Martial Law 1: Patriotic Treason (48 page)

“Report,” I said, as calmly as I could. “Have we picked up any coded pulses yet?”

“Only from three cruisers,” Carolyn said, grimly. I winced inwardly, although I knew that seven minutes wasn't really long enough to secure a ship, even with the Marines cooperating. The three cruisers that had secretly identified themselves as under our control had had the bridge crew thoroughly subverted. The others would take longer to secure. “Captain?”

“We wait,” I said, coldly. The icon for EarthStar One hung in the display, taunting me. Was it under our control, or had something gone badly wrong? I felt a feeling in the pit of my stomach I couldn’t quite explain. “Concentrate on…”

“Captain, I’m picking up a message from the Marines,” Geoffrey Murchison reported, quickly. “They’re saying…”

“Put them on,” I snapped. There was no need to worry about secrecy any longer. “Erwin, this is John.”

“John, they had troops in place waiting for something,” the Master Sergeant said. I could hear shooting in the background and cursed under my breath. Even Marines couldn’t take the entire station against armed opposition. There were only twenty-one of them, after all. “They’ve got us pinned down.”

I swore again. If they failed, it had all been for nothing.

“Erwin,” I said. I found myself grasping for words again. I’d thrown their lives away – for nothing. “I’m sorry…”

“Stow it,” he snapped. “Just make damn sure that all of this is worthwhile.”

The connection broke. A moment later, the icon representing EarthStar One flickered…and vanished.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

With the handful of a few exceptions, there were few who could claim to be truly loyal to the United Nations – indeed, the institution actively discouraged loyalty. Officers and men served for their pay checks and little else, while their political masters treated them as serfs and used them as expendable slaves. Discontent was widespread throughout the system, yet it required a rallying point before it could become a serious threat.

-Thomas Anderson. An Unbiased Look at the UNPF. Baen Historical Press, 2500.

“They took a nuke,” I realised, in shock. I’d known that the Marines carried scuttling charges for captured freighters, just in case the crews decided to try and take them back, but the Master Sergeant hadn’t mentioned taking one along with him to me. I hadn’t thought that one would be necessary, but he’d obviously had different ideas. Had he known that suicide was the only solution…or had he merely planned for all eventualities? “Why did they even have troops onboard?”

“It must have been the Heinlein assault,” Sally said, stepping onto the bridge. If anyone thought it was odd that a mere Ensign was addressing a Captain in such a manner, they said nothing. “If that panicked the people on EarthStar One, they might well have uploaded more security forces without telling anyone.”

And twenty-one good men died in the blast, I thought, coldly. The Master Sergeant’s sacrifice had bought us the time we needed, but at a fearful cost. Earth’s mighty defences were useless now, at least until we could board them and replace their control processors, and we would have a free hand, as long as nothing went badly wrong. I glanced down at the display and saw that seven starships had definitely fallen into our hands, along with two of the troop transports. The Marine transports were already on their way from Mars, but we couldn’t trust the Infantry. Luckily, most of them would be in stasis tubes and wouldn’t know that anything had changed until it was far too late.

“Captain, I’m picking up signals from the orbital asteroids and two of the starships,” Lieutenant Samantha Kennedy said. “I think the cat is definitely out of the bag now.”

“Put them on,” I said.

“This is Sanders, Captain Sanders,” a voice said. It was the sound of despair. “The Marines have taken the ship and are breaking into my cabin. They’re mutinying against…”

The voice vanished, only to be replaced by another one. “There’s a battle going on at the airlocks,” it said. This one was young and female, an Ensign who had forgotten everything, even basic communications protocols. “The Captain is dead! They killed the Captain!”

“Armed Marines are boarding the asteroid and cuffing my men,” someone else said. This one was old and cynical. The Marines had to secure the orbital asteroids before someone got any clever ideas about trying to reassume control of the orbital defences. “They’re killing anyone who tries to resist!”

“This is Devastator,” a familiar voice said. I recognised my former Captain and winced inwardly. I’d wanted the monitor to threaten Earth if necessary, but he would have been one of the few Captains to survive. Devastator hadn’t had a large cell of rebels, just because the Captain inspired loyalty. “I have four mutineers in custody, I repeat, I have four mutineers in custody. I believe that this is not an isolated event and a security alert should be declared at once.”

“Too late,” I hissed, savagely. The quick-reaction force in orbit consisted of the Marines, the Marines I’d already subverted. They wouldn’t respond to orders from the ground, but by the time the UN realised that that was the time, valuable time would be lost. They’d then send up troops in shuttles or the orbital towers, although the latter would be fearfully slow, but by then we’d have control of all the starships, one way or the other. We’d even control the upper levels of the orbital towers.

“We had six people onboard Devastator,” the Senior Chief said. He shouldn’t have been on the bridge at all, but again, no one objected. “Two of them must have been killed in the crossfire.”

“This is Captain Traduce,” another voice said. “I am barricaded in my cabin, but the mutineers have taken control of the bridge and the engineering compartment. The Marines are joining the rebels, I repeat…”

The signal vanished in another wash of static and two more starships declared that they were secure. I keyed my console, sending the orders I’d prepared already, ordering them to prepare to move out to the asteroid belt if necessary. The Marines I’d sent there would have destroyed the UN garrisons by now and the workers would be rebelling, given half a chance. I’d seen it years ago. Earth no longer supplied the UNPF with anything. It all came from the asteroids. Earth’s vaunted industry couldn’t even meet Earth’s needs, let alone anyone else’s requirements.

“Colin, watch out,” someone said. “They’re behind you and…”

It broke off in a scream. “This is UN General Command,” a harsher voice said, yet it was tinged with fear and uncertainty. “This is a general broadcast to all starships. Report your status at once. I repeat, report your status at once.”

“Ignore it,” I ordered, imagining the chaos down on the surface. The politicians would be trying to come to grips with the crisis, unaware that things were already outside their control. I was tempted to broadcast fake information to mislead them, but there was little point. Earth’s power to intervene was almost non-existent. They were probably regretting having disbanded the heavy ground-based laser cannons by now. “Samantha, how many starships are with us now?”

“Twenty-one,” Samantha said. “The Al Gore is drifting out of control and we lost all contact with her two minutes ago.”

“That was one of the ships without subverted Marines,” the Senior Chief muttered in my ear. “If there was a fire fight on the bridge, or damage to the control systems…”

I nodded. “We’ll have to try to recover her later,” I said. The cruiser wasn’t about to fall into the atmosphere and add to Earth’s woes. If worst came to worst, I’d fire on her myself, but it shouldn’t be necessary. The ship wasn't leaking atmosphere and the crew should be able to remain alive long enough to be rescued, unless they’d killed each other by now. For once, I breathed a silent prayer of thanks for the UN’s obsessive concern with safety. The loyalists would find it hard to pump out the atmosphere and kill my people. “Can you get a link to Trygve Lie?”

Samantha winked at me – she knew my relationship with Kitty – but she opened the link without demur. “Kitty, this is John,” I said, quickly. The battleship was always going to be the hardest target – in fact, in hindsight, I should have tried to prepare a suicide charge for that ship as well. We’d never have been able to smuggle a nuke though the sensors, but there were other ways. “Report!”

Kitty sounded tired when she spoke to me. “I’ve got good news and bad news,” she said. I forgave her the breach of protocol. If she were still alive, we hadn’t failed. Not yet…and the more starships that fell under our control, the more certain our victory. “The good news is that we have control of the ship. The bad news is that there was a laser fight in several compartments and we don’t have any weapons until we can rig bypasses. We don’t even have point defence.”

I swore. Battleship or not, expensive waste of resources or the ultimate weapon of intimidation, the starship was completely defenceless without weapons. A handful of nuclear strikes would take out a battleship, same as any other starship, and while the battleship mounted heavy point defence weapons, they couldn’t use them without the control systems. Intentionally or otherwise, the UN had scored a goal.

“Understood,” I said, finally. There was no point in crying over spilt milk. “Can you still move the ship?”

“Yes,” Kitty said. “The bridge is a mess, but we’ve moved operations down to the CIC and we can still use the drives.”

“Good enough,” I said. “Power up the Jump Drive and jump out to the asteroids. There’s no point in keeping you here if you can’t fight. Make repairs as quickly as you can and then return.”

“Yes, sir,” Kitty said. Her voice softened slightly. “Good luck, John.”

I looked down at the display as the battleship started to manoeuvre out of the planet’s gravity well, ignoring increasingly frantic messages from the ground. We had twenty-one starships under our direct control now, with the others still disputed…apart from Devastator. I’d expected Captain Shalenko to be trying to take action, but instead the monitor was just sitting there, waiting. The torrent of messages from the asteroids was slowing down as my people secured control. He had to be going out of his mind with worry…or perhaps he was waiting to see who came out on top.

They probably think that one of their senior officers has launched a coup, I thought, with a flicker of amusement. The upper levels didn’t realise – they didn’t really believe – that people less fortunate than they had been had minds and souls, or even the ability to use them. The thought of a mutiny from the lower decks was beyond their comprehension and, in every case, their paranoia had worked against them. If every member of the crew on each starship had been armed, the results would have been unpleasant. The chaos would probably have cost us our chance at a bloodless victory.

I looked down at the messages and smiled. They’d been trying to call me directly, but they were also calling others. I wondered if they’d realised that I was in command of the rebellion, but it looked as if they were desperately trying to contact anyone. I studied the relay systems, trying to see what Captain Shalenko was saying to them, but Devastator appeared to be silent. He had to be using tight-beam lasers to communicate with the ground.

“I think its time,” the Senior Chief said. “John, are you ready?”

I tensed. “Yes,” I said, slowly. “Open a general channel, wide broadcast.”

“Channel opening,” Samantha said. That had been one of the tricks I’d picked up from Heinlein. I wouldn’t just be addressing the UN General Command on the ground, or the uncommitted across the solar system, but everyone. They would all hear what I had to say. “You may speak when ready.”

I took a breath. “This is Captain John Walker,” I said. “As of now, we have secured control of Earth’s orbital defences and most of the starships orbiting the planet. The United Nation’s ability to dictate terms to the Colonies, or even Luna Base, has been neutralised. This action is not something we take willingly, but it is action that we must take. The war between Earth and the Colonies is beyond victory. It can only end in defeat.

“Ask yourself this, if you doubt me,” I continued. “Why have conditions on Earth steadily worsened, despite the UN’s promise of booty from the Colonies? Why have we – the officers and men of the UNPF – been expended endlessly in a war that they told us would be won in weeks, perhaps days? Why was Heinlein’s Resistance able to strike at the very heart of Earth itself, creating a sight that no one could miss in the sky? Why should we serve as enforcers to a group of politicians too stupid to see the writing on the wall?

“We all swore loyalty to the high ideals behind the Peace Force. We were told that the Peace Force existed to promote Peace and to enforce Peace. Have we succeeded in our mission? No! How can we succeed in our mission when the mere presence of the Peace Force is enough to destroy Peace? How can we succeed when our lords and masters take steps designed to expand the conflict and destroy the peace and tranquillity on dozens of worlds? How can we look in the mirror and call ourselves the Peace Force when we bring them war, famine, pestilence and death?”

I felt my resentments bubbling up. “But what does it matter what we do, if the political cause is right?” I asked. “What does it matter if we kill millions of innocents if the cause is right? The ends justify the means, right? We’re not robots, or computers to be programmed, even if far too many of us have allowed ourselves to believe their lies. We have minds and we can think for ourselves. How does it benefit Earth, or even the UN itself, if our very presence causes resentment and hatred? Are we murderers, so far fallen from grace that we can accept the destruction of an entire city of innocents by the weapons we are sworn to prevent being used? Are we monsters that we become passive observers as worlds are looted, women are raped and children are killed? Are we not compliant in their deeds? Are our hands not dripping red with blood?