Read Sol (The Silver Ships Book 5) Online
Authors: S. H. Jucha
Alex stood up to pace while he thought. “These ship carriers are staged around Earth. The UE naval commanders will see us coming and take measures to protect them. The concept involves a great deal of risk … fighting our way in system, the battle itself, and then fighting our way back out.”
Alex continued to pace and Tatia waited patiently. “I admit your idea has merit, Admiral, but I came here to stop a war not start one. We’ll continue onto Idona. Thank you and good evening.”
“Wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t offer you alternatives. Good evening, Mr. President, Ser,” Tatia said, turning to leave.
* * *
In the morning, Cordelia would transfer to the
Last Stand
, Haraken’s first and smaller carrier, to organize the launch of two probes Alex required.
Before she left, Cordelia was able to enjoy a final meal time with Julien. Not that the two SADEs would eat, but it was their habit to be present at meals. Cordelia was in the president’s suite with Alex, Renée, and Julien when their scheduling apps signaled meal time. Too easily isolated by their implants, Méridiens treasured meal time for its face-to-face reminder of what was important — one another. Alex offered Renée his arm, and, to Cordelia’s delight, Julien offered his arm to her.
That Cordelia’s synth-flesh sensors reported the contact of Julien’s arm, and her deeper sensors signaled the pressure was immaterial. That her partner, a shy one as any you might find in a human pair, wished to demonstrate his attachment to her brought many of her ancillary programs to a halt. It was a moment to carefully record, to treasure, to play over and over in the centuries and perhaps the millenniums to come.
The morning would pass too quickly for Cordelia, but by 9.75 hours, she was aboard the
Last Stand
, prepping the probes. The first was a smaller FTL relay sent on a ballistic course toward Neptune. Its path was calculated by Alex’s inventive g-sling program, which he had developed while hauling ice asteroids from the far asteroid fields of Oistos, his home world’s star.
The SADEs still marveled at the incredible precision with which a human-designed program achieved ballistic accuracy when using a tug to sling an asteroid toward a celestial body, not that they hadn’t made subtle improvements on the program since coopting it from Alex’s Tara, his original computer on board his explorer-tug, the
Outward Bound
.
There wouldn’t be time to allow a ballistic course for the second probe. It was loaded on board a traveler, piloted by Captain Darius Gaumata, who had persevered in the first fight with the Earthers, which had been termed a contest by the now-deceased High Judge Patricio Bunaldi. But the detestable contest had cost Darius the life of his good friend, Sean McCreary. In his dark mood, Darius was hoping a UE pilot would be foolish enough to intercept him on the way to or from his destination, Earth’s moon, despite his orders to avoid contact.
Darius would land his traveler on the moon’s Earth-face and open his hatch to offload the probe. A traveler’s shell, created by the alien species, the Swei Swee, depended on harmonics to harness gravity waves, which drove the ship and powered its devastating energy beam. The fighter’s dependency on gravitational waves limited its use to in-system deployment and necessitated its shell remain completely intact for it to charge the alien crystal-power systems created by the Nua’ll, an alien race that had kept the Swei Swee imprisoned for generations until Alex rescued them.
* * *
While Cordelia readied her probes, Z transferred to the
Rêveur
, where he had stored his “toys.”
When Alex landed aboard the
No Retreat
, Tatia told Alex that all of his orders, save the change of his flagship, had been executed as he had requested, and she couldn’t be accused of inaccuracy. That Z and she had added their own plans would have been news to Alex, but not surprising to him. Since their beginning together, Alex had come to think of Tatia, the ex-New Terran major and ground pounder, as his weapons master.
When the Assembly approved Alex’s plan to take the Haraken fleet and journey to Sol to sue for peace with the UE’s Supreme Tribunal in hopes of preventing a war, Julien sought out Tatia and Z. “What plans are in progress, Admiral, Z, to ensure our survival, and how might I be of help?” Julien asked.
“We have a particular challenge, Julien,” Tatia replied. “Allowing the UE explorer ship,
Reunion
, to return home was morally right, but it hurt us strategically. The Earthers took with them a great deal of tactical information about our fighters — acceleration, maneuverability, and our beam weaponry.”
“We must create new strengths,” Z added.
“My greatest concern is that the Earthers will make diplomatic overtures to draw us out, and, as they have amply demonstrated, they will employ treachery,” Julien replied.
“If they offer Alex an opportunity for a diplomatic solution, he might accept it,” Tatia said. She was angry at the thought that the Earthers might exploit Alex’s greatest vulnerability, his good heart.
“From our leader, I would expect nothing else,” Z replied, “Without our president’s sense of justice, there would be no Swei Swee on Haraken, there would be no travelers, and there would be no freedom for us, the Haraken SADEs.”
“To answer your question, Julien, we have plans to teach the Earthers a severe lesson if they pretend diplomacy but intend treachery,” Tatia said.
“There is much to be done before we leave, Julien. It will be good to have your help,” Z replied. “The probabilities are high that our president will have need of tools that will allow him to deal with the Earthers from a position of strength.”
Julien considered himself a pacifist in the general sense of the word. But under the circumstances, he believed that Alex needed every advantage he could get to aid his efforts to prevent a war, and, if unique tactical weapons were required, there were no more devious individuals to turn to than Tatia and Z.
Cordelia set the timeline for the fleet’s advance when she signaled Alex that the ballistic-launched probe would be in position at Neptune in forty-five hours, a day and a half by the Harakens’ chronometer.
An ancient, three-cornered hat appeared on Julien’s head. When Julien’s emotional programs played a significant part in his reactions, he couldn’t resist a virtual hat. It conveyed his mood to others without communication. This time it was a tricorne, borrowed from an image of an ancient Terran revolutionary soldier and was adorned on one side with a circular, gold pin, embossed with an “H.”
Julien linked Cordelia and Z, and the SADEs coordinated to execute Alex’s order. The captains accelerated their ships, and the fleet drove for the huge asteroid field surrounding Sol’s outer perimeter.
Once the Neptune probe was in place and while the fleet was still on approach for Idona, Alex used the comms information gathered at Méridien to beam a direct signal from the probe to the UE destroyer deployed near the station. Alex intended for only Tatia to be with him on the vid comm so as to prevent the commander from focusing on Haraken’s exotic Méridiens, and that only after an audio comm was established.
In the days leading up to the fleet’s arrival at Sol, Julien readied the Harakens for open contact with the Earthers by monitoring the UE scientists’ language syntax and pronunciation and consuming the various text stored on their readers to assimilate a translation program for the Harakens to upload into their implants. The Earthers’ language was more similar to the New Terrans’ Sol-NAC language than the Méridiens’ Con-Fed language. Overall, it was quite easy for the Harakens to understand and speak to the Earthers. The translation application in their implants only aided the quality of those efforts. “It’s a lot easier than learning to whistle to a Swei Swee,” a senior tech was heard to say.
* * *
“Captain, we have an incoming, directed transmission, unknown ID … and Captain, it’s coming from Neptune,” the comms officer of the UE destroyer announced.
Captain Reiko Shimada eyed her comms officer with doubt. The UE had no stations or ships in the direction her officer was indicating.
“I swear, Captain, that’s the direction of the signal,” the comms officer persisted.
“All right, I’ll bite. Put it on.” When the comms officer nodded at Shimada, she said, “This is Captain Shimada of the UE destroyer,
Conquest.
With whom am I speaking?”
?> Tatia sent to Alex.
“Greetings, Captain. I am Haraken President Alex Racine. I would speak with the superior individual aboard your ship.”
“I am the senior person aboard, and who did you say you are?” Instead of a response to Shimada’s query, her central bridge monitor lit up with the image of Alex and Tatia.
“I find a visual offers a much clearer explanation. Doesn’t it, Captain? I repeat … I’m Alex Racine, Haraken’s president, and this is Admiral Tatia Tachenko.”
Shimada had always been aware of her slender and short stature among the UE’s space forces but had worked hard to overcome any negative views of her capabilities because of it. On her screen were humans who each massed three or more times her weight, but, despite their size, nothing about them, stance or expression, suggested aggression. Shimada leaned off cam and mouthed to the comms officer to record, but he whispered back, “Sorry, Captain, they have control of our comms.”
“You seem to have me at a disadvantage, Mr. President, technologically, at least.”
“My apologies, Captain Shimada, but I have much to accomplish in a short amount of time.”
“May I ask where you’re calling from, Mr. President? I’m hoping this is one hellacious long-distance call.” When the strange president chuckled at her joke, the tightness that had gripped Shimada’s stomach eased.
“Our fleet is inbound into your system. We are through your asteroid fields and will be arriving at Idona Station within a day,” Alex said.
“Yet, your comm signal issues from the direction of Neptune, and we’ve received no reports from our miners in the fields,” Shimada challenged.
“You will in time, Captain,” Tatia said. “We sent a comm probe ahead of the fleet to facilitate communications … FTL comm system, you understand.”
Shimada was about to open her mouth to speak, but out of the corner of her eye, she caught her comms officer mouth the words “FTL comms” and then nod his understanding. Suddenly, several pieces clicked together for the captain. “Would you be the people who the
Reunion
discovered, Mr. President?”
“We would. How is Speaker García? A most disagreeable man, I have to admit,” Alex said.
“Actually, we haven’t heard a word from him,” Shimada found herself admitting.
“What about our battleship, the
Hand of Justice
?” asked Shimada and saw, for the first time, tension radiate from the two heavy-massed individuals.
“Your High Judge Bunaldi chose to challenge our sovereignty, Captain,” Tatia replied. “He and his people aboard that ship paid the ultimate price for their aggression. We’re deeply sorry it came to that, but he left us no alternative.”
When Alex saw the jaw of the slender captain tighten, he asked, “Did you have people on the battleship, Captain?”
Shimada would have wished these strangers banished to the nether worlds, but the president, despite his enormous size, had a gentle manner about him. She unclenched her jaw, and replied, “A younger brother.”
Of all the responses, Shimada might have expected, what she saw wasn’t one of them — both individuals crossed hands over hearts and bowed their heads. She waited but they held their pose. Finally, Shimada cleared her throat, which had threatened to close up on hearing of her brother’s loss, and said, “I accept your condolences.”
Alex raised his head, but before he could press on, Captain Shimada beat him to it.
“So you’re here in our system. Are you declaring war on the UE, Mr. President?”
“Exactly the opposite, Captain. I’m trying to prevent one. And on that subject, I need your station.”
“You know I can’t let you have it, Mr. President. It’s my duty to prevent that.”
“I thought as much, Captain. So I have a demonstration for you, and a line of dialogue you might offer your superiors to keep you out of trouble. But first the demonstration. You will see on your screen, a small asteroid about the size of one of your patrol vessels. Watch carefully.”
Shimada and her officers had their eyes glued to the monitor when the asteroid disappeared in a cloud of dust, rocks, and expanding gas.
“Captain, the guide detected an object moving across the face of Neptune,” Shimada’s second mate reported. “It was traveling at … one moment, Captain … it was … sorry, Captain. The guide reports the object was traveling at 0.91c, and an energy source initiating from the object struck the asteroid.”
“Impressive, Mr. President,” Shimada said, trying to keep her voice calm and controlled. “Would you care to explain what we’ve just witnessed?”
“That was one of our fighters, Captain, what we call a traveler. I brought a few ships full of them to ensure I’m given the opportunity to be heard by your Supreme Tribunal. Now, as I said, I need your station. My suggestion is that you pull your destroyer back about 1M kilometers inward of Neptune, along with your patrol ships, and you tell your Tribunal that since we came to offer peace, you thought it better to let the Tribunal communicate with the aliens than start a war with them.”
Shimada had to smile at the president’s description of themselves as aliens. That’s exactly what the entire UE populace was thinking the explorer ship found. Shimada was running down the options in her head. The fighter’s velocity as reported by the ship’s guide was incredible, and it possessed an unknown beam weapon. If the Haraken president spoke the truth, he had ships full of them.
Not to mention, the president didn’t have to show me his demonstration,
Shimada thought
. He could have sent a squadron of his fighters and blown my ship into space debris before we sounded battle stations.