But we put a lot of effort into making our ships look good, he thought, as Captain Singh stepped forward. We want to impress people with our sophistication.
“Welcome onboard,” Captain Singh said. “I understand that you have codes for me?”
Kevin nodded, then activated his implant and transmitted a stream of ID codes to the Captain, who checked them against his sealed orders. Captain Singh had been given strict orders to open one set of orders as soon as he reached his designated patrol area, then to hold the other set until he received the correct authorisation from Kevin. It was a cumbersome system, one Kevin had feared would break down when put into practice, but it had worked.
Barely, he thought. The data Mr. Ando had provided was worrying. They might have less time than he'd feared. Something could still go wrong.
“You can open your second set of orders now, Captain,” he said. “And then I have data for you.”
The Captain led him through a maze of corridors and into a large cabin, guarded by a single armed Marine. Kevin wondered, darkly, if the Captain feared assassination or if having the Marine there was merely meant to underline his importance, then sat down and waited as the Captain opened his safe and retrieved the second set of orders. It was good to see the Captain hadn't tried to open them ahead of time, even though Kevin knew Captain Singh was regarded as a trustworthy officer. In the Captain’s place, Kevin would have been sorely tempted.
But then, you always liked knowing things, he told himself. And sometimes that blew up in your face.
“My God,” Captain Singh said. “Is this serious?”
“Yes,” Kevin said, flatly.
The Captain turned to face him, clearly shocked. Kevin didn't really blame him. Covert operations didn’t sit well with most officers, at least the ones outside the Special Operations community. Being told to carry out such a mission had to gall him. And then there was the simple fact that the Solar Union was about to do something that might well start a war with the single most powerful race known to exist.
“You want me to capture a Tokomak ship?”
“Yes, Captain,” Kevin said. “Or destroy it, if it proves impossible to capture.”
“And to destroy my own ship if we are threatened with capture,” Captain Singh continued. “Are you – they – out of their minds?”
“The orders are genuine,” Kevin said. The Captain would have checked, of course; the orders contained the e-signatures of the President, Mongo and Keith Glass. “And yes, there is no choice. We need to know how powerful they are before they hurl a thousand ships at Earth.”
He sighed. “Your orders won’t have gone into detail, Captain,” he added, “but we’re on the brink of war.”
Captain Singh listened as he outlined the situation. “I see,” he said, when Kevin had finished and looked at him expectantly. “I will, of course, carry out my orders.”
“Good,” Kevin said.
“But I want to know precisely how you think I can capture a Tokomak ship,” Captain Singh added. “I would prefer not to charge into the teeth of an entire battle squadron.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to,” Kevin said. He opened his implants, then transmitted the data he’d obtained from Mr. Ando into the Captain’s secure datacore. “The Tokomak will be moving their battle squadron to Hades, then inspecting the nearby star systems for signs of trouble. You will have ample opportunity to ambush one of their ships in those systems and then taking it in tow. If, of course, an entire battlefleet should happen to arrive instead, you are perfectly free to abandon the operation.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” the Captain muttered. “You do realise this could start the war at once?”
“The war has already begun,” Kevin said. “Captain, the Tokomak have noticed us. If they had half the vigour of the human race, their battleships would already be bombarding Earth into submission. We don’t have time to wait for them to swing a fist at Earth, not when they outgun us so badly. The only hope is to lure them into making mistakes, mistakes that will open opportunities for us to deliver a crushing blow. There is no choice!”
“I understand that,” Captain Singh said. He started to pace his cabin, then stopped. “What do you and your ship intend to do?”
“Watch from a safe distance,” Kevin said, frankly. “I would not expect to hold tactical command on the bridge of your ship.”
“Good,” Captain Singh said. He smiled, suddenly. “What would you do if we lost?”
“Remain under cloak until the Tokomak piss off, then slip back to Earth,” Kevin said, bluntly. “I won’t mince words, Captain. You cannot allow Freedom to fall into their hands.”
“I know,” the Captain said.
He cocked his head, sending a command to the room’s processor. A holographic star chart appeared in front of them, showing the star systems surrounding Hades. Five of them were marked as inhabited, possessing inconvenient witnesses; the remainder were uninhabited, almost certainly deemed unimportant. The Tokomak would scan them though, Kevin was sure. They simply weren't imaginative enough to ignore rules created when they’d been a thrusting innovative race, bent on making their mark on the galaxy.
Their ancestors would be turning in their graves, if they were in their graves, Kevin thought wryly. An empire that makes Alexander the Great look like a piker, rule over hundreds of other races, trillions of intelligent races bending the knee ... but look at what they’ve become!
It was a sobering thought. There were Tokomak alive who could remember the days before their empire. But near-immortality had only ossified their thought patterns, leaving them unable to react, quickly and decisively, to any new threat. A war against a race on the same scale, if such a race existed, would be fatal. They simply didn’t have the ability to recognise a shift in the balance of power.
Took them long enough to notice us, Kevin thought. But is this what we will become, in time?
He’d wondered – and worried – about it, time and time again. If the older humans remained alive well past the biblical three score years and ten, what would it do to human society? The Solar Union, at least, had strict term limits for politicians ... but only for politicians. Would corporations ossify if their founders never died, never passed their powers to successors ... or would the children of corporate magnates remain children, never able to inherit power or wealth from parents who remained firmly alive. Would the Stuart Family always be dominated by Steve, Mongo and Kevin? It was a daunting thought.
The Captain cleared his throat. Embarrassed, Kevin looked at him.
“We’ll set up an ambush here,” the Captain said, tapping a red dwarf star. “There shouldn't be any witnesses, I believe.”
“Agreed,” Kevin said. “But remember, you cannot let the ship escape.”
“I believe it might have been mentioned,” the Captain said, blandly. “How much do they know about us?”
“Unknown,” Kevin said. “The SIA has been trying to deduce how much they know, Captain, but it is an impossible task. I don’t think they saw us as a priority until recently, however, and our counter-intelligence is pretty good.”
“We’re tiny on their scale,” the Captain agreed. “But if they see us as a threat now ...”
Kevin shrugged. “Building up intelligence networks takes time, Captain,” he said, as reassuringly as he could. He’d been surprised by how little interest the Varnar took in humanity, even though it had been the Varnar who had first seen humans as potentially useful. The Tokomak probably thought of Earth as little more than a primitive microstate somewhere in the middle of a vast ocean. “They would need years to get a reliable source of information on our affairs.”
He shrugged, again. “That may be why they’re sending so many ships to deal with us,” he added. “They don't know the scale of threat we pose, so they’re sending a fleet that should be capable of dealing with anything.”
“I hope you’re wrong,” Captain Singh said.
He looked back at the star chart. “It
will take us nine days at best possible speed to reach our destination,” he added. “I trust that will prove suitable?”
“It will have to suffice,” Kevin said. “There’s no way we can change the laws of interstellar travel to suit ourselves.”
“No,” the Captain agreed. “Can your ship match our speed?”
“I doubt it,” Kevin said. “We’ll probably catch up with you before the Tokomak arrive.”
Captain Singh smiled. “And if you’re wrong?”
“You get to tell us all about it, afterwards,” Kevin said. It could be inconvenient – or disastrous – not to have a watching ship in the same star system, but there was no way to avoid it. They’d just have to hope the Rory Williams beat the Tokomak to their destination – or pray. “Good luck, Captain.”
“We’ll need it,” Captain Singh said.
***
Martin was sweating heavily as he came out of the simulator, cursing whoever had designed the system under his breath. The biofeedback was always intensified in the simulators, according to the older Marines, leaving him feeling utterly exhausted. It was all he could do to drag himself forward and into the briefing room, knowing all too well that if Major Lockland decided to do a uniform inspection he was finished. But then, the rest of 3rd Platoon looked equally sweaty and uncomfortable.
This won’t end until you see action, he reminded himself. The remainder of 3rd Platoon were polite, but distant. He wished, more than he cared to admit, for some of the recruits he’d trained beside, people who were just as inexperienced as himself. And if we see no action ...
He straightened up as Major Lockland strode into the compartment, looking disgustingly fresh. The Marines of 1st and 2nd Platoon followed him, wearing standard BDUs. Martin was too tired to glower at them, but hoped they had an equally hard training session awaiting them in the future. He heard the sound of the starship’s drives powering up as the Major took his place at the front of the compartment, then felt a faint shiver running through the hull as they dropped into FTL. Maybe it was just his imagination, but there was something more ... purposeful about the motion, this time. Perhaps they were going on a mission ...
“At ease, Marines,” Major Lockland said. “Freedom has been reassigned to a special operation. We will be the tip of the spear.”
Martin felt a sudden flicker of excitement, mingled with an odd kind of fear. They were going to be tested at last ... and what if he fucked up? The simulators had been designed to allow him to fuck up – and learn from his mistakes – without any real danger, but a real mission was nothing like the simulators. Lieutenant Robbins kept telling him, time and time again, that no battle plan ever survived its first encounter with the enemy. War was a democracy, after all. The enemy got a vote.
“Our mission is to take a starship intact,” Major Lockland continued. “We will be launched from the tubes as soon as Freedom has softened her up, then we will go in through the hull and assume control as rapidly as possible. It will not be an easy mission. We know nothing about the interior design of the alien ship, or what level of computer security it possesses.”
Martin sucked in his breath. Taking a Horde ship was easy, even without the specialist hacking tools available to the Solar Marines. All a boarding party had to do was insert a link into the ship’s computer and gain access through the factory presets. The Horde never seemed to learn that their systems were wide open, so undefended that backdoors were completely unnecessary. But who knew what any other alien race would do to secure their ships?
It's never so easy to board a Varnar ship, he reminded himself. God knew they’d simulated that hundreds of times, but the operation was not always a success. They actually know what they’re doing.
“We will reach our destination in nine days,” Major Lockland said. “Tomorrow, we start rehearsing in earnest.”
Martin blinked. In earnest?
“We know little about the alien design, so we will have to be flexible,” Major Lockland added. “Get some rest, then report to the simulators at 0700. Good luck to you all.”
And what, Martin asked himself as the Marines rose to their feet, does Yolanda make of it all?
Chapter Nineteen
The Non-Discriminatory Sports Association today voted to strip sports coaches of pay, benefits and other rights guaranteed to them by prior legislation. In their statement, the NDSA asserted that sports discriminated between athletic and non-athletic and, as such, deserved not a single cent of taxpayers’ money. Speaking in response, the Coaches Union reaffirmed its determination to battle for the rights of its members. However, after successive scandals, it is unlikely the public will be supportive.
-Solar News Network, Year 53
“The system appears to be completely empty,” Yolanda reported. “There’s nothing within sensor range, not even a stray comet.”
“Good,” Captain Singh said. “Keep your eyes on the ball.”
“Aye, sir,” Yolanda said.
She gritted her teeth. Freedom had been in the system for three days, long enough for the crew to start wondering if they were too late. The Tokomak ship could have been and gone by now. Or it might have been delayed. If it had taken the Tokomak fifty years to notice that Earth was a potential threat, it might easily take them several months to cross a dozen light years from Hades to the unnamed system.
Martin will be disappointed, she thought, as she turned her attention back to her console. They’d only managed to snatch one meeting as the ship raced to her destination, but they’d had a chance to share their impressions of the mission. He wants a chance to prove himself.
She rolled her eyes at the thought. In her view, Martin had proven himself a long time ago, but the Marines didn't care what she thought. They would only accept someone who had fought beside them as a true comrade-in-arms, no matter his previous career. Even a former soldier from Earth or a mercenary who’d fought for the Galactics would be hard-pressed to gain acceptance without actually fighting beside the Marines. Martin’s comrades, when she’d met them, had been polite, but distant. They hadn’t been impressed by a lowly ensign.
Her console chimed. “Captain,” she said. “I’m picking up one large ship, heading towards the system from Gamma-Delta.”
“Put it on the main display,” Captain Singh ordered. “Can you identify the ship?”
“Negative, sir,” Yolanda said, feeling a flash of Déjà Vu. “But, judging by the signature, I think she’s a heavy cruiser.”
She frowned as she studied the readings. Detecting starships in FTL was relatively easy; the drive field propagated gravity waves at FTL speeds, alerting anyone with gravimetric sensors that there was a starship inbound. Indeed, tracking flights between stars wasn't difficult, with the right technology. She had a feeling that one of the reasons the Tokomak had started to take humanity seriously was because they’d noted the colossal upswing in starships heading to and from Earth, although there was no way to be sure.
“The power curve is growing stronger, sir,” she reported. “It’s definitely a cruiser-sized starship.”
“Understood,” Captain Singh said. “I ...”
He broke off as alarms howled. “She’s returned to normal space,” Yolanda reported. “I make one heavy cruiser; I say again, I make one heavy cruiser.”
She sucked in a breath as the Tokomak cruiser – not even trying to disguise its signature – appeared on the display. There had been painfully little data available on Tokomak ships, even in the Galactic version of Jane’s; now, the human race was seeing one of their cruisers for the first time. Despite herself, she was almost impressed. The design was impractical, by human standards, but remarkably elegant. She looked remarkably like a giant swan.
“I wonder where they fit the weapons on that design,” Commander Gregory mused.
Yolanda accessed her implants, drinking in the live feed from the passive sensors. The enemy craft wasn't bristling with weapons, as far as she could tell, although that meant nothing. There could
easily be weapons hidden within her hull, ready to emerge and open fire if something threatened her pristine condition. And yet, there was something about the starship’s movements that bothered her. It took her a long moment of staring before she understood just what she was seeing. The Tokomak crew thought they were unobserved – she certainly hoped they thought they were unobserved – but they were still posturing, still showing off for the sake of showing off. Their power curves were inefficient, yet it didn’t matter. They sure as hell looked good.
“Show offs,” the Captain said. He evidently agreed. “Can you determine the location of their shield generator nodes?”
“Aye, Captain,” Yolanda said. Human – and Varnar – ships were designed to obscure the location of their shield generators, but the Tokomak seemed to be showing off, practically daring anyone to take a shot at their hull. “I have them pinpointed.”
A Learning Experience 2: Hard Lessons Page 19