by S. H. Jucha
For this initial strategy session, Sam and the Rêveur’s security team were in attendance, and the four Trident teams stood on their ships’ bridges. Orbit linked the Tridents’ holo-vid displays and bridge comms of the warships to that of the Rêveur.
The Rêveur’s holo-vid displayed Sharon Reem’s telemetry of her traveler’s view of the moon’s dome.
“Let’s start with this,” Olawale said. With his implant, he highlighted the partially built ring that floated high above the dome.
“We’ve no idea what that structure does,” Tacnock admitted. “Recognize that when the Colony overtook this dome, all communications with the alliance were cut off. Prior to that time, we hadn’t received word of a construct like this over an alliance dome.”
“And if the Colony did occupy an alliance dome, you wouldn’t have known if they’d constructed a ring,” Edmas finished.
“That’s so,” Tacnock agreed.
“Conjecture?” Olawale requested.
“The ring is composed of modules,” Edmas stated, enlarging the holo-vid view to focus on a single segment. “Notice the end of this module. The connectors are massive. It’s prepared to transfer a tremendous amount of energy to the next segment that’s connected to it.”
“Understood, but for what purpose?” Olawale asked.
On the Rêveur’s bridge, the Omnians and Patrice stared at the defenders, whose confused expressions said it all.
“Don’t stop there, Orbit,” Olawale said. “Why do you suppose the Colony wants to transfer the dome’s power to the ring?”
“Size and capacity,” Jodlyne interjected.
“Elaborate,” Juliette requested.
“We’ve been told by Kasie that a platform is limited to the number of individuals it can transport,” Jodlyne explained.
“Not the number,” Kasie corrected. “It’s a matter of space. Smaller individuals mean a greater number of them can journey together.”
“Jodlyne, you’re proposing that the Colony wants to send more individuals through a gate at one time,” Patrice said dubiously. “If we were to believe that to be true, wouldn’t the Colony members appear within the ring ... in space?”
“Ships,” Edmas abruptly declared. “The Colony will be building a second ring somewhere over a non-alliance dome. When both rings are complete, they’ll send ships through.”
“Logical,” Bortoth said. “The Colony has captured non-alliance domes with ease. They managed to withstand the Resistance’s efforts. For every dome our explorers captured, the Colony claimed three or four more. They must have been extremely frustrated by the failure of their incursion into this alliance system.”
“I would agree,” Jess added. “Despite having arrived here nearly a decade ago, the Colony has advanced no farther than the moon.”
Olawale and Lucia stared expectantly at Esteban. The SADEs had been furiously considering options ever since Olawale requested conjectures.
“There’s consensus, Olawale,” Esteban said. “We believe that the assembled concepts are correct. The domes are connected, when a quantum-linked distant gate is activated. The remote ring will act as a transmitter that links with its dome’s platform; and this ring will be the receiver, which will be activated by the local platform. It’s anticipated that the Colony is meant to have this function as unidirectional transmission. More than likely, the Colony has invaded the planet where Kasie lectured. They’ll be using it as a manufacturing base. When their constructions are complete, they’ll send ships through to the Sylian system.”
“Time is of the essence,” Daktora declared. “The sooner we take this dome, the sooner we can reclaim other alliance domes, if they’ve been overtaken.”
Bortoth rumbled in agreement.
Olawale, Lucia, and Patrice glanced quickly at one another. The question of whether they’d help the alliance dispossess the Colony from other alliance domes hadn’t been broached between them.
Jess and Tacnock caught the exchange between the leaders. Their own expressions expressed their concerns as to whether the visitors would continue to help them after the Sylian dome.
Lucia considered it was time to end the theoretical aspect of the discussion. “For my benefit, can we assume that the ring in its present state does not represent a danger to my teams?” she asked. She was happy to hear agreement from everyone, especially the SADEs.
-8-
Kasie
“Fine,” Lucia said, when she received the answer she needed. “Let’s move on.” She selected another group of vids from Reem’s traveler.
“This is a view down the throat of a launch tube,” Lucia continued. “Where’s the gangway?”
“During a launch or landing, it’s retracted into the tube’s wall,” Tacnock replied. Lucia’s frown made him realize that she’d assumed that fact, and he’d misinterpreted her question. Hurriedly, he added, “It will be about ten meters down from the surface and in horizontal alignment with the tunnel, which you can see poking above the surface.”
Jess quickly added, “All four tubes are built to the same specifications. What you’ll find in one of them will be the exact same dimensions in the other three.” He was rewarded with a nod from Lucia for volunteering useful information.
“Are we landing on the surface and making our way down the tube, Commodore?” Lieutenant Sam Fleetfoot asked.
A small group of Sam’s people had been aboard Earth’s colony ship, the New Terra. Native Americans had paid enormous sums of credits for a few of their blood to travel to the stars. They’d also contributed sperm and egg samples to the genetic stores. When only a relatively small number of colonists from the crippled New Terra reached a viable planet, the colonists depended on their reserves to assist the population’s genomic viability.
Lucia eyed the Crocians and their considerable bulk. “Negative,” she replied to Sam. “With the individuals and the gear we’ll carry, it’ll be safer to drop from a traveler. Edmas, Jodlyne, and Esteban, after this conference, please get started with engineering.”
“We’ve offloaded enough of Velsana’s gas to flood much of two tunnels, up to about the connecting ring to the saturation levels required,” Tacnock said.
“But you indicated there weren’t doors or airlocks between the gangways and the dome entry?” Lucia queried.
“Thus, the problem,” Tacnock admitted. “Whether we make entry at one tunnel or two, the gas will disperse along the tunnels’ lengths. However, it will be only a matter of time before air circulation will sweep the gas from the tunnels. I doubt any of it will penetrate to the connecting ring.”
“The gas might still have value, Commodore,” Esteban said. “The results could be that your entry into the tunnel from the gangway airlock might be less contested where the saturation is highest. Farther into the tunnels, the Colony members might be woozy from oxygen deprivation or the intake of some amount of gas.”
“Good point,” Lucia acknowledged. “Whether we make entry into one or two tunnels, we’ll carry all the gas we’ve acquired from Velsana.”
“A question for the defenders,” Sam said. “Telemetry shows us that we can see into the dome. Is that true for the other direction?”
“Yes,” Jess said. “The Colony members, who are inside the dome, will see your ship drop and will surmise what our actions mean to them.”
Sam regarded Lucia, for a moment, and grinned. She caught it and intuited what Sam was thinking.
Lucia had chosen Sam as the expedition’s security officer for many reasons. He was competent, level-headed, and commanded respect from his people. More important, Sam was wily. Where others saw obstacles, he saw opportunities. His expression had transmitted his idea for a gambit.
“Another question for the defenders,” Sam said. “Why hasn’t the
alliance developed ship-based weaponry to counter the Colony’s shuttles?” he asked.
“What you see on and above Talseseena is new,” Tacnock replied. “For the alliance races, travel between the stars has always been through the domes. This was true for the Colony. Nearly every race’s Q-gates connected to alliance members or peaceful cultures that had yet to discover their domes and gates.”
“More important,” Kasie interjected, “while the Colony occupied non-alliance domes, it was thought that the alliance was protected from the Colony’s incursions.”
“The Resistance organized teams that continually harassed the Colony and slowed its expansion,” Jess continued. “The fighting took place inside a dome or its extensions. You can imagine this had to be done carefully so as not to destroy the domes’ energy fields. When the Colony executed its surprise attack from many domes outward, the Sylians were caught off guard. We all were.”
“When the Colony built shuttles at Talseseena, we constructed fighting ships,” Bortoth explained. “We assumed the shuttles would make for the stations or the planet, and our initial weapons’ designs incorporated chemically driven missiles and accelerated projectiles.”
Daktora chimed in with, “We were surprised when the Colony’s shuttles lifted only high enough to assemble the first two sections of the ring. We couldn’t use any of our weapons for fear that the debris would crash into the dome.”
“That’s our great fear,” Jess finished. “In our minds, destroying the dome means we would be permanently isolated from the enormous number of civilized races that we’ve known all our lives.”
“Essentially, there was never an opportunity to employ fighting ships,” Tacnock summarized. “Our previous encounters took place through the gates and inside the domes. To Kasie’s point, after the initial contacts by Harbour and her explorer teams, it was discovered that the Colony was much better at defending a dome than the Resistance was at taking one.”
“That’s why you belatedly developed the EMF packet ships,” Juliette reasoned.
“Exactly,” Daktora said. “With the packet ships, we’ve reached a measure of détente, but it’s only a matter of time before the Colony finds a way to defeat our ships or block the EMF broadcasts.”
When the details of the attack were finalized, Lucia turned to Kasie and said quietly, “You and I have some business. Come with me.”
As Lucia exited the bridge, she sent a private message to Sam.
Jess’s eyes narrowed, as he watched his sister troop behind Lucia. He excused himself from a conversation with Tacnock and caught up with the pair in the corridor.
“Your presence isn’t required, Captain,” Lucia said, when she saw Jess meant to join them.
“We agreed to take your orders, Commodore, when taking the dome or in the presence of Colony members,” Jess said pleasantly. “You’ll notice we’re not in the dome and the insectoids aren’t present. That makes you a visitor, a guest in our system, and we’ll decide what is and isn’t required.”
The exchange between Lucia and Jess had been loud enough that the entire bridge audience had stopped what they were doing to observe the clash of personalities.
Kasie was surprised by the commodore and her brother’s reactions. Without opening her gates far, she sensed that Jess and Lucia were bundles of raw emotions. Fascinating, she thought, echoing Velsana’s word at discovering the insectoid’s dual skeletal system.
Kasie hadn’t sensed the same degree of conflicting feelings pouring off Jess since they’d fled the Colony’s invasion of their non-alliance dome. At that time, Jess broadcast his fear for everyone’s safety. That deep primal emotion was mixed with his all-embracing love for her. If it wasn’t for her own anxieties, her brother’s intensity might have rooted her in place.
This time, Kasie noticed that both individuals exuded powerful levels of frustration and attraction. She was intrigued by the interplay between the commodore and her brother. Both of them had the same emotional flavors, as she thought of them. If the exchange wasn’t so heavily charged, she might have laughed.
“As you wish,” Lucia allowed in a dismissive tone, and she left with Kasie and Jess trailing behind her.
“Where are we going, Commodore?” Jess asked, as civilly as he could manage.
“Grab your weapons,” Lucia replied. “We’re taking a little trip.”
Jess stuttered to a stop in the corridor, while the commodore and his sister walked on. Immediately, he sought the first crew member he could find. “I need to be taken to my cabin for items stowed there, and then I need to meet with the commodore.”
“Certainly, Captain,” the female Méridien replied, with a smile.
Jess was led to his cabin, where he gathered his Loopah launcher, satchel of drums, and newly issued stun gun, and then the crew member led him down several decks to the port bay.
Lucia was surprised to see Jess appear with his weapons. She thought he would be left behind, but she admitted he’d been resourceful to find a crew member to accommodate his needs.
“My brother irks you,” Kasie said.
Lucia was about to deny it, but she realized that Kasie hadn’t asked a question. She’d made a statement, which meant that she’d been read. That exasperated her even more. Surprisingly, Kasie grinned at her.
“He does that to me too,” Kasie said. “We lost our parents when we were young teenagers. That makes him a little overprotective, although I thought that was only reserved for Tacnock and me. Apparently, there’s room for you.”
Behind Jess strode Sam and his team.
“Good timing,” Lucia remarked to Jess, and Kasie hid her smile.
“Board, everyone,” Lucia ordered.
Juliette was aboard the traveler, and she beckoned to Jess. “Captain, sit here,” she invited. “You can teach me your sign language.”
“Will we have enough time?” Jess asked. “I don’t know how far we’re going.”
Juliette shot Lucia a reprimanding glance. “The commodore can be a little closed-mouth at times,” she remarked. It was loud enough to ensure that her words reached Lucia’s ears. “We’re headed for Sylia’s station.”
Juliette saw Jess and Kasie tense. The pieces had fallen into place for them — the security team, the weapons, and the destination. They were headed for the bay of grays.
“Come, Captain, teach me your sign language lexicon,” Juliette urged.
“Okay,” Jess replied, “but you need to know that Tacnock and Kasie are much better at this than me.”
“Understood,” Juliette replied. “I’ll start with you. Begin.”
Jess taught Juliette the basic finger positions. Then he added the motions that involved both hands. Finally, he took her through the actions around the body.
“This last set,” Jess said, “was invented by spacers, when comms are down or when they don’t want to be heard.”
“Inventive,” Juliette remarked.
Hours later, when Jess finished his lessons, he signed, “That’s it.” Belatedly, he thought to explain the use of finger letters for rarely used words, but Juliette signed, “Thank you, Jess. That was most instructive.” She’d spelled out instructive so fast that Jess had to intuit the word from her flashing fingers.
Moments later, Juliette distributed an app to the Omnians. It would allow them to understand the defenders’ sign language. They could sign in response. However, only the SADEs would be proficient at the hand movements until the Omnian humans practiced.
Several Omnians turned toward Jess, and hand signed, “Thank you.”
“Your tech is amazing,” Jess said to Juliette, shaking his head incredulously.
“I sense your anger with the commodore, Captain,” Juliette said.
Jess glanced guiltily around to see if anyone had heard the SADE. That was when he realized that Juliette
’s voice was in his ear wig. “You need only to move your mouth in reply, Captain, I can read your lips,” he heard in his ear wig.
“I find her frustrating,” Jess mouthed.
“Probably not,” Jess replied sotto voce, before he realized his mistake. “I would prefer this conversation remain private,” he mouthed.
Jess cocked his head, as if he was seeing a SADE in a different light. He mouthed, “You must have compartmentalized many things in the course of your life.” His response was Juliette’s smile.
Then another thought occurred to Jess, and he asked, “If it isn’t an indelicate question, how old are you?”
For a brief moment, Jess’s mouth dropped open, but he quickly recovered. “Well, you look good for your age,” he mouthed. “I mean, you don’t look a day over a hundred.”
Juliette loosed the squeal of a bow on a stringed instrument. It took Jess by surprise, but Juliette’s humorous expression had him smiling.
The Omnians were smiling too. It was the rare comment that engendered a SADE’s laughter, and a defender had managed to do it.
The passengers managed to catch a few hours of sleep before the cabin lights brightened.
Lucia rose, and she spared a brief moment to observe Jess, before she walked down the aisle. She waited impatiently at the hatch for the pilot to signal it to drop, which he wouldn’t do until the bay was pressurized.
The Rêveur’s security squad glanced at one another. The commodore’s agitation was in contrast to her usual icy calm. Her present display disturbed them, and their broadcast anxieties weren’t lost on Kasie. It might be time for an intervention, Kasie thought.
Lucia made for the grays’ bay. Outside the airlock, she focused on Kasie. “I need to know some of the parameters of your ability. First, how well can you focus your power?”
