by Sid Kar
“Sympathy no, explanation for their behavior, yes,” Cloaked Man said, “A war gives Bakus an excuse to concentrate all the battleship commands in his hand and to declare martial law. When Chancellor dies and he will any minute, they will use the excuse of war to cancel elections and declare VC Remus the next chancellor. There is a legal precedent for that.”
“I can’t believe the entire Nestorian Army would go for it,” Nolfus said, “more than half the battleships are under the command of the generals who don’t care for Bakus and his barking.”
“Exactly why Starfirians are coming,” cloaked man said, “their spaceship won’t hesitate to take out battleships that aren’t loyal to Bakus.”
“A single one?” Nolfus was skeptical.
“No, but once the battle is underway they have an excuse under their protection contract,” cloaked man said, “Suppression of insurrections clause. Their Starship will call in reinforcements and the Sixth Frontier Fleet can wipe the floor with our battleships.”
“But if they really wanted to interfere in our politics what stops them from sending the Sixth Frontier and taking us over?” Nolfus asked.
“Telling that you are a policeman and not a politician,”
“Policeman? I am an army man,” Nolfus protested.
“Still,” cloaked man said, “They can’t directly take us over because the Regional Star Commander at planet Bravo would need his central government’s permission for that. The other Star Commanders would flip out that one of theirs was getting so ambitious and trying to expand his own domain far out across hundred light years. No, he needs an excuse to dispatch the Frontier Fleet.”
“What are you going to do?” Nolfus asked.
“Me?” Cloaked Man said, “what can I do? I am a politician and the Senate is not even in session. I was hoping it was you who could save our republic.”
“Me? How?” Nolfus was puzzled, “I don’t command a single battleship. Nestorian Republican Guards are elite troops but there are only a hundred thousand of us and almost all are on Nestor. We can try to reach and commandeer the four battleships in Nestor’s orbit when Bakus makes his move but the outcome is uncertain.”
“Not battleships,” Cloaked Man said, “just your troops.”
“What is infantry going to do?” Nolfus said, “Besides, we are just on this planet. Nestorian Army’s infantry controls rest of the 59 planets.”
“Exactly, you are on this planet, the capital of the republic,” Cloaked Man said, “There is only a police force here, no army troops. You can depose VC Remus, call new elections before Starfirians get here and the new Chancellor will revoke the protection clause of the treaty and send the Starfirians back.”
“Bakus has battleships,” Nolfus said.
“This planet’s defenses are strong enough to withstand multiple battleships,” cloaked man said, “Once Starfirians leave, Bakus won’t dare move alone.”
Nolfus thought for a few seconds and once again paced back and forth in the room then stopped in front of the cloaked man.
“You are asking me to stage a coup to prevent another coup?” Nolfus asked.
“Starfirians are coming,” cloaked man said, “you are saving the Republic. Once you take the Senate you will announce that you are calling new elections.”
“That I will do,” Nolfus, “It’s not for nothing that my troops are called Republican Guard. We protect the Nestorian Republic itself. And if we have to do it against our own army, we will do it. But what is my window of action here? I am not privy to the data about Starfirian spaceship’s location and its estimated time of arrival.”
“I can get that data,” cloaked man said, “I will tell you the date that they will arrive at the capital to register their formal presence with our Chancellor. You must move before they reach Nestorian Space.”
“I will,” Nolfus said then suddenly realized the gravity of his words.
“Don’t lose your nerve now,” cloaked man said, “we have come this far to save our republic we can’t let it down now.” He placed a hand on Nolfus’ shoulder and smiled at him. Then he motioned for Aurus to get up and told him to accompany him. Both of them took Nolfus’ leave and left him standing there contemplating his thoughts.
Chapter 17: Suspicion
Commodore Raptor helped Antrar into his own personal quarters and then offered him a sofa for respite. Antrar sat down on the sofa and set his broken ankle on the extension in front of him and placed his hands behind his head. Raptor poured both of them a couple glasses of whiskey and handed Antrar one of them.
“Liquor is perhaps the oldest painkiller used by man,” Raptor said.
“I will drink to that,” Antrar raised the glass, “and to your first victory.”
“Thanks,” Raptor said, “but how is your pain?”
“Medical Officers have lowered it down to just a discomfort,” Antrar said, “Better that way though. I don’t want to make it worse by use.”
“Good, now what is it that couldn’t be said in front of my officers,” Raptor asked, still standing and twirling his glass in his hand, “the officers in the command room are authorized for very high level of secrets.”
“I know that,” Antrar said sitting up straight, “But I don’t have a secret to share, only a suspicion and if I were to utter it there it could spread like wildfire across this spaceship.”
“What is it?” Raptor asked.
“Secured the room fully?” Antrar asked looking around.
“You didn’t notice as I was helping you to the sofa,” Raptor said, “I have made it sound proof, even though it already is by default.”
“There may be five or six spacefaring powers in this galaxy,” Antrar began, “who would even dare to take a swing at us. We are the most powerful empire in our galaxy and less than 35% of the galaxy remains unexplored. I fought one of those empires at the Battle of Kalahar and I spent my days studying tactics and strategies of the rest of them. This ambush doesn’t mesh with any of their fingerprints.”
“Could be an opportunistic swing at us?” Raptor said, “they know that by the time Sixth Frontier Fleet gets here, they could easily have disappeared back into deep space.”
“Could be,” Antrar said, “But I don’t buy that. The ambush spot they picked, their weaponry, their battle tactics, hell they followed my textbook to the hilt, one that is a state secret, their refusal to communicate, not launching spacefighter attack, all of it leads to a disturbing conclusion.”
“That they suspiciously sound like our own?” Raptor asked.
“So you are thinking those thoughts too?” Antrar said.
“Com Antrar, you are a war hero,” Raptor said.
“Now you are too,” Antrar said.
“We will see, it’s not over yet,” Raptor said, “But you are the type of man whose life will be made into a holographic vision and shown to children. The Starfire Hero, the man in the line of the legends like Commander Krratyk and Colonel Ryptar: the man our nation used to call Iron Heart. You are duty and honor.”
“I don’t know…” Antrar said.
“But I am just an average officer,” Raptor said, “I like Starfire Empire and I like the Starfire Army, but I don’t think we are all honor and heroism. We have thieves, scammers, smugglers in our forces, even conspirators. I would not put it past someone higher up to try to botch our mission.”
“You may think I view our entire Army and the State with rosy glasses,” Antrar said, “but I don’t.”
“I had to know,” Raptor said.
“You have anyone in mind whom you suspect?” Antrar asked.
Raptor felt uncertain and hesitated for a few moments. It seemed unlikely that Antrar was the spy him and Tollvyk were suspecting. Indeed the strange fight that he had with the imposter and his presence during the whole of the battle during which he could have been killed made it very likely that he was genuine and the imposter was the spy. He had to take the risk of taking him into confidence. There was also the great
benefit of having a war hero on his side.
“Regional Star Commander Carvyk Botlar,” Raptor said slowly but seriously.
“Hmmm…” Antrar leaned back again and his eyes widened with concern, “the Army takes great pains to make sure our own Starships and their weapons don’t mistakenly strike our own spaceships. Or even an intentional strike by a malcontent. There are mechanical, electronic, robotic, procedural, programmatic and sensor based fail-safes to prevent our Starships from attacking each other. The number of individuals who can override those mechanisms in any given region of space can be counted on fingers and the Regional Star Commander would be one of them.”
“So you too…”
“Not just yet,” Antrar said, “I don’t know much about Commander Carvyk. I want to hear your reasoning.”
Raptor told him about the conversation they had with Com. Carvyk as well as the assassination attempt on Nestor’s representative.
“I got the feeling that Carvyk didn’t want to dispatch any fleet for this mission,” Raptor said.
“Perhaps he disagrees with aiding Nestorians in their battle,” Antrar said, “But I can’t believe any Starfirians would go as far as attacking their own Starship to prevent that from happening.”
“He also let the assassin escape,” Raptor said.
“What?” Antrar almost jumped up from the sofa but then remembered his ankle, “the assassin was shot dead by the rocket troops that guard his palace.”
“No,” Raptor said, “he was on the moon that orbits Bravo. I was assigned to Starship Victory at the time and we were parked in the orbit and tracked the assassin’s flight as his spaceship made off from the moon and ran for the frontier.”
“Are you sure about that?” Antrar asked.
“Never seen a private spaceship gun it that fast out of the system. I was the VC of Victory and my Commodore asked permission to intercept and seize,” Raptor said, “as Army Starship we can’t just grab a fellow Starfirian’s spaceship out of the blue but Commander Carvyk denied us the permission. I didn’t think much about it at that moment because he could have meant for one of the Starships patrolling the frontiers to stop it. But it just kept going on our long range gravitron scanner, across the frontier, into deep space, headed towards’ the Pirates Heaven.”
“That means there were two assassins,” Antrar said, “because I saw the official announcement about the assassin found in the orbital resort hotel. Whoever was behind it must have sent the second as a backup but the inferior one jumped the gun and botched it for both of them.”
“Inferior one?” Raptor said.
“Silencer is one of the best assassins, and we are lucky that he didn’t take the shot because his laser would have penetrated that shield,” Antrar said.
“Silencer?” Raptor was becoming more puzzled and Antrar laughed at this realization.
“I know a bit more about Silencer,” Antrar said, “Army used him once to take out an enemy spy that had gotten his hands on one of our military secrets but was on a neutral world where we couldn’t fly in with our Starships and lasers blazing. The long range laser shot from space, even as far away as a moon, in his specialty. It had to be him you saw on your scanner high tailing it to the Pirates Heaven. He is an honored guest there, what with having shot a few witnesses that could identify pirate leaders.”
“This ship has enough firepower to blast every asteroid in Pirates Heaven to bits,” Raptor said, “too bad I can’t turn around Conquistador and fly there.”
“But I can,” Antrar said.
“You?” Raptor said.
“I was loaned the fastest spaceship my company owned,” Antrar said, “and Silencer won’t risk leaving his hideout till the matters have cooled. I can catch him there.”
“What about your injury?” Raptor asked.
“I will get the pain reduced down to zero before I leave,” Antrar said, “I will put a boot cast on that leg and will get it operated after I reach our space.”
“And what about your work?” Raptor asked.
“It can wait,” Antrar smiled, “If you do decide to run a battle test of the plasma weapon, just hold on to the data and the simulated test conditions. I have a feeling our journey together has just begun. We will be meeting again in the future and hopefully it will be before the House of War. I can get a direct appointment with Supreme Commander and once I gather evidence from Silencer that is exactly who I plan to call upon.”
“You are going straight to the top,” Raptor said.
“It is that kind of a matter,” Antrar said, “one Starfire Imperial ship firing on another intentionally and purposefully could be a sign of a mutiny or much worse like a future rebellion in the ranks.”
“Too bad there is no way to test our hypothesis conclusively,” Raptor said.
“Actually there is, and I was just going to recommend it to you,” Antrar said.
“I can’t think of any,” Raptor said.
“There is one fail-safe mechanism that cannot be overridden even by a Regional Star Commander because dismantling it would require lots of machinists and welders running around in a Starship with large machines and torches. It would attract attention and draw notice of the high command,” Antrar said, “It is not to prevent weapons misfire, but starship collision.”
“Electromagnetic Polar Collision Aversion System,” Raptor shook his head, “don’t tell me that you want me to try to ram my Starship into one of the two remaining ones.”
“Far from me to tell a commander of his ship what to do,” Antrar said, “I can just recommend, but the decision is yours.”
“What are the benefits?” Raptor asked.
“An irrefutable proof,” Antrar said, “We have circumstantial evidence so far and even though it is solid, it is not conclusive. The Army will appoint its top level detectives to investigate and the perpetrators will have time to maneuver. But if the Polar Collision System kicks in to avoid the crash that is hard, scientific, material evidence that we were attacked by another Starfire ship. House of War will have to move in decisively with force to take direct control of these frontier regions.”
“But if we are wrong and there is a crash?” Raptor asked.
“The manufacturers build in other collision avoidance systems into spaceships and this should have multiple ones,” Antrar said, “then there is the ship’s AI. It will pull away at the last moment.”
“And if it doesn’t, I am not certain our shield can hold,” Raptor said.
“Your call,” Antrar said, “risky as it is, it settles the question of our enemies’ identities.”
“If we do this, we will first have to take VC Barryett and a few more officers into confidence,” Raptor, “I don’t want to rely upon just their discipline.”
“Of course,” Antrar said, “We should only attempt it once we reach the inside of the Star System. The lower speeds will make the collision less likely and less deadly if it happens. That gives you time to talk to a few handpicked officers one on one.”
“When do you leave for the Pirates Heaven?” Raptor asked.
“I am going to see this through with you,” Antrar said, “But right afterward, have one of your trusted officers escort me to my spaceship in the guise of helping me back to my quarters. You must have a high ranking officer abroad with authority to release my spaceship who was your friend and came in from Starship Victory?”
“Yes, Col. Tollvyk,” Raptor said, “He was the first one to suspect Com. Carvyk of playing a shadowy game. I will have him help you to the containment bay.”
“I thought Col. Tollvyk was your friend,” Antrar chuckled, “If he was my rocket officer, I would have disciplined him for his combative attitude.”
Raptor laughed and said, “he has been disciplined for his attitude a couple of times by Victory’s commodore.”
“On the other hand, you need an aggressive fellow on your primary weapons system,” Antrar said, “Now if you will help me to the medical station, I can get a boot ca
st made and put upon my leg.”
“Let’s go,” Raptor said, “Then we will try that stunt.”
Raptor helped Antrar to his feet and gave him support till the medical station that was within walking distance of the officers’ quarters.
Chapter 18: Mysterious
Spyship pilot Roofus Bolfus stretched his arms, yawned and turned on the auto-pilot on his command console. Roofus was a man in his early forties with a long mustache and curly hair. He had been one of the top spacefighter pilots in his younger days, attached to the Battleship Republic no less, and had been handpicked by General Bakus to be the pilot of their latest spy ship. This spaceship had no name and was simply known by its designation NR-22.
He was glad to get this spaceship back from VC Remus who had promptly returned it after his secret trip. He had access to the flight data onboard NR-22’s computers and while he was not supposed to he could not resist the urge. VC Remus had flown all the way to Starfire space, no doubt to appeal for protection. Meanwhile, Roofus was back in the operations, trying to collect more information about the mysterious aliens that were attacking them.
Amongst all the spy ship pilots he had gone the furthest. He had finally made it to the solar system of the first planet of these mysterious aliens that was populated. It was 87 light years away from the outermost border of Nestorian Space. But before Roofus could collect any more data he had been chased off by the alien battleships.
The alien battleships could easily exceed the 2,500 light speed that was the absolute-max of his own spaceship but he had managed to evade pursuit each time. Due to their size they could only sustain speeds above for a certain duration while he could make the whole trip at his safe-max speed of 2,000 light years, the speed he was holding constant now.
This time General Bakus wanted some data. The last battle, while not a disaster, had not gone well for Nestorians. If they were to win decisively they had to acquire more knowledge and this ship had been outfitted to the brim with the latest sensors available for this mission.
