Sirs. Rita was still getting use to the fact she was impersonating a male Stree. It was not the easiest thing she had ever done.
Per the protocol they had now figured out, Rachel got out first and held the door, then Tika got out next. Rita came last. Rachel closed the door of the staff car and waved the driver on. With a slight whine, the car departed.
The three of them turned and stared at the building in front of them with some trepidation. It was an imposing red brick building, with a central hall of five stories, and large wings of offices on each side.
It was also the Command HQ of the Stree Navy.
There was a large plaza between the sidewalk and the building entrance, with a square reflecting pool in the middle of it. A row of trees on each side of the reflecting pool were bright green, growing beautifully in the spring weather of Stree Prime. Squat Stree officers and personnel of every rank bustled in and out of the building, moving the business of war to and fro.
Turning, Rita stared across the wide boulevard to the other side of the street. There was the Great Cathedral of the Stree. That was where Great Prophet Videlli and his staff worked.
They were less than two hundred yards from the enemy’s true power.
This had better work, or we’re totally screwed…
Rita turned and glanced at Tika and Rachel, standing slightly behind her.
“Let’s dance,” she said, and winked. Then she turned and walked toward the building entrance. She walked proudly, as befit a Stree officer who had been transferred to Headquarters and was about to be promoted to Captain. It was a straw in Elvenen’s cap, and she knew it.
Best to act the part.
Approaching the front entrance, she pushed through the revolving doors and saw a security area, with security badge readers on the right and a long desk full of security personnel on the left. Marching directly to the security desk, Rita presented her ID badge and spoke arrogantly.
“Sub-Captain Elvenen reporting for duty, along with my adjutant Commander Pamasa and my aide, Sub-Commander Olvia.”
The sergeant behind the desk took her badge, examined it, looked up at Elvenen, then looked at Tika and Rachel standing behind her. He waved them forward, and they stepped up and presented their badges as well.
Trying to maintain their calm, the three of them watched as the sergeant took the ID badges, sat down at a screen, and started typing. He typed slowly, one finger at a time, in the arcane language of the Stree that required two to three keystrokes for each letter. It seemed to take forever.
Rita, trying to keep things loose in this most tense situation, turned and winked at Tika. Then she realized that might look a bit strange - just for a second, she had forgotten they were both Stree males right now.
The sergeant’s search seemed to go on forever, as he stumbled around on the keyboard pulling up their records. Rita realized she was sweating. She couldn’t help but have a quirky thought about it.
Am I sweating? Or is Elvenen sweating?
She looked at Tika. Tika appeared to be as cool as ice. No sweat showed on her face, and no tension appeared evident in her body language.
Maybe I should have let Tika be Elvenen.
Looking back at Rachel, Rita saw more of the same. No sweat on her brow, no apparent concern. The perfect picture of a relaxed, somewhat bored aide.
“Here you go,” she heard from the sergeant. She turned back to see him presenting all three badges to her. She took them and nodded.
“Through the security gates and take the elevator to the fourth floor,” he said. “Your section will be at the far end of the hall, overlooking the front of the building.”
“Thank you,” Rita replied. She turned, handed Tika and Rita their badges, and marched to the security gate, Tika and Rita following right behind her.
Laying her badge on the reader, she waited with bated breath. There was a ping, and the light on the top turned green. She walked through and headed for the elevators.
It worked! It actually worked! I can’t fucking believe it worked!
Phoenix System
800 Lights from Stalingrad
“Now what?” asked Mark. He stared at Luke across the office. “We’ve sent our loved ones to a safe place. What next?”
“Now we find Zoe,” replied Luke. “I’ve contacted Beto. When he gets to the transport, he’ll have the captain use their sensor suite to help us. They’ll scan the forest around the camp. We should know in a matter of minutes if Turgenev has a hidden camp out there somewhere.”
“OK. And then what?”
“I’ve got Cerutti putting together a rescue team. I told him to get our best people assembled and hand out weapons, get ready for a fight. He’s on it.”
“How many people?”
“I told him to get at least fifty, more if possible. We have no way of knowing how many Turgenev has. But I find it hard to believe he could have more than about fifty. Even if he was able to stoke a lot of discontent, most people are reasonably satisfied with the way things have been going. And most people have enough common sense to know we can’t survive fighting among ourselves.”
“I hope fifty’s enough,” Mark grunted. “If Turgenev has more than that, we’re in trouble.”
“If he has more than that, we’re not going to stop him. At least for the short term, we’ll have to give him the government. I suppose we can try to assemble another coup at some point in the future, restore a democratic government.”
Mark shook his head grimly. “If he wins this one, it won’t be us doing that in the future. We’ll be dead. He’ll never leave us alive to cause trouble.”
“Yeah. I know,” said Luke. “How did we let this get so far? We should have taken action against Turgenev as soon as we realized he was a threat to us.”
“That’s the downside of a fair and democratic government,” smiled Mark. “Democracy insists on proof of a threat before taking action. Dictatorships don’t wait that long - as soon as they have a suspicion, they kill the threat, even if innocents are killed with the guilty. It’s always a trade-off.”
Luke nodded sourly. “Yep. I guess.”
“So,” Mark continued. “Split milk at this point. Let’s move on.”
Dino Cerutti rushed into the tent, carrying an M-7 assault weapon. “We’re ready, Luke,” he called. “I’ve got a dozen people guarding the Council members. And fifty standing by to go rescue Zoe. Any word on the remote sensing?”
“Not yet. But any minute now.”
“Good,” said Cerutti. “The guys are excited. This is the first chance we’ve had to use the militia on a real mission. They can’t wait!”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Stree Prime
Komihu - Capital City
“Welcome to your new job, Elvenen! What with the war and all, we’re short-handed. We’ve been looking forward to your arrival!”
Rita - in the body of Sub-Captain Elvenen - nodded and reached into her storage of Elvenen’s consciousness to respond appropriately. “Thank you, Admiral. I exist only to serve the Prophet.”
She was standing before the desk of Admiral Riato, head of Fleet Intelligence for the Stree Navy. She had wiped the sweat off her forehead in the elevator; but it was threatening to come back. She could feel the heat on her forehead.
One false move here…and we’re all toast.
“So. The first order of business is to make your promotion official.”
Admiral Riato stood, stepped around his desk, and moved up to Rita, holding something in his hand. Rita rose to attention. Now Riato was so close, she could smell him. He smiled at her, his eyeteeth showing. His breath spread across her, a pungent, earthy smell that made her want to retch. But she didn’t dare move a muscle.
He handed her two brass collar insignia. “Congratulations, Captain! And well-deserved. You’ve done an exemplary job of operating the listening station at Jower. I’m glad to have you on my staff!”
“Thank you, sir. All is done to serve the Proph
et!”
“Yes, exactly. Well, Elvenen, again, welcome aboard. My aide Awasifu will show you to your offices. And I’ll see you in staff meeting Thursday at 10 AM.”
Rita nodded, turned smartly, and departed the Admiral’s inner office, Tika and Rachel falling in behind her. In the outer office, a Commander awaited them, his nametag reading “Awasifu”.
“Greetings, Captain Elvenen. I’ll show you to your office suite,” the aide said. Rita nodded and followed the aide as he left the Admiral’s suite and marched down the hallway.
It was a huge building, and the aide led them at least three hundred feet to a corner, then another three hundred feet to a door. He opened the door and stepped through.
Inside, a large room contained a dozen desks. Each desk was occupied by an officer or enlisted Stree, all of whom snapped to attention as they entered.
“As you were,” Rita called. The staff relaxed to a loose parade rest. Rita walked around the room, letting each of her new staff members introduce themselves. Then Awasifu led her into her new office. It was spacious, with a large desk having three chairs in front of it. To one side was a large couch, with a coffee table before it. On the other wall was a viewer, currently showing a display of the Stree system and dozens of icons representing Stree ships moving in and out of the system.
“Your office, Captain,” said Awasifu. “Your aide is next door to your left, and your adjutant next door to your right. I suggest you get things started by meeting your Number Three, Sub-Commander Fawa. He is the most knowledgeable about everything in your department.”
“Thank you, Awasifu. It is appreciated. All praise to the Prophet.”
“All praise to the Prophet,” Awasifu responded, and left the office. Outside, Rita could see a Stree hovering respectfully, obviously waiting to enter her office. She waved him in.
“Sub-Commander Fawa reporting, Captain. I am the Signals Intelligence head. I’m responsible for day-to-day operations of the Signals Branch.”
“Very good,” Rita responded. “I assume you’re responsible for my daily briefing as well?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.”
Rita sank back into her chair and waved Tika and Rachel to the couch on the side of the room. As they sat, she looked at Fawa.
“You can start now. Bring us up to date.”
“Aye, Captain. Well. As I’m sure you know, the Fleet departed thirty-six days ago for the attack on the Goblins. They will arrive at Stalingrad in four more days. So far, nothing but routine message traffic back and forth. No major issues, all ships are performing nominally.”
“Good,” said Rita. She glanced over at Tika and Rachel, the irony of the situation not escaping them.
“Also, we have three new cruisers arriving tomorrow from Gomorrah, to reinforce the Home Guard fleet.”
“Ah. Good.” Rita tried to resist frowning in puzzlement. Clearly Fawa thought she should know what Gomorrah was. But she didn’t. Elvenen’s consciousness didn’t have that knowledge. She was beginning to realize the scan of Elvenen’s consciousness was flawed. Something had gone wrong. It was missing critical information. There was a defect in the scanner.
“And finally, we captured a Human ship last night. A spy ship. They had taken over the listening station on Tosong.”
Phoenix System
800 Lights from Stalingrad
Mark, Luke, Rick and Cerutti had been waiting impatiently in the Headquarters tent for nearly a half-hour before news came. But when it came, Luke leaped to his feet.
“Beto found the camp!” he yelled as the information came in over his internal comm. “Five miles northeast!”
Cerutti jumped to his feet. “Outstanding! I’ll go get the troops ready!” He rushed out of the tent, Rick right behind him.
Luke got to his feet, staring at Mark.
“You should stay here, Mark,” Luke said. “We need a central point of contact. Also in case something goes wrong, you’re gonna be it.”
Leaping to his feet, Mark disagreed.
“Bullshit. I’m the Governor. I’m going!”
“Mark,” said Luke quietly. “What if all of us are killed? Including you? Who’ll protect Gillian and Imogen?”
Mark hesitated, the thought clearly impacting him.
“Stay. Be our rock, Mark. We need one right now.”
With a slow nod, Mark sat back down. Luke smiled grimly and left the tent, carrying his radio and a pistol on his hip. He followed Rick Moore and Dino Cerutti as they headed northeast across Central Park toward the distant spot marked by the Goblin sensors.
Within fifteen minutes, they were in dense forest, the morning sun now mostly hidden from them by the canopy overhead. Although it was dimly lit, it was still hot. Luke found himself sweating buckets as they marched on. But they made good time, and within two hours they were approaching Turgenev’s camp.
Cerutti had sent scouts ahead of them. The scouts reported back by radio that the camp had been located. As they came closer, Luke saw the first tents through the trees.
“Let’s spread out and envelop them,” Luke ordered. “No shooting unless they shoot first.”
Cerutti nodded and issued the orders. His troops began to spread out into a half-moon formation, enclosing the camp on three sides. Luke continued to move forward, now only a few yards from the edge of the camp. Nothing moved.
Stepping into the clearing with Cerutti slightly behind him, Luke saw Turgenev come out of one of the tents. Behind Turgenev, a guard pushed Zoe DeLong roughly with the barrel of a rifle. Her hands were tied behind her and there was a gag in her mouth. She shook her head violently at Luke, trying to tell him something.
Puzzled by her actions, Luke glared at Turgenev.
“You’re surrounded, Turgenev. You have no chance. Give it up.”
Turgenev smiled a lazy smile at Luke, then waved his hand at the troops standing in a large circle around them.
“Perhaps you’d better look again, Mr. Powell. I’m not the one that’s surrounded.”
Stunned, Luke saw that every one of the militia members around him had their rifles pointed straight at him. Suddenly he felt the push of Cerutti’s rifle barrel in his back. As he looked once more at Zoe desperately trying to signal him with her eyes, all the pieces fell into place.
***
Turgenev and Cerutti marched Luke, Rick, and Zoe back to the colony. By the time they returned, Turgenev’s troops had captured Mark Rodgers and secured the Headquarters area. Escorted to the newly built jail, they were installed in cells next to each other.
As Cerutti’s guards departed, Luke looked at Mark through the bars.
“Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into,” Luke quipped. It was an expression he had picked up from Bonnie, which she had picked up from Jim Carter as part of his Marine heritage.
Mark smiled grimly. “Outfoxed and outplayed,” he said. “You have to give Turgenev credit. He took a small incident and turned it into a win.”
“I’m so sorry,” said Zoe from the next cell. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t been caught following Cerutti, this would have never happened.”
“Oh, it would have happened,” said Mark. “Just later, and in a different way. In a sense, you did us a favor. At least this way, we were able to get Gillian and Tatiana and the children to safety. I think that’s the only reason they haven’t killed us yet; they want to use us as leverage to get them back to the surface.”
“Yup,” Rick said, sitting on his bunk. “If that happens, they’ll have no more need of us.”
“Will they come back down?” asked Zoe.
“Not likely,” said Rick.
“Quiet, guys,” Luke interjected. “I’m sure they’ve got the place bugged.”
“Shit,” Rick said. “I didn’t think about that.”
“Just remember everything you say is going straight to Turgenev,” Luke admonished.
Stree Prime
Komihu - Capital City
; “What?” Rita exclaimed before she could stop herself. “Humans?”
Fawa nodded, a large grin on his face.
“Aye, Captain. Eight Humans and a dozen Goblins. We captured them alive, including their ship, a small corvette. Clearly they were trying to infiltrate our system.”
Rita tried to maintain her composure. It wouldn’t do to appear too shocked by the news.
“But…I thought all the Humans were dead. We…we killed their planet!”
Fawa shrugged. “Obviously some survived, probably on Stalingrad. Now they’re working with the Goblins. But they’ll be dead soon enough, I’m sure. The Great Prophet will see to that.”
Rachel, sitting on the couch to one side, saw the distress on Rita’s face and interjected a question to distract Fawa.
“Where are these spies now? Here on Komihu?”
“Obviously not the Goblins, Sub-Commander. Those abominations were launched directly into the star as soon as they were captured. But I believe the Humans were brought here. Although of course, their location is a secret. That doesn’t fall under Signals.”
“Ah. Of course,” Rachel replied. “Need to know.”
“Yes, exactly, Sub-Commander.”
“Very well,” said Rita, having recovered her composure. “Anything else?”
“Nothing important, Captain. The listening station at Tosong is being restored. It should be back in operation by this time tomorrow.”
“Well, thank you, Sub-Commander Fawa, for an excellent briefing. I believe I’ll consult with my Chief of Staff now, and then we’ll go to the BOQ and get settled. Since there is a staff meeting at ten AM Thursday, please be prepared to give us a full update tomorrow morning at eight AM. That will be all.”
Fawa bowed, turned, and departed, closing the door behind him. Rita stared at Tika and Rachel in disbelief.
Rita nodded.
Rita looked up at the two of them.
Remnants: Broken Galaxy Book Five Page 16