Rumors of Honor (System States Rebellion Book 2) (25 page)

Sorenson
took a deep breath before responding. “It’s too bad we can’t use those billions
of FED credits to expand our Durendal shipyard capacity. If we could buy all
the shipbuilding equipment we needed instead of making it ourselves, we could
have more than one battlecruiser ready in two years. But now that we’ve
introduced our own currency, we can’t very well expect businesses to accept FED
currency that they wouldn’t be able to spend elsewhere.”

Foster
was stunned.
Why hadn’t we thought of that? It’s so damned obvious now that
someone has suggested it. If I tell them about Midgard, we’ll run the risk that
the FEDs will learn about what we’re doing there if they conquer Sparta and
interrogate Janicot and Sorenson. I’ve got to discuss this with Bret.

Janicot
noticed Foster’s expression of surprise even as he nodded his agreement with
Sorenson’s comment.
Why is she surprised? It’s not like Sorenson suggested
something that we can actually do.
With a mental shrug he focused on
Sorenson.

“Yes,
Madam Secretary, it IS a shame that we can’t do that. Do you think my
suggestion of speeding up construction of one battlecruiser is worth bringing
to the Chancellor’s attention?”

“Yes,
Admiral, I do, and I think he’ll approve that plan. I suggest that Major Foster
be instructed to have her people begin the detailed design work for the
battlecruiser so that we can start building it as soon as possible.”

Janicot
looked at Foster and nodded. “I’ll get started on that right away, Admiral.
Should I also begin design work on the modifications of freighters so that we
have the option of conducting raids on Makassar in the short term?”

“Yes,
let’s get that started too. Did you have anything else to bring forward today?”

“No,
Sir. I’ve covered everything I wanted to brief you on.”

Janicot
turned back to Sorenson. “Do you have any more questions for the Major, Madam
Secretary?”

“Not
at the moment, Admiral. I think we’re done here.”

“Very
well then, you’re dismissed, Major, and thank you for an excellent briefing,”
said Janicot.

Foster
left in what she hoped would not be a suspicious hurry. She was anxious to have
a private conversation with her husband.

Half
an hour later she arrived home only to find that Murphy was still in bed and
asleep. She put aside her exasperation that he got to sleep in while she had to
go to work and woke him up. She quickly got him up to speed on the briefing and
Sorenson’s comment.

“If
we tell them about Midgard, we’ll run the risk of the FEDs finding out about
it. Keeping that shipyard complex running even if the rest of the SSU is
conquered was supposed to be our ace in the hole. Security has to be absolute,”
said Foster.

“You
and I know about it, so we’re already running a certain amount of risk,” said
Murphy. He decided not to mention the poison pill both of them carried around
with them at all times to avoid being captured alive.

“I
know, but just think of how much the remaining 200 billion in FED credits could
do to speed up capacity expansion on Midgard’s moon. Sorenson was right. If one
battlecruiser doubles our combat strength, then having four or five in the same
time frame should allow us to run right over the FEDs with simultaneous attacks
on Makassar and Earth. We could win the war in one fell swoop! Isn’t that
possibility worth the extra risk?”

Murphy
thought about that and finally came to the conclusion that it was worth the
risk. “I think it is, babe, but letting them in on the secret is going to be
one hell of a bombshell, and I can see some practical difficulties with trying
to use all 200 billion FED credits. That’s a LOT of currency by any standard.
If a ship lands on Earth with that much money and starts throwing it around,
somebody’s bound to notice and begin asking questions. Even bringing it in in
smaller batches could attract unwanted attention.” He paused and Foster waited.
“Let me ask you this. In terms of the capacity buildup on Midgard’s moon,
what’s the biggest bottleneck we face with expanding capacity by ourselves?”

Foster
had to think about that. She called up some data from her tablet. “It’s the
electronic components that take the longest to manufacture and install. There
are so many different kinds of circuit boards for all the various robotic
machines. Each circuit board requires the robot assemblers to be correctly
programmed, and that takes a lot of the time to get it exactly right.”

“Okay,
so how much faster would the buildup happen if we didn’t have to make all the
electronic components ourselves?” asked Murphy.

Foster’s
eyes opened wide. “You mean buy those components on Earth instead? That’s too
complicated for me to figure out by myself. I’d have to get P2 to do the
calculations, but I can already tell that the time savings would be
significant, and since those components are low bulk items, one freighter full
of them would satisfy our requirements for years. We wouldn’t need to spend
hundreds of billions of credits. This is what…the second or third time you’ve come
up with a breakthrough idea? I don’t understand why my staff and I don’t see
these things that in hindsight look so obvious?”

Murphy
shrugged. “If I had to guess, I’d say that you and your staff are too close to
the problem. You can’t see the forest for the trees. I can look at it with
fresh eyes, so to speak. Anyway, at least your team has something new to work
on now, right?”

“Right.
I have to get back to HQ. The Old Man and SecDef will almost certainly want me
to brief the Chancellor about the Admiral’s idea. If I’m going to reveal the
secret, I want to have all the numbers crunched before I let the Old Man in on
it first. He doesn’t deserve to be blindsided by this bombshell in front of his
boss and her boss.”

Murphy
sighed. “Why do I get the feeling that you’re going to be working late
tonight?”

“I’ll
try not to but no promises.” She gave him a quick kiss and moved away before he
could pull her down on top of him.

It
was hours later when she felt she was ready to tell the Admiral. It was already
evening, but when she checked, she found the Admiral still in his office.
I
don’t think he ever goes home when everyone else does.
He waved her into
the office and pointed to one of the chairs facing his desk. Janicot looked at
her expression carefully.
I don’t know if she’s bringing good news or bad,
but whatever it is, it’s serious.

After
sitting down, she took a deep breath and began speaking. “Admiral, may I ask
you a hypothetical question?” He nodded. “If you were in my position and you
had a project that could shift the odds significantly in the SSU’s favor but
telling your higher ups about it could potentially tip the enemy off to the
project and jeopardize its success, would you tell them, or would you go ahead
and execute that project in secret?”

Janicot
felt his heart rate speed up.
My God! She HAS been hiding something from me!
If she’s thinking of telling me now, then something’s changed. She’s waiting
for an answer, and it’s a legitimate question.
After a long pause, he said,
“It would depend on how good that project could be and how likely it was that
telling my higher ups about it would put the project at risk, but I can see
circumstances where I’d choose to keep the project a secret. Since you’re
asking me this hypothetical question, I’m going to go out on a limb here and
guess that you’ve kept something secret from me and SecDef and the Chancellor,
and now you’re either having second thoughts or you’ve decided to let me in on
it. Am I right?”

“Yessir.”

Her
answer was heavy with guilt. Janicot kept his sympathy firmly in check. He’d
reserve judgement on whether to give her a medal or court-martial her until he
heard the whole story. “I’m listening, Major.”

Foster
coughed awkwardly. She sensed his controlled fury lurking behind that calm
reply. “The secret has to do with the location of Site X and the shipbuilding
complex. The problem we faced was choosing a location for the shipbuilding
complex based on a database of surveyed planets that we knew the FEDs also had.
Any previously surveyed planet that we picked would also be a prime target for
reconnaissance by the FEDs for the very same reasons. Surveying new planets was
out of the question due to lack of time and resources. We had to come up with a
solution that their Majestic would calculate was not worth checking. That
solution was to use some of the requisitioned FED currency to set up a
FED-chartered company that would pretend to raise investment capital on Earth
and use it to build a new, robotic shipyard complex in a star system that was
still under Federation control. The locals would be told that the ships built
there would be sold to the FED Navy. The security risk was that if you, SecDef
or the Chancellor knew that the project was located in FED territory and Sparta
was invaded by FED troops, that secret might be revealed to them under
interrogation, and the continued use of that facility by the SSU, even after
losing Sparta and other major planets, would be lost. What made that prospect
even worse was the fact that it was determined that the safest location for the
Site X backup government capability was also in FED territory. It’s located in
the same star system as the shipbuilding project.”

“So
the gas giant moon shipyard site and the Site X asteroid location are…what?”
asked Janicot.

“Decoys
to throw the FEDs off the scent. Those sites were set up with minimal resources
and personnel. If the FEDs find them, they’ll assume that we’ve lost those
backup capabilities, and they’ll stop looking.”

“My
God, no wonder you felt it necessary to keep this to yourself. This explains
why you needed 23 billion FED credits. I always suspected that some of that
money was earmarked for something you weren’t telling me about. Now it all
makes sense.” He paused, then said, “I would have kept that secret too if I had
been in your shoes. I have to wonder why you’re risking that project by telling
me this now.”

Foster
smiled. “It was the SecDef’s wishful thinking about using the rest of the FED
currency that got me thinking. We used a relatively small portion of all that
money to buy the minimum amount of equipment needed to make the complex
self-sufficient so that it could expand its own capacity with local resources,
but that’s doing it the hard way. What if we could expand capacity by using the
rest of the FED currency to buy the equipment on Earth instead of manufacturing
and assembling it ourselves? Capacity would ramp up much more quickly, and we’d
be able to have more than one battlecruiser ready in two and a half years. If
we had six battlecruisers ready, then, with their superior combat capability,
we just might be able to destroy the FED Navy outright and win the war.”

“Son-of-a-bitch,”
said Janicot softly. “I see your dilemma. You couldn’t ask for more money
without being forced to explain why you needed it.” He took a deep breath. “You
did the right thing by telling me this now. It would indeed be a huge step
forward if we could deploy those remaining billions and buy that extra
equipment, but even I can figure out that getting that much currency to Earth
and spending it without attracting attention is going to be pretty difficult.
Do you have a solution to that problem?”

“I
think we do, Admiral. When we took a good hard look at what all was involved
with expanding shipyard and manufacturing capacity on Midgard’s moon, we were
surprised to learn that the big heavy stuff, structural components, smelters,
that kind of thing, takes relatively little time to produce. It’s the small
components and especially the electronic components that take a long time to
make. If we buy just the small stuff and stick to building the big stuff
ourselves, the additional amount of FED currency required drops from 144
billion credits down to a mere 13 billion credits.” She noticed that Janicot 
looked skeptical. “Yes, that is a huge percentage drop, and it may sound
unreasonable, but a significant portion of the 144 billion number was the cost
of shipping those huge pieces from Earth to Midgard. The beauty of shipping
only the small items is that they take up a lot less cargo space, and therefore
three or four shiploads will suffice. P2 has crunched the numbers, and with
that lower expenditure, Midgard should be able to deliver at least five
battlecruisers within 30 months.”

“That’s
outstanding, Major! For the first time since this war started, I feel
optimistic that we can actually win. I want you to brief the SecDef and the
Chancellor about Midgard and this buildup plan tomorrow morning. Which one of
your staff was it exactly who came up with this idea? I’m going to give that
person a medal.”