Rumors of Glory (The System States Rebellion Book 1)

by Dietmar Wehr

  “I can’t get you in to see the CSO, Lieutenant, but I can pass your request on to his Aide.”

  Murphy decided not to press the issue. Talking to a five-star Admiral’s Aide probably was the limit of the Chief’s reach.

  “Whatever you can do will be appreciated, Chief.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Day 300/2541

  Janicot opened the door of his inner office and stood on the threshold. There were two men sitting in the waiting area. He recognized Cmdr. Drake but not the other man who was not wearing a uniform. His Aide came over to him.

  “Who’s the civvy, Lieutenant?” asked Janicot.

  “He’s a former FED Navy officer who claims to have important information, Sir.”

  “Oh really? Hm. Bring him in. You may as well listen in too.” By the time Janicot sat back down behind his desk, the Aide and the civilian had entered the room. Janicot pointed to the two chairs that faced the desk. When both men were seated, Janicot said, “I’m Admiral Janicot, and you are?”

  “Ex-Lieutenant Bret Murphy, Admiral.”

  “Well, Mr. Murphy, anyone who’s willing to fight for the Union is welcome. I understand that you have information you think will help the Cause. I’m eager to hear it.”

  “Yes, Sir. Thank you for seeing me, Admiral. As I’m sure you know by now, hundreds of Army and Navy personnel who are sympathetic to the SSU either resigned voluntarily or were discharged after failing their verifier tests. However, I know of one individual who has not been tested and who has access to information on the Federation’s strategic plans. She’s elected to stay in uniform in order to pass that information along to us, if we can set up a secure way of communication.” Murphy noticed a change in the body language of both the Admiral and his Aide.

  “Now that IS interesting. What more can you tell me, Mr. Murphy?” asked Janicot.

  “She’s an Army Captain. I’m not sure if revealing her name would be wise of me at this point in time. She’s assigned to the Joint Army/Navy Planning Group. That’s the group that’s developing sophisticated computer technology to manage all of the Army’s and the Navy’s logistical, administrative and, if necessary, strategic planning. They’ve already got a prototype which they call Oracle, but they’re now working on a much more capable version which is codenamed Majestic. She had already passed some technical data on the Oracle version to me, but I wasn’t able to get it past the FED body searches prior to boarding the exchange ship. If we can set up a courier posing as a crewmember of a freighter that travels between Earth and a planet that the Union can access, then this courier can contact her on a regular basis and bring back data chips on their computer project and strategic plans, perhaps even fleet deployment data.”

  Janicot nodded. “We already knew about Oracle but not about the upgraded version. It’s a damn shame that you couldn’t bring back that tech data. I think we’re going to have to try developing our own Oracle and Majestic systems, and having a head start would have made a huge difference, but at least we now know about this Majestic project of theirs. I take it that Majestic will be built on Earth?”

  “No, Admiral. The plan is to build it somewhere in the Franklin Tri-system.”

  “Franklin?” said Janicot in surprise. “Do you know why they would want it there?”

  “Yes, Sir. Oracle picked that star system for three reasons. One is its strategic location. It’s much closer to the SSU than Earth is. Another reason is that it contains a habitable world, Hadley, which would be perfect as a staging area for large formations of Army units. Finally, it has a planet, Makassar, which has a very high concentration of metals and would be the perfect place to establish large scale shipbuilding infrastructure.”

  Janicot leaned back and nodded. “Yes, of course. With ships and troops concentrated there, having their strategic computer in the same system would minimize communication lags. It all fits. If they’re going to go to all the trouble of building up industrial infrastructure there, they must be planning on building a lot of ships.”

  Murphy nodded. “At least a thousand, Admiral.” He saw Janicot’s face go pale.

  “My God. I had no idea this war would reach that kind of scale.” He paused and then said, “That has to mean that the overall Field Commander will be stationed there as well. Have they picked an Admiral to command their campaign yet?”

  “General Jonn Trojan will be the senior FED officer in charge. He’s apparently been given a blank check.”

  “Wait a minute,” said Janicot. “You’re telling me that an army general is going to be in command of fleets containing hundreds of navy ships? What the hell does Trojan know about strategic fleet deployment?”

  Murphy shrugged. “I can’t speak to that question, Admiral. I was told that the Navy Chief of Staff initially resisted that appointment but is now supporting it. If I had to guess, I’d say that running the joint army/navy planning group along with experience in using their Oracle prototype probably had something to do with it.”

  “It probably had a lot to do with it,” said Janicot. “It’ll take years before they can start using ships built in the Franklin Tri-system. What can you tell me about their strategic thinking in the interim period between now and then?”

  “Their main priority now is to hold on to as many planets as possible. The few ships they have left after their disastrous raid on this planet are to be used to discourage key planets from jumping over to our side. The 20 additional cruisers that were authorized initially will be upgraded versions of the standard patrol cruiser, and those will be used to protect their shipping from our commerce raiders.”

  “Do you know what kind of upgrades those 20 cruisers will get?” asked Janicot.

  Murphy shook his head. “No, Admiral. Captain F—, ah, the Captain was still working on getting the upgrade specs downloaded when I left.”

  “I see. Is there anything else you can add that we might find useful?”

  “Not really, Admiral.”

  “Okay then. You’ve given me some very useful information, and on behalf of the Union I thank you. Can I assume that you’d like to volunteer for our Navy?”

  After a slight hesitation, Murphy said, “I’ll serve wherever you think I can make the most contribution. However, if given a choice I’d prefer to work in establishing and maintaining contact with our embedded Captain.”

  Janicot looked at his Aide who raised an eyebrow in response. “Is there something I should know with regards to you and this Captain, Mr. Murphy?” asked Janicot.

  “We’re lovers, Admiral.”

  “Ah.” Janicot said nothing for a few seconds. “Well I can’t promise anything, but I’ll take your request under advisement, Mr. Murphy. Please make sure my Aide knows how to reach you, and thank you again for bringing this to my attention.”

  Janicot stood up and offered his hand. Murphy shook it and headed for the door, with the Aide in tow. Before reaching the door, Murphy turned around.

  “I just remembered something that the Captain heard through the grapevine. I don’t know if it’s true or not,” said Murphy.

  “What was that?” asked Janicot.

  “Well, apparently General Trojan was discussing the new Majestic computer’s projected capabilities with the Navy Chief of Staff. The grapevine claims that he told the NCoS that Majestic would be worth a hundred of their proposed new battleships, all by itself.”

  “Very interesting. Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Lieutenant, you can send in Commander Drake now.” Might as well get this over with before I head over to Sorensen’s office, thought Janicot.

  Drake knew he was in trouble the instant he stepped into the Admiral’s inner office and saw the expression on his face. Janicot didn’t say a word as Drake stepped up to the desk and said, “I’m reporting as ordered, Sir.” There was still no verbal response. Janicot wasn’t even looking at him now. He was reading a data tablet on the desk in front of him. Drake remained standing. Even at the best of times, sitting down without being invited w
as not recommended behavior in front of a senior officer. And this was not the best of times.

  Finally, Janicot looked up at him as he leaned back in his chair. “I’m not going to sugarcoat this, Commander. I’m VERY disappointed that you managed to get one of our dearly won cruisers shot out from under you on your very first mission.” Janicot waited to see how Drake would react to that and nodded mentally when Drake didn’t try to make excuses.

  “I can’t help but wonder if you were promoted too quickly. I’m not going to demote you, if only because it would send the wrong kind of signal to other officers that failure will be punished. However, past success or failure WILL play a role in determining where we assign you next. Right now, we have a temporary surplus of experienced officers as a result of the exchange. Giving you another combat command when there are other officers who have not yet been given a chance to show what they can do would, in my opinion, not be in the best interests of our Navy. Therefore you will be assigned to command one of our freighters when the next command slot opens up. Under the circumstances you should consider yourself lucky to get that. You’re dismissed, Commander.”

  “I understand, Sir,” said Drake in a carefully controlled voice. As he turned and walked stiffly out, he wondered if the rumors of glory would ever come true for him.

  Janicot watched him leave. I don’t know if you have the right kind of tactical skills we need, but you certainly have the right psychological makeup. You didn’t bat an eye, and you didn’t make excuses. Maybe you’re not a lost cause after all, Commander Drake. We’ll see.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Day 305/2541

  Chancellor Belloc looked annoyed when he put down the data tablet and regarded Frank Shaw. The Industry & Trade Secretary suppressed the urge to sigh. He had a hunch that this conversation wasn’t going to be pleasant.

  “I don’t understand this sudden 180 degree change in strategy, Frank. You’ve been pounding the table all along saying that we have to capture the big freighters in order to establish a meaningful volume of trade between SSU planets, and now you’re telling me that strategy was a mistake? Your staff has had over three years to identify the economic challenges the Union would face and figure out ways of overcoming them. How could they get it so wrong?”

  Now Shaw did sigh. The Chancellor was reacting exactly the same way that he, himself, had reacted a week ago when one of his analysts had presented that same report. It had taken Shaw a whole day to finally understand what the new situation was. He doubted if the Chancellor would be that patient.

  “Do you remember us discussing the economic implications of creating the Union three years ago, Nathan?” asked Shaw. When it was just the two of them, he could refer to the Chancellor by his first name. Belloc nodded. “Back then I told you that the proposed Union had to switch from a single, large hub-and-spoke model, with Earth in the center, to a fish-net model where the developed Union planets would each trade with one or two other Union planets. I also said at the time that this assumption was based on very preliminary computer studies, using extremely limited data on the economic strengths and weaknesses of other planets we thought might join the Union. As you know, my department’s top priority has been to gather the volume of data necessary to get reliable results, using it to create a sophisticated multi-planet economic model. Getting that data hasn’t been easy. Our requests for it from other planetary governments only reached them after detouring to Earth first. That detour took months, and getting the information back also had to detour to Earth before heading back here. That’s the penalty of having 96% of all shipping capacity controlled by Earth-based shipping companies using their single hub-and-spoke model. Anything going from A to B has to be shipped to Earth first and vice versa. The delay and extra cost of trading between each other out here was one of the main reasons we felt we had to set up the Union in the first place.

  “Once we had enough data, my people were finally able to begin designing computer algorithms to analyze that data and generate useful insights into it. They finally completed that project a few weeks ago. Our initial studies were all predicated on using the large 250-300-meter diameter freighters that the big shipping companies tend to use. After all, the logic seemed to be obvious. A 300-meter diameter freighter has 27 times the internal volume of a 100-meter diameter freighter. That’s why spherical spaceships are the preferred shape. A sphere maximizes internal volume for a given size. What we failed to realize was that the reasons why the Earth-based shipping companies use large ships has to do mainly with operating efficiency and only secondarily with the nuances of the single hub-and-spoke model. When you’ve got one hub, ie. Earth, and hundreds of spokes, which are all the other planets, then it makes sense to have large ships you can send out to each planet twice a year. That low frequency of visits means that there’ll be a lot of cargo and/or lots of passengers waiting to be carried on each trip. Therefore you can fill up a large ship. The operating efficiency comes from the fact that you don’t need a crew 27 times larger to operate a ship that has 27 times as much capacity.

  “Well that’s all nice and fine for shipping companies, but those aren’t our priorities. We’re more concerned with bringing down the cost of trading with each other by having ships travel directly between Union planets. All other things being equal, that means shorter distances, and THAT means more frequent trips. So even if you’re going to use large ships, you’ll still need more of them, and they won’t have anywhere close to a full cargo for each trip. We understood that, but since our shipping companies would be owned by planetary governments, we wouldn’t care if half-empty ships resulted in only modest profits or even losses. The indirect economic benefits of the direct trade would more than offset any out-of-pocket losses, and that doesn’t even take into consideration the benefit of shifting military equipment quickly to where it’s needed.

  “It was that assumption of using lots of large ships that was the flaw in our logic, but it took the computer analysis to point that flaw out to us. No matter what we do, either with capturing freighters or building them, we can’t acquire enough of the big freighters fast enough to exploit the Union’s economic and industrial potential anywhere close to the max. Those big ships just take too long to build. That’s why the report is now recommending shifting our shipbuilding strategy to building much smaller freighters in the 50-80-meter diameter range. That’s small enough that we can use modular construction techniques to almost mass-produce them. What they lack in cargo capacity, they can make up for with multiple trips, AND since these small freighters can also act as couriers, an indirect benefit will be faster communications between all members of the Union. We’ll even be able to deploy some of them to trade with nearby FED planets too. In fact, a couple of my analysts are of the opinion that demonstrating the practicality of direct trading links with small freighters might just be an excellent way of getting more planets into the Union and away from the Federation.” Shaw was puzzled by Belloc’s sudden change of expression. It almost looked as if the Chancellor had just had an ‘aha’ moment.

  “Yes, I think I see the problem,” said Belloc. “The need for shipping capacity between all members of the Union will grow exponentially as the number of member planets grows, correct?”

  Shaw blinked in surprise. To gain that profound insight just on the basis of the report and Shaw’s brief explanation was an impressive accomplishment.

  “Ah, yes, that’s an excellent way of describing the situation in a nutshell, and given that the Union is expanding as fast as formal applications for membership can reach us, the challenge of integrating the economies of new planets would only get more and more difficult if we continue to build a relatively small number of large freighters.”

  Belloc nodded. “Okay then, I’ll approve the recommended switch in building priority. Does it make sense to finish the large hulls that we’ve already started?”

  “Only if they can be completed in less time than building a smaller ship from scratch. I’ve alrea
dy checked. There are two that fit that criteria. The others should be either scrapped or converted to military design if possible.”

  “Well, we need all the warships we can get our hands on, so let’s pursue that option as much as possible. And speaking of warships, now that we don’t want large freighters anymore, does that mean that we can redeploy our current fleet of cruisers to something other than commerce raiding?”

  Shaw took his time answering. “I can’t speak to the short-term military implications of doing that, but from the point of view of conducting economic warfare, denying the FEDs the use of freighters they already have by destroying them instead of capturing them, would slow down their military buildup, and that has to be worth our consideration.”

  Belloc nodded even as his thoughts returned again to the desirability of using a super-Oracle type of device to analyze the hundreds of variables that would affect that kind of decision. The Union’s head start could rapidly evaporate if they didn’t get a handle on these sorts of complex problems before it was too late.