Ephialtes (Ephialtes Trilogy Book 1) (19 page)

“I’ve come
across some information you might find interesting, Mr Venkdt,” he said.

“Oh you
have?” said Venkdt.  “Do go on, please.”

“Well,” said
Kostovich, settling into his chair, “as you know, I’ve been looking into the
USAN’s information systems.  I’ve been in their system for the past few
weeks, looking around, sifting through things.”

Venkdt was
glued to his seat, like this was story-time.

“I came upon
some information this week that I think will be of great interest to you.”

“Go on, go
on,” said Venkdt.

“It’s like
this,” said Kostovich.  “The USAN have been poking about in our
information systems, too, and -”

“Ha!  A
quid pro quo there then!”  Venkdt cut in.

“- and
they seem to have picked up some chatter from you suggesting that you want to
run an election -”

“It’s a
plebiscite, but do go on.”

“Right, a
plebiscite to see if Martians would like to be independent from Earth.”

“That’s not
quite it,” said Venkdt, “but I suppose that’s broadly right.”

Kostovich
nodded.  “Anyway, they’re quite ruffled by the idea.”

“Well,” mused
Venkdt, “I suppose they would be.  But if it pans out, in the long run,
not that much changes really.  Jurisdictions, taxes and the like, but
pretty much everything would carry on as before.”

“I don’t
think they see it quite that way,” said Kostovich.

“They don’t?”
said Venkdt.  “What makes you think that?”

Kostovich
took a breath.  “Well,” he said, “they’re going to send two enormous
carriers towards us.”

Venkdt
blinked.  “Two what?” he said.

“You’ve heard
of the
Aloadae
?” said Kostovich.

“The dropship
carriers?  Of course.”

“Well,
they’re going to send them here.”

Venkdt was
silent.  “Here?  How?”

“They have
some new engine technology.  They’re going to retrofit the engines and
send those two ships over here to stare you down.”

For once
Venkdt’s
demeanour didn’t seem so jolly.  He was
shocked and saddened.

“They’d do
that?” he said, mostly to himself.  “
But .
 . .”

Kostovich
wanted to say something to comfort the old man.  “They haven’t even
started the refits, yet,” he said.  “It will take
them
months before they’re ready.”

Venkdt was
thinking.  “It’s so unnecessary,” he said, and fell silent.

“I’ve looked
into countermeasures,” Kostovich offered.

Venkdt looked
up.

“Defence
systems,” said Kostovich, clarifying.

Venkdt shook
his head.  “Oh, we don’t want to be getting into that, the escalation
game.”

“They would
be purely defensive systems,” Kostovich said, “based on the USAN’s own
technology.  I have all the details.  We could fabricate that stuff
in a matter of months.”

“No, no,”
said Venkdt, “it’s too aggressive.”

“It’s not
aggressive,” said Kostovich.  “It’s defensive.  These would be
defence systems only.  Sending carriers is aggressive.”

Venkdt sat in
silence, his brow furrowed, deep in thought.  “Purely defensive?” he said.

“Purely
defensive,” echoed Kostovich.

Venkdt stared
over Kostovich’s shoulder and out of the skylight.  “Could you build these
systems discreetly, so we have them in our back pocket, but we’re not flaunting
them in anyone’s faces?”

Kostovich
nodded.  “Of course.”

“When are
these ships coming?”

“They
estimate they will be able to have them in Martian orbit within the next six
months.  Personally, I think they’re overestimating but it looks to me, on
paper at least, like they could have them here within a year.”

“And what
about your defence system?”

“What I have
are all the details for the USAN’s missile defence systems.  I can
customise them, rewrite the software and go into production in days.  We
could probably have something on the ground in a month or two.  An
orbiting defence platform may take a little longer but I think we could have
one in place ready to meet the carriers when they arrive.”

Venkdt placed
an elbow on his desk and rested his chin in his hand, thinking.

“Listen,
Kostovich,” he said, “go ahead now and start developing these systems. 
Speed is of the essence, I suppose, but I’m going to continue thinking about
this and I may well cancel this project when I’ve given it some deeper
thought.”

“Yes, Mr
Venkdt,” said Kostovich.  “I’ll get onto it right away.”

“You do
that,” said Venkdt.

Kostovich got
up to leave.

“Thanks for
bringing this to me,” said Venkdt.  “Not the best news I could have had on
a Tuesday morning, but thank you anyway.  You’re a good kid.”

Kostovich
smiled at Venkdt.  “I’ll get back to you soon with a progress report.”

“Okay.”

Kostovich
hesitated a little.  “When are you going to make the announcement? 
About the election, I mean?”

“It’s a
plebiscite.  Probably in the next day or two.”

“I hope it
all goes well for you,” Kostovich said over his shoulder as he walked towards
the door.

“I’m sure it
will,” said Venkdt.  “What could possibly go wrong?”

Kostovich had
a call back from Venkdt just a few hours after he had left.  Venkdt wanted
to meet him and various other department heads and big cheeses that
afternoon.  Kostovich guessed that after giving it some thought he had
decided not to cancel the missile plan.  That was good.  Bringing in
more people, with more views, angles and axes to grind?  Maybe not so good.

He had time
to set a few things in motion before he returned to the executive level of
Venkdt Mars Corp HQ early that afternoon.  He set his AIs to merging
advanced heuristic tracking algorithms into the guidance and monitoring
software of the missiles system he had decided he was going to use as the basis
for his defensive program.  He had some ideas too about improving missile
performance and alternative payloads.  He inputted very precise parameters
and set his AIs to work developing a much improved and, in some ways, scaled
down version of a prototype missile system he had filched from the USAN’s
archives.  The original design had been developed by Helios and tested and
refined to a high standard.  It looked now like it would not make it to
production - well, not by Helios, anyway - since
the war had ended and military priorities had changed.  Kostovich thought
it would have been a shame to let such thorough work fall to waste - particularly
since, with a bit of tinkering here and there, it could be a good system.

One of Kostovich’s
first priorities was to scale the system down.  Helios had been
commissioned to design a system of missile batteries capable of defending
coastlines or other long borders.  They had done this by coming up with
large batteries capable of defending a forty kilometre radius, meaning that,
with redundancy, batteries could be placed along borders at distances of up to
eighty kilometres apart.

Each battery
consisted of six smaller sub-batteries, each with one hundred and twenty
missiles available to it, and its own independent tracking system, capable of
being supplemented with additional information from the other batteries and sub-batteries.

Given the
relatively small size of the Martian colony, centred as it was on Marineris,
Kostovich thought that four of the sub-batteries, stationed north, south,
east and west of the city, would provide more than adequate cover for the
populated areas, particularly since any threat would more than likely come from
above.  The cut-down size would also allow for the rapid production
that was necessary.

That was part
one of his planned system.  Part two, which he was only making tentative
steps on, was to mount two of the sub-batteries on an orbiting
platform.  This would truly give protection against external attack. 
The missiles’ range through the vacuum of space would be greatly extended with
the platform sited, as it were, at the far boundary post of Martian
civilization.

The orbiting
platform was at the back of his mind right now.  It was desirable but not
a necessity.  The priority was to firm up the plans for the four
planetside
platforms and get them into production as fast
as possible.

He had that
thought in mind as he entered the board room.  Venkdt was already there at
the top of the table.  Seated around it were the next tier of management
below him.  There was some low-level chit-chat as Kostovich
found a seat, nodding to his unfamiliar colleagues as he sat down.

“I think
that’s everyone now,” said Venkdt.

Venkdt
generally didn’t like to use the board room.  He preferred to chat with
people one on one, or at least in small groups.  He thought that large
formal meetings stopped people from expressing their true opinions and allowed
the cocky and overbearing to ride roughshod over the more contemplative and
withdrawn.  For this occasion, though, he had made an exception. 
This was going to be a meeting of extraordinary import, and only the boardroom
would do.

The
conversation dropped off and Venkdt had the room’s attention.  He felt he
was presiding over something that would live forever in the history books of
the future, but he wanted to keep it simple and human.  He coughed before
beginning.

“First, I
want to thank you all for coming at such short notice.  I know you’re busy
so I appreciate it.”  He nodded his thanks about the room.

“What this is
about may come as something of a shock to some of you.  I’d appreciate it
if you could keep what we talk about here today private, for the next few days
at least.  We’ve taken the liberty of blocking comdev transmission to and
from this room, just for the duration of the meeting and purely as a
precaution.”

‘Blocking
most
comdev transmissions,’ thought Kostovich, with schoolboy relish.

Venkdt
continued, his audience concentrating now on his every word.

“Some of you
may be aware of my long-standing interest in jurisprudence as it relates
to us here on Mars.  I have long thought that as this small colony grows
larger this matter will assume ever-greater importance.  I’ve
decided recently to pursue an idea I’ve been kicking around for a good number
of years now.  I intend to make an official announcement in the next few
days but, due to some information I’ve recently come by, and which we’ll get to
later, I will let you in on it now.”

He coughed,
perhaps to underline the moment.

“I will be
proposing a plebiscite, a poll of the people of Mars, asking whether they feel
the time has come for Mars to be self-determining.  A simple
poll, that
is all I propose.  The issue at hand will be
presented in the plainest of terms; should Mars become an autonomous state, or
not?

“Should the
people vote ‘yes’ I have a draught constitution and a proposed system for an
elected government.  There are details of the proposed constitution in the
handout, and we will widely publicize them in the run up to the
plebiscite.  The constitution would allow that the first issues any
Martian government dealt with would be pertaining to electoral wards, courts,
and the constitution itself.”

Venkdt
paused.

“I would hope
to achieve a ‘yes’ vote, and that any transition from the status quo to
independence would run smoothly with very little effect on day-to-day
affairs, much like a demerger.”

He shuffled
some papers.

“As
mentioned, I will be announcing all this in a few days’ time.  I’ve asked
you here today because of a slight wrinkle that’s come up even before I’ve had
the chance to announce.  Daniel Kostovich,” he indicated Kostovich at the
end of the table, “has intercepted some USAN communications showing that they
know about my proposals and,” he paused, “are sending two very large warships
our way to encourage me to reconsider.

“Now, I plan
for this thing to be smooth, very bloodless and as civilized as possible. 
I expected it to ruffle some feathers and I realise that in a strict sense some
of it will not be ‘legal’.  But I intend to play fair.  Sending the
heavies over before the other guy has even started talking?  To me that is
not fair.  So in order to level the playing field back in our favour I’ve
asked Dr Kostovich to build a missile defence system.  This is a purely
defensive system, you understand, and its purpose is to show the USAN that we
will not be bullied, and that we are serious.  I’d like you to all
cooperate with Dr Kostovich in every way you possibly can to ensure that we
have protection in place should we need it.  I want that to be the top
priority for everyone, superseding everything else.  We will need
production capability,” he glanced at one of the managers present, “that’s you,
Bob, personnel, that’s you Sally, and logistics and finance and everything else
to get this working.”