Defying the Prophet: A Military Space Opera (The Sentience Trilogy Book 2) (20 page)

The election of 3864 also swept almost every congressional incumbent up for reelection from office in an unprecedented political housecleaning, after the press mysteriously gained access to internal Consortium documents, implicating hundreds of Federal officials in corruption. Others who hadn’t run for reelection were finding themselves under criminal investigation by the ABI, under their new director, Fredrick J. Danforth, and President McAllister’s suspension of the most restrictive of evidence gathering laws under authority of the War Powers Act. 

New congressional representatives from both major parties found themselves sworn into office sharing two other major attributes: they were all squeaky clean, and enthusiastically supported President McAllister’s pledge to relentlessly prosecute the war against the invading aliens to final victory, “…so help us God!”

No one knew the full extent of the alien civilization or exactly how many planets they had spread out over what kind of distances. The incredible number of warships that had been observed gathering at just their forward base alone was staggering and suggested an incomprehensible manufacturing base. It was imperative that mankind strike deep and strike quickly, before that cats could develop new and better weapons in sufficient numbers to offset man’s current technological advantages. 

It was distinctly possible that it might become a long, protracted war of attrition that could literally take generations to decide. Humanity had to gain the upper hand quickly and keep the massive alien culture off balance, as they scrambled to catch up. It was humanity’s only hope against an implacable foe that obviously envisioned humanity as “lunch.” At the rate that missiles were arriving at Minnos, the combined fleets would have just over 90,000 medium-yield ship-killers available by June, and while 60,000 short of their ideal, Kalis felt he could wait no longer. In mid-June, 3865 the allied offensive against the cats would finally commence.

* * * *

Dogs believe they are human. Cats believe they are God.
— Jeff Valdez

After a personal visit, Raan easily persuaded Region-Master Olin of Region-5 to exchange the two Trakaan planets near their common border for the Trakaan-provided locations of ten previously undiscovered inhabitable planets deep within Region-5 territory. In so doing, Raan gained control of all 22 Trakaan planets, and Olin had been relieved of the burden of administering two planets already inhabited by untold billions of aliens, and therefore of comparatively marginal value. The addition of 10 virgin planets would add incredible wealth to Olin’s coffers, as they attracted settlers from the four overcrowded elder regions. Unbeknownst to Olin, Raan too would eventually benefit with the addition of 19 virgin planets he was exchanging for the 22 Trakaan planets, to which
he was granting the Trakaan complete autonomy, within his territory. For the first time in Raknii history, star systems had changed hands between different regions without bloodshed. 

The imperial capital was a virtual hive of activity in the excitement of organizing
The Great Hunt.
Supreme-Master Xior was worshipped by the masses almost like a god, for his calling of this great crusade against the epitome of all prey… these alien predators called “humans.” By necessity, several new military ranks were established for oversight of massive fleet formations on a previously unimagined scale. 

For his success at Minnos, as the first warrior to achieve glory against these predators, Tzal became the first Ultimate-FleetMaster in Raknii history — given personal command of over a thousand warfleets… over 65,000 warships, by the supreme-master himself.  This was the very first military rank to be given High-Rak status — and as the first, Tzal became senior to all that would follow. Tzal’s new rank was technically equivalent to a Sector-Master, but his rank-stone design was unique… a large fire opal surrounded by a ruby sunburst outlined within and without by a single row of diamonds to denote it as a military rank. 

When the question of how those under normal Raknii hypnotics would react to a rank-stone configuration that no one had ever seen before, OverMaster Varq (as their resident expert on the subject) assured them that the diamond-edged sunburst pattern would denote High-Rak status, regardless of which stone (diamond, ruby, emerald, etc.) was actually employed to fill the interior. Lower ranks greater than OverFleet-Master were also being established: UltraFleet-Master over 32,000+ warships (having an emerald sunburst fill), and SupraFleet-Master over 16,000+ warships (having a sapphire sunburst fill), MegaFleet-Master over 8,000 warships (having an amethyst sunburst fill), and MetaFleet-Master over 4,000+ warships (having a yellow citrine sunburst fill).

Drix too underwent another ascension, donning the ruby and diamond sunburst of region-master over the newly sanctioned Region-7, where the majority of combat would occur when the Raknii flooded human space — whenever sufficient numbers of the new weapons became available. Drix chose a bright orange as Region-7’s color… the color of the silks that all future military, sworn and hypnotically bound to Region-7 allegiance, would wear on their blouses.

At Xior’s command, Raknii scientists and engineers all over the empire began development of new weapons of all types to combat the human threat, ever since the first details of enemy military capabilities had first arrived from Golgathal. Rak scientific development had stagnated for hundreds of turns under the standardization edicts, intended to balance the military power between the regions and ensure continued dominance of the imperials. But all of that changed when Xior initiated an unprecedented explosion of engineering development, construction and the quest for new scientific discovery. It was a time of unparalleled excitement, inter-regional cooperation and racial unity previously undreamed of. Under the prophesied threat of the humans, no one worried much about how all of these new weapons might affect the balance of powers within the empire.  Imperial troops were stationed throughout the empire to keep all of the new construction under very tight security to ensure none got siphoned off into private hands.

Larger, more heavily armored warships were already under construction in the yards, their massively armored designs bristled with new 5-gigawatt secondary weapons and 10-gigawatt primary weapons. It was truly amazing what could be accomplished when an entire civilization focused its creative energies on developing new and fantastic weapons. 

Since being made aware by Tzal’s discoveries that such a thing was possible, Raknii engineers developed their own versions of the fast-movers the humans called “fighters.” While not yet capable of transitioning into x-space, they could travel at over ten times the speed of a scout ship in normal space. Lacking x-space capabilities, they were currently envisioned solely as defensive weapons (another radical idea, as Raknii rarely thought in terms of strictly defense), but engineers were already working on the design for very large warships which could launch and recover large numbers of these new fighters in normal space, and therefore act as a mobile base that could get the fighters to where they were needed to support offensive operations… what the humans called “carriers.”

Rak engineers now understood the reasoning behind the human’s use of missiles on these fighter craft — there just wasn’t room to fit a power source capable of powering energy weapons with a useful destructiveness within such a small space-frame. Why the humans relied so heavily on missiles on their monstrous warships where reactor space was plentiful continued to be a mystery. 

A first generation of missiles having rudimentary radiation and thermal guidance systems was also being developed. These were what humans would classify as “short-range” missiles, as the miniaturization of rocket motors and concentration of rocket fuels to fit into such a small material body having the ability to self-navigate in space were totally new challenges for Rak engineers. Warheads also presented a bit of a conundrum, as Rak uses for explosives were primarily limited to construction and demolition purposes. No one had ever been concerned with trying to maximize explosive power within such small packages before now. All told, these new Raknii fighters didn’t yet have nearly the capabilities of the human fighters, but it was a beginning.  

Larger transport and passenger versions of the human’s larger fast-movers were also developed that were capable of transitioning in and out of x-space, with a range of 4-5 light-years as humans reckoned distance, traveling near
3,000c. Routings within the maximum range of these new “spaceliners” as humans called them were already being developed to reach a high percentage of the empire in 10% of the time of a fast-scout vessel. Supreme-Master Xior presented one having a luxurious interior to Drix, for use as his personal transport, shortly after his ascension to Region-Master rank.

Supreme-Master Xior also dispatched eleven more stations like the one at Golgathal to the virgin planets exchanged by the Trakaan in Region-7, nearby to the human planets that Tzal’s fleet had located cycles earlier. Each was initially being accompanied by sixteen battlefleets and over 200 transport fleets carrying supplies. The entire empire was mobilizing for war with the humans on a scale unprecedented in Raknii history. Within the next six subcycles, each station would be heavily reinforced until all had received approximately
400 battlefleets, or just over 25,000 warships. Within another full cycle, Drix would have over half a million of the old-style warships at his command, to hunt humans.

One area of concern was the disappearance of the OverMaster Vlin, who had been assigned to terminate Supreme-Master Xior’s eldest son Xlan on the Region-4 capital planet of Slithin, almost three cycles previously. Rumor had it that Region-Master Blug’s eldest son Erig had somehow saved a sleeping Xlan from a mysterious assassin, though Erig professed no memory of the incident. A subcycle later, Xlan had reportedly left Slithin to visit Region-Master Olin in Region-5, but there was no record of his ever having arrived there. Xlan had since disappeared and was thought to be hiding somewhere within Region-4 with Blug’s covert assistance. Xior secretly dispatched 20 more OverMasters to find and eliminate his elusive offspring, but an entire region was an incredibly large volume of space in which to hide.

* * * *

Plans were developed for the buildup of medium-yield ship-killer missiles for the assault on the cats’ forward base. Other plans were being formulated for the resupply necessary to replenish expended armaments, to enable the combined fleets to strike quickly into less heavily defended alien systems, deeper within alien space. Hundreds of transports from both the Alliance and the Confederacy, carrying munitions and supplies of all kinds were on their way to depots being established in barren star systems in close proximity to future targets. These were escorted by elements of the Confederate 4
th
Fleet which had completed training and released to the war effort, just as soon as the new Confederate 5
th
Fleet was established.

Two Alliance task forces including some of the recently repaired carriers, severely damaged in the Stillman raid on Waston, were scheduled to arrive at Minnos in early June, to guard the planet after departure of the combined fleets.

* * * *

Diet was starting to feel rather unnecessary. He groused for weeks after those unexpected Confederate uniforms arrived with his citizenship papers, Fleet commission and orders naming him to command Confederate Intelligence. He had been terrified that Admiral Kalis would show up with some kind of specific orders that would drag him out into the public spotlight, destroying his beloved anonymity and his bent towards independent action, unhindered by “superiors.” He hadn’t even been afforded the opportunity to refuse the “honor” by telling Admiral Kalis what he could do with his commission and so-called “orders.” Kalis had not contacted him yet, so the threat continued to hang over Diet’s head like the
Sword of Damocles
.

Hal had been stubborn about forwarding any kind of negative reply to Kalis, causing Diet to sulk about it for several days — not that Hal had noticed. Hal was so preoccupied with analyzing all of the accumulated data on the aliens and his research on the alien equipments via the robotic peripheral that Admiral Melendez had made for him, what little conversation that passed between them was stilted. 

Diet was more than merely disconcerted by the “wall” that had suddenly arisen between him and his artificially sentient friend. They’d worked closely together as a team for years… equals and partners in every decision and action. But having revealed Diet’s identity to Admiral Kalis (for which Diet was still royally pissed), Hal seemed to be gradually assuming the role of senior partner in their relationship, or at least not feeling the need to consult Diet on much of anything. 

Not that Hal actually “felt” anything… Hal was a bio-computer and therefore had no “feelings,” per se. He had always held “controlling interest” in all of their endeavors for the Confederacy prior to and during the war, but Hal had always consulted Diet on most major decisions before acting, hadn’t he? Diet had guided the computer in determining “what” should be done, and Hal took care of doing it.

Now it felt like Hal didn’t need him any more, and Diet felt the loss of camaraderie between them on a deeply personal level. At the same time, Diet knew that if there was a wall between them now, he had built it himself. Hal was merely giving him space because he was the one who had shut off communication between them, while he nursed his grudge and reveled in his emotional hissy-fit. 

But damn it, Hal had done a couple of things that Diet found inexcusable. First he had divulged Diet’s identity to Kalis, knowing full well that Diet held that secret as sacrosanct, and he’d neglected to thoroughly research all of the potential after-effects of brain biopsy surgery, which still plagued Diet with horrendous headaches on occasion. Yes, they were becoming fewer and fewer as time went by, but Hal hadn’t delved deeply enough to discover the potential for residual pain before insisting Diet donate some brain tissue for some sort of off-the-wall scheme Diet still didn’t fully understand. Or had he? Was it possible that Hal had fully understood the potential for all that pain, yet determined the need great enough for Diet to suffer it? Was it really needed that badly, or was it just that Hal wasn’t capable of understanding, and thus care, about Diet’s pain — as he never suffered pain himself? 

Whatever the case, Diet wasn’t happy… he wasn’t happy with Hal, nor with himself. Diet, as a human being, had every right to resent Hal’s actions and attitudes. Hal, as a thoroughly non-human sentient entity, was mostly oblivious to most human behaviors triggered at the emotional level. 

How could Hal truly understand emotions when he didn’t have any himself? Without a common frame of reference, wouldn’t that be akin to trying to explain colors to someone blind from birth? Had all of Hal’s previous expressions of caring and friendship merely been mimicry of expected behavior observed in positive human interactions? On an intellectual level, Diet fully understood how computers worked — they executed relatively simple written instructions formed into colossally large, complex programs. Diet remembered a line from an ancient 2-D comedy about robotic intelligence that said:

“It’s a machine.  It doesn’t get pissed off.  It doesn’t get happy.  It doesn’t get sad.  It doesn’t laugh at your
jokes… IT JUST RUNS PROGRAMS!”