Retreat And Adapt (A Galaxy Unknown) (24 page)

"Do you think that thing breathes air?"

"I would say that it probably doesn't breathe. That fluid in its chest might be some sort of fuel. But still, the stasis beds are out there, and we're in here. They never would have gotten them through the narrow door into this room, so we must have been removed in the lab and carried in here. That might mean there's oxygen out there."

"But what if the oxygen ends at the door from that room?"

"A very good question, PFC. And one that I don't have an answer to."

* * *

Vertap Aloyandro of the Hudeerac Order leaned in towards the monitor's retinal images recording sensors so the encrypted message would play. When the system was satisfied with his identity, the scrambled image on the monitor immediately resolved itself into a clear image of Admiral Jenetta Carver. After a few seconds, the message began to play.

"Hello Minister. As part of our continuing commitment to share intelligence information with our peaceful galactic partners, I offer this data. The logs of the two Space Command ships attacked and destroyed by an unknown enemy yielded only fuzzy images. At first, it appeared that the ships resembled a handful of foam bubbles. We later learned that the bubbles were shields to protect missile platforms mounted on the ships. The segmented covers are retracted to expose the platform and allow the ship to fire thousands of small missiles— all at once, if desired.

"As we conducted a recovery operation of one ship, the attackers returned. During their attack run, one of our ships involved in the recovery operation was able to get high-resolution images of the attacking ships from several angles. I'm including all images with this transmission.

"We haven't yet been able to verify the identity of the attackers, so we continue to use the information you provided and refer to them as the Denubbewa.

"When we have additional information regarding this new enemy, I shall forward it to you. If you should learn anything new, especially regarding their weaknesses, I hope you will forward it with all haste.

"Jenetta Carver, Admiral, Region Two HQ at Quesann, message complete, attachments."

Vertap leaned back in his seat and looked at the frozen image of Admiral Carver on his monitor. He didn't like to repeat unconfirmed information, especially when the information came from a distant source with no real allegiance to the Hudeerac Order. Paid informants were notoriously unreliable, especially when the information was alleged to have been overhead in a bar. But the situation seemed so dangerous that every shred of information must be considered.

Vertap leaned back in towards the scanner, engaged the device to record his retinal information, then began to record a new message.

"To Jenetta Carver, Admiral, Space Command Region Two Headquarters on Quesann, begin message."

"Good day, Admiral. I hesitate to pass on information which may have no foundation in truth and ask that you treat it with all due skepticism. A paid informant in the territory controlled by the Denubbew Dominancy has recently reported that the Denubbewa sent a mother ship in our direction to investigate possible territorial expansion. Our territory is small, so the ship might have continued right past us and into GA space. All reports suggest that their mother ships are far beyond anything that one might think of when hearing the word 'ship.' In a new communication received just one solar ago, the informant states that the mother ship reported an easy time with local forces and asked that a full contingent of mother ships join them to help establish control over their new territory. As yet, we have no information regarding a deployment of mother ships. I shall certainly inform you if and when I have more information.

"Vertap Aloyandro, Director of Intelligence for the Hudeerac Order, from the Royal Palace on Hudeera, end of message."

Aloyandro wondered how Admiral Carver would treat the information. Were he in her place, no scrap of intelligence, regardless of its credibility, would be ignored until disproven.

~ April 14
^th
, 2287 ~

"The two ships assigned to track the Denubbewa mother ship continue to perform their flybys at the maximum DeTect range each day," Jenetta said to the R2HQ Board at the regularly scheduled meeting. "So far, the mother ship has remained stationary, although the number of smaller ships outside the mother ship changes frequently. We believe the ships are kept on patrol at distances far enough from the mother ship to give adequate time to prepare should Space Command commence an attack. That would mean they perform like the Distant DeTect Grids we establish at all our bases."

"Can they DeTect the scout-destroyers performing the monitoring activities?" Admiral Buckner asked.

"If a vessel passes within four billion kilometers, they will see a reflection on their screens," Admiral Holt said, "but unless they know what's causing it, they will probably dismiss it as a momentary anomaly. Since the scout-destroyers are encapsulated in a transverse-wave envelope during their flybys, the DeTect image is more like a momentary shadow than the solid image you'd see with vessels traveling at slower FTL or sub-light speeds."

"If they move, our ships will follow them wherever they go," Jenetta said. "We'll always know where they are when we're ready to take them on."

"I like your confidence, Jen," Admiral Poole said. "So far, they've been the ones doing the ass-kicking."

"They caught us cold, twice, with their still undeclared war. But we've been able to learn a little about them, and we do have at least one major advantage."

"Major advantage?" Admiral Buckner said.

"Our Light-9790 speed. As far as we know, their top speed is about Light-450."

"We can't know that's their top speed. All we know is that they haven't been observed exceeding that speed."

"True, but our Intelligence people have been examining the high-resolution images of their ships and are confident that the ships are not sheathed with Dakinium. So unless they've discovered another way to create a double envelope, Light-450 may be their top speed. Scientists still insist that the theoretical absolute limit for single envelope travel is Light-862, so if they haven't mastered Transverse Wave travel, our ships are at least eleven times faster and most likely about twenty-one times faster."

"Have our Intelligence people discovered any new information about the invaders?" Admiral Buckner asked, looking towards Admiral Kanes.

"Admiral Carver provided some new information just this morning," Kanes said. "She has a direct contact that has been providing her with solid intelligence data for years. The AB knows the identity of the source, as do I, and we fully support the sharing of information vital to the protection of both nations. According to the source, the Denubbewa mother ship in our space has reported that the Galactic Alliance territory is ripe for takeover. It's requested that a full contingent of mother ships join them here to assist in completing the takeover of our space."

The R2HQ Board Hall fell into complete silence as everyone's thoughts turned to further possible invasion by alien forces.

"How long do we have to prepare?" Admiral Holt asked.

"Unknown," Kanes said. "We don’t know if the Denubbew Dominancy has dispatched the requested ships or if they intend to do so in the near future. We don't know how far they would have to travel or how long that journey would take. We don't even know how many ships are considered a contingent. Is it five ships or five hundred? We have no idea how large their population is, but since they appear to have expansionist intentions, it would be prudent to assume that they will come at some point. However, without further intelligence information, we have no idea when that might be."

"Good God," Admiral Buckner said. "If they come with five hundred of those mother ships, there's no way we can stop them."

"Our best bet would be to destroy the mother ship already in our space as soon as possible," Jenetta said. "That will send a powerful message because they've essentially said we're powerless to stop their takeover. When their leaders back home learn of the destruction, or at least when they fail to get any response to their messages, they might rethink their position."

"Have we made any progress on your plan?" Admiral Poole asked.

"Since this meeting isn't as private as it would have to be to discuss details, all I can say is that things are progressing. Certain components are scheduled to leave production facilities in Region One any day now. In two months' time, we should be able to begin assembly of test components. Once the test components are constructed, we'll be ready to test the delivery system. I can't say how long that phase will take, but given the task, it could be considerable."

"I'm sure we all appreciate the precision required for that phase," Admiral Holt said. "But if your plan works as outlined, we'll have a weapon that will forever shift the balance of power back to Space Command."

"I'm not ready to make
that
strong a pronouncement," Jenetta said. "I thought we would be the most powerful force in this part of space for decades to come when we began to use Dakinium sheathing on our ships, but even Dakinium didn't stop this new enemy from destroying our two scout-destroyers with ease. But perhaps the new weapon will give us an edge again— for a while."

* * *

Nicole Ravenau examined her face in the mirror and then smiled. After a year of almost constant pain, her gender transformation was almost complete. She was a man again. She— He hadn't enjoyed sex since surrendering his sex in exchange for youth and now yearned for female companionship, but he would be patient. His goal was within sight and he wasn't going to do anything to jeopardize that just to enjoy a few minutes of sexual pleasure. There would be plenty of time for that later, after he was ensconced back in the Raider family. With his handsome new face, women would be fawning over him now. His old face, the one before he became Nicole, hadn't been ugly. In fact, he'd always thought of it as ruggedly attractive. But this new face, one crafted by the top scientists in genetic research, would turn the heads of most females, especially the attractive ones for whom a handsome face and muscular body was the ticket to their boudoir. And best of all, he would enjoy that access for thousands of years. By then, he believed, he would have found the secret to eternal life. The accomplishments of his scientists to date was all the proof he needed that anything was possible through the manipulation of the human genome.

It was a shame that he'd felt it necessary to murder all his people and destroy the lab, but he'd believed it was the only way to escape the wrath of Strauss for the attack on Christa Carver. Of course, a full copy of all research data since the beginning of the projects was safely hidden away in several of his secret locations.

The genetic makeup of his new body eliminated the need to ever shave his face again, so after bathing and getting dressed, he prepared for a night in the casino. He slipped his new ID into the inside pocket of his sports coat and pulled the door to the corridor closed behind him. It would be the first appearance of Gregory Foster since he had come aboard the passenger liner at Pelomious.

* * *

"A transport carrying the requested materials left for Quesann today, Richard," Admiral Ahmed said in response to Admiral Moore's query in a regular session of the AB.

"Was the entire order filled, Raihana?" Admiral Moore asked.

"Everything Admiral Carver requested, plus the additional quantities we felt were justified. All devices are fully assembled and ready to be deployed once the safeties are removed."

"The six new scout-destroyers that recently completed their space trials were held at the Mars shipyard until the transport was ready to depart," Admiral Platt said. "They'll function as escorts for the transport, even though it's not subject to attack since it will be traveling at Light-9790."

"It's good to have the extra protection available in case the transport suffers a drive problem," Admiral Bradlee said. "The load is too important to be left unguarded."

"In a pinch, part of the load could even be offloaded to one of the small ships and sent on ahead so Quesann can begin preparing for their testing phase," Admiral Plimley said.

"Yes," Admiral Hillaire said, "I'm sure that holding the scout-destroyers for an extra two weeks didn't present a problem for Admiral Carver's Second Fleet."

"Now the difficult part for us begins," Admiral Moore said. "We must wait to see if the weapon will meet expectations. I'm beginning to feel as anxious as when we began to mount our defense against the THUG pact."

* * *

"We've been on long cruises before," Nelligen said, "But at least we've always had a destination and some idea of when we'd get there. Following a freighter without knowing where we're heading is getting on my nerves."

"It's getting to all of us," Byers said. "Vyx, I don't know how you stay so calm about this."

"I'm treating it like a vacation. The DeTect system will alert us if the freighter changes course or speed, so let's just sit back and enjoy the ride."

"How can we enjoy the ride when we know we're going to run out of beer in three more months?" Nelligen said. "We should have stocked more."

"Any chance of slipping away and restocking the supplies?" Byers asked. "The freighter hasn't changed course since we left Uthlarigasset, and you said we have much greater speed. We could angle off four billion kilometers to avoid their DeTect, zip around them, stop at an inhabited world ahead, and pick up their trail again after getting supplies."

"We have enough food to last five years, so we're in no danger of starving before we get back. You'll just have to stretch your beer supply out as long as possible because there are no decently sized colonies on this course between here and the border with open space."

"If there are no decently sized colonies ahead, then where the heck is that freighter going?"

"The guy in the tavern said 'to the black.' I guess he meant outside of GA space."

"But we're at least two years from the GA Border."