Triumph & Defeat (Shaitan Wars Book 4)

by Sudipto Majumdar

  Humans had failed to find materials light and strong enough that would enable them to build a space elevator in the higher gravity of Earth, although there were three functional space elevators built by the humans on the Moon and one on Mars. The carbon nanotube tethers of the Shaitans that the humans discovered in Alpha Shaitan were a better material than Kevlar and M2 that humans had used for their space elevators on the Moon and Mars. Humans had started assimilating the technology into their processes, but the manufacturing process was still not good enough to build a tether light and strong enough for Earth. It was estimated though that the fundamental building blocks had been learnt from the Shaitans, and it was only a matter of time before carbon nanotube tethers of the quality required for an Earth space elevator could be built by humans. The fact that there was no space elevator on Dante, confirmed the fact that the Shaitans had not progressed that far ahead either.

  The rocket shuttles used by the Shaitans were known to humans. When the space elevators on Alpha Shaitan had been destroyed, the Shaitans had used rocket shuttles to get back to space and try and rebuild the infrastructure. However rocket shuttles climbing out of the gravity well were easy targets for the humans to shoot down from space and the efforts of the Shaitans had not gone very far.

  The fact that rockets were needed to get out of the gravity well of Dante meant that once the space infrastructure of Beta Shaitan was ravaged, it would be far more expensive and slow for the Shaitans to rebuild the infrastructure especially if humans managed to keep the pressure on them. However, it was obvious that Beta Shaitan had a far bigger economy than Alpha Shaitan had. It was a far older colony as the captured records had shown, so in many ways Beta Shaitan would be a far harder target than Alpha Shaitan.

  It would certainly be far tougher to conquer the surface of Dante, if humans ever decided to invade that planet. Opinion was divided on the advisability of even attempting a landing on Dante. The cost in terms of lives would undoubtedly be huge.

  Those were, however, issues for someone else as far as Elvis was concerned. It was for the brass of USC, with much higher pay grade than him to lose sleep over such weighty matters. As far as Elvis was concerned he had the happy job of just pulverizing the Shaitan bastards, and making his trip back home. A simple in and out job, quick and easy. No prolonged campaign for his fleet, as had been the case with all those who participated in the Alpha Shaitan campaign in the last two decades.

  Gloating in this happy and cocky thoughts, Elvis almost missed the small footnote on one of the target acquisition reports. He swiped back a few pages to read the footnote that he had skipped. He read it carefully over and over again. Elvis brought up the previous day’s report and swiped through it, and noticed that the same footnote had been present on one of the target reports, which somehow he had missed. He went back a day further and found a similar footnote on that report as well. There were no more such entries as Elvis scanned through the reports going back further. So the footnote had started appearing 3 days ago and he had been negligent in his duty as the flag admiral in missing it. He may have made the worst mistake of his life due to this carelessness. He just hoped that he had not doomed his fleet due to his cocky carelessness.

  “Capt. Lowe!” Elvis thought clicked a connection to his flag captain.

  “Sir!” Capt. Lowe responded immediately. He could be seen across the plasti-glass window sitting in his chair in the bridge.

  “In here immediately please… and get you XO, the weapons officer, and our science officer here as well. Consider this an emergency!” Elvis said. His voice betraying a bit of panic and irritation. He was irritated at himself and at his captain for missing this red flag.

  Lt. Berdei, the weapons officer was in the bridge and followed his captain into the flag bridge immediately. The XO and the science officer were in a different shift. One had to be woken up while the other made his way from the rec room. Elvis did not speak a word as he waited for the two officers to arrive, neither did he offer Capt. Lowe a seat, as he usually did. A look at the face of Elvis, made it amply clear to Capt. Lowe that this was not going to be a pleasant meeting. The captain stood awkwardly in the mini gravity of the flag bridge.

  They all waited in stony silence for well over five minutes till the XO arrived hastily, still trying to brush his disheveled hair with his fingers. Lt. Mansell, the XO joined the line of the other officers standing in awkward attention, as the admiral looked up at them for the first time, straight into their eyes. All the officers kept a stoic face and their gaze straight on the bulkhead.

  Elvis flicked one of the reports on to the main screen of the flag bridge for everyone to see and then addressed the weapons officer. “Lt. Berdei, since you have signed this report I trust you are fully aware of the contents of this report.”

  Lt. Berdei gave a quick glance at the screen and said curtly. “Sir, yes sir!”

  “Could you please read out the footnote in the report?” Elvis asked in a slightly sarcastic polite tone.

  “Telescope readings for target ranging were anomalous on first few attempts. Equipment malfunction suspected. Error message: ‘Hue & saturation overload. Not enough contrast to distinguish target from background’. Skipped this target and moved on to other targets. Revisited this target after an hour, when the targeting computer gave the correct results.” Lt. Berdei read out the footnote from the screen.

  Elvis flicked another report on the screen and asked Lt. Berdei to read the footnote on it. The footnote was exactly the same, verbatim. Then Elvis flicked the third report and Lt. Berdei sheepishly said. “It is exactly the same words sir!”

  “Exactly same! You are remarkably consistent in your reporting Lieutenant!” Elvis said without attempting to hide the sarcasm in his voice.

  “I copy-pasted it from the previous day’s report sir…” Lt. Berdei said, his voice trailing.

  “Copy-pasted! Outstanding! The navy’s finest and all that jazz! Did you not find it curious in the least to mention it to someone beyond burying it away in the footnote of that report?!” Elvis asked, his voice raised a bit.

  “I did file a report with engineering maintenance sir, but they found nothing wrong with anything.” Lt. Berdei said in a mildly protesting manner.

  “… and that was the end of it as far as you were concerned, wasn’t it? Did you stop to think for example what do these three reports have in common other than the copy-pasted footnote?” Elvis asked.

  Lt. Berdei looked at the three reports now displayed side by side and gave a bit of a puzzled look before it hit him suddenly. “They are all from the same target – OT/BS/038!”

  “Exactly! Isn’t it a bit curious that the equipment goes haywire when measuring the same target, and then mysteriously becomes fine on its own? Where is your initiative officer?! We are the finest of the finest, sent here by humanity. We are not doing justice to the confidence reposed on us by them right now.” Elvis was almost shouting now. He realized that he was the admiral and not some junior officer any longer and needed to cool down, so he moved his attention from the weapons officer to the science officer.

  The young woman looked frozenly terrified. Elvis realized that she was the youngest, and the only person in the room who was not at fault or negligent. So he softened his voice and addressed her. “Ensign Aquino, what do you make of the computer error message filed by Lt. Berdei in his footnote?”

  “Sir… I…” Ensign Aquino hesitated.

  “Janice, isn’t it” Elvis inquired her name and she nodded. “Speak freely Janice. All of us in this room except you are guilty of negligence, so you are the only one who has the right to speak loudly. Right now we need your expertise.”

  “Sir, the targeting system being used for these GK missiles, is nothing but our main telescope’s images being processed and analyzed by the targeting computer to fix the exact position of the targets and their range. As you said it is unlikely that anything was wrong with either the computer or the telescope. The computer simply got an im
age which it could not process. As the computer message said, it did not enough contrast between the target and the background to make out anything on the image.

  “That can happen only if there is absolutely no light or if there is too much light. Since we are observing the targets with the heat signature on Infrared spectrum from the light of Beta Shaitan, which cannot be switched off, so it is not the question of there being no light. The ‘hue and saturation’ overload message gives us the clue. Our telescope is basically a very high pixel count CCD camera, with a very good telescopic lenses. The only difference is that these CCD devices are extremely sensitive compared to the ones in the cameras in our helmet, or other daily usage ones.

  “Just like one can saturate our cameras by shining a bright light on it, the CCD devices on our telescopes can be saturated by light and being so sensitive it takes far less light to saturate the telescopes. The telescopes are calibrated to look at starlight, so even a bright light like pointing it at the full Moon would saturate it. The only possible explanation I can think of is that somehow a bright light was shone on the telescope.” Ensign Janice Aquino finished and looked at everyone to see their reaction. She had never addressed so many top brass before.

  “We are in pitch blackness out here in the Oort clouds. So I wonder what could shine a bright enough light at us that we are not aware of.” Elvis asked playfully trying to lead Ensign Aquino on.

  It was however Lt. Mansell who burst out in sudden realization. “Laser! Somebody is shining a laser on us! No… not somebody. That target specifically is shining a laser on us! But… but that would mean that they are aware of us!”

  “Exactly!” Elvis said in a booming voice. “This could turn out to be our worst nightmare! Do you realize gentlemen why I am so upset right now?”

  “Sir, how did they become aware of us? No, wait! They built a lighthouse of their own! That is incredible! We have gone through their military archives, there is no mention of a lighthouse or any such technology. In fact the Shaitan doctrine specifically prohibits sending out wanton signals into empty space, even for sensors and scanners. Their doctrine prohibits a device like the lighthouse!” Lt. Mansell said half to himself.

  “Is it so hard to believe that an advanced race like the Shaitans, learnt a tactic from us humans?” Capt. Lowe spoke for the first time. “We humans have learnt so much from the Shaitans, both about their technology and their space warfare tactics and used it against them, despite the Shaitans being more advanced than us. It is payback time now. The Shaitans are adapting and learning human warfare tactics and deploying them against us. We shouldn’t be surprised, we should have expected it. They always had the technology, they probably didn’t take much time to conjure up a lighthouse of their own, once they saw how effective it was in stopping their kinetic attacks.”

  “So why were the Intrepid and Magellan not detected when they made a high speed kinetic run on the Hadean fleet?” Lt. Mansell asked, unwittingly challenging his captain’s theory because he still didn’t believe it.

  “Who knows? Perhaps their lighthouse was not online yet. More likely because of the line of attack of the Intrepid and Magellan. Remember they attacked the Hadean fleet when they were still some distance away from Beta Shaitan in open space. Maybe the Shaitan lighthouse is monitoring a very narrow arc between Earth and Beta Shaitan to minimize the area where they send unwanted signals keeping with their doctrine. If that is the case, they would have missed Intrepid and Magellan. It doesn’t matter XO, right now we have to deal with the fact that there is a high likelihood that we have been discovered.”

  “You know… we have a saying in Chinese…” Elvis said in a philosophical tone. “'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.' I don’t think the Shaitans are that stupid that we can fool them twice! They have learnt their lesson and must be prepared for us. That cannot be good news for us, officers… no… definitely not good news for us, especially at the speed at which we are travelling.”

  “Sir, I agree with that prognosis, and the worst part is that we will have almost no warning. It could happen in the next few minutes for all we know. I recommend that we send a detailed report of this immediately back to Earth, just in case something happens to this fleet. This information cannot be lost. No other fleet should fall into this trap, now that we know this capability of the Shaitans.” Capt. Lowe looked at Elvis and asked for permission. Elvis nodded.

  “Ensign, I want you to go over the logs and give me confirmation about whatever we are suspecting. The saturated images of the telescopes should still be stored in the computer logs. Give me an estimate of the strength of their laser and any other details. Send a copy of whatever you find to Cent Com back on Earth at the same time as you send it to us… we are not going to get a warning if something is heading our way, so don’t get into formalities. This is the most critical piece of information that Earth needs to know. XO, please send a log of this conversation immediately to the admiral’s staff as well as a copy to Cent Com. Dismissed.” Capt. Lowe ordered with a sense of urgency. His heart was beating loud as he realized that any moment could be the last moment of their lives!

  As the junior officers filed out of the flag bridge, Capt. Lowe looked at the admiral and said softly. “I think James should be told.”

  “Yes! Capt. Anniston needs to be not just informed, but we have some shall we say… life and death decisions to be made. Just you, me and Capt. Anniston. We have to take some decisions that may decide whether over six hundred souls on these two ships live or die! Talk about burden of command! Please do the needful and open up a channel with the Sacramento.” Elvis said with a resigned sigh.

  Capt. Lowe opened up an audio only channel to USC Sacramento and its captain through his neural interface. Elvis could not hear what Capt. James said as an opening statement, but it must have been some friendly banter, for Capt. Lowe said softly. “Shut up and listen James… Are you in a private place?” after a moment’s pause he said. “Then get to your cabin and then do a video link to the admiral’s flag bridge. Both of us are waiting for your call, this is an emergency.”

  Capt. James Anniston of USC Sacramento called back in a minute from his cabin looking a bit bewildered. Capt. Lowe filled him up as quickly as possible. Capt. Anniston took a few moments off to instruct his XO over radio to look for the same effects as seen by the crew of USC Ubuntu, but otherwise listened in silence. He took the news well for someone who might be a dead man in the next few weeks, days or minutes. When Capt. Lowe had finished, Capt. Anniston said. “So I guess now we have to peel off at 90⁰ angle to our line of approach. That will maximize our chances of survival. The only thing we need to decide is in which direction do we take that 90⁰ turn? My guess is that it doesn’t matter. The odds of survival would be the same in all direction.”

  “Not so fast captain.” Elvis said distractedly. He was trying to start some calculation routine on the mainframe computer using his neural interface, while listening to Capt. Anniston. He gave up and decided to delegate the work to people who did this kind of stuff routinely, and were sharper at it than he was. “Our situation could be slightly better, or worse than we fear. It will depend on a few things. Ronnie, could you please get these two routines started on the computer?” Elvis tried to explain what he needed, but Capt. Ronald Lowe connected Elvis directly to his XO Lt. Mansell who was good at such things. With so little time, Capt. Lowe didn’t want anything to be lost in translation. Elvis explained to Lt. Mansell what he needed and cut the line.

  “You see captains,” Elvis continued once he had finished explaining his computational needs to Lt. Mansell, “the outcome of the upcoming encounter would not be decided two weeks from now, when we actually cross Beta Shaitan. It will be decided by how we choose to react in the next few hours. It is possible, even likely that our fate has already been sealed by the decisions taken by the Warmaster out there when the Shaitans first detected us three days ago. We may get some indication about that from Lt. Mansell s
hortly. Irrespective of whether our fates have been sealed or not, we can, and will ensure that the Shaitans pay a heavy price for it.

  “I just got thinking… what would I have done if I was the Warmaster out there on one of those Shaitan warships waiting at Beta Shaitan? How would I have reacted, if I got to know that two human ships were coming in at high speed towards my fleet and planet? I already know what such attacks did on Alpha Shaitan. I have already seen what the MKK1 missiles can do to a fleet at such high velocity from the attack on the Hadean fleet by operation First Strike. So if I tried to get into the head of the Warmaster, what would I see of his plan? Any guesses captains?” Elvis asked his two captains.

  Capt. Anniston replied first. “The first thing I would have done would be to change the orbit of anything orbiting Dante or the other moons such that they would all be safely behind those moons when we cross Beta Shaitan. That way I would ensure that I protect as many space assets as possible. I could protect all the ships, orbital stations and construction yards and most space assets since almost all would have thrusters to change orbit. Anything in space that is not orbiting the moons or Beta Shaitan itself, depending on their position, I would either order to stay very far away from the system or ask them to take cover behind one of the moons of Beta Shaitan or behind Beta Shaitan itself.

  “I can also calculate which face of Dante and the other settled moons would be facing our line of attack. I would order Shaitans to keep away as much as possible from those sides of the moons, and if that is not possible to stay as deep as possible to minimize loss of life. Any surface installations that can be moved below surface, I would order it to be moved. The Warmaster has almost 18 days of warning time, so there is a good chance of him being able to save most of his moveable assets.” Capt. James Anniston finished.