Commander

by Richard F. Weyand

  Jared Denny and Dorothy Conroy were inside the hyperspace map in VR, ‘standing’ on what appeared to be a clear floor. The human-inhabited part of the Milky Way spread before them, the structure of the Orion and Perseus arms clearly visible.

  They had started the map almost immediately that Denny had arranged sufficient computer power to implement it. All the data from the existing Sintar planetary pickets had been feeding it for weeks before the new picket array had started reporting. Now, with about half the pickets in place and reporting, it was filling in.

  “Pretty amazing, Mr. Denny. I wouldn’t have believed it possible.”

  “It’s very nice. And we built in all those little tricks of yours, Captain. It’ll spot an anomaly in normal traffic and highlight it before a human observer would even notice it.”

  “Admiral Leicester, I have something of a surprise for you.”

  “A surprise, Sire?”

  “Yes, Admiral Leicester. Something of a present. A little Imperial project. Please join me on VR channel R-1327.”

  “Of course, Sire.”

  As Denny and Conroy were standing there looking at the map, the Emperor and Imperial Admiral Leicester popped into existence in the simulation.

  “Your Majesty,” Denny said, and bowed his head.

  Conroy saluted Dunham and Leicester, and both nodded back.

  “Mr. Denny. Captain Conroy,” Dunham said.

  Dunham turned to Admiral Leicester and waved a hand at the display.

  “Your present, Admiral Leicester. A real-time display of military hyperspace traffic throughout human space.”

  “Throughout human sp– How did you do this?”

  Dunham nodded to Denny.

  “We emplaced observer stations – a refueling freighter with hypergate projector and three picket ships – in unscanned portions of human space, Admiral Leicester. Places outside the hyperspace scanning range of planetary pickets. We can’t see every ship – not yet anyway – but we can spot any squadron-sized movement, anywhere.”

  “And so you see the need for ultimate secrecy, Admiral Leicester.”

  “Of course, Sire. If someone knew we could do this, they would stop spacing in squadrons.”

  “Exactly.”

  “How many observer stations are there?”

  Dunham nodded to Conroy.

  “Thirty thousand, Sir. They’re not all in position yet. The map is still filling in. But we’ll be able to track squadron and bigger movements across human space. We’ll see ‘em coming. We’ll also be able to track them back to their home bases.”

  “Outstanding.”

  Dunham walked over to Denny and shook his hand.

  “Thank you, Mr. Denny. Once again.”

  “You’re welcome, Sire. I’m happy it worked.”

  Dunham moved on to Conroy and shook her hand.

  “And thank you, Rear Admiral Conroy. This is your new command. Project Far Sight.”

  “Thank you, Sire.”

  Dunham moved back over to Leicester, and Conroy found and adjusted her avatar’s controls to display rear admiral insignia.

  “The star looks good on you, Admiral,” Denny said softly and shook her hand. “Congratulations.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Denny.”

  “So, Admiral Leicester. Do you like your present?”

  “Yes, Sire. Very much. I’m still trying to come to terms with the idea such a thing is possible, much less that it already exists.”

  As they watched, several more reporting stations came on line, and they saw new tracks in the display.

  “Very well, Admiral. Project Far Sight is yours. Rear Admiral Conroy was the hyperspace sensor analyst who saw the Berinia attack on Pannia coming four years ago. My suggestion is you have her and Project Far Sight report directly to you. We also need to get her some staff, to monitor the map and such. Very good hyperspace sensor people, and people who can keep a secret.

  “We know a war is coming, Admiral Leicester, but it isn’t going to be able to sneak up on us.”

  The Empress popped into the simulation at that point, her avatar barefoot, in her wedding dress, the crown jewels across her chest and her hair bound up with multi-colored roses.

  “Sorry. I wanted to see. Ooo, pretty.”

  Peters looked at the map intently.

  “What’s this track?” she asked.

  Conroy touched the track, and an information bubble appeared. ‘Eight hyperspace wakes, heavy cruiser tonnage. Route: Moria to Phalia.’

  “That looks like a routine squadron rotation, Milady. One of Phalia’s major navy bases is on Moria.”

  “I see. Thank you, Admiral.”

  Peters looked a while longer, then walked over to Denny and shook his hand.

  “Thank you, Mr. Denny. Feel free to call me any time.”

  Denny bowed his head.

  “Milady.”

  Peters moved to Conroy and shook her hand.

  “Congratulations, Admiral.”

  “Thank you, Milady.”

  Peters then bowed her head to Dunham and nodded to Leicester.

  “Your Majesty. Admiral Leicester.”

  Peters disappeared from the VR channel.

  When she had left, Leicester raised an eyebrow to Dunham.

  “It was Milady Empress’s project, Admiral Leicester.”

  “Ah. Well, it is a lovely present, Sire. Please thank Milady Empress for me.”

  Invitation

  The SCV Robert James down-transitioned from hyperspace in the Garland system. Thirty minutes behind it, a picket ship down-transitioned as well. There was no raider nearby, no ship that wasn’t squawking a transponder code.

  As Robert James accelerated toward the planet, however, a squadron of Garland heavy cruisers arranged themselves between the Robert James and Garland. The picket ship, rather than stay on station and watch the Robert James travel to the space station in orbit around Garland, accompanied it toward the planet.

  “Look at this, Ma’am.”

  Vice Admiral Maria della Espinoza concentrated on the display, in VR, of the sensors on the picket ship accompanying the Robert James in Garland.

  “Is that Garland?”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Stupid bastard. Let’s drop a couple of squadrons in there. We should be able to down-transition at their location and accompany them in.”

  “Yes, Ma’am. We have assets within a couple of hours, Ma’am.”

  Three hours after transitioning, and still several hours short of the cruiser squadron’s location, sixteen more picket ships down-transitioned from hyperspace to the Robert James’s location. The seventeen picket ships accompanied the freighter as it approached the cruiser squadron, which let the freighter and the picket ships pass without firing.

  Once the Robert James was docked to the commercial space station, the Sintaran picket ships accelerated out from the system at five gravities. They continued until they were well past the initial down-translation of the Robert James, at which point the HMS Prospero down-transitioned from hyperspace. The Sintaran projector ship opened a hypergate, the picket ships vanished into it, and then the Prospero drew its hypergate over itself and disappeared.

  “This is intolerable!” King James raged after he had seen the report.

  “The commercial spacing treaty does give them right of passage, Sire,” Schmitt-deVries pointed out.

  “And we let them pass unmolested, per the treaty. What gives them the right to run a whole flotilla of those damned robot ships in on us?”

  “Perhaps they thought you wouldn’t let their freighter pass unmolested, Sire.”

  “They can’t know that. Those arrogant bastards don’t care. That incursion was illegal. And I can’t do anything about it.”

  “You could arrest their spacers for being part of an illegal incursion, I suppose.”

  “If I do that, that crazy white-eyed bastard will blow up the space station. He was pretty clear about that.”

  “Perhaps
if we stopped trying to aggravate him, Sire, things might go better.”

  “This is my kingdom, my space, my sovereignty. I’ll space my navy anywhere I damned well please, deVries.”

  Schmitt-deVries gave up. He had not reached and held his position as foreign minister by aggravating the king with facts. One had to know when to quit.

  “Of course, Sire. What would you have me do?”

  “We need to have a meeting of all the rulers, everybody but Sintar and the DP. Get everybody together and figure out what to do about Sintar.”

  “Not the DP, Sire?”

  “No. They were right about how belligerent Sintar was prepared to be. We’ve been living next to a sleeping giant all this time, and now, with an Emperor and not an Empress, they’re stirring. But I don’t trust the DP. Unlike a monarch, you just can’t figure them out. And once you think you have, they change the government again and you’re back to square one.”

  “Very well, Sire. I will look into it.”

  “I’ve recently had a conversation with Foreign Minister Schmitt-deVries of Garland, Ma’am. King James is asking for a meeting to discuss the Sintar situation,” said Bruce Mallory, prime minister of Phalia.

  “I thought things had quieted down over the past year or so,” Queen Anne said.

  “Yes, Ma’am. As we’ve discussed. But the Sintaran escorts, which others insist on calling robot ships, have been a constant source of irritation for many of your peers. And some of them have been pushing back. For example, my understanding is King James positioned a squadron of cruisers on the line of approach to Garland from the natural down-transition location for freighters from Sintar.”

  “That’s interesting. What happened?”

  “An additional sixteen escort ships down-transitioned to escort the freighter to dock. The cruisers were helpless to do anything about it. King James, per Schmitt-deVries, was not amused.”

  “Hmpf. James always was a bit of a loose cannon. What do you expect to happen if you poke the bear.”

  “Yes, Ma’am. As I say, Schmitt-deVries was inquiring about a meeting. He said that, as the largest of the independent star nations, he was approaching us, the Rim, and Annalia last. The others were, in his words, enthusiastic to varying degrees. The most common reaction he reported was ‘About time.’”

  “Yes, and of course it would be James.”

  Queen Anne sighed.

  “Well, I suppose we should attend.”

  “Really, Ma’am? It sounds like trouble.”

  “Yes, and do you think it would be less trouble without us there? With James in charge, for example?”

  “You have a point, Ma’am.”

  “All right. I’ll talk to Albert and see what he says. Don’t agree to attend yet. Let’s make sure Albert and I are on the same page first.”

  They met in a VR meeting room. The wall behind Queen Anne’s chair displayed the Phalia royal coat of arms, while the wall behind King Albert VI of the Kingdom of The Rim displayed the Rim’s royal coat of arms. Both were expressed in bas relief, with simulated gold leaf and all the regalia.

  “Good morning, Albert. Thanks for meeting with me,” Queen Anne said.

  “Of course, Anne. It’s good to see you again,” King Albert said. The two second cousins hugged briefly. Each of their second predecessors had married sisters, who had themselves been the product of a marriage between a Phalian noblewoman and a high-ranking government official from the Rim. It had been one way of ending a long-running dispute between the two neighboring kingdoms. Anne and Albert themselves had vacationed together, and spent summers together, as their parents worked to keep the peace for another generation.

  “Shall we sit?” Albert said.

  They took their seats, and Anne looked at the coat of arms behind Albert, then turned and looked at her own.

  “A bit gaudy, in an otherwise plain room, if you ask me, Albert,” she said.

  “It appears no one wants to risk lèse-majesté,” Albert said and shrugged.

  “Perhaps. So. I assume James’ foreign minister has been in touch with yours as well as mine.”

  “Yes. To propose some sort of meeting among us all. To do something about Sintar, which I understand James has been poking a bit lately.”

  “Which is just like him. Cause problems, then propose a meeting to discuss them.”

  Albert raised an eyebrow at that.

  “James isn’t the source of these robot ships, Anne.”

  “They’re not robots, Albert. My people have been studying them, rather than challenging them, from sensor recordings taken in Phalia as well as those taken by our commercial ships in other star nations. While their actions are very similar, as if they were all operating under the same set of orders, the response times vary. There are humans operating those ships. They may be remotely crewed, which would equally explain their disregard for crew safety in ramming other ships as their attack mode, but they’re not robots.”

  “Interesting. But most of our peers are calling them robots.”

  “Yes. That was a particularly compelling bit of DP propaganda.”

  “The DP has been on an interesting campaign the last several years. The first thing they did was tell us how dangerous Sintar was, that Sintar was getting more expansionist, to our potential peril. At least part of that argument was manufactured from whole cloth. Their second step was to sell large numbers of DP warships to all the independent star nations, which sales have stepped up significantly, by the way. And the third step was characterizing Sintar’s picket ships as robot ships, with all that implies. And you’ve told me the robot ships information is false as well. All this after ignoring us for decades, even centuries. What are their motives in all of this?”

  “You’ve left out one thing, Albert. I’m convinced the commerce raiders against the Sintar commercial traffic were DP warships, as well.”

  “Yes, of course. Whoever was doing the raiding were using DP warships. But everyone has at least some DP warships now.”

  “No, I mean it was the DP’s warships, with DP crews, acting under DP orders, that were doing the raiding.”

  “Really.”

  “Really. Ask yourself, Who else would make any sense? And bear in mind it wasn’t me, and it wasn’t you.”

  “And what selling DP warships into the area did was allow the DP to operate with impunity, because no one can tell any of the ships apart anymore.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Anne, I hate to say it, but that makes a whole lot of sense. So what is the DP up to?”

  “The charitable version or the uncharitable version?”

  “Let’s start with the charitable version.”

  “OK. The first thing is this is a very long-term plan, right? The DP started the whole ‘Sintar is getting expansionist’ campaign what? Four years ago or so?”

  “Yes. A bit less than that. We purchased our first warships from the DP about three years ago. I was happy to be able to update some of my older squadrons, and then went ahead and expanded the navy quite a bit.”

  “So this is a long-term campaign, and at the same time, hasn’t cost them much. They sell us their older warships, which actually gets them quite a bit more money than sending them to the breakers. And, if I’m right, they lost a squadron or two of cruisers to the commerce raiding campaign. They’re probably money ahead on the deal, other than the loss of the crews. The rest has been disinformation and propaganda through their diplomatic corps. They actually haven’t done any more of that in over a year.”

  “You still haven’t gotten to motives.”

  “To get to motives, I look at results. One result is the independent star nations have been doing less business with Sintar than they would likely have otherwise.”

  “But trade with Sintar is up.”

  “Marginally. But the wave of innovation and cost reduction coming out of Sintar in the five years since this Emperor wiped out the top levels of their bureaucracy and cleaned up the government should have r
esulted in a much bigger increase in trade than that. I think the expected growth in Sintar’s trade has been largely derailed by all of this.”

  “So you think the DP’s goals were to hold down Sintar’s trade.”

  “That’s the charitable version, Albert.”

  “OK. What’s the uncharitable version?”

  “That the DP wants to start a war between Sintar and the independent star nations, and then come in with their brand-new navy when it’s all over and gobble up the pieces.”

  “New navy?”

  “They’ve been selling off their old warships to the independents, Albert. Do you think they’ve downsized their navy?”

  “Ouch. No. I don’t.”

  “Neither do I. Which means they have a brand-new shiny navy over there.”

  “But you and I don’t want a war with Sintar, Anne. And between the two of us, we represent twenty percent of the planets and population in the independent star nations.”

  “No one ever wants a war, Albert. And yet, they occur with disturbing frequency. Riddle me that.”

  “I can’t argue with you there. Is it really moving toward war, do you think?”

  “If James has his way, it is. And a lot of the other independents feel the same way. The DP has managed to sidestep all responsibility for the situation they likely created. There is a growing clamor to do something ‘about Sintar.’ No mention of the DP at all.”

  “And if we do get dragged into a war with Sintar?”

  “We probably lose. We have a third again as many planets, total, among all the independents, and perhaps ten percent more population than Sintar. But bear in mind all the innovation coming out of Sintar lately, and it’s not all consumer goods.”

  “Like what?”

  “Have you forgotten the remotely crewed picket ships, Albert? Is there any reason Sintar hasn’t figured out how to remotely crew their full-up warships?”

  “Oh, that’s an ugly picture.”