Ep.#1 - "Escalation" (The Frontiers Saga: Rogue Castes) by Ryk Brown

morning. We now have a total of thirty-two jump missile launchers in operation around the world, which means we can put at least one hundred and twenty-eight missiles into space within two minutes of an alert. That gives us a protection radius of two light years in all directions.”
    “How long until we can start deploying the perimeter launch platforms?” the admiral asked. “I want that range doubled.”
    “The first twelve platforms will be ready for deployment in thirty-seven days, as scheduled.”
    “I hate those words, as scheduled . Just once, I’d like to hear someone say ahead of schedule .”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “ Admiral, ” the intercom squawked. “ Alert traffic from Mu Cassiopeiae. ”
    “What is it?” the admiral asked after pressing the intercom button.
    “ Cobra One Four Seven reports spotting two Jung cruisers four light years outside the system. ”
    “That’s well within Alliance space,” the lieutenant commander commented.
    Admiral Galiardi was already out of his desk chair and heading for the command center just outside his office. “Commander Macklay!” the admiral bellowed as the stepped through the door.
    The commander was already anticipating the admiral’s next words. “The closest ship is the Aurora, sir,” the commander informed him promptly.
    “I thought she was prepping for overhaul?”
    “She starts tomorrow,” the commander replied. “She still has most of her crew and full armaments. However, her fighter wings have already rotated to the surface.”
    “What’s the course of those ships?” the admiral asked.
    “They’re headed directly for Mu Cassiopeaie, at maximum FTL speed.”
    “Alert the Aurora. Have her prepare to get underway. And move the Tanna from Tau Ceti to Eridani. If this is the start of a coordinated attack, there will be more ships coming in from the direction of Patoray.”
    “What about the Cape Town?” Commander Macklay wondered.
    “She’s only got half her crew, and nowhere near her full armaments.”
    “She’s got plenty of energy weapons, Admiral.”
    “No, get her back here and get more crew and weapons onto her decks as quickly as possible. We’ve only got one Protector class ship on the line, and she needs to be here, protecting Earth.”
    “But we have the surface jump missile launchers now,” Lieutenant Commander Ganis reminded the admiral. “Once detected, we can blow them to hell long before they get into attack range.”
    “Assuming we can detect them,” Admiral Galiardi pointed out. “They just managed to get five light years inside our borders before we spotted them, and that’s on an expected ingress route.”
    * * *
    “All systems are good. We’re go for the last jump into Rama.”
    “Set the jump sequencer for one minute,” Captain Tuplo instructed.
    “One minute, aye,” Josh replied.
    Captain Tuplo keyed the ship-wide intercom. “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain. Weare about to execute our last jump into the Rama system. As you may know, the government of Assengil does not allow jumps directly into the atmosphere, so we will be entering her atmosphere in the traditional way. Please, do not be alarmed by the red glow you will see outside. It is only the plasma wake caused by our shields hitting the atmosphere and heating up. Our shields will protect us. It may get a bit bumpy on the way in, but our inertial dampening systems should smooth them out nicely.”
    “Maybe you should record that for playback,” Josh suggested. “I could add a trigger cue for it in the jump sequencer.”
    “I don’t plan to make regular runs into Rama,” Captain Tuplo said.
    “Why not?” Josh wondered. “It’s got plenty of traffic these days.”
    “Too close to Takara. I don’t like my port fees lining the pockets of nobles,” the captain explained bitterly. “Besides, it’s a waste of propellant flying all the way down to the surface instead of just jumping in. All to keep from disturbing the damned