Clidepp Deja Vu

by Thomas DePrima

  "I didn't either," Blade said. "One of the caretakers who has worked at the embassy for two decades told me about it. He doesn't have access to the bunker, but he'd been down there when the embassy was active and knew of the storage areas."

  "We could really use some of that aboard the Justice. How much is left?"

  "I'd estimate there's enough stored there to feed the embassy staff for at least ten years."

  "How many would be fed?" Sydnee asked.

  "I'd guess the full embassy staff for that location, including the Marine protection detail, would be at least fifty."

  "Enough food to feed fifty people for just five years would get us back to the GA without cutting rations and worrying that anyone would have to go hungry. We need those supplies."

  "There's another issue," Dennier said. "Do we take the slaves who are down in the bunker now or leave them there until someone else comes for them? There's plenty of food to support them."

  "I'd prefer to take everyone on this one trip. But we need those food supplies even more."

  "If we remove all of the support equipment normally contained in the underbelly cargo area of the shuttles," Dennier said, "we could fill it completely with food stores. Two trips with all four shuttles should be enough to bring all the slaves and the food here."

  "The real problem now is that we've reached a point where our presence might be known to the Yolongi authorities. Despite their black coloration and the blackout of the city from our attacks on the power plants and distribution network, someone might have witnessed our shuttles operating in the area where the three Qummuc facilities are located."

  "The distrust and contempt the people have for the government might make them hesitant to report anything," Blade said. "The real danger is that a government employee or informant saw us during the attack."

  "Our embassy compound is on the outskirts of the city, not in a remote location, so it's also possible our ships have been spotted landing and taking off from the embassy grounds. Someone might put two and two together."

  "I don't see where we have a choice if we're to recover the slaves and get the food we'll need for the voyage," Blade said.

  "You might be right. I'm just trying to consider all relative issues. Okay, when do we do this?"

  "We've still got three hours of darkness left now," Blade said. "I suggest we go right away while the capital is still without power and everything is in confusion."

  "I suggest my Wing provide protective cover," Dennier said. "If the military or secret police show up, I'm sure we can dissuade them from getting carried away."

  "Okay, Colonel, you're in. But let's not start shooting unless there's no alternative. In fact, have your Wing remain outside the atmosphere where you won't be spotted. You can be down at the capital in short order if you're needed."

  "Aye, Captain."

  "Time is short. Is there anything else?"

  When no one responded, Sydnee said, "Okay, that's the plan. Everyone make your preparations. We have to be underway within sixty minutes or we won't be able to complete our task before dawn."

  *

  Every able-bodied person not manning an important post was recruited to clear the cargo bays of the shuttles. Much could be removed through a hatch in the deck of the shuttle, but larger items had to wait until the shuttle had undocked so the equipment could be removed via exterior hatches. Marines in EVA suits clearing the holds would just pull or push the equipment out. It would be tethered to the Justice after the shuttles moved away from the ship. The Marine mechanics were a little grumpy because they didn't have a chance to complete a full check of the SF4 fighters before their second deployment of the day, but no problems had been reported with any of the spacecraft and there just wasn't time for the usual protocols.

  The convoy left the Justice behind just sixty-three minutes after the conference ended. With luck, this would be the final trip to the planet for a while.

  As Sydnee sat in the command chair on the bridge, she thought about the overall mission so far. Like the last mission in Clidepp space, everything had seemed to go wrong at some point. The surreptitious trips to the surface had been the one bright spot. She hoped their luck held for just one more round trip.

  * * *

  Chapter Fifteen

  ~ January 23rd, 2287 ~

  "I want the heads of whoever was responsible for this attack!" Gustallo Plelillo, Premier of the Clidepp government, screamed. The only other people in the room were his two Triumvirate partners. "Was it the Rebels or that damned Aleoxlene Reqoppl group?"

  "It's too early to know," Weislis Danttan, the Minister of Intelligence said. "They were ruthless, so that points to the Rebels. But they also freed all the slaves, and that points to the Aleoxlene Reqoppl. The Rebels wouldn't have bothered with the slaves, so that lets them out. And the Aleoxlene Reqoppl have never been ruthless in their efforts to end slavery, so that sort of excludes them as well."

  "So you're saying you have no idea who is responsible. You're the Intelligence Minister. What's the use of having an Intelligence Minister if he can't even figure out who attacked my police compounds?"

  "Perhaps the Rebels are running low on funding and took the slaves to sell them, or maybe the Aleoxlene Reqoppl have decided they'll never see the abolishment of slavery if they don't get ruthless," Kurrost Mewaffal, the Minister of Public Information, offered.

  "No, the Aleoxlene Reqoppl would never go from a group of pacifists to a band of assassins overnight," Danttan said. "Perhaps…"

  "Perhaps what?" Plelillo asked after waiting a reasonable time for Danttan to complete his thought.

  "Well, I was just thinking— what if it's the Blenod?"

  "Impossible," Plelillo said. "Impossible. They could never have gotten past our fleet. The entire planet is ringed by our warships. And if the Blenod were anywhere in this solar system, we would have been alerted by our distant defense warning system."

  "Yes, unless they've found a way to cloak themselves from our detection radar. Perhaps they've developed a cloaking system that completely hides them."

  "An invisibility cloak? Have you been drinking again during work hours? They may have powerful warships, but they're not that advanced."

  "Then who is that advanced? No one spotted any ships over the capital, but we know the attack on the power systems came from the skies. Perhaps the Blenod were already here when we assembled the fleet around the planet and they've just been waiting for the right moment to attack."

  "And what made this the right moment?"

  "Our guard was down because the Blenod never arrived to attack the planet as we expected. That message we intercepted, and had begun to believe was a ruse, may have been instructions to Blenod already in place."

  "How could they possibly have remained hidden this long?"

  "Perhaps the Rebels are supporting them by hiding them and getting them food."

  "The Rebels wouldn't do that. It would be like inviting someone to take over the role you want for yourself."

  "Is it possible our own fleet attacked the city from space?" Mewaffal asked. "Perhaps one of our admirals has joined the Rebel movement."

  "No," Plelillo said. "Someone would have gotten word to us if that was the case because we have numerous spies spread throughout the fleet. We also know the Rebels don't have many ships, and the ones they do have are mostly freighters or small luxury yachts they've stolen."

  "Then who has the kind of ships necessary to pull off a raid such as this?" Mewaffal wondered aloud.

  "No one— except…" Plelillo paused as he thought.

  "Except who?" Mewaffal asked impatiently.

  "During the attack, hundreds of slaves were taken from their pens, right? Who wants to see slavery end other than the Aleoxlene Reqoppl?"

  "The Rebels have announced they will end slavery in the nation," Danttan said.

  "That's just propaganda to win over the Aleoxlene Reqoppl and its supporters. The Rebels would never end slavery. It's too profi
table."

  "Then who?" Mewaffal asked again.

  "I can think of only one. The Galactic Alliance."

  "The GA!" Danttan exclaimed. "How could the GA pull off a raid like this? They pulled their ambassador and his staff out when the Rebels began making small attacks in cities around the planet."

  "Yes, they notified us they were pulling their ambassador and the staff out— but what if the GA staff never really left? The embassy has Yolongi caretakers living on the grounds, ostensibly guarding the compound to protect it from looters, but what if the GA is simply putting a Yolongi face on the staff? Do either of you doubt that those Yolongi are probably more loyal to the Terrans than to us?"

  "But GA ships would have been seen if they tried to reach the planet."

  "Not if the attackers came from the embassy compound."

  "There're no warships parked in the embassy compound. If there were, they'd show up on satellite reconnaissance imagery."

  "Not if the ships are kept underground. We know that when the embassy was built, they created an underground bunker as a place to hide if there was ever an attack on the embassy. What if they made it large enough to hold fighter planes? They could roll back a part of their gardens and launch those fighters, then hide them again after the attack was over. And the reason I say the Terrans are not gone is because my Qummuc picked up a Terran this past week. He was found with a bunch of escaped slaves in the Ciprotiq mountain range. He was obviously aiding them in their escape."

  "And you're just informing us of this now? We must interrogate this Terran prisoner immediately, force him to tell us where he was taking those slaves, and learn if the GA is behind this," Danttan said.

  "We can't. He somehow managed to kill two guards and escape."

  "Did he have help from outside?"

  "We don't know for sure since we can't interrogate him, but the video records show him leaving the facility alone. If he did have help, it had to be the GA. During the attacks last night, every single guard at each of the three facilities was killed and the surveillance systems and computers were all destroyed before the facilities were burned. Whoever attacked knew what they were doing.

  "So the Terran was helping slaves to escape?" Danttan said. "Escape to where? There's nowhere on the planet where escaped slaves would be safe from recapture."

  "Exactly."

  "What does that mean?"

  "It means that there's no place on the planet where escaped slaves would be safe from recapture. According to the official reports, hundreds of slaves have mysteriously disappeared over the years. We require that every slave owner report when one of their slaves has gone missing. Where have they gone? They must be somewhere. But where?"

  "If we knew where they were, we could recover them and earn a healthy fee for returning them to their owners," Mewaffal said.

  "But we can't recover them if they're not on the planet."

  "There's no way they could have gotten off-world," Danttan said. "No way at all."

  "Not by themselves, no. But if they're being assisted by the GA, they could be long gone. And that's why so many have been able to avoid recapture. They're not hiding; they've managed to get off the planet. There's another indication of GA involvement as well."

  "What is it?"

  "I managed to get an informant deep into the Aleoxlene Reqoppl. Recently, he learned that a group of slaves and traitors were waiting to be picked up by a GA ship. My man was able to join that group on the evening the pickup was scheduled to happen. When he signaled my Qummuc that the pickup was imminent, my patrols moved in. They didn't arrive in time to prevent most of the traitors from being picked up, but I don't doubt that the GA was behind that effort. We did manage to recapture a couple of dozen slaves that night."

  "Did you get positive identification of the ship picking up the slaves and traitors?"

  "My forces said that as they approached the area, the ship was clearly visible on their radar. But as they got close, it simply disappeared."

  "Disappeared? You mean it vanished?"

  "Yes. Before they got close enough for visual identification."

  For the first time since they had gathered for this meeting, the room was as quiet as a tomb while the three men considered the possibility that the GA was involved.

  After a lengthy silence, Danttan said, "So if the GA was behind the slave escapes, then they must have been behind the attack on the power systems."

  "Obviously," Plelillo said. "They used that to distract attention away from what they were doing and mask the escape."

  "And they're then responsible for the deaths of all the Qummuc guards."

  "Also correct."

  "And it was, in effect, an act of war."

  "Yes."

  "But why now?" Mewaffal asked.

  "Because they know we're somewhat distracted by the Rebels, and we've been expecting an attack on our home world by the Blenod. So the GA figured we'd never suspect them of the attack. It was the perfect time for them to hit us."

  "But we haven’t attacked the GA and they never attack anyone who hasn't attacked them first," Mewaffal said. "That's why we haven't been concerned about them. They always give their enemies enough warning that the enemy can be well prepared to strongly resist the assault."

  "But they were attacked by Yolongi and even lost one of their destroyers."

  "That Yolongi warship wasn't under orders to attack a GA ship. It wasn't even commanded by a Clidepp Empire crew. It had been stolen from the repair yard by Rebels, and they were responsible for all those attacks in GA space. The GA hasn't accused us of being involved."

  "The GA may feel that we were ultimately responsible because we allowed the Rebels to steal two warships from right under our noses and failed to stop them from attacking ships in their space. And we refused to devote any resources to assist their investigation regarding that attack on their space station. By not accusing us, they might expect we'll not point a finger at them when we're attacked by unknown forces."

  "But the only ship that was actually attacked in GA space was a Yolongi diplomatic ship, and we were refused permission to enter their space to provide an escort," Mewaffal said.

  "Don't forget the stolen destroyer that was eventually commandeered by an elite Space Command commando group who then went on to attack the other stolen destroyer and the Yolongi freighter. We've always believed the attacks in GA space to be the act of an insane Rebel officer consumed by his own arrogance. But what if it was all part of a carefully orchestrated plot to involve the GA in our internal affairs?"

  "It's brilliant," Danttan said. "The Rebels have never really had a hope of taking the Empire by force. They only chance was a win through attrition. So they might have hoped to get the GA and our other neighbors to fight their war for them, expecting that when the shooting ended they would be able to pick up the pieces. Brilliant."

  "Stop calling those fools brilliant. They're mad. Right now I see our great empire crumbling from within and without. If the Aguspod and Kweedee follow the lead of the Blenod, they'll gobble up our empire between them. There won't be anything left for the Rebels to inherit. If I had this Citizen X here right now, I would strangle him with my bare hands. I gave my youngest son the use of my yacht and told him to find out who this Citizen X is and where he can be found. He can travel anywhere in the empire with that ship and yet he hasn't been able to learn a thing about the Rebel senior command and their leader."

  "If we have to fight the Blenod, Aguspod, and Kweedee, we certainly can't simultaneously fight the GA," Danttan said.

  "We can't begin to fight the GA even if we don't have to fight the others," Mewaffal said. "They are far too powerful. They would destroy us within months. If one of their ships could disappear before the very eyes of the Qummuc patrol, it means they have an invisibility cloak. So what do we do, Gustallo?"

  "If I knew that, we'd already be doing it."

  "We should contact the GA ambassador and register a formal complaint," Mewaffal s
aid.

  "Haven't you been listening?" Plelillo said with disgust. "There is no GA ambassador on the planet. At least not officially."

  "Oh yeah. That's right."

  "If we assume that the GA was responsible for the attack on the city to misdirect attention away from the slave auction pen," Danttan said, "then we should also assume they don't want to go to war with us."

  "What's your point?" Plelillo asked.

  "Just that we shouldn't look for an excuse to start a war with them if they're obviously trying to avoid one with us."

  "You think they fear us?"

  "Not for a second. I think they only want their people freed, and this might be the opening salvo of that effort. Perhaps they hope we'll run to them for help and promise to free all slaves if they help protect our nation from the others. Whatever we do, we must keep the attacks from escalating."

  "If they don't want a war, that gives us diplomatic leverage. But first we need proof they were really responsible for the attack."

  * * *

  As Sydnee ordered, the Marine Wing remained outside the planet's atmosphere. And by remaining a bit spread out, the small ships didn't block out a large cluster of stars from planetary view and shouldn't be noticed by anyone since the Dakinium sheathing didn't allow them to be seen on Yolongi radar.

  As the four MAT-14s approached the planet, they also remained spread out to minimize possible sightings. The city was still in near-complete darkness, except for those buildings that had emergency generators. All streetlights were off, but they could see the headlights of oh-gee vehicle traffic moving in the traffic corridors. The GA embassy had emergency generators, but all exterior lighting in the compound was off. As the tennis court began the slow process of rolling back to allow the shuttles to enter the underground, the lights in the shuttle bay likewise shut down so no light would be seen from outside. Once all four shuttles were below ground, the tennis court rolled back and the lighting in the bay was restored.

  Time was short, so the pilots and the Marines aboard the ship jumped into action. Elevator load after elevator load of food was brought to the bay level and loaded into the cargo holds beneath the ships until there was no more space available.