by B. V. Larson
There was a long pause in the conversation. I leaned over toward Jasmine.
“Any sign he’s making a move?” I asked.
“No sir. The Imperial fleet isn’t moving a muscle.”
“Good. Make sure we hold absolutely still as well.”
I waited and after a few more minutes, Kerr came back on the line. “Riggs, you’re a wily one. But I know you’re bluffing. We know about the Macro fleet that’s knocking on your backdoor right about now. We can tell you’re aware of the new threat as well. You have scouts going back and forth through the ring at that ice-ball planetoid you call Hel. We’ve got good optics, and we’ve seen your battle station. A sorry wreck that is. It looks deserted and beat-up. You can’t face us and the Macros at the same time. I’ll talk a deal, because I’ve got a big heart. I don’t want to see any more humans to die. But you have to understand your situation. You’re between two boulders, Colonel, and you’re about to be squished.”
I smiled as I listened to his speech, but a hard cast came into my eyes. I stared at him, and he stared back at me.
“I see now what this is all about,” I said. “There’s been a misunderstanding. This entire sequence of events was highly regrettable.”
“Indeed it is!” Kerr shouted. “You shouldn’t have resisted our entrance into this system. You’ve been fighting the wrong side all along. Instead of focusing on the machines—”
“No, General,” I interrupted him firmly. “You’re on the wrong track still. Let me explain the sequence of events. A few days ago, a large force of Macros did come through the Thor ring. That’s why our battle station appears to be damaged. Fortunately, we jammed their transmissions through the rings, and they fell into our trap—as your forces did more recently. In the case of the Macros, we didn’t offer them a ceasefire. We destroyed them utterly. That’s why you see no ships and a skeleton crew at the Thor ring battle station…that battle has already been fought and won.”
Kerr’s eyes told the story as I spoke. He was dumbfounded. His eyebrows lifted and lifted, until his expression was one of utter shock. His mouth hung down as well, sagging open as if to suck wind or scream. In the end, he did neither.
“You’re full of shit, Riggs,” he said finally, pulling himself together.
I shook my head slowly, almost sadly. “Such a waste. If we’d only known why you were attacking, why you felt you had the upper hand…well, I guess it’s all over now. I do apologize for not having understood your mistake earlier. We could have prevented the destruction of a great many Earth ships. But whatever we do now, let’s not compound the errors of the past.”
“There is absolutely no way you’re going to bullshit me into this, Riggs. You’ve got no proof. You’ve got nothing but a bluff, and I’m not going to buy into it.”
“Ah, of course,” I said. “I do need to provide evidence. Please scan the region around Hel. The wreckage of a large number of ships is still floating there in orbit. Some of it has crashed down onto the planetoid. I’ll have my staff get you coordinates so you can optically spot it yourself, along with data feeds. I’ll also send you vids of the battle as soon as I can get them transmitted from the battle station. Really, I need to do this anyway as a courtesy. Everyone who breathes must know the truth: their ultimate enemy is the machine race. Anything we can do that will help us destroy them more effectively is in all our best interests in the end. Let’s postpone this conversation until you have the data. Then you can make your decision based on facts, rather than my statements.”
Kerr sputtered a bit, but finally agreed to look at what I had and disconnected. I turned back to my staff, who were wreathed in smiles for once.
“That was brilliant, Kyle,” Sandra said, giving me a kiss.
“An award-winning performance, sir,” Miklos said.
“Remind me not to play poker with you, Colonel,” Jasmine said, shaking her head.
I clapped my hands together and began tapping at the screen. “We have work to do. Let’s get those vids together.
“I almost interrupted to tell you that we do have them, sir,” Jasmine said. “The files are on this console now. I can pull them up and transmit them in minutes.”
I raised a single finger into the air. “Not so fast,” I said. “We have to change the dates on them. We have to review and edit details. Those files must appear to be very recent, or Kerr will know the timing is off. He must think the Macros attacked and were slaughtered just before he hit us. Also, we must make sure there’s nothing on the vids that shows any secrets, or gives away how long ago the battle was in any other way.”
My team can work hard, whether they’re prepping for battle or setting the groundwork for peace. I didn’t want to take too long, however, as I didn’t want Kerr to grow suspicious that we were fabricating anything. We had the evidence gathered within an hour and began to transmit it on an open channel to the Earth fleet. They received it silently, then said nothing for another hour.
During this seemingly interminable wait, my staff grew ever more restless. They knew that the Macro fleet was out there in the Thor system, advancing toward us at an accelerating rate of speed.
As the first hour slid into the second, and Kerr still hadn’t answered, Miklos approached me. His right eye had swollen shut now, but I knew the nanites were working on him. He’d be almost normal looking in two days.
“Sir,” Miklos said in a hushed voice, as if the enemy could hear us, “I don’t like this. They’re planning an attack. I can feel it.”
“You’re almost certainly correct,” I said. “They’re over there, wargaming their asses off, I have no doubt about it. But the trouble is, if they come for us now, they’re going to lose. I don’t think they have any more aces up their sleeves. Their forces aren’t configured to go up against ours. They could have done okay, if they still had their core of battleships. The rest of their fleet could hide behind them, and with all that defensive fire and armor, our Centaurs riding forward on sleds would be slaughtered. But when they came through that ring and were so concentrated, our gunships destroyed too many of their defensive vessels. They just don’t have many options, given what they have left now.”
“We don’t know that,” Miklos insisted.
“What do you want me to do? Order the attack now?”
“No sir, but you could call them and demand they give you an answer. Lean on them, sir.”
I shook my head. “That’s not how you bluff, Miklos. Bluffing is an art. The key is to present yourself as absolutely confident. I must pretend it doesn’t matter if they take an hour, a day, or a week to respond. I don’t care, because they can’t win. That’s the image I want to project.”
Miklos walked away, muttering.
After the third hour came and went, Kerr finally contacted me again. I was sipping a soft drink by then, and I put it down before greeting him.
“Sorry General,” I said. “It’s our eating hour. Have you had time to review the data? Do you have any questions?”
“Those flying mines,” Kerr said, looking down at something I couldn’t see. I presumed he was watching the vids of the battle. “That was just brilliant, Riggs. Brilliant.”
“Actually, I have to give partial credit to Sandra on those. She helped me come up with the initial idea.”
Kerr nodded his head slowly. He looked defeated and tired.
“You destroyed the entire Macro fleet…” he said, almost as if talking to himself. “I can’t believe it.”
“The defender is always in a better position in these situations,” I said. “You yourself experienced the effects. Your ships walked into a storm of fire. They were forced to pass under our guns one at a time. The effects of such a tactical situation are predictable, and nothing new. I did the same thing to the Macros, that’s all.”
General Kerr nodded slowly, but I suspected he was barely listening. “We’ll pull out, Riggs. There’s no need for further destruction on either side. You’ve done amazing things out here. I hone
stly thought we’d find you with thirty ships or so and a few hundred troops. I didn’t think you had a hope in hell of stopping us. But now…well, never mind.”
“General,” I said, “I’ve got a parting request. I’d like to reestablish some level of communications with the Empire. At least an email service between Earth and the colonies. What do you say?”
Kerr frowned. “The colonies? That’s what you call yourselves now, colonists?”
“All right, if you don’t like the term, how about Frontiersmen? Or Independents?”
He looked thoughtful. “Email… It’s not a bad idea. I’m not sure what Crow will think of it, but I’ll pass it on. I’ve got one final request for you, Riggs: hold the line against the machines, will you? We don’t have the right to ask you for that…but please do it for Earth.”
“We’ll all do our part, General. Have a safe journey home.”
Kerr disconnected without another word.
-30-
We celebrated quietly aboard our ships, breaking out beer, clapping armored backs and sending grinning messages to friends. After the initial euphoria wore off, however, we found ourselves in an awkward situation.
We knew the Macros were coming at the Thor ring, but couldn’t reposition ourselves to meet them. Instead, we hung around the Helios ring while we waited for Kerr to withdraw. He took his sweet time about it, carefully removing his ships in a long, drawn-out sequence. The wait quickly became agonizing. All we could think about was the approaching Macro fleet that was due to arrive at the Thor ring in a day or two. Sure, we’d won the day and halted Earth’s invasion, but we were hopelessly out of position for the next fight.
But we couldn’t move. We had to maintain the bluff, and that required a seemingly calm demeanor. I ordered my ships and people to remain hanging in space, staying in formation. We didn’t move a muscle. Kerr had to believe we had everything in complete control. If the good General changed his mind and started asking more questions, all this bluffing would blow up in our faces.
The most panicky moment came when the last ships were left at the ring. There were only five of them, missile ships with long cylindrical hulls of gleaming metal.
“They aren’t moving, sir,” Miklos said. “That last squad of missile ships are just sitting there at the ring.”
“We’ll give them another hour,” I said. “We need the time to retrieve all our space marines anyway.”
The transports glided around my fleet, gobbling up marines who’d lost power, or who’d traveled too far. They resembled fish, hunting for tidbits of floating food.
An hour passed, then another thirty minutes. Finally, even I had had enough. Our guests had grossly overstayed their welcome.
“Miklos?” I called.
He stepped onto the bridge again at a trot. He was moving faster now, and the swelling of his face had vanished. There were still purplish spots all around his jaw, but I knew those would fade soon.
“Is it time, Colonel?”
“Time for what?”
“Time to move to the other ring.”
“No. Not with this squad of spies standing here. If we fight another battle in this system, they’ll report it and call Kerr back.”
Miklos nodded. “What are your orders, sir?”
“Detach two squadrons of gunships. Approach the enemy slowly.”
“Are we going to contact them?” Sandra asked.
“No. Just move as if they aren’t even there.”
We all watched as the group broke off from our sunward flank and advanced. They didn’t rush right in, they flew at a lazy pace, as if they had all the time in the world. When they’d covered about half the distance to the Imperial ships, a flashing light appeared on our tactical console.
“Sir,” Sandra said, “the Imperial commander wants to speak with you.”
“Is that right? Open channel.”
“Colonel Riggs?”
“Speaking.”
“This is Imperial Captain Upton, sir. Sir, are you breaking our ceasefire? I count twelve ships on an attack course toward our lines.”
“Attack course?” I asked. “I’m confused, Upton. We’re moving to set up a standard patrol. Our SOP is to have a squadron of gunships on both sides of the ring. You, on the other hand, are on the wrong side of that ring. You’re inside our borders, Upton. We’ve been wondering if your ships are too damaged to maneuver. Do you need us to board and render assistance? Possibly, we could provide a towing service.”
“That will not be necessary, Colonel,” Upton said stiffly. “We’ll be withdrawing shortly.”
It took them another twenty minutes to wriggle out through the ring, during which they were no doubt scanning us with everything they had. Finally, however, we managed to hustle the last stragglers out the door.
“Post a full squad of gunships on the other side of that ring,” I ordered. “They are to report back every fifteen minutes, giving us data on Kerr’s fleet in the Helios system. I want to make sure he doesn’t change his mind. Also, begin immediate deployment of a new minefield.”
“Sir,” Sarin said, “the gunship crews are reporting in. They’ve found a large number of active drones orbiting the ring—we believe they’re probes, sir.”
“Take them out. Erase every set of automated eyes Kerr left behind. We want no witnesses as we begin our next action.”
Miklos came to sit next to me in my command chair. “They don’t trust us, sir.”
“Of course not. But if they can’t see us, they won’t know what we’re up to.”
“We must get the fleet moving in order to set up an optimal defense at the Thor ring. The window is closing, Colonel. If we leave right now, we’ll only beat the Macros by fourteen hours.”
I nodded seriously. “Good to know—but we aren’t going to the Thor ring, Miklos. At least, not the entire fleet will be going.”
He looked at me as if I were insane. I knew the expression all too well.
“But sir—”
“Listen,” I said. “I want Welter at the battle station to set up every gun we have, and to begin bouncing groups of mines around Hel again. That station beat the Macros before, and it can do it again, if absolutely necessary.”
“Colonel, are you serious? We’ve only repaired half the weaponry on the battle station. All our production systems have been building up the fleet!”
“Hmm,” I said. “All right. Then order ten transports to the fly out to Helios immediately. They’ll be under Welter’s command. That’s over fifteen hundred marines on skateboards—most of them with four legs and a kamikaze attitude.”
Miklos’ mouth had sagged open again. “What are we going to do with the rest of the fleet?”
“We have a hundred gunships and a lot of marines left over. That’s enough to make a serious dent. I think I’ll leave the marines at the Helios ring, however. The destroyers, too. The gunships are the right vessels for this duty.”
“What duty, sir?” pleaded Miklos. “Tell me you aren’t thinking of chasing after Kerr with our gunships. We wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“An intriguing idea, Captain. But no, that wasn’t my plan. We’re flying the core of the fleet to Eden-12.”
“Eden-12? Whatever for, Colonel?”
“Because, my good man, we are going to bomb the Blues.”
* * *
Sometimes, my own staff meetings became irritating. This was one of those times. In the case of Star Force meetings, however, the irritation was never due to boardroom politicking or long, dull speeches. When we had a meeting that went badly, at least it was always due to a serious disagreement about serious issues.
Today, the issue was our mission. Pretty much no one wanted me to bomb the Blues. It didn’t make any sense to them. They wrangled and argued, trying to talk me out of it. I could have told them all beforehand they weren’t going to stop me, but as a leader, I believe in letting my people have their say. I’m not a tyrant, no matter what the propaganda vids back home say.
“I’m listening,” I said for perhaps the tenth time.
“No, I don’t think you are, Kyle,” Sandra said. “This is insane.”
Captain Sarin cleared her throat. She was always willing to take a softer approach when attempting to convince me of something. I had to admit, her method was infinitely more enjoyable, and possibly more likely to succeed.
“I’m almost always willing to listen,” I said, “but the final judgment is mine alone.”
“We’re going to start another war with a race we don’t fully understand, Colonel,” Miklos said.
“I know that, but I don’t think we have much choice. The Macros are coming, and by my estimate, we won’t be able to stop them this time. We have to force the Blues to honor the deal they made with us and talk the Macros out of attacking.”
“We beat them before, sir,” Jasmine said. “The Macros, I mean.”
“Yes, but they know how we did it. We have more force this time, but so do they—approximately three times the number of ships. And that’s not the only thing that’s changed this time. The critical element is they’re going to come through the ring in a slower, more organized way. They won’t just crash into our defensive line. They know what to expect, and they’ll fight more effectively.”
“I’ve taken the liberty of wargaming out the battle, sir,” Miklos said.
I looked at him with raised eyebrows. “I’ve done the same, of course. There are too many variables to get a good simulation—but what were your results, Captain?”
“The Macros lost, sir. But they destroyed the battle station and half our ships. Not to mention a massive loss of life for our assault marines.”
“Precisely,” I said, “a total disaster.”
“But sir, I said that we won. It was costly, but we won the day.”
I shook my head. “We lost half our force, and the battle station. What happens when the next wave comes? What about when Earth sends another, more intelligently organized armada our way?”