“We captured the First Officer and over three hundred crewmen,” said the male, a grin on his face.
“Were they cooperative?”
“Not at first, my Lord,” said the officer, his grin growing. “The First Officer threatened to go to his death before he cooperated.” The Company Commander stepped back, to show the view of a dozen dead avians on the floor, their heads separated from their bodies. “He lost his resolve after our demonstration.”
“Very good,” said the General, giving a head motion of agreement. “We will transfer another hundred males over to that ship, so that you may keep a close watch on those aliens. And be sure that they know that any attempt at noncompliance will result in the death of the offending crewman.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
The General turned to the Knockerman naval commander as the transmission to his own officer terminated. “Now we have another ship for our use. And a way to keep the enemy from further interfering with our mission.” And a better way to take that station, thought the General, looking forward to delivering a death blow to the hated humans.
“We will move the explosive devices over to the cruiser when we have made sure the entire ship is secured,” he told the Captain.
“Yes, General,” said the Knockerman, relief on his reptilian face.
Can’t blame him, thought the General. Quark devices were as rare as they were powerful. They were twice as expensive per gigaton of blast as an antimatter warhead. They were also a hundred times as powerful per mass, which had made them the weapon of choice for this operation. And unless his tub of a freighter is more than a couple of light seconds from the blast, it could destroy it as well.
* * *
“Sorry, ma’am,” said the armored Marine. “You are not authorized for this area.”
“What,” stammered Doctor Lucille Yu, Director of the Donut Project. “How can that be? This is my station.”
“I am sorry, Doctor Yu,” said the man, the ranking member of the quartet that was guarding the entrance to the corridor. “Your name is not on the list of people allowed to pass.”
Yu stood to her full height of over one point eight meters and glared at the man. “Call your officer. I want to speak with someone with more authority.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said the Sergeant, closing his eyes and linking with his command net.
“Maybe we should just go back to your office, Dr. Yu,” cautioned Jimmy Chung, the Chief of the Imperial Intelligence Agency on the station. “I don’t even have clearance for this area.”
“I am in charge of the single most important technological resource in the Empire,” growled Yu, glaring at the man who was the head of her security as well, and was also her lover. “I am one of those responsible for this thing working. And there is something here on my station that I don’t know about.” Except for rumors, she thought, looking back at the Sergeant. That something really dangerous is here on the station. More dangerous than antimatter. Either in development, or here for transhipment to some other place.
“What’s the problem here,” said a smart looking naval officer in a dress uniform. “Dr. Yu,” she said, looking up at the scientist. “I was informed that there was a problem.”
“Damn right there is,” said Yu, turning on the Commander. “These goons will not allow me to see what lies beyond this checkpoint. On my station.”
“I’m sorry, Dr. Yu,” said the Commander in a tone that said she was anything but. “This area is off limits to all personnel without a need to know. And you do not have a need to know.”
“And do you know what lies beyond this, checkpoint?” asked Yu, pointing a finger at the officer.
“Of course not,” said the Commander. “I am only in charge of this security shift. I don’t have a need to know.”
“So you’re just another damned drone,” hissed Yu. “I want to talk to someone really in charge here.”
“I am the only one available at this time,” said the Commander, her voice and expression frosty. “I can send a message to Admiral Chrone, the officer in charge of this project, and have him contact you at his convenience.”
“Jimmy,” pleaded Yu, looking at the man at her side. “Can’t IIA do anything about this?”
“I’m afraid not, Doctor,” said the Senior Agent, shrugging his shoulders. “This is a matter of Naval Intelligence. We have no jurisdiction in this matter.”
“Fine,” said Yu, turning and walking away, yelling back at the military personnel. “I will talk to someone above your Admiral Chrone. I will get to the bottom of this.”
In her office Yu got on her com, sending a request to someone she was sure could tell her what was going on. And then she waited.
Two hours later the com signaled that a connection had been made. Yu was on another com, talking with one of her staff members about negative matter production, when a priority signal came through. Yu terminated the conversation she was on without hesitation, then opened up the new com.
“Dr. Yu,” said the voice of Samantha Ogden Lee, as her image formed in the holo. “I hear that you have a problem with some naval personnel on the Donut.”
“Thank you for returning my call, Regent. But I was expecting the Emperor.”
“The Emperor is incommunicado at the moment.”
“What’s going on with him?”
“I’m sorry, Doctor. But that is top secret. As is the project you contacted me about. I barely know any facts about it myself. Just enough to know it exists, and that it is vital to the defense of the Empire.”
“I heard the term Quark Fission used,” said Lucille in a hushed voice. “If that’s what I think it means, you’re talking about something that could destroy this station.”
“Where did you hear that term?” asked the Regent, her eyes narrowing.
“I have my own sources,” said Yu. “But mostly it’s just gossip that is circulating around the station. I have no idea where it originated. But my question is, is it true? A weapon a hundred times more powerful than an antimatter warhead of equal mass? Maybe more?”
The Regent didn’t say a word for several moments, and Yu had to wonder if she had said too much to the woman. Thoughts of her confinement in Purgatory came back to her. A most unpleasant experience, with constant questioning about her involvement in the death of the Emperor Augustine and his family. Something the Fleet had rescued her from, because of her necessity in running the wormhole project. Now that the project was running on all reactors, she might not be as necessary as she once was. But the damned thing could destroy this station. I need to know more about it before I can rest easy. This place now has over a hundred million people on it. And it’s vital to the war effort. Even more so than Central Docks and the shipyards.
“I, really don’t have the authority to speak about this, Doctor,” said the Regent, her face showing how uncomfortable she was with the whole topic.
“Then who does? Admiral Chrone?”
“Admiral Chrone is in charge of the project, though he is not one of the researchers. But even he has to get permission to disseminate information to people outside the project.”
“Then who can give him permission?”
“I will find out, and get back to you,” said the Regent, terminating the com link.
Yu went to bed that night with feelings of trepidation about the whole thing. She wondered if she had said too much, and if Naval Intelligence would come to visit her and take her off to a detention facility. The Empire was a free society, but this was wartime, after all. And threats to security had to be controlled.
“You’re still vital to this installation,” said Jimmy, holding her after making love to her, trying to calm her. “They wouldn’t dare do anything to you. And you already have the highest level clearance possible.”
“Need to know,” she whispered, closing her eyes and attempting to sleep. That was a lost cause for many hours, but finally it came, and with it dreams. She was again in Purgatory, again a prisoner, again undergoing interroga
tion. The dream seemed to go on for hours, all through the night, and she woke the next morning feeling as fatigued as when she had gone to sleep.
The morning went normally. Small problems with production, already solved, but awaiting her approval. There was a staff meeting mid-morning, then lunch. At least I don’t have to worry about the Imperial Investigation Bureau trying to get me. McGregor had been relieved of his position, and the IIB was no longer on a witch hunt involving one Dr. Lucille Yu.
They came for her after lunch, the Commander she had talked with the day before, along with a quartet of armed Spacers. “You will come with me, Dr. Yu,” said the Commander, gesturing toward the office door.
“What is this about?”
“I have been instructed to take you to Admiral Chrone, ma’am,” said the Commander. “That is all that I know.”
“I would like to bring Senior Agent Chung along,” she told the Commander. She started to com the agent, but the Commander held up a hand.
“Senior Agent Chung is not cleared to accompany you. My orders are to bring you to Admiral Chrone, and no other.”
“And if I decline the invitation,” she said, her stomach turning at the implications of orders to be brought to the Admiral.
“I was told to bring you to the Admiral, Doctor. I was not given instructions that allowed for your refusal. So, if you will please come with us.”
Lucille nodded and stood up, walking after the Commander and the first two Spacers, the other pair falling in behind her. She sent a signal over her link to Jimmy anyway, to let him know what was going on, so he would be able to do something, she wasn’t sure what, if she disappeared. She was surprised when her signal was blocked. What the hell is going on here? Will anyone ever see me again? The one positive was that they were escorting her through the station in front of witnesses. Hundreds of people would see the members of the Fleet taking her somewhere. Armed members of the Fleet. If she didn’t come back there would be questions.
The Marine guards were still in place as they walked toward the checkpoint. All being in battle armor, she couldn’t tell if they were the same troopers as were there the other day. They passed her and the naval personnel through without delay, and then she was in the corridor that she had till this point been excluded from.
“The Admiral will meet with you in the small conference room,” said the Commander, leading the way down the corridor. There were several branches, and Lucille knew that this area covered a number of levels, enough for the several hundred people who worked here. They passed another guarded door, this one with what looked like heavy ship’s armor as its main constituent. And then to the conference room, where a distinguished looking man in uniform, the three stars of a vice admiral on his collars, sat at the head of the table.
“Dr. Yu,” said the man, getting to his feet and offering her a hand. “I am Admiral Peter Chrone. The Regent has instructed me to talk to you about my project, with the permission of the Naval R & D board, of course.”
“Of course,” said Lucille, looking into the gray eyes of the tall man, whose only sign of age was the silver hair interspersed with his short blond covering.
“You made quite a nuisance of yourself, Dr. Yu,” said the man, gesturing her to a seat. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please,” she replied, and the Admiral poured her a cup from the carafe that was sitting on the table. “I didn’t mean to be a nuisance, but there were rumors of something you were working on here that might be a threat to my station.”
“Not working on here,” said the Admiral as he poured himself a cup. “Actual research and development is going on in one of the Supersystem asteroid belts. And actual live testing must take place elsewhere.”
“So, you don’t even know if this thing works?”
“Oh, it works. We have tested small devices in the belt, in the ten megaton range. But nothing like the real thing. That will be tested at an undisclosed but isolated system in the next week.”
“And it’s a Quark Fission device? Something that actually splits quarks into smaller subquarks?”
“The rumors are true, though we would prefer that all senior personnel deny those, and turn the speculation toward other avenues. The more outlandish the better.”
“And they are to be stored on this station?”
“We were looking for a place where they could be deployed at a moment’s notice to any part of the Empire. And, since all gates lead to the Donut, so to speak, this was the only place that made sense.”
A holo sprang to life over the table, and a short vid played that explained the basics of the research that had been done on the quark weapon. Antimatter was the most concentrated source of energy being used by both sides in the war. But this weapon, this superbomb, was a hundred times more powerful per mass of the weapon than antimatter.
“And we expect the weapon will shrink in size over time, like most tech.”
“And we will be putting these on missiles, and firing them at the enemy?”
“Oh, no. They are much too expensive for ship to ship duels. Since only one in twenty missiles actually gets close enough to an enemy ship to do any damage.”
“That few,” said Lucille, surprised.
“We only achieve hits with missiles by saturating defenses,” said the Admiral. “Not a very cost effective proposition, but the best we can do, for now.”
“Then of what use are these weapons?” asked Lucille, looking back to the holo, which was now displaying a schematic of the weapon that was to be tested, alongside a picture of an antimatter warhead.
“Special ops, Doctor,” said the Admiral, putting his cup on the table after taking a sip. “Antimatter warheads are still large weapons. Special ops teams need the most effective weapon they can carry into a hot situation.”
“I kept hearing the term, planet destroyers, used with these things.”
“My dear Doctor Yu,” said the man with his best politician’s smile. “Fleet is not in the business of destroying worlds.”
“That’s good to hear,” said Lucille, returning the smile, while sure that the man was lying about that last.
“The weapons are much safer than antimatter warheads as well. Antimatter can detonate if, for any reason, it breaches containment. A quark warhead can only go off if the triggering device is activated in the proper manner. And that can only happen if the authorized code is put into the weapon.”
“That’s good to know,” said Lucille, believing that part of the presentation. She knew from her study of physics that breaking protons apart into their constituent quarks was no small matter. And breaking the quarks down to their constituent components even more so. The weapon needed a small matter-antimatter reactor to power the fission process. And if that reactor breached containment, the only result would be a several megaton detonation of antimatter. Bad enough, but not sufficient to destroy the enormous station.
“I need not remind you that this is classified Top Secret Galactic, Doctor Yu,” said the Admiral, pulling up an official secrets disclosure on the holo. “If you would please acknowledge the receipt of this information, and the penalties that you could incur for unauthorized disclosure.”
Lucille linked with the document and made her official acknowledgement. She knew the penalties were harsh, harsher yet with the Empire at war. But they still fed me a bone in order to get my nose out of their business. And I can’t even protest the storing of weapons on the station without violating the agreement. But, if I didn’t sign, I could be imprisoned. Well played, Fleet.
Lucille felt somewhat better as she left the meeting, if only because she was leaving the meeting. At least she knew the threat, and had a better understanding of the bombs. She didn’t have to like the idea of having them on her station, but now knew it was no worse than the hundreds of antimatter warheads that passed through the Donut every day.
“I tried to get in touch with you after I heard that Naval Security had come to get you,” said Jimmy Chung when he saw her after s
he left the secure area. “Is everything OK?”
“I guess so, Jimmy,” she said, walking with the shorter man to the tram that would take her back to her part of the station.
“Anything you can tell me?”
“Need to know, Jimmy,” she said, shaking her head. She was sure that Naval Intelligence would be monitoring her, and anything she said about the weapons could lead to her confinement, as well as that of the person she told it to. “I’m sure you understand.”
“As long as you’re satisfied, Lucille, so am I. My only concern is the overall security of the station, and of you.”
And in that you are lucky, Jimmy Chung. You don’t have to worry about if the thing actually does its job, and what might get in the way of its functioning. Like a damned ten gigaton warhead going off in the middle of the thing.
Chapter Twelve
CONGREEVE SPACE. OCTOBER 24TH, 1001.
“You can’t do this,” yelled Citizen Prester Johnson, pointing a finger into the face of Rear Admiral Adrijana Miroslav. “This is my property, and I am a citizen of the Empire. And I do not give you permission to use my property.”
Why the hell can’t these damned fools get it through their heads that we’re at war? thought the Admiral, resisting the urge to slap the finger out of the way. “Look, Mr. Johnson. I have an Imperial order to take what I need for the project I am working on. I am therefore seizing your property for the good of the Empire.”
“And for what purpose?”
“That is classified. Only the military has a need to know at this time.”
“Bullshit,” yelled the man, glaring at the officer. “I will not surrender this station to you assholes without a good reason.”
“Then I will have you removed from the station, and we will do what we must,” said the Admiral in a loud voice, not quite matching that of the trillionaire.”
“Do you know who I am?” said the man, playing his last straw. “I have powerful friends. Friends in the Lords. Friends in the Commons. People who can break you, drum you out of the service.”
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 06 - The Day of Battle Page 16