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“Yeah? So what?”

“Well sir, at every point during a visit, there comes an awkward moment when the last
guest realizes it’s time to leave. As your hosts, we’re politely showing you the door.
You’ll find it directly behind your lines. The ring is fully functional—we checked.
If you’re polite enough to the Worms on your way out, I’m sure they won’t do you any
harm.”

“What the hell are you—are you crazy Riggs? You think we’re going to turn tail and
run now, after coming out here a thousand light years?”

“Distance is immaterial when dealing with the rings, sir. You can be home in two weeks
if you maintain a steady burn. If some of your casualties are too injured to make
the journey now, we’d be glad to take them and care for them for you. I only mention
this in case—”

“—out of your chicken-fried mind!” Kerr was shouting. “I’m not standing down, and
I’m not withdrawing. I’m calling here and now for your surrender. No, I’m demanding
it.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, sir.”

“Are you threatening me? Are you going to attack? You’ve got barely a hundred ships
in the system. We’ve searched every inch of it.”

“Wrong, sir,” I said. “We have over seventeen thousand independently-operable combat
systems. Most of ours are small, but you can’t deny their effectiveness. During our
last conflict, you lost nearly a third of your force. I lost less than fifteen percent.
At this rate, you will be annihilated and I’ll be left with over fifty percent of
my force. You can’t win, General.”

There was a long pause in the conversation. I leaned over toward Jasmine.

“Any sign he’s making a move?” I asked.

“No sir. The Imperial fleet isn’t moving a muscle.”

“Good. Make sure we hold absolutely still as well.”

I waited and after a few more minutes, Kerr came back on the line. “Riggs, you’re
a wily one. But I know you’re bluffing. We know about the Macro fleet that’s knocking
on your backdoor right about now. We can tell you’re aware of the new threat as well.
You have scouts going back and forth through the ring at that ice-ball planetoid you
call Hel. We’ve got good optics, and we’ve seen your battle station. A sorry wreck
that is. It looks deserted and beat-up. You can’t face us and the Macros at the same
time. I’ll talk a deal, because I’ve got a big heart. I don’t want to see any more
humans to die. But you have to understand your situation. You’re between two boulders,
Colonel, and you’re about to be squished.”

I smiled as I listened to his speech, but a hard cast came into my eyes. I stared
at him, and he stared back at me.

“I see now what this is all about,” I said. “There’s been a misunderstanding. This
entire sequence of events was highly regrettable.”

“Indeed it is!” Kerr shouted. “You shouldn’t have resisted our entrance into this
system. You’ve been fighting the wrong side all along. Instead of focusing on the
machines—”

“No, General,” I interrupted him firmly. “You’re on the wrong track still. Let me
explain the sequence of events. A few days ago, a large force of Macros did come through
the Thor ring. That’s why our battle station appears to be damaged. Fortunately, we
jammed their transmissions through the rings, and they fell into our trap—as your
forces did more recently. In the case of the Macros, we didn’t offer them a ceasefire.
We destroyed them utterly. That’s why you see no ships and a skeleton crew at the
Thor ring battle station…that battle has already been fought and won.”

Kerr’s eyes told the story as I spoke. He was dumbfounded. His eyebrows lifted and
lifted, until his expression was one of utter shock. His mouth hung down as well,
sagging open as if to suck wind or scream. In the end, he did neither.

“You’re full of shit, Riggs,” he said finally, pulling himself together.

I shook my head slowly, almost sadly. “Such a waste. If we’d only known why you were
attacking, why you felt you had the upper hand…well, I guess it’s all over now. I
do apologize for not having understood your mistake earlier. We could have prevented
the destruction of a great many Earth ships. But whatever we do now, let’s not compound
the errors of the past.”

“There is absolutely no way you’re going to bullshit me into this, Riggs. You’ve got
no proof. You’ve got nothing but a bluff, and I’m not going to buy into it.”

“Ah, of course,” I said. “I do need to provide evidence. Please scan the region around
Hel. The wreckage of a large number of ships is still floating there in orbit. Some
of it has crashed down onto the planetoid. I’ll have my staff get you coordinates
so you can optically spot it yourself, along with data feeds. I’ll also send you vids
of the battle as soon as I can get them transmitted from the battle station. Really,
I need to do this anyway as a courtesy. Everyone who breathes must know the truth:
their ultimate enemy is the machine race. Anything we can do that will help us destroy
them more effectively is in all our best interests in the end. Let’s postpone this
conversation until you have the data. Then you can make your decision based on facts,
rather than my statements.”

Kerr sputtered a bit, but finally agreed to look at what I had and disconnected. I
turned back to my staff, who were wreathed in smiles for once.

“That was brilliant, Kyle,” Sandra said, giving me a kiss.

“An award-winning performance, sir,” Miklos said.

“Remind me not to play poker with you, Colonel,” Jasmine said, shaking her head.

I clapped my hands together and began tapping at the screen. “We have work to do.
Let’s get those vids together.

“I almost interrupted to tell you that we
do
have them, sir,” Jasmine said. “The files are on this console now. I can pull them
up and transmit them in minutes.”

I raised a single finger into the air. “Not so fast,” I said. “We have to change the
dates on them. We have to review and edit details. Those files must appear to be very
recent, or Kerr will know the timing is off. He must think the Macros attacked and
were slaughtered just before he hit us. Also, we must make sure there’s nothing on
the vids that shows any secrets, or gives away how long ago the battle was in any
other way.”

My team can work hard, whether they’re prepping for battle or setting the groundwork
for peace. I didn’t want to take too long, however, as I didn’t want Kerr to grow
suspicious that we were fabricating anything. We had the evidence gathered within
an hour and began to transmit it on an open channel to the Earth fleet. They received
it silently, then said nothing for another hour.

During this seemingly interminable wait, my staff grew ever more restless. They knew
that the Macro fleet was out there in the Thor system, advancing toward us at an accelerating
rate of speed.

As the first hour slid into the second, and Kerr still hadn’t answered, Miklos approached
me. His right eye had swollen shut now, but I knew the nanites were working on him.
He’d be almost normal looking in two days.

“Sir,” Miklos said in a hushed voice, as if the enemy could hear us, “I don’t like
this. They’re planning an attack. I can feel it.”

“You’re almost certainly correct,” I said. “They’re over there, wargaming their asses
off, I have no doubt about it. But the trouble is, if they come for us now, they’re
going to lose. I don’t think they have any more aces up their sleeves. Their forces
aren’t configured to go up against ours. They could have done okay, if they still
had their core of battleships. The rest of their fleet could hide behind them, and
with all that defensive fire and armor, our Centaurs riding forward on sleds would
be slaughtered. But when they came through that ring and were so concentrated, our
gunships destroyed too many of their defensive vessels. They just don’t have many
options, given what they have left now.”

“We don’t know that,” Miklos insisted.

“What do you want me to do? Order the attack now?”

“No sir, but you could call them and demand they give you an answer. Lean on them,
sir.”

I shook my head. “That’s not how you bluff, Miklos. Bluffing is an art. The key is
to present yourself as absolutely confident. I must pretend it doesn’t matter if they
take an hour, a day, or a week to respond. I don’t care, because they can’t win. That’s
the image I want to project.”

Miklos walked away, muttering.

After the third hour came and went, Kerr finally contacted me again. I was sipping
a soft drink by then, and I put it down before greeting him.

“Sorry General,” I said. “It’s our eating hour. Have you had time to review the data?
Do you have any questions?”

“Those flying mines,” Kerr said, looking down at something I couldn’t see. I presumed
he was watching the vids of the battle. “That was just brilliant, Riggs. Brilliant.”

“Actually, I have to give partial credit to Sandra on those. She helped me come up
with the initial idea.”

Kerr nodded his head slowly. He looked defeated and tired.

“You destroyed the entire Macro fleet…” he said, almost as if talking to himself.
“I can’t believe it.”

“The defender is always in a better position in these situations,” I said. “You yourself
experienced the effects. Your ships walked into a storm of fire. They were forced
to pass under our guns one at a time. The effects of such a tactical situation are
predictable, and nothing new. I did the same thing to the Macros, that’s all.”

General Kerr nodded slowly, but I suspected he was barely listening. “We’ll pull out,
Riggs. There’s no need for further destruction on either side. You’ve done amazing
things out here. I honestly thought we’d find you with thirty ships or so and a few
hundred troops. I didn’t think you had a hope in hell of stopping us. But now…well,
never mind.”

“General,” I said, “I’ve got a parting request. I’d like to reestablish some level
of communications with the Empire. At least an email service between Earth and the
colonies. What do you say?”

Kerr frowned. “The colonies? That’s what you call yourselves now, colonists?”

“All right, if you don’t like the term, how about Frontiersmen? Or Independents?”

He looked thoughtful. “Email… It’s not a bad idea. I’m not sure what Crow will think
of it, but I’ll pass it on. I’ve got one final request for you, Riggs: hold the line
against the machines, will you? We don’t have the right to ask you for that…but please
do it for Earth.”

“We’ll all do our part, General. Have a safe journey home.”

Kerr disconnected without another word.

-30-

We celebrated quietly aboard our ships, breaking out beer, clapping armored backs
and sending grinning messages to friends. After the initial euphoria wore off, however,
we found ourselves in an awkward situation.

We knew the Macros were coming at the Thor ring, but couldn’t reposition ourselves
to meet them. Instead, we hung around the Helios ring while we waited for Kerr to
withdraw. He took his sweet time about it, carefully removing his ships in a long,
drawn-out sequence. The wait quickly became agonizing. All we could think about was
the approaching Macro fleet that was due to arrive at the Thor ring in a day or two.
Sure, we’d won the day and halted Earth’s invasion, but we were hopelessly out of
position for the next fight.

But we couldn’t move. We had to maintain the bluff, and that required a seemingly
calm demeanor. I ordered my ships and people to remain hanging in space, staying in
formation. We didn’t move a muscle. Kerr had to believe we had everything in complete
control. If the good General changed his mind and started asking more questions, all
this bluffing would blow up in our faces.

The most panicky moment came when the last ships were left at the ring. There were
only five of them, missile ships with long cylindrical hulls of gleaming metal.

“They aren’t moving, sir,” Miklos said. “That last squad of missile ships are just
sitting there at the ring.”

“We’ll give them another hour,” I said. “We need the time to retrieve all our space
marines anyway.”

The transports glided around my fleet, gobbling up marines who’d lost power, or who’d
traveled too far. They resembled fish, hunting for tidbits of floating food.

An hour passed, then another thirty minutes. Finally, even I had had enough. Our guests
had grossly overstayed their welcome.

“Miklos?” I called.

He stepped onto the bridge again at a trot. He was moving faster now, and the swelling
of his face had vanished. There were still purplish spots all around his jaw, but
I knew those would fade soon.

“Is it time, Colonel?”

“Time for what?”

“Time to move to the other ring.”

“No. Not with this squad of spies standing here. If we fight another battle in this
system, they’ll report it and call Kerr back.”

Miklos nodded. “What are your orders, sir?”

“Detach two squadrons of gunships. Approach the enemy slowly.”

“Are we going to contact them?” Sandra asked.

“No. Just move as if they aren’t even there.”

We all watched as the group broke off from our sunward flank and advanced. They didn’t
rush right in, they flew at a lazy pace, as if they had all the time in the world.
When they’d covered about half the distance to the Imperial ships, a flashing light
appeared on our tactical console.