“Thank you for that full and informative answer, Mr President,” said White.
“Secretary Andrews, you said you expect Ephialtes to be in orbit within the next seven days. At what point do you anticipate the strike against the orbiting missile platform?”
Andrews consulted some papers in front of her. “We’ll neutralize the missile platform as soon as we have it in range. That should be shortly before we arrive in orbit.”
“Good,” said Cortes. “I’d like to be kept closely informed on that part of the operation.”
“Yes, Mr President.”
“Anything else?” Cortes looked around the table. There were no replies.
“Okay, that’s it. Let’s go.”
White met in his office with a group of his most trusted advisers. They had the minutes from the cabinet meeting and the intelligence briefings. “What can we do with this stuff?” White asked.
“You have an assurance here from the president himself that elections are going to be reinstated soon, sir,” said one of the advisers. “That’s great news, and progress, I would say.”
“It’s a vague promise. It doesn’t mean a thing,” said White.
“But it’s here in the record,” said the adviser. “You can refer to this later, if you need to.”
White made derisive grunt. “All of this is constitutional. Well, according to the current constitution. We have an unelected president here -”
“But sir, President Cortes was elected,” interrupted another adviser.
“He was elected for a four-year term nine years ago,” said White. “As far as I’m concerned, hell, as far as the original constitution of these United States and Nations is concerned, he was not elected to serve for the last five years. He is an illegitimate president.”
“Sir?” another adviser cautiously asked. “By that argument you haven’t been legitimately elected to the vice presidency either.”
White looked at her. “Yes, I know that. How do you think that makes me feel? I’m trying to do the right thing here, to sort this mess out. We are in very dangerous waters, drifting away from constitutional government as mandated by the people. You’re right; my position is not legitimate either. But as long as I’m here I’m going to try to bring him in, and I need your help to do it. So does anyone have any useful suggestions?”
One of the advisers spoke up. “Everything the president has done has been with the approval of congress. It may be wrong, but if everyone goes along with it we have no means of challenging it legally.”
“That’s right,” said White. “There’s what’s legal, and there’s what’s right, and every now and then the two diverge. So what do you do then?”
His question was met with blank faces.
Kostovich had two streams of information about his approaching enemy. Parry 5 could look deep into space with tracking systems which were able to monitor Ephialtes’ deliberate approach. Through his backdoor into the USAN’s network he also had very detailed information on the mission, including telemetry from Ephialtes which was being sent back to the defence department on Earth. He had access to the minutes of important government meetings and all files from the defence department. He was absolutely aware that Ephialtes was going to destroy Parry 5 at the first opportunity it had. There was no question about it. His only option was to disable Ephialtes before it had the chance to destroy his own platform.
He had been aware of this for weeks. Initially, it had appeared to be an abstract problem, way down the line in the future. Rather than face it he had decided to put it to the back of his mind. He knew that there was very little to contemplate. Although the stakes were high and the scale enormous it was a very simple issue at heart; kill or be killed.
Kostovich had happily put that decision off to one side, but he could now see from his data that the time was coming when he would have to address it head-on. Ephialtes was hours away from being within range of Parry 5’s EMP missiles. There would be no need to physically destroy Ephialtes. With the EMPs he would simply be able to render it useless, destroyed in military terms but retaining its physical integrity. No lives would be lost in the initial attack.
One thing that did bother Kostovich was that once all the electronics had been extirpated on Ephialtes her ability to sustain life would be severely limited. Carbon dioxide filters, air pumps, heating and cooling devices would no longer work. Once Ephialtes had been attacked those aboard would be living in a drifting metal box which would soon become a coffin. He had thought about this and was satisfied that Ephialtes would be able to sustain life for a number of days following an EMP attack. He had roughed out a plan to rescue the survivors. He had talked about it in the broadest terms with Venkdt, who had given his approval, but he hadn’t really given it his full attention. As he saw the data coming in from Ephialtes, showing its inexorable approach, he set his AIs on firming up the plan. It would involve sending a large ship - probably a shuttle - to Ephialtes and taking the crew off. The difficulty was that the crew would be enemy belligerents. With no communications it would not be possible to tell them of the shuttle’s intent before it docked. Once a team from the shuttle were on board they would be in a hostile environment, attempting to rescue people who might see them simply as the enemy. That was the trickiest part of the mission and something that even the AIs were not able to cope with. That would need great human skills. Kostovich didn’t like to think about it.
Kostovich piped all the information he had into one of his AIs, which processed it and gave him a nice visual display of the problem he had. Ephialtes would be within range of Parry 5’s missiles within six hours. Ephialtes would be in range to strike the Parry 5 missile platform within a few tens of minutes over six hours. The window was small, but there was a point at which the Parry 5 platform held superiority over the mighty Ephialtes. That was the point at which the strike must happen. If it didn’t happen then, Ephialtes herself would strike immediately after. The moment would be lost, the missile platform would be lost, and following on from that the entire planet was potentially lost. Kostovich had all this displayed on his terminal. He could see Parry 5 with a large circle around it, indicating the range of its missiles. There was a similar circle around the approaching Ephialtes. In the corner of the screen there was a clock ticking down. It was currently orange. Once Ephialtes was in range it would turn green. Once Parry 5 was in range of Ephialtes, it would turn red.
Kostovich had read all the intelligence briefings that had been given to Cortes. They indicated that Mars was not open to negotiation and recommended seizure of important Martian installations by force. As a prelude to that they recommended again and again that the orbiting missile platform, Parry 5, should be destroyed. Those plans had been signed off by the president.
Kostovich had also read all the communications between the defence department on Earth and Commodore Lucero on Ephialtes. There was absolutely no ambiguity. Until Ephialtes was in orbit around Mars the mission priority was to destroy Parry 5.
That very afternoon Kostovich had spent some time listening in to communications on board Ephialtes. Lucero had briefed her senior commanders on the attack. They were going to fire a sequence of three missiles, spaced fifteen seconds apart, at Parry 5 approximately thirty seconds after they were in range. They had assumed the range of the Parry missiles was similar to their own, and they anticipated that they would not be attacked immediately they were in range. The missiles they had were mostly defensive and would be up to the task, they thought, of seeing off any Parry missiles that might be sent towards them. They were unaware of the avoidance routines that Kostovich had added to the Parry’s guidance systems and the increased range he had squeezed from improving the efficiency of their engines. Kostovich estimated that one out of every three missiles he sent towards Ephialtes would get through. He had nine missiles prepared to fire, and he only needed one to reach its target.
Kostovich looked at the clock in the corner of his screen. It was orange, and showed 01:37:
13.
“Could you put me through to Mr Venkdt, please?”
“Who’s calling?”
“It’s me. Dan Kostovich.”
“I’m sorry, Dr Kostovich, Mr Venkdt is in a meeting right now.”
“It’s urgent.”
“I’m sure it is urgent, Dr Kostovich, but Mr Venkdt is in a meeting right now.”
“It’s a matter of national security,” said Kostovich.
Venkdt’s PA was used to fighting off people who wanted some of his precious time, but this line was a new one on her and she hesitated for just a moment. “Mr Venkdt has expressly asked that he not be disturbed in this meeting, Dr Kostovich. I can pass on a message for him to call you as soon as he’s finished?”
“I need to speak to him right now. We are in present danger of attack by an enemy force, and I need to speak to the president. Please put me through.”
“Hold the line please,” the PA said, in a languorous and unhelpful tone.
Kostovich was looking at the orange number counting down in the corner of his terminal.
The PA came back on the line. “I’m transferring you now, Dr Kostovich.”
Kostovich went to say thank you, but the line clicked before he had the chance and he was through to Venkdt.
“What is it, Dan, I’m in the middle of something here?” said Venkdt, in a not unfriendly voice.
“It’s Ephialtes, Mr President. She is almost within missile range.”
“Okay,” said Venkdt. “We talked about this, didn’t we?”
“We did, sir,” said Kostovich, “but it was all a bit abstract then. Right now it seems very real, and a different proposition.”
Venkdt thought. “Nothing’s changed, Dan. We agreed what we have to do. And you can do it with no loss of life, right?”
Kostovich hesitated. “I can take out Ephialtes, no problem. The issue is what to do with the crew once we’ve disabled their ship. We can’t just leave them up there.”
“I see,” said Venkdt. “I thought you had a plan for that? For getting them off, I mean. We spoke about that too, didn’t we?”
“We did. Yes, we can send a shuttle and some troops and probably get them off. If they’re happy to be taken off. Remember, strictly speaking they are an enemy military and we will have just destroyed their major ship.”
“Okay, so you’re worried that it might not work out?”
“I don’t know, sir. It just seems a bit . . . serious, I guess.”
“Listen, have Maya Foveaux go over your rescue plan. She has some good people and I’m sure she’ll be able to make it work. Go through it with her, and implement our original plan for Ephialtes unless you have any reasonable alternatives.”
“I don’t. I’m listening to their coms. They’re going to shoot down Parry 5 as soon as they have the opportunity. That will be in about one hour.”
“One hour?” said Venkdt. “In one hour they’re going to destroy our only airborne missile defence system, and you’re having qualms about defending it against them?”
“I don’t have any qualms about it at all,” said Kostovich. “But I’m sitting here with my finger on the trigger and it feels a lot different now to how it did when we discussed it weeks ago. I just need to know that this is what you want.”
Venkdt paused. “Kostovich, this is a direct order from the president of Mars. In order for us to be able to maintain the defence of our nation and our planet it is our sad duty to have to disarm Ephialtes. I am ordering you to do that. In addition to this verbal order I will make a written statement and publish it to the government site.”
“Yes, Mr President,” said Kostovich, “of course.”
“Is that clear enough for you?” said Venkdt.
“Very clear, sir,” said Kostovich.
“Good,” said Venkdt. “Take her down.”
Kostovich immediately took the plans his AIs had written and sent them to Maya Foveaux, along with a message asking her to read them as a matter of urgency and comment on any areas she had issues with. In essence the plan was simple. It was to dock a shuttle with Ephialtes via one of the emergency ports. The port would then be breached and a small contingent of Martian military would board the ship. Armed with loud hailers as well as standard military equipment they would search their way through the ship making their benevolent intentions clear. Should the crew of Ephialtes remain belligerent they would retreat back to the shuttle and leave. If they were amenable to it, they would be disarmed and escorted to the shuttle and thence to the surface of Mars, where they would be held until such time as they could be transported back to Earth.
Technically, it was a simple mission. The difficulty was knowing what the attitude of the Ephialtes crew was going to be. If they chose to be difficult things could turn nasty. A firefight in an enclosed space where the enemy has numerical advantage was not an enticing prospect. Kostovich knew that Foveaux’s military were green and that this particular job required great nerve and tact. He wasn’t sure if they’d be up to it and he needed to know Foveaux’s opinion.
Kostovich watched the numbers ticking down in the top right of his screen. He had assigned Baldwin to keep a particular eye on Ephialtes and Walton to take care of Parry 5. As the countdown clock reached 00:45:19 he spoke to her. “Could you please arm three EMPs,” he said
“Arming three EMPs,” she replied.
Kostovich saw he had an incoming call from Foveaux. Before he took it he called to Baldwin, “Keep on top of Ephialtes’ coms.”
“Yes?” said Kostovich.
“I have your plans here,” said Foveaux, “I’ve only had chance for a quick read through but it seems pretty simple. When are you thinking about doing this?”
“It would be soon,” said Kostovich. “Do you really think your people are ready for something like this?”
“Who else is going to do it?” said Foveaux.
“I know there’s no one else,” said Kostovich irritably, “that’s not the question I’m asking. Can your people do it?”
“Yes,” said Foveaux.
“Good,” said Kostovich. “Start preparing now. We’ll only have a very short window to put this thing into effect. Is there anything you need? Anything you need from me?”
“We have all the equipment we need,” said Foveaux. “Thank you for that. Who is organising the shuttle?”
“Don’t worry about that, it’s all taken care of. I’ve gone through Venkdt for that, the shuttle is being prepared and should be ready for launch within forty-eight hours. I don’t know how long they’ll be able to survive on Ephialtes once we’ve destroyed the life-support capabilities. Two to three days would be my guess, but I can’t even say that for sure. As soon as the shuttle is ready for launch we need to go.”
“I understand,” said Foveaux.
“You do know,” said Kostovich, “that they may not want to be rescued. They may not even accept that it is a rescue. Your people will be boarding an enemy ship, a potentially hostile enemy ship. It will be a live military situation. You’re prepared for that?”
“Of course,” said Foveaux.
“Good,” said Kostovich. “Get training.”
Foveaux was looking through a simulation of Ephialtes’ interior and thinking about the task she had been charged with. She knew that her people were fundamentally security guards and not military, but she also knew they were keen to assist with the forging of the new planet and any security services it needed. Kostovich was right; this was going to be a military operation and far beyond anything any of them had ever done before. She had told him they were ready, but in truth she wasn’t sure herself.
While she was familiarising herself with Ephialtes she put a call through to Bobby Karjalainen.
“Hello?” said Bobby.
“Hello, Foveaux here. Listen, I know you haven’t even started yet but I have a big favour to ask.”
“Go on,” said Bobby, cautiously.
“Very soon, very soon, we will be undertaking an extremely
important mission. As you know, we have very limited combat experience, and this mission will be taking place on an enemy spacecraft. You’re the only person in the MSS who has any combat experience whatsoever. You have a knowledge of tactics and weapons too, which is something we don’t have. I know we said Monday, but could you get down here as soon as possible and join our training for this mission?”
“Join your training?”
Foveaux spluttered, “Well, you know, lead the training.”
“Okay,” said Bobby, “I’ll get down as soon as I can. I have a few things I have to finish up first.”
“Thank you,” said Foveaux.
“This mission. Enemy spacecraft? You’re talking about Ephialtes?”
“I am.”
“You’re sending a force to attack Ephialtes?”
“Not to attack. It’s a rescue mission.”
“I don’t follow,” said Bobby. “Who are you rescuing from whom?”
“We’re rescuing the crew from certain death. This time tomorrow Ephialtes is going to be the most expensive tomb ever built. If we can get a team on there we can save the crew. The difficulty will be persuading the crew that that is our intention.”
Bobby thought. “I’m guessing there’s some stuff here that you’re not telling me.”
“Of course, and I apologise for that. I can’t tell you now but in the next few hours it will be obvious. The point is this; we will need to get a team to Ephialtes and they will need to know what they’re doing. It’s a rescue mission, plain and simple, but those being rescued may not see it that way.”
“Okay,” said Bobby, “I think I understand.”
“It will become clear,” said Foveaux, “but we do need your help, and we need it as soon as possible.”
“Okay,” said Bobby. “I’m on my way.”
C H A P T E R 2 7
Open Fire
Ephialtes (Ephialtes Trilogy Book 1) Page 39