Ep.#15 - "That Which Other Men Cannot Do" (The Frontiers Saga) (4 page)

“As I have no control over how future generations judge my actions, I am quite content not worrying about their judgments,” Nathan replied.

“A bold statement,” Mister Dubnyk observed. “Some might call it disconcerting, as well.”

“How so?”

“
I
know that you consider the consequences of every order you give, however, others may not. Take Kent, for example. How many millions died because of your failed attempt to remove the Jung from the Alpha Centauri B system?”

“And how many more on Earth might have died had we
not
eliminated those forces?” Nathan asked.

“That question can never be answered with any amount of certainty,” Mister Dubnyk replied. “I am not condemning your actions, Captain, nor am I agreeing with them. I am merely pointing out the value of such historical analysis. Each and every one of us must make similar decisions on a daily basis. Perhaps not on such a grand scale, of course, and most likely few of us must make decisions of life and death for others in our entire lifetimes. But knowing of others who have been forced to make such decisions, and contemplating their reasons, good or bad, can help prepare us to make our own decisions in a more timely and responsible manner.” Dubnyk again looked at Nathan, studying him intensely. “Or have I given you more credit than you are due?”

“How do you mean?” Nathan asked.

“When you attack Jung forces, when you destroy ships, when you take lives, when you put the lives of innocents at grave risk…
Do you consider
the possible consequences, or do you simply dismiss such potential outcomes as acceptable losses, given what you consider to be the dire nature of your own situation?”

“An interesting question,” Nathan admitted. “I do consider the possible consequences, to an extent. But as I took an oath to defend my people, and by extension the people of any world who choose to join our Alliance, I have to accept those consequences, and not allow the horror of their nature to dissuade me from meeting the responsibilities entrusted to me.”

“Very well put,” Mister Dubnyk congratulated, sitting back in his chair again. “Very well put, indeed. But, do you actually believe that?”

“If I did not, I would resign my position,” Nathan insisted.

“Would you?”

“Yes.”

Mister Dubnyk leaned his head to one side, rubbing his cheek. “I wonder. Power and authority can be quite addictive. You know as well as I that history is replete with those who violated their own ethics in order to maintain the position.”

“As well as those who did not,” Nathan countered. “Although history rarely remembers them with equal interest.”

“Indeed, acts of great horror are far more memorable, it seems. So tell me, Captain,” Mister Dubnyk continued, “how do you wish history to remember you?”

“To be honest, I would be quite content if history were to completely forget about me.”

Mister Dubnyk chuckled. “There is little chance of that, Captain. For better or worse, your name will likely be known for many years to come. Perhaps not by all, but by many. Of that I am certain. The question remains, however, if you can live with their judgments?”

“As I said before, their judgments do not concern me. The only judgments that concern me are my own, of myself, as I am the only one who must live with my decisions.”

“You are grossly mistaken in that regard,” Mister Dubnyk argued. “Millions of us have to live with your decisions, as well as the decisions of your superiors, whether we like it or not. Your Alliance has taken it upon themselves to decide which of us lives, and which of us dies. Your Alliance believes that they have the right to dictate to the Jung where they can and cannot position their forces, and whether or not they have the right to conquer others.”

“You believe the Jung are justified in what they do?” Nathan wondered in disbelief.

“Not at all. However, I strongly suspect that
they
feel they are justified, otherwise they would not have taken such actions.”

“And the rest of us should just accept whatever the Jung do because they feel they are acting within their rights?”

“I believe you’re missing the point, Captain,” Mister Dubnyk said. “There is no absolute right and wrong, here, for right and wrong are subjective as well. What is right for you may be wrong for me, and vice versa. The Jung have committed no crimes, at least not in their eyes. Now, if they had done something that
they
felt was wrong, but did it anyway, then
that
would constitute the commission of a wrongful act, but still, not necessarily a crime. You see, there is no accepted, universal set of rules. No agreed upon system of order against which to measure the actions of each and every one of us. Because of this, there can only be chaos, at least at the universal level. Sure, we can have little pockets of order, here and there, but because of the inconsistencies in our interpretation of right and wrong, order and disorder, chaos will always exist. It is the natural state of humanity.”

“There is one common human belief,” Nathan began.

“Ah, yes, that which is taught by all of man’s religions. ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ Also one of the least followed teachings of humanity, I might add. A better lesson might be to expect that others will do unto you what they must in order to survive. That is what I have come to expect over my many years of life.”

“Perhaps your opinions are somewhat jaded by your own experiences?”

“Influenced, yes, but not jaded. I have seen humanity at its best
and
at its worst, Captain. I have seen the good and the bad, and the bad usually win. And do you know why?”

“No, but I expect you are about to tell me,” Nathan replied.

“Because the bad are generally the stronger. They have the strength to pull the trigger. They simply see what they want, identify what is preventing them from obtaining it, and take action. To the bad, the ‘right’ is that which gets them what they want, and the ‘bad’ is that which is in their way. This is precisely why the Jung have been so successful. It is also why you will never defeat them. You are not willing to be as strong as them.”

“You mean, as evil as them.”

“Evil, just as beauty, is in the eye of the beholder,” Mister Dubnyk insisted. “If you do not believe that the end justifies the means, you cannot win the ultimate victory.”

“I’m not sure it is that simple,” Nathan argued.

“Ah, but it is, my dear Captain,” Mister Dubnyk laughed. “It truly is. The sooner you see that, the better off you will be.”

* * *

“One minute to first target,” Luis reported from the Celestia’s tactical console. “All cannons show hot and ready to fire, parallel pattern, single shots, range will be twelve-fifty.”

“Very well,” Cameron replied. “Shields up, Lieutenant. I don’t want any debris bouncing back at us.”

“All shields at maximum,” Luis confirmed. “Thirty seconds.”

“Contacts?”

“Board is clear,” Ensign Kono replied.

“Comms, broadcast a warning, all directions, all frequencies,” Cameron ordered.

“Aye, sir,” Ensign Souza replied.

“Weapons free, Lieutenant. Fire when ready.”

“Weapons free, aye. Fifteen seconds.”

Cameron looked down at the new, clear touchscreen to her right and tapped the controls. She glanced over at the large, clear, display screen to the right of her helmsman, which was also new. The view from the starboard cameras came up on the screen, showing a rather large asteroid passing to starboard about twelve hundred meters away. She tapped another button on her touch screen and the view on the right screen swapped with the forward cameras currently displayed on the main view screen, bringing the starboard camera view to the main screen that wrapped around the front half of the bridge.

“Five seconds,” Luis reported.

Cameron watched and waited, her eyes, just like everyone else’s on the bridge, glued to the main view screen and the image of the asteroid as it passed by at a slow speed.

“Firing.”

On the right side of the main view screen, balls of red-orange plasma streaked away from the newly installed broadside cannons at the aft end of the Celestia. Each of the eight cannons on the starboard side fired at a rate of one shot per second, with each pair of cannons alternating their fire. The result was waves of quadruple shots of plasma energy that tore into the side of the asteroid, blasting deep into its rocky surface and sending debris blasting out into space in all directions. The barrage continued for several seconds, until finally the asteroid—which although larger than the Celestia was still small by comparison to most asteroids in the Ross 154 system—came completely apart.

“Holy crap,” Luis exclaimed. “Uh, target is definitely destroyed, sir.”

“Heat levels?”

“Nowhere near the maximum safe operating temps,” Luis replied. “We could’ve kept that fire rate up for at least a full minute, maybe longer.” He looked down at his display again. “Twenty seconds to port target.”

Cameron tapped her touchscreen again, calling up the port camera onto the main view screen. “Shields?”

“Still at full strength,” Luis replied.

“Let’s try triplets on the port cannons,” Cameron suggested. “Sustained max fire rate. Let’s see how their heat exchangers handle the increased load.”

“Triplets on all eight port cannons, max sustained rate, aye,” Luis replied. “Five seconds to target.”

Again, all eyes were focused on the main view screen.

“Firing.”

Triple shots of plasma energy began streaking away from the Celestia’s port cannons, drawing an intense red streak from the left side of the main view screen to center, disappearing into a red fireball as they struck the surface of the second asteroid. More triple shots followed, a trio every second, for nearly thirty seconds, until finally, the second, larger target asteroid also came apart, sending large chunks of debris in all directions, including a few that slammed into the Celestia’s port shields. The ship rocked slightly from the impacts, jostling the crew in their seats just enough to let them know of the impacts.

“Multiple impacts, port shields, upper and lower, stern pairs,” Luis reported. “Shield strength holding.”

“Damage reports?” Cameron wondered.

“Damage control reports no damage,” Ensign Souza replied.

“Ensign Kono?” Cameron called as she rotated her chair to port.

“Second target is completely destroyed, sir.”

Cameron continued rotating to her left to look at her tactical officer behind her, a satisfied look on her face. “What do you think, Lieutenant?”

“I think we’re going to rip open a few Jung ships, sir,” Luis replied with a grin.

* * *

Nathan stood in the Mirai’s main salon, staring out the large windows on the starboard side, as the ship passed under the Cetian orbital shipyards. The facility was similar in design to the orbital assembly platform that had been used to build both the Aurora and the Celestia, as well as the six Defender-class ships that had come before them. However, the Cetian shipyards were more than twice the size of the Earth’s old facility, with four assembly bays, each of which was twice the size of the OAP’s.

Another difference was the bays themselves. The Earth’s facility used trusses to form the assembly bays, with all the shops and operational facilities in the main pressurized structure located between the two bays. The bays of the Cetian shipyards were solid on either side, with open truss frameworks on the top and bottom of the bays. Each bay had their own shops, their own flight operations areas, their own command and control, and their own housing areas. In fact, each bay, if detached from the others, could continue to operate on its own.

“The Jung never do anything small, do they,” Jessica commented as she entered the compartment and joined Nathan as he continued staring out the overhead windows at the shipyards slowly moving over them.

“Nope, they sure don’t.”

“I heard that the Jung had been planning on adding another four bays to this facility,” Jessica added. “They’ve already begun component production for a fifth bay on Sorenson. Of course, that’s stopped for now.”

“Probably best to concentrate resources on what they’ve already got,” Nathan muttered as he watched the last bay slide out of view. He turned to look at Jessica. “Those bays are so big, you could probably build two Explorer-class ships in there at the same time.”

“That’s what they did with the frigates,” Jessica said. “Gerard told me that the two that are in there now were the last of a batch of eight that were under construction.”

“Where did the other six go?” Nathan wondered.

Jessica moved to the nearest couch and made herself comfortable in her usual unceremonious style. “As far as we know, all six of them were still in the system when we first attacked, so we probably destroyed them. He also said that although the Cetian shipyards are large enough to service battleships, their primary focus
was
to build frigates. In fact, all of the support facilities and component manufacturing plants on Sorenson are designed to build frigates as well. They could retool to build just about anything, I suppose.”

“Dumar wants to keep them building frigates, but with Takaran weapons and shields, and our jump drives.”

“I’d have to agree,” Jessica replied. “The Cetians can crank a frigate out in a single year. Can you imagine? Eight frigates, all with plasma cannons, shields, and jump drives, in only a year?”

“That’s if we can keep the Jung from coming back and wiping the shipyards out before then,” Nathan reminded her. “That’s got to be at the top of their agenda.”

“Well, since there currently aren’t any Jung forces within six months of here, if we keep the detection patrols going, the odds are in our favor,” Jessica said. “Besides, if the Jung do come back to Tau Ceti, they’ll come back in force, and likely glass everything. In that case, losing the shipyards will be the least of our worries.”

“Good point,” Nathan conceded as he sat down. “So, why are we here, again?”

“I’m meeting with Telles and a rep from the new Cetian security forces to conduct a security review of the facility.”

“You and Telles are okay?”

“Uh, yeah,” Jessica replied, giving him a strange look. “Why wouldn’t we be?”

“Well, you did get in his face…twice. You even threatened bodily harm…on a superior officer, I might add.”

“I was just trying to make a point.”

“Risky way to make a point,” Nathan said. “You didn’t really think you could take Telles, did you?”

“Of course not,” Jessica admitted. “I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid. It was all for emphasis.”

“Like how you tried to ‘emphasize’ your point on the bridge that day?”

“Exactly.”

“Some might call it insubordination, you know.”

“Some, but not you.”

“Dumar asked if I wanted to take corrective action,” Nathan told her, “offered to back me if I did.”