by S. H. Jucha
The head table’s emotional release slowly spread throughout the room, and appetites regained a little of their former strength.
* * *
When the fleet transited into Omnia’s space, four of the OS Tridents headed inward. The New Terran warships, in the company of the OS Liberator, made their final transit to Oistos, the New Terran star.
Alex took the opportunity to talk again with Alphons and Bart. He understood survivor’s guilt, but the two men couldn’t shake their feelings that they had committed a serious breach of naval protocol by refusing to follow their admiral’s order.
Seated at his cabin’s undersized desk, Alex linked to the Liberator’s controller and established private connections with the two captains, who sat at their cabin tables with their comm consoles.
“Alex, we appreciate your support. But this is something that Alphons and I feel we need to do,” Bart said.
“I echo Bart’s sentiments, Alex. You’ve been incredibly generous in your support, and while you’re convinced of our innocence, we aren’t,” Alphons added.
“What do you think he meant about not letting it rest?” Bart asked, after Alex closed his link.
“You want me to tell you what Alex Racine is thinking, at any one moment?” Alphons asked. “I don’t think anyone, but Julien, would know the answer to that question.”
When the three Tridents transited into Oistos space, the populace buzzed with the news, spread quickly by the media. Two of the NT ships had been gone for more than a year, and the flagship for much of that time. It was only after an enterprising reporter pinged each ship and received IDs of one OS and two NT warships that the public’s mood shifted. Questions were posed by media personalities about the absence of the admiral and his flagship, ranging from simple ones about where the ship might be to dark ones that supposed dire things had happened to them.
“Word’s out, Alex, about the ship IDs,” Maria Gonzalez said, without preliminaries, when she connected to Alex.
Alex was crammed behind his cabin desk, wearing a short robe, which was absorbing the last of the refresher’s moisture. His console was set to voice comm, while Renée worked at drying his hair.
“Hmm,” Alex replied, his voice muffled by the towel.
“Am I interrupting something, Alex?” Maria asked.
“Nothing I can’t finish later,” Renée replied.
“Youth … it must be nice,” Maria said. “I need to ask you, Alex. Where’s Tripping’s flagship?”
“Spreading out in little pieces across a cold system, many, many light-years from here, Maria, I’m sad to say,” Alex replied.
“Please tell me that the admiral was a hero, and he died with his crew defending humankind,” Maria said hopefully.
Alex leaned back in his chair, wrapping the towel around his neck, and Renée perched on the desktop. While Alex was trying to think of a way to answer Maria’s question, Renée said, “He can’t, Maria.”
“I knew it,” Maria replied hotly. “What happened?”
“That story will take time to tell, Maria. I’m more concerned about the guilt-ridden survivors, namely Captains Jagielski and Fillister,” Alex said.
“Survivor’s guilt is a heavy burden,” Maria replied. “No one knows that better than you, Alex.”
“Well, in this case, Maria, it’s complicated by the circumstances of Tripping’s demise,” Alex replied. “He cut off comms with our flagship and ordered an attack, contrary to the battle commander’s orders. I convinced Captains Jagielski and Fillister to abandon the attack. Now, they feel that they might have been dishonorable.”
“How did the flagship meet its end?” Maria asked.
“The sphere self-destructed,” Alex replied.
“Incredible,” Maria said. “But, surely, that couldn’t have been foreseen by anyone.”
“Sorry to disabuse you of that notion, Maria,” Renée replied. “But, I’ll allow you one guess.”
“What, Alex, did the sphere slip you a note saying, ‘we don’t surrender under any circumstances’?”
“Something like that,” Alex replied, uncomfortable with the turn in the conversation.
Renée slipped off the desk to stand behind him, and she stroked her fingers through Alex’s short, thick, still-moist hair.
“The way I see it, Maria,” Alex said, “Tripping broke his agreement with us, issued an illegal order, managed to destroy his ship, unnecessarily, and attempted to take the other two Tridents with him. Now, his remaining captains think they should tell all and throw themselves on the mercy of the Navy’s Board of Inquiry.”
“And you don’t agree with their intentions?” Maria asked.
“Muscle flexion on the jaw is about 60 percent, Maria,” Renée said.
“I take that as an intense disagreement with the captains,” Maria replied. “Well, then I don’t need to ask why your flagship is here, do I, Alex? Speaking of traveling accommodations, why a warship?”
“Because I won’t let him travel in a passenger liner anymore, Maria,” Renée said forcefully. “It’s Alex that’s putting together the scope of what we face. Our adversaries don’t consist of a couple of spheres. The Nua’ll appear to be an old and advanced civilization that is intent on expansion. From now on, Alex travels aboard the most powerful ship we have, wherever he goes.”
Maria had rarely heard mettle ringing in Renée’s voice. She couldn’t imagine what had transpired in the past year, but, if Renée was thinking like this, it couldn’t be good.
“What do you hope to accomplish here, Alex?” This was the question Maria was afraid to ask but knew she must.
“Maria, these two captains are fine, honorable men, who believe they’re unworthy of their positions because of some improper New Terran naval officer training. Unlawful orders from superiors must not only be rejected, training should reinforce regulations that allow subordinate officers to remove from command senior officers who issue those types of orders.”
Maria had her answer, without Alex responding directly to her question. This was a matter of justice for him. Without a fair resolution, as Alex perceived it, the agreement to share technology and construct warships for defense and offense would be placed in jeopardy. Adding to this was the specter of a massive alien empire somewhere out in the deep dark. All this spelled incredible complications for New Terra’s fledgling, space-capable, society.
“Will you see me when you make orbit, Alex?” Maria asked, hoping to have a face-to-face meeting with Alex to moderate his approach to New Terra’s leaders.
“Certainly, Maria, if you’re standing next to Harold Grumley at the time. He’ll be my first stop,” Alex replied.
“Good night, Alex, Renée,” Maria replied, closing the comm link.
* * *
The three Tridents made orbit over New Terra. The two NT pilots offloaded their travelers from the flagship and made for the planet’s fighter training base. Skeleton crews rendezvoused with the two NT warships to relieve the entire ships’ complements, who had been missing their families and friends.
Alex winced as Julien reported to him the mass exodus of NT personnel aboard the warships’ travelers.
“Don’t forget your lance, Sir Racine,” Renée replied. They were bantering about one of her favorite vids, a strange tale of men on horses, dressed in metal, and engaged in heroic deeds.
Franz readied a traveler for his passengers, Alex, Julien, Tatia, and the twins.
“Returning to New Terra feels stranger every time we arrive,” Tatia commented to Alex, who sat across from her. “Seeing my parents becomes a little more surreal. I love them, but I know them less and less.”
“I wonder what I’ll feel when I see my parents and sister again,” Alex replied.
“Cordelia and I have wondered the same thing about our youngest children,” Julien added. “Humans have this habit of evolving in unforeseen directions in incredibly short periods of time.”
The three sat quietly after that exchange. Franz dropped through the atmosphere and chose to land the traveler on the front grounds of Government House, the president’s residence.
“This ought to be interesting,” Tatia said, with a smirk, as she eyed the twins, who were wearing their shoulder-mounted stun guns and energy packs. It was a new standard that everyone around Alex insisted on, not that he approved, but he’d given up objecting to the small things. In his opinion, there were much more important things to worry about.
Tatia had forewarned the president’s security about the escorts who would accompany Alex, but they were unprepared for the formidable weapons staring at them. The senior security officer asked the group to halt, while he examined the stun guns.
Alain used the opportunity to have his left shoulder weapon track the man, as he walked from the front of him to the side. It so unnerved the officer that he waved the group forward without another word.
Inside Government House, an aide greeted Alex and asked the group to wait while they were announced.
Alex flashed back to his first visit to Government House with Renée de Guirnon at his side. At the time, he was intrigued by her, but they weren’t partners yet.
Maria had arrived prior to the Omnians to brief the president, but Harold hadn’t allowed her the opportunity before he launched into describing the situation, as he saw it. Maria listened patiently to Harold, as he droned on. She kept her eye on the chronometer, knowing Alex and company would be precisely on time. With a diminishing window to make her case, Maria interrupted the president.
“Harold, let me stress a few things to you before Alex arrives. He won’t take into account your protestations of political pressure. And he certainly won’t be concerned about how the captains are treated with regard to the effect it will have on your reelection chances. Alex Racine will be expecting just treatment for Captains Jagielski and Fillister. In his opinion, they made the right call. They followed the lawful orders of the battle commander, Commodore Shimada, and rightfully ignored the unlawful orders of Admiral Tripping.”
“But, Maria, Tripping has a great many supporters, and they view him as a hero. They believe he must have sacrificed his life and ship to eliminate a dangerous enemy.”
“What sacrifice are you talking about, Harold? Didn’t you read Alex and Tatia’s reports? The sphere blew up in an attempt to take as many of the squadron’s ships with it as it could. Tripping’s single salvo of beam shots didn’t do anything except destroy a few tons of space junk that were hurtling at his ship.”
“That’s not the way it’s being portrayed in certain circles,” Harold protested.
“Well, Harold, I can tell you that you’re about to get an education in a different way of looking at things,” Maria said, just as an aide tapped at the conference room door.
“Mr. President, your pardon, but your guests have landed,” the aide said.
“Ah, thank you, we have time yet,” Harold said, glancing toward Maria.
“Um, Mr. President, to be more precise, your guests are here. Their traveler landed on the front grounds,” the aide clarified.
Harold blinked at his aide, processing the idea that his guests would fly directly to Government House. It certainly wasn’t protocol and perhaps even a little rude.
For her part, Maria was smiling and thinking, Get ready, Harold, here come the Omnians.
The aide, who had greeted Alex, hurried back to his guests, who were waiting in the rotunda next to the statue of Lem Ulam, the last captain of the New Terran colony ship before it was abandoned.
“This way, Mr. Racine,” the aide said, indicating the direction with an arm and eyeing the shoulder-mounted weapons on the twins. “President Grumley and Envoy Gonzalez are waiting for you in the main conference room.”
Knowing where to go, Alex’s strides quickly outpaced that of the aide, who hurried to keep up with the group.
Omnians, the aide thought, with a certain amount of deprecation. He was used to much more decorum from visitors to the august residence.
“President Grumley, thank you for seeing us on such short notice,” Alex said, entering the conference room, without waiting to be announced.
“You’re welcome, Alex,” Harold said, rising and shaking Alex’s hand.
“Maria,” Alex said warmly, embracing her.
“Good to throw my arms around you again, youngster,” Maria replied.
Harold watched Maria’s greeting of Alex and Tatia, with interest. The strength of their relationships was evident. But, what surprised him was the hug that Maria extended to Julien. It was as affectionate as those given to Alex and Tatia, and the SADE’s expression indicated he appreciated it.
As Harold’s three guests took seats at the conference table, he glanced toward the twins, who took up positions, one in the room’s far corner and the other near the door.
“Extraordinary statement,” Grumley said, regarding the weapons, which had unnerved his security forces and required an override from him.
“Yes,” Tatia agreed, glancing at Alain, who stood by the doorway. When she had first seen them mounted on Alain, she had quipped, “I want a pair. Do you have them in extra-large?”
Turning to the president, Tatia said, “It’s come to the attention of Omnians that this particular individual,” motioning to Alex, “might be more important to us than we thought. But don’t tell him that,” which earned her a grin from Alex.
“I always thought so,” Maria added, smiling at Tatia.
“Yes, well, to business, Alex,” Harold said, “How can I help you?”
Alex eyed the president. It wasn’t the opening he had hoped for. The president seemed determined to be coy. “Julien,” Alex said.
The SADE placed a small holo-vid on the table and spooled off an enormous file he had compiled. It contained the events at system FYM-552, where the sphere was destroyed. As opposed to their summary reports, Harold and Maria heard and witnessed the action and communication in a series of integrated clips. The presentation was long but riveting, including right up to the last moment, when Alex urged the two New Terran captains to abandon the attack.
When Julien shut down the holo-vid, Maria eyed her ex-TSF major. Tatia knew what was on Maria’s mind, and she tipped her head toward Alex to indicate that he had indeed perceived the sphere’s action before it happened.
“Extraordinary and most convincing,” Harold said, sitting back in the
chair to consider his options. The presentation, in and of itself, if released to the public, would damn Tripping in the court of public opinion. Worse, it would create an outcry that could blow back on the government for promoting an obviously unqualified man to command New Terra’s Tridents. It struck Harold that Maria’s advice was right on the mark.
“What would satisfy you, Alex?” Harold asked, sitting forward and clasping his hands together on the table.
Maria recognized Harold’s gesture, as the one he exhibited when he sought to mollify a complainant, and she breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
“You mean besides preferring to prosecute a dead man for incompetence, failing to follow orders, endangering his squadron, and killing everyone aboard his ship,” Alex replied sternly, enumerating the points on his fingertips.
Harold gulped back his incredulity. He’d hoped he’d concealed his reaction from his guests, but a scan of their faces revealed he hadn’t. This wasn’t the dialog’s opening he had expected. The one thing that restored his emotional balance was the twinkle he caught in Maria’s eyes. She immensely enjoyed Alex’s opening salvo.
“You can probably do little for me,” Alex continued. “The public has undoubtedly formed their opinions, and, unfortunately, I don’t foresee the captains adequately defending themselves. The Board of Inquiry is moving quickly, too quickly in my opinion, and I intend to be present at the inquiry to ensure the captains’ stories are effectively presented.”
“Alex, you do realize that you’ll be relegated to the position of spectator?” Harold asked. He expected protestations, but Alex stared calmly at him, the hint of a lopsided smile on his face. Harold glanced at the admiral, looking for support, but she regarded him evenly, as if there were nothing more to be said. The discussion had been so disconcerting that it crossed Harold’s mind to wonder if he had been negotiating with humans.
“In the future, President Grumley,” Alex said, leaning his forearms on the table, “the New Terran commanders who sail with us must be vetted by our senior officers and will be promoted from your captains. No more jumped-up admirals.”
