T’Kana replied, “It is exactly because we have been in life or death situations that we can accurately and fairly judge these leaders. Who could be better than we to decide whether their actions were prudent and militarily justifiable? The tribunal will review the circumstances, assess blame or credit, determine guilt or innocence, and release or pass sentence. We owe it to the Empire to which we have all sworn an oath.”
Another unified force commander, B’Tan, stood and asked how the ground forces would reset the balance without space superiority.
“Baron, forgive me, but I have seen the battle loss reports. We have barely enough fleet left to provide escorts for our troop transport task forces. The Humans outnumber us two to one in capital ships and the A’Ngarii match us in raw numbers, but with cruisers and battle cruisers to our frigates and destroyers.”
T’Kana, famous for his fire breathing, did not bristle at this question, but said, “I am not yet ready to reveal my full plan at this time. Suffice it to say that when the time comes we will have the ships.”
The five shadow unified force commanders were each given four names off the list and ordered to hold their tribunals as soon as the individuals were delivered to their custody, in person or virtually.
* * * * *
Captain Kelly Blake sat in the Antares Base engineer battalion commander’s office, waiting for his return and confirmation that the new embassy building was complete and ready to transport. The State Department Security Officer, George Strange, sat across from Kelly in the somewhat stuffy office. Kelly took an instant dislike to him before he’d even completed Strange’s “dead fish” handshake. He was a pompous ass with petty bureaucrat stamped all over him, and it seemed security issues were stopping the building’s completion certification. Kelly had heard reports from the contractor and engineer battalion personnel that security supervisors often overturned the findings from the security inspectors, with inconsistent rulings bordering on arbitrary and capricious.
A dry dock/transport ship, the F. R. Reynolds, waited in a holding orbit. The Reynolds was the largest class of ship capable of landing on the planet’s surface, and could be sent through the Antares ring to the Resurgent, a ring ship in orbit above G’Durin. For now, it was earning an exorbitant amount of money doing nothing more challenging than orbiting the planet sixteen times a day, while its crew waited to do their real job.
Kelly had been brought in by the ambassador to see if he could cut through the red tape and get the building delivered on time and on budget. The State Department and the Republic Intelligence Agency had made the decision to build a prefabricated embassy and deliver it to G’Durin ready to be dropped onto a site-built foundation, rather than try and construct a secure, bug-proof facility built completely on-site. K’Rang intelligence was as good as any and the Galactic Republic didn’t want to make their job any easier.
The minimally-manned Galactic Republic Consulate on G’Durin was operating out of a leased K’Rang office building that was less than optimal. The negotiation for which building to occupy took over a year. The K’Rang wanted the embassy near the northern mountain range and away from the Imperial Palace. The GR wanted to be adjacent or as close as the Imperial Palace as possible. The final agreed temporary facility was close to the Palace, but was riddled with sensors, some known and some unknown. It was too small for the entire embassy staff to work out of. Simultaneous with these negotiations was choosing the site for the new embassy, which took another year.
The new embassy was built at Antares Base by Antares PreFab, Inc., the same company that built Candy Blake’s mountain aerie. They built the modular, multi-story building on a special framework that would allow it to be lifted off the transporter in two-floor sections and set down using the transport’s normal load handling equipment.
Kelly stood up, stretched and looked out at the building that would become the human embassy on G’Durin. It was six stories tall and more than 300 meters in length and 200 meters in width. It was a big building and would sit in the middle of a four-hectare compound just north of the Imperial Palace, in what had previously been a park. The building was designed as a monolith with a completely glass façade. The specially strengthened windows, capable of withstanding a major explosion or all hand and crew served weapons rounds, shone gold in the Antarean Sun. The gold-hued window coating was also designed to stop any attempts to intercept conversations or observe inside activities. It also made for a very impressive façade. There was a small two-story extension off the front of the building that would serve as the protocol and security area for meetings between humans and K’Rang. It would be physically and electronically separate from the main building.
Once the building was approved, it would be partially disassembled, then loaded onto the F. R. Reynolds. But first the building had to pass security review and the security people were being less than helpful. It seemed several components of the embassy’s security system were taken off the approved list after the embassy’s design and build plan was approved and no one bothered to tell the contractor. Security took the hard line position that the components had to be replaced before they would sign off on the building. The contractor said that they had a fully and properly approved design and, if the government wanted the components replaced, it would be at the government’s cost and not count against the company’s early completion bonus. The government contracting officer said there was no additional money to cover the replacement components or the labor without a special appropriation from Congress. Kelly was stuck having to sort through this logjam.
Lieutenant Colonel Bill Barrett, the construction engineer battalion commander, Oscar Vanlandingham, the senior security inspector, and Klaus Krallen, the President of Antares Pre Fab, Inc. walked in the door together and the battalion commander announced, “Gentlemen, we have a proposal from Mr. Krallen and Mr. Vanlandingham. Antares PreFab proposes to install the security system as originally designed and approved. Mr. Vanlandingham will approve the building if a request for exception to policy containing certain security measures is approved before it is completely assembled on G’Durin.”
Lieutenant Colonel Barrett listed the required security measures, which mainly required some record keeping and for Marine Detachment personnel to guard or patrol key doorways and building exits until such time as the components could be replaced. He also said that he had three reserve engineer light construction companies attached to his battalion that could do their reserve duty on G’Durin, changing out the components at no cost.
Kelly suspected they might have a problem when, earlier in the presentation, he saw Mr. Strange looking daggers at Mr. Vanlandingham. He looked over at the State Department Security Officer, who had a sour look on his face, and asked, “Mr. Strange, can you live with this solution?”
Strange looked down at his notes, looked up, and said in his pinched nasal voice, “I appreciate all the hard work and willingness to compromise displayed here, but there is no way that a request for exception to policy can be approved in the three months remaining in the contract to complete this building on G’Durin.”
Kelly asked for the steps to receive an approved exception to security policy.
Mr. Strange described a process that made a magician’s sleight of hand look amateurish. “The request goes into a central State Department office, is split into its component pieces, which are distributed to other security specialty offices. That will take a month based on their workload. Those specialty offices, in turn, conduct a review and send the files back to the central office, except for those parts of the request not approved, which go to the variance office to see if they comply with minimum security….”
Kelly stopped him in mid-sentence and asked, “Mr. Strange, who is the final approving authority for security exceptions to policy?”
Mr. Strange was a little flustered and said the Secretary of State is the final approval authority. Kelly asked to whom the Secretary had delegated that authority. Mr. Strange swelled up to h
is full 1.5 meter stature, smirked slightly, and said, “Why, sir, that would be me.”
Kelly smiled, pulled out his communicator, and hit an entry from his contacts list. He waited a few seconds and spoke into the device, “Ambassador, I think we have found a way to work around the problem. We need to put together a request for exception to policy for the no longer approved security components installed in the building. It will require some extra guard duty until some reserve engineers can come in and replace the components.”
Kelly listened for a while and replied, “No, sir, I don’t foresee any problems. I have the man that approves requests in front of me. Do you still have that breakfast with the Secretary tomorrow? You might want to see if she can do anything to help Mr. Strange clear his workload to handle this priority. You will, sir? Good, I’ll send you some talking points for the Secretary’s breakfast in about an hour. No, sir, I think we can disassemble the Embassy on Luna Day. That’s in two days, sir. We should be ready to transport in five days.”
Mr. Strange turned all shades of reds and bounced in his seat.
Kelly continued his conversation, “I see, sir. You’ll convey that to the Secretary. Fine, I’ll see you on G’Durin in a week then. Have a good day, sir.”
Kelly put his communicator away and Mr. Strange fairly exploded in all his bureaucratic outrage.
“Perhaps you didn’t hear me, Captain, but there is no way you will get this exception to policy through in time to get this building approved for transport in five days.”
Kelly sat back in his chair and smiled. “Perhaps you didn’t just hear me tell Lieutenant General (retired) David Taylor, the first human ambassador to the K’Rang Empire, that we were going to do exactly that. He will bring that up in conversation with the Secretary in the morning and I know you won’t want to make a liar out of the ambassador and have to explain to the Secretary why the ambassador was misinformed. Why, preparing the briefings, getting it through your boss and his changes and his boss and his changes and his boss and more changes and scheduling time on the secretary’s calendar and getting rescheduled and rescheduled could eat up all your time for the next four weeks or longer. You don’t want to have to go through that hassle, now do you?”
Kelly turned to the contractor and said, “Mr. Krallen, I believe we have taken enough of your time. I will confer with you in the morning on our timeline for moving the embassy. You and your company have done an outstanding job and I wish to convey those as the ambassador’s sentiments also. I’m sure his comments won’t hurt your chances at winning the Angaerry embassy contract, too.”
As Mr. Krallen left, Kelly turned to the four remaining individuals and said, “Gentlemen, we have forty-eight hours to put together a request for exception to policy that will pass review by every office and be granted immediate approval, is that not right, Mr. Strange?”
Mr. Strange smiled and in a smarmy tone said, “I hate to spoil your little party Captain, but I have a transport to Gagarin to catch in two hours.”
Kelly smiled again and told the bureaucrat, “I’m afraid the severe weather will cause your flight to be cancelled.”
Strange jumped up and paced over to the window, looking out at a clear western sky and snorted, “It won’t wash, Captain, you can’t pull the old, ‘all flights are grounded’ trick on me.”
No sooner had Mr. Strange completed his sentence than there was a brilliant flash of light, followed by a deafening thunderclap. Mr. Strange was so startled he turned to jump away from the window, got tangled in his own feet, and went down like a sack of potatoes.
Kelly looked over at the battalion commander and asked, “George, do you have a conference room we can use for a couple of days?
Lieutenant Colonel Barrett laughed and said, “Sure, sir, if you’ll tell me how you arranged for that thunderbolt at just the right moment.”
* * * * *
Candy Blake was boiling mad. The container with their linens, her law books, and the new baby furniture had not made the shipment with the remainder of their shipped goods. The baby things were not needed for another six months, but the linens would have been nice, as would the law books that were to outfit her office in the new embassy. No matter the advances in electronic publishing and data retrieval, lawyers still needed their books. She would deal with it. She checked the diplomatic pouch schedule and saw the next delivery was in three days. She sent a message to the diplomatic shipping office to ensure her container was sent with that shipment. Thank God for Kelly’s parents’ invention of the transport gates or it would have been months before they arrived.
Candy got up from her desk and walked down to the Chargé d’Affaires’ office. Maurice LeGrand was the Chargé d’Affaires and acting Ambassador while the embassy staff was selected and trained. It had been decades since the State Department established an embassy on the Moosilian home world, so the diplomatic office was undermanned and unable to ramp up for two new embassies at once.
The former pirate world Barataria was admitted into the Republic before the ink dried on the treaty, so no embassy had been required there. With only one small embassy on the Moose home world and a small consulate on the closest Moose world to the frontier, the diplomatic office had become a backwater and dumping ground for problem employees and low performers. Realizing this limitation, the Secretary decided to establish the K’Rang embassy first, the Angaerry embassy second, and then sort out the Diplomatic Office, which reduced much of the pressure on the Diplomatic Office, but not all. Some things, such as Candy’s linens and baby items, still fell through the cracks. All in all, she mused, it could be worse.
All the way down the hallway bustled deliverymen and grav-carts, scurrying junior diplomats, and stoic Marine Guards. Even though it had been swept by the finest security specialists in the Republic, throughout this K’Rang-provided building were signs saying, “The walls have eyes and ears. Watch what you say. Watch what you do.” Candy would be so glad when the new Embassy arrived in two days. She would be even happier when it was up and occupied.
It was an ambitious plan to prefabricate the six-story building on Antares Base and transport it here in modules to be assembled on site. It was the way her mountain home had been built, but on a vastly larger scale. It would be interesting to watch.
She walked into Mo’s outer office and asked his secretary, Minnie Jenkins, if he was available. The rather husky brunette checked her small video monitor’s view into his office and said he was. Candy thanked her and entered the Chargé d’Affaires’ office.
“Mo, how are things going?”
Mo, a tall slender man, was a thirty-year veteran of the Diplomatic Corps, with a tendency towards grey wool suits, poetry by eighteenth century English authors, and half glasses perpetually hanging off his nose. He had made his career out of postings to the few independent worlds still in GR space. Ever the diplomat, he jumped up to offer Candy a seat before he even knew why she was there.
“What can I do for you, Ms. Blake?”
Candy replied, “Mo, first thing is you can call me Candy when not in a formal diplomatic setting. Secondly, what is the current status on the embassy?”
Mo laughed, “Okay, Candy, the embassy delivery is delayed another day. It was some problem with the final inspection they needed to work out, but they only lost one day. The contractor will be sending their CEO through our mini-ring tomorrow to talk with his on-site supervisor and make sure all is ready for the delivery. Oh, by the way, your husband will be accompanying him. I thought you’d like to know.”
Candy literally jumped for joy at the news. “When were you going to tell me this? Mo, I oughta brain you.”
Moe faked cringing behind his desk.
“I just found out before you walked in my door. I told you as soon as I could.”
Candy thanked him, totally forgetting why she came in to see him, and skipped down the hallway to her office.
Chapter Two
The five shadow unified force commanders had been summ
oned in the middle of the night, ordered to put on their dress uniforms and report to headquarters. The first tentative glow of dawn was appearing in the eastern sky when they gathered on the front steps of the headquarters building, where they were told to wait. Their fogged breath was carried off in the brisk, early morning breeze. Impatience had grown into annoyance when they were finally led inside the building and to the main conference room.
Chief of the Imperial General Staff and Land Forces Marshall (Baron) T’Kana met them in the conference room and told them to sit in the five chairs arranged at the head table. He directed Shadow Unified Force Commander M’Juna to the middle chair.
“Gentlemen, the beginning of our return to greatness is upon us. You have been summoned here this morning to pass judgment on the first of those called to account for the debacle that befell us. He has just recently been brought into our custody, and your decision as to his guilt or innocence must be determined in the next six hours. He has been advised of the charges brought against him and has legal counsel.”
“I will leave you to study the charge packets in front of you and prepare your questions. You may begin whenever you are ready. I will retire to my office until you reach a decision. Come to me with your decision and rationale in five hours time, no later. Irrespective of any rash prior comments I may have made, I do not presuppose guilt or innocence. I expect you to use your own experiences as combat commanders to determine if Baron G’Rof did all he could to defeat the Human/A’Ngarii coalition.” Baron T’Kana spun on his heel and left them to their deliberations.
All Enemies Foreign and Domestic (Kelly Blake series) Page 2