The Independent Command

The Independent Command is the third of the three science fiction novels of the Flight Engineer by S. M. Stirling and James Doohan.

Plot summary

In the final novel of the Flight Engineer series, the crew of the Invincible find themselves in a distant, as yet unexplored by humans, section of the galaxy. There, they find the origin of the Fibian allies who have aided the Mollies so well in their war with the Commonwealth.

While they work to unravel the mystery of the Fibians, the Commonwealth is near to running out of antihydrogen completely.

Successfully gaining the Fibians as an allied species (themselves divided along a sort of grouping by color, only one color of which actually having allied itself with the Mollies) the Invincible returns to human space just as an otherwise final battle has been fought. The Mollie fleet is completely demolished, but their Fibian allies, despite taking losses of their own, still has roughly a three to one advantage over the Commonwealth. However, with the majority of the Fibian groups allying themselves with the Commonwealth, the Mollies' Fibian allies are quickly overwhelmed and the Commonwealth emerges victorious.

References