Month 123, Day 1, Epsilon Indi system (Coalition Space)
The fleet led by Admiral Ruston was still ten days from Wunderland when it encountered a large group of CD’s heading away from the Wunderland system, en route for the inner systems of human space. Ruston’s flagship queried the CD’s, and their Coalition fleet codes prompted a download of the CD’s messages. The CD’s were carrying messages from the governors of the Orphicon, Kowloon, and New Hebrides system colonies, appealing for the Coalition Fleet’s assistance in resolving the situation in the Sligo system. The messages carried details of the Wunderland colony’s declaration of independence, and the subsequent battles with the Tarek. This information increased their knowledge of events in the Sligo system, but didn’t really change anything about their mission. The fleet continued onwards.
Month 123, Day 5, Sligo System
“Sir, the lead elements report they have received a message. It originates from a coalition scout positioned sixty light seconds in-system from the warp point. The scout is ID’ing itself as the Wunderland Space Navy Scout Icarus.”
Admiral Ruston settled back into his chair, trying to get his rebellious stomach back under control after the warp transit. It always affected him this way. “Very well. Route it to my console.”
A few seconds later a window popped up over his console, showing a small scout’s bridge, with an officer front and center in the camera’s pickup. The officer was wearing a standard deep blue Coalition duty jump suit; however, it had been stripped of unit tags and other identifiers. Ruston didn’t recognize the officer, but that didn’t really mean anything. “Coalition Fleet, this is the WSN Icarus. You are welcome in Republic of Wunderland territory. The First Consul of Wunderland invites you to Wunderland and requests your assistance in resolving the situation with the Tarek.”
Admiral Ruston noted the new terminology for the former Coalition colony, but decided not to make an issue out of it now, with a scout commander who had little authority. He keyed his console to begin recording. “Scout Icarus, thank you for your welcome. We will proceed to Wunderland immediately.”
With the message sent, he detached two scout-frigates to watch their back at the warp point and ordered the fleet to move inwards, towards Wunderland.
Month 123, Day 10, Sligo System
Admiral Ruston stood in the corridor adjoining the boat bay of his flagship, the CSN California, and waited for the shuttle he had sent to the surface to collect the Wunderland delegation to dock. While he waited, he went over the information he had about the Wunderland government, but his staff had had a hard time wading through the available information to come up with a coherent briefing. Based on what they had been able to glean from the colonial info network, Coalition Governor Faraz had declared independence four months ago, right after word of the destruction of the Coalition and the USSR arrived, and then promptly declared war on the Tarek. Her long-planned attack on the Tarek failed, largely because of their extensive defensive network, and then governor Faraz was deposed after a Tarek counterattack destroyed most of what remained of the Wunderlander’s fleet. The news grew confused after that. It appeared that Faraz was replaced as governor, or First Consul, whatever that was, by a senior legislator from their colonial legislature, however, that worthy had stepped down within days after being implicated in a scheme to enrich himself by defrauding the government effort to support the refugees from Earth. His resignation had thrown the Wunderland government into chaos, and it wasn’t clear who had power at this point. A person claiming to be Governor Whitmore of the Wunderland Sector Provisional Government had contacted the fleet as it approached Wunderland and requested a meeting at whatever location Admiral Ruston deemed appropriate. Ruston had decided to set the right tone from the first, and agreed to a meeting aboard his flagship. The delegation from below would be met with the appropriate honors and courtesy, but his military might would also be on display, and the message would be obvious.
The Admiral’s thoughts were interrupted as a tone sounded in the corridor, and a shuttle nosed into the bay beyond. The bay doors closed, and in less than a minute the bay was pressurized and the lock to the bay opened. A file of marines in dress unforms marched into the bay in the lead, and took up positions around the shuttle’s lock. A second group of marines, these in heavy combat armor, entered the bay behind them and took up defensive positions around the back bulkhead, a not-so-subtle reminder of where the power-balance lay. Finally, Admiral Ruston and his senior officers entered the bay and marched to the shuttle, after which the shuttle’s lock opened and a short ramp descended. A group of civilians exited the shuttle and looked around the bay, taking in both groups of marines before seeing Admiral Ruston and his party. The group of civilians moved forward, approaching Admiral Ruston, with a formidable older woman in the lead.
The woman and her group stopped just short of the admiral and his party and she smiled. “Admiral Ruston, I presume?”
Admiral Ruston nodded. “Yes ma’am. Governor Whitmore? Not First Consul Whitmore?”
Whitmore smiled and shook her head. “No, we got rid of that nonsense when we took over. I think Faraz was trying to establish a mystique around her new government to try to give it some credibility, some link to the past. They had a whole bunch of plans about renaming things to bring them in line with the old Greek republics, but they didn’t get around to it before their campaign against the Tarek fell apart.”
Admiral Ruston nodded. “That makes sense. And I sorry, but my staff has been able to find little about you in the colonial databases. May I ask…”
“Where the heck I come from? Certainly. I am the former Coalition Governor of the New California Colony in the Kowloon system. I was sent here by my colony as the New California representative to the Wunderland Republic that Faraz was setting up. We were promised positions in the ruling council and the new legislature, and I was to ensure that the interests of New California and the other out-system colonies were represented until the new government was established and elections could be held. When I arrived Faraz had just been deposed, and no one knew what was going to happen. The stuffed shirt that replaced her resigned just six days later, and the colony’s government was thrown into confusion. After a week of infighting a group of senior legislators and military officers approached me and asked if I would step in as First Consul, until the emergency was resolved. I was uncomfortable with that, as I didn’t know what changes Faraz and her people had made to the powers and authorities of the position, but I did agree to become Acting Colonial Governor until higher authority arrived from the Coalition. Like you.”
Admiral Ruston shifted uncomfortably. He instinctively liked this woman, who seemed to be a force of nature and squarely honest, but he had to be careful in this situation. While he had significant authority based on the emergency powers granted to him under the state of Martial Law that existed throughout the Coalition territories, that authority was based on the fleet behind him, not the government that issued the declaration, given the fact that the Coalition government no longer existed. His authority would only last as long as his fleet supported him, and very soon many of the officers and crews throughout the fleet would be asking some very hard questions. If he began imposing solutions on civilian authorities, resentment would build. And his only tool was force, or the threat of force. That was a road he didn’t want to travel except in the most extreme situations. He realized Governor Whitmore was watching him curiously. “Thank you, Governor Whitmore, that brings me up to date nicely. Why don’t we move to more comfortable surroundings?”
He stepped aside and gestured, and his Chief of Staff stepped forward. “Please follow me.” The civilians followed Captain Kennedy, followed by the Admiral and then his staff. The marine honor guard took up a rear position, following the entire group.
The trip was a short one, to a large crew training area that had been set up for the meeting. One wall was step up to display the fleet surrounding the flagship. The displays had been set to magnify the surrounding ships, so that it appeared that the flagship was escorted by a dozen cruisers of various sizes, all within close proximity. It was an awesome display of naval might, designed to impress the civilians with the fleet under his control. He suspected that the display was no longer necessary, a suspicion that was confirmed when he saw the sly smile that flitted across Governor Whitmore’s face as she looked at the displays. The group sat down at the table that had been set up, and once they were settled, Admiral Ruston nodded to the governor. “Ma’am, let me lay out the situation as I see it. I have arrived to find a colony that is technically in rebellion, which has misappropriated Coalition government assets, namely Coalition naval forces assigned to this system, and which has not only mistreated refugees from Earth but has also started a war with the indigenous alien race of this system! Have I missed anything?”
The Wunderland delegation looked morose over the Admiral’s statement, but Governor Whitmore smiled a genuine smile at his summary. “Oh, there are a few more things we’ve uncovered since I’ve taken over. It appears that while Governor Faraz wasn’t particularly corrupt herself, she and her administration were quite willing to overlook a lot in their rush to establish their new government and prosecute their war with the Tarek. I’ve given the government’s auditors and internal affairs people quite a bit of work since I took over. But, that said, let me point out a few mitigating factors. First off, I think you would be hard pressed to identify exactly what Wunderland and the other colonies out here are in rebellion against, since the Coalition government no longer exists in any functional form. Or am I wrong about that?” Governor Whitmore watched the Admiral curiously. A lot rode on his answer.
Admiral Ruston would have been reluctant to admit this point to anyone else, but he could sense that she was trying to hold things together out here, so he settled for nodding. “The old Coalition is gone, it is true. However, there will be a conference in less than a month in the Sigma Draconis (Moskva) system to discuss a replacement for the Coalition and ways to move forward. I hope that you, or your representative, will attend.”
Governor Whitmore nodded. “We certainly will attend.” She turned to her assistant and asked him to make a note of that for future attention, then turned back to the admiral, a serious look on her formidable face. “Your point about the refugees is entirely correct. The refugees have placed the colonies out here in difficult situations, but there is no excuse for the way that the refugees were treated by the Faraz government. There is a full investigation of the government’s actions underway, and several high-ranking individuals, including the former army general in command of the resettling effort, are under arrest and will be facing serious charges, as are multiple lower ranked individuals who committed serious crimes against the refugees in the absence of effective oversight. Governor Faraz herself recognized her error and began to remedy it before she was removed. Since then we have allowed the refugees, under the leadership of the group that so effectively overthrew Governor Faraz’ corrupt refugee managers, to set up their own refugee resettlement centers, with the assistance of Wunderland’s government. I will open their books to your people as soon as I return, so that you can assure yourself that their treatment is as fair and equitable as we can make it.”
Admiral Ruston nodded, taken with her obvious distress at the treatment of the refugees from Earth. “We had gathered as much from the public information networks, but it is good to hear you admit the issue.”
Governor Whitmore smiled. “As for your second and fourth points, the Coalition naval forces in this system, and the war with the Tarek, they are inextricably linked together. I’m not a resident of this system, but my colony is just two jumps away and believe me, we have followed the progress of the Tarek since our founding. The Tarek have not hidden their hostility to humanity, and while reliable communications have never been established, that’s not because we don’t understand their language. It is because they won’t talk to us. Wunderland has been monitoring their communications from the start, and the Tarek have never hidden their intent to take their system back from the ‘Invaders’, as they so quaintly call us. The officers and crews of the Coalition’s Sligo Squadron voted nearly unanimously to join Wunderland’s new nation on the provision that they be sent against the Tarek, to end the threat to their families and their colony. The Coalition had been ignoring the situation for years, focused as it was on events in the Solar system and various wars with the aliens. The Coalition government’s response to every attempt to get it to deal with the Tarek was to accuse the colonies out here of alarmism and xenophobia. While Wunderland might have started the shooting war with the Tarek, that war was inevitable, and if we had waited the Tarek would have just started it when they felt they had an advantage.” The Wunderland delegation around her were all nodding their heads in agreement. This was clearly a sore point to not only the Wunderlanders, but also the other colonies in the area.
Admiral Ruston knew she had a point. He had argued more than once for an increased naval presence in the Sligo system, to deter the Tarek, but he also had known that such a deterrent only worked while it was present. Sooner or later any capital ships deployed to this system would have been withdrawn, and the Wunderlanders would have been right back to the start, with the Tarek looking for ways to gain an advantage. Still, there was no way that the Coalition was going to start an unprovoked war against a nearly helpless alien race, and he had opposed those officers that had argued for a first strike against the Tarek. He felt then that there had to be a better way. Of course, the Wunderlanders were pretty sure that the first provocation that the Coalition would receive would be the bombardment of their colony, which was also unthinkable, so the Coalition government, which had many larger issues closer to home to focus on, tended to ignore the situation in Sligo and hoped that the Tarek would become more reasonable with time. “I agree that the colonists here had a right to defend themselves. But starting a war that they then promptly lost was clearly not the right way to deal with the situation.”
“Point taken. Governor Faraz and her people had a credible fear, though, that once the Coalition fleet got organized it would withdraw the bulk of the Sligo squadron to put out fires across the human territories, or to face the D’Bringi, leaving us open to Tarek aggression. That wasn’t an unreasonable fear, was it?”
Admiral Ruston, wanting to be honest with Whitmore, nodded. “I had no plans to withdraw the squadron at this time.” Seeing the look on the Wunderlander’s faces, he continued. “But I can’t say that I would have left them here. There is a lot of unrest and instability throughout the human territories.” He looked at the Wunderlanders, and at Governor Whitmore, and saw the fear underlying everything they had done. It was clear if you knew to look for it. “What’s done is done. I can’t change it any more than you can. All we can do is deal with the situation as it is. And the situation is that whatever the Tarek intention was, the shooting war between the Tarek and humanity has started. The scout I dispatched to watch Tarek Prime reports that the Tarek will launch six escorts at the end of this month, and that six months from now they’ll launch a heavy cruiser that’s been under construction in their yards for quite some time. In the meantime, the yard being built here won’t even be ready until next month, and you haven’t been able to agree on a plan to build ships on the ground to replace your losses to date.”
Governor Whitmore nodded. “That’s a fair summary. The situation is desperate. Now that we’ve established a government here more representative of all of the colonies that have joined together, we have vastly greater resources available, but the Tarek have the lead and I fear that it would have been only a matter of time until they overwhelmed us here.” Her gaze sharpened on the Coalition Admiral, and she gestured at the displays showing the fleet surrounding them. “But now you are here. May I ask what you plan to do now?”
Admiral Ruston’s face grew bleak. “I am going to deal with the Tarek. They have a legitimate grievance against humanity, but I will not allow them to attack a human colony, or to continue to pose a threat to the humans in this system. My fleet will remain here while we verify the information you’ve given us, but before the end of the month we will move against the Tarek and ensure that they do not pose a continuing threat against the people of Wunderland.”
For the first time Governor Whitmore looked taken aback. Perhaps she was truly realizing for the first time that there was no one above Admiral Ruston. No one that she could appeal to, or who could limit the Admiral’s actions once he decided to act. “May I ask what exactly you intend to do?”
The Admiral’s face never waivered from its grim set. “My fleet will advance on Tarek Prime. We will give them a chance to negotiate peace with the people of Wunderland, and if they refuse, then we will sweep their skies clear of everything capable of shooting back at us. My fleet will eliminate every armed ship, every orbital station, and all of their shipyards. And once that is complete, I will warn them against deploying any armed unit outside of their atmosphere. They can be hostile on their planet’s surface all they want, but if they venture beyond the surface it will be in unarmed ships, or not at all.”
Governor Whitmore was stunned. While he was avoiding bombarding the surface, this was quite a step for a Coalition Admiral to take. She looked at her delegation, which was mostly composed of Wunderlanders. As one they nodded their agreement. While they didn’t exactly get a say, they approved of anything that limited the Tarek’s ability to attack them.
Month 123, Day 14, Sligo System
The Coalition fleet was arrayed just outside of basic missile range of the planet, at four point five light seconds. The Tarek had shown no sign of having anything more advanced during their fight with the Wunderlanders, and Admiral Ruston was confident in his fleet’s ability to deal with anything the Tarek might throw at them, even if they had suddenly deployed more potent weaponry.
In the months since the failed Wunderland attack on the Tarek, they had repaired the damage to their orbital stations and ground bases, and deployed an additional three ground bases to give themselves complete coverage from any approach. In addition to the six ground bases, the Tarek had four orbital stations containing full-size shipyards, five stations with medium shipyards, and a grand total of thirty-two armed orbital stations. It was an impressive defense, especially for such a low-tech race, but they were about to find out what a bad idea it had been to be so blindly hostile as to provoke a war with a much more advanced race. There was a price to be paid for such blind intransigence, and the Tarek were about to pay it.
Admiral Ruston checked his uniform once more, then keyed on the video recorder. “I am Admiral Ruston of the Coalition. I have come to resolve the state of war that exists between the human residents of this system and the Tarek. I would like to resolve this war peacefully, and would be willing to discuss reparations along with establishing safeguards to ensure that this does not happen again in the future. Please respond to me on this channel within one twentieth of your planet’s daily rotation. If I do not receive a response within the given time period, I will be forced to resolve this war by other means.” He cut he recording out, and then signaled for his comm officer to send it to the Tarek. They then settled in to wait.
The allotted time period went by quickly. There was no response from the Tarek of any sort. Admiral Ruston gave them a little more time, then opened the comm channel to the Tarek again. “You have unwisely decided to ignore my fleet. I prefer to resolve this situation peacefully, however, it seems you will not allow this. Therefore, in ten minutes my fleet will attack each and every orbital station over your planet, including your shipyards. We will do so from beyond your own range to respond. You cannot stop this, and I urge you to either begin negotiations or to evacuate your orbital stations before I destroy them.” He cut off the comms channel and again they settled in to wait.
The ten minutes passed without incident, and also without the Tarek doing anything. It seemed they either didn’t believe his threat, or wanted to make this as hard as possible. He punched up the battlecruiser’s bridge. “Captain Hannover. You may begin. All units will begin the bombardment as ordered.”
Captain Hannover nodded and the comm channel went dark. A few seconds later the battlecruiser shivered as it and its consorts moved away from the planet. They could have launched from their current position, but Admiral Ruston wanted to make a point to the stubborn Tarek.
The Coalition Fleet moved to five-point-five light seconds, and then turned back towards the planet. A few seconds later the California resounded with dull thuds as her launchers begin expelling capital missiles. Each of the human battlecruisers targeted a different armed station, leaving six burning, crippled stations after the first salvo slammed home. The stations had no active defenses, and the human fleet was a full light second and a half beyond their own missile’s range, so there was nothing they could do as the capital missiles raced towards them. Every thirty seconds the human battlecruisers launched another salvo of capital-missiles at the orbiting stations, like clockwork.
After three such salvoes, the situation changed. Suddenly the stations over Tarek Prime began sprouting life pods, and Admiral Ruston called a temporary halt to the bombardment to allow the life pods to get clear of the immediate area. One minute later the battlecruisers began launching again. The battlecruisers launched six full salvoes before they had worked their way through all of the stations. Only a few had been destroyed outright, but all were damaged and some were heavily damaged. After that the orbital stations were destroyed one by one as the battlecruisers began firing individually, splitting their salvoes between two targets. The orbital stations weren’t really like warships or true combat-capable bases, they were more like civilian space stations that had been equipped with armor and weapons. Once their armor was breached, they fell apart quickly under continued fire, and they had nothing that would stop the incoming missiles. It took just three additional salvoes to finish off the remaining orbital stations, and then the battlecruisers could focus on the orbital yards.
Admiral Ruston had noted that the Tarek hadn’t evacuated the shipyards at the same time as the crews abandoned their battle stations, so he ordered his flagship to launch just three missiles against one of the larger shipyards, to get his point across. Two of the three missiles hit the station, and the Tarek got the point. There were a lot more Tarek on the orbital yards, so Admiral Ruston gave them several minutes to clear the area before his ships began firing again. It took two full salvoes to destroy the yards, but in the end the Tarek’s orbital presence was gone.
Admiral Ruston again opened the comms channel to the Tarek. “I will not attack your surface installations, but be warned, if you launch any armed units, whether they are ships or orbital battle stations, my ships will return and destroy them as soon as you launch them. I will allow you to travel throughout this system and beyond, but only in unarmed ships. And you may only build unarmed orbital stations, such as shipyards. Everything you launch will be scanned by my ships, and if it is armed it will be destroyed. If your ground bases fire on any human ship, for any reason, they will all be destroyed by bombardment, regardless of how many collateral casualties this causes. Be very clear, Humanity wants peace with you, but we will not abide a hostile race threatening us. Continue as you have and you will be destroyed.”
The human fleet turned away and set out for Wunderland. As they left, a message reached them from Tarek Prime. It said only, “We will comply.” It seemed that Admiral Ruston had finally impressed them with Humanity’s intention to deal with their aggression.
Admiral Ruston’s fleet returned to Wunderland before setting out for home. Governor Whitmore invited him to meet with her on the surface, and he agreed, shuttling down later the same day.
The two met at a small but well-appointed retreat maintained by the Wunderland government in the mountains to the southwest of the capital. Admiral Ruston’s shuttle landed on the airfield attached to the retreat, where he was met by Governor Whitmore herself. A few guards were present, watching the perimeter, but she was alone, her aides having apparently been dismissed. Seeing this, Admiral Ruston told his aides and guards to remain on the shuttle, and he walked out into the cool, crisp evening air to meet with the governor.
She smiled as he exited the shuttle, and came forward to meet him. “Our savior!”
He shook his head. “They never had a chance against my fleet. They just didn’t know that. A lot of Tarek spacers died today, learning that lesson. I didn’t enjoy teaching it.”
Governor Whitmore took in the Admiral’s demeanor and shook her head. “No, I don’t suppose you did. Still, it had to be done.” She gestured back towards the lodge. “Come, lets get inside. I’ve got a fire going, and we have a lot to talk about.”
He allowed himself to be led inside, and soon they were seated in front of the warm fire, each with their preferred drink in their hands. The silence was companionable, but he had been invited here for a reason. “You clearly have something to say.”
The pensive look on her face fell away, and she smiled. For a brief second he realized what a truly beautiful woman she must have been in her youth, but to be honest, he preferred the formidable woman in front of him. She was competent, and appeared to be trustworthy, although that could only be determined after time had passed. “Admiral, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen when you arrived. We had justifications for what had been done, but none of that would have mattered if you had taken a harder line on our independence than you did. You could have swept our defenses away as easily as you did the Tarek’s, and our ground forces would have been forced to surrender under threat of bombardment from orbit that we couldn’t answer or defend against. Some in my government expected you to do just that and were urging either abject surrender or a fight to the death.”
Admiral Ruston looked at Whitmore curiously. “And what were you preparing for?”
She smiled again. “I was prepared to do what I do best. Talk. As my kids always used to say, I talk and talk and talk, and somehow people just end up agreeing with me. I think they agree just to get me to stop talking, but there you go.”
“And if I wouldn’t talk to you? If I demanded your surrender?”
“I would have ordered my people to stand down. I’m not sure all of them would have. I’m still something of an outsider here, but most of them would. I’m a big believer in living to fight another day.”
“That’s not always an option.”
“No, but against the Coalition I thought it was the right move.” She frowned, watching the Admiral’s face intently. “Why didn’t you impose martial law and remove the independent government we’ve been setting up? You have the power. No one here can stop you, and I suspect that there is no one anywhere that can countermand your orders.”
Admiral Ruston sat silently for a moment, staring into the fire. Finally, he stirred. “The Coalition is gone. No government official higher than a city mayor survived the war on Earth. A few low-level elected officials have appeared here and there, but no one of consequence. For all intents and purposes, the Coalition ceased to exist in that war, and what is left is merely an idea. In the chaos since the fall of Earth, my fleet and the Russian fleet have had to work together to impose order and ensure that the flow of refugees continued and that resources got to Earth to stabilize the situation there, at least as much as possible. The emergency created by the destruction of the Coalition and Russian governments on Earth gave General Semenov and me all of the authority we needed to impose martial law, and we needed to do so to legally order the civilian colonial governments to accept the refugees. The imposition of martial law gave us the cloak of legality, however, that cloak only covers so much. The governments that promulgated those laws are gone, and they aren’t coming back. If we use those laws to set ourselves up as dictators, or to enforce membership in a government that no longer exists then soon enough the colonies will begin resisting. I will not see my fleet become an instrument of oppression, and General Semenov feels the same. He grew up under a military government, and is painfully aware of its failings.” Admiral Ruston paused, and then looked up from the fire, into her eyes. “Tell me, if I had returned from destroying the Tarek defenses and announced that you were all guilty of treason against the Coalition, and announced arrests and that I was putting one of my officers in control of this colony, what would you have done?” He was watching her curiously.
“I’ve already said it. We would have complied. We cannot fight your fleet.”
“But?” He could hear the word ‘but’ in her answer, in spite of it having gone unsaid.
She sighed. “But, the imposition of martial law would be seen as a military dictatorship, particularly if it wasn’t replaced quickly by some sort of civilian government. That would have caused resistance to grow, not only here, but everywhere throughout the colonies, which are known to be notoriously independent. In the end I think if you took that path you would succeed for a while, but in the end human space would be rocked by secession and civil war. Probably sooner rather than later.”
Admiral Ruston nodded. “Exactly. General Semenov and I have had this very discussion since the fall of Earth. Supplies for our fleet are running short, and we must put together an organization of colonies to support our ships or bad things will happen. If we can’t support our fleets, we will lose control of them, and then piracy will be the least of our problems. Tinpot dictators will spring up right and left, setting up petty empires and ‘protection-rackets’ to support their ships and crews. To maintain our fleets, we need a large colonial organization, and If, as some in our staffs suggest, we impose that order on the colonies to create a state capable of supporting our fleets, then we will clearly have to do so by force. Some of the colonies will resist, if only out of sheer stubbornness, and by using force to impose our solution we will be creating the conditions for our own overthrow.”
She looked at him curiously, growing more and more impressed with this military leader who refused to impose a military solution on the fall of a civilization. “And so?”
“And so, I find myself here. Asking you to help put together a voluntary organization of colonies to help support the fleet that defends us all. As I’ve asked other political leaders elsewhere.” His gaze sharpened on the governor. “You said you’re known for talking. We need that. I need that.” He gestured towards the outside, away from the fire they were both watching. “The fact that the colonies out here joined together so readily means something. If I come in and deny that, and impose the old conditions by force, I’d be ignoring the reality. Keep your independence, if you must, but recognize that we have enemies out there and that we must work together to maintain the fleet that is all that stands between these worlds and those enemies.”
Governor Whitmore looked into the fire for a few seconds, shocked at the honesty coming from one of the two most powerful men in the human territories at the current time. She was deeply impressed by his determination to bring the colonial leaders together to talk, rather than imposing a solution with the force that was so readily available to him. The temptation to use that force must have been nearly overwhelming, as it was the tool he had trained for his whole adult life to wield. She came to a decision.
“I will help. I will go to your conference personally, and I’ll talk to anyone who’ll listen. I have to finish up things here, first, to ensure that the government here stays on the right path while I’m gone, but if you’ll leave a ship to convey me to the conference I’ll be there before it starts.”
Admiral Ruston settled back into the couch as relief blossomed in his chest. There were so many ways this could go wrong, but he had a feeling that something had broken right, for once. The two talked late into the night, strategizing their approach to the conference, before Admiral Ruston had to return to the fleet.
Month 123, Day 15, Sligo system
Some of the Coalition fleet leaves Wunderland to return to the Sigma Draconis system. Admiral Ruston left behind three battlecruisers, three heavy cruisers, and three destroyers, to impress upon the Tarek the need to adhere to their agreement.
Admiral Ruston and a delegation from the Wunderland Association, the latest name the locals had decided upon, left aboard two small scouts that raced out of the system at full military speed, and would reach the Sigma Draconis system in eleven days. Another scout was left behind for Governor Whitmore, who would leave when she felt her Deputy Governor had things in hand on Wunderland.