Solbidyum Wars Saga Book 1: Battle of the New Orleans (36 page)

I switched the view over to the Admiral and no sooner established connection then he began speaking. “Tibby, have you heard?  The Brotherhood has taken the
DUSTEN
and are attacking in multiple locations at once here on Megelleon as well.”

“Yes
Admiral Regeny, Lt. Commander Wanoll was just apprising me of the situation.” 

“The Lt. Commander is safe?”
Regeny said, “He’s not aboard the
DUSTEN
?”

“No Sir,
he’s aboard the
NEW ORLEANS
and quite safe, Captain Maxette was able to get a message to him just as the rebels were taking over. Commander Thimas is a member of the Brotherhood of Light it.  It was he who released the rebel prisoners and aided them in their takeover of the
DUSTEN
. They have since been joined by the other rebels and the
TASSAGORA.”

“What the hell is going on, why are you getting this information before I am?  Why in the blazes didn’t
Lt. Commander Wanoll contact me first?  Hell man you’re not even Federation military and you’ve gotten info I haven’t.” Regeny steamed.

“
Lt. Commander Wanoll contacted me because Captain Maxette ordered him to do so. The Captain wanted the Lt. Commander to ask me for my aid using the
NEW ORLEANS
” I answered.

“
Harrumph,” the Admiral steamed, “that least makes sense.  I was just contacting you to make the same request along with all the men you have been training. You’re the only ones we can count on.  It seems like even on my own staff has traitors.”

“I have one suggestion for you
Admiral,” I began, “I would suggest to you that you also come aboard the
NEW ORLEANS
.   It’s the most secure ship in the Galaxy and the only one where everyone has been double screened and cleared.  Right now you don’t know who around you, you can trust or even if your safe.  You can run your operations from the
NEW ORLEANS
in safety and up close and personal to the enemy as well.”

“Hmmm,”
Regeny exhaled loudly, clearly overwhelmed by the recent events, .“You have a good point there, I’d not thought about that, but I’ll need some of my senior staff officers with me.”

“Not a problem
Admiral,” I said, “Just as long as everyone is aware that you all will have to undergo a mental screening when boarding the
NEW ORLEANS.”

“Everyone?  Including me?”  The
Admiral squawked.

“Yes Sir, even you
.” I responded earnestly “No one, and I mean no one gets to board the
NEW ORLEANS
until Kala has personally screened them.” I replied.  Admiral Regeny grinned, a twisted grin and said, “You’re a tough piece of meat Tibby, a smart tough piece of meat and I like the way you think.  I agree. I’ll get my officers and fly up to the
NEW ORLEANS
.”

“
Admiral, I would prefer that you fly here to the estate first so Kala can screen you here.  I would like you to have your ship hungered on the
NEW ORLEANS
, but it will have to drop its RMFF shield for you to get through and we need to be sure everyone on your ship is loyal because I do not want us getting blown out of space by a traitor on your ship when we drop our shields.”

“
Agreed, we’ll be at your Estate in about an hour.

After talking to the Admiral I sent word to
Marranalis to get all our security people and all the Federation troops at the Estate to the hangar area quickly for transfer to the
NEW
ORLEANS
.   He had already heard about the events on the news and didn’t ask any questions.  Pulling all the security and troops from the Estate was going to leave it vulnerable to attack, but I didn’t think the rebels would try that as there was nothing there for them that they wanted.  I made a quick call to Cantolla and told them to pack whatever equipment they had and get it to the hangar area immediately; we were moving to the New Orleans.  I was shocked when arriving at the hangar area to find that the scientists were the first ones there.  Cantolla, Dakko and Rivez all balked when they were told they would have to undergo screening before they could go to the
NEW ORLEANS,
but when faced with the alternative of staying on the surface and facing a possible attack they all relented and submitted to the process.  The Admiral and his staff along with an entourage of troopers arrived in a corvette called the
NIGHTBRIDGE
. I had not seen a corvette before, a corvette being smaller than a frigate, but larger than a patrol ship, and didn’t know what it was until Marranalis explained it.  Fortunately the hangar on the
NEW ORLEANS
was a large one and big enough for it and all the patrol ships we had assembled at the Estate.  Kala quickly screened all those who had not previously been screened.  Ten patrol ships, the Corvette and a small cargo ship all took flight in a rather sloppy formation and proceeded to the
NEW ORLEANS
.

The
Admiral and his staff were quickly provided accommodation more than adequate to their needs and with a full crew aboard that were trained to dealing with passenger demands things went relatively smoothly.  Plenty of supplies were aboard and with synthesizers we had sufficient food and other resources. The ship had several conference rooms and we chose one of the larger ones as a war room.  Obviously Galetils must have envisioned running some of his businesses from the ship because adjacent to the conference room were many smaller rooms suitable for offices.  The Admiral was so pleased with the arrangement and I feared that when the time came I was going to have a hard time getting him off the ship.  We were just getting settled in for a meeting in the conference room when an urgent message came in for Admiral Regeny.  “Put it on the screen,” Regeny said.

A rather disheveled looking
Major appeared on the screen, in the background was smoke and debris, “Admiral,” the Major began breaking protocol by not waiting for acknowledgement “Thank the stars you are safe, the headquarters here at the base have been attacked, your personal office and those of your aids were completely destroyed.  A rather large raiding party hit the complex, they breached the vaults and got into the last one where the Solbidyum was stored.  Sir, it’s gone! The Solbidyum is gone!  I fear the rebels have it!”  The Major was practically hysterical at this point and he kept running his fingers through his disheveled hair.  His eyes appeared bloodshot, like he hadn’t slept in days or he had been crying moments before starting the vid.
              “The Solbidyum is gone you say? That is serious news,” the Admiral Regeny said just a bit too calmly for something so valuable to the Federation, he seemed only mildly interested but let the Major continue.  “Yes sir, it looks like the Rebels have it. “  

             
“And I’m assuming that the media has already been there and have filed their reports saying just that?”  The Admiral said questioningly.

“Yes sir, I’m afraid they have,” the Major said
, “the news is saying that you and your staff are presumed to be dead and the Solbidyum is gone.”

“What’s the situation there with the troops, how may wounded and how many killed?” Regeny asked.

“Casualty reports are still coming in, but it looks like we took a pretty hard hit, my guess is that we lost about thirty percent of the defensive forces here, another twenty percent have been injured so we only have about fifty percent fit for action. The rebels also got away with about a dozen more ships.” The Major replied.

“What’s the situation at the
Capitol, are the Leaders alright?” Admiral Regeny asked.

“Yes, both are safe, but
Leader Turaine is heading off world to Teahkins in hopes of soothing the situation there. In case of another attack, the two leaders will be separated so they cannot both be killed. Both Leaders sent word for you and the high command to do as you see best, assuming that you had survived the attack.

“Alright
Major, get things back into shape there, we need fully functional intact units, move people about if you have to but I need as many fully active units as we can get.  So far as I know all the action has been here at the main Federation base, none of the bases elsewhere on the planet have seen anything like this. Bases on the other planets have not had any hits so far that we know of.  I’ll personally contact them telling them to send reinforcements, unfortunately, none of our other starships or frigates are in the system and it will take days before we can get any more.  I need to tell the other bases to only send troopers that have been given psychological scans a second time.  I then want to conduct another test upon their arrival. We’ll also have the test facilitators scanned by three sources and have observers for those test, we need to seal up these leaks in security immediately.”

“Yes sir, but what about the Solbidyum
!?” the Major exclaimed.

“Let me worry about the Solbidyum, right now you have your orders.” And with that the
Admiral, ended the conversation.

Everyone in the room was rather quiet
and just a bit more as ease than I would have expected under the situation.  I could see that Kala was totally mystified by their casual appearance and her mouth was practically hanging open.  The Admiral turned to me “Tibby I want to thank you, if you had not suggested that we move our headquarters here to the
NEW ORLEANS
we probably all would be dead right now.  That was quick thinking on your part. We’re going to have to prepare a statement for the news.  Lt. Commander Wabussie, could you see to having the Federation logo plaque removed from the staff room on the
NIGHTBRIDGE
and brought here.  I think this conference room provides an image of power and control that will help dispel many of the doubts and fears the public may have right now.  We will display the Federation Symbol prominently behind us and it will look like we are in some official headquarters and not hiding in a bunker someplace.”

“Yes sir,”
Wabussie said and got up and left the room.

“One thing concerns me,” I said
, “the FOI doesn’t seem to be supplying you with any sound information. Have you considered the possibility that the FOI has been compromised with individuals from the Brotherhood, have any of the FOI people been tested?”

“Good question Tibby,” the
Admiral said, “I’ve been asking myself the same thing. I do not like the answers I seem to be coming up with, for now I think it best we leave the FOI out of the loop and assume they are compromised.”

“Major Kalana, you seem to be concerned
, what’s troubling you,” Regeny asked.

Kala shook her head slightly as though to clear her thoughts and said
.  “Well sir, it just that no one here seems to be concerned about the missing Solbidyum, shouldn’t we be taking action to recover it?”

“Who
said the Solbidyum was missing?” Regeny asked.

“The
Major at the base said, and you, well you never did say much now that I think of it.” Kala responded. “Just
where
is
the Solbidyum Admiral?”

“Why don’t you ask Tibby
? I think he’s already figured out that answer.” Regeny answered. 

Kala turned and looked at me
questioningly, eye brows furrowed in a frown.

“It’s here Kala,” I said soothingly, “on the
NIGHTBRIDGE
in the hangar
.
  It will only be there until they can transfer it into a hold here on the
NEW ORLEANS. 
This is the safest and most logical place to keep it.”

“Right you are Tibby
” Admiral Regeny said.  “When I heard about the
DUSTEN
falling and the growing attacks on the Federation headquarters I knew it was only a matter of time before the vaults were penetrated and the Solbidyum taken.  It was obvious that there was little time remaining and when Tibby offered for me and my staff to operate safely from the
NEW ORLEANS
it dawned on me that this was the safest place to hide the Solbidyum.  Right now the rebels have no idea where we are or where the Solbidyum is.  The longer we keep it that way the more control we will have over the situation and it buys us time to figure out what we are going to do to rescue the
DUSTEN.
  They will know we left the headquarters in the
NIGHTBRIDGE
by now, but they have no idea where the
NIGHTBRIDGE
is.  We’re in hiding just like they are, but sooner or later they will figure out that we are hiding in the
NEW ORLEANS
and come after us.  Luckily, this ship can out run them and from what Captain Maxette and Lt. Commander Wanoll have told me, they say it has a working RMFF on it and it is impenetrable.  They may be able to find us but they can’t get in.”

“Actually sir,” I began
, “they may not be able to find us either, even if we stay right here.”

“
I don’t understand,” Regeny retorted.