Riss Series 4: The Riss Accession (29 page)

"Given the
problem's
restrictions, not many solutions will
work."

"That may be true. However, talking with
some of the task force commanders, I didn’t find a consensus of opinion."

"Then it should be an interesting
meeting," I said as Wattson and Zhu strode through the door and everyone
not
already
standing stood
.

"At ease," Wattson said and sat
while Casey fetched Zhu and him something to drink. "Now that you've had
time to consider the problem, would someone like to offer a proposal?"

"The next time a
Medusa
is located, we proceed as normal, but this time, we leave a
cruiser at the Wave entrance in passive mode and let one of the Aliens' cruisers
escape. The cruiser at the wave follows it," Admiral Kwok of Yellow-1 said.

This was greeted with a variety of non-verbal
responses supporting Sakaata's contention that there wasn't an agreement on one
solution.

"How can we guarantee that a cruiser
will try to escape? They don't seem to run for the Wave even when they know
they have lost. They must know they are copies and won't really die,"
Captain Unger said. The discussions went on for the rest of the afternoon, slowly
coalescing around Zhang's initial analysis.

I offered to bring in Commander Iglis the
next day after she'd had a chance to evaluate the best systems to station a
watch. We'd be looking for a ZigZag-like system where the Aliens either already
had a few cruisers maintaining a quarantine, or one where they
would
most likely only be sending a few when they
came.

* * *

Iglis laughed. "It's funny when I think
about it. Back on Freeland, I felt I had eyes and ears on the whole galaxy,
with the traders reporting back from their sources in the three empires. Having
to rely only on what the
Comstats
collect, it's like I've lost my reading glasses and I've got cotton in my ears.
I'll pull something together by tomorrow. A list of systems too small to
warrant a
Medusa,
combined with a
list of systems which appear to have a Comstat which isn't functioning should
give us a list of likely candidates. With Admiral Butler's authorization, I
have the necessary access to get the information I'll need to compile that
list. I don't think I'll have trouble making the list for the meeting tomorrow."

"Meet you at my shuttle at twelve hundred
hours," I said as she rose to leave. I made my way to the workout area and
found Terril teaching. She immediately split the class in two, with one for me
to teach. I was glad I had come. Si'jin was my alternate world where the past
and the future didn't exist—just a
wonderful
feeling of freedom from worry and stress. On
the
Mnemosyne
, the workout area was
what I had always wished for, an area the whole ship used where rank and
unit
didn't matter. After I
ended
the class, Katlin came walking up and bowed.
I noticed she had earned her fourth
knot
from Terril.

"Master Reese, I've come to the
conclusion that Si'jin is more dangerous than flying a mission against an Alien
cruiser—and more fun. A year ago, I thought I was in good shape. Since
then, I've lost ten pounds and have endless energy. Best of all, I'm so relaxed
after a workout."

"Si'jin
has always been
my refuge when times were difficult. And
it's saved my life a couple of times."

"The consensus among the Ghosts is we
love being on a Riss cruiser and can't stand the thought of having to go back
to another SAS cruiser. Don't get me wrong; we love the SAS but would rather
serve on a Riss cruiser." She laughed, bowed, and headed for the showers.

"Anything exciting going to happen
tomorrow?" Terril
asked
,
coming
up behind me.

"I doubt it. We will identify potential
systems and assign task forces and Riss to go visit them. The excitement will
start if one of them finds what we're looking for."

* * *

Iglis was standing in the shuttle bay when I
entered. "Good day, Captain Reese," she greeted me, and judging by
the brief jerk of her right hand, she had to curb her instinct to salute.

"Is our party
list
long?"

"A mixture, if I interpret your needs
correctly. Several systems the Aliens will probably occupy sooner or later, and
a couple where they may already have."

"Good." I entered and waved Iglis
to sit next to me.

She handed me the list before
sitting
.

"That looks right."

"How do you know that looks
right?
I spent most of the night using
data from multiple sources to come up with that list."

"Iglis, you came up with the list by analyzing
the data based on the criteria I gave you. I'm looking at it from a,
does it make sense,
based on what we
know." I pulled out my SID and brought up a hologram of the three empires,
then highlighted the systems were we had detected Alien activity. Then I had a
cylinder made that included all of those systems. When I finished, it looked
like a hose running through the hologram. "Now if you include the systems
you identified,"--I highlighted them with blinking lights-- "you
notice they are in my tube. In fact, you will notice there are a couple more in
that tube that aren't on your list, but only because they don't meet the
criteria I gave you."

"Echo! Wattson should see this
immediately!" Iglis tried to jump up, but the seat restraints stopped her.

"After you've shown him your list, you
can show him."

"But it's your idea."

"You did all the hard work." I
laughed.

* * *

"That's an interesting list, Commander
Iglis. Five systems that appear to meet our criteria of not being worth a
Medusa
are either likely targets—
Tiamook
, Blue Canyon, and Hong—or already
quarantined—Sellis Ledge and
Mihr
. Since
Mihr
is in the
JPU, we had better ignore it until the political issues have been resolved and
Admiral Stenberg has had an opportunity to meet with them," Wattson said
while studying the star map Iglis had displayed on the monitor. "Admiral Zhu,
if you would arrange a watch on Hong, I'll post one on
Tiamook
and Blue Canyon. The latter makes me nervous,
as it is close to the
Tragos
Sector and Eden."

"May I suggest that the watch cruisers
be instructed to obey the Aliens’ warning and return to the planet rather than
engage them or try to leave the system?" I said, knowing the captain may
think he
could
outrun the Alien
ships or think it heroic to engage them, forgetting why he was there.

"But they will destroy the
cruiser," Modero said, frowning.

"Is a
cruiser
worth four hundred fifty lives?"

"No, Leader Reese is right. We will send
an old ship," Zhu said.

Wattson nodded agreement.

"So that leaves Sellis Ledge as the only
candidate for Operation Discovery." Wattson looked to Zhu.

"Admiral Ba Li, you will take Red-1 to
Sellis
Ledge," Zhu said.

"Admiral Sakaata, your task force will
also be part of Operation Discovery."

He turned to me.

"Captain Zhang and I will accompany the task
forces to Sellis Ledge."

"Who will go if another site becomes
available?" Wattson asked, still looking at me.

"I will leave that to Captain Pavao."

"Why?"

"If we've been discovered, the Aliens
will be on alert, and our cruisers won't stand a chance entering unnoticed. If
we haven't been discovered and are still there, more cruisers wouldn't add any
value and may alert them to our presence."

"Everyone is dismissed except for
Operation Discovery," Wattson said, and everyone not involved began
leaving.

Zhu came and sat next to me. "I do not
know all your captains, but my brother is a superb choice. Like the Riss, he
will remain calm and clear headed. But are you not the best and worse choice? We
could lose the leader of the Riss."

"The Riss will appoint another to the
position."

"But would history read the same?"

"Would history read the same if I don't
go?" I asked.

"A valid point. I can't have it both
ways, can I?" He gave me a small bow. "If I say you are the best,
then I must accept your decision is the correct one." He rose and took his
seat at the head of the table with Wattson.

"Can everyone be ready to leave
tomorrow?" Wattson asked, and continued when each of us nodded.
"Good. As an Alliance task force, no one is in charge of the overall
operation; however, you must agree on a strategy and provide mutual support in
implementing it."

"I'm very comfortable with Admiral
Sakaata. When we enter Sellis Ledge, Admiral Sakaata
and
I will evaluate the number of Aliens in
system and agree on our responsibilities. We will maintain communications to
ensure we are both aware of the other's situation," Ba Li said looking a
Sakaata. "We agree not to use skip-attacks, Dusters, or Dummies until the
Riss have entered the Wave."

Sakaata nodded agreement, then looked to me.

"I or Zhang, whoever is last to enter
the Wave, will send
Bye
."

* * *

"Bendis and I wish we were going
along," Sheva said as we sat in my office later that day. "I know we
are already risking two ships of Riss, but then, why not just one?"

"I would think it's a tradeoff. If it
works, I doubt it will work twice. Therefore, the chance of following the scout
is better with two, but more importantly, if we are discovered entering their system
or while we're there, the odds are better one will make it out," Zhang
said. He had deduced what I had decided, consciously or unconsciously.

"Zhang is right, as much as I hate to
admit it. I believe we won't get a second chance, and if we fail, war with the
Aliens will go on for centuries,
and
millions of men and women will die. We Riss would be willing to stop
fighting right now since the Aliens don't want a war with us—only to
confine us to our planets. The Riss wouldn't mind,
but
the humans
would
. So, I'm risking the lives of many Riss to
support the humans, not the Riss.

not abandon friends, even if
stupid
.> Amusement accompanied by
images of the many high-risk activities humans engage in.

I laughed, sharing the exchange with Sheva
and Zhang.

They laughed with me.

"Zhang, we will enter in the middle of
the task force and cut back to one engine immediately. Hopefully, the
disturbance from the task force will override our entry. We will establish a
tight-beam connection and immediately begin our search for the scout. Once
located, we'll wait for it to leave. If we can't locate the scout, we'll
sit
on the entrance to the Wave and wait for it
to show itself. The closest cruiser follows,
and
the last one sends the
Bye
signal. If we make it to their home base, we again establish a tight-beam and
decide what we should do, depending upon what we find.

As we exited the wave into Sellis Ledge, I
wondered what the Aliens thought when they saw an overwhelming force coming at
them. What would I think, given I knew I existed someplace else? Did the copy
think of itself as a copy? The scouts never tried to enter the fight. The
cruisers never attempted to escape, but the
Medusa
did look like it was trying to escape in Fools Landing. Was that because they
were short on
Medusas
or because it
had valuable information? It appeared each commander had a well-defined
mission, so I doubted the cruisers would attempt to leave, and I thought the
scout, unless disturbed, would wait until it had recorded the results of the
battle.

speed.>

Maat
.>

The VTM sprang to life, and the task force
cruisers began appearing with white dots tagged SC1, SH1, SL1... for the SAS and
UC1, UH1, UL1... for the UFN, and red dots tagged A1, A2, and A3 for the Aliens'
cruisers.

status is Standby.
All system
passive.>

"Attention all personnel, ship status is
standby, all systems passive," went out as an override on all SIDs, and all
ship lights were set to blue.

<
Maat
located. Tight-beam established.>

And immediately, a blue dot tagged Ma
appeared.

I sat back with nothing to do except watch
the upcoming engagement. Of course, our team was going to win, but at what
price? We had restricted the use of several of our most effective weapons. An
hour later, a message from the
Maat
scrolled
across the monitor.

"Location: 12.442

, 9h 1m 23s, 3.02 au
,
"
a
nd immediately a
small red dot appeared not far from the
Maat,
tagged AS. The task force
and the Alien cruisers were still hours away from effective missile range. As I
had surmised, the scout was making no attempt to leave, although the outcome was
predetermined. In fact, it was slowly moving closer so it could record more details
of the action.

Four hours later, the two forces met. The scout must have had excellent
sensors
,
because while the
Mnemosyne
could
track the cruisers and explosions, the missile and fighter activity was
invisible at this range.

As I watched, tags SL3, SL2, and A3
disappeared, then A2, UL4, UL5, and finally A3 and UL1. The cost of not using
the new weapons had been expensive. I only hoped it would prove worth it.

thousand kilometer separation.> The Scout was operating at minimal power to
avoid detection, which made it easier to follow in stealth mode. The
Maat
was closer and would enter the Wave
behind the scout first. We would follow the
Maat
.
Six hours later, the Scout then five minutes later the
Maat
entered the Wave.

Bye
to SC1 and UC1.>

* * *

For six days
, we followed in the
Maat's
wake, with r-
Kharis
computing our approximate position based on the known system exit
points. It appeared we were following the tube I had sketched on my SID for
Iglis as we passed possible exits towards Defiance, Fools Landing, and Baraz.
That meant we were now in JPU space, although we were unaware of any inhabitable
systems in the area. I kept the status as Standby and tried to maintain a sense
of calm by visiting the various sections on a regular basis, teaching Si'jin,
working out with Terril, and holding regular staff meetings every day.

"You win," Byer said during the
fourth meeting.
 
"It's hard to
get nervous or stay tense on a Riss ship, especially when the captain is
wandering around like we were going to Eden for a break."

"The Riss and I are interested in what
we will find, but they have learned that a calm mind reacts faster and makes
better decisions. Si'jin masters like Wei and Terril excel at it. During a
fight, they aren't thinking about winning or losing, living or dying, before or
after. Many fighter pilots attain that same state during a battle.
In a
strange way
, they are calm while in
that state. The Riss are like that every hour of the day."

"I'm not complaining. Days of waiting an
unknown fate can make for a nervous ship and problems."

"I'll tell you what I know. Commander
Iglis, put up the star map of the three empires, and then highlight the systems
we know are either under quarantine or invaded," I said.

Iglis soon had the map on the room monitor.

"Now shade in the area which included
all the dots."

"It's like a tunnel stretching from the JPU through the SAS and into
the UFN, " Seng said staring at the monitor.

"Yes, and the
Maat,
which is hopefully following the scout,"--I heard
snickers
--"is in that tunnel. We passed branches
leading to Defiance, Fools Landing, and Baraz. We're heading deep into what JPU
would consider their space, although I doubt they have any inhabitable systems
where we are going, or those would have been the first to be quarantined."

"The Aliens are robots, so they wouldn't
need an inhabitable system," Iglis said.

"That is a reasonable assumption and
would explain why they would be hard to stumble across. By now, the area each
empire claims is well mapped, and there is no reason to visit a system where no
people live."

"So you believe the scout is headed home
to report the incident at Sellis Ledge?" Byer asked.

"That's our assumption based on what
we've observed so far."

* * *

Four more days passed, and all sorts of
lotteries sprang up, wagering on when we would leave the Wave, go to Battle
Stations...

<
Maat
exiting
wave.>

seconds.>

passive.>

"Attention all personnel. Battle
stations. All systems passive," went out as an override on all SIDs. Lights
throughout the ship flashed red off and on for one minute, then remained red.
The fact that the lights stopped flashing
and
no klaxons blasted away indicated stealth mode.

<
Exiting
Wave fifteen... ten... five... now.>

percent power.>

percent.>

<
Maat
located. Tight-beam established.>

A red dot appeared on the VTM along with
three
Medusas
. They were
approximately two light-seconds from the Wave exit in triangular
formation—two up front —separated by two light-seconds and a third
in the middle but back
two
light-seconds. As we exited, we spotted eight of the Aliens' Light cruisers in
space. They were tagged M1L1 through M1L8. But seconds afterward, the second
Medusa
began
spitting
cruisers:
M2L1, M2L2... Within minutes of arriving, twenty-four cruisers were in
space.

I had to assume the
Maat
had triggered some sensor even with its low-powered exit,
which had caused one Medusa to begin launching cruisers, and that we triggered
another sensor, causing the second Medusa to launch its cruisers. As I watched,
the third Medusa began releasing cruisers to scout the area in the middle of
the triangle.

An interesting problem. No normal cruiser
could have eluded the Alien cruisers. Only the Riss cruisers’ outer skin gave
us a chance.
Four
light-seconds
by two by two—they needed to cover the two light-seconds between the two
leading
Medusas,
a light-second above
and below, and the two light-seconds
to the Wave—an area
of four point eight million cubic kilometers.
That meant their twenty-four cruisers each had to cover two hundred thousand
cubic kilometers of space. The odds were in our favor,
but
a bit of luck wouldn't hurt.
With
only one engine at one-tenth speed
, it
was going to be a
very
long day.
And when we managed to get by the two forward
Medusas,
we had the one in the rear to contend with. They had only
twelve cruisers,
but
the area
they needed to cover was only half as large.

As I watched, the Alien cruisers spread out along
a line
four
light-seconds long.

<
one-zero-zero
by
nine-zero-zero
.>

nine-zero-zero
>

As I watched, the pattern became obvious.
They were traveling at a little over half speed, three hundred gravities,
which
took them nearly four minutes to make one pass
. When they reversed course, they moved up one-quarter light-second for
the return run. When they reversed again, they decreased elevation one half
light-second for the next pass. The methodical nature of the search allowed me to
maneuver to a level they had already searched. They were just beginning their
sixth pass when we exited their area of search and entered the rear
Medusa
's area.

We had only gone a third into the M3 search
area when the cruisers from M1 and M2 had completed their seven passes and their
search was apparently called off as all the cruisers began returning to their
respective
Medusas
. It took another
seven minutes to slide past the last
Medusa
into
empty space
.

The sensors showed the system to be a red
dwarf with seven planets, three of which appeared to be in an inhabitable zone
from the sun. These planets appeared to have activity around them.

"Attention all personnel. Ship status
standby, all systems passive," went out as an override on all SIDs. All
ship lights were set to blue.

I clicked on my SID and activated calls to
Byer, Seng, and Iglis.
Within seconds
, their faces appeared in a split screen.

"We have successfully slipped past the
Aliens’ very substantial security perimeter and are now in relatively empty
space. There appear to be seven planets. Three have activity. I plan to swing
by each to get a
good
look
before exiting the system. The ship is on Standby because it will probably take
five or six days. It should be a peaceful, scenic ride around the system."

"I almost wish you hadn't provided me a
feed from the bridge as I watched those cruisers passing us time and again,"
Seng said.

"That was exciting," Byer snorted.
"After the third pass, I saw their search pattern and knew you had too.
They were a bit too methodical. Of course, that pattern wasn't designed for a
stealth ship. Their sensors would have found a normal cruiser even if it had its
engines at minimal power."

"Hopefully, the rest of our stay,
including our exit, will be boring."

* * *

The two outermost planets, one about four
times the size of Eden with a rocky core and a large gas giant about ten times
the size of Eden, had no activity we could detect. Late on the first day, we
passed by the first of the potentially inhabitable planets. It was smaller than
Eden. The terrain looked similar except cooler with its frozen oceans. The
planet had three orbiting space stations and multiple mining operations on the
surface. The stations appeared to be assembling the Aliens' scouts and Light
cruisers. We also noticed heavy traffic to and from the next planet. A single
Medusa
maintained watch over the
operation.

Early the next day, we passed the second of
the potentially inhabitable planets. It seemed to be the center of the
activity, with five orbiting stations and multiple facilities on the planet
surface. Three of the stations appeared to be assembling
Medusas
, one a space port for scouts, and one a fifty-story
structure that looked like a conglomerate of hundreds of irregular modules. The
planet surface also had building-like structures. Two
Medusas
orbited the planet, looking like sentries.

On the third day, we
sung past
the third potentially inhabitable planet. It
had four space stations and mining operations on the surface. These platforms
seemed to be assembling Light cruisers. One
Medusa
was present. As the closer planets didn't appear to have any activity, we began
our round trip back towards the Wave. I had made no attempt to contact the
Maat
for fear of alerting the Aliens to
our presence. We had detected no explosions, so I had to assume the
Maat
hadn't been discovered and was
doing much the same as we were.

I chose to approach the Wave from one
light-second outside the triangle of
Medusas
in case the
Maat
decided to exit the
Wave while we were attempting to sneak through the middle of the line.
That
would cause another search, which
might
be
more intense because of the last detected breach.
But nothing happened,
and
we arrived within a tenth of a light-second
of the Wave exit without incident. I decided to wait a full day to give the
Maat
time to sneak past the
Medusas,
as either of us leaving would
undoubtedly trigger another search.