Authors: Peter Grant
The Captain grinned. “That’s an understatement, Sir! Thank you for thinking of me.”
“Thank you, Sir.” She hesitated a moment. “May I make a suggestion, please, Sir?”
“Go ahead.”
She explained her agent’s comments about buying diamonds for Major Moshira. “Sir, if his account can be proved – particularly if he gives you the diamonds, and the money the Major gave him to pay for them can be traced back to SS funds – then that might give you grounds to take action against the local SS office.”
“A very good point. Are you prepared to go back to the SS this afternoon? I can send Captain Dehgahn with you if you wish.”
“I’ll be glad to have him, Sir, in case the Major decides I’ve been disloyal to him.”
“Very well. I want you to get your agent’s written report as scheduled. When you’ve done that, place him under arrest and bring him here for interrogation by my own people, not the SS. We’ll see what he has to say.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Captain, please escort Lieutenant Yazata back to the SS offices and help her in any way necessary. Take some of my MP’s with you to provide assistance as required. If you run into anything you can’t handle, call me at once.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“All right. On your way, both of you.”
March 6th 2850 GSC
RESISTANCE HEADQUARTERS
Jake was eating breakfast when the Council’s summons reached him. He hastily crammed his mouth full of food, dumped the rest unceremoniously in the trash bin, and hurried down the tunnel to the meeting room.
“Sorry to have kept you, Sir,” he apologized to General Allred as he entered, brushing crumbs from his utility coverall. The General was sitting alone at the roughly-cobbled-together table, drinking coffee.
“No problem. The Council’s still assembling.” Allred rubbed his tired eyes. “I was up until the small hours after the aircar brought you back, reading your progress report on the activation of Laguna Base and your son’s after-action report on the Matopo Hills affair. That was one hell of a mission!”
“It sure was, Sir.” Jake’s pride in his son was obvious in his voice.
The other members of the Council trickled in over the next five minutes. As soon as all seven were present, Gloria Allred called the meeting to order. She looked around, her prematurely gray hair framing a tired, careworn but still determined face.
“We’ve done everything in our power for over three years to collect evidence of Bactrian atrocities. We’re currently assembling it all, including some items that were dispersed to different locations for safekeeping. We almost lost some of the most important evidence at the Matopo Hills, but fortunately that’s been recovered, along with intelligence that’s going to have a dramatic impact on our future. We should have all the evidence, and our two bearer bank keys, at our new Laguna Peninsula base by tomorrow. There we’ll catalog it, assemble it into a package, and duplicate as much as possible for safekeeping in case anything goes wrong.
“Mr. Ellis has arranged for a spaceship to be here at the end of the month to collect him. However, intelligence obtained from a Security Service colonel reveals that at the same time the Satrap of Bactria and his son, the Crown Prince, will be visiting Laredo. During their visit all space traffic will be restricted, and no boarding or disembarking will be allowed. Mr. Ellis will be stuck planetside until the Satrap leaves. If we try to kill the Satrap and his son, even if we fail, the result will be chaos and disorder. The Bactrians will be frantic to find whoever’s responsible, and they certainly won’t permit any spaceship to leave until they’ve searched every nook and cranny. Therefore, if we want to attack the Satrap, we have to first find a way to get Mr. Ellis and our evidence aboard his ship, then send it on its way. That’s what we’ll have to decide over the next couple of days. There’s also a major military consideration looming over us. I’ll ask my husband to address that. Bill?”
“Thank you, Gloria.” The General looked around the table as he spoke. “The single most important reason we’ve pursued low-intensity operations for as long as we have has been to buy time to get this evidence to the United Planets. If it weren’t for that I’d have conducted higher-intensity operations, albeit at the cost of even higher casualties than we’ve already taken. Let’s face it, we can’t get off-planet and we can’t win militarily. Whether we die sooner by inflicting greater damage, or live longer by inflicting less, still leads to the same outcome for all of us in the end.”
Another Councilor shook her head. “I can’t help thinking that it may all have been in vain anyway.” Her voice was sad, almost despairing. “The United Planets isn’t renowned for solving problems – it’s more a gathering-place for politicians to see and be seen. The best we could hope for is a peacekeeping mission, and with more than four-fifths of our planetary population already dead that would be pointless. They probably won’t bother. As for sanctions against Bactria, even if they’re imposed they won’t come in time to help us. In the end, who’s to say our long fight has been worth anything at all? Haven’t we merely delayed the inevitable?”
Gloria Allred replied, “We haven’t surrendered, Maria, and we never will. That counts for a lot in my book. By getting this evidence out we’ll at least let people know the truth about what happened here. We owe that to all our soldiers who died for us, and the slaughtered population of Banka, and all who’ve died as slave laborers. They deserve to be remembered.”
“But will Bactria ever be punished?” Maria asked.
General Allred nodded vigorously. “Ever heard the old saying ‘What goes around, comes around’? I’m a student of history. Almost every time one nation has mercilessly crushed another, sooner or later they’ve been crushed in their turn. We won’t be around to see it, but I’ve no doubt Bactria will pay a heavy price for what it’s done to us. It’s the ‘Golden Rule’ applied to nations instead of individuals. What they’ve done to us, someone else will one day do to them.”
He waited for a further response, but none came. He continued, “To get back to our present situation, as you know, our remaining major bases are now known to the enemy. We’ll finish evacuating them by tomorrow morning – in fact, this Council will be among the last to leave. We’re going to booby-trap them, of course, in order to kill as many Bactrians as possible when they attack them. However, we need to decide whether it’s feasible for us to continue to fight when most of our bases are gone. Personally, I don’t think it is, particularly because with only one base left to us, it can’t be long before it’s also discovered by the enemy.
“There’s another thing. If we want to attack the Satrap, success will depend on being able to overwhelm local defenses. That’ll take every able-bodied soldier we’ve got. Furthermore, the enemy will throw everything he’s got into trying to rescue the Satrap or avenge his death, so our chances of escape will be slim to none. If we attack him, it’ll be our swan song – a last stand. I’m not opposed to that if the Council decides it’s worth the cost in order to kill him. However, any attempt to send our evidence and Mr. Ellis out of the system will have to precede or coincide with our attack, because afterwards there won’t be enough of us left to do anything about it.”
There was a long silence as the Councilors digested his words. Eventually Jake raised his hand. “Sir, here’s a thought. If we plan to attack the Satrap, wouldn’t it be best to make the Bactrians think we’re a spent force – that we’ve shot our bolt and no longer pose a real threat? If so, I suggest we don’t booby-trap our bases after evacuating them. Let the Bactrians walk right into them and suffer no casualties. We’ve booby-trapped things so often before that they’ll come in all worried about what’s waiting for them, only to encounter a huge anti-climax. I reckon they’ll think we either didn’t have the stomach for it any longer, or perhaps had run out of the explosives and other things we needed to make the booby-traps. I hope that’ll help to make them more complacent about the Satrap’s security.”
“That’s not a bad idea at all,” General Allred said thoughtfully. “I agree that making the enemy complacent will probably work to our advantage.”
Maria stirred in her seat. “I agree that it’s the Council’s decision, but shouldn’t our troops also have a say? I’m sure most of them will agree without hesitation – after all, as you’ve reminded us, General, we’ve known for some time that there can only be one end to our resistance. However, perhaps one in ten of our soldiers still have wives and children, or parents, or siblings. They shouldn’t be asked to abandon them to the whims of fate. In fact, I suggest we offer such people the opportunity to retire from military service, to try to reintegrate into civilian life. Most of them have long since moved their families to quieter regions. The Bactrians have so far left farmers and ranchers alone, because they need the food they produce. We could give each family part of our accumulated funds in Bactrian bezants, and help them establish farms or ranches or take over those left empty by others who’ve died in the fighting. Let them go with our blessings. Those who explicitly volunteer for what they know will probably be a one-way mission can carry out the attack.”
Gloria nodded. “I like that idea. I’ll second it.”
“Thirded,” another council member called.
“Any objections?” Gloria waited, but no-one else spoke. “Passed by unanimous consent. If we approve the attack – which I suspect we will - we’ll look into how best to implement that measure as well. Thank you, Maria.” She transferred her gaze to her husband. “What else do we need to discuss in order to make a decision on whether to attack the Satrap or not?”
“There are several factors. I’ll lay them out for you, and ask you to think about them while we evacuate to our Laguna Peninsula base and I discuss the option in general terms with our soldiers. If we don’t get enough volunteers for a one-way mission, there’s no point in approving it, is there?” There were murmurs of agreement around the table. “I think it’ll take several days to come to a decision, based on all the consultation that has to be done and the simultaneous movement of our people from widely scattered bases to the new one.”
He turned to Jake. “While we’re doing that, I’ve got a special mission for your regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Carson. I need you to reconnoiter the garrison at Caristo. See whether you can steal fuel cartridges for our shuttles’ micro-reactors and reaction mass for their thrusters. If we can use them against the Satrap, they’ll be invaluable; and even if we don’t, having them available in case of need will also be very worthwhile.”
“Sure, Sir. I’ll need someone who knows shuttles to help us decide what to take.”
“All right. Take your son and Sergeant Gray back to Caristo with you. They can enjoy a bit more time together, and she can tell you more about what we need.”
“Will do, Sir. I’ll have them meet me there. We’ll try to be back at the Laguna Peninsula base in four days, to be available by the time you make your decision.”
“Fair enough.” He held out his hand. “Good luck.”
March 7th 2850 GSC
CARISTO GARRISON
“Freeze!”
Dave’s whispered warning stopped Tamsin in her tracks. She forced herself to remain motionless, ignoring the tiny midges that crawled over her face and body to drink her perspiration, making her skin itch, getting into the corners of her eyes and making her blink. From behind them she heard the faint whisper of a hoversat’s rotors approaching. It passed low overhead, its sensor turret turning lazily as it scanned its surroundings. The hum of its electric motor died away as it moved on down the hillside, disappearing into the gloom of the night.
“OK, you can go on now.”
“I don’t see how it missed us. It was so close I could almost have touched it!”
He chuckled. “Doesn’t matter. Sergeant Dixon’s a wizard at electronic warfare. He tapped into the watch console in the guardroom months ago. It controls the perimeter hoversat. When needed, he can disable its sensor turret so that it moves and looks normal, but doesn’t pick up anything. He did that tonight, but you never know for sure that it’s worked until you run into it and it doesn’t react to your presence. Clearly, his patch is working fine. He also replaced its feed with one we recorded earlier, so the guards on duty are seeing it moving over empty terrain with nothing to report. When we finish, he’ll restore the circuit.”
She chuckled delightedly.
“Damn,
he’s good if he can do all that!”
“He’s the best I’ve ever seen – but then, he’s had plenty of practice, like all our EW techs. That’s one way we’ve stayed alive so long, by deceiving Bactrian drones big and small.” He nudged her elbow and pointed to a bush ahead and to the right. “We’ve excavated a hollow beneath that bush. There’s room for both of us to lie there under cover where we can’t be seen.”
They wriggled their way beneath the low encroaching branches, and settled down with mutual sighs of relief. She took binoculars from her pouch. As she powered them up and focused them, he extracted an electronic clipboard and prepared to make notes.
“All right,” she began, peering intently through the image-stabilized lenses at the brightly-lit hangar inside the perimeter fence, several hundred meters ahead of and below their position. “They’re pulling a late shift – must be trying to get the overhaul finished as quickly as possible. Let’s see… Looks like three shuttles are already done. They’ve been washed, which wouldn’t have happened if they were still waiting for maintenance. The last one has all its hatches and access panels open. I can see through the rear door that the inside floor panels are raised as well, so they’re even servicing the reactor and generator. This isn’t just routine maintenance, it’s a full-scale overhaul. If they’re doing that to all four shuttles, they’ll be as good as new by the time they finish.”
“I take it we haven’t done the same for our two birds?”
“You must be kidding! We don’t have qualified mechanics for a start – we learned what we needed for basic maintenance from the on-board documentation, but that’s designed for the flight crew, not for technicians. It isn’t comprehensive enough for full maintenance. Also, we don’t have access to a full toolkit or spare parts. I wish we did!” She sighed. “Ours run rough and they’re long overdue for overhaul, but that’s not about to happen. At least the SS shuttle we captured in the Matopo Hills is in great shape.”