Approaching Desperate Ground

[Ethan Neufeld 0]

Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all!

 

What was he doing here?

 

The provoked question caught Ethan's train-of-thought off-guard and he snapped a well-read copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War closed. Truth was he was feeling a bit spooked. Doing? He was doing a lot of things, except he couldn't explain his actual purpose on the Qob. He didn't have a place or connection with them. As often as he had reassured and argued with himself that he should, he couldn't trust them.

 

When Ethan signed on to the expedition as Dr. Phantos's Security Adviser, it had astonished him to learn that not one of the previous expeditions had managed to gather any useful tactical data. Nothing they could effectively analyze, use to characterize what they were up against and weigh the probabilities. How was it possible to land on a defended planet, retrieve artifacts, and not return with anything useful? That had to be a unique skill.

 

Still, there was always a starting point. Everything started out from nothing or near enough before curiosity or suspicion brought the intelligence. It just happened that they were venturing out on nothing this time. That obstacle was easily surmounted by succeeding where others failed; gathering the information they needed. They were filling in that information at the current moment.

 

Ethan would have preferred to divide their operations. Send a force to exhaustively probe the planet's defenses. Then reevaluate and send the main expedition. They might have reduced unnecessary supplies, secured precisely what they did need and prevented wasting resources, time or, worse, rushing to get results and putting people in a dangerous position. But much of the expedition was already underway when Ethan arrived and couldn't spare the added expense.

 

That might have been a result of lacking foresight, plans, inexperience or institutional impatience. But it was a small stumbling block. That was why Ethan had been hired – to devise their strategy and tactics and advise accordingly; to provide the experience and foresight. Or so he had thought and he'd thought wrong. It was a stumbling block he never managed to overcome.

 

He'd met with resistance from Dr. Phantos. He was accustomed to close collaboration; making plans with and seeking out the input of every specialist or team member. He had expected to hold consultations with the entire expedition. He'd wanted to collectively discuss their tactics and strategies; foster cooperation and focus before the last of them left Xorax. He'd intended to comprehensively plan each possible maneuver, simplify and condense what they could and create a shared list of needed equipment. It didn't happen. The Denobulan Scientist had a simple philosophy: let the Mercs deal with the details as they see fit. That was, after all, why they were being paid. That philosophy hadn't gone very far for teamwork between the Qob and Lucky Hand when they were first attacked by the Raiders. But, for whatever reason, they had Dr. Phantos's faith where Ethan did not. Generally, Ethan had been reduced to acting as a personal secretary more than a security adviser.

 

It was that resistance to planning that triggered Ethan's first doubts toward the outcome. His time on the Qob had led to unease. It was the method of their distinctive madness. All of Bull's Head seemed to have contracted it - this disturbing penchant for ad hoc ad libs. They had objectives, a few points of interest, but no plotted pencil marks on their maps.

 

The fact that they were jerry-rigging equipment in orbit of their target didn't bother him. But these were modifications that could have been planned and made before they left Xorax. Whatever advice he'd provided had obviously gone ignored. They could have secured equipment specifically made for this. Did they even have diving gear? He honestly wasn't sure what they had in their cargo hold. This sort of play-by-ear wasn't flexibility – flexibility implied plans had been made, but left open to deviations when favorable. Ethan was comfortable with flexibility. This was plain disorganized and fundamentally unprepared; it was the pure extemporization that spooked him. The fact that they were coming to the some of the same conclusions and had the skill to carry them out was a very small consolation.

 

It seemed like they were rushing things. Appearances led Ethan to believe they'd abandoned exploring other options further. They were already making preparations for a submerged insertion and they didn't know if they'd make it up the beach. And what about the sea itself? If this civilization had the proficiency to design and build surface-to-air and ground defenses, why not in the sea? What surprises waited in those depths; would a manned craft be the lucky one to find out? The Qob was on facile ground, ready to advance on difficult ground and their aim was hemmed-in ground that promised to become desperate ground. A fight was inevitable; ability to retreat questionable.

 

After he'd gotten word that preparations were being made for a sub-like insertion, the picture of a shuttle 'driving' up the beach had seemed funny. But the amusement was brief; their plans were real. Where had that joke come from? He'd realized with rising consternation that it was a byproduct of that spooky companion called no-confidence. He didn't trust them; they didn't trust him. He wasn't sure what they were going to do from one moment to the next and it was evoking incredible theories. He didn't like feeling underprepared. He didn't like the lack of team cohesion or camaraderie; the apparent pseudo-anarchy and haphazard way in which they operated. He didn't like feeling that he didn't know his place, wasn't given room to do his job or that he was running without backup. They all were heading for desperate ground in one way or another; secretly, tactically.

 

All the better that he hadn't revealed his objectives to Joe, his reasons for coming to Zoalus. He'd made plans and his movements were concealed from both ally and foe.

 

 

Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting. -Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Edited June 12, 2011 by Ethan Neufeld