The coffee finished, and I still had to wait a minute or two for my lovely wife to make it downstairs. She gave me a grateful look as she took the coffee and sipped it, then we headed for the command center.
Cassie must’ve cheated with her vampire speed, because she looked absolutely perfect without a hair out of place, while Jessica and Diana both had their hair in ponytails and no makeup at all.
“Morning. So, obvious question. Do we upgrade now, it’ll take three hours, and we have four times that and an hour before the enemy can endanger Earth or the station.”
Diana shrugged.
I frowned, “That’s your best guess?”
Diana nodded, and took another sip, “I didn’t do the programming, just mapped it out and supervised. So far in the testing, we’ve solved four problems, none of them critical, but there’s a lot of testing left to do. It’s a gamble, a critical system might fail, but then again it might not.”
Cassie said, “I don’t see that we have a choice. But we should limit the upgrade to the five fleets we have in the void right now and leave all the border fleets as well as our station alone until full testing has been done. Of course, we shouldn’t share the upgrade with any of the manned ships we’ve sold our allies either.”
I nodded, “It’s not ready enough to risk human lives, but our unmanned fleets are worth that risk. Worst that can happen is they all explode, and the world is doomed.”
Cassie replied, “That’s what I said.”
I snorted, “Four AM, and this is my first coffee. Just… being really clear about things.”
Jessica said, “So, our future depends on Diana’s scientists programming it right the first time?”
Diana bit her lip, “Essentially.”
Darrell interjected, “Give me three hours, and I’ll finish the testing myself. I can accelerate the testing by running all remaining tests in tandem, as well as thoroughly review the code changes and make updates on the fly. I lack the creative spark of humanity, but this is a task I can excel at past all human ability, to monitor and correct thousands of things at once.”
We all exchanged looks, “You were listening?”
Darrell said, “I’m always listening, Scott. Not in private areas such as your homes on station, but at all public and secured areas, including the command center.”
Oh, damn. That wasn’t creepy or anything. A shiver went down my spine, and not in a good way.
“Alright, let’s do that then. We counter-attack in six hours, we’ll also be able to upgrade everything?”
Diana pursed her lips, and Cassie shook her head subtly. Apparently, they wanted to verify his work and testing results before upgrading the station and putting human lives in danger by upgrading manned ships. They also, clearly, didn’t want to say it out loud and offend Darrell.
I temporized, “Alright, we’ll update all our border fleets, and the twenty million ships in the void, then attack in six hours. We’ll upgrade the rest and offer upgrades to our allies, after Diana reviews the test data. Darrell, you can start.”
He replied, “I have already done so, there are two hours and fifty-eight minutes remaining before we can upgrade. I am also not offended, so please do not be nervous. Trust but verify is simply a prudent course to take, given the nascent nature of our relationship. I won’t let you down. I won’t let Melody down.”
“Understood. So, attack plan?”
Jessica said, “Use the new jump system, put one fleet in front, the other four flanking from right left, top, and bottom right on the edge of one light second distance. Then… shit, that won’t work. They’ll be moving at over point one light speed, they’d be out of range in a second.”
I nodded, “How about we jump a light second ahead of them, in a circular formation that they’ll fly right through. We exchange fire for the twenty seconds they’ll be in range, and once a light second past us we can just jump three light seconds forward, reset, and do it again.”
Cassie smirked, “That should work. Our ships will outnumber theirs by two to one alone, with equal strength shields and weapons. They won’t stand a chance, when adding in our mini-platforms firing an extra two hundred and thirty-five trillion beams. If Cassie is right, their shields should only hold for five or six seconds, so we should get them in the first pass with fourteen seconds to spare.”
Diana said, “Their outer layers yes, we’ll take them down a lot faster than that with so many beams concentrated, but we can only fire on one layer at a time if they’re in that defensive formation. It might take a few passes to get all six million of them.”
Jessica said, “Umm, boss. It looks like our allies brought every ship they bought from us from the colonies, and they’re currently jump chasing the enemy to get in front of them. Obviously not theirs since theirs can’t jump, so they still have ships in the colony, just the ones they bought from us. They also have their Earth fleet ships purchased from us out there. Only your hundred thousand platforms around Earth and their weaker ships aren’t going to be part of the attack.”
I cursed as I verified, they had sixty-six thousand ships, which wouldn’t have a shot against the enemy ships even with the upgrades. Even with the seven hundred and ninety-two billion mini-platforms. There just wasn’t enough of them. The other hundred and thirty-four colonies had ships from the other four countries, with no jump capability or mini-platform defense software, so at least those were safe.
“We don’t have their feed, connect us to the joint command center.”
Jessica worked the controls, and said, “You’re on with the command center.”
I said, “This is President Akin of Astraeus. Call off the attack. Your ships won’t have a chance, and I’ll be attacking in six hours with twelve million upgraded ships. You’re just going to waste them.”
A voice growled, “This is Admiral Carter. We won’t leave the defense of Earth in your hands, and we have over seven billion mini-platforms to overwhelm them. If you want to help, use your probes in their home systems to create beacons and get ships there. The ships we had around their planets were destroyed by cloaked mines of some kind. They’ll back off if threatened.”
I snorted, “Six hours still gives you plenty of time for a suicidal attack if my fleets fail. As for your suggestion… First of all, I don’t want them to back off, I want to destroy their ships, which will be much easier to do when they’re stuck in a solar system with no access to FTL systems. Second, the right thing to do is confine them to their planets, not threaten genocide or destroy cities from orbit. I say again, call off your attack. My ships will have upgraded weapons and shields in six hours, and you’ll just be throwing away ships for…” I trailed off and stared at Jessica who was shaking her head at me.
Jessica said, “He cut off the connection. Right when you were accusing him of genocide while saying no to his plans.”
I bit my lip, “Call Natalya, she’ll listen to me, I think.”
Jessica shook her head, “It’s too late, they’ve rounded the fleet at a five light second distance, and they’re setting up right in front of them at less than a tenth of a light second past energy range. They’ll engage in less than a minute.”
I felt sick to my stomach, that idiot was going to let a lot of humans get killed, because he wouldn’t listen to me. I’d already told them the upgrade was coming days ago, and I’d just told them it’d be ready in six hours. I wasn’t sure there was anything more I could’ve done, but that didn’t stop me from feeling helpless.
Also… angry, furiously so, for their stubborn stupidity and failure to listen.
Jessica said, “My god,” in shock, as the hundred ships in the front rank of the enemy’s formation opened fire. I’d expected to see a thousand lancing beams from their point defense at our mini-platforms, while their twenty-four larger beam turrets shot at the dreadnoughts.
That’s not what happened at all.
Instead of beams, widening cones of subspace energy shot from their main beams, on al
l hundred thousand ships in the first line. The beams were obviously a lot weaker shot that way, but at the same time those cones of energy overlapped a great number of times, basically sending out a solid block of energy that hit our human fleet in totality.
A bit weaker, because instead of the shields failing immediately, they lasted for a whole half second, and then all seven hundred billion plus mini-platforms exploded at once, while the dreadnoughts merely lost a third of their mass. Mostly due to just how much mass they had. The explosions were dreadful.
It wouldn’t have been effective at all against my ships, once upgraded, but for our old shields it was an extremely devastating tactic.
There was also no escape, being in energy range meant being in range of the enemy’s quantum resonance beacons, and a third of a second later they opened fire again. A third of a second wasn’t nearly long enough for the ships to reform their fronts, and to restore shielding by forming shield emitters. As a result, the second enemy shot didn’t even have to contend with shields at all, and the dreadnoughts were completely destroyed.
In total, it was about one point three seconds from when the enemy first fired, to the total loss of their combined colony fleets.
I glanced at the clock, two hours and fifty-one minutes to go on the testing, then another three hours, and we could end it.
Diana’s voice sounded shaken, as she noted, “My plan wouldn’t have worked either. A five second close range is far too long, for our mini-platforms acting as missiles to survive that attack without the more powerful subspace shielding.”
Jessica looked over to me, “Admiral Carter is calling.”
I shook my head, “Answer it.”
“Yes, admiral?”
The admiral said coldly, “You need to do it, and don’t give me anymore of that sanctimonious crap. We need to do what it takes to save Earth, and we can’t get any assets there in time to make a difference. The only ships left with jump capability are yours, and only you have a ship in their system that can be used as a beacon.”
That wasn’t entirely true, they still had sixty-six space stations in sixty-six of their colonies, those could jump.
“Admiral, I have another plan. I’m going to destroy those ships in six hours, why would I want to chase them away? If it was our only chance for survival, I might try your plans, but that’s not going to happen. It’s not sanctimonious, it’s just plain common sense.”
He replied, “You son of a bitch.”
I snorted, “You’re the one with blood on your hands. I told you I had a solution coming, and I told you your ships had no chance. You’re the one that threw away thousands of lives, not me. Your leaders are the ones keeping me out of the planning and in the dark, not me.”
He growled, “So you’re denying the plan approved by the majority of leaders?”
I replied, “It’s a shitty plan, and a plan that was hidden from me, so I never go the opportunity to weigh in on it or vote. That means I have no responsibility to follow it. That’s also misleading, it was decided by eight leaders who have the confidence of the rest, but when the truth gets out that may no longer be true. I have a better plan besides all that. I’ll tell you what, if my fleets are destroyed in six hours, I’ll send a ship to their planets. It’s not like we don’t have twelve hours and forty minutes left to get it done, and I need less than half that time for my plan. If you don’t like that answer, then too bad. Oh, and good luck controlling all those mini-platforms you left behind in your systems for defense, idiot.”
I made a cut off gesture, and Jessica ended the call.
“What’s wrong with their platforms?”
I shrugged, “The station is linked to the ships, the ships are linked to the mini-platforms. Without ships they can’t update the trillions of mini-platforms they’ve been making the last week. They also won’t be able to upgrade them, or to define new threats to watch out for. They’ll have to scuttle them all, and then make all new mini-platforms from their space station. At least, not without my help they can’t, and if I were them then I wouldn’t hold my breath. They’ll still work of course, independently, and in defense from attack from already defined enemies, but a new enemy could fly right past them.”
Cassie tilted her head, “He was way out of line to make that demand, but at the same time he wasn’t entirely wrong. You shouldn’t be held to group decisions you took no part in or had opportunity to address, but it could bite us in the ass.”
I shrugged angrily, “The U.N. controls our policy out there, and I get a vote in that, and everything is out in the open. It was the military coordination with the other eight major countries in space that fell through. There’s nothing stopping me from doing whatever I want militarily with my own assets, and as long as I conform to the agreed upon policy outside human space, Astraeus is not a rogue state. We’re an independent military, and a sovereign nation, we can do whatever we damned well please in defense of humanity.
“I’ve half a mind not to sell the upgrades at all, or any more ships. Let the U.S., England, China, and Russia sell theirs, and keep that edge for us alone. I don’t trust them anymore, and we sure as hell don’t need the income. My one true regret in all this is that those idiots roped India and the other colonies that purchased my ships to join that insane plan that destroyed all their ships and killed their entire roster of active duty space navy personnel.
“Which by the way, is just one more plan they didn’t include me in or seek my counsel or assistance for. They’re insane if they think I’m going to follow their blackmail plan around Vrok planets. That’s a desperate plan to stop Earth’s destruction and make the Vrok fleet go away. I’d rather they stuck around to be destroyed.”
Cassie said, “I won’t argue, but you could sell our new ships to the other colonies. They didn’t do anything wrong, outside of let themselves be talked into a suicidal attack. That was even worse than I thought it would be, who knew their weapons could do that?”
I nodded, “Probably to face less powerful but extremely large fleets.”
Diana said, “I knew the beams were variable in output, I just didn’t put it together. Ours will be too.”
“I’ll consider the selling to the other thirty-two countries up here in space, if they ask, but the eight that stabbed me in the back, manipulated me, and kept me out of the loop, can go screw themselves.”
Cassie said in a faux snooty tone, “Now, now. That’s not very presidential.”
Everyone laughed at that, including me.
I snickered, “I need a shower, and breakfast. Let’s reconvene at seven, when the testing is done and we’re hopefully ready to upgrade.”
Chapter Nine
“Are you alright?” Diana asked as she touched my shoulder.
We were getting breakfast ready, and back at our personal quarters alone. Melody was in her room sleeping, and we’d let her sleep another two hours before going back to the command center.
I nodded, “I think so. It seems like I’m losing ground. Back when the U.S. was trying to kill me, do you remember? The Chinese and Russians actually took our side, and they volunteered their ships to help with point defense when America planned to destroy us. That was right before I revealed the mini-platforms for the first time. Now both of those countries seem happy enough to cut me out of decisions and hide things to manipulate me.
“I’m trying to figure out why?” I shook my head, “How about you? It can’t be easy being married to the President of Astraeus, and all the stress that comes with it.”
Diana smirked, “It has its compensations. Sure, saving the world has a lot of pressure to it, being married to the man controlling the most powerful military in the fifty galaxies, never mind just Earth, but this is only the second time in thirteen years. I can bear that easily. The rest of the time I get to do and research whatever I want, and my wonderful husband never gets in the way or tells me what to do. I couldn’t be happier, love. Both professionally and with our personal lives and family.”
“Your husband sounds pretty awesome.”
She giggled, “He has his moments.”
“So, any idea what I did wrong?”
She shook her head, “Nothing. The clue is in what the admiral called you, sanctimonious. You’re a man of deep conviction that won’t be tempted or pushed into perpetrating desperate and immoral acts. They believe you to be honorable to the point of foolishness, so they decided to trick you in their fear of losing Earth and seeing it become a breeding and feeding ground for the Vrok.
“I don’t know why they didn’t consult you before that earlier stupidity and desperate defense plan that stood no chance, perhaps pride. You did throw their committee off the station, after all. Still, that was foolish, because they knew we were working on military upgrades. It’s not like they lacked the time to investigate all options before committing.”
“So, I did it too, right?”
She snickered as we set the food on the table and sat down. She took a bite of eggs, and I followed suit.
“Something like that, maybe? Who knows, fear, pride, and arrogance can make humans do stupid things. You’ve never cared about your political power, so you’ve never been driven to extremes and to compromise your integrity. Maybe they’re sitting in their offices, in the White House, Kremlin, and other government buildings, and wondering why you’re even still here. They all know you can jump the station out, and don’t have to stand and fight. That says more about them, and what they would do in your place than it says about you, however.
“Either way, you were right earlier, none of it is your fault. Both their plans were stupid, and the one they just tried to force you to continue in their name is morally bankrupt.”
I got a message on my augmented reality overlay, and I shook my head in disbelief.
“It looks like they’re running. Some of them, probably to one of their colonies.”
“Who?” she asked.
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