by Gary Caplan
“The new fleet admiral is Admiral Hethra,” replied Sheppard. “A Tyrian. She was recently promoted and transferred from the Twentieth Fleet and assigned command of the Sixth.”
“But that’s an entirely different division, Bob,” Brandon said, startled. “Admiral Hethra has had dealings and encounters and skirmishes with the Saldron Confederation, not as much with the Varlon. I suppose it’s good for the Alliance to have access to her experience with the Saldron who live in the far opposite quadrant and also are not friendly with the Varlon Empire.”
“Hethra’s had some experience with the Varlon, who have also begun to encroach upon Saldron Space,” replied Sheppard. “I have never met her personally and have only had some directives sent to me to report progress.”
“On another topic,” said Brandon, “I have some good news: engineering division has been refitting several Galaxy-class dreadnaughts and Pegasus-class battlecruisers with dual and single Nova weapons. Some of those refitted ships will be attached to the Sixth Fleet.”
“That is good news,” said Sheppard. “I would like some ships with spinal weapons platforms; they should make a difference against the Varlon.”
They finished their fish and vegetables, and each finished the meal with a fruit-based dessert consisting of popular edible mixed fruits from several Terran worlds, after which they sent their compliments to the chef before leaving. At Qualen’s the food was cooked and prepared in the old-fashioned way, not synthesized.
C HAP TE R 10
PROBLEM ON THE MAGRAIL
The commodores agreed to meet again for dinner in about week. Sheppard took a short detour through part of the academy complex to reminisce about his academy days and simpler times. He was about to enter the turbo-lift in the metroplex to take it up to the magrail facility adjacent to that part of the academy, when several young cadets rounded a corner. Evidently, these lads were up to some mischief, and they sobered quickly upon seeing Sheppard’s rank. Sheppard waited only about a minute until the next magtrain arrived.
He had noticed a security officer shadowing him, the same fellow assigned to him for the month. The officer, Lieutenant Multon, nodded to Sheppard upon his entering the magtrain and stood not far from Sheppard. The ride started off uneventfully, with a few passengers entering and exiting the three passenger units.
Suddenly, a security alert started to go off, when Sheppard felt a danger sensation. Part of Star Knight training included learning how to deal with extrasensory perceptions beyond the five senses humans and most aliens had. Some peoples were more gifted in mentallics and psionics, such as the Karratins, the Estrians, the Betellians, the Zal, and the Azurian noble families—the last due to selective intermarriage.
Lieutenant Multon was notified through his interlink that he was requested as backup, since the security alert was near the next 65 station. Multon got off the magrail at the station, stating, “Sir, after I help with this problem, I will check in with you; we may catch a potential saboteur in the act. Those new hand scanners are helping us considerably. See you later, sir.” He saluted and left.
Sheppard got that uneasy feeling again. He looked around his magtrain passenger unit and into the other two passenger cars, one on each side of his. There were only nine other passengers remaining; one passenger in his car, three in the forward, and four in the aft unit; several people had exited with the lieutenant.
One fellow in the forward car disturbed Sheppard’s Starkinght senses; he just did not seem to have the usual type of life presence for his physical appearance. At the next stop, two passengers got out of the forward compartment, and one briefly looked back directly at Sheppard. There were just two more stops before Sheppard’s exit. The commodore would only be at his Star One quarters for the next few days, and then he would be moving into quarters on his new ship.
To Sheppard’s surprise, the car did not stop at the next stop, but continued to slowly accelerate. Sheppard went to locate the manual drive control, but the override control was not responding to codes, and the main doors were locked shut. The magtrain continued past Sheppard’s stop as well. The other passengers used hand commlinks or their imbedded interlinks to contact the control facility and report the problem.
Sheppard began to undo the door control panel in an attempt to gain access to the circuitry. Moments later, a gas contaminant alert went off in Sheppard’s car. The gas was coming from the first passenger car.
As the passenger in the first car came through the connecting corridor, he was coughing. He was a senior defense ministry officer. After entering Sheppard’s compartment, he closed the connecting door, then stopped and swayed, seeming on the verge of passing out. A few of the other passengers moved over to help the ministry officer stand. Another passenger came forward from the aft section, apparently a senior interior ministry officer, and tried to shut down the ventilation between the cars. A malfunction indicator lit up on the ventilation control panel.
Less than a minute later, a small fire began in the first car and started spreading. According to environmental sensors, the gas was oxygen, as well as another flammable substance. Before that substance could be determined, the sensors went offline.
Sheppard surmised, “There is probably a small device secluded in the first section that started the fire.” He looked at the environmental control panel. The fire-suppression system indicated a malfunction in all three passenger sections. All the passengers began to move through the connecting door to the aft passenger section at about the time the magtrain passed the next stop. There, they joined up with the remaining passengers.
Commodore Sheppard realized that he—and likely the ministry officials as well—were the victims of an assassination attempt; he knew they had less than three minutes remaining before the magrail cars impacted with the last station unit for this magtrain line.
Further attempts to take control through the aft units operation panel circuitry failed. He received a medical notification on his comlink and realized that the biosensors in his clothes had probably notified the medical directorate of his increased heart rate and anxiety. He ignored the notification. Meanwhile, the internal voice speakers activated in the magrail car, and a transit officer began speaking.
“This is the Transit Authority. Your magrail vehicle is not decelerating, and we have been unable to override, as the remote control system is impaired” came the voice on the magtrain’s internal speaker.
“We have dispatched an emergency rescue shuttle,” continued the magrail transit control officer.
Sheppard could barely make out the end of the line a few kilometers ahead as they passed another stop. He had a thought: I could try the Star Knight discipline of telekinesis. He began to focus and tap into what some Star Knights called the flows and some others called the essence. It was another dimensional energy plane that was accessible by trained minds with a certain aptitude.
The vehicle slowed somewhat, but not enough to halt the impending impact. Realizing that he would not have enough time or focus to manifest sufficient power to stop the magrail, Sheppard began to attempt a simpler task: forcing open the doors.
He could see an approaching emergency craft in the distance. As they had passed the last station they began heading toward a lower gravity zone. The passengers could all jump out into the area that was now a half-standard gravity zone and then be caught by the emergency craft. Sheppard recalled that these magtrain cars were reinforced passenger units; they were designed to travel in areas from almost zero gravity to just over one and a half standard gravity levels and to pass through temperature extremes.
Sheppard needed just a little more time to create the necessary focus. As he was concentrating, the remaining passengers were in the process of trying to open an emergency window; they seemed to be considering jumping toward the hover-lift rescue craft that was on approach.
The doors were resisting; they seemed locked, not just closed. Sheppard was trying to figure out if Doctor Grey would be able to piece him bac
k together after the imminent collision and explosion. Just then, the doors began to open.
Suddenly, the magtrain slowed rapidly. Sheppard and the other passengers lost balance momentarily and were propelled forward. The magtrain slowed further and then stopped just in front of a barrier wall. Sheppard sensed another Star Knight at work. The doors squealed and opened rapidly, as if pried apart. Sheppard looked out of the doors; Vice Admiral Garfield was standing on the exit platform.
“I was trying to wait for you to stop it yourself, but your focus deteriorated. I had to take action; after all, there would be an explosion, and several potential deaths,” stated Garfield. He went on in a typical professorial mode, describing other options, such as assisting the other passengers with your levitation discipline as they all exited through the emergency window.
Sheppard looked at the magtrain and the damage to the terminal magrail station. After he and Garfield helped evacuate a few of the other passengers who had stumbled during the rapid deceleration, his old mentor continued.
“By the way,” Garfield said, “we found one of the saboteurs. I initiated a mind scan and determined who it was after—evidently none too soon for you and your traveling companions.”
Sheppard just started to laugh.
Later, back in his quarters, Sheppard pondered some decisions. He had already selected the Phoenix as his starship and he knew he could select a few crew for the positions still open.
Sheppard thought, Well, I have already selected a chief medical officer and a chief engineer. Their staffs are, for the most part, already selected. He looked at the database of crew and decided he wanted to select the ship’s captain as well as at least one science and one security officer.
Earlier, Commodore Avery had sent over some possible candidates for security chiefs. Brandon had narrowed things down for him, and Sheppard reviewed the list. He looked over several candidates eventually focusing on a citizen of Tyr who was a genetically engineered transhuman, not actually one of the bronze-skinned Tyrians. This Lieutenant Commander Ares had exceptional marks, not only from Brandon Avery but from others. The report Sheppard was reading indicated she could be quite forceful when it came to security issues.
Sheppard continued to review her service record; she had very high physical and mental as well as psychological test scores. Even though she seems to be a bit of a loner, she seems extremely dedicated. I think Ms. Ares will work out just fine.
Sheppard continued examining the potential crew lists for a science section officer and thought, Commander Andor, a Class-3000 series artificial intelligence, would round out the science division nicely. I am not prejudiced against androids, and to be politically correct, I think this android science officer will be a good addition to the crew. Perhaps I will make him the section chief.
Sheppard arched his back and stretched and after examining several candidates for the Phoenix’s captain, he thought he found an appropriate officer, named John Wilder. Sheppard decided to look for a task force command-level officer who was a fleet captain and had experience with the Varlon. Commodore Sheppard examined his records, which indicated that John Wilder enjoyed exploration. One of the traits I would look for in a captain, thought Sheppard. Further examination revealed that Wilder had helped several Alliance of Worlds fringe colonies to maintain order and even had experience helping establish two of the fringe colonies.
This Fleet Captain Wilder is human, and it seems that, like me, he tends to select more humanoid bridge crew, thought Sheppard. From what I can gather from his record, he respects others ways of life, and he likes to help civilization grow. He would probably have made an excellent Star Knight, if he were endowed with the proper mentallic or psionic ability.
After careful review, Sheppard decided to ask Fleet Captain Wilder to be the captain of his ship and command one of his four task forces. I will also have to talk to Captain Wilder about his apparent predilection for humans or humanoids on his bridge. Is it for the same basic reason that I employed: to simply avoid cultural problems in the nerve center of a starship and prevent environmental compatibility issues in crews with temperature, humidity, or atmosphere differences?
C HAP TE R 11
THE CAPTURE
Admiral Garfield had been examining records of various assaults on Star One in an attempt to discern a pattern. Several patterns seemed to emerge. There were most likely at least seven different sabotage cells. Garfield confirmed his theories, by combining information from sabotage reports from the few valid sensor readings available and also from the questioning of a recently captured Quarlusian saboteur as well as his frequent use of some psionic and mentallic disciplines, in order to analyze the problems. Garfield determined that three groups of humanoid androids or andro-synths and four groups of the shapeshifting Quarlusians were involved in assaults against the station. From the pattern of types of sabotage or assassinations, it appeared there were a few instances of cooperation between the agents. This was occasional cooperation was not making finding them more easy, since for the most part each enemy agent functioned either separately or in a small group of three to five members, and cooperative group activities seemed infrequent.
Since the introduction of the first modified scanner and sensor system, the saboteurs’ attempts to assault station systems had become more urgent. Evidently, they had surmised it was only a matter of time until they were detected. As a result, they had evidently stepped up their plans, and recently, among other events, two admirals were lost.
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One of those officers killed was to be given command of the Sixth Fleet. Protecting these people is very difficult , Garfield thought. The saboteur groups overall seem willing to sacrifice themselves in order to achieve their goals: causing chaos and assassinating high-ranking officers and ministers. It even seemed these enemies were aware that soon, new sensing systems would be able to detect them.
Garfield was in his office at the security central command complex, having spent some time earlier in the day at the engineering facility. He was helping redesign a refined version of the scanner’s detection grid in order to improve the device’s ability to detect the bluff-andscatter signal patterns the andro-synths utilized. If time were not of the essence, he would have had some engineering staff complete the redesign, but he was sure the andro-synths had something big planned. His mental probes of the captured spy-saboteur, as well as some precognitive viewings of explosions in sections of the station that had not yet happened had led him to this conclusion. Garfield also modified the system program to better detect the shape-shifter disguise by utilizing the chemical and DNA scanner functions of the sensor unit with enhanced accuracy.
Usually, in the afternoon Admiral Garfield would go for a swim and use the exercise equipment. For several days, he had been exercising in a fitness center that happened to be close to one of the main powergenerating facilities. This particular facility had internal access tunnels not far from the fitness center, with some running below the fitness area. The fitness facility was a very likely target area, especially since it was frequented by a few individuals with the rank of fleet captain and above. A well-timed assault would not only destroy the powergenerating facility but could potentially kill several high-ranking officers in the nearby fitness facility. This was just the kind of target that the saboteurs would go after. Garfield had been establishing a pattern of going to this fitness center for the past week.
Garfield was getting occasional looks from some of the fitness staff, not because of his slightly large Karratin skull, but because of his athletic physique, shaped by being born on a world with about fifty percent higher gravity than standard. Plus, Garfield was quite athletic for a Karratin. Of course, few people knew who he was, and Garfield tended to try to blend in whenever he could. Today, he used some gymnastic apparatus and found the old exercises coming back.
Karratins lived for the equivalent of a few thousand Earth years and aged very slowly. It had been a very long time since Garfield’s c
ollegiate days, when he competed in gymnastic sports on Karro, his home world. Many Alliance members knew Karratins were considered to both more agile and stronger than several other species.
Today, he had to turn down several well-intentioned proposals from women to get together. He informed them courteously of his age; evidently some of these females were not fully informed about the Karratin people. Garfield could perceive this lack of cultural information from a mild telepathic scan of the individuals. Then again, the Karratins had not mixed much with the members of the Alliance of Worlds.
He was, however, on a mission to find any potential saboteurs, and he had to concentrate on sensing with his mind and a mind link to his modifiable multipurpose device. A few other security personnel were also there incognito, awaiting some saboteur or spy to fall into their web.
After about an hour, Garfield went to the pool to swim and continue to watch for trouble. After many laps, he noticed Fleet Admiral Haranj, a Kyz officer from one of the Alliance of Worlds mixed colonies. Haranj reminded Garfield of an Earth tiger as he entered the pool and began to swim.
“Lord Garfield, good to see you. Working out, I see.” “Yes I like to keep fit, Admiral. I noted you also come to this facility quite frequently.”
They continued to swim. In order to talk, Garfield slightly slowed his pace to Haranj’s speed. Haranj had a new Kyz lieutenant commander who he was breaking in since he had been promoted to fleet admiral. She was looking at an interlink station and waiting near the pool.
When Haranj pointed to her she had finished with the interlink and began walking around the pool. Garfield mentally probed and sensed her and found something amiss. She was not Kyz. His mind linked to his personal scanner on the table near his towel, and it concurred; she was a shape-shifter, one of the Quarlusian. She did not enter the pool but went down the corridor towards the changing rooms. Garfield continued to swim so as not to raise suspicions, while at the same time he remotely using his Star Knight abilities observed her movements.