity at the base."
Twitch nodded and was soon moving back to the bridge. "I'll let them know, sir."
The next three hours were a very anxious time for just about everyone. For the Javans on the
Destiny
, this was the first brush with their own countrymen that could lead to actual fighting. As Jack looked around the bridge, he noticed his divisional officers all wore uncertain expressions, with many of them hoping for the same thing--to not have to fight against their own people today.
Finally, the quiet island of Quiller's Cove became visible a short while later. Jack watched the island from afar, keeping his binoculars glued to his face. In the air above them, the planes from the
