Conflict!

by Dale Moorhouse

  After Johnny left, Serena and Edgar came over to my desk. Edgar jumped up on the desk, and Serena rubbed her head against me. I heard them both on my implant, “We have been listening and have some ideas that might help.

  “Some of Sarge’s cats have third generation implants now. The implants are completely internal, so they only wear their collars because they want to. Sarge says he has several volunteers that can infiltrate Camp David and make contact with the people you want to rescue. If they take their collars off, the guards are likely to ignore them thinking they are strays. If the guards pay too much attention, the infiltrators can simply stay out of sight and try to gain entry to the buildings where your targets are.”

  “That is an interesting idea. I’m expecting a plan from Tux and Bebe in the next few decas. I will let them know about the volunteers.”

  “No need,” Edgar replied, “Sarge is with them right now, and Bebe is planning on dropping a squad in a deca when they drop the new batch of drones.”

  “You two didn’t waste any time, did you?” I chuckled. “I’m glad you suggested it though, it shows that you are thinking about things tactically, and that is a good thing.”

  I suggested we head for the dining room. I was hoping Elaine would be there, I want to fill her in on the situation.

  There was no sign of her, so I just grabbed some soup and an IPA and headed back to my office. I’d just finished my ale when Bebe showed up with Tuxedo and Ewan McFarrel, one of her Centurions. Bebe had a pad attached to her harness above her left shoulder, Sarge was perched there looking like he owned the world. “Come on in and have a seat. Nice to see you again Ewan, I hope you are enjoying your new assignment.

  “Sarge, it is good seeing you, I’m hearing good things about your scouts.”

  Sarge answered, “Good seeing you also, Jase.

  “I’ve been talking with Bebe and Ewan about some assignments for my warriors, and they tell me you have something my cats can handle. We would like to be a part of your upcoming operation.”

  “Well, I’m assuming the bunch of you are here to lay out a plan for getting some hostages out of a guarded compound on US soil. What have you got for me?”

  Tuxedo replied, “We are expecting Ben and George any minute, so if you don’t mind, can we wait until they get here?”

  “Sure, we can do that.”

  The words were still ringing in the air when there was a knock at the door, and Ben came in with George. I motioned to some chairs and said, “Now that we are all present, what have you come up with?”

  George started out, “Ben and I had an idea a while back for some enhancements to the Elsies that play to the requirements of this mission. The active camouflage you already know about since it was used by our Elsies on the Proxima Centauri mission. What you may not know is we had some of the same boffins who came up with the camouflage also come up with a way to quiet the gravitic drives literally to a whisper. When Tuxedo and Bebe were laying out the initial parameters for the mission, it occurred to us that a pair of really quiet Elsies would be the ticket.

  “We just got back from a test during broad daylight, we were neither seen nor heard when we landed in the compound at Camp David. We were careful to land in a small clearing adjacent to the admin building where there was a lot of activity nearby. We launched the new drones for Johnny then had Sarge stroll across the compound in plain sight. The guards who saw him didn’t think anything of his presence, and when he scurried into some bushes nearby, he overheard one of the guards mention several cats are living in the area. It seems most of the guards think having cats around is good for keeping the rat population down.”

  Sarge picked up the conversation, “Jase, I’d like to go back this evening at twilight and drop off two squads of my scouts and have them observe and report. We can gain intelligence your drones can’t by getting in close and listening to conversations between the guards as well as listening to whoever they are guarding. We should be able to get close enough to the prisoners for interaction when it is time to extricate them. I believe we can pull this off with no serious risk to my cats or your people, and I’d like to give it a try.”

  Ewan took over explaining, “I will take two squads, one in each Elsie, armed only with disruptors and our knives on the extraction. We will be performing operational security and back up Sarge’s warriors if things go bad. We will also take canisters of stun gas and use it to neutralize the sentries and roving patrols after the cats locate and mark any sensors the guards are using to monitoring the area. This should minimize the potential for lethal consequences. We have already identified an alternative LZ for retrieving our small warriors should any get separated from us during the extraction.”

  We hashed this around for a half deca before we finally had a plan that I felt had a better chance of success than I thought possible. I told them, “Thanks for working this issue. Keep reviewing it and practice your teams a few times at the WTC Variable Scenarios Course. Let me know if anything changes; and Sarge, thank your volunteers for me.”

  They all got up to leave except Tuxedo, and when the office was empty, and the door closed, he said, “This is the kind of mission I envisioned when I first met Sarge and his barracks cats. It makes me kind of jealous that his warriors have so many advantages in operations like this because of their size and agility. I’ve practised with some of them at the WTC in various scenarios. If they perform in real life as they do in practice, I feel nothing but pity for our adversaries. You need to come and observe them soon, Jase, they are something to watch.”

  “I’ll do that, Tuxedo. Let me know when your next practice session is, and I will be there.”

  “Jase, on another note, the one warrior we rescued at Proxima is dying. I’m talking about the one who goes hysterical whenever he is brought out of anaesthesia. Something the Plague did to his brain has affected him in an unknown way, and his life signs are degrading quickly. I’ve been asked to administer his request to die. It is a big ask, but I would like you to stand with me when I do this.”

  I turned to face him fully and told him, “Yes, I will stand with you, brother. Afterwards, I will sit with you and have a toast to our departed warrior. When is this likely to happen?”

  “Tonight at 0000, that is the traditional time. His family will be there with us and will hold a small service for him before he is sent off to Sol. As one of his rescuers and the commander of the mission that brought him back, you have a special place in the hearts of the family. You can bring Elaine if she would like to come, but I feel she won’t want to be involved after trying so hard to save him. Either way, we all understand.”

  “I’ll talk to her although I suspect she will decline. Maybe she will come for the toast though. I’ll ask.”

  ◆◆◆

  I met Tuxedo a few centas before 0000, and he introduced me to the warrior’s family. His mate thanked me for bringing Shining Black Sword home. She hadn’t seen him in kilocycles, and now she at least got to see him one more time. The medical staff had positioned his body using pillows in such a way as to minimize the maiming and spare them the additional tragedy. Everyone knew, but they didn’t want to see. Under the coverlet, he looked like any sleeping Mmrrreeowwn.

  Elaine opted to join us at Benji’s Place by the Warrior Training Complex for a toast with the family along with some friends and barracks mates of the departed warrior. His mate wanted to meet Elaine and thank her for trying to save his life.

  At the appointed time Tuxedo was handed a syringe with a quick acting sedative that will drop Shining Black Sword first into a deep sleep then will slow his heart until it stops. Tuxedo Injected the sedative into the IV drip and stroked Sword’s head as we watched the heart monitor slow then come to a stop. The attendants had turned off the alarm, so the room was quiet except for a little snuffling from his mate and his mother. His mate clipped a little fur from his cheek and placed it in a locket then gently nuzzled him before she turned away and was guided out of the room by hi
s mother.

  When we got to Benji’s, quite a crowd was gathered, but it was in a quiet, reflective mood as we walked in. Benji had turned the background music down, so quiet conversations could take place. There was a red circle on the vast wraparound screen, and Benji told us that was where Shining Black Sword’s burial capsule would first be visible as it carried him on the next step of his journey.

  Elaine came and was sitting with Tuxedo and me. We all had drinks when the lights dimmed. All eyes turned towards the red circle which disappeared and was replaced by a flash of light and a streak resembling a meteor that headed away at an angle from our point of view. Just before it went out of sight, there was a brilliant flare, then it was gone. Tuxedo explained, “That was a small fusion engine that gave the capsule the nudge that will take it to Sol. It is timed to arrive at 0000 next cycle.”

  Shining Black Sword’s mate came to our table and sat next to Elaine and took her hands, “Thank you for trying to save my mate. I thank all of you for returning him to me so I could say goodbye and send him to the Creator of All. He is at peace now, and I can take up the fight now with a whole heart.”

  After another drink, all of us from the Terran HQ headed back. Bebe walked beside Elaine and me and said, “Shining Black Sword and my brother were good friends and creche mates. They were both followers of the Creator of All and got much peace from their beliefs.”

  “Sometime, you will have to tell me more about the Creator of All.”

  Bebe just smiled and said, “In time, Jase, in time.”

  2

  STAN OPTED TO TREAT WILL ANDREWS, the Canadian PM and his family to a full tour of Mother of Glory with a stop at Benji’s Place by the WTC for lunch. By special request Elaine, Missy and I were accompanying them along with Serena, Edgar, and Shadow. It was actually a pleasant break from our daily routines for all of us. I also got to visit places I knew were there but never seemed to find time to see. Even Edgar was enjoying himself, Will’s daughter Rebecca was carrying him and fussing over him—he loved the attention.

  The tour started with a short stroll through the hangar bay and then moved to the shuttle docking area where the PM was shocked to see so many shuttles. I explained, ”The shuttles perform several functions ranging from landing huge amounts of supplies and warriors, SAR missions and lifeboats in the event Mother of Glory has a disaster. Their most critical duty is propulsion. When Mother of Glory gets underway, the shuttle engines are used to accelerate her in conjunction with the engines on MoG’s central spine. They are also used for manoeuvring.

  “The whole process is controlled by a group of AI’s that are constantly sensing MoG’s structure for undue stress, they automatically compensate by causing selected shuttles to either increase or decrease power. The Mmrrreeowwn are very frugal and try to design their ships as clusters of compatible systems that work in concert as opposed to monolithic structures that have only one purpose.”

  Will thought about that for a moment, “There must be millions of Mmrrreeowwn on board. In the event of a disaster, how could so few ships evacuate so many people? Even if the shuttles could carry five thousand individuals, you could only save a small percentage.”

  “Each segment of Mother of Glory is self-contained and can operate independently. Even the modules in the central spine have docking ports built in, and every passageway between segments has dual air retention fields and blast doors that can close in seconds. The Mmrrreeowwn estimate that depending on the nature of the disaster, they can save as much as 85 per cent of their population. As we proceed with the tour I’ll point out some of these features,” Stan replied.

  One of the areas I’d never seen was next on the tour, and all of us except Missy and Stan were speechless when we saw it. When we exited the lift, we were surrounded by farmland. In the distance, we could see the hull of the ship, but for hundreds of metres in almost any direction but up it is farmland. Stan said, “Each section of the vessel except the last segment on either wing and the propulsion segment at the stern has at least two levels like this. Some of the newer segments have three and even four. As we add more segments and redistribute the population, more agricultural levels will be added until each section has at least three, although the goal is four.

  “What you see here is a grain similar to oats but even more nutritious and one of the few seasonal crops actually grown in soil. We will pass through several more levels where you will see how vegetables are grown hydroponically and the vats where our meat and other proteins are produced. All of the plants we grow are specially bred to absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide and release oxygen. We also grow a lot of legumes that have the added benefit of fixing nitrogen in the soil. This is the second growing season for grain in this field so we will rotate to legumes after the harvest. This is where the beans in our bean soup come from.”

  By lunch, we had probably walked ten klicks, and while no one was complaining, they were thrilled to sit and eat. Reba, Will’s wife, sat next to Rebecca stroking Edgar with one hand and Serena with the other. Will said, “I’d always had dogs, but since Reba and I first started dating I’ve come to appreciate cats although they still mystify me. Those two though,” and he gestured to his wife and daughter, “are cat magnets. Wherever we have lived, it would only be a couple of weeks before we’d have all the neighbourhood cats stopping by for a visit. Sometimes they didn’t leave, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  After lunch, Elaine and Missy took Reba and Rebecca on a short tour of the medbay and central creche while Will, Stan and I went to the sixth floor of Terran HQ to show Will our situation room and bring him up to speed on our upcoming mission. Dimitri and Sol met us, and Sol gave him a quick briefing on the situations we were tracking around the world.

  When it was time for the mission briefing, Johnny met us in the situation room where we got down to business. Johnny brought up a view of Camp David and played images of the arrival of POTUS and FLOTUS from a deca earlier. There wasn’t the usual fanfare and pomp and circumstance that usually accompanied a US President where ever he went. Instead, it was a shabby view of a man and his loved ones being treated with contempt and disrespect. Will commented on this and speculated, “I wonder what the people of the US and the rest of the world would say if they could see this, eh? I can understand disliking a leader, but there is no call for this display of bad manners.”

  When we wrapped up the briefing, Will asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  “Yes, Will, perhaps you could brief your family there will be some additional guests showing up tomorrow night, and they could probably do with some friendly faces. Also, I’m not sure staying aboard Mother of Glory is a long term solution. Is there any possibility your government can offer them asylum?”

  He responded, “I was already thinking about that. I’m sure Reba and Rebecca would be amenable to helping, and we could house them temporarily at the official residence while things are getting sorted out. With our shields, we no longer need to concern ourselves with external aggression, so the worst case scenario is a glaring stand-off until we can smooth the ruffled feathers.

  “I’m sure you would prefer me to wait until after the mission to alert any of my staff, operational security and all that, but I’m sure Reba can get a plan in place that will function smoothly once the operation is over. I’ll speak with her when she gets back from her tour.”

  ◆◆◆

  Elaine, Ginger, and Rebecca went to the creche where they spent part of their day with Ginger’s daughter, Squirrel Paws, and her two Terran buddies, Roni and Sonja. The three youngsters have been working on a science fair project and wanted to show their parents what they’d come up with. Sonja’s parents arrived shortly before the demonstration with Dimitri, Roni’s father. Sasha, Roni’s mother, taught at the creche and stopped in briefly to say hello. The science fair idea was hers, so she has had to keep the three girls’ activities at arm’s length to avoid an appearance of favouritism—she doesn’t even know
what her daughter has been working on.

  Squirrel Paws started out explaining how they came up with the idea. “My dad was telling me about his mission to Proxima Centauri and how he had to use a new type of missile launcher. He said it worked well but would be better if it had less recoil and didn’t have to be fired from a fixed mount. We have been learning about the improved inertia cancelling technology, and Sonja said it would be nice if we could install a small inertia canceller in dad’s launcher. We talked about it with Dusty, and when she put us in contact with the researchers who developed the new technology, they gave us some pointers. They also donated a bunch of components to us. We reverse engineered the components and discovered ways to miniaturize most of them so they could be installed under the barrels of the launcher and only add about a kilo of weight.

  “Dad showed us how to make a simulator using springs that let us test our modifications without having to use a real weapon, that is what we will use today.”

  When the ladies got back from the demonstration, it was all Rebecca could talk about. She was just starting out teaching in Canada and was somewhat underwhelmed by the gifted student programs they had. Rebecca clearly wanted to be involved with students like the three girls she just met and asked Dusty and Sasha if they had any openings. Her mother was sceptical, but Rebecca was not daunted, saying she wanted to immigrate. They agreed to bring the topic up with her father when he got back from his meetings.

  ◆◆◆

  Johnny started the final briefing before our teams set out to extract POTUS and his family from Camp David. We were in the situation room, and he was piping all of the drone and cat feeds to our large screen. Camp David showed on the screen where the Atlantic ocean would typically be, and he stepped through the feeds one-at-a-time looking for any last minute changes. Sarge’s warriors had thoroughly infiltrated the area and had been sending back intel for two days.