Etude to War (Earth Song Cycle Book 4)

by Mark Wandrey

  The action took perfect timing. Katoosh watched intently as fighters began to explode, and the cruisers reported damage. In a minute, his own ineffective fighter force would join the hopeless fray. “Now,” he ordered his tactical leader. An order was dispatched in a way he hadn’t known existed only weeks ago.

  Across space, three T’Chillen pocket carriers swung down out of supra-luminal speed behind the enemy carriers. Primed and ready, they each hurled their four squadrons of medium fighters into space and onto the enemy carriers and their escorts. Katoosh’s fangs dripped poison as he saw the enemy formation waver in sudden confusion. Spring too soon, and the enemy would turn back on his meager carrier force, too late and the enemy fighters would be fully engaged with no desire to withdraw.

  The enemy fleet was stuck in a no-win situation. Despite their faster-than-light drives, physics was still their enemy. Racing toward his forces in normal space, they’d built up a high amount of delta-V that couldn’t easily be reversed. A fifty-thousand-ton destroyer could not be stopped quickly, especially without any large gravity wells to push against. There were no planets in this star system. Their gravitic drives had only the gravity plane of the galaxy to push against. It was like doing a push-up on a water bed.

  “Move us up,” he ordered, and the two dreadnoughts surged ahead, the fleet’s formation quickly splitting to make room for the hulking battleships. It was precision flying. Because he’d allowed them to fall back so far, many of the ships were now less than a kilometer apart. Females, intent on their jobs, piloted most of the warships, deftly guiding their cumbersome craft without a single incident.

  The enemy fighters were confused, split between breaking off to fall back and protect their carriers, and the tantalizing targets of the advancing dreadnoughts.

  “Launch our fighters,” Katoosh ordered and the dreadnought’s squadron jumped into space along with fighters from her sister ship. The earlier two squadrons had been from the carriers, holding in close orbit around the dreadnoughts.

  The T’Chillen cruisers moved into close formation. The dreadnoughts dwarfed them as the four squadrons of medium fighters formed into their own lance and punched into the Mok-Tok fighters. They used their lighter and faster design to scatter the heavier enemy fighters and clear a path for the dreadnoughts.

  A panic of indecision for the Mok-Tok turned into a terror of firepower as the T’Chillen battleships began to unload waves of ship-killing missiles into the much lighter heavy cruisers.

  In the end, the tactical decision of the Mok-Tok commander was one of hardware. Their fighters were largely drones controlled by occasional command fighters. Those fighters raced back to the rearmost cruisers where they squeezed into docking bays as their fleet began to break up and flee for their lives. The two enemy carriers fought against the dozens of T’Chillen fighters.

  Their destroyer escorts paid with their lives, and one of the two carriers managed to get clear enough to jump away. The other was critically injured, its gravitic lens drive unable to engage. Katoosh hissed in delight at the prize he’d taken. As most of the enemy fleet fled the system, his victory was unequivocal.

  “Post action assessment,” he demanded from his tactical commander.

  “Eight fighters destroyed, eleven damaged. Three destroyers sustained minor damage, and one cruiser reports serious damage from a lucky, fighter-launched ship-killer. Enemy has fled the system. They have lost one cruiser, four destroyers, and one carrier. Damage assessment suggests two more heavily-damaged cruisers and moderate damage to the second carrier. They abandoned their entire fighter contingent, minus most of the command fighters. We are beginning clean-up and salvage operations.”

  “Understood. Send my compliments to the carrier captains and inform them we will hold a fleet-wide command meeting in six hours to discuss our next action.”

  A few minutes later he was in his cabin behind the bridge examining a display floating above his computer. A three-dimensional map of the galaxy slowly rotated, with T’Chillen controlled space glowing a comforting red. In each of those areas a single star sparkled, denoting his new secret asset. Two pocket carriers delivered to the Enigma system in not months, but hours. His communicator beeped for attention, and he knew who it was.

  “You are pleased with this present I have given you?”

  “How could I not be pleased,” he replied. But his excitement turned bitter in his throat as he considered. “What has this cost me?”

  “Cost? Why, there is no immediate cost.”

  “There is nothing free.”

  “You are correct.” The line was quiet for a moment before more text began to appear. “The T’Chillen helped the Grent eons ago, when we needed you. We will call on you again. This is why we have provided you this tool. Use it well.”

  Somewhere, a few light-years away, the Mok-Tok commander was licking his wounds and wondering how he’d been so thoroughly outmaneuvered. Katoosh was sure the shaggy mound would be completely confused and furious. Of course, he would have no idea that Katoosh was just as confused. Ghosts from the halls of time were walking behind him, offering advice and gifts. Why was he not happy?

  In the places of politics on Nexus, the leaders had many wise sayings to describe how their machinations functioned or failed. One of the most insightful was, “The plan was working well, until the Grent came along.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter 8

  March 7th, 534 AE

  Rasa Phoenix Shuttle, Bellatrix Orbit, Bellatrix Star System

  There was plenty of room in the Kaatan’s docking bay for the Phoenix shuttle, as the Kaatan’s shuttles were moved via hoverfield and moored against the inside walls and ceiling when not in use. Minu always felt a little nervous walking under the hulking needle-shaped shuttles. It only took a minute for the familiar walk to the ship’s command center Lilith called home. The door irised open a moment before they arrived.

  “Please come in, Mother.”

  “Hi, Lilith,” she said, stepping into space and floating in the open globe of the command center. Lilith’s ultra-lean figure floated in the exact center, partially surrounded by dozens of holographic displays and charts of figures. She resembled her mother in many ways. They were both lean with narrow hips and small chests, but Lilith had grown up in space. Microgravity gave her a long legged and armed grace that bordered on gangly. She’d let her hair grow over the years. To keep it controlled she put it into an elaborate ponytail system Cherise had taught her. She’d since tasked a robot to do the work for her. As Minu floated in, followed by Aaron, she could see her daughter’s unusually concerned brown eyes. She was normally a fairly expressionless woman, a side effect of being raised by a computer for her first eleven years.

  “Are you okay, dear?” Minu asked. She often didn’t resort to that sort of familiar title with her daughter. She wondered if being pregnant had something to do with it, then she admonished herself. Being a couple days pregnant wouldn’t make her all emotional.

  “I’m fine, Mother. I have news I thought would be better to discuss in person.” Aaron stood less than a meter from the pair as Minu drifted slowly to within a hand’s space of her daughter. As usual, an invisible hoverfield caught and stabilized her. She’d always wondered if that was something Lilith did consciously or if it was some automated mechanism of the ship. So much of what went on aboard the ancient artifact was a mystery to her.

  “Sure, but don’t you want to hear about the installation?”

  “I’ve already read Pip’s report. He is going to work with Kal’at on your energy harvesting idea. This is bigger.”

  Minu’s eyes widened. Discovering a secret cache with enough power to run their planet a thousand times over was phenomenal. What Lilith knew was bigger? This might prove interesting. Minu gave her a ‘tell me more’ look.

  “When you went underground, and I lost contact, I was faced with an impossibility. I was taught that quantum signals cannot be blocked. It involves splitting a meson into tw
o quarks, then taking one with you. They share a quantum state. Agitate one, and the other responds in kind.”

  “I’m somewhat familiar with the theory. But doesn’t that mean that every such connection only works between the two original parts of one meson? It really means you only have a fancy walkie-talkie.”

  “On the surface, yes. However, there is a vast network of quantum connections. I was aware of this from the beginning, but I did not know the true nature of that network, nor the extent of it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “For the network to work correctly, it couldn’t rely on a haphazard scheme of random connections between split mesons here and there. There had to be a central network hub, a switchboard if you will. Billions of mesons were split into quantum connections, and the majority of their other halves were kept at those switchboards. When I talk to you though the quark in your implant, the quantum communicator in the Kaatan sends a signal to its paired quark at a switchboard, which in turn then sends a signal to your quark.”

  “So, we’re not talking directly. I understand that, but what does it have to do with the signal being blocked?”

  “It wasn’t blocked.”

  “But we have proof. We couldn’t talk.”

  “The signal wasn’t blocked. The connection between our quantum communicators was.”

  “The switchboard,” Aaron said, snapping his fingers. Lilith smiled, a rare thing, and nodded. “You’re saying this switchboard knew we were inside this secret base and cut off the signal?”

  “That is exactly what I am saying.”

  “So, the quantum communication network is another artifact of The People,” said Minu in a low voice.

  “Yes. I then began to investigate just how extensive the network was. When I was born, the Medical Intelligence didn’t undertake my raising on its own. It got instructions from the network.”

  “Really? And you didn’t know this?”

  “No. In fact, the program was told specifically to not tell me. Only you were allowed to know it.”

  “Then why didn’t it tell me?”

  “You never asked.”

  Minu shook her head. This was how the Concordia worked—mysteries, lies, and deceit. “Why am I not surprised? Now that you know about this network, can you access it?”

  “Yes. I...encouraged the Medical Intelligence to give me access to the network. After some prodding, it granted me full access.”

  “Is there a lot?” Aaron asked.

  “You would be amazed. The database I have of The People is considerable. However, it is insignificant next to what is available on the network.”

  “Where is it located?” Minu asked.

  “Physically? That is something I do not know yet.”

  “Why not?”

  Lilith looked abashed. “There is simply too much information for me to sort out. Like many of the Concordian databases, asking simple questions seldom provides simple answers.”

  Don’t I know that, Minu thought as her daughter continued, “I can’t download the entire network. I can’t convey to you the volume of this database. It contains everything from technical diagrams for toys to birth and genetic records for a hundred trillion beings.”

  She saw the wide-eyed awe of her parents and nodded, glad they understood the magnitude of the find. “Like most Concordian databases, they expect you to know what you are looking for and where to find it. I think of it as floating down a long hallway with an infinite number of doors. Open a door, see what’s inside, make a note of it, and move it. Only this is such a long hallway that I could travel down it my entire life without ever finding the door I was looking for.”

  “It doesn’t seem like a logical system to keep your data stored in,” Aaron said. “Lose your map and lose your data?”

  “It’s the greatest security system you could ask for,” Minu mused. “Hack in if you want, but good luck finding anything useful.”

  “Correct,” Lilith agreed. “You could spend your life sifting through real estate records and copies of birth certificates.”

  “Is it still being used?” Minu wanted to know.

  “As far as I can tell, it is the same system the Concordian governments use today. There are localized sections I can identify, because I am already familiar with them. They appear to be planetary- and species-specific nodes of the network. I even found your local Tog library branch on Bellatrix, once I’d gained complete access.”

  “So these quantum connections are everywhere.”

  “Yes, Mother. The nature of these connections are ubiquitous and simple.” A screen lit up with the technical schematic of a computer chip. Minu had seen hundreds of similar designs over the years, dating back to her first attempts to make the shock rifles. The diagram centered on a section of the chip and highlighted it. The label ‘quark modulator’ appeared. “This is a common asynchronous interface chip. They are in every computer, tablet, and autonomous device manufactured in the empire. Have been for millions of years.”

  Minu looked at her tablet floating in its holster around her waist, then back at Lilith. Her daughter nodded, her long ponytail floating behind her head. “Are you saying every device with one of those chips is tied into the network?”

  “That is precisely what I am saying.”

  “So, I could use those chips to spy on someone else’s computer?” Aaron wondered.

  “Absolutely, if you had access to that computer’s coded quantum interface chip. I have the addresses of some of the information used by the Medical Intelligence to forcibly mature my being, as well as tactical data of The People. These are items that are considered necessary to the biological operator of a front line combat ship and the Combat Intelligence. It is useful information that will allow me to act more effectively in combat against other ships.”

  “That’s good, right?” Minu asked.

  “Yes, it is. The network also contains details concerning remaining war assets of The People, including tactical disposition at the end of the last conflict. As you know, this ship was stored in the firebase with the intention of preparing for an offensive. Other such assets were deployed and stored as well. That battle never took place. The enemies of The People joined together in a final sneak attack. The pilots and crews of those ships were killed before they could be delivered to their vessels. The work of deploying those assets to their far-flung depots and firebases was wasted. They sat there for millions of years, waiting for the offensive that never came.”

  “How sad,” Aaron said. Minu nodded. A last stand that never occurred. Leonidas and his 300, killed on the way to the Hot Gates.

  “Mother, I have full access to the firebase and depot controllers.” The three were silent as her parents digested the full meaning of their daughter’s comments.

  “You mean complete access?” Minu asked.

  “Yes. Complete access. I am sorting out the conditions and status of all the assets. But in a few days I should have a good view of what is possible.”

  “Do you have any idea now?”

  “If I had to estimate, more than two dozen ships are available to be activated, should we choose to do so, of course. It would not be without consequences.”

  “Why would we hesitate?” Aaron stammered. “I mean, two dozen more Kaatan killing machines? Humanity goes from being a pimple on the Tog’s ass to becoming the big dog overnight!”

  Minu chewed her bottom lip. This is what P’ing meant about humanity getting into a game bigger than they understood. It would shift the balance of power completely and maybe throw the entire galaxy into war.

  P’ing’s words came drifting unbidden into her mind. “It all points to a fact that, were it to become public knowledge in the Concordia, it would likely result in either complete societal collapse or all-out galactic war.” The People’s hidden armada, coveted by the T’Chillen for thousands of years, was now being laid at her feet.

  But it isn’t my feet, Minu thought; it’s Jacob’s feet. The thought sent a
shiver up her spine. It’s what he’d wanted all along, warships to play with. He was already using the Rangers as a mercenary army to bring money and prestige to humanity. But at what cost? The lives lost on distant worlds was the least of it, in her opinion.

  The worst was how mankind was being positioned. You can’t walk the middle of the road forever. It was worse than picking a side. No one trusted you. Add these ships, and then what happens? Jacob’s attempted neutrality would disintegrate into an all-out war with the T’Chillen. The snakes would come completely unhinged when humans showed up to claim the remaining functional warships of The People. They wouldn’t give them up without a fight.

  And she didn’t know what the other spacefaring species would do. The Mok-Tok hated humans because they were allies of the Tog. And what of the Tog? Would they stand as allies of their former slaves? Damn it, it was all too confusing and frustrating. Then she thought about how her daughter had said, “It wouldn’t be without consequences.”

  “What kind of consequences?” she asked. “I mean beyond the political and military ones.”

  “The firebases and depots are all powered through solar taps in their star systems. They have been draining energy from their stars for millions of years.”

  “So?” Aaron asked. “Pip said the whole Concordia is powered with solar taps. Doesn’t seem to be a problem to anyone.”

  “Those solar taps were established carefully in stars of just the right spectral class. They were intended to be temporary. The condition of the star and its stability were not factored in because the taps were never meant to be there for more than a few years.”

  “So there is a danger to the star?”

  “According to what I’ve found, there were eleven firebases and three depots established for the planned offensive. Of them only three firebases and one depot have functioning power sources.”

  “What happened to the others?” Minu asked.

  “Five failed, depleting the star below the spectral class necessary to maintain the tap, two were lost due to mechanical failure, and three destabilized their stars, inducing supernovas.”