As the rescue mission came to a close, and the two warships retreated to a safe distance, the Sumerian commander took note of a less conventional suggestion by his Par’Sanni, and switched his attack. As the obelisks rose to rejoin the mother ships, the Sumerian warships dispersed in several directions, only to come again at maximum acceleration just above the atmosphere. First one, then another, of the obelisks crumpled in on themselves as the Sumerian plasma cannon hit them. The handful the warships destroyed made little difference to the hundreds that swarmed out of the atmosphere to rejoin the mother ships, but it proved a point – they were not invulnerable.
The ships of fire descended, making the docking of the ground craft easier and putting themselves between the warships and their targets. The Par’Brahmad commander broke off the attack, and the remains of his wing rejoined the others on the far side of the planet.
With the destruction of the Sumerian settlement complete, the enemy ships lifted away from the planet and moved out into the system. Following them at a distance, the Sumerian warships loosed full salvos of fusion missiles. The ships of fire did not bother to take evasive action.
With a sour taste in his mouth, the Par’Brahmad wing commander guessed what that meant. The missiles struck, and the ships of fire were engulfed in an intense white fireball. When it faded away the ornate, bladed ships continued on their way untouched. As the warships looked on helplessly, the plasma-covered ships blinked out with a flash of light as they left the Ba’H’Roth system.
CHAPTER 11
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Andre received flight clearance, and brought the Europa into Earth orbit. Celia stood in front of the diamond polymer viewing window that spanned the front of the bridge. She was surprised that the Earth looked so beautiful. How many times over the last few weeks had she thought she would never see it again?
Roberto walked across the bridge and stood beside her.
“Quite some sight, huh?” he managed shakily, and his voice reflected how she was feeling. For a moment she felt the tears rise to her eyes, and then he put his hand on her arm.
“The last destination point we had was the Ragnaroth station,” he said quietly.
She knew what he was doing. He was saying they had to talk about it. If they tried to bury the past it would only create an emotional hell for them some time in the future. All those Sumerians they had come to know at Ragnaroth were dead now. Hell’s breath, the whole damn station was gone, ripped apart by a great ship of fire.
Celia felt most for SarSanni, who in his strange Sumerian way had understood that she was trying to help them, and had tried to get the captain, EusBrahmad, to listen.
The team had said little to each other on the voyage back to Earth. Once they were sure the strange, flat, murderous ships of fire had moved on, they emerged from their hiding place in the gas giant and headed for home.
Now they would have to report to the European Community bosses who paid for their research. After that they would be grilled by the UfEta peacekeeping forces, and then released to the world media. None of it appealed to her.
“Let’s try to cut a deal,” said Roberto quietly.
“What do you mean,” said Celia, her voice unsteady.
“Let’s tell them we want to be anonymous,” said Roberto. “No names, no details, no media attention.”
“We can’t,” she said firmly. “It’s in our contract.
“There are lots of things like that in our contract. You know we signed away all rights to privacy, and the results of our research, when we agreed to take on this assignment.”
“I know,” said Roberto grimly, with a thin-lipped smile on his face. “But I think they will want to hear the whole story from us more than they’ll want to throw us in the brig and never know it.”
“Do you really think so?” said Celia, confidence returning as she realised the strength of their bargaining position.
She smiled at him. “You really are quite devious, did you know that? How did you make it past the psych tests?”
He grinned. “By being smarter than the academics who wrote them. It wasn’t hard, they don’t have much life experience.”
Celia rounded up Jeneen, and told Andre to join the little group as soon as the Europa was secure in its orbit. If the research team stuck to their request for anonymity, and no one faltered, they might just be able to get away with it.
When they arrived on the surface, they found that Earth was already in an uproar. In more than two hundred years of space travel, the Human race had never encountered a race that was openly hostile, and in this case without any apparent reason to be so.
The thought of warfare on an interstellar scale was an unpleasant one. In the history of the human race, it had been normal to have three choices when attacked – to hide, to fight, or to run away. In the present crisis the Human race didn’t have the option of hiding, or transferring an entire population away from Earth itself. What was left was an all or nothing fight to the bitter end.
UfEta stood tough on Celia’s demands for anonymity until it was clear she wasn’t going to fold, and the other members of her team were as adamant about the matter as she was. In the end the research team were granted anonymity as long as UfEta got a detailed account of events at the Ragnaroth station, and full cooperation for a short time after that.
Their European Community research bosses turned out to be much tougher. Driven in part by a research tradition of full disclosure, but also by the income that the publicity would bring, they threatened every professional and personal inconvenience they could think of. Celia began to despair that the threat of the research team clamming up wasn’t going to work with them.
Then one day it all just disappeared.
Celia looked coolly at the head of off-world research, and wondered why she and her team had been told they were free to go.
“You will need to send us copies of your raw data by the end of the month,” said the tall man with a severe haircut, “but you do not need to include any information that might identify you.”
He had been a good admin boss, fair in his approach and understanding of the delays that occurred while the team worked toward their next breakthrough. In return she had been a hard-working researcher and got the most out of her team. They had always respected each other.
“What has changed?” asked Celia.
The tall man hesitated. “You’ve got friends in high places,” he said, piling papers into his case. Celia started to speak again.
“You’ll find out,” he said, putting his hand up to forestall any further questions. Then he was gone.
“Looks like we’ve swapped being owned by one bureaucracy for being owned by another,” said Roberto, when she told the rest of the team. “I wonder who has made the problem go away, and what they’ll want as a favour in return.”
“Might not be that bad,” said Celia hesitantly. She was grateful for the reprieve, but she was wondering the same thing as Roberto.
The next few days were spent putting their notes in order, and taking copies of them for UfEta and their fellow researchers at the European Community headquarters.
Half a world away, the Board of Regents was meeting at the Summer Palace of Asura Ming, the Regent of the Asian trading block. It was one of the people present there who had been responsible for the release of Celia and her team, no questions asked.
The Summer Palace was a private residence that Asura’s immensely wealthy family had owned for generations, and it was often used when the board wanted to meet with as little publicity as possible.
“Think of the effect on the economy,” said Victor Emens, the Regent for the Euro-Russian trading block. The board was discussing the possibility of building a fleet of warships to counter the threat posed by the great ships of fire. So far they had only savaged the Sumerian colonies, and anything that had once been Rothii, but the violence was sure to spread toward Earth.
“Governments borrow to build hardware,” he cont
inued, “and we provide that hardware, but those government loans still need to be paid back. Why accept a short term profit for a long term recession that will hurt all of the trading blocks?”
“The cost of the resources needed to build this fleet is the problem,” chipped in the Regent for the small Pacific syndicate. “There’s little in the way of resources left on the major planets of the Solar System now, and what’s left is too expensive to mine.
“I say let the Sumerians handle this. Regent Cordez, I understand you have reports confirming attacks on a number of the Sumerian research stations?”
“Yes,” said Cordez, pleased to have an opening to enter the discussion, and ready to steer it in the direction he wanted to go.
“All of the attacks so far have been at the closest points to the Core,” he began. “Ragnaroth, of course, but also the new Sumerian colony on SiRoth, and the Rothii home world, Ba’H’Roth.”
He considered his next step for a moment. The others waited respectfully for him to continue. Only Asura Ming had the influence and financial backing that Manoba Cordez of the South Am trading block could muster.
“I would counsel caution,” said Cordez. “Whatever the planet Earth can build in the way of a Deep Space Navy, to fight alongside the Sumerians, is unlikely to be a match for the Reaper ships if they should attack the Solar System.”
The media had quickly adopted the name ‘Reaper ships’ for the previously unknown attackers.
“We might have more luck developing planetary defences,” he said, looking around the room, “and I suggest we look into that.”
Now would come the tricky part. He needed to sway the board toward a pet project of his. One he believed would be a huge part of their salvation in the face of this new menace.
“Another possibility is to push through a collaboration with the Mersa people of Alamos. For one thing they have all the resources we don’t have, and for another they are a highly intelligent race.”
He looked around the room, and saw at best doubt, and more often confusion.
“Manoba, my friend,” said Hoover Runciman, Regent for the North Am block. The Regent was a large man who had the annoying habit of treating everyone as his best buddy.
“We know you think this collaboration thing of yours is a whiz-bang idea, and you’ve mentioned it before, but it’s not like you to try and push it through on the back of this big, bad alien scare. You can do better than that!”
You’re the last person on Earth I would want as ‘my friend’, growled Cordez silently to himself. He was offended at the effrontery of the man, but he kept a straight face.
Unfortunately, Hoover was probably voicing the concerns of the other Regents, and the problem was they didn’t have the information Cordez had. It was information he couldn’t yet release – largely because much of it had been obtained illegally.
The other Regents didn’t know what Cordez knew. Thank God for Fedic Vits, he thought. The man was a stealth operative second to none.
Cordez had spent hours going over the recordings Fedic had taken on Alamos, and he still couldn’t imagine how the agent had got himself into the right places to take them. But that information came from a supposedly off-limits world. He would just have to let his proposal rest – for now.
“I assure you,” he said, “I have the deepest faith that the people of Alamos will be worthy allies in the troubled times ahead. However, I accept your point of view, and will bow gracefully to the will of the Board.”
That made them sit up. He was not in the habit of bowing gracefully to anyone about anything, and even Cordez realised the sentiment was a little out of character. It took him quite an effort to keep a straight face.
Asura Ming gave him an appraising look from under fine black eyebrows that contrasted with the intensely pale colour of her skin. She always made him feel a little uncomfortable, as if she could read the secrets he could hide from others.
But today, the Alamos cause was lost. Dammit, Cordez cursed silently, that was going to set his plans back a bit.
In the end the board agreed to support the world governments when they suggested, as they undoubtedly would, that Earth build a massive Deep Space Navy, and, as a peace-offering to Regent Cordez, the board would suggest they build a planetary defence system as well.
And that’s enough for today, thought Cordez, looking at the time on his commslink. He felt a little better as he thought about the exquisite dishes Asura’s staff would prepare for the Regents that night.
CHAPTER 12
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As the Regents left the board room, Cordez found himself walking with Asura Ming toward the combined conservatory and refreshment room.
“Are you enjoying your stay at the Summer Palace?” she asked him lightly.
Cordez hesitated. Why did this feel like an opening gambit for something much more important?
“Very much so,” he said. “I want to thank you. Your hospitality has been both gracious and generous.”
She smiled, and laid a slim hand on his arm. “The question of Earth’s response to this sudden and unforeseen threat is a very complex one,” she said, without preamble.
Cordez raised his hand so she could place hers along his wrist, and they entered the refreshment room much as a courtier might have conducted a lady to the dance floor in a classical age. He steered them gently to one side, into a private bay surrounded by luxuriant foliage, and turned to face her. He waited for her to speak, giving her the opportunity to talk about whatever was on her mind.
Asura met his gaze. “Perhaps we could discuss it further this evening. If it is agreeable to you, I will send someone to collect you in time for the evening meal. Would that be acceptable?”
Then she raised her eyebrows in a delicate gesture of enquiry.
“Of course,” replied Cordez, almost snapping to attention. She smiled, and drifted away to see one of the other Regents.
Cordez was left wondering what was going on. Does an invitation to an evening meal mean a private talk between her and me, he thought, or would there be others present? Whichever it was, she definitely had something on her mind she wanted to share with him.
He watched her move away, and hurried to his rooms to catch up on the mountain of work he had been forced to bring with him. That was the trouble with emergency meetings, there was no time to plan for them and little time to delegate.
It was many hours later, but only seemed like moments, when there was a knock on Cordez’ door. He raised his head from yet another form, stretched, and went to see who was at the door.
It was one of the charms of the Summer Palace that machines were kept to a minimum. If you wanted to see someone you didn’t page them, bleep them, commslink them, or vidlink them. You went to see them yourself, and you knocked on their door. It was a good stand to take. The quality of relationship was not diluted here.
A tall young man stood in the doorway. He enquired whether Regent Cordez would accompany this humble servant to the Jade dining room at a time convenient for the Regent?
Although obviously Asian in extraction, the young man spoke impeccable Spanish, and specifically, he spoke the Brazilian dialect Cordez had grown up with. The Regent was impressed. Did Asura have a very large staff, or were they all this multitalented?
Cordez agreed to be ready shortly, and hurried back to his desk. He placed the papers he was working on in VHlock storage, and made a number of notes about the papers he would need for the following day.
Then he began to get ready for dinner, and realised to his surprise that he was looking forward to this. Part of him was a little worried that Asura had been able to get under his skin so easily. She was a Regent, and in that respect she was his competition.
The same tall young man guided Cordez away from the more formal part of the palace toward an older, more lived-in section. The signs of centuries of wear and tear were clearer here. Cordez began to understand that Asura felt more connected to her roots, to her family,
and her culture, when she was in this part of the palace.
Then he was ushered into what had to be Asura’s private apartments. More staff bustled around him until he was seated, then quietly withdrew.
After the fifth course of exquisitely prepared delicacies from places he could only guess at, and after Cordez had declined a selection of alcoholic drinks, Asura invited him through to a smaller room that had a more homely feel. He was surprised he was being allowed into her most private rooms.
“Perhaps you would enjoy the Hao-tsing chair,” she remarked, pointing to a fairly plain chair among an odd selection of seating. He bowed slightly and took the chair she offered, while she took a similarly plain one opposite. He was a surprised by the bony edges across the back of the chair, along the arms, and down the inclined plane on which his legs were rested.
She smiled at his reaction. “Pressure points,” she explained. “The ones that help with the digestion.”
And indeed, once he relaxed into the chair, and shut the mild discomfort of the wooden ridges out of his mind, he did feel refreshed, and more quietly alert. He did not feel as if he had just eaten a large meal.
“What do you intend to do to counter this potential threat to Earth?” she said quietly. She was straight to the point, and it was the same question she had asked him in the conservatory. Manoba found it refreshing. Not that he was going to give any of his secrets away. To her, or anyone else.
“It appears the Board of Regents and EarthGov are going to build ships, and then planetary defence systems,” he said, deflecting her question.
She looked at him coolly for a moment, and he felt slightly foolish.
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