McCollum - GIBRALTAR STARS (28 page)

Mark heard a stifled snort from Lisa.

“In Hell, Admiral,” he replied. “Thank you for getting me out.”

The Admiral turned serious. “I understand they are making excellent progress on Nemesis, Commander,” he said for the benefit of the room.

“Yes, sir. We’ve learned to work in pitch blackness and near absolute zero. We have a fair-sized town erected on the surface. The parking orbits overhead are crammed to capacity, with the biggest problem being landing boat traffic control. In another six months, we’ll be fully operational.”

“Good. That just might be on the schedule we need.” Landon ceased talking to Mark personally, and addressed the assembled personnel in what officers referred to as their “command voice.”

“I have received orders from Earth. They want us to break out of this rut we find ourselves stuck in. To that end, we are going to attempt something a little different.”

He paused for dramatic effect, letting his gaze sweep the assembled officers.

“Ladies and gentlemen. For the first time in this war, we are going to intentionally make our presence known in a Broan star system.”

#

Chapter Twenty-Eight

There was a long silence. For a moment, Mark wondered if he’d heard correctly. Then, unbidden, a response boiled out of him.

 “Are they crazy, sir? What sort of harebrained scheme is this?” Several murmurs of agreement told him that he wasn’t alone in the sentiment.

“Crazy? Possibly,” Landon agreed. “Harebrained? I’m not so sure. They’ve burned up a hell of a lot of computer time evaluating this option.”

“But, Admiral, secrecy is our only defense! It’s why all of our ships carry atomic self-destruct charges.”

Landon’s easygoing tone suddenly hardened. “Don’t jump to conclusions, Commander. Keep an open mind as you hear us out. Lisa, you have the floor.”

Mark’s head swiveled to look at his wife. Her expression, which he’d found odd a few minutes earlier, now confirmed his suspicions. She gazed into his eyes with a sheepish look and whispered, “Sorry, Mark. I was sworn to secrecy and I didn’t want anything to intrude on our reunion.”

With that, she got to her feet and moved to the head of the table. A portable holocube sat there on a wheeled cart. She pressed a control and the interior lit up after a few moments of colored static. The image within was familiar. It was a topological overview of the Broan stargate network. The individual pathways were too small to discern. The overall impression was of a cloud of red smoke suspended against a black backdrop.

“Here is our problem,” Lisa said. “There are nine-hundred-and-fifty-thousand stargate links in this image. When you count cul-de-sac systems, that brings the total number of Broan-controlled systems to just over one million.”

She touched the control and a much less cluttered diagram appeared.

“This is the part of the Sovereignty we have penetrated with our Q-Ships and our scouting expeditions, as well as systems evaluated remotely with our telescopes and gravtennas. Since arriving in Broan space, our teams have scouted six-hundred-and-seventy-one star systems, mostly via Q-ship. From gravity wave observations, we know of stargates in three-hundred-and-seventy-eight other systems. In other words, we have made independent observations of less than one-tenth of one percent of all Broan worlds. What we know of the vast majority of systems in the Sovereignty, we learned from the Pastol database.”

Lisa paused to let the starkness of the statistic sink in before continuing. “We have made a good start at scouting the enemy, but it became apparent about a year-and-a-half ago that our reconnaissance capability is woefully inadequate. That is the reason Admiral Landon commissioned Project X.

“Of necessity, our approach to spying on the enemy has been to monitor their comm traffic. Project X was the next step. We took what our Q-ships learned and tried to put our raw information into context. Essentially, we have been tracking the flow of Broan power so far as we can divine it.

“To do this, we assume the larger the Broan population of a particular planet, the higher that world sits in the pecking order. Our ships have also observed unique traffic patterns, convoys and that sort of thing. We correlate these with whatever economic figures we can glean from the Pastol database.

“Our identification of hierarchical relationships is necessarily tentative, but the supporting data is internally consistent. Using this approach, we believe we have identified systems that are one or two levels below the Broan home world in authority. We call these levels quadrant and sector headquarters.”

A senior captain cleared his throat and said, “In other words, we have yet to discover the location of the Broan home world.”

“Correct, sir,” Lisa replied.

She clicked the holocube control again, and another diagram appeared. This was no topological diagram. This was a real star map. In addition to dim white stars sprinkled through the blackness, there were a number of green stars connected by yellow lines.

“Highlighted are Broan sector and quadrant capitals. Admiral Landon will explain the significance of these stars to our mission.”

Landon again moved forward, leaving Lisa to return to her seat.

“I asked Lisa to give you the facts straight,” Landon said. “Once you understand just how few stars we’ve surveyed, you will understand the necessity of trying something new. We cannot begin offensive operations until we know where the head of this very long snake lies. Finding the home planet is our prime objective.”

“Then redouble our scouting missions,” a voice called from the back of the room.

“Not an option,” Landon replied. “Given unlimited resources and time, we could probably increase Q-Ship penetrations tenfold. Were we to follow such a course, we would likely learn the location of Planet X about the time we all drop dead of advanced senility.

“But we don’t have unlimited resources and we are not expanding the pace of our explorations. We are curtailing them. Each mission increases the risk of discovery, yet yields less new data. The risk/reward ratio has been climbing steadily for two years.

“There is also this recent change in the stargate operating protocols. We don’t know it has anything to do with us, but it may. That worries us.”

Landon looked at his audience and broke into a lopsided grin. “And, to be truthful, there is a new constraint. It seems the opening of Grand Central Terminus has been a mixed blessing.

“On the plus side, reducing travel time from a year to a month allowed us to move significant forces into Broan space. On the minus side, our independence of action has been significantly compromised.”

“By whom?” the silver haired captain asked.

“Our masters on Earth. Reduced travel time allows us to send our Project X data back to Sol monthly, but it also brings us new command directives monthly. H.Q. agrees with our analysis that spy missions are approaching the point of diminishing returns. They also advise that our time horizon for action is shorter than we thought.”

“Why?” Susan Ahrendt asked.

“A factor every bit as predictable as death and taxes,” Landon replied. “The World Coordinator reports steady erosion of public support for the war. She estimates we have a year… possibly two… in which to launch offensive operations or risk an administration that is hostile to our efforts out here.”

“Is that possible?” Mark asked.

“You know Mikhail Vasloff, Mark. What do you think?”

Mark sighed. “It’s damned near certain!”

Landon nodded. “Which brings us to the reason we are here. Dr. Smithers, your report, please.”

#

The small bald man to Mark’s right climbed to his feet and moved to the front. He still wore the expression of self-importance. Perhaps it was just the way his features were put together, Mark thought.

“Thank you, Admiral. For those who do not know me, I am Dr. Gordon Smithers, late of the University of Toronto, now Team Leader, Project Trojan Horse.

“We began seeding selected systems with our small starships nine months ago. We have managed to place one hundred Easter Eggs in systems where we hope the natives will be receptive. Of those, eighty-eight of our craft were intercepted and boarded. Twelve were not, at least, not in the time we budgeted for observation. Perhaps the locals chased them down later.”

“A description of your typical mission, if you please,” Landon ordered.

“Yes, Admiral,” the scientist responded. “We have the process down to a routine. A typical mission packet consists of a single dispersal ship and two naval vessels. The latter provide overwatch and data acquisition.

“Our ships break out of superlight well beyond the limits of the target system. Since most systems have not been visited by Q-Ships, we spend up to a week surveying the vicinity. Once we have the plane of the inhabited planet plotted, we reposition our ships outboard of that world. This can take another week.

“The dispersal ship then accelerates in-system while the others remain outside the critical limit. The dispersal ship places the egg in the proper orbit. This takes several days as we must be extremely exact in our release parameters. After a final check to ensure the egg is sterile of human and terrestrial DNA, we seed it with our macro alien bio-material and release it to space.

“The egg is quiescent for another 24 hours while the dispersal ship returns to the critical limit. After that, it powers up automatically and sends distress squawks on all communications frequencies. Usually, it is intercepted shortly after it goes live.”

“Are they buying it?” the vocal captain asked.

Smithers shrugged. “Too early to tell, I’m afraid.”

“What of the Broa?” another captain asked. “Have any of the eggs fallen into their hands?”

“After eighty-eight successful intercepts, it is possible. It depends on how independent the slaves in that particular system are.”

“Thank you, Dr. Smithson,” Landon said. “I’ll take over from here.”

“Yes, Admiral.”

Landon’s demeanor had changed. When the Admiral took his place, all hint of levity was gone. He brought up the image of a small elliptical starship in the cube. “This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is Easter Egg Number 101. Although outwardly identical to the others, this Trojan Horse is a thoroughbred. Earth has made several modifications and ordered us to try something special.

“As Dr. Smithers noted, we do not know that any of our eggs have fallen into the hands of the Broa. Hopefully, at least one of them has. It is our objective to sow distrust and fear among the pseudo-simian ruling class. If they are ignorant of our efforts, we can’t very well make them paranoid.

“However, we don’t
know
that they have been made aware of our efforts, so it behooves us to make sure. Earth has ordered us to release this special Easter Egg where they can’t help but notice it. So we are going to send it directly through the heart of one of their sector capitals.”

A sudden murmuring filled the conference room. Landon held up a hand to silence them.

“That isn’t all! If making sure the Broa know about Trojan Horse were our only goal, we could have done it at any time in the past six months. For this mission, the evil geniuses have something a bit more ambitious in mind…”

#

After the requisite pause, the Admiral continued. “On this mission, we are counting on the Broa reacting to having an Easter Egg dumped in their laps the same way humans would.

 “Firstly, we expect them to intercept it. That’s a no brainer, of course. As Dr. Smithers and his people have proven over and over, curiosity makes an intercept almost an involuntary response for any intelligent species.

“However, our studies of Broan psychology show they are much more like us than we care to admit. Karap-Vas is a regional power center, a provincial capital, as it were. We believe the locals will react similarly to a group of human bureaucrats when they realize they have a starship on their hands. They will pass the buck upstairs as quickly as they can arrange transport.

“In addition to the special Trojan Horse, Earth has shipped out a new gadget for us to play with. It is an experimental sensor that detects the field from a stardrive even when the generators are powered at very low levels. As we speak, technicians are installing these sensors on each of your ships.

“There are six stargates in the Sabator System, all of which lead to systems mapped by our Q-Ships. You captains will be assigned to one of these gateway systems. Your task is to hide out among the nascent comets at the edge of each system until one of you spots a Broan transport coming through the local stargate that causes your sensor alarm to go off. That will be the ship carrying our special Easter Egg to Planet X.

“Once detected, you will track that ship to the next gate and then make an emergency run to whatever system it is bound for. If you are fast enough, you might get there in time to see it jump again. In this way, we hope to get a line on the location of the home world.”

After ten minutes relating the overall plan, the Admiral fixed his gaze on Mark. “Commander Rykand! I want you to take command of the dispersal phase of this mission. You will go on
Sasquatch
to supervise.”

“Uh, yes, sir.”

Dan Landon’s serious expression cracked into what his subordinates had taken to calling his ‘evil grin.’

“Do I see a ‘why me?’ lurking in there somewhere, Commander?”

“Yes, sir. Why me?”

“Because, unlike just about everyone else here, you have been in a Broan system before. You know how close we came to flubbing it at Klys’kra’t. Don’t let it get that close this time.

“Also, the profile needed on this one is going to be more dangerous than we’ve used before. On previous drops, we’ve released the eggs well out and let them drift in-system before activating.

“I’m afraid we can’t operate that way this time. Because of the need to have the stardrive partially powered, this egg will be live when it leaves the ship. That means the dispersal ship will have to dive much deeper into the system before release. If discovered, it will be a long run back to the critical limit where you can jump superlight. That could make for a harrowing ride, don’t you think?”