“It is quite ingenious, Commander. They softened the disruptor shield with particle beams then launched a two-stage missile. The nose stage punched a hole in a weakened spot. Before the shield could reconfigure, the tail stage, holding the warhead, penetrated the disruptor field.”
“Making contact with the hull, it exploded.”
“Ya, Cap. The EMP knocked everything out. That shut down the field. The rest? Well, we saw the results.”
“This changes everything. The Mortek have developed a defense against our shields.”
“They played dirty, Cap. No civilized race would use Nuclear weapons.”
“We had them on their heels. They knew that, Mack.”
“Ya, well. Those Mortek have a need to be told what’s what. Nukes are not part of the game.”
“Now what, Krag?”
“We go home and try to figure out how to get back into the game, Keiko. Galactic Express, Cosmic Traveler, did you see this?”
“Every second, Hawk. Not good.”
“Both of you, get back to Ballison. Work this new variable into the problem.”
“Roger that, Hawk.”
“This was a bad day for Humanity, Commander.”
“Yes it was, Captain Emoli. I will see you back at Ballison.”
Two HEB Alliance ships winked out. Griffin continued to drift in the deep dark, its crew’s mood matching the black. A short time later, Griffin followed.
Aboard Vengeance - Bridgelen
The bridge crew of Vengeance saw the same footage, read the same data as Griffin’s crew. They went through the same anguish. Vice-Admiral Weiskoff added rage.
“That Igaklay said that those shields would hold. That plopping A.I. blew smoke up our tailpipes.”
“Admiral, the shields did hold against the particle beams and laser rays. It was nuclear missiles that broke through,” Lieutenant Robinson offered.
“That shouldn’t have happened. None of Marston’s aliens or civvies told me about nuclear missiles.”
“From all our intel, the Mortek had never used them before, Admiral.”
“Marston and his eggheads should have anticipated something like this.”
“They just changed the whole game, Admiral.”
“Well, we’re going to change it back. They want to play dirty. We can play dirty. Captain, contact Retribution. We’re heading back to Ballison. Heimdallr stays here.”
“Aye, aye, Admiral.”
Captain Brewer reflected the doom and gloom which hung over the bridge crew. With hanging heads and trepidation at things to come, Vengeance and Retribution jumped to the Ballison waypoint.
Chapter 30
Aboard Heimdallr - Bridgelen
“We lost Reprisal, Captain.”
“Jeez. How did she screw up, Toast?”
“She didn’t. Captain Brewer took Vengeance into the teeth of that fleet, drove down its throat and out the other side. Retribution did the same. So did Reprisal.”
“So, how did she die?”
“From the readings, nuclear missiles.”
“Morteks have nukes?”
“If they had them in the past, they never used them. Why they did now, I don’t know.”
“Maybe they didn’t have them before. Maybe this is their response to our gravity rockets.”
“Whatever, Cap. This puts a wrench in the works.”
“Yeah, Brooksy.”
“I definitely wouldn’t want to be in the room with Weiskoff during the after-action report.”
“You and me, both.”
“Captain, I just receive our new orders.”
“Let me guess. Hurry up and wait.”
“Right on. We are to hold position and continue our recon.”
“Wonderful. Did the Admiral say for how long?”
“No.”
“I hate my job, Cap. Sure you don’t want to resign your commission and hightail it over to that HEB Alliance, or whatever it is?”
“Duty calls, Brooksy. Duty calls.”
Ballison HEB Alliance HQ
The morning after Griffin’s return, Krag and Keiko used their lanai to sit in the sun and attempt to burn away the tragedy of two days ago. Sipping their morning drinks to put the capper on an excellent breakfast, they both leaned back. As though spiritually linked, they both relaxed and sipped, just living the moment and each other. Nothing needed to be said.
Time passed in quiet reflection and short sentences. Like all things, their reverie came to an end. Igaklay’s voice drifted in the air.
“I am sorry to interrupt your morning, Commander, Ambassador. But, Vice-Admiral Weiskoff demands your attendance at fourteen hundred hours. At his Central Command Center.”
“Fourteen hundred hours. At his Central Command Center.”
“That is what he said, Commander.”
“This could get vociferous, Krag.”
“Yeah. I’ll bet Weiskoff’s none to happy about losing Reprisal.”
“Maybe we should bring Buster along.”
“As Mr. Morris. Not a bad idea. Vidhee, too. You know Weiskoff is going to demand something.”
“And Igaklay.”
“Five of us?” Krag asked.
“That way, we cover all our bases. Buster for overall control. Vidhee for legal counsel and Igaklay for tech support.”
“Five it is.”
v v v
Just before two o’clock in the afternoon, Igaklay guided the transport to the landing port next to Weiskoff’s Central Command Center. The five HEB Alliance representatives piled out, walked to the pyramid and waited.
“Igaklay, why didn’t an iris open?”
“Vice-Admiral Weiskoff demanded that I open an iris only on his command, Commander.”
“You were smart in acceding to his wishes. Good decision.”
“I try, oh Commander.”
An iris opened. A Federacy officer stepped through. He came to a pause, taking in what he perceived to be two Synthetics and one very large man. Then, regaining his decorum, the officer came to attention. Seeing that no one was in uniform, he didn’t salute.
“Lieutenant Bell, Sir, ma’am. Please follow me.”
Entering the pyramid, Krag leaned over to Keiko and nodded.
“If I didn’t know better, I would have said that we just entered the Federacy’s Headquarters on Olympia.”
“Weiskoff likes his power base.”
“That he does.”
While Krag and Keiko had this conversation en soto, everyone had crossed the reception area, walked a hallway and entered a large conference room. In the middle of the rectangular table, one of Igaklay’s communication pyramids projected a three-dimensional replay of Reprisal’s destruction.
Vice-Admiral Weiskoff sat at the far end, commanding the room. Seeing the Admiral and a group of officers establishing their control at the far end, Krag took the chair opposite from Weiskoff. Keiko, as always, sat at his right. To his left, the Ballisonian chair reconfigured into a highchair. Igaklay climbed in. Buster, as Mister Morris, watched his own chair reconfigure to handle the seven-foot, broad-chested man.
“Thank you, Preceptor Igaklay,” Buster stated as he sat next to his friend while Vidhee took her place next to Keiko.
“Well, Marston, what have you to say about this boondoggle?”
Krag and Keiko knew the game. Without even acknowledging each other, they both knew that Weiskoff needed to seek control.
“In what way, Vice-Admiral?”
“Nukes, damn it! You never said anything about the bugs having nukes!”
“We didn’t know, Vice-Admiral.”
“And you,” Weiskoff pointed a finger at Igaklay.
“You said that your shields would hold.”
Following Krag’s and Keiko’s stoic lead, Igaklay replied, “My disrupter shields did hold, exactly as I said they would. Vengeance made her attack run without incurring any damage. So did Retribution.”
“Reprisal didn’t!”
�
�Not because of the particle beams and laser fire. My shields held up.”
“Well, Reprisal is still destroyed.”
“By fission explosions, Vice-Admiral.”
“That doesn’t change anything. You should have seen that coming.”
“As an A.I., Vice-Admiral, I am not intuitive. I can only draw conclusion from existing data and information. To have extrapolated to the envisioning of the Mortek having nuclear weapons is something that I could not have done.”
“Techno babble for screwing up.”
“That is not correct, Vice-Admiral. I could not anticipate the Mortek having nuclear weapons any more than I could have anticipated Commander Marston’s ingenious solution of utilizing repair robots to incapacitate the Mortek fleet in Cencore. A.I.s do not have the capacity for intuitive leaps in logic.”
“If I may, Vice-Admiral,” Keiko interrupted.
“What, Mz. Suzume?”
“This is getting us nowhere. We need to focus on a solution.”
“I already have a solution. Get me nukes. Igaklay, make me about ten thousand nukes.”
“Pardon me, Vice-Admiral. But, Preceptor Igaklay is incapable of producing weapons of war.”
“Of course, he can. Igaklay, you can make these jump drives and those shields. You can make nuclear missiles. Ten thousand.”
“With most respect, Vice-Admiral, I need to reaffirm. It is true that Preceptor Igaklay has the ability to create nuclear weapons. He does not have the capability.”
“Why not?”
“Vice-Admiral Weiskoff, my Overseers have commanded that I never partake in any activity which leads to destruction and death. That includes the production of weapons.”
“Your Overseers? You mean Marston and Suzume?”
“That is correct, Vice-Admiral.”
“You heard it, Marston. Order Igaklay to make nuclear missiles.”
“That’s not going to happen, Weiskoff.”
“Keiko heard Krag’s rising anger. She placed her hand on his arm and looked hard into his eyes.
“Having the most advanced artificial intelligence develop weapons-building matrices may sound like a good solution in the short term, but in the long term, this could become a very destructive idea.”
“If I may, Ambassador Suzume?’
“Of course, Honorable Vidhee. Vice-Admiral Weiskoff, Honorable Vidhee is one of eleven judges on the Elonian Legal Court. She is also one of the three legal counselors on the HEB Alliance Legal Court.”
“You’ve got a robot controlling the legal system?”
“Who better to pass apolitical, non-judgmental rulings? Go ahead, Your Honor.”
“We are currently forming a Constitution for the governance of the HEB Alliance. It is a combining of two primary documents, the Elonian Constitution and a Constitution created by a nation-state on Old Earth called the United States of America.”
“Yes, yes. So?”
“Both governments banned the construction and use of nuclear weapons. As time passed and fusion energy became the norm, they also passed laws banning anything which utilized fissional material.”
“Now you’re saying that this HEB Alliance is banning fissional material, the only thing that we can use to destroy the bugs.”
“That is correct, Vice-Admiral.”
“Well, change the laws. And order Igaklay to make the nukes. If you don’t, Humanity will end.”
“Vice-Admiral?” Weiskoff’s Adjunct leaned over and whispered into his commanding officer’s ear. After a whispered conversation, Weiskoff turned back to the other end of the table.
“Okay. You say, no nukes. What’s your grand and glorious plan?”
“Let’s face the truth, Vice-Admiral Weiskoff.” Krag’s sarcasm dripped.
“Suppose you got your ten thousand nukes. What are you going to do with them? There’s a fleet and a half of Mortek warships floating in Bridgelen. Another fleet is due to arrive in about two weeks. You’re looking at a five hundred ships of the line. That doesn’t count another five hundred attack ships. And the carriers with their thousands of assault craft. Or that big-ass flag ship. How are you going to deliver your ten thousand nukes?”
“You just keep getting those ships ready. I’ll deliver the nukes.”
“It will take a year to get the Federacy and HEB Alliance fleets upgraded. What are the Mortek going to do while we build up our fleet? Sit on their butts? I don’t think so.”
“War is war, Marston. There will be casualties. It can’t be helped.”
“That monstrous fleet is going to get back to invading, killing and destroying whole systems. That’s not war. It’s a slaughter. With something that size, it won’t take long.”
“Okay, Hot Shot. What’s the solution?”
“If I may, Vice-Admiral?” Again, Keiko injected herself into the back-and-forth.
“I agree with both of you. Vice-Admiral Weiskoff is correct in the need for swift and violent action. Commander Marston is also correct in that the idea of nuclear warfare is not the solution. Perhaps war is not the solution.”
“Ambassador Suzume?”
“Yes, Mr. Morris?”
“Who are you?” Weiskoff asked.
“I am Commander Marston’s Executive Officer.”
“I’ve never heard of you. Were you Federacy?’
“In a manner of speaking.”
“Mr. Clarke, look up Morris’s jacket.”
“You won’t find it, Vice-Admiral.”
“Why is that?”
Buster looked at Krag. Krag gave him an affirmative nod. Buster looked back at Weiskoff’s end of the table and raised his hand. His nanites flowed back into their storage. Mr. Morris became the silver-skinned and silver-haired Buster.
“I am a synthetic, Vice-Admiral. One of the HEB Alliance Legal Court as well as Commander Marston’s Executive Officer.”
The officers at Weiskoff’s end of the table just stared. Marston’s end had seen the transformation many times before.
“Another android.”
Buster flowed back to being Mr. Morris.
“As I was saying. From Old Earth’s history books, there was a time of non-violent war between two super nation-states. This period of time was labeled the ‘cold war’. The two nation-states were the United States of America and the United Soviet Socialist Republic.”
“Yes, I read my history, too.”
“The reason that they never went to war was because of a concept of ‘mutually assured destruction’. If one nation-state attacked, then both nation-states would be destroyed.”
“See? That proves my point. We need nukes to ensure that, if the bugs attack us, we will destroy them.”
“We don’t need nuclear weapons for that. Our gravity rockets are more than enough, without the radiological or electromagnetic. fallout.”
“Sounds like sunshine and rainbows.”
“Mr. Morris is on the right track, Vice-Admiral. The solution is not a military one. It is geopolitical. We need to convince the Mortek that attacking us is not in their benefit.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“There is an analogy that my father taught me. ‘when you are a hammer, everything else is a nail’. Everyone here, with the exception of myself, Honorable Vidhee and Preceptor Igaklay, are hammers. We need non-hammers to come up with a solution. Between our three species, we have some extremely intelligent, imaginative beings. I propose that we form a discussion group and see if we can create a solution.”
“A committee. They never get anything done. They just sit around and talk.”
“You’re not getting your nukes. It will take a year to build up a fleet that can fight back. So, speaking as one hammer to another, listen to Ambassador Suzume. Right now, she has the best idea on moving forward.”
“Keep pushing, Marston and we will have an issue.”
“Save it until after we save Humanity, Weiskoff. This meeting is over.”
Krag abruptly stood. Seeing this
, his four crewmates followed. Turning, they all exited through the door, down the hall, through the reception area and out of Weiskoff’s Central Command Center.
“That went well, Commander.”
“How do you figure, Buster?”
“The Vice-Admiral now understands his boundaries. He knows that he can’t push you and Keiko around.”
“That is true, Buster. And he knows that, without my production lines, he will never get his fleet of ships.”
“So, you’ve got him in a box, Igaklay?”
“We have him in a box, Commander.”
“Now, all we need is an idea. Half-Pint, you stuck your head in it. You get to lead. Me, I’ll follow.”
“Thanks, Big Guy.”
Aboard Griffin - Ballison
“Gods, I hate dealing with Weiskoff,” Krag exclaimed as he ordered up a strong adult beverage.
“Oy, that good, Cap? Who got their panties in a twist? You or the Vice-Admiral?” Mack asked as he made his own drink and added a pastry.
“Don’t be so crude, Lug-Nut.”
“Aw, Love, it’s just a saying. What can I get ye?”
“I like that mead you get. Let me have a glass of that.”
“A pint, Love. We call it ‘a pint’.”
“Well, get me a pint of mead, then.”
This time, Keiko ordered wine instead of her usual tea. Sitting, she took a sip and stared into her glass.
“Tell me, Cap. What did the enlightened Admiral have to say?”
“Typical war-monger demands. You saw that the Mortek have nukes. Now, he wants nukes. Ten thousand of them.”
“With all due respect, Cap, that is a right dumb idea. How does he plan on delivering them? Does he think that the Mortek will sit like ducks on a pond and let him plunk away?”
“Actually, Mack, I think that Vice-Admiral Weiskoff is panicking. When he lost Reprisal, he saw that he doesn’t have the firepower to threaten that fleet. And, he doesn’t see getting enough ships into the Dark to fight them.”
“So, ya be saying, Wee-One, that the good Admiral is flopping around like a fish on a beach.”
“That’s about it, Mack.”
“Ya be saying that Humanity is screwed. Sorry, Love.”
Victory in the Stars (Marston Chronicles Book 6) Page 35