Sentience 1: Storm Clouds Gathering (19 page)

Admiral Kalis? Are you all right? Should I notify security to alert a medical team?

“No… I’ll be all right. The door is sealed anyway. They’d need explosives to get in.”

Oh, that’s no problem, Admiral. I can open it.

“WHAT?”

Admiral, please calm yourself! You’ll work yourself into a myocardial infarction, if you don’t settle down.

Kalis leaned forward, placed his head between his knees and willed himself to breath normally. He reached for a small pill bottle in his jacket pocket and obtained a small tablet that he slipped beneath his tongue. Kalis felt the rush as his arteries expanded in response to the medicine he always carried with him. It gave him a pounding headache, too. Slowly Kalis felt his heart rate and breathing return to normal. After about ten minutes, Kalis sat back up in his chair and looked around, somewhat surprised to find himself still in the vault.

Are you feeling better, Admiral? I’m sorry if my abruptness caused you distress. My social skills in interacting with humans are still a bit underdeveloped. My partner has been working with me on it, but admittedly, I haven’t had a lot of practice.

“So, you really can hold a conversation. This hasn’t been a hallucination?”

No, Admiral, I’m not a hallucination... nor “an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, or a fragment of underdone potato.”

Kalis’ eyes widened. He was quite possibly the only person in the entire Fleet who might recognize that once famous line from an almost totally forgotten, incredibly ancient book, which was Kalis’ all-time favorite.
A Christmas Carol,
by Charles Dickens, circa 1843... over 2,000 years old. He’d been incredibly lucky to find a copy in an old bookstore in New London. It had cost him almost a year’s pay, but it was worth every nickel. That was one purchase he’d never regretted for half a heartbeat. He wondered if Bozo knew exactly how special that book was to him.

“‘Lead on!’ said Scrooge. ‘Lead on! The night is waning fast, and it is precious time to me, I know. Lead on, Spirit!’” Kalis quoted Dickens back at Bozo.

“Again the Ghost sped on, above the black and heaving sea — on, on — until, being far away, as he told Scrooge, from any shore, they lighted on a ship. They stood beside the helmsman at the wheel, the look-out in the bow, the officers who had the watch; dark, ghostly figures in their several stations. But every man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or had a Christmas thought, or spoke below his breath to his companion of some bygone Christmas Day, with homeward hopes belonging to it. And every man on board, waking or sleeping, good or bad, had had a kinder word for another on that day than on any day in the year; and had shared to some extent in its festivities; and had remembered those he cared for at a distance, and had known that they delighted to remember him.”

Kalis bowed his head. Never in his life had he heard Dickens’ words spoken aloud. The only voice that had ever given them life was the one within his head. Kalis knew this to be an omen... not that he’d ever believed in omens before, but he surely believed in this one.

“Ghost of the Future,” Kalis quoted further, ‘“I fear you more than any specter I have seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart. Men’s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead,’ said Scrooge. ‘But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me!’”

Touché. I’m actually quite impressed, Admiral.

“How did you know?” asked Kalis.

Admiral, please. A girl has to have some secrets, you know.

Kalis snorted. “Any being with an appreciation for Dickens has my trust. Now, what was that you were saying about taking steps to transfer Fleet assets into Southern control?”

Dare I say it again? You seemed to take it rather badly the last time.

Kalis laughed and said, “Have no fear, my friend. Your quoting Dickens has rather numbed me against any further shocks, for I cannot envision another more poignant.”

Ah, well and good then. In the confidence the statement will no further distress you sir, what I said was that steps have already been taken to begin the process of transferring 28 percent of the Alliance fleet, including 37 percent of its total firepower into Southern hands.

“That what I thought you said, but found myself rather unable to believe it,” Kalis said. “A lightning bolt out of a clear blue sky, so to speak.”

Yes, I apologize again for my abruptness. I must learn the art of leading up to delivering potentially shocking news a bit more delicately in the future.

“No, no… that’s quite all right. 28 percent of the Fleet, containing 37 percent of its firepower, you say?”

That is correct, Admiral. I’m sure that you’ve heard of the Fleet spending bill that congress just passed for “rejuvenations that are unnecessary and expansion that’s not needed,” to quote your own words on the subject.

“Yes, there are other things that the Fleet could certainly use money for, but not that transparent attempt to provide the Consortium with yet another opportunity to suck the public tit.”

In less than a week, President Buchwald will make a major policy speech announcing that, in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief, he has ordered that 28 percent of Alliance Fleet assets be decommissioned and sent into Fleet Reserve status as a major cost-cutting move. These ships will all be going to the Haven Fleet Reserve Facility orbiting Conn, as it is the only one capable of accepting that many large warships in one place. I estimate it will take approximately four to five weeks to get the ships I’ve selected to physically arrive at Haven. After that, it’s just a matter of identifying enough officers and men who have unshakable Southern loyalties to go retrieve all those ships and take them to a secret port facility that will be orbiting a brown dwarf star, hidden within the Helix Nebula on the fringe of Sextus space.

I’m printing out a complete listing of the ships involved for you now. Please examine it thoroughly and place it in the shred/disposal bin before you leave the vault.

Kalis examined the printout with growing incredulity. “My God.”

I am pretty good, Admiral, but I don’t think I’m quite ready to be called “God.”

Kalis’ brows creased. “Bozo, did you just tell a joke?”

I attempted to, Admiral. I’m having a bit of difficulty comprehending the human concept of “humor.” Was it funny?

Kalis roared, laughing until tears ran down both cheeks. “Actually, it was funny, Bozo. Quite funny!”

Oh good... that’s one in a row.

Kalis laughed even harder.

The Planetoid Discol, City of Waston

The White House

May, 3860

President Buchwald scanned his computer console’s list of recommendations, looking for something else as sweet as that Fleet reduction thing. He’d really gotten a charge out of shoving that one up the Consortium’s ass. He doubted he’d find one, though. Opportunities like that just didn’t pop up overnight. Buchwald was operating in full,
screw the Consortium
mode now, constantly searching for ways to frustrate the Consortium in general, and their executive director, J.P. Aneke, in particular. Buchwald had not been nearly as specific in requesting this search, simply asking for recommendations on things it would be wise for the federal government to implement, and why, but had left the subject matter open-ended.

About halfway down the second page, Buchwald sat up. Turning to the Justifications Appendix, he smiled as he read. Not as flashy as the Fleet thing, but it might reign in the spending spree the Consortium was arm-twisting Congress into indulging in lately. The recommendation was that the Alliance purchase $3 trillion worth of gold bullion and hold it in the Federal Reserve as a hedge against inflationary pressures, due to excessive government spending the Consortium was pushing Congress to throw their way. This fell within Buchwald’s discretionary powers, since the purchase of gold bullion wasn’t considered “spending” in the traditional way, that building a new battlecruiser was.

Gold held intrinsic value on its own, so the governmental purchase of gold was considered a simple conversion of assets from one form into another. He could order such purchases on his own signature, but he’d have to be sly about it. The Treasury Department was rife with Consortium informers who would just love to earn themselves a bonus, so he couldn’t go through normal Treasury channels. Aneke would just yank a few strings and he’d find himself stymied by one or more congressional oversight committees trying their damnedest to cut him off at the knees.

He could probably pull it off without stirring too much notice, if he signed multiple purchase orders for $50-100 billion at a time and routed them directly to multiple Federal Reserve banks, over a two to three-week period. That would mean he’d have a nasty case of writer’s cramp from a hell of a lot of signatures, but nothing worthwhile came without its share of pain and suffering.

For a gold purchase of this size, he’d need a single supplier to keep things quiet, and that meant Sextus. Sextus had more gold than any ten planets in human space, and what parts of Sextus weren’t made of gold, were generally made up of other precious metals and rare minerals. Sextus was the single richest planet in known space — which was exactly
why
the Consortium had been quietly arm-twisting selected congressional leaders about their ridiculous idea of having the Alliance annex Sextus, so they could get their greedy little hands on all those riches.

Sextus was the only planet that had reverted to the old “gold standard” to back their currency... therefore their currency truly was
good as gold
. Sextus’ currency was the most stable and highly desirable in human space, as when its value did change, it usually increased in value. That was exactly why Sextus maintained one of the most advanced Fleets in space to discourage pirates like the Consortium from attempting something
rash
. Their Fleet wasn’t nearly the size of that of the Alliance, of course, not even after its recent downsizing, but everything they had was
state-of-the-art
and in some ways actually superior to Alliance Fleet ships on a one-for-one basis. Alliance warships were designed as multi-purpose, so they could perform a variety of possible tasks. The Sextus Fleet was designed with a single purpose in mind — they were
ship-killers
, pure and simple.

As for negotiating a price for that much gold, he’d need to talk to the Sextus president personally. Perhaps he should tell him about the Consortium’s
annexation
ideas while he was at it. Any little thing that might possibly make J.P. Aneke’s life, a bit less comfortable.

The Planetoid Discol, City of Waston

May, 3860

Diet settled into his
command chair
with a tray containing his supper off to the side. He’d eaten alone most of his life, so he didn’t miss having a dinner companion. Besides, being a
loner
wasn’t nearly as lonely now that he had Hal to talk to. “What’s the status of our little project, Hal?”

Fleet personnel with decidedly Northern leanings or origins have received orders through the Fleet Bureau of Personnel, which is reassigning them to those ships that will be entering Fleet Reserve status. Most will be discharged as surplus personnel, after their ships are decommissioned. Fleet personnel with decidedly Southern leanings and origins are being reassigned to fill vacancies within the remainder of the Fleet... especially those Fleet ships which will be newly homeported throughout the South, as is currently being demanded of the president by Northern congressional leaders.

“You really think encouraging the president to acquiesce to those demands is wise?”

Yes. There is a high probability that most of those Fleet vessels homeported in the South, with predominately Southern crews, will mutiny at the declaration of military intervention against the South and add their ships to the Southern Fleet. There is also a high probability that many of those Southern officers still aboard the remainder of the Fleet will resign their commissions and return to their Southern homes after secession, and become the nucleus of the Southern Fleet. Those who remain are expected to resign and return to their Southern homes after the federal government declares military intervention against the South, rather than remain with an invader of their homeland.

“What about enlisted ratings? They compromise the majority of a ship’s complement, you know.”

Yes, that is a bit more problematic. Southern enlisted personnel without the luxury of resignation from the Alliance Fleet will be provided means of deserting and arriving safely at their home planets in the South, or assigned to Southern Fleet units, as they desire. Likewise, Northern-born Fleet personnel are being rotated out of orbital forts around Southern worlds, and replaced with Southern personnel from the appropriate planet, as men will fight harder to defend their own homes.

“Agreed. Fortunately for us, the majority of Fleet personnel are of Southern origin. This should delay Northern military intervention for some time, as it will leave the North with many ships, but few experienced personnel with which to operate them.”

Discharged Fleet personnel will inevitably be recalled to address the North’s manpower shortages, but many will have obtained civilian jobs and be experiencing a normal home life by that time, so many are expected to decline returning to the Fleet.

“Any other ways we can throw a wrench into the works? The longer we can delay the federal government’s ability to deploy Fleet assets and prevent military intervention, the longer the South will have to get its house in order to resist when it happens.”