by Ian Miller
The M'starn drank and drank, and drank so much that gradually they became totally incoherent. What was good, and what made life worth living, was that after that much drink the M'starn would almost certainly have forgotten what they had said. They would clean up, make an excellent job, and ask for a reward. They might well get one, particularly if they asked in a sufficiently loud, high-pitched voice, for the M'starn were known to be very sensitive towards high frequency sound at the best of times, and the day after hard drinking was not even one of their mildly bad days.
They were just finishing cleaning when one of them noticed the control screen. The outer sensor systems were not working, and even more unbelievable, there were no signals on the remote sensor from the two ships whose crews had come down to celebrate with the officers. But even more remarkably, there was an emergency light flashing. When the recall button was pressed, there was a distress message from one of the five remaining ships. There was no message whatsoever from the other four.
Even more strangely, four ships were approaching Ligra 3. They gave none of the identification calls, and their motor signatures indicated they were Ulsian.
One of the party gave out a loud whoop, leaped across the table, thus placing marks on it and breaking two switches, a sure qualification for a flogging even if the M'starn did have headaches, and pulled out two cubes from the central control.
"What're you doing?" one of the others bleated.
"Revolting!" he announced proudly. "It's what we've been training for!"
He reached the intercom system and yelled in a sequence of code words that indicated that the revolt was underway, that the central weapons system had been taken, and the M'starn space ships had been destroyed. The planet was isolated.
This was quite unexpected to the general population. Everyone had always joked about revolt. Usually it was assumed that revolt would mean some Ulsians declaring a revolt, their running around and inflicting minor damage, then being caught and skinned alive. This code word sequence indicated incredible success. Then another code word. The M'starn were contained!
What that meant was that the revolting Ulsians had managed to find the control to the fireproof doors, close them, pump up the hydraulics, and jam the release valves. Even after they awoke from their drunken stupor, it would take many more hours to work out how to get out of there.
All he had to do was to signal the Ulsian fleet, and get the ground troops down. The planet was taken.
* * *
Klendor could hardly believe the message that appeared after about an hour during which nothing had happened. Send in the troops, the planet was his, the message from some self-styled revolutionary leader said. He immediately formed a direct link between his and Lucilla's ships, and he informed her of the message content.
"Well," Claudia Lucilla offered. "Are you going to accept?"
"There are risks," Klendor muttered. "Remember, our troop ship has yet to get here."
"Of course there're risks," Lucilla said, "but if they're telling the truth, you've got to go down and help. Someone needs to make sure everything gets done."
"It could be a trap," Klendor frowned. "There could be enemy down there, waiting to capture −"
"Klendor," Lucilla interrupted coldly. "Get a grip! Who could possibly set such a trap?"
"The M'starn. They are our enemy."
"And they go through all this charade just to lure you down to the surface?" Lucilla said scornfully. "My, they must be terrified of your ship."
"There's no need to be like that," Klendor said, clearly hurting.
"I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings," Lucilla said firmly, "but think! The idea's so ludicrous! There're so few ships here! Why don't they simply defend? Now think about what happens if the message's telling the truth. Somehow a bunch of local Ulsians has overpowered their oppressors, and has taken control. Now because they don't really know what they're doing, if we waste too much time the enemy may be able to recover. You've got to get down there and help organize things and power up the defences."
"There're risks," Klendor said, not to anybody in particular, but rather as a verbal thought.
"There're also risks in not doing it," Lucilla offered. "Whatever's happened down there, it's been done by untrained enthusiasts. You could be the first Ulsian to capture a planet for a million years or so, or alternatively you could go down in history as the biggest coward in Ulsian history, turning down an offer to conquer a planet for free and leaving the locals to be punished for their help."
"How do we know this news is true?" Klendor asked.
"We'll find out soon enough," Lucilla replied. "We'll ask the conquering hero."
"You're right," Klendor suddenly brightened. "Three shuttles shall go down." There was a pause, then, "Claudia Lucilla! You shall remain here, in command of the space force, such as it is. When the troop carrier gets here, let me know, and if I confirm, send down the troops. If I get into trouble, it's your job to organize a rescue!"
Lucilla watched as the shuttles emerged from three of the ships, and then begin to descend to the planet. With the drones now almost out of fuel, there was not going to be much she could do, except bring them back to their ships for refuelling. Since the ships were essentially unmanned, she commanded a force of droids.
The good news, she thought wryly, was that the shuttles appeared to have made it to the ground. The question was, what was going to happen next? When nothing happened for at least an hour, she decided to try to get some sleep.
When she woke nine hours later, her Tin Man had informed her that the planet was secure.
"How did the M'starn lose it?" she asked, in a tone of bewilderment.
"By default," came the unemotional answer. "Almost all the defenders are either drunk or on the other planet."
"That's careless of them," she frowned.
"After seven hundred and fifty years in which nothing has happened, it is quite easy to be careless," the Tin Man said.
"Let me guess!" Lucilla said brightly. "According to your sociodynamics, seven hundred and fifty years of inactivity leads to sloth and indolence, and the warrior spirit is replaced by an urge to . . . to . . ."
"To what?"
"Perhaps I'd better not say. I don't wish to hurt your feelings."
"No problem," the droid replied briskly. "I don't have any."
"I was going to say," Lucilla replied, "form committees."
"Hah! You are applying Ulsian sociodynamics to the M'Starn!"
"Probably not very well," Lucilla said.
"Correct," the droid agreed. "However . . ."
"However what?"
There was a pause, then the droid said, "You must prepare yourself for battle. Long range sensors detect a major enemy force arriving from the inner planet."
"Battle?" Lucilla frowned. "Surely this is one of the moments to flee?"
"Colonel Klendor has removed the 'flee' option from strategic computers."
"That's good of him," Lucilla said.
"He wants you to line the ships up in front of the planet, as if ready to attack."
"That's kind of him," Lucilla remarked.
"At the last moment, you can retreat," the droid said. "Colonel Klendor now has total control of the planetary pulse cannons, manned by some of our elite Ulsian canoneers and lots of Ulsians from Ligra 3 who had been trained to help the enemy. The other ships have droids only, so you will have to command all of them. He believes if he can goad the enemy to attack in close formation, he can do enormous amounts of damage. Your job is to stand in line, then when ordered, get out of the road, but be prepared to deal with any small flight of ships that leave the main formation."
"And how do I pilot four ships?"
"You don't. The ships do it themselves. What you have to do is put them into some formation and order them to maintain it. Whatever you do with your ship, the others follow, with independent targeting. What I recommend is where possible, give me some warning of what you plan to do, and I can rea
rrange the formation to make it more effective."
"So," Lucilla mused, "I have command, but command of empty ships. I wonder what Gaius will think of that?"
"Let's hope we're all in a position to discuss it later," the Tin Man replied.
"We'll have the discussion," Lucilla smiled.
"You're so sure?"
"You have to have faith," Lucilla smiled calmly.
* * *
"I don't follow their strategy," Gaius frowned. The enemy seemed to be decelerating as if to attack the planet. "Tell me, what am I missing?"
"Probably that Klendor and your sister have conquered the planet," the Tin Man said.
"What?" Gaius' tone was sheer bewilderment. "They couldn't! They . . ."
"It appears that almost all the enemy had gone to the inner planet," the Tin Man said. "All Klendor had to do was to turn up, precisely then. Your sister has lined up her small fleet to oppose the enemy. The enemy are now starting to move towards her."
"That's just plain stupid," Gaius howled. "Get her out of there! They'll cut her to pieces."
"Klendor has the planetary pulse cannon ready for them," the Tin Man said. "She will move when she has to."
"Then we have to get directly between the enemy fleet and the star," Gaius said slowly, "so we can decelerate without their being able to detect our exhausts. Calculate a deceleration mode which gets us down to a useful arrival velocity."
The Tin Man nodded, and although he seemed to do nothing, the ships all turned their rears towards Ligra 3, and began a very powerful deceleration.
The next two hours were strangely uneventful. Everything appeared to remain the same, except that the distances between the various groups closed. It was strange, Gaius felt, that the velocities were so high, the situation so clear, but nothing seemed to be happening.
The enemy ceased decelerating, turned to face the planet, and began accelerating. Lucilla's little fleet had by now apparently noticed the approaching enemy, and had turned on an orbital path. The enemy broke off a small group of ships that began pursuit of Lucilla's ships.
It was then the planetary pulse cannon opened fire. At first, the only reason Gaius knew this had happened was because the Tin Man told him. It was so strange. In the wars he had fought sides lined up close enough for each to see his direct opponents, they shouted insults at each other's faces, they flashed their weapons, they made the most blood chilling screams, and all this before anything happened. Here, nobody saw their enemy, or even his ship for they were too far away from each other. All that each side knew of their opponents were readings on screens. All that could be seen, if anybody was looking, was empty space and a large ball, and now the occasional pinprick flash of light. At this distance it all looked so peaceful, yet Gaius was aware that those little flashes of light, barely detectable even by the screen enhancers at this range, represented massive warships being destroyed, their crews burned, crushed, or evacuated. For the brutal fact of this war was that if the ship was destroyed, all crew died very quickly, and possibly in extreme pain for that brief time.
From the frequency of the flashes, Gaius knew the enemy were taking a pounding, and superficially it appeared as if the planet was unaffected, but from his previous experience Gaius knew that the defenders would be taking their share of the pounding. The difference was that the defenders would have hundreds of meters of rock between them and the surface. Even so, they would be shaken, and if the defences were not up to standard, buried. The defenders had a further problem. Since the M'starn had been occupying that planet for over seven hundred and fifty years, and since they had operated the defences, they knew every location, every weak point, in fact they knew more about the defences than the defenders themselves.
A wave of relief passed over Gaius when Lucilla did not keep to her scheduled return. As he learned later, when she had disappeared behind the planet, her ships released a large number of guided mines, then her ships had accelerated away from the planet and reversed course, so that when they reappeared from behind the planet on the wrong side, the motors had been cut and the ships cloaked. Accordingly, her ships were able to drift well out into space unseen by the enemy.
It was then that the enemy appeared to detect Gaius' fleet. To deal with this new threat quickly their most obvious option was to use the planet's gravitational field to aid their turning. They started this manoeuvre by flying towards the planet, firing at the defensive positions in view, then they swung towards the North Pole to begin their loop. They knew the ground-based cannon were located in the equatorial regions, so they moved to avoid them as best they could. The value of this move was debatable, however, since the ships were always a great distance from the planet. As it happened, by following Lucilla's path, they also followed a path that maximised their chances of striking the guided mines she had released.
Gaius now separated his ships into two wings, each of several squadrons and ordered the first wing to accelerate slightly. The objective was to gain approximately five minutes on the second wing. Then he gave each of the squadrons their attack formation orders. The squadrons would form a highly irregular line so that they would fire from various angles as they passed through the enemy formations at irregular times. They flew on, and nothing seemed to happen, except that the white ball of Ligra 3 seemed to grow in size, and the last of the enemy ships under control began to pass behind that ball. The success of the ground forces was marked by a significant number of glowing hulks that continued to drift on into space, and two that crashed into the icy wastes of the planet, creating an enormous plume of ice that was visible even at this distance.
Then the enemy began to reappear. Ship after ship poured into view, but at the same time a surprisingly large number of glowing hulks began to appear on a tangential path. Lucilla's mines had done their job. The two fleets were now facing each other, drifting towards each other at relatively moderate speeds.
"Firing optional from thirty seconds," the Tin Man announced.
This, Gaius thought to himself, is the moment of truth. In the past he would always turn to a junior to comfort him, and by so doing, reassure himself. Here, everyone was alone.
"Firing optional." the Tin Man said.
"Assign targets! Hold fire!" Gaius ordered. The distance between the two had to be closed for firing to be effective, and at present his ships would be extremely difficult to detect. The enemy knew they were there, but did not know their formation, or how many there were.
"The enemy is opening fire!" the Tin man announced.
There, directly ahead, the characteristic flashes of weapons firing outlined the formation of the enemy. Tiny points of light on a black background. "Arrange for the computers to assign optimum firing patterns on their known formation," Gaius said quietly.
He could afford to be quiet. So far, the enemy's firing was largely ineffectual and the whole scene was less like a battle than sitting back and looking at the stars. They were firing in the general direction, and were bound to score the occasional hit, but the overall damage should not be serious. By his not firing, the enemy did not know exactly where his ships were, while by their firing, Gaius knew exactly where each enemy ship was.
The dots became slightly larger. Now there was no point in holding back. "Pulse cannon fire!" Gaius ordered. "Dephasing equipment to search and destroy mines. Release guided mines on pattern 301 . . . Now!" The use of mines created an interesting problem. He chose to devote his most powerful weapons to the task of destroying enemy mines, but by so doing he reduced his attack power to almost forty per cent. If the enemy did the same, this joint decision would prolong the battle, but if either did not, and the opponent released mines, the battle could be lost almost immediately. Mines were in many ways the most dangerous weapons, for there were no means of deflecting their destructive power. If a mine hit, the ship was disabled because the mines were attracted to the fields of the motors. Ordinary weapons could be absorbed or deflected/reflected by the armour at the front of the ship.
Suddenly there was a huge shudder through the ship, followed by a terrible shrieking sound. For a moment the entire bridge area was plunged into darkness, and is screens went black, then everything was restored. Before them, a huge shape appeared, with metal pouring off its side as his ships cannon poured enormous amounts of energy into it. In a flash of light, it passed, and his ship suffered another huge judder as pieces of the enemy ship struck.
"Damage?" Gaius asked.
"Not serious. Twenty-two per cent of the outside hull on the port side has been sheared off," the Tin Man said, then jerked. "Internal sections have been sealed." He jerked again, and twisted. "There are bad electromagnetic spikes being generated. They will be repaired. The weapons and motors are fully functional. Cloaking is no longer functional."
Gaius focussed his view onto the now disappearing enemy. Many of these had turned to pursue Gaius' wing, and were decelerating as rapidly as they could. Then the mines began striking, and since they had more time to reach a slower moving ship those that had turned were particularly vulnerable. Then the second wave struck. The ships that had yet to turn were isolated, and the weapons of the second wave could concentrate their fire on what was now an extended column of ships, and proceed down it. This, of course, was not a free strike, for these enemy were facing them, but the longer column formation of the enemy meant that those at the rear had to wait before firing for fear of damaging their own leading ships.
Ship after ship of the enemy erupted, but at the same time a number of Ulsian ships began to lose sections, and as these were lost, they became far more visible. By now the leading Ulsian ships had reached the enemy that had turned, and consequently had almost free shots at the vulnerable motor sections. The space was now littered with brilliant flashes of exploding ships, and the glowing hulks of highly damaged ships.
