The captain had passed along the instruction: that those who could rest should do so during the next two days. Officially, they were ascending, system by system, along a fifteen-day route toward Earth.
At the end of the two days, they cut all Drift communication and used, between the two Endymions, an old-fashioned radio link.
The fleet had reached a point called Omega, located in the immense empty interstellar plain. From the special operations tactical room of the Endymion, Andreï had one of the three Exocets they had left among the Wau's gifts sent out.
The Exocet, invisible, had Drifted to Caliban, collected information, and was now displaying it on a screen. In addition to Tohil and Pallas and two security officers from the Alké, there was Judea, an exceptional tactician with red hair in a bun and eyes replaced by steel who, legend said, had stood against the Aleph out of a taste for challenge.
"Let no information leave this room," Andreï had murmured as he requested the report to appear.
Caliban was surrounded by sixty-one Endymions, including the Gilgamesh, famous for housing a Chimera Protea and nuclear fusion bombs capable of leveling a continent. Informally, the Gilgamesh was considered the flagship of the Stellar Fleet. Small luminous sticks on the radar report, they encircled the entire planet evenly, perpendicular to the surface, thus able to project collected asteroids both onto the surface and onto any approaching ship.
Only the Gilgamesh wandered around the equator in high orbit.
The silence that followed the collected information was eloquent. But since someone had to state the obvious, Tohil spoke.
"We're done for."
"Perfect," Judea said with an icy smile. "Earth is no longer under the protection of the Gilgamesh. Let's Drift and crash our frigate onto Origin."
"So that the Aleph saves Earth from its attackers and becomes an even greater Messiah?" Pallas asked.
"To show that the Resistance exists and can strike at any moment," Judea replied firmly.
Andreï was scribbling on a piece of paper. As they looked at him, he stood up, folding the paper in question.
"Uh, all right," he said.
"All right what, Captain?" Tohil asked.
"We're going to attack, aren't we?"
After a silence, Judea asked, spacing her words:
"What is your plan?"
"Don't be frightened by the number of sixty-one ships. They are very far from each other. They are slow. They believe, rightly, that our forces are reduced. They believe Ravzan is ready to overturn the situation. And we have major advantages. Surprise. Our Drift calculations on the fly. And our courage."
"Our courage?" Tohil repeated incredulously.
"Yes, that's a way of saying we do not work for a half-mad guy. (His eyes drifted into the distance.) This is not won. It is not simple. But I see a path. If only we had the Wau. Or one more little wild card…any one. So that we'd have our hands free to demand their surrender…but here is the pure exercise of war: we go from desperate situations to desperate situations. Come on, officers, all hands on deck."
Tohil summoned the entirety of the Resistance Fleet's forces for an address. He simply said:
"You must know Captain Andreï of the Alecto. I appoint him Admiral of the Stellar Fleet, meaning he is now my superior, and the one responsible for all our forces. I now give him the floor."
Captain Andreï, for those not directly in front of him on the officers' deck of the Alké, appeared on all screens. He looked neither tired nor in shape, neither combative nor fearful, rather ordinary.
Everyone-former members of the League, partisan Xenos, defiant or admiring officers, weary or terrified sailors-stared at him in silence.
"Hello everyone. To avoid the risk of espionage we gave you false information, the one stating we were heading toward Earth. That is not the case. We are currently stationed on the outskirts of the Oort cloud of the Caliban system. We believe that there exists on Caliban a Transient artifact named the Empyrean Gates, which is capable of giving victory to whoever possesses it. Our enemy, the Aleph, is aware of this since he has stationed more than fifty Endymions in orbit around the planet. Sixty-one, to be precise."
Murmurs and sighs, vague exclamations that covered the flow of words that had not stopped.
"There exists no war manual that explains how a space fleet can win an orbital victory with an unfavorable ratio of one to thirty. However, I tell you this: we can emerge victorious from such a confrontation. On one condition: you must obey orders unfailingly and without weakening. We are beginning a war of attrition, which must paradoxically be as brief as possible to avoid the arrival of reinforcements. This will require concentration, mechanical obedience, and endurance."
He allowed a silence, then continued:
"Our primary objective is not the destruction of the Stellar Fleet loyal to the Aleph, which, after all, is composed of brave soldiers who were once ours, but to open a certain precise window of approach to Caliban. The Empyrean Gates, as I told you, are the sole reason for our assault. The two Endymions will be the ships conducting the space attack. All the others-Ozy, Raven, Alexandrites, the Frigate, even the Invictus-will remain ready to take off at any moment to reach the surface. The safest point of approach is the equator, at a point opposite the orbit of the Gilgamesh. When we give you the order, you will all head to this point at maximum speed. Then you will disperse under the cloud layer, following a heading currently being distributed to you by our onboard tactician, Officer Judea. From there, your mission is in your hands. We do not know what the Empyrean Gates look like, we do not know their purpose or how to activate them. It is possible-though this remains a hypothesis-that they may manipulate time and space. It seems obvious, but it is logical to think they will look…like gates."
He was relaxed and displayed a smile. Many men burst into laughter, which lessened the nervousness a little.
"In any case, we know from a reliable source that this is the key to our liberation from the grip of a god with a human face. I have faith in your resourcefulness and intelligence. Find Xeno or Transient ruins, find the artifact, and I want to say to you: win the war for us. It is possible…probable…that at that moment, on the other side of the clouds, we will have been defeated."
This time, no murmur-only the silence of a collective held breath.
"Defeated, certainly. Destroyed, not necessarily. I am not one of those admirals who sacrifice their crew out of pride or ideology. Each of your lives matters to me. I will surrender if I am certain that there is nothing else to do. But yes, I am speaking to you all, and I am speaking to the dead: not all of you will survive. And the person speaking to you will very probably die as well, either on the battlefield or before a firing squad. The Aleph is the enemy of the project of human progress, but also a personal enemy. However, my mission is not personal. Nor is yours. The motto of the Stellar Fleet since its foundation in 2197 has been 'Hominibus semper prodesse,' which means in a forgotten language of Mythic Earth: 'Always at the service of mankind.' The Aleph has taken the motto literally and has diverted human forces to destroy Xeno worlds. There are many warlike or boastful mottos, inspiring courage or pride, that I would like to propose to you today as a replacement, but after reflection, here is the one I place as the cardinal value of our fleet: Amor Fati, love your destiny. You can love the destiny that awaits you, whether you meet victory or defeat in it, because your cause is the right one. The orders I will give you are tools for victory, and once you are engaged you must follow them to the letter and without fail, but I leave you free, here and now, to follow me or not into this fight. If you wish to withdraw, inform Judea. I am not here to convince you. You are intelligent and you have seen what one side does and what the other side does. This war is not simply asymmetrical in its forces, but in the values carried by each side's objectives. Amor Fati."
No applause, only silence.