Christopher Nuttall - Democracy's Light

“Or maybe you’re just incompetent,” the commodore sneered. His eyes fell on the red icon as it twisted and vanished in a flicker of light. “Have they gone?”

“Yes, sir,” Zulu said. He pushed as much concern into his voice as he dared. “I think that was a reconnaissance flight, sir. We have to put the defences on alert.”

“Oh, really?” The commodore asked. His voice didn’t bother to hide anything. “Do you think, a person who has never served off-world, that Admiral Wilhelm would not take one look at our defences and choose to leave us alone?”

It would be more likely that he would die laughing and his successor would order the attack , Zulu thought. Whatever the commodore, and his family, thought about the defences, Zulu himself had no such illusions. They wouldn’t stand up to a concentrated attack from a pair of battlecruiser squadrons, let alone the might of Admiral Wilhelm’s fleet. The government had tried to bury the warnings from the Provisional Government on Earth, but Zulu had seen enough to know just how little hope Wakanda actually had.

He was still trying to find a way to explain that to the commodore, without an automatic death sentence, when the alarms started to chime again. Seven massive starships had emerged outside the designated emergence zone, far too close to the planet for comfort. The sensors still couldn’t pick up sufficient detail, but it was clear that they were superdreadnaughts. Nothing smaller could have produced such a signature. The display kept updating, revealing the presence of more starships spreading out to escort the larger capital ships, but Zulu didn’t know why they were bothering. If they had bothered to read their copy of Jane’s Fighting Starships , they would know just how weak the defences actually were. Seven superdreadnaughts — let alone the two additional superdreadnaughts that appeared a moment later — were overkill.

“We have multiple emergences,” he said, calmly. Part of him was proud by how calm his voice was, in contrast to the Commodore, who had gone so pale that Zulu wondered if he were about to collapse, while the remainder of him saw certain death in the very near future. Wakanda’s never-to-be-sufficiently-damned government wouldn’t see sense and surrender at once. “I am reading approximately forty-two starships forming up on attack vectors.”

The commodore seized on the key word. “Approximately?” He demanded. Zulu wondered why he was even bothering to pretend to be surprised. The commodore’s real knowledge of space warfare and technology was almost non-existent. “how do you not have an exact count?”

“Because they are using their ECM to spoof our sensors and I only have accurate tracks on forty-two of them,” Zulu replied, patiently. “I count two minutes before they enter engagement range of the starships.”

The Wakanda Space Navy was slowly assembling. The Cottbus Fleet could have charged right into the gravity shadow and engaged some of the ships at once, but instead they were waiting, lurking right on the edge of the shadow. It took Zulu only a second to understand why. If the defenders were kind enough to line up to be slaughtered, Admiral Wilhelm — if he were actually present — would be happy to accept the favour.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake , he thought, sourly. It was an Imperial Navy saying, one of the many trite sayings that passed for wisdom from time to time, but it had a core of solid truth. He looked up at the commodore and took in his pale and shaking face. There would be no inspiring leadership from a man whose only normal decisions involved eating and sleeping. He was utterly unsuited to his role.

“Sir,” he said, more gently than he would have believed possible, “you have to warn them?”

The commodore’s piggish eyes glared at him. “Warn them of what?”

“They’re lining up to be slaughtered,” Zulu said, and explained as best as he could. If the vectors kept merging, the Wakanda Space Navy would find itself unable even to escape the trap they’d walked into with their eyes wide open. They literally wouldn’t even have a chance to fire back at their enemies. “Sir…”

“My uncle is in command of the fleet,” the commodore said, dismissively. Somehow, questioning him had brought back part of his old personality. Zulu hadn’t missed it. “I’m sure that he understands the situation far better than a lowly sensor tech. Tend to your knitting and leave the brave decisions to others.”

Zulu rolled his eyes. “We’re picking up a signal on general channels,” a communications tech said, before the discussions could get any worse. “It’s coming up automatically.”

Admiral Wilhelm’s face appeared in front of them. “This is Admiral Wilhelm, commanding the Cottbus Sector fleet,” he said, calmly. Zulu could just hear the competence dripping from his voice and knew that his commanders were no match for the man, even if they’d had equal levels of technology and starships. “By the power vested in me, and my fleet, I declare this system to be part of the Cottbus Union, with all the rights and responsibilities that that implies. Stand down your starships and defences and prepare to be boarded. Any resistance will be met with deadly force.”

He paused. “There will be no further warnings,” he concluded. “Any attempt to engage my fleet will result in the destruction of your forces and the imposition of punishment taxes and other retribution.”

His image vanished from the display. “This is the Clan Head,” a voice said, without a display. Zulu, who’d had a small side bet going with himself that the government would be trying to flee the planet just about now, was mildly impressed, although he suspected that the truth was that they hadn’t even bothered to plan out an emergency escape for their own people. “In the name of Wakanda, I reject your claim to authority. Any further attempt to impose your authority on us will be met with deadly force and soundly defeated…”

Zulu covered his head with his hands as the Clan Head went on, and on. It was a bluff. He knew it was a bluff. Worse, Admiral Wilhelm would know that it was a bluff. Worst of all, the people bluffing didn’t know that it was a bluff. They truly believed the crap that the Wakanda Space Navy spewed out to justify its existence, when a few investments and a slight lack of corruption would have paid much greater dividends. They might believe that it was only the Space Navy that had kept Wakanda from being attacked by pirates, or even the might of the Imperial Navy itself, but Zulu knew better. Wakanda simply had nothing worth the effort of taking it.

His display chimed. Admiral Wilhelm had gotten tired of listening to the Clan Head’s empty posturing and had issued orders to his fleet. As Zulu watched helplessly, one by one, the superdreadnaughts slipped into the gravity shadow, on a direct course for the Wakanda Space Navy and the other defenders. They were coming on faster than he had seen any ship entering a gravity shadow before and it would be bare seconds before they engaged…

“Now we’re going to see something,” the commodore said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “My uncle will kick them back out of the system.”

Zulu had the nasty feeling that he was half-right. They were going to see something.

“They’re locking missiles onto the Space Navy,” he reported, as calmly as he could. The enemy ships weren’t even bothering to hide or conceal their own emissions. They had locked on and were preparing to fire. His display sounded another alarm and he winced. “They’re opening fire.”

The Wakanda Space Navy had never invested seriously in missile production, with the effect that they had missiles that dated back several hundred years, without any of the more modern penetration aids. Admiral Wilhelm, by contrast, had hundreds of modern missiles and he wasn’t shy about using them. Before the Wakanda Space Navy had even managed to launch a single salvo, two of the superdreadnaughts — just two — had unleashed hell towards their opponents. Their missiles were unimaginably fast, equipped with the latest sensors and targeting systems… and the contrast was hopelessly unbalanced. The Wakanda Space Navy just didn’t stand a chance.