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.Hitler and Napoleon, for example, had both kept fighting even when they could have won a liveable peace.Karla snorted.“Don’t you think that ONI will already know about them?”“I don’t know,” Joshua said.He’d often shared information with ONI before he’d become a pirate, but he didn't know just how widespread humanity’s intelligence network in the Hegemony actually was.Certainly ONI had concentrated on spreading the net as widely as possible, yet… just how many assets could they have hundreds of light years from Earth? And besides, he’d never been particularly impressed with human intelligence services even before First Contact.It was too easy for analysts back home to assume they knew everything when they were only looking at a small part of the puzzle.“I do know that if they don’t know about the newcomers the Federation Navy is going to be in for a nasty surprise.”“Assuming that they challenge the Federation Navy,” Kang said.He grinned, unpleasantly.“First rule of combat; fight where your opponent is weak, not where he is strong.Why send fifteen superdreadnoughts against a force that has already destroyed or captured ten of them when there are nine vulnerable targets behind the lines?”Joshua blanched.“You mean Earth?”“But Earth has to be heavily defended,” Karla countered.“Surely the Federation Navy has reserves there.”“Maybe,” Joshua said.He wasn't so sure.The Federation Navy kept its exact strength secret, but Joshua had had plenty of experience with constructing, purchasing and maintaining starships.Mentor had brought some mobile fabricators to Earth to assist in human development and expansion, but those – and the additional ones Earth had acquired since – had limits.Building the fleet that had retaken Terra Nova and given the Funks a bloody nose might have only been possible by skimping on planetary defences.Earth’s population might have been much more armed than it had been before First Contact, yet no amount of weapons in private hands could defeat a force holding the high orbitals.“But we have to warn them.Even if they already know.”“But that would allow them to locate us,” Kang said.“And they would know that you were alive.”Joshua shrugged.“I doubt anyone believes that I died on Shadow,” he said.The Funks had proclaimed his death, but they hadn't managed to produce a body.Deep-space combat rarely produced bodies, so the Funk claims wouldn't be disbelieved on that ground, but Joshua had been quick to contact the rebels.They’d know better – and so would any skilled information broker.“Besides, we’ll use one of the spammer hack workarounds we took from Earth.They won’t be able to locate us in time.”He stood up.“Take the helm,” he ordered.“We have work to do.”“Yes, boss,” Kang said.“Do you intend to let Earth know about Tauscher?”“It would only upset them,” Joshua replied.“Besides, someone might intercept the signal and let the cat out of the bag too early.We’ll just warn them about the superdreadnoughts and nothing else.”Admiral Sampson had given him a copy of a limited edition dictionary to serve as the base for a simple substitution cipher.It had amused hell out of Joshua when he’d discovered that even the most advanced Galactics hadn't been able to eliminate spam email, despite having far more control over the tachyon-burst network than any of Earth’s pre-Contact computer authorities.No one would think twice about a message that tried to sell Admiral Sampson pornography, but Sampson would know what it meant.Fifteen superdreadnoughts were heading for humanity’s lines, perhaps even heading for Earth.He would have time to prepare a reception committee.The asteroid had no quantum gate to use as a transmitter, so Blackbeard made the flight through quantum space to the nearest gate in the sector.It had originally been built by the Cats, unlike most of the later gates in the Hegemony, and was over five thousand years old, far older than anything built by humanity.The gates built by the younger races didn't have the same elegance as the Cat-built gates – and they wore out far quicker than the original gates.It was quite possible to imagine the slow decay of the network until the association finally collapsed into rubble, leaving countless stranded civilizations in its wake.How long would it be until someone rebuilt a galaxy-spanning power?“No sign of any unfriendly patrols,” Karla reported, as they emerged through the gate.For some reason of their own, the Cats had installed it at the very edge of the system, rather than close enough to the planet to make commercial shipping economical [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Hitler and Napoleon, for example, had both kept fighting even when they could have won a liveable peace.Karla snorted.“Don’t you think that ONI will already know about them?”“I don’t know,” Joshua said.He’d often shared information with ONI before he’d become a pirate, but he didn't know just how widespread humanity’s intelligence network in the Hegemony actually was.Certainly ONI had concentrated on spreading the net as widely as possible, yet… just how many assets could they have hundreds of light years from Earth? And besides, he’d never been particularly impressed with human intelligence services even before First Contact.It was too easy for analysts back home to assume they knew everything when they were only looking at a small part of the puzzle.“I do know that if they don’t know about the newcomers the Federation Navy is going to be in for a nasty surprise.”“Assuming that they challenge the Federation Navy,” Kang said.He grinned, unpleasantly.“First rule of combat; fight where your opponent is weak, not where he is strong.Why send fifteen superdreadnoughts against a force that has already destroyed or captured ten of them when there are nine vulnerable targets behind the lines?”Joshua blanched.“You mean Earth?”“But Earth has to be heavily defended,” Karla countered.“Surely the Federation Navy has reserves there.”“Maybe,” Joshua said.He wasn't so sure.The Federation Navy kept its exact strength secret, but Joshua had had plenty of experience with constructing, purchasing and maintaining starships.Mentor had brought some mobile fabricators to Earth to assist in human development and expansion, but those – and the additional ones Earth had acquired since – had limits.Building the fleet that had retaken Terra Nova and given the Funks a bloody nose might have only been possible by skimping on planetary defences.Earth’s population might have been much more armed than it had been before First Contact, yet no amount of weapons in private hands could defeat a force holding the high orbitals.“But we have to warn them.Even if they already know.”“But that would allow them to locate us,” Kang said.“And they would know that you were alive.”Joshua shrugged.“I doubt anyone believes that I died on Shadow,” he said.The Funks had proclaimed his death, but they hadn't managed to produce a body.Deep-space combat rarely produced bodies, so the Funk claims wouldn't be disbelieved on that ground, but Joshua had been quick to contact the rebels.They’d know better – and so would any skilled information broker.“Besides, we’ll use one of the spammer hack workarounds we took from Earth.They won’t be able to locate us in time.”He stood up.“Take the helm,” he ordered.“We have work to do.”“Yes, boss,” Kang said.“Do you intend to let Earth know about Tauscher?”“It would only upset them,” Joshua replied.“Besides, someone might intercept the signal and let the cat out of the bag too early.We’ll just warn them about the superdreadnoughts and nothing else.”Admiral Sampson had given him a copy of a limited edition dictionary to serve as the base for a simple substitution cipher.It had amused hell out of Joshua when he’d discovered that even the most advanced Galactics hadn't been able to eliminate spam email, despite having far more control over the tachyon-burst network than any of Earth’s pre-Contact computer authorities.No one would think twice about a message that tried to sell Admiral Sampson pornography, but Sampson would know what it meant.Fifteen superdreadnoughts were heading for humanity’s lines, perhaps even heading for Earth.He would have time to prepare a reception committee.The asteroid had no quantum gate to use as a transmitter, so Blackbeard made the flight through quantum space to the nearest gate in the sector.It had originally been built by the Cats, unlike most of the later gates in the Hegemony, and was over five thousand years old, far older than anything built by humanity.The gates built by the younger races didn't have the same elegance as the Cat-built gates – and they wore out far quicker than the original gates.It was quite possible to imagine the slow decay of the network until the association finally collapsed into rubble, leaving countless stranded civilizations in its wake.How long would it be until someone rebuilt a galaxy-spanning power?“No sign of any unfriendly patrols,” Karla reported, as they emerged through the gate.For some reason of their own, the Cats had installed it at the very edge of the system, rather than close enough to the planet to make commercial shipping economical [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]