Ian Douglas Inheritance Trilogy 1 Star Strike

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cultural change, demographic change, religious change, political change all of
them are going on around us all the time, even when we don t actually see it
happening. If we get so mired in the past that we don t see the next new wave
coming, if we can t recognize it in time to adapt, then we re doomed to go the
way of the dodo, the elephant, and the blue whale, a dead-end trap and
ultimate extinction.
It still seems short-sighted to ignore the potential for this type of
interstellar transport, Cara observed.
Cara, I couldn t agree more. Maybe, if Operation Lafayette and Operation
Gorgon are both successful, if Skybase really shows her stuff out there, that
by itself will nudge things along in a positive direction. At least we can
hope.
Hope is one aspect of humanity I ve never been able to fully understand,
Cara told him.
Three minutes, another AI s voice announced. Pure imagination, really, but
to Alexander it seemed that he could sense the gathering of energy within the
bulk of Skybase. Windows open to one side in his mind showed that all of the
base systems were standing ready, all personnel at battle stations, the
antimatter reactors at the station s core already pouring terawatts of energy
into the slender channel now opening into the Quantum Sea.
Cara, he said in his mind, has there been any word from the Puller
listening post?
Not for eight days, five hours, twenty-seven minutes, the AI told him.
Lieutenant Fitzpatrick s last report indicated a possibility of failing power
systems, however. He may not be able to communicate.
QCC units don t need much power, Alexander said. And they can t be tapped
or intercepted. If he s not able to communicate, it s because the PEs found
him& or his life-support systems failed. He watched the inner panorama, of
Skybase adrift against a star-scattered emptiness, for another moment.
I don t like jumping into an unknown tacsit, he said at last.
We ve known there would be considerable risk, General. The connection with
Lieutenant Fitzpatrick has been tenuous and intermittent ever since the
PanEuropean fleet entered the Puller system.
I know. He was thinking about the ancient military maxim: no plan of battle
survives contact with the enemy.
During ops planning, they d considered putting a hold on the actual
translation to Puller 659 until they actually received an all-clear from
Fitzpatrick and the listening post. That idea had been dropped,
however. There were reasons, psychological as well as engineering, that
Skybase could not be kept on perpetual alert waiting for the next contact from
the distant Marine listening post.
So they would make the jump, and simply try to be ready for whatever they
found at the other end.
Two minutes.
He opened another window, sending out a connect call. Tabbie?
There was a brief pause.
Hi, hon, was her reply. Almost up to the big jump-off?
The link was via conventional lasercom relays, so there was a speed-of-light
time lag of about three seconds between the moment he spoke, and the moment he
heard her reply.
Yeah. But I do hate leaving you behind.
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I hate it, too. But& you ll be back. And I ll be here waiting for you.
They d talked about that aspect of things a lot during the weeks before this.
Normally, Skybase was home not only to nearly eight hundred Marines and naval
personnel, but also to some five hundred civilians. Most of them were
ex-military, or the children of military families, or the spouses of military
personnel serving on Skybase. Most worked a variety of jobs on the base,
ranging from administration and clerical duties to specialized technical
services to drivers and equipment operators in the docking bay.
In fact, they represented the way the Marine Corps, in particular, had over
the centuries evolved its own microculture. The retired Marine staff sergeant
or colonel, the spouse of a Marine pilot, the child of
Marine parents both stationed at Skybase, all shared the same cultural
background, language, and worldview that made them a single, very large and
extended family.
But Skybase was about to take part in an operation utterly unlike anything
tried in the past. This time, the
MIEF s headquarters would be traveling with the expeditionary force. It would
be the target of enemy assaults, and it would likely be gone for many years.
Active duty Marines at Skybase had been given their orders. The civilians,
however, had been given a choice a choice to be worked out by both civilian
and military members of each family. Many civilians had preferred to stay
behind at Earthring, though the decisions of many had been swayed by the
military members of those families, who d wanted loved ones to be safe.
According to the final muster roster, two hundred five civilians were
accompanying the Marines and naval personnel to the stars on board Skybase.
Among them were the research team from the Arean
Advanced Physics Institute, crucial members of the technician cadre, and a
number of civilian family members who d refused to be separated from loved
ones.
Tabbie, though, was staying at Earthring. She had family there& and though
she d not wanted to stay at first, Alexander had finally convinced her that
she would be better off making a home for herself there, rather than enduring
the hardships and the danger of life aboard the base during this new
deployment.
I still don t entirely agree with your reasoning, she told him after a
moment.
You mean about Earth not being safe?
You ve said it often enough yourself, she replied after the three-second
delay. If the Xul come to
Earth again, when they come, there won t be any behind-the-lines. Everybody
will be taking the same risks.
In fact, the original rationale behind giving Skybase its paraspace capability
was to ensure that the MIEF
headquarters would survive if the Xul did manage to find and slag the Earth.
It would be a terrible irony, Alexander thought, if Skybase survived the
coming campaign& and Tabbie and the other civilians left at
Earthring were killed.
Yeah, well, there s a big difference between the Xul coming to Earth again,
and us going out hunting for looking for trouble, and we re going to find it.
And if we re successful, we ll shake the Xulies up enough that they won t come
to Earth.
I know, I know. But I don t have to like it.
One minute, a voice said in his head.
Okay, Kitten, he told her. I just got the one-minute alert. If everything
goes as planned, I ll be back in a few hours for the next set of ships.
I love you, Marty.
I love you. He hesitated, then added, I ll be back before you know it.
He could feel the hard and familiar knot of anticipation tightening in his
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