The next morning I felt a lot better. I was also glad I was an alien, because Kristi had a massively nasty hangover, we did overdo it a bit on the wine, and she looked absolutely miserable as I flew the sports shuttle up to our ship. Of course, being her best friend I was very understanding.
“What a beautiful morning,” I said cheerfully.
She glared at me, “Damn aliens.”
I tried for innocent hurt, but completely failed as I giggled.
“Sorry.”
She snorted, and then held her hand to her head as if it hurt.
“Liar.”
When we entered the hangar, I saw an extra shuttle there, and wondered what was going on. I didn’t have long to wait once we got out.
One of the marines said, “Miss Avdonin is in your office ma’am.”
I sighed and nodded, suddenly not feeling the beauty of the morning. I knew I’d done a lot for Earth, and was by most a hero even if that made me a little uncomfortable. But I also knew politics was a bitch sometimes. This couldn’t possibly be good news.
Kristi even looked concerned past her misery.
When we got into my office, Nadia looked over with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. She also didn’t look like she’d slept in days which made me feel a little guilty.
Nadia said, “We need to talk off the record.”
I nodded as the butterflies in my stomach all took off.
“Al, discontinue recording in my office for the duration of Nadia’s visit please.”
Nadia frowned, “It’s a mess. A compromise was reached last night, wheeling and dealing, politics,” she spat out the last word in disgust.
“Okay, what’s the damage?”
Nadia sighed, “The Americans made an offer. They offered to foot the bill for all the upgrades you submitted, and pay for the lion’s share of the remaining fleet, if the other six groups in the USFS would allow them to colonize the new planet as an American territory, with the assurances they wouldn’t seek another until the other six got a colony of their own.”
“I see, and the others went for this?”
Nadia shook her head, “Yes and no. The other leaders decided to wring more concessions for it, because of its value. Most of those don’t have anything to do with you, however, Russia made a demand that directly affects you, and I wanted to tell you personally, before the orders come in, which should be in about an hour.”
I had a really bad feeling, and Nadia confirmed my fears with her next words.
Nadia said, “They demanded that their admiral, Sergei Abramov become admiral of the fleet for the USFS. So, we are cutting your contract short,” she looked slightly ashamed, but I didn’t blame her.
I frowned, “I see, is there anything else?”
She nodded, “There was, at first it was planned to take this ship, with payment of course, since you’ll be a civilian again and shouldn’t be in command of a ship with weapons. However, that was shot down.
“It seemed very ungrateful for all you’ve done. You have a special status for putting us in space, and protecting us once we got there, that no other citizen will be allowed.”
I frowned, “That is appreciated, but seems… rather nice.”
Nadia barked a laugh, “Yes, there are other reasons, although I would have been fine with just the one. I really do hope we can still be friends after today.”
I could feel her sincerity, but couldn’t do more than nod. I didn’t have many friends really. Kristi was my best and closest friend, and the others could be counted on one hand, and two of those weren’t from Earth. Point was, I couldn’t afford to throw them out.
She continued, “The other reasons are just as valid but more selfish. You have consistently come up with better, stronger, and faster technology. Letting you as they say in America, keep your toys, and play making new ones, seems to be the course of wisdom for the planet. The last reason stemmed from fear as well as being selfish. They felt you would think it a slap in the face, and simply take your toys and go somewhere else, or worse, sell them to the other races in the treaty.
“You will of course be removed from the command structure, no more morning orders, reports, and all that. But you won’t be cut out of any systems. Much like a security company has access to the buildings they protect, you will have access to upgrade the ships, access to maintain the new stealth sensor net, etc. So I suppose if you get curious, you still have access to raw data. So consider yourself at this moment, a top secret contractor to all the countries involved in the USFS.
“Of course, you may tell us to shove it, and go work in Denver, and sell your ship. But we all hope you won’t, or at least, you’ll continue doing both.”
Sell my ship? Not happening. I would take care of my company, but I wasn’t giving up space just because I wasn’t an admiral anymore. In fact, running a company, being an inventor, exploring new things and ideas was all I wanted to do. I never cared about the power I had as admiral of fleet, it was a responsibility to protect the Earth.
I was so worried I would be fired, but now that it happened I felt lighter, free in a way, like someone took a great weight off of my shoulders. Not all of it, I still felt a need to keep pushing the edge of technology, just in case Earth did run into an enemy.
After all, the phrase pinnacle of technology was a lie. Nothing was unbeatable, and there was always more to learn, always another impossibility to overcome. I just hoped my best work wasn’t behind me, most scientists didn’t get more than one or two breakthroughs a lifetime, never mind as big as the two I had have been.
“Well, I won’t tell you no. And yes, taking my ship would have pissed me off.”
Nadia snickered.
“Anything else, or was that everything?”
Nadia shook her head, “Wasn’t that enough?”
I sighed, “I suppose it is. I’ll wait for the orders before I start the upgrade on the ships. You want to get a peek at the new planet?” I asked with a teasing lilt.
Nadia shook her head, “I can’t take off for the day, too busy. I need to be back down in an hour.”
I smiled, “But… I can have you there in five minutes. My wormhole generator came on line early this morning. That’s a whole fifty minutes of peeking.”
Nadia grinned, and this time, it reached her eyes. Somehow not losing her as a friend seemed like the best thing that happened to me this morning.
“If you insist Alicia.”
So, we went to take a quick look, maybe getting back to just the science was for the best anyway…
Chapter 12
When the orders came through, I initiated the upgrade for the fleet. The upgrade was designed to not impact operations at all. For instance, in the case of the battle cruisers the eight new plasma cannons would be in place and active, before the old eight were touched at all, just in case we were attacked during the upgrade. There were other similar things going on to prevent any ship downtime.
However, I was aware that where humans are involved, mistakes are possible, so I was doing half the fleet at a time, and of course, all new ships would be built to the new specifications. As I suspected, the missiles wouldn’t be getting the triple shielding, but the attack shuttles would. Even on the older power sources, it would still triple the shield power, so it was worth doing, and would make them more effective in battle.
Al reported, “A hundred ships, and admiral Sergei’s command ship, just went to light speed.”
I frowned, “See if you can figure out what’s going on.”
I felt suddenly nervous, it wasn’t my problem anymore, but it wasn’t easy to shut off.
Al said, “According to scanning data from the probes, three of the systems in the old Knomen empire, all separate species, just sent a combined six hundred ships toward the Knomen home world.”
I frowned, “ETA on enemy ships?”
I knew our ships would get there in a day. Half a day, or immediately, when the upgrades were complete.
Al replie
d, “Thirty-two hours.”
I frowned, Sergei would have five to one odds against him, with the twenty carriers stationed there. But then, they’d have sixteen hundred attack shuttles as well, not to mention Shield missiles, and a few missile boats. The upgrades wouldn’t be completely done, but the shields would be, so they’d be at triple strength, but not yet at six times strength when the dark energy reactor came online. They’d only have the old plasma cannons as well. Still, whoever was attacking would most likely lose, as long as they didn’t have any nasty surprises or new technologies.
Whoever they are, they are either out for revenge, or want to ensure the Knomen can never rise again.
Al said, “New data coming in I think you might want to know about.”
I shook my head, “What now?”
Al said, “The Seltans are gathering close to Leira, there are close to a thousand ships present, and it looks like those numbers are growing. Fifty more ships have left Earth space at FTL, and I am detecting several other small fleets from allies moving toward Leiran space.”
Holy crap. I’d figured the Seltan were waiting until something broke out here before trying to attack Leira again, but I had no idea how closely they must have been watching to act so quickly.
“How many treaty ships.”
Al answered, “Including ours, twelve hundred and nineteen, so far.”
I frowned, “Have all treaty worlds sent ships yet?”
Al said, “Yes.”
I tilted my head, “Then why the qualifier?”
Al was silent for a moment, “I estimated there was a seventy-eight percent chance you would make the number twelve hundred and twenty-one.”
Would I? I did have my own fleet of two after all. That’s entirely crazy, I was a scientist. I wasn’t even in the damned military anymore, and I’d be crazy to get involved. Kristi had been oddly silent on the other side of the room.
I smiled, “Kristi, want to go pick a fight?”
Kristi giggled, “Okay. But we should’ve built our death star first.”
I shook my head in bewilderment, “Death star?”
Kristi laughed, “You don’t remember? Last night when we got really drunk on wine. Something about thousands of plasma turrets, and eight levels of shielding, a huge ship half the size of the moon powered by a dark energy reactor. Full of millions of anti-FTL missiles, Shield missiles, and attack shuttles controlled by A.I. You even talked about a city, and farms. It was a completely self-sufficient world in and of itself. I thought you might wind up conquering the universe, but you passed out in the middle of Empire Strikes Back instead.”
I… didn’t remember that at all. No juggernaut ships for me, but apparently I hadn’t forgotten the concept, it had even grown. I shook my head, hopefully she was just getting me back, for me teasing her this morning about the hangover. Surely I didn’t really… I shook my head, again.
“Al, go ahead and follow the ships heading to Leira, slow down and match after we catch up.”
Al said, “Engaged.”
Kristi’s eyes widened, “Oh. My. Goodness. Did your A.I. just reference and make fun of star trek?”
Al asked, “Was it not amusing?”
I laughed, “Yes, a little.” Just a little shocking as well…
The hundred ship Earth fleet heading to Knomen would get there eight hours before the enemy fleet. Eight hours after that, the attack would start. And we and the other fifty Earth ships, would still have at least a day to get to Leira. With the updated ships, I could get there before that happened, hell, I could be there now. But I wasn’t going to face a thousand plus Seltan ships with only the Leiran ships there, of which there was an impressive four hundred of right now.
The Seltan ships were still showing up, gathering at the edge of sensor range, and were in excess of that twelve hundred ships we would have. With the fifty Earth battle cruisers, we would have a thousand attack shuttles, along with three thousand Shield missiles, plus whatever emplacements the Leirans had, but if the Seltan kept building up I wasn’t sure even that was enough.
I had a feeling they would attack the same time the Knomen were hit, though I’m not sure why I had that impression. Either way, we would be late as well. I didn’t like that concept at all.
“Al, what is the most efficient rendezvous point for all the ships that won’t get to Leira before the Knomen battle starts?”
Al was silent for a second, “I assume you mean all the ships from our side of the Knomen, all the ones past Knomen will reach Leira in that time frame, four hundred and fifty ships. The last three fifty will arrive late as they live on our side of the old Knomen empire.”
“Yes, that’s what I mean, what’s the most efficient rendezvous point for those three hundred and fifty ships?”
Al replied, “Just past the Knomen home world. Some of the races are past the Knomen world already, but so much slower than even our old ships, that it would be faster if they turned around and came back.”
I nodded. I also hoped Earth wouldn’t be mad at me for revealing the tech already. I compiled a message to those three hundred and fifty ships, with instructions to meet us and where, and I’d open a wormhole to get them the rest of the distance. I just hoped we had that long, if I was wrong about the Seltan’s intentions it would be bad, they could attack sooner after all. Even now.
I sent the message. I wondered for a moment, if any of the other races would even believe me. Or worse, fear me for once again throwing the galaxy’s balance of power out of alignment.
Al said, “You have an incoming message from vice admiral Anthony Flores. Apparently he is now the admiral over exploratory fleet. Upper admiral Kara Barnes was promoted to vice admiral home fleet.”
That made sense, they’d need to once they promoted Sergei to fleet admiral.
“Answer it.”
Anthony said, “What are you doing?”
I smiled, “Hi Anthony, well the board left me my toys, so I’m getting ready to hit the playground.”
Anthony replied, “Are you insane? This isn’t a game.”
I sighed, “Of course it isn’t. You should know me better by now, banter is stress relief. Did you sit on a stick or something?”
Anthony sighed, “Fine, but what about that message you sent?”
I didn’t know quite how to answer him.
“A gut feeling, that we won’t make it in time otherwise. I’m probably wrong, but if we can get there faster, we should. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t already be there if the upgrades were finished.”
He grunted, “Fine, but be careful. You’re too important to Earth, and our future, to throw yourself away in a skirmish. Especially now that you don’t even have the responsibility as admiral of fleet. That said, I can’t order you, I can only ask you. Watch your ass out there.”
Was I crazy? Why did I feel the need to do this really? Was it the adrenaline rush, was I a danger junkie now? I didn’t think so, although I’d be hard pressed to completely deny it, but it was more than that as well. It was the same reason I said yes to fight in the first place, to protect my adopted home, and now everyone that was a part of the treaty.
To prove I wasn’t like the rest of my people.
Was that shallow and stupid? I didn’t know, but I knew I couldn’t just sit back, especially when for the next couple of days, as I had the two most powerful ships in the known galaxy under my command.
I said grudgingly, “I’m not going to play hero, or martyr, but I won’t sit it out either. Jones out.”
It was the truth too. I had Kristi with me, I would never sacrifice myself in an empty gesture, and I sure as hell wouldn’t sacrifice my best friend…
Chapter 13
“Al, has anyone tried talking to the ships heading for Knomen?”
Maybe they could be talked out of it? Probably not, but I thought it might be worth an effort.
Al replied, “No.”
I wavered in my decision. Perhaps talking would be better, but if they
were after revenge on the Knomen, perhaps I wasn’t the best person to talk to them, despite the fact I was a big part of the reason they were free right now.
Sergei was probably busy, so I had Al send him a message with the suggestion. There was still over a day before that battle happened, so there was no real rush. It felt odd to be relegated to the sidelines again though.
I took some time to go over the projects in my company. There weren’t any new breakthroughs on replacing the fabricators with nanites for all building. The other projects were similarly slow. I also had no idea what I should work on next. I took a deep breath and blew it out.
To kill some time, I started designing a behemoth of a ship, nothing the size of a moon, but about four times the length and width of the current ship. That would fit over two hundred and fifty plasma turrets easily. Of course, I had no practical reason to want to actually build it, and it would take just over twenty days to build, whereas we could build almost seven battle cruisers at the same time, which had almost the same amount of cannons between them. It seemed to be a wash really.
Al said, “Call from Sergei.”
“Answer it.”
His face came up in my view, “Alicia. I got your message. Not sure if I see the point, they clearly want revenge, and those worlds haven’t contacted anyone in a while.”
Hearing my first name from him was odd, but the message was clear, I was no longer in command and he was humoring me with this call. It could have been worse, at least he wasn’t angry I’d stuck my nose in.
I shrugged, “Call it politically covering your ass. It probably is a waste of time, but it isn’t like you don’t have some before the fight starts, and at least we can say we tried.”
He raised an eyebrow, “We?”
I suppressed rolling my eyes, that wouldn’t go over well. Did he really think I was trying to take credit or something?
“I mean Earth. Protecting the Knomen we are keeping on their world, essentially jailed and quarantined, has nothing to do with the treaty. However, it will reflect on us, and inform the other worlds involved in the treaty how we conduct ourselves. It will be especially important to those worlds still on the fence about joining us.”
Alicia Jones 3: New Frontier Page 7
