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CHAPTER TEN

Zhìgāo Bǎozuò Station

Jinan Planetary Orbit

Uromachi System

Tè Lā Lián Méng

November 22, 2552


The delay was a bad sign, Than thought.

Cai Shen and Li Shiji had been in Jinan orbit for almost thirty-six hours, and Governor Shen Hanying had had Than’s full report for thirty of them. Than hadn’t wanted to transmit it until he had the opportunity to make it himself, face-to-face, but Shen had insisted. And Than could think of only one possible reason for his delay in dragging the third admiral into his office.

Just as he could think of only one reason he’d been specifically instructed to report alone for this interview, without Su Zhihao. And without Fourth Admiral Deng’s presence.

Damage control. The son-of-a-bitch is already thinking about damage control and how to pull it off with the least possible witnesses. Especially Navy witnesses. If all he wanted was to do his damned job, the transports would already be on their way back to Diyu.

Than’s mouth tightened as he stood, square-shouldered, hands clasped behind him, gazing out the floor-to-ceiling crystoplast bulkhead at the gorgeous gem of Jinan, moving steadily across his field of view with Zhìgāo Bǎozuò Station’s rotation. He made himself maintain a calm, semi-relaxed posture, but it wasn’t easy. Because if he was right, then Shen wasn’t going—

“The Governor will see you now, Third Admiral.”

Than reminded himself to turn slowly to face Shen’s aide. The younger man’s expression was bland, the sort of mask someone aspiring to a political career developed early, but his eyes gave him away. He wasn’t looking at a naval officer. No, he was looking at a scapegoat.

“Thank you,” Than said, and followed him from the waiting area down the passage toward Shen’s office.

He’d visited that office before, when it had belonged to Zheng Nuan, and now his memory replayed those earlier visits. He hadn’t really expected to like Zheng before they first met, given that she’d been a career politician since before the war against the Federation even began. Nobody survived in politics in the Tè Lā Lián Méng for six standard decades without becoming a full-blown captive of the system.

But Zheng had surprised him. Yes, she was a politician, and even a member of Eternal Forward. But she’d also been rational and as much a patriot as Than himself. Not only that, she’d had a sense of humor! The diminutive governor had worn her hair in a short-cut, silver helmet that made her look like a mischievous, misplaced elf, and her brown eyes had twinkled each time she dropped one of her atrocious punchlines on him. She hadn’t been part of Eternal Forward because she bought the party line. She’d joined it because Party membership was the only way she could have retained her position, done her job in the service of the League, and her faction of Eternal Forward had fought Liu Gengxin’s steady ascension to power tooth and nail.

They’d lost that struggle. Or they’d been in the process of losing it, at any rate, and everyone who’d known about Dragon Fleet had recognized it as the deathblow to Liu’s opposition. But her stature and seniority had still made her a force to be reckoned with, especially in light of her governorship in the Di Jun Sector. If anyone had been in a position to face Liu down, it would have been her and her remaining allies in the Party leadership.

Shen Hanying was a very different story.

One of Liu’s toadies and an ambitious, unprincipled political hack who’d hitched his own future to Liu’s success, he could have been the dictionary illustration of exactly what citizens of the League meant when they used the term xīxuèguǐ—bloodsucker—to describe their political leaders. And that was precisely what made Than Qiang so unhappy about the way this interview had been delayed.

His guide reached the open door to Shen’s office and rapped lightly on the frame.

“Third Admiral Than is here, Governor.”

“Ah, splendid! Show him in, Qigang!”

“Of course, Sir.”

The aide turned, bowing to Than and waving him through the door, and Than gave him a nod whose courtesy was as false as the aide’s own bow as he stepped past him.

“Third Admiral!”

Shen stood behind his desk, reaching across it to offer Than his hand. He was a tall man—seventy centimeters taller than the petite Zheng Nuan had been, almost as tall as Than himself—and he squeezed the third admiral’s hand firmly. In fact, he squeezed it very firmly, and Than smiled blandly at the governor as his knuckle-crushing attempt came to nothing.

Eventually, Shen gave it up and waved at one of the armchairs in front of his desk.

Than settled into the indicated chair and Shen resumed his own seat behind the desk, leaned forward slightly, propped his elbows on the blotter, and steepled his fingers under his chin as he regarded the naval officer. Silence stretched out, and Than let it. He only gazed back at the governor with polite attentiveness.

“I’ve viewed your report, of course, Third Admiral,” Shen said, finally, and his expression turned grave. “Obviously, I found it…disturbing. In many ways, actually. I hardly need to tell you how catastrophic the Dragon Fleet’s destruction is likely to prove.”

He paused, eyebrows raised, obviously inviting a response, and Than nodded somberly.

“Believe me, Governor, I understand fully. Dragon Fleet was my life’s work for the last six standard years. To see it just…thrown away like this…” He shook his head. “‘Catastrophic’ is likely to prove far too weak a word for what’s happened.”

“Agreed.” Shen nodded and straightened, leaning back in his chair and laying his forearms along its rests. “And, as a naval officer, I’m sure you understand that Minister of War Liu and the entire Accord will want to hear what happened from your own lips. I’m afraid,” his expression turned graver than ever, “that some significant errors of judgment led us to this disastrous pass.”

“I doubt any reasonable person could disagree with that,” Than replied. “In Second Admiral Xing’s defense, however,” he continued calmly, ignoring the flash in Shen’s eyes as he brought Liu’s protégé into the conversation, “from the moment the Feds intercepted the final shipment of singularity manifolds, the situation changed drastically from what had been originally envisioned. She had no way of knowing what other information they might have obtained, but the potential of a direct attack on Diyu clearly existed. Under those circumstances, the decision to launch an attack with all of our available strength certainly seemed justified.”

“But an attack in that strength wasn’t—couldn’t have been—the overwhelming assault Dragon Fleet had been built to carry out,” Shen said sharply.

“No,” Than agreed. “It was simply her view—and, despite my own unhappiness with the situation, I completely concurred with her—that the heaviest attack we could mount then, immediately, would at the very least force the Feds to withdraw strength from Beta Cygni. And we could easily—should easily—have penetrated deep into the Heart before they could stop us. At the very least, it ought to have bought time for our…allies to fabricate and deliver replacement manifolds.”

“But instead, it failed miserably.” Shen’s voice was flat now, and Than regarded him imperturbably.

“It did, because the Fed Governor—Admiral Murphy—had clearly devised a new, unanticipated weapon Second Admiral Xing had no reason to suspect existed. In addition, he possessed three times the strength in FTLCs she’d anticipated. To be brutally honest, Governor, the only reason two of my own carriers survived was because Second Admiral Xing detached them from her main force while she went in pursuit of the two FTLCs we had then detected. In retrospect, I think it’s evident that had my squadron been in company with the rest of Dragon Fleet when Murphy sprang his trap, it would have been destroyed, as well. And, again in the Second Admiral’s defense, had I been in overall command, I wouldn’t have detached one of my squadrons. I would have maintained concentration of force…and almost certainly suffered the same defeat she did. A defeat which would have included the destruction of all of her carriers.”

Shen glowered at him wordlessly for a moment, then inhaled deeply.

“It seems to me that it’s…most unfortunate this Murphy was subsequently able to locate Diyu. Would you care to comment on that aspect of the operation, Third Admiral?”

“It’s remotely possible that the same intelligence source that led him to intercept the Val Idrak also revealed the fact that Diyu and Yuxi were the same star system,” Than said in measured tones. “I don’t believe that’s what happened, however. If he’d already known Diyu’s location, he would have arrived there far more promptly than he actually did. Moreover, he wouldn’t have checked Hefei first; he’d have come directly to Diyu, especially since he knew Second Admiral Xing’s carriers had sustained significant Fasset drive damage, which would have limited her wormhole velocity. He might well have beaten her to Diyu—indeed, he almost did beat her, despite the detour to Hefei—had he known its location. Given those facts, and the additional fact that my own ships executed a radical evasive track to avoid giving him a possible bearing to our base, I can only assume that he projected Second Admiral Xing’s heading with sufficient accuracy to define the volume in which Diyu must lie.”

“So you’re blaming Second Admiral Xing for what happened?” Shen asked a bit sharply.

“It’s a Navy axiom that the commanding officer is always responsible for the consequences of actions he—or she—orders, Governor. As I say, no one can fault the Second Admiral’s decision to launch the attack. Nor, I think, can she be blamed for failing to anticipate that Murphy had deployed some radically new weapon. However, it’s unfortunately likely that her lack of…battlefield experience led to a significant—indeed, fatal—misjudgment after her command was so severely damaged.”

And if that idiot Liu hadn’t jumped her over my head to command Dragon Fleet, it wouldn’t have happened, he very carefully did not say out loud.

“I see.” Shen looked at him, as if he’d heard what Than hadn’t said, then waved one hand. “And your own decision against standing and fighting to defend Diyu?”

“I considered doing just that, Governor.” Than made his expression remain calm, his voice level. “I was, however, outnumbered by better than three-to-one by an opponent who’d already demonstrated that he possessed a novel weapon that was a significant force multiplier. All my two surviving carriers could realistically have accomplished would have been to die in Diyu’s defense. And had that happened, Governor, the Tè Lā Lián Méng wouldn’t know a thing about what had happened to Dragon Fleet. My ships were the only FTL-capable units in-system, aside from Second Admiral Xing’s badly damaged carriers and…our ally’s transport, and the geometry of Murphy’s approach made it impossible for her ships to evade him or avoid action.”

He paused, looking levelly across Shen’s desk at him, and then shrugged.

“My primary responsibility—as, indeed, Second Admiral Xing emphasized in the single omnidirectional transmission from her which I received—was to report what had happened to Uromachi and Anyang. That was crucial. And it’s exactly what my squadron and I have done.”

“So I see.”

Shen swung his chair from side to side, gazing thoughtfully at Than.

“You must be aware, Third Admiral, that the Accord will be…most distressed by what’s happened. For many reasons.”

“Of course I am, Governor.”

“Yes, well, I think it’s imperative that you move directly to Anyang to report this.” Shen smiled coldly. “In person.”

“I had already planned on doing precisely that, Governor,” Than replied calmly. “It was necessary to divert to Uromachi to warn Governor Zheng—and now, you, of course—and Fourth Admiral Deng about what had happened. I don’t know precisely what Murphy and the Feds are likely to do, and it’s entirely possible they won’t push into the Di Jun Sector. It’s equally possible they will, however, so warning Uromachi was obviously one of my first responsibilities. Moreover, Uromachi was the nearest system along my route to Anyang where I could hope to find the personnel lift to retrieve our shipyard workers from Diyu.”

“Retrieve them?” Shen repeated, arching both eyebrows.

“Of course, Governor. Especially now that we’ve lost the physical plant from Diyu, those workers will be a critical asset for our building capacity.”

“And you honestly believe this Murphy will let us have that ‘critical asset’ back again?” Shen shook his head. “Ridiculous. All of the personnel you left behind are dead by now, Third Admiral. Either that or parked in some POW camp hellhole somewhere in the Federation!”

“Governor,” Than said carefully, “whatever else Murphy may have had, he didn’t have the troop lift to pull those thousands of workers out of Diyu. And he gave me his word that he would allow them to evacuate to the sublight ships in-system before he destroyed the yard and withdrew.”

“And you believed him,” Shen said almost pityingly.

“I had no reason not to believe him, after he allowed Fourth Admiral Xie and all of his personnel to surrender at New Dublin. That was, as I’m sure you’re aware, highly unusual after all these years of mutual bloodletting. Whatever else he may be, it would appear Murphy is not a typical Fed butcher.”

“And the only actual evidence you have that the Fourth Admiral was allowed to surrender is the fact that Murphy knew his name,” Shen pointed out in a rather nasty tone. “Moreover, unless I’m sadly mistaken in my reading of your report, what he was actually doing was threatening to not allow Xei to surrender if you K-struck Crann Bethadh.”

“That may be true,” Than conceded, blessing Su Zhihao’s foresight in “losing” the portion of the comm record in which Xing had directly ordered him to do precisely that.

“And,” he continued, “I won’t deny that worrying about our captured personnel was a factor in my decision to settle for destroying New Dublin’s industrial base rather than bombarding the planet. Either way, however, New Dublin’s been neutralized as a major fleet base, at least until the Federation can rebuild. And that assumes Murphy’s actions haven’t caused the federal government to declare him and New Dublin ‘out of compliance.’ In which case, the Feds are probably looking at a civil war, Governor.”

It was unfortunate, he thought sardonically, that he’d been unable to include a definitive damage estimate after his alpha strike on Crann Bethadh’s orbital infrastructure. But that omission would at least keep Governor Shen from panicking—further panicking—over the unhappy fact that the orbital infrastructure in question had almost certainly emerged substantially intact.

And it might also help one Than Qiang and Su Zhihao avoid a firing squad. It might not, too, given everything else, but it was at least possible…however unlikely.

“It would be nice if something like that were to happen to them,” Shen said now. “Given that, according to his Intelligence dossier, this Murphy is a member in good standing of their Five Hundred, that outcome strikes me as…unlikely, shall we say. No, he’ll go home to bask in the glory of his victory, and they’ll fall all over themselves loading him down with medals and promotions. None of which has anything at all to do with whether or not he was stupid enough to leave all of those yard workers just hanging around for us to reacquire their services. Only a fool would do that, Third Admiral, and I’m afraid our friend Murphy has demonstrated that a fool is the one thing he isn’t.”

“That may be true, Governor. In fact, it’s quite probable that it is. But it’s also possible he honored his promise to me. And if he did, there are seventy-five thousand of our people waiting to be picked up. If Murphy did as thorough a job of wrecking the yard and the facilities as I’m sure he did, they don’t have the resources to survive indefinitely, either. I believe we must at least send someone to find out, and under the circumstances, I think it would only make sense when we do to send sufficient personnel lift to retrieve them if Murphy did keep his word.”

“No,” Shen said flatly.

Than stiffened in his chair, and the governor glared at him.

You may believe in miracles and Fed admirals who actually keep promises, but I don’t,” he said. “And I don’t believe in Feds stupid enough to give us back the next best thing to eighty thousand trained workers, either. Nor do I intend to further compromise security on Diyu by giving its coordinates to anyone who doesn’t already have them. And I’m certainly not going to permit a fleet of transports to wander into Diyu and gawk at the wreckage of what was supposed to win the damned war!”

Than started to speak, then forced himself to keep his mouth tightly shut.

This wasn’t about military security. It wasn’t even really about whether or not Shen believed Murphy had kept his word. For that matter, if Than hadn’t personally spoken to Murphy, he might not have believed the Federation admiral’s sense of honor went deep enough for him to keep it. But that didn’t matter to Shen. What mattered was slapping a lid on the entire fiasco. Making sure it didn’t leak out and embarrass his political masters.

And, after all, what would it cost him, even if he was wrong? Only the lives of seventy or eighty thousand League citizens. A trifling price to protect the Accord and, especially, Liu Gengxin and Eternal Forward.

“With all respect, Governor, I think that’s the wrong decision,” he said, after a long moment spent making sure he could control his tone. “It’s also your decision to make, of course. I would like the record to note that I…did not concur in it, however.”

“That’s your option, Third Admiral,” Shen replied in a voice that added the unspoken “and it’s your funeral, too.”

“Thank you, Governor.”

Shen grunted, then shoved himself up out of his chair.

“Very well, Third Admiral. I won’t pretend I’ve enjoyed viewing your report or hearing anything you had to say here today. It’s not your fault, of course,” his voice oozed insincerity, “but that doesn’t make it any more palatable. I really shouldn’t have held you here as long as I have, but I wanted time to consider what your report had already told me. Nothing in our conversation today has changed the decision I made last night, however. I want you back into wormhole space on your way to Anyang as soon as possible. And I’ll be sending Fan Qigang—the young man who greeted you for me this morning—along with you as my personal representative and the courier transmitting my own report and dispatches to Minister of War Liu.”

“Of course, Governor. My ships can break orbit within the hour, if Mr. Fan can be ready by then. Otherwise, we’ll await his convenience.”

“Very good.” Shen held out his hand again. “In that case, I won’t keep you from your own preparations. Good day, Third Admiral.”



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