He said, “Firstly, accept my apologies for being the cause of this strange journey. I’ll give you all a promise. With a condition, of course. If you wish, I can get you to Homeworld once we transit to my time period, and after we’ve dealt with the Xesset, I’ll take you back to your own time and place. There are portals. That’s how I was transferred to xTaur—it was via a portal. I’ve used them before.”
“But, Admiral, sir—” Steg’s frown stopped Finch, and she corrected her words. “Steg. We’ve taken a vote.”
“We have?” Tessa asked in a soft tone.
“Yes, we’ve taken a vote.” Finch was firm. “It was unanimous. We are staying with you. Actually, we’re thinking of adopting you, so there’s no way you’re going to get rid of us.” Her two Fain companions applauded.
Steg smiled and lifted his glass towards Finch. “Very well. Except for the adoption part. Lin? You were on your way to Homeworld, you thought, in a far different era. What do you want to do?”
“I’ve been deliberating on that very question. While I thought I should retire—mainly because of all the ImpSec nonsense—I’m not ready to bring my life to a halt. My conclusion—I’ll vote to continue with you, with the Fain, with Wanderer. This is all far too exciting to give up.”
“Aadan?”
“I’m with you, sir. I agree with Lin—this is too much fun. I’m looking forward to taking Wanderer’s helm and heading into an asteroid stream, to hide her.”
Steg thought he heard some muttering from the starship’s AIs.
“Jessie? Do you want to be my strategic and tactical support and stay in my time, or do you want to return?”
“Sir—Steg, I’m an enthusiastic supporter. What happens after we defeat the Xesset—I’ll leave open, for now. I did promise my skipper to return after a year, though.”
“Understood. So, you all think this is an adventure? We’re going into battle, remember.”
“Yes, Admiral. In one of the largest superdreadnoughts I’ve ever seen,” Jessie said. “We can help. You’ll find Ebony Company will have the same attitude. We’ll all give you the same response: there’s far too much fun and excitement around you to give it up.”
Steg covered his face with his hands. He was overwhelmed by the support of his friends and was concerned that he might be endangering their lives. After a few seconds, he lifted his head and regarded his companions around the small garden area. “I hope you continue to think that, I really do. You are all welcome. I’m planning on a similar discussion with Kirby, to see what the company reaction is.” He pushed his chair back. “Thank you.”
“Admiral, we’ll also look after your friends.” The interruption was from Alke. “We’ll make sure they are safe and comfortable. We enjoy their company.”
Steg looked surprised. “Thank you, too, Alke.” He frowned at Finch. “No gossiping, I trust?”
“Oh, no sir. None at all.” Her expression was of absolute innocence.
Steg rode one of the automatic electros to the section of the starship occupied by Ebony Company to meet with Kirby and his sergeants. On the way, he spoke to Ioke. “I want the company outfitted with updated armor and weapons. Consult with Kirby later to arrange their equipment. I want them to be better equipped than Imperial Marines.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Alke, how many days before we arrive at Jochum II?’
“Ten days and eight hours.”
“Ioke, allocate training facilities for the company. I want them fitter than they’ve ever been.”
“Yes, sir. Wanderer has a variety of gyms and tracks. I’ll discuss facilities and schedules with Captain Kirby.”
“Alke, message for Thomas Sullivan. I’d like to meet with him in sixty minutes, my meeting room.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kirby, Sergeants Riddell and Velez, Corporal Stark, and a private, Iwao Banryū, were already in the Ebony Company’s small briefing room when Steg arrived. He motioned for them to remain seated and set himself down at the end of the table.
“Kirby, thanks for organizing this meeting. We’re heading into unknown territory for you and the members of Ebony. I can offer to have people returned to their time period; however, that would only be after we’ve dealt with the Xesset. What’s the situation?”
“Sir, the Company has requested I offer our congratulations on your promotion.”
“Tell the Company I said thank you. Now, what do you think?”
“The consensus was—and it won’t surprise you—as long as they are paid, they’ll follow you anywhere. I think most would follow you even if they weren’t getting paid. We agree—we’ll all accompany you, and we’ll have your back. I suspect there’s going to be some challenges along the way.”
“Very good. Yes, I don’t expect it will be all straightforward. I’ve asked Ioke to allocate facilities for training—track and gym. Also, I want everyone kitted out with updated everything—there may be new stuff that you’ll need to train with. Check with Ioke.”
“She’s been in contact already. Training commences at 06:00 hours tomorrow if you’d like to join us.” Kirby smiled. “I’ll understand if not.”
“I’ve a hectic schedule. However, I’ll attend. Everyone can outpace me for a day or two. Eventually, I’ll catch up.”
“Yes, sir. We’ll take up the challenge,” Sergeant Riddell said. “I’d like to add my congratulations, too.” Murmured assents came from the people around the table.
“Sir, we’re looking forward to the next challenge,” said Sergeant Velez. “As the captain said, we’ll have your back.”
“Thank you, everyone. I have to go. Another meeting. Tell the company not to get too comfortable; we’re likely to have some work ahead of us. Check with the AIs to resolve logistics issues. Let me know if there’s anything you need that they can’t help with.”
“Yes, sir,” Kirby replied.
Steg stood to leave, and Kirby and his men stood and saluted. Steg returned the courtesy. His next meeting was with his Homeworld friend, Thomas Sullivan.
“My problem is simple to state, difficult to resolve,” Steg said.
“Only one problem?”
“Yes, well, you know the answer to that. We—Wanderer, Homeworld, me—want a captain for the Wanderer. If I’m to carry out my new role, I can’t pretend to be also the ship’s captain. What do you say?”
“Me? I can give you advice—”
“No, I mean—I want you as captain of Wanderer. I suspect the Glass Complex purposefully sent you with Dreamer. Of course, I’ll guide strategy and overall tactics; I’ll have the broader responsibility for the task force. You can run Wanderer’s day-to-day ops. You might have to forgive me for occasional authority overlaps as I get accustomed to our new structure. What do you say?”
“What would anyone say? I’m in. Where do I sign?”
“Alke, Ioke, and Adrias. Take note that as of—what’s the time?” He checked. “Midnight this day, Captain Sullivan will take up his office of Captain of Wanderer, responsible for the starship’s operations. We can get the paperwork tidied away when we get to—”
“Admiral,” Alke interrupted. “I have the paperwork ready. The Glass Complex planned for this. I’ll arrange for you to sign the order, and Captain Sullivan will record his acceptance. Documents will be available tomorrow at 09:00 hours.”
“Damn. See what I mean?” Steg said.
Sullivan chuckled. “The Complex can be excellent at broader planning. We still need to do the detailed stuff. Thank you, Admiral.”
Both men stood and shook hands. “It’s going to be an interesting war, Captain,” Steg said, as he showed his friend out of his suite.
Steg closed the door and headed to his bedroom. He was tired, and he needed an early start to cover his schedule for the next day. He had training with Ebony Company first thing after which he would call a strategy group meeting and—he yawned. He sat on the edge of his bed. There were bodies already there. He yawned again.
; He was asleep before the Fain realized he was in bed.
oOo
CHAPTER 6
WANDERER APPROACHED Jochum II with extreme caution. Initially, they had stopped further out, two million klicks away from the planet as a cautionary measure. Now Wanderer, fully screened, its electronics sealed against leakage, was moving closer to the planet and there was a nearly tangible tension in the air. The starship was running under what was a prudent level of care, and Steg’s strategy group, which consisted of Thomas Sullivan, Jessie Brent, Captain Kirby, Finch, and both Alke and Ioke, had agreed with his plan. He had earlier considered sending in a survey drone, which would have resulted in a lengthy wait for the results, and, if detected, would have alerted the Imperial base. Instead, Ioke, as they approached, had the starship’s sensors fully extended, searching for the presence of other starships. Steg had described the trio of guardian dreadnoughts and Ioke was searching for them.
“Admiral, we’ve identified five destroyers plus one dreadnought. My systems cannot find the other two dreadnoughts,” advised Ioke. “Two destroyers are in company with the dreadnought and the others are in separate orbits around the planet.”
“Link to the dreadnought’s internal coms, and let’s listen in.” Realizing the power of the AI, Steg added, “Also connect to the destroyers and relay anything of interest.”
There was little of interest in the filtered conversations. The starships apparently did not expect any interruption of their activities. Minutes passed while the group waited. Wanderer was only 500,000 klicks from the planet, and Steg hoped the electronic screens would continue to hide them.
Ioke updated the waiting group. “Steg, I can confirm the destroyers are ImpSec. Their transponders are functioning and appear to be genuine. Their external comlinks display the ImpSec striking snake insignia. The dreadnought’s showing a standard Imperial Navy transponder. I’m detecting only basic ship-to-ship communications; I think the bridge crews are on down watch.”
“That’s going to make life even more interesting. I have some suggestions. Let me check—Alke, I need one of the Acolytes here. I want to find out if we can remotely install a copy of your program in the nearest destroyer. I’d like to know whether we can install clones in the other destroyers, so they’d be under the management of the newly installed master AI.”
Alke said, “Tobias is on his way. I’m keeping him in this link. In the meantime, I can help with answers. Yes, we can install a copy of me in a destroyer. We’ll need a high volume comlink. Cloning the other destroyers will be simpler and won’t require as much time. Tobias estimates it will take six hours to run the first installation process and an hour to configure and initiate the new master AI. I’d like to point out there’s still the dreadnought.”
“I can take control and shut it down when we’re ready.”
“Admiral, I hear you want to arrange AI installations?” Tobias was out of breath when he arrived.
“You should join in our training schedule,” Steg said. “And yes. We have issues. Instead of three Imperial Navy dreadnoughts, there’s only one. Also, we have five destroyers to cope with, all ImpSec. I’d like to take over the destroyers. Can we use the copies and clones of our AIs? I’ll control the dreadnought; I’ll change its orbit, so it will land in twelve hours or so. When we’re successful, I’ll permit the crew—as long as they’re not ImpSec—to re-establish control; except for weapons. They can have full control back when we’re out of here. Thoughts?”
“Sir—we—the Complex—earlier this year made a detailed study of Imperial starships. We wanted to know as much as possible about potential future allies. I checked on the way—these are Y-class destroyers; they’re not heavyweight warships. They use them for handling internal threats and controlling minor planetary protests. The dreadnought is a D3 class. This one’s the ss Xuotang, and she’s in need of upgrades. Oh, these dreads are good as defensive forts; however, I wouldn’t use them for anything else without a refit. I heard Alke’s reply to your question, and I agree. Yes, it’s possible and feasible. We can start whenever you want.”
Thomas Sullivan, the Wanderer’s new captain, said, “If we commenced with master AI installation, we could complete it by midnight, and the new AI and Alke could share the clone installation tasks, which would make the process easier to manage.”
“A good suggestion, sir. Helen and I can start immediately. We’re doing routine system checks, nothing major; we’re really on standby in case Alke has a problem.”
Steg looked around the table. “I can set up high bandwidth comlinks and if we have Alke and two Acolytes managing the process—we’d be good. What do you think?”
Thomas said, “I agree. Get the master AI installed as quickly as possible.”
“This emperor of yours will be looking for an answer as to why you attacked his starships,” Jessie cautioned.
“It’s either we take over Xuotang and the destroyers or do them some damage. I think he’d be happy if we didn’t dent them,” Thomas offered. “We’ll still have to restrain the ImpSec forces on board each vessel, though.”
“Alke, I want to know what’s happened to the senior officers who were stationed here. Search the base records—find out when these ImpSec ships first arrived. When you have the start date, search all subsequent files and comlink tapes for mentions of the following personnel: General Boston, Colonel Denke, Major Justin, and Major Trench. Include other officers who were based here a year ago. Finally, see if you can obtain a head count of ImpSec forces on the planet.”
“Yes, Admiral. Search running.”
Steg explained, “When we discovered the time aspects of the portals, Denke, Boston, and I were authorized to set up the IIS after meeting with the Emperor. I assume ImpSec have discovered the existence of an agency they otherwise know nothing about and they’re trying to take it over. We’ll need to rescue the IIS people once we have control of the destroyers. Whether we’ve enough men to carry out this rescue is another question. Ebony Company consists of only thirty marines. Thomas, how many of your North Guard are trained to marine level?”
“I can give you twenty. Should we call for more resources from Homeworld?”
“It would take half a tenday for them to arrive. No, we’d be at risk, sitting here and hoping no one detects us. Ebony is the equivalent of a marine company, and with the North Guard, we’ll have fifty marines. Assume we manage a surprise landing after we’ve taken control of all their starships—we could bluff our way, with Wanderer’s support. Tobias, Alke, you don’t have a portal?”
“It’s the one item we couldn’t manage to copy and build,” apologized Tobias.
“Unfortunately,” Alke said.
“Very well—that confirms we must take control and possession of Xuotang so we can use its portal to get to the planet. Tobias, you, Helen, and Alke commence installing AI programs. Kirby, myself, and Ebony company—with your people, Thomas—will use Red Desert to transfer across to the dreadnought once I have it under control. If we encounter problems, Wanderer will provide a diversion, and I’ll stop the destroyers from moving anywhere. We want complete chaos in ImpSec’s command structure.”
Kirby asked, “Should our new admiral take part in this level of front line action? I wouldn’t want to tell your Homeworld people we’d lost you.” He hid his smile. He knew what Steg’s reaction would be.
“Two points: one, try and stop me, and two, make sure you keep up.”
Alke said, “Objection and counter both logged.”
“Alke—”
“Yes, Admiral?”
Steg changed his mind and asked, “Have you found those names I mentioned?”
“Yes, sir. They were apprehended two tendays ago during a surprise raid. I’m still checking—I think ImpSec is holding them in a small detention block on the base. A further hundred members of IIS, all lower ranks, are under what’s described as house arrest. It seems there are plans to remove everyone to an ImpSec base in the next day or two. ImpSec ar
rived with a battalion of marines and two companies of law enforcement personnel. None of these forces have front line training or experience. I’m still checking; however, I think the marines have left the planet. The destroyers each have crews of between one and two hundred personnel. There are ninety-eight ImpSec personnel on board Xuotang.”
“Possibly more than we want to handle if they combined forces. Separation is the key,” Kirby said. “We’ll do it.”
Thomas added, “Kirby, I think you and my friend Steg are insane. However, it apparently has worked so far. You can have my North Guards. Try to return all of them.”
Steg looked at Jessie Kent.
She said, “Sir, I’ve witnessed your chaos creation. I pity these ImpSec people.”
Steg smiled. “Aah—revenge is sweet.”
oOo
CHAPTER 7
STEG CONFERRED WITH ALKE. “I’m ready to take over the dreadnought. Once it’s neutralized, we’ll board and detain the officers and crew. After that, I’ll take half our force to the planet. I’ll signal if I need a diversion. Please ensure no one disturbs me for the next thirty minutes.”
“Yes, Admiral.”
Steg grimaced to himself; he was still uncomfortable with his promotion although he knew his reaction would change once he had more than one starship to control. He found a small, unoccupied meeting room off Wanderer’s bridge, made coffee, and sat down in a new chair. It was moderately comfortable. The coffee aroma was heartening. He relaxed. He needed to access the dreadnought’s systems and prevent crew members from accessing any controls. He could modify its orbit, and it was unlikely to survive undamaged the subsequent landing. If that happened, he’d ensure it ended up thousands of klicks from the base, so any ImpSec survivors couldn’t interfere with his rescue attempt.
He relaxed. The process was a familiar one. He closed his eyes and reached out with the strange senses that allowed him to hear such a variety of electronic noises and signals. He ignored the siren songs of distant planets that would only trap him in the mire of their chaotic music. A heavy resonance pounded his ears every five seconds, and he blocked it off; as far as he could determine with a brief inspection, it was from Wanderer’s huge quantum-based computer. Stars jingled their music, some discordant, some orderly, some with neither structure. He identified the destroyers that were about to come under control of Wanderer’s AIs. He found ss Xuotang; the starship was in a geostationary orbit at an altitude of ten thousand klicks or so. He began to plan how to cut off all its internal and external communication abilities.
Diamond Cut: Book Three in The Glass Complex Trilogy Page 4
