Ep.#15 - "That Which Other Men Cannot Do" (The Frontiers Saga) (23 page)

“Speaking of admirals, Galiardi is still waiting to see you,” Miri reminded him.

President Scott sighed.

“Do you know what you’re going to say to him?” she wondered.

“I have some ideas, yes,” the president admitted, “but I think I’m going to just listen to what he has to say, and take it from there. The last thing I need to do is to feed the fire.”

“I’ll send him in, then,” Miri said, exiting the room.

President Scott rose from his desk and moved toward the center of the office, in preparation to greet his guest. The door opened, and Miri led Admiral Galiardi into the room.

“Admiral,” the president greeted, taking caution to use exactly the right tone and level of courtesy. “A pleasure to see you again,” he added as he extended his hand.

“The pleasure is all mine, Mister President,” Admiral Galiardi replied politely, shaking the offered hand. “Thank you for agreeing to speak with me. I know how busy you must be.”

“Aren’t we all.” President Scott gestured for the admiral to take a seat in the sitting area to the side of the office.

“Gentlemen, I’ll leave you to your discussions,” Miri offered politely, backing toward the door to exit.

Admiral Galiardi bowed appreciatively to Miri as she exited, then turned back to the president. “Your youngest daughter, isn’t she?”

“Yes, Miranda.”

“I almost didn’t recognize her,” the admiral said as he took his seat.

“The last year has aged us all a decade,” President Scott said as he sat.

“Indeed it has.”

“How may I be of help to you today, Admiral?”

“Please, Mister President. Call me Michael. I think we’ve known each other long enough for that. Besides, while I appreciate the respect the title infers, I am no longer an admiral.”

“Very well, Michael. How may I help you?”

“I assume you are aware of the petition my people have been circulating?”

“Of course.”

“I thought we might discuss its intent.”

“I thought its intent was quite clear,” President Scott said. “The ‘Strength Now’ group, of which I assume you are the leader, wants Earth to withdraw from the Sol-Pentaurus Alliance and concentrate its efforts on the
defense
of Earth, and
only
Earth.” One of President Scott’s eyebrows went up. “Isn’t
that
a correct interpretation?”

“Partly,” the admiral admitted. “Some of our most vocal members would like nothing less. However, I believe it is the aggressive
expansion
of the Alliance within the Sol sector that we object to, more than the Alliance itself.”

“The Alliance’s goal is not expansion of the Alliance itself, Mister Galiardi. You know that as well as anyone. Expansion of its member worlds is merely a byproduct of removal of Jung forces from nearby systems.”

“Your Alliance is not just
removing
forces, Mister President, they are
liberating worlds
. And with the liberation of worlds comes the responsibility to protect them.”

“Agreed, assuming that those worlds are willing to join the Alliance,” President Scott replied.

“Mister President, we are barely capable of protecting our own world, let alone dozens of others. One could make an argument that our ability to protect
this
world depends on how many ships the Jung are willing to commit to a single, mass assault.”

“I do not disagree with that assessment,” the president said. “However, the further from Sol the nearest Jung ship is located, the more time we have to
prepare
our defense. Surely you can see the logic?”

“Of course, but the Alliance is attacking ships that have not taken a threatening posture. The fact that they are parked less than a year’s travel from Sol does not justify your actions, at least not in the minds of a military leader. Such leaders can only see your actions as an act of war.”

“Which is what it should be,” President Scott argued. “The Jung came here. They attacked
our
world, without provocation, with the intent to conquer and enslave our people. We are only responding to that act of aggression, as
any
world would do.”

“No, not any world,” Galiardi corrected. “Only us. None of the other systems in this sector traveled beyond their boundaries to attack Jung forces elsewhere.”

“Only because the Jung had already defeated them during their first strikes.” President Scott leaned back in his chair, frustrated. “I don’t get it, Michael. I would have expected you, of all people, to be waving the banner and charging into battle, gun in hand.”

“No, you are mistaken,” Galiardi insisted. “I may be a military man, but I’m not stupid. You don’t call out the schoolyard bully unless you’re damned sure you can kick his ass, and that’s exactly what your Alliance is doing. And it’s
our
ass that’s going to get kicked…
again
.”

“I don’t know, I think we’ve been doing pretty well so far, all things considered.”

“Don’t kid yourself, Dayton,” Galiardi warned. “You’ve had time on your side. That was the whole reason that I pushed the STS program so hard. But time is running out. Eventually, word will reach the Jung homeworld, wherever it is, and when it does, the Jung will respond.”

“And with the time that our forces are buying us by removing all Jung forces from the core, we’ll be ready. Our people have done the math as well, Michael.”

“Now it’s from the entire core? What happened to twenty light years?”

“The core and secondary worlds of Earth, for the most part, have the largest populations, and the greatest industrial and economic capacities.”

“Which is exactly why the Jung conquered them to begin with, Dayton,” Galiardi countered. “You’re not poking them with a stick. You’re gutting them with a knife.”

“We’re sending them a message,” President Scott insisted.

“And what exactly is that message?” Admiral Galiardi wondered.

“That we will not bow down to subjugation. That we will not tolerate brutality and injustice. Not against us, nor those we call friends.”

“No! The message you are sending is a dare!” Galiardi declared, shaking a pointed finger at the president. “A dare for the Jung to return, in force, to try and finish the job they started. Had you simply liberated Earth, and then taken up a defensive posture followed by a stern warning that we will not tolerate any more incursions into our system, we
might
have had a chance. At the very least, it would have taken several years for the Jung homeworld to learn of the events and take action. Perhaps longer to rally enough ships to cleanly overwhelm us. You could have used the Karuzara facilities to upgrade the Aurora and the Celestia, and maybe even a few more, smaller, ships. But you had to go on a crusade for the good of the entire core!”

“That isn’t what this is about, and you know it,” President Scott said in a poorly veiled, accusatory tone.

Admiral Galiardi suddenly stopped.

“You didn’t need the jump drive program to defend Earth,” the president continued. “Over short ranges, you can do the same thing with linear FTL systems. We’ve already seen the Jung using such tactics, just not as well. You could have fixed the problems with the FTL systems in the second version of the Defender-class ships. Hell, you could have built four more of them for the same time and money that you spent on the STS drive and building the Explorer-class ships. That would have given us eight FTL warships. No other core world had that size of fleet, not even Alpha Centauri. The Jung, who by your own assessment prefer to use overwhelming force, would have needed to amass twice as many ships, which would have taken years, possibly decades longer.”

“There was no way to know that at the time, Dayton…” the admiral defended.

“I’m not so sure about that,” the president argued. “You’re a smart guy, Michael. I’m sure you considered all the angles, yet you still chose
not
to oppose the construction of Explorer-class ships.”

“If you remember, Mister President, it was the leaders of Earth who wanted the Explorer-class ships, not I. In fact, I believe I made it clear that abandoning the Defender-class design would make us weaker in the long run.”

“Yet your assessments of the time available before the Jung could be in position to attack Earth in force did not support a long-term approach to Earth’s defense. In fact,
you
recruited
me
, to participate in your little stalling tactic, in the hopes of making the Jung operatives on Earth believe that postponing an invasion would be in their best interests.”

“Which, if successful, would have given us two completed, Explorer-class ships, fully armed, with working jump drives, along with our existing Defender-class ships. We might even have had enough time to convert them to jump-capable ships, as well! Can you imagine? It would have taken decades for the Jung to gather the forces needed to successfully defeat us!”

“Yes, it was a wonderful plan,” President Scott agreed. “Which is why you were given command after Jarlmasson was forced to resign.” The president leaned forward. “But it didn’t work.” He paused and took a breath. “And now, we find ourselves finally getting off the ropes, after millions upon millions of people have died, and our world was nearly annihilated. Given all that has happened, and all that the Jung have done to us and the rest of the worlds of the core, I’m surprised
their
leaders are not calling on the Alliance to launch a spread of KKVs at the Jung homeworld, assuming we can ever find it.”

Admiral Galiardi took a moment to compose himself. “Trust me, Dayton, you do not want to incur the
full wrath
of the Jung. We have
seen
what they are capable of. We have
seen
them glass
entire worlds
and simply move on without batting an eye. If you continue to try to expand and grow this Alliance, you will leave the Jung no choice. They will have to attack. Not only us, but every other world that you have unwillingly put into harm’s way. You used the word millions. I’m talking
trillions
of lives. Do you understand?”

Dayton Scott stared back at Michael Galiardi, unwavering in his determination. “It’s the
right
thing to do, Michael. It’s as simple as that.”

“
Nothing
is ever
that
simple, Dayton. Are you really willing to risk your
entire world
, just to satisfy your own sense of morality?”

“Some things
are
black and white,” the president insisted. “Not many, but some. This is not about
my
sense of right and wrong. This is about the will of the collective. This is about what all of humanity considers just. If you can’t see that, then you’re not as smart as I have given you credit for all these years.”

Admiral Galiardi leaned back in his chair. “You know we will fight you every step of the way.”

“I do,” President Scott replied confidently.

Admiral Galiardi waited, staring into Dayton Scott’s eyes, hoping to find some break in his resolve. Finally, he stood. “I truly hope that I am wrong about this, Dayton…I truly do. But I’ve never been one to grasp at straws.”

Dayton Scott watched without speaking as Admiral Galiardi turned and headed for the door. When the admiral reached the door, he spoke. “Michael, there was something I always wanted to ask you.”

Michael Galiardi turned back toward the president, his coat in his hand.

“Why is it that Nathan was transferred to the Aurora, when Eli clearly asked for him to be reassigned to a surface assignment?”

“I wouldn’t know,” the admiral replied. “I was the commanding officer of the entire Earth Defense Force, Dayton. I had no direct knowledge of duty assignments.”

“And how is it that the Jung knew exactly where the Aurora would come out of her first test jump? Even I didn’t know that.”

“Maybe you should have asked Eli?” the admiral suggested.

“I’m asking you, Michael.”

Galiardi smiled. “Thank you for seeing me, Mister President.” He turned back toward the door and reached for the knob. “See you in the trenches.”

* * *

“Today’s exercises were good,” Captain Nash told the gunship crews gathered in the mission briefing room on the asteroid spaceport orbiting Tanna. “Maneuvers were tight, executions were by the numbers, and your transitions between attack patterns were tight.” He paused and looked out into the crowd. “Well, most of you, anyway. Hopefully, Captain Annatah will be more awake next time.”

“I will make sure of it,” Captain Annatah’s copilot, Lieutenant Commander Jahansir, promised.

“If that new baby of yours is too much for you, Captain, just say the word, and I’ll be happy to restrict you to base for the rest of your training cycle,” Captain Nash teased.

“That won’t be necessary, sir,” Captain Annatah replied.

“See that it isn’t.”

Lieutenant Commander Rano entered the room and walked up to Captain Nash, whispering in his ear. The captain nodded. “Lieutenant Commander Rano will be taking over the remainder of the briefing. I’ll see you all tomorrow morning, at zero six hundred, Tannan Mean Time.”

Captain Nash stepped down from the podium and left the briefing room. He moved quickly down the corridor and entered his office, finding Admiral Dumar sitting there waiting for him. “Apologies, Admiral,” he said, offering a salute.

“As you were, Captain,” Admiral Dumar replied, returning the salute without standing. “No apologies necessary. You had no warning of my visit.” The admiral gestured toward the door. “Close the door, Robert. We need to talk.”

Captain Nash squinted suspiciously as he closed the door. “Is something wrong?” he asked as he moved behind his desk to sit.

“How is the training going?” the admiral wondered. “Your first eight crews getting the hang of things?”

“As well as can be expected, considering it’s only been a few weeks.”

“You mean, a few months, don’t you?”

“I was speaking of actual flight time…in real ships,” the captain explained. “The first four crews have only had their ships for about six weeks. The second four about half that.”