Blockade

by Chris Hechtl

Chapter 37

  Antigua

  Under persistent pressure from certain senators, Admiral Irons had their security levels upgraded so he could brief them about some of the black spending programs. He kept the details vague with just titles. “Obviously, I can't brief you in detail about every project at once. I believe you'd like to thoroughly check out each project in turn?”

  Senator Merkoski turned to the others to gauge their commitment. They nodded.

  “Very well. The first major project then. I am uploading details that I can distribute to your implants now. Under the security classification, you cannot copy this information or say anything about it to anyone outside of this group, nor discuss this over unsecure communication systems, nor discuss it with someone in the presence of someone else who is not cleared for it. Do you understand?”

  They nodded or indicated agreement.

  “I'm sorry, for the record I need a formal response.” He went around the room to each, securing a response after explaining what they were in for and the consequences for breaking their oath. Once he had them, he sent a clearance code to decrypt the project.

  The senators were shocked by what they saw. He waited as they reacted, some in awe, some in surprise.

  “I have to see this,” Senator Merkoski murmured.

  Admiral Irons snorted. “I know. You have to see it to believe it. Trust me, I wish I could go with you.”

  The senator blinked in confusion. “Excuse me? By what did you mean by that statement, Admiral?”

  “Congress is due to stand-down for time for you to visit your constituents briefly. Each of you are supposed to travel home by courier if possible. The government is providing the means with our newest generation of couriers. You'll have the chance for a side trip.”

  Senator Merkoski blinked again and then nodded. He turned to the others with a lifted eyebrow.

  A few looked outraged but remained silent.

  “I will point out that this project, though initialized by me, now was actually ordered prior to my position. I can't get into details about that though; it's at an even higher security classification. You will receive more data on the project and get full briefings on anything you wish to know about it once you are on site.”

  Senator Mayfair grimaced.

  “Are there any questions?”

  “Loads. But we're time sensitive or at least some of us are,” Senator Potts said. “If I'd known you were going to drop this sort of bomb on us, I would have cleared my schedule,” she said with a shake of her head.

  He smiled. “I understand. You can come up with questions and ask me in a future meeting or you can wait and ask the project director or staff later. But I have to reinforce this—you can't discuss this outside this room.”

  “We understand,” Senator Merkoski stated. “Thank you for finally coming clean, Admiral,” he stated.

  “Well, on this,” Senator Mayfair said in disgust.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Once they were gone, Admiral Irons rocked from side to side in his chair. “Do you think they'll honor the security classification, Admiral?” Protector asked.

  “They'll have to. What I'm curious about is their reaction when they get to see it.”

  “I know, sir. Do you truly wish to see the project?”

  “In some small way, yes, but I've seen it many times before. I'm just glad we're finally moving in the right direction.”

  “That, I believe is up to your point of view. And oops, I just got a heads-up warning from one of the senator's implants.”

  “Mayfair?”

  “Her and now Potts. They tried to talk to Senator Merkoski in the hallway, but he shot them down. Their implants just flashed a warning.”

  “All right, keep me posted.”

  “You knew they were going to test you.”

  “It's not me they are testing. I'm out of it,” the admiral said, raising his hands to show they were clean.

  “Right, give them the secret of the decade and then tell them they can't leak it or use it to their advantage. I bet they are really loving you now, sir.”

  The admiral said. “None of them like me anyway.”

  Protector chuckled in his ears. “Yes, you could say that is certain about all of them. No love lost. And they'll just love the precautions you took to prevent them from using this against you.”

  The admiral snorted. “I've been around the block a time or two. I know how politics can work.”

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  “We have got to see this! So, we're just supposed to keep silent about this?” Senator Potts demanded. “He could have been building another fleet with this sort of cash! And when the public sees what he's building …,” she stopped, and her eyes practically crossed.

  Her staff and the other senators and their security entourage stopped too. “What?” Senator Mayfair asked. “I agree wholeheartedly. And he can't shut us up!” She stopped too and then her face reddened.

  Senator Merkoski received a flashing red warning on his HUD. He blinked and then nodded. “I believe we now understand how serious the matter is and its security, so let's let the matter drop for the moment. I believe we all have other matters to attend to,” he stated gravely as he motioned for his part of the entourage to split off and go their separate way.

  After a moment the rest of the delegations broke up as well.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Prince Mason Ramichov wasn't thrilled about the news that Garth had fallen. He'd initially agreed with some that it was all propaganda, but then the videos of ground troops near landmarks on Dead Drop and Garth had been released to the media. He had some images of his own taken in front of some of those. The die-hards might insist it was all fake, but he wasn't so sure.

  He wasn't certain about the shift. A few months ago they had been sure the Federation was about to lose and lose big. Now it was the other way around. And now their interrogators were stepping up the interviews to get data. They were asking the damnedest things; stuff he was sure they didn't need. Obviously, there were interrogation techniques involved, but he couldn't see why. Other than to build a rapport with their handlers, test to see if they were telling the truth, and maybe break them.

  He was starting to have odd dreams too. Sometimes the questions they asked evoked memories that evening when he went to bed. He wasn't certain why they were like that; he just wished it would stop.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Captain Fletcher ran through the database for the latest gleanings of intelligence from the captured data bases and POW interviews. There was only a little from the subjects’ memories; it took a lot of time to process the memories and then sift through them for useful information.

  It was a soft approach to a mind strip, one that Admiral Irons had approved of once time became of the essence as the admiral had put it. The A.I. was fairly confident the A.I. in the ships had what they needed to know. Still, he dutifully compiled the new data and then sent the updates to Garth for the prowlers to download.

  It was too late for the first group, but the next would get the updates and then distribute them later.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Nara Thornby was only mildly amused when she received her promotion to rear admiral. It hadn't been announced; she hadn't been informed she was on a list. It was just out of the blue. No ceremony was attached to the email either.

  She contacted her friends starting with Monty. Monty listened to her for a moment and then snorted. "I was just promoted as well," he stated, cutting her off.

  She blinked. "Really?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "You stole part of my thunder!"

  He smiled and spread his hands. "Sorry?"

  "Right, sure you are," she growled.

  "The good news is, we can celebrate together before I'm off to Garth."

  "You are still going?" she asked sadly.

  He nodded. "I've got to. I'm going to coordinate the information processing in Garth until Horath falls. Then I'm off to Sigma."

 
"So, I may never see you again?"

  He shook his head. "I don't know. It's going to be a while," he admitted. He didn't tell her how he was going; he had a berth on a Zephyr class prowler arranged. The ship had been outfitted like Meridian for long-range missions but also for command and control. The one thing he keenly missed was some way to contact home. He was going to be on his own once he got to Sigma.

  Which was one reason he was keen to go. But, now that the departure date was nigh, he was starting to have a few second thoughts. Sometimes it was nice to have older and wiser heads looking over your shoulder from time to time.

  "Celebrate?" she asked.

  He flinched. "Sorry?"

  She paused to study his image and then cocked her head. "Catch you napping?" she asked.

  "No, just thinking about the future. And yes, I'd like to celebrate with you. I don't care for a ceremony. I can pass on that. As much fun as it would be to rub the Bekians’ noses in this, I'd rather just get on with my life and not make any more waves."

  "Typical spook for you," she snorted. "Okay. Spinellis?"

  He smiled as his A.I. made the reservation. "Done and done. The usual time?"

  "Yes. And I just got the weather forecast. I'll want a nice moonlight walk after eating that rich Italian food so wear the right shoes," she said.

  "Yes, ma’am," he murmured, bobbing a nod.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Professor Gwildor cocked his head as he received another download. He had accepted Admiral Irons’ proposal but with some caveats. He was putting his toe in slowly; he still loved to teach and refused to give that up.

  The admiral was also only feeding him small bits. One of their recent exchanges had him curious. As he scanned the report, he frowned thoughtfully and then his eyes widened.

  "So, no sign of temporal anomalies but the antimatter hyper platforms all came back early. And, more importantly, they came back full?" he demanded, opening a chat to Captain Sprite.

  "I can clear a path so you can discuss the details with Commander Berkowitz," the A.I. replied. "But to answer your question, no. No sign of temporal anomalies and yes, the antimatter containment as well as the hyper capacitors were full. There are small signs of overload as well."

  "And the platforms, can I examine them?"

  "At this time no. They were serviced and then sent back into hyper … where they returned from a second time last month—again, full and early. They were serviced and sent out again."

  "Hmm," the little man said, tapping his short index finger against his lips. "I'd like to examine one of them if I can."

  "I can put you in touch with the commander since it is his project. You'd have to go to the site of where the platform arrives at though."

  "I'm not sure I can spare the time," the professor grumbled. "If I give you a list of things to look for, can you do that for me?"

  "I can give you the data, Professor. And as I said …"

  "Yes yes, you can put me in contact with the commander. Very well, do so. But I'd like to know the quality of the energy and any sensory information you've got. Obviously, your platforms are finding a stream of energy far more powerful than expected," the professor stated, stroking his goatee.

  "Yes, that much is obvious. The why is the big question."

  "In order to get to the bottom of that I need more data. Not just from your platforms but from other locations. Are they all going to one layer of hyperspace?"

  "Yes. The same layers. Since the platforms are unmanned, we can only safely send them to the lowest octave of alpha band."

  'Which shouldn't be this energy rich. Curious, very curious," the professor murmured.

  When he didn't have anything more constructive to say, Sprite sent him the contact info and then sent an email to the commander to let him know it was okay to discuss the situation with the professor.

  Chapter 38

  Armando Diaz

  Captain Stuart checked the camera feed to the water dweller chamber. So far so good, they weren't too stressed. Her navigational team was, but they were making it work.

  More importantly, they were over halfway to their destination without any problems or hiccups.

  She rapped her knuckles on the faux wood of her desk gently for lady luck's blessing. If they played their cards right, they'd get to Nuevo Madrid, deploy the bioweapons if possible, destroy anything in space that couldn't shoot back, get word to the partisans that they haven't been forgotten, and then sail on.

  Her biggest fear was what might be in Nuevo Madrid for a picket or in B-95a3. She blew out a long breath. One thing at a time though she thought checking the logs.

  H001

  Captain Sito shook his head as he read the latest report. The six warships and his single courier in H001 might as well have been forgotten. Sure, they'd received some supplies and even a couple of updates but no real reinforcements. Nothing more than a pair of tin cans. Nor any word on when some might be coming.

  Of course there might be reasons for that. In fact, there had to be; he couldn't believe that the Admiralty had just left them to die on the vine like that. No one was that cold or stupid. They were just caught up with paperwork or some other snafu.

  One most likely reason that they were being kept in the dark was that the Admiralty didn't want the enemy to know their movement schedule should one of the ships fall into their hands. Given the way the enemy had A.I. to tickle the data out of the empire’s computers, he judged that cautionary measure as only prudent.

  The ships that arranged themselves loosely around the H002 jump point had a long and lonely vigil. Well, not lonely per se, they knew the enemy was out there somewhere, haunting them with a prowler. They hadn't even bothered to try to chase the bastard down.

  The courier captain could only shrug it off and hope it wasn't an actual warship. That would suck for him.

  He looked at the evening menu. The one good thing about the last resupply was that his ship had gotten dibs before the rest of the ships had. Therefore, he'd gotten the cream … what the damn freighter's crew hadn't taken for themselves that was.

  “Let's see, stroganoff or …”

  An alarm klaxon made him sit up straight. “They are here?”

  “Yes, sir!” the tone was completely different than the beaten down one he'd heard before. It took him a moment to realize it had elation in it. “We've got a beautiful sight on our scope, sir; the relief force has arrived!”

  “About bloody time,” the captain said, looking at the plot on his desk repeater. His lips pursed though as the hyper wake cleared. They'd come in near the center of the jump point, and there were just too few of them for his comfort. “And small,” he murmured, not happy at all about what he was seeing.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Rear Admiral Shino Zhen was not happy. He should be; this was his first command as a flag officer. He'd been jumped from captain to rear admiral for it. But that had been a part of the problem; no one else wanted it.

  And he'd been an idiot and had been too eager to get his first star let alone his second to wonder why. Now he was fairly confident it would be his first and last.

  He had the picket the late Admiral De Gaulte had left behind along with his two Desrons, one mixed CruRon, three CEV, two support ships, and two couriers. One of the support ships had half her cargo hold filled with missile pods and weapon platforms. They would be set up near the H002 jump point in the off chance the enemy jumped in there.

  In other words they weren't worth spit against what was undoubtedly taking its sweet time bearing down on him. He could survive what was coming if he fell back, which he fully intended to do. But he was also keenly aware of the personal consequences if and when he did so.

  But he did have one balm to ease his tortured mind. Ships were coming, a proper fleet this time. He was just the stopper in the bottle until they finally got underway.

  He hoped they came before the enemy did. Once the vice admiral was on site, he wouldn't have to bear all the responsi
bility anymore.

  -~~~///^\~~~-

  Word got to the six warship skippers that had been left behind by De Gaulte during the latest resupply mission that Admiral De Gaulte, his staff, and every captain was dead. They had all been executed by order of the emperor. Many had been assassinated rather than be formally tried and executed in a show trial.

  “So, that's it? We're dead when we return? What the frack are we sitting here for then?” Captain Bradley demanded. He had no idea if his cousin who was the head of BUSHIPS could protect him or not. He had no intention of testing things. Most likely ole' “let it rip” Rupert would throw him to the wolves to save his own sorry hide without thinking twice.

  “Because of our duty to the Empire and our families?” Captain Adkin stated in a whimsical almost rhetorical tone of voice.

  “Frack our families! We do our duty, and we get screwed by the emperor anyway!” Captain Bradley snarled.

  “Okay, how about this. If we don't, what do you propose? We're between a rock and a hard place. We've got the Empire behind us, willing to shoot us when we return, and the Feds in front bearing down on us. We can't escape. We might as well go down fighting and try to take some of the bastards with us. Who knows, we might slow them down.” Captain Tenders stated. He had been the picket commander because his ship had been the only cruiser in the star system up until the relief force had arrived.

  He was heartily glad the relief force had come, but he wasn't happy about the news about home.

  “Frack.”

  “Yeah, slow them down for what, a month?” another captain muttered.

  The captains looked dispirited. “I will say one thing,” a captain said after a long moment.

  “What?” Captain Bradley demanded.

  “If it comes down to being forced to run and die or staying and fighting and dying, I'm going for option three. I'll abandon and scuttle the damn ship. I'd rather ride out the rest of the war in a POW camp than go home after getting bounced out of here.”

  “Are you serious?”