A Deep Sleep (Valhalla Book 1) (25 page)

“We’re already getting ours.” Athena shot back as
Tripoli
pounced on a destroyer that was now without a cruiser to protect or direct its fire. The cruisers had been directing the fight, but their deaths left the entire Chinese formation in disarray. Each ACG bagged a destroyer and even the AMCs managed to take down a heavily damaged destroyer despite their lack of heavy railguns. The gunboats fell upon the remaining destroyers, closing to dangerous distances to pummel them with their small railguns. 2
nd
and 3
rd
Squadrons pushed hard to match the accomplishment of 1
st
Squadron and each managed a destroyer.

The Chinese did not go quietly, punching multiple holes in
Ticonderoga
and destroying another gunboat. They also did substantial damages to several more of her dwindling gunboats. They were however ultimately outmatched and after an intensive forty minute duel, space was swept clear.

“Local space clear, sir.” Johnson said, the relief evident in her voice.

“Damage reports?” Athena inquired.

“Coming in now sir.” Daniels reported. “Class A damages include;
Ticonderoga
,
Thunderer
, and Gunboats 1, 6, 8, and 10. Damage control efforts are underway. Class B damages on most ships, Class C on all ships. A complete list is on your board sir.”

“Very well. Stand down general quarters.” Athena said, reviewing the reports from across the group.
Ticonderoga
had the most significant damage, multiple hull breaches and at least fifty dead. That was likely to go up since they still had fifteen missing. Still, they had come through the fight in much better condition than they should have. The Chinese had blundered into her trap and badly at that. She hadn’t been facing a frontline commander. Something was off.

“Ensign Johnson, do you have anything on our path to the slip gate? Even something small or of questionable accuracy?” Athena asked.

“Uhm, no sir, I don’t believe so. I will check with my people.” Johnson bent over her console and began a quiet conversation with her support staff.

“What are you thinking sir?” Heath said.

“Well, that seemed too easy. They didn’t have a lot of tact, almost like…” She trailed off.

“Almost like they were there to herd us.” Heath finished sourly, beginning to see where she was going.

“Exactly.” Athena said quietly, such that only Heath could hear her.

“Sir?” Johnson interrupted.

“Have you got something?” Athena asked quickly.

“Hard to tell sir. When the gunboat went critical, it released a lot of energy. We directed that towards the oncoming Chinese force, but a substantial portion of that energy still radiated towards us and the slip gate. The subspace portion of that energy highlighted a number of odd distortions in the vicinity of the slip gate. Now, these could just be because of the interactions between the gate and the gunboat energy, eddies and such, but…”

“But the sensors haven’t given you enough resolution to be sure.” Athena said.

“Yes sir.” Johnson said.

“Well, couldn’t expect much more than that. Recommendations?” Athena asked her.

“The best way is a close range high intensity scan, but if they were Chinese forces in waiting, I’m sure we’d all like to know before they fire missiles at us.” She smiled weakly at that. “I would suggest a high intensity long range ping. We should be able to use the larger ships’ forward sensor arrays and concentrate the area effected enough to get a reasonable degree of certainty about what we’re dealing with. At the very least, I can rule out a sub-space eddy.”

“Do it.” Athena turned to Daniels. “Make sure the other ships coordinate through Ensign Johnson, anything she needs. This takes priority, even over DC efforts.”

“Aye sir.”

While Johnson worked to coordinate the sensor sweep, Athena paged through intelligence reports. The problem was, they were frustratingly dated. DSF-1 had only been out of contact with the fleet for about eleven days, but in that time Admiral Mondragon had fought an engagement against the Chinese in GJ 48, results unknown. It was highly likely that the Chinese still controlled that system to one degree or another.

“Deep in thought I see.”

Athena barely prevented herself from jumping in her seat as Joel Sanders interrupted her train of thought.

“Yeah, deeper than I knew.” Athena said quickly, somewhat embarrassed. Sanders was looking at the tactical display.

“So what’s the game plan?” He asked.

“Well, I’ve got Ensign Johnson working on a sensor sweep of the Alpha Slip Gate.”

“Suspect a trap.” He didn’t phrase it as a question. He looked back at the display and shrugged. “It’s what I’d do.”

“Exactly, me too.”

“Glad we’re on the same page, sir. That group we dispatched was too green. If that was the best they had to throw at us, this war will be over soon. No imagination.” He said with a grimace. “Still a bloody business.”

“And the butcher’s bill isn’t paid yet.” Athena said, just as grim as her XO.

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“We’re ready, sir.” Johnson reported.

“Execute at your earliest convenience.” Athena ordered.

“Yes sir. One minute for initialization.” Johnson said.

“Let’s see what we’ve got.” Sanders said, turning to face the tactical display.

“Initializing,
Tripoli
,
Ticonderoga
,
Inchon
, and
Thunderer
are all contributing.” As Johnson indicated, the four ships each pulsed their powerful active subspace sensors along the computer guided paths, sweeping a narrow region around the slip gate. “Contact…correction, Contacts!”

“I see them.” Athena said.

“Yes sir.” Johnson said. “One battleship, two light cruisers, four destroyers, a fleet carrier, and twenty corvettes. I don’t have enough information for specific ship types, I’d need to be closer to get much more. The range is just too great.”

“Collect as much as you can.” Athena said, watching as the Chinese ships powered up in response to being painted by the sensor sweep.

“Guess they decided they didn’t need stealth anymore, with us onto them.” Heath said glumly.

“Why bother, with that kind of force.” Sanders said, almost cheerfully.

“Why bother indeed.” Athena said quietly, then at a normal volume. “Lieutenant Heath, you have CIC. XO, my day cabin. Lieutenant Daniels, please arrange for the other captains to join us, by comm or virtually, in thirty minutes. The fleet will be jumping to FTL for the Alpha Slip Gate in one hour.”

Athena strode from the bridge and into her day cabin with Sanders in tow. He closed the hatch and they both took seats near the head of the conference table. Athena couldn’t help herself and let out a long sigh.

“Yes sir, that’s about right.” Sanders agreed.

“We’ve got a problem Joel.” Athena began.

“Yes sir. That’s a lot of force for this group. Fully armed, we could take them. As short on missiles as we are.” He looked down at a supply list he’d brought up on the table’s built-in screen and projected it onto the bulkhead. “We’ve only got enough missiles to rearm five of the gunboats to a full load and our own ships will barely be able to fire a complete volley. Less than eighty missiles total.”

“And eighty missiles isn’t enough to get past that battleship’s point-defense, not if they’re fully outfitted and up to full strength.” She looked pointedly at her XO. “Which we have to assume they are.”

“Absolutely sir. We can’t assume anything different. Especially since they were able to all power up in good order and stay hidden as long as they did. They must have the force to take us on alone, otherwise they would have tried to help the other group.”

“Or they’d be asking for our surrender.” Athena shrugged.

“True, nothing like a good bluff.” Sanders agreed. “What’s the play sir?”

“I’m thinking we’re going to have to play it straight.” Athena said after a moment.

“Straight sir?” Sanders asked, a slight tone of incredulity in his voice.

“Yes.” Athena said, another heavy sigh escaping. “I don’t see an angle to use here. With any luck, the opposing commander will suspect we’re up to something.”

Sanders rocked back in his seat, letting out his own sigh. He stared hard at the munitions list as if he could will it to display more missiles. The day cabin door opened and the Marine guard entered with a familiar face in tow.

“Captain Martin, welcome.” Athena said, dismissing the Marine guard at the same time. “I’m surprised to see you in person.” Athena knew he had come aboard, a captain didn’t come aboard without signaling the other, but he had insisted on waving the normal ceremonies associated with such an occurrence and simply coming straight to meet her.

“Admiral, Commander.” He said in greeting. “Seems we’re in a bit of a pickle. I think I have some ideas to help.”

“I hoped you might.” Athena smiled. “Let’s get to work. I believe the other captains are joining us by video link.”

“What have you got for us sir?” Sanders asked, genuinely curious.

“Well at Aegis we’ve been working for a while on various experimental systems. Some of these were incorporated into
Thunderer
, even though they aren’t fully production-ready. The Armadillos also have some of these systems incorporated. There are two that I feel can be of some use to use now. First,
Thunderer
is equipped with two experimental plasma cannons. They’ve been fired a few times from an asteroid testing facility and showed great promise, but development has largely been suspended for the last year.”

“Why was development suspended?” Athena interrupted.

“Well, sir, the facility suffered a catastrophic failure and blew up. Took over one hundred of our personnel with it. We have to build a new test site, one that is safer for our people.” He answered.

“And you want to fire these things from within
Thunderer
?” Sanders asked skeptically.

“No, but I don’t think we have a lot of choice.
Thunderer
does have internal repulsor fields designed to contain a partial failure. The test facility suffered a failure during a failure test. They were having primary systems fail with a shot in the tube to test the back-ups. The back-ups couldn’t handle it. So long as we don’t let that happen,
Thunderer
can handle any other failures.” He looked at both of them. “We don’t have much choice.”

“Agreed. If we had another option, we’d be discussing it.” Athena said. “You mentioned two useful systems?”

“Yes.” Martin manipulated the display to bring up the Armadillos and
Thunderer
in concert. “The second system is really a cooperative effort. We’ve been experimenting with improved deflectors for some time. The problem has always been absorbing more punishment without taking up too much hull area and depriving the ship of weapons or sensors. Instead we focused on a cooperative effort. We call it the COoperative Repulsor Effect, or CORE. CORE allows for multiple ships, travelling in close proximity, to share their repulsor fields using a computer algorithm to share the load in real-time.”

“Close proximity?” Sanders echoed. “How close are we talking?”

“That’s the kicker.” Martin brought the display in tight on two Armadillos and displayed relevant dimensions. “No more than two hundred and fifty meters, ideally between one fifty and two hundred.”

“Two hundred meters.” Athena said slowly. “That’s practically touching. Particularly at combat speeds.”

“It is. It’s so close that we had to give helm control over to a single helmsman in our testing. Using a laser-link between the ships, one ship controls all of them.” Martin said.

“Sounds dicey.” Athena considered it for a moment. “What kind of bonus are we talking?”

“A lot depends on the incoming fire, directionality and such. For kinetic engagements, most have between a twenty-five and fifty percent increase in successful deflections. Missiles are not as good, seeing no more than twenty percent, with the average closer to five percent. There’s just too much energy from one of those for CORE to do much about it.”

“Alright. I think we have the beginnings of a plan.” Athena said at last.

“We do, sir?” Sanders asked.

“Yes.” Athena said. “Here’s what we’re going to do.”

Sol System: Earth

Chinese Military HQ, Hong Kong

“Sir, you have an appointment with the logistics department head in five minutes.” Qiang’s aide interrupted his tactical musings about how best to deal with the mischievous group of American ships that had penetrated behind their lines and were now trying to make good on their escape. By most accounts, the Americans had decimated the only industry of use outside of Sol that he had left to produce war materiel. Logistics would no doubt be complaining already. While the ‘tooth’ end of the war effort often made fun of the ‘tail’ end, they did serve to keep men like him in the field, a fact all too often forgotten. Qiang strove not to forget. His plans to deal with the American’s were laid, at any rate. He had managed to dispatch a battleship to deal with them. Regardless of how wily their commander may be, a battleship was more than a match for some gunboats and a lone cruiser. “Sir?”

“Yes, yes, let’s go.” Qiang stood and followed his pestering aide. The man had, if he recalled correctly, been recently transferred from the logistics department. Any officer with tactical training was needed in the field, replacing the front line troops who had been suffering high attrition rates. Qiang couldn’t help but wonder what that was doing to upper echelon commands, no young eager tacticians there for their commanders to bounce ideas off from. A fresh perspective could often do wonders for a commander’s clarity of thought. Not to mention it was key in developing young officers into future commanders. He mentally shrugged, nothing to be done about it right now. He was already going to be late.

The ten minute trip to the logistics office was also something of a scenery transition. The logistics office was close to the orbital shipping terminal on Chek Lap Kok and travelling from the HQ building located along Kowloon Bay resulted in something of a shock. The buildings here served a clear purpose, their industrial and dirty exteriors showing their age but also their durability. Many of the buildings here dated back to the First Space War. Consequently, much of the electronic infrastructure here was patched together. It seemed a cruel joke that the group responsible for keeping one of the most technologically advanced militaries ever in space was forced to make do with what often amounted to little more than scrap.

Qiang was shaken out of his own thoughts by the ground car’s arrival at the logistics HQ building. The large number of transport shuttles precluded a short hop shuttle. As Qiang exited, he couldn’t help but notice how much quieter the terminal seemed to be. There were so few shuttles airborne that he could actually tell the difference between various shuttle engines.

He briskly walked up the steps and into the building, the Marine guard snapping to attention as he approached. A second guard, clearly the older of the two, checked his ID and scanned his implanted ID chip before also saluting and allowing him to access the building. Once inside, Qiang knew where he was going, walking briskly to the lift. He and his aide rode the lift to the fourth floor and strode to the appointed conference room. It was smaller than Qiang thought, seating was only available for six. The room was also lacking in modern technology, having a single 2D screen along one wall and a tactile interface table at its center. Qiang didn’t know whether to be insulted by the snub or to treat it as a carelessness on the part of the junior officer who had scheduled it.

“It is an honor, Grand Admiral.” Qiang turned slowly and saw as a man entered the room, a Rear Admiral in the People’s Navy Logistics Division. “I am Rear Admiral Chu Ivan.”

“Same to you. Shall we begin? Will there be anyone else joining us?” Qiang inquired with an even tone. This seemed to be a second snub, if a small one. Qiang had expected a full admiral.

“No sir. This will be all for today’s meeting. The matter is urgent, our supplies are quite stretched and that includes personnel in this command.” He offered a small smile.

“Very well.” Qiang said, taking a seat. Chu closed and locked the door before following suit. Qiang regarded him curiously.

“As I said, the matter is urgent.” Chu said slowly. “However, I must be honest, the reason I scheduled this meeting was not for the logistics concerns.”

“Excuse me?” Qiang said, quickly tiring of the games.

“Admiral Tan Min was a friend and mentor of your’s, correct?” Chu probed.

“Yes, he was.” Qiang said, a warning flag rising in the back of his mind.

“And now, after loyally serving the People, where is he now?” Chu had now sent bright red warnings across Qiang’s mind. This didn’t bode well.

“He is currently imprisoned for his failures, thus I have been selected to take command.” Qiang had a sharp brittle edge in his voice now. “Now, what is the meaning of this line of questioning?”

“I wish that were true, Admiral.” Chu said sadly, his face revealing a deep sadness. “Admiral Tan Min was executed by internal security forces two days ago.”

“Wh-What?” Qiang was stunned for a moment.

“As for my line of questioning, I do apologize but I do what I must, for the People and for the Admiral.” Chu continued, ignoring Qiang’s disbelief. “I have something you must see, or rather experience, before I can continue.” He finished, standing.

“I do not know what game you are playing at, but I can guarantee that you will not live to regret it for long.” Qiang said, his voice was now deadly and cold.

“Please sir, I implore you, tolerate this for only long enough to see what I have to show you.” Chu implored. For some reason, Qiang conceded.

“Very well.” Qiang said quietly, his voice still maintaining a sharp edge.

Chu nodded and gestured for Qiang to follow him. Chu did not go back to the entrance, but instead to the only other door in the room. As Qiang stepped through the door and into the small space, he realized that this room was some sort of large storage closet. He could feel his anger beginning to rise again when he saw something that surprised him. Behind a shelving unit sat an old VR-chair. The virtual reality environment it created was rudimentary by today’s standards, but the basics of the unit were still used today. Qiang noted that it was actually running and open, waiting.

“If you would sir?” Chu gestured to the chair.

“Why?” Qiang asked.

“Why a VR or why this old piece of garbage?” Chu asked.

“Both.” Qiang said.

“To answer the second first, this is the most secure thing we could use that would still serve our purpose. This is such an old unit that we can be certain of the origin of all of it’s components. Also, this does not require a connection to a larger network to operate, as its simulations are much more limited in scope and size.” Chu looked meaningfully at the chair. “This unit happens to have belonged to Admiral Tin Min’s father. For your first question, the simulation will answer that itself.”

Qiang stepped forward and sat in the chair. Chu helped him attach the input-output leads to his body. The process took several minutes before Chu could step to the side and manipulate the external control panel.

“Ready sir?”

“Do it.” Qiang said, anxious to proceed down the path he had begun on. Chu nodded and the capsule closed around him. Qiang felt his head spin as the link was made with his brain. Qiang resisted at first, then let himself spin away into the spiraling sea of colors.

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“Chen Qiang.” Qiang spun quickly, the sound of the voice familiar in an instant.

“Admiral!” Qiang said, snapping to a salute.

“Haha, now now, Qiang, you know that is not something you need to do in private to me.” Min paused for a moment considering his hand with great apparent interest. “Especially considering this is not even me.”

It took Qiang a second before he remembered that he was in a simulation. He studied his friend and mentor, realizing that he could see the shimmer around him and there were edges that were sharper than they should have been. He couldn’t quite place it but he could sense a wrongness about it all.

“Of course sir.” Qiang said, before realizing that he had again called this computer simulation ‘sir’. Qiang took a moment to take in his surroundings, recognizing the location. He was sitting in the old leather easy chair across from Tan Min in his private study. Qiang had sat in this chair many times over the years, well before he had been an admiral.

“Let’s move to more pressing matters. I created this hologram for a purpose.” He paused to collect his thoughts, or simulate doing so. “Since you are here, that most likely means that I am indeed dead. It also means that I was likely executed by our own government and that our war with the American’s and their allies still rages across all of space. Since you are here, I must assume that you have survived where I have not. For this reason I must assume that the Party is not aware of my more clandestine actions. If they were, I suspect you too would be dead or imprisoned, guilty by association.” Min smiled ruefully.

“Guilty by association, sir?” While not real, Qiang still couldn’t help but call the simulation sir.

“Yes. I have harbored, for some time now, doubts about our war with the Americans. Or rather, doubts about our intentions in such a war. This of course, is something of a rebellious thought.” Min said with some dark humor.

“But surely that is not sufficient for them to execute you.” Qiang said weakly.

“You should know better than that by now, my old friend. Our friends in Internal Security can execute most anyone they please so long as they fill out the proper paperwork.” Min said, again trying to find a humorous tone. “But no, you are correct, they would likely have just stripped me of rank and forced me into a quiet retirement. But as I said, they likely do not know. I suspect that I have been outfoxed by the Americans, most likely Admiral Mondragon. But I digress. My thoughts moved beyond simply having concerns. I began to formulate a plan, one to safeguard our people, to safeguard China.”

“Sir, are you talking about a coup?” Qiang said, failing to completely hide his shock.

“You catch on quickly.” Min said. “Yes I am.”

“But sir…” Qiang was lost for words.

“I know, Qiang, it goes against everything we have been taught, everything we have been conditioned to serve. Except for one thing, our duty to the people. We cannot forget them.” Min’s words hit Qiang heavily, leaving him conflicted. “I’m afraid I must place this heavy burden on you now. I pray that it never becomes necessary, but if our war goes poorly, I fear for what the Party may resort to, the measures they may take.”

“What do you fear they may do?” Qiang asked, not really wanting the answer.

“Several things come to mind, each more frightening than the last. Initially, they may use military force to suppress our own people, more than simply martial law. They may well elect to use nuclear weapons against our own people, use our marines to slaughter them wholesale. But worst of all, I suspect they may not accept defeat.” Min said with weight.

“They may have no choice.”

“There is always a choice.” Min said.

“They would still lose, even if they deployed our entire arsenal. Nobody would win in such an exchange.” Qiang said. “The orbital fortresses are not tools of war, they are simply apocalyptic precursors.”

“You will find no disagreement from me, Qiang. We discussed it at length one evening, long before this war. I am sure you remember.” Min said with a smile.

That was one way to put it. They had finished a very expensive bottle of scotch that night, a celebration on Qiang’s promotion to rear admiral. The discussion, however, had turned serious by the time they were halfway through the bottle. The orbital fortresses built by each of the great powers was the modern equivalent of the American and Soviet Cold War nuclear arsenals and MAD. There were enough nuclear tipped and purely kinetic weapons on those battlestations for each power to end life on Earth several times over. They were also nearly impossible to defend against.

“What would you have me do?” Qiang asked.

“You must take up my mantle. You are the natural choice for Grand Admiral, for my successor. You will be watched, yes, but you will also be in a position to stop what we both fear. You must protect the people, Qiang, you must do so at all costs. Rear Admiral Chu can assist you. He is my most trusted confidant, other than yourself of course. He will be able to assist you in contacting those who I have gathered to me, those of like mind.”

“But sir…” Qiang trailed off, unsure of how to ask his next question.

“How can you trust this recording, how can you trust Rear Admiral Chu.” Min asked, the simulation still conveying the power and the care that could only have come from Min himself.

“Yes sir.” Qiang said.

“That is the trouble, isn’t it.” Min said knowingly. “There are several ways to answer your question. First, this device is as tamper-proof as is possible and has never been connected to a network. It cannot be monitored, assuming of course you chose to trust Rear Admiral Chu and his guardianship of this VR unit.”

“That is a large step.” Qiang said pessimistically.

“He may be able to win your trust.” Min’s voice took on an impressively synthesized version of his mentor’s compassionate tone. “This will be dangerous for you, no matter your path. Remember how fickle the Party can be, my friend. Remember and be careful. I’m afraid that is all I have for you, this is the end of my advice.”