Tales From the War (Kinsella Universe Book 5)

by Gina Marie Wylie

  “We assisted the Fleet in every way,” General Thom stated forcefully. “We coordinated with them, fought side by side. We lost, in fact, all of those ships. Twelve hundred men and woman, good and true, died in the defense of the Federation.”

  Admiral Gull nodded. “Yes, except of course, the Federation Agreement states that only Fleet ships may be armed. And under no circumstance does anyone, other than the Federation, possess nuclear weapons. The Campbell’s Patrol was in contravention of that.

  “Further, when Campbell’s joined the Federation, it requested, and was granted, significantly more than usual the number of exceptions and reservations to the standard form of the Agreement. President Van de Veere, along with the rest of the Council, has decided that in light of events, the Federation needs to reassess the terms of agreement with Campbell’s.”

  “In what way?” Richard asked softly.

  “In all ways,” Admiral Gull stated firmly, motioning at the disk. “First, you will inform Admiral Timmu of the location of all yards, installations and facilities that dealt with the fabrication and construction of those ships, their components and their weapons. Any additional ships under construction, commissioned or not, are federalized. Admiral Timmu is to be informed of the location of any and all of the maintenance and support facilities for the Campbell’s Patrol. Everything will be federalized. Owners will be compensated.” No one seemed interested in compensation.

  The admiral reached into a briefcase and slid three sheets of paper clipped together towards Richard. “This is an order from her Imperial Highness, appointing you Chairman of the Council of Regents until such a time as she returns from duty with the Fleet.”

  Richard had been sure that they would play his daughter’s card; it had only been interesting as to what way they would do so. “My daughter is not her Imperial anything.”

  “Your constitution says otherwise.”

  “We amended it.”

  “The Federation was not a party to the amendment. Now we vote ‘No.’ Sir, the ‘No’s’ have carried the question.”

  Admiral Gull made a waving gesture with his hand. “In addition, I have charged Admiral Timmu with determining what, if any, other terms of the Federation Agreement may have been abrogated by Campbell’s. He has authority, delegated from me, to seize assets in the name of the Federation.”

  “We have Federation Senators!” the minister of state said hotly. “You can’t do this without reference to the Federation Senate!”

  “The Supreme Court of the Federation ruled that Campbell’s having nuclear armed ships was prima facie evidence of the abrogation of the Federation Agreement with respect to Campbell’s. It is my intent to renegotiate the Agreement with you. As to your Senators; one of them, Lewiston, said on questioning that he was aware of your plans, approved of them and was working to see Campbell’s sovereign, and not a part of the Federation. The Senate charged him with simple disloyalty and voted to revoke his seat; he will be returning on the first available shipping, once the worst of the current emergency is past.”

  Charlie lifted his eyes and held Merriweather’s eyes. “Senator Gomez lied about knowing about any abrogation of the Federation Agreement. He lied about knowing and participating in your plans to remove Campbell’s from the Federation. Considering the above, and the current state of Emergency, the Federation Senate met in formal session as a Special Board to try him. Senator Gomez was shot that same day for treason against the human race.”

  Richard’s face never had any expression; but several of the others looked pale. They’d already heard about the Federation’s Special Boards. The survival of the human race was at stake -- you cooperated or else. The vast gulf between the treatment of Senators Gomez and Lewiston told volumes about what they were facing.

  “You will,” Charlie indicated, “agree at once to the appointment of Chairman Merriweather as head of the Regency Council pending the Empress’s return. You will allow Federation inspectors access to anything and everything they wish to inspect. The inspectors will have Fleet Marines for protection, and those Marines have been authorized the use of deadly force to carry out their mission goals. Normally only the task force commander is authorized release of nuclear weapons -- in this case, myself. I have, however, delegated nuclear weapons authority to individual ship commanders.

  “The Regency Council may appoint interim Federation senators to fill the two now-vacant positions. However, those appointments will only be temporary. Within three months of this day, you will hold free and open elections for the open Senate positions; your previous reservation as to method has been terminated. As per standard terms, if no candidate has a received a majority of the votes, you may hold a run-off election within five weeks with the two highest vote-getters. The one with the highest count in the runoff wins. All of those are part of the standard terms of the Federation Agreement.

  “If, at the end of the three months, free and fair elections have not been held, the Federation will remove all current members of the government of Campbell’s -- prima facie evidence of incompetence, misfeasance or malfeasance of office. The matter would be investigated. If it was determined that it was malfeasance, you would be liable to the Emergency rules and if the malfeasance was serious enough, you could be shot. In any case, you would not be allowed any part in any government, anywhere in the Federation, ever again.”

  There was a nervous stirring in the room. “Forty-two percent gentleman,” Charlie Gull said quietly. “That’s the fraction of the race that has died in the last three months. Nearly that many billion are dead. The survivors are, justifiably, I’m sure you’ll agree, concerned about anything that puts anyone further at risk. The consensus is that such actions by individuals or sovereignties are unacceptable. Offenses which, six months ago, might have gotten you a stern reprimand and perhaps dismissal now get you shot.”

  “And suppose we decide to resist these rather serious impositions on our sovereignty?” Richard Merriweather asked mildly.

  Charlie Gull met his eyes. “The Federation does not have the resources to cope with more problems than we already have. We don’t have ships to spare to guard against possible treason; we don’t have troops enough to subjugate this planet.

  “If there is serious resistance, you will find in your messages,” he gestured at the HDD on the table, “copies of orders authorizing me to eliminate any possible threat from Campbell’s for the projected duration of the war -- fifty years is our current best guess. We would destroy your infrastructure, your cities. Then we would leave you to stew; if the aliens come again, you would not be defended.

  “One of the ships with me is Nihon. If you choose to resist, I would give you a day to evacuate your cities -- after that, we would destroy them. Nihon’s lasers will not produce fallout, but the effects are in most other ways similar to the explosion of megaton thermonuclear weapons. According to my survey, Campbell’s has forty-five cities with more than a hundred thousand inhabitants, about ten times that many with more than ten thousand. We would start at the largest, and stop only when we finished everything of ten thousand people or more: or saw the pictures of the bodies of everyone in the government hanging from the yardarm and had the unconditional surrender of everyone else. In any case, once we start shooting, Campbell’s would be interdicted until after the war. There would be no commerce, in or out; you would have no access whatsoever to space.”

  The silence in the room was truly amazing. “However none of these extraordinarily unpleasant events need happen. You will remain in power, until the Empress returns. If she should be killed, your Regency Council may appoint anyone you wish in her stead, as per your constitution. In any case, the Empress has formally signed the standard Federation Agreement in Campbell’s name, pending the renegotiation.

  “Please note that the Federation guarantees any government that signs the Federation Agreement. Should the Empress’s death have some untoward cause, it would be investigated and responsible individuals or groups held to
account. Even if it is other members of her ‘government.’ You should all be familiar with those parts of the Agreement, you embraced them readily enough.”

  “We are,” Richard said dryly.

  “Good. California Base is broadcasting these terms and conditions downside, even as we speak, on all channels.” Charlie Gull grinned wolfishly. “The Federation is a rational government. We rule by the consent of those we govern. It is time Campbell’s World followed the general consensus.”

  “Our system works just fine,” the prime minister said fiercely.

  “Which is why you have secret police; it is why you have nuclear armed ships in contravention of the Federation Agreement and is why you first set aside your empress and subsequently have tried to kill her. If that is your idea of ‘just fine’ you will be unpleasantly surprised about what Nihon is capable of doing. And Nihon is just one ship from my squadron -- of course, the others are armed with nukes.”

  “We will need to discuss our decision,” Richard replied curtly. “How long do we have?”

  “The only thing that counts, I’m afraid, are actions, not words. Talk as much as you want. Marines are even now landing to see to inventories of ships and weapons. If they are interfered with, I will act. You will announce the elections for the Federation Senate as soon as possible -- say by close of business today. If you delay longer, I will conclude you are incompetent and remove you. Any interference with anyone on Federation business will put you at risk. Talk; talk all you want. Start behaving now.” He stood, and gestured to the two men with him. “Gentlemen, I believe we’re finished here.”

  He turned back to Merriweather. “If you have any questions, you know where to find me.”

  The minster of defense growled, “We could hold them and the ships won’t shoot. We could tell them we were placing them as hostages in secret locations. Any strike on a city might kill one.”

  Charlie laughed. “You’re a fool.”

  He turned to Richard Merriweather. “That man goes, no matter what else you do.” He smiled pleasantly. “If my ship doesn’t hear back from me each and every half hour, Nihon starts busting cities two hours later, regardless of whether or not the cities have been evacuated. All the while letting everyone know why their cities are getting zapped. And Nihon won’t stop at cities and towns; they will bust any collection of ten or more buildings. Every road junction, dam, bridge, factory -- whatever her captain wants to shoot at. And if you think they are going to care about what happens to us, you will be making a lethal error of judgment.”

  He grinned wolfishly. “Fusion-powered laser armed ships do not run out of ammunition very quickly. And Nihon’s captain is Evan Carlson.

  “Of course, all of this assumes that your people don’t decide that they need a set of new faces in charge before Nihon runs out of targets.”

  Richard Merriweather shook his head, trying not to think about Evan Carlson in orbit with authority to shoot as he pleased. Carlson was a man who followed his orders. Period. And the two of them had met and hadn’t exactly hit it off.

  Richard temporized. “No, I’m quite sure that we have adequate grounds for compromise here. We tentatively accept your terms, pending renegotiation of the Federation Agreement.”

  Charlie Gull smiled. “There is one point of the Standard Agreement that I am willing to compromise on. You may select your own anthem and play it in lieu of the Federation Anthem for public and official events, so long as the running average of ours versus yours does not dip below 45% over a period of any one calendar year.”

  “We will negotiate later,” Richard said firmly. “This is not the proper venue.”

  “Whatever; that is the only item of the Standard Agreement I plan on giving Campbell’s any latitude with.”

  The room was silent, understanding the import of the words.

  The times, they were not only changing; they’d changed.

  War Correspondent

  I

  Rachael Ferris brushed back a wisp of hair that immediately fell back again in front of her eyes while she chewed her lip. Half a billion people, she’d been told, thought it was cute when she did that. Rachael thought it was a pain in the bottom.

  She ran a black line through a block of text on the computer that represented the intern’s report on the Native Hawaiian Task Force. This was the third time she’d stricken it from her teleprompter. Soon, she was sure, she was going to hear about it. In the meantime... Her eyes shifted to clock on the menu bar. Thirteen minutes of the hour. Time for a potty break, a quick retouch to her makeup and psych herself up another time to read the headlines news to nearly half a billion people.

  Nealy stuck his head into her cube. “I want you on the set now! Big story breaking!”

  Rachael grimaced to herself; then again, maybe not enough time! Then, when she saw Nealy was running down the hallway ahead of her, she moved faster herself. Maybe it would be big enough to keep Yamaguichi from trying to torpedo her!

  She slipped the plastic gizmo into her ear that had been the mainstay of newsreaders for five hundred years and sat down, composing herself, forgetting Yamaguichi, forgetting anything but the task at hand.

  “Desai was out at the Academy, for the graduation ceremony for this year's cadets,” the producer, Wilton, was whispering in her ear as she settled onto the uncomfortable chair behind the plain desk. “His daughter graduates next year and he was getting a preview.”

  The monitor in the desk lit and she saw Andan Desai’s face and could hear his words. The “live feed” warning was blinking over his face. “I repeat, Fleet Admiral Ernest Fletcher announced moments ago, at the graduation ceremony of the Federation Academy, that the Federation is under attack! I repeat, the Federation is under attack by forces unknown! In his initial statement he said that an attack on Fleet World had been defeated, but with no further information.”

  Andan Desai was, to Rachael’s way of thinking, one of the nicest people on the planet. As a senior producer he’d gone a long, long way out of his way to help Rachael and others on the staff. He was cool, collected, neat and dapper. Not so now. He looked pale and nervous, his words tumbled from his mouth, very fast. “There is certainly something going on here, can you hear behind me?” Rachael had been aware of the sound, but had thought it was some sort of interference.

  With a start, she recognized the sound as starship engines, running at very high percentages of max rated power. Something that never happened when ships were aground.

  “Those are the sounds of starship engines coming on line!” Desai confirmed, and then he paused. “Just a sec, look at this.” He gestured and whoever was holding the camera moved it in the indicated direction.

  The emerald green lawns of the Academy stretched down in gorgeous sweep to the blue of the ocean. Out in the water perhaps three dozen Fleet vessels dotted the water in neat rows. The sound increased in pitch; it must have been deafening where Andan Desai was listening to it, unfiltered.

  As they watched one of the larger ships lifted, from its berthing position, not the launch area. It shed water and moved upwards at a rate that far exceeded the usual stately lift of vessels she’d seen a thousand times leaving the Academy Basin. And never, ever, had she seen a ship, any ship, lift from its berth.

  “My God!” Andan was shouting. “She took off on max! You can hear every window for miles breaking!”

  Even in the studio Rachael felt a vibration and a muted sound, like far-off thunder, thunder that continued to roll on and on. The vibration grew until it felt like a small earthquake. Across the room a stack of books on the edge of a desk fell off with a crash.

  “There’s two more! I’ve never seen anything like this in my life!” The camera watched two smaller ships lifting from their berths. Again, there was nothing of the drifting soap bubble that the ships usually departed looking like. A few seconds after they started lifting, there was a change in the sound of the engines; the two ships seemed to leap skywards.

  Rachael made a ment
al note, one she could use in the broadcast. You always knew that Fleet ships were incredibly powerful, but Fleet kept them throttled back close to home. Today they weren’t throttled back!

  Someone spoke on the circuit, “Can you see if you can get any more official word? Some sort of confirmation?”

  “We were ordered off the reservation, in no uncertain terms, as fast as possible. Oh, oh! Trouble!” The camera turned from watching yet another ship leap into the air, to focus on two men in uniform approaching the camera.

  “Sir!” The man in the lead was an officer, wearing quite a lot of ribbons on his uniform coat. “Admiral Fletcher’s compliments. If you do not stop broadcasting forthwith, you will be arrested on charges of treason, espionage and attempted sabotage, the Federation then being in a State of Emergency.”

  Andan stood his ground. “I am a registered reporter. The News Shield Law.”

  The officer said patiently, “Sir, a State of Emergency has been declared by the Federation Council. While specific emergency rules have not been announced, the general basis has been laid down by the Parliament for more than two hundred years. Sir, if you do not stop broadcasting at once, you will be arrested and the charges will be treason, espionage and sabotage. Sir, those are capital crimes under Emergency rules. Desist, sir.”

  “Andan Desai, signing off, I guess.”

  Abruptly the picture went blank. Almost immediately the screen switched to another pickup from a camera several miles further inland, higher up on one of the hills overlooking the bay. Another ship had lifted, this one the largest yet, and the vibration in the studio made Rachael reach out and put a hand on the desk to steady herself.

  “What should I say?” Rachael asked over the circuit, “When are we going live?”

  There was a chirp. “This is Douglas. Don't say anything yet! Wait one.”

  James Douglas was the Network Manager; if he said jump, you jumped and gave it everything you had -- you could worry later about how high or how many times.