Imperative - eARC

by Steve White

  “In order to provide the same coverage arc, we will need to not merely center our ship on the warp point access route, but move it slightly outward. And deploy our fighter triads.”

  “All of which we shall do, as per contingency. And we will have recovered to our prior, two-hull defensive posture within forty minutes at most. Do our sensors show anything within even a light-hour?”

  “No, Group Leader. Sensors are clear.”

  “Very well. Execute your orders, Second.”

  Brem-sheef responded with a selnarmic flourish of (accord, confidence, compliance). In the holopod, the smaller of the two ships in Jathruf-jem’s detachment—the destroyer Degruz-pahr—broke away from its patrol position on the spinward side of the warp-point’s entry path and began angling toward the malfunctioning buoy. His own ship, the Meftr-bak, drifted slowly from its trailing-side position to the center of the navigation funnel that led into the warp point, while also moving slightly further away from the anomaly to provide a wider arc of defensive coverage. Small blips emerged from the icon denoting his light attack cruiser even as the he felt slight tremors in its deck: the Meftr-bak’s small flight wing of both selnarmically-controlled and ROV/semi-autonomous fighters were deploying in their triads. They began moving to take up evenly dispersed picket points along the defensive frontage.

  “Cluster Leader, the Degruz-pahr is requesting permission to target the buoy with active arrays, in the event that it has been weaponized and programmed to attack.”

  Weaponized by whom? Jathruf-jem was tempted to ask, but only sent (prudence): “Confirm sensors show no possibilities of enemy contacts that might detect our active sensors.”

  “None, Cluster Leader.”

  “Then Degruz-pahr may commence using active arrays to acquire a targeting solution for the buoy.”

  “Yes, Cluster Leader. Fighters are now in place and all circuits testing as—Cluster Leader! (surprise, panic) Behind us—contact; no contacts!—bearing—”

  “I see it, Second.” But seeing the unfolding situation in the holopod did not aid understanding it. From out of nowhere—literally—enemy fighters, both human and Orion, were emerging from the sheer vacuum of space.

  A split second later, Jathruf-jem’s sensors showed their source as if an intervening shroud had dissolved: a massive Orion fleet carrier had somehow emerged out of the vacuum also, situated directly between his ships and the warp point into Bug 28. Degruz-pahr was not only too far off to help, but would stand no chance against either the fighters or the carrier’s own considerable armament. Meanwhile, the carrier continued to spew out a steady stream of fighters that would surely overwhelm Jathruf-jem’s—if given time. “Second, order fighter triads One through Four to conduct an immediate frontal counterattack. Triad Five is to make for the warp point at all speed.”

  “Group Leader, how will Triad Five be able to transit—?”

  “Shift the robot fighters to automated courier mode: they will make transit and sound the alarm that we will not be able to.”

  “Yes, Group Leader. I will—” Brem-sheef halted in mid-send and, except for a series of befthels that kept all three of his eyes blinking rapidly at the holopod’s display, was motionless.

  Jathruf-jem glanced at the holopod himself, and restrained the impulse to do just what his Second had done—

  —upon seeing the unthinkable become reality: Triad Five’s two robotic fighters had, contrary to orders, veered away from the warp point. And were headed directly back toward Meftr-bak, weapons charging.…

  *

  The mood in the corridors of TRNS Krishmahnta was very close to jubilant. Having destroyed a Kaituni attack cruiser and battered a destroyer so severely that its crew no longer had sufficient control to scuttle it, was not, in the scheme of the greater conflict, a significant victory. Even the satisfaction of finally striking a blow against, rather than simply skulking after, the enemy did not answer to the almost electric mood that had suffused the flagship and was rapidly spreading through the fleet. No, realized Alessandro Magee as the decontamination protocol ended and he stepped out into the ready bay for returning ship’s troops, the excitement was generated by how the victory had been won.

  He removed his helmet, nodded to acknowledge a few pats on the back—he had led the first boarding team personally, despite Harry Li’s wet-hen neuroses—and strode out of the bay.

  And straight into Jennifer’s arms.

  “Jen!” he exclaimed, shocked to see that she was already on the flagship. “How—or why, did you—?”

  “Yoshikuni brought all the command and intel staff over as soon as we heard the news four hours ago.”

  “Oh, right. You got the results by selnarmic courier.”

  “Well, we got some results. We know that the Kaituni went for the buoy that the Viggen deposited while running under stealth, that our ships beat theirs without taking a single loss, and that we captured what was left of the smaller of their two ships. But how did you manage to keep them from getting at least one courier, or one robot fighter, through the warp point to warn the rest of their squadron?”

  ’Sandro smiled. “Jen, I hate to disappoint you, but you already know as much or more than I do. I just know that whatever technical wizardry Chong and Lentsul have been cooking up in secret for months was given its trial run today—and apparently it worked. The com chatter I heard about it was in code, and I’m pretty sure it didn’t function at one hundred percent spec, but it was decisive. I just wish I knew what it was.”

  “Well, maybe that’s what they’re going to tell us in the briefing.”

  “Don’t bet on it, Jen. Hell, I’d bet against it. We’ve got a lot of Arduan ships along with us; if any one Destoshaz on any one of those hulls was to decide to defect to the Kaituni, we’d lose whatever edge this new device could buy for us.” He shook his head. “I can’t see any of the senior command staff deciding to share out that kind of info.”

  “Well,” Jen asked, “why the big confab, then?”

  “I think,” ’Sandro said, cupping her chin with his hand, “they’re going to tell us what happens next—and maybe some of what they’ve found out about what’s going on further up the warp line. Come on; let’s get good seats.”

  As if seating at such meetings was ever a matter of choice.

  *

  Mretlak glanced at Lentsul, whose selnarm was like a self-perpetuating supernova of insufficiently shrouded (gratification, pride, accomplishment). And its continuing reignition was sparked by praise from a human he still inherently distrusted: Miharu Yoshikuni.

  “Group Leader Lentsul and Captain Chong’s work made it possible for us to interrupt the command and control links between the selnarmically-controlled Kaituni fighters and their robotic wingmen, and so, kept the engagement entirely contained to the Bug 29 system.”

  “I don’t suppose we are going to learn any more about how that command-and-control disruption was achieved?” drawled Modelo-Vo.

  “I’m afraid not,” Admiral Narrok replied. “The need-to-know classification for that project is both very high, and very limited, at this point. We anticipate sharing it more broadly in the coming weeks, as we finalize plans for conducting a larger assault against the Kaituni elements in this theater of operations. But until that time, we will be maintaining the current secrecy protocols while working to perfect the system in question.”

  “Then can someone at least explain how today’s attack was carried out?”

  “What do you mean, exactly, Commander?” Kiiraathra’ostakjo asked.

  “Admiral, with all due respect, you must understand what I’m getting at. Your fighters emerged from the Celmithyr’theaanouw’s stealth field and already had targeting solutions. But you can’t see or scan anything from inside a stealth field, so how did they have a lock already?” Modelo-Vo sounded particularly sour, probably since, as Yoshikuni’s Fleet Tactical officer, he felt he should have been included in the need-to-know circle that Narrok had referred to. But as
the weeks had worn on, Modelo-Vo’s role had become limited to what Mretlak thought of as “conventional tactical” concerns. The unusual and innovative activities had become Wethermere’s province, along with nearly autonomous control over the increasingly essential Fleet Recon element.

  The Orion smoothed his mane. “I believe Commodore Wethermere was the one who devised the strategy you are inquiring about, in concert with Admiral Narrok.” Kiiraathra glanced over at Wethermere.

  Who took the cue. “A stealth field is indeed opaque to everything in the electromagnetic spectrum, limited only by its capacity to absorb energy. But as we demonstrated when we captured the Kaituni picket ship in Mymzher, selnarm is unaffected. So the buoy—one of the several left behind by the Kaituni from here to Franos—was not only modified to appear to be malfunctioning, but equipped with a very acute passive sensor package.”

  Modelo-Vo saw the rest of it without prompting. “So when the Kaituni took the precaution of targeting the buoy with active sensors, the buoy acquired a reciprocal lock with its passive sensors and relayed that data by selnarmic link to an Arduan operator on board the Celmithyr’theaanouw.”

  “That and a little more. The passive sensors were sensitive enough to detect the drive of the two Kaituni hulls. The one that approached the buoy become consistently stronger and so the sensor was able to interpolate a trajectory by tracking back along the approach of that energy return.”

  “Which,” Narrok concluded, “indicated the ship’s approximate starting point. By inference, this also gave a very close estimate of the coordinates of the second hull, which repositioned itself according to our conventional doctrine for adapting to reduced perimeter defenses. Consequently, the fighters that came through the Celmithyr’theaanouw’s falling stealth screen had a fairly small footprint to scan, and they acquired lock within two seconds.”

  The mood in the room was not merely satisfied, but truculently exultant. Even Lentsul—Lentsul!—radiated an eagerness to move his work to the next level of success, even if its final battle-proofing came at the cost of destroying millions of Illudor’s children, however misled they might be. Mretlak kept his glum ruminations to himself, fearing how it might seem if anyone sensed that he did not share in the same measure of jubilation. It was, it seemed, unavoidable that the Arduans of the First Dispersate would have to provide many of the tools whereby the great majority of their living brothers and sisters would be discarnated. And that was a grim business, more properly evocative of mourning than celebration.

  Worried that his reservations might escape the margins of his selnarm—and Ankaht was acutely perceptive of such nuances, even for a shaxzhu—Mretlak raised an inquisitive tentacle. “Admiral Yokishuni, I suspect that if your only topic was the success of the two experimental attack protocols that were validated in today’s ambush, you would simply have informed us so by lascom. Yet here we sit. So, I wonder: is there something else you have called us together to hear? Something, perhaps, that has come to light through the analysis of the computers on board the disabled Kaituni destroyer?”

  Yoshikuni smiled at Mretlak. “You are absolutely correct, Senior Group Leader Mretlak. And it was important to begin our meeting with a report on how successful today’s trial runs were—because we are going to have desperate need of those tactics, and every other conceivable advantage, in the weeks to come.”

  As Yoshikuni’s eyes made the circuit of the round conference table, her smile faded. “We’ll start with the least ominous news first. It’s pretty much a certainty that two separate Bug forces split off from the main fleet that we’ve been following since it passed through the Mymzher system. Here in Pajzomo, we found evidence that the Kaituni had to exert some force to keep the Bugs going on the main warp line, through to Bug 28 and Bug 29. And the Kaituni weren’t fully successful: at least a few Bugs made transit. In fact, the naval combat spoor we found here is a close match to what we found when we passed through the Skriischnagar system, just a few weeks after Terveelan.”

  “So,” growled Kiiraathra’ostakjo, “our conjecture—that the Bugs intended to move off the main warp line and down through the prey-rich worlds of the line that runs down to Menkasahr—has been confirmed.”

  Yoshikuni nodded. “Sure looks like it. Here in Pajzomo, it’s pretty clear that the whole Bug fleet was headed toward the warp point to Jzotayar, the other entrance to that same target-rich cul-de-sac. But before more than a few of their lead elements could make transit, the Kaituni came in and headed them off—hard, just like they did in the Skriischnagar system. The Bugs got the worst of the exchange, shifted course, moved toward the only other reasonable course open to them: the warp point to Bug 29.”

  Chong nodded. “And if our guess is right, those first few Bugs that entered the cul-de-sac were the ships best equipped to seed creepers and follow up on the aftermath of their infestation.”

  Yoshikuni chopped her hand at the warp point map. “Our biggest problem is that we have no way of knowing how large a squadron the Bugs slipped away down each of those warp line shunts into that cul-de-sac. And here’s why that ignorance is dangerous: if the Bugs go through those worlds quickly, link up, and come out as a unified force, we could have them on our own tail if we continue to follow the fleet we’re shadowing right now. And we can’t afford to leave any squadrons behind to plug up the cul-de-sac access points in both Skriischnagar and Pajzomo. So we need to understand that by pressing forward, we are potentially putting ourselves between two hostile forces.”

  Modelo-Vo looked at the map. “Should we break off, head into the cul-de-sac ourselves, find the Bugs and beat them there? Even joined together, their two squadrons won’t match us in quantity, and certainly not in quality. And if we find them separated, that offensive would be just that much easier and decisive.”

  Narrok’s clusters flattened into a negation. “There are too many uncertainties to entertain that course of action. How long will it take to find them? Will we have the advantage of surprise, or will they detect us first? Will we find ourselves having to assault a warp-point held against them? If we do, that could severely offset our advantages in both quantity and quality of ships. No,” he concluded with an expressive trailing of tentacles, “as much as I dislike doing so, we must press forward without assured rear area security. Indeed, pressing forward has become more, not less, urgent.”

  Mretlak looked at the map and closed his eyes slowly. Now that the Bugs had been shepherded past both entries into their traditional feeding zone, there was only one logical strategic objective which explained the course upon which the Kaituni were keeping them. “Yes, I see the urgency,” Mretlak said calmly. “They are heading toward Earth.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  Wethermere glanced at Mretlak, struck—as always—at just how far-sighted and clever the Arduan was, and how fortunate it was that they were allies, not enemies. “Yes, Mretlak. It’s pretty clear the Kaituni are pushing the Bugs toward Earth. Or to express their immediate strategic goals more narrowly, they mean to emerge into Admiral Trevayne’s rear area at Bug 15.” Ossian used a light pencil to draw the almost ineluctable path. “Let’s assume that the Bug fleet is in Bug 27 right now. Their logical route of advance—and they have only one, weaker alternative—is through Bug 26, Bug 25, Bug 24, and on into Bug 15.”

  Jennifer Pietchkov sounded as if she was trying not to swallow her tongue. “My God. Bug 15 is right next to Alpha Centauri. And that’s right next to Earth.”

  “Yes. But Bug 15 is also several systems behind where Admiral Trevayne is probably trying to hold the main concentration of Kaituni fleets that will be coming up at him through Pesthouse. If the enemy fleets in front of us can get in behind him”—Wethermere snapped off the light pencil—“Earth’s primary defensive force will have been cut off from it and Trevayne has no route of retreat. Instead, he’ll be ground down between one set of millstones rising up the warpline and another set descending from higher up.”

  “What doesn’t make any
sense to me, sirs,” Alessandro Magee said quietly, “is that a single squadron of pretty light Kaituni ships can steer a huge Bug fleet around so easily.” The hanging tone with which he finished invited comment.

  Ankaht let breath sigh out of her vestigial gills. “You are most perceptive, Captain. The answer, as you no doubt suspect, is that the Kaituni force we’ve been trailing is no mere squadron. It is a whole Dispersate’s fleet.”

  Modelo-Vo, who’d been kept out of the most recent confidential strategy discussions, jolted as if he’d been stuck by a pin. “A—whole Dispersate? And how the hell did they get past us? We’ve been over this: the Kaituni couldn’t have reached Franos ahead of the Bugs, and we’d have seen that kind of unit if it moved in behind them. Granted, there’s been a lot of anomalous comm traffic back to the intermittent pickets the Kaituni have left in their wake, but—”

  “That communication traffic is no longer anomalous, Commander,” Ankaht explained. “We had hints of this when examined some of the Kaituni wreckage left behind from their Bug-herding skirmish in Skriischnagar, but the destroyer we captured today confirmed our suspicions: a Dispersate was present in the Star Union ahead of the Bugs because this is where it ended its journey from Ardu. This is the landing site of yet another Dispersate.”

  “So they were setting up for this maneuver for years?”

  “They would have had to, Commander. And I suspect they did so the moment that their leader, the Destoshaz’at, received confirmation that the Omnivoracity still existed. With that knowledge in hand, and so many Dispersates approaching this region of space on so many different trajectories, I suspect he was able to redirect one to a system here in the Star Union. To be specific, this Dispersate arrived undetected in the Riikfahryn system, the one we arrived in after Treveelan. From there, they evidently avoided Treveelan and Reymiimagar by traveling to Skriischnagar and heading into Rehlkohr. Their data suggests they then pushed through the populated systems of Gytohkiir and Omm-Ajaar and followed the shunt warpline over to X-2, where they awaited word that the Bug fleet was passing through Reymiimagar. I suspect the squadron following the Bugs from Franos sent a selnarmic courier to alert the fleet they correctly expected to be waiting in X-2, which transited into Reymiimagar and made sure that the Bugs did not assault the Msychtelik warp point. That would have been a pointless waste of time and resources, from the Kaituni perspective.”