“You will await my command on targeting priority.” Everyone was eyeing her with surprise. “I will enter targeting priority at the last moment to ensure that there is no way the information can somehow be provided to CEO Kolani’s force.” The extra strength in her voice this time made it clear that no one was to question her decision, and they all obediently turned back to their tasks. CEOs were arbitrary, they were doubtless telling themselves, and CEOs loved to micromanage. Let her enter the order herself when she wants if that is her desire. Oh, but it’s not that simple. I may not be Black Jack, but I can try something unexpected.
Forty-seven minutes. Forty-six, now. She had done this before, the long lead-in to a fight, charging an opponent who could be seen many minutes, or hours, or even days before you could actually exchange fire. Iceni had always thought that it felt like one of those falling dreams, the drop prolonged beyond all reason, watching death come closer and closer. But unlike those dreams, which ended before the impact, battles always brought the crash of contact.
How can I do what Black Jack has done? I don’t know enough. All I can do is a crude approximation. But that may be all I need against Kolani, who will be expecting me to follow doctrine since my experience is limited and not recent.
“CEO Iceni,” Akiri said, breaking into her thoughts. His own worries were clear enough to see. “I’ve fought in engagements like this. Fairly evenly matched. There’s not much left when the fighting ends.”
Iceni nodded. “Are you advising some other course of action, Sub-CEO Akiri?”
Akiri hesitated before speaking. “Let them go. Instead of trying to defeat them, just let them head to Prime.”
“And come back with reinforcements?” Marphissa asked.
“We have been told that there aren’t any reinforcements!” Akiri insisted, flushing with anger. “CEO Iceni told us there is nothing left!”
Iceni raised one finger, which was sufficient to halt the debate. Executives who didn’t learn to watch for and obey the smallest gestures from CEOs didn’t last very long. “I understand your concerns, Sub-CEO Akiri. However, we will not have an option on whether or not to fight. CEO Kolani must fight and win. I am certain that she will not flee for Prime to seek assistance because that would be an admission of failure on her part. She would be reporting the loss of this star system despite her own presence here, and the loss of more than half her own flotilla. I doubt that the new government of the Syndicate Worlds is much more merciful than the one it replaced when it comes to CEOs who fail. No. CEO Kolani will not simply leave this star system even if we promise her a free path. She will fight to reestablish Syndicate control here, or die trying, because she will see that as preferable to her likely fate if she fails.”
“Would there be any reinforcements at Prime?” Marphissa asked. “That might change her calculations.”
“Your commander is essentially correct,” Iceni said, giving Akiri acknowledgment of a small victory in the debate. “There might be more mobile units there, but probably very few that can be spared on short notice. Our knowledge of what mobile forces remain in the hands of the central government is very limited. They have some new construction, surely, but how much we don’t know. And they need to keep much of what they do have on hand, able to react and serve as a threat against the star systems near to Prime that they still control.”
Akiri was watching her. “The Reserve Flotilla? Do we know… ?”
“Those rumors are true as well.” Iceni said it bluntly, knowing how those around her would take the confirmation of their worst fears. “The Reserve Flotilla encountered Black Jack. It’s gone. It won’t be coming back here.”
Seeing how Akiri’s face fell, Iceni wondered how many close friends he’d once had in that flotilla. He was far from being alone in that.
“Another message from CEO Kolani,” the comm line worker announced.
“Let me see it.” A window popped open before Iceni, revealing a Kolani whose earlier anger had morphed into cold contempt.
“You will surrender, or you will die. Any fools following your commands will die with you. They should know that you have no talent for command of mobile forces and that your thin experience was long ago. For the sake of the safety of the citizens of the Syndicate Worlds, I am willing to guarantee your life if you transmit your surrender prior to firing upon any mobile unit. Those who followed you, doubtless out of mistaken belief in your authority to command such actions, will not be punished. You have fifteen minutes to reply. For the people, Kolani, out.”
Iceni leaned back and glanced at Akiri. “I suppose every supervisor and line worker in these mobile units is already aware of Kolani’s offer even though this was sent directly to me?”
Akiri and Marphissa exchanged looks, then Marphissa shrugged. “That is certainly correct, Madam CEO. The offer was plainly intended for their ears.”
“Then it’s past time I sent a message. Set up a broadcast.” Iceni waited impatiently for the few seconds required before the line worker responsible gave a thumbs-up. “Citizens of the Midway Star System, those on the planet nearest to mobile forces loyal to me, those elsewhere, those on my mobile forces or in the ground forces of… General Drakon, this is CEO Iceni.”
For a few months, she had been practicing for this, going over the wording countless times in her head because she dared not create any written record of it in any device or even using archaic pen and paper. Such a document would have ensured her quick death had it been found by the ISS, and Iceni hadn’t survived as long as she had by underestimating the snakes.
“You have lived long enough under the control of the government on Prime. The Syndicate Worlds has asked much from us and given little in return. The one thing they offered was security, and the Syndicate Worlds failed in that. The Syndicate Worlds government took the flotilla that long guarded us and left us defenseless when we were threatened by the alien race that lives beyond the frontier. Yes, I now officially confirm the existence of a species about which we know little except that they have posed a threat to us. We must be able to defend ourselves, and yet now the new and illegitimate government on Prime seeks to take the small flotilla of mobile forces I have managed to accumulate for the defense of this star system.
“The Syndicate Worlds government has long boasted of its superiority. Only it could keep us safe, that government claimed. Yet it lost the war with the Alliance. The Alliance fleet came here, flaunting the failure of the Syndicate system.
“I will be candid with you. Fear has kept us loyal to Prime. Fear of the Alliance and fear of the ISS. The snakes.” She paused for a moment, knowing how shocking it would be for citizens to hear a CEO openly using that term of contempt for the ISS. “But the snakes in Midway Star System are dead, except upon those mobile forces still following the command of CEO Kolani. The Syndicate Worlds is crumbling. The authority of the central government is falling apart, and many star systems have descended into chaos and civil war. I will prevent that from happening here. I have negotiated an understanding with the Alliance, with Black Jack Geary personally, to recognize and support the actions I am now taking.”
She wondered how Black Jack would feel about that interpretation of their agreement. He obviously hadn’t been enthusiastic about the limited commitment he had really made, to defend this star system against the alien enigma race, and that agreement had been reached only because Iceni had possessed something that Black Jack wanted. Hopefully, he wouldn’t reappear in this star system soon enough to pick up her transmission, but even if he did Black Jack had agreed not to publicly deny that his protection of the Midway Star System, and of Iceni herself, extended beyond threats from the enigmas.