For most of this period, Jan and Bill stayed on the Star Runner with Peggy and Max, and kept in touch with their staffs aboard Lakshmibai. A week before the planned departure for Earth, they celebrated Max's second birthday. They then transferred back over to the Lakshmibai, and stayed in touch with the kids and their household staff on board the Star Runner.
"Well, looks like everybody's here, Ma'am. That last was Vice Admiral Chakrabouti's TF51 from Boomgaard. They would have been last to hear, and the longest trip," said Rear Admiral Tien Jessen, the head of Jan's black strategic group within the Office of Naval Operations Planning. They were so black, they didn't have a name. Everybody just called them "Jessen."
"I think you're right. What about the Council?"
"We got almost everybody, Ma'am. We count ninety-one, including the Chairman."
"Excellent. OK. Time to distribute the electronickers, and then let's put out the spacing orders. I like Plan Alpha. What do you think?"
"Given the numbers we saw at Sigurdsen, Ma'am, I think that would probably work best. It is our primary plan, after all."
"All right. Let's make sure everyone has topped up their stores, and then let's do it."
Orders went out. One shuttle each from a dozen battleships came to Lakshmibai and, two at a time, embarked three passengers and then departed back to their ships. Freight shuttles made trips from the huge freighters to the newly arrived task force, ferrying stores containers.
At the appointed hour, the entire impossible assemblage set out in various directions for the system periphery, and one by one disappeared into hyper.
Admiral Jorge Hernandez, Earth Home Fleet – or what was left of it – walked onto his flag bridge aboard ESN Thermopylae.
"What have you got, Bob?"
"Multiple point sources appearing at the system periphery, Sir. Looks like 300 so far. Given the spacing, it looks like it will be over a thousand before it's over," Commander Robert Brodie said.
"Signatures?"
"Oh, they all look like drones so far, Sir."
"Globular decoy pattern? That's a little old-school."
"Yes, Sir."
"Well, let's just sit tight and see how the ships and decoys sort out."
"Talk to me, Jessen."
"Yes, Ma'am. It doesn't look like as many point sources as I would have expected. Their Home Fleet deploys about the Moon, but I only see about four hundred point sources."
"Could they have more hiding behind it?
"No, Ma'am. I'm receiving sensor data from the other side as well."
"Stripped the cupboard bare for the attack fleet?"
"Perhaps, but if so it means they have fewer hulls than we thought, Ma'am."
"That's OK with me."
As the decoys closed in, they had taken on a unique structure, separating into four spheres of point sources.
"What do you make of that?" Hernandez said
"Don't know, Sir. Nothing I've heard about before," Brodie said.
"What do you think, Jessen? Time to go hot?"
"Looks good to me, Ma'am."
"Send the message to Zheng He."
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Status change. Point sources powering up, Sir," Brodie said.
"Which ones?"
"Actually, it looks like they all are, Sir."
"What?"
"It's rippling out across the sphere now, Sir. They're all warships."
"That can't be. Nobody has that many warships."
"CSF might, Sir. Their navy is always spread out all over. It's hard to get a good count. Energy levels make the inner shell destroyers, followed by light cruisers, heavy cruisers, and battleships."
"Is anybody close to their front shell?"
"Yes, Sir. ENS Fortitude was outbound when they came in. She's been decelerating to come back, and sort of slid most of the way into them."
"See if she can get a good look at one of those destroyers. Not too close. Maybe seven light-seconds or so. I want to verify these are real ships."
"Yes, Sir."
"Ma'am, we've got this straggler out here. Heavy cruiser. Looks like she was on the way out-system when we came in. She's been getting herself turned around. But she's trying to get a look at the CSS Emery," Jessen said.
Jan considered the icon on her plot.
"They don't believe every point source can be a real ship, and want to get a closer look."
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Well, let her look. And once she's had a chance to report back, have Emery punch her out with their remote control beam mount."
"Good data coming back from Fortitude, Sir. She's definitely a destroyer. Standard CSF design, and – Shit! Sorry, Sir. Fortitude just blew up, Sir," Brodie said.
"What?"
"That destroyer just took her out, Sir. One shot. Battleship-grade beam, at eight light-seconds."
"Damn."
Hernandez was shocked. A destroyer platform with that kind of firepower? If the CSF had new offensive armament capability, this would get ugly fast.
"Brodie, do you know which ship issued the order to bring up power levels?"
"Yes, Sir. It rippled out from this ship. Highlighting on your plot."
"We need to know what's going on, and maybe we can get a chance to take out their commanding officer as well. What do you think of sending Hawthorne and her squadron right at that ship?"
"Makes sense to me, Sir."
"Here they come, Ma'am. How did you know?"
"Lucky guess."
Eight battleships had separated from the Earth Home Fleet and were making their best speed at the Zheng He. Jan had foreseen this response to the command to bring up power levels, which is why she had had the Zheng He relay the message. She had also given all the ships in that portion of her sphere multiple remote control beam mounts.
"Any orders, Ma'am."
"No. Admiral Liu has his orders."
"The destroyers are darting out of the way, Sir. The light cruisers as well, though more slowly, of course. Admiral Hawthorne is holding her fire for the command ship. Thirteen light-seconds. Twelve – Damn!" Brodie turned to Hernandez. "Hawthorne's force has been destroyed, Sir. Four dozen battleship-grade beam weapons fired all at once. Every one of her ships took six hits. They're all gone. Those beams all came from the cruisers. Hawthorne never got within range of their battleships."
"Send the order to Zheng He. Execute Operation Noose," Jan said.
"Sending the order, Ma'am.
Zheng He relayed the order. As the order was received, each ship transitioned into hyperspace.
"Sir, they're transitioning into hyper. It's rippling across their formation."
"Were they all outside the system periphery?"
"No, Sir. Most of them were inside it."
Ships moved to position in hyperspace and reported ready. They were aided by the new navigation software, deployed in the last two years, which allowed a single ship to take real-time gravitometric readings in hyperspace and determine the boundary between the inner and outer system envelopes on the fly.
When all had reported in, new orders went out. The orders were executed nearly simultaneously, due to the speed of transmission in hyperspace.
"Sir, many hyper transitions. They all just hypered back in. Time delay is spreading them out, but it looks like they all transitioned simultaneously. Looks like about a third of their forces have positioned themselves directly above and below the planet.
"Sir, they're well within the system periphery. About a quarter of the way in. In some places it's as much as a thousand light-seconds."
Hernandez collapsed into his chair. They couldn't fight this. They couldn't even run away. They were completely encircled by overwhelming firepower. Even leaving aside that almost half his remaining force was not capable of rated speeds, or hyper transit. They had drained Home Fleet to fill out the Expeditionary Fleet, and left themselves uncovered at home. But no one had expected the CSF to have so many platforms, or for those platforms to be so
powerful and maneuverable.
He was caught holding the end of the chain, but the mistakes had been made far above his pay grade. He owed it to his people not to throw their lives away because someone else had screwed the pooch, to find some way to get them out of this nightmare.
"Message coming in, Sir."
"Go ahead, Comm."
"Commanding Officer, Earth Home Fleet. This is Admiral Jan Childers, commanding CSF Task Force 1. I request and require your surrender. I have no desire to kill all your personnel. I myself was born on Earth and hold no grudge against your people. But, if you do not surrender, I will reduce your force and your people to ashes. Childers out."
There it was. In black and white. He knew what would happen. No matter who made the mistakes, it was his name that would go down in history as the guy who surrendered. Like that Cornwallis guy. Still, it was either that or go down in history as the guy who was too stupid to surrender, and got almost three hundred thousand spacers killed for no good reason. And in the end, he still had to face himself in the mirror every morning.
"Comm, record for transmission. Message begins. Fleet Admiral Jorge Hernandez, commanding Earth Home Fleet, to Admiral Jan Childers, commanding CSF Task Force 1. We surrender. Please comm your instructions. Message ends."
Jan ordered Earth Home Fleet to retreat to orbit around Mars, which was currently in conjunction, or nearly so. She sent half her destroyers and light cruisers to keep an eye on them from fifteen light seconds out, with enough of the remote control beam mounts to reduce the entire Home Fleet if they had to. One straggler tried to make a break for it, and was fired on with a battleship-grade beam weapon from a destroyer and blew up. Everyone else seemed to take that as enough of a warning.
The Earth Home Fleet had surrendered, but the Earth government had no intention of surrender. It was clear they thought they could just hide out on the planet and wait for the Expeditionary Fleet to come back. They also didn't think Jan would fire on the planet and kill millions of people to force a surrender. In that they were right.
"I'm not going to fire on millions of innocent people because a corrupt kleptocracy doesn't give a damn about them, Jessen. But we knew this ahead of time. So let's fire up Operation Alarm Clock."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Three-dozen shuttles separated from battleships in orbit and dropped to the planet below. They each contained a Marine rifle squad and one specially trained Electronic Tech Specialist. Those shuttle pilots had specific destinations: the Earth's primary network nodes.
"All shuttles report mission complete, Ma'am. They are maintaining station to protect our control of the nodes."
"Repeat our call to the Earth government for surrender."
"Transmitting now."
If they wouldn't surrender, Jan had another way to remove them from power. She now controlled the network nodes, which meant she now controlled the VR.
"They basically told us to drop dead, Ma'am."
"Initiate Wake-Up Call."
"Yes, Ma'am."
All over the planet, the VR system switched from whatever its users had been doing – whether watching videos, 'traveling,' playing on-line games, or, for most of them, living beautiful pretend lives in a beautiful virtual world – to a series of videos of Earth and local government officials living it up, intermixed with videos of Earth's decaying cities. Gourmet meals, expansive estates, and pampered luxury for the few alternated with rat-infested, crumbling cities, subsistence rations, and poverty for the many.
If the VR user got tired of the channel and emerged from his VR set, he was confronted with the grim reality of his life after having seen the rich and powerful laugh and play.
The only other live channel contained the names of local government officials, the addresses of their residences, and maps of how to get there.
"Now what do we do, Ma'am?" Rear Admiral Megan Ming, Jan's chief of staff, asked.
"We wait."
"Ma'am, the Earth government is trying to raise us now."
"Ignore it, Comm. They want to 'initiate negotiations' while dragging their feet until they can retake the network nodes. Now that we've exposed our big play, I'm done talking."
The riots started within hours. The Earth government fell two days later when the Secretary General was found, dragged by the crowd from his hiding place out into the street, and hung from a (non-functioning) light pole. Most of the General Assembly was found and similarly treated. Local governments collapsed around the globe, as each local VR feed had highlighted their own local leaders living it up, and the crowds sought them out.
The Earth descended into anarchy, but not starvation. On the farms, the robots still tended the crops, still manufactured the food, still shipped it into the cities.
It was at that point Jan changed the VR programming. People were presented with a series of questions about how to proceed. What sort of government did they want? One option was to appoint new people to the existing positions within the current structure. One option was to become a protectorate of the Commonwealth of Free Planets, with a goal of setting up a new government by plebiscite through the VR within two years. Another option was to let the Earth Navy take over the government, also with the goal of setting up a new government within two years.
Once they voted, their VR programming was back as before. Word got around, and the streets cleared as people rushed home to vote so their VR would work again.
Jan had Admiral Hernandez on her ship with her to help monitor the voting.
"Earth had a huge Achilles heel, Admiral Hernandez. The VR system was a huge hole in your security. I could hijack it and inject any programming I wanted. In the end, people mostly just want to be left alone. The people of Earth didn't want a war with the CSF. The elites did, so they could have wider dominions, more power, more money. What they didn't plan on is the CSF bringing the war home to Earth. Not in terms of destruction, but in terms of showing people the destruction that was already there, that their own leaders had caused. And they didn't realize the ease of commandeering the VR system to do it."
"I can see that. I could always see that, to be honest. But you've really kicked over the anthill now."
"So, how do you think the voting is going to go?"
"I don't know, to be honest. I worry about just putting new people into the same structures. I also worry about putting the Navy in charge. It's not like we haven't screwed up on a massive scale ourselves on the rare occasion." He chuckled, and Jan laughed. "The idea of putting your enemy in charge of your government seems strange, too, like an occupation. As a result, I don't know what I'm hoping for."
"And I expect we're going to see the Earth Expeditionary Fleet show up before too long," Jan said.
"When Fleet Admiral Turner shows up, I'll go out and talk to him. Jake and I have known each other a long time," Hernandez said.
"I appreciate that, Admiral. So far, this has actually gone pretty well for everybody. I mean, given how it could have gone. Wrecked fleets, ruined planets, that sort of thing."
"Agreed, Admiral."
The actual voting split pretty equally between having the Commonwealth take over Earth as a protectorate and having the military take over Earth as a junta, with either being an interim measure until a truly free government could be set up.
A light cruiser transitioned from hyper, scanned the system, and then hightailed it back into hyper. Fifteen minutes later, three hundred warships made hyper transitions on the system periphery.
Fleet Admiral Turner and the Earth Expeditionary Fleet had showed up, gunning for bear. Hernandez went out to meet him in his flagship, the ESN Thermopylae. It was two nail-biting days for Jan before ESN Thermopylae could make it out to the Earth Expeditionary Fleet, hours more before it headed back toward Earth, and two days more back to Earth orbit.
The Earth Expeditionary Fleet stayed where it was on the system periphery.
Jan met Hernandez and Turner in her ready room behind the flag bridge.
"Ah
, there you are, Admiral. I've been looking for you all over, but after watching Jorge's sensor recordings, I think I'm just as glad our long-awaited meeting was delayed."
"Agreed, Admiral."
Before Jan could say anything else, the voluble Turner cut in.
"Is it true, what Jorge says? That your plan is to give the Earth back to us, and help us fix it?"
"That's what we're talking about, yes. We just want to go home."
"Well, I can enthusiastically surrender to such a magnanimous opponent, Admiral. If we can arrange a comm link here, I can put that into motion."
Jan nodded to Ming, who was seated at the table, and she left to make arrangements.
"I only have three hundred or so of my ships along, because you have some feisty neighbors out there, Admiral. We had to send defensive formations to every system. So you're going to have to detach units to take back your defensive posture. I can send some of mine along with yours to ease the transition, so people don't get confused, but we should probably do that soon. Longer term, maybe we can help you with some of that."
"And damage in the Commonwealth? What am I going to find when I get home, Admiral?"
"No damage, Admiral. That's not how I play the game, for one thing, no more than you did here. Plus, it was the Earth government's goal, or rather, the erstwhile Earth government's goal, to take the Commonwealth's economy over intact. It would have been against orders to break anything."
"That's good news, Admiral. It's been more than a passing concern."
"Understood, Admiral. You know Jorge and I never wanted this war, but it wasn't exactly our decision. That it sort of became The War That Didn't Happen is just fine with us. And the idea of, um, restructuring the Earth's government, shall we say, is a welcome one. I don't even have any qualms about how abruptly some of our former superiors, um, retired."
Ming came back and nodded to Jan.
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