Talosian Chronicles 3: Talosian Alliance (2 page)

“I’m not sure, but I think the Council will be approaching the other races to see if trade relations can be opened. Luke even mentioned the possibility of military aid as well,” Ian said.

Serena looked thoughtful. “The Alliance with the other races is a tenuous one. I do not know how the Talosian Council will react to letting the other members place warships here.”

“That might be a possibility, I suppose, but what he was speaking about was the possibility of expanding our facilities here and allowing them to come here for refit or rearming. The Council wants to be a productive member of the Alliance.”

“That I know they will oppose. The one thing that our Council has agreed on was that Sol Sector is a Talosian facility and will be protected by the Talosians,” Serena said. “They will not like that kind of treaty.”

“At this point, I think our Council really doesn’t care what the Talosian Council thinks. The reports of the debates taking place in the Talosian Council have pretty much put our local Council off. The local Council is fine with helping you as much as we can, but as far as accepting the Talosian Council as our authority, not so much. Simply put, High Command is welcome here, but the High Council is not,” Ian explained.

“I can certainly understand that. There are times I wish I could exclude the Council myself. Do I have your leave to report this?” Serena asked.

“Certainly, we haven’t tried to hide anything from you. In fact, I’d assumed that you had been reporting everything,” Ian said. He wasn’t accusatory, simply stating a fact.

“For the most part I do, but there are some things I have not reported. For example, even though you have given me the designs to your Shadow fighters, I have not sent them in. Admiral Goya is aware of this and approves. Those fighters are your invention and should stay with your people, as does the new armor. However, I have submitted the design for adding a redundant reactor to our ships since that is simply an upgrade to our existing ships. I reported the new equipment, but I did not submit the designs for them. Upgrades to our existing systems I have been sending in, and Admiral Goya makes sure the designs retain their original designer’s names.”

Ian nodded. “I understand, but all they would need to do to get the designs for the new stuff is come here to learn how we build them.”

Serena gave him a sardonic smile. “And as you can see, this place is simply swarming with Talosian engineers. Admiral Pan, the head of our personnel and training department, passed out copies of your battle for our commanders to study and learn your tactics. Most watched it and deleted it, claiming it was dishonorable, and the only reason you succeeded was because of luck. Had you attacked when the ship first arrived, as standing doctrine dictates, you would have defeated your opponent and saved the lives of the people on the planet. Because of your dishonorable actions, innocent people were killed. They are using it as grounds to have you removed as Commander, stating you have no idea what you’re doing.”

“It sounds to me like they simply didn’t understand the entire situation. If I would have followed doctrine, that Super Nova would have destroyed my ship before it ever made it to the orbit of Venus,” Ian said.

Serena nodded. “Undoubtedly. However, since you used tactics they didn’t think of and did something none of them could have done on their own, you are dishonorable and criminally incompetent.” She snorted. “No one dares bring those stupid charges against you because they would have to face you in battle in order to bring you in to answer for them!”

“Why would we have to fight them? Surely your justice system...” Ian began, but Serena interrupted him.

“...is controlled by the same houses that appointed the Commanders that would bring the charges against you. If that happened, there is a good chance it would start a civil war in the Talosian Alliance,” she explained. "This problem is only the newest one, Ian. A good portion of the High Command admires you for what you’ve done, and they feel that there is a lot we can learn from you in order to defend our remaining planets. It wouldn’t surprise me if Admiral Goya has begun dreaming of taking some of our planets back because of you.”

Ian and Serena stopped to watch a manned construction pod and two construction drones matching up a section of gantry and welding it into place. Off to one side, several more sections were waiting to be welded on.

“I have one ship and a few thousand people here. I doubt we are strong enough to do much more than what we’re currently doing. As for the battle, I do agree that there was a large amount of luck in that. If that Caldarian Captain had been smarter, we could have been in serious shit," Ian explained. “I only did what I had to do because I was the one in Command. I got lucky, and it worked for the most part. We still lost a lot of good people. Perhaps, if I had been a better Commander, I would have found a way to save them and still destroy the Caldarian.”

“Every night, in your dreams, you replay that battle and try different things. Have you managed to save any of them yet?” Serena asked.

“How did you know?” Ian asked, surprised.

“I am a Commander, the same as you are. I do the same thing after every battle where lives are lost,” she explained. “Nothing will ever change, Ian. You have to convince yourself that you did the best you could with the tools you had. Until you do, the nightmare will never stop.”

“You’ve reviewed the battle, have you seen anything I could have done better?” Ian asked directly.

“Yes, I have reviewed the battle. There are some things I would have done differently, but I doubt the result would have been any better. When the Caldarian first arrived, if you would have done anything other then what you did, I agree that you would not have survived long enough to fight the final battle. In that final battle, no Talosian trained commander would have thought to use the hypermissiles in the way you did, that single act is what sets you above the rest of us. You have the ability to think of things we cannot and act on your ideas in ways that take an enemy completely by surprise,” Serena explained. “Ian, you performed far and above what any of the rest of us could have in that situation. The fact that it was your first battle, and you had only sleep training to work with, is proof of just how good a Commander you are and how much better you are going to get.”

“Thank you for the praise, Serena, but I still think I could have done something better,” Ian replied.

“Ian, do any of the people from Talos blame you for not saving their loved ones?” Serena asked.

“Not that I know of, but I blame myself. I should have been able to protect them better,” Ian said, he shook his head. “I know you’re right, and I’m working on it. I just need to quit dwelling on it and move on.”

“It’s hard to move on when one of the ones that was lost was so important to you. Those losses are the hardest to put behind us,” Serena said. "Those losses will always be a part of us, but we cannot let them influence our actions to the detriment of others.”

Ian’s comm beeped.

“Williams, what’s up?” Ian said, opening the channel.

“Sir, you asked to be reminded when the next shuttle going back to Phoenix Base was getting ready to launch?” a voice said. “I'm sending a tram for you.”

“Yes, thank you,” Ian replied, closing the link. He looked at Serena. “It looks like play time is over for me. I need to get back." He was surprised when a small golf cart looking buggy came around a corner and stopped beside them. It was a hover craft type of vehicle, but instead of having its own drive system, it used the artificial gravity system of the station to move about.

“I understand my friend. If you don’t mind, I would like to walk around some more. I find all of this extremely fascinating,” Serena said.

“Of course, Serena. Let me know if you see something you don’t understand or that you think isn’t right,” Ian said. During their tour, they had come across two crewmen that were in a small altercation. It hadn’t come to blows yet, but from the sound of the yelling, it was close.

It turns out that the two men knew each other from Earth, having lived only a few blocks apart on the Gaza strip. One of them had been Palestinian and the other Israeli.

Ian had gotten between the two men and talked them down. It took almost a half hour, but by the time Ian had left, the men had shaken hands, and admitted that they had been holding on to former prejudices. He got them to agree to try to work on understanding each other, and to understand the other had a different point of view on a subject.

Serena had watched Ian handle the situation and nodded at how well he handled it. Since both men had been rather large, she wasn’t sure she would have gotten between them as Ian had, but his methods worked.

Serena didn’t know anything of their argument, since she wasn’t from Earth, but after Ian explained it to her, she had to admit it was very similar to arguments she had broken up between some of her new crewmembers from different houses.

As she watched Ian speed away, she returned his wave, then consulted her pad that had the map of the station on it. A group of engineers were building another power section somewhere at this end of the station, and she wanted to see how they were doing it. At Ian’s request, the Prometheus was here to support the construction efforts, as well as to provide security.

Although it split the two defending ships apart by four light years, it was the right thing to do, and it gave her and her crew something to do while they were here. Admiral Goya was overjoyed with the situation, since it gave him an excuse to assign the Prometheus to the sector. Serena had her Marines stationed throughout the large installation, and half her engineering team was aboard to learn as much as they could and assist wherever possible. Her fighters, after being brought back up to full operational strength by Ian, were patrolling the system, and her Centurions were doing a more detailed survey of the system for resources.

This binary system Ian had called Centauri was rich in minerals and had an arable planet and moon suitable for colonization. It also had dozens of moons and asteroids rich with ores for mining and five large gas giants, four of which could be mined for hydrogen and several other gasses used in modern industry.

She crossed to the other side of the main corridor, and her attention was immediately captured by the large planet below. Almost twice the size of Earth, the planet Atlas had nearly twice the volume of Earth and only slightly higher gravity.  It was so much like Earth and New Talos, that it was as if it had been terraformed specifically for their race.

She had yet to visit that planet, but she vowed to herself she would visit the surface before she left this sector. She surprised herself when she felt a sense of peace settling over her she hadn’t felt since the loss of her home planet years ago. Yes, this wasn’t a combat assignment, but she knew it was very important, and, in her mind, it was possibly of critical importance to the Talosians. These remarkable people had awakened something in her.

When she realized that, she stopped walking and simply stood looking out at the planet. One of the two stars, the distant one, was visible in the upper left, but it was hard to look at directly, even when looking through the shielded plasti-glass. The main star was currently ‘above’ the station and out of sight. Just peeking over the horizon, the green moon named Apollo was just becoming visible, and the other smaller moon named Hades was heading behind the planet.

She let herself get lost in her introspection, hoping to clarify what she was feeling. She knew it wasn’t just her either. She had seen an improvement in her crew as well. The Marines, once they returned from the planet, stood prouder. The crew of the ship went about their days with purpose, the over-all attitude of the ship felt different.

People, tired of fighting endless battles and knowing that only more battles awaited them, had her crew moving about their duties like automatons. But since arriving here and seeing what these people had done, and continued to do, had seemed to inspire them. They acted like they had been reminded of their reasons to fight; even the children that had been so subdued were playing and laughing again.

Meeting Ian and his people had given her people something they had not even known they had lost. This mission had given them back the one commodity that no supply ship ever built could deliver; hope.

She smiled now that she had identified the feeling, and continued on to the secondary power room.

––––––––

––––––––

S
ince it wasn’t an automated ship, the jump back to the Sol System only took about fourteen hours. Ian arrived back home just in time for a late dinner with Jenny, Cindy, and the kids. Talena was on duty, and Beth had a medical emergency.

After dinner, Cindy winked at Jenny and took the kids back to their bedroom to play with them a little before bedtime. Ian grinned at Jenny, now aware of the obvious plan to give them some time alone. When Ian started to ask about her day, Jenny put a finger over his lips to silence him, then rose, and took his hand. She led him to the big bathroom, where a table was set up.

“I’ve been taking a class in massage, and I wanted to surprise you,” she said. “No business tonight, let’s shower, then I’ll see how well I can make you relax. Let’s leave tomorrow’s problems for tomorrow for just one night.”

She must have been paying attention, since she had to wake Ian in order for him it go to bed.

The next morning, he was in much better spirits and far more relaxed. “Okay, since you got me feeling like a human again, what’s going on?” Ian asked grinning at Jenny over breakfast.

“Another surprise for you; at oh-eight-hundred hours, you have an appointment with an Ensign Melinda Cruze. She will be your new assistant. She was selected by the Council and approved by both Star and myself. She is very good at her job, and you will accept her as your aide,” Jenny said.