Элизабет Мун - Into the Fire

“Thank you, Commandant; I’ll eat at my desk, too. That way the calls won’t interrupt you.”

According to Hemins, the second year was already improving, though still far from the goals Ky had set for it. But better was better. She turned to Laurent’s plats and comments. He had come to the same conclusion she had, that the complex of government buildings surrounding the Presidential Palace and Government House would be impossible to defend from a serious attack with twice the troops the Academy could supply:

“It would be better to remove the President and her staff, and the senior legislators, to a safe place—not that such a place exists at this time. The Academy itself would be easier to defend from ground attack, but not from the air. The only substantial bunker-like areas are under the oldest buildings. I do have a file of previous plans other than the one you sent me—I would have expected them to be in the Commandant’s office somewhere unless they were removed by the previous occupant.”

Ky felt a chill go down her back. Kvannis had taken the plans, of course, and that meant he was up to date on the most recent. She read further.

“My senior Land Force students participated in the updating of the plan every year, as well. I’ve shipped the copies to your desktop. However, I believe we need to talk about this.”

“Indeed we do.” Ky looked at her schedule and then his, then touched the button that connected to his office. “Colonel Laurent, this is the Commandant. I agree with your assessment. Do you have anyone scheduled for your office hours today?”

“No—are you free then?”

“Yes,” Ky said. “I will be scaring the second-years again today, but then I will come by your office on my way to the gym.”

“Thank you, Commandant.”

Ky looked quickly at the plans he’d forwarded. All brief, not much change from year to year. Starting back in the days when a ditch had encircled the future “government place” for drainage, the plan had been to place a cordon of troops around that margin—first using the ditch and the little mound on the inside as cover. Later, when the ditch was eradicated during the construction of Ring Street, the plan developed two concentric rings of “protection”—the outer being a ring of “checkpoints” where a small number of troops would supposedly control entry, and the inner being the perimeter of each building. At no point was defense of the government complex moved out across Ring Street to make use of the cover of other buildings.

“Insane,” Ky muttered.

A few hours later, in Colonel Laurent’s office, Ky laid the plans on his desk. “These haven’t changed much in four hundred years.”

“True. And regrettable. I asked repeatedly for permission to expand the parameters, but was told there would never be an attack, that this was all theoretical. It would be a training exercise only and students could be told why it wouldn’t work.”

Ky shook her head. “Frustrating, I’m sure. Do you know who was behind the lack of planning?”

“Pure laziness and cost-cutting, I believe. We could use an engineering section, with appropriate machinery. But no. ‘Oh, no, we can’t have you making ruts in the roads or digging up the beautiful gardens.’ We could use a way to emplace anti-aircraft, but again, the sacred gardens. I’m not the first chair of the Land Force department to be told no, and I want to make clear that we all fought for better planning, but… this is what we have. Once a year, in the spring—the same date every year to avoid alarming civilians—we reserve some transport from the base, bus the two upper classes of Land Force cadets over there, and have them parade around the perimeter with empty weapons and practice peeking around the corners of the buildings. It’s Drill Day.”

“Not even the entire cadet corps?” It made no sense at all to Ky.

“No. Because the others will never need to know about land warfare, at least not until they attend Staff College later.” Laurent grimaced. “You would think the Unification War had been a little disagreement settled with shouting and sign-waving, something that could never happen again.”

“What is the presumed enemy for the drill?”

“Farmers upset about the price of fuel and a drop in the price of produce, played by senior school students from two private schools. They were always intimidated by the cadet troops and dispersed without actual contact.”

“I had no idea…”

“You wouldn’t. You were Spaceforce-designated. You were on your shuttle training flight.”

“And Kvannis knows these plans?”

“To the centimeter. He knows how far ahead you have to reserve the buses. He knows the exact coordinates of every room in every building.” Laurent looked at her quizzically.

“Do you think Kvannis expects these plans to be followed? In general or in detail?”

“Commandant, I must admit Iskin Kvannis and I were not particularly close. We had had… disagreements. His intent, he had told me, was to get rid of me for being, in his words, insufficiently respectful of his position once he became Commandant. Because I did not like him, it is possible that I have not fully understood his thought processes. And I have no idea what insight he had into your thought processes, or if he thought Colonel Stornaki would take over the Academy after he left.”

“Points taken,” Ky said. “Conclusion?”

“I think he expected Stornaki would be named interim, and Stornaki would do what Kvannis told him. Surrender the Academy, even. I’m sure he knows you’re the new Commandant. He knows you were trained for Spaceforce, and your experience was entirely in space warfare. He may expect you to follow the plan because you have no expertise in land warfare, or he might think you will do something different but equally inept.” Laurent tipped his head a little.

Ky nodded. “Then I think I should surprise him by doing something different and effective. Don’t you?”

He smiled at her. “Yes. Did you have something in mind?”

“Indeed. But if you have any ideas, I’d rather hear yours first.”

“The plan as it is could be improved by adding that engineer brigade and moving some dirt around, to the consternation of the Port Major Garden Club. Adding some artillery, air defense emplacements, surveillance drones… do we have any hope of getting such resources from the Joint Services HQ?”

“In other words, augment the current plan? With resources we almost certainly could not get within a tenday, let alone create real defensive positions?”

“That’s true. If we expect an attack that soon, about all we can do is evacuate the likely targets—the President, the senior legislators, the heads of departments—but we can’t. I raised that possibility and everyone acted as if I wanted to kidnap them and put them in prison—”

“Everyone is going to have to accept the necessity,” Ky said. “We don’t have the troops, equipment, or time to make that area really defensible, though we don’t know the actual time of attack. We know the other side has subverted part of AirDefense: they were able to send planes up from Ordnay to intercept an aircraft carrying rescued personnel.”

“What happened?”

“Better planning,” Ky said. “I regret the deaths of those pilots, but we got the survivors safely to Port Major.” He nodded and she went on. “We don’t know whether Sea Force has been subverted as well, so attacks from ships at sea, or troops transported by sea, could be involved, as well as Land Force units moving into the city. We would need much longer—and we don’t have it, because the other side has to move quickly; they can’t easily hide out for a half year. Now that they’ve started, speed is their ally.”