by S. H. Jucha
Tomas sent privately.
Andrea restored order, requesting it through her priority mode, and then said, “Madam President, as the Senior Captain, it is usually my duty to ask the obvious question when the rest of us are confounded by the Admiral’s new directions. Would you care to do the honors?”
A sly smile crossed Maria’s face. She had missed this group of wonderful young people. “I would be happy to, Captain. Well, Admiral, I believe an explanation is in order, if you wouldn’t mind.”
Alex was ordering his thoughts, wondering where to start. Once again, the decision seemed obvious to him, but the evidence was tenuous at best.
Renée readily agreed.
Julien had tapped into Government House’s FTL comm station to monitor his charges. Similarly, Sheila Reynard, who was told by the Admiral to stand down from over-flights, had launched a “training exercise” for her and Hatsuto that just happened to occupy the upper atmosphere over Prima.
The conference group heard Julien’s voice emanate from Renée’s harness. “Greetings everyone, and congratulations on your election, President Gonzalez.”
“Thank you, Julien,” Maria replied.
“I wished to say that I concur with the Admiral’s thought that the inhabitants of the silver ships are in need of an intervention. Whether they are slaves or are a harnessed aggressive species, the two may not be mutually exclusive. I would ask our people to consider our second encounter with the silver ship in Bellamonde. First, we destroyed one, then others were sent our way, including one too far to help. And consider Captain’s Azasdau’s vids of the single entry port and the control exhibited by the mother ship, limiting the silver ships to entering one at a time. There are many more subtle clues, but it amounts to domination of one species over the other.”
“Admiral, what’s the alternative if you’re wrong?” Tatia asked.
“That’s why we go fully loaded, Weapons Master,” Alex replied. “If I’m wrong, then we wipe the silver ships from space.”
Weapons Master … Tatia thought over the title and found it suited her.
“Just how do we test your theory, Admiral?” Andrea asked.
“That part I have yet to work out,” Alex replied. “But my sense of things is that the defeat of the silver ships in the Arno System is fresh on the minds of our enemy … the inhabitants of the silver ships and the mother ship. The sooner we return, the sooner we can leverage the impact of our encounters with them.”
Maria looked to her right at Eric. He had been quiet throughout this critical part of the discussion.
When Eric saw the President gazing at him, he decided it was time to share a bit of what he had learned. He leaned toward Maria and pitched his harness audio quite low. “This is the part, Leader, where I find it best to sit and observe to prevent any untoward contact with airlocks.” He smiled graciously at Maria, happy to have been able to impart wisdom to a new Leader.
* * *
Maria called a halt to their discussions to break for lunch. On their way to the dining room, Renée calmed Tomas and Eric about what they were about to eat, telling them it would be a little bland but it was wholesome and all the protein was cultured.
Alex asked Maria for a private moment, and she ushered him into a side room, a clerk vacating the office for her.
“Madam President—”
“Alex,” Maria interrupted him, “don’t you think you and I can dispense with titles when we’re alone? It will make the conversations go so much faster.”
“Short is good, Maria,” Alex said, laughing with her. It was good to work with Maria again. Alex had been bothered by his decision to remove Downing, unsure of whether he had done it because he hated the man or because he truly believed it was for the good of his world. His uncertainty existed despite the fact that Downing was a thief and cared not one wit for the people.
“I have three immediate personal needs, Maria,” Alex said. “One, I need the salaries for my crew reinstated. Downing and his Minister of Space Exploration canceled them.”
“Done. What else?” Maria said.
“I have been using my personal funds to pay Joaquin Station for services, and I’ve just about exhausted them.”
“Again, not a problem, Alex. Have Hezekiah bill the Ministry going forward, and send me a total of what you have paid. I will reimburse you. And your last concern?”
“The first year’s installment for the purchase of my g-sling program has not been paid. Under the circumstances, you may find that program obsolete within another year with your adoption of Méridien technology. I will settle for the first year’s installment and cancel the obligation for the final two years.”
“Very generous of you, Alex. I accept your offer and will see you paid for the first year immediately. Anything else?”
“No. I thank you, Maria,” Alex said, relief in his voice.
“Well, we can’t have the man who’s trying to save the human race going out into the deep dark broke,” said Maria. She hooked Alex’s arm and led him to the dining hall.
* * *
At the dining table, Darryl Jaya paused in the middle of a bite as a thought occurred to him. He swallowed it and began chuckling to himself. He regarded Alex down the table. “Do you recall my final comment to you, Admiral, before you left for Oikos?”
Alex thought through his farewell comm with President McMorris, the Transfer Team, the T-Station Managers, and Commander Jameson, then he burst out laughing and Darryl joined in. When they settled down, Alex looked at the expectant faces around the table and explained, “The last thing Minister Jaya said to me was that he hoped I would bring back more friends.”
The room joined in the laughter. Alex had brought back more friends … an entire world of them.
-11-
The flotilla’s leaders set to work duplicating their Libran efforts. Sheila, Robert, and Hatsuto led three flights of Daggers to Barren Island. A shuttle delivered the Libran pilots right behind them. Upon landing, Sheila discovered that the previous Commander and every Striker pilot had deserted the island when Downing was removed from the presidency.
Robert volunteered to test a Striker, and after a half-hour flight, pronounced them excellent children’s toys. Sheila then had the seven Strikers exiled to a pad behind the engine-test warehouse.
Shuttles in need of heavy servicing were also flown to Barren Island. Two of them barely completed their trips. They would require major engine overhauls before they could lift again.
Commander Jameson arrived with the original T-Manager, and they reoriented Barren’s engineers and techs, who were ecstatic to return to assembling Daggers. They had grown weary of building sub-standard fighters. Libran engineers, who had accompanied the shuttles and wearing ship suits and harnesses, joined the Barren techs and engineers. Both groups had worked with each other’s people before, and since they were tech people talking to tech people, the two groups fell together as if at a family reunion.
Over the days, shuttles were returned to service, and they launched skyward to rendezvous with the Money Maker, loading crates of Dagger parts and returning to Barren Island. The process started slow, but as more shuttles were returned to service, the work accelerated. At one point, a group of Barren engineers and techs journeyed to one city-ship and then the other, working on shuttles in too poor a state to make the trip to Barren.
* * *
A key component of Alex’s grand scheme involved the New Terran city-ship contractors. It fell to Jaya and Drake to review the House Alexander agreements. The trade of contractor services for Méridien technology was contrary to the original Pact, but the point was moot since Downing and his compatriots had already violated the agreement by distributing the technology to New Terran companies without the approva
l of the Assembly.
It was Jaya who pointed out to Maria and Drake that Julien had chosen to trade processes not Méridien products that could compete with existing New Terran products. “Madam President, it will take these smaller companies that House Racine has chosen, years, if not a decade or more, to develop the technology into products that they can sell.”
“Clever or coincidental?” Drake mused.
“Considering the Admiral invited bankers seeking investment opportunities to the same meeting as the contractors, it’s no coincidence … just the workings of Alex and his SADEs,” Maria replied.
“Regarding Downing, Madam President, will there be any legal charges brought against for him for violating the Pact without authority or for the other thing…?” Jaya asked, his voice trailing off.
“You mean for the murder of President McMorris?” Maria asked. “Violating the Pact is easily proven, and we can indict him for that, but he can make a case for emergency circumstances and his powers as President pro tem. It would be a long, drawn-out affair that we may or may not win. On this point, I’m still weighing my options. In the case of the hover-car accident, unfortunately we have no proof of his involvement.”
“Madam President, what’s your pleasure on the question of the contractor agreements?” Drake asked.
“Give House Alexander and the contractors my approval. I will inform the Assembly of my decision,” Maria replied.
* * *
Tatia visited the T-Stations, greeting the Managers who had returned to their jobs at Maria’s invitation. Julien sent his list of supplies to the master GEN machines at each T-Station, and the engineers set about gathering the material required by the first-stage machines. Production was active at all sites within three days of the return of the Managers.
Once Tatia had the T-Stations up and running, she flew to the Freedom and joined Tomas and Mickey to review the city-ship’s bays. Having spent so much time aboard the Money Maker, where every meter of precious space had been occupied, the cavernous bays of the city-ship appeared even more expansive than she had recalled.
“How much flight and load do you wish to accommodate, Commander?” Tomas asked.
“All we have, Director. That would be fifty-six fighters, 224 silos of missiles, and fuel tanks to accommodate 5,600 hours of flight time under full power,” Tatia replied. “A Money Maker bay barely has room for four silos and a single fuel tank. Your ship will be our supply reserves.”
Tatia linked Mickey and Tomas into a conference comm, signaled Cordelia, and requested she stay on the comm after Julien and Andrea had been linked.
Later, she flew back to the Rêveur in time to catch the evening meal, learning Alex and Renée were landing aboard, which meant Alain was returning as well. Any day that ended with her and Alain alone in their cabin was a good day as far as Tatia was concerned.
That evening, a thought occurred to Tatia.
* * *
Evening meal was a calm and good-natured event. The crowded liners had been able to transfer their people to the city-ships. The new President pro tem and her Ministers were in place and expediently resolving issues. The people of the Unsere Menschen had witnessed the first contractors boarding their city-ship and starting work with the materials stored aboard. For the moment, there were no emergencies to solve.
Alex enjoyed one of the most relaxing meals he’d had in a long while, evident to the crew who saw the extra trips made to the food dispensers for the Admiral. Mickey and some engineers had sought to fabricate larger serving dishes only to discover that it would complicate the food processes. The controller recipes would have to be reprogrammed with an option for meal sizes, and the dispensers would have to be enlarged to accommodate the larger dishes.
On hearing Mickey’s lament about his failure, Pia had enfolded her New Terran lover in her arms and whispered, “My people will not let you starve, dear heart. We will make all the trips to the dispensers necessary to fill this huge body of yours.”
* * *
Early the following morning, Renée and Terese began a tour of the flotilla, checking on the Medical Suites for supplies and equipment. They were especially focused on the ships that would be returning to Libre.
Terese usually enjoyed lively conversations with Renée, but this morning aboard the shuttle flight to the Money Maker, she sat next to a subdued Renée.
Renée sat quietly, debating whether to share. It had been an intimate moment, but she was concerned for both the man and the Admiral.
Terese belatedly noticed her mouth was open and closed it quickly.
Renée looked over at Terese, who appeared to have forgotten this was a medical discussion. Terese’s eyes sparkled in anticipation. Renée smiled at her Medical Officer.
Terese offered Ser her own smile, wondering what it must have felt like. She felt a hint of jealousy, which was quickly drowned out by her concern for the Admiral.
erate, not an unintended consequence of the implants. As it regards sex, our Alex was not experienced before we met, and I have felt his anxiousness to participate in kind.>
Terese said, the situation becoming clear.
Renée eyed her companion, perhaps the closest Méridien friend she still had.
-12-
By the forty-sixth day after the flotilla’s return to New Terra, all Daggers had been assembled from parts and flown to their respective ships. The four ships returning to Libre were resupplied. The contractors were making great progress on the Unsere Menschen. Fuel tanks and missile silos were still being installed on the Freedom. The flotilla’s shuttles were fully restored and scheduled to begin transferring personnel and passengers—at least that was the plan.
Alex found himself invited by Tomas to a meeting of the Libran elders aboard the Freedom. Tomas met Alex and Étienne as they descended the shuttle’s ramp in Freedom’s bay. The Director offered Alex an apology for the interruption of his day’s agenda, but said nothing else regarding the meeting.
