Barbarians at the Gates (3 page)

Marius kept his expression blank, drawing on years of experience since graduating from Luna Academy. “The level of forces assigned to my command, Your Excellency, is insufficient for the task at hand,” he said as calmly as he could. “If you want results, you need to assign me additional ships.”

The senators murmured audibly, possibly talking to their staff members via communications implant. Of course, using such implants in public was impolite, but who would dare tell that to the Senators? Everyone else pretended not to notice, but Marius would remember the slight.

“You have been assigned over three hundred starships,” Brockington said after a long pause. “Why is that insufficient?”

“Your Excellency, my area of responsibility covers over five
thousand
light years and four hundred inhabited planetary systems,” Marius said. “The odds against me managing to place a single unit in a star system that is about to be attacked by pirates are astronomical. I cannot provide reliable protection for merchant shipping, let alone hunt down the various pirate bases, which are utterly impossible to detect in such a vast area of space. Furthermore, I have been denied the authority to insist on convoys being formed and escorted. Governor Barany has flatly refused my requests to institute even a limited convoy system, which my advisors have estimated would cut our losses by over a third.”

He thought rapidly.
Should he bring up the other matter? If ONI was right, Governor Barany was actually taking money from the pirates. And that couldn’t be allowed.

“Worse, there is evidence to suggest that there are at least three unknown alien races in the Beyond, races that are aware of our existence and are actually providing help and support to the pirates. They may well have absorbed human technology, in direct violation of Directive 001. When I brought this to the governor’s attention, he refused to grant permission to launch survey missions, let alone punitive raids against the unknown aliens. Instead, he promised to send the question to the Senate. I received no response by the time I was recalled.”

It took everything he had to keep the anger out of his voice, but he managed it.

“The pirates have graduated from pest to serious annoyance,” he continued after a beat. “They started by raiding freighters; now, they’re raiding entire
planets
and carting off vast numbers of humans to use as slaves. We captured a pirate ship three years ago that carried nothing but human females, who were apparently destined for prostitution or slavery. The settlers out there are paying the pirates to leave them alone, giving them money or women in exchange for peace.”

Marius hoped the Senators understood just how wrong that was, but worse was yet to come.

“And that’s not all, as those settlers who refuse to cooperate often
die
, Your Excellency. This is most likely why pirates have destroyed at least four colonies down to the last man, woman and child.”

There was an uneasy pause, as several of the Senators busied themselves with their terminals rather than look at Marius or their fellows.

“How many do you believe died in the last ten years?” Senator Chang Li asked. “How many humans have died because we didn’t protect them?”

Marius considered her for a long moment. Back when the Federation was formed, the older planets had insisted they be allowed to represent their daughter colonies in the Senate, something that had dovetailed nicely with the limit on how many Senators could be voted into office. In practice, it ensured that the out-worlds, the ones at most risk from the pirates, had no voice in government. Senator Chang Li was only the third colonist to serve as a Senator, and she was isolated. The Senators had become aristocrats in all but name.

“The Rim records are of limited value,” Marius admitted. “However, the best estimate I can give you is that over seventy
million
humans have been killed by the pirates, or carted off to serve as slaves, or have scattered and are hiding from both us and the pirates. The situation is intolerable.”

“It is we who decide what is intolerable,” Grand Senator Alison Wallisch said. Her voice was very cold. “I have here, in my implant, a communication from the governor. He states that Vice Admiral Drake has been unwilling to cooperate with the governor or local governments.” She smiled thinly. “Perhaps you would care to explain why you showed so little respect for properly constituted authority, admiral?”

This time, it was harder to hide the rage.

“With all due respect, Senator, I discovered very quickly that sharing my operational plans with the governor meant that they were shared with the pirates,” Marius told her. “I told the governor about a planned ambush; the pirates somehow avoided it. I told him that I planned a raid on a pirate base; the base was empty when I got there and rigged to blow with antimatter. I told him to keep the information in confidence and not to share it with anyone, not even his wife, yet somehow the information got out.”

“Governor Barany is a man of the highest reputation,” Alison said. “How dare you accuse him of...supplying information to the pirates?”

“The evidence is in his bank accounts,” Marius said, throwing his last card onto the table. “He has a whole series of payments with no discernible source and...”

“Impossible,” Alison said. She turned to her fellow Senators. “The admiral is attempting to excuse his own failures by blaming the governor! I move that we consider this in closed session.”

There was a brief moment of silent communication. “I disagree,” Chang Li said. Her almond eyes sought out Marius. “We need to send more starships into the sector to protect the population.”

“At a colossal cost,” one of the Conservative Senators pointed out. “Deploying an entire fleet into the Rim would strain our logistics quite badly and—”

“There are human lives at stake,” Marius snapped, unable to control himself any longer. “Right now,
billions
of human lives are at risk of being kidnapped, killed, or simply wiped from existence. And here you are, worrying about cost!”

There was a long pause.

“I think, admiral, that you had better withdraw,” Brockington said. “We will inform you of our decision in due course.”

* * *

“The governor is one of her men, of course.”

Marius didn’t turn as the Grand Senator came up behind him. Instead, he stared out of the massive window, looking down towards the towers of Federation City. Centuries ago, the city had been built to serve as a home for the Federation’s Government, back after the First Interstellar War had taught the human race the value of unity. Now, it was just like any other city on Earth: massive towers, teeming slums and a monstrous overpopulation problem. The punishment for any crime, these days, was deportation, yet it was never enough to keep pace with the growing population. Sooner or later, the teeming mass of humanity was going to rise up and drag the entire planet down into a nightmare.

“You spoke truth to power,” Grand Senator Rupert McGillivray said dryly. “What makes you think that that will go unpunished?”

Marius turned. McGillivray was old, perhaps the oldest man in the Federation. His white hair and short, white beard were an affectation—he could have altered it at will—but the slow motion of his walk and the way his body shook told the true story. Traditionally, a Grand Senator who reached such an age—his detractors claimed he was senile—should resign, but McGillivray had held onto his chair. As the last of the Imperialist Faction—the faction that had provoked the Blue Star War—he was effectively impossible to dislodge.

“I like to think that the government would do the right thing,” Marius said honestly. “Didn’t they see the records from hijacked ships and ruined planets?”

“Of course they did,” McGillivray said. “What makes you think they care? Everyone in the Senate is focused on keeping and expanding their power bases. Dead colonials along the Rim don’t vote; wealthy citizens in the Core Worlds do so, frequently. Pleasing them is far more important than trying to stop the pirates.”

He shrugged as he took one of the seats that allowed him to stare out over Federation City. The sun was setting in the distance.

“Admiral, no one of your high position can afford to be ignorant of politics,” McGillivray said. “I know; you reached your position through merit and you deserve it, but merit alone isn’t enough these days. There’s a total deadlock in the Senate and no one is going to go out on a limb and suggest that sending a few hundred additional units out to the Rim might be a good idea, even with a clear and present threat to the entire Federation.”

Marius nodded dismally. “But they’re playing fast and loose with the security of the entire
Federation
,” he repeated with emphasis. “How long is it going to be before we face an even greater threat?”

McGillivray smiled. “Are the new aliens a danger to the Federation?”

“I don’t know,” Marius admitted. “The Senate banned us from sending survey missions out to their space; hell, we know very little about them. The real danger is that they will get organized as a unit if we give them time, perhaps allying with the pirates and rebels. They have to know, by now, what life as an alien in the Federation is like.”

The thought was a bitter one. The First Interstellar War had left a legacy of xenophobia running through the Federation. No alien race could be permitted to threaten humanity ever again. Aliens were second-class citizens even on their own homeworlds, denied weapons or access to spaceflight. They were banned from Earth and the Core Worlds, while the out-worlds often used aliens as a source of cheap labor. Marius had no more love for the aliens than the average human, yet even he was prepared to admit that no rational alien race would want to join the Federation.

Of course, the Blue Star War had made it clear what would happen to any race that
refused
to cooperate.

“True,” McGillivray agreed after a pause. He leaned forward, assuming a lecturing pose. “The Conservatives want to keep things as they are, because they’re effectively in charge of half the galaxy. They’re allied with most of the big interstellar corporations because the corporations want to keep the laws and procedures they already have...”

“Keeping them on top,” Marius put in.

“Precisely,” McGillivray said. “The Socialists are trying to challenge this by distributing federal largesse to the population of the Core Worlds, the planets that can make or break Senators. In theory, they can effectively buy votes because they promise to keep the money flowing. In practice, what they’re actually doing is damaging the tax base; the big corporations have the legal framework to escape taxation, or they’re moving operations out to the out-worlds. So the Socialists raise taxes on smaller businesses and individuals, which makes their continued survival impossible, which means they’re actually expanding the pool of needy people who need federal support to survive. Worse, because most of the Core Worlds are actually significant, raising taxes there is politically dangerous, so they start taxing the out-worlds, which causes massive resentment and a black market.

“Back when we had the Imperialist Faction, all three were balanced, but now...” He shook his head. “My family was there when the Constitution was first written,” he said slowly. “And now I may live long enough to see the Federation tear itself apart.”

Marius blinked. “Surely it’s not that serious...”

“Oh, yes it is,” McGillivray insisted. “You remember how reluctant they were to send ships to the Rim? They’ve been cutting the military to the bone in order to fund their pet projects; they’ve been cutting back on everything. The Survey Service has effectively been disbanded. The Asimov Point Monitoring Service has been placed on indefinite hold. They’ve even been skimping on ICN funding for the Rim and...”

Marius held up a hand, as etiquette demanded. A message had just downloaded into his implants. “They want me to head back to the Admiralty,” he said flatly. He would have time to think about McGillivray’s words on the way. “Thank you...”

“Thank
you
,” McGillivray said. He winked. “It’s astonishing how few people pay attention to me these days.”

* * *

Admiralty House—the headquarters of the Federation Navy—was on the other side of the continent from Federation City. No one knew, now, why it had been built there, but it was tradition and, as such, could not be interfered with by mere mortals. Marius had his own theory; the Snakes, the first alien race humanity had encountered, had bombarded planetary defense centers with abandon, ignoring the danger to civilian populations. Building the HQ so far from the civilian population might just save civilian lives if the enemy took the high orbitals and chose to bombard the planet before invading.

The shuttle raced towards the city at several times the speed of sound. It was a sign of haste that the Admiralty had assigned his transport to the first available craft, rather than wait for an aircar. Someone in the Senate must have lit a fire under someone’s ass. Marius didn’t mind. The shuttle might be disarmed, but it felt more...natural than a luxury aircar. Sitting behind the pilot gave him time to rest. There was no point in trying to think, not after hearing from both the Senate and Grand Senator McGillivray. He’d find out what was waiting for him when he landed.

He looked up sharply as an alarm shrilled. It was the planetary defense alarm, an alarm that was never used, even in drills. The Solar System wasn’t under attack—was it?