Читать книгу The Phoenix Rising - Gary MDiv Caplan - Страница 9

About thirty minutes before the board meeting, a security officer met Fleet Captain Robert Sheppard at his quarters. Sheppard was in full dress uniform for this occasion. The alliance dress uniform had a longer and more tuxedo-like jacket but was otherwise similar to the duty uniform.

The security officer informed Sheppard he would be receiving a formal promotion to commodore as well a medal for valor in combat. He had been on Star One for seven days now and had already done some preliminary investigation as to what starship he would select as his new command vessel. Ranks of fleet captain and above received some selection privileges.

Just outside one of the mag-rail stops for the headquarters complex, his old friend Commodore Brandon Avery met him at the mag-rail station. Brandon still looked fit, though he was getting some more white in his auburn hair. His green eyes had a cautious look.

“I thought I should escort you personally, now that you will soon have the same rank as I,” stated Brandon.

“It’s kind of you to come and meet me like this, Brandon,” replied Sheppard. He looked around at some of the other people nearby.

“Bob, you deserve the promotion for your exploits during your recent tour of duty,” Avery said. “You should be commended after you and Fleet Captain Larthe drove a wedge into the Viridian fleet.”

Sheppard nodded, thinking back on the past few years.

“I heard you took over when Commodore Pilat was on medical leave and had to go to the med center,” continued Brandon. He also commended Sheppard for, more recently, leading his own and four other task forces to a tactical victory, in addition to reclaiming an area of Alliance of Worlds space from the Viridians.

Sheppard said, “Command of several task forces came easy to me, and I had good officers to work with. The whole thing was strange—that battle near the mining station and, not long afterward, the incident with the Starbase 301. Most of the problems all seemed to stem from overzealous Viridian leaders, and unfortunately those commanding at the time were supposedly killed in battle. It’s like fighting individual warlords.”

Sheppard knew that few of Alliance of Worlds’ largest ships were needed to patrol the borders, as the Viridian worlds did not generally possess the level of technology or shipyards necessary to build extremely large starships. Alliance battlecarriers and dreadnaughts, however, were close to five kilometers in length. Moreover, the Viridian would not win against the full might of the Alliance if it came to a full war as opposed to the occasional border skirmish.

“Now I’ve heard that Commodore Pilat, along with a few of our and their diplomats, has finally signed a standard nonaggression treaty,” stated Avery.

Sheppard nodded as they passed into another checkpoint and had to identify themselves. Security officials examined their identification, and performed both retinal and DNA scans.

Sheppard and Brandon proceeded into the meeting complex.

“That treaty is no coincidence, Bob,” replied Brandon. “With the Varlon expanding again, our diplomats were dispatched about the same time you were on your way to Star One. Prime Minister Desserix wanted it arranged, and Chief of Staff Orlond helped accomplish the treaty process. Now we can move some ships to other duties and refit a few as well. I’ve heard that the Viridians generally have a reasonable sense of honor and most likely will not break the treaty.”

“At least not until they have a major government change, which hopefully won’t be for several years from now,” commented Sheppard.

“It’s also good for us that the Varlon, with their xenophobic ways, don’t have ties with the Viridian—or the Meiosian, for that matter. By the way,” Avery said, “the Meiosian have also been persuaded, with the help of a territory grant, to sign a nonaggression treaty with us.”

“That’s good news, as the Alliance can concentrate on holding the Varlon back,” replied Sheppard.

The two entered a series of hallways and were joined by a few other officers. When they got to the actual meeting area, for security purposes both were required to submit to DNA scans again for identification verification.

“That’s a bit extreme,” Sheppard said.

Brandon shook his head. “Not if you consider that some of the problems we’re having are due to a morphic species not well known by the Alliance of Worlds; however, I’ve been told the Karratins and the Estrians know of them and have been informing us of how to take precautions,” he said.

After entering the rather large meeting chamber, Sheppard noted a few Alpha- and Delta-class androids assisting security. The large, non-sentient Deltas were basically robots with weapons, and they were sometimes used as heavy armored security.

Looking around the room, Sheppard noticed an old family friend talking to one of the sentient and humanoid-appearing Alphas: Fleet Admiral Nigel Braddock. He was another fellow human from Earth and a good friend to both Robert Sheppard and his Star Knight father, Allan. Sheppard had known Nigel Braddock for several decades. To his friends, Braddock was jokingly known as Mister Stasis, because he had spent so much of his life in suspension of one kind or another, since the mid-twenty-first century, until he acquired various anti-aging and rejuvenation procedures from the Karratins.

Braddock looked in Sheppard’s direction and moved toward him with a hand outstretched for a handshake, a traditional Earth greeting.

“Good to see you, Bob. And you too, Brandon.” Braddock shook both men’s hands in a formal greeting. He was an older gentleman, clean cut, with dark brown hair lined with many streaks of gray. He had blue-gray eyes.

Sheppard knew Nigel was much older than he appeared; he had been born in the 1990s, in Scotland, on Earth. By using combinations of everything from early cryo-stasis devices and anti-aging formulas to genetic alteration, tissue regeneration, even temporary cybernetic replacement, Nigel had managed to keep alive.

Nigel was an engineer and businessman; he was also president of BradCorp, a diversified company building starships and robots, and similar devices. He even had helped design a line of sea and space ships for SEDA—the Sea Exploration and Defense Association—including one called the Oceania-class cruiser, which was also used by the Alliance of Worlds. He was now in the Star Command section because of his reserve status, which had begun when he joined TERRASEC, the Terran Space Exploration Council. Later, when that organization merged with the Alliance of Worlds, Braddock continued an intermittent affiliation. He found it a beneficial one, as three centuries ago Earth had been one of the founding planets of the Alliance of Worlds.

“Well, it’s good to see you,” Sheppard told his old friend.

“I heard you had an accident,” stated Commodore Avery.

“Yes, a saboteur tried to blow up a section of one of my starship refit stations, and I happened to be in it,” replied Braddock. “Luckily, it was one of my own facilities, and I have good security systems and sensors. My droids had detected advanced warning signs, and the explosion was contained partially with force fields. The saboteur’s ship escaped using some sort of masking technology similar to what the Varlon use. Afterward, fortunately, we didn’t lose much data, as some old holographic data crystals were used as backup for the facilities information.”

“We’re glad you’re alive and well, Admiral,” Avery said, “although you’re not the only one using the old holographic data crystals as backup storage. We have had to implement that at security central as a result of recent data losses to some of the station’s primary memory systems.”

“Yes indeed, it’s good you were not personally harmed,” added Sheppard. “Now what are you doing here, sir? I thought you had a command in the engineering branch when you do your reserve time.”

“Usually I do,” Braddock said. “However, due to the loss of command staff, I have been reassigned to an active command section. I do have experience in fleet command, though not as much as I would like, considering the problem we’re likely to face. You may not be aware of this, but I have been informed the Varlon are again charging forward and looking to take new territory.”

Sheppard said, “I have some knowledge, and Avery here has informed me of some things as well. I understand part of today’s meeting will be a briefing, preceded by a promotion session. It seems I will be receiving another star cluster.”

“May I be one of the first to congratulate you on your promotion to commodore, Bob,” Braddock said.

Just then, Prime Minister Desserix and Chief of Staff Orlond walked into the meeting hall. Sheppard watched as they moved to the central area.

“There will be some notables here today for a short period of time,” Brandon said. “The Betellians have sent their Ambassador Viess, who is also one of their admirals. He will be giving a presentation at this briefing. Since the Betellians are here only briefly and may not likely get a longer opportunity to meet with our prime minister separately, the PM decided to come here personally.”

Sheppard looked around the large room. Several other officers had entered, many of whom were non-human. Some required atmospheric modification and had small devices attached near their breathing orifices. Desserix himself belonged to the Rigezon Alliance another founder of the Alliance of Worlds.

The Rigezon had been in space somewhat longer than the people from Earth, perhaps by two centuries, and they were fair and generally honorable. The Rigezon were essentially an avian or birdlike people; they had a remnant wing structure but were flightless. All were highly pigmented, mostly in blue or greenish shades, occasionally mixed with oranges and browns.

Sheppard saw the prime minister’s chief of staff in the hall already. He remembered that Orlond was from the Epsilon Four Confederation, who had also joined the Alliance of Worlds as one of the founding members. They were humanoid in general structure and had light orange-colored skin. Orlond’s people had been spacefarers for a few centuries now, about as long as the Terrans of Earth.

Others were arriving—a few grand admirals, fleet admirals, vice admirals, and commodores of many different racial groups that comprised the Alliance. A few were humans. Sheppard recognized an old acquaintance, Commodore Tang, whose great grandparents originally came from China, on Earth. Some were here for a briefing and a few for both a promotion and the briefing, like Sheppard.

Two war-droids were stationed inside the conference hall. The hall itself was large enough for three hundred persons, but approximately a hundred were here today. The oval room had two circles of concentric tables, each with information displays. There was also a head table section close to the speaker’s platform where the most senior personnel would sit, and the rest of the inner circle was for high-ranking officers. The inner circle was arranged with one table for each grand admiral and those fleet and vice admirals in his group. Sheppard and any other commodores or fleet captains invited would be in the outer ring, where other lesser dignitaries would also sit.

Desserix and Orlond were at the head table, along with Defense Minister Narthag and Interior Minister Preston. The Betellian, Viess, arrived and made his way, along with two others of his people, to the head table.

The Betellians walked very gracefully to the head table with their unique, three-legged walk. They were non-humanoid, with red to orangeish-brown skin. They had trilateral symmetry, with three arms, three legs, and a three-sided, largish head, and were about two meters tall. They were known for having psychokinetic and telepathic abilities. A few were Star Knights, but none was in Sheppard’s present Star Knight Order. For communication, most Betellians utilized a crystalline translator that produced a voice that spoke in the established language of the Alliance of Worlds. They used this device to avoid invading others’ privacy telepathically.

Shortly after he had arrived, Sheppard had seen one of the Betellian ships with its trans-dimensional drive appear. No doubt, the Betellians sent a representative to arrange the particulars for this meeting. The representative had to be sent as it was determined that at least one of the Alliance’s main encryption codes was compromised, and communications could be deciphered. The coded communications problem was probably an inside espionage, according to snippets Avery had revealed in a specially secured conversation with Sheppard earlier in the week just after Sheppard disembarked from the Endeavour and was assigned officers quarters for his section at Star One

Sheppard and Avery moved to sit at a table with their identifiers flashing on the personal information panel. The meeting would start soon; Fleet Admiral Braddock moved to the inner circle of tables and sat next to Fleet Admiral Renhau and Grand Admiral Pendragon. Sheppard noted the lack of high-ranking officers seated at the inner tables and realized what Brandon had been saying about assassination targets.

Lord Garfield passed behind Sheppard on his way forward, nodded to him, and sent a quick telepathic greeting. He was one of Robert Sheppard’s professors at the Academy, and he was also a fellow Star Knight, although in a different order. Sheppard noted that his former instructor looked pleased with himself. Garfield moved toward the inner circle and sat at the table to the right of the head table.

Fleet Admiral Peregrine, who would be one of the primary speakers, made an entrance dressed in the formal Alliance of Worlds uniform of dark blue with sections of white trim. The admiral had many medal and campaign ribbons, and he was generally thought to be a physically striking member of the Rigezon people. Peregrine was considered one of the Alliance of Worlds’ best tacticians and was one of the few admirals Sheppard actually admired. Years ago, Sheppard had first served with Fleet Captain Peregrine after his promotion to lieutenant commander. Sheppard also had later served under then-commodore Peregrine as the starfighter wing commander of the battlecruiser Valiant, assigned to one of Peregrine’s task forces. Peregrine once had even turned down a promotion in order to stay out in deep space.

Now Fleet Admirals Peregrine’s fleet, the Third Fleet, had returned from a tactical engagement with the Varlon. It had not had a positive result; however, most present knew that most of the other fleet commanders would probably have fared worse against the Varlon.

Sheppard noticed that the room seemed to be quieting, especially after the Betellian Admiral Viess and Admiral Peregrine entered the hall.

Minister Narthag, of the feline peoples of Kyz and the Alliance’s present minister of defense, went up to the podium. “I am honored to be able to begin this meeting,” he said. “I realize that these monthly meetings do not usually have quite as many guests, nor does this group usually hold a promotions ceremony in conjunction with an informational meeting. However, some of those present for both the information in this briefing and for promotion will be leaving the Star One soon. I have been informed that this particular meeting is secure, and no problems such as happened at one of these meetings a few months ago should occur here. I am confident that we are very secure today.”

Sheppard noted that the minister looked at Garfield and Viess at that point.

“Now, if you will be patient, we have some awards to present,” Minister Narthag said.

Sheppard sometimes got slightly embarrassed by being given a medal for doing his job. The defense minister asked several officers to come forward to receive medals, and eventually he got to Sheppard.

“For valor at the Viridian front and the battle in the system of Hedga Five,” Narthag said.

Sheppard thought back briefly to the events that surrounded him saving the valuable mining facility, its crew, and the mining transports. He walked up and received the embellished medal bar signifying valor; to go along with the several other awards he had already been given. Sheppard recalled that he had actually effectively been in command of a group assault of five task forces for most of the battle until the commanding commodore arrived, and when his own ship’s communication system and main drive were damaged, he took a Valkyrie-class starfighter into battle to command from the battlefront while continuing to direct the larger vessels. It was actually something he had learned partly from Admiral Peregrine.

After things settled down again, the defense minister asked that, in order to speed things along, those who were to be promoted were to receive their promotions from the officers in their fleet chain of command superior to them now. Minister Narthag then sat down and waited as several admirals got up and moved to those to be promoted. Sheppard received his second star cluster and was officially promoted to commodore, by Grand Admiral Pendragon, as Fleet Admiral Whyte who had been assassinated, and Vice Admiral Wainright who had an accident that had probably been arranged somehow by assassins were not there to perform the promotion. Applause followed for a brief time, a salute to the Alliance of Worlds’ flag followed, and the informational briefing began.

Grand Admiral Jeroloh, who was chairing the informational meeting, stood up and welcomed everyone and then introduced the speakers of the panel, who included admirals Viess, Garfield, and Peregrine. First, the admirals dealt with some old business.

During the few minutes that fleet deployment reports were given, and any logs to be transferred from personal commlinks to others officers were encrypted and sent, Sheppard was lost in thought about the battles that had earned him this recent medal. He had no presentation duties, so he merely watched. The usual board activities were shortened and some omitted in light of the security situation, the special ministerial guests, and unusual briefings to be given today.

Chief of Staff Orlond stood up and said, "I would like to call upon Lord Garfield of Karro to give a logistics and intelligence update concerning the sabotage of Alliance of Worlds facilities.”

Sheppard remembered that Orlond was a stickler for formality.

“Your Grace,” Orlond said, “if you would please proceed.”

“Thank you, Mister Orlond. I was pleased to be asked to resume duties after an absence of almost three decades,” Garfield said. “I want to thank you for the opportunity to help. I have ascertained information about what and who are behind these acts of sabotage, and, in addition, some information about assassination targets. I have used several devices of my own design, as well as certain mentallic or psionic disciplines to ferret out those responsible.” He paused and briefly looked at the audience. “I have found two contingents that have been on this station for likely over one standard year. It is highly likely that they have been sent by two enemies of the Alliance of Worlds. There has also been evidence that they are collaborating to some degree, whether to enhance effectiveness or because they were ordered to do so.”

Garfield used one of his devices to interface with the central display projectors, including a secure zone of the Star One’s central computer data interlink system. Those who wanted to could link and get information using their personal interlink devices. The briefing display units portrayed pre-recorded, three-dimensional images of many individuals and areas that had been sabotaged. A recent imaging of the failed attempt on the secondary fusion reactors showed something odd. The close-up of a non-standard security spy device of some sort showed a facial change on an individual who also removed new clothing from a case. In another instance, there was an image of a humanoid leaving an air ventilation shaft and replacing the cover with considerable speed, then jumping down over seventy-five feet and landing with ease, with no apparent anti-gravity device. The fall was recorded by two sources, and the image was distorted and actually disappeared for a moment.

As the attendees looked on, Garfield said, “Many of the data recorders were also sabotaged and sections of data lost. Or in several instances in areas where the saboteurs could not avoid actually being recorded the recording devices later had data deleted or modified.”

He went on. "We are dealing with two groups: the Quarlusian on one hand, and a sophisticated android on the other. For those of you who do not know—and I can sense there are several—the Quarlusian people have a limited shape-shifting ability. They can alter facial muscles and other sections of their bodies to take on different appearances. These cosmetic changes extend to altering pigmentation and even skin thickness, if given enough time. Moreover, they are a subjugate race of the Varlon, one of the few cultures the Varlon will tolerate.”

There were some murmurs in the group.

“Sir, you said androids, but wouldn’t our scanners detect them?” asked Admiral Girok.

“Normally, yes, with ordinary androids,” replied Garfield. “However, these andro-synths are equipped with significantly advanced technology, and have defenses against detection. The one I showed you on my presentation will likely lead me to the others like it. It is being observed now by my operatives. These andro-synths have a sensor filter and sensor pattern shrouding unit, which allows them to mask scans and pass for a variety of individuals. This technology is even more sophisticated than what the Varlon have; these andro-synths posses Jiyarri subsystems. When I discovered this, I contacted the ambassadors that the Jiyarr have at my home world and the ambassador at one of the Betellian world spheres. Both denied knowledge of this. I have known both for over a century, and they have been honorable to their word.”

He continued. “I also probed the andro-synth and found another Jiyarri system, a psionic rebounding interface. I was still able to extract some information, which leads me to the conclusion that the Accadian Empire is involved and has acquired some Jiyarr technology through unusual channels. The Accads were assistants to the Jiyarr at one time. For several of you who aren’t familiar, the Jiyarr are from outside this galaxy, toward the large cluster of galaxies beyond Galaxy M100. I have not pursued further hyper subspace communications, since an answer—even with the Jiyarri version of the hyperspace communications network like our COMNET—would take a few months at the distances of over fifty million light-years.

“At this time,” he went on, “I have gathered enough information to realize that there are several saboteurs and assassins, and I have the Security and Logistics departments involved in capture operations at this time. It will take several more days before we can physically apprehend all of the individuals. I have designed special modules to be adapted to the security scanners and the personal hand multi-scanners. These modules will allow the systems in operation to better detect the andro-synths and the Quarlusians. They are presently being adapted to the multi-scanners and the security sensor grid from the designs and the prototype multi-scanner I constructed. Unfortunately, the security grid for the station will need significant modification, and until that is complete the hand-held multi-scanners will be used.”

The prime minister asked, “When do you estimate the project will be completed?”

“Prime Minister Desserix,” replied Garfield in an ambassadorial manner, “with a station of this size to modify, and with limited staff familiar with the technologic expertise necessary, I will need to personally supervise engineering modifications to the internal sensors and other local sensors in likely or potential sabotage sites. To do this effectively for Star One will take approximately five to six weeks. The first group of modified hand-held multi-scanners will be ready for distribution by this evening.”

Sheppard thought it was very like Professor Garfield to be efficient and to anticipate just about any question that might be put to him.

Garfield said, “If there are no further questions …” After glancing around, he resumed his seat.

Chief of Staff Orlond stood again and introduced one of the three Betellians. “I would like to present Admiral Viess of the Betellian Union.”

Sheppard had met Viess several years before, and as far as he could tell, the admiral was unchanged; he still used his communication crystal device that mimicked the standard language. Viess only communicated telepathically to those he knew, and it had been some time since he had communicated to Sheppard, although he had sent a brief congratulatory thought message to Sheppard when he received his medal.

“Greetings to all,” the small crystal device that hung around his large neck area intoned in a melodic voice with a male timbre. “I am saddened that I must be the bearer of more grave news. The Varlon have grown bold indeed, and they have attempted a very large-scale assault upon our Alpha quadrant sphere, using long-range warp torpedoes. The first wave of that assault succeeded in only minor, easily repairable damage to our dwelling.”

Viess began to use the image projection equipment to show three-dimensional visuals of the assault. The Betellain included some secondary interlink display information for those who wished to access the station-link database with their personal data interlink.

“This attack represents a considerable increase in what we had previously considered only interference with our world sphere building projects in the Milky Way,” Viess’s communication device said. “Usually, the Varlon have been unsuccessful in their assaults upon my people.”

The visuals and graphic displays continued, one showing an analysis of the torpedoes used.

“They have improved their technology in this field. We realized it was a matter of time until they did, but they had various internal political problems that previously would have interfered with such an attack.”

Another display indicated the trajectories and reverse calculations of launch positions in the Rhendal sector.

“If they continue to deploy such long-range torpedo systems in some of the closer worlds in the Rhendal sector, many of the Alliance of Worlds systems will come under direct assault.” Viess looked over at Lord Garfield and a few other Karratin representatives. “It is highly probable that, eventually, several Karratin, Estrian, and Lyramenian worlds may come under attack as well,” stated Viess.

“I have been informed that the internal political struggles in the Varlon Empire have been ended. I can conclude this was probably the reason for the following full-scale assault on my people.”

Admiral Viess showed more visuals that had been accelerated for presentation purposes.

As Sheppard watched, he saw the Betellian tactical views of another wave of long-range torpedoes enhanced with cybertronic or positronic countermeasures, and the Varlon chameleon cloaking system move toward the Betellians Dyson-like worlds-sphere. This was followed by a full-scale assault, with the Varlon “H” and the “I” type of heavy or sometimes called super dreadnaughts.

Sheppard recalled that an earlier H-class was first encountered by one of the Earth-born captains of the Terran Space Exploration Council, or TERRASEC. That captain remarked that the ship resembled a giant letter H. That started the designation of the Varlon ships by letters. As the humans were one of the founding members of what was to become the Alliance of Worlds, the Earth letter designations were kept, even though some other races had their own designations. Over time as the Varlon names for their ships were not discovered the Alliance officially adopted the Terran alphabetic symbols for the Varlon ships’ names.

Sheppard recalled a battle during his time with Admiral Peregrine against three H-class ships, and he recalled his apprehension.

Today, Viess briefly showed a sector map, with miniaturized images of four hundred of those H-class dreadnaughts scattered throughout the region. The visuals showed only selected sections of the battle, with plasma weapons blasting matter.

The Betellians were a very advanced civilization, much more technologically advanced than the Alliance of Worlds. The Betellians had been using energy-dampening energy fields and space-warping technology to reduce the damage and neutralize the Varlon threat.

Sheppard realized that, evidently, now the Varlon were primed and in position to threaten even the Betellians.

Viess continued, “The Varlon did not know we had a contingent of our Starcruisers present within our sphere, and there was also a small Hegemony fleet composed of Karratin, Estrian, and Lyramenian starships that was close enough and came to our aid. We prevailed, but the Varlon antimatter torpedoes and plasma weapons had done moderate damage to one of our system spheres, and many of our ships were destroyed or damaged. From intelligence information, we ascertained the Varlon had hoped to do much better against us. We are presently rebuilding our dwelling sphere. Much of the Varlon fleet was destroyed or neutralized, although several of their starships retreated.”

As Viess continued to give his presentation, Sheppard could hear the distress in the animated voice from the crystalline translator. He knew the Betellians did not like to take life or destroy things, and this preference extended even to those considered to be hostile. For that matter, the Hegemony acted to some extent the same as the Betellians. Sheppard thought about this; if an adversary was attempting to kill them, all they would do was try to hold them off and show them the futility of attack. Well, this battle was different; it had not been as futile as so many previous assaults.

“I wanted to make this presentation to provide an update on the Varlon, as we believed you in the Alliance of Worlds could use this data,” stated Viess. He paused momentarily, and his trilaterally symmetric head rolled slightly, looking toward Prime Minister Desserix. “My people are willing to exchange intelligence on these matters, since it seems that the Varlon have increased their resources, and made at least one new ally.” He paused again. “I have been authorized to extend an option for an affiliation treaty to the Alliance of Worlds.”

At this note, Prime Minister Desserix became more animated; he had come to this meeting in hopes of hearing something along these lines. Desserix responded, “The Alliance of Worlds will happily consider this; I am myself pleased at the opportunity to go beyond the limited trade treaty we have at present.”

“This is not an offer of formal alliance, Prime Minister,” came the response from Viess. “We are interested in exchange of information on the Varlon so we can determine a defense for our dwellings. I have been allowed to mention that we rarely need to travel much from the spheres and are content with what we have. The Preceptors do not wish to directly confront the Varlon in an aggressive manner. I see, however, that many of the Preceptors of my government do not recognize the potential threat of the Varlon. Our hope for this affiliation is that more of my people will come to enlightenment about this problem as we begin to interact more with your peoples.”

“Of course, I will take this matter up with the council, and I hope we can all come to a mutual agreement,” Desserix said.

Viess nodded his large head and stepped away from the presentation control unit.

Grand Admiral Jeroloh stood briefly and introduced Fleet Admiral Peregrine.

Peregrine had been listening intently to the Betellian Admiral Viess. Now, he stepped over to the podium and the console that controlled the displays.

He began to speak. “I would like to notify the officers here that most of what I am going to show you was alpha-level classified now, but now has been dropped to level beta.

“About two months ago, I had a large portion of the Third Fleet with me, patrolling various areas of the Rhendal sector. There had been reports of missing freighter ships at first, and then we lost communication from three different colonies, both subspace and the COMNET. A task force under one of my fleet captains engaged the Varlon in defending a fourth colony they had taken in the space of two days. This task force was defeated, and a single ship notified Starbase 245 of the situation. I gathered several task forces of the Third Fleet to investigate and respond to this attack.”

Peregrine activated a display record of the tactical situation using his imbedded personal data interlink unit.

“The Varlon were in the process of an initial assault of Caltha Three, one of the larger Alliance of Worlds colonies in the Rhendal sector. The orbital defense stations, starfighters, and ground weapon bunkers and its moon’s planetary defenses were being overwhelmed. I initiated a flanking maneuver and a hammer assault against the Varlon cruisers. After an exchange, we had the upper hand, until several Varlon cruisers and some carriers arrived after moving stealthily into position with their chameleon cloaks. Some Varlon starships appeared to resemble some of my ships or were masquerading as damaged orbital defense batteries or debris of destroyed orbital stations.”

Peregrine’s tactical display continued to follow his presentation.

“They launched some Scorpion attack craft and Spider ships, which counter-assaulted our starfighters and then dropped planetward. At this point, we held the line.”

Peregrine moved the time index and then showed a large mixed fleet of Varlon starships moving in with H-class dreadnaughts and a few other unidentified, non-Varlon vessels. Peregrine pointed out these other ships.

“We did not pay a great deal of attention to them, until they fired. The larger ones were over twenty-three kilometers in length. I’d say they were some kind super dreadnaught or warbase ship class. These were not Varlon ships; they did not use the same kind of stealth technology, and these ships were not in our databases.”

Sections of the battle were displayed on the central 360-degree surround viewer, which Peregrine utilized. The Varlon cruisers and H-class heavy dreadnaughts ships were beginning to force back Peregrine’s gathered fleet with heavy plasma weapons; his own Constellation-class battlecarrier was in the midst of the battle. Eventually, the unidentified alien ships closed, and a knife-like bolt shot out toward a Legendary-class battlecruiser and shattered the hull—a hull composed of a titanium alloy reinforced with additional ablative armor.

Peregrine continued. “These new starcraft were using antimatter cannons. Shearing anti-protons and anti-neutrons destroyed several cruisers and shattered three dreadnaughts into pieces. At this point, several other Alliance of Worlds task forces of the third fleet arrived. I had to order a retreat, and the recently arrived starships volleyed their antimatter torpedoes at them to facilitate an orderly retreat. The other ships were fast like the Varlon, but even faster—almost fifty percent faster using sub-light speed engines —than our ships. They probably had some kind of norpic generators. Our scans were partially disrupted when trying to lock on to the two largest vessels. It was our good fortune that there were only about twenty of these unidentified alien ships, and they were scattered in several adjacent star systems in the Rhendal sector. Of these starships, only the two largest ones and two of the others ships were armed with the antiparticle weapon. My science section estimated that they had only a limited supply of antimatter to fuel their cannons.”

Grand Admiral Jeroloh broke in. “You are reporting that not all the unidentified ships had these antimatter cannons.”

“Yes, that is correct, sir,” Peregrine said. “However, they also used plasma cannons and particle cannons, as well as phased particle-beam weapons that were superior to our own in terms of energy output and recharge. Their antimatter torpedo systems had similar yields but had a more sophisticated countermeasure system. Their plasma torpedoes were almost as devastating as the Varlon's, and the two larger ships had even higher energy yields. As you know it usually takes three of our ships to match a Varlon starship of similar size class. I would say that these aliens were somewhat superior. We did not remain close or long enough for more detailed scans.”

Peregrine continued. “As we know, the metal-organic hulls the Varlon have are their Spunril alloy. With an organic-metallic mesh hull much like the Hegemony’s ships, these new ships were of a different style to the Varlon’s’ and had different markings. We scanned the two largest ships, and they had somewhat different hull types compared to the other similarly styled ships. The hull was difficult to scan and seemed almost to brush off damage. Only the three largest unidentified vessels—similar in size but longer than the Varlon H-class super dreadnaughts—had this type of hull. It was evidently a superior organic-metallic configuration. The other ships, some type of large heavy battlecruisers, had perhaps a somewhat lesser hull and could be damaged by combining fire from multiple ships.”

Admiral Peregrine displayed further tactical data through the presentation system.

Sheppard could see that Peregrine was pained by the loss of crew and ships to these new enemies.

“Later, when I studied the sensor logs and energy scan readings to determine tactical significance, it seems the largest of their ships were actually not using their full attack capacity, and only two appeared to release any fighter craft, even though they were most probably present,” stated Peregrine. “I will also mention we scanned two types of heavy starfighters—one type we are designating Raider-class and the other Marauder-class. Several Marauders were able to fight and destroy a Waterway-class light cruiser. These must be some form of heavy assault fighter, and we estimate they have a small onboard crew. The smaller Raiders seriously damaged and destroyed many of our fighters before being taken out.”

He wiped his brow and paused to look at the display. “It’s likely I could have regrouped if it were only the Varlon, as they would be more concerned with digging in on the targeted planet and beginning a ground assault than chasing after my fleet. These new alien ships and a Varlon strike fleet continued to pursue, until we were driven from the core ward portion of the Rhendal sector. During the retreat, we had little time for offensive combat. Eventually, the Varlon moved to consolidate their new acquisitions and deal with the remaining planetary defenses and orbital defense stations, and they stopped attacking my remaining ships. At about that time, the unidentified alien ships stopped their attack as well.”

Viess the Betellian stood. “My I add a comment?”

“Yes, please do,” said Admiral Peregrine.

“I know these starcraft; they are Accadian vessels. I am not pleased that they are involved. As Admiral Peregrine indicated, their starships have excellent metallo-organic hulls almost equal to our own. From the few ships you have shown us, the two largest are of Jiyarr design, with Accadian marking symbols, and they have hulls and shielding as effective as—or perhaps even better than—ours. “I ask your patience, but we must go to our ship and inform my government’s Preceptor Council.”

Several murmurs broke out, and there were a few hushed discussions as the Betellians prepared to leave.

Sheppard was becoming both nervous and annoyed that Alliance of Worlds forces had been lost in the Rhendal sector.

Another officer asked to speak.

“Yes, Commodore Slenpsa,” Peregrine acknowledged him.

“I too have seen these vessels,” said Slenpsa.

Sheppard had met him two years ago. Slenpsa was in the officer exchange program, and he was from the Lyramenian Republic. The Lyramenian had more advanced technology than the Alliance of Worlds and were considered as advanced as the Karratins, Estrians, or the Quarran and were part of their ancient Hegemony but were considered more interactive than the other three civilizations. His people who dwelled in water worlds had a special type of affiliation treaty with the Alliance of Worlds. Lyramenians were descended from an amphibian-like ancestor, and they wore a special uniform that provided them with additional moisture, since they could handle low-humidity environments for only a few hours.

“I was patrolling three years ago with my pod fleet on an exploratory mission and came across a mining operation near Cynz space,” said Commodore Slenpsa. “The ships did not attack us, but they were taking threatening postures. We had brief communication and soon left the area. They had attempted to mask the events on the mining facility, but we were able to obtain some information in any case. They were mining and refining some titanium and osmium and other elements and were evidently in an early stage of operation. They had masked their presence until we actually passed through that area of space. Our reliable sensor systems noted the mining base, and we may have also caught them off guard, as we were performing a series of scan and jump maneuvers.”

“Thank you for that information, Commodore Slenpsa,” said Grand Admiral Jeroloh. “If you could, I would like a copy of the particular log and coordinates of the base.”

Slenpsa nodded and removed a handheld database to collate and send the information to a secure uplink point where those with computer interlink devices or mind-uplink units could access the information.

Sheppard looked over toward where Garfield had been sitting and noted he had evidently had just left. Admiral Braddock had an “Oh my!” expression on his face and seemed none too happy. Admiral Peregrine was asked a few other questions, and then the meeting concluded.

Commodore Brandon was paged on his commlink as he was leaving. “We will have a celebration dinner for your promotion soon, Bob, but right now I have some pressing work. We may actually be ready to catch one of these saboteurs.”

Sheppard was escorted back to his quarters by a very attractive female Myranarr security officer. Sheppard had always liked cats, and the Myranarr were very catlike.