"The Denubbewa have a new weapon. They can send a massive armada through a Cosmic Jump Gate large enough for motherships."
"A Cosmic Jump Gate?"
"What we used to call a wormhole."
"Ah, I see. So someone finally made the theory into a practical reality."
"Yes. The Denubbewa tested it by sending several motherships filled with warships into Region Three. Luckily for us, the scientists who created the Cosmic Jump Gate device defected. They were supposed to return to the Denubbewa home world and build another one somewhere else, but they decided they'd had enough of working for the Denubbewa and stole the ship that contained the emitter they'd been sent to construct. Allegedly, the one they've built is the only one capable of generating and sustaining the enormous gate needed to send a fleet through. They decided it would be better if the Denubbewa never got to use it again."
"Interesting. And they defected to the G.A.?"
"Not exactly. They were hoping to get clear of G.A. space and eventually make it to another galaxy. Unluckily for them, they stopped to rest and recuperate just as Christa Carver happened to stop near them to check out a derelict they'd seen on their sensors."
Holt continued retelling the story until he reached the present.
"So that's the situation, Larry. We have about twenty-seven hundred Denubbewa warships sitting in Region Three. We believe they're waiting for the rest of the invasion force to arrive, but that might be delayed because we now have the Cosmic Jump Gate emitter they need."
"And Christa Carver knocked out twelve Denubbewa mother ships with just four squadrons of these new CPS-16s you told me about?"
"Yes. And with three other SDs as well."
"Then why not just let her finish them off?"
"Because of the size of the Denubbewa force. She's a commander, and we're sending every SD and CPS-14, 15, and 16 we can assemble. In total, we should have a little over four hundred vessels. I can't put that kind of responsibility in the hands of a commander, even though I know she's capable of handling it. I was stretching things a bit when I made her mission commander of the four squadrons, and that was only a hundred ships."
Gavin chuckled. "I understand, but it seems a bit— odd. As you say, she's capable of taking on that responsibility. But I also understand that you don't want the Senate Council to be second guessing your decision. And I know Christa understands. It won't be that many more years before she has that fourth bar on each shoulder."
"And when she does, there won't be any task I'll hesitate to assign to her."
"So when do I leave?"
"I expect to have the ships ready to travel in two weeks. By then the Ares will have one of the new Neutrino Measurement Sensors installed so you'll get a visual representation of all Dakinium-sheathed ships in your vicinity. Orders were issued to the squadron commanders already on location to send ships out to check every one of the eighteen RP locations I mentioned to you earlier. By the time you arrive at your assigned location, which will put the Ares in a centralized area relative to all the RPs, we'll know which RPs to attack and you'll be able to direct the actions of the four hundred ships assigned to your command. We've divided them into squadrons of as many as twenty-five vessels. An SD will lead each squadron and may also participate in the bombing if necessary."
"Have all of the crews practiced bombing with this new technique you say Jenetta has devised?"
"Yes, they have. The crews that had been trained in the old procedure say it's substantially easier and far more accurate. They simply fly into the target using the double envelope, come to nearly a complete stop for a moment, eject the bomb, and then engage the drive again. A second later they're far enough away that they couldn't be damaged even if they didn't have the double envelope protecting them."
"How long after they release the bomb does it detonate?"
"About three seconds, which doesn't leave enough time for someone aboard the targeted ship to even think about disarming it, if that's what you're thinking."
"It was."
"There's no danger in that regard. If a Denubbewa did see a bomb fall into their area, there'd be nothing they could do. They couldn't disarm it and they couldn't escape the explosion. They wouldn't even have time to report it or say a prayer to their god, if they have a god to pray to."
"Poor bastards. If I was in their situation and still had some ability to reason, I think I'd say, 'Thank God.'"
~ ~ ~
Since the Ares was in port, Eliza managed to get a couple of days' leave from her duties as Executive Officer. After playing with the children and having dinner, she joined Jenetta and Christa in Jenetta's study.
"Ah, this is the life," Eliza said. "Go to work in the morning, then go home at night to family and home cooking."
"I can arrange for you to be permanently stationed on Quesann, Eliza," Jenetta said.
"Uh, no thanks. I was just joking."
"I kind of figured that was the case."
"You know me as well as you know yourself."
"And I would love to be back aboard ship again, but I also love my children and love seeing them every night when I come home."
"Kaycee called me 'Mommy' earlier," Christa said.
"I imagine they're pretty confused about now," Jenetta said. They'd gotten to the point where they recognized me as Mommy, and now they suddenly have two other mommies. I guess it'll be a few more months before they can understand why they have three mommies."
"Maybe sooner," Christa said. "Both of them are really sharp."
"Yeah, before you know it they'll be entering the Academy," Eliza said.
Jenetta laughed before saying, "We just celebrated their second birthday two and half months ago, and you have them entering the service already."
"The years will go quicker and quicker. Have you decided what you're going to do after they leave home?" Christa asked.
"Leave home?"
"To enter the Academy. Are you going to continue as Admiral of the Fleet?"
"I don't know. I still have sixteen years before I start thinking about that. But I know what I'd like to do if I had to decide today."
"What?"
"I'd take a fleet of ships to the Denubbewa home planet and do what I did to the Milori home planet. Except with the Denubbewa, I wouldn't go easy on them and I wouldn't stop while any of them lived."
"Wow, sis," Eliza said.
"Wouldn't you? After what they've done to our people aboard the Yenisei and the Salado? And to all the innumerous civilizations they've crushed and turned into mindless slaves? And for all the civilizations they'll destroy in the future if someone doesn't stop them? These monsters have one goal. Everyone must think and act like them or they're destroyed. There have been Terran animals like that on Earth. You either accept their way of life or you die."
"They're gone now," Christa said. "Most of them died when that terrorist group got a nuclear bomb and used it against another terrorist group seeking to control the world, starting a nuclear war that stretched from the Mediterranean to the Pacific."
"I'd like to destroy the Denubbewa before they can come here and establish that same kind of twisted population control."
"We don't even know where the Denubbewa come from," Eliza said.
"We may soon," Jenetta said.
"What? How?"
"Thanks to Christa, we have cyborg scientists teaching us the secrets the Denubbewa have claimed from civilizations they've conquered."
"Cyborg scientists? I've never heard of such a thing. It sounds like an oxymoron. I thought cyborgs were all mindless drones."
"So did we until Christa brought us several dozen cyborg scientists. Even the Denubbewa have a need for creatures that can think, develop products, and translate things."
"Christa brought them to you? And neither of you ever thought to tell me?"
"It's not the kind of thing we can explain in a vidMail."
"You could have sent me a Priority-One message."
"No, I
couldn't," Jenetta said. "You're not the captain of the Ares, and I can't send Priority-One messages to the XO unless Larry first authorizes it. And I couldn't bring Larry into it yet. That's for Brian to do. Protocol, Eliza. We must all follow it."
"Oh, okay. You're right. So tell me now. Tell me everything. Where did Christa find dozens of cyborg scientists and how did we convince them to work with us?"
Over the next hour, Christa and Jenetta told Eliza everything that had happened while she was away.
"Wow," Eliza said when Jenetta finished the story. "While the Ares has been cruising around on routine patrol in Region Two, you guys have been up to your eyeballs in cyborgs and Denubbewa warships."
"You're about to be in it up to your own eyeballs soon."
"What do you mean?"
"The Ares is going to oversee the destruction of those twenty-seven hundred Denubbewa warships."
"What?"
"Captain Gavin has been chosen to lead the task force of some four hundred ships. You won't actually be in the action, but the Ares will be coordinating the attacks and then responsible for cleaning up the mess afterward."
"Am I losing my squadron?" Christa asked.
"No, of course not. You'll probably have responsibility for directing the action at one of the RPs. And of course you'll have the responsibility of inserting a cyborg into one of the ships there."
"You mean like we discussed?"
"Yes. In the months since you first arrived here with the Denubbewa ship, SCI has downloaded all of the information from the data storage devices in every cyborg."
"Including Sywasock?"
"Including Sywasock. We have, literally, trillions of terabytes of data. Of course much of it is a boilerplate copy of data loaded into all cyborgs."
"What's a Sywasock?" Eliza asked.
"He's the lead scientist among the cyborgs. He's been instructing our people in the creation and use of Cosmic Jump Gates."
"Cosmic Jump Gates?"
"Wormholes," Christa said.
"I thought that was just a subject for discussion in theoretical physics since no one's ever been able to establish a— Cosmic Jump Gate— and certainly has never traveled through one."
"It was theoretical. It isn't theoretical any more. According to Sywasock, the Denubbewa fleet we're planning to destroy traveled here via a Cosmic Jump Gate he and his associates created."
"Seriously?" Eliza asked.
"Seriously."
"Has that been proven?"
"We're working on it. Our scientists involved in the effort have stated the science rings true and they now believe it will soon be a reality here. Imagine, we can use it to zip across G.A. space from one end to the other between any points where we have paired Cosmic Jump Gate emitters in the blink of an eye."
"Wow!"
"Exactly."
"Does the Senate Council know about this?"
"Most of it," Jenetta said. "They know about the Cosmic Jump Gate technology. But I didn't want to cloud the main issue by announcing possible plans to build Cosmic Jump Gate emitters throughout G.A. space. I'm sure they'll leap to that vision on their own."
"You're serious about building emitters throughout G.A. space?" Christa asked. "Isn't that inviting disaster? Criminals and enemies of the G.A. will be able to commandeer the facilities and use them for illegal or deadly purposes."
"I thought that at first. But I've given it a lot of thought and decided that the benefits far outweigh the costs of making the emitters completely secure. Both ends of all Cosmic Jump Gates will have to be strictly controlled by Space Command. Security will have to be tight, and only authorized users can open a Cosmic Jump Gate. And there will have to be the most formidable of penalties facing anyone who tries to use or appropriate the technology. But there'll be plenty of time later to think about that. Right now, we have a lot on our plate.
"Christa, you'll be leaving in two days. It'll be your task to plant our undercover cyborg in a Denubbewa warship for the purposes of kidnapping a senior commander."
"In the way we discussed? We deliver our cyborg like a bomb into a warship?"
"Yes. SCI has worked with the shipyard to develop a container to hold the cyborg like a baby chick in an egg. You drop it off, and the cyborg hatches from the container that protected him. It will be made from Dakinium to make sure he isn't damaged."
"Is that wise? Should we be sending our Dakinium to the Denubbewa. They might find it and discover that our formula is different than their own."
"The Dakinium being used is recycled scrap from the Denubbewa warships. It's what they have now so they're not getting anything new. And besides, the ship where the egg is laid will soon be scrap itself."
"Okay. What happens after I drop off your little surprise?"
"You pull back and wait until you're signaled by our undercover cyborg. It will attempt to kidnap the highest ranking cyborg on the ship and escape in a shuttle. If it's successful, it will signal you and you send a shuttle to pick them up."
"With thousands of Denubbewa warships all around us?"
"Our shuttles are sheathed in Dakinium. They'll never see it."
"Unless they have something like our Neutrino Measurement Sensors."
"Are you saying you don't want the mission?"
"No, I'm just thinking out loud about all the possible obstacles. How much time will we have before the main force moves in to destroy the warships?"
"Three weeks after your drop, the task force can move in and destroy the rest of the Denubbewa ships that came here as part of the invasion force. If our cyborg hasn't gotten out by then, it probably won't be getting out. Captain Gavin can give the command to attack anytime after that date."
"Three weeks. That should be enough. I hope our cyborg can find the most senior officer aboard the ship we select. Any tips on how to identify which ship contains the most senior cyborg?"
"None. According to our cyborg scientists, there are no markings to indicate the senior leader is on board. Perhaps the captain of the ship you select is the best we can do."
"Hopefully, the cyborg can deliver," Christa said.
"Yes."
"I've been saving a present for you, but since I'm not going to be here for the holidays, I might as well give it to you now."
"A present?"
"Well, sort of. You know we found no warships at the third and fourth Denubbewa battle group sites we located."
"Of course."
"Well, in my report I didn't mention that I ordered my squadrons to stand down and not destroy the motherships."
"All seven?"
"Yes."
"No damage at all?"
"No, I thought we might have a use for them later on so I ordered my ships not to destroy them. I left a CPS-16 with each of the motherships. I also forbid all target practice at or near the ships. I told them I wanted to find them in perfect condition when I returned."
"In your report, you said you had located the motherships and moved in to destroy the Denubbewa there."
"Yes, we did and we did. But there were no Denubbewa there."
"An act of omission can be construed as a lie in some cases."
"I realize politicians and lawyers use that tactic all the time to avoid telling the truth, but I only did it as a surprise. I figured you'd forgive me when I told you why I ordered my group not to damage those vessels."
"You have my full attention. What was your reason?"
"One of the major problems we have in Region Three is that we lack a real presence there. Mainly, that's because we have no bases in the region. Well, now we do. We have seven of the most enormous bases possible, and they are bases that can be moved to any location under their own power. They can't do better than Light-480, but they're sheathed in Denubbewa Dakinium and therefore completely resistant to attack by anyone who doesn't have double envelope capability. And they're each as large as the two asteroid bases you liberated from the Raiders and then turned into Space Command bases."
&nbs
p; "And there are no cyborgs inside? Remember what happened when we commandeered those motherships discovered in Region Two?"
"Well— we haven't searched every room and corridor. Actually, we haven't searched any rooms or corridors. Do you have any idea how enormous those things are?"
"Yes, I have an idea. They'd dwarf Stewart if you removed the asteroid shell."
"Well, then don't I deserve a thank you for saving the G.A. the trillions of credits it would cost to build seven bases like that?"
"I'm still working on how I'm going to explain to the A.B. why my sister intentionally misled the high command."
When Christa frowned, Jenetta smiled and said, "On behalf of Space Command and the G.A., thank you, Christa."
* * *
Chapter Twenty-Six
~ December 8th, 2291 ~
"Have you ever seen so much wreckage in your life?" the senior reclamation officer said to his aide as they stood near a viewing port in the Reclamation Control Station that orbited Lorense-Four. All wreckage from the battles in Region Three was being brought to this location for separation and recycling. The station was in a higher orbit so they could see the inhospitable planet behind all the scrap as the third Ship Transporter began pushing its cargo out of the hull.
"I read in the orders that each ship could be making dozens of trips."
"That agrees with what I was told. According to reports there are, or will be, thousands of ships brought in."
"I wonder how many ships we lost in this battle."
"I heard we didn't lose a single vessel."
"Really? How many people did we lose?"
"None. At least that's what I heard."
"That seems impossible. I mean— look at this mess."
"Well, if we did lose people, that will come out eventually. You can hide damage to ships, but when people die, they're gone— and eventually someone will miss them and start talking about them."
"I suppose we'll hear something if a lot of people suddenly show up with serious wounds at the base hospital on Quesann. Do you think we could fight a battle like this and not suffer casualties?"
"With Carver as Admiral of the Fleet, anything is possible. That woman is amazing. Ya know, I was a cadet at NHSA when she was there."
Changing of the Guard (A Galaxy Unknown - Book 11) Page 30