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commanders over the last few decades, and that they don't want to repeat the experience."
"Sir, it sounds to me like you'll just have to show a little flexibility when it comes to your command
structure, but I think I'll have to let you work that one out by yourself."
"I think you're right. They are being loaded into brand new tanks as we speak. They'll spend a month or
so in basic training, and by the time that's completed, we'll know what to do concerning their command
structure. Now, then. The enemy has invaded New Yugoslavia."
"So you've told me. What I want to know is why you didn't take out the old Earther probe that they had
to come through. I would have done it as soon as they invaded New Kashubia," I said.
"I wanted to, but my employers refused to let me do it. Don't forget that we are still a mercenary outfit
that is working here under contract to the various local governments. Those people were still making a
profit, selling their foodstuffs to Earth, and they didn't want to permanently cut themselves off from that
huge market. The compromise that we settled on was to simply shut down the receivers that operate
from their probe. The Yugoslavians thought that that would keep them safe. They even informed the
Earthers that the receivers would be shut down, so that they wouldn't offend them, while they continued
making their contracted shipments to Earth."
"It obviously didn't stop them from invading us," I said.
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"True. The Earthworms launched a rocket from their probe, and landed it on the most unpopulated part
of the planet, one of the oceanic islands under the jurisdiction of the smallest government here, the
German Enclave. That rocket contained a transporter receiver, and they invaded us through it," he said.
"And we didn't know about this as it happened?"
"No, we didn't. Remember that in the course of the fun and games that we've been playing on this planet,
we shot down every satellite we had here in orbit. We didn't have anything up there looking for incoming
ships."
"So our sins are coming back on us," I said.
"So it would seem."
"I trust that the probe has been deleted now?"
"Oh, yes, of course," he said. "And we now have twenty-six tanks in orbit guarding our skies. But there
is nothing stopping the Earthworms from transmitting directly from Earth to their new receiver. We have
to take it out, and the army that is doubtless guarding it."
"So we have an island to take," I said.
"Six islands. They were unpopulated, part of a nature preserve that was saving some of New
Yugoslavia's indigenous life forms, so the Earthworms simply took them without a fight. The extent to
which they have damaged the preserve remains to be seen. They might very well have set up additional
receivers on all of those islands, just to be on the safe side."
"What about the rest of Human Space? Are the probes that connect them with Earth out of action?"
He said, "Yes, except for a few new planets that have not yet joined the smuggling net. In most cases, it
was a matter of simply going there, and cutting the power leads to the receivers from Earth. There is no
indication that they have set up alternate receivers operating directly from Earth's Solar System, but if I
had been in command of the Earth forces, that's what I would have done, long before I ever launched an
attack."
He looked at me and then turned away. "Most planets are not as careful of what they import as New
Yugoslavia is," he said.
"So we have to clean them off of New Yugoslavia, and stay very vigilant about other invasions," I said.
"But mostly, we're going to have to attack Earth, and knock out their capability of continuing these
attacks. Mainly, that huge solar powered station of theirs."
"But we can't do that. If we take out all the transporter transmitters on Earth, what happens to the
continuing expansion of Human Space? If we tried to start the whole program up again ourselves, we
would halt all human progress to the stars for fifty years, even with the huge manufacturing capability of
New Kashubia. What we have to do is take those facilities from Earth, and operate them ourselves.
That's going to be a much more difficult job to accomplish."
"Humph. I can see your point, sir. But first things first. Tell me what you know about their installations on
the islands of the German Enclave," I said.
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"Their main base is on Baden-Baden Island. . . ."
We spent two more hours in Dream World, going over details, and downloading a lot of information into
Agnieshka. Then I asked for the night off, to think the whole thing over.
"That's fine, Mickolai. What I really wanted was to see if your ideas were at all like mine. Let me know
if you come up with anything. Before I forget. I liked that speech you made for your uncle."
"Yeah? I haven't seen it myself, yet, let alone released it!"
"More of Agnieshka's doing, then? Well, take a look at it first chance you get."
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
The Attack on Baden-Baden Island
I wanted to sleep on it, but I couldn't see wasting eight standard hours, not when the planet where my
valley was located had an enemy invasion force on it. My talk with the general made the whole thing
seem a lot more urgent. I compromised by sleeping in Dream World, after telling Agnieshka to round up
my squad, and Lloyd Tomlinson and Mirko Jubec as well. I wanted all the input I could get on this one.
* * *
When I awoke, everybody was there except for Lloyd, who had been spending the night with a
girlfriend, without his communicator, and had taken a while to find.
Instead of starting without him, or just killing time, I had Agnieshka show us the half hour program she
had put together on revamping New Kashubia's military. It wasn't bad, even though she had me saying a
lot of the same things that Sobieski had said to me at our last meeting.
Also, she had spent a lot of time talking about how useful it was to have an artificial intelligence working
for you. She even talked about the social drones that would soon be on the market, if you had a very
powerful computer available to run one. Being in the army would get you one for free.
She talked about Dream World as well, and how you could live any way you wanted to there. She had
Zuzanna on screen, talking about how her cancer had been cured, and showing off her Dream World
castle, with some scenes in it from the searchlight party.
Before she was through, the program ran for a full hour, but nobody seemed to mind.
"Not bad at all," Quincy said. "I especially liked the part about hanging the politicians who appointed our
last general staff. There's not much hope of that happening, though, since our politicians would have to
vote for it. One of the most horrible things that a politician can imagine is killing a politician, even if he is
on the other side."
"I liked the part about universal military service," Mirko said. "And especially the part about making the
right to vote depend on maintaining your standing in the army. If a person doesn't care enough about his
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