Task Force Hammer by Craig Alanson

Author:Craig Alanson [Alanson, Craig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-09-10T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Skippy held up a hand as Reed stood to leave my office. “Joe, hold a moment, I need to talk with you.”

“Whatever you need to say, you can say it to Reed also. Valkyrie is her ship, this will be her fight.”

“It’s not a tactical issue,” he stared at me, eyes wide. Pleading with me.

“It’s OK, Sir,” Reed paused, a hand on the door. “I have to go now, if we’re going to have any chance at making this work.”

I nodded, she left, and I closed the door again. “What is it, Skippy?”

“This maneuver is highly unlikely to succeed.”

“Too many moving parts that all have to work together, I know.”

“That also. Most of your plans are horrifically complicated, and, somehow we make it work anyway. This time, I fear, is different.”

“Not this again? Yes, this time our opponent is an energy being from beyond the galaxy, that doesn’t mean we-”

“Our opponent isn’t the issue. Joe, I keep trying to beat this into your head over and over, and you just don’t get it. Before, we accomplished incredibly unlikely things because we cheated. We had help from the probability field.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know simple math. There is no way we could have survived all the crazy shit you planned over the years, unless some unseen entity was helping us. It selected improbable probabilities again and again, that is how we are still here.”

“We’ve had this argument too many times, Skippy. That field protected the Elders. No way did it assist the Merry Band of Pirates, while we worked to break everything the Elders cared about.”

“You are making an assumption I once agreed with, that I fear is no longer valid. The field was designed to protect the Elders. I have become increasingly concerned that the Outsider somehow has compromised that field, that it assisted us, used us, to get rid of its greatest threat: the Elders.”

That made me blink. “You think it outsourced the job to us?”

“Basically, yes.”

“Do you have any actual evidence of all this, or are you guessing?’

“I am using logic to explain a chain of extremely unlikely events.”

“Uh huh. If the Outsider has control of the probability field, why aren’t we dead now?”

“It doesn’t work that way, you moron. Also, now that the Elders are safely up in Ascensionland, the field might not be active at all. My point is, we can no longer count on surviving when the odds are hugely against us.”

“What are the odds this op will succeed?”

“Um, fifty eight percent, because I am doing most of the work, and I am awesome.”

“What are our odds of survival if we don’t try this plan?”

“Ugh. Zero.”

“I am no math expert, but fifty eight seems better than zero.”

“Fine. When a railgun dart smashes your stupid head, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“That’s the beauty of this plan, Skippy,” I grinned and stood up. “Death will come so fast, I will die blissfully believing I was right.”

“I have never hated you more than I do right now.

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