Retreat and Adapt

by Thomas DePrima

  Strauss barely heard the words after being told he wasn't being promoted to the Upper Council. That had been the reason for almost everything he'd done in the past year. It was the reason he became Strauss and stuck himself into this miserable job. And for what? Double pay? He could siphon off more than that every day. Strauss stood up and strode around the office until his anger started to wane. With the Age Regression and Age Prolongation formulas available to the Upper Council members, there would be little chance of positions opening in the near future from natural causes, or possibly at all. So his main task now was to arrange for a few openings on the Upper Council from unnatural causes, starting with the job of the current chairman.

  * * *

  "Hi, Larry," Jenetta said. "Come on in."

  Jenetta was on the deck of her living room, combing the thick fur of Cayla as Gavin entered the room. Tayna was on her back next to Jenetta, squirming around on the carpet as if trying to relieve an itch. Jenetta had just finished sending her daily vidMails to family and friends, and it was now time to devote a little attention to her pets. It was playtime and grooming time, and the large cats were enjoying every minute of it.

  "You wanted to see me, Jen?"

  "Yes. I wanted to inform you that I've received a message from Captain Zakir Singh of the DS destroyer Duluth. He says that another mother ship has arrived at the RP. I want your tac officers to be on high alert for anything out of the ordinary. We have no idea how many of these things there are in GA space, but if we encounter any on the way to the RP, we'll stop and engage them. We can't afford to let any of them slip through our fingers."

  "We're still forty-eight days from the RP. Do you think the four mother ships will still be there when we arrive?"

  "I tasked five SD's, the Gambia, Mekong, Nile, Rio Grande, and Yukon, plus the DS destroyer Duluth, to keep an eye on them. If they leave the RP, our ships have orders to follow them. We'll know where they are at all times. It might be a little easier to take them on if they're still clustered, but we'll pursue and destroy if they're on the move. As far as we know, their top speed is Light-467, so they can't escape from us once we've found them."

  "What if they do have Light-9790 capability?"

  "One of the ships was first spotted by a Territorial Guard ship. The mother ship was under power and the TG ship correctly followed Standing Orders and avoided contact, but when they filed a report, we deployed two SD's to locate it and verify its reported course. Our ships then returned to the RP, but it took the mother ship months to arrive there. It doesn't make sense that they wouldn't have used Light-9790 if they had the capability."

  "There is one possibility." Gavin stopped talking and stared at Jenetta.

  "I'm listening."

  "With their propulsion system, Light-9790 might consume much more energy than Light-450, and they were in no real hurry to get there since they knew when the mother ships were scheduled to begin their operation."

  Jenetta was silent as she thought about the possibility that Gavin was right. They didn't know how the mother ship created its envelope, so it was possible. "You might have a point, Larry. We just won't know until they either use it or we get a chance to examine their ships."

  "There's another thing that's been nagging at me since you explained the new weapons system." As before, Gavin stopped and waited for some indication that he should continue.

  "I'm listening."

  "What if the mother ship is traveling at Light-467 when you attack? Transverse Wave travel relies on having two DATFA envelopes with distinctly different resonances so they don't merge. What if one of the envelopes has the same resonance as the envelope of the mother ship? Will one of the SD envelopes merge with the mother ship envelope? Will the merge cause the collapse of the second envelope of the SD ship? Or might the mother ship develop a second envelope and suddenly be traveling at Light-9790 themselves?"

  "Larry, stop, you're giving me a headache."

  Gavin smiled. "Sorry. I got carried away. It's just that I haven't been able to stop thinking about these things since our last meeting."

  "First, I don't know what will happen in all of those situations. They're some of the 'lingering questions we have about its operational effectiveness' that I mentioned when I described it to you.

  "Second, the Transverse Wave dynamic moves the physical object out of phase with the normal three-dimensional dynamic, so it should be unaffected by passing through a ship enclosed in a single envelope. We believe that the envelopes won't merge and that the mother ships won’t adopt any of the properties of the dual envelopes enclosing our ships.

  "Of course, we won’t know for sure without substantial testing. Your concerns were raised during preparation for this operation, and the scientists in Region One are supposed to be testing, or planning to test, the various situations to learn the answers. Since the Denubbewa may decide to become aggressive any day, we don't believe we can wait for testing to be completed."

  "Okay, Jen. I guess we'll learn together what will happen."

  "Larry, I wouldn't risk our people if I thought it was likely we'd lose them. There's a risk, but it's one we have to take. Once this enemy gets started, we might not be able to stop them from sweeping through GA space. We have no other viable defense against these aliens."

  * * *

  "We're coming up on your stop, Trader," Commander Garth Ginsburg of the Edison said when Vyx responded to the summons to come to the captain's office. "You'll be about a day from Uthlarigasset."

  "Thanks for the ride, Captain," Vyx said.

  "My pleasure. It was a nice break from the usual. Say, what do you think will happen now?"

  "About what, Captain?"

  "About that shipyard we saw?"

  "I don't know, sir. We know it's an act of sedition by the Uthlaro, but it's so far outside the GA in unclaimed space that someone at the top will have to make a decision if we'll even take any action. We've done our part by identifying its location. Just between us, I suspect that Admiral Carver will take appropriate action, even if it's something we never hear about. Thank you for saving us more than four years of travel, Commander."

  "My pleasure, Trader."

  "And uh— you'll forget all about us now, right?"

  "You were never here."

  "Thanks again, Commander."

  * * *

  "Good morning," Captain Zakir Singh of the DS destroyer Duluth said to the faces of the five captains that appeared on the bulkhead monitor in his office. "I've just received notice that the Battleship Ares, a Quartermaster support ship named the Ferdinand, and a taskforce of ten SD's are headed to this location. Admiral Carver is aboard the Ares."

  "The Admiral?" Commander Mojica of the Nile said in surprise.

  "Yes."

  "That has to mean we're finally going to get some payback for the Yenisei, the Salado, and the people we lost from the Gambia while trying to recover the Salado." Commander Teffler of the Gambia said.

  "Perhaps," Captain Singh said.

  "It has to be," Commander Fischer of the Yukon said. "There couldn't be any other reason for the Admiral to come here."

  "Thank you for the benefit of your wisdom, Commander," Captain Singh said.

  "Uh— sorry sir. It just seems so obvious. Whenever Jenetta Carver is near a dangerous situation, it ends in battle."

  "Yes, well, we'll see about that when she gets here."

  "Do we know when she expects to arrive, sir?" Commander Fischer of the Yukon asked.

  "In thirty-two days."

  * * *

  "I want to die," PFC Kilburn lamented. "I just want to die. Why won't God let us die, Corporal?"

  "God will choose when we die," Corporal Rondara said. "It's not up to us."

  "I can't go on like this."

  "We have no choice. They feed us through a tube, so we can't starve ourselves, and we have no limbs, so we can't fight back. We just have to pray that God takes us before much longer."

  "What are they doing to us? We
get a dozen injections a day and they take blood three times."

  "I'm not a doc. I don't know what they're doing, but lately I've felt really funny in my belly. Does my belly look bigger to you?"

  Kilburn looked at her abdomen. "Yeah, it does."

  "Shit. I think they've impregnated me. And they didn't even buy me a nice dinner first."

  * * *

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  ~ February 7th, 2288 ~

  "They're not there, Lieutenant," the tac officer on the bridge of the Gambia said.

  "None of them?" Lt. Amanda Hess said.

  "Not a one."

  "Damn," she said under her breath. Tapping her Space Command ring, she said, "Captain."

  Commander Wilson Teffler rolled over and tried to focus on the chronograph mounted on the bulkhead. He stopped, rubbed his eyes and looked again. It still said 0404. He reached over and lifted the cover of the com unit. "Captain."

  "Captain, the mother ships are gone."

  "All of them?"

  "Aye, sir."

  "Dammit, dammit, dammit. Of all times for this to happen. The Admiral is arriving tomorrow. No, she's arriving today."

  "Should I notify the Duluth, sir?"

  "Yes, we'll have to initiate a search right away, but it's Captain Singh's call. I'll be on the bridge in ten minutes, but start the ball rolling."

  "Aye, sir. I'll take care of it right away."

  "Teffler, out."

  "Hess, out."

  Commander Teffler arrived on the bridge nine minutes later.

  "The Duluth has scheduled a senior officer's conference for 0500, sir," Lt. Hess said.

  "Fine. Com, alert Lt. Commander Lawrence that he's to be in my office by 0459." Walking towards his office, he said, "I'm available until 0500 if you need me."

  "Aye, sir," Lt. Hess said.

  Teffler plopped into his chair and stared at the blank bulkhead monitor. He was still sitting there when the computer announced that Lt. Commander Lawrence was at the door. "Come," he said.

  "Good morning, sir. I hear we have a problem."

  "Yes, indeed. I was just sitting here wondering how they could possibly have known that Admiral Carver was coming today."

  "That doesn't seem reasonable, sir."

  "No, you're right. It isn't reasonable. I'm just frustrated that we've been sitting around here on our backsides for months, watching those mother ships do nothing, and they pick today to pack up and leave."

  "I doubt they're leaving, sir."

  "I meant leaving this RP, XO. They're not leaving GA space. They came here for a purpose. I suppose we're lucky it took them so long to assemble their forces. It gave our side some time to prepare. I have no idea what Admiral Carver has up her sleeve this time, but I can't wait to kick some Denubbewa butt. We lost a lot of good people over that Salado incident, and I've been itching to get some licks in ever since."

  "We'll find them again, sir. Their FTL speed is limited."

  "Yes, we will. But right now it's time for Captain Singh's conference broadcast."

  Teffler activated the monitor and the screen filled with images broadcast from the captain's offices aboard the other ships. At exactly 0500, Singh looked up from what he was doing and said, "Good morning, though there's little good about it. By now you've probably heard that the four mother ships we've been tasked to watch have disappeared. At this time we don’t know if they left singly or in a group. I've just spoken to the watch officer aboard the Ares and informed him that the mother ships have departed the RP. He'll notify Captain Gavin and Admiral Carver at the appropriate time. I informed him that we're commencing a search immediately. While we hoped we'd never need them, we do have search plans ready in case this happened. We've already sent assignments to each of your ship's tac officers and navigators. Each ship can depart this location as soon as you're ready. Any questions?"

  When no one spoke up, Singh added, "Okay, let's go find those mother— ships. Singh, out."

  * * *

  "Loretta," Admiral Moore said, "You said you wished to make a comment for the record during this closed meeting?"

  The Admiralty Board was meeting in closed session because of the topics being discussed. Only the admirals and their senior aides were present. Even clerks with top-secret clearance were denied access at this level.

  "Yes, Richard. Thank you. My comment pertains to Project Gazebo. Many months ago, when we first learned of the new weapon being proposed by Admiral Carver, I stated that the weapon was unfeasible because it was impossible to drop a bomb with any accuracy while traveling at almost three billion kilometers a second. I firmly believed that the idea was foolhardy but couldn't offer an alternative at the time, so I didn't oppose Admiral Carver's ordnance request. Since that time it's been proven that Admiral Carver's idea was unworkable. The head of her Weapons Research and Development section, Captain DeWitt, and her team were unable to drop a bomb with accuracy greater than a million kilometers because targeting was impossible at Light-9790. The weapon was a complete failure— at that point.

  "However, Admiral Carver came up with a new idea for targeting that uses two SD's working together. A lead ship performs the targeting and signals the release of the bomb being carried to the target by the second ship. The Weapons R&D people are to be congratulated because they have successfully established a consistent drop radius of just fifteen meters. That's no less than astounding and is almost beyond belief because we're talking about timing the event in nanoseconds. I applaud everyone involved with this project and I'm glad my initial opposition to this project did not prevent work from progressing on it.

  "As a result of the success of this project, new questions have been raised regarding the potential hazards of ships traveling in Transverse Wave envelopes coming into contact with other ships. Testing conducted when Light-9790 was still in development proved that the ship would pass through any solid object without damage to either the ship or the object. Unfortunately, no tests were ever conducted where the double-envelope ship passed through an object with a single envelope in place or an object with a double envelope in place. That testing will take place as soon as it can be arranged.

  "I can say that a panel of physicists who have recently examined the issue at length concur that if two ships, both of which had active double-envelopes in place, happened to collide, the effect would be the same as a collision between two ships where neither had a double-envelope in place. The panel was split as to what would happen if a ship with a double envelope attempted to pass through a ship with a single envelope. Half believe there would be no effect and half believe the results could be disastrous.

  "You all remember what happened when Admiral Carver tried to take the Colorado to maximum speed during its space trials. The ship formed a second envelope a second before a massive short circuit fused all the circuits on the ship's main grid. They went flying through space out of control at Light-9793.48 for almost two weeks before the ship's Automatic Collision System shut the drive down.

  "When we were attempting to make Light-9790 practical for everyday use, we discovered that we had to create both envelopes simultaneously. We've been trying ever since then to find a way to build the second envelope on top of the first but without success. Half of our physicists believe that if a ship with a double envelope flew through a ship with a single envelope, the envelope incongruity would short circuit the electrical system in both ships. It could even cause the envelopes to cancel, at which time the ship with the double envelope would reintegrate within the other."

  "The ship would be merged with the ship it was passing through?" Admiral Hillaire said.

  "This is all supposition and conjecture. Reintegrating within another ship is obviously the worst scenario. It's something that half of the physicists feel might happen, not what will happen."

  "Then with ships that have managed to build their envelope, the bombs are as useless as torpedoes and laser arrays?" Admiral Bradlee asked.

  "Loretta is only stating
what the physicists have speculated might occur," Admiral Platt said. "It may happen, or it might all remain just textbook theory without any basis in fact."

  "Still, I think we have to be very careful when employing this new technology until we know for sure what will happen or could happen," Admiral Woo said.

  "Admiral Carver should be nearing the RP of the enemy mother ships as we speak. This information is just in and won't reach her for about forty days. She may know the true story long before she receives a copy of this report."

  "Then I pray the conjecture about reintegration of our ship inside an enemy ship is erroneous," Admiral Moore said.

  * * *

  "Come," Jenetta said when the annunciator system responded to Captain Gavin's presence at the office door.

  Gavin entered and walked to where Jenetta was sitting on a sofa in her informal area.

  "You look depressed," Gavin said.

  "I feel like we were invited to a party and the invitation contained the wrong date."

  "I know how you feel. You prepare yourself for the confrontation and possible loss of life, then feel an emptiness when it doesn't happen. It's not a sadness that we don't have to kill today or see our people killed, it's just a disappointment that the event has been postponed and we'll again have to steel ourselves and brace for battle when we find the enemy. But find them we will."

  "I know. To stay focused, I've been trying to think of all the possible reasons why they've left the RP now."

  "And your decision?"

  "No decision. Just a list of possibilities."

  "Have you considered that they might have headed back towards unclaimed space?"

  Jenetta looked up at Gavin solemnly. "Maybe I didn't think of all the possibilities."