by Andrew Beery
The need to communicate face-to-face despite their quantum-entangled communication links was necessitated by the simple reality that FTL communications relied on a diverse network of transfer nodes that routed communication across the cosmos. While the individual links were completely secure, the FTL routers were an ever present weak spot. Before they parted ways he hoped to re-establish a direct entangled link with his superior officer. Such links were not especially robust and would only last a few years – a decade at the most. In general, FTL nodes typically maintained a multitude of links and so if any one link failed others would be there to take over. This scheme effectively mitigated the effects of a single lost entangled pair. Unfortunately this was no help when the idea was to avoid the use of the supposedly secure routers.
“So you have fully functional Heshe tech again?” Harry said in response to news that the Heshe had made an appearance for the first time in over three hundred years… and that Cat Kimbridge was the recipient of said visit.
Sherry smiled and held up her hand. A little metallic horse flowed up from her palm and pranced about in a tiny circle before flowing back into her hand.
Harry leaned forward again, “So begging the Admiral’s pardon, but Cat is a friend. Has she been apprised of the situation? Does she concur with what we are attempting?”
“That’s a complicated conversation. Why don’t you invite me onboard your ship and we can discuss it.”
***
Sherry looked around the crowded bridge of the AM Brown Recluse. There were signs of recent cleaning and the smell of antiseptic clung to the air like dew on grass. Still, there was a run-down look that a cleaning couldn’t mask. It was obvious the ship had taken some recent damage. There were burnt out monitors and scoring on several of the control panels.
“So explain ‘Captain’ Bedmore how it is you are in command of this ship. Your orders were to infiltrate not commandeer,” Sherry asked as she scanned the bridge.
“Typical mission creep,” Harry said with a grin. “You know how it goes sometimes. In this particular case a young hothead shot the captain right in the middle of a firefight. Honey and I were forced to take extreme measures.”
“And these extreme measures included taking command of this ship?”
The Recluse’s captain shrugged. “It was that or allow the ship to be shot out from under us. Besides, now that we have the trust of the crew we can work more openly then we could before.”
Sherry walked over to the weapon’s station which seemed to have taken the brunt of the damage on the bridge. She traced a finger along a section of the charred control surface. The console was partially disassembled in an attempt to repair it. As Ricky/Harry’s words sunk in she turned to face him and raised an eyebrow.
Honey, now playing the role of his XO, Heather Arris stepped forward. “Most of the crew that served under Captain Cunningham were offered a chance to stay under new terms. Work hard, stay sober while on duty and get paid a generous fixed salary. The bonus structure is based on cleanliness and upgrading maintenance.”
Sherry nodded and indicated Ricky and Honey should keep talking.
“We convinced the crew to take on a different mission structure. Rather than going after prize cargos and then having to sell the plunder at a deep discount, now we provide…” Harry looked at Honey and winked, “escort services.”
Honey returned his look with a scathing one of her own and picked up the discussion. “Our objective has always been intel. What better way to gain it then by providing ‘off the books’ transportation services. We ferry passengers that need to move about but may not be interested in the BCI tracking their movements.”
“Salaries are paid based on service retainer fees and bonuses are paid from actual transport bookings,” Harry added.
“I see,” Sherry commented dryly. “And how many retainers and bookings have you secured to date?”
“Why Admiral…” Harry said with mock injury, “You will be our first!”
“Somehow I’m not surprised. I take it the various upgrades the Recluse is receiving in dry dock are to accommodate paying passengers in somewhat better style than was previously practical?”
“Indeed Admiral.”
Sherry looked around the bridge one last time. “About the other matter. Did you manage to deliver the cargo Lieutenant Arris was supposedly carrying for the BCI?”
Honey turned to face the Admiral. “The data core was downloaded directly by the port master. I unlocked the command and control virus as it entered the data stream. We have effective control of the Talus IV crime syndicate’s computer network.”
“Very good,” Sherry said. “Our team on Asimov accomplished the same thing with the BCI central systems. Between the two we should be able to put together a pretty good picture of who is talking to who and when.”
“So, Ader-ma-ral,” Captain Harry Bedmore said with his best Asmovian twang. “What be yer orders?”
“That depends. How soon can you be under way?”
Harry shook his head in disgust. “Honestly Admiral, this ship is a mess… and I’m not just talking about the accumulated filth. None of the major systems has seen proper maintenance for a decade. I have my team going from stem to stern pulling and replacing each major component. We are looking at a couple of weeks."
“That won’t do,” Sherry said plainly. “We need to track down Bud Faragon’s status chamber. What if you had unrestricted access to your Heshe tech?”
Harry looked at his wife and shared a smile.
***
“Damn them! Damn them all!” Junior Fleet Admiral Imera spat. A report had just come in from the Mardarus system. They were in open revolt. To make matter worse, similar reports were coming in across the entire sector and even extending into surrounding sectors. This was not the time for an inexperienced officer to be in command of the fleet.
Lieutenant Commander “Gio” Bruno stood silently while his commanding officer vented. Gio was a patient man. He was assigned to the Fleet Admiral as an aid but in truth he worked for the Grand Senate. It was an arrangement that the Admiral was aware of and had accepted. ‘Better a known evil than an unknown one’ was the only comment he had ever made on the subject.
After several further moments of uncomfortable silence Gio spoke up. “Sir, the Grand Senate requires a response.”
“I know they need a response!” Imera yelled. “I ought to force them to talk with ‘Fleet’ Admiral Kimbridge. She is supposedly in command of our forces.”
“While that may indeed be an unfortunate reality, Sir, the Senate has specifically requested your presence. You are, in fact, ordered to not share with the Fleet Admiral the nature and topic of this conversation with the Grand Senate.”
Admiral Imera sighed. God above… how he was tired. “Very well Commander. Upload a current sit-rep to my AI. It can brief me on the way down to the planet. Tell the Senate I can be at available in two hours.”
“Very good, Sir. Do you wish me to accompany you?”
“Damn straight son. You may yet have to take a bullet for me.”
***
The Grand Senate met in a palatial hall of the Galactic Coalition’s primary headquarters on Earth. The building had been specifically designed to accommodate a wide variety of species. Gravity and atmospheric conditions could be tailored on a room by room basis and holographic avatars could be used throughout the massive complex.
The Grand Meeting Hall, as the Senate chambers was referred to, was so large an echo took a full five seconds to travel across the circular room. At over two thousand meters in diameter it took too long for members to find their seats so moving sidewalks ringed the room. Each seat was outfitted with a universal translator and a 3D display unit that was tuned to the specific biological needs of the species assigned to that seat.
Junior Fleet Admiral Imera stood at a podium in the center of the hall. The room was kept at a standard 21 degree Celsius. That said, the room was decidedly hot and uncomfortable.
The Grand Senate was not happy that segments of the Coalition were in open revolt for the first time in its three hundred year history. The fact that Imera had been warning about just such an eventuality for the last five years fell on deaf ears.
“The reality is,” Admiral Imera continued, “without making a statement… without setting an example, we have no way of squashing this uprising before it gains traction...”
Senator McFarlan, the current chairbeing of the Internal Defense Department, interrupted before Imera could finish what he was saying.
“What do you mean ‘no way’? Do we not fund a rather sizable Navy? Do we not pay the salaries of the officers and enlisted in that Navy? Is it truly unreasonable to expect a return on that rather sizable investment?”
Admiral Imera sighed deeply. This was going to be a long afternoon. “As the honorable chair of the Department of Internal Defense is aware, the Coalition’s naval mandate is to operate from space. We have only a very limited number of Marines trained for deployment on a planet’s surface. The number of star systems currently engaged in local insurrections exceeds our capacity to respond with ground forces. The GCP relies on local militias to deal with terrestrial disturbances.”
Senator McFarlan would not be so easily dismissed. “That would seem to be a case of improper planning…”
Imera seized the opening. “I would agree Senator. I proposed the creation of a robotic avatar landing force in each of the last five budget requests before this august body. Each one was denied in committee before ever reaching the floor of this chamber for debate. Now we are faced with the consequences of those decisions.”
McFarlan waved a finger at the Admiral. “I would remind the Admiral where he is and to whom he is speaking. We weigh and balance a host of priorities that you cannot begin to comprehend. The reason your pet project has received little traction in this chamber is because of its frivolous and wasteful nature. You propose developing a new and unnecessary technology when all we need to do is train marines.”
Admiral Imera gritted his teeth. “Rigel Prime is a heavy world. Terrain marines would have a hard time functioning in that environment even with the latest Stark combat suits. Mardarus III’s atmosphere contains high levels of carbon monoxide. Without genetic enhancements humans can’t even live there. The D’rlalu can’t even function in that environment with genetic enhancements. Cordair XII is a water world…
“My point is these are just three of the worlds in revolt. Each one would require a specific type and species of marine. In point of fact, we would need trained and augmented marines specifically tailored to each and every habitable planet in the coalition. The logistical requirements for supporting such a force staggers the mind. It would be far cheaper to develop a universal avatar soldier that could fight in any anticipated environment.”
Grand Senator T’pu from Adairus Prime stood to be recognized. “Even given what you say is true. How does that help us address what we are facing now?”
Imera smiled. “It does not. We have only a couple of options available to us. First, we can do nothing and hope that the situation is resolved locally on a case-by-case basis…” Admiral Imera paused to let this option sink in.
Senator McFarlan spoke up. “You said there was a second option?”
Chapter 10: Orders
Cat sat in the forward observation lounge of the fully repaired GCP Yorktown. The ship was in orbit around a large gas giant in the Zeta-2 Reticuli star system. Zeta-2 was actually the second of two Sol-like stars in the binary system. The binary system was surrounded by a debris disk composed of dirty water ice and frozen hydrocarbons. The disk was the reason Cat was in the observation lounge.
For a few hours while on the dark side of the gas giant there was an unobstructed view of the highly reflective debris ring. It looked very much like a scimitar arching across the heavens. Cat couldn’t help but think that the sight, while spectacularly beautiful, was a harbinger of dreadful things to come. No sooner had that thought occurred, her comm-link bleeped for her attention.
“What’s up Cal?”
Her Heshe AI responded with a brief summary of an emergency transmission received by the bridge. It seemed several sectors within two jump points of their current position were engaged in civil uprisings. A representative from the Grand Senate was requesting a holo-link video conference to discuss the situation.
“Inform the representative that I am heading to my office where we can have a secure conversation… give me five minutes.”
She met Captain Kirkland and Commander Ben on the way to her quarters.
“Ken, I assume the bridge has briefed you on the conference request with the Grand Senate?”
“Actually Ben had the big chair when the call came in,” her friend acknowledged.
Ben, for his part, looked concerned. “There was something off about the way they requested the meeting. Almost as if the person on the other end was being extremely careful to not signal via their hand about something that is going on. I’ve gotten pretty good at reading pink-skins, especially now that I am one. Something was off.”
“Understood,” Cat said. “For the moment I want Ken with me. Ben you take the bridge and bring the ship to yellow alert. I want full sensor sweeps of the surrounding area including the jump points.”
The look of disappointment was fleeting but definitely present. Cat realized the Yorktown’s First Officer was hoping to hear what the mystery from the Grand Senate was all about. Cat smiled and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t worry my friend, Ken and I will brief you fully. For the moment though I need a senior officer on the Bridge in case the caca hits the fan.”
***
Cat paused to pour a cup of coffee for both Ken and herself. She used the time to consider what the Grand Senate might want. In the several weeks the Yorktown taskforce had been back in this timeline the Senate had barely reached out to her. Perhaps they were waiting to see how the power struggle between herself and Junior Fleet Admiral Imera played out. Perhaps the waiting was over and they were planning on weighing in on one side or another.
Ken accepted his cup and with a pensive look that paralleled Cat’s own he nodded towards her terminal. “Shall we?”
Cat smiled wanly. “I suspect we must.”
“Yorky,” Cat said out loud to the ship’s newly reintegrated Heshe/Human AI. “Open the channel to the Senate’s representative.”
She found calling the Yorktown’s AI Yorky a bit strange. She had expected the ship to revert to ‘Cal’ when the full complement of Heshe technology had been restored but to her surprise the Yorky-Cal integrated AI had decided to keep the Yorky name. She supposed that was just a part of the unpredictable nature of true AI. If there was a positive… it was that her internal AI which had cloned itself into the ship several years ago and which was a part of her Heshe encounter unit, still wanted to be called Cal. When Yarin restored her Heshe tech, Cal coming back online had been the return of a welcomed friend.
A young man shimmered into existence sitting in a holographic chair. Apparently the holographic scenery changed in the office the man was in as he looked startled and then stood to face, what were for him, the holographic representations of Admiral Kimbridge and Captain Kirkland.
“Admiral Kimbridge, It is an honor and a pleasure to meet you. I am Trevor Stevens, Vice Minister of the Department of Political Stability.”
Cat smiled politely if not completely sincerely. In her role as the senior-most Fleet Admiral it seemed odd that the person reaching out to her would be a Vice Minister. “The pleasure is mine Mister Stevens. How can I be of assistance?”
The younger man looked decidedly uncomfortable. “This is a secure channel?”
Cat looked at Ken before turning back to the young man. “It is…”
“Admiral, I wear a second hat… a hat that could cause me no end of trouble were certain parties to discover my involvement with the organization it represents.”
Ca
t put her coffee down. “Go on.”
“Admiral, the organization it represents is headed by a friend of yours, Admiral Melbourne. It is in my capacity as a member of Melbourne’s Maniacs that I am contacting you.”
Cat nodded her understanding. “Needless to say, this is a conversation that will remain ‘off books’.”
The Vice Minister looked relieved. “I’m contacting you to warn you that Fleet Admiral Imera is about to order you to take actions that will have far-reaching ramification should you carry out those orders.”
Ken leaned forward. “Admiral Imera is not in a position to give those orders. He is outranked.”
Trevor Stevens shook his head. “The Grand Senate is taking action on that front even as we speak. You will be ordered to suppress an uprising in the Mardarians system using means that are intended to set an extreme example. Admiral you must find a way to resist those orders. I…”
Trevor looked off screen and then turned back and reached forward to whisper as he toggled a switch on his desk. “God be with you Admiral.” With this the display went black and the 3D hologram dissolved.
Cat looked over at Ken. “Thoughts?”
Ken walked over to the viewport to look out the window into the blackness of space. The view reflected his mood. “It’s no accident they are choosing you to carry out this order. There must be a dozen ships in the vicinity that they could have sent.”
“I agree,” Cat said.
“The Yorktown taskforce has apparently become the thing of legend. If we are to believe Admiral Melbourne, our very presence has inspired and emboldened those groups that are seeking to reform the Galactic Coalition.”
“And the Yorktown taking part in a brutal repression will effectively remove that threat to the Grand Senate,” Cat added.
“Exactly.”
***
Senior Fleet Admiral Imera looked at his image in his office’s dressing room mirror. On each shoulder board two rows of three stars each lined up perfectly. Never in the history of the GCP had such a rank existed. He was once again the supreme leader of the most powerful military the universe had ever known. With his new rank came the privilege and duty to secure the GCP from all threats, foreign and domestic. It was a duty he took seriously. It was a duty he intended to carry out.