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ones to strike first and then its us that are finished.
Blair shook his head  The end justifies the means? That wasn t what they
taught back at the Academy. I thought the Confederation stood for something
better than that.
Tolwyn looked away.  Yeah .. . yeah, you re right. It does. He paused.  Well,
anyway, we re hoping we don t have to actually attack Kilrah. That was the
deciding factor when it came down to choosing Behemoth over the Covert Ops
concept. Apparently whatever they ve hatched is a one-shot deal. But Behemoth
is a weapon that can be used several times and the idea is to try a few very public
tests on Kilrathi military bases. Let the cats draw their own conclusions about
what we could do to Kilrah with the same weaponry. That s the operational plan,
at least. Our hope is a good demonstration might actually push the clans into a
palace coup. The Emperor and his grandson are overthrown and the other clans
sue for peace.
 I guess that s better than blasting Kilrah out of existence, Blair said.  I mean,
the Empire s the enemy and we have to do whatever it takes to win. But there are
a lot of innocent Kilrathi out there who have nothing to do with the Emperor or
Thrakhath or the whole damned war effort. Some of them are dissidents, like
Hobbes was before he defected. I wouldn t want to be party to killing them all.
 Well, we ll hope it doesn t come to that, Eisen said.  I agree, it would be a
nasty choice to have to make. But if we can convince them we mean business . . .
 So what s our part in all of this? Blair asked.
 Right now, we re still putting the finishing touches on the weapon, Tolwyn
said. It won t be ready to deploy for a few more weeks. But in the meantime, we re
starting to prospect the sector for a likely-looking first target. We need to conduct
some extensive recon work, checking defenses, and surveying possible target
planets to make sure the Behemoth will be effective against them. It wouldn t do
to cruise in, open fire, and then find out the place was so tectonically dead we
couldn t even cause a good earthquake.
 Recon work, Blair repeated.  That ll be quite a change, after what we ve been
doing.
 It ll be difficult and dangerous, Tolwyn said. We can t afford to send large
forces in anywhere, for fear of putting the cats on guard. We ve got a handful of
carriers going out individually into the selected target systems. Victory s drawn
Ariel, where we re fairly certain we ve got a very suitable Kilrathi base to test.
 Ariel s a pretty tough nut, Blair commented.  I hope you re not expecting us
to take them on single-handed.
 The system is inside the Caliban Nebula, Eisen said.  Dust and gas and
energy discharges will play hell with shipboard sensors . . . on both sides. We can
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sneak in, gather as much information as possible, and sneak out again and
probably never tip the cats off that we were there. Maybe even pull off a few
ambushes along the way.
Tolwyn nodded.  You ll actually have it better than some of the other carriers
on this duty, he said.  And when you get back, the admiral s already decided that
Victory will get the real plum job. Flagship for the Behemoth Squadron . . . so
you ll be in on the kill, as it were.
 Flagship? Us? Blair raised his eyebrows.  Your uncle must have developed a
sudden taste for slumming, if he s not going to go out in one of the big boys.
 Victory has its . . . compensations, Colonel, Tolwyn told him.  Like a genuine
expert on Kilrathi psychology, your buddy Hobbes. You also have a one-time
Intelligence source with specialized knowledge of cat behavior, too. I think the
name is Lieutenant Buckley. In fact, the admiral had this in mind when he
assigned you here as wing commander.
 That was before Locanda, Blair said,  before things escalated. You mean
Tolwyn planned to use this Behemoth thing even before the cats started with the
bioweaponry?
 Some of the data we later decoded from that deep intel probe Tarawa had on
board, leading into the discovery of the Kilrathi super-carriers, contained
information about the bio program. That s why we ve been running the race to get
the new weapons on line and why Behemoth sails now, ready or not. Locanda was
a horrible tragedy, but thank God it wasn t one of the innerworlds or Earth × and
believe me, that will be their next target.
Blair held up his hand.  Never mind, Kevin, he said.  Don t try to explain. I
know your uncle well enough to know what he had in mind. And why.
 Just what are you getting at, Blair? Eisen asked.
He shrugged.  It s just that the admiral has always been . . . zealous, sir. I ve
served with him a few times, and he s always been the same. He wants to win the
war . . . Admiral Geoff Tolwyn, himself. He d love it if he could lead the ConFleet
to victory, sign the papers that ended the war in orbit over Kilrah . . . whatever.
And if Behemoth can make it possible, he ll use it . . . and the devil take moral
questions and anything else that stands in the way.
Eisen s frown deepened.  I don t think it s a good idea to pursue this, Colonel,
he said slowly.  Its coming dangerously close to libeling a superior officer.
 Maybe so, Captain, Blair said, shrugging again.  But it isn t libel when you re
telling the truth. He shot the younger Tolwyn a look.  Sorry, Kevin. I know he s
family but . . . well, you know how I ve always felt.
 You haven t said anything I haven t thought a dozen times over, Colonel,
Tolwyn said.  But, like the Captain says, we d better stick to the briefing.
 Agreed. What else do we need to know about?
 Captain Eisen s been bruising a lot of ears back at HQ about the flight wing s
shortages. I ve brought out authorization for you to requisition fighters,
munitions parts, and stores from Blackmane Base before the last load goes out
next week. They ve got all types of fighters in mothballs there already, so that
won t be a problem.
 The real shortage is in pilots, Blair said.  We have nine empty slots to fill.
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 You won t get all of them, I ll tell you that much up front, Tolwyn said.  I ve [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]