The Shadow of Cincinnatus (47 page)

The Outsiders hadn’t done much, either. There were a handful of radio sources near the Asimov Points, but nothing else. They hadn’t attempted to mine the asteroids, set up industrial nodes or anything else that might have benefited the system in the long run. But then, there had been no point. Spinner was simply too close to the front to be given anything, save for a handful of limited defenses.

“Launch two probes towards the planet,” Roman ordered. “We may as well...”

“Signal from
Thunderbird
,” Lieutenant Thompson interrupted. “The emperor is ordering you to proceed with phase two.”

Roman nodded. He didn’t like the idea of splitting the fleet, even if there was something to be said for preserving his formation from the sycophants infesting the other formation. The amount of crawling they’d done as he fought to get the fleet ready for departure had been staggering. Why couldn’t the emperor have picked crawlers who were actually
competent
?

“Signal the fleet,” Roman ordered. “Phase two begins...
now
.”

* * *

“They’re splitting their fleet,” Lieutenant Regis said.

“It looks that way,” Teresa said. Five battle squadrons were heading towards Point Beta, while six more were proceeding towards Point Charlie. Each of them had more than enough firepower to blow through anything they were likely to encounter in the nearest systems. “Send an update to the platforms, then bring us about and set course for Point Charlie.”

“Aye, Captain,” Lieutenant Higgins said. He paused. “Where do you think they’re going?”

Teresa felt her lips thin. Informality was not something she encouraged on her command deck, even when the crew members were largely reservists from merchant ships.

“I think they’re heading for the Rim,” she said. There were several possible targets, some more likely than others. “Right now, they can go pretty much wherever they want to go.”

* * *

Marius settled back in his command chair as Task Force 5.2 started its long trek towards Asimov Point Beta. There was nothing in the system worth his attention, so he pulled up the files and started to read through the survey reports from the probes Admiral Garibaldi had sent out after the Battle of Boston. The first serious problem would come when his ships punched their way into the Von Doom System. There were a handful of captured fortresses there, according to the scouts.

He pushed his concerns aside as he relaxed.
This
– command of a fleet, where everyone knew their place and did as they were told – was what he was born to do. There were no pettifogging bureaucrats trying to tell him what to do, no whiners coming up with nothing but excuses; hell, the political commissioners the Grand Senate had appointed were gone too. He could sit back and issue orders, in the certain knowledge they would be obeyed. It was nothing like being emperor on Earth.

“Sir,” Commander Ginny Lewis said, breaking into his thoughts. “Our drones are reporting a complete absence of defenses at Point Beta.”

“Lucky for us,” Marius said. He smiled again, brightly. There had been no defenses in the Spinner System prior to the war and the Outsiders, it seemed, hadn’t had time to do more than fortify Point Alpha. “Launch a flight of sensor probes, just in case, then detail half of them to head through Point Beta.”

Commander Lewis frowned. “Wouldn’t that reveal our presence?”

“They are unlikely to be in any doubt of our presence,” Marius pointed out. There had been no starships detected within the system, but he would have been astonished if there wasn’t a cloaked picket somewhere nearby, watching their every move. As long as her commander was careful, there was no real chance of being detected. “And besides, we want them to know we’re coming. It might encourage them to surrender.”

He rubbed his hands together with glee as he settled back in his chair. This was
precisely
what he’d wanted. Why the hell hadn’t he stuck someone else in the emperor’s chair on Earth and retained command of a fleet for himself? But who could he have trusted with so much power? The only people he thought wouldn’t be corrupted by it were too young or too innocent...like Garibaldi.

The thought made him sigh. Garibaldi was young...too young, really, for his post. But he’d done well...and besides, there were few other candidates with the skill he actually trusted. And yet, he was naive in some ways, despite his girlfriend’s constant presence. Too naive, perhaps...

Marius understood –
God
, he understood – why someone would want to treat POWs in line with the conventions, even if they weren’t precisely legal combatants. It was the decent thing to do. But sentiment had no place in a war. They couldn’t afford to let their feelings distract them from finding the most effective way to smash the enemy flat, whatever the cost. He would arrange for the POWs to be treated well, or as well as possible, but he wouldn’t shrink from doing whatever had to be done to get intelligence out of their heads. The sooner they knew where to find the Outsider bases, the better...

And there was a voice. “Emperor...
Emperor
?”

Marius jerked upwards. Had he fallen asleep on the command deck? Midshipmen had been busted all the way down to the bottom for falling asleep on duty, if their commanding officer hadn’t taken the semi-legal step of sending them to box with the Marines. And his head was throbbing and...

He paused, confused. When had his head started to hurt?

“I’m calling the doctor,” the woman’s voice said. It took Marius a moment to remember she was Commander Lewis. “I...”

“Don’t,” Marius croaked. He forced himself to sit upright, then reached for the pills he’d stuffed in his uniform pouch. They were alone, at least. Thank heaven for small mercies. “Don’t mention a word to anyone.”

“But sir...”

“I said
don’t mention a word to anyone
,” Marius roared. The mere effort of shouting left him badly drained. It was all he could do to swallow two pills, without slumping back in his chair. The compartment seemed dimmer, somehow. “There’s nothing they can do for me.”

Commander Lewis looked pale, but determined. “What...what can I do to help?”

Marius could think of one answer to that – he’d felt much better since Tiffany had made love to him – but refused to say it out loud. “Just say nothing about it, to anyone,” he said. If he was lucky, no one else would ever know about the attack. “I mean it. Don’t say a word.”

He forced himself to stand, cursing his wobbly legs. Normally, any officer who’d suffered...whatever the hell it was he’d suffered...would be relieved of duty by the ship’s doctor. Part of Marius would even have welcomed it. But who could relieve an emperor?

“I can help you to your stateroom,” Commander Lewis offered. “I...”

“Stay here and continue to monitor Point Beta,” Marius ordered. Perhaps it
had
been a mistake to split the fleet, after all. Garibaldi could have assumed command when they launched the next assault through Point Beta. “Call me when we are ten minutes away from the Asimov Point.”

He sighed as he forced his tired brain to think. Captain Watson was a solid, unimaginative officer. Marius had reviewed all of the commanding officers assigned to Home Fleet, looking for signs they wouldn’t be tempted to do anything stupid. Watson could handle the assault, if necessary, but he couldn’t make long-term decisions. Besides, some of the other commanders would object to taking orders from a mere captain.

You picked them
, a mocking voice said. It took him a moment to realize that he was imagining it.
You wanted men who wouldn’t try to overthrow you
.

“Inform Captain Watson that...that I will be testing his abilities by allowing him tactical command of the offensive,” he said. It was the only way he could allow someone else to hold command, without admitting his weakness. “There will be opportunities for the other commanders later.”

He nodded to her, then stumbled out of the hatch and into his stateroom. It was larger than he remembered – but then, the last time he’d commanded a fleet, Tiffany had accompanied him. Now, he was alone. He staggered, then somehow managed to remain upright until he reached the bed. It was all he could do to lie down and close his eyes.

Not good
part of his mind noted. Falling asleep on the command deck was a worrying sign at the best of times, let alone in the midst of a war.
Not good at all
.

* * *

Nova Athena, Charlie had discovered, was what all Outsider worlds wanted to be. Her limited independence from the Federation had allowed her to develop a thriving and innovative economy, which – thanks to various embargos by the Federation – had benefited the black market far more than anyone else. The only downside was the lack of Asimov Points, which automatically added an extra tariff to shipping in and out of the system. But the locals didn’t care. It just gave them an extra barrier between themselves and the Grand Senate.

“They split their fleet,” Commander Johan said. “Why?”

“To keep us in doubt,” Charlie said. The tactic was obvious, all the more so as there was only one target that required so much firepower to squash. “They’re coming here.”

The reports were clear enough, even though they were out of date by several days. Both fleets were moving, slowly and patiently, through Asimov Point Chains, advancing steadily towards systems that were close to Nova Athena, in realspace. They would cross realspace then, Charlie was sure, and attack with maximum force. With a little effort, they could even coordinate their forces to launch a joint attack.

But they might not need to launch a joint attack
, he thought, sourly. Without an Asimov Point to hold, Nova Athena could be attacked from almost any direction.
They could tear apart much of the infrastructure without ever having to engage the defenses.

“You can’t be sure,” Commander Johan said.

Charlie smirked. “I bet you the last we’ll see of those fleets, until they arrive here, will be in Salam and Yankee, respectively. They’re the closest locations to Nova Athena, in realspace.”

He shook his head. There was little humor in this situation, nothing to smile about. Eleven battle squadrons would smash the planetary defenses, even if they did take losses – and the system would be doomed. He knew better than to expect any mercy. The Federation would land troops and keep the planet firmly under control, at least until the end of the war. And her infrastructure would be pressed into service, supplying the Federation’s war machine.

“Start the evacuation plan,” Charlie ordered. There had been no attempt to expand the industries in the system – they’d known it was a prime target – but they hadn’t evacuated the workforce, not when the workers had been reluctant to go. There was no choice now. “I want as many people as possible out of the system by the time the shit hits the fan.”

“There will be protests,” Johan said, carefully. “Wives and families...”

“I know,” Charlie said. There were nowhere near enough transports in the system to take the families, along with the workers. They would have to be put on the backburner, for the moment, despite the risk of the Federation taking them hostage. “Deal with it. We cannot risk allowing people who actually know how to think falling into enemy hands.”

He sighed. The Federation had used rote learning, more and more, as its educational infrastructure worsened. It had seemed easier to compensate rather than to try to fix the problem at the source. But Nova Athena had managed to produce hundreds of talented and innovative workers who were capable of actually understanding what they were doing and even improving it. They could not be allowed to fall into enemy hands.

“I’ll do my best,” Johan said, finally. “And the defense plans?”

Charlie nodded. The only hope was a defense of Nova Athena itself, even though it meant the remainder of the system would be left exposed. Some facilities would have to be destroyed, he knew; others would, hopefully, not draw fire, if only because the Federation would want them for itself. But they would have to be destroyed if the system fell, he knew...

“We’ll have to defend the planet,” he said. “There’s nothing else to do.”

* * *

Under other circumstances, Uzi would have admired how Nova Athena was responding to an imminent attack. Normally, civilians panicked, while uniformed paper-pushers weren’t too far behind. There were riots in the streets, upswings in petty crimes and plenty of conspicuous consumption. Instead, the workforce was being peacefully evacuated, while the remainder of the population was buying guns and settling in for a long insurgency. It wouldn’t do more than smash up the planet, Uzi knew, but it would make them feel as though they were doing something worthwhile.

Now, though, he needed to think of a way to damage the defenses before the shit hit the fan, but he hadn’t been able to find one. The Outsiders had known the dangers of chaos software before Admiral Justinian had deployed it on Earth; their computer systems were secure, when they were interlinked at all. Indeed, the system was actually designed to allow them to share data without risking contamination. It might not work so well when the battle actually started, but it was definitely making pre-battle sabotage impossible.

He gritted his teeth as he escorted another line of workers to the shuttlecraft, which would take them to the transports waiting in orbit. Part of him marveled at how much discipline the civilians were showing – he’d seen trained soldiers who showed less self-control – but he kept working away at the problem. There just wasn’t any way for a single person, no matter how capable, to actually make an impression. Unless...

The plan slowly took shape in his mind. It would depend, of course, on where he was stationed by the time the attack began. The Outsiders didn’t seem to know quite what to do with the space-trained troops. In their place, Uzi would have sent them elsewhere, but instead they’d been deployed to the planet. Maybe, just maybe, it would give him a chance to strike a blow for the Federation.