by James Edward
“Pleasure to meet you,” Ray said as he shook her hand. The handshake was firm, and the look in her eyes was calculating. She had a feline grace and a rocking body. If he hadn’t been a ship’s captain, used to reading the body language of his officers and crew, he wouldn’t have noticed that she had the feel of someone that could more than handle herself.
“Hi there, Ray” she replied. “I hope Gramps hasn’t bored you with all this Star Fleet stuff or soccer. They seem to be the two things he likes to talk about the most.”
“Well, I’m a neophyte as far as sports are concerned, but the Star Fleet stuff is right up my alley.” Ray smiled. “It’s been a while since I could relax and talk about the Fleet or the ills thereof.”
“We were talking about that idiot Fugs. Ray met him when he retired out,” Reg said. “A most disagreeable man in any position, but being in charge is just criminal.”
“Well after my talk—or dressing down, as it were—from Fugs, I was ushered upstairs where I met a real Fleet admiral by the name of Weatherfew. You probably knew him before he was an admiral, Reg. But my take on him was that he was a good man and a ranker.”
“Good ole Admiral Weatherfew. By the way, I am not that old that I would know Byron Weatherfew as anything but an admiral, but you’re right that he came up through the ranks,” Reg said. “He was a one of the Fleet warriors that went up against the Karilian Rebels about forty years ago. I believe he took the fight to them when the word was we should be backing away. It was his squadron that broke their backs out on the rim worlds. Got heavily decorated for it. Why don’t you come with Lyn and me for a little lunch? I know a small private bistro just up the street that serves the finest red fin you will ever want to taste. My treat of course.”
“Uh-oh. Granddad is on one of his Fleet kicks. He’ll be swapping stories with you for hours!” Lyn laughed. “But do join us. I’ve heard all the stories a million times before.”
“Well,” Ray smiled, “it’s the best offer all day, so why not. I’ll just pay my tab, and we can go.”
“The tab has been covered,” Reg said as he and Lyn slid off their bar seats and headed for the door. Ray looked at the bar girl, who just smiled and winked. Oddly enough, the two men that had greeted Reg were gone.
Reg took them out of the bar and proceeded up the street and turned into a back alley. One of the passing town cars honked, and Reg grunted. He led them down the alley and into the back door of a bustling restaurant. They were seated at a quiet corner where the view from the street was blocked. The two men from the bar were also sitting in the restaurant in different locations.
Once they got seated and comfortable, Ray nodded at the two men and looked at Reg. “Friends of yours? They seem to be everywhere you are.”
“They’re part of Lyn’s team. Even that car honking was letting us know it was all clear.” Reg smiled. “As you probably gathered, she isn’t really my granddaughter, although I wouldn’t mind it if she was. This is a safe place. All loyalty to the AGW. No one here is going to interfere with us or allow us to be interfered with. So while we order, I will be asking some pointed questions and some rather difficult ones. Your answers will help in a decision at the end, good or bad. But first let’s get introduced. This is, well, Lyn, a senior special operative for the special branch. To say that she is cloak and dagger would be a poor understatement. Lyn provides security and contacts. She is very pretty. The strike of a gar snake will kill you in seconds; Lyn will kill you faster. I don’t say this to scare you, but it needs to be told. The stakes we are playing for here are very serious. Human life is of no consequence to them—and in some part, us either.
“So if you are ready, we will begin. Based on the fact that you went to the Hazel’s, I take it you have decided to join our cause and are willing to do something about the coming crisis. This is an all-in deal; once you commit, there is no turning back, and I will warn you that your old job of operating a starship will pale in comparison to the work you are about to embark on. The end result will be either victory or execution.”
“Sounds ominous,” Ray stated as he looked both of them over and took in their grim demeanors. “When I joined Fleet, it was all or nothing. The battles I fought were done with no worry for my safety or survivability but to do the work that was required. As I told Byron Weatherfew, I will not betray the AGW, so if that’s what we are about to do, then I’m out.”
“Good enough,” Reg said. “That answers my first question. Next is whether you will be tempted by a rather huge sum of money in various funds. This amount will make some of the narcotics producers envious. Third, are you willing to kill Star Fleet personnel in an open battle, understanding that they will kill you? Some of these ships will be crewed by loyal AGW personnel but operated by corrupt senior officers and staffers. Someone coined the term collateral damage; it’s a good term for this. And for the moment, lastly, are you willing to work on your own with no bosses, completely away from any organized rules or regulations, to deal with people that will have their own agenda, disguised as working with you? This will be the most difficult, as this will almost make you a dictator and will make you extremely powerful in your area.”
“Wow,” Ray said. “Let’s see. Money? I can handle that, as I dealt with an entire planetary economic base when I was administrator of Headlands before they voted to cede from the AGW. No improprieties occurred, although there were multitudes of bribes and favors asked, so I would say that I am not swayed by money.
“Fighting a legitimate AGW warship will be a problem. I won’t fire on the AGW. But if they’re being run by pirates or by disloyal crews, then they’re fair game. I would think that before it gets to a shooting war, the crews will be able to decide who they’ll support. After all, what officer would want an unruly crew that could sabotage the ship? Every man jack of them takes a loyalty oath before signing on, so if they fire on me, they will better be prepared to receive fire.
“King Ray has a ring to it, but I have no desire to rule anything but a starship. I have always had to deal with personnel with their own agendas, but every one of my tours was done with the idea that there is a head who runs the ship. If you need me to run something greater than that, I will step up. I have always surrounded myself with crews that give me input, and I would still do that, be it on the bridge or in an office.”
“Well, all good answers. We expected nothing more really, especially in light of you having no clue as to what’s going on or what the scope of the job is. Suffice to say that you will be doing a lot of recruiting—some agreeable, some way out of your pay grade and, sorry, intellectual level. So let’s order while I lay out the schematics for you,” Reg said.
As they ordered and prepared to eat, Reg laid out the scope of the problem and some of the systems that were already in place. He also dropped the bombshell of where Ray was to be based.
“You are now the CEO of a shadow consortium called the Conrad Group. Conrad is so multilayered a business that the end is untraceable as is ownership or board of directors or finances, except as to where or what it pays in AGW taxes. It is a massively financed business in the market to explore and develop a cheap system of mining gas giants for fuel and other materials. To that extent, Conrad has purchased an entire solar system, Zn 2091, a barren system with three gas giants with their moons, a few uninhabitable planets, and a debris field where the Goldilocks zone is with a couple of sizeable planetoids. Maybe a few million years ago it was a planet that blew up. Anyway, you own it, and it’s up to you to build the infrastructure to develop it. You will have two years to get up and running before Conrad announces its independence from the AGW and cedes. There will be little stir, as it is a useless, barren system that is in the corner of nowhere and not likely to attract attention. Matter of fact, we are hoping to make it a joke in government. In two years, you will need a fleet of ships to protect your freighters, fight against roving freebooters, and discourage the
AGW from inspecting the system. How you do it is your problem.
“This will be the base where we will eventually spring a counterattack that will remove the PRC from power. The PRC has been working for the last ten years at removing loyal and competent people from positions of authority and power. They have replaced them with their own lackeys. When they create the coup d’état, they will already have the infrastructure in place and will have the support of the majority of Star Fleet, as their officers will be commanding those ships. This also applies to ground forces as the ground pounders are also being purged and cut back.” Reg pushed his plate away. “Under the table, you will find a dossier and a dozen memory chips. Because this holds about 60 percent of our entire operation, the only place where you can access it is here in the Bistro. There is a damping field here that ensures nothing can be transmitted, and anything removed that passes through that field will be erased or will activate a corruption file. The food is great, so make the time to enjoy the menu. Lyn will be your contact for now, with others coming in from time to time. Rest assured that if anything occurs that threatens the operation, the patrons will ensure your safety and will get you out. There are more than you know watching and protecting you, as you are now the golden boy.
“This is your dog and pony show now, except you have no control over Lyn. She is untouchable, as she is deep cover to many of our plans and needs to move freely. Once you are familiar with the entire package, you will pick the recruiting group. You need to start working with the scientists, buy freighters, equipment, etc. This is an onerous job, and the quicker you move and set out an office and admin, the better. Also there is a black op bank account. Although it is practically bottomless, there is a bottom, so spend wisely. I will drop into the bar from time to time, so feel free to pick my brain. All I can say is don’t fail or we will be plunged into a dark age of despotism and mayhem, and millions on every world will die. Now if that didn’t sour your lunch, nothing will.”
Both Lyn and Reg sat there watching Ray, trying to take the measure of him as he digested the whole story. For Ray’s part, his mind was whirling and spinning as he came to grasp the extent of shit he had got himself into. He had thought that he was going to do some research or some sort of sabotage against the PRC, not be the point of the spear in a war that would be fought a few years in the future. What the hell did I get myself into? he thought. Almost at the same time, he started to form a plan for bolstering up his crew, and a crew was what he needed.
“I’ll need a few hours to go over the names of those personnel that have been downsized or retired to build up a recruiting plan. I don’t suppose you’ve done any research into any of the retired to see if they’re loyal and eligible?” he asked Lyn.
“Some.” Lyn shrugged. “I’ll meet with you tomorrow to go over the list if you like.”
“No, in three hours or at dinnertime. I need to move fast to get a core group up and running. Do you have a recruiting team?” he asked.
“I can reach out and pick a few good people,” she replied.
“Okay, put a team together so that by tomorrow they can start doing what they need to do to okay the people that we will compile on the list,” Ray said.
“Reg, what is your forte? What are you good at that will help us?” Ray asked.
“I think I can help with getting those key people away without raising the attention of the PRC. Everyone that accepts a role in this will eventually be targeted by the PRC, and we’ll have to get them out and safe before there’s any interest in them. After you both okay and recruit a body, I’ll organize a team and removal team to get them out. I would suggest single people at the moment. As you grow bigger, you can do it through a hiring campaign, although that will open the door for infiltrators.”
“Okay, that about covers things for now. I have some reading and memorizing to do. If one of you would ask the nice man for a beer, I’ll get started.” Ray dismissed them.
Ray spent the next four hours poring over personnel files, dossiers, military reports, court-martial findings, discharge paperwork, and special files. Most of the latter was from Fugs’s office, which was a gold mine in listing personnel that needed to or had been removed. Ray recognized some of the people on that list and put their names on his own hit list for recruitment. He researched office space in the area and local recruiting groups to find the eventual office and secretarial setup. Some of the more innocent duties could be hired through an office front, but Ray wanted to get busy on buying a couple of space-worthy freighters and crewing them. He needed to see who the pertinent scientists were and who was willing to relocate. Ray was still deep into the files when Lyn sat down opposite him. She nudged his knee with her foot.
“You want to order?” she asked.
“Huh? What? Oh, Lyn!” Ray responded. “Crap. Is it dinnertime already? I haven’t even scratched the surface.”
“Relax, boss. It’s the first day. By all accounts, Weatherfew had you scheduled for sitting in your room, sucking your thumb, and drinking yourself into oblivion after the load that was just dropped on you.” Lyn laughed. Her laughter had a tinkling quality that made it impossible not to laugh too.
“I don’t believe that assessment at all.” Ray grinned. “But after this meeting, I do plan on having a few stiff ones and sit in the dark for a bit. How did you make out?”
“Hmmm, sitting in the dark with a stiff one. I’m probably imagining an entirely different picture than you are.” She winked. “The recruiting crew will be ready to start at first light. I have three four-man teams to do it. I usually use some outriders as well but on short notice. If we go slow at first, we’ll be able to streamline the job. Probably first on the list would be an office administrator that could start building an office with secretarial staff.”
“Yes, that’s what I was thinking.” He handed her a list with several names on it. “Each one of these people would be ideal for the job, and I would like to pull all them in. We will need them here, on Zn2091, and other planets and places. Another thing. I want to rename Zn2091 so that it’s a little more difficult to locate.”
Lyn looked over the list. Every once in a while, her eyebrows raised as she read something that either surprised her or she disagreed with. Ray took the time to check her out physically. She was well built with a feline smoothness to her moves. She had a strong face that softened around the lips, and her fingers were long and narrow. Ray had a hard time coming to grips with the fact that she was a killing machine.
“Don’t let my looks fool you, Mr. Hunter. I can drive that spoon into your eye before you could reach down and pick it up,” Lyn stated as she read. She hadn’t even looked up. “But then I’m not in the habit of killing my boss. I have, but I don’t make a habit of it.”
“I’m impressed. I didn’t even notice you watching me,” Ray said.
“I’m a woman. We have a sensory perception when we’re being checked out.” She smiled as she looked up. Her smile made her whole face light up. She pointed to the list. “I’m not surprised that you want Bev Kindrick. She’s a tough taskmaster if I recall my file on her. Raj Kimeer is a good match, as is Lydia Goodfellow. Now Sergie Raspburtan is a surprise; the book on him was that he was court-martialed for rank insubordination.”
“Yeah, he was, but the circumstances were a bit different on that one. He refused to eject surging power coil that was going to result in a core breach. Instead he transferred the power to the nearest outlet, which just happened to be the bridge transformer, blowing everything on the bridge. Admiral Grewsman had to spend the rest of the trip either in his room or in the battle bridge, sitting on a hard metal chair. By the time they were in dock, Grewsman had lost all sense of humor about the incident. He preferred charges, and it was quickly taken up by Fugs. I’m beginning to think that some of these discharges were done to get good people out of the way of the PRC as well. Take Lauren Mindar for example; she was discharged by Weat
herfew just six months ago. There was a time that you really had to come up with a good reason to get an early discharge; now it seems that you can get one on request. Those four are my first picks due to qualifications and the fact that they, like me, are unencumbered by families.”
Ray was a little irritated to see that both sides seemed to be intent on removing key people in key areas. There were games within games going on here, and he knew that he would have to ensure that he knew all the players and their intents. In the meantime, he enjoyed a good meal with Lyn.
“Lyn, I need to bring Bev, Raj, and Lydia on board ASAP. We need Bev to set up the admin, Raj procurement, and Lydia needs to start looking into shipping deals. As well, we need some civilians in on this task. Put your teams on those three and do what you can to recruit them. If they’re acceptable, get Reg to start on an extraction plan. I want them here in five weeks, ready to hit the ground a running. You also have my second group of viable candidates if the first ones don’t turn out, still good people and capable. I also want Sergie scouted and approached. He’ll head up our R&D group if we get him. Also, I want a ship’s captain for the first freighter brought on board. Bruce Duely is perfect for the job, and I know him. We were at the academy together. He’s smart, capable, and resourceful.”
“My team will be on this as soon as I leave,” Lyn said. “Karen St. Clair is a good match for the first civilian. Her CV is impressive as a top office administrator, and she knows people. She would be great to pull other suitable people in to make Conrad look legit as a business.”
“Bring her in. Offer top wages,” Ray ordered. “I want a secretary or something like an XO that can follow up on these orders and coordinate with you and Reg. Although I would prefer Fleet, I think this time, as we are ground bound, a good marine would do. Can you take a look at who’s out there and give me a list?”
