mind to run a ship right now anyway, even if we’re not at war with anyone for the moment.”
Lake spent a moment watching the ice in his glass. “Can we talk business for just a moment? I have to go out there very soon and announce that the Dreadnought has been destroyed, and I need to be prepared for some very hard questions.”
“Go ahead.”
“Did the Starwolves ever find out what it was?”
“In general terms, it was a big machine designed for the single purpose of wrecking the space-faring capabilities of a civilization less technically advanced than itself,” she explained. “We would have never found a way to destroy it ourselves; you can tell that to anyone who says that we should have never made a truce with the Starwolves. The only reason we survived is that we had someone willing to protect us who possessed the ability to understand that thing and fight it on its own terms. Except for Starwolves, we would be sitting here waiting to die.”
“No question?”
“No question.”
Lake nodded. “Was it sent to attack us specifically, or did it just happen to wander into our space and begin executing its primary function?”
She shook her head hopelessly. “There never was any way to know that for certain. There was no evidence one way or the other, and no way to talk to that thing. It was willing to listen, but it shot anything that did not give the proper recognition code immediately.”
“The fact that there was only the one suggests that the Dreadnought had simply wandered in,” he suggested.
“I don’t consider that conclusive,” Tarrel insisted. “If it hadn’t been for the Starwolves, the one would have been enough to destroy us. Some unknown enemy would likely have never considered that we would receive help from the Starwolves after we’d been at war with them for thirty thousand years. I guess that we’ll know the answer to that question if a certain amount of time passes and they don’t send out a modified Dreadnought, one better protected against Starwolves.”
“Is that possible?” Lake asked.
“Even the Starwolves can’t fight it. They just happened to find a way to sneak in through its shield and destroy it from the inside. A design flaw that will probably not be repeated.”
“In that case, will the Starwolves be able to destroy a second Dreadnought if one is sent?”
“If that flaw is corrected, then no. But I believe that they have the ability to come up with some new weapons in a hurry.” Victor Lake spent a brief moment regarding his glass, then finished his drink in a quick swallow. “There are certain questions of a very sensitive nature that I would like to discuss with you off the record. I never asked these things, and you never spoke to me about them. But these questions will be asked. If some powerful elements of the Union wish to break the truce, then I do not have the power to stop them. I can even be ordered to break the trace, and I can’t refuse short of resigning. And I should warn you that there are strong incentives to break the truce as a quicker way to recover our losses.”
She had anticipated that much already, although it still saddened her to realize that it was indeed inevitable. The truce was doomed, and they both knew it. “I understand.”
“You’ve said that the Starwolves took a beating. How bad?” Tarrel frowned; this was the part that she hated the most. It was the balance between doing her professional duty, without regard to the consequences, and doing what she had come to believe was right. She could not escape the feeling that she was betraying a friend, but she was compelled to answer. “Is this off the record?”
“This entire conversation is completely off the record,” he assured her. “If I don’t believe that it’s in the Union’s best interest, then I can pretend that I never heard any of this. You don’t seem to think that we should break the truce.”
“Let’s just say that I have a much better idea of just what the Starwolves can do, and I can see the futility of fighting them. I’ve also seen that they can be reasoned with. If we weren’t so greedy and impatient, we could have everything we want without fighting.”
Lake looked more amused than impatient. “I know that already, and I don’t doubt that clever people have been figuring that out since the war first began. Unfortunately, the Union is designed to insure that greedy people are always in control. So what about the Starwolves?”
Tarrel sighed heavily. “I saw the carrier Mardayn destroyed outright, and the Kerridayen was almost certainly destroyed as well. The last I saw, the Starwolves were trying to salvage the pieces. The Destaen was towed away with serious damage, and she probably faces months if not years of repair. Even before that last battle, the Kerridayen, the Karvand and the Methryn had all taken damage in separate attacks, and I can recall it being said that their resources have been stretched to the limit. I doubt very much that they have the ability to repair their damages any time soon.”
“Then if we are going to violate the truce, we might as well do it soon and consolidate our own gains before the Starwolves can get their fleet back up to strength.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Tarrel mused. “What are our own losses?”
“We don’t have any good figures about commercial losses on ships, but more than seventy Systems were hit with the loss of at least that many stations. Our military losses are somewhere above twenty-five percent, enough that we will feel it for decades to come. Still, the loss of even a single carrier hurts them more than losing a thousand ships hurts us.”
“Perhaps.” Tarrel sounded uncertain. “A single carrier might be worth a thousand of our own ships, but I’m not sure that the loss of one or even two hurts them all that much. They apparently keep a second fleet of carriers in their own space. Some of those ships might be moved up to cover their regular patrols, especially if we provoked them.”
“Why didn’t they use those ships against the Dreadnought?” Lake asked.
“They were extremely reluctant to. Those carriers were in reserve to fight the Dreadnought if it came into their own space. ”
“Then you are not convinced that we can expect to have an easier time of it because of their recent losses?”
“I’m saying that we cannot count upon the Starwolf fleet being too far below strength to respond to a breaking of the truce,” she insisted. “They have more ships than we knew, although I cannot predict whether those ships will be transferred to Union space. They might still be concerned that another Dreadnought might turn up, at least in the next few years. That possibility also worries me. If we break the truce immediately and annoy the Starwolves now, are they going to be very sympathetic if we go begging for their help again soon?”
“But you know how to destroy a Dreadnought now,” he reminded her.
Tarrel shook her head firmly. “I know the general theory, but the main ingredient in that recipe is Starwolves. You first have to be able to see the damned thing, which requires technology we do not have and cannot anticipate developing any time soon. Then you have to beat it senseless and blind it by shooting off its external sensor array, which you can’t do if you can’t see it. I can write you a fairly detailed report on how they did it, but that still doesn’t mean that we can do it ourselves.”
Lake glanced at his glass, then got up to pour himself another drink. “I agree with everything you say, and I’ll do my best to present that side of the matter. But, like I say, I don’t get to vote on the matter. That privilege belongs to a small group of greedy old men who have already convinced themselves that the colonies and independent worlds have taken advantage of this situation and deserve to be punished. Were you aware that few independent worlds and fringe colonies were attacked?”
“Of course not,” she declared. “The damned monster was programmed to go after major holdings. It went first through the most developed parts of each Sector.”
“Yes,
Tarrel shook her head. “Nothing surprises me any more. Would you believe that the Starwolves have their own old men to screw their lives around?”
Lake paused in pouring his drink to look at her. “They do? Why?”
