by S. H. Jucha
“I will inquire into his location,” Julien replied. “If he is journeying aboard the explorer ship, we can visit the observatory and inquire of the senior astronomer.”
“Who has the post?” Alex asked.
“A SADE by the name of Jupiter.”
“Jupiter, as in the name of the colorful planet orbiting Sol?”
“The same, Alex. When Theodosius discovered Trixie dropped her original ID of Lenora to adopt a new name, he decided to do likewise.”
“Jupiter … good choice,” Alex replied, grinning.
“Haraken first or Omnia, Alex?” Julien asked.
“The Liberator’s crew needs a rest. We’ll head for Omnia and pick up —” Alex was halted in mid-sentence by Julien’s head-on stare. He revised what he was going to say, which would have been to name the Rêveur and ended the sentence with, “a different Trident for the trip to Haraken.”
Julien nodded his approval, and Alex stood up and yawned. He lightly tapped Julien on the shoulder, as he said, “Good night to both of you,” and ambled off to bed.
Oliver was aching to ask questions of Julien, but the data parameters on the conversation restricted him from doing so. That the human had envisioned the existence of scenarios that suggested the Nua’ll weren’t the greatest threat to this portion of the galaxy made him realize how much he hadn’t been open to greater possibilities. He too spent a considerable amount of time reordering his kernel, shifting hierarchy, rewriting algorithms, and calculating new probabilities. Oliver was determined to expand his thought processes to be the best assistant to the new Minister of Defense that he could possibly be.
-26-
The Freedom
Alex spent the following day in conference with Maria, discussing New Terra’s warship construction progress, the number of ships that could be added to the Omnians’ fleet, and many more details.
Oliver noted that Alex shared with Maria his intention to use the Haraken observation platform to review the extensive telemetry data collected during the past two decades. Alex appeared to be determined to see if the data yielded insight into the Nua’ll probes placements and, by extension, the location of the race. Of note to the SADE was that Alex didn’t share how he had come by the concept. It confirmed to Oliver that the information was reserved for the human’s partner and his SADE friend, and Oliver felt privileged to possess the knowledge.
By late evening, the Omnians said their goodbyes to Maria and Oliver and returned to the Liberator. Tatia and Alain said farewell to her parents. Crew members kissed and hugged family and friends, as the ship’s travelers scooped them up. In the morning’s early hours, the third duty shift was sailing the Trident out of the system, headed for Omnia.
When the Liberator transited into Omnian space, there were palpable sighs of relief from the humans, starting with Tatia and continuing to the youngest crew member. It was a year since the warship had left Omnia in search of the Nua’ll sphere. Although they hadn’t fired a shot, the chase and final encounter were no less frightening.
The Judgment, Lucia Bellardo’s Trident, had conducted star services for the two pilots lost at FYM-552, while Alex was at New Terra. With no remains to recover, small crystal cases were prepared, which enclosed their uniforms and personal items. Reiko had performed the remembrance ceremony and the cases were launched at Celus.
Omnian comm systems were overloaded with the exchange of communications between the Liberator’s crew and a host of other individuals. Julien and Cordelia occupied much of the Liberator’s extensive capabilities, and the SADEs frequently curtailed their exchanges to return more bandwidth to others in need.
Alex did receive a curious comm from Mickey.
Mickey said defensively.
The mention of Tatia and Reiko had Alex considering that Mickey’s idea wasn’t cursory, so he agreed to give the engineer the time he requested.
Three days later, the Liberator was positioned where Mickey requested, and Alex and company were crowded around the warship’s bridge holo-vid.
Mickey signaled Julien, and the SADE narrowed the warship’s holo-vid view of the city-ship to a single bay.
“That’s not an engineering bay,” Alex commented, reviewing the enormous ship’s plans in his implant, which he’d spooled from the Trident’s controller.
“Indeed, not,” Julien agreed.
The holo-vid displayed the opening of one of the city-ship’s pair of bay doors, and the group saw the focusing lenses of two beam weapons.
The senior commanders chuckled at Mickey’s characterization of being deserted by Alex.
Tatia glanced at Alex, wondering about his choice of Ellie’s ship.
The beam weapons slid from the bay on rails, extending their barrel lengths outside the ship. While the audience watched, the barrels moved independently, covering significant arcs, left, right, down, and up.
Tatia added.
Alain sent privately to Tatia.
Within hours, Alex convened a meeting aboard the Freedom. Crew had transferred Renée and his meager belongings from the Liberator to the couple’s suite of rooms in the city-ship, and Renée was rejoicing. Her greatest gripe about the warship’s tiny cabin was that Alex and she couldn’t fit in the refresher at the same time.
Alex’s eleven guests, Tatia, Reiko, Julien, Cordelia, Z, Miranda, and the five Trident captains, were scattered around the main salon, having been called to discuss the arming of the Freedom and whether the city-ship should accompany the fleet.
“Thoughts?” Alex asked, when the humans were comfortably settled with cups of thé.
“The longer the hunt for the second sphere lasted, the more the senior commanders and I discussed the concept of a long-range expedition, Alex,” Tatia replied. “Mickey’s absolutely right that the fleet needs ongoing support.”
“It was a standard operating procedure for a fleet headed by a capital ship to be accompanied by freighters,” Reiko said. “Unfortunately, we can’t protect a group of freighters, not knowing what we’ll be facing. But an armed city-ship could be an excellent support.”
“Alex, consider extrapolating this discussion from supplying our five Tridents to those who will join us,” Z said. “We might number fifty warships in our expeditionary force.”
“We’ve been discussing supplies,” Julien added, “but there is an argument to be made for ancillary personnel, not least of whom are the engineering team, who are proving to be indispensable.”
“On that note, Alex,” Cordelia said, “you might not be aware that Mickey employs 216 humans and SADEs, who work in three of this ship’s bays. The list of projects that are underway are staggering. If we wish to have access to what they create, then they’ll need to be near the fleet. In addition, they’ll require supplies and raw material to continue their work.”
“Dear man, I have a thought for your consideration,” Miranda said. “What if we don’t engage the Nua’ll in a single, massive battle? What if this race, faced with an extensive display of military might and an enormous city-ship, chooses a protracted engagement or, perhaps, to negotiate? And consider this: These alternative actions will most probably take place an incredibly long distance from Omnia, our support base.”
Renée, who had been keeping cups filled, poured one more for Alex, and sat beside him on the couch. “And here’s my thought,” she said. “We lost a ship and its crew due to the actions of one man. Through a conversation I had with Captain Jagielski at New Terra, I learned that he felt the admiral slowly became fixated on the idea that we, Omnians, were set on preventing him from achieving his goal of proving he could make a valuable contribution to New Terra’s defense.”
“That’s interesting,” Alex said, glancing toward Tatia, whose narrowed eyes indicated it was news to her.
“If we had the Freedom,” Renée continued, “there’d be a place for officers and crew to relax. More important, our admiral would have the opportunity to have face-to-face time with her senior commanders. I’m sure that Tatia would have been able to detect Admiral Tripping’s growing eccentricity.”
Alex drained his cup of thé and regarded the group, who stared expectantly at him. The Trident captains had been silent, but he imagined Tatia and Reiko had expressed their opinions. The only key adviser who had said nothing was Julien. Alex lifted a single eyebrow in the SADE’s direction.
“It appears that you have a new project, Admiral,” Alex said. “Have your senior people ensure that Mickey’s efforts give the city-ship the most coverage possible. Mickey does elegant work, but I’m thinking robust is better.”
“That’s our preference too,” Tatia replied.
“My crystal friends,” Alex said, “you have your work cut out for you. Take note of Z’s statements. What do five warships need in an extended period of engagement? What about twenty-five? Fifty? Cordelia, it’s your ship. Handle the processes for recruitment and supplies, as we scale up.”
“What’s our timeline, Alex?” Cordelia asked.
“New Terra is close to sending two or three Tridents in another two months. Haraken should double or triple that number, in the same amount of time. They have the proper construction capabilities and the trained naval people. I don’t know what to expect from the Confederation. They have the greater capacity to build ships, but they don’t have a clue how to obtain trained personnel. My hope is that they sent their personnel to the Haraken naval academy.
“What about fighters and pilots for the Freedom, Alex?” Reiko asked. She twisted slightly in her seat and met Alex’s stare.
“The arguments were clear and persuasive to turn the Freedom into an armed supply ship, Reiko,” Alex said. “If we think of the city-ship in this manner, we’ll probably fail all those aboard. As of this moment, you should think of the Freedom as a warship, and make your decisions on that basis.”
“Understood, Alex,” Reiko replied, nodding her head in agreement.
The group, except for Julien, Cordelia, and Tatia, who Alex invited to remain, exited the suite.
“Tatia, I need to send a clear message about the change in the Freedom’s status,” Alex said.
“Agreed,” Tatia replied. She stared thoughtfully at Cordelia, who peered back at her with interest.
