“Then we have to find their purchasing agent,” Winters said. “Assuming they actually have one.”
“That’s something to follow up on later,” Kat said. She tapped the table. “I will, of course, be requesting reinforcements from home. However, until they arrive, we need to handle the situation with what we have on hand. That will not be easy.”
“No,” Winters agreed. “They can pick and choose their targets at will.”
Kat nodded. “Maxwell’s Haven can look after itself,” she said. The planet had practically been annexed after the war, although the inhabitants hadn’t offered a word of protest. “The fixed defenses can handle the enemy fleet, if it risks an attack so close to the Gap. We will withdraw the superdreadnoughts covering the planet and add them to our deployable forces, along with one of the two superdreadnought squadrons here. That gives us four squadrons to deploy.”
“Minus the two superdreadnoughts you left at Judd,” Fran said quietly.
“Yes,” Kat said. She wondered, sourly, if there was anything to gain by trying to protect Ahura Mazda. The whole planet was a mess. There were times when she’d simply considered advising the king to cut his losses and abandon the wretched planet. Anyone who wanted to come with the departing fleet would be welcome. “That can’t be helped.”
She nodded to the starchart. “We will parcel out the superdreadnoughts in squadrons of four and five ships, positioning them in places where they will be able to speed to the rescue of any attacked world. Ideally, they will be able to intercept and destroy the enemy fleet. Even if they don’t, they’ll make the enemy think twice about attacking if they think there’s a reasonable chance of being caught.”
“Risky,” Fran observed. “It will be tricky to reconcentrate our forces if there is an emergency.”
“No one is going to invade the Theocratic Sector,” Janice said.
“No one would want to invade the Theocratic Sector,” Shawna commented. “Is there anything here anyone actually wants?”
Kat shrugged. The Commonwealth was the closest interstellar power, and Tyre had no stomach for further expansion. It was difficult enough absorbing the worlds that had joined the Commonwealth before the war. Anyone else . . . She supposed that Marseilles or a couple of others might be interested in setting up trading posts, just to give themselves some influence, but they’d hardly want to annex the sector. The locals, on the other hand, might want to be annexed.
“We’ll be setting up an emergency StarCom network,” she said. “We have the prefabricated units in storage. It’s time we put them to use.”
She smiled coldly. The bean counters were going to be screaming for her head when they figured out what she’d done, but she found it hard to care. She hadn’t been promoted to admiral just so she could look calm and resolute as the sector fell into anarchy. There was a crisis now. They could set up the network and to hell with the cost.
Winters grinned. “Yes, Admiral.”
“There will be outrage back home,” Colonel Christopher Whitehall warned. “And you may be forced to pay.”
That would wipe out the old trust fund, Kat thought, with a flicker of amusement. Her plan wasn’t much—she was all too aware it wasn’t much—but it might just give them an edge. The Theocracy had built the first portable StarCom, an innovation no one had expected, yet the Commonwealth had improved upon the design. They were still hideously expensive, but at least they didn’t explode when someone looked at them the wrong way. And if I have to pay for them . . .
She shook her head. The StarComs had been produced for emergencies . . . and this, she was sure, was an emergency. She would sooner endure the wrath of the wretched bureaucrats who’d moan and whine about her spending billions of crowns than watch another world die under enemy fire. The only downside was that the portable units wouldn’t last long. They simply lacked the shielding to keep them operational indefinitely. Hopefully, the situation would be resolved quickly. And if it wasn’t . . .
Parliament will need to vote on an emergency spending bill, she thought. That’s not going to go down well.
“I’ll deal with the consequences,” she said firmly. “We will also be distributing courier boats throughout the sector, which will allow us to react faster when there isn’t a StarCom in the system. It isn’t a perfect solution, but it will have to do.”
Her eyes swept the room. “If any of you have better ideas,” she added wryly, “please feel free to offer them.”
“Finding their base is a great idea in principle,” Winters said. “But in practice . . .”
“We’ll step up our survey efforts,” Kat said. The Theocracy had never bothered to survey the farther reaches of their sector. It was an oversight that puzzled her, although she supposed that they’d probably been bent on conquest ever since they’d realized that Earth was nothing more than radioactive rubble. There was nothing to conquer in that direction, save perhaps for a handful of isolated colonies. “We might get lucky.”
“And we’ll focus on isolating their supply lines.” Janice grimaced. “Too much war material got onto the black market after the war.”
“Work on it,” Kat ordered. She remembered William’s brother and scowled. “If worse comes to worst, I expect we can hand out a few pardons if they lead to bigger fish.”
It might be worth trying to get in touch with him, she thought. She hadn’t exactly lost touch with William, but . . . messages had become more and more infrequent as time had gone by. The last she’d heard, he’d gone to his new homeworld. She’d have to check with her family, then send a priority message. William was, technically, a family client. Someone would be keeping an eye on his movements. And his brother might be able to help us.
“They might be glad to get a chance to go legit,” Winters said. “But most smugglers already have that option.”
“We will see,” Kat
