“Commander, you and your people continue to pursue these questions. I’ll need the three of you out of uniform; dress like, I don’t know, backbenchers at Parliament. Commander, help them find the right costumes and learn how to act.
“One more thing.” He looked in turn at the three legionnaires. “If our suspicions are correct, what we are doing is extremely dangerous. If one word about our actions gets out, it could be disastrous for all of us. Do you understand?”
“Surly not you, sir,” said Argie.
“Lieutenant, one-stars are a shilling a dozen. You don’t realize the power of Parliament and some parliamentarians. Schiller was close to becoming Prime Minister himself.
“Whatever they are going to do, I expect them to move fast. So we’ve got to work faster. He turned to Fitz. You do understand that even your fiancée is in the line of fire.”
“Sir, if we lose this war, it won’t make any difference.”
“Admiral von Karlstad seems to have already …” The admiral stopped. It became clear.
“Von Karlstad, of the Schiller-von Karlstad faction, has just won a major victory in space using some sort of new small attack fighters. Schiller intimated before Parliament that we don’t need the Legion.”
“Our case is not solid, but they had the means and the motive,” said Fitz.
“We are playing with fire people,” the Admiral said. “Whoever is behind this is absolutely ruthless, and will stop at nothing. It’s safe to say we can expect no help from the navy. If word gets out, we are done for. I hope each of you understands the gravity of our situation.”
“Yes sir,” said Smith. “If we act we may get crushed, but if we don’t, we surely will be destroyed.”
“You can count on us, sir,” said Argie.
“Yes sir, you can,” added Farouk.
“Walk me back to my office Commander.”
After they reached his office and the door closed, “Commander, you have the privilege of leading some of the finest people I’ve seen in my entire career. I don’t know if it will be enough to save us.”
“Neither do I, sir, but we’ve got to try.”
“This infighting might just be the thing that loses the war for us,” said the Admiral, thinking aloud. “That will be all.”
“Good afternoon, sir.” Fitz left the office.
Chapter 7 - Cabinet Meeting
“The investigation into the Prime Minister’s death is going nowhere,” roared the Minister of State, the second in Command.
“What would you have us do?” asked the minister of New Scotland Yard.
“Find who did it. We know it was the Legion. Get a confession,” roared State.
“That has been tried, to no avail as I understand,” he replied.
“Why were the prisoners at New Town released? It should be obvious, even to you, that they had to be involved.”
Minister Osborn bit his lip. New Scotland Yard was a minor member of the cabinet and not usually invited to cabinet meetings. He had gotten to where he was, by knowing his place and how to keep it.
“Sir, the prisoners were released to Naval Intelligence. Besides, the navy’s own investigation provided the suspects with alibis.”
“What naval investigation?” asked the Minister of the Admiralty.
“What do you mean, what investigation?” asked Osborn.
“I’ve ordered no investigation by the navy. I was of the opinion that NSY was handling the investigation.
Osborn slid his copy of Fitzpatrick’s findings concerning the three prisoners over to Admiralty. The man looked them over and slid them back, and motioned for one of his backbenchers. He whispered in the man’s ear. The backbencher quickly left the meeting.
“Well, does the navy have its own investigation?” State asked.
“As I said, I have ordered no such investigation. I’m having the matter looked into.”
Admiral von Karlstad had been invited to the meeting. An unusual honor and he treated it as such, by keeping silent until called upon.
“Admiral von Karlstad,” began State, “thank you for returning to the system to be with us today. What can you tell us about this new attack-fighter and its meaning vis-a-vis the war effort?”
The Admiral had been sitting with the fingers of his hands locked, sitting on the large polished oval table. He pulled them apart and placed both hands flat near the edge of the table.
“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for this opportunity to speak.”
“You are welcome. Please speak frankly and to the point,” said State.
“Yes sir, I shall. The mission to rescue the Greys proved the efficacy of small, fast missiles as opposed to the huge ones with which we first started fighting the war and with small highly maneuverable spacecraft. We had not fully appreciated the damage a small self-guiding missile could inflict on a space vehicle.
“These new missiles are even more deadly than the ones used on the retrofitted spacecraft under the command of Lieutenant Commander Fitzpatrick. Incidentally, I put him in for a promotion, though nothing has come of it as yet,” said von Karlstad, trying to sound personally injured by the slight.
“One unit of this new Me 147 was able to destroy a battle cruiser in under five minutes without any real threat of damage.”
Finance interrupted, “I understand that one of your craft was hit in the attack.”
“Yes, while defending against fifty plus atmospheric fighter craft, not during the space battle. Even then the damage was minor. The superior engineering of my staff allowed the damage to be automatically wired around, and the spacecraft continued the mission unhampered.
“Now, as to the space battle, the enemy fired their large slow missiles, but each was destroyed long before any of them became a real threat. The ships on board computers plotted the safest course around the expanding debris.
“Each flight made two passes on the battle cruisers. Please watch the short segment of combat action I have for you.” With that, he signaled to his adjutant who started the recording. It was over in minutes, the orbiting warships reduced to blackened hulks.
“As you can see, the new Me 147 capitalizes on the best information we recovered from the Grey rescue mission. The fighters then wiped out every target they could find on the planet. There were no signs of life after we finished.”
“I understand that the rescue mission used Legion gunners, that same Legion some find so repugnant,” offered State. State had been a deputy of Boynton and his friend. He wanted to get at the root of the assassination, no matter what. This made him dangerous; Schiller knew this.
Schiller, who was also at this cabinet meeting by invitation, had held his peace, waiting to be called upon.
“Yes, there were Legion gunners on the mission. There were also a navy command pilot and first officer, a mission commander, and a crew chief. That is quite an investment in manpower and equipment. The Me 147 gets around such problems.
“The gunner can run all weapons without consideration of the direction from which a threat approaches. The technology allows him to fire all weapons.”
“What if this man is injured or killed, is the craft now unarmed?” asked State.
“Not at all, the pilot has full command of the weapons, and the men train for just such contingencies.”
“Who’s flying while the pilot is fighting?” asked Exchequer.
“The pilot can continue to fly manually or use one of several computer programs to fly the spacecraft.”
“In that case, why don’t you have just one man per fighter?” asked Exchequer.
“Quite simply, this is an extreme divergence from our normal methods of operating. I made the decision to go with a two-man craft as opposed to a single man fighting machine. To be honest, I expected too much resistance to having one man out there fighting. Two is extreme enough.”
“I should say so; what about the crew chief?” asked State.
“We still have a crew chief, and he is in charge of everything to do with the fighters, just as he has always been.”
“I thought these spacecraft always needed two pilots, as a backup,” snorted Exchequer.
“Yes,” answered von Karlstad, trying to keep his tone calm and professional. “We have always done so, but this was also because we used the craft for long flights around the solar system. It made good sense to have two pilots.
“Here, the jump ships dropped in close, and our men were on the enemy before they had time to mount a serious defense. The men are not flying from one end of the solar system to the other.
“Besides, the gunner is fully qualified to fly the fighter should the pilot in command become incapacitated. So as you can see, we have taken these things into consideration, and you have seen for yourselves how effective they can be. Now gentlemen, what we need is the authority to build as many squadrons of these attack fighters as is possible, if we are to win this war.”
Von Karlstad leaned back in his chair. He had said all that he had to say. He hated these political meetings. Why waste one’s time trying to convince people who had no idea what we were doing that he needed permission to do it. It was maddening.
State spoke up. “How do we know you have annihilated all Reptilian life on the planet?”
Suddenly unsure of himself, von Karlstad asked, “What do you mean?”
“Have you sent a team down to the surface to look for life?”
“No, but I assure you that our people were most thorough. Nothing was seen from orbit, and if they had anything left to fight with, they would have thrown it at us. I’ve been up against these things; they fight to the death with everything they have, mindlessly,” von Karlstad replied.
State responded, “I’ve seen the report from your Legion Captain …”
“They are not my Legion; I have no legion of monkeys!” Von Karlstad’s face grew red with anger.
Schiller knew this was no place for navy to start a fight and was about to intervene when Admiralty interrupted, “Admiral, that will be enough. Have you finished your report?”
“Yes sir, I have.”
“Then Mr. Chairman, unless there is something else, the Admiral is an extremely busy man, and recent events have placed an even greater burden on him.”
State looked around, but no one said anything. “We have no further need of the Admiral at this time. We have your written report. Thank you for your time.”
“Gentlemen,” said von Karlstad. He arose and left the meeting.
After the door had closed behind him, Admiralty spoke up. “Please excuse the Admiral, but in all honesty, the vast majority of navy personnel agree with him. There is no love for this Legion. Now they’ve gone and killed the Prime Minister.”
“You don’t know that!” shouted State.
“Sir, how much more proof do you need?” asked Admiralty. “He was assassinated on the only planet with legionnaires, the deed was performed with a Legion rifle, and three of their agents were in New Town when it happened.”
“Yes, that is tidy, just a little too tidy. Just hope no one has his pocket picked on the Moon while we are in session,” offered Finance.
“Yes, we’ve rushed to pronounce the Legion guilty which suits a certain faction rather well, doesn’t it?” offered State.
Schiller knew who he was talking about, but kept his expression even so as not to give his private thoughts away. They were looking at him.
“You were about to say something about the Captain’s report,” Schiller said calmly, looking at State.
“Ah yes, the report states that there were Reptilians, possibly females from his report, who were trying to move flats of eggs to lower levels. This does not sound like mindless brutes. It was this Captain Smith, I believe who destroyed the nest.
“I don’t know about you, but if they are dug in on the world von Karlstad’s men attacked, an airburst would not destroy their combat capability. If we just try and hand this world back over to the Greys and they are annihilated, it will not look good for us.”
He looked at Admiralty. “Has anyone been to the surface?”
“No.”
“Do you have ships watching from space for any sign of life or any reinforcements?”
“No, I don’t believe so,” answered Admiralty. He looked uncomfortable.
“So now, we’ve jumped to two conclusions. One, that the Legion, or someone from it, is responsible for the Prime Minister’s death. Two, that von Karlstad has wiped out the enemy on that planet, both without proof,” State said pointedly.
This was not going to Schiller’s liking. He had come prepared to formally propose that the Legion be moved to another planet, where they could be dealt with appropriately.
Schiller spoke up, “Ladies and gentlemen, if I may. It might be useful to have the Greys drop off a naval vessel out on the edge of the star system to observe.”
“And if they are jumped, then what? They cannot get out of the system in our spacecraft,” responded Admiralty.
Exchequer spoke up. “It seems to me that you are correct, so the navy isn’t up to the task.”
“I didn’t say that!” fumed Admiralty.
Exchequer continued, “It seems to me that a team from the Legion dropped off by a small Grey scout ship would be able to accomplish much. Just look at how well that rescue of the missing corpsmen went.”
“Out of the question!” shouted Admiralty.
“We must not allow any contact whatsoever between the monkeys and the Greys. It is too dangerous. God only knows how much damage has already been done,” cried Schiller.
State liked seeing Schiller out of control; or rather, he liked seeing him knowing he was out of control. “I think it’s safe to say we cannot hand the world back over to the Greys until we know it is safe. How we go about it, should be left up to the Admiralty.”
They all turned to him. “We’ll come up with a plan,” was all he said.
At that moment, Admiralty’s backbencher returned. He whispered in his boss’s ear and slid a small computer clipboard into his hands. He looked it over. Well, that’s interesting.
“It would seem that I was mistaken,” he began. An admiral in Intel on the training planet has launched his own investigation. For reasons I must discover, it did not make it up the chain of command to my office.
“Curious, that’s who wrote the initial report you showed me,” he said looking up. “That’s the unit with Captain Smith and two of his officers, I believe. Hum, it says here that they are continuing the investigation.”
He turned to his backbencher. “Make absolutely sure I get a copy of everything that comes out of Admiral La Force’s team.”
“Yes sir.”
Admiralty turned to the others without further comment.
Schiller knew he could be in danger. He doubted if they would find anything, but this man Smith was like nothing he had ever seen, resourceful and unpredictable. He could present a problem.
“Ladies and gentlemen, if I may,” he began and paused.
“Please Mr. Schiller, speak your mind,” said State.
“Whether von Karlstad’s mission was a complete success or not has been brought into question. It seems to me that a team from Intel should be dropped off on the surface and allowed to perform a reconnaissance.
“Not knowing what they are going into and considering the history of Captain Smith, I recommend he and such people as deemed necessary be dropped off on the surface. This can be done by one of our own ships after it is delivered by a jump ship. Our ship can scan the planet from orbit. The jump ship then can position out at the edge of the star system and wait to be recalled.
“The team will, of course, be kept aboard the in-system ship so th
at no contact with the Greys occurs. This should minimize the risk to navy personnel and the Greys as well.”
“What about the risk to the team?” asked State.
“No action in war is without risk; this will minimize it,” Schiller crooned. And if I’m lucky, get them killed before this investigation gets too far. I may have to see if this admiral can be forced into retirement as well.
State looked at the Minister of the Admiralty. “Do you see any merit in this plan?”
“Yes, I do. I’ll have the orders drawn up at once.”
“Good, then we are all in agreement.
“Now as to the matter Mr. Schiller brought up in Parliament. Is the Legion plotting a coup?” said State.
“Naval Intel has found no sign of such a plot,” said Admiralty.
Schiller spoke up, “I would not expect them to advertise it.”
“Don’t worry; I have some of my best men on it.”
“I’m certainly glad to hear that,” added Finance.
Schiller smiled. “I am concerned by something else. This investigation will take time, but the public mood does not grant us the luxury of time. I recommend the Legion be moved to another planet where they cannot possibly do any more damage.”
“Aren’t you going to call for an outright disbandment?” asked Exchequer. “It would save money.”
“Indeed it would, but right now this is the quickest and safest course of action. Then later on, under less traumatic circumstances, we can decide what to do about this Legion,” said Schiller.
Chapter 8 - A New Mission
Fitz knocked at Admiral La Force’s office.
“Come in Commander” called the voice behind the door.”
Fitz entered and saluted.
“Please sit down, Commander. How are things going with the investigation?” asked La Force.
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