“I’ll be right up,” said Henare, cutting the com so he could hear himself think.
The admiral pulled a fresh uniform from his bedroom closet and quickly dressed. In less than a half minute he was through the hatch of his living room and running down the corridor toward the lifts. Spacers saluted him on the way, but he ignored that courtesy. There would be times for that kind of shit, but this wasn't one of them.
The system headquarters was based on a smaller habitat cylinder that produced about three quarters of an Earth gravity in the outer deck. They could have produced artificial gravity at a much higher energy cost, as was done on some of the levels of the Bolthole asteroid. Three quarters was considered comfortable by most of the people aboard. The admiral’s quarters were only three decks down from the outside, a few seconds ride up the lift, then a short jog to the guarded door to the control room. The admiral was waved through as his implant identified him to the Marines at the door.
The control room was about four times larger than the flag bridge of a battleship. There were rows of stations along both walls, about a third of them currently manned. The duty officer, Captain Denise Quinly, stood on the platform that overlooked the primary floor. An enormous holo tank took up most of the center of the room. Normally a plot of the system was displayed in the tank. Now the view had been zoomed out to show the space in a globe ten light years radius around the star system. And a blinking dot five light years out, vector arrow and speed data underneath.
“What do we have?”
“The destroyer Garibaldi is sitting out on picket duty, five light years out,” said Quinly, highlighting the position of the destroyer as the holo zoomed in again.
There was a bubble of fifty ships out at that range, seven destroyers, a dozen frigates, the rest purpose-built sensor picket ships smaller than any of the escorts. It gave them complete coverage around the globe while not exposing any of the ships to detection. There was another layer just outside the hyper I barrier, there to detect anything that might sneak through in low hyper.
“How many Machine ships?”
“They’re still not sure, sir. They counted over a thousand of them, but the group still stretches beyond their sensor range.”
The admiral felt his stomach flip flop. He had a system defense fleet of just over two hundred warships, only twenty-four of them capitals, mostly battle cruisers. That had been thought to be enough to defend the system with the front hundreds of light years away. He hadn't agreed with that, and now it was looking like he was about to be vindicated. That didn't matter to him. Now the front was here, and he was looking at a disaster rolling his way.
“Do you want us to order Garibaldi to close with the Machines?” asked the captain. “They might be able to get a better look.”
“No,” replied Henare, shaking his head. He thought that probably wouldn’t bring in any more useful intelligence, while exposing the ship, hidden now, to sure destruction. He didn't want that on his conscience.
“How long until they’re here?” he asked, looking over at the plot.
“If they use their normal stairstep technique,” said Quinly, “we’re estimating arrival at the hyper I barrier in one day, seven hours and twenty-three minutes.”
“Order all ships to alert. I want all fighters and small attack craft armed and ready. I’ll have a meeting with all senior officers in one hour. Tell them to come with their best plans.” The admiral thought about it for a moment. “Or even their most outrageous flights of fancy.”
“What about the ships that are partially completely,” asked the Quinly. “We could get people aboard them and use them in the line of battle.”
Henare stared at the woman for a moment. Those ships wouldn't last long if they went into combat. But they would be destroyed if they were left floating in space. The first stick of ships were almost ready, and they could join the combat. The problem was crewing them. While many of the spacers and workers could run the systems of the ships, they couldn't do it as a trained unit.”
“Get the ships in the first and second sticks manned. Any officers who have commanded any kind of ship in the past are to report to you, Captain Quinly. And start assigning pilots to every warp fighter we have. Then start arming everything that can shoot.”
He didn't like the idea that they had so many ships out there with hundreds of thousands of man hours in them, sitting ducks for this battle.
“Do you want to talk with the fleet admiral,” asked one of the com officers, interrupting the admiral's thoughts.
“Get her on the com,” said the admiral, walking to his own small office off the main control chamber. He should have already contacted her, though he was sure his people had taken care of that for him. And he had been just a little bit busy.
He only had two wormholes in the system. One was a gate, the one that had led to the Sector I headquarters base, but was now connected to the black hole system, giving them faster access to the other fleet bases. The other was being used as a passenger gate for the moment, but it could be used as a weapon’s portal if they moved it, which would take some time since it was deep in the asteroid. Unfortunately, the only way to move a wormhole was through hyper or normal space. Every attempt to move one wormhole through another had resulted in a massive explosion in every instance. That made a devastating weapon. The Empire had not given up, and thousands of scientists and engineers still worked on trying to move wormholes through wormholes, making at least ten attempts per month with new paradigms. All failures thus far.
None of that helped the admiral’s situation at the moment. He needed firepower, and he needed it fast, and nothing else really mattered.
“Admiral,” said Beata Bednarczyk over the holo that sprang into existence moments after he sat behind his desk. “I’ve seen the reports. And, as I’m sure you realize, there is really nothing I can do for you right now. We're up to our necks in Machines as it is.”
“There is no way we can fight off a force that size. Either I must have reinforcements, immediately, or I have to start pushing all of my people through the wormhole gate.”
Beata nodded, but the expression on her face let him know she thought that an unworkable solution as well. There were over a hundred million people in the system, which was well on its way to becoming as industrialized as any core system. There were dockyards, antimatter sats, supermetal production facilities, asteroid mines, and the numerous factories of the Bolthole asteroid itself as well as orbiting platforms. Add to that the planet, still in the process of being terraformed, and people were scattered all over the system. It was virtually impossible to even evacuate just the main asteroid and its satellite facilities. There was not enough available shipping. Even if there were, there wasn’t enough time to load all of them up. As far as those on the other platforms and bodies, they were gone if the system was evacuated.
“I will get in touch with the CNO and see what we can do,” said the front commander. “We have some more forces promised to us from our allies. Not a lot. But possibly we can get them moving and sent your way.
“They’ll be at the barrier in just over six hours, admiral. That’s how much time you have. Otherwise, we’ll be facing a slaughter.”
Bednarczyk’s face flashed with anger. Henare thought he might have said the wrong thing, throwing a challenge in her face. Too bad, he thought. If she didn’t like it, she could ask for his recall. If he was still around to be called away. There was no way he was going to evacuate the system if there were still people here, and if she didn't like that, the hell with her. If the system died, so did he.
Beata blew out a breath, then looked Anaru in the eyes. “Let me get to work and I’ll…”
The expression on the fleet admiral’s face changed, surprise, alarm, fear. She looked away for over a minute, obviously paying attention to something else of importance. Henare remained silent, knowing she would be back with him when she knew more.
“The damned Machines hit a system we weren't expectin
g them to,” she said, turning back to look out of the holo. “More than ten thousand ships are moving into Gorgansha space, but we've been tracking them. I don't know how in the hell they got a smaller force in behind us like that.” She closed her eyes for a moment and Henare knew she was worried about everything coming down on her at once. She wasn't directly responsible for Bolthole, but as front commander she still had the responsibility. “I’m sorry, Admiral, but I have a crisis on my hands here.”
Anaru felt his heart skip a beat. Bolthole was his primary responsibility. People he knew were here, and they would die if the Machines pushed through. He needed the attention of the fleet, now, and didn’t have time to wait.
“Do I have your permission to go over you and talk with Admiral McCullom?” he asked, expecting her to deny his request.
“Yes. Of course,” she said, her attention elsewhere. “Yes, you do. Get in touch with her immediately.”
The holo died, and left Henare alone with his own thoughts for a moment. “Get Admiral McCollum on the com.”
It took less than a moment for the senior officer of the fleet to come onto the com, causing Henare to think that she must be at the Hexagon, monitoring the situation.
“I’m not sure what we can send you,” said McCullom, getting to the point and letting him know she already had the gist of the problem. “We’ve already reinforced Bednarczyk with as much as we could afford to send, plus what our allies have given us.”
“Home Fleet?” Henare asked hopefully.
“Has already been weakened more than Parliament would like,” replied the CNO. “I can't promise anything from that front. I don’t know what we can do, but evacuate that system.”
“We can only get about a third of our people out, ma’am.” Henare felt his stomach turn at the thought of abandoning so many people.
“And we may have to accept that, Admiral,” said McCullom, her eyes softening. “You know that I never really liked this project. I thought it a mistake to put so many resources so far outside the Empire.”
Which doesn’t help me or my people in the least, you narcissist, thought Henare. “There must be something that can be sent my way.”
“Face up to it, Admiral. We can’t send you any aid, and we can’t afford to let the force you have be destroyed. Those warships are to come back with you.”
Henare was about to protest. If that didn't work, he was prepared to flat out disobey. Let them court martial his corpse after the battle was over.
“We will send everything we have available to Admiral Henare,” came another voice on the com. The holo split, showing another face, this of a young man wearing a casual top such as worn by many people to bed.
“Your Majesty,” said a surprised McCullom.
Henare himself was shocked that the Emperor had somehow found out about the conversation and inserted himself. Of course, he knew that this Emperor liked to treat the military with a hands-on approach. And his intelligence chief, Admiral Ekaterina Sergiov, had her ears everywhere. She was technically a member of the Fleet, and under the CNO. Actually, she was both inside and outside of that chain of command, and enjoyed the special protection of the Emperor.
“I said that we will send everything we have available to Admiral Henare. Bolthole was the idea of my father, and I won’t allow it to fall.”
“But, your Majesty. We don’t have the ships to send him. Everything we had available was sent to Admiral Bednarczyk.”
“Then we will ask our allies for ships,” replied the Emperor, unwilling to be dissuaded.
“They sent us ships, and they went to Bednarczyk,” said McCullom in exasperation.
“I will talk with their leaders and see what I can get. Meantime, get as many ships as you can cut loose from Home Fleet through the gate and into Bolthole.”
“Parliament…”
“I will deal with Parliament. Just get those ships there. Along with as many warp fighters as you can round up. Trained or not, they can at least run interference against the Machine ships. Meanwhile, I’ll get in touch with Chan and see how she is doing on the Project Shut Down.”
“Project Shut Down?” asked Henare. He had never heard that code term, but he was already trying to figure out what it means.
“Need to know, Admiral,” said McCullom, looking off holo, probably at the one of the Emperor in front of her.
“He has the need to know,” said Sean, his expression hardening. “He needs to know what we might be able to do against this enemy. Tell him.” The Emperor’s gaze switched to the Maori officer. “But not a word to your people. If we can’t get it prepared in time, I don’t want the Machines knowing what we have planned.”
The holo of the Emperor disappeared, leaving the image of the exasperated CNO hanging in the air.
“Okay, Admiral. Let me fill you in on the Project Shut Down. The hope that we can get rid of every machine in that space. I think it’s a fool’s hope, but his Majesty believes in it. So, here we go…”
* * *
Fleet Admiral Beata Bednarczyk stared at the plot that showed a massive Machine fleet moving into Gorgansha space. She still thought she had enough force to challenge and beat them at their destinations. Unfortunately, this was the decision she was hoping to avoid, the Covington scenario. They knew the Machine plans, they knew where they were heading and with what objectives. And she couldn’t do anything that would let them guess than she was reading their signal traffic. She had to figure out a way to do the same thing without giving away the game, and a couple of smaller systems were to be sacrificed.
There were over ten thousand ships on the plot, broken up into four groups of about twenty-five hundred each. She was still having problems believing they had been able to build so many ships so quickly. Intellectually she knew the process that had resulted in them building a fleet so quickly. In her gut she was still having problems. The Machines had rebuilt their fleet in record time. Possibly some were ships they had called forth that they hadn’t deployed previously. Wherever they came from, here they were, and she knew that they were heading for heavily populated Gorgansha systems.
Basically she had two choices, neither good. The best tactical choice was to meet them in the systems they were heading toward, since meeting them in normal space gave her most of the advantages. With her wormhole launchers she could possibly overwhelm them with missile swarms, blasting them wholesale out of space. The problem with that was she would have to start sending her ships to that system immediately, when there was no way she could know that was their target. Unless she was listening in on their mail.
Or she could meet them in hyper-space. Where the Machine graviton beam weapons gave them a clear advantage. She could hurt them, she couldn’t destroy them, and they would get the better of the exchange. She still might be able to stop them, but at the cost of having her fleet gutted. The enemy would be able to make up its losses quickly. And while she might be able to get reinforcements, that depended on what was happening on other fronts, beyond her control, and she might not.
She could go with the third choice, the one that was sickening her, and the only one that actually made sense to someone who understood the situation. And that was to do just enough to make the Machines believe she was in a standard deployment against their offensive, and let them strike at the target systems, destroying them and the ships she could deploy without giving away the game. The first stop of the Machines were systems that had from twenty to a hundred million people. It would hurt to lose them, but it wouldn't be a complete disaster to the Gorgansha. If they took out the billion plus population systems behind them, it would be a major disaster to the Consolidation, one that might take a century or more to recover from.
So it came down to a numbers game. She didn't like thinking that way. Planning her battles based on how much collateral damage the enemy was likely to cause. They weren't just numbers, though. They were real intelligent beings, with hopes, dreams and lives ahead of them. And this decision would doom abo
ut two hundred million intelligent beings.
The admiral closed her eyes and clenched her fists. She had never liked the decision the Emperor had made early in the war with the Cacas. He had let them strike and kill a star system that held two core worlds, Aquilonia and Cimmeria. Not because he couldn’t let them know that he was reading their signals, which he wasn’t. But because there was no way his fleet at the time could win that decisive battle. Deploy his fleet and lose everything, or let the Cacas kill seven billion intelligent beings, while still having enough force to fight a war of maneuver. A different decision, but the results were still the same, and the admiral wished with all her heart that she were not the one to make it. She was, it was on her, and she had to make it quickly.
“Admiral Hahn’s force is the closest to the Bonada system,” she said over the com, all of her battle force commanders attending the conference by wormhole holo. “You are to fight a running battle, bleed the enemy, but not let yourself get caught in the system. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” replied Tiberius Hahn, nodding. “But can’t we get more of the fleet there?”
“Not if we don’t want the Machines to guess that we know more about their plan than we should,” said Beata, shaking her head.
The star was not what would have been considered a Core System in the Empire, but it was the home to almost ten million intelligent beings. Eight hundred thousand of them slaves who were guilty of nothing other than being living beings, and because of that they were targets of the devices who existed for nothing but ending life.
If it fell, it would not be the end of the Gorgansha Consolidation. It would lower their morale, making many lose belief in their ability to win this conflict. It was a bad situation, but according to the plan the Imperials were following, it was a necessarily bad situation.
“Remember, Tiberius. Don’t get fully stuck into a battle. Do not engage them in hyper, and make sure you hit them with everything you have in normal space from a distance. And once they get close enough, get the hell out of there.”
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