EMPIRE: Warlord (EMPIRE SERIES Book 5)

by Richard F. Weyand

  “So we need better attack strategies, and we also need a way to have the attacks not be patterned such that the pattern is discernible by the enemy.

  “With that, I’ll open the floor for comments.”

  “That’s going to help a lot, Jared,” Liu Jiang said.

  “I’ll say. We were guessing in terms of defensive strategies,” Vipin Narang said.

  Denny noticed Freja Gunnarsson had her hand up. She was the group’s artist and user interface specialist, so this topic was well outside her normal area of expertise.

  “Freja,” Denny said.

  “Jared, I can’t help wondering if something we do in simulations might not help with the repetitive pattern thing.”

  Gunnarsson was tentative, well outside her expertise, and Denny encouraged her.

  “Go ahead, Freja. Whatcha got?”

  “Well, you know when you’re in a VR simulation, like walking through a park or something, the trees aren’t all the same tree, the same image, just plopped down here and there, right? We have to do something to get trees that are random-looking, and more or less randomly spaced. We have to do that, because people are so good at seeing patterns.

  “So instead of drawing trees, we give the software rules for drawing trees. You know. How far apart the branches are along the trunk, and whether branches are graceful like a red oak or kink this way and that like a white oak. All that sort of thing. And then we let the computer draw the trees, and they all come out different. We do the same thing for how the trees are spaced. We have rules for where trees can be in relation to other trees.

  “We can do the same thing in my hobby, music. Instead of putting the song in the computer, you put in the separate riffs the musicians play. To write the song, you specify which riffs play at what time. The song comes out the same as if you just programmed it in. But if you put in rules on the riffs – where in the phrase each riff is musically allowed to begin, for example – you can pull up random numbers and essentially teach the computer to jam.”

  “So you’re saying put in something like the elements of an attack separately, and the rules for each, and then let the computer spin random numbers for what it does when?”

  “Something like that. It’s not my area, but I wonder if something like that might not work for keeping the attacks from having a discernible pattern.”

  “There wouldn’t be any pattern,” Liu said.

  “It’s brilliant, Jared. Freja’s really on to something, I think,” Narang said.

  “All right, Freja. Can you work with the others here and get them up to speed on the methods involved?”

  “Sure, Jared. It’s not that hard. It’s just something we have to do. To get simulations not to look like simulations.”

  News didn’t travel very fast to the farm outside Rock Falls on the planet Garland, especially when the planetary government had control over the news agencies. It was Monday before knowledge of the attack on Estvia reached Francis Schmitt-deVries, and that came in the form of a letter from Rob Murphy to his wife Anita.

  Such letters were the only way to communicate without VR. Rob wrote the letter on-board ship, where they were finishing up search-and-rescue operations after Sintar’s attack on the Alliance mustering point in Wingard. An image of his letter was transmitted via QE radio to a messaging service on Garland, which sent it to its Rock Falls branch. There it was printed out and then delivered to the farm in the mails.

  “There’s not many details,” Dick Winger said to deVries as they discussed the letter out on the porch after dinner.

  “No but what there is is bad enough,” deVries said. “The Treaty of Earth specifies that a violation of the treaty by one signer against another constitutes a unilateral withdrawal by the violator with regard to the violated. The short version of that, in plain language, is that Sintar is no longer bound by the Treaty of Earth with regard to Annalia, Berinia, and Garland.”

  “Which means what, exactly?”

  “That using nuclear weapons against Garland is on the table if the Emperor wishes to do it. No one else can even say, ‘Hey, you can’t do that. It’s against the rules.’ Because it’s not.”

  “Damn.”

  “Yeah. It’s a real good time not to be in Flower. A real good time.”

  Some of King James’s advisers were of the same mind. They advised the king to get out of Flower, to move to one of his estates, and take them with him.

  “Are you crazy?” James countered. “That’s exactly what he wants. To get me out in the middle of nowhere, and then kill me without consequences. Nope. Not going to do it. I’m going to sit right here. He’s not going to nuke twenty-five million people just to get me. We’re all safer here. By a lot.

  “I still can’t believe that ass Hollifield couldn’t hit Kehala. Even with nuclear weapons, a hundred and fifty miles is a clean miss.

  “Where the hell is deVries, anyway? In the middle of a foreign crisis, and no foreign minister.”

  “Uh, you fired him last week, Your Highness.”

  “I fire him several times a year. He knows it’s not permanent. Where the hell has he gotten off to?”

  “We don’t know, Sire.”

  “Track down his VR signal. Send someone out to pick him up.”

  “We tried that, Sire. He’s shut down his VR interface.”

  “He has?”

  “Yes, Sire.”

  “Hell of a time to go off on vacation.”

  Phalia And The Rim

  Time seemed to drag. Everyone knew something was going to happen, but nobody knew what.

  The Imperial Press Office, in keeping with its minimalist approach, issued a terse press release acknowledging the attack on Estvia and giving the estimate of people killed. It said it was part of the ongoing conflict between the Empire and the Alliance, but offered no other details.

  No questions were taken or interviews granted.

  The Autarch Gustav Adolph of Annalia, King Peter of Berinia, and King James of Garland felt the presence of the Sword of Damocles more keenly than at any other time in their reigns, as fear of Sintar – and of their own advisers and subordinates – for the unsuccessful attack on Estvia grew.

  The rulers pulled their remaining navies more strongly into their capital systems. New defense systems were deployed, defensive maneuvers were practiced, and their navies geared up for the attack they knew was coming.

  Primary among the defensive measures was a large number of box launchers for missiles. These were as simple as Sintar’s, nothing much more than a box full of missiles that would open when triggered, dropping its missiles behind the warship that carried them. They hoped to be able to match or exceed Sintar’s missile tsunamis with waves of missiles of their own.

  The other rulers of the Alliance were appalled to see the news out of Estvia, and were quick to send emergency messages to the Sintaran ambassadors in their capitals saying, ‘We had no part of it,’ and ‘This was not the Alliance. Whoever did this was acting independently.’

  They sincerely hoped they would be believed.

  In Estvia, the relief efforts from the nuclear explosions was pretty much over. Given the locations, most people were either dead or unaffected. The small number of people with serious injuries were being treated in Kehala’s hospitals.

  The bigger effort in Estvia was the annexation of Estvia into the Sintaran Empire. Estvia, with ten thousand planets, would normally fit better into the Empire’s structure as two sectors, but its population was only twelve trillion people. This was on the same order as the Empire’s more populous sectors currently. Dunham and Roberts decide it would be simpler to bring Estvia, already a single administrative area, into the Empire as one sector, and address the splitting of the sector later, if at all.

  Huge freighters and passenger liners flooded into Estvia. The liners brought administrators, doctors, technicians, security people. Dozens, hundreds, thousands of them, over and over again, across the administrative centers of Estvia. The freight
ers brought VR nanites, contraceptive nanites, VR nodes, QE radio nodes, diagnostic chairs, coronary artery nanites, entire surgical suites – the basic building blocks of Imperial technology.

  The Empire’s new annexation department had done all this before, in Pannia, and its collective experience made this a much smoother rollout.

  “How are things going with the roll-out?” asked Diana Fogerty, the annexation department head.

  “Smoother than Pannia,” Greg Deval said. “We’re applying what we learned. Biggest thing right off is VR nanites, so we can communicate with the citizenry effectively, and contraceptive nanites, so women get effective control of reproduction. We had doctors set up shop with folding chairs on street corners in the major cities, and they’re dosing anyone who stops. People are lining up, and a single doctor can dose two or three thousand people in an eight-hour shift. Twice that if he has a nurse along.”

  “And the kids, Greg?”

  “We sent the teams right to the schools. A single doctor and nurse can dose an entire large high school in one school day.”

  “So we’re hitting all the big cities. Then what?”

  “We keep a couple teams in a central place, like city hall, and then the rest of the teams fan out to smaller cities. We’ll ripple through the smaller cities and down into the towns as we go.”

  “Twelve trillion people. How long do you think?”

  “We’re on track to get the entire population in six months.”

  “Excellent. Only five trillion people in Pannia and it took us over a year.”

  “Yeah. No, we got this, Diana. We learned a lot in Pannia. We may actually dish it out faster than suppliers can get doses to us.”

  “Is that being expedited?”

  “Yes. They streamlined their operations for Pannia, but they’ve kicked it up again and they’re running flat out right now. They should start to catch up pretty quickly.”

  “All right, Greg. Keep me informed on it.”

  Queen Anne and King Albert appeared in the VR meeting room. Dunham was already there, standing at ease. Three leather club chairs were the only furnishings.

  “Thank you for meeting with us, Your Majesty,” Queen Anne said.

  “You’re very welcome, Your Highness. Please, shall we have a seat?”

  Dunham waved to the chairs, and all three sat down.

  “Your Majesty, I wanted to assure you first that Phalia was not involved in the nuclear attack on Estvia last week,” Queen Anne said. “Phalia had no part in it, we were not advised of it, and it was not a decision taken up or made by the Alliance Council.”

  “Nor did the Rim, Your Majesty,” King Albert said.

  “I understand, Queen Anne, King Albert. We have done our own investigation and are very much aware of who was involved.”

  “Can you tell us, Your Majesty?” Queen Anne asked.

  “It was very much who you would expect it to be, Your Highness.”

  “Annalia, Berinia, and Garland.”

  Dunham rotated his hand palm up on the chair for a moment and gave a small nod, conceding the point.

  “Now what, Your Majesty?”

  “There will be consequences. For them. I am not prepared to share that with you at this time.”

  “And for us, Your Majesty? For Phalia? For the Rim?”

  Dunham pursed his lips for a moment.

  “I see no affect on our discussions whatsoever, Your Highness. As you say, Phalia and the Rim were not involved.”

  “You take us at our word, Your Majesty?”

  “In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, Your Highness, I have no reason to doubt your word.”

  Queen Anne visibly relaxed. She had obviously been concerned the actions of others would poison her own relations with the Emperor.

  “So the annexations go forward as previously agreed, Your Majesty?” King Albert asked. “No changes?”

  “Of course, Your Highness,” Dunham said. “As a matter of fact, I think now would be a good time to announce them.”

  “To draw attention away from the attack on Estvia, Your Majesty?” Queen Anne asked.

  “And to show the rulers of other Alliance nations there are other ways to settle one’s difference with Sintar than committing suicide, Your Highness.”

  Queen Anne nodded.

  “How should we proceed, Your Majesty?” she asked.

  “I think it would be best if you each made the announcement with regards to your kingdom, Your Highness. The Imperial Press Office on Sintar will merely acknowledge you have requested annexation, and the Emperor has agreed.”

  “Very well. And the timing, Your Majesty?”

  “Sometime in the next three days would be best, Your Highness.”

  Queen Anne and King Albert met after the meeting with Emperor Trajan.

  “Well, that’s a relief. I was afraid those bastards had botched up our deal with the Emperor,” Queen Anne said.

  “Apparently not,” King Albert said. “I’m surprised he’s going to let them get away with the attack on Estvia, though.”

  “What in the world makes you think that?”

  “Well, he’s moving on to the annexations without saying much about the attack, other than there will be consequences. That seems pretty mild, Anne.”

  “Don’t forget what he said about committing suicide, Albert.”

  “I thought he was talking about their navies.”

  “But that’s not what he said. He said he wanted to show there were options for their rulers other than committing suicide.”

  “Ah. You think that’s significant?”

  “One thing I know about this Emperor, Albert. He’s very precise in the things he says, even if he tends to understatement. He’s been on the throne almost seven years, and he has an appreciation for how much weight his words carry. What he said was the equivalent of a lesser man shouting.”

  “Oh, my. Then I fear James and his cohorts are not long for this world.”

  “Small loss.”

  “I wonder what the successor governments will be like.”

  “That may depend most on who manages to survive the Emperor’s retribution.”

  Queen Anne was concluding her address to the people of Phalia.

  “It is important to understand this is not an occupation. Phalia will not be a conquered territory of the Sintaran Empire. Instead, Phalia will be a part of the Empire, and all Phalians will be citizens of the Empire, on an equal basis with the Empire’s other citizens. All the civil rights guarantees of the Empire will apply to all Phalians. All the benefits of being an Imperial citizen will apply to all Phalians, including universal VR, universal education, equality under law, and the benefits of Imperial technology in medicine, communications, transportation, and more.

  “I am stepping down from the throne, to become myself an equal citizen of the Sintaran Empire. I have traded the throne for the benefits of Imperial citizenship for all the people of Phalia, who I am sworn to serve. To pass up this opportunity would leave me forsworn, put my own self-interest above that of the citizens of this, my kingdom, who I love so much. That I cannot do.

  “You will see some of the benefits of Imperial citizenship immediately, while some will take much longer. We are embarking on a process that will take several years to accomplish completely. Please join me in working through this process, so we will all reap the full benefits of Imperial citizenship.

  “Long live the Emperor.”

  Diana Fogerty asked Greg Deval into her office. He noticed when he came in she looked– not haggard exactly. Perhaps harried was the better word.

  “What’s the matter, Diana? What’s happened?” he asked.

  “I just got advance word. The Empire is annexing Phalia and the Rim.”

  Deval sat down hard – almost collapsed – on a side chair.

  “My God. That’s what? Forty thousand planets?”

  “Yes. And over sixty trillion people. Five times the size of Estvia.”

 
; “How do we even do that?”

  “We need a new process. Sure, we can use all our experience with Pannia, and what we’re learning in Estvia, to design a new process, but our current process won’t work anymore.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “Right now, we’re running Imperial doctors and technicians into Estvia to administer nanites, install communications nodes, and do all the other things to get them started. We can’t do that with something this big. Phalia and the Rim together are nearly twenty percent of the current size of the Empire. What we need to do is send our people in to give their people crash courses in our technology, and have their own people doing the work.”

  “That could work. We’ll have to spend a bit of time coming up with some sort of training.”

  “Well, we have all these upgrade processes going on in Estvia right now. First thing, I think, is to get some people in Estvia recording everything, so we can use those recordings as teaching aids in the courses we put together. And I don’t want to use live teachers for those courses. Let’s record the teachers in VR, and make it all something we can expand, and then expand again.”

  “Expand again?”

  “Greg, do you really think the Emperor is done with the annexations? That this is it? Because I don’t.”

  “What about supplies? Nanites. Comm nodes. QE radios. Diagnostic chairs. Emergency room suites? It goes on and on. And how do we transport it all, Diana? We’re going to need a lot of freighters.”

  “How much of those supplies are from completely automated manufacturing, Greg? Would it make more sense to encourage the manufacturers to build new manufacturing plants in the annexed areas and build more supplies closer to where they’re needed?”

  “I’m not sure, Diana. Quite a bit of it, I think. We’ll have to look into it.”

  He sighed, then ran a hand through his hair.

  “You know, Diana, I think we should call Consulting in on this. See what the Zoo can come up with. They have all those idea guys over there, and they can probably come up with other things that would help. Because we’re going to need a lot of ideas.”