Exodus: Empires at War: Book 7: Counter Strike (9 page)

The next half an hour was spent with the Fleet
train coming through.  Freighters, superfreighters, antimatter tankers, missile
colliers.  And ten assault ships, carrying three more heavy divisions, the
relief force for the troops still trapped in the Fenri Empire.  More ships
would come later, troop transports, more freighters, and the ships that would
escort them from here to Len’s battle force.

“Fleet reports ready,” said the Fleet Com
Officer, looking back at Lenkowski.

“Is my staff aboard?” asked the Grand Fleet
Admiral.

“Their shuttle is on final approach,” said the
officer.  “They should be docking in three minutes.”

“Order the first task groups to jump to hyper,
then,” said Lenkowski.  “Let’s go ahead and raise the curtain on this thing.”

Moments after the order was transmitted the
first task forces jumped to hyper.  Minutes later the next TFs jumped, and
after them others.

“Jumping now,” came the voice of the ship’s
Captain over the com, moments after Len had been informed that his staff was on
board.  The hole in space opened up in front of
King Edward II
, and the
twenty million ton ship left normal space, heading into harm’s way.

Chapter
Five

I am extraordinarily
patient, provided I get my own way in the end.

Margaret Thatcher

CAPITULUM, JEWEL. 
NOVEMBER 25
^TH
, 1001.

Samantha Ogden Lee sat at her desk and shook
her head. 
What next?
, she thought. 
Isn’t it enough to have to fight
a war with the Lords, as well as with several enemies from without the Empire. 
Now they want me to put together an Imperial wedding.  Just the security on
that thing will be a nightmare.

The wedding of an Emperor, or, in a few cases
in the past, Empress, was just about the biggest deal there was in Imperial
Society.  The only thing that was bigger was a coronation, and they had just
gone through one of those.  Not only would Sean be legally bonding himself with
Jennifer, making her the vessel of any heirs he would be bringing into the
Galaxy, but she would be considered the Empress.  Of course, if Sean died, she
would not assume the throne.  She would be the Empress Mother if there was an
heir, or a Dowager Empress if there wasn’t.  Sean’s closest living relative
would be the next in line if there wasn’t an heir.

The problem with an Imperial Wedding, at this
time, was the people who would have to miss the ceremony due to wartime
duties.  Everyone and anyone would want a seat at that wedding, and some who
would otherwise be automatic attendees would leave empty seats, which many
would be fighting for.  Security would also be a nightmare, especially with the
shape shifters, the Yugalyth, added to the equation.  Everyone would have to be
checked out, and there would be more guards than were the norm, making the
space even more dear.

The ceremony would normally be held in the
Reformed Catholic Basilica in Capitulum, which could seat several hundred
thousand people, while several million more waited outside to see the couple
when they left the church.  They could seat more people if they held the
ceremony outside, perhaps on the palace grounds, or in a major stadium, of
which the city had many.  That would lead to even greater security problems,
with the Emperor and his bride exposed to long distance fire.  Technology could
provide some protection, but would it be enough?

And the Lords will raise hell that the Emperor
is marrying a commoner
, she thought with a frown. 
It doesn’t matter that she
has been given the title of duchess.  They will still see her as a commoner,
and the Emperor’s choosing of her, and not someone from an old family line, as
a collective slap in the face.

Samantha sighed again, wishing she was still a
serving Fleet officer.  At least then she only had to worry about dying.

“You have a call from the Prime Minister,
ma’am,” said the voice of her assistant over the com.

“Haruko,” said Samantha as the holo of the
Prime Minister, Countess Haruko Kawasaki, appeared.  “How goes Parliament?”

“Like herding especially obnoxious cats,” said
the small woman on the other end of the com.  “Though I do have report a major
triumph.”

“The Archduke?”

“”That’s the one,” said Haruko, nodding.  “It
seems he underwent a religious conversion while he was with the Fleet.  He came
back a full convert, and immediately attacked Countess Zhee and her clique in
the Opposition Party.”

“And Zhee?  What was her response?”

“She was livid.  The good Countess threatened
to throw Marconi out of their party.  Then she stormed out of the chamber after
she called for a walkout.”

“Shit.  That doesn’t sound good.”  Samantha was
already having a lot of problems with the Opposition Party.  With an angry Zhee
stirring up trouble the problem might be rising to the proportions of a true
crisis. 
And I would sure hate to have to throw that clique into jail. 
Well, that’s a lie.  I would love to throw them all into a cell.  But the
problems would outweigh my pleasure.

“Actually,” said the other woman, her smile
growing, “it was very good.  Only about a third of the party followed her from
the chamber.  The rest stayed, in a show of solidarity with Marconi.”

“So we broke her power base?” asked Samantha
after a short laugh.

“Or we added to his,” said Kawasaki, nodding. 
“She will never be able to muster more than forty percent of the vote for her
platform, even if she can convince all the other parties who are her group’s
historical allies.  It’s more likely that she’ll carry less than twenty five
percent of any vote.”

“So she won’t be able to swing a No Confidence
against Sean?”

“Not after what Marconi did after she walked
out,” said Kawasaki, smiling once again.  The woman shut her mouth and continued
to smile.

“Don’t keep me in the dark, my dear,” said
Samantha finally, her anxious wish to know overcoming her desire to not play
the Prime Minister’s game.

“He asked to speak before the Lords.  And he
gave a speech that made him sound like Sean’s greatest fan.  And a staunch
supporter of the Fleet and Army.  Marconi is a dynamic speaker, one of the
reasons he was such a pain in the ass to us up to this point.”

“Maybe we should ship some more of the Lords to
the front lines,” said Samantha, after a moment’s thought.  “If it doesn’t
convert them, it might at least get rid of a couple of the fools.”

“And maybe Marconi should be the Prime
Minister,” said Haruko in a quiet voice.

“Why do you say that?”

“He’s much more effective speaker,” said the
Prime Minister.  “He has a much easier time rallying the troops.”

“I’m not sure I’m ready to trust him that far,
Haruko,” said Samantha, choosing her words carefully.  “You are someone I can
trust.  That Sean can trust.  Plus, you aren’t that bad at swaying a chamber
yourself.  So, no.  I’m not letting you out of your job.”

“I would prefer to serve where I am,” said the
Countess, a look of relief on her face.  “And what about the
Donut
?  I
heard that the attack was foiled through official channels, but nothing about
how much damage the Cacas caused.”

“It was close.  Too damn close, as far as I’m
concerned.  It will take months to repair all the damage.  Maybe as long as a
couple of years.  But she’ll be making wormholes again this time tomorrow,
after they check out all the generating systems.”

“That is good,” said the Prime Minister,
nodding. “I don’t know what we would do without it.”

“We lost communications with the Elysium Empire
at the time of the attack,” said Samantha, something she also was worried
about.  “The earliest we can expect a message through the hypercom link is late
tomorrow,” she continued, referring to the line of stations that sent com
lasers through hyper VIII, moving the signals at one hundred and sixty
thousand  times the speed of light through that higher dimension as compared to
normal space.  Elysium was just over two thousand light years from Jewel, and
the relay could send a message from one capital to the other in one point seven
days.  That had been considered blazing fast, until the wormhole system came
along. 
And we won’t have that in place until we send another one by hyper
VII ship to the Elysium capital, which will take weeks.

“What do you think happened at the other end?”
asked the Prime Minister, her eyes wide.

“I don’t know, but it can’t be good.  Their end
of the wormhole was on a heavily guarded station, so it would have taken a
major assault force to take it.  And estimates are that at least two thousand
of the damned things came through from Elysium space.  Add to that a blast of
considerable proportions that came through the gate, and the fact that the
Cacas were dealing in hundred gig warheads, and I have a bad feeling that
something horrible has happened there.”

“I hope they are OK,” said the Prime Minister. 
“I have liked all of the Brakakak I have met.”

“I hope they are too,” said Samantha. 
And
not just for their sakes, though there is some of that sentiment as well.  But
they are powerful allies, and if the Cacas took them out, the fight becomes
that much more difficult.
   “I’ll send you the news as soon as we get it.”

“Please,” said Haruko, looking at something off
the holo for a moment.  “I have to run, Regent.  Another of those infernal
meetings I’m expected to preside at.  But we must schedule a lunch, just the
two of us.”

“I would love that, Countess,” said Samantha,
meaning every word.  The woman was one of the few true friends she had.  “If we
ever get the time to do anything for ourselves.”

The holo faded, and Samantha found herself once
again going over the reports of her subordinates, the only way she could keep
up with all the information that was flowing toward her from the lower levels
of the government. 
I wish I could read the original reports myself
, she
thought, looking at a document on the progress of the Bolthole Project. 
Instead
of something filtered through others.  But that is the price of assuming a
position of high power in an organization like an Empire.

*    
*     *

ELYSIUM SPACE.

What a flippin mess
, thought Ambassador
the Archduke Horatio Alexanderopolis, looking at the crater on the outskirts of
the Brakakak city that lay a hundred kilometers north of the capital.  The
large piece of station, at least a couple of hundred thousand tons, had come
through the atmosphere, propelled by the explosion of the enormously powerful
warhead, and slammed into the ground. 
At least it didn’t hit the center of
the city
, thought the human, who had been the Ambassador to this Empire for
over four decades, learning the language and customs of the majority avians
like few other non-Brakakak.

The damage was still horrific.  Buildings into
the city for more than two kilometers had collapsed, parks and open areas
incinerated many kilometers further in.  The strength of modern building
materials underscored the fury of the strike.  The buildings could have
withstood a close blast by a megaton device with only surface scarring.  To
completely collapse them took quite the ground strike, on par with the most
powerful of ship launched kinetic weapons.

“How many?” he asked the Brakakak who sat
beside him in the transport.

“Three hundred thousand here,” answered High
Lord Grarakakak, the leader of the Elysium Empire.  “We estimate about a
hundred thousand of them were children.”

The Ambassador winced at that figure, knowing that
the birdlike creatures loved their children more than anything.  And were
willing to go to any lengths to protect them.

“The total across the world, including the
station, is just under ten million,” continued the leader of the Empire, now
sole ruler since they were at war.  The soulful brown eyes of the avian looked
into those of the human for some moments, before looking back out over the
city.  “We have evidence that the Knockermen were involved in getting the foul
creatures onto our station.  Somehow, they captured one of our light cruisers
and used it to get the assault force onto the station.  And while the Cacas
were taking the wormhole gate and getting their force to your station, the
Knockermen moved a device that must have been provided them by the big aliens
to take out our space dock, and the ships in it.”

“What are you going to do about the Knockermen
now?” asked Horatio, almost afraid of the answer.  He was hoping that this
attack, much as he regretted it happening at all, would galvanize the Brakakak
to fully commit to the war against the Ca’cadasans.  Now it looked like they
might be forced to concentrate on their internal problems once again.

“Oh, they will pay for this,” said the grim
faced High Lord.  “You can count on that.  They can count on that.  But we must
find the ones who are responsible.  We are not barbarians, to simply go in and
kill sentient beings indiscriminately.  We will teach them a lesson, and punish
the guilty, while protecting the innocent.”

I was afraid of this
, thought the human,
looking away, back out of the transport at the devastation outside.  Not even
planned devastation, more of an accident than anything else.  And now the angry
Brakakak would put most of their effort into finding and punishing the rebels
in their own Empire.  “And what will you do with your fleet?  Recall it?”

“No,” hissed the angry avian, surprising the
Ambassador.  “These creatures who brought these weapons into our home system
must also be punished.  The fleet we have dispatched to aid your Empire will
continue to their destination, and will continue on to whatever deployments
your Admiralty decide upon.  We will, in fact, send more ships to you, since
whatever actions we will take against our internal rebels will involve mostly
lighter vessels, cruisers on down, and ground forces.  So we will send you more
battleships.”

“That, would be most welcome, Lord Brakakak.”

“And what of your station?”

“With the wormhole down, we won’t know until a
message comes over the hyperwave link,” said the Ambassador, his anxiety level
spiking as he thought about what might happen to their war effort without the
wormhole generators.