by Danny Loomis
A softer smile covered Brita’s face. “You got it, Irish. I wouldn’t be your boss any longer.” She reached out, grasping one of his hands. “We’ve had some unfinished business for quite some time now,” she said.
“Wow,” breathed Ian. “You ever thought about becoming a recruiter full-time? You’ve sold me. Where do I sign?”
Brita laughed and released his hand. “Not so fast. The next flight school you’d be able to attend is in seven months. Our next mission will be over and done with two months before that. You got lots of time left to be a team leader. But now you’ll be doubling up. Training your troops, then going over on your days off and taking flight training in a simulator for real, not just for fun.”
“If this gives me a chance at some kind of a personal relationship with you, I’ll jump at it. You know how I’ve felt about you, just couldn’t do anything about it.”
Now it was her turn to blush. “I know, Ian. It’s been hard on me, too. I’d pretty much buried my feelings towards you until I heard you were going to be transferred out.” She stood, shaking her head. “We’ve got to stop this conversation, Ian. It’s still several months before you’ll be leaving the platoon.”
“Yeah, right,” he said, also standing. “I agree. Let’s go talk to that spook Grant. Get the ball rolling.”
“Spook?” she said with a puzzled look. “What makes you think that?”
“Ever time I’ve seen that guy he’s got a different rank on. Can’t seem to decide whether he’s in the Navy or Army. That kind of person definitely smells like a spook.”
“Whatever he smells like he’s your gravy train for the Wasp pilot program, so don’t get too cutesy with him. And get that shell-shocked look off your face,” she said, on her way out the door.
“Too much happening at once,” Ian muttered, and hurried after her.
DEUTSCHLAND, CAPITOL OF ALLIANCE (Day -60):
The newly appointed Economics Commissioner, Katrina Fisher, scrolled through another screenful of third quarter budgetary data and pointed to the total at the bottom of the screen. “For the first time in three years we’re in the black. Unemployment’s below five percent, and the economy is definitely heating up.” She paused expectantly, looking over her shoulder. Karl Richter, First Secretariat of the Alliance, quickly lifted his eyes from the delectable cleavage he’d been viewing the past five minutes.
“Splendid, Katrina, well done. Very well done. Can you put this in simple enough language for the full Executive Committee meeting next week?”
The smile she gave him at the unexpected praise caused his face to heat. Reluctantly he straightened up and re-seated himself. By God, it felt good to have a beautiful woman on the Executive Committee. It was two years since his wife passed on. Pressures of the job had kept him celibate far too long.
“I just happen to have prepared a summary, sir.” She pivoted the screen of her ’puter towards him. “I know it’s short and fairly simple, but what do you think?”
Karl scooted his chair closer to hers and inhaled the faint perfume which surrounded her. Dark brown shoulder length hair, curled at the ends. With a start, he realized they’d been staring at each other rather than the screen. His intercom chimed. “Mister Secretary, Victor and the Grand Admiral are here.”
He tore his eyes from her and keyed his intercom. “Send them in, Michael. Katrina, you might want to sit in on this briefing.” Katrina gave a cautious nod, pushing up her old-fashioned spectacles. Such a charming woman, he thought.
As the two men entered, Karl nodded a greeting to each in turn. Victor, head of State Security, looked older and more shrunken than usual. His eyes, normally devoid of feeling, had a ghost of pain and weariness deep inside. Although he’d physically recovered from his wounds of two years ago during the aborted military coup, it had affected him mentally, too. His full head of hair and beard had turned from grey to a pure white.
The Grand Admiral was a dynamo of energy alongside Victor. Two meters in height and heavily muscled, he was the ideal example of a virile military leader. A look he used to perfection.
“Thank you for coming, gentlemen. Please be seated.” Karl nodded to the two remaining chairs at the small conference table in his inner office. It was hard to imagine the most powerful man in the Alliance in such a spartan office. “So, William, how’s my newest nephew doing?”
Grand Admiral William Haven gave a broad smile. “Little William is doing fine, sir. We’re celebrating his first month’s birthday tomorrow night. Stephanie said she’d be very disappointed if you didn’t make it.”
A smile ran across Karl’s face. “I’d like that very much. Tell my sister I’ll be there.” He ran fingers through silver-shot hair, and settled thoughts back on the matter at hand.
“The full Executive Committee meets next week, and I want to ensure there are no hidden agendas or surprises. Katrina, give them a summary of what you showed me.”
Katrina pushed her glasses up and glanced around the table. “For the first time in five years, our government is in the black. Last quarter we had a surplus of fifty billion Deutschmarks. Forecasts show we should keep at this level and higher for at least another year.” She fidgeted with her reader and scrolled through several more pages of statistics. “This would have begun drifting into the red again if it wasn’t for the plans made a year ago to increase the emphasis on building up our military.”
“Which brings us to why we’re meeting today,” Karl said. “We need to discuss the summary William prepared for the full Exec Committee meeting, along with the announcement of having kicked off the start of Operation Knife.”
William passed a reader cube to each person. “After the troubles of two years ago, we began a major building program, to prepare us for the eventuality of a possible conflict with the Confederation.”
He shifted around to face the table, and touched a panel to bring up a hologram of Alliance-controlled space. The seventy planets which made up the Orion Confederation showed as an ellipsoid of red dots, while the Alliance’s thirty were grouped spherically and marked as green. To the side of them was a smaller collection of yellow stars, the Terran Federation. Scattered near the border of each were two dozen orange dots, signifying independent worlds.
“We needed to choose our first thrust into Orion territory as far away from the Terran Federation as possible. If it doesn’t directly impact them, they tend to ignore the problem. I think it’ll be the same this time. Five planets were identified to the galactic west, and Victor sent intelligence operatives to each.”
Victor smiled. “Once we saw the information, it was easy to decide which would be our primary target.”
The Admiral nodded agreement. “We quietly moved units towards that particular star system. All the elements are now in place, and I am presently baiting the trap for the Confederation.”
“Are you still planning on being there?” asked Karl.
“Yes, Sir. I’ll be in command of the primary task force. That way if I fail, you won’t have to fire me.”
Karl shook his head in disgust. “If you didn’t come back, my sister would probably disown me.”
“With our lack of Admirals at the moment, we need every flag officer possible to be in space.” Seventeen Admirals and forty-five Captains had been executed following the aborted coup attempt. If not for then-Captain Haven and Victor, they would have been successful. Victor had spent two weeks in a regeneration chamber.
“I’ve got a list of flag officers we can feel safe in promoting, Mister Secretary. Also, we need to streamline training even more to make sure we have enough personnel to man the new ships we have, plus those still being built.”
“I see no reason why not. Leave the proper documents with my aide.”
“Thank you, Sir. And finally, I’ve a request, one Victor and I can’t come to an agreement on. If you wish your navy to operate at its peak efficiency, it’s important we withdraw the security advisors you’ve placed on every ship. Our readiness and
morale have steadily decreased, even lower than after the public executions.” Karl and Victor had made a circus out of the trials and executions of the officers arrested during the coup attempt.
Karl’s jaw knotted. “No, William. We won’t allow a repeat performance to occur. We lost two entire squadrons of battleships, along with over a dozen battlecruisers. Even if our capabilities are hampered, it’s not acceptable to take a chance on having it happen again.”
“But Sir…”
“No, Admiral. Don’t bring this up again.”
William kept his face calm with an effort. “As you wish, Sir.”
Victor leaned forward and touched the small orange dot of the star system they had chosen for Operation Knife. “One thing we need to point out. If the initial phase of this operation is successful, our technological capabilities will greatly increase. The people on this world have gone beyond even the Terran Federation in some areas. I think this, combined with our present military buildup, would take care of long term problems with our economy. There’s nothing like a war to give your economy a boost.”
“Only if we win, Victor,” Karl said. “Only if we win.”
“I have one other request, Mister Secretary,” William said, a stubborn look on his face. “Since you insist on leaving the security elements on board ships and at our naval bases, it’s imperative they don’t question every decision. Remarks which they deem traitorous are being reported with monotonous regularity that are little more than normal grumblings. If these problems persist, I guarantee you will have a disaster—thousands of imprisoned or dead officers and a complete collapse of our navy. Plus an uprising that will make the last one look tame by comparison.” His voice had continued to rise until he was almost shouting before he brought himself up short.
“You forget yourself, Admiral,” Karl said in icy tones.
William lowered his head, closing his eyes for a second. A scene of his Flag Captain being forcibly led off the bridge one month ago in front of his eyes still haunted him. The look of betrayal from him and the rest of the bridge crew looking to him for support still gnawed at him.
“I—forgive me Sir, but it’s been extremely frustrating to watch officers I know are loyal being dragged away.”
Karl turned to Victor. “How many have you had arrested over the past three months?”
Victor scrolled through his hand comp. “Four hundred sixty-one.”
Physical pain lanced through Karl’s stomach, rocking him back. “Four hundred…” He turned to Admiral Haven. “William, this is very serious. Would you wait in my outer office, please? And Katrina, I’ll get back with you.” Both the economics minister and Grand Admiral silently left the room.
Karl rubbed his eyes as he searched for the right words. “Victor, are you feeling well?”
“Of course,” he said indignantly. “I know four hundred sixty-one sounds like a lot, but we’ve had to take drastic steps to dig out the last of the rot.”
“You’ve gone beyond rot. Some of the muscle is being cut. Admiral Haven is right, your people have gone too far.”
Victor leaned back with a tired sigh. “We can’t withstand another revolt.”
“Which is why we’re going to accede to the Admiral’s wishes on this. Instruct your people to report only what is actually treasonous in nature. All cases will go through a Captain’s Mast or Board of Admiralty before action is taken. You’ll also sit down with William and go through all four hundred sixty-one records of those presently detained. Any he feels should be released will be, and the rest will be handled by naval review boards.”
“This gives him too much power,” Victor said, a note of protest creeping into his voice.
Karl shook his head. “Still not as much as his predecessor had. We need to have a true leader in the navy right now. Giving him credit for freeing his fellow officers will make him a hero in the eyes of all naval personnel. Meanwhile, you need to assign someone to him of low enough rank he doesn’t feel threatened. Someone who wouldn’t hesitate to take appropriate action if we saw the need to remove another Grand Admiral.”
Victor nodded, a smile forming. “I have the perfect man for the job on my staff. Does this mean you don’t trust your own brother-in-law?”
“Of course I do. But if William does well like I think he will, the power of popularity can be heady. Before he’s too successful we may need to re-think his usefulness.”
Victor’s smile contained a hint of relief. “In that case I’d better get back to work, starting with the Admiral.”
After Victor left, Karl sat unmoving, deep in thought. Finally, with a sigh he stood and crossed to the window. Snow tumbled from the sky, blanketing the streets of Hanover, the capitol of Deutschland. With luck the opening shot of their war against the Confederation would have been fired in the next three months. Not the best of solutions, he mused. But a sure way to guarantee continued economic success.
“But only if we win,” he muttered.
EDO STAR SYSTEM: (Day -44):
Lieutenant Commander Bernard ignored the runnel of sweat trickling down the side of his face, and relaxed into his command chair. The Alliance light cruiser Stian had been moving in-system for over a week now. The edges of his mouth curled up in a smile. With the newest in stealth technology, no one would be able to pick up their emissions within five light seconds of them. They’d exited hyper space two light-weeks from the Edo star system to reduce the chances of their emergence footprint being picked up.
Bernard’s fingers brushed the command tabs on his collar. Grand Admiral Haven himself pinned them on less than five months ago after the last full-scale exercise leading up to Operation Knife. He flushed in pleasure at the memory. On top of that, he’d been given the honor of striking the first blow. Quite an achievement for the son of a pig farmer. He was the first naval officer in over a generation from his home planet of Brannenfeld. That made it doubly important he succeed.
“Two hours from first target, Sir,” said Lieutenant Manning, his engineering/signals officer.
Bernard glanced at his screen. “Any sign of our being noticed?”
“Not a peep, Captain. Clear screens, just like before,” Lieutenant Hurley, Weapons Officer said.
“Start warming up your energy weapons, Jim. Remember, no attack radars or lidars until we’re on top of them.”
The planet Edo centered in Bernard’s tactical screen. With minimal magnification the planet appeared close enough to touch. Several small red dots hung in stationary orbit, communications satellites which were already targeted. The primary objective existed in geosynchronous orbit on the far side of the planet.
The cruiser’s four huge drive nodes had been silent for eight days while they drifted in-system on a ballistic track. Occasional course corrections came from the gravitic generators which were normally used during docking procedures for a ship large as the Stian.
“Twenty minutes to target,” Bernard said. “Bring power up on all drive nodes.” The Stian curved inward, keeping the bulk of the planet between itself and the Edoan’s lone space station.
* * *
First Tech William 12-24 studied his tactical screen, noting the exact speed and inclination of the Alliance ship as it veered from its ballistic course, easing into an eccentric orbit around the planet. “They’re doing it, Enforcer,” he said.
“That’s good, William 12. Like we thought they would,” Enforcer Watanabe said, looking over the tech’s shoulder at the screen. “Order the others to evacuate now, including yourself.”
“As you order, Enforcer.” William 12-24 stood and bowed deeply to the black-clad enforcer. “May you enter Oneness with the Way.” With that he was gone.
Watanabe seated himself in the vacated chair and brought up a view of the space station’s docking bay. A dozen white-clad figures clambered into the last of the station’s shuttles. There was room for at least twenty shuttles in the huge bay of the pinwheel-shaped station, but everyone else had been sent groundside a week
ago.
Once the final technician was on board, the shuttle lifted on its gravitics and moved towards the force screen that had replaced bay doors over thirty years ago. As they slipped through and dropped towards the planet below, Enforcer Watanabe shut down all systems, to include life support. It had taken several hours of argument to convince the World Council he was the logical choice for this task. Being a ranking member of the Enforcers had also helped convince them. When an Enforcer insisted, even the most senior members of the Edoan World Council were hard-pressed to say no.
The Alliance cruiser swung around Edo and accelerated toward the space station. Watanabe unfastened the mask that had hidden his face from the public for the past forty years, and keyed his communications panel to the all-hail frequency.
“Ahoy, unknown ship. Shear off immediately. You are in violation of Edoan space.”
The reply was immediate. “This is Alliance Cruiser Stian. Drop your shields and prepare to be boarded.”
“We have no shields, Sir. I must protest most strongly this act of piracy. I say again, shear off.”
By now the cruiser had come to within one hundred kilometers, and spewed shuttles which accelerated towards the space station. “We have our primary laser locked on your bridge. Don’t interfere with our boarding.”
Enforcer Watanabe smiled. Just as Yoshida had predicted. His hand hovered over a large bus bar jury-rigged onto the console.
* * *
“We caught them with their pants down, Sir,” Lieutenant Manning said, a pleased smile on his face.
“Let’s hope it continues,” Bernard said. He’d tensed when the four shuttles left the shelter of his ship. When they entered the docking bay of the huge space station, he felt himself relaxing.
A soundless blast turned the pinwheel-shaped station into a miniature sun for several heart-stopping seconds. Bernard flinched back from his screen. “Screens up! Turn our backside to them. Fire up all engines now.”
They slewed around, debris from the space station slamming into their shields and threatening to overload them. All four impulse engines fired, flinging them away from the expanding fireball that had been Space Station Alpha.
