Cassie nodded, “I can agree to that, removing their out of solar system build site I mean, if we can find it. It would be kinder to do that to all of their ships, but at five to two odds, assuming the odds won’t even be worse, there’s a lot of leeway between a hundred and over a thousand ships after all. At two hundred, it’d be five to one, instead of fifty to one granted, but it’s a thing. Point being, we can’t afford to be nice and not kill to defend ourselves with the new tech, not being so outnumbered. Like you said, stealth probably won’t work this time. No one is that stupid.”
I laughed.
“Agreed, that’s why I said one ship. We’ll let those sailors live, if we can get more we will, but I won’t risk the station or death. If they want war, if they attack us, they’ll get war this time, not tricks. Back to the point, assuming we win, we trace down their build solar system and cleanse it. What do we do about America, Germany, and England? Can we afford to take the high road again? We need to end this, and then look to the future. The galaxy is a big dangerous place, war internally at this point is just stupid, damned paranoid spooks and power-hungry politicians, may they all be damned.”
Cassie frowned, “Taking out their leadership isn’t an option. Not now that you’re a head of state yourself. We have to assume this is all them by the way, at the highest levels, otherwise my people would have uncovered it weeks ago. Sure, they’ll be ignoring that, and be coming after you personally, but they haven’t acknowledged Astraeus as a country.”
I noted, “The current ten large and seventy some odd small battleships won’t be an issue, they can’t stop us, or fire on us. I get your point, but we can declare war can we not? We can demand they acknowledge our sovereignty. By attacking us, and failing, they will have lost both the moral high ground on the world stage, and any leverage they might’ve had with their ships over the other countries who have acknowledged us. My question to you is, what’s the best way to do that? Fine, Pennsylvania Avenue is off the table, but what isn’t? In short, we need to kick them in the teethe, and give them no choice. Once they acknowledge us as a country, and we’re a member of the U.N., they’ll have to start observing the niceties and stop trying to assassinate me or blow us up.”
I was already kind of pissed off, and we hadn’t even fought yet. We’d also made a lot of assumptions, but I didn’t think we were wrong on any of it. The only thing we weren’t sure about was how many ships the enemy would be attacking with.
Cassie nodded, “I’d be reluctant to mess with any of their colonies. All three countries involved are on that list, and they’re waiting for the colony ships. The people going are good people, who’ve all shown support to us. Whatever we do needs to be here, and of course taking down their build system. You should be ready to move immediately on that, if you do take one of their ships, it’s a foregone conclusion that at least one scout from there could run, and they’ll start all over somewhere else.”
Damn, I hadn’t even considered that. My enemies weren’t stupid and wouldn’t wait for me to show up if I compromised one of their ships. At least, they weren’t stupid outside of their insane need to take me down, and their need to be in control of everything. I hadn’t attacked them even once, and I had only defended myself and refused to lay down and die for their peace of mind. In truth, they were the damned terrorists, all I’ve done is protect myself, and the solar system.
“Alright, I have an idea for that. Diana won’t be happy, but it’ll just be for two weeks.”
Cassie tilted her head, “Use the ships in our test solar system to build a small offensive fleet?”
I nodded, “I think with what’s there already, we can build out six warships in two weeks, and have them already far enough out from the sun to immediately wormhole to the enemy’s build system, as soon as we have the location. We can also spin off a few more small test ships before we leave, so she has her mobile lab again at that point.”
Cassie smirked, “You get to tell her.”
I laughed, “Fine. So, we have a plan for the battle, sort of, and a plan to prevent another one by taking their build system. We avoid the colonies, but that still leaves the question of what to do here, on Earth, to get them to finally capitulate. Assuming of course, we’re not defeated, but even then we can retreat and regroup if things start to look too questionable.”
Maybe. Chances were that if we had to stand off a missile barrage all the way out to where we could safely create a wormhole, we wouldn’t make it. We’d have to be sneaky, and I let the back of my mind turn over the possibilities. The safest thing would be to detach the command center, and fight remotely, but they’d be watching for that no doubt, which meant I needed something new and unexpected.
Cassie nodded, “That’s easy enough. We declare war as a nation, make our demands and set the conditions of their surrender, then give them a big bloody nose and wait for their response. Military targets only.”
I nodded, “Agreed.”
I sighed and shook my head.
Jessica asked, “What?”
I smirked, “I’m more nervous about telling Diana I’m repossessing her toys for the next fourteen days, than I am about the impending attack.”
Cassie giggled.
I gave her a glare on my way out the door…
Chapter Ten
Diana was surprisingly understanding, or maybe I’d just underestimated her anger at the U.S. who wouldn’t just leave us alone. She was more than willing to give up two weeks of testing further advancements, to put the ships in place. I also suspected they might not have had any new ideas that were ready for testing out in the real world, but I kept that speculation to myself and didn’t ask.
We also decided at her suggestion to make twenty-four of the smaller warships instead of six large ones, which would make it easier to guarantee an intercept on any fleeing ships before they reached wormhole distance from the sun. The best part was they’d be controlled from our space station, without a person on it. Without the need for strict inertial dampening, the small warships would be capable of six hundred gravities of acceleration, ten times faster than a manned ship, which would reduce the chance of them escaping even further.
We could only control so many ships at once, at least well, but given when that started the battle here in SOL would be finished, the vast space station wouldn’t have a problem implementing commands and fighting that many ships at once at our command.
When we finished with that, she had something for me that was completely unrelated.
Diana said, “Norway, Sweden, and Iceland contacted me, or at least scientists from there that work with the government. They want to set up lab spaces on the station, and to work through us to get some of those Vax doctors out here. They’re very interested in doing some work to combat genetic diseases and defects. I believe they’re hoping to figure out how to do it ourselves at some point.
“Sure, we’d still have to buy their stuff, but we could learn how to modify it and program it so it fixed things correctly, and how to target it to defects which are quite often unique. They want to get the testing going now, and start some programs, so in ten years when all the enhancements and easier cures are available for widespread use, the more specific and random genetic treatments could be approved as well.”
“I’m not unopposed to charity, but what are they offering us in return for us selling a wormhole drive so they can have a Vax doctor or two to work with?”
She smiled, “A long term investment. Theoretically at the end of ten years, when it’s approved by various first world countries and their equivalent to the FDA, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland will be the world’s experts of that niche of healthcare, where it isn’t just someone buying a standard injection, and it needs to be tailored to the patient and genetic disease. They’re offering us five percent of the net profits for twenty years after it’s been approved on the worldwide stage.”
“Alright, I’ll ask for a Vax geneticist for two years, that should be long enough for the
m to figure out the process in tailoring the medicine, and I’ll see if we can get some AR implants out of the deal as well. We can sell those as soon as they’re approved.”
She nodded, “Good plan, no doubt AR implants will be approved long before the life extension DNA correction, and enhancement and general cure cocktails that don’t have to be tailored and are ready for use.”
“That’s what I was thinking. Anything else?”
Granted, we’d be taking those life extensions two years into the study ourselves. That should be long enough to decide if it’s safe, even if the FDA made America wait ten years.
She smirked, “We need a vacation, we also need to set a date and plan our wedding. I suppose it can wait until after the U.S., Germany, and England make their move, but we’ll always be busy.”
I nodded, “That sounds good to me. Do you think it’s safe to go anywhere though? On the planet I mean.”
She frowned, “Probably not, too dangerous, but we can always stay at one of the casino resorts. There’s lots to do on station now. I’ve always wanted to see Italy, or take a trip across Europe, but we’d be stuck visiting heads of state if we tried that, and we’d be dodging assassins. Maybe you could spin off one of those fancy yachts you sell, and we can tour the planets of the solar system.”
“That last one sounds good, we can spend a couple of days at a resort, then finish out the week on a very private and personal space tour.”
She grinned, “Good. Captive audience to plan our wedding day.”
I mock shuddered in horror, which made her giggle.
We made plans for lunch, it’d been a hell of a morning already. Then I stole her toys, and I started building out ships. That was twenty-four small warships for the follow up strike so they couldn’t do it again, and thirty-six large warships to help protect the station. I also built out a few hundred of those softball sized probes that would enable me to steal one of their ships and get the data. The only trick was getting it within the reach of my magic, a few hundred feet was a ridiculously small distance in the vastness of space, even in the solar system. Of course, we only had to take over one of their ships, which would be easier once most of them were destroyed.
I was sure I’d have scenarios and ideas playing in my head for the next two weeks, we had a good guess on mass, but not on strategy or what their ships would actually be, or when they’d attack. Hopefully I’d have a good idea what to do when the time came. At the very least, it’d take them over ten hours to get to Earth after arriving in system, which would give us plenty of last-minute brainstorming time to round out our tactics.
I gave Threx and Pherie a call. We negotiated for a while, and he’d be sending one of his cousins to drop off a scientist for two years. They’d also be delivering a million AR implant devices. That sounded like a lot, but in the end given over seven billion people on the planet it wasn’t all that much. We’d be buying a lot more of them I was sure, and we’d start all over again when it came time to purchase the medical miracles and life extensions they offered.
Last, but not least, I set up a lab space, a suite for the geneticist to stay in, as well as rooms for the research doctors and test patients from Norway, Sweden, and Iceland.
I also found the cousin part somewhat amusing; it was nice to know nepotism was alive and well in the galaxy at large…
The next two weeks passed both quickly and slowly. Quickly because there was a lot going on, and it all seemed to be coming fast. Slowly, because I was frustrated, angry, and wanted to get the confrontation over and done with so we could look to the future. If it wasn’t for Diana, I think I might have acted prematurely, but her presence and support, and our time together at night, helped with that.
Business as usual when we knew of the threat coming just felt wrong, even if I knew it was the smartest way and really only way to play it. On the good side, preparations went well. The ships were building up even faster than I expected, as each time we added a reactor’s worth of nanite mass, the building accelerated as it came online and powered five more energy to matter devices.
I thought of very little else in my spare time, but strategies of fighting and possible retreat, fortunately I was busy enough that I got some relief from that when one of the others claimed my attention with station duty or personal time. Of course, none of the retreat ideas, if it became necessary, were foolproof. Not if I waited for the enemy fleet to close first that is.
I believed we’d be ready for them, even at greater odds, but it would be a gamble.
The beginning of the second week the volunteer study patients and doctors arrived on station, as did a Vax scientist named Nix. We also took on the AR implants, and set up another wormhole drive on Threx’s cousin’s ship. The implants went into secure storage, until the time came when we were able to offer it for sale.
I’d also worked on a personal project of sorts, a device I’d never sell. At first I’d rejected the idea of building a powered suit-ship like the one I had for Diana because it was too dangerous. On balance, if she was hit with anything that broke through a shield the strength of a ship, and made one of the nanites explode, I figured she’d be dead anyway. On the good side, small arms fire, steel weapons, small energy weapons, all would be protected from.
I also doubled the safety by adding in a containment field. It was essentially just a second inner shield that would protect from an exploding nanite if something went wrong. The powered nanites were spread out through the suit, but not evenly. I put them mostly in the arms and legs, where they were spread out evenly there. Theory being, people shot for heads and center mass, which lowered the chances of one being hit. It was probably a waste of time, anything breaking through the shield at all would rip through the suit and damage the body, but I was driven to make it as safe as possible.
The suit had shields, a small gravity drive, life support, a nanite healing bed built in, and a navigation interface as well as threat detection sensors. It could also fire weapons, both deadly and non-deadly. Chances were it would never be needed, at least not in a large battle, if the entire station was destroyed the suits wouldn’t have a chance. But, for assassins, an invasion, or abandoning ship without a ship, it would make a big difference.
I set it up to be self-triggered and to automatically trigger in appropriate circumstances, and if triggered it would take less than two seconds for a piece of the wall or floor they were standing on or next to, to build a suit around them. Lastly, I gave Diana, Jayna, Cassie, Jessica, and the entire security force on station access to them. I may have built it to keep Diana and those close to me safe, but it would be stupid not to use it to preserve the lives of my security force.
If I’d done so sooner, Dale wouldn’t have managed to kill two of them, or get as far as he did. Of course, that happened before Diana broke the power problem, so I didn’t really feel guilty about the lack at that time. I just felt stupid for not doing it right away once it was available.
As far as all the civilians, contractors, and other people on the station. They would all be put in those instant escape pods I’d designed, which would take them to Earth if the ship was close to destruction. I didn’t believe that would ever be a problem though, in battle the top levels of the station would automatically detach and move to a safe position. Well, that would work against the attack coming because the U.S. would want to avoid collateral damage just as much as I did. They wouldn’t purposefully target it. For an alien attack, I’d have the detached part move to Earth and lower into the atmosphere above an empty spot in the vast pacific. They’d be safe enough there, as long as the aliens were beat back. If not… then the whole world and our race was dead anyway.
One other change I made was to missile safety. When launching missiles only a couple of handfuls of nanites would be powered on, which was enough to power impulse to quickly clear the shields and the immediate vicinity of the station. Once clear, all the nanites would power up, raise shields, and accelerate at six hundred gravities. That
took care of that danger quite nicely.
My mind did a lot of that those two weeks, contingency planning, and slightly changing protocols.
I felt like I was shooting myself in the foot. Eight colony ships, with the combined mass and power of thirty-two giant warships, and I was about to release them to the idiots that were poised to attack me. At least, that was true of three of the eight. Of course, they couldn’t use them in the battle, the point was I couldn’t absorb and repurpose them for the battle.
Still, we had an inkling of what was coming, and I believed we were ready for it. Any good trap or ambush required showing the enemy what they expected to see, which meant I needed to give up those ships to lure them into attacking and not aborting their plans. I just hoped I wasn’t trapping myself in truth, and that Diana’s tech made the difference. The new missiles were absolutely deadly, but they had to get very close to be effective.
Of course, close was relative, all the other missiles had to actually impact an enemy ship to be effective.
Cassie whispered, “Stop scowling.”
I laughed, “Yes, maam,” and I thought of Diana as I pasted a slight smile on my face. Thoughts of my fiancé made the smile real, even if she had abandoned me for this.
Cassie as usual was beyond gorgeous, one of those rare beauties that defined the scale.
I was used to it and immune to it thanks to time and my love for Diana, but she truly was a vision. She accompanied me as we walked into the large landing bay the ship from Earth was docking to, which was right in the middle of the large colony ships. The ship coming in held eight command crews from eight different countries. The smile of course, was for the press which were already set up, taking pictures and video, and would no doubt love to catch me with a scowl on my face so they could show the world I was deranged and dangerous.
Astraeus Station Page 9
