by S. H. Jucha
The transfer to the Freedom beat the planet’s traveler by only minutes.
Juliette accompanied Oforum and Phette. She’d made it clear to the new president that it wasn’t acceptable for her to ride her grav cycle through the city-ship’s corridors. It resulted in an unusually silent Oforum, during the entire trip.
The small conference room that Alex chose quickly filled with Renée, Julien, Patrice, Olawale, Ophelia, Mickey, Miriam, Juliette, Oforum, and Phette.
“Madam President, congratulations,” Alex said, and Oforum briefly preened. Then Renée and others added their compliments.
“Thank you, everyone,” Oforum replied. Phette and she were perched in the crooks of Juliette’s arms to see above the table.
“Mickey, this conference was your call,” Alex offered.
“Our process to support the Pims requires two more annuals,” Mickey replied. “We’ve got infrastructure to build, prototypes to construct, and contracts to start.”
“The fleet can’t commit to remaining in alliance space for that length of time,” Alex said carefully, while he eyed the individuals at the other end of the table, especially Oforum.
“Mickey, if the fleet sails, the ships will need many of the SADEs who are currently working on your teams,” Julien warned.
“Sorry for being late,” Bortoth said in winded breath, as Daktora and he rushed into the room. “What did we miss?”
“Not much,” Oforum replied. “Alex was just explaining why he must regrettably allow Pimbor’s growth to stagnate.” She’d balanced on Juliette’s forearm to deliver her statement, and her whiskers were flattened against her cheeks.
“Is the fleet sailing immediately?” Daktora asked in confusion.
“Mickey’s requesting two years, and Alex has told him that he can’t commit the fleet for that long,” Renée explained.
“Mickey, we don’t need two years,” Bortoth objected. “We can make the transition that we discussed in less than that time.”
Mickey tried to surreptitiously flick his eyes toward Alex, but every individual caught the poorly disguised attempt. The humorous moment relieved much of the room’s tension.
“I give,” Alex said. “What would accommodate this wonderful foreshortening of the manufacturing transition?”
“Why, implants, of course,” Bortoth declared.
“The new Crocian engineers require it,” Daktora added.
“As do we,” Oforum stated flatly.
Alex held up a hand to halt the discussion.
“We’re moving to a larger conference room,” Alex announced. Then he stood and led the group out of the room and down the corridor, while he communicated to Cordelia where to send the new arrivals.
When everyone had exchanged greetings and taken a seat, except for the Crocians, Jess drew breath to speak, but Alex stopped him.
“Apparently, Captain, everyone is here for the same reason,” Alex said. “The Crocian engineers and President Oforum have just requested implants. I assume you’re here in the company of the Sylians for the same reason.”
“Yes, Alex,” Salsinona replied. “We surmised the reason for your trip to visit Her Excellency Talsoma.”
“There was some reticence on our part,” a Sylian commander added, “but events soon proved their value.”
“What events?” Renée inquired.
“These veterans displayed remarkable synchronicity with their shadows,” Salsinona replied, waving a white-furred hand at Jess, Tacnock, and Aputi.
A commander added, “The three of them accomplished in a single cycle what fifty Pim rider teams normally do.”
Jess sent in reply. He received a vid from Alex. He was riding a giant shadow and waving a vast horde of them forward.
When Salsinona saw Alex’s attention return to her, she said, “You have the shadows, Alex, and we have the troops. Did Her Excellency give you permission to offer us implants?”
“Yes,” Alex replied.
“Then it’s done,” Salsinona announced. The commanders and she relaxed into their chairs.
It was the Pims and the Crocians who briefly exchanged glances and turned to gaze at Alex.
“Yes,” Alex replied to those who expectantly regarded him, throwing up his hands in resignation.
Renée leaned over and kissed Alex on the temple.
“Mickey, Miriam, you’ve responsibility for the Crocian engineers,” Alex said. “Jess, you’ve the Sylians, and Juliette, take care of the Pims.”
“We’ll require Pia, Nalia, and others to assist in the creation of a medical facility on Pimbor,” Julien said. “It will manage the medical operations, and it will serve to construct scanners, implants, and robotic controls.”
“Well, you’ve little to do, Julien,” Alex replied. “You can handle it.”
Alex received a vid of a Julien character with eight arms. Each hand precariously balanced piles of material, and the character’s face was contoured with worry.
Julien received his vid from Alex. An Alex figure waved goodbye to someone. He reversed direction and bumped into Julien, which sent everything crashing to the floor. Then the Alex figure shrugged and walked away.
The two friends grinned at each other.
Alex addressed the table. “Each of you, who are responsible for a group of individuals, will coordinate with Pia and Nalia for the insertions. Madam President, we’ll need a Pim volunteer for tests with Emile Billings. The same for the Sylians, Salsinona.”
“Me, I’m the volunteer for Pims,” Phette declared.
“It’ll be me for the Sylians,” Salsinona announced.
“A crew person is waiting for the two of you in the corridor,” Julien said, and Salsinona slipped out of the room with Phette.
“I believe most of you have business planetside,” Alex said. “I’ll let you get to it. Jess, Tacnock, Aputi, a moment, please.”
When the room cleared, except for the three veterans, Alex asked, “What’s the status of Pimbor?”
“The Sylians and Pims will tell you it’s good,” Tacnock replied. “But that’s because they’ve been successful in their hunts and few lives have been lost recently.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Renée asked.
“They’ve not been thorough,” Aputi replied. “They mark grids, hunt them, and move on.”
“Then the insectoids learned to relocate to the searched grids,” Julien surmised.
“That’s correct,” Aputi said.
“Jess, what’s the solution?” Alex asked.
“We unload the shadows and unleash them on the planet,” Jess replied.
“It’s fortunate that these versions have the internal grav cells,” Julien noted.
“They won’t be as effective without minders,” Alex pointed out.
“True,” Jess replied. “We can help by flying overwatch in travelers. We’ve weeks before the Sylians are ready. In that time, two thousand plus shadows on the hunt can wreak a lot of damage on the Colony population. As the troops become proficient with their implants, they’ll hunt with the three of us until they’re ready to go it alone.”
“Do you have sufficient numbers?” Julien asked. He detected Jess’s hesitation and sent,
“No,” Jess replied. “Each trooper should hunt with ten shadows. There are eight hundred active Sylians. Another hundred are on the injured list.”
“You n
eed another six thousand shadows?” Renée asked incredulously.
“For the Sylians, yes,” Jess replied. “But that doesn’t supply the Pims, or the Norsitchians and the Packeoes on Quall, or any other groups who help us.”
Alex regarded the veterans, who stared back.
“What?” Alex asked, focusing on Jess.
“In your absence, we learned about nanites,” Jess replied. “I cleared a Colony shuttle site, and Miriam and Luther investigated the ship. They gathered samples from the hull and interior systems. When Mickey and his teams make enough quantity of nanites and delivery vehicles, we could use them against the Colony’s transports and shuttles.”
“Alex,” Tacnock said, “the insectoids are conquering new worlds as we sit here. First, we must stop their means of expansion. That’s denying them access to domes, and we have to eradicate them from the planets.”
It amazed Alex that such an amalgam of races could be so completely inundated by a single invasive species. But he knew the reason for that. Aggression and cunning are powerful assets against peaceful races.
The challenge of Omnia Ships would be to balance the challenges of the alliance and the federacy. Alex realized the galaxy’s problems had outstripped Omnia Ships’ ability to manage the problems. Earlier, he’d mentally accepted that reality. Now, it hit him at gut level, which made the decision to organize a greater swath of alliance resources quite easy. He’d pick up the mantle left behind by Jessie Cinders and Harbour to resurrect a form of the Pyrean Resistance.
“Julien, I need full-scale production of whatever Jess, Mickey, and the SADEs consider the three most useful versions of nanites,” Alex ordered.
Alex’s command voice was apparent to the table, and the veterans glanced hopefully at one another.
Then Alex linked the table and Cordelia.
Jess was taken aback by the rapidity with which Alex facilitated the connections.
Alex replied.
Silver bells were heard by everyone on the link.
Alex looked at Jess, who ran some quick calculations.
Julien sent privately.
* * * * *
The following day, the veterans descended into a planet’s ecstatic population.
The Crocian engineers were happy. They would receive implants and would be at the front of the line. Afterward, they could take part in the manufacture of impressive science of nanotechnology. It was an aspect of Omnian tech that fascinated them, especially since the Crocians typically designed and oversaw the construction of large-scale projects. The power of the tiny nanites tickled their race’s sense of humor.
The Pims and the Sylians were delighted with Alex’s decision too. Although, their wait would be slightly longer.
Julien, Pia, and Nalia accompanied the veterans below. They intended to meet separately with Mickey, Miriam, and Luther. Alex had made the medical facilities another priority.
After the veterans exited the traveler, they organized a meeting with Juliette, Oforum, and Phette. Esteban was conducting school for the kits.
“Juliette, the search grids, please,” Jess requested.
The SADE set the holo-vid on the house’s meal table, activated it, and displayed the Sylian grid system. Many squares were green, indicating they’d been searched. Red grids indicated they were yet to be investigated.
The colored grids weren’t contiguous. Terrain, such as rivers, marshes, and lakes interrupted their connections.
“Please remove the colors,” Jess requested.
Oforum and Phette glanced in confusion at each other. They sat in chairs designed to accommodate their tiny sizes at a table built for alliance guests.
“We start over,” Jess said. “I mean no disrespect to the Pims’ efforts, Madam President,” he quickly added. “We checked several of the cleared zones. They have adults and juveniles.”
“The insectoids watched and learned your patterns,” Tacnock explained. “After you searched a grid square, the adults moved into that area.”
“How will you prevent that from happening again?” Phette inquired.
“The same way your houses are protected,” Tacnock replied.
“You’ll post guards,” Oforum said, nodding her small dark-furred head.
“Yes,” Jess replied. “As we expand the search, we can move the guards outward. It means we’ll lose active hunters in favor of grid protectors, but it can’t be helped.”
“And we do have two thousand six hundred shadows to aid us,” Aputi pointed out.
“Is that enough?” Oforum asked.
“No,” Jess replied, “which is why Alex is sending Cordelia to procure more.”
“We could make them here,” Oforum objected.
“Eight thousand shadows in ninety cycles?” Jess queried, with the lift of an eyebrow.
For a moment, Oforum’s and Phette’s little jaws hung open. “Perhaps not,” Oforum managed to reply.
“Madam President, this isn’t about Pimbor anymore,” Jess said earnestly. “This is about taking back alliance space from the Colony. I know the Pims want to be accepted as full-fledged members of the alliance, but remember, the Colony doesn’t care who is and who isn’t a valued member. Every habitable world is of interest to that race.”
12: Problem, Solution
One by one, four Trident commands completed their assigned search sections. Some areas had a greater percentage of dead systems, which meant they had no domes. Where there were domes in non-alliance systems, the Colony was usually active.
Deirdre’s command was the first to arrive at Pimbor. With the Freedom absent, the admiral assumed that Alex, Renée, and Julien were at Sol or an alliance world.
Immediately, Deirdre sent orders to post squadrons to protect the liner and others to act as outlying guards. She knew she was probably overreacting, but old habits formed from decades of conflict died hard.
Darius’s command arrived several days after Deirdre’s, and she wasted no time communicating to him about the unusual conditions.
Tatia’s and Franz’s commands arrived weeks later but within days of each other.
Tatia noted which commands were present, the absence of the Freedom, and yet the presence of Alex, Renée, and Julien. When her Trident made Pimbor, she transferred to the Rêveur, as had every other admiral.
Alex met Tatia in his suite and listened to her remonstrations until she ran down.
“I’m not being heard, am I?” Tatia asked. She wasn’t happy, and it showed. It didn’t help her disposition that Alex listened attentively, with the ghost of a smile on his face.
“Four commands have returned, Tatia,” Alex said gently. “Not a single starship of any kind has been reported. There’ll come a time when that isn’t true. But it’s not now, and there’s too much to do.”
Tatia sighed deeply and gave up.
“Tatia, I need you to accelerate the grand plan, as it pertains to alliance space,” Alex requested. “Julien is analyzing the search data now, and I need a presentation whenever you’re ready.”
