Spinward Fringe Broadcast 13

by Randolph Lalonde

  "You could send a quad drive equipped ship in the British Alliance's direction to speed up the communication," Admiral Lamonthe said.

  "I know, I know you want to put a ship right in their capitol so we can have real time comms with them, we've had this discussion before. My mind isn't changed," Ayan said. "There is no way I'm letting a quad drive within a light year of their Core World territories. They broke the trust, now it's up to them to convince me they won't try to steal it at the first chance," Ayan said. "No one gets a quad drive. No one."

  "Melt it down the moment it looks like they're about to try something," Lamonthe replied.

  "Sitting here, around this table, it's easy to think that one of our trained officers can't be tricked into handing it over. None of us think we can be tricked, right?" she looked directly at Lamonthe, Jacob moved his chair back a little so they could make eye contact. "I bet I could trick you into it. I'd plant a brain-bud on you in your sleep, start editing your reality, and before you knew it you'd be tricked into a situation where you thought you were saving everyone by cooperating with the British. I'm sure there are even more devious ways to do it, but that's how I'd have it done, and I know you'd fall for it."

  "So, we do what Chief McFadden did with the Sector Jumper; have a crewman stay aboard full time, tell him no one gets access to sensitive systems."

  "If the British want it, and it's well inside their territory, they'll get it. I'm surprised you even think this is a debate. You're smarter than this, drop it." Ayan pulled on the arm of Jake's chair, and he rolled back between she and Lamonthe as she looked at the rest of the people seated in front of her. "My people are putting a counter-proposal together, and we're sending a relay ship that will remain hidden just outside their territory. It will cut the time it takes to communicate with British Alliance Military Command down to a few hours, and no one will be able to find it. Admiral Hadlee understands our mistrust and why I'm dissatisfied with their proposal. Commodore McPatrick is right: the harm the British Alliance has done to our cause by stealing and selling our technology isn't something we can calculate yet. I'm going to squeeze the British Alliance for everything we can and make sure they know they're on notice for the future. If I had it my way, the British will never have quad drive technology or anything that comes with it, but I realize that we'll have to share eventually. That day will come when they've earned our trust, and it won't be for a very long time."

  Ayan looked at the faces gathered around the table, giving each one a few seconds. Oz was thrilled at the confidence he saw in her, something she always had, but never in such abundance. The air was thick with the silence she enforced with her pause by the time she moved the conversation on. "The War Forge is an active training hub again, and I'm happy to report that there are over six thousand three hundred students aboard, most of them Nafalli. The manufacturing lines that were damaged during the invasion of the Haven System are repaired, and we've finished work on the first Star Clash Class Destroyer, the Redstone, who is officially taking command today. We had a short meeting here a few minutes ago so she could see the support of the Admiralty as she joins SOCU. The War Forge is proving itself as a capable multi-role mobile station, and will be ramping back up to full production over the next three days. Our training facilities are missing one thing, though." She looked to Oz, tilting her head.

  "I just wanted to make sure the Triton is back in shape and her crew is ready for combat," Oz replied.

  "Having a little trouble letting go?" Jake asked.

  Oz could feel his old friend's amusement, Ayan and Minh-Chu along with most of the people at the table felt the same, it was like a tickle on the edges of his consciousness. "A little, but I'm looking forward to taking over, making my mark on the trainees in the Academy."

  "Maybe it's too soon," Lamonthe said, the man was an anchor of seriousness. "Commodore McPatrick is a brilliant carrier commander. The Academy is doing well enough under the watchful eye of the staff. Maybe it should remain that way until we take the Haven System back. I would hate to see the Commodore retired before his time."

  "Is it his choice?" Minh-Chu asked. "The job was offered, but did he sign anything? Is there a commander standing behind the Triton's captain seat?"

  "No, and," Lamonthe looked at his command and control unit, a large combat bracer on his wrist like his own. "No, the Commodore isn't depriving anyone of a command by staying on the Triton. The Star Clash and the rest of the destroyers in the line will provide more than enough opportunity for the people from the former Freeground Fleet who are ready to advance to have a command."

  Ayan's brow raised, she was surprised at the turn of events, but not unpleasantly so as she regarded Oz. "So, is it too soon? Do you want to stay aboard the Triton? We could fill the empty bunks with trainees and give you an Academy Class."

  "There's room for a whole other fighter wing aboard that ship. You could train new pilots," Minh-Chu added. "Maybe call it; Aqua Wing, or Water Wing, or Sabre Wing? "

  Oz didn't have to think about it. The idea of guiding thousands of new recruits was exciting, amazing, but he pictured himself on the bridge of the Triton and it felt right. He wanted to be in the fight, directly in the fight, and the thought of relinquishing the captain's seat made him cringe. The absence of Haus Geist was less and less of a millstone as the days passed. He knew he was good for morale, too, the feeling he got from his crew when he opened his mind to them were mostly positive, even the ones who didn't favour him as a captain trusted him, respected him. "I'd like to remain as the Triton's commander, yes. I want the Wing Commander's help in setting up the training for the training wing. The first round should only have capable pilots who are missing the officer training that the Academy has already set up. Like an Apex Advanced Class for pilots. The rest of the space can take care of other trainees. The Botanical Gallery is empty right now, and there's and empty berthing. Enough room for hundreds." He grew more excited as the idea bloomed in his mind, and most of the people at the table could tell, most shared his enthusiasm.

  "Then it's settled, and I have to appoint a new headmaster," Ayan said with a chuckle. "We'll start sending some of our better recruits over as soon as you're ready."

  "Thank you, Admiral," he said, looking to Ayan then Lamonthe.

  "Well, there's a more detailed report on the fleet's status, but we don't have all day, so we'll move on," Ayan said. "Phase Seven is in place, and they're waiting for our signal to begin interfering with Order of Eden operations in and around the Haven System."

  "How are Admiral Rice and her people?" Admiral Kulsh asked, sweeping his hand over the top of his broad, smooth head. "It must have been difficult to watch Haven fall while they were ordered to hide."

  "They're bitter," Ayan said. "But strong. They understand that they couldn't have tipped the scales in our favour, and eager to make a difference now that we know for certain that they haven't been detected by the Order. We have real time communication with them, and one thing is for certain: The Order are not winning hearts and minds. Everyone saw that propaganda piece?"

  There were murmurs of acknowledgement around the table. "Where they pulled the statue of you down?" Minh-Chu asked, irritation rolling off of him in a wave. "Wheeler," he added the name like a quiet, bitter curse.

  "Admiral Lamonthe?" Ayan said, looking to him. They behaved like the argument they just had was already ancient history, and Oz could sense that they felt the same way.

  A hologram of the crowd surrounding Ayan's monument appeared on the table, covering the entire top. It was frozen, with the statue half way down. "Right," Lamonthe started. "We've identified twenty-eight of the people pulling the ropes, they're all Order officers. Facial disguises didn't trick our analysis for long."

  "So, they used something to make themselves look like Haven citizens?" Remmy asked, pointing at one of the rope pullers. "She looks like the woman who I got my coffee from when I visited the market square."

  "Exactly, they went to great lengths to make
it look like the citizens of Haven Shore specifically were overjoyed to be liberated by the Order of Eden, Wheeler especially. More broadcasts called the Secrets of the Queen are scheduled, so it's going to be an ongoing effort." Ayan turned red, and Oz could feel her embarrassment and irritation almost as clearly as if it was his own.

  Lamonthe went on. "We couldn't get past all the disguises, but we found a surprise as the analysis ran. Here, in the crowd," he pointed to a stout man who was cheering. "If we fix the image so the digital reshaping that makes him look like he's cheering - which he isn't - then analyse the shape of his face, we discover someone familiar." With a tap of his finger on the figures' head, the face morphed into that of Shamus McFadden. "His nephew is in another second skin mask beside him, and that's the former Duchess behind him in her own disguise. We don't know why Wheeler hasn't plucked her out of the crowd, but the fact that she's hiding and with McFadden is encouraging. We suspect that he's forming an underground, especially if something happened to his partner, Stephanie Vega, who we can't find a trace of."

  "Oh, he's forming an underground," Jake said with a broad grin. "Frost is one of the best ship thieves I've ever heard of, and I've hunted down about two dozen, so I'd know. He's also best when he fights dirty, and he holds grudges like some people keep old friends."

  "With all respect to your man, Commodore," Lamonthe said. "Is he smart enough to lead an underground rebellion?"

  "On his good days, yes," Jake said. "But if you can't find Stephanie, then it's because she doesn't want to be found or they already have her."

  "We'd know if she was imprisoned," Lamonthe said. "Trust me."

  "Then she's in hiding. If she and Frost are working together, then Wheeler is in more trouble than he could possibly know, especially if he thinks he has the upper hand, especially since Stephanie might underestimate him, but Frost never would."

  "Why wouldn't Frost under estimate Wheeler? So far, he seems like a grinning showman, his manner is juvenile."

  "Don't tell him I said this," Jake started, looking around the table, "But Frost and Wheeler are both capable of being the same kind of scumbag. Don't get me wrong, Frost is our man, he's a good man at heart, but he can be just as much of a back-stabbing asshole as Wheeler, and he enjoys it just as much, but he chooses not to. If things get dire down there, he'll start doing things most of us wouldn't even be capable of."

  "What about his nephew?" Lamonthe asked. "Did Frost ever talk about him?"

  "No, I'm afraid not," Jake replied. "He's family, though, so Frost will probably protect him, and that makes Frost even more dangerous. He believes he has a lot to make up for in general. He has a lot of wreckage in his past."

  "So, we have Stephanie Vega, Frost, his Nephew, a former Duchess, and who knows who else on the ground who are definitely involved with the underground," Ayan said. "Can we contact them?"

  "Not without risking the Order becoming aware of the attempt," Lamonthe said. "They had all communication devices taken, the Order even took their vacsuits and disabled everything they could use as a communicator to the outside. As far as we can tell, they have listener drones everywhere too, so any incoming communication would be tracked. I want to see what they do on their own, have a Phase Seven ship monitor from where its hiding in orbit, listen in on the Order communications coming from Tamber for now, at least."

  "It'll give Stephanie and Frost time to get something going," Jake said. "They won't wait for support, if they see an opportunity to make a move, they'll take it."

  "Good to know, I'll loop you in on any new information so you can consult," Lamonthe said. "Later today we're going to put out a statement with the un-doctored version of this recording so our people can see the crowd booing and jeering as the statue comes down. We'll leave our people masked, of course, we don't need anyone to know they're there. Now the meeting goes to you, Commodore Valent."

  "SOCU has been busy," Jake said. "The Clever Dream, commanded by Captain Valent and the Scythe under the command of Captain Remmy Sands, have struck nine high value targets well behind Order of Eden lines." Two holograms of vast orbital shipyards appeared. Each had a different planet in the background and dozens of ships waiting for repair were docked. "The shipyards in the Avalon System around both the terraformed worlds there were annihilated by a fully charged, Hammerhead Nine torpedo with its limiter systems disabled. Each torpedo was modified with an enlarged containment compartment, so it could carry three times as much liquid antimatter." The peaceful image of both shipyards erupted with a white flash that expanded for several seconds, leaving nothing but a ring of twisted, white hot metal behind from the ships that were circling the station at a distance. "Avalon's shipyards are gone. The planets were left completely unscathed."

  "They left a cloaked drone behind so it could broadcast a message on all bands, making Order of Eden citizens aware that their military was outdated, and their leadership was about to fall. We claimed credit for the destruction of their installations. There are several more recordings like the one I just showed you, the last of which was entirely Remmy's doing. They shadowed a cruiser until it moved through the shield surrounding one of the outer military stations - Magni Five, launched their Hammerhead into the main servicing bay and left. Magni Five is now a blackened husk, and the largest repair station near the Haven System is no more. The radiation is so high that it's not even fit for salvage, and it doesn't matter since it was in dead space, a light year away from the nearest solar system."

  "Well done, Captain Sands," Lamonthe said.

  "Thank you, I thought I should use the last of my bombs close to home," he said. "That wasn't the mission, but I got the go-ahead from the Commodore before setting it off."

  "What about Captain Valent? Can you share her location? Why didn't she hit her fifth target?" Lamonthe asked.

  "No to the first, the Captain is eight light years behind enemy lines, give or take one or two, pursuing something else for Haven Fleet. As for her last bomb, she said she has a plan for it. Something that addresses Directive Two. Captain Valent is performing a much deeper investigation into a developing situation that could pay off larger than any of our attacks so far."

  "You're starting to sound like me, Commodore," Lamonthe said with a wry smile. "You found the most descriptive way to say; 'she's working on it' that I've ever heard."

  "SOCU is working on connecting itself with other enemies of the Order, she's at the centre of the effort," Jake said. "Better?"

  "A little. Run the mission, Commodore, it's your responsibility as long as it produces the results I'm looking for."

  "Understood. In the meantime, transmissions and news reports made by SOCU are spreading. We expect footage of our torpedoes taking stations and other major space-based targets out will reach thirty-five percent of their citizens by oh-nine-hundred."

  "Your report says the death toll is over a hundred ninety thousand, and there's an estimation here stating that fewer than one thousand were civilian," Lamonthe said.

  "No one's perfect," Remmy said.

  Jake shook his head at him, then regarded the Admiral. "We only hit military targets, did our best to get up-to-the-minute data on who was there beforehand, but my orders called for mass destruction. The bigger you go, the more you endanger innocent lives, we tried as hard as we could to prevent that anyway."

  "I see that. Captains Valent and Sands passed up much bigger, more central targets, like this one on Risi, where Eve was scheduled to speak. They even confirmed that she was present by hacking into a security system that could scan her. Then they turned away. Why?" Lamonthe asked.

  "She was speaking in Dandora, a capitol city in orbit around Risi. Half a million people live on that station. Only twenty percent were military, roughly. Would you have made Eve a martyr along with all those civilians?"

  "I would have seriously considered it," Lamonthe said. "Eve is seen as immortal, more so than the hundred knights that protect her, even more than Hampon."

  "We wanted to g
et her," Remmy said, looking to Jake.

  Jake nodded; "Go ahead."

  "We didn't see which ship she arrived in, it must have been cloaked, and the ports were locked down so tight we couldn't have snuck a rim-weasel in. We had sensor drones deployed along the outside perimeter, you know, the passive listeners that look like little bits of debris, and we were ready to go after her the moment she left, but the whole area was shut down, then they sent signal scramblers out, and there was no way to detect her ship. We considered just blasting the area we thought she would move through, but we would have gotten ourselves slagged in the process, we would have had to get in range of seven command cruisers and the station's defences. Next thing we knew, Eve's command ship was already leaving. As for bombing the station while she was on stage, well, we could have. Half a million people were there, though, and there were at least another forty visiting because of her. We didn't want to become baby killers, and we couldn't come up with a precision solution in time, so that opportunity passed."

  "They passed on twenty other targets after investigating them," Jake said. "As far as we can confirm, the civilians who were killed were military adjacent adults, like consultants, starship engineers and the like. Keeping that civilian death toll so low is a miracle."

  "And I can sleep at night," Remmy said, throwing his hands up and settling back into his seat. "I don't hear the screams of the innocent in my dreams. I call all that broken hardware and the demoralization of a huge chunk of their military, maybe the whole thing as the word goes out, a win. I'm good with it."

  "You could have done better with a little more patience and expertise," Lamonthe said. "Opportunities were missed, the kind I'm not seeing in this report. Where are the uprisings? Where are the signs that the chain of command is being broken in the Order military?"