CHAPTER 18

The battle, if it could be called that after the Chem battleships were put out of commission, withered on for another hour. The rebel squadron finally broke apart when five of the six cruisers were destroyed and the survivor heavily damaged. Alexander captured the rest of the rebels, but he allowed a destroyer to withdraw. He wanted word to get back to Bureel. As they retreated Alexander hailed them. A grim faced Captain appeared on the screen, her bridge a shambles.

“You have the day, Alexander, what else is it you want?”

“I want you to pass on a personal message to your lord, Bureel,” Alexander told her. “Tell him the next time he attacks the ships and space of the Terran Empire I will chase the shattered remains of his armada all the way back to Chem. Then I’ll take his head and stick it on a pike, for all the proud Chem to see what happens to a coward! I still remember our unresolved challenge! I still remember the assassins he sent after me! I await him at his leisure. Tell him that!”

“I am sure my lord will repay you for such words, Alexander,” she snarled.

“See that he at least attempts it, my noble Chem Captain! You fought well, and with no less courage than I expected from the Chem. I salute you. Know this in truth, however, that as I waited upon your lord’s challenge in the strict observance of Chem law and tradition he answered me instead with assassins. All of your bravery and sacrifice cannot blot that stain of cowardice from his name, or from Chem should he not answer my call. Alexander waits. Think well before you challenge Terra again!”

“I will pass on the message my lord,” the Captain replied, a more sober expression on her strained features.

The Chem rebels withdrew leaving a like number of ships behind to be boarded and salvaged by Nazar. The Chem loyalists lost five ships, with five more heavily damaged. Nazar’s casualties were considerable, but after two days he left the battlefield with half again as many ships as he started out with. This brought Nazar almost up to his full squadron strength again, and as he was able to salvage a rebel battleship he came out significantly pleased. Of the marooned rebel crews none of the rebels gave quarter, but as so often happens in rebellion and mutiny not all of the crews who served on the ships were willing. A large portion of the enlisted force had no choice in the direction their officers chose. Those Chem were spared, and oaths were taken for their loyalty to Nazeera, the de facto head of the loyalist cause. So the battle ended as a very profitable venture for Nazar. He increased his strength in every way and won a glorious battle.

For Alexander the victory was no less welcome. The Terrans were adapting well to war in space, which was initially a great concern. Their casualties were light relative to the damage they inflicted. It was a testament to sound tactics and capable crews. A victory dinner was held that night aboard the Iowa Nazar and his senior officers were present. Before the dinner Alexander established a future tradition based, of course, upon the past. With all the senior officers present, and the entire Fleet established on a comlink Alexander led the Fleet of Terra in a toast to their fallen comrades. Then a strange and haunting sound flooded the Galactic communication channels as Alexander had the bagpipes send his sailors home. The ancient instrument careened to Terra where the mournful song was greeted with tears and pride, to the furthest reaches of the Bael Empire where it was listened to with fear and premonition. After the farewell tribute Alexander started the dinner, though he himself left for a time. He was in his stateroom on the sub-space comlink with Nazeera. When he finally returned Nazar queried him. Alexander shrugged, and admitted, “She wanted to hear all about our victory, of course. It was not at all the conversation I intended, but it was wonderfully nice to hear her and see her again.”

“I am glad you both have such affection for each other,” Nazar smiled. “She needs it. Nazeera spends so much of herself in the Chem cause that there is little left for herself. She’s always deserved more of a male than she’s gotten, and certainly she did not deserve Bureel! That is something I look forward to rectifying!”

“I will drink to that!” Alexander replied, and he touched glasses with Nazar. Alexander invoked a two drink maximum of the revelers that night, for those off duty. For those on the current watch, and the following watch their tours were shortened so that they wouldn’t miss the celebration. For the Admiralty, and Alexander, however, there was dinner, a drink and back to the conference room. The Admiral’s were finding Alexander to demanding taskmaster. When he got an idea in his head he ran with it, and expected everyone else to follow. In that respect they were not surprised, privately, that his military career was cut short. Officers of that mold could be remarkably effective, but they could also be embarrassing to those superiors intent on climbing the ladders of power. Those types of commanders normally maneuvered through contacts and took care to remain obscure. Alexander wouldn’t have the patience for such maneuvering, or the lack of character for such undeserved advancement. Alexander’s headstrong rushing through the issues turned out to be an advantage, in the Admiral’s eyes, rather than an irritation. He was professional at all times, a trait that met with their definite approval, and he listened. He valued their professional opinions, especially it seemed, when they clashed with his own. Alexander’s manner and his temperament were built for action and problem solving. He was opinionated and had no squeamishness for making decisions. They were all, even Augesburcke who’d had the most extensive dealings with him, amazed at his grasp of tactics and strategy. When they addressed this question he looked at them disapprovingly.

“Maybe I do, though I cannot give the Air Force any credit for that. I spent my years in the service studying weapon systems, and military history. I thought it would make me a better soldier. I wrote my tactical thesis on Henry Morgan the pirate. That met with extreme disapproval even after I pointed out that Morgan never lost an engagement, and in each instance he was not only outnumbered, but attacked fortified strongholds manned by regular troops. I studied war when I was in the military, gentlemen. It was a mistake. Present company excepted, I found that to make a career I should have studied business administration and politics!”

“Won’t this come as a pleasant surprise for those who were promoted over you?” jested Admiral Sampson.

“No it will not, not if I find them,” Alexander said seriously. “Understand me, I don’t bear any personal grudge over the system’s favoritism but I know the capabilities of some of those officers. If I ever run across them I’ll rip the rank off their sleeves myself. I’ll not allow good men to be led by incompetent careerists!”

Alexander had a way of deciding on something that made it understandably final. It was a manner which the Admiral’s could appreciate, since they were not included in that fatal category. Vindictiveness was natural, and it could be ignored, or even condoned, if it honed the weapon better. That was Alexander’s concern, and it was something they appreciated. He knew what had to be accomplished to fit this vision of Humans in space, and he threw himself wholeheartedly into the fray. When he explained his plans for dealing with the Alliance they were struck, but no longer surprised, by the boldness and brilliant calculation.

“The overall picture is serious enough to warrant our attention, Admirals, but it is nonetheless clear. The Alliance is either out of practice or they find the entire concept of secure communications impractical. By their own fleet channels we have compiled a list of ships which are to take part in the offensive against Terra. By their own media we know where these ships are massing, their fleet designations, their commanders and their general goals. The Golkos Grand Admiral herself, one Koor, has even been interviewed by the media and has been so good as to discuss her plans in some detail! Our Chem friends assure me this is no deception, but rather it is meant to sooth the Galactic populace. It is all consistent with our own information concerning the Alliance’s progression from an idea into a reality. Thanks to your attention, Admirals, submarine scouts have patrolled our borders since the Terran-Chem confrontation. It’s paid dividends. We can see the three arms of the Alliance strike forces gathering on our own scanners. By our counts, and the Chem confirm this, we will have almost four thousand Alliance ships massed against us gentlemen. There will be twenty-five hundred alone on the Golkos-Seer’koh front; eight hundred on the Quotterim-Bael-Fen-Dsi front; and five hundred on the Syraptose front. Despite Alliance disunity and sloppiness this is still a sobering number. Admiral what is the disposition of our forces?”

“We currently number over seven hundred ships, Alexander,” Augesburcke told him. “Of these sixty-four are battleships and fifty-nine are heavy cruisers. We’ve divided our forces into three fleets. The Fifth Fleet and the Second Fleet each have a complement of twenty-five battleships, fifty cruisers of both heavy and fast configuration, seventy-five destroyers, twenty-five frigates, and twenty-five submarine scouts. Their flagships are the American battleship Wisconsin and the Norwegian battleship Thor, once known as the Tirpitz, the sister ship to the Bismarck.” Augesburcke stopped and grinned. “My, oh my, would I like to see that old battlewagon. We sure could use her.”

“She’s waiting for you at the bottom of the Atlantic, Admiral,” Alexander smiled. “Considering what your Dr. Hashimoto has done thus far I wouldn’t put it past him. What about the Seventh Fleet, our designated Homeworld defense force?”

“As you know, Alexander, we designed the Fifth and Second Fleets as our strike fleets. Their numbers match up with the capital ships of the standard Galactic fleet excepting the fact that we can’t muster the number of destroyers and frigates they can. We’re counting on our advantage in firepower to even that out. The Seventh Fleet has what’s left: eleven battleships, eighty-seven cruisers, one hundred and twenty-seven destroyers, twenty-seven frigates and one hundred submarines. That’s almost three hundred ships, but by the time we’re done we should have it up to around three hundred and eighty-nine. At this time the Second and Fifth Fleets are deploying along the Syraptose and Quotterim fronts with the Seventh handling the Golkos-Seer’koh front.”

“It is a logical deployment, Admiral, but I think we need to take it further. Galactic doctrine dictates that we put our fleets on our border and defend that border. The Alliance fleets will engage us and the result will for all intents and purposes decide the war. Well, I for one am not willing to follow Galactic doctrine or etiquette. I’m not going to sit back and allow four thousand ships to dictate the battle. We can, in my opinion, defeat the Syraptose front with the Fifth and probably do the same to the Quotterim front. That leaves the Seventh outnumbered six-to-one or so; and with about two hundred battleships to our eleven. Those are not very good odds, gentlemen. We need to simplify the situation. We need to remove this multiple front. The Syraptose and the Quotterim are the keys. Take out the Syraptose and their front obviously disappears. Take out the Quotterim and their front dissolves.”

“We can handle the Syraptose without too much difficulty,” Augesburcke nodded. “They don’t want to be in this fight. The Quotterim, however, will be supported by the Bael and the Fen-Dis. When massed they’ll have almost nine hundred ships. That’s a tall order unless we hit them before all forces come to bear. Then we can attack at odds more in our favor.”

“They’ll just refuse the fight until they’re massed,” Alexander said. “We have to hit a stationary target fast and hard and knock them out of the war. We have to hit their Homeworlds.”

A silence fell about the room.

“Rommel’s long right hooks to their jaw, Admirals. It’s the only way to guarantee the Syraptose and the Quotterim drop out of the war. Then we can deal with the Golkos-Seer’koh.”

“We are right back where we started, even if we are successful,” Admiral Chennebruk said. “The Fifth and Second Fleets will be wholly out of position to support the Seventh. I am as bullheaded as the next man, but I don’t want to put the Seventh in that position. It would be like Custer against the Sioux.”

“If we attacked headlong as Custer did you would no doubt be correct, Admiral, but the flanking of the Syraptose and Quotterim opens up several options not previously available to us.” Alexander stood up and went to the hologram. “Surprise, geometry, diplomacy and fear, gentleman, those will be the fruits of our insolent attacks. Surprise will come because the Galactics will not be able to convince themselves that we have the audacity to do what we will. Geometry because our strike forces at Syraptose and Quotterim will automatically flank the Homeworlds of Bael, Golkos, Seer’koh, etc. None of those empires can fight their way through to Terra; attack our own Homeworld and then return to defend their own from our fleets. That threat should enable diplomacy. We shall not tread on our conquered foes, gentlemen, but rather offer them peace and equality as brethren empires. That option will be set against the fear of our rampant Terran fleets. Whose Homeworld will be next? Which then will be the better choice, to risk ones Homeworld or settle to reasonable terms of peace?”

“And if the Golkos-Seer’koh press on?”

“Defense in depth, Admiral,” Alexander sighed. “It won’t be easy with so few big guns. Therefore, we resort to true guerilla tactics in our space to whittle them down and exhaust their crews until a final defense at Terra, with the planetary defenses supporting what’s left of the fleet.”

“I can’t imagine the Golkos or the Seer’koh would have the stomach for that fight knowing the Fifth and the Second Fleets were on their way to their own Homeworlds.” Admiral Augesburcke remarked. “It sounds viable to me, Alexander but considering the rumors of the Alliance offensive starting on or about the Chem Ascension we better start moving.”

“That we will, we’ll just do it quietly,” Alexander told them.

“They’ll adapt to our tactics, especially after they hear of this engagement,” Chennebruk observed.

Alexander shook his head, “no, I actually think they will not. You are asking them to change thousands of years of Galactic doctrine overnight. It won’t happen. They will find some excuse for not giving our tactics credibility, until it is too late. They don’t understand maneuver, while we understand it through hundreds of years of practical experience. Think of it this way, gentlemen. When Greece became the dominant civilization in the Mediterranean it was not through technology but tactics. The invention of massed infantry, the hoplites, changed the entire political structure of the civilized world without a technological leap. Only after the invention of the stirrup did the balance change. Then heavy cavalry dominated the military landscape for another few centuries before the tactics of pike and longbow sent it into obsolescence. Think of it. Remember how long it took for adversaries to change their tactics? The English defeated much larger forces of French troops, led by massed heavy cavalry, at Crecy and Agincourt, but those two battles were seventy years apart. Even Terrans learn slowly to adapt to new tactics. No, I don’t think we need to worry about our tactics becoming obsolete overnight, but on the other hand there is no reason to sit on them. We can make refinements and improvements by all means. There is no tactic, no maneuver, which is set in stone. I want no doctrine. Our commanders must have a firm grasp of the basics, but they must be allowed to use their individual genius in the field. There are Rommel’s and Patton’s out there, gentlemen, and we must allow them to do their work.”

Admiral Sampson asked, “I

Is it absolutely necessary to send our forces so deep into Syraptose and Quotterim space? What if Bureel’s Ascension takes place? You have our main strike forces flanking the Syraptose and the Quotterim, with only a single fleet for Terra. We shall be out of position to defend against a Chem attack, or even if the Chem do not attack we will be hard pressed to keep the Golkos and Seer’koh at bay. Wouldn’t it be more prudent to use our interior lines to strike the Alliance fleets separately? We could probably hit the Syraptose and the Quotterim hard enough to drive them out of the war with one blow.”

“You are quite correct Admiral, if they allow us to come to blows. My concern is that they are already afraid of us; therefore, by refusing to fight they’ll still tie up our fleets—tactically they don’t have to fire a shot to accomplish their mission,” Alexander reminded him. “I realize that my stratagem leaves our forces scattered throughout the known galaxy. However, we are fighting on a truly level plain now and despite our adversaries combat tactics their fleets are just as maneuverable as ours. We could use our advantage in interior lines to magnify our forces against the Syraptose and the Quotterim Admiral, if we could catch them. They do not have to fight to accomplish their goal. They can refuse the battle knowing that the longer they keep us busy the farther the Golkos and Seer’koh can drive into our space and threaten Terra. I cannot convince them to fight in open space Admiral, but if I put their Homeworlds at risk I can guarantee the outcome. In a sense we are forced into such a bold route. It is the only avenue left us where we can dictate the outcome with any certainty. True, there is also the Chem question if I fail and Bureel ascends to the seat of the Elder; but though I’ll be dead I’ll give you the benefit of always keeping your options open,” Alexander smiled. “The Quotterim strike will be out of position to defend Terra, but in perfect position to strike the Chem Homeworld, as well as other targets if fortune favors us. Since they will threaten the Chem before the Chem threaten Terra that will take care of that. I should not think the Chem will have enough ships to pose a potent threat, however. My suggestion, in case I fail, would be to continue on to the Quotterim and Syraptose Homeworlds. Destroy their fleets so the Chem cannot use them, and then strike the Chem Homeworld on the way back to Terra. You shall have a fighting chance at least Admirals, and that is all any of us can ask for at this point. Are there any more questions? Is everyone in agreement?”

The Admiral’s nods sounded more like the licking of chops.

“A brilliant plan, Alexander, you have my compliments,” Sampson added.

Alexander admitted it to be bold, but as far as brilliance, he told them, “No plan is brilliant unless it works. There are hoards of very pretty plans in the archives written by General’s who died by them! I’m quite certain Marcus Lucinius Crassus thought himself a military genius until the Parthians destroyed his bought legion and poured molten gold down his throat!”

“I am not quite willing to let it go at that,” Augesburcke said, “and that raises again my own disquiet of leaving you to the mercy of Chem “honor.” The reputation of the Chem aside this Bureel is a slimy bastard. He’ll not hesitate to forget convention while it’s convenient and slit your throat. I for one am hesitant to allow him the chance. We have here a strategy wherein the entire Alliance will begin to unravel almost as soon as war was declared, but it won’t amount to a hill of beans if the name of Alexander is not behind it. The Galactics fear you as much as the might of Terra. We can’t afford to lose that.”

“Short of parking a Terran fleet around orbit in Chem, Admiral, there’s not much you can do to help me.”

“By my calculations, Alexander, there aren’t enough Chem to stop us from doing just that.”

Alexander was silent for a long while. Finally he said, “Admiral, I cannot condone it or authorize it. You will, however, have as good knowledge as anyone on my whereabouts and actions on Chem. No doubt if Bureel means to execute me it will be broadcast. What you do in my absence is entirely up to you. I leave you with full control of the fleets, and the initiative.”

“Understood, Alexander.”

There was one more question before they broke for the evening—the coup. Alexander was blunt about it, but his answer still surprised them. “Gentlemen, events have progressed so far that you, in your opinions, and I in mine, consider such a serious action as necessary. It’s obvious that we need to find out who we’re dealing with in the Senate, and on which side of the aisle they stand, or to be blunt which side of the galaxy they were born on. Beyond that we should let events continue as they are. If the actions or non-actions of the President and the Senate bring the politicians in line with our reasoning then our task becomes less painful. You can bend an ear, so to speak, with those in the Senate who are of similar understanding. They can, at the proper moment call for my return to Terra. The tide of events will accomplish for us what a regiment in the Senate will not. On the other hand if the President and the Senate surprise us and turn out to be quite capable of handling the situation then we are happily relieved of such an unpleasant task as accomplishing a coup. Good night gentlemen!”