When they’d settled, and were comfortable, he said, “So, DNI did send people to investigate my concerns after all. What is even more impressive is who they sent and the fact I never knew why you are here. You two seem to be building quite the reputation together. You’ve come here and broken a spy ring in less than six months, a spy ring we’ve been trying to find for a few years now. May I ask, why you two, and how did you do it so quickly?”
John and Anne glanced at each other briefly, then John answered, “Well Sir, they sent us because the Navy needed us to complete the Command course before we could be assigned elsewhere anyway, that, and the fact that the Navy sees us as a sort of lightning rod for Pirate activity. As to how we cracked the spy ring so quickly, that wasn’t so difficult, we just gave them the one thing they least wanted to see. We let them see two highly motivated, and capable Officers who could not only easily pass the course, but also help most of the other students lift their performance to levels most wouldn’t have thought possible. Sir, except for me, every, one of the Command Course students is someone who DNI believe was unfairly, and wrongly sidelined from command track in the past. Of course, we had a lot of help, all the other students in this cohort were handpicked by DNI as having a lot of leadership potential. None of the other students know they were part of this operation. They all think they won a second chance at command through hard work, and they did, we’d prefer it remains that way. There is one thing you do need to know, though, I suspect there’s someone within the administration staff here who is altering records to kill off good grades when someone shows too much potential. You should not mention this to anybody after we leave, or even speak aloud to yourself about it, not till DNI gives you the all clear.”
The Commandant asked, “Do you think that will take long?”
Again, as the Commandant watched, the two glanced at each other.
This time, Anne replied, “We can’t be sure Sir, it will depend on how long it takes DNI and the Troopers to extract information from the ones we’ve captured so far. We won’t be involved in any of that, as far as we know, our role in the operation is over, unless someone else tries something with us, or one of the other students on the command course. We are now just students again, trying to pass the Command module of our training.”
The Commandant chuckled and said, “Somehow, I don’t think you’ll ever be ‘just’ anything. I've just sat here watching you two communicating without actually saying anything to each other. It almost seems like telepathy, or like you are thinking with a single mind, it’s uncanny.”
John quickly answered, “It’s not telepathy Sir. We do have a connection, we trust and respect each other. We are very sensitive to each other, and can instantly, effortlessly read each other's faces and body language. I think it’s something that developed because of everything we’ve been through together. I’ve never experienced anything like this before except with my wife, and even that is subtly different. The way Sankarah is talking, I think we’ll be paired for a while longer. They believe that, together, we are a lot more efficient than the sum of the parts, they’ve called us a hunting pair, whatever that means. They want us out on a ship hunting Pirates. Coming here was something they considered necessary before we could do that. As it happens, we both agree with them on that point.”
The Commandant grunted, gave them a considering look for a minute, then dismissed them. The Troopers had been very careful not to disrupt the operation of the Academy any more than they absolutely had to. All the classes were still taking place, people could do their work, or for that matter, most of the activities they needed, or even just wanted to do. The only things they couldn’t do were events taking them off the Academy grounds or out of sight of the watching Troopers. The medical facility was commandeered temporarily while the prisoners were examined and several unidentified implants removed. Even then, people requiring care still received it without delay. When the prisoners finally woke about an hour later, they weren’t given any time to recover, or even think about where they were or what was happening to them. Over the next day, they gave up the names of another three agents within the Academy, all of whom were arrested immediately. They too were examined for implants, one had none, one managed to activate a suicide implant and died before they could stop it and the last was interrogated. A few more agents were identified on the planet and its orbital station but no more at the Academy.
The head of DNI on Boontang had achieved what seemed like a clean sweep of the enemy agents on the planet, and another was underway at the orbital station. He was impressed and wondered if he could convince Headquarters on Sankarah to let him have John and Anne permanently. He wasn’t sure if they were making him look good or bad. These two managed to crack a case in five months that his people had been working on for two years. The upside was, he’d been smart enough to provide the backup they needed when they needed it, and that backup performed all but three of the arrests. He thought that should count for something when people started looking at what happened here. He wasn’t a small-minded person, he didn’t much care how the successes came, but like everyone, there was a healthy dose of self-interest in his makeup. He found himself praying that their success wouldn’t reflect poorly on him. He’d even heard they didn’t seem to be overly interested in taking over, or even taking credit for what they’d achieved. In the end, it would all depend on what they reported back to Headquarters. He found himself hoping they appreciated the help he’d given them.
After John and Anne had been dismissed by the Commandant, they managed to find a Trooper with transport heading in their general direction. They convinced him to let them hitch a ride back towards the Command Training Centre. On the way, John decided to maintain the facade, and his alias till graduation, to ensure there was no confusion among the other trainees, they’d already had their training disrupted enough by all this. John and Anne knew they now needed to go and explain everything to the rest of the class and to see how their backup staff, and for that matter, even the regular, school staff who’d been injured, were faring. When they arrived at their destination, they thanked the driver, then climbed out of the ground car. They walked inside the building to find one of the staff, not one who knew what was going on waiting there, looking decidedly unhappy with them. He immediately wanted to know what was happening and where they’d been. They looked at each other, realizing they needed to brief the staff first.
John decided it was time to speak with authority. He put every ounce of Command presence he had, into his voice, his posture, the look on his face, everything, as he said, “I am not going to wander around this facility re-telling the story to everyone I come across. Therefore, out of respect for the staff here, I will do two briefings, the first for the staff, a second one, for my classmates. Could you suggest a suitable venue, then help me get the staff together for the first briefing please?”
The instructor visibly wilted, realizing this man really was not just an ordinary student, so he agreed, telling them lecture theater three was available and would hold everyone. He then went and paged all the staff to the room before leading John and Anne there to wait for the arrival of their audience. It wasn’t long before people began trickling in. John counted them as they arrived. He knew exactly how many staff should be here, and he knew how many would not be able to make it because of the day's events. When John was happy that everybody who’d be coming was present, he casually walked to the door and closed it, then with Anne beside him, calmly walked to the front. On the way to the front of the room, the chatter from his audience was raising in volume as they all began speculating about what was going on and noting who was missing. John raised his hand, palm facing the audience to attract their attention, and quieten them.
When they were all quiet, he began, “First, I would like to introduce myself, and my colleague here. Be aware, our real identities must remain a secret till the end of this course, so once you leave this room, please do not discuss who we are, or speculate about us,
even among yourselves. My real name and rank are Commander Colin Gordon, my colleague here is Lieutenant Anne Fraser. Anne and I were sent here to complete the Command training, that much is legitimate. We were given false identities, the ones you know us by, to give us a little breathing space after there were multiple attempts to murder me, on Cotoni Station and even on Sankarah. I would like to tell you, for some time now, there has been a growing amount of concern on Sankarah about the way talented Officer trainees are being sidelined into meaningless jobs within the Federation Navy after coming to the Academy. Before you become angry about this, let me reassure you, this is not seen as a fault of the Academy itself, or the Commandant, or indeed, of any of the people in this room, it was, in fact, a direct result of Peschal Alliance infiltration. Exercises were being deliberately sabotaged, results of tests altered or lost, all to make sure people’s careers were ruined. It happened to Lieutenant Fraser here, in fact, it’s happened to every student on this course, except me. This tampering resulting in the Lieutenant being sidelined into a role as a protocol Officer. I must confess, I was very glad we found her when we were on FNS Destiny. I’m not sure if I could’ve brought Destiny back successfully without her considerable help. Now for the tricky part of this briefing, what I’ve told you so far is mostly for you only, the rest will be told to the students after we’re finished here.
DNI saw this as an opportunity, so Anne and I were given the additional mission to see if we could identify who the enemy agents who were here at the Academy. We considered various options and concluded we had to be people they simply couldn’t ignore, we had to make ourselves the targets of their efforts. We performed to the best of our ability, actively looking for things such as sabotage, and finding it, a lot of it, and by working hard to build this class into a coherent team. I can promise you, we have been working hard while we were here. We became aware that at least one of the students was being blackmailed by two of the instructors, Kazad Lensoon, and Disma Tanakon, and before you ask, we will not tell you who the student is or what was being held over them. The student in question was not actually doing anything wrong, there was just the perception. In any case, those two, along with Shilnon Zhuter and Hanakor Trudar are all currently in custody, which is why none of them are here. Everything came to a head today when an attempt was made kill Anne and me at the simulation center. I had a feeling today would be the day, so last night I went to the facility and found a device intended to insert false data into some of the data cabling. I’ve been told it would have sown confusion and given them an opportunity to shoot Anne, and me when we exited the simulation compartment to find out what was happening. I reconfigured the system so I could see when people were approaching three different locations, but they were a little cleverer than that. Being rather paranoid just now, I’d also configured it to notify me when any anomalies happened with the surveillance feeds. Such an anomaly happened, and I immediately called for back-up then left the compartment, looking for whoever caused it, thus all the Troopers who are currently running around the campus.
I was attacked, shot at using a handheld Laser and at that point, I stunned Shilnon Zhuter. I had restraints with me which I placed on him so he couldn’t escape. Anne heard the weapons fire inside the simulation compartment and decided to come help me. When she opened the door to exit, a second assailant fired at her and missed. I heard the shot and went to see if I could find the person who fired it. I found Disma Tanakon in one of the sniper positions I’d previously identified, and I stunned then restrained him before letting Anne know she could come out. Once she was out, and reasonably safe, I started looking for the next enemy agent. Instead, I found Sergeant Deitson unconscious on the floor. I was checking on the Sergeant when another shot was fired. Someone was lining up a shot on me when Anne stunned him. It was Kazad Lensoon. Anne placed restraints on him, and we went looking for any other agents. Frankly, we were rather surprised at the number of Peschal Alliance infiltrators there were, but we realized there was at least one more. We were hunting him when help arrived. We immediately surrendered ourselves to the Troopers, and they cleared the facility, finally capturing Hanakor Trudar. Since then, Anne and I have been with the Commandant. During this attack by these enemy agents, Sergeant Deitson and Corporal Kolari were injured and are now receiving medical care, Corporal Sancharan, and Corporal Lakolah I’m sorry to say, are both dead.”
John stopped speaking, waiting for comment. The room was silent for several minutes, then erupted as the staff all began talking at the same time. John, let them talk till they’d let off a little steam, then he held up his hand to gain their attention again. It had taken another couple of minutes before they settled down enough for John to capture their attention.
He said, “We’ll leave you to discuss this among yourselves for a while. Could you summon the students here in one hour, please? We need to talk to them.”
One of the instructors walked up to them and said, “Come back to this room in one hour, we’ll have the students here ready for you by then Sir.”
John nodded as he replied, “We’ll return in an hour then. Thank you.”
John and Anne returned to the lecture theater an hour later as arranged. When they walked into the room, their fourteen classmates were already there, waiting with expectant looks on their faces. Everyone began to stand, but John waved them back down into their seats as he made his way to the front of the room. John arrived at the front and turned towards the class. After looking at them for a few seconds, he told them most of the story excluding Anne’s, and his actual names or his correct rank. When he’d finished, the people facing him were in complete silence, with shocked looks on their faces. One put up his hand, to seek permission to ask a question.
When John nodded in his direction, he asked, “So, will you be moving on now John? I mean, you’re a DNI agent, and you’ve completed the job you came here for so you won’t be staying any longer, right?”
John found himself mildly irritated by the question, but with a little effort, patiently answered, “No, we won’t be leaving yet, we aren’t going till the course has been completed, the same as the rest of you, and we’ve either passed of failed. Our primary reason for being here was always to finish the course. The DNI tasking was nothing more than an attempt by the Navy to get more bang for their buck. As I understand it, Anne and I have a beautiful shiny new Warship waiting for us to serve on her when we return to Cambridge. The Navy apparently consider the best long term use of our talents will be on ships, probably because we struggle with doing subtle.”
Someone from among the crowd, John wasn’t sure who, but the voice was female, quietly mumbled, “You’ve got that right, using you two for something that required finesse would be like trying to crack a walnut with a sledgehammer.”
This last comment drew a little laughter from all the students, including John and Anne. The joke seemed to break the tension a little, and the other students all came over to John and Anne, congratulating them, slapping them on the back. The release of tension was palpable. By then this cohort of students had grown into a solid team who worked well together. Colin realized he was right, any more changes could’ve been far too disruptive to these students and may have damaged their chances of graduating the course. At least if he and Anne stayed, they could help the others achieve their full potential. Besides, both John and Anne needed to pass this module themselves so they could eventually command ships. Now it was time to finish the course.
Even though they were satisfied with their DNI mission, John wouldn’t be letting his guard down, neither would Anne, they may have missed some, or even just one, enemy agent. Still, they had a team who could, and would, back each other to the hilt. The next day, their coursework and simulations recommenced in earnest. The remaining instructors pulled out all the stops to make sure they all completed the course successfully. These final few weeks were the hardest of the entire course. This was where everything they’d learned throughout the course was tested.
>
Finally, the students reached the end of the course. All sixteen of the remaining trainees lined up for the graduation parade. This was going to end up being quite the surprise for fourteen of the graduating class. They all marched into the main hall and lined up, waiting while the Academy Commandant gave his speech. He spoke about the difficulties they’d all had to endure and about the way they’d overcome them. While he didn’t explicitly mention the problems with the Peschal Alliance operatives, this was at least partly what he was talking about, of course, the training itself was difficult and challenging. The finished by telling the trainees they were one of the finest groups of Officers who’d ever come through the command course. He told them, their average score was higher than any previous team had ever achieved during his six years as Academy Commandant. When he’d finished his address, he handed the lectern over to the Officer in charge of the Command School.
This Officer was a female Codai. Speaking slowly and clearly, she too spoke of the events they’d experienced. She talked about the bravery they’d shown, their resourcefulness and their high achievement as a group. One by one, the students were called forward to receive the medallion indicating their graduation from Command School. Finally, she paused, then launched into another short speech. This time she did mention the Peschal Alliance infiltration and stated that the remaining two Officers were instrumental in bringing the penetration to an end, and even when preoccupied with that task, they’d still achieved the highest marks in the class. She then called, Anne Fraser to come forward. As Anne marched proudly forward, Colin looked out the corner of his eyes to see a dumbfounded look on the nearest graduate’s face. Anne was presented the gold medallion, this was only ever awarded to the highest scoring trainee. When Anne returned to her place, the name Colin Gordon was called out. Colin heard a sharp intake of breath from his fellow students and then marched forward. He too was presented with the gold medallion. This was entirely unprecedented; two gold medallions had never been given to graduates of a single course in the entire history of the Academy. The room erupted in applause and cheering as Colin marched back to his place, bewildered.
Star Man 2: Star Rise Page 8
