Read Online Empery by Michael P. Kube-McDowell - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Michael P. Kube-McDowell
Tags: Science-Fiction
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Defenders, Comité Wells? How much security do they represent?”
“I’ll warn you in advance that a complete answer to that will be time-consuming.”
“I will be happy to pass the token as well, if necessary,“said Elder Hollis..
“Thank you,” Wells said with an acknowledging nod. “I’ll be as concise as possible. We have to start by considering the tactical and strategic situations separately. The Defenders were built to fulfill a specific tactical need—protecting a heavily populated planet from attack. We think they’re now ready too that.
“The strategic situation is much more complex. Now we have to protect not one planet, but thirteen EC. worlds, the Cheia colony, and nineteen other systems where there’s a human presence—plus the hundreds of unarmed packets and sprints traveling between them.
“The goal of strategic planning is to prevent not just a given planetary assault, but any attack on any element of our community. And I’m obliged to tell you that the tactical competence of the Defenders has absolutely no impact on the strategic situation.
“Obviously, the Mizari can still attack any installation that lacks a Defender force. But even beyond that, they have nothing to lose in attacking Ba’ar Tell or Maranit or Earth, even if the attack initially fails. All that they risk are the forces directly involved. Defenders are effectively restricted to operations in and near a single star system—”
Sujata’s hand went to her console at that comment and logged a request-to-speak.
“—which means that the Mizari homeworlds are safe. They could, in fact, send one assault force after another against one of the Worlds until they wear down or puzzle out its defenses. At present, we couldn’t even reinforce the besieged World, much less carry the fight back to the Mizari.”
Sujata’s token began glowing, more quickly than she had expected. “Comité Wells, I regret the ignorance that underlies this question, but I’ll get no wiser if I stay silent. Why can’t a Defender attack a Mizari homeworld?”
Wells smiled. “That’s a good question, not a foolish one—in fact, you anticipate me. There are two answers. First, the Defenders lack supercee capability. Because of crew time, the practical limit to their operational range is a rather severe one—perhaps half a cee. That’s why they were built in the systems where they were deployed, even though that required creating shipbuilding capacity almost from scratch in more than one case.”
The token was still lit, so Sujata pursued the issue. “Then what I don’t understand is why they were designed that way.”
“Trade-offs,” Wells said. “I offer you as a counterexample the Sentinels, which are supercee-capable but comparatively lightly armed. Our ship designers are pushing against a technological ceiling. The S-series drive in the Defenders draws as much power from the spindle as we are able to channel and control. Without a breakthrough in materials science that would allow us to open the tap wider, we have to budget a fixed amount of energy among the competing demands.”
The token went black, and Wells looked away from Sujata to his larger audience. “But, for the sake of argument, let’s say that we acquire the technology to build a new class of vessel with the firepower of a Defender and the speed of a Sentinel. You might think that we’d then have a weapons system capable of attacking a Mizari homeworld.
“You’d be wrong, for—and this is the second answer to Comité Sujata’s question—it’s vastly more difficult to attack a planet than to defend one.
“I understand that to nonmilitary people this seems counterintuitive. But the truth is that planets are easy to hit, but hard to hurt. Planets are like the boxer who gives you his belly knowing he can take it long enough to zero in on your jaw. They have no weak points—no hollow shell to shatter, no finely tuned systems to scramble. Point weapons such as
“I’ll warn you in advance that a complete answer to that will be time-consuming.”
“I will be happy to pass the token as well, if necessary,“said Elder Hollis..
“Thank you,” Wells said with an acknowledging nod. “I’ll be as concise as possible. We have to start by considering the tactical and strategic situations separately. The Defenders were built to fulfill a specific tactical need—protecting a heavily populated planet from attack. We think they’re now ready too that.
“The strategic situation is much more complex. Now we have to protect not one planet, but thirteen EC. worlds, the Cheia colony, and nineteen other systems where there’s a human presence—plus the hundreds of unarmed packets and sprints traveling between them.
“The goal of strategic planning is to prevent not just a given planetary assault, but any attack on any element of our community. And I’m obliged to tell you that the tactical competence of the Defenders has absolutely no impact on the strategic situation.
“Obviously, the Mizari can still attack any installation that lacks a Defender force. But even beyond that, they have nothing to lose in attacking Ba’ar Tell or Maranit or Earth, even if the attack initially fails. All that they risk are the forces directly involved. Defenders are effectively restricted to operations in and near a single star system—”
Sujata’s hand went to her console at that comment and logged a request-to-speak.
“—which means that the Mizari homeworlds are safe. They could, in fact, send one assault force after another against one of the Worlds until they wear down or puzzle out its defenses. At present, we couldn’t even reinforce the besieged World, much less carry the fight back to the Mizari.”
Sujata’s token began glowing, more quickly than she had expected. “Comité Wells, I regret the ignorance that underlies this question, but I’ll get no wiser if I stay silent. Why can’t a Defender attack a Mizari homeworld?”
Wells smiled. “That’s a good question, not a foolish one—in fact, you anticipate me. There are two answers. First, the Defenders lack supercee capability. Because of crew time, the practical limit to their operational range is a rather severe one—perhaps half a cee. That’s why they were built in the systems where they were deployed, even though that required creating shipbuilding capacity almost from scratch in more than one case.”
The token was still lit, so Sujata pursued the issue. “Then what I don’t understand is why they were designed that way.”
“Trade-offs,” Wells said. “I offer you as a counterexample the Sentinels, which are supercee-capable but comparatively lightly armed. Our ship designers are pushing against a technological ceiling. The S-series drive in the Defenders draws as much power from the spindle as we are able to channel and control. Without a breakthrough in materials science that would allow us to open the tap wider, we have to budget a fixed amount of energy among the competing demands.”
The token went black, and Wells looked away from Sujata to his larger audience. “But, for the sake of argument, let’s say that we acquire the technology to build a new class of vessel with the firepower of a Defender and the speed of a Sentinel. You might think that we’d then have a weapons system capable of attacking a Mizari homeworld.
“You’d be wrong, for—and this is the second answer to Comité Sujata’s question—it’s vastly more difficult to attack a planet than to defend one.
“I understand that to nonmilitary people this seems counterintuitive. But the truth is that planets are easy to hit, but hard to hurt. Planets are like the boxer who gives you his belly knowing he can take it long enough to zero in on your jaw. They have no weak points—no hollow shell to shatter, no finely tuned systems to scramble. Point weapons such as
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