“The few untouched fields are protected with everything we can muster,” Higgins told her. They’d already inspected the isolated fields, placed on islands well away from the mainland. “But we don’t have the facilities to shield them completely.”
Sameena nodded. “You’ll have to watch the algae farms too,” she warned. Losing them would be disastrous, all the more so as they had brought hope. “I don’t know what the blight would do if exposed to the chemicals there, but it might become a great deal more dangerous. Or it might die out.”
“We can hope,” the Governor said. He looked over at her, then back at the abandoned farmhouse in the distance. “Did you see the refugee camp?”
“Yes,” Sameena said. It had reminded her far too much of Sungai Buloh, although it definitely seemed to be more under control on Dueller. The refugees seemed grim and bitter, but so far they hadn't collapsed into barbarity or riots. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
“I fear so,” Higgins said. “Without your promise of assistance, we might well have suffered a complete social collapse by now.”
Sameena mulled it over as they drove back to Landing City. The Empire had simply abandoned the sector – and, if it hadn't been for her, millions would already be dead. Others were already dead, despite the best she could do. She couldn't help feeling as if she’d failed, even though cold logic told her otherwise. They were still going to die.
The cold equations, she thought, remembering Steve’s favourite curse. They always catch up with you.
Her wristcom chimed. “Captain,” Foxglove said, “a freighter just entered the system from Maxwell. It reports that the system was attacked and invaded by an unknown force.”
Sameena sucked in her breath. “Have them make a full report,” she ordered. “I’m on my way back to the ships. And tell all senior officers that I will issue a conference call as soon as I am back onboard.”
She thought fast as she closed the channel. An unknown force ... who? Pirates, renegade Imperial Navy ships, secessionists ... there were too many possibilities for her to take a guess. But she knew that they had to respond. If they didn't, the promise of protection she’d made would be exposed as hollow.
And her house of cards would collapse in its wake.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
In turn, this further crippled the Empire’s tax base. The result was inflation on a colossal scale. In real terms, the value of the Imperial Credit was falling, even as the numbers grew higher. A billion credits in the final days of Empire was, in real times, worth barely as much as a thousand credits from even two hundred years previously.
- Professor Leo Caesius. The Science That Isn’t: Economics and the Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire.
“We need to respond,” Sameena said. “There is no choice.”
The holographic faces of the convoy’s senior officers looked back at her. None of them seemed to disagree with her, although several of them looked sceptical that they could deal with the mystery invasion force. Sameena had reviewed the files downloaded from the freighter, but they hadn't been too detailed. The unknown attackers had a heavy cruiser, two destroyers and a handful of freighters. That was far too much firepower for a planet like Maxwell.
But the system was actually quite valuable. Even before Sameena had placed one of her industrial nodes at Maxwell, there had been a small asteroid-mining complex and plans for considerable expansion in the future, plans that had only been marginally derailed by the collapse of the Empire. She could see why the attackers would want the planet – and why they couldn't be allowed to keep it. Besides, if they failed to respond, the credibility of her new government would be shot to hell.
“A heavy cruiser represents more firepower than we can handle,” Captain Yew pointed out. He wasn’t one of Jamie’s bigger supporters – and Sameena privately suspected that he thought he should be Commodore. “Even if we amassed most of the squadron, it would be difficult to tackle.”
“So we cheat, sir,” Foxglove said. “We have two q-ships. We get into range, pretending to be two freighters, and blast their hull at point-blank range. Even a battleship would be crippled by the impact.”
“That assumes that they will allow us to get into range,” Yew said. “If they chose to keep us at a distance ...”
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Sameena said, before the two naval officers could start arguing. “We take our small squadron to the edge of the Maxwell System and carry out reconnaissance, then the q-ships can head in-system to engage the enemy.”
“That leaves us with another question,” Captain Geoffrey said. “We have no Marine detachments. How do we secure the planet?”
“Maxwell didn't have any pansy ideas about banning weapons,” one of the freighter Captains pointed out. “We could just drop KEWs in their support.”
“It’ll take them time to get organised,” Geoffrey countered. “We really need to land troops.”
“I intend to ask Governor Higgins for the loan of some troops,” Sameena said. She looked down at her datapad, running through the requirements for transporting vast numbers of men from star to star. “Dueller has the men, the equipment and owes us a favour. They can provide whatever ground support we need.”
“That’s going to be a great deal,” Geoffrey said. “I was involved in the liberation of a much smaller colony world, four years ago. Even with four companies of Marines and plenty of fire support it was still a damned bloodbath. Maxwell might make or break our government.”
“We should at least send for reinforcements from Madagascar,” Captain Yew said. “If we head off on our own ...”
Sameena nodded towards the starchart. “It’s two weeks for our fastest ship from here to Madagascar,” she said. “It will be a month before any reinforcements can arrive, assuming that Jamie – Commodore Cook – has them on hand and can dispatch them at once. During that time, the mystery attackers will still be in possession of Maxwell. Do you know what they will be doing there?”
She’d reviewed the Imperial Navy’s files. Pirate occupations of colony worlds tended to devolve into orgies of rape and looting, with the pirates stripping the colonies bare and taking every young and attractive woman with them when they left. Maxwell was too large to be easily looted, but the pirates – if they were pirates – could do a hell of a lot of damage before the planet was liberated.
“Yes,” Captain Yew said, slowly. “I understand your feelings, Captain. But I also know that a half-baked liberation plan may leave us in a worse position than we already are.”
Sameena couldn't disagree. Given a year or two, the new government would have started production of its own warships, allowing it to patrol the spaceways aggressively. Now, every loss hurt. It was unlikely that any outside government could destroy her industrial base – the interstellar factory was well-hidden, while Appleseed could just run if necessary – but it could certainly tear her worlds apart.
Who were the attackers? It was hard to imagine a pirate crew successfully operating a heavy cruiser, which meant ... what? The closest world that might be able to deploy one was several hundred light years away. As far as she could tell, the only explanation that made sense was that the pirates were actually rogue Imperial Navy elements, although even that was odd. Surely an ambitious Imperial Navy officer could have found a better target for his ships?
“We go there, we recon the system and then we plan,” she said, firmly. “If the system is too heavily defended for us to take, we withdraw and summon reinforcements. But we do have to try to get there as soon as possible.”
She looked over at one of the freighter commanders. “I’m sending you straight back to Madagascar,” she said. “You’ll carry a message for Commodore Cook, asking for reinforcements. The other freighters will assist in transporting troops from Dueller to Maxwell.”
“Understood, Captain,” the freighter commander said.
Sameena looked from face to face. “I know that this is risky, but we a
re sworn to protect the planets that signed up with us,” she said. “We have no choice. We have to respond.”
Their faces winked out as the meeting came to an end. Sameena allowed herself a tight smile; the Imperial Navy might like face-to-face meetings, but the traders saw no logic in meeting personally when people could attend electronically. It was far more efficient – and besides, she could bring the meeting to an end without small talk. And if the ships were attacked, the commanders would still be present on their own vessels.
She tapped a switch, opening a channel to Government House on Dueller. Unsurprisingly, Governor Higgins answered immediately. Sameena explained what had happened, then requested troops. Much to her relief, the Governor agreed at once and promised to make arrangements to ship a full regiment of Civil Guardsmen to orbit.
“They’re not bad at all, not compared to others,” he assured her. “I ensured that they had a hard cadre of Imperial Army officers to lead them, but they have a shortage of actual experience. Their CO has the most experience and he only fought a handful of engagements with enemy forces.”
Sameena scowled, but nodded. “We can run through landing and assault drills on the ships,” she said, although her small squadron wouldn't have any simulators capable of handling the soldiers. She would have given her back teeth for Paddy, someone who actually did have experience in hostile landings on occupied worlds. “But right now we’re short of options.”
Higgins frowned. “Are they likely to come here?”
“I don’t know,” Sameena admitted, tartly. “We don't know who they are, or what they want; we certainly can’t guess at their criteria for choosing targets. All I know is that if we don’t nip this in the bud it’s going to turn into a major problem and countless innocent people are going to suffer and die.”
She wondered, absently, if Higgins would insist on retaining his troops for home defence, but he merely nodded and promised that the troops would be ready for embarking within the day, before inviting her to another function on the planet’s surface. Sameena shook her head, dismissing the idea; she needed to do some tactical planning. Mercifully, Higgins didn't push. He cut the connection without further ado.
“Record,” she ordered, tapping her console. “Jamie; I intend to respond to the occupation of Maxwell, at least to the point of checking out the system to see just what the enemy is doing there. I know this is risky, but we’re the closest force that can react. Please send what reinforcements you can muster and meet us at the RV point, two light years from Maxwell.
“Whatever this is, we can't let it go past,” she continued. “If I die, remember that I love you – and don’t let them tear our new government apart.”
She blew him a kiss, then terminated the recording, feeling an unaccustomed lump in her throat. It was risky, not least because she was – to all intents and purposes – a Head of State. Her capture or death might be disastrous. It wasn't just her holding the new government together – she’d called the Meet to ensure that the traders held it together, rather than one person – but without her the various factions might start pulling the government in different directions. The results would definitely be disastrous.
Cold logic told her that she shouldn't go with the squadron, but she knew that she couldn't remain behind, even on the edge of the occupied star system. She couldn't send men and women into danger without sharing the risk herself.
It took nearly two days to load up the freighters with troops, then head out of the Dueller System and back into Phase Space. Sameena spent the time working through tactical simulations with Foxglove or reviewing everything that had been pulled out of the pirate ship’s wreckage, although that seemed to be largely a waste of time. The pirates hadn't bothered with maintenance, the engineers reported, and it had paid off for them. A dozen systems that should have stored data for analysis had been utterly useless.
On the plus side, we did manage to pull dozens of components for recycling, she thought, with some amusement. They would all have to be checked carefully first, but the pirates would still make a valuable contribution to society. The bodies, after a cursory final inspection, had been launched towards the local star. There had been no ceremony for the pirate dead. Sameena hadn’t even bothered to watch.
The only piece of good news was that the algae farms on Dueller had begun production without any significant problems. Man could live on algae alone, even though Sameena knew no one who admitted to actually liking the ration bars; Dueller’s population would survive long enough for a blight-resistant strain of crops to be developed. She’d still ordered maximum biological precautions for crewmen returning to the ships, however, just in case. It would be disastrous if the blight spread to another world.
There had only been two epidemics in the Empire’s long history. The improved disease resistance engineered into the vast majority of the human race had countered most diseases without the human population quite being aware of it. Only a handful of diseases had managed to infect dozens of worlds before the Empire handled them – and only two of them had threatened the entire Empire. But now, with the Empire’s health system utterly demolished, it was possible that an epidemic might spread rapidly.
Or maybe not, she thought. If interstellar trade came to a halt, there would be nothing spreading the disease.
She mulled it over as the small squadron sped through Phase Space. It was only a week to Maxwell, thankfully; long enough for her to simulate the most likely battles, but not long enough for her to drive herself frantic worrying over the possible outcomes. She honestly didn't understand how the Imperial Navy officers could be so calm. Didn't they realise, she asked herself, just how disastrous a single lost battle could be? But then, there was nothing she could do to make the battle come sooner. The Imperial Navy would have thoroughly drilled its officers on the value of patience.
“We don’t know enough to be sure of what we’re facing,” Foxglove reminded her, one afternoon. “The freighter that took these recordings didn't go too close to the planet. They might well have missed something, for all the will in the world. If there's a second cruiser out there ...”
Sameena gritted her teeth. If there was, they’d have to pull back and wait for Jamie at the RV point. Even with him, it would be tricky to defeat those two ships, at least until they started producing cruisers of their own. The modified freighters simply couldn't hope to face warships in even combat. She shook her head, tiredly. A few more years before the Empire fell and she would have had a squadron of heavy warships under her personal command.
“We’ll try to find out what we’re facing before we get in too deep,” she said, shortly. “Can we recon the system without being detected?”
“Easily,” Foxglove said. He grinned at her, his face illuminated by the holographic display. “A single starship can use a cloaking device to remain undetected unless it tries to enter orbit. I’ve known some crews capable of slipping into orbit with a cloak, but it is hellishly dangerous if detected.”
Sameena nodded. A cloaked ship couldn't bring its drives up to full power – or open fire – without revealing its location. If the enemy caught a sniff of the ship’s location, they might be able to fire on her before she dropped the cloak and prepared to fire back. Foxglove’s tales of playing hide and seek at the Imperial Academy had chilled her, although he had admitted that it was impossible to search an entire star system. A skilled CO could easily remain undetected simply by keeping his distance.
She made sure to get plenty of rest the night before they reached Maxwell, dropping out of Phase Space some distance from the Phase Limit. Maxwell did have monitoring systems in orbit, assuming they remained intact, but they shouldn't have been able to detect their arrival at such a distance. The real question was just what sort of sensors were mounted on the enemy warships. If they had a military-grade sensor suite, they might well have picked up something.
“No enemy contacts detected,” the sensor officer said. “Picking up limited data traffic from Max
well itself, plus beacons in the asteroid field.”
Sameena nodded. “Move us to the first planned waypoint,” she ordered. One of the destroyers would slip in-system; the remainder of the tiny squadron would wait on the edge of the Phase Limit, allowing them to flee at a moment’s notice if the shit hit the fan. She keyed her console, opening a laser link to Captain Yew.”
“Captain,” she said, “you are cleared to separate from the squadron.”
“Understood,” Yew said. Despite his expressed doubts, he didn't seem to be inclined to disagree any longer. “We’ll be back before you know it.”
Sameena scowled, inwardly, as the destroyer headed off towards the inner system. She didn't really trust Yew. It was easy to imagine him taking his ship and vanishing into Phase Space, although it would be difficult for him to find supplies along the Rim. Maybe he’d turn pirate ... or try to head back towards the Core Worlds to see what had become of the Empire. No wonder the Imperial Navy worked so hard to develop a sense of brotherhood in its crewmen, she told herself. The shared loyalty kept them from deserting one another when they were under fire.
But that loyalty had been shattered, she knew, when the Admiral had deserted the rest of his squadron at Madagascar. How could she blame Yew for looking out for himself? He didn't have a relationship with Sameena, not like Jamie.
I should have put more crew on his ship, she thought, sourly. It was harder for a CO to take his ship and run if the crew might object to mutiny or outright treachery. But Jamie hadn't suggested it and Sameena had already agreed not to interfere with his command. Jamie was just too innocent to consider the possibility of treason.
Long hours ticked by. Sameena waited, studying the files on Maxwell and trying to make sense of the latest set of unprocessed data from Intelligence. There was nothing from the inner system, apart from brief chatter from the planet itself. The sensor officer analysed it and concluded that Maxwell’s planetary broadcasting network had been effectively shut down.
The Empire's Corps: Book 05 - The Outcast Page 37
