Christopher Nuttall - Democracy's Light

A muttered command brought up a strategic display of the sector and he considered it thoughtfully. It had been a fairly simple task, with the command and authorisation codes he’d had as part of his role as Sector Fleet Commander, to take over every defence system and starship in the sector. Where Colin Harper had had to cruise around, picking his fights carefully, he had simply been able to take the defences over and recruit people to follow him. It hadn’t been that hard. The resentment among the rank and file for the Thousand Families might have been carefully hidden, but it was strong enough to move mountains. He had no shortage of recruits.

But in the end, it was a losing posture if it came down to a war. He was sure of that. The rebels would have to fight him, sooner or later, or accept that the Empire was going to fall apart. They would bring their fleet to bear on the Cottbus Sector and it would melt away… unless he changed the parameters. He had the support of three other sectors, and more. The rebels didn’t know it, but they’d already been betrayed.

He keyed a command into his private terminal and waited until three holograms took on shape and form. Admiral Wolfsan was a short bearded man, with dark hair and a fixed grimace. Admiral Li Chang was tall and very oriental, with a china doll face and very long dark hair. She was a striking beauty and had, rumour suggested, exhausted four patrons to reach her current post. Admiral Madison was tall and very thin, with white hair and an air of patient dignity. He’d been pushed down so hard by the representatives of the Thousand Families that when he’d had a chance to rebel, he’d had the representatives tortured to death, just for starters. He was possibly the most ruthless person Wilhelm had ever met and he included himself among that number. If there were ever going to be a challenge, he would bet every credit in his account that it would come from Admiral Madison.

“You have taken the time, I assume, to assimilate the information from Earth,” he said. It wasn’t a question. He’d forwarded them all a copy of Carola’s message. Her agents had been busy on Earth and, even though the rebels had a stronger concept of security than the Thousand Families, had located enough information to allow them to plan out the next campaign. “Do you see any requirement for altering the first stage of our plan?”

There was a brief burst of chatter. They’d been sold on the concept of a joint offensive because none of them had the strength to strike alone, not against the rebels, but the plan had entailed some risks. The rebels didn’t know it, but almost every capital ship belonging to the four Admirals had been gathered near Cottbus, a bare light year from the star. They were completely beyond detection range and waiting for the chance to strike. The cruisers he’d destroyed had had no idea they were there.

His plan was simple enough. Interstellar warfare obeyed the KISS principle — Keep It Simple, Stupid — and relied on certain points. The rebels had to come to Cottbus. They had little choice, unless they intended to accept him as an independent player… and they wouldn’t do that. He certainly wouldn’t in their place. They would come, with the fleet they were dispatching — would have dispatched by now — to Cottbus… and he would meet them with overwhelmingly superior firepower. Even if they escaped — it was hard to pull off an ambush when the flicker drive existed — their confidence would take a beating. He already had the series of strikes planned that would drive on Earth and destroy the Provisional Government before they could react to the new realities.

And then the whole Empire would be at their feet, forever.

“I see little requirement for a change,” Li said, finally. Her voice was as seductive as the rest of her. “If we alter our plans now, we run the risk of confusing our people for little gain. We should not run the risk of attacking Hawthorn until after their main fleet has been destroyed.”

“I remind unconvinced that we should go after Hawthorn,” Admiral Madison said, his cold voice sending shivers down Wilhelm’s spine. He was surprised that Admiral Madison had been allowed to remain in command. He had no weaknesses — no drink, no drugs, few if any women or men in his life — and Imperial Intelligence disliked commanders who didn’t have weaknesses. “There is little point in tying down our forces for a siege or taking the base directly when it lacks the ability to threaten us.”

Wilhelm scowled. Hawthorn was a problem, the largest Imperial Navy base close to his sector… and, unfortunately, occupied by the rebels before he could make a grab for it himself. It wasn’t anything like as well-equipped as Cottbus — it hadn’t had a strong patron — but it would serve as the base for a major fleet deployment, if allowed to remain in rebel hands. On the other hand, it didn’t have any major shipyards and if they destroyed the mobile units, the world became irrelevant.

“We can leave that for the moment,” he said, drawing back the display. There was a single bunch of first-rank worlds… and then the core itself. “The main priority is destroying the rebel fleet.”

Li smiled. It was a beautiful and yet somehow chilling sight. “We have been training our people since we took over,” she said. “We can best the rebels at their own game, Markus, and crush their fleet.”

“I think so,” Wilhelm said. He looked around the room. “We may expect the rebels at any time a week from now. I expect all of you to be ready to engage them when they arrive.”

He smiled as their images flickered out, one by one, replaced by a very different shape. He hadn’t believed the newcomer when he had first arrived, but the offer was too good to pass up, whatever the dangers. The technology alone had been worthwhile, but the intelligence had been worth its weight in gold.

“And you?” Wilhelm asked. That section of the plan was one that he regarded as dangerously chancy. “Are you confident in your people?”

“Of course,” the Nerd said. He was a strangely inhuman form. Unlike the Geeks, their cousins, the Nerds generally went in for biological enhancement. The Nerd’s head was larger and more fragile than a baseline human’s head. They claimed that they thought twice as fast as any normal human. The sight was still somehow an unpleasant one. “They will carry out their tasks or die trying.”

“The bottom line,” Kathy said, “is that the Empire is effectively bankrupt.”

Colin stared at her. “Bankrupt?” He said, astonished. “How… but Percival was always bragging about how rich his Family was.”

“A cunning tissue of lies and deceits,” Kathy said, grimly. “I’ve been working on the financial survey of the Empire for the last few months, ever since you appointed me to this role, and we have finally completed the general survey of the core worlds and the inner sectors. The problem is that for every star system that is a net gain, we have at least five that are drains on our economy, at least as they were established under the Empire. They’re simply not contributing anything important to us, financially speaking.”

She paused. “I don’t know if the Families knew just how bad the situation was, but we certainly had a hand in sparking off the entire crisis,” she continued. “When Roosevelt went bust, it forced the other Families to overstretch their own resources to prevent further disasters, but that naturally weakened their own positions. Worse, very few worlds are paying their taxes and tithes at the moment, which means that we have a shortfall and — even worse — some of the payments the Empire was making to various worlds are still going ahead.”