by B. V. Larson
I hesitated. Sometimes, you want to wait one more second before you have to hear horrid news. “What happened to those nations?” I asked quietly, when I was ready.
“He destroyed them. He didn’t kill everyone—but he mowed their military and their infrastructure.”
“They were helpless?”
“Not at first. They fired nukes at us, ship-killers. They couldn’t get through our defenses, of course. We’ve fought alien fleets. A few dozen primitive ICBMs—it was a joke. But Crow used the incident to make examples of them. He flew out our ships—our real warships, which he’s been building up for so long. We bombarded them into submission. It was easy, really. You just sit up there and fire sparks down into the clouds, one after another. The brainboxes did the targeting. We didn’t exterminate any cities or anything like that, we just pounded away at their military and infrastructure. They were helpless to stop a bombardment from space.”
I stared at her. I now had a headache that coffee couldn’t fix. “Are you telling me my Star Force heroes beat down the legitimate governments of Earth? Willingly?”
She heaved a sigh. “I apologize for all of us. It didn’t seem that way at the time. You have to understand, the assassin-ships went out on their own, Crow sent them. We didn’t even really believe that story was real. We didn’t want to believe it. We couldn’t believe it. At least, not on the scale that was described. From our point of view, we woke up one morning and missiles were incoming. We scrambled, we defended ourselves, then went on a reprisal mission. It happened so fast…”
I nodded, trying to visualize it all. Somehow, the reality of events on Earth was worse than I’d imagined. I’d figured maybe Crow had gotten elected to Emperor by some party of world government-loving nut-jobs. But he’d done it the old-fashioned way, by eliminating the toughest competition then terrorizing the rest.
“You mentioned something about an ultimatum.”
“Yes. Crow went live on the worldwide nets. He wore that suit he always wears now for the first time—I’m sure you’ve seen it, all white with jingling medals. I don’t even know where he got all that bling.”
I shook my head. I’d never seen any such imagery, but it sounded like Crow trying to impress people. He’d always been over-the-top when it came to things like that. He liked his symbols of power to be big and flashy, like that massive desk I’d once commandeered from him back on Andros Island.
Jasmine paused until I gestured for her to go on.
“Anyway,” she said, “he said that it was time for the world to grow up. He claimed it had all been a misunderstanding, another fight between Star Force and the provincial governments—that’s what he calls them. The U. S. Whitehouse and the British Parliament—those are just provincial, backwater institutions, according to Crow. He explained that our world needed centralized authority to go along with a centralized military. He said that the major governments of the world had met with him and decided he was the one to lead us into this era of worldwide peace and unity.”
“What a surprise he chose himself,” I said. “Did he have any real backers?”
“Yes. Russia and China both came out in favor. Japan did too, after their beating. The Israeli Knesset remained mulishly silent. Two dozen other minor countries joined in, mostly small places from Eastern Europe, the Mideast and Africa.”
“What about the U. S.?”
“That part was weird. There was something going on in Washington. None of us, maybe not even Crow, understood it all. But suddenly, the president was gone. I’m still not sure if Crow’s assassinbots killed him, or if it was a successful internal coup. In any case, the Pentagon announced martial law. They dissolved congress—most of the members were dead anyway. And then they declared themselves to be part of Crow’s Empire. The Terran Empire. That’s what they call it now.”
I sat in shocked silence for about a minute. I looked down at my hands which were gloved in metallic nanocloth. I tried to visualize the assassinbots coming in the night, plucking leaders from their beds. What if the Nano ships had simply squeezed my body into pulp when they’d gotten hold of me? I would have succumbed, I was quite sure. Normal humans really couldn’t put up much of a fight against these machines.
I looked up at Jasmine. She stared back at me, sharing my expression of pain and worry.
“I can’t believe he finally pulled it off,” I said. “I have to blame myself.”
“No Kyle,” she said, snaking out her hand to touch mine. “Don’t do that.”
“I could have stopped him. A dozen times, I could have killed him. But I didn’t. Then I flew out here and saved a pack of aliens while my own world suffered. Sometimes, I just get caught up in the moment, you see? I always seem to believe I can do more than I really can.”
Jasmine shook her head. She opened her mouth to say more, but at that moment, the door dissolved open. Sandra stood at the entrance with her hands on her hips. Her hands were wrapped into fists.
Jasmine’s hand quickly retreated from mine. She studied the table for a few long, awkward seconds.
I felt a surge of guilt, but twisted it into a frown.
“Come on in, Sandra,” I said. “Jasmine has brought us grim news.
-20-
Sandra had been my girlfriend for years, and Jasmine had been a flirtation along the way. Diffusing encounters between these two had become something of a hobby of mine. The women had come to blows more than once, and Jasmine had always lost those encounters. She was nanotized, but the Microbes had really done a number on Sandra. My girl was so fast and so feral that she barely qualified as human when she lost her temper—which was fairly often.
“I hate to make you explain it again but…could you?” I asked Jasmine.
Jasmine repeated the story of Crow’s conquest of Earth. Sandra stalked in and sat with me. She listened to Jasmine, glaring at the woman she considered a rival. But by the end of Jasmine’s quiet speech Sandra’s expression had changed to one of horror. The detailed tale of extermination and lost freedom on Earth had transformed her mood.
“Kyle!” she said, turning on me. “We have to do something. We can’t let Crow rule Earth like some kind of god-king.”
I shrugged and sighed. “I don’t think we can beat him,” I said. “At least not right now. Not with what we’ve got.”
Sandra shook her head. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this defeatist talk. You can do anything. I’ve seen it.”
I smiled faintly. “We’ve got about sixty fighting ships and a few hundred active duty fliers. We can build up, but he’ll be doing the same. But that’s not the worst thing. Take a look at this, ladies. We’re in trouble in a strategic sense.”
They frowned at me while I brought up a display on the conference table showing the six known star systems and their interlinking rings. “Earth is here, at the end of the chain. According to Jasmine, Crow managed to destroy everything the Macros had in the Bellatrix system, and now controls it. That’s a lot of raw materials to draw upon, but taking Bellatrix was critical for another reason: that system was the end of the line. There is only one ring we’ve found that connects to it, and that connection leads to Venus.”
She nodded slowly, looking at the layout of the systems. “So Crow has his back covered. He’s got a system behind him full of resources, while we have to defend multiple systems with two rings each.”
“Worse,” I said, “we’re surrounded. We control Helios and Eden. Alpha Centauri is no-mans-land. Thor, the last known system in the chain, is full of enemies. We’ve got Crow’s Imperial fleet at one end of our chain of systems and the Macros with their new Crustacean allies on the other.”
The two women studied the tabletop.
“We’ve got half the map,” Jasmine pointed out. “That’s a lot of resources, along with two friendly races to help us. But we’re surrounded, I can see that. If both sides attack at once—we can’t win.”
Sandra smiled. “We might win.” She proceeded to tell Jasmine about the bat
tle station. Jasmine was impressed by the specs and its record against the Macros in combat, but she was still worried about being hit on two sides at once, and I had to agree with her.
“Crow can mass up at each ring, press forward with everything he has, then mass up again. We’ll be slowly driven back when he comes after us.”
“Maybe we should build another battle station,” Sandra said. “With Jasmine’s reinforcements and a steady output from the factories, we could hold both ends of Eden.”
I nodded slowly, considering the idea. But I really didn’t like the thought of putting all my resources into more static defensive structures. The problem with fortresses had always been that they couldn’t advance. They held territory at best, if you were lucky. But I’d always done better maneuvering on an open battlefield. If I built another battle station, I’d have very little fleet when my enemies came knocking once again.
“We’ve got another ace in the hole, Jasmine,” Sandra said excitedly. “When we took the Eden system from the Macros, we captured their—”
I cleared my throat suddenly. Sandra stopped talking and both of them looked at me. “I’m sorry,” I said, “but before we can release classified information to you, Jasmine, we have to have certain arrangements made very clear.”
“I completely understand,” Jasmine said. She stood up then and walked around the table. She suddenly went to one knee and bowed her head before me.
I frowned at this, instantly recognizing that Crow must have required just such an outdated, embarrassing ceremony of fealty. I stood up and roared. Jasmine looked up at me, her big brown eyes uncertain.
“No, no!” I shouted. “Get up, woman. I’m no Emperor. I’m a Colonel, nothing more. Give me nothing more than a salute. Your sworn word goes to Star Force. That’s what I want: Loyalty to the service, not to me.”
After we’d sorted that out, Jasmine returned to her seat and the two women smiled at one another uncertainly. I was frowning and irritated. How quickly people took to new customs. I guess they were very old customs, deeply ingrained in all of us. When times became uncertain and life became cheap, we returned to the tribal roots that lurked in the back of everyone’s mind.
“I have no doubt making people bow and swear loyalty to him gives Crow an intense thrill,” I said. “But I find the whole idea upsetting. I wanted citizen-warriors, not vassals.”
“Good,” Sandra said.
“Sorry,” Jasmine said. “I made a mistake.”
I waved away her words. “Do you solemnly swear to serve Star Force on the Fleet side, to return to your former rank of Captain, and to defend Earth at all costs?”
“I do, sir.”
“Very good. You’re back in. But Crow is no longer part of Star Force, by his own admission. Don’t return to Crow’s side, not even if he offers you a battleship of your own. Further disloyalty will result in permanent banishment from the ranks of Star Force. Are we clear?”
She licked her lips and eyed me. I could tell my words had hurt her. “I didn’t abandon Star Force the first time,” she said. “Please take a moment to recall the situation clearly. You and Crow were equally in charge. When you two split apart and gave me diverging orders, I went with him, but I never saw that as a treacherous act.”
“Yeah, okay. But he got rid of Star Force on Earth. I’m now the last and only commander of that organization. According to your report, Crow chased loyal members of Star Force out into space. Want to tell me how that went down?”
“There wasn’t much to tell. I think he really wanted to kill us all, but didn’t dare. He was afraid his own pilots wouldn’t fire. So, he offered us amnesty. He let us build transports, and offered anyone on Andros Island free passage out to the frontier planets. He specifically used your name, saying you were out here fighting on the edge of civilization, killing vicious aliens on a regular basis.”
I nodded. He hadn’t lied about that part, at least.
“The most loyal among us left Earth. We knew it was banishment, but we built the ships and flew out anyway. We hadn’t signed up to rule the world, we’d only wanted to kill the machines. But there was another reason. More and more new recruits had been coming in to join Crow on Andros Island during the months following the coup. These people were different, and they swore to follow only Crow. I didn’t like them, Kyle. They were Easterners, mostly. From eastern Europe, China and my own India. These were people who wanted power. They weren’t volunteers ready to die for Earth’s cause.”
“You were the highest ranking defector?” I asked.
“I came to be one of the leaders of the exodus. We boarded our ships without weapons or factories—”
“Of course he wouldn’t let you go armed,” I scoffed. “Why would he give you enough equipment to challenge him from space—or even to survive out here for long?”
“We knew he wasn’t allowing us much. But we took it, rather than bow before him, or start a civil war against the whole world. We left, hoping he’d let us go for propaganda reasons if nothing else. But as soon as we left the system, our escort ships, commanded by Commodore Decker, turned on us.”
“Sounds like we came along at an opportune moment.”
“Indeed you did. Decker was just looking for an excuse to blast us out of space. I’m not sure what orders Crow had given him, but I was sure he wanted us dead.”
“You won’t have to worry about that particular bastard any longer,” I said.
“Whatever happened to Decker, Colonel?”
I smiled grimly. “He will no longer trouble us. I made sure his cruiser would never return to Earth. I figured that I had one good shot, and I took it. Like any snake, its best to start by removing the head.”
She gave me a cold smile of her own, and nodded thoughtfully. “Crow won’t forget that. Decker was his wingman. They saw eye-to-eye. In fact, I think he’ll come after us, if only because you killed Decker.”
“Then there isn’t any time to lose. I need every one of your Star Force refugees to reaffirm their allegiance to Star Force, not Crow’s empire. We’ll arm them as soon as we’re able and put them onto my ships. What’s your current troop strength, minus the wounded and civilians?”
Captain Sarin smiled. “Over nine thousand, effectives sir.”
I grinned. “That, Commander, is the best damned news I’ve heard in a month. They might even be enough, in the end.”
Sandra frowned and cocked her head. “Enough for what, Kyle?”
“Enough to retake Earth. What else?”
-21-
We returned to the Helios system, taking the time to beam graphic symbols of respect and gratitude to the Worms. They were suckers for that, and sent us a few prideful images of raging Worm warriors in return. I told them to rebuild, as more conflict was coming. They signaled that they agreed with my assessment of the situation. They assured me that any and all of our enemies would fall in time.
When we finally crossed the Helios system and slid through the last ring, I had to field a dozen calls from the transport captains. They were overwhelmed by the beauty and lush nature of the Eden system, which was so full of life and hope it was like nowhere else we’d yet found in the universe. I beamed with pride as I explained that the warmest three of the six life-supporting worlds were ours to colonize. I told them of the outposts I had there on the ground—even though they were very thinly manned and amounted to little more than bunkers in strategic locations.
I ordered the fleet to fly to Eden-8, the coolest of the three worlds we had laid claim to. I liked this planet—hell, I liked them all. Eden-8 was covered by dense forests of towering trees. The planet was physically smaller than Earth, being no more than two-thirds the mass. There were oceans, but they were small and encircled entirely by densely tree-carpeted land. The xenologists among my staff assured me the trees grew to nearly a thousand feet high here because the gravity was less of a problem, and the atmosphere had a slightly higher content of carbon dioxide. It was a plant’s paradise.
/> Less than a minute after I’d given the order to fly to Eden-8, Marvin paid me a visit. He was craning his cameras in every direction, taking in all of our expressions and attitudes. His black, segmented tentacles of metal were whipping and slapping the deck, a sure sign he was feeling agitated.
“Colonel Riggs? May I have a moment of your time, sir?”
“Sure Marvin,” I said, “please follow along, I’m busy.”
I walked past him and headed down a slanted passageway into the ship’s central belly region. There, I was scheduled to meet up with yet another contingent of personnel from Jasmine’s fleet. They were officially rejoining Star Force. I liked to personally witness the swearing-in process whenever I could.
“What’s on your mind?” I asked Marvin when we reached the launch deck.
Marvin dragged himself after me urgently. His tentacles clattered on the metal deck, leaving long silver scratches behind him. I glanced back that way, and saw the nanites were healing the ship’s wounds as fast as Marvin’s strange body could make them.
“I would find it infinitely preferable to go to Eden-6, sir,” he said.
I looked at him with upraised eyebrows. “Is that right? Am I safe in assuming this is because you left biotic pools of slime on that planet?”
“The most sophisticated of my Microbe colonies are located there, yes.”
I sighed. “Marvin, that’s their homeworld. They’ll be fine. In fact, I would guess they’ll be a lot better off without you poking and prodding at their tiny backsides.”
“Your reference is imprecise. The typical microflora has a food intake and an exit for byproducts and waste, but I’m not sure this would qualify as a ‘backside’ since they do not, in most cases, independently propel themselves in any specific direction. Directional motion is often happenstance, due to the rippling action of defensive cilia—”
“Okay, okay,” I said, waving my gloved hand at him. “My bad. What I meant was they deserve to live and die in the wild, not to exist solely for your entertainment.”