A Battle Unseen

[Doc]

Cliff Offices, Southwestern Kaliburg, 3:30pm

"It opens," said the Emperor while sitting at his desk, shuffling through papers.  His speech impediment had gotten worse over the years as he got further and further from having ever been able to hear.  He was nearly 50 now, and after going completely deaf by the age of 15, he had spent more than twice as many years without even being able to hear the sound of his own voice--naturally his speech had become sluggish and, without constant practice, he had lost the ability almost completely to make his spoken words understood.  In walked Chancellor of the Empire Sir David Levine, followed closely by the Imperial Interpreter, Lady Allison Stuart, who closed the door behind him.  The Emperor was relying more and more on the Lady to interpret his signs, as his vocal communication had become more unintelligible.

Through Lady Stuart, the Emperor bid them both be seated.  "We are reading the final reports from the Defense Ministry on Northern Lights Exercises," said the Emperor.  "More or less they tell us that after all these years, we still are no better at finding subs in our waters than we were before the war.  Something really needs to be done about this."

The Chancellor nodded as Lady Stuart finished the interpretation.  "This does appear to be the case, Your Majesty.  However there were many highlights for the exercise too."

The Emperor, who could still very easily read lips waved that comment off.  "Listen, Sir Levine.  Our problem is that foreign navies can still operate with impunity in the Ocean.  If we can't find our friends when we are looking for them, why does the Minister of Defense think we will have any shot at all of discovering our enemies who we are not diligently tracking through the Karzon Strait?  If Lodamun and Dolgava can transit that strait with ease during the exercises, what's to say that some other nation, maybe the Artanian Kundrati territories can't put a submarine through there?  Or a whole fleet of them?  We all recall the problem they caused for Xsampa before the war.  Who's to say they aren't planning to do the same thing to Kaliburg?"

"Your Majesty, they don't have..."  Sir David Levine was cut off.

"Good Chancellor:  you are not so naïve.  Let's not play this game.  The Artanian Sea campaign was nearly twenty years ago, and we have replaced our entire 4th fleet in that time.  Do you not think they won't have produced one sub in the same period of time capable of wiping our capital city off the map if they choose?  And with our detection rates at less than 90%?"

"Yes Your Majesty," said the Chancellor who tried to put an optimistic spin.  "I'm sure we can trust the rest of the world..."  The expression on the Emperor's face darkened immediately, and it stopped the Chancellor short in mid sentence.  "...  they...  will..."

The Emperor began signing very rapidly, and Lady Stuart started interpreting in her head...  She responded in sign to the Emperor, who signed something back to her.  To which she responded, in both sign and in voice, "I don't understand you.  You go too fast."  An exasperated Emperor rolled his eyes, and signed slowly and deliberately.  Lady Stuart nodded, and interpreted, "Sir Levine, if you think the world is coming to Kalistan's defense, especially against Kundrati, you are quite oblivious.  We have endorsed your optimistic internationalist orientation for years and we can't even get meetings with people we have materially helped.  This world is not ready for another world conflict, especially so soon after the last one ended so ignominiously.  If Kaliburg was destroyed tomorrow, we doubt anyone would even acknowledge the matter.  They certainly aren't rushing to Kalistan's defense.  So this is on us.  It's always been on us."

"I understand, Your Majesty,"  said the Chancellor.  "How should we respond to the rocket..."

The Emperor stopped him again.  "How should you respond to the lack of the ability to detect submarines to an acceptable level?"

"Your Highness?"

The Emperor actually spoke the words, while he signed to Lady Stuart.  While his speech was very garbled and was made worse by the volume of the words, he repeated himself "What is our Government going to do about the lack of ability to detect submarines in our Ocean?"  Lady Stuart spoke the words immediately after the Emperor, as her job required.

"Your Majesty," stammered the Chancellor after a moment, surprised by the sound of the Emperor's voice.  "The Defense Department is working on improving our audio surveillance in the Ocean as we speak, as well as outfitting the sonar network with additional sensors which improved detection during the exercises.  We are also having the Spencer folks look into developing infrared detection for the oceans, to look for ocean signatures from oncoming sub fleets.  Generally, we are also developing computer algorithms that recognize faint machine signatures and distinguish foreign from domestic.  It's notoriously difficult to do, but it is the priority."

"Are you looking into additional systems that others have?" asked the Emperor.

"We've made inquiries, but nothing has been solidified in discussions with others."

"Sir Levine," said the Emperor.  "If there is one thing Kalistani Emperors know is that others promise Kalistan things all the time.  And only rarely do they deliver them, and never when we need them the most.  It is to the point of being a maxim.  We need to learn to rely on ourselves and stand on our own feet, and if we end up with help, that's great, but we ought not count on it.  Have KMI start working on prototypes.  We would like this to be the focus going forward:  defense in depth has kept this Empire safe for centuries.  We going to stay with that doctrine as long as we continue to rule in this Empire."

"Yes, Your Majesty.  It shall be done."

"That is correct, Sir Levine.  It is why you have lasted in this job.  We know you will see to it."

The Emperor then concluded the meeting and dismissed the Chancellor as well as Lady Stuart. Both stood to leave, and with slight bows, they backed out of the office and closed the door behind them.