by Charles Lamb
“OK, agreed. What I was thinking was a spy mission. With the cloaking technology on the NeHaw ship, we could send one of our own on a reconnaissance trip. Even were we to choose to attack, we would be going in blind. That is not a proposition I embrace.”
As Jake scanned the room’s occupants, both physical and virtual, he could see them considering his suggestion. Of particular note was Edwin Banks, as he seemed on edge, as if waiting to speak.
“Edwin, you have something to say?” Jake asked after no one else spoke up.
“It occurs to me that a mission such as this requires a delicate touch. Someone with experience in clandestine activities should lead the effort,” he finished.
You have someone in mind?” Jake asked with a smile, doing his best to control himself at the expected response.
“Me,” Banks replied.
----*----
HeBak was back in his ship where he always was. Lately, though, it has been more for comfort than the need to protect his gold. After visiting the room next door, he had come to the conclusion that his stash wasn’t undiscovered, it was simply uninteresting to the humans.
What did seem to interest them was the cloaking systems he had installed prior to coming into this backwater world at the edge of known space. While they had been polite in invading his ship, they were a constant bother. When they weren’t dissecting some part of his vessel, they were quizzing him on its operation.
He was thankful that he had actually bothered to ask the engineers that installed it for him how it worked, afraid he might have to actually repair it himself. As he watched, the humans would take a particular piece off for examination elsewhere, but eventually it would be returned, in assumedly good working order.
One surprising aspect of his current situation was he was not in any hurry to leave. The gold in his hold was nothing compared to the wealth that lay so tantalizing close. Since its discovery, HeBak had been scheming to convince the humans to part with some. While he wasn’t deluded into thinking he would get it all, as his ship couldn’t hold even a tenth of it, he could have his hold filled to capacity.
That alone would make him the single richest NeHaw in the empire. The challenge was finding something the humans wanted bad enough to part with it.
----*----
Brian was in his quarters, virtually attending Jake’s all hands meeting remotely, as Kola made her way out of the solar system and into open space. While the spy mission to the NeHaw home world had a definite attraction to him, he seriously doubted Jake would permit both he and Colonel Banks to risk themselves.
Where he did see he could bring value, though, was in the ship choice. When he had reviewed the Wawobash inventory, Brian had noted a small scout ship, light on armament, but with the addition of stasis shield and the NeHaw cloaking system, it would do nicely.
Brian shot off a quick message to Jake, making his recommendation on the ship and adding his status report, completing his paperwork for the day. With the meeting completed, he shut his terminal down and headed to the bridge.
----*----
Sara had attended Jake’s meeting in a small conference room with Linda and a few others she didn’t recognize. She was beginning to understand Jake’s attitude about unfamiliar faces. Having slept reasonably well, she was far less irritated at Linda’s presence than she had been earlier.
What was irritating her was Jake’s decision to remain in Texas. She understood the NeHaw was there under a watchful eye, but she was more than confident that Bonnie could handle anything that might arise. She simply chose to ignore the fact that Becky was there as well and likely inflicting herself on Jake, throwing herself at him at every opportunity.
She could have just jumped on the first transport to Texas and worked from there, but she felt Jake needed to come to her. Certainly, he should understand that as her pregnancy progressed, he needed to be more thoughtful of her needs.
Rather than dwelling on what wasn’t, she decided to look into Jessie’s art recovery project. She had seen references in the daily reports that they had begun hitting the easy targets. Starting small, they had dispatched teams to several Alaskan cities, recovering at risk pieces. Next, they had expanded to Vancouver, Canada and Seattle.
That name rang a bell and she cross-referenced it with Sharon’s report on the Russian visit. Apparently, the Russians had arrived in Seattle right after Jessie’s team had vacated, on their way to Portland. With that thought in her head, she pulled the projections for the rest of the week. Next, she pulled Sharon’s analysis on the Russians.
Checking the timelines, she realized the Russians would likely hit San Francisco when the art recovery team was there. Pausing to consider this was all based on her guesswork, she decided to wait and see if the Russians even turned into San Francisco Bay before sounding the alarm.
----*----
Jacob and Gemma were in the hangar, smiling while watching her parents board the craft that would return them to London. Although things were not completely settled between the mother and daughter, they had established a truce that allowed everyone to spend the day together with a Luau style dinner in their honor.
Lanai had pulled out all the stops in assisting Jacob in wooing Gemma’s parents. The one thing they still had to do, the old fashion way, was the roast pig. They had even set up on the beach for the evening meal, a large number of Brit’s in attendance. They had been part of the group in Gemma’s original party, so were all known to Nigel and Helen.
In the end, even Helen had to accept that Jacob was a fine young man of exceptional intelligence, a worthy suitor for her daughter. That and the explanation about King Jake, so ordained by the Kortisht and the Crustacea at first contact, established that he came from the right kind of family. Well, except that he was still not English.
“Dear Lord, I love my family, but they can be such a burden. They simply must do everything over the top,” Gemma stated as she watched the hatch closed on the aircraft and saw it slowly rise through the open doors above the hangar.
“Wait until you meet Grandpa Jake.”
----*----
Although Jake had expected Banks to volunteer for the scouting mission, he hadn’t given much thought about how they might actually pull it off. At first blush, a destroyer or cruiser could easily handle the trip, and there were ample crew trained and available for the vessels.
Unfortunately, the battle of Klinan had put the NeHaw on notice that those ships were not just theirs to sail. That meant he needed a ship that would not draw undue attention, and could slip in and out of NeHaw space unmolested.
Brian’s message had come to solve Jake’s quandary, delivering not only an option on a vessel, but also a suggestion on how it might pass completely unseen. He had considered commandeering the NeHaw vessel in the hangar, but was reluctant to make its occupant an adversary just yet. Jake was convinced there was more to the NeHaw’s story than he let on. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite sure how to draw it out of him.
Pushing that aside for the moment, Jake had requested Banks fly out to begin mission planning in person. With lives at stake, Jake felt Edwin should assist in key decision making before any ships were ordered or configured. Jake was under the impression from Brian’s message, that the Wawobash had these models completed and ready for delivery.
----*----
“Well, that is just bloody awful,” Patti heard Daniel declare as the two sat alone off to one side of the transporter bridge.
“What?”
Turning to face her, the audio headset still in place, Daniel had a look of disappointment and frustration.
“The place is right empty, apparently ransacked decades ago,” he replied.
“No one’s there?” Patti asked, the disappointment obvious in her voice.
“Not a soul. It’s a terrible mess down there as well. It appeared to have been looted long ago. I’m having my men look around, but I fear this is a fool’s errand,” he finished.
“Daniel, this is
horrible. I was hoping to bring Sandy news on how well Australia was going. It was to be her great success.”
“Patricia, Darwin was never largely populated to begin with; I seriously doubt there are a great number of survivors here.”
“There has to be something we can do here?” Patti asked, pleading for a miracle.
Daniel was deep in thought, so Patti kept quiet as she watched him. After a moment, he went to one of the displays and started shuffling through screen after screen of information.
“Very convenient, having our systems integrated with yours,” he said absently as he continued to read screen after screen. He finally seemed to hit on something because he stopped and read for a few minutes. Next, he turned to the maps they had made of Australia before leaving; flipping through several sheets before he found what he was looking for.
“I believe we may be looking at the wrong end of the country,” he said with a smile.
“You think you’ve found something?”
“The Aussie’s had a training center in Victoria, Swan Island to be precise. We pulled some satellite images before leaving, looking for potential sites throughout the country. This one displayed telltale signs of occupancy.”
“You think there is someone there?” Patti asked, her hopes rising.
“More than that love, we think they are trained. That was a Special Forces facility,” he announced. Before he could say more, Patti launched herself at him, wrapping both arms around his neck, and planting a kiss that would get any man’s attention. From his response, she was sure she did.
----*----
Ivan was sure he had seen something as the destroyer entered San Francisco Bay. Thankfully, the Golden Gate Bridge was still standing, so access wasn’t obstructed as they passed into the bay and approached Alcatraz Island. Even though the sun was out, there was a haze in the air that made seeing things far off difficult.
He had sworn he had seen a flying object over the city to their right, although it disappeared before he could get confirmation. The plan was to anchor near Alcatraz and take the gig into San Francisco, to evaluate the docks there. Now he needed to add a search party to the team.
Chapter 26
An excited Sara had gotten word that Jake was planning to return to Nevada in the next day or two. She had heard that Colonel Banks might be joining him, the two deep in planning for a spy mission to the NeHaw home world. With the excitement of the news, she was struggling with the nagging feeling that she was forgetting to do something important.
As such, she was going over her to do list, looking for anything that might trigger a recollection. Seeing nothing special, she did note Patti was with a SAS team in Australia, looking for a possible London style facility. She thought it odd that Patti was out in the field, but with so many changes these days; she chalked it up to new experiences.
----*----
HeBak, breathing mask in place, found himself being led into the human structure beyond the main hangar, opposite where his ship was being held. With one human leading him and two more acting as his security escort behind, they crossed the large open area and entered through a set of doors. He found the surrounding both alien and familiar at the same time.
Even though the humans were obviously a sub-race, only fit to serve the NeHaw, the similarity of their infrastructure to the Central Command dwellings was striking. Everywhere he looked, humans were busy performing menial tasks with great urgency.
While his guide was mute during most of the trip, the female announced after passing through another set of doors, “This is our command center,” as she led him into a large circular room. There were humans at workstations all around HeBak, with a second level filled with just as many.
He had paused to look around, begrudgingly impressed at the layout and technology in use. Though primitive in many ways to the NeHaw, the sheer volume of beings involved compensated. Looking back at his guide, he saw her waiting on the far side of the room, motioning for him to follow.
The female opened a small door and waved him in while the security escorts took positions on either side of the doorway. Entering, HeBak saw the same human who had greeted him. The one who claimed to be able to hear him speak without translators. The man stood as he entered the room.
“Please sit,” he heard the man say while pointing to a chair opposite his desk. Although the NeHaw were slightly shorter than humans were, something HeBak acknowledged as having no relevance to the natural order of things, their furniture was acceptably sized.
Taking the offered seat, HeBak watched as the human reseated himself. It was then HeBak noted that the man was wearing some device, a band that circled the back of his head from one side to the other.
“Feel free to speak, we won’t have a repeat of our first meeting,” he declared, HeBak receiving the information via a hidden translator.
----*----
Jake had been working with Dallas and ALICE-1 after the introductory incident in the hangar. While they had established early on that Jake was now somehow hypersensitive to radio waves, there wasn’t much more they knew about it. Having a live NeHaw on hand helped greatly in researching the issue.
As he had gone about his daily activities, the NeHaw had been under constant surveillance by all the ALICE systems. Of particular interest was when he transmitted, the human version of talking, mumbling or even whistling. Each time the NeHaw emitted a transmission, the ALICE’s captured it and analyzed it for frequency, amplitude, power and content.
The second, and more important part of their research, had come from the captured NeHaw cruisers. The bombs that had been used in the attempt to destroy the ALICE systems so long ago, were specifically designed to emit radio waves among other more destructive emissions. Dallas theorized that the NeHaw communicated with their computer systems directly, and the bombs were designed to overload that part of the system, in effect, frying the interface and making them useless.
It was the stasis filtered residual of all these emissions combined that had altered Jake’s physiology, enhancing his strength and speed, while sensitizing him to NeHaw radio frequencies. The antenna in Chris’s compound must have included radio waves in the NeHaw range.
Using that information, they created a headpiece for Jake that would dissipate the wattage he received, into a more acceptable range. With the NeHaw in particular, it also acted as a translator and transmitter, letting Jake receive the communication directly and reply.
As Jake watched the NeHaw enter the room and take a seat, he braced himself for the pending field test.
“You requested my presence?” The NeHaw transmitted.
“Yes, thank you for coming,” Jake replied, relieved that the expected headache never arrived. The NeHaw nodded in reply.
“First, let me properly introduce myself. My name is Colonel Jacob Thomas; you make call me Jake if you wish.”
“I am HeBak,” came the simple reply as before.
“HeBak,” Jake said as if testing it out, “we have done a thorough search of your ship and find nothing to indicate you were spying on earth. However, we also have found nothing to support your claim of refugee status?”
“The unfortunate circumstances of my departure from the home world are not well publicized. It is a matter of embarrassment with the government to have dissenters to their policies.”
“Then I presume the gold you were mining here was to afford you a life elsewhere?” Jake asked casually.
“You live in a world of wealth and beauty. It is unfortunate that the High Council chose to make enemies of you,” the NeHaw replied, bypassing the question entirely.
Jake smiled at the reply, trying to gauge the NeHaw. Everything he and the analysts had been able to gather, painted them as arrogant, self-serving and inclined to let others do their bidding. For this NeHaw to risk landing here, he had to have one thing on his mind, himself.
“We have a proposal for you, one that will both substantiate your claim of support for earth, and further you
r desire for self-sufficiency.”
Even though Jake had no idea what an interested NeHaw looked like, he noted a distinct posture change with the self-sufficiency statement. After allowing for a drawn-out dramatic pause, of questionable effect, he laid his cards on the table.
“If you were amenable to assisting us in a survey of your home world, one that included you accompanying a small team there and back, we would be open to depositing four times the gold you currently possess in your ship’s cargo hold. We would then release you, escorting you safely to the edge of our solar system.”
With the mention of four times the gold he already possessed, Jake saw a distinct twitch. With that subtle body motion, he was positive they had found the right button to push.
“I will consider it,” was all the NeHaw would say.
----*----
The gig had hardly reached the wharf, before Ivan leaped from the boat and motioned his team to follow. They had spent the trip from the destroyer to the shore, scanning for any activity, so it was hardly reckless for him to move so urgently.
Heading directly south from Alcatraz, the map indicated they were landing in an area labeled Fisherman’s Wharf. There was an antique ship and submarine still afloat and anchored firmly in place. If he had judged distances correctly in the haze, the ship he had seen was still several kilometers inland from their current location.
Spotting a structure nearby, he noted it was called Coit Tower on the map. Taylor made to provide an overlook of the area, he and the four men with him headed straight for the tower. Once at the top, they scanned the area looking for any telltale signs of the ship he thought he had seen.
With the high-rise buildings directly to the south, and the uneven terrain west of there, they could see no activity to give them a hint. Trusting in his own sense of direction and mentally placing the ship southwest of their current position, Ivan led the four men with him down the tower steps and off into the streets below.
