Rumors of Honor (System States Rebellion Book 2) (6 page)

Foster
sighed. Hindsight was such a bitch. “Savannah, our first heavy cruiser,
demonstrated its neutron armor when it engaged in combat with, and successfully
defeated, a FED cruiser in Earth orbit eight months ago, Sir.”

“Oh,
hell!” Janicot silently cursed himself for his short-sightedness. At the time
it never occurred to him that deploying an armored cruiser as a commerce raider
would generate these kinds of repercussions. Now it was all too obvious. He had
screwed things up big time.
Did I just lose the war for us?
That thought
was so terrifying that he had to close his eyes and hold his breath for a few
seconds. He then remembered that he wasn’t alone. He made a conscious effort to
regain his composure as he opened his eyes and looked at Foster.

“Is
there more?” he asked.

Foster
cleared her throat before answering. “Not yet. We’ve asked it to evaluate our
best short, medium and long term strategies, assuming that its Makassar
prediction is correct. It’s still working on those requests, Sir.”

“Good.
Naturally I want to hear those results as soon as you get them. Have you formed
an impression of how our Oracle compares with the original yet, Major?”

“Yes,
Sir. Even in the short period since its completion, I’ve already seen enough to
say that its speed and capacity to handle complex questions is comparable with
the FED prototype, but that’s just Phase One of course. The big question is how
much more capable will it be when we finish doubling the size of the device in
Phase Two?”

“Any
chance it’ll be as good as the Majestic device they’re deploying on Hadley?”
asked Janicot. His hopes crashed when he saw Foster shake her head.

“No,
Sir. I feel safe in saying that. Majestic isn’t just a bigger computer. It’s
comprised of an improved kind of computing architecture. If Majestic was the
same size as Oracle, it would still be significantly more capable. The fact
that it’s also bigger just makes the difference in capabilities even more
noticeable.”

“I
see. How big would our Oracle have to be in order to be in the same league as
their Majestic, Major?”

Foster’s
eyes widened when she heard that question. “I ah…that’s a difficult question to
answer, Sir.”

Janicot
smiled in sympathy. “I know I’m asking a tough question. What’s your best
guess?”

“Ten
times as big…maybe…but you see, Admiral, I’m not even sure if it’s possible to
build a comparable computer using Oracle-type components, no matter how big it
might be. There comes a point where you get diminishing marginal returns to
scale. In other words, the technology has a built-in limit to how effective it
can be. Any attempt to scale up an Oracle device will eventually reach a point
where the device will be twice as big but will NOT be twice as effective, if
you see what I mean.”

Janicot
did see what she was getting at. Doubling Oracle’s size in Phase Two was
probably worthwhile. It might even be worthwhile to double it again in a Phase
Three, but that effort would almost certainly delay progress on developing
their own Majestic technology, and hopefully Oracle would be able to tell them
if that trade-off was worth it or not. The FEDs had a head start in computing
capability and in developing their raw industrial potential. Either one by
itself was bad enough, but both together was a terrifying prospect. Somehow the
SSU had to make an end run with something the FEDs weren’t working on.

“You
call me when you have those long term answers, Major, and I don’t care if it’s
the middle of the night. Are we clear on that?”

“Clear,
Sir.”

* 
*  *  *

Day
89/2544

Trojan
woke to the sound of the navigation alarm. He was getting close to his
destination and needed to slow down. The needle-nosed reconnaissance craft that
he was using as his personal transport was capable of sustained flight at Mach
3. Even so, the trip from 1st Fleet/Army HQ on Hadley’s Alpha continent to the
new backup facility here on Beta still took long enough that he’d been able to
enjoy a nap while the craft flew on auto-pilot. The external view on the video
screen showed a heavy cloud cover below him, but he wasn’t worried. The craft’s
auto-pilot knew where they were. He ordered the auto-pilot to begin a
controlled descent and establish radio contact with the Air Defense center
guarding the backup site.

“Site
B to 1FA01. We’ve received your transponder ID. You’re cleared to land. Welcome
back, General.”

“Thank
you, Site B. How’s the weather down there?”

“Better
hurry, General. Meteorology is predicting rain any minute now. We’ll have a
groundcar waiting for you.”

“Sounds
good, Site B. I’m dropping through the cloud cover now.” It only took a few
seconds for the external view to show his destination. The backup command
facility at Site B had started out as a duplicate of the underground command
facility where 1st Fleet/Army Force was currently headquartered, but it had
quickly become something else. The primary site on Alpha continent housed the
Oracle computer, but because the Majestic device was so much larger, installing
it at the primary site was not possible. Site B was the solution. Trojan
chuckled as he remembered the engineers explaining to him how they intended to
install Majestic at Site B. The machine was so massive that it would be more
efficient to build the duplicate command facility around Majestic. The
machine’s components would form the walls inside the facility. Trojan and his
people would literally live and work inside Majestic.

That
concept had presented some interesting engineering challenges. Unlike the
primary site, they couldn’t hollow out a large space deep underground and then
build the facility afterwards. At Site B, they started with a narrow valley.
They then constructed the facility from the bottom up at the base of the
valley, with Majestic’s components installed inside what appeared to be walls
up to a meter thick. When Majestic was finished being assembled, the top of the
facility would be added, and then crushed stone would be layered on top. Each
layer of crushed stone would be melted and allowed to cool as a solid slab of
stone before another layer was added. By the time the whole process was
finished, the valley would be filled in completely, and no one would be able to
tell that there was anything unusual beneath it.

But
that was still in the future. Right now, the valley was only partially filled
in, and Majestic was still in the process of being installed. Trojan ordered
the external camera to zoom in to the site. The facility looked like a huge
maze with things moving through and over it. Those things were construction
vehicles carrying the pre-fabricated ‘panels’ of computer components that would
be connected together to form rooms and corridors.

Trojan
let the auto-pilot take the recon craft down to 500 meters altitude, at which
point the Air Defense Center computers took control and brought the craft to a
soft landing at the makeshift spaceport that was just over five kilometers from
the construction site. Trojan checked the time before exiting the craft. He
still had a couple of hours of daylight left, plenty of time to inspect
progress on the project. As he stepped down onto the ground, he took in a deep
breath. The air smelled sweet and moist with that noticeable odor that always
seemed to precede rain. He noticed a flash of lightning in the distance and
counted until he heard the thunder. As he waited, he saw the groundcar
approaching. It pulled up in front of him and the rear door slid open. He
stepped inside and by the time he was seated, the door had closed and the
vehicle was smoothly accelerating under the control of its own auto-pilot.

“Take
me to the Project Offices,” said Trojan. The auto-pilot repeated the
destination. There was no rush to get to the temporary quarters that he knew
were set aside for his use. He wanted to get a good look at the site while
there was still enough light to see it. No sooner had the auto-pilot confirmed
the destination then Trojan started to hear rain hit the roof of the vehicle.
That would reduce visibility from the Project Offices observation deck a bit,
but at least it wouldn’t interfere with the work. Majestic’s component panels
were all waterproof.

“Project
Admin, can you hear me?” asked Trojan. A familiar voice came back almost
immediately.

“Loud
and clear, Gen—“

“This
is ADC! Orbital radars have detected incoming missile attack! All personnel
head for the shelters! I repeat! We’re under missile attack! Head for shelters
now!”

The
excited voice of the Air Defense Center technician was replaced by the familiar
voice of the member of his staff who had started to greet him. “General,
there’s not enough time for you to get to our shelters here! Suggest you tell
the vehicle to stop where you are! It’s unlikely the missiles will hit near
you!”

“Okay,
Sam. You head for the shelters. Auto-pilot, stop the vehicle here!” He heard
the electronic confirmation as the vehicle came to a stop.

“Good
luck, General!” said Sam. Trojan heard a click that told him that
communications had been cut.

“Show
me where we are,” said Trojan. The small display above him came to life with a
topographical map of the area and a yellow flashing dot to indicate where the
groundcar was. Trojan noticed that the road he was on followed the contours of
a ridge. On the other side of that ridge was the valley where Site B was being
constructed. The ridge was high enough that someone on top could also see the
spaceport. He decided he needed to see what the incoming missiles would be
targeted on.

“Open
the left door!” When the door slid back, he saw how hard it was raining now. If
he left the vehicle he’d get soaked in no time flat, but he was damned if he
was going to sit here when his people were in danger. At least he could see
what was happening if he could get to the top of the ridge. “Remain here until
I return!” He didn’t bother to wait until the auto-pilot had confirmed its
orders. Once outside the vehicle he looked at the side of the ridge. It was
covered in vegetation which would be slippery from the rain, but there were
enough bushes to grab hold of that he thought he could manage it. It was a good
thing he carried a pair of gloves. A lot of plant life on this planet had
thorns, and he didn’t relish the idea of clutching the wild plants with his
bare hands.

The
climbing wasn’t as difficult as he had expected. Just as he made it to the top
of the ridge, he heard a sound coming from behind him, from the general
direction of the spaceport. He saw three yellow streaks coming down from the
sky. Missile warheads, still hot enough from air friction to give off a glow,
were plunging toward the spaceport. The sound he heard was the CRACK that the
point defense rail gun cannon made when its accelerated metal slugs left the
gun barrel at three times the speed of sound. One of the plunging warheads
exploded in mid-air, then another. Just as Trojan hoped all three would be
intercepted before hitting the ground, more streaks emerged from the rain
clouds. He didn’t bother to count them. There must have been at least a dozen,
and not all of them were heading for the spaceport. A couple seemed to be
coming right at him. He fought to overcome the surge of fear that threatened to
paralyze him. It was unlikely that missiles fired from deep space would be
targeted at an otherwise vacant spot that just happened to be occupied by a
two-star general. He quickly realized that those two warheads were still a fair
distance away, and although they were moving in his general direction, they
would likely be a kilometer or more away from him by the time they hit the
ground.

More
warheads exploded from rail gun fire, but not all of them did. Several hit the
spaceport with blinding flashes of light and loud booms that dwarfed the sound
of thunder. He quickly turned his attention back to the two warheads heading
his way. It was clear now that they would be landing on the other side of the
ridge, and Trojan cursed the fact that the half-built duplicate command post
was likely to be hit. He had just enough time to turn and look in that
direction when both warheads hit the site and exploded. They landed close
enough that he felt the shockwaves from the blasts. The sound was deafening.
With the site temporarily obscured by smoke, Trojan looked up expecting to see
more warhead streaks, but there weren’t any. Shivering from the cold rain, he
waited until the smoke cleared. Even from this distance he could tell that
Majestic had taken a lot of damage. The good news was that all the damage could
be repaired. The bad news was that doing so would delay making Majestic operational
by months. At least no construction workers had been killed. They all would
have had time to get to the shelters.