Defying the Prophet: A Military Space Opera (The Sentience Trilogy Book 2)

by Gibson Michaels

  “Current estimates are that it’ll take another three to four years to get the design finalized, and then another two years to get the new hardware built and installed,” said Admiral Campbell. “Software is something else entirely. Unless we can physically unplug all of the Bozo Jr.’s, before we bring up the new system, there’s no reason to expect that Bozo won’t be able to simply invade our new system the same way Bat thinks he did, with all of the banking computers.”

  “So what’s the problem with doing that?”

  “There are a lot of Bozo Jr.’s that we no longer have access to, Mr. President. There’s one on every Confederate planet.”

  “Confederate… Agh, I am so tired of hearing that word. So what you’re telling me is that unless we can convince the Confederates to shit-can all of their own Bozos, we’ll always be at the mercy of whatever this meddling computer wants to do to us?”

  “I’m afraid so, Mr. President. Right now with this alien war hanging over our heads, we need the Confederates a lot more than they need us.”

  “So, you’re telling me is that I’m going to spend my entire presidency dangling from whatever strings this damned computer decides to yank at any given moment?”

  Campbell and Bradley merely glanced towards one another, both wishing Bat Masterson was there to give the president an honest answer to that question. Marrot let the moment drag on, until he realized that both admirals were too politically astute to answer such a loaded question.

  “Never mind… just give me the details on what our friends, the Confederates, are telling us about what their incredibly efficient intelligence service has discovered about these aliens.”

  “The system the aliens used to launch their strike against Minnos currently contains a very large orbital base servicing over 60,000 ships, Mr. President,” replied Admiral Campbell.

  “60,000 ships!” cried President Marrot. “That’s insane! How can we fight 60,000 warships?”

  “Only a bit over 25,000 of them are actually warships. The rest appear to be transports and freighters of some kind,” mused Admiral Campbell.

  “Even so,” whined President Marrot. “How can we possibly destroy 25,000 warships?”

  Bradley retrieved a folded paper from within his jacket and handed it to the president:

  Confederate Stellar Accord Fleet Communiqué — Classification Top Secret Ultra

  From: Fleet Admiral Roger Kalis, Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate Fleet

  To: Admiral Simon Bradley, Chief of Fleet Operations, United Stellar Alliance Fleet

  Subject: Intelligence Requiring your Immediate Attention

  Please be advised Confederate Intelligence has discovered the locations of 14 alien worlds belonging to the enemy who attacked Minnos in June, 3863, including their forward base of operations from which said attack was launched. Attached to this message is a complete intelligence report providing requisite star charts and all of the data we currently possess on defenses present in each system. By the time that you receive this, I will be en route to Minnos with the Confederate 1st Fleet, estimated arrival date: Mid-November, 3864.

  Upon reaching Minnos, I will immediately coordinate with Admirals Melendez and Turner in development of attack plans. I am certain we can and will, destroy the enemy’s forward base of operations, thus eliminating the most imminent threat to Alliance territory. It is my great hope that together, we can safeguard the future of all humanity and eliminate this terrible threat to our species.

  Your Obedient Servant,

  Fleet Admiral Roger Kalis

  Commander-in-Chief: Confederate Fleet

  “So, Kalis just up and decides to bring another entire fleet into Alliance territory without bothering to ask our permission first?” asked the president incredulously.

  “Old habits die hard,” cracked Admiral Bradley. “But we probably shouldn’t complain too much about him bringing another full fleet to the offensive effort.”

  “But still, 25,000 warships… even with Kalis bringing a fifth entire fleet, how can we possibly defeat so many?” asked the president.

  “Have we a choice?” asked Admiral Bradley. “But with Admiral Kalis bringing us another fleet, it's not as daunting as you might think Mr. President. Without the need to carry even minimal anti-fighter missiles for self-defense, our assault force will have over 3,000 fighters, half of which can carry six medium-yield ship-killers. The other half can normally carry two, but they can be fitted with external racks, which will enable them to carry another two. That means our combined fighter force alone can carry 15,000 medium yield, ship-killer missiles in a single strike. Five fleets comprise over 300 warships, all of which carry dozens of missiles. All totaled, the combined fleets will have over 20,000 missiles ready for immediate launch, with another 130,000 available for reloads.”

  “So you’re saying that as long as we have more missiles than the cats have ships, we can win?”

  “Undoubtedly, Mr. President,” said Admiral Campbell. “Our destroyers and transports are the only ships truly vulnerable to the low-wattage energy weapons the cats are using, so if we keep those well back and can prevent the enemy from getting stern shots on the rest of the fleet, it should be a turkey shoot.”

  “With Turner being junior to virtually all of the other admirals, who are we planning to send to command this international assault on the cats?” asked Marrot.

  “When Kalis arrives at Minnos, he will be the most senior officer in the region, so we should make it official that he’s in charge there, to head off any possible turf wars,” added Campbell. “I can’t imagine Rico or J.T. having any problems with it, but we can make their job a lot easier by being proactive about this.”

  “I don’t like it,” snarled the president. “The cats attacked us, not the Confederacy. It should be an Alliance officer in charge of this operation. What about Loggins?”

  “Mr. President, with Kalis adding a third Confederate fleet, 60% of our entire attack force will be Confederate,” replied Bradley. “Loggins was successful against inferior forces, yes, but if you’ll remember, his losses were unsustainable.”

  “Mr. President, no disrespect intended,” said Admiral Campbell. “Admiral Kalis is the most experienced and successful combat commander in modern history. During our recent conflict, he inflicted terrible casualties on vastly superior forces, while sustaining only minimal losses to his own. We couldn’t possibly ask for a better man to lead our offensive against the cats, so I’d suggest that we swallow our pride and officially name him Supreme Allied Commander.”

  Marrot gave his two admirals a sour look and wrestled with the distasteful decision. “I wish Bat was here. I’d really like to hear his take on this.” Campbell and Bradley glanced at each other and both broke into a smirk.

  “It appears that Bat’s sixth-sense has kicked in again,” said Bradley. “Rico’s last report included a quote from Bat suggesting that when the question arose, we should consult the precedent set by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concerning selection of the Supreme Allied Commander during World War II.”

  “World War II? I’ve never heard of it,” responded the president. “What’s he talking about?”

  “I’m not sure, Mr. President,” replied Campbell. “We haven’t had time to look up the reference.”

  Marrot accessed the White House computer system and queried the reference:

  World War II was a global military conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, which involved most of the world's nations eventually forming two opposing military alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in human history, with more than 100 million military personnel mobilized. In a state of "total war," the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, it was the deadliest conflict in human hi
story, resulting in 50-70 million fatalities.

  “My God.” Marrot narrowed the query to the name Winston Churchill and choice of Supreme Allied Commander:

  The Casablanca Conference was held at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco, between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, from January 14-24, 1943. The conference was held to plan the European strategy of the Allies during World War II, where it was decided that a Supreme Commander would be named. Also discussed was the nationality of the Supreme Commander.

  The U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, realizing that any attack made in the near future would have to be mounted largely by the British, said that the appointment if made then, should go to a British officer. Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill proposed that the decision be postponed, suggesting that the question be settled ultimately in accordance with the general rule that the command be held “by an officer of the nation which furnishes the majority of the troops.”

  “How the hell does he do that?” asked Marrot. Bradley and Campbell both just shook their heads and grinned.

  “Well,” said the president resignedly, “it appears that our resident clairvoyant has again spoken prophetically and favors your suggestion, gentlemen. As distasteful as I find it personally, I will accede to your corporate wisdom and name Confederate Fleet Admiral Roger Kalis as Supreme Allied Commander in our war against the aliens. I will write up the official declaration and send it over to you early this afternoon, to be sent out to Minnos on the first available military spaceplane.”

  * * * *

  Literally tens of thousands of recommendations had already been sent back to the supreme-master at Raku, but Quadrant-Master Drix felt strongly that Supreme-Master Xior needed to hear Tzal’s first-paw impressions of his encounter with the humans personally. It was absolutely vital that the generations-old injunction towards standardization of Rak warship and weapons designs be lifted, to allow for rapid development of new warships and weapons capable of defeating the incredible array of armaments utilized by the humans. Leaving Golgathal and the research effort in the capable hands of Sector-Master Bast, another protégé of Region-Master Raan, Drix loaded virtually all of the information they had on the aliens aboard a fast scout ship and he and Tzal boosted for Raku in early October, as humans reckoned subcycles. Unbeknownst to Tzal, Drix shared his stateroom aboard the scout with an invisible companion… invisible to everyone but Drix, anyway. OverMaster Varq, author of the dark prophesy, accompanied Drix, just as he always did.

  * * * *

  Chapter-21

  Anybody who believes that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, flunked geography. -- Robert Byrne

  The Alliance Planet Minnos

  November - December, 3864

  Fleet Admiral Roger Kalis arrived at Minnos in mid-November as estimated, with the Confederate 1st Fleet, including four more converted missile-battleships, and the yet unconverted battleship CSS Defiant. Defiant still bristled with her original armament of twin 5 and 3.5-gigawatt pulse-laser turrets, in addition to her three massive turrets containing nine 16-gigawatt pulse-lasers. Upon hearing that Defiant had arrived in-system, Admiral Stillman immediately requested she be assigned to his Confederate 2nd Fleet, so she could act as his flagship.

  Kalis quickly acquiesced to Stillman’s request, as he knew that Ben had been Chris Rawley’s exec when he had commanded Defiant back in the early 3850’s. Kalis fully understood Stillman’s desire to “go home again,” surrounding himself with the fond memories of Rawley that being back aboard the old girl would stimulate in Ben’s mind. Kalis suspected that when it came time to face down the alien kitties, the ghost of Christopher Rawley would do Ben Stillman more good than an entire hold of ship-killer missiles. — “Boobs” Fletcher, on the other hand, might come as a bit of a shock to him.

  * * * *

  Upon being notified of being named Supreme Allied Commander, Kalis assumed command with his usual confident aplomb, almost as if it was inevitable and expected nothing less. Melendez was startled when Bozo immediately responded to Kalis’ first interrogatory. It appeared that, during the entire war, no one had thought to rescind Kalis’ access authorization to the Federal Defense Command Master Computer, after his defection to the Confederacy.

  Kalis immediately reviewed the progress of preparations for the impending invasion first thing, and then personally viewed every frame of combat video retrieved from shipboard cameras that survived the self-destructs. He drove himself relentlessly, taking little time for meals, sleep or anything else normally associated with healthy living. He read every report, and re-interviewed virtually every Alliance Fleet officer who had fought the aliens in space and survived to tell their tale. Kalis was not a young man, and people became concerned for his health as he worked himself past mere exhaustion.

  Kalis felt that humanity’s retribution for the aliens’ attempted invasion of Minnos had been delayed by the search for their enemy beyond what the average man on the street could tolerate, and he wanted to hit back at them just as soon as physically possible. Normal missile loads had to be remixed, as anti-fighter missiles and heavy-yield ship-killers would be unnecessary against the destroyer-grade armor on the enemy warships, but medium-yield missiles were at a premium. Fortunately, Vice Admiral Turner had reached that the same decision earlier and had already placed emphasis on medium-yield missile production throughout the entire Alliance — just as Fleet Admiral Kalis had done throughout the Confederacy, after the Bozo Jr. on Ginia had given him a “heads-up.”

  * * * *

  CSS Defiant

  Minnos System

  Upon transferring his flag to Defiant, Admiral Ben Stillman conducted a through inspection to reminisce, ascertain her current battle readiness, and familiarize himself with her officers and crew. Captain Dorothy Fletcher gave him the guided tour, and Stillman was amazed at the amount of modernization they’d been able to accomplish to the old girl’s antiquated systems. All new state-of-the-art fire-control scanners found individual targets for each of the 61 pulse-lasers that made up her main and secondary armament. Each weapon now also had individual targeting computers locked into those dedicated new scanners to create 61 totally autonomous, automated fire control systems. These could also be slaved to the ship’s main fire-control computer, which in turn was interfaced to the ship’s new master artificial intelligence that had been designed and built by a German company based in Joja.

  All new carrier-grade reactors provided 37% more power than her old ones. New electronics and modernizations were evident literally everywhere. Even the old bulkheads glistened with coats of fresh paint. Stillman’s aide had seen to his personals being moved into Christopher Rawley’s old stateroom, which now looked nothing like the room that he remembered Chris sleeping and working in. It had been totally redesigned to function as an admiral’s stateroom and it now reminded Ben of the one night he’d spent in the honeymoon suite at a five-star hotel on his wedding night — not that he’d really been paying that much attention to the accoutrements of the room at the time. Defiant might be the last remaining “all gun” battleship in existence, but she was totally awesome and Ben wouldn’t change a thing. Except maybe…

  Captain Fletcher stupefied Ben Stillman from the moment he was first piped aboard. She obviously ran a tight ship and had to be an extremely competent officer to have been given command of a battleship, but God… Dorothy Fletcher was without doubt the most physically perfect woman Ben could have never imagined. She radiated a raw sexual gravity that could turn grown men into quivering blobs of jelly. And she was obviously as smart as she was stunning.

  She appeared to be in her late 30’s to early 40’s… damned young to having achieved her captaincy, even during wartime. Trim with delicate china-doll features and shoulder length hair just a shade more yellow than pure white, Fletcher was also endowed with disconcertingly large… uh… lungs — a feature that very probably required double or triple stitching
to prevent the buttons on her tortured uniform tunic from being classified as a flying debris hazard. Ben had had to pick up his eyes from where they had virtually fallen out of his head and were rolling around on the deck. He’d literally wrenched his head to lift his gaze by brute force of will, only to immediately be captured by her equally disconcerting, bright turquoise eyes.

  So this is what it feels like, to be struck by lightning!

  How in the hell was he supposed to work around this woman without embarrassing himself? His tent pole was likely to go on full automatic at any given moment. Just the sound of her sweet, baby-doll voice made him twitch and looking at her… God… looking at her made his tongue thicken. The whole damned fleet was probably thinking he was a dirty old man, who requested Defiant as his flagship just to get close to the incredible Dorothy Fletcher.

  Fleet Admiral Kalis really should have warned me. The old fart is probably laughing his scrawny old ass off.

  * * * *

  Alliance Press (AP): Nork – News Flash (11/30/64)

  McAllister Wins Presidency! — Admiral Arlene McAllister has won a landslide victory in this year’s presidential election, winning all but Io, home planet of rival Senator James Fairland. McAllister had been heavily favored in light of the current alien war. Her emergence from the recent War of Confederate Independence with her reputation untarnished led to her high popularity within the Fleet and obviously carried over to the public at large.

  * * * *

  The Alliance Planet Minnos

  With the robotic peripheral Bozo designed finally completed, Admiral Enrico Melendez had the Fleet techs hook it up to the main computer console in the lab, where he watched as the little mechanical beastie hummed and buzzed, as it examined the alien artifacts. It moved about on a tracked mechanism and utilized its manipulator arms, having multiple tool attachments, to disassemble some subassemblies as it probed the alien technology for clues to their inner workings. The peripheral not only possessed normal microscopic optics capabilities, but also viewed everything from infrared to ultraviolet. Eventually, Melendez got bored just watching and left Bozo to complete whatever it was doing on its own.