The A.I. War, Book One: The Big Boost (Tales of the Continuing Time) by Daniel Keys Moran

asteroid, links them all together. There are even a few colonists at Jupiter and Saturn, pushing the boundaries of human occupation of the System.
    By the time Trent the Uncatchable had come to the Belt, in 2070, this political situation had been stable for almost forty years.
    In 2072, the United Nations Space Force began building the Unity ... at Halfway.
    The Unity is seven kilometers long. It is not merely the largest spacecraft that has ever been built, more than ten times as long as the uncrewed mining ferries that, in calmer times, sent ore from the Belt to Halfway; it is nearly the largest artifact humans have ever built. There are cylindrical Cities in the Belt that are larger, blown up out of asteroids that were melted down with giant mirrors, and then inflated, while still molten metal, to the desired shape ... but in 2080 there are only a few, and even those few are not much larger than the Unity .
    The Unity is mounted with more laser cannon than can be found in orbit around Earth itself, is reputedly armored against direct nuclear blasts. It carries six torch-driven troop carriers, fifty chemical rocket troop carriers, and over two hundred slipships; and is designed to carry a crew of thirty-five hundred, and up to fifteen thousand PKF and Space Force troops.
    It is rumored, though not even the SpaceFarers’ Collective knows it for a fact, that the Unity carries high yield thermonuclear weapons ... the very weapons the Unification had been created to get rid of, the very weapons the Unity ’s hull has been hardened against.
    She has been designed for one purpose, and though the Unification has never said so publicly, that purpose is the clearest thing in the System:
    Sixty years after the end of the Unification War, the Unification of Earth intends to become the Unification of Sol.
    TRENT STARED OFF to one side, gazing blankly at the coffee machines that lined the wall of the officer’s mess. “You know ... I sure wish I was appalled by this. Or outraged. Or something.”
    With Belinda Singer dead, Hera Saunders was perhaps Trent’s closest friend among the SpaceFarers. It wasn’t saying much. “Trent ... do you have any idea how many people have died trying to keep that ship from reaching completion?”
    “Nope.” He shook his head, still not looking at them, thoughts apparently elsewhere. “I’ve been working on other projects, you know,” he said absently.
    “I know.” Saunders sighed almost inaudibly, and seemed in that moment as old as her years. “We’ve lost eighty-three SpaceFarers – so far – and I don’t even know how many people the Rebs and Claw have sent in. PKF are providing security at Halfway these days and they catch most of our people before they ever get close enough to do any damage. We’ve had some success, a few agents placed inside the ship; we even picked up three agents inside Space Force, two Rebs and an Erisian agent who were left stranded after the TriCentennial Rebellion failed.”
    “And?”
    Rickie Gorabel shook her head. “If anything useful has happened, we don’t know about it. Our people keep vanishing, one after the other. That ship is huge , son. The one bomb we managed to plant inside the ship blew out some of their comm and control, and it put them back maybe six months –”
    “I heard about that. Kill anyone?”
    She ignored the interruption. “But the structural damage to the ship was negligible.”
    Trent leaned back in his chair, facing them, hands clasped loosely over his stomach. He said abruptly, “Nuke it. Get a good-sized nuke inside it and set it off.”
    Silence. The three Captains looked at each other, and then at Trent.
    Trent smiled at them. “Tried that already, did you?”
    Singer said, “They executed the team we sent in. That was four days ago. It was a desperation move, but we are desperate.” He muttered, “Or we wouldn’t be asking you for help.”
    Trent’s smile stayed fixed in place. “The population of Halfway is