by Chris Hechtl
“The pundits will,” Tia said, shooting Will a glower as she finished her cleanup. “Why now?” she asked, turning to their boss.
Joe thought about it, then shook himself. “We need to change things from the bottom up as well as the top down it seems. A full-house cleaning is in order and probably past due. Besides, if this threat comes to us, we're going to need a strong military and a strong government to back them up. They aren't going to get the help and funding they need until we shake things up.”
His staff began to applaud. He waved it down as absurd but then had to ride it out when they continued anyway and it spread out into the hallways.
“I guess my part in spreading the news is done,” Tia said wryly.
~~*^*~~
The Earth First media talking heads had been making dark predictions of a resurgence of economic depression and heavy burdensome taxes on the population if they went along with the alarmists and built the navy. Some even tried to divert the idea of building a navy into building fortresses or reactivating the Space Marine bases on Earth. Those ideas were scoffed at. When the navy did get funding and approval, their tone changed to that of grudging acceptance but bitterness over the wasted funding.
Then Senator Camp's possible presidential run came to the mainstream media attention. That sparked an instant backlash from the Earth First media outlets. Behind the scenes though, polls were run to find out if he was much of a threat.
What they found out was that Senator Camp was well-known on Earth. His service in the Marines during the A.I. war helped him there. His Poll numbers put him at the top of the contenders by the end of the week.
Polls were also run on the threat of an alien invasion. The population was almost divided perfectly. Fifty-one percent were still grappling with the idea but were firmly in favor of a naval defense. Forty-nine percent were skeptical of the idea of hostile aliens but were divided on what to do. In another poll, sixty-four percent of the population believed they had plenty of time to prepare and the resources to do so.
When a few of the Earth First representatives and senators started to break ranks and buck the party in order to save their own seats, it started a trend of Earth First fracturing in the media.
Chapter 19
With all the contending plans coming in from various parties, Admiral Lewis went to General Taylor for help. Roman knew he was out of his element so he decided to do the smart thing, call in the experts. He called in Trevor Hillman, Sven Eggebraaten, and Levare Saint Joy out of retirement to supervise the engineering and coding side of the navy.
He felt a pang of dismay though when he saw them coming to the open conference door under the watchful eyes of Captain Falcon. Trevor didn't look too bad despite rumors of tissue rejection going on, but Levare and Sven looked ancient and a bit worn in Sven's case. Both moved rather slowly, and it was obvious from the way Captain Falcon and Trevor hovered over them that both men were having a hard time keeping up.
It made Roman revise what they were capable of. It also made him regret calling them in but only briefly.
“Uh oh, if he's got us roped in, it must be serious,” Levare drawled as they entered the conference room. “Nice seeing you though, Trev, Sven,” he said with a nod to each of the others. Sven looked far older than he felt.
He probably was, Levare thought. The Norwegian had risen through the ranks of the blue-collar side of the company to eventually helm the shipyards. He'd spent a lot of hands-on time with every ship or project under his care. That was a lot of radiation Levare thought bleakly.
“Pretty much what I figured. He called us in because he knows it's important enough that we'll work cheap,” Trevor quipped.
“How have you been doing?” Roman asked. “Nice to see you guys and all that. Can we get to work and save civilization now?” he asked petulantly.
Trevor snorted and looked at Levare.
Levare shook his head. “I think he's serious this time, Trev.”
“I am,” Roman replied, indicating they should take a seat. Each of them sat in different ways. Trevor sat as he normally did. Levare sat slowly. Sven sank into the chair with something akin to relief in his expression.
“So, why are we here? Consultants?” Levare asked as they declined refreshment from Captain Falcon.
“Pretty much,” Roman replied as the captain withdrew. “Trevor here came back onto my radar when he played middle man for Doctor Irons,” he said with a nod to Trevor. Trevor's lips puckered for a moment. Roman rolled on, ignoring the cyborg's expression. “We need a filtering process for everything happening. We're getting a lot of stuff, too much for anyone to keep track of. I've got the Space Marines to keep tabs on, and well, Navy is not my thing.” He spread his hands apart. “Admiral Lewis is trying to handle the operational and personnel side and set up the navy by bootstrapping things with what he's got, but he's not an engineer. Now, see, I thought, you two are engineers, and you've both handled departments as administrators,” the general said with a tiger's smile.
“I'm getting a bit too old for that, Roman. I was enjoying my retirement,” Levare replied in a mock peevish tone of voice. He did look old Roman thought; he probably had candy stashed in some of the folds and wrinkles he thought.
“Okay, we'll get you back to your rocking chair just as soon as we can,” Roman said.
“I'll do what I can to help,” Sven said softly. “I'm not what I used to be though.”
“Can it. You both, hell, all three of you are something else, you know that? Do we get rank or anything? Admirals?” Trevor asked, directing the question to Roman.
“I can look into it,” Roman drawled. “I also wanted you on hand as a liaison to the A.I., Trevor. If we're going to pull this off, we're going to need to get everyone behind the wheel to push.”
The cyborg nodded slowly in response to that. He respected blunt honesty.
“What we want to do is build ships in mass numbers with tons of guns and missiles,” Roman said. “Survivable platforms, but I'll take quantity over quality in the short term. Admiral Lewis is better rounded in all strategic naval disciplines. He's shooting for a well-rounded navy.”
“We've seen some of the material in the news,” Levare replied, clearly amused at Roman's take on the situation. He glanced at Sven. “You really haven't thought that out. Bigger is better or the more guns approach just doesn't work. You need magazine space, life support, fuel …”
“Fusion drive or antimatter?” Sven asked, interrupting Levare.
That made them all pause to look at Sven. “Fusion. There are too many problems with the antimatter logistics I've been told,” Roman said.
“More power in antimatter,” Sven replied. “Good for a lot of things,” he said.
“Forget antimatter, there is no time to make it in quantity and it is costly. We're on a budget. Besides, the antimatter drive is also not stable. Right now, the experts insist a fusion ion drive is our only option. I understand Doctor Irons was pitching a fusion gravity drive, but it's still theory,” Roman said.
“The current plan was you said well-rounded, so I'm taking that as a balanced navy. That makes sense since they don't know what we're up against. So, regular escort vessels, then cruisers, capital ships, carriers, and support ships, plus, parasite craft. And from the media write-up's I've seen, you also are working on a basic tug design and turning it into a fighter?” Trevor asked.
Levare turned to look at Trevor. “Well, look at you! Teacher's pet! Someone's been doing their homework,” he mocked.
“Can it. I watch the news sure, and I got an earful from Seanex. Plus, I've overheard my students … and okay, I've run some simulations and played some naval games,” Trevor admitted.
“Top of the class indeed,” Levare replied. He turned to Roman. “When you put the call in, I did some checking too. The first wave of ships is all sublight, yes?”
Roman nodded. “Admiral Lewis has a point; we need to set the defenses of Earth and Sol first before we think about pro
jecting power. Besides, building a starship quadruples the cost of each ship.”
“Quantity over quality?” Sven asked with a raspish voice.
“More like having more room for magazines and such without a hyperdrive or starship components,” Levare mused.
“We can't leave them all out. Force emitters are used for energy shields,” Sven said. “After that all you need are sensors and the hyperdrive and you've got a starship,” he said before his voice quit. He had to pause to take a sip of water. He could barely pick up the carafe however; Trevor had to help steady his hand.
“We're going with force emitters where we can,” Roman said, checking his notes.
“That's fine; you give up flexibility but we need to defend the solar system first,” Levare said, hiding his dismay at his old friend's apparent frailty.
“We need to defend Earth first,” Roman said with a shake of his head. Levare turned to him with a frown. “That edict came from on high. It's bupkis I know, but it's not up to me.”
“Well, with all due respect yadda yadda, they are full of shit,” Levare said pointedly. “Sol. We lose the yards, you lose the system and everything. This isn't going to be a one-time thing.”
“Admiral Lewis pointed that out during a recent cabinet meeting. It didn't stick,” Roman said with a shake of his head.
“Then, hopefully, we get smarter people in at the top soon,” Trevor said.
“You know we don't get to choose that,” Roman said.
“Last time I checked this is a free country so we do. It's called voting. Hopefully, enough people agree with us,” Trevor said.
“So, are you on board?” Roman asked.
“Hell, yes. Even if I don't have a rank, it beats sitting at home watching other people frack it up. The old guard rides again!” Levare quipped. “Do I get a rejuv out of it?” he asked hopefully.
“We can do some medical, but not a rejuv. Sorry,” Roman said with a shake of his head.
“Damn. Ever since my wife died, I've been … bored,” Levare said.
“Dirty old man,” Trevor teased.
Roman just rolled his eyes in mock despair. Sven snorted.
~~*^*~~
Senator Camp stood behind the podium in what was the second of three rounds of presidential debates. The field had been whittled down to two in his party, himself and Congresswoman Irachi from the moon colonies. She was a tall elfin woman with a sparkle and long-flowing platinum hair.
They had two minutes for each of them to answer a question, then one minute for any rebuttals. So far, they'd been pretty much in sync with each other, so there hadn't been any sparks. He was pretty sure the Congresswoman was just setting herself up to be his running mate; she knew the polling numbers just as he did. But he needed her to hit hard enough for him to be able to express himself … and hit back.
The moderator hit up on a variety of subjects, from the economy to trade, but eventually got around to the state of the military and the possibility of war.
“We are each receiving briefings so we can't comment on some subjects,” the Congresswoman said carefully. She glanced at Joe.
“As to the current plan, to defend Earth with fortresses and a mobile component then?” the moderator asked.
“I'd say that I, like the rest of the population in the solar system, has a serious problem with that. I don't like the idea of being left out to dry,” Senator Camp said. “On another note, you don't win wars on the defense. But, I admit, we need defenses now to protect what we've got before we move on the offense. Unfortunately, offense is the last thing on many minds.” he shook his head. “That means millions of people in the colonies are being left to the mercies of a hostile alien race.”
“As my esteemed colleague pointed out, we do need to set up our defenses first. I can see the various points about defending the inner system versus trying to spread our defenses around to protect everyone and being too thin,” the Congresswoman replied as she leaned forward slightly.
“If we lose Earth, what's the point of continuing to fight?”
“You know there are people on Mars too and the moon and elsewhere,” Joe drawled. “Not to mention the fact that our shipyards and industry are in the orbit of Mars or in the asteroid belt. If the enemy comes and takes them out, what defenses will we have then?”
“Well, the people running the orbital industry in L5 and on the moon would politely differ on that subject,” the congresswoman said with a bright smile into the camera for the benefit of her constituents.
“Moving on, we've seen a few articles about the lack of Neos willing to join the military, specifically the navy. Your thoughts? Congresswoman, let's start with you.”
“We need a volunteer navy. Right now, it is unfortunately a mess as it is in the early stages of being set up. Hopefully, things will get better, but it will take time. I believe as the navy gets its collective act together more people will be willing to join up irregardless of species.”
“Or if they are even organic at all?” the moderator prompted.
“Well, I'm not sure about the viability of A.I. in such a situation,” the congresswoman said, clearly uncomfortable about the subject.
“Why?” Joe asked. “They are citizens too. They have the same rights as we do. They pay taxes; they vote. Why shouldn't they have the right to defend their homes and people from a foreign invader?” he asked. “They fought well and, yes, on both sides of the previous war. So did some humans for that matter.”
“Agreed,” the congresswoman said, conceding the point to the senator's surprise. He blinked at her for a moment then cocked his head. He could see the wheels turning in her mind. She didn't want to lose the A.I. vote but didn't want to offend her base either. She was caught in a crack. It was time to lay the trap.
“Speaking as a Neo, I know there is a lot of unrest in the Neo community and in the military veterans in general. Most of us know why but we haven't addressed it. During the time of peace, the military was ostracized by the government. Funding was cut to the bone. I can see the problem from both sides. I know a lot of Neos are still angry over that treatment.” He looked directly into the camera. “I'm here to tell you to get over it. We need to work together to protect our homes and our future.”
“A strong sentiment coming from someone like you,” his opponent said.
Joe turned to her. “Why, because I'm a Neo?” he asked, clearly curious and not resentful, though he knew that little exchange would not play well in her favor. She'd done her best to avoid any sort of racism or put downs up until that point. She didn't want to seem like the condescending human tolerating the ape who thought he could play with the real people. “And a veteran? I've been there. Those of us who have seen combat know you have to do things you hate. Things you can't stand to get the job done. And yeah, we have to take shit. It's all part of what we do, protecting people.”
His opponent's eyes flashed and her lip quivered, but the moderator cut her off.
“Why do you believe so few Neos are in the navy at this time?” she asked. “This is directed at Senator Camp.”
“I believe it is a problem of perspective. Yes, the mistreatment is a part of it, but with the navy it's a bit different. As a Neo I know a lot of the species prefer hands-on fighting versus being in a ship or station.”
“Besides, many of the Neos who are volunteering for ship or soldier positions have the training in space already. So, they'll be teaching many of you ground pounders how to survive.”
“Congresswoman Irachi, your thoughts?”
“Obviously, I don't have the same perspective as my esteemed colleague,” she said with a slight hand wave and bow to the senator. He returned it with a slight polite nod. “I'd say he is correct in just about everything he said. I haven't delved into Neo psychology, but I don't see a cat wanting to be on a ship for long or a bear. I understand that. There are positions for everyone. It isn't about racism, they are wanted, but if they prefer a different career path, it is up to them.
”
“Essentially you are saying this war, a navy war, will be more traditionally fought. With humans?” the moderator asked.
“Ahem,” Senator Camp said, coughing into his fist. “Point of order, not all Neos have problems with being on a ship or station. Apes like me can handle it just fine,” he said with a small smile.
“Understood. Okay, we're at our time limit for that subject unfortunately, so moving on …”
~~*^*~~
Levare watched the debate until Sven came into the room. Sven took one disgusted look and then shut it off. “Okay,” Levare drawled. “I saw the work on the orbital fortresses. That's quick work getting a basic blueprint up. Asteroid forts, really?”
“Exactly. Thick armor. Cheap and quick,” Sven said. “The construction crews can add to it as needed. “They won't be able to maneuver though; they'll be sitting ducks. That is pretty much the point though, to soak up fire and protect the planet.” He shook his head. “I don't think the brass thought the idea through though. Anything that gets shot at them will hit the Earth,” he said, clearly unhappy about that idea.
“And anything that does get shot at them will most likely have to be big enough to try to crack through their defenses and armor. Yeah, lovely thought,” Levare said, parsing out Sven's train of thought.
“Exactly.”
“Well, unfortunately, they also are still balking on allowing us to make unmanned orbital weapons platforms to defend the planet and other installations.”
“Then it has to be a manned platform, which translates to ships. Let's get back to where we should be then,” Sven said.
“Agreed,” Levare replied with a nod.
“The powers that be have decreed they want a balanced fleet since they don't know what they are up against. We've got the basic plans for some of the designs. The carrier concept is based on an ore mining tender. I'm not sure it will work, but it certainly fits some of the bill,” Sven said, pulling up the blueprints.
