Void Dragon

by William Kephart

  "This victory is hope. We can go on for a while yet, but if something doesn't change morale will erode and then we just lay down and die. And why not? If there is no hope of victory why oppose the inevitable? For the glory of the Gongyue Systems Republic and old Zhongxing? Surely you're not so naive."

  "I'm not, but many of our people are, and they will be the ones doing the fighting," Wu said.

  "Granted, but even they are wearing thin these days, and the Mei?" Song inquired.

  Wu looked out the window, but there was nothing to see. They were light years from anything worth looking at. "The Mei have no choice. For now. I've heard grumbling but nothing more."

  "That will change once we start retaking worlds and settling them; I have no doubt,” Song said optimistically.

  "Being awfully premature, aren't you? When last I checked our outer colonies were still under Enemy occupation, with guerrilla resistance we've only barely been able to sustain."

  "You saw Commodore Jiang's report. If every squadron had a Void Dragon we'd wipe out the Enemy fleet in months, and that was only one engagement. We have yet to see what Captain Wen can really do, mark my words."

  "Yes. Captain Wen. I don't like this excessive initiative she's been showing."

  Song sighed in exasperation. "Not this again. It's like I told the Staff, restricting command track posts to people who score as risk-averse and extremely conscientious on their psychometrics has held back the war effort. We've been cutting off all innovation."

  "As you've never tired of telling me. Well, I suppose you've won this round. Let's bring in Wolf Five and get their debriefing over with."

  Song puzzled over the screen on his desk for a bit. I hate those codes! "There, they should be able to approach now. Wait. What's this?”

  Song opened a channel. “Captain Li this is Admiral Song, Logistics, you have something to report?"

  "That's correct, Admiral. This is Captain Li of the Kongming, authentication rabbit, rat, rooster, dragon, tiger."

  Song waited for the code to go through, which was pretty quick this time. "Very good, Captain, it checks out. You have more data to transmit? Any casualties?" Song was not exactly worried but he was caught off guard. Wu perked up as well.

  "Negative, all ships accounted for. The Kongming was damaged in the first engagement and could not shift out until repairs were completed. Commodore Jiang left to report our first victory and sent instructions to join her as soon as we could. I can only assume that when the first Enemy patrol didn't check in they dispatched another to ascertain the situation. We engaged them as well."

  He didn't go into much detail. "Submitting our after action report for your analysis," he finished.

  "Well, since your squadron appears to be intact I assume the action went well," Song said.

  "It's all in the report, sir," Li said.

  Wu raised an eyebrow but Song waved him off, "Your squadron is clear to dock, Captain Li. We'll discuss your report once our analysts can review it. For now, your personnel are cleared to disembark and will be at liberty until you are ready to get underway again. Song out."

  "Song? What was that?" Wu asked pointedly.

  "I'm sure it's nothing. I need your analysts to get to work dissecting this new report. We'll talk once we know more."

  ***

  "Well, back again," Wen said. She was the last to disembark. Her quarters aboard the Void Dragon were only just beginning to feel familiar, too. She wondered how long they'd be here. Would they have to check in after every engagement? It felt like a waste of time. The data the immersion engineers needed to write simulator programs could be sent back with a runner.

  Taken as a whole, the crew was pleased to have some decompression time. The Mei marines in particular were glad to get off the ship. They had not been on a drill in some time and were getting anxious. Wen didn’t think they’d have much to do on the Dark Facility but at least they could stretch their legs a bit.

  Tian rushed off as soon as she could. Off to Bruzio to see about this problem of light-noise throwing off our jump accuracy, hope it’s something they can fix fast.

  Nima didn’t bother her too much, so that was something. She tried to be neutral on him, she really did, but their history was still fresh in her mind. No matter how long they served together he would always be Cadet Nima, bane of her existence. The worst thing was being constantly reminded of how good he was. Wen barely had to direct the astrogation staff. After a few weeks of maneuvers Nima was anticipating her orders before she even gave them. There was none of the friction or lag time that sometimes happened on bridges when the Captain and command staff weren’t working at the same pace. The crew had really become a single unit and Nima was a big part of that, little as she liked to admit it.

  Wen was surprised to find her old quarters were still vacant. Perhaps they cleared them out when they get word we were coming back. Rank hath its privileges after all.

  The accommodations were more spacious than the Void Dragon and she plopped down on the bed still in her uniform. She spent most of the evening going over the battles in her mind and wondering what she might have done differently. There were a few ideas on that account but nothing definite. It was a long time before she got to sleep. It was a problem she had since the Academy; Wen could never get any sleep when she really needed it. Stress and overwork kept her awake, her mind staying in action mode hours after things had quieted down.

  The next day she woke hungrier than she had been in some time. A hasty shower and change of uniform later she made her way to the mess hall. After getting her food she took a look around and realized she didn't know anyone there. She looked around for a bit and eventually found Lieutenant. Commander Xinren sitting by himself. They'd eaten together before on the few occasions she hosted the rest of the officers in her private dining room aboard the Void Dragon, but never one on one. He was older than her, and experienced. For some reason Wen got the urge to pick his brain.

  "Mind if I sit here, Xinren?" she asked.

  "Not at all, Captain. It's only techies as you can see. There’re some weirdos around who've been sequestered here in the middle of nowhere for years. It's nice to see a familiar face." He gestured to the seat across from him and Wen sat down.

  "I can imagine. Holding up all right, Commander?”

  He smiled and Wen could really see the laugh lines around his eyes. He looks older when he smiles. I wonder what he’s seen.

  “Never better, Captain. It was nice to get in some licks of our own for once. Best assignment I’ve ever been on, and it’s not close.”

  “Couple close escapes, though. Say, weren’t you at Harbin?” Wen probed.

  His expression darkened, just a shade. "Yeah, yeah I was. You want to know about it? What brought this up?"

  "Feeling curious today. I wasn’t there, obviously, still in the Academy in fact, but I heard things were pretty tight."

  "I'd have thought you of all people would be an expert."

  "Well, I know the basics of course. Our fleet launched some diversionary raids to lure them away then concentrated at Harbin, blew away their orbital infrastructure pretty quick. We started landing ground troops to retake the planet. A few Enemy ships got away and brought in a massive relief fleet. The entire operation was scrapped, the ground troops abandoned, and my mother led a suicide attack to cover the withdrawal of our fleet, an all around disaster."

  "That's about what happened, Captain, though I wouldn't call it a disaster, except for those poor bastards on the ground. Admiral Wen saved my hide that day, and a lot of other good people besides. We're still fighting. That's something."

  "I suppose...but that's not really what I want to know. What did you do in the battle? What was it like?"

  He thought for a moment. "Well, I was pretty much the Ren you see before you today, maybe a little more hair. I didn't have much to do at Harbin. I was a gunnery officer even then, got off a few shots without putting a dent in anything, and before I knew it we were pulling ba
ck. From what I understand, High Command was anxious about not having a repeat of Chengdu so they withdrew a little early, too early in my opinion. We could've at least tried to extract those marines." He looked a little guilty.

  "Commander, is there something else?" Wen pressed.

  "What do you mean?"

  "It's just something I noticed, you seem to really enjoy fighting them, the Enemy I mean. Your face lights up whenever you destroy one, like you hate them."

  " 'Course I do. You don't?" Xinren looked genuinely puzzled.

  "I've never even seen them, what they look like, what they act like, whatever. They're just ships to me. I don't even see the ships, not really. It feels like a simulation. How can you get mad at a computer?"

  "They aren't computers," he said definitively.

  "You know something. Why do you hate them?"

  "That's...complicated," Xinren said with a heavy sigh. "Do you really want to know?"

  "Yes, I really want to know."

  "Okay Captain, you asked for it. I think I know why you asked about Harbin. These close shaves we've been having make you think morbid thoughts. You thought maybe something happened there, maybe I lost somebody close to me and that's why I hate them?"

  Wen's eyes assented.

  "I thought so. You were close, didn't happen at Harbin though. It happened at Chengdu."

  Wen was stunned; that was decades ago.

  "You know I'm the old guy on the crew. Well, I'm even older than I look. Before the war Chengdu was our most important colony, a real hub world, and among the first to fall. When we finally decided to strike back in force there was no other target worth considering.

  "I was right out of the Academy, piloting a transport. We were barely militarized at that point and our technology wasn’t even close to par with them. We had no need to be; we were a peaceful society once. Our problems were much simpler back then, mostly Ren versus Mei squabbles. In hindsight it all seems so petty. My generation was the first to know war since our kind made it out of our original star system. For your generation war has become normal,” he said with disgust.

  He paused for a while, gathering his thoughts. “The plan at Chengdu was pretty much the same as Harbin, just a little less subtle. We'd take control of the area around the planet then land ground troops. The whole fleet had never been in one place like that so we had no idea how outnumbered and outclassed we were.

  "The first wave actually made it to the surface. On the transport we had a video feed. The footage is highly classified so I doubt you've ever even heard of it. We didn't see the Enemy up close, but we saw what they did. Those cities were charred, absolutely destroyed. Chengdu was a beautiful place, peaceful islands and gentle seas, but they turned it into an instant graveyard. They took no prisoners, everybody was either blown to ashes or had their rotten remains just left out in the open, everybody.

  "And you know what the worst part was? It all had to be deliberate, measured, surgical. A dreadnought didn't do that. People had to do that, up close. Chengdu was a thriving world, a billion inhabitants or more. They were exterminated. Not even animals do that. Anybody who can do that intentionally needs to die."

  Wen suddenly regretted bringing this up. "I never knew..."

  "Well, now you do, and if it's all the same to you, Captain, I'd rather not discuss it any further. I can't wait to get back into it. We'll get em, you'll see. The Void Dragon has just what they need. Now, if you'll excuse me?"

  "Certainly, Commander, you're dismissed."

  Wen's mind was reeling from Xinren's account. The Enemy, who always seemed so impersonal to her, were really monsters that burned whole worlds. She'd been playing a game, not fighting a war. She could bluster with the best of them but it didn't seem real until just then. The way Xinren's eyes burned when he talked about them...

  Feeling morose, she found she wasn't so hungry after all and left her half-eaten breakfast for her quarters. She didn't have much time to brood. A summons to Admiral Song's office was waiting for her.

  Wen made her way there and entered without fanfare. Her eyes swept over a serious-looking Ren man of below average height with a large forehead, a small mustache, and hair that was just beginning to go gray. He wore a civilian's plain black Zhongshan suit, unadorned but well-tailored.

  Jiang and Song were in the room as well, but it was this man standing in the center of the large office that commanded everyone's attention. Song acknowledged Wen as she entered.

  "Captain Wen, this is Mr. Wu of the People's Central Committee. He is here to evaluate our progress. I don't need to tell you that he reports directly to Chairwoman Cao herself. He is— "

  "Now, now, don't frighten the Captain, Song; this isn't a disciplinary hearing," Wu interjected. "I want you all to think of me as an adviser, rather than a man who holds your careers in his hands. Though don't mistake me, I am most certainly both, but we don't need to focus on that."

  Wu was quick to take control of the situation. His casual manner did not reassure Wen. Maybe she really was in trouble and he was pretending to be friendly at first out of cruelty. She'd heard about bureaucrats like that. Navy discipline was bad enough; she didn't want to imagine what happened to people who ran afoul of the Central Committee.

  "We've already been over the particulars with Commodore Jiang, and we've read your reports, quite interesting reading by the way, so, this leaves you. As for the matter of you disobeying orders in the first engagement..."

  Wen's posture shifted a little and she glanced at Jiang. Traitor!

  "Calm yourself, Captain. You have nothing to worry about on that account. Jiang's report said you correctly placed the priority on maintaining operational secrecy, which outweighs any concerns over premature combat testing. High Command agrees, you made the right call to destroy that ship.

  "Still, you came in too close and were nearly destroyed because of it."

  "I couldn't have predicted— "

  "Indeed not. Be that as it may, it was fortunate the issue with core was discovered early, can't have you shifting into the line of Enemy fire, or dozens of kilometers away from where you meant to, just because the battlespace has gotten too hectic."

  "On that point I can agree, Mr. Wu," Wen said.

  "Good." He smiled. "Professor Bruzio's team is working on a solution as we speak. She thinks she knows what the problem was. I hope she works fast, you won't be cleared until she does."

  Wen hoped so too. She didn't want to stay here any longer the necessary.

  "Jiang made the right call in overlooking the incident," he continued. "You were chosen for this assignment on account of your aggressive bent, after all. We expected something like that. Jiang had been briefed on you, which is precisely what makes her conduct in the second engagement so troubling." His voice became hard, and Jiang's jaw clenched.

  He's chewing her out? Not me?

  "What in the world possessed you to leave the prototype exposed like that? You and your squadron are expendable. The Void Dragon is not. You should have sent her back at the first sign of trouble, not left her to babysit a crippled dreadnought. It's unconscionable negligence!"

  "I couldn't have known the Enemy would respond so quickly," Jiang said.

  "No. You don't get to plead ignorance here. You had responsibilities and you left your squadron, including an experimental prototype ship, just to deliver your report personally. Did you want credit for your victory, is that it? Any squadron commander could have annihilated an Enemy battle group of similar size had they possessed a Void Dragon class frigate. We knew that. That's why we built it in the first place! Well, explain yourself!"

  There was a brief silence, "I'm waiting, Commodore."

  Wen sighed. Now or never. "It worked out in the end, sir," she said.

  Wu turned and Wen thought he was about to tear into her, but he schooled his features and asked levelly, "Oh? And how is that?"

  "It gave me the opportunity to demonstrate a true three dimensional attack."

 
"Explain," commanded Wu.

  "Under normal circumstances three dimensional formations don't make sense as it shortens the line of battle. We've tried it before. I've seen how the attempts always go, brief success followed by envelopment and defeat. The center of a battle line, even if it can be hit from above or below, isn't the focal point. Those ships can be lost without much impact on the final outcome if the flanks are strong."

  Wu hummed agreement. "True enough. And I suppose you are about to say the Void Dragon is perfect for that sort of work? We knew that already."

  "Not just the Void Dragon," Wen said, "the whole fleet. We're not married to linear battle anymore."

  "What makes you think that?"

  "I assume you've been over the data from the second battle. The Two Rivers and Jade Wind approached from separate angles. The Void Dragon, even the threat of it, or another ship of its class, is enough to completely upend the defensive advantages of a line of battle. The Enemy can no longer be sure where fire will come from next and so can't count on the strongest part of their shields to protect them."

  Jiang blinked. Yes, you see, Wen thought.

  "It was a damned foolhardy risk, astute observations though. Our analysts will have to look into this tactic. Perhaps the action was a profitable one. However, there is still the matter of Commodore Jiang's recklessness in leaving you exposed like that. What do you have to say, Jiang?"

  "I— "

  "You would have her abandon the Kongming, alone and helpless?" Wen asked.

  "Yes. The loss of one dreadnought is nothing to the loss of a ship that required the resources of multiple squadrons to develop."

  "That's why we're losing! We back down all the time!"

  All fell silent. Okay, that was reckless, she thought. Telling the truth to a member of the Central Committee could get you in real trouble.

  Wu stood and stared for a moment, as if to appraise her. "You aren't wrong," he said finally. "Still, there is a difference between calculated risks and suicidal ones."