Christopher Nuttall - A Learning Experience

“Overall, there will be quite a few bumps, but I think that most Western governments will quietly abandon any opposition to us within the next ten years,” he concluded. “We’re just too damn useful. And we’re taking potential troublemakers away from them. The rest of the world… not so much.”

Steve nodded. “Russia still irked at us?”

“I’m afraid so, even though we’re buying a lot of crude technology from them,” Wilhelm said, dryly. “I think they might well have real problems in the non-too-distant future, between the dongles and the introduction of fusion technology. Their public might start asking too many questions. China, on the other hand, might just adapt once again to the change in the world.”

“We shall see,” Steve said. He had no love for Red China, but he had to admire how the Chinese had adapted and just kept adapting as the world changed around them. And, somehow, the Communist Party had remained in control. Would that change, he asked himself, when their people had total freedom of communication? No matter what the government did, dongles were still slipping into China. “We shall see.”

The communicator buzzed. “Steve,” Mongo said, “we’re picking up a number of starships approaching the solar system. They’re completely unscheduled. Estimated time of arrival is five hours from now.”

Steve shared a long look with Wilhelm. There was no such thing as a schedule, but they weren’t expecting any visitors. It was possible that Friend could be returning to Earth, yet the alien had agreed to meet the human troops at Ying. No, he realised. It was far more likely that the newcomers were unfriendly.

“Deploy the automated defences,” he ordered. It was time to use a precaution he’d hoped never to have to use, at least for quite some time. Even now, if they lost Earth, something of humanity would survive. “And then order the Mayflower to leave orbit.”

“Aye, sir,” Mongo said.

“I’m on my way,” Steve said, straightening up. “And you’d better warn the governments below. The shit is about to hit the fan.”

Sol System

“Earth’s governments have been alerted,” Kevin said, quietly. “They’re standing by.”

Steve gave him a sidelong look. “For what ?”

“For what little they can do,” Kevin replied, evenly. “And for civil defence, if necessary.”

“True,” Steve said. He looked back at the display. Thirty incoming starships, some of them clearly very large. If they wanted to take Earth, Earth would be taken. “And maybe they can swear blind that they have nothing to do with us too.”

He thought, briefly, of Mariko. She’d flatly refused to go down to Earth or board the Mayflower , even though the latter would have given her an excellent chance of survival. Instead, she’d insisted on staying on the Warcruiser, despite the certain knowledge that the giant starship would be badly outmatched. Steve cursed himself, mentally, for not marrying her when he had the chance, even though he had no intention of leaving her at some later date. It would have shown just how much he cared.

Angrily, he pushed the thought aside. Earth’s time might be about to run out. He shouldn’t be thinking of anything but fighting to defend his homeworld, the world he loved. And he did love it. In the end, Earth was worth fighting for. But did he have enough tricks up his sleeve to save the planet?

“The ghost squadron and the Q-ships are in position,” Mongo called. “They’re ready to deploy.”

“Hold them in place,” Steve ordered. They’d run through countless simulations, trying to think of all possible contingencies, but the universe had presented them with overwhelming force. They could do everything right and still lose Earth to the enemy. “And inform everyone that Earth expects them to do their duty.”

Kevin snorted. “Couldn’t you think of a better quote to steal?”

Steve shrugged. “The old ways are still the best,” he said. “Besides, I couldn’t think of anything from Doctor Who that fitted the bill.”

Mongo chuckled, then glanced at his console as the enemy ships dropped out of FTL quite some distance from the planet. “Steve,” he said, quietly. “They’re here.”

Horde Commander Yss!Yaa kept his body absolutely still, betraying no emotion at all, as the fleet brought its journey to an end. His subordinates were intent on rushing forward to stake their claims to scoring victory, but he’d issued strict orders for them to stay in formation and wait for him to evaluate the situation. It was yet another problem with the Horde, he knew, as the display started to fill with data. He couldn’t supervise his commanders from another ship, which allowed them to contemplate independent action — and get away with it, if they succeeded. A lucky warrior enjoyed the protection of the gods.

There was nothing particularly interesting about the human star system, but the sheer level of development in less than a local year was staggering. The humans, according to the information they’d been slipped, hadn’t even had a serious space program. Now, they had a large base on their moon and there were radio sources scattered across the star system… and traces of terraforming operations on the fourth planet from their star. Earth itself was surrounded by space stations, free-floating industrial nodes and a small fleet of starships, most of them clearly passed down from the Galactics. Had the Varnar actually come to terms with their human allies?

“Scan the system,” he ordered. “Are there any major warships in the sector?”

He waited as his staff ran the scan, silently cursing their incompetence under his breath as they worked. Once, having the strongest warriors move up the command chain had seemed a good idea; now, as their commander, he had other thoughts. The ones who were capable of operating a scanner were often not the ones who won fights, either in duels for command positions or outright challenges of honour. But it wasn’t something he could change, he knew. If he told mighty warriors with more brawn than brains that they were being held back in favour of wimps who preferred brain to brawn, he would be overthrown. And then the brainy ones would be purged on suspicion of being dishonourable bastards who plotted to overturn the natural order of things.

“Three warships,” his officer said, finally. The Horde Commander was uncomfortably aware that any of the major Galactics would have the answer almost at once. “One of them is definitely a Class-VIII Warcruiser.”

Just like the one that went missing , Yss!Yaa thought. The humans had clearly taken it, presumably killing the crew in the process. He wondered, absently, just how long it would take his officers to draw the correct conclusion, if he gave them time to think. But there was no time. He had to win the battle before one of the major Galactic powers intervened. It was quite possible that the whole system was a trap.

If he could, he would have withdrawn. But his subordinates would never have tolerated it in the absence of a major threat.

“The homeships are to hold back,” he ordered. Bringing the entire Horde had been a risk, but it looked like it had paid off. Earth could support them for generations to come, once they’d taken the high orbitals and poured fire on any resistance from the ground. “The remaining ships are to fall into attack pattern and prepare to advance.”

He ignored the grumbling from the homeships as the fleet shook itself into formation. It still bemused him how someone could have lasted long enough to be rewarded with command of a homeship and yet refuse to accept the simple fact that their starships were not designed for interstellar warfare. No, their task was to carry the women and children from star to star, just incidentally making it easier for the Horde Commander to reward the officers and crew he wanted to reward. They had absolutely no place in a dedicated line of battle. But he’d had to bring them with him just to ensure he maintained control.