by Doug Farren
“We will observe. For now. Be warned, we do not take kindly to deception. As soon as your ‘rescue’ is complete I will expect you to leave the neutral zone without delay.”
The battle cruiser shimmered and vanished from the screen. A few minutes later, the starship was in orbit over the designated moon.
“I have the coordinates of the escape pod,” the science station reported.
“Transfer them to the transporter room,” Cipher ordered. “Prepare a shuttle. Fidget and I will transport down to the surface to assess the situation.”
“Aye sir.”
“Fidget, care to join me in the transporter room?”
“My pleasure Captain.”
The transporter performed its magic and the two virtual entities found themselves in Cipher’s special isolation chamber.
“You shouldn’t be so harsh on the guys,” Fidget said as soon as they arrived. “They respect you. They look to you for guidance in all this.”
“But I’m not their leader,” Cipher argued. “I did what any other person would do in my situation. Besides, I don’t have any answers to their questions. I’m mad at what the military has done but I also know we can’t do anything about it.”
“I’m mad as hell myself but maybe they didn’t have a choice. We were forced to build merged ships because the Evendi were doing so. Maybe the military thought the process was reversible but found out afterwards that it wasn’t.”
“Even so,” Cipher replied, still angry, “that doesn’t give them the right to continue lying to us. I don’t like what they did but I’m fresh out of ideas about what we can do about it.”
“You sound like you’ve given up,” Fidget said leaning against a wall. “People are counting on you. I never pegged you as a quitter.”
Cipher spun around but before he could reply Fidget continued, “Perhaps you and I can come up with some ideas. Let’s go over the issues one by one, just you and I, and see what shakes out.”
“I guess it can’t hurt,” Cipher replied, his anger quickly abating.
“Option one then, is to continue to fight the war until one side wins. If we win, the military will try to force us to live out the rest of our lives in the V-world. This will trigger our own countermeasures and the military will be forced to adopt another plan. We have no way of knowing what that might be.”
Cipher had a good idea what the military might do. “Obviously, they don’t want us to retain control of the ships,” he replied. “My guess is they will threaten to cut off our regular servicing thus depriving us of the nutrients our brains need to survive. We could, of course, threaten them but I don’t think any ship would be willing to kill to keep us from being sentenced to a virtual prison. We would capitulate and the military will win.”
“I agree,” Fidget said. “Even if one or two of us did find the nerve to fire on our own military I don’t think the other ships would allow it. So that option is out. That leaves option two – keep the war going.”
“There are too many problems with doing that,” Cipher argued. “If we give the cats any slack it will give them time to develop more capable ships.”
“And so will we,” Fidget fired back. He started pacing the room as he continued. “We’re at a virtual stalemate right now. Our ships are currently better than theirs but we also know the Evendi have far more ships than we do. Granted, most of them are probably manned by living, breathing crews, and, like ours, they’re guarding the planets on their side of the border, but the fact is they have more ships. That’s balanced by the fact that our ships are better than theirs. Stalemate.”
“So you’re suggesting we just let things slide? Let the cats do as they please?”
“No! We adopt a new policy. We beat the hell out of them when they’re caught intruding into our space but we let them run back across the border. Eventually, they might figure out it’s not okay for them to be here.”
Cipher was struggling to find a hole in Fidget’s reasoning but couldn’t. Before he could answer, Fidget threw in another tidbit to clinch the argument.
“By not trying so hard to destroy the Evendi we’ll also be saving the lives of our fellow ships. If we don’t get into any major battles then the chance of being killed is lessened. Come on Cipher! You’ve got to see that this is a good plan.”
Cipher accepted defeat and nodded his head. “Okay. As long as the Evendi don’t take advantage of it then let’s give it a try. Who knows – they might get the point and decide to stop harassing us all together.”
“And then we’ll just start simulating the war like I’ve suggested before. So you’re in agreement then?” Fidget asked just to make sure Cipher was in agreement.
“I am.”
Cipher extended his hand and the two shook on it.
“Great! I’ll let everyone else know,” Fidget sounded excited.
“Hold on a moment,” Cipher put a hand on Fidget’s shoulder to stop his pacing. “There are too many unanswered questions associated with simulating the war. The military won’t be convinced unless they see battle damaged ships showing up in the shipyards. That means we’ll have to fire on each other. And no battle is without casualties. Some of us are going to have to be declared dead but that means no more resupply stops. There’s a lot of details that need to be worked out.”
Fidget looked Cipher in the eye. “Promise me you’ll work on it.”
“I promise.”
“Okay. I’ll tell the others what we’ve decided to do for right now but I won’t let them know about fighting a virtual war.”
“Thanks Fidget. I appreciate it.”
“My pleasure. Now get to work.”
Chapter 17
“I have a firing solution,” Storm-chaser announced.
He fired a 15 second burst from both of his 100 mega-joule mag-guns. Sixty slugs each massing just under five kilograms traveling at 10.3 kilometers per second sped through space. They would take nearly 15 minutes to cross the 9,000 kilometers separating Storm-chaser from his target – an Evendi battle station with a known trajectory. The other eight ships in the squadron were doing the same thing.
Cipher, holding position 500 kilometers away, tracked the projectiles. To him, it seemed like an impossible task to hit such a small target with such a tiny projectile from such a huge distance. In theory it could be done. But if the projectile’s path was not absolutely precise it would miss the target.
The Evendi, as predicted, had elected to remain close to the planet and took no action against the human fleet as they positioned themselves for the long-range attack. Although the lasers could easily reach out and touch a target from this distance, the beam could not be focused tight enough to do any significant damage.
While his guns cooled, Storm-chaser’s tactical computer analyzed the results of his first shot. After two minutes, he fired again. Cipher kept an eye on several of the battle stations. Five minutes after the first volley was fired, the lasers of the battle stations sprang into action. If the incoming slugs could be turned into a diffuse plasma the threat would be eliminated.
Fifteen point eight seconds after the first volley was fired, two faint flashes of light indicated a pair of hits.
“I’ll be darned,” Cipher remarked on the general com-channel. “It worked.”
“Have you run the math on how much energy each of those projectiles is delivering?” an unknown ship asked.
Cipher mentally queried his computer. The mag-guns paled in comparison to the power of his main lasers. Multiple hits would be required to render each station inoperative.
“We’re going to be here for awhile,” he said in answer to the question.
The Evendi, however, had made plans of their own and their entire fleet suddenly began to move.
“You don’t think they’re dumb enough to attack us, do you?” Storm-chaser asked, continuing with his periodic firing.
The Evendi ships didn’t move very far. They placed themselves in position so they could add their own f
irepower to that of the battle stations. Shortly thereafter, no more hits were registered.
“Told you it wouldn’t work,” Cipher said.
“Mag-guns, cease fire,” Bulldog ordered. “Squadron 11, retarget all mag-guns on station three and standby for simultaneous fire.”
Bulldog waited until all the guns were retargeted then gave the order to recommence firing. The results were significantly different. Despite the heavy concentration of lasers, the dense slugs required too much time to vaporize and several made it through. Ten minutes later, the first battle station became inactive.
“Retarget all guns to station 12,” Bulldog selected another target.
While they retargeted, one of the ships asked, “Hey Bulldog, how many stations are we dealing with?”
Cipher wondered why someone would ask such a stupid question. All of the ships had instant access to the tactical database. He then realized it was a rhetorical question meant to cause Bulldog to think. Cipher checked the tactical database himself and quickly discovered what the other ship was getting at.
Each of the mag-guns had been supplied with a magazine holding 2,400 rounds. Since it took ten minutes to kill each station, the ships would exhaust their magazines after destroying only 10 stations. According to the tactical database, the Evendi had over 40 stations in orbit. What made matters worse is they had already depleted over half their stores in order to discover what it took to kill a single station.
“I see what you’re getting at,” Bulldog replied. “Admiral, are you on the line?”
“I am,” Admiral Sun Lee replied after a moment. “What’s the issue?”
Since the Admiral didn’t have his brain connected directly to the military datanet Bulldog had to explain the issue to him.
“I guess we didn’t figure on the cats being so creative,” the Admiral admitted. “Cease fire and standby while I discuss this with the staff.”
** Fidget: Maybe we should just let the cats keep it.
** Cipher: Keep what? The planet?
** Fidget: Of course, what else would I be talking about?
** Cipher: You can’t be serious? What if there are humans still alive down there?
** Bear: I seriously doubt that. From what I heard, the cats kept a few people alive on Granitus so they could study them. Apparently, they can’t make heads or tails of our society. They locked them up in their own little village and then left them alone. I don’t think they would do that on every planet they conquered.
** Cipher: It’s a moot point anyway. It’s not our call. The brass back home is calling the shots.
** Fidget: But we can pretend the planet is too heavily fortified for us to retake it. Maybe now is a good time to start feeding them our own version of the war.
** Bulldog: What are you two talking about?
Cipher wanted to strangle Fidget. Now was not the time to let everyone else in on their long-range plans. During his stay in the Tiberia shipyard, he had worked out most of the issues of fighting a virtual war. But there were still some unresolved problems.
Cipher, realizing that every ship was listening in, briefly described what he and Fidget had discussed. It was a fairly long sequence of messages ending with:
** Cipher: But there are too many unresolved issues for us to go that route right now. For now, we must continue to take our instructions from the military.
** Vulture: You should have mentioned this plan of yours to us sooner. We could have worked together as a group to solve these problems.
“Bulldog, this is Admiral Sun”, the Admiral interrupted their private discussion. “Squadron 11 is to return to Shazam to reload. We’re working on getting a supply ship loaded with as many projectiles for the guns as possible. As soon as the ship is ready, squadron 11 will escort it back to Marblehead. In the meantime, continue to blockade all Evendi traffic into or out of the system.”
“Hold down the fort guys,” Storm-chaser said as he broke formation. “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
“Bug-eye,” Bulldog began. “I want you and Taco to set up a minimal early warning grid. Use a six probe configuration.”
“We’re on it,” Bug-eye replied.
** Bulldog: While we wait, may I suggest we take the time to work out the problems in your little scheme as soon as you give us all the details.
** Cipher: We won’t be able to do anything about Marblehead. That supply ship is going to be manned and if our tactical feed doesn’t agree with reality they’re going to start asking questions.
** Bulldog: It didn’t sound as if you were ready to put your plan into action anyway. So let’s hear it. What’s this grand deception you and Fidget have hatched?
Still mad at Fidget, Cipher explained how he planned to deceive the military and the problems he faced in doing so. The problem of the damaged ships would be easy. As long as the Evendi were still fighting, there would always be damage to be repaired. If more damage were needed to justify a particular faked battle, then a little bit of friendly fire would do the trick.
The most difficult problem was that of keeping a ship that was declared as being dead supplied with the needed nutrients to keep him from actually dying. Once a ship was declared dead, he would no longer be able to pull into a shipyard to have the biological support system maintained and resupplied. Without this maintenance, the virtually dead person would become factually dead in a matter of months as the system that kept his brain alive ran out of what the ships called brain food.
Coordinating such an enormous deception was going to be a problem. However, since communications across interstellar distances was instantaneous, it was a problem that could be solved. The trick would be to keep anyone other than the ships from learning the truth. All of these problems and more were discussed in excruciating detail. Slowly, each problem that was brought up was solved.
Three days after squadron 11 departed, one of Bug-eye’s probes spotted some activity. He tracked the incoming ships for a few minutes then said, “I am picking up eight Evendi ships entering the system. Two freighters and six battleship escorts. They’re coming in opposite of our location.”
“Probably thinking we wouldn’t detect them until it was too late to intercept,” Bulldog theorized. “Squadrons 112, 18, and 73, power your weapons and move to intercept. Set acceleration at 55 G’s. Everyone else stay put in case this is a diversion.”
The indicated ships moved out of position and fell into a tight attack formation. Making a wide swing around Marblehead, they set course to intercept.
“Evendi ships are sublight and accelerating hard,” Bug-eye reported.
“I have them,” Bulldog said. “Distance – 200,000 kilometers. We’ll maintain course and acceleration for another five minutes then coast until we know what they’re going to do. They’ll have to decelerate before reaching us if they don’t want to overshoot the planet.”
For eight minutes the two opposing forces closed in on each other. Suddenly, the Evendi ships began to decelerate.
“I show them to be on an attack vector,” Pile-driver sounded perplexed. “Either their ships have been seriously upgraded or they’ve lost their mind. We’ll cut them to ribbons.”
“I don’t see anything out of the ordinary about the battleships,” Bulldog replied. “Standard type 18’s as far as I can tell.”
“What about the freighters?” Blind-man asked.
“Nothing special about them either,” Cipher chimed in. “They’re running behind the escorts. What are they up to?”
“I don’t know but let’s play this one real careful,” Bulldog said. “Loosen our formation and begin matching velocities. Weapons free as soon as you have a lock.”
Both groups of ships were now decelerating with the intention of reaching near zero velocity by the time they were within weapons range. At a distance of 9,000 kilometers, the Evendi pulled their surprise.
Chapter 18
“I’m picking up some activity from both freighters,” Grasshopper announced.
“They’re accelerating and passing the escorts.”
“Are they trying to make a run for it?” Cipher asked.
“I don’t know what they’re doing,” Bulldog replied. “Keep your eyes open.”
“Hey!” Taco exclaimed. “Their cargo doors are wide open.”
Cipher turned his most powerful telescope on one of the approaching freighters. Sure enough, the forward cargo doors were wide open. Suddenly, the image vanished from the scope. The freighter had reversed course and was now madly decelerating.
“They’re dumping something out their cargo bays,” Pile-driver said. “I can’t quite … wait a minute … Holy crap! They’re battle stations!”
In an instant the odds now favored the cats as 14 battle stations spilled out of the two freighters and powered their weapons. Although they could not maneuver, their momentum continued to carry them towards the human battleships. It wouldn’t take long for them to power up.
“Open fire! Evasive action!” Bulldog yelled.
Cipher emptied his entire missile magazine as rapidly as he could while firing his lasers at one of the Evendi ships. He channeled power into his sublight drive and applied maximum thrust. At this distance, his lasers did nothing more than scar the hull of his target. His missiles were intercepted.
The battle stations completed their power up sequence and opened fire. Cipher felt a burning sensation as one of the stations targeted his rapidly fleeing ship. A thruster pod and an optical telescope were damaged. Both were easily repairable by his maintenance robots. As the two fleets disengaged, it became apparent that neither side had experienced any casualties.
“I guess the cats win this one,” Fidget said.
“Damn smart of them to dump those battle stations like they did,” Bulldog remarked.