Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (21 page)

‘And why did you not move to defend Amazonia Port when the
Nimitz
and
Marathon
moved to attack it?’

‘We were heavily engaged with the other ships and suffered heavy kamikaze attacks, which narrowly avoided destroying the bridge of my ship.  After that, we got jumped by the Shaper vessels themselves who immobilised our jump drives.  We were fighting for our lives, sir.  Don’t think I don’t regret that we didn’t see what was happening until it was too late, but I don’t see what other choices I had at the time.’

Cartwright regarded her sternly for a moment before he spoke.

‘There are always choices, Admiral Chen.  The question is, can you live with the ones that you made?’

‘Yes, sir.  Absolutely, sir.’

‘Good.  Because I’d have made the same ones.’

‘Sir?’

He was toying with her, she realised, cutting her down to size and reminding her who was in command now.  Even so, she was still galled by the way that he was scolding her like she was a cadet.

‘Don’t let what the press are saying about you go to your head, Admiral Chen.  It wasn’t a victory, it was a reprieve.  The Shapers will return in greater force, of that I have no doubt.  Now, you said that you had something important to show me? Out with it.’

‘Yes indeed, sir,’ said Chen and seated herself in front of Cartwright’s desk.

Isaacs looked out of the windows of the hotel suite and admired the view.  Gazing upwards, the space elevator that connected the port to the Indonesian archipelago below disappeared into the distant clouds that swirled above the patchwork of land and sea, perspective rendering it a barely visible shining thread.  Closer by, a forest of skyscrapers, similar to the one in which he now stood, projected from the planet-facing side of Batavia Port amid a network of streets and parkland beneath a thick, shielding dome, shining brightly in the sunlight.

‘Some hotel,’ he said, before walking over the double bed and flopping gratefully down on to the blissfully welcoming mattress.  ‘Jesus.  Feels like I could sleep for a month.’

‘Not before you change out of that dirty flight gear,’ said Anna, as she stepped out of her worn overalls.  ‘You know, you could at least keep your boots off the bed.’

‘Sorry, bad habits from a life of slumming it aboard ship.’

‘Don’t I know it?  Aren’t you just every girl’s dream?’

‘Seems to work on you,’ he replied, grinning crookedly as he started to pull off his boots, dropping one on the floor with a dull thud.

‘You have me there,’ she admitted.  ‘So, what do you think about Chen mentioning that there might be more work?’

‘Depends what it is, I suppose.’

‘What, you haven’t experienced enough danger lately?  I always suspected that you were some kind of thrill junkie.’

‘No it’s not that.  I mean come on; we still have our base in Achernar, surely that’s got to be some use to the Navy.  Plus, we need to help the rest of your people in the system.’

‘Our people, Cal?  I think you can count yourself a fully paid up member now.’

‘Whatever.  Look it’s... I dunno.  It feels good to be part of something, you know? Fighting the good fight and all that.  We actually made a difference today. I don’t think I can say that about anything else in my life.  For the meantime, I say we hang around here for a while and see if the top brass want to hear our insights whilst taking advantage of room service and that Jacuzzi in the bathroom.  I think we’ve earned it, don’t you?’

Anna stood for a moment with her arms folded across her chest, regarding him intently.

‘It’s good to see you like this again, Cal,’ she said.  ‘You’ve got that gleam in your eye again that you had when we first met.  Looks like I finally got you back after all this time.’

‘Yeah, you could say I’ve had the chance to slay a few demons - with anti-matter bombs and automatic weapons, mind.’

‘How about we go slay a few more then?’

‘You up for it?’

‘Hell, yes.’ She walked slowly to him and sat on his lap, straddling him.  ‘Now,’ she said softly in his ear. ‘I told you to get out of those dirty clothes.’

The following day, Chen found herself summoned to Naval Command Headquarters.  Clad in her dress whites once more, she took a shuttle directly from Batavia Port to the surface, since time was of the essence.  As the vessel broke through the cloud deck over London she saw the massive star shaped building gleaming in the sunlight to the west of the vast, sprawling city.  The shuttle landed quickly, touching down on one of the many landing pads that ringed the complex.  Chen was met by an aide as she exited the craft and was hurried inside, through security barriers and then down into the bowels of the building into a secure briefing room-cum-command centre.  The room was dominated by a large, oval conference table and a bank of screens covering one entire wall.  Admiral Cartwright was already present, as was the Deputy Director of Commonwealth Intelligence, Chiefs of Staff of the Army and Marines Corp, the recently appointed Defence Minister and a number of other figures whom she didn’t recognise as well as a handful of aides.  She saluted and was shown to a chair with her name on a little plaque on the table before it and noticed that the chair at the head of the table and one nearest it on her side were still vacant.  The plaques read President of the Commonwealth and Secretary of State respectively.  Chen felt a slight lump in her throat.

The door opened.  Everyone stood and saluted as President Sorenson entered, accompanied by Secretary of State Dickinson and Admiral Hawkwood, Chief of Staff of the Navy following Morgan’s defection and now the highest ranking naval officer in the Commonwealth.  Chen eyed the new President as she entered.  Sorenson was a slightly stocky, middle aged woman and was shorter than she had imagined.  However, she had a purposeful air about her, despite her inexperience in the role.  Admiral Hawkwood was a man that Chen had never met personally, but whose career was well known to her.  His qualities of leadership and tactical acumen were in no doubt and had resulted in a meteoric rise to the very top from humble beginnings.  Despite years behind a desk and the onset of middle age, he was still a tough looking, wiry man.  He had grey receding hair atop a high forehead, and a piercing gaze that settled on Chen for a moment.

Sorenson sat and bade the rest of the room do the same.  The aides left and waited outside with the Marine Corps guards, who closed the bulletproof doors behind them.

‘So,’ said Sorenson. ‘What are our options, Admiral Hawkwood?’

‘Madam President, essentially we have two courses of action open to us: tighten our defences around the Solar System and attempt to fend off another Shaper attack, or take the war to the enemy.’

‘Well I don’t fancy sitting here waiting for them to have another go, Admiral.  My ministers and I are in agreement, we need to counter-attack if at all possible.’

‘It is a course which is fraught with danger ma’am.  As was quite clear during the last attack, the Shaper vessels themselves are superior to our own in every way.  Our weapons were barely able to damage them at all, except for our limited stocks of anti-matter missiles, all of which have already been used until we can manufacture more.  However, we do have several aces up our sleeve.  Firstly, we have the co-operation of the Nahabe, who so gallantly stepped in to deal with the Shapers attacking Earth.  We have managed to speak with the leader of the fleet sent to assist us.  They have embarked upon what can only be described as a holy war and are eager for more action against the Shapers.  They have agreed to take part in combined military operations with ourselves.  Meanwhile, it appears that the rest of the Nahabe forces are preparing to engage in large scale military operations beyond our southernmost borders against the Shapers.  Hopefully, this ought to buy us some time and divide the enemy’s forces.  In addition, we have a couple of technical solutions that ought to aid us greatly in our fight.  Admiral Takahashi from the Navy’s R&D division will be able to fill you in better than I, Madam President.  Mr Takahashi?’

Takahashi, a balding middle-aged man in a black naval uniform, cleared his throat and then spoke, consulting a sheaf of notes as he did so.

‘Yes indeed, Madam President.  In both cases we are indebted to Admiral Chen, present with us today.  Ma’am, for the first time we have an example of Arkari naval weapons technology in our hands for study.  The
Churchill
has, up to now, served as part of Special Operations Command, the black ops unit established by Admiral Haines and War Marshal Irakun Mentith of the Arkari Navy.  As such, she was fitted with an Arkari spatial distortion cannon, a weapon more than capable of taking down a Shaper vessel.  Until now, the working of such devices was a closely guarded secret, however we have had time to study the example attached to the
Churchill
and we believe that we can replicate the technology.  We are already working on constructing a working prototype.’

You sly old goat, Mentith, thought Chen.  You knew that your government would be too slow in allowing the Commonwealth access to Arkari weapons technology to fight the Shapers and you knew also that we didn’t stand a chance without it, so you gave the Navy one to play with anyway, using the black ops nature of SOC for cover.

‘What about deployment of this new weapon, Admiral?’ said the President.  ‘What sort of timescales are we looking at?  How widely can it be used?’

‘Pending successful testing of the prototype, we believe that by working around the clock we could have a working weapon by the end of the month, possibly sooner.  We won’t be able to fit it to all of our ships as the power requirements are too great, however we can certainly replace the plasma cannons of our carriers, as was done on the
Churchill
. In time, it may be possible to produce a lighter version to replace one of the turrets on the Titan class destroyers, possibly the keel mounted cutting laser.  Further work would be required to reduce the energy consumption of the weapon if we were to produce versions that the cruisers and frigates could carry.’

‘Whatever you need, it’s yours Admiral,’ said the President.  ‘What was the other “ace up our sleeve” that Admiral Hawkwood mentioned?’

‘We have information that Admiral Chen has obtained from human agents of the Nahabe who have been working behind enemy lines and passing intel. to SOC.  In this case, it appears that the crews of a couple of Nahabe vessels succeeded in obtaining samples of Shaper parasites and figured out a way to detect the Shapers in hyperspace by modifying their sensors to detect the Shapers’ communications, enabling them to build up a map of the Shapers’ networks and plot the positions of their ships and possibly their agents.  For the first time we have a way of spotting the enemy.’

‘And does it work with our equipment?’ said the President.

‘In theory, yes it will, though only with the more sophisticated arrays.  We should complete the modifications on a couple of candidate vessels by the end of tomorrow.  Of course ,we have no way of testing the equipment except in an environment that is likely to contain Shapers.  We will require a combat field test if we are to proceed further,’

‘Very good.  See to it, Admiral Hawkwood.  Admiral Takahashi, I have a further question: will this enable us to screen individuals?’

‘It may be possible, yes.  At the very least, it ought to enable us to identify ships that have either been infiltrated by the enemy or taken over entirely and either target or quarantine them depending upon the severity of the situation.’

‘Excellent. So what do you propose, Admiral Hawkwood?’

‘With your permission, Madam President, I propose moving what fleet resources we have available to a forward position in the Beta Hydri system.  From there we can move to intercept further attacks emanating from Achernar and prepare a counter-strike, pending successful testing of the new cannon and sensor modifications.  I also propose that we pass the information regarding how to detect the Shapers to our allies.  They’ll need this information as much as we do.’

‘Alright, do it.  What about our allies, what information do we have on their current status?  Deputy Director Forrest?’

The Director of Commonwealth Intelligence leaned forward a little as he spoke down the length of the table.

‘Madam President, it appears that so far that many of our allies remain untouched by the Shapers.  Perhaps they are dealing with the bigger powers first before they move onto the smaller players, however, the Vriint, the Hyrdians and the Xeelin have all offered ships to aid us in patrolling shipping lanes whilst the Navy is otherwise engaged, freeing up more of our ships.  The Esacir remain neutral as ever.’

‘What about the Arkari?’

‘We don’t know.  All communications with the Arkari have been severed since the attack and all ships that we have sent to Arkari space have been turned back at the border. Politely but firmly, I might add.  Even their embassy here on Earth say that they don’t know what’s going on back home.’

‘Yes, I spoke with Ambassador Eralik this morning.  He claimed ignorance of events in the Sphere, save what is public knowledge, though he expressed the opinion that the Shapers may have taken down the Arkari hypercom sphere via a mass infiltration of some kind, possibly some sort of sophisticated virus,’ said Sorenson.

‘He’s telling the truth to a certain extent.  The entire Arkari Sphere is in lock down.  Of course we know that there was some kind of mass attack against a large number of systems, but that’s it,’ Forrest replied. ‘I find it hard to believe that the Shapers could pull off a virus attack.  Even our own military and backbone civilian systems are immune to such things and have been for decades.  Unless they somehow got inside and took over the Arkari systems first...’

‘Make sure the Ambassador gets a copy of this sensor data.  I’m sure his superiors back home would be grateful to receive it.  Who knows, they might even start talking to us again,’ said Sorenson.

‘What about the K’Soth?’ said Chen, interrupting.  Cartwright regarded her coldly.

‘What about the K’Soth, Admiral Chen?’ replied the President.