Solbidyum Wars Saga 5: Desolation

by Dale C. Musser

  As I entered my suite, I was greeted by the sight of Kala sprawled out across a chair with her arm over her eyes, Reidecor was sitting on the floor crying as Lunnie tried to hand him toys, possibly in an attempt to calm him, or more likely because she had taken it from him, and Jenira, who was standing over them both, had told her to give it back.

  “It looks like things have been interesting here today,” I said addressing the room.

  “By the stars,” Kala muttered without moving the arm covering her eyes, “on days like this I just want to send them back to wherever they came from.”

  I could see Jenira suppress a silent giggle as she bent down and picked Lunnie up, while Reidecor, having heard my voice, stopped crying and headed across the room to me. “I think it’s been a bad day for everyone,” I said as I reached down and picked Reidecor up. Immediately I noticed that rotten smell denoting a need for a diaper changing.

  “The Brotherhood led us into a trap. The HAPRIN has been badly damaged and may take a year or more to repair. We won’t know until the full evaluation. Sokaia and her team nearly got wiped out on the HAPRIN as the Brotherhood had prepared an ambush; they had hundreds of torpedoes heading in to destroy the ship. Sokaia’s team managed to get the RMFF operational only a second or two before the torpedoes hit the shield. If she hadn’t, they probably all would have been lost.”

  Kala slowly sat up and was listening intently to what I was saying, while Jenira bounced Lunnie up and down on her hip.

  “Were you able to defeat the Brotherhood?” Kala asked.

  “No, they escaped. We did manage to blow up a few of their smaller ships, but the bulk of them got away. I think this battle was pretty much a tie. Slater thinks it was all a diversionary tactic set up by Ming. He said Ming used a similar tactic back on Earth to draw the unified forces away from his much larger intended target thousands of kilometers away, only here it would be light-years away."

  “So you think the Brotherhood is planning a major offensive someplace else, and they were trying to draw our ships here so they can attack elsewhere on an even bigger scale? You don’t think its Megelleon, do you?” she said with alarm.

  “No, I think it’s going to be in Sector 3, Admiral Kophious’s fleet section. We were looking over the star charts earlier and with a strong and relatively unopposed strike in that sector, they could carve a large chunk of planets out of the Federation,” I responded, as I held Reidecor at an arm’s length, the smell was becoming a bit strong. Jenira, seeing the look of disgust on my face, laughed silently as she set Lunnie down on the floor and then came and took Reidecor from me, after which she headed to a changing area set up in the kids’ room.

  “Will he be able to handle the attack?” Kala asked.

  “It’s hard to say,” I answered, “Kophious has moved most of his fleet to an adjoining area to this sector as we anticipated more action here, all part of what we think Ming wanted us to do. We don’t know how much time we have before the Brotherhood strikes in Sector 3. I’m issuing orders for Kophious to move as many of his fleet as quickly as possible to the area we now think is threatened. I’m also hoping that A’Lappe and Cantolla have been able to finish their work on the large Cantolla gates that will allow us to move ships through them. If we can transport the components through the Cantolla gate on the DUSTEN to the one on Kophious’s flagship, and hopefully get them assembled rapidly, we may be able to move a number of ships into Sector 3 soon. If we can, we should be able to have them cloaked and waiting for the Brotherhood when they show up. If the Brotherhood is going to try what we think, it will happen in less than a week, so we have a lot of work to do.” I felt something tugging on my pant leg and looked down to see Lunnie’s smiling face looking up at me. I picked her up and tickled her belly, and she squealed with laughter.

  “She really knows how to get your attention,” Kala said, “She’s definitely a daddy’s girl. So how many men did we lose in this battle?”

  “I don’t know yet. I just came down here for a quick break and to see you and the twins.” I tweaked Lunnie’s nose. “I don’t think we lost too many, at least not as many as the Brotherhood hoped, nor as many as we could have.”

  Kala got up out of her chair and came over, putting her arms around Lunnie and me and laid her head on my shoulder. “Tib, I wish we had more time together. Since we left Desolation, I have barely seen you. I thought it was bad on Desolation with you having to make treks back and forth moving supplies from the ship to the mesa, and being gone days at a time, but this is even worse. At least on Desolation when you were around, I still had some time with you. However, now we hardly see each other at all!”

  “I know, Kala. I feel the same way too. However, I can’t sit back while Ming, Roritat, and the Brotherhood take over the Federation. What kind of future would that be for our children? I would never be able to live with myself if I didn’t fight them with everything I have.”

  Kala sighed and kissed me on the cheek, “That’s what I love about you, Tib; you always put the welfare of your family and friends first.”

  I was playing with Lunnie and Reidecor on the floor when my wrist com beeped. “Tibby here,” I answered.

  “Admiral, you said you wanted a status update, but you didn’t say exactly where you wanted us to meet,” Marranalis’s voice responded.

  “Oh, right… ah, let’s make it that medium-sized conference room not far from the bridge. Is it time already?” I asked.

  “No, we have another 20 minutes. I was just trying to get everything coordinated,” Marranalis answered.

  “If Captain Sokaia is back from her mission, I want her there as well, and if Slater is still aboard invite him, and Captain Wanoll also. Then, contact the NEW ORLEANS and see if you can get Cantolla to come over here; A’Lappe won’t come as he doesn’t like to leave the NEW ORLEANS,” I added as I got up off the floor.

  “Admiral, you also have a message from Captain Kerabac; he said to tell you that the NEW ORLEANS would reach Goo’ Waddle in 20 hours, and he wishes to know your orders once he arrives there.”

  “Tell him park the NEW ORLEANS in high orbit around the planet and keep it cloaked. Then I want him to contact Andy and arrange for the use a transport to pick him up and take him to the NEW ORLEANS. I’ll meet with him in my study there 36 hours from now.

  “Now let me go, I need to shower, and put on a clean uniform before the meeting, Lunnie and Reidecor have both drooled all over this one,” I said. I heard Marranalis chuckle before the com went dead.

  I showered and dressed in a new uniform, gave Kala and the kids all a kiss and was about to head out the door when I nearly ran into Franton. “Admiral, sir,” he stammered, “It’s been several weeks since I was assigned to you as an aide, and so far you haven’t really given me any orders, sir!”

  “I see,” I responded, “would you like to have some orders?”

  “Sir, yes sir.” He said standing stiffly at attention.

  “Very well, you see that lady sitting over there in that chair?” I said pointing to Kala.

  “First Citizen Kalana?” he asked dumbly, as though there might have been another invisible person nearby.

  “Yes, First Citizen Kalana. Your orders are to do whatever she asks you to do. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting to go to,” and with that I pushed myself past him and out into the hall where my parade of bodyguards fell into place to escort me to the conference room. Franton wasn’t a bad guy, and he might even have made a good aide, but I knew and trusted Marranalis; he and Kala had been with me from the time I first set foot on the DUSTEN years earlier, and Marranalis knew me and my ways. Franton seemed just a tad bit wet behind the ears, as they would have said on Earth, and while he could do well with matters regarding my suite and family, I didn’t feel he had what I needed for a personal aide.

  When I entered the conference room, the place was abuzz with conversations, all of which came to an abrupt halt as I set foot inside. Two troopers took up station inside the do
or, while out in the corridor a small crowd was developing from all the trooper guards from Stonbersa and Kophious tried to find a station amidst more of my own trooper guards. I glanced back at the mess and shook my head. Something needed to be done about this mess. I wondered how they handled it back in the first solbidyum wars when they had fleet admirals before. Then I realized that they didn’t have Cantolla gates, so admirals could assemble frequently, and it was unlikely more than two met at a time other than for ceremonial events every few years.

  “Gentlemen and Ladies,” I said nodding to Sokaia and Cantolla, “please be seated.”

  Someone, most likely at either Marranalis’ or Wanoll’s instructions, had placed name cards at the table so everyone knew where to sit. I started off the meeting by relating the situation surrounding the battle we’d just fought with the Brotherhood and how we believed it to have been a trap to draw us away from their real target. Both Admirals Kophious and Stonbersa were shocked when I told them what we believed had happened, and I allowed Captain Slater to explain how Ming had used a similar tactic back on Earth.

  “Surely you don’t believe he deliberately lost the HAPRIN just to draw us here, do you?” Admiral Kophious asked in an incredulous tone.

  “I doubt that was his intent. He had no way of knowing we would sacrifice some of our ships to incapacitate the HAPRIN. I think it was their intent to feign damage to draw us aboard, and then to capture a large number of our troops, or to slug it out with starships in the hope of drawing the third fleet over here to help out with the battle. Only things went wrong for them. Once Ming saw the HAPRIN was falling back into our hands, he quickly changed his plans and decided that if he could not keep the ship, he would make sure we didn’t recover it. That plan also failed.

  “Sokaia, how many men did we lose in the conflicts on the planet and the ship?” I asked.

  “Two hundred and thirty seven, sir, we lost seventy three on the planet, and one hundred and sixty four on the HAPRIN.”

  “How many Brotherhood casualties total on the planet and the HAPRIN?” I asked.

  “As of our last count, there were seventeen hundred and ninety one. However, most of those were on the HAPRIN and were caused in the explosion of the ships in the hangar bay. We estimate only one hundred and seven were the result of our recapturing the ship, sir.”

  I looked at Sokaia and asked, “How many Brotherhood troops have we taken prisoners in the battle?”

  “We’re not altogether certain, sir,” she began, “we found nearly three thousand on the HAPRIN, but some of them appear to be Brotherhood, other slaves, and a few hostages being held for ransom. We have even found a number who are conscripts pressed into service and forced to fight under the duress of slave collars, like those we saw on Goo’Waddle, and also under drugged conditions. We’re using truth headbands and loyalty testing to question them individually to weed out Brotherhood members and sympathizers from those who were fighting under duress and forced conditions.”

  “Where are the prisoners now?” I asked.

  Sokaia responded, “They are all being confined on the HAPRIN for the moment. I felt it best to keep them there until I had an opportunity to discuss things with you.”

  “Hmm, I think it might be best if we transfer them to a hidden prison world using Cantolla gates, but I don’t want them knowing how it’s done. I want them someplace where the Brotherhood can’t rescue them.” I answered.

  “Sir, we do have prison worlds, but we would need a lot of ships to guard any such planet from a Brotherhood attack, and if the Tottalax helps them, there is little we could do to prevent them being freed,” Sokaia said.

  “I have somewhere in mind that I think may hold them and in a place I don’t think the Brotherhood will look for them. However, we’ll need to set up Cantolla gates to transfer them, and I want them all drugged and unconscious when they are. Once they wake up there they will not know where they are, nor how long they have been there, and they will have no way for them to communicate their whereabouts to anyone. Even the guards we station there won’t know where they are, and they will have access back to the Federation via the Cantolla gates. The gates will only be open for prisoner transfer and changes of the guards, and that will always be controlled from this side of the gate. With no ships at the prison and no way for them to get off that world, or to communicate off world, I think they will be quite secure.” I looked around the room to see everyone looking at me with a strange stare.

  “May we ask where this place is?” Admiral Stonbersa asked. I grinned, “you may ask, Admiral, but for the moment I am not going to tell you. The fewer people who know about this, the more secure the prisoners will be from being freed.”

  “Marranalis, what’s the status of the HAPRIN? How long to get her operational?”

  “Sir, it’s not good. The Gravity Wave generator is totally shot. The 10X fusion reactor is still intact and functioning within given parameters, but most of the ship's wiring conduits need to be replaced. A lot of switchgear is shot, and most of the weapons are little more than scrap. The hull needs major overhaul, both hangars need near total reconstruction, the navigation system is shot, the cloaking mechanism is fried. The life support is failing, as the ship is leaking air through the many hull penetrations and fractures. Sir I don’t see the HAPRIN as being able to get back into service in less than two years, and then only after we have been able to tow it to a major shipyard at a well-supplied and manned facility.”

  “I see,” I answered, “I was hoping for better news. We’re going to need every ship we can get into action if we’re going to beat the Brotherhood. From what the FSO is uncovering, the Brotherhood has amassed a fleet larger than what the Federation has and while they may be smaller ships, they still outnumber us, and we are spread too thin.”

  “Sir,” Cantolla spoke up from the end of the table, “what if you didn’t move the HAPRIN from here? What if instead, you start up a new shipyard here? With a Cantolla gate located here you could send supplies through and even have some components and parts built or repaired elsewhere and sent through the gates. You can easily have experts and consultants come here from one shipyard or another to assist as needed. From what I know about this system, there is a good labor pool available and eager to work; why not rebuild the ship here? It would certainly save time.”

  “Hmm, any thoughts on that from the rest of you?” I asked. I could see raised eyebrows around the table, and a few individuals sat up a little taller at the table. “It might work,” Admiral Stonbersa said. “If you could have multiple things being done at different places and on other planets and shipped through Cantolla gates directly to the ship, it would save considerable time. I’d be willing to guess it could reduce repair time by at least 30%. By the time they finished, both Kendrop and Gochian will be first class ship builders, and we can keep them busy building new ships for the Federation. It would beat having all our ships built in the central core planets and then delivered to the outer perimeter.”

  “I see your point,” I began, “but if the large Cantolla gates work as well as I am hoping that won’t matter, all we will need is gates at key locations about the Federation, and we can move our fleets from one sector to another in minutes. Still it never hurts to have shipbuilding facilities at many different locations. Let’s get with the leaders of Kendrop and Gochian and see how they feel about repairing the HAPRIN here and creating a new shipyard in the area. Who do we have that can negotiate with the leaders?” I looked at Captain Wanoll, only to see him return my stare with a blank look.

  “Admiral, since the Brotherhood attacked the Senate when Roritat left, most of the senators and diplomats have left the ship and have been working at the Capitol. The Senate, aides, and other staff there were understaffed and there is so much for them to do. I’m afraid we may not have anyone aboard qualified to negotiate with the Kendropkins and Gochianeians,” and then with a sudden look of realization, “except for First Citizen Kalana. She is, or at least was, a mil
itary diplomatic attaché; she would be qualified to negotiate on behalf of the Federation.”

  “Oh thanks,” I said in a humorous tone, “as though I don’t have enough problems fighting the Brotherhood, now I have to ask my bond mate to negotiate with the leaders of two planets. Her latest negotiations have been trying to keep our twins from stealing each other’s toys, and that hasn’t been working. I may just as well go surrender to the Brotherhood now and ask them to shoot me.” I heard laughter at the table as everyone knew all too well that I would have no such problems from Kala.

  “Admiral Kophious, I need for you to continue with the third fleet to Ugar as we had originally planned. It was the right choice, unfortunately, I didn’t know that when I ordered you to turn your fleet this way thinking the Brotherhood might flee in that direction. I had no idea it was a trick, and they wanted to divert you. Let’s just hope that we’re not too late turning the third fleet around and heading to Ugar.

  “Cantolla, are you and A’Lappe ready to start sending major starship-sized gate components through the smaller gates so they can be assembled to create the larger ones?” I asked.

  “We have the components completed for both the sending and receiving gate,” Cantolla said. “We will need the crews on the ships to be used for those gates to come to the NEW ORLEANS and receive training. It will take several days to train them how to fine-tune the adjustments of the nodes within the ships once they are in place. We could have everything operational within five to seven days if we start today.”

  I turned to Kophious, “I expect you to have the crews of the three ships selected for the nodes for your side of the gates to report to the NEW ORLEANS for training within 12 hours. Marranalis, see to selecting crews for three ships for the nodes on this end of the gate and have them report to A’Lappe and Cantolla as well. Oh, and one thing more, make contact with Admiral Wabussie at the FSO. I want an intelligence officer from his office onboard every one of our star ships, and I want them to be a part of every major meeting, so they can relate the latest intelligence information to us, and also so they can keep the home office aware of what we are doing.