Production facilities on Ariall had been at work around the clock for years. Ships were ready, though sending them would temporarily reduce the forces protecting Ariall. Despite that, the An’Atee ferried several hundred ships to Haldor, and a short time later a baseship and a prime ship followed. The baseship would remain near Haldor for support. The prime ship returned the ferry crews back to Ariall when they finished training the replacement Harbok crews. When more ships became available, they would repeat the process, though eventually the Harbok would be able to pick up their own ships.
Grayson found himself pulled in even more directions than Greg. His needs were always immediate, and he reveled in the responsibility. Angie Tolland never strayed far from his side. Though not tested at pulling the trigger, few had any doubt that she would do so if necessary. Her knowledge of the An’Atee, of all the various ship’s capabilities, and of space itself had made her indispensable to Grayson and his top staff. Though not yet assigned a ship of her own, and she desperately wanted one, she spent a lot of time aboard baseships, prime ships, and even fighters, with Grayson usually by her side.
Greg, though elated with the progress, was keenly aware that the An’Atee had yet to prove themselves in the eyes of the Harbok. They had provided meaningful assistance, but they had not yet fulfilled his objective of proving to the Harbok that they could be true and equal partners.
Chapter Twenty-four
Douglas had been searching for almost three years. He had known his mission would be a multi-year project, but after so much time without results, he decided that searching the galaxy blindly was not working. He needed to narrow the search area.
“I had hoped we’d luck out and get some quick results,” he said during a staff meeting. “That hasn’t happened. It’s time to go back to the drawing board. One of our original plans, a plan we discarded as taking too long, was to find an Oort and try to track it through hyperspace. We know that Angie Tolland observed the Oort on the planet they took over. She saw several ship departures and one arrival, which means the planet has a limited flow of traffic from Oort space.”
He directed his gaze to Nessaka and said, “If we hung out there for a few months, we’d have some likelihood of seeing actual Oort. Can we track them through hyperspace?”
Nessaka gave the idea serious consideration. In the end, he said, “It would be hit or miss, certainly. We could hide somewhere in the outskirts of the system and activate our StarDrive as soon as the departing Oort made their first jump. If we’re quick enough, our computers might occasionally get a hit after we analyze the data. We wouldn’t know which way to jump, but we’d have a better idea the next time or the time after that.”
Douglas looked to Captain Lester. “Any thoughts, Danny?”
Lester looked thoughtful as he ran the numbers in his head. “We don’t need the baseship for that. We could split up and send a prime ship or two.”
Douglas sat back in his chair. The concept made instant sense to him. He looked around the table to find everyone deep in thought. “A grand idea, Danny.”
Jamyl, their explorer, spoke up. “Do you want us to try to retrieve an Oort from that world?”
Douglas again sat back in thought. When he spoke, it was definitively. “No. It’s too soon. We cannot risk discovery. And while the Harbok might know about other worlds taken over by the Oort, we don’t. I don’t want to lose the only connection we have.”
Douglas dispatched two prime ships to that sad world. With five scouts each, the prime ships themselves would have to fill the role of scout in order to field four three-ship elements.
Before dividing his forces, Douglas called the prime ship captains to a meeting aboard the baseship. The captains received a complete briefing on the strategy, and each felt comfortable with their ability to operate as a fighting unit should fighting be necessary. A prime ship and five scouts packed a lot of firepower, and the individual crews had trained together in battle. Douglas worried, but he knew the captains would make a good showing if they had to. Their prime objective was to cloak and run if discovered, though under certain circumstances they were given the initiative to take out small numbers of Oort if they believed they had been spotted. The operation held risk, but the risk was manageable.
All ships would rendezvous with the baseship after six months to download data. Douglas gave them coordinates for the rendezvous, and the prime ships left.
The baseship and its last remaining prime ship set out on the longest voyage yet undertaken by the An’Atee, to a position far beyond Haldor. The area was completely unexplored by the An’Atee.
Douglas reached the coordinates and dispatched the scouts. They would return in about a month. During that time, he, Danny Lester, and the scientists worked out a search box that was 50 light-years on a side. Each month would see them move to a different corner of the box, gather all the data they could, then move to another corner. If anything proved worthy, they would investigate. If it did not, they would develop another box and start again.
They found nothing during the first six months. After rendezvousing with the other prime ships and downloading their data, both groups split up again. Several promising scenarios came from the transferred data that would send the prime ships farther out on their next rotation.
Douglas’ group got two hits during the second six months, hits that pointed to a location even farther out. As soon as the scientists were certain of their data, Douglas gathered up his prime ships and scouts, became a unified fleet again, and headed in that direction.
Chapter Twenty-five
It was time to visit Earth again. Grayson needed more recruits, and Greg wanted to bring President Rhodes up-to-date on Alliance progress. Ollie assured Greg that he could clear their way with the local Harbok commander, so Greg, Arlynn, Emily, Jemara, Ollie, Grayson, and Angie Tolland boarded a prime ship.
Emily was 21 years old. She had met Lor Tas’val, she was close with Ollie and Admiral Grayson, and she devoted as much time as she could to her education, following a program orchestrated by Angie Tolland. The program focused on her becoming a starship pilot, but to do so, she had to meet demanding Alliance qualifications that included demonstrating leadership in other areas.
Whenever possible, when Greg or Arlynn, or both of them, left the planet or traveled to the other side of the planet for a meeting, she was on the bridge and at the controls. Travel time to Earth for the prime ship was four months each way: six weeks to reach the outskirts of Ariall’s system, one month of interstellar jumping, then another six weeks to reach Earth after their last jump.
Angie had no intention of wasting the eight months of round-trip travel. She put Emily and Ollie to work on various crew duties aboard the prime ship, including piloting, navigating, weapons familiarization, studies of shipboard systems with tutoring from the Chief of the boat, and shadowing the captain as he went about his usual duties.
Emily and Ollie argued over who would get to make the jumps on the trip to Earth. They ended up alternating. Ollie got the first one, but Emily was looking over his shoulder like a hawk. So was everyone else for that matter.
When they reached the outskirts of Earth’s system, Ollie contacted his old base. After a prolonged discussion that included Lor Tas’val’s name, he obtained a clearance for them to land.
When they reached Earth orbit, the seven of them boarded a fighter for the trip down to the surface. Emily won the toss on who would make the entry and landing, and she brought the ship in on manual to a silent hover just behind Jim and Nancy’s barn. Greg and Arlynn got to meet their two-year-old nephew. Jim and Nancy still owned their import company, and they still worked with the Harbok on a regular basis.
The local Harbok commander met Ollie out in the barn. Ollie presented a copy of the agreement signed by Lor Tas’val and Jemara, after which the new commander, Colonel Hagden, welcomed them. He even offered to provide transportation during their stay on Earth if they needed it. They did not—the fighter they had come
in was equipped with their most advanced cloaking device.
Emily had left Earth over six years earlier, and it had been five years since her last visit. Her father, President David Rhodes, had left office three years earlier, and he now led the secret organization that was preparing Earth for the arrival of aliens. A private jet whisked Emily to a meeting with her parents. She had to suffer through an antiquated flight on a fifteen-passenger jet with her as the only passenger, and the pilots wouldn’t even let her fly the jet. Always a lady, she didn’t let on, she just engaged the flight attendant in conversation, attempting to catch up on what had been happening on Earth during her absence. She met her parents at a borrowed home on a beach in Florida, walking into the reunion as a confident young woman.
Greg gave them a couple of days, but it was time for Earth to meet the Harbok, even if the meeting stayed discreet. Colonel Hagden joined their entourage for the short flight to Florida. Grayson landed the ship outside the home in Florida, right on the beach in the middle of the night. He dropped everyone off, then he and Angie departed for Area 51 where arrangements had been made to hide the ship and for them to start the recruiting process. The circle of people who knew about aliens was growing.
Jemara, who was still Atee, got to meet Dave and Jackie, and in turn they got to meet the Atee and their first Harbok. The group spent several days at the Florida home while Dave made arrangements for additional meetings. The days were busy, but they made time for fun. Emily led the way to the beach where they all played in the waves. Ollie and Colonel Hagden joined them after dark and enjoyed themselves immensely. There had been few moments of pure fun and relaxation during their austere lives, and they were a little unsure of themselves, but they quickly got over it.
Dave requested a visit to Ariall for himself and the leaders he had put together on Earth who would one day bring Earth into the Alliance. Many of his group no longer held official positions in government and could get away. He believed it might even be possible for a few who still held office to be away for a couple of months.
The request caught Greg by surprise, but the more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. “It will be for more than a couple of months, Dave,” he said. “Travel time is four months each way. Add whatever time you spend there, and you’re looking at close to a year.”
Dave’s lips compressed. “We can’t disappear for a year,” he said. “We’re still a world of nations here. The Chinese are in with us now, but it’s a tentative thing. They’re tired of taking our word on everything.”
“Can’t be done any quicker. We’ll get them their rides in a starship, and if they want to send a representative back with us, they can. I appreciate what you’re saying, and yes, it has been a while since I had to think along nationalistic lines. It sucks.”
“It’s all I know. We’re making steady headway, but we have a long, long way to go.”
“What if we just spring all this on the world?”
“Too soon, by far. It might be time, though, to start giving us samples of technology so we can gear up production.”
“Who chooses which company gets what?”
“My group has a plan. It might surprise you to know we’re not leaning toward the largest corporations or even the most powerful countries. Our goal is not to strengthen already strong companies or nations, it is to pull the world together. Large corporations will try to gobble up the smaller companies we select once the small companies become successful, but we can exert some influence even there. Depending on what you offer, we’ll spread it around appropriately. We can discuss all this in Europe with the rest of the group in a couple of days. I’m setting up a meeting at a retreat we bought in Switzerland. It’s remote enough, yet it has all the amenities. You’ll like it.”
“I don’t care about amenities. I can sleep in a sleeping bag if necessary. I just want to get the job done. I want your group to meet the Harbok, and I want Jemara to get a feel for how you’re going about your jobs. She’ll provide what leadership she can to your group, and she’s willing to send specialists from Ariall if you think they’ll be of any help.”
“We seek guidance from all quarters, but it has to be us making the decisions.”
“To your own benefit?”
“No. We specifically set up a charter that prevents any of us from gaining financially from our efforts. Nor do I believe it will lead to positions of power for the members of our group, at least not for many years. Certainly not until long after we’re gone. By then, the positions of power will be appropriate if they become reality. You’re insisting that Earth speak with one voice before joining your Alliance. That person might come from our group, but it’s equally possible that he or she might not.”
“I have a pretty good idea of what you’re up against. You’ve made significant headway, Dave. I’m surprised.”
“So am I. I’ve gotten to know a lot of very good people during the past few years. We’re not as set in our ways as I had thought. Not having to speak for only one country has been stimulating for all of us. How goes the war?”
“Ollie and Colonel Hagen are here.”
“I noticed. That’s progress?”
“It is very significant progress. The time is rapidly approaching when we will test the strings that bind us together.”
“That sounds scary.”
“Very scary. The outcome is always in doubt, and the cost will be high, but I want to teach this Fourth Race a lesson it will never forget. Long-term, I plan to put the Oort out of the conquering business altogether.”
Grayson showed up unexpectedly the next day. All excited, he had just come from Area 51. He left the ship sitting out on the beach in the dark and headed for the house, but Dave’s security detail stopped him. With a spaceship to provide credentials, it did not take long to wake Dave and get Grayson into the house.
Dave met him at the door and could only stare. “My God, what’s happened to you?” he exclaimed after he figured out who the black man standing in his doorway was.
“Dropped a few years, eh?” Grayson said with a gleaming smile. “And a few pounds as well. Open up. I need to talk to Greg and Ollie.”
Everyone shuffled downstairs into the living room. Jackie headed to the kitchen to make coffee without being asked. Greg moved a curtain aside to look outside and saw exactly what he had been afraid he would see.
“We can’t leave the ship sitting there like that, Harry.”
“Yes we can, for a little while. The security guys are setting up a perimeter. How do our lasers work?”
Greg shook his head at the change of subject and looked at Grayson as if he were crazy. “You pull the trigger, it sends out a massive bolt.”
“Yes, but what kind of bolt?”
Greg thought for a time, then he turned to Arlynn. When she shook her head, he turned to Ollie, but he did not have an answer either.
“On our screens, the light is white, or maybe yellow,” Grayson continued. “Is it pure light?”
“Light is just a small part of the energy spectrum,” Emily said. “Our lasers fire in a much higher frequency than visible light. Our screens display the beams to us as light, but it’s only for display purposes. When a laser hits something, frequencies bounce all over the place, and we can usually see the results with our naked eyes.”
By the time she was done, every eye in the room was on her, the youngest person there. A silence held, but only briefly. Grayson was in a hurry.
“What about our cloaking devices?”
“They’re tuned to divert energy around the ship and back into space,” Emily said.
“Would they divert a missile? Or, will our shields deflect something else that’s physical?”
Ollie spoke up. “You know that wouldn’t work, Harry. These ships move too fast. Only light is fast enough to hit them before they’re somewhere else.”
Grayson considered Ollie’s words, then he turned to Emily with raised eyebrows.
“I’m not sure,” she
said.
“I just came from Area 51,” Grayson said. “I observed a test of a weapon they’re working on. It’s a particle beam, sort of like a laser, but it shoots atomically heavy particles at close to the speed of light. It doesn’t work very well yet, but I think it has potential. I don’t know how different it is from our lasers, but its beam is green. Something is different.”
It did not take long for the implications of such a possibility to sink in. Whether the system at Area 51 worked or not, another door had been opened for An’Atee scientists.
“Can we get the plans?” Greg asked.
They all turned to Dave. He shrugged. “Sure, if you think they’ll help.”
“How about a few of the designers?”
“The plans are easier. I’ll have to check.”
“We need to get this back to Ariall as soon as possible,” Greg said. “Who can go?”
Grayson spoke up immediately. “Not me. I need those recruits, and I want to select them personally.”
“I can go, but I’d like to stay if possible,” Arlynn said.
“Same here,” Greg said.
“I can,” Emily spoke up brightly.
Dave and Greg both spoke together. “Definitely not, young lady.” Then Dave asked in a shocked voice, “You know how to fly that thing?”
Greg answered for her. “She got us here, Dave. She hasn’t been idle on Ariall, but she’s not certified yet for interstellar operations on her own.”
“I’d certify her if she worked for me,” Ollie said. “I’ll go. You don’t need me here. You have Colonel Hagden to show off in my place.”
Greg turned slowly to Ollie. Ollie met his stare squarely and said, “It comes down to a matter of trust, Mr. Chairman. Do you trust me?”
“You know I do. But I also know that you have responsibilities to your people. Which way will you go?”
“I ask again, do you trust me?”
In response, Greg walked to the door and opened it, motioning to the ship. “She’s all yours, Ollie.”
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