That would be the reason for the thick P-Field. The fleet admiral had no doubt wanted to begin the battle as late in the day as she could. She would want to fight close-in. She would no doubt believe her foe wanted to pick off her warships at a distance.
It was all elementary space tactics.
“Captain,” Gloria said.
“I heard you,” Jon said.
“What is your decision?” the mentalist asked.
Jon turned around, walking to Gloria. The small mentalist sat at a console. She looked up, regarding him frankly.
After all these months, they’d grown closer as they tried to anticipate the hidden octopoids inside the former cybership. So far, the regiment had found and destroyed seven octopoid robots. At no time had they been able to capture one intact.
Gloria and Bast Banbeck wanted to study an octopoid computer core. Said cores had self-destructed into slag each time.
As he stood beside the mentalist, Jon raised an eyebrow.
“I think it’s time to talk with the enemy commander,” Gloria said. “They’re obviously anxious to know who we are, as this is an obviously alien vessel. We don’t want them to fight to the death. We want them to surrender.”
Jon inhaled, steeling himself. Part of him wanted to annihilate the Solar League occupiers. This was a dream come true, having the hated enemy that was soon to be under his guns. But part of him quailed at this hurdle. He couldn’t see a way around a bloody fight. The Solar League was composed of fanatical communists. Each warship would have their complement of arbiters and other GSB—Government Security Bureau—personnel.
“How do I look?” he asked Gloria.
“Scowl more,” she said.
If someone else had said that, he’d know they were kidding. When Gloria said something, she meant exactly what she’d said.
Jon Hawkins did not scowl more. He set his face like granite—the old enforcer look he’d used a hundred times in the lower tunnels. Then he faced the main screen.
“Yeah,” he said. “Patch me through. It’s time to talk to these bastards.”
-2-
A standing woman appeared on the screen, a rather younger woman than Jon had expected. She was wearing a green uniform. Jon hadn’t seen this type before. He didn’t know what it meant.
The fleet admiral—she introduced herself as Fleet Admiral Cybil Chang—had short-cut dark hair. She had dark eyes and looked Chinese. For her age, she was striking.
It’s the eyes, Jon thought.
Fleet Admiral Chang had dark eyeliner circling her eyes. Together with her striking features, the eyes had a beguiling quality.
“So,” she said. “At last, I speak to the great Jon Hawkins.”
Jon stared at her in shock, the enforcer flintiness slipping from his face.
“Yes,” she said. “I know all about you, Jon Hawkins.”
He sputtered, at a loss to explain this. He turned to Gloria.
The mentalist frowned, with her eyes half-lidded. Gloria nodded at last. “The Neptunians,” she whispered.
“Interesting,” Chang said. The fleet admiral had glanced at a side panel. “This tells me—the voice patterns I’m detecting—that the most honorable Gloria Sanchez of Mars assists you. That is an excellent choice on your part, Mr. Hawkins.”
“Captain Hawkins,” Jon said, in lieu of anything else.
“I see. You’ve promoted yourself. According to your profile you used to be Officer-Cadet Jon Hawkins.”
“That didn’t seem commensurate with my latest ship posting,” Jon said, coming out of his shock. “Frankly, given this mighty vessel, I should probably call myself Commodore Hawkins.”
“Why not Lord Admiral of the Galaxy Hawkins?” asked Chang.
The tiniest of grins slid onto Jon’s face. Her mockery helped him. It helped him recall that she was a Solar League officer, the enemy.
“You no doubt think very highly of yourself,” Chang added.
“No reason for it,” Jon said. “I just captured the first alien ship to ever enter our Solar System. Oh, I’m not sure if you know or not, but this alien vessel destroyed the SLN task force sent to subdue the Neptune System. Yeah. Maybe I should take the ruler of the galaxy title. You do know I can flick your fleet out of existence, right?”
Fleet Admiral Chang did not respond.
Jon struggled to bring his hatred of them under control. Talking like this wasn’t going help. He had to remember the greater goal. The AI ships were out there. The genocide machines could drop out of hyperspace at any time and finish what the first cybership had started.
“You are young,” Chang said.
Jon said nothing. He was psyching himself up, trying to access the part of his mind that remembered Colonel Graham’s teachings. He wished the colonel could do the talking. He was young. Maybe he was too young for this post.
The admiral froze on the screen.
Jon waited a second before whirling around.
Gloria raised her head. Her hands were still on the panel controls, the ones that had paused the conversation with the fleet admiral.
“Chang is trying to shake you,” Gloria said. “She’s trying to get under your skin.”
Jon nodded curtly. He didn’t need Gloria telling him what he already knew.
“You’re the captain, Jon. You’ve made plenty of smart decisions all down the line. You have—”
“Thank you,” he said, interrupting her.
Gloria studied him.
Jon forced himself to wink. He didn’t want to do that. He didn’t like anyone thinking he couldn’t get it done.
“I am attempting to aid you,” Gloria said.
Despite the stiffness of his mouth, he managed a slight grin. “Thanks. I mean that, too.”
Gloria smiled, and she even blushed. She looked down at her panel. “I’m bringing her back up.”
Jon faced forward.
The fleet admiral was in a new position, half-turned, demanding something from someone on her bridge. Someone spoke sharply over there. Cybil Chang faced him again.
“”You’re back,” she said. “Is anything wrong?”
“You must have been in tight-beam contact with someone in the Neptune System,” Jon said matter-of-factly. “I suppose they told you about me, my name at least. They must have told you about—” He’d almost said, “Gloria.” They would have psych experts going over this later. He had to be careful what he gave away.
“Mentalist Sanchez must have come up as well,” he finished.
“All true,” Chang said.
“I’m assuming you have footage of the alien vessel when it controlled the ship.”
“Oh, yes,” Chang said. “We have much footage. Captain, let us be frank. This is a serious situation.”
“I agree,” Jon said.
“Please, let me finish.” Chang watched him.
She’s looking for weakness, Jon realized. This was exactly like the tunnels. She was like the Outfit, the older gangsters in the New London tunnels. The Outfit hitmen and pushers had always treated the dome rats with contempt. Jon and his gang-buddies had taught the Outfit the mistake of that. When he’d left the gang for the regiment, the simmering hostility had almost turned into a turf war between the two sides.
Jon squared his shoulders. An enforcer was just as good as a hitman. He’d believed that as a youngster down in the tunnels. He wasn’t going to let the fleet admiral get under his skin. Besides, he held the cards. He wasn’t inferior to her. He was superior. That meant he didn’t have to bluff or talk tough. Quiet confidence had always gotten him farther as an enforcer. The same would hold true here.
I’ve been acting like a punk. That’s going to stop.
Chang glanced at something at her side, a gauge of some kind it seemed. When she looked up, the intensity in her eyes had magnified. The beguiling quality had grown. She seemed…beautiful, unattainable, an ice queen who could squash him if she wanted.
“Yeah, we’ll see,” he muttered.
He shook his head.
Chang checked her monitor. “Yes, you did speak. Please, Officer-Cadet, don’t be shy with me.”
Jon pressed his lips together. Then, he relaxed his stance, waiting, staring into her eyes. There was something unsettling about her. He wasn’t going to flinch, though. If he flinched, he’d be the punk.
“May I call you Jon?” she asked.
Jon didn’t answer. He kept watching.
“Have I offended you?” Chang asked.
“Fleet Admiral, you’re boring me. I’d thought to give you an opportunity to surrender. I don’t want to have to destroy your ships. I will, though, if you force it on us.”
“Please, Officer-Cadet, do not make false threats.”
Jon waited.
“Since you are attempting to use your gang persona against me, I will get to the point. Your young-man histrionics do you little justice. I had thought to deal with a man, a leader. Instead, I find—”
Jon’s mouth opened and he laughed. She was insulting him. He would insult her. He put a finger against one nostril and blew snot out of the other nostril. He wiped his nose with his sleeve afterward.
He saw anger in her eyes.
“You’re trying to insult me, Admiral,” Jon said. “That’s fine, as you mean nothing to me. You’re a whore for the Solar League. I can give you tit-for-tat if you like. I’m not sure what the point of that is, but hey, you want to play those games. Let’s play. You’re going to be dead soon enough.”
“You are Jon Hawkins of New London Dome on Titan,” Chang said angrily. “If you fire on my fleet, the nuclear explosives placed in New London will ignite. Your actions will cause the death of everyone you knew.”
Jon almost shouted in outrage. Just in time, he inhaled deeply, held the breath for a count of three and slowly exhaled. He did this three times.
“That would be a bad decision on your part,” he said in a carefully controlled voice.
“Your decision will decide their deaths or not,” Chang shot back.
His heart hammered. He remembered many people from New London. The idea of the dome blowing into space—
“You’d better blow it already,” he said thickly. He couldn’t let them hold this over him. Once they succeeded with the threat, they would mercilessly employ it until he’d handed over the cybership.
“Think carefully—”
“No!” he said, knowing he spoke too forcefully. He leaned toward the screen, getting angrier. “Let me tell you something, Fleet Admiral. You blow New London and you’re all dead, guaranteed.”
“You are threatening war,” Chang said. “War brings casualties.”
“Blow New London and I obliterate Earth.”
“That is a false threat.”
Jon laughed harshly. “Try me, Chang.”
“It is Fleet Admiral Chang to you.”
“Go to hell.”
Chang frowned. “You refer to the mythical abode of the damned?”
“Jon,” Gloria half-whispered.
He nodded without turning around. He had to get hold of himself. He couldn’t let Chang needle him like this. Was destroying Earth a false threat? Probably. He was going to need Earth and its incredible manufacturing power if he was going to save humanity.
“You do not have our willpower,” Chang said dangerously. “Social Dynamism is the most progressive force in the Solar System. We are humanity’s future. Thus, we act with an iron heart for the betterment of all. You,” she said in a dismissive tone. “You are a pirate at best, a brigand, a lawless adventurer.”
With deliberation, Jon forced his fists apart, stretching the fingers as widely as they could go.
“You would never destroy Earth,” Chang said with conviction. “But we will not hesitate to obliterate the pirate stronghold of New London. You know about Social Dynamism. You know the certainty of each of our planetary-system conquests. Our latest task force had destroyed the Neptunian plague of hyper-capitalism. We would have brought peace and tranquility to the Neptune System’s downtrodden masses.”
“What’s your point?” Jon heard himself say.
Chang studied him, and she smiled in a sinister manner. “Good. We understand each other. The point, Outlaw Hawkins, is that you must immediately surrender the alien vessel to us. I represent the Solar System’s legal authority. If you do not surrender the alien vessel, we will not only destroy New London Dome, but the entire Saturn System. That will render it useless for your illegal activities.”
Jon couldn’t believe what he was hearing. That was monstrous arrogance and incredible genocide, all so the Social Dynamists could remain in power.
“So you see, Jon Hawkins,” the fleet admiral was saying, “you have no choice. You must surrender the alien vessel at once or all you have known and loved will die.”
-3-
Jon had breathed deeply and long enough that his features no longer felt flushed. His heart no longer hammered. He regarded the icy Fleet Admiral. He read the fanaticism in her eyes. Chang meant what she said.
He spoke slowly, thinking as he did. “I’m a pirate…you said.”
Chang nodded.
“What incentive do I, a pirate, have for surrendering my ship?”
“Firstly,” Chang replied, “it isn’t your ship. You stole it.”
“From an alien invader bent on human extinction,” Jon said.
“Even so, the alien vessel belongs to the governing authorities of the Solar System, not to a pirate.”
“Says who?”
Chang blinked several times. “I say. I am the representative of the electors on Earth. Every planetary system sends electors to the Earth Ring in Caracas, Venezuela Zone. The majority of the electors chose the Premier, who guides the Solar Government on policy. In essence, the masses decide. Who are you to thwart the united masses of the Solar System?”
“He already said who he was,” Gloria replied. The mentalist stood, striding toward Jon and the main screen.
That surprised Jon. He could see the anger on Gloria’s normally placid face.
The Martian was a small woman with bird-like features that seemed almost brittle. Gloria stepped up beside him as she stared at the fleet admiral.
“Does the mentalist speak for you, Officer-Cadet?” Chang asked.
Jon noticed that Gloria’s intervention had upset Chang. That was good enough for him. He remained silent.
“You called Jon Hawkins an outlaw,” Gloria said. “The meaning is clear. He is outside the law. Thus, your theory concerning the masses and their choices is meaningless to him. By definition, an outlaw does what he wants.”
“Does she speak for you?” Chang asked. “Answer quickly, Jon Hawkins, or New London dies.”
Gloria glanced at Jon. He nodded to her for her to continue.
The mentalist adjusted her tan-colored uniform. “Captain Hawkins already spoke to you regarding New London. He told you to blow it. He desires you to destroy the city so it will no longer interfere with the greater question,” Gloria said.
Chang frowned. “What question?” she asked at last.
“Humanity’s coming fate,” Gloria said promptly.
“By your own words, that no longer concerns him, an outlaw,” Chang said.
“Incorrect,” Gloria said. “He is unconcerned about your so-called credentials. He is an outlaw, outside the bounds of conventionality. That doesn’t mean he acts whimsically. He operates on a different set of principles from you and your murderous ilk.”
“What principles?” Chang demanded.
“Obviously the ones that say: he who has the bigger ship does what he wants.”
“He is an opportunist, a mere adventurer then,” Chang said.
“Granted,” Gloria said.
“That is no way to base a society.”
Gloria shook her head. “You’re not stupid. He doesn’t care about any of that. He has the biggest ship. He does what he wants. Until you h
ave a bigger ship…” Gloria held out her hands palm upward.
“He will lose New London,” Chang said. “He will lose his friends.”
“Do you think the greatest outlaw in human history cares about them? Please,” Gloria said. “Do not delude yourselves. You obviously realize his ship outguns your fleet. Thus, you grasp at straws, hoping that he is an idiot, an easily bluffed fool. But you’re talking about the man who singlehandedly captured the alien vessel that obliterated your Neptune task force. Your thinking, or your Staff’s thinking, was not logical. Instead of grasping at straws, you should deal in reality.”
Chang’s focus kept switching from Gloria to Jon and back. “I request a recess,” the fleet admiral said. “I must communicate with the First Director of Saturn System.”
Gloria turned to Jon.
“Don’t take too long,” Jon told Chang. “Once I begin targeting your fleet, I’m going to destroy it.”
Chang’s features stiffened. She made a motion with her right arm. A second later, the screen went blank.
Jon’s knees buckled. Carefully, he lowered himself onto the deck, sitting, letting his shoulders slump. Finally, he looked up at Gloria.
“They’re going to kill everyone I know,” he said. “I can’t let that happen.”
Gloria nodded slowly. “Somehow, we have to convince them that destroying New London Dome would bring awful consequences on their collective heads.”
“How do we do that?”
“Yes,” Gloria said. “That is an excellent but most difficult question.”
-4-
The Nathan Graham continued to decelerate at 22 gravities.
The former cybership still had massive damage along its outer hull. Much of the great vessel had become inoperative. There were huge rents and gouges on the hull, some of the openings traveling inward for many kilometers.
Still, that was one of the prime assets of a one-hundred kilometer warship. It could take massive damage and still deal murder. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the weapons systems were either destroyed or inoperative. Only a handful of weapons systems had remained intact after the alien AI had targeted them as a last resort almost a year ago. The crew had attempted repairs of some, but those repairs had been depressingly unsuccessful these past months.
The A.I. Gene (The A.I. Series Book 2) Page 9
