“It is a hard time for us all,” said Jennifer with a tight smile. “We are not special in that regard.”
There would be no state funeral for Augustine. Instead, he would be remembered along with all of the other casualties in memorial services across the Empire. The Imperial family would have their own private service for the fallen prince.
It could have been much worse. If the wormhole bomb had gone off, Jewel and New Terra both would have taken a beating. Both worlds would probably have lost everything on their facing hemispheres, the capital world certainly. The people on the opposite hemisphere of Jewel wouldn’t have gotten away scot free. Most of them would have died when the blast wave reached around the planet and blew most of the atmosphere off. Central Docks would have been destroyed, along with every slip and factory in the area. Central Docks had taken a lot of damage, but it was still in business. Ships were still being refitted, or finished. Some had been destroyed, many more heavily damage, but the damage could be repaired. And the Donut? And battered as it was, it was already churning out wormholes.
“We have a com coming in from the CNO, your Majesty,” announced the pilot.
“Sondra?” said Sean in his mind as the connection was made.
“We have the details worked out on that plan we discussed, your Majesty. It appears to be feasible. We can be ready to launch in one week.”
Sean produced a killer’s smile that caused the Lord Mayor to recoil from its savagery. Let’s see how you like being punched in the face, he thought, imagining the Caca Emperor looking on a similar scene in his capital.
* * *
Lucille watched on the camera view as twenty lasers, each the size of a battleship, pumped almost unimaginable torrents of photons into the center of the production chamber. They had already fired for minutes, their beams striking the center, compressing space itself with their interaction.
“There it goes,” said the Tech who was supervising the process. As he said that a tiny distortion appeared at the center of the chamber, absorbing the beams, not letting a photon escape.
Fifteen more to go, and we’ll have the guts of a pair wormhole generators, thought Yu. Those would take longer to construct, though they already had the framework and most of the manipulating arms to work with.
The ion drives came on while the powered back lasers held the new micro-black hole in the center of the chamber, aboard the satellite that had been constructed for just this purpose. It had been used to create all of the wormholes used to rip apart space and create each end of the wormhole bridge. Now the hole would be flooded with thousands of tons of negative ions. They would disappear through the miniature event horizon, while their magnetic effects continued to manifest in normal space, allowing them to be manipulated by the arms of the wormhole creation chamber. It would take most of a day to finish this job, then the holes would be held in a magnetic field and fed enough matter to compensate for the amount that evaporated away each day. Otherwise they would soon shrink to an unmanageable mass and explode.
They were still producing wormholes with the remaining generator chambers, each creating six a day, for a total of thirty between the five pairs of units. But they needed this sixth one so they would have a maintenance rotation that would keep them all functioning, and avoid the disaster that could come from overworked units.
We lost almost ten percent of our generators, thought Yu, walking out of the control room. Fortunately, we had enough redundancy built into the system that it won’t affect our production, too much. They had also lost about eight percent of the crystal matrix batteries that stored the energy need to push the wormhole production process over the edge. Still not a real concern at the moment. But possibly worrisome for the future. Each battery pack massed millions of tons, and the crystals took a year to grow to that configuration. The power generators, each larger that a battleship, could be built in a little over a month each, but they had been constructed for the station over a period of fifty years, and that had been during times when the Empire didn’t need all of their manufacturing capacity to build warships. She doubted she would see replacements for either system in the near future, which made protecting what they had even more important.
We’ll be lucky to get enough hull plating to repair all the external damage, she thought, glancing at Jimmy as the agent came up on her side as an escort. That wasn’t a priority. As long as the structure was solid, the Admiralty didn’t much care about how the station looked. They walked into the primary station control, surprised to see all the Fleet personnel hanging about the place.
“Director Yu,” said the new station military commander, Admiral Winfield Sung. “I was just about to page you. We’re going to begin reconstructing the station defenses, and I thought you might want to be privy to the changes.”
“What are those?” asked Yu, walking up to the holo that was displaying some long piece of machinery rotating in the air. “Are those the lasers from the black hole generator?”
“They are indeed. And as soon as you are finished making what you need, we’re going to pull them out of the satellite and install them in the station.”
“But, why?”
“Because, Doctor, we need all the fire power we can put on this big cow. And the lasers fit the bill. Each of them puts out more photons than a group of battle ships.”
Lucille stared at the unit. She didn’t like the idea of gutting the satellite. What if they needed it again? But she had to admit to herself that those beams could take out any known ship, probably with a single hit.
“We’ll emplace ten of them around the outer rim of the station, equidistant. Then five on the top, five on the bottom, and we’ll have total coverage. We’ll add in the same number of wormhole launch ports that can be used for either missiles or particle beams.”
“You think the Cacas will be back?” asked Jimmy, raising an eyebrow.
“No reason to think they will,” said the Admiral. “No reason to think they won’t. If they do return, they’re sure to bring along a lot more firepower, maybe enough to blast through the system fleet we’re going to station here. And if they do, we need to have something that will stop them dead.”
The holo changed, showing a cylinder that was floating next to a battleship for scale. The cylinder was wider than the ship, though not as long.
“And here we have the new defense satellites we will be emplacing in the next couple of months. Thirty of them in a globe around the station, one light minute out. Each will have a wormhole launcher for missiles and particle beams, as well as a ninety emitter laser dome. That will give it the light amp power of two battleships.”
“And this will stop them?”
“I think the next Caca force that comes through here will regret it,” answered the smiling Admiral. “For a minute or so, before they are turned into vapor and plasma.”
“Seems like a lot of resources to place into static defense,” said Jimmy.
Lucille shot her lover a glare. This station was her baby, and anything they could do to protect it was all right with her.
“This station is the single most important resource in the Empire, son,” said the Admiral, looking at the Secret Service Agent like he was a complete idiot. “You are producing our single most important tech, as well as being the transportation and communications hub of the Empire. We’ll have over four hundred particle beam accelerators in the near future, as well as going on a thousand missile preaccelerators in orbit. I can think of no one single structure in the history of humankind that was as important.”
“I think we’re going to get along fine, Admiral Sung. Anything you can do to prevent what almost happened here the other day, I’m for.”
“Hell, Doctor,” said the man in a drawl that did not go along with his Eurasian features. “I wanted more, and I may still be able to get some additional resources. But I do guarantee you that I will defend this station to my last breath. And since my wife prefers that I don’t get myself killed, I will do every
thing I can to make sure I don’t take my last breath on this station.
“Now, if there aren’t any questions, I would like to see as much of my command as I can this day. Even though I understand I could spend a lifetime here and never see it all.”
Yu smiled at the man, earning a jealous look from Jimmy. Oh, come on lover. This guy is married, and he doesn’t seem the kind who would fool around.
Lucille settled into her command room chair as the Admiral and his retinue left the chamber. The control room steward brought her some coffee, and she settled down to review what had been done, and what still needed to be done. She motioned for another coffee. She felt that she would be drinking a lot of it in the next couple of months.
* * *
Cornelius sat on the side of the bed and took his wife’s hand. She smiled at him, then at the toddler who was scrambling for attention next to his dad while Rebecca tried to hold him down.
“I can’t seem to remember anything about that day,” said Devera, shaking her head.
“It was a day most of us would like to forget,” said Cornelius, glancing around the private room that was full of flowers from well-wishers. People in the military, nobles, even one from his Majesty. He thought that was probably the work of a secretary, since their Majesties had much on their minds these days. He put a hand on Junior’s head as he thought about his friends losing their child.
“And how did you get me a private room like this?’ asked Devera, glancing at the window that looked out on a park. Humbolt was not a large city, which was why he had brought her here. Its hospital, serving a large rural area, was first class. It was also overcrowded, like every facility on the planet, and a room like this could have housed four or five patients at the moment.
“I think being a noble, an officer, and a friend of the Emperor helped a bit,” said Cornelius. “And no, I don’t feel a bit of guilt using those attributes to get my baby the very best.”
“And our home?”
“I’m afraid the palace took a beating, though not as bad as it could have. It will be some months before we’ll be able to move in, if we even want to.”
“What do you mean?” asked Devera, her eyes narrowing.
“I’ve bought a house here, overlooking the ocean,” he told her, hoping she would like this news. “Plenty of room for the kids, and we’re not on a bullseye.”
“And my work?”
“You can continue your studies here, and do rotations at the Army hospital north of town.”
Devra looked doubtful for a moment.
“Give it a chance, honey.”
“And where will you be?” she asked with a catch in her voice.
“I’m afraid I’ll be shipping out by the end of the week. You know how the Empire can’t get along without me.”
He could tell by her expression that she didn’t like the idea at all, and didn’t see the humor in it.
“I’ve been given a battalion. The second of the two oh fifth Rangers. And a special mission.”
“I wish you could stay here, Cornelius. You’ve given enough for the Empire. No one else has ever won three Imperial Medals for Heroism. You deserve a break.”
Cornelius closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. He wanted to tell he that he didn’t want a break. That he wanted to get back out there and hit the bastards that had wrecked Capitulum right in their broad faces. But that would only cause her more distress.
“Maybe after this mission. I’ll ask for a favor after this one.”
And he could tell that she saw through the lie, but was too tired to argue.
“We still have five days, and you’ll be out of here by tomorrow,” he said, scooping Junior up in his arms. “I need to get these two some food, before they turn feral and attack us from hunger.”
Cornelius felt awful as he left the room with the children. The mission they were going to give him was sure to be dangerous. They always were. And one of these times he would not be coming back. Which would not prevent him from going out on yet another one, because this was what he was good at, and the Empire needed him to keep on.
The End
The Story So Far
In 2254 the human species had spread to eight star systems after the discovery of the Subspace drive, allowing humankind to achieve pseudospeeds of over eleven times the speed of light. That was the year the human species first encountered the long lived Ca’cadasans, three meter tall horned carnivores whose empire had been expanding for thousands of years. That was the year the aliens attacked the Epsilon Iridani V colony. When the heir to their imperial throne was killed after the colony had surrendered, the Emperor ordered the complete extermination of the human species. After a short, sharp war, humanity had no other option than to try and flee the killer aliens. The six Exodus ships were built, each capable of moving fifty thousand humans in cryostasis, along with all the knowledge of the human species. One ship is known to have gotten away through subspace, a dimension through which the more advanced hyperspace faring Ca’cadasans are not prepared to follow. Four generations of crew navigated the Exodus III over ten thousand light years in a thousand years, reestablishing humanity in a system of eight stars in orbit around a black hole, the Supersystem. Once the home of an extinct species that had helped raise most of the intelligent races of the area to technical civilizations, it was also the perfect region for the newcomers. Over the next thousand years the New Terran Empire fights, wins and expands in a number of wars, improving their technology at breakneck speed, becoming the dominant military power of the region. Humanity also improves its genome, becoming stronger, faster and smarter, and seemed destined to rule the Perseus Arm, given time.
On the thousand year anniversary of the empire, Emperor Augustine I is having prophetic dreams, the gift and curse of his line. He has seen the ancient enemy returning, finding the human species disunited in its three governments, and utterly destroying them. Augustine has fought to expand the military, running into obstructionism from the Lords House of Parliament. It is an uphill battle in the Constitutional Monarchy the Empire has become. Meanwhile, the Donut, a century long engineering project, is nearing completion. The enormous station, built as a ring around a black hole, and using the swirling gravitational energy to generate wormholes, has begun to make the many portals that will be used to eventually link the Empire. And spies have infested the Empire, a race of shape shifters who make most security measures moot, adding sabotage and espionage to the problems facing the Emperor.
Sean Ogden Lee Romanov, the third son of the Emperor, is a serving naval officer on a battleship in a relatively quiet sector, with no thoughts of ever assuming the throne. He was a mediocre officer, despite his superior intelligence. With two brothers ahead of him in the succession, and a still young father, the throne seems like the least his worries. By this time the Ca’cadasans have made contact with some of the enemies of the Empire, and sent the information back to their leaders. The ancient enemy has been found, and can now be eliminated. Ships begin to disappear in Sector IV, and sightings are made of vessels that fit no known description. Many people refuse to believe these are the Ca’cadasans, and some think that Empire must have fallen in the near past. The Emperor continues to try to rally support for increasing the size of the human military, while Parliament fights him on the economic effects of such a move, and alien powers protest that the humans are planning territorial expansion.
There is an attempted assassination attempt on Sean, and a successful attempt on the Emperor and his two older sons during a tour of the Donut. The assassin is an officer of the Imperial Protection Detail, causing distrust to grow among the agencies charged with the security of the Empire. The same day as the assassination, the Leader of the House of Lords is killed in his home. Sean is now the heir to the Empire, and the man who must be seated as soon as possible on the throne, but he is almost a week’s one way com range from the capital.
The Ca’cadasans now attack, sending large fleets into several
industrial or base systems, and smaller forces to many other stars. The Massadara system, a major Imperial base, is one of the systems attacked. Sean is serving on one of the battleships that happens to be in that system, and is aboard the vessel as it heads into combat with the enemy. Word comes to the system that Sean is the uncrowned Emperor, and his ship, against his protests, is ordered out of combat. His ship, the Sergiov, heads out of the system before the main battle begins, a small Ca’cadasan force on its heels. The main battle is joined, and, though it inflicts casualties on the Ca’cadasan fleet that is only about a decade ahead in technology, it is defeated, and the system falls.
The Sergiov is battered by the enemy, and Sean is rescued from the ship by Captain Mei Lei and her hyper VII battle cruiser. The battle cruiser fights its way out of the system with the help of Commander Bryce Suttler’s stealth/attack ship, and, along with Commander Maurice von Rittersdorf and his destroyer, starts on the voyage to get Sean back to the capital and the throne. The Ca’cadasans track the two vessels, and Sean escapes on the destroyer while Mei sacrifices her ship in a battle with the Ca’cadasan supercruisers. The battle cruiser Jean de Arc falls out of hyperspace in a catastrophic translation, a low survivability event, but nonetheless manages to survive and starts the long journey home.
Rear Admiral Mara Montgomery is dispatched with her scout force to locate Sean and get him back to the capital, while von Rittersdorf plays hide and seek against the Ca’cadasans, trying to get the unseated Emperor to safety. Von Rittersdorf catches one of the much larger Ca’cadasan ships in a brilliant ambush which destroys the enemy ship, while causing severe damage to his own. Montgomery’s task force enters the system, and she dispatches the other two supercruisers, then takes the Emperor aboard her flagship. Von Rittersdorf begins the long journey home in his crippled ship with escorts. Sean learns that one of the nearby systems is under siege and, against the protests of the Admiral, orders her to take her ships to break that siege and evacuate the colonists on the frontier world. Meanwhile, the Leader of the House of Lords advances plans to put an Imperial Cousin on the throne while the true heir’s whereabouts is unknown. The Ca’cadasans invade and take the kingdom of New Moscow, and make serious inroads into the New Terran Republic, the sister governments to the Empire.
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 11: Day of Infamy (Exodus: Empires at War.) Page 35