by S. H. Jucha
“Tribune Woo, you said the patrol ships chased the fighter from the Moon?” Lumley asked.
“Yes, it deposited a device on the Moon. We investigated it but haven’t disturbed it as yet … not until we can understand its nature a bit better,” Woo answered.
“No need, Tribune. I can tell you what it is,” Lumley replied with a big grin. “Soon you will get a comm from, my guess, President Alex Racine of the Harakens. You’ll be able to talk to him in real time. The package on the Moon is a present from him. It’s an FTL relay comm.”
Lucchesi longed to object to the captain’s summation, but a glance at his fellow tribunes found them nodding their heads. The captain’s logic had made sense to them, so he closed his mouth.
Lumley was also nodding to himself. He was loyal to the UE concept that sought to balance humankind’s commerce with the needs of the people, but not its manner of doing so. And despite the Tribunal’s absolute power, he decided the tribunes could benefit from some advice even if it meant the public works for him. “Tribunes, you’ll pardon my presumption, but when President Racine comms, I would advise you to listen carefully and deal honestly with him. He’s not like anyone you have dealt with before. High Judge Bunaldi discovered that, to his detriment.”
“You’re presumptive, Captain,” Lucchesi replied, “but we will take your words under advisement. Go now. You’ll be kept on the grounds. We might have need of you later.”
“What about my crew, Tribunes?” Lumley asked.
“Depending on the developments with these —” Woo began.
“Harakens,” Lumley supplied.
“Yes, Harakens,” Woo continued, “during the next several days, providing their device does provide some sort of functional FTL communications, of course, we will no longer require your crew be held incommunicado.”
“A final word, Tribunes, if I may?” Lumley asked. “When you say things like ‘providing their device does provide some sort of functionality,’ I must stress that everything the Harakens do, they do well. My debriefing stressed that they have developed artificial intelligences who are walking among them. That demonstrates their technological capabilities.”
“Well, Captain, we have your report stating such,” Lucchesi said. “But these so-called SADEs have yet to be proven to our satisfaction. Who knows what sorts of mind games were perpetrated on you and your crew? You’re dismissed, Captain.”
After Lumley left the chamber, Lucchesi announced in a strong voice, “I say we deal with these people in an expedient manner. They only have three ships, and one appears to be a passenger liner. We send a couple of battleships, a few cruisers, and a number of destroyers and wipe them out. Problem solved.”
Brennan stared at Lucchesi for so long that after a minute he forgot he was still staring. It took that long for him to regain control of his temper and refrain from striking the idiot.
“What did you not understand from our two interactions with Captain Lumley?” Woo finally asked. “We don’t know what defeated the Hand of Justice. Captain Lumley reports the Harakens have beam weapons. What’s the range? How powerful are the beams? Is the entire system going to watch footage someday of our fleet being annihilated before it even engages the enemy? One of their fighters made it from Idona to Earth in record time and evaded all our efforts to capture it. One fighter!”
“In simple economic and political terms, Tribunes,” Brennan announced, “the UE can’t afford to lose a significant portion of its fleet by making poor and uninformed assumptions about the Harakens’ armament. Funds are tight, and if our forces are severely curtailed, the rebels will have years to strengthen their positions while we rebuild our fleet.” What Brennan didn’t say was that he feared there wouldn’t be sufficient credits to rebuild the fleet.
“I agree with Tribune Brennan,” Woo said. “Captain Lumley is confident we’ll receive a call. I say we wait and listen to what the Haraken leader has to say.”
-5-
After a great deal of wrangling with his staff, during which time Alex considered his presidential powers had somehow been reduced, a plan was concocted to take over Idona Station. The concept, which was Alex’s idea, was still intact. But his staff chose to entirely reconfigure the approach to the station, and the final plan did not involve Alex being the first to step off a traveler as he had suggested.
Tatia and Sheila coordinated the loading of passengers and troopers on the travelers and the overwatch flights, ensuring their best commanders were providing protection. The first group, the trooper-loaded travelers, would encircle the station, landing simultaneously in bays scattered around the outer ring. The second group of travelers, acting as fighter escorts, would ring the station and face outward.
Launched from the fleet’s ships, the travelers bore in on the station, and the SADEs went to work, using the information gleaned at Méridien concerning the Earther communications systems and protocols. Once they had access to the comms throughout the space — ship systems, militia comms, and station intercoms — Julien signaled Alex.
“Captains, militia, and personnel in and around Idona Station, I’m Alex Racine, president of Haraken,” Alex announced as graciously as he could. “We are here at Sol because your people entered our systems, treated our people with disrespect, and then tried to use force to convince us of your government’s righteousness. To our great regret, hostilities escalated until a confrontation was forced, and it required we eliminate your battleship, the Hand of Justice.”
Aboard ships and the station, it clicked for many listeners. The mystery of the Reunion’s return, without the Hand of Justice, was solved, but not to anyone’s pleasure, except for the rebels, who were cheering as they listened to corridor speakers that had been silent for decades, crackle to life.
“Your leaders aboard the Reunion heeded our warning, and the ship was allowed to return home without harm,” Alex continued. “At this time, we have need of a temporary location while we negotiate a peace with your Supreme Tribunal. Idona Station has been chosen. There will be a slight inconvenience for all of you while we execute a landing. Soon afterward, you may resume your activities, with a few exceptions, of course.”
Alex paused for a moment, and when he resumed his tone had hardened. “The instructions I give you now must be followed carefully for your safety and ours. We intend no one harm, but we will absolutely protect ourselves against any perceived threat. Captains, if you are in a bay or in dock, remain there; if you are on an approach vector, come to a zero delta-V relative to the station immediately and hold your position.”
A grin crossed Alex’s face as he considered his next instructions. “Now, for our friends in the militia aboard the station, we politely request you retreat to your headquarters and remain there. No exceptions. While we have a tendency to use stun guns if we feel threatened, we are likely to employ plasma rifles if we spot a militia uniform outside your headquarters.”
Captain Yun and Lieutenant Morris glanced toward Major Lindling. The senior officer wore an ugly scowl and stared at the comms speaker as if doing so would silence the voice pouring forth. “Plasma rifles,” Patrice Morris mouthed silently to her captain, worry written across her young face.
“To the owners, operators, and station personnel in the outer ring,” Alex said, “Stay in your shops or rooms. Do not venture into the outer corridors for any reason. Finally, to the rebels in the inner ring and core … I ask pardon for my use of the term; I have been given no other word by which to address you. Please stay in your areas for now. We will meet with your leaders soon. You have my word.”
The tunnel rats slapped one another on the shoulders and punched arms. Jodlyne was hugged in joy by Edmas, and her teenage heart thundered in her chest. The rebel leaders exchanged looks, and more than one tear was shed in hope that the long fight might be over.
In contrast to the rebels’ reactions, Major Lindling grabbed the comms speaker and ripped it from the wall. Captain Yum calmly switched the output to a secondary s
peaker next to his position. The major might wish to curtail the announcement, but Yun desperately wanted to hear everything the president had to say.
“To all, our entry and securing of the station might take several hours,” Alex continued. “We have no intention of disrupting the commercial enterprises of this station while we are here. In fact, if we can help it flourish, we will do so. We will broadcast an all clear when activities can be safely resumed, with a list of exceptions that I mentioned previously. Proceed now to do as I have asked. You risk your safety and the safety of others for noncompliance.”
While Alex broadcast his message, his people were performing multiple jobs. On board the fleet’s ships, telemetry monitored all UE ship positions and the status of the station’s docks and bays. Haraken captains, Sheila, and her staff monitored those views and that of the travelers’ positions.
A UE freighter captain was dissuaded from continuing his approach, by three travelers who stood off his bow, their noses pointing at him. Watching the foreign ships travel backward only meters beyond his ship at his velocity scared him witless, and he screamed at his pilot to cease their approach.
One of the station’s bay doors opened and a sleek yacht lifted from the interior’s deck only to discover two travelers hovering just outside. Within moments, the pilot settled the yacht back onto the deck, and the bay doors slid closed.
The SADEs gained control of the station’s operating systems for the bays — doors, cam views, ship statuses, and airlock controls. Julien signaled Tatia of their control, and she proceeded to make her own announcement to the station. Crews and passengers were warned to vacate the bays and given a time limit, by the station’s clock. When the time passed, Tatia signaled the pilots who comprised the travelers’ inner circle, and the SADEs opened a bay door for each ship.
* * *
Haraken pilots eased their travelers into the open bays. The doors remained open for their exit, which would soon follow. The fighters settled to the deck, hatches opened, and troopers poured out. Each wore an environment suit and was armed with stun gun and plasma rifle, such was the level of distrust of the Earthers, especially that of the UE militia.
The SADEs, each descending from a separate traveler, checked for electronic weapon emplacements and pronounced their bays clear.
The enormous Haraken carriers and the mass of strange ships surrounding their station, compounded by word that no ship was being allowed in or out of the station, finally convinced every person aboard the station to heed the Harakens’ warnings. Not a single life was lost as the travelers landed.
When Tatia received the all clear from multiple sources, she let her irritated president up from his seat. Troopers were the first to pass through the airlocks accompanied by a SADE, if one was with them, and they ran reconnaissance, while the SADEs checked air quality and searched for contaminants, chemical and biological.
Julien sent,
Once troopers and passengers had exited their craft, the traveler pilots eased out of the station’s bays and joined the circling fighters to maintain the perimeter.
The SADEs had downloaded maps from the station’s control banks and shared them to eliminate the Harakens wandering aimlessly through an unfamiliar station.
The SADEs calculated the curvature of the outer ring and the maximum distance between individuals before they would lose sight of one another due to the curvature. Multiplying by three, Tatia had come up with the minimum number of troopers she voted to take. Alex had objected to what he saw as an invasion, but those supporting Tatia, which was just about everyone else on Alex’s staff, had their way. The SADEs and the twins had demurred from expressing an opinion, preferring to maintain positions of neutrality.
The troopers gained the station’s main deck with its wide but empty corridor. They glanced about them, and it didn’t matter whether they were Méridien or New Terran in origin, they all had the same thoughts. The corridor, despite its spacious size, was in a sad state of disrepair. Refuse, here and there, was tucked along its edges, surfacing was peeling from the overhead and upper bulkheads above the shops, and every few meters signs of moisture accumulation could be seen. From the shops and sleep quarters, the faces of the fearful and the curious peeked out.
Alex and Renée were surrounded by a mass of bodies. Tatia walked directly in front of Alex, acting as a shield, and the twins, Étienne and Alain, flanked Renée. Z, wearing his Cedric Broussard avatar, an immense New Terran design that rivaled Alex’s mass and was armed in multiple ways, walked closely beside Alex.
The group was packed so closely together that Alex grew irritated at being bumped and jostled every time a noise was heard. Several times, the group froze so quickly that Alex bumped into Tatia’s broad bottom. On the third occasion, Renée intervened before Alex’s temper got the better of him.
Tatia glanced back at Alex and recognized the signs of a president ready to explode.
Implants seamlessly calculated distance by way of signal strength, and the troopers spread out away from their principals. A young girl, watching from her father’s shop window, opened her mouth in an “oh,” reminded of a flower blooming in a time-compression vid.
Tatia moved farther forward, but the twins stayed in position. Alex could accept that, but he eyed Z, in his Cedric avatar, who still hugged his side.
Z considered that for a few ticks, and the concept crystallized for him — an arbitrary relationship; no mathematical definition. He had participated in the idea without realizing it. His booming laughter echoed Alex’s previous fit, and it froze the protection detail. No one had ever heard Z laugh in this manner, but it ended as abruptly as it had begun, when his protection algorithms resumed priority. The face of Cedric immediately smoothed, and his eyes resumed tracking the surroundings.
Renée sent to Alex. It was one of those rare moments when Renée knew by Alex’s expression that she had said something that troubled him.
Alex sent back.
* * *
Julien’s team was the last to report to Tatia, but then his group had the farthest to walk from their traveler to reach their target. Tatia and her extended
detail had only just reached the militia’s doors on the opposite side from Julien. The Harakens hadn’t encountered any opposition to their landing. It could be suggested that a strange human race that could destroy a UE battleship was to be feared.
Alex caught Tatia’s glance and said to her, “Why are you looking at me, Admiral? I presume you and the SADEs have concocted some method of neutralizing the militia. If you’re waiting for my permission, you have it.”
Tatia grinned and nodded, signaling Julien and Z to proceed. The SADEs, each on their side, faced the massive doors that the militia had installed for their protection and attacked the militia’s control systems through the comms system, which were interconnected with bay, dock, and station door controls as well as the militia’s data systems.
Z located an operation’s database for the militia’s weapons maintenance, downloading the specification manuals and schematics. The files detailed their stunstiks and pellet air-compression rifles, used for crowd control, and Z shared his prizes with Julien.
Julien stripped the weapons schematics apart, including the ammunition, searching for weak points. He located one in a small chip that activated the firing mechanism on both weapons and passed his observations to Z. The two SADEs designed a nanites program with an extremely short lifespan to prevent interference with any other such chips that might be on board the station.
Z signaled his three associates, and the troopers stripped off their heavy packs, none as heavy as the 230-kilo pack Z carried, which to his Cedric avatar was inconsequential.
Alex and company watched in amusement while Z squatted on the deck and began assembling his machine.
“It’s a miniature GEN machine,” Renée exclaimed.
“Precisely, Ser,” Z acknowledged.
