The ethos effect, p.33
The Ethos Effect, page 33
Van turned the Joyau head-to-head with the frigate. With the added mass of the ice, his acceleration wasn’t what it would have been, but the closure rate was great enough in any case.
As the Revenant frigate had slowed, the corvette had crept forward so that the pair were again overlapping screens. Van continued to accelerate.
The moment he was within torp range, he fired the first of his torps head-on at the frigate. After a moment he fired a second.
The frigate responded with a pair of torps, followed by two from the corvette.
Van waited, watching, calculating. Then he cut all power to everything except shields. “Desensitizing.”
He could sense the wash of energy, and the Joyau’s shield indicators flickered, but stayed in the green.
Immediately, Van unshuttered and checked the monitors.
Four more torps were headed toward them and they still weren’t close enough for what he needed. He watched as the two ships launched another set of four.
“Desensitizing.”
He kept the Joyau shuttered through two sheets of energy from the torps, and this time the secondary shield generator dropped into the amber and stayed there. He couldn’t afford to wait any longer. He pulsed the nets, then reversed the drives for a good minute to decelerate, the joint effect launching the ice comet fragment toward the shields of the frigate. Then he began launching his own torps, two at a time, until he had six running toward the two Rev ships. He hoped that the generally nonreflecting ice mass would not show on the Revenants’ monitors until just before it impacted their shields. It shouldn’t, but...
In the meantime, four torps flashed toward the Joyau.
Van desensitized the ship, boosted all the power he could into the shields, sent out another round of torps, and waited.
When he unshuttered, he had only one shield generator— but there were expanding rings of debris and energy where the two Revenant ships had been.
He took a deep breath, then turned to Eri. “Time for you to go to work. Number two shield generator’s gone.” He returned ship gravity to one gee.
“What did you do?” she asked.
“Used the photon nets to scoop up some ice cometary fragments. Then we went head-to-head with the frigate, and I used the nets to throw all the fragments at him—and I added six torps as well, fired as quickly as possible. They’d overlapped screens. So when the frigate had to contract his screens to deal with the ice and torps, I sent a double volley at the corvette. Screens couldn’t take that, and just before they went to amber, I fired more torps at the Rev.”
“Before they went to amber?”
“There’s a moment of instability when shields are overlapped if one fails. I was trying to take advantage of that. It worked.” This time, anyway, he added to himself.
“At the cost of one shield generator. If you had to fix it... you wouldn’t be so cavalier about it” The impish smile negated the words.
“I wouldn’t know where to start.”
“How much time do I have?” Eri unstrapped.
Van checked the monitors once more, but there were still no other Revenant ships in the system. In fact there were no other interstellar ships in the system—unless the Beldorans had one in total standby and shut down. “Until someone else comes out of jump. That could be ten minutes or ten days.”
“When I tell you, you’ll have to depower the entire shield section.”
“Let me know,” Van replied. He concentrated on watching and studying the plots and EDI indicators. The mining tugs continued their deliberate progress toward Beldora itself.
All told, Eri spent almost two hours aft and below before she returned.
Van looked at her. “Yes ... no?”
“Yes. In a way. You really stressed the shields. The main shield generator won’t last fifteen minutes under attack. The secondary will manage five—if we’re lucky.”
“Then we’ll have to be prepared to run and jump. But we need to finish up here.”
“Finish up? There are other ships?”
“No. Not armed interstellar ships. Mining tugs. The Revs are into destruction on the cheap. Take an isolated system, wipe out its small defense force, then drop rocks from beyond orbit on the most inhabited areas. When the steam and dust have settled, the planet’s ready for Rev recolonization. No unnatural radiation. No survivors who could claim it was much besides a strike by a fragmented asteroid.”
Eri winced.
“We’ve got some torps left, enough to take out the tugs.” She nodded.
Van turned the Joyau in-system.
Hours later, the Joyau swept down toward the first mining tug. Van captured a few images, verifying that the captured tug was using its shields and screens to herd debris inward toward the single inhabited planet—Beldora. Then he fired a single torp.
Four hours, and eight torps, later, the Joyau was outbound on a supraecliptic course. There were no operating mining tugs, not that Van could determine, and still no other Revenant ships. That was just as well.
Van studied the empty screens. He’d stopped the invasion—for the moment, but he couldn’t exactly patrol the system. He’d cost the Revs three ships, and that wasn’t bad, but he had the feeling that whatever they sent back to Beldora would be more than the Joyau could handle.
Incoming standing wave message.
Accept.
Unknown warship. The people of Beldora thank you. We would appreciate it if you would please convey the attached to the nearest Hyndji embassy or consulate.
Van frowned. Why couldn’t the Beldorans send such a message themselves? He called up the system coordinates and checked the notes.
Both Beldora and Islyn were in blank zones—areas where, because of transdimensional tensions, standing wave could not be sent or received over interstellar distances.
After a moment, he checked the attachment. It was encrypted, as he had expected, but there were standing wave address coordinates.
He replied. Will forward attachment.
Our thanks.
Van had the feeling that he’d just involved the Coalition in brinksmanship with the Revenant Community of the Revealed, but it would come out sooner or later that a warship with Coalition signature drives had wiped out a small Revenant force in Beldora system. He hoped it was later.
As he turned the Joyau out-system, he began to prepare a message torp that requested a rendezvous with Trystin at one of the prearranged points—the uninhabited Hyksos system. On the way, he could also stop at Neuquen, the regional capital of the spinwardmost section of the Argenti Commonocracy. Coalition ships were still welcome there, and they might be able to pick up replacement shield generators there.
And... just after he reentered normspace outside Neuquen, he would forward the encrypted message, both to the Hyndji embassy there, and to Dhyli itself. He’d also keep a copy. While be couldn’t decode it, it was possible that Trystin or someone in IIS could.
Chapter 54
The Joyau was locked into M-2, a maintenance lock of Neuquen orbit station two. Van was sitting before the console in his stateroom, going over the local news feeds, scanning through the political happenings.
Montaje Increases Out-Space Defense Budget... Keltyr Executive Denies Cruiser Lost in Syrenae... Director Defends Rising SocSer Costs... High Court Denies Revealed Community Appeal...
He caught sight of Eri in the open doorway and looked up.
“The shield generators are in and hooked up. The maintenance supervisor asked three times about them,” Eri said. “I told them we blew them on debris in an uncharted system, and that sort of problem was why we needed such heavy generators.”
“How are they?”
“They’re good generators. Too good.”
“Too good?”
“They’re military-issue. Designed for small cruisers. They don’t call them light cruisers here.”
“How do they mesh with our systems?”
“You’ll have about five percent greater holding, and six percent greater power draw. That’s within parameters. It might even be a better trade-off, considering what you’ve been doing with the shields.” The last line was delivered deadpan, with but the faintest glint in the tech’s eyes.
“Thank you, most honored senior technician.” Van couldn’t help grinning. “I will try to destroy attackers with less strain on the systems.” The grin dropped. “Unless we get more torps, we won’t be doing much of anything that way.”
“You haven’t heard anything?”
“Just a confirmation of the rendezvous. No details. I did say that we were very low on message torps. On an open wave, I didn’t want to say more.”
“He will understand that.”
Van hoped so. “How long before we can depart?”
“At least six hours. That’s if all the reprogramming takes and if the systems checks don’t reveal something else.”
“The way things are going, they will.”
“It’s possible.”
Incoming from Captain-General Jose Marie Marti, Argenti Space Forces.
From Colonel—General Marti? Van wondered. Marti had supposedly gone off to intelligence, but that had been almost three years earlier. Accept.
Eri slipped away as the holo image shimmered into being in the space beside the console. The holo image was definitely that of Marti, if in a far more impressive uniform.
“Commodore Albert.”
“General Marti.” Van smiled, answering in Hispyn. “I’m merely a retired commodore, while you are a rising general. What can I do for you?”
“I had hoped you might visit Neuquen at some time. I just returned on the Garcie. It’s one of our newest class dreadnoughts. You might be able to pick it up on your screens. It’s too large to dock at the station...”
Van linked to the monitors. There was definitely a dreadnought holding station off Neuquen orbit station two. “I see. It is very impressive.”
“If it would not delay you unduly, would you mind being my guest for a meal here on orbit station? There is a private dining area that is quite good—The View. I could meet you in half a standard hour.”
“I would be pleased to have dinner with you.” Van wasn’t about to go anywhere that Marti didn’t want him to go—not with a dreadnought that close and able to follow him anywhere in-system. He could devise an exit strategy that would probably work... but that was high risk, and the Joyau was not going anywhere soon. He might as well see what the general wanted.
“A half hour, then.”
Van spent fifteen minutes getting cleaned up and donning his best gray shipsuit. Then he told Eri and left the Joyau, using his implant to seal the ship’s lock behind him.
The View was halfway around Neuquen orbit station two, and down a corridor paneled in dark cherry with actual carpeting. A single attendant stood by an old-style wooden podium.
“Ser?”
“Commodore Van. I’m supposed to be meeting General Marti.” Van spoke in Hispyn.
“Ah... he is here and expecting you. If you would...”
Van followed him toward a large booth against the wall on one side. The View was aptly named, with a full-screen holo view on all walls above head height, displaying the view from the orbit station, with Neuquen below. Van could even make out the bulk of the Garcie.
Marti stepped out of the booth and waited as Van approached the booth and its shimmering white linen cloths, silver cutlery, and deep leather seats.
“Commodore!”
“General.”
The functionary slipped away.
“I took the liberty of ordering you a pale ale. I hope you do not mind,” Marti offered after he reseated himself.
“That is what I would have chosen. But then, you have always been observant.” After seating himself, Van took a sip of the ale. “This is good.”
Marti lifted his own drink, an amber wine. “To friends and good acquaintances.”
Van lifted the ale, and they both drank.
“I am so pleased that you are here,” Marti said. “I had read the reports on the... incident at the Keltyr embassy on Scandya, and when I learned that you had been decorated and retired... I had feared that you might have suffered some permanent injuries.”
“No. It was a long recovery, but there was no lasting damage.”
“That is good.”
“You’re the local military commander?”
“Ah, no. I am far too young and inexperienced for that.”
“The deputy commander?”
“One of two, the junior assistant commandant of the Spin-ward Region.” Marti looked up as a waiter in a white jacket and deep green trousers appeared, proffering two menus.
Van nodded. The View was very expensive. Printed menus, liveried waiters, tables and booths spaced widely, and very subdued music, so low he hadn’t noticed it at first, but just loud enough and projected in such a fashion that each table sat in its own island of privacy. Apparent privacy. Van suspected that the arrangement allowed most effective recording of what was said. He studied the menu, then waited.
“I will have the greens, the wild mushroom soup, and the broiled shrimpsters.” Marti handed the menu back. “And the Puilossa with the main course.”
“The greens, the mushroom soup, but I’d like the marinated pringhorn, medium.”
“Thank you, seniors.”
Van took another sip of the ale.
“You are the commander of a private vessel. It is a rather impressive ship, especially for one privately owned,” the general observed.
“I was fortunate enough to obtain a position as commander and senior director for a Coalition foundation.”
Marti tilted his head to the side. “There is quite a dossier on IIS and its managing director. Everything is always absolutely legal, done impeccably. Its clients always prosper, and they do so without large fund transfers into their accounts. In fact, they actually pay IIS for services rendered. You know ... that is most amazing for a black operation.”
Van smiled. “I’d thought they were, also, when they first approached me. In fact, I initially refused for that reason.”
Marti nodded. “You would have to take that position.”
Belatedly, Van recalled that an Argenti nod was almost a negative. “It’s an easy position to take when it happens to be the truth.”
“Yet there is a certain... impression...”
“I’m certain that the Coalition is not opposed to a foundation whose work enhances the image and commerce of Coalition multis and citizens.”
“Nor one that diminishes the effectiveness of a theocracy’s efforts, no doubt.”
All Van could do was shrug.
Marti laughed. “You are less than fond of organizations that are not as they seem. Or religions that seek empires.”
“That is a fair statement.”
The salads arrived, and the waiter slipped away silently. “Why would you then insist... the resources in your ship alone...”
“IIS has over a hundred planetary offices, with paying clients for all of them.”
“And you have seen all of these offices?”
“I’ve been in over forty in the last two years, and I’ve seen transactions and clients for most of the others.”
Marti fingered his chin. “You almost convince me.”
“I can only tell you what I know and see.”
“And this Trystin Desoll? He is a most elusive soul.”
“He’s very real.”
“Oh... there is no doubt of that. Did you know that he has been the managing director for at least fifty years?”
Van looked hard at Marti. “I knew he was older, but fifty years?”
“There are rumors of a longer link, but we can find no records before that. There has been a T. Desoll who owns a dwelling in Cambria for over eighty years.”
“He’s probably named after one of his ancestors with the same initial. One of my fathers and I share the same initials, except he goes by his middle name, and I go by the first name.”
Marti shrugged. “It is possible.”
“You know a great deal about IIS.” Especially for a military officer.
“One discovers that one must know something about everything.” Marti smiled. “I did take the liberty of checking on your maintenance work. I suggested an upgrade on the generators you requested, and the station maintenance personnel agreed.”
“I appreciate that.” Van finished his salad, and it was whisked away and replaced with a delicate gold-rimmed porcelain bowl with the wild mushroom soup.
“I did wonder how you managed to strain them so badly.”
“We ran into some unexpected ice and debris,” Van said. “IIS does a lot of work in less charted systems.” He tried the soup, tangy and yet with a rich but not heavy creaminess.
“Such as?” Marti smiled broadly.
Van grinned in return. “Our last business was on Islyn.”
Marti raised his eyebrows. “Do you have any business left there?”
“Forty-five percent, until they figure out a way to take that. How did you know?”
“The Commerce Committee of the Montaje requested our assessment of possible military action to protect Argenti investments there.” Marti frowned. “It’s too far out for us to support properly ... but we thought about it. We did send some... information to ... some others.”
“Your Hyndji counterparts?”
“They are somewhat closer, and I do not believe that they would appreciate a Revenant buildup in that part of the Arm. We are limited in what we can do, no matter what others think.” He smiled again. “That is another reason why I was glad to see that you have taken over IIS operations in this part of the Arm”
