by Krystyn Dean
I then paged Sudeer and advised him of our find. He said, “Admiral, we must try to keep the discovery of this ship a secret. If it is what I believe it is, the discovery could well topple the Federation.
“All right Anne, I will advise Captain Liberto. Transport to the Busch as soon as possible.” “Aye Admiral, on my way.”
I then paged Sudeer and advised him of our find. He said, “Admiral, we must try to keep the discovery of this ship a secret. If it is what I believe it is, allowing the knowledge that we have her could well topple the Federation.
I paged Captain Liberto, when he answered I said “Raymond, Commander Anne Hiller is transporting aboard the Busch. As soon as she is aboard, contact Commander Nishimura on the Corvette Dauphin. They have found a ship from our earlier battle. I need you to go to his location, put a tractor beam on that ship and tow it back here.”
“Put her in orbit outside of the orbiting fleet. The Egolari suggest we try to keep her under wraps Don’t put anyone aboard till we get her back. Once we get her stabilized in orbit The Egolari want to check her out first. I am not sure why. As soon as they are finished we will let our specialists in alien ship construction go over her.” Captain Liberto said, “Aye Sir, we are on it.”
Later in the outer reaches of the Psi Unica System
“Captain Nishimura, the George H W Busch just dropped out of FTL. She is about thirty K off our starboard bow, 12 degrees down.” “Thank You, Mr. Knowles.”
As the Busch drew closer, Captain Liberto called Commander Nishimura on his temporal unit. and said, “Herve, we are moving into position to take this vessel off your hands.” “Thank You, Captain.” Replied Commander Nishimura. “We’ll get back to work.” The Dauphin then made a turn outbound and resumed her patrol circuit.
It took some time for the Busch to move the mysterious command ship in to orbit. Once the ship was stabilized in orbit, a shuttle with Sudeer and several other Egolari technicians went aboard.
After several hours, Sudeer called me asking for a meeting. He recommended including Qobrun.
When Sudeer entered my office, he said, “Admiral you need to activate your security shield. What we are going to discuss must not leave your office.” I activated my ready room security shield and Sudeer continued. “The ship you have captured is a Jian class Command Cruiser. It is one of the newest ships in the Jian arsenal of space warships.” I replied, “I was under the impression the Jian were charter members of the Federation. Why would they be involved with the Eldirelians?” Sudeer continued, “We have had several unverified reports that the Jian might be attempting to destabilize the Federation. We have no idea why, but the fact that this command ship is here and was a part of the attack proves the Jian have an agenda that we are not aware of.”
“They do not know the ship survived, it was not supposed to. When the Captain sent the order to self-destruct, it was countermanded by a competing signal to self-destruct The computer was waiting for the input from the operator. We simply input an order that allowed us access to all the computer files. We took the liberty of deleting the self-destruct sequence. The ship is safe now.” “The problem is that we must not allow the Jian to know we have the ship. The SOL/FED Navy is not prepared to take on Jian technology.” “We need time to build our forces and refine our technology.”
“There is a great deal of knowledge aboard that ship. Technology the SOL/FED forces can use, but we need to try to keep her under wraps if possible. We are quite certain the competing self-destruct order came from another Jian ship. That is why all of the life boats were destroyed. The Jian are not prepared to make it known they are involved”
I gave the problem some consideration and said, “The easiest way to keep her under wraps may be to put her in plain sight. I propose we let the information go out that the ship we recovered was in fact an Eldirelian Command ship. We did destroy one of them. Our people should make the necessary repairs, then move her to Gamma Remidian where we can pull all of the technology at our leisure.”
Qobrun said, “I agree Admiral. And we absolutely must bring Dr. Hiller in to the loop of this. She cannot work in the dark.”
Sudeer replied, “I agree, she will know she is working on something that the Eldirelians were not technologically capable of building.”
To which I replied, “I will fill her in on the ship, and have her choose a few people to help her. We must leave it to her whether she tells her people what they are working on.”
Sudeer said, “I already have a crew of our technicians aboard. They will be ready when she arrives.”
I paged Commander Hiller to my ready room. When she arrived, I reestablished the security shield on my office and said, “Anne, this is top secret. I am sending you aboard the command ship we just brought in. This is not an Eldirelian Command ship. It is a command ship of the species we believe were backing the Eldirelians. It is far more advanced than anything the Eldirelians can put together.”
“The species who built this ship believe it has been destroyed. We must make certain it stays that way. I want you to choose a few people you trust to go aboard with you. I also want Qobrun to go along.”
“Commander Estrada will be in overall command. He will be taking the ship to her new location when we are ready to move her.”
“Qobrun, work with Dr. Hiller. Help her with any information you have.”
“The Egolari have a team aboard waiting for your arrival. The Egolari will follow your direction. Everyone aboard will remain on board for the duration of your inspection, repair and relocation.”
“There will be no contact off that ship except through Commander Estrada, direct to me.”
“The ship needs to be repaired so we can move her. That is the priority, but you also need to dig in to the technology. If you need anything let me know. I am recommending you not tell your people about the ship. If the question comes up tell them it is a new Eldirelian design.”
“Again, I cannot stress strongly enough the secrecy that must be maintained.” “Do either of you have any questions?” Anne said, “yes, I do. How do we keep our people on board from communicating with their temporal units?” “Good question Anne. The Egolari have placed a shield around the ship. The temporal units will work within the ship, but will not transmit or receive from the outside. Explain to your people that it is technology aboard the ship and leave it at that.”
DR. Hiller replied, “alright Admiral, when do we start?” “As soon as you put your team together and all of you pack up what you need to stay. We will get you on board with a shuttle. Our transporter won’t work with the shield the Egolari have put up. Just let me know when you are ready.” “Aye Sir,” replied Anne and Qobrun.
I paged Commander Estrada to my ready room. When he came in I once again activated the security shield. I said, “Bradford, I am giving you a temporary promotion to Captain. I expect it will become permanent when we return to Titan Station. I want you to put together a crew You trust. I am going to ask you to take a new ship we have located to Apsis Prime as soon as she is ready to move.”
It took nearly three weeks for the on-board team to get the Jian ship ready to travel. Meanwhile Captain Estrada and I were putting together a crew he could use to make the trip to Gamma Remidian. The Destroyer Zulu Warrior had been lost, but most of the crew had survived. We put a crew together from the survivors to ferry the ship to Apsis Prime. The crew was taken to the new ship a few days before she was ready so they could become familiar with her controls and systems.
As a means of misdirection, we had renamed the Jian cruiser, SFN Enigmatic.
Finally, the “Enigmatic” and the destroyer Constellation jumped to FTL on route to Apsis Prime.
There was little for the fleet to do in the Psi Unica system. We were making repairs and running drills. The Marines had landed on Grenushania and were working with the Royal Araimeer Army to coordinate the actions of both armies.
A few days later I received a
coded message from Admiral Miller. He advised me to leave what I felt was necessary for ground support at Grenushania and take the remainder of the fleet to Apsis Prime. Under no circumstances were any of the fleet ships to return to Titan. This was not a surprise. After our previous conversation, I expected we would be diverted to the Gamma Remidian system. We needed the Titan yards for some repairs and upgrades, but we would have to make do with what was at Apsis Prime.
I decided to leave the carrier George H W Busch, the Battle ship Kiev and the destroyer Pulsar in orbit to support the ground troops. I also left the troopships Long Beach and Wyoming, the factory ship Tsunami and the supply ships Allegiance and Kongzhi. The remainder of the fleet would go with me to back to Apsis Prime.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Gamma Remidian System
Two and a half months later we dropped out of FTL just outside the Gamma Remidian System. There were many ships in orbit. We worked our way in to the system and took up high orbit around Apsis Prime.
I was shocked by the extent of the improvements made in system. Admiral Miller had told me we were moving much of Titan Station to Apsis Prime, but the extent to which that had happened surprised me.
As soon as we were identified by Blue Fleet, Admiral Antonakos gave the Excelsior a hale. He said, “Admiral Anderson at your earliest opportunity I need to speak with you. Advise me when it would convenient for me to come aboard. I have information you need.” I replied, “Dylan, give me an hour to get the watch set and some reports from my people then come aboard.”
An hour later Admiral Antonakos transported aboard. Jenson said, “Admiral, Admiral Antonakos to see you.” “Send him in Jenson.” Admiral Antonakos stepped in and closed the hatch. He said, “Admiral we have a problem on Titan. Read this message from Admiral Miller.”
I opened the message and put it on speaker. Admiral Miller said, “Admiral Anderson, there is a movement afoot by an outfit called the Terran Space Command to take control of the Titan base. They intend to conscript all Terran personnel currently in the Solar Federation Navy or Marines and take possession of all ships currently flying the SOL/FED flag. You are ordered to remain in the Gamma Remidian System. Take command of all forces within your sphere of control and exercise the orders of the Federation committee. The Terran Space Command was formed when the outgoing President, a close friend of Senator Moore, declared martial law and proclaimed the election as null and void. He has named himself as the “interim president.” Senator Moore was proclaimed as minister of war and selected Admiral Harrison-Langham to head up the “Terran Space Command.”
“Admiral Harrison-Langham reactivated many of the personnel enlisted in the SOL/FED military. His rational is that they were retired American military to begin with. He has been given a presidential directive to conscript all of them into the Terran Space Command.”
“The best thing you can do is stay away for the time being. The U. S. is in a state of turmoil, but the newly elected President, Justin York, is fighting back. There is no doubt that this is an illegal move, but the “Terran Space Command has come in to possession of some armed space vessels and has made threats to blow Titan Station out of space if we don’t surrender. I believe we have sufficient forces in place to preclude that, but I would prefer to settle this without any bloodshed. We do not need humans killing humans.”
“There is no open fighting going on, but it wouldn’t take a lot for the North American Continent to explode right now. The appearance of a fleet of warships could be the match that lit the fuse.”
“Give me some time. I will update you as I can.”
I called Sudeer and asked him to join us. When he arrived, I filled him in. He said, “There is no doubt this is a Jian backed move.”
“ My sources on the SOL/FED committee expected interference in an attempt to discredit the Humanity as a viable space faring race. We must trust the people of Earth to set this right. The entire future of the SOL/FED military hangs in the balance. Without the SOL/FED military, the Federation will begin to come apart and the Jian expect to take power.”
For now, all we can do now is wait for the resolution of the power struggle going on back on Earth.
Admiral Miller ordered me to stay away from Earth and Titan Station. But he never said anything about the rest of the solar system. We may need to do some exploration. We have been far too busy with the Eldirelians to finish exploring Mars and some of the other planets and moons. And we might want leave some outposts, for strictly scientific reasons, of course. If we left outposts, we would need to leave sufficient security forces to assure their safety.
It may be a good idea. One I want to discuss with General Terry Giles.