Empire in Crisis (3 page)

“My Emperor, I have just been informed that
Empire ships have been attacked by unidentified forces. I’m going to ask
Admiral Remington to repeat to all of us what he’s just told me. Go ahead,
Admiral.”

“Yes, Sir. I’ve just received a very detailed
After Action report via L-wave transmission from our Tango Delta 39 starbase.
The report was written by SubCommander Tyler Logan, who is the Executive officer
of the light cruiser, Bird of Prey. That ship is part of the 915th light
cruiser squadron, which was assigned the task of finding a path that crossed
the Rift to the opposite side.” The resulting surge in chatter around the table
caused Remington to pause until Hiakawa gestured for him to continue.

“The 915th had managed to get roughly half way
across the Rift when they encountered five ships that look as though they came
from the opposite side. Those five ships attacked and destroyed the light cruiser
Black Eagle and then attempted to block the rest of the squadron from
retreating back towards Empire space. Bird of Prey seems to be the only ship to
successfully force its way past the blockade, but the ship did suffer some
damage which killed her Commanding Officer, Commander Montoya, and his entire
Bridge crew. Three hostile ships chased Bird of Prey all the way back to the
system one wormhole removed from starbase Tango Delta 39. That means that these
aliens now know how to reach our side of the Rift. SubCommander Logan is
recommending that we reinforce all our starbases along the Rift, and the
starbase commander concurs with that recommendation. That covers the essential
elements of the report.”

Before either Hiakawa or DeChastelaine could
say anything, the entire room exploded with voices, some of them shouting in
rage and indignation.

“QUIET!” Hiakawa’s amplified voice made
DeChastelaine jump in surprise. When the chatter had died down sufficiently,
Hiakawa continued. “All of you will receive a copy of the AA report. I want the
Strategy Board to make recommendations as quickly as possible. How soon do you
think that might be, Admiral Rostakova?”

The answer came from a woman who was seated to
DeChastelaine’s left. “Well ah…I would say that the SWG will need at least a
week, perhaps two, and then the full Board will review their recommendations
and given the importance of this new situation, I can promise that we won’t
take longer than another week, Admiral.”

DeChastelaine was expecting Hiakawa to reject
that timetable as too long and was stunned when the admiral nodded and said,
“That’s fine, Admiral Rostakova, but I’ll hold you to that one week.”

Before Hiakawa could say anything more,
DeChastelaine interjected. “No, it’s not fine! How can you possibly justify
waiting two to three weeks before taking any action? We need to start moving
squadrons to the Rift edge now.”

DeChastelaine could see Remington shake her
head in obvious dismay, but it was Hiakawa who spoke. “That is quite out of the
question, my Emperor. You see, the reinforcements that we would normally send
to the Rift edge are the very same squadrons that are on their way to the
fleets bordering Kravell Space. The Strategic Working Group will have to
carefully analyze how many of those reinforcements we can pull back from the
border fleets without tempting the Kravell to launch a pre-emptive attack.”

“What about Capital Fleet?” asked DeChastelaine
before Hiakawa could go on. The admiral looked shocked at the suggestion.

“Weaken our defenses around the Capital Planet?
I could not in good conscience agree to such an ill-advised course of action,
my Emperor.”

“Oh? I thought that’s what Capital Fleet was
for, to act as a reserve fleet in case all other fleet assets were committed
elsewhere. I’m not suggesting moving the entire Capital Fleet just like THAT.”
He snapped his fingers to emphasize the point. “What I am suggesting is that
Capital Fleet’s cruiser squadrons be detached and redeployed to the starbases
along the Rift edge. Then, as we pull squadrons back from the Kravell border,
they can come back here to bring Capital Fleet back up to its full strength.
And before you present the same micro-management argument again, let me remind
you, Admiral Hiakawa, that the Emperor is still the Supreme Military Commander
and is entitled to make operational deployment decisions in time of war. I put
it to you that that is exactly what we have now. As far as I’m concerned, the
Empire is at war, and I will act accordingly. Is that going to be a problem,
Admiral Hiakawa?”

Hiakawa’s expression revealed that he knew
there was no way to win this argument. Drawing a line in the sand about what
ship classes to build would get the support of the other 100 admirals, but
threatening to overthrow the Emperor regarding who should direct strategic
operations during a war with an alien race was an entirely different matter,
and in a war scenario, the Emperor did have both legal and traditional
authority to make those kinds of decisions. Hiakawa suspected that many of his
senior admirals would back the Emperor if Hiakawa dug his heels in.

“No, my Emperor, that is not going to be a
problem.”

DeChastelaine resisted the impulse to gloat
over forcing Hiakawa to back down. Whatever other negative traits Hiakawa might
have, he was a shrewd and intelligent adversary who understood that you
couldn’t expect to win every battle.

“Very good. In that case, I want Capital
Fleet’s cruiser squadrons to be detached and sent to reinforce all our Rift
starbases, but TD39 is to get additional reinforcements, either one
battlecruiser squadron or two heavy cruiser squadrons. Get them moving fast,
Admiral. I’m going to want an operational briefing every day, and if any
cruiser squadron is still with Capital Fleet tomorrow, there had better be a
good reason for it. For the next while I will want you to brief me personally.
That may change later on.

“Now as for this meeting, I see that the
remaining items on the agenda are not urgent and could be postponed until next
week, so I’m going to adjourn this meeting, but before I do, there’s one more
order that I want attended to immediately. I want to speak personally to this
SubCommander Logan in order to get his first hand impressions and any thoughts
that didn’t make it into his AA report. His ship can stay where it is. He can
turn command over temporarily to his acting XO and hitch a ride on the next
ship that can bring him back here either directly or indirectly. I’ll have my
staff contact yours to set up the daily briefing. This meeting is adjourned.”

To his surprise, Hiakawa left the electronic
meeting room immediately. DeChastelaine remained to make sure that the 101
admirals weren’t continuing their own meeting without him. Eventually all of
the admirals had terminated their electronic connections and disappeared from
view. The Emperor was once again alone, and now that he was certain he wasn’t
being observed, he told his console computer to display the service record of
SubCommander Tyler Logan. There was something about that name that seemed
familiar, but he couldn’t quite remember what it was.

It was the Academy attendance dates that got
his attention first. DeChastelaine himself had attended the Space Force Academy
at the same time, while his clone father was still Emperor, before he’d been
poisoned by someone in his own Imperial Guard. But that was another issue that
had nothing to do with Tyler Logan. So, he and Logan had been Academy
classmates. DeChastelaine had no recollections of having met Logan personally,
but then again, his Academy class had had almost 1,000 cadets in it and most of
them were unknown to him.

He checked Logan’s academic performance and
snapped his fingers. NOW he remembered why Logan’s name had seemed familiar.
Logan had been one of the Fearsome Four cadets from his class, so named because
of their above average strategic and tactical skills. After it became obvious
how good they were, no one wanted to face them in the combat simulators, and
unlike the other cadets who thought they were being crafty by letting
DeChastelaine win his combat simulations, the Fearsome Four treated him the
same as any other cadet. In other words, they beat him easily. That had been a
humbling experience, but DeChastelaine had respected them for having the
self-confidence to decide that they didn’t need to pander to the future Emperor
by letting him win.

A quick search brought up the names of the
other three members: Corrinne Hood, Saito Genner and Akoni Burke. The computer
showed him where each of them was now. Saito Genner had resigned from Space
Force three years ago. Akoni Burke was Third Officer on a battlecruiser
assigned to the 377th Fleet stationed near the border with the Kravell, and
Corrinne Hood was a senior analyst with the Strategic Working Group right here
on Earth! On a hunch, he called up the minority report on the shipbuilding
issue and looked at who had written it. Hood was one of the three analysts who
had stuck their collective necks out by issuing a report that made the Strategy
Board look like idiots.

It occurred to him that Hiakawa might want to
vent his anger over that report by ordering that those three analysts be
re-assigned to some dreary, dead-end posting as far from Earth as it was
possible to get. He was just spiteful enough to do something like that. A quick
look at the service records of the other two showed that while they were
intelligent and had guts, their strategic and tactical skills were more or less
average. None of the three deserved what DeChastelaine was sure was about to
happen to them, but Hood was the only one who, in DeChastelaine’s opinion, was
worth protecting and if necessary digging his heels in over. He instructed the
computer to notify him if she was to be transferred elsewhere. With that taken
care of, he told the computer to resume projecting the star map. He stared at
the flashing red dot and the Rift next to it for a long time.

As it turned out, he didn’t have long to wait.
An hour before his first scheduled daily briefing with Hiakawa, the computer notified
him that Hood had been reassigned to starbase Tango Delta 39, the very same
starbase that Logan’s ship had returned to, and the one that was most at risk
of an alien attack. Not only that, but arrangements had been made for her to
board a transport within 8 hours. DeChastelaine could only interpret that one
way. Hiakawa was anxious to get her off Earth fast before DeChastelaine found
out about it and perhaps tried to stop it. The cold, calculating callousness of
it all made him very angry. He ordered his Imperial Guard to find Hood and
escort her to his private office as circumspectly as possible. A few minutes
before his briefing session with Hiakawa was scheduled to start, he received
word that she was in his office. He told his staff to inform Hiakawa that he
would be delayed and that Hiakawa should keep himself available until
DeChastelaine was ready.

When he reached his office, he found a nervous
Hood sitting in one of the comfortable chairs, with a stern guard standing
nearby. DeChastelaine thanked the guard and dismissed him. He was amused to see
that Hood’s expression became even more alarmed when she heard him dismiss the
guard. Her reaction would be justified if she thought that DeChastelaine had
brought her here with a sexual goal in mind. While Hood was clearly in good
physical condition and had a classic figure, DeChastelaine did not feel any
physical attraction at all. His sexbots and erotic holographic programs
satisfied his physical needs quite well.

Before he could say anything, she jumped to
attention and saluted. Tradition said that the Emperor did not have to return
salutes, otherwise he’d be doing so hundreds of times a day, but there was
nothing to prevent him from saluting if he wanted to. He decided that he would
and saw her look of surprise.

“You can relax, Senior Lieutenant Hood. Please
resume your seat. I want to reassure you that you are not in trouble, at least
not with me, and I also want you to know that the only thing you and I are
going to do here today is talk.”

“Th…thank you, my Emperor.”

When they were both seated, DeChastelaine
leaned back in his chair and looked at Hood carefully. She was leaning forward
and if it was possible to sit at attention, she was trying her best to do so.

“I know about your transfer and the reason for
the rush. Your minority report concerning the Conqueror vs Valkyrie question
was brought up at the weekly meeting between the senior Space Force hierarchy
and myself. I was the one who introduced the minority report, using it to
question the recommendations of the joint Board report. Admiral Hiakawa was
clearly unhappy about having that report thrown in his face, which is why he
arranged to have you and probably your two compatriots shipped off to new
postings that, at least in your case, might actually pose some risk of physical
danger. I presume you’ve heard about the hostile alien contact in the Rift?”

Hood’s eyes widened with sudden comprehension.
“TD39? I heard rumors of something happening out there, but I wasn’t sure where
exactly.”

“Well, I don’t know what rumors you heard, but
I can tell you that based on the After Action report by SubCommander Tyler
Logan, your former fellow Fearsome Four member, I’m convinced that the Empire
is at war with an unknown and apparently very hostile alien race that probably
comes from the other side of the Rift. I find it most curious that two of the
best tacticians from my Academy class are involved in this development either
directly or indirectly. What I find distressing is how unconcerned Admiral Hiakawa
and the Strategy Board seem to be about this new situation. If we wait for them
to act, we’ll be giving the enemy a priceless advantage. I’m going to be
getting daily operational briefings from Hiakawa. In fact, today’s briefing
should be happening right now, but it’s my prerogative to make Hiakawa wait
while I talk with you. Tell me, Lieutenant. Do you take your oath seriously?”

Her eyes widened again. “YES, my Emperor!” Her
expression showed that she was distressed that anyone, especially her Emperor,
would have to ask that question.

“I thought so. The reason I ask is that I have
good reason to believe that Admiral Hiakawa does NOT take his oath to obey and
give loyal service to the Emperor seriously. In fact, there is reason to
believe that he is willing to order Capital Fleet’s marine contingent and its
combat armor to remove me from power if I become a serious obstacle to his
personal agenda. If that confrontation takes place, can I count on your
support, Senior Lieutenant Hood?”

“Yes, absolutely, my Emperor, although I’m not
sure how much help I’d be against marines with combat armor.”

DeChastelaine was pleased, and he allowed his
face to show it. “I don’t expect you to put up a suicidal defense against
overwhelming odds, Lieutenant. If you find yourself in that kind of situation,
then my plans will have failed, and you are then free to look after your own
survival. Now that the Empire is at war, avoiding that kind of fratricidal
confrontation is even more important, but letting Hiakawa and his army of
incompetents fight this war their way is equally unacceptable. Space Force is
bloated and rife with nepotism, factional infighting and corruption. Competent
officers are held back while less competent officers are promoted solely due to
their family or patronage connections. As a result, we’re losing our best
people when frustration and anger result in resignations.

I’m going to try to do something about that,
but I have to do it carefully. What I would really like to be able to do is
fire ninety percent of the top 100 flag officers and rebuild the top echelons
from scratch, but Hiakawa would not stand for that kind of drastic action. I do
think he’ll tolerate me taking a good hard look at our Fleet Admirals and
making some changes there. If I have to rely on getting that information from
his staff, it might be tainted. I need someone on my staff who is familiar with
Space Force officers and what a good Fleet Admiral’s service record should look
like. And if that in-house resource person also happens to have excellent
strategic insights, that would be even better. If you’re willing to accept this
kind of assignment, I’ll see to it that your transfer is quashed and that
you’ll be seconded to my staff for an indefinite length of time. You’ll
effectively be my personal Strategic Adviser, a one-woman Strategy Board.
Believe me when I say that in my opinion you can do more for the Empire as a
member of my staff than anything Admiral Hiakawa is likely to let you do. What
is your answer, Lieutenant?”

A big grin broke out on her face. “My answer is
yes, my Emperor.”

DeChastelaine smiled too. “Good! Very good! Now
I’m going to have my briefing with the Admiral. I’ll inform him that I want you
seconded to my staff immediately, but his interpretation of immediately may be
different from mine, so I think you should remain in the Palace until your
transfer is officially rescinded. I don’t want the Admiral to be tempted to
order his Military Police to carry you onto that transport and then claim that
you didn’t get the word about the transfer cancellation in time due to some
snafu. So remain here for now. I’ll have someone get you and show you where
you’ll be working, and when it’s safe for you to do so, you’ll be allowed to
leave the building.

“When you come back tomorrow, your first
assignment will be to gather the relevant service records and other data on all
three-star admirals. I then want that list sorted by criteria that will show me
who are likely to be the best and the worst fleet commanders. You can use your
own discretion in deciding what those criteria should be. As far as being a
member of my staff is concerned, you’ll be subject to the authority of my Chief
of Staff when it comes to administrative matters, but in terms of workload and
assignments, you will take direction only from me and no one else. I’ll inform
my Chief of Staff that you’re to have unlimited access to me whenever you feel
that it’s necessary. Use that privilege carefully. I’ll set aside some time
every day to meet with you, but only use the unlimited access if something
can’t wait until the next meeting, understood?”

“Understood, my Emperor.”

DeChastelaine stood up. “Good.” He waited while
Hood also stood up. “One more thing. I don’t think Admiral Hiakawa will set
aside his personal ambitions while the Empire fights this war. I expect him to
continue to try to gather more authority to himself at my expense, and he is
capable of engaging in covert and underhanded activities. If ANYONE approaches
you and attempts to intimidate, threaten or bribe you, you come to me and tell
me. Don’t try to handle the situation yourself.”

“I understand completely, my Emperor.”

“Excellent. I think I’ve kept the Admiral
waiting long enough. Until tomorrow then, Lieutenant Hood.”

DeChastelaine had a few words for the guard
standing outside the room and then a few more words for his Chief of Staff
before entering the same conference room used the day before.

When Hiakawa’s annoyed expression appeared
before him, DeChastelaine spoke first. “My delay was unavoidable, Admiral. I’ve
just had a most productive chat with Senior Lieutenant Corrinne Hood. I’ve
decided that I would like her to be seconded to my staff for an indefinite
period. Therefore the transfer order sending her to Tango Delta 39 is to be rescinded
immediately and oh, by the way, her new responsibilities are typically carried
out by someone with a higher rank, so I want her permanent rank to be upgraded
to SubCommander, as well as a further temporary upgrade to Commander. Now that
we’ve taken care of those administrative details, you may begin your
operational briefing starting with the deployment of Capital Fleet’s cruiser
squadrons.”

Hiakawa had kept his expression under control,
but DeChastelaine noticed that the Admiral’s hands were clenched so tightly
that his knuckles were white. After a slight hesitation, the Admiral began
speaking.

* * * *

Logan was surprised at the hostility shown to
him by fellow Space Force officers upon his arrival on Earth. No sooner had he
stepped foot inside Headquarters than he was escorted by Military Police to a
room that had conferencing facilities. He was told to sit at the console. After
several minutes, the holographic projection of a much larger room with a round
table appeared, and other officers, all of them wearing at least three stars,
began to appear as well. Most ignored him. A few looked at him as if he had
committed some abominable crime. When all the chairs were filled except for one
at the opposite side, a chime sounded and Emperor DeChastelaine appeared. Logan
jumped up and stood at attention. No one else did.

DeChastelaine noticed that one officer stood to
attention upon his arrival and a quick query of his console revealed that it
was SubCommander Logan.

“At least there’s one officer who shows the
proper respect,” he said in a voice just loud enough that Hiakawa and some of
his admirals could hear him. “You may be seated, SubCommander Logan. I’m eager
to hear your first hand impressions of the events in the Rift. I’ve read your
After Action report, but I’d like to hear your account of events from the
beginning. Feel free to add any insights, comments, or conjecture that you feel
is relevant and take as much time as you need. You may begin.”

As Logan began describing the initial
detections of the alien ships, DeChastelaine listened with one ear while he
looked around at the faces of the gathered admirals. They were all looking at
Logan, with expressions ranging from disapproval to barely controlled anger. At
first he couldn’t understand why that would be, but things became much clearer
when Logan described how he ordered the destruction of the wormhole positional
beacons.

Hiakawa cut in angrily. “Do I understand
correctly that you DELIBERATELY ordered the wormhole beacons destroyed,
SubCommander, thereby effectively destroying six months worth of effort by your
squadron?”

Logan was clearly taken aback by the tone of
that question or rather accusation. “Yes, Admiral, I took that precaution because—“

Hiakawa didn’t let him finish the sentence.
“Don’t try to justify your incompetence, SubCommander. You’ll have an
opportunity to do so at your Board of Inquiry hearing.”

Before anyone else could say anything,
DeChastelaine leaned forward and said, “Well, I for one would like to hear
SubCommander Logan’s explanation now. You may finish your explanation,
SubCommander.”