Solbidyum Wars Saga 9: At What Price

by Dale Musser

  “Truath has been working on the aquaculture. She’s restocked some of the native freshwater species in the tributaries of what I believe in your time was called the Amazon River. There’s been moderate success with some species but not others. The problem seems to be the water chemistry. The volcanic ash and gases that were ejected into the atmosphere during the post-asteroid volcanism have changed the water pH and mineral composition and many of the fishes won’t reproduce unless the chemistry is perfect. We expect greater success as these contaminants are washed from the surrounding mountains and headwaters.

  “That’s good to hear,” I said. “Has anything started to grow in the northern hemisphere?”

  “Not much. The bacteria and underground life forms seem to be taking hold somewhat, as are a few grasses and trees, but most seem to be struggling to survive. It seems that South America has the best chance for recovery, at least that’s our best assessment for the time being.”

  “What about crops and domestic livestock? Are they thriving yet?”

  “Only in a relatively small portion of South America,” replied Cantolla, but that area seems to be expanding steadily. Extrapolating what we’ve seen thus far, it’s theoretically be possible to reintroduce a small human colony in a year or two. Right now you could sustain a few thousand near the area where we set up our lab, but it wouldn’t be perfect. A great deal of external support would be required.”

  “At least you’re making progress. I’m very pleased to hear this. Thank you, both of you. You’re doing a great job.”

  We were interrupted by the beep of my wrist com.

  “Tibby here.”

  “Admiral,” Marranalis’s voice came across the comlink. “We have a situation in Sector 2. Several giant asteroids have unexpectedly appeared in the same region of space and they’re all on a trajectory toward Efferatus-6. General calculations thus far indicate that they’re approximately two days from impact. The asteroids appear to be unmodified; that is, unmanned natural objects.”

  “I’m on my way. Contact Captain Hanges and have him get the GLOMAR ROSA to Efferatus-6. Notify half the fleet in Sector 2 to proceed to Efferatus-6 at maximum speeds. I want patrol ships to proceed immediately to the first location where the asteroids were detected to search for any sign of Cantolla Gates in the vicinity. If they find any that are not ours, they’re to destroy them at once.”

  “Yes, sir,” replied Marranalis.

  I turned to Kala. “I’m sorry, dear, but it looks like an emergency again. Please tell Lunnie I may not be here to see her off in the morning.”

  “I’ll tell her. Take care, Tib.”

  I leaned down to kiss her gently on the cheek.

  “My apologies, ladies, but duty calls,” I said to Cantolla and Truath. As I turned to leave, I glanced quickly at the dance floor to see the twins dancing and laughing with their dates. I hoped they had enjoyed their evening and made some special memories, as I feared there would be little enjoyment for them in the near future. I also prayed that I was wrong.

  “Status, Admiral,” I said to Marranalis minutes later as I entered the War Room on the GLOMAR ROSA.

  “Sir, the GLOMAR ROSA is en route to the nearest stellar Cantolla Gate with Captain Hanges at the helm. We'll need to traverse five gates to get us to Efferatus-6. Estimated time of arrival is thirty-two hours.”

  “What about our other ships? What’s the earliest ETA for our first carrier?”

  Marranalis looked at the vid screens on his console. “Four hours and nineteen minutes for the KONSTONSE, sir.”

  “The KONSTONSE. That’s Admiral Pugary’s flagship, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good. Let me know when he arrives. As soon as he does, I’ll use the ship’s Cantolla Gate to go there and personally check out the situation until the GLOMAR ROSA can get there. Issue orders to Pugary that he is to begin firing on the asteroids as soon as he arrives. The obvious objective is to destroy them before they reach Efferatus-6. Have him take command of all ships as they arrive and coordinate the bombardment of the asteroids until they’re reduced to dust. Put forces in all other sectors on alert. The Brotherhood may be planning an attack elsewhere. How many asteroids are we talking about anyway?”

  “Nine,” replied Marranalis.

  “Nine? That’s odd. We should be able to knock nine plain asteroids out in minutes. Ming knows that, so why is he launching this unusual attack? It has to be a diversion of some sort. What’s the current status on our reconnaissance and Cantolla Gate setup at Ming’s asteroid field?”

  “Reconnaissance is complete. Three of the four stellar Cantolla Gates are in place. The ships carrying the fourth gate assembly will arrive at their assigned station soon,” replied Marranalis.

  “Now might be an opportune time for us to attack, even if the fourth gate isn’t in place. Ming will surely be expecting us to deal with the situation at Efferatus-6 and won’t be anticipating an attack at the same time. Contact all the fleet admirals and arrange for a vid conference one hour from now. I’ll be in my office. I know you’ll update me immediately with any new developments.”

  I didn’t have to wait long. Barely fifteen minutes had passed before Marranalis came to me.

  “Admiral, we’ve just received word from Uescure. They also have a swarm of asteroids on a collision course with their planet.”

  “Damn. I was afraid of this. In what sector is Uescure located?”

  “Sector 9, sir.”

  “Nine… that’s one of the newly formed sectors. I forgot just where it’s located. Let’s go out to the 3D display so you can show me the location in the hologram.”

  We relocated to the War Room where Marranalis called up the 3D display of all the sectors, highlighting the asteroid attacks in Sector 9 and Sector 2. As I feared they were at opposite ends of the Federation territory.

  “What’s the impact time for the asteroids at Uescure?”

  “Almost identical with those in Sector 2. Just a little over thirty-one hours.”

  “It looks like the Brotherhood has these timed out to divide our forces. Are these asteroids also unmanned or are they asteroid-ships?”

  “It’s too early to tell. Patrol ships are headed out to investigate at the moment. So far there is no indication that they’re manned.”

  “I wonder what Ming is up to,” I said, thinking out loud. “There has to be more to this than just sending in rocks for us to use as target practice. Get Wabussie on the vid screen. Maybe he’s getting some new intelligence that will put this into perspective.”

  Wabussie’s image appeared on the screen a few minutes later. “What can I do for you, Admiral?”

  “We’ve got what appears to be unmanned asteroid clusters coming into Sectors 2 and 9, each headed for impact with a planet in roughly thirty-one hours. Do you have any intelligence that might give us a clue as to how this might relate to Ming’s movements?” I asked.

  “I wish I did, Admiral. I probably got word of the asteroids about the same time you did. I've had my people looking through all the Brotherhood transmissions we’ve intercepted, but so far we haven’t found any clues.”

  “This just doesn’t make sense,” I said. “Ming knows we can destroy all these asteroids before they reach their targets. He must have some other assault lined up to coincide with these attacks.”

  “I agree, but I’m at a loss as to what it might be.”

  “Very well. I’ve got a meeting in a few minutes with the fleet admirals to discuss plans for an attack on Ming’s asteroid-ship production site. If you receive any new information, notify me immediately.”

  The meeting didn’t start off well. Discussions produced mostly confusion, even after I explained what was unfolding with the asteroid attacks. Instead of focusing on how to deal with the situation, the admirals kept asking questions of each other that were answered with useless conjecture, which contributed nothing in terms of insight or results. Marranalis was by my side, as usual during these meeti
ngs, and we were about an hour into the discussion when a member of our staff approached and whispered something in his ear. At the same time, I noticed Admiral Pugary’s aide entered into the virtual meeting room and whisper something in his ear.

  “Sir,” Marranalis said to me quietly. “We’re getting information back from our ships in Sector 2 that our attacks on the asteroids are ineffective. The asteroids are protected with RMFF shields.”

  “WHAT?” I exclaimed a bit louder than I intended. The other admirals in the virtual meeting reacted with alarm and halted their discussions to look at me. “I thought the asteroids were unmanned?” I added a bit more quietly to Marranalis.

  “Yes, sir, they are. Apparently, the Brotherhood has nested 10X reactors and RMFF shields within each asteroid to prevent them from being destroyed. As it stands now, even slow torpedoes that can penetrate the shields can’t act quickly enough to prevent the destruction of Efferatus-6.”

  “We should be able to get the GLOMAR ROSA there in time. The PLABE will be able to destroy them. Is there any word from Sector 7? Have they encountered the same situation?”

  “I’ve not heard anything thus far, sir.”

  “Gentlemen, it appears we have a significant problem,” I said, turning back to the holographic display. “Admiral Pugary, I suspect you just received word that the asteroids in Sector 2 that are headed toward Efferatus-6 are protected with RMFF shields.”

  “Yes sir, just this moment,” replied Admiral Pugary.

  “As we all know, our slow torpedoes can penetrate the RMFF, but we can’t get enough of these torpedoes through the shields fast enough to destroy the asteroids before they impact the planet. It would take hundreds of them to destroy just one asteroid. Our only hope is the PLABE weapon and we have only one each on three of our carriers. The GLOMAR ROSA should be able to reach Efferatus-6 in time to destroy the asteroids there, but the GLOMAR ROSA would never be able to make it to Uescure in Sector 9 in time to eliminate the threat there as well. Admiral Windangar, how long would it take you to respond to Uescure with the FAZTA’MINA?”

  “I was just checking on that as you were speaking,” replied Windangar. “I’m afraid our ETA would be nothing less than twenty-four hours. We might be able to eliminate the asteroids soon enough to reduce the damage to the planet, but we would be unable to prevent fragment impacts, and there will likely be a great number of them.”

  “That’s better than nothing. Respond immediately. Marranalis, contact Captain Mareoparen and find out the MAXETTE’s response time to Uescure. Coordinate all relevant data and alert the planetary authorities on both planets, if they haven’t already been notified.”

  “Yes, sir. What about the NEW ORLEANS?” asked Marranalis.

  “The PLABE isn’t actually on the NEW ORLEANS. It’s on my personal fighter that’s stationed on the NEW ORLEANS, but it would never be able to get to any of the attack sites in time,” I answered.

  “Admirals, I need all of you to be on high alert for any new asteroids that may appear in your sectors. At the first sign of one, I want you to send out ships to immediately determine whether the asteroid has an RMFF shield. If it does, immediately start targeting it with slow torpedoes. We don’t have enough PLABE weapons to deal with a large-scale attack of asteroids in different sectors at the same time, so we need to spot and start hitting them as soon as possible.”

  “Sir, Captain Mareoparen says they can make it to Uescure in six hours,” said Marranalis.

  “Excellent. Order him to get underway immediately,” I said. I could feel some stress relief just knowing that we stood a chance of stopping the destruction of the two worlds.

  “Admiral Windangar, I may change your orders depending on what kind of luck the MAXETTE has at Efferatus-6. If it looks like they’ll be able to handle the situation, I’ll need to you to divert to the nearest stellar Cantolla Gate and reroute to the designated assembly point for the armada that is to attack the Brotherhood’s asteroid-ship assembly site. You’ll need to be prepared to reroute as quickly as possible, if notified, so you may want your aides to establish potential routes now. I need to have at least one ship with a PLABE leading the attack and it looks like that’s going to be you. Apprise yourself of the detailed intelligence and data as we move forward with this meeting. While we’re determining assault strategies, you’ll have to identify the FAZTA’MINA’s best point of entry out of the four established stellar gates at the attack site.”

  “I’ll see to it, Admiral,” said Windangar as he began to sort through the digital data with his aide.

  “Now, let’s figure out how to destroy this asteroid-ship production site and weaken Ming’s firepower.”

  We decided which ships would take part in the battle and which stellar gates would be used by which ships. The meeting took up most of the night and I was exhausted when we finally finished. I ordered one of the aides to send a message to Kala letting her know that I’d be staying on the GLOMAR ROSA for the time being, at least until the volatile situation related to Ming’s movements was more stable. Then I headed to my quarters and collapsed on the bed without undressing.

  It seemed like I had barely gone to sleep when I was awakened by Pieamar.

  “Sir, your comlink has been beeping for nearly twenty minutes. Admiral Marranalis requested that I check on you to be sure you’re alright.”

  “What? Oh… what time is it?”

  “It’s mid-morning, sir,” said Pieamar. “How do you wish for me to reply to Admiral Marranalis?”

  “I’ll contact him. Thank you, Pieamar.”

  “You’re most welcome, sir. Do you wish me to have something prepared for you to eat?”

  “Uh, yes. That would be nice. I’ll leave it to your choosing. I need to check in with Marranalis and shower, but I’ll eat something quickly before I return to the War Room.

  “Very good, sir,” replied Pieamar as he turned to leave the room. I felt a bit sorry for Pieamar. He was very good at what he did, but he was vastly underutilized and I hoped he didn’t feel slighted because of it.

  I activated my vid com and called Marranalis.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t answer your calls earlier,” I said when he answered. “I slept through the call signals. What’s happening?”

  The MAXETTE has reached Uescure and has begun destroying the incoming asteroids. Captain Mareoparen reports that he believes the MAXETTE will successfully destroy all of the objects within the next hour or so and that none will impact the planet. Now that the RMFF shields have been destroyed by the PLABE weapon, the other ships are able to target and destroy the fragments, so the planet will likewise not be threatened by any of the asteroid remnants. A separate detail of ships is searching for signs of the Brotherhood’s Cantolla Gates.”

  “That’s good news. Send word to Admiral Windangar to head to the staging area for the assault on the Brotherhood asteroid-ship site. Tell Captain Mareoparen to head back to his original station as soon as the asteroid RMFFs are destroyed and the threat to Uescure can be managed by the other ships. What’s happening at Efferatus-6?”

  “The ships that have reached the region have been firing on the asteroids, but those too are protected by RMFF shields. They have managed to get a few slow torpedoes through the shields but the amount of damage is minimal, due to the enormous size of the asteroids. They were apparently lucky enough to impact one asteroid with a slow torpedo near the 10X power unit and knock out the shielding. The ships are eliminating what remains of that asteroid now, but the others are intact and still on their course of destruction.”

  “What’s our status? Are we still on schedule to get there in time?” I asked.

  “We’re still approximately five hours away,” said Marranalis. “We should be there in time, but it’s going to be close. Having successfully destroyed one of the asteroids will help a great deal.

  “Hold on, Admiral. I have another message coming in from Bothex.” Marranalis paused a few minutes as he scanned the screens. I could see he
was talking to someone through his headset, but I couldn’t hear his words. Finally, he turned to me and said, “Bothex has just been hit with a number of body-bomber attacks, including the Cantolla Gate Station on the surface, the solbidyum-fueled power plant, three military bases and several government offices, including that of Senator Horgien.” He looked back at his data screen again and then said, “Sir, the senator was killed in the blast.”

  “Send out priority broadcast to all Federation government and military personnel to remain on high alert, no matter where they are. Also, initiate protocols to alert all local planetary defenses of the developing situation so they can take the necessary steps to initiate their own defenses. If they want to participate in their own protection, now’s the time to start. Bothex is in what sector?

  “Sector 5,” replied Marranalis, as he added the highlighted location to the holographic sector map.

  “Five. Hm… so we now have attacks in Sectors 2, 5 and 9. That’s not exactly a pattern, but I’m sure more attacks are coming and they’ll most likely to be in sectors the Brotherhood hasn’t hit yet. Inform the Admiralty. I want the sectors not yet targeted to be especially vigilant. Oh, and contact Captain Padaran and tell him to call in all troopers. He is to place every base, office and secured site on highest alert and redouble security at the Federation buildings and especially at all Cantolla Gate hubs.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I showered quickly and ate the meal that Pieamar left for me at my desk. As I did, I tried to remember just where I had heard the name Bothex before. It wasn’t until I sat down to eat again at midday that it finally came to me. Bothex was the home planet of Rinncal Haf-joab, the traitor arms dealer who had been supplying armaments to the Brotherhood. I wondered whether the bombings there were connected to this fact or whether it was all a matter of coincidence. I put a call in to Wabussie and related my thoughts on the matter.