There were no African, Latin, Indian, Chinese, Russian, Earth, Corporate, or Islamic officers over the grade of Commander. The remains of their fleets were all under Jane's command. But with the exception of the three Corporate Escort Carriers, and the ex-Earth fleet Battleships which were given American crews, none of these ships were larger than a standard Cruiser, hence having junior officers in command. The few surviving Earth senior officers were still in the penal area of Borgcubia, and Jane had no intensions of letting them out, even if they no longer remembered why they were there.
The best were gone. The Gaia born Admiral of the Fleet, the Sci-Fi three star General, the British three star Admiral, the British Space Marshall, and the Australian all-rounder General. So too were the best of the two and one star Generals. Their aides were all gone as well.
There were two divisions of troops, but no talented General to lead them, either American or German ones. The combined fleet was huge, but there wasn’t a talented Admiral anywhere to be found. And worse, the ones who were left were looking eagerly towards promotion into key roles. For example, the two British one stars who commanded Super-Cruiser squadrons were barely competent, but had stars in their eyes. They'd stayed alive by doing what they were told, as had everyone here. But they could see how things looked.
Jane felt a moment of despondency. How was she supposed to work with this lot? She was now regretting there being so many here. The first meeting should have been of just the four stars. Too late now.
The junior officer in the room was a Japanese Fleet Captain. He looked uncomfortable among all the brass, and Jane looked up his record during the war, which only she could access. He'd made a decent second in command of the Japanese Corvette forces, but there was little to tell if he was up to leading.
"His name is Kenji Hikaru and he's up to leading," said Satoshi, through their AI link. "In fact, I suggest he will surprise you, if you give him the chance."
"He doesn’t look like he wants it."
"The ones deserving, often don’t."
"True."
"It did seem to have the desired effect," said Chandra, bringing Jane's focus back to the conversation, which no-one knew she'd left. "They started working on the list in a serious way."
"With luck," said Price, "it will keep them occupied for a while."
Jane said nothing, and all eyes turned to her. She felt like saying "What?", but kept it in. Her eyes sought Patton's, and then Price's, and they both nodded to her.
"We have some decisions to make," she said to the room, "but the first of these is a simple one. Are we the combined military force of humanity, or are we the fleets of different interest groups?"
"What do you mean by interest groups?" asked the insignificant looking woman.
Patton glared at her, but Jane thought it was a good question. She belatedly checked the woman's PC profile. Fleet Admiral Bonney Rainer, one star. She'd commanded a Cruiser squadron before they were all upgraded, and had been moved to Intrepid and stayed there, since the two star in command of the American Carriers had elected to stay on Yorktown when Intrepid had joined the fleet. It was a bonus for her, since she'd been supposed to take command of the much older Yorktown instead, and given her superior the superior ship.
"How would you describe yourself?" Jane asked her.
"American," she responded without hesitation.
"What's an American?" asked Jane quietly.
The woman hesitated.
"I don’t know," she finally admitted.
Jane looked at everyone in the room.
"Does anyone know what the word they think of themselves as actually means?"
No one answered.
"America was a region of humanity's home planet, before anyone left it. It was a sector of space colonized by people from that region. None of that matters now. Those of you who call yourself Americans are a group who share certain interests and characteristics, such as a series of accents, and mindset. You have different skin colours, racial mixes, but you call yourself Americans. Between the different groups, there are racial and physical differences, although most of the sectors had a mix of all of them. None of that matters anymore."
"Why doesn’t it matter?" asked Dingle, in his British accent.
"It's all gone. The timeline we all came from never existed. Everything which you people think makes you different, never happened."
Jane was guessing about this, but she felt it was probably true. The change to the timeline had occurred before humans evolved. The likelihood of the history she knew having even been close, was extremely remote. She knew there had been major intervention in the affairs of humans six hundred years ago, but she was pretty certain there were a lot of others further back in history as well. If they were all removed, the human civilization of now, was going to be totally different. For all she knew, humans had blown themselves up, and no longer existed. She knew she'd never know.
"This is the beginning," she went on. "Human history in this galaxy began three hundred years ago, but for all practical purposes, this is day three, of year zero."
She let it hang there while they took it in.
"Nicely put," said Intrepid. "Tell that to the council."
Ten
Jane pulled up a screen, and connected it to another one in the council chamber, while at the same time pinging the Chair for permission to address the session.
She watched as Madame Chair shut down the current discussion and gave the floor to her.
"Forgive me for interrupting you, but I'd like to ask a question."
"Ask away," said the Chair.
"What date is this?"
"What do you mean?" asked someone. "It's…" and he floundered to a stop.
"317 AA, after arrival," said one of the Gaia council.
"Does anyone from a station know what the date is?" asked Jane.
A lot of people looked very confused all of a sudden.
"Admiral?" asked the Chair. "What do you think the date is?"
"As I just said here in the military meeting, its day three, of year zero, new standard space calendar."
Again, she let that hang there, while people digested it.
"This is common to both Gaia Orbital, and all the stations and ships which arrived here three days ago. Three hundred and sixty five, twenty four hour days, per year. This allows for eight hour shifts, which the human body is best suited to observing. While planets each have their own day lengths and year lengths, standard space allows us a common date time system for all those not on a planet, no matter where they are. As we colonize new planets, they will also have their own year and day lengths, but the stations and ships will also be on standard time."
"What's your point?" asked a Gaia council member.
"My point is, we are Humanity, and our history started three days ago. Whatever or wherever you think you came from is irrelevant. We all originated from different places on the same planet, which went on to colonize vast sections of space. It's all gone now, swept away by the great memory wipe. As a species, we have a lot of different characteristics, but none of them change the fact we are all human. We need to approach the resettlement of our people in that light. If there is a need to group people, it should be on the basis of shared ideals and beliefs, rather than looks, accents and words which feel like they mean something, but no longer do. So some stations will have people on them who will co-exist happily together. Others have tensions because of too many mixed belief systems. Allocation of who goes where should concentrate in that direction. The decisions you make today shape the future. Make good ones."
"Does anyone object to this being day three of year zero?" asked the Chair.
No-one answered.
"The proposal is accepted. The human race began three days ago. Thankyou Admiral Jane for pointing this out to us."
There was a lot of applause, but Jane closed the screens down.
"Nicely done," said Price. "Now they're focused a lot better."
"An
d now we should as well," said Patton. He looked at Jane. "I think we all agree we are a united command of new humanity."
He looked around the room, and everyone there nodded. He looked back at Jane.
"Since you're the only one with memory of everyone here," he went on, "please make your suggestions for a command structure."
"Generals Patton and Price, and I, being the only experienced four stars, form the Joint Chiefs. I oversee all fleet matters, General Patton oversees ground troop matters, and General Price oversees space based police operations, and general military logistics."
"Agreed," said both Patton and Price together.
"I will command fleets outside of Gaia. Especially if we find ourselves in a shooting war very shortly. But I'm keeping a force of ships separate from the joint command. The Hunter Security fleet is mainly comprised of computer controlled drone ships, or currently unmanned ships now under computer control. The bulk of these are already moving to G014, since they were the only ones I could command when I needed ships to move. The remainder stay in orbit above Hunter's Run city as a personal guard for Duke Michael, which will move with the Duchy when we find a home planet to move to. If need be, they form a reserve force which can be called upon if needed."
It hadn't gone down well she could see, but no-one said anything. The thing which interested her most was the fact no-one had quoted her own argument back to her. Someone should have. It made her wonder. Which made her wonder if she was getting paranoid. She cast such thoughts aside.
"There will be a few others like this I suspect. The British Monarchy will want some sort of personal guard as well. Japanese Emperor too I suspect."
There were confused looks.
"Admiral Dingle?"
"Ma'am?"
"Who does God save?"
"The Queen, ma'am."
"Who's the Queen?"
He stopped short.
"I can't say I know."
"There are a number of these inconsistencies I've discovered so far. People have given their allegiance to certain leadership styles, such as Hunter's Run which is a Duchy, the British Monarchy, and the Japanese Emperor. I know why. But I think we'll see them re-asserting themselves, and they will be needing what some might call an Honor Guard, in terms of both a small number of loyal troops, and ships. As Joint Chiefs, we'll deal with these as they come up. In fact, I'll make it my business to talk to them as soon as possible, and see what current thought is."
"Ma'am?"
"Yes Dingle?"
"Those of us calling ourselves British have already begun petitioning for one of the first planets in another system. As such, we'll want a system defense wherever we go."
"You won't be the only ones, but it will likely be several days before the council gets to out-system planet assignments."
He nodded, and so she noticed were several others.
"Let's move on. Admiral Tremblay should take command of fleets in Gaia, and work on the defense of the system, should it come to that. He may not remember at a conscience level, but he's seen enough defenses to know how to build them."
She didn’t tell them if it came down to him leading the last defense of humanity, they were basically screwed.
"Admiral Klemperer is best suited to leading Research and Development, so I suggest he takes responsibility for the shipyards, and stations dedicated to research of all kinds. Regardless of what happens shortly, we need fixed defenses for this system designed and built."
The old Admiral nodded, and then smiled. It was something he was good at, and Jane knew he felt he was passed fleet command. This was something he could do, and retain his rank for.
"We have about one and half divisions of troops. I suggest we call it a single large division, and integrate the larger formations between the American and German battalions. General Chandra should command the combined force, since he is from neither command, and thus has no bias. He and General Patton can work out who commands the Tank, Giant Suit, and general troop units, as well as the support units and logistics."
Patton and Chandra nodded.
"I would suggest however, that we move the transports towards G014, with the aim of staging on the furthest planet away from here, in case we need to defend it. Given it’s a good three days for them, the sooner they leave the better. Might be an idea to send the station called Central Command with them, and use it as a command and supply depot."
This time it was Patton and Price nodding, but Patton was also frowning.
"We need to talk privately," he pinged Jane.
"We should have done it first," she replied.
"Yeah," came back rapidly.
Jane turned to Hikaru, and the man almost flinched.
"Fleet Captain, what are the preferences for your ships? I assume the Emperor has made his wishes known to you?"
"Not to me Admiral, but to our first diplomat, who gave me instructions."
"And those are?"
"Support you in whatever you decide to do. But in terms of an Honor Guard, we would be looking for a squadron to remain as the Emperor's own. We will be petitioning for a system, but not necessarily one with a habitable planet at this point. We find we are comfortable on our stations, which can be anywhere."
"If you could seek an appointment for me to see the Emperor please?" He bowed. "And which command would you personally be staying with?"
The Japanese had forty eight Corvettes. A squadron would divide them into thirty six and twelve.
"I'll stay with fleet, Admiral. I think you'll find the Emperor will pick his own guard very carefully. I may be senior, but my record is not spotless."
"I've seen your record Fleet Admiral Hikaru. Will you convey my respects to your Emperor, and could he choose his guard as soon as possible so your fleet can move to G014 in timely fashion."
He bowed deeply. Jane pulsed him his new epaulettes.
"Does anyone have any comments or requests about the assignment of units or ships?"
There was no answer.
"Good. I'll cut fleet orders as soon as I can. General's Patton and Chandra will cut ground forces orders. But now, I think we all need to see this."
She waved her hand, and a wall lit up showing the view from Stryker.
Eleven
Walsh was getting nervous. He'd had no update of his orders, and the alien ship was getting close. He'd been trying to communicate with it for hours, in every way possible, and it'd ignored him. He really wanted to know what he was supposed to do.
He was somewhat relieved to not be alone here. Another AMS Corvette had arrived, with the unlikely name of Serenity. But he was senior to her captain, and Mal Reynolds was quite content not to be giving the orders and doing the talking on this one.
The two Corvettes were blocking the jump lane. Since communications hadn't been established with the oncoming ship, Walsh figured if they stopped them from jumping, the aliens would have to at least stop and try to talk. Or do something. The or something was what was making him nervous.
"The brass are watching," said Stryker. "No further orders, other than don't start a war if you can help it."
"That’s a big help. Darlene," Walsh yelled over his shoulder. "Get in here and buckle up."
He'd warned her to be ready some time before, but she had her own interests, and staring out into space wasn’t one of them. She enjoyed traveling with her husband, but didn’t share his passion for deep space. Fortunately, what she did enjoy doing could be done anywhere, and she'd converted one of the spare suites into a workroom for herself. The ship was way too big for just two people, but anything smaller wasn’t safe enough. So they tended to stay on Deck's One and Two. One had their suite nearby to the Bridge, and her workroom, while Two had the dining room and entertainment areas.
She bustled in, and sat in the XO's chair to Walsh's front left. She could see he was nervous about something, but knew she shouldn’t ask.
The last salvage droid had deposited its last load on the cargo deck a half hour b
efore. Cutting it close had been Walsh's thought, but getting a "What the fuck happened to our ship?" message would have been much better than getting nothing.
The alien ship came on as if they weren't there.
Jane was some thirty seconds behind, and while she wasn’t nervous about the encounter, her concern at the lack of communication was deepening. She felt sure she was missing something important. She ran the permutations and only one stood out as likely. Real time communications were possible, but with the thirty second time lag at this distance. She opened the channel.
"Stryker and Serenity," she yelled. "It's going to ram you. Get out of the way!"
Thirty seconds later, Walsh heard the order, but for a few more seconds, he didn’t believe it. Stryker believed it, getting the order through his AI connection with Jane, and he immediately applied full thrust and pulled the ship to the left. Serenity did the same on the right, and for just a moment, the three people on the two ships thought they might make it.
Walsh suddenly understood what was about to happen, and took one last look at his wife. Their eyes met.
"I love you," they both said together, and the Battleship sized alien ship struck both of the ships in the rear.
But not equally.
Both lost shields immediately.
Serenity took a glancing blow which knocked her engines so hard they failed, and started the ship pin-wheeling off into deep space. She had a deep gash in her side, had explosive decompression to all decks, and Reynolds' belt suit shifted into full space suit mode, connecting to the life support connections in his chair. He knew immediately he was in trouble, but not immediately fatally so. He had life support as long as he stayed where he was. Repair droids were already working to seal the hull, and the ship had a reserve of air. What he didn’t have were engines, or power of any kind, so he also didn’t have a HUD, navmap, coms, or sensors. He was blind and dumb, and spinning out of control. All he could do was hope Walsh had fared better, and could come get him.
Admiral Jane (A.I. Destiny Book 1) Page 5