In the period of China’s First Solar Empire, out of all of the Great Ring of fortified space stations around the asteroid belt mining zone, Shanhai Station was the most formidable. The inscription above its main entry port read “First Pass Under Heaven”, in memory of an ancient fortress of the Great Wall on Earth.
No ship passing through its sector could escape the watchful eyes of Shanhai Station’s scanners and inspection drones. The station’s secondary gunnery systems were designed to intercept the incoming fire from three fleets attacking simultaneously. The station’s primary weapons were capable of opening the hull of a fully armoured fighter-carrier from bow to stern.
When Princess Yoshiko, daughter of the Japanese Emperor Go-Hanazono, visited Shanhai Station during difficult diplomatic negotiations, she attended a party in the station’s beautiful gardens to celebrate the successful end of the talks. She was enchanted by the sight of Li Hongji, son of the governor of Shanhai Station, riding a horse through the gardens. They talked for the rest of the evening and until the next morning. They quickly fell in love. When the Emperor’s delegation left the station, Yoshiko could not bear to be parted from Li Hongji.
After the Japanese Emperor’s flotilla left Shanhai Station, the absence of Princess Yoshiko was discovered. When the Jiju Bukan (the Emperor Go-Hanazono’s military aide) contacted the station, she learned that the Princes Yoshiko had married Li Hongji, without the Emperor’s permission. The rage of the Emperor Go-Hanazono burned brightly. When the governor of Shanhai Station refused to return Princess Yoshiko, the Emperor told his staff to plan an immediate attack on Shanhai Station, using the ships which had escorted his carrier to the station for the negotiations. However, the Jiju Bukan was a wise officer.
“Shanhai Station was designed to defend against exactly the kind of attack that we would be making,” she warned. “The Emperor’s forces must not fail in this opening battle, or we will be unable to assemble the allies we need to sustain a conflict with the First Solar Empire.”
“What do you propose, then?” asked one of the Emperor’s generals.
She continued, “Everyone knows that stations such as Shanhai consume water, despite the best recycling systems available, and they produce waste heat. Ships come and go constantly, bringing ice to the station. They are inspected with thermal scanners, to ensure that no-one is smuggled aboard, deep inside the many tons of ice. We could put a company of shock troops into sleep capsules and cool their bodies. They could wake up inside the station’s defences and neutralise them. We could enter the station with little resistance.”
“This is no solution!” said the general. “Everyone knows that sleep capsules produce heat, which would be easily detected by the scanners.”
“One of the Emperor’s scientists has modified our sleep capsules,” the Jiju Bukan said. “This will only last for a short time, but that is all we need.”
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Tale of the Week 297: Troy - SUBMISSION THREAD
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