It was barely 0300, and she needed to sleep. But she knew without trying that sleep was unlikely to cooperate.
Her thoughts drifted to Pasha’s comments before he’d left. It was odd, officials showing up out of the blue to seek blood and tissue samples from him. What purpose—
A high-priority alert flashed in her eVi. ‘Commandant Solovy, apologies for waking you.’
She pushed herself up against the headboard. “You didn’t wake me, Thomas. What do you have for me?”
‘I have this moment received a large cache of data consisting of numerous details on the Anaden Machim warships and military procedures. It was transmitted by Valkyrie in a single burst, and the Siyane has now returned through the Amaranthe portal.’
“Alex?”
‘The transmission does not include any information about her status or any personal messages. It is pure data.’
She bit back a flare of concern; as Alex had repeatedly reminded her before leaving, time passed more slowly through the portal. Though her daughter had left almost two months ago, from Alex’s perspective she’d been gone only a few short weeks. And there were a thousand reasons why the communication contained nothing personal, the most obvious being it had been sent by an Artificial in a format intended for processing firstly by Artificials.
“I see. Thank you.” By then she was already out of the bed and halfway to the washroom.
“Begin analyzing the data, with a focus on cataloging and categorizing it so we can get the pertinent information to the right people as quickly as possible. I’ll be in the office in ten minutes.”
41
PRESIDIO
GCDA HEADQUARTERS
* * *
A VIRTUAL MACHIM BATTLECRUISER rotated ominously above the conference table. Hovering minimized on either side were half a dozen others models, from compact fighters to a command ship which bordered on colossal. The chairs around the table were full, and several attendees were relegated to standing along the walls.
Richard sank back in his chair and waved in the direction of the battlecruiser. “It doesn’t look so intimidating. No more so than our dreadnoughts do.”
Miriam arched an eyebrow. “They field ten of them in every regiment.”
“There is that. How did Alex get all this data?”
“I do not know. We received a data dump without elaboration. But the information is already proving to be invaluable to our preparations. For instance, we now know their hulls are constructed from a graphenated carbon-borospherene femtoweave alloy. It’s strong and they build the hulls thick, but it’s not adiamene. Their shielding is similarly formidable, but with the exception of the command ships—they call the vessel class ‘Imperium’—not impenetrable.
“Thomas is working up a report now on structural weaknesses we can exploit using existing technology. Thomas, what’s the status of the report?”
‘I expect to deliver it in approximately four hours, just in time to ruin dinner.’
“Naturally. I can say now the high-level takeaway will be this: if enough force is applied, their ships can be damaged and even destroyed by conventional weapons. This means we won’t need to rely entirely on negative energy devices, which is a relief in light of their disadvantages.” Among those was the fact the weapons were so indiscriminately destructive, in close combat they risked wrecking both sides equally.
“Initial analysis suggests Sabres can have significant success against the enemy craft. I wish we had more of them ready.”
She paused only long enough to decide. “Thomas, reallocate forty percent of ship production resources away from the other vessel classes and to Sabre production. Inputting authorization code.” She typed her personal override into the virtual panel on the table.
‘Initiating order.’
“Thank you. Of course, they also wield potent weapons—extremely potent. A class-by-class comparison to our own will be included in the distribution package, but the data indicates their battlecruiser weapons are equivalent in energy to a node on the Earth Defense Grid. That’s each weapon, not the ship’s full complement. Battlecruisers are equipped with six such weapons, and the Imperiums have ten.”
Fleet Admiral Rychen whistled.
“So we’ll want to adapt our general combat tactics with a goal of avoiding sustained assaults from the larger ships, because the full brunt of their weapons will break through our shields. Given enough time, they may find seams and other weaknesses to break through the adiamene. We’ll keep Dimensional Rifters online as a last resort, for they could be the sole option for some of our ships to survive a lengthy barrage.”
Field Marshal Bastian leaned forward, then back, then forward again. “And the collateral damage which will result?”
Miriam tried not to look smug; after all, it wasn’t truly her victory. “Good news on this front. I’d planned to share the news this morning, but when this data arrived it took priority. A formula’s been derived—” she did not say by whom “—to predict where exit fissures will emerge. The primary factors are the distance the diverted energy traveled before encountering the rift and the angle at which it arrived, but the formula is…complicated. Luckily, we’ll have Artificials onboard to make the calculations on the fly.”
In truth, though they were doing it for a variety of persuasive reasons, this scenario alone vindicated the inclusion of Artificials in new ships and, barring a disaster, foreclosed any continuing debate on the prudence of the decision.
“And the problem’s solved, just like that?”
“Taking into account the distances the typical combat engagement spans, if we’re engaged inside or near a populated stellar system, we’ll need to be careful. Judgment calls will have to be made—but we’ll now have the information necessary to make them.”
Bastian seemed to accept the answer, and she wasted no time moving on.
“The Machim vessels are large, hardy and powerful, but at root they rely on brute force to get the job done. We knew this in generalities, but this new data confirms it in the details. They routinely send thousands of ships against a target that objectively only requires hundreds. Their leadership structure is rigid and top-heavy, and this extends to active engagements. An attack plan is developed ahead of time by the commander overseeing the operation—usually a ‘Navarchos,’ which is roughly equivalent to an admiral rank—and executed on by the ship captains.”
Brigadier Jenner frowned. “What happens when they meet real resistance? Do they have contingency plans in place to address those situations?”
She shrugged. “Their contingency plans appear to consist of sending more ships at the problem, which they continue doing until they overwhelm the enemy.”
“Okay.” His brow furrowed. “If they enjoy nearly unlimited reserves, how are we going to counter them?”
She tapped a disk on the table. “We can’t match their numbers, not in a decade of round-the-clock production. But we do enjoy two advantages. Our craft aren’t merely extraordinarily resilient, they’re also quick and agile. And so is our command structure.” She gestured in Rychen’s direction.
He cleared his throat. “I have some ideas on this. Well, one idea, really. Turn them loose.”
Bastian eyed him down the table. “Turn who loose?”
“Everyone. We’re going to have to beat the enemy by being unpredictable. By being clever. This is why we started putting Prevos and their Artificials in our ships in the first place, right? Since we went to all the trouble, we should consider making good use of them. This is how.”
Rychen had broached the idea to Miriam this morning, so in fairness she’d had more time to consider it than the others, and she backed him up now.
“I agree. Every ship captain and Artificial/Prevo pair will act under our rules of engagement, objectives and the limits we’ve proscribed. We need to trust them to abide by these strictures and let them do their jobs. Beyond those constraints, there is no playbook—simply experience, a feel for the battlefield a
nd gut combat instinct. This should be our modus operandi for not only large-scale conflicts but interdiction and interception missions as well.”
Rychen laughed wryly. “That ought to screw with the Machims’ heads.”
She allowed herself a small smile in response. “To start with.” It faded with her next statement. “There is more troubling information in the files. When I said we couldn’t match their numbers, I was understating the problem by an order of magnitude.
“The fieldable vessel numbers we’ll be facing are so large as to be unfathomable. There’s no question we need to begin thinking about ways to deal with this challenge in the medium term. But first and by far most importantly, we need to make certain we win the first battle.”
She squared her posture. “Admiral Rychen, I’m formally requesting an increase in the Alliance’s commitment of forces from sixty percent to seventy-five percent. Across the board, excluding Marine ground troops—for now.”
He groaned while shaking his head. “Gagnon will balk.”
“Then go to Chairman Anderson first. He won’t balk, and the two of you can coerce Gagnon into compliance. Do what you have to, but get it approved.”
With a dramatic sigh he motioned toward the ceiling in resignation. “Consider it done. Somehow.”
She shifted her attention down the table. “Field Marshal—”
Bastian nodded tersely. “It won’t be a problem.”
Surprised, she let the silence linger a little too long.
Finally Governor Ledesme spoke up; one of the few non-military persons present, she attended today in Commander Lekkas’ stead. “The IDCC doesn’t possess a sizeable force to contribute, but we’ll look at ways we can increase our contribution in the form of tech and other resources.”
“Thank you, Governor.” Miriam’s gaze swept around the room. “All right. The pertinent data is being provided to the appropriate analysts as it’s processed and catalogued. I’m hoping to have a briefing package ready we can push out to everyone by tonight.
“Now that we have actionable data, there’s no excuse to lollygag around. We’ll use every hour we have to increase our preparedness, but we must reach an acceptable level of readiness very soon. Let’s make it happen.”
As everyone was filing out, she called out to Bastian. “Field Marshal, would you mind staying a moment? I wanted to follow up on a matter.”
He’d almost reached the door, but he pivoted and came back, though he didn’t sit.
As soon as the door closed behind the last person, he fixed a sharp stare on her. “You want to know why I didn’t fight you on the increased force commitment, given my earlier reticence about AEGIS.”
She appreciated that he’d taken her advice and adopted a more direct approach. “I do.”
“It’s quite simple. The Metigen superdreadnoughts steamrolled through the galaxy, decimating entire fleets and colonies. They were the stuff of nightmares.”
He gestured at the Machim ship holos still rotating above the conference table. “These ships? They give the Metigens nightmares. To my mind, we should probably treat them accordingly.”
PART VI:
VERGENCE
“Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.”
— Winston Churchill
AMARANTHE
42
HELIX RETENTION FACILITY
MILKY WAY SECTOR 7
* * *
HE WAS ON FIRE. His skin scorched and smoldered. He was the fire.
Caleb’s eyes popped open.
He was in a space recognizable as a detention cell, with three white walls and a force field as the fourth. Another field surrounded his body, keeping him immobile and suspended a meter in the air.
The burning sensation he experienced was not caused by the field itself, but rather the diati fighting against it. He directed his conscious attention to the energy restraining him…but the power he wielded wasn’t strong enough to break it apart.
Still, his enigmatic companion appeared to be plenty robust enough to protect him from the negative effects he assumed the field steadily worked to impose on him.
A drone floating outside the cell noted his awakening. A flat, emotionless voice emerged from it. “Who are you? Who do you represent? Where is your homeworld? How did you access Machim Central Command? What data did you attempt to steal, and for what purpose?”
Caleb stared mutely at the drone. Where was Alex? If he wasn’t dead, he chose to believe she wasn’t either. If they needed him alive to provide answers, the same must be true for her. She could be in the cell next to him or halfway across the cosmos.
He sent a pulse, but wasn’t surprised when his eVi immediately returned an error. Whether due to shielding in the walls of the cell or a security block tied to the larger structure, no communications were possible.
I love you. Be strong. I will find you, and we will escape this prison. It was but a thought sent on seraphic wings of conviction, and it was all he could do.
“Answer or be pacified.”
Eren had told them a bit about what ‘pacification’ meant; he remained silent. Was the anarch dead? Logically, there was at least a chance his consciousness had been transferred and undergone regenesis, but Caleb had difficulty reconciling the concept with the grisly memory of Eren’s shredded body spilling its innards across the floor of the server room.
He could only move his head a few centimeters, but he shook it over those centimeters in the smallest act of defiance.
The diati absorbed the surge of electricity with a seeming absence of difficulty. It took Caleb a split-second to realize he should act the part. He quickly screamed in an imitation of suffering and tensed his limbs rigidly against the restraining field.
“Who are you? Who do you represent? Where is your homeworld? How did you access Machim Central Command? Who were your accomplices? What data did you attempt to steal, and for what purpose?”
Attempt to steal. As his head cleared away the last of the fog, he honed in on the nuances of the phrasing. The drone wasn’t sentient, so the questions were coming from one or more Anadens in positions of authority.
His captors must believe they’d been unsuccessful in their mission. A search of their persons would have yielded only a single Reor slab, one which contained untraceable falsified credentials and a few access codes. He couldn’t say precisely how much data Valkyrie had been able to copy off the data server before the ambush, but he felt certain it represented a sizeable chunk of their goal.
The Vigil guards hadn’t been able to capture Mesme or Eren, and he’d place good odds on Valkyrie escaping as well. So he and Alex were all they had.
It penetrated his overburdened brain then that his captors knew little to nothing about them, what they were doing on Machimis and what they might have accomplished. This explained the general and wide-ranging nature of the drone’s questions.
Alex wouldn’t break. After bearing hours of mental and physical agony from acute neurological withdrawal unbowed, this style of torture wouldn’t break her. It distressed him to think of her enduring it nonetheless.
Of course, as advanced as the Anadens were, they surely had more sophisticated methods of extracting information—methods physically impossible to resist. But if so, why weren’t they using them?
He laughed to himself as he gleaned the answer, taking care not to let the mirth soften his pained visage. He, and hopefully Alex, were being treated with relative kid gloves because not only did their captors not know what they’d been after and whether they’d succeeded, their captors didn’t know what they were.
He snarled at the drone and readied himself for the next jolt.
43
MW SECTOR 52 TERMINAL HUB
MILKY WAY SECTOR 52
* * *
EREN HAD DIVERTED FROM Anarch Post Alpha to the MW Sector 52 Terminal Hub before contacting his new ‘friends.’ He’d begun to trust Alex and Caleb and perh
aps not actively distrust the SAI and the Kat, but he wasn’t ready to lead any of them straight to the anarchs’ front door. Not quite yet.
Only once he’d settled into a rented room and had retrieved the explosives intended for the Erevna exobiology lab did he initiate contact with the SAI.
“Valkyrie, are you…alive, or functional? This is Eren, your resident contrarian anarch mate.”
The pause before an enthusiastic response arrived was so short as to be nonexistent. Eren asi-Idoni. I am relieved to hear you are breathing once again.
“It’s my best parlor trick. What do you know about our mutual friends’ status?”
We know where they are being held.
“I’m glad to hear you say that. And by ‘we’ you mean you and the Kat?”
Mesme and myself, yes. Mesme has endeavored to gain additional information regarding their status, but the structure is protected by a diati barrier blocking outside access of any kind.
I will soon reach the outskirts of the structure, at which point I will seek to regain contact with Alex. Earlier attempts during their transport failed due to her being in an unconscious state, but my hope is the supradimensional quantum nature of our link will not be blocked by this barrier. An additional hope is that she has awakened.
As more than one anarch had experienced the misfortune of being held in a Praesidis detention facility, his superiors were well educated on their security and defensive protocols and, to his slight surprise, had provided him a host of helpful countermeasures.
“If you want to swing by the MW Sector 52 Terminal Hub and pick me up first, I’ve acquired some tools to help us get inside.”
Us? You are offering to assist in their rescue?
He blew out a breath and gazed around the crappy little rental room. “I am. It’s my kind of challenge.”
Thank you, Eren asi-Idoni. There is no need for us to divert from our present course. Mesme will acquire you momentarily.
Relativity: Aurora Resonant Book One (Aurora Rhapsody 7) Page 28