Democracy 1: Democracy's Right by Christopher Nuttall Read Free Book Online

Empire wanted.  Stacy was meant to draw up the attack plan, yet her mind – which, he had to admit, was good at manipulating the Empire’s power structure – was no good at tactical planning.  Jeremy had used the time they’d spent in transit working on a fairly basic plan, one where relatively little could go wrong.
     
    “As you can see, Commodore, we will begin by...”
     
    An hour later, he allowed Stacy to precede him onto the bridge.  The sight of the main bridge never failed to thrill him, even though the throne-like command chair belonged to Stacy alone.  Here, at the nerve centre of the superdreadnaught, the command crew could deal out death and destruction on the Empire’s many enemies, while remaining safe from anything the enemies could deal out to them.  The five kilometre-long superdreadnaught was one of the most powerful ships in commission, packed with missile tubes, energy weapons and heavy shields.  It would take a matching squadron of superdreadnaughts to present the squadron with a real threat and standard military doctrine called for at least two squadrons to break up an enemy squadron.  It hardly mattered, of course; the Imperial Navy was the only force permitted to possess superdreadnaughts.
     
    “My Lady Commodore,” the helmsman said, as Stacy settled down into her command chair.  She looked almost like a child sitting in her father’s chair, but her eyes were as alert as ever.  Had any of the crew neglected the proper honorific, she would have noticed – and remembered.  “We are ready to make the final jump.”
     
    Stacy leaned forward, her anger forgotten.  “Then by all means,” she ordered, “jump!”
     
    Jeremy braced himself as the flicker drive engaged, launching the superdreadnaught across five light years in a split-second.  The scientists swore that the transits were not instantaneous – they lasted a certain infinitively-tiny length of time – but it felt instantaneous.  It also felt, just for a second, as if his insides had been turned upside down.  It was a gentle transit, yet it was something that no one ever got used to feeling.  He’d been on ships that had jumped while travelling at high sublight speeds and the crews had ended up vomiting badly on the decks.
     
    “Transit completed,” the helmsman said.  The display updated rapidly as the gravimetric sensors picked out Jackson’s Folly, the primary star and the handful of other planets within the system.  IFF beacons began to appear as the passive sensors picked up the freighters moving between planets, although he had to remind himself that a hostile starship could be keeping its emissions to the bare minimum, rendering it nearly undetectable.  “The flicker drives are cycling down now.”
     
    Jeremy relaxed and settled back into his own chair.  The flicker drive might have given mankind the stars, but it had also introduced a whole new degree of tactical problems.  It was impossible, even for the Empire’s most advanced and powerful ships, to keep the flicker drive spun up and ready to jump out.  It would burn out the drive and leave the vessel stranded.  What that meant, from a tactical point of view, was that if they ran into trouble, it would take time – at least ten minutes for a superdreadnaught – before the drive could be powered up again and jump them out.  They would have to stand and fight until then.
     
    “Get me a direct link to the Observation Squadron,” Stacy ordered.  Her clear voice echoed in the bridge.  “I want to talk directly to Captain Howell.”
     
    ***
    “I confirm nine superdreadnaughts and seven heavy transport ships,” the tactical officer said.  Colin nodded as the icons appeared in the display, further from the planet than he had anticipated.  Was it a simple navigational error or something far more sinister?  The flicker drive wasn't known for being supremely accurate, certainly not at interstellar distances.  “The IFF signals match