LITMIR.BIZ

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shook his head doubtfully.

      “I’m going by the information I have. I have no other theories.”

      “All right, let’s assume that you’re mostly right. But what’s wrong with evacuating the Empire’s inhabitants to us?”

      “We do not fit into their concept of the future world order. First of all, there are quite a few of us, and we will have to be reckoned with. Secondly, in addition to humans, there are also the lizards and quargs, with whom they will also need to build a difficult relationship. Finally, we can oppose the idea of abandoning four-fifths of the population of the Empire to its fate. If, all of a sudden, we were gone…”

      “You don’t have to go on, Admiral, I get your point. The departure of the Imperial ships and the silence of their diplomats fit very well into the model you suggest.”

      “And they might have succeeded, Mr. President,” said I looking Tobolsky straight in the eyes, “ If General Clay had taken away the Imperial battleships immediately after the first phase of the battle for the metropolitan lizards’ system, we would have been defeated. The Senior Lizard would most likely have died in that fight, and our alliance with the lizards might have cracked, if not broken altogether. And we couldn’t think of any operation to remove the mental blocks from the quargs, because we would be sitting in our systems and prepare for a hopeless defense. But Clay disobeyed the Admiralty’s orders and thus, in fact, saved us. And now he’s not answering his communicator, and neither is Dr. Silk. I’m afraid they’re both in trouble in the Empire right now.”

      “But if everything is as you say, then now the Empire can turn from being our ally into an enemy,” slowly said Tobolsky, “Isn’t that too radical a conclusion to draw from your words?”

      “The Empire can become our enemy, but not now. First, they get rid of the threat of pursuit from the toads by escaping through their portals into intergalactic space. And after that… It’s very sad to live in infinite nothingness, and I’m sure they’ll want to set foot on real planets again. But they can’t go back – the toads will sweep their galaxy clean of the people abandoned there. We’ll be the only humans left, and if we’re stupid enough to open a portal for them…”

      “So maybe we should shut it down now, cutting off all relations with the Empire?”

      “I’m afraid it will only make things worse. Realizing that they can no longer count on our world, the new leaders of the Empire will simply plant information about us on the toads, in order to further divert the attention of the «frogs» from their flight and lead them down the wrong path. We have to solve this problem in some other way. I don’t know how, but I need to get to the Empire and find out the fate of General Clay and Dr. Silk. They have relations with the right people, who may still have power and influence. The further I go, the clearer I realize that leaving through the portals is a bad way out for the Empire, or rather, it’s not a way out at all. And for us, their flight from the toads will also create serious problems, if not right now, then for the foreseeable future.”

      “If running away is not the solution, what do you see as the solution? What am I asking, though? I know you too well, Admiral, to doubt your answer. But I would still like to hear it.”

      “Mr President, once upon a time, in this very pavilion, when I was a lieutenant, I told you that the war with the quargs would probably be just a phase in our struggle for the right to exist.”

      “I remember it, Admiral. I could not then fully accept Lieutenant Lavroff’s point of view, although, as it turned out, I should have taken it seriously.”

      “We need to solve our military problems here as quickly as possible, Commander-in-Chief, Sir. If we don’t want problems in the near future, we have to make the Empire fight to the end and help it win, otherwise the threat of annihilation will still hang over us, and sooner or later the toads from Brigadier General Dean’s world will come here.”

      Chapter 1

      The head of the Imperial Defense Ministry’s own security service, General Las, had been sitting pensively in a chair in front of his personal holographic monitor for several minutes. His gaze was directed elsewhere, and the General seemed completely uninterested in the lines of updated information running across the screen.

      The work, which he had begun at Marshal Klink’s suggestion, has in fact been finished. Except that Klink was no longer the acting supreme commander of the armed forces of the Empire. The investigation, initiated by his enemies in the Regency Council amidst the defeatist hysteria fanned by the online media, led first to the restriction of Marshal’s authority, and soon to his removal from office for his inability to effectively resist an enemy offensive that turned out to be not so large-scale. The whole thing – both the investigation and its results – was obviously bogus, but, as you know, one can find a key to almost every politician or official by doing a little digging into his past, so many members of the Regency Council somehow suddenly lost their critical thinking, and the decision to suspend Klink passed with unexpected ease, as did the order for his arrest, so far, however, only at home.

      And now Las was faced with the question of what to do with the information obtained by his service.

      Admiral Dier became the new acting supreme commander, and it was as a result of his conflict with Dier that Marshal Klink involved Las in an investigation into the origins of the wave of disinformation about the almost inevitable toads’ breakthrough that had engulfed the Empire. Now Las knew exactly who had set off the wave, and he was about to put together all the causes and effects, leading to an understanding of the plan, of which the media hysteria was a visible part. Except that Fleet Admiral Dier was now none other than his direct superior, and it was to him he was supposed to go with the report of the investigation. But Las was well aware of what would follow such a report. All the facts obtained by Las’s men indicated that Dier was a direct and very active participant in the cabal.

      Las was not just an experienced and diligent officer or a reckless patriot who saw his only goal in the prosperity of the Empire, but, to his credit, he wasn’t a cynical beast either, ready to throw away all his principles and beliefs to save his career and his own skin. All his life, the General has found compromises that allowed him to simultaneously achieve his career goals and not feel like the last scoundrel, he managed to stay on a certain line and still think of himself as a decent person. But now there was no compromise, and the choice was really tough.

      The investigation could have been quietly shut down, and it would not have threatened him and his family in any way, since there would definitely be a place for them in the new world. But then how to live with the knowledge that you could have prevented the deaths of billions of people and did not do it…

      There was another option, much more risky and by no means guaranteeing a positive result. Las could finish the investigation at his own risk and bring the results to the people who still retained power in the Empire and who were able, and most importantly, had the will to change the current situation. It is true that these people were, if not explicit, then hidden opponents of the clan to which his current chief belonged, and from the departmental point of view, such actions, to put it mildly, went beyond the limits of what was allowed, and to call it what it was, it was bordering on treason. So such a move could have corresponding consequences for Las.

      The General realized that he had managed to get between a rock and a hard place, with no chance of leaving that danger zone without doing something for which he would later despise himself.

      Having finally broken away from the contemplation of some abstract point in space, Las reluctantly focused his gaze on the monitor screen. The General felt unable to make any decision. If one option is blatantly unacceptable and the other one is extremely dangerous, then one should seriously consider making no choice at all, and Las determined for himself that he would continue the investigation, keeping it as secret as possible and minimizing the number of agents working on it, and then, when the situation became clearer, he would decide what to do with the results of the investigation.

      Having made this halfway decision, the General calmed down a little and looked more closely at the lines on the monitor.

      So, what is known at this point? First, what is already

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