Resilience (Warner's World Book 6) (5 page)

Tola hailed again but only talked to Evie, who advised “we’re sending a hopper. It will be there in twenty. Same signals as last time.”

“They’re cutting it fine” said Julian to Tola, but he agreed anyway.

Twenty minutes later Julian made out the hopper coming in as the first light of a new day began pushing up from the horizon.

Evie’s assurances that the hopper’s radar jamming suite would make them immune to detection from radar was of little comfort when the sun would make the ladar from the space station more than effective enough to pick up their hopper.

The hopper touched down under half light and Julian and Tola wasted no time in climbing aboard. But as the craft climbed higher more and more rays from the rising sun caught the hopper. Julian and Tola exchanged anxious glances as the pilot, Oscren Mila, accelerated the hopper under full power.

Oscren took a moment to scan his passengers and noted their obvious anxiety. “Don’t worry” he said “We will be fine. All is taken care of.” Tola’s facial expression gave away the fact that she didn’t believe him.

Chapter 10. Neeblo 0600, 8 September

Meelanda Orocash, second tier aristocrat, ex director of research and development at the Likta Corporation and now interim president of the Cheklin Resistance, looked at herself in the mirror of her bathroom. She was momentarily blinded as a ray of sunlight hit the mirror and dazzled her. She ordered the window to partial blackout. She felt oh so weary. She would have rather not met this human Commodore but she knew she had to. He would be here any minute. It was too late for anything but to wash her face, get dressed and greet him.

As she came out of her apartment she met Evie and envied her youth. She knew she had as little sleep as herself but she looked so much better.

“He’s just landed” advised Evie.

“Bring him in” she directed and then made her way across to the office they had constructed for her in the basement of one of the old deserted factories. Despite the outward façade it was quite comfortable inside.

Her nephew and shadow, Erkum Polist, stuck his face through the doorway as she was sitting down in one of the seats around the low table. She waved for him to come and sit down. “Is it just the Commodore?” she asked.

“No, Tola’s with him.”

“OK make sure they enter unarmed and arrange for us all to have some breakfast. If I don’t get to eat something I’ll fall asleep.”

Erkum gave her a smile and left just a minute before Evie entered with Julian and Tola.

Meelanda took a degree of comfort from the weary look on her guest’s face as she was introduced. “I too find this early rise most uncivilised” she said to Julian.

He gave her a tired smile. “An occupational hazard I’m afraid.”

Meelanda nodded and with a wave invited everyone to sit down. “Refreshments will be coming directly. I take it you are here in relation to the command arrangements?”

“Quite so. I wanted to convey to you that we see the merit in your proposal and to reassure you that we will be more than willing to place our forces under your command for the duration of the hostilities.” Pious paused there. He had rehearsed several times what he was going to say but nonetheless he faltered at this moment.

“But?” asked Meelanda drawing him out.

Julian tilted his head slightly acknowledging her. “But we reserve the right for independent action in pursuit of Federation interests should the need arise. Please don’t be alarmed by that. Our intent is to…how shall I put this…”

“I think your expression is if the shit hits the fan.”

“Exactly! I don’t envisage that happening but we do need to cover all contingencies.” Meelanda nodded. “Also we would require being consulted in the planning process for the commitment of any Federation assets.”

“So the Federation tail will wag the rogan dog?”

“No, no, not at all. But if we are to be partners then we need to consult. Otherwise we are but slaves to rogan authority and I’m afraid we cannot support that.” Julian set his expression endeavouring to convey seriousness without aggression. The adrenalin was kicking in now and he felt a little more energy but he knew he had to maintain a steady presence.

Meelanda had already played this out in her mind before. It was going as she expected. She also knew that if the situations were reversed she would want nothing less than what they were now demanding. She still paused though searching for the right tone in which to convey her concurrence to his terms.

Julian was used to such pauses in negotiations where the stakes were so high. But he started to get a little anxious and was about to ask if she understood his position when finally she spoke.

“Would an exchange of staff officers at Fleet level suffice?”

“A very good start but I would recommend that in addition we have suitably qualified political representative here with your staff.”

Meelanda had not seen that coming. “Really?”

“Indeed” said Julian “for political objectives drive military objectives. Don’t you agree?”

“Yes they should” said Meelanda. “I would like to consult with my staff on that matter and get back to you.”

“Of course.”

“Do you have a suitable politician close at hand?” she queried.

“Not a politician. But officers, such as myself, are from our political branch and we specialise in such appointments. A political officer has reasonably wide powers to commit to political arrangements subject to ratification from our political masters.”

“I see and so you are proposing yourself for the position?”

“If I may be so bold.”

“How very unusual. Alright then shall we break for an hour?”

“As you wish.”

Erkum led Julian and Tola out of the meeting room and down to a lounge area several rooms down the corridor. “If you don’t mind, could you please stay here” asked Erkum. “Help yourself to some refreshments. The room is not being monitored.”

Julian nodded and closed the door after Erkum departed. Turning to Tola he whispered in her ear “which means the room is definitely monitored.”

Julian eyed the foodstuffs laid out on a buffet. He did not recognise anything. But he was genuinely hungry and so he picked up several items and placed them on a plate. He poured himself a beverage and sat down. When Tola followed suit he asked “Now how did you think that went?”

She looked at him surprised and raised her eyes to the ceiling. He just looked at her expectantly. Finally she responded. “Well…it’s the first time I have ever been at such a negotiation Sir. It seemed to go OK. What did you think?”

“You have to observe carefully” said Julian. “It’s not so much what they say but how they say it and what they don’t say. So far there’s been no mention of what form the relationship between us and them will take. The focus has so far been confined to just the immediate term. What we need to address is the longer term modus operandi. That will inform the short term. But I am sure we will get to that.”

Tola smiled as she cottoned onto what Julian was doing. She picked up what appeared to be sweet bread, smelt it and then took a nibble. It tasted delicious so she took an even larger bite.

“They are really good aren’t they?” said Julian just before munching on one himself.

“Excellent” said Tola.

“Ah, I see you are getting the hang of it Tola.”

Chapter 11. Cornucopia to Polaris 0730, 8 September

Charles was sitting up in bed free of the head brace. His ear was still bandaged but he felt no pain. He was waiting for Doctor Li to do her rounds.

“You’re looking a lot better this morning Commander” she said with a smile.

“I feel a lot better…thanks to you.”

“Our pleasure. I’ll just check that ear of yours.”

Charles was more than pleased to have her peel away the bandage. He did wince when she touched his ear to clean away some discharge but really he didn’t mind.

She began putting on a new dressing and said “Looks good. Good enough I reckon for you to be discharged. You’ll still have to wear the bandage for a while yet though. You’ll have to come here each day for the next week and have the dressing changed.”

“No problems with that” said Charles. “Do I see you?”

“One of the nurses will handle that.”

“I’d prefer if you did it” said Charles. He had a warm smile as she studied him.

“I can probably manage the first one” she said. “0700 tomorrow OK?”

Charles beamed. “0700. I’ll be there.”

Chapter 12. Kiev to Q2 0800, 8 September

Phil arrived in his office feeling tired. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep. The news from Evie and Julian had taken its toll and he had found it difficult to stop worrying about it all. There was reluctance in his action to fire up his terminal.

Another priority message, this time from Dave, made him swallow hard. ‘Bad news often comes in threes’ he thought. He opened the signal and as though someone had turned on a switch, he felt a surge of renewed energy course through his body. “You little ripper!” he said loud enough to catch his chief of staff and ops officer as they were about to enter their offices.

Alex and Rihan both entered Phil’s office. Phil was beaming. “You asked me about Dave’s rank before he left for Q2, remember?” Phil asked Rihan. She nodded, still not sure what this was all about. “Well he’s just earnt it. Look at this.”

As his subordinates were reading the signal Phil couldn’t help but say “Five enemy caps, three lights and a swag of fighters…no friendly ship losses. How’s that for a victory.”

Rihan smiled but she scanned down to friendly casualties and her heart skipped a beat when she read about the loss of John Conrad and Chad Preston. She had to sit down. She needed physical support.

“You knew them?” asked Phil.

She nodded and then added “Since the Hermes.”

“I’m sorry, but all things considered we got off lightly.”

“Yeah, I suppose…” Rihan could still see John’s smiling face above the battle system’s station in the Resolute’s command centre and Chad’s boyish grin in the Hermes hangar. While Alex and Phil talked about the report she found herself thinking that from an objective viewpoint this would have been joyous news but from her subjective perspective it was a bitter pill.

“You OK Rihan?” asked Alex. She looked up at him unable to frame a response.

“Why don’t you take a break Rihan” suggested Phil.

She nodded, stood up and walked out. She took the elevator down to H deck where she could walk and not run into anyone. As she did so, she came to the realisation that for the last eighteen months she had experienced a series of personal losses. It had all begun when the war broke out and she lost both her parents in the first nuclear strike on New Hammersley. Since then it had been one friend after another, not to mention her unborn child on Klaster and now John and Chad.

‘What are the odds?’ she asked herself but she already knew that the odds of her getting through this war without further personal loss were small. Most of the people dear to her were in the fleet and not just in the fleet but in the vanguard.

‘Pull yourself together Rihan’ she scolded herself. ‘You’ll go barking mad thinking about that.’ She thought of Dave and wished she was in his arms right now. A weak smile crossed her lips as she thought how he would tell her to pull up her socks.

She about-turned and headed back up to her office.

Chapter 13. Slidwon, Istridium 0830, 8 September

The newly appointed Director of the Rogan Foreign Intelligence Agency (FIA), Raitah Pratin, sat down at her desk in the luxuriously appointed suite atop the FIA HQ building. She inclined her head with its extended cranium and cast her angled dark green eyes around the room. She had always admired this office. She had been forced to gloat for some time before she could finally claim it in her own right.

It had been just on a month now since she had staged the coup against her former boss. It had been engineered to perfection and now she was overseeing an even bigger coup on behalf of the First Consul, Emilius Quazor. It wasn’t because she liked the First Consul, far from it. But she did admire him. They were cut from the same cloth and enjoyed the same ruthless streak. One day there would be a reckoning but for now she was content to be his instrument for the consolidation of total power.

Agents had been despatched to sound out support with key political, economic and, most important of all, military leaders. Her hit list had been approved by the First Consul and it was of necessity a long list. Coordinating the simultaneous decapitation of powerful figures across the entire empire was a herculean undertaking, made more complicated by the need for absolute secrecy.

Military forces had to be redeployed without raising suspicions. She had found that most of their best forces were at the far flung reaches of the empire subjugating the conquered realms. One of the most alarming things she had discovered was just how few ground and fleet units were stationed in the home worlds. Thirty years of continual expansion had of necessity dispersed their forces.

Gone was the second combined fleet lost by that traitor Sallusam in the debacle over Polaris. Why he had so recklessly squandered the empire’s reserve against the humans was of little concern to her. It was history now and they were still paying the price for it.

She winced as she thought about the need to recall Agent Torine. She had been that close to executing rogan justice on ex-Admiral Meeka Sallusam. He would eventually be tracked down. Right now she had more pressing objectives for Agent Torine. Technically Torine worked for the Internal Security Service (ISS). But the First Consul had first call on her services and she was scheduled to arrive for a meeting with Raitah in half an hour.

Raitah tapped the control on her terminal and a list of messages appeared.

One of the first things she did on taking over was to insist on proper prioritisation of messages. She was determined to put an end to the long list of FLASH messages that she had to wade through each morning. Sacking the station chief on Flaxor over the issue did the trick and since then she had not received one FLASH message at all – until now.