Randolph Lalonde - Spinward Fringe Broadcast 08 - Renegades (59 page)

Any bridge crewmember
who wasn’t already busy at their station watched the report for
themselves, and Ayan suspected that millions of Rega Gain residents
and transients were doing the same. Not even Remmy Sands and his
Ranger squad told the crew of the ship they raided to surrender more
than once. It was a whole new chapter in methods as far as Jacob
Valent was concerned. His new command style was to offer one set of
terms for surrender a single time, then kill everything in their way,
and all the boarding teams shared the policy.

Remmy’s team had the
easiest time. Most of the crew aboard the Sunny Shifter abandoned
ship in a pair of civilian shuttles before the Rangers finished
forcing their way aboard. The small military staff that was left
wasn’t able to put up much resistance, but they tried. When Remmy’s
people were able to break into the forward section of the vessel,
they faced eighteen zealous defenders who fought to the last man and
woman. They were able to revive the first officer using the most
extreme medical technology they’d brought with them, but the others
were too far gone. Ayan recognized immense potential in Remmy Sands.
His leadership style was absolutely straightforward, something
typical of the top Ranger graduates. He told his people what to do
with confidence, not bravado or aggression. His style of delegation
was skill-based. He knew what each member of his team was good at,
and moved them like chess pieces.

He knew to reach out
beyond his team for help when it was available too, as evidenced by
his contact with Alice. It surprised Ayan, but it all made sense when
it resulted in Remmy breaking through security so his team could move
ahead as safely and quickly as possible. Remmy Sands had the
potential to become a general, but it was a little early for Ayan to
tell him.

Oz focused on the
boarding action of the destroyer, watching Stephanie Vega sneak and
Jacob Valent rampage through the ship. The first was headed aft, the
second was blasting his way to the fore. The sheer merciless quality
of their tactics drove all but the most stalwart defenders back.
Minh-Chu led the soldiers behind Jacob and Moira, occasionally
handing more grenades and replacement shield emitters to one of the
fearless leaders as they expended both in a frontal assault that
showed no regard for the condition of the ship or the lives of their
enemies.

At the end of Jacob
Valent’s rush to the bridge, Ayan heard Oz say, “No, Jake, don’t
do it,” as Valent engaged with an Order of Eden Knight in
hand-to-hand combat. Ayan and Oz watched as Jake managed to overcome
his opponent. Her helmet opened and the feed jumped to Jacob Valent
playing Chinese Whispers with a bridge crewmember.

Oz and Ayan were aghast
when Jacob pulled the trigger the first time. After the second, Oz
muttered, “What is Minh doing? He should get in there, this is
something Jake is going to regret. It’s not who he is.”

Ayan was as shocked as
Oz at first, but her longer-term reaction was more complicated. A
part of her hated the waste of life she was watching, but she
understood it. Just as Jake said to the captain of the destroyer, he
was fighting the Order so he could get to the real war, the fight for
humanity, but there was more to Ayan’s thinking. The Victory
Machine led her to separate herself from Jake abruptly, and as she
watched Jacob Valent become something new, something made of pure,
malicious anger, she realized that he would never have been able to
take things so far if they were still a couple. She stared at the
frozen image of Jacob Valent holding the young destroyer captain up
by her braid long after the playback ended, stuck in the realization
that a part of Jake’s anger could come from her sudden separation
from him.

“Ayan,” Oz said as
he stood slowly. “My ready room.” He turned towards the
communications team. “Triton Fleet doesn’t have an official or
unofficial opinion on this yet,” he told them loudly enough for
everyone on the bridge to hear. “Neither does any member of the
Triton crew. No one comments on this until Triton Fleet Command is
ready, do you understand?”

“Yes, Sir,” replied
an older communications officer.

Oz led Ayan off the
bridge and across the narrow hallway adjacent to his ready room. It
had been furnished with a wire frame sofa, three chairs, and a few
pictures of the various ships Oz had served on in his career were
printed on the walls. The furniture looked incomplete, just wire
frame and mesh, but it was surprisingly comfortable. Ayan sat down
and stood up right away.

“What’s going on?”
Oz asked. “I don’t know how to read your reaction here, do you
know something I don’t?”

“Yes,” Ayan said.
“This had to happen. According to the Victory Machine, at least.”

“You never mentioned
the Victory Machine showing you a vision of Jake going off the deep
end,” Oz replied.

“It did tell me that
putting space between him and me was important, and I know what we
just saw wouldn’t have happened if I were with him,” Ayan said.
The idea seemed less convincing aloud.

“You can’t tell me
that he’s murdering people because of a bad breakup half a year
ago,” Oz said. “He’s even been with someone since.”

She ignored the bur at
being reminded of Jake’s fling with a British Alliance intelligence
officer. “Think about it. The Triton is almost finished, Haven
Shore is effectively operational. We’ll be handing full navnet
handling to them in a week. If we were together all this time, then I
would have left on the Warlord with him for this trip. There would be
almost no reason for me to stay near Tamber, and I’d want to be
along for a big operation just like the one the Warlord finished.”

Oz sat down and buried
his head in his hands. “I hate that bloody machine,” he muttered.
“There are a lot of variables in what you’re saying, but you’re
probably right. Doesn’t matter much though, he’s still broken
most of the important rules of engagement.”

“We need to scatter
the Order of Eden’s followers,” Ayan said. “For a lot of them
this war isn’t real yet, and they typically approach every
engagement with superior forces and firepower. We have to show them
that, even with that, they can’t expect to win every time. Jake
just did.”

“You agree with what
he’s doing?”

“The more I think of
it, yes. Those bridge officers weren’t there to embark on some
wonderful adventure, they were going to war, to kill innocent people
just like Jake said. They were wannabe murderers, and Jake stopped
them. Maybe scared hundreds of thousands more.”

“And inspired
thousands of zealots at the same time,” Oz said. “The next group
of recruits will feel completely justified when they sign up for
Order military service because of this. He’s changed the kind of
war we’re going to be fighting, never mind the Edxi waiting behind
the Order.”

“Maybe, but this
could slow down Order recruitment, push some soldiers into deserting
altogether. I’d rather fight a core of a hundred dedicated zealots
than ten thousand people who are just following orders,” Ayan said.

“I agree, but we’ll
have to wait and see if that math adds up,” Oz said. “At least we
all know what kind of war we’ll be fighting now. The British
Alliance is joining in on their founders’ day at the end of the
week. They’ll be announcing it then. Who knows what this footage
will do for their recruitment.”

“That’s something,”
Ayan said.

“I prefer to put
aside whatever anger he may be expressing, and examine his thinking,”
said a smooth, low voice through the cabin’s sound system. “He
proposes that he acts as an ancient doctor, cutting a cancerous mass
free from healthy tissue. That is an appropriate approach to this
conflict.”

“Sorry, who’s
speaking?” Ayan asked.

“Couldn’t wait
until she’s officially transferred to the Triton tomorrow, could
you?” Oz asked, looking towards one blank wall. A live portrait of
the ship appeared.

“This is an important
discussion, Oz. Besides, if there’s anyone I feel I don’t need
protection from, it’s Commodore Ayan Anderson. Permit me to take
this opportunity to welcome you back, Ayan. Last time you spent any
significant amount of time aboard, I was asleep.”

“This is the Triton’s
artificial intelligence?” Ayan asked.

“I’m a caretaker
and operator, a living being tailor-made to live aboard the Triton
for several centuries. I’m mostly aquatic, and measure fairly high
on the telepathic scale, higher than the Lorander First Minister,
though she does have significant reach and comprehension. Putting
that aside for a moment, I look forward to meeting you in person,
something we’ll have to do some time after the Warlord arrives.”

“It’s good to meet
you, too,” Ayan said, regarding Oz with a raised eyebrow. She
couldn’t believe that he didn’t let her in on the secret about
the Triton. “At least now I know why Oz has seemed distracted every
now and then, usually in the middle of conversation.”

“I’m sorry, since
he’s one of my only means of conveying my opinions, I spend a lot
of time communicating with him,” the Triton responded.

“So you’re called
by the same name as the ship?” Ayan asked.

“I’ve had three
names, to be honest,” the voice overhead replied.

“Three names? You
told me to call you Triton,” Oz said.

“That’s what you
kept picturing and there was no reason to complicate things, but
Ayan’s mind is more well suited to layered thinking. The surface
thoughts she passively shares are more compassionate and elaborate
than your deeper musings. That, and she’s a puzzle solver. I love
those.”

“So I’m
simple-minded,” Oz said, shaking his head.

“You have a highly
motivated soldier’s mind that draws on a deep well of knowledge and
experience. In classic human analogy, you would be a twenty-year-old
scotch with character and strength, while she is a fuzzy navel that
is fresh with complex bright flavours. Both are wonderfully
intoxicating, but beyond that they cannot be compared.”

“Let me guess, you
experienced both vicariously?” Oz asked, rolling his eyes.

“On my last tour some
of the crew enjoyed their contraband a great deal, and they were
surprisingly adept at sneaking it aboard. I quietly linked with them
telepathically while they indulged. Only once per beverage, mind
you.”

Ayan was amused beyond
words by the Triton’s keeper, and she enjoyed taking a moment for
lighter conversation, but the more important issues nagged at her.
“What would you like me to call you?” she asked.

“One of my favourite
handlers called me Hausgiest, and I admit I became partial to it,”
he replied.

The translation
appeared on her command and control unit as
House
Spirit
. “Then that’s what I’ll call you, but I’ll
keep your secret.”

“Thank you, Ayan. I
hope to meet you soon.”

“You will, but what
were you saying before about Jake killing officers aboard the
destroyer?”

“I will elaborate on
my opinion,” Hausgiest replied. “His methods are morally wrong in
most situations, but he did kill military personnel, making his
actions defensible in this specific case. It’s true that they would
eventually go on to crew that ship against his allies, however
distant or removed. None of those factors seem to matter to the
logical thoughts I know Captain Valent had before stepping onto that
bridge. While he may have seemed unhinged, his approach makes sense
when you consider it tactically.”

“Okay, I think I know
where you’re going,” Oz said.

“Captain Valent is
setting a standard for brutality that is so high that his allies will
feel their actions in war, however barbaric, will seem tame compared
to the vitriolic murders he carried out. Some of his allies will even
try to best him in terms of malicious performance. The Order of Eden
is facing a foe that will hesitate less in battle when going for the
kill, and that is highly intimidating. Add the Warlord and their
armada-of-one strategies, and you have a dreaded opponent that can
appear anywhere at any time then disappear after they’ve taken
whatever they like. May I remind you of the Triton fighter wing’s
motto? Deploy, dominate, disappear? It seems the Warlord beat us to
it, and I can’t wait to show them how the Triton executes similar
strategies.”

“So you support
Jake’s methods?” Ayan asked.

“Yes. Mathematically,
his methods of intimidation stand to save human lives on both sides
by aggressively concluding this war as quickly as possible. It will
seem bloodier than a more careful, drawn out conflict, but on the
whole, the shorter, more violent confrontation of sides will involve
fewer people and force everyone on both sides to reconsider the
wisdom of their cause. The Order of Eden will be reduced in number.
Oz is correct in predicting that zealots will appear, and if we
relent they will win, but we must not hesitate. Victories will draw
recruits to either side, and we must have as many as possible as soon
as we can, then celebrate them each so the entire galaxy can hear us.
I know this is not the Freeground way, but the war can be won using
this strategy. I urge you to consider it, and to understand that this
isn’t my strategy, but Captain Valent’s. I’m only extrapolating
his intentions from his style and the insight I gained when I read
his surface thoughts and emotions weeks ago.”

“Do you read everyone
who comes aboard?” Ayan asked with a chuckle.

“Only a little,
enough to know whether or not they can do the Triton or their fellow
crewmembers serious harm. I have to protect the silverware somehow,”
Hausgiest replied.

“Well,” Ayan sat
down slowly, considering everything Hausgiest said. “You’re
right, this isn’t how Freeground Fleet would fight this war. There
would be a lot of prisoners, the Admiralty would have a hand in
determining the mandate of every outgoing ship, and Jake would
probably lose his command for his conduct. Freeground has never met
something like the Order, though. They’ve never won a battle the
way Jake and the Warlord crew did. Against those odds, any Freeground
captain would be instructed to stand down and retreat.”