by Gary Caplan
“Excellent; Lord Vice Admiral Garfield has decided to join us,” said Sheppard, half in jest. “Better late than never, admiral. Please take a seat.”
Garfield nodded and motioned to the other officers not to stand. He moved fluidly into a nearby chair, not missing a stride.
Sheppard continued. “As for command structure should I be incapacitated, Vice Admiral Garfield will have to assume command if he is able,” he said. “If not command of the Sixth Fleet will be by precedence in the following order. Commodore Helmslar, Commodore Eljar, Commodore Prescott, Commodore Nistra, and then Commodore Xfelma or acting Commodore Sherman, who for the most part, is this fleets coordination officer. The location of your task forces may influence the command chain should one of you be injured or be unable to send communications. Information will follow about where your patrols and search areas will be and the operative missions to complete.”
The others nodded affirmatively.
“As I was saying, while in the Quellus sector we will be looking for evidence of any involvement by potential allies of the Varlon, including the Ceyloom, who have starships and base facilities scattered throughout the Alpha and Beta quadrants. Information we have received about the Ceyloom from the Estrians is presently being followed by Commodore Xfelma. Eventually, when we finish this mission, we will need to support the multi-fleet activities along the Rhendal sector borders. That’s about all I have to say for now. We will have a few more of these short briefings from time to time.”
Sheppard handed an infopad to Sherman as most of the other officers except Sherman and Garfield left the briefing room or terminated their interaction links.
“I made some fleet and patrol changes,” Sheppard told him, “and there is a new report included from Fleet Captain Grey, about our fleet’s medical readiness. The good doctor says the fleet’s space marine contingent is close to fifty percent awakened and further awakening form stasis can be accelerated if planetary surface military action is required. Evidently, now that General Corvell has some troops, he will want to establish a defense base, including a large space marine contingent near the Rhendal sector border.”
Sherman nodded, realizing he would have to eventually make some transport arrangements with General Corvell.
“Being from Earth,” said Sherman, “we are not accustomed to employing quite so many replicant or transhuman soldiers. If the Alliance of Worlds Council did not have some key members who accept genetically engineered individuals—like the Tyrians or the Azurans— then we might not have this type of ground military force.”
“You’re right,” Sheppard said, “but remember, there was quite a bit of political maneuvering about that, and even Earth, Mars, and several of the other Terran worlds and colonies decided it would be better if they did not lose native sons and daughters. Morally, we will have to deal with the use of transhuman or replicant military forces; however, if using such troops can help to save the civilizations they are from, then from a Star Knight’s point of view, using them is morally acceptable.”
“Spoken like a true Star Knight, Robert,” said Garfield, who was following Sheppard from the briefing room to his office. “I have some good news from the Alliance of Worlds Central Embassy,” he went on. “We have heard from a civilization called the Rhyn, who have several star systems and planets still under their control in the Tashar sector—a sector that was until recently mostly under Varlon control. Evidently, the Rhyn have been able to break free from being entirely surrounded by the Varlon’s space force.”
Sheppard and Sherman appeared interested, as they knew of no races, save perhaps the few elder civilizations like the members of the Hegemony, that might be capable of such a feat.
“For over a standard century, the Rhyn have been virtually surrounded by the Varlon Star Empire,” Garfield said. “The Rhyn have counterattacked and held the Varlon off in a section of several star systems that they are able to maintain. They have used self-replacing minefields and multiple robot ship drones that they sacrifice regularly against the Varlon. Any gain the Varlon made was at great cost. The Rhyn also have an exceptional security service. It’s not likely the shapeshifters the Varlon employed against the Alliance of Worlds were able to do much against the Rhyn. Probably the Varlon’s ruling body, the Icarria, decided it was too costly for them to continue. The Rhyn have held space this way for several decades, until recently. They must have realized that, with the Varlon in expansion mode again, they might not be able to defend all their systems for much longer.”
“Could it have something to do with the entrance of these Accads?” interjected Sheppard.
“Yes it could, Robert,” Garfield continued. “It is now clearer to us that there is some alliance or affiliation between the Varlon and the Accads.”
“Sir, if you don’t mind my asking,” said Sherman, “how did the Rhyn stand up against the Varlon for decades?”
“No, I don’t mind you asking,” Garfield said. “The Rhyn are an older but mildly xenophobic civilization and generally prefer to remain apart. They are more technologically advanced than the Alliance of Worlds and are closer to the Varlon in offensive ability. They are not, however, quite as technologically advanced as my people. They have individuals in their society who are not xenophobic, or perhaps Rhyn society is becoming less xenophobic overall. It was one of those individuals who provided us with the news that they had breached the Varlon’s blockade.”
“In any, case the Alliance of Worlds needs to take opportunities to make new allies,” continued Garfield. “The Rhyn have made a proposal for assisting the Alliance of Worlds if they in turn assist the Rhyn. An ambassador was dispatched from the Alliance Council and left Star One, but the ship and its escorts never arrived; they were eliminated by the Varlon patrols. The Alliance of Worlds has asked the Hegemony for aid, and it was determined I was closest. I wear many hats, as you humans sometimes say. It will be I who will rendezvous with the Alliance of Worlds task force, led by Ambassador Alotar, aboard the battlecruiser Indefatigable. Then together we will proceed to Rhyn space.”
“Of course I realize Hegemony business supersedes your assignment to the fleet,” replied Sheppard. “You said the Indefatigable; that’s Commodore St. John’s new ship. It’s probably ready to leave dry dock by now. St. John has the necessary skills to pull off that type of mission.”
Garfield nodded affirmatively. “I won’t be leaving too soon— probably by the end of the month, since the Indefatigable’s task force needs to leave the docking facilities and move toward a midway point, where the Zeloc and I will join up with them. Since my ship’s translight velocity is considerably greater than Alliance of Worlds spacecraft, I can leave later,” replied Lord Garfield. “I can continue to help here with the Sixth Fleet’s mission.”
“Sir, I mean no disrespect, but …” fumbled Sherman, uncharacteristically nervous. “Why have your people the Karratins, or even the Estrians and the other Hegemony members not done something about the Varlon? You have had the time.”
“Ahh … Fleet Captain Sherman,” exhaled Garfield with a slight smile. “That is a long and complicated story. I will tell you that, early in our space flight history, Karratins did not involve themselves with the problems of other races. When the Varlon first attacked us, we defeated them by neutralizing their weaponry, or taking control of the guidance mechanisms on the torpedoes as they approached our ships, and then sent them back at the Varlon ships. We also used our mentallic powers, which gave us an advantage. In addition, a Karratin’s general level of intelligence is higher than a Varlon’s—or a human’s, for that matter. Over the past few millennia, our military continued to outwit the Varlon military. Essentially, we kept them at bay, and as a result, they decided to take easier prey. As time passed, we realized we could no longer keep that policy of minimal interference, and we would occasionally aid or strengthen a civilization who we perceived could repel the Varlon.”
He paused for a moment with a faraway look on his face, as if
remembering.
Sheppard said, “But after a Varlon patrol attacked Earth in 2163, the Hegemony helped us then. My grandfather told me that his father actually met you in person. I remember looking at an old family album; there is an old-time digital photo of you there. I remember you were dressed much as you are now. I recall my grandfather talking about how his father; a TERRASEC scientist, stood next to Gar’ fa eld, Duke of Karro. I know you use ‘Garfield’ now because we humans can mispronounce your name; to avoid difficulties, you just accepted the English version.”
Garfield smiled and nodded, then continued in a roundabout way to answer Sherman’s question. “Yes, my people have been involved with rescue work for a long time; we age much differently than you humans. You may be aware that my people have some regenerative ability, and in addition, our science provides us with anti-agathics to slow aging further.”
Sherman nodded.
“Well,” continued Garfield, “I remember Nigel Braddock as a young man. He came to us almost begging for anti-agathic formulae and anti-aging technology.”
He looked over at Sheppard and added, “You were right, Robert. That was over six hundred years ago, back when the Varlon were starting to attack Earth, Rigezon, and several other civilizations. At that time, my people and the other members of the Hegemony initially began to get more involved. We all realized that as the Varlon spread closer to our space, after gathering more resources, power and technology, they would eventually begin to disrupt us.” He paused and looked away for a moment.
“The Hegemony became more tightly organized as an affiliation group. As an organization, it is actually similar to your type of Alliance of Worlds; however, we retained more sovereignty with the individual members, whereas your governments actually have a degree of membership and yet still some local sovereignty.”
As Garfield continued, he took a seat next to the commodore’s desk. “You may not know this,” he said, “but we told the Varlon not to approach certain systems in the Alpha and Beta quadrants. At first they balked, but when we took the time to repel and neutralize them, then they desisted. They continued to test us at intervals, so as we improved our technology, they also improved theirs. Along the last five hundred years, research within Karratin science has gone toward other areas, such as trans-dimensionality, and less toward military pursuits to improve our defense. The Varlon eventually were able to reduce the effects of our neutralizing systems. By then, the other younger races, many of those that make up the Alliance of Worlds, had developed space travel, and a few became relatively advanced space-faring civilizations, like the Zal.”
Sherman looked surprised, and his jaw dropped slightly and said, “I had no idea that was going on behind the scenes.” Sheppard only nodded.
Garfield said, “Well, I need to finish the scientific report and prepare some options for the mission into Rhyn space.”
As Garfield walked out of the office, he saw Ares and nodded to her, then headed back to his quarters. She seemed to be following him, so he decided to travel by normal means. He realized she was the Phoenix’s chief of security, and protecting the senior officers was part of her team’s job. He smiled a sincere smile at her, and then continued to his quarters. Eventually, he would leave for his rendezvous with the Alliance of Worlds ambassador, and she would not have to worry about him. Until then, he was going to finish some reports, give educational lectures to the science division, play some music on his instruments, and meditate.
C HAP TE R 19
AMBASSADOR ALOTAR IS SENT TO THE RHYN
As the Sixth Fleet continued to patrol and Commodore Sheppard organized his many task forces, the Zeloc moved toward the accepted coordinates. She circled, waiting the arrival of Ambassador Alotar’s task force. Alotar was on board the battlecruiser Indefatigable, one of the upgraded Legendary-class vessels. The task force was a mix of ten other Heroic and Legendary-class cruisers.
After the Alliance of Worlds task force arrived at the rendezvous coordinates, one of several android-like robots on board the Zeloc, who sometimes acted as crew, opened a communications channel to the Indefatigable, indicating that Lord Garfield of Karro wanted to speak to the commanding officer.
“This is Commodore St. John. I am here for the rendezvous at the appointed time. I am receiving your comm channel, but your starcraft is not in scanning range.”
As he looked out his view screen, the readings changed, and a large ship over eight thousand meters in length materialized as the hyperslipstream motivators on the Zeloc disengaged and the sub-light drives activated.
128 Garfield’s image—dressed more like a Karratin lord—appeared in Commodore St. John’s imaging device. “I have come as agreed,” Garfield said, “and in this capacity I will act as an ambassador and advisor to Ambassador Alotar.”
St. John noticed that he had exchanged his more formal Alliance of Worlds uniform of vice admiral for the Karratin style attire. His dress was within treaty stipulations; as those officers from non member affiliated civilizations need only wear Alliance of Worlds uniforms if on an actual duty assignment.
Garfield continued. “Commodore St. John, earlier I had been scouting ahead for Varlon, which I lured to other directions out of the way of a selected course that I am transmitting to you. We should be in Rhyn space in a few days, based on the velocity of your slowest cruiser. I am now releasing some small defense pods. I will be having the Zeloc transmit various sensor deflections of our ships. These small, metal-organic trans-light craft leaving Zeloc will partially encircle your ships and mask your task forces ships’ various emissions. This should allow us to pass through to Rhyn space relatively unscathed.”
“That’s excellent news, Your Grace. Nothing like being able to cloak against the Varlon,” stated Commodore St. John. “I will inform the other captains of the nature of the defense pods.” Commodore St. John looked to the side as Ambassador Alotar joined him on the Indefatigable’s bridge.
“I look forward to this task. I realize the Rhyn can be quite secretive,” stated Ambassador Alotar.
“Yes,” Garfield said, “the Hegemony has had dealings with them in the past and has helped them, but the last official contact was three centuries ago. Subsequently the Hegemony has had very limited contact with them during the past two centuries.”
Ambassador Alotar said, “I have several junior diplomatic officers who will be assisting me in the endeavor to gain some diplomatic relations with the Rhyn, and I hope your people’s previous experience with the Rhyn will help facilitate the development of some treaty possibilities.”
“I hope to be of some help to you with the Rhyn,” Garfield told him. “Some time ago, a few others and I helped to establish an order of Star Knights amongst the Rhyn, and those Rhyn may be of assistance. I know that you would like to visit my ship and discuss plans. We will make arrangements en route.” He looked at St. John. “Commodore St. John,” he said, “we can start as soon as your task force has programmed the course data I transmitted.”
Garfield then signed off. His sentient ship Zeloc waited patiently for the ships they were to escort to set a course and activate their hyperspace drives.
Shortly afterward, the task force entered trans-light speed, and the Zeloc sent thought information about the alignment of the defense pods, as she matched velocities with the slower Alliance of Worlds ships and indicated to her captain, Garfield, that she would rather be moving more quickly in order to accomplish the tasks ahead. Garfield laughed.
The Zeloc was no ordinary sentient Karratin ship; it was once a prototype vessel but it had been upgraded over time and evolved to something more.
Telepathically, Garfield said, We cannot solve all their problems for them, lest they not reach the competence they could. Zeloc, I know in your trans-dimensional state you could hold the entire task force in cargo ten times over. However, it would not be prudent to arrive in Rhyn space and then disgorge them as if they had been swallowed, or been translocated into open space. Either way could u
nsettle the Rhyn, and they do not fully trust even the Hegemony.
C HAP TE R 2 0
CONTINUED VIGILANCE
Over the course of the next several weeks, parts of the Sixth Fleet supplied or reinforced several sector starbases, verified the safety of Alliance of Worlds planets and colonies, and set up task force patrols to explore two sectors of space, as originally directed by Star One’s fleet operations section and Grand Admiral Pendragon. Acting Commodore Sherman helped acting Fleet Admiral Sheppard keep up with task force operations and patrol results.
While in the fleet command alcove, Sherman received a report from the communications officer. He heard the officer’s voice through a communications display link, or CDL.
“Sir,” said Lieutenant Tragga through the CDL, “we have not been able to access COMNET linking satellite 478B. Trans-light communications between Quellus Borealis colony and that entire subsector have been off line. A rerouting of COMNET satellites is attempting to reestablish communications.”
The officer brought up the report and transferred it to Sherman’s communications display link, when he got a permission icon. Sherman was using an external CDL unit that was attached to his head and partly covered his eyes, like a visor. All key command stations had access to CDL units, although many people used one of the other interlink
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or systems interface devices such as the commlink or an imbedded interlnk device. Lieutenant Commander Ares and her team were adding further security upgrades that had been initiated at Star One using the CDL as a directly attached external unit buffer for several stations during the process. That way the process could be more easily monitored as there were no hidden access devices. Usually, a hidden imbedded interlink units was employed by many crew members to remotely access data.
