Guardian Stone 2: Stone and the T-Raptors
Page 15
“Commandant, when the communications links went down at about the same time the last hostage ship was inbound I placed sufficient crews on alert to meet such an action if necessary. The removal of the hostages was too large a clue for me to ignore. These troops are reliable and are in light armor that will handle anything the polits can throw at them. They are ready to go now on your order. My only question is how do we get them to Felix once we have captured them?”
“Excellent General. There is one factor that seems to impact much of our planning and you have just hit on a major element, our mobility. We do have a large share of the available starships at our command but that in itself may not be enough. I am happy to tell you that as of this moment, this station is renamed as the SS Acar. Yes, SS for Star Ship Acar. This station is star flight capable and has been for some time. We also have the capability to travel faster than anything in the fleet by a factor of about 10. We can also micro jump with a precision of plus or minus 1 meter. That mobility is how we will deliver our cargo of prisoners to Felix. However that delivery will be delayed for a few days, because there are things to do here first. How I know this, is a subject for discussion at a later time. From the looks on your faces, you appear to think I have lost it. Rest assured this is fact and it does resolve a number of other problems as well. Further General Barth can confirm that some of our ships already have cloaking capabilities that are light years beyond anything we have encountered before. That capability is the reason that the High Command does not yet know that the enclaves are empty. We intend to keep it that way as long as we can. General Barth and his troops have emptied all the enclaves, so we have a population increase of about 1,000,000 persons that are now ensconced aboard Acar. They will all be informed of our action and given a choice of where they wish to go. They are not hostages. We will not go that route. They will be free to go if they wish and we intend to inform the fleet that they are here. As to the polits, we have a section in the military training area that has been converted to a secure prison. It can handle about 10,000 persons. We have 3,000 to place there immediately as well as some sleepers who are going to be surprised to learn that they have been uncovered. They will join the polits. Actually each is a polit with some rank so they should be right at home.”
"Another piece of good news is that a large contingent of the Antoran fleet is already in system and more are expected to arrive here in two days. Their role is one of guardians in this arm of the galaxy and have only just discovered what is going on here. Their role is to prevent conflicts from moving to space and the Starkiller is an anathema to them." He then described the structure of the Antoran fleet without indicating how he knew.
“I intend to pull the rug out from under High Command and the High Councilor by cutting off the power provided by this station and disappearing in one action. Yannar does not have a good distribution system for its local power generation. The High Command complex draws its power from this station and is not capable of shifting sufficient local power to its needs. It has in fact become overly dependent on this station as its primary power source. The local citizenry will be inconvenienced by a partial outage but not endangered by it. High Command will be heavily impacted and that does not hurt my feelings. They will not have a clue about what happened to us for some time. At about the same time, they will discover that their hostage enclaves are empty and that an interesting cross section of their population is missing. I imagine that will give High Command a bit of heartburn. I want a message sent to every ship in the fleet to the effect that their families are safe on board and not in the enclaves along with a copy of our Declaration of Independence. It will further state that if they do not wish to join us, we will arrange to deliver their families to a neutral location. In about a half hour, we are cutting power to the planet and we will engage our cloaking device.”
“Ok here is a list of the things we need to accomplish. The quicker we are at accomplishing these things, the greater the likelihood of success. Some of these are pretty straight forward, others we need to put on our thinking caps and set an operational plan. High command is not expecting any concerted action so we have the element of surprise working for us.”
He then proceeded to outline the steps he felt needed to be taken to advance their cause. The first among these was to neutralize all of the polits aboard the station. "General Barth, would you please give the order to your men to arrest every polit aboard this station and confine them to the detention facility in the military sector. Try to avoid physical harm to them but not to the point of endangering any of our Marines. Please let me know when that is completed."
General Barth saluted and said with a grin, "I am on it sir, and thanks. This is long overdue." He then left.
“OK, that’s it for now. Go get some rest and relax with your families. We will get back together here first thing in the morning. Between now and then, I will check with General Barth to see how things are going."
An hour later, Pell was discussing the exercise in arresting all of the polits on board including 7 that were not on the station rolls. They were all in lockup in the facility in the military training area. Barth said, "I find it hard to believe that this all went so smoothly. No resistance, though few were in a condition to offer any. My troops acted with commendable restraint and were polite throughout. Some will get commendations for exceptional work handling the few difficult cases. There were no injuries though I thought one of their officers was going to have a heart attack. He is fine and lightly sedated. I suspect that our friend Acarma might have helped a bit."
Barth continued, " I have also segregated the 642 individuals you gave me and placed them in a separate living quarters with their families. I had already collected their families as instructed. They have all been run through a med facility to remove their termination devices. Their assigned quarters have been secured until we have time to deal with them. The wing they are in is isolated from the rest of the station and is locked down until further notice."
Barth said, "Hey, how come I can hear what you're thinking to Acarma, that is very strange."
Pell thought to him,
Barth responded,
"Greetings Antoran vessel, this is Commandant Pell Cassarn of SS Acar, can you hear me?"
"Hello Commandant, This is General Chou Sing and it is my pleasure to meet you. I understand that you have been informed of our reason for being here and our willingness to help. Particularly that the Starkiller weapon must be stopped. How can we help."
Pell went on to give a full briefing of the events to date. He noted that his main concern was he did not yet know where the weapon was located. He was fearful that the weapon would be deployed before it could be found. Gene
ral Sing said that his AI Kanchana would be communicating with Acarma to work on intelligence and how else to help. He explained what a T-Raptor team was and how it had previously been used. He noted that their stations were multi species and their presence to the uninitiated could be very daunting. He also pointed out that they could take on almost any imaginable appearance so if there was one that might be more effective because of local belief or myth that might be useful when it came time to use visible appearances.
Pell chuckled and said, "That might be very useful. We have a creature from our distant past that decorates the High Command building. It is called a Snarf. It is fearsome and intimidating. Wait, the person that walked by in back of you, he is wearing a patch on his arm that bears a resemblance of the Snarf. Perhaps I was imagining."
Sing glanced at the passing officer and saw what had caused the reaction and he started laughing, "Commandant, this is too good. Is this the patch to which you just reacted?" As he said this he shifted his body so that Pell could see his T-Raptor patch.
Pell gasped and said that it was. Sing went on and said that while the creature was long extinct on Earth and on several other worlds, it was not a myth and explained its significance and why the T-Raptors had adopted the image. "Commandant, you have just provided an idea that some of our teams are going to want to thank you for personally. Several of our teams have been experimenting with adopting this form for visible visits in combat or intimidation situations. Finding an opportunity to use it will bring them great pleasure. I have seen it demonstrated and it gives me the chills."
"I was not intending that as a truly serious suggestion but now I believe it should be. That is amazing. I should very much like to see what that looks like."
"That is easy enough, Team 47, please report to military training area for a demonstration of your T-Rex." Within a minute the team was assembled and reported that they were ready. "Kanchana, please give Commandant Cassarn a recordable feed of this demonstration. Team 47, it’s all yours." The team went into rapport and projected themselves into a 20 foot tall image of a Tyrannosaurus Rex that was indistinguishable from the real creature. The team put the image through its paces, even leaving footprint depressions where it walked.
Pell was mesmerized. He said, "I can think of several places where that can be used to great effect. I think you said that your teams in this mode are impervious to weapons fire?"
"Indeed, that is correct and we are well within operating distance for anywhere on the planet."
"Oho, this is too good. I have a request for you then. We sorely need intelligence and our means cannot be nearly as effective as yours. We need to locate the site where the Starkiller is being prepared. I would also like to learn of the disposition of all of their ships, polits and personnel. I would like to do this in a way that High Command remains unaware they have been penetrated. For that a distraction is advisable. I can't think of a more distracting creature than a Snarf wandering their hallways. Most of their rooms and halls are 25 to 30 feet tall so a 20 foot Snarf will do quite nicely. They should enter and leave without being seen by their surveillance system. They won't know where it came from, why it is there or what it is doing. If we can gather intelligence as well as scaring the hell out of them, then I like it."
Sing laughingly said, "Commandant, you are a man after my own heart. This is most creative. How soon would you like me to start?"
"Yesterday would be nice, but as soon as you are ready would be wonderful."
Sing wore a huge smile and said, "In that case we will start in about 15 minutes after we have briefed the teams. We will not use this method to kill as they cannot threaten our teams but we may create a little destruction to keep them guessing. We will backup any data that we destroy so we do not lose anything. I will be back in touch as soon as we have anything. Good hunting Sir."
Pell replied, "and you my friend."
Chapter 24: Declaration of Independence
On SS Acar in Lema Orbit – November 20 – C Day 447
Acarma announced to Pell,
Pell thought,
"Randa, this is Pell, I need to meet with you, it is absolutely urgent."
"OK but how is it that you can call me on this thing and no one else can?"
He responded, "Its magic." And he thought to Acarma,
She said, "What is going on?" still holding the communicator in her hand and looking about her as she realized she was no longer in a corridor at Lema Base, "Now that was magic. Explain."
"Good ole Randa, cuts right to the quick no matter how bizarre the circumstances. That is what I like about you. First things first, I would like to have that termination device in your head removed before the High Councilor takes it into his head to mash that beautiful brain of yours."
"What, @#%@, that miserable worm had the nerve to put one of those things in my head. You bet your stars I want it out. How do I do that?"
This was a good start so he said, "just sit on that med chair and give it about 10 to 15 seconds." She did as instructed and 15 seconds later, he said, "OK, you are good to go."
"OK Pell, you have some 'splainin to do. Start with where I am and go on from there. I am not in Lema gravity, so where am I? I am all ears."
"So much has happened in the last few hours that it is hard to bring it all together. But here goes anyway. You are on what used to be Acar Orbital Station and is now the SS Acar. We are currently cloaked and sitting about 100 miles above Lema Base. We have just learned that the High Councilor intends to deploy a Starkiller in the Petra system and my crew and I can't tolerate such an action. We have cut the power to High Command, cloaked and moved the station and are taking steps to revoke High Command's power base. We have surreptitiously removed all hostages from the enclaves on Yannar and have a good deal more in mind. We have removed all of the termination devices from everyone that had one on the station and would like to do the same for your people. We have imprisoned all of the polits on station as well as a number of sleepers. We want to do this before High Command realizes what is going on and starts activating those termination devices. Tomorrow we intend to declare our independence. We intend to prevent the use of that Starkiller. You have 486 persons on your base, um, make that 485 now, with termination devices in their heads. We can remove them all in a matter of a few hours and install wrist bands that will indicate to the High Command that the devices are still active even though they are not. We place no conditions on this offer. While we would like to have your help, that is not a condition to this offer. You are more vulnerable than we are since you are a fixed target and we are not. I will tell you that we have in system massive help in the form of 10 stations from the Antoran Fleet, the smallest of which is more than twice the size of SS Acar and 13 more are due very shortly. That puts us in a very tenable position. As to how you got here, we have teleport capability that I would just as soon keep quiet. Anyone with the device removed needs to stay quiet about it since the mere act of having it removed will probably be considered treason by the High Command. What do you say?"
"Take all of those stinkers out. I can get all of my people to a med unit within the hour, just tell me who. I am not clear how this will work but I will support you in any way I can. I just can't declare as yet for the very reason you state. I am not that confidant that our shields would be sufficient."
"One more thing, we have all of the hostage dependents of your people on board if any want to join you they are welcome to do so but that will probably be hazardous for them and you. We are willing to take as many of your people on station as want to come. Soon we can also take them where they might like to go. They are welcome to join us on station. One thing that does concern us is keeping the interstellar communication
s down for at least a week. We do not want to destroy that system but we do want it quiet. Any suggestions."
"That might not be so difficult, just destroy the power source and lines. The power source for that transmitter has to be at least 5 miles distant. Destroy or disable the power source and lines and its quiet for at least the 10 days it takes to replace it."
"Some one is knocking on the door to your quarters. I am going to put you in your quarters so you can answer the door. Meanwhile, get your senior people to those med units. Talk to you later."
"Ok lets take out those power sources and lines for the transmitter and any back up you can spot. And then we can get started on removing those termination devices. Lets work this so the patients never know they left the base."
"My oh my, you are devious AI, I like it."
### On SS Acar in Lema Orbit –
November 21 – C Day 448 ###