Talosian Chronicles 3: Talosian Alliance (27 page)

"Experience is important, yes," Goya said. "But ability is also very important. What Ian Williams lacks in experience, he more than makes up for with ability. A more experienced Commander would have known that to go against the Super-Nova would be suicide and would have acted according to that belief.

"Ian Williams was told that to stand up to the Super-Nova alone was suicide, but he didn't know it. Because of that, we are here today able to debate this," Goya replied. "Also, you don't have anyone more experienced than Ian Williams."

"I am afraid you have been misinformed, Admiral. There are several thousand officers in various fleets around the world, that have more experience than Ian Williams," Ambassador LeClerc replied.

"That is curious," Goya replied.

"How so, Admiral?" LeClerc asked, smiling smugly.

"Since there is only one ship guarding Earth, and it is in the hands of the Terrans, and has been commanded the entire time by Ian Williams, it is curious that you would have thousands of other officers with more experience than he has. Perhaps we have a different definition of experience, but to us, experience means that someone has actually done something in order to have experience with it," Goya explained sedately. "I do not believe many of those other officers have even left the planet have they?"

"Well, no, but we do have astronauts that have," LeClerc replied.

"That is true, and perhaps I missed that in the records I looked though, could you tell me which ones have command experience on a capitol class ship in combat?" Admiral Goya asked. "Madam Ambassador, there are, in fact, several of your former astronauts as well as military personnel serving aboard the Star Dancer, as well as some of the other facilities in the sector. While I am certain they have served well, none of them have the experience that I am speaking of. Only Ian Williams does." 

The American Ambassador then spoke. "So what you are telling us is that Ian Williams has already been promoted to Admiral, and that you would like us to agree with that decision in order to make Admiral Williams feel less guilty about accepting it?"

Luke asked Goya if he could speak, and Goya stepped aside.

"Mister Ambassador, yes, we have already decided to promote Commander Williams to Admiral. Since we are in effect his boss, that means he has been promoted. The Talosian delegation asked to speak to you, in order to convince you to agree with our decision. As we outlined earlier, whatever you decide in this matter he will be promoted, but we would rather you agreed to it, then not.

"Admiral Williams is now in charge of the safety of two solar systems and the area of space they reside in. He is the highest ranking military person we have because of his abilities, as well as the small fact that he was also the first military person we had. There is no one here on Earth, or in our own colonies that is better suited to this position.

"Simply put, if you tried to appoint one of your own, which I would be surprised if you could actually agree on anyone anyway, I very much doubt that person could do as good of a job as Ian does. He is a great leader and a great commander. He has the respect not only of his superiors, but of his subordinates as well. He is intimately familiar with every step taken to ensure the protection and security of our home. He makes sure that there are at least three people that can take over for him if the need arises, but if it ever does, we'll be in a very bad position.

"Agree with us or not, that choice is yours, but if it were me, I would rather have a military commander that knows the people he is protecting have faith in him, than some politically appointed flunky that no one trusted. Think on this; Ian specifically, and us in general, have promised to protect you regardless of nationality or religion or anything else. Even though he knows each and every one of you would happily slit his throat to get your hands on our technology, he still would give his life to protect you, even from yourselves," Luke finished.

"Da, your Ambassador has repeatedly reminded us of this, Councilor," The Ambassador from the Russian Federation said. "But with all of this advanced technology you claim to have, why would it be so bad for us to get some of it? Perhaps a cure for the AIDS virus, or a fertilizer that will not harm the soil? Surely these are to be considered humanitarian?"

Luke nodded. "On the surface, yes, those things would be considered humanitarian. In point of fact we are in negotiations with several of your leaders to open clinics for medical assistance. No, we are not just going to hand you the cures, because the knowledge learned from some of these treatments could very easily lead to horrific chemical or biological weapons. We will not be party to that. We will offer our help, but we will not violate our own promises by doing so."

The Secretary General intervened then. "Ambassadors, before we wander to far from the main road, let us decide the question that has been asked of us. Before we vote on this, I would like to point out one thing, if I may. When promoting a flag officer such as an Admiral, how many of our own countries would ask for the support of its allies? Would we not simply do it and not ask the rest of us at all? Admiral Williams is already owed our respect and gratitude if for nothing else than by virtue of protecting us from slavery or worse. Please consider these things when casting your votes. All in favor of supporting the Terran Council vote 'aye' those opposed, 'Nay'," he finished.

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“O
kay folks, listen up.” Cindy said. “We’ve taken considerable damage. Currently, I’ve laid in a course for an airless planetoid in the closest asteroid belt. We’ll set down, and effect repairs. Lissa, Sasha, and I will work on the ship. I want you three to test our personal weapons and equipment, make repairs if needed, and assist us if we need it.”

Jerry indicated he had a question so Cindy nodded to him. “Major, what exactly happened to us? And what all is wrong with the ship?”

Cindy looked thoughtful for a moment, then replied; “From everything that is damaged, we took a massive power overload. Every system that gets at least some power from the armor is either fried or unreliable. The jump engines are down. The lasers are off line, and our communications suite and IFF module are dead. Damocles is crippled, and we aren’t going very far anytime soon.”

“Okay, where do we start, boss lady?” Ben asked.

"Sasha, if you're up to it, I would like you to go below and start working on the comms. I’ll stay in the pilots chair and try to assist from there. I would like the rest of you to talk to Damocles and begin to replicate the parts that most likely got destroyed for the jump engine and the lasers. We’ll be at that planetoid in about three hours; I’d like to have the parts ready when we get there.”

As everyone got up to do their separate tasks, Cindy pulled Sasha aside. “How are the eyes? Are you okay to do this?”

“Da... er, yes, my eyes still hurt and I have headache, but I think I can handle this," the former soviet pilot replied.

“Okay, feel free to take breaks or ask for help though.” Cindy paused while Sasha nodded, “Now you have one extra task while you're down there: the targeting computer reports a malfunction between the holographic interface unit and the sensors. You’ll need to go forward and see if you can fix those as well.”

“Uhg! I hate those interface units! They remind me of Moscow road map; everything tangled and going nowhere. Can I have Lissa to help? That interface will take time to figure out," Sasha replied

“Sure, I’ll get one of the boys to help me outside,” Cindy replied.

“Thanks. I’ll get Lissa and get to work.”

A couple of hours later, Cindy was still in the cockpit. She had heard Ben enter the cockpit, so she wasn’t surprised when he spoke.

“Hey boss; how’s it goin’?”

“Well, Sasha and Lissa have gotten the communications unit repaired, but we still aren’t getting anything. The computer says the communications pod has been damaged too. It looks like you and I get to replace that while we are outside as well. They're still working on the targeting systems. How are things going back in the hold?”

“Pretty good actually, they’ve got three of the four laser generators ready, and about half of what we’ll need for the jump engine. Something's been bothering me about the battle we were in though; what was an Imperial light cruiser doing all the way out here without any other support? We’re way behind the 'front'. I’d think they'd know coming here would be a suicide mission.”

Cindy sat thoughtfully for a moment. “It had to be an attempt to capture the Benesian High Priestess, but still that would be pretty risky."

"I know there are spies everywhere, but considering the security surrounding the travel plans for heads of states, how did they even know she was here?" Ben asked.

"I don't know, and that's bothering me too. None of it makes sense."

A quiet beeping interrupted them. Cindy checked the controls to find they had reached their destination. She switched on the comm; “We’re there folks, everybody stand by for landing.” She turned to Ben. “Strap in. This might be a little rough.”

A few minutes later, Cindy received word that everyone was strapped in and ready. She had found a flat, smooth place to set down and began their descent. The planetoid wasn’t much more than a large round rock. It was so far from its primary that a person couldn’t tell which of the glittering points in the sky was its home star; at least, not with the naked eye. Two things would make this landing rough; its rotation was very fast, and it was composed mostly of iron. Cindy hoped that, if there were other enemy units in the system, the magnetic field generated by this rock would help hide them.

Cindy was trying to keep the bucking Raptor on course, a feat made more difficult by the fluctuating magnetic field and the Raptor's damaged thrusters.  Just five feet from touchdown the Raptor dropped hard and slammed into the surface, driving the grounding spike deeply into the ground. The impact was unexpected, but was not enough to collapse the landing struts. During shut down, Cindy noticed that the armor charge was draining down, but much slower than she had hoped. They could still work on the Raptor, but they couldn’t touch the surface of the planet and the ship at the same time. Their suits were insulated against such a contingency, but the armor charge was still too high even for that.

Cindy unstrapped and, with Ben following, went back to see how the rest of the crew was doing.

“That was one of your better landings, Boss,” Jerry quipped.

“Smart ass. How’s everyone doing?” Cindy replied.

“No one’s hurt. What was with that landing?” Sam asked.

“This dirt ball is mostly iron, and its magnetic field was a bitch on PMS. One more thing, if anyone goes outside, do not touch the Raptor while standing on the surface. We aren’t discharging very fast. Ben, I read in your file that you have the gift of telekinesis?”

“Uh yeah, I do. But, I can’t lift a lot of weight. The heavier the object is, the shorter period of time I can hold it up.”

“Can you lift yourself? Suited?”

“Yeah, but not for very long; a minute or two at most.”

Cindy thought for a moment. “That should be enough. Sam, Jerry we’ll need you two to carry the parts outside for us. Let’s get this done.”

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"J
enny, when we come back, drop us at Pleiades One. We'll be putting in for a 'hot' refit," Ian said when she joined him for lunch. "I just got off the comm with Chief Dommer, Maia, and the design team at the station. They worked out a plan for our upgrades that will only take us off line for a few hours at a time. With the additions of the two other Talosian defense ships, it should be safe enough to start our upgrades."

"I was going to ask you about that," Jenny said "With so many other ships in system, could we consider those upgrades. Are we going all the way to a battle cruiser, or will we just upgrade our existing configuration?"

"We'll go all the way to a the battle cruiser configuration, although it'll take slight longer, depending on how often we'll have to leave the dock to put out a fire," Ian explained.

Jenny nodded her understanding. "I'm recommending Chekhov for another promotion. He completed his doctorate last week."

"That shouldn't be a problem, he's our most senior navigator anyway. I'm looking forward to the research results of his dissertation. Instantaneous travel over light years would be a hell of a strategic advantage," Ian replied before taking a bite of his sub sandwich.

Jenny snorted. "Leave it to you to know all about his thesis! Personnel was part of my job, and I didn't even know!"

Ian shrugged, smiling softly. "I try to keep aware of everything being researched, I do manage to remember most of them. You have to admit, a jump engine would keep my attention."

Jenny sighed, "This promotion is going to take a lot of adjustment."

"For all of us," Ian said. "How's John taking to his new duties?"

"I think he's doing great. But, he's had a longer time to adjust to this, he knew he was going to be promoted soon. Have you and the Council figured out a final placement for him?"

Since his mouth was full Ian nodded, he swallowed and spoke. "John will be temporarily assigned to Serena on the Prometheus as her XO. Her XO is being promoted to Commander and assigned to the Zephyr when it arrives. Former Admiral Belirus has offered his services as an administrator to 'atone' for his crimes. I was thinking about assigning him to the Carrier as a flag officer once we get it built. In the interim, he is on his way to Mars to assume control over the construction of the fighter assembly facility."

"What about that Admiral friend of yours from Earth? I thought I saw that Janet had succeeded in recruiting his whole family?" Jenny asked.