“It should probably have a randomizing code that changes occasionally,” Jenetta said. “Do we know if the Denubbewa code system is static or if it changes?”
“We don’t know— yet. We’ll know once we crack the Locculo instruction set. The number of Gates available to us means that we can prepare a great number of tests to discover which code is best. I’m just leery about using them for testing until we have a secure place because we don’t want the Denubbewa popping in while we’re testing.”
“We can test them inside a Dakinium bunker, can’t we?” Admiral Burke asked.
“No, Raymond,” Admiral Plimley said. “CJ Gate wormholes occur in subspace, so they pass through Dakinium just as easily as neutrinos pass through it.”
“So where do we perform the tests?” Admiral Yuthkotl asked.
“I can think of one place that’s safe,” Jenetta said.
“Tell us,” Admiral Plimley said.
“Lorense-Four. We simply seal a few of those wrecked hulls the cyborgs were working on to make them airtight. It’s unlikely the Denubbewa will return to that location after learning there was no advantage to being in a gravity-free sea of rubbish. And if they do, we simply pick up where we were before they left.”
“What happens if the Denubbewa send an explosive device through the Gate instead of sending cyborgs?” Admiral Bradlee asked.
“We’ll have to ensure that no personnel are in the area while testing.”
Silence fell over the room as everyone thought about Jenetta’s proposal. After a minute of complete quiet she said, “Well, let’s think about it. I guess that’s all for today. We’ll conduct a regular A.B. meeting tomorrow. Before we end this meeting, is there anything else to be discussed in a closed session?”
“I have something I’d like to mention,” Admiral Holt said. “I received a vidMail from Captain Gavin this morning. He’s left the station where Commander Christa Carver is performing as temporary administrator, and the Ares is proceeding to the station where Commander Burl Kalborne has been assigned as temporary administrator. After Larry learned of the potential danger of a Denubbewa attack from the Gates, he immediately sent messages to all temporary administrators and ordered them to file daily reports. When he sent the vidMail to me, he hadn’t yet received any reports from Kalborne.”
“None?” Jenetta asked.”
“None when he sent the message, but that was a month ago.”
“So it might simply have been a time-lag problem owing to the distance between the two new bases.”
“That might be the case, but he’s concerned.”
“That’s understandable. Since the distance from Christa’s base to Kalborne’s base is about three days at Marc-One, we should know shortly.”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Anything else? Anyone?”
After making eye contact with everyone, Jenetta said, “Then this closed executive session is over. I’ll see all of you tomorrow at the regular A.B. meeting.”
Admiral Holt was last in the line funneling out the door. Before exiting the room, he stopped and returned to where Jenetta was sitting. The office doors closed when the sensor detected no one queued to leave.
“Something else, Brian?” Jenetta asked
“I didn’t want to alarm the others, but I’m really concerned about the bases because of the attack we endured at Lorense-Four. Commander Kalborne is a ‘by the book’ officer, and if he was able, he would have filed the daily reports.”
“Yes, but the distance might really be the problem. It depends on when Larry sent the orders for them to report on a daily basis.”
“And if the Denubbewa have actually attacked Kalborne’s base, what do we do?”
“Larry is in command of every SC ship in that part of space. You’ve deployed three destroyers to each of the new bases as the first steps in building a Base Protection Detail. They should be arriving at the bases shortly, and Larry has the authority to assign them where needed if he feels reassignments are necessary. What more can we do until we know the situation?”
“You’re right, Jen. It’s just so damn frustrating trying to manage a territory as large as Region Three without having faster communication that allows us to keep one step ahead of the Denubbewa.”
“The Denubbewa are unlike any race we’ve encountered before. I don’t know if we’ll ever be one step ahead of them.”
“You don’t mean that, do you?”
Jenetta shrugged. “Have we been ahead of them even once so far?”
“We did destroy the motherships they were building in Region Two.”
“We found them by accident, not because we expected to find them there. The same holds true with the fleet we recently destroyed. We were reacting to an existing threat, not awaiting their arrival.”
“So how do we get ahead of them?”
“I don’t know— yet. I guess we just have to keep dancing with them until we find an edge too enormous for them to overcome.”
“And if we don’t, Jen?”
“Then we keep responding to their threats until one or the other of us gives up, or is dead.”
“Well, it won’t be us.”
“I feel the same way, although I’m confident their response would be the same.”
~ ~ ~
“You look tired, dear,” Annette Carver said to her daughter as Jenetta entered the nursery with Cayla and Tayna. “Rough day?”
“They’re all rough lately, Momma.”
“That’s too bad. Oh, I received a vidMail from your father today.”
“Wonderful. What did Daddy say?”
“Just small talk mostly. He sends his love to everyone, of course. But he added something I didn’t understand.”
“Oh? And what was that?”
“He told me not to worry because he’s safe. He says there have been no attacks in his sectors. What attacks was he referring to, dear?”
“Oh, it’s just another day in Space Command, Momma. Daddy is perfectly safe. Everything is normal. Don’t worry about it.”
“Mommy, Mommy,” Jenetta heard as Kaycee and Kyle ran towards her with Ruby and Jake close behind. The twins would be celebrating their third birthdays in a few months, and while still a bit unsteady on their feet at times, it seemed that they never walked when they could run. Ruby and Jake were always alongside or behind them to protect them and keep them from getting into trouble.
“Hello, my darlings,” Jenetta said with an enormous smile as she knelt down to hug her children.
“Hi, Jenetta,” Jake and Ruby said in unison.
“Hi, Jake. Hi, Ruby. Did you have a fun day today?” Jenetta asked as she stood up, holding the twins in her arms.
“Oh, yes,” Ruby said. “We played hide-and-seek and a bunch of other games with Kaycee and Kyle. We can’t wait until they’re big enough to play out in the gardens so we can teach them some of the things Momma’s taught us.”
Jenetta smiled. She could imagine Ruby and Jake teaching Kyle and Kaycee how to sneak up on prey before pouncing on their quarry as they snarled menacingly.
As Jenetta sat down with her children, Cayla and Tayna sat down with Ruby and Jake to perform a little interpersonal grooming. It was one of the things the Jumakas had in common with felines on Earth. Since they could converse in either Amer or their native language, Cayla and Tayna were able to hear about everything the four playmates had done throughout the day.
The family scene played out every evening, but there was one thing missing. There were no males in the household. Jenetta naturally missed Hugh, her husband, but the weekly and sometimes twice weekly exchange of vidMails helped considerably. Kaycee and Kyle were always on her lap when vidMails were made or received. Cayla and Tayna also sent vidMails to their spouses and other children once or twice a week, and they were always excited when a vidMail arrived from Obotymot for them. Jenetta had promised the four Jumaka parents that they would all get together on Quesann now that the cubs were old enough to act like mat
ure adults— most of the time. Even their parents still enjoyed racing around the grounds occasionally and playing Jumaka games in the gardens.
Having enjoyed an exhausting day of fun and games with Jake and Ruby, Kaycee and Kyle were content to rest quietly in their mother’s arms— for about fifteen minutes. Just as they were beginning to get a bit restless, Celona, the Nordakian nanny, entered the nursery and announced that dinner was ready to be served. She took Kyle from Jenetta as everyone headed towards the dining room.
Following dinner, the clan collected in the family room on the third floor. Kyle and Kaycee resumed play with Jake and Ruby as Celona looked on and Jenetta conversed with her mother. When it was bedtime for the twins, Celona took them down the hall to the nursery. Ruby and Jake naturally followed along. The two young Jumakas took their roles as playmates and protectors seriously and were rarely very far from the children. Normally, the children were only out of the young Jumakas’ sight when Jenetta arrived home and came to the nursery to be with the children. They were then free to spend a short time racing around outside the house and playing a few slightly rough games they could never play with the children.
At bedtime, Celona always took the children to the nursery, with the four Jumakas following along. Jenetta and her mother usually took some time to talk about the day before heading to the nursery themselves.
When the menagerie had left the family room and the door was closed, Annette turned towards her daughter and said, “Okay, dear. Everyone is out of earshot. Now tell me what’s really going on. Your father would never have mentioned he was safe if the threat of danger wasn’t significant.”
“It’s nothing, Momma.”
“Okay, it’s nothing. Now tell me why your father thinks it’s something.”
Jenetta smiled at her mother before saying, “Okay, here it is. Brian Holt issued a Level-Five alert a few months ago.”
“A Level-Five? That’s the highest alert level there is. What happened?”
“You know we’ve been using Lorense-Four as a reclamation area for the Denubbewa ships we’ve destroyed?”
“Yes.”
“Well, it seems a large number of undamaged Denubbewa cyborgs emerged from the wreckage. They attacked some of our yard workers and presented a threat. Brian felt that an alert was called for. We managed to contain them and destroy them before they could threaten any of our ships or Quesann. The threat level is back at One again. That’s all. There’s nothing to worry about, but when a Level-Five alert goes out, it’s sent to all vessels and bases, so the First Fleet also received the alert notification even though there was never any danger there.”
“So there’s no more danger here?”
“I would tell you if there was. The alert has been cancelled and everything is back to normal here.”
“But it’s not normal everywhere?”
“As I said when I arrived home, things are normal. Space Command is always alert to new dangers throughout the entirety of Galactic Alliance space, but as far as I know at this moment, things are normal— everywhere.”
* * *
Chapter Ten
~ May 1st, 2292 ~
“It’s been almost two months since the Denubbewa disappeared from the Lorense-Four reclamation piles,” Jenetta said in a closed executive session of the A.B. “We know now, or at least strongly suspect, that their departure was owed to their having learned of our double-envelope technology. At almost the same time as they retreated from Lorense-Four, they terminated their attack and withdrew all forces from Highcap SCB, formerly known as Grumpy by the Ares-led taskforce because we hadn’t yet adopted official names. Our people there suspect that the cyborgs witnessed our ships entering and exiting Highcap SCB without first opening the port doors. Or the cyborgs might have learned through detection of one of the CPS-16s we used to collect intelligence updates within the scrap piles during the cyborg ship-rebuilding efforts. Although they might know of our ability to phase-shift our space vessels, which makes us able to pass through solid matter, it’s doubtful that the Denubbewa have any idea how we do it. And if that’s the case, they probably don’t know of our great speed advantage.
“Each of the seven bases has now been occupied by our forces and each are protected by three destroyers on permanent assignment to the base. Although the destroyer captains normally report directly to the base administrators, Captain Gavin has the authority to override the administrators’ orders and summon the destroyers in support of his operations, if absolutely necessary.
“The question uppermost in our minds has been when and where the Denubbewa will strike next. I learned the answer to that question this morning. I’ve received an urgent appeal for help from the Ruwalchu Confederacy, saying that cyborgs have invaded their space and destroyed at least half their Space Fleet to date. They say that cyborgs have landed on several of the worlds with limited population, not hesitating to kill anyone who resists. They’re beseeching us to help. The question I have now is this: Is this a fake message intended to draw our forces away from their assigned patrols and positions; is it a genuine emergency but it’s from the Denubbewa in an effort to distract our attention away from protecting the G.A. by drawing down our forces here; or is it a genuine plea for help from the Ruwalchu?”
“I thought it was the Ruwalch Confederacy,” Admiral Hillaire said.
“The home planet of the civilization is named Ruwalch, but all reference to the people or their territory is Ruwalchu. If you were talking about the atmosphere around the planet, it’s the Ruwalch atmosphere, but the government is the Ruwalchu Confederacy.”
“I see.”
“I realize it’s very confusing, and don’t worry if you use the wrong nomenclature. We’ll all know what you mean.”
“The Denubbewa might have decided that while they plan their next attack against us, they should take over all surrounding territories to use as bases of operations,” Admiral Holt said.
“Yes, I considered that, but with their wormhole technology, they don’t need to be near us to assemble their forces in our territory.”
“Perhaps they want to ensure that no one can come to our assistance,” Admiral Bradlee said.
“That’s possible, although our neighbors aren’t very much of a threat to the Denubbewa.”
“Perhaps it’s as Sywasock once said,” Admiral Ressler speculated. “They do it because they can.”
“Yes, that’s possible. So what do we do?”
“You approached the Ruwalchu Confederacy once and offered to establish diplomatic relations,” Admiral Woo said. “They had no interest in establishing friendly relations, but now they want us to come to their rescue.”
“Should we refuse to assist a neighbor in a fight against a common enemy who would delight in conquering both of us and who will come at us again when he feels ready simply because the neighbor rejected our overtures of friendship in the past?”
“No, Jen, you’re right,” Woo said. “We’re more powerful together than we would be fighting the Denubbewa separately.”
“If the Denubbewa have already destroyed the Ruwalchu Space Fleet, we won’t get much help in space,” Admiral Holt said, “but they can provide distractions on the ground.”
“How much of a force do you propose sending, Jen?” Admiral Ressler asked. “If this is a plot to drain our forces in preparation for a massive attack on us here, our fleet could be an additional five or six weeks away from our border when they attack.”
“I was thinking that we send the Ares battle group. The new bases are secure from an internal invasion via the CJ Gates, and each base has established their Distant Detect Grid. Now that each base has at least a basic warship-protection fleet in place, the entire Ares taskforce that attacked the first Denubbewa armada is available. From its present position near the far edge of our Region Three territory, they could cross into Ruwalchu space in little more than a week and arrive at Ruwalch within three weeks.”
“The battle group will have to be res
tocked with ordnance and food before they can depart, won’t it?” Admiral Burke said.
“All ships have already been provisioned and had their WOLaR ordnance resupplied,” Admiral Holt said. “Every available Quartermaster ship and Ship Transport vessel has been traveling out to the site of the Denubbewa battle to collect and return the scrap to Lorense-Four. On their outbound trips, the ships have been filled with supplies for the new bases. Once they’ve unloaded, the ships proceed to the site of the battle and fill their holds with scrap. Raihana assures me that everything the new bases need has already been sent, so by now, all six space stations and all the battle-group ships are ready for whatever action comes their way.”
“We know our warships are capable of destroying the Denubbewa motherships and warships with little danger to themselves,” Admiral Hillaire said, “so I believe we should undertake this mission. While it’s true that the Ruwalchu rejected our offer of diplomatic relations, that’s not a good reason to ignore their plea. I second Admiral Carver’s proposal that we send the Ares battle group to the Ruwalchu Confederacy with orders to destroy all Denubbewa vessels they discover there and to offer whatever other assistance is possible.”
“What about reclamation vessels?” Admiral Ressler asked. “Just as we can’t leave scrap in our territory because the Dakinium and CJ Gates might fall into the hands of scavengers, we can’t leave it in Ruwalchu territory either.”
“I think we can wait until we see what transpires there,” Jenetta said. “We can always assign a few CPS-16s to stand guard duty until a reclamation vessel can arrive.”
“I agree,” Admiral Holt said.
“Is there any more discussion?” Jenetta asked after a minute of silence.
When no one spoke up, Jenetta said, “All in favor of sending the Ares battle group to assist the Ruwalchu Confederacy in their fight against the Denubbewa, signify by saying ‘aye.’”
After everyone voted, Jenetta said, “It’s unanimous. Brian can send orders to Captain Gavin to proceed into the Ruwalchu Confederacy and destroy all Denubbewa vessels they find there. It will take roughly three weeks for the orders to reach the Ares. I sure wish we had a working Personnel CJ Gate.”
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