The rest of the Accord smiled, doubtless with their hands over their mouths. Lexi was cheating. She knew it. They knew it. But they all appreciated that as Marshal, she could do whatever she pleased. The fact that she was honoring the laws of the Accord while finding a workaround impressed them. They all knew how she had weaponized her starship by building an exoskeleton for ground combat, without actually arming the ship itself, which would have been illegal, while on Hepca. They had been impressed by that tactic as well.
Ships from every Accord world that had time to get to Earth were holding position in near-Earth space, having brought naval personnel, engineers, and Marines. The logistics of integrating those people into a cohesive military force Lexi had gladly turned over to a general in the Russian military.
Glaurang’s naval personnel cadre had swollen to four hundred sixty. Over and above that number she had four hundred Earth-supplied Marines. The people Earth supplied had come from more than a dozen nations. They all passed the scrutiny of Jis’s Ackalonians, agreeing to set all national, racial and religious concerns aside. They all understood their planet, their families and their friends were going to die unless they could prevent it. The naval crew, the people who would be running her ship, were under the command of an Admiral from the Russian Federation. His second in command was Chinese. The commander of the fighter squadrons was American.
Living conditions on Glaurang remained miserable. The temperature, humidity, excessive gravity, and the smell was getting to all of them. While there was nothing that could be done immediately about the gravity, Ron took a team of Earth engineers and showed them how the fabricators worked. He designed and they built portable environmental units that filtered the air, scavenged the overly high oxygen from it and cooled it to a more reasonable temperature. Four of the units were running in the conference room. Others hummed away in the mess halls, the control bridge, and the crew’s quarters. It was a stop-gap measure, of course. Eventually, they would remodel the ship, but the units quickly resolved what Lexi and her team had found to be a minor nuisance from turning into a calamity.
From her seat at one of the front row tables, Lexi said, “Let’s get started. Admiral Kuznetsov, you’re first up.”
Kuznetsov was a tall, dark-haired Russian. His goatee had wisps of gray in it. He was a lean man who had spent the last eleven years of his career as a ranking staff officer in the Russian water navy. His experience with space flight was limited to what he had seen on the TV.
Speaking Ritue with his Russian accent intact, he said, “Everyone is pitching in with a will. The non-Earth members of the crew have been very patient with the backward Earthmen.” He looked around before focusing on Lexi. “That is most definitely my term. Not theirs. The Ostrieachians particularly so, I might add. They have totally failed at living up to their reputation of being quick to anger. I’m sure some of our people have given them cause from time to time.”
Lexi smiled at that. Just under two years ago the Ostrieachians had been pretty much in the position of Earth today, suddenly finding themselves in possession of technology they could barely use and didn’t understand. At the time, on receipt of Lexi’s request for people who could instruct them, Jis Boc Seckan responded in spades sending a mixed Ackalonian/Borgolian battle fleet to the Ostrieachian system.
“I have little to add over and above what has been conveyed in my weekly status reports. We’re learning to fly and fight this ship. We’ve already cleared near-Earth orbit of years of space junk. We’ve collected tons of material to feed into the shipyard’s fabricators. We’re patrolling now looking for planet-killer asteroids. We’ve captured and pulverized two so far. The crew is working well together. We’ve been running battle simulations, but without better intel on the capabilities and fleet composition of the Kreesh, we’re just guessing. On that note, if there are no questions, I’ll turn the briefing over to Colonel Davis.”
Colonel Davis was a reed-thin man who commanded the fighter squads. Looking slightly embarrassed, Davis said, “You’re not going to like this, Marshal, but I’ve grounded all non-Earth, non-Ostrieachian pilots for the time being. The concept of fighter planes is just so foreign to the rest of them that they’re having trouble adapting. At home, fighter pilots go through a rigorous, year-long training program. A few of the X-tees are showing promise and we’ll keep working with them but I don’t want to be too optimistic that we won’t have to wash them out.”
“No, Colonel, I don’t like it. But sometimes we just have to be realists. Do what you can, but leave my likes and dislikes out of it.” She paused. ”Let’s try this. Colonel Davis. Send them down to Earth. Put them in your training program. If it takes a year, it takes a year. It will be more than three years before the Kreesh arrive. The United States isn’t the only nation with a fighter pilot training program either. Leverage what we have. By the way, by the time this is over, no one will be using fighter planes anymore. All of you will be building and training on what I believe you’ve started calling Starfighters. Don’t be shy about washing out any who don’t make the grade. We’ll be able to find something else useful for them to do.”
“Thank you, Marshal. We’ll do that.”
“You’re welcome, Colonel. I’ll take care of supplying updated flight simulators. You handle getting practice Starfighters where you need them for training.” She looked around the room at the assembled brass, finally settling her gaze on her father. “Governor Stevens, have your Texas training facilities prepared to accept a new group of trainees every four months. I’d prefer them to be put in integrated classes with your own trainees. We’ll be sending Ostrieachians as well. In fact, we’ll bring over some Ostrieachian instructors. Admiral Danders, please take care of that. Governor, I’d appreciate your coordinating arrangements with your other countries concerning the training program.”
She focused on Davis again. “I wasn’t planning on redesigning the fighters. Once you have some pilots trained on them, let me know if you think we should.”
Lexi again looked around the room, pleased that no one looked puzzled, but were instead nodding thoughtfully. “I believe we have a status report from Lieutenant General Smythe next.”
“Things are going quite well, Marshal. We still don’t have any of our Earth-born Marines in space armor, but progress in that area is slow. The engineers keep getting pulled in all directions. All of the alien Marines, and I know that can easily become an offensive term, came with their own space armor. It’s substandard compared to what has been designed for Earth’s Marines, but at least it’s something. The newer arrivals from the Accord have armor matching our own. Someone must have sent them specs. I’d like to rotate out the aliens and send them home to be refitted. We’ll be fine as long as we’re properly equipped before we contact the Kreesh. We’ve been taking advantage of both Jis and Geena for training in zero-gee combat. The Grake have integrated into the squads quite seamlessly and their experience has proven useful.”
Chapter 57
Engineering a Fleet
“Ron,” Lexi said, “let’s get together later about what the engineers are up to. I’d like to have the Marines armed and suited as soon as we can manage it. We might even be able to bring some engineering students up from Earth as interns. Actually, why don’t we plan on doing that. Governor, that’s another job for your staff. I’ve been recording rubrics that cover what they’ll need to know and then some.”
She again looked around the room, noting that she was doing a lot of that today. “Your comment about the word ‘alien’ was interesting, Lieutenant General. Colonel Davis used the terms ‘non-Earth’ and ‘X-tee’. None of these are derogatory terms. What we are doing here is consolidating military forces from many planets. The planet leading the development of a unified military is the least technologically advanced of any of us. Earth is respected for its experience, skills and frankly, its determination to be the best at everything.
“Everything I have observed indicates that the Earthmen on t
his ship are equally respectful of our Accord allies. We can’t use the term ‘human’ to refer only to those of us from Earth. Most of the races here are human, whether from Earth or the Accord. That is all I expect. Keep in mind that even though the Accord is thousands of years old, the various worlds don’t work with each other. The situation here is new ground for all of us. Thanks to the Plicora of Ackalon, I have a mixed Ackalonian, Borgolian, and Ostrieachian fleet protecting Ostrieachia from pirate activity while they get their own navy fully trained. What we are doing is possible. It is our responsibility to ensure that it works.”
She smiled, “Let’s go next to one of my favorite topics, starship design.”
Ron nodded. “Admiral Flanders, would you update the group?”
“For the civilians in the room, a battle fleet is assembled from many different types of warships. We have the rare opportunity of building a fleet from scratch. Until last month, we didn’t have space-going warships on Earth. You all know that. What most of you may not have fully realized is that compared to what your civilizations are now constructing for Marshal Stevens, you don’t either.”
He paused a moment as a quiet rumble moved through the audience. Apparently, they had not fully realized that. “You are all familiar to some extent with the capabilities of the Vankovian dreadnought. You are also aware that the being we refer to as Urania is a holographic projection, an avatar as she’s being called, of the sentient command computer of the Marshal’s starship. That small ship is powerful enough to turn the Vankovian dreadnought into scrap.” That statement caused an even louder rumble. “Furthermore, our analysis of her capabilities suggest that, one on one, there’s a good chance she could defeat Glaurang. It’s all about technology, ladies and gentlemen. The ships we will be building for Earth’s defense will be utilizing Urania’s technology.”
He gave them a moment to take that in. “In a perfect world, the components of a battle-fleet, the individual warships, are organized to address the specific capabilities of a specific enemy. There are always trade-offs between speed and armament, between offensive capabilities, defensive capabilities, and information gathering capabilities. In the real world, for Earth’s water navies, we can’t do that. We are forced to build fairly generic fleets that we hope will do the job, whatever that turns out to be, and against whomever we are fighting at the time.”
His gaze traveled across his audience. “In this case, we have a specific enemy, but one with totally unknown capabilities. We know in the engagement with the Kreesh the Wraix were wiped out. We know this unbelievable warship couldn’t stop them. According to Marshal Stevens, the Wraix fleet consisted of nearly six thousand units, many times the number we will be able to field before they reach Earth. The Kreesh have had nine hundred years to regroup and redesign since then. We’re just getting started.
“Earth was intended to lead the design team, which consists not only of our own experts in space warfare, and yes, we do have those, but also the experts sent by the other civilizations in this room. We faced significant difficulties as Earth has never designed an interstellar warship and frankly, neither have any of the representatives of the Accord military. In addition, the technology we will be using is so far beyond anything known to our Accord allies, that none of us fully understand it. Fortunately, Marshal Stevens supplied us with someone who does. With Urania as our technical consultant, we’ve been making significant progress.”
He looked over his shoulder, to make sure the battleship was being displayed on the big screen. “We’ve settled on a fleet comprised of only two designs. We expect to have the specs for the battleships completed in the next three weeks. You are looking at one on the screen behind me. Battleships are to be our bruisers. They’re large, double-hulled ships, heavily armed. Each will carry an operational crew of four hundred and a flight crew of over a hundred to man the upgraded Starfighters many will be carrying.”
He waved his hand at the projection behind him. It switched to the second ship they would be building. “Designs for the light cruiser class should be ready two weeks later. Carrying an operational crew of no more than eighty, light cruisers are designed to be faster and more maneuverable than the battleships, but almost as heavily armed. We’d love to churn out a few dreadnoughts, but we’d need additional shipyards dedicated to their construction and we just don’t have the time. There are also uses for smaller, escort-class ships, but we do not believe any of them would survive an encounter with the Kreesh. We have to pick and choose. Our design teams will be working on those additional classes, we just won’t have the time to build them.” He paused. “If Earth falls to the Kreesh, those additional designs will be our thank-you gift to the Accord.”
“Finally, it will be eight to ten weeks before Earth’s new shipyard is going to be able to start building ships. For those of you who don’t yet know, don’t be too surprised by that estimate. Many of the shipyard components were prefabricated and staged on Glaurang’s flight deck on the trip here. Because they’re already set up to do so, and because we’re going to want a lot of ships, the production facilities on this ship will be continuing to produce components for building a second space dock.”
Lexi spoke up. “What are we doing with our Starfighters, Admiral?”
“My apologies, Marshall. I tend to overlook them because they’re not being redesigned. We have too much else on our plates. What we are doing is upgrading the beam weapons, drives, dampeners, and power plants. We’ll be yanking out the fusion reactors as part of the upgrade. Since they are atmosphere-capable craft, Governor Stevens has given us permission to have them built by companies currently building fighter planes. We don’t think we’ll need to reach out to the other worlds for assistance with that. We’ve asked the Ackalonians to vet the security arrangements.”
Chapter 58
State of the Union
A year passed since Glaurang first appeared in Earth orbit. Marshal Lexi Stevens was now ratified by all of the Accord member-worlds. The extended Aeolus Investigations team along with key military and engineering personnel gathered in Glaurang’s so-called conference room. Environmental issues still existed in parts of the vast ship, but most of the common areas were already converted to Earth-normal. Work continued to steadily progress on replacing Glaurang’s weapons and shields with those developed by Lexi.
Lexi canceled the weekly update meetings after the third month, confident that everyone knew what they were doing and understood that any problems were to be escalated to her team’s attention.
Throughout that time, message drones hypered back and forth across the expanse of the Accord, keeping all of the space-threading worlds updated on what was happening on Earth. Over the last year, Earth had become the center of the Marshal’s operation. It was obvious in retrospect that would wind up being the case.
Lexi couldn’t claim she planned it that way. It was also true that the planned massive buildup of ship building capacity would have made more sense if it were to happen on a world more distant from the oncoming Kreesh. The fact was, Earth had the design experts, the raw materials, the available population, and the motivation.
An unexpected side effect was much of the military equipment across the globe was being dismantled and converted to raw materials for starships. The men and women who operated that equipment largely signed up to battle the Kreesh. The Chinese were the first to suggest giving up their weapons. They saw the writing on the wall. There would be no more warfare between nations on Earth. The fleet orbiting Earth would see to that.
Today’s discussion, which was really little more than a status meeting, would be recorded and carried to all of the Accord worlds on the next scheduled drone.
There was no right answer to the question as to whether or not to keep Earth’s population looped in on how the war effort was progressing. Lexi adamantly did not want people’s first inkling that they faced a serious problem to be when a thirteen-foot-tall monster ate one of their children. Some government leaders argued
that they did not have sufficient resources to contain a panic if one ensued. They reached a compromise with Lexi agreeing to delay any announcements until they had a few of the new ships ready. Those on Earth who wanted to withhold the news of possible imminent demise felt it might digest better if accompanied by the knowledge that there was hardware standing by that could protect them.
In the meanwhile, information that Earth governments were in close contact with representatives of an interstellar civilization was being quietly disseminated. That alone was causing enough problems to keep most of Earth’s military occupied. For the last several days prior to this meeting, documentary footage detailing the new battleships that would shortly be produced by Earth’s new shipyard was posted on the web. Virtual tours of the shipyard, the battleships, and the cruisers were produced and distributed across the net. Lexi nixed showing the documentary film, showing her team rescuing Ostrieachia from Unity to anyone other than Jis, her father, and An. She used the new educators to give them all Trakish, the Ostrieachian tongue it was recorded in. She felt showing it to Earth audiences would fuel the belief that everything they were doing was coming out of Hollywood studios. On the other hand, she wanted her father to see it.
Aeolus Investigations Set 2: Too Cool To Lose: The Continuing Evolution of Lexi Stevens Page 45
