by Spoor,Ryk E
“These are of Tantimorcan design, yes? That could be difficult.”
“But still, outnumbered more than one hundred sixty to one? This will not be a major problem.”
“They will undoubtedly fly patrols, unless they are fools, and my research tells me they are very dangerously clever undercreatures. Such patrols will fly perhaps ten, fifteen thousand kilometers out and return. Will they have relay buoys?”
Alztanza buzzed wryly. “Again, as you said, they will unless they are fools.”
Dajzail leaned back on his legs, wobbling the prop-seat a bit. “Then it is likely that upon making any contact with a patrol vessel the alarm will be given. And the alarm will be relayed by radio. Thus, as soon as such contact is made, the attack must immediately go to full speed to engage before they have a chance to prepare.”
“Correct. I am currently planning to commit eight Seventh-Forces to the attack, in the Two Claws, Two Mouths formation, spread wide enough to bracket any likely forces, while the remaining six Seventh-Forces stay in reserve, with comm-buoys being deployed as we separate so that effective real-time communications can be maintained.
“That should give us a numeric superiority of nearly two hundred to one over the largest major force we expect and, with any reasonable luck, complete obliteration of their forces with minimal losses on our side. Then we will bring up the reserves and begin a variant on the Assault Wheel to provide continuous fire on their Sky Gate installations; I would expect us to be able to quickly saturate any defenses and then destroy those installations.”
He gestured to the Sphere. “At that point, we will have command of the skies. I will station a Seventh-Force outside of each of their Straits, in case they have any other deployable vessels, and another will be used to secure the Sky Gates. The remaining forces will be used to determine their land-based capabilities and distribution of forces so that we can most efficiently cripple or destroy them and then land our ground forces on the surface.
“Once a significant force has landed and established a perimeter, we expect that our gravity preferences will be established as a sign of our claim to the Upper Sphere. This will severely impede any remaining resistance, as the Human undercreatures’ biology is clearly intended for considerably lower gravity. We will establish a powerful ground force around their Outer Gateway, in multiple layers so that any attempt to, for example, clear the area using a superconductor bomb will not significantly impact our dominance.”
He looked up, manipulators and torso in a satisfied pose. “We can then begin assembling the Fleet, which will also have the added advantage of completely securing our ownership of their Upper Sphere. Even if—for whatever reason—our lowspace assault is not as effective as we would like, their activities in the Arena will be tremendously curtailed, perhaps for decades or centuries.”
“Good, ‘Tanza. Now tell me what could go wrong.”
An amused screech. “Everything, Daj. We don’t know enough about our enemy. Likely to go wrong? Not much. Could reasonably go wrong? Well …communications in the Arena are as variable as anything else. We could lose comm with the attacking force, which means that anything else going wrong could keep us from responding to a dangerous situation. They could have an alliance no one knows about, so there’s many more ships in the defensive force. Mines along our approach, there’s another one. Not likely, though, since to effectively mine the approach requires that you know where the ships are going; you can’t effectively mine a trillion cubic kilometers all around your Sphere, even if you wanted to.”
“What if they do mine the approach? Say a scoutship farther out than we expect, that sees us and reports back?”
“Hm. Well, we can put a screen of smaller ships with scanners in front. I’d be reasonably confident that we’d detect any mines they could create that way. Of course, that would mean the smaller ships would be the first ones in range of enemy fire; we couldn’t pull them in, especially if we had even a small indication of mine activity, until we could be sure we were in the clear.”
Dajzail did not like the idea of putting his people out in harm’s way, especially in tiny patrol vessels. On the other hand, he liked the idea of ships, including his own, running unaware into mines, even less. “Do that. I don’t want to take chances here. What if they have been warned?”
A spreading shrug. “Then we’ll take more casualties than I expect, but we’ll still win. At this stage, Daj? They haven’t detected us yet. They can’t detect us without some kind of scout vessel in range, and I’ll put my people’s ability to detect a spy up against any number of undercreatures’ attempts to spy. They don’t have the resources to have put spy ships out this far.”
Dajzail inhaled deeply, letting his fighting claws relax. “That was what I hoped to hear. In the end, then, they cannot know we are coming.”
“And even if they do, by a miracle,” Alztanza said with satisfied finality, “we will still destroy them all.”
Chapter 33
“Simon,” Laila said, “Correct me if I am wrong, but with our modern manufacturing techniques we could produce several ships such as those Orphan gave us each day, yes?”
“I would expect so, assuming sufficient attention and resources were dedicated to that task. Why do you ask?” Simon answered while checking the compact toolkit. Another trip to add “primaries,” this time to one of the Sky Gate Defense Stations.
“Because we aren’t doing that, and given that we now know the Molothos are in fact on their way I would think that adding as many ships to our forces as possible would be a major priority. So there must be aspects that I am not considering.” She gave one of her brief, bright smiles. “After all, I am a biologist, not an engineer or a tactician.”
“Actually,” Carl Edlund said, looking up from a screen where he had been going over the layout of defenses on the Upper Sphere, “I think there’s two major points. Right, Simon?”
“Quite. First …we have to assume that there may be an assault force—and an extremely large one—launched at any time from the nearby Molothos colony in normal space. While the Arena apparently prevents Nicoll-Dyson laser or c-fractional assaults, it does not prevent the Molothos from sending an invasion force through our Sky Gates, and such a force could be …incalculably huge. We could be looking at a normal-space invasion force numbering in the millions.”
Laila nodded. “All right. So our shipbuilding capabilities must be focused on making an immensely powerful home defense—something that at least can benefit from our AI resources. What is the second point?”
“Crewing the vessels. It is one thing to play simgames as part of the crew of a vessel in an interstellar war, quite another to actually be willing and able to be a member of such a crew. While many skills can be transferred to a person by skill download, you cannot simply turn an ordinary person into a capable warrior. Or rather, one could, but that would—”
“—be the equivalent of mindwipe and reprogramming to someone who wasn’t such a person to begin with. Yes, I see. We are having trouble fully crewing even the vessels we have; selecting and training enough people for ten times that many vessels is simply not feasible.” Laila sighed. “I should have deduced that one on my own, I suppose, but it isn’t my speciality. So we are limited to our current forces, at least for the reasonable future—which includes our upcoming battle.”
He nodded, seeing Laila’s face suddenly mirroring the same strain he had seen on Ariane’s more than once. The position of Leader of the Faction …that is a weight I hope I never have to carry. “I am afraid so.”
“Then how are we planning to deal with this?”
“We have had multiple SFGs working on the problem. Overall, we have to exploit our advantages in a way that minimizes their own.”
“The primaries.”
“That is certainly one large advantage. The other is, of course, that we know that they are coming, how many of them there are, and have an excellent understanding of their capabilities. Thus, while they h
ave every reason to believe their assault will come as a surprise, and are already slowly deploying their forces based on that assumption, we will actually be able to select the time and manner of engagement. They will also know nothing, as you say, of the primaries, so their target engagement distances will be based on false assumptions of how close they can get and still be reasonably safe.”
Carl pointed to his own display. “Basically, the idea is to let them come in and think they’ve got the drop on us. Make it look like most of our ships are out on patrol, let the Molothos come in to try and take out the gateway picket boats in preparation for destroying the defensive stations. Based on the information from the battle against the Blessed and the Zounin-Ginjou, we’re figuring on letting them get within about a thousand kilometers and then wham! All our ships start taking them out from ranges they can’t match.”
“Why are the ranges so short?” Laila asked. “I know that was the range for the battle you were in, Simon—in fact, you closed to around two hundred—but back home any battles in space are fought at ranges of hundreds of thousands of kilometers or more. Is it the fact that AIs do not work? I presume radar still does, yes?”
“The short answer is, ‘the Arena,’” Simon said, feeling a rather cynical grin on his own face. “In more detail, because things like radar do not penetrate thousands of miles of relatively humid air, let alone such air with particulates of all sizes floating in it, flocks of creatures of many types, and so on to provide additional confusion and interference. The Arena allows us to see—variably—farther with visible light, but without automation of great capability, targeting and navigation tends to still rely on individual people’s sight with modest, relatively wide-angle magnification.”
The brown-haired biologist pursed her lips, then nodded. “I see. The Arena controls the nature of engagements in both spaces, and here they are much more …up-close and personal.”
“Exactly,” Simon said. Turning to Carl, he went on, “Once hostilities begin, we will target Dajzail’s ship first, I presume?” Simon said.
“No,” Laila said instantly. At his raised eyebrow, she went on, “Unless his ship is obviously in the forefront and exposed, anyway. Ambushing them is believable, though surprising. Unexpected weapons are believable, though surprising. Instantly knowing which vessel the Leader of the Faction is on? Much less believable, and your special capability is something we simply do not want anyone to even suspect. More importantly, we do not want to set a precedent that killing Leaders of Factions is the acceptable first move.”
“Also, much as I hate to say it, we don’t want them thrown into both chaos from losing their top dogs, and a worse vengeance mode,” Carl said reluctantly. “Because right now? Our best projections show that we’ll be able to hurt the hell out of them, but primaries and all, we’ll still end up losing this battle. So we’ll need to hope we can hurt them so bad right off that we can convince them to back off, at least long enough.”
Simon heard his breath whistle in through his teeth. “That bad?”
“Simon, you gave us the count. They’ve got four hundred times as many ships as we do—maybe two hundred, if we count the Sky Gate defense stations. Hell, even if they lose ninety-nine percent of their forces and we take zero losses, they’ll still have four times our forces. Aside from the primaries, their ships will be just as good as ours, crewed by people used to fighting interstellar wars in the Arena for God only knows how long.” He shook his head. “And the movements you reported on your last glance? The SFGs say that means they’re already alert for possible mines and other traps along their route. They’re being careful. We’ll sucker them once. But after that…”
The room was quiet for a moment, and Simon felt the coming assault weighing down on them all like an invisible mass of lead. Finally, he sighed, bent down, and picked up the case. “Well, all I can do then is try to improve the odds. I’d better get back to work.”
He had to force his steps to their usual quick, precise motion. The thought that they would soon lose the Upper Sphere that DuQuesne and Carl had risked their lives to take back was almost intolerable. Even worse …if they are right, should we even try to fight back? We’ll be losing lives, ships, and the secret of the primaries for no purpose then. I may have to advise Laila and Carl to …abandon the Upper Sphere entirely. And the thought of that …well, as Marc might say, really sticks in my craw.
A green comm-ball appeared. “Simon, my friend, are you possibly free to speak for a few moments?” asked a familiar rough-edged voice.
“Relgof?” He paused for a moment, but a request from a Faction Leader was not one to be brushed off lightly. “Certainly, Doctor. Go ahead.”
“I would like to speak in person, if it is not too much of an imposition. Would you come to the Faction House?”
Simon felt his curiosity rising. “I am on my way, in that case. Give me ten minutes, five if I am fortunate.”
“I will be awaiting you here.”
It was seven and a half minutes before one of the floating taxi-platforms deposited Simon in front of the Faction House of the Analytic. He passed through the doors to see Doctor Relgof rise from a chair in the anteroom and come immediately forward. “Simon, my friend, thank you! I did not want to say, but it was extremely important that you come immediately.”
“I am …intrigued by the urgency, Relgof. What—”
“Come, come,” he said, beckoning Simon to follow, white feathery crest nodding with the quickness of Relgof’s steps. “Our usual room awaits!”
In a few moments they reached the room with the chair tailored for Simon’s comfort and the eating trough opposite for Relgof, and were seated. “All right, Doctor Rel, enough of the mystery; tell me what is going on?”
“Ahh, Simon, allow me my few moments of dramatics! Is it not true that the way of a Researcher is many hours of dull routine for the moment of understanding, insight, revelation, or, perhaps, of presentation?” The semi-humanoid face had expressions Simon had learned to read, and right now Rel was, in effect, smiling roguishly at him.
Simon laughed and smiled back, allowing himself to relax a bit. Whatever Relgof had in mind, it was clearly something he thought would at the least amuse his human friend. “True enough, Rel. So on with the show!”
“Show? Ahh, yes, the performance! Well, you may recall—certainly must recall—the terribly startling revelation of one of our most recent conversations?”
“That we had made a discovery of some importance about the Faith and Shadeweavers …a discovery you did not remember at the time?”
“Precisely. Oh, now, that was a shock, I must say, for to forget anything is a scientist’s bane. To forget something so important? I think we both realized that this meant that the Shadeweavers or the Faith—or, perhaps, in this case a rare union of both—had acted directly and deliberately to remove such knowledge.”
“Yes, it certainly made no sense otherwise.”
“But then, I asked myself …why was it that you were unaffected? For a short time I was at a loss …but then I remembered the ending of your Captain’s duel against Amas-Garao, and the price she demanded—a price the Arena accepted and forced upon the Shadeweavers entire.”
“Quite right,” Simon said with a nod. Replaying that event in his mind, he quoted, “…From this point on, no Shadeweaver will ever read, sense, influence, brainwash, mentally assault, or in any other way outside of the mundane methods available to all other Arena species have any effect upon the minds of the Faction of Humanity or our direct and close allies.”
“So! The Shadeweavers could not remove that memory from your mind. Yet I had kept that memory for at least some short time—you had not noticed I had forgotten before. So my suspicion was that I would not lose this knowledge until I left our Faction House; the Faction Houses are secure and protected, and without invitation even a Shadeweaver cannot enter, and presumably that meant that their powers could not reach within unbidden.
“This did leave me wi
th a terrible dilemma, however. I did not dare confront the Shadeweavers about this issue, for many reasons, and I did not wish to lose knowledge. So I came to what seemed the only reasonable conclusion.” He stood and did the wide-spread bow he had made upon their first meeting. “I, Relgof Nov’Ne Knarph of the Analytic, pledge myself personally to be a ‘direct and close ally’ of Humanity. My interests I shall align with yours. We have, of course, been friends, but it is clear that my prior actions have still taken the Analytic as my primary allegiance—and for purposes of the Arena, it is also clear that that was insufficient to extend the protection to me.”
Simon felt a huge grin spreading over his face; he stood and grasped one of Rel’s double-thumbed hands. “This is wonderful news, Rel; we couldn’t ask for a better ally. But does that mean …you want to join the Faction of Humanity?”
Relgof straightened and his filter-beard flip-flopped in a laughing smile. “If necessary I would indeed have done so, because to make my mind fully my own? Nothing is more valuable.”
Simon felt a tingle of awe and hope starting across him. Could it be …? He remembered something he had seen in passing, when testing his omniscience…
“But I am the Leader of the Analytic, and I knew, too, that the sanctity of our minds—of our knowledge—was of paramount importance to the Faction as a whole. And so I have spoken—and lectured—and even argued with all the passion of my life with the Convocation.” The alien smile was now even broader than Simon’s. “And I am pleased to say that despite much reluctance, they finally acquiesced. As the Leader of the Faction of the Analytic, I am announcing to you—and will convey to your Leader in a moment—that the Faction of the Analytic is now a full ally of the Faction of Humanity, and we would like to know if there is any service we can provide you to prove that this alliance is true and worthy.”
For a moment, Simon could not believe his ears; and then he heard his own laughter echoing through the room. “Is there any service you can provide?” he repeated, and then his expression became serious. “Doctor Relgof, the Analytic may just be able to save Humanity.”
