{"id":2776,"date":"2025-05-03T15:31:22","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T22:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/?p=2776"},"modified":"2025-05-03T15:31:22","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T22:31:22","slug":"harvest-of-the-royal-fleet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/03\/harvest-of-the-royal-fleet\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvest of The Royal Fleet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

prompt: Center your story around something that doesn\u2019t go according to plan.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

available at Reedsy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A gash appeared in space, disgorging hundreds of ships of the Royal Fleet along the edge of an asteroid field. As soon as the last ship had emerged from L-space into real space, the gash faded from local timespace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAttention all ships of the Queen\u2019s Expedition: We claim another system in the name of Queen and Empire this day. Let the Empire rejoice, and all others weep, for the presence of the Royal Fleet.\u201d The communication device clicked off. \u201cScans, full fleet, full sweep. Route concerns to weapons and security, and all planetary and stellar scans to science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFull scans, aye. All scans and telemetry linked.\u201d The combat commander looked bored as she watched data scroll from left to right on her screen. The minutes passed by with the hum of a flagship bridge on another routine mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScans returning now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReport.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNothing from security or weapons, all flagged possible targets eliminated as false positives,\u201d the combat commander answered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd from science?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The science officer didn\u2019t raise his head from where he studied his screens of text and images. \u201cAs expected. Planets one through three ideal for mining, including extensive atmospheric mining on the second and average atmospheric mining opportunities on the third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBest colony location is fourth planet, although atmosphere is thin. Gravity wells on two and three are too extreme for extended stay. But\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut?\u201d The admiral\u2019s antennae twitched. \u201cOut with it, science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe things weapons and security called false positives \u2014 based on the last few minutes of scans, they\u2019re not natural. These signatures inside the asteroid field are moving under their own power, not in phase with orbital physics. These are ships. Two of them have reversed their direction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The communications device clicked again. \u201cAll fleet, all fleet, shields up, unknown vessels, contact starward inside the asteroid field. Combat stations.\u201d The admiral clicked off the device. \u201cComms, hail on all channels and patch through any response immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHailing all channels, aye.\u201d The communications officer\u2019s antennae drooped in a way that indicated he was focused on something. \u201cRadio communications, no known language or protocol.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScience, report on targets.\u201d The admiral stood tense behind her chair. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to start a war with our allies. Any idea who we\u2019re looking at?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNegative, Admiral. What little we can scan of them before they hide behind the asteroids matches nothing known to the Empire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The admiral took a deep breath she was unaware she\u2019d been needing. \u201cCombat commander, you\u2019re in charge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCombat in command, aye. Helm, full standby power for maneuvers. Weapons ready in Fire On Open configuration, lock on nearest targets flagged by science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWeapons FOO, aye. Obtaining locks \u2026 locking \u2026 locked on thirty-one targets last known locations. They\u2019re cowering behind the larger asteroids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combat commander\u2019s antennae stood in anticipatory tension. \u201cComms, patch their radio communications through. Even if we don\u2019t understand the language, we might get the mood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAye, Commander. Patching now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sound of the radio communications from the unknown ships came over the speakers on the bridge. The science officer closed all eight eyes and focused on the sounds coming from the radio transmissions. The speech was guttural, clipped, and lacking in tonality. He listened to the different voices, and how efficient their messages were despite their vocal limitations. He began to notice certain sounds repeated and thought they might be identifiers for the different speakers. One two-syllable sound was repeated at the end of every message, as if to say, \u201cI\u2019m done talking now, someone else can talk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey can\u2019t multiplex their communications,\u201d he said. \u201cHe raised his hand when he heard the sound again. That sound means they\u2019re done talking and someone else can transmit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The admiral sighed. \u201cFigures we\u2019d end up in a system with primitives. Anything science can get on them, let me know. If any survive, they\u2019ll be added to the Empire\u2019s labor pool.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAye, Admiral,\u201d the science officer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The radio communications went silent. One of the primitive ships maneuvered out from behind an asteroid and turned face-on to the flagship. Lights blinked on the primitive ship, and the flagship sensors picked up pulsed, long-wave laser scanning the ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combat commander gripped her chair. \u201cThey\u2019re marking us for targeting. Helm, evasive action! Weapons, full hot now! Fire at will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The radio chatter from the primitives started up again as the flagship moved with a speed and grace her size belied. Energy weapons blazed at the ship still sending out its pulsed laser beacon but did very little damage. The ship retreated into the asteroid field once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScience, what kind of shielding is that?\u201d the combat commander asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo energy shield signature, looks like ablative atmospheric shielding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combat commander\u2019s antennae twitched. \u201cThey take something that size into atmosphere?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combat commander, admiral, weapons officer, and science officer were still pondering their next move when the automated weapons systems began firing as a collision warning blared. The weapons broke the asteroid into pieces just in time for it to tear through the hull in hundreds of pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one, all seventy-four ships of the Royal Fleet were destroyed in a matter of minutes. A last, desperate L-space message was beamed from the last ship to die. \u201cSystem held by primitives, they\u2019ve killed us all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLucky, don\u2019t go out there, they look mean. Over.\u201d The voice on the radio belonged to her coworker, Amir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She laughed and keyed the mic. \u201cDon\u2019t sweat it, man. I\u2019m just going to try to get a read on the size. It looks tiny from here, but you know, it\u2019s hard to tell when they\u2019re outside the belt like that. Over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucky piloted her mining barge out from behind the asteroid Amir was parked against and fired up her LiDAR. No sooner had it started confirming that the ship was half the size of her barge, than the ship pivoted and squirmed in a way it shouldn\u2019t be able to. Then the rays started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her re-entry shield heated up and began sloughing off as she got back behind the asteroid as fast as her tub could go. \u201cThey fuckin\u2019 shot up my re-entry shield. Over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo much for non-hostile intents. Q crew, y\u2019all know what to do. Over.\u201d Grayson, the foreperson, was far more subdued on the radio than usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeet rocks at the bad guys!\u201d someone yelled on the radio, a moment before keying back in and adding, \u201cOver.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The assortment of barges, tugs, diggers, and corers went full burn against the asteroids they hid behind, doing a hard ninety-degree burn at the last possible moment to get away from the impact. Within minutes, the alien fleet was an expanding cloud of detritus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to be able to land,\u201d Lucky said, \u201cwill have to put into dock at Mars Orbital for repairs. Over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s gonna fuck the wallet,\u201d Grayson said, some of their usual jollity returning. \u201cAlright, folks, gather up all the trash from the broken toys. We\u2019re gonna more than make up for Lucky\u2019s shield with the new tech. Over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRoger, chief. We\u2019re already on it. Over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThanks, Diggity. Let\u2019s get rich. Over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGrayson, Corporate here. Sending half of P crew along with half of R crew to assist. Over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCorporate, we got it handled. Two, maybe three barge loads from all their ships. Where should we deliver? Over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll cancel the call for assist. They want it straight back to home base. Landing at GSC. Sorry, Lucky, you\u2019ll have to sit this one out. Over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lucky sighed and keyed her mic. \u201cRoger, Corporate, I\u2019m heading for Mars Orbital now before something important breaks. Out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cQ Crew,\u201d Grayson called over the radio, \u201csquawk 0011 to vote full share for Lucky. Over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The radio chirped dozens of times. \u201cCorporate for Lucky. Over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLucky, go for Corporate. Over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnanimous vote from Q Crew, you\u2019re getting a full share from this haul. We\u2019ll see you at MO. Out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEnough ass-grabbin\u2019 already. Let\u2019s get this shit loaded and get it back home. Out.\u201d Grayson sounded gruff, but the hint of playfulness was never far beneath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within a matter of hours, the once mighty Royal Fleet was loaded into three mining barges and headed back to Earth at a standard half burn. Grayson piped some music into the comms to entertain most \u2014 and annoy a few \u2014 of the miners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

prompt: Center your story around something that doesn\u2019t go according to plan. available at Reedsy A gash appeared in space, disgorging hundreds of ships of the Royal Fleet along the edge of an asteroid field. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[208],"tags":[210,228,209],"class_list":["post-2776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trunk-stories","tag-fiction","tag-science-fiction","tag-short-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pxT7i-IM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2777,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2776\/revisions\/2777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}