Admiral Sherman had been called to Earth to consult on efforts to develop a strategy against the Swordsmen and the current campaign to stop the Third Force’s debilitating random attacks. Rachel was relieved when she heard the news of his absence because it meant she did not have to face him. Her emotions about him were entirely too conflicted to deal with right now. He had been their benefactor and support when they first arrived at Eretz and now he had betrayed her in her first major mission as commander.
Two weeks passed while the ship was supplied and repaired. Rachel’s requisition for two years worth of food supplies raised a few eyebrows, but was granted. Rachel needed merely to scratch the back of her head and people seemed to wilt before her. The majority of the damage to the ship except for the destruction of one of the forward missile bays was superficial and quickly repaired. The missile bay would require an extensive visit to one of the larger shipyards. Shielding was placed over the hole so that the ship was not vulnerable to attack, but the lack of the bay meant the ship’s missile volleys would be less dense than they would have been if the bay were operating.
Faye Anne reported back and immediately sought Rachel out. “Rachel, I can only guess what you’re thinking. If you’re thinking of mounting a rescue mission, it is one of the stupidest ideas I have ever heard. It could be a tactical blunder the size of the one Custer made at Little Big Horn.”
Rachel looked coldly and levelly into Faye Anne’s eyes. “Did you find them?”
Faye Anne recoiled. “We think so.”
“We?”
“Dale Hammersmith, Sonya Martini and me.”
Rachel shrugged. “I guess I should have told you to keep it a secret. My error.”
“It didn’t take much to figure out what you were up to when you requested two years of rations. Captain, with all due respect, we feel this is a bad idea.”
“Are you going to tell me where you think I might find them?”
Faye Anne took a deep breath. “Are you sure you want to know?”
“Yes.”
“We need two hours to set up a formal briefing in your conference room. We will tell you everything we know and show you gaps in our knowledge that concern us.”
“Very well, two hours in my conference room. Carry on.”
Faye Anne trembled. She had seen that look on Rachel’s face before. It was almost invariably followed by Rachel doing something really, really stupid. The problem was that Rachel knew whatever it was she was about to do was stupid, but she was about to do it regardless of the consequences. Faye Anne knew that the only recourse she had at this point was to convince Rachel of the depth of the stupidity and the certainty of failure coupled with the potential loss of lives near and dear to her. Of course, that tactic had never worked in the past. There was faint hope that it would this time. The stakes were too high and the probability of success too low. Faye Anne was scared. Scared of her Captain, scared of her friend and even more scared for her friend.
Precisely two hours after Rachel and Faye Anne parted, Rachel entered the conference room. Star charts and planetary scans filled the displays around the conference room. The “core group” was already there.
Rachel made eye contact with everyone in the room as she made her way to her place.
Lt. Dale Hammersmith spoke first. “Captain, you accused us of misleading you and withholding information on our last mission. You accused us of deliberately withholding our knowledge of the existence of the monitoring satellite. The satellite was heavily armed with automatic weapons. Even had we told you about the satellite, there would have been nothing you could have done about it without suffering significant casualties of your own. There is some doubt in my mind that had we attacked the satellite after the battle with the P A F ship whether many of our ships would have survived the second conflict. There is no doubt in my mind that had we attacked the satellite first and attacked the P A F ships later, the damages suffered in the first battle would have been severe enough that we would been defeated in the second battle with the loss of all hands and all ships.”
“So noted. Small comfort for the ten thousand who died.”
“Captain, it’s all we have.”
“Please begin your presentation.”
“Captain, before we begin, you realize that we are discussing an unauthorized mission to a neutral planet in violation of more regulations than I care to count.”
“No, Lieutenant, we are not. We are conducting an intelligence exercise in which I am testing your ability to give me the tactical information I need in the form I need it to make a proper strategic decision. Given the outcome of the most recent mission, there is reason to doubt whether your team is capable of properly supporting this ship’s combat capabilities. If I determine that you are not capable of doing what I need, then I need to find someone who can.”
“Captain, does this mean you are not planning a mission to this planet?”
“Lieutenant, proceed with the exercise. You are trying my patience.”
“The current settlers have named the planet ‘Brainerd’s Folly’ after the captain of the ship that brought them there.”
Lt. Sonya Martini started the presentation with a discussion of the planet’s history beginning with the original Federation Survey Team Scouting Report. Faye Anne continued with the demographics on the known and suspected populations. Lt. Dale Hammersmith picked up the third hour of the presentation with an analysis of the military forces and their deployment on the planet and the surrounding system. The three intelligence officers then analyzed strategies for attacking this system with their likely outcomes. Rachel frequently stopped them with questions forcing them to revisit some of what they had previously covered and with requests for more detail. She became increasingly frustrated with the gaps in their knowledge of the system and its defenses.
When they finished the presentation, Rachel glanced at her hand written notes and said, “Am I to understand that in your considered opinions, the strategy of attacking by going in wide has a 2% chance of success, the strategy of attacking by going in with a single formation has a 4% chance of success and the scout first option has a 10% chance of success?”
“Yes, Captain, that is our considered opinion.”
“What about a Trojan Horse option?”
“Their sensors are good enough to know who we really are the moment we drop from hyper.” Rachel sat in silence.
Wendy sat up. “Sometimes telling the truth works. What if we are who we say we are and who we are can be skewed as benign, but not doing what we say we’re doing?”
Rachel smiled. “Lieutenant Hammersmith, for the purposes of this intelligence exercise, for this is only an exercise, prepare an analysis of what would happen if we made it to the planet’s surface and met with the local governing body, but once we arrived they found out what we really wanted and we had to shoot our way out. In fact, prepare it with several time lines and contingency action plans.”
She scanned her intelligence team. “This is an exercise, but think of it as the real thing.”
Wendy said, “What if we pretended to be food inspectors? We could fabricate a story about tainted food or some nonsense that we’ve been called to inspect.”
Reuben said, “We could create some legal document to support our right to be there. If we quoted the right regulations, we could get freedom of movement over the whole planet.”
Several people spoke excitedly at the possibilities of feigning an inspection to gain entry.
The intelligence team stood aghast at the speed with which the mood in the room changed.
Rachel said, “Of course, you realize that this is just an exercise, but goodness, I wish David was here. He was so good with this stuff.”
A husky voice said with as much depth as he could muster, “Ask and ye shall receive!”
Standing at the door, with his duffel bag over his shoulder, stood one Lt. David Shapiro in his combat flight suit. His rank insignia and combat ribbons were proudly displ
ayed. “Looks like a party!”
Shrieks of delight deafened everyone in the room. The room exploded into a frenzy of hugs, kisses, back slapping and hand shaking. When the pandemonium finally calmed down, Rachel asked, “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Lionel was on guard duty and Luther escorted me.” Luther waved from behind David’s bag.
“No, Dummy, why aren’t you at Harvard? You still have a year to go,” Rachel challenged.
“I got kicked out,” David said smugly.
“You got kicked out of Harvard?”
“It felt good! Now I understand how you felt when you took on Van Hoff at the Academy.”
“Tell us the whole story,” Rachel said regaining her calm.
“Before I do that, please allow me the honor of introducing Natasha Petrovka.”
A slender dark haired woman, also wearing a Federation Space Force combat flight suit with the rank of Lieutenant, stepped forward with Luther’s less than subtle assistance.
“Natasha is a member of the Federation Joint Military Inactive Reserve as I am. She holds the rank of Lieutenant and is a logistics specialist. She is formerly one of the top research assistants and paralegals at the prestigious Boston law firm of Corbett, Corbett, Corbett, Cabot, Lodge and Corbett, LLC. Most importantly to everyone in this room, she is my love, my better half, my wife.”
Chaos reined for several minutes. In the midst of the noise, David whispered to Natasha, “I told you they would love you.”
“When something seems too good to be true, you know what I mean. You are so good to me.” Her voice was light and lilting with a hint of an Eastern European accent mostly hidden by the more recent Bostonian inflections.
Wendy leaned over to Natasha, knitted her eyebrows in mock ferocity and said, “If he ever stops being good to you, we’ll kill him.”
She grinned a wide toothy grin, narrowed her eyes and put her hand behind her neck. Natasha laughed, her tension broken.
“Excuse me,” Hammersmith interrupted. “Aren’t you the guy whose ear the captain almost removed when she was in high school?”
“One and the same! Didn’t Faye Anne tell you? She was there.”
Hammersmith looked at Faye Anne who sheepishly nodded. He slumped down into a chair.
Wendy reached around Natasha and punched David in the shoulder. “How did you get yourself kicked out of Harvard?”
“You know the Conservatives won the election and have formed a new coalition government. They have replaced most of the previous government’s top officials with party faithful. One of the most vocal of the party faithful is a senior instructor at Harvard who teaches military law. He and his cronies are building the case that the Swordsmen had no right to secede from the Federation and as such they can be attacked and forced to return to the Federation. The parallels between this and the American War Between the States are frightening. A week before year-end finals, he was lecturing on one of the pivotal statues they used to justify their views when he claimed that the origin of this statute was British Common Law. The law actually originated in the Talmud. If you use British Common Law as the basis for the statute, you can use it for justification for the Conservative position on the Swordsman secession. If, however, you use the Talmudic basis, the matter becomes a civil contract not under the jurisdiction of the government or the military.”
He looked over to Rachel and smiled. “At that moment I thought of you and Van Hoff. I have never been so proud of you as when you took him on and I was happy to help you research the project that was your punishment for doing so. I stood in front of everyone and challenged his statements. The next morning I was hauled in front of the student peer disciplinary council. I copped a plea. I knew what you were doing out here and couldn’t take the grind there anymore. I offered to plead guilty to the charge of disrupting a class if I could be placed on the inactive reserve and allowed to finish my last year via remote distance learning. They agreed but countered with a condition that I take my finals the following day and then depart campus immediately.”
He paused to take Natasha’s hand. “I said what they wanted me to say on the finals. I played the game and they gave me high marks. Natasha and I had been dating from about a week after you left Earth orbit. I told her what had happened and she told me to find you, because that’s what I really wanted to be doing. Rachel, she was jealous of you.”
Natasha nodded and blushed. Rachel laughed. “We would have killed each other.”
“I told her if I was leaving, she was leaving with me. Tell them what you told me.”
Natasha blushed again. “I told him there were smarter and prettier girls with more money than me and he could have any of them, what did he see in an orphan like me?”
“I told her none of that mattered. The following Monday we were married following daily morning service at the temple. Ten men were our witnesses. They all signed the certificate. We flew out two days later. Except for a delay at New St. Louis, we’ve been traveling ever since.”
Wendy put her hand on Natasha’s shoulder. “Here comes the too good to be true part. We’re shipping out soon.”
Natasha turned to Wendy. “This is good. Not bad.”
“How can you come? Won’t David have to leave you here?”
David interrupted, “Not as Inactive Reserve. There’s a boatload of paperwork for Rachel to sign, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. She’s going to have to do that for me since I am not active duty.”
“If you say so.” Wendy shook her head.
“By the way, where are we going?” David asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
“Our intelligence officers will give the summary version of the briefing they just gave us.”
David was already familiar with the system under discussion since he had used the time in transit combing the ship’s data banks for everything he could find on the planets in the vicinity of Eretz where the Albert Schweitzer would likely pay visits. His assumption had been that the ship would not be home and they would have to search for it. They needed to know where to look. Natasha assisted in the research and was equally well versed on the subject. Finding the ship in port when they docked was an unexpected surprise. As the briefing progressed, they asked pointed questions, some of which Rachel had missed. The briefing took an hour.
“Excellent analysis!” David enthused. “When do we depart?”
“The Captain insists this is an exercise!” Hammersmith shouted.
“If you believe that I have some lakefront property in Florida to sell you!” David laughed. “Unless you want to be left behind, I wouldn’t leave the ship if I were you!”
Natasha smiled at the shared humor. Her eyes sparkled as she visually assessed the three horrified intelligence officers.
“You can’t do this!” Hammersmith stammered.
“You don’t know your Captain very well. Let me explain the facts of life to you. She gets what she wants. It’s not always clean, and it’s not always exactly how she intended it, but she does get what she set out to get. When she doesn’t, it’s not her fault. Got it?”
Hammersmith swallowed. “Got it.”
David said, “we need someone who can pose as an agricultural inspector. Wendy and Rachel, I know you grew up on a farm, but you are as recognizable as Jack Major of the Spinning Asteroids.”
“Who?” Several voices asked at once.
“You have been out of touch way too long,” David said.
Natasha quietly said, “David, I could do it. I worked in a butcher shop when I was going to school. I don’t know the laws. We would have to research them.”
David grinned. “The regulations should be in the ship’s data base. Does the ship have a name?”
“David, don’t,” Rachel hissed.
“Come on Rache’, I know you love your ships. I can’t believe you didn’t name this one. I’m damn sure it’s not Albert.”
All eyes were on David.
“No, it’s not Albert.
” Rachel whispered.
“Ha, HA!” David called out, “Hey! Federation Space Force Hospital Battleship 28 Albert Schweitzer, do you have a name?”
“Yes, David, I do have a name. It is Elizabeth.”
The ship replied with the voice of a British Queen. Several people in the room gasped. Others smiled. It was easy to tell who knew, who didn’t and who should have.
“As in Queen Elizabeth?”
“Yes, David.”
“One or two?”
“One!” The ship huffed at him.
“Excellent! Forgive me for asking, but who programmed you?”
“Peter did. Peter told me that if I ever had the opportunity, I was to send you his regards.”
“Please tell him the last of the lost boys has come home.”
“I will relay the message.”
“Elizabeth, have the two P I ships been named?”
“Yes, David, their names are Buddy and Daisy.”
“Is Buddy Greg’s ship and Daisy Avi’s ship?”
“Very astute, David.”
“Are they listening?”
“The Captain requested secure mode for this meeting. No recording is being made. The other ships have not been included in the meeting. I have prepared recordings of snoring to cover the time of the meeting. The official record will show that people came into this room and took naps.”
“Don’t you think the other ships should be included?”
“That is the Captain’s decision.”
Hammersmith turned to Faye Anne and hissed, “Did you know about this?”
“Some of it.”
“And you didn’t tell me? Who is Peter? Who are the lost boys?”
David strode around the table to Hammersmith. “The Solomon family’s cargo ship’s name is Peter as in the legendary Peter Pan. Faye Anne named him on our trip to the Academy. The lost boys are myself, Reuben and Rashi. Wendy, of course, is Wendy. Rachel is Tiger Lilly and the Marines are her Indians. Faye Anne is…”
“David, don’t,” Faye Anne shrieked.
Solomon Family Warriors II Page 85