“We should still wait until we hear back from our various allies. It’d be good to know if this was focused on us as the new power in the fifty galaxies as far as they’re concerned, or if they’re looking at everyone. Outside of confronting them with a message when we have that data, any other ideas from your leaders?”
The Russian representative, Colonel Natalya Androvich, spoke.
“We have no wish to start another interstellar war, but neither can we show our enemies our throats or they may be further emboldened. We must come up with a proportional response of some kind.”
Clarence said, “That will be hard to match, because if we surveil the enemy one of the basic goals in doing so is to not be caught doing so.”
The meeting continued, but it was clear none of them had a solid idea on how to move forward. Their leaders were just frustrated at the non-action of waiting for more data. We went around in circles at that point, and we uselessly speculated about what it would mean based on what we found if this or that happened.
In the end it was a waste of two hours in my opinion, but that was politics.
It was late afternoon when all the reports started to come in, including ours. It interrupted my design for a stealth probe, even if I had no plans to build it, I felt the itch to design it just cause. It was basically the design the Grays had, with a jump drive in it and a few other enhancements.
There was no other probes anywhere in the SOL system, which made sense. They’d probably only sent one per system. Both the Vax and the Arnis called within five minutes of each other, they both found blank spots that self-destructed when their ships tried to close with it. Twenty other races called in the next hour, reporting the same, so I was fairly sure by then the Vrok were likely scouting all FTL races in all fifty freed galaxies.
Tam’Diaz hailed us on the quantum communicator and told us they’d also found probes in some of their systems, but only on the border in the two galaxies closest to where their space and Vrok space met.
That told me we were probably in trouble. That the Vrok were keeping a limited spying eye on the Atans, but they were scouting our space far more thoroughly. More and more reports came in, of found and self-destructing Vrok probes. Even a few of the xenophobic races that wouldn’t trade with anyone reported incursions in their space.
I explained my thought process there.
Cassie nodded, “Perhaps they’re looking for any hidden threats they might face in an invasion, and of course they’re getting good news. Only the Arnis have close to what the Gray technology was, before our advances. They’ve probably figured out we’re the only real threat to their invasion plans, and I can imagine the temptation of adding our fifty galaxies to their available food source.”
That Cassie agreed with me, and offered more speculation in support of it, was a little alarming to me.
Jessica said, “But they couldn’t beat the Grays.”
I replied, “That was a long time ago. If they made advances and think they can face us, they might’ve just been verifying there were no greater powers to face in our space. I think we could speculate forever, but from what we just learned a scouting and mapping mission, and a prelude to war seems most likely. Let the representatives on station know and give them an hour to discuss the new data with their leaders, then we’ll meet back up in the conference room.”
Cassie asked, “What do you think we should do?”
I smirked, “Wait. Go to war if and only if they attack us. We’re making a lot of assumptions about an alien race that thinks differently than we do. If they were humans, I’d say there was no doubt they were getting ready to invade, but they could just be paranoid about us taking over for the Grays. Maybe they looked at all the other systems merely to see how we treated them. And if they were under our thumb or not, like they could be. It could all be part of their evaluation of us, even looking at all the other races.”
Cassie challenged, “But you don’t really believe that?”
“No, my gut says they’re going to attack us, soon. All races think a little differently, but there’s still a lot of instinctual commonalities, we’re all predators out there. But even if I’m right, and I’m far from positive that I am, we shouldn’t fire the first shot.”
Jessica pointed out, “Except the Atans.”
Right, because they were herbivores.
I shrugged, “I have no ambition to rule, but my counterparts do, and often people see the motivations of others through their own ambitions. Point being, I don’t think the other leaders are going to want to sit back and let the Vrok get in the first punch, most won’t have the same reasonable doubt I do.”
Cassie smirked, “Reasonable, or hopeful?”
I sighed, “Good question.”
One I didn’t have an answer to, but I didn’t think I was being completely naïve. I just didn’t want to start an interstellar war but like with the Grays I wouldn’t have a problem ending one.
“What do you think about it?”
Cassie shrugged, “I agree with you. I think it’s inevitable, but aggressive self-defense is a small step toward becoming what the Grays were. Down the line, a race in the fifty galaxies growing in power will seem like a threat too. The capacity equals intent argument, it’s a rabbit hole we don’t want to fall into, and just one more small step past the one before us now.”
I nodded, it was natural, but logic told me letting the enemy get in the first swing wouldn’t put us in that bad a position. We couldn’t win a war defensively, but that was a far cry from starting it.
Jessica said, “Expansion, perhaps too many mouths to feed. If they’re carnivores, their instincts won’t be like the rest of us as omnivores, no more than the Atans are like us. I suspect they wouldn’t invade at all, unless their current prey population isn’t enough for their population to support anymore.”
I nodded, “That’s possible, the Grays don’t have enough on them to be sure. I’d love to get my hands on their military and social databases, but likely I won’t until after a war starts. Anything else going on?”
She replied, “Nothing big. A couple of vacationers were thrown off station today, for assault, on each other, and drunk and disorderly.”
Yeah, even after twelve years we didn’t have a whole lot of lawbreaking, and none from our first wave of permanent residents and citizens of Astraeus. It was just a matter of time though, before the first generation of kids grew up and a criminal element was introduced past visitors and visa workers that we could just kick off the station.
Cassie had that all figured out though, so we were ready for it.
I shook my head, and I wondered if I was being naïve. I’d do anything to protect my loved ones, as well as Earth and humanity, but I wasn’t interested in starting the war just because they’d taken a look at us. Although, I was a bit tempted to return the favor.
Chapter Five
The meeting started with me laying down my position, that we should prepare for the worst but only aggressively wage war after they’d fired the first shot. As I’d expected that was a rather unpopular viewpoint with the rest of the room.
Clarence asked, “What steps have you taken?”
I replied, “I took them a long time ago for an invasion scenario. We’ve got the fleet out there, four million platforms that they’ll take out first, otherwise they’ll risk us sending them into their territory if they ignore the threat and attack us directly. Then there’s all the platforms in the void from the build effort twelve years ago that I’ve been using for stock and they can’t possibly know about. If they do attack here in some kind of attempt to take out the only danger to them immediately, those platforms can jump in very quickly to bolster our defenses.”
Natalya nodded, “All very good, and our military is on alert as well, not just here but in all our colonies. But, it’s not good enough. We need to know how we’d stand up to an attack now, if we’ve underestimated their current technological advances it would be disastrous. If there�
��s a large gap we need to find out before they attack, so we can focus on removing it.”
I nodded, “I worry about that too, but how can we learn that without starting a war. If we attack even one of their ships it could trigger that invasion, and it would be a far clearer act of war than their spying on us.”
Clarence said, “My president is in agreement with Russia. We’re in the dark about their current capabilities. At the very least, we need to do an active scan on one of their ships and determine what we can from that. It’s aggressive, but no more aggressive than scouting us out, and it doesn’t involve firing weapons or an escalation. We think that would be a good countermeasure as well.”
I frowned, “I don’t like the unknown any more than you do, and I’d prefer to know their technology before they attack, but war is always full of unknown risks. If they outclass us by that much, we won’t close that gap quickly, I think it would be a mistake and won’t use my platforms to do it.”
I hated to use that leverage, but the majority of human forces were under my control. They couldn’t afford to buy millions of platforms from me, and they didn’t have the populations to crew millions of ships. They did have thousands of their own ships, with sub-fighters similar to my mini-platforms, but they weren’t nearly as advanced or capable as my mini-platforms.
The fighters were also bigger, and a whole lot less numerous, because they all needed their own fusion reactor without the nanite vacuum reactor technology. They also lacked our most powerful weapon and the quantum jump drive.
Of course, they all also owned my ships, which had all those advantages, and they could use one of those. The restrictions not to attack any human ships built into them wouldn’t stop them from scanning a Vrok vessel, or even firing the first shot of the war.
It was what it was.
Clarence nodded, “We suspected you might take that tack. However, the U.S. is willing to send a ship and actively scan a Vrok ship in their fleet on their border across from yours. We’ll jump in until two light seconds away, and then run the scan from there.”
Clarence held up his hands to silence the mutterings of the other representatives.
“But only if a majority of our allies agreed with the decision. Our president won’t authorize that step on behalf of the world by himself, but only with all of your support.”
Save mine, obviously. I knew the meeting would be a little tense, and no one but me and maybe one or two others here would want to wait for a definitive alien strike to occur before we acted, but I hadn’t expected that.
Natalya nodded, “My government will support that. We respect President Akin’s opinion, but also agree a proportional response is needed to their incursion in our space. Further, it shows two things. One, we won’t be cowed and that we aren’t afraid of them, and two, we’ll learn some much needed data.”
Chen said, “I agree that it is a proportional response, and sends the right message. I don’t believe we can count on it for any useful information however.”
Clarence frowned, “Why not?”
Chen said, “You’re a civilian, not a military mind. War is deception, and surprise has turned many a battle. The first rule of war is to show the enemy exactly what they expect to see, while doing something different. I could be wrong, but I suspect if the enemy has made recent advances, those more powerful ships will not be on picket duty.”
“Like our most powerful ships are?”
Chen shrugged, “We had little choice then. We had to defeat the Grays’ outer fleets and show a strong shield to the enemies that surround us as the new power in space. They on the other hand have the option of misdirection, and so are most likely using it.”
That made far too much sense for my comfort.
I shook my head, “If that’s true, then there’s even less a reason to run an active scan, which is an aggressive action.”
Chen shook his head, “The message it will send is important. That we are not violent enough to war over the trespass, but that we also won’t be pushed around. Perhaps it will give them pause, and it could make them consider expanding in another direction. It should also tell us if I’m right or not, if they ignore us doing a scan of their warships, then chances are they’re not their best.”
Clarence asked, “Does anyone disagree, besides our host?”
I hated the idea, and I didn’t think I was a coward for doing so, but despite my military might I was still one leader among many, and I didn’t chart the course for humanity.
Even when it was hard not to, because the only reason I didn’t was because I’d decided not to. In truth, I didn’t want to rule, for various reasons both moral and ethical, as well as a simple lack of ambition, but I thought this was a major mistake. Especially if we couldn’t trust the results.
No one spoke up though, so I was alone in my opinion outside of Cassie, and the ship was sent. We’d all regather in two hours when it arrived at the enemy lines, which was right after dinner unfortunately. I still hated working late. I always missed Diana and Melody by the end of the day, the last thing I wanted to do was leave again.
But the shadow of intergalactic war was kind of important to stay on top of.
Cassie waited until they’d all left, and we had privacy.
“Sure you don’t want to rule the world?”
I snorted, “I’d never get to work on tech, or spend time with my family. Plus, you’d kill me.”
Those were all the selfish reasons, the other of course was that it would just be wrong. Power corrupted humans, always. The last we needed was one person in charge of it all, even me.
Cassie smirked, “You just look really frustrated right now.”
I shrugged, “They’re all assuming the Vrok will read the message it sends like another human would. And even there, it wouldn’t be guaranteed.”
Cassie nodded, “We have to do something though, and as things go there were worse options they could’ve picked.”
That… was just true. They could’ve crossed borders, or even just fired the first shot to measure technological abilities against theirs, which would’ve been worse.
Cassie said, “We’ll figure it out, and I don’t think it will cause them to go to war, unless they were already planning to.”
Probably.
I pushed it all out my head, or I tried. Time to spend a little time with the family before it happened and we reconvened, worrying about it wasn’t going to change it, after all.
Easier said than done.
The smile on my face was completely credited to the fact I was mugged by my daughter as soon as I walked in the door.
Cassie laughed lightly at her antics.
I could only shift my thinking and assume my wife had made the right decision, when Melody started to gush excitedly about her morning at mom’s work.
I never asked questions of my wife, the research she pursued was her own decision, always. She usually told me about the most promising stuff when the real-world applications were close. But my daughter gave me a clear and concise overview of it all, that would’ve sounded professional if it wasn’t for the breathless excitement.
When I got to the kitchen, I pulled off my jacket and put it over the chair before giving my wife a proper greeting. Diana’s eyes sparkled as I broke it.
Melody sighed in disappointment, “You’re going back to work after dinner?”
When I gave her a questioning look, Diana chuckled, “You didn’t go change out of the monkey suit, as you call it.”
Oh, right.
“Yeah, we’re still working on that mystery. I’m hoping it won’t be too long, but I’m working with a joint command committee from Earth on it.”
Mostly because if it does take a long time, it’d mean I was fighting a war. If the Vrok didn’t escalate during or after the scan I figured it’d be less than an hour before the meeting broke up for the day.
Melody said, “Eww, politics.”
I grinned, and then gave her a high five. I had edu
cated her well. She was a tech geek like me, with my power, and her mother’s intelligence. I didn’t want her to grow up with ambitions of ruling humanity either.
“Singularities?”
Of all my wife’s projects, that one had piqued my interest the most.
Diana peered at Melody intently.
My daughter rolled her eyes, “Top secret doesn’t count for dad or Aunt Cassie.”
Diana snickered, “Fine. Obviously, we don’t need a new power source, vacuum energy seems like the best we’re going to get, at least with our current knowledge, even the theoretical.”
That was true enough, there were still a lot of mysteries left in the universe to solve, including other layers of subspace and how it all works together. We could find a better form of energy elsewhere, but if so we had no idea where yet.
She shrugged, “Not sure where we’re going with it yet. Lots of experiments, denser matter formed from a near singularity, a possible weapon that will make the current gravity missile look like a joke, shielding applications, we’re looking at everything and getting a lot of data.”
“Right, but the current gravity missile leaves the enemy ship completely intact. I’m guessing a singularity missile would not. Not that I’m complaining, that sounds… really wild.”
Diana smirked, and kissed me.
“Dinner?”
Melody said, “Mom’s cheating again.”
“Oh good, pizza.”
Mom cheating meant using the energy to matter device we never told anyone about, which could make just about anything, including pizza.
Diana nodded, “Guilty as charged.”
A few minutes later we got started on that.
Chapter Six
The conference room was already full when Cassie and I got back, and I activated the holographic display in the room which showed the enemy line. The display barely had any technical data. The fleets were a few light hours apart so all that was really working at that range in real time was the mass sensors and visual light sensors which had data hours old.
Fallen Empire Page 4