Aneka Jansen 5: The Greatest Heights of Honour (21 page)

‘Ninety million people,’ Aneka said. ‘The Herosians aren’t noted for keeping native populations alive when they take a world.’

‘They’ve probably taken them for the resources. At least initially they’ll need people to work the mines.’

‘Slavery or death. Tough choice.’

Beryum.

Mizzy lay in the darkness, curled into as tight a ball as she could manage. The children had been given blankets, and padded mats to keep them off the ground, but it was not enough to insulate her from the rock under the mat or the cold air in the cave they had been ushered into. The mines were oxygenated to make working easier, but heating them properly had proven a difficult task. The temperature was barely tolerable, better than on the surface, but cold. Too cold for sleep to claim her easily.

She was still not really sure what had happened. There had been a lot of running and shouting, and very loud bangs. Her mother had been scared.
Really
scared. There had been men in heavy, armoured suits, and they had been shooting at people, and they had funny legs and looked wrong. Some of the older children had said they were Herosians.

And when the bangs and shooting stopped she had been taken away from her mother. She had screamed and cried, but the big man in the armour had growled at her and kept on dragging. It had almost been nice when she had been thrown into the cavern and the man had gone away. But she had been in this cold, hard place for days now and she just wanted her mother.

The older children had said that they were being held there so that their parents would keep working the mines. They had said that the Herosians had started a war, and that was why Beryum had been attacked. Mizzy had her own theory.

‘If you’ll just bring my Mommy back,’ she whispered to the Universe, her breath steaming in the cold air, ‘I promise I’ll never complain about my lessons again. Even the maths. I promise. Please…’

Yorkbridge Mid-town, 7.2.529 FSC.

Aneka was looking at the star display again. A fourth light had a ring around it.

‘Marchant,’ she said, ‘know anything about it?’

‘Just what was on the news. Mining again. They’re going after the resource-rich worlds on the border. I think Beryum and Marchant were disputed during the early years of the Federation. They already had Jenlay colonies, but the Herosians said they should be theirs.’

Aneka nodded. Marchant had a population of thirty-two million, or had had. There had been some transmissions from the system before the Herosians cut them off. A fast attack, heavy bombardment of non-strategic structures, use of high technology. The world had been assaulted on the same day as Lonar and Beryum, but it was further away and it had taken longer for the news to get through.

‘What’s this one?’ Aneka asked, pointing toward a dot on the display. The word ‘Dokar’ appeared beside it.

‘Dokar’s the largest naval base in the border region,’ Ella supplied. ‘On our side anyway.’

‘They’ll want that out of the way next… How big are we talking?’

‘Very, but it’s not like I have the Navy’s deployment plans. They run joint exercises with the Herosians out of there every five years or so. It’s the main command station for the entire region.’

‘So… Beryum. It’s not just a resources thing, they want it as a staging post for Dokar.’

‘They could have attacked already…’

‘No. I doubt it anyway. Attack, then consolidate your position. They’ll probably want to concentrate forces as well. If Dokar is as fortified as you say they’ll probably want to bring in ships from Lonar and Marchant, then move together. Trying to coordinate a multi-pronged attack over these distances is just asking for failure, and it probably wouldn’t get you any real advantage. They’ll wait.’

‘That seems to be the word for this war,’ Ella commented. ‘Everything is “wait.”’

‘Yeah… I hate waiting, but it’s all we can do.’

Interlude

G268, 10.3.529 FSC.

The designation on the Federation’s star charts was G268, which indicated that it had a habitable world, but no one had ever established a colony on it. There were a lot of worlds out there which could support Jenlay quite happily, and this one was well outside the Rim.

Winter dropped her ship out of warp and began scanning immediately. The invitation she had received had carried enough information to make her extremely curious, but not enough to tell her exactly what she was looking for. More from habit than need, she began assembling a system schematic on the holographic display in her operations centre as the data came in.

Eleven worlds, four of them gas giants. Two of those, the closest and furthest from the star, had beautiful ring systems and she devoted a microsecond to appreciating them before moving on.

A G8 main-sequence star provided quite adequate warmth to the fifth planet. It was roughly Earth-sized, a little bigger, a little heavier, a little lighter on the gravity, a little thicker in the atmosphere. It had a small moon to which it was tide-locked. She estimated a day of around one hundred and fifty-five hours.

Detecting nothing in the outer system, Winter poured power into her ship’s sublight drive, pushing on toward the inner planets. She suspected that the fifth one
was
going to be her target, but she was a thorough AI and wanted to be sure of her facts before committing.

Closer still she could analyse the atmospheres of the inner planets. The outermost of them was an Earth-sized world, but a frozen ball of rock with an atmosphere of carbon-dioxide and nitrogen, and no water, even in the form of ice. Most of the rest were either too small or too close to the star to have an atmosphere worthy of the term, but the fifth world had an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere with no major contaminants. There was more sulphur than she might have expected and further examination indicated regions of heavy volcanic activity. Indications of young, jagged mountain ranges suggested a reasonable amount of tectonic movement. She was busy analysing the features to indicate likely areas of stability to narrow her search when her sensors showed two objects in orbit.

They were big, metallic, and clearly artificial, sitting at the two Lagrange points preceding and following the moon. The closest to her was built along the lines of a spaceport and communications facility. She could see the huge arrays used for tachyon beam interception, and structures which looked like hangar bay doors. The other… was simply not supposed to be there.

The sub-element of her mind which had been analysing the world’s surface had identified the most stable region of the crust and begun to detect signs of buildings when she heard the voice.

‘Sleep Brings Renewal to All Things,’ it said, ‘welcome to Shadataga.’

Part Five: What Once Was Lost

BC-101 Hand of God, 8.6.529 FSC.

The huge display screen at the front of the Hand of God’s bridge was full of ships. The Garnet Hyde’s crew had been invited up to join the Hand’s crew as they met the incoming Old Earth fleet and it was quite a sight.

‘That,’ Drake said emphatically, ‘is a big ship.’

He was right; the Helios was vast. Not as big as the Mordra Kai battleships the Xinti had built, but still far bigger than the largest Federation ships. It was more or less a cylinder of metal, the upper side of the bow sloping back from the gun port for the spinal weapons system. Three huge turrets were mounted on the slope, another, even bigger turret was mounted on her back, and the hull was dotted with smaller weapons. She was, as Tasker had said, a beast of a ship.

‘She’s primarily focussed on defence,’ Tasker said. ‘Offensive defence, but she was built to fight off attackers rather than perform assault operations.’

‘She looks like she could take on a fleet,’ Ella said.

‘She might not be
that
good. She’s got support though.’

Aneka gave a nod; Al was flicking through the visuals, cataloguing the different ships and listing them for her. There were three more cruisers like the Hand, five ships which looked like destroyers, heavily armed and fast, and twenty frigates. There was also something else which Al had no classification for.

‘What’s that dumpy looking ship?’ Aneka asked. ‘The heavy one with the light armament?’

‘Oh! They did send her,’ Tasker responded. ‘That’s the Argus. She’s a logistic support vessel. Carries supplies for the other ships, and she’s got a command and control centre, extended sensors, all you need to coordinate a fleet.’

‘Well, all that should give the Herosians a scare when they see it,’ Ella said.

‘Yeah,’ Aneka said. She glanced at Drake and Bash, and saw that they were frowning too. ‘I’d imagine their strategy will change.’

‘Ours too,’ Drake replied. ‘With this force backing up the home front, I expect someone will decide they can be bolder.’

Abby turned toward them, her expression momentarily distracted until she focussed on them; Aneka recognised the look of someone having internal communications. ‘We’re going to have a reception for the ship captains, some of your Representatives, and your Admirals, tomorrow night aboard the Helios,’ the brunette said. ‘We’d like you guys to be there?’ She was looking rather specifically at Aneka.

‘Captains want to meet me?’ Aneka asked, sighing.

‘Uh… Well it’ll help with morale…’

Aneka looked around. ‘Anyone unavailable?’

‘Do I have to wear a gown again?’ Delta asked.

‘A dress, I think, maybe not a gown.’

The Amazon-like redhead pursed her lips thoughtfully. ‘I guess…’

‘We’d be happy to come,’ Gillian said.

B-101 Helios, 9.6.529 FSC.

The Helios was definitely a working vessel, you could tell from the drab colour scheme and the holes in the mess room’s deck where the tables and benches had been unbolted to make some space for the reception.

Drake had been quite impressed, which generally meant it was being run well, at least on first inspection. The crew of the Hyde had been given a tour of the ship’s more interesting regions, something which the politicians and naval officers were not getting. The ‘interesting areas’ had included as many spaces occupied by crew as possible, and Aneka had felt eyes on her every step of the way. She was not best pleased about it, but if the ex-elite guard of Yrimtan were bolstered by seeing someone who looked like her then she was going to bite her tongue and live with it.

Anyway, it was preferable to being stuck in a room, even a large room, with various Administration people and high-ranking Navy officers who were all worrying that no other systems had been attacked yet. There was a peculiar mixture of worry, relief, and anticipation in the room, and not too much mixing. Language was not much of an issue; the Old Earth officers were running translation software on their implants which did not have to bridge much of a gap, but the New Earth people, aside from Elroy and the Hyde’s crew, were feeling outnumbered and uncomfortable.

That did not really matter, of course, because the point of the exercise was for Tasker and Peter Donnor, the Helios’ Captain, to usher Aneka from one Old Earth officer to another. It was mildly embarrassing. The crew of the Helios had been silent onlookers; the fleet’s officers, face to face with her, were acting like they were meeting a film star, or possibly a goddess.

‘Manu Dei really did a number on you people,’ Aneka muttered as they moved from one group to the next.

‘Occasionally,’ Donnor said, ‘if she heard about someone who was particularly skilled at combat, she would spar with them, give them pointers. When she did that it was a major event. Everyone who could manage it would attend to hear what she had to say.’

Aneka nodded. ‘She was good.’

‘Even being given direct orders by her was considered an honour,’ Tasker added.

‘If it helps any,’ Donnor said, ‘after the few minutes I’ve spent with you, you’re nothing like her.’

‘Thank you,’ Aneka replied, ‘though I do wonder how stable I’d be after a thousand years without sex.’

‘Sex? Never really seen the attraction.’

Tasker smirked. They were almost to another group of eagerly waiting ship captains. ‘I’ll have to have a chat with you later, Peter. In private.’

Aneka rolled her eyes and then put on a bright smile as she reached out for the next hand which had to be shaken.

~~~

‘You know half of them are never going to wash their right hands again, right?’

Aneka narrowed her eyes at her partner. ‘Comments like that will get you sent to bed,
without
any of the fringe benefits.’

Ella giggled, took a sip from her glass of real, Old Earth, grape-flavoured wine, and then frowned. ‘I overheard something I think you should hear as well.’ She was offering a network connection and Aneka accepted it, Al patching the sensory data through in a window rather than playing it back as though Aneka was in the scene. ‘Ignore the boring lofangpee I’m talking to, listen to the voices on my right,’ Ella added through the link.

‘Al, filter it, would you?’

They were both men and, as Ella had glanced in their direction, Aneka could tell they were Navy. One of them, a man with an impressive handlebar moustache, was saying, ‘The order went out a couple of days ago, as soon as we heard the reinforcements were coming. They go tomorrow.’

‘Is it really a good idea?’ the other replied. ‘Isn’t it going to leave Dokar open?’

‘Norton’s out there. You know him, he’ll not risk his own life by sending out too many ships.’

‘Right… So we send a force to Beryum and they get shot to gopi, and that gets us what exactly?’

‘We can’t just sit around doing nothing! Besides, we might win.’

‘Sure. We send ships they know all about up against ships we know nothing about, in an entrenched position. Did you
never
read
Gobari
?’

‘Well…’

‘You’re going to make full Admiral easy. You’re an idiot.’

‘And then the younger one stalked off,’ Ella said as the recording ended.

‘I’m amazed that guy’s made so far up the ranks,’ Aneka commented. ‘He seems to have a clue, and a mouth.’