by Dietmar Wehr
“Both good points, Lucas. Given that I think we both now recognize that this offer has the potential to mitigate the downside of the strategic situation, I think you should accept the offer as it is and then act as if you had the authority you want. I’m willing to bet that you’ll get away with it. As for popular support, you could take on the title of Planetary Head of State on a temporary basis for a year with a referendum held at the end of that time. If the referendum passes, then you have the popular support you need. If it fails, the attack will almost certainly be over by then and Amaterasu will have provided the temporary sanctuary our people will need.”
It took a couple of days to arrange for news media from all over the planet, to be able to broadcast Lucas’ announcement live. The Egonsby Interim Committee graciously gave permission for Lucas to use their facilities. With hundreds of reporters and cameramen waiting in the briefing room, Harkaman, dressed in his formal Admiral’s uniform, walked up to the podium. He waited until the room was completely silent and then spoke.
“My name is Admiral Otto Harkaman, of the Royal Tanith Navy. Prince Lucas Trask of Tanith will be making an announcement shortly. His Highness will NOT be taking questions either during or after his official statement. Out of respect for a visiting Head of State, I ask all of you to remain silent during the official announcement.” Harkaman turned to nod at Trask who, also dressed in his most impressive Prince’s uniform, walked up to the podium with as much dignity as he could muster. When he spoke, his voice was calm but confident.
“I’m pleased to have this opportunity to speak directly to the people of Amaterasu. As all of you know, this part of the galaxy has been a dangerous place for a long time, due to the endless raids by Space Vikings. In the past, I was a Space Viking Prince as the nations of Stolgoland and Egonsby know from direct experience. I now deeply regret the pain and suffering that I caused. No longer a Space Viking, I’m now a Sovereign Prince of Tanith, a planet that I hope to build into a prosperous and peaceful, Civilized World. As their Prince, I have an obligation to protect my subjects and I know that the only way to ensure their long term safety, is to eliminate the threat of Space Viking raids once and for all! That is why Tanith is now in the early stages of a full scale war against all Space Vikings! With over 200 Space Viking ships operating in the Old Federation, this war will be difficult and long. That is why I’m establishing mutual defense relationships with strong and friendly allies. Amaterasu has been a friendly ally and up to a week ago, was well on its way to becoming a strong ally also. But as you all know, due to the egotistical plans of General Ector, my ships were forced, in self-defense, to destroy all three Amaterasuan battleships, that attacked us. Therefore Amaterasu is now defenseless against any Space Viking raid.” He paused for a few seconds, then continued.
“The Planetary Council has requested, and I’ve agreed to give, engineering and technical data for the construction of a new kind of military spacecraft but that by itself, will not guarantee Amaterasu’s future. As recent events have demonstrated quite clearly, the Council is unwieldy and the Chancellor doesn’t have the authority to maintain firm control of planetary defense military assets. If he did, then General Ector would not have been able to commandeer all three battleships for his own personal agenda. By offering to create a new, more powerful position of Head of State for Planetary Defense, the majority of the Council recognizes the need for change. This new position will have complete authority to build up and use planetary defense assets in any way that is deemed necessary for the long term security of Amaterasu, without the need for prior approval by any national government. It will NOT have any authority to interfere in the internal affairs of any nation or of any individual. The Office of Planetary Defense will have its own budget, that comes from proportional contributions from each nation’s existing defense budgets. Money, that up til now has been spent on long range weapons that can threaten neighboring states, will instead be used to build up assets for the common defense of all nations. Only the Planetary Defense Force will be allowed to have and use atomic weapons. The vote to establish this new position also authorized the Council to offer the new position of Head of State for Planetary Defense to me. I am now announcing that I will accept the responsibilities and authority, of the Head of State for Planetary Defense, on a temporary basis, until a global referendum can be held, whereby the people of Amaterasu will have the opportunity to decide if they wish me to continue in this role on a permanent basis or not. If the majority vote no, then I will bow to the will of the people of Amaterasu and relinquish that title. As part of my conditional acceptance of the position, I’ll insist that this referendum be held in one year’s time. I believe that that is a reasonable timeframe for the people of Amaterasu to acquire an informed opinion about my suitability for this position.” Another pause. Harkaman was surprised by the fact that the room was still so quiet, you could hear the proverbial pin drop.
“Because of my responsibilities as Prince of Tanith, I will not be able to spend all of my time here and I will be returning to Tanith shortly, for some period of time before returning here. Until such time as Amaterasu has rebuilt its own fleet of ships, two of my Navy’s ships will remain here, on guard against any Viking raid although I reserve the right to recall them back to Tanith in the event of an emergency. When I return to Tanith in a few days time, Admiral Harkaman will also remain here in order to oversee the establishment of the Office of Head of State for Planetary Defense. In my absence, he will have authority to speak for me and to make decisions, in my name. This concludes my address to the People of Amaterasu.” With that Trask turned and left the stage quickly, followed by Harkaman. As they did so, the room behind them exploded into a barrage of voices, some calling after them to ask questions, others expressing their reactions. As the two of them, flanked by a contingent of ground troops from Nemesis as bodyguards, walked quickly down the corridor leading to the aircars that would take them back to the ship, Trask looked at over at Harkaman and said,
“I don’t envy you the task of getting things set up here. Have you decided whether to take over the Chancellor’s staff as a whole, pick out the best ones or build up a new staff from scratch?” Harkaman smiled.
“Isn’t that a decision that you should make before you head home, Your Highness?” Trask chided himself. Otto was right, dammit! There were some decisions that he shouldn’t be so quick to delegate. He made the decision.
“You’re right. Let’s take the whole staff to begin with. We can always weed out the deadwood as we go along.” As they reached the courtyard where the aircars were parked, Harkaman said,
“By the way, Your Highness, I think I may have found the perfect place to transfer our base and people to.”
“Oh? Tell me about it.” Harkaman waited until both of them were seated in the aircar and it was on its way back to the ship, escorted by four combat aircars.
“Amaterasu is unique among Terra-type planets, in that it only has one continent, although it’s a big one. The rest of the planet is ocean, dotted here and there by islands, mostly small but a few are larger. There is one island, that is still uninhabited and hasn’t been claimed by any nation and for good reason. Most of it is jungle due to the high amount of rainfall although there is a substantial plateau on one side, that is relatively free of vegetation. The island has no mineral or energy resources which is why nobody cares about it. That’s not a huge drawback as far as we’re concerned because Tanith’s moon can provide the necessary minerals and power ores that we’d need. The climate is a little on the warm side but there are lots of colonies, on other planets, that are hotter. With our contra-gravity vehicles and pinnaces to carry cargo to and from the mainland, we won’t have any trouble keeping the island supplied if and when we move our people there.”
“Is it really necessary to set up our base on the other side of the planet? What’s wrong with finding some unused land on the mainland?”
“Well, to begin with, every square foot of land on
the continent is claimed by one nation or another. So if we wanted to set up our base here, there would be the question of whether you have the authority to sieze the land outright or whether you’d need the permission of the nation, that controls it. And since we’re talking about transferring Tanith citizens and assets to Amaterasu, it would be hard to claim that this move is for the improved security of Amaterasu as opposed to the advantage of your personal realm of Tanith. Using your authority as Head of State for Planetary Defense of Amaterasu, to protect your realm of Tanith would definitely be seen as abusing your authority. The island, on the other hand, is a completely different beast. No one claims it or cares about it. You could quite legitimately claim the island outright as sovereign territory belonging to you as Prince of Tanith, whether or not you continue as Head of State for Planetary Defense of Amaterasu. It also has the added advantage that, if there should be a Viking attack on Amaterasu in the future, they’re going to concentrate on the continent and it’s cities and may not notice our island at all.”
“Very well. You’ve convinced me to consider the island but I want to see it with my own eyes before I commit to it.” They went on to discuss other things such as the ceremony of the official acceptance of the new position, etc. The ceremony was held the next day in the Chancellor’s Office, witnessed by the Council as a whole. Trask refused to have the ceremony televised. He didn’t want it to become a planetary spectacle. As soon as the transfer of power was complete, Harkaman spoke to the Chancellor’s staff, reassuring them that for the time being, no changes in personnel were being comtemplated. Trask then sat down with his new department heads and was brought up to speed on the state of Amaterasu’s shipbuilding and crew training programs. With only the landing struts of the fourth ship completed so far, Trask ordered work on the fourth ship halted so that the shipbuilding industries could prepare to retool in order to start building missile boats. Amaterasu had already built several of their own pinnaces and his new engineering staff were confident that they could deliver at least two missile boats to Tanith before the estimated window when the Space Viking attack was likely. Trask was skeptical about two but agreed that at least one should be finished in time. The training program was of special concern. Tanith had several captured battleships that were repaired but couldn’t be crewed. Trask told his staff to expedite the training of at least one and preferably two skeleton crews so that he could lend two of his surplus ships to Amaterasu for local defense (and maybe to defend Tanith too). With the first staff meeting now out of the way, Harkaman took Trask to one of the pinnaces, that was waiting for them at the spaceport, and within 50 minutes they were standing on the rocky plateau of the island. Amaterasu’s sun was just starting to peak over the horizon and Trask looked around him carefully.
“It doesn’t feel that warm to me.” said Trask with a slight shiver.
“Once the sun rises over the horizon, the temperature will go up fast but it won’t be as hot up here on the plateau as it’ll be down on the lower section. This plateau is perfect for the shipyard and spaceport. The rock is granite. We won’t have to reinforce it much if at all, to hold up under the weight of a 2,000 ft., collapsium armor ship although we’d naturally have to level the area. In the short run, we’d have to construct temporary shelters but longer term, we can put the important facilities underground and the rock we remove to do that, can be used to build permanent structures on the surface, that will stand up to even hurricane force winds.” Trask looked unconvinced. The wind whipped his hair around as he continued to look around.
“I don’t know, Otto. It looks pretty damned bleak. I agree that it would make a suitable shipyard but as a place for our people to live, it’s not very appealing.” Otto nodded and used his wristmounted communication device to order one of the pinnace’s aircars to be brought down to them.
“Don’t make a decision just yet, Lucas. Let’s fly around the perimeter. There’s more to this island than just this barren rock.” When the aircar arrived, Harkaman told the pilot to get out and he took the controls with Trask sitting beside him. With the light getting brighter by the minute, the aircar rose gently and accelerated at a modest speed over to the nearest edge of the plateau. Once past the edge, Harkaman allowed the aircar to gently descend straight down. Pointing to side, he said,
“On this side of the island, there isn’t enough land at the lower level, for the jungle to really take hold. As you can see, the ground down here is mostly white sand with a few trees and bushes. The beach extends about a quarter mile from the ocean to the base of the plateau and runs along for roughly 89 miles. That’s enough land so that all of our Rivington people could live here in comfortable habitats by the sea, if they had too. I still think there’s a good chance that we could re-occupy Tanith even if Rivington is destroyed. But that might be a long process and until it’s finished, this doesn’t look to me as being too bad a place to live for a few years.” After a wait of a few seconds, Trask said,
“Yes, this beach area is definitely more inviting than the plateau. Is there anything else you want to show me?” Harkaman grinned and the aircar tilted forward to accelerate.
“Yes, there is. I happened to notice this, when I examined high resolution satellite images of this island as I was doing my research. What do you think of this?” The aircar slowed until it hovered approximately 100 feet from an impressive waterfall, that was coming out of the side of the plateau, several hundred feet above the beach, which had been gouged out at the base to form a small lagoon. Trask stared at the waterfall for about half a minute and then turned to Harkaman.
“Where’s all that water coming from ?” Harkaman chuckled.
“Pretty spectacular, isn’t it? According to the surveys done back when this planet was first being colonized, the geologists figured that there must be a huge reservoir inside the plateau, that’s being fed by the abundant rain, that this island gets. They also figure that the reservoir drains into an underground river that comes out here. Apparently, during the time of year when it rains less, there have been times when the reservoir has drained completely and the waterfall stopped. Then it filled up again later and the waterfall started up again. When we start tunneling into the plateau, we’ll have to be careful, not to tunnel into the reservoir. I think our first task here will be to do a complete three dimensional survey of the plateau using unltrasonic imaging equipment.”
“I agree. You’re going to have your hands full, being my deputy here, getting this site ready, as well as preparing for Viktor’s attack. Am I putting too much responsibility on your shoulders, Otto?” Harkaman didn’t answer right away. He steered the aircar away from the waterfall and pointed it upwards to return to the pinnace.
“I really don’t know the answer to that question, Lucas. I’m good at strategy and tactics. I’m good at leading men but what you’re talking about now is managing complex operations. That’s never been my strong suit. Getting things started here on Amaterasu I can do, because I know what you want and what has to get done. But making sure that these projects are done correctly and on schedule, that’s another question. Our Operations and Engineering staff on Tanith will be busy preparing for the attack and setting up the equipment here when the time comes to evacuate Rivington. We should start to look for experienced project managers from Amaterasu, to handle getting this site ready and to keep an eye on planetary defense projects.” Trask’s opinion of Otto went up another notch. How many leaders in history didn’t know enough to get out of their own way and delegate to others, who were more competent in handling the gritty details, than they were?
“That’s an excellent idea. There’s half a billion people on Amaterasu and there’s no reason we shouldn’t tap into that talent pool. I think I’ve seen enough here. You’ve convinced me this island is the right place for our temporary refuge. Let’s get back to the ship. I want to be on my way home within six hours and there’s still a lot that has to be done before I can leave.”Getting away took longer than Trask wanted b
ut as Nemesis, Damnthing and Lucky Bones were approaching the limit of Amaterasu’s no-jump zone, Trask was satisfied with the way this trip to Amaterasu had ended. Harkaman, as Trask’s Deputy Head of State, would get the wheels in motion for the new defense strategy as well as hire additional staff to begin getting the island ready for the transfer. When Trask arrived back on Tanith in six days, he would arrange for his engineers to collect all necessary data for building missile boats, which would then be sent to both Amaterasu, Beowulf AND Marduk, since if Amaterasu was going to get it, there was no longer any good reason not to let Beowulf and Marduk have it too. The pinnace sent to Marduk would also contain a recording to Simon informing him of the expected Viking attack and of the need to sacrifice Rivington in order to save Marduk.Trask wondered if Marduk’s retaliatory strike force would be waiting in orbit around Tanith by the time he got there.
As it turned out, he needn’t have worried. Marduk’s strike force hadn’t arrived yet. It was apparently taking longer to organize and that wasn’t the only thing that was taking longer. Trask was gone three weeks and the first missile boat should have been finished by the time he got back. It wasn’t. Chief Engineer Rolmington estimated another 8-10 days. Trask ordered him to finish it in 7. With the first boat now taking a total of 14 weeks, the 10 week estimate for the second boat was now looking overly optimistic and with another week’s delay in starting the second boat, now all of a sudden the third boat was in serious jeopardy altogether. The original schedule would have allowed Rolmington’s engineers three weeks to dismantle the shipyard, after the completion of the 3rd missile boat, before the earliest anticipated arrival of Viktor’s fleet. With delay piling up on delay, they were now faced with a nasty choice of not finishing the 3rd missile boat at all in order to get the shipyard away in time OR put the shipyard at risk of being caught in the attack due to the late completion of the 3rd boat. And with the evacuation of all of the other equipment and personnel part of a carefully choreographed plan, any disruption in the sequence of transferring people and materiel, had the potential to turn the plan into chaos.
