Based as she was on the same platform as a Meridian heavy cruiser, most of the Istanbul's hardware, including drive systems, sensor arrays and shielding were virtually the same as her military counterparts. Where she differed the most was in her offensive armament or, more accurately, her lack thereof, and in the quality of her furnishings in addition to the size and configuration of the various compartments aboard. Use of the military grade stealth systems, that had been left intact on the ship, meant that she would be very difficult to detect even for an enemy that had the most up to date sensing equipment. Out in the Scrapyard, surrounded by the wrecks of more than eighty ships of similar size, detection was going to be extremely difficult. The ship and its occupants were indeed probably safe for the time being.
After a transit that had taken about half an hour, a small delegation consisting of Kresge, Harris, Murdock, and Hawkins from the Greyhound approached the Istanbul on the Rover II. The small group cycled through the Istanbul's main airlock and removed their space suits before being escorted to a conference room. Captain Nassar, who had met many of the Federation personnel earlier during the terrorist incident on the New Ceylon Orbital Station, came into the room a few minutes later. His overall manner was understandably grim, but he greeted everybody warmly before moving on to the current business.
"Commander Kresge?" said Nassar. "The Ambassador would like to meet with you in private for a few moments. He has a communication intended for your eyes only. The rest of you relax, perhaps have some refreshment. A briefing will begin within the next twenty minutes."
Kresge left the rest of his colleagues and followed the Captain a short way down the corridor to a small office. The Captain rapped softly on the door. "Excellency? Commander Kresge is here."
"Please show him in, Captain."
Kresge went in to the office, closing the door behind him. Some ten minutes later he emerged, his face now grim also, and rejoined his companions in the conference room.
"Listen up, everyone," said Kresge. "I have just been informed that the Ambassador has two Federation officers with him. One of them is a Lieutenant Lawrence Harvick, he's one of the official Federation liaisons, and the other is...," he looked directly at Harris, "...Tamara Carlisle."
Harris felt a stab in his chest. Kresge took a deep breath before continuing
"That's not all. This may be somewhat difficult for all of us but we are to conduct ourselves as we don't know her."
Seeing Harris' perplexed and somewhat stricken look, he explained as best he could.
"Carlisle is on a special assignment from the Admiralty and is actually undercover. She is under orders not to discuss her mission with anyone, not even me. For the security of her mission and her personal safety, in the presence of anyone we don't trust completely, we are to behave as though she were a stranger. Pretend you don't know her. Have you got that?"
"Yes, Sir," replied the group. Harris wore a look that was hard to decipher.
"The Istanbul was hosting a religious summit back at the Santana Nexus when a skirmish broke out. One of the two destroyers escorting the Istanbul defected to the Meridian Opposition, led by a known terrorist who calls himself the Sheik of Barsoom. This ship attacked the other Meridian escort before attacking and damaging several Federation Navy vessels as well. With religious leaders from all over the Quadrant onboard, capturing or destroying the Istanbul had to have been one of their prime objectives. At that point the Istanbul's tactical officer detected an even larger force, consisting of at least four additional ships, that was almost within weapons range. In the face of this additional threat, they had to do something and fast or face the consequences. Thanks to some quick thinking on the part of Dr. Carlisle, the Istanbul and Clancy Davis-Moore's Dingo managed to escape the attack and jump out of the Santana Nexus system but..." Kresge paused for a moment and looked around at his audience, "...we must tread carefully. This ship is loaded with people, some of whom are known enemies of the Ambassador and others whose loyalties are questionable. Don't do anything that would break the Ensign's cover. Is that clear?" He was looking directly at Harris as he said the last.
"Clear, sir," replied Harris
"We also have to assume that the Santana Nexus is now in the hands of this new enemy. A briefing will start within the next few minutes."
The four of them remained standing, lost in their own thoughts, until a fairly large delegation from the Istanbul joined them in the conference room. Harris watched them as they filed in, Captain Nassar, Ambassador Saladin, the Ambassador's wife Lady Sondia, Clancy Davis-Moore, another ten or twelve dignitaries of various ethnic origins, a tall, young, dark-skinned Lieutenant that Harris didn't recognize in a Federation Naval Uniform and...he felt his heart flutter...Ensign Tamara Carlisle. To his eyes, she had never looked better. She was not in uniform but was instead wearing some sort of business suit, an outfit that, except for the color, was very similar to the one that Lady Sondia was wearing. Her short, dark hair looked like it was a little longer than he remembered but her large sea-green eyes and the exotic clan tattoo on her left cheek were just as he remembered. Carlisle briefly caught his eye and then looked away, her expression enigmatic.
Ambassador Saladin asked everyone to take a seat while he and Oskar Kresge remained standing.
The Ambassador began the briefing.
"Thank you all for coming." He performed a series of introductions. Harris was not surprised to learn that, among others, the delegation consisted of a prominent Catholic Bishop, a Jewish Rabbi and a half-dozen Islamic leaders. What did come as a surprise was that one of the oldest men in the delegation was introduced as Dr. F.C. Talbot. More surprising was that he appeared to be the same Federation engineer whose radical theories had been so important to the success of the destroyer action in the Succession War but had also been invaluable to Harris, Carlisle and Hawkins during their ordeal two months ago in the Scrapyard.
Introductions completed, the Ambassador began the meeting in earnest.
"We received a burst of messages just over two hours ago on our Stage II communicator. Commander Kresge and I think you all need to see some of them," he said, before passing the floor to Kresge."Commander Kresge."
"Thank you, Excellency," said Kresge. "The video you are all about to see could only be unlocked after I input my personal code. This message was intended for Federation Naval personnel but I don't think it contains anything that needs to remain a secret. Run the video now, Captain, if you please."
Captain Nassar thumbed a button on the communications console to start a video on the conference room's large viewscreen.
A grim-looking and somewhat disheveled Admiral Harriet Kingston, sitting nervously behind a tiny desk in a small conference room, came into view. A Federation Navy logo hanging on the wall behind her was slightly crooked, as though it had been knocked askew and no one had yet had time or inclination to straighten it out.
"This is a message to all Federation Naval personnel in the Santana Quadrant," Kingston began, tersely. "Just over two hours ago, the Santana Nexus Station complex was overrun by hostile forces. We believe that the ships are from the navies of at least three of the major governments that are or used to be part of the Islamic Alliance. At least one of the ships publically defected from the Meridian government just before the attack. As far as we know, the station was not damaged significantly in the attack. In fact, we're almost certain that damaging the station was not the primary objective of the hostilities. I and most of my staff were able to escape in a cutter and took refuge on an undamaged Federation destroyer. I am not revealing my whereabouts for obvious reasons."
Kingston paused to examine her notes for a moment before continuing. "The situation at the Nexus is not an isolated incident. It appears as though there have been simultaneous attacks on many Federation installations throughout this Quadrant and at least one of the other Quadrants but Fortress Earth has not yet been attacked, at least as far as we know. Federation forces will be regrouping out here as
best we can over the next few days."
Kingston stopped and looked directly into the video pickup. "In the meantime, I regret to inform you that we appear to be at war with enemies yet to be fully determined and that all of you are on your own until further notice. I will relay more information as it becomes available but I must warn you now that Stage II Whitney broadcasts such as this one will be spotty. Consolidate your resources and prepare to defend Federation installations. This enemy is almost certainly spread even more thinly than we are but we do not know where they might concentrate their forces for another attack. As usual, I expect you all to do your best. Carry on! Kingston out."
The admiral faded out and the screen shifted over to a view of the crooked Federation Navy Logo for perhaps three seconds before fading to black and then going completely blank. There was a short, stunned silence in the conference room before anyone spoke up.
"I have additional information," continued the Ambassador. "There are similar problems all over the quadrant. Not only have there been simultaneous attacks on more than a half dozen Federation facilities, including the Santana Nexus, but the Central Government on my home planet of Meridian has been under siege for more than a day now. We don't know if the Prime Minister has survived or not. We also do not know which faction is responsible, though we have some potential candidates. Additional attacks on several other planetary governments and isolated orbital stations are also underway. Commander Kresge?"
Kresge cleared his throat. "The situation is worse than we thought. Before these new developments, there was to be no reinforcement for us out here for several weeks at the very best. These current developments change all that. We must proceed with the understanding that we are on our own out here and are likely to be so for the foreseeable future. Any questions?"
The room broke out into a storm of noise. The Ambassador held up his hands and called in vain for order for several minutes. Finally the Kresge waved his hands and shouted, using his best command voice, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please!" The noise level finally died down.
The Ambassador pointed to one of the dignitaries. "Bishop, Sinclair?"
"Do you mean to inform us that we are stranded out here for an unknown amount of time?"
"Yes, Your Reverence, that would appear to be the case," replied the Ambassador.
"This is completely unacceptable!" someone shouted and the room again broke out into a chaos of competing demands.
The clamor went on for another fifteen minutes before everyone calmed down a little, resigned to the situation, at least for the time being. After a couple more desultory questions, the diplomats and religious leaders filed out, many of them muttering angrily, leaving the Federation Scrapyard delegation and the Ambassador's small entourage consisting of his wife Sondia, Lieutenant Harvick, Ensign Carlisle, Davis-Moore and F.C. Talbot. As soon as the door closed behind the departing dignitaries, Kresge began the real discussion.
"Finally! We can get down to business. With your permission, Excellency?"
"By all means, Commander, go ahead."
"I need to inform you all of our current status and you should all know that the situation wasn't all that good before these new developments. Prior to the departure of the small Federation task force that responded to the terrorist crisis out here a couple of months ago, I was authorized to use whatever means I had at my disposal to defend this system and its inhabitants. Given this new information, I fear that matters may be even worse than we thought, as we may well be the only Federation authority in this entire corner of the Quadrant."
Kresge paused for a moment to let the information sink in, his eyes scanning his small audience before he continued.
"This means that we have responsibility for New Ceylon, Patagonia and Malta and maybe four or five other planets. We might as well include Heard's World as well. I don't have to tell any of you that with what we have for assets, this defensive responsibility is going to be a very difficult task. The communications burst I just received contained additional unpleasant information. Way too many of the most remote outposts are not checking in anymore. At one of them, an unknown group may have managed to hijack a Tunisian destroyer. We have a report that the destroyer's crew might have been able to scuttle some of the systems on the ship before it was captured but we don't know for sure. If there is any truth to the report, that ship is loose out here in this part of the quadrant. There may be others that we haven't received any intel about. We are also to gather any information we can on this Sheik of Barsoom.
I have informed the New Ceylon Orbital Station that we do not have the means to provide protection for them and have suggested that they evacuate as many people as possible to the planet or to other star systems. Governor Larkin and most of his staff have gone down to the planet already. Irene Marshall and a handful of others will be on their way out here to the Scrapyard on the remaining Naval cutter sometime in the next few hours." He looked around the room. "Anybody got any ideas?"
Helen Murdock raised her hand. Kresge nodded. "Go ahead, Captain Murdock."
"I suggest we move forward with the repairs to the Greyhound. Without hyper capability, she doesn't have a prayer."
"I was going to suggest that myself, Captain Murdock. We will continue with our other salvage operations as well on the off chance that the scheduled pick up will go as planned. The parts currently on order could allow the Federation to bring several ships back into service or up to speed and the Navy is going to need all of the ships she can cobble together. Any other ideas?"
Carlisle tentatively raised her hand. Kresge nodded. "Dr. Carlisle?"
"... Armed merchants... Scrapyard attack... I... I think we should consider arming the Greyhound and maybe the Istanbul. Those armed freighters that we fought out here a month or so ago showed that it can be done and having some kind of defensive and offensive capability will no doubt be vital in the coming weeks."
Kresge and the Ambassador looked at one another and nodded. "An excellent suggestion," said the Ambassador. Kresge nodded agreement.
Harvick looked at Carlisle with renewed wonder.
"Yes, I think we should get started on these projects immediately," said Kresge.
Talbot raised his hand.
"What is it, Dr. Talbot?"
"As some of you know," the old man replied, "I used to be an engineer; a pretty good one if I say so myself. I know it was a long time ago but let me know if there's anything I can do to help."
"I'll keep that in mind, Dr. Talbot. Thanks for the offer."
The old man nodded.
After a bit more conversation, it was time for the meeting to break up.
"Nothing further?" asked Kresge. Upon seeing no response, he announced, "This meeting is adjourned."
"Lieutenant Harris, stay here if you please, the Ambassador and I would like a word."
Harris waited behind as the room emptied out. Finally there was only him, the Commander and the Ambassador remaining.
"Begging your pardon, Excellency," said Kresge. "I understand that we are operating under some...special circumstances but I would like to request the services of your 'historian.' Can you do without her for a while?"
"I would have to add my own request, Ambassador Saladin," said Harris, immediately understanding the logic of Kresge's request. "She was invaluable to us when we resurrected that old destroyer out here. As you just witnessed a couple of minutes ago, she has a knack for coming up with really good ideas."
"By all means, Gentlemen," said the Ambassador. "We can work around that. Anything we can do to increase our defensive capabilities must be initiated immediately. Just be careful not to reveal her cover. To do so would create all sorts of complications on board this ship and could place her personal safety in jeopardy. Unless you are totally sure of those around you, behave as if you don't know her. I don't even trust the man they sent out as the official liaison. Though I will admit that he appears to be fairly competent so far."
"Harvick? I don't know anything ab
out him either," replied Kresge. "We'll be careful, Excellency." Harris nodded in agreement.
"I'll have her gather her gear together and join you in the suit room. It should only take a few minutes. But we would like her to spend her evenings here onboard the Istanbul. Sondia and I both feel much safer when she is at hand."
The Ambassador chuckled.
"What is it, Excellency?" asked Kresge.
"I must say that I believe she will much prefer these new duties to her current ones!"
Chapter 26.
"...Thank you for purchasing a Hartwell Wrist computer. This fine product is a breakthrough design that has created a whole new style and level of effectiveness for a human-computer interface. Capable of the entire suite of functions and displays that could previously only be performed by machines of much larger dimensions, this superb device still has no equal. The interface can be operated by voice and by the incomparable cyberdex virtual keyboard. The latest models have even incorporated recent breakthroughs in brainwave stimulation technology.* One of the most useful features of the Hartwell Wrist Computer is the ability of the operator to make full use of its capabilities while inside the confines of a space suit. These little devices are widely sought after by anyone who wishes to be on the cutting edge of computer capability...
*This feature requires additional training and the use of the proprietary 'cyberdex cranial sensor net,' available at extra cost..."
Hartwell Wristcomp reference note highlighted for further review by Amanda Steuben. Excerpt is from the Hartwell Wrist Computer owner's manual.
Junkyard Dogs series Omnibus Page 52
