by Ryk Brown
“The scrolls of history will speak favorably of that decision,” Admiral Korahk stated. “You will be considered a visionary.”
“It takes not a seer to recognize the honorless. The moment Galiardi was reinstated, I knew this day would come.”
The two men and their entourage entered the corridor and headed for the elevators.
“How many ships do we have on the border?” Dom Jung-Mogan asked.
“Eighty-seven,” the admiral replied. “Twelve of them are allowing themselves to be detected, from time to time, to keep the Alliance busy patrolling their borders.”
“And how many ships do we have inside Alliance space?” Dom Jung-Mogan inquired as they entered the elevator.
“Thirty-four,” the admiral replied. “Six frigates, seven cruisers, ten destroyers, eight battleships, and three battle platforms. All are within one month’s journey of Sol, and all are running in full stealth.”
“Excellent.”
“I am surprised the Sol Alliance is still unaware of our ability to conceal our vessels from their sensors.”
“They still believe their jump drives to be the ultimate advantage,” Dom Jung-Mogan said. “Their dependence on that fact will be their final undoing.”
“Your orders, sir?” the admiral asked as the elevator doors opened again.
“Increase the number of ships on the border, and increase the frequency of their detection. Like wild animals circling a cage looking for a way in, we must keep the Alliance’s attention focused on the border, while we slowly move our forces into strike positions.”
“Why not just turn off our sensor cloaks and charge forth?” the admiral suggested. “We have enough ships to overpower the Alliance.”
“I want a decisive victory,” Dom Jung-Mogan insisted. “Nor-Patri will undoubtedly suffer the brunt of the Alliance’s retaliation. Knowledge that Earth has been completely destroyed, and that the Alliance fleet has been eradicated, will ease their suffering.”
“What of the core worlds?” Admiral Korahk wondered.
“Each will be given a choice. Pledge their loyalty to the empire, once again, or be destroyed. Without the protection of the Alliance, they will have little choice.”
“And if they refuse?”
“We will wipe their worlds clean and repopulate them with the refugees from Nor-Patri. The empire will once again become the dominant force in the galaxy, and Kristoff Jung’s dream of peace through forced unification will finally be achievable.”
“I am honored to be part of this turning point in the history of the Jung Empire,” the admiral stated proudly.
“It has been a long and arduous journey, my friend,” Dom Jung-Mogan said, “but the dream so many of us have fought and died for all these centuries is finally within our reach.”
* * *
“General,” Nathan greeted as he entered the intelligence shack on the Aurora’s command deck.
“I trust you are not suffering too much from yesterday’s session,” the general asked.
“A little sore, but I’ll survive. Jessica called you?”
“I was already here, analyzing some recon data.”
“I see.” Nathan turned to Jessica. “What have you got?”
“A message from General Hesson relayed through Lord Mahtize and then through one of our operatives.”
“I never asked how you are getting messages to and from Takara,” Nathan realized.
“It is a convoluted process involving messages relayed through anywhere from three to seven worlds, the last of which is usually outside, or on the fringe of, Dusahn-controlled space,” the General explained.
“And we never use the same routing twice,” Jessica added.
“That must require a fair number of planets and relay accounts,” Nathan said. “How did you manage to set them all up?”
“They were created long ago, before the Dusahn invaded the Pentaurus cluster,” the general explained.
“The Ghatazhak used them to communicate with whomever they needed, without revealing their location,” Jessica explained. “We simply reactivated them.”
“The first few required a physical presence on Takara, which I handled during my short stay,” General Telles added. “After that, we were able to reactivate the others remotely.”
“Clever,” Nathan said. “So, what did the general have to say?”
“The Dusahn are going to attack again,” Jessica replied.
“When?”
“In four days, but the message was sent yesterday, so three.”
“Don’t suppose he gave a number and type?”
“No. He also said he was only about eighty percent certain that the attack would occur.”
“Odd.”
“Maybe he is just trying to be honest,” General Telles suggested.
Jessica gave him a cross look and then looked back at Nathan. “There’s more. He sent a video.”
“About the attack?”
“Not exactly.” Jessica started the video.
Nathan stared at the view screen showing one man fighting three others in some sort of combat practice facility. The man, who appeared a good ten, or so, years older than the others, deftly handled all three attackers, turning each of their attacks into opportunities to strike, which he did. The fight lasted less than a minute, after which all three men were either bleeding, unconscious, or both.”
“I suppose that’s Lord Dusahn,” Nathan commented.
“It is,” General Telles confirmed.
Nathan looked at the general, then at Jessica. “I’m going to need a lot of training, aren’t I?”
* * *
Vladimir entered the Aurora’s flight simulator room, sandwich in hand. “Why am I here?” he grumbled as he stepped up behind Josh and Loki, who were sitting at the simulated helm.
“I wanted to show you something,” Josh replied.
“In the simulator?” Vladimir balked. “I have a lot of work to do. The only reason I agreed to stop by is because it’s on my way back from the galley.”
“Five minutes is all we need,” Josh begged. “Five minutes to show you how we could make the Aurora the most feared ship in all the Pentaurus sector.”
“She already is,” Vladimir boasted.
“Then why is she sitting in orbit, all busted up and barely able to defend herself?” Josh challenged.
“Three minutes.”
“I’ll take it,” Josh agreed. He turned around and started the simulation. “Six targets, one on each plane. Normally, we would put forward tubes on the target off our bow, stern tubes on the target aft, and plasma cannon turrets on all the others. Problem is the plasma cannon turrets aren’t powerful enough to take down the shields on anything bigger than a gunship.”
“The broadside cannons,” Vladimir said.
“Which are great, and pack a hell of a wallop, but the target needs to be in their field of fire, which is somewhat limited, especially at close range. To use the broadsides, we have to adjust the ship’s attitude, which takes the forward and aft tubes off their targets. So you haven’t gained anything.”
“You fire the torpedoes, and then adjust your attitude to bring the broadside cannons into firing position,” Vladimir stated as if it were obvious.
“Problem with that is the Aurora doesn’t move fast enough.”
“She moves quite well for a ship her size,” Vladimir defended.
“True, but she could move a lot faster.”
“I can’t make our attitude thrusters any more powerful,” Vladimir warned. “Not without a complete overhaul of every thruster, which would require a real spaceport and could take weeks.”
“The attitude thrusters are more than powerful enough,” Loki said, joining in. “It’s the reaction time from control input to thruster reaction.”
&n
bsp; “Allow me to demonstrate,” Josh said, turning back to the helm station. “For the purposes of this demonstration, we’ve put the firing trigger for both the torpedoes and the broadsides on my flight control stick.” Josh pushed his flight control stick slightly forward and to the right, causing the image of the enemy ship on the main view screen before them to shift up and left. The targeting reticle appeared around the ship on the view screen and flashed red. “Firing forward tubes,” Josh announced as he squeezed and held the trigger.
Four triplet groups of plasma torpedoes streaked forward from under their nose. Before the red-orange balls of simulated plasma struck the target, Josh was already twisting his control stick to the right and angling it slightly to the left. He flipped a switch on his flight control stick, assigning his trigger to the starboard broadside cannons, and then squeezed it again. “Firing broadsides.”
“Aft tubes next,” Loki suggested.
Another flip of the weapons selector switch with an adjustment of their attitude, and Josh was firing the aft torpedo tubes.
“See, it moves quickly enough, once it responds, but the lag time means I have to counterthrust well before I reach the alignment I’m looking for,” Josh explained.
“To make matters worse, each axis requires a different amount of lead-in when firing counterthrust to stop the motion,” Loki added.
“Because there are a different number of thrusters for each axis of motion,” Vladimir realized.
“Precisely,” Loki replied. “The Falcon’s attitude thrusters had a similar problem, but not so much that Josh couldn’t compensate for it.”
“The Aurora isn’t a fighter,” Vladimir pointed out.
“That doesn’t mean she can’t dance like one,” Josh insisted.
“Dance?”
“You know…pitch, roll, yaw, and translate…dance.”
“Can you compensate for the Aurora’s thruster response imbalance?” Vladimir wondered.
“To some degree, yes,” Josh replied, “but only because I’m so damn good. But what about when I’m not the one flying her?”
“What do you suggest?”
“Watch this,” Josh said, turning back to his console. He reset the simulation and, again, began attacking the targets, only this time with much more speed. First, he fired the forward torpedo tubes, then aft. He yawed the ship around to starboard, adjusting the pitch as they quickly came around and fired, first his port and then starboard broadside cannons. Finally, he snap-rolled the ship ninety degrees and readjusted his pitch, firing at the target above them, which was now on their port side. One last pitch and roll adjustment, and his starboard broadside cannons were on the target that was originally below them, and was now on their starboard aft quarter, in perfect firing position for the starboard broadside cannons. It all happened so quickly, Vladimir almost felt dizzy.
Josh turned back around, smiling. “Ten seconds, six targets, all of them heavily engaged.”
“How long does it take now?” Vladimir wondered.
“More like thirty,” Loki replied, “however, much of that is because the helm doesn’t have fire control for the static weapons, which it should.”
“How long did it take the first time you demonstrated it?” Vladimir asked.
“Sixteen seconds,” Loki replied.
“But we only engaged three of six targets,” Josh added.
“How were you able to maneuver so much more quickly?” Vladimir asked.
“And more accurately,” Josh pointed out.
“We asked Aurora for help,” Loki admitted, somewhat sheepishly.
“You what?” Vladimir said, shocked. “Without clearing it with me, first?”
“It’s not like we were plugging her into the actual helm,” Josh defended.
“I apologize if you feel I overstepped my access privileges, Commander,” Aurora said over the room speakers. “But, I saw no conflict with my current restrictions.”
“What did you do?” Vladimir demanded to know.
“I analyzed the maneuvering patterns Joshua was attempting to execute, as well as the data on all targets, combined with the capabilities of the ship’s attitude thrusters and weapons. I then used this data to anticipate Joshua’s moves in order to time the counterthrusts more accurately. Once the algorithms were successfully written and tuned, I was also able to increase the amount of initial thrust, resulting in a snappier movement of the ship, making it fly more like a Sugali fighter than a large warship.”
“You can do that?” Vladimir asked in disbelief.
“The algorithms already exist in the Sugali fighters,” Aurora replied. “I simply altered them to fit the Aurora’s needs.”
“It took her like a minute or two, at the most,” Josh said.
“Eighty-seven point four seconds, to be more precise,” Aurora corrected.
“Will this actually work on the real Aurora?” Vladimir inquired.
“The simulation is based on the Aurora’s real-world performance data and is continuously adjusted based on past battles and modifications. Since the simulation accurately reflects the Aurora’s capabilities, there is no reason to believe it would not work on the real Aurora.”
“We could fly the Aurora like we flew the Falcon,” Loki declared.
“Better,” Josh added.
“Cameron is not going to like the idea of taking the control of our most powerful weapons out of the tactical officer’s hands and putting them into, well…yours,” Vladimir warned.
“But we could fly and fight like a fighter,” Josh insisted.
“All we’re asking is that you present the idea to the captain,” Loki said.
“I can do that,” Vladimir agreed.
“Yes!” Josh exclaimed with excitement.
“But,” Vladimir continued, interrupting Josh’s outburst, “do not tell anyone that you used Aurora this way without clearing it with me first.”
“Deal,” Josh replied without hesitation.
“And don’t do it again,” Vladimir added.
“We won’t,” Loki promised.
“Neither will I,” Aurora added, the slightest hint of sarcasm in her artificial voice.
Vladimir glanced at the overhead speakers, then at Josh and Loki. Shaking his head, he took another bite of his sandwich and headed for the exit.
“Do you think the captain will go for it?” Loki wondered.
“Are you kidding?” Josh replied. “The responsiveness of the Sugali fighter was the one thing he wouldn’t shut up about after flying it.” Josh smiled. “It’s a great idea, Lok.”
“Thank you.”
“And we’re going to get to shoot!” Josh added with enthusiasm.
* * *
“Since when did you start eating meat?” Nathan asked, noticing Cameron’s plate as the server placed it in front of her.
“It’s not meat,” Cameron said, “it’s a plant called ori. It grows in big pods on the ocean floor on Rakuen. They slice them up into cutlets, marinate them, and then fry them.”
“Can I try a bite?” Nathan asked.
“You’re not turning into a vegetarian, are you?” she teased, cutting a small piece for him.
“Not much chance of that,” Nathan replied as he reached over, stabbed the piece with his fork, and brought it to his nose. “Smells good,” he said, before popping it in his mouth. “Wow. Are you sure that’s not meat? It sure tastes like it.”
“I’m certain,” Cameron assured him.
“I’m confused. If you like the taste of meat, then why not just eat it?”
“It’s not about the taste. It’s about not killing a living creature for sustenance,” Cameron explained.
“But, isn’t a plant a living creature?”
“I guess that depends on your point of view,” Cameron admitted. “But one has to draw
a line somewhere.”
“Is that stuff rare on Rakuen?” Nathan asked as he cut into his own meal.
“My understanding is that it grows in great abundance. It is one of their primary sources of protein.”
“How did you find out about it?” Nathan wondered.
“Deliza gave some to the cook to prepare for me,” Cameron explained. “I’ve been getting bored with the selection lately.”
“How is Deliza coming along with the long-range jump emitters?”
“They have produced enough for both of our arrays, and Abby has started validation testing. Installation of the first array should start in a couple days.”
“Too bad,” Nathan said. “We could use them for the Dusahn’s next attack.”
“Well, we’ve added more than thirty jump missiles to our inventory, and both Rakuen and Neramese have two launchers operational. By the way, I heard both worlds finally came around and took the people out of the confirmation loop,” Cameron congratulated.
“Not exactly,” Nathan said. “They just took out the ones at the launchers and replaced them with ones at the command level. A Rakuen officer and a Neramesean officer confirm the threat, and each arms their world’s missile launchers. It’s still going to cost them lives, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
“Have you considered giving each world self-destruct authority over the other’s missiles?” Cameron suggested.
“Telles did,” Nathan said, “but they were afraid that one side would self-destruct the other side’s missiles during a Dusahn attack, allowing that world to be destroyed.”
“I have never seen two worlds in the same system distrust one another so much,” Cameron commented, shaking her head.
“Funny thing is, it’s not the people who distrust one another; it’s their leaders. Most of them were young men during the Water War. I suspect it’s going to take a few more generations for both worlds to figure it out.”
“Or a few more attacks by the Dusahn,” Cameron said.
“Speaking of attacks, are you still wound up over Josh and Loki’s suggestion?”