Next came Pinchu, who mostly stared at her oddly, periodically shaking his head and muttering about how peculiar humans continued to be. But he’d been forced to accept greater impossibilities than resurrection in the last fourteen years, so after probing her with questions for a few minutes, he seemed to accept the situation and departed willing to take orders from her.
She appreciated the warmup the other leaders provided her, because now came the thorny part. Her professional relationship with Field Marshal Nolan Bastian had improved little in the last fourteen years, possibly deteriorating a bit after he was passed over for the AEGIS Fleet Admiral position in favor of Malcolm. It hadn’t been her decision, not technically, but there was no question that her preference had carried great weight, and he knew it.
Now Malcolm was dead—properly so, unlike her—Bastian was the leader of humanity’s military, and she had no choice but to make it work.
As the man strode into her office, she experienced a vivid flashback of her striding into Eleni Gianno’s office to plan a counterinsurgency against her own government, and a wave of nostalgia washed over her. But Eleni wasn’t here; because the woman had died fifteen years too early, she never would be.
Miriam stood and prepared herself to return the salute…that never came. Bastian regarded her warily as he took up a parade rest stance in the center of the office. “What do I call you now?”
“Commandant Solovy remains the order of the day.”
“Does it? Has the Concord Senate confirmed your position yet?”
“They will meet later today to discuss the matter, but it is a mere formality. Here in Amaranthe, resurrection is a reality. I thought you understood this.”
“Doesn’t mean we’re any good at it. Your daughter turns herself into a synthetic hybrid. Your husband magically returns from the afterlife. Now you blaze the trail of our newly minted regenesis miracle. I wonder…are any of you Solovys real?”
“Field Marshal, of all the people I desire to discuss philosophy, religion or metaphysics with, you aren’t even on the list. If you have a qualm to voice, voice it.”
“Hmm. Maybe you are the same as you were. Nevertheless, several of the AEGIS political representatives have concerns about your…situation. Senator Requelme has expressed her support for you, but she’s not exactly in an ideal state of mind at present, so I’m not convinced the rest of us should follow her lead.”
“If the political leaders of the Earth Alliance, Senecan Federation or IDCC wish to interrogate me, they are welcome to make an appointment to do so. Otherwise, everyone needs to stop gossiping and do their jobs. AEGIS does not possess the power to decide my status with Concord, and we are facing challenges on multiple fronts. We all have a great deal of work to do, and we should see about doing it.”
“But AEGIS does have the power to decide whether to follow your orders.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Oh, are you planning to follow the Anadens’ lead and try to secede from Concord? Do you imagine you will defeat the Rasu on your own? Or the Savrakaths, for that matter?”
“Concord is humanity. I submit we have a great deal to say about who runs it.”
“Field Marshal, do not do this. Do not make the Anadens’ argument for them and bring everything we’ve built here crashing down. If we splinter apart now, we will all fall—to the Savrakaths, to the Rasu, to the next enemy on the horizon. Most of all, to our own failings.”
He stared at her, intense eyes trying to peel back the layers of her skin and see if anything real existed on the inside, or if she was just an empty shell. Finally he nodded minutely. “I’ll toe the line for now. But I will be watching you.”
“When have you ever not? Thank you. Now, if there’s nothing else, I am, as you noted, expected at the Senate shortly. Oh, and you’ll be receiving a new strategic plan regarding Concord defenses and Rasu scenarios to review later today.”
His head tilted a fraction. “Indeed.”
When he’d left, she drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes. It was possible the verbal sparring had rekindled a tiny spark of fire in her belly. Better.
She should have some tea.
While she waited for a cup to brew, she sent a message to Kennedy Rossi requesting a meeting as soon as possible to discuss the details of building her a new ship—of building Concord a new flagship vessel, that was.
The response arrived as she brought the teacup to her lips, savoring the steamy aroma, just like she had a hundred thousand times in her life.
Commandant Solovy,
I thought you knew. David commissioned you a new vessel less than an hour after the coup attempt was quelled. As such, it’s already over twenty percent complete. There’s still a little time to make interior changes, though, so let me know soon if you have any ideas for improvements over the old design. Oh, and welcome back!
—Kennedy Rossi
CEO, Connova Interstellar
Design Consultant, Concord Command
In the privacy of her office, Miriam laughed. Of course David had. He’d have realized she wouldn’t be truly whole again until she could stand on the bridge of her ship. No Solovy was.
Later in the evening, she sat in the conference room at the apex of Concord HQ with everyone she’d sent her report to in the final minutes of the Namino battle. The final minutes of her life. Thisiame, Pinchu, Richard, Kennedy, Alex, David. Everyone except Malcolm, which made for a stark reminder that she shouldn’t whine even to herself about her struggles with rebirth. Bastian replaced Malcolm at the table; in the smallest boon, his demeanor suggested five percent less antagonism than he’d displayed this morning.
“Richard, thank you for acting so quickly to update Concord security protocols and for coordinating with SENTRI to do the same for AEGIS protocols. I don’t believe the Rasu had an opportunity to obtain any Concord or AEGIS intel, but it’s better to respond as if they did.”
“Of course. The updates needed to happen in light of our Anaden problem in any event.”
“Yes. While we face a lot of challenges in that arena, this meeting isn’t about the ‘Anaden problem.’ We failed spectacularly in our first encounter with the Rasu. Platitudes will and have been given on how we couldn’t have anticipated the nature and extent of their combat capabilities. This is undoubtedly true, but also irrelevant. We will face the Rasu again, as our alliance with the Asterion Dominion stands. We failed them at Namino, and we can’t let it happen a second time. We need to do better. Further, the Rasu now know we exist, and I expect they will come hunting for us.”
Somber countenances ruled the table—except for David, who kept tamping down a smile while his eyes never left her. She loved him for it, but now wasn’t the time for sentimentality. “So. Let’s talk about weapons. Field Marshal?”
“We’re working toward tripling the production capacity of negative energy weapons at the AEGIS Crux II Field Manufacturing Facility. Most AEGIS vessels are capable of launching negative energy missiles from any of their launch tubes, and frigates and larger vessels can carry a full loadout of them. We’ll increase our supply of the weapons by two hundred percent for all standard patrols, to guard against the possibility of an unexpected Rasu encounter. In an expected one, by next week we should be able to increase the supply by an additional order of magnitude.” He glanced around the table. “And of course, we are happy to provide the Khokteh and Novoloume militaries with a portion of our supply until they’re able to ramp up their own production.”
“Excellent. Thank you, Field Marshal. Now, let’s talk about nukes. So long as the Rasu are located at least two megameters outside any planetary atmosphere or distant from any space station, I think long-range tactical fusion nuclear missiles should be our opening salvo in every encounter. Our shields will keep the resulting radiation from reaching crew members for the length of any practical encounter. This way we can hold the negative energy missiles in reserve for when we’ve closed to a range that makes nukes impractical. Does anyone disagree?”
A couple of uncomfortable looks were exchanged, but no one spoke up. Part of her was glad no one was leaping up to challenge her proclamation as to the color of the sky, but she didn’t want them donning kid gloves, either. “Please, if anyone has concerns, I want to hear them.”
Thisiame tilted his head in a ripple of iridescence. “I dislike nuclear weapons. They are dirty, crude instruments of destruction. But I concede to the science. They will kill Rasu, which is what we must do.”
“Yes, we must. Increasing the use of negative energy and nuclear weapons is the easy part, relatively speaking. What additional tools do we have in our arsenal, or need to add to it?”
Richard spoke up. “Special Projects is hard at work on iterative improvements to delivery mechanisms for all manner of negative energy explosives—”
“We don’t need iterative improvements—we need new weapons. Weapons that give us a fighting chance against these….” She fought back a wave of frustration-induced vertigo. Why now? “Against this enemy. I’m sorry. I’m sure anything coming out of Special Projects to aid us in this fight will be most welcome. But I want them to think so far outside the box that there need not be a box at all.”
“I’ll pass along the recommendation. Devon and his people will rise to the challenge.”
“I have every confidence they will.” She was fairly certain this was what she would say in this situation, yes? “Next, we require new, comprehensive rules of engagement for our military forces to follow when facing the Rasu. Guidelines about when to run so as not to be…” her vision swam briefly “…captured. Instructions detailing what tactics are most successful on the battlefield and which ones most definitely are not. Rules for safe use of unconventional weaponry. I’ll address these as time allows, but I want high-level bullet points distributed to all ship captains and fleet commanders immediately.
“Frankly, we need to approach space warfare from an entirely new angle if we want to entertain any hope of defeating the Rasu in combat. We need to reassess every assumption and examine every convention.”
David cleared his throat and leaned forward slightly. “If I may? I realize I’m no longer active-duty military, but this sort of wargaming sounds right up my alley. Above and beyond all the strategizing the military leaders will be doing, I’d like to work on the project. Then you all can review whatever I come up with. Toss out as much as you want and keep the rest.”
“It’s a good idea, and I…welcome your input.” Too personal? Not everyone in the room was a friend. Rather than tie herself up in greater knots over a small slip in decorum, she forced herself to redirect her attention to the others around the table. “Ms. Rossi? What can you tell us about improving the security of our adiamene hulls? Can we make them seamless?”
Kennedy glared at the ceiling. “Adiamene by definition is seamless. The problem arises when parts of a ship have to move like gears. I’m working on modifying the ship designs to eliminate all unnecessary joints. We can also make more of the components out of adiamene—weapons housing, for instance.
“But the weapons themselves—the crystals, the rare earth elements, the lasers, the power supplies—are not adiamene, and this leaves an unbridgeable gap. Any module that needs to move, to open and close or change position, can’t be seamless. It just…can’t be. Now, we can write adaptive shield routines to reinforce the shields around any modular area, or on direct command—”
Alex stopped trying to bore a hole through Miriam’s forehead with her stare to speak up for the first time. “What about the double shield the Machim Imperiums use? It’s virtually impenetrable from the outside, yet allows the Imperium weapons to fire.”
Miriam shook her head. “Unfortunately, no Imperiums fought at Namino to test the theory that it’s impenetrable to Rasu incursions. But given that it does operate without any gaps, I have a hard time believing the Rasu will be able to slither through it.”
Kennedy sighed. “I agree. But we’ve never been able to fully crack the shield’s operation. The Anadens have spent the last fourteen years refusing to share the technology with us, and….”
“And I told you we weren’t going to push them on it, because with adiamene on our side we didn’t need the extra shielding. Perhaps that was a mistake, but it is what it is. Ms. Rossi, keep attacking the seams in our hulls, and I’ll add to Special Projects’ workload by asking them to strengthen our standard shields in every way they can engineer. We haven’t needed to rely on shields for a long time, but now we must do so once again.”
After the military leaders and Kennedy had departed, Miriam gave David, Alex and Richard an honest, weary smile. “One hurdle cleared.”
“You were perfect.” David reached over and squeezed her hands atop the table. “Kennedy said your new ship will be ready in a week or so. What are you going to call her?”
“I hadn’t really considered it. The Stalwart II redux? Stalwart III, I suppose? If that isn’t getting too absurd.”
David snorted. “ ‘Stalwart’ my ass. We might as well have called them ‘ships that blow up Solovys.’ I say it’s time for a new name.”
She chuckled lightly, and it elevated her mood so much she decided she should try to do more of it. Alex, though, regarded her in abject horror. She should tell her daughter that she wasn’t a glass figurine who would shatter at the slightest touch. And she would do so as soon as she was confident of it herself.
“You may have a point. I’ll think on it.”
Richard had been sitting there unusually quietly; he’d refused to joke with David, or so much as look at him…and she did not have the mental bandwidth to consider why this might be. “Richard, what do you have for me on the Anadens?”
“Ferdinand and his elasson friends are holed up at the Kyvern Primor’s former compound on Epithero. He’s got twenty-five to thirty elassons on-site, though we can’t rule out the possibility that additional supporters are situated elsewhere. Still, it appears his supporters number less than half of the elassons, and all indications are it’s not going great for him so far. To the surprise of no one at this table, the elassons are bickering with one another over how to proceed. So far, they haven’t decided on a clear direction for their rebellion.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“I’m a spy, remember?”
“I do. However, that is not an answer.”
“The aide to one of the Kyvern elassons, Taiv ela-Kyvern, was an anarch. Because he acted as a mole for Sator Nisi, none of the elassons ever found out he was an anarch. Now, he works for CINT on the side as an informant.”
“Brilliant. What’s Casmir’s status?”
“He’s being held in…I’d call it ‘house arrest.’ He’s not restrained in a cell, but he doesn’t have much freedom of movement and he hasn’t been allowed to participate in the strategy sessions. My informant believes he’s refusing to take part in any actions taken against Concord interests.”
Miriam exhaled in relief. It hadn’t always been easy to deal with the man, but truth be told, Casmir’s betrayal would have stung. “With multiple Machim elassons on Ferdinand’s side, they’re dangerous from a military perspective. We should keep the alert levels at all facilities at their current heightened level. Meanwhile, we’ll take advantage of their indecision to strengthen the security and solidarity of Concord institutions…” rhythmic nods answered her every word, and she paused to huff a breath “…which you all have already been hard at work doing in my absence. Forgive me. I owe you everything.”
David reached across the table to squeeze her hands again. He was indulging in physical affection too often, but she couldn’t bring herself to stop him. Not yet. “We were just doing what we could to try to protect everything you’ve built.”
“Everything we’ve built. Okay. I’m confident we can respond to and defeat any attacks on Concord citizens or property, but this conflict is about more than who has the stronger military. What can we do to destabilize Ferdinand’s rebellion before
it gets its sea legs and begins to disrupt basic Concord functions?”
ASTERION DOMINION
21
* * *
NAMINO
Camp Burrow
Marlee sat cross-legged on the floor opposite Xyche’ghael. The Taiyok was idly weaving a thick, coarse material into a rope with his hands while he entertained her inquiries and let her practice her Taiyoken.
“Do many Taiyoks live on Asterion worlds?”
“A few thousand have chosen to settle on their planets. The majority who have done so came here, to Namino. The climate and the work done here suit us.”
“It’s honorable for so many of you to serve as ambassadors to your ally.”
The Taiyok made a low, rumbling sound deep in his throat. “Some, yes. Others are not viewed as such.”
She sensed she’d hit on a touchy topic, but as usual, her mouth moved faster than her brain. “Is this why you dug the tunnels? Because not every Asterion wants to run into Taiyoks on the street?”
Xyche stared at her sharply. “Your young eyes see much, laiti’manu. It is not quite so…‘cut and dried,’ I believe is the phrase. Less that some don’t want to run into us, more that we do not enjoy enduring their open gaping and inconsiderate curiosity. Our culture is not theirs, but most Asterions have never bothered to learn anything of our practices or traditions.”
“What a shame. I find alien cultures fascinating, and I can’t imagine ignoring the culture of your neighbor and ally.” Xyche merely lifted his folded wings in a shrug of sorts, which probably meant he’d said everything he intended to on the subject. “Do you miss home?”
Inversion (Riven Worlds Book Two) Page 14
