Post by Lorpius Prime on Apr 2, 2009 17:26:28 GMT -5
"Please have a seat, Commodore Lee. Admiral Ungpakorn will be here shortly."
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Xi Feng said, and walked past the young officer into the briefing room.
The room was dominated by a long, U-shaped table. Besides Admiral Ungpakorn's adjutant, who'd just let her in, the only other people in the room were a rather nervous-looking Junior-Grade Lieutenant, and Lieutenant Mitchell Donaldson, the Uruguay's Intelligence Officer. Both of them stood up to salute Xi Feng when she entered, the JG so fast that she banged her knees against the table. Her face turned bright red.
Xi Feng returned the salute, then walked forward to take a seat at the end of one of the table's arms, next to Lieutenant Donaldson. He and the JG sat back down at the same time as the Commodore. Xi Feng looked at her Intelligence Officer.
"I wasn't expecting to see you here, Lieutenant. Do you know what's going on?"
Xi Feng had been called away from an evening dinner with her parents and ordered to report to the Singapore Fleet station immediately. She was a little ashamed to admit that she had been relieved by the order.
"Not really, sir," Donaldson shook his head. "Commander Wade put me on a shuttle a few hours ago, and the folks here have given me a briefing document the size of an encyclopedia," he tapped the PDA on the table in front of him. "It's mostly about the—ah—Tadpoles so far, but I couldn't tell you what it has to do with us."
Xi Feng nodded. On the other side of Donaldson, the young JG was watching them and trying to be inconspicuous about it. She was failing miserably. Xi Feng felt sorry for the poor girl, and debated saying something to her, but ultimately decided to wait until they were properly introduced. The JG was just going to have to tough it out.
"We didn't know you'd been promoted, sir," Donaldson went on. "Congratulations, Commodore."
"Thank you, Lieutenant."
They waited for Admiral Ungpakorn, who arrived a few minutes later.
"My apologies," he said after going through the ritual of salute and counter-salutes. His adjutant closed the door to the briefing room behind him, and Ungpakorn took a seat at the table on the arm opposite everyone else.
Admiral Erawan Ungpakorn was Earth Fleet's Operations Chief. Before that, he had been Admiral Erawan Ungpakorn, Chief of Defence Forces of the Republic of Thailand. Prior to that, he had been Admiral Erawan Ungpakorn, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Navy. In 2046 he had been the highest ranking officer of the Thai military that was not executed for war crimes when the Kingdom of Thailand was abolished. In 2066, Thailand's ruling Democratic Socialists had been looking for a way to join the OES and to get rid of Ungpakorn, whose tenure and royalist politics were a constant thorn in their side. Foisting him onto Earth Fleet had proven to be the solution to both of their problems
Xi Feng wondered idly what the Singaporean government must think of having the Admiral in their country, or if they even knew he was here. Then she wondered what Ungpakorn must think of being in Singapore. He was clearly very good at his job to have stayed on so long, but he also had a reputation for holding grudges.
From across the table, the Admiral nodded at her. "Admiral Kozlov asked me to apologize for pulling you away from your vacation so suddenly, Commodore. He had me fly down to brief you in person so that you'd at least have a little more free time once we're done here."
"It's no trouble, Admiral."
Ungpakorn looked at her a little skeptically for a moment before going on, "All right, before we start getting into the heavy details, I believe an introduction is in order." He held out one arm towards the young woman next to Donaldson, "Commodore, this is Lieutenant Junior Grade Colleen Muyskens. Lieutenant, Commodore Lee."
"Hello, Lieutenant," Xi Feng nodded to the girl.
"It's an honor, sir," Muyskens chirped.
"The Lieutenant graduated at the top of her class from the Academy this year."
"Congratulations," Xi Feng smiled.
"Thank you, sir!" The young Lieutenant beamed.
"Her scores were even higher than yours, I think," Ungpakorn added.
Colleen Muyskens' grin disappeared, and she looked like she wanted nothing more than to be struck dead right then. Xi Feng had to suppress a laugh. Ungpakorn was clearly trying to cause trouble, but Xi Feng wasn't going to let herself be bothered by his remarks. She had finished second in her own graduating class at the Academy, but hadn't resented the boy who beat her then. Xi Feng was proud enough of her own achievements.
She looked back at the Admiral, who went on, "Lieutenant Muyskens will be your flag adjutant. We're not going to be able to provide you with a full flag staff on the Uruguay. While you'll have Lieutenant Muyskens and a few other assistants to help out, I'm afraid your senior officers are going to be pulling extra duties."
The Admiral turned to her Intelligence Officer. "Since you've recommended Lieutenant Donaldson here so highly in his performance reviews," he said, "he's been approved for promotion to Lieutenant Commander. Personnel won't finalize that one until tomorrow, but the Lieutenant Commander will be heading up both the Intelligence and Operations departments for your task force."
"Congratulations, Commander," Xi Feng told the man next to her.
Donaldson only blinked, "Task force?"
Ungpakorn ignored him, "Your XO will likewise be receiving a promotion to full Commander. You may bring him the news yourself."
Xi Feng raised an eyebrow, "Will he be staying on as Uruguay's XO? He's getting awful senior for the job."
"You'll be needing all the help you can get, Commodore," the Admiral told her. "I'm sure Commander Wade will have a nice destroyer waiting for him when he returns."
Ungpakorn looked at each one of the other three other officers in turn, but no one said anything.
"Very well, then," he said. "Let's get down to business."
He picked up a small PDA from the table and pressed a control. The wall at the top of the table lit up as a video screen activated. The display was divided into 19 segments, each containing a small splash of text and a photograph of an Earth Fleet space ship.
"This is Task Force One," Admiral Ungpakorn said.
Xi Feng, Donaldson, and Muyskens all stared at the screen, trying to take in the information.
Ungpakorn continued, "It is two Uruguay-class heavy cruisers, five Luzon destroyers, two Amazon destroyers, one repair tender, one ammunition hauler, two general cargo transports, and six fuel tankers."
Donaldson found his voice first. "Task force? That's ten percent of Earth Fleet!"
"A little less," the Admiral nodded. "Task Force One has been nominally assigned to MarsCOM as part of Third Fleet. However, most of its assignment will be too far from Mars for effective communication, so the Task Force will operate as an independent unit."
He turned his head to give Xi Feng a grave look, "If it wasn't already clear, Commodore, you will be the commander of Task Force One. The Uruguay will be your flagship."
Xi Feng nodded. She could ask if her superiors were out of their minds later.
"As you may have already concluded, Task Force One's assignment will be a long-range mission to the outer solar system. In fact," Ungpakorn smiled, "you will be travelling farther from the Earth than any Human so far in our history."
"You're sending us to Uranus," Donaldson said matter-of-factly. Perhaps he had already figured this all out.
"Correct," Ungpakorn nodded. He touched a button on his PDA and a stylized map of the Solar system appeared. A dotted line traced a path from Earth to Mars to Uranus. "You are already aware that Earth has been visited by the aliens who have colonized Titania. The representatives of these Tadpoles came to us requesting assistance. Yesterday the OES agreed to these requests in exchange for certain technologies which will be of great benefit to Earth Fleet."
Everyone looked at him expectantly, but Ungpakorn did not elaborate. Instead he said, "Task Force One's mission is to ensure the safe delivery of our end of the bargain, as well as to ensure the Tadpoles' compliance to the deal. In addition, since this will be Earth Fleet's first major expedition to the outer Solar System, it will be a signal to the other aliens in this system of Earth's capabilities and willingness to defend our own interests. You will keep this in mind during your mission, and you will be expected to conduct yourself in a manner befitting representatives of your species.
He looked at each one of them in turn before nodding and continuing. "Your assignment will be conducted in four phases." He pressed a button on the PDA again, and the dotted path from Earth to Mars lit up. "Phase One begins the day after tomorrow. The units of Task Force one will travel from Earth to Mars station. I know this is a sudden deployment, but this phase should—"
He was interrupted by a buzzing noise. On the table in front of them, Lieutenant Donaldson's PDA was vibrating.
Xi Feng gave him a cold look, "Lieutenant, do you take calls during briefings?"
Donaldson had been staring at the device, but blinked and picked it up. "I—no. But this is—I subscribe to IHS security alerts…" He tapped rapidly at the PDA's screen, ignoring the glares he was getting from his superiors. Finally, he stopped, "Oh fuck."
Everyone just looked at him. Donaldson glanced up towards Admiral Ungpakorn and pointed at the video screen.
"Does that thing get CNN?" he asked.
Pascual realized that he was awake.
His consciousness was still a little fuzzy, and he couldn't remember actually waking up. But eventually an awareness of his surroundings started to creep in through the haze. Shortly after realizing that he was awake, he also began to notice a dull ache all across his body. The anesthetics had not yet worn off, however, and the pain didn't bother him.
Pascual looked at the tiled ceiling and soft fluorescent lights above his bed for a while. His surgery must be over, and from the aches it had probably been a success. It was going to hurt to move for a few days, but the implants were worth it to avoid the worst symptoms of tissue atrophy that afflicted humans in microgravity.
After a few minutes, Pascual's mind had cleared to the point that the hospital ceiling could no longer hold his attention. He sat up and looked around his room. There was a woman sitting in the chair next to Pascual's hospital bed. She had rich brown hair which hung just past her shoulders, and she was wearing a sharply cut red business suit. She was talking into the microphone of a full headset wrapped around her right ear, and at the same time was typing furiously into a notebook computer sitting on her lap.
It was Pascual's secretary.
"Audrey?" Pascual asked. "What are you doing here?"
"I'll get back to you about it, Rosa," Audrey said. She reached up to her temple and pulled off her headset, then gave Pascual an odd smile.
"You're awake," she told him needlessly. "How do you feel?"
"Well I'm curious about what my secretary is doing in my hospital room. And I guess I feel like I got beaten with a crowbar."
She gave him that smile again, one which seemed entirely too forced. "Your uncle asked me to come down here, Ambassador. He was too busy to make it himself."
"What? You weren't afraid that I was going to die, were you?" Pascual looked around. "I thought this was a fairly routine operation."
"Pascual," Audrey said, and Pascual blinked as he looked back at her. He wasn't sure if she'd ever used his first name before. "Pascual," she said again, "there was a bombing at JFK. An old jet-fuel reservoir exploded."
Pascual just stared at her.
"There are at least six hundred people dead, it blew up a runway and half a terminal." Audrey bit her lip, "One of the planes was Sonia's, Pascual."
"Oh."
Pascual turned away from his secretary and leaned back into his pillow, staring up at the ceiling again. The lights were the same as before, but felt colder. He lay there for a while, unable to say or even think much of anything. Audrey was quiet too.
"It was a bombing?" Pascual asked eventually. "Not an accident?"
"It was a car bomb. The Americans were all saying that it was the New Republicans at first. But now the Jihad's claiming credit. The Imam released a statement saying it was in retaliation for Niger, and promising more."
Pascual shook his head, "That's a lie. There's no way the Jihad could have thrown something like that together so quickly. It probably was the New Republicans. It's just the sort of thing they'd do."
Audrey didn't say anything. Pascual didn't blame her; he never knew what to say in situations like this, either. There was nothing that would actually help.
"Has anyone talked to her parents?" Pascual asked after a few minutes.
"I don't know," Audrey said. "I don't think so."
Pascual nodded. "All right, I'd better call them. Do you know where my phone is?"
Eduard Molinas rubbed at his eyeballs. Going to Singapore had been a mistake, with the way these crises had developed; it had prevented him from getting even the small amount of sleep that he usually enjoyed. Being Chief Executive meant that he was the man ultimately responsible for the defense and leadership of the entire Human race, so it wasn't good for him to be exhausted. But those same responsibilities meant that he had little choice in the matter right now. Some things needed his immediate attention.
"I'm sorry, Lavrentiy," Eduard said to the Russian Admiral sitting across the conference table, "what was that you said?"
The supreme commander of Earth Fleet adjusted the position of his reading glasses on his nose, "I said we're going to have rotate everyone who was in a space posting exposed to the blast through radiation treatment. The sooner they get treated the better chance they'll have of recovering fully, and the fewer people we'll have to hospitalize for cancers and organ failure later."
"That's pretty bad if everyone in orbit over the hemisphere has been affected, isn't it?" Eduard asked.
"Yes, sir" Kozlov nodded grimly, "but it's worse than just that. The moon was closer to the event, so a lot of L-COM personnel have received higher doses. They'll be the first priority."
"They can't be treated locally?"
"Some of them," Kozlov said, "but L-COM doesn’t have the capacity to treat all of the affected personnel quickly. It's going to be easier to bring the boys home than it would be to ship the doctors and equipment we'd need up there."
"Still," Eduard said, "maybe we should work on expanding the hospitals we've got up there."
"Yes, Chief," Kozlov said. "We're also going to want to work on improving the radiation shielding for all of our space facilities and vessels, but that's going to take time and a lot of resources."
A few seats down from Kozlov, Willy Trautmann was looking down at the table and shaking his head. Eduard ignored him for the moment.
"All right, Admiral. I'm sure we all look forward to getting some more detailed estimates on that process. Have you figured out what exactly happened, yet?"
"The first guess is still our best one: we think the mega-vessel was one of the Bats' FTL transports, and the radiation burst is a characteristic of the vessels' engines."
"And I don't suppose we could just ask the Bats what it was?" Councilor Durante inquired from across the table.
Kozlov shook his head, "For the time being, we think it's safest not to let on to the Bats just how ignorant we are of their technology. We know what the effects of the burst were, and we can deal with those. Understanding the how and why is less urgent."
"All right, gentlemen," Eduard said, trying to move things along. "It sounds like Earth Fleet has the matter well in hand for now. What's next?"
The Financial Councilor spoke up, "There's been some more fallout from the New York bombing, Chief," Trautmann said. "But I think Admiral Lagorio wants to fill you in on some more of the military details first." Willy nodded to the Italian officer sitting between him and Kozlov.
"I do, sir," Lagorio said.
Eduard frowned at Earth Fleet's liaison to the national militaries. "I've been in conference calls with the Security Council all day, Admiral. I'm familiar with the background by now."
Lagorio's eyes narrowed, "Due respect, sir, but most of what the Security Council has told you isn't worth shit. They're pretty useless to begin with, but the Americans have been lying to them."
Eduard buried his face in his hands, "Oh God. What's happening?"
"Well, to begin with, it looks like most of our intelligence on the Jihad remnant has been bad. That seems to be more the result of wishful thinking rather than outright falsification, but it hardly makes a difference."
"What do you mean?"
Lagorio leaned forward, looking like a buzzard eyeing a juicy carcass. "I mean the notion that we've just been mopping up the Jihad for the last five years is complete crap. The AU has been spinning that story to make themselves look good, and the Americans and Euros have eaten it up because they never wanted to deal with the whole mess in the first place. I talked to some old friends over at UNSIFA, and they gave me an earful about the real story."
UNSIFA was the United Nations Special Intervention Force in Africa. It had been approved in 2042 to help restore stability in the Jihad-stricken states on both sides of the Sahara. The UN mandate had given political cover to what was really the first major external deployment of the European Security Forces—15 years after their American allies could no longer sustain large scale global military operations. Admiral Lagorio had been UNSIFA's commandant before Earth Fleet poached him in 2060. Northern Africa had calmed considerably during his tenure, and responsibility for UNSIFA's operations was largely turned over to the African Union militaries during the 2060s. But it was easy enough to believe that Lagorio could maintain contacts within his old command.
"And what is that real story, Admiral?" Eduard asked.
"We haven't wiped the Jihad out so much as we've just convinced them to withdraw from the theater. They've spent the last decade or so wrapping up their organization and relocating."
"Then who've we been dropping rocks on?" Councilor Durante asked.
"Well, probably some associated or splinter groups that haven't abandoned Africa, but genuine Jihad outposts, too. They've left a rear-guard to continue some minimal operations in order to keep our soldiers busy." He paused for a moment to glance around the table. "They were probably hoping that we'd make exactly the mistake that we have: to believe that we were on the verge of final victory while they extracted themselves."
Eduard rubbed his temple and groaned slightly. "All right," he said, "well that's certainly bad, and I'm sure that everyone's going to be holding the Security Council's and AU's feet to the fire over this one. But it's not really our problem here, is it?"
"I'm afraid it is, Chief," the Financial Councilor spoke up again.
Eduard gave him an unhappy smile, "I sort of figured it would be, Willy. But still I keep hoping that one of these days, someone else's fumble won't land in my lap."
"Sorry, Chief," Trautmann nodded. He sighed before continuing, "Anyway, I just got into this a few hours ago, but I didn't understand what was going on until I talked to the Admiral." He nodded his thanks to Lagorio, who remained motionless. "Apparently the Pentagon has suspected the real story for a while now, but they couldn't get anyone to listen to them either."
The pieces began to click together in Eduard's sleep-deprived mind. "Until now," he said.
"Yeah," Trautmann confirmed. "Apparently the attack—and the Jihad's claim of responsibility—has precipitated a factional shift within the American Congress. One of the Senators I've been leaning on to get the Americans to cough up some extra funding called to tell me that the proposal's been tabled, probably killed for good."
Eduard's eyebrows rose, "That's the extra cash we asked for to compensate the colonial company?"
"Yeah, but it gets worse." Willy paused long enough to take in the dark expressions around the table before continuing. "Apparently the same group wants to cut the United States' regular contributions, and they may have the momentum to do it. I don't know how bad it's going to be yet, but we may not be able to give the colony's stockholders much of anything if we're going to stay inside our current operating budget."
"Are they insane?" Councilor Durante demanded. "Some of their own largest businesses are invested in Mars!"
The Financial Councilor shook his head, "Apparently it's not that simple anymore. Lockheed in particular has been getting out of groundside defense contracting lately. Earth Fleet's a much more reliable and lucrative customer for them these days. Meanwhile the Pentagon's had thirty years of shrinking budgets which is eating into other contractors' profits. Their allies in Congress see this attack as an opportunity to reverse that trend. They want to stick it to us."
"How bad is it going to be?" Admiral Kozlov asked. Eduard had rarely seen the old Russian look so worried. This news must have caught him off guard.
"Well they've already paid their contribution for this year; any change will be to the check they give us in 2074, but we've already drawn up our own budget drafts that'll have to be changed depending on what happens. Apparently the Senator backing this talked about cutting their contribution in half," everyone winced, "but I doubt any change will be that severe. Still, since they represent almost a quarter of our budget, we need to take this very seriously."
"You're going to want to take it out of our construction budget," Kozlov said darkly. He usually got along well with the Financial Councilor—who was something of a science nerd—but discussions of budgets could sour their relationship rather quickly.
Trautmann raised his arms helplessly, "There's a little bit of flexibility in the OES' civil operations, but not much. And pretty much any cuts we make will involve firing people. I'm sorry, Admiral, but the Fleet's just where we spend nearly all of our money. It always has been."
"Let's worry about this when we've got a better idea of what we're facing," Eduard cut in before his advisors could begin shouting at one another.
"Yes, Chief," Trautmann said, visibly relieved to get away from the subject himself. "I'll keep up the pressure where I can. You may want to consider intervening yourself, too."
"I've talked to President Sanderson every day this week," Eduard sighed, "but if you think more calls will help, Willy, then I will gladly do so. Anything to keep the Admiral here from whining about his ships."
Kozlov snorted, but his expression didn't lighten up much. Eduard sighed again.
"Yes, Chief," Trautmann said again. "I'm sure that will help too. But I think you may want to consider talking to some of the other members as well."
Eduard's eyes narrowed, "Who?"
"Well the EU heads of state for one, especially Chancellor Fischer. I've loosened him up a lot, but I think he'd appreciate a personal word from you," the Financial Councilor chuckled nervously, then looked down at the table. "And, well…"
"Oh just say it, Willy," Eduard rolled his eyes. "You want me to speak with Prime Minister Jahnavi."
Trautmann sighed, "The Indians are making much smaller contributions than they could be, Chief. As a percentage of their GDP, they still give the lowest amount of all the members. Maybe if—"
"Maybe if Jahnavi didn't hate my guts we could sidestep this little crisis," Eduard finished. He tapped a finger against the surface of the table a couple times. "I'll talk to him, Willy," he said finally. "No promises, but I'll see what I can do. Hell, he may play along just so he can lord it over me and the Assembly later."
The Financial Councilor nodded, and the conference room was silent for a while.
"Okay," Eduard said, "does anyone have any more immediate concerns? Bernardo, you've been quiet today."
The Foreign Councilor shook his head, "Nothing new on my end. The Bats have been quiet since Hyarahek got the boot, and they haven't sent a new ambassador yet. Our arrangements with the Tadpoles are still going smoothly."
"All right then," Eduard said, and stood up out of his chair. "In that case, I'm going to go see how my nephew is holding up. Thank you, everyone."
Eduard strode out of the room to a small chorus of thanks. A car was waiting outside to take him to the hospital. He wondered how much sleep he could grab on the way.
"Thank you, Lieutenant," Xi Feng said, and walked past the young officer into the briefing room.
The room was dominated by a long, U-shaped table. Besides Admiral Ungpakorn's adjutant, who'd just let her in, the only other people in the room were a rather nervous-looking Junior-Grade Lieutenant, and Lieutenant Mitchell Donaldson, the Uruguay's Intelligence Officer. Both of them stood up to salute Xi Feng when she entered, the JG so fast that she banged her knees against the table. Her face turned bright red.
Xi Feng returned the salute, then walked forward to take a seat at the end of one of the table's arms, next to Lieutenant Donaldson. He and the JG sat back down at the same time as the Commodore. Xi Feng looked at her Intelligence Officer.
"I wasn't expecting to see you here, Lieutenant. Do you know what's going on?"
Xi Feng had been called away from an evening dinner with her parents and ordered to report to the Singapore Fleet station immediately. She was a little ashamed to admit that she had been relieved by the order.
"Not really, sir," Donaldson shook his head. "Commander Wade put me on a shuttle a few hours ago, and the folks here have given me a briefing document the size of an encyclopedia," he tapped the PDA on the table in front of him. "It's mostly about the—ah—Tadpoles so far, but I couldn't tell you what it has to do with us."
Xi Feng nodded. On the other side of Donaldson, the young JG was watching them and trying to be inconspicuous about it. She was failing miserably. Xi Feng felt sorry for the poor girl, and debated saying something to her, but ultimately decided to wait until they were properly introduced. The JG was just going to have to tough it out.
"We didn't know you'd been promoted, sir," Donaldson went on. "Congratulations, Commodore."
"Thank you, Lieutenant."
They waited for Admiral Ungpakorn, who arrived a few minutes later.
"My apologies," he said after going through the ritual of salute and counter-salutes. His adjutant closed the door to the briefing room behind him, and Ungpakorn took a seat at the table on the arm opposite everyone else.
Admiral Erawan Ungpakorn was Earth Fleet's Operations Chief. Before that, he had been Admiral Erawan Ungpakorn, Chief of Defence Forces of the Republic of Thailand. Prior to that, he had been Admiral Erawan Ungpakorn, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Navy. In 2046 he had been the highest ranking officer of the Thai military that was not executed for war crimes when the Kingdom of Thailand was abolished. In 2066, Thailand's ruling Democratic Socialists had been looking for a way to join the OES and to get rid of Ungpakorn, whose tenure and royalist politics were a constant thorn in their side. Foisting him onto Earth Fleet had proven to be the solution to both of their problems
Xi Feng wondered idly what the Singaporean government must think of having the Admiral in their country, or if they even knew he was here. Then she wondered what Ungpakorn must think of being in Singapore. He was clearly very good at his job to have stayed on so long, but he also had a reputation for holding grudges.
From across the table, the Admiral nodded at her. "Admiral Kozlov asked me to apologize for pulling you away from your vacation so suddenly, Commodore. He had me fly down to brief you in person so that you'd at least have a little more free time once we're done here."
"It's no trouble, Admiral."
Ungpakorn looked at her a little skeptically for a moment before going on, "All right, before we start getting into the heavy details, I believe an introduction is in order." He held out one arm towards the young woman next to Donaldson, "Commodore, this is Lieutenant Junior Grade Colleen Muyskens. Lieutenant, Commodore Lee."
"Hello, Lieutenant," Xi Feng nodded to the girl.
"It's an honor, sir," Muyskens chirped.
"The Lieutenant graduated at the top of her class from the Academy this year."
"Congratulations," Xi Feng smiled.
"Thank you, sir!" The young Lieutenant beamed.
"Her scores were even higher than yours, I think," Ungpakorn added.
Colleen Muyskens' grin disappeared, and she looked like she wanted nothing more than to be struck dead right then. Xi Feng had to suppress a laugh. Ungpakorn was clearly trying to cause trouble, but Xi Feng wasn't going to let herself be bothered by his remarks. She had finished second in her own graduating class at the Academy, but hadn't resented the boy who beat her then. Xi Feng was proud enough of her own achievements.
She looked back at the Admiral, who went on, "Lieutenant Muyskens will be your flag adjutant. We're not going to be able to provide you with a full flag staff on the Uruguay. While you'll have Lieutenant Muyskens and a few other assistants to help out, I'm afraid your senior officers are going to be pulling extra duties."
The Admiral turned to her Intelligence Officer. "Since you've recommended Lieutenant Donaldson here so highly in his performance reviews," he said, "he's been approved for promotion to Lieutenant Commander. Personnel won't finalize that one until tomorrow, but the Lieutenant Commander will be heading up both the Intelligence and Operations departments for your task force."
"Congratulations, Commander," Xi Feng told the man next to her.
Donaldson only blinked, "Task force?"
Ungpakorn ignored him, "Your XO will likewise be receiving a promotion to full Commander. You may bring him the news yourself."
Xi Feng raised an eyebrow, "Will he be staying on as Uruguay's XO? He's getting awful senior for the job."
"You'll be needing all the help you can get, Commodore," the Admiral told her. "I'm sure Commander Wade will have a nice destroyer waiting for him when he returns."
Ungpakorn looked at each one of the other three other officers in turn, but no one said anything.
"Very well, then," he said. "Let's get down to business."
He picked up a small PDA from the table and pressed a control. The wall at the top of the table lit up as a video screen activated. The display was divided into 19 segments, each containing a small splash of text and a photograph of an Earth Fleet space ship.
"This is Task Force One," Admiral Ungpakorn said.
Xi Feng, Donaldson, and Muyskens all stared at the screen, trying to take in the information.
Ungpakorn continued, "It is two Uruguay-class heavy cruisers, five Luzon destroyers, two Amazon destroyers, one repair tender, one ammunition hauler, two general cargo transports, and six fuel tankers."
Donaldson found his voice first. "Task force? That's ten percent of Earth Fleet!"
"A little less," the Admiral nodded. "Task Force One has been nominally assigned to MarsCOM as part of Third Fleet. However, most of its assignment will be too far from Mars for effective communication, so the Task Force will operate as an independent unit."
He turned his head to give Xi Feng a grave look, "If it wasn't already clear, Commodore, you will be the commander of Task Force One. The Uruguay will be your flagship."
Xi Feng nodded. She could ask if her superiors were out of their minds later.
"As you may have already concluded, Task Force One's assignment will be a long-range mission to the outer solar system. In fact," Ungpakorn smiled, "you will be travelling farther from the Earth than any Human so far in our history."
"You're sending us to Uranus," Donaldson said matter-of-factly. Perhaps he had already figured this all out.
"Correct," Ungpakorn nodded. He touched a button on his PDA and a stylized map of the Solar system appeared. A dotted line traced a path from Earth to Mars to Uranus. "You are already aware that Earth has been visited by the aliens who have colonized Titania. The representatives of these Tadpoles came to us requesting assistance. Yesterday the OES agreed to these requests in exchange for certain technologies which will be of great benefit to Earth Fleet."
Everyone looked at him expectantly, but Ungpakorn did not elaborate. Instead he said, "Task Force One's mission is to ensure the safe delivery of our end of the bargain, as well as to ensure the Tadpoles' compliance to the deal. In addition, since this will be Earth Fleet's first major expedition to the outer Solar System, it will be a signal to the other aliens in this system of Earth's capabilities and willingness to defend our own interests. You will keep this in mind during your mission, and you will be expected to conduct yourself in a manner befitting representatives of your species.
He looked at each one of them in turn before nodding and continuing. "Your assignment will be conducted in four phases." He pressed a button on the PDA again, and the dotted path from Earth to Mars lit up. "Phase One begins the day after tomorrow. The units of Task Force one will travel from Earth to Mars station. I know this is a sudden deployment, but this phase should—"
He was interrupted by a buzzing noise. On the table in front of them, Lieutenant Donaldson's PDA was vibrating.
Xi Feng gave him a cold look, "Lieutenant, do you take calls during briefings?"
Donaldson had been staring at the device, but blinked and picked it up. "I—no. But this is—I subscribe to IHS security alerts…" He tapped rapidly at the PDA's screen, ignoring the glares he was getting from his superiors. Finally, he stopped, "Oh fuck."
Everyone just looked at him. Donaldson glanced up towards Admiral Ungpakorn and pointed at the video screen.
"Does that thing get CNN?" he asked.
* * *
Pascual realized that he was awake.
His consciousness was still a little fuzzy, and he couldn't remember actually waking up. But eventually an awareness of his surroundings started to creep in through the haze. Shortly after realizing that he was awake, he also began to notice a dull ache all across his body. The anesthetics had not yet worn off, however, and the pain didn't bother him.
Pascual looked at the tiled ceiling and soft fluorescent lights above his bed for a while. His surgery must be over, and from the aches it had probably been a success. It was going to hurt to move for a few days, but the implants were worth it to avoid the worst symptoms of tissue atrophy that afflicted humans in microgravity.
After a few minutes, Pascual's mind had cleared to the point that the hospital ceiling could no longer hold his attention. He sat up and looked around his room. There was a woman sitting in the chair next to Pascual's hospital bed. She had rich brown hair which hung just past her shoulders, and she was wearing a sharply cut red business suit. She was talking into the microphone of a full headset wrapped around her right ear, and at the same time was typing furiously into a notebook computer sitting on her lap.
It was Pascual's secretary.
"Audrey?" Pascual asked. "What are you doing here?"
"I'll get back to you about it, Rosa," Audrey said. She reached up to her temple and pulled off her headset, then gave Pascual an odd smile.
"You're awake," she told him needlessly. "How do you feel?"
"Well I'm curious about what my secretary is doing in my hospital room. And I guess I feel like I got beaten with a crowbar."
She gave him that smile again, one which seemed entirely too forced. "Your uncle asked me to come down here, Ambassador. He was too busy to make it himself."
"What? You weren't afraid that I was going to die, were you?" Pascual looked around. "I thought this was a fairly routine operation."
"Pascual," Audrey said, and Pascual blinked as he looked back at her. He wasn't sure if she'd ever used his first name before. "Pascual," she said again, "there was a bombing at JFK. An old jet-fuel reservoir exploded."
Pascual just stared at her.
"There are at least six hundred people dead, it blew up a runway and half a terminal." Audrey bit her lip, "One of the planes was Sonia's, Pascual."
"Oh."
Pascual turned away from his secretary and leaned back into his pillow, staring up at the ceiling again. The lights were the same as before, but felt colder. He lay there for a while, unable to say or even think much of anything. Audrey was quiet too.
"It was a bombing?" Pascual asked eventually. "Not an accident?"
"It was a car bomb. The Americans were all saying that it was the New Republicans at first. But now the Jihad's claiming credit. The Imam released a statement saying it was in retaliation for Niger, and promising more."
Pascual shook his head, "That's a lie. There's no way the Jihad could have thrown something like that together so quickly. It probably was the New Republicans. It's just the sort of thing they'd do."
Audrey didn't say anything. Pascual didn't blame her; he never knew what to say in situations like this, either. There was nothing that would actually help.
"Has anyone talked to her parents?" Pascual asked after a few minutes.
"I don't know," Audrey said. "I don't think so."
Pascual nodded. "All right, I'd better call them. Do you know where my phone is?"
* * *
Eduard Molinas rubbed at his eyeballs. Going to Singapore had been a mistake, with the way these crises had developed; it had prevented him from getting even the small amount of sleep that he usually enjoyed. Being Chief Executive meant that he was the man ultimately responsible for the defense and leadership of the entire Human race, so it wasn't good for him to be exhausted. But those same responsibilities meant that he had little choice in the matter right now. Some things needed his immediate attention.
"I'm sorry, Lavrentiy," Eduard said to the Russian Admiral sitting across the conference table, "what was that you said?"
The supreme commander of Earth Fleet adjusted the position of his reading glasses on his nose, "I said we're going to have rotate everyone who was in a space posting exposed to the blast through radiation treatment. The sooner they get treated the better chance they'll have of recovering fully, and the fewer people we'll have to hospitalize for cancers and organ failure later."
"That's pretty bad if everyone in orbit over the hemisphere has been affected, isn't it?" Eduard asked.
"Yes, sir" Kozlov nodded grimly, "but it's worse than just that. The moon was closer to the event, so a lot of L-COM personnel have received higher doses. They'll be the first priority."
"They can't be treated locally?"
"Some of them," Kozlov said, "but L-COM doesn’t have the capacity to treat all of the affected personnel quickly. It's going to be easier to bring the boys home than it would be to ship the doctors and equipment we'd need up there."
"Still," Eduard said, "maybe we should work on expanding the hospitals we've got up there."
"Yes, Chief," Kozlov said. "We're also going to want to work on improving the radiation shielding for all of our space facilities and vessels, but that's going to take time and a lot of resources."
A few seats down from Kozlov, Willy Trautmann was looking down at the table and shaking his head. Eduard ignored him for the moment.
"All right, Admiral. I'm sure we all look forward to getting some more detailed estimates on that process. Have you figured out what exactly happened, yet?"
"The first guess is still our best one: we think the mega-vessel was one of the Bats' FTL transports, and the radiation burst is a characteristic of the vessels' engines."
"And I don't suppose we could just ask the Bats what it was?" Councilor Durante inquired from across the table.
Kozlov shook his head, "For the time being, we think it's safest not to let on to the Bats just how ignorant we are of their technology. We know what the effects of the burst were, and we can deal with those. Understanding the how and why is less urgent."
"All right, gentlemen," Eduard said, trying to move things along. "It sounds like Earth Fleet has the matter well in hand for now. What's next?"
The Financial Councilor spoke up, "There's been some more fallout from the New York bombing, Chief," Trautmann said. "But I think Admiral Lagorio wants to fill you in on some more of the military details first." Willy nodded to the Italian officer sitting between him and Kozlov.
"I do, sir," Lagorio said.
Eduard frowned at Earth Fleet's liaison to the national militaries. "I've been in conference calls with the Security Council all day, Admiral. I'm familiar with the background by now."
Lagorio's eyes narrowed, "Due respect, sir, but most of what the Security Council has told you isn't worth shit. They're pretty useless to begin with, but the Americans have been lying to them."
Eduard buried his face in his hands, "Oh God. What's happening?"
"Well, to begin with, it looks like most of our intelligence on the Jihad remnant has been bad. That seems to be more the result of wishful thinking rather than outright falsification, but it hardly makes a difference."
"What do you mean?"
Lagorio leaned forward, looking like a buzzard eyeing a juicy carcass. "I mean the notion that we've just been mopping up the Jihad for the last five years is complete crap. The AU has been spinning that story to make themselves look good, and the Americans and Euros have eaten it up because they never wanted to deal with the whole mess in the first place. I talked to some old friends over at UNSIFA, and they gave me an earful about the real story."
UNSIFA was the United Nations Special Intervention Force in Africa. It had been approved in 2042 to help restore stability in the Jihad-stricken states on both sides of the Sahara. The UN mandate had given political cover to what was really the first major external deployment of the European Security Forces—15 years after their American allies could no longer sustain large scale global military operations. Admiral Lagorio had been UNSIFA's commandant before Earth Fleet poached him in 2060. Northern Africa had calmed considerably during his tenure, and responsibility for UNSIFA's operations was largely turned over to the African Union militaries during the 2060s. But it was easy enough to believe that Lagorio could maintain contacts within his old command.
"And what is that real story, Admiral?" Eduard asked.
"We haven't wiped the Jihad out so much as we've just convinced them to withdraw from the theater. They've spent the last decade or so wrapping up their organization and relocating."
"Then who've we been dropping rocks on?" Councilor Durante asked.
"Well, probably some associated or splinter groups that haven't abandoned Africa, but genuine Jihad outposts, too. They've left a rear-guard to continue some minimal operations in order to keep our soldiers busy." He paused for a moment to glance around the table. "They were probably hoping that we'd make exactly the mistake that we have: to believe that we were on the verge of final victory while they extracted themselves."
Eduard rubbed his temple and groaned slightly. "All right," he said, "well that's certainly bad, and I'm sure that everyone's going to be holding the Security Council's and AU's feet to the fire over this one. But it's not really our problem here, is it?"
"I'm afraid it is, Chief," the Financial Councilor spoke up again.
Eduard gave him an unhappy smile, "I sort of figured it would be, Willy. But still I keep hoping that one of these days, someone else's fumble won't land in my lap."
"Sorry, Chief," Trautmann nodded. He sighed before continuing, "Anyway, I just got into this a few hours ago, but I didn't understand what was going on until I talked to the Admiral." He nodded his thanks to Lagorio, who remained motionless. "Apparently the Pentagon has suspected the real story for a while now, but they couldn't get anyone to listen to them either."
The pieces began to click together in Eduard's sleep-deprived mind. "Until now," he said.
"Yeah," Trautmann confirmed. "Apparently the attack—and the Jihad's claim of responsibility—has precipitated a factional shift within the American Congress. One of the Senators I've been leaning on to get the Americans to cough up some extra funding called to tell me that the proposal's been tabled, probably killed for good."
Eduard's eyebrows rose, "That's the extra cash we asked for to compensate the colonial company?"
"Yeah, but it gets worse." Willy paused long enough to take in the dark expressions around the table before continuing. "Apparently the same group wants to cut the United States' regular contributions, and they may have the momentum to do it. I don't know how bad it's going to be yet, but we may not be able to give the colony's stockholders much of anything if we're going to stay inside our current operating budget."
"Are they insane?" Councilor Durante demanded. "Some of their own largest businesses are invested in Mars!"
The Financial Councilor shook his head, "Apparently it's not that simple anymore. Lockheed in particular has been getting out of groundside defense contracting lately. Earth Fleet's a much more reliable and lucrative customer for them these days. Meanwhile the Pentagon's had thirty years of shrinking budgets which is eating into other contractors' profits. Their allies in Congress see this attack as an opportunity to reverse that trend. They want to stick it to us."
"How bad is it going to be?" Admiral Kozlov asked. Eduard had rarely seen the old Russian look so worried. This news must have caught him off guard.
"Well they've already paid their contribution for this year; any change will be to the check they give us in 2074, but we've already drawn up our own budget drafts that'll have to be changed depending on what happens. Apparently the Senator backing this talked about cutting their contribution in half," everyone winced, "but I doubt any change will be that severe. Still, since they represent almost a quarter of our budget, we need to take this very seriously."
"You're going to want to take it out of our construction budget," Kozlov said darkly. He usually got along well with the Financial Councilor—who was something of a science nerd—but discussions of budgets could sour their relationship rather quickly.
Trautmann raised his arms helplessly, "There's a little bit of flexibility in the OES' civil operations, but not much. And pretty much any cuts we make will involve firing people. I'm sorry, Admiral, but the Fleet's just where we spend nearly all of our money. It always has been."
"Let's worry about this when we've got a better idea of what we're facing," Eduard cut in before his advisors could begin shouting at one another.
"Yes, Chief," Trautmann said, visibly relieved to get away from the subject himself. "I'll keep up the pressure where I can. You may want to consider intervening yourself, too."
"I've talked to President Sanderson every day this week," Eduard sighed, "but if you think more calls will help, Willy, then I will gladly do so. Anything to keep the Admiral here from whining about his ships."
Kozlov snorted, but his expression didn't lighten up much. Eduard sighed again.
"Yes, Chief," Trautmann said again. "I'm sure that will help too. But I think you may want to consider talking to some of the other members as well."
Eduard's eyes narrowed, "Who?"
"Well the EU heads of state for one, especially Chancellor Fischer. I've loosened him up a lot, but I think he'd appreciate a personal word from you," the Financial Councilor chuckled nervously, then looked down at the table. "And, well…"
"Oh just say it, Willy," Eduard rolled his eyes. "You want me to speak with Prime Minister Jahnavi."
Trautmann sighed, "The Indians are making much smaller contributions than they could be, Chief. As a percentage of their GDP, they still give the lowest amount of all the members. Maybe if—"
"Maybe if Jahnavi didn't hate my guts we could sidestep this little crisis," Eduard finished. He tapped a finger against the surface of the table a couple times. "I'll talk to him, Willy," he said finally. "No promises, but I'll see what I can do. Hell, he may play along just so he can lord it over me and the Assembly later."
The Financial Councilor nodded, and the conference room was silent for a while.
"Okay," Eduard said, "does anyone have any more immediate concerns? Bernardo, you've been quiet today."
The Foreign Councilor shook his head, "Nothing new on my end. The Bats have been quiet since Hyarahek got the boot, and they haven't sent a new ambassador yet. Our arrangements with the Tadpoles are still going smoothly."
"All right then," Eduard said, and stood up out of his chair. "In that case, I'm going to go see how my nephew is holding up. Thank you, everyone."
Eduard strode out of the room to a small chorus of thanks. A car was waiting outside to take him to the hospital. He wondered how much sleep he could grab on the way.