“Do you know what they’ve done?” Zhao asked. “What we’re doing out here?”
Schneider looked at DeSilva, and replied, “What have you found?”
“Here,” he said, walking to a wall, entering an access code and bringing up a view of one of the storage units, crates and boxes visible in the gloom. He tapped another control, turning up the lighting, and DeSilva saw a series of satellites along the far wall, equipment securely stowed all around them.
“Surveillance satellites,” Schneider asked.
“Defense satellites,” Wagner replied. “I was afraid of this. Before we left, we found out that they had developed a new system, designed essentially to conquer a planet in a single pass, assuming it is hitherto unguarded. Once deployed and installed, they can either face outward and defend the planet from attack or turn inward and force the population to bend to your will. Each holds forty nuclear-tipped missiles, yields a little under a megaton. I don’t need to tell you how much damage that could do to the surface if they were deployed.”
“You don’t think they would actually do it?” DeSilva asked. “Turn the planet into a nuclear wasteland? They’ve got to be designed to fight the Coalition.”
“You think the Families care about anything other than the establishment of a secure military base out here? They don’t need a civilization this prosperous for that. Hell, it works against them.” Wagner held up his tablet, and added, “From the information I’ve got, they’re doing far too well. If they pushed it, they could build a military fleet within a couple of years. They’ve got the technology they need. Hyperdrive-capable ships within five. If we can buy them some time, then they might be able to protect themselves. Maybe even help us overthrow the Tyrants, in the long term.”
“What can we do?” Schneider asked. “Sabotage the systems?”
Shaking her head, DeSilva replied, “Even if any of us had the skill to do that, we’d never get to them. They can get them into position in a single orbit and finish all the other assembly remotely. Don’t forget, they know that we’re working on board, working against them. They won’t take any risks.”
“The network’s going up in less than half an hour,” Zhao said. “Fitzroy finally briefed us about them this morning. Boasting about how effective they’ll be at forcing the population to do what we want. One of the locals already had a look at them, but she was just empty brass. Didn’t seem to really know what she was looking at, and I doubt the Captain volunteered to tell them.”
“Then there’s no way we can prevent the network being deployed,” Nguyen said. “Can the Atlanteans? What sort of military strength do they have?”
“I’ve been getting some of the reports from the surface, and while their capacity is somewhat limited, they’ve got sufficient anti-satellite capability to shoot them down, providing they do so before the weapons are armed and activated. A combination of aerospace interceptors and surface-based installations.” Wagner looked around, and added, “They’d have a good chance of taking down Endurance if they wanted, though I don’t think they could manage any heavier craft, and we’d be able to get away without any trouble. No capital ships, and that’s going to hurt their chances significantly in a firefight.”
“They’ve had more important things to do,” Nguyen replied. “I wish we’d done what they did. None of us would be out here right now if we had.” Frowning, he added, “We’ve got to find a way to get the Atlanteans to take down the network. Destroy it in place, or at the very least, threaten the Captain to prevent it being activated. That means we’ve got to get a message to the surface.”
“You won’t get through the communications system,” Zhao said. “I already looked at the network. All discriminators are on, all transmissions outside the ship blocked. The whole ship is under security lockdown.”
“Then we’re just going to have to make sure their President gets the message in person,” Wagner said. “He’s coming on board to give a joint address to his people, with the Captain. I have a suspicion that they’ll be trying to encourage him to remain as a hostage.”
“We’ve got people down there,” DeSilva said.
“I’m sure the Captain figures that they’re expendable,” Zhao replied. “Fitzroy certainly seemed to think so. We can’t count on that influencing Ikande’s decision.” He paused, then asked, “You think we can get to the President?”
Frowning, Nguyen said, “Probably. They’re throwing everything into this one. A full tour of the ship, I think partly to impress upon him that we’ve got the technological edge. That means hydroponics, life support, hyperdrive, the bridge. He’ll be walking all over the place.” He paused, then said, “We need a decoy, a distraction. Something to buy one of us the opportunity to get close enough to pass him a message.”
“And covertly,” Wagner replied. “We can’t simply tell him that he’s walking into a trap, helping with the enslavement of his own people. Either they’ll find a way to contradict our argument, or they’ll simply lock him up and force him to follow their line. Hell, I’m sure Captain Ikande can tell him all about the advantages that the ruling elites will receive, assuming they cooperate. They didn’t draw his name out of a hat.”
“A secret message, then,” Schneider said. “Something like the ones we used to communicate. We can’t assume that we’ll be able to hack into his private terminal, or anything like that.” She paused, then added, “He’s giving a speech. That means he’ll have notes to work with. Something that we can slip into those, perhaps. I’m sure we can come up with something.” Glancing at her watch, she added, “We’ve got about ten hours before he arrives.”
“There’s something we aren’t considering,” DeSilva replied, looking around the room. “The Coalition.”
“What about them?”
“That defense network is the only chance they have of repelling an attack by the Coalition. We know that it must be coming. I don’t buy for a moment that they didn’t find the location of this colony from those remains on the surface. Destroying their ship gave us a head-start. Nothing more than that. An enemy war fleet is almost certainly on the way right now, and it could be here in days or weeks. Certainly months.” Gesturing at the screen, she added, “That network might save the lives of everyone on the surface of Atlantis. As bad as the conquest of that world by Mars would be, Triton’s rule would be far, far worse.”
“Only if you believe the propaganda,” Wagner replied. “I’m not sure I do.”
“She’s got a point,” Schneider said. “While there’s life, there’s hope, and there would always be the chance that the network could be suborned, brought under local control. That’s a possibility worth exploring, isn’t it?”
“We don’t have the capability to pull anything like that off,” Nguyen protested. “Once those satellites are operational, this ship will have the ability to destroy every populated settlement on the planet at will, and there won’t be a damned thing that the locals can do about it. We can talk about theoretical possibilities all we like, but the harsh reality of the situation is that Atlantis is about to be conquered, and the five of us in this room are the only chance they’ve got to stop it.”
“Besides, they’ve got defenses,” Wagner said. “Maybe…”
Turning to him, DeSilva interrupted, “Defenses that you told me just a few minutes ago were barely able to threaten this ship, still less a dedicated warship. Just which is it, Professor? Make up your mind. You’re right about one thing, though. The future of this planet rests in our hands right now.”
“I’m not sure about any of this,” Schneider said. “Danny, I think she’s got a valid point. Do we have the right to put the planet at risk of invasion?”
“It’s not as simple as that, and you both know it,” Nguyen said. “I’ve got to make a decision…”
“Like hell,” DeSilva replied. “We’re all in this together. I might have to obey your orders out on the deck, but that’s only because the Tyrants gave you a promotion. I don’t recogni
ze that. Not in here. And if you’re trying to cling to that, then you don’t deserve to be in this room at all.”
“Damn it, while you were printing leaflets and hanging posters, I was….”
“Danny, leave it!” Wagner replied. “She’s got a valid point. We all need to agree to this, or we can’t do it.” Turning to her, he said, “Given time, the Atlanteans can strengthen their defenses.”
“Two to five years, you said.”
“Yes, but there’s plenty they can do in the interim to make life difficult for an invading force. Construct orbital defense systems of their own, using their own satellite network. Deploy minefields. We’re not talking about an extended siege here, just a single attack. The Coalition can put together a single invasion fleet, I grant you, just as the Tyrants could, but no more than that. Defeat the first strike force, and they win the war. It might be expensive, yes. But it can be done.”
“It’s still a risk,” Schneider said.
“A risk that they are conquered by a fleet that might be on the way, that might arrive at some point in the next few months, against the certainty that Atlantis will be conquered within the week if we don’t take action to stop them.” Turning to Schneider, he added, “You talked about having the right to leave them defenseless against the threat of the Coalition. Let me turn that around. Do we have the right to sit back and watch them being conquered?”
“No, I guess not,” Schneider said, looking at DeSilva. “What do you think?”
“I think we don’t have the right to take the final decision,” she replied. “President McGuire is the elected leader of his people…”
“Supposedly,” Zhao said.
“According to everything we’ve had from the surface, Atlantis is a functioning democracy,” Wagner conceded. “I think we have to assume that President McGuire is the legal leader of his people.”
“It’s his call. Not ours. We must provide him with the information he needs to make his decision. All of it. I’m quite sure that he has been thoroughly briefed on the dangers of the Coalition. All we should do is warn him that the satellite network is not purely defensive, but offensive, and that the missiles can be turned to point inward, as well as outward.” Turning to Nguyen, she continued, “We follow their lead on this. It’s their world, not ours. Or we’re just as bad as the Tyrants.”
Wagner shook his head, and said, “They might not understand, might not…”
“No,” Zhao said, nodding. “She’s right. It’s their world, their decision, and I’m not going to sit here and assume that I can speak for them. That’s what Ikande, Fitzroy and the others are doing, and I’ll be damned if I follow in their footsteps.” Turning to DeSilva, he said, “I’ll get the note to the President, somehow. We set off a siren, something like that, panic his entourage for a moment, I’ll give him the note, in such a way that nobody else knows he’s got it. What he does with the information is up to him. If he decides to ignore it, then we go home, and we continue the fight from Mars.”
“I’m fine with that,” Schneider said.
“Me too,” DeSilva added.
Taking a deep breath, Nguyen nodded, and replied, “Very well.”
“I still think…,” Wagner said.
“We’ve made our decision,” Nguyen replied. “We’ll stick to it. Now, ways and means…”
Chapter 30
“Sorry about the tinted windows,” Neville said. “I’m afraid Floyd’s a little paranoid. He always did have a bit of a flair for the dramatic. I think he’s looking forward to announcing your arrival to the world.” Shaking his head, he said, “Between you and me, his term of office was beginning to look just a little tedious. Nothing major going on, just ongoing projects. This is the best chance that he’s going to get to make his mark. And the best chance for us to head back to the stars.”
Thiou glanced at Mitchell, then replied, “I’m more excited about this museum. You’ve preserved all of your records, all of your history?”
Nodding, Neville said, “The entire database from Challenger was securely downloaded as soon as we arrived. You’ve really lost that much?”
“The Last War began with wave after wave of cyber-attacks,” Mitchell replied. “Most records were virtual, stored online, and they were mostly wiped out in the first days of the fighting. The bombs destroyed most of what was left. The colonies never did have complete records, and they were hit by the hackers as well, viruses transmitted over long-range communications. Both sides assumed that the outer worlds would join one side or another and did everything they could to prevent that from happening.”
“You lost your databases, your records?” Neville asked, eyes wide. “How did you survive that?”
“By the skin of our teeth,” Thiou replied. “It did guarantee that we sat out the fighting. There were a few who wanted to take part, and some ships did make the journey back to Earth, but not enough to have any effect. And the fight for survival, for self-sufficiency, that was hard enough that everything else had to take a back seat. It was thirty, forty years before anyone could be spared for data reconstruction for anything other than priority projects. By then the systems were lost, cannibalized, the data unavailable. It was tough to even reach Earth for the first century. The Kessler Effect rendered orbital space impassable, as well as the remaining space-based defenses. We were still suffering casualties for decades afterwards.”
“And you never went back to Earth?” Neville asked. “That seems strange. With the technology you have, surely you could establish some sort of settlement, bootstrap the survivors?”
“We’ve thought about it, talked about it often enough,” Mitchell replied. “We had a fight simply to survive at all, and even now, we don’t have the resources to make a dent unless we totally committed to the project. While we’re at war with the Coalition, that isn’t going to happen.”
“Besides,” Thiou added, “Earth’s a mess. The biosphere was wrecked, there are whole continents all but uninhabitable, the climate totally unstable. It’ll be thousands of years before it settles. Until then, we’re better off where we are. At least on Mars, we can control our environment. Attempting to recolonize Earth would be a major gamble.”
“There are survivors on Earth,” Mitchell said. “A few hundred million, we estimate. A few of them even live in recognizable countries. We trade with them, phosphorous, genetic material, that sort of thing. It’s not that we’ve isolated them totally. Just that we learned to live as we are, and I guess most of our people would be reluctant to take the leap of living in an open environment again.”
“I still can’t quite understand,” Neville said. “I would have assumed…”
“Colonel, how long ago could your people have redeveloped the hyperdrive, if you hadn’t begun the terraforming project, but had instead committed yourselves completely to the task?”
“Decades ago,” he replied. “And we could have returned to Earth yourselves. I suppose I take your point. We’ve both trod the same path. And we were isolated, had no other power to worry about.”
“That brings me to a good point,” Mitchell said. “Why the High Guard?”
The old man paused, then said, “We’ve had good times and bad times. I suppose you’ll learn about this soon enough. About a hundred years ago, we were heading to a state of civil war. Different factions were building up, and each was establishing a military force. That’s when we managed to reestablish spaceflight, though it was just satellites for a very long time. We danced around the threat of open conflict for years, until a peace faction finally managed to establish itself. Ironically based around the idea that we were the last outpost of humanity, that as far as we knew, the only intelligent life in the universe.”
“That worked?” Thiou asked.
“It took a long, long time, but two things finally resolved it. The first was the terraforming project, a true long-term goal we could dedicate ourselves to. The creation of a new world to replace the one that we had destroyed. The second was the
High Guard, which was originally created as a peacekeeping force under the planetary government. Given time, it became clear that we’d managed to establish a stable civilization, that internal strife was no longer a threat, but by then, the Guard was decades old…”
“And had enough of a political base to ensure its survival, focusing on a defense from extraplanetary threats,” Mitchell replied.
“Not just that, Lieutenant. It became the prime agency behind our return to space, the probes we sent to the other worlds in the system, and the resumption of manned spaceflight. Think of it as a militarized NASA, and you’ll be on the right track.” The car slowed, and he added, “We’re almost here. We’ll go in around the back, and they’ve closed the Museum for the day, so nobody is going to see you.”
“Is it popular?” Thiou asked.
“Not as much as it should be,” Neville replied. “It’s quieter than it was when I was a kid. People don’t seem to care like they used to. Though your arrival might change that.” He paused, then asked, “I’d love to get a look at that ship of yours.”
“We’ll make sure you do,” Mitchell said. “I’ll give you a personal tour.”
The car drew to a halt, and the passenger door popped open, revealing the rear of an imposing building, a squat rectangle a hundred meters high, a large garden surrounding it, designed to mimic the wilderness of Earth. Mitchell’s eyes widened as he looked around, taking in a deep breath of the rich, scent-laden air.
“Magnificent,” Thiou said, shaking her head. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“The ground level has four different ecological areas; each a replication of the extremes Earth was capable of. Jungle, desert, tundra, forest. And there are VR tours that allow you to go back there, walk through any city of Earth, circa around 2040. The upper levels are filled with the surviving artifacts we brought with us. Buried underground in a secured bunker are the greatest treasures of all.”
Exiles of Earth: Rebellion Page 24
