by D. J. Holmes
Ignoring his guests Somerville turned to his console and after a few seconds handed Russell his datapad. Both men quickly scanned through the information.
Russell was the first to look up and break the suspense. “The Chinese have attacked convoy 3.2 as it was returning through Chinese space after visiting the Reading system. All nine of our freighters were lost along with a light cruiser, Resolution, and the flak frigate Renown.”
“What happened,” interjected the Prime Minister, “our ships have strict orders not to provoke the Chinese.”
“No blame can lie on Captain Turner,” Russell interjected, “it appears he handled himself well, giving his life trying to protect the convoy. A Chinese fleet jumped into the system just behind our convoy. They were clearly on transit to another destination, as they didn’t try to enter the system’s mass shadow. Yet two fast attack cruisers broke off from the fleet and pursued the convoy as soon as they saw it. Resolution and Renown managed to take out one cruiser before the other destroyed them and the freighters. It seems Commander James isn’t the only one with a trick or two up his sleeve. Commander Lightfoot of the Surprise managed to trick the second cruiser into plasma range and destroy her.
“What’s more,” Somerville added as he finally looked up, “the fleet they encountered can only be the one James encountered approaching V17 in the Void. The convoy was attacked over five weeks ago. It has taken Surprise this long to creep through Chinese space with all her battle damage.”
There was a pause in the conversation as everyone imagined the difficulties of commanding a damaged ship through hostile territory for over six weeks. It was a wonder Surprise had made it back at all.
King Edward broke the silence, “So what does all this mean for your plan then Admiral?”
“I’m not sure yet,” Somerville replied, “but I think we can use this to our advantage. If you will excuse me gentlemen I have to deal with this quickly. We need to keep Surprise under wraps until tomorrow if we can.”
The Prime Minister and King both got up to leave. As Edward XI walked out of the office he paused at the door, looking back at James he left a parting shot. “Don’t think this changes anything boy.”
Chapter 8 - Subterfuge
After the discovery of the shift drive and the Alpha system, international tensions on Earth threatened to spiral out of control. Before the discovery of Beta, Gamma and Delta it appeared that whoever controlled Alpha controlled humanity’s gateway to the stars. The UN Interplanetary Act was passed to try and bring order to the scramble into space.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD
11th January 2465. UN Interplanetary Offices, New York.
James sat in his assigned seat next to Commander Lightfoot. From his position he had a clear view of the UN Interplanetary Committee. Each of the thirteen representatives sat in a raised semicircle overlooking the audience chamber. Below them was seating for the various applicant parties. The clear divisions in the seating indicated that the designers had envisioned the committee handling complicated disputes with up to four parties involved. In front of him, occupying most of one of the seating areas sat his uncle, surrounded by a host of his aides and legal representatives. After the formal proceedings that announced the beginning of a session, James watched as his uncle stood and approached the council members.
“My esteemed fellows, I have two vitally important issues to bring before this committee today. To that end and in agreement with Mr. Blake, the British representative on this council, I wish to present a request for this session to be a Closed Session.”
After receiving a nod from the Chairman, Somerville returned to his seat. His words had been enough to begin the protocol for holding a closed session. Now he had to wait and watch the cogs of the committee spin into action.
The UN Interplanetary Affairs Committee was made up of representatives from each of the space faring powers, along with four representatives from the long list of countries that had applied for colonies themselves. To hold a closed session of the committee, the proposal needed three representatives to approve the request.
The committee had been formed after the disputes over the Alpha system had almost erupted into nuclear war back on Earth. The Interplanetary Act had formalized the claiming rights of planets and how future interstellar borders would be drawn up. Over time the power of the committee had grown. They were now responsible for the administration of the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta systems, as well as the colonies at Beta and Gamma. It also provided a mechanism for countries that did not have the ability to fund large exploration fleets to have access to their own habitable worlds. This last function had given rise to the UN Planetary Allocation Lottery. It allowed any sovereign state to apply, provided they could demonstrate they had the financial capability to start and maintain a colony beyond the Sol system. If they passed the checks, they went into the lottery system, the UNPAL.
The space faring powers had agreed that every third habitable planet they discovered would go to the PAL and be allocated to whoever the lottery system picked. With two exceptions, no class 1 planets would be given away and the space faring powers reserved the right to hold onto strategically important planets. Instead they could offer up another planet as a replacement.
Somerville had already contacted his direct opposites in the United States Space Fleet and the German Interstellar Marine. The Americans still had a good working relationship with the British, even to the point of sharing R&D projects. The Germans were even more concerned about Chinese military buildup than the British. They also shared a border with China and, having a fleet not even two-thirds the size of the British, the Chinese had been pressing them hard over the last two decades. In the end both representatives had proven easy to persuade. He hoped that both of his counterparts had found the time to ensure their representatives on the committee would cooperate. He hadn’t informed them of his topics for discussion today and so they were operating completely on faith.
Smiling, Somerville relaxed as first the US representative seconded his proposal and the German representative followed suit. The Chairman of the committee, Japanese representative Akiyama, stood and addressed Admiral Somerville.
“It seems you have gotten you wish Admiral. I now declare this session closed. No communications with the outside world will be permitted and any information disclosed to the committee will remain confidential until a decision has been reached on whatever matters you are bringing before us.”
“My thanks Akiyama-Tono,” Somerville replied adding the proper honorific.
Again he approached the committee, this time bringing his datapad that allowed him to access the large holo-display in the center of the room.
“It is with great displeasure that I have to report an act of war by the Chinese Fleet. Exactly forty-six days ago, a Chinese fleet attacked a British convoy returning from a supply run to our colony in the Reading system. A mining colony awarded to us by this committee. The Chinese fleet destroyed a light cruiser, a frigate and eight freighters. A ninth had to be abandoned after the battle. In total one thousand two hundred and forty eight men and women were mercilessly killed.”
As he had been speaking, Somerville had been watching the Chinese representative. His quickly hidden shock was a clear sign that the Politburo hadn’t informed him about the incident. Somerville couldn’t help looking back at Admiral Russell and winking. If the Politburo had kept their orders to fire on British shipping a secret then maybe they had also kept the Void itself from the Chinese representative.
“I have with me today Commander Patrick Lightfoot. He is the commanding officer of the frigate HMS Surprise. With a great deal of skill and not a little luck, he managed to escape from the Chinese attack, rescue the crew of the ninth freighter and get his damaged ship back to Earth. I’m now going to call on him to talk you through the battle.”
As Lightfoot approached the holo-display Somerville keyed in the command to begin the recording of Surprise’s sensor fee
ds from the Damang system. Calmly and methodically Lightfoot talked the committee through the entire engagement. Only when he spoke of Resolution and Renown’s charge towards the Chinese medium cruisers did he show any passion.
The whole chamber watched in silence as Lightfoot finished recounting his ordeal. Somerville had found it impossible not to see himself in the same position with his old ship Adventure. Stuck over sixty light years behind hostile territory, nursing home a heavily damaged ship that had lost its radar absorbing coating. It truly was amazing that Lightfoot had managed to avoid detection all the way back to Earth.
Finally, after a few brief clarifying questions Lightfoot returned to his seat beside James. Exchanging glances with his peer James readied himself, as he knew he would soon have to repeat Lightfoot’s briefing to the committee. First though, his uncle had to conclude this part of the hearing. As James watched he stood up taking Lightfoot’s place.
“So there you have it ladies and gentlemen of the Committee,” Admiral Somerville began, “all our evidence has been presented. I wish to request that this Committee demand a clarification from the Chinese government regarding their actions and that immediate reparations be paid to the Royal Space Navy and to the families of all the deceased.”
“Just one moment Admiral,” Akiyama interrupted. “I think it would be appropriate for us to get an independent review of the information you have presented before we come to any decisions. You and Committee member Feng Liao may each select one of the military attachés not involved in this dispute to present their view on this incident.”
Somerville had expected this complication but it didn’t concern him greatly. The evidence spoke for itself. The Chinese approached his convoy first. They fired the first missiles and they refused to acknowledge any of the hails Resolution had sent them throughout the engagement. He could call on almost any of the attachés and expect the same result.
Just to make that very point, he called for the Argentinian attaché after Feng Liao had requested the Indian. Argentina and Britain had never had the warmest of relationships and it hadn’t defrosted any since both governments had extended their influence to the stars. India too did not enjoy good relations with Britain. They saw the British support for French expansion as a direct threat to their own. In reality, the British saw the French as the best stop gap against Russian aggression and so did all they could to help strengthen France’s colonial empire.
Somerville tried not to look bored as both the Indian and the Argentinian attachés came to roughly the same conclusions. The Chinese were clearly the aggressors. Without a declaration of war, their actions were illegal under UN law. Reparations were a justifiable demand given the circumstances.
Satisfied that the first part of his plan was about to be accomplished, Somerville addressed the committee again. “Chairman Akiyama, unless Representative Feng Liao would like to add anything to this hearing I request that the committee move to vote on my request for reparations.”
Akiyama looked over to Feng Liao and when he didn’t move Akiyama turned back to Somerville. “Very well, we will take a vote on your request.”
Somerville almost had sympathy for Feng Liao. A closed session meant that the matters presented had to be decided before the committee could retire. Feng Liao had been caught between a rock and a hard place. He couldn’t contact his superiors to warn them about what was going on and, because his superiors had not informed him about the attack on the convoy, he could not present any counter evidence to delay the proceedings.
As expected, the vote was a foregone conclusion. China did not have any strong allies on the committee and the evidence had been overwhelming. The committee agreed to seek a response from the Chinese government regarding their intentions towards British shipping. They also demanded that reparations be paid for the ships destroyed outside a state of war.
Taking a deep breath Somerville prepared himself for the next stage. Everything so far had just been building up to this. He hoped the main blow to the Chinese was about to come.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the committee. I would now like to bring my second matter before you all. As you know, section two point three of the Interplanetary Act stipulates that all discoveries of new systems must be presented and approved by this committee. To that end I wish to inform you that yesterday HMS Drake returned from surveying space beyond the Cambridge system. She returned to report that she had discovered a dark matter bubble containing no less than fifty-six star systems, four of which are habitable.”
There were audible gasps from some of the aides to the committee members and even from Somerville’s own people. He had informed them about the first order of business but he had been keeping the Void under tight wraps.
Akiyama took a moment to compose himself and then gestured towards Somerville. “Do go on Admiral, I think we all want to hear about this.”
Somerville nodded, “of course Chairman.”
Tapping on his datapad brought up a map of the border between Chinese and British space. Cambridge was clearly visible. As Somerville manipulated the map a shift passage appeared linking Cambridge to a large sphere containing fifty-six blinking dots.
“As you can see this dark matter bubble, which we have been calling the Void, has a diameter of approximately twelve light years. Fifty-six star systems are contained in the bubble. There are no other known shift passages leading into the bubble although Drake didn’t get a chance to fully survey all of it before Commander Somerville returned to inform us of his discovery. Speaking of whom, I have brought the Commander along to give you a rundown of his findings. You will find all the details in the standard discovery report I am sending to you all now but I thought you would like to get an overview first.”
Without turning around Somerville motioned for James to come forward. James took this for his cue and so he got up and approached the speaking area in front of the committee.
As he did with Lightfoot’s presentation, Somerville stood to the side and allowed his subordinate to carry out the presentation uninterrupted. As James went on, Somerville began to relax. Things could have become tricky if Feng Liao had known about the Void and the Chinese presence already there. His silence meant he truly did not know anything and couldn’t question the data his nephew was presenting. Of course it was all true, it just left out a few critical details. The Chinese for one and the extent of the valstronium deposits for another!
Once James was finished recounting his journey through the Void and no more questions were forthcoming, Somerville nodded to James, giving him permission to return to his seat.
Then he got up again and stood in front of the committee. “As you can see Chairman Akiyama the significance of this discovery cannot be over stated. I’m sure you’re well aware that my government and I would like to begin expanding our influence into the Void as soon as possible. To that end we would like to offer the planet we have designated as V17 to the Chinese as a sign of peace and goodwill. We do not desire a shooting war between our two nations and we certainly don’t want a repeat of the Damang Incident. Further, we do not think we have the resources to make the best use of three separate habitable worlds. Even though our latest discovery has just gone to Canada via the lottery we would like to offer the habitable planet that falls outside our borders to the lottery fund as well.”
“That is a very generous offer Admiral. Can I be assured that you speak for your entire government in this matter?” Akiyama asked.
“Yes sir, you can, I have with me a signed document by the Prime Minister and King Edward XI laying out our offer.”
As he spoke an aide brought the letter to Akiyama.
“Indeed you do.” Akiyama said after scanning over the letter, “and what then is it that you want in return for this generosity?”
“Nothing beyond what is expected in these circumstances Mr. Chairman,” Somerville answered. “It is simply my wish that this committee ratify the division of planets and the new interstellar borders that wo
uld result.”
Tapping his datapad Somerville brought up a new map of the Void and the surrounding Chinese and British territories. The Void was divided into three unequal sections. One, in red, represented what would fall under British ownership if the standard rules of the UN Interstellar Act were applied. Britain would assume control of V2 and V48 along with twenty six of the other star systems. A flashing white section centered on V34 represented what would be given to whomever won V34 in the lottery. A further fifteen systems fell within the white border. Finally, V17 had been added to Chinese space along with the remaining eleven uninhabitable systems within the Void.
“Chairman, I must object to this proposal,” Feng Liao interjected before Somerville got a chance to continue.
“Yes, and why may I ask?” Akiyama said as he turned to face Feng Liao.
“The British have just claimed that we have carried out an act of war. Why would they then offer us a planet in the Void that the laws of this committee do not demand them to offer?”
Feng Liao was beginning to sweat very heavily. It was evident that he had figured out the obvious. In his final map of the Void, Somerville had included a wider shot showing the positions of Cambridge, Damang and Reading. It was clear to any half-witted observer that Damang was in close proximity to the Void. If there was a shift passage linking the Void to Chinese space then it would likely connect with Damang. Putting two and two together only came up with one reason for such a large Chinese fleet to be operating in and around Damang.