Koban: When Empires Collide Read online

  For their first shot at creating this effect, it wasn’t a bullseye, but probably adequate for their purpose.

  Athena linked to Mirikami. “The mass ejection is working Tet, and much of it is headed where we wanted it to go. A lot of hot plasma is going to sweep past the planet. This would be really bad news for Earth, or most settled planets, frying their unhardened electronics and satellites, and dangerous to unshielded people on moons or in orbit. With their strong planetary magnetosphere and a healthy ionosphere, the surface would stay safe from direct radiation, but their power grids, communications satellites, and moon installations are at risk.”

  Mirikami was hopeful. “Jake has historical data about hundreds of thousands of solar storms from thousands of stars, and how they interacted with their planets. Many of them had highly depressed magnetospheres from the pressure of the solar wind, but rarely had holes if the planet had a strong magnetic field. They leaked heavy ions to the upper atmosphere, but an intact ionosphere helps limit how powerful the currents were that are induced in the transmission lines of power grids. Fusion bottles use electrical power to maintain confinement and plasma densities, and they produce that power themselves once the reaction is self-sustained. However, they are still connected to that external power grid to get started, and then to distribute the electricity that fusion energy delivers, via steam turbines, or direct power converters, to send to their cities. A massive current surge on those lines may short out the circuits at the fusion plants that connect to them.”

  Mirikami explained the implication of this. “If we make holes, or thin spots, for that CME to get through the magnetosphere, we might fry even the hardened circuits the Thack Delos built as protection from their active stars. If we create a path for heavy ions to reach the middle atmosphere, there will be cascades of radiation and charged particles downward from each molecular collision. Possessing self-repairing DNA doesn’t mean there’s no limit to the damage they can accept.

  “Even if that limit isn’t reached, their bodies will need to divert considerable resources to repairing and correcting the damage. A sick, weak, and exhausted population won’t fight or produce war material efficiently. Their biosphere will also suffer, and less resistant plants and animal life will suffer.

  “They need to eat something that they raise or harvest, and we’ll kill or ruin some of that. Leave them as hungry as people on New Glasgow are going to be.”

  “Well, then my squadron’s next step is the most important. I guess we need to Jump closer for the next phase.”

  “Yep. Keep me informed. New Glasgow has suffered an estimated eight million dead, and millions more will die if they can’t get med labs and specialized nanites in the quantities required, as quickly as needed. If the TD are successful there, their fleet will target a new world, after returning home for resupply. A Federation world might be next, so I want them running home today, and then decide to stay there. If they intend to survive to negotiate another contract, they’d be smart to not accept another one offered by the Thandol, at least not to attack the Federation or Human Space.

  “And if they don’t stay away, from us and the PU, I’ll personally lead a squadron of new Mark II’s, which are close to completion, and I’ll repeat what you did, but on a level to make their home world uninhabitable. Maggi says they have seven colonies, five of them still somewhat radioactive, which once belonged to species that the Thandol grew impatient with, and turned the Thack Delos loose. Once they finished their attacks the worlds were habitable only by the Thack Delos, and their transplanted plants and animals.”

  Athena quoted a biblical proverb. “Live by the sword, die by the sword. In this case, it’s radiation used as swords.”

  “I suppose that’s true. Justice delivered, in kind.”

  ****

  Chief Negotiator Stendal Gelander spoke formally to the fleet, as if standing before the Board of Adjustors, and the Master Negotiator. Abrogation of a contract was serious business to the Thack Delos, although it was normally the action of a subservient species to which the term applied. To do so on a contract accepted from the Thandol, on behalf of the Emperor, elevated this matter to a higher level than any that Gelander had ever had a part to play.

  “Contract Implementer Jentor Desh, you are hereby informed that you have properly Implemented the negotiations placed under your control.” This was to prevent a misunderstanding on his part, that he was being declared a poor Implementer.

  Nevertheless, aside from the formality of the words, their mere utterance implied something had gone drastically wrong here at this targeted planet. There had been higher costs than they had anticipated, but Desh was preparing to send another three hundred Infiltrators down to the planet, to increase enemy losses to improve their own side of the symbolic balance sheet. That was despite the nearly ninety eight percent loss of the previous Infiltrators, which failed to return safely to their Egg Layers. This ominous statement would logically be followed by some mitigating explanation concerning why it was required. It was not delayed.

  “Implementer, I have received a secure communication, via the Negotiator encrypted channel, when one of our instant long-range communications Marauders performed an unscheduled replacement of the Normal Space communications cruiser. There was a sensitive message addressed to me, with no provisions for applying any of the contract options, or of continuing our current negotiations here.” He paused, before completing the more difficult next step.

  “The contract with the Emperor is to be abrogated, and Implementation must cease as quickly as possible. The fleet is to return home immediately.”

  Desh’s expression of confusion came as close to an emotional response as most Thack Delos achieved. To his credit, he did not ask for a fuller explanation, and promptly issued orders to all fleet elements to cease offensive missile launches, and set missiles already enroute to targets to now proceed autonomously.

  Only defensive operations would continue, as internal micro Jumps provided evasion from continued enemy attacks, until a simultaneous group Jump was properly coordinated. The flagship AI set a Jump time, with a designated pause point specified for organizing the fleet elements and aiding damaged ships. This was when a transfer of personnel could happen, to provide needed expertise where Implementation Expediters had been eliminated; in other terms, where crew members had been killed that possessed skills that needed to be replaced, some personnel would be exchanged.

  The Jump was executed on schedule, with the ignored enemy communications attempts still being broadcast at them, with offers of a new contract to replace the one now being abrogated.

  At the pause coordinates, above the galactic disk, the fleet quickly pulled itself into a more orderly semblance of the original formation, and urgent damage repairs performed, or the ship abandoned and blown apart, once the crew was salvaged. It was in this interval that Gelander informed Desh that he needed to order his fleet elements to be prepared for a possible fight upon exit at the home system, and to prepare for defensive measures there, followed by relief efforts at multiple habitats that were subject to solar flare exposure.

  That was when the explanation of the disaster at home was provided to Desh, and to the unquestioning, but intensely inquisitive members of the fleet.

  “A possibly subcontracted force, representing the enemy here, sent a small number of ships to our Delos family, with similar capability to the small ships we faced today, which have some new form of gravity control well beyond Jump capability, and more than our internal ship gravity and inertial control and compensation. Here, we faced many small, and in several cases larger event horizons, which easily penetrated ship hulls, and even the dense armored material of fusion generators. The black holes appeared within our formation, and thus were somehow projected from ships outside, after we drove those ships away at the start of negotiations. It was only our sensor confusing radiation and particle cloud, which aided our stealth systems, that enabled us to avoid greater destruction.

&nbs
p; “I assure you, the enemy counter negotiations, although more effective than anticipated, are not why we departed the target system before we had Implemented the contract negotiations to the extent we intended.

  “The order came from the Board of Adjustment and the Master Negotiator. The Federation somehow used their gravity control to trigger our Delos grandparents into a quarrel, exchanging magnetic blows, and showing their strength as we have all seen so many times in our long history of watching them. This was not as great a storm as we have seen even within our own lifetimes. We have seen worse, and some that led to blows being directed at our mother, Dolbor Gen, as has also happened many times. This time, the provokers intervened, and somehow contracted with our grandparent suns to send the blows at our mother.

  “Our people took the usual family precautions, to shield ourselves and constructions from the approaching cloud of particles and radiation, a cloud much like what we created in our formation today, only much larger. The enemy had already destroyed many of our space based facilities before provoking our grandparents, while simultaneously trying to call to us to negotiate with them while they implemented an uncontracted negotiation against us. As we did here, our leaders refused to talk and negotiate with them while exposed to their aggressive implementation methods.

  “Then, they did something we did not expect, and exposed Gen Delos to the fight between our grandparents. They used their gravity control methods to open our mother’s natural protections, which have always shielded us from such family disagreements.”

  He chewed at invisible gristle to show his frustration, and rolled his large eyeballs in their sockets to express his concern at what he must tell them.

  “When the solar storm of particles pressed on the magnetic hair around our mother, it pressed it closer to the atmosphere, as it does for every storm that hits our home. There have been worse storms. There is always leakage of charged particles to the layer of ions at the top of the atmosphere, and they rarely penetrate deep, without being deflected towards the poles, to make the beautiful lights in our skies. Like the glow of our skins when strong electromagnetic radiation bathes us.

  “That is when the negotiations implemented by the enemy entered a realm we have never experienced, and is why we have been called home, to guard our grandparents, our mother, and ourselves from such future contracts. They used gravity to lower the magnetic hair more than normal, pulled strands aside, and drew up the ionosphere and parted the magnetic lines enough to permit solar particles to rain directly into the middle atmosphere.

  “The secondary radiation became very strong, even painful, overdriving our ability to convert the energy to a biological repair mode. Our people had never needed to hide in their lifetimes from incoming radiation, and our plants and food animals in the fields could not do so. Many plants and animals died, and there will be hunger.

  “At the same time, the surge of electrical currents in our power delivery grids grew much larger than our protective circuits could block, and the currents damaged and shutdown many thousands of fusion generators, destroying power distribution centers, and crippling electronics and appliances that have seldom failed in past storms. Many of our cities are dark. There are residents on moons and asteroids without power, who may not survive for the three days we need to return home. We will Jump immediately, and you know now why we return home early, and what we will face, and perhaps be forced to confront the enemy that implemented this detrimental negotiation. They may have departed the home system, but without adequate sensors, the Master Negotiator and Board of Adjusters cannot know.”

  He paused a moment, before deciding to pass along the final information from home. “The last message sent by the enemy who were at our home, claimed they were from the Galactic Federation and that they do not rule the planetary system we just departed. However, they are allied with the defenders and residents of that target world. They claim that the planet the Thandol contracted with us to punish, is ruled by a different government, called the Planetary Union.

  “The Emperor has contracted to pay us to implement a punishment on the wrong recipients. The Emperor’s contract specialists claimed they only intended to force the Federation to submit to their negotiations, and merge with the Empire. The Federation promised that if a future hostile takeover negotiation with us is necessary, the implementation will result in rendering our mother world’s death, and that Dolbor Ver will die with her when the entire Delos system is made uninhabitable. They repeated their offer to help us pursue a contract against the Thandol, and repeated that they would join us to implement a contract on the Emperor’s capitol world, Wendal.”

  There were displays of annoyed simulated gristle chewing among many of the Thack Delos, right up until the Jump was initiated, and considerable eye-rolling after that, over several days of discussion.

  Chapter 9: The Silha

  After a stressful period of separation, the group of friends congregated in the Great Hall of Prime City, for a barbecue, beers, and a gab fest. Sarge, displaying his usual polite sensitivity, posed a noisy question over the other chattering voices.

  “Tet, the Emperor’s surely been told about the string of security force failures. How much of a breather do you think we might get before he reacts? The Hothor told us he has his metaphorical pants around his ankles, staying out of sight while he pukes, and shits his guts out in his stinky palace.”

  Mirikami, seated at the same table, was delighted to express his appreciation of the subject matter. “Why, thanks heaps for that pleasant image, just as I raised my drippy shredded rhinolo meat sandwich for a juicy bite.”

  Thad, a fresh swig going down, snorted beer from his nose and sputtered his laughter.

  “Darn it, Sarge.” Noreen complained. “Calvin was about to try his first taste of rhinolo barbeque. You spoiled his appetite too.”

  “No, he didn’t grandma,” her four-year-old grandson countered, proving she still didn’t grasp the rules of the boy’s club. “Uncle Sarge and Uncle Thad said the butt is the best tasting part.” He took a big bite to test that assertion.

  His subsequent “Yum,” confirming that the alleged rhinolo butt really was delicious, did nothing to dilute the glare she aimed first at Sarge and Thad, and then at her grinning son and husband.

  Only mildly contrite, Sarge persisted in asking for Mirikami’s opinion. “Do you think they’ll reconsider the annexation, or just regroup and come at us in a combined force?”

  Maggi intervened, before her husband followed an age-old male urge to talk with his mouth full. “The Thandol can’t back away from the annexation attempt yet. Although, we don’t have to fear a combined mixed force attacking us. There is zero chance of the Thandol trying to encourage cooperation between their security forces, even if any of them were willing to do so. If they learned to work together, they might decide to attack the Thandol.

  “The Thandol’s ego won’t let them fight with a subservient species at their side. They have never done that in their long history, making them conservative traditionalists. I think the High Command will do a better job of coordinating and scheduling the Security force attacks in the future, to prevent us or the PU from gathering all our forces to repel one attack at a time. They know the Thack Delos met a different sort of military force at New Glasgow, encountering PU navy cruisers for the first time. Our own Scout squadron at the Delos system made it clear that we are separate military entities, but are allied.

  “They’ll want to learn more about both of us before they go off halfcocked again. That was uncharacteristically impulsive of the Emperor to do that. We’ll get a breather, but I can’t say for how long, not until our Hothor and other allies, servants in the noble households, hear what is being discussed behind the scenes.”

  Mirikami swallowed, sipped his beer as he organized his thoughts, then told them of a strategy change. “We need to take advantage of any pause to build up our forces, and I won’t repeat the mistake I made when I misjudged how an Imperial Herd Mast
er would react to having his dominance challenged. I made him look weak internally, when us low-life outsiders attacked him personally, twice, for the first time in their history.”

  He held up a hand to stay the supportive words he knew were coming. “I don’t mean we shouldn’t have attacked their bases and repair docks. But rubbing Farlol’s trunks directly in the dirt two times at Wendal, pushed him beyond his natural instinctive caution. Our secretly infecting him with parasites was a good idea, because he has no idea we could do that.

  “However, our blowing up his personal Crusher over Wendal, with a broadcasted warning for them to leave us alone became a personal insult to him. We meant it for the entire empire, but that isn’t how he felt. Next, we returned to Wendal and crashed the broken Crusher pieces onto his capitol world, then planted a fake palace conspiracy scenario to worry him that he appeared weak to his internal opposition, and that there was a movement to overthrow him.

  “Using that strategy, I pushed the Emperor past an emotional threshold that our Thandol prisoners couldn’t feel. Those two are not driven to become sexually dominant Herd Masters, their ambitions chose physical and social dominance over others for their ego boosts, and they liked pushing around and impressing weaker species to fill those needs.

  “We didn’t have the right personality types as prisoners to question, and I failed to understand the different motivation of the Emperor, and of those that would be disposed to replace him as the Imperial Herd Master, with their pick of the most desirable females. Those types of Thandol males are more emotional in their responses to threats to take away their perks of office.”

  Ethan asked, “What else can we and the PU do while we add to our fleets? If we kick them in their butts while they think things over, we might restart their attacks. Even if we only hit the Security forces.”