Exodus: Empires at War: Book 14: Rebellion.

by Doug Dandridge

  “What do you want me to do about this?” asked Sean, holding out open hands in an indication of his helplessness to do anything.

  “The Lords are nervous,” said von Hausser, almost spitting out the word for his colleagues. “Some are afraid that the mob, their word, might storm the building and ransack their offices. Maybe even cause bodily harm to them.”

  “They seem peaceable enough, for the moment,” said the Emperor, shaking his head. “They are within their rights, though I think they are ill informed. And not that large an assemblage. I’m not willing to set the police or Imperial Security on them. If they actually start to riot, destroying property and threatening people, I will come down on them.”

  “Perhaps we could request some of the Capital Police to reinforce the Parliament Guard,” suggested the countess. “If they were a presence before the entrance, I’m sure they would dissuade any foolishness.”

  “I will see to it. But remember, if they are targeting Parliament, I’m sure they will protest the rest of the government as well.” He didn’t have any concerns for his own safety, or those of his family. The palace, even though it was still a year away from the completion of its rebuild, had a fully functional security system, including a full brigade of Marines, the currently assigned close guard force. Anyone trying to get on the grounds, unless they had a full division of infantry along with them, would be quickly subdued.

  “We’ll keep an eye on this,” said Sean, meaning that he would pass the word onto security and forget about it, so he could concentrate on more important matters. “And I’ll get with Sergiov and see if we can use some public service announcements to educate the people as to the reality of our situation.”

  That meant that he would pass the word to his intelligence chief, who would pass the order onto some subordinates, so she could concentrate on what was important.

  “Thank you, your Majesty,” said the Prime Minister. “We know you have other things on your mind, but we have to consider the security of the Lords. Any help you can give will be appreciated.”

  Which meant, the Emperor knew, that members of the Lords would be more amenable to signing off on what Sean wanted if he made them feel safe.

  The com faded, leaving Sean to think about everything that was going on, home and abroad. He took a moment to send out the orders to his subordinates, then got back to thinking about the things that were important to the war effort. As long as the protestors did nothing to sabotage that effort, they could demonstrate as much as they wanted. And if they did overstep those bounds? For a moment he wished he had the power of the Caca Emperor. He dismissed that thought immediately. No one should have that kind of power, and what was currently happening in the enemy camp was proof of that.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Revolution did not necessarily involve sanguinary strife. It was not a cult of bomb and pistol. They may sometimes be mere means for its achievement. Bhagat Singh

  JUNE 30TH, 1004. JEWEL AND KALLFER.

  “Are your people ready to go, Admiral?” asked Sean, looking into the face of Admiral Len Lenkowski on the holo.

  “We’re ready, your Majesty,” said the six star admiral, doubt creeping into his voice. “I’m still not sure this is a good idea though.”

  Sean nodded. He wasn’t so sure about this either. But this might be the only way to save over a billion allies from immediate death. That he wasn’t entering the system with his people weighed on his mind, as he was sure it was weighing on that of the senior admiral. The Empress would have his balls if he tried to enter this death trap, and he would bust his admiral if he tried the same.

  The mission had been explained to all of the crews involved, and every single one of them had been given the opportunity to back out, no questions asked. Very few had taken him up on it, a couple of thousand out of the more than a million. Those were now in isolation until the mission was completed. The one who had signed on were good people, trusting in his judgement, which made it more difficult to give the final order. If he didn’t give it a million more Maurids would die this day, followed by the same number every day until there were no more left on the planet in question. Or he could go in and rescue them, in which case the Cacas would detonate the star and kill all of the Maurids, and his people along with them. At least that was the enemy plan. He had other plans, and the lives of his people depended on his working, while those of the Cacas didn’t.

  Sean took one more look at the world they were attempting to save. Kallfer was a beautiful globe from space, as were most living planets. Two large continents and five smaller ones, the surface equally divided between land and water. There were several huge lakes on one of the continents, while large river networks traversed the land. Most of the land areas were the green of vegetation; forests, jungles, grasslands. There were the browns of very small deserts in some inland areas, and the silver gray of large cities.

  It was the home of over a billion sentients, almost all of them Maurids. Not a Maurid world, which would have displayed a predominance of orange and reds among the vegetation, it was still compatible with their biology. They were the majority population on the world, a billion of them. Along with less than a hundred million other subservient sentients, and what was thought to be a hundred thousand Caca soldiers. Those soldiers were rounding up and killing Maurids on a daily basis. From the intelligence they had received from the Maurids the population was not just going passively to their deaths. That wasn’t in their species. But with superiority in the air and space it was still a one sided fight.

  Sean thought about it for another moment, hesitating. I should have just given the order and taken my hands off, he thought. But since it was his orders that were sending his people into harm’s way, his responsibility, he was determined to be there on the sidelines.

  “It’s okay,” said Jennifer, sitting in the chair next to his, her eyes moving back and forth between his face and the holo of the alien world. “Your people have done everything they could to make this plan go. All you can do is give the command and back off. All either of us can do is to watch and cheer the men and women on.”

  She’s right, he thought, looking at his wife with new appreciation. And no matter how this turns out, she loves me.

  “It’s a go, Admiral,” he said, looking into the eyes of Lenkowski.

  There was still doubt on the face of his admiral, but also relief that the mission was about to start.

  “The first units will be going in twenty-seven minutes, your Majesty. At that point we are committed.”

  “Understood. Let’s get this done.”

  * * *

  “We’re letting you go in one minute, Admiral,” said the voice of the battle cruiser commander that had provided the ride to this point.

  “Very well,” said Rear Admiral Bryce Suttler, sitting the commander’s chair in the stealth/attack ship Grampus.

  It was not the original ship to bear that name. In fact, it was the second to carry the honorable name since he had commanded one at the beginning of the war. It was slightly larger than that ship, but much more capable of fulfilling its mission. He looked at the faces of his bridge crew, noting the stress and anxiety etched on each. All were volunteers. All knew how important their part of the mission was. All were aware that if they failed, a million of their fleet mates would die, along with a billion sentients and an entire world.

  “We’re detached, sir,” called out the helmsman, a hint of relief in his voice.

  The ship was now heading into the system on its own at point one five light, on a course that would take them close to the star in twenty-six hours. If all went well the enemy would never know they were coming, until it was too late. If it didn’t go according to plan they would die when the star was sent into a sub-supernova state, along with everything else in the inner system, and much of that further out.

  “Any sign of the enemy projector ships?”

  “No, sir,” called out the exec, Commander Willis, from CIC. “But we real
ly didn’t expect to see them until they actually deployed. And command didn’t think that would happen until we were well into the system.”

  Suttler knew that. He wasn’t really expecting an answer, but didn’t feel like sitting there saying nothing. Bantering would make the crew think he was not as worried as he was. At least that was the theory.

  Well, Bryce, you didn’t have to come on this one, he thought, looking at the viewer, trying to will the enemy ships to appear. Not that there weren’t a lot of Caca ships on the plot, all around the habitable planet. Multiple hundreds of them, just under a thousand, enough to complicate the situation and call for the deployment of a large Imperial force to take care of them.

  Command had not wanted him to deploy on this one. He was, after all, the commander of all stealth/attack ships in this sector, and had no business actually going into battle. He had insisted, since as he understood it his people were going to be at extreme risk. They had still turned him down, until he had contacted the Emperor directly. Sean had remembered Suttler’s part in springing him from the Caca trap he had been caught in on the initiation of hostilities with this enemy. Going over the head of command might cost him in the future, when promotions were handed out. He really didn’t care. Moving out of ship command had not been in his plans in the first place. At least when he was a squadron commander he could still ride a ship into battle, commanding the one he actually occupied, since the small ships didn’t have the accommodations for a separate flag bridge.

  “Keep the situation reports flowing back to the fleet,” he next ordered, another that he really hadn’t had to give. And another that he felt compelled to verbalize, just to make him feel like he was doing something. In a little over twenty hours the real mission would begin, as far as his squadron was concerned.

  “I’ll be in my day cabin,” he reported, getting up from his chair and heading off the bridge. He doubted he would be able to get any sleep, and food was far from his mind. But if his people thought he was able to relax, they might be able to do so as well.

  * * *

  “We have a major translation at the hyper barrier to the Kallfer system, Supreme Lord,” said the messenger, appearing at the throne chamber.

  Jresstratta looked up from the report he had been reading on a holo screen open in the air to his left. More boring reading, not at all what he had been expecting when ascending to the throne. He had thought it would be one continuous party, with drinking and sex with an endless stream of concubines, mostly those collected by his father. There had been some indulgence, but not as much as he had expected. Instead it was one report after the other, as he fired off decisions to subordinates who seemed eager to carry out his will. My will is a willing female, he thought, thankfully turning off the report of more disobedience in the fleet and turning his attention to the messenger.

  “I will be down in a moment,” he told the male, making a dismissive gesture to see him off.

  The Emperor could have watched the unfolding drama from the throne room, making his advisors stand while he sat. But the facilities were better for all in the war room, and the advisors could actually work while he observed. He thought it important that they saw him as a participant in this action, not just an observer, and being with them in their command and control room would help to cement their loyalty. Or so the theory ran.

  It was a fairly long walk into the war room, eight levels down and a hundred meters to the north. It was a large chamber, one hundred by eighty meters, crowded with working warriors monitoring a great number of holos. The staff sat on a raised dais at the far end of the chamber, a large projection above the table showing the target system.

  “It is about to begin, Supreme Lord,” said the Chief of Staff, Supreme Admiral Kelgarasse, as Jressstratta ascended the steps to the dais. “Over a thousand enemy ships have translated and are about to cross the barrier into the system.”

  “And when will we be able to spring the trap?” asked the Emperor, rubbing both pairs of hands together in anticipation.

  “Not for many hours yet. They have to get near to the orbit of the habitable planet before we have sure kills.”

  “And they might get wind of something and head back out?” asked the Emperor, wishing he could force the humans to do what he wanted. Unfortunately, war didn’t work that way.

  “When they reach this point here, Supreme Lord,” said the Chief of Staff, “they will begin to decelerate to a stop near to the planet. At that point they are committed, and there will be no escape.”

  “Yes,” said the Emperor, a smile on his face. “This will show the humans our might.”

  “It won’t stop them for long, Supreme Lord,” said General Hafftralas, bowing his head.

  “As long as it gives us some time,” said the Emperor, plans and counterplans swirling through his young mind. He was, after all, the Emperor, the son of conquerors. Surely they would be able to come up with something given time.

  “Send for something to eat and drink,” the Emperor ordered one of the servitors standing near. He would be the first Ca’cadasan Emperor to actually watch an unfolding battle across the light years in real time. The young male planned to enjoy it.

  * * *

  Vice Admiral Mei Lei sat her flag command chair, staring at the plot, trying to determine where the enemy might have additional forces hidden in the system. It was her job to ferret them out. She doubted that they had any other than what was already on the plot, since the enemy plan wasn’t to trap them in the system for a battle, but to merely lure them in to be killed by the stellar event. Still, she had her part to play, convincing the enemy that the human forces were not sticking their heads into a known trap.

  “I really don’t like this, ma’am,” said the captain of the battle cruiser flagship, looking out of a holo. Behind him his crew manned all their stations, sitting tense as they monitored the ship and the system around it.

  “What’s not to like,” she answered with a head shake. “We’re bait, plain and simple. Just like those poor bastards in proximity to the planet.” And the poor slaves on the planet, there to entice us into the trap. She looked at the plot for a few moments more, making her decision while her flagship boosted toward the planet.

  “Send the first group to this area of the asteroid belt,” she ordered, pointing at that spot on the plot and illuminating the cluster of rocks. “Second group will head to these out here. Third group to this gas giant and its moons.”

  “Why bother, ma’am?” asked her flag captain. “We know where the enemy are, and they have no reason to put ships there if they plan to destroy us by detonating the star.”

  “And that is just the kind of lazy thinking that loses battles, Captain,” said Mei, her glare pinning him in place. “We will send ships there because that is what we do, and we want the enemy to think we are advancing as normal. Besides, if they have ships there, waiting for us in a standard ambush, we need to know.”

  The captain nodded his head, looking admonished. She hoped that he learned from this experience, something to think about if he ever rose to flag rank himself. And besides, there was another reason to send those ships out there, something she wasn’t about to admit to anyone.

  Her commands would actually send all of those ships to places where they might just survive the event if it were triggered. Something she had to think about. That it also performed a vital scouting function was a plus. Her own force would head straight in, scouting the path for the main fleet, and putting them right in the path of the fury of the star when it was detonated.

  “Connect me with Commodore von Rittersdorf,” she ordered a moment later. He would be the senior officer out there in the belt, and she wanted to have some words with him before other things took her mind off of them.

  “Duchess,” said the handsome young man on the holo. “And what can I do for you this fine day?”

  Mei snorted a laugh. The daughter of commoners, she still felt strange being called by the title the Emperor had be
stowed upon her. Maurice was the younger son of a count, and had been raised in the nobility, though he never had a chance to gain his father’s title, having six siblings ahead of him in the succession. She wondered how those siblings felt now that the baby of the family socially outranked all of them, and dear old dad as well. He had been elevated to duke for his part in saving the then as yet uncrowned new emperor. And, by the way, saving one hyper VII battle cruiser that happened to be under the command of then Captain Mei Lei.

  “Duke Maurice. I just wanted to reiterate how important your mission is. The bastards might have something hidden out there, waiting to ambush us. Which, if they do, means you will be hit with overwhelming force when you stick your nose in their nest.”

  “We both know that is unlikely in this scenario, Admiral. But don’t worry. I’ll be as cautious as always.”

  Mei had to laugh at that pronouncement from one of the most audacious destroyer commanders it had ever been her pleasure to command.

  “And I want you to remain out there with your command. Don’t even think about trying to rejoin the main scout force. I want you to remain out there, near enough to a major asteroid.”

  “But, why?”

  “Don’t question this order, Commodore. Just do it. Understood?”

  Mei terminated the connection before any other questions could arise. The young duke might not survive this war. There were no guarantees that any of them would. But she was determined that he wouldn’t die in this trap. She knew it was unfair to everyone else to play favorites this way, and she tried to avoid that practice. Unfortunately, she was still human, and sometimes needed to act like one.

  “Any sign of their projector ships?” she asked some moments later when nothing better to ask entered her mind.