Neptune's Massif

by Ben Winston

  Ty nodded and the procession continued into the facility. Ian and his family followed them inside.

  Once in the treatment room, Cindy was helped into a bed and made comfortable, while Ian and family waited outside. Very shortly, a very upset looking professional came storming down the corridor. "What's going on here?"

  Ty stepped up to the Doctor. "We have brought you a new patient, Doctor. I believe you already knew this?"

  She nodded angrily. "Major Williams was to be transferred from the Star Dancer to this facility for psychological treatment. Nothing was said about all of this? Why is that armored soldier in here? Get him out of there this instant! The sight of him could be very detrimental to the mental state of the patient!"

  Ty read her name tag. “Dr. Roberts, have you not been briefed on exactly what and who she is?”

  “I assumed she was a soldier like any other, is there something I haven't been told?" the Doctor snapped back.

  Ty ignored her offensive attitude. “Do you know what a SEAL team is on Earth? By that, I mean what they really are, not what the media says they are."

  “The U.S. Navy’s special forces group, trained in anti-terrorist tactics and special weapons training. What of it?”

  “That’s pretty accurate. Now, consider the enemy that we are fighting here; they are stronger and in some cases faster than a normal human soldier. We needed Special Forces teams that could counter the enemy on their own ground, without support from anyone and usually far behind enemy lines. What kind of training do you think we would have to give those people?” Ty asked her.

  The doctor paled a little, “Do you mean that she is...” she gestured to Cindy.

  Ty nodded. “She is the most senior commander of those teams. She has received the most training and knows more ways to kill every species we know of than they probably know of themselves. She has been trained to attack, infiltrate, and capture ships the size of Star Dancer and bigger, more importantly she has been trained to survive indefinitely in a hostile environment. We have trained her so that she will automatically do whatever it takes to survive and complete her mission. If she ever decides that someone needs to die, they will die. Something has made her mentally unstable. Now, with all of this in mind, do you still want me to remove the guard?”

  “Is one guard enough?” She asked.

  "The only people guarding her will be those that have had the same training she has. If at any time, one of them tells you to do something, do not argue with them, or ignore them, because they are most likely trying to save your life. Is this understood?" Ty said in a very no nonsense manner.

  "Perfectly, Colonel. Now that I understand the situation better, will your men need anything from us?" the Doctor asked.

  "No, they will do nothing but keep watch over your patient. They will not need to eat, nor will they need to use the head. For the duration of Major William's stay with you, the guard will remain with her at all times, in all situations, even in the shower or the bathroom. No exceptions. They have been briefed on their duty here, please try to stay out of their way," Ty said and it was very clear he was giving an order.

  "I understand, Sir, but surely the patient deserves some form of privacy..." the Doctor tried to counter.

  "No, she does not. She cannot be given any opportunity to harm anyone or herself. If she is given that opportunity, she will take it," Ty replied.

  "There has been no indication that she is suicidal," the Doctor asked.

  “I know she is,” Ty answered as he turned to the window into the room. “Or at least will be when she comes back to us. I’ve seen this type of thing before. What she went through has happened to special ops soldiers on Earth. This is a form of what they call combat fatigue. We can’t know the exact mental state she was in when she snapped, or what it was in particular that set her off, but it will come tumbling out when she, uh, wakes up. Just hack into the database at Bethesda. I’m sure there are thousands of cases on file,” Ty answered, his eyes never leaving the slumped form of Cindy he could see through the one way glass.

  The Doctor nodded and walked into the room, motioning the family to follow her. “Cindy? I’m Dr. Roberts. I’ve been asked to help you get through this. But we thought you might like to say hello to your children before we get started.” Dr. Roberts stepped aside to allow the children, Ian and Jenny to enter.

  Dr. Roberts’ words elicited the first response anyone had ever seen from Cindy in almost a week. Cindy slowly turned her head to look at the children.

  "They're safe?" Cindy asked quietly.

  "Yes honey, the children are safe now," Shannon replied. "You made sure of that. The bad men are all gone now and the children are safe."

  Cindy smiled, laid her head back, and fell asleep.

  Dr. Roberts looked at Shannon. "I think you should tell me the circumstances in which she was injured."

  Ian nodded. "Go ahead, Shannon. I'll make sure she gets clearance."

  Shannon nodded to him. "Yes Admiral." She turned back to the Doctor. "Do you have an office we can use, Doctor?"

  Chapter 14

  Admiral's Office

  TDF Star Dancer

  High Orbit, Planet Atlas

  Centauri System, Sol Sector

  It had taken the better part of a week to finish their part of the restoration of New Talos. Ian had left the Talosian ships and Marines there to assist the authorities in rebuilding and returned home. He had a promise to keep, and there was a lot of work to be done before he could do it.

  Ian was very surprised though, when the whole Talosian attitude towards them seemed to change, basically overnight. Some of that could be accredited to Noren and Goya influencing the others, but not all of it. Goya told Ian that it had been the Talosian ships and troops he had led in the liberation of New Talos that had effected the largest change.

  The soldiers and sailors talked to their families, and their families talked to their clans, who in turn spoke to their Houses. Goya went on to tell Ian that it wasn't just the attitude toward the Terrans that had changed either; there was a massive rethink of the Talosian roll in the war being undertaken by the Talosian people. They were learning that they could not remain isolated from the other races and still try to fight.

  Another surprise awaiting Ian was a formal request by ARC High Command for the training and equipping of four non-human Raptor teams. The request had already been approved by the Terran Council and only needed his approval. ARC already had over two hundred applicants for the project. In a side note, Fleet Admiral H’joles stated that he had little doubt the effort would be a success and hoped that more personnel could be sent for training in the future.

  The Admiral also reported that of the ships the Terrans had refitted and sent back to ARC, all had participated in at least one battle so far. He went on to say that although all took some damage, none of that damage effected their combat effectiveness. The captains and crews of those ships were very pleased with the results. A report issued by the chief engineer of the cruiser claimed that analysis of the damage absorbed by the ship during combat should have been sufficient to have disabled the ship at the very least. Instead, the energy from enemy weapons had been rechanneled and used to strengthen the ship's defenses and energy weapons during the combat. He continued by stating that it was his certainty that, had the ship not been rebuilt by the Terrans, it would have been lost with all hands in the battle previous to that report.

  That made Ian feel good about helping ARC. They had saved lives and kept a ship in the fight. He edited out that part of the message and had Mel send it to Commodore Hawkins at Pleiades One where the work on the cruiser had been done. He included a commendation for everyone that had been associated with rebuilding the ARC ships.

  In order to deal with the rest of the message, Ian called Ty to get his thoughts on the matter. Ty nodded at him and told him that he had already worked out the details with ARC and the Council. The Project had simply been awaiting his approval when Ian returned from
New Talos.

  "Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" Ian asked.

  "No reason to, Sir. We had other issues we needed to focus on. Nothing could have been done with this until we returned here anyway," Ty replied.

  Ian saw more stress on his face than normal. "Ty, she's getting the best care we can give her. We'll get her out of this."

  Ty nodded. "I know, Sir, but I'm still worried. Combat Fatigue isn't the joke a lot of people think it is. I know Cindy will come out of this eventually; I'm worried more about how she'll react once she does. Different soldiers react in very different ways to this sort of trauma. Even if she wakes up, we could still lose her."

  "In what way?" Ian asked. The therapists hadn’t mentioned this.

  "Sir, I've had a lot of experience with soldiers in this condition. She's one of the worst I've ever seen. None of them are the same afterward. There is a very good chance she won't be returned to her team. We can't take that risk," Ty replied. "Before this happened I was thinking about making her my second in command. She was that good and the other teams not only respect her, but look up to her." He shook his head. "Perhaps the promotion will still be feasible; as long as she doesn't go into combat herself anymore. We'll just have to see what happens when she wakes up. Everything depends on what caused the mental breakdown to begin with."

  Ian nodded. "She's always been a very strong woman, Ty. I have to believe she'll come back to us intact and ready to kick ass."

  Ty nodded. "That's another worry; whose ass will she want to kick? Will she be able to differentiate between us and the enemy? Try to imagine someone with her training and abilities that can't tell her friends from her enemies."

  Ian nodded. "Is that the reason you placed the armored guards on her?"

  Ty nodded. "Yeah, they'll handle the situation, if it becomes necessary."

  Ian had no more than gotten off the comm with Ty than Commodore Hawkins called. Ian was rather melancholy after his talk with Ty, but accepted the call anyway.

  "Commodore, I take it you received my message?" Ian asked by way of greeting.

  "Yes I did. I wanted to call and thank you for sharing that with us. I'm sure it'll really boost morale on the docks," Isaak replied. "Not that morale has been an issue, but it's stuff like this that really makes the workers feel like part of the team. It'll inspire the others to work harder in order to show them up too!"

  "I've only just started getting into all the reports I missed while I was gone. I take it we're still ahead of schedule?" Ian asked.

  Isaak nodded. "Yes, in fact Maia has had to reassess the schedule on several projects. Pleiades Two is moving along nicely, and the main framework for station three is being assembled as we speak. The addition of that mining ship has really stepped things up; that and the massive influx of workers we've been getting. Things are really starting to take off around here. There's been a lot going on here."

  Ian nodded. "I'm beginning to see that. I'm sure everything is in my data stack for review, but can you tell me the high points?"

  "Commander Serena would probably be able to give you a better answer. Let's see... Commander Carlson took the Caldarian Base, rescued a ton of folks, but I think you already know that. The UN has agreed to allow us to maintain control of the base even though every member nation on Earth was drooling to get their hands on it."

  "I got most of that; it happened before we left, has there been any changes there?" Ian asked.

  Isaak nodded. "Not with the base, but right after you left, we caught a few of the 'diplomats' trying to steal tech and information. The Council canceled their visas, made damn sure they didn't remember anything, and sent them home. At first, we thought two of them had been Chinese, but it turns out one was actually North Korean. The others were from the US, the Russian Federation, and the last was a Brit working with a commercial European Coalition. What's most surprising is that the UN pulled their diplomatic credentials as well and recalled two of the Ambassadors.

  "However, I've heard that some of the medical personnel sent up have expressed an interest in remaining here. I don't know how the Council is dealing with that, though." He looked thoughtful for a moment as if trying to remember. "Oh yeah, the probe! The day after you left, the defense network detected an Imperial probe that was passing through the Oort Cloud on its way in-system. They might have missed the little bugger too if it hadn't sent out a scanning pulse. Our patrol ships took it out and retrieved what was left for study. Commander Serena had us on full alert for the rest of the day. Apparently, some of those probes are sent out from their light cruisers and she was afraid the ship might come looking for it. Forensic analysis of the probe showed that it was one of their long range probes used for locating enemy bases and mineral deposits."

  That concerned Ian. "Do we know if the probe detected us, and did it get a report sent out?"

  Isaak shook his head. "No, it didn't see us. It was headed into Sol system and we got it while it was still far enough out that it couldn't detect anything in the system. A Condor took it out. From what I understand, it is giving our science types a much better idea of how Imperial scanner tech works."

  Ian nodded. "I'll look for the reports. You know, we might not catch the next one, or the one after that. If that happens the Empire will arrive shortly thereafter."

  "Won't ARC protect us too?" Isaak asked.

  Ian nodded. "I'm sure they'll do everything they can. The problem is that they're spread pretty thin right now. For the most part, this war is at a stalemate. If the Empire brings in more ships, ARC will be hard pressed to defend everyone. That's why I've been pushing so hard to get more ships built, even though we don't have the people for them, ARC does. Plus, the Talosians now have crews but no ships. Which reminds me, they'll be sending their people here for training on the new systems; including their fighter pilots. I need to make sure we have the facilities available for that."

  Isaak nodded. "When you ordered the ships to be built, we thought we would need to train the crews, so we've been working on getting ready for it. Since I didn't really have the room for it up here, I asked for permission to build a sort of training academy dirt-side. The Engineering stuff will be handled up here, but Command, Gunnery, Navigation, and Computer Support systems will be handled on-planet.

  "The Council took my request and upgraded it. They set aside the entire subcontinent of Hera for the new Military Academy. I'm told it's going to be quite the project. While it's going to take a long time complete, we'll still be able to use it for what we need. I think the Council might have something more planned there than just a place where we can retrain crews for the new ships," Isaak said grinning.

  Ian nodded. "Knowing them, they’re planning on a full blown, Alliance Military Academy to train new people as well. While I applaud the idea, I'm still going to worry about security. We have a lot at risk here, not the least of which are two poorly protected planets. Hell, not even the Defense Network will be completed for another year and a half."

  "Ah, about that..." Isaak said, "It's gonna be much sooner than you think. Remember how I said the addition of the mining ship really helped?"

  When Ian nodded, he continued. "Well, the new Mars facility has gotten so far ahead with fighter production that I ordered our fighter bays to retool themselves to build the defense satellites. All six of my fighter bays have been kicking out two new birds a day for the last week. The patrol ships have been towing them out and releasing them so the control center can put them into final position. I know I should have asked first, but you were really in the thick of it at the time, so I spoke to Commander Serena and made the decision."

  "Mars is that far ahead on fighter production?" Ian asked using an auxiliary monitor to search for a production report.

  Isaak nodded. "Their storage facility is over-full. They've even begun construction on more storage facilities. Last I'd heard, they had to shut down until the new warehouses are ready."

  Finding the report, Ian was amazed at what had
been accomplished. Even after cleaning out the facility to equip the Tiamat, they had managed to restock in a single month. "You made the right call, Isaak. I just had no idea they could produce the fighters this fast!"

  "Well, the redesign of the assembly system had a lot to do with it. Belirus really got the whole place moving," Isaak replied.

  Ian nodded. "He did really well commanding the Tiamat too. I know he was an Admiral, but he was really amazing. He really seemed to use the ship to her full potential. I think he was a good choice to command her."

  Admiral's Office

  TDF Star Dancer

  Pleiades One Orbital Shipyard

  Planet Atlas, Centauri System

  Sol Sector

  "Ladies and Gentlemen, the reason I asked all of you here today is that we need to come up with a plan," Ian began. "The plan I need worked out is for the defense of the planet Earth in the event that this sector falls under attack again. I am certain all of you know of the recent attempt by the Empire to probe this system. There is also the added threat that the remaining Caldarians could decide to return here and take the planet by force. Although we cannot allow any of our advanced weapons technology to fall into the hands of the governments controlling the planet, we still have to plan for its defense.

  "The attack we faced almost two years ago would be a mere skirmish in comparison to what we will face if either of those two forces decide to attack us. The probe we attached to the freighter has shown us not only where the remaining Caldarian forces are hiding, but that they have at least three more Super Nova class ships. I say at ‘least' because continued observation has led us to believe that there is more than one enclave of Caldarians. Information supplied to us by ARC concerning the final battle with the Caldarians left several of those monster ships unaccounted for. Due to their continued failure to appear, many had believed them destroyed in other battles but simply not reported. That information tells us that as many as eight more could still be in existence."