by David Weber
Pieter Tsuchevsky looked around the quiet room at his fellow Kadets. So this was how it felt to be a rebel. He'd never really wanted to be one. He doubted any of the others had. But it was inevitable for those who controlled the old government to call their opponents "rebels." He'd known that from the start, just as he'd known where his first public expressions of discontent might lead.
They'd led here to the men and women who had de-dared themselves the new Duma of Novaya Rodina and stated their determination to withdraw from the Federation.., not without fear and trembling. There was something almost holy about the Federation, but a government was only a government, and surely its function must be to make the lives of its people better, not worse. The purpose of an elective assembly couldn't be to murder its own members!
Anything that rotten at its core deserved to die, and die it would.
If only communications were less chaotic!
Novaya Rodina had never had a relay system, and courier drones had become notoriously unreliable since the Kontravian Mutiny. No doubt many nav beacons had been shut down or destroyed, but it went further than that. The Corporate Worlds handled a tremendous percentage of the total drone traffic, just as they monopolized the freight lanes. Almost certainlv they were tampering with the drones to keep the "rebels'; disorganized.
Well, if he were in their position, he would probably do the same. But in the meantime, it left him with the devil of a problem! He cleared his throat, and the eyes around the table returned to his face.
"So there you have it, comrades," he said slowly.
"The Federation has declared martial law and suspended habeas corpus... among other rights. And we- comy and I, my friends--we are all rebels." He shrugged. "For myself, I realized this must come, but possibly some of yott did not. So it is only fair that we reconsider what we have done, I think. We have made our gesture, voiced our protest. Is that all we wish to do? If so, we had best dispatch a courier drone with apologies and renewed protestations of to ovalty at once! But ff we do not, ff we continue as we have bgun to follow the lead of the Kontravians, God alone knows where we shall end." "Pieter," Magda Petrovna stroked her prematurely silvering hair, "you say you knew this would come. Do vou think we were all fools, Pieter Petrovich?" She smiled in gentle mockery.. "How noble of you to give us a choice!
But tell us--whichat will tou do when we all run crying home to babushka Terra?" A soft laugh ran around the table, and Pieter smiled unwillingly; but he also shook his head.
"This is no laughing matter, Magda. This is life and death. Oh, we hold the cities and universities, but the farmers and ranchers think we're mad. They won't raise a hand if it comes to a fight--and we've little chance of defeating the Federation if they would!" "Mega shit!" The tart remark could come only from one man, and Pieter's eyes twinkled as he turned to Semyon Jakov, the single raegaovsts rancher in their Duma. The old man's blue eyes were fiery as he puffed his walrus mustache, looking as fierce as one of his huge, vaguely sheep-like herdbeasts. "No way we could beat the Federation, no," he mapped, "but we won't be fighting the Federation only an Innerworld rump, and well you know it, Pieter Petrovieh Tsuehevsky! And they won't even have the full Navy. Damnation, man, the Kontravians took a task force--- a task force--in one snap! D'you honestly think they haven't lost more ships? I wouldn't be surprised to hear they've lost half the Fleet by now, Pieter!" "True, ,Semyon, but Novaya Rodina is no Navy base. There wre no ships for us to seize; it was pure luck Skywatch supported us. They could'ye blown our leaky old tubs out of space and those are still the best ships we can scare up. No, Semyon Illyich, whatever the Kontravians may have taken, we can't fight what the Federation can send here." "But why send anything?" Tatiana Illushina asked plaintively. "We're not exactly the richest of the Fringe Worldsl' "No, Tatiana," Magda said gently, "but we are what the Fleet manuals call a "choke point."" The others listened carefully. Semyon Jakov had been a Marine for fifteen years, but Magda had reached the rank of captain in Frontier Fleet before resigning in protest.
"An especially valuable warp nexus," Magda explained. "The way the warp lines lie, some systems control access to several others. The Corporate Worlds are mostly on early choke points of the Federation. That's why they're so powerful; every ship to the Heart Worlds has to go through choke points they control." Tatiana nodded. When it came to the economic implications of the Corporate Worlds' galactic position, every Fringe schoolchild understood.
"Well, the same thing makes choke points militarily important," Magda said. "If Novaya Rodina goes over to the Kontravians, we'll block a whole section of the Fringe off from the Federation; they'll have to take this system before they can attack the others. But if we remain loyal to the Federation, the Fleet will have several possible avenues of attack into Fringe space to choose from, you see?" "But... but in that ease, they're certain to come here aren't they?" Tatiana asked very quietly.
"They are," Pieter told her gently, "and soon, I think. They wouldn't have sent this--was he waved the official message form gently his-comif they didn't mean to back it up. There's some pretty, stiff language in here; if they planned on talking us back into the Federation, they'd'ye taken a more flexible initial position." "I agree," Semyon said harshly. "and I say--fuck "em! Let them come] There's twenty, million people on this planet. It'd take half the Corps to hold us down!" "Except that only eight million or so of them are actively on our side," Pieter begun, but Magda interrupted.
"It doesn't matter an.vway, Semyon Illyich," she said with an affectionate smile.
"Just because you grunts spend tour time crawling around in the mud doesn't mean the Fleet does! They don't care about planets, only warp points and the normal space between them." "So? They still need someplace to base ships!" "Certainly," Magda nodded, "but what ff a monitor drops into orbit and zeros a few missiles on Novaya Petrograd? Or Novaya Smolensk? You think we shouldn't surrender to keep them from firing?" "Well..." "Exactly, you old cossack!" Magda punched the old man's arm lightly.
"Are you saying we should just give up?" Jakov demanded incredulously.
"Did I say that? Certainly not! We've already sent off our own drones, so the rest of the Fringe knows what's happening. I'm only saying that if it comes down to ultimatums, we'd better decide what we'll do ahead of time. I don't want to believe a TFN commander would fire on civilians; it goes against all we've been taught. But he might. And I want us to know now what we're going to say to him to keep any itchy finger off the button." "So what you're saying, Magda," Pieter cut in pacifically, "is that we should continue as we have, possibly even t fighting in space, but that if it's a choice between bombardment and surrender, we should surrender?" "Exactly." Magda's face was unusually grim. 'I don't like it any more than you do, Pieter--or you Semyon. But what alternative do we have?" "But what'll happen to us if we surrender?" Tatiana asked. "I don't mean the rest of our people, I mean us, right here in this room?" "Hard to say," Magda said with a shrug. "There's never.1.999 been a case like this, and it's not as ff we're the only planet to secede. I'd think the government would have to follow a fairly lenient policy especially with any of us 'rebels" who surrender--ff they have any hope of ever healing the break. Unfortunately, we can't depend on that." "They might execute us?" Tatiana asked faintly. "They, might," Magda agreed calmly. "Of course, even under fiartial law, any death sentence has to be confirmed by the civilian authorities.
Another day, at least, before he could resume plowing.
Well, there were advantages to bad weather.
Such as sitting with rasha on a Spring morning instead of bouncing around in his poorly sprung tractor.
If only it weren't for those crazies in Novaya Petrograd! He had half a mind to go talk to them himself.
He frowned and glanced over at his wife.
Maybe he should. After all, here he was cursing their stupidity, but had he done anything to change their minds? They might just not realize how others felt.
And old Semyon Jakov was one of them... and A
ndrei Petrov's girl Magda. They were good people.
Maybe he could make them see reason?
Of course, rasha would have a fit ff he took himself off to the city and left her and the boys alone with the planting. On the other hand, ff this madness wasn't settled, there wouldn't be a market come harvest, now would there? He filled his pipe with Orion tobacco (his one true luxury.), and the pungent smoke curled up around his ears.
Yes, the idea of going to Novaya Petrograd to confront the Duma... it definitely bore thinking on.
Admiral Jason Waldeck, of the Ghartiphon Waldecks, regarded his subordinates so coldly they shifted uneasily under his glare.
"I don't want to hear any more crap about poor misunderstood Fringers!" he snapped. "They're mutineers and traitors--and that's all! That bastard Skjorning should've been shot. Might've nipped the whole damned thing in the bud!" His officers remained prudently silent.
Admiral Waldeck had never been a good man to cross, and it was far more dangerous now. News of the Kontravian Mutiny was still threading its way through the Fleet, but one consequence of it was already clear: moderation was not in great demand among TFN commanders.
Indeed, any "softness" might well be construed as treason by the angry (and frightened) cliques of "reliable" Innerworld admirals.
"I don't give a good goddamn why they're doing what they're doing," he grated. "We've got to stop them, and Fleet's shorthanded as hell after the mutinies, especially in capital units and carriers. Hell, we've lost so many pilots there won't even be fighter cover for most opera- tions! So it's up to us--understood?" "Yes, sir," his juniors murmured.
"Yes, Captain Sherman--comexamples. If anyone wants to fight, let "em. Don't give them a chance to surrender till you've burned a few bastards down." "But, sir.., why?" "Because these traitors have to learn the hard way," Waldeck said grimly. 'rhe Assembly's finally gotten its head out of its ass, and we're under military law now; that means my law. I'm going to teach these proles a little lesson in obedience. Is that clear, gentlemen?" It was ler. They might not much like it, but it was olear.
"All right, then, Commodore Hunter, here's your first objective." The cursor in the chart tank settled on a warp nexus, and Commodore Hunter squinted at the tiny letters. "Novaya Rodina," they said.
"It's confirmed, Commodore. From the drive strengths, they have to be warships." "I see." Magda Petrovna nodded as calmly as she could. They'd hoped someone would turn up from the Kontravians or one of the other Fringe systems before this, but Asteroid Four watched the warp point to Redwing, and Redwing was part of The Line, one of the fortified Terran-Orion border systems whose mighty orbital forts had remained loyal to the Assembly. She looked around her crowded bridge wry. It only remained to see what strength the Fleet had scraped up. Her collection of armed freighters might--possibly--hold its own against light units, and Novaya Rodina's Provisional Government had short-stopped two mutinous light cruisers headed for the depths of the Fringe. But that was all she had; that and Skywatch.
She sighed. Unless the mutinies had hit really hard, there was no point even hoping. A single fleet carrierm even a light carrier--would eat her entire force for breakfast, and she hated to think what a few battle-cruisers might do! But the worst of it was that she didn't know. Except for Skywatch, none of her units had long range scanners; without those, she could form only a vague impression of what was headed for her.
"Query Asteroid Four for exact drive strengths," she said suddenly.
"Sir," the commander of her cruiser flagship said as they awaited an answer, "those miners don't have the equipment for precision work--and an hour-long transmission lag doesn't help. Why not take Jintsu and Atlanta out and see for ourselves?" "I appreciate your spirit, Captain," Magda said, peculiar though it felt to call a mere lieutenant "Captain" onboard a light cruiser, "but we can't take our only cruisers into scanner range all by themselves... and ff we took the freighters with us, we couldn't run ff we had to."
"Yes, sir." Lieutenant Howard blushed as he realized his commodore had just tactfully advised him to let her tend to her own knitting.
"Asteroid Four says they think they're all strength twelve or less, Commodore," her corn officer finally said dubiously. "Thank you. Any incoming messages from them?" "No, sir.
Nothing." That was bad, Magda thought. No surrender demands? Did that man they were unaware they were being scanned? Or that they had a pretty good notion of what she had and figured she meant to fight no matter what they said? And did she intend to fight?
Exactly what had they sent against her?
Well, now, ff they were strength twelve or less, then almost certainly there was nothing out there larger than a cruiser. If only Asteroid Four could relay the information directly onto Jintsu's cramped battle plot! "We've got an amplification from Asteroid Four, Commodore. They make it three at strength eight to twelve and three strength six or below. They sound confident, tOO." All right, Magdathink, girl! Strength six drives were destroyers. Strength twelves could be light carriers, but she doubted it. Too many fighter joeks were. Fringers. Assume they were all cruisers.., a heavy and two lights? They might make it a standard light battlegr[*oslashgg'up, ff the CA were a Goeben.
They'd drawn first blood; ff she had any chance at all, she'd fight.
She thought furiously. Against command datalink, her own forces were at a severe disadvantage. The enemy ships would think, move, and fight as a single, finely-meshed unit;, her ships were not only more lightly armed, but they d have to fight as individuals. On the oher hand, she had over a dozen armed freighters, and her two light cruisers formed a datagroup with Skywateh, as long as they were in rang--and Skywateh was a lot bigger than INSV-TAEC'NO any CA," especially a Goeben with all that armament sacri-riced in favor of data net equipment. Of course, if it was a Goeben, she'd also mount jammers to take out Magda's own datalink at close range.
All right, Just suppose she had them figured right--whichat did she do with them? They'd be in missile range of the planet in eleven hours, or she could go out to meet them. If she went out, she lost Skywatch; if she stayed, she lost maneuvering room. Decisions, decisions.
She drew a deep, unobtrusive breath and nodded to Lieutenant Howard.
"Captain Howard, the flotilla will assume Formation Baker. We'll wait for them here." "Yes, sir," Howard's voice wasn't especially enthusiastic, and she felt a twinge of sympathy. Light cruiser captains were imbued with the notion of maneuver and fire tey hated positional battles.
"If I m right," Magda said slowly, "there's a Goeben out there, Captain. I want maximum firepower laid on her as soon as we can range on her. If we can break their data group -comand keep their ECM from breaking ours--we'll have a good chance. They'll outclass us ship for ship, but we've got the numbers. If we don't break them --was She shrugged.
"Yes, sir." He sounded more enthusiastic as he digested her plan. God, what she wouldn't give for a properly trained staffl But in another she wouldn't trade sense, these people for anything. They might be mutineers and traitors, they'd put on just to get but their lives the line here. There would never be any reason to question their devotion, and maybe enough of that could make up for their rough edges.
"S diskywatch has them on scanners, Commodore!" Magda jerked awake in her command chair as her chief scanner rating's voice burned into her dozing ears.
"Coming up from data base now, sir.
Flagship's deft-nitely a Goeben. She's Invincible, sir, and she's the only heavy! The other cruisers are strength nines--light cruisers!
They're... Ajax and Sendal, sir!" Thank God! They had a chance, but their losses were still going to be awful. She turned to Howard.
"Enemy force launching missiles," her fire control officer said suddenly. So there it was. They didn't even want to negotiate.
"Stand by point defense," Magda said coolly.
"I'argets?" "Tracks look like Skywatch, sir." "Very well. Laeaity, our own missiles on Invincible." "Aye, aye, sir.
"Open fire
!" ('intsu quivered as her external ordnance let fly, and Magda's plot was suddenly speckled with flecks of light as Atlanta nd Skywatch flushed their external racks at the oncoming cruiser, as well. She felt her lips thin over her teeth. Even command point defense was going to have trouble with that lot, and she wondered if the loyalist commander knew Skywatch had taken delivery of antimatter warheads just before the mutinies? If he didn't, he'd be finding out shortly.
But incoming missiles were sleeting in at Skywatch, and there were a lot of them. Point defense crews aboard the cruisers and fortress tracked the incoming fire while battle comp sorted out the clean misses from the salvo, but there weren't many; orbital forts weren't very elusive targets.
Then the small laser clusters trained onto the probable hits. Counter missiles zipped out, and for seconds space was wracked with brilliant flares of detonating warheads.
"Hits on Invincible!" Gunnery screamed.
"One... three @u.. firstye of them, sir!
She's streaming air!" But Skywatch's blip was pulsing, too, as missiles slipped through to impact on the big fort's powerful shields. Magda gripped her lower lip between her teeth, waiting as the brilliant dot flickered and flashed. Then the report came in. con'Efght hits on Skywatch, sir--all standard nukes. Took out most of her shields, but she's still in business!" "Good!" Magda ignored the informality of the elated report. "Captain Howard, Jintsu and Atlanta will engage Invincible at close range.
Captain Malenkov will come with us. The remainder will engage targets of opportunity among the enemy formation." "Aye, aye, sir!" The rebels lurched into motion. Only Malenkov's three big freighters could even 'hope to stay with a warship... the others were much too slow, and Magda had no choice but to turn the engagement into one huge melee and hope.
The two forces closed to energy weapon range, and the TFN loyalists were taken aback by the rebels" reckless courage. Those lumbering freighters were sitting ducks @u. dis"b they were so goddamn big! They soaked p force beams and betweenlasers as thev bumbled into range for their own light armaments, and" what they lacked in datalink they made up in determination and sheer volume of fire.