CHILDERS_Absurd Proposals

by Richard F. Weyand

  "Still, it's never good to be over-confident. Jan Childers usually has more aces up her sleeve than four decks of cards, and she handed us our heads eight years ago in Kodu when everybody was sure we had them. So let's make sure we dot all the i's and cross all the t's. Not be over-confident and get sloppy."

  "Yes, Sir."

  Admiral Mitch Gregory, Brunswick Space Navy, inspected the ships under his command in the display, as if it were a crystal ball and he could see the future there. Twelve squadrons, totaling ninety-six warships, and over a dozen freighters, from Brunswick, Grocny, Melody, Nymph, Svobodo, Villam, and Wolsey. The uninhabited system in which they had mustered lay a mere ten light years from Waldheim.

  Gregory hoped this was the right move. The Commonwealth in general, and the CSF in particular, was never to be toyed with. He had studied the current plans in detail, gone over them five ways from Sunday, and he couldn't see any issues, but he was afraid they were missing something. Those new cruiser destroyers the Commonwealth had, for instance. A whole new ship class for which they had scant information. And why would they make faster destroyers? Faster battleships would be much more useful.

  It was all very troubling, but then he always had been a worrier.

  Fast courier ships dropped out of hyper in three different uninhabited star systems, and broadcast their message. Admiral Jan Childers, Commonwealth Space Force, was out of action. The time to attack was now.

  A total of three hundred and four warships in the three systems restocked from the waiting freighters. When all were ready, they all accelerated for the system boundary and hyperspace transitioned out of their respective star systems.

  Imminent

  The first thing Jan did after she got into the office after her release from the hospital is get together with Tien Jessen.

  "Are our instructions ready for planetary commanders?" Jan asked.

  "Yes. We're all set," Jessen said.

  "OK. Let's send them."

  "Yes, Ma'am."

  The message was a war warning to planetary commanders that an attack from the Outer Colonies was imminent. Any warship of any of the Outer Colonies entering their system was to be considered hostile, and told to exit the system.

  If the system were attacked by Outer Colony forces in strength, they were to send an immediate invasion code to Jablonka with one of the emergency courier drones every planet had. They were also to withdraw their forces away from the incoming attackers, avoiding any action.

  The response would come from Jablonka using new high-speed ships and/or drones that would intercept and engage the enemy before they got to within firing range of the planet and its infrastructure. Under no circumstances were they to engage the enemy with local forces.

  Once the response came from Jablonka, the planetary commander was to demand the surrender of the invading fleet. It was not expected they would comply.

  Jan and Jessen had their response plans in place. They began standing twelve-on/twelve-off shifts with each other so one of the two of them was always at the NOC. 2:00 and 14:00 were their shift changes, so each only had to push their sleep cycle by about four hours.

  The new War Room was completely virtual, in immersive VR, so they could be in the War Room while seated at their desks. There was also a VR rig in each of their home offices with access rights to the War Room.

  Waldheim

  "Hyperspace transition. Multiple contacts."

  Admiral Beverly Bhatia, the planetary commander in Waldheim, had been hanging out in the planetary CIC since the warning came in that war was imminent.

  "What have we got, Commander?"

  "It looks like ninety-six contacts, forty-eight at zero mark zero-nine-zero on the planet and forty-eight at zero minus zero-nine-zero on the planet, Ma'am. Shaking out to be two squadrons each of heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers in each group," said Commander Dunphrey, Assistant Tactical Officer in the Waldheim Planetary Combat Information Center.

  "All right, Commander. Send the emergency courier with the invasion code."

  "Yes, Ma'am."

  "Comm, task force orders."

  "Go ahead, Ma'am."

  "Message begins. Code Blue, Code Blue, Code Blue. Spacing Plan Blue 1. All mobile units are to withdraw from Waldheim, evading contact with the incoming attack forces. Proceed in division strength per Spacing Plan Blue 1. Bhatia out. Message ends."

  "Transmitting, Ma'am."

  Bhatia watched the display as the courier drone, maintained at its hyperspace-1 limit, transitioned directly into hyperspace for the run to Jablonka. There were no ships in orbit; she had canceled planet leaves and re-stocked all ships in place when the latest war warning came in. She had also pulled them back from the inner system envelope boundary both above and below the planet along the most likely invasion routes.

  She watched as her ships got underway in their scatter directions, primarily headed out from the sun and the planet at ninety degrees to the incoming attackers, both above and below the ecliptic.

  Admiral Mitch Gregory watched his display as his forces began accelerating toward the planet.

  "What are they doing? Can we tell yet?" Gregory asked.

  "Not yet, Sir," said Rear Admiral Shaun Pembrook, Gregory's Fleet Tactical Officer. "It's too early for them to have picked us up and propagated orders yet. It looks like their ships are all in space. No warships around the planet."

  That didn't sound right. Normally at least a quarter of the warships in a system would be in orbit, on a stingy one-in-four rotation. A more normal one-in-two rotation would have half the warships in orbit. It's almost like the Commonwealth knew they were coming.

  "They're changing vectors now, Sir."

  All of the Commonwealth ships in space would be cruising, in order to maintain apparent gravity in the crew quarters. So all of the ones in space being underway wasn't surprising. What would be telling is the vectors they changed to.

  "Looks like they are all headed out-system, Sir, away from our line of advance on the planet."

  "Really."

  "Yes, Sir."

  "Well, maybe we'll have an easy day after all. Maintain profile."

  "Yes, Sir."

  The emergency courier drone spaced in to the Jablonka system right up to the hyperspace-1 transition boundary, transitioned to normal space, and transmitted the invasion code and the plots from Waldheim.

  In her office, the VR signal twinged Jan, and she brought up the VR of the war room. Invasion code from Waldheim. Ninety-six warships, presumed to be Outer Colony ships, coming in from directly above and directly below the planet.

  There were one hundred and fifty of the interstellar beam weapon drones and a dozen of the interstellar survey drones currently sitting at the hyperspace-1 transition limit, along with a freighter containing three hundred more beam weapons drones available to deploy.

  From within the VR, Jan gave orders to send two interstellar survey drones, followed by thirty-two of the interstellar beam weapon drones.

  The dispatched drones transitioned into hyperspace directly from their current positions, and headed for Waldheim at their maximum speed.

  And so it starts, Jan thought.

  "But why are we pulling away from the enemy? Shouldn't we be fighting them?" Chief Charlie Gunderson asked.

  "Ain't that the same shit you said when we pulled out of Jablonka, before we sailed to Earth and kicked their butts five years ago, Charlie?" Senior Chief Ashok Gonzalez asked.

  "Yeah, but that was different."

  "Just wait for it, Charlie."

  "Wait for what?"

  "The other shoe to drop."

  They had been accelerating toward the planet for almost two hours now. The Commonwealth ships continued to accelerate away from their line of approach, clearing the path to the planet.

  "Hyperspace transition, Sir. Two contacts. They're really small, like a yacht or something," Pembrook said.

  "Are they behind us?" Gregory asked.

  "No
, Sir, they're in front of us."

  "How can that be? We came in right on the inner system envelope boundary."

  "Yes, Sir. But they're well in front of us. Closer to the planet, actually. Oh, one of them hypered back out."

  "Well, that's damn peculiar. Keep your eyes open."

  "Yes, Sir."

  How could anything hyper transition in front of them? They had come in right on the inner envelope, the edge of where you could hyper transition.

  "Hyperspace transition, Ma'am. Two contacts. Approximately one-quarter of the way to one of the incoming attack groups. CSF survey drones. Wait one. One survey drone just hypered back out," Dunphrey said.

  "All right, Commander. Looks like the cavalry's here. Comm, message to the incoming ships on open frequencies."

  "Go ahead, Ma'am."

  "Message begins. To Outer Colony Forces. This is Admiral Beverly Bhatia, planetary commander for the Commonwealth Space Force in Waldheim. Surrender, or your ships will be destroyed. Bhatia out. Message ends."

  "Transmitting, Ma'am."

  On hearing the incoming message, Gregory laughed.

  "Surrender? Her forces are all retreating. Comm, respectfully decline for me, please."

  "Yes, Sir."

  "They've declined to surrender, Ma'am," Dunphrey said.

  "On their heads be it. Send the attack signal."

  "Yes, Ma'am."

  "Hyperspace transition, Sir. That second small contact has hypered back out."

  "Task force orders. Maintain profile. Watch for them to come in on us. Guns free. Fire at will," Gregory said.

  "Yes, Sir."

  "Multiple hyperspace transitions, Sir. They're all around us. Distance eight light-seconds. They're out of our range. They're firing."

  The survey drone transitioned to hyperspace when it got the attack signal, and sent the attack order and updated plots to the beam weapon drones waiting in hyperspace-1. The beam weapon drones had been shadowing the attacking forces based on the initial survey drone plot. When the signal came, they adjusted position, transitioned back to normal space, and began firing. Battleship-grade beams stabbed into the Outer Colony ships, shrugging off the shields of the heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers. Ships began to explode throughout the two formations.

  Sixteen drones each fired six times at the forty-eight ships of Gregory's formation. The last few shots were wasted. The drones disappeared back into hyperspace, leaving behind only debris.

  Admiral Gregory had just enough time to realize he had been right to worry before his flagship disintegrated around him.

  On the other side of the planet, Admiral Grusk's half of the task force was destroyed with the same brutal efficiency.

  "All targets destroyed, Ma'am," Dunphrey said.

  Bhatia looked at her watch. It had been five minutes since she had sent the attack signal. Most of that was transmission and sensor delays. The actual attack and the complete destruction of the ninety-six attacking ships had taken just thirty seconds.

  Bhatia spoke into the shocked silence in the planetary CIC.

  "Well, now I guess we all know what Admiral Childers has been up to for the last couple years," Bhatia said.

  Her remark broke the spell. There were even a few chuckles.

  "OK, give the drones the stand-down signal. Tell them to go back to Jablonka. Let's call all our own ships back. I need IDs on all those ships, so let's get some destroyers out there getting images of the wreckage. And get a courier drone headed back to Jablonka with the plots and system views."

  "The beam weapon drones disappeared back into hyperspace, Ma'am. I think they're already on their way back. The survey drones have already headed back as well."

  "Well, let's send them our CIC data anyway. Make sure they have everything they need back there to analyze this."

  "Yes, Ma'am."

  Bhatia continued to stare at the displays for a long time.

  Criminy. So who needs a navy? The ships just get in the way, she thought.

  "Damn, Ashok. Did you see that?" Chief Gunderson said.

  "There ya go, Charlie. Now that's what I call the other shoe dropping," Senior Chief Gonzalez said.

  Jan was sitting in her office in the NOC, VRed into the War Room. So was Jessen, who had VRed in from his home office. It had been almost two hours since Jan had sent the attacking force to repel the Outer Colony invasion of Waldheim.

  The drones came back into the Jablonka system, all in a rush. The thirty-two beam weapon drones and the two survey drones. The survey drones downloaded their plots to Sigurdsen, and Jan and Jessen watched them. It didn't take long.

  One survey drone had downloaded its updated system plots to the attack drones and passed on the attack order, and then transitioned back to normal space to plot the battle. They had the system plot for the entire attack, all thirty-two seconds of it. The attack drones appeared, the enemy ships began disintegrating, and then the enemy ships were gone and the attack drones disappeared back into hyperspace.

  "Well, that was quick," Jessen said.

  "Truth be told, almost all of the battles I've been in were quick. We just did away with the hours of maneuvering it took to get into an advantageous position," Jan said.

  "Even so. It's what, two hours since we heard they were under attack?"

  "And three hours since the attack started, the last hour of which was us waiting for the drones to come back."

  "Forty-five light years away," Jessen said.

  "It's a new game, Tien. A new world."

  "So what's a navy for, now?"

  "Exploration," Jan said. "Colonization. Suppression of piracy. But major warfare? Not until someone duplicates the technology. And we're going to try to make that difficult for the Outer Colonies, at least until we can open up the galaxy."

  Parchman

  "I want to try to see if we can't do something a little different next time. Get them to surrender, rather than just kill all those spacers. The first time, in Waldheim, we didn't know how it was going to work out, and you don't take chances with Commonwealth planets. But next time, I think we could try some things first. It's clear we can just destroy them at our leisure if they refuse," Jan said.

  "What did you have in mind?" Jessen asked.

  "Well, how about we send them the recordings of Waldheim"

  "That could be faked. Not sure they'll believe it."

  "We could also send them the list of Outer Colony ships destroyed in Waldheim. That can't be faked. Where would we get it?" Jan asked.

  "Perhaps. It depends on the commander."

  "Well, if he won't surrender, we could take out one of the two forces, and not the other. Take out the one with the task force commander in it."

  "Do you think they'll use the same strategy?" Jessen asked.

  "Sure. It's weeks between systems. We can't know their strategy yet, as far as they know. We shouldn't even know the attack took place for another month. Why not use the best plan you came up with in all your attacks?"

  "Good point. We could take out half the ships in the first force, then disappear, see if we either made on impression on the enemy commander, or maybe – fifty-fifty chance – got him in the first shot."

  "If we took out just the heavy cruisers, we'd be almost certain to get the commander. Outer Colony light cruisers don't have much in the way of flag accommodations," Jan said.

  "It would still be half the personnel, but only a third of the ships. Probably a hundred percent we get the commander, though."

  "I like it. Let's reprogram the drones. Give the local commander some options – Attack 1a for the heavy cruisers of the northern formation, Attack 1b for the heavy cruisers of the southern formation, Attack 2a for the whole northern formation, and attack 2b for the whole southern formation. Let the commander whittle them down as far as he has to, to force a surrender. One survey drone comes back into normal space after delivering messages anyway, so it'll be there to deliver the next message after any action."

 
"I'll get on it," Jessen said.

  "Hyperspace transition. Multiple contacts."

  Captain Mordecai Hayoshi, Senior Tactical Officer for the Parchman Planetary Combat Information Center waited for more information.

  "I make it ninety-six contacts in two groups, Sir. Forty-eight at zero mark zero-nine-zero at the northern inner envelope boundary and forty-eight at zero minus zero-nine-zero at the southern inner envelope boundary. Outer Colony designs. Equal mix of heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers in both groups," Lieutenant Commander Bernal O'Riley said.

  "Where have I seen this movie before?" Hayoshi asked, and got some tension-breaking laughter from the CIC crew. They had all watched the system displays of the Waldheim attack that had occurred ten days earlier.

  "All right," Hayoshi said. "Let's send the emergency drone to Jablonka, and send the Code Blue signal. Spacing Plan Blue-1. Also, my compliments to Admiral Schneider, and inform her of our status."

  "Yes, Sir. Drone dispatched. Code Blue transmitting now, Sir."

  Admiral Leah Schneider had seen no reason not to follow the pattern of Admiral Bhatia's successful defense of Waldheim. She had withdrawn her forces from the inner envelope boundary above and below the planet, and had all her ships spacing when the Outer Colony formations showed up. None were in orbit about Parchman, with the delays that stopping rotation, folding the crew cylinders, and getting underway involved, particularly with spacers on planet leave.

  The ships all changed vector to take them away from the incoming forces, out-system and at ninety degrees to their line of approach.

  "What have we got?" Admiral Ronald Dorn asked.

  "Pretty standard ship complement for a Commonwealth task force, Sir. One squadron each of battleships, heavy cruisers, and light cruisers, and two squadrons of destroyers. Curious, though. None are in orbit, they're all in space," said Rear Admiral Elizabeth Conway, Dorn's chief of staff.