“I realize this places an incredible burden on your shoulders, Christa, but I also know you’re up to the task. If anyone refuses to follow your orders— even ship captains— report that to Captain Critarian. I briefed her personally, and she knows that, regarding this effort, you are in complete charge. This is a monumental task, but I couldn’t have found anyone better equipped to handle it.
“Good luck.
“Brian Devon Holt, Vice-Admiral - Commander of the Second Fleet, end of message.”
Christa took a deep breath and released it slowly. She was now personally responsible for every Personnel CJ Gate booth on the entire planet. And it was a planet where the leader of the people appeared to be upset with Space Command and the G.A. in spite of the fact that they had just saved their lives, at a cost in Marine lives. Talk about a having a huge problem dropped in one’s lap.
Without waiting further, Christa had the Koshi’s com chief make contact with the general in command of the Marine forces on the planet. It was nighttime where he was and he had to be awakened. At first, his aide adamantly refused to wake the general for the com chief, so Christa took over the call and told the aide exactly where he, the aide, would be within an hour if he refused to wake the general immediately. It certainly wasn’t a secret that Commander Carver was Admiral Carver’s sister, and the aide knew he should do as requested or he could depend on being exactly where she said he would be before he even had a chance to pack his duffel.
“Brigadier General Burr here. What in blazes is the idea of waking me in the middle of the night, Commander?”
“I’m operating under direct orders from Vice-Admiral Brian Holt. I need your full attention, sir.”
“Holt?” Burr said. The tone of his voice had changed considerably when he said, “Of course, Commander. What is it you need?”
Christa then related the exact instructions Admiral Holt had given in the message.
“Booths? Is that what this is all about?”
“Yes, General. Those booths represent Space Command’s ability to control the movement of Denubbewa in our territory, and they’re our best chance of locating the base from which they’re operating. That last part is top secret. You must immediately order your Marines to protect those booths from all damage and contact by anyone. This is imperative, and I speak as the officer appointed directly by Admiral Holt to handle this issue on Husteus. If you want verification, contact Captain Critarian. She’ll tell you that on this issue, my authority supersedes even hers.”
“Uh, that won’t be necessary, Commander. I apologize for being a little gruff. I was only half awake.”
“I understand, General. I wish you could just roll over and go back to sleep, but this matter is urgent. You must issue orders immediately to prevent anyone from tampering with those booths and to protect your own forces from a counterattack, which is a definite possibility. In the past, we disconnected the power to the booths following an attack, but we can’t do that this time. We need to examine the cache memory in each Personnel CJ Gate booth to see if the info can help us locate the Denubbewa’s off-planet base before the unit is powered down and the cache is cleared.”
“I’ll take care of it immediately, Commander.”
“Thank you, General. And I am sorry to have disturbed your sleep.”
“Don’t give it a second thought, Commander. I’m glad you alerted me to this issue and explained the reasons. I agree with the requested action one hundred percent. Good night.”
“Good night, sir.”
Christa took a deep breath and relaxed against the back of her chair for all of thirty seconds. As she sat up again, she began performing a personnel search on her computer for engineers presently assigned to ships in the taskforce. Christa had been in Space Command long enough to have met many of the senior engineers who were listed there. And of the ones she hadn’t met, she’d heard of their abilities and areas of specialization. After creating a list of the best and brightest, she sent instructions to their captains to have those engineers report to her as soon as possible. She told the captains that she was operating under direct orders from Vice-Admiral Brian Holt and informed them they could verify her authority by checking with Captain Critarian.
* * *
Chapter Twenty-Three
~ November 17th, 2292 ~
“Welcome to the Koshi,” Christa said to the two dozen senior engineers crowded into the room chosen by Christa for her first meeting with the group. The room was only designed to comfortably accommodate half that number of personnel, but it was the largest meeting room on the Scout-Destroyer, so Christa had no choice.
“I’m sure all of you have heard of the new communications systems being installed in Space Command ships and on our bases that allow us to send a message from one end of the G.A. to the other in under twenty seconds.”
“I’ve heard the rumors, Commander,” one of the engineers said, “but I’m not sure I believe it. Isn’t it just engine room talk?”
“Uh, you’re Lt. Commander Wilonne, aren’t you?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“We haven’t met before, but I’ve heard good things about you. I like it when engineers are skeptics until the technology is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. In this case, it has been proven, and you’ll all get to experience it for yourselves very soon. The bases and ships at the farthest locations had the greatest need for the new technology and they’ve been receiving the equipment first, but your ship will be receiving it very soon.
“The new capability was developed from the technology used in the Denubbewa CJ Gate booths that you’ll be learning about today. It originated with an extinct species called the Locculo, a race the Denubbewa crushed eons ago. Unfortunately for the Denubbewa, they’d already wiped the minds of all the scientists involved in the development before learning of the great scientific discovery they’d stumbled across. So, even though they had the booths, they had no one who could explain their operation. I suppose that was lucky for the sentient species in the Milky Way or the Denubbewa might have overrun this entire galaxy while Terrans were still living in caves and painting crude images on the walls.
“The Denubbewa finally found a race intelligent enough to understand the science and advance its use, but the inherent animosity towards a culture that had overrun and destroyed their world left little incentive for those scientists to assist the Denubbewa. Eventually they were convinced to study the equipment and document everything they could learn. They were then tasked with improving the system for the Denubbewa. This vessel was fortunate enough to come across a ship in space that contained many of the scientists who had spent decades studying the devices created by the Locculo. The Denubbewa had separated the scientists into teams that worked on different areas of investigation, so the scientists we found didn’t have as complete a background in the discipline as we would have liked. Since they’ve come on board, our people have teamed up with them and we’re now working together to understand every nuance of the Locculo technology. The Denubbewa don’t have ship-to-ship communications like ours. They literally travel between their ships and their bases when they need to report in or ask for guidance. Our new com system actually gives us an edge over their system because we can get answers from our command centers almost immediately.
“Okay, each of you has been given a viewpad with a copy of the Personnel CJ Gate booth manuals sent to me by Admiral Holt so you can view the material at your own speed. That data is the Most Secret data you’ve ever been privileged to view. Guard it with your lives and do not share it with anyone who’s not in this room right now. There’s another meeting room the same size as this one next door so half of you can go over there where you’ll be less cramped. Mess attendants will be bringing coffee and breakfast snacks around very soon. When everyone has completed a basic review of the materials, we’ll get together again to discuss the chores ahead. I don’t expect you to be experts in CJ Gate technology after your review today. That would take many months o
f study, and the information is limited to the people working at Lorense-Three for Admiral Plimley. But you’ll need to understand the basics so we can accomplish the fairly simple tasks ahead of us. That’s all for now.”
~ ~
As the noon hour approached, the two groups got together again.
“Has everyone had a chance to review all of the materials?”
All of the engineers nodded or made some vocal utterance to indicate that they had.
“Good. So, what do you think?”
Lt. Commander Wilonne spoke up first. “I’m floored, Commander. If everything in this document is accurate, we’re on the verge of breakthroughs not even imagined until now except in sci-fi stories.”
“I can testify to the veracity of everything you’ve read. Every word is accurate, Commander. And yes, we’re on the verge of incredible breakthroughs that represent something wonderful— and something terrible.”
“Something terrible, ma’am?”
“Imagine a situation where an enemy can sneak into your presence without warning and attack you. That’s exactly what this technology represents. Someone could actually ship a booth to some destination where it’s attached to a power source by an accomplice and then out of that booth marches an army of killers. Yet, it’s the very same technology that will allow us to travel between Quesann and any other destination, such as Earth or my home on Obotymot, in seconds. So the technology is, at the same time, potentially both wonderful and terrible. It’ll be up to Space Command to control its access so it’s only used for the wonderful applications.”
“So we’re expected to travel down to the planet and visit each of these Gate booths so we can download their send and receive destination information?” another engineer asked.
“Exactly. Each of you will have a list of locations you’re responsible for, and you’ll be accompanied by an assistant and a squad of Marines as you travel around the planet via shuttle. I shouldn’t have to tell you to keep your assistants away from the booth controls until after the power to each booth has been disconnected. I have a chief petty officer aboard my ship who was working at the Lorense-Four scrap heap until he accidentally triggered a booth he was examining. While he was in the booth evaluating its condition for a report he was required to complete, the floating scrap yard shifted. He extended his hand to steady himself and touched the booth’s control panel. Twelve seconds later, he was aboard one of the new Space Command bases here in Region Three. He was unharmed but very confused.”
“Twelve seconds?” one of the engineers said.
“That’s what they’ve said. The com system requires eighteen seconds to send a message, but as I understand it that’s because it’s a different process, although it uses the same basic technology.”
“I’d heard that a CPO in engineering had gone missing, Commander,” one of the other engineers said. “They spent days turning the yard upside down searching for him. Couldn’t you have told them he was at the base?”
“That event happened before we had the new com system available. When using S-Band from out here, a signal takes a month to reach Quesann.
“Getting back to the chore ahead— after you’ve recorded the required data, you’re to disconnect the transponder and the power source using the procedure outlined in the manual. Another shuttle will then arrive to pick up the deactivated booth and bring it to the Quartermaster ship McHenry in orbit so they can be brought to Quesann on their return trip. I don’t think you will, but should you run into any resistance by the locals, make them understand that if the booths are not removed, the Denubbewa could return at any time.”
“But not if we disconnect the power,” Wilonne said.
“What’s disconnected can be reconnected. And keep your ears open for any chatter about other booths we might not know about. When we’re finished here, we want to have every Personnel CJ Gate booth the Denubbewa put on this planet in a cargo hold on the McHenry.”
~ ~ ~
Admiral of the Fleet Jenetta Alicia Carver entered the empty Senate Council meeting room with Cayla and Tayna and walked to the table facing the dais where the G.A. Senators sat while the Council was in session.
As Jenetta collected her thoughts and prepared for the session, the Senators began entering the Council Chambers and took their seats behind the one-piece desk that extended across most of the room. They were only visible from their mid-sections upwards, and because Jenetta was seated close to the dais and at a lower level, she could really only see heads and shoulders. But that was more than adequate.
“Good morning, Admiral,” the chairman of the Senate Council said after he had called the session to order.
“Good morning, President Fluessa.”
“You requested this meeting because you have news for us?”
“Yes, sir. We recently became aware that contact with the planet Husteus was impossible because no one was responding. We—”
“Excuse me for interrupting, Admiral,” Senator Urhelect, the elected representative from the planet Sebastian, said. “I’m not familiar with that name. Is Husteus in G.A. space?”
“Yes, Senator. It’s at the extreme far end of Region Three. It’s actually the farthest inhabited planet in Region Three. They are non-aligned, so we’ve never had a presence on the planet. But they are within the borders of G.A space, so Space Command has an obligation to protect them from outside attack.”
“I see. Please continue.”
“Thank you, sir. As I was saying, one of our listening posts in Region Three overheard a communication on open space channels that a freighter was unable to establish contact with a shipper on Husteus. Fearing a natural calamity— or worse, an attack by an outside force— we dispatched the destroyer Miami to investigate. The orders to the captain of the ship were to simply make contact with the planet’s government and determine that all was well. Upon approaching the planet, the Miami detected the presence of three Denubbewa warships. Since our warships are all sheathed in Dakinium, the Denubbewa ships were unable to see the Miami’s approach. Before the Miami entered visual range, the captain ordered the ship to reverse course. Once an adequate distance had been achieved, the captain followed standard protocol and launched three CPS-14s. Each was outfitted with a WOLaR weapons habitat container and they were tasked with destroying the Denubbewa ships. Their attack was coordinated so that all three enemy ships were destroyed almost simultaneously. That kept them from notifying their Denubbewa superiors or even anyone on the planet. The captain then notified Second Fleet Command of his actions.
“Following the successful destruction of the three Denubbewa warships, the captain sent ships down to the surface to overfly the land masses and determine the situation as best they could. They had orders not to land, as per our promises to non- aligned worlds. The pilots reported back that there was no evidence of any sentient life remaining on the planet.
“When we received that information, we prepared a convoy of ships that included a Division of GFI Marines. Virtually all Marines who had completed their basic training were sent…”
“All of them!” Senator Urhelect shouted.
“Be quiet, Durnek,” the council president said. “Continue, Admiral.”
“Yes, sir. If I might, I’d like to respond to the senator’s remark first. Senator Urhelect, we were faced with policing all of the landmasses on an entire planet. You can’t begin to do that with a few platoons or even a few battalions. If we begin to see more situations like this, we’ll need full divisions of GFI-trained Marines.
“Now, continuing with the Husteus Operation: When the taskforce arrived at Husteus and we were able to fully investigate, we learned that all of the planet’s citizens had been rounded up and were being held in large internment centers in the planet’s cities. The most recent census put the population size at fourteen million, but our estimate of the number of citizens penned in the internment centers was about half a million.”
“My God!” one of the senators exclaimed.
“How accurate was that estimate?”
“Very, according to the reports filed by the Marine forces who assisted the survivors after we retook the planet. No one knows for sure what happened to the thirteen and a half million missing citizens, but the people we were able to save believed they had been sent somewhere by the Denubbewa. All we know for sure is that they are no longer on the planet Husteus. At least not in their previous form.”
“You believe they were turned into cyborgs?” President Fluessa asked.
“Yes, we do. The torsos of all cyborgs killed in the action are being brought back to Quesann so our scientists can examine the brains and determine the species from which they were— harvested. When our people examined the brains of cyborgs killed in the Ruwalchu territory action, they determined that no fewer than sixty different species were represented. I understand that the Grand Princess of Husteus survived, and she’s extremely angry that the G.A. allowed the Denubbewa to kill thirteen and a half million of her subjects.”
“She blames us?” Fluessa said in surprise.
“Apparently, sir.”
“That’s ridiculous. As has been stated here today, Husteus is a non-aligned planet.”
“The Grand Princess seems to believe that even though they wanted to have nothing to do with the G.A. government, we were still totally responsible for their protection.”
“If they want protection by Space Command, they can become an aligned member of the G.A. and pay a fair assessment fee for protection.”
The Invasion Begins Page 28
