Tactics of Conquest (Stellar Conquest) (13 page)

Rick went over to sit down next to her and put his arms around her. “If I didn’t, I’d wait for you, you know.”

“You say that, but…”

He pulled her close. “I guess we’ll never have to find out.” They held each other that way for a while. “Trissk and Klis are going,” Rick said suddenly. “On
Conquest
.”

“Really?” Jill pushed him away to look in his face. “Is that what changed your mind?”

“Partly, I guess. Maybe it tipped the balance. He’s my best friend, after you.”

Jill snorted. “Funny how you have to go to another planet and meet an alien before you make a BFF.”

“I may not be a warrior like you, Jill, but he and I did fight a battle together, there on
Desolator
. It changes you.”

“I know, believe me. You’re blood brothers. That’s beyond price.”

“I believe you.”

“I hear Vango is going,” Jill said with studied casualness. “Aerospace squadron commander.”

“Really? I’m surprised he got Dannie to agree to that.”

“She didn’t. They’re splitting up. At least, for the next century or so.”

Rick swallowed, surprised. “Wow. Didn’t see that coming.”

“It’s what would have happened to us.”

“Ouch.”

Jill grabbed Rick’s hand. “Please don’t resent me for this. I know it’s a lot to ask, but…”

“I’ll get over it. I always do, don’t I?”

Jill sighed. “I really don’t deserve you.”

“Damn right you don’t. Want to show your gratitude?”

“Sure.” Jill smiled and leered.

“I really need to clean up, and I hate to shower alone.”

Jill smiled wider.

Shuttles stacked up nearby, queuing to dock with the dreadnought and disgorge personnel and supplies. The partial crew soon swelled with those reporting in, as well as visitors. Absen had to give orders to make sure no one stowed away, especially Marines. In fact, he turned over the task of keeping track of all visitors to Bull ben Tauros, who in turn enlisted Michelle. Absen ordered that the AI be given access to most of the internal sensors.

Some didn’t want to be left behind. Some were just stupid, and some snooped a bit too much and were politely sent packing. Most of those were probably corporate spies, looking for new technology to commercialize, but none were allowed to access anything vital.

Absen spent most of the first two days receiving delegations of dignitaries congratulating him on the new ship –
boat
, he reminded himself – touring the refitted technology, and generally making nuisances of themselves. He had to set a cutoff date for all but the highest level visits. Once that nonsense was over and done with, he got to organizing the expeditionary crew.

Unlike warships of his experience, the complement of
Conquest
would have to cover as many bases as possible. Science as well as engineering. Xenobiology as well as BioMed. Special operations and small craft as well as capital weapons. Marines and Aerospace as well as Navy. Three races, and the possibility of contact with more of them.

Just in case.

First he finalized his prime watch roster, the best bridge crew he could select. Okuda at the helm, of course, and Ford and Scoggins on weapons and sensors. He was ecstatic to see that Rick Johnstone had accepted a position at CyberComm, and Jill Repeth was a bonus for the Marine contingent.

Lieutenant Fletcher had picked up an unusual assistant at the Engineering station: Klis. One Ryss and one Sekoi on the bridge had been a condition of
Conquest
’s refit, and as a technologist, she was the closest thing to an engineering officer they could provide.

A Sekoi Blend named Bogrin would take the BioMed station, with Doctor Horton backing him up. While he’d been assured that the Hippo was an extremely competent xenobiologist and xenomedic – his race made no distinction between the two – Absen wasn’t going to fully trust an alien with human medical decisions.

That arranged, he moved on to the rest of the five hundred or so crew. He could have taken many more, given
Conquest
’s size, but his instinct for this mission was the fewer the better. With the bots and telefactors provided by
Desolator
, they already had better damage control than the crew of thousands had provided before, and the warbots provided force multipliers to the Marines.

And face it, Henrich. The fewer go along, the fewer will die if you screw up this all-new mission with all-new tactics and mostly new weapons. Not to mention Michelle Conquest, the wild card.

Deep in the bowels of the boat, Ekara had Engineering and Nightingale ran Weapons Systems, of course. Johnstone and Scoggins each had a good warrant officer working for them to head up their Sensors and CyberComm Systems subsections. Doctor Egolu and her team would stay aboard to deal with any AI or computer issues, and Flight Major Vincent “Vango” Markis would lead the Aerospace squadron.

Major Bull ben Tauros would have the Marines, with Jill Repeth as his battalion sergeant major. Chief of the Boat Ray Timmons had charge of damage control, and Absen quietly promoted him to Chief Warrant Officer Five, so that he outranked every other warrant officer and NCO aboard. That should forestall some difficulties.

It’s nice to be the Supreme Commander of Gliese 370 system, as well as the ranking admiral. Still, I’d rather be captain of a boat.

Absen spent the rest of the day discussing dispositions with his section heads, and the next morning gathered a working group to discuss special promotions for all the EarthFleet officers left behind. Captain Mirza would be promoted straight to full Admiral, and would become the military governor. While there was some agitation starting for a transition to civilian rule, it hadn’t turned into a groundswell yet.

And anyway, that would be Mirza’s problem.
Conquest
couldn’t return for at least eight decades, probably more, and he could put away the politics of governing and go back to the far simpler command of a vessel of war.

Next, he and his officers reviewed the latest news from Earth System. Of course it was all from 2089, thirty-six years old even at lightspeed, and told of preparations for the expected year-2110 arrival of a force of at least 64 Destroyers.

Yet, the year was 2125 now, and the attack had already taken place. Gliese 370 would not find out what had happened for 21 more years.

And even if
Conquest
headed straight there, they would arrive in the year 2161, though inside the time dilation of the near-lightspeed ship they would only age a few weeks.

It made Absen’s head ache.

If humanity had won the battle for Earth, there was no telling when the next enemy fleet would arrive to attack it. Meme strategic doctrine was to gather successive waves, join together in interstellar space, and assault any threat. As the news of enemy resistance advanced outward in a sphere around the system, larger and larger fleets of Destroyers would be dispatched, while the Monitor Guardians left behind generated replacements. It was a setup that had served them well for millennia.

Only the presence of the Bite on the edge of Earth’s space, the interstellar wasteland left by the battle between the Ryss and the Meme, might slow the Empire down. According to the Sekoi Blend agents of the Meme interrogated by Spooky Nguyen, there simply wasn’t much there except a few patrols.

By the end of that meeting it was common knowledge that they were headed toward Earth. It had been an open secret anyway, but now it was official. Absen didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, and he certainly was glad he had avoided the flood of requests for passage from civilians that now arrived. He simply denied them all with a memo that pointed out quite firmly that this was a military mission, and only once it was deemed safe would travel between the two systems be reopened.

Afterward, he crooked a finger at Commander Johnstone, pointing at the seat next to him as the others filed out. “Commander,” Absen said, “I want a read-only of everything that comes through the bridge to be fed to our AI. Make sure the information can only go one direction,
to
her, and put in as much ICE as you think is necessary to block or at least alarm if she tries to circumvent.”

“All right, sir. May I ask why?”

“If I do have to give her more control, I want her fully informed.”

Johnstone cleared his throat. “Sir, she makes me very uncomfortable.”

“Me too.”

“Begging your pardon, sir, but it’s not the same. Inside cyberspace, well…I’m the best there is, of the organics, but Desolator and Michelle can run rings around me. I’ve built up walls of ICE to defend my VR space inside
Conquest
’s computers, but those won’t keep her out. They will probably just give me time to unplug the link and save my chips from being hacked, if she’s allowed full access.”

Absen nodded. “All right. Do your best. If it’s any help, I’ve set myself to treat her as I would any other dangerous person – Bull, for example. If he ran amok, he could cause a lot of damage, but I don’t ever worry about him, do I?”

“But we know Bull. Michelle is new.”

“The scientists say she’s lived a whole virtual life of twenty-one years or more, and still lives at ten times our time sense. I have decided to trust them, and Bull – he trained her in VR, after all – and trust her, at least to the point that I am not going to worry too much about it.”

“But you want fail-safes.”

Absen shrugged. “Trust but cut the cards anyway, a great President once said. Speaking of fail-safes, set up a separate program so that if any major crew section is knocked out, or both control centers, she takes over automatically to run the systems.”

“So she’ll be the ultimate backup.” Johnstone rubbed his neck, but eventually agreed. “That makes sense. I guess if things are that bad already, we might as well gamble on her…uh…”

“Good will?”

“I was thinking ‘sanity,’ sir.”

Absen laughed. “All right. Get to work on that. Dismissed.”

The next and final day before departure, Absen was awoken in the middle of mid-watch by the insistent beeping of his door. He shook himself awake and pulled on his trousers. “What is it?” he asked the intercom.

“Commander Johnstone wants you, sir. Says it’s urgent,” came the bridge watchstander’s reply.

“Johnstone’s not on shift,” Absen mumbled, and then said, “Put him through.”

“Sir, we’ve just caught two people trying to sneak aboard,” Johnstone said.

“So, send them packing. You read my memo.”

“Ah, yes, sir. I think you need to know who they are before you decide to do that.”

“Spit it out, son.”

Johnstone cleared his throat. “It’s Spooky Nguyen and Ezekiel Denham, in the little Meme ship.”

Absen grunted. “Good work. I was having nightmares about the little bastard showing up in my quarters unannounced again. How did you catch them?”

“It wasn’t me, sir. You put Michelle in charge of making sure only authorized personnel remained aboard, and you never rescinded that assignment. When she detected them, she put out an alert. The CyberComm watchstander logged it, which notified me.”

“Right, right. Tell her she did well. Where are they?”

“Under guard in the brig. Bull’s with them.”

“I’ll be right down.” Absen dressed and quickly made his way to the holding area at the edge of Marine country.

Bull met him and Tobias at the outer door. “They were hacking a StormCrow launch tube when WO1 Conquest detected them. I got the alert and told her to let them in. I met them with a couple of squads and took them into custody. They didn’t resist.”

Absen nodded slowly. “No, they wouldn’t. Probably were trying to stow away until we left, figuring we wouldn’t turn around. Lead me to them.”

“Aye, sir.” Bull took them through the outer portal to the inner one, a sealed door designed to contain anything they could think of. He input a code, waved a chip, put his face forward for a retinal scan, and then spun the large dogging wheel to open the heavy barrier.

Inside waited the two men, unassuming in nondescript coveralls. The Blend, Ezekiel Denham, sat on the bunk and rested his head against the wall with his eyes closed, while Spooky Nguyen stood as soon as Absen entered, bowing deeply. “Well done, Admiral. Your new security system has finally achieved adequacy.”

“Yes,” he replied, deliberately not mentioning the AI and her role. “Now tell me why I shouldn’t clap you in irons and toss you two overboard.”

“Because you like a complete toolbox.”

“Trying to manipulate me again, Nguyen?”

Spooky shrugged. “Just putting forth my best arguments. Ezekiel,
Steadfast
Roger
and I made critical contributions during the battle for Afrana, and we’ve been instrumental in building up a vital intelligence organization on the planet for the last ten years – an organization, I might add, that has ensured against all manner of difficulties for humanity’s place in this system. The Sekoi are not nearly as jovial and friendly as they like to seem.”

“I know that, and I appreciate what you’ve done. You have become rich in the meantime, though…so why leave that all behind?”

Spooky laughed uproariously for a moment, and then stopped abruptly, merriment still in his eyes. “On Earth, Admiral, I ruled a
continent
. Had I wished, I could have taken control of the planet, and the system. I am not bragging when I tell you that you could not have stopped me.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

Spooky put his hands behind him to slowly pace the deck. “I was bored. And, certain skills I value were beginning to atrophy. Just because I can do a thing, does not mean I must, or wish to. I wanted to make a clean break, so I put Australia in General Alkina’s capable hands and joined you aboard
Conquest
. Here, on a new planet, I – we, Ezekiel and I – found new challenges.”