by Ron Collins
Starclash
CHAPTER 24
U3 Ship Icarus
Local Date: Conejo 8, 9
Local Time: 1015
As Deidra took her place at the helm, Captain Keyes exited his briefing room. Seeing her, he came to her side.
“Good morning, Director.”
She smiled, despite the situation at hand. She had directed both her mother and Gregor to stay behind, but all eyes were on her. Deidra knew she had to be on board for this mission. It was the first under her direction. She had chosen the target. She had worked on the structure of the mission plan. While the entire council had supported her after Gregor agreed, she felt like this mission was the litmus test. Its success or failure would make a difference. She thought of Jamal and Kel, then took a breath and cleared her mind.
“Director,” she said, pronouncing the word slowly. “I remember you calling me that once before.”
“I wish it were under better circumstances this time.”
She pressed her lips together, but felt a sense of strength standing beside the captain. Keyes has been in her camp from the beginning.
“I feel like I can trust you, Captain.”
“I appreciate hearing that.”
“Are we ready?”
“Yes. All systems are tested. Skimmer missions are loaded, and bombing runs programmed. I suspect we will have twenty minutes of free time on station.”
“All right.”
“Do I have your permission to execute the operation?”
“Yes, Captain. Let’s do it.”
Keyes turned to his staff and gave the command. The bridge grew into a quiet hub as controllers focused on the jump and commanders readied their groups.
Deidra gripped the railing and scanned the profile that hung in the display straight ahead.
A map of the UG Mars Colony Natim spread out there.
She recognized the sprawling environmental control domes and the plastic tunnels that connected them up.
She remembered sitting on Perigee Hill, the highest spot on the ridge that separated the Universe Three Hive from that colony. That had been nearly a decade ago now. She remembered the sound of Papa’s voice as he told her his story. Her sense of loss made her swallow hard and blink away tears that had started to form.
She wasn’t going to cry.
Instead, she set her jaw and watched.
All the planning was done.
The command given.
A moment later, Icarus jumped from the Eta Cass system back to the Solar System.
When they arrived, the display turned to real time.
* * *
The first wave was a line of modified Z-pads that focused their fire on the UG police forces, which were minimal, but still capable of putting up a fight and causing problems.
The second wave, unfettered by defense, used plasma rockets and energy pulse bombs to destroy the entire agricultural wing of the colony, then doubled back and dealt with the power grid.
A final wave, Z-pads again, swooped low and targeted the community’s living quarters.
“We can’t do that,” Gregor had argued during the planning of the mission.
“I don’t recall the UG showing any restraint when they bombed the Hive,” Deidra replied, highlighting the rubble that remained of what had once been their own home. “This has been a war since we bugged out. It’s time we started playing like it.”
The entire run lasted fifteen minutes.
When the craft returned to Icarus, the colony was a smoldering ruin. Deidra watched the data stream as updates came in. She pressed her lips together and ran her palms over her crossed arms, letting her sense of achievement slowly unwind from inside her, feeling a tingling that started from somewhere inside her gut, and slowly made its way up her spine until it made the skin over her shoulders crawl with a peculiar satisfaction.
The jump back to Eta Cass was perfect.
“Well done,” Captain Keyes said with a crooked grin.
“Thank you,” she replied. Rather than joy, Deidra felt relief. “Please give your command my appreciation.”
She left, then, heading to the shuttle bay to return to Atropos City.
They hadn’t lost a single spaceship.
SOURCE: INFOWAVE — NEWS for the twenty-third century
DATE: February 2, 2215, Earth Standard
HEADLINE: U3 Attack Destroys Mars Colony Natim
UG officials announced today that a surprise attack from Universe Three resulted in the total annihilation of the Natim colony on Mars.
General Ophelia Nichols addressed the reporting pool late this evening with the news.
“The colony, known for its peaceful agricultural mission, was essentially defenseless against the onslaught, which was executed in three waves of skimmer attacks, and then a bombing pass that targeted critical life support systems.”
With the United Government’s acceptance, Universe Three had at one time maintained an outpost nearby the colony, a fact that most certainly allowed them to gather the intelligence they needed to complete such a surgical mission.
“Our magnanimous nature obviously worked against us,” said General Nichols. “The loss is devastating.”
Casualty reports include over 800 people, mostly scientists and their families.
Top United Government officials are said to be holding emergency sessions to form a response.
CHAPTER 25
Low Earth Orbit
Local Date: February 3, 2215
Local Time: 0415
Ambassador Reyes’s shuttle was thirty minutes outside its reentry window. An hour after that, Torrance and Reyes would be in a conference center outside Sidney, Australia, which had been hastily chosen as the home of the emergency meeting of the Solar System Security Council. In all, it meant that Reyes had less time for pleasantries as he completed his conversation with the representative from Kensington Station.
His goal was to use the bloodlust passion the destruction of Natim had caused to kickstart a new production line.
Torrance watched his new mentor close the deal.
“That’s right,” Reyes said to the representative. “I think that a supporting vote from Kensington regarding prioritization of Magellan could result in the addition of a direct shuttle route from Kensington to Io. At least, that’s what the transportation commission has agreed to in return for other considerations.”
“Then I think we have an agreement.”
Reyes gave his warm smile. “It’s always such a pleasure to work with you. I’ll see you on the ground shortly, I hope?”
“I wouldn’t miss it.”
The two rang off.
“That was impressive,” Torrance said. “I didn’t think a direct route to Io would make that much of a difference to her.”
Reyes raised one eyebrow and cocked his head. “This is why relationships matter, Torrance. Kensington’s representative and I have been making arrangements for years, and through most of that time I’ve been giving her the larger end of the stick. But this is the most important. She understands that, so she’s letting me win on the face of it. But she also understands that her people are angry and looking for revenge. They won’t mind the appearance of an overpay. In fact, an overpay is a sign of courage. If, later though, she can claim to be the source of the Io route, that will be helpful to her. And regardless she can both lay claim to the extra commerce made through it, as well as direct that commerce stream to places of her choosing.”
Reyes hesitated, looking at the display that showed the shuttle’s progress.
“And there are also other advantages to be had in developing a new trade route,” he finally said.
“Such as?”
“Such as the fact that there are shipping licenses that have to be approved, extra facilities to be built and regulated, people to be hired to run it all.”
Torrance’s face lit up. “And she who controls the build, controls the votes that come with the build.”
; Reyes patted him high on the shoulder. “See what I mean? You are already proving my intuition to be good.”
Torrance grinned.
He wasn’t sure how he felt about what he had witnessed over the past several hours of the flight.
Reyes had been on the communicator the whole time.
During a call with the vice mayor of Venus Station, Reyes agreed that it would be a good thing to change the current division of the automated mining rights to the olivine that lay under that planet’s crust, which was packaged for use in CO2 scrubbers around the system. That re-division would, of course, come with a need to alter the district voting lines, which was only prudent. In the meantime, Venus Station also agreed that the science-oriented Magellan spacecraft’s build should be prioritized third on the list, after the initial two battle cruisers that would be needed for defense.
Reyes had also held a conference with a financier on Europa, who offered to open an entirely new production line to build Magellan, which was an obvious value because it would mean the prioritization was merely about adding additional money rather than diverting resources from the existing buildup toward war with U3.
All total, Ambassador Reyes had introduced Torrance to twelve of the Solar System’s more powerful people in the past eight hours.
“What are you thinking?” Reyes said.
“I’m not sure.”
Reyes gave a sage nod.
“Negotiations are like impressionistic paintings, Torrance.”
“How so?”
“They are rarely pristine when you look at them up close. In fact, the closer you are to the details, sometimes the less obvious it is what you’re doing. But the goal is always to be thinking about how it looks when you step back.”
“Mostly it just feels like giving everyone something in order to get what you want.”
“Yes, yes. But there is an art to that. You see it, right? Everyone gets what they want, and still you move civilization as we know it forward.”
Torrance picked up the empty teacup in front of him, then put it down.
“When we all vote to accelerate and redistribute the build of more Star Drives, the supreme president gets to look strong,” Torrance said. “And the people get to feel like they are doing something noble because they think the politicians are protecting them.”
“That’s because those politicians are protecting them.”
“Are they?”
“Yes.”
“Because what I see are a group of business people who are really just gathering stronger control of their public.”
“Yes,” Reyes responded. “They are. But they are also protecting the people.”
Torrance understood that. If “the people” were willing to give up economic freedom for protection, he supposed that was their right.
“What do we get?”
“Who is we?”
“The rest of the people,” Torrance responded. “People who don’t want to be manipulated like that.”
“Ah,” Reyes asked. “You mean, the dreamers?”
“Sure.”
“Well, if we do our jobs right, the people like that get Magellan earlier than they would have otherwise.”
Torrance nodded.
Magellan was the new Star Drive spacecraft that would take scientists and engineers to the stars. If Reyes got his way, the group in Io would begin building Magellan soon, if nothing else to act as a trial run to discover what it took to open another assembly line. More spacecraft would be built in several other jurisdictions, of course, an arrangement Reyes had almost completed cementing, and a process that would gain credibility if he could get the votes later today.
Torrance thought about Thomas Kitchell.
Magellan would be a perfect ship for a man like Kitchell to establish his career.
“I see,” Torrance said.
“That’s good.”
Reyes looked at the system time.
Abke’s voice came over the intercom: Five minutes to reentry stations.
“I think we should get ourselves ready,” Reyes said.
CHAPTER 26
Atropos, Eta Cassiopeia System
Local Date: Conejo 10, 9
Local Time: 0915
“Are you sure this is wise?”
Kazima Yamada, a supporter of Deidra’s father, was in her forties now and of no little sway within the council. She had asked for time with Deidra prior to the next joint planning session, obviously with the intention of providing her own guidance. Yamada’s coordination of the engineering efforts around the colony had made major inroads, but she was a person of a million ideas, and now that they were walking together outside the Castle, Deidra took her in with a sidewise glance. She hadn’t considered Yamada a competitor for the directorship, but even now, after the smashing success of the Natim operation, it was possible Kazima Yamada could attempt a soft coup of sorts.
The morning was pleasant enough, Eta Cass had risen earlier, and the temperature was still cool. A breeze pushed the two women’s hair across their faces, and carried the smell of spring flowers and the sounds of the morning work crews constructing more of the endless buildings and roads that the city needed to construct as it grew. The weather had been clear for the past several days, but now a collection of clouds threatened to roll over the city from the west. Reports called for rain later tonight.
“We’ve destroyed Natim,” Yamada said. “Do we really need to go back to Miranda Station?”
“The destruction of Natim is not enough,” Deidra replied. “The first raid was a statement, the next is a strategic imperative.”
“I’m not sure your father would—”
“My father has nothing to do with this.”
“Are you sure of that?”
“Has anything changed about the UG’s ability to outpace our production rates?”
“No,” Yamada replied.
“And has anything changed about the criticality of this moment?”
“The reaction of the people isn’t available yet.”
Yamada was referring to the reconnaissance jump that Icarus was in the process of running now—jumping back to the Solar System in a few key “safe zones” in order to gather the public news broadcasts that would give Universe Three’s council a read on how the population was feeling.
“I think it’s best to assume the worst.”
“Your father—”
Deidra came to an abrupt halt.
“My father is not here, Kazima,” she said. “If you think anyone is more aware of that fact than I am, you’re sadly mistaken. But the fact is that my father’s approach is what got him killed. Papa ignored the obvious because he got too close to his dream and let his guard down. The difference between me and the rest of the council is that I am not afraid to say that. And the next fact here is that the people of the Solar System are mostly sheep, just like Ellyn Parker said they were. I don’t need the publicity report to predict that the majority of them will rise up to fight us because that is exactly what they’ve been conditioned to do.”
“There will be some, though—”
“And those few we will find a way to help.”
Yamada nodded her agreement.
What else was Yamada supposed to do, though, Deidra wondered. Deidra wanted to trust the engineer because, despite her questioning approach, Yamada had been one of her father’s closer confidants. But right now Deidra was struggling to separate the truth from her natural paranoia. Though Jamal hadn’t meant to comment on her situation, he had said it well last night when she returned home and couldn’t calm down. “I don’t suppose anyone’s getting any sleep tonight,” he said. Of course, he said it as Kel was snoring away, which made perfect sense at the time. The whole thing was hard to make anything of. She was trying to put one step in front of the next, and trying to make sure everything pointed in the right direction.
Deidra looked at Yamada.
“I’m sorry to be so abrupt, Kazima,” she said.
&n
bsp; “It’s all right,” Yamada replied. “It’s a sensitive time. Everyone is on edge.”
“Sensitive or not, we still have a problem.” Deidra felt better just voicing it. “Now more than ever, we have to stop the United Government from building Star Drive craft or they will get the upper hand. We all agreed with that much, earlier. And the key to that has always been Miranda Station.”
“We could choose the less risky option.”
Yamada was referring to Gregor Anderson’s scheme wherein U3 would jump Icarus to a series of locations in a single sweep, breaking the UG production flow by removing at least four key components—the primary one being an exotic matter containment plant that was hidden in plain sight on Tethys, an inner moon of Saturn, a placement made practical due to the moon’s proximity to sources of titanium and iron ores in the Saturn ring moonlets and the massive amounts of hydrogen stored in the form of the water that made up most of Tethys’s actual body. Destroy the sources, said the idea, and you destroy the ability to build.
“That would be more dangerous now,” Deidra said.
“Why do you say that?”
“Because,” Deidra said, hesitating a moment to consider how forthright she should be, then deciding to go ahead. This would be a test, she thought. A test of just how Kazima Yamada might relate with her—if not quite a measure of trustworthiness, at least her reaction could give Deidra an idea of how loyal Yamada might be. “We left trails behind that pointed to Gregor’s scheme.”
A frown crossed Yamada’s face at first, but it was more of an inquisitive expression than one of displeasure. Then it lightened to an expression that wasn’t quite a smile, but was perhaps more one of admiration.
“I see,” she said. “That was risky.”
“We needed a diversion.”
“The council probably wouldn’t have approved it.”
“Our ability to be nimble is our only advantage, Kazima. We can’t win by running everything through the council.”
Yamada’s expression became a full smile then. “You are definitely your father’s daughter,” she said.
