Admiral Absen swallowed the lump in his throat as he stared at the main screen, listening to Conquest’s bridge crew exult. He was not entirely sure why the lump was there, or why he felt such emotion at the Destroyer’s death. Analyzing himself, he decided it must be because this live-fire test proved to him that Desolator could defend the system from any conceivable Meme attack. It meant that humanity, at least the few millions of souls for whom he was responsible, was really, truly safe.
For a few more years, anyway. As safe as they could be in a hostile universe.
The emotion also resulted from the realization that he was now freed of a burden and a fear he had borne for decades. That weight had only grown while he was in charge of EarthFleet and the defense of Earth’s solar system for so many years. When Task Force Conquest had launched, he had gladly handed over the reins to Admiral Huen, happy to be a fighting fleet commander again instead of a grand strategist and a symbol.
Now this real test, this perfect success, meant he could begin the project he had longed for from the moment he had landed the colonists on Afrana. He’d thought it would take decades of intense work, another economic buildup in the Gliese 370 solar system until it could produce the hundreds or thousands of ships needed to defend itself against the Meme. It would have grown into a twin to Earth’s vast architecture of Pseudo-Von-Neumann factories, and a launching place for new task forces to conquer again.
Absen had committed himself to the long war against the Meme. He knew – he’d thought he knew – that it would require plans and operations executed over decades, campaigns taking centuries, a forever war to defend humanity and free Earth from the threat of the enemy empire. The only way to do that would be to crush his opponents while spreading human life across the stars, making allies like the Hippos and the Ryss along the way.
But he was happy to give up that daunting prospect for a new way of replicating warships like Desolator.
That’s what this new success really meant. It meant the responsibility wasn’t all on him anymore. It meant, really, that he could go back to being what he always wanted to be. A bubblehead. A submarine commander. He’d worked it out over the last year, once he knew what RyssTech systems could be fitted to Conquest.
She would be his U-boat, and with her, Absen would make the Empire bleed.