A Learning Experience 2: Hard Lessons (15 page)

“I believe,” Martin said, “that it’s rude to spend time using your implants when you’re in company.”

Yolanda coloured, then disconnected from the datanet.  “I’m sorry,” she said, embarrassed and ashamed.  “I wasn't thinking.”

“You can't let the implants do your thinking for you,” Martin said.  He winked at her, then nodded to the remains of her meal.  “Besides, you’ll be right back in the datastream when you get back to Sparta.”

“True,” Yolanda said.  Half of her training was spent immersed in the datanet, simulating everything from routine flights from star to star to emergences that threatened the entire starship.  The remainder was spent in the real world.  “But we’re not allowed to browse the news on Sparta.”

“If there was something important going on, we would be told about it,” Martin said.  He met her eyes, then winked again.  “How many people on Earth work themselves into a tizzy because they bury themselves in the lives of complete strangers?”

“That’s very profound,” Yolanda said.

Martin smirked.  “One of my teachers always had the celeb-channel on in class,” he said.  “If something happened, she would force us to stop working – not that we did much work in any case – and watch the television.  And it was always something boring like a new dress or a perfect baby boy.  She even used to assign us essays on the importance of the right handbag for the right celeb.”

Yolanda stared at him.  “You’re joking!”

“I wish,” Martin said.  “But I never actually did the essays, so I couldn't actually tell you about handbags.”

His smile widened.  “There
was
the day when some silly woman’s dress fell off on live television,” he added.  “But I think it was faked.”

“Probably,” Yolanda muttered.  “They fake too many things on television.”

She scowled at a bitter memory.  Her stepmother had been a great fan of movies shipped north from Mexico, which she’d watched while supervising Yolanda’s chores.  It had been hard to avoid noticing that most of them were romance movies, but the stories were almost always reminders of the Mexican-American War.  The hero and heroine were always Mexican, the villain was American ... there had been times when she’d thought the plots were completely identical, right down to the same words at the same times.  But her stepmother had never troubled herself to notice.

Probably too dumb to notice
, she thought, vindictively. 
It must have sucked to know she would never be anything more than a housewife ...

“Do you have any plans for the evening?”  Martin asked.  “Or should we find somewhere to spend the rest of the day?”

“There’s a swimming complex on the lower levels,” Yolanda said.  Once, she would never have dared to swim with a boy.  Now, though, she thought it might be fun.  “You can swim with dolphins ... if you dare.”

“I dare,” Martin said.  He smiled, brilliantly.  “I always wanted to go surfing as a kid.  Did you ever surf in California?”

Yolanda shook her head.  By the time she'd been old enough to leave the house on her own, California’s beaches had been largely ruined.  Her father had blamed the politicians, or the grasping corporations, or the rich folks who bought entire beaches for themselves, but in the end it hardly mattered.  A simple pleasure, enjoyed by millions of people, had been destroyed, wiped from existence.

“We can try later,” Martin said.  He stood, then helped her to her feet.  “Thank you for meeting me.”

“You’re welcome,” Yolanda said.  They
had
agreed to spend their leave together, hadn't they?  But their leaves didn't always coincide.  “What did you do when you weren’t with me?”

“Spent two days in Sin Asteroid with several of the other recruits,” Martin confessed.  “I don’t think I’ll be going back there.”

Yolanda smiled.  “They kicked you out on your ass?”

“Oh, no,” Martin said.  “It was just too tempting.  I gambled, I drank, I experimented with various mood-altering substances and then I went into the VR suites for special programs.  It was just a little disturbing.  I could have done anything there, even if only in simulations.  But it would have felt real.”

“You would have thought it was actually happening,” Yolanda said.  She'd experimented with incorporating direct brain feeds into VR sims too.  It had been weird; one program had allowed her to feel what it was like to be a man, another allowed her to experience life as an animal.  “And then you would have started to wonder just what was actually real.”

“There are people there who are addicts,” Martin said.  “They do crappy jobs all the time, just to earn the money they need to go back into the sims.  I hated just looking at them, Yolanda, and knowing I could end up the same way.”

“You won’t,” Yolanda said.  She shuddered at the thought.  One of the downsides of the Solar Union was that no one tried to stop people from becoming addicted to anything, if they were adults.  She could see the arguments for and against any sort of interference, but surely something should be done.  “You’re a strong man.”

“I’m sure they thought that too,” Martin said.  He looked down at his hands.  “But I don’t think I could resist temptation if I went back there again and again.”

“So don’t,” Yolanda said.  “Let’s go for a swim instead.”

“Great,” Martin said.  “What did
you
do when I wasn't on leave with you?”

“Visited sights,” Yolanda said.  “Do you know they have the original
Wanderer
on display at Luna City?  Humanity’s very first starship, admired by millions.  And then there were the Apollo Landing Sites ...”

Martin laughed, then followed her out of the door.

Chapter Fifteen

The German Nationalist Party claimed in a statement, issued yesterday, that the recent ban on the party’s existence – on the grounds of historical descent from the Nazi Party – was nothing more than an attempt to silence opposition to the current status quo in Germany.  It vowed to fight for German rights, whatever the price, pledging to remove the ‘traitors’ in the German Government.  In response, the German President stated that attempts to revive the historical nightmare of Nazism would not be tolerated ...

-Solar News Network, Year 52

“So we now have some data,” President Ross said.  The council chamber was deathly silent.  “SPEAKER?”

“We have analysed the data provided by Director Stuart,” the AI said.  “It would appear to possess internal consistency.  There are no grounds for believing it to be false information.”

“I believe Ando was telling us the truth,” Kevin said.  He understood their concerns, but he’d done his best to ensure that everything was accurate.  “We certainly paid enough for the information.”

“Ando might have
thought
he was telling us the truth,” Councillor Richard Bute commented, thoughtfully.  “But he might have been lied to by his own sources.”

President Ross tapped the table.  “Let us assume, for the moment, that the information is accurate,” he said.  He looked directly at Kevin.  “What does it tell us?”

Kevin stood and activated the holographic projector.  “There are two stages to their plan,” he said.  “Stage One will see a small force deployed to Hades” – a star system started to blink in front of them – “and secure the system for their logistics.  Stage Two will see the arrival of two hundred full-sized battleships, which will proceed to Earth once they have replenished their supplies.  Once Earth is under their control, they will proceed against the other powers in the coalition.”

“Interesting choice of tactics,” Councillor Marie Jackson observed.  “Why don’t they go for one of the major coalition worlds?”

“I suspect they see us as the easiest target,” Mongo said, dryly.  “They have built a four thousand year old empire on a reputation for technological superiority and military invincibility.  Hitting somewhere stronger than Earth might result in a defeat or an embarrassingly costly victory.”

“Two hundred battleships are not a minor force,” Bute pointed out.  “They would be capable of tipping the balance wherever they went.”

“They may want to secure the other industrial plants for themselves,” Kevin said.  The Tokomak would have some interest in claiming the industrial plants, if only to help meet the constant demand for products.  “Or they may fear our long-term effects on the sector more than they’re prepared to admit.”

He took a breath.  “That’s what’s coming our way, ladies and gentlemen,” he added, warningly.  “The enemy is at the door.”

“If they come here,” Bute said, “can we win?”

“Perhaps,” Mongo said.

He spoke on before anyone else could say a word.  “There are several unknowns in the fleet’s deployment,” he said.  “The exact capabilities of the fleet are unknown.  We believe the Tokomak probably kept quite a few goodies for themselves, but what?  Are their missiles or directed energy weapons superior to standard Galactic tech?  We don’t know.

“But one fact is clear,” he added.  “If we sit around waiting to get hit, we’re going to get steamrollered.  We can hurt them – we will hurt them – but we can’t stop them if they bring that fleet into the Sol System.  Earth will be plastered with long-range fire, while the asteroid settlements will be utterly destroyed.  We will lose the war.”

“So we go on the offensive,” Bute said.  “Commit the Solar Navy to the Coalition.  Knock the Varnar out of the war before the Tokomak can arrive.”

“Which will only force them to intervene faster,” Marie objected.  “Or attack us while we’re trying to hold Varnar and sort out the post-war mess.”

“That’s a problem,” Mongo agreed.

“I’ve been speaking to a handful of tactical planning officers,” he said.  “We have a rough operational plan, but it will require some luck and careful judgement.  It will also need to be adapted at short notice for the new situation.”

“Caveats noted,” Ross said.  “What do you have in mind?”

“First, we need to take one of their ships intact,” Mongo said.  “We cannot expect them to leave their systems as unguarded as the Horde.”

Kevin had to smile.  The Horde had known next to nothing about how their starships actually operated.  They’d left the computer system open to anyone smart enough to capture one of their neural links, allowing the humans they’d taken prisoner to seize control of the starship from right under their noses.  But the Tokomak, designers and producers of most Galactic technology, wouldn't be so easily fooled.  Their military might not have fought a real war for over a thousand years, but they presumably understood how their technology actually worked.

“This will require some careful planning, but I think we can do it,” Mongo continued.  “Second, we will need to attack their logistics on Hades and take or destroy them before they can use the base against us.  And third ... we have to meet and smash their fleet.”

“A tall order,” Ross observed.

“Yes, Mr. President,” Mongo said.  “And I don’t think it will be easy to persuade the coalition to assist.  They have their own qualms about Tokomak intervention.”

“They’ll be next on the list, once we’ve been crushed,” Bute protested.  “I knew we shouldn't trust them too openly.”

“Technically, we’re not part of the war,” Mongo said, smoothly.  “We only allowed the Coalition to raise human mercenaries.”

“An argument the Varnar are hardly likely to accept,” Kevin added.  “And the Tokomak pretty much
make
the laws.  They may choose to claim that the whole affair is merely a Tokomak-Human War, giving everyone else the excuse to stay out of the fighting, if they wish.”

“Cowards,” Bute growled.

“The Tokomak outgun everyone else by several orders of magnitude,” Mongo said.  “There’s a difference between cowardice and practicality.”

“Or so they claim,” Kevin said.  The data Ando had passed to them had raised a number of issues.  For starters, just how many Tokomak starships were actually on active service?  And how many of their crews were actually trained to fight a war, rather than ceremonial displays?  There was no clear answer.  “But we have to assume the worst.”

“Then we will be committing ourselves to war,” Ross said.  “Is there any alternative?”

“We would have to offer our unconditional surrender,” Kevin said.  “At best, we might hope for a subordinate position in their empire.  At worst ... they’ll order us back to Earth.”

He shuddered at the thought.  There were times when he looked back on Earth and silently thanked God that he no longer cared about the planet.  He did have some relatives living in Montana, in the United States of America, but they had
chosen
to remain there.  The thought of having to go back there himself, of having to
live
there, was horrific.  And then there was the final, unspoken possibility.

“They might choose to exterminate us,” he said, quietly.  “It would be against their laws, but they
make
the laws.”

“So you said,” Ross said.  “Would they break them here?”

Kevin looked from face to face, willing them to understand.  “The vast majority of the Galactics don’t have either the ability or the inclination to push the limits,” he said.  “We – humanity –
does
.  I believe we have already improved on Galactic technology in a number of areas, with the promise of far more improvements to come.  The Tokomak would see us as their worst nightmare, a race developing technology that will leave everything they built obsolete.  Exterminating us would seem a reasonable alternative.”

“But they can’t exterminate us,” Ross said.  “We sent dozens of ships out beyond the edge of explored space.”

“There’s no guarantee that any of those ships will manage to set up a colony,” Kevin said.  “Or that the colony would be able to retain high technology.  We think they can, we think they will, but we don’t
know
.  I believe we have to assume the worst.”

“I wish I disagreed with you,” Mongo grunted.

“So surrender isn't an option and nor is flight,” Ross said.  “Do we gird ourselves for war?”

“That would require an open discussion in the Senate,” Bute reminded him.  “There are limits to how far we can go without open public participation.”

“That runs the risk of the Tokomak discovering that we know what they’re doing,” Mongo said, sharply.  “The longer we keep the preparations under wraps, the better.”

“I don’t think they keep us under close surveillance,” Bute sneered.  He swung around to glare at Kevin.  “Do they?”

“We believe neither they nor the Varnar have made a real attempt to embed sources in the Sol System,” Kevin said.  “They have tried to turn a few of our people, which we have been intending to use to send them false information when it seemed appropriate.  However, they could have managed to get people through the security screens without being noticed.”

“It seems absurd that anyone would be prepared to betray his own race,” Bute mused.

“It has happened before and it no doubt will happen again,” Kevin said.  “Intelligence work, Councillor, is
always
smoke and mirrors.  There is no way to be
sure
that there isn't any enemy intelligence agents operating within the Solar Union.  We might well have missed something.”

He paused, then went on.  “But any discussion in the Senate would be reported over the news networks,” he added.  “It would not remain confined to the Sol System indefinitely.  They might pick up on it simply by reading our open source news programs.”

Bute smiled.  “Do you think they read the crap we put out?”

“Why not?”  Kevin asked.  “We read theirs.”

Ross tapped the table.  “So what do you propose?  We cannot mobilise the fleet to attack targets outside the Sol System without the Senate’s permission.”

Kevin and Mongo exchanged glances.  “I propose we proceed with the plan to snatch one of their ships,” Kevin said, finally.  “In the meantime, we can start laying the groundwork for full mobilisation.  We can take the issue and put it before the Senate nearer the time, when the Tokomak will be committed to their course.  By then, we would be ready to launch a blow as soon as the Senate consented.”

Ross frowned.  “And if the Senate
didn’t
consent?”

“Then we would have to pray we could stop the offensive when it reached the Sol System,” Mongo said.  “Frankly, Mr. President, with so many ships in the enemy fleet, even our plan to smash it well away from Earth has serious problems.”

“It will be a gamble,” Ross said.

“War is always a gamble,” Mongo said.  “But in this case, we have a choice between fighting and perhaps losing, or surrendering and
definitely
losing.  The best we can hope for is being their slaves for the rest of time, our technology limited and further development forbidden.  And at worst ...”

“Yes, we
know
,” Ross said.

He nodded to Kevin, who sat down.

“This is the situation this council was formed to meet,” he said.  “A deadly threat that would only become worse if left to fester, or brought into public view.  Do we now authorise an attack on an alien ship?  Or do we hold back and wait for them to commit themselves to the offensive?  Do we have any other options?”

“We could show some of our weapons,” Marie said, slowly.  “Show off what we can do and claim we have far more in reserve, if they don’t leave us alone.”

“That would run the risk of convincing them to strike hard and fast,” Mongo said.  “They’d call our bluff.”