“If we can intercept and destroy the shipments before they are delivered to the Tottalax, it could sour feelings against the Brotherhood from both sides,” I said, “the Tottalax and the drug users in the Federation. Do you know where and when the deliveries are to be made?”
“Not yet, it was an issue to be decided. We’re hoping to be able to intercept the message when they set up a time and place for the exchange.”
“If you can get that information to us soon enough,” Admiral Regeny joined in, “We can have a fleet of cloaked ships waiting there for them and destroy the God’s Sweat before it can be delivered. As soon as you hear something let Tibby know, Admiral,” he said looking at me,” I expect you to deal with this with your usual efficiency.”
“I’ll give it my best effort, sir.” I replied. “But first we need to deal with Roritat and Ming at Plosaxen. I think that as soon as the ceremony is completed this afternoon I need to get to Plosaxen and join the NEW ORLEANS in protecting the planet. Once the threat to the planet is gone, and we can get a starship here, I will need to transfer and set up my command and the fleet.”
“See Tibby, you're already one step ahead of me.” Regeny said. “However, I have had Goncest here working with a list of all the ships in the fleet and their last-known positions and destinations. You’re going to need to review the information and decide how you want to divide up the fleet and who you want to be in command of each fleet.”
“Admiral I know who I want for fleet admirals; both men have combat experience against the Brotherhood and know and understand my methods and thinking. I know I can trust them and depend on them to do the right thing in a crisis.”
The Admiral leaned forward with an intense look. “Now you have my interest. I'm not aware of you having met more than one or two of the admirals in the fleet, let alone knowing any that have been in combat against the Brotherhood.”
I smiled, “Well one of the men will need to be reinstated in the military and given a promotion.” Regeny raised an eyebrow, but he remained silent. “I was thinking of Commodore Stonbersa. He’s been with me in every battle against the Brotherhood from the start, and he certainly has performed excellently, plus he has experience commanding my fleet operations for all my ships.”
“Hmm, an interesting choice, he also has lots of friends in the military, and he was well thought of by most of his fellow officers. The man who forced his retirement is gone now; he was killed in the first attack upon the capitol when the Brotherhood took the DUSTEN. So who is your second choice? Not Captain Felenna, I hope. I don’t think she would go over well with the rank and file in the Federation military.”
“No,” I responded, “I need her to stay on station at Alle Bamma protecting the planet from the return of the Brotherhood. I was thinking of Captain Wanoll. He helped recover the DUSTEN from Thimas and Lexmal and is a good man with an excellent battle head on his shoulders.”
Admiral Regeny tugged on some lose skin beneath his chin a moment and then said, “I’m afraid I can’t do that Tibby. It would not sit well with most of the other Admirals if everyone assigned as fleet admirals came from outside the existing fleet. I can get away with you, and Stonbersa was a long-standing and well respected captain, close to being promoted to admiral before he was forced to retire. However, if I make Wanoll a fleet admiral, by-passing all the existing admirals, it would not sit well at all and might cause dissention in the fleet. I am willing to assign the DUSTEN to you for use as your flagship and then Captain Wanoll would be under your command and would be captain of the fleet flagship. That should put him in line for earlier advancement when the time comes.”
“Okay, I see your point. Who do you recommend for the third fleet admiral?” I asked.
“I was thinking of Admiral Kophious. You’ve never met him as he’s been at the far end of the Federation for the past eight years. He serves as an unofficial fleet commander there, and he’s had some battle experience, though nothing compared to what you and the Commodore have. Still I think he would be the perfect choice. Wabussie, what do you think? You served under Kophious for a while.”
“He’s a good choice,” Commander Wabussie responded, “I was actually thinking of him myself. He certainly knows how to command a fleet of ships and organize them, and he’s not afraid to commit to battle when it’s needed.”
“How long will it take to contact him and give him orders?”
“That’s the bad part. We still do not have any ships that far out with Deep-Space Communication systems, so we’ll have to relay the message to the closest Federation ship that does have one and have them send a GW Message pod to where we believe he and his ships are. We’re not sure where he is. If he’s where we think, it will take five or six months, if he’s not there and the message needs to be passed on, it could take up to a year,” Regeny said with a glum look.
“A’Lappe and Cantolla have been working on some new technology that may help us out, but it requires all the energy of a solbidyum reactor to operate. If we can find a way to power it, we could travel from here to the far end of the Federation in just minutes.” Everyone in the room got quiet and stared at me intensely with questioning looks.
“I don’t really understand exactly how it works; somehow their system generates a field at two places while sharing a common plane between their points that is the same space, even though to us they seem light years apart. You could simply walk through the field here and instantly be in a room onboard a ship anywhere in the universe.”
“Is this some crazy theory they have, or have they built one?” Regeny asked.
“They’ve actually built a very small model. I've seen it work,” I replied, “but it’s only large enough for very small objects, not much bigger than this fruit,” I said picking up a small fruit similar to an Earth strawberry from a plate on the table. According to A’Lappe the small apparatus they used required most of the power generated by a solbidyum reactor. A fusion reactor would not be sufficient to generate adequate power to open a frame large enough to pass anything through."
“Could it open a space big enough to get a message through?” Commander Wabussie asked.
“Maybe, I hadn’t thought of that, and I don’t know if A’Lappe or Cantolla has or not. You would only need a very small opening to send a thin focused beam through to establish an instant communication system,” I said, “but it could only exist between two precise points if I understand it correctly.”
“That still would be a huge leap for us,” Regeny said. I noticed in his excitement, Regeny had managed to dribble some food on his white uniform jacket. He saw me staring at it and looked down… “By the stars… I knew this would happen, Goncest, see if you can locate a new jacket for me before we need to return to the Senate Chamber!”
Goncest rose from his seat, “Yes sir, I should be able to get one from the replicator where I got Tibby’s uniform. I’ll be right back.”
“I’m going to have to leave you,” Commander Wabussie said. “I have some pressing business to attend to this afternoon. Congratulations again, Tibby, I’ll be looking forward to working with you.”
“Good,” I responded, “I’m going to be relying on you and the FSO to provide me with as much intelligence as you can get about the Brotherhood and their movements.”
By now everyone had finished eating, and I realized I needed to be getting dressed in the uniform I was to wear at the swearing-in ceremony. I gulped down a few bites of whatever it was they had set out for me, and I have no idea if it was good or not. I have no recollection of what we were served; I think the excitement at the moment was overriding all my other senses.
I dressed in the uniform provided me. Unlike my honorary vice admiral’s uniform that was trimmed with gold piping, the fleet admiral’s uniform had a pale blue piping. Medals and ribbons were unknown on uniforms for the Federation military, and the unique thing that distinguished my uniform from any uniform of any other rank of admiral was the color of piping. Rear Admiral Re
geny was the sole admiral with a completely white uniform. The lowest ranking of Admirals all had a thread of light green piping on their uniforms. When not in formal whites, the uniform of admirals was the same color as the piping thread in their formal uniforms and the piping on their uniforms would be gold. Admiral Regeny’s uniform for all occasions was white.
As I walked out on the platform where I was to swear my oath before the Senate, I found myself wishing Kala was there. I recalled my first encounter with the Senate years earlier when Kala and I, along with the others of my crew assisted in delivering the TRITYTE and its solbidyum cargo back to the Federation. I remembered also a few weeks later, we were honored before the Senate when Kala, and I were given the honor of First Citizens in the Federation.
History should have given me a warning, or at least prepared me for what happened next. In the past nearly every time I appeared before the Senate I ended up either in a martial arts demonstration at Admiral Regeny’s request, or in a life-threatening experience. I should have been wary walking out on the stage to be sworn in as fleet admiral, but all that I really felt was nervous and I wanted the whole thing to be over and done with. I was still muddling things over in my mind as I walked out on the platform where Leader Tonclin and Rear Admiral Regeny stood waiting, deliberating if it was possible to retract my acceptance, and wondering if I had made the right choice or not. I was only a few steps from Leader Tonclin when I happened to glance off the platform and out over the audience. My eyes moved up to the balcony, traveling quickly along it with no particular object in mind. The entire distraction of my vision was only a second, but in that instant, I noticed a figure concealed from most everyone else in the large auditorium, in a location that could only be seen by a few on the platform. The location was at most about 80 meters from the stage. My eye was instantly drawn back to it as I realized it was one of the troopers whom Roritat had take me into custody when I arrived at the Capitol days earlier, and who had guarded me until I was brought forward to face the Senate for questioning. Alarms started going off in my head, why was he here? Why hadn’t he left with Roritat and the other traitor senators? What was he doing? What was that object in his hands? A gun! He had a gun, and he was aiming at Leader Tonclin.
“Look out,” I yelled as I leapt ahead, shoving Tonclin to the side. In that same instant, I felt a searing stab of pain in my right shoulder, and as I fell forward, carried on by my own momentum I glanced at Admiral Regeny, his knees buckled as he collapsed upon the floor, a bright crimson spot spreading out on his uniform as he fell. I could hear scuffling and yelling all about me, and I could hear the zapping sounds of plasma bolts being fired from weapons, but I didn’t know who was firing or at what. I was momentarily stunned when I hit the floor hard and I recall thinking, “I wonder where all my training went to, I should have tucked and rolled.” Then my head hit something hard and for a moment I was in darkness.
I could not have been unconscious more than a second or two because the sounds of chaos and fighting were still taking place when I awoke. I saw two Senate guards rapidly approaching me and another two escorting Leader Tonclin off the platform. I saw another kneeling over Admiral Regeny, who lay sprawled upon the floor, a small pool of blood forming at his side, and I feared him dead until I saw him raise an arm for the Senate guard to help him. By now, the sounds of battle and conflict were gone and only the sounds of panicking people hastily leaving the Senate Chamber could be heard.
“Are you alright sir?” The first guard to reach me asked.
“I’m not sure,” I replied as I raised my hand to touch my still throbbing head, as I did I noted blood stains on the right sleeve of my uniform, and I felt pain in my shoulder.
“You’ve been hit sir. Lie still.” He instructed me. “Corporal, get a medic, the First Citizen has been wounded.”
“Tonclin,” I asked, “is he all right?” I tried to see if he was still on the stage, but he was gone, as were the two guards with him.
“Yes sir, that was some quick action on your part. You saved his life. You took the shot intended for him. The Admiral would probably be dead now also if you hadn’t startled him when you pushed Leader Tonclin to the side. As it was, the Admiral moved just enough so he took a grazing wound that otherwise would have gone through his heart.” As he was speaking, he had the heel of his hand pressing against my shoulder trying to stop the blood flow there.
“He didn’t look too good to me just now,” I said as I looked back to where he was laying on the floor. By now, there was a small group of Senate guards about him and medics were placing him onto a gurney-like device. I saw the Corporal moving around them with a medic in tow. As soon as he reached me, the medic immediately began looking me over and quickly cut the uniform and sleeve area of my uniform to inspect my wound. He wiped the wounds, both entrance and exit, with some damp pads, and then placed two large bandage- like patches over the wounds. “This should hold you until we can get you into a med unit. Do you think you can stand?”
“Ah, I think so.” I answered. As he reached forward and took me by my good arm and helped me to my feet.
I looked out at the Senate Hall which by now was nearly empty. How thousands of senators could leave the place so quickly astounded me.
“This way First Citizen, take it slowly. You've lost a small amount of blood, and you may be a bit light headed.”
“Did they get the shooter?”
“Yes sir, we got both just seconds after you were hit.” The Senate guard replied, as they led me off the stage and to a waiting conveyance in a side tunnel.
“Both of them? There was more than one?” I asked in astonishment.
“Yes sir, one was apparently targeting Leader Tonclin, and the other was targeting Admiral Regeny.”
“I recognized the one man,” I said. “He was one of the men Roritat had to pick me up and detain me before my hearing.”
“It’s a good thing you spotted him. Otherwise, we might be without both a leader and a rear admiral right now,” the Corporal added.
The trip to the nearest medical facility within the Capitol only lasted a few minutes. Once there the medic and one of the Senate guards helped me off the conveyance and past a squad of troopers and other Senate guards who surrounded the facility in ready mode. We entered a large room with beds and med units by each bed. I noted Admiral Regeny reclining on one of the raised beds with an I.V. in his arm. Leader Tonclin stood by his bed; it was obvious the two were involved in a serious discussion.
“Ah, Tibby, there you are.” The Admiral said as he looked up and saw me entering. “I see they hit you too. I guess both Tonclin and I owe you our lives.”
“Indeed, we do,” Tonclin added, “Most Honored First Citizen, once again both we and the Federation are in your debt. Had you not pushed me out of the way and taken the shot intended for me, I would no longer possess this life.”
By now, the medic had led me to the bed next to the Admiral so it was possible for us to continue talking as the medic began scanning me with instruments.
“I’m confused about one thing,” I said to no one, in particular, but I hoped someone would answer. “Plasma energy bolts have intense heat to them. If we were hit by plasma bolts, the wounds both the Admiral and I received should have cauterized immediately from the heat, and we would have little to no bleeding, but we seem to have lost a fair amount of blood.”
“We weren’t hit by plasma bolts,” the Admiral said.
“But I clearly heard plasma weapons being discharged.” I replied.
“Those were shots being fired by the Senate guards at the assassins.”
“What were we hit with?”
“Ice bullets,” the Admiral replied. The assassins couldn’t smuggle in any high tech energy, or explosive projectile weapons without them being detected by electronic scanners. Instead, they used compressed air powered rifles, made of composite materials that are harder to detect. They most likely used simple water and polycarbonate molds in the flash fre
ezers in the kitchen areas, here in the capitol, to make the projectiles and kept them in cryo-pouches until the last minute. The chambers of the rifles have a chilled magazine that keeps the bullet frozen until fired. The projectiles wouldn’t pierce your skull, but they tear through flesh easily enough. A good marksman usually tries for a heart shot, which is what it appears the assassins attempted with me and Tonclin. If they had succeeded they would have severely crippled the Federation. Even if their shots don’t manage to hit the heart, the wounds are not cauterized by heat like they would be with a laser or plasma weapon, and bleeding is usually profuse. A victim may bleed to death in a short period of time. We should have been wearing armored vests under our uniforms. I think until this war with the Brotherhood is ended, we may need to do so anytime we are off ship or off base.”
The Admiral turned to Tonclin, “Leader Tonclin, is there anything that prevents you from swearing Tibby in here instead of before the Senate?"
“I am not aware of any regulations that would prohibit it. All we need is three official officers or representatives from the government to witness the event.”
“Hmm, any member of the Federation military is a representative for the government, are they not?” Regeny muttered.
“I suppose that is true,” Tonclin said.
“So any of the Senate guards, or troopers, here could provide witness and you and I are both official representatives.”
“That is correct.”
“Then I think for the sake of the Federation, it is expedient that Tibby be sworn in immediately so that, should anything happen to us, he will be able to take command over the military with appropriate action immediately.” And so it was I was sworn in as Fleet Admiral of the Federation while sitting on a bed in a med unit as a medic worked on my wounds. I had barely been sworn in when a young lieutenant in the Senate guard came up to me. “Sir, we’ve received a call from First Citizen Kalana inquiring about your condition and wishing to speak to you.”
Solbidyum Wars Saga 5: Desolation Page 2
