The Orphan Alliance

by A. G. Claymore

  “Perhaps,” Towers muttered, gazing absently at the suffering Dactari in cell number two. The poor creature was still in his right mind at the moment, but he had lesions all over his skin and dark rings around his eyes. He’d seen the fate of his comrades and the fear was plain on his face.

  Dwight shivered, despite the jacket he was wearing. “You can’t be thinking of weaponizing this.” He saw the look that flashed across the admiral’s face and turned to face him, speaking before the officer could invoke operational security.

  “We have two and a half million Humans in this fleet,” he said forcefully. “How many Weirans are there – fourteen billion? Same as Oaxes and Tauhento. Ufanges is even bigger. Can we justify killing them all?”

  Towers appeared to be on the verge of a retort but then, suddenly, he seemed to deflate. “There’s no way to contain it.”

  Dwight nodded. “It’s one thing to curtail all inter-ship traffic in a disciplined military fleet during our own vaccination, but to cordon off a planet filled with billions of civilians who have nothing to lose?” He shook his head. “Every ship on Dactar would launch as soon as word of the infection got out. You’d never stop them all. It’s no different than what happened back home.”

  Towers nodded. “Every planet in the Republic would be wiped out.” He seemed relieved, if anything, to have definitive reasons to abandon the concept of weaponizing this infection. Saving a couple million Humans didn’t justify the death of billions of innocents.

  Dwight suddenly realized what had just happened. This was an actual turning point in the history of our species. He suppressed a fleeting moment of pride at his own role. I stopped this from getting worse, but it’s still something that I helped cause in the first place. There was no escaping the burden of responsibility that rested on his shoulders.

  He turned back to the cells. “It’s time to end this.” He waved a hand at the victims.

  Towers nodded soberly. “We’ll give them terminal shots and say a few words before we send them off.” A short silence. “We’ll do fine without using this.” It sounded almost as if he were trying to convince himself.

  “Those ships that left a few days ago,” Dwight began, then hesitated. It had caught everyone by surprise when two carrier groups suddenly jumped out of Weiran orbit. After Earth had fallen into chaos, the fleet had gone defensive, but now a twentieth of the Alliance’s strength had mysteriously departed with no warning. Towers’ speech at the last funeral had sparked hundreds of theories, but nobody really knew what mission those vessels had been dispatched on.

  They might be enough to take a lightly-defended planet, assuming they had help from local insurgents, but they could never hold against a determined Dactari counter-offensive.

  “Those ships,” Towers replied quietly, “will have either succeeded or failed by now. All we can do is wait for them to report.” He looked at Dwight. “Our manpower problem will solve itself, given enough time, but we still need to keep our allies happy or that manpower will starve. An extended lifespan won’t do us much good if Weirfall kicks us out.”

  That was an answer, of sorts, to the question that Dwight had started to ask. Whatever those ships were doing, it had some connection to the economic stagnation on Weirfall. He knew the worlds of the Republic were specialized when it came to products. Weirfall’s main product was carbon ship hulls. That would mean they couldn’t produce anything else for ships. Somewhere out there were planets that could help Weirfall complete their ships.

  Those worlds, assuming they joined the Alliance, would also be exclusive markets for Weiran ships. The resulting relationships would go a long way toward reassuring Weirfall that they had made the right choice three years ago.

  The only thing that didn’t compute was the size of the force that had departed. The Dactari would be able to retake any planet with ease, faced by only two carrier groups. They would almost certainly gather every available ship together and make an example of such a small force.

  By the time word reached the fleet that the Dactari had massed for an attack, it would already be too late to send a relief force. He almost asked about it, but decided there must be something else at work that altered the equation.

  With a mental shrug, he walked over to the cooler to start preparing doses.

  “When you’re done here, head down to Lychensee for a few days,” Towers offered. “There’s rooms at our consulate in the old quarter. You should really take some time to clear your head.” He started to leave but stopped and turned back to Dwight. “I’m making that an order. I’ll tell them to have a suite ready for you tonight. Make sure you’re in it.”

  Dwight watched him leave. Clear my head? He grimaced.

  The only thing that might do that is a bullet.

  Meeting the Neighbors

  The Dark Defiance

  The short walk from the shuttle terminal to his apartment building was both exciting and deeply unsettling for Tommy. Usually he walked through an eerie silence. The immaculate ship gave the impression of a city that had been abandoned only minutes ago, rather than millennia. The quiet was, at the same time, oppressive and familiar.

  But not today.

  He was hearing snatches of conversation, even arguments as he left the terminal and chose one of the winding paths that led through a ten acre park. Massive hardwoods towered overhead and automated units were dismantling the large weeping oak that had been threatening to fall down for the last month. Reclamation units stood at the ready with fresh soil and grass seed. By morning, there would be no evidence that the massive tree had stood there.

  He rounded a corner and found a man laying on the path. Another man was walking away from him. Probably doesn’t want to go inside for a nap, Tommy thought. Someone who’d never seen anything bigger than a temple or amphitheatre might balk at entering a two hundred storey structure, let alone approach the windows from an upper floor.

  He came closer and his pace slowed. A red pool was spreading out from the man’s head. A large piece of wood lay next to his body, a smear of congealing blood and hair adorning the larger end.

  Tommy knelt next to the body. His skull was crushed. No chance for this poor bugger. He looked up to see the other man turn and look back. Before Tommy could call to him for help, the man broke into a run and disappeared around the next corner. So now we know what happened to him.

  He stood up and walked on. Keeva, are you seeing this?

  Yes, she replied. There have been just over eighteen thousand deaths since they were brought aboard.

  Tommy stopped walking again. Eighteen thousand? Keeva, we have to do something.

  I’ve assigned court officers and security staff while they were in transport, but it will take some time before they start settling into their new lives.

  People are dying right now, Tommy thought. We need to crack down in the meantime – show them there’s still a price to be paid for murder.

  I could use drones, she replied doubtfully, but they are blunt instruments, to say the least.

  You don’t need to remind me, Tommy replied with a wry grimace. Maybe they don’t have the computing power to tell self defense from homicide, but if we don’t declare martial law during the transition, we’re going to have more than a few innocent deaths on our hands.

  I’ll put it into effect, Keeva answered. I’ll announce it now, and put it into effect an hour later.

  Tommy continued, passing out of the park to find an angry crowd in the street. The yelling suddenly stopped as Keeva’s announcement was projected into their minds. He took advantage of the sudden calm to thread through them. He slipped quietly through the ground floor entrance of the residential building where he shared a penthouse suite with Gelna and Kale.

  He turned right in the grand foyer and entered a surprisingly cozy bar that must have been popular with the building’s original residents. Usually, the three companions would spend an hour or two here before heading upstairs, but now the place was crowded.

&nb
sp; By ordinary standards, crowded might be an overstatement, but there were an extra eight people sitting in the main room, not counting a man behind the counter. Kale and Gelna were at their regular table with two of the new arrivals.

  Tommy drifted over to the bar. Usually, they would simply walk behind the bar and help themselves, but it suddenly seemed improper, with someone else standing there. It was strange, having to revert to old standards of behavior.

  “What can I get you?” The man sounded friendly enough.

  “Not sure, really,” Tommy had no idea what the ancients drank. It had been a surprise even learning that they had taverns at all. “What do you recommend?”

  “Well, before I ended up here, the only things I served in my mansio were ale and wine.” The man gave him a cautious smile. “Now my head is crammed full of some pretty crazy stuff.” He leaned forward a bit. “I’m thinking of making ‘Storm Front’ my signature drink. I’ve managed to get it right the last five times in a row and it’s pretty exotic.”

  “Sure, I’ll give it a go.” Tommy was intrigued. He leaned on the counter to see what the bartender was doing. “So what’s it like, suddenly ending up here with all that new information?”

  The bartender paused with a bottle in his hand. “It’s really strange,” he began slowly. “It’s not like you suddenly think ‘hey, I know new stuff’. The knowledge is just there, as if it was always there. You don’t even realize it until you walk up to something and you suddenly remember what it does.”

  He resumed his work, adding layers of various liquids to a tall glass. “I was outside my mansio, looking at a huge pillar of smoke and then, all of a sudden, I found myself upstairs, and I knew it was my housing unit.”

  He crouched under the work surface and pulled out a bottle of clear liquid. “I came downstairs because I had a vague feeling that there was something important down here.” He held a small grating over the surface of the drink and poured some of the liquid down it. “I saw this place and I just knew it was where I work. Frankly, being busy down here is helping me to stay sane.”

  He smiled and nodded at the glass. Tommy looked down and his eyebrows shot up in surprise. There was a tiny lightning storm going on in the middle layers of his beverage. “Is this safe to drink?”

  “Oh, certainly,” the man replied with a proud grin. “You feel a little tingle when you get down to the storm, but it dissipates as you consume the upper layers. They have most of the electrical potential.” He chuckled as he looked up at Tommy. “And I just know all that, somehow.”

  Tommy held out his hand. “Tommy Kennedy.”

  The bartender shook his hand. “Marient Taverner.”

  Tommy picked up the glass and, with a grin at its creator, took a tentative sip. “That’s bloody marvelous!”

  Marient beamed. “It better be. I put out three fires learning how to get it right.”

  Tommy took another sip. “So, you found yourself in a completely new environment and you came straight down here and started work?”

  Marient shrugged. “You don’t just adapt to something like this all at once, you need to tackle it in little increments. I’ve been a taverner my whole life. This place is the only connection I have to reality. I might have gone mad if I’d stayed upstairs alone.” He waved his hand at the others in the room. “I need to hear voices; I need to run my shop. Most of the folks who’ve come in here have either found their work assignments already or they plan to go looking for them in the morning.” He gave a tiny shake of his head. “There’ve been a few fights as well, out in the street. Riots too. Not everyone is adjusting as quickly.”

  “Well, I’m very sorry you had to leave your world like this.” Tommy couldn’t help but feel like an idiot. What do you say to someone who’s just lost their planet? “Our own world is being ravaged by some kind of plague right now.”

  Marient nodded. “Kale told me. Is that why you’re here on the ship?”

  “No,” he said with a sigh. “We came aboard at a world called Khola. Keeva saw the chaos going on there and almost did the same thing the Firm Resolve did to your world. We talked her out of it and then decided that other ships like her might be inclined to the same reaction…” He trailed off. Obviously, the assumption had been correct, but it had failed to save Marient’s planet.

  “I’m starting to wonder if we’re doing the right thing.” He gazed down into the tiny storm from above. “It didn’t do your world any good.”

  “I’m given to understand these ‘guardian’ ships emerge every now and then to check up on us,” Marient mused. “Ours tried to wipe us out because there were a few wars going on. What if he was going to check on us in a hundred years? What if he was planning to come out next month?” He spread his hands.

  “Maybe your people have enjoyed a long history of peaceful cooperation,” the bartender continued, “but my world hasn’t seen more than a few months at a time without some kind of conflict. We would have been doomed, sooner or later.”

  Tommy had to laugh at that. “Our history is just as violent as yours. Our guardian seemed to approve. He said it drove technological advances.”

  “Then you were very fortunate. At least we all survived.” Marient was looking at Tommy without really seeing him. “It’s strange, to be pulled out of your time. I’ve suddenly found myself dropped into a situation that’s thousands of years beyond what my people were capable of, yet I understand everything around me. It’s as though the first thirty years of my life were no more than a dream.”

  “I feel like a sawachia, after its cocoon floats to the surface of the swamp and it emerges as an avian.” He smiled absently. “The trick is to take flight quickly, before you sink back into the swamp.”

  Turning the Corner

  Taking Tauhento

  Low Orbit, Tauhento

  Harry fought to hold onto his lunch as the bridge of the Pandora shuddered back into regular space. He looked over at Shelby, noting with a hint of envy that she didn’t even seem to notice the transition.

  “That is one big son of a bitch,” Shelby offered her professional opinion. Directly in front of them was a Dactari troop ship. Slightly larger than the carriers of the Human fleet, Dactari troop ships were designed to hold almost fifty thousand soldiers and they could carry twice that number for a short duration flight.

  At present, with only the city of Caurtez in turmoil, two response legions of twenty-four thousand troops each might well have been enough to reassert the long tradition of Republic rule. If those legions failed to make it to the ground, the situation might spiral out of control.

  If the thirty-eight thousand Human Marines of two expeditionary forces landed in Caurtez, along with the fifty thousand warriors crammed aboard Lothbrok’s nineteen ships, an uprising might become the beginnings of liberation. Once news reached the surface that the Alliance had achieved orbital superiority, the other cities would soon throw in their support.

  A hundred thousand troops didn’t seem like much when weighed against the challenges of seizing an entire world, but this was a lightly-occupied planet, yearning to regain its independence.

  The real challenge would be in holding it against counter-attack.

  Harry resisted the urge to restrain Shelby’s enthusiasm. He was little more than a passenger at the moment. Soon enough, they would part ways with Lothbrok’s force to head for Oaxes, and he would assume his role as commodore of his own small squadron. Even the commodore, he knew, shouldn’t interfere with a captain on her bridge.

  Until then, all ships in the Tauhentan theater of operations were under Lothbrok’s command. Harry had already handed the Völund over to Carol and, not wanting to be in the way of her first command, he had moved temporarily to the Pandora. He’d heard of the new ship and, when he learned it would be part of his own force, he had decided to come aboard and see first-hand what she could do.

  This would be a straight-up fight. They had to resist the temptation to wash out the enemy force on drop-out. Such
a surgical attack would have raised eyebrows on Dactar. It might even start them wondering if their ships were being tracked by the enemy. It was one of the oldest problems in warfare – how to use inside knowledge without giving the game away.

  Entire Human cities had been sacrificed to just such a quandary.

  They were at the back ring of a Midgaard ‘swine’ formation. The cone-shaped formation gave each ship a field of fire as opposed to the block formation favored by the enemy when their ranks were filled with green crews. A block formation allowed for a greater depth of defense and tended to keep a less experienced crew from trying to escape a fight, but it meant that the majority of their ships were unable to fire at the outset of battle.

  The block of forty-three Dactari ships had at its back the massive troop ship which was beginning to land soldiers in the troubled city of Caurtez. The sooner that ship was destroyed, the better. Every soldier landed was one more soldier to shoot at the Alliance forces and their new Tauhentan allies.

  And the destruction of the troop ship would be a serious blow to the morale of the enemy force.

  “All thirty-four ships accounted for,” the tactical officer announced. “Fleet is opening fire.”

  “Very well,” Shelby acknowledged. “Mr. Hendricks, get us behind that big bastard, if you please.”

  “Behind the big bastard, aye, ma’am,” the rating at the helm replied with a grin. “Engaging full pitch.”

  Harry staggered slightly as the small Hussar class vessel began accelerating toward their target on a parabolic course that would keep it out of friendly fire. In any other ship, the grav plating would automatically adjust to the acceleration and neutralize the sensation of movement. In the case of the Pandora, advances in propulsion had outstripped the abilities of the dampening systems.

  “She’s a sweet ride, isn’t she, sir?” Shelby kept her eyes on her displays but she was clearly talking to Harry.

  “Without a doubt, Captain,” Harry struggled into an empty chair and buckled in. “And she was built after the plague hit?”