The Desert of Stars (The Human Reach) (27 page)

During a change in briefers, Neil eavesdropped on a
conversation between two XO’s seated in front of him.

”Why are we bringing the herd of transports with us?”
said one, wearing the patch of the destroyer
73 Easting.
“
Why not
leave them at the keyhole, so we don’t have to worry about protecting them?”

“The official line is that the Hans could send that big
fleet somebody saw at Commonwealth through the Alley systems and past the
Aussies, and bag the transports while we’re at Kuan Yin,”
said the other,
from the
Texas. “Doesn’t seem likely, does it? Instead, think big picture,
really big. We’re scheduled to arrive around Kuan Yin on October 11, and we’re
burning extra remass to make it there by that time. Remember what happened on
October 11, couple years back?”

“That’s the date the war started.”

“More correctly, my friend, we joined a war already
underway. And what better way for National Command Authority to mark the start
of the third year of the war with a bonafide victory, and an announcement of
troops landing to liberate Sequoia and all the civilians there? If we leave the
herd here, we can’t make that proclamation for another month.”

“Fucking politics,”
the first man groused.
“Putting
the troops at risk.”

“No other way to make war in a democracy. National
Command Authority wants to stay National Command Authority, he’s got to make
the voters feel good. And a timely victory will do just that, and keep the
quagmire stories out of the news for a few more months, at least.”

Later, as the briefing broke up, Neil saw a paunchy,
gray-haired figure rise from one of the front-row seats.

That’s Jim Donovan! What’s he doing here?
The old spy
was speaking to a Russian officer, Neil saw. Neil raised his hand to wave to
him, and then pulled back.
Why is Donovan wearing glasses?
Squared-rimmed
spectacles were the latest fad among Americans back on Earth. But Donovan had
an ocular, Neil knew, and wouldn’t stoop to wearing a stylish accoutrement just
because it was all the rage.
He must be undercover! Better leave him alone.
He
sat back in his seat and messaged Donovan with his handheld.

Across the room, he saw Donovan look up and around. His gaze
briefly stopped on Neil, and he nodded, once, slowly.

Not now,
Neil translated.

The briefing was Neil’s last of the day, and he went to the
jumper bay to catch a ride back to
Apache
. He felt a hollow sadness at
not being able to speak with his old mentor.

He got a seat near the front of the jumper from which he could
look out the forward windows.
So many ships
, he thought, recalling the
XOs’ cynical exchange on the
Carpenter.
En route to 11 Leonis Minoris, the
combat fleet had picked up six ships from the
Spruance
task force, plus
Valley
Forge
and
Apache.
But the transport herd was even larger: Eight
brigades of combat troops, while a significant force on Earth, was a huge
contingent away from the cradle. Scores of bulky transports and long space
trains raced alongside the battle fleet, carrying vehicles, food, fab units and
everything else thought necessary to support several months of operations on Kuan
Yin. The fleet included most of America’s and Russia’s spacelift capacity, and
the attempted invasion would be both countries’ primary extrasolar operation
for the year.

Green text blinked in his eye. MESSAGE RECEIVED.

NEIL, DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE IN THE FLEET, BUT GOOD SEEING YOU
JUST NOW. SORRY WE COULDN’T CATCH UP AND THANKS FOR NOT BLOWING MY COVER. I’LL
BE IN TOUCH – GOT SOMETHING YOU MAY BE ABLE TO HELP ME WITH. JIM

What,
Neil wondered,
could that be?

Donovan’s request arrived a few hours later. It was mundane,
asking Neil to query the military’s primary intelligence database. When he did,
an automated reply came back that fulfilling the request would require some
staff time to review it, and he would have to wait for the information.

Sycamore, Sequoia Continent, Kuan Yin

Lieutenant Colonel Shen was the second lowest-ranking
soldier present at the meeting; only the major from the Flying Dragons ranked
lower, but his role as special operations commander gave him outsize cachet
among the other officers.

General Xie had told Shen it would be a strategy session, but
Shen found the communication far too one-way for the term to apply. The chief
Chinese officer on Kuan Yin, Lieutenant General He, transmitting from the
planetary command center across the ocean on Fengsheng continent, essentially
repeated everything PLA doctrine called for, the most important of which was
adhering to doctrine.

He’s intelligence staff fully expected the Americans to
attack their former colony first, and then use it as a base of operations to
capture Fengsheng and knock the Chinese off Kuan Yin entirely. Rather than give
an inch of ground, Chinese forces were to fight the Americans every step of the
way.

That meant the defenses on this continent would remain in place:
a brigade at the town the Americans had called Cottonwood, another at Cypress,
and two defending Sycamore. No, reinforcements would not be sent from
Fengsheng, although submarines would be stationed off the coast to provide fire
support to the defenders.

The only surprise came when General He announced that he
would
not
be calling out the people’s militia, the last line of defense
against invaders, on either continent. The rifles would stay in their depots.
Humanitarian
concern that the citizenry would be annihilated from orbit?
That didn’t
sound like the General He that Lieutenant Colonel Shen knew.

USS Apache, near 11 Leonis Minoris A

Reports on the loss of the British-Australian-Canadian
fleet at Beta Comae Berenices were met with grim acceptance through much of the
fleet, a you-win-some, you-lose-some shaking of the head, coupled with an
unspoken sense of relief that it was someone else who bore the brunt of the
Chinese assault.
Now, here, we can hit them back, make them pay for what
they did to the Brits.

Neil worried for his friends on Tecolote – Tippy and his
family, Lindsay Trujillo, Commander Raleigh and the others at the consulate. He
sent messages but received no responses.

How much was this planned?
he wondered again.
Did
we hang the Brits and Tecolote out to dry by feigning interest in the Chinese
territory on Huashan, or did we legitimately plan to defend the Brits there,
but went after Kuan Yin as a target of opportunity? How much of this did I
cause? Do I really want to know?

The fleet soldiered on, passing as close to the system’s
primary star as was safe. It underwent turnover and began the long deceleration
toward Kuan Yin. Still the Chinese fleet made no move to intercept the invaders
.

USS Javier Benavidez y Diaz

“Why do you think that is, Sergei Pavelovich?” Donovan
asked.

The counteradmiral grunted. “We have them outnumbered. Their
best hope lies in staying within range of their ground-based defenses, and
somehow forcing us to engage them there, unless they try – ”

His handheld chirped, emitting a sort of warble that only a
device from Eastern Europe would use, and Komarov got that faraway look of
someone reading text on his ocular.

“At last some of our fast drones are making flybys near Kuan
Yin, and we’re getting better sensor data on the situation there,” he said. He
transmitted several images to Donovan. On one, Kuan Yin loomed large and blue,
and several tiny lights were circled and marked with Cyrillic lettering.

Jim Donovan could read them, but Ted Calvin of Colonial
Affairs could not, so he made the inquiry Komarov so clearly expected.

“Mister Calvin, those are some of your lost sheep. We have
identified the hulls.”

“How many?”

“Six. We see two British destroyers, one S-class and one
T-class, plus one of your
Chieftain-
class corvettes, two
Ivan Pavel
Dzhons
-class frigates, and a quarter-kilometer beast that could only be the
Eagle
.”

The prizes from the prior Chinese victories.
The battleship
Eagle
had been the fleet flagship in the Second Battle of Kuan Yin. The
corvette, he suspected, was the
Dextrous
, taken in Groombridge 1618 by a
Chinese raiding force. Donovan had been on that ship, traveling home, when it
was captured and brought to Kuan Yin as a prize. Donovan had spent months as a
Chinese prisoner on Kuan Yin, and he deeply feared that happening again.

Yet here I am.
“
Ivan Pavel Dzhones,
Sergei?”

“We are greatly honored you would name a class of warships
after an officer of the Imperial Navy, however brief his service,” Komarov said
in his usual deadpan.

“I think Space Force prefers his American name, but I can
check on that for you,” Donovan replied. “Can the Chinese operate those ships?”

“Our analysts and yours agree that it is unlikely. So far
the Chinese have only been able to retrofit prizes at their shipyards at
Guoxing. They do not seem to have that capability here.”

Komarov blinked, refocused on his ocular. “Now, this is
interesting.”

“What’s that?”

USS Valley Forge

“Six candles lit at Kuan Yin!” the CIC talker called.
“Both of their beam cruisers and four other warships.”

“Headed for the keyhole?” Captain Grace Mallett asked
hopefully. If the Hans decided to preserve their fleet and withdraw from the
system, she wouldn’t complain.

“No, ma’am. Escape trajectory,” said
Valley Forge
’s
intelligence officer.

“Then they’re headed our way.”

The beam cruisers were the
Deng Shichang
and
Zhou
Man,
the same ships that had contributed mightily to the defeat of
Eagle
’s
task force. No other military had weapons that could match the vast range of
their deep ultraviolet lasers.

But it would be a week or more until they were in range, so
the fleet had time to work out some defenses. Erin’s coilguns were the least
useful of the ship’s weapons against them, so she retired to the wardroom for
dinner to avoid feeling like she was contributing nothing to the tactics bull
session that started up in CIC.

She was peeling an orange when Grogan entered. They were
alone.

“I’m transferring to the
Carpenter
shortly,” the
general said quietly.

“Sir?” Erin said.

“I know who you are, you know,” he said.

The anger that fountained in Erin was dammed only by her
ingrained sense of chain of command.

“Sir,” she said.

“Your parents were Miguel Quintana and Fiona Westlake, part
of the security company guarding Albemarle Army Depot outside of Freehold on
Alpha Mensae III on March 7, 2124. Levitican revolutionaries approached the
depot and demanded the security company stand down and surrender the weapons
and materiel inside. Major Juanita Delgado refused, and the revolutionaries
attacked. Major Delgado and your parents were among the seven American soldiers
killed before a ceasefire was called. Rest assured, they died heroes.”

“You left some things out of that story,
sir,
” Erin
said. “Namely that you
ordered
Major Delgado to defend the depot to the
last soldier, and that despite the local rebel commander’s demands, you knew
that the new government in Leviticus had already agreed to return all American
military materiel confiscated during the revolt. All they had to do was walk
away, and you told them, from your comfortable chair in orbit, that they had to
fight. Sir.”

Grogan’s expression did not change. “Soldiers never abandon
their post, Lieutenant. That was your parents’ duty, and you should be proud
they gave their lives in the service of their country.”

“No, they gave their lives in service to your ego, and
nothing more, sir.” The words were out of her mouth before her internal guards
could stop them. Somehow, she felt she had been waiting a lifetime to say them.

Brigadier General Rev Grogan stiffened. He could hurt her
career for that kind of insubordination.

But instead, he only said, “It seems you aren’t quite the
officer Captain Mallett believes you are, Lieutenant,” and left the wardroom.

USS Apache

The message didn’t carry any priority markers, so Neil
only found it during an idle hour of cleaning up his inbox.

The green text in Neil’s eye read:

HANS SAY MY SON’S KILLER
WENT ROGUE AND LEFT LONGSHAN SEVERAL MONTHS AGO. YOU’LL HAVE TO KILL HIM – THEY
HAVE ME. IS

Li Xiao, Rafe Sato’s killer, went rogue. Could he still
be hunting us?

He messaged Donovan. The response was immediate:

NEIL, I DID NOT KNOW YOU AND IRENE WERE ASSOCIATES. I RECEIVED
HER MESSAGE ALSO AND LET MY SUPERIORS KNOW WE HAVE CONFIRMED SHE HAS BEEN
CAPTURED. AS FOR LI XIAO, IT IS A CONCERN. IT IS POSSIBLE HE HAS ABANDONED ANY
SEMBLANCE OF PROFESSIONALISM TO CARRY OUT A VENDETTA AGAINST US. IT IS ALSO
POSSIBLE HE HAS SIMPLY QUIT. IT HAPPENS IN THIS BUSINESS. NOT MUCH WE CAN DO
ABOUT IT NOW, AND I SUSPECT THERE ARE GREATER THREATS TO US IN THE NEAR TERM
THAN ONE ROGUE EX-SPY. WE’LL JUST HAVE TO LIVE WITH NOT KNOWING FOR A WHILE –
SOMETHING YOU AND I SHOULD BE FAMILIAR WITH IN OUR LINE OF WORK.

THANKS AGAIN FOR GETTING
IN TOUCH. LOOKING FORWARD TO CATCHING UP WITH YOU AFTER THE INVASION.

At least he didn’t scold me for not killing Li when I had
the chance,
Neil thought. But Donovan’s message didn’t assuage his
concerns, much, and he failed to sleep.

How did Irene learn this?

What did she provide the Chinese?

Was Das’ life their price?