Winds of Vengeance Read online

  The Mules did not pair off as most of the other humans did. They did not condemn the humans for their bonding rituals, but they considered themselves above it all. Incapable of reproducing, they lacked any imperative to form family units…and they had much stronger senses of self than the others, at least that is how they looked at themselves. They took pride in independence, but also in the sense of community among their small group.

  She held her smile for a few seconds more. The Mules weren’t above feeling affection for each other, and it was clear Callisto was glad Achilles had included her when he’d proposed the Mules send a research team with the fleet. But then her grin slipped away, replaced by an earnest look. “Achilles, I’ve been running some size and projected mass computations based on the fragments. This debris, all of it, comes from relatively small vessels…and that confirms the lack of heavy units in the enemy force.”

  “So what does that tell you?” He wasn’t sure he knew where she was going. They already knew Admiral Frette had fought against a task force without any heavy vessels.

  “Well, obviously that Admiral Frette faced a fleet composed entirely of light vessels, which of course we already knew from her report. But extrapolating from that, I surmise that there are indeed heavier units located elsewhere, perhaps farther down the line of advance Frette’s fleet followed.”

  The assertion seemed like a wild guess, but Achilles knew his old lover didn’t make wild guesses. Anything that came out of her mouth was the result of hard calculation.

  “This was a large force to consist entirely of light units, but Admiral West’s speculation could be correct.” He frowned. The general consensus in the fleet was that Frette had encountered an exploratory force that had been deployed beyond the borders of the imperium when the Regent was destroyed and had only just returned. He didn’t believe it any more than he thought Callisto did, but he didn’t have an alternate theory either.

  “I was initially working under that hypothesis, but I no longer believe it to be the case.”

  “You know I am doubtful too, but I am as yet unable to offer an alternative explanation. Are you?”

  “Perhaps. I believe I can offer some evidence-based determinations, though much of my end conclusion remains speculative.”

  “Please…share your analysis with me.”

  “I have performed some additional tests on these samples, and I have obtained some interesting results. First among these is that the spectral analysis shows considerably higher concentrations of dark matter in these alloys than we have seen in the older fragments back on Earth Two.”

  Achilles, stared down at the workstation in front of him, punching at the small keyboard. His eyes widened as the result was displayed. Callisto was right. There was almost thirty percent more dark matter in the new samples.

  “How do you explain the difference?”

  She paused. “You are aware that we have long suspected that the First Imperium’s binding process, the technology they used to infuse the dark matter into their hulls, was imperfect, that over time particles of the dark matter would slowly bleed off?”

  “Yes…but that is based on considerable speculation. We have a limited quantity of First Imperium wreckage to experiment with…and no alternate way of establishing an estimated age for each specimen.”

  “That is true, Achilles. But I submit we now have the basis for expanding the theory. The variance in dark matter concentration on all prior samples has been small, less than one percent from the highest to the lowest reading.”

  Achilles turned and walked toward Callisto, looking down at the screen in front of her. “You believe the vessels Admiral Frette encountered are newer than those that produced the fragments we already possess?” It was half question, half statement.

  “Far newer. Indeed, let us assume First Imperium ship production ended roughly five hundred thousand years ago. That would mean that the newest ship faced in the war in human space and during the fleet’s journey was half a million years old.”

  “That is in keeping with all active theories about the First Imperium…and it is corroborated by the records we found on Earth Two.”

  “Yes…and now we calculate for the previously noted differences in dark matter concentrations. We must estimate the normal use and replacement schedule for a First Imperium warship before the Ancients fell. The Alliance had a fifty to sixty-year useful cycle for vessels, with ships remaining in front line service for roughly half that time. But First Imperium ships obviously had a longer useful life, a conclusion that is clear since so many were still functional five hundred thousand years after the last was constructed. So let us assume a thousand-year turnaround under normal conditions.” She paused then added, “I understand that is an estimate unsupported by direct facts, but it seems reasonable.”

  Achilles hesitated for a moment considering the implications of what she had said. “If your assumptions are correct that would mean these new ships are…”

  Callisto nodded. “Far less ancient than any that have been encountered to date. Likely thousands of years newer.” She paused. “Hundreds of thousands of years, actually. Indeed, this debris could very well be from new ships.”

  “New? What parameters define ‘new’ in terms of your analysis?”

  “Well, it would be meaningless to suggest that scientific dating of the dark matter hulls could be accurate beyond a range of centuries…but I am suggesting that these vessels could have been constructed very recently, within the range of our occupation of Earth Two.”

  Achilles stood, silent, letting Callisto’s words sink in. The Regent was gone, destroyed, and its last command had been a self-destruct directive to all imperial forces. Even before then, it had been clear that the Regent’s rule over the Imperium had been limited to its military forces. The factories, the great mining operations, the huge planetary power generation units…all of them had been silent for millennia. The fleet had found dozens of them, along with the old cities of the Ancients, and they were all the same. Dead, covered with ages of dust and decayed.

  Achilles was almost always calm, cool in his demeanor. He’d gone through the Mules’ rebellion, deployed the war bots and faced down the republic’s government, all without losing his temper or raising his voice. But now he felt a cold chill deep inside.

  If Callisto was correct, there were First Imperium factories still active somewhere, new ships pouring out from shipyards. The implications were staggering…utterly horrifying. Achilles had been quickened after the fleet had defeated the Regent, but he understood the threat Callisto’s theory carried with it.”

  “Put your data together, Callisto.” His voice was deep, grim. “We have to discuss this with Admiral West. Now.”

  Achilles had images in his head, of a different kind of First Imperium enemy, one with active shipyards and factories, producing new war materiel rather than relying upon millennia of stockpiled arms and ancient ships. Callisto’s hypothesis was sobering, horrifying. But his own mind took it further now. If indeed there were such manufacturing facilities, an ongoing production ecosystem creating new arms, new ships…it had to be directed by an intelligence of immense capability. Not one of the regional AIs the imperium had employed, but an entity to rival the Regent itself.

  What is out there, waiting for us? Plotting against us?

  He paused, looking around the room, struggling to deal with the feeling rising up inside him, one he had never felt before…but one he tentatively identified. Fear.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  From the Research Notes of Achilles the Mule

  I have reviewed Callisto’s data three times, and the results have been the same with each analysis. We are facing something entirely unexpected, a danger beyond anything I had considered a possibility.

  I know there has been much talk of us, the Mules, about our coldness, our lack of emotion…and indeed, there are many times when intellect forestalls the kinds of undisciplined responses the humans so commonly exhibit. But w
e do feel emotions. Loyalty, to each other, and also to the humans, our lesser cousins. Affection, which we sometimes resist but feel nevertheless.

  And now…fear. I have long prided myself on rationality, on approaching challenges with intelligence, study, determination. It is one thing to face greater numbers, a more powerful enemy…and yet another to stare into the utter blackness of the unknown…

  Bridge – E2S Constitution

  System G38

  Earth Two Date 01.03.31

  “Do you know what you are suggesting?” Erika West sat at the head of the small conference table. She was as cold-blooded a veteran as any the navy had ever produced, but Achilles’ words had turned her white as a sheet.

  The room was small, cramped. Constitution had been built as a flagship, but unlike the massive Compton, the smaller battlewagon didn’t have tonnage to spare. Its designers had poured all the space saved by the massive reduction in crew size back into its power and weapons systems. The conference table was perhaps a quarter the size of the palatial constructions that had served the admirals flying their flags from the old Yorktown-class battleships, though Constitution was half again the tonnage and possessed seven or eight times the firepower.

  “I understand perfectly, Admiral. Indeed, I have analyzed the data extensively, and I felt it was crucial to bring this to your attention immediately. I would still have to characterize our conclusions as theory, however the absence of any reasonable alternative hypothesis strongly suggests that at least part of it is factual. Specifically, that we are dealing with First Imperium ships that are hundreds of thousands of years newer than any contacted by human forces previously. There is little doubt of that. Indeed, I consider it highly likely the ships Admiral Frette fought and destroyed here were produced within a range of fifty years or less from the current date. They were new, certainly by the standards of First Imperium craft previously encountered.” Achilles paused, allowing West time to digest his words before he continued.

  “Admiral, it is likely that what we are facing is not another renegade group of ships cut off when the Regent was destroyed, but newly-constructed and organized forces built at a production facility—or facilities—that were recently in operation. That are very likely still active.”

  West stared back at Achilles. She had never truly been as cold and unflappable as the junior officers’ gossip had always made her out to be, but she was struggling now to remain calm, to maintain her discipline. The implications of what Achilles had just told her were staggering. It raised old fears, dark memories of battles past…and a truly terrifying view of the future.

  Or the lack of a future…

  “Achilles…if you are right, we face a far greater danger than we had imagined. With the data we have available—or more accurately, the lack of data—there is no way to estimate the strength we might be facing. Based on the number of ships Admiral Frette encountered and, assuming that was a scouting group or decoy, we can guess we are facing an enemy force numbered in the hundreds.” She paused. “Or even thousands.” Her mind tended toward the dark, and it had gone even farther, daring to think of tens of thousands of enemy ships. Hundreds of thousands. Images of Earth Two passed through her thoughts, barren, irradiated. Dead.

  Achilles’ expression was somber. “Admiral, I am sorry to be so negative, but…” The Mule paused.

  “It is okay, Achilles. I have never been one to avoid the truth, regardless of what it is. People allow their wishes to color their thoughts too often…but not me. What else did you want to say?”

  “Admiral, it is just that, if our hypothesis is correct, if there are shipyards and other facilities in active operation…well, we have to draw certain other conclusions, not the least of which is that some intelligence is directing all of this. We know for certain the Regent was destroyed, but…” His voice trailed off again.

  “But?”

  “Are we sure there was only one?”

  “One Regent?” West’s voice was shrill. The thought of another Regent was terrifying to her.

  “Admiral…”

  “Are you suggesting there is another Regent somewhere out there? A copy of the other one?”

  “No…not ‘suggesting.’ But I do believe we need to consider the possibility that there is another intelligence behind what we are now encountering. The Regent was just a computer. It would have been relatively easy to create a copy, given sufficient hardware to support its functionality.”

  “Another Regent? With new shipyards, mines, foundries, antimatter production facilities? That is a significant endeavor…and an extraordinary suggestion.”

  “Is it so extraordinary, Admiral? Do we have a vital system without a failsafe? The AI that controls the climate of my quarters and the lock on the door has a backup. Certainly every electronic system we have of note has some level of functionality in the event of a primary failure.” He paused, deliberately slowing himself. Erika West was one of the strongest of the humans, but Achilles knew she couldn’t absorb data as quickly as his people could.

  “Admiral, we assumed the First Imperium threat was gone because we hadn’t been attacked in twenty years. But what is twenty years to an artificial intelligence? What is it in the context of the Regent, that ruled for five hundred thousand years?”

  West sat still, silent, considering Achilles’ words. She knew the Mule was intelligent, that his mind could analyze things far faster and more completely than her own. And everything he said made perfect sense. She couldn’t remember Achilles ever being wrong about anything. She had even sympathized with his rebellion…and acknowledged that his people had exhibited considerable patience before taking action.

  “If you are right, Achilles, we face a terrible danger now…one as bad as that the fleet endured. Worse, even.”

  Achilles nodded. “I agree, Admiral. That is why I felt it was so urgent to bring this to your attention.”

  West took a deep breath. She’d spent her whole life projecting strength, but now she needed help. She didn’t know what to do. “What do you propose?”

  “Military operations are not my area of expertise, Admiral, so I would suggest that you might be better able answer that question.” He paused. “Nevertheless, there are certain actions that would seem obvious. We must rally every man and woman on Earth Two to the cause. We must put every ship we can into the line, including the mothballed reserve, the old ships of the fleet. We must fortify the warp gates in the home system. We must buy time, time to build up our forces…time to learn more about our enemy.” He paused. “And perhaps most difficult for you right now…we must do nothing to lead the enemy back to Earth Two.” He hesitated again, staring at her with the most sympathy she’d ever seen in the Mule’s eyes. “You must consider turning around now, Admiral. If we advance and engage the enemy, we risk leading them back with us if we return home.”

  West felt the coldness move through her body. She knew in an instant Achilles was right. If she pressed on, if the fleet engaged the enemy, or even came into contact with First Imperium vessels, it would be an all or nothing proposition. Her people would have to eradicate any force they encountered. Retreat in the face of the enemy wouldn’t be an option…there could be no flight, not one the enemy could follow.

  She felt tension, something approaching panic, as she imagined giving the order to leave Nicki and her people behind. It was the kind of choice she’d dreaded her entire life, and even with the horrific battles she’d fought, the wounds she’d suffered…she’d never faced anything as stark and terrible as this. She suspected Augustus Garret had, at the moment he’d given the order to detonate the massive bomb that disrupted the warp gate leading back to human space, creating the barrier. And condemning his best friend and thousands of loyal officers and spacers to what he had to view as almost certain death. She’d often wondered how Garret had managed after that, if he’d learned to deal with his choice…or if it had destroyed him.

  “I am going to lead the fleet onward. Those are our peop
le out there, and we don’t know what they are facing.”

  “Or if they are even alive, Admiral. If we are facing what it appears we are, there is no way to know what they have encountered.”

  “No way but to go and find out for ourselves.” West paused. “We need to know more, Achilles. If we return now, we will still be in the dark, guessing at what we are facing. Moving forward puts the fleet at risk…but if your hypothesis is correct we’re going to need more than fifty-six ships to win the war we are facing. We’re going to need more information. We’re going to need to stand together, to be the kind of warriors that don’t abandon our people. If we can find and rescue the fleet—and learn more about what we’re up against—we will be in a much better position to prevail in the fight that is coming.”

  “That is true, Admiral.” The Mule paused. “But moving forward is betting the fleet on what we find. You know we can’t come back, not if we engage the enemy…at least not while any First Imperium vessels can follow us. Every man and woman in the fleet will die if we encounter a force we cannot annihilate…and Earth Two will have lost most of its naval forces.”

  West stood quietly, thinking. Garret hadn’t had a choice…the fate of all human space had rested on his decision. Indeed, if he’d failed to do as he had done, Compton would have died. Everyone on the fleet would have died…along with the rest of mankind.