Search for the Saiph (The Saiph Series Book 2)

by PP Corcoran

  What the hell is David Catney doing here and where’s Admiral Vadis? Christos had expected Vadis to make an appearance, he was, after all, the man who’d led Survey Command through its formative years. Catney took a seat at the head of the small briefing table and waved a hand at the remaining seats, indicating to the others to sit.

  “OK, let’s get right to it. Admiral Vadis has been requested by the Joint Chiefs to assume command of the Office of Naval Intelligence, effective immediately. The fallout from his sudden departure is that I’m the only rear admiral on the list for promotion who’s intimately familiar with the workings of Survey Command so…” Catney let out a small chuckle as he looked at the other admirals. “I got an early promotion to vice admiral and a one-way ticket to the outer reaches of the solar system.” His words received chuckles and congratulations from the others.

  “Thank you, thank you,” Catney smiled around the table. “So, to business. I’m not a big stickler for the rank thing, besides, we’re all admirals here, so, in private, I expect first names only and please, each of you, speak your mind freely. In public we play the game and present a united front. Understood?”

  The three admirals nodded. Christos felt a renewed admiration for this legend who was now also his new commander; a straight-talking man who didn’t expect his immediate subordinates to carry out his orders like automatons.

  “Good. Now, the reason I’ve called you together. The Joint Chiefs have decided that it’s time to let Survey Command get on with its primary role, that is, surveying new systems and making peaceful contact with any spacefaring civilizations we find. It’s been over a year since the Second Battle of Garunda and the fleet has not only made good the losses it suffered but is further along in its planned expansion than anyone thought possible. Third Fleet in Garunda had first dibs on new ship construction and has already received the first of the new Bismarck class battleships. With the general fleet expansion, the Joint Chiefs believe we now have sufficient strength to begin the planned reorganization.”

  Catney touched a control on his PAD and a wire diagram appeared in the holo cube in the center of the table.

  “The integration of Persai, Garundan, and Terran forces is continuing apace. The Joint Chiefs now have a Garundan and Persai member. They’ve formed a Combined Joint Chiefs of Staff who report directly to the Commonwealth Council on matters that affect Commonwealth-wide issues. In matters pertaining to national security, the Chiefs still report directly to their respective national governments. Fleet deployment from here on in will be as follows: First Fleet under Admiral Jing will consist of three battle forces designated BatFor 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 and they will be home ported at Earth. Second Fleet consisting of BatFor 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 will be home ported in Janus under the command of Admiral Lewis. Third Fleet consisting of BatFor 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3 will be home ported in Garunda under Admiral Radford. Fourth Fleet consisting of BatFor 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3 will be home ported in Pars under the command of Force Leader Taras. Fifth Fleet will be a joint Navy and Marine force broken up into five Marine Expeditionary Brigades of around 14,500 sailors and marines. Each MEB can work as an independent entity or combine to form a Marine Expeditionary Force. Each MEB will be allocated by the Joint Chiefs as and when requested by a Fleet Commander and will be held in Earth space until required.”

  Catney paused in his brief to let all of this sink in.

  Torrence was the first to ask the obvious question. “So where does that leave us?”

  Catney touched a control on his PAD, the section of the wire diagram showing Sixth Fleet expanded and a list of smaller sub-units filled the holo cube.

  “Welcome to Sixth Fleet the new home of Survey Command.”

  Christos ran his eye down Sixth Fleet’s organizational structure. David Catney was going to be a busy man.

  “If I’m reading this right, David, you’re not only in charge of Survey Command but whatever ‘Training Afloat’ is.”

  Catney gave a short sigh. “The Joint Chiefs, in their wisdom, decided to accept one of my recommendations to expand the naval academy’s current curriculum to include a short period of training cruises on frigate-sized ships for graduates prior to releasing them into the fleet. A core of experienced officers and ratings will flesh out the crews of cadets and make sure they don’t do too much damage as they terrorize other ships during their training cruises.”

  Laughter filled the room. Each of the admirals remembered their own first cruises and some of their more memorable mistakes.

  “I nearly blew up my first ship when I accidentally allowed the reactor core to run away,” smiled Glandinning.

  Catney looked at him with a horrified face. “And they let you near my engine room on the Marco Polo. How’d we ever manage to get home in one piece?”

  Glandinning shrugged and that lopsided smile was back on his face. “Luck?”

  Christos finally placed the name “Gavin Glandinning.” He’d been Catney’s engineering officer on the Marco Polo during its first voyage. It occurred to Christos that Glandinning would have been a lieutenant junior grade on that voyage and here he was, what? Nine years later? As a rear admiral. Christos felt his head spin. Nine years from lieutenant to admiral? Even with the rapid expansion of Earth’s military forces, he was hard-pressed to explain promotion so quickly.

  Christos racked his brain to remember the last time he’d read or heard anything which mentioned Glandinning and came up empty. It seemed that following the successful return of the Marco Polo the young lieutenant had dropped off the world. Christos glanced at the youthful-looking admiral and made a mental note to ask him about it sometime, although he suspected the dark world of naval intelligence may be involved. Things just didn’t add up. Christos’ musings were put on hold as Catney continued his briefing.

  “That brings me to the meat of the subject. Survey Command and your roles. It’s the intention of the Joint Chiefs that Survey Command will, with all haste, make and execute plans to visit those systems identified in the Saiph database as having had a measure of Saiph interference with the DNA of life on planets within the system.”

  In the holo cube, the wire diagram was replaced with a list of twelve planets, their names in yellow lettering.

  “From the Saiph database, we know they visited twelve planets, including Earth. Now, if we remove Earth and Garunda…”

  In the holo cube, the two planets moved to a new column that now bore the legend “Commonwealth,” where they joined the new home of the Persai, named after their original planet Pars, and the Earth colony Janus. As they did so, the lettering of their names changed to blue.

  “We know the original Pars was destroyed by the Others around 2038 AD.”

  Pars, with the word ‘original’ in brackets, moved to a column bearing the legend “Destroyed” in black.

  “Alona has not yet joined the Commonwealth and as far as we know remains undetected by the Others.”

  Alona changed color to blue and moved to a column with the legend ‘Neutrals.’

  “Delta Pavonis was one of the objectives of the original Vanguard surveys and sadly it suffered an extinction level event destroying virtually all life on the planet,” Catney spared a look for Christos. It had been his ship, the Jacques Cartier, that had arrived at Delta Pavonis only to find that less than twenty years before an asteroid had struck the planet, causing massive tidal waves and enveloping the planet in a cloud of unbreathable CO2. Catney remembered the images that the Jacques Cartier had brought home of a still-partially functioning near-orbit satellite system. Massive skyscrapers destroyed by mile-high waves. An entire civilization wiped from the universe.

  Delta Pavonis moved to the “Destroyed” column.

  “That brings us to 70 Ophiuchi, where the Henry Hudson originally encountered the Others. The Joint Chiefs are classing that as enemy occupied and between you and me they have a few surprises in mind for its residents but that’s for another time.”

  A column bearing the legend “Enemy Occ
upied” in red appeared, with 70 Ophiuchi below it.

  “Now that leaves us with seven systems. Luckily for us, the Persai have placed surveillance platforms in these systems over the last few decades and if we factor in the data from them, that leaves us with this:”

  The remaining seven systems broke into two columns. One highlighted in purple entitled “Life Bearing” and the other in white entitled “Unknown.” Below Life Bearing were listed Gamma Leporis, Regulus 4, 16 Cygniz, 23 Librae, and Algol 3. Below Unknown were Tau Eridani and 9 Ceti.

  “From the Persai data, we know that artificial energy sources have been detected in these five systems. Unfortunately the data isn’t good enough to give us a true picture of what’s going on in each of these systems so Christos and Bruce, this is where you come in…”

  Christos felt his ears prick up and sat a little straighter in his seat. Out of the corner of his eye he caught the same reaction from Torrence.

  “Now I don’t need to remind you that the Joint Chiefs believe that one of these systems is more than likely the home system of the Others.”

  Catney took the time to meet the eyes of each man in the room as the implied danger remained unstated.

  “It’s my intention to dispatch a survey flotilla to each of the systems showing artificial readings. Dispatched in order of those showing the highest level of energy output. Christos, you have seniority amongst the flotilla commanders so I’m assigning you Algol 3.”

  Christos gave a sharp nod and stared intently at the words Algol 3 in the holo cube as if just by looking at the name he could discern what awaited him and his crews there.

  “Bruce, you get 23 Librae. I want you both to plan for a covert reconnaissance. It’s my understanding that you’ll have a full diplomatic team on board who will handle any first contact situations but your initial brief is to get in and get out without detection. Your planned departure date is to be no later than thirty days from today. Understood?”

  Christos and Torrence replied in unison. “Understood.”

  Catney gave them both a smile. “Yeah, I thought you would. Gavin, don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten you.”

  Throughout the briefing, Gavin Glandinning had remained silent, Christos had almost forgotten he was even present.

  “What’s the current status of SurvFlot Three, Gavin?”

  With a barely noticeable pause Glandinning replied, “Non task-worthy. Currently I have only two of my three Vanguards, a single Talos command variant light cruiser and none of my assigned Persai ships. My last request to Survey Command indicated that I could expect to receive my third Vanguard in two weeks’ time, with the second Talos following in approximately a month. They were unable to tell me when to expect the Persai. In my opinion, SurvFlot Three will reach a limited task-worthy state when it receives the second Talos cruiser.”

  Christos was surprised at Glandinning’s admission that his flotilla was not task-worthy. It was a hard thing for a commanding officer to admit, but after hearing that SurvFlot Three was barely at half strength Christos agreed it was the right thing to do.

  Again a brief smile crossed Catney’s lips. “That’s my assessment too, Gavin. So, provided your second cruiser arrives on time, I want you to plan on taking an under-strength flotilla to the two systems that aren’t showing any artificial energy sources, Tau Eridani and 9 Ceti. I know SurvFlot Three’s still an organizational disaster zone, but do your best. I expect you to be ready to deploy thirty days after the arrival of the second cruiser. If you think you’re going to be ready before that, great, but it’s your call and if you feel you need longer, I’ll back your decision.”

  Glandinning gave an imperceptible nod as Catney clapped his hands together with a bang.

  “One last thing before we wrap up. As I’m doing double duty with the setup of the training flotillas as well as Survey Command, I’ll have to leave the majority of the day-to-day work to my staff. But not everything can be handled by staff members, so Christos, you get the short straw. You’re now my designated second-in-command when it comes to all things survey.”

  Christos’ groan escaped his lips as Bruce Torrance tried, and failed, to suppress a snort of laughter. He knew exactly how much Christos hated paperwork.

  “Now, I suggest we head to the Flag Dining Room for some lunch.”

  Catney caught Glandinning’s eye as they stood to leave. They both slowed to allow Christos and Bruce to get a few paces ahead, then Catney leaned in close. Keeping his voice conspiratorially low, he asked Glandinning what he’d been dying to ask since the meeting commenced.

  “So, Gavin, how were things on Zarmina?”

  Glandinning furtively glanced at the two men walking down the corridor in front of them, ensuring they were out of earshot before answering.

  “Cold. But on schedule. Maybe another eighteen months and we should be ready for field testing.”

  “So why did they send you to Survey Command of all places? Surely you’d have been better off staying on Zarmina?”

  Glandinning shrugged. “Someone felt I lacked command experience and if the project came to a point where it was required, then it needed someone with combat experience. Putting me in command of a BatFor ahead of the normal promotion chain would have brought too much attention so it was the lesser of two evils, I’d be less noticeable in survey.”

  “I hope so… Well, you’re here now and I for one am glad to have you.” Catney slapped Glandinning across his shoulder blades, “Let’s eat!”

  Catney quelled the unease that welled in his stomach, he had an innate dislike for covert intelligence ops, they didn’t sit well with him, and life was much easier when it was not colored by shades of gray. Black Ops were never his cup of tea but Gavin Glandinning had taken to them like a duck to water and strangely, he was already missing the cloak and dagger world. Gavin gave a mental shrug as he brought his thoughts back to the present and the mission ahead.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The Dinner Party

  TDF CUTLASS – CHARON BASE – SOL SYSTEM

  When David Catney saddled him with the second-in-command job at Survey Command, Christos originally thought it would mostly involve him initialing and sending stuff on its merry way to some middle-ranking staff officer who dealt with the nitty-gritty. That thought lasted until Christos realized how much paperwork it took to run Survey Command.

  Christos was now spending so much time doing the jobs Catney passed off that he was becoming reliant on his own flag captain, Vusumuzi Mkhize, to do the bulk of the organizational work within SurvFlot One. It was work that Christos felt he should be doing himself, but there simply weren’t enough hours in the day.

  Only another two weeks before the expected departure date for SurvFlot One and Two, time was short, and it seemed there was still so much to do before Christos left for the lunar colony to snatch a few days with his family before whisking off to Algol 3.

  An attention chime sounded on his computer, Christos glanced at the time; Twenty-two thirty-five. There weren’t many who’d call him at this time of night. Christos happily flipped aside a random memo entitled, “Accidental Pollution of Alien Civilizations by Improper Waste Disposal during Surface Surveys and its Possible Effects on Cultures not as Advanced as the Commonwealth” – who wrote these things? Christos’ face brightened when the face of Vusumuzi Mkhize appeared in the memo’s place.

  “And to what do I owe the pleasure of a call from my faithful minion at this ungodly hour, Vusumuzi?” queried Christos in a light tone. Vusumuzi didn’t reply immediately and Christos saw that for once there was no reciprocal smile on his usually happy face.

  “Sorry to disturb you so late, Admiral, but a delicate matter has been brought to my attention…” Vusumuzi paused, unsure to how to continue. He wrinkled his forehead as he searched for appropriate words.

  “Just spit it out, Vusumuzi, or we’ll be here all night.”

  Vusumuzi straightened his shoulders slightly and his features became neutral. “As per yo
ur orders, I’ve ensured that, where possible, every crew member gets a period of home leave before our planned departure. By the time we leave for Algol 3, ninety percent of all military personnel within the flotilla will’ve had the opportunity to visit their families.”

  Vusumuzi paused, waiting for the obvious response. Christos looked at him blankly until realization dawned. Vusumuzi had no control over the diplomatic personnel of the flotilla, they came under the direct control of Ambassador Schamu, unless there was a military priority. By emphasizing the word “military,” Vusumuzi was trying to tell Christos something without criticizing the Ambassador. Christos took the bait.

  “And what’s the leave state of the diplomatic personnel, Captain?”

  “To my knowledge, no member of the diplomatic staff has requested space on any personnel shuttles except for diplomatic purposes.”

  Christos couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The mission to Algol 3, like every other survey mission, was virtually open-ended. It could be months before the flotilla returned to Commonwealth space, so it had become common practice amongst survey crews to visit family and friends before they left on these long voyages. Obviously the Diplomatic Corps had never heard of this particular practice. Although Christos was in overall command of the mission, he really couldn’t usurp Ambassador Schamu’s authority and order that the diplomatic personnel be granted leave. A suggestion that the ambassador may wish to visit his own family before departing might do the trick.

  “Captain, I’d be grateful if you could find out if the ambassador is available for a private breakfast tomorrow morning. I have some matters to discuss with him in relation to our upcoming mission that I’d prefer to do in person.”

  At last, the smile returned to Vusumuzi’s face. “I’m sure he’ll make the time, Admiral. Would zero seven thirty hours suit?”

  Christos kept his face deadpan. “Perhaps we should make it zero seven hundred, Captain. I’m sure he has a busy day planned and I wouldn’t want to impinge on it.”