At one end of the table sat the leaders of the Terran Government. In addition to the president seated at the head of the table, Calvin also recognized the vice president, the secretary of state and guessed that the tall woman he had seen earlier was the speaker of one of the houses of parliament. Their staffers completely filled all of the rows behind them and encroached into the seating of the other participants.
On one side of the table sat several members from Epsilon Eridani. The planet Domus in that star system supported two races, which had come together to form their own world government so they could join the Republic of Terra. Calvin could see the princesses from both of the planet’s races in attendance. One of these was humanoid, with members that could generally pass as human, although they tended to look a little more Cro-Magnon. The other race, the kuji, was a race of lizards that looked like six feet tall versions of the tyrannosaurus rex. As the kuji were unable to sit comfortably in the Terran chairs, an enterprising craftsman had built a modified stool with a back that let them relax without getting their tails caught up.
Calvin could also see Second Lieutenant Contreras in the seating behind the kuji princess. Previously a member of Calvin’s platoon, Contreras had become good friends with the princess after he saved her life. He was currently serving as the head of her security forces.
On the other side of the table sat the Mrowry contingent, led by Captain Yerrow and Commander Andowwn, the commanding officer and executive officer of the Mrowry cruiser Emperor’s Paw. Although Captain Yerrow had served as the executive officer of the TSS Terra when it had first been acquired by the fleet, he had relinquished that position to a Terran officer once there were a sufficient number of implanted humans.
The Fleet Command staff sat at the end of the table opposite the president, led by its head, Admiral James Wright. Calvin had met Admiral Wright during the Sino-American War of 2018. Although their working relationship had been strained at first, the admiral was aware of most of Calvin’s accomplishments and looked in on him from time to time, like admirals will often do for their prodigies. Several representatives from the Vella Gulf, the only Terran spaceship currently in-system, sat with the staff. Calvin had originally been invited to sit at the table, but had been moved to the first row of the stadium seating when the Terran government higher-ups had claimed a greater number of seats than expected. He had moved a little higher on his own accord as more and more ‘stars’ had come in.
“Thank you all for coming today,” said Terran President Katrina Nehru. In addition to the hidden microphones and speakers that transmitted her voice, it was also being sent over the implant network so Calvin had no problems hearing her, even though he was at the opposite end of the room and removed from the table. She looked around the crowded conference room and smiled. “I guess that one of the perks of being president of the world,” she said, “is that when you ask for a meeting everyone shows up on time.” Several polite chuckles could be heard throughout the room.
“I asked for all of you to come here today,” she continued in a more serious tone, “so that we could formulate a coherent strategy for the defense of the Solar System. Admiral Wright, could you please give us a status report?”
While Admiral Wright began summing up the battle at Stargate #1, Calvin had a thought. “Solomon, Calvin,” he commed to the artificial intelligence (AI) onboard the Vella Gulf. “Are you receiving me?”
“I am receiving you,” answered the AI. “I am currently orbiting overhead. What can I do for you?”
“I understand that Steropes had you run some simulations,” said Calvin. “Is that correct?”
“Yes,” replied Solomon, “I did not have any prohibitions on that, and the ones he asked me to run were not of a classified nature. Am I no longer allowed to interact with him?”
“No,” said Calvin, “it’s OK to talk to him. His status is still being evaluated. Can you tell me about the simulations?”
“Certainly, Calvin,” answered Solomon. “He asked me to run simulations on when the Drakuls would be likely to return, and what size force they would show up with. Based on information I received from the Emperor’s Paw, I tried to answer those questions for him.”
“And what did you determine?” asked Calvin.
“There are several caveats I must make before I give you the results,” advised Solomon. “First, there is not much data on the new Drakuls on which to base the simulations, so I used historical data from the original race of Drakuls. They may act differently, but I cannot control for this. Second, I have no access to their order of battle, other than what the Archons had passed on to the Mrowry as of two years ago. They may have more ships or less than what I am using, which would speed up or slow down their fleet’s movements. Third, I do not have access to the current situation at 54 Piscium, where the Drakuls and the Archons are fighting, which would also be a major factor in their planning. These things will have a major effect on the simulation’s outcome.”
“Got it,” said Calvin. “With those caveats, what did you determine?”
“The Drakuls will be back between five and nine months from now,” said Solomon. “They will return with at least one dreadnought, eight battleships and 16 battlecruisers, as well as a number of smaller ships. A host of cruisers will lead the assault, sacrificing themselves to clear out the Terran minefield. They will be met by two to three Terran battleships and five battlecruisers. The battle will be fierce, with neither side asking for or giving quarter. The Terran forces will be destroyed, and the Drakul forces will still have two battleships, five battlecruisers and eight cruisers left over. The Earth will be conquered and become a pastureland for Drakul food harvesters.” Damn, thought Calvin. If they brought a dreadnought, Terra was in trouble because dreadnoughts were bigger than anything Terra had in its inventory. Way bigger. He doubted they could stop one if it showed up.
“Is that a sure thing?” asked Calvin. “How many times did you run the simulation?”
“I ran it 3,869 times,” said Solomon. “In over 30% of them, the Drakuls also destroyed at least part of the planet during the battle, launching missiles at it to split the focus of the defending forces.”
“So,” Calvin asked, “How many did we win?”
“None of them,” replied Solomon. “In most cases, all of the Terran spaceships were destroyed within the first hour.”
“Damn,” said Calvin. “Did Steropes ask you about what happened if we got aid?”
“Yes, he did,” replied Solomon. “If the Archons respond with aid, you were more likely to survive the initial assault.”
“How likely?” asked Calvin, noticing that Admiral Wright was finishing up.
“If the Archons respond with aid, you have a 5% chance of surviving the initial assault,” replied Solomon.
“Thanks,” said Calvin. “I’ve gotta go. Could you please push that info to Admiral Wright of Fleet Command? Tell him it’s something I said he needs for this discussion.” Calvin knew that the admiral had gotten his implants a week ago. A gift from the Psiclopes, implants allowed recipients to download information directly to their brains, as well as to talk to each other via a special communications network. Calvin doubted that getting bad news in the middle of a briefing was one of the reasons the admiral wanted them.
“Thank you for the recap of the battle,” said President Nehru. She looked around to see if there were any questions. When she saw none, she asked, “What are Fleet Command’s intentions to ensure that we are equally successful next time?”
The admiral didn’t answer. When she looked down the table she could see his eyes slightly unfocused and a frown on his face. She recognized the look of someone that just got implants carrying on a conversation. The fact that he took the call in the middle of a presidential meeting meant that it was either incredibly important, or he had requested information about the topic of conversation from someone outside the conference. With a start, his eyes focused, and he realized that everyone was waiting on him.
“I’m sorry, madam president,” he said, trying to recover. “I...um...asked for some simulations to be run to project what the Drakuls would do next, and I just got the results.” He took a breath and released it, trying to put off the news as long as he could. “They’re not good,” he said finally.
The president frowned. “Could you please be a little more specific on what ‘not good’ means?” she asked.
“The AI onboard the Vella Gulf ran several thousand simulations on what the Drakuls would most likely do, based on historical information and the data passed on to us by the Mrowry,” Admiral Wright explained. “The AI thinks that they will be back in force, as early as five months from now, with enough ships to break into the system and subdue it.”
President Nehru noticed the Mrowry officers nodding their head, which she had been told was a practice that both races had in common. “I see you nodding your head, Captain Yerrow,” she said. “Do you have something to add?”
“I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings,” replied Captain Yerrow, “but we ran the same simulations onboard our ship. The results were the same, with one small difference. Our AI only gives you four months before their return.” There was a general intake of breath from around the table and plenty of scared looks, especially from the civilians.
“Well, that outcome is not acceptable to me,” stated the president in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. “I will not be both the first and last president of this republic. There are always choices and options. What did the AIs say we could do to ensure our survival? Do we need more mines? More ships? What do we need to do or build?” The matter-of-fact voice gave way slightly at the end, Calvin saw. He couldn’t blame her; he felt the same way.
“Barring help from an outside source,” said Captain Yerrow, “it is nearly certain that you will be overrun. Like Admiral Wright, we ran our simulation several thousand times, and the outcome was always the same. For the record, even if you receive outside aid, it is still unlikely that you will defeat them.”
“Unacceptable,” said the president, the steel back in her backbone. “If it is friends we must have, then it is friends that we will get. What aid can we expect from the Mrowry?”
Captain Yerrow and Commander Andowwn looked at each other, talking via implant. After a couple of seconds, Captain Yerrow turned to face the president. “I do not know what aid my father will be able to send,” he said. “It is unlikely to be much, if anything.”
“Well, what about if you stayed here?” asked Masood Khalil, the Pakistani secretary of state. “Would your ship help turn the tide against the Drakuls?”
Captain Yerrow gave the Mrowry version of a smile. It involved a lot of teeth and was very intimidating up close. “One cruiser, no matter how good it is, will not stop a Drakul battlecruiser, much less a battleship. Our lives would be better spent trying to make it back to ask my father for aid. In all honesty, should we actually be successful and make it back, there is not much of a chance that he will have aid to spare. When we left, we were being hard-pressed on all sides.”
“Then we will have to go to the other race that is currently fighting the Drakuls,” said the president. “What do we know about them?”
“They are the Archons,” said Captain Yerrow. “I do not know if you will have any more success with them than you will with my father, but aid is more likely to be found there than at our capital of Grrrnow.”
“Then we will go there, as well,” said the president. She looked at the secretary of state. “Put together a mission that goes first to the home world of the Mrowry and then to the home world of the Archons. Make sure that your best person is on it.”
“Just like the Vella Gulf’s last mission,” said Khalil, “our best ambassador remains Juliette Ricketts-Smith. She did good work on their last mission and has the benefit of already having been to the stars once.”
“Great,” said the president. She looked around the table at the Terrans and the delegation for Domus. “So we are agreed that the Vella Gulf will go to meet with the Archons?” She saw heads nodding around the table. She looked at Admiral Wright. “Until they get back, that leaves us with a battleship, a battlecruiser and the Mrowry cruiser until we can get the new replicator making ships?”
“That is correct,” said Admiral Wright.
Before he could add anything else, Captain Yerrow cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, but we will not be staying here. When the Vella Gulf leaves for Grrrnow, we will be taking the Emperor’s Paw back to our home world, too.”
“I see,” the president said. “I guess Terra stands alone, then.”
“Not alone,” said the prince. “I will be leaving as many of my warriors as I can spare to help train the crew of the Terra, and the rest of us will be with you in spirit. I will also leave some pilots to help train your pilots in space fighter combat, but it is imperative that I leave. I know for sure that my father will not aid you if I am not there, as your civilization is unknown to him. If there is any aid to be had, it will only be given if I am there to vouch for you.”
The president had previously served as the chairman of the upper house of India’s parliament and was used to making decisions. “Go with my blessings, then,” she said, “and help convince your father to send whatever aid he can. If you can also do something to help with the Archons, I would appreciate that, as well.” She looked at the rest of the group in attendance. “What other things can we do to help improve our readiness? What aren’t we doing that we should be?”
“If I may,” said the only person seated with Fleet Command wearing civilian clothes. Calvin recognized Andrew Brown, the person who ran the Fleet’s Material Management Network. Also known as ‘Replicator Command,’ its sole purpose was to ensure the Republic of Terra’s two replicators ran as efficiently as possible. The replicators were alien devices with the ability to rapidly assemble anything they had the blueprints for. They functioned somewhat like transporters in that they broke things down to their most basic level and then reassembled them. You couldn’t get something for nothing, though; whatever material you wanted the finished product to be made of had to be loaded into the replicator first. Before coming to work for Replicator Command, Andrew Brown had been the plant manager for Boeing’s Airplane Programs Manufacturing Site in Renton, Washington. Although no human had experience running replicators, he had a wealth of experience managing massive aircraft production facilities.
The Republic of Terra had a Class 2 replicator that the Vella Gulf brought back from its first mission and a Class 6 that it brought back from its second. Although the Class 2 was only able to build things up to the size of a space fighter or shuttle, the Class 6 was enormous. Just over a mile long and about 1,500 feet in diameter, it could build anything up to the size of a battleship, if you had about two and a half months to do it. The Terrans didn’t have that kind of time. Both the Terra and the Vella Gulf also had smaller replicators onboard that could be used for making things for their ship’s company, like the crew’s combat suits, weapons, and implants. The Vella Gulf had one of the smaller replicators; the Terra had three.
“Yes?” asked the president. “You are...?”
“I’m Andrew Brown, ma’am,” he said. “I run the replicators for Fleet Command. I’m not sure if it’s my place to say it or not, but the best thing that you could do to help us would be to get China to come onboard with us. They have a wealth of materials we need to build more ships. If we’re going to stand alone, we’re going to need to stand together as a planet, with the Chinese.”
“We have tried repeatedly to do that,” said the president, “but they don’t want to be a part of this. They won’t even talk to us. They have withdrawn to their country and won’t receive our diplomats. Do you have some insight into how we can get them to join us?”
“No ma’am, I don’t,” said Brown. “I’m no politician. I just make airplanes...well, now it’s space planes. You asked what we needed; we need access to their resources.”
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br /> The Terran government staff all looked at each other in frustration. They had tried to get China to join the government. Repeatedly. But whether it was because of their recent loss in the war with America, or because it was later found that they had been led astray by one of the Psiclopes and they were embarrassed by the loss of face, they hadn’t wanted to participate in the world government.
An awkward silence followed as they spoke among themselves via implant. Finally Calvin couldn’t take it any longer. He stood up. “I think I have an idea that might work,” he said in a loud voice, “but it involves using Steropes to help convince them.” Several heads immediately began shaking, including all of the Mrowry. The Psiclopes had broken the trust of the Mrowry and had thrown the universe into the state of war it was in; the Mrowry wanted nothing to do with the oath breakers.
“Well, here’s the deal,” said Calvin before anyone could say anything that couldn’t be taken back. “I think he can convince them to join the government. We need the resources that the Chinese have, whether that is the rare Earth elements they have stockpiled, which we need,” Brown began nodding his head, “or whether it is their manpower. Right now, nearly 20% of Earth’s manpower is sitting idly by, when it could be working to build the things the Earth needs to defend itself. We need the Chinese! For those of you that don’t know me, I’m Lieutenant Commander Hobbs. I was heavily involved in the war against the Chinese when they invaded Seattle. They shot down my airplane and killed many of my friends. If I can say that we need them, we need them.”
Theogony 3: Terra Stands Alone Page 4