"Just like that. They just sent it over."
"Well, I did pay for it. Actually I paid about three times its value. But we were desperate, and price is pretty far down the list of imperatives to be considered when your stomach is grumbling about the lack of groceries being pushed down your throat."
Winston grinned before saying, "You're nothing if not resourceful, Captain."
"Unfortunately, the second attack on the capital didn't accomplish my goal."
"Which was to draw off the APCs so the shuttles could leave the embassy without being seen?"
"Yes. And we can't afford to remain here waiting for them to tire of sitting around because, in addition to eventually running out of food— again, the habitat container is getting more and more crowded every week."
"From newborns," Winston said, nodding.
"Yes. And we don't have a pediatrician on board. Our medic is doing the best he can, and we appreciate all his hard work, but if an emergency arises, we might need a full MD. If it wasn't for the help by the midwives, I don't know what we'd have done."
"I understand— and agree. Let's get these people to the GA, and then we can come back for the others and perhaps more."
"Winston, I want to come back for the others in the embassy— but I don't know about getting more. That is way above and beyond our mission. I don't even know if Space Command will approve my coming back into Clidepp space."
"You have me in your corner, Captain, but what you still haven't told me is what your original mission was."
"And you haven't told me what happened to the earpiece the Major gave you to wear but which mysteriously went silent just after you headed for the caves."
"Gee, I just don't know, Captain."
Sydnee smiled. "Com'on Winston. You know, and so do I."
"You do? And I do? Enlighten me."
"You told us there were only forty-nine more people waiting for a ride to the GA because you wanted to get me fully committed to saving slaves before you dropped the bombshell. You figured that once I had almost ninety on board, I'd be more receptive to taking the rest. But you couldn't risk having the earpiece pick up some loose talk about there being a lot more slaves than you had so far let on. So before entering the cave you removed the earpiece and smashed it with a large rock. It almost cost you dearly. We could have tracked the earpiece to wherever you were on the planet and we might have saved you the beating you got from the Qummuc. If you hadn't escaped, busting the earpiece could have been responsible for your death by beheading. How am I doing? Did I miss anything?"
Winston smiled. "I'm impressed. You're clever, Lieutenant. Ever consider transferring to SCI? I might be able to wangle a promotion for you. You're too smart to be a mere lieutenant(jg)."
"I'm not."
Winston looked at her with narrowed eyes. "You're not what?"
"That's not my true rank. I'm not a lieutenant(jg)."
"But you're only wearing one and a half bars."
"And you're not wearing any bars at all, Lt. Commander."
Winston smiled again. "This is a head game, right? You're getting even because I pulled a fast one."
"It's not a lie. I'm really not wearing my true rank. But this is all you'll ever see while we're in Clidepp space."
"Then what is your true rank?"
Sydnee just smiled slightly.
"Not going to tell me? Is this a way of avoiding being charged with impersonating an officer of superior rank? You can't be higher than a Lieutenant because you don't look old enough."
"Admiral Carver looks even younger than I do. I know that for a fact. I've seen her— in person and very close."
Winston's smile disappeared. "You're not trying to tell me you're another victim of that Raider DNA manipulation system, are you?"
"As far as I know, the Admiral, Eliza, and Christa are the only Space Command officers who can make that claim."
"Then what is it? Your rank I mean."
"It's definitely not lieutenant(jg). And I'm not presently at liberty to reveal my true Space Command rank."
"You know, I've had this feeling all along that something was seriously wrong with this picture. I couldn't understand how a Lt.(jg) could be put in full command of a powerful warship, albeit a small one, with a crew of this size, composed mostly of SC officers, plus a Marine Special Ops team, and a Marine Wing commanded by a Lt. Colonel who reports to the j.g. and obeys her orders without question. It just didn't add up. The captain of this ship, at the very least, should be a Lieutenant commander. Am I close?"
Sydnee raised her eyebrows for an instant and smiled, but offered nothing else. She had been frustrated with Winston's reticence to reveal important facts since he'd come aboard, and she was now deriving a small pleasure from doing the same.
"Okay Captain, you win. Is that all?"
"Anxious to hurry down and pump Colonel Dennier to learn my true rank?"
Winston grinned before saying, "God, when did I become so transparent? I think I may have been on Yolongus too long. They can't read Terrans at all."
"Let me respond by saying I'm glad we were able to recover you from the planet. I truly apologize for the rough ride in the FA-SF4 weapons bay, but if I returned to the GA without you, Admiral— I mean Space Command, probably would have shipped me off to the former Tsgardi territory where I would spend the next decade on patrol, watching those apes to make sure they never escaped from their solar system."
"Admiral who?"
"What?"
"You started to name an admiral."
"Slip of the tongue. I meant to say Space Command."
"Sure you did. Was it Admiral Carver?"
Ignoring the question, Sydnee said, "Now that you're back aboard, we'll be immediately departing for GA Space. The people in the embassy have plenty of food and will just have to remain there until the Yolongi get tired of watching— nothing."
Sydnee grinned widely after Winston left. Saying 'admiral' hadn't been a slip of the tongue. It had been intentional, but she wanted it to appear as a slip of the tongue. She could imagine Winston racking his brain trying to figure out who she really was, what her secret mission was, what her true rank was, and why she was wearing just a bar and half. He had been right of course. She was playing a head game. Winston deserved it after the head games he had been playing since they met. Eventually, she would tell him the truth, if he didn't learn it first on his own. She knew that if he asked anyone other than Dennier, that person would swear up and down that her true rank was lieutenant(jg). Dennier would probably say that Marcola's rank was lieutenant but that she couldn't confirm that because Sydnee had told her that her true rank was the result of a special promotion by the Admiralty Board.
* * *
"Sierra-Leader," Blade heard through his CT as he sat eating lunch in the underground bunker, "this is Bravo-One. The APCs are on the move." The report came from one of his Special Ops people acting as a spotter on the second floor of the embassy.
Dropping his sandwich and touching his Marine Corps ring, he said, "Bravo-One, this is Sierra-Leader. Are they positioning for an attack?"
"They appear to be leaving the area."
"All of them?"
"So far only twelve have actually changed position, but the others seem to be buttoning up."
"I'll be right up."
Blade pulled on his helmet and casually walked to the door of the large cafeteria. He would have run, but he didn't want to upset the women in the room who were having lunch.
Once outside the room, Blade walked swiftly to the elevator and ascended to the top floor of the embassy. The spotters never set up positions on the roof until well after dark.
"Sitrep," Blade said as he entered the room where Bravo-One was spotting.
"All APCs now seem to be on the move. Bravo-Two, Bravo-Three, and Bravo-Four all report that the APCs in their sight range are heading out. Now we can go up to the Justice once it's dark."
"Damn," Blade said angrily.
"Sir
?" Bravo-One said, obviously confused by the exclamation."
"The Justice left for the GA two days ago. Now that we're stuck here for at least several more months, and possibly a lot longer, the APCs pull out."
"The Justice left us here, sir?"
"Yes. I didn't say anything because I knew it would depress everyone. The APCs hadn't moved since they arrived, and the Justice faced the problem of running out of food again if they didn't return to the GA and offload their passengers. The captain had no choice. She said she'll be back as soon as possible, but God only knows when that will be. The top brass may not want anyone coming here again until things have quieted down."
"Then we could be stuck here for years, sir?"
"I don't know, Staff Sergeant. I hope not. At least we don't have to worry about food or shelter. If you've got to be in a prison, I can't think of a better one, even if we can't go outside during daylight hours."
"Do we have to remain inside now that the APCs are gone, sir?"
"During daylight hours, yes, because we'd be visible to satellite reconnaissance. After dark, we can go outside as long as we're wearing our armor because the Dakinium will prevent us from being seen on thermal imagery equipment."
"I was hoping we might be able to strip down to shorts and tee shirts and run around the inside the perimeter wall. I'm getting tired of running around the shuttle bay."
"I understand. I'd love a good ten-kilometer run outdoors in the fresh air myself. I wish the Perimeter Defense System had been upgraded with the newer system."
"What does the newer APDS have that we don't?"
"I understand the first new system was installed at Admiral Carver's residential compound on Quesann when the governor's mansion was built. In addition to the automated protection it offers from any attempted outside penetration, it projects a three-dimensional hologram dome over the entire compound. The hologram can make the estate appear to be woodland, farmland, a regional recreation park, or anything else they wish to portray. It appears that way both from the ground or the air. If we had that, we could park the MATs on the lawn and the Yolongi would never know they were there. We could also run around the inside of the perimeter wall whenever we wanted without fear of being seen."
"That would be great. Sir, since we're not being watched by the APCs, and we're not really needed for protection detail here, perhaps we could get everyone interested in a good long run and go somewhere in one of the shuttles."
"That's a possibility, Staff Sergeant. We could head up into the mountains where the slaves were hiding out. It's pretty wild territory up there. We'll have to map out a trail first. And we still have to be careful regarding satellite reconnaissance."
"With the instrumentation in the shuttles, maybe we can plot the recon satellite paths so we know when an area is being observed and when it's clear."
"Yes, we might be able to do that. You've just given me another idea, Staff Sergeant. There might be another way we can get our exercise and help the GA at the same time."
"What way would that be, sir?"
"We'll get the team together at 1400 local and discuss it. Right now, I'm going to go finish my lunch, if someone hasn't cleared the table and thrown my food away."
*
"By now you may have heard that the Justice has left for the GA," Blade said to his Special Ops team, the fire-teams from the Denver, and the shuttle pilots in the special meeting he had called in a cordoned off area of the shuttle bay. "They waited as long as they could, but they're busting at the seams with all of the former slaves we brought up. Another problem was food. The captain has already had to stop a freighter with threats of using deadly force on one occasion and then demand they give the Justice food. The food was paid for, naturally, including a sizable bonus, as I understand it, but we didn't want to have to do that again. There were other problems as well, such as not having a medical doctor on board while dealing with hundreds of women who haven't received the best of medical care over the years and who are now giving birth to artificially inseminated children. We face the same serious problems down here, being limited to midwives for handling the births. The midwives are great and working tirelessly, but they're not doctors. We just have to hope we don't have physical issues they can't handle.
"So the Justice has left and hopefully will return in a couple of months. But we can't establish any kind of date for their return. The main reason is that Space Command SHQ and the GA Senate Council are going to be damned upset that our efforts here have brought us to the brink of war with the Clidepp Empire. They might want to allow a cooling-off period before they allow the Justice, or another ship, to come here to pick us up. But come they will. Make no mistake about that. We never leave our people behind if there's any alternative. Here in the embassy bunker we're as safe as we would be in the GA. If necessary, we could survive for up to ten years before we'd even have to think of replenishing food supplies. I'm confident we won't be here anywhere near that long.
"Now, on to the real reason for this meeting. I'm sure you're as tired as I am of sitting around on our sixes. So I have a proposal. I want to rescue more slaves and bring them here. This will accomplish two key objectives. First, we'll free more Terrans from a life of slavery in this crazy, mixed-up nation. Second, we use the new attacks to shift attention away from the GA as being the primary suspect for the past attacks."
"How do we do that, sir?" Lt. MacDonald asked.
"We create a new, fictitious group that will be sort of like a cross between the Rebels and the Aleoxlene Reqoppl. The stated goal of our new freedom force will be the overthrow of any government who endorses slavery of sentient beings. We can call ourselves something like the Sentient Life Freedom Soldiers. Or perhaps the Terran Liberation Fighters since Terrans are the only sentient species being enslaved in this nation."
"How about the Terran Freedom Coalition, sir?" MacDonald asked.
Blade thought for a few moments and said, "I like it. The first two words clearly define our goal while not implying that we are strictly a violent group, and the 'coalition' suggests an organization that has developed from members of other groups, such as people from the Aleoxlene Reqoppl and people supporting the Rebels. Does anyone have another suggestion or think of a reason why we shouldn't use Terran Freedom Coalition? Feel free to speak up."
When no one spoke after thirty seconds, Blade said, "Okay, we're now the Terran Freedom Coalition or the TFC. When we conduct our raids, we'll spray-paint our coalition's initials on all of the buildings we assault."
"Who are we going to attack, sir?" one of Blade's Special Ops team asked.
"We don't have SF4s as cover, so our targets will have to be more remote than the previous targets. We want to make sure the response time of the secret police and the regular police will allow us to do what we intend to do and bug out before they arrive. We still have the DS shuttles, so we can get in quick, do what we have to do, and get away quick. As to our specific targets, we should break into groups and interview all of the slaves to get their suggestions. Then we'll study all available maps or perform flyovers to study the terrain and locate key enemy structures, such as military and police locations. The locations we'll assault will be guarded, and we'll take out the guards if we can't first stun them so they never see us. It's of paramount importance that there are no witnesses, but we don't want to take down any ordinary civilians if possible. We're all military people, so we know what to ask when we interview the former slaves. I want all officers and noncoms to remain, but everyone else is excused for now."
The enlisted who weren't noncoms rose from their chairs and left the bay as the others gathered around Blade.
"Lieutenant MacDonald," Blade said, "after we're done here I want you to arrange for work parties to move the food stored in the belly of the shuttles back to the embassy warehouse areas. We can't bring it to the Justice and it only adds extra weight to the shuttle."
"Aye, Captain."
"Okay, break into two-person teams for t
he interviews. I'll make a PA announcement that we want to interview everyone regarding their experiences under slavery because we hope to further advance our effort to free more slaves. I'll ask that everyone whose first name, or only name, begins with the letter A and who aren't in their final trimester please come to the dining hall. As we complete the interviews, we'll advance down the alphabet until we've talked to everyone. Once we complete the interviews and select a few places as prospective targets, we may need to get more information from the person or persons who provided the initial data. Any questions?"
No one spoke up, so Blade said, "I'll go to the communication room and make that announcement."
As Blade left the room, Jerry Weems asked Lt. MacDonald, "What do you think, Kel?"
"I wish Syd was here."
"Why?" Pete Caruthers asked. "We can handle this without her."
"Pete, Syd has an absolute genius for tactics. I'm not saying the Major isn't good, but Syd is the best I've ever met and as good as any military person I've ever heard about or read about."
"What about Admiral Carver?"
"I personally believe Syd's every bit as brilliant as Admiral Carver. No disrespect is intended towards Admiral Carver. We all know she's a tactical genius. I just happen to believe Syd is right up there on a par with her."
"We'll be fine, Kel," Weems said.
"I hope so, Jerry. I guess I just can't forget that the Major was ready to abandon us to those snake things during our first mission to Yolongus. Blade ordered Syd to pick him and his team up immediately and forget about us. He told her we were lost. Syd ignored him and saved our sixes. He's the senior officer so he's in charge, and I will follow every order he gives. But I still wish Syd was here."
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