Riss Series 4: The Riss Accession (C. R. Daems) » p.24 » Global Archive Voiced Books Online Free

Riss Series 4: The Riss Accession, page 24

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

"Attention all personnel. Battle stations. All systems passive," went out as an override on all SIDs. Lights throughout the ship flashed red off and on for one minute, then remained red. The fact that the lights stopped flashing and no klaxons blasted away indicated stealth mode.

A red dot appeared on the VTM along with three Medusas. They were approximately two light-seconds from the Wave exit in triangular formation—two up front —separated by two light-seconds and a third in the middle but back two light-seconds. As we exited, we spotted eight of the Aliens' Light cruisers in space. They were tagged M1L1 through M1L8. But seconds afterward, the second Medusa began spitting cruisers: M2L1, M2L2... Within minutes of arriving, twenty-four cruisers were in space.

I had to assume the Maat had triggered some sensor even with its low-powered exit, which had caused one Medusa to begin launching cruisers, and that we triggered another sensor, causing the second Medusa to launch its cruisers. As I watched, the third Medusa began releasing cruisers to scout the area in the middle of the triangle.

An interesting problem. No normal cruiser could have eluded the Alien cruisers. Only the Riss cruisers’ outer skin gave us a chance. Four light-seconds by two by two—they needed to cover the two light-seconds between the two leading Medusas, a light-second above and below, and the two light-seconds to the Wave—an area of four point eight million cubic kilometers. That meant their twenty-four cruisers each had to cover two hundred thousand cubic kilometers of space. The odds were in our favor, but a bit of luck wouldn't hurt. With only one engine at one-tenth speed, it was going to be a very long day. And when we managed to get by the two forward Medusas, we had the one in the rear to contend with. They had only twelve cruisers, but the area they needed to cover was only half as large.

As I watched, the Alien cruisers spread out along a line four light-seconds long.

As I watched, the pattern became obvious. They were traveling at a little over half speed, three hundred gravities, which took them nearly four minutes to make one pass. When they reversed course, they moved up one-quarter light-second for the return run. When they reversed again, they decreased elevation one half light-second for the next pass. The methodical nature of the search allowed me to maneuver to a level they had already searched. They were just beginning their sixth pass when we exited their area of search and entered the rear Medusa's area.

We had only gone a third into the M3 search area when the cruisers from M1 and M2 had completed their seven passes and their search was apparently called off as all the cruisers began returning to their respective Medusas. It took another seven minutes to slide past the last Medusa into empty space.

The sensors showed the system to be a red dwarf with seven planets, three of which appeared to be in an inhabitable zone from the sun. These planets appeared to have activity around them.

"Attention all personnel. Ship status standby, all systems passive," went out as an override on all SIDs. All ship lights were set to blue.

I clicked on my SID and activated calls to Byer, Seng, and Iglis. Within seconds, their faces appeared in a split screen.

"We have successfully slipped past the Aliens’ very substantial security perimeter and are now in relatively empty space. There appear to be seven planets. Three have activity. I plan to swing by each to get a good look before exiting the system. The ship is on Standby because it will probably take five or six days. It should be a peaceful, scenic ride around the system."

"I almost wish you hadn't provided me a feed from the bridge as I watched those cruisers passing us time and again," Seng said.

"That was exciting," Byer snorted. "After the third pass, I saw their search pattern and knew you had too. They were a bit too methodical. Of course, that pattern wasn't designed for a stealth ship. Their sensors would have found a normal cruiser even if it had its engines at minimal power."

"Hopefully, the rest of our stay, including our exit, will be boring."

* * *

The two outermost planets, one about four times the size of Eden with a rocky core and a large gas giant about ten times the size of Eden, had no activity we could detect. Late on the first day, we passed by the first of the potentially inhabitable planets. It was smaller than Eden. The terrain looked similar except cooler with its frozen oceans. The planet had three orbiting space stations and multiple mining operations on the surface. The stations appeared to be assembling the Aliens' scouts and Light cruisers. We also noticed heavy traffic to and from the next planet. A single Medusa maintained watch over the operation.

Early the next day, we passed the second of the potentially inhabitable planets. It seemed to be the center of the activity, with five orbiting stations and multiple facilities on the planet surface. Three of the stations appeared to be assembling Medusas, one a space port for scouts, and one a fifty-story structure that looked like a conglomerate of hundreds of irregular modules. The planet surface also had building-like structures. Two Medusas orbited the planet, looking like sentries.

On the third day, we sung past the third potentially inhabitable planet. It had four space stations and mining operations on the surface. These platforms seemed to be assembling Light cruisers. One Medusa was present. As the closer planets didn't appear to have any activity, we began our round trip back towards the Wave. I had made no attempt to contact the Maat for fear of alerting the Aliens to our presence. We had detected no explosions, so I had to assume the Maat hadn't been discovered and was doing much the same as we were.

I chose to approach the Wave from one light-second outside the triangle of Medusas in case the Maat decided to exit the Wave while we were attempting to sneak through the middle of the line. That would cause another search, which might be more intense because of the last detected breach. But nothing happened, and we arrived within a tenth of a light-second of the Wave exit without incident. I decided to wait a full day to give the Maat time to sneak past the Medusas, as either of us leaving would undoubtedly trigger another search.

* * *

I planned to increase the power slowly until the Medusa detected us, then exit quickly. If the Maat were in the area waiting for us, I hoped it would detect our power before the Aliens.

I said a half hour later.

"Echo?" scrolled across the monitor.

* * *

All I saw were smiling faces on the ten days of travel back to Echo. We had found the Aliens, and the war had a light at the end of the tunnel.

"Well you did it, Nadya," Terril said as we sat in my office relaxing. "You found Freeland and now... the Aliens' home base."

"Yes, that's the good news..."

"And like Freeland, there is a cost. "

"But unlike Freeland, I don't think there is any room for compromising with the Supreme Council of the Gods."

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Returning heroes

The entry into Echo space went smoothly. I think the entire fleet had been holding their collective breath waiting to hear something about our fate. They obviously knew the scout had fled and the Maat and Mnemosyne had followed it. Seeing us return was considered a good sign, and the space-waves were alive with chatter. Comm had already received twenty Welcome Back and Well Done messages. It only took Wattson a half hour to request a meeting, not that I blamed him.

"Request meeting at your earliest convenience. Wattson," scrolled across the monitor.

Ten minutes later.

"Estimated rendezvous with Eurasian in four hours. Wattson."

I smiled. He was obviously coming to meet us, as we were at least eight hours away from the Eurasian.

* * *

Commanders Iglis and Byer, Colonel Seng, and I were waiting when Zhang and his staff, Jaelle, Colonel Hakon, and Commander Henya entered the conference room. It was like a family reunion as they shook hands and gathered in pairs or groups to talk.

After Zhang collected a cup of tea, he and Jaelle came over to me. "Going to war with the Riss is an interesting experience. It's so easy to think when everyone around you is calm. And the fact we didn't have to kill anyone made it a delightful adventure—like a tour of the seven wonders of the old world," Zhang said, his eyes bright and face smiling.

"I admit I started to panic when the VTM lit with all those cruisers headed straight for us. But Zhang and the Riss were so calm I couldn't help but relax. Then it was easy to focus on the problem, not all the terrible things that could happen," Jaelle said with a big smile. "I know I could never captain a human ship, but I believe someday I will be right for a Riss ship."

"Good. I plan for you to command the next Riss cruiser after the Themis." I smiled at Jaelle's rapidly changing emotions: shock, fear, resignation, and finally satisfaction.

"Thank you, Leader, I won't let the Riss down," Jaelle said.

Just then, Sheva appeared. "Bendis and I can't wait to hear what you found. I wish we had been along," she said. "The Eurasian and the Dynasty shuttles are only minutes behind me."

"Yes, Sheva, you missed the experience of a lifetime. A scenic tour of an Alien civilization," Zhang said.

Wattson entered with Zhu. I imagined he had waited in the shuttle bay for Zhu to arrive before being escorted to the conference room. They came directly to me.

"Why the secrecy, Reese? Everyone in the fleet wants to know what happened, and the task force commanders need to be in on the planning."

"I just felt it was better to give you and Admiral Zhu an overview of what we found and let you decide who should be involved and how to disseminate the information." When Wattson nodded, I continued. "If everyone will please be seated, I'll get started. I invited the attached units from the Mnemosyne and the Maat because they saw what we did and might have a unique perspective based on their expertise. It's my assessment that had we continued to destroy Medusas, they would have stopped their campaign within another loss or two. They are keenly aware of security and would have had to weaken it to send out more Medusas." My assessment was greeted with nods of agreement from around the table.

"What kind of force are we facing? Wattson asked.

I nodded to Zhang, curious as to what he’d seen since I hadn't had an opportunity to talk to him.

"We saw seven functional Medusas and two under construction. Judging by the Medusas on guard at the Wave exit, we would have to assume they carry the maximum capacity—twelve cruisers. Therefore, eighty-four plus another twenty or so at the space platforms or in between planets."

"And that means over a thousand fighters," Byer said absentmindedly as he stared at his SID.

"Planets?" Zhu asked.

"Yes. They have planet-side facilities on three planets and multiple space platforms. It appeared that all three planets were being mined for raw material, but one had an installation of some sort. The space platforms looked to be construction facilities where they were assembling cruisers and Medusas. Only one looked like a headquarters or command center, although it was large enough to be research and development, system engineering, and robot production combined. I'd wager it's where they store all their people."

We spent the next four hours reviewing the information the sensors had collected from both ships.

"I'm glad you decided to brief Admiral Wattson and me before anyone else. The fleet will need to know, or the rumors will get out of hand. But it needs to be filtered. Simple truths that are easy to digest—the security at the Wave, estimated number of Medusas and cruisers, and the fact they have a mining operation and space platforms. I believe the information to the senior commanders needs to be structured so as to focus one issue at a time, rather than give them everything at once," Zhu said, directed at Wattson.

"You're right, Admiral Zhu. I'm having trouble focusing. I suggest you, Reese, and I sit down and develop a briefing for the captains for general release to their crews. And then the issues we will need to address with the task force leaders and their captains," Wattson said. "Several of the issues go well beyond the task force commanders."

* * *

Over the next eight hours, we worked on a briefing for the captains and a written handout for their crews. The information was general and without a lot of details. We stated we had found the system the Aliens were using as a main base, that three Medusas guarded the entrance to the system, and that three planets had mining operations, space platforms, and one or two Medusas each. Then we turned to the issues facing an invasion of the system.

* Stenberg would have to discuss our finding with the JPU and their potential participation.

* The force needed to gain entrance to the system.

* The force needed to hold the Wave exit.

* The force needed to destroy the Aliens.

* Given the above, we needed a strategy which would determine each nation’s participation.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Developing an invasion strategy

An hour after returning to their command ships, Wattson and Zhu sent out our prepared briefing to all captains and scheduled a meeting for the next day with the task force leaders. Iglis was allowed to send the general briefing information to Admiral Butler, and Wattson requested Admiral Plimson come to Echo to attend a special meeting.

The first meeting with the task force commanders was chaos, as everyone had questions he or she thought more important than the problem at hand—the force necessary to enter the Alien's system, referred to as the Red Dwarf or just Red.

Wattson would not allow me or Zhang to answer any question that did not relate to the basic problem.

Finally, Zhu quieted the room. "Quiet, please. It should be obvious by now that we will accomplish nothing if we spend the day answering random questions. In time, all of your questions and concerns will be addressed. But for now, each meeting will address one issue, and your focus must be on that issue only." He made eye contact with each individual. "When we enter Red, there will be three Medusas with twelve cruisers each with ten fighters. What force will we need to gain entrance? First, let's consider brute force."

The discussions went on for over two hours. In the end, it was decided we would need two Alliance cruisers for every one Alien cruiser, which would require around seventy unmodified Light cruisers, and six to one unmodified Heavy cruisers for each Medusa. That was about one-third of the SAS Navy just to get into the system. They further estimated that only twenty percent of the armada would be left operational.

Then Wattson pushed for the next phase. What did we need to destroy the Aliens’ remaining fleet? Given four additional Medusas with twelve cruisers each and approximately twenty to thirty around the platforms, they figured we would need one hundred fifty Lights and twenty-four Heavies.

The room was silent when the exercise finished. That was approximately two hundred forty to two hundred fifty cruisers. Throw in another fifteen percent for unknowns, and you had the entire SAS or UFN Navy.

"Why did I have you estimating the worst case when we have Riss technology? Because I wanted everyone to see the magnitude of the problem. That we could win with overwhelming force, but the cost would be the destruction of the SAS or UFN navy and the loss of over one hundred thousand lives. Even if we shared the burden equally, neither navy would be able to meet the needs of its empire afterward. Overwhelming force is not and cannot be the solution. That's enough for today. Tomorrow, we will begin to examine our alternatives."

* * *

"That was a depressing meeting," Sheva said as we sat having a late-night snack in my office.

"I suspect tomorrow will be worse," I said, fearing the tone of tomorrow's discussion.

"You mean everyone will want the Riss to be the solution," Zheng said.

"Yes, what matters if a thousand Riss die if it saves several thousand humans?"

At the realization of what Zheng and I were thinking, Jaelle's hand jerked, splashing her wine on her shirt.

"Yes. Never mind that it's a fifty-to-one relationship, one Riss being equivalent to fifty sailors. Worse yet, one Riss is equivalent to ten million civilians." My eyes stung with tears at the thought.

"We could leave," Zhang said.

I knew he was questioning himself as well as our dual loyalties—we were humans—and me as I spoke for the Riss.

Image of Riss sitting with ice-pack on her head, dark circles under blood-shot eyes, and thinning gray hair everywhere.

When I looked around, everyone was smiling. Thalia had broadcast the image to the other Riss.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Riss Series 4: The Riss Accession, page 24

C. R. DAEMS SERIES:

Other author's books: