by Charles Lamb
Once everyone was up to 100% operational capability and in place, they all went back to their earlier waiting game.
----*----
Jake was taking a much-needed break, having left the conference room after the brief on G-43578 in less than an up mood. He had left Sara and the twins earlier that morning, the girls doing great with Sara still exhausted and recovering. Becky was spending all of her free time helping her sister, while playing the doting aunt to her nieces.
For that, Jake was incredibly grateful, as he had enough on his plate and was feeling extremely guilty that he wasn’t there with them. So, satisfied the world could survive for an hour without him, Jake suited up and jumped on his hovercycle. Popping up through the hangar doors, when they had barely parted, he streaked south.
Within minutes, he was high above Las Vegas, the sun high overhead on a clear sunny day in the desert. Checking his scanners, he looked to see if there were any concentrations of people below.
“Jake, do I need to remind you that we can’t detect people deep inside the buildings,” ALICE warned.
“Don’t worry, I am just doing a little sightseeing.”
“The last time you went sightseeing you brought home two children,” ALICE reminded him.
“How are Jon and Padma doing anyway?” Jake asked absently as he circled the area looking for something to catch his eye.
“I will not be so easily distracted. The kids and Sandy are doing just fine as you well know, since you check on them at every opportunity,” ALICE chided.
Swinging south to the far end of what was once called “the Strip” referring to the area lined with casinos, Jake passed over part of the airport. Nearby were clusters of retail and industrial centers, before giving way to residential areas.
Having passed the area of interest, Jake turned and did a sweeping one eighty degree turn when a movement below caught his eye. Dropping lower he was just in time to see something slip into an abandoned grocery store. Setting the hovercycle down in the parking lot, he could see the faded Whole Foods sign on the side of the structure.
Grabbing the suppressed submachinegun out of the back, he cautiously moved toward the entrance. He had little concern of anyone messing with the hovercycle as it automatically locked down once he stepped away from it.
Jake did a quick scan of the interior of the building, as he looked through the open doors, finding nothing of concern. Even so, he entered cautiously, repeating his scan and using infrared and night vision inside the darkened structure.
The bright Vegas sun did provide quite a bit of light, but the windows on the front of the building hadn’t been cleaned in decades. A shuffling noise to his right drew Jake’s attention. As he quietly slipped forward and to the right, he scanned aisle after aisle of the trashed interior.
Stopping, he caught a movement and froze as he slowly turned to face the open aisle. There, standing in the center of an open area with trash all around, was a dog. Jake realized it wasn’t just any dog. From the looks of it, the dog was as close to a purebred German Shepard as one could expect from eighty plus years of neglect.
Pulling a candy bar from his pocket, he slowly approached the animal, careful not to move quickly and spook it. Timid at first, hunger won out as it stepped forward and snatched the offering from his gloved hand. A quick check revealed it was a she and probably several years old.
While a bit thin and dirty, she looked to be surprisingly healthy. A second offering was accepted more slowly this time and Jake was eventually able to reach out and stroke her head gently. Slowly and without spooking her, Jake sat in the aisle and provided a third treat as he quietly and gently stroked her coat.
Knocking what was likely years of dirt and grime off her, Jake had to assume that she had human contact at some point in her past to allow him such familiarity. Looking around for the first time, he realized the two of them were in what was once the coffee aisle of the store.
“What am I going to do with you?” he asked as he offered her a drink from a water bottle he carried for just such occasions.
----*----
“You brought home a what?” Sara asked as she talked to Jake from the display in her room. He had apparently gone off on one of his solo trips and brought home another stray, literally.
“It’s a dog. ALICE agrees she’s mostly Shepherd and in really good health. I’m here in the med bay while they check her out and clean her up.”
“What are we going to do with a dog? Jake, you have no idea where it’s been. I hope you don’t think you are bringing it near the girls?” Sara asked defiantly.
“Honey, you need to trust me on this. Once she’s cleaned up you are going to love her. And besides ALICE, no one is a better protector of children than a German Shepherd.”
“You have gone insane!” Sara replied before cutting the connection.
----*----
Robert was sitting with Bo in a small room off the bridge on one of his transports. While they controlled all three facilities on G-43578, none of the buildings were configured for human occupancy. To accommodate the troops living needs, one transport each had been parked inside the compound of that location.
There, they acted as home for the duration. When not on duty, it permitted the troops a place to rest and relax, all within the safety of the ship. Those on duty were split between patrolling the compounds and guarding the prisoners.
The aliens protecting the three target locations turned out to be a combination of NeHaw and another race that the humans had yet to encounter. As both were roughly humanoid in appearance, the ability to distinguish them in environmental combat suits was impossible.
There was a third race that was indigenous to the planet, and required no special accommodations. These were the double tetrahedrons they had seen in the Scout/Sniper reports. A nonviolent race, they were the scientists and engineers that performed the ship upgrades, very similar to the Wawobash.
In fact, it had been the Wawobash that vouched for the race, called the Aseristic. A kindred spirit to the Wawobash, they had negotiated for the humans and established a nonaggression pact. As long as the Earthlings let them continue to operate and repair the damaged locations, they would do nothing to assist the NeHaw prisoners nor would they resist in any way.
Both Robert and Bo were surprised at the offer. It was only after the Wawobash guaranteed the deal, did they take it seriously. The final decision point in allowing the work was the place was no good to Earth unless it was operating properly. In the end they agreed to the pact.
The real surprise was the confusion around all three races’ status as prisoners of war. None of the races understood at the beginning that they were not to be executed. It had taken a considerable amount of time, with Kola and the Wawobash doing more of the translations, before they understood their status.
That created a new problem as there was nothing on this planet that even resembled a detention center. This was made even more complicated as both nonresident species required different environments to survive. Apparently, the captured NeHaw had been members of the cruiser crews and had been using their ships for accommodations while in refit.
As that was no longer an option, the Wawobash on site, with the help of the Aseristic, had been contracted to convert one of the maintenance buildings into a NeHaw dormitory. Members of the other race- the Holsec- who were the normal security force, were confined to a building that conveniently functioned as their living quarters before the attack.
By relieving them of their environmental suits and removing any communications equipment from the structure, they were effectively confined to the building. Unlike the NeHaw, they were actually quite cooperative once they learned they would survive the experience. Again, the Wawobash went a long way to helping them believe what they were being told.
“Jake seemed quite upset to learn about what they did here?” Bo asked as the two men shared a meal. Robert laughed as Bo shared his delight at finally gaining access to his own menu.<
br />
“Yeah, I think he feels we lost people needlessly,” Robert replied, referring to the losses they experienced in the attack.
Both Bo and Robert had previously agreed that the 17 killed and 23 injured in the assault was incredibly fortunate. While everyone agreed that a single loss of life was regrettable, this was war and people died.
Here, they had attacked an established defender with superior numbers and prevailed. Not only had they defeated the NeHaw, but had captured the objective intact, which was a big win in anybody’s book.
Chapter 23
“You are sure you can do this safely?” Patti asked, her image a transparent portrait of concern on the communications display. Daniel studied her face, again debating his choice to come with Colonel Banks, but internally confirming it was the right thing to do. Even so, the worry in her eyes was evident to anyone who cared to look.
“As safely as we can luv,” he replied softly.
“I’ve had the team here go over all the information. Everyone agrees that the target value is high. Jake is really pissed about what happened on G-43578 and made us triple check the sources for this,” she replied with a nervous laugh.
“Tell him not to fret. We will pop in and out again before they even know we were there,” Daniel replied, trying to reduce her concerns.
“You had better,” Patti replied, before mouthing a kiss and cutting the connection.
----*----
As Jake headed to the command center, he felt the newly familiar bump of Kona as she followed him through the hallway. Whenever asked, Jake explained the Shepherd's name as something derived from where he found her. Discovered on the coffee aisle in a Whole Foods store, he would reply that he chose Kona because Breakfast Blend was just too awkward to say.
While they say that rank does have its privileges, Jake soon discovered that is was Kona who had developed celebrity status everywhere he went with her. A case in point, once he entered the command center, it was her that all the analysts and technicians greeted, some providing treats they had set aside just for her.
Jake waited at the door of his office as she finished accepting her rewards, then he motioned her inside ahead of him as he entered. Inside, Patti was already there, a pile of paperwork spread across the small conference table.
“Good morning Granddaughter,” Jake announced as Kona first checked the woman before finding her place in the corner. Someone had placed a folded blanket and water bowl there, as it had just appeared one day without anyone asking.
“Daniel is going to lead the team,” Patti declared, assuming Jake knew what she was referring to, which he did. He had seen and approved the request earlier.
“He will be fine. They are the best at this,” Jake replied reassuringly as he walked over to the table and stood sorting through the documents and photos she had laid out there.
He was aware that the target was a free-floating asteroid that the NeHaw had stabilized in open space. Beside his interest in how they had pulled that off with a celestial body, the intelligence contained in the computers there was a treasure trove.
If nothing else, just the information around the ship movements they had been tracking and what the NeHaw command had up their sleeve was worth the try.
----*----
HeBak had paused the flight plan he had been executing, to float just off some obscure, irrelevant system at the edge of NeHaw space. He was having second thoughts about returning to the home world. Even if the High Command accepted his story, the likelihood that they wouldn’t execute him on the spot was not very high.
Several times during the voyage, he had attempted to access the data cube he carried from the humans. How they had managed to encrypt access in such a fashion that an experienced communications operator such as himself could not gain access was mind numbing.
Without assurances that the humans had insisted on his safe return, HeBak reluctantly declared to himself that he was playing a very dangerous game. For now, he would take some time and think about his future before making any decisions that could lead to his demise.
----*----
“Jake, HeBak has stopped again. Systems analysis reports he has tried to access the cube, several times now,” Linda supplied over the comm. as Jake sat working at his desk. Patti had left earlier to return to her team. He was sure she wanted to go over Daniel’s attack plan one more time.
“Did he get in?” Jake asked after a moment.
“No, ALICE locked it up good. Only after his ships navigation systems report he’s home, will it unlock the cube,” Linda replied with a laugh.
“So, we get what we want regardless,” Jake replied with a laugh of his own.
“Precisely,” ALICE replied for Linda.
----*----
Colonel Banks brought the Phantom in at a particular vector as they approached the asteroid. The analysts back home had theorized that approaching from this angle enhanced the ship’s cloaking capabilities as it helped mask the energy spike created as they dropped from FTL.
The particular spot they dropped from FTL at was calculated to be a blind spot for the sensors at the facility, created by an unintentional void. The sensors had been installed in natural depressions on the surface to protect them. By appearing very close to the body of the asteroid, their energy burst was invisible. If they stayed in the sensor shadow, it was proposed that they could approach and land without alerting the NeHaw to their presence.
He piloted the ship in cautiously, wary of any indication they had been detected as there were no other ships in the area to blend their drive signatures with. As he did so, Banks did a quick check to see if Atkins was ready below.
Originally proposed as a smash and grab, the analysts on Earth had contrived an alternative mission. If they could slip in undetected, they might be able to plant a tap on the secure computer network there. Once enabled, it would give them unfettered access to all the NeHaw military information, including communications and pending operations planning.
“Right-o boyo, are you ready?” Banks asked as he queried Atkins in the airlock.
For this mission, they were only going to land a four-person team, with Leftanant Atkins in command. Without an atmosphere of any kind, they were all in full American combat suits fitted with the EVA equipment necessary for extended use.
Besides not having a breathable atmosphere, the hollowed out interior of the asteroid was NeHaw standard. That meant there wasn’t breathable air anywhere to be found on this rock in space.
“Walk in the park,” Daniel replied as they waited for the green light to exit the airlock.
Setting the Phantom down precisely where instructed, Colonel Banks waited the requisite amount of time to insure they had not been detected before granting permission to open the airlock. Next on the list of things to do was carefully scanning the signal spectrum for the automated equipment management.
Banks had been instructed that a significant amount of the work required to dock a NeHaw spaceship was managed by automated systems. All a Captain had to do was put his ship in close proximity to the desired location and the systems negotiated with the necessary components to attach and dock the craft.
The goal here was to locate the discrete system used to open and close the airlocks without alerting the rest of the facility to the activity. The ALICE systems on Earth had even located a maintenance routine that cycled the airlocks every so often to prevent them from seizing up from lack of use.
Utilizing the programs he had been provided, he was soon able to locate and isolate the nearest service airlock and transmit the location to the waiting SAS troopers. Estimating the time required for them to reach their objective, he prepared the service program to allow them to gain access undetected once they had arrived.
Unfortunately, once inside, it was up to them to complete the mission and return safely.
----*----
HeBak hadn’t bothered engaging the cloaking device until the final jump, as his appearance in any other lo
cation was a nonevent to most systems. Once at the home world, he cautiously approached, taking great care not to be crushed by the heavy space traffic around him, those ships being unaware of his presence.
When he finally arrived at a safe location, he took one last moment to review his story, and then with a shudder of resignation, triggered the automated communication systems. His detection was almost instantaneous.
The increased security since his last trip home had been alerted to his presence and within microcycles, he was completely surrounded by security ships. Transmitting the proper identity codes, his ship was quickly escorted to a secure landing zone and a gravity clamp was placed on his vessel, preventing its escape.
“What is your business?” he heard on his ships communicator as the space port security officer finally challenged his arrival.
“I was a prisoner of the human rebels. I bring information for the High Council,” HeBak replied.
“There is no High Council. General KaLob is now in command of the NeHaw Empire,” the security officer replied.
HeBak paused as he considered the information. He had feared that the remnants of the High Council might remember him. This changed things, as he only needed to convince this General of his value to the Empire.
“Excellent. Announce my arrival right away,” HeBak commanded.
“I will see if the General has any interest in you,” the officer replied disinterestedly.
“You might want to consider I have a message from the Human leader,” HeBak snapped back at the incompetent. That seemed to do the trick.
“Arrangements are being made,” the security officer replied in a more conciliatory tone.
“Indeed,” was his only reply.
----*----
“Jake, sorry to wake you, but we just got confirmation. HeBak has arrived at the NeHaw home world,” Linda offered on audio. Even without the visual, she was speaking in very hushed tones, trying not to wake those nearby.