Empire in Crisis (2 page)

“Astro-comp, compute and display trajectory
that would enable two other ships to receive the same L-wave transmission,”
said Montoya. Logan nodded his approval. Contacting the other ships was now the
first priority, and if they could catch two ships with one narrow-beam
longitudinal transmission, that would save time and maybe lives. The display
showed a red line that intersected the estimated locations of two ships at the
six and nine o’clock positions. Montoya rotated the display to show the third
dimension. If Bird of Prey could get to that line, it stood a good chance of
contacting Peregrine and Raven.

“XO?”

Logan shifted his gaze to Montoya who gestured
for him to come closer. When he was as close as he could get, Montoya took off
his helmet and Logan did the same.

“We have to try to warm the other ships as fast
as possible, but I don’t want to start sending L-wave transmissions in multiple
directions in case they’re intercepted. Those bogeys may have already
intercepted our transmissions to Black Eagle before we backed off the wormhole.
Here’s what I want you to do. Confer with Helm and figure out the best vector
that will let us try to contact Peregrine and Raven at the same time while also
setting up a minimum time rendezvous. While you’re doing that, I’m going to
risk sending a message to Whitehawk. Any questions?”

“Do you think those bogeys will be waiting for
us at the exit point, Commander?” he asked.

Montoya sighed and nodded. “Given that Black
Eagle was sending out omni-directional time-coded signals, I think those aliens
would make the obvious conclusion that at least one other ship is in this
system and that wormhole is the way home. We can’t count on them being stupid
enough to divide their forces. We’ll probably have to fight our way through to
the wormhole.”

Montoya’s expression was grim, and Logan was
sure that his was the same. “I agree, sir.”

“Okay, let’s get to it, XO.”

Logan went back to the Helm Station, and he and
the Helm Officer were quickly engrossed in figuring out the best course.

Forty-five minutes later, they were able to
contact Peregrine and Raven. Whitehawk had already been contacted as well. All
four ships were now heading for a mutually-agreed upon rendezvous point that
was on the opposite side of the rocky planet from the relay point wormhole.
Getting all the ships together would take another three hours. By the time all
four ships were together and flying in formation, Logan was mentally exhausted.
His duty shift was over, and in spite of the chance to participate in the CO
conference call, he retired to his quarters. Using the enhanced deep sleep
techniques taught at the Academy, he felt refreshed when the call to Battle
Stations woke him up 212 minutes later.

The plan of battle was frighteningly simple.
All four ships would converge on the wormhole point from four different
directions at high speed and attempt to enter the wormhole as quickly as
possible. If the alien ships were still guarding the wormhole, they would
likely be in a tight formation and would only be able to effectively attack
ships coming from their side of the wormhole. It was clear to Logan and to the
other officers that not all four ships would make it through the gauntlet. Even
if a ship did manage to enter the wormhole undamaged, there was still the
possibility that the aliens would follow. And with their proven superior warp
speed, they might be able to catch up to any fleeing human ship. The obvious
alternative of approaching the wormhole in a formation and slugging it out with
the enemy squadron was considered too much of an all or nothing option. A high
probability of one or two ships slipping through individually was preferable to
a low probability of an unknown number (if any) of damaged ships surviving the
combat and still being able to make it home.

With the ship now approaching the wormhole at
4.4 times the speed of light, Logan was at his assigned Battle Stations
position in Engineering’s Auxiliary Control Station. If something happened to
the Bridge, he could still control the ship from Engineering. Everyone was
wearing his or her spacesuit as per Montoya’s orders. The wormhole entry speed
would be the slowest possible warp speed of 10% of light speed, as opposed to
the normal entry speed of a few kilometers per second. Ships had successfully
entered wormholes at the minimum warp speed, but the ride was not what anyone
would call smooth, and hull fractures, resulting in decompression, were possible

“Attention all hands. We’re three minutes from
the wormhole, and if there are bogeys still sitting on it, they’ll have
detected our warp ripples by now. Their chances of hitting us with something
are low, but be prepared for anything. I’ll keep the ship-wide channel open so
that you’ll know what’s happening. Two minutes to wormhole.”

Montoya’s voice was now replaced with the
background chatter from the Bridge crew. Logan was strapped in, and he checked
his restraint system to make sure it was as snug as possible.

“One minute to wormhole. Still no sign of
bogeys. Begin deceleration, Helm,” said Montoya.

Logan watched the velocity indicator on his
station’s console. The ship was shedding velocity fast now and was approaching
sub-light.

“Twenty seconds to wormhole. We’ve got bogeys!
Commence firing—“

The cutoff of Montoya’s voice coincided with
the sound of the damage alarm and multiple red lights on Logan’s console. The
Bridge had been hit by something, probably a high-powered laser. The console showed
explosive decompression and loss of positive control on helm, weapons and
engineering. Logan had just enough time to reassure himself that the ship was
still headed for the wormhole when they entered it. He felt a violent jerk to
the right and heard the ship groan. It was a sound so scary that he felt a
shiver go down his spine. The lights flickered for half a second and then
remained steady. More red lights indicated hull breaches, but none were in
areas inhabited by crew. The damage control computer quickly sealed off the
affected areas. A quick check showed that damage control teams were already
heading for the Bridge, but the lack of communications from there led Logan to
expect bad news from their report.

The report, when it came, was bad all right. A
laser beam had slashed through the compartment, killing everyone. Some died
instantly from the laser itself, while others died an agonizing death from
being splashed by molten metals. Logan was now in command of the ship, and they
weren’t out of danger yet.

Seven point seven minutes later, Bird of Prey
emerged from the other end of the wormhole. Logan immediately ordered the ship
back to its maximum warp speed of 4.4C, on a heading for the position beacon
near the other wormhole in this system that formed part of the path back to the
Empire. In total, they had eight wormholes to transit before reaching friendly
territory. As the ship accelerated, he watched his console anxiously for signs
of the other Empire ships, but none emerged from the wormhole. The minutes
passed, and it was only when the wormhole slipped out of sensor range
altogether that he relaxed a little bit. If the enemy was going to try to catch
up to them with their superior warp speed, at least his ship had a decent head
start.

Just as the ship started to slow down to gently
enter the next wormhole at a speed that would not stress the hull, the warp
ripple sensors detected three ships at extreme range travelling at 4.6C. Comp
said that the ship would make it into Empire territory before being intercepted
IF the warp engines could take the strain of that much abuse at maximum speed
without breaking down or losing efficiency. Bird of Prey destroyed the position
beacon as it passed by, even though the enemy already had had plenty of time to
lock onto the signal before they entered detection range. Logan knew it was a
futile gesture, but it made him feel better anyway.

 The enemy squadron got into sensor range
sooner in each of the next seven sections between wormholes. With the last
wormhole before Empire territory now dead ahead, Logan watched the velocity
indicator carefully as the ship accelerated. Velocity peaked at 4.29C, and comp
said the enemy ships would get within weapons range before Bird of Prey entered
the last wormhole. Logan informed the crew, and the ship was at Battle Stations
with only a couple of minutes left to go. As long as their speed exceeded light
speed, neither side could fire at the other, but in order to transit the last
wormhole, Bird of Prey had to slow down to sub-light velocities.

With seconds left before the ship had to
decelerate, Logan noticed that the enemy ships’ velocity had slipped from 4.6C
to 4.4C. A quick check of comp showed that his ship could make it through okay.
When the enemy ships began to decelerate, Logan assumed that the alien
commander had realized that the chase was now futile and decided to call it
quits.

It was with considerable relief that Logan
ordered the ship to stand down from Battle Stations as she carefully slipped
into the last wormhole. On the other side, there would be a well-armed starbase
with probably one or two armed ships as well: enough firepower to at least make
the enemy think twice before attacking, if they should decide to follow his
ship into the wormhole.

When the ship emerged from the other end, Logan
used the L-wave transmitter to warn the starbase that hostile alien ships might
be in pursuit. As it turned out, they didn’t emerge from the wormhole. A
careful peek into the other system by recon drone hours later detected no sign
of any ships. The immediate crisis seemed to be over.

Emperor DeChastelaine sat down in the
conference chair and practiced some meditative breathing in order to calm his
mind before the weekly meeting with the senior Space Force staff began. Lately
the meetings had become more and more frustrating and stressful. These tugs of
war between Space Force and the Emperor, which usually ended in stalemate, were
now threatening to tip the balance away from the Emperor onto that slippery
slope that would eventually end with him being a powerless figurehead. He was
determined to prevent that.

“Begin meeting,” he said, and the room around
him reformed into a hologram of the main conference room at Space Force HQ with
him now sitting at a very large round table that had over a hundred admirals
seated around it. He could hear the chatter from dozens of conversations, and
he waited to see if it would die down when his admirals noticed that he was now
present. It did not. He saw some of them look in his direction, so they
obviously knew that he was electronically present, but that fact apparently
didn’t make any difference. He looked to his right where Senior Grand Fleet
Admiral Hiakawa was seated and saw that the seven-star admiral was busy
checking his data tablet.

“When the Emperor arrives, the meeting starts,
or have you forgotten that, Admiral Hiakawa?” asked DeChastelaine.

Hiakawa didn’t even try to hide his annoyance
as he looked up at DeChastelaine. “I have not forgotten that, Emperor
DeChastelaine. All right everyone, the meeting will start.”

The chatter did die down but not as quickly as
DeChastelaine thought it should have. The initial part of the meeting agenda
was a briefing to bring the Emperor up to speed on what had happened militarily
since the last meeting. As a lowly three-star admiral droned on about
deployments, operational statistics, etcetera, DeChastelaine took a careful
look at the slowly rotating 3-D image of the stars and all the known wormhole
connections that made up the Empire and its surrounding space. Alien space was
delineated with colors, and major fleet elements both friendly and potentially
hostile were shown as green or red icons. When the briefing touched on the
Empire fleet buildup near the border of the Kravell Empire, DeChastelaine
listened more closely.

“Why is this buildup occurring when I haven’t
approved the proposed invasion of Kravell territory, Admiral Hiakawa?”
interrupted DeChastelaine.

“Well, my Emperor, the recommendations of the Strategy
Board were so overwhelmingly supported by the analysis from the Strategic
Working Group that I assumed you would approve the plan, and I therefore
authorized the movement of fleet assets in anticipation of that approval.”

DeChastelaine could already feel the tension in
his neck muscles increase. “I specifically ordered that no mobilization should
take place until I decided whether to approve that plan or not. Your disregard
of my expressed orders has tipped the scales on my deliberations, and I’ve now
decided that we will NOT be attacking Kravell space any time soon. You will
therefore arrange for those fleet assets to return to their pre-mobilization
positions.”

Hiakawa’s response was quick. “May I point out
to my Emperor that the Kravell are also reinforcing their border fleets? If we
were to weaken our border fleets now, the relative imbalance of forces might
very well tempt the Kravell to launch a full scale attack.”

“I clearly remember last week’s briefing,
Admiral Hiakawa, and I do NOT remember hearing that the Kravell were shifting
assets to their border fleets. That means if they’re doing it now, it almost
certainly was in response to our movements. Therefore, the risk of a Kravell
attack is due solely to your unauthorized deployment.” DeChastelaine paused,
and to his surprise, Hiakawa said nothing. DeChastelaine was convinced that
Hiakawa was exaggerating the risk of a Kravell attack, but he couldn’t be 100%
certain, and that meant that Hiakawa had boxed him into a corner. If he ordered
a withdrawal and the Kravell did attack, either on their own initiative or
perhaps in response to possible provocations by Empire ships, DeChastelaine
would lose some of what little morale authority he had left. If on the other
hand he acquiesced and let the build-up continue, the likelihood of an eventual
Empire attack increased dramatically.

“If we can see their build-up, then they can
see ours, so this is what we are going to do.” DeChastelaine paused for effort
before continuing. “Squadrons that have reached our forward fleets along the
border can stay there. Any squadron that’s still on its way to a forward fleet
is to move laterally to the nearest system that can support it logistically and
then hold that position. And just to be crystal clear, so that there’s no
misunderstanding, by lateral movement I mean that those squadrons are not to
move ANY closer to the border than they are now. If there’s a star system
capable of supporting a squadron that’s only slightly closer to the border,
that squadron is to ignore that system and head for one that is not closer,
regardless of how much further that second system is. Any questions, Admiral?”

“No questions, my Emperor.”

“Good. Admiral Remington may continue with his
briefing.”

DeChastelaine was a little relieved when
nothing else of importance came up from the rest of that briefing. It was the
next item on the agenda that he suspected would be contentious. The Strategy
Board and the Capital Asset Purchase Board had issued a joint report on two new
classes of capital ships with a recommendation that the Empire should start
constructing the Conqueror class of Super-dreadnought instead of the
Valkyrie-class of fast Battlecruisers. DeChastelaine was not surprised by that
recommendation. Super-dreadnoughts formed the nucleus of a task force, and task
forces were commanded by two-star Senior Admirals. The more task forces there
were, the more senior admirals would be needed, and that would make room for
more promotions of family members and protégés. DeChastelaine looked around the
holographic table. Of the 101 admirals sitting at it, over two thirds were
members of just 33 families. They now had a stranglehold on promotions and the
plum assignments. He could almost tolerate that if most of them were above
average in ability, but his impression was the exact opposite. In every case he
was aware of, the abilities didn’t live up to the individual’s ego. They were
all legends in their own minds.

“Would my Emperor like to hear a summary of the
joint report?” asked Hiakawa in a slightly patronizing tone of voice.

“Not necessary, Admiral. I have read the full
report.”

DeChastelaine was amused to see the look of
surprise on Hiakawa’s face. With dozens of reports forwarded to the Emperor
every week by Hiakawa’s office, it was clear that the admiral assumed he would
not read them all or at least not all the way through. The attempt to overwhelm
him with information was so obvious that DeChastelaine took a lot of pleasure
in reading every line from most of the reports and skimming the rest.

“My staff discovered there was a minority
report from the Strategic Working Group that somehow did not get forwarded to
me. I’m sure that was just an oversight on your staff’s part, Admiral. I know
that you wouldn’t deliberately hold back information of that kind.”
DeChastelaine hoped his tone conveyed the subtle threat ‘you better not
deliberately hold back information’. “In any case, my staff was able to obtain
a copy of the minority report which I found to be quite interesting. It shows
that if the Empire devoted the projected total expenditure for the Conqueror
class to the Valkyrie class instead, Space Force would get a net increase in
total firepower and increased flexibility from the Valkyries’ faster speed.
Given that it will take twice as long to build each super-dreadnought versus a
battlecruiser, I would have thought that the Space Force would be eager to add
fast and powerful Valkyries to its fleets instead of the lumbering Conquerors
that are also more expensive and difficult to maintain.”

Hiakawa’s look of surprise quickly turned to
visible anger. “It has traditionally been the prerogative of the Space Force to
allocate its capital budget as it sees fit within the overall budget
constraints set by the Emperor. To overturn the joint recommendations of the
Strategy Board and the CAP Board would amount to an unprecedented exercise in
micro-management. I hope my Emperor understands the serious implications of
taking that course of action.”

DeChastelaine leaned back in his chair while he
continued to stare into the holographic eyes of Hiakawa. DeChastelaine did
understand the serious implications of taking that course of action. Those
implications consisted of ten battalions of marines with their combat armor
sitting on transports in orbit with the Capital Fleet. The threat of calling
them down to take control of the Imperial Palace and replace him as Emperor
with someone else, maybe Hiakawa himself, was quite clear. While this wasn’t
the first time Hiakawa had referred obliquely to that threat, he hadn’t stated
it quite so forcefully before. The problem that DeChastelaine had was that,
strictly speaking, the admiral was right. The Emperor’s threat to overrule the
two Boards would be a violation of tradition and an exercise in micro-management.
However, DeChastelaine had understated the counter-argument in the minority
report. No rational person in his or her right mind would agree with the joint
report recommendation after reading the minority report. The joint report was
as clear an example of blatant cronyism as DeChastelaine had ever seen or heard
of. The Empire was surrounded by increasingly hostile alien races that could
collectively devote more resources to military assets than the Empire could.
For the Empire to waste a significant percentage of its shipbuilding budget on
the wrong ships was tantamount to inviting disaster, but he had to tread
carefully. Those ten marine battalions were still orbiting over his head, and
his plans to neutralize them weren’t ready yet.

“I’m pleased that you’ve acknowledged my right
as Emperor to set Space Force’s budget parameters, Admiral Hiakawa. I was not
threatening to overrule the recommendations of the joint report; however, when
I read both the majority and the minority report, I read the notes as well. In
the minority report, one of the notes points out that even if you decide to go
ahead with construction of the Conqueror class ships, the next budget cycle
will start, and the budget will be set before the detailed design work has been
completed. Given our other shipbuilding programs that have already started and
require multi-year budget allocations to avoid a disruption in the delivery
schedule, it would be difficult to re-allocate existing funding if I should
decide to slash the uncommitted portion of next year’s shipbuilding budget. Now
I’m prepared to offer a compromise. If you agree to divide new shipbuilding
funding equally between the Conqueror class and the Valkyrie class ships, I
will endeavor to give Space Force as much new funding as I can find in the next
budget cycle. And whatever uncommitted funding in this year’s budget can be put
to use on Valkyrie class ships will be counted towards super-dreadnought
construction in next year’s budget. If that’s not acceptable, then I’m sure I can
find other uses for next year’s uncommitted shipbuilding funding.”

When Hiakawa agreed almost immediately to the
compromise, DeChastelaine wondered if he could have gotten a better deal, but
the one he had in hand was good enough, and a lot could happen between now and
next year’s budget cycle.

As Hiakawa started talking about the next
agenda item, DeChastelaine heard a sudden surge in background chatter and
looked around the holographic table. Admiral Remington was now looking agitated
and was clearly speaking to someone, but he must have shifted his station from
conference-wide to private because DeChastelaine couldn’t hear what he was
saying. When other admirals started speaking privately, the Emperor’s first
impulse was to demand a halt to all private conversations while the meeting was
still in progress, but then he noticed something strange. All the admirals now
talking privately were senior to the one who had started it, and all of them
looked…worried.

“Just a second, Admiral Hiakawa. I believe
something has just happened,” said DeChastelaine.

Hiakawa stopped talking and looked around. He
manipulated a control on his station, and then he too started talking
privately. DeChastelaine waited patiently. This was clearly something serious,
and he was sure that they would tell him what it was shortly. As he waited, he
noticed that the 3-D display was now showing a flashing red dot that hadn’t been
there before. The dot was on the very edge of Empire space and the Rift between
the adjacent section of the Orion spiral arm. He heard Hiakawa clear his
throat. Evidently he was now finished speaking privately.