Obsidian Ressurection

by T J Bryan

  Able motioned to the steward for more tea.

  "For relief I mean that the head of the Emperor is simply removed from the body."

  "And how is this decision made? Who decides to seek relief?"

  "The process is complex and actually unknown to most of the Empire. But I'll see if I can explain. Our three star systems are each headed by a Governor General who is responsible for the security, safety, and prosperity of our Empire. They are also responsible for maintaining the Emperor's system and for collecting tithes and taxes. Taxes collected for the Imperial Household are enormous and actually comprise the income of the state itself. The name household is actually an misnomer. But when the taxes are not returned to the Governor Generals for maintenance of roads, canals, weather modification, famine relief, security of the void, maintenance of the trading fleet, and such, then the people become restful and agitated, and a petition to the Governors for relief is drafted. Now the mass is really too illiterate to take action on their own, but the local bureaucrats in cooperation with the Governor draft a petition that is accepted by the masses."

  "Sounds like consultative democracy to me", replied Abel with a smile.

  Mia Li continued. "The petition is sent to the Emperor himself, or rather his representative who is the Chancellor. The Chancellor is responsible for providing the petition to the Emperor. But, in the case of my father, the Chancellor was afraid of bringing three petitions forward. And when my father learned that the petitions might exist he had the Chancellor poisoned. This was some time ago, and I was only an infant in my mothers arms. But it was the beginning of the terrors of Shinmin the Sot."

  "How long did these terrors of Shinmin the Sot continue?"

  "For fifteen years. My father assassinated or beheaded for treason almost all of his ministers as well as the Governor Generals of the three systems. Toward the end of his reign murder within the Great City of Xitan was constant. The government could not function as Shinmin's paranoia increased to the point he became a raging psychopath. He even killed the assassins and murders he sent off to kill those he feared."

  "And you Mia Li?"

  "My mother, shortly after my birth, received my father's wrath. He suspected her of witchcraft and banished us from the city. We were forced to live in a pig sty. A pen for pigs and to eat the food waste given to pigs. Guards were placed at the pig farm to ensure we did not escape. But my mother was only one of his many wives and we were lucky to be banished at the beginning of his madness. His other wives were all murdered, often tortured for sorcery, or treason, or for simply appearing ugly in Shinmin's eyes."

  "But you survived?"

  "Yes, but when I was eight mother died. She always fed me before she ate and she became so weak that a simple illness took her away."

  "Did you escape at the age of eight?"

  "No, but the Holy Monks of the Temple of the Seven Mountains appeared one day and took me away. The guards had long wandered off unpaid for over a year. The monks were kind but strict, and they raised me on the sacred temple mountain. The monks trained me in their arts and I was well educated. I even had access to your Encyclopaedia Gallectica as well as the 'Great Hidden History of Emperors' which was a forbidden book."

  Abel nodded as the steward brought forth a fresh pot of tea. "And Mia Li how was Shimin the Sot removed."

  "Ministers often serve from the same hereditary clans or extended families and although the Ministers were dead and not replaced, there were men and women who wished to restore the Imperial glory. Our tradition allows them to meet, always in secret to discuss the remonstrations of the Emperor. They formed a government in hiding and agreed to remove Shinmin and adopted the Proclamation of the Arm of the Righteous. But Shinmin's spies learned the truth and he killed almost all of them. But not before a Proclamation was posted on every temple entrance in the Empire.

  "Who or what was the Arm?"

  Mia Li laughed, "It was I. I was the Arm of the Righteous."

  Abel thought for a moment that he should perhaps end the conversation but he decided to press forward.

  "And your duty? As the Arm"

  Mia Li immediately replied, "To kill him. To kill the Emperor my Father. The Mandate of the Stars was forced upon me, but frankly I welcomed the news. I was fifteen at the time. I believe the monks of the Seven Mountains played a role in selecting me as well. Their training certainly prepared me for this role. Only one with a blood lineage to the Emperor himself may become the Arm. And other than Li Bian and Li Nao I was the only one alive. Once Shinmin was delivered of his madness Li Nao would assume the throne. He would have no guilt, for I was the Arm. I would assume the wrath of Heaven and Li Nao the Throne of the Empire."

  "And did you," here Abel chose his words very carefully. "Did you remonstrate your father the Emperor."

  Mia Li nodded. "Yes, but not before Shinmin the Sot brought a army to besiege the Temple of the Seven Mountains. The siege lasted an entire year. The monks died by the thousands to protect me."

  Abel just looked at Mia Li.

  "And then one night as the fighting became desperate and the walls of the Temple about to fall, I slipped out of the temple and found the Emperor's tent. I slipped in. His guards were fearful of being too close to the Emperor himself lest in anger he kill them. Reaching Shinmin was easy."

  "And then?" asked Abel.

  Mia Li smiled, "I performed my duty. I remonstrated the Emperor."

  "You killed him?"

  "Yes."

  ...

  Wu System - Holgata Station - Year 3248 October 18 ET 07:08

  The Megra fleet had not moved.

  Toni finally met with Leopold Olszewski and the mathematician Jolanta Malinkiewicz both from Diana. Toni had them brought to Holgata Station. So much depended on their analysis that she simply could not leave their work or themselves unexamined.

  Olszewski was a rather old man for Diana. Perhaps 90 or so thought Toni. He had thinning white hair but a rather stunning full white beard. Rather short in stature, he held himself tall, and was obviously proud of his heritage and his contributions to the now dead Diana system. He appeared to have recovered from the ordeal of the last few months and days, but Toni could see that grief or mourning hung over him like a gray cloud.

  Jolanta on the other hand was tall, with long blond hair, a slim build, and infectious smile. But she looked at this moment exhausted, weary, and spent from the escape from Diana. Her clothes were standard Wu System crew issue and Toni surmised that she had escaped from Diana with nothing. She was almost 22 years old and Toni remembered somewhere that most great mathematicians made their mark at that age, and Markham Paris assured Toni that Jolanta was a brilliant mathematician.

  They had been ushered into the conference room just off the dock and Toni greeted them as they entered. She had laid out tea and snacks on the sideboard and she noticed that Olszewski immediately headed for the food while Jolanta simply poured tea and sat down at the long conference table. While Leopold Olszewski nibbled on cheesy puffs Toni called up Markham Paris who was still stranded aboard the Göndul and facing the Megra fleet.

  "I'll put Markham on the vid screen," Toni said. "Silvi Karrlson our Fleet Commodore will also join us on vid."

  Within a few minutes the image of Markham and Silvi shared the split screen on the vid which had been placed at one end of the long table.

  Toni began, "I will ask Markham Paris to summarize the findings of your committee and then if any of you have additions or emendations please speak up. After your full summary, Silvi and Myself will likely have questions. These questions will tend to be of a practical nature, so please keep your answers direct and specific to the questions. If we get something wrong please correct us, but at this moment we face an enormous Megra fleet with a handful of ships, and we now know one of those ships have a new and potentially devastating weapon."

  Markham stood and immediately took himself out of the vid screen frame. Realizing his error he sat, but seemed embarrassed and nervo
us.

  "I, ah..."

  "Mr. Paris please continue," said Toni recognizing Markham's discomfort in summarizing the work of Jolanta and Leopold.

  "Well. It's like this. The weapon emits a focused plasma stream. Now plasma is one of the four states of matter and plasma is an ionized gas which can carry electromagnetic currents of astounding magnitude. The ionized gases formed by the Megra weapon are created by an anti-matter and matter annihilation event. The amount of anti-matter detected on the Megra ship is quite large and when the annihilation event occurs the Megra ship would under normal circumstances be vaporized by the release of both raw energy and plasma. However it is our estimation that..."

  "Excuse me Mr Paris," said Olszewski interrupting. "But 'evaluation' is a better descriptor than 'estimation'."

  Toni thought for a moment that she really did not understand the fine distinction between the two words, but it did indicate to her that Olszewski was concerned with precision.

  Markham continued, "Yes, of course Dr. Olszewski. Where was I... Oh! Our evaluation indicates that the annihilation event will fully destroy or disable the ship called the Great Maw of the Eating Dragon. However, the convex focusing mechanism will direct much of the plasma stream in a specific direction before it collapses in perhaps no more than a few nano seconds. In other words, once the ship fires its' weapon it will become without future value. It, that is the focusing mechanism and perhaps the ship, will cease to exist."

  Toni saw Olszewski nod his head in agreement but Jolanta simply sat and stared into space as if remembering something or some time far away.

  "Please continue Mr. Paris," said Toni.

  "An analysis of the curvature of the focusing device performed by Miss. Malinkiewicz, upon evidence captured by our probes, and modified by Dr. Olszewski to include the properties of an annihilation event indicate..."

  Again Olszewski interrupted, "Markham perhaps 'reveal' is a better description."

  Once again Markham seemed embarrassed by his choice of words, but he pressed on. "Yes... Dr. Olszewski, adjusted Miss. Malinkiewicz's equations for the nature of a anti-matter matter annihilation event and they determined..."

  Again Olszewski interrupted. "My Dear Mr. Paris, Myself and Jolanta did not uncover these findings by ourselves. Your contribution was equally valuable. Please do not be so modest."

  Toni wondered if Olszewski was sharing the credit, or perhaps sharing the blame if something went wrong.

  Markham smiled and continued. "Well, the plasma beam is not reflected in a column but rather in a conic form, the tapered end of which is the Megra ship. The cone extends out from the ship with a separation angle of a few degrees. So at 1000 kilometres from its' origin it is approximately 300 kilometres wide. At one million kilometres it will be 300,000 wide. The intensity on the face of the cone as it advances toward its' target will not be uniform The annihilation event will consume the focusing device before full reflection is reached, therefore the power of the plasma discharge will be greatest at the center of the conical projection and less powerful at its edges."

  At this point Markham drew his breath. "Have I summarized correctly Dr. Olszewski?"

  Olszewski furrowed his brow as if considering launching into a professorial reinterpretation of Markham's words, but then looked hard at his audience and decided to remain silent. "Fine Markam. Fine." was all he said.

  Toni waited for Markham to continue but soon realized he was finished.

  Before Toni could speak, Silvi began to ask questions.

  "This directed plasma stream from the annihilation event, I assume it dissipates with distance. Can you provide the energy levels from an impact by the center of the projection by distance?"

  Markham did not respond but Jolanta did.

  "'One over r squared' applies here. But the initial annihilation event is so powerful that the damage range of this weapon may well be one million to two million kilometres. At under one million kilometres I fear that nothing will survive."

  Silvi responded, "Can you be more precise? As to the damage range and the kill zone?"

  Here Olszewski spoke. "We have only an estimate of the power of the annihilation event so the full power of the event we can only estimate. To this is added the momentary existence of the convex surface and we again can only estimate a range of its' ability to focus the event before it too is consumed in the event. Perhaps a pico second to two nano seconds is the best we can do. That gives us a time frame range that is very great. If I were to be pressed by you OCN Officers, I would be reluctant to provide a more specific estimate, however we are in a war for survival so I shall make a guess. I suspect the convex mirror, and it is after all a reflective device, will hold for no more than one nano second. In that case the kill zone will be one million kilometres."

  Toni interjected "And this is a one shot weapon? It cannot be fired again?"

  "Indeed," replied Olszewski. "I suspect that very little of that ship will survive the event."

  Silvi interrupted before Olszewski could continue. "And the Megra fleet. At this moment they are tightly defending the Great Maw. The dumbbell ships are as close as 10,000 kilometres and the farthest away is no more than 90,000. When the Great Maw looses its' focus mirror what will happen to those ships."

  Dr. Olszewski thought a moment. "Well, If I were the commander and concerned about the survival of my troops, I certainly would advise that they move away before I initiated the event."

  "Are you sure it will be unsafe for those ships to remain close to the Great Maw?"

  "Unless they are bent on suicide they must remove themselves." Dr. Olszewski looked at Jolanta.

  Jolanta spoke, "Yes, by at least 200,000 kilometres, assuming they are not without logic."

  "So if we detect they are moving away, then the Great Maw will be preparing to shoot. That is unless they want to die."

  Jolanta said, "Yes." Dr. Olszewski nodded yes as well.

  Silvi smiled and Toni knew she was beginning to make a plan.

  Chapter One Hundred Sixteen

  Wu System - Holgata Station - Year 3248 October 21 ET 18:31

  Toni Hamilton walked through the crew quarters of Holgata Station that had been converted into a makeshift hospital and emergency room. Of the 260 some injured they had received from the Diana disaster 123 had died from their injuries. Many were dead before the Diana liner had even docked. On Wu Station another 107 had died after docking, and the surviving population, many of whom were wounded or injured themselves, had proven to be a startling 17,354. All Toni could think of was that the trip from Diana to Wu which lasted almost 35 days must have been horrific. Smilot had mentioned that many more had died during the voyage as the Megra attacked the exodus fleet, often playing with the undefended ships, before destroying them

  How 17,354 survivors managed to fit into 20 ships including three liners designed for no more that 3000 each, and a dozen fast freighters which had no real facilities for passengers, managed to make it to Wu, Toni found astonishing.

  Toni returned to the bridge and glanced at the status board. The Megra fleet had not moved. Toni could not help but think they were waiting for some other development and the only one possible in her mind was an additional Megra attack force. Toni kept studying her systems charts and often found herself referring to Nomi's Book of Stars. She knew that the Megra entered human space at Dong Son within the Cranmore knot lines and that a six month voyage would bring any fleet originating at Dong Son to the Severan portal. But a shorter route existed that went through Cranmore itself and then Girots and eventually to the 'back door' of Wu at Nelots.

  However Ana Arast and the Destructor Ragnarök with two SARs were patrolling the Cranmore system. Toni began to think through worst case scenario for Cranmore. Assuming the Megra attacked both systems at about the same time, when might the Megra appear at her back door? Soon she realized that if the Megra had swiftly destroyed Ana's flotilla then they would arrive out of Nelots no earlier than October 22. Tomorrow she th
ought. But it was more likely that Ana would have put up a good fight and delayed any victorious Megra fleet for at least a few days, so a more likely arrival date would be perhaps October 24 or later.

  The Nelots entry portal was mined but not as heavily as the other entry points to Wu. Nelots had never really been considered as weak point, but the more Toni thought about the Megra and their delay in attacking the more exposed to a second attack she felt. Wu to Nelots was one of the few knot lines that had a two way street, one portal out from Wu to Nelots, and a second portal back to Wu from Nelots.

  Perhaps she should position a ship at Nelots, just outside the return portal to provide warning if the Megra came that way. Crossing Nelots took 10 hours so she might well get seven or eight hours warning from a picket staged at Nelots. But the reality was she had no ships available. There were however a few Diana ships that might suffice as pickets.

  Now that the chaos of the arrival of the exodus had diminished and some semblance of order had resumed she thought it was time to talk to whatever authorities existed among the citizens of Diana about drafting one or two of their ships into the fight as picket ships in Nelots.

  She asked Smilot to contact whoever was assuming the leadership position among the refugees so that she might speak with them.

  To Toni's request the reply was immediate and it was an AI. The gender neutral and pleasant sounding voice gave the speaker away.

  Without going into tactical detail Toni laid our her request for one or two of the least damaged ships to stand watch just inside the Nelots' portal.

  Immediately the AI had questions. Dozens of them and most either irrelevant or simply endangering the need to retain some secrecy regarding OCN strategy and tactics. After more than an hour of frustration the AI refused to authorize the deployment of any Diana ships unless it had reached certainty that such an assignment was needed, was warranted, and in an oddly phrased comment 'cost justified'.

  Toni asked the AI to prepare a list of questions it needed answered before achieving certainty. Toni was simply trying to buy some time to consider alternatives.