Troy Rising 3 - The Hot Gate (5 page)

He hung his head for a moment then raised it to look the children in the eye.

“But no more. With all the power we’re producing from SAPL, with the missiles we’re building up, with the laser power of Troy on its own, let them come. Let them send their Assault Vectors. Let them send their own battle globes. We will crush them all. With three such citadels, humanity cannot be defeated. We may be harried. We may be hurt. But We. Shall. Not. Fail. We shall stand shoulder to shoulder as the Knights of Malta stood. And no force in the galaxy will take our freedom. Paris?”

“Viewscreen coming up, sir,” the AI said.

The lights in the main bay dimmed and a projection on the sapphire showed what looked very much like a ball bearing against the starry firmament.

“Usually we wait on this sort of thing,” Vernon said. “But since you’re here. Paris, could you please make sure we’re ready?”

“We’ve been ready, sir,” the AI said with some reproach.

“Very well,” Tyler said. “Kids, I’m going to count to three. Then you know what to say. One…two…THREE!”

“MALTA!” the group chorused.

SAPL could cut through the entire kilometer and a half wall of a battlestation in less than a minute. Before the last echo rang, a Maltese cross five kilometers wide had been carved on the side of the battlestation.

“This is the turning point,” Vernon said. “And when you are my age you can say to your children: I was there when Malta came online and Earth was finally safe. This is your future. Malta affords you a destiny, liberty, freedom, just as the battle after which it is named. That is the gift this generation, by its sacrifices, gives to yours. Use it wisely.”

* * *

“Permission to speak, sir?” Dana said.

Mister Vernon had set the sapphire wall to touch screen and the kids were now happily playing with dozens of views ranging from SAPL mirrors to views of the ongoing projects in the Wolf System.

“I’m not an admiral, Coxswain,” Vernon said, grinning. “And it took me a bit but you’re nearly as famous as I am. You’re Comet Parker, right? Haven’t we met…”

“Briefly, sir,” Dana said, wincing. “Once.”

“Go ahead and ask your question, Coxswain,” Vernon said, clearly picking up on her discomfort with the nickname.

“That was…some speech,” Dana said. “Do you always talk to children that way?”

“You’d be surprised,” Vernon said. “I tried to never talk down to my kids when they were growing up. Treat them as adult as you can and they learn to be treated like adults. It kind of pisses them off when teachers and such don’t, but kids adjust remarkably well. And this was a very bright group by definition.”

“It was rather…strong,” one of the chaperones said.

A group had slowly formed around Vernon which Dana found to be no surprise. She’d picked up that at least two of the chaperones were divorced. And even though neither one, in her opinion, had any chance in hell of pinning down the tycoon, the chance to hobnob with the richest human in the galaxy wasn’t one to turn down.

“As I said, it’s an unusual group,” Vernon said, smiling slightly. “I take it one of them is yours?”

“Shirley,” the woman said. “The girl who answered the question about Thermopylae.”

“And knew the rote answer out of the textbook but not the real significance,” Tyler said. “But I liked what she said about the future of space in her essay. I remember it. She’s probably got a good career in the sciences. Precise and didactic. I hope her ambition isn’t to write fiction, though.”

“No,” the woman said. “She wants to be a…she calls it an orbital miner.”

“Which doesn’t have a thing to do with getting your hands dirty,” Vernon said. “I’ve had all these kids tagged in our personnel database. If they want a job, or an internship for that matter, when they get a bit older they’ll get some preferential treatment.”

“My son’s Donny,” another woman said. “The one who was practically hopping up and down.”

“I feel for you,” Vernon said, grinning. “I can tell a ‘why, why, why’ a mile away.”

“That’s…Donny,” the lady said. “And I don’t agree that it was too strong. But I was visiting my grandparents in upstate New York when the City was hit.”

“I grew up in LA,” Dana said. “Til I was three, that is.”

“Ladies, I’d like to introduce the famous Comet Parker,” Vernon said, quickly. “I don’t think you probably knew your shuttle pilot had been carefully chosen and not just picked out of a hat. Parker is one of the best shuttle pilots in the Navy.”

“I’m sorry, I hadn’t realized that,” the lady who’d first spoken up said. She smiled slightly and nodded her head clearly unsure what Vernon was referring to.

“Parker?” Donny’s mom said. “You were the one that saved that shuttle full of civilians?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Dana replied.

“Was that entry as hard as it looked?” the lady asked.

“I don’t really remember, ma’am,” Dana said, shrugging. “I just have flashes of bad things headed my way. My brain sort of refused to record most of it. Having watched the replay, my professional opinion is that I must have been insane.”

“Desperate, surely,” Vernon said, chuckling. “Let’s see: Attempt the impossible and probably die or assuredly die. Binary solution set, there.”

“I suppose some would have gone for a nice clean impact on the surface,” Donny’s mom said.

“I had three pregnant women and fifty-two other cargo, ma’am,” Dana said, softly.

“It was insane, ma’am,” Thermal said. “And I say that as the guy in the forward seat. Also, as Mister Vernon said, a binary solution set. We were going to die. I’m personally glad she went for it.”

“Mister Vernon,” Paris said over the intercom. “You have another appointment.”

“Which is sort of my life,” Tyler said. “Ladies, you have a remarkable set of offspring. I hope to see them going out to conquer the universe. We need more kids just like this and you should be proud. While you’re on the station, feel free to stop by the mall and get in some shopping. It helps defray the costs,” he added with a grin. “And with that I have to go.”

“Damn,” said the snarky lady as he hurried out. “I was hoping to talk to him more.”

“I think that’s why the AI called him away,” Donny’s mom said, smiling thinly.

“I think this is as much time as he’s spent with…” Thermal stopped with his mouth open, not sure how to go on.

“Normal people?” Dana said. “What my boss is trying to say while he has his foot in his mouth is that Mister Vernon spends most of his time alone. And when he meets with people it’s people like, oh, the President. If Mr. Vernon has the time. I’ve never seen him talking with people before and he lives here.”

“That’s…” Donny’s mom said. “I was about to say that’s sort of sad. But I think it’s…sort of unhealthy.”

“Howard Hughes is much mentioned, ma’am,” Dana said. “But he seems to be pretty functional. I will say that main bay golf is a new one, though.”

“That is kind of bizarre,” Thermal said.

“I dunno,” Dana said. “I haven’t held a club in a long time. I think I may find out what sort of permissions you have to get.”

“A lot,” Paris said. “I don’t think I’d field golf balls for even you, Comet.”

“Be that way, then,” Dana said, sticking out her tongue at the overhead. “Seriously, Paris. Within reason. What’s his status?”

“That is highly personal,” Paris said. “But there is a certain pattern to these things. When persons attain a certain degree of power and control it tends to consume them. Power is not, as is sometimes bandied, corrupting but it is absolutely consuming. All of their energy becomes sublimated to their endeavors. However, if they are not essentially unbalanced, and Tyler Vernon is anything but unbalanced, at a certain point they look around and realize they are past the consuming part of their endeavors. At that point they often reacquaint themselves with…life? Certainly become more sociable. Based upon some recent actions, such as this meeting with your lady’s children, he may be entering into that phase. Which, too, can be taken to extremes. The movie industry is somewhat reduced or the next phase could be anticipated to be dating starlets.”

“Why do men always go for women with looks over brains?” the snarky lady asked.

“I doubt you would care for the full lecture,” Paris said. “Suffice it to say that it is a functional reproductive strategy for economically high value males just as acquiring a economically high value mate is a functional strategy for certain females. The reverse is also true although rather less documented.”

“I’m not sure I…quite got that…” the lady said.

“I have an emergency in bay four,” Paris said. “I must take my leave.”

“Emergency?” the lady said, looking around. “Is it safe?”

“Very,” Dana said, trying not to sigh.

“Ladies,” the PAO lieutenant said. “We’re already behind on schedule. We’ll be having a bite in the food court then some shopping and general visiting time then the ride back.”

“LT, we need to go service the shuttle,” Thermal said.

“Sure you do,” the lieutenant said, soto voce. “But who am I to stand in the way of somebody with a real job.”

“…that covers our current analysis of the Terran defense system,” To’Jopeviq said, nodding at the group of Marshals. “In summary, given Terra’s continued expansion of its gate defenses, population size and growth rate, technological level at the time of first contact and philosophical approach to warfighting, our analysis is that absent an assault by a minimum of forty Assault Vectors, any lesser force would face defeat. And an assault by forty Assault Vectors would render the majority non-functional for any future uses.”

Colonel Egilldu To’Jopeviq hadn’t wanted this job when he got handed it by the late Star Marshall Lhi’Kasishaj. The then major had made a name for himself in a now “small” war against the Skree when he was the senior surviving officer of the Assault Vector Star Mauler. He still didn’t like it. If he had his choice he’d still be in the Assault Vector force. But the Star Marshall was right in one thing. When given a task he did it to the best of his ability.

Twice High Command had ignored his team’s recommended force levels for an assault on the Terran system. And in both cases, it had been obvious his team’s analysis had been low. The Terrans were not only using every trick known to the species in the local arm, they had ideas no one had imagined, such as the Troy and its new “Orion” drive.

“Forty AVs seems…high,” Star Marshall Ucuhath said.

The structure of High Command was deliberately opaque to those outside its circle. That permitted the occasional purge to be less of an issue. Star Marshall Ucuhath’s title was “Marshall of Organizational Processes.” To’Jopeviq suspected he was more or less the Operations officer. But the colonel wasn’t sure.

“The Terran Solar Array Pumped Laser is at over one hundred and fifty petawatts,” To’Jopeviq pointed out. “That level of power would cause shield failure in no more than point three seconds. Thus even with rotation, the SAPL alone can render an AV impotent in less than three minutes. The damage would be high enough and fast enough that counter maneuvering by bringing ships in and out of the outer formation would be of limited utility. One could envision it being contra-indicated since ships which were in the outer formation would often lose navigational control before they could rotate out of the line-of-fire thus becoming navigational hazards. And that is simply the SAPL. It discounts continued improvements in onboard laser capacity which has been demonstrated with the Troy and is probably continuing with Thermopylae as well as the enormous number of missiles in the system.”

“Has your team looked at alternate methods of assault?” High Commander Phi’Pojagit asked. The old Rangora was the one member of the High Command whose position was clear. He was also one of the five members of the Junta which ruled the Rangora.

“One proposed method was to create our own orbital infrastructure in the Eridani system, High Commander,” To’Jopeviq replied. “Then produce missile levels similar to those of the Troy, Thermopylae and Station Three. By sending in repeated waves of missiles, it is possible it would soften the defenses of the battle stations. The countering argument is that the missiles would be subject to SAPL and counter-missile fire during their attack. Also that the Troy has shown the ability to move through the gate. Thus any such orbital defenses would have to be resistant to an attack by the Troy. That led to a third plan which was to set up such defenses along with production capacity. Then when the Troy responded, to hit it with a trap sufficient to render it impotent.”

“All interesting plans,” the High Commander said, approvingly.

“All of which we rejected, High Commander,” To’Jopeviq said, unhappily. “Since our team has been upgraded in importance we have been given access to certain…internal data. Eridani has no in-place orbital systems or population support. It is an essentially dead system. Given current combat needs and production rates, it would take five years to assemble the sort of defenses and production we would need in the Eridani system to affect the plan. If we are still at war with Terra in five years, we estimate they will have five battle globes capable of entry into the Eridani system.

“The alternative of placing an AV fleet in the system along with heavy local defenses was also rejected since we could not be sure when the Troy would enter. That would hold down a significant portion of the remaining AV fleet. That, of course, is a policy decision but we found it unlikely given the continued battles in the Zhoqaghev system.”

“I find it hard to believe that one relatively new race has this sort of combat capability,” High Marshall Ucuhath said. “I am not disbelieving you, you understand, Colonel, but…”

“High Marshall, with respect,” To’Jopeviq said. “Every time I look at our models I have moments of disbelief. And then we get empirical proofs that our models tend to be low. Now that the Terrans are not blocking their communications system, we have been able to get real time data. And while normally that could be assumed to be disinformation, like the Glatun the Terrans permit very wide latitude on information gathering and dissemination.