A weight settled on the shoulders of everyone in the briefing room, manifesting as a stunned silence that was almost palpable. It seemed Srexx’s first prediction had already come true. After several moments, those attending started glancing to each other, and soon, everyone turned to Cole.
“What do we do?” Sasha asked, voicing the question everyone present wanted to ask.
For a moment, Cole wanted to hide from the enormity of what was approaching, but that wouldn’t achieve anything. He stamped down on that impulse and mentally squared his shoulders.
“The way I see it,” Cole replied, “the only thing we can do is start organizing an alliance to oppose the Coalition, but we need to do so very quietly. I do not want any potential members of this alliance to expedite being targeted because the Coalition learns what we’re doing. Srexx, can you create a logical presentation of your evidence and conclusions and record it on enough data crystals for everyone here?”
“Yes, Cole.”
“Good. It will need to be in a data format accessible to people who do not have Gyv’Rathi technology.
“Yes, Cole. If I may add, I already inferred that stipulation.”
Cole chuckled. “Sorry, buddy. Sev, your immediate priority is to get the shipyard manufacturing high-speed couriers; I want one for everyone here. Bump any projects you need to make that happen within the next day or two. After that, your immediate priorities are—one—recycling the ships in Trask’s fleet as quickly as possible without introducing production errors and—two—the system defenses. Start with our border systems and move in from there. Once Trask’s fleet has been recycled, dig into Srexx’s archives and find schematics for troop transports and ground forces equipment, like tanks and artillery.”
Sev nodded.
“I think our first step is liberating those five systems,” Cole said. “Sato, task a series of scout frigates to begin reconnaissance of those systems, and form a war council to start planning the operations. Personally, I think we should aim for a simultaneous assault, but I’ll leave that up to you experts. Oh, and don’t pick anyone in this room for your war council…unless you mind them being gone for a month or two; I have a prior claim on their time. Is there anything else?” No one spoke. “Right then. Srexx, thank you for bringing this to our attention. Sev and Sato, get started on your respective tasks. I’m taking the battlegroup to Gateway to interview the Caernarvon refugees.”
With that, Cole stood and led the way out of the briefing room.
Chapter Seventeen
“Cole, may I have a moment?”
Cole was about to reach the bridge hatch when Paol’s voice stopped him. He turned and saw the older man fast-walking to catch up.
“Follow me,” Cole replied. “I need to get things started for the run to Gateway, but we can talk after.”
Paol blinked. “You want me to follow you onto the bridge?”
“Sure,” Cole said, adding a shrug. “Have you ever been on the bridge of a starship before?”
“No, I haven’t.”
Cole grinned. “Come on, then.”
Paol jerked a nod and followed Cole into the outer bridge hatch. He froze, though, at the sight of two marines standing at the security check. One wore a normal ship-suit. The other marine stood just behind the first in heavy armor and held a rotary cannon.
“Captain,” the marine in the ship-suit said, respecting Cole’s preference by nodding once instead of saluting.
“He’s with me,” Cole said, waving a thumb over his shoulder to indicate Paol.
“Aye, sir,” the marine replied. She turned to Paol and said, “You’re clear, sir. Follow the captain.”
“Thank you,” Paol said and hastened to follow Cole.
Cole stepped through the inner hatch and smiled when he saw Mazzi’s deputy rise out of the command chair.
“Captain on the bridge!” the officer said, using his announcement voice.
“Keep your seat,” Cole said, waving the young man back into the command chair. “I’m just dropping by to issue a couple quick orders. Comms, issue a five-hour recall for all personnel, and signal the battlegroup to do so as well. Helm, plot a flight path to Babylon Station in Gateway and transmit orders to the battlegroup that we’ll depart seven hours from now.”
A chorus of “Aye, sir,” echoed back to Cole.
“Thank you,” Cole responded and pivoted to find Paol gazing around the bridge, wonder and awe writ large across his expression. Cole smiled. “Want the two-credit tour?”
Paol froze, his expression much like a child caught at the cookie jar. “Uhm…well…yes, if you don’t mind.”
Cole grinned. “Of course not. Follow me.”
Cole proceeded to take Paol to each of the stations, starting with Marine Ops and Flight Ops in the port recess. He spent at most fifteen minutes, because the bridge wasn’t really that involved. But…no one could miss Paol’s almost-child-like glee at touring the space where his daughter worked.
“And where is Sasha’s station?” Paol asked as they completed the circuit.
“Well,” Cole replied, “she technically has two. When we’re on normal operations, she’ll either be in the command chair or that station just behind the starboard recess. When the ship is at battle-stations, Sasha relocates to the auxiliary bridge with the Beta Shift bridge crew.”
“And what’s the auxiliary bridge like?” Paol asked.
“It’s basically a stripped-down version of what you see here, occupying about two-thirds the space. Each of the stations there mirror their counterparts here, so the watch-stander in Auxiliary Control can see everything that happens in the event they have to take over control of the ship. Just between us, though, I hope they never need to; that would probably mean rather bad things for me.”
“I’m sure,” Paol said. “Thank you for this, Cole.”
“You’re welcome. When we finish with whatever you wanted to discuss, you should call Talia if she’s aboard and get her to show you the hospital deck. Let’s step across the corridor to my office.”
Cole led Paol to his office, taking a moment to greet Akyra and make sure nothing universe-ending was waiting on him. When she said it had been quiet all morning, Cole proceeded into his office with Paol in tow. Gesturing for Paol to choose his seat, Cole slid behind his desk and eased into his own chair.
“So…what’s on your mind?” Cole asked.
Paol cleared his throat and said, “I was thinking it might be wise to write up letters of introduction and intent for those people you’re planning to send off in the courier ships. It would probably go a long way to making the meetings more efficient.”
Cole leaned back against his seat, turning over the matter in his mind. “Okay. I see what you’re saying. It could certainly save time, if you or Yeleth or whoever could present a letter when you first ask to schedule a meeting. Assuming the decision-makers read the letter, you guys wouldn’t have to spend so much time bringing them up to speed.”
“Exactly,” Paol replied.
“I like it,” Cole said. “You write up the letters and send them to me. If I feel they need any correction, I’ll call, and we can hash all that out.”
Paol nodded once. “Makes sense. I’ll have those for you probably before you reach Gateway.”
Cole shrugged. “I don’t know that you need to be in such a rush about it. The couriers won’t be ready for at least a couple days.”
“I realize that,” Paol said, adding a mischievous grin. “I’m just anticipating you’ll have comments on the wording.”
Cole chuckled. “Fair enough. Anything else?”
“No, sir. Thank you for your time.” Paol stood, with Cole following suit, and they shook hands.
Haven and her battlegroup spent three days at Babylon Station while Garrett and his people interviewed the Caernarvon refugees. Cole spent some of that time visiting with Admiral Trask and the four emissaries; he was very careful during his visit with the emissaries not to give any hint of their preparations in B
eta Magellan. When they asked if Cole had given any thought to their idea of a Beta-Magellan-based federation, Cole explained that he was still considering the matter.
Near the end of the third day, Garrett informed Cole that he and his people had completed all their interviews, leaving only analysis and reporting still to do. Garrett hoped to have a preliminary report ready for the group by the time Haven returned to Beta Magellan.
The purpose for their trip to Gateway achieved, Cole ordered the battlegroup back to Beta Magellan.
Bridge Briefing Room
Battle-Carrier Haven
Beta Magellan
5 September 3003, 09:17 GST
Cole leaned back against his seat as he waited for everyone to arrive. He’d asked the same people to attend that had heard Srexx’s presentation, and some were still en route from Citadel Station.
“Cole?” the overhead speakers broadcast Srexx’s voice.
“Yeah, buddy?” Cole asked.
A few heartbeats of silence preceded Srexx’s next statement, “I want to thank you for arranging the meeting where I presented my conclusions. I appreciate that everyone took my conclusions seriously and consider it a compliment that Garrett wanted his people to check them.”
Cole smiled. “Srexx, you’re one of us; of course, we’re going to take what you say seriously. Just because you can’t shake hands with us doesn’t lessen or invalidate what you have to say.”
“Thank you, Cole. It is…nice…to belong.”
“You’re welcome, buddy. Say…you need anything?”
“In what respect, Cole?”
Cole sighed. “Well, I don’t know, really. I was checking on you. If there was something you wanted or needed to improve your quality of life, I’d try to get it for you.”
“Ah.” Silence. “I could always use more data to process. My stores of encrypted data are running a little low, and Qeecir’s encryption algorithm was a disgrace to data security. It required little more than forty seconds at twenty-five percent utilization to decrypt. We have not encountered any ships from the Duchy of Musilar, Rigellian Alliance, the Ghrexels, Igthons, or Thurians. Encountering ships from any of the non-Human races would be best, as it would give me the opportunity to learn one or more new languages in addition to their encryption methods.”
“Well…I think we’re going to be invested in the area around Beta Magellan for a little while,” Cole replied, suppressing a grin, “but as soon as I can arrange for us to visit the other races, I’ll do it. Sound good?”
“Yes, Cole. I appreciate that. It is unfortunate that the Coalition is treating innocents in such a way, and I agree that such conduct needs to cease. I will gladly provide any assistance I can toward that goal.”
Cole smiled. “Thanks, buddy. I appreciate it.”
Just then, the hatch irised open, allowing the attendees to enter. Cole held his smile as he stood and shook hands with each of them. In short order, everyone was seated.
“Thank you all for coming,” Cole said. “Garrett, you said you have some information for us.”
“Yes,” Garrett replied, “and it’s not pretty. We conducted Kiksalik-assisted interviews with the Caernarvon refugees and the freighter crew, not from a standpoint of verifying their information, but rather to tease out real from imagined experiences. In any situation like this, where the witnesses have a chance to sit around talking about what they saw, you’ll have a lot of cross-contamination, and fortunately, the Kiksaliks provide a method for cutting through all that. To be clear, the best information came from the freighter crew and the freighter’s computers; Srexx was kind enough to obtain the logs from the freighter for us.”
Cole almost asked if someone had obtained permission first but ultimately put the thought aside. Yes, he firmly supported the idea of personal privacy and protection from unreasonable search…but one of his closest friends was a curious AI with exponentially more computing power than anything the Human race had ever devised. Every time Cole brought up the matter, Srexx always countered Cole’s argument with the simple statement that the data should be better protected if it was intended to be truly private. Cole saw his point and still sought a good rebuttal.
“From the communications logs, sensor logs, and historical system traffic data,” Garrett continued, “we have established a rough timeline for the invasion, at least up to the point that the freighter left Caernarvon. The Coalition forces entered the system through three of the four jump gates and converged on the Solar Republic task force. The Solars made a good showing of themselves, but the Coalition brought just enough ships to the fight that the Solars were destroyed. It is unclear from the data we have if the Coalition forces took any prisoners.”
“Once word of this reaches Sol, that will bring the Republic in on the fight, won’t it?” Sasha asked.
“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Sato replied.
Everyone at the table displayed different expressions of shock or disbelief.
“I have a hard time believing that,” Cole said. “The Solar Republic has been the teacher in the schoolyard for as long as anyone can remember; they always step in when ‘the children’ start getting out of line.”
“Don’t expect it this time,” Sato countered. “There are people back in Sol and Centauri who communicate with me fairly regularly, and not to put too fine a point on it, what I’m hearing out of the Republic is almost frightening. The Republic government is still in flux and upheaval following your disclosure of the ‘Rossignol Files.’ Those files and your…direct…handling of the people attacking you and CIE brought quite a lot of the backroom power-mongering into the light, if not all of it, and the average citizen doesn’t like what they’ve seen. In just the three years since your press conference, there have been five public referendums at the Republic level that have gutted the halls of power of almost every elected official with any experience. At the time of the most recent referendum, the incumbent with the longest term of service had twenty-two months in office, and the destabilization has filtered down to the individual member planets as well. That twenty-two-month incumbent—by the way—did not keep her office.
“Yes, the Solar Republic is still the superpower of Human space…well, not counting us…but they’re too disorganized right now to make use of it. Honestly, it’ll go one of two ways when news of the task force’s destruction reaches the Republic: one, it will galvanize the situation, and the people will demand action, leading to a mass of inexperienced policy-makers flailing as they try to learn on the job; or two, the people won’t even notice it in their quest for honest politicians and a fully transparent government. Does anyone question which outcome I’m expecting?”
Silence reigned as Sato scanned the faces looking back at her.
“Yeah…that’s a little scary,” Harlon said, his voice softer than normal.
“Would the disorganization make them a target for the Coalition’s expansion?” Garrett asked.
Sato scoffed. “Not if the Coalition has half a brain. It’s one thing to pick off a system that was just a trade hub, especially when the value of that trade hub has declined significantly in recent years. If the Coalition leadership is stupid enough to stick their noses into one of the Republic’s member systems, they’ll get more bitten off than just the nose. The problem, there, is that the Coalition now has the largest fleet in space…heh…well, it did before Trask and his people brought that fleet to us. I haven’t seen the classified Coalition numbers, but I do remember the Republic’s force levels. The Coalition doesn’t outnumber the Republic by that much, and the Republic has better tech and better-trained people.”
Garrett made eye contact with Cole. “Do the jump gates record the transponders of transiting ships?”
Cole shook his head. “Nope. That’s one of the ways CIE maintains its independence and monopoly. They don’t track—or care—who uses the gates, as long as they pay their transit fee.”
“It would be nice if you could have your people write a firmware patch
for the jump gates to watch for Coalition ships,” Garrett replied. “That would give us a little bit of advance warning where they’re headed.”
“Just because CIE does not track transits,” Srexx interjected, “does not mean the ships are not tracked at all.”
“Explain, please,” Garrett said.
“In order for the interstellar comms network to function, there must be routing information for each ship. In short, for the system to send messages, the system must know where the messages need to go. Since the implementation of the quantum comms network, we have access to near-real-time routing data for every ship in known space.”
“How ‘near’ is ‘near-real-time,’ Srexx?” Garrett asked.
“The jump gates in the furthest reaches of Ghrexel and Igthon space have not been upgraded as yet,” Srexx replied, “but across the sphere of Human space, the routing data in the communications hubs receive updates no later than five minutes after a transit.”
Smiles or grins broke out around the table.
“And CIE has access to this data?” Sato asked.
“CIE does not,” Srexx countered, “but I do.”
“Srexx,” Cole said, “please start monitoring Coalition fleet movements through the routing tables of the comms networks.”
“Yes, Cole. It will require some time to process all routing data currently available. I shall alert you when I am current.”
“Okay,” Cole remarked. “So, we’ve established that the odds of a Solar Republic response to the Caernarvon invasion is most likely not coming. The way I see it, we’re committed to those five systems. My position is that we’ll remain aware of the situation but do nothing beyond that. Now…talk me out of it.”
“They were less than friendly when we were there,” Sasha said, “but I can kind of understand that. I mean, one ship had just neutralized the battlegroup sent to protect them by the Solar Republic. They knew we could’ve rampaged through the system, and they would’ve been powerless to stop us. That colors your interactions and approach a bit. I think we should start putting together contingency plans for helping them…not to help them as such but more to combat the Coalition.”
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