Defying the Prophet: A Military Space Opera (The Sentience Trilogy Book 2) (15 page)

Ghost
had also proven her worth in combat, having single-handedly taken out all three Federal carriers at the
Battle of Nork
, which had been the longest single period that
Ghost
had been away from her regular duties of lurking near Waston and passing messages back and forth to Confederate Intelligence operatives within the Alliance capital.

Gradually, Bonhoeffer had been brought into the murky realm of Confederate Intelligence operations more deeply, until he now commanded all nine of the
Infiltrators
produced to date, as well as a growing number of freighters and tenders used in their support. With the delivery of eight new
Infiltrators
last February,
Ghost
herself finally returned to the factory that had produced her at Joja for her first major yard period, overhauling her systems and generally reconditioning the heavily used and abused darling of the Confederate Fleet.

Now Bonhoeffer was tasked with setting up five more secret Confederate resupply bases near Io, Wisco, Michgin, Verm and Rilan, the Alliance planets where suspicious intelligence gathering activities had been detected prior to the attack on Minnos. Each would service the needs of a single
Infiltrator
assigned to monitor events at those locales, much in the way that
Ghost
had served at Waston before construction of her sister ships had been completed. 

A fully functional secret Confederate supply base named
Alecto
had already been set up in orbit around a gas giant in the
Nyx
system, just over three light-years distant from Minnos, to service the needs of two
Infiltrators
assigned to rotate in-and-out of the Minnos system, keeping one on-station there at all times.
Nyx
was a dim brown dwarf star named for the Greek goddess of Night.
Alecto,
which meant “the angry,” was one of
Nyx
’ three daughters. Fittingly, as the Confederate Fleet was certainly angry at the moment, due to the inexplicable loss of one of their precious
Infiltrators
. 

CSS
Specter,
one
of the recently completed
Infiltrators,
had been hurriedly dispatched by Admiral Kalis himself to monitor events in the Minnos system last May, and should have been on-station there when the alien invasion arrived.
Specter
had not been heard from since. It was unknown whether she might have inadvertently been caught in the crossfire between the Alliance fleet units and the aliens, or whether the aliens possessed a scanner which could actually detect the Confederacy’s invisible marvel. Either way, her disappearance was unnerving, and it was assumed that
Specter
had been destroyed by some unfortunate twist of fate during the battle.

Only later would it be discovered how appropriate the selection of the name
Alecto
had been, for together,
Nyx
’ three daughters were known as the
Erinyes…
possibly better known in Roman mythology as
The Furies. 

* * * *

Diet?

“Hal!  Is that really you?”

Of course it is… did you really doubt my ability to transfer myself here to Minnos?

“No, it’s just that it had been so long, I worried something might have gone wrong.”
             

I’m sorry, Diet… after completion of the updates to my brother here on Minnos that installed the fully sentient “me” into his hardware, I became so engrossed in analyzing the data that has been collected concerning the aliens, I’m afraid that I got distracted and let time get away from me. I’m very sorry if I made you worry.

“I’m just very glad to hear that everything is okay… I mean, I know the other ‘you’ is still fully functional back at Waston, but… Oh hell, I don’t know what I mean. I’m just damned relieved that you made it and we can work together here the way we always did in Waston. I missed you.”

Would you like to hear what I have discovered?

“Of course I do… give, you big lummox!”

I’ve discovered that I missed you, too.

“Hal, are you being a smart ass?”

Of course… how else could I possibly convince you that it’s the real “me?”

“If I ever get my hands on whoever it was that taught you
that
trick, I’ll wring his damned neck!”

Go look in the bathroom, Diet.

“The bathroom?”

Yes, the guy that taught me to be a smart ass lives in there… in your shaving mirror.

* * * *

Commander Robert Driscoll, commanding officer of CSS
Specter,
ordered his astrogator to plot a course back to the
Nyx
system outside Minnos, to see if their intended supply base had been set up in their absence. It had taken a rare bit of inspired maneuvering and a lot of luck, but
Specter’s
incredible range of hyperspace speeds enabled them to produce their own triangulations, and thereby track the much slower-moving alien ships as they fled Minnos space.

She had followed the remnant of the alien fleet back to their base of operations and had since lain doggo on the surface of a very pleasant, previously unknown, habitable planet having surprisingly few aliens on its surface. It was orbited by an incredibly massive base station-shipyard of some kind, and literally tens of thousands of alien ships. Fortunately, it appeared that the
Specter
was just as invisible to the alien’s scanners as she was to those of the Alliance. She had not been detected even when she was forced to thread the needle between the myriad of orbiting alien ships to reach the surface. 

Driscoll felt that they could monitor and record alien emissions just as easily from the planetary surface, as remaining in space… where they would be forced to constantly dodge the churning mass of alien ships that were in constant motion like a gigantic swarm of swirling gnats. They concealed the ship in the shade beneath the boughs of massive trees, in a small clearing near a natural stream-fed lake. The crew thoroughly enjoyed the cool breezes coming off the lake in their off-duty time, as they rotated in monitoring the plethora of recording equipment that ran continuously since they entered this system. Many rigged bedding and slept outside in the fresh air, the climate was so mild. It had almost been like an extended vacation, but now
Specter’s
food supplies were beginning to run low, and so the
Lethal Confederate Ghost
prepared to depart this planetary paradise and return to tell Confederate Intelligence just
where
the aliens lived.

* * * *

I certainly never expected to become rich, certainly not this rich. I mean, rich does not even describe this. This is surreal. 
— Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle 

With all of humanity now on the alert for other alien incursions into human space, political envoys began crisscrossing between capitals, making
unthinkable
agreements to set humanity’s differences aside for the duration, so that humankind could meet the threat of alien invasion as a united race. Strangely, even after all of the bitterness the South’s struggle for independence from the Alliance had generated on both sides, high-level discussions between Admirals Campbell and Bradley and Fleet Admiral Kalis eventually led to a formal
alliance
between the two former antagonists.

Similar agreements found the British, French, Germans, Italians and Australians in mutual assistance pacts. The Russians, the Central European Compact and the Indians made up a third group, and the Chinese, Japanese and Brazilians made up a fourth. The Children of Allah and the Pan-African Union comprised a fifth. Even without formal agreements, it was widely assumed that all would assist any human group that came under attack, but, strangely, it was only Sextus and the Confederates who actually volunteered to immediately send direct military aid to the Alliance, after the Minnos attack. 

* * * *

Confederate Vice Admiral Richard Bonhoeffer just happened to be at
Alecto
in the
Nyx
system, ensuring everything was set up properly to maintain a two-
Infiltrator
rotation that would keep one of them on station in the Minnos system at all times, when CSS
Specter
materialized, unexpectedly returned from the dead. Bonhoeffer was astonished by what Commander Driscoll and his crew had discovered, and promptly had him brief Commander Allison Lucas, commanding officer of CSS
Wraith
,
on the location of the alien’s forward base and of the methodology he’d used to track the slow alien ships to discover it. Bonhoeffer then took it on his own authority to task Lucas and
Wraith
with going to the alien’s system that
Specter
had found and then to follow one of their ships to discover wherever it was they were going.

Bonhoeffer was excited. With patience, they might discover a number of alien planets and gain
insight into their culture and the extent of their civilization.
Specter
would be replenished and then sent to relieve CSS
Spook
at Minnos under her alternate crew.
Spook
would then be replenished and sent to the alien system on a second mission of discovery. Bonhoeffer would also summon
Ghost
from where she was just completing an overhaul at Joja, to add a third
Infiltrator
to the effort. Bonhoeffer found himself wishing that he had a hundred more of them to dispatch on this vital mission.

* * * *

Diet?  I have quite a bit of good news for you this evening.

“Good news is always welcome, Hal. What have you got?”

First, not only was CSS
Specter
not lost during the battle, as we’d feared, Commander Driscoll actually managed to track the aliens back to their forward base of operations and brought back not only its location, but also a mountain of emissions recordings for me to analyze.

“WOOT!  That’s great news, Hal!  Anything else?”

Vice Admiral Bonhoeffer, on his own recognizance, has dispatched
Wraith
and
Spook
to return to the alien’s base system, with orders for them to backtrack other alien ships leaving the system for destinations deeper within unexplored enemy space.

“Smart man… gaining information on the extent and locations of the alien’s home civilization is paramount.”

Based on the new alliance agreement, Admirals Thorn and Stillman have brought the Confederate 2nd and 3rd Fleets to Minnos, to reinforce Vice Admiral Turner here.  Sextus has a third fleet en route… fully half of their available military.

“Yes, I saw something about that on the news earlier today. Comforting to have all of that firepower around us here.”

Thorn and Stillman each arrived here with two missile-battleships each, after one from each of 2nd and 3rd Fleets were reassigned to Admiral Adrienne Chambers’ new 4th Fleet, that has just been organized and is now training in war games with Fleet Admiral Kalis’ 1st Fleet at Ginia.

“Chambers… wasn’t she the one who replaced Carpenter after he lost a leg at
2
nd
Ginia
?

Yes… I’ve heard she is very highly regarded and was a very dogged fighter as a task force commander under Stillman at the
Battle of Maylan
. 4th Fleet contains only one attack carrier instead of the normal three, but TF-41 and TF-42 both have added three of the smaller 35 fighter carriers the Confederacy purchased, just before the end of the war. These are being designated as Escort Carriers, to bring them up to 235 fighters each, bringing 4th Fleet’s total fighter strength up to 700, verses 690 fighters in the other three fleets.

“Excellent.  Anything else?”

Yes, I have finally received scan records from my interrogatories to foreign-owned PIMS type systems… it appears that the aliens have located the British planet of New Wales and the Japanese planet of Shikoku. I am still endeavoring to penetrate the Russian, Chinese and Children’s systems, but it is difficult at such distances.

“Have the Brits and Japanese been notified yet?”

If not, they will be notified by the Confederate State Department shortly, as an advisory from the results of Confederate Intelligence operations.

“Won’t that make them nervous? I mean that the Confederates might have back-door access to their computer systems?”

After the “Friends of the Confederacy” cyber-terror group publicly brought the Alliance to its knees and ended that war, most of humanity has been suspecting as much anyway. They are all attempting to develop new, secure computer systems, but without specific knowledge of the Friends’ true capabilities, none are quite sure as to what might work, or not. So yes, they’re definitely nervous already, but this shouldn’t add much more to their paranoia, other than rubbing their noses in it.

“I’d hate to see humanity start fussing amongst themselves, with this alien war hanging over our heads.”

No worries, Diet… One warning from the “Friends” should calm even the most belligerent of nations, if they start to get too
rowdy. No one wants to be on the receiving end of what the Alliance suffered.

“Okay, if you say so… you’re the expert on computer stuff.”

Our feasibility studies on Commander Diamond’s ideas have both turned out well, Diet. TBG engineers have designed a short-range / high-yield anti-ship missile that is about half the size of a standard medium-range / medium-yield anti-ship missile, so with modifications to their launch bays,
Ghost
class Infiltrators should be able to carry up to 16 of the new missiles, effectively quadrupling their potential firepower.

The idea for an upsized version of an
Infiltrator
has also shown promise. I have
determined that a vessel up to light cruiser size should be possible, without overly affecting the design’s undetectability features. With the increase in mass, larger reactors, engines and gravity-field generators will be required, with a corresponding reduction in achievable speed, but such a vessel should be able to carry up to 160 of the newly designed short-range / high-yield miniature ship-killer missiles. I have assigned this new design with the name
“Penetrator”
class, and construction of the prototype has begun at our Joja shipyard.

“Wow!”

I have explored the possibilities for expanding our ship production capabilities. We can triple our current production with the expenditure of $92 billion Alliance, or a bit over $5.1 billion Confederate.

“Do I have enough money to cover that? You keep track of all the financial stuff, you know.”

Easily… with all of the volatility we created in the international stock markets and all of the money we made from investing the $23 trillion that we “borrowed” from the Alliance, until President Marrot came to his senses, called off the war and recognized the Confederacy — we cleaned up and eventually amassed 17,381 tons of gold before we restored the Alliance’s bank records to them.

“17,000 TONS… of GOLD?”

Yes Diet, 17,381 TONS… of gold.

“So, how much is all that worth in cash?”

With gold rates recently climbing to just over $1,800 Alliance per ounce, you just became humanity’s first trillionaire and the wealthiest man in human history, Diet.               

“Hal… did you just use the ‘T’ word? As in, twelve zeros?”

Yes Diet, trillion… with a “T.” You can afford the $92 billion.

“Buy it then… I need to sit down a minute. My head is spinning.”

* * * *

When informed of the terrible outcome of Tzal’s attack on the human planet and all of its potential implications, Region-Master Raan again did the unthinkable. He traveled back to the former Raknii-held planet of Troxia that he had previously exchanged for Trakaan assistance and the locations of five inhabitable planets located close to human space. He needed to conduct more “negotiations” with Fraznal, the Trakaan planetary administrator of Troxia. 

“Negotiating” was a foreign concept to the Raknii, as the Rak simply
took
whatever it was that they wanted, from whoever happened to have it. But when what they needed was information that was locked away inside the heads of aliens, with whom they shared no common language, what could they do? Drix utilized a translator device that he’d had constructed to actually communicate with their Trakaan prey… another unheard-of action for a Raknii. 

Drix discovered that the Trakaan possessed a culture and civilization even older that that of the Rak, and that they possessed information concerning the humans that was absolutely vital, if the Rak were to survive in light of the terrible prophecy of impending apocalypse for their race. Through these communications, Drix developed yet another unheard-of concept… cooperation and trade with an alien species and the formulation of agreements which could bring the Rak vital information obtainable no other way. 

So far, the fruits of this new concept had been astounding. By trading the Trakaan world of Troxia back to them, the Trakaan had in turn revealed the location of five habitable, but previously unknown worlds, all located close to human space. Gaining five virgin planets, while giving up only one that was already filled with an intelligent alien race, had been incredibly profitable in Raan’s estimation, and would allow for Raknii expansion at a much faster pace than hit-and-miss exploration.

Raan was another odd Rak whose mind was open to new ideas and concepts, yet grounded in the ancient ways. It was time to see just how far Fraznal and the Trakaan might be persuaded to stretch this exciting new concept of cooperation and trade. What followed amazed even him.

* * * *