by Ian Miller
She was then taken to a larger room, where a number of Ulsians and Ranhynn were seated around a table, together with two other creatures who were humanoid, rather woolly in those few places where their skin showed through their clothing, and who clearly had a strong antipathy towards the Ranhynn. They were introduced to her as Krothians, a race with a home planet roughly midway between Earth and Ulse. Near the head of the table, on the far side, was Lucilla, who smiled at Natasha and beckoned her. Natasha was most happy to sit beside another human. Significantly, what was obviously the head of the table was vacant. A flood of introductions left her bewildered. She was introduced, and it was explained that she now had the right to attend any such meetings as a full member of their group. There was what Natasha believed to be a loud round of applause; some of the noise seemed hideously harsh, but the body language, leaving aside the ferocity of the Ranhynn teeth, seemed welcoming.
One of the Ranhynn then opened discussion on the remaining item, stating that one ship had had to be demolished, but repairs to the remaining two were complete, and work was now underway to improving their performance. At this point Natasha was surprised to note an almost derisory snort from one of the Krothians. The Ranhynn requested permission to bring the ships to Chiron to use the Ulsian workshops to complete their job. Permission was automatically granted, provided they approached when Miranda was hidden behind Uranus, and provided the ship remained as well disguised as possible. The weapons systems from the third ship were now deployed on the Tyrrhena Patera, on Mars. This was to provide some defence to a space attack on Hellas, the main food producing area of Mars, as well as to provide a key ground defence position.
An Ulsian engineer then spoke, announcing that a facility that had been constructed a million years previously on Ariel, the second innermost of the larger moons of Uranus, had now been reactivated, the power system was fully functional, and the facility could be used as a base for further operations. The facility was well disguised, and was unarmed. The M'starn were almost certainly unaware of the existence of it, and it was recommended that it be used only when the satellites were on opposite sides of Uranus. As the orbital period of Ariel was only two and a half earth days, this was not considered too great a restriction. There was a dull roar of approval at this news.
Lucilla then spoke. She briefly thanked the engineers at Chiron, and announced her ship was now fully repaired. Natasha was then invited to speak.
She was unprepared for this turn of events, but she stood up and firstly thanked all present for the support their species had given; Earth could not withstand this attack without such assistance. In return, Earth had done what it could to assist the Ranhynn rebuild their ships, and they had also repaired the damaged M'starn ship. The M'starn ship was still in the junkyard, disguised as junk, and a decoy M'starn ship was being built. She then went on to say that the Earth laboratories had been working as hard as they could to develop new weapons systems for use against the enemy, although how effective they would be remained to be seen. They had developed what was, for them, an advanced drive system, which would allow a ship to be able to approach an enemy, provided its main drive was not fully engaged, but the accelerations would kill any human pilot. Unfortunately it was useless unless inertial equivalence units be made available, with a guarantee of no human examination or transfer of knowledge.
"I am not pleading," she said calmly. "I am stating a simple strategic fact that the total firepower in any future battle is at present strongly favouring the enemy. Earth could make enough of these ships to swing the balance, but we can't use them. If Earth loses, so does every being in this room. Chiron would be defenceless, the M'starn get enough breeding time to build up their stock, and they could be a future problem to each of your planets.
"Whether you give us these units or not will not affect our resolve. We will fight. If we have any reasonable chance, we will win. I hope you can find a way to provide us with this chance."
She sat down, and there was a stunned silence from the Ulsians, an angry gesticulation from a Ranhyn, and a nod that Natasha took to be supportive from one of the Krothians, although as Natasha reflected, one could not be sure what an alien expression really meant. A comment in a totally strange language from one of the Krothians cut through the air; although Natasha had no idea what was said, she inferred it was not complimentary, but it was not clear to whom it was directed. From the reaction of a Ranhyn, it seemed as if they were the target. More voices, and soon a heated debate was underway.
"What did he or she say?" Natasha asked Lucilla, after an Ulsian made an impassioned speech.
"It's untranslatable," Lucilla giggled, "but the essence from the Ulsians and Ranhynn was that a small group of Claudians was bad enough; after two thousand years, humans are getting worse, not better. Now they're blaming Gaius for putting you up to say that."
"That's rubbish!" Natasha said, and moved to get up.
"Stay seated," Lucilla urged, and pulled her down. "Here's Gaius now. He doesn't need you to defend him. You also have allies from the Krothians," Lucilla continued. "They said that if the duplicitous Ranhynn had sent proper ships, instead of three squibs more suited for running away than fighting, you wouldn't have had to make that request. They also added that if they weren't prohibited by a ridiculous treaty from bringing warships, they would have already ensured there would be no upcoming battle."
Suddenly there was silence, as the beings noticed Gaius move to the head of the table. He smiled at Natasha, then addressed the group. "Natasha Kotchetkova. Please accept the apologies of the group. It is not the Ulsian way to invite a guest to a discussion, then gabble away in Ulsian. The rest of you, please accept my apologies for being late. I've heard the last few presentations, but I decided to remain outside, so as not to influence our newest member. As for the last altercation, I trust nobody here thinks I haven't the courage to put my own views?"
There was a silence, and Natasha was amused to see two of the Ulsians who had opposed her fiddling with small pens, as if in embarrassment. "Good!" Gaius continued. "I propose we leave that proposal to the Ulsian engineering group. My personal view, from the point of view of military command, is that we do need the firepower, but I must emphasize that no pressure will be applied by me. As presented by Natasha, the proposal appears to be within the bounds of ethics, provided the engineering can be done to assure no technology leakage. But there are further issues, for example, can such a package be introduced successfully into an Earth ship? If modifications are required, do they involve the possibility of implied technology leakage. To answer that, the ship design must be forwarded to the engineers here as soon as possible. I should emphasize, Natasha, that being based on Earth's predilection for constructing matter from the so-called irrelevant quarks, Earth is going off in a direction not used by Ulse. It may need some study to ensure that the inertial field itself doesn't do something unpredictable to the stability of the fuel, so it may be ruled out by physics. If it is, you won't be told why; you will simply be refused.
"Now, strategy. Firstly, let me say I am pleased with progress to date. There are two key elements in this battle, Earth and Miranda. It is my intention soon to launch an attack on Miranda itself. We shall launch from Ariel, but getting the troops there will be a bit of a problem. I am requesting the Ranhynn ships do this, mainly because they're smaller, and because I intend to provide a diversion during the transfer with our two mainline battleships.
"While Mars is a bit of a side issue, it should be quite useful for providing the diversion, and will have the added effect of raising Terran morale, and this is very important. So far we've been very lucky, since the M'starn do not seem to have thought hard enough on this question.
"What I am hoping will happen is that our successful raid on Mars will have hurt their ego, and they will attempt to do something about that. Provided it is only limited assistance, we shall fight on Mars, which is why we need the two battleships there. The Ranhynn vessels should also help by commun
icating any enemy activity but must not, and I repeat this, must not get involved in battle.
"Now, I have seen the Terran programs, and allowing for their level of development, I don't think there is much more they can do. Yes, I know the overall situation is far from satisfactory, and each of our species is providing insufficient firepower for one reason or another, but we must not start blaming each other. We are where we are, with what we have, and we must make best use of this.
"Finally, I can only reemphasize that it is imperative that the M'starn do not realize what we have here on Chiron. We simply do not have the resources to defend this place as well.
"That's about all there is. We all have things to do. Let's all do them."
Part Five
AURORAE PLANUM, MIRANDA, SOL 5-2936, SYRTIS MAJOR, TASHKENT
March-August, 2286
Chapter 1
March 17, Earth-time, commenced as every other day had during the war. As the sun rose over the Valles Marineris the white wraiths glistened as they tumbled headlong down their great canal. Five hundred settlers had gathered on the observational deck overlooking the new cave, but all eyes were on the giant television screen which monitored what was happening outside; for the first time in Martian history five hundred people were absorbedly watching fog clear.
"Gripping program, this," Groza mumbled. "Sure beats that attempt at morale boosting they tried last night."
After twenty minutes, the reddened landscape had grown and the distant layered cliffs could just be made out. Suddenly, a series of gasps could be heard. The television screen showed a craft with huge bat-like wings swoop across the valley, turn, and drift down towards the landing strip. It landed, drifted off up-valley and out of sight, then a further ten similar craft carried out the same landing procedure. After a further small delay, the first returned to view, then it folded in its wings and taxied towards the entrance of the cave.
"Trust Earth," Groza remarked dryly. "They're giving us bats in the belfry."
It was later that somebody noted that an early meaning of belfry was a shed or tower to be used as cover in besieging. Henceforth the cave was known as the belfry. Some wit even went as far as to make a bell to hang there, only to find that a bell is singularly useless at Martian atmospheric pressure.
* * *
Shelley Winters duly reported to the policy committee. She asked for a positional report and was told there was little activity. The dust storm had settled more rapidly than anticipated, and Akiro's expedition from Hellas was still on the way back. While they were speaking, a report came in. The convoy had been intercepted on the section of the InterMars between the Iani Chaos and the Margaritifer Chaos. The convoy had just crossed the large ancient watercourse at longitude 19o 26', and Akiro had placed his two tanks behind some hilly outcrops, a position which allowed his weapons to bear on any part of the watercourse while at the same time giving almost ideal cover from an advancing force. The opposing force had stopped on the far side of the watercourse and Akiro felt certain he could hold the position for as long as it would take the remaining part of the convoy to escape.
"Get the planes fuelled up," Shelley suggested. "We might be able to show your settlers what a little air power can do."
However, only one engineer had been brought from Earth, and as the aircraft had to be fuelled with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, refuelling was to be a slow process. It had been intended that some of the Martian settlers would be trained to carry out such refuelling operations, but this education would take time. It had never been anticipated that the craft should fly immediately after landing.
"Scramble! Scramble!" Groza cried from the observation deck, then, as he turned to another observer, he noted, "At least next time they'll probably break this record."
It was seven hours before the craft had been fuelled. The great doors were raised and Shelley's craft was dragged towards the door. Misako was watching through tear-filled eyes. It was then that Misako noticed a fog around the wing section of the eighth craft. Horrified, she noticed that one of the new trainees had not sealed the fuel tanks properly. If both fuel tanks were leaking, one hydrogen and the other oxygen, there was enough energy in the fuel to completely destroy the base. She had to do something, but what? Instinctively, she ran to the control board and turned off the electricity to the belfry. The main doors were not fully raised, and the driver of the vehicle pulling Shelley's aircraft did not notice the door stop rising. He drove on, and because the air pressure was so low, did not hear the searing noise as the tailplane was torn from the craft. Shelley, however, felt it.
In the belfry, everybody stopped. The red light flashed, and through the intercom came the frightened instructions to turn off all sources of sparks. Everything stopped while the explosive gases leaked out into the thin Martian atmosphere.
"You wouldn't read about it," Groza remarked. "An own goal during a defaulted game!"
Chapter 2
Natasha Kotchetkova was reclining in her office chair, contemplating the unfortunate turn of events of the last hour on Chiron. Scaevola had been unnecessarily angry with her for raising the request for the inertial equivalence units. He had argued quite strongly that he alone should raise such issues with the Ulsians. Yes, he saw the point of what she wanted, but there were right ways and wrong ways of going about getting them. He had had a lot more experience at dealing with the Ulsians, and the aggression she had shown might be enough to prevent the assistance being given.
"Then you should have told me what to say," she replied angrily.
"I trusted you," Gaius protested. "Anyway, it would have been improper to prime you up for what to say before you were to make the choice of whether to attend, when you could just as well choose otherwise. That would have influenced the choice. For all I knew, you might turn down their offer and go home."
"Oh, that's just marvellous," Natasha retorted. "It sounds almost typically Ulsian. Rather than try to influence anything, you sit on the sidelines, intending to applaud quietly as everybody does what you want them to do. Only thing is, the likes of us just aren't psychic, so every now and again we do something that wasn't planned. Then you sit there and complain."
"That's not fair," Gaius protested.
"No, it isn't fair," Natasha cried. "It's not fair on us."
"What's not fair now?" Gaius asked, with a touch of exasperation.
"Everybody in that room benefits from our winning, and all they do is sit there and judge us as little primitives."
"If you're going to win this war," Gaius said harshly, "it will be because of the Ulsian assistance."
"Yes," Natasha responded, "but it's my pilots who are going to do all the dying. If they can't move faster, they've as much chance of coming out in one piece as meat in a mincer." Then she stormed back to the shuttle.
Now she regretted the fact that she had not tried to smooth the relationship. It had been a silly argument. As Lucilla had said later, while his pride had been dented, he would get over it. She knew she would apologize; it would be nice if he would first, though. But she had the feeling that an Imperial Roman simply could not accept that a woman could have the authority and with it, the responsibility, she had.
It was then she was certain that she had loved Gaius, but the past tense was the significant tense. She could not accept a man who thought she was second-class, because she was a woman. She was not for show, she was not a helper. She intended to make decisions, to make things happen, and it was just unfortunate that Gaius could not accept that. She realized it was not his fault. Coming from his time in history, there was little he could do about that view. He was truly a displaced person, with no hope whatsoever of finding his own place in Terran society. But that did not mean she was about to throw away her life in such a situation.
But perhaps that view was too harsh. After all, he had not said much. That was the trouble! But then, surely his view could be construed as that of a commander. What would she think if a junior officer made a speech
to the Council regarding some matter for which she was responsible? But that's different! Yes, it's always different, and perhaps . . .
Suddenly, throughout the complex, the sounds of klaxons roared. The small light above her door started flashing, and throughout the complex, Natasha realized, all staff would be moving to battle stations. Automatically, one of the walls of her office folded away, giving her access to the battle command centre computer displays. She hit the button on her desk, to confirm that she was in the office and had recognized the signal. She reached her command chair, placed the headphones and speaker over her head, and activated the command switch. This was to let the other similar displays throughout the complex know that she was in overall command.
"Nature of emergency!" Natasha ordered.
"Five alien space vehicles decelerating towards Earth. Assumed hostile."
"If there's five of them, they're hostile," Natasha remarked dryly. "Moon bases! Deep cover! Ground defence forces to defend entrances. Junkyard: battle stations! Do not launch missiles over three second strike time. Ranhyn ship, if you are monitoring this; hostile attack imminent! For protection, go deep into junk. Earth defences, full alert. Interceptors, scramble! Lagrange stations, full shielding." And good luck, she thought. The last command was a sheer bluff. If the M'starn believed the Lagrange stations were guarded by an impenetrable shield, but they were not, in themselves, hostile, they might just be left alone. The command was because she was sure the M'starn would be able to monitor her communications.
The incoming ships divided into two groups. Three headed directly towards Earth. Lights flashed from the M'starn vessels, and the beams swept towards Earth. One by one the scopes on her control panel went dead, all those from the Americas. It was then she realized what had happened; the enemy was destroying the Terran monitoring complexes by firing beams directly at the source of the energy emissions. So obvious! She reached for the master control switch panel, and turned the entire Asian complexes off. She then roared a sequence of commands to the remaining command bases, and within ten seconds all Earth emission devices were dead. All that were left were the optical and radio telescopes, and these had not been organized into the Defence network.