by John Carr
Adderly glared at the Sauron commander. “Patriot? Freedom fighter, maybe? Like hell; you think you’re the first ones to trot out that old saw? You started your ’war of independence’ by an unprovoked attack on St. Ekaterina! A billion people dead, Diettinger. How do you justify that? Go ahead, give it a shot!”
Diettinger appeared honestly puzzled. “We don’t ‘justify’ our actions, Captain Adderly, any more than you explain your motivations to the family pet. Sauron is the cradle of the ultimate expression of the human race; and that is a far greater responsibility than suffering public censure over the removal of a threat like St. Ekaterina, or an inconvenience such as her mongrelized population of convicts, thieves and other non-productives.”
“Inconvenience...!” For the first time since being captured, Adderly was truly afraid. Not for his life, or any of his crew that might also have been captured. Not for the convoy, or even the Empire. He was suddenly very afraid for all mankind.
The Saurons were making a ruin of the Empire, and they were losing the war. What would they make of humanity if they won?
“I will assume this map to be useless, of course,” Diettinger said, “We will carry out the battle, and many will die on both sides. A waste, since the population of Tanith is regarded as genetically promising. But, do understand, Captain, it is immaterial to me whether the Tanith casualties are one or one hundred million. I will have the borloi; you have my word on it. The outcome is decided. I merely wished to give you the opportunity to decide the means.”
He gestured to the guards, who pulled Adderly to his feet. “See that his spacesuit is intact. Provide him with a rescue beacon and put him out the airlock.”
Adderly was stunned.”What?”
The Sauron looked back at him with his remaining eye. ”I have given my word to you on two counts today, Captain Adderly. I want you to see that I am reliable on the one, so that you will not make another mistake by doubting the other.”
One of the Chinthes picked him up a few hours later.
Five
I
Diettinger was back on the bridge, the left side of his face hidden in bandages.
How could I have been so stupid? he asked himself. Haven’t I seen the evidence of their hatred for us a thousand times? Didn’t I see it again, today, when they were willing to risk conflagration aboard their own ship just to finish off Saurons they thought were already trapped and probably dead?
Diettinger found the idea of such irrational hatred difficult to credit, and impossible to justify. Saurons were trained from birth to accept the nature of the human species as being emotional, rational, predatory, dominant. To these and the dozens of other adjectives summing up the Sauron version of the human condition, the Race that called themselves “The Soldiers” had added a final qualifying virtue: efficient. The level of passion which human norms applied to their activities in general and their relations with Saurons in particular was, Diettinger felt, conspicuous in its lack of appreciation for that virtue.
There was something about them that made personal dealings difficult, diplomacy impractical and surrender for either side impossible.
Diettinger found it all... what?
Wasteful, he realized, although the confusion and distaste he felt was not so easily summarized as that.
And yet, the degree of the human norms’ hatred for Saurons was no more than the Sauron’s degree of contempt for them. Probably less, he thought.
Some Sauron commanders in the Secession War regarded the conflict as one of extermination. Diettinger was not one of these, but gingerly probing the wounded side of his face, he wondered if all human norms might not be rational beings.
His depth perception was gone, of course. Adderly’s throw had been very strong, and Diettinger’s optic nerve had been ruined. Damned nuisance. It would require at least a week in regeneration therapy, but there was nothing else for it; he couldn’t very well wear an eyepatch like some ancient pirate captain.
Fomoria was in high orbit off Tanith again, now accompanied by the Canada as a prize ship. Tanith spaceport’s Langston Field was on, and with an atmosphere and plenty of ground water to dissipate energy into, it could hold off a dozen Fomorias indefinitely.
Laser communications antennae, lofted by Quilland’s units, pierced the Field in a dozen places to establish contact with the Sauron warship. Fighting for the spaceport was reported heavy, but indecisive. Despite the numerical superiority of the Imperials, the large numbers of Cyborgs augmenting the already potent Sauron force prevented them from mounting any assault that would not require leveling the spaceport, and this the Imperial forces were understandably reluctant to do.
“Cyborg Koln. Status on the objective?”
“Material located and secured, First Rank.”
Splendid! An eye lost for nothing, Diettinger sighed. Ah, well Live and learn...
“Deathmaster Quilland. Enemy anti-aerospace strength?”
“Marginal, First Rank. The Imperials have been arriving piecemeal, disorganized. We assume this is a result of the poor surface transportation network and low airlift capability, compounded by inclement weather.”
Diettinger looked again at the solid mass of orange clouds over the surface of Tanith. “It all looks inclement from here, Deathmaster.”
Quilland chuckled, a rare moment of humor, which meant events planetside were going very well, indeed. “Affirm. Weather data being transmitted now, First Rank. Shuttles should have no difficulty.”
“Spaceport status?”
“Currently eliminating pockets of Imperials still within the spaceport perimeter. The spaceport’s Langston Field generator has been captured intact.”
“Very good. Be advised that INSS Canada has been taken as a war prize; her shuttles will also be engaged in the off-shipment of materials. Expect first wave -”
“Emergency break in,” Communications cut through.
Diettinger changed orders in mid-breath; no human norm mind or tongue could have switched tracks so quickly, or completely.
“Speak.”
“Fighter Rank Severin at the Alderson Point, First Rank. Large force Imperials emerging from Jump at three second intervals. Squadrons engaging during Jump Lag.”
Standard Imperial convoy Jump procedure, Diettinger recalled. No nuclear precedents; why should there be? They think they’re coming into a friendly system.
“Force mix?”
“Enemy battle group . .first wave, all capital ships; four battleships, one carrier, six heavy cruisers...”
The answer surprised him. This was no ordinary convoy; this was an Imperial Battle Fleet. Diettinger whirled on Second Rank. “Lay in a course for the system asteroid belt at seven-Gs emergency acceleration. Transmit data for same to autopilot on Canada.
“Quilland. Enemy fleet arriving in system, stand by for composition. Deploy for siege. Under no circumstances are you to lower the spaceports Field.”
While Quilland set Diettinger’s orders in motion, First Rank returned to Fighter Rank Severin.”Enemy fleet status?”
“Capital ships’ Fields have gone up.” An automatic and expected result of a ship being attacked while her crew was still in Jump Lag. ”Enemy ships still emerging, First Rank... ten light cruisers... twenty destroyers... six troop transports...”
Six troop transports? His force on Tanith could not hold out for long against that level of reinforcement; without Fomoria’s aerospace support they would inevitably be overwhelmed. Unless...
“Fighter Rank, break-off attack on the capital ships and engage transports. Override the targeting sensors on half of the mines and guide them to the transports.”
“Affirm.”
There was nothing to do now but wait. In minutes, the human norms aboard the first wave would be recovering sufficiently to evade the mines and launch their own fighters. Severin’s voice came back a moment later.
“All enemy Fields up, First Rank. First wave maneuvering into fleet ops formation. Second wave beginn
ing to maneuver. Enemy fighters emerging from carrier.”
“Mines?”
“Closing on all ships. Capitals taking hits... transports evading, First Rank.”
Evading? Then it hit him, of course, they were evading. They bore no cargo to reduce their maneuverability. They were not coming for the borloi; the drug’s effect on human norms was so potent that there was more here than they could use in centuries. The real cargo of value on Tanith was the two brigades of trained fighting men, desperately needed by the Imperials, perhaps to fight the Saurons, perhaps to hold their crumbling Empire together as world after world used the war to declare their own independence.
“Fighter Rank Severin, break-off all squadrons and rendezvous at asteroid belt sector five. Do not attempt to engage.”
Diettinger made contact with Quilland once more and informed him of the situation. “We will make a supply pass to your forces before removing to the asteroid belt. Until our own reinforcements arrive, mount only harassment attacks. You may expect greater effort on the part of the Imperials to seize the spaceport. Whatever happens, the borloi must be retained.”
“Understood.” Quilland answered.
Diettinger broke the connection.
He turned to Second Rank, who was watching him with an utterly indefinable look.
Well, Diettinger thought, at least now my request for reinforcements can’t be called misuse of resources. That ought to make her happy.
The Imperial Fleet was less than an hour behind as Fomoria finished her supply drop at Tanith and prepared for the seven-G dash to the safety of the asteroids.
“Status of Tanith patrol ships?” Diettinger asked.
“One Chinthe shadowing us, First Rank. Strela and second destroyer rendezvousing with Imperial Fleet.
“And the Konigsberg?”
“Still drifting at .001 gravity, no emissions. Effectively dead in space, First Rank.”
Diettinger nodded. “Good. Make for the belt; fire on the Chinthe until she’s vapor, or driven off.”
II
For two days, the Imperials hunted the Fomoria and her prize ship, the captured Canada; the deadly game frustrated each time by the asteroid belt. On Tanith, the Sauron troops and their Cyborg support held off the Imperial ground forces with almost insulting ease. The Tanith troops were far from inept. It was simply that there were so many Cyborgs. Imperial ground forces usually encountered the Super Soldiers as special forces units, or ad hoc groups integrated with Sauron allies for support duty, or with regular Sauron Soldiers for a breakthrough. Regular Soldiers were hard enough to contain.
But, as Adderly knew, Sauron heavy cruisers were special operations craft, and carried four times the number of Cyborgs in their troop complement as any other capital ship. On Tanith, no less than a hundred of these “death’s-heads” had been deployed, and the Tanith military simply could not bring sufficient force to bear to root them out without orbital strikes from their fleet, which if provided would pierce the spaceport’s Field. This would undoubtedly destroy the facility as well as the Saurons, thereby marooning the Imperial troops for weeks or even months on the inhospitable jungle planet and cripple the planet until the port was repaired.
So, far above the orange clouds of Tanith, the Imperial Fleet circled, and waited.
III
“First Rank, massive radiation readings at Alderson Point Three. Sauron-wavelength precedents,” reported Communications.
“Enemy presence at Point Three?” Diettinger asked.
“INSS New Chicago, sir. Three squadrons Imperial Heavy Fighters.”
“Current overwatch?”
“Two Chinthes, sir; twenty thousand kilometers positive. Strela is holding at fifteen thousand kilometers negative.”
The Imperials were searching for them, but the asteroid belt blocked their view; Fomoria and Canada had merely to extend passive sensors out from behind their asteroid hiding places to know when their “shadows” were getting too close.
“Five thousand kilometers negative, make for Alderson Point Three at three-Gs. Canada to mirror our maneuver after five minute delay.” The Imperial light cruiser would have to choose whether to pursue from above or below the belt. Whichever way she took, she was outgunned.
“Weapons?”
“Ready.”
“You have discretion here and for Canada. If the Imperials pursue either ship, concentrate fire and destroy them, priority to the Strela”
“Affirm.”
IV
William Adderly stood on the bridge of the Strela, cursing the luck that had left him alive.
The arrival of the Imperial convoy to pick up Tanith’s troops had secured the system from the Saurons and trapped their troops on the planet, but it had also brought Admiral Sir Owen Kellogg, whose relationship with Adderly quickly became as inimical as Diettinger’s. The Admiral’s reaction to the loss of the Canada was cold fury.
Within an hour of the task force’s arrival, Kellogg had summoned Adderly to his quarters aboard his flagship, the Aleksandr Nevsky. After listening to his report, Kellogg had dismissed his secretary and launched into a tirade.
Adderly’s report on the Sauron EVA Marines substantiated several rumors that Imperial Intelligence had learned about Sauron naval tactics, but Kellogg dismissed their importance. Instead, the Admiral raged that their efficiency could only have been the result of Adderly’s incompetence . .or worse.
Kellogg brought up the matter of Adderly’s capture and incredible release, compounded by Adderly’s claim that the Sauron commander had asked about nothing more substantive than the borloi. Adderly had exploded at the Admiral’s implication, and Kellogg’s retorts had culminated with his notification to Adderly that a full Board of Inquiry would convene as soon as the Tanith System was secured.
But the most the Admiral could do for now was pull rank. He couldn’t afford to relieve Adderly, so he had deposited him and the other survivors of the Canada debacle aboard the Strela, leaving Adderly in command of the remnants of the Tanith Patrol, which was dispatched to the asteroid belt to hunt down the Fomoria. They were forbidden to engage, only to shadow the Saurons and their prize, with orders to alert the Aleksandr Nevsky immediately upon sighting them.
Adderly scowled as he stared at the combat hologram. And here I can be the first to see when my ship, which I lost, makes a run for it. Good old thoughtful Admiral Kellogg!
“Son of a bitch,” he murmured.
Casardi looked over. He could feel Adderly’s strain, and his desire to conn the Strela himself, but he knew Adderly would never usurp his authority as Captain. Knowing it, Casardi respected him all the more. As far as he was concerned, Adderly wouldn’t have to pull rank. If Adderly ordered him to fly them into Tanith’s sun, he’d have done it in an instant, knowing he had a reason, and that the reason would see them through.
After all, Adderly was the man who had led Strela into combat, against a Sauron heavy cruiser, and brought her back unscathed. Strela’s hoodoo was lifted, and every man jack aboard her knew it. An unofficial party had gone on for thirty hours, until every shift had its chance to participate and toast the Old Man’s name. Secretly, of course. Neither Casardi nor his men would have embarrassed Adderly by saying anything to his face.
Adderly’s bridge crew, however, was another story; they were nursing hangovers they would spend weeks forgetting.
The First Mate turned to Casardi. “Captain, I have multiple nukes at Alderson Point Three; ships on station there report very high-yield precedents.” He listened for a moment, then continued. “New Chicago reports heavy damage to her fighters, recalling them now . .Fields going to . .sir! Fields went straight into violet, one of the nukes was a direct hit on New Chi’s Field - at least a hundred megs!”
Captain Casardi met Adderly’s eye.
“This is it,” Casardi said.
Adderly nodded.”They’ll move, now. Signal the ‘Nevsky. Tell them we’re preparing to shadow the Sauron and - her prize.” He just couldn�
�t bring himself to say her name.
The INSS New Chicago had backed off from Alderson Point Three, her batteries out of range, watching as the Sauron reinforcements emerged from Jump. Admiral Kellogg ordered New Chicago’s commander to hold his position until relieved, so the carrier had recalled her surviving fighters, refueled and rearmed them, and sent them out again.
“Fomoria still accelerating, Captain.”
“Where’s the Canada?” Casardi asked the empty screens.
“There, sir. Canada going five thousand klicks positive, matching speed and maneuver on the Fomoria”
The first Sauron ship through the Alderson Point was the Leviathan and she emerged with her Field activated, spewing more precedent nukes; few ships carried large enough Field generators to do so with impunity, but this was one of them.
The commander of the New Chicago immediately ordered his flight controllers to warn off the fighters, but it was too late for half of them. The rumor that Saurons recovered from Jump Lag more quickly than human norms was apparently true, for the batteries and missiles of the Sauron battleship almost immediately began sweeping New Chicago’s fighters from space.
Kellogg had his fleet closing on the Alderson Point at four-Gs, but New Chicago’s skipper knew that it would not be enough. Leviathan was deploying thousands of perimeter mines, clearing the way for the reinforcements which would follow her. New Chicago was forced to open range as the Leviathan continued to advance, but her sensors still picked up the arrival of at least a dozen Sauron capital warships in the first wave.
Aboard the Strela, Casardi’s communications officer turned from his board. “Sir, the Fomoria is in contact with the Sauron battleship; I believe it’s the Leviathan, sir.”
Casardi and Adderly shared a look. The Leviathan had been the vanguard of the Sauron invasion force that had captured Meiji over three years ago. Nothing had been heard from the Imperial world since, and the Sauron battleship had been on hand for most of the Imperial disasters that followed. To say she possessed a dire reputation in the Imperial Navy was to damn her with faint praise.