| |
––––––––
GAVIGLIO ENTERED THE conference room and waited for Brandenburg to follow. She closed the door behind her. From his expression, it was clear to her that he was not pleased with the way the battle ended.
“Please explain to me, if you can, why almost six hundred missiles failed to destroy that battlecruiser and why Commander Delacor stopped firing missiles after two volleys.” His tone matched his expression.
“I don’t know why that ship wasn’t vaporized in the first barrage. We’ll have to wait for computer analysis of the battle data. If I had to guess, I’d say it was so heavily armored that it could survive direct hits from fission warheads. But we clearly damaged it because it didn’t fire any missiles of its own, and it stopped decelerating when there wasn’t any good reason for doing so. As for your second question, Commander Delacor made the decision, which I endorse, to save what missiles she had left after realizing that firing any more of them would be tantamount to throwing them away.”
“I’m not sure I see the point in saving them when they’re clearly not effective against that monster.”
“But they were effective against the six escorting frigates. The Chancellor still has several dozen frigates versus our thirteen. I suspect we’ll be glad we still have those missiles at some point.”
Gaviglio took his time responding. “I have to say, Director Brandenburg, that I really don’t know what to do with you now. On the plus side, you’ve probably saved my presidency and my life, for which I’m grateful. On the negative side, you’ve demonstrated that you’re a loose cannon, and I’m not impressed with the performance of your chosen field commander. That performance reflects on your judgement. If you’ve got something to say, I’m willing to listen.”
Brandenburg stepped closer, and when she spoke, it was in a lower than normal voice. “As you know, before you called this meeting, I had a chance to talk with Commander Delacor. She’s proposed a daring strategy that has the potential to end this war once and for all. Assuming the battlecruiser is damaged, we have a short window of opportunity to destroy it before it’s repaired if we send the Troiano, loaded with missile drones, to Earth. The drones would conduct a surprise high-speed attack on the orbiting facilities, including the shipyard where their battlecruiser would most likely be repaired. The element of surprise should keep them from using their anti-missile lasers, and it should be possible to hit that ship with enough warheads to cripple it. If we can also take out a few more frigates at the same time, that just might bring the Chancellor to his senses, and if not, then at least we’ll have bought ourselves some more time to build up our own defenses. But if we’re going to do this, we have to act fast. That means getting our frigates on the ground where their missiles can be transferred to as many drones as possible, then getting those drones loaded onto Troiano. I think this plan has a good chance of success and shows that Commander Delacor is capable of adapting in the face of adversity.”
Gaviglio was reluctant to admit it, but the plan actually appealed to him. Earth had broken the armistice agreement, and by attacking New Paris and effectively ending their mutual defense agreement, the Chancellor had made the risks of Corona striking back less daunting. That Delacor came up with the idea so quickly did put her in a more favorable light and, by extension, Brandenburg too. But there was something about Brandenburg that bothered him. He couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that she was holding something back. Every time he thought he understood her capabilities and motivation, he would later discover that he had underestimated her. Now he was starting to fear her. Larson, for all his faults, had at least been a potential check on whatever ambitions she might be nursing. With him gone and the SDF chain of command in disarray, there was no-one left who might be able to make her think twice before attempting something that he wouldn’t like. And if he forced her out of her position as head of Space Force after a battle that on the surface appeared to be a victory, a lot of his supporters would start questioning his own judgement.
“I’m prepared to give that plan conditional approval. Go ahead and make the necessary preparations, but Troiano does not leave this system until I give the green light, no ifs, ands or buts. Is that clearly understood, Director Brandenburg?”
“Quite clear, Mister President.”
“Good! Then we’re done here. I need to arrange for my office to release a statement to the public about the battle. I’ll want a complete briefing on how badly our side got hurt when we meet tomorrow.” He didn’t wait for a reply as he walked quickly to the door and left the room.
Brandenburg watched him leave with a suspicion that she should not continue to think of him as a friend and ally. He had that look in his eyes that she had seen more than a few times in her corporate days when people who thought they could manipulate and control her realized they couldn’t. She was willing to bet a king’s ransom that Gaviglio was going to cast her aside the moment her perceived threat to him outweighed her usefulness. And if that happened, would it really be so bad? She would still have her wealth, unless of course he saw that as a threat too. As she mulled that question over, she realized that she would miss having the power, the prestige and the respect that being the head of Space Force entailed. Could she be happy just being the CEO of a shipbuilding and shipping company once again, or was she hooked on the drug of having real power? She honestly didn’t know the answer, and that in itself was the answer. No, she was not going to let him use her and then go quietly into obscurity when he decided it was time. Deciding how to prevent that outcome would take a lot more thought.
––––––––
THE NEXT DAY, AS SOON as Brandenburg entered the conference room, she sensed the tension in the air. Gaviglio was already there, and his expression when he looked at her was decidedly unfriendly. Elona and Marcus were present, as was an SDF officer that she had met before but couldn’t remember the name of. Juliani was also there. Gaviglio didn’t even wait until she was seated.
“I’d like to hear what our casualties were and what damage we sustained, Director Brandenburg.”
Brandenburg made a conscious effort to keep her voice calm and professional. Another lesson from her corporate days. Never let your opponents see you sweat.
“Certainly, Mister President. In case you’re wondering, I’ve asked both Commander Delacor and Commander Terranova to make themselves available to answer questions that they might be able to answer better than I can. Our casualties were light. Fourteen people injured, none critically. No fatalities. In terms of damage, eight frigates suffered some damage. Five boats were hit by lasers which damaged but did not penetrate their hulls. Only one of the damaged frigates is what I would classify as non-combat worthy. None of the missile drones were damaged.”
“I’m glad to hear there were no fatalities,” said Gaviglio. “I shudder to think what would have happened if that battlecruiser had fired its own missiles. Have we figured out yet why it didn’t or how it avoided being destroyed by all our missiles?”
“I’ll answer the second question first,” said Brandenburg. “TacComp has analyzed the data and has confirmed that only seven warheads got through their laser defenses and hit the battlecruiser. Other warheads got through and hit the escorting frigates, so I don’t want to give the impression that only seven missiles in total avoided interception. Those missiles, like all our current inventory, have the Mark 2 warhead that we inherited from the Commonwealth Navy. The standard frigate configuration only had four missiles, each armed with the Mark 2 warhead. That warhead design has an explosive potential of approximately ten kilotons. That’s actually not a lot for a fission device. It’s half the power of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki in the twentieth century. The reason for having them on frigates was mainly for removing hazards to space navigation and threats to planets such as comets or asteroids. They were never intended to be used against other ships. When the missile’s terminal guidance radar determines that the warhead is less than a hundred meters from the target, it triggers the detonation. Detonation happens a tiny fraction of a second later, but at the velocities that missiles will typically be travelling by then, the warhead will be within a few meters when it finally explodes.”
“Why not wait until it hits the target?” interjected Gaviglio.
“The kinetic energy from the impact would smash the warhead before any mechanical trigger mechanism could cause detonation. A ten-kiloton explosion a few meters away from a normal hull would still be powerful enough to smash through the hull, but if there was enough armor, hull integrity could remain intact. It also appears that since the detonations did not all happen at precisely the same instant, some of the energy from the first detonation may have deflected energy from subsequent blasts away from the target, perhaps even causing pre-mature detonations of the warheads before they were close enough.”
“Wonderful,” said Gaviglio sarcastically. “So, you’re telling me all our current inventory of warheads are obsolete?”
“No, Mister President. They’re still useful against frigates and against unarmored, space-based infrastructure like orbiting shipyards. If we launch the missile drone attack on Earth, we probably won’t destroy the battlecruiser, but by destroying any shipyard where it could be repaired, we keep the battlecruiser out of action for a while and delay any attempt to build more. In the meantime, we begin an R&D program to come up with a missile warhead that could destroy an armored ship.”
“An R&D program. That’s easy for you to suggest since you don’t have to find the funding for a new program,” said Gaviglio. “But if we’re talking about delaying the repair of their battlecruiser by a few weeks or months, are we really going to be able to develop a completely new warhead that quickly?”
“I would hope that the R&D people could come up with a stopgap solution quickly, with a better long-term option,” said Brandenburg.
Gaviglio looked her in the eye for a few seconds before turning to look at Delacor. “Director Brandenburg has been singing your praises over your ability to come up with new ideas quickly. Any new ideas on how we can destroy that battlecruiser?”
Delacor’s heart rate increased. She didn’t like being put on the spot, and the President’s less than friendly attitude toward her boss had not escaped her notice. If she couldn’t come up with a practical idea quickly, Gaviglio would score a psychological victory over Brandenburg, and at the same time undermine the Director’s confidence in her. After a few seconds, just as the President looked like he was about to speak again, an idea popped into her head.
“Well, ah, if we just look at the problem as one of penetrating armor only, there is another way to do that in principle. Armored ground vehicles can be knocked out with kinetic energy penetrators. The simplest kind of penetrator is a rod made from a very dense metal, like depleted uranium or tungsten. If a missile can accelerate a tungsten rod up to very high velocities, then it just might be able to penetrate the battlecruiser’s armor and smash a lot of the interior as well.”
Gaviglio looked thoughtful and took his time responding. “What’s your reaction to that suggestion, Director?”
“I think it’s worth looking into. Just off the top of my head, I can think of at least one potential obstacle, which is being able to guide the rod to the target, but I’m not qualified to pronounce the idea as impractical. If the solution was obvious, someone else would have done it by now.”
Gaviglio was just about to say something when he noticed Terranova’s slightly raised hand. “You wish to add something to the discussion, Commander?”
“Yes, Mister President. I may have a solution to the guidance problem that would be easy to test and deploy if it works. If we add very large tungsten rods to a missile drone in place of the missiles, the drone’s own control system can guide it to the target, and if we program the drone to collide with the target, in this case the battlecruiser, then six tungsten rods will have been given the necessary velocity, and they’ll hit the battlecruiser too. The drone would be destroyed, but relative to their cost of building the battlecruiser, it would still be a bargain for us.”
Gaviglio’s expression reflected his sudden change in mood. “I like that idea, Commander Terranova. Can anyone think of any reason why it wouldn’t work?” No one responded. He turned his attention back to Brandenburg. “How quickly do you think we could test that idea, Director?”
“I honestly don’t know off-hand, Mister President. It would depend on how much tungsten or similar metal we could get our hands on quickly. However, we should try to test it as soon as possible, even if only on a small scale, proof-of-concept basis.”
“Then let’s do that,” said Gaviglio. “Bring me up to date on preparations for the missile drone attack on Earth orbit.”
“With your permission, Mister President, I’ll ask Commander Terranova to do that.” Gaviglio waved his hand in a ‘go ahead’ gesture.
“The transfer of missiles from frigate to drone is going slowly. The problem is that not much thought was given on how to unload missile pods from a frigate. Since pods are ejected after use, it was always expected that frigates would be reloaded, not unloaded. And after a pod is unloaded, the missiles themselves then have to be removed from the pod. That’s part of the problem. The other part is that of reloading missile drones. Reloading them on the ground is possible but time consuming. We’re looking into the possibility of bringing missiles up to one of our orbiting platforms and reloading drones there. It’s not clear if that would be faster or not. Our frigates currently carry one hundred ninety missiles armed with Mark 2 warheads. Reloading all twenty-one drones will take one hundred twenty-six, leaving sixty-four armed missiles that can still be used by frigates. Re-arming the boats will have to come from new warhead production. At the rate that we’re making progress now, it will take almost two weeks—thirteen days—to reload all twenty-one drones. I would point out that Troiano does not necessarily have to carry all twenty-drones when it attacks Earth. Based on the latest information we have, there are only nineteen structures in Earth orbit that have military uses. If we used ten drones, we could allocate a minimum of three missiles to each target if we wanted to hit them all.”
“And do we want to hit them all?” asked Gaviglio as he looked at Brandenburg.
“If I recall correctly, most of those structures are devoted solely to logistical and personnel functions. Destroying them would not impact Solarian Navy operations much, since frigates could be resupplied on the ground, but it would cause a lot of bad feeling toward us due to the casualties. My recommendation, for what it’s worth, would be to concentrate our missiles on orbiting shipyards. If we decide to do that, we could get by with four, maybe even three drones, and that will also save a lot of time.”
“I’ll take that recommendation under advisement,” said Gaviglio. “If I approve the attack plan, who would command it?”
Brandenburg resisted the urge to smile. There was only one reason why Gaviglio would care who commanded the attack and that was his concern that she would appoint Delacor for the job. Apparently, he still had doubts about Elona’s qualifications. Brandenburg could simply give Marcus the nod but wondered if maybe it was time to give the President a tiny victory to assuage his ego.
“Considering how important this mission could be, I think Commander Delacor should—”
“No,” interrupted Gaviglio. “I want Commander Terranova to command that mission, or I won’t give the green light.”
Brandenburg had to be careful not to give in too easily, otherwise the President would realize he’d been set up. “Those kinds of operational decisions are the prerogative of the Director of Space Force,” she said slowly.
“I don’t care, Director Brandenburg. If you’re unwilling to accept my decision, you are, of course, free to resign.”
After pretending to consider resigning for a few seconds, she said in a suitably contrite voice, “I’ll accept your decision, Mister President.”
Gaviglio smiled for the first time during this meeting. “I thought you might. Then it’s settled. Commander Terranova, you’ll take Troiano with three reloaded missile drones to Earth. Take out all orbiting shipyards and hopefully hit their battlecruiser again as well. Director Juliani, I haven’t forgotten your report, and I’ll respond to that at another time. This meeting is adjourned. Please remain for a moment, Director Brandenburg.”
When the two of them were the only ones in the room, he leaned back in his chair as he looked at her. “I wanted to talk privately with you about the Space Force Security Division.”
“What about it, Mister President?”
“It seems to be growing very quickly. After what Larson was almost able to pull off with his ‘special unit’, I’m concerned that you might be building your own personal Praetorian Guard.”
“Well, as I’m sure you know, Mister President, the Praetorian Guard were the Roman Emperor’s personal guards. Neither one of us is an emperor, and you already have your own Presidential Guards. The Security Division, which you’ll recall was fully authorized and funded in the last budget, has as its primary mission the security of Space Force assets, personnel and capabilities. I would put it to you that relying on Larson’s ground forces for Space Force security would be even more risky after learning what Chief Larson was planning. He may have put officers personally loyal to him in other ground force units too. Your Presidential Guard is only about fifty strong. If an SDF ground force unit, say a battalion, were to go rogue, your guards, by themselves, wouldn’t be able to stop them, but they might if they had help from my Security Division.”
“I wish I felt confident about being able to count on the Security Division for support if that situation ever arose, but the fact is I don’t.”
“I don’t know what I could say that would convince you, Mister President. If you order me to, I’ll disband the Security Division immediately. Is that what you want done?”
Gaviglio was tempted to say yes, but he understood that it was his paranoia talking. What his paranoia was forgetting was her valid point about other SDF ground force units being secretly loyal to Larson. All other things being equal, that risk was more likely than Brandenburg ordering her Security Division to stage a coup. He would leave things as they were now until the war with Earth was over, and then he would replace her with someone more politically reliable.
“No. Keep the SD intact. I need to attend to other matters now. Until tomorrow then.”
The abruptness of the end of the discussion and his departure was unusual even for the President. She couldn’t help thinking that he had made some kind of important decision regarding her, and that worried her. Maybe it was time to come up with some contingency plans.
