by Adam Gaffen
“Do? There’s nothing we can do as such; it’s up to her to snap out of it. Having Nicole there is going to help. Once thing I’ve learned about Crozier is she’s as tough a bitch as ever I want to meet.”
“Where do we stand in terms of defense?”
“Nothing from the Union is going to get within a hundred klicks of any Free Luna warren or habitat. We dropped two ‘Eyeball’ satellites into orbit to track everything groundside. Between those, Diana, and the CAP, we’re covered.”
“What about the damage to Njord?”
“Deep but superficial, if it makes any sense. Diana?”
The AI’s avatar materialized next to Whitmore.
“Admiral, the hull breach caused by the barge was the most significant damage. The internal damage, though extensive, was far more minor.”
“Where are we on repairs?”
“My ‘bots are finishing the internal repairs today, then I will begin external reconstruction with the Commodore’s personnel. Full functionality should be restored in less than a week.”
“Have we heard anything else from groundside? Davie, you talked to both Lynch and Hartman; what’s your impression?”
“I believe that the late Director was completely surprised by the revelation, but something was off about Director Lynch. He made the right sounds but it didn’t ring true.”
“Admiral,” said Diana. “It is not my specialty, but voice stress analysis of the automatic recording of the transmission lends credence to Admiral Whitmore’s supposition. Director Lynch almost certainly was concealing information during the discussion; what he was concealing is impossible to determine without more data.”
“Lynch is a liar and a sleaze. I’ve known for years. Have Montana dig into Lynch and see what she can find. Anything else? Status of the Union navy?”
“All the Luna-based ships are accounted for, except the al-Battani.”
“He’s the one Defiant is chasing? Where the seven hells did they go?”
“They could be just about anywhere,” Whitmore answered. “We know where they aren’t, which is any star we’ve already explored, which still leaves a huge chunk of sky.”
“We’re sure they’re still in pursuit?”
“Honestly? No. But until your pet geniuses come up with a sensor suite which has light-year range we’re essentially blind outside the System.”
“Frak. Well, we still have Endeavour, Defender II is a couple days away, and Enterprise ought to return next week. Right. So give Autumn some support, continue relief efforts for the rest of Free Luna, see what Mac can dig up on Earth and Mya’s death, and keep the Union locked down. Does that summarize where we stand?”
“Pretty well.”
“Good. Then we need to start planning how to end this once and for all.”
THE UNION DIDN’T GET off as easily.
Seismic waves are funny things. As they travel through rock they can be bent, deflected, distorted, amplified, and diminished. There are many documented accounts of a building being utterly destroyed by a quake while its neighbor suffers little damage. The quirks of the underlying structure are the reason, and Luna has its fair share of them.
Hong Kong Luna, the closest warren to Tycho Under, was relatively unaffected by the blast and subsequent shaking: the pattern of the seismic waves skipped over it. Marseilles en Lune was struck, not by a direct wave but by a secondary surface wave triggered by the primary shock.
Artemis City was hit.
Hard.
The explosion a few lunars earlier at Grimaldi had been far less damaging even though it was more powerful. The floor of the crater was fractured and had absorbed much of the shock. Not so the explosion above Tycho, which was on a plate which had not shattered. An intact plate leads to good transmission of seismic waves.
Two primary waves bracketed the warren, one five kilometers out, the other eight kilometers away, the distance just enough so the effects of the waves impacted the warren slightly out of sync. The effect was as if Artemis was a toy being pulled between two dogs.
Like most warrens, Artemis was constructed first in naturally-occurring caverns beneath the surface. As the first permanent settlement, though, it had long outgrown the natural space and had excavated for more room, totaling in excess of ninety cubic kilometers. There were a considerable number of open areas even still, as people needed to be able to feel open air and get a sense of spaciousness, no matter how many generations they’d lived in Luna.
Construction was fairly standardized for warrens, all based on the original plans in Artemis. Each ‘neighborhood’ was created as a fairly self-contained unit, though they varied widely in size. Some were as small as a single cubic kilometer, while the largest was fifteen.
The government was housed in a separate excavation, apart from the commercial and residential areas, and close to the surface. It was more robustly constructed than other areas, with more bulkheads, more airlocks, more redundancies in the safety features.
This kept the entire complex from being opened to vacuum. When the shock hit, the surface shattered like a plate dropped on the floor and collapsed into the center below.
The upper level pancaked.
Below that the damage was more diffuse. The shock of the impact warped many of the airlock hatches, rendering them useless, as Newling and Phalkon discovered. This pattern would be repeated through many of the ‘neighborhoods’ around Artemis City: a partial collapse on the levels closest to the surface, with decreasing damage the further one descended. Ironically, the Undercity suffered the least damage and loss of life, as the structures were more temporary and flexible. They swayed to the shock rather than trying to resist it and so most survived, if perhaps a bit the worse for wear.
The casualty list was immense, though.
Nearly three million citizens were killed outright, and another eight million injured to one degree or another. One ‘neighborhood’ survived the initial waves but was cut off from the rest of the City. The same shock also knocked out their power and air connections. The slow poisoning of their air and loss of heat, too gradual to be noticed, wiped out the population silently.
The Empress survived. Phalkon took the lead in the recovery efforts. She reached out to the UE and contacted Lynch.
“It didn’t work.”
“I noticed,” she snarled back.
“Whose idiotic idea was it to detonate a bomb?”
“Whose idiotic idea was it to ram a barge into the habitat?” she countered. “There’s thousands of people aboard that thing! Did you think your couple hundred soldiers would actually succeed?”
“All we had to do, according to your agent, was reach their command and control. ‘Behead the snake’, I think you told me.”
“There’s no point in blame,” she said. “What next?”
“I have one more string,” Lynch said. “It’s going to take time to put in play.”
“How much time?”
“Ten days. Two weeks, maybe.”
Phalkon pondered the timing. “Take your time and plan for the 14th. We have some surprises for the Federation; I think if we hit them from multiple directions one of our arrows will penetrate, and one will be enough.”
“And you’ll ensure the Union accepts scrapping the Accords? The Empress won’t interfere?”
“In two weeks, the Empress will be in no position to interfere with anything, ever again.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
TFS Enterprise
Stardate 12009.04
“This is insane.”
Alley was watching the procession in her shuttlebay from her ready room, communicating with her wife through the comms. LJ was overseeing the shuttlebay, with Junkyard and Batgirl chivvying the Wolves in and out with something approaching order.
“I’m just glad Commander Cassidy and her girls are here to help. Those two treecats of theirs are absolutely worth their weight in gold.”
“Which is part of the insanity! A five- and six-year-old have no business in an ac
tive shuttlebay, much less a pair of treecats!”
She had a point. In the weeks since the girls had been adopted the ‘cats had adjusted swiftly to life shipboard. They couldn’t communicate directly with anyone except their own girl, but the messages they could exchange were as complex as the girls could manage. They’d learned how to get around the ship and where they could and couldn’t go. Essentially they’d been limited to the same areas as the girls, which kept them out of critical spaces such as engineering, weapons, and the computer core.
LJ had been talked into allowing them free run of the shuttlebay to familiarize them, with the conditions they not play with any of the controls and they were fitted with their own custom-made skinsuits. Minerva had been delighted by the challenge, even if Cass viewed it with more than a little dismay.
To everyone’s relief Honey and Orion reacted well to the utterly foreign idea of clothing and skinsuits. They wriggled into them almost naturally with minimal coaching from their humans. Exposing them to vacuum had been discussed and dismissed, Cass arguing the girls would be the best possible coaches in case of emergency.
Now the foursome were taking turns on the shuttlebay floor, greeting every arriving Wolf which carried other treecats and leading them to the bay which had been prepared for their stay.
“Maybe, but they know the safety rules as well as any of my people,” LJ answered.
“I suppose I ought to see how they’re settling in,” Alley groused.
LJ neither agreed nor disagreed. “See you tonight,” she said instead and cut the circuit.
A few minutes later Alley was outside the cargo hold which had been set aside for the ‘cats and their accompanying flora and fauna. She hesitated at the hatch, wondering if was safe to enter, and was saved making a decision by the arrival of Lisa and Orion with another eight ‘cats in tow.
“Hello Captain Aunt Alley,” Lisa said with a child’s version of a salute.
Alley couldn’t help but smile back. “Hello Lisa, Orion. How are you doing?”
“Good,” the not-so-little redhead answered, tapping the entry panel. She stood to one side as Orion led the other ‘cats in before saying, “Do you want to come in?”
“Yes, please.”
Lisa waved to the hatch for Alley to pass through before following her into the hold.
“I had no idea,” Alley said, gazing in wonder.
It was true; Cass and Seabolt had taken charge of the project and executed it without any consultation with her beyond the initial request. She was stunned by what she saw.
The Wolves had been busy. Hundreds of cubic meters of soil had been lifted from the planet, along with all the trees, shrubs, undergrowth, everything down to the moss-like ground cover. Then the walls of the bay had been programmed to display scenes from the planet, blending almost seamlessly with reality, before any of the animals or insects had been brought aboard. Now it was as if she’d stepped from her ship onto the planet’s surface, and in a very real way it was.
“How many, I mean, where are all the ‘cats?”
“Orion says most of them are in the trees, watching. He says they agreed to come but it’s still strange and scary.”
“I’ll bet it is. Tell him they’re very brave and we’re happy they’re here.”
Lisa tilted her head, relaying the message, then said, “Orion says you’re not telling the truth but he isn’t mad.”
Alley, about to protest, stopped. Instead she asked, “He can tell what I’m thinking?”
“Noooo,” said Lisa, searching for the concepts. “Not like him and me. He sorta feels what you’re thinking, though.”
Alley nodded. The little buggers were empaths, generally, as well as direct telepaths.
“He says you’re happy now.”
“Because I know something your mom doesn’t,” Alley said. “And it doesn’t happen often.”
“Uh-huh, that’s ‘cause Mom’s smarter than just about everyone, that’s what Mama says.”
Alley grinned.
“Mama’s right. Do you think any of the ‘cats want to say hello?”
“I dunno, but I can ask Orion.”
Another wordless communion and Orion disappeared silently into the trees.
LJ, how many more ‘cats are coming? Alley commed.
One more load on the way up, be here in a few minutes. Why?
I didn’t want to tie up Lisa if she was needed. Thanks.
The ‘cat was returning with a blue-gray ‘cat in tow.
“Who’s this?” Alley asked.
“Well, they don’t really have names like we do, it’s more a picture and feeling and maybe an action all jumbled together. Her name is a little bit like Hunting Flying Thing Hungry Best, if it makes any sense.” Lisa’s face wrinkled. “Orion says she’s in charge of these ‘cats.”
“In charge? You’re sure?”
“Uh-huh.”
Alley knelt to put herself more at the ‘cat’s level, who sat back on her rear legs and braced herself on her mid-legs.
What do you say to a sentient cat?
“Greetings, I am Jennifer Martinez, the leader of these people, and welcome to my vessel.”
Oh, Goddess, could I sound any more stilted?
The ‘cat didn’t seem to mind her words; then she remembered they picked up on thoughts and emotions and grimaced. Her eyes flew open at a light touch on her knee. She saw the blue eyes of the ‘cat staring into hers from a few centimeters away, one hand, claws carefully sheathed, resting on her uniform leg.
“Guess we look pretty silly,” she said. “Probably sound silly, too.”
She didn’t know where it came from but the impression of agreement formed in her mind. Well, she knew where it came from, and probably who, but it was still unexpected.
“Whoa.”
A ripple of amusement echoed through her thoughts, mirrored on the face of the ‘cat. She turned at the sound of a giggle.
“It tickles a little,” Lisa said. “Doesn’t it?”
Alley glanced between Lisa and the ‘cat, picking up agreement.
“Well, I can’t go around calling you ‘Hunting Flying Thing Hungry Best’, so what if we just go with ‘Hunter’?”
A sense of satisfaction came back to her through what she was realizing was a telepathic link. Her first thought was how annoyed Cass was going to be that her CO had been ‘adopted’ before she had.
Her second thought was of her wife and how LJ was going to react to a ‘cat taking up residence with their cats. She felt a questioning thought probe at her, so Alley concentrated and tried to convey her concerns to Hunter.
The ‘cat cocked her head then skittered off. In a moment she’d disappeared into the trees.
“I didn’t think I was quite so scary,” Alley said to Lisa, standing. “I’ll let you get back to, oh, my.”
Hunter was returning, leading a slightly larger grey ‘cat and trailed by four much smaller ‘cats, obviously children. Alley felt foolish at her surprise once she processed it: of course there would be ‘cat families, if they were bringing a viable ‘colony’.
She knelt again and Hunter marched right up. The impression of ‘family/partner/children’ came through clearly and Alley smiled at each in turn. Apparently the human habit of baring teeth in a friendly gesture had been communicated to the other ‘cats as none flinched away. Two of the kits took advantage of her lowered position to scramble up and perch on her shoulders. She felt their feet anchoring them down, claws just extended, and hands in her hair for extra support. There were trills and chirps and whistles passing back and forth between the two, while their presumed siblings jumped around her feet.
“They’re so cute!” Lisa exclaimed, and Alley was brought back to the reality of being a starship Captain.
“Yes, they are, but I have to get back to the bridge.”
The sense of I’m not leaving you! from Hunter was strong and Alley stifled a laugh.
“You can come, but can your family stay here?”
There was reluctance, recognition of duty, and finally acceptance from Hunter. She chittered at the kits on Alley’s shoulders. One of them dropped lightly onto the dirt-covered deck, but the other, a solid black colored kit, tightened its hold on her hair, chittering back. Alley could imagine the conversation and another grin lit her face.
“It’s okay,” she said aloud. “I can handle one kitten.”
The chirps subsided, and the remaining three kits followed their parent back into the bay.
With as much dignity as a woman with a ‘cat on her shoulder could manage, Alley said, “Lisa, I’ll let you get back to work. Thank you for showing me the ‘cats.”
“You’re welcome, Captain Alley.” Lisa and Orion, released from adult obligations, dashed into the bay to join the other ‘cats.
“Well, Hunter, let’s take a walk. For now, don’t touch anything, until you’re more familiar with, well, everything.”
A wave of amusement washed over Alley with a thought she translated as ‘Don’t teach me how to suck eggs!’. Alley snorted back a laugh.
“Come on. You, hold on,” she admonished the kit.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Artemis City; Habitat Njord
Stardate 12009.04
The Council Chamber was still under repair so the meeting was taking place in Phalkon’s office. Fortunately, for values of good fortune, there were few enough surviving members they could all fit in without crowding.
“Any change in the Empress?” asked Kreitzer. He’d taken over as Councilor of War for now, though he longed for the day he could slough off the added responsibility.
“No,” Phalkon said. “She’s awake and alert, but she’s not dealing with the setbacks well.”
This was an understatement. Once she’d been relocated to a more secure and stable set of compartments within the Complex, Empress Vasilia had started ranting about her Councilors’ incompetence and worse. She’d railed against them all, including Phalkon. Now Phalkon was down to consulting with her once a day for as little time as she could manage.