Tactics of Conquest (Stellar Conquest) (11 page)

“Letoi. That’s a powerful Sekoi company, right?” Absen asked.

“Yes, sir,” Ellis Nightingale spoke up. “I’m having similar problems with their servos.”

“Are they manufactured to our specs?”

“No, sir. Deep scan shows the nano-metallurgy was rushed, probably to save time in the process.”

“And time is money in any economy.” Absen sighed. “All right. We need to start testing samples of everything that came from Letoi. Scoggins, consolidate a list and shoot it off to Desolator. Ask him to manufacture replacements and send them here by drone, and put him on to Letoi. We’ll do the work ourselves; it will be good practice for the maintainers.”

Commander Ekara cleared his throat. “I’ve also been having problems with some Letoi equipment. I’ll add to the list, and may I suggest that we test a sample of anything Sekoi-made?”

“All right. Can Engineering handle it?”

“Yes, sir. I’d like a week.”

Absen nodded. “We’re in no huge hurry.” His eyes narrowed at Ekara. “Commander, you look like you have more to say.”

The man glanced around for a moment, and then cleared his throat again, a sure sign of unease. “The Sekoi make very good equipment. I’m wondering why this happened.”

“Most things come down to money,” Absen said steadily. “Letoi probably figured we’d be long gone before problems started showing up, but we’ve driven our systems hard in the last 48 hours. We’ve probably created two month’s worth of wear and tear in two days.”

“Granted, sir, but that doesn’t really say why.”

“You don’t think it’s money? The rich always want to get richer.”

Ekara shrugged. “You asked me to play devil’s advocate. What if it was sabotage?”

“Seems pretty unsubtle, and noncritical.”

“I won’t know that until I get everything tested – and I mean
everything
, unless Desolator made it himself. Including the Exploder system. That’s why I need a week. Maybe longer.”

“All right,” Absen said. “You’ll have as long as you need. So…let’s continue reports with CyberComm. Ellis, you wait until last.”

The weapons engineer raised his eyebrows and nodded.

Warrant Officer Second Sirtus said, “Comms are five by five, except for some of the same.” He sat right back down.

“Helm and navigation seem fine, Skipper,” Okuda said. “And the TacDrive system has 100%
Desolator
-made components.”

“Good to hear. BioMed?”

Doctor Horton from BioMed said, “Medical facilities are first-rate. No significant failures, but then again, they aren’t new designs. Biolabs, however, are mostly of Sekoi manufacture, and will be run by a team of experts of both races. Them and humans, I mean. Ryss are…”

“…not up on the biology. I get it,” Absen replied. “Finally, some good news. We’ll skip Aerospace until the squadron is on board. Quan?”

Ekara glanced at Nightingale sourly, as if it was his fault for not reporting first. “Power systems seem to be functioning at or better than design spec, outside of the faulty components. This ship is still a power hog, though. We have ten times her old generation capacity, but fifty times her previous consumption. Before, we always had plenty of power – enough to fire continuously for half an hour. Now, we can exhaust ourselves in five minutes or less.”

“Including TacDrive?” Absen asked.

“No, sir. TacDrive capacitors are separated. I’ve designed a cross-connect for emergency use, but I’d hate to have to use it unless we really had to, unless we could get into a shipyard or back to
Desolator
to do it right. I actually don’t understand why it wasn’t built to cross-connect with the rest of the power grid.”

“My fault, Commander,” Absen said. He saw surprise show on Ekara’s face. “I don’t ever want to be short of power to escape using the TacDrive, so I asked Desolator to make it difficult to borrow from its capacitors. Power goes in, but I don’t want anyone to take it out easily.”

Ekara’s frown deepened, even while nodding reluctantly. “I understand.” When Absen made to move on, he raised a hand. “One more thing. I’d like to use Michelle. WO1 Conquest, that is. She can help test components. Speed things up a bit.”

“All right. She’s assigned to you. Now, maybe this will help explain about the power system setup.” Absen nodded to Commander Nightingale.

“Sir, weapons are excellent, performing beyond spec in fact, except for the Letoi gear. At under 1000 kilometers, a coordinated alpha strike delivers enough of a wallop to kill a Destroyer in one salvo. I can’t guarantee it will be vaporized like with an Exploder, and it will still be available as biomass for other Meme ships to eat, but my calculations show that it and every other living thing on it will be killed.”

Absen smiled. “Excellent. That falls in line with the tactics I intend to use.”

“Sir, can you explain those tactics from start to finish?” Lieutenant Fletcher said. Absen had put a bug in the man’s ear to ask just that question at the right time.

“Yes, I can.” The admiral stood up. “Whereas before we had a fleet, each ship with its role, this time we will be acting independently. Most of you know I started out in submarines, which seemed at the time to naturally transfer to spaceship command. I hope it’s not just an old man’s folly, but I envision
Conquest
as a new kind of attack submarine.”

“Pretty damn big sub, sir,” Ford mumbled.

“Subs were pretty big for their time, too, Ford, and the ocean was also huge. Now, this ship is big, but space is far bigger. The key analogy comes in the way we move, hide and fight. Like a sub, we have weapons big enough to sink ships with just one of them – one Exploder, one alpha strike. And like a sub, we will approach undetectably, make our kill, then run and hide – and do it all over again, and again. Subs don’t stand and slug it out. Subs hit and run.”

“
Conquest
was built as a dreadnought, to go toe to toe with a Destroyer and win,” Ford objected.

Absen shrugged. “Yet she became a colony carrier and a flagship. Also, we found even greater threats than Destroyers, things that could beat us. The system Guardian, for example, and the moon weapon. Throughout the history of warfare, man has built bigger heavier warships and gained a temporary advantage, only to have the weapons increase in power to counter. If we try to stand and deliver, we may encounter a new Meme technology, or find ourselves overwhelmed by sheer numbers the way
Desolator
was long ago. And if you don’t like the sub model, think of us like a powerful surface raider. Anything big enough to beat us, we can run from.”

He paused to let that sink in, waiting for comments. Silence reigned until Timmons asked, “Does that mean we can call her a boat now instead of a ship? Please?”

“By all means, COB, if it makes you happy.”

“Oh, it does, sir. It does. I’m a COB, not a COS.” Chuckles swept the audience. Timmons was well liked, for all his gruffness.

“Tactics?” Fletcher prompted again.

“Yes, back to tactics. Generally, as I said, we attack and run. Specifically, we do what we have been practicing. Charge all capacitors fully, especially the TacDrive. Use the first pulse to race in at lightspeed, stop and launch an alpha strike, and use the second pulse to get away. If we have enough intel and can execute precisely enough, we might be able to use pulse two to move into a second attack position for another kill, and use the third to run far enough that no one can catch us before we recharge.”

“That’s it, sir?” Ford said. “So simple?”

Bless you, Commander, for challenging me, and for feeding me straight lines.

“Sub warfare also sounds simple when described, Mister Ford. Just sneak in, fire torpedoes, and sneak away. In war, everything is simple, but even the simple things are difficult. And, the sub analogy is fine as far as it goes, but
Conquest
is more capable than any sub ever built. We have an Aerospace squadron on board. We have Marines. We have manufactories that can make spare parts and replenish our ammunition – in fact, we can build almost anything as long as we get raw materials from asteroids and comets. We have an AI on board that most of you met, with a lot of unrealized potential. We have laboratories and three different races, including Blends.”

“To explore strange, new worlds…” Scoggins mused.

“Et cetera; yes, Commander. Where we find Meme, we will disrupt and destroy them. Where we run into others, we may find allies, new technology, knowledge…or unknown dangers.”

“Sir?” Master Helmsman Okuda spoke up. “I think everyone would like to know, and the scuttlebutt’s been all over the map. Where are we going first?”

Everyone shifted in their seats, leaning forward as one as if straining to hear as a silence fell over the conference room.

“Officially? I’m not saying.” Absen showed his teeth in a grimace. “But I think you all know there’s only one possible answer to that question for any human being. What we find when we get there…everyone needs to prepare themselves for the worst.”

“No more than you,” he replied. “I want to finish up the new algorithms before…”

“Yeah. Before. But we still haven’t decided.”

Rick stood up to pace, not meeting her eyes. “You mean we haven’t come to terms. That’s not a decision.”

“You know how I feel.”

“And you know how I feel!” He turned toward her and raised his voice from across the room, throwing up his hands. “I just can’t understand how you can even think of leaving before our children grow up!”

Jill deliberately did not get up. “I didn’t say it was easy. It’s just what I need to do.”

“There are more than enough Marines for
Conquest
. In fact, there are three times as many volunteers as they need. Let someone else go in harm’s way this time, please. Just for a few more years.”

She sighed. “Rick, the kids…they’ll be fine. Our crèche group has ten mothers and five or six involved fathers. They’ll miss us, but the ones you call ‘our’ kids are hardly more ours than the other forty or fifty are. In fact, with them living communally, they are each others’ family far more than we are.”

Rick threw himself into his chair. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This communal-family thing is unnatural. We’re raising a generation of kids with no strong ties to their parents.”

“To their biological parents, maybe, but they love all the mothers and fathers, and in some cases they find better matches among the others. Cassie, for example, really likes Howard.”

Tears sprang into Rick’s eyes. “I know,” he whispered.

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Jill moved to sit in his lap.

Rick looked up into Jill’s brown eyes and put his arms around her. “It’s hard to watch my own kid love a surrogate parent more than me.”

She kissed him gently. “Your namesake likes you the best, though.”

Rick chuckled, masking his pain. “Ricky Markis. I love the little guy like he was my own. How can I leave him, and the others?”

Jill pulled away slightly, and then stared into his face. “You don’t have to go.”

“You think that’s a better solution? Stay here while you go? Keep them but lose you?”

“Only for a few decades,” she said with false lightness. “What’s that to immortals?”

“No one is immortal. We’d hardly know each other after that long.”

“I’d know you.” She seemed to be willing him to understand.

Rick gulped. “Only a few weeks or months will pass for you, while all those years pass for me. We don’t even know where Absen is going, do we?”

Jill cleared her throat. “Not officially, but…there’s only one place that makes sense to me.”

“Yeah. Earth. We have to know what happened.” Rick dropped his hands from around her waist and wiggled, prompting her to get up off his lap. “Drink?”

“Sure. Beer is good.”

He got two out of the fridge. They popped the tops, toasted silently and drank the first swallow together.

“Rick, if it’s what you want badly enough, I’m okay with you staying. Not happy, but…”

He set the bottle down. “It comes down to this,” he said harshly. “Who loves who more? Or less? You love me more than you love the kids, that’s obvious. You’re going to go, no matter what I decide. I can see it in your eyes. Now I have to choose between you and them.” Rick held his hand up. “I know, just for a century or so, right?” It was supposed to sound funny, but instead he heard the bitterness in his own voice come through.

Jill didn’t answer for a time, just sipped her beer and watched him stew. “The only way we would all be together is if we all go, or we all stay. I don’t see Absen letting people bring kids on a warship.”

“He did before!”

“In stasis coffins, sure. Because
Conquest
’s belly was the safest place to be during a battle. There was no better choice.”

“There’s no guarantee that they will be safer here on Afrana. The Meme could still show up with a hundred Destroyers. A thousand! Or Desolator could lose his mind again.”

Jill snorted. “Or they could get hit by a bus. It’s not about whether they will be safe. It’s about being on a ship of war. Who would supervise them? A warship can’t allocate crew to child care. No, that’s out.”

Rick’s voice went up a notch. “Everything is so simple for you, isn’t it! Black and white, weigh the options, choose a course of action and stick to it. Well, I’m not like that. I can’t just shut down my feelings and fling myself into battle the way you can.”

Jill moved toward him, but he put a hand up to fend her off. “Uh-uh. Don’t try to charm the mad off me.” He slugged down the rest of his beer and then said, “I’m going for a walk. I need to get some air and think.”

Outside, at the bottom of the stairs, Rick looked up at the night sky. Already light pollution from the growing human city made it difficult to see the stars, so he zipped up his lightweight jacket and strode off southwestward, aiming for the nearest edge of the savannah.

The gridded blocks of flats ended abruptly, as if someone had drawn a line in the dirt at the edge of the fenced playgrounds. Beyond that, rolling grasslands beckoned, and Rick set his feet on a well-worn path next to a paved two-lane road.