The Dieya Chronicles - Incident on Ravar
Page 17
CHAPTER 15
A knock on the war room door interrupted Captain Arslac’s thoughts.
“You wanted to see me, Skipper?” asked Commlead Janelle Haridep.
The Captain looked up from his desk panel and nodded. “Yes, Commlead, please have a seat.” He punched several buttons on his desk before continuing. “We will be proceeding to sector Orlion Five Alphi. It looks like we may have some use for your special skills.”
She sat on the edge of the chair, her interest piqued. “Something up, Sir?”
“Yes. Read this message we’ve received from a long-range scout ship in that sector.” He blinked twice, sending the message to her Alpha vertex.
The Captain watched her closely, looking for a reaction. She hadn’t been aboard long, but it had been long enough for him to notice her stunning bright blue eyes and curly blonde hair. An attractive officer in her early thirties, the Commlead was attached to the Reliant’s alien studies group.
She blinked, brought the file up in her eye and read the message. Glancing once at the captain, she reread the message. “Sir, if you are looking for my input, I’d say that a Dart Pilot in sector Orlion Five Alphi has gone space happy.”
He steepled his fingers and nodded. “That was my thought until I reviewed the scanner data sent along with the message. It looks like a Kraken Cross, all right. The data scan confirmed it.”
She grabbed the edge of his desk. “Sir, if this is true, this could be an incredible find!”
“I thought so myself,” he said. Her contagious enthusiasm lit a smile on his face as well. “It’s possible that it hasn’t come on line yet, that’s why it was so easy to knock out.” He studied the Commlead’s face. “You and your intelligence team will be the first on board.” He was pleased to see her glow with excitement. “I suggest you brief your people and prepare as quickly as you can. The destroyer Warnag will be here in two hours to take over our patrol, then we will dimgate in and see for ourselves. Dismissed.”
As Commlead Haridep saluted and hurried from the room, the Captain turned to concentrate on the work on his “desk.” Touching the glowing button adhered to his right temple, he concentrated on the impending mission. He thought-blinked to the supply manifest and computed how long they could remain at the Cross without re-supply, then he blinked to his armament status. With the Kraken involved, it never hurt to be ready.
Gless communications technology was a step up from the paperwork of old. Text or pictures could be displayed directly to the eye’s nerve centers from a small computer button implanted inside the temple. The user just had to think of what he wanted and the button picked up his Alpha waves and displayed the links that closely matched the thought directly to his retina nerves. It took some time for the vertex button to learn the user’s patterns, but after a week’s practice no one had any trouble retrieving data instantly on the first or second try. Most of the HAL fleet were equipped with blink technology and its infrastructure. It made communication almost instantaneous – and sometimes overwhelming.
Captain Arslac loved blink technology, but thought the Gless were rather stingy when it came to weapons. The Gless Relations Team said it was because the Gless didn’t understand the concept of destruction. He thought the problem was more than communication. He believed the Gless were keeping humans on a tight leash. But he knew enough to keep these thoughts to himself. It wouldn’t help his career to question the motives of the Gless as they had been raised to demigod status on many worlds.
But anyone who had ever faced the Kraken knew the need for better weapons. At present, humans were on a par with the Kraken, but every so often a more powerful advance would be seen in the Kraken armament and humans would again have to play catch up. This Kraken Cross could give them an advantage. He blinked to bring up the time. One hour thirty minutes to go.
Commlead Haridep’s excitement had fanned a spark of hope in his own heart. If this were real, it could be the greatest find of the war.