“I think it’s necessary,” Admiral Fletcher said.
“It’s not your life you will be sacrificing, Koenigin. It’s your career,” Admiral Timmu explained.
“We evacuate California except for a few, put a shuttle up and demand that your father turn over the regency to you. You turn over the ‘Home Defense’ to the Federation.”
“Only about three hundred and fifty people have any idea of the scope of the plan,” Steve told them. “Of them, about a dozen know of the full plot -- except the willingness of Merriweather to start over from scratch. Only one other has any idea of the scope of all the details.
“We call in a bevy of cruisers to chase down any ships that try to escape,” Steve went on. “My fiancée learned to her chagrin that the Federation can track vessels on High Fan. Any ship that gets through the blockade, we can run down.
“Campbell’s is forty-five minutes from the fan limit. There are six battle moons out here -- over a hundred thousand Blue missiles, plus two carriers with two thousand fighters each. Any ship that doesn’t stop will be destroyed before they can reach the fan limit. Odds are, the mere explanation of all those missile silos in heavily populated areas will cause a change of government. The aliens don’t give a rip about populated areas -- only the Federation would be reluctant to cause mass civilian casualties.”
“If you want me on that shuttle, I’m willing,” Donna Merriweather volunteered.
“Don’t be daft, Admiral! You’ll have Thebes wrapped around you! We’ve gotten pretty slick with latch-frame relays and remote piloted vehicles!” Admiral Timmu said with a grin.
“Speaking of daft, do you really expect my father to give up without a fight?”
“He might have a little trouble getting the average person in his Home Defense Force to fire on the Federation. Particularly if they were threatened with nuclear annihilation if they don’t get with the program. We will guarantee a free and fair election to allow the people to decide what they want after the war is over,” Admiral Gull stated.
“That’s what you meant when you said I would sacrifice my career,” Donna mused.
“It’s battle calculus, Admiral Merriweather. Yes, he has some fighters -- but we have more and our pilots are far better trained. Any ship that tries to leave, we’ll stop just like we stopped Yolanda Ruiz. We can track ships on High Fan. Do they know about that, Steve?” Admiral Fletcher asked.
“Merriweather knows that ships can be tracked on High Fan; he learned that from the Union. He hasn’t been able to duplicate it and assumes that the Federation doesn’t know how to do it yet either. His spies in the Fleet don’t realize how little the penetration of that information has occurred. Further, the nature of the discovery isn’t such that propulsion engineers and sensor officers want to talk about it. It’s one of the classic triple secret facts,” Steve said.
Chapter 17 -- Guess Who is Coming to Dinner?
Admiral Timmu spoke to the assembled admirals. “How exactly are we going to evacuate California without alerting Merriweather?”
Before anyone could answer, the door to the room opened and one of the Marine guards poked his head in. “Admiral Timmu, Captain Jeffers says he has a very exceedingly urgent message.”
Admiral Gull laughed. “That screams out ‘hear me!’”
“It’s a code for an urgent message; no one is supposed to use it unless there is an attack inbound,” Admiral Timmu said.
“In that case, we need to hear it,” the President of the Federation said.
“Tell Captain Jeffers to come in, Sergeant,” Admiral Timmu responded.
Captain Jeffers blinked when he saw the stars present in the room and video-linked, but stiffly saluted. “Admiral Timmu, we were testing the new detector designs we got from Fleet. We detected an unidentified formation coming from Galactic South at about twelve light years. The formation is certainly hostile; ship count is twenty-two hundred plus.”
“Captain, this is a highly classified planning meeting. You are not to say anything to anyone about anyone you see here. Please return to your shop and continue to work the contact.”
Captain Jeffers saluted again, walked back to the door and went through it.
Admiral Gull stood. “Mr. President, Admiral Fletcher -- I think we are going to be a little busy for a few days. May I assume command of the Campbell’s system?”
Admiral Fletcher nodded. “You are the senior officer present.”
“And I have a free hand with the Merriweathers -- both of them?”
“Of course, Charlie.” Admiral Fletcher said. “We’ll drop the link for now.”
“And Snow Dance? May I use those assets?”
“Surely, Admiral. There are two battle moons there.”
“There are two battle moons there controlled by the Federation. There are sixteen controlled by the AIs, as well as a shoal of cruiser class vessels. A squadron of eighteen cruisers will transit Campbell’s in about a week, then continue on.”
“That will give you twenty-four eggs that we really can’t afford to be converted to omelets, Admiral,” the president said.
“We have Cindy Rhodes and Steve Yardley here, advising us, at least in spirit in the first case. We’ve never used the millisecond jumpers yet in a major engagement. If they drop from fans like they did before the Big Battle, the millisecond jumpers are going to score big.
“We can place our heavies here without being detected.”
“Admiral Gull, may I interrupt?” Steve Yardley said.
“Normally, I’d eat you for lunch -- but I ate just before we came in. What is it, Mister Yardley?”
“Ensign Ruiz still doesn’t understand the alien language, at least not completely. But she has given us the means to detect the hidden base emissions -- she has some ideas of how to jam those. If we can jam them, we can move our assets around the system to better place them to meet the attack.”
Charlie Gull laughed. “Okay, I admit I’m getting ahead of myself. Yes, indeedie! We need to do a ton of planning!
“In such planning, there should be an overall mission statement that defines what we are about! To engage and destroy the enemy force. I rather like it! Short and sweet!”
He turned to Admiral Timmu. “What say we go and have a few words with Chairman Merriweather?”
Steve and his team were privileged to be flies on the wall -- they could listen, but not speak.
“I wish to speak to Chairman Merriweather,” Admiral Gull spoke to the minion of the Imperial Palace.
“He is busy, sir. Can he call you back?”
“Tell him I’m attempting to coordinate the defense of the Campbell’s system from an alien attack currently twelve light years out. Our best intelligence puts the number of ships at more than twenty-two hundred.
“If he’s still too busy to take my call, tell him I’ll leave the defense of the system in his no doubt capable hands.”
The palace functionary turned pale, then sputtered he would tell Chairman Merriweather of the call.
A short few minutes later, Richard Merriweather was on the link. “What is this about an attack, Gull?”
“As I said, we are expecting an attack by twenty-two hundred alien ships in less than two weeks. I’m here to coordinate the defense of this system.”
The man didn’t turn pale like the earlier functionary. “You no longer dictate to us, Gull.”
“Well, I was going to get to that. You will turn the assets of the Campbell’s Home Defense Force over to the Fleet. You will step down from the Regency Council; the Council, will, in fact, be disbanded as the paperwork is going through even now so the Empress can resign from the Fleet and assume her throne.”
“I will do no such thing. You’re bluffing.”
“We know you have been talking to the Union; even the incompetent clowns that you have working for you as spies will have told you that. Your Union contacts told you of the range of their detectors -- a dozen light years. Surely you understand the significance of
an attack detected at maximum detection range.”
“You’re still bluffing!”
“Your so-called spies were entirely in sensors. Did any of them mention that we’ve known how to detect ships on High Fan since the start of the war? Do you realize the abysmal incompetence of intelligence agents who didn’t think that fact was worth reporting?
“Trust me, our weapons research is light years ahead of our sensor work.
“As before, I’ve taken the liberty of broadcasting this on an open channel. Let me explain a few things about the disposition of your Home Defense Force. With the exception of the Kalliste Habitat, all of your Home Defense Forces are deployed in populated areas.
“The aliens bomb populated areas first, then shellac the rest of the planet afterwards. Your Home Defense Forces would be gone in the first few milliseconds of an attack. A more rational disposition would have been to deploy those forces randomly around the planet, so that some would survive the initial strike. The aliens don’t give a rip about civilian casualties -- they aim to kill everyone.
“The Federation does care about civilian casualties -- it is our evaluation that you are hiding behind your civilian population. Mr. Merriweather, that is a war crime. Nor do I think your people are going to be thrilled at the news that they are hostages against the Federation.
“Unlike the clowns you employee, the Federation employs capable people in its intelligence service. I have a complete inventory of all of your locations and assets. Oh, by the way, you can dispense with your tin foil hat -- the Union telepaths are working with us and they lied about the efficacy of those hats to their masters. They chose the design to make the wearers look stupid.
“As you should well know, they succeeded. By the way, the Union has a new government these days.
“Simply this, Mr. Merriweather...”
“Chairman Merriweather!”
“I’m sure I mentioned that the Regency Council was disbanded, didn’t I, Admiral Timmu?”
“I believe, sir, you were a little vague about the verb tense.”
“Was I? I can fix that! Chairman Merriweather! The Regency Council is dissolved, you can start preparing for the Empress’s return.
“As I was saying, Mr. Merriweather. Once again you face a simple choice: do as commanded or we will interdict you until seconds before the alien attack begins. By then, we will have evacuated all of the Fleet personnel and equipment that can be moved. You are relatively far from the fan limit -- we will be able to shoot High Fan homing missiles at any ship that tries to leave. It will be like shooting at fish in a very small barrel.
“As before, your people face the choice of annihilation and keeping you as their master, or accepting their rightful Empress and applying the boot to your fundament. There isn’t much time -- preparations will have to start within a day for a successful defense or an evacuation. Once started, the plan can’t be changed.”
“You really think that a few more than a hundred cruisers can stop the aliens?”
“Unlike you, Mr. Merriweather, we have more up our sleeves than our hairy arms. As I said earlier, our weapons research has been where we’ve shone.
“Think about this -- for maybe an hour or so, until the shrill screams of anger from your people penetrate your thick skull.”
The link was cut and Admiral Timmu turned to Admiral Gull. “Do you think it wise to have bearded him so?”
“I have had the benefit of reading Lieutenant Yardley’s reports as they came in. The Home Defense Force was sold to most of its members as a reaction to Merriweather claiming that Fleet wasn’t doing enough to defend Campbell’s. Ninety-nine out of a hundred of them think they are patriots, willing to put their lives on the line for Campbell’s.
“Not many were in on all the plans and many of them were lied to as well. For instance, the missile silos in built-up areas were billed as quick to reach in case of attack and such like.”
They returned to the full planning committee meeting, given their new urgency. “Call Captain Jeffers to the meeting,” Charlie Gull requested.
Captain Jeffers was startled at the number of admirals at the table, and then the number of admirals linked in.
“How much time do we have, Captain?” Admiral Timmu asked.
“They are approaching at a velocity in the top range of velocities ever noted by the aliens, about .93 days per light year over a distance of eleven point five light years. Call it ten days and seventeen hours -- but they should stop at least once.”
“The low-hanging fruit, Charlie,” Trudy Swenson said. “Our students and the fighter transition class need to get out of here.”
“And my Marines,” the brigadier said forcefully.
“We know they probably have observers in-system,” Steve Yardley said.
“Virtually certain,” Charlie Gull observed. “They wouldn’t risk that many ships without intelligence.”
“Yes, we need to get Ensign Ruiz to the largest gas giant in the system. She can hear their transmissions in real time and read them, at least the data they send.
“They will transmit the final data a few days in advance in a tight beam to their rendezvous -- that many light days away from the gas giant. We can scupper that transmission from the start... and get a line on where their fleet will be. The intersection of the fleet’s course and that line will tell us where to be.
“I know now about millisecond jumpers. If we are there in advance with two dozen battle moons, each with broadsides of thousands of missiles -- well, it won’t be a long battle.”
“It tickles my imagination that we can make a twenty-two hundred ship attack vanish without a trace, make their base vanish without a trace -- make a clean sweep in the system -- gosh! Still, we’ll need a lot of careful planning.
“Captain Jeffers, return to your shop. Ignore the dancing sugar-plum fairies... we need that track locked down to within millimeters.”
The watch communications officer was back. “Chairman Merriweather is on the line, Admirals.”
Admiral Gull walked to a communication terminal. “Have you made up your mind, Merriweather?”
“We are launching a refuge ship in a few seconds. If it is fired upon, we will fire on California base.”
“Merriweather, you are an idiot! You killed more non-combatants the last time you had the chance, here on California. Do you know why there are so many familiar faces in the base? We promised them we were going to get you for war crimes.
“Everyone up here knows what you did! Do you think they will hesitate at all to start payback?
“And worse, you might be stupid but I’m not! Do you think I would come here alone? There is a battle moon escorting a Fleet carrier laying doggo in the system. If you fire on California, we’ll fire on Campbell’s. Maybe you’d be alive when we got done, but I do believe you’ll have a little resentment among the survivors of your people!
“Your Home Defense Force will be reserved for close in defense for Campbell’s -- that’s what you told them, right?
“You have a half hour left, Merriweather. Resign or die. No ships will be allowed to leave.”
Captain Jeffers appeared next to Admiral Gull. “A ship attempted to depart Campbell’s. It was destroyed just outside the atmosphere.”
“There were a thousand women and children aboard that ship!” Merriweather trumpeted.
“And there were ten thousand women and children in our dependant’s area when your forces bombed it,” Admiral Timmu told Merriweather.
“Merriweather, at some point your people will have had enough of you. After thirty minutes from now, it won’t matter because we will abandon you all to your fate. As I said, we’ll stay in-system until the last second and will shoot at any ship that tries to leave. You can rely on your inexperienced fighter pilots and the even more inexperienced crews aboard your cruisers.”
“What do you want from us?”
“Tell Captain Campion at Kalliste Habitat to allow Fleet technicians to direct some min
or modifications to your communications systems. Ditto Captains Talbot, McMurphy and Firenzo at your three fighter facilities.
“The changes will enable them to interface with latch-frame to coordinate with the Fleet, and provide your ships with Fleet IFF codes.”
“Our ships already have latch-frame and IFF,” Merriweather said haughtily.
“Our communications also work on High Fan. Does yours do that?”
This was news to the dictator, as he his expression was a fierce scowl. Admiral Gull pressed his advantage. “As I’ve said, you probably fielded the worst espionage crew in history. There were some things we were deliberately keeping secret, but there was a lot we didn’t try to keep secret. Your people struck out totally, Merriweather. It might have been that their hearts weren’t in it.”
“What else do we need to do?”
“You need to resign, forthwith. The rest of the Regency Council should do so as quickly as possible, at least within the hour. Admiral Merriweather will fight her carrier during the forthcoming battle, then we will land a number of Marines who will provide her security for the future.
“The resignations should be publicly broadcast as soon as possible. No more than twenty minutes after the deadline. We will be landing an AI in the next few days in your Capital City, one of the AIs from Snow Dance. You will leave it alone; as you should know, AIs can kill just by thinking it. You’d better keep anyone with an inimical hatred of the Federation at a great distance.
“Now, give those orders and your resignations. You don’t want to test me again. I’m quite prepared to write the whole planet off rather than leave a nest of traitors.”
*** ** ***
Richard Merriweather looked at his aide thoughtfully. “Get me Karl-Heinz.”
The aide saluted and went to fetch the head of security.
“You monitored that?” Merriweather asked Commander Black when he arrived.
“Yes, sir. I’ve sent for Cramer, the Union representative. He should be here in the next few minutes.”
“What is your analysis?”
The Odyssey and the Iliad (Kinsella Universe Book 7) Page 35
