The Swarm (54 page)

Mazer said nothing.

“I suspect you despise me for what happened to you,” Vaganov said. “The court-martial, attorneys, accusations. All of that. An ugly affair.”

“It
was
ugly, yes,” said Mazer.

“You broke chain of command, Mazer. You forwarded sensitive information to an online forum of junior officers who had no business seeing it. But I suppose I should thank you for that. You left me no choice but to forward the information to my superiors, which earned me a few points with CentCom and largely led to my promotion.” He smiled. “I know, I misjudged you. I thought you were trying to ruin me, and you were actually trying to help me.”

“You're mistaken, sir. I wasn't trying to help you. I was trying to help the human race.”

Vaganov smiled. “You can't fault me for being skeptical, though. I've been duped and slighted before, you see. It makes a man cautious.”

Mazer said nothing.

“After you left, I did a bit of digging on you, Mazer. Connections with the right people can give a man access to certain classified information. And what did I find? Mazer Rackham served with the Mobile Operations Police and played a critical role in the Formics' defeat in the last war. You never told me that. Our relationship might have been different had you been more open with me.”

Mazer said nothing.

Vaganov laughed. “Even now, your lips are sealed. I find that admirable. Loose lips sink ships. Or in our case, blow them up in space.”

Mazer only stared at him.

“Your new CO,” said Vaganov, “this Chinese colonel. Li. What do you think of him?”

“I think he is my commanding officer and that I owe him my service and respect,” said Mazer.

Vaganov laughed again. “I can never tell when you're joking and when you're serious, Mazer. I find that endearing about you. If you ask me, Colonel Li is a dangerous man. The only reason he's here and holds his rank is because the Chinese wouldn't agree to give us any troops unless we agreed to maintain a certain number of senior Chinese officers in the Fleet. Li was on that list from the beginning. If it were up to me the man wouldn't wear a uniform.”

“If it were up to you, I wouldn't wear a uniform, either,” said Mazer. “Guess that makes me a dangerous man as well.”

Vaganov chuckled. “You're hardly dangerous, Mazer. You're an idealist. When reality finally takes root in your head and your perspective matures, when you've seen as much as I have, then you'll be dangerous. For now, you're simply a soldier doing his job. Which is why I'm here, to give you fair warning. One officer to another. Li has no future in the IF, not beyond the second war anyway. Careers like his implode sooner or later. Particularly considering this ridiculous tactic he's pursuing, the training of preteens for space combat.” Vaganov laughed. “He can't expect anyone to take him seriously.”

“Someone is,” said Mazer. “Or they wouldn't have given his cadets any room aboard this ship.”

“I know why they're here,” said Vaganov. “Only small people can fit in the tunnels of these asteroids, and the children of Southeast Asia are as small as they come. Have they been trained in tunnel warfare?”

“Not in zero G,” said Mazer. “That's my job.”

“I see. Well, you're one of the best commanders I know. These boys are in good hands. But I must say having you play babysitter is an insult to a man of your capabilities and rank. You were made to lead soldiers, Mazer, not preschoolers. It's an offense. You must be furious. I won't stand for it. I'm going to help you.”

“How?” said Mazer.

“I have a good relationship with the Polemarch and Strategos, as well as with a number of the rear admirals of the Fleet. I could put in a good word and maybe even arrange for a transfer for you onto a warship. Not with some lifeless assignment in navigation or logistics, but combat. The work you were made for.”

“And what would you expect in return?” Mazer asked.

“We're not making a back-alley deal here, Mazer. We're simply two fellow officers helping one another.”

“Of course. And how would I help you exactly?”

“Information. I want to keep my eye on Colonel Li and his superior, this Rear Admiral Zembassi. You'll be in their inner circle. Zembassi is not a man to be trusted. He led a coup in Liberia before the first war. Did you know that? It was all in the name of democracy, but he's nothing more than an opportunist disguised as a man of the people. A power-grabbing bureaucrat. Men like him should not be leading.”

“So you want me to spy on him for you?”

“The IF is littered with bad apples, Mazer. If we don't watch them closely, they'll lead us to ruin.”

The irony of that statement almost made Mazer laugh. “I'm sorry, sir. I can't help you. I've been trained not to break chain of command.” He saluted and walked away.

“I did not dismiss you, Mazer,” Vaganov called.

Mazer turned and stood at attention, eyes forward, waiting to be dismissed. Vaganov merely walked away in the opposite direction without another word. When he was out of sight, Mazer went looking for Li. He found him in the docking bay, overseeing the arrival of the cadets' equipment.

“I spoke with several of the marines last night,” Mazer said. “Most of the men on board have never been trained for zero G combat.”

“Which is why we're taking them to GravCamp,” said Li.

“Yes,” said Mazer, “but I highly suspect that we will intercept asteroids along the way, sir. If we do, someone will have to infiltrate the tunnels. The men aren't ready for that. Navigating tunnels in zero G requires an enormous amuont of training. I propose we begin that training now, here, on the ship. We could start as soon as we reach a cruising speed. All we would need is space to practice in.”

“I doubt you'll find a room big enough,” said Li. “We're nearly full of cargo.”

“This ship has nine cargo bays,” said Mazer. “We might be able to squeeze the contents of one bay into the cracks and spaces of the other eight.”

“If I can get approval,” said Li. “What do you have in mind?”

“We need to re-create the tunnels of an asteroid. We can't enter that environment unless we've mastered how to move and execute specific tactics. We'll also need access to the ship's machine shop and at least two dedicated machinists.”

“Why? For gear? We have suits and equipment already.”

“This is new gear,” said Mazer. “Lem Jukes and Gungsu are both working with Victor Delgado as we speak to perfect his designs. So we'll need to maintain contact with all those parties as they shape and develop the tech. And our machinists here will need to be ready to develop every iteration of the prototype.”

“If there is proposed tech,” said Li, “doesn't that go to WAMRED for testing? There's a process for this, Mazer.”

“A painfully slow and inefficient process,” said Mazer. “I know. I saw it firsthand. If we give this gear to WAMRED, it will get mired in the bureaucracy. We only need a few units of highly specialized gear. Some for the marines, and some for the cadets. If it proves effective here on the ship during training, that will serve as well as any field test they'd conduct at WAMRED. Plus we must consider the sensitive nature of what we're doing here. If word were to get out that WAMRED is testing child-sized exosuits, the press would beat the IF with a club.”

“Good point. Two machinists, you say?”

“As many as you can afford,” said Mazer. “At least two. Three or four would be better. And an engineer.”

“I'll speak to Rear Admiral Zembassi and see if we can't bring up some more people from Luna. He won't like that. It would delay our launch.”

“Once we leave, there's no turning back. If we don't take it with us, we won't have it.”

“Anything else?” asked Li.

“Asteroid tunnels won't be our only war zone,” said Mazer. “Victor Delgado fought Formics above the surface of the asteroid as well. I propose we also begin training the men for zero G combat in wide open spaces. Launching, landing, handling a weapon. Those are different skill sets than navigating a tunnel. Flying in a wide open space is a disorientating experience. You have to be willing to abandon your current orientation. It takes a great deal of practice and coordination.”

“You're already taking over one of the cargo bays for tunnel simulations,” said Li. “There isn't any room for more zero G training. We do one or the other. Not both.”

“Perhaps we don't have to do it inside the ship,” said Mazer.

“You certainly can't do it outside.”

“Why not?” said Mazer. “Once the ship stops accelerating and we're moving at a constant speed, it would be safe for us to build. The structure wouldn't be a solid-walled cube, but a grid cube, like a cage. That way any man drifting away would come up against the lightweight grid and be contained within that space. We could practice in flight and run tactics and maneuvers.”

“Build a giant cube outside the ship? You can't be serious.”

“There would be no acceleration, so the position of the soldiers would be relative to the grid and would remain constant, except for whatever motion they create with their arms and legs. It's not as reckless as it sounds. This flight will last at least seven months, sir. Are we going to let all that time pass without conducting any physical training, particularly training that we may need to have before we reach our destination?”

“And the materials for this supposed training cage, where will those come from?”

“We gather scrap from Luna now. Then we use our engineers and machinists and volunteers to build it after we've launched and reached a cruising speed.”

Li considered the idea. “Four machinists won't be enough.”

“Not if we want to build it well,” said Mazer. “For that, we'd need at least a dozen.”

“You're delaying our launch even further,” said Li.

“Time we can make up easily if we accelerate a little faster. We adhere the scrap to the ship's exterior, and we're on our way, ready to assemble later.”

“And who's going to design this training cage?”

“Victor Delgado,” said Mazer. “With my assistance. And yours, if you want to participate. Once it's built, the men could conduct mock skirmishes inside it.”

“Using what weapons?” Li asked.

“Practice weapons,” said Mazer. “Slasers with low-powered lasers that can't do any harm. And tight-fitting suits that won't snag on obstacles and hinder movement.”

“What about cosmic radiation?” Li asked.

“I defer to Victor and the engineers,” said Mazer. “We already have such protection in our EVA suits. It might be a simple matter of adapting the design and tech.”

“You have this already figured out, I see,” said Li.

“The Formics know how to maneuver in zero G, sir. We don't. That puts us at a crippling disadvantage.”

Li was quiet a moment. “I'm beginning to wonder if bringing you aboard was a good idea. New ideas make the rear admiral nervous.”

“Old ideas don't win wars,” said Mazer.

Li sighed. “Anything else?”

“A minor request,” said Mazer. “Let's not refer to it as the training cage. ‘Training' sounds laborious and regimented. Soldiers groan at the word. These men joined the IF to fight, sir. Let's call it the Battle Room.”

 

CHAPTER 25

Unraveling

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Wars and weddings

Vico,

I'll pretend I got a wedding announcement. May you have many children as handsome as me.

I have passed the information you sent on to Father. He has no doubt relayed it to the new Polemarch and Strategos. I'll return the favor by giving you some intel of my own. The Polemarch has divided the Fleet into three divisions. Two of them will attack the Formic warships above and below the ecliptic. The third and largest division will stay behind to protect Earth and address the Formic-occupied asteroids. It will be a year before the departing IF ships join up outside the ecliptic and continue toward their respective targets. And then another six months before they reach warships. I still haven't decided if the whole operation is brilliant or ill conceived.

There is one bit of good news: the asteroids explode easily. One of our Juke ships fired on one and the hydrogen-oxygen atmosphere detonated immediately. To our astonishment, however, the shell that covered the asteroid began to grow back only a few days later. Considering the speed of growth, it should cover the asteroid again in two weeks. I'm not sure what to make of this. Wila believes the cocoon weavers must be incredibly resilient and reproduce exceptionally fast.

You should also know that the number of Fleet ships assigned to take out these asteroids is woefully insufficient. We were poorly defended before. Now it's even worse.

Stay safe,

Lem

Lem climbed into his private shuttle and buckled in to one of the posh leather seats in the main cabin. Benyawe was the only other passenger, already sitting in the adjacent seat, strapped in and ready to go. The pilot lifted off, and they left Luna's gravity well behind them. Lem arranged the locking blankets around his legs and torso to keep himself snug in zero G; then he reached to his right to the bar and made himself a drink with a light sedative.

“You didn't have to come,” said Benyawe. “It's not like you don't have a thousand other problems to deal with.”

“Figuring out a way to breach the Formic hull has always been my number-one priority,” said Lem. “That and finding the best cupcakes on Luna. Incidentally there's a new bakery in Old Town that makes red velvet cake like a cloud. When we win this war, I'll take you. I'll even pay.”