by S. H. Jucha
-16-
After their conference meeting aboard the Freedom, the Rêveur’s officers submerged themselves back into Alex’s long-term plan, checking on their subordinates’ progress. Everywhere they went, they were congratulated on the success of their mission at Bellamonde. The Librans were in sore need of relief from their escalating anxiety over the encroaching aliens, and the New Terran Admiral and his people were providing that relief.
Terese found an excuse to comm Tomas and, as she had hoped, was invited aboard the Freedom for a meal. Tatia and Sheila took a shuttle planetside to meet with Robert and check on the pilots’ training. Mickey and Lazlo were on board the same shuttle headed planetside and planned to visit T-1 and supervise the retooling of the facilities for the new second-stage missile design.
On the manufacturing front, the focus had been first on producing parts for the freighter bays and stage-one missiles. T-1 had finally begun producing fighter parts, but final assembly had yet to start.
On board the Rêveur, techs finished installing a new holo-vid in Alex’s cabin with a direct tie to the dedicated comm lines linking Julien to his backup location. Late in the evening, Alex signaled Andrea to join him and Renée in his cabin. The three settled into comfortable chairs and linked with Julien.
Renée and Andrea shared grins.
The humans clapped and laughed at Cordelia’s rebuttal.
said Cordelia.
Z added,
Z continued.
Alex said.
Silence greeted Z’s announcement. The three humans had been hoping for a small miracle, a year or more in which to prepare to take the fight to the aliens and, most importantly, to prepare for a complete and orderly exodus of Libre. Now the SADEs had just blown away the deck from under their feet.
When the silence continued, Cordelia spoke up.
Julien mentally winced at Cordelia’s attempt to ease the trauma of the announcement. He knew it was a time to remain quiet and let the three humans absorb and digest the dire prediction.
Alex replied calmly, though internally his emotions were roiling.
Renée and Andrea locked eyes on Alex. Renée was pleased to know Alex was ahead of them; Andrea wanted to know why she hadn’t heard of Alex’s request.
After Andrea left the suite, Renée prepared thé while Alex took a long refresher. Afterward they sat close on the lounger wrapped in their robes and sipping the hot drink. Later, Renée removed Alex’s mug from his hands and set it on the low table. He had been holding the empty mug in his hands for half an hour.
“Alex, we will not solve this dilemma tonight, nor will we win the war tomorrow. Please, it’s time for bed.”
Alex levered himself off the lounger, offered Renée his hand, and led the way to the bedroom. The war won’t be won tomorrow, Alex thought, but I would have liked the opportunity to take the fight to that mother ship just once before we had to run away.
-17-
At 11 hours the following morning, the Rêveur’s senior officers, their seconds, the Leaders, the Libran Captains, their seconds, and everyone’s security escorts assembled in Freedom’s largest conference room. The SADEs were linked to the group.
Eric looked to Captain Reinhold, who decided to confirm the timetable estimate with Z.
Captain Reinhold was so taken aback from what he considered an outrageous breach of protocols from a SADE that he couldn’t reply.
Alex allowed time for the information to be absorbed. He had prepared his people earlier this morning so they would have time to wrap their minds around it, but glancing around the room, none of them were handling it any better than the Librans, except for Renée and the twins, which Alex found a little disconcerting.
The SADEs walked everyone through their research—Alex’s and Julien’s hypotheses of the subterranean nature of the aliens, the historical infestation of the planets, the original surveys of the planet’s resources, the tunneling of the shells that could be correlated to survey sites of rare mineral resources, calculations of the resources on Bellamonde when the swarm invaded, and, finally, the harvest time the drones would require, based on their landing rates on Bellamonde over the past seven and a half years.
The intricacy of the assimilated data floored even the technically minded among the group. It was an incredible amount of data sifting and correlation. Others just fixated on the end result: time had run out.
Eric Stroheim was fuming and after a while could not contain his indignation.
When no question was forthcoming from the Leader, the most sensitive of the SADEs relented. Cordelia answered Eric’s question.
Z said.
At that moment, Cordelia wished she had a human body. With
it, she would have kissed Z.
Tomas regarded Eric, who was mutely appealing to him.
Eric looked around the room and found no sympathy for him on the faces that surrounded him. In fact, many were displaying a level of disregard uncommon on the faces of Méridiens. Eric Stroheim, proud Leader of House Bergfalk, relented.
Julien answered.
Andrea reviewed her recording of the conversation to ensure that she had understood Z’s original projection correctly.
