by Kal Spriggs
“So… what, you’re a precog too?”
Kandergain snorted with laughter, “Oh, God, no!” She shook her head. “Most precogs are a little crazy—” She scowled at Lucius’ sudden smile, “Not a little odd, I really mean a little crazy. They hear voices from conversations that never happened or might still happen. The future is just as real to some of them as the present.”
“So there are people that can see a little into the future. Is one of them whispering in your ear all the time?” Lucius asked, he felt as if she only waited to spring the punch line.
“No.” She cocked her head, tossing her blonde ponytail back over her shoulder, “Well, not quite.” She shrugged, “There are the occasional precogs who go a long way beyond most. Most of them… when they looked far enough ahead, they saw something that scared the shit out of them.”
“The death of humanity?” Lucius asked.
“Or close enough to make no difference.” Kandergain shrugged, “When I say occasional, you have to know how rare I’m talking.” She closed her eyes, “There are, give or take, fifty billion humans alive right now.”
“Okay.”
“There’s only one precog alive right now that has the abilities I’m describing.” She caught his eyes, “And he’s… not nearly as accurate as we’d like.”
“You’re not exactly filling me with confidence here.”
“Trust me, try living like this for eighty-six years,” she smiled, “And no, before you ask, I’m a little older than that. That’s just when I started on this little quest.” She suddenly looked tired, “Almost a hundred and fifteen years ago, a man named John Mirra was born.”
“Weren’t we talking about precogs?”
“He was a precog.”
“Why didn’t you say so?” Lucius asked.
“I just did,” She scowled. “Do you want to tell this story or should I?”
“Go ahead.”
“Thanks,” Kandergain snapped and then let out a deep breath, “As far as the talent of precognition goes, John Mirra went off the chart. As a child, he could see the result of every decision he could ever make, throughout the rest of his life.”
“That sounds… impressive.” Lucius said, thinking of how useful an Admiral with that ability would be.
“Think terrifying.” She responded, “I’d be paralyzed. Most people would be. I mean, what if you come to a situation with no good choice? What if, no matter what you did, people died? And remember, I said that the more a psychic practices his powers, the more powerful he gets?”
Lucius frowned, “There was a science-fiction book, wasn’t there, about a man predicting the future with mathematical calculations—”
“Foundation, yes, I read it. It’s long since been disproved, you can’t predict random things. It’s the butterfly effect: a butterfly flapping its wings in China causes a hurricane in Florida. The thing is: John could.”
“You’re saying he was omniscient.”
She shrugged, “I’m saying that either he had the ability to subconsciously alter random events, everything from dice rolls to the movement of electrons, or he tapped into something big, or else, yes, John Mirra was omniscient.”
“So John Mirra tells you—“
“I never met him. When he was twenty five, he gave his life to alter the future.”
Lucius winced. “He could see every possible outcome and the only way to change the future was to kill himself? That’s…”
“Horrible? Twisted? Yes, it’s a tragedy. The good news is: he left clues, puzzles. He left notes in places no one would ever look. Sometimes it’s been damned odd.” She shook her head. “I once found a note from him in a roll of toilet paper...”
“So, if I understand this right…” Lucius frowned, “An omniscient suicidal riddler left you clues that guide you in making decisions that the survival of the human race depends on?”
“A simplified but relatively accurate statement.”
Lucius felt a headache coming on. “Do me a favor, please? Next time I ask ‘why’ just tell me I don’t want to know.”
***
“Sir, could I... have a moment of your time?”
Lucius looked up to see Captain Doko in the doorway, “Tony, absolutely, what's the problem?” Lucius felt like a juggler or circus performer at the moment, but anything that brought his longtime friend to him so nervously suggested he should help out at one more task.
“Well, sir...” Captain Doko trailed off. His posture was slumped and his gaze went to the door. Lucius felt his heart sink as he realized just what had brought the other man to his quarters so late at night.
“It's about the Princess?” Lucius asked softly.
Anthony Doko looked up in surprise, but he met Lucius's eyes. “Yes, sir. It is.” He took a deep breath. “After... after she helped us to bring down that nasty bunch of pirates.... Well, when it came out as far as who she was... I could resign myself. I knew that low-born trash like me–”
“You aren't trash, Tony. You're worth more than a dozen noblemen, both to me and to the Empire.” Lucius interrupted, “And her mother was a commoner just like you.”
“But her father was the Emperor,” Anthony said. “And that makes the difference.” He sighed. “Bastard or not, she's a Princess and I'm...” He shrugged. “So I resigned myself. And then we got the news that the Chxor executed the nobles and the entire Imperial Family.” He took a deep breath. “That was hard, especially because I thought she'd have a long life, and maybe, just maybe, I could prove myself, get a knighthood or something.”
Lucius shrugged, “You'd have had better chances of that if you'd cut off on your own. Being around me wasn't good for your prospects.”
“Sir, I'd rather serve under you than any other officer,” Anthony answered. He quirked a bit of a smile, “But I suspect you're right as far as my prospects. I never told you, but I had more than one senior officer pull me aside and warn me that serving with you would slow my career, especially if you gave me good evaluations.”
Lucius grimaced, “I can't say I'm surprised.”
Anthony finally went over to take a seat. He slumped a bit again. “But all that has changed, yet again. She's alive. She's here.” He looked up and a look of agony went over his face. “Lucius, I could take this if she didn't love me back, but we've spoken a dozen times since she arrived here with your sister and the Emperor. There's no question how she feels about me... God, what do I do?”
Lucius walked over and put his hand on the other man's shoulder, “My friend... I don't know. With anyone else, I would say that you should do what makes you happy and damn the consequences. I know that your sense of duty and responsibility pulls you one way and your affection another. I can't make that decision for you, Tony... only you can.”
“I know,” Anthony took a deep breath. “But I needed to talk with you about it.”
“Whatever your choice and whatever her choice, I'll back the pair of you,” Lucius said. “She saved my life too, you know.”
“I know,” Anthony responded. He stood. “Thanks for the talk, sir.”
***
Lucius never imagined that the shuttle-bay-sized conference table aboard the Patriot wouldn’t suffice for a meeting.
He had not taken into account his staff, the staff of the Dreyfus Fleet, and the Nova Roma contingent. “This isn’t going to work.”
“What?” Admiral Dreyfus asked. A dozen captains and commanders looked between the two. Several voices began to speak.
Lucius shook his head. “We need to organize this.” He gazed around the table. Thankfully, staff officers, department heads, and ship captains had illuminated titles at each seat around the table. “You, you and you, you’re on a committee to organize all of us into one cohesive chain of command, get with Captain Doko over there and talk it out.” Anthony Doko took his sudden assignment with a blink and a quick nod.
“You three,” Lucius pointed, “Please speak with Captain Naevius regarding fighter organizat
ion and specs. We’ll need to arm, fly and pilot at least three different types of fighters, and I’ll want an integrated fighter doctrine nailed out ASAP.” Better to promote all his key personnel, else their experience in current warfare might get drowned by rank. Doubtful with Admiral Dreyfus hand-picking his crews, but even so…
“You three, I need a logistical analysis of munitions, spare parts, and all the engineering essentials. I need to know what we can cross-load, what we can adapt, and what we cannot allow aboard the same vessels,” Lucius paused and his eyes narrowed, “Professor Harbach is currently aboard the War Shrike overseeing some repairs, but he’ll speak with you. He’s thoroughly familiar with all aspects of my ship’s hardware.” He hesitated to saddle any of them with the arrogant ‘Jimmy Wiggles,’ but… the man did know everything about the equipment.
“Captain Nix, you and… Lieutenant Kelly should get with these two ladies from the Admiral’s Intel department. I’m sure you’ll have a lot to discuss.” Lucius wondered suddenly why all four Intel officers were female. He had a sneaking suspicion that a number of Machiavellian machinations might lay behind those attractive, attentive faces.
“Captain Reese Leone-Giovanni, if you can get with the Admiral’s communications heads and hash out common frequencies we can use, that should be the last area of importance.”
“Admiral Dreyfus, am I missing any other essential areas that need to be analyzed?” Lucius asked, suddenly realize he’d taken charge without thinking.
The Admiral’s mouth twitched, as if he suppressed a wry grin, “No, I believe that the essential areas are covered. I think myself and my second in command are good for the initial briefing.”
“Yes…” Lucius looked around at the other expectant faces, “I’ll want Captain Kral as a Chxor expert… and Captain Beeson, as the Faraday representative.” He saw the young man wince at the title. Lucius silently cursed himself for forgetting the boy’s father, also Captain Beeson, killed by the Chxor.
“Emperor Romulus?” Lucius asked, politely. The young man could either bring along much of his entourage, and look a fool, or select a couple important people.
Evidently, the young man figured much the same, “Admiral Mund and I will be sufficient.”
“Well, now that that’s done?” Kandergain said, from the doorway. “The conference room down the hall is quite sufficient for the eight of us.”
Lucius looked over at her, not sure whether she’d read his mind, found some clue, or just logically realized that a mob like this would be a terrible way to cover information quickly.
She smiled at him as he stepped past her, “I am psychic, you know.”
Lucius raised an eyebrow, but continued down the corridor.
The much smaller group seated themselves around a table in the other conference room. She moved to stand next to a holographic projector. An image of a sleek, almost organic ship formed in the air next to her. “This, gentlemen, is a Dagger-class destroyer. Any Balor force we face will have at least a dozen of these at its core.”
A bar appeared next to her; it showed a number of estimates on its abilities. “Its acceleration is roughly equal to that of the War Shrike at around a hundred thirty kilometers per second per second. The maneuverability exceeds that of any human ships, except maybe some of the Republic Forerunner class destroyers. It is encapsulated by an energy field that absorbs enemy kinetic and energy attacks.”
Kral the Chxor spoke, “How is this possible? The Chxor scientists have assured many in the military of the impossibility of this feat.”
Admiral Dreyfus spoke, though he seemed slightly uncomfortable with the alien. Lucius couldn’t blame him, he still felt some uncertainty about Kral's presence. “Some of Amalgamated Worlds scientists got close to duplicating it. They did something similar with the Agathan Fleet, anyway. I know it’s possible.”
“Something to keep in mind is that a lot of the Balor tech is centuries, perhaps millennia, ahead of our own.” Kandergain said. “Their destroyers are the least of our worries, gentlemen, trust me.” She took a deep breath, “It mounts one bank of capital-strength weapons, three banks of anti-fighter energy batteries, and between thirty and fifty anti-ship missiles, of either sixty or two hundred megaton equivalence, which can launch in one salvo.”
“This is a destroyer?” Emperor Romulus asked incredulously.
She nodded, “It’s only a hundred twenty meters long, and has a crew of roughly one hundred Balor.”
“What else?” Lucius asked.
“This is a Ravager-class heavy cruiser. It is designed primarily for engaging ships of similar size. Again, one capital-class weapons battery. Additionally two cruiser-class batteries, and heavier anti-fighter batteries.” She shrugged, “It has less acceleration, only a hundred kilometers per second squared. Even so, it has heavier shields, heavier armor, and it carries two platoons of… I guess you could call them Marines.”
“I see.” Admiral Dreyfus said. “How many can we expect?”
“In the force that they’ll send… I’d estimate a half dozen of them.” She sighed and brought up a swollen, seed-like vessel. The holographic image showed dozens of open ports down its flanks. “This, gentlemen, is a Wrath-class carrier. It is still slower than their cruisers, at sixty KPS squared acceleration. It has heavy shielding, heavier armor, and it carries twelve squadrons of twelve fighters.”
“That ship carries a hundred and forty-four fighters?” Lucius asked, “How? It’s barely bigger than the War Shrike.”
“Part of that answer is that the ship is designed purely as a carrier. The other part…” She shrugged, bringing up another hologram. “This is the Bane Sidhe fighter. It’s half the size of one of Admiral Dreyfus’ Raptor fighters, a third the size of one of your Harassers. It carries a full payload of anti-ship and anti-fighter missiles, and mounts a powerful close-in energy weapon.”
The Emperor spoke, his voice calm. “Once again, I say, why defend this system? We have the transport capacity now to evacuate the colony. We could seize Nova Roma from the Chxor with the aid of the Dreyfus Fleet, we could evacuate the entire populace there. The Balor would arrive to find nothing to fight.”
Lucius cleared his throat, “I… actually brought that idea up to some of the civilians. Most of them would rather stand and fight than leave.”
“So we force them to go,” the Emperor shrugged. “It’s not like it isn’t for their own good.”
“We’re entering dangerous territory there, your Highness,” Admiral Mund rasped. “How are they going to see it? We’d be abandoning their world to save yours. That’s not going to win anyone any points with them. They’ve just finished an insurgency against the Chxor. Do you think they’d hesitate to fight one against another ‘oppressor,’ however well intentioned?”
Kandergain let the young man stew on that idea before speaking herself, “It doesn’t matter, anyway, the Balor have agents sewn throughout most of the Chxor Empire by now. As soon as we arrived at Nova Roma, they would alter course.”
She shrugged, “Kral, how would the Chxor respond to the resurgence of the Nova Roma Empire, with a new, more powerful fleet?”
The Chxor shrugged, “They would amass whatever forces necessary to defeat such a threat. Even the dumbest Chxor bureaucrat knows that the Nova Roma Empire would immediately seek to expand again and all Chxor worlds and colonies would be at risk.”
The words had all the more effect on the young Emperor from the obvious fact that Kral had spoken truthfully.
“Alright, then. We can’t run.” Lucius said into that pregnant silence. “Which means we’re back to fighting. What else do they have?”
“Probably, you’ll only face one carrier. The Balor fleets typically form around one carrier, and one battlecruiser. Occasionally, they have a super-dreadnought.” She pulled up an image of a large warship, “This is their battlecruiser, Terror-class. Very heavy shields, very heavy armor, just as fast as the War Shrike. It carries twelve fighters, a company of their w
arrior drones and shuttles to land them and their forces.” She shrugged, “Three capital-class energy batteries and one super-capital energy battery.”
“Super-capital?” Lucius asked.
“Heavy tachyon cannon, faster than light particle beam. The battery mounts four of them in a bank with a hundred eighty degree arc of fire.” Kandergain shrugged. “One of those beams could gut a cruiser.”
Lucius nodded, even as he thought dark thoughts.
“They only have two other classes of combative ships. That includes the Leviathan super-dreadnought class, roughly the size of the Emperor Romulus. If one of those shows up, start thinking about last stands.” She shrugged. “There’s also a ship we’ve called Colossus. It’s bigger than the Patriot, far more heavily armed, and frankly, it’s only been seen with several Leviathans in escort.”
“I think we’re heading into ‘we’re dead if it happens’ territory.” Lucius said. “Let’s keep in mind the… worst case scenarios, but focus on what we can handle.” He rubbed his face, he suddenly felt old. “What are their tactics?”
“If you’re hoping they cripple themselves like the Chxor do, without using screening forces, you’re hoping in vain.” Kandergain said. “They use their destroyers to scout ahead. Ambushing them is nearly impossible.”
“Sensors can be fooled,” Admiral Mund said. “Screens can be avoided. A ship setting silent—”
“Is a ship that will die before it can power up.” Kandergain said. “The Balor don’t rely just on normal sensors, they also have mechanical augmentations for their psychic abilities. It is damn near impossible to hide from them. I might, might, be able to hide a ship the size of the War Shrike.” She shook her head. “It takes a psychic to screen from them and that still leaves their normal sensors.”
“So our tactics against the Chxor won’t work.” Lucius shrugged. “We’ll think of something. Their weapons range, is it comparable?”
