Imperator

by Timothy Ellis

  “How?”

  “The same way we arrived here. You’d call it magic. And it actually is. May I offer you a small service?”

  “What?”

  “Those missiles coming through the jump point are annoying me.”

  “Missile spamming is what we do between attacks. It is annoying. It’s supposed to be, on both sides.”

  “Would you mind if I stopped it?”

  “Be my guest,” he said, in the tone of someone who thinks it can’t be done.

  My staff appeared in my outstretched hand, and the missiles stopped. The staff vanished again. On the nav map, the Nazi ships began emergency movements as their own missiles came back at them. The Americans couldn’t see this though.

  “What did you do?” he asked.

  “I turned both sides of the jump point so anything going through returns to the side it came from. In effect, I severed the jump point, and nothing can come through it from now on.”

  “What about neutral traders?”

  “Stuck on either side now, wherever they are.”

  He made a face. The sort when you’re not happy about what you just heard.

  “That won’t go down well with the Merchant’s guild.”

  “We can do something about it. Besides, there’s been a full war going on here. How many traders are stupid enough to be anywhere near here?”

  “Point.”

  He looked dubious. I wasn’t about to explain, but Jane could now identify traders on the wrong side, communicate with them to find out where they preferred to be, and when I had the time, we could arrange for them to be moved. I didn’t consider it a matter of urgency though. And I was only getting started as far as sectors were concerned. For now, such things as moving traders was going to be a cleaning up exercise before we went home.

  “For now admiral,” I went on, “your war is over. Do you want to come with me to talk to your superiors and political masters? Or would you prefer to just point me in the right direction?”

  “I’ll need to get orders. That will take a couple of hours.”

  “Only if they take that long to make a decision. We’ve installed our own coms system through your space, and messages should only take minutes, not hours. We’ve allowed you to access our system for the time being.”

  “You’ll excuse me then, while I compose a message?”

  “Of course. You might also tell them we can be wherever they’d like to meet us in a few minutes.”

  He looked shocked. But recovered quickly.

  “And if they don’t want to meet you?”

  I grinned at him.

  “I can always let you get on with your war, and go talk to the Germans.”

  He frowned.

  “On the other hand, I can offer them a lot more than just ending the war. And I’m prepared to negotiate to obtain the recruits I need for our war. For example, I can ease your population problems. We know more about your space than you do. I think if they refuse to talk to us, they will later come to regret not doing so.”

  “You’ll attack us?”

  “No, I’ll move on and make the same offers elsewhere along the spine, and the benefits will go to them.”

  “Who else have you approached?”

  “You’re the first.”

  He nodded, rose, and left the bridge.

  And was back in less than five minutes.

  “I’ve been ordered to accept your hospitality, and come with you to the Washington system, where a delegation of diplomats and our military will meet you on our military station. In one hour.”

  “Good. If you’d like to shuttle your party over to my smaller red ship, I’ll have General Smith meet you on the maintenance deck.”

  “You’re not going to beam us over with your transporter?”

  “Would you like me too?”

  The same man shuddered again behind him.

  “No thanks,” the admiral said quickly. “Give us fifteen minutes. Why the smaller ship though? Surely your fly your flag on your largest ship?”

  “Actually no. BigMother is set up as a command carrier, and the titans are used where our enemy threatens us the most. For most things, this ship is more than adequate. Orion’s Stars is only really here to provide troop ship carrying, and intimidation.”

  “Intimidation? Yeah, right. It does that for sure. Fifteen minutes.”

  The channel closed.

  Thirteen

  “Thank you for agreeing to meet us.”

  We were in a conference room on the Washington military station. They had four diplomats at the table, and four officers of either four or three star ranks. Eisenhower wasn’t at the table, but was sitting with his aide along the wall behind them, along with the aides of the other officers.

  They were all looking shocked.

  I’d brought Jane, Annabelle, Hobbes, Roo, Willow, Syrinx, and the Lufafluf major. I was the only one standing.

  “My name is Imperator Jon Hunter. I head up an alliance of galactic core worlds which we call the Imperium. My job is military, but the Imperium is administered by a council with a representative of each member society. We are less than two months old, and fighting a war against an enemy the likes of which you couldn’t face alone.”

  I paused to see their reactions. No change. I went on.

  “We started out with much the same tech level you have now, but were forced into rapid development of it, first by a two month war we lost, and then by our current one.”

  “Wait,” said a four star general. “You lost a war?”

  I’d explained this to Eisenhower already, while waiting for the meeting to begin. Obviously, they hadn't talked to him at all after we arrived here in separate shuttles.

  “Yes. The short version is we fought a war here on the spine, lost it, and then used magic to make it never have happened. Those of us involved in the final battles ended up in the core, where we met an enemy almost as bad, resulting in the Imperium being formed.”

  “Magic?” asked one of the diplomats. “You’re kidding.”

  Syrinx waved a hand in an excessive gesture, and vases of flowers appeared along the desk. They lapsed back into a shocked silence.

  “Mage Syrinx is from a planet called Karn.” I indicated Jane. “Fleet Admiral Jane is my operations coordinator. Next to her is General Smith, who commands our marines. Hobbes is from a race called the Keerah, who we currently have a non-aggression treaty with, and yes, that’s a nickname from our shared past.”

  There were a few smiles. Jane had checked. Calvin and Hobbes was still popular.

  “Roo is also a nickname, and as you can see, the Ralnor look like a larger version of Australian kangaroos. We have a limited military treaty with them at the moment. Next to him is Knight General Willow, from the planet Dragon’s Rest, which is in the process of joining the Imperium. On the end is Major Clink, from a planet called Lufafluf, which was a formation Imperium member. The major is my liaison to the battalion we have on board our larger ship.”

  They looked stunned.

  “General Smith and I are as human as you are. Both of us are from Australian origins. Although a lot of us are now temporal anomalies.”

  Several of the Americans cringed, which I assumed meant they didn’t like science fiction terms being used.

  Having introduced my side of the table, I sat, and one of the diplomats introduced their side. I recorded names, but didn’t bother remembering them. I would if I needed to down the track.

  “Why are you here?” asked the lead diplomat.

  “We’re fighting a war along a front ten thousand light years wide.”

  “Bullshit!” exclaimed a three star.

  “Admiral Jane, if you would be so kind?”

  They looked confused for a moment, until a screen on the wall at the end of the table came on, showing an overview map of the core of the galaxy. It zoomed in to show the Trixone frontier.

  “How did you do that?” asked one of the two women diplomats.


  “Our tech is superior to yours,” said Jane.

  She didn’t mention she’d hard hacked the station computers within a minute of exiting the shuttle. They didn’t look happy, but no-one said anything. I went on.

  “The core is divided up into three, empires, I guess you’d call them. The Keerah,” Jane flashed their space, “the Ralnor,” another flash, “and the Trixone. The Trixone launched a massive assault into the other two empire’s space a little over a month ago, along the entire ten thousand light year border. So far, with our help, the Ralnor are holding their own along the center part of the galaxy, and slowly losing ground further out.”

  Roo nodded gravely.

  “The Keerah are not doing so well, and they’ve been pushed back so our own core Imperium space is under siege. We have the tech to hold them for now, but it’s a numbers game. The Trixone have them, we don’t. Tech wise all four are more or less equal, and superior to yours, but we have a few wrinkles which give us enough of an advantage to hold them for now.”

  “Like their titan class ships,” interjected Eisenhower.

  “And others. The Keerah are slowly losing ground. The Ralnor are committed to just holding, and we lack both ships, pilots for them, and troops.”

  “And you think we can supply you with them?”

  “Pilots and troops, yes. Your ships wouldn’t survive a battle with the Trixone.”

  “It wouldn’t even be a battle,” said Hobbes. “You wouldn’t even get a shot off at them.”

  The military were frowning now.

  “But we just solved your pirate problem for you, and confiscated their stations and shipyards. So with some upgrades, we’ll shortly be able to build more ships. Especially fighters, and our new dreadnaughts. What we need is pilots to fly them.”

  “You did what?” asked a four star.

  “Solved your pirate problem.”

  “How?” asked the other one.

  “They had bases in systems you don’t even know exist, except as stars on a galaxy map. Before coming here, we visited each pirate base, and sent all their stations, shipyards, and ships to our home system. The people we dumped on a planet down the other end of the spine. The only pirates around now are single armed freighters, who will suddenly find their home bases are not there anymore.”

  “Impossible,” said the first four star.

  “They travelled from my fleet to here in less than two minutes,” said Eisenhower. “I don’t think we can reject anything they say as impossible.”

  “We’re quite happy to prove it to you. At the end of this meeting, we can walk you through to our main diplomacy station, where you can meet our diplomats.”

  “Where is that?” asked the older woman diplomat.

  “About forty thousand light years away.”

  “Of course it is,” said the other.

  I grinned at them.

  “We can prove everything. Just give us time to set things up. If you want.”

  “Wait,” said a three star. “Dreadnaughts?”

  I nodded to Jane. She threw up an image of Repulse.

  “This is Repulse, a British battleship from about two month ago, our time. I think you can see it’s longer than your own, and marginally better armed, at least in terms of turrets and guns.”

  I nodded to Jane again. She threw up Relentless. There were sounds of surprise from the military.

  “This is Relentless, our first dreadnaught, which as you can see, is effectively two battleships cut in half, and the four sections reattached to a new central core. Twice the battleship firepower, and much better shielding.”

  I nodded to Jane again, and this time she threw up Chaos.

  “Ouch,” said one of the diplomats.

  “Sorry about the pink colour. It was used as a joke, and subsequently became a colour the Trixone came to hate in a hurry.”

  “Is that a Midway class hull?” asked a three star.

  “This class is designed based on the Midway, yes. But there are only two decks with life support. The rest is power generation, weapons, and shields. The guns you see in the round mountings are battleship sized.”

  “Mother of…”

  The four star stopped himself, and looked at the other military.

  “The class is less than a fortnight old. We have five of them now, all being flown by fighter pilots. Two are American, three are Australian. Four of them are bird captains, and the other is a commander. The ships themselves handle like a heavy fighter. In fact, better than yours perform.

  “Bullshit, again.”

  I grinned at him.

  “We have good simulators on board Orion’s Stars. Bring some of your pilots on board and let them tell you the differences.”

  “I’ll do that,” said a three star. “So you want pilots?”

  “And troops,” said the other three star.

  “Mainly. Fighter pilots, and capital ship drivers who know how to fly, we’ll give ships to. Basic bridge crews for them as well. And we need whole divisions of troops. The Trixone attack planets as they advance, killing all animal life as they go. We currently have less than a division of troops spread across ten planets, and twice that number we either can’t help, or are in imminent danger. We have the tech, we can produce it rapidly, but we don’t have the troops or the ability to train large numbers of them.”

  “We need our troops in case the Nazi’s break through,” said a three star.

  “No, you don’t. Your war is over.”

  “How do you figure that,” asked the lead diplomat.

  “I severed the jump point between your two sectors. You can no longer jump into their space, and they cannot jump into yours.”

  Silence.

  “As I understand it, you’re on a peaceful footing with the British, Canadians, and Australians, all of whom we’ll be talking to next. As such, none of you need more than token troop numbers for your own internal security.”

  Still silence.

  “If you want, I can isolate American space completely from all other sectors. It won’t affect your trade, because we can connect you back up another way, which doesn’t use ships.”

  “How?” asked the first woman.

  “I’ll demonstrate it later if you wish.”

  “I wish.”

  “No problem, I’ll set it up. We can offer you a number of things.”

  I looked at all of them. They looked interested.

  “First, trade across the galaxy. Second, an end to all sector based wars. Third, planets to colonize, allowing you to spread your people out more.”

  “And how can you do that?” asked the lead diplomat.

  “We know all the jump points you never found in this area of space. We can show you where an additional twelve systems with habitable planets are waiting for you to settle on. They vary a bit in how many people they can take, but you could move half your population to them fairly quickly. We can even set it up for you without you needing colony ships.”

  “You sir,” said the oldest flag officer, “are either the biggest liar I’ve ever come across, or I’m at home having a weird dream.”

  The others laughed, and my people joined in. I kept my serious face on.

  “I can assure you it is neither. We can help you solve your population problems, we already solved most of your pirate problem, and we can revolutionize your trading.”

  “What does it cost us?” asked the older woman diplomat.

  “Ideally, you join the Imperium as a member. There are certain costs involved which our diplomats will walk you through, but they are minor. The main cost would be in military personnel. We’d want you to second your best navy and fighter people to the Imperium navy, and raise an army to also be seconded to the Imperium military. You would bear the cost of recruitment, training, and remuneration. Possibly death benefits, but we have a low mortality rate. We would supply tech and equipment you are not able to. And like pilots, if you care to have some marines here tomorrow, we can demonstrate our tech for
them. The cost will in time be offset by the economic boosts of being able to trade across the galaxy as the Imperium grows. The trading network can also be demonstrated for you, if you care to invite traders.”

  “And if we tell you to take a hike?” asked the lead diplomat.

  “We’ll ask you if you want your war with the Nazis back. If you say yes, I’ll restore the jump point. If you say no, I won’t. We’ll then move up the spine to the other sectors, and after them, down spine. Not all the sectors will join us, but I think enough will.”

  “And we came here first,” said Annabelle. “The American sector has always had the best troops and pilots, and the strongest economy of all of them.”

  Laying it on a bit thick, especially how things were now, but a little ego stroke never hurt.

  “Something else to consider,” added Jane. All eyes turned to her. “At the moment, you are the American sector, on a spine of human space. If you join the Imperium, you become whatever you wish to call yourselves, like the United Planets of America, if you want to stick to your origins. You join as a member equal among other members. If other human sectors join the Imperium, it is also as equals, not as a single human society with multiple parts, and only one voice. Every part will be a full member.”

  “You keep saying human,” said the younger woman diplomat.

  “I’m not, even though I look it. Knight General Willow’s people are not either. Population is not an issue. Each member is equal, regardless of who or what they bring to the table. The Imperator’s people are not the smallest group, mine are, but we both bring the highest level of tech to the Imperium, and all our current warships belong to the Imperator personally. Others bring numbers, food, warriors, and trade. Ultimately though, the Imperium is about trading with everyone, and mutual defense.”

  They looked at each other.

  “We’ll retire,” said the lead diplomat, “and consider your offers and requirements, and get back to you tomorrow. Will this be acceptable?”

  “As long as you don’t mind me visiting the British in the meantime,” I said.

  “They are our allies, so I guess we can’t be upset should you choose to do so. But be advised, we will be talking to them about all of this, before either give you a decision.”