Commander

by Richard F. Weyand

  “Sir, we have it. Everything that hit the nose was ineffective. The shot that actually killed that ship hit it well back, in the engines. The nose is apparently made of something that shrugs off the lasers.”

  “Of course! That makes sense. All right. Fleet orders. Re-target the point-defense lasers immediately. We don’t want to hit the nose on these robot ships, we want to hit the engines. Set the point-defense lasers to target the engines. In our coordinated defense plan, that means targeting robot ships that are attacking a different ship, so you can get the angle on them. Don’t waste the time trying to shoot at one head-on to you. Leave that to someone else. Send it.”

  Fouracre’s strategy would probably have paid off against the enemy he was expecting. In prior incidents, Sintar had sent sixteen picket ships in support of the escort. But Espinoza had resources she hadn’t had before. She actually had tens of thousands of picket ships available, and more were still coming in.

  When Espinoza saw the sixteen battleships Garland had lain across the route in from Sintar, she had sent a hundred picket ships in support. Further, she had seen Thursday’s Child’s sensor feed to the Imperial Navy right up to the time of impact. The Garland commander had either targeted the freighter or failed to abort his missiles once they lost lock on the Defiant and overshot. It was the same either way to her, and she had her orders.

  The crews of the hundred picket ships inbound to Garland in hyperspace received their orders before the ships ever down-transitioned. The ships were out of communications, but of course the crews were not. And Espinoza’s orders rang in their ears as the picket ships approached their down-translation.

  “They’ve blown up our freighter and killed our spacers. Destroy them all.”

  One hundred Sintaran picket ships down-transitioned into Garland nearly simultaneously, and immediately went to ten gravities of acceleration directly at the sixteen Garland battleships. The sixteen battleships only had time to fire two rounds of missiles, and thirty-two of the picket ships died in their attacks.

  The sixty-eight remaining picket ships continued straight into the teeth of the coordinated point-defense lasers of the Garland battleships. Another forty-three of the picket ships died under their re-aimed fire.

  And then the twenty-five surviving picket ships slammed into the armored sides of the sixteen Garland battleships at over ten thousand miles an hour and vented their plasma bottles into their enemies.

  No ships, on either side, survived the carnage.

  War!

  What had been planned as a discussion of Sintar’s response to their requests turned into a discussion of the incident in Garland. King James had the floor and was railing against Sintar, as well as the inaction by the council that he blamed, at least in part, for the outcome.

  “Sixteen battleships! Fifty thousand men! And we are to let Sintar get away with this? Murder our navies? With impunity?”

  When King James stopped for a breath, Queen Anne interceded.

  “You fired on them first, James. And you destroyed their freighter and killed their merchant sailors.”

  “The freighter was a mistake. An errant pair of missiles in the chaos of battle. And we warned them. We told them to get out. We fired on one tiny robot ship, and they destroyed sixteen battleships. That is a disproportionate response no matter how you look at it. Sintar wants war, and I propose we give it to them.”

  “Seconded,” King Peter IV of Berinia called out.

  “We have a motion on the floor that has been seconded,” Queen Anne said. “We’ve heard the argument for the motion. Does someone wish to speak against?”

  “I do,” King Michael of Estvia said.

  “Michael, you have the floor.”

  “Thank you.

  “My fellow rulers, we have, most of us, known each other for a long time. In some cases, for a very long time. Most of us, though, know very little about the Emperor of Sintar. For one thing, their foreign relations were for a long time carried out by their bureaucracy, now gone. And for the second, this Emperor has been on the throne a mere six years.

  “I, however, have some experience in dealing with this Emperor, and I have spoken to our friend Howard of Pannia about him. So perhaps I can give this council some insight into this ruler.

  “The first thing you should know is he has the enthusiastic support of his subjects, and of his military. He has no internal dissensions. No internal politics. He ended the perennial struggle between the bureaucracy and the throne six years ago by simply executing them all, all five thousand people in the upper three layers of the bureaucracy, on his very first day on the throne. Consider that.

  “In order to ascend to the throne of Sintar – a throne that is considered to belong to the people of Sintar – the new Emperor got down on his knees before the people’s throne and swore oath to act in their best interests. That event was watched by more people in VR than any event in human history.

  “You may scoff, James, but, as you all know, I have dealt personally with this Emperor, over the Wollaston affair. I can tell you, whether you take that oath seriously or not, he does. And if we attack Sintar, if we threaten his people, he will come after us relentlessly, remorselessly, until the threat is removed.

  “I beg you, my friends, to seek another path with Sintar. To consider their counterproposal. For if you continue down this path, the loss of sixteen battleships will sound quaint in the wake of the destruction Sintar will bring down upon you.”

  King Michael sat down, and most delegates considered him thoughtfully. King James, however, gave a slow, sarcastic round of applause.

  “I’m not afraid of Sintar, and none of you should be either. I call the question.”

  “We have a motion on the floor, it has been seconded, and the opposition has had a chance to speak. The mover has called the question and so we are voting. Hands, please. War with Sintar, yes or no. Ayes? Nays? The Ayes have it. It’s war.”

  King Michael stood up.

  “I will have nothing to do with war against Sintar. Estvia withdraws from this council.”

  And with that, King Michael disappeared from VR.

  “Coward!” King James called out after him.

  And with that, the council dissolved into disorder. Only Bruce Mallory, sitting just to one side and behind Queen Anne in the speaker’s well, heard her whispered summation.

  “And may God have mercy on us all.”

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