Empire in Crisis (21 page)

McKeon thought about that for a bit and said, “I’d destroy
the drone, put the ambush fleet on alert, and then I’d send ships to warm my sentry
squadrons that alien activity was likely and for them to be on alert.”

Logan nodded. “We do agree. That’s what I’d do too, and if
our scouts detect the emergence of a ship at the other two wormholes at RC23
and 24, then that would tend to confirm the existence of an ambush force at the
other end of RC25, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes, it would,” said a smiling McKeon.

“And if that’s the case, then we try to sneak up on one or
both of their sentry squadrons. If we don’t see that kind of reaction, then
we’ll probe the wormhole in RC25. Let’s get the orders set up and transmitted.”

Logan hadn’t expected to get any reports about
wormhole traffic from RCP01 for at least 45 hours, but when 72 hours had gone
by with no word from either RG23 or RG24, he decided he’d waited long enough.
One ship from the scout squadron in RG25 was ordered to transit the wormhole,
take a quick look around and then come back.

Gant held his breath as Firehawk emerged from the wormhole
into the RCP01 nexus and began broadcasting radar waves. The tactical display
was ready to update as soon as the radars found something, but they didn’t.
There was nothing in the vicinity of this wormhole out to 21 light seconds, and
even then, the only thing they picked up was rocky debris drifting aimlessly.
He let out his breath when he realized that Firehawk would not be cut to pieces
by dozens of energy beams and looked over at his AO.

“My God, this really is a back door. The Gorgons haven’t
found this wormhole yet.”

The Astrogation Officer nodded. “Yeah, and hopefully they
weren’t looking in this direction when we emerged from the wormhole. You know
how much visible light a ship emergence gives off for a few seconds.” A beep
from his console made him turn his attention back to his instruments.

While he waited, Gant checked the main display again. A
yellow icon had appeared on the long range tactical display. Yellow indicated
that an artificial object had been detected by reflected light but couldn’t be
identified as to what it was or who it belonged too. The sidebar didn’t show
anything either.

“Ah, Commander? You should come and take a look at this,”
said the AO in a puzzled voice.

Gant unbuckled himself and got up from his Command Station
chair. As he came up to the AO’s station, he said, “What have you got, Sam?”

“I’m not sure, Commander. Optics on maximum zoom are seeing
a section of sky that is completely without any background stars at all, and
before you ask, yes, that by itself is not all that unusual. What’s unusual in
this case is the shape of the area without stars. It’s very long and narrow,
and all four edges are perfectly straight. My astro-comp is telling me this is
what’s blocking out the background stars, but it’s not possible.”

Gant noticed that his AO’s voice had a tinge of fear,
almost hysteria in it. “Why is it not possible, Sam?”

“Because we haven’t gotten a radar echo from it yet, and if
we calculate the minimum distance it needs to be for that to happen, it has to
be over 445 kilometers long. The farther away it is, the bigger it is. If this
thing is at the estimated position of the planet that’s forming this nexus, it
would need to be 14,553 kilometers long.”

Gant now understood his AO’s fear. Anything with perfectly
straight lines could not possibly be natural. It had to be a construct of some
kind, and an artificial structure of that size implied a technical civilization
far beyond that of the Empire. He felt a powerful impulse to order the ship
forward to get more information on this…thing, but orders were orders. If the
wormhole entrance was clear of Gorgon ships, that was important information the
Fleet Group Admiral wanted to know asap.

“Bring us around, Sam. This mystery will have to wait.
We’ve got vital intel to deliver.”

* * * * *

Logan shook his head in disbelief. “This can’t possibly be
right, can it?” McKeon and the FAO were standing beside his Command Station as
he read the report on one of his smaller displays.

“The data gathered by Firehawk is not as complete as we’d
like, but it’s all they could get considering how far away they were and the
short length of their stay there. I’ve conferred with other AOs in the fleets,
and they’ve had their own comps analyze the data. The results are always the
same. Something artificial that’s extremely large is either at the center of
this nexus or is perfectly lined up between that wormhole entrance and the
rocky planet that has formed the nexus. Either result is astonishing all on its
own. I concur with the recommendation that we send another ship through the
RG25 wormhole with instructions to survey this object by recon drones,
Admiral,” said the FAO.

Logan turned to McKeon. “What’s your assessment,
Commander?”

“I think we have to find out what this thing is, Admiral. I
have this gut feeling that it’s not coincidence that an impossibly large
artificial construct is in a nexus that appears to be THE choke point between
two sections of the Orion spiral arm. If our engineers had been able to access
the astrogational data from the captured ships, we’d have known about this
thing already, but they haven’t cracked that code yet, and our Gorgon prisoners
obviously haven’t volunteered the information either. We have a back door into
that nexus. Why not use it?”

“But every time we use it, there’s a risk that the Gorgons
will notice the emergence fireworks, and they’ll know that there’s another
wormhole there. Can we program recon drones to transit the wormhole, approach
the object from various directions and then make their way back through the
wormhole?”

McKeon and the FAO exchanged looks before the FAO spoke.
“Nothing like that has ever been tried that I know of, but there’s only one way
to find out. I suspect that the odds of getting at least one back will go up if
we send out more than just a few. They’re so low in mass compared to a ship
that the wormhole will generate almost no visible light when they emerge.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do. I’ll order the 75th to launch a
hundred drones, and I’m going to move us up closer too. In fact, now that I
think about it, I want the 107th to move all the way forward to RG25. The other
three fleets will stay where they are. When a recon drone comes back through
that wormhole, I want to be there to get the results immediately. Now if you
two will excuse me, I have a message to the Emperor to compose.”

* * * * *

Hood’s conference with her Working Group was interrupted by
the notice of an incoming FTL message from the 107th. The Comm. Section had
standing orders to send a copy of any message from that fleet to her attention,
along with a copy to Admiral Bishop and the Emperor of course. The chatter
among the group members quickly died down as the message appeared on the large
wall display.

[Logan to Emperor DeChastelaine. As expected, the wormhole
network has narrowed down to a single nexus designated as RCP01. Two of three
connecting wormholes on this side are guarded by Gorgon fleets of uncertain
strength. The third wormhole is undefended on either end and appears to be unknown
to the Gorgons. Very preliminary reconnaissance of RCP01 at long range shows an
artificial construct of extremely large size. This object has at least one
dimension that is measured in thousands of kilometers. Recommend interrogating
prisoners as to what this object is. An attempt will be made at this end to get
a much closer, covert look at this object via recon drones. As more data
becomes available, we’ll send it to you. For the time being, I’m suspending
offensive operations until I understand what this object is and how it will
impact the campaign. End of message.]

Hood leaned back and sighed. She was sure that the Emperor
would be asking for her any minute now. She was right. Even before the members
of the Working Group had finished leaving the conference room, their places at
the table had been taken with holographic images of both the Emperor and
Admiral Bishop.

“I’d like to get Admiral Hood’s assessment of this message
first, Admiral Bishop. Go ahead, Corrine,” said DeChastelaine.

Hood cleared her throat to give herself time to organize
her thoughts. “I can give you my initial impressions of course, but I and the
Working Group will need time to examine the implications of this startling
development more carefully, My Emperor.”

DeChastelaine waved her comment aside impatiently. “Yes,
yes, I understand that. It’s your first impressions that I want to hear now. I
have no idea if this new development is good or bad for us.”

“Well, My Emperor, in all honesty, I simply don’t know, and
at this point I don’t see how anyone could know which it is. What does seem
clear to me now is why the Gorgons attacked our exploration ships in the first
place. We thought they did it because of an natural inclination for aggression.
I’m now ready to accept the theory that they did it to keep us from finding out
about this object. I don’t see how the Gorgons could have built it themselves.
The Tollarians maybe could have done it, but if that turns out to be the case,
I’d be surprised by that too. And if neither one of them built it, then it has
to be someone else that we haven’t come across yet. Any civilization capable of
building something that massive would also have the potential to be a
devastating threat to us, and I have to ask myself why we haven’t encountered them
yet.”

DeChastelaine nodded as he seemed to stare into infinity.
Without shifting his gaze, he said, “Your thoughts, Admiral Bishop?”

“I agree with Admiral Hood’s impressions, and I’ll add this comment. If the
Gorgons really are trying to keep us from this construct, then maybe we can use
that to our advantage if they commit most or all of their mobile forces to
defend it and we force a decisive battle on them, My Emperor.”

Before DeChastelaine could respond, Hood jumped in. “I’d
like to also put forward the following. That object almost certainly contains
technology that is far beyond anything we have now. The longer it stays in
Gorgon hands, the more likely they are to exploit that technology windfall, and
if it contains weapons. . .”

“We’d be in serious trouble,” said DeChastelaine. 
“Therefore we have to take the control of that object away from the Gorgons.
I’m inclined to give Fleet Group Admiral Logan a general directive and leave
the details up to him. Does anyone have a problem with that?” From the tone of
the question, it was clear to both Bishop and Hood that the wise answer was
‘no’, and they said so.

“Good! I’ll hold off on that directive until we’ve had a
chance to put the question to our captives. Let’s find out what they know, and
then we’ll discuss this again. This meeting is adjourned.”

* * * * *

Logan had just fallen asleep in his quarters when the
Emperor’s message arrived. He struggled to shake off the mental fog as the
message appeared on the wall display.

[Emperor to Fleet Group Admiral Logan. Gorgon prisoners
have revealed that the Object is actually a ring. Exact dimensions are
uncertain due to translation difficulties, but the diameter will be measured in
thousands of kilometers. The Gorgons are uncertain as to the purpose of the
Ring. They claim that all attempts at gaining access to the Ring have failed.
We have also learned that the Ring is the center of this nexus. Its mass is
sufficient to fracture the fabric of space enough to cause the wormholes. They
have confirmed knowledge of only two wormholes on our side and two more on the
far side. Hood, Bishop and I are in agreement that the Empire should take
control of the Ring as soon as possible. Prosecution of the war after that will
require further analysis, and your input on that question will be welcome. You
have full discretion as to how you achieve control of the Ring. If you can also
annihilate the Gorgon fleet at the same time, that would be ideal, but
inflicting serious losses on the enemy is a secondary objective. End of
message.]

Logan had to read the message twice to be sure he hadn’t
missed anything. As it turned out, asking for the prisoners to be interrogated
had been a good idea. None of the 100 recon drones had come back yet, and at
least now they had some idea of what the drones would find. The section about
taking control of the Ring and also wiping out the entire Gorgon fleet made
Logan shake his head. The Emperor wasn’t asking for much was he? At the moment,
Logan had no idea of how to go about gaining undisputed control of the Ring,
but at least he didn’t have to make a decision right now. He told the computer
to distribute the message to all ship COs with orders for a video conference
with them in nine hours time. That taken care of, he returned to his bed and
let himself fall back into the dark fog of sleep.

As luck would have it, data from the first returned recon
drone arrived while Logan was getting dressed eight hours later. That
particular recon drone had been able to view the Object from enough of an angle
to confirm that it was a ring measuring approximately 10,946 kilometers in
diameter, and the ring itself seemed to be 29.9 kilometers wide. That number
meant nothing to Logan until the FAO pointed out that the ratio of diameter to
ring width was so close to a perfect 366 that it couldn’t be coincidence. Logan
couldn’t think why the number 366 seemed familiar, but when the FAO said the
phrase ‘Earth’s moon’, Logan’s memory clicked.