Empire's Birth (Empire Rising Book 9)

by D. J. Holmes

  “We’ll get right on it,” Gupta said with a nod as she glanced at Scott.

  “All right,” James said as he stood, “I need to put some thought into how I’m going to bring this to the Emergency Council and get your suggestion approved if we decide to go with it.”

  “There’s one other thing before you go,” Gupta said as she stood. “We’ve received word from Intrepid. Emilie sent a recon drone back through the wormhole.”

  “Yes?” James asked as excitement and fear ran through him.

  “She has made a discovery,” Gupta said with a smile. She turned away from James as she continued, “By the way, I think we need to rename the wormholes. Talking about the Gift’s first and second wormholes doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. I’d suggest we call the original wormhole the Haven wormhole and the second one can be named based on what Emilie discovers.”

  James waved a fist at Gupta even though she couldn’t see it. “Stop stalling. Who cares what the wormholes are called, you can make any recommendation you want. What did she discover?”

  Gupta turned and winked and then smiled as she leant over and altered the image on the holo-projector. It now displayed several points with dotted lines connecting them. “Can’t I have a little fun? When James glared at her she quickly continued. “She discovered a shift passage to a solar system. There she discovered a freighter that had been attacked and destroyed by Karacknid energy weapons. On the freighter she retrieved a star map of local space. It doesn’t look complete, she thinks it is the freighter’s flight plan, but it contained several new systems. She sent the recon drone back with this data before heading to explore the nearest one.”

  “That’s it?” James demanded. “She sent nothing more?”

  Gupta shrugged. “That’s all she had to report. The information is a couple of months old by now, but I imagine it will take weeks for anything more to reach us. If not longer.”

  James shook his head. New systems discovered, at least one new alien race encountered, and the Karacknids were active on the other side of the Gift’s second wormhole! And, to top it all off, it would take weeks if not months for Emilie’s next update to come through. “What response are you planning?”

  “I’ve already drafted orders to double the number of defense stations being built around the Gift. With the Emergency Council’s permission, I’d like to alter our future force allocation plans to assign a garrison squadron there as well. We should also think about putting together a small diplomatic squadron to be sent through to back Emilie up. When we sent her out, we didn’t know if she would find anything, and even if she did, we expected it to take months if not years. This discovery changes things slightly.”

  “Slightly?” James asked. “That’s an understatement. Have your staff officers put together your recommendations and send them to me as well. I need to give this some thought. If there are other species out there fighting the Karacknids it may change the balance of things here. We may need to rethink all of our plans. At the very least we need to send a few more ships there to speed up Emilie’s reports. And perhaps…” James added as he winked at Scott, “We might need to send out our illustrious commander of Home Fleet. If for no other reason than to put an end to her pranks on me. Next time Admiral,” he said turning back to Gupta and made his tone as harsh as he could, “No playing tricks with my niece.” He winked at her as well. He didn’t appreciate Gupta’s mock concern about the wormholes, but he understood her desire to add a bit of levity into their meeting. Things had taken a turn, and not for the better, he thought as he left her office.

  Chapter 21

  Though this textbook is designed to give cadets an overview of the history of the Empire’s founding, it touches on many areas of the Empire’s history. Specifically of course we deal primarily with military and political ideas. That does tend to portray the Empire in a fairly aggressive light. While it is true our Emperors have acted swiftly to protect our citizens, there are many colonies who have gone centuries without seeing conflict firsthand. Most of the core worlds have been so efficiently protected by the Imperial Fleet that their populaces have forgotten the threats that are out here on the frontiers. One hopes their sense of security will never prove to be false. It is the duty of the Fleet to make sure this is so. Though there is still room for reminding the core worlds of just what life is like along the frontiers.

  -Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.

  Geneva, Switzerland, 7pm

  The shuttle banked around several Swiss mountains on its descent from orbit but James didn’t even notice them. Normally he enjoyed taking a few moments to soak up the beautiful scenery before attending an Emergency Council meeting. Six weeks ago they had moved their meetings from UNS Earth to Geneva. The city hadn’t been touched by any of the Karacknid nuclear missiles and it had all the amenities the council members needed to carry out their responsibilities. Though the scenery was just as beautiful as ever, this time, James’ mind was elsewhere. The coming Council meeting was not going to be a pleasant one. Word had leaked about the siege of New Berlin and more than one Councilor had contacted him to demand their ideas and suggestions be on the agenda.

  James was so focused on his thoughts that he didn’t notice the shuttle touching down. It was only when the pilot took off his headset and gestured for James to proceed him down the ramp that he realized. Quickly gathering his thoughts, James unbuckled himself and exited the shuttle. He smiled when he saw Andréa was waiting for him. “You’re late,” she said in her typical matter of fact manner. “Everyone else is waiting for you.”

  “I guessed as much,” James replied. “I had to finalize things with Gupta.”

  “Well you’re likely to have one or two grumpy council members on your hands. And that’s even before we begin discussing today’s topics,” Andréa warned him.

  “There’s nothing I can do about that,” James sighed. “So we may as well get going. Have you any idea how the vote is going to go?”

  Andréa shook her head. “I’ve had my people reaching out to those of the Councilors. They didn’t reveal any specifics of what you plan to suggest, but they still tried to get a feel for what kind of action they might support. Your guess is as good as mine at this stage. Everyone seems to have different ideas.”

  “Then we’ll just have to see,” James replied. In the last few weeks he had noticed a slow change in the tone of the Council meetings. As each nation was progressing further and further with its recovery strategies, there was less and less need for one another. Old rivalries and relationships were starting to simmer to the surface. Getting a consensus was becoming harder and harder. “On an issue like this we will pull together,” he promised Andréa. “This is too big to squabble over.”

  “We’ll see,” Andréa said as she raised an eyebrow. “I hope you won’t have to eat your words when this is over.”

  James eyed her for several seconds. It hasn’t got that bad yet has it? he asked himself. He hoped not.

  Five minutes later he took his seat at the head of the oval conference table. After glancing around and nodding to a few of the council members, he lifted his gavel and brought it down. “Let’s officially open this meeting. I thank you all for attending on such short notice. I have just two items for the agenda. The first is our response to the information Captain Kansas has sent back from the newly explored Gift wormhole. Let me explain what we know so far.” Without a pause he shared his rehearsed summary. Then he outlined the response he and Gupta thought best.

  There, that was easy enough, James thought twenty minutes later. It had only taken a brief discussion for the members to unanimously approve the plan. A small squadron of four destroyers and a diplomatic envoy would be sent through the wormhole to make contact with Emilie and determine if there were any species the envoy should approach to continue diplomatic dialogue. James fully expected Emilie to have made contact with whatever species she discovered, but she would need backup to progress things.

  “Now,
to our second and most pressing issue,” he said. “As many of you have already become aware, Lightfoot’s fleet has encountered some serious resistance. After several successful operations that resulted in Karacknid raiding squadrons being destroyed or chased away, Lightfoot and his ships were trapped at New Berlin. We must determine the best course of action in response to this.”

  “The best course of action would have been not to dispatch Lightfoot and his ships to the German colonies in the first place,” Bernard said before James could continue. “Now we are facing a disaster on the same scale as the ambush at Holstein. We could have a repeat of the entire fiasco! If Lightfoot’s ships are lost the Karacknids could attack Earth once again. We must find a way to extract them at once.”

  “You’re overreacting Sir,” Chancellor Hoffman rebutted. “New Berlin’s defenses are strong. Defending German colonies was the right decision. We should not abandon this course now when things suddenly get tough. I thought we were meant to be standing together!”

  “Before this meeting breaks down into petty arguments,” James said loudly, cutting off any more responses. “I would like Admiral Gupta to apprise all of us of the specifics of what has happened. She also has a plan of action she wishes to bring before us for our consideration. This is a military matter, one that requires a strategic response. This is why we have appointed Gupta to command Home Fleet.” With a nod James gave Gupta permission to begin.

  Quickly and professionally she outlined what Lightfoot had accomplished in the German colonies. Then she brought the council members up to date on the strength of the enemy force blockading Lightfoot’s fleet. To James’ surprise her staff officers had even had time to prepare a short simulation on what a likely Karacknid attack would look like. For a few minutes everyone watched an accelerated version of the potential battle. It ended with New Berlin being conquered but the Karacknids were left with barely a handful of battle worthy ships. “So you can see ladies and gentlemen,” Gupta explained after the recording finished, “something of a stalemate has developed in the German colonies. Yes, there are small Karacknid raiding squadrons still active, but they do not have the strength to seriously threaten any of the major German or Japanese colonies. They could do a lot of damage to our economy if they were to branch out further and begin to raid Chinese, British or other colonial space. It is also possible that the Karacknid fleet around New Berlin could abandon the blockade and push further into our space. They could carry out a raid in force against any of our systems, including Earth.

  “Therefore, I would like to propose that Home Fleet be dispatched to the Beta system under my command. There we will use the Varanni ships of Commodore Flew’s Squadron to patrol the shift passage that leads to German colonial space. No Karacknid ship should be able to sneak past us and we could engage and turn back any squadron that tried to come through. Our presence may also discourage the Karacknids from attacking New Berlin. If they know another Human fleet is nearby they may not want to risk launching such a costly attack.”

  “I am in agreement with Gupta’s proposal,” Koroylov said when Gupta sat down. “It makes the best sense militarily. Ideally we would have forces available to dispatch after the small Karacknid raiding squadrons. In a month perhaps, and certainly within two we will, but for now this is the best we can do.”

  “This proposal is unacceptable,” Chancellor Hoffman said. “You’re talking about leaving New Berlin to be besieged and the rest of my people’s colonies will be all but abandoned. New Berlin is home to over two billion people. We cannot leave so many of our citizens at the mercy of these aliens. We know what they are capable of. Home Fleet should be dispatched to the German colonies immediately. If we combine our strength with Admiral Lightfoot’s, we can push the Karacknids back to the Holstein system.”

  “In time that may be the best strategy to pursue,” Gupta replied calmly. “But now it could cost us this war. The ships that are battle worthy in Home Fleet have not been upgraded with any of our new technologies. The Karacknids could take out many of them for little cost to themselves. In truth, if the Karacknid fleet at New Berlin abandoned their blockade and tried to push past us at the Beta system we will have to fall back to Earth’s defenses. Moving the fleet forward is more of a ploy to discourage the Karacknids than an attempt to seek out actual combat. We are simply not ready for that possibility yet.”

  “I too am concerned,” Rear Admiral Nogamoro said. James bit back a grimace at the Japanese Admiral’s words. He had hoped the experienced naval leader would have recognized the wisdom in Gupta’s suggestion. “I know we cannot risk Home Fleet, not yet at least. But we cannot leave the Japanese colonies undefended. We should dispatch what ships we can to hunt down these raiding squadrons.”

  “I do not believe that would be a successful strategy,” James replied. “I’m sure you understand Admiral, if we send forward what modernized ships we have in dribs and drabs, they could become the hunted. Right now we only have four destroyers and one light cruiser completed as part of our New Fleet Operation. In another month’s time we might have enough ships to put together a squadron to hunt down some of the Karacknid raiders, but we are not in a position to do so right at this minute.”

  “We could send them forward with some older ships to back them up,” Nogamoro countered. “There are Japanese warships in our colonies.”

  James nodded, “We could, but that would cause a whole host of new problems to arise. We’d be assigning advanced warships to a sector where they would have to limit themselves. They wouldn’t be able to travel at their best speeds, or fight with their best tactics. Instead they would have to accommodate whatever un-upgraded ships were sent with them.” You are thinking as a political leader not an Admiral my friend, James thought sadly as he watched Nogamoro’s facial features. It was plain that Nogamoro understood exactly what James was saying, but he also had the political ramifications of allowing Japanese colonies to be raided to think about. James didn’t envy his position. It didn’t stop him being frustrated by the Japanese leader’s reluctance to put the greater good first.

  “I am in favor of this strategy Admiral Gupta proposes,” Senator Nicholls of the United Colonial States said. “It may buy us some time without taking too much risk. With Varanni ships guarding the German colonial shift passage, the fleet should have ample warning if it needs to fall back to Earth. I understand that this is war, and our enemy does not play by our rules. Sending Lightfoot’s ships into German colonial space was the correct decision at the time. His earlier successes prove this. Now the enemy has reacted and we must respond.”

  “Well, I am not,” Bernard said loudly as his face reddened. “Lightfoot’s current predicament shows us the folly of sending his ships forward. He did not have enough strength to face the Karacknids. He was forced to sneak around and that strategy failed us. What Admiral Gupta is suggesting is like going double or nothing after losing a bad bet. For all we know, Lightfoot’s ships may be lost to us. What is left of Home Fleet constitutes the only ships we have to upgrade and turn into a much more powerful fighting force. They need to remain here defending Earth and under the protection of our battlestations.”

  “I concur,” Soult, the French interior minister responded. “To uncover Earth any further than we already have is madness. For all we know, the Karacknid fleet that has trapped Lightfoot is but the advance guard of another invasion fleet sent to finish us off. Our ships could be trapped in the Beta system, cut off and destroyed. Earth would then be a sitting duck. Varanni sensors are not fool proof. We should not bet the safety of our homeworld on them alone.”

  James closed his eyes as more of the council members waded into the conversation. Barely one agreed with another. Beyond the surprising agreement between Bernard and Soult, every other council member had their own idea or strategy they wished to put forward. More than one seemed to favor their particular nation over the others. For thirty minutes James let the argument go back and forth. On more than one occasion he was fo
rced to use his gravel to return order and allow the council members to speak in order rather than over the top of one another. “All right,” James said when a natural lull occurred. He had to really work to keep the strain out of his voice. “I think we have discussed this back-and-forth a number of times now. As it appears no ulterior option has gained acceptance by even a small group of you, I propose that we take a vote on Gupta’s plan to dispatch Home Fleet to the Beta system. If it passes we can refine the plan in the coming days so that it may better suit all of us. If it fails, then we will have to return to the drawing board. Let me remind you however that we founded this Council to take swift action to help all of our nations. At times that has required one or more of us to make sacrifices for the other. I believe we are facing a similar situation now.” As he spoke James looked over to Admiral Nogamoro. Though no one had said it, Gupta’s plan called for the Japanese colonies to sacrifice themselves to keep the Karacknids busy while enough ships were built and upgraded to push the Karacknids back. From the look on Nogamoro’s face, James figured the Japanese Admiral understood the meaning of his words. The way his eyes flared and he quickly turned suggested he hadn’t take them favorably. “Let us vote,” James said when no one opposed his suggestion.