Solbidyum Wars Saga 6: Defeat of the Tottalax (27 page)

“This one ship can bring more firepower and destruction to the enemy than five starships working in conjunction.  It can deliver an infinite number of troops to a planet through its Cantolla Gates.  However, this ship, and the ships to follow it will not end this war quickly or easily.  The enemy is not about to surrender soon, and it will be a long fight and battle.  In the end, we will win this war, not because we have the best troops, or equipment, but simply because men and women will always rise up against tyranny and injustice and will not give up until it is vanquished.”

After I finished speaking, the permanent senior officers for the
MAXETTE
were called forward and given their official transfer assignments to the ship.  Kala and I met briefly with Leader Tonclin, who while happy, looked tired and worn from his duty as a leader in the Federation.  With only two leaders to carry out the duties that normally would have been handled by three leaders, Tonclin was under a lot of pressure, and it was showing.  After a brief chat, he made his apologies and then with his security team, headed back to Megelleon via the Cantolla Gate.  He was barely off the ship when Marranalis appeared and said in an urgent tone, “Admiral, we’ve received a communication addressed to you from Ming.”

“Ming?” By the stars, what does he want?”  I asked.

“I think you better see this for yourself, sir.”

“Very well,” I answered, “I’ll view the message in the War Room.  Admiral Regeny, I suspect you and Admiral Wabussie will want to see this also.  Marranalis, will you please see to it that Captain Mareoparen joins us?”

“Right, let’s see what this Korgian blood sucker wants this time,” Regeny grunted.

A few minutes later, we were all assembled in the War Room with the vid screen activated, and Ming’s face appeared on the screen.

“Once again I find it essential to teach you it is not wise to interfere in my plans.  Your assault at Windsor cannot go unavenged, and you have made it necessary for me to punish you for your foolish attempts at stopping me.  Now it is necessary to destroy another Federation world to teach you a lesson.”  As he spoke the view on the vid screen changed to show several ships maneuvering a large asteroid in space.  “I must give thanks to the Tottalax for their brilliant demonstration of how a simple thing like an asteroid can be used as a weapon of mass destruction.  Take this one, for example; it’s just the right size to destroy all life forms on a planet the size of Megelleon.  Oh, don’t worry, I won’t destroy Megelleon, at least not now.  This asteroid is being aimed at another Federation world.  I could tell you which one, but that would ruin all the fun.  I will enjoy it more knowing that you won’t be able to figure out which world is at threat, nor will you be able to get there in time to save it.”  Then the screen went blank.

“By the stars, that man is evil,” Admiral Regeny said.

‘Evil, and then more,” I said.  “Do we have any idea at all where in space this message came from?”  I asked.

“No sir,” Marranalis said, “the message pod arrived here and could have been here a day or more before the message activated.  No one saw it arrive, or the direction it arrived from.”

“Get a copy of this vid to A’Lappe, see if he can isolate several of the stars in this vid and get an idea where this was recorded and which direction the asteroid is headed,” I ordered.

“Captain, how soon can we get the
MAXETTE
under way?  Assuming that we will be bringing the crew aboard while we are in progress?"

“We only have minimal supplies aboard at the moment, but we can load those through gates while underway, along with the crew.  Theoretically we could be underway now, but realistically I would say at least a day.”

“Expedite everything you can, I want everything ready, in case we need to get underway tomorrow.  If A’Lappe can get a fix on the location in that vid, and if there is a Cantolla Gate large enough for us to get this ship through in the vicinity, I want us underway immediately.  If we can get there before the asteroid gets to that planet, we might be able to save it.”  I was betting on the asteroid being at least several weeks out from whatever planet Ming had selected for destruction, and that he wasn’t going to push it all the way to impact.  Knowing Ming I figured he would let the asteroid slowly approach the planet so the people would know their doom was at hand, just so they would be in anguish.  It also meant that the planet obviously wouldn't have the ships or missiles needed to destroy the asteroid, and that would help to narrow down its location.  Most Federation planets were equipped to deal with an asteroid threat, but there were some of the more primitive, or minimalistic by their own choosing, that weren’t.

I was thinking about Ming and his threat when Admiral Wabussie approached me, “Tibby, I received information this morning from Halfredies; he says he has information on an area of the sea bottom where several Uhangi have been seen in the past year.  It’s unusual for Uhangi to be found in any number in the same area, as they tend to be more solitary.  The information Halfredies has indicated that our scientists have had moderate success in the past meeting and communicating with cephalopods in this area.  It might be a good place for us to start.”

“Good, Marranalis, check and see what equipment, we will need to visit these Uhangi and make arrangements for me to go there,” I said to him.

“Sir, you’re intending to go there in person?”  Admiral Wabussie asked in astonishment.  “Are you sure that is wise after what just happened on Irribis when you went to the surface there?”

“I most definitely intend to go there in person.  I’m not leaving it to someone else to question these beings,” I answered.  “Besides, I want to see what it’s like down there.”

It took two days to make arrangements for the trip to the sea floor on Irribis.  During that time I went over plans with Captain Mareoparen, discussing battle strategies for using the
MAXETTE
in a conflict.  We also brought several squads of pilots aboard and had them practice launching from, and returning to, the carrier.  Special indicator lights surrounded the ends of the launch tubes and were designed to change color from red to blue to indicate if a tube was launching or retrieving ships; if a tube was closed the lights were yellow.  This was done to prevent collisions of arriving and departing ships.  In the early stages of a battle, all tube ends could be configured for launching; once a battle was underway with most of the ships out, one end of a tube could be set up for launching and the other end for returning ships.  The entire process was designed to be highly efficient; however, training the pilots to the new system was more difficult.

One thing the pilots had a hard time adjusting to was that each wall inside a tube had its own gravity field.  A person in one ship sitting on the launch deck in a tube could look up and see another ship appearing to be upside down about 500 meters above him, and one about 250 meters to the left, and another 250 meters to the right appearing to be hanging from the walls.  Taking off needed to be staggered and coordinated.   None of the ships taking off were to raise themselves more than three meters above the deck in launching.  To facilitate this, launches were controlled by a computer system from a launch tube control.  Each tube had its own control room, which was linked to a central control room, as well as the war room.  Once the launches were started, the pilots had no control of their ship until it passed the end of the tube and entered space.  At that point, the computer control over the ship was released, and it was in the hands of the pilot.

Landing was basically the same, except the launch tube computer took control over the ship further out away from the tube, and brought the ships in under the computer’s control.  In an emergency situation, where a ship is damaged and needs to come in under its pilot's control, special arrangements are made and no pilots are allowed to take off or land until that ship is safely aboard.  There were two accidents first day when the pilots taking off turned sharply and collided with another nearby ship. Fortunately, no one was killed, though several members of crew were injured.  I decided that we needed to set up flight simulators and have all pilots train on them before trying the real thing.

When the time came to make the subsea trip on Irribis in search of the Uhangi, I was excited, though I tried to hide it and act like the cool and collected Rear Admiral I am supposed to be.  Honestly, I was excited as a kid making his first trip to an amusement park.  I imagine that Lunnie would have been just as excited if she had been on the trip.

The submersible we used was different from what I expected.  It was long and cigar-shaped, not unlike some Earth design submarines, but there all resemblance ended.  The top half of the submarine was made of some dark material, while the bottom half was all a clear material capable of withstanding the pressures of the sea, but still allowing a clear view of everything around the ship.  Around the dividing center line, a band existed composed of numerous lights that could be turned to focusing in most directions, up, down, left or right.  Along the center at the bottom half of the clear hull was a carpet-like material.  Seats and divans were situated about; most of them viewing outboard from the ship.  At some locations, the carpet was cut away so you could look down and see what was below the sub as well.  The sub itself was nearly 40 meters long and consisted of three levels.  The middle level contained engines, a control, a small galley and a few crew accommodations. The top level housed the control room and more accommodations.  I was not sure of the regular purpose of the sub, but whatever it was it would serve for my use very well, assuming we could find an Uhangi.

The pier where the submersible was tied up looked like it could easily have been a resort beach.  Snow white coral sands, or something like coral, covered the beaches on both sides of the pier.  The pier extended out for about 400 meters into the clear blue ocean, with waters as transparent as glass.  Small waves lapped the beaches and slapped lightly against the sides of the wide pier.  We were driven out to the end of the pier in a cavalcade of military conveyances.  I wore a pair of combat fatigues similar to the troopers, but on the sleeves and collar pale blue piping could be seen, indicating my rank as a fleet admiral.  There were seven vehicles in my caravan, and I have no idea what half of them were carrying or what they were for.  My complement of four bodyguards were with me; the vehicles immediately in front and behind me each contained four troopers.  The leading conveyance had several troopers and a laser canon, as did the last conveyance in our caravan.  I was not permitted to leave my conveyance until all guards were outside and stationed prepared for whatever action they perceived necessary, and they had the laser canons set up and prepared to fire if needed. I no sooner disembarked than I was quickly ushered aboard the submersible and introduced to its captain, a man named Tamhew.  Tamhew was a tall man with bronzed skin that reminded me of surfers back in my days on Earth.  He had a bright white smile and a trim muscular body.  I noticed that a large percentage of the crew appeared to be women with remarkable figures, all sporting dark tans and flashing smiles as well, and I quickly began to realize that this submersible was one designed to entertain wealthy patrons on day-long sightseeing tours to the ocean bottom.

“Welcome aboard, Rear Admiral Tibby,” Tamhew said.

“Thank you Captain.  This is a beautiful vessel you have here, how deep can it go?”

“She can go all the way to the deepest part of the trenches, sir,” he replied.  She’s been there twice already.”

“Really!” I replied, “She doesn’t look like she’s designed for more than a few hundred meters at best.”

“Looks can be deceiving, sir,” Tamhew said with a smile.  “However, I can assure you this ship is more than able to handle the greatest depths here on Irribis.”

“Have you been briefed on our destination today?”  I asked.

“Yes sir, your aide, Captain Marranalis, informed me where you wish to go, and that you are seeking to communicate with an Uhangi.  We have been to this region before on similar missions and have managed to get Uhangi to talk to us on a few occasions.”

“You have?  How long ago was that?”  I asked, curious as to who else might be trying to communicate with the Uhangi.

“It was about a half year ago.  A team of marine biologists and xenobiologists from some university on Cengales.  They were trying to develop and improve communication with the intelligent life forms here on Irribis.

“Did they communicate with other species as well?”  I asked.

“Oh yes.  On several occasions, they talked with some Zenandu, but we had a hard time with them as they lost interest in communicating quickly and would swim off, we had more luck with the Uhangi.  We even managed to find a Robalas for them to communicate with.”

“A Robalas?  You know where to find a Robalas?”  I asked.

“We were lucky to find one.  I doubt it’s in the same location after all this time, but we can certainly look if you wish.”

“Let’s just check on the Uhangi first, then we will see about the Robalas,” I replied.

“As you wish, Admiral, if you care to go into the lounge below, we will get under way.  My crew will see to any needs or requests you might have.  We are well stocked with refreshments, and our food synthesizers produce some exotic dishes as well.  However, I would suggest you try some of our finer fresh food items grown and produced right here on Irribis.”

“Thank you, Captain,” I said as I looked back to see several of my team bringing some large crates aboard the submersible.  I wasn’t sure what was in them.  I assumed it must be some equipment for communicating with the Uhangi.