Supplanted
Chapter 10: Backstabbers

We were met on day three of the operation outside of the Alpha sector by several fully operational carriers along with the Enterprise and Charlemagne. We were happily surprised, until we spoke to them.

“General Josten,” the fleet wide holo-vid image of Admiral Hidalgo said, “you are hereby ordered by the Earth Defense Council to stand down and return to your sector of origin. Your actions are in direct conflict with the policies of the Earth government, and shall be dealt with severely. Should you fail to comply with this dispersion order, you will be arrested on the charge of treason and detained until a military tribunal shall determine your fate. Those who have chosen to follow you either from misguided loyalty or ignorance shall be dishonorably discharged and banished to the gamma sector. You have one minute to comply. I await your decision.” It didn’t take Eric one minute to formulate a reply. It didn’t take him one second.

“Nuts!” was the response that aired over the holo-net. If anything, Eric knew his Earth military history. Unfortunately, he didn’t know his diplomatic training; or he chose to ignore it at this time.

“You, my dear Admiral,” our fearless leader continued, “will join us or die! We are headed for the Epsilon sector to end this asinine war of attrition that your precious Earth gov. got us into in the first place. Those of you who join us will reap the benefits and the spoils of victory. Those of you who choose to hide your heads in the sand and pretend that your home is safe because some asshole politician says so, had better not be here when we get back. All ships,” he was using an open channel, not only to speak to our fleet, but to advise any Earth ships in the Alpha sector of our intentions should they choose to join us, “rendezvous at the alpha quadrant of the Alpha sector in ten hours. I will be briefing the troops about this latest development and 0800 hours. Destroy any and all vessels that stand in our way. Josten, out!”

Captain Stovall ordered the Faust to the rendezvous point without skipping a beat. We were tensely watched by the many ships that now blocked our direct path through the system. We would all be taking the widest berth possible to get to the alpha quadrant, shadowed the entire distance by an ever increasing number of fully operational Earth carriers and support ships that were to keep us out of the Alpha system at all costs.

Some of us were sorry that we would not be seeing Earth, if even for the first time.4 Some of us were too angry at the political sheep that were blocking our way and making us change our plans than to give a tinker’s damn about seeing a home world that few of us – if any – remembered or knew much about. I personally had never been to Earth, and I wondered what we would replace on the other side of the solar system.

Ten hours passed like ten minutes. Four of our ships had decided to return home from our ranks rather than risk the wrath of Earth gov. We were met on the alpha side of the system two, almost three days later by another thirty six Earth defense force carriers. We thought we were in for a fight and quickly went on yellow alert, we were gratefully wrong.

“This is Captain Standish of the HMS Defiant,” a voice without video called over the com. “We have come to join in the counterattack.”

General Josten’s voice joined the conversation – also without video; I wondered if the system was down, or some need for secrecy was in effect. “Standish of the Defiant, eh? Apropos name and assignment I should say. Nice to have you with us, Captain. How many with you?”

“Thirty six manned carriers with one month’s provisions each. How long do you think we’ll be in it?”

“Shouldn’t be a week,” the General said confidently. “In and out, just like that. Victory is assured. We move out within the hour. I’ll be briefing you and your third unit fleet momentarily.” The coms. went silent. I was again lost in my own thoughts.

Were these Earth defense ships committing treason? Were they trustworthy? Why did Earth gov. oppose our counterattack? Did they have another/better plan? Would we replace our enemy’s home world in the Epsilon sector? I returned to my quarters to contemplate. 2lt. Madrid accompanied me every step of the way.

Did I fail to mention that the second lieutenant and I had been inseparable for the past few days? Yes, she sleeps with me. Her sense of duty seems to me to be a bit on the screwed-up side; but, I must admit, she has been an aid and a comfort to me since this mission began. Yes, we are having sex; and that’s what I was returning to my quarters to do for the next twenty four hours it would take us to get to the Epsilon sector. Keep your judgments to yourselves, I’m old enough to make my own decisions and wise enough to . . . Perhaps I should be wise enough to keep my secrets to myself. We had arrived at my quarters.

“Lieutenant,” I announced when she’d closed the door, “are you familiar with the latest intelligence collected on the enemy?”

“Yes, sir!” she saluted as she whipped out her clipboard.

“Then would you please give me your opinion on something that has been bothering me about their latest activities?”

She looked at me quizzically. “Bothering you, sir?”

“Yes. It seems to me that the enemy is employing under-trained personnel in order to facilitate a decisive victory against us. Does that seem to you to be sound military thinking?”

Constance thought for a long time before answering. “No, sir! It would be better from a military standpoint to have properly trained personnel at all stations in order to maximize the efficiency of any attack. I see why this perplexes you, sir. The enemy’s numbers were intimidating, yet their effectiveness in defending themselves, let alone attacking us, was grossly ineffective.” (Not exactly accurate, but I let it slide.) “If they had wanted to win this war outright, they should have taken the time to train their combatants at least enough so that they could defend themselves rather than sacrifice themselves unnecessarily to their cause.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” I told her. “Perhaps it is the cause that drives them, not the possibility of victory. Perhaps we are fighting an enemy that has little concern for its own personal life, so long as that life is sacrificed for their cause. Or, in other words, perhaps our enemy would rather commit mass suicide so long as it takes one human life. We may be fighting an enemy that would rather be exterminated than surrender. We may even be fighting an enemy that believes that its cause is of greater value than the lives of the people on either side.”

2lt Madrid twitched. “Sir, if your theory is in any way valid, it would mean that we must completely eradicate our enemy in order to end this war. Should even one of them be left alive, they would attempt to continue the conflict.”

“Yes,” I said. “Diplomacy has been ineffective because our enemy has had no intention of letting any of us live. Several megalomaniacs from history have tried to fight wars by exterminating small factions of the world’s populace in the name of their great causes. None of them have ever been recorded to have been satisfied by any thought other than the total extinction of their intended or imagined enemies. They would rather die than allow a single survivor of their chosen enemies to escape them. If our enemy is thinking this way, our only hope of victory is to become the exterminators. I wonder if we’re willing to collectively take on the sin of genocide.”

I thought Constance was going to cry. I abandoned my theoretical ramblings and took her in my arms for a reassuring hug. She trembled in my arms. We stood together like that for what seemed like an eternity. A sudden knock at the door broke our moment.

I answered the door to replace Ensign Travis Holt anxiously fidgeting there.

“Colonel Johansson,” he stammered, “Captain Stovall would like to see you in his ready room ASAP, sir.” He stood for a moment obviously awaiting my reply.

I sighed. “Certainly, Ensign. You may inform the Captain that my aide and I will be with him shortly.” Travis looked a bit more nervous.

“Oh, no sir. Just you; not her.” He managed to get out. I heard a sharp intake of breath behind me.

“So be it.” I told the Ensign, and closed the door to save him further anxiety.

“But, sir, I. . .” 2lt Madrid began. I raised my hand to stop her.

“Just this once, Lieutenant; please stay outside of the room while I tend to whatever goes on inside of it.” It was an awkward sentence, but it was the only way I could think to say what I meant. Constance begrudgingly nodded her assent. I wondered what new hell I was getting myself into. The three of us left for the Captain’s ready room. It was just a short trip up one level.

Constance and Ensign Holt waited outside as I entered. The Captain was seated at his desk with a drink in his hand. Between us was seated another officer (I could tell by the epaulettes) with his back to me whom I had yet to meet.

“Come in, Colonel. I was just telling Captain Standish about your fine career.”

The seated officer stood and turned to greet me. His appearance took me completely by surprise: Captain Standish was white.

Entry 10a

Eugenics

I feel that it again needs to be cleared up as to why I had such an odd reaction to the physical appearance of Captain Standish and my unprofessional reaction to the color, or lack thereof, of his skin. You see, the outer colonies had been originally settled with eugenically engineered humans. In other words, better breeding through science, (at least it was thought at the time to be better) was used to allow humanity a better chance at surviving in the unknown harshness of space. The first colonial humans (as well as all those that came after them) were a mixture of the best characteristics of the races of humans, designated by skin color, that peopled the Earth, chosen by forgotten scientific minds that supposedly knew better. . . um: best. Due to this meshing of DNA types, our skin coloration became uniformly darker than some Earthmen, but lighter than most others. I think the term that applies is mulatto; kind of a caramel, if that’s a real color.

In any case, a “pure bred” white human was nothing less than legendary outside of the Alpha sector; neither was a pure bred brown, red, yellow, black, pink or purple human as far as I knew. It always seemed odd to me that the brownish color of a person’s skin had any bearing on their particular worth; but, perhaps that’s just me.

It was explained to us in basic training that a uniform skin color helped to foster the idea of a common lineage and, therefore, a common goal. It also eliminated the occurrences of race discrimination that once plagued the Earth. We of the colonial race were to be better in every way without being superior. Don’t ask me, that was the indoctrinated credo. It was also explained to us that humans from the Alpha sector rarely came into deep space because of some physical lack or inequity due to their un-augmented DNA; although, now that I think of it, that may never have been properly proven either.

Yet, even with this new enlightenment that I and all the others had been indoctrinated into, I still reacted poorly when confronted for the first time with a white man from the home sector. I wondered why that was; I mean, I had always known of their possible existence, I’d just never seen, heard or in any other sense been presented with proof of their existence. As far as I or anyone from the colonies was concerned, white “pure bred” humans were extinct. I was not given the time to think about it further.

Entry 10b

Back to the story

Captain Standish met my breach of manners with a laugh. “Never seen a ‘pinky’ before, have you, Colonel?”

I had to admit that I hadn’t. “Think nothing of it, son,” the Captain continued, “I’m not much used to the tanner of the species outnumbering my own kind either.” I noted his short looks at Captain Stovall and myself, but chalked it up to his hurt feelings. He continued, “Come in and sit down. We have, or rather I, have some interesting bits of intelligence to relate to you. Captain Stovall here leads me to believe that you’ve got a good head on your shoulders.”

I gave the captain of the Faust a cursory look that I hoped was a look of thanks. “I’m flattered, sir. But. . .”

“But you’re not sure why I should tell you and not tell your commanding General?” Captain Standish finished for me.

“Yes, sir,” I admitted sheepishly.

“Well, when you’ve heard what I have to say, you may use your better judgment to determine if your friend the General needs to hear this tidbit of information or not.” The captain of the Defiant then outlined a series of events that I had trouble believing; yet, they were easier to believe when he explained the underlying motivations that had brought them about. I will try to relate them without becoming too emotional. The facts made me angry, and repeating them still does so.

It seems that some time ago a large part of Earth gov. decided that the outer colonies were becoming too much of a threat to the security of the home sector. Where they got that idea, no one may ever know, but it led to a series of horrifying decisions - decisions that have now cost the lives of billions.

Either through prejudice or some other form of stupidity, it was decided by the reigning Earth government majority to begin a war (which we are now on our way to finish) with the sole purpose of eliminating the outer colonies and their colonists without having to take direct responsibility for the act. They intended to kill everyone that wasn’t from the Alpha sector, the “pure sector” as they had started to refer to it, and start over. Their means to that end was the genetic creation of our enemy.

Just as the humans who were the pioneers of the outer systems were created by Earth scientists, so was our enemy. An animal/plant hybrid that could exist in the most extreme conditions and take orders from Earth gov. without question was created to carry out the dirty work of the people who were supposedly in charge of our welfare. Our enemy was the result of a plot to destroy us formulated by the very government that swore to protect us. That fact alone is enough to keep me angry; but, to continue. . .

The Epsilon sector was not originally settled by humans as we were led to believe. It was, in fact, populated solely by our enemy and the resources that provided that enemy with the means to fight us, with a few humans put in charge for good measure.

The true reasons behind the defensive battle strategy adopted for us by our superiors on Earth were two fold. First – to prevent us from discovering the true nature of our enemy since we were forbidden to pursue them to their places of origin in an offensive manner; and, Second - to keep us from ever gaining the upper hand in the war. The Alpha sector, it turns out, had not been attacked at any time before the latest battle, which was used to “cull out” certain unwanted aspects of the home sector, due to the fact that they were coordinating the war for both sides from the safety of the Earth.

Captain Standish related many details that I will keep from reporting; mainly because he named names. If, even for historical reasons, the names of those responsible were known to the general public, the lives of their progeny would be forfeit. I will not sacrifice the innocent to punish the guilty, regardless of the desires of my sense of vengeance.

Our new ally ended his revelation with something of a confession of his own. He and the cadre of ships that had come to join us were under orders to destroy us should we succeed in eliminating our enemy. The thirty six ships of the Alpha sector were to follow us to the Epsilon sector and ensure our destruction, then return to the Gamma sector and finish off everyone else.

The Captain attempted to waylay our suspicions by assuring us that he and the captains of the ships that now accompanied us were in fact completely on our side. They had secretly broken with Earth gov. and had joined our offensive to destroy our enemy under the premise that the enemy had become a real threat to the Alpha sector, as their latest incursion into that region had so recently demonstrated.

Captain Standish gave a most convincing argument for the reasons that the Alpha sector ships had changed their loyalties. Because the attacks on the home sector were not perpetrated by overzealous propaganda machines, but actual incursions by our enemy, it meant that the slave had turned on its master. Captain Standish and his followers had argued unsuccessfully with the Earth government over the past few months to allow them to venture into the Epsilon sector and destroy what was now fast becoming an experiment gone awry. Earth gov. had unanimously denied his request and strictly forbade any such attempts to right the wrong.

The arrival of our offensive forces from the Gamma sector had given Captain Standish and his like minded fleet Captains the opportunity to go against the orders of Earth gov. His sole reason for admitting this fact to Captain Stovall and to me was in the interests of fostering trust between us. I left our meeting wondering if I trusted him, Earth, or even General Josten. If I did choose to trust the Earth Captain, could I trust that all of his followers were of a like mind, or would they turn on us at their first opportunity as their original orders commanded?

Constance met me just outside the ready room door and walked back to my quarters with me. I decided to spend the next six to eight hours contemplating my next move in her sexual company.