The Ninth: Invasion (49 page)

“Once we find it?  You mean you don’t know?” Shen asked.

“The CI recovery fleets were keeping tabs on the Shard fleet, but that’s it.  Any more advanced data collection would have required them to move in dangerously close to the waiting Citadels.”

“Great, so somewhere in the space of fifteen days worth of jumps is a Shard world.  Do you have any idea how huge an area that is?” the kneeling captain asked.

“Too large for us ever to hope to search in two months,” Brent said, gripping his pad tightly as he shifted his weight off the podium.  “However, there is another fact that makes our goal much easier.”

“Another guessing game, professor?” Shen asked with a smile.

“Not this time,” Brent said, trying to maintain composure.  “The Shard fleet jumped in behind the battling fleets of the navy and the ITU.  Why?  Because that’s as far as they could reach.”

“What are you talking about?” Catala asked.

“Alden had threatened Rita directly with a weapon the Shard had already . . . endured once.”  Brent spoke faster and faster as the fear of the metal behemoths crept into the back of his mind.  “Why jump to the edge of the solar system?  Why not jump within range of the planet killers and take them out?”

“Because they couldn’t,” Alden said, understanding.  “They didn’t have the jump data!”

“Of course!” Shen shouted with a smile.  “Core Industries had control of the navigation array.  If they couldn’t jump closer, that means they were relying on our own navigation network to get around.”

“How does this help us?” Catala asked.

“The first order of business once the Shard had taken Reloas was to deny CI access to the nearby navigation arrays.  Alden assumed they didn’t want us to be able to jump in another fleet.  I suspect . . .”

“They wanted to use the array to jump in the last ship and retrieve Rita,” the kneeling captain said, jumping to his feet.

“Which means the jump path the shard ship followed is stored somewhere on the navigation array above Reloas,” Catala said.

“Now,” Brent said thoughtfully, “the only problem is getting to it.”

“Not an issue,” Alden said with pride.  “I’ve got some ships near enough Reloas to provide us with jump data.”

“Why am I not surprised . . .” Shen chuckled.

“It’s not that simple a problem,” Brent said reluctantly.  “If we go to retrieve the data we’ll be breaking the third principle.”

“But the Shard probably don’t have a clue that data is out there,” Catala said forcefully.

“True, and neither did any of you . . .” Brent paused as he checked over his pad, “eighteen minutes and thirty-two seconds ago.  Now, if you can figure it out in under twenty minutes with only some gentle prodding from me and a bar brawl, how long do you think it will take the Shards to put the pieces together if we launch an entire fleet to Reloas?”

“So what, that’s it?  The key to victory is out there and we aren’t going to go for it?” Catala asked.

“Not at all.  We are going to head straight for that navigation array and take what we want.”

“But you just said . . .” Shen said scratching his beard.

“It’s kind of a two part plan, and I know you’ll just
love
the second part.”  Brent took a deep breath.  “We have to attack every key world in the Commonwealth . . . at the same time.”

Everyone in the room stared at him as if he were speaking a different language.

“Are you telling me that in order to get the jump data . . .” Catala asked in shock.

“If we do that they won’t notice us jump to Reloas?” Alden asked quickly.

“Not exactly,” Brent said with a weak smile.

“There’s
more
?” Shen asked incredulously.

“The Shard will realize almost instantly that by attacking so many worlds with such a small fleet we are trying to draw their attention away from something.  After all, we don’t have the forces to really do much damage to their footholds.”

“And this is a good plan . . . how?” the kneeling captain asked.

“Because once the Shard take the bait, we launch the planet killers.  We have them head straight for the Shard hub world.  We’ll be giving them the answer they are looking for, and they’ll completely ignore our jump to Reloas.”

“They’ll think the jump to Reloas and all the other worlds was to divert attention from the planet killers,” Shen said, trying to wrap his mind around it.  “While, in reality, the planet killers are really diverting attention from Reloas?”

“It’s so confusing
I
barely understand it,” Alden said with a grin.

“If that’s the case, the Shard will fall for it completely,” Shen said with a smile.  “I doubt they’d ever expect us to do something so devious it would confuse you.”

“Do we have enough ships for this plan to work?” Catala asked.

“I’ve gone through the numbers and I believe so,” Brent said confidently.  “I’ve got a rough outline all ready, and with a little assistance from all of you, we should be ready before the day is up.”

“This could really work, couldn’t it?” the kneeling captain asked hopefully.

“It
will
work,” Alden said as if it was fact.

“Explain it to me
one
more time,” Doug pleaded.

“Give it a rest, Dougie,” Marie said with a sigh.  “Ronald has already explained it to you seventeen times!  If you haven’t gotten it by now, you’ll never get it.”

“I just want to know why we are waiting one jump away from Reloas.  Shouldn’t we just get this over with?”

“We are waiting because the other ships aren’t in position yet,” Brent said with a smile as he entered the crew quarters.

“Brent!” Liz shouted as she ran over and hugged him.

“It’s good to see you, too.”  He smiled and wrapped his one arm around her.

“I thought you were going to go with Catala, sir,” Dante said.

“That’s the only redeeming value of being the mastermind behind this plot.  I get to say who goes where.”

“Do you think they’ll fall for the same trick twice?” Tyra asked.

“If the ITU couldn’t spot Alden’s fleet waiting here the last time, there is no reason for the Shards to spot us now.

“So when
do
we jump in?” Doug asked.

“Thanks to Catala, we have the access codes to the ITU refueling depots, so the fleet is moving faster than I expected.  Everyone should be in place not too long from now.

“Is that why you
finally
decided to join us?” Cain asked with a grin.  “Don’t tell me you’ve been hiding from us since we launched.”

“Not exactly,” Angela said, matching Cain’s grin as she casually strolled in.

“I’ve wondered where you ran off to.”

“Did you miss me?” Angela asked with a wink.

“What have you two been up to?” Dante asked Angela.

“As odd as it might sound, Weaver lessons,” she said with a shrug.  “Brent’s finally getting a handle on his abilities and asked me to give him a hand working out the details.”

“So?” Mahoney asked expectantly.

“So what?” Angela asked, not understanding.

“How did it go?”  Marie nudged Brent.  “What amazing feats can he do?”

“I’m not really that good of a teacher,” she said, clearly embarrassed.

“Nonsense, I appreciate your hard work,” Brent said.  “I’m not sure amazing feats is the right word for it, but I don’t tire myself out so quickly anymore.  Plus, I’ve gotten pretty good at sensing the subtle nuances of emotions.  Don’t worry, Ronald.  We’ll make it in time.”

“Ten days of solid travel by the fleet to get to this point.  Another fifteen to get to the Shard staging ground and who knows how long to reach their main world.  The Commonwealth only has another fifty days at best . . .”  Ronald paused a moment.  “How did you know I was worried about
time
?”

The other troopers chuckled at Brent’s display.

“That
is
impressive,” Tyra said.  “But Ronald has a point.  Isn’t this cutting things close?”

Brent held his response until after the Wall cleared the room.

“Too late for second guessing now; we’re underway,” he said, shrugging.

Cain pulled out his pad and sighed.

“I hate Navy ships; they are so tight lipped with information.  Now, if this were a CI ship I’d know exactly how long until we had the data we’re after.”

“You can’t always know everything Cain,” Rhea said with a smirk.  “Even Alden gets surprised from time to time.”

“Speaking of surprises,” Doug said with a mischievous laugh.  “I wish I could be there to see the looks on their faces when they realize they’ve been tricked.”

“Do Shards even have faces?” Humphrey mumbled his question.

The troopers all looked at Brent for the answer.

“Not really,” he said thinking it through, “but then again, I didn’t know they had Shards that could pass as a human either.”

“Sounds like the Shards might have picked up a new trick or two over the last thousand years,” Penny said thoughtfully.  “I wonder what it was like to live during the Great War.”

“I, for one, don’t
want
to know,” Tyra said with a shiver.  “Fighting for your life
everyday
.  Never knowing which day would be your last.  Living in fear.  I’ll pass.”

“And that’s different from our current situation . . . how?” Kindra asked with a grin.

As the squad chuckled, Brent pulled out his pad.

“What is it sir?” Dante asked.

“Just checking . . . they’ve taken the bait!”

“Seriously?” Doug asked.

“The Shard defense fleets have broken up into small groups and are headed to aid their footholds.”

“How long until the planet killers launch?” Sanderson asked.

“As soon as the defense ships exhaust their reserve energy, the planet killers will head out.  Without those reserves, the Citadels will have to rely on their internal generators for each jump.  In other words, the progress they are going to make over the next thirty minutes will take them six or so hours to undo.”

“I bet they are going to soil themselves when they spot the planet killers . . . if they can, that is,” Doug corrected himself before Humphrey could.

“There’s one thing I don’t get,” Erin said.

“Only one?” Angela asked with a smile.

“Okay, there are a lot of things, but one big one.  If the planet killers are heading to the Shard hub world, how exactly do we plan to take down the main Shard world when we find it?”

The troopers looked at one another.  Apparently, not one of them had thought of that before.  As one, they all locked their gazes on Brent.

“I never planned on using the planet killers against the command world of the Shard,” he said nonchalantly.

“Why not?” Cain asked in surprise.

“I don’t think you understand exactly how much the Shard fear the planet killers,” he said, trying to keep his own fear in check.  “When the planet killers launch for the hub world,
everything
else will become background noise to the Shard.  We could tap dance on their most sensitive scanning array and they wouldn’t notice.”

“With all that attention, it would be a mistake to use them to attack the Shard homeworld,” Dante said, nodding in agreement.  “They’d realize in an instant our true intention and try to stop us.”

“So, as long as the planet killers stay far away from our true objective, we can move freely,” Ronald said with an approving nod.  “We have complete freedom of movement and action while they move closer to the hub world.”

“Exactly,” Brent said.

Reassured in the plan, the troopers relaxed a bit.  Checking over his pad, he watched as the Citadels moved farther and farther from the hub world.  The recovery teams had the jump data long before the Citadels exhausted their reserve energy stores.

“Well, if anyone had any doubts, we’ve just confirmed the Shards were calling for another ship,” he said, waving his pad.

“We’ve got the jump data?” Mr. Springate asked.

“Yep.  As we figured, the jump path originated deep behind the Great Divide.”

“The Great Divide?” Doug asked.

“Did you sleep through every single lecture back at the academy?” Marie asked, clearly frustrated.

“During the Great War, the Commonwealth and the Shard reached a kind of equilibrium point,” Dante quickly explained to Doug before Marie could hit him.  “It would shift back and forth somewhat but remained in the same relative space for most of the war.  We call that massive expanse of space the Great Divide.”

Doug blinked at him not understanding.

“Think of it as an imaginary line that divided the galaxy between the Commonwealth and the Shard forces,” Humphrey mumbled with a grin.