Fadi Beegras was another of the few tall Odentas like the chancellor. His long stride and deliberate expression as he approached me gave the impression of him moving in slow motion.
Fadi held out his hand. "Mr. Beutcher, I've been eager to meet you. Your stature is as commanding as I was led to believe. I'd like to thank you for what you've done for us."
I shook Fadi's hand. "I was greatly saddened to hear about Odenta. What a devastating turn of events. I wish I had been there to do something about it."
Fadi held up his open palm. "You cannot blame yourself for the actions of others, Mr. Beutcher. Believe me as I say I have done that with myself over much of the last three weeks. I have run a thousand scenarios through my head about what if I had done this or that. I lost my entire family on one of the other transports that got hit as we left. But I have been assured that I now have almost four hundred thousand family members who are here to support me. So I will turn my efforts toward serving them as best I can."
I replied, "It sounds as though your people are in capable hands. Go has already given assignments to the bots. In a month's time, you may have as many as eight to ten million of them for you to command. By that time you should have farming established and hopefully some kind of defense over this city."
Fadi smiled. "My people have voted and we have a name for this city. It will be called Knog, in honor of all you have done for us."
I shook my head, "I'm not deserving of such tribute, Mr. Beegras. It might be better suited with a name that is a rallying point for your people. Something that they cherish, at least for a while. We don't even know how long we will be here."
Fadi bowed his head and then looked up. "You are a humble man, Knog Beutcher. The city name has already been voted on and approved. I'm afraid we don't have time to put it to another vote, so you will have to live with it for now."
Jack smacked me on the shoulder. "The City of Knog. I like it."
The next week was spent in the City of Knog. Life for the Odentas was beginning to take shape. Living quarters had been rehabbed, and the citizens moved off the somewhat cramped transports. With the large city nearby, the replication of the autobots was ahead of schedule. My Talisan fighters had been given a section of the new city for quarters and were directed to follow the orders of Fadi Beegras. I called Jack, Garrett, and Go back to the Garmon.
Jack walked up the ramp-way. "I take it we're ready to head toward Jorus?"
I nodded. "If we leave now we should arrive there at about the same time."
Garrett came up next. "Are we sure the Kergans haven't already gone to Jorus? That would be a disaster."
I replied, "The Grumar and Grotus may still be fighting at Bolitha. Let's hope that's the case."
Go blinked in behind me. "We ready?"
I turned and walked up the ramp-way. "We're ready."
Go followed me as we cut through the lab on the way to the bridge. "Mr. Beutcher, hold up."
I stopped and turned.
Go walked over to a table and reached for a small white package. "Check it out, the Talisans had the bots build me a new power cell, filter, and a quasi-food pack. The power cell has four times the power. I can now go faster when I'm outside the ship. The filter pack should run about three times as long, which also makes the bio-gel last longer. And the new food cell should keep me nourished for a week. I also have replacements."
I replied, "That's fantastic. How long can you drift for now?"
Go half smiled. "If I have to, I could go for just over two weeks. The good thing, though, is I can travel at four times the speed. So that eight-day drift to get out to where Garrett can safely watch from in the Jess will now only take me two days. And The Talisans are working on an even more powerful cell. They say if it works, I'll be able to quadruple the power again. And, the best thing about these new cells... I have replacements."
I patted him on the shoulder. "You know you remain our secret weapon. Just be careful when testing these things out as you are invaluable to us as it is. We can't afford to lose you."
As I turned back toward the bridge, Go grabbed my arm. "Hold on. I didn't show you the most exciting thing!"
Go held up a piece of silvery white cloth. "The engineers are getting close to replicating the suit material. If they can accomplish that, they believe they can then apply that surface to anything."
I furrowed my brows. "Anything?"
Go nodded. "Anything. We could possibly cover the Jess or the Garmon in this stuff. Would that be cool or what?"
I turned my head slightly. "That would be quite the feat. Only, how would we propel either ship?"
Go looked up at the ceiling, then back. "It's always in the details, isn't it?"
I laughed. "It is. I'm certain we could find usefulness in an active skin even without having propulsion while it's active. Keep those experiments going. They are already paying off with that new power cell."
Go smiled as I continued on to the bridge. When I arrived, Garrett was conferring with Jack.
I stepped up. "Did either of you see what Go did for his suit?"
Garrett half smiled. "Yeah, he's been talking about it for a day and a half now. It's pretty remarkable stuff... the first dozen times you hear about it."
Jack laughed. "Come on. He was excited, but not that bad."
Garrett held up his hands. "Fine, defend him if you want."
I said, "Did he tell you they are working on a more powerful cell? If they can make that happen, his drift to or from the Jess, or another target vessel, could be cut down to half a day."
Garrett huffed. "I suppose he showed you the material, too?"
I nodded. "He did. If we could somehow cloak a ship, imagine what we'd be able to do then."
Garrett crossed his arms. "We could park the Jess or the Garmon right next to whoever we wanted. If we can figure out the propulsion."
I tilted my head to the side. "You have to think a little bigger, Garrett. Imagine drifting inside a ship and then blinking in and out. You could make an entire ion generator disappear, without ever being detected."
Garrett stared at the floor for several seconds in thought. "Now that would be something that was useful. I guess I should be a little more supportive of him on this stuff. I know I like to rib him a lot, and I probably go a bit too far sometimes."
Garrett took a deep breath. "I'll go down and see if I can offer help."
I held out my hand, taking his shoulder as he turned. "I have another thought for you. We could drift inside the Sutherlin, snatch Joni, and be gone before they knew she was missing."
Garrett smiled. "That would be impressive."
I nodded. "We have six weeks to kill before we reach Jorus. See what you can come with."
Jack watched Garrett walk away. "Nicely handled. He'll get into that project now instead of spending his time pestering Go."
I replied, "I think they like picking on each other. I sometimes have to wonder if they had the same mother."
The time came for the ride out to Jorus. It would take forty-one days.
Jack sat in his chair as he barked out an order. "Mr. Jefferson, get us off this planet if you will. Take us to Jorus."
Jefferson replied, "Yes, sir."
No new breakthroughs had been achieved with the sodium material. Garrett and Go joined us on the bridge as we slowed.
Go said as he sat: "That's a lot of ships."
Garrett looked over the holo-display image on the wall in front of us. "That's almost twelve thousand! The Grumar and Grotus fleet is way bigger than we thought."
I replied, "Had we gone to Modus, I don't think we would have gotten close enough to fire the missiles with any effectiveness. The New Alliance fleet looks tiny compared to the others."
Jack said, "If we had allied with the Moddle and waited at Doomlight, the Grumar and Grotus would have slaughtered us."
Garrett stood beside me as I stared at the slowly spinning world. "She's a beautiful blue-green planet."
I nodded. "I could sit
and stare at her all day. I have to wonder what life would have been like if the duke had never interfered. Would we now be trading partners with the Grumar, Doomlighters and Odentas?"
Garrett half laughed. "I don't think the Grotus would have complied with that vision. They do have an aggressive side that would probably only be placated by conquering others. Some species are wired that way."
I shook my head. "I don't believe that. I think aggression is learned. You can take a wild Rondella fox, and with four or five generations of captivity, you can have a fully-domesticated animal. We all have a natural desire to follow a group, a herd mentality if you will. Everyone wants to belong when in a group setting. If the majority of a group begins to act in an aggressive manner, the rest of the group will follow. Research has shown that to be the case with all species. I studied that extensively back in my inspector days."
I began to laugh.
Garrett inquired. "What's so funny?"
I replied, "I was just thinking about how naive I was when I first started as a ship inspector. Until I studied psychology, I had so many misconceptions about how people functioned and reasoned. It was a wonder I was able to catch anyone at anything. I wanted to believe everyone was honest, since I couldn't fathom not being that way myself."
Garrett smirked as he looked in my direction. "Yeah, well, welcome to the real world, where half the people you meet are crooks and the other half are sheep."
I shook my head. "No, I still believe most are honest. I just approach situations with a different perspective now. If they are honest, it quickly shows. If not, you can take steps that will cause most to slip up and show their intentions."
Garrett looked back at the display. "You would make one tough negotiator. Maybe Harden should send you in for his next Alliance get-together. I bet you could make a few of those diplomats squirm."
Jack said, "I can't get a good scan of how many transports are down on the surface. We aren't looking at any of the Moddle or the New Alliance transport ships out there. Those are all warships."
Garrett sat next to Go. "What do you think? Should we take the Jess in for a closer look?"
Jack pointed at the display. "They do have a few scout ships flying around out in the direction of Bolitha. If any were to come back this way, we could get spotted before we had a chance to clear out."
I looked over at Garrett. "I think we have to camp and watch for the moment. Why don't you see if you can pick out the Sutherlin? Maybe we can put together a plan to pick Joni out of there."
Garrett pulled up his holo-display, swiped several screens, highlighted a particular ship and passed it up to the big display. "She's sitting right in the middle of the New Alliance ships. Unless we send Go in on a drift, we aren't getting near her."
I replied, "How many of those passive probes do we have left?"
Garrett pulled up another screen on his display. "Six."
I looked at the big display in thought before responding. "Are those something the autobots could replicate?"
Go smacked himself in the forehead. "Why didn't we think of that before? We could have restocked on our way out here."
Garrett shrugged as he stood. "Looks like we've got time now. Let's go get started on it."
Jack sat with his arms crossed as Go and Garrett left the bridge. "Got anything we can keep ourselves occupied with other than counting ships?"
I slowly shook my head. "I think we have to wait for them to make the next move."
Chapter 10
* * *
Twelve hours after our observing began, Jack said. "I find this whole setup strange."
I replied, "Why do you say that?"
Jack pointed. "Each of these fleets looks like they are poised for an assault. Why would you assemble your ships that way?"
I leaned forward as I looked over the display. "Maybe they want to be ready if an attack comes."
Jack shook his head. "Those are offensive postures, not defensive. See these spearheads... those ships should be toward the back of this formation."
Garrett came onto the bridge. "The bots started making new probes. Go thinks we'll have a hundred or so in the next couple days. He's adding several enhancements, but nothing major. Anything new up here?"
I gestured toward the display. "Jack finds it odd that the ships are all parked in offensive positions."
Garrett looked over the formations. "Maybe they are practicing for an assault?"
Jack laughed. "They aren't practicing much of anything. The comm traffic has been at a minimum for the last three hours. I think it might be time for us to take the Jess in there so we can monitor what's happening on the Sutherlin."
Garrett turned to face me. "I could go in and leave a trail of probes. That would give us the comm connection without leaving me exposed."
I nodded. "Make it happen. And get back here as soon as possible. Those scout ships have been taking slowly wider arcs in the past hour. I wouldn't mind pushing us back a notch or two with a couple extra passive probes. See if you can set up a chain of five of them. That should put us well out of scout range as well."
Two hours later, Garrett returned in the Jess. Our chain of probes was online and gathering data.
Jack said, "Interesting. The Salton transports and the Moddle transports are both parked down there on the surface. The Grumar and Grotus transport ships are all parked alongside their fleet."
I replied, "That may still be a trust issue."
Garrett walked onto the bridge. "The comm tag on the Sutherlin should be up. I used the new probes out there and they required some tuning. We can apply that to the ones in stock so they are ready to go next time we need them."
The comm channel came to life.
Joni paced back and forth across the bridge deck of the Sutherlin. "Why are we just waiting here, Ambassador?"
The ambassador sighed. "As I said, we are awaiting instruction from your uncle."
Joni huffed. "So we wait seven weeks for it to arrive from the portal?"
The ambassador crossed his legs as he sat. "You do realize the portal can be opened to any point in space, right? Your uncle may have taken several passive scans of the fleets already. When he decides it is time to take action, he will let us know. Until then, we wait."
Joni stopped and turned. "Hold on... what did you just say? He's moving around where the portal opens?"
The ambassador smiled. "I am not at liberty to carry on conversations about the portal, Miss Salton. I have already said too much."
Joni turned to face the full wall holo-display. "That explains how he has made the deals he has. The Grumar and Grotus didn't just show up, they were invited. You know what else that tells me, Ambassador? It tells me he knows exactly what the Kergan fleet looks like."
Joni lowered her head. "Huh. I bet he has their entire empire mapped out already. Now I have to wonder what his real angle is with this grand alliance."
The ambassador scowled. "I would suggest you keep those wonderings to yourself, Miss Salton. Walls have ears and crews tend to gossip. These matters are of the highest secrecy."
Joni turned back to face the ambassador. "Then you shouldn't have opened your mouth. I have to wonder what my uncle would think of your little slip-up."
The ambassador slowly bowed his head. "I must beg your forgiveness."
Joni took three steps forward until she was standing in front of the ambassador with her hands on her hips. "Why don't you and I declare an alliance, Ambassador. I can feed you information from inside the family and you can feed me the strategic information that my uncle bestows on you. That might help us both do our jobs more effectively."
The ambassador waved his hand. "I have no use for your family secrets, Miss Salton. Besides, what you are talking about is playing a very dangerous game. A game we could both easily lose."
Joni leaned in. "I'm not talking about family secrets, Ambassador. I'm talking strategies. Before coming out here, I was by my uncle's side every day for almost two months. I saw
and heard a lot of things that didn't make sense to me at the time. Some of those things are now becoming clear. Look, you won't betray him, I won't betray him, and if the two of us join forces, we might just be able to serve him better."
Garrett smiled. "She is good."
The ambassador looked past Joni at the display wall. "Give me something I can work with."
Joni thought for a moment. "I saw a display with nine colonies all flagged to the New Alliance. Two of those colonies were Modus and Mayanis."
The ambassador chuckled. "I don't think it's any secret that your uncle wants those colonies under his wing."
Joni nodded. "OK, then tell me how many colonies there supposedly are in the Grumar Duration?"
The ambassador tilted his head. "I have been told there are as many as forty-five."
Joni shook her head. "There are only nine, Ambassador. And of those nine, four were only established in the last year. They are still just outposts. Aside from those outposts, and Modus and Mayanis, the other three colonies have fewer than a hundred thousand colonists each. The planets of Modus and Mayanis are the Duration."
The ambassador scowled as he looked up at the fleet of ships on the display. "That is an impressive fleet for only having the resources of two worlds."
Joni nodded. "It is. They have automation, robotics. And they use it extensively. You've noticed our own ship numbers rapidly increasing of late. We've stolen that automation technology and we're using it to build our own ships now. My uncle wants to command those two worlds so he can control the shipbuilding automation they have developed. He doesn't want to be friends with the Grumar and Grotus, he wants to own them."
The ambassador sat quietly in thought for most of a minute. "You have completed a picture that I have been struggling with for some time, Miss Salton. I shall offer you a token of information in return."
"As a confidant of my uncle, I would have thought you already knew all that," Joni said.
The ambassador replied, "Your uncle shares information with his staff in a very selective manner. I only have knowledge of bits and pieces of the overall strategy. It's a secure way of keeping others from knowing what you are planning."
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