Generals Help Themselves
Page 3
and at a rate much slowerthan the speed of light. By keeping the enemy computers confused, theykept those beams wandering aimlessly through space, always where thelittle ships might have been, but were not. Unless their luck ran out.
Flight One kept moving in, with constantly increasing speed, except forrandom variations. Once through the outer screen of small ships, a relayclosed and the link was broken between the ships of the column. Eachthen moved in independent manner. The designated target was an area tothe computers, rather than a ship. Radar beams reached out to findspecific targets. As they found them and moved close, the randomcomputer switched off for a small moment of time, while the missileswere dispatched on a true bearing. And then the ships moved on, leavingtheir eggs behind them.
The eggs moved in with fantastic acceleration to their targets. Halftheir energy went into that acceleration, to get them there before thedelta beams could find them. The other half was given up in incandescentheat when they found their targets. Becoming pinpoints of pure starmatter, they seared their way into the enemy vitals. But, even withtheir fantastically concentrated energy, it was not enough. For thedreadnoughts were armored with densely degenerate matter, impervious toany but a direct hit, and compartmented to require many hits.
The flights moved in and passed on through. And other flights came in.And others followed them. The first flights halted, found each other,turned, and drove in again. Pass and repass. A myriad of blue-whiteflashes gave measure of the struggle.
* * * * *
On Base Q, in the I.C. room, the Commander watched the tank. Curt ordersdesignated new target areas as the enemy fleet broke up under thewhiplash. Slowly, one by one, the points of light that marked the enemyvanished, leaving only the void.
Finally, as must any fleet that faces annihilation, they turned andfled. The battle was over. All that remained was to give the orders tobring the flights home. And that was soon done.
The Commander got up. He stretched. He was tired. He glanced at theclock. Two hours and forty minutes. Very quick, indeed, as space battlesusually went. But, then, he thought grimly, this had been the firstbattle ever fought under the whiplash of Plan K.
But, now, there was a report to be made. And he did not know how to doit. As he walked back wearily to his office, he tried out phrases in hismind. None seemed to fit.
His aide was bending over the facsimile machine as he came in. "Priorityorders from the General Staff, just coming in, sir."
The Commander looked at the machine. "General Staff to Commander, BaseQ, Urgent, Immediate Action," he read. "You are hereby advised that aprotocol has been signed at Washington, D.C., with representatives ofthe Combine, revising the Treaty of Porran to the extent that Base Qshall be jointly administered by yourself and the Commander, FourthFleet, Jupiterian Combine, until such time as its further dispensationshall have been agreed. You will, therefore, admit said Fleet upondemand, permitting it to take up such stations as it may desire, ineither zone, or to land, in whole or in part, and to disembark such ofits personnel as its commanding officer may direct. You will makearrangements with its commanding officer for the joint administration ofthe base. You will be held responsible for the smooth operation andsuccessful accomplishment of this undertaking. These orders areeffective immediately."
Commander Morgan smiled.
"Send this reply immediately," he said to his aide. "Open code.Commander, Base Q, to General Staff, Highest urgency. Acknowledgereceipt recent orders regarding protocol revising Treaty of Porran.Regret unable to comply. Due to recent argument over interpretation ofTreaty of Porran, Fourth Fleet, Combine, no longer exists. Requestfurther orders."
He laughed.
On earth, the officer who took the message gaped at it. Seizing atelephone, he dictated it to the Old Man's aide. But when the Old Mansaw it, he only smiled, coldly.
And his smile was bleak and cold, too, when he laid it before thePresident and the Cabinet an hour later. Shortly afterwards, when thePresident broadcast it to the people, they sat, stunned. It was notuntil the next day that they finally read its significance and startedcelebrating. But the Old Man had ceased smiling by that time, and wasplanning possible future battles.
* * * * *
A month later, Morgan sat again in the Old Man's office. Havingpresented his report and swallowed the unpleasant pill that, as he wasnow a hero, there were speeches to make and banquets to be bored at, hewas talking informally.
"What I can't understand, sir, is why they came in. They only had towait a couple of hours and the whole kit and caboodle would have beendumped in their laps. Yet they come barging in and give us exactly theopening we want. I don't get it."
"That _is_ an interesting question," the Old Man replied with a shadowof a twinkle. "You might almost think they had intercepted an order Isent to our Intelligence Officer, on Q, to sabotage the Converter if theprotocol was signed."
The Commander jumped. "Was that order given, sir?"
"Yes, it was. But it was countermanded an hour later. Different channel,however. I remembered they had broken the code of the first channel."
He paused a moment. "That illustrates a good point to remember, Morgan.You intercept enemy messages and break their code. A very useful trick.Also very dangerous, if the enemy discovers you have broken it, and youdon't know that he knows. Very dangerous, indeed."
The young man laughed. The older one smiled, bleakly.
As Morgan looked out the window, he saw the public news-casters spellingout the full mobilization of the Federation. A glow filled his heart ashe realized the people were now willing, if they had to, to fight todefend their freedom.
THE END
Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from _If: Worlds of Science Fiction_ November 1952. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.