Ep.#15 - "That Which Other Men Cannot Do" (The Frontiers Saga) (10 page)

“Commander,” the admiral greeted. “I apologize for the unannounced visit.”

“No apologies necessary, admiral,” the commander assured him. “To what do I owe the honor?”

Admiral Dumar sighed as he took a seat. “Please,” he said, gesturing for the commander to also sit. “I’m afraid this Alliance has asked quite a lot of you and your men.”

“Nothing we cannot handle, sir,” the commander replied as he took his seat. “It is what we Ghatazhak are for, is it not?”

“It may have been, but it cannot continue to be, as there are too few of you remaining, and there are no more coming.”

Commander Telles did not reply, anticipating that the admiral had more to say.

After a brief pause, the Admiral continued. “Tell me, Commander. What is your assessment of the Jung ground forces?”

“Well trained, well equipped, and willing to sacrifice themselves when so ordered.”

Admiral Dumar’s eyebrow went up in surprise. “Interesting.”

Commander Telles looked puzzled. “How so?”

“Your choice of words. ‘When so ordered.’ I would have expected something more along the lines of, ‘for what they believe in,’ or ‘for their people.’ The words you chose reflect a certain lack of respect on your part.”

“Hardly. I am merely stating what I know to be facts.”

“How so?” the admiral wondered, turning the phrase back on the commander.

“I judge the quality of their training by their level of confidence under fire, and the skilled manner in which they move. Both reflect many hours of repetitive skills training to create muscle memory. The reason I chose the words ‘when so ordered’ is because I have no way of knowing
why
they are willing to die. I have, however, seen them charge into certain death…
on command
. Thus, I can use the words ‘when so ordered’ with reasonable accuracy.”

Admiral Dumar chuckled. “The Ghatazhak are nothing if not logical and precise in their thought processes.”

“Logic and accuracy are critical to our success,” the commander explained. “The human mind has a tendency to play tricks, leading us to believe that something is true, simply because we wish it to be so. Such inaccuracies can be deadly.”

“But you still follow your ‘gut’ at times, do you not?” the admiral asked.

“Admiral, the only thing my gut tells
me
is when it is time to eat, and when it is time to evacuate my bowels.”

“I think you know what I mean, Commander.”

“If you are referring to making a decision when the facts could lead to more than one opposing conclusion, then yes, sometimes we do ‘follow our gut.’ I believe the people of Earth call it a ‘hunch.’”

“Indeed. So, with that in mind, I ask for your assessment of the Jung ground troops once more…and I would appreciate it if you offered more than just
facts
, as such things I could easily discern from your combat action reports.”

Commander Telles took a deep breath, thinking for a moment before responding. “As I said, their training is of higher than average quality. I believe them to be on par with the Corinari. Their morale and overall health appears to be good, which indicates that they are properly supported, logistically. However, although they
are
willing to fight and die on command, I do not believe their hearts are in it.”

“How did you come to that conclusion?”

“When a Ghatazhak fights, he does so with every fiber of his being…to the point that it takes considerable restraint for us to
not
kill our opponents. When the Jung fight, they are trying to accomplish their goal while still surviving. When the Ghatazhak fight, survival is not on their agenda, only the goal is on their minds. You can see it in our eyes,
if
you know what to look for.”

“What is it that one would look for?”

“Fear,” the commander replied without hesitation. “There is fear in the eyes of the Jung foot soldier. Not all, but most.”

“You’re saying that the Ghatazhak do not feel fear?”

“No, sir, I am not. The Ghatazhak feel fear, just like any other man. We simply choose not to let it interfere with what we
know
must be done.”

Admiral Dumar looked confused. “I don’t see how that can be done.”

Commander Telles looked down at his desk for a moment, recalling the words of one of his instructors from his days as a young Ghatazhak cadet. “Suppose you and I are running to escape a charging
garatahk
, bent on our destruction. Ahead of us is a deep, yawning chasm, one wide enough that we are unsure whether or not we can jump over it safely. You will experience fear. Fear based on your own doubt in your abilities. That fear creates indecision. That moment of indecision, as brief as it may be, could cause the power in your stride to falter slightly. One, maybe two strides that are not as strong as they could have been. Will it be enough to ruin your chances of jumping the chasm? Or worse yet, will you stop running, and turn and face the charging
garatahk
, and likely die? I, on the other hand, being a Ghatazhak, will continue running at full speed as I judge the width of the chasm, the prevailing winds, and then weigh the odds of clearing the chasm versus turning to defeat the beast. Once done, I will simply choose the best course of action and follow through with it to the best of my ability.”

“And survival is not a factor?”

“No, it is not. The
goal
is what dictates my decision. Of course, the goal
could
simply be to survive.”

“That’s a very fine line, Commander.”

“Yes, it is,” the commander agreed. “It is also an important distinction, especially for a Ghatazhak. Training alone is only half of what makes the Ghatazhak what we are. The other half is mental. It is knowledge. It is understanding. It is the ability to see the entire picture. To analyze it, and all the possible actions and outcomes…all in a single instant.”

“And the Jung do not have that?”

“No, they do not. Nor do the Corinari. As far as I know, the Ghatazhak are the only ones who approach combat in such a way.”

“And that time when you ordered the massacre of civilians threatening to breach the fence around the evacuation port? Or when you decided to engage that man in a knife duel?”

“The Ghatazhak never do anything without a reason,” the commander explained, “and a well thought out reason, to be sure. As was the case in both of the incidents to which you refer. I can explain my thought processes in both incidents, if you would like?”

“No thank you, Commander,” the admiral said with a wave of his hand. “It was not my intent to question your decision-making processes, but rather to take advantage of them. You see, I lack the emotional self-control of a Ghatazhak, and at times, my judgment becomes clouded by my own emotions and bias.”

“You seek advice, Admiral?”

“I do.”

“About?”

“How would you handle the current situation with the Jung?” Admiral Dumar asked.

“Admiral, that is not for me to…”

“You are as qualified as anyone, Commander,” the admiral reassured him. “Perhaps even more so.”

“But, there may be intel that I am not…”

“I assure you, Commander, you know everything that I know, and then some. Please, I will not hold it against you, should your views differ from my own.”

Commander Telles took a deep breath and sighed, considering his words carefully before he spoke. “I agree with your plan to expand the Jung-free zone around Sol as far as possible. Every light year that is added to its radius is time that the Alliance has to build its forces and prepare a defense. However, it is imperative that you remove not only their space forces, but also their ground forces.”

“And how would you propose we do that, considering the fact that your own forces are limited?”

“Orbital bombardment, then air strikes, then follow up with boots on the ground for clean-up. Simple as that.”

“And what of collateral damage?” Dumar asked.

“It is not a factor,” the commander replied without hesitation or remorse.

“Even if they are innocent civilians? Women, children, elderly…”

“You’ve read the teachings of Lord Evatay, have you not?”

“I have.”

“Do you agree that the citizens share in the responsibility of a corrupt government, if they have done nothing to correct the problem?”

“Overall, yes. However, many of these people do not have the ability to take action.”

“True, but again, it is not a factor in my decision as to whether or not to risk collateral damage. Our goal is to neutralize the enemy forces, and to do so with minimum casualties to our
own
forces. In order to do that, I cannot be concerned with the welfare of nearby non-combatants.”

“But there are ramifications to the loss of lives deemed to be innocent by their fellow citizens.”

“When our ships target their ships, they target the entire ship, not just the members of the crew that operate her weapons. The engineers, the medical staff, the galley staff, the barber…everyone on board that ship dies. Are they fair game simply because they agreed to enlist? Did they agree to enlist? Or was their service an inescapable requirement of their society?”

“We don’t know…”

“Which is why we cannot be concerned with that fact.”

“Your analogy is flawed, Commander,” the admiral argued. “We cannot defeat the ship without killing the non-combatant members of her crew. The Jung do not surrender.”

“Nor can we afford to take out the enemy’s ground forces without loss of indigenous non-combatants…not if you wish the Ghatazhak to survive long enough to liberate all the worlds in this sector, Admiral.
That
is a fact that must be considered when formulating a plan.”

“Which is why I am here, speaking with you,” Dumar pleaded. “I need a way to eliminate those ground forces without significant loss of indigenous non-combatants.”

“Why do you care about these people?” Commander Telles wondered.

“Because I need them to join us,” the admiral replied. “Not because they fear us, but because they believe in us. We need people…thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands, in fact. We need them to fight. We need them to build. We need them to farm. More importantly than all of that, we need them to believe. To believe that, together, we can defeat the Jung.”

“That is the problem, Admiral,” the commander said, shaking his head. “You cannot defeat the Jung.”

Admiral Dumar looked surprised.

“It is simple math. When you look at the number of ships, the time required for interstellar communications, and the time required to move ships into position for coordinated attacks, then compare them to even the most optimistic build schedules—even if you had every system in this sector on your side, and every one of them had a shipyard like the Cetians—the best you could ever hope for would be a stalemate.
That
, Admiral, is an irrefutable fact.”

“Then why do you and your men fight?” the admiral wondered.

“The logical answer would be because we were programmed to be loyal to the Alliance, and in my case, to Captain Scott. But it goes deeper than that. We fight for the Alliance because we believe it is the right thing to do.”

“An odd statement, coming from a man who was trained to kill without remorse.”

“You make that statement because, just like everyone else, you do not understand the Ghatazhak.”

“Then enlighten me, Commander,” the admiral requested, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms across his chest.

“You believe that the Ghatazhak
enjoy
fighting, that we
enjoy
killing. Nothing could be further from the truth. We take great pride in our abilities, and we take great satisfaction in carrying out our missions with efficiency and success. However, the ultimate success for a Ghatazhak would be for our efforts to lead to a universe where such violence would no longer be necessary…that the mere threat of it would be enough to prevent it from ever occurring.” The commander sighed. “Unfortunately, such is not the nature of the human animal, and I suspect that it never shall be.”

“A sad statement.”

“On the contrary,” the commander disagreed, “it is our violent nature that ensures the very survival of our species. It enables us to survive under the harshest of conditions. It enables us to endure the worst hardships. And it even causes us to ‘cull the herd’ when it gets out of control and threatens to collapse us under our own weight. You see, the flaws that so plague humanity are also the very same ones that lead to our successes. Without them, we would be like herds of
gorato
, grazing and shitting, waiting to die, accomplishing nothing more than the creation of fertilizer through our excrements and our rotting corpses, destined to eventual extinction at the hands of our predators.”

This time, it was Admiral Dumar who let out a heavy sigh. “You have an unusual view of the universe, Lucius.”

“I would argue that it is a realistic one.”

“Perhaps.” The admiral sighed again.

“It is obvious this decision weighs heavily on your mind, Admiral,” the commander commented.

“Indeed it does,” Dumar admitted. “I must find a way to defeat the ground forces without losing one of my most valuable resources. Namely, you and your men.”

“Do not worry about the Ghatazhak, Admiral,” Commander Telles said. “We will gladly fight to the last man. You only have to ask.”

“I have what I hope is a better idea,” the admiral said. “If I were to give you a thousand able-bodied young men, each of them willing to fight and die for our cause, could you turn them into an effective fighting force?”

“Of course,” the commander replied with confidence. “We have trained over ten thousand security officers for the Earth Security Force.”

“And how long was their training?”

“The basic training consisted of eight weeks. Then the top ten percent went on for an additional eight weeks of training.”

“And would you take them into combat against the Jung?” the admiral asked.

“If the odds were overwhelmingly in our favor, yes,” the commander replied, realizing where the admiral was heading. “How many men have you acquired?”

“So far, only a few hundred from each member world. In total, about a thousand. But it has only been a few days since we called for volunteers. We are hoping for numbers in the tens of thousands.”

“You bring them to us, and we will train them,” the commander promised. “They will not be as well trained as the Jung, and they certainly will not be anything like the Ghatazhak, but they will be an effective fighting force.”

“One that you can take into combat against entrenched Jung ground forces, and win?”

“Depending on the situation and the force strengths, it is possible.”

“I was hoping you would say that, Commander,” the admiral said as he stood. “The first thousand volunteers will be arriving in three days. If the current rate of enlistment across all member worlds continues to hold, you will have a new batch of one thousand men every week. Can you handle that?”

“Yes, sir,” Commander Telles said, as he also stood. “How soon do you need the first group to be ready for action, sir?”

“Thirty days, Commander.”

Commander Telles looked concerned. “A challenging task. May I ask why you need them so quickly?”

“Because in thirty days, both the Aurora and the Celestia will be ready for action, and we will start kicking ass, Commander.”