Aurora Rising (The Prefect) by Alastair Reynolds

Author:Alastair Reynolds [Reynolds, Alastair]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Space Opera
Published: 2007-04-11T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

Dreyfus pinched the skin at the corners of his eyes until the gemmed lights of the Solid Orrery moved into sluggish focus. For a long while he had been fighting exhaustion, slipping into instants of treacherous microsleep where his thoughts spun off into daydreams and wish-fulfilment fantasy. Seniors, field prefects and supernumerary operatives were coming and going from the tactical room, murmuring intelligence and rumour, pausing to consult compads or run enlargements and simulations on the Solid Orrery itself. Occasionally Dreyfus was allowed to be party to what was discussed, even to add his thoughts, but the other seniors made it abundantly clear that he was there on their terms, not his. Exasperatedly, he’d listened while the next response was formulated. After much debate, the seniors had decided to send four cutters, one to each silent habitat, each of which would be carrying three Panoply operatives equipped at the same level as a lockdown party.

‘That’s not enough,’ Dreyfus said. ‘All you’ll have to show for it is four wrecked ships and twelve dead prefects. We can’t afford to lose the ships and we damned well can’t afford to lose the prefects.’

‘It’s the logical next step in an escalating response,’ Crissel pointed out.

Dreyfus shook his head in dismay. ‘This isn’t about logical next steps. They’ve already shown us that any approaching ships will be treated as hostile.’

‘So what do you propose?’

‘We need four deep-system cruisers, more if we can spare them. They can carry hundreds of prefects. They’ll also stand a chance of fighting all the way into the four habitats and making a forced hard dock.’

‘To me,’ Crissel said, looking pleased with himself, ‘that sounds very much like putting all our eggs in one basket.’

‘Whereas you’d prefer to keep throwing the eggs one a time, until we run out?’

‘That isn’t it at all. I’m talking about an appropriate reaction, rather than a sledgehammer strike with all our resources—’

Dreyfus cut him off. ‘If you want to recover those habitats, the time to act is now. Whoever’s inside them is probably struggling to control the citizenry, enough that they may still be vulnerable to an assault by a small but coordinated squad of prefects. We have a window here, one that’s closing on us fast.’

Gaffney had returned to the room - he’d been off on some errand elsewhere. Dreyfus noticed an uncharacteristic sheen of sweat on his forehead, and the fact that he was wearing the heavy black glove and sleeve of whiphound training armour.

‘At the risk of endorsing melodrama,’ Gaffney said, looking only at the other seniors, ‘Dreyfus may have a point. We can’t commit four cruisers, or even two. But we do have one on launch standby. We can put fifty field prefects inside it within ten minutes, more if we move some shifts around.’

‘They’ll need tactical armour and extreme-contingency weapons,’ Crissel said.

‘The armour isn’t a problem. But the weapons are still under wraps.’ Gaffney looked apologetic. ‘This crisis has caught up with us so quickly that we haven’t polled for permission to use them.

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