Chapter 19. Resolute to Chelora 0930, 23 August
Dave was nearing the end of his rounds of the med bay. He had made a point of coming down each morning. More and more beds had been freed up but those still remaining affected him the most. Last on his list was Kat. He found Chase there. They were both talking and by the sound of it she was in better spirits than yesterday.
“Morning Kat, Chase” he said as he came in. Chase nodded.
“Sir” said Kat. She was sitting up now albeit in a cast which prevented her moving her head.
“How are you this morning?” asked Dave as he pulled across the visitor chair from the other, now empty, bed in the room. He sat down and looked at Kat’s eyes. The melancholy that had surrounded them had gone.
“Not bad” she said. She had to be really conscious of not trying to move her head like she normally did during conversations. She was naturally an expressive person and found this constraint difficult. “Mary says my test results are really good.” Dave nodded. “They’ll never be good enough though to fly again.”
Dave was thinking hard of how to respond. He had a bad track record when it came to this and he was determined to see it right this time. “Mary said that?” he asked.
“Not exactly but plastic’s never as good as the real thing.”
“Wait and see?” he asked.
“Chase wants me to get out anyway.”
“She’s done enough” contributed Chase.
Dave nodded. “Well it’s so good to see you sitting up and making such good progress Kat. I better be off.”
Outside he caught up with Mary and asked her about Kat’s diagnosis.
Mary gave a shrug. “The artificial vertebrae would be able to cope but that’s not going to be the deciding factor. It’s her will. Right now it’s not there. Who knows down the track? What I do know is that even if she wanted to she can’t get back in the saddle for at least six months. She’s got a lot of work ahead of her and that therapy can wear a lot of people down. By the way, you did well in there” added Mary “Your best effort to date” and she smiled at him.
“You’ve got big ears Mary” said Dave.
She shook her head and pointed to the cam views on her monitor.
Dave gave a light chuckle. “I’m standing by that assessment big brother.”
“Big sister if you please” and she laughed.
As Dave left her to take the elevator back up to his office he reflected on the fact that these patients would all have to be offloaded later today when they arrived at Chelora. Most would be taking the next transport back to Polaris. He felt a pang of pain knowing that for many they would soon be discharged as unfit for service from the only profession they had known. It was a cruel way to treat those who had given so much.
He thought about Kat and the fact that the odds were stacked against her from ever flying in high G manoeuvres. Another thought crossed his mind. ‘Maybe…yeah maybe’ he said to himself.
Chapter 20. Muntikis 1100, 23 August
Evie read the signal from Admiral Yomoto a second time. She was astounded. But after the excitement died down a new emotion overtook her. ‘There’s so little time.’
“Felis.”
Felis turned his head to Evie “Yes”.
“You need to see this.”
“Just a second.” He stood up from the lounge chair where he had been reading and paced to where Evie was sitting at the table and looked over her shoulder at her console screen. “Yomoto?” he asked. Evie nodded. He leaned over and scrolled up as he read. “Wow. They’ve liberated Qwantum.”
“It gets better.”
He scrolled some more. “Gee, Meelanda needs to see this straight away.”
Ten minutes later Meelanda, Erkum, Evie and Felis looked around the table at each other. Each was waiting for someone else to say something.
The whole thing had come as a shock to Meelanda. It was as though a giant spanner had been thrown into the mechanics of her current plan. This would require the whole tempo to be dramatically increased. The slow burn would no longer do. Yomoto had just applied a blow torch.
Yes she could ramp up the formation of Resistance cells, but with all the will in the galaxy she could not see her way to mounting an effective armed resistance in the time available.
As for the space station she was at a complete loss. She knew the Likta Corporation had the logistics contract for it but she had no real influence over the people who were now in charge of that. Maybe Bakun would know how to tackle that.
Slowly her mind was coming to realise that what she needed most now was a military commander and that is why her gaze stopped at Felis. As her gaze fixed on Felis so too did Erkum’s and Evie’s.
Feeling the pressure Felis finally broke the silence. “What?” he asked.
“I, I mean we” said Meelanda looking at both Erkum and Evie and then back to Felis “need someone to take charge of the military aspects.”
“What me?” asked Felis incredulously. “You need an Army General or a Fleet Admiral not an ex-Fleet Commander.”
Evie reached over and put her reassuring hand on his. “You can do this. I know you can.”
Felis looked at her with mixed emotions. He was pleased for her physical reassurance but he wasn’t happy about having a ton of responsibility dumped on him. A gentle squeeze from Evie tipped the balance. “All right” he said “but just until we can convince some existing senior officer to take on the job.”
“Agreed” said Meelanda before he could change his mind. “And I will speak with Bakun about the space station. Likta has…well up until a few days ago had the logistics contract for the space station. He may know who to contact re the plans.”
“Good idea” said Felis “but what we really need is trained troops on our side. Where do you propose we get those?”
“I don’t know” replied Meelanda. “We need to convene our council, bring more minds to this. Someone will have some influence we can leverage.”
Chapter 21. Slidwon 1200, 23 August
Jebna entered Angina’s office a worried rogan.
“What’s the matter” asked Angina. He sat down without answering her. She could see he was trying to form his words. “Well?”
“We’re in grave trouble Angina…grave trouble.” He went on to explain how they had intercepted communications from Raitah and one of them had a list with their names on it.
“And?” asked Angina.
“It’s a hit list Angina. Raitah’s planning a coup and we’re on her hit list.” Jebna got up from his chair. He was so agitated, he just had to pace. He paced to the wall and back twice before Angina said “Oh enough of that Jebna. Please sit back down.”
Reluctantly he obeyed. “We need to do something.”
“First we need to verify that this is indeed what you say it is.”
“Of course it is. Here have a look for yourself.” He passed over the ePaper transcript.
“All right, I see. Mmm…We need to determine who this went to. How long before they crack these addresses?”
Jebna shrugged his shoulders. “24 hours maybe.”
“There is no time frame mentioned” said Angina. Jebna shook his head.
Chapter 22. Chikita 1230, 23 August
Adrian Yohansen emerged from the entrance of the Parliament building in a mood not quite ecstatic but nor far from it. He looked out into the bright sunshine and it mirrored his inner state. The tall manicured trees that lined the great boulevard seemed to dance in the light breeze.
His aide, Angelica Moritious, was waiting for him and a smile erupted on her face as she saw the Foreign Minister.
“Yes” exclaimed Adrian “we have it!”
“Very good Minister.”
“You know Angelica there is nothing more satisfying than turning defeat into victory. Forget the car, let’s walk!”
As they strolled down along the gentle slope Adrian seemed unperturbed by the volume of people on the walkway. He smiled at everyone an
d while the sight of a human wasn’t uncommon, the sight of one beaming as he was caused a few heads to turn.
“So Minister” asked Angelica “what did they end up committing?”
“A whole god dammed fleet” he replied as he smiled at an oncoming business person. Then he turned to look at Angelica and added “thirty ships, including a carrier and 100 fighters. But wait there is more…” and with a flourish of his hand and a big smile he continued “and…and their Gondo Corps. Crack troops they are. Marvellous isn’t it.”
“Indeed Minister. But when will they be ready?”
“Oh” said Adrian. His face drained of some of its enthusiasm. “They say it will take a month to martial the forces.”
“A month is a long time Minister. And there will be at least another month of transit.”
“Probably more actually” said Adrian matter of factly and then added more emphatically “but better late than not at all I say.”
“Indeed Minister.”
Chapter 23. Spectre in Casaverie, 1700, 23 August
It had been a very tense time coming out of warp. Sheldon Brice had been relieved when his crew performed their duties better than they had done during the earlier training. ‘Nothing like the real thing to sharpen the focus’ he said to himself.
He was also relieved by the fact that there were no other craft nearby. They had arrived cloaked and would now take the advantage it provided to take a look around. There were three big gas giants on the outer and just two inner rocks, one of which was the sleth home world Sceron.
For the past 2 days they had been warping between the outer planets, launching probes, gathering data. Now Sheldon pondered his next move. Would he risk warping near Sceron?
“Are we still showing only two lights over Sceron?” he asked his battle system officer, 2nd Lt Joslen Lee.
“Correct Sir” came her reply “Apart from shuttle activity the place appears to be devoid of any other warships.”
It was not what Sheldon had expected. The thought crossed his mind ‘we could take these out… pretty easily’. But he knew that was not going to happen. His orders were quite specific.
“Incoming priority message for you Sir” advised 2nd Lt Michael Thurbar, the comms officer.
“Thank you” said Sheldon. He opened it on his terminal screen. All eyes were watching him, save for Joslen’s who for the first time so far was performing her battle system duties without blemish.
Sheldon gave a little sigh. He could not believe they were being re-tasked and would now have to spend another two weeks in warp. He felt the same as he had on one of the many training exercises he had done as a junior officer when he was bounced around from pillar to post and saw no action at all. On one of these, out of frustration, he had refused to comply and demanded to speak with the exercise controller. He recalled being severely rebuked for that. It had been a moment of petulance in which his ego got the better of him. It would not now.
He looked up from the screen and with a smile said “Good news folks. We’re being re-tasked. We warp to Qwantum, deep into rogan space. Things must be hotting up and they need the best there.”
Chapter 24. Raptor in Slintos 1730, 23 August
Meg Songa too had wrapped up her exploration and surveillance of the outer planets in the Slintos system. Like Sheldon she eyed the holo and in particular the lone icon above Mutresh, the sleth home world. There was no doubt in her mind. They could destroy this craft before they knew what hit them.
“Are we still receiving those signals?” she asked her comms officer.
“Yes Maam, every hour on the hour.”
It was clear to her that the sleth Resistance were in charge of a significant area of the planet and were broadcasting for assistance from whoever heard it.
“I think it’s time we took a closer look” she said to her ops officer. “Warp us into the far side of that moon” she directed.
“Wilco.”
Two hours later they arrived on the far side of the moon, launched a probe and waited. The probe came back an hour later, was recovered and the data confirmed what she already believed was the case. There was only one enemy frigate and it looked like the sleth controlled everything save for one city.
Meg was well aware of her orders but here was a golden opportunity to seize the base they would need for the liberation of all of the sleth home worlds. Her fingers rolled over the arm rest. All eyes were upon her waiting for her decision.
Hec leaned over and in a quiet voice asked to speak with her in private. She nodded and he followed her down to the briefing room. Hec closed the door behind him. “You know we can’t attack?” he said more like a statement than a question.
“Look we are the advance recon for an operation designed to liberate the sleth home worlds. Part of that op will be to secure a base within these systems. We can do that right now. It’s wide open. It’s a gift Hec.”
“Maybe but it risks a response that could well stymie the whole op.”
“I don’t think so” said Meg deepening her voice to add more authority to it.
Hec knew he was heading into dangerous waters here but while he might lust after her he took his responsibilities as the XO seriously. He knew it was his duty to counsel against actions he thought imprudent. “But we don’t know and our orders are very specific.”
“Yes they are but we are on the spot and we always have the discretion to vary them if circumstances warrant.”
“But they don’t warrant. If you disobey this order and bang this ship up so it can’t continue to operate, then you will be court martialled.”
“Look Hec I need you to get behind me on this.”
“Maam” hailed the watch officer.
Reluctantly Meg responded “Yes what is it?”
“We’ve just received a priority message for you.”
“Right thank you” she replied and terminated the call. She went over to the terminal and logged in. She read the message quickly. Then she sat down and read it again slowly. She was fuming inside. Like the dog on a leash that had just been pulled, she railed against it. “Fuck it!” she exclaimed.
“What is it?” asked Hec.
“Looks like we don’t have to have this showdown after all. We are to warp to Qwantum immediately.”
Chapter 25. Resolute over Chelora 1950, 23 August
Val was in her element marshalling the replenishment of the Resolute. A heavy lift shuttle was positioned right next to and slightly below them. The ship to ship transfer of outgoing waste and incoming stocks was underway. Val was briefing one of her staff before they hopped onto a shuttle in the hangar.
Dave was there too. He had waited till all the wounded had departed on their shuttles before boarding Whiskey 1. His heart went out to Chase as he farewelled Kat. Now Ivan was sitting next to him in the shuttle. They had been summoned to the Kiev by the Admiral.
It was only a short five minute hop. When he exited the craft he was surprised and delighted to see Rihan waiting for him. She threw any decorum out the window and threw her arms around him while planting a kiss on his lips. When he responded by pressing back she pushed her tongue forward for a full blown kiss. That got a bit of a cheer from the service crew in the hangar but she didn’t care.
As she pulled away with a big smile, Dave asked “How come you are still here?”
“You really know how to show a girl how much you’ve missed her” said Rihan and she gave him a disapproving look. But she couldn’t maintain it. A big smile forced it aside and she kissed him again on the cheek, hooked her arm into his and led him out of the hangar.
“The Admiral can be a persuasive chap. He needed the best ops officer he’s ever had.”
“Of course he did” said Dave with a smile and then added “All the more amazing considering the great pool of talent out here at Chelora.”
Rihan pulled her arm free and gave him a light punch in the shoulder. She quickly re-hooked her arm and turned to Ivan. “How are you Ivan? Has my husba
nd been treating you better than he treats me?”
Ivan smiled. “I don’t think he treats anyone better than he treats you” said Ivan diplomatically.
“Oh you poor souls” she said feigning pity.
Dave just nodded his head in mild amusement. As they waited for the elevator he asked “So is he still angry about my report?”
“Well you got that right” said Rihan. “Boy you should have heard him but don’t worry I stood up for you darling.”
“And what I’m to be demoted now” he said playfully.
Rihan tilted her head down, while keeping her eyes level with Dave’s, a look Dave knew all too well meant that she was unimpressed. “Yee of little faith” she said shaking her head. “But there have been some developments.” The elevator doors opened. Before Dave could ask more he found himself standing in front of the Admiral.
“Welcome Dave” said Phil with a big warm smile.
“See!” said Rihan with a ‘know it all’ smug look on her face.
The briefing, debriefing and outline of the future plan took the best part of an hour and a half. Phil never laboured the merits of Dave’s actions in Qwantum. There would be time for that later one on one. There was really only one focus for Phil and that was on Dave’s role in the coming showdown over Cheklin.
“So Dave do you think you can take out that space station without horrendous losses?”
Dave had been thinking hard about this for the last five minutes. “If it was just a question of knocking it out then yeah no problems. But you want it secured intact. I would like to take a look in more detail at the data Aubrey sent. From those images you just showed it’s huge. Even with the replacements you’re providing, I’m not sure a battalion of droids and a company of marines are going to be enough.”
“If you use the marine detachments from your three frigates then you’ll have two companies of marines” said Phil.
Audacity (Warner's World Book 5) Page 30