.png){kind=link}
Chapter 12 - By the Horns[]
General Headquarters, Taurus Defense Force
Mount Santiago Defense Complex, Taurus
Taurian Concordat
October 15th, 3025
“What the HELL happened with our security!” Thomas bellowed at the table of high-ranking military officers and civilian members of government that he stood before. He slammed his fist down on the polished surface. “I was asked—ASKED—by journalists this morning about rumors floating around not only concerning the WarShip docked in orbit, but the Memory Core as well! If our journalists know about it, you can fucking well bet your collective asses that the Inner Sphere spies know it—and their leaders will know in short order!”
Thomas’ cybernetic eye whirred and clicked as he glared at the men and women before him, but then his head jerked up as one man began to laugh.
“They know because I deliberated leaked that information, Protector Calderon,” said Henri Jouett.
The Protector’s jaw dropped, he made an inarticulate growl, and his remaining natural eye bulged outwards—and the shocked expressions on the faces of everyone—except Edward—at the table mirrored his own.
“TREASON!” shouted Grover Shraplen after he regained his tongue.
“Hardly treason, Governor,” answered Henri as Thomas still struggled to find his composure. “It was necessary—and as the ancient saw says, it is easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission.”
Thomas sat, and he shook his head, looking down at his shaking hands—shaking with rage and fury—and then he glared at his Intelligence Minister. “I should have you shot, Henri.”
“My Lord, the information would have eventually leaked—it was inevitable. The discovery is far too vital to the future of the Concordat for it not to have leaked. Not to mention that every civilian ship within a million kilometers of Taurus has now seen the Saucy Sam for themselves—and some of them have spies for other powers onboard. Denying this information in the light of what their own eyes and sensors see gains us nothing.”
“That might explain the ship—but not the FUCKING MEMORY CORE!” Thomas bellowed.
“Pop,” Edward whispered, and Thomas turned his attention to his son. “Listen to Henri—I knew about this. And I knew that you would never have allowed his plan . . . which is why I told him to go ahead without your okay.”
“Y-you told h-him,” Thomas stuttered and spat, and then he forced himself to relax. He took a deep breath. “This had better be good.”
“Thomas,” Henri said softly, “if you really think Edward and I are traitors to the Concordat, take us outside and have us shot. Yes, I had the information leaked and it is probably in the hands of every leader of the Inner Sphere at this moment—well, SAFE might still be arguing about whether or not Janos Marik needs to see this, but every other leader in the Inner Sphere.”
Despite themselves, several of the men and women at the table chuckled at that. The ineptitude of the Marik intelligence organizations had become the punch-line of jokes across the Inner Sphere—although, by and large, the agency as a whole was far better than most presumed.
“I leaked the information on the Vickers Core because it distracts them from the Saucy Sam, Thomas. And it dilutes their efforts. Make no mistake, they all want the ship and the core—well, that or to see them destroyed so that we don’t have them. But now, they have two targets instead of one, and whereas smuggling in one team might possibly get past our security, multiple teams? From multiple powers? In a set time frame? When we are expecting them to make a play?”
Henri snorted as Thomas slowly nodded his head.
“Thomas,” Henri said seriously he leaned forward. “If I had not leaked the information, it would have eventually come out—and they would make a play for the Core at a time of their choosing. Now? It’s a race. They not only have to get through our security, but they also have to get to it before their opponents do.”
Murmurs of understanding circled the table, and Helena Vickers raised her cup of coffee in silent salute—Henri nodded, his hand over his heart.
“By way, did I mention that my leaks—which foreign intelligence agents will note that I am desperately attempting to quash—indicate that we salvaged that ship; a ship abandoned and derelict for four hundred years?”
“Oh, you tricky bastard,” muttered Helena. “You want them to think that Sam is just barely operational, don’t you?”
“Exactly, Admiral Vickers. That WarShip—obviously with battle damage as anyone can see in the visual records—must be in a perilous state of disrepair after drifting for so long. And we have no one who understands those systems, knows how to work those system, repair those systems . . . to them, it appears that she is nothing more than a hanger-queen at this time.”
“But Helena Vickers and her crew . . . ,” protested Grover before Henri cut him off.
“You will note that I have held that particular piece of information rather tightly, my Lords—it hasn’t leaked. Not to the best of my knowledge—so far, neither foreign nor domestic source yet knows about the gallant Admiral and her crew.”
Henri smiled. “Furthermore, the leaks from my office lead one to believe that the Vickers Core is encrypted—and that we are moving heaven and earth to try and locate the decryption codes from archives four centuries old. Archives that the Star League gutted during their occupation.”
“But we have the decryption keys,” Shraplen asked in a bewildered voice. “Why . . .?”
“Governor Shraplen,” Edward said slowly and gently. “Those who want the Core will believe that we cannot yet access it. Taurian Cores of that period were routinely booby-trapped with explosives and even nerve gas,” and Henri nodded his approval at the young man, “and will wipe all their data if someone attempts to bypass the security systems. Oh, it can be done, given enough time—but if they want the Core before we open it, then they must make a play soon.”
“Not to mention that the leaks place the Core in a TDF secure installation outside of Samantha City—a research station that is but lightly guarded,” Henri added. “And we do have a duplicate Core module there . . . an empty one. Well,” he laughed, “one filled with rather useless information that is quite thoroughly encrypted.”
“Where then is the real Vickers Core, Henri?” Thomas asked.
“Remember that loon who wanted to build an entire city under a mountain—named the bloody place Erebor after that old film?” Henri said with a smile.
Thomas winced. “Ralston bankrupted his family for that project—you didn’t,” he said with a slowly expanding smile on his face.
“Oh, but we did. He had dug out dozens of levels all buried under hundreds of meters of granite, Tom. We’ve decided to build SCARS—and a city to support it—inside Erebor. One way in, one way out—and it will be heavily defended.” Henri snorted again. "That bloody mountain will laugh at even nukes."
“So, the Inner Sphere will vie for a Core that is a fake—and they will assume that Samantha Calderon is crewed by trainees who haven’t a clue about what they are doing . . . with many of her systems possibly off-line.”
“Yes, my Lord. And as we all know, assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups,” Henri added.
“If your plan works.”
“My plan depends only on human nature, Thomas. And which is more believable—that we salvaged that ship or that it jumped across Time to arrive with a fully trained crew and an unlocked Memory Core?” Henri smiled again. “No, they will use Occam’s Razor to arrive at exactly the wrong conclusion; and gentlemen, ladies, when their teams make a play for the Core . . . well, they can report home that it was destroyed. Their survivors can report, at least; the handful that we permit to escape off-world.”
Thomas nodded, and then he smiled. But then the smile vanished. “Next time, Henri, I want to be informed ahead of time—understood?”
Henri’s lips twitched at the phrase next time. But he merely said, “Yes, my Protector.”
“Until then, what do you need to arm the jaws of your trap—and how are we going to play this with the media? I need to answer them before the end of this day on this subject.”
And with that, Thomas and his government rolled up their sleeves and went to work.