by B. V. Larson
“They aren’t just words, Colonel. They are the truth. You provide such a morale boost to the men. They aren’t afraid to fight when you are with them. That is not because they feel safe—”
“Hell no,” I laughed.
“—they know that they will die well in your service, and they feel confident of victory. That confidence you provide them—that is the key. Normally, that would not be enough for the troops to risk their lives, but the stakes here are so much different now. We aren’t fighting over lines on a map, or for a family of monarchs. We are fighting for the existence of our species. The men will therefore die gladly if they know it is not in vain.”
I frowned at Miklos. He was earnest and intense. I had no doubt he absolutely believed what he was saying. Maybe, he was right in a way. But I figured the equation was simpler than that. I was a leader who had learned how to instill confidence through bold action and impenetrable self-assuredness. I had as many doubts as anyone—perhaps more, since I knew the real score—but I didn’t let those feelings bleed through and reach my marines.
“Don’t worry so much,” I told him. “I have a plan. I’ve always got a plan.”
He followed me back out to the main deck, clearly still troubled. “You say that quite often, Colonel.”
I would have shrugged, but my shoulders were encased in about a foot of armor. I noticed I only had a few seconds before the next response was due back from Macro Command. I took my seat and swallowed the last of my doughnut. At least it was fresh.
“Incoming Message: Colonel Kyle Riggs is not the only enemy force in this star system. Your terms are unacceptable.”
“The machines aren’t buying it,” I said. I hadn’t thought it likely they would accept me as the sacrificial lamb and give us an easy out, but figured I had to try. Unfortunately, they had reasoned it through. Clearly, a lot more than one single human had been involved in destroying their cruisers recently. They wanted to eradicate all the cancer and kill everyone who had rebelled against them. It was only reasonable, from their point of view.
“That’s why you brought the battle suit?” the gunner asked me in amazement. “You planned to fly out there to them and give yourself up?”
I nodded. “If they would go for it, sure. Why not? One commander traded for our entire species? A bargain. But unfortunately, they aren’t buying today. They want a bigger pound of flesh than just me. I’m not surprised, but I have to admit, I’m slightly relieved.”
No one looked like they blamed me.
“What are you going to tell them now, sir?” Captain Miklos asked.
“Now, it’s time for plan B. And don’t even ask about plan C. You don’t want to hear about that.”
I raised my voice to gain Barbarossa’s attention. “Macro Command,” I said, “if you agree to accept peace with Earth and leave our star system now, Star Force will agree to the following terms: We will surrender all our ships, equipment and personnel.”
At this point, the crew of the Barbarossa were freaking out. Miklos had stood up from his chair. The gunner was reaching for his sidearm and the helmsman had his eyes closed. He looked like he was praying—or maybe he was passing out, I couldn’t tell which.
“Colonel Riggs!” Miklos shouted.
I put my armored hand in his face. My second hand raised to point at the gunner. At first, the gunner lifted his lip to snarl at me, and then he began to lift his weapon.
“Don’t,” Miklos said. He pointed toward my battle suit arms. Both arms ended in beam weapons equivalent to a heavy beamer. The gunner was unaccustomed to them and had not understood the threat, but at this moment my twin projectors were activated and aiming at the crewmen. If I fired them at this close range, the crewmen would have the upper half of their torsos burned and blasted away within a second by the fantastic release of energy. The gunner lowered his weapon slowly.
I hadn’t figured they would draw on me. I should have put my helmet on first. I was impressed that they had the guts to take such an action, but it didn’t really matter, as the situation would be set in stone very soon.
“Furthermore,” I continued, keeping both men under scrutiny. “Star Force will surrender Andros Island, our base on planet Earth. We will lay down our arms and obey Macro Command. End transmission.”
“You can’t do this, sir!” Captain Miklos hissed at me.
I lowered my arms. The moment my laser guns weren’t aimed into their faces, the gunner brought up his weapon again.
“I won’t let you surrender this ship, sir,” the gunner told me, shaking with emotion. “I didn’t join Star Force to serve the machines again. I understand you made that deal the first time without knowing the full consequences. But we can’t lie down and do it all over again.”
I tried futilely to shush him. He didn’t calm down.
“He is your superior officer,” Captain Miklos said.
“He can’t just unilaterally consign our entire species to slavery,” the gunner answered. “My entire family was killed by Macros. I won’t serve them.”
I looked from one man to the next, then glanced to the helmsman. He was still praying.
“Ensign,” I said, addressing the gunner. “I like you. If we live long enough to return to Earth, I’m going to give you a promotion. Possibly, a command of your own. Captain, I’m impressed with you and your crew. Even your helmsman, because at least he’s still manning his post and following orders.”
They all looked confused. “Is this some kind of joke, sir?” Miklos asked.
“In a way, yes. But we won’t know who has the last laugh for another two minutes.”
They gave me blank looks, so I pointed to the chronometer. The next Macro reply was due in very soon.
Not knowing what to say, the men returned to their stations. Miklos looked like his cat had just died, while the gunner glared at me off and on. I didn’t care. I was beyond caring. It was all up to the Macros now. Would they accept my terms or not?
It was a very long two minutes. Finally, the response came in.
“Terms accepted.”
I whooped and laughed. I clapped my armored hands together, and the metal made a booming report in the enclosed space. The other men winced.
“I don’t understand what there is to be happy about, Colonel,” Miklos said.
I grinned at him. “Macro Command,” I shouted, unable to contain my exuberance, “Star Force has changed its mind. Star Force has gone rogue. Star Force is entirely contained on the land mass known as Andros Island, plus a few Fleet elements in space such as this ship. Riggs out. Barbarossa, send that and close the channel.”
If I’d thought the crew were surprised before, now they were positively baffled. Even the helmsman’s eyes were open again. He stared at me with the wary certainty of a one who knows he’s looking at a madman.
“Colonel Riggs?” the gunner asked me. “So that’s it? All of this was a big joke? Just to have some fun with the Macros?”
“Reason it through, ensign,” I said.
Captain Miklos nodded slowly, thinking it over. But the helmsman, who’d kept quiet up until now, spoke first.
“I get it,” he said. “When the Macros agreed to your terms, they agreed to classify all of Earth as peaceful. When you said Star Force has broken the deal, only we became possible hostiles.”
“Correct,” I said. “We entered into an agreement with them. They marked all humanity as peaceful slaves in their database somewhere. The next moment Star Force went rogue—”
“Which means when they get to Earth,” Captain Miklos said, a new light dawning in his eyes, “they will only attack Star Force.”
“You tricked them?” the gunner asked incredulously.
“Sort of,” I said. “I’d call it a work-around. Like getting a computer to delete a file it doesn’t want to by doing it in a manner that isn’t blocked. The machine doesn’t become angry, or feel tricked. All I did was talk them into classifying all Earth as peaceful. Once they accepted that, I rea
ssigned this ship and all of Star Force as hostile. In a way, I reprogrammed the Macros.”
“But won’t they simply ignore everything we’ve said?”
I shook my head. “I’ve dealt with them before. Using a similar trick, I managed to get them to leave the annihilation of China to Star Force. Remember that? To work with them, you have to think like a hacker. These shenanigans would never work with a human being. But the Macros don’t get emotional about it the way we do.”
“Do you think they’ll learn to stop falling for such deceptions someday?” Miklos asked me.
“Possibly, but I don’t care right now, I—”
“Sirs,” the helmsman broke in. “We’ve got missiles incoming. The Macros have fired upon us.”
“There, you see?” I asked them. “They made a follow-up decision I should have seen coming. Well, don’t look so pale, the missiles are about fifty million miles off. They won’t get to us for a long time. Barbarossa, attention.”
“Ready.”
“Reverse course. Take us back to Earth at flank speed. Hold on, everyone.”
Skinny black arms spit up out of the floor and grabbed us, acting as emergency harnesses. The ship heaved under our feet. The engines on this ship were very powerful, and even with stabilizers, we felt at least three Gs of force tossing us about as the ship flipped over and applied all the thrust she had.
“Course laid,” said the ship.
“Barbarossa,” Captain Miklos said, picking himself up off the deck and crawling into his command chair, “remove Colonel Riggs from the command personnel list unless I’m incapacitated.”
“Options set.”
I nodded to him, deciding it wasn’t worth arguing about. I had boarded this vessel with the understanding I was visiting brass, not the operational commander. I’d taken liberties. Lots of them.
“I’m sorry, Colonel Riggs,” he said.
He didn’t look very sorry. I nodded and smiled.
“I understand,” I said. “This is your ship…just one more thing.”
“What’s that, Colonel?”
“Have you got any beer?”
-16-
The ride home was relatively uneventful. The crew didn’t seem to think so, however. I could tell they were green. They’d never had a swarm of sixteen semi-intelligent nuclear missiles trailing them and getting closer every minute. That sort of thing took some getting used to.
There wasn’t anything to worry about, really. Even with the about-face and a long glide back to Earth—which was orbiting away from our position, making us chase after her—the math was in our favor.
“Stop worrying, Miklos,” I said, “we’ll be back at least an hour before the missiles slam into the ship.”
“But we have to slow down to get home, and they keep accelerating,” he said, tapping nervously at a spreadsheet on his tablet. “The kinetic energy alone, even discounting the warheads….”
“All right, I’ll talk to Crow about it.”
It took me a few minutes to get the good admiral on the com-link. Just thinking about talking to Crow made my three-beer buzz transform into an instant headache. I’d been in a celebratory mood. I’d managed to talk the Macros into targeting Star Force alone. It’d been such a coup I wanted to savor it. Now, as the disk of Earth grew huge on the forward wall of the bridge, I realized it was time to get back to work.
“So,” Crow said, his voice replicated by the vibrating of the countless nanites that made up the walls of the bridge, “still alive, but running home to hide behind papa is that it? We’ve been watching your efforts at talking the Macros into a good mood. How’d that work out for you then, mate?”
“Just fine,” I said expansively. “I talked them out of destroying our planet.”
“You what? How is it then, might I ask, that I see a veritable horde of enemy ships on your ass? Not to mention the missile swarm, which they no doubt sent as a diplomatic gift?”
“I said I talked them out of destroying Earth,” I said. “They still have grim plans for me. And for the rest of Star Force. I gave them your address as a reference.”
I grinned at the crew, but none of them seemed to find my little joke as amusing as I did.
“Let me get this straight,” Crow said. “They are coming straight here? To Andros Island?”
“Now you’re catching on. If you want to keep this destroyer alive, I need you to make sure the laser turrets are on high alert. I’m going to fly over the island in low orbit. I need the turrets to shoot down those missiles.”
“We’ve calculated the velocities. They’ll only be in range for about two microseconds, do you realize that Riggs?”
“Yeah. Group them up on individual missiles so they don’t all fire at the same ones. Also, I figure I might have to do a second full speed orbit just to give the turrets another shot.”
“Hmm,” Crow said. “I don’t like it, Riggs. The Macros will be counting our guns. They’ve never seen how much firepower this island has. I don’t want to tip my hand just yet.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“I could loft the fleet,” Crow said doubtfully.
“Might help,” I admitted, “if you want to keep this new destroyer of yours intact.” I hadn’t asked him to do it, so he could make the offer. I needed the support, but when dealing with Crow, one never wanted to seem weak. When Crow sensed weakness, he got ideas. For instance, he might get the idea that getting rid of the irritating Colonel Kyle Riggs was worth the loss of a single destroyer.
In the end Crow agreed to my plan. We streaked toward Earth, moving too fast to get into a real orbital pattern. We were beyond escape velocity the entire time. Using full engine power, I would be able to swing around the planet in a wide oval, bringing us back around the world for a second pass over Andros about thirty minutes later. Hopefully by that time the missiles trailing us would run out of maneuvering fuel or they would all be shot down.
While we waited, I popped a fourth beer and sipped it. The flavor was harsh. I looked at the can and saw a picture of a bear on it. Squinting at the label, I saw it was from Romania. I smiled at Miklos, who was still sweating in his command chair.
“You must like beer as well,” I said, “have one with me.”
He hesitated, then got up and opened a fresh one. He tipped it to me and took a swig. “How did you know it was mine?” he asked.
“The Romanian bear on the label. I just figured.”
He smiled. I thought it might have been the first real smile I’d ever seen on his face.
“You know, Colonel,” he said, taking a large swallow, “you are just as crazy as everyone says you are.”
“Crazier,” I told him confidently.
“What if we lose, sir?” he asked.
“You mean the war?”
“Yes. What if Star Force is destroyed, but the rest of Earth stays quiet and peaceful in order to survive.”
I thought about it. “Then I suppose we will be like the Centaurs in their star system. Fantasizing we are at peace with the Macros, while they circle around trying to figure out how to eat us.”
“Like Romania bears, eh?”
“Exactly.”
His words cause me to remember something. I needed to talk to Earth. They couldn’t fire on the Macros in any way, not even at their missiles, or they would be marked down as hostile again and everything I’d done out here today would be for nothing. I didn’t think they had any armament capable of shooting down a Macro missile at this range, but I wasn’t sure. They’d been building up as fast as possible, stealing bits of tech from Star Force wherever they could. Maybe they had a few surprises in store by now.
It took about seven minutes to get General Kerr on the com-link. I was surprised he wasn’t sitting on the phone. He had to be aware of everything that was going on up here. Kerr and I had an odd relationship. We’d often been in antagonistic roles. But we needed each other often, too. Sometimes there wasn’t any room for bullshit, and we both needed
to communicate plainly. Many others had tried to establish themselves as intermediaries between various Earth governments and Star Force. I’d always rejected them and insisted on Kerr. It wasn’t because I loved the guy—far from it. But I understood him fairly well and he understood me, too. Sometimes, when life or death decisions are being made on the fly, having a tight relationship with the guy on the other end of the line was very valuable.
“Riggs? Are you the one flying that batmobile?”
“General Kerr,” I said, “this isn’t a social call. Listen closely, please.”
“Go ahead.”
“There is a tight grouping of missiles following my ship back to Earth. It is imperative that Earth forces do not fire on those missiles. You must relay this to every military on the planet. When we cruise by, do not attempt to jam them. Do not attempt to obstruct them. Do not shoot them down. Preferably, you will not even actively ping them with radar or let one of your satellites drift close by. But I’m pretty sure that’s too much to ask.”
“It is too much to ask. I’m not even sure I can convince every nation on Earth to stand by and hope for the best.”
“You don’t have to. Just talk to the ten or so who actually have the capability to do anything effective. They must not provoke the coming Macro fleet. I have managed to convince them their only enemies on Earth consist of Star Force on Andros Island. All that diplomatic work will be for nothing if people get trigger happy down there.”
General Kerr laughed. “That’s what you call diplomacy? Looks to me like you got them royally pissed off. Classic Kyle Riggs. I’ve always said you had a silver tongue in your head.”
I smiled grimly. “Right sir, I take after you. But in any case, any assets that fire on the aliens must be Star Force units.”
Kerr paused. “Are you asking for operational control of some of my systems, Kyle?”
“No, sir,” I said. “I’m asking for you to appear to be under my command if you get involved.”
“Humph,” he said. “I don’t want to make promises, but I’ll do my best.”
“Remember what happened to China, sir. Remind them about that.”
