by Jason Bourn
As each of the leaders knew that their world could not possibly stand up to Garth individually, this turned the tide and each of the leaders resignedly agreed to Garth’s terms.
They each then quickly signed the trade agreement and with only moments remaining, Saul relayed the acceptance to Garth.
Gloating just a bit, Garth asked Saul if this was what he really wanted.
Grimacing, as if having to swallow vinegar Saul said through almost clenched teeth, “I am sure I speak for everyone on Volante when I say we would be pleased to become part of your Kingdom. Your trading skill and your military prowess will lead our entire planet into a new and glorious future.”
Garth smiled broadly, knowing how much it must have cost Saul to choke out those words. “I thank you Saul. I am sure you will never regret being part of my Kingdom. If you do your part, Volante will prosper even more in the future.”
Garth savored this moment, then signed the agreement as well. With that, Garth held all the systems in the entire sector save the mighty Torval 2 itself. He knew the latest agreement gave him the power and authority to have his battle ships, and only his battle ships, be near each of the remaining Periphery worlds. He couldn’t wait until the Torvalian fleet reappeared so he could see the expression on the admiral’s and Nadia’s faces, but there was so much to be done between now and then...
Garth smiled, knowing that his plans were right on track.
– – –
Over the last twenty-four hours, while the hundreds of jump points were being calculated, the admiral drove the crews of every fleet battle ship to maximum preparedness. The thirty ships that had been damaged were repaired, refurbished or otherwise band-aided to get them in battle-ready condition. While not as strong as it once was, the admiral felt that a fleet of fifty battle ships was still strong enough to win in any type of engagement with Garth’s forty-two battle ships.
The admiral stressed that every enlisted crew person and officer needed to be at their highest level of attentiveness and be prepared for anything when they jumped to Volante. They couldn’t know exactly how the battle would play out, but he wanted everyone to be prepared for the worst.
Prior to jumping, the admiral opened a vid link with Nadia. Smiling wearily, he said, “Nadia, our battleship fleet is ready for battle. We have fifty ships that are as battle-ready as we can make them and we have the best trained crews at full alert.”
Nadia responded, “I don’t trust Garth at all. I’m sure that he won’t leave his ships in any vulnerable positions. He always seems to be one step ahead of us in this regard. His conquests have got to stop, even if it means war.”
She looked more carefully at him and said, “Admiral, are you feeling all right? You look awfully tired and worn out.”
“Yes, yes” he said, “I actually feel exhausted. I haven’t been able to get much sleep, what with the jumping back and forth, but we have to stop Garth, and I can’t use lack of sleep as any kind of excuse.”
Nadia yawned and shook her head. “I understand completely. I have been following the results of your cat and mouse games and I haven’t had but a short rest in days. You are on the front lines, so you have to ensure that your decision-making is not seriously impacted due to lack of sleep – are you sure you can do this?”
The admiral gritted his teeth and said, “Actually, all this jumping we have been doing is like the lead-up to a dance. I am actually looking forward to battle. That will get my adrenaline going and I guarantee you that I will be ready for it.”
Nadia was impressed with his self-assuredness. “OK, if you’re sure, then that is good enough for me. Good luck and God’s speed.”
With that, the admiral signed off and ordered the jump to Volante to proceed.
– – –
The fleet battle ships all jumped at the same time to the new jump coordinates surrounding Volante, anticipating immediate hostilities. What they saw puzzled the admiral and all the officers. There were only eight of Garth’s battle ships, and they weren’t in battle formation at all. In fact, they were busy performing transfers of cargo as if they didn’t have a care in the world.
The admiral was itching to fight, but didn’t know how to proceed. Just twenty-four hours earlier twenty of his ships had been disabled, and now it appeared that Garth’s ships were an integral part of Volante’s trade infrastructure. It just didn’t make sense.
Not knowing what else to do, the admiral sent a message to Saul, “Saul, I don’t understand the situation. It appears that you are aiding the enemy and the enemy is aiding you. Please send me your latest status so I know how to proceed against Garth’s battle ships.”
Saul responded, “Admiral, when you left so quickly, leaving Garth’s entire battle ship fleet here, we had to make some quick decisions. We decided, Volante and the other four remaining independent Periphery worlds, that we would fare better under Garth’s protection than under yours. In the last twenty-four hours, they have sent literally thousands of support personnel to each of our worlds, which are now fully integrated with our support personnel. It would be nearly impossible to separate them from us without an extreme use of force, which we do not authorize.”
The admiral sat there, shocked. He wondered how this monumental shift in allegiance could have occurred within this short of time.
While he was pondering what to say, Saul continued, “We have signed a trade agreement with Garth that has very good terms. However, one of the terms is that no Torval 2 battle ships are allowed to stay in the near proximity of any of our remaining Periphery worlds for more than six hours. You are welcome to come and look around, but I must ask you to leave before the six-hour time limit is reached.
The admiral was stunned. It was one thing to initiate hostilities against Garth and his battle ships, but it was an entirely different thing to go against the wishes of an independent world. This was more a political situation than a military situation, so the admiral decided he needed to talk with Nadia to determine how to proceed.
The admiral said his good-byes to Saul and set up a vidcon with Nadia.
When Nadia appeared on the screen, the admiral explained the startling change of events.
Nadia’s tired face grew grave and she said, “Damn him. Garth is trying to get us to be the bad guy. He purposefully set this up to put us in this position. We really only have two options. We can go in guns blazing against their battle ships and then we would effectively have to go door-to-door to root out thousands of entrenched enemy non-combatants. Or we can let them have their way and leave without any hostilities.”
The admiral nodded, “Yes, that is the way I see it as well.”
Nadia, trying to think clearly through the fog due to lack of sleep, continued, “Neither one is very appealing, but with the second option, at least we would have the ability to apply diplomatic and economic pressure.”
Grimacing the admiral said, “I really want to destroy Garth and his battle ships, but I can’t help but think that it would be a mistake. He is not being the aggressor at all and we would undoubtedly be criticized for initiating hostilities while Garth will claim the high road. It would be us starting the war, and I don’t want to be responsible for that as my legacy. In addition, this would give him that much more power with the other four Periphery worlds.” He paused and rubbed his chin saying, “Sometimes, I really hate this job.”
Nadia shook her head and sighed, “Yes, sometimes I do too. I think that we’ve been outmaneuvered by Garth again. Stay as long as you can, and then jump back to Torval 2 if you haven’t found anything more amiss.” She paused, thinking, then went on, “I don’t think that realistically there is anything more that we can accomplish here, given the position we’ve been placed in.”
With that, they broke the connection. Both were frustrated and resigned with the most recent status quo, but didn’t know how to fix it.
CHAPTER 30 – LIES AND DECEIT
After Nadia terminated the vidcon with the admiral, she imme
diately scheduled a meeting to discuss the strategy going forward to counter Garth. She knew that the admiral needed to get some sleep first, so she scheduled the meeting for the following day. She also valued Giliad’s opinion, so she invited him as well.
While waiting for the meeting time to arrive, Nadia busied herself with thoughts of how to gain the advantage over Garth. She felt anxious that nothing had been resolved – almost disappointed that they hadn’t started a war to resolve the issues. But then she felt bad for wanting war – something that she knew would inherently be bad for the entire sector, from the loss of life to the economic toll to the loss of vitality and growth. Therefore, she knew this was to be avoided if at all possible.
Even with her first chance to get a good night’s sleep, she did not sleep well that night in anticipation of the meeting, so when the meeting time finally rolled around, she felt bone-tired and irritable – which she knew did not portend well for the meeting.
She walked into the meeting room, seeing both Admiral Badstubner and Giliad sitter there watching her.
The admiral only looked moderately better, still looking haggard. She smiled wryly at him and said, “You don’t look like you got much sleep.”
He responded, “Yes, you’re right. I spent more time since I got back thinking about what we could have done better and what we should do now. But I’m not sure I have the answers to either of those two things at this point. I’m looking forward to discussing them with you, and hopefully between the three of us we can come up with a good solution.”
Nadia then looked over at Giliad. He was unperturbed, as usual. She wished that she had the kind of even temperament that he displayed. He looked like he hadn’t lost any sleep and wished that she could mimic him in that regard as well.
She sat down and got the meeting started. “As you might have guessed, I asked each of you here to discuss how to go about responding to Garth’s actions. He is now a threat to Torval 2 itself. He has grand ambitions that have to be stopped before it is too late. I know that war should be avoided at all costs since it will hurt everyone involved both economically as well as the heartbreaking loss of life that would surely ensue.”
Looking at both of the men sitting across from her, she hoped to see a shine in each of their eyes showing that they did, in fact, have a great plan for how to address Garth’s actions, but instead all she saw was tiredness and almost a fatalistic defeat in the admiral’s eyes, while Giliad’s eyes had the same calm expression as always.
Knowing that the admiral didn’t have any groundbreaking thoughts, she hoped that Giliad might have a plan that would avoid war, but still stop Garth’s offensive objectives. Nadia asked him point blank, “Do you have a solution in mind?”
Giliad paused, as always never in a hurry, then said, “Unfortunately, the time to stop Garth without major loss of life has passed. I do not believe there is any way to achieve your objectives and avoid war at this point.”
Stunned, Nadia just sat there, looking between Giliad and the admiral.
When the admiral still had not said anything, Nadia, feeling like she was grasping at straws, said, “Admiral, please tell me you have a strategy that you think will work.”
The admiral looked at her, then looked down at his hands. Sighing he said, “I just don’t see how we can go about this without a war. If we attack his home world, we start a war and, to be honest, the strength of his power is his battle ship fleet. Hitting his home world would only open Torval 2 up to attacks.
“If instead we attack Volante or any of the other Periphery worlds to attempt to remove his battle ships, then again this would quickly bring on war, probably again bringing attacks on Torval 2.
“If we choose the only other alternative I can think of, which is to hope that the status quo remains in place, then everyone wins. Garth “protects” the Periphery worlds and there is robust trade and economically everyone wins. However, I suspect that it is just a matter of time before Garth tries to encroach on Torval 2. If this happens, I don’t see how we can do anything besides start a war.
“The only good thing that I see is that there is no way, given the superior condition of our fleet, that Garth can ever win a war of direct hostilities against Torval 2. He would only do that if we provoke him by starting a war. So, for the time being anyway, Torval 2 is safe.”
Nadia nodded her head. What the admiral said made a lot of sense. If they did anything, it led to war. If they did nothing, it was possible that Garth would keep the status quo. And while Torval 2 was much stronger than Garth’s forces, it was clear that Garth had ambitions that included Torval 2.
Looking at Giliad, Nadia asked, “What do you think? Do you agree with the admiral’s analysis of the situation?”
Giliad paused. This irritated Nadia more than she cared to let on, more so because she was so tired, so she held her tongue. “On the whole, I agree with Admiral Badstubner. The only way to temporarily avoid a war appears to be to continue with the status quo. But I believe that the status quo is only temporary.”
Frustrated, Nadia looked between the admiral and Giliad for several long moments. When neither of them spoke, Nadia asked, “Is there anything else that either of you two would like to add?”
When both men shook their heads “No,” Nadia concluded the meeting, not feeling much better than before it had started. Only time would tell if they had made the right decision, or even if there was a right decision to be made at this point.
CHAPTER 31 – TORVAL 2
Nadia decided that even if they couldn’t commence hostilities directly at Garth’s Kingdom, they could at least win in the battle of public opinion. With that, she called an emergency meeting of the entire United Federation of Planets. She knew with the takeover of the Kingdoms and all the Periphery worlds that much of the teeth of the Federation had been removed, but she wanted to go on the record lambasting what Garth had done.
She launched into a speech condemning Garth and all his atrocities. She went on to say that as Secretary-General, she would not stand for this unprovoked aggression.
Unfortunately, these were mere words, and Garth would never be swayed by words. Nadia was not about to order, or request for that matter, an all-out assault on Garth or any of his holdings. That would surely catapult the entire sector into a long, drawn-out war that would have no clear-cut winner, but instead all the participants would be losers. So, though Nadia railed repeatedly against Garth, everyone knew that no real action would be taken.
At the end of the day, plenty had been said, but no real changes had occurred.
The sector had now established a new normal.
– – –
Less than a week had elapsed since the Federation meeting, when Nadia was alerted to the critical shortages.
Nadia had finally received a few days of badly needed rest, insisting that nothing should bother her unless it was critical. She luxuriated in the bliss of sleeping in until after noon each day and going back to bed early. This continued for five blessed days until she finally started feeling like her old self again. That was when the critical alerts started coming in.
Nadia had awoken early for the first time in days. Her persa had taken care of all the mundane issues and some of the more important items that she had delegated since she was so tired. Now, however, she received not one, but seven critical notifications that her persa deemed so important that she had to deal with them personally.
Every one of the critical notifications had to do with shortages. Torval 2, being by far the largest economy in the sector, constantly relied upon other planets to provide much-needed resources. These needs were always met in the most efficient ways using artificial intelligence-based algorithms to get the best products at the best prices – always ensuring a steady supply. If one source was not available, due to accident or other unexpected events, then another source was seamlessly enlisted to provide what was needed. Nadia couldn't remember the last time a shortage had become critical – in other words some
thing that the AI couldn’t handle automatically. And now there were seven different critical shortages, all hitting at the same time.
Nadia queried her persa to find out what the issue was – she was confident that there was only one true issue that could cause seven critical shortages all at once. Her persa indicated that for each of the seven critical shortages, there were no replacement resources available.
Nadia didn’t find this just odd, she found it down right suspicious. She asked her persa for the main source for each item, as well as the backup sources for each. This information was presented both with a visual representation and in short tabular form for her. The information showed, as expected, that each source had at least five backup suppliers that could be used. Of course, all the suppliers, both primary and backup, were now controlled by Garth’s Kingdom.
She next asked her persa to include the reason the source could not provide the resource to Torval 2. For each source, the reason was listed as “Industrial Accident.” Her persa’s role was to determine the next best source in case of problems, like “Industrial Accidents.” It was not programmed to determine why the accident had occurred or what to do if there were far too many accidents, indicating to Nadia, at least, that they really weren’t, in fact, accidents at all.
The list of critical resources included iron, nickel, titanium, gold, silicone and zinc. Without these key resources, many of the manufacturing processes on Torval 2 would shut down. Already these resources, which were continuously supplied and therefore not stockpiled, were running low. Each of them would run completely out, and the manufacturing that they supported, within the next few days. This included all electronics, star ship building – virtually anything that required advanced manufacturing techniques. Alternate sources could be found for some materials, but it would take weeks if not months to establish a new process to use them efficiently as well as set up a new supply chain to get these new materials to Torval 2. And Nadia had a sneaking suspicion that an “Industrial Accident” was just waiting to happen to any new materials that were key to Torval 2’s critical manufacturing infrastructure.
