Audacity (Warner's World Book 5) (9 page)

“Warp in 5, 4, 3, 2, warp” said Tola.

Aubrey opened her eyes and could see the others looking at her. There was not an anxious expression among them. That reinforced her feeling of contentment. She smiled. “Well then, fun and games till the 13
^th
” she announced.

Chapter 24. Raihma, Istridium 1150, 7 August

Emilius Quazor, first consul of the Imperial Council, turned his contorted face away from Benchin Masqelar. Benchin was all too aware of the first consul’s mannerisms and did not react to his master’s emotional display of disappointment. He was there to deliver the news. That was all. It was done. Benchin turned and headed for the door.

“Wait!” commanded Emilius. Benchin stopped and turned to face the most powerful person in the Imperial Rogan Empire. “I want that bastard Sallusam apprehended and on his knees before me. Make sure it happens and soon.”

“Of course your excellency” said Benchin.

“I want Torine on it. She’s the best.” Emilius paused and then added bitterly “Unlike so many others around here she has not failed me.”

“As you wish” responded Benchin. His face was completely passive and in complete contrast to the venomous expression on Emilius.

“Any more news from Qwantum?”

“Security operations are still underway” said Benchin in a deadpan manner. “The revolt in Rollinium is being put down…the usual large scale loss of life and all that. Your forces there seem to have the matter in hand.”

Emilius nodded his appreciation for the update completely ignoring Benchin’s tone of delivery. For while Benchin seemed completely detached he was by far the best personal assistant Emilius had ever had and he’d had a lot.

“How long till that wretched full council meeting?” asked Emilius with a pained expression.

Benchin checked his communicator for the time. “Plenty of time for lunch your excellency.”

Emilius nodded.

Chapter 25. Washington DC, Earth 2105, 7 August

“We’re getting nowhere with Tamsa” said a frustrated Chief Minister Malissa Karalis.

“He’s just doing what he was told to do” responded Foreign Minister Adrian Yohansen.

“Yes but I’m sick of his feigned concern. If the gelk are unwilling to assist then I wish they would just say so.”

“We really need them though” said Defence Minister Julian Morrow. He shifted his weight in his chair at the conference table. There was just the five of them left after the gelk delegation had departed. Malissa’s chief of staff, Kaito Tanaka, and her Senior Political Advisor, Belinda Klondike, filled the other seats.  “Perhaps you need to go to Slemros” continued Julian. “Make a direct appeal to Tegoola.”

Malissa tightened her already tight jaw as though this was an unwanted but expected incision into her physical body. She hated space travel.

“I could go” piped up Adrian. “You are needed here. We can’t afford to have you away for a month.”

Malissa smiled in appreciation. In her mind she was weighing up the options, the pros and cons. She knew her presence would add more weight but her gut feeling said it was a waste of time no matter who went. ‘Mmm…but Julian is right, we need them.’

She leaned over and placed her hand over Adrian’s on the table. “Thank you Adrian. I will prepare a message for you to give to Tegoola.” She withdrew her hand and sat back upright in her chair. “Remind him that friends in need are friends indeed. If they want favourable trading terms to continue we need more than words. We want their military support.”

She glanced across at the picture of Abe Lincoln hanging over the mantel piece. She knew now how lonely he must have felt in those early years of the American civil war. Turning to Julian she asked “So Yomoto’s over Chelora now?”

Julian nodded. “He won’t be able to launch ‘Bitter Woods’ till the Enterprise arrives next month.” Malissa nodded. She still didn’t like the ominous sound of that code word for the operation. “You saw that report on a possible PME?” asked Julian.

“Yes and it scares the bejeezus out of me” responded Malissa. Julian frowned as he saw the expression of anger rising on Malissa’s face. He was all too aware that he had only just managed to persuade her to hold off on a retaliatory nuclear strike against rogan cities, well at least for four months. “I want a briefing on this PME tech asap. Can we re-acquire it? What are the risks and how long will it take? We also need to see if we can develop a counter to it? Get our best minds onto it.”

“Of course” replied Julian. He thought about arguing against such a move but decided to hold for now. “It may well not be PME. The Resolute is on its way to confirm. They should be there in a week. So we may know in less than a fortnight.”

“Wasn’t the Resolute supposed to be leading the Recon mission?” asked Kaito.

“They will rejoin the recon task group directly from this investigation” replied Belinda. She prided herself in being on top of the latest plans.

“If only we had ten more Resolutes” exclaimed Malissa. Those watching could see the strain on her face. She was middle aged when she became Chief Minister and now after seven years in the job she felt and knew she looked decidedly a lot older.

“Chief Minister” said Kaito “can we go over the election campaign now?”

“No, not now.”

“But we need to” insisted Kaito in his quiet but insistent tone. Over the last four years he had found it the best approach to appeal to his boss’s sense of responsibility.

But this time it wasn’t working. “Tomorrow. I promise. I think that’s all. Thank you everyone.”

Kaito gestured his frustration with his hands but he knew the limits. He stood up and, like the loyal assistant that he was, ushered the others out of the conference room.

“I tried” he said defensively to Adrian in the outer chamber.

Adrian nodded. “You did. She can’t keep ignoring it. We’ve got just over a year.”

“I know.”

“She needs to appoint a successor soon if they are to be given the best chance of winning.”

“Two terms isn’t enough” expressed Kaito with a hint of annoyance.

“No, two terms is more than enough for any man or woman or federation for that matter” added Adrian with a smile. He was well aware of Kaito’s views on this matter. But Adrian held to the belief that the reins of power held too long become the reins of tyranny and he would give his all to prevent that no matter who the candidate was.

Kaito had the good sense not to argue the point. He knew all too well that Adrian would oppose any move to lift the two term limit on the highest office. But he also knew that the numbers for changing that were getting better every week. He should know because he was the principal architect.

He was the perfect political operator. He knew everyone of note, kept his ear to the ground, and was capable of engineering support wherever it was needed. Right now he knew his boss needed it, even if she did not recognise it. This was his doing but it was for her good and he would also argue that it was for the greater good of mankind. Mankind was facing its toughest challenge and it needed the toughest, most capable leader in charge. ‘And that’s my chief minister’ thought Kaito as he closed the door behind the last of the now departing committee members.

Chapter 26. Slidwon, Istridium 2220, 7 August

Angina Slirinus was tired. It had been a long gruelling day. She wanted to retire for the day but there was one matter that must be dealt with now. She had received the communique direct from the office of the First Consul only forty minutes ago. One did not ignore an imperial directive.

There was no hint of disapproval conveyed in the message. She knew that the First Consul would have been bitterly disappointed at the failure of their efforts to capture Sallusam but she also knew that it was his staff’s way to expunge all expressions of emotion from his correspondence. Angina hated this practice. She liked to know where she stood with her Imperial master.

‘Yes, he wants Torine. Of course’ she thought. She brought up Torine Philastane’s status on her screen. ‘It’s going to take a week just to get her anywhere close. That’s the trouble when you are the best. You are always in demand and in our line of work that means big long journeys.’

Angina would have to reassign another agent to take over Torine’s current assignment. After a few minutes of searching she committed to the reassignment and tasked Torine to pursue Sallusam.

Chapter 27. Resolute to Qwantum 1515, 8 August

LCmd Chase Hanlon was at his wits end. They had been at it for hours now just him and the new XO, Cmdr Charles Chen. As per his orders from the Captain he was putting the new XO through a condensed version of the Ship Officers Battle Course, known affectionately as the son of a bitch course by all who go through it. It got this moniker partially because of its acronym but all agreed that it was one hell of a tough course. It usually sorted out the wheat from the chaff. After two days of it Chase was prepared to declare the current participant as falling in the latter group.

Chase knew that he had to tread carefully. This was a superior officer, albeit one with no battle experience and to his amazement one who had somehow avoided all the usual combat courses that you would expect a Commander to have done.

The simulator was unforgiving. It had failed the participant for the third time and this was according to its protocol as far as the current participant could go. Chase stared at the screen where the alert flashed in red “DISQUALIFIED.”

“Let’s call it a break there Sir” said Chase “I have to reset the simulator and then we need to start again.”

For what was probably the first time that afternoon Charles spoke “Can’t we just mark this one off and move to the next?” His brown eyes bored into Chase.

“I’ll ask the Captain Sir” and Chase stood up and left the battle lab before Chen could respond. He headed straight down the corridor of A deck and after a quick squiz to make sure there was no one else in with the Captain he entered and closed the door behind him.

Dave could see by the frustrated expression on Chase’s face that things were not going well down in the battle lab. He was not surprised.

“Permission to be frank” asked Chase.

“Well you don’t look like a John” said Dave with a smile in a doomed attempt to cheer up his ops officer. Chase frowned disapprovingly as he sat down in the chair opposite.

“He’s fucking hopeless Sir. He’s failed lesson three six times now.” Chase didn’t say anymore. He knew he had said enough to dam any aspiring ships officer.

Dave bit his bottom lip as he pondered. He was taking his time. Becoming impatient Chase added “He asked me to just skip this one. Mind you that’s the only words I have got out of him all afternoon. I’m struggling Sir to engage constructively with the ‘participant’.”

Dave looked at him quizzically. “You’re the instructor Chase. It’s up to you to engage with the participant not the other way around.”

Chase gave him a disappointing look. “Come on Sir. It’s like he’s inert. We’ve both known the cold-as-ice types but they at least are usually competent. This guy is not.” Chase leaned closer. “I’m really worried. What happens if he has the ship and we’re in a shooting match? I tell you Sir I have no confidence in this officer and it will become pretty clear to the others that he is not up to the grade. You would have a mutiny or a dead XO that’s for sure.”

Dave frowned at Chase’s last remark. “There will be no talk like that on my ship Chase.”

Chase’s dander was up now. “I thought you said I could talk frankly?”

“Yes but that doesn’t mean you can countenance mutiny or murder on my ship. Is that clear?” Dave looked intently at Chase.

Chase nodded. “All right, no more talk of mutiny. But you know now that I don’t trust his judgement or his competence. What are you going to do about it?”

“Leave it with me Chase. I can’t just sack the son of the Treasurer. I wish I could but that is not a realistic option.”

Chase huffed and then rose. He turned at the door. “Something must be done before we go in harm’s way.” He left straight away.

Chapter 28. Umbrol Shuttle over Cheklin 1000, 10 August

Aras Leptude double checked the warp instructions to Margvon and in particular to the spaceport at Dyritka. He noted the two day travel time. At least that would allow a bit more recovery time. The so called painless surgery was anything but. He rubbed his right eye for the hundredth time since boarding. He knew he shouldn’t but it was SO aggravating. ‘Alas a necessary measure’ he said to himself ‘along with the finger prints,’ and he flexed his stiff fingers ‘the facial restructuring’ and he carefully touched the heavily bruised cheeks, ‘and the DNA adjustment’ and his stomach churned.

The rogan, formerly known as Imperial Admiral Meeka Sallusam, was now a businessman from a third tier aristocratic family that no one ever heard of. He would be on his way to take up his new posting as manager of a third tier spaceport in a third tier star system where no one of import ever travelled to. If it were not for its proximity to the human systems it would be perfect. Aras acknowledged that. It would serve for the short term.

He would take up his post and leave the day to day running to the non-aristocratic deputy manager - a time honoured arrangement throughout the rogan systems. Of course he would be expected to be wheeled out should anyone of import actually arrive at the spaceport but otherwise he would be free to pursue his own agenda. “But still collect my stipend” he said out loud with grin. For a moment Aras looked like the old Meeka.

He glanced down at the terminal and noted the most recent message from Barak Slaag. Slaag was a senior controller within the FIA who had worked closely with Meeka. It was he who ran the human operative, Bane, so successfully. It was during this time that Meeka got to know Slaag very well and in particular his illegal syphoning of Imperial funds to what Slaag had referred to as the ‘ultimate contingency fund’.

Aras smiled as he recalled the grin on Slaag’s face when he outlined the purpose of this slush fund. ‘The trick now’ he thought ‘was to convince Slaag that the time had come.’