by Don Koch
"Last week we were rightfully viewed as the enemy and this week we are treated as long lost kin. It is very heartwarming."
"The people here have heard your story and have seen the verification. Our people tend to cheer for the downtrodden and those unfairly repressed. It helps that your people are open hearted. Our people take to that. I believe that ours will be a good relationship. Incidentally, this station can house upwards of 438 millions so there is a lot of room for diversity. If you can tell me what kind if modifications are desirable, we can make adjustments. If you think your people would like to live on station for a while we can accommodate them and do so happily. Once we know what kind of living quarters you prefer we can start preparing units for Janice. We can show you what we have in mind for the humans who have elected to go to a new world. We are of course focused right now in trying to bring the Gar issue to a conclusion but that will take time and may delay what we can do immediately for the new settlers. Your ships will need to be upgraded to allow them to go farther and faster. Who will be in command of your troops?"
Vassim said, "That would be me. I was their Commandant before and we do have people in stasis who are far more suitable for the governance of our people than I. I was a military commander before and it is time I returned to that. I will start removing people from stasis on any schedule that works for you. I think it would be good to live on a station for a time. We have much to learn and hopefully much to contribute. I will have several of my people meet with whomever you designate to start the modifications for living quarters. The longer we take to do this the more of my people will die in space."
Hank went on, "That is true, Barana will deliver you where you wish and arrange for the meetings you want. All you have to do is tell her your needs and ask for what you need. You will find she extremely efficient. Welcome to Station 1 commander, or should I call you General. We are having the remainder of your ships moved here to this station today to facilitate the awakening of your people in the stasis units. I think they will acclimate better if they are on one station. You can call on me or General Adams or Barana when you need assistance or advice."
"I have taken enough of your time, our tomorrow begins now thanks to General Adams and to you." With that Barana returned him to his quarters.
"Barana, what is your evaluation of the physical capabilities of the Glarin?"
"Can their physiology handle enhancement like those we provide for our shock troops?"
"One thing concerns me a bit, did any of the missiles have transponders, communications devices or anything that would tell the Gar that they are no longer operable? I would just as soon not let the Gar know that we are on to them."
Chapter 26: Considering the Options
Station 1 in Earth Orbit –
January 6 – C Day 129
"Thanks Barana, I'm ready" and she transported him to the meeting.
"Hello everybody. Fador, thanks for joining us. Joe, June, Josh, Rose, Mom, Dad, Gramps, Gramma, Uncle Pete, Grigori, Sam, Lasa-Dor, Vassim, wow, a full house. If any of you have not heard about the past week by now, you have been in stasis. I would particularly like to welcome Commandant Vassim. He and his 300,000 troops started training and familiarization today and the instructors are impressed. Lets get to the nuts and bolts. Joe, what is the operational status of the fleet."
"Thanks Hank, We now have 15 Battle Divisions fully operational and manned. In addition we have two Exploration Divisions deployed, and three Planetary Defense Divisions fully operational and manned. We currently have seven type two stations on exploration duty and three of them are due back in next week. They will be combat manned as soon as they arrive potentially giving us another Battle Division. The only ships that are not battle fleet ready are the seven Type 2 stations that are on exploration missions. That will be resolved as they check back in. Effectively we have 15 Divisions to work with if we maintain the defensive units we have posted. Shortly we will have a full complement of shock troops. It is shaping up very nicely"
"Sam, you indicated you had something that might be of interest to the planning here."
"A bit of a pleasant surprise actually. You remember a few days ago I borrowed Boton and his spouse, Fonta for a bit of training. Well that exceeded expectations. It turns out that Boton and Fanta were able to easily enter into rapport once they knew how and that enhanced their range immensely. The surprise was that I was also able to enter into rapport with them and was able to hear what they could hear. They were listening in on a conversation between Abgar and Dinan on one of the ships in the Gar fleet 147 light years distant. The further surprise was that we could also hear non-telepaths in those stasis units. I suspect that we may be able to listen in on the Glarin who are awake. I did not try to do this because I wanted to remain undetected. Before that is tried we will need to be sure we can shield ourselves from the symbiotes. The intelligence gathering implications are staggering."
Hank was stunned as were most of the others in the room, he responded, "Talk about an understatement. We will need to brainstorm this with Barana, but the potential is indeed staggering. Well Josh, that will be a hard act to follow but it may help to put some meat on the bones of what we know. Appreciating how this revelation may result in some revisions, how do you think we should proceed."
"Phew, you have that right. This will definitely have an impact on parts of the plan. I think it will help to state a few of the obvious points that make this operation quite a bit more challenging.
We have 4 targets. The 100 missiles at 79 lights; the missiles at 30 lights beyond the Gar fleet quantity unknown; the missiles at 90 lights beyond the Gar fleet quantity unknown; and the 600 ships in the Gar fleet.
The composition of the missiles is a question. Are they warheads or are they symbiote carriers and if so what kind? Are there any new kinds in there? Are the codes we have the same that apply to these missiles? Do these missiles have transponders or something similar to tell the Gar the fate of each missile?
Why are the Gar following their own ships with missiles that contain warheads?
Are the codes we have the same for the symbiotes in the Gar fleet?
Our biggest challenge is that we do not have a clear picture of what is going on aboard those ships. Are there any Gar on board and if so how many? Are there self-destruct mechanisms on these ships and if so can they be defeated?
Our real objective here is to rescue some 600,000,000 Glarin before they can be used to unwittingly fight for the Gar."
"From that you can see we are missing a lot of information. The first step is to acquire better intelligence. I propose to send a ship out to each missile site to determine the types of missiles in each group. We need scans to tell us that. We need detailed scans on the symbiote carrying missiles. The scanning ship needs to remain undetected and ideally should be all done at the same time. When all ships have completed their scans, each ship should remove and shield a symbiote payload and immediately destroy all of the other missiles. When that is done the symbiote should be tested in the same way as done by Lorena. After testing, completely destroy the payload. If we do this at each missile cluster, we should be able to confirm the sequence codes. This attack should be sudden and complete. The only thing that should be removed is the symbiote payload and that will be destroyed when testing is done. Information should be relayed to Barana and the station return to base. My concern here is that if they suspect that their codes are compromised, they may have a way to change them."
"The next step is to secure scans of the ships in the Gar fleet. Here we are looking for the following specific information:
Are there any Gar aboard and if so how many? How many Glarin are awake, not in stasis.
Pinpoint ship self-destruct mechanisms.
Determine if a boarding party is feasible and can it contain the Gar on board.
Determine if a boarding can be done without endangering those in stasis.
Learn as much about the Gar culture as we can. What drives them, how do they think, who are they."
"Assuming we are able to close the intelligence gaps, we should be ready to execute by summer. The addition of Glarin shock troops and our ability to knock out the symbiotes make the use of shock troops option viable. Our first order of business is to gather that intelligence and destroy the missiles we know about. So I propose that we sent out a division to each of the known missile locations to arrive at their individual destination and at the same time, send two Divisions to the Gar fleet. When all Divisions are on station, scan and analyze the missiles and then destroy them. The Divisions at the Gar fleet can determine if there is a reaction from them. We will need to gather the information previously noted concerning the Gar Fleet. We should look for patterns of presence. Where are the individuals not in stasis located and in what numbers? If we disable the symbiotes, the Glarin who are awake should not pose a problem but the Gar may. We need awake numbers on every ship as well as movement patterns. There should be a flagship in this mess. See if we can identify it. We do not want to disclose our presence. I think we should do this intelligence gathering as soon as we can. That is what I have for now."
"OK reasonable plan. Lets do it. I have yet another mission in mind for you, so who do you have in mind for the various missions?"
"I think the 9th and 12th should do the Gar fleet component and the 5th, 15th and 17th should take the missiles. If another flight of missiles is found I would add the 2nd."
"Joe any thoughts to add."
"Not really. Josh briefed me on what he expected to cover. I think there are some real concerns about any differences we see after we have scanned those ships that Vassim's people may be able to help us with. I think the plan is sound and reasonable."
"Thanks Barana, please tell us."
Hank said, "Nice work Barana and Lorena. Please start the inoculation process immediately for all station personnel. Also offer it to the people of Earth. We will offer it to the other planets as we contact them. As to the rest of our discussion, let's plan for an execution date ten days from today. Let's see if we can get the intelligence we need to do this with minimal losses. If we are going to put troops on those ships come summer, we need to know that we can prevent them from self-destructing. Joe, who do you have in mind to Command of this exercise."
"My first choice after Josh would be General Isaac David."
"Sounds good, I have heard good things about him. We should probably check back in a week to see what revisions, if any are needed. Joe, I want you to run with that. The reason that Josh is not going to be available is that we now are actually getting close to doing something about this fleet bearing down on us, its time to prepare a few things that I think we will need. Josh I want you and Rose to do some more exploration of this multi species rapport effort for intelligence gathering and whatever else suggests itself. If this heads in the direction that Rose was suggesting, this could be the most valuable arrow in our quiver. Explore that with Barana's help. I think her participation will provide a booster for your efforts. See if it can be used without revealing ourselves. I do not want this to be a pipeline for the enemy to get at us. It is a very important assignment."
"Sam and I are going to go over to Station 8 and pay a visit to Frote, Gella, Nimtam and Blint. Barana tells me that Akira on Station 8 is like her little sister. We are going to let the various planets know what is going on and if things go bad what is the contingency plan. We will be leaving tomorrow and expect to be back in three weeks or hopefully less. Joe, you will be in charge here until I return. We have good people so this will go on like no one is missing. Barana can get in touch if necessary but you can do this easily."
Chapter 27: Visiting the Neighbors
Station 8 at Various Inhabited Planets
in the Stellar Neighborhood –
January 7 – C Day 130
Akira, AI for Station 8 said,
&
nbsp; "Well I am not going to be a very popular person with the ruling class then because my message is for the entire planet not a self selected few. How much of a space effort do they have?"
"That is pretty sad. How long before we arrive in orbit around Nimtam?"
"Current speed is ok, and yes, I have read his reports and recommendations and I am going to implement some action along the lines he is requesting. In fact he will be pretty happy with what I have in mind. I am amazed that so few people are able to control the lives of so many. Essentially, we are going to give freedom a bit of a bump on Nimtam. It will be interesting to see how the ruling class deals with limitations on its use of the technology it uses to keep its people in line when they have to live like the rest of the population. Please send my regards to General Ames-Smythe and Avani and let them know that I would like to meet with them when we arrive. We will meet on his home turf, Station 168 but I would like for you to listen in and respond as needed."