by Chris Hechtl
The solemn occasion broke out into claps of applause that lasted a full two minutes after that last simple statement.
The president smiled and waved, but he knew what some of them didn't. That sometimes the simplest things were the hardest to achieve. But they had that goal in their minds, and they'd fixate it into their collective consciousness soon enough.
“We've had our victory, at great cost,” he said, cutting through the smattering of clapping after a moment. Instance silence greeted him as he finished that statement. “The desperate defense of Sol has shown us that the enemy can be beat, that we can win but it will cost us.”
“We will endure. We will continue to rebuild. Already our navy is picking up the pieces. We are rebuilding. Better, stronger than before.”
That was true Admiral Lewis thought privately. Congress had already authorized a 10-fold increase in the naval budget under the Emergency War Powers Act. They had laid down a massive new navy. Companies like Lagroose Industries and Radick Industries were doing the work at only slightly above cost as well. They knew they needed to get the ships out into space quickly.
All of the derelict ships had been surveyed by exhausted damage control and search and rescue teams. Tugs had been dispatched to tow each of the ships that couldn't move on their own back to a shipyard. Those ships that had some drive had been patched up to travel with a small skeleton crew.
Of all the warships, only Freedom and Argus had survived. He was privately certain most of the converted civilian ships wouldn't be of use for much more than scrap. But until they had the next generation of warships in space, he knew beggars couldn't be choosers.
“A famous admiral during the early stages of World War II once said that he feared the surprise attack on America would wake the sleeping giant. The exact quote is as follows, 'I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve.'”
The Neochimp smiled grimly, making a show of his canines for the audience and cameras. “He is right. That is a lesson we are going to teach these aliens, these Taurens,” he snarled, fur rising as the cheers and thunder of applause and grim approval swelled in the room.
General Roman Taylor applauded with the audience. His heart was in the approval, but his mind was elsewhere. A.I. from all over the solar system were busy trying to infiltrate and build an understanding of the captured alien databases—those that had survived. All of the A.I. were working together and with organic cyberneticists to get the job done as quickly as possible. They'd made great strides in the week since the end of the battle.
The enemy had primitive electronic security, so they had that going for them. The biggest hurdle was figuring out their language and then building off of that. Each A.I. group had cloned the alien hardware and were taking their own approach to breaking through to understand the alien language. Their shared database had translated a quarter of the database as of that morning. His implants popped up with progress reports as the standing ovation began to wear out.
“Tomorrow,” the president put his hands up and waved the audience back down. When they were quiet he continued. “Tomorrow we are sending scouts to each of the hyperbridge jump points as well as ships to each of the colonies nearby to check on them and warn them. Our priority remains the hyperbridges however, for the time being they are choke points. If we can secure them, then the first forces the enemy sends to check on their missing fleet will be torn to shreds,” the chimp said.
That earned another brief applause.
Admiral Lewis clapped politely, but he knew it wasn't that simple. The only problem with that idea was that the enemy could drop out anywhere along the hyperbridge line once they knew about the deadly trap at the end.
But not initially. Initially they were going to follow the captured navigational data so they didn't get lost. If we can hit the second group so hard none of them can run for home with a warning and then pin down the other stops along the hyperbridge with their own defenses, it would choke the hyperbridge off and buy us some time he thought.
What he really wanted to do was to send an offensive fleet in behind Magellan's scouting group. That wasn't going to happen anytime soon though he knew. The first starship warships had been laid down yesterday, but it would take six months or so to complete them, then a few months more for their scratch crews to finish working-up exercises. There were already plans to refit Republic into a full starship.
And he had no intention of sending them into Rho piecemeal like the enemy did. No, he was going to send them all right, but they were going to go with as big a fleet as he could muster. And they were going to kick ass when they did go.
“I'd like to thank all of the volunteers who have stepped up so far to make defending our civilization possible. Both those in and out of uniform. Your sacrifices have not gone unnoticed. I can only ask that you continue to make such sacrifices in order to ensure our survival,” the president said, snapping Walter back to the here and now.
Sacrifices indeed, Senator Dewalt thought humorlessly. In the aftermath of the battle, the Earth First party had been completely gutted as party members defected in droves in order to not be held accountable for going against the navy or defensive spending. A new war party had been formed, one made out of hawks of which he was a new member.
“We need to defend ourselves here, in our colonies, and abroad!” President Camp said firmly, clenching his fists. “Mark my words; we will not turn the other cheek to this attack or any other. We will retaliate. One way or another, our loved ones lost will be avenged!”
Epilogue:
March 4, 2236 (Terran standard time)
The Alpha bull nodded as the Romeo bull's forces arrived. With his and the Delta bull's ships, he was confident of a successful attack. Dreamer's translations had paid off; they now knew that the star system that the Beta bull had likely gone to was the enemy's herd homeworld.
That might be good or bad he thought.
He had to concentrate his forces once more if he was going to follow. It bothered him that his support vessels were not fully restocked. The various reports indicated resistance was stiffening in the colonies, so much so that his people had been under fire while trying to resupply their ships. That was troubling indeed.
He would have to do something about that, but later.
After two days of waiting for the Gamma bull's forces, he decided he couldn't wait any longer. He left orders for the Gamma bull's cruisers and support ships to remain to guard the jump point and then took what forces he could to go after the Beta bull.
“We must cut off the head of their herd, their homeworld. From there we can take their colonies under our hoof at our leisure for our own,” he said in an address to the fleet.
The End of Part 1
Author's Afterward:
Wow! Well, this was a fun write! It is also short, very short for me. I'm not sure I like doing this; we'll see what you folks think.
For those of you who don't know, I'll clue you in. I had planned to write this book as a full-on 500-plus page book. When my sales slipped and then Amazon kicked out a new print book option, I had a talk with a few people including a few of the betas. I eventually decided to split this book in half. So, The First Terran Interstellar War turned into a duology.
And the first half I finished in twenty-six days. Not bad. I haven't written a book like that since the first four books. (I believe I wrote one of them in less than a month too. I'm foggy on which, Jethro Goes to War, First Steps, or Fools Gold)
For those of you who thought the 3D printer would be a distraction … it is, but I've used it as fodder for some of the scenarios in this book. I've learned a bit about it, and I've been humbled by it. I've oscillated from elation to being ready to dropkick the … okay, never mind. But it has been an interesting learning experience. We'll see how things go in time with it.
For those of you pointing to various parts of this book, I hope I've answered a few lingering questions. Like, where did Bisma
rk come from? Here you go. You're welcome. ;) There are other things tucked in there.
So, I'm going to go over the edits from the initial beta reads and then turn this book over to them to read while I get to work on the cover art. Should be fun. I have a few ideas churning away in my head. :)
I'll get started on Waking the Sleeping Giant next month.
As usual you can read more of my musings and maybe even talk to me at my blog. Or, you can help Duncan, Ransom, and Jory out with the wiki. The links are in the appendix.
Cast:
Sol Confederation
Government:
Fredrico Carlton: New E1 President of the Sol Confederation as of 2228.
Doctor Otto Miter: secretary of the treasury. Economist. Taught at Mars U. Ran Mars treasury before being tapped to run Sol Treasury department.
Senator Alexander Rutte: E1 Senator.
Senator Beatrix Nguyen: E1 Senator. Female
Senator Oz Sudong: Mars Senator.
Senator Maui Keli'i: heavyset Polynesian Senator with a lot of tattoos and attitude.
Senator Joe Camp Neochimp from Mars. Veteran. Co-architect of the Veterans bills with Senator Gaston. Chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs committee. On the military oversight committee.
Senator Marcelo Dewalt: human senator from Earth's North American district.
Senator Tamera Calhoun: Female human senator from Earth's North American district, ally to Senator Dewalt.
Senator Drake Wagner: Male human senator from Earth's Europe district. Ally to Senator Dewalt.
Senator Alexander Rutte: E1 Senator.
Senator Beatrix Nguyen: E1 Senator. Female
Senator Akins -Mars. Was Mars national senator before being elected Sol Senator.
Senator Brakin -American Senator with a committee exploring Lagrange points. Becomes a Sol Senator. Voted out of office in 2227-28.
USA Representative Ilia Siagon -California congress rep. Progressive. Korean from LA Korea town. Became a Sol representative.
USA Representative Evan Montenegro -Texas Congressional rep. Transitioned to become a Sol representative.
Representative Paul Baker: Former Union representative for Lagroose Industries. Male Neochimp. Managed the retirement funds for the company employees including shares in the fund accounts. Was Mayor of 1 of the Neo habitats before election.
Representative Sylvia Wulandri Neo Orangutan leader. Lawyer.
Jillian Novak Government oversight. Female human. Petty bureaucrat. Politician through and through.
William Brown: Neochimp chief of staff of Senator Camp. Brown eyed male.
Tia Jessup: Neobonobo publicist of Senator Camp. Brown eyed female.
Military:
General Murtough: Human. Former head the joint chief of staff of the US military, then head of the Space Marines. KIA.
General Roman Taylor: Former head of Lagroose security. Became a General during the A.I. War. He left Lagroose during the purge of 2210 to work as a General in the Space Marines full time. Colleague of Trevor Hillman. Current leader of the Space Marines.
Colonel Tao-ling Si Officer in the Space Marines. Retired.
Colonel Harper: Neochimp Medic and leader of a resistance movement in South America. Retired.
Lieutenant Falcon: Male human. -promoted to Captain.
Sergeant Ny: female.
Admiral Walter Lewis: Private owner/operator of the Liberty class Belmont Victory. Younger brother Ludwig, starship captain of Sea of Space. Has 2 teenage kids. Youngest sister Denise also a sublight captain.
Tiffany Lewis: Wife of Admiral Lewis. Civilian. Former XO on their ship. Took over as captain.
Lieutenant Taylor Lewis Son of Admiral Lewis. 19. TO on the destroyer Duty and Honor. KIA.
Lieutenant JG Josh Lewis Son of Admiral Lewis 17. JTO on Constitution. KIA.
Lieutenant JG Kenneth Lewis, Son of Admiral Lewis, twin of Josh. 17. JTO.
Midshipman Renee Lewis Daughter of Admiral Lewis 15.
Admiral Jan Kepler: Rear admiral. Second in command of the Navy. Her family owns a small but growing sublight shipping business, Kelper Shipping Inc. Former captain of sublight frieghter Kepler Express. Her 3 siblings run 3 of the ships, her aunts and uncles run 5 other ships. Her parents and grandparents were retired and investors.
Roger Daringer: 13 year old Naval game prodigy.
Captain Kioshi Varbossa: Gamer, also a ship's XO in a competing shipping firm. Captain of the privateer Courage. Note, family kicked out of military after Lollipop incident went private for a while before some went into piracy. (Varbossa on Horath!) KIA in the battle of Sol. His cousins joined the fleet however.
Lieutenant Wesley Rogers: Parents had been dropship pilots.
Lieutenant Shiri Oden: Arctic white Neoselkie on the fighter design board. Accomplished small craft pilot.
Ben Tillerman: Fighter design board. Quiet.
Pavel Scolnik: Twin brother to Padme. On the fighter design board.
Toby Mackenzie: Small craft designer on the fighter design board.
Captain Eben Renoir: Captain of Resolution. 1km asteroid ship. Acting flagship of the navy initially.
Captain Chen Mnard: Captain of the 400m asteroid ship Justice. -KIA
Captain Shidou Yuanja: Captain of Constitution. -KIA.
Chief McNalli -Bosun on Constitution. -KIA.
Ensign Adrienne Hatfield: pilot
Ensign Marvel McCoy: Pilot. Hot dog. KIA in training accident.
Captain Lily Wilson: Captain of Freedom.
Commander Barton Dalton: CAG Argus.
Commander Kirby Beaudry: Chief engineer, Argus
Lieutenant Commander Alton Krenshaw: Admiral Kepler's tactical officer.
Commander Willard Oh -Admiral Kepler's chief of staff.
Seong-Jin Oh: Male captain of Argus
Civilians:
Athena: former Lagroose smart A.I. that saved humanity. Friend of Jack. Became a professor at Mars University before her demise.
Clarissa Pan Little Green Men terraforming representative. Female human.
Trevor Hillman: Coder. Former Lagroose Industries computer department head and board member. Former free-range consultant. Cyborg. White as a slug, began rebuilding himself with cloned parts. As of 8/20/2220 a professor of computer sciences at Mars University.
Cassie: Neochimp personal assistant to Trevor.
Jenkins: Dumb A.I. personal assistant to Trevor. Usually used to run down code errors.
Yorrick Lagroose: Second child of Jack and Aurelia Lagroose. Playboy. Head of the shipyards. Break with his sister.
Zack Lagroose: Eldest child of Jack and Aurelia Lagroose. Partner to Max. KIA.
Wendy Lagroose: Youngest child of Jack Lagroose. CEO of Lagroose Industries. Fizz, Giggles, Trilla -pet Fizzgigs.
Rick Krawley: Lagroose Industries Union head. On the board. Replaced Paul Baker. Human male.
Bryana Noir: Lagroose board of directors. Human female.
Dren Applebee: Lagroose board of directors. Legal. Human male.
Loren West: Publicist, Human.
Anita Thurman: Lagroose Industries Logistics
Marty Paschelle: Lagroose Industries Marketing
Padme Scolnik: Twin sister to Pavel Scolnik. Love interest of Yorrick.
Doctor Chad Glass: Neochimp geneticist who takes over from Aurelia in the lead geneticist. 7th gen male Son of Linnaeus Glass, first chimp doctor. Leader of Neos in Sol. No longer with Lagroose Industries. Embittered by betrayal.
Laurence Fishdale male leader of accountants. Known as a fair man. Likes to wear a bow tie.
George Brown assistant to Mister Fishdale.
Seanex Irons: Human male representative of the Irons family estate and Irons shareholders in Lagroose Industries.
Gus Beyrl: Ally of Wendy and Yorrick on the board. Former lover of Wendy. Personnel department.
Teresa Ellen: Female human, ally of Wendy and Yorrick on the board. Elfin female, had lived in zero or low G. Emerald cat slit eyes.<
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Doctor Loreli: Former Hyper-physicist working on better methods of navigation and travel for Lagroose Industries. Now at Mars University.
Sofia Nieminen: Intern, computer sciences.
Paki Bello Neogorilla guard. Son of Obi Bello. Paki means witness. -went to Antigua colony
Anton Human guard, partner to Paki Bello.
Jojo Igwe doctor. Neogorilla assistant to Doctor Glass.
Charlie Caesar: Neo chimp assigned to Zack as a bodyguard. Good, but rough.-retired to start a family. Desk work. Returned to security 2199.
Bonnie and Clyde: Bonobos in the Lagroose family household. Bonnie is the Nannie while Clyde is the majordomo. They are considered family by the Lagroose family.
Beatrice: Bonobo nurse. -went to Antigua colony
Alina Destiny Neocat doctor.-went to Antigua colony
Vivian: Human Nurse