Solbidyum Wars Saga 9: At What Price (3 page)

“I don’t know, sir, but as far as this individual on Tombosem, if you
are
planning to see him personally, I recommend you let our troops on site assess him and the immediate area before you meet with him.”

“Alright.  Make the arrangements.  I’d like to talk to him as soon as possible.  Have Captain Hanges set a course to Tombosem immediately.”

Captain Hanges was a Ruwallie Rasson and the first to be taken from the fighter group and put in command of a massive warship.  He was one of the top strategists in the fleet and had one of the highest kill records in fighter combat of anyone in the fleet.  He got along well with fellow officers and was highly respected among the crews.  I think it came as a shock to many when I selected him to captain the
GLOMAR ROSA
instead of transferring Mareoparen from the
MAXETTE
.  However, no one voiced any opposition to my choice.  Mareoparen was a superior officer and one of the few Nibarians to have risen to the rank of captain, but he lacked the instinctive quality of split-second decision making I felt might be needed in a critical situation on a ship of the magnitude of the
GLOMAR ROSA
.  Hanges demonstrated those qualities in every aspect of his career.  He didn’t hesitate to voice his opinions, but he followed orders implicitly once they were given to him, regardless of his thoughts.  He was the kind of officer I could depend on during a crisis.  In many ways, he was more like Kerabac than many of his Ruwallie Rasson brothers from Goo’Waddle.

“See what additional information you can dig up about….”  I hesitated as I searched the report for the name of the informant at Tombosem.  “Ah, here he is… Krossden.  I’m assuming this Krossden is a humanoid…?”

“I wouldn’t know, sir,” replied Marranalis.  “But I’ll find out.  We’ll need translator devices, if we’re going to communicate with the Tombosemites.  If I recall correctly, their language consists entirely of hissing and clicking sounds.”

“Well, it won’t be the first time we’ve had to use translating devices.  They were at least somewhat effective when speaking with Tot and the creatures on Irribis.  I just hope that communicating with these Tombosemites is easier.”

“Kalana might be able to help you there, sir.  In fact, I believe she was still serving as chief attaché for the Federation when you first arrived with the solbidyum in the
TRITYTE
.”

“Ah, yes.  I keep forgetting Kala was the military attaché.  That seems so long ago.  I’ll have to speak to her about it.”  At times I was afraid that my synthetic nerve degeneration was beginning to affect my memory.

“Admiral, tomorrow is the day that Reidecor graduates from the JAC, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is,” I answered with a smile.

“I heard he’ll be graduating second in his class.  That's quite a high honor.  Actually, I was sure he would be first, to be honest,” Marranalis said.

“I’ll let you in on a secret,” I said.  “According to Commander Ircart, Reidecor
should
be first in the class, but he purposefully held himself back and allowed another cadet to be first.  Ircart speculates that Reidecor doesn’t want the other cadets to believe he’s been given preferential treatment, so he’s deliberately maintained a second position in everything but martial arts.  Some of Reide’s commanding officers have been keeping an eye on him.  They all say that he clearly demonstrates far better skills when no one is watching than when he’s being tested.”

“You don’t suspect he may have anxiety about tests, do you?” Marranalis asked cautiously.

“No.  Reide doesn't lack confidence from what his instructors have been able to see and according to his academic performance prior to joining the JAC.  He just doesn’t want to graduate with first honors for his own reasons.”

“Were you like that in training?”

“Me?  Heck no.  Though I did very well with martial arts, I was only average at everything else.”

“Somehow, sir, I find that hard to believe,” said Marranalis.

“Well, believe it.  It’s true.”

“So I assume you and Kalana will be going to the ceremony tomorrow?”

“Yes… and of course, Lunnie will be going too.”

“I was surprised that Lunnie didn’t join the JAC like Reidecor.”

“Jenira was surprised too, not to mention a little disappointed about it.  But it doesn’t matter.  Lunnie just finished basic training and Reidecor will officially be in the Federation Military as a lieutenant because of his JAC training.  Lunnie will simply enter the service as a private.”

“Yes,” Marranalis chuckled.  “I heard that Lunnie wasn’t very happy when she heard that the draft proposed was approved by the Senate and that she and her friends would have to serve a minimum two-year tour of duty.”

“Not very happy is an understatement.  She didn’t speak to me for nearly a week, and then when she did it was to try to convince me to make an exception for her.”

“Ouch!  That must have been difficult.  How did you deal with it?”

“Actually, I didn’t have to say a word.  Jenira was there when Lunnie brought it up.  She tore into Lunnie with a rebuke that had her fingers moving so fast they were a blur.  Lunnie kept backing up until Jenira had her in a corner.  She kept signing in Lunnie's face until Lunnie nearly hyperventilated; and she kept up her fierce reprimand, even when Lunnie started crying.  When Jenira finally did stop scolding her, she walked away with an equally fierce message to be understood from the very angry look she cast in Lunnie’s direction.  After wiping away her tears, Lunnie made her way to me from the corner and apologized.  She hasn’t mentioned or complained about being drafted again since then.”

“What did Jenira say to her?”

“I have no idea.  I couldn’t follow her signing.  It was much too fast for me.”

“It’s too bad that Lunnie didn’t go into the JAC when Reide did.  If she had, she might at least have had some say in the direction of her specialty training and where she is assigned.”

“Actually, it hasn’t worked out too badly for Lunnie.  She was only mediocre in most of her training.  I have a suspicion that those results were deliberate on her part and that she held back with a particular goal in mind.  She had no problem excelling in science and xenobiology, so on completion of her basic training she was assigned to a military research facility here on Megelleon as an aide in the study of poisonous life forms and pathogens of the galaxy and research and development of antidotes and uses for their toxins.  I think she reports for duty within a week or two of Reide.”

“Have you heard where Reide will be assigned?”

“No.  He could easily be attached anywhere, rating as high in his training as he did.  His combat skills were outstanding, so he could end up as a ground trooper.  Maybe he’ll be a fighter pilot.  I understand he tied for top pilot in his class.  And it’s not impossible that he could be assigned to a carrier or even a frigate as a junior bridge officer.  In the end, he’ll be assigned where it’s felt by his commanding officers that he will best serve the Federation, just like the rest of the graduates.  We don’t always get what we want in life, you know.”

My tone in my last statement must have sounded more melancholy than I intended, because Marranalis was silent for a minute and then asked, “You’re a highly successful man in the eyes of the Federation, but is
this
what
you
want?  I mean, what do you really
want
?  I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard you say.”

“Certainly not this,” I replied.  “This is the last thing I would want.  If I had my way, Kala and I would be living in a small cabin up by the lake at the estate, far away from all the doings of the Federation.  Most of the time I wish I’d never found the
TRITYTE
.”

“If you hadn’t, you would have been destroyed when the asteroid hit your planet,” Marranalis reminded me.  “And you never would have met Kalana.”

“You forget about relativity.  I was flying with Gravity Waves during some periods and at the speed of light during others, so I experienced time dilatations.  I would probably have been dead before the asteroid hit, because I’d have been in my late 80s or early 90s at the time.  True, I wouldn’t have met Kalana, and that would have been sad, but perhaps the universe would have been better off.  Besides all of that, had I not arrived with the solbidyum, events leading to the Tottalax aligning themselves with the Brotherhood probably wouldn’t have happened, so maybe they wouldn’t have directed that asteroid at Earth at all.”

Marranalis ignored my last comment, because he knew too well that nothing he could say would appease the guilt I felt for the multitude of deaths that had occurred because of the solbidyum, because of the war, and because of me.  “I keep forgetting; the life expectancies for humans were less than a hundred years on your world,” he said.

“It won’t be any different for me here.  A’Lappe tells me that at the rate I’m aging now, even with the treatments for the synthetic nerve rejection, I probably only have another twenty years left.”

“Isn’t there anything that can be done about that?  Can’t A’Lappe just clone you a new body and transplant your brain into it?  I mean, he seems to be able to do just about everything else,” said Marranalis with a thinly disguised angst in his voice.

“I asked him once, half-jokingly, I guess.  Anyway, he doesn’t think so.  He says it’s never been done successfully.  The connections between the brain and the rest of the central nervous system are just too complicated and matching them all up would be an insurmountable task.  At the very best, I would still come out of the procedure crippled and severely impaired.  I wouldn’t want to go on living that way just for the sake of prolonging my years.  I just need to make the best use of my time until then.”

“You know, sir, people are starting to notice that you're aging more rapidly than others in the Federation.”

“Really?  What are they saying?”

“Well, the most obvious thing they notice is the change in your hair.  Your hair used to be red and now it’s completely white, much sooner than such a change would occur with any other humanoid in the Federation and, as it seems, any other Earth human that was rescued from the Mars and Lunar outcamps.  A lot of people are attributing it to the sustained stress you’re under as leader of the military.  But sir, they’re noticing other things as well.”

“Like?”

“Well, sir, you’re starting to get wrinkles and bags around your eyes for one.”

“Is that all?” I asked.

“Well, I notice mental differences when your treatments from A’Lappe start to wear off, of course, but I don’t think anyone else does.  At least, I’ve never heard anyone comment on it.”

“That’s good.  The last thing I need is for word to get back to the Senate that anyone suspects I suffer from some sort of infirmity.”

“At this point I don’t think it would matter.  They’re entirely dependent on you now and you would need to be brain dead before they would let you go.”

I almost started laughing, but we were interrupted by the beeping of my comlink.  I sighed and answered, “Tibby here.”

“Sir,” the voice of Corporeal Neider addressed me.  “There’s a message for you from First Citizen Kalana asking that I remind you of your dinner engagement with her late this afternoon at TEZU LAGONG.  She wishes for you to return to your estate so that the two of you may travel to the club together.”

I smiled and replied, “Thank you Corporeal, please inform Kalana that I will be there shortly.”

I turned to Marranalis and said, “Well, Admiral, I will leave you to take care of the matters we discussed.  Let us hope that this Krossden individual has some information we can use to bring an end to this war.”

It had been over twenty years since Kala and I had dined at TEZU LAGONG.  On that occasion an ambush had been laid out for us and we had escaped.  I hoped that this time events would play out differently.  We had received word that Celpar, the maître d’ of TEZU LAGONG, was about to retire and that it was his greatest wish that Kala and I would visit the club so that he might introduce us to his successor and say goodbye.  The TEZU LAGONG Dinner Club was considered to be one of the finest, if not the best, restaurant night clubs in the Federation.  It was next to impossible to get reservations there and only the most famous and influential people were granted admission.  For his final day at TEZU LAGONG Celpar invited his favorite patrons to dine there one last time under his stewardship for a farewell celebration at the expense of the club. 

I was concerned about our attendance at the event.  Just as it was the first time, TEZU LAGONG was the ideal place for a Brotherhood attack.  Hence, I ordered our military branches to set up extra security in the vicinity.  The FSO and FOI also increased their security and surveillance operations in the area; but as far as we could determine, the Brotherhood was showing no interest in the event.  Perhaps the Brotherhood didn’t see it as a viable target, as the large number of high-profile attendees warranted an impressive escalation in security measures, including a dedicated Cantolla Gate for passage between the Central Gate Station and a gate just outside the elaborately designed TEZU LAGONG entrance.  Heavy security surrounded the gate, but there was sufficient room for a crowd of gawkers to gather as the celebrities and public figures arrived and made their way into the exclusive club.  It reminded me of the award ceremony red carpet events back on Earth, where throngs of onlookers and reporters would squeeze themselves shoulder to shoulder and as close as possible to the front where they could get the best view their favorite stars.