by T. R. Harris
That still left the dark matter collector Aric admitted to having. Adam had to trust the Gracilians not to be suicidal if their plans couldn’t come to fruition. And they had more experience handling dark matter than anyone, other than the Aris. And consider that: At one time, the entire Aris civilization had been based on dark energy. Surely they learned how to use it safely.
All this discussion came to an end once they reached Liave-3.
21
Copernicus figured out the CW comm in the Gracilian warship and called his headquarters on Earth. He gave them a detailed debrief before being instructed to contact Colonel Todd Oaks at the Human garrison on Liave-3. After he did, he received permission to land the stolen warship at the far end of the garrison spaceport. Immediately upon landing, large tarps were tossed over the starship and ground crews set up tents nearby. Scientists and technicians swarmed aboard, all appearing to be in a frantic rush.
A personnel carrier took the full team to the headquarters building, which itself bristled with nervous energy. Col. Oaks greeted them before pulling Copernicus and Adam aside. Of the people in the group, they were the only ones still considered under military command. The rest of the team bitched and moaned but settled down as they were directed to a decent mess hall with real Human food. The Juirean Tidus made do with what was available.
The building was one of those basic military pop-up structures built in a few hours by the reconfigured Corps of Army Engineers. It had multiple stories, and Adam and Coop were escorted to the top floor and a spacious office with a view of the spaceport.
Col. Oaks led the way, and as they entered a Navy commander and a civilian stood up to greet the newcomers.
“I’m Commander Ian Brennan,” said the trim, thirty-something-year-old officer. “I run the intelligence operations here in the Zone.” He turned to the civilian. “Jack Brown, Consolidated Intelligence Station Chief.” The officer grinned. “Yeah, we’ve come up in the world; we now have our own station chief.”
The men shook hands.
“Take a seat, gentlemen,” Oaks said. He sat behind his desk.
Copernicus turned to Jack Brown. “You’re my direct contact, is that right? We don’t have much time. Aric Jroshin could launch an attack at any time. The ships he has can be defeated, but they will take some major firepower to do so. We have to hit him before he gets his service modules charged and programmed. He may have done that already.”
Brown raised his hand to stop Coop’s outburst.
“Calm down, Mr. Smith. We’ll deal with the Gracilian situation the best we can and at the proper time. But first, we need to assess the situation.”
“Assess the situation? What the hell for? I told headquarters there are six hundred super starships ready to take flight, and they’re coming this way. Jroshin estimates his ships are equal to ten thousand of our warships. Hell, we don’t even have ten thousand in the whole fleet, do we?”
“That’s not what he means, Mr. Smith, about assessing the situation,” said Commander Brennan. “What he means is there are more sensitive matters at hand, and if we don’t handle them properly, we could lose even the small advantage we have.”
“What does that mean?” Adam asked, joining the conversation and sharing in Coop’s frustration. “It doesn’t sound like you guys are taking us seriously.”
“That’s not it, Captain Cain,” said Colonel Oaks. “By the way, I’m glad to meet you finally. I came in at the end of the Quanin crisis a few months ago. We dodged a bullet there. We could be at war with the Juireans if you didn't do what you did. Thanks. I never thought you were involved in the assassination in the first place.”
“Thank you, sir, but what does that have to do with the Gracilians.”
Oaks raised his eyebrows. “That’s the point, Mr. Cain. It doesn’t have anything to do with the Gracilians. You have to realize, Gracilia is a sovereign world in the Kidis Frontier. Not the Union—nor the Expansion—have any formal authority here. Independent planets are free to build whatever fleets they want. We can only get involved if we come under direct assault. Hell, they could attack Liave-3 head-on, and as long as they leave our garrison alone, we could do nothing about it. That’s what this upcoming vote is about, who’s going to be in charge.”
Adam couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He and Copernicus had just warned the Union about a major threat to the galaxy, and from the looks of things, they were going to ignore it.
“But Jroshin intends to launch a war against the galaxy, against both the Union and the Expansion.”
“And when he does, we’ll respond. But until then, we can’t go invading a sovereign world simply because they’ve built some fancy starships.”
“But they’re powered by dark energy,” Copernicus pointed out. “That’s the most dangerous stuff in the galaxy.”
“So, you say, Mr. Smith,” said Commander Brennan. “We’ve checked with our scientists. They don’t know enough about it to decide either way. But we do know the Aris used it extensively. It can’t be that dangerous.”
“Believe us; it is,” Adam said.
“And that’s why we have teams inside the dark energy starship as we speak. But again, you have to realize how precarious our position is here.”
“Why don’t you enlighten us, commander?” Adam said.
The officer looked to Col. Oaks as if saying, ‘Are these guys really this stupid?’
“Here’s the reality of the situation,” Brennan began. “You are in possession of a very expensive warship belonging to an independent government. You have admitted to stealing the craft and flying it out of Gracilian space. If we make a big deal out of having the ship, the Gracilians could very well demand that we return it. And guess what, we’d have to.”
“You, you wouldn’t,” Copernicus gasped. “We risked our lives getting it here.”
“From reading your report, it sounds like it was more a target of opportunity rather than some planned intelligence operation.” He held up his hand as both Adam and Copernicus nearly came off their seats in protest. “Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad you got it. But we only have so much time to learn its secrets. At any time, the Gracilians could make a call to Earth, and we’ll have to give it up.”
“They’re going to use their warships to conquer a wide swath of the galaxy,” Adam said.
“Pardon me, captain, but Agent Smith’s report stated that the Gracilians intend to put their name in the hat for control of the Dead Zone. We can’t stop them from doing that. That’s a political act and not a military one. And according to people I’ve checked with, they will probably win the vote.”
“And you’re okay with that?” Copernicus asked, dumbfounded.
“Whether I approve or not is immaterial,” Brennan snapped. “No, I don’t approve, but there’s nothing we can do about it. First of all, the refugees would be all up in our shit if we didn’t allow the Gracilians to be considered in the vote. And besides that, the Expansion would be pissed, as well.”
“The Expansion wouldn’t support the Gracilians if they knew what was going on.”
Brennen leaned back in his chair. “And how do you suppose we should approach that; tell them about the dark-energy warship and share everything we learn? No way. That would just start an arms race between empires.”
“An arms race we’ve already lost, commander,” Adam said. “All we’d be doing is playing catch up with the Gracilians.”
Colonel Oaks was shaking his head. “I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal out of this, Captain Cain. There is only a handful of Gracilians left. Sure, with their technology, they could cause some problems. But in the long run, there’s just not enough of them to have any lasting effect on the galaxy.”
“Tell that to the Klin, sir,” Adam said.
Oaks blanched. “That was different.”
“Why, because the Klin never possessed the power of dark energy? Colonel, the Gracilians are even more dangerous than the Klin.”
“The Klin were acting as an entire race,” Commander Brennan countered. “From what you report, Agent Smith, it appears there’s only a small group of Gracilians leading this effort. We looked into the revolt on Aac’or. Most of those Gracilians have been captured or killed. There wasn’t a lot of them involved. They just threw a lot of money at people and expected to walk into positions of power. It didn’t work. I think this whole threat of yours is overblown.”
Copernicus grunted. “They have Aris service modules to make up for the lack of manpower.”
“Again, from your own report, Agent Smith, they are Gracilian service modules, not Aris service modules. All they are is an advanced form of AI. Artificial intelligence can be defeated.”
“And that’s the point, commander,” Adam said. “We have to start planning on fighting and defeating the Gracilians. Whether you believe it or not, the time is coming.”
“And that is why we are examining the Gracilian warship,” Col. Oaks said. “We’ll learn what we can and then make our plans from there. Until then, we put a lid on this thing. Your Aric Jroshin may not even be thinking about demanding that we return the warship. Eventually, however, he may realize he has a legal right to get it back. Right now, he thinks he’s been found out, and he has. But found out about what? About building a fleet of warships that he has every right to build. We have to be careful here, gentlemen. If we start getting bombastic, he may realize he holds all the cards and that we’re just bluffing.”
Adam and Copernicus shared a look, one of mutual defeat. The conversation was one-hundred-eighty degrees out from where they expected it to go.
Adam turned to Colonel Oaks. “So, you’re not going to do anything until if—
or when—he attacks?”
“My hands are tied. And captain, this is coming directly from Earth. I’m sorry, gentlemen, truly I am,” Oaks continued. “But first, let’s learn all we can about that starship down there and wait to see what this Jroshin guy does next. We’re not letting our guard down. We're just being more judicious with our actions.”
22
The two officers stayed in the office as the CI station chief escorted Adam and Coop into the corridor.
“Thanks for backing me up in there, Mr. Brown,” Copernicus snapped. “I was on the mission because of you guys. I learned the truth, and this is the thanks I get.”
“These things have to work at their own pace, Mr. Smith. But I may have a temporary solution, one I didn’t want to broadcast in the other room.”
“What’s that?” Adam asked, leaning in as the trio huddled.
“If I recall, there are two privately-owned starships still on Gracilia, one belonging to you, Mr. Cain, and the other property of Priority Acquisitions. Well, just as Jroshin would have a right to get his property back, you should, too. I can authorize a small Union force to escort you to Gracilia to retrieve the starships.”
“Okay, so, we retrieve the ships,” Adam said. “Then what?”
“More information, Mr. Cain. See what Jroshin is up to, maybe more.”
“You mean provoke an incident?” Copernicus asked.
“That would not be my first choice.”
Coop shook his head. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not anxious for a fight with the Gracilians. At this point, I’m pretty sure they could kick our butts. I was just expecting a little more support in there.”
“It was what I’ve come to expect. The Union is walking on eggshells in the Zone at the moment, afraid to piss off any of the refugee groups for fear they’ll vote for the Expansion. And now with Gracilia soon to play a role, things could get even more confusing. We need to know what Jroshin has planned next. My way will get you back in the area and with a small military escort. Are you interested?”
Adam leaned in closer to the spymaster; determination painted on his face. “Just to emphasize the point,” Adam said, “we don’t want to fight the Gracilians again, and especially not in Human warships. But if we go back and have an opportunity to take out Jroshin and his clan, we’re going to do it. I don’t give a damn if it causes an intergalactic crisis of some kind. We know what he intends to do. Can I count on you and your people to back us up?”
“If you get the opportunity, sure. But we’ll only have five support vessels and about twenty-five Marines. That’s all I’ve had assigned to my mission here. I’m not going to risk them on a suicide mission.”
“I don’t do suicide missions, Mr. Brown.”
“I understand, Captain Cain. Have your people ready tomorrow at 0600. Do what you can. We’ll deal with the consequences afterward.”
“That’s the way we like it. Ask for forgiveness rather than permission.”
Coop and Adam shook hands with the head spook on Liave-3 and then went looking for the rest of the team. Adam wasn’t sure how the others would react. Maybe they wouldn’t want to jump right back into the fire. He was about to find out.
Everyone gathered back at Capt. Cain’s Bar & Grill to discuss their options.
To Adam’s surprise, Tidus—broken arm and all—was anxious to go. It was learned that the stealth starship he’d gotten from Priority Acquisitions was borrowed. It was also a very expensive piece of equipment, and Tidus was in a state of panic trying to figure out how to tell his bosses that he’d left the vessel on Gracilia. Getting it back was the only thing he was worried about. Summer and Monty merely shrugged and said okay. They even floated the idea that maybe—somehow—they might be able to capture Jroshin and return him for the bounty. They didn’t sound too sincere with the prospect. But they did like the idea of going in with a military escort, with the possibility of crippling the Gracilian effort.
Riyad—and particularly Sherri—were also excited with the prospect of recovering the Ed Gibson. It was the only starship the Big Three Partnership owned—and considering the quality of the derelicts left at Coop’s old shipyard—it was likely to be their last. It wasn’t much, but at least it was something—if it could make the return trip to Liave-3. For that, they recruited the little bear-like alien Jym to come along, tasking him with gathering up all the repair tools he thought he might need. Between him and Copernicus, they had a good chance of getting the old freighter back to the planet.
Of course, this was all contingent on whether or not Jroshin would let them even get close to Gracilia. He may see the approaching squadron and decide to launch his fleet at the invaders. Because of that, a neutral third party in the form of a starship captain would make a plea over a CW link, requesting permission to recover the abandoned starships. If refused, the captain had instructions to turn tail and head for home. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but considering what Oaks and Brennan had told them, it was the best they could hope for.
23
The journey back to Gracilia was uneventful, at least until they reached the boundary of the system. There’s an unwritten rule that a system’s territory extended to a distance of a light-year beyond the farthest official planet in the system. Anywhere within that sphere and they would be considered trespassing. The Navy captain leading the small squadron approached cautiously, expecting a reaction to come from within the system at any time.
Copernicus was frustrated that the tracking monitor for Aric’s ship was still on the Ed Gibson. At least with that, he might have an idea if the Gracilian leader was leading a fleet their way or not. Instead, everyone sat on pins and needles as they swept in-system, past a couple of ubiquitous gas giants and into the inner rocky planets.
The Navy captain was named Adina Wilson, and Adam learned she was as much a spy as she was a naval officer. Jack Brown’s small complement of starships was packed full of recording and survey equipment, designed to gather intelligence everywhere they went. Because of this, she had a plethora of detection equipment that could give them more advanced warning of an impending attack than even the top-of-the-line warships in the fleet. This knowledge provided Adam with a modicum of security, knowing they could bug out at a moment’s notice. However, he was t
orn over the prospect. He really wanted another crack at Jroshin, especially now.
Captain Wilson got on the horn and called out to the distant planet, using a wideband signal. Jroshin would be able to hear it. And if not, he would certainly detect the energy signals entering his system.
Wilson made several attempts to make contact, but all failed. Adam didn’t think too much about it. Jroshin did the same the first time he came to the Gracilian system. The alien would answer if and when he wanted. But for now, the five Human starships continued on a direct path for Gracilia.
“This isn’t right,” Sherri said as she watched the desert landscape of Gracilia sweep by below her from the bridge of the Human Bainbridge Class frigate Bonaventure. “Nothing.” They came in with two of the Human warships, carrying Adam’s team plus a contingent of twenty-five Marines. The other three ships pulled sentry duty in orbit.
“He did this the first time we came here,” Adam said. “Either he’s inviting us back down, or he’s waiting to launch his fleet once we land. But there’s some good news; our two ships are still there. I hope he hasn’t booby-trapped them.”
The frigates Bonaventure and Corsica dropped to the surface using a combat insertion maneuver, taking only three minutes from orbit to ground.
“We’ll set down next to that ugly freighter and disburse troops,” said Captain Wilson. “Then we’ll dust-off and take up positions about ten miles away with engines primed. Can that thing still fly?” she asked about the Ed Gibson.
