A Leap Across the Abyss. Макс Глебов

Ceti, but Commander Shreen, who was nothing but an inflated bubble, decided that simply leaving and reporting to the Supreme Leader was not enough. He wished to capture or destroy the hyperportal which, unexpectedly for them, was possessed by humans, and which this underdeveloped civilization simply could not have. Well, OK, he made that decision, but then why did he separate the cruisers? If the commander had sent all three warships to attack, things might have been different, but no! How can you leave the transport with the priceless Shreen’s carcass on board without cover? And the fact that this transport would have no problem getting away from any slow human ship, is an insignificant detail.

      Anyway, my offer has found fertile ground, but the toad still had reasonable doubts, and I had to work really hard to get him to cooperate.

      “Tell me, Admiral, why should I be on your side?” asked the toad, looking closely at me with his bulging eyes, “Well, all right, let’s say you’re telling the truth and you’re genuinely willing to do whatever you promised me here. Let’s say, once again, that you and I will succeed, and you will win in the Groombridge Star system a grand, bloodless victory, capturing millions of prisoners. What’s next for you? You will return to your metropolis as a hero, but you will have no time to enjoy your triumph. I don’t know how many more weeks it will take for the High Lodge to assemble a new fleet and join the quargs in invading your space, putting an end to this war, but I’m sure it’s a month at the most. We make one more unlikely assumption that I will survive the upcoming slaughter, and I will be freed by my own. Should I continue?”

      “Don’t bother, Officer Tlet, your message is clear. Have you ever wondered why, instead of preparing for a hopeless defense, our fleet launched this offensive?”

      “That question has been bothering me ever since I got here,” admitted the toad.

      “And I’ll explain that to you now, I’ll just start from afar. Would you care to recall how many active hyperportals are there in the space you control?”

      “At the time of my capture, there were seven or eight,” responded the toad quickly, “I can’t say for sure – one of the portals malfunctioned all the time and was about to completely fail.”

      “Here! And we have almost three dozen of them, most of them mobile, able to fly independently through hyperspace.”

      “It certainly gives you an advantage in logistics,” agreed Tlet, “but it doesn’t help if we strike with all our forces at one point – your Solar System, for example.”

      “And why do you think, Officer Tlet, that the hyperportal is the only technology humans have ever surpassed you?”

      “Well, at least because in the battle at Kappa Ceti, which cost your fleet huge losses, you didn’t use anything else to surprise us.”

      “Come on, officer,” said I and got up, “I want to show you something.”

      Of course, it was a desperate bluff, but I just needed badly the toad’s approval to participate in the operation. I saw no other way to reach my goal, so I took a chance. Knowing how our conversation will proceed, I even before the start of recruitment set the task to the technicians of Dragon’s Tail, and they rushed through the work. Now I hoped that the result of their efforts would impress the toad.

      The doors of the hangar spread out to the sides, and we were faced with battle machines lined up. Lit-ta kindly allowed me to take Swarm’s combat robot unit, found by the lizards on the cut-in-half asteroid, for research in the Jeff Department. I couldn’t afford to risk disclosing information on our contact with the Empire to the toad, there was no way to give information about the Empire to the enemy. But these machines made a strong impression on Tlet.

      “I remember that your specialty is medicine, Officer Tlet,” said I as I watched the reaction of the toad, “but I think you’re familiar with the basic characteristics of your ground warfare equipment, aren’t you?”

      “Yes, I am, Admiral,” responded the toad in a few seconds, “Not as well as I should be, but who knew… What I see on the back of the larger robot is a protective field emitter?”

      “I see, you’re showing false modesty, Officer. In fact, you’re much better at combat robots than I thought,” I’ve decided to flatter the toad a little, “And how does that make you feel?”

      “These are dangerous machines, Admiral. I didn’t think you could do that, but to be honest, I’m not that convinced. There were no protective fields on your ships, which means you’re showing me single specimens that haven’t been mass-produced yet. And you don’t have time to rearm, but if you put anything on your ships in time, it’ll probably be first-generation fields – not very reliable and with very limited resources. I don’t think they can turn the tide.”

      The toad was far from a fool, and despite his medical specialty, he was able to understand the most important thing about what he saw. Well, I had one last trump card left, and now it was time to pull it out of my sleeve.

      “Now, dear Officer Tlet, I’ll show you something else. Perhaps this will help you make the right decision. Major Lavroff,” said I into the communicator, addressing my wife, “activate the camouflage fields.”

      We certainly couldn’t make the protective shields of the Swarm’s robots work. Jeff and his men had still a long way to go to study them, but I just needed to show the toad something impressive, and I remembered what a shock my EW complexes, especially the later modifications, had on Federation officers. And yet they were nothing compared to the Empire’s camouflage fields. And now I had on board the camouflage field generators brought here by Yoon Gao for landing on Groombridge-2. It was these generators that the technicians of Dragon’s Tail attached in a hurry to the bodies of Swarm’s robots.

      The combat machines were covered with the pouring currents of trembling air, and became almost transparent. The robots haven’t disappeared completely, but if the hangar were a few times more spacious, it would be difficult to see the robots from its far end. The opposite wall of the hangar could be seen through the robots in every detail. On my signal Inga has led in movement a Goanna, which has walked slowly behind the formation of robots, hidden by the camouflage field. The toad kept watching the field almost without distortion reproduce on the frontal armor of the combat machines the robot walking in the background, preserving the high quality of camouflage.

      “Are you satisfied now, Officer Tlet?” asked I with a slight smile.

      “I saw everything I needed,” the voice of the toad showed firmness, saying that he had made a decision, “Let’s not waste time, you haven’t yet told me the details of our joint operation.”

* * *

      Groombridge-2 was waiting. It’s already been half the 48 hours that the humans have given. The cautious suggestion of the Head of Civil Administration to take advantage of the opportunity to evacuate at least civilians was met with complete misunderstanding by the Surveillants. Negotiations and any agreements with the enemy have been strongly discouraged before, and now, in the light of the new instructions of the Masters, they were subject to the strictest prohibition and the penalty of death.

      The Head of planetary control, Fetz, hasn’t slept in over 24 hours. He was informed of all incidents involving attempts by servicemen and civilians to violate the will of the Masters on Groombridge-2. Much to Fetz’s regret, not all deviant behavior of the quargs could be prohibited by the mental block, and the Surveillants were carrying out the voluminous, difficult but desperately needed work of controlling the loyalty of the population and the army.

      An emergency call alert made the Head of Surveillants to turn to the communications device.

      “Chief, our scanners have registered a high-orbit combat,” reported the planetary defense commander.

      “Has the fleet come to our aid?” There was hope in Fetz’s voice.

      “Alas, Chief, it is not so. The battle was local and has already ended, although it is not entirely clear what it was. The enemy fleet has largely retreated to the outer limits of the system, but the light forces continue to patrol the central areas and the circumplanetary area. Two enemy destroyers must have spotted a ship attempting to approach the