Chapter 3

“Why are we still working on this old stuff, Fléa?” Silk asked in a tired voice, turning away from the programmer of the medical capsule and sinking heavily into a chair, “As far as I remember, we were promised new equipment a week ago. I mean, these promises are two weeks old, and they were supposed to arrive here a week ago! I spend three times as much time using this junk as I could on one patient. What do they think they’re doing there in the capital?!”

“You’re completely out of touch, doctor," the older nurse shook her head, “When was the last time you watched the network news?”

“What news? Don’t you see what’s going on? Rescue workers are constantly opening up new blocked entrances to the underground levels of cities, and you know what follows.”

Fléa knew this. Every time the heavy repair robots managed to reach another blocked off neighborhood, the flood of wounded was literally overwhelming the hastily deployed Civil Defense Department hospitals. It was just a miracle that engineer Colweg, who came out of nowhere, turned out to be both a qualified doctor and a specialist in medical equipment. Only through his efforts was it possible to bring the old med pods and diagnostic equipment out of mothballs so quickly that the hospital was able to receive almost twice as many wounded. But now Colweg was so busy with work that he fell asleep on the job, so it was no wonder he couldn’t think about anything else.

“In the last ten days, the toads have attacked five more of our systems,” Fléa answered softly, “All in all, almost 30 planets are now under simultaneous attack. Many of them have surface battles going on. The news reports say that the fleet and army have mobilized all their reserves and soon the situation will be back under control, but frankly, I find it hard to believe. The portal network is practically paralyzed. If they’ve tried to send us new med pods and other equipment, the transports must have gotten hopelessly stuck somewhere. And most likely, all of it has already been dispersed to other places for the needs of the army. There’s so much carnage over there now that no one will remember our Kappa Gyan anytime soon.”

“Okay, Fléa, I got it. I’m just grouchy, don’t mind me. Who’s next?”

The nurse didn’t have time to answer. A junior technician peeked into the cubicle, saw Silk and waved to someone in the hospital corridor, “Engineer Colweg is here, Colonel! Come in.”

“Service Engineer Colweg?” The question was posed by an energetic military man in a medical colonel’s uniform, who entered the room after the technician.

“I’m listening to you,” Silk said, and he had a bad feeling in his heart.

“Colonel Egen," the unexpected visitor introduced himself, “Mr. Engineer, do you have a few minutes to spare?” At that, Egen glanced expressively at Fléa.

“I think I’ll make you some tea and cookies, Doctor,” the nurse smiled and left the room, beckoning the technician to follow her and shutting the door tightly.

“Hello, Dr. Silk. General Las, Ministry of Defense Security Service.”

“So you found me after all,” Silk grinned mirthlessly, “Why am I surprised? Why the Ministry of Defense Security Service, General? I thought people from the Imperial Security were coming for me. And the General… Isn’t that a bit much?”

“You’ve been rather imprudent, Doctor,” Las replied, glancing around the cubicle filled with equipment, “It wasn’t that hard to figure you out.”

“I couldn’t have it any other way,” Silk answered grimly, “You don’t want to answer any questions, do you? Shall I pack?”

“I’ll answer, but not here. I don’t think my colleagues in the Imperial Security Service are any stupider than I am. Staying in the hospital is extremely dangerous for you. There’s a fly-car waiting for me at the special-vehicle yard. It would be better if we left here immediately and under some plausible pretext.”

“Why should I believe you?” asked Silk, looking into the General’s eyes.

“Because if I just turn around and leave now,” Las squinted, “then in a few hours, 24 hours at the most, there will be people from the Security Service of the Empire here. And they will talk to you in a completely different way. General Clay is now sitting in their detention center, and they’re dreaming to get another member of the operation to send Brigadier General Dean’s consciousness to another galaxy. And I want to get to the bottom of what’s going on, and to do that I need an opportunity to meet or at least to talk to Admiral Lavroff via hypercomms.”

“What do you suggest?” asked the Doctor in a slightly calmer tone.

“First of all, to get out of here as soon as possible and as far away as possible. I’ll cover you as much as I can, but I’m not ready to come into direct conflict with the Imperial Security Service, you should know that. So are you coming, Doctor?”

Las’s fly-car lifted off into the pale sky of Giyan-3. Strictly speaking, the hospital should have been thoroughly mopped up, but Dr. Silk would definitely refuse any cooperation after that, and Las was not ready for such harsh actions. He must have gone soft in his general’s job. In the end, Las could only hope that his field agent, who had recently taken a job at the hospital as a junior technician, could intelligently explain the disappearance of service engineer Colweg and, at least for a while, slow down or misdirect the Imperial Security Service.

The flight was about 20 minutes long. The medium recon ship that took Las to the planet was waiting for his return at the local Ministry of Defense Security base. But even before the General’s fly-car descended onto the runway, Las’s communicator beeped an emergency call.

“General, Sir," Las heard the voice of the base commander, "I’m afraid your ship’s takeoff will have to be postponed indefinitely. Fixed scanners have just detected a strike fleet of the toads one jump away from Kappa Giyan.”

“On the contrary, I need to take off immediately. Maybe we can still make it to the third portal in time.”

“There is no third portal anymore. The enemy appeared from that side, and, I suspect, not by accident. The only thing left is the hypergate in the system itself, but it would be completely impossible to get through there now, unless you’re going to show your emergency powers.”

Las wasn’t going to show anything to anyone. He had already exposed himself while jumping into the system in the hold of an evacuation transport, and trying to exercise his emergency powers now would inevitably attract the attention of the Imperial Security Service. And it’s not a fact that it would have worked. The fleet should have started moving warships into the system to repel the toads’ strike, and the commander of the defense forces of Kappa Giyan may well have refused to slow down the process for the needs of Las.

* * *

While General Barrington was in charge of the system, I had time to consider my next steps. The toads, hiding behind orbital fortresses on their three planets, have not yet taken any active action, and, apparently, could not do it. I didn’t know what their top brass were counting on globally, but in this particular star system they had already lost anyway. Sooner or later, one way or another, the orbital fortresses would be knocked out, that was no doubt in my mind or, I’m sure, in the minds of the «frogs» themselves. But they could stall long enough, and it made no sense to ask them to give up now. I, on the other hand, had no desire to waste any more time.

If you don’t count all the sparsely populated small planets, the toads had 18 star systems. The «frogs» didn’t seem to be able to build a powerful fleet quickly, and the ships they were capable of building, let’s face it, were not very impressive. Our Black Dragons, especially with the support of the ‘Invisibles’ with the new torpedoes, could well eat them for breakfast. But what to do with these ancient weapons of theirs, I did not yet understand. I firmly knew only one thing: I want to get an undamaged sample of this gun, let’s call it that for now, for simplicity. But so far it’s only been my wishful thinking, and the fact that the toads’ weapons prevented us from getting close to the planet to attack the orbital fortresses without great losses, was a fact that had to be dealt with.

I went over the problem in my head this way and that way, but the solution never came. Of course, it was possible to use the tactics we used during the attack on the toads’ portal. Yes, the crews of the ships do not die, but the ships themselves die in packs, which, to put it mildly, is not very good, you can’t get enough of them. On the other hand, only a massive torpedo salvo could pierce a hole in such a dense network of fortresses, which means that it would still be necessary to deliver torpedoes to the launch line. Therefore, it will be necessary to expose ourselves to the fire of the ancient weapons of toads, and none of our ships can withstand at least one volley of these weapons. And since we can’t defend against a strike, we have to put ships that we don’t feel sorry for under it. And what ship is not a pity to lose? What properties should it have? Correct! It must be extremely simple and cheap to produce and, necessarily, not require a crew. And who here is the best expert on huge fleets of cheap ships? I know this man!

I can’t say that General of the Army Barrington was pleased that I distracted him from expropriating another autonomous space plant in our favor, but he listened to me carefully.

“Igor, your idea isn’t bad, but it needs some work,” he said after pondering my words for a while, “The construction of cheap ships I can really arrange. A barrel without cannons, armor, and protective fields, with primitive intra-system engines incapable of a normal hyperjump, can’t be worth much. We’ve been over this with the evacuation transports. But you want to fill this barrel with torpedoes with plasma warheads. And how much does one such torpedo cost, do you remember?”

I remembered. And under Barrington’s sad stare, my idea was beginning to seem less and less viable. Although…

“Mr. Barrington, the barrel doesn’t have to be big. The important thing is to have lots of them. Then the toads’ super-powered weapons will hit mosquitoes. Their rate of fire is extremely low, and the deaths of a few dozen small plasma torpedo carriers will not change anything in the overall situation.”

“Small ships will cost more,” said Barrington thoughtfully, figuring something out in his mind, “Engines, computer, control and navigation systems will still be needed on each carrier. But I like the idea. How quickly do you need such ships? However, what am I asking Fleet Admiral Lavroff? As always, already yesterday, this young man simply does not know any other terms.”

“You know me pretty well,” I grinned back.

“I think I’ll talk to the lizards. No one in this world can build ships faster than they can. For a long time I wanted to take a look at their technologies for use in my household, but never got around to it, and now there’s a nice opportunity…”

“Why put it off? Let’s contact Admiral Lit-ta now. I think this issue is within her competence. And as for the torpedoes, of which we will need a great many, I will talk to the Headman of the quargs. These guys would strain every nerve to play a dirty trick on the toads.”

“Igor,” said the General, “let’s assume for a second that everything worked out and we managed to punch a hole in the toads’ orbital shield. And then what? We have no idea what awaits us on the surface. Given the level of electronic warfare that the toads have at their disposal, no unmanned robots controlled from orbit can operate on the surface. And knowing you, I’m sure you won’t throw your landing party into the unknown… ”

“It depends on what kind of landing party, Mr. Barrington,” I smiled at the corner of my lips, “But you’re right, that’s something to think about, too. It looks like we’re going to need even more small carrier ships than I imagined.”

* * *

We never left the toads’ star system, not after six days or a month. When it became clear that help from the outside was not rushing to the blocked planets, I made the decision not to leave, but instead to build up forces in the system for the coming assault.

General Barrington didn’t skimp, and his men deployed five mobile hyperportals throughout the system, through which combat and transport ships were now arriving in a steady stream. The quargs were so insistent on taking the most active part in the assault on their former masters’ planets, that I could not refuse them, and the system was now literally crammed with Swords of Justice, huge aircraft carriers and landing transports of our recent enemies. However, I had already seen enough of the suicidal attacks of the quargs in the battle of Delta Trianguli, and it wasn’t in my plans to let them smash their heads into the orbital fortresses of the toads.

Nevertheless, I quickly found tasks for their ships, forming five cover squadrons consisting of the quarg battleships, which stayed close to our transport rings and were ready, if necessary, to stall an enemy attack before the main fleet forces approached. I also had quite specific plans for their landing force, which had arrived in the system in unprecedented numbers.