The Unincorporated Woman (56 page)

“
Also
moving at a quarter g,” Zenobia protested. “I know we’ll take losses, sir, but we’re in a position
to
take them. I read the studies you ran showing that orbital batteries unsupported by ships cannot hold out for long, and I honestly believe our losses would be minimal.”

Trang sighed. “Studies are a lovely way to bide one’s time, Zenobia. If you checked the date on those studies, you’d see that they were done well before the war and in fact are entirely theoretical. They have as much validity as did the belief that Tully would make a fine admiral. But the truth is, a major fleet has not attacked unsupported orbital batteries in this or any war. The closest we have to a real event was J. D. Black’s bold assault on Mars in the Second Battle of the Martian Gates—and we all know how well that turned out for her. But another truth is the orbat field around Ceres is way bigger than the one Black faced. So the final truth is that we don’t know what will happen when a fleet this size attacks an orbat field that size. And barring a compelling reason to do so, I will not attempt that experiment with the ships of my fleet and the lives of my crew and certainly not on half thrusters.”

“The thing is, sir,” argued Zenobia, her stridency having shifted to a softer edge, “we’re getting deeper into Alliance space every second. In another week, we’ll be a hell of a lot farther from our supply base.”

Trang got up and placed a comforting hand on Zenobia’s shoulder. “You needn’t worry, Zenobia. Our supply lines are not being harassed. Legless has gone a-courting in fields afar.”

“But that’s what gets me. If the Alliance knew we’d be having to stretch our supply lines, why send the one man they have who’s best at harassing supply lines so far away?”

Trang nodded, his lips momentarily pursed tightly together. “That is a very good question that should be worrying me more, except that I have to worry about the other thing that’s worrying me more.”

“Where has that bitch got to?”

“That is the operative question. She’s been gone over four months with her fleet. How do you hide a fleet of over three hundred ships? And with her missing, attacking Ceres remains a possible suicide.”

He stepped up to his desk and activated the holo-tank. Instantly an image of Ceres and its encircling orbat field appeared over his desk. “We cannot seriously attack that field without committing a majority—and I mean a large majority—of the fleet.” He fiddled with the controls, and the UHF fleet was shown breaking into fifteen small clusters and attacking the orbital system at great range. “As you can see, the fleet must break itself into small and easily attackable clusters in order to keep the orbats from giving each other mutual support. They will, of course, be firing back.” Trang gave Zenobia a penetrating look. “But have you realized the new difficulty we’ll face?”

After a few moments of studied silence, Zenobia shrugged, the frustration showing on her face. “I’m sorry, sir. I’m just not seeing it.”

To her confusion, he pointed to the orbats around Ceres. “You may have noticed that Ceres is moving away from its former orbit.”

“Yes,” said Zenobia, still unsure until the truth hit her like a bat to the head. “I should be sold for penny share prices, how could I have missed that?”

“That being?” tested Trang, taking on the role of the West Point academy instructor he still occasionally wished he could be.

“That the orbats are keeping pace with Ceres as it accelerates toward the outer system, which means they must have independent maneuvering thrusters.” Zenobia sighed. “Which means taking them out will be a lot harder, as they can maneuver away from many of our shots.”

“Bravo. You are only the second one to figure that out.”

“It shouldn’t count if you had to give me a clue. Did Gupta need one, or did he figure it out on his own?”

“He called about four hours after it occurred to me. If you factor in the time it took for his message to get to me, he was even closer.”

“I’m not as good as he is—” She paused and smiled. “—yet.”

“In some ways, you’re better than either of us, Zenobia. Your strength is your weakness—like J.D.—” He smiled reassuringly at the grimace she’d made. “—like J.D., you’re bold, able to see a situation, and despite its weaknesses come up with a way to make it to your advantage. You’re not as good as she is yet, but that will come with experience.”

“Admiral, if the Alliance has made their orbats maneuverable—”

“—we should do the same,” finished Trang. “I agree, Zenobia, but our boss, the Defense Minister does not.”

“Well, then, tell the miserable bureaucrat to spend the extra credits,” she bellowed. “He’ll listen to you, won’t he?”

“I’ve been overruled on this, Zenobia.”

“Demand the son of a bitch be fired! The President would do it, sir. He needs you more than that snake.”

“Zenobia, I’ll say this here and only here, but what you’ve just proposed is treason.”

“How?”

“Sit down, please.” It wasn’t a request, and Zenobia, concern evident in the dark, probative nature of her eyes, sat down immediately.

“When a military officer, no matter how important he may seem to be, can tell his civilian superiors what to do, then you have a bigger problem than the enemy in front of you. If they were treasonous, then I might have some basis to act based on my oath. But that is not the case. They’re working under extreme conditions using a socialist structure to make a capitalist economy fight a war. They’ve created a military and political infrastructure that enables us to fight. That held the UHF together despite defeat after defeat. Porfirio did not say no, even though it was his right. The Defense Minister explained to me that the UHF has the densest orbat fields around Mars and Earth–Luna. If an attack seemed imminent, it would be different, but he took great delight in pointing out to me that the Alliance was getting farther and farther away from the Core Worlds even as we were speaking. He then explained what it would take to add maneuvering thrusters to every orbat around the Core Worlds and what programs would have to be cut back in order to make it work. He hinted all supply transport production would have to be curtailed.”

“That’s a load of crap,” she fumed, followed by a contrite, “sir. They could requisition more thruster units from the civilian sector. You know they would scream loudest if anything happened to one of the Core Worlds.”

“I know that, and so does Porfirio. If he felt it was a real threat, he’d find a way, but he doesn’t. Let’s not forget he lives on Mars. I don’t think he’d take an action that would leave the capital of the UHF vulnerable to attack.”

Zenobia obserbed her boss shrewdly. “What exactly would you do, sir?”

“Me?” Trang laughed out loud. “I’d make the damn orbats maneuverable. You never know what the Alliance has planned next. For Damsah’s sake, we’re chasing Ceres across the bankruptcy-prone solar system. But it is not my call, and you are in no way to hint that it should be. We serve the civilian government, not the other way around. Besides, we have enough troubles right here.”

Zenobia took a deep breath and tipped her head toward her boss. The half smile on her face indicated her disappointment but also spoke to her resolve. “If we attack that orbat field, it will have to be all out for a week,” she asserted. “If we don’t give it our best effort, we won’t breach that field, and if we do, we’ll have damaged ships and low fuel and ammunition stocks.”

“Which is when…,” began Trang.

“Which is when the bitch queen herself will attack and blow the living crap out of our fleet,” finished Zenobia. “So we have to wait here while Gupta wins the war for us.”

“Now you understand. As long as J.D. is trapped here waiting for us to attack, she can’t move. If she does, we can take her anywhere from here to Jupiter and away from her orbats. If not, then Abhay will win the war for us and we’ll just have to accept our place in history as the finger that held the string while another tied the bow.” Trang’s mouth formed into self-satisfied grin. “I can live with that.”

En route to Jupiter, UHFS
Redemption

“Admiral, a message for you, priority one,” gulped his communications officer.

Only two people had the authority to issue a priority one communication in the UHF fleet. One was Grand Admiral Trang, but Abhay knew if it was something really important, Trang would have used their personal code phrases and sent it in an innocuous-sounding message.

“Send the President’s message to my room, Lieutenant. I’ll take it there.”

Gupta magnetized his body to a 1 g equivalent and moved through the ship at a confidently steady pace. When he got to his cabin, he read the encrypted message. Then he read it again. His hand paused as he was about to activate a secure line to Trang. Gupta knew that if he sent the message, Trang would order him to hold off and then Trang would use his considerable influence to stop the order from going into effect. Trang may fail, thought Gupta, but he might also succeed in getting the order revoked or held up. But if Gupta just made a general announcement of the order as the President had suggested, then Trang would be faced with a fait accompli. He’d never done such a thing to his friend, the man who’d redeemed him from J.D.’s frozen tombs, saved his career, and on one occasion, even his life.

For over an hour Gupta considered every aspect of the “recommendation” he’d just received. At first he was horrified by what it implied. But as the President had correctly suggested, the UHF had to win the war, because if it didn’t, the next one would be worse.
But,
Gupta thought solemnly,
how could it get any worse than this?
Could he actually do such a thing? In the end, he realized that if he didn’t, then in fifty years, another officer—perhaps not even born—would have to do even worse deeds, and Gupta couldn’t imagine passing the terrible burden on to someone else. He was an officer of the UHF, and he’d sworn an obligation. He tagged a different protocol. One that would broadcast his words to the entire fleet and back to the UHF behind him.

In a stunning announcement, Fleet Admiral Abhay Gupta, victor of the Battle of Mercury, said that he is leading a large fleet back to Jupiter, the scene of the disastrous Battle of Jupiter’s Eye. It has been explained that the UHF forces are big enough to take on J. D. Black’s forces even if split, and she cannot be in two places at once. “Their big weakness is the sheer size of the space they have to protect. We’re going to take advantage of that,” said Gupta. But the far more controversial aspect of the announcement was his issuing of Fleet Order 8645, calling for the absolute destruction of any structures that can be of use to the Alliance in the prosecution of the current war. Since the order was issued, Gupta altered course and destroyed a settlement of twenty-seven asteroids that were fleeing the Belt. It is assumed that any survivors will have been frozen by now and may be revived if found. The admiral made it clear that he was destroying fusion reactors, drive systems, communications arrays, computer nodes, and anything else that may be of use to the war effort of the Alliance. He did not destroy the integrity of the asteroids themselves, and if the survivors stay in them, it should be relatively easy to find and revive them after the Alliance has surrendered. This has caused a storm of controversy on Mars and Earth as well as in Luna, with vocal opinions being made for and against Fleet Order 8645. The UHF Assembly has called a special session, and the President has announced a special Cabinet meeting, but he has stated unequivocally that he will not rescind the order, as he is not going to second-guess an admiral risking his life deep in enemy space until he has considered all the ramifications. Grand Admiral Trang was not available for reliable comment, as he is keeping pace with the fleeing asteroid Ceres and it is emitting an enormous amount of ECM, making communication difficult.

NNN

It has been confirmed that forces of the UHF have attacked and spaced another defenseless settlement fleeing the barbarity of the corporate Core. This makes two settlements attacked. If Fleet Admiral Gupta follows the policy around Jupiter, it will be nothing more than cold-blooded murder. Any settlement spaced around that planet will be subject to the intense energies and radiation of the magnetosphere. No brain will survive in a revivable condition in that environment. There are nearly a billion people living around Jupiter. This action will make Gupta and the UHF the greatest mass murderers in human history. Surpassing even the atrocities of the Grand Collapse, we are forced to ask two questions. (1) To what depths will the UHF sink to enslave every last human? (2) What can we do about it?

Alliance Daily Star

Although the Cabinet was displeased that Gupta’s early issuance of Fleet Order 8645 would give the Alliance time to prepare, they decided to proceed as planned. Irma was forced to accelerate her initial media plan. In the end, the campaign was so effective that by the time the UHF Assembly met in emergency session, the politicians knew that if they ever wanted to get elected to anything ever again, they’d better support a hero of the UHF as opposed to defending the rights of rebels, traitors, and VR peddlers. It took only fifteen minutes for the Assembly to pass a resolution supporting the new fleet order, followed by their asking the President to confirm the order, which with great solemnity he did.

Irma felt sick to her stomach. This was not what she’d signed up for—being complicit in the permanent deaths of hundreds of millions of souls. In fact, just the opposite. She’d been led to believe that her inordinate skills of communication would lead to quicker resolution of the conflict and not, as she was now being made party to, its escalation. She prayed to a God she never believed in that Hektor was right, that the Alliance would see the folly of its ways and sue for peace.