Into the Fire

by Elizabeth Moon

  It was three days before a Colonel Hatch called her and explained that the only transportation available for the Academy was a unit of four buses usually reserved for transporting dependents. “And we need a week’s advance notice to reserve them,” Colonel Hatch said. “The forms for reservations are here in the transport division office—”

  “That won’t do,” Ky said. In those three days she had reviewed all the information she had and conferred with the senior Land Forces instructor on urban tactics. He had not been encouraging about what she could hope to accomplish, and she was not in the mood for procedural nonsense from Transport. “Transportation is needed pursuant to Emergency Orders Local—”

  “Emergency? What emergency? Why haven’t I been told?” Hatch sounded completely rattled.

  “Emergency Orders Local states that, in case of attack, the Academy is tasked with supporting the honor guard at the Presidential Palace and Government House,” Ky said. “General Molosay has told me to develop a new plan for doing so, and that involves arranging transport from the Academy to those locations. As an attack would be without warning, that transportation must be immediately available.”

  “But—but what if it’s scheduled for another—what if it’s full of dependents—”

  “That’s why your initial option won’t do. The Academy needs a permanent installation of enough vehicles—armored, preferably—sufficient to transport cadets—”

  “Cadets! You’d be taking cadets into—”

  “A combat zone, yes. Because that’s what Emergency Orders Local says to do. So let’s start over. I need transport for the three upper classes of cadets and another fifty to sixty—”

  “But that’s over a thousand—”

  “Major.” Ky’s tone cut him off. “If you like, I can have this conversation with your commander. It’s true I do not have a Land Forces background, as you probably know. That’s why I’m not simply telling you what models and numbers I need. This is supposed to be your area of expertise.”

  “We don’t have enough,” Hatch said, in a calmer voice. “A third of our transports are either off on remote assignment or in maintenance. Those four buses are all I have to spare, and they’re spoken for through eight days from now.”

  Ky thought longingly of Vatta Transport and Stella’s ability to move trucks seemingly at an instant’s notice. But a convoy of Vatta freight haulers would be just as obvious and less secure for her cadets. She wondered, though, about Hatch and his reluctance to cooperate. “I’ll see if I can knock something loose for you,” she said, and ended the call. She was shaking her head when her new clerk came in.

  “Something wrong, Commandant?” Bik Kamat, a corporal from Joint Services Headquarters, had brought a completely different feel to the former secretary’s office.

  “Major Hatch of Transport,” Ky said. “What have you got there?”

  “Major Hemins’s latest assessment of the second years’ performance, and Colonel Laurent’s notes on the defense of Government House. With annotated plats, as you requested.”

  “Thank you,” Ky said. “Anything urgent in the next hour?”

  “No, Commandant. Do you want your lunch sent in from the Academy mess or Commandant’s Residence?”

  “Residence. I’ve annoyed Chef already by skipping too many meals.” Ky grinned at Bik, who grinned back. “Tell him to make that two lunches, unless you want what the mess has.”

  “Thank you, Commandant; I’ll eat at my desk, too. That way the calls won’t interrupt you.”

  According to Hemins, the second year was already improving, though still far from the goals Ky had set for it. But better was better. She turned to Laurent’s plats and comments. He had come to the same conclusion she had, that the complex of government buildings surrounding the Presidential Palace and Government House would be impossible to defend from a serious attack with twice the troops the Academy could supply:

  “It would be better to remove the President and her staff, and the senior legislators, to a safe place—not that such a place exists at this time. The Academy itself would be easier to defend from ground attack, but not from the air. The only substantial bunker-like areas are under the oldest buildings. I do have a file of previous plans other than the one you sent me—I would have expected them to be in the Commandant’s office somewhere unless they were removed by the previous occupant.”

  Ky felt a chill go down her back. Kvannis had taken the plans, of course, and that meant he was up to date on the most recent. She read further.

  “My senior Land Force students participated in the updating of the plan every year, as well. I’ve shipped the copies to your desktop. However, I believe we need to talk about this.”

  “Indeed we do.” Ky looked at her schedule and then his, then touched the button that connected to his office. “Colonel Laurent, this is the Commandant. I agree with your assessment. Do you have anyone scheduled for your office hours today?”

  “No—are you free then?”

  “Yes,” Ky said. “I will be scaring the second-years again today, but then I will come by your office on my way to the gym.”

  “Thank you, Commandant.”

  Ky looked quickly at the plans he’d forwarded. All brief, not much change from year to year. Starting back in the days when a ditch had encircled the future “government place” for drainage, the plan had been to place a cordon of troops around that margin—first using the ditch and the little mound on the inside as cover. Later, when the ditch was eradicated during the construction of Ring Street, the plan developed two concentric rings of “protection”—the outer being a ring of “checkpoints” where a small number of troops would supposedly control entry, and the inner being the perimeter of each building. At no point was defense of the government complex moved out across Ring Street to make use of the cover of other buildings.

  “Insane,” Ky muttered.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  DAY 16

  A few hours later, in Colonel Laurent’s office, Ky laid the plans on his desk. “These haven’t changed much in four hundred years.”

  “True. And regrettable. I asked repeatedly for permission to expand the parameters, but was told there would never be an attack, that this was all theoretical. It would be a training exercise only and students could be told why it wouldn’t work.”

  Ky shook her head. “Frustrating, I’m sure. Do you know who was behind the lack of planning?”

  “Pure laziness and cost-cutting, I believe. We could use an engineering section, with appropriate machinery. But no. ‘Oh, no, we can’t have you making ruts in the roads or digging up the beautiful gardens.’ We could use a way to emplace anti-aircraft, but again, the sacred gardens. I’m not the first chair of the Land Force department to be told no, and I want to make clear that we all fought for better planning, but…this is what we have. Once a year, in the spring—the same date every year to avoid alarming civilians—we reserve some transport from the base, bus the two upper classes of Land Force cadets over there, and have them parade around the perimeter with empty weapons and practice peeking around the corners of the buildings. It’s Drill Day.”

  “Not even the entire cadet corps?” It made no sense at all to Ky.

  “No. Because the others will never need to know about land warfare, at least not until they attend Staff College later.” Laurent grimaced. “You would think the Unification War had been a little disagreement settled with shouting and sign-waving, something that could never happen again.”

  “What is the presumed enemy for the drill?”

  “Farmers upset about the price of fuel and a drop in the price of produce, played by senior school students from two private schools. They were always intimidated by the cadet troops and dispersed without actual contact.”

  “I had no idea…”

  “You wouldn’t. You were Spaceforce-designated. You were on your shuttle training flight.”

  “And Kvannis knows these plans?”

  “To the
centimeter. He knows how far ahead you have to reserve the buses. He knows the exact coordinates of every room in every building.” Laurent looked at her quizzically.

  “Do you think Kvannis expects these plans to be followed? In general or in detail?”

  “Commandant, I must admit Iskin Kvannis and I were not particularly close. We had had…disagreements. His intent, he had told me, was to get rid of me for being, in his words, insufficiently respectful of his position once he became Commandant. Because I did not like him, it is possible that I have not fully understood his thought processes. And I have no idea what insight he had into your thought processes, or if he thought Colonel Stornaki would take over the Academy after he left.”

  “Points taken,” Ky said. “Conclusion?”

  “I think he expected Stornaki would be named interim, and Stornaki would do what Kvannis told him. Surrender the Academy, even. I’m sure he knows you’re the new Commandant. He knows you were trained for Spaceforce, and your experience was entirely in space warfare. He may expect you to follow the plan because you have no expertise in land warfare, or he might think you will do something different but equally inept.” Laurent tipped his head a little.

  Ky nodded. “Then I think I should surprise him by doing something different and effective. Don’t you?”

  He smiled at her. “Yes. Did you have something in mind?”

  “Indeed. But if you have any ideas, I’d rather hear yours first.”

  “The plan as it is could be improved by adding that engineer brigade and moving some dirt around, to the consternation of the Port Major Garden Club. Adding some artillery, air defense emplacements, surveillance drones…do we have any hope of getting such resources from the Joint Services HQ?”

  “In other words, augment the current plan? With resources we almost certainly could not get within a tenday, let alone create real defensive positions?”

  “That’s true. If we expect an attack that soon, about all we can do is evacuate the likely targets—the President, the senior legislators, the heads of departments—but we can’t. I raised that possibility and everyone acted as if I wanted to kidnap them and put them in prison—”

  “Everyone is going to have to accept the necessity,” Ky said. “We don’t have the troops, equipment, or time to make that area really defensible, though we don’t know the actual time of attack. We know the other side has subverted part of AirDefense: they were able to send planes up from Ordnay to intercept an aircraft carrying rescued personnel.”

  “What happened?”

  “Better planning,” Ky said. “I regret the deaths of those pilots, but we got the survivors safely to Port Major.” He nodded and she went on. “We don’t know whether Sea Force has been subverted as well, so attacks from ships at sea, or troops transported by sea, could be involved, as well as Land Force units moving into the city. We would need much longer—and we don’t have it, because the other side has to move quickly; they can’t easily hide out for a half year. Now that they’ve started, speed is their ally.”

  “So—how are you going to convince the government officials to leave—and where will you take them? And what about the damage the attackers will do to the buildings?”

  “The buildings are less important than the people and the data—data transfer needs to start today. I need to talk to the President and the Council today without telling them more than they need to know. And we need to convince Kvannis that our plan is his plan because I—the idiot from outer space—can’t think of anything else. So we’re going to act as if that plan is our plan. There will be drills. We’ll get those buses, load ’em up, drive over there, and have cadets march around. We’ve got two small airfields—who’s reliable in AirDefense, do you think?”

  “Well…there’s Basil Orniakos, but your aunt the Rector had a feud with him last spring. I’ve heard rumors he’s gone over to the rebels, but I don’t believe it. He was in my class here, and it’s my belief he’s rock-solid loyal, but could be pretending to defect.”

  “AirDefense faculty here?”

  Laurent looked down, frowning. “I can’t be sure. I don’t want to accuse anyone unfairly—”

  Ky let out an exasperated hiss. “Colonel, I have to trust someone, and I’ve decided to trust you. So let’s deal with the loyalty due fellow officers as subordinate to the loyalty due Slotter Key as a whole. Is there anyone on the AirDefense track here that you trust unequivocally?”

  “No,” he said, meeting her gaze. “Commander Vinima made…comments during the time you were in Miksland that indicated his lack of respect for former Commandant Burleson and his adherence to Kvannis. His second, I believe, transferred to the Academy when Vinima became chair of the department.”

  “Then I will get in touch with Orniakos, through proper channels.”

  “And the rest of your plan?”

  “Remove the human and data targets, and appear to be following the old plan, in order to lure the opposing force into a trap.”

  “There’ll be damage…”

  “To structures. Which can be rebuilt. If we have the right combination of weaponry, damage will be confined to the government corridor, but evacuating the closest buildings would be a good idea.”

  “That might actually work,” Laurent said. “But you still need to find a secure place for the President and the others.”

  “I need staff,” Ky said. The plan was crystallizing now, and she could almost see how the parts would mesh. “We’ll need three different groups to pull this off. Command structure for each.” She felt the familiar excitement, energizing. “I’ll want your recommendations for the main group, and your support when I tackle Joint Services HQ.”

  “It’ll take me the rest of the day—”

  “Fine. I’ll see the President and the Rector. Keep in mind that this new plan is not for anyone else. No one, as this point, but you and me.”

  “Yes, Commandant. But what about General Molosay?”

  “I will inform him in person, but not via any communications device.” And not yet, she thought. They would be lucky if they had ten days, extremely lucky if something delayed Kvannis twenty days. She wished every meteorological and mechanical disaster on him and his forces.

  By midnight, when she finally got to bed, Ky had talked to President Saranife, the Rector of Defense, and the few others she felt she must inform. She had a list for the next day’s calls as well. Colonel Laurent had prepared an organizational chart for the operation she’d outlined and they’d spent a couple of hours after supper refining it.

  DAY 17

  The next day Ky informed the entire faculty that the Academy’s traditional duty of protecting the seat of government might be called on, and advised them to be ready for sudden schedule changes.

  “You mean someone might actually invade the city? Who?”

  “Dissident elements of the military,” Ky said. “Possibly led by the former Commandant—”

  “Are you sure he wasn’t abducted?”

  “Yes,” Ky said. “We have evidence that he was plotting to overthrow the government and dissolve the union, restoring at least one southern continent to political independence.”

  “That’s ridiculous; they can’t possibly expect to win.”

  “Be that as it may,” Ky said, “General Molosay told me that in his opinion an attack is possible, and that the Academy would be expected to follow Emergency Orders Local and protect at least the two most important government buildings, Government House and the Presidential Palace. The Joint Services Headquarters expects to be fully engaged as well, so this is our problem, like it or not. Plans for this have been drawn up, as you know, and yearly drills held—”

  “But nobody ever seriously expected an invasion to come—those plans were just an exercise for the seniors in Land Forces to learn from,” Major Parker said. “If it’s really an attack—” He glanced at Colonel Laurent.

  “Colonel Laurent has already explained the plan’s shortcomings,” Ky said. “General
Molosay has agreed to transfer a unit of combat engineers and their equipment; the President has agreed—reluctantly—that we can create some defensive barriers in the public gardens. That will start tomorrow; it will take most of the day to move the equipment into the city. I expect you to prepare the upper-division cadets for this, and avoid panic.”

  “Do you know when the attack might come?” asked Colonel Dagon, chair of the AirDefense department.

  “Not yet,” Ky said. “General Molosay’s assessment has been forwarded to your desks.” An assessment she had edited, with his permission, to mislead those faculty members who were part of the conspiracy. “It’s proving difficult to detect suspicious troop movements and concentrations due to the winter weather.” That much was true.

  “I still think it’s a stupid plan,” said Commander Seagle, chair of Spaceforce division. “It’s a rectangle of relatively low buildings and open ground, and you’re proposing to build earthworks? The only sensible thing to do is evacuate the government—to space, for example, where these rebels can’t get at them—and wipe ’em out when they show up. One or two drone-mounted smart bombs would do it.” Seagle leaned back in his seat with the air of someone who had just said the obvious to a roomful of idiots and expected admiring applause.

  “The President will not agree to that,” Ky said. “She feels that abandoning the Palace will be seen as abdication.”

  “Well, she’s—” He stopped himself with obvious effort, and subsided, scowling.

  “We’re going to have to go with what we already have. Colonel Laurent and I are working on more detailed plans. All cadets will participate in some of the drills we’ll be holding, but only the two upper classes will be part of the defense force should an attack come. I realize this will disrupt the usual class schedule, but our orders take precedence. At this time, cadets will be informed of the possibility of attack, and that drills will occur, but nothing more.”

  DAYS 17–37

  Over the next ten days, Ky dealt with the Port Major city council and its agencies, none of whom were thrilled to have large construction machinery making dents in city streets and inconveniencing traffic…with the Port Authority, which resisted military “interference” tagging communications with incoming and departing ships…with the commanders of both the small AirDefense bases nearest the city…with a steady stream of questions, orders, revisions of orders, from the Joint Services Headquarters…and with the usual work of a Commandant.