The Alpha Choice

by M. D. Hall

  It would be wise to bear this in mind during his dealings with her. He thought about the fate of his predecessor, did he fall, or was he pushed?

  Ω

  In the following days and weeks, countless exercises and manoeuvres hinted at an up and coming battle with a foe, at least the match of Eclipse, not to mention her two sister ships Quasar and Horizon, who had joined her for exercises before leaving for a special, and rather peculiar escort duty. Once that was done, the three ships would again rendezvous, in the Tellurian system

  Gorn wondered, more than once, what the reaction would be to the news that they were about to wage war on a planet yet to develop crude nuclear fusion. Three of the most powerful warships in the known universe – discounting the embarrassment at Gallsor – were soon to take on the might of a race, which had only achieved manned flight to their moon. When he allowed his mind to drift along these lines, he was reminded that in the event of him succeeding in his task, such thoughts would be otiose.

  He found some comfort reflecting in this way, because the alternative, wondering how many on board knew the true nature of the expedition, was frightening. Of course, Darl had imposed an embargo on the information, but things have a habit of getting out and about, even on a ship the size of Eclipse. It was no great leap from that realisation, to surmising how all Te'ans might react if they knew.

  On a brighter note, Kirion pleasantly surprised him. He expected the XO to be something of a martinet, a common perception refuted by the facts. While a sense of duty ran through the man like the age rings in a tree, he was engaging and light hearted. His interests ranged from poetry and music, through to zagball. It came as a surprise to Gorn when he learned of fellow spectators asking Kirion to calm his more extreme outbursts of enthusiasm, during the Fleet match. Over the weeks following his induction, the two men formed a firm friendship.

  In his reports to Darl, Gorn could find no hint of dissension within the crew, although he did remark during one conversation that, as most people only wanted to talk to him about zagball, any disenchantment was unlikely to surface.

  When he told Kirion of his difficulty in striking up conversations about anything other than a ball game, his senior officer sympathised. Only once did Trang enter their conversations, it was when the two of them were analysing data from the latest exercise, which necessitated Eclipse avoiding a flanking manoeuvre by Horizon and Quasar. The results were not as expected, and the two of them needed to discover where the failure lay.

  Their commander had insisted upon the exercise being carried out manually. In action, all manoeuvres were executed by the ship’s computers, but to prepare for the unlikely event of failed systems, it was required that crews hone their skills unaided. In reality, the unlikely event was an unheard of event, no records existed of such a thing ever happening. Most commanders ignored the requirement, but Darl, feeling his crew had a reputation to uphold, gave them the tactics and coordinates himself.

  Gorn recognised Darl's tactic as lifted, almost directly from the incident at Gallsor. In essence, when Horizon and Quasar hove into view, the intention was to slip into weft drive, and reappear behind them moments later. Regrettably, when Eclipse re-entered normal space, it was precisely where it had been before engaging the drive.

  Neither Kirion, nor Gorn were directly involved in the exercise. The principal crew would have carried out the manoeuvre perfectly, by applying minor corrections to Darl's orders. The secondary crew would, likewise, have foreseen the problem. It was the less experienced third tier, who executed the commander’s orders to the letter, with embarrassing consequences. It now fell to the XO and chief science officer to find a face saving solution. Darl would not want to be told, any fault lay with him.

  The energies involved, when engaging weft drive, were such that the slightest distortions in space time, near the point of departure, would be magnified greatly once in weft space. As the exercise was taking place on the approach to a super massive planet, the gravitational pull had to be taken into account. It would have mattered less on a long-range shift, but when split second manoeuvres were carried out, wholly within star systems, gravity was always to be factored in. Unfortunately, it escaped Darl’s attention.

  Neither man advocated pointing out the error; they needed to discover a factor no one else could have considered. It was while they were searching for the phantom effect that Gorn's attention was drawn to Narol and Trang. The older woman was leaving Darl’s ready room - meetings she appeared to abhor as much as the commander - when she came across the navigation officer, and began to speak.

  Trang felt that she was being watched, and looked over to where the two men sat. Losing track of what Narol was saying, her mind flowed forward to the time when she would carry out her orders. Wishing she had never heard of Gorn and hoping, not for the first time, there would be an alternative, she knew such thoughts were futile and that Narol must never suspect what was going through her mind. She turned her attention back to the older woman, wondering how she could order the death of her nephew when, if he was successful, he would have changed the destiny of their people. She smiled at the archaeologist and decided such speculations were not her concern. Her own duty was clear, and it was not for her to judge Narol's motives.

  ‘She certainly is a very beautiful young woman,’ the XO smiled at the reddening of Gorn's face, ‘although, I must admit, I find the look of Narol rather pleasing.’ Kirion was looking at the older of the women.

  Gorn tried to hide his surprise.

  Kirion immediately responded as though he had been spotted peeping into the women’s dormitory at the Academy. ‘Goodness no, Narol has never given any indication that she would even consider…I mean, I would never dream of…’ he trailed off, wishing he had never raised the subject. ‘I’ve put you in a difficult position. Please don’t let Trang know, she might say something to Narol,’ he could see the look of mild surprise in Gorn's face. ‘Oh, don’t worry, you haven’t let anything slip. The commander told me soon after the three of you had your meeting. It shouldn’t surprise you that as XO I need to know what’s happening on the ship. My point is that I would hate my slip to cause embarrassment to you, Trang or Narol.’

  Gorn felt for the man. ‘Perhaps she’s waiting for you to make your feelings known?’ but that simply made matters worse. It became clear that the XO was a man who preferred to admire from afar. In any event, it prevented him from pursuing the matter of Trang. ‘I assure you, it won’t cause me any problems, and I won’t say anything to Trang, or Narol.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Kirion paused. ‘If I came up in any conversation during your weekly meetings with Narol - and I’m sure I won’t, but if I did - I wouldn’t mind, if you felt you were able, to paint me in a not unflattering light…’ he raised his eyebrows.

  ‘I understand,’ Gorn replied.

  As they returned their attention to the job in hand, Gorn considered his position and the difficulty posed by Kirion’s friendship. He had not bargained for additional calls upon his time, when he was already struggling to balance the demands of his post, with the additional work of the Tellurian catalogue. The XO proposed they take a break and meet back at the console in an hour. By now, Narol had left the bridge and Trang was engrossed in her work.

  Back in his quarters, Gorn checked for any new information that might cause him problems, and found it. He had ensured all communications to Darl were routed through to his console. Now he was aware, even before his commander of a development that, on the face of it, could wreck his burgeoning plans. Against this incursion, the usual defences would count for nothing. He had to think quickly and devise rerouting systems, in the forty-five minutes before he met up with Kirion.

  Less than an hour later, Kirion looked at his young charge. ‘You look flustered.’

  ‘I shouldn’t have gone back to my quarters, I dozed off.’

  ‘You're young, but you still need to pace yourself, take it from someone who used to be young.’

  �
�I will,’ Gorn promised.

  An hour or so later, the two men agreed that there was no solution, or to be more accurate, no solution to satisfy Darl.

  Gorn was disappointed, he was unused to failure.

  Sensing the younger man’s frustration, Kirion made a suggestion: ’It might be appropriate to inform the commander that finding the solution is far more complex, than it first appeared; it may take several days, or even weeks to establish the cause. By that time he will have more than enough to occupy himself, as the invasion will be in full flow.’

  ‘The invasion?’

  Again, the same indulgent smile. ‘Yes, our commander also confided in me concerning your other meeting.’

  ‘Sorry, but I was…’

  ‘No, need for apologies,’ Kirion reassured him, ‘I wouldn’t expect you to betray the commander’s confidence.’

  The younger man made no attempt to hide his relief. ‘And afterwards?’

  ‘There is no afterwards, the commander will be too engrossed in his mission, and its benefits.’

  So you do know about Darl, Gorn thought.

  Kirion continued. ‘He will forget about this business and, before you ask, no one else will be remotely interested.’

  The science officer thought better of questioning Kirion’s take on the situation, after all, he knew his commander better than anyone else. What surprised him, was the ease with which he reached his conclusion. Gorn decided, then and there, that he definitely liked Kirion, and would have to be very careful how he sought to manipulate him. The XO was very astute. A thought then occurred to him, which required a rapid rethink of his plan. When he was done, he looked at Kirion with renewed interest.

  Ω

  ‘You’ve got to get down here!’ Genir’s grinning face appeared in Gorn’s holo-sphere. A quick glance at the projection data, confirmed his friend was in the third level, aft-port hangar deck.

  ‘Why, or should I ask, who am I meeting now?’

  ‘It’s not a girl, although, maybe it is,’ Genir was doing his level best to appear inscrutable.

  ‘Fine, but I can only spare a few minutes, some of us have a job to do!’

  ‘How long you spend down here is up to you, but I wouldn't be making any plans for the next few hours, if I were you.’

  Gorn shook his head. He had spent the last few days tightening his new protocols, in readiness for the visit no one but Darl, was supposed to know about. ‘I’ll be there in five minutes, and back here in another five!’

  ‘We’ll see,’ replied Genir, before the image vanished.

  True to his word, five minutes later, he was standing opposite his friend. ‘Well, what’s so important?’ he asked.

  Genir was incredulous. ‘This, is what’s so important!’ he gestured to a gleaming ‘dart’ class fighter not fifteen metres away.

  ‘A dart, that’s what dragged me down here?’

  His friend was not listening, he had already began to walk over to the waiting machine and, as he reached the delta wing, ran his hand across its surface. ‘Have you ever seen anything like her?’

  ‘Well, yes,’ came the hesitant reply, ‘I can also recount all of its specs and performance data, if you’d like.’

  Genir turned to his friend, ‘You have got to be kidding me, this isn’t about specs and data…well maybe just a little; it’s about art. This…she, is a work of art!’

  ‘Right, I didn’t know.’

  ‘We’re scrambling in three hours, on manoeuvres and I thought you might like to sit in her, before the two of us are put through our paces.’

  Gorn could see how much this meaningless exercise meant to his friend. ‘I’d love to.’

  If Genir suspected he was being patronised, he gave no indication, and the reality was that Gorn just wanted to keep his friend happy. By the time Genir had finished showing off the fighter, thirty minutes had elapsed, so much for my five minutes, Gorn thought.

  The demonstration over, Gorn asked, ‘What do you know about the mission?’

  ‘Nothing at all, except that we’ll be ready for them, whoever they are. What do you know?’

  ‘Like you, nothing,’ he lied.

  Walking back to his quarters he began to realise, as complicated as they were, matters were going to get a lot more complicated.

  Ω

  Some days before departure, the commander advised all bridge officers of six individuals boarding from Te'ath. The visitors were to answer only to the commander – the truth was, they were not even answerable to him – and no part of the ship was closed to them.

  They were agents or, to be more precise, Garnoth, his Avatar and four male agents.

  The officers had heard of Garnoth, having every reason to be afraid of him and the Agency, knowing it to be one of the two most powerful organisations on Te’ath. Some even wondered if its power might not extend beyond that of the Council itself.

  It was not usual practice for military campaigns to have any element of Agency involvement, but this was an unusual case, as it was not strictly a military campaign. The arrival of the agents was low key, only the commander and his bridge crew knew of their presence.

  Darl did not welcome outsiders on board his ship, especially those beyond his control, or influence. He would comply with his orders, and no more. Being kept in the dark concerning their purpose was a cause for resentment, and more than a little speculation. Why should he, as a matter of pride, permit others to interfere in matters that fell within his remit? He knew, if he informed them of his suspicions, the investigation would be taken out of his hands. But perhaps they were there for another reason, a complicating factor on the target world? If that was the case, provided they restricted their machinations to that issue, he would grit his teeth, and try to disregard their presence.

  On a ship of the line, the civilian experts were billeted amongst the crew, so as to foster better working relationships and, by and large, this arrangement worked. The agents’ quarters, however, were set apart, and only senior officers permitted to enter that section. To all intents and purposes, the six visitors would not be noticed by anyone on board. Within a compliment as large as Eclipse it was easy to go unnoticed, especially if no log of their arrival was recorded, and all systems re-programmed to erase any evidence of their presence. Essentially, they would be invisible. All of this was relayed to the bridge crew at the outset, so as to avoid awkward questions either during, or after the voyage.

  Three hours prior to their embarkation, Gorn had inserted an untraceable sub routine within the ship’s systems, ensuring that all information concerning the visitors, together with any communications, by and between them, would come to him. He would be able to analyse this raw data and see what, if any, might affect him.

  He saw to it that no one, not his aunt or the agents, would be aware of what he was doing. However, he needed to tread carefully, Garnoth's Avatar had tapped into the ships systems as soon as the Agency party boarded. Just as he had failed to anticipate Darl's intention to hold a meeting with him and Trang, he knew it would be unwise to underestimate the Avatar. He was certain his earlier, preparations were enough for its initial scan, and now he had augmented them, but it would do no harm to be vigilant for any signs the machine was close to spotting patterns that should not be there.

  Despite the danger and complexities this new development presented, he actually felt more in control than when dealing with Trang and the others. As a bonus, a plan had begun to form in his mind, which changed everything.

  Ω

  Once alone in his suite, usually reserved for those of ambassadorial rank, Garnoth obtained a drink from the dispenser. His instructions had ensured the ship was well stocked with tanire. Sitting in the most comfortable chair he could find, he looked at his Avatar, which rarely sat. ‘We are not being monitored?’

  ‘No,’ came the flat, unemotional reply. While the Avatar looked and sounded just like its master in public, it dispensed with artifice when they were alone. Despite the voice still
being Garnoth’s, it divested itself of any warmth or inflection, both of which were crucial if others were to believe they were conversing with the original. Some might have found the dehumanising uncomfortable, but to Garnoth it was like flicking a switch, which let him know they were free of unwelcome attention. ‘Ensure it remains that way.’

  The Avatar simply nodded. It had no need to voice a command to erect a privacy-net, it simply interacted with the ship, and caused the net to be in place.

  ‘Is everything on board?’

  ‘Of course. If you engaged an administrative assistant for such matters, you would not seek reassurance from me.’

  ‘I do not need an assistant when I have you,’ Garnoth did not wait for any response to his riposte, he knew his twin well enough to know there would never be one. ‘Tala, have you spoken to her since we came on board?’

  ‘Yes,’ answered the Avatar, ‘she knows of our presence aboard this vessel, and is aware of the time constraints upon her. From the data she has supplied, I have extrapolated her to be on course to achieve our objective, by the time we arrive in the system.’

  ‘Excellent, and what of the difficulties aboard the ship?’

  The Avatar continued. ‘The commander believes we do not know of his enquiries.’

  Despite Darl's best endeavours, Garnoth's machine double had no difficulty accessing the commander’s conversation with Gorn and Trang.

  ‘The two young officers he has enlisted, what do you make of them?’

  ‘Inconsequential,’ came the reply.

  Garnoth was not happy with the answer. ‘Elaborate.’

  ‘They have no experience, and are outsiders. Their fellow officers perceive them to be favourites, particularly the male due to his familial links. They will be treated with suspicion, and anything they uncover will mean nothing to them.’