“As I said, this threat is ongoing, and there were those who believed I shouldn’t make it public as of yet, but I was elected on the promise of making the Republic government more transparent to the people. There are some campaign promises I haven’t been able to keep-I don’t have to tell any of you about the state of our economy-but this one I can and will. Time will tell whether I’ve made the right decision in doing so, but I have to believe in the strength and courage of the citizens of the Republic.”
The crowd had quieted at his words and he took the opportunity to take a deep breath and gather his thoughts… but before he could speak again, Charlie Klesko was sprinting up the steps of the podium toward him, his eyes fierce and focused. On instinct, Daniel O’Keefe touched the control to mute his microphone.
“Sir,” he hissed tightly, grasping O’Keefe’s arm, “we have to get you to safety. There are two Protectorate ships inbound using Eysselink drives. They’re probably unmanned and they’re heading for Earth at relativistic speeds: anywhere they hit will cease to exist to a radius of about ten kilometers. They’ll be here in just over two hours and we’ll need every minute of that to get you clear of the city.”
“Jesus Christ!” O’Keefe hissed in disbelief. His mind tried to shut down but he flogged it into action. Two hours… there was no way to evacuate the whole city in that amount of time, not even close. There were emergency shelters, but would they be enough? And could he fly out of Capital City and leave its citizens to the threat of death? He grabbed Klesko by the shoulder and looked him in the eye. “Charlie, get my daughter and granddaughter out of the city.”
“Sir!” Klesko exclaimed, a protest forming on his lips.
“Charlie, just do it,” O’Keefe said firmly. “That’s an order. Get her out of here now.”
“Yes, sir,” Klesko ground out through his teeth, then ran down the steps into the audience.
O’Keefe looked back up at the crowd, hearing their restless rumble. He saw the Majority Leader of the Senate rise from his seat and start to walk toward the podium, her arms swinging authoritatively. He hit the control to turn his audio pickup back on.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, speaking slowly, trying to give Klesko time to get Valerie out of the audience, “I’ve just been given disturbing information.” He raised a hand to halt Senator Chorney’s advance, motioning for the Majority Leader to stay where she was. “There are two unidentified Eysselink drive spaceships heading towards Earth from the area of the asteroid belt where we believe the Protectorate wormhole is located. They are accelerating toward us at 200 gravities and are showing no sign of slowing down.”
He let his gaze travel across the crowd, saw Klesko hustling Valerie out of a side exit to the chamber. People were rising in their seats hesitantly, alarmed but unsure what to do. “These two ships are probably unmanned, and they’re travelling at near 20 percent of the speed of light. They will arrive in two hours, and if they impact on any populated area, millions of people could die. Capital City is a logical target for these ships, though we don’t know as of yet where they are intended to hit. There is no possibility of evacuating this city, much less every city that might be a target.” He looked directly into the nearest news camera pickup. “I would encourage all citizens to move in an orderly and safe fashion to the nearest emergency shelter, and I am hereby ordering all Republic Service Corps personnel to report to the shelters to support those who seek refuge there. If anyone here wishes to use their personal resources to evacuate ahead of the threat, I will not condemn their actions, but I intend to stay in Capital City and share the fate of its citizens. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to coordinate our defense against this threat.”
Without further pronouncement, O’Keefe turned and left the podium, grabbing his chief of staff by the shoulder as he passed her. He’d promoted Svetlana Zakharova to the position after Glen’s death, not so much because she was supremely qualified for it but mostly because he trusted her more than anyone else in his administration.
“I need a ready room set up here, now,” he told her urgently, motioning back towards the antechamber where he’d waited for the speech to begin. “I want a line to Fleet Headquarters in there
“Sir,” Zakharova interrupted him, “I just got a call from Lieutenant Franks at Fleet Headquarters… he has an idea, but needs your immediate clearance to do it and says there’s no time to explain.”
O’Keefe paused in mid-step, a wry grin spreading across his face almost unwillingly. “Goddamn, that apple surely didn’t fall too far from the command tree,” he said, shaking his head. “Tell him he has my clearance to do anything he thinks will stop those ships, no questions asked. But God help him if it doesn’t work…”
Captain Tomas Perez was sweating and he hated himself for it. He’d been promoted to Captain and given command of the
“Prepare to detach from docking umbilical,” Perez ordered the Helm officer, a short-haired, stocky Asian- looking young man with the unlikely name of Bevins… at least Perez hoped that was his name, as he’d called him by it twice in the last half hour and he just didn’t have time to consult his ‘link to make sure.
“Sir,” the Communications Officer said from his position across the bridge, “we have an Intelligence officer coming on board via the umbilical… a Lieutenant Franks. He says he has to go with us, that it’s urgent.”
“If he’s in, tell them to disconnect from the umbilical now,” the Captain snapped, annoyed at the delay.
“Umbilical is clear,” Helm announced, checking the sensors. “Disconnecting now…”
“Directional thrusters,” Perez ordered. “Takes us to a safe distance then engage the plasma drive.”
There was the familiar “bang, bang” sound of the maneuvering rockets gently pushing the massive, monolithic cruiser away from the hub of the slowly spinning barrel of Fleet Headquarters.
“Lieutenant,” Perez turned to the Comm officer-Reno was his name, a hawk-faced Lt-JG a year out of the Academy, “get on the horn with command and find out where exactly we’re supposed to go.”
“I can help you with that, sir.” Perez turned at the unfamiliar voice and saw a freckle-faced young man in a black Intelligence uniform kicking off from the bridge entrance to come to a halt on the back of the acceleration couches behind the Captain’s station. “I’m Lt. Franks, Fleet Intelligence,” he said, saluting awkwardly as he levered himself into the couch and strapped in. “Sorry to intrude on your bridge, sir, but we have next to no time and you’re the only Eysselink drive ship in the Earth-moon area at the moment.”
He took a breath, seeming a bit frazzled at the situation himself. “There are two Protectorate ships headed for Earth… they’re just over an hour away right now, going at almost a quarter light using stolen Eysselink drives. That means none of our defenses can touch them. They’re probably unmanned or even if they are crewed, they’re most likely on a suicide mission-they’re going to be used, we think, as relativistic kinetic kill vehicles, try to slam into their targets on Earth at a good percentage of lightspeed, which will turn anything it hits into a crater about ten kilometers wide.”
Perez started to blurt out an exclamation, then checked himself as he realized it wouldn’t be professional. “So, how are we going to stop them, then?” He asked instead.
“The only way to stop a ship with its drive field up is to hit it with another drive field,” Franks replied, shaking his head ruefully. “Unfortunately, the consequences of that can be… drastic. So we need to make some preparations, because we have to do it twice… and we have to intercept those ships
Chapter Thirty-Three
Shannon Stark woke slowly and painfully, with a metallic taste in her mouth and her pulse pounding in her head. She jerked and thrashed in a half-conscious panic but found she couldn’t move: something was restraining her wrists, ankles and even her head. Her eyes felt glued shut, but Shannon managed to pry them open and blink away the blur that painted a haze across reality.
