The Final Act: Book III: The Settlement Chronicals

by W. J. Rydrych

  Using his wrist transmitter, Faud paged the Executive Officer of the Stockholm, Commander Nils Ojala, to meet him for a tour of the damage areas and a full damage assessment. Within minutes he was met by Commander Ojala, a blond, slightly overweight Finn with a constantly cheerful demeanor. Noting Faud's new shoulder boards he gave a simple, "congratulations, Admiral," and fell in step beside him.

  Entering the corridor circling the outer hull compartments they began to circle the entire ship, having to stop at each bulkhead that separated the corridor into sections. Most of the corridor walls looked undamaged, but in some instances a slight bulging was evident where the compartment had been damaged. The doors of the undamaged outer chambers stood open while crews examined the outer hull itself for any sign of cracking or bulging. In only one area did they have to detour around a closed-off area of corridor where the chamber wall itself had cracked; it was there that most of the fatalities had occurred. It took over an hour to complete the circuit, after which Faud and Commander Ojala returned to the control room to go over the latest repair assessments.

  "How long before we can repair the damage?" Faud asked.

  Commander Ojala shrugged, "we have teams going over the exterior now, but it's time consuming to cover the whole ship; that may take several days. But I'd guess," glancing over at some other officers that had joined them, "we should have the damaged chambers sealed within about a day, two at the most. But, a permanent repair will take some time since we'll have to do much of the work from outside, and until then we’ll have to avoid maneuvers requiring much acceleration. It could take a couple of months before we're as good as new."

  Continuing "that won't affect operation in any way. We're fully operational now. We just won't have full hull integrity until the final repair is done."

  Faud nodded, and got up from his seat, "thanks, Commander, please plan on another briefing first thing in the morning. For now, do what you can."

  CHAPTER 11: Stalemate

  (June 26, Alpha Year 53): Tom Sixkiller and Kevin Murphy sat in adjacent seats in the nearly empty shuttle Admiral Collins had ordered set aside for them. They had both received an emergency page to come up to the flagship, the Halsey, as soon as possible. Approaching the Halsey the shuttle entered the assigned docking bay, and Tom and Kevin got out, walking rapidly to the lift that would take them to the command deck. Within minutes they arrived to find Admiral Collins, along with the captains of the five ships still in orbit and some of his staff, waiting in a private conference room.

  Motioning them to seats, Admiral Collins leaned back, "now that everyone is here we can get started."

  Looking around the table, "as you all know the initial battle started late yesterday, and for the last several hours we have been getting progress reports from the Beta 3 fleet, but things have now quieted down. I've kept it quiet until we could assemble to discuss the result and its implications. Resistance was strong, but the fleet has gained temporary control and driven the defending Gath ships to their hangers.”

  “But," he continued quietly, "our losses were heavy. Three motherships are a total loss, with a fourth inoperable, while most of the rest suffered significant damage. We also lost two thirds of the attack ships."

  Again looking around the table, "the Osaka was severely damaged. It's been evacuated, but they hope to eventually restore it to limited service. Both the Barkley and the Kiev are so badly damaged as to be a total loss; again, most of the complement survived and is being evacuated."

  Looking over at Admiral Sixkiller, "the biggest loss was the Bolivar; I'm sorry, Tom. I know Levi and his wife were aboard, but there were no survivors."

  Tom's face had turned white, and he gripped his seat for several moments, before nodding. Collins continued to look at Tom for several moments, "I know you'll want to get back to be with your family, but bear with me for a moment; there are some other things I need you to hear."

  Again looking around the table, "I've been ordered to provide three ships to reinforce the blockade, to leave as soon as possible, with the other two to stay here for an emergency evacuation of Alpha 2 if required. I've decided to send the Churchill, McArthur, and Yorktown," nodding to the captains of the three designated ships. "I'll be staying here with the Halsey and the Delhi. I want the relief ships to start by the end of the week; which means shifting personnel as necessary between ships. We'll also want to move most of the attack ships from the Halsey and Delhi to the departing ships, and some personnel as well; they particularly need qualified attack plane pilots, and even anyone wanting to take the training.."

  Glancing over at Tom, "it's time to make your decision on whether you go or stay; if you stay I need to appoint your replacement right away."

  Tom pushed back his chair and got up, "we've already made that decision, and the situation with the Bolivar makes it easier. We'll cast our lot with Alpha 2; Quanah as well."

  "Another thing," Admiral Colin's continued, glancing over at Tom, "before you leave. Since you plan to stay, as soon as this settles down I'd like you to put together a plan for total evacuation of Alpha 2 if it proves necessary. Work with Murphy on that. But make sure you don't alarm our people; we just have to be ready. Admiral Honecker was frank; based on what he sees now he is uncertain of whether he can hold the Gath back."

  After a pause, turning to Tom, "unless you have some questions, if you want to leave now, it's OK. The rest of the meeting will mostly involve the ship commanders, and I'll see that you're fully briefed later."

  Admiral Collins glanced over at Kevin, "if you could stay’ we'll want to go over how this might affect your government and the rest of the colony."

  As Tom started to walk away, Collins looked at him and smiled, "by the way, I believe you and Admiral Honecker are particularly close?"

  Tom stopped and looked at Collins, nodding.

  "You may find it of interest," Collins said, "but the order was signed 'Mission Commander, Admiral Faud Honecker."

  On Alpha 2 . . . .

  Kraa-Ki trotted at the head of her pack toward the meeting with Kraa-Kuk and the packs recently returned from west of the mountains. Several of her attending packs followed behind. The message from Kraa-Kuk said their job was done, and they had been released by the leader of the 'flat faced' packs. This trip was harder for Kraa-Ki than most past trips had been. Her wounds from the last challenge had not fully healed, but she knew that if she showed any weakness it would only lead to more challenges.

  The frequency of these leadership challenges had increased in recent months. When she was younger one might have occurred once every two or thhee years, which as she grew older increased to up to one a year. In the past year, however, she had faced three such challenges. But while the challengers may have matched Kraa-Ki in strength, none could match the experience that came from the dozens of challenges she had withstood over the years. While she had little difficulty killing the pack leaders that had challenged her recently, the very fact that so many dared boded ill for the future. It was clear they sensed the weakness brought on by her increasing age. Eventually one that was strong and experienced enough would try; it was only a matter of time.

  The recent rain had made the path through the forest a sodden mess, the still dripping foliage coating the fur of the Kraa as they passed, with the only sound from the silent packs the padding sound of their feet on the muddy trail. Soon they arrived at the meeting place and trotted into the clearing, Kraa-Ki taking her accustomed place in the center of the assembled packs. Looking around at the seated packs she signaled for Kraa-Kuk to come forward.

  Kraa-Ki watched cautiously as Kraa-Kuk approached, walking slowly forward until she impinged on Kraa-Ki's space. Staring at Kraa-Ki, the fur on Kraa-Kuk's back rose as she opened her mouth and roared her challenge.

  Rising from her seated position Kraa-Ki snarled her defiance, and launched herself at Kraa-Kuk’s throat.

  Elsewhere . . . .

  Quanah sat next to Sage, their legs dangling over the edge
of the platform. Sitting with them were Jeff, Carlie, and Annette. All were busy eating sandwiches, with an occasional sip from the drinks that had been brought along.

  Yesterday morning Quanah had flown in the resupply shuttle for Annette's team that was busy reopening the Aberi archives, and had stopped at the Torgai village to pick up Jeff, Carlie, and Sage. While Jeff had been at the archives and the ruined Aberi city before, this was the first time for Carlie or Sage. Annette had taken yesterday afternoon and this morning off to show them around.

  The archives especially were a humbling experience. The thought of the race that had built them and their purpose, not to benefit themselves, but to help some other species, couldn't help but remind them of how near in time the human race was to its primitive beginning. Annette had told them much more about the Aberi than any of them had known, not only knowledge gleaned from the inscriptions, but also her own interpretation of that information. In the upper cavern, gazing upon the lighted, slightly over life sized statue of an Aberi made them all think of how insignificant they themselves really were. Now, here on top of the artificial island that constituted the top of the archives, they were having a quick lunch before returning to the shuttle.

  Quanah had enjoyed the trip, a rare break from his duties. Now based at the former Gath city that they called 'the Burrow', only a short distance from New Athens, he was at last getting the opportunity to see what it was that caused Sage to decide to join the colonists. He could understand her reasons; the combination of the planet's similarity, yet its differences, from Earth could make it an easy decision to reach. He found the Torgai an exotic culture, and had spent time with Jeff and some of his Torgai friends the evening before. Jeff had also explained as much as he knew about the Kraa. While Quanah had never seen one, except in videos, he looked forward to the time when he could see them in person.

  Across the lake they could see the shuttle parked a distance from the shore where some time before someone had launched a small boat now headed toward the island. The small motor had trouble making headway against the stiff breeze, and it was almost 10 minutes before it beached itself below the stairs that led to the top of the island. A short time later Quanah's co-pilot, Ahmed, came into view and walked over to where the five of them were sitting, kneeling next to Quanah.

  "We've got an emergency call-back to New Athens," he said, "both you and Sage; it's from your father."

  Both Sage and Quanah looked at him in surprise.

  "Any idea why?" Sage asked.

  "He didn't say," Ahmed responded, "it may not be related, but the rumor mill says there's been a major battle at Beta 3, and our losses were heavy."

  Quanah looked worried, thinking for a moment, "how good's the rumor?"

  Ahmed just shrugged, "no idea. They say, though, that the President and your father were both called up to the Stockholm this morning, that's all I know; apparently no one's talking."

  Annette said quietly, "I think I'll go back to the base with you and call Kevin. Something must be up."

  Quanah started to get up, the others joining him, and started down the stairs to the boat, following Ahmed.

  On the Stockholm, Late August, Alpha Year 53 . . . .

  Faud sat around the small table with Vice Admiral Hara, Commander Eric Geer, head of the strategy taskforce, and Lt Commander Felipe Sotelo, who headed the Gath strategy team. Lt Commander Melissa Evren, a member of the Gath strategy team, was also present.

  One of the first steps Faud had taken when he assumed mission command was to establish a taskforce to attempt to predict the strategy the Gath would use to break the blockade, and propose counter measures to block those attempts. While the taskforce reported to Vice Admiral Takahashi Hara, his Fleet Executive and Operations Officer, he had set several ground rules; one was that it be made up strictly on lower ranking officers, no flag rank of Captain or higher. He wanted original ideas, not the fixed views that he knew more experienced persons often developed.

  He had also established certain special ground rules for the taskforce. Not only was it to be a full time assignment, but to the extent possible immerse themselves in the Gath culture; they must learn to 'think like a Gath'. How to implement that goal, 'think like a Gath', was the purpose of the present meeting, which had been called at Lt Commander Sotelo's request.

  When all were seated, Faud motioned for Commander Geer to start.

  Commander Geer leaned forward slightly, "I've been discussing with Lt Commander Sotelo certain problems which he feels limit their ability to really understand the Gath culture'." Nodding to Sotelo, "rather than simply pass on their concerns, I've asked that he address them directly."

  Lt Commander Sotelo looked up, "thank you, Commander. I've asked Lt Commander Melissa Evren, a member of my team, to sit in. As you'll hear, she is part of the solution to what we think our problems are.”

  “First, to really predict how the Gath may react to a situation requires we mold ourselves until we ourselves can think like them. This is not a simple thing to do. We've reviewed all the data on the Gath we can find in the data banks, including the new information that's been coming in based on the Gath prisoners on Alpha 2, but it doesn't give us that much insight. It does, however, show us some of the shortcomings we, as a team, have.”

  “The degree to which the Gath are a hierarchical society is difficult for humans to even conceive, as is the relationship between spouses. Our assumption has always been the top male Gath was the actual leader. But that's not true, not even close. True the male usually acts as ‘spokesman’, but when he does so he is doing so by consensus; we believe there’s really a dual hierarchy, led by an Alpha pair. There's an Alpha male and an Alpha female, not a single overall leader, but here the Alpha female appears not in any way subservient to the Alpha male, although she appears to usually allow the Alpha male to take the lead. These two Alpha figures work together, and all major decisions require concurrence."

  After a pause, "just how hierarchical they really are is emphasized by the way they change their names as they move up in the hierarchy; a sort of ripple effect, where the names of a promoted Gath move up to the appropriate a level. The top Gath pair has full authority, but apparently there is an advisory council whose power is unclear. We believe it represents a 'clan' form of organization of the overall population. There may also be some degree of consensus in determining where in the hierarchy the pairs fit, possible based on a combination of heredity and merit."

  Looking around, "we've had a number of meetings with some of our social scientists, and have come to the conclusion that the number one male Gath 'cannot' make a major decision without the concurrence of the number one female, and vice versa. We also think it's more complex than that; very probably there are 'areas of dominance' where one automatically defers to the other. Where that might be we don't want to speculate for now; we can't apply human male/female role modeling here.”

  “That," Sotelo added, "partly explains the slowness in their reacting to changes. But, to 'think like a Gath', our team has to mimic that structure, not only on paper, but also direct day-to-day contact."

  Faud, sitting back in his chair, supporting his chin on his fingertips, nodded slowly, "you propose to duplicate that model? How?"

  "Exactly," Lt Commander Sotelo responded, "that's one of our proposals, but only one. We have a later proposal related to the need for direct contact. What the team portion implies is that the Gath strategy team have joint leaders, and here we propose," nodding to Lt Commander Evren, "that the two of us share that leadership, with identical rank and an adjustment for an identical date of rank. Further, that we reconstitute the team for an equal number of male and female members, organized into similar pairs."

  Faud thought for a moment, "It makes sense. Having to reach consensus with a partner, a partner who might have a considerable different value system, certainly changes the dynamics of any decision."

  Looking at Commander Geer, "if you agree, I don't see any problem."

/>   Then turning back to Lt Commander Sotelo, "next?"

  Sotelo looked at him for several moments, "we have to live with the Gath. We need the Gath captives from Alpha 2; especially the leading pair. We have to create a 'micro-society' aboard one of the ships for the Gath leaders and some of their subordinate pairs that we can bond with. While because of the different physical environment our team can't move in with them, we could move in next to them with as little separation as possible. By constantly listening to their conversations and communicating with them, and isolating ourselves from human contact, we may be able to start to think like them."

  Continuing to look at Faud, "but we have to immerse ourselves to understand how they operate, as if we were simply other Gath pairs in their hierarchy, otherwise we'll never be able to approximate their thought process."

  Faud didn't say anything for several seconds, then, "unfortunately the relief ships are already on their way; we would have to send another, and the one remaining wouldn’t be enough to support an evacuation. The Gath are aboard the Delhi, and if we order it here I suppose it could add adjoining quarters for your team. Do you really think it will help that much?"

  Vice Admiral Hara commented, "for evacuation, if needed, we could send one of the other ships back when the Delhi arrives. Or just plan to send one back when the situation indicates it’s needed."

  Sotelo nodded, "yes, not only would it help but we think its necessary. And we could start the first part of the proposal immediately if you concur. The matching of dates of rank and balancing the team."