Against All Odds (26 page)

"I've given them plenty of time to verify that the Tsgardi are out of the game," Jenetta said, "but they haven't responded yet. I hope they aren't relying on the Uthlaro to protect them, because we're going to ensure the Uthlaro will be a bit busy protecting
themselves
for a while."

"Can we take the Uthlaro if they have numerical superiority in future engagements?" Kanes asked. "This ten-ship battle group gave our thirteen-ship task force a rough time for awhile."

"We'll take them, as long as we don't have to fight too many at once. Based on what we've learned about them, we'll have a distinct advantage in any fight where our numbers are equal simply because their laser weapons can't harm us. Where they have numerical superiority, things will be a lot less certain. We know their ship construction now and where to target our weapons. If we can just keep them from alerting their command about the durability of our hulls, we'll continue to have a major advantage. They'll expend a great deal of time and effort trying to puncture us with their laser arrays, to no avail, instead of firing every torpedo possible at us. If a day comes when they don't fire a single laser pulse in our direction, we'll know our secret is out."

* * *

"My lords, you've seen the vid message from Admiral Carver," King Jamolendre said to the nobles assembled in the great hall of the palace, "I'm anxious to hear your thoughts."

"Has this claim about the Tsgardi surrender been verified?" Lord Melendret asked.

"Yes, it has, according to my Minister of Intelligence. The Tsgardi have acknowledged their fleet was completely destroyed. They surrendered unconditionally rather than see their world reduced to rubble."

Lord Melendret breathed in deeply and let it out slowly, using the time to think of a reply. "Have we contacted the Uthlaro? They promised us this wouldn't happen. They promised us their protection from any retaliation if a Space Command vessel somehow got through the lines."

"We've sent numerous messages. They aren't responding."

Lord Melendret breathed deeply again, then put a hand to his forehead and looked down at the table in front of him.

"We must respond to Admiral Carver soon if we're going to surrender," the king said, "or we risk being attacked because she hasn't heard from us."

"We cannot surrender!" Melendret said vociferously. "We will not surrender the territory stolen from our fathers!"

"The admiral said she will destroy our world and seize all our territory if we don't surrender before she's forced to fight our ships!" the king said just as loudly.

"I heard the message!" Melendret screamed at the king. "I heard it!"

The nobles around the hall looked on in stunned silence. Lord Melendret definitely had his own agenda, but he had never before been openly disrespectful to the king.

"I'm sorry, your majesty," Melendret said apologetically. "I'm just so upset by this development that I forgot myself for a moment. I beg your forgiveness."

"I understand," King Jamolendre said calmly. "I openly opposed this pact, but your impassioned rhetoric convinced the other nobles it was a good idea and you managed to garner enough support to make my voice inconsequential."

"I was only doing what I felt was best for our world," Melendret said.

The king, emboldened by his new power over Melendret, said, "You were doing what you felt would bring you greater riches, and possibly the crown someday. Now you have brought us to the brink of destruction."

Melendret bristled at the remarks. It didn't matter that they were true— the king had no right to state them openly.

"Now, it falls to my shoulders to save us from your avarice," the king added, specifically addressing the block of nobles that had pushed for the pact. "We shall have to surrender before our world is destroyed, and hope that Admiral Carver will treat us decently in spite of the damage you have done to the good name of our kingdom. If anyone has a dissenting opinion or a suggestion for another way out of this impending disaster, I'm listening."

The hall was silent as the gathered noblemen stared down at the table in front of them. The king stood up in front of his chair and walked regally back to his office. Melendret would never again openly challenge the king's decisions, but that silence had come at too high a price. They would have to surrender all territory outside of their solar system.

* * *

"Admiral, a message has arrived for you from the Hudeerac Order," Jenetta heard on her CT as she groomed her cats in her stateroom.

Tapping her Space Command ring she said, "Forward it to my office, Chief."

"Aye, Admiral. You have it."

"Thank you. Carver out."

Walking into her office, she sat at the desk and lifted the com screen. When she selected the message from the queue, the image of King Jamolendre appeared. She learned back in her chair as the translation came through the speakers. When it was over, she smiled. She composed herself before tapping the record key.

"Your majesty, you've made a difficult but very wise decision. I would have hated to destroy your world, but I would have done it nevertheless if it remained the only way to end your involvement in this aggression. Recall your thirty ships at once and then vacate all territory you occupied after our war with the Milori. I have all the maps and I know where the borders were. Your remaining area will remain the sovereign territory of your world and we will not trespass into it unless invited. The people on the worlds within Region Two are no longer your subjects. They may continue to live there and even trade openly with commercial enterprises in your kingdom, but you may not exercise any control over them, nor send any military vessels into that part of the Galactic Alliance without advance permission.

"My warships will not attack any military vessels headed back towards your territory, but will attack any headed
into
Region Two, so I advise you to issue the orders with all due haste."

"Jenetta Carver, Admiral, Commander of the Second Fleet and Military Governor of Region Two, aboard the Colorado. Message complete."

With the message from the king, the Uthlaro were left as the sole aggressor in Region Two. The Gondusans had surrendered unconditionally and begged for mercy. As with the Hudeerac Order, Jenetta ordered them to recall their ships at once and vacate the territory regained after the Milori were defeated. She knew that surrendering the space was difficult and would cause hard feeling for some time to come, but they had to understand there were always consequences for participation in a war, especially when they were the aggressor.

* * *

"The Gondusans and Hudeerac Order have surrendered unconditionally to Space Command," Uthlaro Prime Minster Taomolu Barguado said somberly to the Council of Ministers, "both before even firing a single volley. The defeat of the Tsgardi was the blow that started the collapse. Carver frightened the cowards into surrendering with threats of annihilation that surpassed anything we'd offered them to remain resolute."

"Have we seized the ships of the Gondusans and Hudeerac Order as we planned so that our takeover of their territory will be easier later?" Minister Ambello Neddowo asked.

"No, we haven't. A number of the battle groups that were tailing the Gondusan groups have failed to respond to our calls."

"What? Why weren't we told?" Neddowo demanded.

"We have only known for a short time. Our technicians have been trying everything to reestablish contact."

"How many groups haven't reported in?"

"Seven. Seventy ships in all."

"Seventy?" Neddowo screamed. "Which groups?"

"The groups beginning with the one closest to the Tsgardi border, or rather what was the Tsgardi border before Carver annexed their territory."

"You lose contact with seven contiguous groups and don't feel it's important enough to inform us immediately? Have we put the wrong person in the Prime Minister's chair?"

"They're not that much overdue, except for the first."

"Don't you understand the significance of this, you fool? Space Command is working their way down from the Tsgardi border, taking our ships out as they encounter them."

"Space Command!?" Barguado echoed. "You said Space Command didn't have any ships in that area and couldn't get them there for years. How could it be Space Command?"

"Space Command has destroyed the Tsgardi battle fleet. What else
could
it be you witless idiot?"

"A problem with the dimensional stability of space in that sector could cause such temporary problems, according to one of our engineers."

"I hope he's right, but I wouldn't count on it. Have you consulted with our military planners?"

"They steadfastly state that it would be impossible for
anyone
to defeat seventy of our vessels without at least one getting off a warning message."

"That sounds reasonable. To what do they attribute this silence then?"

"They're at a complete loss to explain it."

"What do they suggest?"

"They say we should keep trying to contact the ships until we receive a reply."

"More idiots!" Neddowo ranted.

"What do you think we should do, Minister?" Barguado asked.

"How should I know? I'm not a military planner or a communications engineer."

Barguado nodded. "Then we do nothing?"

"We should continue to monitor all communication frequencies and see if Space Command has increased their com traffic."

"How would we know what communications are from Space Command? All messages are encrypted."

"I told you I'm not a communications engineer or military planner."

"Obviously," Barguado said, still rankled that Neddowo had twice called him a fool.

"If any more ships fail to report in on time, I want to be notified immediately. And call me if this communications blackout should suddenly lift. Do you understand?"

"I understand."

"Good," Neddowo said before storming out of the Council chambers.

* * *

"It doesn't make sense, Jen. The Uthlaro have to know by now that some of their ships are missing," Admiral Kanes said to Jenetta as he sat across from her in her briefing room aboard the Colorado.

"You would think so, but they haven't altered their tactics yet. Their ships are still traveling in groups of ten along the same predictable routes towards a centralized position in Region Two. The only difference is we haven't seen any more Gondusan ships."

"The Gondusans must have recalled them to their own space as they promised to do when they surrendered."

"I hope so. Without them to confuse the situation, we only have to worry about one enemy."

"But it's an enemy who still has an estimated five-hundred ships, incredibly powerful ships, and who is bent on driving us out of the territory."

"If we can continue to take them on ten at a time, we have a good chance of beating them."

"But it can't last. They can't be that stupid. Can they? It doesn't make sense they became as powerful as they are if they really are that stupid."

"We've learned that their people are fanatically loyal, Keith. The only possible explanation for not changing tactics I can imagine is that their military is being run by businessmen without any military experience. Perhaps they think the sheer weight of numbers is enough. Perhaps they thought we'd just run away when we saw them coming at us with a thousand ships."

"Well," Kanes said, "as far as we know, their military has never actually fought an enemy. Their territory has never been invaded, probably because they posed little threat, and their products were needed by both their warlike neighbors and the Raiders. We know that Maxxiloth traded with them heavily, and probably his great-grandfather did as well."

"So why have they decided to go to war now? If they're primarily businessmen, why not just concentrate on their businesses?"

"Maybe they feared that Maxxiloth's great-grandfather would invade them, so they began to build up their military. It's possible that once they had a powerful military, it bothered them that it wasn't occupied in something productive."

"You think they started this war to give their military something to do?" Jenetta asked incredulously.

"Well, doubling or even tripling the size of their territory, as would have been the case if they'd seized the Tsgardi, Gondusan, and Hudeera territories once they had possession of Region Two, would give them vast new supplies of raw materials and a market they could control and keep to themselves."

"But they already have a territory that's the size of our Region One."

"Businessmen can become so greedy at times they lose perspective."

"I suppose. But now that we've destroyed a hundred of their ships, you'd think they'd wake up and realize they shouldn't have started this war in the first place."

"That won't make a difference if their government is being run by businessmen. Businessmen are used to suffering a certain amount of loss; it's just numbers to them. An often-used solution is to simply throw more resources at it, like a gambler who, after losing a hand at blackjack, doubles his bet on the next hand and continues to double his bet every hand until he wins. The odds say that he has to win eventually and he'll recover all his losses immediately."