“Admiral Scott Cody requires a comms channel,” announced Teal. “I will open one immediately.”

  BK> Ever get the feeling we’re not going to get our feet on the ground?

  JN> Yup.

  “Admiral Cody, sir,” said Keller loudly.

  “Sir,” said Nation.

  Cody did have fleeting moments during which his mood could be tenuously linked with the word good. Now wasn’t one of those times.

  “I’ve read through the outline reports you sent from Estral Territory,” he said. “I’m not happy.”

  “What aren’t you happy about, sir?” asked Keller.

  “There’s a damn war going on and you ask why I’m not happy?”

  “I thought there might be something more specific.”

  Cody drew in a deep, shuddering breath, clearly audible across the comms. The sound of cogs turning in his brain was almost as loud and Keller imagined Cody trying hard to rein in his temper.

  “My apologies, Lieutenants. I imagine you have only sketchy reports about what has happened so far and I’m sure you are desperate to hear what’s going on.”

  “The Gundar’s databanks don’t populate quickly out in Estral space, sir,” said Nation.

  “Quite right.” Cody drew in another breath. “I don’t have a lot of time, so here’s a quick recap. The Estral attacked our Istoliar processing plant on Sindar, using a fleet of hitherto unknown warships equipped with lightspeed catapults. In addition, they staged two more attacks on other deep space facilities.”

  Nation caught the note of relief in Cody’s voice.

  “Dummy facilities?”

  “Yes, Lieutenant. The Estral attacked and destroyed two of our dummy plants. In order to accomplish this feat, they used a total of nineteen warships with lightspeed catapults.”

  “The numbers are adding up,” said Keller.

  “My intel team have had something of a wake-up call. Every few minutes I receive a revised estimate on the number of warships in the Estral fleet which are equipped with lightspeed catapults.” The sound of papers rustling came through the Gundar’s bridge speaker. “The estimate is now as high as seventy.”

  “Putting the Estral two behind the Space Corps fleet,” said Nation.

  “Assuming the next estimate isn’t twenty higher. Or fifty. A hundred.”

  “Numbers aren’t everything, sir,” said Keller. “What are their capabilities?”

  “We are busy analysing data from the reports. Our first impressions are that the newest Estral ships are similar in capability to one of our Retaliators.”

  “It’s not like we’ve ever been a generation ahead of the Estral,” said Nation. “We get our noses in front and then they pull it back.”

  “That may be true, Lieutenant Nation, but it doesn’t help us at the moment. The Estral have made a successful attack on one of our primary Obsidiar-Teronium refinement plants. We can increase output from our other plants, though it will not be sufficient to cover the losses from Sindar. In addition, it is certain the enemy have their deep space monitoring stations trained in our direction in the hope of locating our real processing facilities. That is not all.”

  “What else?” asked Keller.

  “The Estral fleet – those of their warships without lightspeed catapults – are coming through the Primol wormholes in great numbers. They are pressing us hard.”

  BK> It sounds like we’re losing already.

  JN> He certainly isn’t telling us the whole story.

  BK> I bet most of it’s classified. Maybe he doesn’t even know himself.

  JN> I don’t like any of this.

  BK> Me either.

  “What retaliatory action have we taken?” asked Nation.

  “As yet, little - we’ve been taken by surprise, so we are on the back foot. Neither I, nor my colleagues, wish to offer a piecemeal response which might see members of our fleet picked off. Therefore, we are in the process of regrouping.”

  “How many of the Estral refinement facilities do we know about?” asked Keller.

  “According to the peace treaty, we know them all.” Cody gave a dismissive laugh. “However, I’m certain our friends have rather more facilities than those we are aware of. A rough guess suggests these new warships in their fleet would require two or three times the total output of the known Estral refinement plants to produce.”

  “Why did we let it get so far, sir?” asked Nation.

  “A question for another time, Lieutenant. And probably a question to ask another person. Anyway, I’m running out of time. You’re no doubt wondering why I chose to speak to you in mid-flight, rather than bringing you in for a full debrief.”

  “Yes, sir, I think we were both wondering exactly that.”

  “We’ve been caught on the hop, but the Confederation is not exactly helpless. As it happens, only three days ago, one of our own deep space monitoring stations caught sight of an anomaly on the extremes of Estral Space, out in the middle of nowhere. After some intense analysis, we concluded that what we have located is an Obsidiar-Teronium refinement facility.”

  Nation raised an eyebrow. “It’s not on a planet and we managed to spot it?”

  “Far from anywhere, Lieutenant. Where the Estral assumed we would never find it.”

  “The crew on the monitoring station deserve a medal for that one.”

  “It’s what we pay them for. We are going to launch a strike on this facility, and hope that it isn’t a dummy,” said Cody.

  “Sounds like a plan. Does this place have a name?”

  “In the mission documentation, we refer to it as Zantil. This is too good an opportunity to pass up and we have gathered an attack fleet. I am sending further details to the Gundar’s databanks. You will rendezvous with Attack Fleet Z…”

  BK> Attack Fleet Z? Who thinks these up?

  JN> Beats me.

  “…and you will execute the details of the plan.”

  “I have received coordinates for our destination,” said Teal.

  Deep within the Gundar’s hull, the Obsidiar detonators grumbled. The entire vessel shook and the sound of the lightspeed catapult came to the fore. Keller interfaced with the spaceship and discovered it had been issued with a remote command from the Fortress-3 mainframe to activate the catapult immediately.

  “Sir, we are being sent into this mission without adequate briefing,” said Keller.

  “While we were talking, I received an order that there should be no further delays,” said Cody. “I ordered the Gundar to be sent on its way. You were here and now, and in one of our Class 1 warships. If the Zantil facility is well-defended, the Gundar’s firepower may well be the deciding factor.”

  Keller was experienced enough to know when a decision had been made. She went with the flow. “How important is Zantil, sir?”

  “It could be very important, Lieutenant. The distance is extreme, but our monitoring station picked up emissions which suggest it could produce enormous quantities of Istoliar. We believe this to be a genuine refinement operation. If the mission is successful, we can even things up in the war. Remember – the side which controls the Istoliar controls the outcome.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The whine of the catapult increased in volume and it would launch in a short time.

  “What about the Antaron, sir?” asked Keller.

  “It’s a low-priority, Lieutenant. A single entity that is far, far from here. Once this war is over, I will dedicate a team to study your findings.”

  “Sir, this thing is dangerous. It’s not like we found an amoeba frozen in a pool of ice. The Estral were unable to defeat it and then it attacked the Gundar.”

  “Another time,” warned Cody. “I told you I’d get people onto it.” He gave another short laugh and then repeated word-for-word what Nation had said only a few minutes ago. “It’s in Estral territory. Let the Estral deal with it.”

  The lightspeed catapult hit full volume, held for a second and then discharged, taking the SC Gundar an enormous distance back towards the hostile territory of Estral Space.

  Chapter Twenty

  Upon the Gundar’s arrival, Keller checked the sensors for signs of hostile activity. The mission briefing files Admiral Cody sent to the ship were sparse to say the least and, though Keller had used the speed of her augmentation to read them, she wasn’t left much wiser about whether or not the lightspeed catapult was meant to drop the Gundar right on top of the Zantil facility, or a distance away.

  As it happened, the arrival coordinates placed the Gundar within a few million kilometres of Attack Fleet Z and a short lightspeed jump from Zantil.

  “This fleet is unmanned,” said Keller. “I thought Cody was holding back on a few details.”

  “It’s not unusual for AIs to run the show, is it?”

  “No, I mean it’s completely unmanned. No human oversight at all.”

  Nation raised an eyebrow. “That is unusual.”

  “Welcome to the future. They also have an armoured lifter with them.”

  “Cody made no mention of that.”

  “Like I said, he was holding back.”

  “He must have received a message from the fleet admiral midway through our comms talk, or something. Anyway, show me this lifter.”

  Keller focused one of the sensor arrays on the Military Heavy Lifter Argonaut and brought up the image for Nation to look at. The Argonaut was one of largest ships in the fleet and it dwarfed the warships around it. The lifters were the only thing left which bore any resemblance – size-wise – to the warships in Eriol’s Graveyard. At twelve-thousand metres long, the Argonaut was shaped like a flattened cylinder, which tapered at the front end. It had cargo bay doors running the full length of its underside and it was equipped with Istoliar engines, as well as an Istoliar winch which could haul a small moon out of orbit.

  The days where an MHL was a floating target were long gone. The Argonaut wasn’t meant for fighting, but it was fitted with a Class 1 phase-shifting energy shield, as well as being covered in massive armour plates. In addition, it could defend itself with its overcharge particle beam turret and a single stasis emitter.

  “There is an inbound communication from Retaliator class SC Atlantis,” announced Teal.

  An unmanned attack fleet didn’t need direct, spoken communication. The AI of each ship would coordinate their attacks using lines of code, transmitted near-instantly from one to the other. Where humans were involved, it was common courtesy to speak, as long as it didn’t interfere with the mission.

  Keller accepted the comms. The moment she did so, the rest of the warships joined the channel.

  “I am AI Gane-Q12 from the SC Atlantis.” The voice had a hard-edged, distinctly male voice.

  “I’m Lieutenant Becky Keller. With me is Lieutenant Joe Nation.”

  “I know. I assume you are aware of the mission outline. It would be a failure on your parts if you did not.”

  Keller exchanged a look with Nation and rolled her eyes.

  “Why don’t you fill us in? Zantil, wasn’t it?” she asked.

  “You are aware that one of our deep space monitoring stations detected the Zantil mobile processing facility very recently,” said Gane-Q12. “We are certain the Estral scum have been using it to produce quantities of Istoliar, far beyond that which they are permitted.”

  Keller’s eyes opened wide at the AI’s use of the word scum. AI Gane-Q12 was balancing on a knife edge and it would be shut down if it spoke like that during one of its psyche evaluations. The beginning of each new war was the time when a susceptible AI tended to go off the rails.

  “I am aware of what the Estral are doing at Zantil.”

  “We are going to strike,” said Gane-Q12. “We will deliver punishment for what they did to our people on Sindar.”

  “What’s the plan?” asked Nation. “I assume there’s a plan underneath the rhetoric?”

  “We will disable the Zantil station with the force of our weapons.”

  “And I will carry it back,” spoke another voice, this time from the Argonaut. This voice was deeper and manly. Keller winced when she realised the lifter’s AI had given itself the name Jason.

  “I thought this was a simple in-destroy-out kind of mission,” she said.

  “Admiral Jacks wishes to stick it to the Estral,” said AI Nox from the Invoke class SC Piledriver. “To insult them by stealing that which they hold most dear.”

  Keller frowned. “I thought Admiral Cody was in charge?”

  “Our orders come from Admiral Jacks,” replied Gane-Q12.

  Nation tapped Keller on the arm and shrugged, to indicate it didn’t matter who gave the orders.

  BK> Capturing Zantil will quadruple the risks.

  JN> More than quadruple. It’ll increase them tenfold.

  BK> This must be a real high-priority target.

  JN> It’s nothing to do with sticking it to the Estral. We want their tech and we want to see how efficient their refinement process is.

  BK> And, if we’re lucky, find a few million tonnes of Istoliar in the facility hangar bay.

  JN> That would be a bonus.

  The spoken conversation resumed.

  “We are not the only mission,” said Klister, the AI from the second Retaliator class, SC Granite. “As the Estral attack us, so we shall attack them.”

  BK> This is like attending a sermon.

  JN> At least they’re up for the fight.

  BK> I wonder if this is going to be a short war.

  JN> The Eighth War was settled by lightspeed catapults. There’s no reason to think the Ninth won’t be.

  “What are the projections for an Estral response during this mission?” asked Keller, switching to normal speech.

  “We will destroy whatever they send,” said Gane-Q12.

  “That does not answer my question.”

  “The projection is for a minimal response,” said AI Rune, speaking from the SC Sunder. “If the enemy have no lightspeed catapult-enabled warships available, we may be able to capture Zantil station before they can offer any response at all.”

  “It is anticipated that comms travel time from Zantil to the closest Estral command and control station, in combination with the delay associated with decision making, will allow us more than twenty minutes to overcome the processing facility,” said Klister. “Twenty minutes is more than sufficient for a mission with such simple aims.”

  “Death to the enemy,” said Flex.

  “Victory for the Confederation,” added AI Sol.

  Warship AIs were permitted a certain amount of patriotism, without it being actively encouraged. To Keller’s ear, Flex and Sol were just about within acceptable levels. It was Gane-Q12’s expression of hatred in calling the Estral scum which overstepped the boundaries.

  BK> Let’s hope they’re just excited.

  JN> That makes them sound like children. Children in control of life and death. It’s worrying.

  BK> And it’s nothing new.

  JN> I suppose. I’m sure the AI programming guys have it under control.

  There was no choice other than to get on with it. Warship AIs had been replaced on a few occasions in the past, but there was no record of one actually going rogue. The consequences of that happening were unthinkable and the Space Corps had all sorts of contingency planning in case the worst ever come to the worst. A few officers even had the temerity to suggest that a return to the good old days where men and women were in charge would be a positive change. Keller smiled at the thought and cleared her throat.

  “We’re ten minutes’ high lightspeed from Zantil. I will remain in control of the SC Gundar for the duration of the mission.”

  “That is contrary to orders,” said Gane-Q12. “You will relinquish control of the Gundar to its AI, to maximise our chances of success.”

  “Negative. The orders we received gave no mention of who would pilot the Gundar. Until I hear to the contrary, I am in charge of this ship.”

  There was a pause, too short to be recognized by a normal human, but which registered as significant on Keller and Nation’s internal clocks.

  “Very well,” said Gane-Q12. “A transcript of this conversation will appear in my report. You will join our battle network to ensure you are able to synchronise with the rest of Attack Fleet Z.”

  “Agreed,” said Keller. “Now let’s get going.”

  The comms channel went silent. Gane-Q12 offered a series of synchronisation codes to the Gundar’s navigational computer, which Keller accepted.

  BK> We’re departing at once.

  JN> Like you said, no point in hanging around.

  Gane-Q12 triggered the launch and, as one, the ten warships in Attack Fleet Z entered high lightspeed. The Gundar was hampered by the damage to its Istoliar core, but it was still considerably faster than the Class 2 Invokes. This was the purpose of the synchronisation codes – to ensure every ship arrived in the same place and at the same time.

  “So, this is how the Ninth War proceeds,” said Nation gloomily. “We slug it out with the Estral until we’ve destroyed each other’s Obsidiar-Teronium refinement plants, shoot down a few warships and then come to another settlement.”

  “Except this this time the Estral will be looking for a more favourable outcome. One which permits them to rebuild their refinement facilities bigger and better than last time.”

  “Then, in a few years we say hello to the Tenth War, except this time we lose.”

  “If not the tenth, then the eleventh or the twelfth. Until the Estral gain the upper hand.”

  Nation growled. “I thought we’d learned from our mistakes.”

  “The Confederation has always been peaceful, ever since its inception. We know how to fight, but up here,” Keller tapped her head, “we’ve never been ruthless enough. Every time we win, we leave the door open for a rematch.”

  “Except when it came to the Ghasts. Our success with them proves the method is viable.”

  “The Ghasts keep themselves to themselves.”

  “Tell me the Lieutenant Becky Keller solution. How do we keep humanity alive without making our enemies extinct?”

  “Maybe that’s the only way,” she said sadly. “Maybe we’re just not strong enough to take that extra step to ensure our own survival.”