Executive (10 page)

We did it. Knowing that a difficult period was coming up, I took a nap. This might seem strange, but I had been in combat and knew the importance of being properly rested. I had learned decades ago to sleep when I needed to. I would have done so that first night after I assumed power, had Coral not forced the issue. But it had been more comfortable letting her handle it, as I am sure any man would agree.

The response from Karzhinov came just two hours before the docking, and it was blunt indeed. It translated: “Do not interfere with ship. Saturn will retaliate.”

Spirit sighed. “They simply won't take us seriously! We have no alternative but to do it.”

“Remember when we delivered ultimatums to pirates?” I asked her. For though I regarded pirates as the scum of the System and hated the entire breed ever since they had slain our father, I had tried to be fair.

This was not so much for their benefit, as for my own: I needed to believe in the justness of my cause and the rightness of my actions. Just as I did now.

“We did have to kill a number of them,” she reminded me.

It was my turn to sigh. I have never liked killing, but I have done it when necessary. I was prepared to do it again.

We contacted Emerald and gave the order. The Navy ships opened fire.

The attack failed; the range was still too great. But there was a virtual explosion nevertheless.

First there was a call from the premier of Ganymede. “Tyrant Hubris, you are attacking Ganymede territory!” he protested.

“Correction,” I said. "We are firing on a Saturn ship that our intelligence informs us is a threat to Jupiter.

Its location at the moment is coincidental."

“You are violating Ganymede space! I demand that you desist instantly!”

“Turn over that Saturn ship and we'll desist,” I replied.

“But I have no authority over a Saturn vessel!”

“Then deny it clearance to dock. It will have to return to Saturn.”

He looked truly pained, though, of course, this was what he most wanted to do. That ship represented disaster for him as well as for Jupiter. But he could not express his true sentiment. “Saturn is Ganymede's ally and benefactor! I cannot insult Saturn in this manner!”

My expression hardened. "I had thought that relations between Jupiter and Ganymede were improving.

We maintain embassies. We buy your sugar. Now I learn that you have deceived me, Premier. You have tried to bring in technicians to make Tanamo an enemy military base. This is a dagger at Jupiter's heart and a betrayal of my personal trust."

His protest was already coming in, crossing with my harangue. I overrode it, lapsing into Spanish in my supposed rage. “ I arranged the transfer of that base!” I roared. “I trusted your sincerity! And how do you repay my trust, you dog's penis? You try to convert it to a Saturn missile base! You try to destroy me, just as I come into power in Jupiter!”

“...only supplies, I swear!” he was saying in English. “No arms, no special equipment, only food and tools for our agriculture!”

Then, as I paused, my Spanish outburst caught up to him. He changed to Spanish himself. “You eater of sweet rolls!” he cried, reddening in the face. I should clarify that in the Gany dialect of Spanish, a certain type of food becomes the vernacular for the female genital and is not spoken as a compliment. “You fire into my space, violating interplanetary protocol, and dare to accuse me of bad faith? You look for a pretext to invade our planet and make it a Jupiter colony! But do you know what will happen if you do that, Señor animal fornicator? Twenty thousand gringos will die! ”

I cut off the contact, then settled back, laughing. “He understands, all right,” I said.

“He had better,” Spirit said. “We're going to have to invade Ganymede, you know.”

“With about twenty thousand troops,” I agreed. “But with lasers set at stun only.”

“The Saturn forces there won't set theirs at stun,” she said.

“He'll keep them clear. Ganymede is not our worry. Saturn is.”

“Saturn is,” she agreed. “If Karzhinov doesn't bluff, we really will be in Ess-Doubleyou-Three.”

That sobered me. “We have to risk it, though.”

“Sir,” Shelia said.

“Put him on,” I said.

It was, as I had anticipated, the ambassador from Saturn. There was no delay in transmissions here, because he was in New Wash. “I must sternly inquire as to the meaning of this outrage,” he said.

“The meaning is that Saturn is trying to change the locks on Tanamo Base on Ganymede, and the premier of Ganymede is playing along,” I said severely. “This cannot and shall not be permitted. Your ship must turn back before docking or we shall take more specific action.”

“It is only a supply ship!” he protested.

“Guarded by a killer sub,” I said. “Why are you so protective of this particular ship? A true supply ship has no fear of inspections.”

“This is preposterous!”

“I agree. Turn back the ship.”

“But I have no authority to—”

“Then don't waste my time.” I cut him off.

The ship did not stop. We remained unable to knock it out at long distance; we would have had to launch a CT missile at Ganymede itself to take it out, and I was not prepared to do that.

“Ganymede is organizing to repel invasion,” Spirit said.

“Invade,” I agreed. “But watch Saturn.”

“Emerald's on it.”

We tracked Saturn's ships in the Jupiter sphere. They were now on alert. Ours moved into position to oppose them, even as Saturn ships defending Saturn moved to counter our formation there. Indeed the invasion of Ganymede might be a joke, but the siege of Saturn was not. If any missile was fired at a Jupiter city—

Now the White Bubble was deluged with calls from our own population. We had not censored the news; the people were catching on that real trouble was brewing.

“Sir, you may want to watch this,” Shelia said, and put on a local interview.

It was Thorley, my most eloquent critic, speaking editorially. The startling thing was who was in the background: my daughter Hopie. Evidently she had been consulting him about the prospects for education when both were caught by the Saturn crisis, and the pickup caught them both.

“ That will make tongues wag!” Spirit murmured.

“...seems to be madness,” Thorley was saying. “There is no reputable evidence I know of that the Saturn ship carries contraband, and to launch an attack on the mere suspicion—”

“My father's not mad!” Hopie exclaimed. “He always has good reason for what he does!”

Thorley gave a wry smile. “Such as appointing a child to be in charge of education?”

“He told me I could do the job if I got the best advice!”

He shook his head. “Mayhap he is but mad north-northwest; when the wind is southerly, he knows a hawk from a handsaw.” He returned to the camera, smiling in the eloquently rueful way he had. “It seems the Tyrant sent his daughter to me for advice.”

I heard someone laugh; it was Shelia, losing her composure for the moment. Thorley was, as I mentioned, my most effective critic, but it was impossible not to like him.

“...yet it remains difficult to see the logic in such brinksmanship,” Thorley was continuing. “In a matter of hours the Tyrant has brought us closer to the brink of holocaust than has been the case in twenty years. I am, candidly, appalled.”

Then we had to return to the business at hand. Another message had arrived from Chairman Karzhinov.

“Madness!” he exclaimed, as if echoing Thorley. Actually the word was that of the translator, for Karzhinov did not speak English and did not know that I spoke Russian. “You are committing an act of war! Desist or we must react!”

“Send a bread-and-butter note,” I told Shelia. She looked pale, but she got on it: a routine repetition of our demand that the ship not dock. Of course, it would be too late by the time that message reached Saturn, but it maintained contact. I wanted it clear that we had reason for our action and that only a Saturnian backdown would avert catastrophe.

But the ship did dock. Our invasion force moved into position, Tanamo the obvious target. We wanted no confusion on the part of the premier of Ganymede; he had to know precisely where and when we would land.

I looked about me during a lull in the activity, if not the tension. Ebony was there, having reverted to gofer status for the crisis. She looked as pale as a Black woman could. I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Sir, how do they know not to shoot?” she asked. “You sent no message. After the way you yelled at the premier—”

“The premier and I understand each other,” I said.

“But—”

“Any message of that nature would be intercepted,” I explained. "Therefore there has to be no message.

But the premier knows what he has to do, as do I."

“But the Saturn fleet—”

“Do you happen to know who commands the Jupiter-sphere division of the Saturn fleet?”

Wordlessly she shook her head.

“Admiral Khukov.”

“Oh! We know him—”

“As well as we know the premier.”

“But he's a ruthless man, sir.”

“He knows his priorities—as do I.”

“I sure hope you do!” she said.

“It is a bit chancy,” I agreed. “But, I think, necessary.”

The Saturn fleet became more menacing. Their dreadnoughts were impressive, but it was their formidable subs that concerned me most. Our destroyers were trying desperately to track them, and we had most located but could not be sure of some. In any event, unless we launched a preemptive strike at them, our cities would be vulnerable to their strike. Yet, at the same time, our subs were closing on Saturn and giving their defenses similar fits. One CT warhead could do a horrendous amount of damage.

In fact, there was a growing question whether the disruption of planetary atmosphere would not generate a greater long-term mischief than the destruction of a city. But at the moment it was the immediate situation that concerned us. Saturn had to be made to believe that I really would push the final button—if driven too far.

“Sir,” Shelia said.

Wearily I glanced at her.

“Ganymede is carrying it live.”

“So far so good!” I exclaimed, relieved. “Put it on.”

The screen showed the Gany militia moving into place, ready to repel the invader. They were armed with laser rifles and pistols.

They were evidently outside the Tanamo base, their entry balked by the resistance of our gatekeepers.

That was the peculiarity of the compromise I had arranged, about seven years before: Tanamo had passed to Gany control, but the locks had remained keyed to Jupiter personnel. Thus it had been impossible for the base to be abused by Saturn, because the very specialized equipment necessary to recode the locks could be docked only at Tanamo itself, and our personnel would not permit that. Now, of course, that situation had changed; the more sophisticated equipment being landed at the other port could do that job. Once the premier was out of the way, the treaty could be voided by Saturn.

The ships of the Jupiter Navy, naturally, had no difficulty docking at Tanamo; our personnel facilitated their clearance. In short order we had twenty thousand laser-armed troops there. They stormed out, covered by our own cameras, and rushed to shore up the defenses of the planet-bound accesses.

There was a blazing battle at the perimeter as the Gany forces charged. They had to expose themselves in the straight access tunnels, and our troops mowed them down.

It was beautiful. The Gany troops clutched themselves and collapsed. Had I not known they were not hurt, I would have winced. They had been well coached.

Would it fool the Saturnians? I knew it would not deceive Admiral Khukov for an instant, but I also was pretty sure that he would not expose the ruse. He would read it correctly, censor the Saturn records of anything that would undermine the effect, and send the tapes on to his superiors: the clear violation of Gany territory I had initiated. Then he would wait for his orders.

After our troops had cleared the corridor they moved out to secure a broader foothold. Now they were to some extent exposed, and snipers caught them. They died as convincingly as had the Ganys. The gringos were starting to get it.

The reaction in our media was immediate: NAVY INVADES GANY! the Gotham Times headline read. Others put it more succinctly: WAR! The calls to the White Bubble multiplied but were blocked off; we were now too busy to bother with them. Only communications through channels were accepted—and there were more than enough of those to swamp us.

Very soon the second reaction came: “This is madness!” a commentator cried. “For no reason we invade Ganymede? What kind of a fool do we have at the helm?”

That reaction quickly spread across Jupiter. The ousted opposition Congressmen were quick to cry warning: the planet could not afford to tolerate a crazy man in the White Bubble!

But the great ships of the Jupiter Navy remained in place above our cities, orienting on Ganymede, and tracking the Saturn ships and subs. They represented the ultimate power in this region of space, and they answered only to Admiral Emerald Mondy, who served the Tyrant with absolute loyalty. The power was mine.

Actually the sequence took more time than it seems in my memory, and the details were more complex than I can render here, because of the distance to Saturn and the enormity of planetary proceedings. But I must render it as I perceived it, trusting to the official records to correct my confusions. One thing is certain: The System came extraordinarily close to war and possible annihilation in that period. Yet I am not certain that there was any better way to accomplish what had to be accomplished. Some risk is always entailed in surgery, and the dangers of leaving the situation uncorrected were, in the long term, greater. I did what I had to do.

Our invasion of Ganymede proceeded while Saturn expostulated. Because it took four hours for Karzhinov's reactions to reach me, much happened between calls. Now we stalled them , reversing their prior ploy, and they were as helpless as we. They lacked the resources to defend Ganymede directly; this was, after all, the Jupiter sphere. Certainly they did not desire to initiate System War Three over Ganymede; the planet was a loss to them even under favorable circumstances and hardly worth the horrendous cost of full war. Yet Saturn pride could not let us take over without opposition.