“Signal the fleet,” he ordered, as cold fury overwhelmed judgement. “Lock weapons on Valiant and her comrades.”
Commander Lewis stared. “Sir...?”
“Do it,” Marius thundered. “Or I’ll have you relieved and thrown out the airlock!”
Frightened, Commander Lewis turned back to her console.
“Weapons locked, sir,” she said. Her voice was shaking. “All batteries are ready to fire.”
* * *
Roman paled as red light washed across the display. Emperor Marius’s task force had locked weapons on his formation...all of his formation. Urgent messages blinked up in his display, sent by commanders who didn’t have the slightest idea what was happening, demanding to know why they were being targeted. Roman barely saw them, because he couldn’t believe his eyes. He’d never imagined being at Ground Zero of a civil war...
...And his mentor had gone mad. It was the only logical explanation.
“Stand by point defense,” he said. He thought about trying to contact the other commanders of Task Force 5.2, only to dismiss it as futile. The sycophants he’d seen at the dinner wouldn’t do anything to dissuade the Emperor, once he’d made up his mind. It was sheer luck that Task Force 5.2 was outside missile range of Nova Athena, or the planet would be radioactive ashes by now. “Open a channel to the other ships...”
Thompson coughed. “Which other ships?”
“All of the Federation ships,” Garibaldi said. Maybe he could talk one or two of the Emperor’s picked men out of helping him to commit genocide. Maybe, along with his mind, Marius Drake had lost his ability to judge men accurately. “I need to talk to them...”
* * *
“Admiral Garibaldi is trying to raise the other ships,” Commander Lewis said. “Sir...”
“I will not let this rebellion spread,” Marius growled. “Fire!”
Commander Lewis didn’t hesitate. She keyed her console...and, moments later, Thunderbird launched a full spread of missiles towards her targets.
* * *
Alarms screamed.
“Missile separation,” Lieutenant Thompson snapped. “They fired on us!”
“Launch scatter missiles and ECM drones, but hold our missiles,” Roman snapped. “I say again, do not return fire.”
Sweat ran down his back as the display updated. At such range, there was almost no chance of any of the missiles losing power before they entered attack range. Emperor Marius knew that as well as he did, which left Roman with a nightmarish dilemma. He couldn’t fire on fellow Federation Navy starships, could he? But they seemed to have no qualms about firing on him. Home Fleet’s commanders had definitely been picked for loyalty over competence. But then, if Home Fleet had ever been called upon to do its duty, the war would have been on the verge of being lost anyway. The barbarians would have been at the gates.
He clenched his teeth as a second salvo of missiles launched from the Emperor’s ships, then the first salvo roared into the teeth of his defenses. Thankfully, Home Fleet’s crews were unpractised, or it would have been a great deal worse. As it was, the missiles that made it through the defenses did real damage. He watched, fighting to keep his growing horror and rage under control, as four battlecruisers and a superdreadnaught died in balls of fire.
“Peterson is gone,” Lieutenant Thompson reported. “Inflexible and Intolerant have both taken heavy damage...”
“Return fire,” Roman ordered.
* * *
“They’re firing on each other,” Commodore Thayne said. “Did you know this would happen?”
Charlie shook his head. He’d hoped the Shadow Fleet – nothing more than ECM drones, based on Federation designs but improved by the Outsiders – would convince the Federation ships to flee. It had always been a gamble, particularly if the Federation Navy had decided to fight a long-range missile duel rather than simply run for its life. But he’d never anticipated the Federation Navy ships exchanging fire with each other...
“No,” he said. What had happened on those ships? “And all we can do is watch.”
* * *
“Emperor,” Commander Lewis reported. “Task Force 5.1 has opened fire.”
“Traitors,” Marius growled. Their fire was likely to be heavier – and more effective – than his own. They’d simply had more time to train and test themselves against live enemies, which meant that continuing the fight would be suicide. He hated to run, but there was no choice. “Order all ships to retreat to the gravity limit. We have to get back to Earth.”
He clenched his fists so hard they hurt, promising himself bloody revenge. Garibaldi would pay for his treachery, as would the Outsiders themselves. The Federation would survive under his rule, no matter what happened. And God help anyone who got in his way.
* * *
“They’re retreating, sir,” Lieutenant Thompson said. She sounded stunned – and horrified at what she’d seen. It was impossible to blame her. “They’re heading for the gravity limit at best possible speed.”
She paused. “Should we give chase?”
Roman shook his head. Thanks to the earlier battles, it was unlikely his fleet could catch up with Task Force 5.2 before it crossed the line and vanished into FTL. And there was still that huge Outsider force to consider...
“No,” he said, out loud. “Hail the Outsiders. I think it’s time we talked.”
* * *
“Jesus,” Sanderson said. “I take it back, Uzi. You were right all along.”
Uzi shrugged, confused. The Federation had been winning, then one half of the Federation ships had opened fire on the other half...what the hell had happened? Had someone managed to take over the fire control network or what? And now the remaining half of the Federation formation was actually talking to the Outsiders? What the hell was going on?
“Start signalling for help,” Roebuck ordered, turning away from the porthole. “Get someone out here to rescue us.”
“Yes, sir,” Sanderson said.
Uzi kept his face expressionless. Whatever had happened, it had screwed up his plans – both of them. And now, if someone worked his way through the maintenance logs, they might realize there had been nothing wrong with the power core. And then...
But even if no one identified him, he knew, the universe had just changed once again. And he didn’t even know how.
And, he asked himself silently, what the hell do I do now?
End of Book II
The Series Will Conclude In
The Barbarian Bride
Coming Soon!
Afterword
The story of Cincinnatus (Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (519 – 430 BC) is one of those stories that resonate down the ages. Put simply, Cincinnatus was a Roman politician and military leader (the Romans didn’t consider the two separate spheres) who was appointed Dictator when the Roman Republic faced a potentially fatal threat from a barbarian tribe. Cincinnatus took command, built an army, defeated the barbarians and returned to his farm, all within fifteen days. As such, he is generally considered a model of civic virtue.
However, his story needs to be placed in context.
The Romans were very suspicious of anyone who sought too much power, to the point where anyone who seemed to be too powerful or too popular would be dragged down by the rest of the politicians. Accordingly, they appointed two Heads of State (the Consuls) who would serve for a year, a system that ensured that the two men would watch each other carefully for signs of undue ambition as well as actually running the government. The system was, in many ways, dangerously unstable. A man who felt himself slighted unfairly by the Senate – like Julius Caesar – might go into open rebellion against the might of Rome.
This was not a system that encouraged single-mindedness. The Romans, recognizing that this was a major problem when the state was under attack, created the office of Dictator. These men were granted absolute power for a fixed period, then expected to shuffle off into the sidelines of history. They were, among other things, spared
the threat of criminal prosecution for anything they did while in power. (It is a curious testament to the system that Sulla, who had taken the post by force, was never killed by one of his many enemies after he returned power to the Senate.) The Roman Dictators were never meant to remain in power indefinitely, unlike modern-day dictators.
And yet, so many people have drawn the wrong lesson from the story of Cincinnatus.
There is a curious agreement among thinkers from both the Left and the Right, although both of them would be horrified by the suggestion that they might have something in common. The Far Right does not object to the concept of an absolute dictator, per se; they expect only that the dictator be a good and virtuous man. Thus, the concentration of unchecked, unbalanced and fundamentally unaccountable power is only a problem if held by a man they do not consider to be a good man. They do not expect the good man to become sullied by the power he holds.
Human history would tend to suggest otherwise. Men of high ideals, good and decent men, have made successful grabs for power, then become corrupted and brought low by their success. Anything larger than a tiny business with a handful of employees cannot be micromanaged by a single person effectively, much less a whole country. Hiccups breed frustration. Dissent and disagreement becomes treachery. All who dare to speak out are crushed mercilessly. Each wave of repression brings on the next wave of repression. And then all life is drained out of the system.
The Romans knew the dangers of granting one man absolute power indefinitely. Those who admire the Roman Republic have not learned the lessons of its fall.
But the Far Left, if anything, has a worse problem. This is the concept of government by party. Instead of a single personage, all power is vested in the hands of the ruling body, often the Communist Party. In Russia, they talked of passing all power to the Soviets, then to the Bolsheviks. But when the Bolsheviks took control, the results were, if anything, even worse than the Tsars.
A living dictator can show empathy – or outright sadism. But a bureaucracy, governed by a committee, can be a great deal worse. In the interests of imposing communism, the Bolsheviks starved, slaughtered and crushed independent peasant farmers right across the Soviet Union. They were so intent on imposing their will that they chose to ignore the simple fact that they were crippling their country’s ability to produce food, ensuring that Russia would eventually have to buy food from the United States. The committee believed it could determine everything, despite being far more detached from the population than any single dictator, and ruined Russia’s ability to create a modern economy.
Both of these examples illustrate the true danger, the willingness to allow power to be concentrated in a single set of hands. Anyone who has done battle with the bureaucracy in just about any country will know how hard it is to get them to admit to a mistake. The people you deal with will either be unable or unwilling to help you. This may not be their fault. A bureaucracy that is trying to run the country will be huge, so huge that the people on the front lines will have no real authority of their own. But the bureaucracy will have no tolerance for its servants who fail to do exactly as they are told. Common sense will take a walk when they are forced to toe the line or get fired. Hence we have problems when a bureaucracy takes a child from his or her parents because that is what the regulations say they have to do, even if common sense says otherwise.
But human nature overshadows both the Dictator and the Committee. They will be tempted – very tempted – to use their absolute power for their own good, not for that of their people. Both will give the best jobs to their relatives, confusing themselves with the state, while milking everything they can from their positions. The Soviet Union was littered with dachas that belonged to Party Officials, each one built from public funds, yet denied to the public.
With all of this in mind, why would someone want to give a person – or a committee – absolute power?
About the author
Christopher G. Nuttall is thirty-two years old and has been reading science fiction since he was five when someone introduced him to children’s SF. Born in Scotland, Chris attended schools in Edinburgh, Fife and University in Manchester…before moving to Malaysia to live with his wife Aisha.
Chris has been involved in the online Alternate History community since 1998; in particular, he was the original founder of Changing The Times, an online alternate history website that brought in submissions from all over the community. Later, Chris took up writing and eventually became a full-time writer.
Current and forthcoming titles published by Twilight Times Books:
Schooled in Magic YA fantasy series
Schooled in Magic—book 1
Lessons in Etiquette —book 2
A Study in Slaughter —book 3
Work Experience —book 4
The School of Hard Knocks —book 5
The Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire military SF series
Barbarians at the Gates—book 1
The Shadow of Cincinnatus —book 2
The Barbarian Bride—book 3
Chris has also produced The Empire’s Corps series, the Outside Context Problem series and many others. He is also responsible for two fan-made Posleen novels, both set in John Ringo’s famous Posleen universe. They can both be downloaded from his site.
Website: http://www.chrishanger.net/
Blog: http://chrishanger.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristopherGNuttall
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