Tactics of Conquest (Stellar Conquest) (25 page)

Ford stood next. “I believe they have installed a moon laser just like the one at Afrana. Maybe that’s a standard setup. There are two Monitor Guardian ships as well, not just one. Either they are worried about a counterattack, or they made another for use elsewhere and it hasn’t left yet. Four manufactured orbital fortresses now ring Earth, of similar size to the Hip – ah, the Sekoi ones. We have to assume they are crewed by human slaves and first-generation Blends.”

“Any chance they will want to rebel?” Absen asked.

Bogrin stood carefully, his head rising to a height of nearly three meters. “Unlikely, sir. Koio was enslaved for millennia. It had that long to chafe beneath foreign rule, and develop a movement to be free. These Blends will have been pure form Meme fifty years ago. They still revel in their pleasures, and have not experienced enough boredom to think about independence.”

“So no help from that quarter,” Absen said drily. “And we need to stay well out of range of that moon laser.”

Michelle raised a hand, one that looked, Absen thought, quite real. She’d also gotten humanoid motions down pat, so he had to remind himself that she was really an AI controlling an avatar. Only her visage failed to perfectly replicate a human face, with its many muscles and subtle expressions. “We could venture into its range if necessary, as long as our time on station does not exceed the weapon’s combined reaction and fire-to-impact time.”

“Noted,” Absen said. “Anything else, Ford?”

“Yes. A fleet of eight Destroyers is orbiting Jupiter, and it looks like there is a lot of human manufacturing activity there, scattered across its moons and facilities. Also, they apparently took a page from our book and have continued creating orbital fortresses. We believe these to be crewed by humans as well.”

“More likely by Purelings,” Bogrin rumbled. “Maybe human, maybe not. Captain, did it matter to you, when you attacked our system, that facilities were crewed by your future Sekoi allies?”

Absen cleared his throat. “No.”

“In the same way, you cannot let it matter to you that defenses may be manned by humans. All in the system are hostile, until they surrender.”

“We’re not going to murder our own people!” Fletcher said from his chair.

The Sekoi turned ponderously. “Perhaps a human should say this instead of me, but it must be said. This is war, not murder. If you believe it murder, you humans must accept guilt for murder of millions of my people. Cannot have it both ways, as you say. War, or murder? If war, then this too is war. If attack here is murder, then you humans are all murderers.” He reached up to the breast of his yellow-trimmed uniform with two massive hands and rent it, sending fastenings spinning across the room.

Ryss snarled and rose, then a moment later the much more numerous human crowd surged to its feet, in surprise or anger. For a moment Absen thought he would have a brawl and a melee on his hands, when a sound of painful intensity, louder than any human throat, cut through the noise. “ADMIRAL ON DECK!”

The Ryss grabbed their sensitive ears, as did many humans. The roar had come over the PA system, and the captain looked at Michelle Conquest, who shrugged apologetically. Absen nodded in approval.

Most of the people in the room froze again as Bull ben Tauros leaped to stand on the table and bellow in his best parade-ground voice. “Shut up! You should all be ashamed of yourselves. Show some discipline. Don’t make me bring my people in to clear this room.”

Absen put his hand on Tobias’ shoulder as the Steward shoved his captain toward the door and interposed his body. “It’s all right, Dwayne, I think.” It looked like the crowd’s mood had moderated as quickly as it had flared, and they slowly took their seats.

A moment later all four doors were flung open and Marines filled the entrances, some with weapons drawn. Bull waved them back and jumped down to the deck with a clang of boots, saluted the captain and backed up to stand at the ready with his troops.

“Thank you, Bull,” Absen said, both still on their feet. “Commander Bogrin, you are one hundred percent right. We cannot, we will not treat this conquered Meme system any differently from any other. Common human ancestry is not a good enough reason to make special allowances. Any ship or facility that shows itself hostile will be dealt with accordingly. No one on this boat is dying because we hold back. Is that clear?” His eyes swept the room.

After receiving confirmation from everyone, Absen sat. “Mister Bogrin, please continue. Tell us about the BioMed situation.”

“Is difficult to determine. Much is assumption that Meme have organized your system the same as ours, the same as all conquered worlds. Eden Plague is one unusual factor. We have no way of knowing how it affected the new Blends. In non-Blended humans, it improves their positive social tendencies. In my limited knowledge of Blended human Plague carriers, it seems to strengthen the human mind and will. Therefore, I suspect that Blending will not be allowed with sentient Eden Plague carriers.”

Absen replied, “You mean they will revert to their original intention – find non-Eden humans, infect them with their own plagues to wipe out their minds, and Blend with those.”

“Yes. Or they will use cloned Pureling bodies, though for cultural reasons difficult to explain, this option is viewed with disfavor.”

“So they prefer genuine human bodies, not clones.”

“Yes. Rather like a connoisseur prefers wild to farmed game.”

Absen said, “All right, I get it. But there are very few if any non-Eden humans left. Even by the time we departed, the number was less than point one percent. Just some die-hard nut-cases.”

“Agreed. But they only need several hundred, perhaps a thousand, for those of the Pure Race to take their bodies.”

Clearing his throat, Absen said, “Their race is no more
pure
than yours or mine. As you are concerned about words and definitions, Mister Bogrin, let’s do away with that one. Some evil humans also believed in the bullshit of racial purity not so long ago, and I detest the sound of it. Let’s just call them Meme.”

“As you wish, sir. I meant no disrespect.” Bogrin sat.

“CyberComm next.” Absen waved at Commander Johnstone.

“Good news, I think. While we’re too far away to access the residual human comms and computer systems, the protocols I can pick up look pretty standard to me. I should be able to find at least some back doors and hacks. But sir…” Johnstone glanced over at Michelle, “I could be much more effective if Warrant Officer Conquest could assist me. Her familiarity with machine code will help a lot.”

“Familiarity,” Absen replied with amusement. “That’s one way to put it. Her mind
is
machine code,
n’est-ce pas?
Permission granted.” The captain pointed a finger at the avatar. “Conquest, you’ll tell us if we begin to strain your capacities?”

“Of course, sir.”

Doctor Egolu coughed, or perhaps choked a laugh, and Absen turned to the diminutive woman. “Something to say?”

“Only that we are far from stressing her. Michelle, what’s the highest load ever placed on your system outside of a test?”

Michelle stood up. “Nearly seven percent, Doctor.”

“And that is peak load even in your current, restricted configuration? Only seven percent?”

“Yes, Doctor.”

“You two can stand down now,” Absen said. “You’ve made your point. It’s not lack of capability that causes me to only gradually add responsibilities, it’s developing judgment.” He looked around the room at the hundred-odd people packed into it. “Did you know that when I spoke with Desolator, he admitted he had made errors in judgment? I was even able to set him straight on a couple things.”

Murmuring arose briefly in the room, and Absen let it die down before continuing. “Even an old, powerful AI like Desolator can make mistakes. AIs are not gods, and if I have anything to say, they won’t become our gods. The Ryss achieved remarkable things with their artificial brains, but their AIs weren’t perfect then and aren’t perfect now. It’s great that Michelle can assist us in our duties, but that’s what she needs to do.
Assist
. There may come a time when we can, or must, turn over functions to her, but not yet, and not just because we can. Now, who’s next? Navigation?”

Master Helmsman Okuda stood up, his fireplug body and bald dark head resembling nothing so much as a human version of a Sekoi. “Lots of debris in the system, from all the fighting. When we use TacDrive, we’re going to be slamming into a lot of small stuff. I recommend manufacturing a lot of spare sensors and any other fittings on the outside of the hull. If we go forward and backward, almost any part of the boat not under armor might be subjected to the equivalent of a bomb blast.”

“So if we pulse with our eyes open, we’ll get a lot of grit in them.”

“Yes, sir. Or we keep everything under armor and take the extra second or two to pop them out.”

Scoggins said, “I’ve been working with Michelle to get the unmasking and recovery times down. All told, we can drop from pulse, open our eyes, target and fire in about six seconds now.”

“Six seconds isn’t four, but that’s not bad,” Absen said with a stroke of his chin. “All right. Make more spares, but plan on keeping sensors under armor for now. If we have to we can always take the risk.”

“Yes, sir.” Okuda sat down.

“Engineering?”

Quan Ekara stepped forward with his usual dour expression. “All systems are nominal, sir. With Warrant Officer Conquest’s assistance, we have increased availability of power by an average of six percent. Per your order, we have still not cross-connected the TacDrive capacitors with the rest of the grid.” His tone said he still disapproved of that decision.

Absen said, “Is there any chance of getting a fourth pulse out of the system? Or recharging the capacitors faster?”

Ekara sighed theatrically. “If, sir, we could link up the rest of the power grid, we could use the weapon capacitors to feed the TacDrive and vice versa, as I may have mentioned before.”

The captain shot his chief engineer a warning glare. “That was not a definitive answer. If you cross-link, can we get a fourth pulse out of the system right away, assuming we have also fired all weapons twice within the allotted time?”

“No sir.” Ekara stiffened. “However, if we fire only once, and use an Exploder for the other attack, it can be done.”

“So help out an old sea dog, Commander, and put it in terms all of us can understand. A short pulse and an alpha strike from our weapons each use about the same amount of energy.”

Ekara seemed to squirm slightly, but eventually nodded. “Approximately, sir.”

“So all together, our total capacitor power gives us five actions – pulses or strikes. Maybe it’s two pulses and three shots, or four pulses and one shot. Right?”

“Yes, in layman’s terms. But –”

“But me no buts, Commander. I know you’re itching to have the flexibility you want, and I’ll let you, but here is my ironclad order. The last slug of power is always for a TacDrive pulse. No matter what, you never dip into that reserve except to run us out of trouble, except at my order. Ellis,” Absen turned to the weapons engineer, “you and Quan build that into the system. Hardwire it. And,” he said as an idea occurred to him, “I want Okuda and Conquest to be part of the process, so everyone understands. In submarine terms, we always keep enough juice to submerge and get away. Got it?”

Assent became enthusiasm as the engineering teams began jabbering about modifying the systems. “Anyone else got anything vital?” Absen called. “All right, then you’re dismissed to your sections.”

“You just made Quan Pham happy,” Spooky said at the captain’s elbow.

Absen chuckled. “He’s another one of your cousins?”

“Grand-nephew twice removed, actually.”

“I figured.”

“You could have checked his personnel record.”

“I prefer to form my own impressions of people directly. I find that dossiers often obscure more than they reveal. Yours, for example, contains many facts, but not enough to really understand who you are.” Absen finally turned to look up at the slim man in the Steward’s uniform standing next to his seat as the rest filed out of the room.

“I could say the same about yours, Admiral.”

“Captain, please.”

“Yes…and I’m just a Steward.” Spooky’s teeth broke out in a smile.

“Touché. I’ll be an admiral if and when I have a fleet again.”

“But you do have a fleet, of sorts.”

“Small craft don’t count. Not even your little Meme boat.”

“Fair enough.”

“Nguyen…” Absen turned and signaled to Bull, who hastened to clear out the stragglers and shut the doors, leaving just the two and Tobias in the room. “What do you and Denham plan to do?”

“I thought I’d ask you about that, Admiral.”

“No more haring off on your own?”

Spooky chuckled, reaching over to pour a glass of water from the pitcher on the table, and then took a seat. “We arrogant sons of bitches are prone to such things, aren’t we?”

“Please don’t equate us, Nguyen. We’re different animals, even if we both have wielded great power. I’ve accepted the fact that any control I have over you is an illusion, and the best I can do is try to make sure our efforts are coordinated, so please, drop the bullshit and let’s just work out what we’re going to do.”

Spooky raised the water glass to Absen and toasted him. “Very well, I’ll explain my ideas plainly…though one
does
miss most of the fun that way.”

Screens and holotank came to life as armored covers on
Conquest
’s skin snapped open and sensors shot out on high-speed mechanisms, the whole process taking less than one second, due to the efforts of Michelle, Scoggins and her technical team.