Christopher Nuttall - Democracy's Light

Katy felt her eyes narrow. “Has the situation changed?”

“We’ve been probed, from time to time, by unknown starships,” Admiral Goodwin said. There was a nervous note in his voice. “I attempted to order intercepts, but none of my starships were able to get close enough to positively identify or engage the intruders. I have a nasty feeling that someone is picketing the system in preparation for an attack.”

And has just seen my fleet arrive , Katy thought coldly. “I see,” she said. “And has there been any change from Cottbus itself?”

“Very little,” Admiral Goodwin said. His voice darkened. “I had several hundred merchant crews interviewed after visiting the sector, but they couldn’t say much beyond the fact that the former government seems to have vanished, the military seems to be in full control and control over the industries has been passed to the workers. A handful of other crews went into the system and never came out again, as far as we can tell…”

Katy nodded. It wasn’t that easy to keep track of commercial shipping at the best of times, even at the heart of the Empire, for merchant skippers seemed to take an unholy delight in confounding the Imperial Navy and the taxmen. Not that she blamed them for the latter, of course; the taxman was the enemy of all independent skippers. The independents also didn’t care about the standard sector lines and crossed them freely; the missing ships might have remained in the sector, or even crossed it and headed into the next sector. It could be years before a missing starship was declared ‘missing, presumed destroyed,’ and it wasn’t uncommon for ships to be declared lost in error.

“We don’t know exactly what’s been going on, but we do know that representatives from Cottbus have been signing deals with everyone in sight, including half of the new companies operating within the sector,” Admiral Goodwin continued. “I don’t have authority to interfere with them unless they break Imperial Law and so far they have merely agreed to assist in the exploitation of the sector. There’s a great deal of money involved and everyone is grasping at it.”

Goscinny leaned forward. “Have you heard anything political from the sector?”

“Nothing,” Admiral Goodwin said. “As per my orders, I haven’t probed the sector with any light units, so I don’t know exactly what is going on within the sector. I assume that you have new orders from Earth?”

Katy had to smile. The concept of the rebellion was clearly beyond Goodwin, so he had decided that orders from Earth were legal, regardless of who was actually issuing the orders. He was probably hoping that whoever came out on top wouldn’t want to remove him, as long as he didn’t do anything that would be regarded as a treacherous act. It wasn’t a position she envied him, but at least it had the virtue of simplicity.

“We are going to confront Admiral Wilhelm and demand explanations,” Goscinny said, firmly. “He will be unable to avoid taking notice of this entire fleet when it arrives at Cottbus and we can negotiate from a position of strength. Once we know what’s going on, we can deal with him.”

“I see,” Admiral Goodwin said. “And what, exactly, is the anticipated outcome?”

“We may offer Cottbus the same status as a first-rank world, although the concept has never been extended to an entire sector,” Goscinny said. “Complete independence is not an acceptable outcome. The unity of the human race remains our first priority.”

“I hope you manage to convince him of that,” Admiral Goodwin said. “There are no superdreadnaughts here, Admiral Garland; the largest ship under my command is a battlecruiser. If Admiral Wilhelm comes knocking, this world will not hold out for long.”

Katy nodded. The Geeks had invented all kinds of weapons to make battering away at a planet’s defences easier… and while most of them could be countered, Hawthorn’s defences simply hadn’t been a priority. No one knew just how many of the new weapons Admiral Wilhelm had, but he would almost certainly have sensor data, perhaps even from the Fall of Earth…

And if he has those missing four squadrons of superdreadnaughts, we’re going to be outgunned , she thought coldly. It might be time to start thinking about contingency plans.

“I intend to take the fleet through a week’s worth of exercises in deep space before I head to Cottbus,” Katy said, two hours later. The decision hadn’t been an easy one, but she was ruefully aware that her fleet wasn’t drilled to perfection yet. If the system was being picketed, and she would have been more surprised if it wasn’t being picketed, she couldn’t allow Admiral Wilhelm to realise just how unprepared her fleet actually was. It meant tempt him to do something stupid. “That gives you a week to get into the system and learn what you can.”

“We’ve worked under tighter deadlines,” Sasha assured her, from her relaxed position on the bunk. Katy chose not to speculate on what the three of them might be doing when they weren’t actually on a mission. Their mere presence was supposed to be a secret, even to most of her senior crew. “We watched your discussion with Admiral Goodwin. If Admiral Wilhelm is indeed picketing this system, it probably doesn’t bode well for the future.”

“Particularly as it would be fairly straightforward to picket the system without tipping off the defenders,” Charlie added, from where he was working on a suit of light combat armour. “There are any number of ways to slip a picket destroyer or a set of recon platforms into an inhabited system, regardless of the actual level of sensor platforms in the area. They wanted those ships to be detected.”

“I had concluded as much,” Katy said. There was something refreshing about their attitude, even if they were probably pushing the limits of insubordination. “That leads to yet another question, of course. Why?”

“We do seem to have more questions than answers,” Sasha agreed. Her voice was as cold and dispassionate as ever. “The most logical answer is that it is intended as a move in a war of nerves.”

She stood up in one smooth motion and started to pace the confined space. “There’s little point in picketing a system openly unless you intend to attack almost at once, because you would tip off the defenders and force them to redeploy, which would render most of the data you collected invalid,” she said, thoughtfully. “No attack has materialised, obviously, so we have two options; the attacks were called off because they didn’t see an opening, or they never intended to attack at all.”

“Or their actual target wasn’t here,” Sandra injected. “They may have seriously considered jumping the fleet once it arrived.”

“Which won’t help them unless they have a strike force within range,” Charlie said. “It’s a week between Hawthorn and Cottbus, so they would have to depart from here and race to Cottbus, unless they stripped Cottbus bare…”

“Impossible to know, one way or the other,” Sasha said, firmly. “I suspect that the Admiral intended to keep Admiral Goodwin on edge and disinclined to launch any adventures of his own, while reminding him of the cost of a war. Even if victory were certain if it came down to a fight, the cost would still be enormous — and the Empire cannot afford it. He may be calculating that the Empire would prefer to give him what he wants rather than pay the price for squashing him like a bug.”

She shrugged. “That’s not our problem at the moment,” she continued, changing the subject. “Our problem is slipping into Cottbus and finding out just what the fuck is going on, nothing else.” She looked up at Katy as she settled back down onto a bunk. “I have reviewed the data gathered by the merchant skippers. Reaching Cottbus itself shouldn’t be a problem, not with the cargo we’re carrying, and we should have no difficulty finding a buyer. Once we get there, we can get settled in and find a source of information.”