by Saxon Andrew
“Stand by.” Matt waited and, after two minutes heard, “They may attend the meeting with you but only as an observer.”
“Yes Sir.” Matt shook his head and looked around; where was his weapons officer. He heard the pop of a ship appearing behind him and he saw a shuttle on the tarmac with its port rolling up. A young woman almost fell out of the port but managed to catch herself before she hit the pavement. She grabbed a large duffel bag and ran over toward him. She dropped the bag and said, “Ensign Stevens reporting for duty, Sir.”
“Where have you been?” Before she could answer, Matt saw the shuttle lift slightly above the tarmac and pressed the transmitter button on his wrist unit, “Sergeant, can you give us a lift before you leave?”
“Sure, where do you need to go?”
“Ensign Stevens and I are ordered to Fleet Headquarters to attend a meeting with the new High Leader.”
“I’ll standby for your departure.”
Matt looked at the woman, “Take your bag on board and change into a regulation uniform. Get moving!” The woman’s eyes widened at what she heard and she saluted him, picked up her bag, and ran through the light ship’s port. Matt looked at the shuttle, “She may need a few minutes to get ready. Do you have the time to wait?”
“I’ve just received orders to bring you to Headquarters. I understand the meeting starts in a few hours so take all the time you need.”
Matt smiled and looked at his uniform. It was still clean and the creases were holding. He’d wear what he had on and try to arrive early to see what was going on prior to the meeting starting. Stevens surprised him. She was out and ready to go in less than fifteen minutes. “What’s going on, Sir?”
“I don’t know. You know as much as I do but it’s my understanding that you are going as an observer. You will remain silent during the meeting.”
“Yes Sir.”
Matt stared at her and saw intelligence behind her brown eyes. “If you think of something that you feel I should know, send it to me over my wrist unit.”
“Yes Sir.” Matt turned and headed toward the shuttle with the recently graduated cadet from the Naval Academy following behind.
• • •
Silva Daniels looked at his wrist unit as he felt it vibrate. He read the message on the face of the unit and shook his head, “What in the hell does Fleet want now?”
“What’s going on?”
“I’ve been ordered to Headquarters to attend a meeting.”
“This is not a good time!”
“It’s scheduled two hours from now. Our drop is in ten minutes. It’s too late to call another ship in. We’ll complete our assignment and skip out afterwards. You will be going with me as an observer. Are you ready to drop?”
The woman sitting next to him took her long brown hair and wrapped it on top of her head. She used a rubber band to tie it up and hit a button on her wrist unit. She was suddenly enveloped in a suit of armor. She stood up and went to the center of the bridge, where a bright white circle was flashing. She stood in the middle of it and pulled up the status program and had it displayed on her visor. She made a few adjustments and looked at Silva, “I’ve set the arrival coordinates. Feed the current images the probe is collecting.”
“It’s still standing in the center of the community square threatening the locals.” Dan heard the tone over the loud speaker and said, “Drop in one minute. Be careful, Mallory.”
“Don’t worry.”
“Can’t help it, love.”
“I never tire of hearing you say that.”
Silva watched the countdown and said, “This one is nasty, don’t waste time.” Suddenly, Mallory dropped through the flashing white circle and disappeared.
• • •
Commodore Ethan Hughes watched the main wall display on his Command Light Ship and saw the planet hanging in space. He glanced at the tactical monitor next to the main display and scanned the list of data until he found the number of communities on the planet: twelve hundred and twenty six. He mentally moved the cursor down the list until it stopped over Community Dispersion. He pressed the cursor and a view of the planet appeared on the main display. He saw that four of them were located within ten miles of each other but that the others were separated by at least a hundred miles or more. “Jackson, who is dropping on the communities in quadrant 432?”
“Captain Torgawa is transporting four warriors to handle them.”
“Good. I don’t want four ships operating that close together. Is the Feeder Probe still operational?”
“It is. A light missile will be launched two seconds prior to drop. Sir, we have a priority message coming in from Fleet.”
“Put it on my panel.” Ethan read the message and shook his head, “This is just great!”
“What’s going on, Sir?”
“I’ve been ordered to report to the High Leader’s Chambers for a meeting.”
“Sir, I’ve just received a message to report as well.”
“What?”
“It just came in on the heels of the one you just received.”
“Don’t they know my Squadron is in the middle of dropping on eight planets?” Ethan shook his head and pressed a button on his console, “Captain Stone.”
“Yes Sir.”
“I’m leaving you in command of the squadron. I’ve been ordered to report to Fleet.”
“Sir, so have I.”
Ethan looked up and rolled his eyes, “Standby.”
“Yes Sir.”
Ethan hit his communicator and saw Admiral Ambrose appear, “Sir, I’m in the middle of major drop operations on eight planets and I’ve been ordered back to Fleet along with my second-in-command.”
“Both of you will be here! Is that clear, Commodore?!”
“But…”
“Can it, Hughes! Be here on time!”
Ethan looked at Jackson and saw he was just as shocked as he was. He took a deep breath through his nose and slowly blew it out. He turned the dial on his console and pressed a button, “Captain Donovan, I will be leaving momentarily and I am leaving you in command of the drops. I will transfer all the data to your computer and you will make sure this mission goes off without a hitch.”
“Sir?”
“Heather, you’re going to have to learn on the fly. Assign your targets to another ship and take charge. I’m counting on you to make this happen. If you can’t do it, call off the last two drops and wait for me to come back.”
“What about Captain Stone?”
“He is also leaving, Captain. Assign his duties to another ship and make this happen. Send me a message if you’re forced to call off the next drops.”
Ethan watched her and saw her smile slightly, “We’ll make it happen, Sir.”
“Don’t risk exposure, Captain!”
“You’ve given us a good plan, Sir. Our pilots are well trained and I feel certain we can implement it.”
Ethan smiled and ended the transmission. He set the light drive and skipped out of the planetary system. Someone was going to answer for endangering his ships by interrupting his mission.
• • •
Rose looked at her desk display and saw a series of numbers begin to move across it. She stopped the flow of information and entered a query. A single number appeared and she frowned. This was not acceptable. She pressed another button and saw the Ruler of the Welken civilization appear on her main wall monitor. “Congratulations, High Leader on your recent selection.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty. Do you have a few moments to answer a couple of questions?”
“By all means. How can I be of service?”
“How many light ships are being produced by your manufacturing facilities?”
The Ruler looked away from the display and said, “Give me just a few moments.” He continued to look off screen and after a few moments looked back at her, “We’re producing six hundred a week, High Leader.”
“Is that your maximum capability?”
&n
bsp; He looked off the screen again and appeared to be listening to someone before he looked back at her, “No, we can produce more than six times that number but there aren’t enough pilots graduating to fly them.”
“How many of your forces are capable of flying the newest light ship?”
“My forces no longer pilot warships, High Leader. Humans and Gorans provide the pilots to fly our warships.”
“That’s not an answer, Your Majesty. How many are capable of flying them?”
“Pretty much all of our naval officers can do it but they’re not telepathic.”
“Your Majesty, I’m calling a meeting of all the leaders of the civilizations in the Alliance in six days. Does your schedule allow you to attend?”
“It does.”
“Will you contact the other leaders and see if it meets with their schedules so that everyone can be in attendance. If the meeting needs to be shifted a day or so, I will do so.”
“Are you going to tell me why you’re calling this meeting?”
“I want you to keep this information secret but I intend to have all of the civilizations start training their forces to fly the light ships. We’ll discuss this during the meeting.”
“High Leader, that would put them in great danger. Only the telepaths can hide from the Feeders.”
“We’ll discuss it in the meeting, Your Majesty. Let me know if the time needs to be changed. Otherwise, I’ll see you at midday in six days.”
Rose ended the transmission and knew there was going to be a problem with the Alliance’s Leadership. She had to bring them along slowly or lose their support. She looked up and sighed. Slow wouldn’t work; too many things had to happen quickly. She might lose their support but she really had no choice. She looked at her panel and smiled, forty-five minutes until the first meeting. “Let’s see what Mandel was able to find out.”
• • •
Rose opened the double doors to her conference room and saw Admiral Mandel and his staff waiting outside. She nodded and they entered the room and took the chairs at the table directly in front of her desk. She pressed a button on her panel, “Sam, bring the others in and have them take the chairs behind Admiral Mandel’s table.”
Mandle stood up and Rose said, “Please wait until the others I’ve invited arrive.”
Mandel looked around, “Who else is coming, High Leader?”
“Some of the warriors involved in the fight to take back planets the Feeders have conquered.” Mandel sat down and Rose looked through the double doors to see Sam escorting the officers to her meeting. Most of them did not look happy at being here. Good! Sam showed them to their chairs and turned to leave, “Captain Goodwin, you will also sit with the officers.” Sam’s eyes narrowed slightly but then he turned and took one of the chairs behind Admiral Mandel’s staff. Rose waited for them to settle down and said, “For the moment, all of you are observers and will remain silent.” She looked at Admiral Mandel and nodded. He stood up and Rose said, “Admiral, I don’t want a presentation. I am going to ask you some questions and I want answers.”
Mandel looked at her with a bewildered expression and then looked at his staff, “Which ever of you have the answer, give it to the High Leader.” The Intelligence Staff was nervous. This was highly unusual.
“How many light ships does the Alliance have in its inventory?”
A captain sitting to Mandel’s left said, “Four hundred eighty six million, nine hundred fifty four thousand and twelve.”
The room was silent and even Mandel stared at the young captain. “How did you arrive at that number, Captain?”
“It wasn’t easy, High Leader. But I hacked into every main computer system of our allies and added the total to those in the Goran and Human inventories.”
Mandel shook his head, “Why did you hack in to their systems?”
“They weren’t responding fast enough for us to get the information in time for this meeting, Sir.”
Rose smiled, “Of the number you just gave me, how many currently have pilots to fly them?”
The Captain pressed some buttons on his tablet and looked up, “Fifty eight percent. The others are in our allies’ inventory awaiting a pilot to take possession.”
Mandel stared at the Captain and was still bothered by violating the Allies privacy, “You didn’t tell me you hacked into our allies’ computers.”
“Sir, you told me to get the information and you’d not accept any excuse for not getting it. I assumed you were telling me to get it no matter what obstacles I encountered.”
“But hacking their systems could cause some real political issues.”
Rose interrupted them, “Admiral get over it. Captain, are you certain of your numbers?”
“They’ve changed in the last ten minutes. Most of our manufacturing facilities are operating at one quarter of their capacity due to the limited number of pilots we’re currently able to train. But they’re still producing a huge number every day.”
“How many cadets do we currently have enrolled in our academies?”
A young woman said, “One million, three hundred and fifty thousand are currently enrolled, High Leader.”
Rose stared at her and after a moment said, “Is that an exact count?”
“The Academies weren’t forthcoming with an accurate total, so I used Fleet’s main computer to look at their systems. The numbers fluctuate below that number but the computer was certain that that many would complete their training.”
• • •
Silva looked at Mallory and whispered, “That’s a huge waste of ships. I had no idea we had that many light ships operating.”
“The number sitting on the ground waiting for a pilot is disgusting.”
“Tell me about it.”
• • •
Ethan looked at Jackson. His anger at being forced to attend this meeting had vanished. This was eye opening. His squadron was operating shorthanded because of pilots that had retired and there weren’t enough replacements to take their places. This was a complete mess.
• • •
Rose continued to ask questions and Mandel’s staff were able to answer most of them. Mandel took a chair and was proud of what they were able to gather in the limited time given to them. Even though they used convoluted methods to gather the information, they showed surprising ingenuity at completing the task. Rose finally stopped asking questions and stared at the attendees in the room. She finally looked at Mandel and said, “I have just one question for you, Admiral.”
“Yes, High Leader?”
“How many non-telepaths have been sent to attack the Feeders on the conquered planets?”
Mandel stared at her for a moment and then said, “None.”
Rose looked around and said, “Who here is currently involved in freeing Feeder Planets?”
Ethan stood up, “My squadron is currently dropping on six Feeder conquered planets.”
“Have you dropped on all of them?”
“There are two that still have to be taken, High Leader.”
“Contact your squadron and delay the drops on those planets.” Ethan raised his wrist unit and started speaking. Rose looked at Sam and said, “Contact Admiral Ambrose and have him send a local defense regiment out to the Commodore’s Squadron and have them given a mind shield for their armor. I want the last two drops done with those drop troops.”
“But High Leader, the local defense forces are not telepathic.”
“Admiral, why don’t you and your staff get together with the officers I’ve invited to this meeting and prepare a reason as to why they have to be telepathic? I expect an answer within the next hour. Contact me when you’re ready to answer the question.” Rose stood up and walked out of the room through a door behind her desk.
Mandel looked around the room and Matt said, “There’s no reason why they have to be telepathic if the shields prevent the Feeders from seeing them.”
Mandel shook his head, “But all of our communications are t
elepathic.”
Matt shrugged, “The computers in the ships and in their armor can handle that issue. I’ve wondered for a long time why we’ve only used telepathic pilots and warriors.” Everyone stared at Matt and then started talking over each other. Rose watched the meeting on the display in her personal quarters and smiled. The lowest ranking officer in the room saw it first. She looked at the Nudge’s Watch List and saw the lieutenant was number two. Now that was interesting. Let’s see if he could get the others on board. She looked up and thought, “I had no idea we had this many ships in our inventory.”
“I don’t think anyone does.”
“You are right. This is something that needs attention.” She thought about the waste of more than two hundred million light ships.
Chapter Sixteen
The Welken Ruler looked at the Leader of the Audon on his monitor and shook his head, “The new High Leader has me concerned.”
“Why?”
“I was asked not to reveal our conversation before the meeting but I’m beginning to think that she is not really aware of the danger we’re facing with the Death Feeders.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“I hate to admit that I am.”
“If it comes down to a vote of confidence, we can replace her.”
“I hope it doesn’t come to that. Let’s wait and see what she has to say before we do anything rash.”
“Do you think you can get the votes if it does?”
“The Myot and Johan will vote with me. The Goran will side with the Humans and the tie breaker will be you.”
“What about the Leaders from M-84?”
“They still don’t have voting rights.”
“You can count on me if what you say is accurate.”
“I was hoping you would say that.”
“I’ll see you at the meeting.”
“I look forward to seeing you again.”
• • •
Rose entered the conference room and found the attendees were still arguing. They saw her move to her chair and they became silent and went to their chairs. Rose smiled, “Well, what did you decide?”
Admiral Mandel stood up and raised his hands, “High Leader, we’ve not been able to come up with an answer that all of us could agree on.”