He took control of the display and showed an image of a small supernova — or what looked like a small supernova. “The starship attempted to come out of warp drive right in the centre of the Killer starship, interpenetrating with the matter in the starship and causing a massive explosion,” he explained. “We call this a Cochrane Twist — and, despite appearances, it is incredibly difficult to pull off successfully. It also means the complete destruction of both starships. We’re not sure why it succeeded here when we tried it before and it failed, but we do know that it succeeded. The Killer starship was vaporised.”
There was a long pause. “That didn’t save the remainder of the system, however, and only a relative handful of survivors made it out,” he concluded. “In other systems, the defenders were far less successful and only stalled the Killers for minutes, if that. The Killers tore through them and destroyed the settlements, killed upwards of twenty billion humans and sending billions more to flight. We are attempting to coordinate now and get the starships that need help desperately to safe harbour, but we don’t really know where is safe, or not. Even the most heavily defended locations in the Community would turn into tissue paper when the Killers arrive.”
“It seems to me,” Administrator Arun Prabhu said, “that you could automate your starships and send them out on kamikaze missions. If they started to lose starships in significant numbers…”
“Several other starships attempted the same tactic,” Brent said, slowly. “In all other cases, they either failed to interpenetrate or… well, we don’t know what happened, apart from the fact that the Killer starships were not destroyed. It is actually fairly simple to defend against such an attack if you have the right technology; none of our settlements would be destroyed if the Killers used such tactics.”
“They failed?” Father Sigmund asked. “How could they fail?”
“They have to bring a starship out of warpspace within an area that is — pardon me — completely fucking tiny compared to the vastness of space,” Brent snapped. Tabitha blinked in surprise. It was unlike the Admiral to swear, although she admitted that he had a point. The Defence Force was taking a beating and they’d only taken out one enemy starship, just one. “At the speeds they move, coming out of warpspace in the right area is often just a matter of luck… and that, Father, assumes that the Killers aren’t trying to defend themselves. A single low-level warp field would simply knock the starship away from their target and probably burn out the warp drive as well. That may well be what happened to the missing ships; they hit a warp field, were destroyed, and the debris was scattered over hundreds of light years!”
His voice hardened. “Does that answer your question, Father?”
“It does,” Father Sigmund said, carefully. “I apologise for my tone. The dead will be remembered with honour.”
“They’re dead,” Brent snapped, “and billions more died with them. You’ll forgive me if I don’t consider it a victory, all right?”
He turned and looked over at the President. “The tempo of their attacks is falling,” he admitted, grimly. “It is possible that we’ll see the end of it soon, but frankly — we’re being exterminated. Even if that attack” — he nodded towards the image in front of them — “is the last, we’re still going to take years to recover from this disaster and rebuild, or perhaps move as many as we can out of the galaxy. Recovering all the starships with evacuees alone will take months; we’re trying to coordinate, but it’s impossible to get frightened people to work together easily. If we didn’t have Footsoldiers on some of the ships, some of the crews might dump their unwanted passengers into space and flee. God knows we don’t have the resources to track them down at present.”
Tabitha winced inwardly. The Community was a disparate society; it could hardly be anything else. There were asteroid settlements that were effectively rogue states — to use a term that had been popular back on Old Earth, before the Killers wiped them all out of existence — that wouldn’t hesitate to exploit or abuse the refugees, or turn them away into the cold to die. They’d probably justify it to themselves by claiming that they didn’t have the food or equipment to care for so many refugees — and they might even be right — but Tabitha knew that that couldn’t be allowed. If humanity didn’t work together, the Community might as well no longer exist. The only thing that bound them together would be the MassMind.
“I see,” Patti said, finally. “Admiral. What do you recommend that we do?”
“The only thing we can do,” Brent said, slowly. “We keep moving civilians out of harm’s way and continue studying the captured craft. We have already made some discoveries about their technology and, given time, we will discover how to counter their weapons and technology. On that day…”
He altered the display to reveal the handful of Killer starships that were still under observation. “On that day, we hit the bastards so hard that they won’t even recover,” he said. “If we had equal technology to them, we’d kick their ass.”
“I believe that one such weapon already exists,” Patti said, slowly. “What about the supernova bomb.”
The Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator, Tabitha thought dryly, before the import of Patti’s words caught up with her. The President wasn’t on the list of people who needed to know about the starbomb. Patti would be gone in three years, while others on the Council would be around forever. The Defence Force and the Technical Faction had kept it a secret to prevent premature demands for its use — no one knew how much damage using it would really inflict on the Killers — but Patti had somehow discovered its existence. How? No one in the know should have — could have — informed her.
She saw Brent’s face, very composed, and frowned as he spoke. “The supernova bomb is highly classified,” he said, finally. “It was never discussed before because…”
“It will be discussed now,” Patti snapped, cutting him off. Tabitha felt a moment of sympathy for Brent. The President’s look was fearsome. “Does the weapon exist and can it be deployed now?”
“The supernova bomb exists in two different forms,” Brent admitted, finally. “It has never been tested — we believe that testing such a weapon would definitely attract attention from the Killers — but it should work, either on a star or a gas giant. It could be deployed within the week if there was a requirement.”
“Well,” Patti said finally, “I would say that twenty billion dead humans constitutes a requirement, wouldn’t you?”
She leaned forward and carried on, in a manner recognisably political. “We have a weapon that will hurt the Killers badly, hurt them as badly as they have hurt us, and we have not used it,” she said. “I refuse to believe that anyone could seriously consider holding back such a weapon now that the Community is under constant attack.”
Brent took a long breath himself. “There are concerns,” he said, “that use of the weapon will merely encourage the Killers to move against us…”
His voice trailed off. “They are already moving against us,” Patti snapped. Tabitha wondered, suddenly, what had changed her mind. Patti had been reluctant to engage the Killers before the mass attack had begun. “If we can delay them, even for a short period of time, it’s worth the risk. Can the weapon be deployed now?”
“It can be deployed within a few days,” Brent admitted. “A starship would have to be equipped with the weapon, a target would have to be selected, and then the mission could be launched at any time.”
“Good,” Patti said. She looked around the table. “I propose that the supernova bomb be deployed at once against a known Killer star system, perhaps more than one. Is there any dissent?”