Rita stood at the front of the room, checking the placement of the bodybuilder.
“I can’t see it from here,” she reported. “We’re good on placement.”
“OK. Next step,” said Tika. “Are you sure you want Ollie and Liwa in the security guards? I still think you should go for someone higher up. Maybe the Manager of Security?”
“No. Security guards are practically invisible. They can go anywhere. Nobody questions them. I think that’s best.”
Tika shrugged. “OK. You got it. Shift change should be at eight AM. We’ll go fetch them now and get them converted before things get busy around here.”
“OK. Good luck. I’m going back to the office to cover our tracks there. See you this evening.”
Tika winked at her. “Good luck!”
With a wave, Rita poked her head out of the storage area, confirmed no one was about, and quickly exited the rear of the building. She knew she had to cover the impending disappearance of herself and her two subordinates from the Signals Branch. Within a half hour, she was back in her office in Naval Headquarters across the street, finalizing her plan.
At 3:15 AM, she received a quick transmission from Tika on her radio band.
By 8 AM, Rita had put all the pieces in place to cover the impending absence of Captain Elvenen, his adjutant Commander Pamasa, and his aide, Sub-Commander Olvia.
As Rita completed her last bit of planning, Commander Fawa came into the office, hung his coat on the rack, and smiled at her.
“Good morning, sir,” he called. “How are you this morning?”
“Excellent, Commander Fawa. However, I have a favor to ask. I need you to run the office for today. I’ve decided to make a quick inspection trip to our station at Red Mountain. I want to check out their operational procedures and equipment. I’ve scheduled a shuttle for ten AM, so I’ll be leaving shortly. I’m taking Pamasa and Olvia with me, so you’ll be in charge until we return.”
Fawa looked confused. “But sir…you’ve only been here two days. Isn’t it a bit early to take an inspection trip?”
“No time like the present, Fawa, to let people know I’ll be watching over their shoulders. Helps to keep them on their toes.”
“Aye, sir. If you say so. Shall I go with you, sir? I feel responsible for the operation of the remote stations…I should go.”
“No, Fawa. I need you here. You keep things running smoothly while I’m gone.”
“As you say, sir.”
Rita rose, took her tunic and hat off the rack, grabbed a bag she had prepared, and nodded at Fawa.
“I’ll be back tonight, Fawa. See you tomorrow.”
“Aye, sir.” Fawa answered.
As Rita departed her office suite, she couldn’t help but smile. Little did Fawa know that he would not see his Captain again.
It would be a tragic and unexpected accident.
Stree Fleet
Approaching Stalingrad
Sojatta was in the middle of his weekly briefing on the readiness status of the fleet when his Flag Aide rushed into the cabin with great excitement.
“We have an initial picture of the enemy fleet’s disposition, Admiral!” cried Lieutenant Jassi.
Sojatta glared at the young officer. As Jassi shrank back, realizing he had interrupted a meeting, Sojatta took mercy on him. He grunted and pointed to an empty chair at the conference table.
“Sit, enthusiastic young Lieutenant, and let us hear your news.”
Jassi ducked his head in shame and slunk to the empty chair.
“Show us,” said Sojatta.
Jassi clicked a remote pointer. A tactical holotank popped into view. Suspended over the conference table, nearly five feet wide, the holo showed the Stalingrad system in great detail.
“Uh…here…sir,” Jassi began, still somewhat nonplussed. “…here you can see the Goblin abominations have divided their meager fleet into four Wings, plus what looks like some kind of reserve force. Although they are still at anchor by their main Dyson ring, we noticed they put scouts out to the left and right of the direct line to our fleet. Based on that scouting, we believe they may be thinking of something like a pincer movement, trying to catch us in between two of those Wings.”
Sojatta smiled.
“It is exactly as I have foreseen,” he said. “They will bring out two of their Wings, one to each side of us. That is what I would do if I were as outnumbered as they are.”
“So how will you counter that?” asked Zutirra.
Sojatta’s smile grew even broader. “I do not need to counter it, Guardian Officer Zutirra. It is a futile gesture on their part. They have only 550 ships against our 1,500. We will plow right through them like a hot poker. Nothing they can do will be able to stop us. There is one, and only one, strategy to follow. We drive for the Dyson Ring, we destroy their Fleet on the way, and when we arrive, we destroy the Dyson Ring and all the other artificial structures in that system. We leave nothing behind but the memory of these abominations.”
Zutirra smiled in joy at the thought. “Even so, Admiral. That is exactly what we shall do.”
Phoenix System
Battalion West
With a large thump, the shuttle from Transport Five landed in a small clearing twenty-five miles southwest of the colony. As soon as it was firmly on the ground, Mac’s platoon sergeant started yelling.
“Check your gear! Make sure you have everything! Unbuckle! Stand up!”
As Mac got to his feet, the back ramp started down with a whine.
“Face the rear!” yelled Briggs as the ramp touched the ground. “Ready - move!” he yelled. Mac led his squad out, shuffling off the shuttle and down the ramp. It was about five in the afternoon, local time. As Mac walked down the ramp, the brightness overwhelmed his eyes, and he had to squint. He saw it was not a large clearing; no more than a hundred yards wide.
Only four shuttles could land at a time, and they were right up against each other. Briggs was yelling, but so were three other platoon sergeants from other shuttles, and most of the company commanders, so he couldn’t really hear what anyone was saying. But he could see his platoon leader and some others, moving off toward the alien blue jungle to the east. He waved to his squad to follow.
As they approached the edge of the clearing, he turned for one last look behind him. The four shuttles sat in the clearing, idling, close together. Four lines of troops were streaming out of the shuttles, each line moving to a convergence point behind him and following his company into the jungle. Olivia’s squad was behind his, and she smiled at him and winked. Mac smiled back. Just as he arrived at the jungle edge, the first empty shuttle powered up and departed, running low, over the treetops toward the southwest, away from the colony.
Then he was in the blue jungle. Except for their color, the blue-green trees looked no different than ones on Earth. In seconds, they were in near darkness under a thick canopy. He could barely see the sky.
And then they marched. They marched, and for hours more they marched, until his feet were blistered, and his arms hung down like dead sausages and the sweat turned his clothes rank and salty. And it got dark, and he could hardly make out the person in front of him, and still they marched, a long line of people moving through a dark, nearly invisible jungle.
Occasionally someone lost contact with the person in front of them in the darkness, and stopped abruptly, and the whole line of people had to stop behind them, until a squad leader or a platoon sergeant came back and sorted it out, got them moving again.
He passed the company NCO, Gunny Sparks, standing beside the trail watching people pass
by, assessing their condition. He realized the Gunny was wearing a VR helmet, and could see in the dark, and track his people. He was glad of that; it meant if he got his squad totally lost, Gunny could still find him. At least they wouldn’t die out here in the jungle.
Once an hour, they took a rest break, falling down wherever they happened to be, sipping water from their canteens, exhausted.
There was not much undergrowth. That, at least, was a blessing. He realized that if there had been thick undergrowth, they would be moving at a snails’ pace. But there wasn’t, and he thought they must be making good time. But there was no way to know. Nobody was telling them anything. It was just march, and rest once per hour, and then march some more.
He realized his hands weren’t trembling anymore.
Stree Prime
Great Cathedral of the Stree
At ten AM, a military shuttle departed the spaceport, remotely controlled by Hajo. Two hundred miles later, as the shuttle passed over the ocean on its flight path, both engines suddenly and unexpectedly stopped. A last mayday call went out, and the shuttle arced over and began a long, one-way trip to the bottom of the ocean, at a spot where it was much too deep to ever be recovered. It was a tragic accident. Captain Elvenen, Commander Pamasa, and Sub-Commander Olvia were lost forever.
Back at the Cathedral, both third shift Security guards had been taken over by Ollie and Liwa. Hours later, as their shift started at midnight, the two entered the Security Room, said goodbye to the departing guards, and settled into their seats to play their parts.
An hour later, at one AM, Rita came in through the back door and went directly to the storage room. As she entered, Tika was sitting behind the desk in the empty office, surrounded by boxes and spare gear.
“Hajo and Rachel are back to the safe house,” Rita reported as she sat down in a spare chair in front of the desk. “And we won’t have to worry about Elvenen anymore.”
“Good,” Tika said. “Are we ready for the next step?”
“Yes, I think so. Can you think of any loose ends we haven’t covered yet?”
“Only one,” Tika said. “You haven’t told us who you’re going to take over next.”
“I haven’t actually decided for sure,” Rita said. “But I want to go well up the chain, to one of the senior priests. I think that’s the only way we’ll have the clout to accomplish anything. I’m thinking maybe the archbishop. He’s number eight in the hierarchy. That should be high enough to give us the clout we need to get Jim out of prison, but low enough not to attract too much attention if we make a mistake in protocol or culture.”
“Pretty ambitious,” said Tika. “And how are you going to get to him? It’s not like you can walk right into his quarters and ask him to come to the storage room so you can convert him to a Goblin.”
Rita nodded. “True. But there has to be some way to get to him. We got this far. All we have to do is get one step farther.”
Suddenly, the door to the room slammed open. A Stree monk stood in the opening, glaring across the room at them. He was dressed in a long white sleeping robe. His hand rose, and his fingers pointed straight at them.
“Who are you?” he called out. “What are you doing here?”
Before Rita could react, Luda, from behind the crates on the other side of the room, fired a stunner at the Stree intruder. The monk dropped like a rock in the middle of the doorway. Rita reacted quickly, rushed to him, dragged his body farther into the room, closed the door behind him, and then listened at the door to see if anyone came to investigate.
But nobody came, so she looked around at the figure on the floor. Luda and Tika were standing over him, Luda still holding the stunner.
“Sorry, boss,” said Luda. “I reacted without thinking. I hope that’s OK.”
“That’s fine,” Rita said. “If you hadn’t reacted when you did, he would have called for help and we’d be done. Good work.”
“Who is he?” asked Luda.
Tika looked up at them with a concerned expression on her face.
“Tarilli. Great Prophet Videlli’s Chief of Staff.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Stree Prime
Great Cathedral of the Stree
“Oh, this is not good,” said Tika. “This is definitely not good. This is Tarilli. Number Two in the whole Stree hierarchy, next to Great Prophet Videlli. This is like taking out the Crown Prince of England. This guy will be missed in a matter of hours, if not minutes. We’re in big trouble.”
Rita perused the body lying on the floor, thinking. “Not necessarily. You forget, it’s after 1 AM. I don’t know why he was walking the halls at this unearthly hour, but he was alone. So it’s quite possible nobody knows or even cares where he is right now. I suspect we’ve got a few hours before he’ll be missed.”
Rita looked at Luda. “Get him in the scanner, get him scanned, and get him in the bodybuilder for Tika to take over.”
Tika looked at Rita in horror. “You can’t be serious! This is Videlli’s Chief of Staff! One tiny mistake and Videlli will be on to us instantly! And we already know the scanner is having problems - dropouts! It’s certain I’ll be missing some kind of key information that will give me away!”
Rita shrugged. “I don’t see that we have a choice, Tika. We can’t let him go, and if we keep him, he’ll be missed within hours. Taking him over is our only real option. And after all - we wanted someone with influence. Well, we got that, for sure.”
The two looked at each other, Tika’s disagreement plain to see. Rita could see she was going to balk, so Rita smiled at her, trying to defuse the situation.
“Tika. I know I’m going on instinct now. This wasn’t part of the plan, and I know how uncomfortable it makes you to go off plan. But we have to look at this as an opportunity, not a setback. Please work with me on this. I have a feeling about it. I think this will work.”
Tika rolled her eyes but nodded. “I don’t like it. I think it’s a mistake. But we agreed that you’re in charge of the mission, so I’ll do it. Just remember, though - if I wake up back in my body at Stalingrad with no memory of this mission, I’m going to kick your ass.”
Rita smiled at her. “Roger that.”
A half-hour later, Rita sat in the spare office, tapping a pencil on the desk, trying to think. For all her confidence in front of Tika, she was having serious doubts about the path she had chosen.
But…too late to turn back now. I wonder just how much clout Tarilli has. Will he be able to order Jim and the others freed from detention? If Videlli gets suspicious, it’s all over. Maybe we shouldn’t go down that path.
But…on the other hand…if Tarilli knows where Jim and the others are being kept…then at least we know where to go to break them out.
“You’re not going to believe this,” Tika said from the doorway. She had a smile on her face a mile wide.
“What?” asked Rita, puzzled.
“While we’re waiting for the body to be rebuilt, I side-loaded Tarilli’s scan to my temporary memory. Guess why he was here at 1 AM?”
Rita shook her head. “I give up. Why?”
“He’s a dopehead. A drug addict. He keeps his stash in here.” Tika pulled a bag out from behind her back and held it up for Rita’s inspection. “There’s enough junk in here to kill a herd of horses.”
“Oh my Lord,” exclaimed Rita. “A druggie? Tarilli?”
“Yep. That’s why he was here alone, and that’s why nobody will be looking for him.”
“Wow. Did we get lucky or what?”
“You got that right. So…”
“So?”
“So…maybe you know what you’re doing after all, boss.”
Rita laughed. “Why, thank you, Tika. How are we doing on the bodybuilder?”
“It’s going to be close, but I think we can make it. His android body should be ready by four AM. I can get myself transferred into it by five. According to the scan, his first task of the day is to wake Videlli at six. That gives me
an hour to get back to Tarilli’s room, change clothes and get to Videlli’s chambers in time.”
“This could be even better than I had hoped for, then. If he’s a druggie, there have to be some symptoms of that. Surely Videlli has noticed and is aware of it, and just doesn’t care. Maybe that will help to cover some of the initial clumsiness from this new body.”
“Let’s hope so. And also, I’m moving from a male Stree body to another male Stree body. I’ve had several days to acclimatize to the one I’m in now; hopefully Tarilli’s won’t be much different. That may help some.”
“OK. Well. So, first of all, good luck.”
“Thanks. And second?”
“Did his scan show where Jim and the rest are?”
“No. I wasn’t able to find it in my initial pass through his sideload scan. I’ll look again once I get transferred into his body.”
“OK. And also try to find out if there’s any way to recall the Stree fleet.”
“I’ll try, but we both know there’s not much chance of that.”
“Yeah, I know. I think I’ve pretty much given up on that happening. But keep your ears open.”
“Roger. So what will you do in the meantime while I’m out winning the war?”
“I think we’re going to hunker down until you get yourself organized as Tarilli. I don’t want to go back to the safe house - it’s too dangerous to move back and forth. And you may need me. So I’m just going to sit here in this dusty-ass storage room with Luda, until you’ve got Tarilli sorted out.”
Phoenix System
Battalion West
For nine hours, Mac, Olivia and the rest of Battalion West had marched. It had started a light rain around midnight. Even though it was fairly warm, with the rain and the perspiration on their skin, they were freezing. It was now two AM. Then, abruptly, the line stopped moving. Mac bumped into the man in front of him before he realized something had changed. At first, he wasn’t sure what was happening. Then the word came down the line - they had arrived at their bivouac.
Slowly, over the next hour, they got organized into a camp. It was slow going in the dark. No lights were allowed. They were still in the jungle, although they had reached a place where the trees thinned a bit.
Remnants: Broken Galaxy Book Five Page 19
