Ron shook his head, ruefully.
“That is why you saw what you saw when we were intercepted by the rebels on your way here. If the odds are even, we annihilate each other. If one can manage at least a fifty percent superiority, we know we will lose, so we surrender. Did you see the huge forts and fleets we had defending the Imperial planet? We are barely holding our own. But we can’t just sit on our hands. They are building more ships. We are building more ships. Our people are taxed beyond what anyone can expect. More satraps raise the banner of rebellion and none of our admirals can think of anything but to hurl more fleets against their fleets.”
“And if an alien base ship showed up in your sky,” Jack said, “could you manage a unified defense?”
“I fear that some of our rebels might do what that Empress tried to do among your rebels. Yes, we heard about that. I could not believe it when I heard it, but now, with the division among my own people, I could see why. Surely some of our rebels would greet an alien base ship with open arms if it would agree to help them defeat The Worshipful One.”
They rode in silence for a long minute, the pavilion gently swaying as the porters carried it along. Kris wondered where they were going but whoever was calling the shots seemed to know and Ron showed no concern. Kris scratched that off her list and contemplated this new hot potato that the Iteeche had dropped in her lap.
“Just how big a problem are we up against?” Jack asked, breaking the silence.
“Something I’ve never faced,” Kris admitted. “It’s called symmetrical warfare. Both sides have the stuff that’s as good as the other. Usually, someone has some strength they can count on, a faster ship, better guns, something. You try to emphasize your strengths and aim for your enemy’s weakness. Take our aliens. They had mass. Lots and lots of aliens and ships and lasers and whatever else they could make, they had it. We had ships that were faster than theirs and lasers that reached out beyond what they could hope for. With our speed, we chose the range and shot them to pieces. They kept trying to get around that. We kept ahead of them. They lost, then lost, then lost some more.”
“And here?” Jack asked.
“They have battlecruisers. The rebel battlecruisers are as fast as the Imperial. They’ve both got 22-inch, 24-inch lasers. One against one, who wins?”
“The lucky one,” Ron drawled and tried to get more comfortable.
“Would you prefer a chair?” Nelly asked.
“I’m fine,” Ron answered. “It’s not the ride that makes me agitated.”
“Haven’t there been times when humans fought with the same ships or guns or tanks?” Jack asked.
“Nelly?” Kris asked.
“I could rattle off the answers, Kris, but I suspect you already know them.”
“Yes. I was just giving myself time to think. People did win when equipment wasn’t all that different. Training. Skill. A slight edge in equipment here, a secret weapon there.”
“But it was often bloody and they didn’t win nearly as much,” Nelly put in. “However, if one side figured out a whole new way of making war, things changed fast. For example, the stirrup and heavy cavalry in the middle ages. The tank and the blitzkrieg warfare in the bloody Twentieth century.”
“Yep, Nelly, you got it in one,” Kris said. “Ron, where is this hearse going?”
“I have instructed the porters to carry us to the Rose Palace. It is to be your embassy. I am sure you will find it to your liking.”
“Any chance we’ll get there alive?” Jack asked with a jaundiced eye.
“I assure you, several battalions of the Imperial Guard have been detailed to escort us there. I am told that your own battalion of Marines are waiting for you outside the Imperial Palace and a regiment of Imperial Marines are also with them.”
“And how many of them can we trust?” Jack asked, eyeing Ron askance.
“All of them, I think,” he answered innocently. “I am also told that an Admiral of the Grand Order of Iron is in charge of them and can’t wait to talk with you.”
“Is the Imperial Navy behind me, or will I need to have my food tasted?”
“Or watch for poisonous snakes in our bed?” Jack asked.
Ron shook his head. “Kris, I have no idea who is on my Eminent Chooser’s side from day to day. I doubt that even he, in his infinite wisdom as advisor and guide to The Most Worshipful One, knows who is on which side at any moment. All we can hope is that whatever side they are on, they have not yet reached the point of knifing us in the back.”
“It’s that bad, huh?”
“We are like a pond with a surface smooth as silk, but underneath, a brutal struggle for life goes on, hidden from view. Then a great storm shows itself, and the waters are riled. That is us in normal time. These days, the dam that held back the water has burst, and the torrent sweeps all before it. My chooser and My Most Worshiped One look to you to give us time to rebuild the dam, time for the storm to pass. Can you turn back the raging torrent?”
Kris rolled her eyes at the overhead.
She had so wanted a nice, quiet job. She’d gotten what she wanted and found it a royal pain in the butt.
She had so wanted to believe that she could choose her next job as a smart, cautious woman, able to weigh every option, examine the job so she knew exactly what she was getting into this time. And here she was.
She had been so sure she could keep Grampa Ray from jobbing her this time. Keep him from putting that gold ring in her nose and leading her around like some prize heifer. No, despite her sex, Kris was more like a prized bull, ready to charge off and kick up some serious dirt.
This time even Grampa Ray seemed to have failed to understand what he was sending her into. Or maybe Grampa Ray had succumbed to the same wishful thinking that she had fallen for. Wow. The Iteeche Empire wanted to open up normal relationships with the humans. Go for it.
Yeah, right.
Neither she nor Ray had thought to pause and reflect. What would leave the Iteeche so desperate that they would risk the opening up to the humans.
Kris thought that maybe her work keeping the alien base ships away from the Empire’s front door had given her credibility. That maybe because she had earned their respect they were now willing to trust the humans.
Yeah, right.
They’d asked for her because she was the fightingest admiral of her generation. Because she knew how to fight the battlecruisers better than anyone else had managed. They asked for her because they needed some serious shit blown up and Kris held the most recent record for blowing serious shit up.
The problem was, of course, that Kris had worked her magic in asymmetrical warfare situations. She had the range and speed on the alien raiders. She’d kept them from bringing their mass to bear on her smaller forces. That was not the situation the Empire now found itself in.
Kris would be facing ships with the exact same speed. The exact same lasers with the exact same range. The Iteeche were offering Kris a chance to face the worse situation a battle commander could find herself in. All things being equal, you got a blood bath.
All things being equal, only numbers counted.
All things being equal, she’d need to figure out a way to bring more of her ships to bear against fewer of their ships without them doing the same to her somewhere else along the battle front.
She’d pulled one rabbit out of her hat, masquerading divisions as task forces. How many times could she pull that off before the rebels didn’t trust her feints or learned to probe them with small, fast scouts?
At moments like this, Kris wished she’d learned to pray.
“Ron, I will do my best for your Emperor. That is all that I can do. My best.”
Coming Attractions
In 2016 I amicably ended my twenty-year publishing relationship with Ace, part of Penguin Random House. In 2017, I will begin publishing through my own independent press, KL & MM Books.
I have high hopes of bringing a lot of fun stories to you in 2017 and then ag
ain in 2018 and 2019.
We have already started the year with Kris Longknife’s Replacement. It was published as an e-book January 5, 2017 at Amazon, (with a bit of a learning experience for me) B&N, D2D, Kobo and the iStore. Audible is under contract to produce an audio book. The exact date is to be announced. Later in the summer, I hope to produce a trade paperback.
Kris Longknife’s Replacement tells the story of Grand Admiral Sandy Santiago as she does her best as a mere mortal to fill the shoes left behind on Alwa Station byKris Longknife. Sandy has problems galore: birds, cats, vicious alien raiders. Oh, and she’s got Rita Longknife as well!
February had a novelette for you. Kris Longknife: Among the Kicking Birds was part of Kris Longknife - Unrelenting. However, it went long and these four chapters were cut to one short paragraph. I hope you enjoy the full story.
Rita Longknife - Enemy Unknown is the first book of the long awaited Iteeche War series. It was published as a e-book March 1, 2017 from your favorite source. Audible and trade paperback will follow.
Rita has had enough of Ray Longknife gallivanting around the universe. No sooner is little Al born, then ships start disappearing. Is it pirates or something more sinister? Rita gets herself command of a heavy cruiser, some nannies and heads out see what there is to see.
April will have another short offering. Kris Longknife’s Bad Day. You just knew when Kris asked for a desk job that she’d have days like you have at the office. Well, here’s one that will bring you up to date on the technical developments in the Royal US Navy, as well as silly bureaucratic goings on. In the first draft of Emissary, these were the opening chapters, but I found a better opening and this got cut. Enjoy!
Kris Longknife - Emissary begins an entirely new story arc for Kris. It will be out in e-book May 1, 2017 from all your favorite sources.
Here is the story of what it takes to get Kris out from behind a desk. And for those of you betting in the pool, you’ll get your answer. More I cannot say.
June will have Abby Nightingale’s view of things around Alwa as Kris Longknife’s Maid Goes on Strike. You knew sooner or later this was going to happen.
July 1, 2017 will see another book set in Alwa as Kris Longknife’s Relief, Sandy Santiago, continues to battle aliens of various persuasions and not a few humans.
September 1, 2017, Rita Longknife - Enemy in Sight will resolve the unknowns left by Enemy Unknown as humanity slips backwards into a war it does not want and may not be able to win.
November 1, 2017, Kris Longknife - Admiral will see Kris up to her ears in warships, enemies and friendlies who may be not as friendly as she’d like, as battlecruisers square off against battlecruisers. A fight where both sides are equal is a bloody fight that often no one wins. In Admiral, that is exactly what Kris faces.
Each month that a book isn’t published, a short story or something from the cutting room floor, a scene that had to be cut from an overly long book will be published. The price will usually be 99 cents.
I have secured the services of Scott Grimando who did the wonderful Kris Longknife covers for Ace to provide the new covers for all the books going forward. It truly will be art to enjoy.
Stay in touch to follow developments by following Mike Moscoe or Kris Longknife on Facebook or checking in at my website www.mikeshepherd.org.
I hope to soon have a mailing list you can sign up for, but it’s not there yet.
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[D1]I’d actually leave this. While agendas is, of course, plural, there’s an almost understood ‘The existence of’ to provide the singular…. Besides, this is speech
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