Tides of Mars (Omnibus Version)

by Ben Winston

  “Thank you! That would certainly help keep suspicion off of Ceres. Was this your idea my dear?” Cr'ale asked her.

  “Yes Majesty, when Ariel was outlining her plans, it occurred to me that if Ceres were to be a privately owned mining concern, donating its profits to charity as a tax shelter, it would be ignored by the Republicans as simply a wise business operation,” Brenda explained; it was clear she was slightly nervous talking to him.

  “That was a stroke of pure genius! I'm very glad you're on our side, Young Lady,” Cr'ale said.

  Brenda bowed again. “Sire, there is no 'other' side.”

  Divine Light interrupted the conversation. “Please forgive the interruption. Sire, Admiral, Commander St'ilits has asked me to interrupt. There is a very odd, but serious, situation developing that needs a Flag Officer's attention immediately.”

  “What is the situation, DL?” Cr'ale asked.

  “Sire, several hundred civilian ships have arrived in system and are asking for sanctuary. There are more ships arriving every hour,” DL reported.

  “Damn! I was afraid this was going to happen,” Ariel said, shaking her head. “DL, please shift as many construction crews as possible, without crippling any critical projects, to the Mars installation and have them begin building residential units, as well as everything that will be needed for a population of roughly two million.

  “Have them locate and then shift to a new site to build a second city for two million. Please have them continue to do this until there are ten sites completed, or there are no more sites available that can be hidden from Earth. Please stress to them that at least the first two units are critically needed right now.” She looked at Hs'ean. “Admiral, I know our construction ships are still busy, but I'm going to need at least three more. Is there a way we can borrow them?”

  Hs'ean bowed to Ariel. “Yes Milady, I can have several of them transferred here, but I don't think it would be a good idea to strip a fleet of both assigned ships. They are needed for repairing combat damage. There is, however, the strategic reserve fleet, if we can still use them.”

  “How many ships are we talking about?”

  “Several hundred, Granddaughter, but they are all old ships that have been sitting in a maintenance orbit for at least a century. They can still fly, but that might be all they can do,” Cr'ale said. “But, if I remember correctly, weren't there two Murnta class ship-yards there also?” he looked to Hs'ean.

  Hs'ean slapped her head. “Of course! Why didn't I think of those!”

  Ariel grinned. “Why didn't I think to ask if there were reserve fleets? I should have known there would be. Every navy I've ever heard of has at least one. So, I would like you to send a ship to get that fleet and bring it here.

  “You don't need to crew them, take just enough people to get them here safely. We'll worry about crews later. I mean, if there are folks that would like to hitch a ride, then by all means pick them up, but don't endanger the mission.”

  That was when Ariel realized she'd usurped authority from Cr'ale. She blushed. “Sorry Grandfather, I'm so used to dealing with stuff, it just came out. I didn't mean to stomp on your toes.”

  Cr'ale burst out laughing. “Oh, you did no such thing! I dare say you handled that better than I would. However, what are you going to do with the people in the mean time? They can't stay in the ships for the time it'll take to get all of the housing finished. What will happen if we get more than twenty million refugees? That isn't even a fraction of the total population.”

  “Sean, didn't you once tell me that the Centauri system had three habitable planets?” Ariel asked.

  Hs'ean nodded. “Yes, I mentioned them when we were discussing where to locate the new Capitol.”

  “Perhaps we should focus the construction work out there? We could build temporary shelters pretty fast and use those while the more permanent ones get built,” Ariel said thoughtfully.

  “Granddaughter, you deal with our protection, and I'll handle our people. I would like you to take the role of Imperial Guardian. From now on, it will be your job to protect us. I'll still rule the Empire, and take care of the people, but it will be you that will keep us safe. I'll try to remain involved in the meetings and discussions, but from now on, you are in full command of our Guardians and, with the exception of the Regulan Guard, all of our military.”

  “It is officially recorded and being sent out to all active duty AI. By order of His Imperial Majesty, Cr'ale the First, Her Majesty Ariel Janis-Moran-Parker now has sole control of all Imperial Forces and is now The Imperial Guardian,” DL said formally.

  Ariel put her head in her hands. “One of these days Grandfather, you're not going to agree with my decisions and you'll wonder if you should have dumped this on me.”

  “Ariel, my dear, whether I agree with your decisions or not is relevant. You will be the Empress one day. If this keeps up, I might just retire and give you all of it! I realize I have just dumped a live, starving Tarloc in your lap. But I would not have done so if I had even the slightest doubt you couldn't strangle the beast,” Cr'ale said.

  “Thank you for the faith you have in me, Grandfather.”

  “Ariel, one of the main secrets about how to know if you can trust someone or not is to look at the people they have surrounded themselves with. Are they sycophants that do nothing but suck up and tell the person exactly what that person wants to hear, or are they people that have their own minds and are not afraid to speak when it's needed?” Cr'ale said, and waved at the people sitting at the table with them.

  “These people have told me more about who you are than any psych profile ever could. I know that not only would you never betray me but, more importantly, you would never betray our people, even if by doing so, you actually would betray me.

  “I feel that is the single most important quality any ruler must have in order to be entrusted with people’s lives. What all of this means is, everything we do and plan, must always be built on the foundation of one simple fact; the lives of the people of this realm are more important to you, than your own life. Even if you must destroy the Empire in order to protect the people, you are willing to do just that, without hesitation.

  “I know, better than I know myself, that you are that person, Ariel. I'm a good ruler, or so I've been told.” he smiled. “But you are going to be a great one.” He stood and held up his glass of wine. “To her Imperial Majesty, Ariel the First. May the people prosper under her rule, and may that rule be eternal.”

  Everyone but Ariel picked up her glass, stood and offered their glasses to the toast. Brenda, spoke before everyone drank.

  “So say we all.”

  It was a moment before everyone else echoed her. “So say we all.”

  Command Super Dreadnaught, I.S.S. Divine Light

  Command Bridge (OIC training Commander St'ilits)

  142 degrees north, 62 degrees west trans-solar orbit

  Sol System, Sol (Horon-A) Sector.

  Senior Fleet Captain G'ries, Commanding.

  “Con! Missile pod forty-one reports two inbound hyper-wakes. Confirmation of track from pods thirty-eight and forty-six. Track Terminus sector six-green in...” one of the officers on the bridge said, making Commander St'ilits come over to the station and look over his shoulder.

  “...computer says forty hours, thirty-nine minutes; Mark!” a timer appeared on the bottom of the main view screen.

  “That's a hell of a lead on that track, Gr'uin. Can you verify it?” St'ilits asked.

  “Yes Sir, I already did. The only way that the sensors on the pods could detect this is if the targets where huge, with a mass close to that of a planet.” Gr'uin replied.

  “Are you thinking it's a fleet, Ensign?” St'ilits asked.

  “I don't see how they could be anything else, Sir.”

  “Good work, Gr'uin. Keep on them please. Operations, can we swing a picket over to that area and get another look?” St'ilits asked.

  “That would be a bit clumsy an
d slow, Sir. We could send a couple of bombers from the Tower of Isthmus out there pretty quickly though.” the Ops officer said.

  Nodding agreement St'ilits said, “Comm, please get me the Captain of the Tower of Isthmus.”

  “On your monitor, Sir.”

  “Thank you.” He thumbed the button on. “Sir, this is Commander St'ilits over on the Divine Light. We have a report from a couple of missile pods of two fleet size, inbound, hyper-wakes. The thing is, they are so far out, the readings are a bit sketchy. Could you send two Halios Bombers out to sector ten-grey and verify this? I don't want to take any chances here.”

  The Captain on the screen wasn't much older than St'ilits and nodded. “Sure, you should have a report within the hour, Divine Light. So, Captain Gr'eis is finally giving you some command experience, St'ilits?”

  Captain Hw'arth of the Tower had been St'ilits tutor at the academy.

  “She's tough, Sir. But one hell of a Commander. She has this instinctive feel for the ship I can only marvel at.” St'ilits said.

  Hw'arth nodded his head. “Yeah, that's what I've heard. I'll give you a call back as soon as we know anything about your hyper-wakes. Only a suggestion, but you might want to inform her of this.”

  “She left strict orders not to be disturbed unless it's an emergency, and I've already had to intrude on her meeting once. I want to make sure I have something pretty damn concrete before I disturb her again.”

  Hw'arth smiled and nodded approvingly. “You are learning. Keep up the good work. Tower out.”

  St'ilits looked up to see the Ops officer smiling at him as she approached.

  He shrugged at her. “I think I might need to study some more before accepting the duty again, at least solo.”

  “You haven't made any mistakes as far as I'm aware of. St'ilits , one of the points you need to grasp here is that you are never alone. Controlling a ship or even a fleet is not a solo duty. You are simply the head of a team,” she explained.

  “But what about the correction you made to my order?”

  “You didn't give an order, you asked a question, just like you're supposed to do. No one, not even Captain Gr'eis, can be expected to know everything that's going on all the time. That's why the rest of us are here. To make sure she has the right information to make the right decisions.”

  “She might not have asked about moving one of the pickets, but she might have. Being the Captain of a starship, any starship is a very demanding job. You have so many other, important things occupying your thoughts, that no one expects you to remember the trivial things. You have us for that.”

  St'ilits thought about that for a few moments. “I can understand that, and I see your point. The Captain sure makes it all look easy, though.”

  The Ops officer nodded agreement. “Yes she does. But she has been commanding ships for over a hundred imperial years. You can bet your commission that she's picked up a few tricks along the way.” She turned and moved back to her station before he could answer her.

  Technically, she outranked him, and often stood the watch on the bridge herself. However, since they were at patrol stations, Operations suggested to the Captain that it would be a perfect time for some of the junior officers to get some command experience.

  St'ilits knew that on the battle bridge, as well as up in the flag bridge, the crews operating all the consoles were trainees, just like him; however, only his bridge was 'active'. On all the other bridges, Divine Light was running simulations based on current reality.

  He pulled his mind away from that and focused on the here and now. He knew that what the pods had detected was in fact real and it scared the hell out of him for not reporting it immediately, but this was protocol and he was going to stick to it until it was time to abandon it.

  While he waited for the report from the Tower's bombers, he ran his mind through what he would need to do if the track proved true. He was still considering it, when the comm officer reported that the Bombers had confirmed the track.

  “Thank you Comm. I hate to say it, but I think we better tell the Captain now. Normally, I would order an Orange alert. Ops do you agree?” St'ilits asked. Since this was a training situation that she was technically in charge of, he needed her permission to leave it.

  Before the Ops officer could reply, DL issued the alert for real. Ops chuckled. “I would assume that you have permission, Con.”

  “Please get me the Captain, again.”

  Command Super Dreadnaught, I.S.S. Divine Light

  Admiral's Apartment

  142 degrees north, 62 degrees west trans-solar orbit

  Sol System, Sol (Horon-A) Sector.

  Senior Fleet Captain Gr'eis, Commanding.

  Senior Captain Gr'eis saw the telltale on her wrist unit, and put the bud in her ear. Divine Light then filled her in on the entire situation, and how well St'ilits was handling it. She agreed, and very quietly thanked him for the information, and asked him to pass along her compliments and to carry on. She would be up later.

  The conversation had shifted back to Ariel's briefing about the system. Which, Gr'eis thought, should be almost finished.

  “Excuse me, Milady Guardian. If you're finished, I have just received some information you will want to hear,” Gr'eis said.

  “Absolutely, Captain. Please tell us.”

  “I have just received word from the bridge that a few moments ago a missile pod detected two inbound Hyper-wakes. Since that time, it has been confirmed. The terminus will be in sector six-green in just over forty local hours.

  “Before you ask, yes that is a long lead time for a hyper-wake, but if they can detect it that far away, then we are talking very impressive mass. Mostly likely we are looking at two Republican war fleets sent here to kill Ariel and possibly raid the system. Another problem is going to be where the Terminus is going to be located. DL, could you please put the solar system back up and highlight six green?” Divine Light did as requested, so she continued.

  “This is six green. As you can see, it is somewhat close to the sixth planet's orbit, but on the far side of the star from the planet. The mere presence of those ships will cause no end of havoc with the orbital dynamics of this system,” Gr'eis said. “That is, if the main star doesn't become unstable and detonate.”

  “Okay, so they are willing to destroy this system just to kill me. We learned that from the antimatter bomb. The real question is how do we keep them from dropping out at the projected terminus?” Ariel said. “I could leave, and make sure they know it so they would follow me, but I don't think they'd do that, since they know how important my home is to me.”

  “Okay, so how do you force a ship to drop out of Hyperspace?” Luke asked.

  “It's always been believed that if you could destroy a ship's warp field, the ship would be dropped back into n-space at the relative speed of travel.” Gr'eis said. “However, there are few things harder than the wall of a warp field in hyper.”

  “Put a hyper event in front of a MAG and fire into it?” Luke suggested.

  Hs'ean shook her head. “Without a warp field, the projectiles would be converted to energy states as soon as they crossed the threshold.”

  “Strap a warp field generator to missiles?” Grant suggested.

  “The fields would repel each other, preventing a collision, which, even if we could make it happen, still wouldn't penetrate the field. Hyperspace is like flying through a continuous antimatter detonation. Technically, not even light can get through the field,” Hs'ean explained.

  “So how do you navigate if nothing can get through the field?” Ariel asked.

  “Subspace navigation beacons. When you're in hyper, you're completely at the mercy of the computers. Hyperspace is an energy state dimension that is more tightly... uh, folded than our own dimension. Which means that two separate points are actually closer there, than they are here. This gives us the illusion of faster than light travel.

  “Now where it gets tricky is that the rules in hyperspace are
different than the rules in normal space. For example, if you accelerated past a certain point in this dimension, your ship would simply go boom. Nothing in this dimension can travel faster than the speed of light.

  “However, in the dimension we refer to as Hyper Space, there is no such limit, and you can accelerate as fast as your ship can go with no known limit. So let's say you wanted to return to Aldus Forward. You actually could do it if the engines on the ship were capable of multiple factors of light. In fact, you could be at Aldus Forward in minutes.”

  Ariel nodded. “If the engines in question had the power of a star!”

  “They would have to be many more times powerful than that, Milady, but you understand the concept. So, most ships in Hyperspace are traveling at well past the speed of light. So if they exited Hyper without slowing down first...” Gr'eis said while making her hands indicate an explosion.

  “I got off on a tangent there.” Hs'ean said. “Okay, any amount of force used in Hyper gets amplified dependent on the amount of power used and the speed of the craft. Let's say you're just plodding along at a relative speed of point five light, which in hyper is about two thousand lights and you need to make a course correction. If you tried to do it manually, just the pressure of your hand touching the control would throw you off by hundreds of light years.”

  “So what would make a fleet of ships traveling in hyperspace do that?” Ariel asked.

  “The only thing I can think of that would do it is a black hole, and last time I checked, none of those liked to move,” Gr'eis said. “Not to mention, they'd see it coming.”

  “Maybe we wouldn't need to move one,” Hs'ean said talking to herself. She excused herself long enough to ask the Captain's daughter and her friends to come to her quarters.

  “What are you thinking, Admiral?” Cr'ale asked. “I know that look, and you're going to ask for permission to do something completely insane, aren't you?”

  “I honestly don't know yet, Sire. I need to see if it has a chance of working first,” Hs'ean replied smiling.