SWEET HOME ALLE BAMMA (SOLBIDYUM WARS SAGA) (22 page)

“Has anyone seen A’Lappe?  I need to talk to him.”  No sooner had I asked the question than A’Lappe appeared by my side, as if by magic.  I shook my head, knowing full well that he had been there all the while and that he enjoyed the mischief and theatrics of appearing out of thin air.

“You wish to see me, First Citizen?” he said.

“Yes, A’Lappe, we need to know what communications are taking place between those patrol ships.”

“I see.  And why would you believe that I would be able to tap into coded channels that the Brotherhood might be using?” A’Lappe said, looking suddenly deflated and pouty.

“I know you have a means of identifying frequencies by way of some combination of sweeps and scans and tapping into coded transmissions between ships.  I suspect you’ve been able to do so for some time and that it’s how you’ve obtained most of the information you have,” I said while looking at him like a parent who has just caught a child in a lie.

A’Lappe grinned sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders.  “Okay, so you figured it out.  But I can’t promise that I’ll be successful; I am only able to establish a reliable tap about a third of the time.  The
Brotherhood isn’t all that creative with their coding, so let’s see what I can uncover,” he said as he seated himself at the communication console.

His small hands moved skillfully and quickly across the touch screens and panels as small windows began to display various wave signs and signals.  A’Lappe appeared to be trying to capture these transmissions with some kind of combination signal transducer and resonance instrument that he manipulated via the touch screens.

Suddenly a voice came across the speaker on the console.  “–one minute as we passed, and then when we came about a second later, they were simply gone.  We’ve searched the area, but there’s absolutely no sign of them either visually or on the sensors.”

“Very well.  Make one more pass through the area
.  Then head off in the opposite direction from base for the next two hours.  After that, split up and return to base using different routes.  Keep your eyes open.  If you see anything on the sensors, move in a direction away from the base and return only when you’re sure you’re not being followed.”

“Yes, sir.”

A’Lappe spun in his seat to look at us.  “Will there be anything else?” he asked.

“Yes, A’Lappe.  I need the
ALI
fully operational, including the cloaking device, before we get to the Brotherhood’s rendezvous point.  Do you think that’s something you can accomplish in a few hours?”

“It’s already done, First Citizen,” A’Lappe said with his usual grin.  “Installation and testing was completed while you were at the parade.  The only constraint is that you won’t have an unlimited cloaking time.  At the moment the prototype will only provide you with about an hour of cloaking capability; and then you’ll have to wait two to three hours before enough energy has built up to support cloaking again.”

“That’s still enough time to sneak in or to escape from a situation, if necessary,” I said, “but I thought you said that energy wasn’t a major factor with the independent cloaking system…?”

“Unlike cloaking on the NEW ORLEANS, which doesn’t require its own power source, as it is essentially an induced side
effect of the RMFF, the
ALI
’s cloaking device must accumulate energy that is slowly discharged under certain conditions to create the field when it’s in operation.  So, until I’m able to create a smaller and more powerful energy source that is appropriate for the
ALI
, its cloaking capabilities remain limited to one hour.  I could probably duplicate the solbidyum reactor arrangement that was used in the transport for the parade; but I don’t think it’s advisable to do so.  The solbidyum reactor serves the
NEW ORLEANS
better than it would the
ALI.”

“I have to agree with you there, A’Lappe.  Frankly I was nervous about using the solbidyum reactor in the transport.  Fortunately we did
, though, or we wouldn’t be here now.
”

“Captain,” I said
to Stonbersa, “pick one of those retreating ships and follow it.  It’s time to find out where the Brotherhood’s base is hidden.  My guess is that we will find ourselves moving toward the third moon of Ludation, as A’Lappe theorized.”

“Why not just head there now, if that’s the case?” the admiral asked.

“Because we can’t be entirely certain and we don’t want to get it wrong.  These ships will lead us to their base without a doubt.  Aside from that, the base may not be as easy to find as A’Lappe suspects; so again, this is the surest way to locate the underground portal, if there is one.  It’s also possible that they’re returning to an airbase, meaning the
TECCION
.  In that case they wouldn’t be going to the moon at all, but someplace else in space.”

“I see your point, Tibby,”
said the admiral.

“Tibby,” interjected Kala, “what about the banquet tomorrow?  After today’s incident, it’s more important than ever that we don’t miss that event.”

“I’d forgotten about that,” I said, “but this is too important for us to let go.  If it looks like we’re going to be led too far way to return in time to attend, we’ll just have to find a diplomatic excuse for delaying the banquet.”

“I can handle that situation,”
said Admiral Regeny, “I’ll contact Senator Tacfacs and tell him that we’ve heard rumors of a plan to detonate a bomb at the banquet and that we may need to cancel it until we receive more intelligence.  That should buy us the time needed to deal with these rebels.”

“Good, hopefully this won’t take too long to accomplish,” I said.

Little did I realize that it would take far less time than even I anticipated.  By late afternoon Stonbersa reported that the ship we followed was approaching a much larger craft that was about the size of the
TECCION.

“It looks like the rebels decided not to hide out on a planet or moon after all; they simply moved out further into the vacuum of space,” commented Stonbersa.  “What do you want us to do now, Admiral?”

“I’d hate to blow the ship up,” said the admiral, “but unless they’re willing to surrender, I don’t see that we will have a lot of options.  We need that ship and
every
ship we have in the fleet to ultimately squash these brigands.  We can’t afford to go around blowing up every ship the Brotherhood may take.”

“Maybe we won’t have to blow them up… how about we just shake them up a little
?” I said.

The admiral looked at me and grinned, “What’s your plan, Tibby?  I have a hunch it’s going to be a good one.”

“First off, we have to back out of sensor range of the
TECCION
just long enough for us to drop shields and launch the
ALI. 
Marranalis and two other troopers can take her out cloaked.  Then we’ll also return cloaked and position ourselves within close distance of the
TECCION
.  We’ll broadcast our presence to them, giving them the option to surrender peacefully.  They won’t of course, but they won’t be able to see us either.

“In the meantime
, the
ALI
will fly around to their other side.  When we tell the Brotherhood that they are surrounded and to surrender, we’ll then materialize so they can see the
NEW ORLEANS
.  They’ll most certainly open fire; and when our RMFF shields dissipate the hits, they will again see that their weaponry is ineffective.  We’ll then return fire aimed to take out some of the GW propulsion systems on the ship, while the
ALI
simultaneously takes out several of the GW drives on the other side the ship while remaining cloaked.  The
TECCION
will have to assume that a squadron of invisible ships has surrounded the
TECCION
and that they are outclassed and unable to strike back.  I think under those circumstances, and in light of the events of the past few weeks, they will surrender without further resistance.  We’ll then send over patrol ships carrying Special Ops troopers to round up the rebel crew; confine them securely, and then fly the crippled ship back to Plosaxen for repairs.  You can schedule a news conference and broadcast vid clips, like we did at Megelleon, so the citizens can witness the successful operation.”

“I like it,”
said the admiral. “Let’s just hope the rebels are as willing to surrender as you think.”

According to this plan, Stonbersa moved the
NEW ORLEANS
out of range so the
ALI
could be launched.  The captain then moved us back to the
TECCION
in a position adjacent to their main hangar – so close that if we were uncloaked and standing in the open hangar bay those onboard the
TECCION
would have easily been able to see us with the naked eye.  In fact, our position would make it extremely difficult for the Brotherhood to deploy any patrol ships out of the hatch of the
TECCION
to retaliate.

A universal communication link was then opened and Admiral Regeny announced, “Attention, rebel insurgents aboard the
TECCION,
this is Admiral Regeny of the Federation Space Force.  You are hereby ordered to surrender.  You are surrounded.”

There was a moment’s pause before an image appeared on the screen.  It was obvious that these members of the Brotherhood had their own idea of uniforms, as their Federation dress had been replaced with a dark, almost violet blue uniform.  This was somewhat surprising, as the Brotherhood troops that had taken over the
DUSTEN
wore black uniforms with contrasting collars.  The image on the screen was that of a middle-aged woman.

“This is Captain Ceewurd of the Brotherhood of Light.  You seem to be delusional, Admiral, as you have no ships in our vicinity
and I hardly believe you are in any position to take action against us.”

The admiral signaled to Stonbersa to reveal our position as soon as she stopped speaking.  Stonbersa deactivated the cloaking mechanism while maintaining the RMFF defense shields.  On the screen we saw Ceewurd’s face render surprise as Admiral Regeny said gravely, “We are much closer than you think, Captain.  I highly recommend you surrender – now.”

Behind Captain Ceewurd one of her officers turned to her in a panic.  “They’re right on top of us, Captain, what shall we do?”

“Fire, you idiots,” Ceewurd screamed.  “FIRE!”

For the next several minutes lights and explosions flashed across the RMFF shield as the weapons of the
TECCION
blazed away and Captain Stonbersa and the admiral stood calmly before the vid screen.  Eventually the firing stopped; and the shock that consumed Ceewurd’s entire posture betrayed her attempt to assert an air of control.

“It’s a trick.  They’re not really there.  It’s some sort of illusion or hologram,” she insisted hysterically.

The admiral replied with grim calm, “I assure you, Captain, this is no illusion.  At this moment a squadron of cloaked and shielded Federation ships surround you; and if you do not surrender in the next two minutes, we will open fire.”

I was hoping that the
TECCION
would surrender at this point, as time would otherwise run out on the
ALI
’s cloaking device and they would need to withdraw for protection.

“You’re bluffing, Admiral,” replied Ceewurd with a contemptuous grin.  “You have nothing but an illusion of a ship in our vicinity and
that
appears to be a space yacht and not a star ship.”

“It is your choice, Captain,” said Regeny, “I have no intention of playing games with you.”

“Be careful, Captain,” I whispered to Stonbersa, as the
NEW ORLEANS
prepared to fire on the
TECCION
’s GW drives.  “We don’t want a repeat of the underwater base on Megelleon.”

“Right,” he whispered back.  “Kerabac and I have since calibrated for the amplification.  We can do this without blowing them to pieces.”

We had discovered quite by accident the first time we fired weapons from the
NEW ORLEANS
through the active RMFF shields that the RMFF field amplified the force and energy of any beam or projectile launched from the ship.  Consequently, the damage done to the targets was many times over the expected outcome under non-shielded conditions.  If we were to fire through the RMFF at normal strength to disable its engines, we would most likely blow the ship into oblivion.

Stonbersa gave the order to the weapons officer, “Fire to take out the starboard GW drives. 
ALI
, fire to take out their port GW drives.”  There were brief flashes of light from the weapons on the
NEW ORLEANS
and small explosion occurred on the GW drive pods on the
TECCION.

While we could not see what was happening on the other side of the
TECCION,
we could hear Marranalis’ voice over the speaker saying, “Port GW drives disabled, sir.”

“
Thank you,
ALI
.  Stand and hold for further orders.”  Actually the ALI was not standing or holding; Marranalis had moved the craft almost immediately after firing so its location could not be targeted.