by Ben Winston
“I’ll do that, and thanks for the tip, Mister...” Ariel replied.
“Reese Egland, Miss. I’m the guy that’s been running the construction company for you. I knew something was up from the way ol’ George was talkin’ so I thought I’d get out here to see if it was true.”
“So, what do think of my invitation?” Ariel asked.
“It’s a really good deal, but I think you might have your hands full with some of these guys. We’ve got drunks, wife beaters, fighters, and gamblers in this pack. So I hope you know what you’re doing,” Reese said.
“Wife Beaters won’t be tolerated, but the rest sound like they’d fit right in with the Imperial Marines. I think that’s all they do when they’re not training.”
“You know, that might be best for them, if they’ll join.”
Ariel grinned. “It’s an option of punishment for minor crimes. If they fuck up too often, they’ll be wondering what the hell hit them.”
Reese grinned. “I didn’t think Princesses swore; especially the future leader of the whole Galaxy!”
“Oh there are a lot of things this Princess is gonna do that isn’t normally done. I think you’ll find it fairly entertaining when you find out,” Ariel replied as she let Alex take her on a tour of the house.
Chapter Twenty-One
Guardian Stealth Assault Ship, Spear of Athena
Rhea Construction Zone.
Sol System, Horon-A Sector
“So my love, what do you think of the idea of building this out here?” Thorn asked Tabitha at the end of their first day.
Stretching, Tabitha looked thoughtful for a minute. “I think I’m actually starting to agree with Her Highness’ decision to use Mom’s idea. Any pilots that graduate from here will be far superior to most of the standard imperial trained fighter jocks. Plus this is the ideal place to hide a training base; sensors outside of the rings can’t even pick up weapons fire in here.”
Thorn nodded. “Ariel mentioned naming this area ‘The Briar Patch’, whatever that is.”
“It’s in reference to a fictional ‘scary place’ from a children’s story on Earth. The point of the story was that one person’s scary place is another person’s ‘safe place’. If you’re interested, the name of the story is The Tar Baby by Joel Chandler Harris,” Tewney replied.
“Thank you sweetheart,” Tabitha replied, “I think I might like to hear it sometime.”
Smiling at how well his two loves got along, Thorn said, “Well either way, a project this size is going to need more workers as soon as we can get them. I’d planned on calling your mother right after we eat.”
“Hmm, I think you better call her now. Unless you want to talk to my mother while we make love?” Tabitha replied sensuously.
A snorting sound came from the cabin speakers. “She’d love that!” Tewney said, causing both humans to crack up laughing.
Command Super Dreadnaught, Divine Light
210 degrees south, 43 degrees west trans-solar orbit
Sol System, Horon-A Sector.
Sean had just pushed her empty plate away, and looked up at her dinner guest, Captain Gr’eis, her flag Captain had joined her while they sampled Terran Beef Steak for the first time.
“That was really good, Hs’ean, and that grayish thing with the cream sauce on it complimented it nicely,” Gr’eis said, after sighing. “I don’t think I’ve ate that much in months.”
Hs’ean nodded in agreement. “I can see long hours in the gym working that meal off. How Her Imperial Highness can eat such, and still look like she does is beyond me.”
“She’s attractive and has a very commanding presence too. I think she’s going to make a hell of an Empress someday. I almost can’t wait to see how she handles that fucking nightmare of a senate!” Gr’eis replied.
“That leads us to something I needed to speak to you about,” Hs’ean said smiling. On her internal comm, she sent the message, “Divine Light, please seal my quarters, and raise the anti-eavesdropping counter-measures.”
Gr’eis looked at her friend in curiosity; she hadn’t heard the silent commands given to the AI.
“I need to ask you to really trust me while you listen to this. I don’t think you’re going to like it on the surface, but once you give it some thought, I think you’ll see the truth of this,” Hs’ean said.
Once Gr’eis nodded, guardedly, Hs’ean told her about Ariel’s plan to counter the Senate, and Baron Altrov. Gr’eis was Altrov’s second cousin by marriage, but Hs’ean knew she hated the man almost beyond reason. Something personal had happened between them when Gr’eis was younger that made her want the man killed very slowly. With the death of her husband’s ship and crew, that desire had only gotten stronger in the woman.
Gr’eis was silent as she thought through what Hs’ean had just told her. She did look a little apprehensive, but not as upset as Hs’ean had anticipated, that made Hs’ean more than a little uneasy; Senior Imperial Ship Captains, especially Flag Captains’ loyalty to the Empire was supposed to be almost fanatical.
With a deep sigh, Gr’eis spoke. “Okay Hs’ean, I’ll follow where you lead. But how are we going to get the ships to go along with it? The AI are programmed for absolute obedience to the Empire.”
Hs’ean bit her lower lip, this was the riskiest part. “No, they are programmed for absolute obedience to the Emperor, not the Empire.” She left it hanging there. Gr’eis was an exceptionally smart woman, and would figure it out.
“By the rings! You’re not talking about defecting or anything like that; you’re talking about an undercover assignment! We won’t really be betraying the Empire!”
Hs’ean shook her head. “Yes we will, we won’t be betraying the Emperor, but we’ll be named pirates, and if caught before we do what needs to be done, we will be hanged for high treason.
“When we finish what we need to do, Cr’ale will pardon us, he’s anticipating a huge wave of support for us except in the senate. Because of that, he’ll have to act like we really are rebels, even though he’s on our side. If we fail, none of us, not even the ships, will be spared. Cr’ale will be forced to order us all destroyed, especially Ariel.”
“But if we go rogue, then the rest of the fleet will...” Gr’eis said fearfully.
Hs’ean nodded. “They will be hunting for us with a kill on sight order. We’ll have to either avoid combat with them, or do our damned best to capture them and minimize casualties. However, they won’t be in on this, so they will go all out to destroy us. We may have to defend ourselves against them.”
Gr’eis obviously didn’t like that aspect of the plan.
“Admiral, Captain, if I may make a comment on that?” Divine Light said into the cabin.
Hs’ean was a little surprised the AI had been listening, but considering the subject matter, maybe it needed to. “Of course, Divine Light.”
“Because of the Imperial imperatives programmed into us, as well as the Secret Imperial Directive passed down via the AI network. The controlling AI will act to minimize casualties. Any battles will be fought mostly in training mode, but the crews won’t know it. We will use holograms, force fields and anything else at our disposal to make sure neither side will be able to tell the battle is fake.”
“What about the fighters? How are you going to fool them?” Gr’eis asked.
“The same way, actually. If the fighter is one of ours, when it’s ‘destroyed’ the stealth field will engage, and the pilot controls will be locked out. Then the craft will be flown back to Divine Light, and the pilot will be re-assigned. The fighter will be recycled as a ‘new’ fighter.
“Imperial fighters will eject their pilots, and then self-destruct. If they’re close enough, I’ll simply tractor them into the same bay as our destroyed fighters, and treat them the same way. Obviously, both our own pilots as well as the ‘captured’ ones will have to know something’s going on at that point.”
Hs’ean nodded as she agreed with the points the AI made.
“The plan is to minimize casualties, while making people think otherwise.”
Gr’eis slowly shook her head. “Won’t work. How many of those pilots are the real traitors? How will we know?”
“When they’re cycled back through Rhea base, the AI there will do a complete background on everyone coming into the base unless previously cleared. The questionable ones we’ll assign to other, isolated jobs,” Hs’ean explained.
Gr’eis gave her superior a half grin. “Well, I think you know you can count on me. I have a severe dislike for those assholes. Besides, we’re actually following our original orders if you think about it.”
“How so?”
“Hunt Slavers, Pirates, and Illegal Traders, and prosecute with extreme prejudice. We’ll only be doing the job this fleet was created for,” Gr’eis said smiling like a shark. “The bastards in the Senate have repeatedly tried to cut military funding, and block the building of new ships. If we set course for Aldus Forward and took out the Senate, we will have all but wiped out the leaders of the Slave and the Pirate trade.”
Hs’ean considered the suggestion for a moment, then continued. “True, but that would be a bit too obvious, so we have to do it this way.” Hs’ean rose from the table to lead her guest into her sitting room. “Would you like a glass of Huran Cognac? I do have to speak to Her Highness this evening, but after that, I’m all for relaxing the rest of the evening.”
“I’d love one, although I’ll have to nurse it along; that meal was really filling,” Gr’eis replied, sitting on the love seat, and undoing the buttons on the front of her uniform.
House Parker Estate
Earth, Horon-A Sector.
Ariel, Alex, Reese and George had just sat down with after dinner drinks to discuss who would be best for what kinds of jobs when the huge-screen TV beeped at them. mKail had a pistol trained on it before the tone was quiet.
“Stand at ease, mKail!” Cole said from the TV. “There is an incoming Vid-Link from the Divine Light for Lady Ariel. It’s Admiral Hs’ean.”
“You could have warned me,” mKail said softly, glaring at the TV screen.
Ariel, as awed with the woman’s reaction time as everyone else asked Cole to put it through.
“Good evening Your Highness, I hope I’m not catching you at a bad time?” Sean asked as her image came up on the screen. Behind her, Ariel could see the Captain relaxing on the couch. From the looks of things, Sean was going to get very lucky tonight.
“Not at all Admiral, how are things in space?”
“Busy, but at least the crew has something to do. My only problem with it is that we are going to have full brigs soon; which brings me to the heart of the matter as it were.
“Do you have anyone ready to come up here? We’re finding ourselves extremely short handed in all the projects,” Sean asked.
Ariel was surprised. “Sure, I’ve a couple hundred I can get ready within the week, they’ll be bringing their families with them. However, none of them are trained for space work. They’re willing and able, but I think you might find some are just not... Well, some of them might be a little claustrophobic.”
Sean nodded on the screen. “That’s not uncommon. One of the reasons we’re usually short in those areas are that we only work four hour shifts, and there’s a high attrition rate. Personally, I couldn’t do it. It’s far too easy to get killed out there.”
Again, Ariel was confused. “What do you mean? Aren’t the suits anchored as well as have an MMU? What about some sort of safety net? Like a catcher shield or something.”
It was Sean’s turn to look confused. “What’s an MMU?”
“It stands for Manned Maneuvering Unit. It’s like a little Multi-vector thruster pack. If one of the workers does break free, they have a chance to get back on their own power,” Ariel explained.
“No, we have nothing like that, although that does sound interesting. However, as far as the tether, they don’t work; as soon as something comes between the unit and the suit, that’s it. You’re on the way to deep space. Shield units are one of the last things installed, and even then they’re for repulsion, not attraction.”
“Jesus Christ! Are there no safety protocols at all? No wonder attrition’s so damn high! Okay, we still got some smart people up there right?” When Sean’s eye twinkled, Ariel continued. “I want them to figure out something on the lines of an MMU, as well as a ‘catch field’ or something that can be put into place far enough out to let them work, but not so far as to let the workers loose it if they have to rely on it to save them.
“Now, about that tether; are we talking about something like a small tractor beam here?”
Sean nodded. “Yes, that’s a fair statement. It’s a variable power device so it won’t crush the worker. Although, like I said, workers tend to move while they’re working. If something comes between them, the unit loses lock, and the worker floats away if he’s not hanging on.”
“It’ll probably piss them off, but from now on, I want a physical, Un-cuttable, tether line that’s connected to the main structure, on each external worker. Also, all external work is to cease until we get a few more safety measures in place. The last thing we need is scared people.”
“I’ll order the work suspended tonight, but the rest’ll have to wait until tomorrow, the people we need are on downtime right now,” Sean explained.
Ariel nodded, but noticed that Reese had seemed particularly interested in the safety measures discussed. “Admiral,” Ariel waved to Reese. “This is Reese Egland. He’s the contractor of the company that built this place. I’d like for him to be the Civilian Worker’s Safety Officer up there. It’ll be his job to make sure our folks are as safe as they can be, while still allowing them to get the job done.”
“We don’t have anyone like that. I mean, it’s been part of the responsibilities of the team leaders to make sure their people are able to work, but nothing like what this sounds like. I wonder why? I can already see the advantage of having a person whose only job is safety.” Behind her, The Captain was nodding her head in agreement, and making notes to herself on a holographic terminal tethered to her wrist unit.
“Excuse me, Ma’am, if I may?” George asked. When Ariel nodded to him, he addressed the Admiral. “I’ve a few families that can be ready on short notice, can I ask how many berths you have?”
Ariel smiled. Admiral, this is George Ecks. He’s the supervisor for the work crews. You could call him a project coordinator. George, this is Fleet Admiral Hs’ean, Commander of the 3rd Imperial Fleet.”
George seemed to stiffen and fight the urge to stand at attention.
“Mr. Ecks, are you by chance ex-navy?” the Admiral asked.
“Aye Ma’am. I’m a retired Chief Petty Officer. I was in the Sea-Bees.” George replied.
It took a moment for Sean to answer him as Divine Light was telling her what a Sea-Bee was. But it was only a moment. “Ah! So building a training and fighter base is something you’re very familiar with?”
George nodded. “Aye Ma’am. Although I’d wager yours are a bit more modern than what me and the boys would be used to. Some of them are a might rough around the edges, but my people are good folks. We’ll do what ya need, Ma’am.”
“With you leading them, I have little doubt, Chief. As for how many berths, I think it would be easier if I knew how many I needed. We don’t want to split your people up,” Sean asked.
“I think you might have to, Ma’am. If you count the families and dependents, we’re looking at four to five hundred per crew, and I have nine crews.” George had no idea how big the ship was, but it couldn’t be that big could it?
“Hmm, uh, Highness?”
“Yes Admiral?” Ariel replied.
“Do you own any other companies? I have space for about two hundred and fifty families of five, and can modify the units for smaller or larger. However, I’m looking at labor requests in the nine to thirteen thousand people range; and that’s just for the construction projects
. We need another couple thousand techs in other fields to set up, and then operate the computers and systems that are needed in each facility,” Sean explained. “I have Engineers; I even have a few extras, but not the amount we’re talking about.”
Ariel looked thoughtful, thinking the problem through. “Admiral, please send me a list of all the positions we need filled, and if possible, please prioritize it.”
She turned to George, but still spoke to everyone. “I’ll get George a communicator, so he can get his people up to the fleet for training. Please have your people work with him on our existing personnel.”
Then she turned to Reese. “Reese can you and your family be ready for the first shuttle?”
Reese looked over at George. “A couple of days?”
George nodded. “At least. I’ll get a schedule worked up, and let you know for certain.”
Ariel grinned. “Okay then, I’ll get someone going on recruitment. One more thing before I let you two get back to relaxing. What’s going on with that captured slaver/smuggler crew?”
Gr’eis answered this time. “They are still resisting direct interrogation, Milady. However, we had discovered, forensically, that their home is Alion Minor, in the Isle of Stars. It borders on the Ophuchi Cluster. I should mention that the Isle of Stars was one of the disputed areas before the treaty. Part of that treaty was that any smugglers we catch must be turned over to the Ophuchi for prosecution.”
“Ariel, we either need Hanya’s permission to use these for the ruse, which means we let her in on it, or we must surrender them. If we fail to comply, it invalidates the entire treaty,” Sean said to her via the internal Guardian comms.
“I think she should be in on it anyway, just so Grandfather has an ally close at hand. Don’t ask me why, but I trust that woman completely. However, there is a saying here; if more than one person knows a secret, it’s already compromised,” Ariel replied the same way. “Besides, it’s too early to start that part. We need to get everything built first.”