“Oh, and how do you recommend we do that?” I asked, as I realized that her suggestion actually made some sense.
“Well, where do they get them built?” she asked. “My guess is they’re still using the Markazians; so any one of their shipyards would probably have at least one ship awaiting delivery that you might be able to steal.”
“You may be right,” I said, while mentally kicking myself in the ass for not thinking of it. It seemed that, as I got older, I over-analyzed everything and was easily stymied by the self-imposed complications. Kala, on the other hand, went straight for the simplest solution.
Marranalis was waiting for me when I entered the War Room with daily updates.
“Both Admirals Stonbersa and Kophious have sent reports that the increased activity along the Federation borders in their sectors is continuing. Stonbersa believes that the enemy is trying to entice more ships across the border to test their detection equipment; however, Admiral Kophious thinks there might be another agenda, and that it’s a ploy to draw more Federation troops into those sectors while they stage a strike somewhere else.”
“Do we have any comments from Admiral Wabussie and the FSO about this activity?” I asked.
“No, sir, but Wabussie did send word this morning that the FSO is about 85% certain that Sisopan is on Epsirt.”
“No new word from Norcar?”
“None, sir.”
“Any additional news?” I asked.
“Yes, sir, a call came in a few minutes ago from Captain Felenna at Alle Bamma. She said they’ve been observing some unusual activity in the region and it’s on the rise. Also, a swarm of meteors is moving in a single trajectory toward Alle Bamma. She believes they pose no real threat to the planet, because your private ships stationed there can destroy them. However, she has expressed particular concern about these meteors, as they don’t appear to be natural.”
“Hmm, I don’t like the sound of this. We have a ship-sized Cantolla Gate in that sector, correct?” I asked as I mulled over the options.
“Yes, sir, you do, but it’s not a Federation-sanctioned gate. May I remind you, sir, Alle Bamma is a non-aligned world. If you’re thinking of responding to investigate with Federation ships, you might find yourself before a Senate hearing.”
“You’re right. I forgot that. Well, I guess I will need to send Kerabac and the NEW ORLEANS. There’s nothing in the rules that says I can’t send my own ships there, now, is there?”
“No, sir, I don’t believe there is.”
“Oh, contact Wabussie and find out whether we have any information as to where the Brotherhood is getting their ships built these days and contact me once we have the data.”
“Yes, sir. Where will you be?” Marranalis asked.
“I’m going back to the NEW ORLEANS to get in some much-needed martial arts practice with Padaran,” I replied.
I had begun a regular regimen of sparring with Padaran five years ago, when I discovered that I was getting quite out of shape and realized that my own martial-arts skills were outdated. Admiral Slater and other Earth colonists had contributed a number of more modern techniques that were unfamiliar to me. So I decided to learn them from Padaran in our sparring matches. Padaran, who had always given me a good challenge on the mat, learned to execute the new moves with ease and immediately assimilate them into his own routines to create some of the most formidable fight sequences I had ever seen. Where once I had been the master and Padaran the student, our roles were now reversed. Padaran was the undisputed master, when it came to martial arts in the Federation. For a long-time, martial arts had been something only used by Federation troopers and my own security staff. But in recent years, the practices had gained in popularity among civilians as well as armed forces and, most recently, we had begun to encounter Brotherhood troops who demonstrated significant martial arts skills.
As I worked out with Padaran, I couldn’t help recalling the first time I’d met him. He was this skinny, awkward-looking youth, who volunteered without hesitation for an incredibly dangerous mission to Goo’Waddle. He shocked me even then with his proficiencies in hand-to-hand combat; between his genius and his fighting abilities, he almost single-handedly brought the mission to a successful conclusion. Since that time, he had filled out physically in a way that more accurately complemented his keen wit and had ultimately developed into the impressively brilliant, muscular specimen that was now serving as head of my personal security forces.
Padaran was more skilled than I was, there was no denying it. I liked to blame my lesser ability on the fact that synthetic nerves now replaced my own on nearly every major part of my body – and they weren’t quite as efficient as my own had been.
“Tibby, you need to focus less on trying to anticipate my movements and relax. Let your counter-actions be automatic responses to my attacks – more like reflexes,” Padaran said as he helped me back up from the mat he had just thrown me onto. How often had I said those exact same words to the hundreds of people I instructed over the years?... and now Padaran was telling me. I cursed myself for my stupidity and over-eagerness, as I and regrouped and released myself into relaxed stance before Padaran made his next move. This time I caught him mid-move and sent him flying to the mat.
“Much better, Tibby. Now let’s try it again, shall we?”
“Padaran, have you ever sparred with your Uncle Regeny?” I asked.
“The Admiral? I don’t think he’s ever taken a martial arts lesson in his life,” Padaran said as he lunged at me unexpectedly. I blocked his attack and countered, only to find myself being taken down by a skillful new move on Padaran’s part.
“Why do you suppose that is?” I asked, as Padaran helped me up off floor. “He’s very fond of martial arts.”
“As an observer, not a participant,” Padaran said. “Uncle Regeny doesn’t like to participate in anything competitive where he might be defeated. It would crush his ego to be thrown down even once in a martial arts contest. Have you ever seen him take part in any sort of contest?”
“Uh, no, now that you mention it, I haven’t,” I said.
“And you never will. Once, when I was a kid, Uncle Regeny came to our house for dinner. I was learning to play chess and wanted him to play a game with me, just so I could show him I knew how to play,” Padaran began.
“Oh no, don’t tell me you beat him!” I said.
“Not the first time we played, but by his next visit I’d gotten better and I beat him in the second game. He’s never played another chess game with me since, even though I’ve asked him dozens of times.”
I had to laugh at the image of a young Padaran besting his uncle in chess. “Well, one thing I do know, your uncle is very proud of you and your accomplishments,” I said.
“I know,” Padaran said humbly, he’s always rooted for me and tried to help me.”
“Padaran, it’s just occurred to me; I've never met your parents.”
“They’re coming for a visit next week. They plan to stay on the NEW ORLEANS; I’ll introduce them to you. I know my mother would be excited to meet you.
“Have they met Jenira?” I asked.
“Yes, sir, they’ve met her twice,” he answered a bit nervously.
“Padaran, tell me, are you and Jenira ever going to become bondmates?”
Instantly Padaran’s face flushed and he became very nervous. “I don’t think so,” he said slowly while avoiding my gaze.
“Why not?” I asked. “It’s obvious to everyone the two of you are in love and everyone thinks you make a perfect couple. Are you afraid to bond with her?”
“Oh no, sir, it’s nothing like that,” Padaran gushed. “It’s Jenira; she declares she will never take a bondmate so long as the Brotherhood survives. She has gone as far as to taken a solemn oath to remain single, so long as they exist.”
“I see,” I sighed, “like her refusal to speak until they are gone.”
“Yes sir,” Padaran answered sadly.
“That gir
l puts too much responsibility on herself. She needs to have some fun.”
“Oh, she has fun, sir. However, her ideas of fun aren’t quite the same as everyone else’s.”
“Well Padaran, hang in there. I’ll try to do my part to end the Brotherhood as quickly as I can so you can get her to agree to be your bondmate. How does that suit you?” I asked.
“That would be great, sir,” he said with a smile.
Despite our best efforts, we weren’t winning the war against the Brotherhood, even though we won most battles where we actually engaged them. However, we had lost a lot of the outer worlds and had no way to recover them. If we tried, the Brotherhood would raze the planet before departing, leaving nothing but smoldering ruins and dead bodies behind.
Since the development of asteroid-ships, losses to the Brotherhood became even greater. One of the highest priority objectives of the war was to discover where they were building these ships and stop their production. Another primary objective was to learn what exactly was needed to enhance our GW technology and bridge the gap in ship speeds between the Brotherhood and the Federation. Essentially, Kala was right; we needed to capture one of their ships.
After I finished sparring with Padaran, I went to see A’Lappe and Cantolla. I hadn’t seen much of Cantolla in the lab lately, and I was starting to wonder if she and A’Lappe had a squabble about something. I stopped by my office first to pick up an item before heading to the lab. When I arrived, A’Lappe was there alone.
A’Lappe greeted me with his usual cheer. “Tibby, good to see you. Is there some way I can be of service today?”
“Yes, there are several things. But first, where is Cantolla? I haven’t seen her around lately. Is everything all right?”
“Oh my yes, everything is fine. Cantolla has been back on Megelleon for some time now, working with the science team to launch the cloning project for the genetic materials you brought from Earth’s genome and seed banks.”
“Oh. Why is she helping them instead of working here on something else?” I asked without thinking.
“Tibby, you did make her the boss, remember? You put her in command of all your science teams. At the moment, that’s the largest project your science people have going on, so of course she’s there overseeing the work.”
“Oh yeah... right! You’ll have to forgive me, A’Lappe. I have so many things going on that I forget sometimes what I’ve said and done in the past.”
A’Lappe chuckled, “I understand, Tibby. Now how can I help you?”
“A’Lappe, we desperately need to realize a breakthrough that allows us match or even exceed the speed achieved by the Brotherhood ships. And now that they’ve discovered how to detect our cloaked ships, we need to develop a counter technology to solve that problem as well.”
“I’m working as hard as I can on your first request, but I’m stymied as to how to make our ships go faster. As for the second request, I need to know what means they are using to detect our ships. If it’s a Gravity-Mass Detector like we use, I may be able to create something that distorts the field. However, it’s more likely that they’re using a completely unrelated method, in which case field distortion wouldn’t work.”
“So you have reason to believe they’re using something other than Gravity-Mass Detection to spot our cloaked ships?”
“Yes. If they were, they would have figured out, almost by necessity, how to distort the fields around their own ships, rendering them more difficult to locate and target. They haven’t done so thus far – to my knowledge, anyway.”
“Well, I guess that’s good to know, but it doesn’t solve our problem,” I said.
“Bring me one of their devices or ships, and I’ll figure out what they’re doing, but until then, I’m as lost as you as to a solution.”
“You’re the second person to tell me we need to get our hands on one of their ships. I guess that’s what we’ll have to do," I said resolutely, thrusting my fists into my jacket pockets.
I then pressed the button on the cloaking device I had picked up from my office on the way to the lab and I vanished before A’Lappe’s eyes. A’Lappe looked startled for a moment and then howled with laughter, for I had used the same ploy on him that he had been playing on me and others in the crew for years, disappearing abruptly at the end of a meeting or conversation.
“Well played, Tibby! Well played indeed!” he called out as I left the lab.
Instead of returning to the MAXETTE, I went to my study on the NEW ORLEANS to stare into the giant aquarium from my office chair, while I sorted through my thoughts. Every major technological obstacle we were encountering was pointing to one solution – we had to get our hands on a newly built Brotherhood ship so we could reverse engineer their GW enhancements and cloak detection system. There were two ways to accomplish that goal – capture one in battle or steal one from a hangar or enemy base. Both methods involved extreme risk. It was a pointless exercise to assess degrees or likelihood of failure; failure meant almost certain death to anyone involved in the operation, and the likelihood of failure was absolute if there was any failure at all. We had no choice but to take action before the Brotherhood amassed enough ships to decimate the Federation entirely.
I found myself spinning inside an equation that Earth engineers used to calculate Risk Exposure:
The RISK EXPOSURE of any given risk equals the Probability of risk occurring multiplied by the total loss if risk occurs.
Between capturing and stealing a ship, stealing probably entailed the least immediate exposure, in terms of probability of risk occurring and the associated loss of resources. But if the risk occurred at all, either approach would bring about the same overall exposure and, ultimately, the same results – utter destruction of the Federation. No matter how I did the math, the answer was the same; we had to rise to the occasion and get that technology, or die at the hands of the Brotherhood.
My thoughts were deeply entrenched in the bleakness of the situation when my com link beeped.
“Tibby here,” I answered.
“Admiral, sorry to interrupt you, but Admiral Wabussie is here on the MAXETTE and wishes to meet with you,” said Marranalis with some urgency.
“Very well, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
I did my best to shake off the heaviness that gripped me and hurried out of my study, startling my bodyguard, who finally figured out where I’d gone after disappearing from A’Lappe’s lab.
When I arrived at the War Room on the MAXETTE to meet Wabussie, I discovered that Admiral Regeny was also in attendance. It was just as well, because he always had a fit if Wabussie and I discussed something without involving him.
We entered my office next to the War Room; after foccee was poured for all, I looked at Wabussie and asked, “So, what news do you have?”
“You wanted to know what information we have on where the Brotherhood is having their ships built. There are several locations we are relatively sure about; all of them a good distance outside the Federation and weeks away from our nearest Cantolla Gate. However, we have learned recently that the Brotherhood has set up a base and supply depot on a planet immediately outside the border in S 5. It sounds like it's relatively new and not heavily manned yet.”
“Do you think they have any of their new fighters or other ships there?” I asked.
“Our last information was that they are expecting a shipment of fighters within a few days.” Wabussie said.
“So if we hit this planet and hit it hard, we can possibly get a fighter with their latest technology and wipe out a supply depot as well?”
“It looks that way,” Wabussie said. “However, their next nearest base is only about three days away and it’s huge and they have a lot of ships there. You’ll need to get in and out quickly before they can call in reinforcements.”
“Let’s go out to the War Room and look at this information in display. I’d like to see where these planets are in relation to other known Brotherhood bases. Marranalis, call
Slater, wherever he is and ask him to join us. I think we may need his input as well on this one.”
Once we were all assembled in the War Room, Admiral Wabussie brought up the information he had on places the Brotherhood was having ships built or based. It presented an interesting picture as it was obvious, that while these bases were scattered around the universe, the bulk of them were located nearer two sectors of the Federation than others. At one area, five planets believed to be producing ships for the Brotherhood were clumped together, with two of them circling the same star. I sat there staring at the holographic display for a few minutes until my thoughts were interrupted by Admiral Regeny.
“Tibby, what are you thinking?”
“Excuse me, sir,” I said?
“What are you thinking? You’ve not moved or said a word for nearly five minutes.”
“I was thinking that with all those ships and bases there in a group like they are, that a major offensive strike could do them some serious damage. I was trying to figure out how we would pull it off without getting our own butts handed to us on a platter. The problem is our ships aren't fast enough to get away safely.”
“If you could get several Cantolla Gates inside their perimeters and bring ships through in a hard attack and make a hasty retreat, you might be able to pull it off,” Admiral Slater said.
“Perhaps, but the problem is getting a ship inside their perimeter to set up the gates. Now that the Brotherhood can detect our ships, there is no way we could get in there undetected and set up a gate.”
“What if you don’t use one of our ships? What if you used one of theirs to go in there and set up the Cantolla Gates?” Admiral Wabussie interjected.
“And where would we get this ship from?”
“I seem to recall that you captured several Brotherhood ships at Alle Bamma and also at Goo’Waddle. I believe you still have the ships you captured in operation defending Alle Bamma and the other ships are in the hands of the Ruwallie Rasson.”
“Yes, but those ships are old. I don’t even know if the old security codes still exist in their data bases, besides, I’m sure the Brotherhood has changed their codes many times on their ships since,” I answered.
Solbidyum Wars Saga 7: Hunt for the Reduviids Page 8
