Rumors of Honor (System States Rebellion Book 2) (17 page)

“Yes,
Madam Secretary. If our Phase II Oracle had come up with this plan, I’d be
worried, but it didn’t. Commander Drake did what I was hoping someone in the
planning group would find a way to do, and that was to think unconventionally.
What makes this plan workable is the deception. Not even Majestic would give
more than the barest minimum odds that the SSU would order 16 crews on a
deliberate suicide mission. That’s why our ships have to be defeated in such a
way that they can’t be searched after the battle. If the FEDs find derelicts
without a single human body on board, then Majestic just might begin looking at
alternatives that it normally wouldn’t consider.”

Sorensen
continued to look skeptical. “I still think it’s a dangerous idea that could
backfire on us badly. In fact, I’d even go so far as to characterize it as
reckless, Chancellor.”

Before
Belloc had a chance to respond, Foster said, “And that’s exactly why the FED
leadership and Majestic won’t suspect it. The more irrational it sounds, the
better our chances of pulling it off. Let me put it this way, Madam Secretary.
If you still find the plan reckless and dangerous even after we’ve described
the deception and potential payoff, how much more reckless and irrational will
the supposedly deliberate sacrifice of 16 ship crews sound to Admiral Chenko
and General Trojan? I can only reiterate the key to this plan, which is the
deception of making the enemy think they’ve legitimately destroyed 16 warships
AND their crews.”

When
Sorensen said nothing, Belloc leaned forward and said, “Well I don’t have any
more questions at this time. Do you, Mandy?” Sorensen shook her head but
continued to look skeptical. “In that case, you and Commander Drake are free to
go, and thank you, Major, for a most interesting briefing. Mykhel, I’d like you
to stay a bit longer so that the three of us can discuss this privately.”

“Certainly,
Chancellor,” replied Janicot.

When
72 hours had gone by without any word, Drake began to fear that the Chancellor
would veto the plan, so it was a relief to finally hear that Foster and her
people had approval to execute the Phase I conversion of the ships. They heard
from Janicot that full approval of the rest of the plan would be given once it
was certain that the conversion process could be completed successfully.

Chapter Eleven:

Day
77/2546

Chenko
stormed into Masterson’s office and waved the data tablet in his hand. “Have
you seen this report?” he asked in an agitated voice.

Masterson
leaned back in his chair and calmly said, “Yes I have Sergei. If you’re going
to browbeat me, you might as well sit down while you’re doing it.”

Chenko
muttered something that Masterson didn’t catch as he followed the General’s suggestion.
When he was seated, he took a deep breath and said in a calmer voice, “The
Council’s not going to be happy to hear about the damage the Union raid did to
Makassar. I’m not happy about it. I’m telling you, Frank, if this kind of thing
keeps up, Trojan’s credibility as the overall Field Commander is going to
plunge, and the Council just might demand his replacement.”

Masterson
waved Chenko’s comment aside with his hand. “No, they’re not, Sergei. You and I
both know that Majestic predicted this might happen and that it’s the price we
have to pay to counter their best strategy for a quick end to this war. I think
enough members of the Council understand that too. General Trojan is just
implementing Majestic’s recommendations, and that means that our fleet will
continue to stay in Earth orbit indefinitely.”

“But
the delay in building up Makassar…” asked Chenko. He let the sentence remain
unfinished.

Masterson
shrugged. “Nothing we can do about that delay, but at least we’re close to
being able to prevent damage from future raids. Now that we know the X-ray
laser concept works with the successful test of the prototype, we can plan on
deploying a network of them in Makassar orbit. If the SSU send another raiding
force, they’ll get a big surprise.”

Chenko’s
expression lost a lot of its anger. “I’d love to see that, but wouldn’t it be
easier to deploy those satellites in Earth orbit and send the fleet to defend
Makassar?”

Masterson
couldn’t help smiling. Chenko might be the Naval Chief of Staff, but at heart
he was still a ship commander looking for the opportunity to fight a space
battle, even if only vicariously.

“Well,
apparently a majority of the Council members are nervous about fusion bombs
going off over their heads, even if the explosions are thousands of kilometers
away. Keeping the ships here instead seems to give them a warm and fuzzy
feeling.”

“Yeah,
you’re right, but dammit, now that the Union knows we have our fleet here,
they’re unlikely to go head to head with it. I think they’ll just keep raiding
Makassar instead. It’s a damned shame that my boys and girls won’t get some
glorious fleet to fleet action any time soon.”

“Oh,
don’t worry, Sergei. I’m sure that your people will get to fight a fleet battle
eventually. I don’t see the rebels giving up without one, do you?”

Chenko
was actually smiling when he said, “No, I don’t, thank God.”

Day
084/2546

Murphy
stood at the edge of the construction site and nodded with satisfaction. Work
on the new office tower complex on Midgard had begun. The next ship from Earth
was due to arrive in a couple of weeks. That meant that his advance team could
travel to Earth and go through the motions of raising the billions of credits
that the new Midgard-chartered company would supposedly need to pay for equipment
bought on Earth and eventually shipped to the Midgard star system for
installation on Midgard’s moon. He hoped that the freighter crew wouldn’t think
it suspicious that their Midgard passengers would have a LOT of luggage.
Unfortunately, there was no easy way to transport the first 10 billion credits
worth of FED currency that the advance team would need in order to make it
appear that the capital had been raised from Earth investors. He was still
debating whether or not to bribe the freighter crew to ‘mind their own
business’. Midgard did not produce any kind of dangerous substance that had to
be smuggled, so any bribe to the crew had to include a believable cover story
about something else that couldn’t be transported openly, but that was a mere detail.
By the time the advance team had done their job on Earth, with the first
equipment orders placed and the team back on Midgard, the office complex would
be almost finished.

Within
six to nine months, the mining, refining, manufacturing and robotic equipment
needed to start operations on the moon would be delivered, along with the
precursor machinery that would be used to build the very specialized machinery
necessary to create the computer components for the Oracle computer, which
would be installed in the cavernous underground levels of the new tower
complex. When that was in place, the people who would run the new Site X
bureaucracy would be brought to Midgard via another piece of equipment paid for
by the FED currency, namely a small freighter that would be registered on
Earth. It would be used to carry more cash from Sparta to Midgard and then on
to Earth without raising any suspicions, as well as to carry people between
Midgard and Sparta. Everything had been well planned out, and the only thing that
bothered him was that he might not be able to return to Sparta for at least a
year. But Cate knew that might happen, and both of them had accepted the
necessity for it.

In
the meantime, he would continue playing the part of the visionary Earth
investor and entrepreneur (under his assumed alias of course) who was bringing
much needed capital investment to the Midgard star system. The planetary
government, what there was of it, was delighted with the prospect of new jobs
and more importantly of more money flowing into the local economy. Regulation
was minimal, and no one in the government was anxious to ask too many
questions. The mining licenses for the entire moon were well worth the price,
even including the necessary bribes, and the total cost was actually less than
the amount budgeted. He had to admit that living in the most luxurious
penthouse this planet had to offer was a nice perk too. If only Cate were here
to enjoy it with him. With a sigh, he turned away and headed back to his
penthouse apartment.

Day
144/2546

“This
plan is madness,” said Lee as he and Janicot finished their inspection of the
modified Jutland. It had been a quick inspection. Once the slightly smaller
than normal Phase I Oracle computer had been installed, there wasn’t much room for
a human to move around.

As
the two officers walked down the ramp, Janicot spoke in a voice whose calmness
hid the annoyance he felt towards Commodore Lee. “I agree, but that’s exactly
why it should work. With Jutland ready to go, we can conduct field trials, and
if they go as planned, the mission will proceed in ten days’ time.”

Lee
shook his head. “We’re throwing away our entire fleet on Drake’s hunch, and to
make matters worse, he’s going to be in charge of the operation! If we have to
do this, then let’s at least put someone reliable in command, Isoruku for
example.”

Janicot
decided to let his growing annoyance out into the open. “In spite of your
opinion of Commander Drake, it’s MY opinion that he IS reliable. He came up
with the idea, which I remind you was vetted by our Oracle computer, and he has
the most enthusiasm for it. One thing I’ve learned is that you don’t put
someone in command of an operation who doesn’t believe in it. Isoruku is
lukewarm to the idea. I want someone who will take risks to make the operation
a success, not someone who will look for an excuse to abort the mission.” The
conversation stopped while they climbed into the Admiral’s spacious groundcar
and settled down. “Now that we have some privacy, I may as well get another thing
off my chest,” said Janicot. “I’m very disappointed in you, Commodore Lee, for
not volunteering to lead this mission yourself. As our only operational flag
officer, you’re expected to lead by example. Now, the fact is that if you had
volunteered, I very likely would have turned it down, but only because you
don’t believe in the mission. Still, the gesture would have done a lot to
restore my flagging opinion of your suitability for flag rank. If our fleet is
destroyed in the upcoming battle, it’ll be a while before we’ll once again have
enough ships to warrant being under the command of a Commodore. Therefore I’m
giving you a heads up that you’ll be reassigned to a desk job if you want to
keep your current rank. As an alternative to that, I’m willing to give you
another ship command when one becomes available. Your performance as a CO was
satisfactory, but if you take that option, you’ll have to give up your star.
You don’t need to give me your answer now. There’s plenty of time to think it
over.” Janicot took notice of Lee’s barely controlled facial expression. The
Commodore was on the verge of venting his anger. Janicot hoped he would.
Insubordination would be the perfect excuse to demote him and give him some
useless assignment where his negativity wouldn’t affect the war effort, but
much to Janicot’s disappointment, Lee restrained himself. He had had such high
hopes for Lee, but the man just wasn’t up to the role of a one-star flag
officer. Of all his ship commanders, Palmgren seemed to have the most flag
officer potential. Janicot briefly considered Drake for the role but dismissed
the thought. Putting him in temporary command of the Queen’s Gambit Operation
was enough of gamble. All Drake had to do was get the fleet to the outskirts of
the Sol system and let the Oracle flagship take over from there, and it would
take more than that for Janicot to seriously consider Drake for flag rank.

Day
240/2546

Romanov
reread the dispatch from General Trojan that had just been delivered by
courier. The text message was so terse that Romanov wondered if it had been
written by Majestic instead of by the General.

Majestic
convinced that Earth will be attacked by Union fleet soon. In the event of a
lopsided victory by your forces do NOT, repeat do NOT obey any orders from NCoS
or Fed Council to attack any Union planet directly. Bring your fleet here first
no matter what.  CINC1FAF

Romanov
couldn’t understand why the General would deem it necessary to send a courier
with a message like that. Clearly Majestic had calculated a high probability of
a Union attack soon, but a lopsided Federation victory seemed unlikely. In his
opinion, what was far more likely was either an indecisive skirmish with little
or no damage to either side if the Union fleet was clearly outnumbered and
decided to retreat, OR a pitched battle between more or less evenly matched
fleets with heavy casualties on both sides. Unfortunately, it would take months
to send a request for and receive clarification. If the attack happened soon,
the clarification would come back too late. He put the data tablet down, and
just as he was reaching for the bottle of vodka to refill his glass, the Battle
Stations klaxon sounded.