Extremis (22 page)

“This, ladies and gentlemen,” said Trevayne, “is the way we always look at the universe. Since discovering warp points, it’s the only view of reality we’ve needed. Then the Baldies—whose real name remains unknown because no attempt to communicate with them has had the slightest success—arrived at Bellerophon after centuries of travel through normal space in fleets of generation ships powered by photon drives. It was miserably bad luck that they happened to appear at such a strategic warp nexus, where they’ve cut off the entire Bellerophon Arm like a tree at its base. As I needn’t tell any of you, we have tried twice to break into the Bellerophon system from here in Astria, through our one warp connection. I also needn’t tell you what came of those attempts.”

“How could it have been otherwise, by God?” Waldeck blurted indignantly. “When their smaller generation ships are designed to be broken down into system defense ships
five hundred times
the tonnage of a supermonitor like this one, carrying four or five hundred fighters? And don’t give me any whistling-past-the-graveyard crap about the SDS’s inherent design inefficiencies and lack of maneuverability. It doesn’t
need
to maneuver when all it has to do is sit on top of the one miserable warp point that is the only way we have of getting at them!” Waldeck suddenly came to the appalled recollection that he was addressing the supreme commander and mumbled an apology.

Trevayne was not offended. “You’re quite right, Cyrus. Rest assured that neither I nor anyone else qualified to have an opinion on the matter holds you to blame. Second Fleet has done all that could have been done under the circumstances. And I want to emphasize that this is not, strictly speaking, a change of command. You are still in direct charge of Second Fleet, under my overall supervision as supreme commander of a force that is going to grow to include far more than Second Fleet.

“However, the inescapable fact remains that we find ourselves at an impasse here. And while the more recent incursion by another Baldy fleet into the Pan-Sentient Union has opened a second front in the Zarzuela system, our attempts to counterattack there have not succeeded in creating a war of movement; in effect, it is merely an extension of the impasse.

“It is against this background that First Space Lord Fleet Admiral Li Han of the Terran Republic has proposed a strategy which the Alliance governments have adopted, and which I have been appointed supreme commander to effectuate. To understand this strategy, a certain amount of technical background is in order. Most of it will already be familiar to you, at least in its broad outlines, since you have access to Pan-Sentient Union and Rim Federation classified-message traffic—and Terran Republic intelligence updates.” Trevayne accompanied the last with a glare at Li Magda that he suspected probably didn’t quite come off, and which she met with a look of bland innocence. “But permit me to recapitulate.

“First of all, by now you have all heard about the new category of warship the Terran Republic is putting into production—the ‘devastator.’ Fleet Admiral Li gave me a tour of
Taconic
, the first ship of this type to be completed, and I assure you that whatever you may have heard is not exaggerated. At two million tonnes, it is the most massive ship that can transit any warp point.”

“But Admiral,” Cyrus Waldeck objected, “that must limit its strategic mobility.”

There was a general nodding of heads among the PSUN and RFN officers. Warp points differed in their mass capacity. A supermonitor like
Zephrain
could not fit through all of them. And surely this new monster—two-thirds again a supermonitor’s mass—would be even more restricted.

“The point is well taken, Cyrus. And that leads to my next item of background information. Here again, it’s something of which you’re already aware. Kasugawa generators, when activated simultaneously as a pair, can create an
artificial
warp line between them.”

“But this would seem to involve what I believe humans call a catch-22, although I have never understood the reference,” said Zhaairnow’ailaaioun. The felinoid Orion stroked his luxuriant whiskers in a characteristic gesture of perplexity. “One must position the second generator wherever one wants to establish a new warp point. And how can it be so transported without going through preexisting warp points?”

“That, Least Fang, is the essence of Fleet Admiral Li’s strategy. It is brilliant—as I, of all people, have reason to expect of her,” Trevayne added dryly, to general laughter and a twinkling smile from Li Magda. He used a light-pencil to indicate the two dazzling points of white light in the holo display. He pointed first at the one in the Bellerophon Arm.

“This is Borden—a lifeless cul-de-sac red-dwarf system connected to the rest of the Arm only through a starless warp nexus. And this,” he continued, pointing far across the display, “is ZQ-147, a starless warp nexus in Terran Republic space. And
this
,” he finished with a dramatic pause, “is why we are interested in two such worthless cosmic afterthoughts.” He made an adjustment to the remote.

With startling suddenness, the lights in the display crawled rapidly together and then exploded outward. The display was now definitely three-dimensional, with lights of all colors intermingled, and the string lights of warp lines had vanished.

“This is the actual distribution of stars in normal space. Normally, we never think about it, nor do we need to. But you will note that the two bright white lights are now almost touching. In point of fact, Borden and ZQ-147 are only 2.21 light-years apart
.

“The plan is for a joint Terran Re/files/03/61/51/f036151/public/Pan-Sentient Union expedition from ZQ-147 to journey to Borden through normal space—”

“Through
normal space
?” someone blurted.

“—carrying one of a pair of Kasugawa generators,” Trevayne continued. “On arrival, an artificial warp line will be opened between the two systems, and Fleet Admiral Li will lead a fleet of supermonitors through it, carrying another Kasugawa generator that can be used to enlarge the mass capacity of existing warp points, thus allowing transit by the devastators. They will be able to liberate all of the Arm short of Bellerophon itself, which will then be isolated and subject to attack through four warp points, not just one.”

“But Admiral,” McFarland ventured in the Aussie-descended accent of Aotearoa, “even if it’s only 2.21 light-years, that’s one bloody hell of an ‘only’! I mean, across normal space…” He shook his head, clearly having trouble coming to terms with such an unheard-of idea.

“That’s where my final bit of technical background comes into play. And this is one which, unlike the others, will come as news to almost everyone here.” Trevayne accompanied the heavily stressed
almost
with another attempt at a stern look in Li Magda’s direction, with no greater success than the previous one. “Dr. Kasugawa and Admiral Desai are even now in the process of testing experimental prototypes of an improved version of the Desai drive—the Desai prime drive, as they’re calling it. Theory predicts that it will be able to instantaneously impart a velocity of 0.85 c, as compared to the 0.50 c of the Desai drive. At this velocity, a significant time-dilation advantage comes into play. The voyage should take only 1.37 subjective years.”

“But from the standpoint of an outside observer?” Zhaairnow queried.

“Two point six standard Terran years,” Trevayne stated bluntly. “As Fleet Admiral Li pointed out, this is just as well, as her fleet of devastators is going to be a long time abuilding. There are, of course, other problems to be overcome, such as shielding for the crew at such velocities, but Dr. Kasugawa and Admiral Desai are confident that these are solvable. In short, this gives us a war-winning strategy—an alternative to an endless bloody stalemate here at the Astria/Bellerophon warp connection.” Stunned silence met his summation. “No questions? Well, then—dismissed,” he concluded with a smile.

As the gathering broke up, he found himself—not altogether by accident—

facing Li Magda. “Ah…Admiral Li, could you spare me a moment?”

“Of course, Admiral.”

“I was thinking…since you’re the senior Terran Republic commander here, and since the TRN is of course outside the interlocking command structure of the PSUN and the RFN, perhaps it would be useful for us to exchange a series of courtesy visits—simply to establish the closest possible professional rapport, you know.”

“It would also create a desirable impression on my personnel, Admiral,” she agreed with great seriousness. “Especially given…well, your history in relation to my family.”

“Excellent point! Well, then, I’ll have Commander Hagen set it up. He’s acting as my glorified secretary, you see. And…I’ll look forward to it.”

“As will I, Admiral.”

As he turned away, Trevayne noted that the room hadn’t emptied quite as quickly as he might have expected. In fact, it almost seemed as thought people were dawdling, surreptitiously watching him and Li Magda. He wondered why.

6

Dire Progress

Is it progress if a cannibal uses knife and fork?
—Lec

Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, cannot once start me
—Shakespeare

Headquarters, Confederation Fleet Command, Luzarix, Hyx’Tangri System

The characteristic flat plains of the Tangri homeworld, with their carpet of tough gray-green
khunillatis
vegetation, stretched away, seemingly into infinity.

Ultraz, gazing out across those plains from the terrace, felt within himself the emotion the sight always awoke in his race—a feeling for which the human word “wanderlust” was a pale and inadequate approximation. He was the Dominant One, the speaker of the
arnharanaks
or “high rulers,” the assemblage of the
anaks
of all the hordes. But he was no more immune to the feeling than the lowliest Tangri.

Nevertheless, his position required him to see with longer vision than others. To him, the stars were a vaster plain, on which grazed herds of prey beyond the dreams of his ancestors—prey like the humans.

He leaned on the balustrade, resting the arms of his upright torso on it while stretching out his horizontal four-legged barrel. He had read, in one of the in-depth intelligence reports, that the humans described his race as
centauroid
, a word derived from a legendary creature with the upper parts of a human and the body of their favorite riding animal. He regarded it as a compliment, reflecting the humans’ unconscious awareness of their own inadequacy. Their ancestors had needed that riding animal to give them the kind of mobility the Tangri possessed as part of their evolutionary birthright. It had made possible the nomadic cultures of early human history—but it hadn’t been enough to prevent the settled agriculturalists and town-builders (
zemlixi
, came the automatic, contemptuous thought) from eventually imposing their mud-bound pattern on all their race.

Which, Ultraz reflected, had probably been inevitable anyway. The humans, after all, were not Tangri, and therefore not truly sentient. Oh, they clearly had some neurological process that served them in place of intelligence, like the Orions and all the others. But nothing could alter the fact that, at bottom, they were merely prey animals.

Very dangerous ones, it had to be admitted.

“It is time, Dominant One,” came a diffident but subtly mischievous voice from behind him.

“Thank you, Scyryx,” he said, turning. The male who had spoken was slightly smaller than Ultraz, and his short, dense fur had a less pronounced reddish undertone. But a human would have discerned little difference between them, beneath the common alienness of flat, bone-armored head and blunt snout. But to Tangri eyes, attuned to ethnic minutiae, Scyryx was a classic physical specimen of the widely disliked Korvak Horde. (“Greasy, effeminate corrupters with low cunning” came closest to expressing, in human terms, the popular image.) Their association therefore had to be publicly downplayed as a political alliance of convenience. Privately, Ultraz—who was, for a Tangri of the dominant culture, almost uniquely free of Horde stereotypes—valued Scyryx’s advice and found his irreverence toward traditional rigidities more refreshing than he dared admit.

They proceeded down one of the shallow ramps that served the Tangri in place of stairways and entered the massive building—even more brutally functional than most Tangri structures, for it housed the headquarters of the Confederation Fleet Command. They passed through multiply redundant layers of security, where guards raised their chins, exposing their throats to Ultraz in the submission gesture of greeting. Those guards all wore harnesses of a uniform pattern—an innovation among the fiercely individualistic Tangri. But then, the Confederation Fleet Command was an innovation in itself, born of the demonstrated inability of the separate Horde fleets to cope with prey-animals as formidable as those that grazed among the star-fields. It was ironic that Heruvycx, its
arnhahorrax
or commander, was by birth a member of the Hragha Horde, whose spectacularly disastrous attempt at independent action had made that inability clear to all but the most reactionary or stupid.

On reflection, though, Ultraz decided it wasn’t so ironic after all. Horde origins mattered less and less among CFC officers. That was one reason he spent as much time here among them as he could justify. Their attitude was something else he surreptitiously found refreshing, after days spent wading through the morass of inter-Horde politics.

He and Scyryx entered the vast hexagonal chamber that was the CFC’s nerve center. There, surrounded by viewscreens and ranks of control panels, was a large circular table encompassing a holographic display.

Heruvycx and his staffers were reclining on the frameworks that served the Tangri for chairs. Their aides and assistants—
zemlixi
for the most part, descended from the conquered agricultural populations, outside and beneath the Horde society—stood far back in the shadows. Scyryx almost but not quite joined them, taking his place behind Ultraz as the latter reclined, receiving the submission gestures of the officers who rose at his approach.