TFS Guardian: The Terran Fleet Command Saga – Book 5

by Tori Harris

  “Verge Tahiri is the name used by the Pelaran Envoy spacecraft’s AI to identify itself. Why do you ask?”

  “It is a name still familiar to many on Pelara. In the early days of the AI coup, Tahiri rose to prominence as a leader of the opposition movement. At first, most of our citizens believed we could come to some sort of an accommodation with the AI. They viewed the event as more of a malfunction than a military takeover — something that could simply be ‘fixed’ to allow for a quick return to the status quo. Tahiri was one of the first to recognize the situation for what it really was. He publicly identified the forces of the Alliance AI as an occupying foreign power and began calling for open, armed resistance.”

  “I doubt that went over very well,” Reynolds observed.

  “He was captured, tried for treason, and brutally executed — all in one day, and all of it broadcast live to the entire planet. The Alliance AI also transmitted the entire event to the other core Alliance worlds as a clear warning they should not interfere.”

  “I suppose the AI now uses Tahiri’s name as some sort of warning.”

  “To me, it seems more like some sort of twisted, inside joke. After generations of AI-sponsored occupation, most Pelarans now consider Tahiri to have been little more than a terrorist.” Creel paused and looked down at the floor, shaking his head wearily. “The truth is, I’m not sure it’s even possible to return my world to anything approaching what it once was. We were far too self-absorbed even before the occupation. The AI recognized and leveraged that fact to help it maintain control. Now, I fear we’ve also grown far too comfortable in our isolation. And after all this time, it’s clear we simply do not have the will required to rise up and free ourselves.”

  “If that were true, you wouldn’t be here,” Reynolds replied. “Just because there hasn’t been some sort of mass uprising doesn’t mean your people don’t want something better than what they have today. But if their basic needs are being met, and they don’t see a clear path to bring about change, most probably just don’t feel strongly enough to put their lives on the line. We’ve seen a great many examples of that throughout the history of our world.”

  “Perhaps, but sometimes I wonder if it’s too late. If we do manage to free the Pelaran people from AI control, are they still capable of governing themselves without backsliding into something very similar to what they have today — merely substituting a Pelaran dictator for a synthetic one?”

  “There’s little doubt the transition will be a difficult one,” Prescott said. “But I recently heard someone say that freedom is the only state of existence that should ever be considered acceptable to a sentient being, and preserving it is the single most important responsibility of a government to its people. Once that government places vague notions of public safety and security above the preservation of freedom, a general loss of liberty is sure to follow.”

  “I certainly agree with that sentiment. You heard this in a political speech, I assume?”

  “No, it didn’t come from a politician. It came from Griffin, the GCS unit you just met. I think it’s an encouraging sign that a sentient machine originally created by your people naturally came to that kind of conclusion on his own … when allowed to think for himself. It’s not too late for the Pelaran people, Doctor Creel. We just need to provide them with the opportunity.”

  TFS Navajo, Sol System

  (Combat Information Center - 2.16x105 km from Earth)

  “Report,” Admiral Patterson barked as he quickly made his way back to the center of the CIC with Admiral Naftur and his Marine escort close behind.

  “Admiral,” the on-duty tactical officer responded from near the holographic table, “as expected, we established comm beacon coverage all the way out to Pelara shortly after you left the CIC. We were able to reestablish Argus tracking of TFS Fugitive and the Pelaran starfighter Talionis as well as the Grey ship Ethereal when they made their transitions out of the Pelaran system.”

  “Ethereal too, huh? Now that is interesting. It seems we may only be capable of tracking the Greys when they decide they want to be tracked.”

  “It does seem that way, sir.”

  “That all sounds good, Commander. So what’s the problem?”

  “Shortly thereafter, we also picked up Tahiri’s Envoy-class spacecraft transitioning into a star system over twenty-eight hundred light years out and more or less along a direct line of sight between here and Pelara. This was our first contact with his ship since he travelled beyond Argus range yesterday.”

  “That’s a little farther away than I would have expected him to be right now, but that actually seems like good news for us at the moment. The farther he gets from here the better, as far as I’m concerned.”

  “Yes, sir, but he transitioned again twenty minutes later. This time we saw a three-hundred-light-year jump, and he appears to be headed back in our direction.”

  “Humph,” Patterson replied with a furrowed brow. “Still with just one GCS unit in tow?”

  “Yes, sir. His hyperdrive signature still indicates a single GCS unit. Worst-case ETA based on the new data is approximately three hours.”

  “How long before his next expected transition?”

  “Nine minutes, sir. But please keep in mind we have very little data on their ships’ capabilities. This is the first time, for example, we have ever seen an Envoy-class execute a jump of more than two hundred light years.”

  “True enough, Commander, thank you. Please keep me apprised of any changes and let me know as soon as he transitions again. If he’s still headed this way, we have some major decisions to make within the next couple of hours.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Lieutenant Fletcher!” he called.

  “Yes, Admiral.”

  “Go ahead and forward our course projections for Tahiri’s ship to Admiral Sexton and let him know we need to speak with him as soon as possible. Format it as an Emergency Action Message, please.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Remembering his guest and realizing the multitude of questions that must be rushing through his mind at the moment, Patterson caught the Wek Admiral’s eye and beckoned him to the holographic table with a casual tilt of his head.

  “Any questions so far, Admiral Naftur?” he asked with a knowing smile.

  “I switched on my tablet’s translation services after leaving the flight deck to avoid missing something of importance. Since then, I feel as if everything I have heard has been translated incorrectly. The distances that young officer mentioned in his report were nothing short of …”

  “I know,” Patterson replied after a polite pause. “A year ago, I would have said exactly the same thing. Obviously, I’m not permitted to offer much in the way of specific details as to how any of these systems work — and that’s a good thing, too, since I have only a general idea myself. Just the fact that you are here, however, says a great deal for how much we value our relationship with you and the Wek people. At this point, it would not surprise me in the least if we take Rick’s advice and begin negotiating with your government for some technology trades in the near future.”

  “Even our small section of the galaxy is often a dangerous and unpredictable place, my friend,” Naftur replied. “I believe we would do well to render such assistance to one another as we are able.”

  “I can’t argue with that, sir. It’s also my opinion that an alliance where its members are unwilling to trust one another isn’t an alliance at all. It’s more like a temporary agreement to shoot at our common enemies first before we eventually start shooting at each other.”

  “Indeed,” Naftur replied with a deep, rumbling chuckle. “Now, without violating any of your current security restrictions, can you show me the coverage area of your long-range tracking system?”

  “Of course. We call it Argus,” Patterson began, reorienting the holo table display with a series of practiced hand gestures. “I don’t think there’s a problem with my telling you that it’s really nothing
more than an adaptation of our comm beacon technology with which you are already familiar.”

  The Navajo’s AI, having already inferred what the two flag officers wished to see from their conversation, highlighted the regions of space currently monitored by the Argus system with a series of overlapping blue spheres.

  “As you can imagine, we’ve been aggressively working to expand our comm beacon network as quickly as possible, and we now have reasonably good coverage in all directions out to fifteen hundred light years or so.” Here, Patterson paused to observe Naftur’s reaction, knowing full well the Wek leader was already struggling with the staggering strategic implications for his own forces. To his credit, however, the Crown Prince simply nodded impassively, even as he realized that every hyperspace transition made by every ship in the Wek Unified Fleet was now instantaneously visible to the Terrans.

  “The Commander mentioned coverage all the way out to Pelara, which is more than twice as far from Sol as the border of your ubiquitous coverage zone. I assume that accounts for the odd shape here,” Naftur said, pointing to a cylindrical region protruding nearly four thousand light years in the general direction of the galactic core.

  “That’s correct. One of the primary missions envisioned for our MMSV vessels like TFS Fugitive is exploration — which includes comm beacon deployment. We had her dropping them like bread crumbs all the way out to Pelara. That’s what created this corridor of coverage you see highlighted here. Unfortunately, we are largely blind to anything coming our way from Pelaran space that happens to fall outside this region.”

  “Or anything beyond fifteen hundred light years from any other direction.”

  “That’s right. This is just another one of those things that, until very recently, would have made me feel almost invulnerable to a surprise attack. Now, I feel just as exposed as I did when all we had were a few surveillance drones posted around the Sol system. We’re already making plans to share this data with your fleet, by the way, and we should be prepared to do so within the next few months. Don’t be surprised if we ask for something in return, though,” Patterson said with a wink.

  “And you would be foolish not to. This data represents a strategic advance on an almost unimaginable scale. Prior to the Resistance movement, the Sajeth Collective was working on a number of promising comm and surveillance systems, but nothing approaching this level of capability. I suspect our Parliament will happily exchange virtually anything in our possession for access.”

  “We’ll leave that to the politicians, of course. For now, all you and I need to do is find a way to ensure there will still be a few of those around to negotiate with each other.”

  “Based on the totality of evidence, I believe we must now consider the Envoy’s ship to be hostile. And unless I miss my guess, I assume you are considering a preemptive attack on the Yumaran Guardian spacecraft before the Envoy arrives,” Naftur said flatly.

  “I am indeed. Is it as obvious as you make it sound?”

  “For you and me, standing here with an almost godlike view of the strategic situation? Perhaps. But we must hope it is markedly less so from our enemies’ perspective. Rick indicated more than once that arrogance is the AI’s chief weakness. I am sure we have both seen many examples of otherwise competent military commanders who were burdened with this characteristic. In my experience, it creates a sort of … blind spot, an unwillingness to account for the fact that their adversary may be every bit as clever, and every bit as bold, as they.”

  “That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking, although you put it far better than I could have. They believe we fear them, and in truth they’re right about that. But I believe the last thing they would ever expect us to do in this situation is to openly attack one of their ships.”

  “I agree. The question, then, is whether we dare contemplate such an action, and what will be the likely consequences if we succeed?”

  “Admiral Patterson,” Lieutenant Fletcher called from her Communications console. “Sorry to interrupt, sir, but I’ve got the Commander-in-Chief standing by.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant. View screen four, please,” Patterson replied, directing Admiral Naftur’s attention to one of the screens mounted on the CIC’s port bulkhead. By the time both officers were standing in front of the monitor, the live image of the Yumaran Guardian spacecraft previously displayed had been replaced by the scowling face of Admiral Duke Sexton.

  “Gentlemen, it seems to me we have some rather momentous decisions to make,” he began without preamble. “Let’s start with Tahiri’s ship. Assuming he’s headed back here again, it looks like we have approximately three hours, correct?”

  “Yes, sir,” Patterson replied. “And given his proximity to Pelara when he changed course as well as our current activities in Pelaran space, I think that’s a safe assumption.”

  “Agreed. So, by extension, you further assume he will have hostile intent this time.”

  “Yes, sir, I do. It’s the best fit for the data we have at the moment — particularly after he left the Yumaran Guardian here as an occupying force on his last visit.”

  “Which you now intend to attack before Tahiri arrives.”

  Patterson glanced at Admiral Naftur and shook his head before replying. “I’m considering it, sir, but since both you and the Crown Prince immediately realized what I had in mind, I’m questioning now whether it’s too obvious.”

  “No, no, I don’t think it is … not to them anyway, since they probably don’t see our forces as much of a threat. The three of us, on the other hand, perceive a tactical advantage if we attack one ship now versus three after Tahiri arrives, right?”

  “Yes, sir,” Patterson replied, preparing himself for the inevitable “but.”

  “Now, while I certainly agree that it’s better to take on an enemy before they can concentrate their forces whenever possible, the question we must consider is whether it even matters in this case. In other words, do we have any reasonable chance of destroying the Yumaran Guardian without losing much of our fleet in the process. And, if the answer is yes, can the same be said for Tahiri’s ship escorted by another GCS unit when they arrive?”

  “That’s right, sir. And the Op Center had been working with Rick’s data trying to answer that very question.”

  “Had been? You’re saying they’ve stopped?”

  “I’m sure they’re still working on it to an extent, but their priority has now shifted to the Pelaran AI data we received from TFS Fugitive.”

  “Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Any progress?”

  “Against the Alliance AI starbase, yes. In fact, they identified several vulnerabilities right away. The thing looks like it was constructed under the assumption there was very little chance it would ever come under direct attack. The problem, of course, is that it will almost certainly be guarded by GCS units.”

  “Which brings us back to what we need to know here in the Sol system before we commit to attacking the Yumaran Guardian.”

  “On that front, Rick’s data seems to suggest that we may eventually be able to modify our shields to render them largely invulnerable to the Pelaran antimatter beam weapons.”

  “That’s fine, but Rick already told us that was the case, did he not? The fact that our people agree with him doesn’t do much to move the ball for our side,” Sexton sighed.

  “No, sir, but they did learn enough to warrant a code change. Fleet Science and Engineering already pushed out something they referred to as a ‘minor update’ this morning. They say it should provide a marginal improvement in shield performance.”

  “‘Minor,’ ‘marginal,’ and ‘should’ aren’t exactly words that fill me with confidence, but I guess we’ll take what we can get at this point. Did they offer anything else … how we might go about killing one of these ships, for example?”

  “Just the fact that their shields appear to be similar to the ones equipping Admiral Naftur’s flagship. If we can manage to get through them, our weapons should be effecti
ve, particularly our railguns. No offense intended, sir.”

  “None taken,” Naftur replied with a broad smile. “Our engineers reached much the same conclusion. As you have discovered for yourselves, Wek shields are quite effective against energy weapons fire. Unfortunately for us, they do not render our warships invulnerable to attack, particularly from kinetic energy weapons. But when attacking a Pelaran Guardian, of course, the chief difficulty lies in your ability to put weapons on target. Their primary defense is not their energy shielding, but rather their almost … supernatural ability to anticipate an adversary’s movements in advance.”

  Naftur paused, his expression clouding as he recalled his own, highly personal combat experience against a Guardian spacecraft.

  “When the Terran GCS attacked our task force upon its arrival in your star system,” he continued, “the battle was over before we fully realized we had come under attack. Most of our ships were destroyed in an instant, and there was no opportunity whatsoever to return fire.”

  Sexton and Patterson had studied the footage of the battle, such as it was, in great detail. Although both men realized they had no idea how truly terrifying it must have been to be on the receiving end of such an attack, each knew all too well the effects of surviving when so many of those under their command did not. Not knowing precisely what to say under the circumstances, they simply nodded solemnly in reply.

  “Gentlemen,” Naftur continued after a brief silence, “I feel it would be inappropriate for me to advise you on a decision of this magnitude. I will say, however, that, should you decide to attack, we must find a way to employ similar tactics to those employed by the Guardians themselves. Our attack must be wholly decisive and occur without warning. If at all possible, the target must be completely destroyed at the outset or in the very least prevented from transitioning. Otherwise, I fear the consequences could be …”

  “Dire,” Sexton offered.

  “To say the least. ‘Mortal,’ I believe, is the word I was trying to recall,” Naftur concluded.