Captain Henry Gallant Read online

  CAPTAIN HENRY GALLANT

  H. Peter Alesso

  THE HENRY GALLANT SAGA

  Midshipman Henry Gallant in Space © 2013

  Lieutenant Henry Gallant © 2014

  Henry Gallant and the Warrior © 2015

  Commander Henry Gallant © 2016

  Captain Henry Gallant © 2019

  Other Novels by H. Peter Alesso

  Captain Hawkins © 2016

  Dark Genius © 2017

  Youngblood © 2018

  CAPTAIN HENRY GALLANT

  H. Peter Alesso

  hpeteralesso.com

  © 2019 H. Peter Alesso

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, dialogue, and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without prior permission in writing from:

  VSL Publications

  Pleasanton, CA 94566

  videosoftwarelab.com

  Edition 1.00

  ISBN-13: 9781077670242

  ∞

  Not everyone who helps you,

  is a friend.

  Not everyone who hinders you,

  is an enemy.

  Figure 1: Stars Surrounding the Solar System

  United Planets Home Fleet

  1st Fleet – Fleet Admiral George Forsyth Collingsworth

  4 Dreadnoughts –

  Conqueror, Colossus, Defiant, Superb

  4 Battlecruisers –

  Achilles, Agamemnon, Arduous, Audacious

  4 Spacecraft Carriers –

  Arc Royal, Eagle, Hermes, Lexington

  24 Cruisers

  48 Destroyers

  Stealth Recon – Invidia

  72 Auxiliary Support Ships

  UP Fleet in the Ross Star System

  3rd Fleet - Vice Admiral Simon L. Graves

  4 Dreadnought –

  Vanguard, Valiant, Vanguard, Victory

  4 Battlecruisers –

  Indefatigable, Indomitable, Inflexible, Invincible

  4 Spacecraft Carriers –

  Constellation, Courageous, Glorious, Saratoga

  24 Cruisers

  48 Destroyers

  Stealth Recon – Warrior

  48 Auxiliary Support Ships

  2nd Marine Division - Brigadier General William ‘Bulldog’ McIntyre

  Headquarters Battalion

  2nd Marine Regiment

  4th Marine Regiment

  6th Marine Regiment

  8th Marine Regiment

  10th Tank Battalion

  12th Artillery Battalion

  16nd Reconnaissance Company –

  Captain James Steward

  20th SeaBee Construction Battalion

  Titan Fleet in the Ross Star System - Admiral Zzey

  6 Dreadnought

  6 Battlecruisers

  6 Spacecraft Carriers – Vampiri, Wwrath

  96 Cruisers

  288 Destroyers

  288 Auxiliary Support Ships

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1 Streak Across the Sky

  Chapter 2 Homecoming

  Chapter 3 The Gathering Storm

  Chapter 4 Top Gun

  Chapter 5 A Simple Request

  Chapter 6 Let Some Dreams Go

  Chapter 7 The Enemy of My Friend

  Chapter 8 Liftoff

  Chapter 9 The Loneliest Outpost

  Chapter 10 Selection Day

  Chapter 11 The Invitation

  Chapter 12 The Constellation

  Chapter 13 Squadron Leaders

  Chapter 14 Shakedown Cruise

  Chapter 15 Suspicion

  Chapter 16 Unavoidable

  Chapter 17 Deployment

  Chapter 18 Captain’s Mast

  Chapter 19 Ross

  Chapter 20 Ace

  Chapter 21 Convoy

  Chapter 22 Spec Ops

  Chapter 23 A Grave Mistake

  Chapter 24 How Heroes Die

  Chapter 25 Forward

  Chapter 26 Strike

  Chapter 27 Crash

  Chapter 28 Counterstrike

  Chapter 29 SAR

  Chapter 30 Foxy

  Chapter 31 Getting Out Alive

  Chapter 32 Chameleon

  Chapter 33 Home

  Chapter 34 The Raid

  FROM THE AUTHOR

  Chapter 1

  Streak Across the Sky

  Cold night air smacked Rob Ryan in the face as he stepped out of the Liftoff bar—a favorite haunt of pilots. He was still weaving his way through the parking terminal looking for his single-seat jet-flyer when a familiar face appeared at his elbow.

  Grabbing his arm, his friend said, “You shouldn’t fly. Let me give you a ride.”

  Ryan straightened to his full six-two height and shrugged off his friend’s hand.

  “I’m fine,” he said, swiping a lock of unkempt brown hair out of his eyes.

  “Don’t be pigheaded. There’s a difference between self-reliance and foolishness.”

  He pushed past his friend. “Nonsense. I fly better when I’m . . . mellow.”

  As he left his buddy behind, he noticed a young woman who had come out of the bar after him. He had spent the past hour eyeing this smokin’ hot redhead, but she had been with somebody. Now she was heading out on her own. She glanced at him and quickened her pace.

  A thought penetrated the fog in his mind.

  I’ll show her.

  At his Cobra 777 jet-flyer, he zipped up his pressure suit, buckled into the cockpit, and pulled on his AI neural interface—all the while imagining a wild take-off that would wow the redhead.

  He jockeyed his jet along the taxiway onto the runway. When the turbo launch kicked in, the black-and-chrome jet spewed a cloud of exhaust and dust across the strip. He jammed the throttle all the way in and gave a whoop of pure joy at the roar and explosive thrust of the machine. The exhilaration—a primitive, visceral feeling—increased by the second, along with his altitude and speed. His love of speed was only matched by his almost unhealthy fascination with flying machines—too fast was never fast enough.

  For a few seconds, his mind flashed back to his very first flight. The thrill only lasted a few minutes before the mini flyer spun out and crashed. Without a word, his father picked him up and sat him back down in the seat, restarting the engine with a wink and a grin. Clearest of all was the memory of his father’s approval as he took off again and soared higher and faster than before.

  Now he sliced through the crisp night air in a military jet that had his name engraved on the side. He ignited an extra thruster to drive the engine even hotter. Riding the rush of adrenaline, he pulled back on the stick to pull the nose up. Atmospheric flying was different than being in space, and for him, it had a sensual rhythm all its own. As he reached altitude, he pulled a tight loop and snapped the jet inverted, giving himself a bird’s-eye view of the ground below.

  But instead of reveling in admiration as expected, he found himself fighting for control against a powerful shockwave as a Scorpion 699 jet blew past him. The blast of its fuel exhaust was nothing compared to the indignation and shame that burned his face.

  It was the redhead.

  Damn. She’s good.

  His pulse raced as he came to full alert. Determined to pursue her, he angled the ship across air traffic lanes, breaking every safety regulation in the book. Instinctively his eyes scanned the horizon and the edges around him, watching for threats or other machines that might interfere with his trajectory. Pinwheeling in a high-G turn, he felt the crush of gravity against his chest, yet still,
his hand on the throttle urged ever more speed from the machine.

  He lost track of the Scorpion in the clouds, and in mere seconds she maneuvered behind him. He tried to shake her using every evasive maneuver he had learned in his fighter training but couldn’t do it.

  His eyes roamed the sky, watching for potential dangers. The night sky was dark, but several landmarks lit up the ground below him. Earth’s capital, Melbourne, glowed with activity to the north; a mountain range stretched across the horizon 50 km to the west, and an airport lay to the south at the edge of the ocean.

  As he scanned the skyline, he noticed a radio-telescope antenna. Impulsively he dove toward it, the Scorpion on his tail.

  At the last moment, the redhead broke pursuit to avoid the antenna, but in a moment of reckless folly, Ryan crashed through the flimsy wire mesh, no more substantial to his Cobra than a wisp of cloud.

  “That’ll need a patch,” he chuckled.

  But once more, the Scorpion blew by him. He watched it roar away as if he were in slow motion. As the redhead curved back toward him for another pass, he gritted his teeth in frustration. With thrusters already at max burn, he punched the afterburner to create his own shock wave and turned head-on into her path.

  “Damn!” he screamed as the other ship twisted away.

  His golden rule for staying alive while flying was “never yield but always leave yourself an out.” Folly had made him reckless, and he knew his reflexes were sluggish, but he was pissed at himself for letting this pilot provoke him.

  Recovering his reason, he leveled off and threw down the skid flaps to reach a more reasonable speed. The jet took the torque and inertia strain, and the flashing red lights on his display turned yellow and then green.

  Despite his irritation, he allowed himself a faint smile when his AI read the Scorpion’s registration: Lorelei Steward.

  Good sense advised that he throttle back, but pride won out. Spotting the Scorpion silhouetted against a cloud, he jammed the throttle forward yet again.

  Finally behind her, his smile broadened. She wouldn’t slip away this time.

  She pulled her jet into a violent oblique pop, rolled inverted until the nose pointed to the ground then returned to upright.

  He stuck with her, move for move.

  Abruptly she angled for the nearby mountain range. He chased her, low and fast, through a pass and down into a twisting canyon, rolling and pitching in a dizzying display of aerobatic skill. He kept close on her six until they blew out of the ravine.

  In a desperate ploy to shake him, she turned back toward Melbourne’s airspace and headed straight into a crowded flying highway.

  Ryan was so close behind that it took a few seconds before he realized her blunder.

  She had turned into an oncoming traffic lane.

  The cockpit warning lights lit up the cabin as Ryan dodged a stream of oncoming vehicles. Up ahead, Lorelei ducked under a passenger liner that swerved directly into his path.

  Time slowed to a crawl as he foresaw his fate—he could escape by pulling up—but that would force the crowded passenger liner to dive and crash into the ground.

  “Damn it all!” he yelled and dove—leaving the liner a clear path to safety.

  Through the neural interface, his AI shrieked,

  TOO LOW! PULL UP!

  TOO LOW! PULL UP!

  He used every bit of expertise he could muster to twist, turn, and wrestle his jet into a controlled descent. His vision narrowed as the lights of city and ships gave way to a line of unyielding rocks zooming toward him. In a blink, he ran out of time—and altitude.

  BRACE FOR IMPACT!

  The Cobra plowed a trough a hundred meters long across the desert floor. Ryan sat in the cockpit, stunned and disoriented amid the flames and wreckage until his lungs convulsed from the dense smoke. An acidic stench and the taste of jet fuel assailed his nose and throat, rousing him from his stupor. Fumbling to unbuckle the safety harness, he held his breath until he could release the hatch and climb out of his ruined machine. Shaking hands searched his body for broken bones. To his relief, he was intact . . . if he didn’t count the ringing in his ears and the blood that coursed down his face.

  The maxim from flight school ran through his mind: “Any landing you walk away from . . .” But as he limped away, his beloved Cobra burned into a twisted mound of molten metal, its nose buried in the dusty red ground.

  He shook his head at the wreck. “Captain Gallant is going to have my ass for this.”

  Chapter 2

  Homecoming

  The dark April thunderstorm that blanketed his shuttle-jet reflected Captain Henry Gallant’s mood. The news from fleet headquarters was as disappointing as it was unexpected—a blow to both his ego and his career. Now he had to tell his wife and await her verdict.

  They had married with their eyes open to the challenges of military life during wartime—frequent moves at the military’s discretion, irregular periods of separation and worry, times of uncertainty, and difficult choices. Though they struggled at times, so far, they had managed to find a balance.

  As he trudged up the steps to his one-bedroom apartment in the suburbs of Melbourne, he saw Alaina through the kitchen window. Her blonde hair pulled into a ponytail and the casual clothes in no way detracted from her natural grace and lithe beauty. He could already hear her singing while she fussed over the evening meal.

  When he opened the door, the undeniable joy in her eyes lifted his mood. After three years of marriage, she was still as desirable as the day they wed.

  “Henry, why didn’t you tell me we’re having guests for dinner?” Her playful pout only made her more beautiful.

  “Guests?” he asked with a puzzled look.

  “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten already! John called to ask what time he should get here.”

  “John Roberts is coming?”

  “Yes. And I asked him to have Grace bring one of her special desserts.”

  “Grace too?”

  “Of course,” she replied, waving her hand as she turned back to the meal. Alaina’s finger hovered over the entree selections and accompanying side dishes on the AI menu. “Steak okay? Or would you rather have lamb?”

  Without waiting for his answer, she adjusted the oven settings for medium-well-done, lightly seasoned. The meal would be delivered to the dinner table at the pre-set time.

  Gallant sighed at the thought of skimping on lunch for weeks to make up for the expense. Life in the capital city stretched even a captain’s salary.

  “Steak is fine, but I don’t think John meant to bring Grace. I think he wanted a working evening with me, which you have now hijacked into a social event.”

  “I like John and Grace. Why shouldn’t they come and spend a pleasant evening with us?” asked Alaina in a huff.

  “The Warrior returned from the Ross star system today. John is being debriefed at headquarters tomorrow.”

  “What does that have to do with you?”

  “Remember the report on war strategy I wrote?”

  “Of course. You drove me crazy for days, pacing the floor, and never once told me what it was about.”

  “John probably wants to give me a heads-up on his insights on the combat readiness of the Titans.”

  “Why couldn’t he do that tomorrow?”

  “The room will be filled with top brass, many who don’t know him. He might want to ask for my advice.”

  “Why? Hasn’t everyone already read your report?”

  “That’s the problem. Fleet command hated it,” he said, his brows furrowing at the thought.

  “They disagreed with you?”

  “Disagreed is a modest assessment of the reaction. I stepped on some very big toes, and now it seems everyone at headquarters wants my head.”

  “Henry don’t be silly. Who wouldn’t value your expertise on Titan military strategy?” asked Alaina, squeezing his shoulder.

  “Admiral Graves, for one.”

  “Why?”
r />   “He sponsored an ambitious plan for a direct assault on a Titan star system. My report identified flaws in that strategy and advised against it. Now headquarters and Graves’ staff are accusing me of everything from incompetence to treason.”

  “I can’t believe that.”

  “Well, maybe not treason,” admitted Gallant, “but my job is in serious jeopardy. They’re even resurrecting that bugaboo about my lack of genetic engineering as a legitimate reason to doubt my judgment.”

  Alaina sighed. “Well, put that worry aside for this evening. John and Grace will be here within the hour. Let’s enjoy a pleasant evening with friends. It’ll do you good.”

  Gallant grumbled, “Let’s not keep them too long. It’s his first night back, you know.”

  Alaina started to protest, then her eyes widened. “Oh!” she said as the implication sank in.

  When the doorbell rang, Alaina had a ready welcome.

  “Hello, come in, come in. We’re delighted to see you,” she said, taking Grace’s wrap and giving her a hug.

  “Hello, Alaina. Henry,” the couple said in unison.

  Gallant wrapped his hand around Roberts’. “Good to see you home safely, John.”

  They held their grip for a long moment.

  Roberts whispered, “I must speak to you about an urgent matter.”

  “Can it wait until after dinner?” asked Gallant, reading the impatience on Roberts’ face.

  He nodded with a grim expression. “After dinner then.”

  They arranged themselves comfortably in the living room.

  Sitting in the chair across from John, Gallant brushed a lock of long brown hair off his brow. The youthful gesture had never left him.

  Alaina asked, “How about a drink?”

  “I’d love a martini,” said Grace.

  “Me too,” said Roberts.

  Alaina rose and dialed the AI for mixed drinks.

  Grace said, “You have a charming apartment.”

  “Thank you,” said Alaina. “Off-base housing is expensive, but I need to be near the university to continue my studies.”