Solbidyum Wars Saga 7: Hunt for the Reduviids (36 page)

“Why aren’t you looking happy?” Regeny asked.

“If this was our only problem, I would be.  I got word this morning that in less than a week the Brotherhood is will attack the point where they believe the Cantolla Gate station to be.  That wouldn’t be so bad and we are expecting that.  However, they also plan to coordinate this assault with some other event or events and, at the moment, we are unable to identify what those plans might be.  They’re assembling a lot of ships and resources for this onslaught.”

“I think I need to schedule some training exercises moving ships from one sector to another by rapidly using the Cantolla Gates,” I said.  “I’ll leave it to you to find two operatives to play the roles of Norcar’s boys.  Remember though, they should look similar and be the same age.  Norcar’s boys are twins.”

I was busy over the next three days.  I called emergency drills, moving ships from sector to sector in mock battles.  My fleet admirals were upset that I didn’t give them any notice or time to prepare.  I came back telling them they were expected to always be ready, and the enemy didn’t give advance notices.  I held exercises defending the Cantolla Gates, both large and small.  Finally, at the end of the third day, I called an emergency meeting of all the fleet admirals.  I could see the looks of irritation on their faces as I stood in front of them.

“The response times of your fleets have been deplorable,” I said.  “Had there been a real emergency threat, thousands of lives and who knows how many ships could have been lost as a result of the performance of your crews.  We need to tighten up.”

“Why?”  One of the older Admirals named Prezallie asked.  Prezallie headed up the fleet in Sector 5.  “We’ve done perfectly well at defending our territories and have routed the Brotherhood whenever they have attacked.”

“Really?” I asked.  “How is it that in the past ten years, the Federation has lost a little over one thousand worlds to the Brotherhood?  How is it that thirty-two worlds have been completely destroyed with no life remaining on them?  How is it that the Brotherhood has been able to attack thousands of our planets and hauled off nearly one billion Federation citizens as slaves?  And how is it that almost daily we hear of Reduviid attacks on defenseless citizens?  The stars help us, if you consider that as holding our own!

“It’s not all that long ago that we lost one of the finest admirals in the fleet to a ruthless battle.  Stonbersa was a veteran fighting the Brotherhood and where is he today?  Do you see him sitting here in this room?  Stonbersa believed in preparation.  Even so, with all his skill and training, the enemy still prevailed and killed him.  Do you think you are so much better than Stonbersa was?

“Every day the Brotherhood is coming up with something new.  Are you prepared to face their latest battle plans and armament?

“In a few days, we are anticipating a large armada of Brotherhood ships to descend on the last location of the Cantolla Gate Station; the station has been moved, but the Brotherhood doesn’t know that.  In its place, we will have nearly one thousand ships waiting and we hope to do some serious damage to the Brotherhood fleet.  However, we have word that the Brotherhood also plans another attack of a large scale elsewhere and we don’t know where.  We will need to deploy quickly and efficiently when they attack, or we could face serious consequences.

“I don’t want to see any more lives lost.  I don’t want any additional ships lost.  One is one too many.  I’ve drawn up specific battle plans for each fleet in response to the impending attack at the last Cantolla Gate Station site.  I expect you to familiarize yourselves with them.  There is also an alternate set of plans in the event you need to divert to a second location in response to simultaneous attacks by the Brotherhood.  Unfortunately, we will not be able to have practice drills for these battles, because we want to be certain not to alert the Brotherhood to our preparations.  You will have to do it all using computer simulations on your ships.  Everything discussed in this meeting today is classified top secret.  The only persons you can communicate with about this is your second in command and the captains of your flag ships.  The enemy doesn’t know we now can match their speed with our ships.  They do know we have our slow penetration torpedoes that can get through their shields, but they also know that their asteroid-ships can take a lot of hits before they are knocked out of commission.  In their minds, they still have the upper hand; they don’t know we’ve leveled the playing field.  Our best hope is to catch them off guard.” 

I looked around the room and saw the looks on the faces had changed from one of irritation to one of trepidation.

I spent the rest of the day going over battle plans and tactics with the admirals.  When we finished, I could see that the seriousness of the situation had sunk in.  Several of the admirals stopped by to tell me they would do all they could and to prepare for whatever the Brotherhood throws at us.  Admiral Kophious was the last to leave.

“That was quite some speech you made, Admiral,” he said.

“I hope it sank in.  We’ve sustained enough losses,” I replied.

“Yes,” Kophious added as he lowered his head a moment, “losing Stonbersa like we did was a huge shock.  I’m glad that now all the admirals are using carriers for their flagships and not the old starships at least that reduces the risk of being taken out like Stonbersa was.”

“I agree, but that’s not to say the Brotherhood won’t come up with a way to get to the carriers, too.  They haven’t figured out the technology for the slow torpedoes so far and they don’t have access to the solbidnite needed to power them; but that’s not to say they won’t come up with some other technology.”

“Do you think they can?” Kophious asked with a shocked expression.

“They managed to figure out how to make ships faster than ours.  They came up with proven design for their asteroid-ships, and they developed the sound recording fungus,” I said.  “Regardless of how they acquired this technology, the point is they did it. There’s no reason to believe they cant do other things as well.”

Once Kophious had gone, I went back to the
NEW ORLEANS
.  I was feeling tired and it had now been five days since my last treatment.  Two more days and I would need another.  I was hoping the Brotherhood didn’t attack during a time I was at my lowest performance level, but that was something over which I had no control.

As soon as I returned to the War Room, Marranalis informed me that Wabussie had received word that Báihuā had been given the vid bugging devices from the Brotherhood.  She had placed them about the estate as instructed.  So far, it looked like the Brotherhood was accepting Báihuā as one of them and didn’t seem suspicious about her at all.  Wabussie also announced that he believed he had found the perfect pair of men to play the parts of Norcar’s sons.  Both men were newly recruited FSO agents and they had scored high in their skills tests.  They received training in the Weccies language and customs by using the learning headbands.  It was hoped that this, coupled with the fact that very little was known to outsiders about the Weccies, would fool anyone meeting them.  Báihuā had been instructed to tell Sisopan that a visit to the estate by Norcar and his sons was coming in a week or two.

I was going over reports in my office about an hour later when I was interrupted by Marranalis. 

“Sir, we received word that there have been major explosions at three Federation shipyards where we have new ships being built.”

“Are they under attack from space?” I asked as I rose to my feet?

“No, sir, they appear to have either been from planted devices or from surface launched attacks.  At the moment, we are not certain.  The planetary defense units responded immediately, but no signs of the attackers can be found.  It looks like it was the work of the Reduviids again, sir.”

“Are there any casualty reports?”

“Only that there
are
some and damage to the production facilities appears to be extensive.”

“Damn… we need those ships!” I fumed.

“What about the ones from the androids?” he asked.

“That would be great, but they haven’t received the machinery and raw materials to start building them.  I need to get that expedited.  However, it will be at least a month or more before they are able to start building ships.  In the meantime, we’ll need to do with what we have.  Not that we’re hurting for ships; it's just that they’re spread so far apart and we have no idea where they will be needed.

Two more days went by and nothing happened.  I know I should have felt happy about that, but I wasn’t.  I wanted to get it over with and the waiting was killing me.  Wabussie called and asked me to come by his headquarters.  When I arrived, Admiral Regeny was there, as were two young men who looked like they could be in their late teens or early 20s.  Admiral Wabussie introduced them as Tabgellis and Mazukam and said they would be impersonating Norcar’s sons at the estate.  The plan was that Norcar would fly to the estate with them and shortly after landing, would feign getting an urgent call to return to Weccies.  He would leave the two imposter sons, claiming he would return in a few days and that they should enjoy themselves in the meantime.  To make the event more realistic, orders were issued to the estate for them to stock up on exotic foods and they were instructed to check for special events such as musical events or live entertainment.  If anyone was monitoring events at the estate, it certainly would look like Norcar and his sons were coming and intending on having a good time.

I had another treatment with A’Lappe.  It was becoming difficult to find reasons to come back to my suite late once a week and always on the same day.  Sooner or later, Kala would begin to get suspicious and I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle that.  Plus, I knew she would eventually notice that the day before my clandestine visits with A’Lappe, I’m run down and foggy; and the day after, I’m renewed with energy and insatiable in my sexual appetite.  I kept trying to find some new solution, but I was having no luck.  It seemed the next week progressed slowly.  We waited for the Brotherhood to attack, but didn’t happen.  I began to fear they discovered that we had relocated the station.  Ongoing random body bomber attacks were carried out, escalating terror and shattering worlds throughout the Federation.  Another message was received from Báihuā.  Sisopan was scheduled to take her to the Reduviid training center on Epsirt the following day.  She said Sisopan wanted to discuss the idea of getting some of Norcar’s staff hooked on God’s Sweat and planting body bombs in some of them for possible future as they saw fit.  Wabussie suggested that we move up Norcar’s visit with the phony sons before Sisopan could plant body bombs in any of the estate staff.  I didn’t like the idea, as I hoped we could better prepare the two FSO agents before the event, but I didn’t see that we had any choice.  We contacted Norcar to see if we could schedule his visit for two days later.  He said it would be difficult because of banking commitments.  When I said that would work out perfectly, I explained that we wanted a crisis that warranted his return and provided a scenario for him to leave his sons behind.  Now there actually was a legitimate one; so if it were possible for the Brotherhood to check, it would appear authentic.  Norcar agreed and said he would be able to come for a day and then would need to leave.  With that out of the way, the only remaining thing we needed was for Báihuā to pinpoint the location of the under-ice Reduviid training facility, so we’d be able to take them down –  hopefully once and for all.

The following day I waited nervously to hear from Báihuā and learn the details of her visit to the Reduviid base.  She said that Sisopan and some senior officers in the Brotherhood would pick her up early in the morning; so I didn’t expect any report back until midafternoon.  However, when we hadn’t heard back by late afternoon, I began to worry.  Late afternoon became evening and still no word.  Soon it was near midnight and yet nothing.  I feared that Báihuā had been discovered and the worst had happened.  It was sometime after midnight when I finally went to bed.  Kala was waiting up for me when I arrived, as she was concerned about my nervous and fretful behavior all evening.  We talked about it a while and she tried to reassure me that things would be alright.  I couldn’t help feeling that something had gone wrong.  Finally, we said goodnight and Kala rolled over on her side and went to sleep.  I was nearly asleep myself when my com beeped.

“Tibby here,” I answered, as I sat up quickly.

“Admiral, this is Wabussie, we received word from Báihuā.  I need to meet with you in the War Room on the
MAXETTE
immediately.”

“I’m on my way, Admiral,” I said, practically leaping out of bed to head for the door.  By now, Kala was awake and had heard what Wabussie said.  As I was about to rush out the door, Kala called out, “Tib, don’t you think you should put on your pants first?”

I called Marranalis quickly on my way to the
MAXETTE.
  I swear, the man must have slept in his uniform, because he managed to arrive at the War Room at the same time I did.

“What’s happening, sir?” he asked as we reached the door.

“I don’t know for sure.  Admiral Wabussie called and said to meet him here – that he’d received an important message from Báihuā.”

We entered the War Room to find Admiral Wabussie and Admiral Regeny already there.  Regeny looked like he had just gotten out of bed.  His hair was still disheveled and he needed a shave.  I imagine I didn’t look much better.