Alarm of War, Book II: The Other Side of Fear (53 page)

Admiral Douthat shook her head again.  “Give me a brave, stupid person and nine times out of ten you’ll get a dead, stupid person.”

The other Dominion ships had slowed to a stable orbit, fixed over Timor’s equator.  Within a minute shuttles began to emerge from shuttle bays and move to the planet far below.  For some of the ships without adequate shuttle capacity, life pods popped out of the hull and began to move very slowly behind the shuttles.  Douthat nodded in satisfaction.  “Beam over the security teams onto the Duck ships and make sure they’re safe, then send the new crews over by shuttle,” she ordered.  The captured ships would be very thinly crewed until reinforcements from Victoria arrived, but that didn’t matter.  Douthat was pretty sure that she didn’t have to actually project power, just flaunt it.

Then she commed the Dominion battleship
Fortitude
to demand that Admiral Kaeser surrender.   But when the comm opened to the
Fortitude,
Admiral Kaeser wasn’t there.

Chapter 48

The United People’s Palace, Timor

Admiral Kaeser wasn’t surprised by the summons.

Michael Hudis might have been gloating, if he hadn’t looked so scared.  “Come to the Palace immediately, Admiral,” he said, his voice cold and brittle.  “You are summoned by the Citizen Director himself.”

This could go one of two ways, Kaeser reflected. Citizen Director Nasto might want to speak to him about how best to protect Timor from defeat now that most of the Fleet was gone, or he might charge Kaeser with treason and have him shot on the spot.  Kaeser put the odds no better than fifty-fifty.

He spent ten minutes conferring with Captain Bauer and the captains of two of the cruisers, both of whom he had known for years and trusted. Finally, he placed a call to a number he had memorized years before.

“Yes?” answered a gruff voice.

“I’ve been summoned to the Palace,” Admiral Kaeser said evenly.

“Yes, I know,” the gruff voice replied.  “I was there when he gave the order.”

Kaeser paused, waiting to see if there would be more information. When there was none, he said: “I think it may be time.”

“Oh, yes,” the man with the gruff voice chuckled.  “I should think it is.”  He paused.  “We knew it would come, I just thought it would be the Tilleke, not the Victorians.”

“Better for us in the long run,” Kaeser said.

The man snorted.  “Well, we’ll certainly find out, won’t we?”  Then he cut the connection.

Admiral Kaeser packed his briefcase very carefully and, finally, boarded the shuttle.  The
Fortitude
was riding in synchronous orbit over the capital city, so the ride down was short. Once they reached the atmosphere, he could see that the shuttle was being escorted down by two DID military jets.  While it was true that the jets could not follow the shuttle back into space, the missiles hung under their wings reminded him that they didn’t have to.

Captain Bauer kept him updated with what the Victorians were up to, but for the moment they seemed busy placing crews on the destroyers and frigates they had captured.  Admiral Kaeser grimaced: the Victorians would now have seventy-eight warships, while he had
five
.  Who was it that said in war quantity has a quality all of its own? 

But then, just as they were landing, Captain Bauer sent one more message.

“The Victorians are demanding the unconditional surrender of the Dominion!” he said, his voice shaking.  “The Victorian Admiral has given us two hours in which to comply.”

“We’re just landing at the Palace,” Kaeser said.  “Keep your eye on them, Fritz, but under no circumstances are any of the cruisers to use targeting sensors, do you understand?  Do not give the Vickies an excuse to fire on you.  Once the firing starts, we will not be able to stop it.” 
Once the firing starts
, Kaeser thought bleakly,
Timor is doomed
.

“Yes, Admiral.”  Bauer sounded resolute and terrified. 

Michael Hudis and four armed DID guards waited to greet him when he reached the Palace.  “This way, Admiral, Citizen Director Nasto is waiting,” Hudis said.  Kaeser nodded and they set off, the guards forming a box around them.  As they walked, Kaeser saw more DID guards every hundred feet or so in the long corridor.  A few more turns and they reached a door with three DID guards standing in front of it.  Kaeser had been here once and remembered it as a small office and conference room where the Citizen Director liked to hold private meetings.

One of the guards opened the door.  Kaeser walked through, wondering if he would walk back out alive.

At the table sat Anthony Nasto, the Citizen Director; Admiral Wagner; Michael Hudis; and a small, balding little man with slightly bulging dark eyes who Kaeser recognized as Erik Niederman, the Director of the Dominion Intelligence Directorate.  Admiral Kaeser came to attention and said formally to the table: “Admiral Kaeser, reporting to the Citizen Director at his order.”

“Sit down,” the Citizen Director said coldly.

Kaeser sat down, trying to take in the sense of the room as he did so.  Michael Hudis looked worried, but when he glanced at Kaeser, he smirked. 
Hoping for payback,
thought Kaeser.  Admiral Wagner was expressionless, as usual.   Niederman, he saw with a chill, looked amused.  And the Citizen Director looked coldly furious. 

All in all, not an auspicious beginning.

“The Victorian Admiral has demanded our unconditional surrender,” Nasto spat.  He slammed the table with his fist.  “Under no condition will we surrender!  None!”  He glared at everyone around the table.  “We still have our planetary defenses.  Thousands of missiles!  I want everything launched against the Vickies!  Everything!”  He slapped that table again for emphasis.  “And the defending ships in orbit, why aren’t they firing?”  He glared at Admiral Kaeser.  “Why?”

“I gave them orders not to use their targeting sensors,” Kaeser replied, struggling to stay calm.  “As soon as the cruisers turn on their targeting sensors, the Vickies will destroy them.”

“That is the same rank cowardice that you have shown since this campaign began,” shouted Nasto.  “Admiral Mello was right!  You can’t win if you don’t fight and you, Admiral, are afraid to fight!”

“Admiral Mello over-extended his forces and was annihilated,” Kaeser replied sharply.  “Citizen Director, the planetary defenses will not prevent the Victorians from retreating to a safe distance and making kinetic strikes on us.  We can intercept some of them, but not all, and we do not have enough ships left to force-“

“We don’t have enough ships left because of your gross incompetence!” shouted Nasto.  “Anyway,” he continued more calmly, “the Vickies will not use kinetic strikes; they have repeatedly said that does not comport with their code of warfare.”

“They may feel less, um,
constrained
since we bombed their home planet,” Kaeser suggested.

“Are you suggesting that we surrender?” Nasto asked, an ominous edge in his voice.

“He is!” Hudis said helpfully.  “He should be arrested and shot.”

Admiral Wagner looked at his watch and pursed his lips, but said nothing.  Director Niederman raised his eyebrows.  “And who would command the Fleet?” he asked.

“What fleet?” Nasto said scornfully.  Niederman shrugged, conceding the point.

An aide came into the room and handed Citizen Director Nasto a slip of paper.  Nasto read it, frowning, then looked up.  “Sensors show the Vickies are pulling back to a deep orbit of 50,000 miles.” 

“Perhaps they are retreating, sir,” suggested Hudis.

Kaeser shook his head.  “They are pulling back out of the effective range of our planetary defenses,” he explained.  “Our planetary missiles have an effective power range of no more than 30,000 miles.  After that, they go onto a ballistic trajectory and are easily destroyed or avoided.”

“I want all of our planetary defenses to fire on the Vickies now, while they are still in range,” Nasto ordered.  “We will fight, fight until the last man.  I will never surrender, do you hear me?”

Kaeser glanced at Wagner.  Wagner stood.  “May I be dismissed to carry out your order, Citizen Director?”

Kaeser stood and leaned over the table.  “Citizen Director, your order will result in the total destruction of this planet and everyone on it!  Our only course is to surrender.”

Then, from the corridor, came the sound of a gunshot, followed by several more in rapid succession.  The single guard in the room ran to the door and everyone waited to see what was happening.  No one noticed Admiral Wagner draw a small needle pistol from his briefcase. He calmly stepped behind Citizen Director Nasto and shot him in the back of the head.  As the guard turned back into the room, Wagner shot him twice in the chest.

Admiral Kaeser picked up the guard’s needle rifle, locked the door and turned back.  The sound of fighting grew louder outside.  Kaeser looked at the DID Director.  “Director Niederman, I suggest you order your men to put down their weapons.”

Niederman smiled and held out his hands, palms up in placation.  “I never argue with the man who has a gun.”  He glanced from Kaeser to Wagner.  “This has been well-played.  I mean that sincerely.  My men never got a whiff of it.”

Kaeser gestured with the rifle.  “The Vickies are going to start bombing us in a few minutes, Director, call your men.”

Niederman carefully withdrew his comm unit from his pocket, then thumbed it.   “This is the Director.”  He spoke clearly.  “All DID personnel, stand down.  I repeat, stand down until you receive further orders from me.”

He put down the comm and smiled at Admiral Kaeser.  “See?  Cooperation without threat of reprisal.”  He smiled warmly.  “I think that the DID and the Fleet can work well together to create a government that-“

Kaeser shot him.

Michael Hudis held his hands in front of him.  “Wait!  Wait!  You need me!  I can be useful!  You need someone to be the face of the new government.  I can help with that, I can-“

“Nope,” said Admiral Wagner mildly, and shot him.  Then he walked over to where the Citizen Director lay, put the muzzle of his pistol on Nasto’s forehead and fired two more bullets into his head.  “Can’t be too careful,” he grunted.  Then he grinned sheepishly.  “Saw that in a movie once.”

The two men stood there for a moment, surrounded by bodies and blood-splattered walls, when there was a knock on the door.  “Admiral Wagner?  Admiral, it’s Commander Lowe, sir.  The Palace is ours.”  Commander Lowe was Wagner’s personal aide.

The two admirals nodded in relief, and then both threw their weapons on the table.  “I never was cut out for the infantry,” Kaeser said, wiping his hands.

Ten minutes later a young sailor handed Admiral Kaeser a comm unit.  “It’s Victorian Admiral Douthat.” She eyed him nervously and Kaeser realized there was blood splattered on his tunic.  Kaeser held up the unit.

“Admiral Douthat, this is Admiral Kaeser of the Dominion Naval Forces.” 

On the
Lionheart
, Admiral Douthat frowned in puzzlement.  Kaeser, at the Palace?  She had expected to speak with Citizen Director Nasto.  She glanced at Sir Henry, who was looking intently at nothing at all, trying to parse through the possibilities.   Sir Henry shook his head.  “Ask him if he has spoken with the Citizen Director.”

There was a pause, then Admiral Douthat’s voice came through the slightly tinny speaker.  “Admiral, in twenty minutes, we will release the first asteroid toward your planet.  Has Citizen Director Nasto conferred with you about this?”

Kaeser and Wagner exchanged a look.  Wagner shrugged a “Go ahead” gesture.

Kaeser spoke carefully.  “Citizen Director is not able to take your call, Admiral.  He is…indisposed.”

On board the
Lionheart,
Sir Henry pumped a triumphant fist into the air and smiled broadly.  Douthat stared for a moment at the comm, nodded to herself and spoke:  “Admiral, I will assume in that case that you are in charge of the government of the Dominion of Unified Citizenry.”  She paused.  When Admiral Kaeser did not say anything to contradict her, she continued.  “Admiral Kaeser, you have it in your power to spare the people of the Dominion untold hardship and death.  Now that Citizen Director Nasto is…no longer with us, I put it to you:  Will you, speaking on behalf of all Dominion forces, surrender at once and without condition?”

Admiral Kaeser took a deep breath.  “The Dominion of Unified Citizenry hereby surrenders.  All active military and State Security forces are hereby ordered to stand down, immediately and without exception.”

Chapter 49

Two Weeks Later

On the H.M.S.
Rabat

Admiral Martha Wilkinson pushed a hand tiredly through her hair.  “The neuro realignment worked fine, that isn’t the problem.”

Emily frowned.  “How does the neuro realignment work?”

Wilkinson waived a hand.  “To give you the details, I’d need one of the neuropsychiatrists, and they are insufferably obtuse and pedantic.  Even if one of them agreed to talk to you, we’d need a regular neurologist to translate what he said.”  She pursed her lips.  “The short answer is that they go in and locate the physical site of the memories – the bad memories – and they dilute them to the extent that they seem distant and unrelated to your actual experience.  It is as if you have read about someone else’s experience, but you don’t feel any of the emotion that you would if it were your own experience.”

“And that worked with Cookie?” Emily asked.

“It worked just fine. It was quite a job, mind you; they had to work through six months of memories of physical and sexual abuse, plus everything that happened to the soldier who was with her, but they got it done.  Those memories no longer cause her the intense anguish they had before.  The entire experience of her imprisonment has been softened and diluted.”

Emily raised her eyebrows in a silent question.

“The problem,” Wilkinson said, visibly frustrated, “is that now Cookie views herself as damaged because she had to have
treatment
in order to deal with the bad memories and her emotional response to them.”

Emily considered this, remembering how independent Cookie was and how much she prized being one of the tough, confident Fleet Marines.  “You’re saying her problem now is that she thinks she is a weakling because she needed treatment to deal with her prison experience?”

Wilkinson nodded.  “It’s a little more complex than that, but yes, that sums it up.  It’s tearing her apart.  She doesn’t
trust
herself now.  She’s worried she can’t rely on her own judgment.”  Wilkinson threw up her hands.  “I can’t clear her for active duty until she’s past this.”

“Can’t you do more neuro realignment?”

“No,” Wilkinson said firmly.  “It is a great treatment, but there are risky side effects.  Cookie will have to wait at least a year before she can undergo any further realignment.”

“What about Hiram?  Can’t he help her?”

“She won’t see him,” Wilkinson explained.  “I think she feels like she has somehow failed him.”  She sighed.  “The longer I keep her in Sick Bay for treatment, the worse it gets.  I think the isolation and inactivity is hurting her, but I can’t release her like this.”

“You’re not saying she’s suicidal?”

“No, but she desperately needs a change, needs to get out of her head and just relax for a while.”

Emily sat back.  She was taking the
Rabat
back to Refuge for repairs.  Round trip would be ten to twelve weeks and there would be very little that demanded her attention while the ship was actually in the dry dock.

She smiled.  “Give her to me; I’ve got something to take her mind off her troubles.”