Riss Series 4: The Riss Accession (28 page)

"Would you mind if I took a few Riss
along each day?"

"Not at all. I think that would be even
more fun. It's time Eden got introduced to the Riss." She laughed on and
off for the rest of the flight.

That night, I had a meeting with the Riss to
review the list and see who might be interested in specific events on the list.
By the end of the meeting, I had three to four for each day's outing and arranged
for shuttles to rotate one-third of the Riss every five days to
Land
's End, a wilderness area at the northwestern
part of the continent.

* * *

The next two weeks were a whirlwind of
sightseeing. We visited museums, monuments, and exhibitions, attended concerts
and shows, and ate at a variety of restaurants all over town. At least half of
each day was spent talking with people about the Riss and the Aliens—the other
aliens.
Again, I owed Terril and the other Scorpions for treating me to
an experience I couldn't otherwise
have
had.
And even better, it turned
out to be a fantastic way to introduce the Riss to the general
public—real life, instead of
vids
, rumors, and talking-heads’
biased
commentaries.

"Thank you, Terril. I could never do
that on my own, and exposing the Riss was the icing on the cake," I said
as we relaxed in my office. "I hope the Scorpions didn't mind too much. I
know the detail must have interfered with their leave time."

"You’re welcome. Don't worry about the
Scorpions. They got to see things they usually wouldn't because of the
special
access you got, and they each collected tens
of offers from women they met in our wanderings. You are an exciting person to
be around."

"It was nice of Plimson to join us a
couple of times. I love that man."

"Not to mention he got us better seats,
paid for everything, and gave you an expense allowance."

"He said Eden needed to see the Riss not
only as allies but as people, and I shouldn't have to pay for being his
ambassador." I could see the benefit not only to him but to the military.
The real-life exposure dispelled a lot of the rumors being spread by
special
interest and hate groups.

"It was fun, but the vacation is over
tomorrow."

* * *

Looking around the conference room table,
everyone appeared in a particularly
good
mood.

Seng was first to speak. "Thank you, Captain.
This stop resolved an existing dilemma. Even in war, the troops need some
R-and-R
. But no one wants to transfer to
another cruiser that has a chance at home leave because the chances of
returning to the
Mnemosyne
or another
Riss cruiser are remote. Over time, that could have been a problem."

"I agree with Seng," Byer said. "All
of my folks want to stay with the ship, but there are limits to which people
can sacrifice before it affects their performance."

"My Intel reports from the cruisers on
Freeland do support that. Those stationed there for long periods of time had a
buildup of personnel incidents. Agreed, they don't have the same environment as
a Riss cruiser, but I don't think that would negate the problem—only take
it longer to show up," Iglis said.

"And the
Fourrageres were a great idea.
Everyone I've talked to loves them, says they make them feel like the elite of
the services. And since the media has associated the cord with the Riss, it
attracts women like a magnet and gets them free meals and access to people and
places they wouldn't normally have," Seng said.

"The
results have been far better than I anticipated.
Each Riss cruiser will now rotate between the four systems," I said.

"Captain, is that wise?" Iglis
asked hesitantly. "Damaass and Zhang... "

"Hiding hasn't worked for me or the
Riss. It just helps to keep alive lies and uninformed rumors. Riss humans have
family and close friends in the SAS, UFN, and Freeland, but we are no longer
part of those empires. We are part of the Riss nation. A nation that fully
supports the SAS as part of its MSA with Admiral Plimson." I was pleased
with the results on Eden and determined to continue being visible.

Byer laughed. "Sorry, but only you and
Admiral Plimson would feel comfortable with an MSA on your word and without
anything in writing."

"Many years of trust." I smiled,
thinking of Plimson. "Are your units operational and ready to depart?"
I looked at each person and received a nod. "The
Mnemosyne
departs at thirteen hundred hours for Echo."

We had no trouble entering the Echo system.
By now, it was common to see Riss cruisers entering and leaving, and they were
part of each task force chasing
Medusas
.
It wasn't long before I had a message from Admiral Wattson for a sit-down. He
was obviously curious why I detoured to Eden rather than coming straight to
Echo. I negotiated an expanded meeting with Zhu, Zhang, and Sheva.

"Are you part of my security
tonight?" I asked Terril as I dressed for the meeting in my cabin.

"I don't know. I'm getting used to
dining with Admirals, and you don't have any
Medusa
-like problems to drop on Wattson... do you?"

A feeling of amusement.

I mentally shouted.

"Thalia seems to think I have something
on my mind that might be."

"She can't tell? I thought... "

"We are two separate minds that are
linked. She would know if I tried to lie and when I had a clear thought. But apparently,
subconscious thoughts aren't defined enough to get more than a feeling. She is
right in the sense that something has been nagging me, but I haven't been able
to put my finger on it."

"Yes, I'm going. Wouldn't miss it for
the world. Gotta run, need to dress for tonight," Terril said, smiling on
the way out the door.

* * *

The ride over to the
Eurasian
was quiet. Terril sat in back with my standard two-Scorpion
security team discussing something, probably the night's protocol.

On exiting the shuttle, Lieutenant Commander Casey,
Wattson's new
aide de camp
, greeted me
with a snappy salute and a smile. "Welcome back, Leader Reese. How was
Eden?"

"Thank you, Commander Casey. Eden was
very
interesting
. It felt like a
different world," I said as we exited the bay and headed for the
conference room.

He was
silent
for several seconds.
"Yes, Eden is untouched by the war, so
it doesn't seem real. I think that has been true of some of our
commanders," he replied softly, almost to himself.

When I entered the room, everyone was already
there, standing in small groups talking.

"Leader Reese," Wattson said.
"Welcome back. I understand you've been busy."

"Yes, as the Riss navy grows, new issues
arise. Captains, deployment, and the needs of the SAS-attached personnel. I've
decided all Riss ships will rotate between Echo, Freeland, Dong, and
Eden," I said, taking a drink of tea I had gotten from the side table.
"Where a Riss-human came from is not relevant. We are members of the Riss
nation and allies of the SAS and the Alliance."

Zhu clapped quietly. "We dismissed
Salazan because he wanted to dictate to us. That was unacceptable. Had all your
Riss captains been from the SAS, I would have accepted that as your right. But,
your willingness to accept anyone qualified makes your nation a
special
ally. One that demands our respect."

"You're right, Leader Reese. Sweeping
the problem under the rug doesn't make it go away. Better to address it head
on. I understand that's what Admiral Gebauer has been doing quite successfully."

"He has been very successful, and
Admiral Plimson has made his promotion permanent. He's authorized a gray and
black
Fourragere
to be worn by
all SAS personnel attached to Riss cruisers." I produced two and slid one
to Sheva and one to Zhang. "It identifies them as serving in a foreign
navy, which I hope will strengthen the idea that we are allies. And yes, that
may someday include UFN units."

"My immediate reaction is to question
you, but I see your point and again admire Admiral Plimson. I hope history gives
him the credit he's due," Wattson said and paused for a drink of kaffa.
"Now that the Riss have five cruisers with captains and will have a sixth
operational within a few months, what kind of deployment were you
anticipating?"

"Can you identify which systems are
currently under quarantine with cruisers only?" I asked.

"I think we have a pretty
good
idea. But based on your premise that the
Aliens are short on
Medusas
, we have ignored
those systems. Destroying
Medusas
appears a better use of our resources. If we can weaken them by destroying
their
Medusas
, we can then clean out
their cruisers."

"Won't work."

"It's working."

"Anyone. What would you do if you were
the Aliens and you figured out that you were losing
Medusas
faster than you could make them?" I asked rather than
give them what I would do. The various reactions were interesting. Zhu and his
brother Zhang appeared to have no reaction. They sat eyes closed.

Sheva frowned, looking down in thought.

Wattson stared at me like he wanted to ask me
what I would do, but knew the question was for him to answer. "I see your
point. It's easy to think of them as robots, but they aren't. They have
significant intelligence and will at some point deduce they are losing. Then
they will stop their present campaign, devise a new strategy, and take whatever
time necessary to build an armada capable of destroying us."

"You are suggesting we change our
strategy before they do," Zhu said.

"We need to let a ship escape and then follow
it to their home base,"

Zhang said what everyone was thinking.

"And the only ships likely to be able to
follow an Alien ship unnoticed and escape from their home base are Riss cruisers,"
Wattson said, continuing to stare at me. "But the escaping ships can't
have the kind of information that could negate our present advantage—in
case you can't find their base or... you can't return. Let's adjourn for today.
I'd like some time to think about your idea, not that I don't agree, and we
will need the other task force leaders to hammer out the details. They will
have to make it work since the Riss can't be seen."

As I rose, Zhu approached. "My brother
has found his dream thanks to you and the Riss. He describes his relationship
with his companion, Vesta, like a perfect marriage. Equal partners having
common goals with total awareness of each other's thoughts.
For many
years
, I feared I'd lose him. That one
day he would become like the ancient Buddha and wander off in search of nirvana.
I know Admiral Wattson is concerned over your choice of captains, but talking
to my brother, I realize he shouldn't be. You make sure Riss-human candidates
are capable of effectively fighting your cruisers, and the Riss that they are capable
of subscribing to their ethics." He paused, giving me a thoughtful look.
"I'm afraid you shook Admiral Wattson by suggesting you could see an UFN
detachment on a Riss cruiser. Under what conditions?"

"Admiral Wattson's concern is the SAS. He
fears Riss-captains from anywhere except the SAS because he can't totally trust
their loyalty. Ironically, their real loyalty is to the Riss, although they
would never be asked to betray their country of origin." I paused until
Zhu nodded understanding. "He fears Riss-detachments from anywhere except
the SAS because he worries about a mutiny. But only the Riss can fly a Riss
cruiser, and the Riss cannot be forced to do anything against their ethics.
Therefore, I would be comfortable accepting a Riss-certified detachment of any
nation the Riss were allied with."

"I look forward to a long and close relationship
with the Riss," he said before giving a slight bow and walking away with
Xun following.

* * *

Wattson scheduled a meeting the next
afternoon to include Zhu, the twelve task force commanders, and the
Riss-humans. Wattson entered with Zhu shortly after we arrived. Everyone stood,
but
the room wasn't called to
attention. A concession which had been made because of the mixture of nations
and traditions. After everyone was
seated
, Wattson began.

"The Alliance has been operating under
the premise that the Aliens have been here for some time. During that time,
they have been building
Medusas
and
cruisers to quarantine us humans. We felt they underestimated us humans and
began their invasion prematurely. Our strategy has been to attack their
Medusas,
thereby limiting their ability
to overwhelm us in force. To date, we have eliminated six. Unfortunately, we
have no way of knowing if that is over half the
Medusa
fleet
or less
than ten percent. If the latter, we should continue our strategy.
If
it's more than fifty percent
,
we
need to stop."

"Why? We're winning." Admiral Ueno
of Red-3 asked.

"Because sooner or later, they will
realize their strategy isn't working and will retreat back to their home
base."

"Isn't that what we want, to drive them
back to where they came?" Admiral Botos asked, to nodding heads.

"Yes. But do you believe a group with a
mandate from the Supreme Council of the Gods is going to pack up and leave
because of a minor setback? We have been killing copies—not intelligent
life. More likely, they will remain quiet for ten, twenty, fifty years while
they adopt a new strategy and build a new, super fleet. What would happen if
twenty-five
Medusas
entered Echo and
immediately launched twelve cruisers each—three hundred cruisers, maybe
with updated technology?"

"Admiral Wattson and I believe our only
option is to find their home base and isolate or destroy them," Zhu said.
"This meeting and the ones to follow are to determine how to accomplish that."

"Here are the problems we must
solve," Wattson said.

"One, which ship do we let escape?

"Two, how do we limit the information it
is escaping with as we may not be able to follow it or maybe caught and
destroyed?

"Three, how do we keep the escaping ship
from knowing it's being followed?

"Four, which ship or ships should we use
in
attempting
to follow the
Alien?

"These questions are not as simple as
they sound. I want you to return to your task forces and discuss the problems
with your senior people. We will meet back here tomorrow at thirteen hundred
hours. Dismissed."

* * *

"The answer to numbers three and four
appears obvious, only a Riss cruiser stands a better than even chance of
following the escaping ship without being noticed," Sheva said as we sat
in the
Mnemosyne's
dining hall
eating.

I had invited Byer, Seng, and Iglis to
participate in the discussion.

"And to number one. The scout is in the system
to spy, and
therefore
, is the
only one guaranteed to run and to know where to go." Byer said.

"I would think we wouldn't want the
Aliens to get information about the Riss and Ghost stealth capability,
skip-attacks, Dusters, or Dummies.," Iglis said.

"That would be ideal.
What Alien
and Allied configurations would that suggest we need
? And which features do we need to hide?" I asked.

Zhang spoke with his eyes closed, "Ideally,
I would say no
Medusas
, a small
number of Alien cruisers, a task force for each two Alien cruisers, and two
Riss cruisers."

Sheva nodded agreement.

"A task force should be able to destroy
three Alien cruisers. They did at ZigZag with only five cruisers in the task
force,
and
they had some old
cruisers along," Byer said.

"The idea is to get the scout to leave
as early as we can; otherwise, we have to fight the Alien cruisers without
those features we want kept secret, which will result in unnecessary deaths.
Overwhelming force may convince the scout to run for help or to leave before he's
discovered," I said.

"Why two Riss cruisers?" Sheva
asked. "It doubles the risk."

"It doubles the chances of
success." Zhang said.

I wasn't sure either way. It was certainly
true dropping into some unknown system which the Aliens had made their base of
operations was dangerous even with stealth cruisers. They would most likely
have cruisers near the Wave exit, as we do in Freeland. With their advanced
technology, we must assume they could detect us leaving the Wave, even if they
might have trouble following us. But who knew? Our knowledge of the Aliens was
certainly limited since we couldn’t decipher the code used to drive their
systems. We only knew what we had observed to date, and we had misinterpreted
what we'd observed a couple of times. All I was sure about was that each Riss
cruiser carried close to seven percent of the Riss' total population.

* * *

The conference room was buzzing with
conversations when I entered the next day. Sheva and Zhang were already there,
and only Wattson and Zhu were
missing
. Sakaata was first to approach me as I poured myself a cup of tea.

"Good morning, Reese. I suppose you
already have the solution to Wattson's exercise." She smiled goodnaturedly.