by Wilson Harp
“Sir, are you ready? Need any help?” Lippor said as he knocked on K-man’s door.
“I’m good, Lippor,” K-man said. “I assume Admiral Salazar is on board?”
“His ship just docked. I just checked on Greenaway and they are moving him to the conference room now.”
K-man looked at himself in the small mirror sitting above his dresser and nodded. Twelve days in a hospital bed may have softened him, but he still looked like he belonged in the uniform.
Lippor led the way to the conference room. The Berlin was thrumming with the energy of a crew preparing itself for a big assignment. They had been ordered back to Ellison to receive their new assignments, pick up additional crew, and to be briefed by Admiral Salazar.
It seemed strange to think of the space station around Jupiter as home, but that is what many of the men of Strike Force Alpha felt about Ellison. K-man smiled to himself as he remembered they weren’t Strike Force Alpha anymore. They were now Earth System Defense.
Politicians and bureaucrats always wanted to change names of groups. One of the mysteries of life K-man decided was better left unexplored.
The main conference room on the Berlin was right below the bridge. Captain Gagne was already seated and looking at his tablet. His frown indicated that he was not thrilled with the report from Salazar. K-man didn’t suspect anyone who had been with this particular group would be.
“Your tablet,” Lippor said.
K-man took the computer that Lippor held out to him. He saw that Greenaway had been situated on the other side of the table. His head was still immobilized in that cage like contraption and he was still dressed in the hospital gown that he had worn since he was brought in with a broken neck.
“Thanks, Lippor. I’ll let you know if I need anything else,” K-man said.
“Yes, sir. You have about five minutes before the Admiral arrives.”
K-man nodded as his aide left the conference room. He switched on his tablet and walked over to where Greenaway was sitting.
“How are you feeling?” K-man asked.
“Better now that I will be heading home, sir,” Greenaway said. “Did you know they are reassigning me to D.C.? Some research lab there.”
“Good, your family won’t be too far away. And you will still be able to serve from Earth.”
“Yeah, that’s the good news about breaking your neck, I suppose. They aren’t giving me good odds to walk again. But we’ll see.”
“We’ll miss having you. You saved our bacon too many times not to miss you,” K-man said.
“You’re making me blush, sir. Besides, we all know that you didn’t think techs should be in combat,” Greenaway said.
“I was wrong,” K-man answered. “Most of the techs I have seen in the field are more than worth their spot on my teams.”
“Thank you, sir. Serving on your team was the highest honor I could hope for.”
“Now you’re making me blush, Greenaway. Just get better,” K-man said as he sat down beside his tech.
There was a flurry of movement and K-man saw that Gagne was standing up. Salazar was brisk as he entered the room and K-man popped to his feet as soon as he saw the general enter.
“As you were, gentlemen,” Salazar said. He placed his tablet on the table and motioned to one of his aides to get him a cup of coffee from the refreshment table.
“I would like to say that I am in a hurry to get somewhere, but I’m not, honestly. I just want to get this meeting over with. We will only have a couple of days to get everything situated before the Berlin and her escorts will be departing Ellison.”
K-man sat back down as he watched Salazar. A few more gray hairs than the last time he had seen the admiral, and quite a few more wrinkles around the eyes. He looked like he needed more sleep as well. K-man knew that Salazar was under a lot of pressure.
“Thank you,” Salazar said to his aide. Those not involved in the meeting finished what they were doing and left the room before Admiral Salazar spoke again.
“You are Greenaway?” Salazar asked. “Of course you are. I’m sorry for your injuries. But I am very glad that they couldn’t keep you off of the computer.”
K-man narrowed his eyes and looked at his tablet. He had figured that Greenaway was there to confirm the new locations to look for the captured Iltia’cor and Ramirez. He had seen several reports from Salazar’s office about assigning some extra troops and vessels, but Greenaway hadn’t been involved in that.
“We will be asking for your help in coordinating the fleet, Captain,” Salazar said to Gagne. “And of course, we will have you back in command of the ground forces as soon as you clear medical waivers, Colonel.”
K-man looked up from his tablet. “Yes, sir. Did you say fleet, sir?”
“Yes, Colonel. Did you get a chance to look at the report you were sent?”
“The last report I saw was from last night, sir. I was in medical all morning. Haven’t had a chance to check my messages yet.”
“In that case, let me catch you up as quickly as possible. Your young Greenaway here has discovered where Warlord Jii will be in less than six days. We are assembling a small fleet to capture or kill him.”
“What about the Iltia’cor?” K-man asked. He had almost said Ramirez.
“That is no longer our priority. If we can take Warlord Jii, it is hoped that we can drive the Otina from the system.”
“I notice that you have the Grant assigned to us,” said Gagne. “I take it Admiral McKendree will be in charge?”
“Yes, Captain. McKendree will be fleet commander,” Salazar said. “He has asked that you provide the command and control of the support medical scooters. He wants Captain Harlow to be in charge of the landings.”
Gagne nodded. “Harlow would be good for that.”
“I know you have had a lot of freedom, Captain. But McKendree is Fleet Commander.”
“Yes, sir,” Gagne said.
“Sir, if I may speak?” K-man asked.
“Yes, Colonel. What is it?”
“Who is going to replace us in the search for the Iltia’cor?”
Salazar sighed. “Greenaway, pull up the map if you would.”
The lights dimmed in the conference room and a panel in the center of the table slid open. Lights projecting from both above the table and from inside the open panel turned on and a hologram appeared. K-man recognized it as the Earth System. Earth itself was a tiny dot orbiting the sun in the center.
“We have discovered that Warlord Jii resides on a very large vessel that has stealth capabilities,” Salazar said. “The ship itself is reported to be heavily armed and the stealth technology is way beyond anything that we have access to. We would ask other races about this technology, but we don’t want anyone else to know that we have this report.”
The hologram shrunk until the entire solar system was about the size of K-man’s fist. The sun was barely big enough to see clearly. Around the edge of the hologram field was a haze. K-man knew it was the Oort cloud: a debris field of billions of asteroids that was the remnants of the creation of the Earth system.
Three red dots pulsed in the image.
“Those are the Otina bases that refuel Jii’s ship,” Salazar said.
Two of the dots stopped pulsing and the hologram zoomed in on the third dot.
“This one is where Jii’s ship will be in six days. We are pulling every Earth Force vessel that can reach Ellison in the next 48 hours into this fleet. We will strike with everything we have at this location.”
K-man shook his head and frowned as he listened to Salazar. He looked down at the report and tried to understand the scale of the attack.
“You disagree with the decision, Colonel?” Salazar asked.
“Yes, sir. I don’t think this is the right course of action,” K-man said.
“Why?”
“I can’t help but think this is what he wants us to do. We should hold something back.”
“Your concern is noted, Colonel. Bu
t these orders come straight from General Kitch. I addressed the same concerns that you have and these were the finalized orders.”
K-man nodded. He didn’t agree with the orders. It felt like a trap. But he knew that Salazar was right. If Kitch gave the order, then this was the operation and goals they were to carry out.
“We will have a full n-tac array going in?” Gagne asked.
“Yes. This is our last ditch choice. If we can’t get Jii either because he is able to defeat our assault or if it looks like he has a chance to run, we will activate the n-tacs.”
“What are n-tacs?” Greenaway asked.
Gagne looked embarrassed. It hadn’t occurred to him that Greenaway might not have the clearance to speak openly. K-man nodded at Salazar when he realized the admiral was waiting for his approval.
“An n-tac is a tactical nuclear warhead that some of our teams take into an assault. I assume that you did not have the clearance needed to know about them, but you will be getting that clearance in a few days when you report to your new assignment,” Salazar said.
“Whoa! How long has that been going on? We didn’t do it, did we Colonel?” Greenaway asked.
K-man nodded. “There were certain missions that n-tacs were deployed. We never came close to needing them. Well, once. But we didn’t need them.”
“We can discuss n-tacs later, gentlemen. Let’s work on the plan for the assault,” Salazar said.
“Will we be taking the fueling station first, or will we wait for his ship to dock?” K-man asked.
“We wait for his ship. We don’t know how long he can go without refueling, but we don’t believe he would leave himself without enough fuel to get to another station or maybe even an interstellar base,” Salazar said. “We know where he will be, so we will strike while his ship is not stealthed.”
“Can we warp in?” Gagne asked.
“Not close enough to surprise him. The asteroid traffic is too dense for that. We will warp as close as we can from the Kuiper Belt about an hour from strike time and then move in on ion. He will see us coming, but we are hoping that he will not be able to drop back into stealth while he is refueling.”
“Do we have eyes up there?” K-man asked.
“No. Nothing except the data that Greenaway decoded for us. We have to assume that the refueling will begin when the schedule says. We will drop in about half an hour after it starts.”
“So we set up a perimeter with scooters, the cruisers engage the heavy weapons, and we try to board his vessel? Very… pirate-ish of us, isn’t it?” Gagne asked.
Salazar laughed. “Yes, and we will rip their sails if they attempt to hoist them.”
Greenaway started to ask what that meant but K-man was already answering him.
“It means that the cruisers will target the engines on Jii’s ship.”
“Correct, Colonel. Half of the cruisers will target the engines, and the other half will target any heavy weapons on the facility.”
“Where are we landing?”
“The scooters will land directly on his ship. We assume that there will be bays for smaller ships and docking ports, but we will be retro-fitting the scooters with high energy laser cutters and forcible hatchways. We will just drop onto her, cut into her skin, and our troops will move in and find their leader.”
“Sound straight forward enough,” K-man said. “Any news on the mosar situation?”
“What do you mean?” Salazar asked.
“I just don’t want any of my men to go through any mosar fields if there is a chance they can be killed by them. Are you sure that we will be safe?”
“The folks back home have figured out what happened to Swanson. I haven’t been brought in on it, but they assure me that we won’t be sending anyone into harm’s way because of mosar.”
The next several hours were dedicated to logistical and personnel concerns. Supply ships, transport, communications and officer personalities and conflicts were all addressed. K-man would be in charge of the insertion teams. There would be fifty scooters with teams of around sixty troops each. Three thousand ground-pounders to assault a single ship.
Admiral McKendree arrived on Ellison while they were still in conference, so he was brought in by video for his input.
K-man was exhausted by the end of the meeting. It must have shown, too, because Salazar addressed it.
“Kiskaliski, are you okay?”
“Yes, sir. Just a little out of shape.”
“We have six days until we see action. Will you be back by then, or does Major Reynolds need to step in?”
“If I’m not back in form, I’ll let you know in plenty of time to brief Reynolds, sir. But I’ll be fine.”
“I need you at one hundred percent, K-man. Don’t make me decide if you’re not.”
“I won’t, sir. I’ll be able to lead the assault.”
Salazar nodded. “Good. But to be safe, I want Reynolds brought up to speed on everything. And I want him at the briefing tomorrow as well.”
“Yes, sir,” K-man said.
Salazar picked up his tablet and folders and left the conference room. K-man sat back and sighed. He knew that Salazar trusted him, but he still felt like he needed to prove himself.
Gagne smiled and shrugged at K-man as he left.
“Sir,” Greenaway said. “Would you mind taking me back to my room in medical?”
“Sure,” K-man said. “But don’t they normally have someone help you move around?”
“Yes, sir. But I need to speak with you privately if I can.”
“That’s not a problem,” K-man said. He gathered his tablet and slid it in a pocket on the side of Greenaway’s wheelchair.
“What do you want to talk about when we get there?” K-man asked.
“Could you take us around the other way? Near engineering?”
“Why?”
“Well, sir, it’s because I don’t trust my room and I would rather say what I have to near the noise and background radiation of engineering.”
K-man was silent. He didn’t know what to say to that request, but he turned down the hallway toward engineering.
“So what is this about,” K-man asked.
“Some of the things I read, sir. In the Otina files, I mean. I reported them to the intel chief, but I haven’t heard them brought back up. And I have been listening for one portion in particular.”
“Maybe they haven’t found a need to let anyone know.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, sir. The Otina. I don’t think they are who we know them as.”
“What do you mean?”
“There were histories, and I mean tons of histories, buried in the data. They all kept referring to ‘the Otina’ and Warlord Jii.”
“I don’t see why that is unusual, Greenaway. Warlord Jii is in charge of the Otina in our system.”
“But that’s it. When the records referred to ‘the Otina’, it was always singular and it always referred to Warlord Jii. And the records go way back. Well before the Otina were in our system according to what the Pelod say.”
“How far back?” K-man asked.
“At least two thousand years”
K-man whistled low. “That is quite a ways back. What did those records say?”
“They talked about humans and how they were untainted. Warlord Jii wanted a full report on them.”
“Warlord Jii? Maybe Jii is a hereditary title or something,” K-man said.
“I don’t think so, Colonel. I think Jii is the only Otina in the system. And I think he is thousands of years old.”
K-man considered what Greenaway was saying.
“Why did you feel like you had to tell me?”
“Because, Colonel. When you get on his ship, Jii may not look like what we call the Otina.”
Chapter 18
Williams sat back and rubbed his eyes. Too many spreadsheets, too many databases, and too little sleep was taking its toll on him.
“These numbers don’t make
any sense,” he said.
“Maybe if you said that a different way you would see the solution,” Loudon said.
She was irritated at Williams. He knew that because he was irritated at himself. None of the numbers made sense, though. One of the reasons he liked numbers is that they always made sense. You could rely on them. They worked according to logic and rules. But these numbers didn’t.
“Look, Fielder’s and Lewandowski’s are unchanged, but Cerce’s numbers have gone down,” Williams said.
“I know, you showed me when I came in,” Loudon said. She was doing her best to ignore him.
“But how could mosar stay stable in two and go down in the third?”
“You talked to them already. Was there anything that they did different?”
“No, they all went to the lake this weekend. They all ate and drank essentially the same food. They all avoided other people.”
“Maybe Cerce has something in her that fights off the mosar,” Loudon suggested. This was not the first time she had done so.
“No, if it were genetic, I think we would have run into that. Cerce did something different than the others.” Williams said.
“So call her in and ask her again.”
Williams nodded. “Yeah, I will just have to keep prying until I can figure it out.”
“Great, while you’re out, pick me up some lunch. Something green and leafy. Unless you are going for pizza. Then get me sausage and olives.”
Williams looked at the time. Loudon was right, it was lunch time and the day was slipping away from him.
He pushed his chair away from his station and stood up. He wouldn’t need to leave the lab to call Cerce in, she was one of the technicians who worked for him. When it was discovered that mosar could be passed from person to person, he had all of the members of the lab tested. They all had similar numbers. The three technicians who worked directly with Loudon and him had identical numbers.
