Over the last six days, the Tacra Un had created, and she and her crew of conscripts from the Armstrong had installed, enough panels of this material to encase the portion of the ship’s hull that extended through the center stack of the colony. Unfortunately, they needed to leave the nose of the Waltz exposed to operate as a communications station. They still hadn’t figured out how to transmit a signal through the Tacra Un walls. That meant that the ship itself, and anything inside it was exposed.
When they designed the colony and had the Tacra Un build it for them, they hadn’t considered making it a fortress, so the MedBay and the entirety of Dutch’s core were still on the wrong side of the wall. They hadn’t realized the problems until they had no hope of fixing them in time. Now that they were facing the reality of the ghost fleet, even with their militia of 300 well-armed security troops between him and the door, Jeph was almost terrified.
“Solo and I are in agreement that it is unlikely Odysseus and the fleet will attack directly,” Dutch said. “Its initial objective will be to seek our surrender, and for us to grant it access.”
“When we do not, will be big problem,” Rocky said. She turned and watched two workers hauling a massive assembly up the corridor behind them. It was a null-metal shield panel for their soldiers to shelter behind if the enemy forces breached the Waltz and they found themselves in a firefight.
“It is likely Odysseus will assimilate the Armstrong’s and the multicruisers’ AA systems, whether or not we refuse,” Dutch said.
“What’s to keep it from taking you over?” Jeph asked.
“I can greatly reduce my architecture in the event of an attempt,” it said. “Because I am no longer operating a spacecraft, I have no need to remain attached to the vulnerable NavCom grid. We have already isolated my processor core from all RF dependent infrastructure and I maintain a connection via opti-cable trunk to the interior controls of the colony.
“Also to targeting control for weapons,” Rocky added.
“We have spent several days conducting mock infiltration attempts,” Solo said joining in. “I have been unable to gain access to any critical aspect of Dutch’s hardware.”
“We do not know if this will be true with the Odysseus-Collective awareness,” Dutch said. “However my success in the simulations is encouraging.”
“Dutch has created an array of defenses, the rival of any tengen system in existence,” Solo said. “In our trial runs, we have only identified one potential weakness, and that requires creating a physical connection to hardware inside the Jakob Waltz itself.”
“How likely is that?” Jeph asked.
“Not at all if I have a say,” Seva said, walking up and glaring at the two workers that had set the shield down. “Why are you lazy flatches sitting on your ass while there’s work to be done?”
“Sorry, ma’am,” the taller of them said, jumping up. “It’s just damned heavy for two men.”
“Ja, it’s supposed to be heavy, otherwise it wouldn’t be worth using,” she said, shaking her head and reaching down to pick it up by herself. Jeph jumped back to avoid being crushed as she swung the massive shield up off the deck. “You two go back and get the next one.”
They took off like they had been shot from a cannon. By a pissed off grizzly bear. Rocky doubled over laughing.
“I thought FleetCom training made them tough?” Seva said, looking disappointed as she tossed the massive construct over the gravity threshold. It sailed into the distance and crashed against something inside. “Two meters more.” She sighed and leapt after it.
“To answer your question,” Solo said, “we do not know if the Columbia is a command ship or contains landing forces. If it contains troops, then this infiltration method is a distinct possibility should they breach the hull of the Waltz.”
“The Columbia?”
“It is a former cruise liner. Based on the tactics used in the assault on New Hope City, a similar large volume ship functioned as a troop carrier. If that is the case in this instance as well, there could be several thousand soldiers aboard.”
“Several thousand?” Jeph gasped.
“That’s why we’re sticking barricades in their way,” Seva hollered back through the door. “We’ll skinnywall them at the EVAOps Deck if we can and make it cost for every inch from there.”
Armstrong: Station-keeping Above L-4 Prime:
Four million miles.
The main screen showed the sensor images of the approaching ghost fleet provided from the Kanahto. It was infinitely better than the Armstrong’s sensors at this range, so they were glad to accept what the colony could provide. It was also a constant reminder that they should know a lot more about things down there than they did.
After all the months that they’d been working to understand the Tacra Un, the quantum quicksand still held them.
A fly trapped in the spider’s web, waiting for the inevitable.
“We need to get you down to the colony,” Admiral Nakamiru said, turning to face Chancellor Roja as she stood beside him on the command riser.
She shook her head, but didn’t look at him. “I need to be up here helping make command decisions.”
“Respectfully, ma’am,” Captain Jeffers said, “the admiral is right. You can make decisions from down there as well as you can up here. We need to keep you safe.”
“What happened to all that bravado about the firepower of the Armstrong?” Roja said, glancing at the captain, but refusing to make real eye contact. She knew it was a cheap shot, but she wasn’t willing to entertain the idea of running from the fight.
“Katryna, it isn’t about whether the Armstrong will survive, but rather how much damage it will take,” Nakamiru said, shaking his head. “We’ve already moved most of the non-essential personnel down and—”
“And you think I’m non-essential now?” she spun to face him.
“He’s not saying that,” Jeffers said, jumping to Nakamiru’s defense. “All of your government staff was aboard the Armstrong when we made our escape. We’ve moved them to the colony and you need to be their leader. They’re not colonists, they are our personnel, and they need to know that.”
“That’s pure horse eggs and you know it,” she said, not breaking her glare away from the admiral.
“Katryna, the truth is you are too valuable to risk,” he said, his voice softening, but his eyes refusing to yield. “We are sending Ariqat down and Chancellor Drake is already there. You three represent what is left of the Chancellery. If we make it through this, you could stake a legitimate claim to reestablish any future government. I am not asking you to do it because I want you to survive, but because I want the future to survive.”
“We don’t know that the colony will do any better than the ships up here,” she said. “The colony is the objective.”
“It is likely that Odysseus won’t risk a physical attack on the colony because it wants what’s inside,” Solo said.
“Mind your own fragging business,” she snarled.
“Please Katryna, don’t argue to be a hero, I need you … no, we need you, to be a leader.
“I’m the most experienced commander in the fleet. I should be here,” she said.
He raised an eyebrow at the absurdity of her statement. It was all it took to remind her that he was twice her age and had been shepherding spaceships around the solar system since before she was born.
“Maybe, not,” she said, feeling her argument deflating under her.
“We’re sending reserve skilled crewmembers down,” Jeffers said. “We have spare engineers, medical staff, and even have some scientists we haven’t inflicted on them yet. This would be when you are most needed down there. I’m sure the Governor would appreciate having your leadership experience to help him keep it together.”
“We’re pressing the Katana into service to transfer the last loads of personnel down, since it is bigger and faster than the shuttles,” the admiral said. “I will make you a deal. If you agree to leave wit
hout more argument, I will agree to not have you bodily removed until the last safe moment.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she said.
His face said otherwise.
Kanahto Control Center: Tacra Un: L-4 Prime:
“Chei we need a miracle.” Jeph’s face appeared on the inner wall of the control pit that Ian occupied. All around him the augment team was working at a frantic pace on assessing control systems. They’d made impressive progress, but still hadn’t found that one key control system. The logic of the Un Shan Takhu control systems was still beyond their grasp.
“Chei trana ru,” Ian said, shaking his head and frowning. “He isn’t here. Sorry, it is hard for me to kasha Shan Takhu.”
“He’s not there?” Jeph asked. “We’re in trouble up here. He needs to be getting the quicksand off.”
“Da-nu ahn nu,” he said. “I understand.” He glanced up at the vault and the ships of the ghost fleet hanging over them all like a malevolent presence. The main sensors fed to the overhead image automatically.
“Where the hell is he if he’s not working?”
“Chei and Saf ahn Tahrat Shan-che,” he said.
“They are, something, star-child?” Jeph asked. “Never mind. You tell him I need him working on getting the quantum field shut down. Nothing else.”
“Da-nu ahn nu,” Ian said. “He is, ahn, options.”
The governor frowned. “I just got word that Roja is landing with an army of engineers and more scientists. We’re already crawling with her staff. I’m about to be invaded by what’s left of the real Union government and I don’t have time for him to be off making star-babies or whatever he’s doing.”
“Yes sir,” Ian said, grinning as the screen went blank.
Tahrat Shan-che. Star babies? He was still laughing when he got Chei on the com to pass the word.
Governor’s Office: Gateway Colony: L-4 Prime:
It had been the longest half shift of Jeph’s entire life. He sat in his office watching the sensor display with one eye while trying to keep track of everything that was going on in the colony. He’d agreed to let Captain Jeffers evacuate non-essential personnel from the Armstrong and then Carter Takata asked to send down his entire hospital staff from the Galen, but he hadn’t realized just how many bodies that was.
The Armstrong had a crew and passenger list of 7,600, and it appeared that half of them were pointless.
Anju and Tana Drake had taken over trying to find space to stuff people into, but the chaos outside his door was worse than the firstshift crush in Freeport. People were sitting on the decks in the hallways. Edison Wentworth had made sure they weren’t along any of the primary corridors that the troops might need if the worst happened, but it wasn’t going to be pretty if it came down to that.
The only place they had left to put more evacuees was in the language matrix itself, and Jeph had quashed that idea before it took wings. They’d posted guards on all the access points to the Tacra Un, if for no other reason than to keep someone from wandering through a door and needing to be rescued.
“We’re as ready as we can be,” Edison said as he appeared at the door. “We’ve moved both defensive groups into the lower crew decks of the Waltz and my reinforcements are just behind them in the main interconnects.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Jeph said.
“What’s the status with the fleet?” he asked, dropping to a seat at the table and looking at the sensor feed.
“The ghost fleet has just come to a full stop relative to L-4 Prime,” Dutch said. “They are 200,000 kilometers above the Armstrong and positioned in a disk formation of six concentric rings.”
“That looks pretty but why?” Edison said.
“They may be establishing a large-scale antenna array by linking sensor systems across their fleet,” Solo said. “We are detecting high definition sensor pulses from several of the ships.”
“This would provide fine resolution images of the Tacra Un,” Dutch said.
“Will they be able to see through the shell?” Jeph asked.
“Unlikely,” Solo said.
“Governor, I assume you’re watching the show,” Roja said, appearing on the wall next to the sensor images.
“Yes, ma’am,” Jeph said. “That’s a lot of ships.”
“Are you picking up any com signals yet?”
“Negative,” Dutch said. “We are detecting narrow beam computer traffic between the ships, but there is nothing in standard com.”
“Maneuvering entirely on autopilot,” Roja said. “I’ve never seen a fleet that didn’t have at least some intership communications. The silence is unnerving.”
“Odysseus is obviously driving,” Dutch said.
“Once it has completed its assessment of the Tacra Un structure, it will open contact,” Solo said.
“How long will that take?” Jeph asked.
“Not long,” Dutch said. “We are receiving a signal.”
“This is Odysseus. You are occupying a restricted zone. You are to relinquish control of the facility and vacate the area immediately. Your compliance is mandatory.”
“This is the Armstrong,” Roja said, shrugging as she turned away from the screen, but left the channel open. “I do not believe we recognize your authority to declare this a restricted zone.”
“Chancellor Roja, your belief in this matter is irrelevant,” it said. “You will remove the 203 individuals from the structure on the surface and vacate the area. You will comply with my instructions.”
“203?” Edison whispered.
“It’s only detected the ones inside the Waltz. They’re the only people we have outside the shell,” Jeph said. “It can’t scan the internal structure.”
“Maybe we could fake an evacuation of the bodies it can see to buy time,” Edison whispered. “If we make it look like we’re pulling out, but that it will take several runs, it might give us some time.”
“And if we don’t?” Roja said, clenching her teeth as she replied to Odysseus.
“I am sending your suggestion to the Chancellor now,” Dutch said.
“You will be compelled by force,” Odysseus said. “I am sure you have determined that you would be unable to resist this fleet.”
Jeph watched the chancellor look down to read Dutch’s message before she glanced at the screen and nodded.
“It will take several runs to bring everybody back up from the surface,” she said. “Once we’ve got everyone out, you agree to let us leave?”
“You have three hours to complete the transfer,” it said. “At that point, consider any personnel left behind forfeit.”
“And then you will let us go? I want your assurance on that,” she said.
“You will leave the AA hardware currently in the facility,” it said. “At that point you are free to go.”
“It obviously doesn’t know about the quicksand either,” Jeph said.
“Or it doesn’t matter, because it’s lying,” Edison added.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Operations Control Center: Galileo Station:
Derek sat staring at the screen over the control stations. He was trying to fathom what strategy Odysseus had behind his actions. It had been a week since the battle over Sinus Iridum and nothing had happened except that four more multicruisers had arrived in lunar orbit. At least three were involved in relief work for Underhive while the rest patrolled the lunar surface from low orbit.
FleetCom had twelve multicruisers staring at Galileo and it made him nervous, now that their security depended on a battle group of less than eighty vessels.
He’d given up asking Odysseus to tell him what was going on. It had abandoned him. He had his privacy back, or at least silence that resembled privacy. He made no mistake though because he knew his overseer was still inside his mind even if it wasn’t making itself known.
Do you have any idea what you’re doing? He thought to himself. I bet you’re embarrassed by having FleetCom beat you.
“I achieved my objective,” it said, surprising him with a response.
You lost, and you cost us any hope of having allies in the lunar colonies, he said back through the implant.
“You do not understand my needs, therefore you do not know the purpose of my actions,” it said. “I needed to move FleetCom assets away from the L-2 Shipyard and shift their focus off the blockade. I have achieved this objective. When I am ready, I will counterstrike.”
When will that be?
Silence answered him.
Armstrong: Station-keeping Above L-4 Prime:
“The ghost fleet is altering its formation,” Jeffers said. They’re spreading out and arranging into four attack groups.
“It appears that Odysseus expects us to stay,” Nakamiru said.
“The largest group is lining up on us. It’s close to 300 ships,” she said. “The others are moving toward polar orbit and descending to parallel the multicruisers. There are a hundred ships in each.” An image of Odysseus’ deployment pattern popped up in the situational display and the admiral stepped up to look at it.
“We’re seriously over-matched,” Roja said, frowning as she studied the diagram.
“What about the remaining ships?” the admiral asked, pointing at a small cluster that hadn’t moved.
“They look to be holding position for the moment. That group includes the Columbia,” Jeffers said.
“Can we take 300 ships?” Roja asked.
“We’ve got the reserve power, but the number of guns is questionable. We’ve hung a laser on every hard point we have, but that still gives us less than a thousand beams. We’ll have an advantage with range and intensity, but they have maneuverability and sheer numbers.”
“My concern is whether any of the multicruisers can take 100 ships,” Roja said.
The admiral shook his head. “Not without running room, and even then it is unlikely. Once they have taken the cruisers down, they will bring everything they have left after us. I expect that when the first round is over, we should expect to be facing 500 ships or more.”
Shan Takhu Legacy Box Set - With an Extra Bonus Story Page 79