by John Lumpkin
Neil switched screens and started a video. It showed Earth from thousands of kilometers distant. Stars moved around between the camera and the planet, marking ships with their fusion candles lit. Two clusters of ships, the Japanese and the Korean-Chinese squadrons, engaged in battle.
A series of bright flares burst within the Japanese fleet. The camera zoomed in to the point where the image was shaky. More flares went off, like camera flashes in a darkened stadium.
“Nukes,” Lieutenant Commander Davis said.
“Yes, the Koreans used thermonuclear weapons in the 500-kiloton range,” Neil said. He felt a slight rush at being the bearer of news to his colleagues. “About twenty Japanese ships were destroyed. The rest withdrew to GEO above Japan.”
“How’d we get these pictures?” Doc Avery asked.
“I can’t say,” Neil said. Presumably a satellite, but he really didn’t know. “These images are about twenty hours old. The battle was well beyond the atmosphere, so there was no EMP or other effects we’d see in a blast close to the surface, although some radioactive debris might ultimately make re-entry. About five hours after the battle, the Koreans announced they had withdrawn from the parts of the Solingen Accord prohibiting the use of nukes in space. China and Japan followed suit. The Koreans then said they were responding to the Japanese invasion of their homeland, and they would not rule out using nuclear weapons against surface targets.”
“This gets better and better,” Mendoza grumbled.
“The Korean and Chinese fleet, now in control of Earth orbit, began periodic laser and mass bombardment of the Japanese lodgement near Pusan, although they have had to keep their fleet together in case the SDF tries to retake orbit. That means they can’t manage constant strikes. The Japanese have gotten in some licks, too. They started using a new class of submarine – something they never told us about – that can carry a surface-to-orbit laser. So the beachhead looks like it will hold, for the time being.
“China and Korea now have space superiority at Mercury, Saturn and Uranus; they have wolfpacks stationed at five of the seven keyholes out of the Solar System. Only our keyhole to Lalande 21185 and the European keyhole to UV Ceti are not under some form of blockade.
“Fuel supplies are running low in the Japanese fleet. Some eighty ships are anchored at Earth’s leading Trojan point, and another thirty are at Saturn’s leading Trojan. A few ships sortie from both, but their operations are so curtailed we can only conclude they are facing significant shortages.”
Captain Thorne said, “Deuterium, helium-3 or antimatter?”
“Unclear. Definitely hee-three, possibly deuterium and antimatter as well. They’ve been cut off for some time,” he said and paused. When the captain didn’t ask a follow-up question, he went on. “This is regarded as a product of the Japanese focus on applying efficient business procedures to their logistics. It was a great cost-saver during peacetime, but lately, it hasn’t worked out so well: They eliminated too many of the redundancies you simply need to fight a war. In the last week, they have announced they would resume mining helium-3 on the moon. As you can imagine, that sparked a great deal of protest.”
Everyone knew the great scars and featureless plains on the lunar surface, the result of decades of mining for the rare helium isotope. When ships became efficient enough to reach and mine Saturn, helium extraction on the Moon was outlawed to preserve the remaining craters and other natural structures on the surface.
“Finally, the Chinese have stepped up boarding operations against merchant traffic suspected of carrying war materiel or fuel for the Japanese fleet. Ten hours ago, an American-flagged freighter, the Buenaventura, was seized while heading for Earth for carrying contraband.”
“Was she?” asked one of the officers, an engineer named Vracek whom Neil barely knew.
“I wouldn’t put it past us,” Tom answered. The response was so flip and cynical that it caused a few heads to turn.
“Secure that,” Davis growled at him.
“I really don’t know,” Neil said quickly, hoping to prevent Tom from mouthing off further. “The officers have been imprisoned; the crew, mostly Filipino, will be transferred to a civilian station orbiting Earth and released. Moving on, we’ll take up the strategic picture.”
Neil called up a map of the current sphere of human-reached systems. It looked like a city subway chart gone horribly awry. Keyhole routes radiated out from the Solar System in all directions, branching and branching again, tracing humanity’s search for potentially habitable worlds. The reaching fingers stopped abruptly as they hit an edge nearly 60 light-years from Earth, the limit of human exploration.
In places, keyhole routes intersected at a given system, creating a connection between branches. Such inter-branch connections had typically been built with the intention of creating trade routes between colonial worlds; without them, a freighter would have to travel all the way up one branch to the Solar System and then back down another to reach its destination.
The connections were also border crossings, home to customs and immigration stations, fuel depots and military bases. In war, the systems were the choke points, strategic Panama canals that could serve as routes for fleets to threaten colony worlds without having to fight through the Solar System.
But in a few places, the connections had been unplanned. Two nations had both targeted the same system with wormholes from other, separate, nearby systems. One was Kuan Yin, at 11 Leonis Minoris, settled by the Chinese and later the Americans, where Neil’s friend Rand Castillo was stationed. Another was Gliese 86, the orange dwarf in Eridani that had served as a flashpoint for the war.
“Our best information is that while Gliese 86 remains in contention, the PLA has dispatched a large strike force from there into Japanese territory,” Neil said, highlighting two stars. “They were moving toward Zeta Tucanae two weeks ago. The SDF was counterattacking from Delta Pavonis, but we don’t know whether their counterattack was successful.
“Now, in the event of Chinese-American hostilities – excuse me – in the event of widespread Chinese-American hostilities –” The reference to the battle with the Anjian was rewarded with some grim chuckles. “– we can expect threats to U.S. territory at 11 Leonis Minoris, Lalande 21185, WX Ursae Majoris and possibly along our route home, through SZ Ursae Majoris, although analysis suggests an attack along this axis is unlikely given the distance to any habitable worlds.
Neil unconsciously pitched his voice deeper to give it more authority. “Don’t be fooled by our victory into thinking they are weaker than we are,” he said. “We’ve wargamed conflicts with China for some time, and they are tough. The Chinese make ships almost as good as we do, and they have 550 fighting ships reinforced by the 120-ship Korean fleet. The Japanese have whittled down those numbers some. The SDF started the war with 380 ships, and we have 240. Our allies could bring almost 100 into the fight. In that event, we’ll have a few more hulls, but they are slightly ahead of us in overall ship tonnage.”
Neil called up a line drawing and image of a particular class of Chinese ship.
“Here’s an example. This is a vessel of the Shichang class, what we’re classifying as a ‘beam cruiser,’ similar to our Yellowstone and the Brits’ T-class, but better. They have eight of them and are assigning them in pairs to their fleets. The Shichang is a long-range, deep-ultraviolet laser cannon with a fusion candle and a bridge.”
“Deep ultraviolet?” Garcia, the laser officer, interrupted.
“Yes, these are built purely for antiship warfare, not orbital bombardment,” Neil said. Visible lasers could best penetrate a planet’s atmosphere; a deep UV laser, with a deadly but short wavelength, couldn’t touch something on the ground. “Now, they have weaknesses: They are slow, have very little in point defenses and thin armor. They can’t fire very often.”
“What’s their range?”
“Against a warship, maybe 10,000 klicks.”
Someone in the audience emitted a low whistle. Ameri
can counterbatteries would be ineffective against a Shichang at that distance, so an American fleet would have to endure multiple hits from the big laser while closing to destroy it.
“Moving on. A key difference in how we operate is the level of independence given to officers and senior NCOs. Basically, we have more freedom than they do at every level. Captain Thorne has authorities that her Chinese counterparts do not. It’s a legacy of when the PLA really matured, around a hundred years ago, when warfare was still primarily terrestrial. Communications were instant, and precise information on friendly forces, for the first time in history, was available. Commanders could exercise superb control over their troops, so they didn’t see the need to teach independence in lower-level officers and NCOs. Compare that to when the U.S. military matured, in the first half of the 20th Century, when communications were terrible. Junior officers were often given general orders to figure out how to implement on their own. Training, education and morale enabled them to fulfill objectives with minimal guidance.”
“Pros and cons?” Davis prompted.
“Well, for us, we have operational speed and flexibility that they lack. For what it’s worth, that’s my best guess why the Paltus we fought waited to engage us. A lot of their contingency orders are pre-written; where we trust an officer to use creativity and problem-solving, they send an officer to the manual. That makes them somewhat predictable, and some of their captains freeze up when presented with an ambiguous situation and call home for guidance, whereas we typically don’t have to wait a few hours for orders from higher headquarters. On the other hand, they don’t have to train their officers as much as we do, and a greater proportion of the training they do receive is technical. They get personnel to the field faster, and don’t have to go home for refresher courses as often. In addition, they tend not to value providing information down the chain of command, so they, uh, don’t spend nearly as much as time in meetings.”
Davis’ laugh was loudest. Even Thorne smiled thinly.
As the brief was breaking up, Erin approached Neil at the podium. He regarded her coolly – or, at least, tried to regard her coolly, but his mind raced. Of all the briefings …
“Neil, I wanted to say thanks for the steer during the battle,” she said. “You made the key connection. I hope the captain has said something to you.”
“Well, she hasn’t, but thanks,” Neil said quietly. He tried to think of something to add.
Erin said, “I also wanted to talk to you about –”
“Neil! Great presentation, buddy!” It was Doc Avery, with Tom floating close behind him. They grabbed handholds on the wall to stop their approach. “I feel readier than ever to paste those Han bastards all the way back to Earth!”
“Thinking about leaving medicine, Doc? Signing up for a combat specialty, maybe?” Tom asked wryly, even as he gave Neil and Erin a long look.
We’ve got openings, Neil thought darkly.
Instead of answering, Avery said, “I’m hungry. Who’s up for chow?”
“Sir, I’m sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if I could, well, bother you.” It was Rodriguez, the Mandarin-speaking astronaut who had survived the chaos on Commonwealth. They were in the gym; Neil had been hoping to run into Erin, to perhaps strike up a conversation that would lead to a meal that would lead to …
“No bother,” he said. “What’s on your mind?”
“It’s Sun Haisheng,” she said. “Scuttlebutt is we’re taking him back to Earth, and you’ve spent some time with him.”
“I can’t really talk about that.”
“Oh.” She looked crestfallen. “I guess that makes sense. But I can’t tell you what an honor it would be to meet him. My mother’s side of the family is from Taiwan; they immigrated to New York after reunification. Speaker Sun is not widely known outside of China, except in the Taiwan expat community, where we all receive copies of his writings. Sir, he is a great man.”
Don’t reveal anything with your questions, Neil reminded himself. “How so?” he said.
“He has a vision for Taiwan. He is a man of arts, of ideas, of de.”
Neil translated the Mandarin word in his head as “virtue” but knew it meant much more than that. He wondered whether Rodriguez would forgive Sun’s mistresses. Maybe she wants to be one. “What sort of vision?” he asked.
Her eyes lit up. “He wants not only wants Taiwan to be independent, but he wants it to be China done correctly, with free expression and true elections but also humility and respect for wisdom that, I’m sorry to say, sir, that a lot of the West lacks. Even though we are but 30 million people” – Neil noted she said “we” – “we deserve a place in the stars, to define our own future on a planet free of influence of the mainland and of everyone else who has made Taiwan a pawn through the years. He simply believes Taiwan should chart its own course at last.”
Perhaps a more outspoken officer would have reminded Rodriguez she was an American, but Neil was not that sort of officer. He was grateful for the new understanding, and he saw no reason to disabuse her of her grand notions, to tell her that Taiwan was still a pawn, and the U.S. interest in Sun was to destabilize China, to force it to divert its resources to fighting an insurgency on the island, and to create a fifth column to support a potential invasion by Japanese forces at some indeterminate point in the future. If all that happened, it is likely Taiwan would simply become another satellite of Japan, like the Philippines.
Instead, Neil said, “Thanks, Andrea.”
The other shoe dropped three weeks later.
PRIORITY MESSAGE
TOP SECRET
1408Z 11OCT2139
FR: VADM SALAZAR USSPACECOM
TO: COMMAND/OPS ALL USSF SHIPS
1. STATE OF HOSTILITIES NOW EXISTS BETWEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA AND THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF KOREA.
2. CONDUCT OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS AS REQUIRED AGAINST PRC AND URK FORCES. FLAG OFFICERS MAY AUTHORIZE USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN INTERPLANETARY SPACE ONLY. RULES OF ENGAGEMENT OTHERWISE UNRESTRICTED.
3. ALLIED FORCES CONSIST OF JAPAN. DETAILS OF JOINT OPERATIONAL DOCTRINE FORTHCOMING.
4. GOOD HUNTING.
A longer intelligence report followed in Neil’s queue. The flashpoint had come when a Chinese destroyer fired on the American passenger liner Sapphire, shortly after the civilian ship arrived around Mars after transiting the Alpha Centauri wormhole. The destroyer demanded the liner submit to an inspection; the captain refused. Warning shots were ignored; battle shots opened a section of the liner to space. More than 400 people, including dozens of children, were killed.
Not far away was the American warship Kuwait City, a sister ship to San Jacinto. After the attack on the liner, she traded shots with the Chinese, and both ships limped away wounded.
In the hours that followed, segments of the American public screamed for retaliatory strikes. China accused the passenger liner of running antimatter meant to supply Japanese ships, and some survivors indeed recalled seeing sections of the vessel that were cordoned off. The American and Japanese governments, as well as the cruise line, issued firm denials.
President Delgado moved quickly, denouncing China’s acts toward the United States as a clear sign of aggression. He asked Congress to send him a declaration of war, and it complied. Hawaiian Representative Eugene Ando’s long-languishing bill, once regarded as a joke by mainstream Americans, was sent to the President.
Support was far from total. The Senate vote was 64-40; in the House, it was 389-85. Fourteen House members, many of them of Chinese ancestry, walked out of Congress after the vote. Protests and counter-protests sprang up. Some decried it was a racist war against China; others said it was a futile power grab on the part of the United States. Still others protested simply for peace.
On San Jacinto, most felt a grim determination. We already went to war; now the rest of you are joining us. Many genuinely blamed the Chinese in every respect; to them, America was righteous; if America was i
n a war, it must be a just war.
Astronaut Sarah Blankenship, Brooklyn, New York: “It’s about time we showed the Hans we can still fight. Some gook company laid off my mom when I was a kid. Then they try to shoot us down. America’s taken it up the ass for too long.”
Fusion Technician 3rd Class Miguel Landers, Sioux City, Iowa: “Where are we going to buy our stuff? China owns half the factories in Africa and the Stans. What am I going to tell my daughter? That we’re killing the people who design your dolls?”
Gunner’s Mate 1st Class Ty Archuleta, Huntersville, Columbia: “The Hans have more than twice as many ships as we do and a huge army. Of course we’re going to win.”
Among the officers, Tom was the unhappiest about the war, and he frequently vented his anger to Neil in their quarters. Neil figured it was better he do so in private rather than in front of the other officers, or worse, the crew, but once Neil overhead Lieutenant Commander Davis and a couple of the senior petty officers exchange dark views about America’s chances for victory.
And of all of Neil’s friends on board, it was Doc Avery who seemed to relish the prospect of war the most. He was suddenly unable to use the words “Hans” or “Chinese” in a sentence without preceding it with an expletive. Neil wondered if he had been unnerved while witnessing the violence on Commonwealth, even as he was commended for his courage under fire.
For Neil’s part, he tried to conceal the doubts he felt, about both America’s ability and moral authority to conduct this war. The immediate cause for the war was established, but the deeper reasons were still unclear. What changed, really, between Japan and China and the United States that set this off? He told himself to ignore such thoughts. Be like Erin. Focus on the mission. We can do this. It’s our job to protect American lives.
Donovan remained as inscrutable as ever, spending much of his time with Sun Haisheng or communicating with his colleagues on Earth, planning for Sun’s return.
