Martial Law 1: Patriotic Treason (49 page)

“Look at the UN, look at the world and ask yourself one question. What is it we serve? We serve as their enforcers, stamping down on anyone who dares to question, while others grow worse under our protection. How many decent officers have been held back, or sent to isolated fuelling stations, for daring to question? How many sensible Captains have been overridden by their Political Officers, or humiliated on the bridge in front of their crews. What value is our service when it is based on lies? How many of us only took service to escape the conditions on Earth?

“The UN created the nightmare that now grips Earth,” I thundered. “Look at it! How does it match the version created by the UN’s propaganda machine? Have things gotten better? No – if anything, they’ve gotten much worse. Our families and friends choke to death on pollution and suffer under the rule of the gangs, or corrupt police officers, while the political class dine on fine foods and drink fine wines, unheeding of the screams for help below them.

“We’re not disloyal to Earth, or humanity! We are people who have decided that enough is enough! We are the people who are going to end the war and prevent the UN from crushing the life out of hundreds of worlds. We’re your comrades in arms, your fellow servicemen. Join us. You have nothing to lose, but your chains!”

I drew my hand across my throat and Samantha cut the channel. I was sweating heavily. I had never claimed to be a good speechwriter, and yet it had to come from the heart. The signal would be racing out across the solar system now, yet who would listen? The uncommitted in space might join us, or take advantage of the chaos to revolt against the UN, but what would happen on Earth itself? The UN had been breeding all initiative out of the population for centuries. Would they rebel, or would they shrug and return to their lives?

“I’m picking up a direct signal from the planet,” Samantha said. “It’s the Sec-Gen himself.”

“On screen,” I ordered. The Secretary-General looked pale and wan. He was grossly overweight and, despite the best treatments money and high status could by, was balding. He was sweating like the pig he reassembled. “Hello.”

The correct means of address was ‘Your Excellency,’ but I wasn't in the mood to kowtow any longer. It would have betrayed everyone who had fought and died to get this far.

“Captain,” he said. His voice was probably intended to sound resolute, but it came out as more of a whine. “Captain, we can discuss this, perhaps even…”

“My terms are quite simple,” I said, cutting him off. “You will surrender control over the UNPF to me. You will declare the war with the Colonies at an end and formally accept that your jurisdiction ends outside Earth’s atmosphere. You will not attempt to subvert my command or interfere with us in any way.”

I stared at him coldly. “If you refuse to comply I will be forced to bombard Earth,” I added. I’d counted on Devastator, but even without her I could still drop precision KEW weapons. I could take out the entire UN and he knew it. “The war is over, you fat pig.”

Samantha broke the connection and we burst out laughing. No one had spoken to him like that since…oh, probably since he was born. I hadn’t been impressed with his appearance either. A more resolute man would probably have tried to stall long enough to put together a military option of some kind. As it was, I suspected he’d give in, sooner rather than later.

And Captain Shalenko was still out there, waiting.

I considered hailing him, but pushed the thought aside. Instead, I concentred on mopping up the remaining loyalists before they could become major problems. The newly-arrived Marine Transports were ordered to secure the orbital towers and shut down their massive elevators until everything was secure. The asteroids surrendered one by one and we secured the stores that had been prepared for invading Williamson’s World. I took a certain delight in ordering the beauecrats held prisoner and prepared for a return to the surface. The fleet I intended to build would have no place for their kind.

“Ah,” Sally said, suddenly. “Captain, I think we have a problem.”

“Show me,” I ordered. I should have known that everything was going far too well. Captain Harriman had taught me that if my plan had worked perfectly, it meant I was about to lose. I hadn’t understood the logic until much later. “What’s happening?”

A trio of wormholes formed near Earth. Two of the new arrivals were cruisers. The third…

The Kofi Annan.

Roger’s ship.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

The UN was always careful enough to ensure that its most powerful starships went to the Captains who had a strong incentive to be loyal to the system. By 2500, that generally meant younger members of the Political Class, people who had very well-connected families. Competence was regarded as an unexpected bonus.

-Thomas Anderson. An Unbiased Look at the UNPF. Baen Historical Press, 2500.

“Sound Red Alert,” I ordered, keying the intercom. “All hands to battle stations. I repeat, all hands to battle stations.”

The massive battleship had emerged from the wormhole beyond the moon, but that wouldn’t prevent Roger from hearing chapter and verse from the Secretary-General, or even from Captain Shalenko. How would he react? Roger was smart enough to see the flaws in the system, but unlike me, he had strong ties to the ruling class. Years ago, I would probably have trusted him, but after Muna…I no longer knew who I could trust. What side would Roger be on?

“Captain,” Samantha said, “I’m picking up encrypted signals from Earth to the Kofi Annan. I think they’re trying to warn her Captain of what’s happening here?”

“Damn you, Roger,” I muttered. Either through planning or a horrendous stroke of bad luck, he was in a position to reverse most of what we’d done. It would still be bloody – and the UN’s self-confidence would have taken a ghastly set of blows – but he might still come out ahead. “What do you think you’re doing?”

I looked down at the display. Seventeen starships were in excellent condition, but a handful, including Kitty’s ship, were damaged. Kitty had jumped out to the asteroids and wouldn’t have the slightest idea that something had gone badly wrong at Earth. By the time she knew, it would all be over unless I sent a ship after her…and, even so, she would still have to repair her weapons before she could intervene.

“Contact the fleet,” I ordered. “Order them to form up on us, apart from the Gabriele. She is to fly directly to the asteroids and inform them of what’s happening here.”

“Aye, sir,” Samantha said. “They’re acknowledging.”

The Kofi Annan’s icon seemed to dominate the display. I considered hailing him and trying to talk sense into him, but I needed the time to form up my small fleet. It looked as if our first battle was going to be our last, unless Roger decided to switch sides as well. I’d welcome him. He might be related to some of the most corrupt and vernal men in existence, but there was no doubting his competence. He wouldn’t have been able to keep command of the battleship without it.

I watched the fleet forming up on my flag. We were hopelessly ill-prepared, I realised. We hadn’t had a chance to practice operating as a fleet yet, let alone anything else. Some of the ships still had crewmembers who didn’t know what was going on, perhaps even people preparing to retake the bridges. I thought of Muna and Deborah and scowled. At least I had my dissidents in the brig. Muna had deserved better, somehow. I hadn’t realised just how loyal she was to the UN.

“Link us into the fleet communications system,” I ordered, quietly. The downloads from the other starships wouldn’t tell me what I needed to know. No one had bothered to set up a system to monitor the process of a mutiny and coup, a serious oversight. If we won the coming fight, we’d have to update the systems…hell, we’d have a lot to do. I knew hundreds of sections that needed improvements. I could build a real fleet without having to worry about pleasing the UN any longer.

And if Roger won? I’d die a free man, at least.

“Aye, sir,” Samantha said. I skimmed through the downloads quickly, trying to read between the lines. It was hard to be sure, but most of the starships seemed to be under firm control. I saw one data line and smiled. Luna Base had declared for us and there seemed to be fighting in some of the settlements. I just hoped that Luna City survived. The crewmen would never forgive me if it were destroyed in the fighting and all the women were sucked out into space. “They’re standing by.”

She broke off. “Captain, the Kofi Annan is hailing us,” she said. “They want to talk.”

“On screen,” I ordered. Roger’s image appeared in front of me. He looked older than I remembered – it had been three years since I’d seen him on Heinlein – but he also looked surprisingly competent. He wore dress uniform on his own bridge and carried a pistol at his belt. “Roger.”

“John,” he replied. He sounded tired and wan. “I don’t know what you have in mind, but it won’t work.”

“It will,” I said, pretending a confidence I didn’t feel. The battleship might have been an expensive waste of resources under normal circumstances, but the unique battle we were about to fight would play to its strengths. We couldn’t let it break the siege of Earth or the UN would be able to regain control of the orbiting stations. It would still trigger a civil war within the war, but that wouldn’t be much of an improvement. “Do you know how close Earth came to destruction three days ago?”

“No,” Roger said, flatly. “John, what you’re doing is treason against the human race itself. You’re turning your guns on the hands that created you and turned you into an officer in the Peace Force. What will happen to Earth if the Colonies manage to break free while we’re fighting a civil war?”

Wars are never civil, part of my mind whispered. “Roger,” I said, “three days ago, a Heinlein starship took out Asteroid One, after we took out – murdered – an entire city on their planet.” I thought about how many of the Political Class had been killed in the attack and shivered. If they’d remained alive, they would have been good hostages. “What happens next time? Will they sneak something through the defences that will kill the entire planet? It’s technically possible. You and I both know that this war is beyond being won, but it can be lost. What happens if no one says stop and makes it stick? How many people do you want to die?”

I leaned forward. “Do you remember,” I asked, “when we were both Lieutenants on Heinlein? I asked you if the war was worthwhile and you said that it was. You were wrong and the war has now reached the point where they can slaughter civilians in vast quantities as well. The war will keep stretching our system until it breaks completely. Why not join us instead?”

“Because…what you’re doing may not create something better,” Roger said. It dawned on me that our debate was public. The entire system would be listening to us arguing. “You might create something worse. Even if you don’t want to be Emperor yourself, someone else will take what you have created and try to build an empire on a pile of skulls. You might even be right and the Colonies will take advantage of the pause to hit back at us. John, please, give up. I can plead for leniency.”

“No,” I said. “I won’t betray everyone who died.”

Roger’s image vanished from the display. “I’m picking up targeting sweeps from the battleship and one of the cruisers,” Lieutenant Carolyn Lauderdale reported. She’d taken the tactical console after Muna had been…indisposed. “They’re powering up their weapons and making it very obvious.”

“Perhaps hoping that we would surrender,” I said, darkly. What was the other cruiser doing? Was it in the midst of an internal power struggle, or was something else going on? “Load missile bays and lock weapons on target. Prepare to engage the enemy.”

I looked over at Samantha. “The primary target is the Kofi Annan,” I added. There was little point in trying to coordinate the battle. We’d have to wing it and hope. Luckily, there was only one battleship in Roger’s force. He’d have to be lucky and we’d have to be unlucky. How much did he know? If he knew about the asteroids, what would he do? “Inform all ships. When we open fire, they are to engage and fire at will.”

“Aye, sir,” Samantha said. “They’re acknowledging.”

Sally frowned from her console. “He always had a silver spoon in his mouth,” she hissed, with a bitterness I had come to realise had become part of her personality. “No wonder he won’t see sense and surrender, or even vanish with his battleship and turn renegade.”

I shrugged. The Kofi Annan wasn’t a cruiser. It needed a day in a shipyard for every day it spent on duty and it hadn’t been getting it. I studied the emissions thoughtfully, trying to see if there were any weaknesses we could exploit, but nothing suggested itself. Roger wouldn’t have skimped on the basic maintenance unless he had had no choice. Still, there would be no hope of keeping it running out in the Beyond. He didn’t have much choice. He either fought or surrendered. The Colonies wouldn’t help him.

“Enemy vessel now coming into range,” Carolyn reported. “I have weapons locked on target.”

“Hold fire,” I ordered, tersely. Perhaps we could prevent a fight. “Roger, what are you playing at…?”

“Missile separation,” Carolyn snapped. “They’ve opened fire.”