Imperator

by Timothy Ellis

  “I never expected otherwise. You will need to decide if you separate into isolated sectors, or remain as one big open space. While you can join the Imperium, or not, as individual sectors, the decision to isolate space between the sectors is one you will all need to discuss. Perhaps if you allow me the next two days to make my pitch to each of them, you can then meet and discuss a joint position, or whatever satisfies all of you. While you make up your minds, I can be about my business down the rest of the spine.”

  “And if we need to contact you?”

  “Our coms system is now in place. I can answer emails a few minutes after you send them. For the time being, we’ll make our coms system available to you for faster communications with us. Once you reach a decision, and you wish everyone to have the benefit, we can discuss the costs of using the system. Call it a free demo.”

  “And the tour and simulations you offered us?” asked the younger woman diplomat.

  “Perhaps we can schedule them for when the other neighboring sectors wish to join you, and you can all participate at the same time.”

  “And if we prefer to have our own visit?”

  “I’m at your disposal.”

  Fourteen

  The palace looked exactly the same.

  Everyone was different, especially given the king wasn’t a young queen, and as Jane had found out, was a distant cousin to the queen who’d knighted me.

  Where the American military had been in fatigues, their British counterparts wore full dress. We’d found out at the last second, and shifted uniforms to match.

  “How dare you, sir,” said the four star general.

  Everyone else had taken a seat, the king in the middle of their side of the table, me in the middle of mine, and only the two of us, general and me, had remained standing.

  “How dare I what?” I asked, deadpan.

  “You wear the ribbon of the Victoria Cross, and the insignia of a knighthood, and yet are obviously not British sector.”

  I sighed.

  “General Montgomery,” said the king, quietly. “Sit.”

  He obeyed, but it was obvious he was trying not to grind his teeth. I sat at the same time, yielding the table to his majesty.

  “Perhaps we should allow some explanations before we get upset about anything. Hmmm?”

  The general nodded.

  “If I may, majesty?”

  I frowned at Annabelle, but she smiled back at me. The king waved her permission.

  “Perhaps some history will help. Ours, not yours. You’ve heard of the Darkness?”

  “It’s a myth, used to scare kids into eating their greens.”

  “It is now. We come from an alternate timeline, where the Darkness invaded the spine, and killed a hundred billion people in a war we lost.” They looked shocked. “Twenty five billion survived, after a jump point to another galaxy was found. We represent those who stayed behind to ensure the jump point would never be found, and in doing so, we found a way to change the timeline so the war never happened.”

  Their expressions ranged from fascinated, to skeptical.

  “Before the Darkness War, there was another war, in which Imperator Hunter here, and my mercenary team, fought and won. The British fleet sent a small battle fleet, and while the smaller ships didn’t survive the first major battle, the battleship and her captain went on to do great things. With the war over, we came here for the awarding of medals, and the promotion of British officers, and walked into a coup. Jon personally saved the young queen,” there were startled looks, “at considerable risk to his own life, including the destruction of his personal corvette. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions during the war which saved the crew of the battleship, and a knighthood for saving the life of the queen. He was also made the Duke of Norfolk.”

  There was silence for a moment. One of the civilians stirred uncomfortably.

  “I’m the Duke of Norfolk,” he said. “How does someone not British come to be a made a duke?”

  I kept my mouth shut, and let Annabelle continue. The others on my side of the table, other than Jane, seemed to be hanging on every word as well.

  “The Duke of Norfolk led the coup. My people worked with the SAS to put it down, while Jon was saving the Queen. With the position vacant afterwards, Jon was given the title. He was also given title to three systems further up the spine you are not aware of, and formed his own duchy. The duchy ceased to exist with the time line change, but the core of it was what the Imperium we belong to now was formed around.”

  “Thank you, general,” said the king. He nodded to me. “Perhaps you could introduce your people, and tell us about your Imperium?”

  I did so, the discussion from there going much like it had for the Americans. The British only had seven systems, and we offered them eight more, including Scotland, for which I’d need to restore its jump point if they signed on. The Duke of Norfolk didn’t look happy the entire time. Jane found out later, he was a new appointment, after a coup attempt the year before by his predecessor, which had also gone badly.

  We left them looking interested, especially since we’d specified we wanted as much of the SAS as they could second to us, and we impressed on them some of our best pilots were British, and we’d take as many as they could offer.

  Within an hour we did the same presentation on a station above Canberra, which we’d known as Sanctuary. The Australian sector also had seven systems, but the one we knew as Apricot was not colonized as being too marginal to be cost effective. We offered them eight more, below the line of the spine on the flat map, giving them only two above the spine.

  I wasn’t sure why I was holding the rest of the systems back, but it felt appropriate, and I didn’t want to be seen offering what the Americans and British would consider a smaller sector, more planets to expand into. Such things could lead to wars in the future. And given there were twelve more, which was something to fight over, and also expansion room for the Imperium if we needed it, I decided to hold them in reserve.

  The Canadian presentation was a lot shorter. They’d seen our presentation to the Americans, and started by asking how many planets we could give them. They had six, and there were six more.

  I was going to call it a long day, when Jane received an email from a private group, requesting an immediate meeting. We returned to Verse, and a station around one of the habitable moons. Technically this was Australian space, but I couldn’t see anyone getting upset by us making stopovers anywhere. And in any case, there was nothing anyone could do to stop us. All the same, I was mindful of how this might look to sector governments.

  The meeting was held in the conference room on BigMother, at their request. Given what followed, I wasn’t surprised they didn’t want to be overheard.

  “What can the Imperium do for you,” I asked their leader.

  They were all civilians, and dressed from impeccably suited, down to jeans and t-shirt.

  I should have guessed what was coming.

  “We want to set up a new sector, away from the existing ones. The range of species on your ship alone,” his eyes went across the non-humans at the table, “tells us our beliefs are real, and we want to be able to set up our own society as an expression of them. We would ask if you know of six planets we can move people to from almost all the sectors. We’ll take any kind of planet at all, as long as they are joined up by jump points. The other sectors have long frustrated this desire to have our own space, and we hope you are the miracle we’ve long been waiting for.”

  “What would you call this sector?”

  “Sci-Fi.”

  I grinned at them. Annabelle rolled her eyes. Jane nodded to herself, and quietly chuckled. As I said, I should have seen that one coming.

  “And what can you offer?”

  “We’d need help to fast build our society, which we hope you can offer.” I nodded. “Those who’d emigrate immediately to our new sector come from all walks of life, including the militaries of every sector, with
a high proportion being ex-military. I don’t believe we’d have any trouble supplying you with pilots and soldiers, if their families are moved to one of our new worlds. I understand you can close off a region of space, and we’d welcome that, and trading with your Imperium directly. We won’t know what we can trade until we see the new planets, but we can certainly offer services across the whole spectrum to start with. Can you help us?”

  “We do know of six planets you could use, off the Australian sector at the top of the spine, and not the ones we offered them. I was holding them back for other use, but since in our time line there was a large Sci-Fi sector, and some of my key people came from there, I’d be happy to support its creation now.”

  I paused.

  “How many people do you think you have interested in moving?”

  “Initially, about a million, mainly from this end of the spine. Unfortunately, the coms link past the American sector seems to be down at the moment, so we’ve been unable to contact our groups beyond there.”

  Oops.

  I closed my eyes for a moment, and concentrated on the jump point I’d closed, allowing com signals to go both ways. I’d not realized our own coms were also blocked by closing the jump point the way I had. Jane should have, but she hadn't mentioned it.

  “That should be fixed now.” He blinked in surprise. “We need pilots and soldiers now. To speed up the process, I have a station which can accommodate more than a million people right now. We can settle whole families on this station quickly, as an interim measure while you build cities on your new planets. Give us a couple of days, and we can have ships here modified to ferry people to our station. Basically just seating and cargo space, for short duration travel.”

  I looked at Jane. She nodded. A lot of the freighters we’d taken from the pirates could easily be modified as ferries. I looked back at the leader.

  “We’ll arrange the ships. Admiral Jane here will coordinate with you for recruitment, and the collection of their families. We can also take merchants and service providers willing to take short term premises leases on the station, or one of the other stations in the Imperium. They can live on one station, but work on another. It may take some time to move people, but we can at least get it started while you break ground on the planets. It also allows you to build cities without needing to accommodate people at the same time. There is one thing though.”

  “What is that?”

  “You’ll need to form a government very quickly. We can make voting very easy once you have a core number of people. But until you have a government, and one which subsequent people will be happy joining, you can’t formally join the Imperium.”

  “We understand that. It won’t be a problem. We’ve been moving in this direction for decades now, just waiting for someone to find us a planet we could claim. We exist as a formal association now, and the leadership is voted on. Taking it to the next level just needs a new vote confirming everything.”

  “Fine. We have a meet and greet day scheduled for tomorrow, if you would care to join us? We’ll be collecting diplomatic and military delegations from each of the sectors we’ve talked to so far, and showing you the Imperium first hand.”

  “We’d be honoured to attend. How many can we bring?”

  “I’ll let you sort things out with Jane.”

  I rose, signifying the meeting was at an end. Their leader rose as well, and slapped a fist against his heart.

  “Ka-Plaa!”

  Fifteen

  “Holy FUCK!”

  This was third such exclamation in the last hour. We’d gathered all the military people who’d come with the diplomats into an auditorium on Stars. I’d opened a walking rift to Terminus, and the diplomats had stepped through after BA demonstrated it worked both ways. David Tollin and an Imperium diplomatic team were meeting them, with a full day planned to keep them occupied. We had other plans for the military.

  Ranks present went from four stars down to lieutenants, and included a number in civvies who were obviously ex-military. They divided up by ranks, with one of team one with each group. I’d seen BA and several obvious sergeant major types eyeing each other up, and apparently being impressed. One on one, I’d bet on BA every time, even against the mountain the Americans had brought.

  The first HF moment had been one of the battles from the Darkness War, where our titan ships were forced to withdraw. Annabelle was at the podium, with General Hobbs, Jane, Lacey, and I sitting behind her.

  The second was an early battle in Reaper’s Crossroad, showing all three major powers going up against each other, and our missile defense being the only thing really keeping us alive. And that was in a ship which was obviously better than any ship on the spine, while still being outclassed. Which was the whole point. They needed to know just how obsolete their ships were. We highlighted each of the ship classes involved, and their relative strengths.

  This was followed by a simulation Jane had done of an American fleet of twelve ships, matching the makeup of a Trixone fleet, being two battleships, two cruisers, and the rest destroyers, on each side. The American fleet was destroyed before even their battleship guns came into range. No exclamations, just a grim silence.

  Just to show the rest of our problem, the next simulation was the same American fleet, with ten squadrons of their heavy fighters, going up against one Trixone battleship, and its one hundred fighters. The silence deepened as once again, the American fleet was destroyed, without coming into firing range of the Trixone battleship, and with the loss of only a dozen plant fighters.

  The third HF moment was Grace destroying eight full fleets with just her single dreadnaught. I could see it dawning on them why we wanted fighter pilots to fly capital ships.

  Jane followed Grace with one of Dreamwalker’s battles, where his Scimitar, destroyers, super-corvettes, and Excalibur mark fours tore apart three full fleets, and six hundred Trixone fighters, with the loss of only two Excaliburs, a few damaged, and a few holes in the corvettes.

  And lastly, Dreamwalker’s solo attack on a massive Trixone fleet flying Orion’s Belt. By the time the titan battle was over, there wasn’t a closed mouth in the room.

  Just to cap it off, we showed a live feed of a Trixone fleet coming through one of our jump points, and being destroyed by our battlestations.

  The navy people and fighter pilots seemed stunned. One of the marines raised a hand, and Jane had a new vid up before he could say anything. We watched Dreamwalker take out a battalion of Trixone on the ground, single handedly, with one of the first of the new gatling guns. Lastly, and definitely not least, we saw the battle on Willow’s planet where George and a hundred knights wielding the new guns, with sword wielding knights supporting them, were unable to make any headway against the Trixone troops being continuously dropped against them.

  “Any questions?” asked Annabelle.

  We spent the next hour fielding them, in rank order.

  After breaking for lunch, with our butler droids supplying whatever people wanted within minutes, the groups broke up and headed for either simulators, or marine training courses. I’d ordered Amanda and BA to take it easy, but I knew damned well things would devolve into a pissing contest, where rank didn’t matter, only unit pride. I was trusting them to not let anyone get seriously hurt.

  The last thing I found out before I went into a simulator myself, was none of them had our suits. I tasked Jane to find out what happened to the original inventor, and I was firing the simulator up, when she came back with a sad story of the man having been mugged on a street for the credit chit in his pocket. It meant they were all still using actual space suits, and while they had combat suits, Jane ascertained they were way behind ours.

  With the simulator fired up, Stars allocated our pilots to squadrons to match the number of sector pilots. Firstly, we were in Excalibur fours, while they were flying the heavy fighter of their sector, which Jane had obtained the specs for, and added new ships instead of updating what we already had from
our time line.

  Another oddity stood out immediately. There were no privateers. All the sectors had retained carriers and three levels of fighters.

  Launched into a single battle arena on opposite sides, I formed up on Lacey’s wing, and let him run the attack. It didn’t go at all well. For them. We hadn't even needed to use guns, missile spamming them to death at long range.

  “Not fair,” said one pilot on the general channel, when we reset ready for the next simulation.

  “I know,” I said. “But we needed to show you that straight off. One on one, your fighters are no match for ours, and totally outclassed by the Trixone fighters, which have a cruiser gun as their main weapon. We can let you try an AI simulation against them if you like.”

  “I believe you,” said the same voice. “But I want to test it against you one on one all the same.”

  Jane popped up his stats. He was a full bird, CAG on his carrier, and currently rotated home for recreation. Just his luck we arrived when we did.

  “Fine,” I said.

  I told Stars to assign our worst pilot to the simulation, and ring the rest of us around the arena to watch.

  The combat lasted a little longer, but once again, the American CAG was outclassed, and died from missile spam.

  “Again,” he said. “But you get no missiles this time.”

  “Agreed.”

  His missiles failed to hit the Excalibur, dealt with by the four point defense turrets. They came into gun range of the Excalibur, and he was good enough to juke out of the way of the first salvo, and the combat really began. It still didn’t last long, with the same result.

  “Again,” he said. “But this time assign your worst pilot, instead of your best.”

  “That was our worst pilot. Say hello to Pilot Officer Gamsharr, from the planet Naranja, who’s off the Orion’s Belt, where he’s well below the middle of the kill board. Other than Space Commodore Lacey and myself, the pilots we brought here are from the middle of our kill stats. The worst are still in training, and the best are both training them, and keeping them alive in combat.”