Premier Benz and Vice Premier Vela Shaw took some critical risks after the ship-battle phase and while the space marines struggled against the fighting robots in the cybership’s huge corridors.
Benz recognized the elation around him on the bridge of the Nikita Khrushchev. The officers and other personnel had watched him defang the two cyberships. They’d heard him puzzle the alien AI. They’d seen him order the space-marine pods against the great vessel.
During the next few hours, while Admiral Rowland followed the marine battle inside the cybership, Benz took a fantastic risk. He used the good will of a few in order to reach the battleship’s hangar bay and take a shuttle. While Rowland coordinated the combined fleet and ordered the space marines, Benz, Vela and a few others hurried to the chief Martian battleship.
Battleship Simon Bolivar was the pride of the Martians. It had all the latest features of the Nikita Khrushchev. Unfortunately, it had taken heavy damage. One-third of the personnel had died directly while another third slowly died from radiation poisoning. The remaining third of the crew stayed at their stations, enabling the half-crippled ship to maneuver.
Benz landed the shuttle on the Simon Bolivar and found himself and his people escorted to the bridge. The route took longer than usual, as they bypassed shattered or irradiated ship sections.
Finally, Benz found himself surrounded by a mixture of GSB arbiters and Martian space marines. Vice Admiral Maria Santa Cruz regarded him.
She was a tall, thin woman with long dark hair and piercing brown eyes. She wore the green uniform of the Martian Service. She’d obviously taken longevity treatments. Despite her age, she lacked wrinkles or even crows’ feet around her eyes.
“To what do we owe this honor, Premier?” Cruz asked politely enough.
Benz noticed a mentalist standing behind the vice admiral. He also saw a chief arbiter, a bitter-faced Earthman. The man was chubbier than any of the Martians on the bridge. The GSB personnel did not appear to have grown up on Mars, either. That was interesting.
“Firstly, I must congratulate you, Vice Admiral,” Benz said in a cheerful voice.
The Martian mentalist in her tan-colored uniform moved closer to the vice admiral, murmuring quietly to Cruz.
“Please, Premier,” Cruz said. “We have much to do. My planet lies in ruins below us. Your battle plan almost annihilated my people.”
“That was never my intent.”
Cruz’s features stiffened as the mentalist whispered further.
“I will get to the point,” Benz said. He could feel the growing hostility around him. This would be a difficult sell at best. He didn’t like the GSB agents with their fingers on those triggers. Any one of them might decide to become a hero to the State. Well, it looked like he had to take the risk.
“I’m waiting, Premier,” Cruz said. It seemed that her patience had almost reached its end.
“I’m here because of Mars,” Benz said. “We lost the Jupiter System and almost lost Mars. There have been vast riots on Earth—”
“The point, Premier,” Cruz said, her voice lowering on the last word.
Benz raised a hand and pointed at the giant cybership on the main screen. “That is the point, Vice Admiral. It contains many secrets. I can decipher those secrets better than anyone else in the Solar League. That is because I worked with Bast Banbeck, a Sacerdote, who imparted priceless knowledge to me. Among the informational packet was the quickest way to get the robo-builders operating. The robo-builders—”
“I’ve read the secret reports,” Cruz said, interrupting. “The scoundrel Jon Hawkins used the robo-builders to repair his cybership on Makemake.”
“Precisely,” Benz said. “Who do you think will get first dibs on the new robo-tech?”
The vice admiral frowned. “I do not understand the direction of your thoughts.”
“I believe your mentalist does.”
Cruz looked back at the mentalist as if seeing the woman for the first time. She was small and darker-skinned, and kept her childlike hands folded in front of her.
The mentalist murmured quietly.
Cruz regarded Benz anew. She now glanced at the arbiters and Martian marines surrounding him.
“Put away your weapons,” the vice admiral said.
“Begging your pardon,” the Earthman chief arbiter said in a silky voice. “I believe we should keep him under guard.”
“I don’t agree,” Cruz said.
The Earthman shook his chubby face. “Vice Admiral, remember the conventions. In areas of ship security and purity—”
“No!” Cruz said. “He is the architect of this glorious victory. He just saved all our lives.” She regarded the arbiters. The marines had already lowered their weapons. “Put down your weapons,” she told them.
One of them did. The rest looked to the Earthman.
He seemed to calculate until a sly smile broke over his face. “Let us speak to Admiral Rowland first. Perhaps he has orders—”
The mentalist fired a small pistol. It put a neat little hole in the chief arbiter’s forehead. He had a look of outraged surprise on his face. Without another word, he fell.
The arbiters retargeted, aiming at the mentalist.
“No,” Cruz said again. “Marines, disarm the arbiters.”
For a second, anything could have happened. What did happen was that the marines obeyed before the arbiters decided to play martyr. With the chief arbiter lying dead on the deck, the others lowered their guns. The marines took them, and then escorted the arbiters off the bridge.
Vice Admiral Cruz stood to her full height and turned on the mentalist. “Why did you do that?” she asked.
The small mentalist stepped forward, bowing her head. “I believe the Premier wishes to reorder the rank of Mars’ importance in the Solar League.”
“Speak clearly,” Cruz snapped.
“”Perhaps you should let the Premier speak,” the mentalist said in an unruffled voice.
“Well?” Cruz said coldly. “I’m losing my patience, Premier. Why did my mentalist just murder the chief arbiter and put all of us on the Simon Bolivar in grave personal danger?”
“She must understand what I was trying to imply,” Benz said. “The cybership has wonderful new tech. If we grab the cybership, we can use the new tech here on Mars first. We can restore the industrial power to such a degree that Mars will no longer be a secondary planetary system, but the primary one.”
“You mean in relation to Earth?” Cruz asked.
“If Admiral Rowland maintains control of the cybership, it will go to Earth. The Earth factories will retool with alien tech. Earth will maintain its iron grip on Mars and the other planetary systems. This is your chance, Vice Admiral, to rearrange Mars’ rank in the Solar System.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I need Mars backing me in order to retain my authority,” Benz said plainly.
“Why would you think we would follow you?”
“I’m not certain you would,” Benz said. “I plan to control the cybership…with your help.”
“What does Mars gain from this?”
“I’ve already said.”
“Why would you keep your word once you control the cybership?”
“Because the majority of my personnel will be Martians,” Benz said.
Cruz frowned more severely. Even so, few wrinkles appeared on her face. “This could mean civil war in the Solar League.”
“No,” Benz said. “I have judged Admiral Rowland’s character. He will soon see this as an opportunity for gaining preeminence on Earth.”
“How could that be?” Cruz asked.
Benz explained it quickly, and finally, the vice admiral nodded.
“I must think about this,” she said.
“If you think too long, the opportunity for using Martian marines to capture the cybership will have passed,” Benz said.
She gave Benz a long, critical study before turning to the mentalist. The two confe
rred for ninety seconds of intense whispering. Finally, they regarded Benz.
“Yes,” Cruz said. “I agree.”
“Then, listen carefully,” Benz said, “because we’re going to have to do this on the fly.”
-19-
The maneuver itself proved easy enough to enact.
“Here is the key point,” Benz told Vice Admiral Cruz more than once. “We have to act decisively, without any remorse or holding back.”
“Yes,” she finally said. “I am clear on the subject.”
Did Benz’s insistence ensure her decisiveness? Many believed that likely.
Shortly, several Mars supply ships moved closer to the cybership. As the supply ships did so, Cruz had her remaining warships drift toward the great alien vessel.
Finally, Admiral Rowland grew suspicious. He radioed the supply ships. They did not respond. He radioed again, and again. Nothing happened in terms of recognition.
On the other side of the supply ships, Martian space marines maneuvered in a mass shuttle exit. The shuttles raced for the alien super-ship.
At that point, Admiral Rowland became insistent.
The supply ship captains kept their nerve. They neither answered nor moved. The supply ships blocked the nearest line-of-fire against the Martian marine shuttles.
Now, though, the drifting Mars Fleet began to accelerate, heading toward the cybership.
At that point, Benz had Vice Admiral Maria Santa Cruz open channels with every ship in the Combined Fleet.
“This is Premier Benz speaking,” he said. Benz spoke from behind a large desk with a large Solar League flag behind him.
“Men and women of the Solar League, you have fought a glorious battle today. The human race stands proudly because of you. Today, the allied forces of the Solar League can know peace from alien attack. We have secured the Solar System. Now, we must continue to work together for the furtherance of all. None of us must shirk his or her responsibility in the coming months and years as we prepare for the next round of battle against the aliens. This time, however, we will build such an armada that we will go onto the offensive. We shall find their robot worlds and destroy them, making sure the AIs can never harm the birth cradle of the most glorious race in the galaxy—humans.”
The speech continued for another eighteen minutes and forty-two seconds. Finally, Benz signed off.
By that time, the Martian marine shuttles had landed on the cybership, disgorging masses of Martian marines. By this time, the remaining handful of Martian battleships, damaged dreadnoughts and battle cruisers—they didn’t have any remaining motherships—had interposed themselves between the cybership and the rest of the Combined Fleet. By this time, the intact laser sites on Mars’ surface and the last orbital platforms had returned to their war footing.
“It’s Admiral Rowland,” a comm tech said. “He’s demanding to speak to the Premier.”
Benz had returned to the bridge. He looked at Vice Admiral Cruz.
“Oh, very well,” Cruz said. “You can sit in my command chair to take the call.”
“You are gracious,” Benz said as he half bowed.
The main screen flickered. A scowling Admiral Rowland regarded him.
“What’s the meaning of this, Benz?”
“Let me be the first to congratulate you on a glorious victory, Admiral. You shall go down in the annals of war as one of the greatest fighting admirals of all time.”
Rowland swept a hand before him, as if trying to chop off Benz’s words.
“Why are those shuttles landing on the cybership?” Rowland asked.
“They’re securing the alien vessel. I know your marines took awful casualties from the fighting robots—”
“No,” Rowland said bluntly. “That’s not going to work. I’m sending over more marines to make sure—”
“Admiral,” Benz said in a light voice. “As the leader of the Solar League, I am ordering you to stand down. I already have the situation under control.”
“No,” Rowland said, shaking his head doggedly. “I already told you—”
“Are you going to disobey a direct order?” Benz asked, interrupting.
“You’re not in authority here,” Rowland said. “I am.”
“Don’t be a fool. You heard my broadcast.”
“I did. I’m planning to give my own in a few minutes.”
“You’re too late,” Benz said. “I’ve already set the tone. If you want civil war—you realize the space pirate has slipped away, don’t you?”
“Hawkins? So what? Good riddance to him.”
“He has a cybership and robo-tech,” Benz said. “It seems as if he’s headed to the Saturn System.”
“I’m taking the new cybership to Earth.”
“No,” Benz said. “It’s staying at Mars.”
“Are you saying you want to fight over it?”
“I’m saying no more of your marines are landing on the cybership,” Benz said. “If they try, these ships will fire on them.”
“I’ll destroy them if they do.”
“Then we’ll destroy the cybership.”
“You’re mad,” Rowland declared.
“Hardly that,” Benz said. “We’re determined. Check your sensors if you like. The Mars orbital platforms are back online, and the laser sites have your ships under target. These ships will also fire. The Earth Fleet is in no condition to fight at this close range. You’ll take massive casualties.”
“You can’t seriously believe I’ll back down,” Rowland scoffed.
“I’m not asking you to,” Benz said. “Go back to Earth. Receive a hero’s welcome. Or start a blood feud that will darken history with your name as the chief traitor. I’m Premier Benz. I am the authority—”
“They don’t recognize you as Premier on Earth.”
“They do on Mars…and in case you haven’t noticed, we’re on Mars.”
Rowland licked his lips. Hesitation seemed to have entered his eyes.
“You can play this and still come out a hero. Maybe you’ll become the new Premier.” Benz shook his head. “If I try any other course, I’m dead. This is my only option. You have other options. I know you see that. That’s why I can’t back down. That’s why you can play the longer game.”
“You’re a bastard,” Rowland said. “You wouldn’t really open fire on marine shuttles.”
“If I don’t, I’ll die. So will these Martians with me. Admiral, we’ve already shot the chief arbiter on the Simon Bolivar.” Benz indicated the corpse on the deck, returned there for just this purpose.
“You’re mad, Benz. You convinced them to kill the battleship’s chief arbiter?”
“There’s no going back for them or for me. You’re still a hero, Admiral. Take that glory and use it on Earth to take control. I can safely say that I will work with you to fight the aliens out there. In fact, once you’re on Earth, I’ll offer you some of the robo-tech. That will give you vast political capital.”
Rowland was rubbing his leathery face. “Figure you’ve thought of all the angles, eh?”
“You know I have.”
“You think I believe that genius talk about you?”
“Who stopped the aliens, Admiral? Three of us did it. One of them was me. Yes, I am a genius. I have thought out all the angles. This time, I’ve checkmated you. But you have an option. I hope you’ll take it.”
“I’ll think about it,” Rowland said.
“That’s fine. Just make sure no shuttle tries to land on the cybership. I’ll destroy the ship long before that.”
The screen went dark as Admiral Rowland took himself offline.
-20-
The Nathan Graham soon began hard acceleration for the Saturn System. As they traveled, Gloria and Ghent used the teleoptics to keep track of what went on around them.
The SLN vessels in the Asteroid Belt remained in Ceres orbit. They didn’t try to radio the Nathan Graham, although Gloria detected Ceres High Command and Mars exchanging comm signals.
<
br /> “What are they saying?” Jon asked.
Gloria shook her head. “They’re using tight-beam laser connections. I can’t tap into that.”
The affair in the Mars System took a twist Jon hadn’t expected. The Combined Fleet—meaning the surviving Earth and Venus Fleet units—left Mars. They headed for Earth. A few of those signals between the Combined Fleet and Earth Gloria had no problem cracking.
She showed Jon, Bast, Ghent, Kling and the Centurion in a conference chamber. Admiral Rowland spoke to an Earth functionary. The admiral detailed the Battle of Mars with strict accuracy.
“He inserts his non-truths in the aftermath,” Gloria said.
She outlined Rowland’s decision to retreat from what he described as Premier Benz’s open treachery. Rather than fire on fellow Combined Fleet ships, Rowland had retreated. He assured the person on Earth that the people of Mars would soon tire of Benz’s antics and return to the fold of the Solar League.
“I don’t understand,” the Centurion said. “The Martians have formally withdrawn from the Solar League?”
“Nothing quite so open,” Gloria said. “Somehow, Benz convinced the Martians to back him. They let him take the cybership—”
“Let him do that how?” the Centurion asked.
“They loaned him Martian space marines.”
The Centurion shook his head. “If their marines hold the cybership…”
“Perhaps I can enlighten you,” Bast said. “Premier Benz is the most cunning human I’ve ever met. He can play angles that aren’t even there. I believe he spun a tale of—I won’t call them lies. He has convinced the Martians to help him.”
“I bet he offered the Martians robo-builders,” Jon said.
“Ah,” Gloria said. “That would make sense. Mars took terrible damage from the matter/antimatter warheads. Also, Benz might be able to appeal to the Martians more easily. They are a cerebral people, not as given to fanaticism as the Earthborn.”
“Will this hurt humanity’s efforts against the AIs?” Bast asked.
“That’s hard to tell,” Jon said. “If this dissolves into a Solar-wide War, perhaps so. If each faction balances off each other…maybe this is exactly what we need.”
A.I. Assault (The A.I. Series Book 3) Page 28