The Night's Dawn Trilogy (455 page)

Korzhenev grunted in amusement. “So you called us here in secret to discuss this action rather than take it to the Assembly?
I feel as if I am a member of some old cabal plotting revolution.”

“You are,” the King said. Korzhenev’s smile faded.

“The Confederation is failing,” the Duke of Salion told the surprised guests. “The economies of the developed worlds like
ours are suffering badly from the civil starflight quarantine. Stage two planets are paralysed. Capone has acted with singular
brilliance with his infiltration flights and the strike against Trafalgar. Our populations are in a state of physical and
emotional siege. Quarantine-busting flights continue to spread possession slowly but surely. And now Earth, the industrial
and military core of the entire Confederation, has been infected. Without Earth on our side, the whole equation is changed.
We must take its loss into account if we are to survive.”

“Just hold on there a minute,” Jim Sanderson said. “The possessed have got a toehold in a couple of arcologies, is all. You
can’t sign Earth off that easily. GISD is one tough mother of an agency, they’ll crack whatever heads they have to in order
to clear the possessed out.”

Alaistair looked at the Duke, and nodded permission.

“According to our GISD contact, there are now at least five arcologies host to the possessed.”

Prince Tokama raised an eyebrow. “You are well informed, sir. I had not been told of this development before I left Oshanko.”

“Half of the Royal Navy auxiliary vessels are doing nothing but running round on courier duty for us,” the Duke said. “We’re
keeping as current as we can, but even that information is a couple of days old now. According to the report, the worst situation
is in New York, but the other four arcologies will fall within weeks at the most. Govcentral has been commendably quick in
closing down the vac-train routes, but we believe that ultimately the possessed will spread to the remaining arcologies as
well. If anyone is capable of surviving Earth’s climate without technological protection, it is a possessed.”

“And that isn’t even the big problem,” Alaistair said. “Lalonde’s population was roughly twenty million, of which we can assume
a minimum of eighty-five per cent were possessed. Between them, they had enough energistic power to snatch the planet from
this universe. New York’s official population is three hundred million. By themselves they have more than enough power to
remove Earth. They won’t even have to wait until the other arcologies are taken over.”

“A valid observation, however, the Halo will surely remain,” Ku Rongi said. “That is the main source of commerce with the
Confederation. Trade with the Sol system will be diminished, not erased.”

“Hopefully, yes,” the Duke said. “Our GISD contact says they don’t yet understand how the possessed penetrated Earth’s defences.
So the possibility exists that they may be able to spread among the Halo asteroids as well. The other problem facing the Halo
is that when the Earth is removed to some other realm, its gravity field will go with it. The Halo asteroids will physically
disperse.”

“Very well,” Prince Tokama said. “I am sure your analysists have produced a definitive report on the outcome of these events.
So assuming we are deprived of Earth, and at least some of the Halo’s resources, what do you see as the most effective policy
to proceed with?”

“Olton Haaker and the Polity Council have just ordered a full scale Confederation Navy attack against Capone’s fleet,” the
Duke said. “It should close down the Organization’s rule, and allow the possessed on New California to do what comes naturally.
They’ll shunt it away, thus eliminating the threat of any further infiltration flights and antimatter terrorism. What we propose
is taking that policy to its conclusion.”

“The industrialized star systems should align themselves into a core-Confederation,” Lady Phillipa said. “At the moment we’re
dangerously overstretched trying to enforce the quarantine and supporting actions like Mortonridge. The cost simply cannot
be sustained, not with the economic slowdown we’re all suffering from. If we contract our spheres of influence, the cost is
considerably reduced, and the effectiveness of our military forces in maintaining security over a smaller volume of space
is correspondingly improved. Given that increased security, we could begin trading among ourselves again.”

“You mean no one else would be allowed to fly in?”

“Essentially, yes. We would extend the government authorization process we have in place today to cover commercial starships.
Any vessel registered in one of the secured star systems would be allowed to resume flying between systems, subject to a reasonable
security inspection. Ships which came from unsecured systems would not be permitted to dock. In other words, we stake out
our perimeter and guard it very well indeed.”

“And the other planets?” Korzhenev enquired. “The ones we leave out in the cold. What do you foresee for them?”

“They’re the principal source of our trouble in the first place,” the Duke said. “They do not police their asteroid settlements
effectively, which encourages quarantine-busting flights and with them the prospect of possessed getting loose inside another
star system.”

“So we just abandon them?”

“By withdrawing our present unconditional military support, they will be forced into taking the responsibility they’ve so
far avoided. With the present quarantine in force, their marginal industrial asteroid settlements are inviolable anyway. In
effect, we have been subsidising their suspended status for the owners. Once that situation is ended, the asteroids will be
mothballed and their populations returned to the home star system’s terracompatible planet. In itself that will considerably
reduce the number of routes by which the possessed can continue to spread. We may even rid ourselves of their incursion into
this universe entirely. If they see they cannot reach fresh planets, then those who remain will take themselves away to this
new realm of theirs.”

“Then what?” Jim Sanderson asked. “Okay, we regain most of what we’ve lost in financial terms. I’m in favour of that. But
it doesn’t solve anything long term. Even if the possessed clear out and leave us alone, we still have to consider the bodies,
the
people
, they’ve stolen and enslaved. There’s hundreds of millions of them depending on us to rescue them, billions probably by now.
That’s a healthy percentage of our whole species. We can’t ignore that. The whole issue of souls and what happens to us after
death has got to be thoroughly addressed. That’s what I was hoping for when I came here today, something new.”

“If there was an easy solution we would have found it by now,” the King said. “The amount of research and effort focused on
this is like no other endeavour in our history. Every university, every company and military laboratory, every febrile mind
in eight hundred inhabited star systems has been working on it. The best anybody has come up with is the possibility of a
doomsday anti-memory for the souls in the beyond. One can hardly consider such mass slaughter as a valid answer, even if it
can be made to work. We have to start looking at this from a different angle altogether. In order to do that, we must have
stability and a reasonable degree of prosperity as an umbrella to work under. Society will have to change in many ways; most
of which will be profoundly unsettling. One doesn’t even know if it will ultimately reinforce or obliterate our faith in God.”

“I can see the logic in what you’re saying,” Korzhenev said. “But what about the Assembly and the Confederation Navy itself?
They exist to protect all planets equally.”

“Bottom line,” Lady Phillipa said, “is that he who pays the piper… and those of us in this room do pay a considerable amount.
We’re not abandoning anybody, we’re restructuring policy to a more realistic response towards this crisis. If it could be
solved quickly, then all we’d need is the quarantine and a few interdiction flights. As that quite obviously hasn’t happened,
we are going to have to take the tough decision and settle in for the long haul. This is the only way we can offer those already
possessed with any prospect of regaining their own identities one day.”

“How many other star systems do you envisage joining this core-Confederation?” Prince Tokama asked.

“We believe ninety-three systems have the kind of fully developed technoindustrial infrastructure to qualify for admission.
We don’t envisage this as being a small elite. Our fiscal analysis shows that many stars would be able to sustain a modest
but steady economic growth pattern between themselves.”

“Do you envisage asking the Edenists to join?” Ku Rongi asked.

“Of course,” the King replied. “In fact we took inspiration from them. After Pernik they have demonstrated an admirable resolution
in safeguarding their habitats from infiltration. That’s precisely the kind of determination we wish to institute among ourselves.
If the stage two planets and developing asteroids had done the same right from the start, we wouldn’t even be in this appalling
position.”

Jim Sanderson looked round the three other guests, then turned back to the King. “Okay, I’ll brief the President and tell
him it gets my vote. It ain’t what I wanted, but at least it’s something practical.”

“My honourable father will be informed,” Prince Tokama said. “He will need to bring your proposal to the attention of the
Imperial Court, but I can see no problem if enough planets can be convinced.”

Korzhenev and Ku Rongi gave their assent, promising to take the proposal to their governments. The King shook hands and had
a few personal words of thanks with each as they were ushered out. He didn’t hurry them, but time was important; the next
four senior representatives were due in an hour. Five Eighty-five Squadron had a busy three days scheduled.

______

A hundred and eighty-seven wormhole termini opened with impressive synchronization a quarter of a million kilometres away
from Arnstat, directly between the planet and its sun. Voidhawks emerged from the gaps and immediately established a defence
sphere formation five thousand kilometres in diameter, scanning space with their distortion fields and electronic sensors
for any sign of nearby technological activity. They detected the planet’s SD platforms, of course; a much-depleted network
in the aftermath of the Organization’s successful invasion. Nonetheless, local sensor satellites had already discovered them,
and the remaining high-orbit platforms were locking on. The SD network was reinforced by Organization fleet warships, of which
there were a hundred and eighteen currently in orbit, along with twenty-three hellhawks and a token half-dozen new low-orbit
platforms ferried in from New California which were principally used to enforce Organization rule on the ground. Their presence,
especially in conjunction with the antimatter combat wasps which some of them carried, had effectively upgraded the planetary
defence shield to the same level as it had been with a full SD network.

Capone and Emmet Mordden were satisfied the Organization could defeat any task force of warships the Confederation sent in
an attempt to reclaim space above the Arnstat. In any case, it was only the Organization’s dominance of that space which prevented
the planet from being taken out of the universe by the possessed on the surface, effectively stymieing the First Admiral.

True, there had been an considerable increase in lightning raids recently: voidhawks swallowing in to shoot off combat wasps
and stealth munitions. But few of the missiles had ever hit a target; interception rate was over ninety-five per cent. The
state of constant alert had given the crews operating the sensor satellites a high proficiency rating. Complemented by the
hellhawks’ distortion fields, they were confident nothing could get close enough to the orbiting asteroid settlements or industrial
stations to inflict any kind of serious damage.

Nothing happened for the first two minutes after the voidhawks emerged. Both sides were searching for clues to see what the
other was going to do. The Organization chief didn’t know what to make of it. A voidhawk force in this formation was normally
a securement operation, enabling a larger fleet of Adamist warships to jump in with impunity. But a hundred and eighty-seven
was a colossal number for a beachhead detachment, more likely to be the task force in its entirety. The distance was also
puzzling: at the moment they were outside effective combat wasp engagement range. But antimatter combat wasps would give the
Organization an advantage, allowing them to engage the attackers first as they flew in towards the planet.

The voidhawks confirmed the Organization was unable to reach them—unless the hellhawks chose to swallow up for a confrontation.
None of them did. More wormhole termini started to open. Then the first Adamist ship emerged in the middle of the defence
sphere formation.

Admiral Kolhammer was using the battleship
Illustrious
as his flagship. Its size permitted him to carry a full complement of tactical staff, and provided them with a fully fledged
C&C compartment independent of the bridge. No ship in the Confederation Navy was better suited to coordinating an attacking
force of this magnitude. Though even with the number of antenna which
Illustrious
boasted, the tactical staff were hard pressed to establish and maintain communication with all the thousand-plus ships under
his command.

Emphasising the monumental strength they represented, it took the task force over thirty-five minutes to complete their emergence
manoeuvre. To the officers and crew of the Organization fleet it seemed as though the torrent of ships would never end.

Kolhammer’s staff began datavising ships with new vectors as soon as they established contact. Fusion drives blinked on, powering
the task force into a giant disk formation. So many plasma exhausts concentrated in one place produced a blazing purple-white
haze brighter than the sun. People on the surface of the planet could see the attackers as a coin-sized patch flowering open
against the centre of the dazzling photosphere, an unnerving portent of what was to come.