Opening Moves (6 page)

It was an intimidating sight, but Corr'tane shook his head. Dead, the Makani were no good to him. “What a pointless waste,” he muttered.

“
Quite the contrary! This whole escapade is a reason unto itself,” Tear'al pointed out. “There's nothing down there we want. I mean, look at it for a minute!”

Corr'tane did have to admit it was an unappealing target: no easily exploitable heavy metals for warships, no major agricultural areas for food exports. Toklamakun didn't even have any stunning vistas for tourists. It was physically worthless, yet the Makani had died for it. Because it was their home world.

“This invasion is a test,” his comrade continued. “A dry run for our war with the Pact. Look at our fleet. We could have taken this world with a quarter of these numbers, hells, maybe even a tenth of them. But our new fleet-wide command nodes needed the stress test. We had to work out the problems and concerns in this live fire exercise before we attacked a real enemy, like the Tuathaan. All of this here?” he pointed at the images on the bridge's screens and in the holotank. “This is a war game, Corr'tane. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“
I'm sure the Makani wouldn't appreciate being considered mere targets,” he smiled thinly.

“
And since when do we care?” Tear'al replied haughtily. “It doesn't matter if the bombardment has little effect. The point is to test our targeting scanners and establish a good routine for our crews. When the time comes they will be ready.”

As if it was rehearsed the first charged asteroid tumbled into Toklamakun's atmosphere.

Corr'tane watched, fixated on the gradually shrinking orb and its course of destruction. He imagined every other pair of eyes in the fleet was also watching that same object at the same time, scrutinizing its path or preparing to ascertain its damage pattern, or perhaps just appreciating its burning glow as the friction of the planet's atmosphere heated one side of the solid rock to several thousand degrees. The targeting scanners noted the point of impact: the planet's main space port. A few missiles and focused laser beams rose to meet it, but with no effect. The asteroid's heavy iron core remained mostly intact, burying itself into the ground with the force of an angry god. It was a spectacular demonstration of destruction. As the fleet's sensors finalized gathering the impact's preliminary data, the rest of the asteroid's descended through Toklamakun's atmosphere in the most efficient pattern for causing a global apocalypse.

“
I hear the High Strategos is saving your own research for the war itself, so not to tip off our enemies?”

Corr'tane nodded. He was anxious to see the fruition of his long work in the fields of bio-weapons, but acknowledged they would best be reserved as a surprise for the Pact. “All in good time.” His eyes sparkled with the expanding red plumes of the bombardment. To witness such power was exhilarating. The Ashani had come a long way, and this would ensure they would continue growing forever.

“Alas, we've got an audience. There are some Érenni ships on the system's edge,” Tear'al said.

Corr'tane shot him a hard look. “Were they dealt with?”

“Of course not. Let them watch this and spread fear in their people,” he grinned smugly.

“
You complete idiot!” Corr'tane snarled. “If they get a good sensor sweep of this level of devastation and of the sheer number of ships we're fielding it'll betray our intentions! You don't build a fleet like this unless you plan to use it!”

“
They will assume we are just being cautious of the Rasenni. The Pact's members are cowards who would rather prefer to bury their heads in the sand than consider the truth. They believed our story about the Aetu. They'll believe this, too.”

“
This could jeopardize everything we've worked for!” he shot back. Hells, how could a former
intelligence
officer be so stupidly careless?! He hammered a button on a nearby communications' panel. “Flag to covering force. Are you in range of the Érenni vessels?”

The answer came promptly. “Yes, Strategos. We are under orders to monitor them and…”

“Those orders are canceled. You will move to destroy them at once!”

“
Yes, Strategos. Executing now,” came the curt response, and an instant later the tactical display shifted as the vessels turned to deal with the unwanted audience. Before they even had a chance to bring their main batteries to bear, the Érenni ships vanished from the plot, the holographic visualization noting the tachyon impulse typical for a transition into the fold.

“
Nothing will change. It'll just make the Pact more fearful,” Tear'al said, but not as confidently as earlier.

“
For your own sake I hope you're right.” Corr'tane's voice was flat and cold. “Because if you are wrong every member of the Ashani race who needlessly dies in this war will be your fault, and I will take that very personally. Do you understand what that means?”

“
Yes.” Tear'al's voice carried a trace of uncertainty. He had heard rumors about a captain who had lost his ship to a Tuathaan raid through sheer incompetence. The man hadn't even finished his report to Strategos Corr'tane before he was arrested and taken to his labs. No one had ever seen him again. “This will go as predicted.”

“
Get out of my sight,” the younger man coolly commanded, then turned to look at space with its infinite darkness and infinite cold.

Tear'al had been in the military longer and held equal rank to Corr'tane, but there was no question as to which one held the power in this room. His intelligence had made him the youngest strategos in history, and his ruthlessness ensured it was a well-deserved title. He would be spearheading the assault on the Tuathaan and he relished the opportunity, the image of his father imprinted on his mind as a child. They were going to pay for that. He was going to make damn sure of it.

The timer was set. Only two more months. Then he would have his vengeance, and his people would have the chance to live forever.

Tanith, Independent Star System, Pact of Ten Suns.

March 2796 C.E.

The falling rain echoed on the glass roof. Mairwen took a brief moment to savor it. Her home was replete with water and it frequently rained, so much so it was merely another part of the day. But on worlds alien to her people, rain like this was rarer and often seen as troublesome, a mixed blessing. For Mairwen it was a reminder of home and gave her a sudden bout of homesickness. She didn't want to be here, in this empty and cold chamber. Breathing heavily through the spiracles on her forehead, her flat face turned into a grimace. The air in here was too dry. She wanted to be on her grounds back on Akvô, enjoying the humidity and the soft breeze over her home world's endless beaches. In fact, she would have settled for just standing outside here for a while, the transparent, water-repellent lids closed over the two large black eyes that sat high in her skull. But the meeting was about to start, such as it was.

A week ago Toklamakun had fallen to an Ashani surprise attack and the news had shocked Mairwen's people, the neighboring Érenni. They had immediately called a meeting of the Pact to gather once more on neutral ground not owned by any of the league's larger members. When such diverse species gathered it was best to limit any reason for undue tensions before they even had a chance to surface.

Tanith was such neutral ground. Called the Golden Pearl by her people, Mairwen had journeyed here on the fastest diplomatic courier ship the Érenni Republics owned.

The Érenni were a peaceful, mercantile and freedom-loving people. Organized first in matriarchal clans, later in female dominated nations, and finally in their current form of a loose confederation of colonial republics they had no martial tradition comparable to many of the other sentient races. And quite frankly, there hadn't been much of a need for one. Érenni, as far as generalizations about a whole race were possible, preferred to deal with problems either around conference tables or through subterfuge and covert actions, not open warfare. And now they found themselves sharing a border with a power like the Dominion. To Mairwen that made it all the more urgent to discuss the matter and take action to prevent further Ashani aggression.

And yet, despite plenty of time to assemble and the apparent seriousness of the situation, precisely three people had arrived at the consulate on Tanith. Aside from herself there were only Gwythyr of the Tuathaan Clanholds and Serrok Kun of the Komerco. Nobody else had bothered to even send a junior representative. She did not feel anger, not really. The feeling threatening to send cramps all through her two stomachs was one of deep, despairing disappointment. She couldn't remember having ever felt something as strongly before.

Nevertheless she had a job to do and began the meeting. “Thank you for joining me today, honored representatives. I trust by now you have all read the reports from our scouting forces.” Her three-fingered hand held aloft a rounded tablet listing the events at Toklamakun. “It proves that the invasion of Aeta was not an isolated incident and that the Ashani are beginning an aggressive war of conquest.”

“
With all due respect, madam: that is a matter of pure speculation,” Serrok stated flatly. “I have studied your report. I have also studied the statements of the Dominion. And while the individual circumstances surrounding the events at Toklamakun and Aeta may be regrettable, they are not exactly uncommon occurrences in these times. Or any other times, for that matter. Quite frankly, we have no evidence that the Ashani will continue to attack other worlds, let alone our or
your
worlds.” Serrok's face was a leathery-gray, pockmarked field of craters, the genetic result of generations of horrible runaway environmental pollution his people had unleashed on their home world. He didn't have any eyebrows. If he had, he would have raised one inquiringly with his statement.

“
You said that five months ago. We had this very same discussion after Aeta fell, and now they have taken Toklamakun,” Mairwen recounted in a firm voice. “By the time we have our next meeting they could be orbiting this world with bombardment ships ready to strike!”

“
It won't come to that, and I do suspect you do actually know that yourself,” Serrok said in a crisp, precise tone. “The Dominion's armed forces have invaded two single-system entities in half a year. These are the
facts
. Now, I can forgive the Érenni Republics for being a little nervous. These worlds were close to your borders, less than fifty light-years away. Now you share your own frontier with the Ashani. That may be an uncomfortable thought, true. But if the Dominion has been able to share a border with the Tuathaan for decades without there being a major war, what makes you think they will attack you? At least the Tuathaan give them ample reason to be belligerent,” he added coolly with a glance to Gwythyr.

“
Careful there,” the old Tuathaan envoy growled.

Serrok chose to ignore it.

“Honorable Mairwen, our analysts believe the Ashani will not dare attack a nation as old and established as the Érenni. In all honesty, they lack a
casus belli
against you. You have nothing they don't have, too,” he said with a knowing grin. “I'm rather convinced that you'll be quite safe.”

“
Look at these ships!” she demanded, pointing her long, five-jointed index finger at a holographic display that had manifested itself by the push of a button. Squadrons of sleek Dominion warships of all types and sizes were parked in orbit around the dust-clouded globe of Toklamakun. “Do you see their numbers? The Dominion's fleet is thousands strong!” she emphasized. “It is powerful enough to pose a significant threat to
all
of us. We
must
take some united action.”

“
No, we do not have to. Honorable Mairwen, I do sympathize with your concerns, but that's what they remain:
concerns
, not fact-based threat assessments. My people share no great love for the Dominion. The houses in the border marshes raid them, and they repay us in kind. The Ashani aren't an irrational people. Yes, the invaded Aeta. Yes, they've now attacked the Makani. And they could have a thousand plausible reasons for this that has nothing to do with the Érenni Republics.” Gwythyr raised his gravelly voice.

“
And what would these reasons possibly be?” Mairwen's long fingers twitched as she tried to calm her temper.

“
A strategic straightening of their borders. Control over commercially viable foldspace corridors. Punitive expeditions against uppity neighbors preying on their trade,” he smiled as if he had made a joke nobody else got. “Punishing those that harbor pirates and freelancers. Maybe even some humanitarian reasons, who knows,” Gwythyr rattled down a list. “Not everything the Dominion's newsfeeds proclaim automatically has to be wrong.”

Serrok nodded quietly at each consecutive point.

“But look at their fleet! That's thousands of ships!” she pointed out.

“
Which is impressive but no point of too great a concern. Many members of the very pact the Érenni are members of maintain fleets of hundreds, if not thousands of warships. Should the Dominion truly aim to attack our space the Tuathaan Armada will defeat them,” he shrugged.