by Shae Mills
Yanis rose. He understood her desperate need to learn more about his people. She needed to know exactly where she stood within their dichotomous society of free love and brutal war, both of which she had now experienced. He walked up to her and hugged her gently. She pressed into him, searching for badly need reassurance and comfort. "I will teach you, Chelan," he offered quietly. "I'll teach you all that you wish to know."
Chelan's spirits soared, and she looked up at him. Her smile set her beauty aglow, and Yanis tensed; her alluring alien eyes stole his breath. She stretched up and kissed him on the cheek. She turned to leave, but his arms held her firmly. The smile left her face, but he couldn't help himself. He tasted her lips tenderly. Chelan shuddered in response to his forwardness.
Yanis abruptly released her. "I'm sorry, my Lady. I was out of line."
"No," she assured quickly. "No, it's okay. But it proves my point. I need to be able to read you and your people better. I can never tell what signals I am sending out and just what you are receiving." Then a small smile graced her lips. "Besides," she whispered, "being kissed by such a handsome man as you is not exactly unpleasant."
Yanis smiled with relief. "Okay," he began. "Now, do you want me to accompany you to the Command Center?"
Chelan shook her head. "No, but thank you. I will be fine."
"Good. How about I disappear for now while you mount your attack, and then I'll return this afternoon to teach you—" His sentence broke off, and he hesitated, looking at her with a sly grin. "I'll teach you a little self-control."
Chelan laughed. "That would be wonderful."
Yanis nodded to her and then took his leave. Chelan stood still momentarily as she ran her fingers over her lips. It was an odd situation to be touched so intimately by so many and yet have no fear of conflict or force. She smiled to herself. The men of Earth have a long way to go, she determined.
Chelan headed toward the doors, and they parted silently. But then she stopped in her tracks as she was confronted by a proliferation of guards outside the Command Center. She hesitated, her heart pounding. Finally, she proceeded, the shrouds parting obediently for her. To her relief, the Command Center doors opened, and she stepped inside smartly, only to be startled by three more shrouded figures at the main console. Dar turned to her first.
"I'm sorry," she said, turning to leave.
Dar spoke. "It's okay, Chelan. Come in."
Chelan hesitated as her eyes found Solis, and a spasm of dread coursed through her as her mind replayed his assault. Her fingers automatically reached for her shoulder just as all three men returned to their work. Chelan swallowed hard and tried to still her shallow breathing. She edged her way along the top of the stairway to the end of the Command Center, her eyes locked on Solis the entire time.
She finally released him from her scrutiny and looked up to the screens above the consoles. Her jaw dropped, and she sank to the floor, perching on the top stair. The entire wall was alight with what she recognized immediately as a giant air reconnaissance photograph. It was of a vast section of land, a totally barren and alien land.
Chelan looked back to the men and listened as Dar began to speak. "It's too obvious," he said with irritation.
"We have no other alternative," replied Solis. "We know that a structure of that magnitude and importance would have to be protected directly. And none of the high-or low-altitude flybys have produced any suitable alternatives."
Dar looked up at a section of the screen. "Damn! It's still too obvious. What did Tanyon and his teams have to say about it?"
"Nothing," answered Solis. "Tanyon was killed two days ago. All reports from his remaining men are negative."
Dar looked down at the floor. "He was my best analyst."
Solis nodded to Dar. "Korba still hopes Falon is located in time. But he's been missing for a while. Gainy suspects he perished underground in Sector 56."
Dar shook his head. "Those were our two best surveillance men. It was a mistake to send them both."
"There are still plenty of fine interpreters in the field, Sire. They are looking over the photograph as we speak. It will only be a matter—"
"We don't have a matter of time!" shouted Dar with unbridled fury. "And they haven't located an alternative." The Warlord swung around, his eyes ablaze. He drew a deep and calming breath. "And it's still too obvious," he whispered.
Chelan cringed at the intensity of Dar's anger and frustration. She looked up at the screen to the area that he had scrutinized, but her mind registered nothing obvious. She chewed at her lip and began looking over the rest of the picture.
She was having trouble making out some of the landforms, as she was not sure what was natural and what was manmade. It was obvious that there were forces at work on this planet's surface that she was not familiar with. But she could tell that the area was primarily composed of igneous structures, and geologically the terrain looked fairly young overall.
She smiled inwardly, appreciative of the aerial photo and remote sensing courses she had taken during her summers to keep in touch with the university. She had always found herself in awe of geological landforms and the huge internal forces that produced them. She guessed it was almost inevitable that she would be interested in that subject area. She loved astronomy, and to look at the Earth and other planets was to look at their geology and their internal engines. In the past, she had taken every opportunity to study aerial photos on her own, and someday, her dream was to fly over the structures she loved in the planes she had hoped to help design.
Chelan shook herself from her now-impossible aspiration and looked to the area that was of obvious concern to the men. Her eyes passed from formation to formation. She peered at a section to the far right of the critical area and noticed an extremely subtle disruption in a large ridge. The strike across the sharp peak produced a tiny offset, but how deep it ran she could not ascertain. Evidence of whether or not it indicated a fault could not be derived solely from the one offset. And so she began her search for other offsets to confirm or deny her hypothesis. She wanted to find other lineations or deviations that would give her a clue as to the extent of the land motion and its direction, if indeed it was in motion at all.
She could hear the men talking quietly among themselves as she searched. Time passed as she combed over the area. Then she squinted, trying to bring into better focus a tiny little segment of land. There, near the top of the photo in the center, she finally she found what she was looking for. Her brows rose. Though this offset was also subtle, the strike of the slip seemed to match the original offset in orientation. She automatically drew an invisible line through the two points, deciding that it could be an indication of a major fault. But often what lay on the surface was a poor indicator of what lay beneath.
Satisfied with her armchair analysis, she looked toward the left and began studying that area. The terrain seemed slightly older in age as more erosional features were evident. Overall, the land looked more stable and less fractured. Her eyes then settled on a section of intricate trellis drainage patterns, but there was something odd about them. They were regular, maybe a little too much so. Obviously it was an area of intense geologic folding at one time, and it fascinated her.
Chelan was startled from her concentration when Dar spoke, his voice strained, his level of irritation vividly apparent. He looked at Solis. "You know that everything depends on this assumption being correct."
"We have no alternative, Sire. He either hits the installation at the site we have determined, or we send thousands to their deaths by attacking the main colony. Meetings of our officers on board both ships concur with this analysis."
Fremma had been silent for a long time, as he'd paced back and forth behind Dar and Solis. Finally he stopped. "I agree with Dar. So far, their technology has proved formidable. Those ships were well camouflaged, but far from adequately for our sensors and the equipment they know we possess. Our low-pass flyby picked them out immediately, and I don't think ROPE would make
such a blatant error. I feel it's a diversion, and they're relying on the fact that we can't locate their main force."
Solis hesitated. "I concur. But my point still stands. We have no alternative. Even Korba has admitted that he is baffled by the whole mess. He knows better than anyone the importance of this decision, and he knows the whole thing reeks of deception. But his communiqué indicated that none of his men had been able to find an alternative location, and time is of the essence." Solis paused, lowering his voice. "If we hit what we can see, then hopefully we can draw out the main forces and have time to regroup and recover."
Dar shook his head in frustration. "And recover is the best we could hope for." He walked back to the console. "How long before Korba's forces are positioned for the final assault?"
Fremma replied. "They're ready to go tomorrow morning. They could hold off one more day, but no longer."
Chelan was elated that Korba was still alive, but instantly worried sick for him. Obviously the photo in front of her contained critical information important enough that his life depended on it. She now grasped the magnitude of the decision the men were trying to make, and her own stomach knotted.
Solis sat down. But Dar paced. "This is pure suicide," he mumbled in exasperation.
Fremma nodded grimly and walked aimlessly in Chelan's direction, his mind toiling.
Chelan became nervous as she contemplated asking a question. As Fremma approached, she summoned all the vestiges of her courage. "What is it you are trying to locate?" she asked quietly.
Fremma looked up at her and smiled. He ascended the stairs and sat down beside her. "It's a long story, Chelan," he sighed. "The mission Korba is on has been wrapped up on two planets, but the problems presented by this one were vastly underestimated, and it is costing us dearly." Fremma touched her arm affectionately. "As it turns out, our enemy's main breeding colony and its military installation on this planet are deep underground among an infinite number of highly complex and convoluted tunnels. We will lose too many men by attacking it directly, so we are forced to find its life-support center instead. If we can, we can knock it out and save our men." Fremma looked back at the giant display. "Unfortunately, our forces are depleted, and everyone out there is running on empty. We can ill afford being wrong here."
Chelan glanced at Dar and Solis. "How big a power plant are you looking for?"
Dar folded his arms, relieved at the temporary diversion provided by Chelan. She was giving his weary mind a break. "It would be a nuclear fission plant, Chelan, underground, its infrastructure massive. It would be of extreme importance to the breeders for life support and for every level of production. If we could knock it out and seal the entrances to the main colonies, then for the most part, we could simply stand back and wait for them to die."
"Fission," repeated Chelan softly. "You said they had forces in that central area there." She pointed to the screen where they had been looking. "Where do you think the plant is?"
Solis swiveled in his chair and looked at her critically, half wishing she would leave, and half curious about her interest. Chelan looked away, conscious of his eyes upon her.
Fremma threw a cautionary glance at Solis, and then he returned his attention to her. "Because we can attack a site instantaneously, an important installation like that would have a significant force of ships in the immediate vicinity."
Chelan's eyes widened as she looked at Fremma and then to Dar. "You'd be able to teach us a thing or two about nuclear safeguards, then, unless they plan to use the plant for a very short length of time," she said.
Solis stood abruptly, startling Chelan. His movements indicated he was tired of idle chatter. Dar ignored the man and looked at Chelan intently. He had been surprised by her intelligence and perceptiveness before, and something in the tone of her voice told him to take heed. He peered at her. "The colony planned to use it indefinitely, Chelan. Why do you assume that it would be considered disposable?"
"Oh, I don't," she commented quickly. "It's just that I assume their technology for nuclear containment must be excellent. Or else the architects of this installation were extremely shortsighted, or naive, or both."
Dar glanced at Fremma and then back to Chelan. Unfolding his arms, he walked toward her. "Tell me why, Chelan," Dar asked quietly.
Chelan started to speak but was interrupted by Solis. "Commander, we are wasting valuable time here."
Dar looked at the floor and spoke harshly. "I will determine when time is or is not being wasted, Solis!"
Solis sat back down in silence. Chelan was completely rattled, and Fremma reached out, squeezing her leg in reassurance.
"Tell me," urged Dar softly. "Why is that area a problem?"
Chelan cleared her throat, glancing at Solis and then back to Dar. "Because it's a highly faulted and fractured area. The geology indicates that it is of a young age and possibly very active. There's a good chance that a deep fault bisects that very region. If they have the technology to build a nuclear station that withstands the type of energy expenditure massive quakes can generate, and they can compensate for the ensuing land movement, then it is no problem."
Dar watched her carefully and then glanced toward the screen. "Callista is a very young planet. Show me the fault, Chelan."
Chelan didn't move. Her eyes immediately went to Solis, and she subconsciously reached for her neck. Dar extended his hand to her. After a few moments of hesitation, she accepted his invitation, and he led her to the center of the consoles. He called up a smaller projection of the larger picture.
Chelan pointed out the two subtle offset patterns and explained her reasoning. "The particular area you are referring to is in a valley that appears stable, but I believe that is because the majority of the faulting is obscured by detritus. It makes sense, as all the surrounding area is geologically young. I've drawn a fault through the central area based on the bearings of the lineages produced by the offsets. It may be an accident that they line up, but if I were asked to build a nuclear site here, based on visual determination only, I would decline."
Fremma stood and looked at Dar. He drew a deep breath and spoke slowly. "She's right. We didn't pick up on the obvious because we were too busy dwelling on the ships. Although the offsets are obscure, one of us should have picked them out."
Dar looked at Fremma from under his brow. "We missed them, but why didn't one of Korba's reconnaissance men see them?"
Fremma nodded to the screen. "Both deviations are on the periphery of the image, my Lord. The onboard monitors of the fighters would have cropped the edges. They did not see them because they were not on their photos. It was a sheer fluke that the image was processed as it was."
Chelan shivered, hoping she was right and that she had helped. She looked briefly into Solis's eyes and then retreated back up the stairs. She wanted no more to do with the discussion.
Dar watched her scamper away and then cursed under his breath at Solis. But he did not have time to mediate between them. "What's the maximum range the power source can be from such a massive underground colony before they require additional installations and linkage routes?"
"You're looking at it," replied Solis as he glanced up at the large area covered by the image. "It's out there somewhere. It has to be."
Dar slumped into his chair and stared at the screen. All three men were silent for a long time.
Chelan finally caught her breath and began to relax. To ease her mind, she looked back at her trellis drainage area and put her mind to work figuring out the local terrain.
The more she stared at the patterning, the more she questioned her interpretation of the geology. The markings in places almost looked like grooving by glacial flow, but that was illogical, as none of the surrounding terrain showed characteristic glacial signs. The valleys were all V-shaped, not U-shaped. There were no drumlins, cols, or arêtes.
She became more and more baffled as she realized that some of her patterns were discontinuous, and she squirmed. The disconnections we
re extremely subtle and hard to detect, but most of all, they were not logical.
Chelan shifted her position uneasily. She suddenly realized that she had no clear idea about what she was looking at because of the lack of scale. She needed a reference point. She became nervous again as she spoke; her voice cracked. "You said that there were camouflaged ships in the area. Are they too small for me to see?"
"No," said Dar. "To the trained eye, they are visible. Our weapons specialist picked them out." Dar enlarged the area and transferred it to a close screen. Then he outlined one of the ships with his finger.
Chelan's eyes grew large. She looked back to her mystery area. Her strange striations were slightly smaller in size, and her mind reeled at her revelation. She had the scale of the area all wrong. She began to fidget, wondering if she should speak.
Dar smiled at her and then returned his attention to the screen. Chelan looked to Fremma, her excitement barely containable. But when she looked up and met Solis's critical eyes, she shrank away. But Fremma had noted her indecision, and he knew her agitation was not due to Solis alone. "What is it, Chelan?" he asked softly.
Her eyes sparkled. "X-29s," she breathed.
Fremma looked bewildered. "X-29s?" he repeated.
Chelan hugged her legs tightly. "I had the scale all wrong," she whispered. She pointed to the screen. "Those could be planes, camouflaged and arranged to fit into the local geology. I thought they were drainage patterns, but some of the patterning is discontinuous, and in other areas it is far too regular. You would only expect those types of irregularities in a karst-like topography, not metamorphic. But then it's only a hunch. I'm obviously not familiar with the conditions on this world. I can only call it as I see it judging from my Earth experience."
Solis now stared at the area. Then he swung around toward her. "Trace out a ship," he ordered.