Spinward Fringe Broadcast 14

by Randolph Lalonde

  "I'll begin immediately," Daisy said, gently picking Laura up. The babe stirred, then wailed as though she'd been stuck with a needle. "Oh, she did not want to be moved," Daisy cooed. It was still strange to Ayan that the android looked exactly like her, but it must have brought some comfort to Laura, who practically had two mothers. "It's all right, here you go." As the android spoke her civilian vacsuit made a comfortable sling pocket for Laura, and Daisy slipped her inside expertly. "I'm already signalling the nearest caretakers in the sequence to gather their charges and bring them to secure areas." The words were spoken soothingly to Laura, but the message was for Ayan. "You should reconsider moving your quarters there."

  "Thank you, Daisy. And you know that the secure shelter is for everyone who can't fight, not just officers. "

  "Of course, we wrote the program together. I won't bring it up again. I'll contact you if there are any problems," the android said, sending Ayan her own reassuring smile as she crossed the room with near inhuman grace.

  If the emergency program worked, the majority of the most vulnerable people in the fleet would already be in the safest places on the War Forge before panic could set in. It was an ideal situation at the moment; the main fleet wasn't in danger yet. They had time to get behind an unprecedented number of layers of armour. All those things only reassured Ayan a little. Being separated from Laura still worried her deeply, but that was the plight of a soldier.

  With a quick look at herself in a mirrored section of her bedroom wall, she began to shift her mentality from mother to admiral. By the time she was finished tying her red ringlets back, her military clarity had returned. A few strides took her out into her living room where she met Admiral Doolth and Leon. "Unlo was right," she said, sending the whole terabyte of data from the Sunspire's emergency report up around them in drifting holograms. There were hundreds of logs, ship system overlooks for every active vessel, recordings of the engagement so far, and every other tactically relevant piece of information she could want. "Organize this into a tactical report," she told her silent assistant software. The mess of thousands of holographic images and information panels coalesced into a few dozen with a tactical map in the middle. "Bring up the predictive timeline," Ayan said, pointing to an empty space above the tactical map of the Haven System. An image with metrics stretched over several hours appeared.

  "What was Admiral Kulsh right about?" Admiral Doolth asked, stroking the fur under her chin as she looked around at the summarized reports.

  "The rescue mission couldn't stick to a strict time limit, so every Order of Eden ship in the solar system is responding. They're trapped."

  "'Do not assist,'" Admiral Doolth read aloud. "The overriding instruction from your mother, who is the most experienced member of the Admiralty."

  "That doesn't mean she's always right," Ayan said. "I know I didn't say much when we were putting this plan together, but it felt wrong to me. It felt like we should have been planning to take the solar system back, not rushing in, getting our people, then jumping out. There are too many civilians in cities that we didn't get a chance to help left behind."

  "Most of the people there were part of a criminal element," Leon reminded as he looked through the situational data around them. He kept looking back at the short timeline. That was good, it was a sign he was starting to understand her way of thinking.

  "That includes the thousands of people who are being supressed by crime bosses. People who couldn't make it to one of our outposts for help because they were being watched or restrained," Ayan corrected. "Those people need help more than anyone."

  "You believe we should respond with military force now?" Admiral Doolth asked. Her question was a challenge, but there was sympathy in her big, dark eyes, and her muzzle twitched involuntarily.

  "I do, and I'll show you why once the other Admirals are online." The status of her display system showed that Admiral Lamonthe had just started reviewing the emergency report. Admiral Kulsh started examining it before Ayan did, and the other two Admirals weren't in range. She brought them into her discussion virtually, creating holograms of them as they were and linking them all together in one conversation.

  Kulsh was walking through the classified research section of the War Forge. "Admirals," he said, his broad, slick Mergillian features set in a serious expression.

  Lamonthe appeared in one of the smallest swim briefs she'd ever seen with a towel over his shoulder. He was dripping, in surprisingly good shape. A squeaking laugh made its way through the hands she put over her nose when Admiral Doolth saw him.

  "Sorry," he said with no sign of bashfulness. "I'm fresh from the pool," he said, tapping the band of his briefs so they expanded into a full vacsuit. "I'm catching up as fast as I can."

  "The overview is this: A small but powerful fleet of our ships has executed Phase Seven with the purpose of rescuing as many Haven Citizens and Soldiers as possible," Admiral Kulsh explained. "They have successfully completed parts one and two of that plan, getting every vulnerable citizen off Haven Shore Island and saving nearly all the Nafalli trapped on Tamber. They failed to do so in time, and now they are surrounded by interdictors. Somehow, the Order of Eden has managed to shrink that technology down to fit inside drones and only eight times the size of a Uriel fighter. Our ships are about to be overrun. Some of our most important commanders are vulnerable, including Admiral Rice who has made it clear that any kind of rescue attempt should not be made."

  It was characteristic of him to be clear, but unlike him to be cold about it. Nevertheless, it only helped Ayan remain focused. "Minuteman," Ayan addressed, and an icon of a box with lines trailing behind it appeared in front of her. "Calculate the most likely progression of events for the entire fleet over the next three days," she said, watching her timeline shift and change.

  "That wasn't in my Command Software Toolkit," Lamonthe said with a chuckle, his hologram watching the timeline graphic.

  "That's because it's addictive, almost as much as direct computer to brain interface. I only use this predictive software when I have a real need for it," Ayan said. The future timeline data finished rendering. "Using the data we have, if we don't do anything to help, every Admiral will be dead by this time tomorrow."

  "Surely some will be captured," Admiral Kulsh said. "Admiral McPatrick, perhaps?"

  Ayan poked the strand that represented his actions across the timeline and a detailed report of his death appeared including fabricated security footage. "He leads a team aboard one of the Order of Eden Heavy Cruisers and manages to take the bridge. He uses it to give the Triton a chance to escape, destroying a carrier, eight destroyers and several dozen smaller Order ships. He dies as he's escaping that ship, saving most of the incursion team that volunteered for the boarding mission. They manage to return, but Oz… Admiral McPatrick is destroyed with the ship. Do you want me to show you the rest?"

  "No," Lamonthe said. This was a personal failure for him. While he didn't think the rescue mission was prudent at first, he was convinced it could work by the end, and everyone knew he had uncharacteristically high hopes for success. "I'm guessing the lower ranks don't fare as well."

  Ayan moved into day two of the timeline. "At this point, the overall accuracy of this predictive system is only ninety-four percent, but it's enough to see that there's a high likelihood that space and air superiority is eventually won by the Order of Eden. Thousands of our soldiers make it to the ground, where they take cover and begin to rally, turning most areas of military significance on Tamber into kill zones for anyone who crosses through the airspace or actually makes it to land. That's when the Order wipes the moon clean of all life, bombarding it from orbit." The surface of Tamber caught fire at the poles, the equator and in the middle of each major land mass. Over the space of a few seconds, the surface flashed over completely, leaving no green and very little blue behind. "As for captures, well, it's predicted that the Order will get their hands on two Captains, five Commanders and nearly five hundred other lower ran
king officers. Most of them will eventually succumb to forced mind scanning, most of those will be irreparably scarred."

  "I see that fourteen hundred and fifty-six of our people escape," Admiral Doolth said, pointing at a detail node at the end of the two-day mark on the timeline.

  "Thirteen are Nafalli," Lamonthe said quietly, it was perhaps a show of respect for the Nafalli Admiral.

  "They fight to the death," Doolth said, letting the holographic node go so it could shrink back down. "Such a high chance of that."

  "You had contact with the Victory Machine," Lamonthe said to Ayan. "You know how incorrect any technology that embraces the idea of fate or prescience can be. There are always unlikely surprises."

  "I've also seen things come true when I was sure the timing and the conditions were completely wrong. My daughter is the prime example. I had a choice to make, but when I saw her, all choice was gone. There was no doubt that I'd adopt her. The machine saw that our paths would cross and showed me the choice I'd make. I was right to doubt it, but wrong to eliminate that as a possibility because I thought the time it was supposed to happen in was past. Besides, this machine is pure mathematics. That's why it's effective and dangerously addictive. You ask it enough questions and you start trusting it too much, you stop thinking for yourself."

  "I understand," Admiral Kulsh and Lamonthe said in near unison. "Then why bring it up now? Why show it to us?" Lamonthe asked.

  "Because it will save us time. Every second we spend considering whether or not we send help, what level of response we use if we do, is costing lives," Ayan said. "And I am going to argue for the complete dedication of all of our forces to retaking the Haven System."

  "Yes!" Admiral Doolth said, shaking her fist. "We have fifteen Nafalli Battlecruisers with the fleet now. Most of them are old, but they're serviceable, most of them have boarding craft and five times the number of warriors we need to fill every one of them. More than that; most of them already have shield upgrades and quad drives. It would take minutes to get the rest ready with portable drives so they can keep up with most of the fleet. We will be counted as warriors in this fight."

  "It's true: the whole fleet is larger than ever, especially with the arrival of our Mergillian allies. Most of the Haven ships are being led by green crews, however, so I wonder if we should try to hold the Haven system once we've saved the Phase Seven Fleet in orbit around Tamber."

  "I am guessing that whoever is in command of the forces in the Haven System, is hoping our rescue attempt turns into a battle for the Haven System. That is an ideal situation for the Order. They'll know where we are, our ships will be damaged, and we know the Order has reinforcements on the way to the Cluster. They'll be able to take their time in coordinating and hit us with one major strike. It could be the invasion all over again," Ayan said before smiling a little. "It's the ideal situation for them if we don't have the ability to put together a real, viable defence, which hundreds of people in the fleet have been working on. What if we could turn it into a fortress? A real protected system for enemies of the Order to gather and regroup?"

  "A fine dream," Admiral Kulsh said.

  It was early, there had been only virtual tests done, but Ayan knew it was time to unveil something that her team had been developing even before they were driven out of the Haven System. "Bring up the overview for T.H.O.R," she told the computer system. A larger, more savage looking defence satellite appeared in the middle of the room. It had two main barrels along with several smaller ones set between other launcher and scanning systems. "This is the True Home Oversight Array, or T.H.O.R., for short. I know, the acronym is a stretch, but it was meant to be a code name while it was in development. Anyway, it's the evolution of the orbital defence system we had in place around Tamber, capable of projecting powerful shields, moving to positions where its most effective, and it can use data gathered from quad drive technology to determine friend or foe then fire on them at a range of a single light year. Using common wormhole technology, it can reach targets up to fifteen light years away. New Lorander power systems, our combat artificial intelligence programming and several other technologies make this possible. The War Forge can produce functional but not fully featured Thor units right now. It would have a pair of Prometheus beams that can fire for forty-eight minutes at a time, and two racks of standard Hammerheads, each rack would be fully loaded with two-hundred-twenty-five of those torpedoes. They would be shielded, and mobile with artificial intelligence that would take commands from secure sources and assist allied ships on their own if they saw they were in danger."

  "How fast can you produce these?" Admiral Kulsh asked in surprise.

  "Twenty-six every nine minutes," Admiral Doolth told him. "Remarkable. They wouldn't be fully armed?"

  "Right, the wormhole and other long-range systems wouldn't be installed. That would quadruple the time needed to complete each one even if we used our supply of exotic materials. For this use, I think we can live without, and any surviving units can be put through the manufacturing lines again for repairs and completion. If we surround the Haven System with these once it's retaken, our chances of holding it increase. Using our latest long range, trans-dimensional scanner systems will give us the early warning capabilities we need to defend it."

  "I saw the files on all this technology," Lamonthe said. "Most of the sensor and long-range systems won't be ready for weeks. The wormhole enabled torpedo launching system won't be really serviceable for months."

  "All the technology is viable. The only reason why it's not ready right now is because we didn't think we'd find a new home to defend for some time, even then, we hoped secrecy would give us a chance to finish testing and set a network of them up. If we focus on this, a final version can be ready in days, maybe a week." If we all forgo sleep, Ayan thought. "As it is, we can start making a version that won't be function complete, but will provide critical support. They'll be un-hackable, too. The military encryption and artificial intelligence make it impossible to break into remotely and cracking into one on site is highly unlikely because they have the same protections as our quad drives."

  Lamonthe thought for a moment, all the other Admirals looking at him. "I admit my heart is influencing my opinion, but I vote we take the Haven System back and use every resource we have to defend it. If we can light a fire right in the middle of the Cluster, a beacon for everyone in the galaxy to see, people will come."

  "I want to see what your prediction system says about this," Admiral Kulsh said, wiping a hand down the middle of his smooth head.

  Ayan nodded. "Minuteman, show me how the timeline changes if every Haven Fleet ship with a quad drive departs for the Haven System in one hour. We'll be using portable drives on ships without the system, and the War Forge will create the dimensional path ahead of the fleet. Add as many THOR units as the fabrication systems can make before arrival."

  A few seconds later, the timeline was redrawn. The results were flipped, and several victory conditions were met within an hour of the fleet arriving. "That is what I was afraid of," Admiral Kulsh said, his hologram highlighting the death toll for Haven Allies. "Over eight thousand Mergillian casualties. Every other ally will suffer half as many. My government won't abide this."

  "Redraw with only the Mergillian ships that have been upgraded in the attack force," Ayan said. The casualties went down into the low hundreds while the rest went up less than a thousand collectively. "I understand," she told him. "The warships that just joined us don't measure up to the kind of power the Order has in the Haven System right now. They can stay behind while the three battleships that have been upgraded join the fight, as far as I'm concerned."

  "It makes us look weak; several unmodified Nafalli battlecruisers will be joining you, not to mention the destroyer class ships they'll be bringing," Admiral Kulsh countered.

  "You and your government have the understanding of the Admiralty if this is a mission you can't participate in, we can't offer more," Lamonthe said. "You may hold
your vote so we can hear from Admiral Doolth."

  "I vote we attack. With the rest of the Admiralty trapped or out of range, that brings us to a majority decision to proceed with an assault, does it not?" she asked with uncharacteristically official tone.

  Ayan thought about it. The Admirals who could vote included her mother, Admiral Rice, who voted nay by ending her report with; 'Do not assist.' The rest of the Admirals who were available were in the room, either holographically or physically, and that included Lamonthe, Doolth and herself, who were voting to attack, and Kulsh, who was holding his vote. No matter how he voted, they were going. "Agree to send your upgraded ships in and you save face with your government along with Haven Fleet," she told Kulsh. "I'd allow that as a compromise so your people can remain in the alliance."

  "I will abstain, holding all Mergillian ships behind to guard the ships that this fleet leaves behind until they can be retrieved," he said. "Good luck with this fight, I wish my people were better equipped."

  "That's a critical role, thank you," Admiral Doolth said to him. "I recommend we accept that as the Mergillians fulfilling their role in the alliance for now."

  Ayan didn't like seeing any member of their young alliance abstaining from participating in an action the majority voted to take, but it was something she'd have to bring up again later. "I'll accept that, but we'll be examining that decision more closely in the future."

  "I agree with Admiral Anderson," Lamonthe said. "For now, we only have time to discuss the brave."

  Admiral Doolth looked to Ayan and spoke politely. "Begin producing your mobile defence machines. We'll pass the word so the fleet readies itself. In one hour, we'll set out for the Haven System."

  "We'll have to give part of the fleet more time," Ayan said. "The main fleet will stick to the one-hour clock, the rest will follow a half hour later. That'll give all our major fighting ships a chance to install portable quad drives and get ready."