Changing of the Guard (A Galaxy Unknown - Book 11)

by Thomas DePrima

  "We currently have small satellites we can place into orbit around a planet to watch for problems and automatically report. Those satellites can hold a particular position in orbit or move around— with severe limits on their movement. I'd like to see something like our Distant Detect Grid. Like the satellites I mentioned, the new system should have the ability to travel great distances without intervention and report anything it sees other than natural phenomena. It should have just enough intelligence to search out ship movement and report their location. I certainly don't want anything like a cyborg out there, and nothing that's armed. We'd have to craft strict guidelines to prevent that. On an intelligence level, it should be like the small robots that clean our floors and bathrooms. They have one task and can never exceed it because of the strict regulations regarding the development of artificial intelligence units."

  "And what would be required for that? How large would the appropriation need to be?"

  "I haven't prepared any financial information that I can share at this time. Before a budget can be developed, we would have to establish all the requirements of the device and the design particulars. You asked me what I'd like to see and this has been something I've had in mind, although I haven't acted on it. I've been more involved in the MGF initiative. Before we learned that the Denubbewa were back in force with intentions of taking over the G.A., I'd believed that to be the most important budgetary consideration."

  "I see," the Senate President said. "I would like to see and hear more about this automated sentry idea. Please work up some numbers. Do you have any other suggestions for finding and destroying the Denubbewa?"

  "No, not at this time. All I can say is that this is the greatest threat the G.A. has ever faced. We must be prepared and equipped to fight them and destroy them whenever and wherever we find them."

  ~

  After leaving the Council chamber, Cayla said, "Jenetta, does this mean the declaration of sentiency will never happen?"

  "Oh no, dear. This is just part of the political game. I told you it would take time and we had to be patient. Seven governments have now declared Jumakas to be sentient. That's a significant beginning, and that number will grow as your species travels freely on those planets and the citizens see that your species is as intelligent and peaceful as we've said. Don't get discouraged. Something worth having is worth working for and waiting for. We're already seeing excellent results, and I still have some more cards to play."

  ~ ~ ~

  Jenetta was working in her office when the vidMail from Christa arrived.

  "Hi, sis. I've got important news to convey. While we were busy installing the new Neutrino Measurement Sensors in our ships, the Denubbewa fleet disappeared. After we failed to find them again, we started to seriously reflect on what prompted them to leave so soon after we arrived. We decided there just might be a communications transmitter dropped or planted by Sywasock that could somehow send a signal through our hull. Or perhaps someone from his ship might have planted a locator beacon somewhere on one of our hulls. We conducted the most thorough search you can imagine of the interior of the Koshi and the exterior of all ships. The interior of the Koshi was clean, as were the exteriors of all other vessels. But a cyborg was found clinging to the hull of the Koshi. We believe it had been there since we first found the Denubbewa ship. It had anchored itself on the sail area of the ship, behind a raised cover where it was almost impossible to spot. The cyborg's covering and the anchoring material were all made of Dakinium, so it blended in with the black hull and could also travel in our envelope. Here's the really upsetting part. The cyborg on the exterior had what my senior engineer has ascertained is a mass storage device for data. So the cyborg might have been recording every electronic transmission made in the area while we were at Lorense-Three and then also when we went to Quesann. We also believe it might contain all of the collected communications data from Sywasock. When he was taken off the Koshi, his communications were no longer blocked by the Dakinium hull. We have the device, so we'll be able to determine what was collected, but I believe the data may have been transmitted to the Denubbewa fleet when we first arrived in their vicinity.

  "I'm now concerned that Sywasock was involved in the plot to collect data and I suggest you no longer trust him. The Denubbewa ship had to be a plant because it was conveniently close to where we would stop to investigate the derelict ship. The hull-hugger had the perfect opportunity to affix himself to the Koshi because we were occupied with Sywasock and the other Denubbewa. I'm very glad I chose not to share any accurate military data with that tin-head. Were I there at Quesann right now, I would walk into the holding area with a laser pistol and end his undercover activity permanently.

  "Anyway, I wanted to pass this information on to you as soon as possible. I'm appending a file containing all the encrypted data we were able to extract from the collection device. Perhaps SCI can evaluate the potential damage. And perhaps there might be something of use to us in there, such as a secret communication between Sywasock and the hull-hugger.

  "We haven't been able to again locate the Denubbewa fleet, so we're returning to our assigned territories. Perhaps we'll catch sight of another Denubbewa ship on its way to join their fleet."

  "Christa Marie Carver, Commander, Captain of the GSC Koshi in Region Three. End of message."

  Jenetta stared at the video screen long after the image of Christa faded to black and the Space Command logo appeared and filled the screen. Her mind was racing with thoughts of the potential subterfuge perpetrated by Sywasock. She scowled when she thought of the comments by others that the Denubbewa were not devious. If they hadn't been in the past, they were making up for lost time now.

  Jenetta appended the data file sent by Christa to a message she then sent to Admiral Bradlee at SCI as a Priority One. In the message, she related the pertinent facts reported by Christa and asked Admiral Bradlee to investigate and try to determine if any lasting damage might have been caused by the Denubbewa having access to the information in the file.

  ~ ~ ~

  "She's damned impertinent," Senator Fluessa, President of the G.A. Senate, said as he and six other Council members sat eating dinner.

  "She was disappointed that we won't approve sentiency for the Jumakas," R.J. Witherea, the senator from Eprikal, said. "I fully support that issue. Jumakas are obviously sentient."

  "That's not my fault. It's that idiot Sloasku. He won't support my reelection as President of the Council if I allow that resolution to go to the Senate floor."

  "Why does he even care?"

  "He owns a company that raises Jumakas and provides them to security companies. I've heard he owns thousands, leased to companies all over the planet Kethewit. He'd be bankrupted overnight if he had to free them all."

  "He has other companies."

  "Nothing as profitable as the security company. The people who lease the animals have to feed them, shelter them, and provide full health care. So he just sits back and collects his monthly payments. It's been illegal to remove a Jumaka from Taurentlus-Thur for a couple of decades, so he has no competition. He began by exporting them when it was legal, then turned to smuggling them off the planet when it was made illegal, until the government really cracked down. That's when he began breeding them. I've heard the females usually have litters of three to seven and can have three litters a year."

  "Carver mentioned in her first A.B. meeting that she has a dozen now."

  "Yeah, I heard that. But the government officials on Taurentlus-Thur don't object to her having a dozen Jumakas because hers are free to leave at any time."

  "So she says."

  "Yes, but the two that are always by her side say so also."

  "But what if word leaked out that she was holding the others hostage on her estate in order to keep these two in line?" one of the other senators asked.

  "I thought of that, but it wouldn't work. She's had far too many visitors to her estate on Obotymot and they've all seen that the others aren
't caged or being held against their will. I don't know why she's so upset. Obotymot, Nordakia, and Earth have all declared the animals sentient. And now several more have declared them sentient. She's getting what she wants. Eventually, as she said, the entire nation will one day acknowledge their sentiency."

  "Everywhere except on Kethewit."

  "Yes, except on Kethewit. But Sloasku can't blame me. So Carver has no call to be impertinent and disrespect my person and my office. I've half a mind to send a resolution to the floor calling for her removal as Admiral of the Fleet."

  "I've never known you to be suicidal before. The entire G.A. loves her. If she wanted your job, she'd have it in the next election. Before you try removing her, pack up your office because once you start down that road, there won't be a place in the G.A. where you can hide."

  "I know, dammit. You don't have to remind me."

  * * *

  Chapter Eighteen

  ~ July 12th, 2291 ~

  "Admiral Plimley is here, Admiral," Jenetta heard her aide say. "Are you available?"

  Jenetta reached towards the coffee table and lightly tapped a contact point on her view pad before responding with, "Of course. Send her in."

  "Good morning, Loretta," Jenetta said from her informal seating area as Admiral Plimley entered her inner office. "Make yourself a coffee and join me."

  Admiral Plimley walked to the beverage maker and prepared an espresso, then walked to where Jenetta was sitting and selected a chair on the opposite side of the coffee table.

  "Business or pleasure?" Jenetta asked.

  "Pleasurable business."

  "Oh, good. I haven't had much of that lately."

  "The Council decision still got you down?"

  "I'm afraid so. But Cayla and Tayna are bearing up, aren't you girls?"

  "We see progress," Tayna said.

  "Yes," Cayla said, "It's slow but there is definite progress. You warned us it would take time, so we're confident it will happen."

  "That's a very enlightened attitude, ladies," Admiral Plimley said. "And you're correct. It will happen."

  "So, what pleasurable business is on your mind, Loretta?"

  "Jen, I'm so happy to tell you what I just learned, and I couldn't wait until lunchtime. I'm beside myself with joy. This is just so fantastic."

  "Then stop gushing and tell me so I can join you in celebrating."

  "Okay, here it is. The Denubbewa don't have Dakinium."

  "What? Are you sure? It sure seemed like Dakinium. If not, then what is it?"

  "Well, it's Dakinium, but it's not."

  "Now you've totally lost me."

  "Let me explain it like this. When you brought us that door from Dakistee, we couldn't cut it or melt it or anything. We couldn't even scratch it. We knew that we had something incredible, but we couldn't duplicate it. We knew it was a complex compound, not an element, and yet we had no idea where to begin to create the compound. So our people spent months working on it without success. We knew we had one of the greatest finds ever, but it was no use to us if we couldn't reproduce it."

  "I remember the stories."

  "Then you'll remember that when we finally made some headway and produced a compound like Dakinium, we still knew it wasn't as strong as the material used for the door."

  "Yes, I remember."

  "But it was the best we could do at the time and we decided to sheath a small ship for testing."

  "Yes, the Colorado. It was the first."

  "And you were the one assigned to test it by Larry Gavin."

  "Yes. I was his XO at the time."

  "And when you proceeded with the final test, that of checking its performance speed under maximum power, you made history by being the first to create a double envelope."

  "Wait a minute. Are you telling me what I think you're telling me?"

  "Perhaps."

  "The compound the Denubbewa are making is not the same compound we use for our sheathing?"

  "You've nailed it. We believe they must have gotten a piece of Dakinium from— somewhere— and reverse engineered it, just as we did. But they must be perfectionists because their compound is identical to the original Dakinium you brought from Dakistee."

  "Do you think they could have purchased it or the formula for making it from someone on Dakistee?"

  "I don't know, but where else would they have gotten the original material or formula? I do know that the ship you brought here is not capable of generating a double envelope, and I assume no other Denubbewa ship has that capability."

  "But how can that be? Christa brought it halfway back to Quesann in a double envelope. For the second half of the trip, the ship was inside the Edison, but for the first half, it was in open space."

  "That's why we didn't even check the compound for its similarity to ours— at first. After all, it had traveled in open space in a double envelope. But once we learned their Dakinium is identical to the original, my people began trying to understand how it was possible, and we managed to recreate the situation. If the ship initiating the double envelope is sheathed in our Dakinium and our ship builds the proper resonance, the other Dakinium somehow temporarily borrows the resonance established by the ship generating the double envelope. Perhaps the ability is related to the way Dakinium absorbs energy and spreads it throughout the compound."

  "So the second ship allowed itself to be enclosed in the double envelope? That doesn't sound logical. I thought the entire hull had to create the proper resonance."

  "What can I say? We're still learning new things every day. You told us about the hitchhiker on the Koshi. That's another example of the phenomena. If the Dakinium worn by the hull-hugger invalidated the envelope, they would have discovered it before they ever started back."

  "Okay. So assuming that everything you've said is accurate and the Denubbewa Dakinium is not the same as ours, they can't establish a double envelope on their own and are definitely limited to Light-480? Or at least whatever the top speed of their ship is in a single envelope."

  "Exactly."

  "But their Dakinium is stronger than ours?"

  "Yes. But what would you rather have? Light-14,685.7 with an almost indestructible hull and the ability to phase shift so nothing can affect your ship, or Light-480 with an almost indestructible hull that is a wee bit more resistant to attack?"

  "Easy decision."

  "That's why our people stopped trying to duplicate the original Dakinium compound. We decided that double envelope travel was much more desirable. And our hulls are almost as indestructible as theirs. The degree of difference is not significant."

  "How many people know about this, Loretta?"

  "About twenty, I would say. And I've already sworn them to silence under threat of cutting their tongues out."

  Jenetta chuckled. "You didn't really say that, did you?"

  "I wanted them to know how serious I was, but I'm sure they didn't believe I'd ever actually do it."

  "Good. Let's limit this information to the people who already know for the time being. There's no need to advertise it. And if nobody else knows, the Denubbewa can't get it out of them during interrogation. We don't want the Denubbewa going back to the drawing board— or in this case, the lab— to try to duplicate our accident."

  "I agree we should keep it to ourselves. But that's going to be difficult. The senior officers of the ships will have to know so they're aware they can catch any Denubbewa ship that tries to escape during a battle."

  "Yes, you're right. The captain and XO of every ship will have to know, as will the bridge crew. And that means every single bridge crew, including the CPS ships. This is going to be the most widely known Top Secret in the history of Space Command. But— perhaps we can tell them without telling them."

  "I'm afraid I didn't follow that statement, Jen."

  Jenetta chuckled. "Sorry, I didn't express that properly because I was still thinking about it as I spoke. What I mean is this: We tell the bridge crews that while we have Marc-One, t
he Denubbewa do not. We explain that we didn't even know about double envelope travel capability until we accidentally tried to apply more power than the engines were designed to handle, so the discovery was an accident."

  "I'm with you so far. I think most people already know that story."

  "Yes. So our position is that while the Denubbewa have Dakinium sheathing, they apparently haven't learned about double-envelope capability, and we must keep it Top Secret so the metal-heads don't begin a campaign to learn how we accomplish it. We tell our people they should exploit the speed advantage we have in battle but must never discuss it or pass it on to anyone not authorized to know, which includes almost everybody who's not part of a bridge crew."

  "You want us to lie to our bridge crews?"

  "It's not really harmful if they believe the enemy has the ability but doesn't know they have it and are therefore not using it."

  "So we're lying to the bridge crews?"

  "Well— yes."

  "I love it. We let them think the enemy can employ it should they learn about it, so they must not learn about it from us. That will be even better than simply telling them not to speak about it because they might be even more reluctant to speak about it than they would be otherwise. And if the enemy learned about it from one of our people captured in battle, they'd bust their tin backsides trying to make it work while never understanding why they couldn't do it. Uh, who will tell our crews?"

  "I guess that's my job. They have to know about the Denubbewa having Dakinium sheathing anyway. I'll send out a Priority-One message to all ship captains with orders to share the information with just the bridge crews, stressing that no one else aboard should learn. When they go Denubbewa hunting, they'll expect the enemy to only have a top speed of Light-480. That might be the reason our four squadrons didn't find the Denubbewa when they searched for them. They were probably expecting them to be much farther away than they actually were. I'm going to tell them to return for another search but to look much closer to the original location since the Denubbewa can't travel nearly as fast as our ships. Thank you, Loretta. You've brightened my day. Any other good news?"