CHILDERS_Absurd Proposals Read online

  ABSURD

  PROPOSALS

  by

  RICHARD F. WEYAND

  Copyright 2017 by Richard F. Weyand

  All Rights Reserved

  ISBN 978-0-9970709-7-2

  Printed in the United States of America

  Credits

  Front Cover: Oleg Volk

  Model: Tatiana Whitlock

  Back Cover Photo: Oleg Volk

  Published by Weyand Associates, Inc.

  Bloomington, Indiana, USA

  November, 2017

  COLONY WAR

  Secret Meetings

  A Growing Concern

  A Quick Trip

  Two Big Surprises

  Unexpected

  Preparations

  A Far Broader Horizon

  Staffing Issues

  More Staffing Issues

  An Absurd Proposal

  Training

  Buy-In

  Another Quick Trip

  The Briefing

  The Deal

  Information Gathering

  Better Than Expected

  The Plan Comes Together

  Secondary Targets

  Bugging Out

  Shots Fired

  News Bubble

  Musterings

  Imminent

  Waldheim

  Parchman

  Kodu

  Brunswick

  Coronet

  Lautada

  Status Report

  Colony Division

  Ship Tour

  Refining the Search

  Return to Paradiso

  GALACTIC MAIL

  Designing the Future

  Applications

  Selecting The Board

  Object Lesson

  First Colonists

  Horizon

  Ramping up, Settling Down

  A Second Absurd Proposal

  Policeman

  A Second Buy-In

  Earth Again

  Considered Opinion

  A Conversation Between Friends

  A Broad Understanding

  Private Meetings

  To The Yards

  At The Yards

  Five Or Ten?

  Back to The Yards

  Astonishment

  Staff Meeting

  Getting Started

  Press Bulletins

  Reaction

  The Shareholders Meeting Begins

  Tenerife

  Paradiso, Brunswick, Feirm, Mon Mari, Becker

  The Shareholders Meeting Continues

  Fifteen Years On

  Five Hundred Years On

  Appendix

  Acronyms and Terms

  COLONY WAR

  Secret Meetings

  His Excellency the Honorable Horace Higgins, the Foreign Minister of Coronet by virtue of his cousin, His Most Supreme Excellency Charles Morgan, being President-for-Life, was entertaining the foreign ministers of Lautada and Brunswick. They sat in overstuffed chairs around a small coffee table in a private sitting room in the heavily guarded presidential palace. The grouping faced the picture windows looking out over the terrace and the lavish grounds, which extended right into the downtown area of Jewel, the capital city of Coronet.

  It was a chill fall day in Jewel. "The Jewel in the Crown" they called it in the tourism brochures, though in truth there was little tourism. The gravity was 1.07 g, enough higher than normal to be off-putting. Combined with the slightly heavier and more humid air, the conditions for tourism were not good, even during the short summers. To make matters worse, Jablonka, the capital planet of the Commonwealth of Free Planets, and a much more hospitable and prosperous tourist destination, was only thirty light years away.

  The trio had dismissed their staffs so they might talk privately. Of course, the meeting was likely being recorded by the security staff of the intensely paranoid President-for-Life, but such was almost always the case in the Outer Colonies anyway.

  "We have to do something about the Commonwealth's commercial dominance in the colonies. Those thirty-two planets among them are only a quarter of the planets and less than a third of total colony population, but they have over half the exports and they dominate the shipping markets. We can't compete with that," the Foreign Minister of Lautada, Lord Jeremy Lecroix, said.

  "I was sort of hoping Earth would knock them down a peg, but that abbreviated little war they just concluded only resulted in a peace treaty that has made the Commonwealth more secure," Higgins said.

  "Be careful what you wish for," Brunswick Foreign Minister His Eminence Dwight Andrews cautioned. "For all we complain about the Commonwealth, they make better neighbors than the previous Earth government was ever likely to. I can't help but think their intended consolidation of the Commonwealth would have led to acquisitive eyes looking in our direction."

  "Even so, we still need to do something about the Commonwealth," Lecroix said.

  "Oh, I agree completely," Andrews said, and sipped his coffee.

  "But what can we do?" Higgins asked. "Any time one of us tries to trim them back a bit, they hand us our heads on a plate. Usually our ships just disappear."

  "Especially if Jan Childers is involved. She's been kicking our butts for twenty years. And now she runs their whole navy," Lecroix said.

  Andrews put his coffee down carefully.

  "Brunswick has taken its losses at the hands of Admiral Childers as well. But don't forget we now have parity with the Commonwealth on a ship-for-ship basis, and can maneuver inside the published system envelope the same way they do. And we have more hulls than they do. For the moment, we have the advantage," Andrews said.

  "Until the next big advancement they make," Lecroix said.

  "All the more reason to move now. I've done a bit of research on this. Big advancements like that are usually thirty to fifty years apart. We have a window of parity, and I don't think we should waste it," Andrews said.

  "There's still Childers. She's an advantage all by herself," Higgins said.

  "More as a boogey man at this point than anything else. She's no longer a field commander. Her biggest value to them now is as a totem, an icon of their identity," Andrews said.

  "Even so, I think we need to deal with Childers if we're to be successful," Lecroix said.

  "Again, I agree completely. But on the matter of Admiral Childers, I believe I have a solution in hand," Andrews said.

  "Really?" Higgins asked.

  "Oh, yes. I agree our actions to trim back the Commonwealth should wait until Admiral Childers has some sort of unfortunate mischance, but I don't think we should simply wait for such a mischance," Andrews said.

  Andrews looked out the windows, then back to his peers.

  "I think we should engineer one."

  "How?" Higgins asked.

  "Leave that to me. Consider it my little contribution to our efforts. We have other issues, though. We may have more hulls, but our navies have incompatible protocols, as well as long-festering animosities. We have squabbled among ourselves too much while our real issue went unaddressed," Andrews said.

  "We can deal with that," Higgins said. "We can have joint military visits, get people talking to each other. Then we move on to joint military exercises."

  "That would work, I think. One solution to the differing protocols, at least with regard to maneuvers, is to adopt the Commonwealth's own book. We have that, too," Lecroix said.

  "That strikes me as workable as well. So we're settled then? We don't have to make the final decision to proceed right now. What I mean is, are we settled on preparations, the military visits and the exercises and the like?" Andrews said.

  "Oh, yes, sure," Higgins said.

  "We might as
well. See where we get," Lecroix said.

  "Excellent. We also need to draw in more of our friends on other colonies. I can perhaps influence ten or so. Can you each do so as well?" Andrews asked.

  Higgins and Lecroix looked at each other, and began to nod.

  "Yes, we are not without influence among some of the other colonies. I may have to make a little trip or two, but I think I can manage that," Higgins said.

  "Same for me. I can call together a group of our trading partners, meet with the principals privately," Lecroix said.

  "Let's put a time window on things, shall we? Let's say we will need six months or so to get some consensus going, and perhaps another six months to get some coordination and trust established among our militaries. Finally, a year of joint military exercises should be enough," Andrews said. "And while that is going on, I will begin working on that other little matter."

  It was several months and several planet visits later that Andrews, back in his office on Brunswick, met with one of his best operators, Stewart Gillian. Andrews had pulled Gillian out of the Brunswick Military Academy when his scores on psychological exams indicated he might enjoy the occasional unusual assignment. In particular, he was completely amoral, without any compunctions whatsoever against any assignment, or any means. Anything Andrews needed done, Gillian would do. Literally anything.

  "I have a special assignment for you, Stewart. I'm going to make you the naval attaché at our embassy on Jablonka. There's someone there who fate has determined will unfortunately suffer a major mischance. I need you to make sure that fate doesn't falter."

  "A major mischance?"

  "Very major."

  "Sounds like fun."

  "I knew you'd like it. We already have five people inside Sigurdsen Fleet Base, being run by our existing naval attaché. Unfortunately, he is not the sort to help fate along on its mission in such a situation. The five people may also not be of the persuadable sort in this particular case. Those who are not will probably also suffer a major mischance."

  "Who's the target fate has in mind?"

  "Admiral Jan Childers."

  "Is this mischance going to be one of those quiet, private sort of things, or noisy and public?"

  "Oh, very noisy and very public, I'm afraid. Terrible. Just terrible. But one caution. Valid military targets only. No collateral civilian casualties. Especially her children. We want to break the Commonwealth's fighting spirit, not piss them off so they fight harder. So you can't just blow up her house or something like that."

  "Understood. Timing?"

  "Open, but more than a year off, probably more like two. You'll have plenty of time to work out the details. And I'll arrange that you have sufficient funds to make the proper arrangements."

  "Of course, I'm not actually a naval officer."

  "Details, Stewart, mere details. Let me arrange those as well."

  "Sounds good. See you in a year or two."

  A Growing Concern

  Admiral Jan Childers, Chief of Naval Operations of the Commonwealth Space Force, walked out the front door of the Naval Operations Center on Sigurdsen Fleet Base on Jablonka, the capital planet of the Commonwealth of Free Planets. She had a four-man security detail with her, a perk of her office she had not been able to shake off.

  It was a beautiful early spring day at Sigurdsen. She saw the gardeners finally getting a chance to make the final plantings on the new Navy Mall, an open area running between the new buildings on the base.

  The old buildings had stood where the Mall was now. They had all been destroyed by the CSF itself when they pulled out in the face of the enormous Earth Fleet bearing down on Jablonka in the opening phase of the War That Didn't Happen. Rather than leave the Earth Fleet the intelligence boon of the base, and its capacity to support their fleet in space and occupation troops on the ground, the buildings had been imploded and set with incendiaries as the CSF had spaced out of the system.

  The new buildings had been built to either side of the rubble, so their construction could begin without clearing the debris, to hurry the completion of the buildings for occupation by the victorious CSF on its return from investing Earth and forcing a surrender.

  The new buildings lining the Mall included the NOC, the Tactical Division, the Personnel Division, the Supply Division, and the Legal Division on one side, and the Intelligence Division, the Shipbuilding Division, the Weapons Division, the Science Division, and the Propulsion Division down the other. All of the divisions on one side were under her command, and all of the divisions on the other were under Admiral Kurt Wisniewski, the Chief of Naval Research.

  Once all the construction had been done, the debris of the old buildings had finally been removed, and the Mall established. Only now had grass been planted, and the tiny shoots were just beginning to come up through the thatch. It was important for now to stay on the sidewalks. After the recent rains, you could sink into the mud up over your ankles if you stepped off the pavements.

  There was a sidewalk from the front door of her headquarters, the NOC, directly across the Mall to the facing building, the headquarters of the Intelligence Division.

  Not too bad. Not too bad at all, Jan thought, surveying the buildings as she crossed the Mall. We did OK. And now Earth is an ally, and not a threat.

  "Jan, do you recall when you first came to me and asked me what was the biggest military threat to the Commonwealth, and I said Earth?" Admiral Durand asked.

  "Sure, Jake. No sooner than I became CNO, I asked you that question, over five years ago now," Jan said.

  They were seated in a Class 1 secure conference room in one of the basements of the new Intelligence Division headquarters building. Admiral Jan Childers and Admiral Jake Durand had had monthly meetings during her entire tenure as CNO. As Durand's chief of staff, Vice Admiral William Campbell, Jan's husband, usually attended as well.

  "Well, Earth was dealt with, and she hasn't been a worry since the War That Didn't Happen. That was a nice plan, showing them they couldn't win without killing them in job lots. Made a real peace possible."

  "Admiral Jessen's plan. He really is good at that sort of thing," Jan said.

  "Understood. Well done all around. But, as I recall, in that earlier meeting I also warned you about another threat."

  "Yes, the Outer Colonies. You expected that, sooner or later, they would unite, or some subset of them would unite, and present a threat."

  "Correct. We've been watching all along for signs that process might be under way, and we think we're starting to see the beginnings of it," Durand said.

  "Really. What sort of beginnings?"

  "There have always been visits back and forth between high-ranking members of various Outer Colony governments. A bit of that is more or less routine, but those visits have been ramping up for months. What really concerns me now, though, is we think we're seeing the beginning of some joint military maneuvers.

  "You know we collect sensor data from commercial ships passing through Outer Colony systems. We pay them to carry our sensor recorders, and those recorders download to the local fleet base whenever that ship comes back to Commonwealth space.

  "In the last couple of data collections, which are two to three months old by the time they make it back here, several of our ships have picked up visiting warships in Outer Colony systems. Most of the Outer Colony navies use similar designs, but there are differences, particularly with the bigger navies. The commercial ships had their active sensors powered up when they left the systems, and we think those sensor scans show non-local warships."

  "But some of that happens anyway, too, doesn't it? Doesn't a visiting high mucky-muck sometimes take a cruiser to visit another system?" Jan asked.

  "Sure, but not in division or squadron strength."

  "Division or squadron strength? No, I wouldn't think so," Jan said.

  She looked down at the table, saw she was drumming her fingers, and ordered them to stop.

  "Which systems? Which visiting navies?" s
he asked.

  "That's the bad part. Paradiso in Villam, Tenerife in Lautada, Samara in Brunswick."

  "Which are all Outer Colony polities that have tested us in one way or another over the years."

  "Yes, and it gets worse. There are several other Outer Colony systems where we're picking up unusual activity, but it's too difficult to tell the local ships from visiting ships, because they use similar designs. But in some of those instances, there were more hulls in the system than there should have been, given our count of the local system navy," Durand said.

  "So you think this might be going on across more systems than just those six?"

  "Yes. And one more thing to worry about. In Coronet, our commercial ship was heading out of the system and caught a hyper transition of a division of heavy cruisers inside the published system envelope. Right on the edge of the inner envelope, in fact."

  "Dang. I'd hoped it would hold longer than this," Jan said.

  "Well, it's been over twenty years since you did the original work on the hyperspace envelopes. And we did find those spies we cleaned out of the NOC after the Kodu disaster. That's been seven years ago now."

  "I know, but one could hope."

  "There is a bright spot. I have something I'd like to show you, if you can spend a couple days out of the office," Durand said.

  "I could, if you think it's important."

  "I want to show you a card game."

  "Really?"

  "Yes. It's time."

  Jan was packing for the overnight trip, while Bill sat on the bed and watched. The kids were in bed.

  "So you've already seen all this? Whatever it is?" Jan asked.

  "Yes. A couple of those times I was gone for a couple, three days. Durand wanted me to know in case he got hit by a bus or something," Bill said.

  Jan looked at her packing list next to the bag on the bed, went back to the dresser.

  "And it really is the card game we used to play?"

  "Just like the one you played in the basement. Yes."

  Jan had done the original work on the hyperspace mathematics used to calculate the precise boundaries where it was safe to cruise in hyperspace – the inner system envelope – and where it was safe to not only cruise but transition to and from normal space – the outer system envelope – beginning with her PhD work twenty-five years before. She had found that points in hyperspace were (4πe)³ closer together, allowing speeds (4πe)³ faster than in normal space. That had been almost twenty-five years ago.