by Musser, Dale
It was while we were attempting to resolve a communication system problem associated with the RMFF that Kerabac accidently discovered how to also utilize the field to support a cloaking system. Other secrets of the RMFF system had been discovered as well, but these were not yet fully understood. Among these were the amplification of energy and speed of weapon fire directed out and away from the ship from inside the boundaries of the RMFF.
We were just finishing our meal when word came from the bridge for Captain Stonbersa that the shuttle carrying Admiral Regeny was departing the planet and that he would be docking in about 30 minutes.
“Please excuse me,” said Stonbersa as he rose from the table. “I must see to the arrival of the admiral and his staff.”
“Certainly, Captain. Kala and I will meet you in the hangar bay shortly.” I looked at Kala and said, “Please tell me that I don’t have to put on my vice admiral uniform.”
Kala laughed, “I’m afraid you do, Tibby… protocol, you know. It’s the price you pay for your fame and fortune.”
I growled as I got up from the table and excused myself from the gathering. Since Kala was still active military, she wore her military uniform most of the time. However, since she was permanently assigned as my attaché, there were some occasional liberties from this requirement. Today was not one of those days. Kala went with me, most likely to make sure that I didn’t put on wrong uniform. Except for formal events, captains and admirals wore Kelly green uniforms. However, since I was only an honorary vice admiral, my own uniform differed by gold threat piping, indicating that I had no direct authority in military matters. Unfortunately, this honorary position meant that I had to receive and give a lot of salutes, which I always detested; but, as Kala always reminded me, it was the price I had to pay for all the wealth and fame bestowed upon me.
Kala and I arrived at the hangar bay just as the admiral’s shuttle arrived. Though I should have been used to it by now, I was nevertheless surprised to see that the shuttle had been escorted by a dozen patrol ships, two of which preceded the shuttle into the hangar bay and the remainder of which maintained stations outside and around the NEW ORLEANS.
Unlike Earth, where a person was expected to request permission of the commanding officer of that vessel before boarding, the Federation had no such formal procedure. While such requests were obviously made routinely out of respect and professional courtesy, they were not performed in the formal manner of Earth; so when the admiral walked off the ship and into the hangar bay, Captain Stonbersa simply said, “Welcome aboard the NEW ORLEANS, Admiral. It’s nice to have you with us again.”
“It’s nice to be here again, Captain. I must say I envy you. While this is not the largest ship in the galaxy, it certainly is the finest and safest.”
The admiral then turned to me. “Vice Admiral Tibby, so good to see you again. It warms my heart to see you in that uniform; and in truth, I think your title should be more than just honorary. But then, as it is, I think you have greater flexibility and power than if you were a full vice admiral in the Federation.”
“It’s good to see you again, Admiral; but I’m assuming you and your staff haven’t come all this way for a social visit. Shall we move to the conference room used by you and your staff when you were here last? Captain Stonbersa, would you please see that the bridge activates the RMFF while the admiral is aboard?”
“Certainly, sir,” replied Stonbersa, as the admiral and his party began to follow Kala and me out of the hangar area.
By the time we arrived at the conference room used by Admiral Regeny and the High Command during the confrontation with the BROTHERHOOD OF LIGHT when the DUSTEN and TASSAGORA were seized, Piesew had already seen to the placement of refreshments at each person’s seat. Having served in the Federation Space Force aboard the DUSTEN as a majordomo for many years, he already knew the beverage preferences of each attendee and where they would be seated.
During the time of the siege of the DUSTEN, the Federation emblem had been mounted on the wall behind a raised dais at one end of the conference room, allowing the High Command to make vid announcements to the Federation populace in a fashion that showed them to be safe and in control of the alliance’s military defenses. The guise had worked to preserve the morale of the inhabitants of Megelleon. I didn’t expect to see the Federation emblem still displayed there and I thought that perhaps by some oversight on the part of my staff it had not been returned to the NIGHTBRIDGE, the Federation corvette from which it had been borrowed.
I was about to say something about it when the admiral remarked, “Ah, I see that you’ve displayed a Federation emblem in here. Is that just for us?”
Before I could reply to say that I had no idea, Kala spoke up. “After your last visit here Piesew felt there may be a future need for us to have the Federation emblem handy, so he had one made up to be available for such a situation.”
“Good old Piesew, he always served me well when I was aboard the DUSTEN. I hated to see him leave the Federation forces. It seems, though, that his transition here to you is not our loss but everyone’s gain.
“Shall we begin?” he said as we all took our seats.
“Tibby, I’ll get right to the point,” he continued, “though I suspect you’ve already surmised most of what I‘m about to say. While everyone on Megelleon is celebrating our victory over the Brotherhood, you and I both know that the rest of the Federation territories have yet to hear any of the news about what transpired in recent weeks. Hell, most of them still haven’t even gotten word about the recovery of the solbidyum. With light years between Megelleon and many of the aligned planets, news from the capital arrives only when a message pod comes within broadcast range or when an incoming ship carries news. We have to believe, based on recent events, that the Brotherhood has a strong following throughout the galaxy and that every Federation ship and outpost base includes Brotherhood members in its ranks. We just discovered that the most significant weak link in our intelligence is within the Federation Office of Investigation. We never anticipated that the FOI would be infiltrated as well. Much of our current situation is a result of the false and distorted information they’ve been providing to the military – probably for decades or more. Now we can’t rely on anything reported by that agency until their staff is all retested for loyalty and the organization is completely sanitized of infiltrators, which will take years.
“In addition to this complication, we have to resolve the problem of secure distribution of the solbidyum. So far two different groups have made concentrated efforts to seize the solbidyum – the Bunemnites and the BROTHERHOOD OF LIGHT. I don’t think we need to worry about the Bunemnites, as they are now petitioning to rejoin the Federation; and since they never officially acted against the Federation and they’re claiming ignorance of the pirating of the TRITYTE by Lieutenant Lexmal and the rogue crew on the freighter, I think the Federation will ultimately grant their admission in the interest of peace.
“The Brotherhood, however, is a much larger matter. It would appear that their overall objective is much greater than just acquiring the solbidyum, as they have clearly demonstrated they want to dominate the galaxy.
“Also, as we move distribution toward the outer reaches of the Federation territories, there will be many other non-aligned planetary communities like the Bunem System who will likely try to obtain the solbidyum by similar means. We can most certainly also expect to encounter a number of privateers, pirates and mercenaries throughout the galaxy. While the Federation has several million ships at its command, we don’t even know where half of them are at any given time; and recalling enough of them to assemble an armada for protection and distribution of the solbidyum would take years. In that amount of time the planetary governments, no doubt fired by Brotherhood rebels, would begin to believe that the solbidyum is being hoarded, just as they did 500 years ago when it was first lost. Under those conditions, the Great Wars of that era will be repeated and entire planets could again be decimated. At t
he moment, other than a handful of people on this ship and Commander Wanoll on the DUSTEN, no one knows that the solbidyum is stashed here on the NEW ORLEANS.
“Tibby, I’m going to be very direct. We need your help, first and foremost to deliver the solbidyum – not all of it – but enough to promote positive image to other Federation planets that distribution is underway and to establish a level of confidence with the Federation peoples as to our intentions and sincerity of efforts. We simply cannot wait for a fleet to assemble here to begin transport. Even if we could move forward with the assurance of screened and loyal crews, we would still not be as safe and secure in delivering the solbidyum as would the NEW ORLEANS.
“Secondly, some of my staff and I need to make personal appearances at many of our bases to personally see to the implementation of the new, more stringent procedures for filtering out infiltrators and establishing secure ships, bases and squadrons that can see to the sanitization of subsequent facilities and crews. This must be done as quickly as possible, before word spreads of the recent events here at the capital and before the Brotherhood decides to take action at other locations. Right now we have only two ships staffed with loyal crews that we know of – the DUSTEN and the NIGHTBRIDGE – and we need to keep both of them here for the defense of the capital.
“Tibby, I know we’ve asked a lot of you since you arrived here and I know that it has cost both you and Kalana dearly; but I want you to think of this – if the Brotherhood isn’t cleared out of the Federation forces quickly, before they know what’s happening, we will probably fail in more ways than one and the deaths of Lunnie and Captain Maxette and the thousands of others will have been in vain.
“We need the NEW ORLEANS to transport the solbidyum and the High Command, at least until we can establish enough ships and loyal crews to defend the Federation. We also need you, Tibby. It’s been hundreds of years since the Federation military has had any real need for any expertise in warfare, since we haven’t seen war for generations. Essentially we’ve been performing roles related only to police actions in contained civil disputes – and in those situations we’ve achieved resolution by brute force and numbers, not by advanced military strategy. And, unlike your planet Earth, the Federation didn’t bother to preserve detailed war histories and strategic plans. You simply know more about leveraging our military strengths than we do and we’re going to need every possible strategic advantage we can get when dealing with the Brotherhood.”
“Admiral, I think it would be an educational experience for me to see more of the Federation planets. I’ll be happy to share with you what I know about Earth’s battles and strategies, but I’m not a military expert. What I do know I learned mostly from stories and TV documentaries similar to vid presentations. I got the idea for using the solbidyum container to get our men aboard the DUSTEN from the Trojan War, one of the most famous wars on Earth.
“I can suggest a few immediate courses of action based on things that have been done on Earth. One thing that I would recommend right now is that you establish another government intelligence agency – a secret one, at least for now, that consists of spies and operatives who infiltrate and collect intelligence not only from groups like the Brotherhood but from agencies within the Federation itself, like the FOI. You can call this new investigative body something like the Federation Security Organization. In order to be most effective, the organization would have to employ a rather diverse group of agents that are able to infiltrate key agencies of governments within and apart from the Federation authority as a means of providing you with a warning when trouble is brewing elsewhere. I’m not sure how your funding is set up or by what means you get approval for funding, but the fewer people within your own government that know about the activities or existence of the FSO, the more effectively it will be to operate and gather data. The biggest drawback to setting up such an agency is ensuring that impingement of the rights of individual citizens is prevented, which becomes very tricky.
“Another thing I recommend is the development of Special Operations units within your military – teams trained specifically for covert operations and hostage situations like the one that occurred on the DUSTEN. You won’t always need thousands of troops to address a conflict, if you have task forces in place that are specially trained with the proper skills. I think I can provide some assistance in that area; and now that we’ve successfully modified the learning headbands to pass on martial arts skills, we may be able to expedite training. I know that, at the moment, all the loyal troops you have here at Megelleon have received the martial arts training and are practicing the skills daily to enhance their performance. I think we can expand on that to include other areas of training as well; and as you clear military people from other ships and bases during our travels, you can also pass on these skills almost instantly, which will make every one of your troopers equal to four or five of the Brotherhood rebels. If this program is implemented properly, the training of loyal forces can occur so quickly that, if the Brotherhood does not become aware of what you’re doing, you can have them – and any other factions – filtered out very quickly and replaced by new recruits that can be trained for duty and deployed in combat-ready teams within weeks instead of months.
“I do have some other ideas, but I’m not ready to discuss them at the moment. I’m still contemplating some of the details.
“I take it, Admiral, that you intend to personally go on this mission so you can provide the authority for the testing and the replacement, dismissal or incarceration of Brotherhood sympathizers, in case the highest ranking officer at a facility or ship happens to be a Brotherhood member. Am I correct?”
“Yes, you’re correct. I don’t see how it will work otherwise.”
“Okay. I’m also assuming that you want the bulk of your higher ranking staff members to remain here so you maintain a strong presence at the capital. I also suspect that, once we get the crews of several ships cleared, you’ll send one or two more back here to Megelleon to defend against potential subsequent attempts at occupation or destruction. I would suggest you take along ten squads of twelve per squad. That’s 120 troopers. We can train them en route.
“As for the FSO, I would suggest that the immediate plan calls for fifty agents. Again, we will have to train them en route. I would suggest you pick men and women of various planetary origins who possess a variety of skills; for example, explosives experts (bomb-making and disposal), marksmen, communication officers and, if you can find them, police detectives – really good ones. Maybe also a chemist or two and a couple of electricians. We’ll need all of them to download their skills and knowledge bases into the learning devices. Ultimately, your FSO agents will need to be the most highly cross-trained team in the Federation. The NEW ORLEANS has sufficient room for all of these personnel, so we won’t be over-crowded. The arrangement will be good for my staff, too. They’ll have something substantial to do for a change.
“How long will it take you to assemble these people and be ready to start out?”
“Five days – seven at the most,” the admiral said.
“Make it six” I replied. “I’ll inform Captain Stonbersa that we will be departing in six days and to have accommodations ready for your staff by then. You’ll also need to bring a number of patrol ships. The hangar bays of the NEW ORLEANS can hold about a dozen of yours – plus two shuttles.”
Admiral Regeny stared at me with a somewhat stunned look on his face as he absorbed my suggestions. “Did you just come up with that all just now or did you anticipate my concerns beforehand and have this planned out?”
“A bit of both, sir,” I replied.
“That’s incredible. In just minutes you put together a complete strategy to deal with this situation. It would have taken us weeks and we would not have come up with anything nearly this elaborate or efficient. I get the impression from the way you approach these situations that yours is a planet plagued with frequent wars and that strategic planning is a way of life there.”<
br />
“To be honest, Admiral, I never really stopped to think about it; but, in retrospect, I don’t know of a period during my lifetime – or any period, really – when there wasn’t a war or two going on someplace on Earth. In many Earth cultures even the games children play, especially on computers, are based on war and combat. Warfare has played a huge part in Earth history, so many of Earth’s citizens (scholarly historians and hobbyists alike) continue to study wars and battles. There are even annual staged events where battles of some of the more famous wars are reenacted. Nonetheless, the majority of Earth’s people live in peace.”
“So you’re a war history hobbyist?”
“Me? No, not by any means. What I know was learned in school and from what you would call vid documentaries that are watched for education and entertainment.”
“People watch war stories for entertainment on your planet? Incredible,” said Admiral Regeny with a look of astonishment. “What’s even more incredible is that you claim your knowledge is limited; yet you seem so well prepared to handle these situations.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, sir, other than the last thing that I want to see is the devastation of war. While I was completing my military training, the Navy wanted to transfer me to the War College, but I wasn’t interested and managed to avoid that assignment.”
“War College?” Admiral Regeny exclaimed in astonishment. “They have a school for war?”
“Ah, well sort of. Each branch of the military has a school where they train their future leaders and strategists in problem solving, decision making, and effective definition and execution of objectives. For instance, the US Naval War College is described by its founder as "a place of original research on all questions relating to war and to statesmanship connected with war or the prevention of war." Hence, they study past wars as documented by all parties in the conflict. More specifically, these scholars study military strategies applied to past battles to analyze those that succeeded and those that went wrong. They also set up and rehearse various hypothetical scenarios to examine possible outcomes.”
