Empire Ascendant

by Dietmar Wehr

  It was an hour later when he woke with a start from the sound of a call from the Bridge. He had fallen asleep reading reports.

  “Terranova here. What have we got?”

  “One of our recon birds has picked up multiple radar returns that do not appear to be from natural objects. Over a hundred different objects are moving more or less together at a velocity of just under five thousand kps. The debris field from a destroyed ship would create radar returns like that.”

  “Yes, they would,” said Terranova slowly. “Let’s get the ship over there for a closer look. Do you think a higher level of alert would be appropriate, Judith?”

  “I do. Condition Two?”

  Terranova thought that over. Condition One was essentially Battle Stations, which meant that off-duty crew would be expected to drop whatever they were doing and man their assigned battle station, even if they were sleeping. Condition Two, on the other hand, only applied to personnel already on duty and could be sustained for far longer because they’d be relieved at the end of their duty shift by personnel who had rested in the meantime.

  “Yes. No sense in going to Condition One just yet. How long until we reach the debris field?”

  “We can be there in thirty-three minutes if we really push it, Admiral.”

  “By all means, Commander, let’s really push it. I’ll be on the bridge by then. Anything else?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Okay, Terranova out.”

  When Terranova arrived, the atmosphere on the Main Bridge was tense. He hadn’t been the only one to figure out what a cloud of over a hundred radar-reflecting objects meant. There was always the slight chance that it wasn’t what was left of the Nimitz, but when the word astronomical can be used to describe odds against something happening, it was a pretty safe bet that the obvious answer was the right one. Martell turned to look at him as he came over.

  “Would you like a courier drone sent back to the Task Force, Admiral?”

  “Not yet,” said Terranova, shaking his head. “Let’s wait until we know something for certain. Is that our recon bird?” He was looking at the main display, which was now showing a tactical representation of the local area with a small green chevron situated relatively close to a small oval area shaded in yellow. A larger green triangle with the letter ‘K’ inside it was approaching from the four o’clock position.

  “Affirmative, sir. It’s matched velocities with the debris field.”

  “Have you ordered the drone to get close enough for a visual?” asked Terranova.

  “Not yet, Admiral. I’ll do that now.” She waited until she saw Terranova nod, then turned and snapped her fingers at the tactical officer.

  “Recon drone has been ordered to close for a visual inspection. We’ll get the images shortly,” said the TO a few seconds later.

  About a minute after that, the main display shifted to a real-time video image from the drone. A computer-generated red square pinpointed the location of the nearest piece of debris, which was still too far away to be seen.

  “Can we zoom in?” asked Terranova. The red square grew in size until it filled the whole display, but there was still nothing to see inside it.

  “Do we know how big the largest piece is?” asked Terranova.

  “Approximately a hundred eleven meters wide, Admiral. We should see something soon,” said the TO.

  The Bridge was quiet now. All personnel were looking at the main display. Terranova was tempted to remind them to focus on their station consoles but refrained from saying anything. If that object was a piece of Nimitz, it would become clear soon enough. Something started to appear in the center of the display, and it quickly became obvious that it was tumbling.

  Terranova jumped in surprise when the drone turned on its external lights, and the object suddenly became much more discernable. It was undeniably part of a ship, but which ship was still to be determined. One side of the object had been the exterior of the hull, and when its tumbling brought the other side into view, Terranova heard someone gasp. He understood the reason for the gasp and nodded. That ship’s hull had been armored just like Nimitz’s hull. It could not possibly belong to any commercial star-freighter. And unless it had been a warship from another star nation, it had to be what was left of Nimitz. Martell understood the implications of what they were seeing just as he did.

  “Set Condition One,” she said quietly. She looked to Terranova for his reaction. He nodded. When the ship was at Condition One and the Bridge crew had settled down again, he decided it was time to take some kind of action.

  “If there were any life pods out there, we’d have detected their beacons by now, correct?”

  “That’s right, Admiral, if their beacons are working,” said the TO.

  Terranova looked at Martell’s Command Station console. Kutsov was still using passive sensors only. The recon drone was focusing its radar on the debris field and that left 270 degrees of area around the ship not being actively scanned. If the ship or ships that had attacked Nimitz were still in the area, there could be missiles headed for his battleship right now.

  “Judith, go to active scanning all directions,” ordered Terranova.

  Instead of repeating the order to the tactical officer, she used her console to activate the radars herself. The main display updated the tactical situation within a couple of seconds. No missiles or ships detected.

  “Looks like they’re gone, Admiral,” said Martell in a low voice.

  “Yeah, it certainly looks that way, doesn’t it? We’ll keep scanning while we check to make sure there are no life pods in this debris field. Let’s call back our other recon birds. If we find a piece of debris small enough to bring aboard, I’d like to do that.”

  “I’ll see to it, Admiral.”

  “I’ll be in my quarters if anything happens.”

  It took four more hours for all recon drones to be recovered. By then, the debris field had been examined carefully enough to confirm that there were no life pods. Nimitz must have been destroyed so fast that the crew hadn’t had time to abandon her. One piece of debris was brought on board. Terranova’s untrained eye couldn’t tell if the ship had been destroyed by a missile or an internal explosion. He hoped the tech people back on Corona would be able to tell. A beacon was attached to the largest piece of debris so that it could be easily found again if needed, and then Kutsov headed for New Paris.

  Tau Ceti Empire Capital (Corona):

  Brandenburg finished reading Marcus’ report and turned to Delacor. “What about the piece of debris brought back? Any results from the analysis yet?”

  Delacor shook her head. “The techies need more time. All they’re willing to say now is that it could be from the Nimitz, but myself, I don’t see any other possibility. If Nimitz wasn’t destroyed, then where the hell is she? I think we should proceed on the assumption that we’ve found what’s left of her.”

  “Show me where Luyten’s Star is, relative to our neighbors,” said Brandenburg.

  Delacor activated the wall display and called up a star map. The lower left corner was green, most of the upper half was red and the remainder was yellow. A single flashing dot was in the green area. “Dorado…Luyten’s Star, is our planet that’s nearest to the point where the Shogunate and Atlantia touch the TCE. Nimitz’s attacker could have come from either of them.”

  “So, the location doesn’t tell us anything definitive,” said Brandenburg. “Battlecruises aren’t battleships, but they’re not pushovers either. What do you think happened to her?”

  Delacor thought over her answer carefully before responding. “There was no sign of any debris belonging to a different ship. Either Nimitz was surprised and hit by missiles before she could fire back, which might suggest a new kind of missile being field tested, or she ran into a far superior force of more and/or bigger ships that could shrug off any counter-attack. Atlantia, as far as we know, does not have any battlecruisers or battleships. They would’ve had to have deployed a squadron of
their heavy cruisers to be sure of destroying Nimitz without suffering any losses themselves. Intel has unconfirmed reports that Tanaka has at least one battleship. For King Trevor to risk a war with us when our navy clearly outmatches his is highly unlikely. I don’t see what he would gain from ambushing one of our ships. That leaves Tanaka. If he’s calculated that his navy can take us on, then making us a little weaker with the loss of one battlecruiser would be a rational thing to do.”

  “But you don’t think it was him. Why?”

  “Too obvious for one thing. Our Intel on Atlantia is pretty good. Their navy might be a bit larger than we think, but it can’t be a lot larger. The Shogunate is far more difficult to analyze, and that makes it the clear favorite, but everyone else can make that same calculation. If someone wanted to push us into a war with the Shogunate, this would be a good way to do it.”

  Brandenburg pondered that for a few seconds before responding. “By someone, I’m guessing you’re thinking it could be Delisani.” Delacor nodded, and Brandenburg continued. “What about Garnett?”

  “Possible, but I’d be surprised if it turns out to be them, or at least just them. Now Garnett and Atlantia combining forces hoping to pounce on us after Tanaka weakens us, that would not surprise me. The trouble with that theory is that it’s unlikely we wouldn’t have picked up hints or rumors that the two of them were planning something, given the amount of message traffic that would have been necessary to co-ordinate an operation like that. Delisani, on the other hand, is impulsive enough and devious enough to have thought up and acted on a plan to push us into war with Tanaka. All things considered, if I had to put money on one bet, it would be on Delisani.”

  “And do you have a recommended course of action?” asked Brandenburg.

  “Yes. From now on, we don’t send out battlecruisers by themselves. If they patrol in pairs, the chances that one will survive long enough to at least send a courier drone back goes up considerably. It’ll cut down on the monitoring of our frontiers since each pair can be in only one place at a time, but that’s a trade-off I think we should take.”

  “Anything else?”

  Delacor hesitated for a couple of seconds. “No, not at this time.”

  Brandenburg was surprised that Delacor hadn’t recommended a tit-for-tat operation against either the Delisani Empire or the Shogunate, or both. Was her well-known aggressiveness moderating, or did the prospect of an escalation into full-blown war give her pause?

  “I don’t want to start a war with anyone right now,” said Brandenburg. “But there’s a limit to how much provocation I’m prepared to tolerate. Tell your Intel people to beat the bushes for any information on the Nimitz ambush. Even if we can eliminate a couple of possibilities, that will help. In the meantime, we will say nothing publicly about the loss of Nimitz. I know we can only stall for so long before the crew’s relatives get suspicious, but I want this news kept under wraps for as long as possible. We pretend nothing has happened. If the perpetrator is expecting some kind of reaction, the lack of one may cause them to tip their hand. As far as your recommendation of pairing ships, I’ll approve that, but I recognize the risks. By leaving some system unmonitored for periods of time, we’re leaving holes in our defense perimeter. Maybe that’s what the perpetrators want us to do, but as you said, letting our forces be whittled down one ship at a time is not an acceptable option. Is there some way we can make our patrol deployment less predictable?”

  “Yes, we can do that. That’s an excellent idea.”

  “Good. What about speeding up our R&D? Is that possible?”

  “I’d have to check before I can answer that question, but if we can, we will,” said Delacor.

  “Then, unless you have something else to discuss, I think we’re done here.”

  “No, Empress, I have nothing else. Thank you for your time.”

  Chapter Three

  Kingdom of Atlantia Capital (Avalon):

  King Trevor looked at the Delisani Ambassador with conflicted feelings. He must have been crazy to let this charismatic man talk him into ordering the highly risky ambush of the TCE warship. The fact that the operation apparently succeeded without any clues to point to the Kingdom of Atlantia did nothing to free him from his fears. Too goddamn many people knew about the operation, and if even one of them shot their mouth off within earshot of TCE agents, his Kingdom would be at war and would be defeated in short order. And now the Ambassador wanted him to do it all again! Insanity!

  “No, Ambassador, I will not order another ambush! I don’t care how many of your new warheads you give us; if the Empress finds out we killed her people, Grand Admiral Delacor will come down on us like a megaton asteroid.”

  “If the Empress were so foolish as to let her attack dog off her leash, then your mutual defense pact with the Republic of Garnett would come into force, and the Delisani Empire would also come to your Kingdom’s aide. I’ve been authorized to requisition enough Type 7 warheads to equip all your ships the moment you give the order to launch another ambush operation, Your Highness. The Type 7 is powerful enough to punch through even a battleship’s armor. Anything smaller than that will be crippled with one hit and vaporized with multiple hits.”

  “Then if it’s so powerful, why doesn’t your Emperor launch his navy against the TCE itself? I have a better offer. You give us those warheads, and if the Emperor’s Navy strikes the first blow, my Navy will come to your aide. How about that?”

  The Ambassador pretended to seriously consider the King’s offer. He would say that he needed to consult with his superiors, and King Trevor would assume that he meant consult with the Delisani Emperor. If he only knew that the Ambassador now had a new master. The Shogun’s people had made him an offer he simply could not turn down. With it, he would become richer than he had ever imagined, even in his wildest dreams. The Ambassador had become ripe for this transference of allegiance when his only son had been murdered in an illegal duel. All loyalty to his Emperor had evaporated when that man had ordered the murderer left alone for internal political reasons, and the whole thing had been hushed up. But the Ambassador had found out the truth, and helping Shogun Tanaka trick the Delisani Empire into war with the TCE would be sweet revenge. Tanaka’s people had thought of everything. The ship bringing the first batch of Type 7 warheads had DE markings and was of DE design. Its crew spoke with the right accents. Even the markings on the parts used to make the warheads were in English, not Japanese. The deception was brilliant, but the King’s offer had not been anticipated. Perhaps Tanaka would want to modify his plan.

  “I will need to consult with my superiors, Your Highness. Naturally I will demand an answer from them as soon as humanly possible.”

  “Yes, you do that, and we’ll talk again soon. This audience is concluded.”

  When the Ambassador had left, one of the King’s cousins, newly back at Court after a long absence, found a private place and made a call to a friend.

  “Tully? It’s Jorge. You won’t believe what I just heard. I was invited by the King to observe an audience with the Delisani Ambassador! Now, before I tell you, you have to swear to me that you won’t repeat this to anyone! Okay. Listen to this…”

  Tau Ceti Empire Capital (Corona):

  Twenty-one days later:

  As Delacor finished her briefing, Brandenburg continued looking out the window at the Navy spaceport and the departing ship.

  “Let me get this straight. One of our people overheard the friend of King Trevor’s cousin tell someone else that the cousin overheard the Delisani Ambassador and the King discussing a second ambush operation to follow the first one. Have I got that right?”

  “That’s correct, Empress. Our agent was able to confirm that the King’s cousin was in fact at the Palace at the same time as the Delisani Ambassador. Whether he was in the same room as the Ambassador when this conversation took place has not been determined and is unlikely to be.”

  “Could this be a setup? If they’re on to our agent, the Ki
ng might have told his cousin to lie to his friend.”

  “That’s certainly a possibility.”

  “I don’t mind admitting that I’m skeptical of the accuracy of this report. It’s just too convenient for one thing. Not a peep about the attack ahead of time, and now, all of a sudden, the King’s cousin can’t wait to tell his friend. And to top it off, we’re now left wondering if Delisani will agree to King Trevor’s proposal that his Empire will strike first. With the time needed for the Ambassador’s report to reach Delisani, his response to get back to the Ambassador, and then our agent’s report to get back here, assuming that he can find out what the answer is, we’re looking at a wait of what, another couple of weeks?”

  “Approximately, yes, Empress.

  Brandenburg sighed. “All right, Let’s wait and see what happens.”