Talosian Chronicles 3: Talosian Alliance (17 page)

“Ian, normally I would never protest an order you give, but this is violating diplomatic courtesy. This action alone could very well destroy whatever relations we could have had with these people,” Luke said anxiously. He didn’t like questioning one of Ian’s orders and really only did so for the benefit of the visitors.

“I understand your complaint, Councilor. However, events have transpired that you are unaware of,” Ian said, and explained everything that had happened that morning. Admirals Goya and Pan stood as witnesses to the events. Noren turned slightly, and punched Amaraliss squarely in the jaw, dropping him to the floor, unconscious. The two Marines at the door looked at each other and performed the quiet ‘golf clap’ and dipped their heads at the Councilor in silent salute.

“Councilor Noren, please don’t think I am being critical, but it will be difficult for him to answer questions now,” Ian said, trying hard not to grin, and failing.

“My apologies Commander, I should have let you do that,” Noren said. “The question now becomes, what do we do to get our asses out of this mess?"

“We can’t,” Ian said. His reply shocked the two Admirals. “Landree referred to Amaraliss as ‘Minister’ not “Prime Minister”, or 'President’, or “His Majesty”, or anything else.”

“Oh Gods!” Pan said. “Amaraliss isn’t the leader!"

Ian shook his head. “Nope, he’s a peon just like Landree is. Whoever is really behind this is safely back at Talos, issuing orders and plotting while Noren and the two of you are here trying to figure out how to deal with us without pissing everyone else off.

“The problem is, since this was discovered here, the real enemy has plausible deniability. He can simply blame it all on us, claiming we influenced all of you somehow. No matter what happens at this point, your trip here has strengthened him. It might just be enough for him to start making a move on the leadership,” Ian said, thoughtfully, then shook his head. “No, he needs the facilities here in order to do that. Remember, Landree said that they were having trouble getting the AI on the other ships to accept the new programming?”

“That’s right!” Goya said. “The ships won't fire on Talosian targets. Which leaves the enemy without teeth.”

Ian nodded. “Although the Commanders of those ships are loyal to the enemy, the AI are still loyal to High Command.”

Goya nodded. “Only to an extent. We can’t tell them that their crew is in rebellion against Talosian authority and have them vent the ship. They won’t do that. What they will do is lock out all command functions, and set course for the nearest Talosian Base, not an Alliance Base, a Talosian Base. It constitutes the only time a ship can and will jump to hyperspace by itself. Once it arrives, it slams a lock out on the hyperdrives that has to be reset by a dry dock facility.”

“I’m preparing a private message to all the Commanders I know that are loyal. May I tell them that this is a friendly port?” he finished.

“Yes, you can,” Ian said. “But, we’ll need a list of those ships to give to the defense command, or they will be destroyed in hyperspace. I already set our defense condition to Yellow, which means that all ships not on the list are to be considered hostile. So far there are only two ships on that list: Star Dancer and Prometheus.”

Goya nodded and turned to his aide. “Brekka, please make sure to give Mel a list of ships we know are friendly.”

“Yes Sir,” the young woman replied and got back to work.

“In light of this new information, do you recommend shifting our work priority to defensive systems and stations, Commander?” Luke asked.

Ian looked thoughtful for a moment. “Yes, but I think the station builders should be split. We will need Pleiades Two, but we are also going to need the Earth orbital. It can take over the system defenses as well as handle inbound recruits from Earth. We need more people as fast as we can get them, but we have to maintain our security from the planet. In all actuality, I would say the Earth station should be our next priority.

“As for the rest of the projects, most of them were military anyway. The fighter base and flight school on Mars are going to be essential.”

“What about the refit of Star Dancer and Prometheus?” Luke asked.

“I haven’t asked them about Prometheus yet, but for now, they’ll have to wait. We need both ships active for defense,” Ian said.

“Refit?” Goya asked.

Ian nodded. “Our folks have come up with a new design for the Heavy Cruisers. They are calling it a ‘Battle Cruiser’ upgrade. Basically, it'll transform the ship into more of a ship-to-ship weapons platform. The weapons systems will be restructured and relocated, along with adding our mass drivers and torpedo launchers. The entire ship would be refit with the new armor we developed, and equipped to handle Shadow and Wasp fighters with Condors. The new configuration would also house two Raptor teams, and all of their equipment.

“To make room for all of that, the Marine compliment would be reduced to company size and their equipment would only consist of that needed for ship to ship fighting. The command and control suite would also be restructured to reflect the new mission of the ship,” Ian explained. "I would be more than happy to give you a better briefing on it later.”

Goya nodded. “I’d love that. We’ve never improved past our Heavy Cruisers since they seemed to function well enough.”

“Sir, Colonel Anders and Major Swift said they will be here by this evening. Do you still want to do the briefing tonight?” Mel asked.

“Yes please. This is really important,” Ian replied.

Mel nodded and turned back to her work. Ian addressed the visitors. “Since we have a moment, I would like to take you all down to meet our armorer and get fitted for a suit of armor.” He looked at the guards by the door. “You guys can take the trash to the brig whenever you want. I suppose you should have a medic take a look at that jaw, just to be safe. We’ll take the other two guards with us, join us in the armory as soon as you drop him off, okay?”

“Yes Sir!” both Marines nodded.

“Please pass the word to the watch commander for him to meet us back here when we are done at the armorer,” Ian added.

“Will do, Sir,” one of the Marines replied as they helped a reawakening Aramaliss to his feet for the walk to the brig.

The old Scottish Gunny Sergeant took one look at Noren and snorted. “’Til be a child’s armor for th’ lass, I ken! I’ve a grandchild bigger than she is! Would ya be wantin’ in pink then?”

Noren blushed, but laughed along with everyone else.

“Although I like that color, Gunny, I would prefer green if I have a choice!” Noren replied.

“Ifin ya don’ mind me fer askin’, Miss, why green?” The Gunny asked.

“So you will all think I am a leprechaun!” Noren said.

“Uh, Noren?” Ian said, “That’s Irish, not Scottish."

“Aye,” the Gunny said. “We Scots know th’ difference between a wee man in a green suit, claiming to have a pot of gold, and a small Irishmen trying to get ye to buy drinks fer ‘em!”

“What? You mean you wouldn’t buy me a drink?” Noren said in mock hurt.

“Aye Lass, I would, but I’d be ‘fraid I’d get hauled away fer hittin' on a minor!” Gunny said.

The teasing stopped then as the Gunny got to work. He not only scanned the Admirals and Noren, but their aides as well. When they finished, the Gunny said he’d call them back down when the armor was done to make sure it fit correctly.

When they returned to Ian’s office, they found a Marine officer waiting for them.

“Lieutenant Miles, Thank you for coming up here. These three VIPs need guards for the duration of their stay. We have reason to believe that attempts will be made on their lives, and we need to prevent that from happening,” Ian told the woman.

“Yes Sir. I’ll get all the information from your assistant and send the detail as soon as I get back to the office,” the woman replied.

“Very good, thank you, Lieutenant. That will be all,” Ian said smiling at the woman.

“Well, since it’s lunch time, and I’m getting hungry, would any of you care to join me for a meal?” Ian asked.

That evening, when Ty and Cindy arrived from the secret Raptor training base, Ian told them what was going on.

“Sir, we have four teams that are ready to go on missions,” Ty reported. “We could send them out to try to locate those ships. The real question is, what do you want us to do with them?”

“Ian, if I may?” Goya asked.

“Certainly, Admiral, that’s why I asked you to be here,” Ian replied.

“Colonel, all you should need to do is get a message to the AI of each ship. I can give you the proper clearance codes, and a specially encoded command. That will let the AI know that its crew is acting in violation of orders, and it should immediately return to a Talosian Base. I say should, because we don’t know what changes they’ve made to the AI on those ships,” Goya replied.

“That would be a best case scenario then. What about worst case?” Cindy asked.

“AI lock-out. Landree told us they were having trouble getting the AI to accept the programming they were trying to give them, so if they’ve stripped the AI controls over the ship, then the lock-out command should still work,” Goya explained. “Get the AI to lock-out commands from the crew, note their location, and we will send ‘assistance’.”

“And if they’ve completely lobotomized the AI, so none of the commands work?” Cindy asked.

“Destroy their hyperdrive engines, and move on,” Ian said. “There are civilians on those ships. I will not be responsible for their deaths."

“Orders understood, Sirs,” Ty said. “We will begin as soon as we return to our base. We will start with the locations you've provided us from the prisoner. Will there be anything else?”

“Nope, good hunting, Colonel,” Ian said. “Major, you should probably say hello to Jenny, Beth and the kids before you leave."

“I was planning on it, Ian,” Cindy said, sadly. Her choice of profession had driven a wedge between the four friends. Cindy had moved out of their quarters when she left for Raptor training. Yes, they still had children, but Cindy was effectively no longer part of the family.

Ian nodded to her. “Okay, I think that’s enough fun for one day. I’m going to go home and try to get some sleep. Good evening, Admirals."

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“G
ood afternoon, Admiral. Sorry it took so long to get this set up, we’ve been kinda busy up there,” Janet said by way of greeting.

Admiral Hawkins opened the door for the two women. “That’s quite alright, Mrs. Laskar. It took me this long to get to a place where I could come and visit my grandkids."

Janet smiled at the older gentleman. “Since this interview will involve a medical patient, I took the liberty to invite one of our doctors with me tonight. If possible, she would like to evaluate the young man in question. That way we’ll all know exactly what we're dealing with. Admiral Hawkins, may I introduce Doctor Shelly O’Halloran of the Terran Medical Corp. Doctor O’Halloran, may I introduce Admiral Hawkins, United States Space Command."

After the two exchanged greetings and pleasantries, Janet got to the point. “Admiral, how did you see this evening proceeding?” Janet already knew what the plan was, but was told to try to hide her abilities. She didn’t know how it would turn out; the vision had been too fuzzy.

“My wife is with my son’s family right now, or she would be here to meet you as well. As per our discussions, I haven’t mentioned anything about this to any of them. All I've told them is that we are having dinner with someone that I think can help Galen get better. Please, since you’re a civilian, and I’m off duty anyway, call me Isaac.”

Janet nodded. “That’ll work. So, dinner in the suite then?”

Isaac nodded. “Yes, I’m sure you’ll wanted privacy for this discussion, and the doctor will be able to take Galen into one of the bedrooms to examine him."

“That would be great, Isaac, thank you,” Shelly replied, as Isaac led the two women into the lounge area of the suite.

“Can I get either of you anything from the bar?” Isaac asked.

“What do you have?” Janet asked.

“Well, it’s a full bar, and I also have iced tea and a full pot of fresh coffee,” Isaac replied.

“I’d like some tea, thank you,” Shelly replied.

“Coffee for me please,” Janet replied. “Black is fine.”

“My family knew something strange was up since I insisted on renting a suite this trip. We usually just stay with the kids,” Isaac said. “So, when I explained what I was up to, James was a little suspicious, but Galen and his mother, Jill, seemed hopeful. Even their youngest, Lynn, was excited. Although I don’t know if it was because someone might be able to help her brother, or if she was excited about the pool.”

“How old is she? Isaac?” Shelly asked.

“Lynn’s twelve, and Galen is fifteen; sixteen next month,” Isaac answered. “Do you have any children, Doctor?”

“Please call me Shelly,” the woman replied. “Yes I do, Michael is ten this month. He wants to be a Marine when he grows up, just like his Daddy was."

Isaac looked concerned. “Was?”

“Martin was one of the US Marines killed in action at Talos,” Shelly said smiling sadly.

“You have my sympathies. Those men were extraordinarily brave; it had to be a shock to realize you were fighting aliens,” Isaac replied.

“Thank you. He was killed trying to rescue another soldier. One of the Talosian drones got him back to the aide station, but he’d lost too much blood to make it back to medical. The Commander gave him a medal for bravery. Michael has it hanging in his room, next to a picture of his father,” Shelly said.

“So you didn’t blame the Terrans for the death of your husband?” Isaac asked.

She shook her head. “No, I blamed the Caldarians. Colonel Anders and the people at Talos did everything they could for our troops, even breaking security and violating direct orders. The Terrans have a lot to offer the human race and seem to be going about it the right way. I wanted to be a part of that. Besides, most of the Marines from his old unit and their families are my patients. Even though Martin’s gone, they still treat me like part of their family.”