"You certainly scared me."
"So, now that we have that out of the way why don't you tell me what's really going on. You aren't the heir I sent Commander Holron to get; if you're even an heir."
She nodded, "you're right, I'm not the heir you sent for." Jayne's hand wandered to her belly. "I am carrying one."
Garlos' eyes opened wide and he turned towards her. "Carrying one?"
"Yes." She met his eyes. "I'm pregnant."
Admiral Calthran leaned forwards. "And you can prove the paternity?"
"I was told there is a computer that can check the DNA of the child I'm carrying." She wrinkled her brow. "I was hoping you would know more about it."
He smiled. "I do, I do indeed." Jayne noticed a quizzical look on his face quite at variance with his earlier expressions. "So how did you end up here?"
"It's a long story," Jayne winced at the cliché but plowed on. "I'm, or at least I was, an outreach worker dealing with street people. Your prince ended up in the shelter where I was working and a misunderstanding on my part got him kicked out. I felt guilty and was taking him food when Commander Holron's people showed up."
Admiral Calthran raised an eyebrow. "But why did they pick you up too? That's the part that doesn't make sense. I'd expect them just to leave you where you belonged."
"Jhon insisted, a friend of mine had just been killed and he insisted that they bring me along."
Garlos glanced at her. "Where you already pregnant when they picked you up? That would make sense."
Jayne's could feel the heat on her cheeks when she turned back towards Garlos. "No! That didn't happen until after it had been decided to send me here. I had nothing to do with him that way while we were on Earth."
"I'm sorry," Garlos' at least sounded sincere. "I was simply trying to figure out why they would have picked you up."
She sighed, "As I said, it was because Jhon insisted. No other reason, he was the prince, he insisted, they followed his wishes. It isn't hard to understand."
The admiral waved a hand between them. "And it doesn't matter either. You are here and it would be a lot more productive for us to consider what that means than argue about why you were picked up. It happened, it's done."
Garlos nodded and lowered his eyes. "Yes sir."
Jayne smiled and went on. "Anyway, the reason I am here and Jhon isn't is because he believes the Enemy is already at Belkrath. He is headed there with Admiral Torrens and her force from Nightfall Station. He didn't want to send them on without him because of some issue with weapons release."
She shrugged. "He had to go with them, you needed an heir here. Since he could not be in two places at once we needed another heir. Two hours later we were married and by that night I was pregnant."
"Why the marriage?" Jayne was glad to hear that the question sounded thoughtful not accusing.
"To give me some leverage." She grinned. "By marrying me he gave me the legitimacy to take his place as regent."
"It's a very good idea," Calthran leaned forwards and steepled his hands. "It's a pity that I can't see any way of making it work."
"You can't make it work?" Jayne slumped back in her chair. "What do you mean you can't make it work; and why did you have me go over it if you couldn't do it? That doesn't make any sense."
"It's got nothing to do with sense, and everything to do with politics." Now it appeared to be his turn to sigh. "Governor Tavrolan has been working very hard while Tam was away. He has most if not all the other governors in his pocket. He has also taken advantage of cutting down the fleet-- citing budget issues-- to have most of the system security taken over by the Tavrolan Sector Guard."
"And what are the people saying about this." Jayne could not imagine an obvious coup like this going through without popular support. "Surely he can't be making all these changes without setting off some alarms."
Garlos looked at her. "What can the people do? He's the head of the Council. Without an Emperor he is the head of state. I suppose his own people back in Tavrolan sector could recall him, but he's only a decade into his current term."
Jayne stared back at him in shock. "You mean they can't impeach him? And what do you mean only a decade into his term. Don't you people have elections?"
The admiral leaned forwards and spoke gently. "The Imperium is not a democracy. Not really. Individual planets often have democratic forms of government, but it just doesn't work when you are dealing with something the size of the Imperium. Sector elections are held every twenty-five years. It takes five years to hold an election in a single sector. It would probably take twenty to hold one for the entire Imperium. It's just not worth it.
"That's part of the reason the Imperial System evolved the way it did. Space is just too large and there are too many people to do it any other way."
"I don't believe it." Jayne looked around the compartment, challenging them to disagree with her. "I am sure there is a way to bring democracy to this Imperium of yours and I'm going to find it. I don't think anyone's really tried before."
"That may be," Admiral Calthran met her gaze with his own. "I don't believe it was anyone's first priority when the Imperium was founded. However, as Empress, you may be able to effect some changes. However, I don't think this is the time to worry about that. Let's take the Imperium back before we worry about restructuring it."
"You're right," Jayne gave him a grudging nod. "We can worry about introducing more democratic institutions once this has been dealt with."
He smiled. "Good. Now to get back to the problem." The smile left his face and he grew more serious. "Governor Tavrolan and his security forces have a lock on the Star Tower. Nobody can get in without being thoroughly checked, and you don't have ID."
A grim smile crept over his face. "If you had already been authenticated by the system, you could use an imperial override from your implant to get through. Unfortunately you have to get through to get authenticated."
"So it's a bit of a Catch-22."
He raised an eyebrow. "A what?"
"A Catch-22, that's a term we use on Earth for a situation like this where what you need to get something would be readily available for anyone who has already got it."
"And it happens so often in your world that you have a special name for it?"
Jayne looked at her feet. "Yeah, it does."
"Hmmmm." She could see the wheels turning in his mind. "Anyway," he continued, "what we need to do is find a way to get you in to the lower levels of the Star Tower, without having to go through Tavrolan's guards."
Chapter 18
"And as you can see, that's why we need more forces, and so the only rational choice for right now is to remain on the defensive until further reinforcements arrive."
Jhon waited for Admiral Simes to finish his tirade. The man was competent, he had to give him that, but he seemed to think he was the only one who had a clue. That was going to be a problem. Simes had used his position as governor to pull himself back on the active list, and he outranked Eron Makar, who was only even a commodore by courtesy. He might even outrank Admiral Torrens, but at least she could fall back on being in a different chain of command. That put the ball back squarely in the middle of Jhon's court.
Here I am, a lieutenant, seriously thinking about relieving an Admiral. It wasn't a thought that made much sense. But then again Jhon was thinking from his position as head of the Armed Forces, not his fleet rank. A lieutenant couldn't relieve an admiral, but the Prince Regent who lived in the same body as that lieutenant could.
"Admiral, if you would," Jhon rose, putting both hands on the table in front of him. "I do understand your position; you have made it very clear.
"However, there are two things which you seem to be missing." He took a deep breath, and noticed that both Commodore Makar and Admiral Torrens were nodding agreement. "The first is that it's very unlikely that any reinforcements will be coming our way in the near future. The second is that if we do not do something about their base, the Enemy may be
able to build up sufficient forces to prevent any reinforcements from entering the system even if the do come."
He hit the table with his left palm. "That is why our combined force will be leaving Belkrath orbit in six hours. We need the initiative, and the best way to regain it is to take the battle to the Enemy. We have a double squadron of planet-busters; we can destroy both their base and the entire moon. We can do it, and we will do it. This is not subject to debate.
"Does everyone understand me?"
"Yes, Your Highness," three voices chorused; two of them more enthusiastically than the third.
"Good," he glanced towards Commodore Makar. "I will be riding aboard the Victory with Commodore Makar, and will retain overall command. Admiral Torrens will be my deputy, and should be prepared to assume tactical command should I determine the situation warrants it."
He looked at each one in turn. "Is everyone clear on that?"
"Yes sir," they replied, Admiral Simes a little more slowly than the other two.
Simes rose to his feet, then looked back across the table at Jhon. "So what am I going to be doing? Staying home and guarding Belkrath?"
That's probably just what you would like to be doing, staying here and taking charge where I can't see what's going on. Jhon shook his head. "No Admiral, you will be commanding our conventional battle-line in support of Admiral Torrens. Your job will be to keep her and her ships alive long enough to do their job."
"Yes sir," Jhon heard the resentment in the man's voice and wondered again if he would not be better off relieving him. The problem was that he didn't have anyone who would be a good choice for a replacement. Admiral Torrens was too busy, and neither he nor Commodore Makar had anywhere near Simes' experience. Besides, keeping Simes on his command team would keep his own team from feeling they had been pushed aside.
Jhon sat back down and checked his 'pad for the next item on the agenda. Repairs to Imperial Fury. "Admiral Simes," he asked, "what shape are your yards in?"
"They're in pretty good shape, all things considered. The Enemy has been leaving Belkrath itself pretty much alone."
Jhon pondered his words a moment. "What I'd like to do is leave Imperial Fury here and see what your yard dogs can do for her. She's still combat effective, but I would like to see if we can do anything to help with her defenses. Her armor was pretty well riddled in that first attack."
"I don't know how much they can do for her armor, for one thing I don't know if they have enough to fill the holes. I'm sure they can do something, and probably replace most of her point defense."
Jhon considered the information scrolling on his 'pad. There was less than a hundred million tons of armor on hand, not enough to do more than fill the worst holes in her citadel. However it did look like they would be able to fix her shield generators and get all her point defense back up in no more than a week or two.
He looked back up at Admiral Simes. "That looks good to me; and you are sure you have a dock big enough to handle it?"
"Yes sir, we have one designed for super-freighters. If need be we can do everything short of putting her in a pressurized volume." Simes was showing a lot more pride than resentment and Jhon was glad to see it.
Jhon caught his eye and smiled. "Very good." He tapped his 'pad. "How long will it take to get her in there?"
"We should be able to get her in within another eight hours. Even with her drive damage she's close enough to make it, and that will give us enough time to clear it out for her."
Admiral Torrens leaned forwards. "I have an idea, sir. Admiral Simes said the dock could almost put Imperial Fury in a pressurized volume. That might be a bit extreme, but I wonder if that means we can hide her."
Jhon grinned. "I like that idea, we can cover her with enough sheeting and the like that the Enemy won't know she's there. With any luck they may not realized we've swapped out maulers."
Simes was nodding his agreement. "Since none of your maulers fired missiles before, they won't be expecting any this time. It's not much, but every little bit helps."
Commodore Makar spoke up. "How good is your intelligence on what we're up against?"
"Fairly good," one of Simes' staffers looked up from her 'pad. "We still have a lot of our space and all of our ground-based observatories left and that gives us a good view of their base. From what we've seen they started with about thirty SDs and fifty BCs. We had managed to kill four SDs and six BCs before you showed up, and your attack did for a lot of the rest."
Jhon glanced at her, "Any maulers?"
"That's where the numbers start to break down. Even with all our assets focused on the base we still haven't got any hard numbers. Part of the problem is just that they haven't been using them on sweeps. The best guess we have is that there are at least ten, more likely fifteen to twenty, and they are all deployed to cover their base."
Jhon took a long swallow of water, then set the glass down carefully. "So we have eight maulers, ten SDs, and twenty-seven BCs up against as much as twenty maulers, sixteen SDs and fourteen BCs. Those don't look like good odds.
"Commander, give us a system display on the main screen if you would?"
The staffer nodded and the main display changed to a representation of the outer system. The fourth and fifth planets were highlighted, named Khiron and Megair respectively. The image homed in on Megair, showing six moons with the largest highlighted.
"That is our target, Megair IV, commonly called Vira. It's approximately 1000km in diameter and has a trace atmosphere of mostly methane with a little carbon dioxide. It has a very deep layer of volatiles, over a fairly small rocky core. According to Admiral Torrens' information it should not take more than one or two hits for a planet-buster to disrupt it."
Torrens nodded. "I would expect one would do it, but given the situation, two would be a guarantee."
"And how much collateral damage does one of your weapons do?" Admiral Simes leaned forwards and highlighted the projected Enemy deployments. "Would it have any chance of taking out their ships when the moon was disrupted?"
"If they're close enough, yes," Torrens said. "We normally fire from our extreme range just to make sure we don't get caught in the secondary explosions. If they are in as close as they look we would probably be able to hurt them a lot."
Jhon tapped his stylus on the 'pad. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" He pointed the stylus towards Admiral Simes. "We basically ignore their fleet, move straight against the moon and then mop up afterward?"
"Take advantage of their confusion when the moon disrupts and pick them apart then?" Commodore Makar smiled. "I like it."
"It may be more help than you think." Admiral Torrens rubbed her chin. "I was going over the last action, and I think they tend to use a more centralized command and control system than we do. If they're running everything from the base it may slow them down a lot more than just the shock."
"Go on," Jhon was curious to see where this was going. Any advantage they could get while outnumbered would be good.
"The first thing we noticed was that their defensive fire-control wasn't as good as ours, especially not when dealing with concentrated fire. It looks like all their control is being linked through one ship. You can really see it here, in the mop up phase." Admiral Torrens gestured and the image switched to one from the earlier battle.
Jhon saw a display from Imperial Protector's flag bridge, focusing on the Enemy force while one of Har Ovrilan's missile salvos raced in towards it. The image stopped, and then re-focused on the target vessel. Up close it looked different from the others. Rather than the field of empty missile cells, this one was covered with antennae-dishes and spikes as well as planar arrays. "Before that ship was hit, they were managing at least a fifty percent average kill rate on our missiles; afterwards it dropped to twenty percent." Admiral Torrens swiveled her chair back towards them. "That's our target. If we can disrupt the moon and take out their command ships we can beat them."
Jhon nodded slowly. "I agree. Now, let's ge
t this thing worked out."
*
Two days later he was on the flag bridge aboard Victory watching the screen as they came into range of Vira. The compartment was already darkened to get a better view of the displays. The shadows made it hard to see his flag staff, but he really didn't know them that well, so even with more lighting he would have had problems recognizing most of them. The air had already been chilled to battle temperature, just warm enough that his breath wasn't fogging. Jhon rubbed his hands together, he knew the idea was that it would keep him alert, but his hands always felt cold.
His main display showed an overall view of the battlespace, with both Vira and Megair highlighted. Dozens of scouts and remote arrays were feeding information, trying to get the best possible picture of Vira and its surrounding space. So far it looked as if they had narrowed down sixteen maulers, but nobody was guaranteeing that was correct. Secondary screens showed Admirals Torrens and Simes from their respective flagships, while Commodore Makar's image was relayed from the bridge. For a moment Jhon wished it had not made so much sense to separate them, he could have used the company.
A zoomed screen showed the fleet in formation. The maulers were in two tets, with Admiral Torrens commanding the first one from Imperial Protector while Admiral Simes' Dauntless commanded the second. The ten super-dreadnaughts were divided into two tets as well, with Victory and Fearless hanging back as a separate division in reserve. Jhon had not been pleased to hear that he would be in the reserve, but Admiral Torrens, backed by both Admiral Simes and Commodore Makar had insisted. "You are the one indispensable person here," she had said. "Any one of us could be replaced by our seconds, you can't. The only heir you have is just past conception. You are not expendable. If I could guarantee the planet would hold you wouldn't even be aboard ship. I can't, so you're going to be in reserve."
The other two had shared her opinion and had argued the point just as defiantly. Just because birth had put him in overall command, did not give him license to be stupid. That was another point they kept hammering home. Jhon had grumbled, but obeyed.
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