Resilience (Warner's World Book 6)

by Dave O'Connor

  “Answer the Commodore” said Jim sternly.

  “Nothing. I’ve got nothing to say…Sir” responded Antonio.

  “What?” said Jim “You just got yourself drunk and decided to ruin trooper Haden’s day.”

  Antonio just clammed up.

  “Who’d you lose from your team?” asked Dave.

  Antonio gave a shake of his head, looked down but didn’t provide an audible answer.

  “Answer the Commodore” said Jim.

  Antonio raised his head slowly like it was painful doing so. “The lot. I lost all of them and it wasn’t the skipper’s fault.”

  “Is that what Haden said?” asked Dave.

  “Yeah, idiot. He wasn’t even there.”

  Dave leaned back in his chair and brought his hand up to his chin as he pondered how to respond. He knew this was down to the battle really but he had an injured trooper in medbay because he was too insensitive and because this fellow in front of him was too angry.

  “Haden is not going to be the last guy that pushes your button on what happened down there. You know that don’t you?”

  Antonio gave a reluctant nod.

  “Are you going to glass them all?”

  Antonio shook his head.

  “It’s natural to be angry after you lose your mates but marines are supposed to be strong enough to wear that without turning on their own. You’re carrying a lot of shit at the moment but that doesn’t justify what you did. You’re going to have to atone for that. The question is how.”

  Antonio looked quite fearful at this point. He knew he was guilty, everyone in the mess saw it. The pain, the loss, the guilt all swirled around in his head. He swallowed hard.

  Dave looked to Jim, who looked grim indeed. Dave assessed that Jim probably viewed it the same. He turned to Antonio and said “Trooper Garcia I am downgrading the charges to drunken and disorderly and assault. I’m fining you one month’s pay to be garnisheed at 33% per month. I’m ordering you to attend counselling starting tomorrow. And while I am not ordering you, I will be mightily pissed off if you don’t go and apologise to Trooper Hayden this afternoon. Is that clear?”

  Antonio’s head might still be hurting from his hangover but it wasn’t that bad that he didn’t realise he was dodging a bullet here. “Yes Sir. Thank you Sir.”

  On Dave’s signal Chuck marched Antonio out and closed the door as he left. “Good decision” said Jim who looked a little relieved.

  Dave nodded. “Keep an eye on them Jim. Tell your NCOs to stay alert for any other Garcia’s out there.”

  “Will do.”

  Chapter 8. Eltikin over Cheklin 1545, 23 September

  Veego’s fleet warped in ready to fight. It was tense within the command centre on his flagship. But it soon became apparent that there were no hostile craft to engage. Veego had a quick conversation with Felis and agreed to attend the planning conference scheduled for 1700.

  At Angina’s urging he advised Felis that they wanted to add an item to the discussion agenda, which they would elaborate on at the meeting. “It would be best if acting Madam President could attend” added Veego.

  “I will endeavour to get her here in time. If we have to slip the meeting I will let you know” replied Felis. After terminating the call Felis sat there in his office intrigued. ‘So what can be so sensitive and require the highest authority’ he asked himself.

  But then he received another call on his communicator. “It never stops does it!” he exclaimed.

  Chapter 9. Slidwon 1600, 23 September

  Bergan Sinceeta, now acting director of the FIA, mulled over the investigators report. He was not surprised by the findings. It was demonstrably a professional hit and from someone at the top of their game.

  He scrutinised the list he had made of the likely suspects. He sorted it by capability ranking. Torine came to the top of the list. She was ex ISS. That raised a flag immediately but it was offset by the fact that she had earlier taken out the deputy director of ISS. He dragged her name into the unlikely list and went to the next suspect.

  After working his way down the list he sat back at his desk and mulled over the results. There was something not quite right. He pondered a little more and then dragged Torine’s name into the ‘watch’ list.

  A few minutes after Bergan had issued orders for specified agents to be ‘watched’, Essena Kornola reviewed the list and began issuing the necessary implementation arrangements that would assign resources to tasks. She did so somewhat reluctantly. In fact every task she did lately she did reluctantly.

  She was the third child of Chusium Kornola, a first tier aristocrat and up until recently the richest rogan in the empire. The family business was in property, premium high rise commercial property. Up until recently Chusium had been one of the First Consul’s strongest supporters. But after the levelling of the Kenrudim district, the family’s fortunes had taken a nose dive.

  Essena had watched her father curse and swear when the reports came in of the destruction inflicted on their interests. He had taken it badly and more so when he had found that the insurance underwriters would not compensate because they declared it an act of war. Chusium was facing ruin and that would have profound effects on the entire Kornola family.

  She knew he had talked with other supporters of the First Consul. She had been appointed to a new position within the FIA and now headed up the internal security branch. She knew she had secured that position because of her families standing and support for the First Consul. But right now that support was waning under a lot of strain. She had already acted to remove the intelligence about her father. She wondered how long she could keep this up. Sooner or later someone else would put two and two together.

  Chapter 10. Neeblo 1700, 23 September

  Dave walked into the command centre with Chase feeling a lot better than he had the last time. He wouldn’t say he was content but he was looking forward to making the warp to Q2. He was directed to the conference room where everyone else was already waiting.

  After a few preliminaries in which Felis thanked everyone, especially Meelanda for attending at such short notice, he turned to Veego and asked “So what is this mystery agenda item you have?”

  Veego simply turned to Angina who asked “You’ve all seen the reports about the death of the head of the FIA?” She noted the affirmative gestures and then went on to explain the background. She concluded by saying “I need to get back to Istridium as soon as possible.”

  Angina could see the effects of her bombshell on those in attendance. She had her ‘I’m deadly serious’ expression set firm on her face.

  Felis looked to Veego who was playing a straight bat. “We don’t have the force necessary to prevail over Istridium…not yet anyway.”

  “If things play out like I hope we will not need such a force” responded Angina. “I intend to use Torine to eliminate the First Consul. I believe I can muster the other agents necessary to take out his immediate cronies. With them removed we can impose our will and bring about the necessary changes with a much smaller force.”

  “Excuse me for interrupting” said Meelanda “the decision to eliminate the First Consul should be a political one, not a security or a military one.” She looked around the table and added “is that perfectly clear?”

  “Of course Madam President” said Angina with no hint of her being intimidated. “Are you agreeable to the elimination of the First Consul and his immediate supporters?”

  Meelanda turned to Evie who nodded. “Yes the Republic supports this course of action provided it is limited in scope. I do not want a wholesale bloodletting and I want you to reach out to those aristocrats who have traditionally supported the First Consul but have been adversely affected by all the recent destruction. I want you to try and bring them into our fold. Evie can help you do that.”

  Evie was a little surprised by this but she recovered quickly to add “of course.”

  “Good” said Angina “we know what we need to do. The que
stion is how?”

  “Well I have some practical concerns about all this” said Felis. He looked to Veego as he said “You and I both know that there will be at least one if not more fleets over Istridium. We won’t be able to win the battle overhead and hence” he said turning to Angina “we cannot get you to the surface.”

  Veego nodded and said “But with a stealth ship we could insert the Director without detection.”

  “But even so” said Felis waving down Dave who was about to say something “We cannot then back up Angina with the ground forces she will need to impose order. We just don’t have the ground forces or the capability to insert these without winning the space battle overhead.”

  “We could use the Endosian Division, well what’s left of it anyway” suggested Kraag.

  “No” replied Felis quickly “their loyalty is untested and without other loyal troops of greater strength we cannot risk that.”

  “I agree” said Veego. “I only have a brigade of warriors. We need at least a full division and that may not be enough. Besides we lack the transport capability. My fleet can only carry a brigade. In any event, we are back here now over Cheklin because this system needs our protection. We cannot be in two places at once.”

  “Actually there could be a way” said Chase. His interjection surprised Dave and everyone else for that matter.

  “Go on” said Felis.

  “These ground forces, I take it, need to be rogan, correct?” asked Chase.

  “Correct” confirmed Felis.

  “Well there should be no shortage of trained militia on Q2 willing to do anything to get out of that system. We have to go back there anyway to get more missiles. We can offload our marines. They’re no longer attack capable anyway. And pick up a brigade’s worth of warriors. Further, by the time we get back to Q2 I think you will find that Mr Likta will have assembled a sizeable transport fleet there. I am sure you could persuade him to divert some of these to the task of transporting more troops.”

  While Chase looked pleased with himself, Dave sighed with disappointment.

  “You don’t look too pleased Commodore?” asked Felis.

  With a shrug of his shoulders Dave responded “it’s a valid option but I was hoping for time to replenish and recover before committing my force to combat. In any event, this commitment will need the approval of Admiral Yomoto.”

  Felis nodded to Dave and turned to Veego “For the insertion of the main force we are going to need your fleet, politically and militarily. It can be backed up by Federation ships but we need to be seen to be leading.”

  “I agree with all that” replied Veego “but where are we going to get the ships to defend here?”

  “A human fleet could be here by the middle of next month” contributed Julian for the first time in the meeting.

  “I cannot wait that long” said Angina “I need to go to Istridium now.”

  “I am not going to send any of my ships without rearming first” said Dave in a voice which brooked no dissent.

  “But you were prepared to send the Phantom here with only two missiles” countered Felis.

  “Actually I think you will find that it was Julian here who did that” replied Dave, his resolved expression waning.

  “But the risk was deemed worth it then. Why not now?” pursued Felis. “If the Phantom or one of your ships were committed to deliver Angina, Evie and a small support team now, we could martial the forces necessary to both protect Checklin and deliver a main force to Istridium in the second half of next month.” Felis turned to Angina and added “will that be enough time for you to arrange things there?”

  “It should be” replied Angina.

  “Looks like we have a plan then. Do we not Dave?”

  “As I said I will need to get Yomoto to sign off on this.”

  “Very good then. There is much to do by way of coordination. I believe we officials can iron those out after dinner. Thank you Madam President” concluded Felis with a nod to her.

  Meelanda had a smile on her face. She nodded as she thought to herself ‘impressive Felis, you do surprise!’

  Chapter 11. Whiskey 1 over Cheklin 2110, 23 September

  As soon as they left the ground Chase said to Dave “I take it Sir, you’re not happy about this plan?”

  Dave shook his head. “I wish you hadn’t piped up when you did. I was hoping to get some down time for everyone. They need it. You need it. I need it.”

  “I appreciate that but don’t you see this way we stand a much better chance of going home sooner than later.”

  “Perhaps but we have all been under intense pressure for too long. I am worried that people, who normally are rock solid, may break if we push them too much more.”

  “I’m sorry. I just wanted to advance the cause.”

  Dave nodded. They sat in silence for a minute. Then Dave said “Kat should be arriving back on Polaris any day now.”

  “Tomorrow. Her shuttle’s due in tomorrow. My parents are going to meet her.”

  “That’s good of them.”

  “It is, isn’t it?” responded Chase. “I think my mom loves her as much as I do.”

  “That’s very nice” said Dave. After a few seconds pondering he added “I wonder what my mom would have thought of Rihan. They may have been too similar…too much fire in the belly if you know what I mean” said Dave with a smile.

  Chase chuckled at the thought.

  Chapter 12. Resolute to Q2 2300, 23 September

  Dave came out of the shower a little fresher than he went in. But he was tired nonetheless. He sat upright on his bed as he massaged the ointment Mary had given him to bring out the bruising on his foot. It still was sore but getting better.

  He looked at the expanse beside him and longed for Rihan. He shook his head as he reminded himself that at least now he was on his way to her.

  As was his practice, he used the time to reflect on the day’s events. It had taken them over an hour to transfer all remaining missiles to the Spectre. Sheldon had accepted the role of delivering Angina with good grace. He wasn’t fazed by the prospect of going into the lion’s den with only 21 missiles. Dave was grateful for that. In fact the more he got to know Sheldon the more he liked him as a commander.

  The Spectre would be leaving in the morning and should reach Istridium within five days. Inserting Angina would not be without risk but Dave felt confident Sheldon could manage those. His parting words to Sheldon had been “Take care of your ship. Take care of your crew. Be patient.”

  Aubrey had suggested that she could undertake the mission but Dave had turned down her offer. Later he had taken her aside and told her that she had done enough. Aubrey had accepted that without any argument and for that Dave was also grateful. He recognised that in that regard Aubrey had changed. He put it down to her near death experience over Cheklin. Some of the fire in her belly had cooled but she still had plenty to burn. The good thing he thought was that at the slightly cooler running temperature she was able to draw on her not inconsiderable intellect. She too was becoming an excellent ship commander.

  But Dave also knew that the standout commander in the last battle was Ivan. His prosecution of the space battle was near perfect, save for the initial decision which cost the Raptor. Dave was not going to give him a hard time over its loss but he knew that Ivan’s decision would be scrutinised by whoever would be appointed to conduct the court-martial.

  Ivan had already raised the matter with him. Dave could tell it was hanging over him like a heavy burden. And while Dave had told him not to sweat it he knew that Ivan would anyway. “You won us a great victory Ivan” Dave had told him. “Don’t lose sight of that fact.”

  Dave also recalled how Chase had chimed in at the conference and realised in that moment that yes Chase too had changed. He had grown in confidence, which Dave knew Ivan would say was not a good thing. But without Chase, Dave knew he could not have possibly stayed in the field during the battle. Chase’s different motivation towards finish
ing the war quickly had reminded Dave that there were many and varied approaches to their predicament they were all in. He reminded himself to bear that in mind in the future. A smile crept onto his face. ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to put an end to all this’ thought Dave.

  With that Dave turned off the light, got under the covers and rolled over onto his side. He repeated his mantra and was asleep in a couple of minutes.

  Chapter 13. Slidwon 2200, 25 September

  Chusium Kornola opened the door for his youngest child. In his eyes she was still a child, even if she was 42 years old. He forced a smile onto his otherwise troubled face.

  “Sorry for the late hour father” said Essena.

  “Nonsense” said Chusium as he beckoned her into the family home. It was a mansion by any standards, high on the top of the most prominent hill in the salubrious Kwinantum district. It used to boast a magnificent view over the city but now it was marred by destruction and rubble. Chusium looked out though the big windows of the main lounge room, winced at what he saw, and said “Let’s go into my office.” He shook his head disapprovingly at the vista before ushering his daughter along.

  She sat in one of the easy chairs while he mixed a pair of drinks. He handed her one and sat down with the other. “Now what’s this all about?” he asked.

  “You’re going to have to stop” said Essena as seriously as she could.

  “Stop what?”

  “I know” said Essena.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Essena knew her father well. There was only one way to proceed when he was like this. She pulled out her communicator, navigated to the report she received earlier today and placed it in front of him.

  Chusium looked at her warily and more so at the communicator. He picked it up with great reticence. There it was, clearly detailed right down to all the names of those who attended. But what actually surprised him were the accurate details of what was discussed.