Christopher Nuttall - Democracy's Light

“Yes, sir,” the lead Marine said.

Carola, with icy dignity, stalked out and allowed them to lead her back out of the building, thinking hard. What had really happened in Earth orbit… and why?

“I have had the recordings from the battle carefully analysed,” Grand Admiral Joshua Wachter said, as soon as Colin had called the meeting to order. There might be a time and a place for exchanging meaningless pleasantries, he had decided years ago, but it wasn’t when the Empire was fighting for its life. “There is little doubt, but the Cottbus forces consist of units from four different sectors and include advanced technology that we developed ourselves.”

There was a brief burst of whirring from Salgak’s implants. “It is not impossible that Carola Wilhelm’s clams may be accurate,” the Geek said, as his laser communicator linked into the holographic display and illuminated aspects of the battle. Colin had half-expected the Geek to dispute Joshua’s claim to having invented any technology — he’d been on the other side of the war at the time — but Salgak clearly had a different idea. “The technology they deployed is not actually anything new. It was deployed by us at Second Morrison, Gaul and Earth itself. They had six months to duplicate it and put it into production.”

Joshua nodded. “The only real question is how much of the new weapons they actually have,” he said. “Do we have any data on that issue?”

Kathy shot him an odd glance. “I have been attempting to modify standard Imperial production nodes to produce the new weapons,” she said, flatly. “Once we took over the massive production facilities at Jupiter, Mars and AlphaCent, we were able to streamline them into producing the newer weapons, but production levels remain low, with hundreds of tiny bottlenecks. Indeed, much of our current weapons mix still comes from the facilities established along the Rim, with obvious problems for future deployments.”

Colin scowled. The Empire had had surprisingly large problems with logistics, despite having most of the shipping in the galaxy under its direct or indirect control, and had solved the problem by outsourcing weapons production to the individual sectors. Harmony, Morrison and Yanasaxon, to name, but three, had provided far more missiles than their respective sector fleets had actually required… and the late unlamented Admiral D’Ammassa had turned a profit by selling them to various dubious enterprises. If the Shadow Fleet had used conventional missiles — and it had, until recently — they wouldn’t have any problems arming themselves, but if they used the newer missiles, their logistics took a beating.

“That’s not the problem at the moment,” he said, calmly. It was something that they would have to approach with care. “Admiral Garland has informed us of her intention to defend her base at Hawthorn and then attempt to engage Admiral Wilhelm’s logistics and hamper his advance on Earth. Our problem is simpler. Can we stop them short of Earth itself?”

Tiberius spoke up from his corner of the table. “And should Admiral Garland remain in command?” He added. “She lost two-thirds of a fleet that is effectively irreplaceable before the matter is decided, one way or the other.”

“We do have a new squadron of General -class superdreadnaughts working up now from AlphaCent,” Kathy said, something unreadable in her tone. Colin frowned. She had never gotten on with Tiberius that well, but it was almost as if she was attempting to conceal her own feelings. “Added to Home Fleet, we would still be able to give them a fight if they came to Earth, right?”

“It’s not that simple,” Wachter said, flatly. “A superdreadnaught in Home Fleet is one that is not going to be at Cottbus, Hawthorn or anywhere else. If we stand in defence of Earth, Admiral Wilhelm could tear hell out of the other systems, including all of the first-rank worlds. A long campaign works in our favour, but the war could go on indefinitely and the damage would be vast, beyond comprehension.”

“And unthinkable,” Goscinny said, slowly. “He has enough superdreadnaughts to blow through any of the first-rank worlds, despite all of their arming-up programs after the Fall of Earth. They have to be defended.”

“They can’t be defended,” Wachter said. “Like I said. A superdreadnaught squadron defending Gaul — which is on the other side of Earth, as you well know — will not be defending Earth, or indeed AlphaCent. We have to accept that Admiral Wilhelm may launch attacks on those systems.”

“You just want to give them up?” Goscinny demanded, outraged. “What choice do you expect them to make if Admiral Wilhelm’s starships enter the system and demand surrender? We can’t even mass the entire first-rank fleet again!”

“We’re getting off the issue at hand,” Tiberius said, calmly. He gazed around the room, almost as if he were counting allies and opponents. “Admiral Garland should be removed for this failure.”

“She had little choice in the matter,” Goscinny replied, angrily. “We decided how she should act, how she should fly to Cottbus and even how she should make her approach. Perhaps we should have ordered her to sneak up to the planet and bombard it from cloak, or maybe just demanding surrender? It wasn’t her fault.”

“And how would you know that?” Tiberius asked, smoothly. “You’re not a military expert.”

“Neither are you,” Goscinny responded, sharply. “You’re sitting here second-guessing someone who risked her life to defend the new order you allied yourself to, once the war was comfortably won! What cause do you have, you… aristocrat , for attacking her?”

“It is the duty of this council to remove any commanding officer who cannot handle the task we assign her,” Tiberius said, flatly. “I have to question…”

“Enough,” Wachter said, flatly. He fixed Tiberius with a look he’d learned in his years of commanding starships and then entire fleets. Colin wouldn’t have chosen to defy Admiral Percival if Percival had had half of Joshua’s undoubted skill. The entire rebellion would have been impossible. “Admiral Garland acted as best as she could, given what she knew at the time… and few sane commanders would have risked sneaking an entire fleet up under cloak. Now…”

Colin listened, grimly. He’d never considered anything so insane, although he had taken his superdreadnaughts to Pollack, pretending to be friendly units until the moment he’d dropped the pretence and opened fire on their command fortress. Admiral Wilhelm had guts, if nothing else, and a willingness to gamble. It worried him, more than he cared to admit to anyone, but David; what if he couldn’t outthink or outfight him? Space warfare was simple, at least at the strategic level, but there was nothing unique about Colin’s own insights. Despite the Empire’s best efforts, no one had a monopoly on military tactics, or insights.

He tapped the table, bringing the remaining argument to an end. “We have some choices to make,” he said, knowing that some of them would prove unpopular. “First, we will gather every major capital ship we can here, at Earth, before sending reinforcements to Admiral Garland and her base, if it holds out long enough.” He doubted that Admiral Wilhelm would suffer it to continue to exist any longer than he absolutely had to tolerate it. “Secondarily, we will focus on enhancing the defences of the worlds in his path as much as we can, without endangering Earth.”

There was a pause. The blunt truth was that it was impossible to defend every world in sufficient strength to protect it from the entire Cottbus Sector Fleet, let alone the combined might of four sectors. Colin knew that — and, indeed, had counted on it when he’d been fighting the Empire — and he also knew that the first-rank worlds wouldn’t take it kindly. If they were lucky, they might even have a chance to survive long enough to protest in Parliament.