Black Ops (Expeditionary Force Book 4) Read online

  Expeditionary Force

  Book 4 – Black Ops

  By Craig Alanson

  Text copyright © 2017 Craig Alanson

  All Rights Reserved

  Contact the author at [email protected]

  Cover Design By:

  Alexandre Rito

  [email protected]

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter Twenty Two

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty One

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Not so much?” My voice reflected the confusion everyone felt at Skippy’s cryptic statement. “What do you mean, not so much?”

  “Hmmm. Did I not use that expression correctly, Joe?” Skippy asked, sounding hurt. “All I meant was ‘no’, which is easier to say. ‘Not so much’ is a complicated way to say ‘no’, but my understanding is all the cool kids are using that slang, so I-”

  “Skippy! Not so much, or no, whatever the hell you call it, what did you mean?” Chotek, Chang, the entire crew were waiting breathlessly on Skippy’s answer. “I asked if the Thuranin are not sending a ship to Earth, and the Kristang can’t do that. You said yes to my first question, and ‘not so much’ to the other? You told us the Kristang don’t have the technology to send a ship to Earth, and now you-”

  “They don’t. Kristang ships can’t reach Earth on their own. I told you that.”

  “Soooo,” I said slowly, “the answer is ‘yes’ to both of my questions-”

  “No, I, ugh, Ok, technically, you big knucklehead, you asked three questions. Damn! You can’t even keep track of what you are saying? You bumble the English language so badly, let me phrase it for you. Joe, you asked me if the Thuranin plan to send another long-range ship to Earth. My answer to that is a resounding ‘NO’. Then you asked whether the Kristang ships can get to Earth on their own, and again the answer is ‘NO’. But you also asked a third question; ‘Earth is safe now’? The answer to that is also, ‘NO’.”

  In frustration, I made a fist of my right hand and slowly pounded my forehead with it. “Skippy, look, is this some philosophical thing, like Earth is not safe because eventually our sun will explode? We know about that danger.”

  “That is an obvious danger, sure. I would say a bigger obvious danger to your species is monkeys having nuclear weapons.”

  “Monkeys with nukes, got it,” I said, laughing with relief, looking back at Chotek and winking nervously. I had thought Skippy meant Earth was faced with a danger that we didn’t already know about. “That problem is way above my pay grade,” I said with a grin toward our career diplomat Hans Chotek, and I gave a thumbs up sign to the people in the Combat Information Center. “I think the Merry Band of Pirates will stick with problems we can handle.”

  “Okey dokey, Joe,” Skippy sounded miffed for some reason. “I would think you’d be more concerned about the Fire Dragons going to Earth, but that’s just my opinion.”

  “WHAT? How the hell- What?” I sputtered.

  “Ooooh, can we play Twenty Questions? Hmm, no, no way would you ever guess correctly.”

  “Skippy,” I ground my teeth. “How are the Fire Dragons getting to Earth? Is it the Maxolhx?” My heart sank in my chest as I said that. If we had to tangle with that supremely powerful species, we were totally screwed. Even Skippy wished to stay well clear of the Maxolhx.

  “Nope. Not the Maxolhx. Well, not yet, anyway. Joe, the surprising information I just learned from the relay data is that the Fire Dragons are negotiating a deal with the Ruhar, to take two Fire Dragon representatives to Earth, and bring back the White Wind clan leaders.”

  “The Ruhar?” I looked through the glass into the CIC and met Chang’s incredulous eyes. “Senior staff into the conference room, now. Sergeant Adams, you are the duty officer.”

  The group sitting around the conference table was looking completely shell-shocked, including Chotek. Maybe especially Hans Chotek. He had come out to the stars with one relatively straightforward mission from UNEF Command: determine whether the Thuranin would be sending another long-range surveyor starship to Earth. And if necessary, stop a second ship from reaching Earth. Along the way, I had persuaded Chotek to attempt a complicated secondary mission of securing the future of UNEF on Paradise. Against his instincts, he had agreed to the Paradise mission, and it had been wildly successful. We had just learned that our original mission was a success; the Thuranin had no intention of sending a ship to Earth.

  Now, we were faced with yet another extinction-level threat to humanity, and I’m sure Hans Chotek was thinking this is not what he signed up for. “Sir,” I addressed Chotek, “do you want to-”

  He shook his head wearily, whereas mere moments ago he had been jubilant. “No, Colonel Bishop, please lead the discussion.” His shoulders slumped slightly, and he looked pissed at me. I didn’t blame him. “You know Mister Skippy better than any of us.”

  “Thank you, Sir. Skippy, why the hell would the Ruhar send a ship to Earth on behalf of the Kristang? Those two species are bitter enemies.”

  “Bitter enemies, uh huh, you’re right about that. But this war has been going on for a very, very long time, Joe. Stranger things have happened; really, this wouldn’t even make the Top Ten of strange things in the war. The simple truth is the Fire Dragons are paying the Ruhar for a ride. I don’t mean paying cash, of course, although if the Fire Dragons had a cash-back credit card, man they could rack up some serious-”

  “Skippy!”

  “Sorry, got a little off track there. The Fire Dragons will trade a planet, or access to a wormhole to the Ruhar, in exchange for a ride to Earth and back. Remember, there is a wormhole in Ruhar territory that allows a Jeraptha ship to reach Earth in less than one year; that is a significant advantage over the situation faced by the Thuranin.”

  “Oh, crap.” I looked around the table. Even Major Smythe’s face was pale. “We have to stop another ship from traveling to Earth?” The odds of us doing that successfully were, oh, forget it, my math skills sucked. Impossible. It was impossible.

  “Yup,” Skippy replied in a cheery tone. “I think specifically, you need to stop yet another ship from traveling to Earth, without anyone ever suspecting that ship was prevented from reaching Earth. The Jeraptha know a Thuranin surveyor ship was destroyed on its way to Earth, and the Jeraptha also know they weren’t responsible for the attack. For a second ship on its way to Earth to be attacked, or to disappear, or suffer some other unusual problem, would make the Jeraptha intensely suspicious about what is going on in your little home star system. This is going to be way, way more, like an order of magnitude more difficult than simply destroying a single surveyor ship.”

  “Simply? What was simple about-” I stopped talking. The operation against the surveyor ship had been incredibly complex. There was no
point reminding Skippy about that. “We have to do the impossible, without anyone knowing that we did anything at all?” It wasn’t actually a question.

  “Sir,” Lt. Williams addressed his question to me, rather than Chotek or Skippy. “As Skippy said, there is a wormhole in Ruhar territory that gives them access to Earth. Could we shut down that wormhole, like you did with the one closest to Earth?”

  “Uh, that’s a negatory on that one, Lt. Williams,” Skippy answered for me. “I could do that, but I should not do that. Having a second wormhole near Earth shut down mysteriously would attract the attention of the Maxolhx and the Rindhalu. You do not want those two apex species becoming curious about your home planet.”

  “Yes, Mister Skippy, I understand that,” Williams continued, not intimidated by the beer can. “I was thinking we could shut down not just two wormholes, but several wormholes in that area, so that Earth is not obviously in the center of the affected area. Make it look like a sort of local network shift, something like that.”

  “Hmm,” Skippy mused. “That is clever and innovative tactical thinking, Williams. Although, you would realize it is also a horribly bad idea, if you had all the facts. The answer is no, we should not do anything like that. Having more wormholes behaving oddly is a guarantee of the senior species becoming curious, even if they do not immediately suspect Earth is involved. Also, as I warned Joe before, the more I screw with wormholes, the greater the risk of me unintentionally triggering another cascading wormhole shift in the sector. The wormhole near Earth could reactivate, and there is another dormant wormhole even closer to Earth.”

  “We do not want to screw with wormholes,” I declared. “But that is good initiative, Lieutenant Williams; keep those ideas coming. All right, all right,” I repeated words to give myself time to think. “We need a plan to stop a Ruhar ship-”

  “Actually a Jeraptha ship, Joe. The Fire Dragons will be negotiating with their peers the Ruhar, but the Ruhar will need a ride on a Jeraptha star carrier. While Ruhar ships have significantly better interstellar travel capability than Kristang ships do, the Ruhar do not have ships that can go all the way to Earth and back on their own.”

  “Great. We need a plan to stop a Jeraptha ship. Skippy, we all need to brush up on data about the Jeraptha. Can you tell us-”

  Chotek held up a hand to interrupt me. “Colonel, I am concerned that, as a military officer, your instinct is to first look for a military solution. What is the American expression; to a hammer, everything looks like a nail?”

  “That, is an expression, yes,” I said warily.

  “We can’t fight both sides in this war forever,” Chotek grimly stated the obvious. “Eventually, we are going to come up against a problem we can’t solve, particularly given the constraint that all our actions out here must remain absolutely covert. I believe we must, at this time, consider approaching the Ruhar to suggest an alliance.”

  “Sir, that is a terr-” as the words came out of my mouth, my brain cried out ‘Nooooo’ in super slow motion and tried to yank the sound back out of the air. “Terr- terrific challenge,” I stuttered.

  Chotek gave me a look appropriate for parent scolding a small child. “Colonel Bishop, if you think I have a terrible idea,” he finished my original thought, “please say so. The last thing this mission commander needs is people trying to please me. I need honest, informed opinions.”

  “Uh, Sir, approaching the Ruhar about an alliance would be a terrible idea; it would completely backfire on us, and probably result in the destruction of Earth,” I explained, stating what I thought was completely obvious.

  Chotek sat back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. “Explain further, please. Because an alliance with the Ruhar, and their patrons, may be our best and perhaps only hope of halting an endless cycle of crisis and frantic response.”

  “If we only dealt with the Ruhar, that might be true,” I hurriedly tried to organize my thoughts. Damn it, it felt like writing an essay in high school, and I had always struggled with that. “But whatever we tell the Ruhar, the Jeraptha will find out about, and ultimately, the Rindhalu. And the Maxolhx would learn about it soon enough. Let’s say we approach the Ruhar and suggest an alliance. What could we possibly offer them that would be worth their expending an enormous effort to defend our little planet?”

  “Skippy. We could offer Skippy and the Elder wormhole controller device,” Chotek pointed to the speaker in the ceiling. “I know Skippy says he would go silent around species with advanced technology; maybe that is true and maybe Skippy only thinks that is the case. He admits he does not fully understand his own programming. Colonel, I know you do not like to think about giving Skippy away, and I do not consider the idea to be honorable. But if the choice is between Skippy and securing the future of humanity, I will side with humanity.”

  “Sir,” I paused to collect my thoughts. This was an argument I needed to make carefully. In school, I had always sucked at outlining essays, my thoughts always came out in a disorganized jumble. No way would I ever have qualified for a debate team. “In the military, we would wargame a scenario like this, to see the most likely end result. Let’s say we do offer Skippy to the Ruhar, and the Ruhar believe he is an Elder AI, whether Skippy goes silent or not. What happens after that? The Rindhalu will learn humanity has a device that can control Elder wormholes; a device that could destroy the balance of power that has existed between the Rindhalu and the Maxolhx for thousands of years. A device that can control wormholes is something that would be worth the Maxolhx fighting a full-scale war over, because without it, they would be powerless against the Rindhalu. My guess is, the Maxolhx would see the capability to control wormholes as such a game-changing technology that they would risk an all-out conflict with the Rindhalu. Maybe they would even risk using Elder weapons and provoking a response by Sentinels. Whatever happens, neither side would care what happens to Earth in a war that consumes the galaxy, and for damned sure, our home planet would be collateral damage. The Maxolhx would try to seize Earth, or destroy us if they can’t control us. And the Rindhalu would destroy Earth themselves, rather than let the Maxolhx control us. Hell, they might even nuke Earth together; both sides have made it clear that an upstart species like humanity can’t be allowed to threaten the two major powers. They might destroy Earth, just to make an example of us.”

  Chotek didn’t immediately dismiss my argument. He leaned forward and steepled his hands, flexing his fingers as he thought.

  I took his hesitation to press my point. “We shut down one wormhole, and manipulated others. We destroyed most of a Kristang battlegroup, stole a Thuranin star carrier and destroyed other Thuranin ships. To the Ruhar, we screwed up their plans to trade away the planet Paradise, and we tricked them into keeping Paradise and stationing a battlegroup there. Neither side will have any love for us, or any reason to trust us, once they learn the truth. Both sides will have plenty of reasons to hate and distrust us, and to want payback. The only items we have to bargain with are Skippy, who may or may not go dormant, and an Elder wormhole controller module. Once we give up those two items, why should we trust the Rindhalu to offer us protection? I know you have enough diplomatic experience not to tell me the Rindhalu are noble and will do it out of the goodness of their hearts. Keep in mind, Sir, the Rindhalu don’t need us to give them anything; once they know about Skippy and the wormhole controller, they can simply take them from us. It’s like,” I tried to think of a good analogy. “Like bringing a suitcase full of cash to a drug deal. Unless you have as much firepower as the guy with the drugs, he’s simply going to kill you, take the cash and keep his drugs.” I saw that on a TV show, so don’t give me credit for thinking of it. “This isn’t the Middle East, where you are negotiating with two powers who each have the ability to hurt each other to some extent. Earth has no ability to hit back, our world is completely helpless. There are no checks and balances in the galaxy like there is on Earth; no NATO, no UN. The Rindhalu can do anything they want to
Earth, and there is absolutely nothing to stop them. The Rindhalu are going to see wormhole controller technology as a threat not only to their position of power, but to their entire existence. Same with the Maxolhx.”

  I saw Chotek’s shoulders rise slightly as he took a deep, calming breath. Certainly he was not happy with me at that moment. My fear was that he would declare the issue decided; that we were going to approach the Ruhar, tell them the truth and offer an alliance. That idea was wrong, all wrong. But his background as a diplomat had taught him patience; he understood that if we went down the road of an alliance, we had plenty of time. Instead of extending the argument, he looked at the ceiling and addressed Skippy. “Do we have time to go back to Earth for consultations, before the negotiations commence?”

  “Con-sul-ta-tions?” Skippy rolled the word off his tongue slowly, as if he could not believe such a word existed. “No,” he declared. “Well, technically we would have time to go back to Earth via the fastest possible route, if we left right now. What we do not have time to do is fly back to Earth, wait for your leaders to argue and wring their hands to avoid making decisions, then return in time to do anything about the negotiations. We have time either to fly to Earth to let people know about the threat, or to actually do something about the threat. One or the other. Sorry, Chocula, you can’t pass the buck on this one. Time for you to put your big boy pants on, and make the hard decisions UNEF sent you out here to make. It should be easy, only the fate of your planet and your entire species hang in the balance.”

  The discussion went back and forth for another ten minutes, with me meekly keeping my mouth shut unless Chotek asked me a question. All I wanted was for Chotek to delay making a decision about talking to the Ruhar, until my team had time to offer him alternatives.

  Finally, Chotek could see there was little point in continuing to talk right then. We were all still somewhat in shock, and that is not a good time to make cool-headed decisions. “Very well. Colonel Bishop, please work with your team to develop a plan to stop a Ruhar ship from traveling to Earth. There will be no direct action against the Ruhar, understood?”