Ep.#15 - That Which Other Men Cannot Do (The Frontiers Saga)

by Ryk Brown

“The additional frigates have also launched missiles,” Mister Navashee warned. “Those impacts will be in twenty-eight seconds.”

  “Second group of incoming destroyed,” Jessica announced. “Targeting the third group of forty-eight, but it’s going to be close, sir.”

  “One minute in system,” Mister Riley reported.

  “Incoming message, from the Jung battleship,” Naralena said. She immediately put it on the loudspeaker. The Jung officer spoke in his native tongue, and he did not sound happy.

  “What did he say?” Nathan asked after the officer finished speaking.

  “Not the response we were looking for, sir,” Naralena replied.

  “She’s correct, Captain,” General Bacca confirmed. He leaned forward slightly to look around the Ghatazhak soldier to his right, trying to make eye contact with Naralena. “Your Jung is quite good, my dear.”

  “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to intercept all of these missiles, Captain,” Jessica warned, her voice sounding tense.

  “Get us out of here, Mister Riley,” Nathan instructed.

  “Aye, sir,” the navigator replied.

  Nathan turned back around to face Jessica and General Bacca, as the jump flash washed over them.

  “Jump complete.”

  “Why didn’t it work that time?” Nathan wondered. “I’m pretty sure they heard us.”

  “Oh, yes, they heard you,” General Bacca agreed. “I just think they didn’t believe you.”

  “Why would we lie?” Nathan wondered. “What could we possibly have to gain?”

  “Think like the captain of a Jung ship,” General Bacca suggested. “Your job is to keep any and all enemy ships as far away from Nor-Patri as possible. Failure to do so would likely result in disgrace, imprisonment, or even execution. In fact, I would not be surprised if most of the men commanding the ships you just encountered were first officers a week ago, if you get my meaning.”

  “They think we’re lying to try to get past them…to attack Nor-Patri,” Jessica surmised.

  “We don’t need to lie to them to get past them,” Nathan reminded her. “We can jump past them anytime we’d like.”

  “They are brand new captains, recently promoted due to the failures of their previous commanding officers. They don’t even understand what a jump drive is,” General Bacca explained.

  “Then what do we do to convince them?” Nathan wondered.

  “You already answered your own question, Captain,” General Bacca said. “You jump past them.”

  “To where?”

  “To Nor-Patri,” General Bacca told him. “In orbit, directly over the senate chambers. Then your message will go directly to the caste leaders.”

  “What about surface defenses?” Jessica wondered. “They had them on plenty of other Jung worlds. They’re bound to have a ton of them here.”

  “Surprisingly, they do not,” General Bacca admitted. “No one expected an enemy would develop something like a jump drive. Their massive number of ships was their primary defense.”

  “But you said the Jung knew about the jump drive project when it first started,” Jessica said in an accusatory tone. “That was twelve years ago. Why didn’t they start building them then?”

  “At first, no one believed it possible. Later, when it appeared not only possible, but likely, they chose not to do so for fear of creating public doubt in our own military might,” the general explained.

  “Jesus,” Nathan exclaimed in frustration. “Everywhere you go, politics is the same old bullshit.”

  “If you jump in directly over the senate, you will have plenty of time to transmit your message and get a response,” General Bacca insisted.

  “He’s right, Captain,” Mister Navashee confirmed. “Their ships are spread across the system, and in random patterns. The only common denominator is that they are all at least two hundred million kilometers away from Nor-Patri. When we jump in, it will take at least ten seconds for those ships to even see us, let alone change course and come back to engage. We’d have at least a few minutes.”

  “Unless they go to FTL to get back,” Nathan pointed out.

  “It is forbidden to come out of FTL any closer than one hundred million kilometers to Nor-Patri,” General Bacca told them. “It has been a standing order for as long as anyone can remember. There is simply too much traffic near the homeworld.”

  “Even if they think their beloved senate and all their caste leaders are under attack?” Nathan challenged.

  “Like I said, none of them were captains a week ago,” the general reminded him. “However, I suppose you have a point. Although unlikely, it is possible.”

  “It sounds like something you’d do,” Jessica said, one eyebrow raised.

  Nathan sighed again. “Can you jump us in over the senate?” he asked his navigator.

  “If someone shows me where it is, sure.”

  Nathan looked at Jessica. “Do we even have a map of Nor-Patri?”

  “Between the first recon and scans taken during the attack, we were able to piece one together,” Jessica replied.

  “General?” Nathan asked.

  “Of course.”

  “Jess?”

  “Coming up,” Jessica replied. A moment later, a rough map of Nor-Patri’s landmasses was on the clear view screen panel protruding from the middle of the back of Jessica’s tactical console. General Bacca moved in closer, coming to stand next to Jessica, as he studied the image.

  “Not entirely accurate, but close enough, I suppose,” the general said. “There,” he added, pointing at the display. “The senate chambers are there, at the confluence of those three rivers. Arrive anywhere within line-of-sight of that river junction, and the caste leaders will hear your message, I am sure of it.”

  “Very well,” Nathan said. “Bring us back around and prepare to jump to orbit, over that river intersection.”

  “Aye, sir,” Mister Riley acknowledged.

  “No one is ever going to believe this,” Jessica muttered.

  “Hell, I don’t believe it,” Nathan said.

  “How do you think I feel?” General Bacca said, stepping back to his spot near the entrance to the captain’s ready room.

  “Turn complete,” Mister Chiles reported.

  “Jump to Nor-Patri orbit, directly over the senate chambers, plotted and ready,” Mister Riley advised.

  Nathan sighed again. “Jump us in.”

  “Jumping in three……two……one……jumping.”

  “If this doesn’t work, someone’s going out an airlock,” Nathan muttered as the jump flash washed over them once more.

  “Jump complete.”

  “Transmitting message, analog form, over radio transceivers,” Naralena reported.

  “No ships within firing range,” Mister Navashee announced.

  “Are we in the right place?” Nathan asked, looking at Nor-Patri on the main view screen.

  “That intersection of three rivers is coming up now,” Mister Navashee confirmed.

  “Nicely done, Mister Riley,” Nathan congratulated.

  “The entire message has been transmitted,” Naralena announced.

  “Keep playing it until we get a response,” Nathan ordered.

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Captain,” Mister Navashee said, concern in his voice. “Something is not right.”

  “What something?” Nathan asked.

  “The planet surface,” the sensor operator explained. “There’s a lot more damage than there should be.”

  “We attacked the surface as well, remember?”

  “We attacked infrastructure, communications, power generation, defenses,” Mister Navashee pointed out. “I’m detecting massive amounts of damage. Impact craters the size of…” Mister Navashee turned to look at Nathan. “Sir, I think pieces of that ring station fell onto Nor-Patri. Maybe even pieces of Zhu-Anok itself.”

  “That’s impossible,” Nathan insisted. “The attack angle should have taken the debris away
from the planet.”

  “I understand that, sir. But there are impact craters on the surface of Nor-Patri,” Mister Navashee insisted. “Dozens of them, in fact.”

  Nathan rose from his seat, staring at the Jung homeworld rotating slowly beneath them, noticing large dark areas of the surface that he did not remember being there before. Indeed, there were dozens of them. “Magnify,” he ordered.

  “If the force of the impact was enough, some debris could have been pushed toward the planet,” Mister Navashee theorized. “There’s still a lot of what looks like debris, from both the ring station and Zhu-Anok, in orbit around the planet.”

  When the main view screen refocused, Nathan could see the destruction more clearly. Gigantic areas of the planet-wide cityscape had been wiped clean as if nothing had even been there. On the edges of the craters, he could see the remains of buildings, roadways, tramways…all of them ripped apart by shockwaves.

  He thought about the glassing of Tanna. The captains of those ships probably had a similar view of the planet as they were bombarding it. Until this very moment, Nathan had wanted nothing more than to do the same thing to this world, to scorch its surface, and to make it forever uninhabitable. But now, even though he was looking at only a fraction of the damage that had been done to Tanna…it sickened him.

  What have we done? he asked himself.

  “Captain,” Naralena called, pulling Nathan’s attention away from the devastation on the view screen. “I’m receiving a message from the caste senate.” Naralena closed her eyes, listening intently. “They have agreed to speak with us, but only by vid-link.”

  “Are they going to order their ships to stand down?” Nathan asked.

  “Yes, they claim to be sending that order now. However, they suggest that we raise our shields and keep them up, for they cannot guarantee that the commanders of their ships will comply.”

  Nathan continuing staring at the main view screen in disbelief.

  “I would do as they suggest, Captain,” General Bacca said, his voice seething with anger from what he too was witnessing on the view screen. “Especially considering what you have done to our world.”

  “Yes, of course,” Nathan replied. He looked at Jessica. “Raise our shields.”

  “Finally,” Jessica exclaimed. “All shields are coming up.”

  “Four ships inbound,” Mister Navashee warned. “Two cruisers and two frigates.”

  “How long until we can talk with the caste leaders?” Nathan wondered.

  “They should all be in session,” General Bacca said. “I would expect they have been in session nonstop since your attack a week ago.”

  “I’m getting another message, Captain,” Naralena reported. “A hail, from the senate communications officer. They are requesting a vid-link.”

  Nathan turned forward and straightened his uniform jacket. “General, front and center if you please.”

  General Bacca moved forward and came to stand beside Nathan, to his left.

  “Open the connection,” Nathan instructed.

  A rectangular window appeared in the middle of the main view screen, revealing a stately chamber. In it were four men and four women, seated behind a long, curved table that hid their lower halves behind lacquered wood. Along the wall behind them were the flags of all the castes of the Jung.

  “I am Captain Nathan Scott, of the Earth-Pentaurus Alliance ship, Aurora. I am auth…”

  “State your terms of surrender, and we shall consider your fate,” the woman sitting in the center of the room said, interrupting the captain.

  “There appears to be a misunderstanding,” Nathan said. “Possibly a translation issue, as we have only recently learned your language. We were not coming here to surrender. We came in response to the message sent by you…a call for peace.”

  “That was before,” the woman explained curtly. “This is now.”

  “I do not understand,” Nathan replied.

  “Your unprovoked attack on our homeworld has triggered a public outcry for Tonba-Hon-Venar. There can be no peace.”

  “The attack was hardly unprovoked,” Nathan defended.

  “Captain,” General Bacca warned.

  “You invaded our world, killed millions of our people, and when we fought back, you tried to destroy our planet. You glassed Tanna, one of our allies, and you cracked Kent in half, killing everyone. How can you sit there and claim that our attack on your world was unprovoked?”

  “The Jung take what the Jung need to thrive,” the man next to the women stated. “It is the way of the strong. Did your people need to destroy Zhu-Anok in order to thrive?”

  “Did your people need to glass Tanna in order to thrive?”

  “Worlds are cleansed when their populations prove uncooperative and require too many resources to manage, thus interfering with the expansion of the Jung Empire.”

  Nathan turned to look at Jessica behind him. “That almost makes sense, in a twisted sort of way,” he said under his breath. Nathan turned around to face the main view screen. “Defending Earth, and our allies within the Sol sector, was taking up too many resources, thus interfering with the recovery and safety of our people. The attack on your world was meant to send a message.”

  “And what message was it meant to send?”

  “That a continuation of hostilities between the Jung Empire and the Earth-Pentaurus Alliance would consume many resources, and cost countless lives. That it would interfere with the prosperity of both our peoples. We wanted to show you that we could destroy your world just as easily as you can destroy any of ours, in the hopes that you would agree to a cease-fire, while we negotiate a way to peacefully coexist, and perhaps even help one another prosper.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jessica mumbled.

  “Unless your people surrender now, the demands of the Jung people for a Tonba-Hon-Venar will be approved, and the call will be sent out to every ship in the fleet. The order will be to destroy Earth, and any world that allies with it.”

  “That will take years,” Nathan said, “during which we will build more ships and more weapons. And we will seek out your ships, destroying them one by one, as we have already been doing. You will have a hard time gathering together enough ships to destroy any of our worlds.”

  “It takes but a single ship to destroy a world, if her crew is willing to commit to the Tonba-Hon-Venar.”

  “Captain,” Naralena called from her comm station.

  “Your world will end.”

  “Muted,” Naralena reported. “Sir, I believe Tonba-Hon-Venar means fight to the death. However, the use of the suffix ‘ba’ on the end of the root word ‘ton’, followed by ‘hon’, which means honor…”

  “Get to the point,” Nathan insisted, still looking forward.

  “Tonba-Hon-Venar could mean ‘To give your life with honor for vengeance.’”

  “Oh, you are good,” General Bacca cooed.

  “Unmute,” Nathan ordered. “Then your world will end as well,” Nathan replied.

  “Although much damage was done, your attack failed to destroy our world, Captain. You lost nearly half of your forces in the process. The fact that you attacked a massive force with so few ships would indicate that you have no others.”

  “We don’t need others. Had we wanted to destroy your world, we would have. We have the means. As you said, it takes but one ship. We took it one better. We have created weapons whose only purpose is to destroy worlds, and from great distances. As I now speak, there are eight such weapons, jumping around the stars at random. Each day, they move to a new location that only they know. Each day, they send a jump comm-drone back to Alliance Command asking a single question. ‘Should I postpone the attack?’ As long as they receive orders to postpone the launch of their weapons, your world survives another day. Should you attack Earth, or any of our allies, those weapons will launch, and your world will end.”

  The vid-link disappeared.

  “What happened?” Nathan asked, spi
nning around to look at Naralena.

  “The transmission was terminated at their end, Captain, not ours.”

  “It appears you have ‘rattled their cage’,” General Bacca observed.

  “I’m hoping that’s a good thing?” Nathan replied.

  “Possibly. Then again, possibly not. Right now, I imagine they are discussing the situation among themselves.”

  “Captain, those ships are coming into firing range, and closing fast,” Mister Navashee warned.

  “How many?”

  “One battleship, two cruisers, with about eight frigates a few minutes further out. The battleship will reach firing range first…in about two more minutes.”

  “Keep that escape jump warm, Mister Riley,” Nathan instructed.

  “My finger is on the button, sir.”

  “You cannot leave, Captain,” General Bacca urged. “You must demonstrate your resolve if you want them to take your threats seriously.”

  “How can they not take the threat of planet-busting weapons set to fail-safe as a serious threat?”

  “They are still stuck in the mindset of FTL. The idea that such weapons can suddenly appear out of nowhere, and they would have no defense, borders on unbelievable in their minds. I saw your ships jumping about in battle, and had I not experienced your miraculous jump drive technology first-hand, I too would have a hard time wrapping my mind around its tactical advantages. Give them time.”

  “One minute until that battleship reaches firing range on us.”

  “I’ve only got a minute to give them, General,” Nathan reminded him.

  “Take a few shots, if you must, but stand your ground, Captain. The military castes respect strength and honor, the Isolationists just want to survive.”

  “What about the other castes?” Nathan wondered. “What do they want?”

  “It does not matter. The Isolationists outnumber the other castes.”

  “Combined?”

  “No, but the Expansionists and the Conqueror castes would never team up to overrule the Isolationists, who are the most senior and most respected caste in all of the Jung. They are the founders of the empire, after all.”

  “Twenty seconds,” Mister Navashee warned.

  “Are they targeting us?” Nathan asked.