Colonization: Aftershocks - Harry Turtledove - Hardcover - 1 ED

As the jet aircraft descended toward the airport outside the still slightly radioactive ruins of Nuremberg, Pshing asked Atvar, "Exalted Fleetlord, is this visit really necessary?" "I believe it," the commander of the Race's conquest fleet told his adjutant. "My briefings state that a Tosevite wise in the political affairs of his kind recommended that a conqueror visit the region he conquered as soon as he could, to make those he had defeated aware of their new masters." "Technically, the Greater German Reich remains independent," Pshing pointed out. "So it doestechnically. But that will remain a technicality, I assure you." Atvar used an emphatic cough to show how strongly he felt about that. "The Deutsche did us far too much harm in this exchange of explosive-metal weapons to let their madness ever break free again." "A pity we had to concede them even so limited an independence," Pshing said. "And that is also a truth," Atvar agreed with a sigh. He swiveled one eye turret toward the window to get another look at the glassy crater that filled the center of the former capital of the Greater German Reich. Beyond it lay a slagged wilderness of what remained of homes and factories and public buildings. Conventional bombs had devastated the airport, too, but it was back in service. Pshing said, "If only we had some means of detecting their missile-carrying boats that can stay submerged indefinitely. Without those, we could have forced unconditional surrender out of them." "Truth," Atvar repeated. "With them, though, they could have inflicted a good deal more damage to our colonies here on Tosev 3. They will be surrendering the submarines they have left. We shall not allow them to build more. We shall not allow them to have anything to do with atomic power or explosive-metal weapons henceforward." "That is excellent. That is as it should be," Pshing said. "If only we could arrange to confiscate the submersible boats of the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as well, we would truly be on our way toward a definitive conquest of this miserable planet." "I merely thank the spirits of Emperors past"Atvar cast both his eye turrets down to the floor of the aircraft that carried him"that neither of the other powerful not-empires chose to join the Deutsche against us. Together, they could have hurt us much worse than the Reich alone did." "And now we also have the Nipponese to worry about," Pshing added. "Who knows what they will do, now that they have learned the art of constructing explosive-metal weapons? They already have submarines, and they already have missiles." "We never did pay enough attention to islands and their inhabitants," Atvar said fretfully. "Small chunks of land surrounded by sea were never important back on Home, so we have always assumed the same would hold true here. Unfortunately, it does not seem to be so." Before Pshing could answer, the aircraft's landing gear touched down on the runway outside Nuremberg. The Race's engineering, slowly refined through a hundred thousand years of planetary unity, was very fine, but not fine enough to keep Atvar from feeling some bumps as the aircraft slowed to a stop. "My apologies, Exalted Fleetlord." The pilot's voice came back to him on the intercom. "I was given to understand repairs to the landing surface were better than is in fact the case." Peering out the window, AtvarTurtledove, Harry is the author of 'Colonization: Aftershocks - Harry Turtledove - Hardcover - 1 ED' with ISBN 9780345430212 and ISBN 0345430212.