Whoever had convinced the cyborgs to go to Mars must have done it to hurt him. It might now be possible to use the cyborgs there for Social Unity’s good. Who had alerted them? Chief Yezhov seemed like the logical villain.
Hawthorne savagely shook his head. That wasn’t the important point now. He hurried to the computer. For the next nine hours, he used his computer stylus on the touchboard and voice-activated the keyboard. He sped-read through report after report concerning Mars. He laughed twice. It was a predatory sound. He began to outline a classic Hawthorne strategy. He had come to understand Highborn mentality and now used that to his fullest advantage.
At the end of the nine hours, he threw himself back against his chair so it creaked ominously. His eyes were red-rimmed and his features haggard.
He lurched to his feet and strode to the door, shouting for Captain Mune the minute it opened. He would sleep for several hours and take a special cocktail of stimulants when he awoke. Then he would meet with Chief Yezhov and afterward summon his military staff. A strategy had finally revealed itself, one that could give him the lever Social Unity desperately needed to turn the tide of the war.
He would send a reinforcement convoy from Earth filled with desperately needed supplies. The trick would be to slip the convoy past the Doom Stars that besieged the planet. Many SU warships were already headed for Mars. He would order all the others there, as well. The SU Battlefleet would be the bait for the Highborn, to draw Doom Stars to Mars. With the cyborgs’ help, he could destroy Doom Stars and change the course of the war. Why would the cyborgs help him? The answer was easy. They would help him to confuse him. Through Chief Yezhov, he would let the cyborgs understand that he didn’t suspect them. To keep themselves from being suspected, the cyborgs would have to help him win the battle for Mars.
“You’re a clever bastard,” Hawthorne whispered. Then he hurried for the first of many meetings.
-9-
Nine long, frantic days passed. Hawthorne functioned with the aid of stimulants as he prepared for the Mars campaign. He seldom slept as he raced to a hundred different locations, pushing officers and lashing others into a frenzy of effort. During that time, the Strategy Staff turned his idea into a detailed set of operational orders.
However, nine days was too short a time to write the operational orders from scratch. Fortunately, the Strategy Staff had long studied and planned for a hundred different operations. Many of those operations were wildly exotic in military terms, perfect now for Hawthorne’s needs. Code Valkyrie, Code Vida Blue, Operational Plan XVII and Skyhook Thirteen each had enough similarities to different aspects of Hawthorne’s idea to be useful. Thus, various members of the Strategy Staff lifted entire sections of those plans, changing details, and incorporating them into the Campaign for Mars.
The governmental machinery of Social Unity was ponderous. The military found it difficult to race at Hawthorne’s speed. The highest levels of Political Harmony Corps grew concerned and then alarmed once it realized the scope of the initial steps in Hawthorne’s plan. Despite Hawthorne’s dictatorial powers, key members in PHC, the Army and the Directorate coalesced into stubborn blocs. They pointed out the dangers of Hawthorne’s plan, and there were many.
Finally, on Day Seven, Hawthorne called an emergency meeting with Chief Yezhov of Political Harmony Corps, Director Danzig of Eurasia, Director Juba-Ryder of Africa, Air Marshal Crowfoot of Earth-Air Defense and Commander Sargon of Orbital Sector.
The meeting began at 7:17 P.M. around a large conference table. It was in the basement of Hawthorne’s emergency command center in Kazakhstan Underground Launch Site 10. Captain Mune attended, sitting in the back like a statue, with his gyroc pistol resting on his lap.
From the Supreme Commander’s biocomp transcriptions, File #9:
HAWTHORNE: Gentleman, madam (speaker nods to Director Juba-Ryder of Africa) time presses with its inexorable weight. The Highborn gained the advantage over Inner Planets with their precision first strikes. They commandeered the Doom Stars, captured the Sun Works Ring and obliterated the old Directorate and Social Unity’s governmental agencies when they destroyed Geneva on the first day of the rebellion. That paralyzed Inner Planets for too many weeks in the opening stages of the war.
YEZHOV: I hope the Supreme Commander forgives me for interrupting.
HAWTHORNE: That is the purpose for this emergency session. Tonight, you are free to air your grievances.
YEZHOV: I assure you, sir, I have no grievances. Rather, they are qualms.
DANZIG: Let’s not quibble, Chief. (To Hawthorne) Instead of grievances, Excellency, I have stark fear concerning this coming assault against the Highborn.
HAWTHORNE: Fear is reasonable. Before you air your fears, however, I want you to realize the nature of the war.
YEZHOV: If I might interrupt again, sir. We know the history of the war. A recap—
HAWTHORNE: Is necessary, Chief. If you would indulge me?
YEZHOV: (nods reluctantly.)
HAWTHORNE: (looks around the table.) The Highborn have unusual abilities. It is part of their genetic heritage. They gained the initiative at the commencement of the rebellion and they have never released it. Fortunately, Social Unity retains many of its spaceships, although these vessels have scattered into the deepness of space.
DANZIG: What good do these spaceships do us then? The Highborn gobble up chunks of landmass here on Earth. Soon, only Eurasia and Africa will be left to us.
HAWTHORNE: Exactly.
DANZIG: (pounds the table with his fist.) Then why are you endangering Eurasia? Your madness—
YEZHOV: No! You are wrong to slur the Supreme Commander.
DANZIG: He gave us permission to speak our mind.
HAWTHORNE: I am a man of my word.
YEZHOV: But to call your plan madness. Will you allow that, sir?
HAWTHORNE: I desire to understand the Director’s logic for use of such a word.
DANZIG: Madness was the wrong word, sir. I beg your pardon.
HAWTHORNE: Granted.
DANZIG: You know I’m an emotional man. My heart seethes with hatred against those genetic abominations. The madmen of the old Directorate— As you say, Chief Yezhov, that is old history. I fear for Eurasia. Sir, you staked your reputation and dared to expend much political prestige pushing for increased proton beam construction and a quadrupling of the merculite missile production. Because of that, we have greatly increased the depth of our defenses. Isn’t that right?
CROWFOOT (Air Marshal of Earth-Air Defense): Our coverage has increased one hundred and sixteen percent.
DANZIG: Does that include the anti-air batteries?
CROWFOOT: Our production levels there have given us a three hundred percent increase.
DANZIG: There’s my point, sir. You’ve pushed for massive increases against space-borne attacks. Now you wish to fire our merculite missiles to cover the launching of your space fleet. With the depletion of our stocks of merculites, it will make us vulnerable again. Eurasia is the heart of Inner Planets. If it goes, the war is over. We know that. The Highborn must know it too.
HAWTHORNE: My plan is a gamble. You are quite correct in pointing that out.
YEZHOV: Supreme Commander, have I heard correctly? Are you admitting that Director Danzig is right?
HAWTHORNE: Only in that Eurasia will soon be more vulnerable to attack.
DANZIG: Am I missing something, sir?
YEZHOV: I cannot fathom why you would disarm us. I hope you do not take offense, but this seems criminally negligent.
SARGON (Commander of Orbital Sector): I didn’t want to say this. In lieu of what I’ve heard here, however, I feel I must. Supreme Commander, Code Valkyrie will threaten the Earth with mass starvation. You must realize this. The open habitat policy between the Highborn and us is of a very delicate nature. Your gross violation of the understanding will doom millions, perhaps billions to a slow and painful death.