Retribution (16 page)

“You two stay here” ordered Malissa.

After the others had left, Malissa said “You have both gone out on a limb here. That limb is going to get mighty heavy if this evidence proves false. I won’t take it lightly if I find you’ve been deliberately pulling strings nor if you’ve been stupid enough to be duped. As of now you both are taking paid leave till this investigation is complete.”

“That’s not fair” accused Bernie. “You’re tarnishing us with the same brush as them.”

“Exactly…until I know otherwise. What did you expect Mr Wong, that you would be paraded through the streets as a hero” said Malissa shaking her head. “Now, let me be.”

Belinda ushered Bernie and Rose out. Bernie felt dejected. He had been robbed of his triumph before it had even been acknowledged. He turned to Rose. “Coffee?”

“No, I’ve had enough Bernie. See you.” Rose walked back to the car park reflecting on what had just happened. ‘It certainly didn’t go like I thought it would’ she said to herself. ‘My career’s shot. How stupid I was to follow through on this?’ But then she reminded herself that she had averted genocide. ‘That’s something I suppose.’

Chapter 15. Nova Vista 2200, 7 June

The movie had just finished and Brennon turned to Aubrey sitting next to him “Gee I can’t believe we’ve run out of time.” Aubrey looked up at him with an expression that said ‘neither can I.’

“When can I see you again?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Soon hopefully” said Aubrey trying to be as reassuring as she could. “I have no idea what Yomoto’s got planned. Normally we could expect to spend a few weeks in warm up trials. But after last time with the Resolute, who knows.”

Brennon shrugged his shoulders. Then a smile came over his face.

“What?” asked Aubrey.

Brennon pulled her torso to him. She gave herself willingly. He kissed her forehead and then put his hand down her shorts. He squeezed her buttock, lifting her body up. She came onto her knees and leant over and bit his ear lobe gently. She pulled away and then returned to whisper in his ear “You like that, do you tiger?”

“Grrrr”

Aubrey laughed. “I gotta get a whip!”

“I thought you would have had one already.”

“What type of woman do you think I am?”

Brennon pulled his hand out of her shorts and pulled her top up and over her head. He kissed her bare breasts and then looked up from between her breasts. “The best, simply the best” he said.

She looked into his eyes. ‘Puppy dog eyes’ she thought but then remembered the ‘Grrr’. She smiled. “Come on tiger, take me.”

Chapter 16. Nova Vista 0800, 8 June

Commander Aubrey Bellard strode into Admiral Yomoto’s office feeling like a million dollars. She gave Phil a salute and after his return he smiled warmly and gestured for her to take a seat. “You look like the commander of the best new ship in the Fleet” said Phil.

“I am” she replied with a smile.

“So you are” said Phil. “Alex?” he hollered and Alex Peebody came in, nodding at Aubrey and took a seat. “Can you fill Aubrey in on the manning?”

Alex did so.

“So quite a few rookies!” stated Aubrey.

“There a good sprinkling of veterans in there” said Alex “It’s the best we could achieve.”

“OK” said Aubrey. She wasn’t going to give Alex a hard time. “So what’s the plan?”

“I’m waiting on some information from Earth” said Phil. Once I have that I can fill you in. Until then go through the work up trials. But we may have to cut them at short notice.”

Aubrey nodded. “So where do we collect our ship?”

“Tumos and then onto Butros Alia.”

Aubrey looked surprised. “Why Butros Alia?”

“I thought you wouldn’t object?” teased Phil.

“No, but why” asked Aubrey, now all business like.

“To take on a platoon of droids” interjected Alex. “Your craft uses the space that had been saved with a reduced crew to carry one droid pod. So you’ll have a platoon of marines and a platoon of droids.”

“Nice.”

“Hangar 1. Shuttle’s due in at 1000” said Phil. “Get up to speed as quick as possible.”

After Aubrey had left, Phil checked his calendar and saw the reminder he had created about following up with Rudi on the inspections.

“Rudi” he hailed.

“Sir.”

“Any luck with those inspections.”

“Not so far. The Argonauts conducted…12 so far. There’s another 19 to go. These are big facilities Sir and we have only a small tech team. We should be done in a few days.”

“Can you throw more resources at it?”

“I would if I could but the bottleneck is the tech staff.”

“All right Rudi I know you are doing your best.”

“We could shut it down now Sir, if you are worried.”

“I’m always worried Rudi. No, we want to find the culprits. Keep at it.”

Chapter 17. Nova Vista 0900, 8 June

Aubrey dismounted from the bus at Hangar 1 at the spaceport. ‘Has it only been five weeks?’ she asked herself as she stepped into the same space she had formed up for the Resolute. It felt like ages ago. ‘So much has happened. I’m to command my own ship.’ She half expected to see the crew she had served with these last two years but instead was met by strange faces.

Coming towards her with a confident stride was a Lieutenant Commander. He looked very fit and came to a halt and cut her a perfect salute.

“Commander Bellard I’m LCmd Manuel Rodriguez, your XO.” Manuel gave a smile, not too familiar but pleasant and welcoming.

Aubrey returned his salute and then offered her hand. “Glad to meet you Lieutenant Commander.”

“It’s an honour to be serving with you Maam.”

Aubrey was a little taken back by the sentiment. “Mmm…right. Is this all of us.”

“No Maam. According to the roster we’re due for more”. He pulled out his console and added “Another 13, 12 marines and the ships doctor.”

“Very good. Can I call you Manuel.”

“Certainly Maam. Do you know where we will be going from here?”

“Tumos.”

“Sorry, I’ve never heard of it.”

“Good, that will please the Admiral.”

“Oh I see” said Manuel.

“It’s a couple of hours south. The shuttle’s due in soon. I’ll brief everyone once we’re on board. Suffice to say that today won’t be run of the mill.”

“No. I think everyone’s excited to be here. Can I introduce you to the officers?”

“Please.”

What struck Aubrey was just how young they all were save for Martin Lodi. Even Manuel looked like he was under 30. ‘I’m only 32 and I feel like the old duck’ she said to herself. She knew it was down to the rapid expansion of the Fleet. Mobilisation was now fully underway and the manpower shortages were only likely to get worse.

But she also knew that the difference was because she had seen combat and these faces hadn’t. ‘Yes, that’s it’ she said to herself.

After a brief talk with her officers the shuttle arrived ahead of time. The loadmaster was keen for them to board. So the one-on-one interviews would have to wait. The bus carrying the remaining marines arrived in the nick of time but the ship’s doctor, 1
^st
Lt James Dunstan, was a no show.

“Still no sign of Dunstan?” Aubrey asked Manuel.

“No Maam. Let me check” said Manuel. He got onto Alex Peebody who gave him Dunstan’s flight details. After consulting his console he advised Aubrey “His flight’s been delayed. Won’t get in till later this afternoon.”

“We’re not waiting for him then” said Aubrey. “Leave him a message to contact Capt Peabody and cc him so he can arrange to fly him out later.”

“Roger” said Manuel and he was typing away as the Loadmaster directed the rest of those assembled to begin boarding.

‘Oh well’ thought Aubrey ‘at least he gets on with it’ referring to Manuel. ‘That’s a good sign.’

Chapter 18. Outer Polaris 1113, 8 June

In the stream of messages being processed on the Arcwright satellite, way out on the fringes of the Polaris system, one triggered a piece of code that caused it to be routed through an artificial intelligence (AI) that did not answer to the Federation Communications Authority (FCA). It was analysed, categorised and marked for substitution.

Its content was replaced with text of equal byte length. Instead of “Your report not conveyed to Council. Directive unauthorised” it now read “Your report conveyed to Council. Directive fully authorised.”

The whole process took less than a second. Its recipient on Polaris would receive the message in two hours’ time.

Phil read the message while munching on a sandwich that Alex had deposited on his desk. The sandwich was supposed to be chicken salad but the chicken had gone AWOL and Phil wasn’t impressed. Neither was he impressed when he read the message from the Exercise Director at the Fleet HQ, Washington DC.

“Fuck it” he said out loud.

“Sir?” called out Alex from the adjoining office.

“Have a look at this!”

Alex came in and focussed on the message. “From VAdm McCubbin?”

“Yep.”

“We’re in a bit of a pickle then Sir.”

“Looks that way. Tell Aubrey she’s got four days.”

“Right Sir. What about Rihan?”

“No let her enjoy the rest of her leave. I owe her that. You can survive till then.”

“Oh gee thanks Sir.”

“All beef and heart?” taunted Phil.

“Exactly!” said Alex with a smile.

Chapter 19. Tumos 1430, 8 June

There was a real buzz of excitement as the crew made their way from the briefing to Hanger 5 where they would see their new ship. Manuel was doing some calculations on his console as they tore down through the tunnels in a convoy of buggies. He leaned over to Aubrey and said loud enough to be heard over the engine “We will be able to warp to Earth in 5 days.”

“Seriously?” questioned Aubrey. “That’s a third of normal.”

“Two and half days to Klaster” he added.

Aubrey shook her head. “That new warp engine is amazing.”

“We’ll have to offer a toast to the sleth for that” said Manuel. “We also get their impulse burst too.”

“We’ll finally be on a par with rogan ships.”

“Actually a little better.”

The hangar doors began opening as the buggies approached. Aubrey felt the same feeling of anticipation she had felt several weeks ago when they came to see the Resolute for the first time. This time though it was her ship and that made her immensely proud. She hadn’t seen it yet but just the feeling that her first command was behind those doors stirred the adrenalin in her body.

Hangar 5 wasn’t huge like the one used for the Resolute. But then the Phantom was a much smaller craft. She had originally imagined a wedge shape like the Hermes but when she saw the schematics and the holo model Mani Govinda presented during the briefing she just loved its design.

There it was, as they entered the hangar and came to a stop - a black bird of prey. It had a main central body that tapered almost to a point at the front. About half way back it broadened like two arched wings, the top surface of which was flush with the main body and whose wing tips turned down and almost curved to the vertical. But these wings were not thin or flimsy. No they tapered vertically from the wing tips to the main body and these housed the missile launchers. They also tapered laterally back to where the main body flayed out like the wedge tail of an eagle. The rear tail section housed the two new impulse engines and the new single warp engine.

In the centre line under the wings, the droid pod would fit flush. For now it looked like some monster had taken a bite out of her from underneath.

From the centre of the main body where the wings met flush at the top it tapered down to form a half circle, which enclosed the command centre. The pilot’s cockpit was forward in the nose.

The whole structure looked sleek and curved. To Aubrey’s eyes it was the most beautiful craft she had ever seen. It was obvious from the expressions on the faces of the others that they felt so too.

Alice Wu was trying to take a picture of the craft with her communicator. Aubrey put her hand on the device and said “No Alice, you can’t do that.”

Alice felt embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

Raising her voice so the others could hear, Aubrey said “Listen up everyone. From here on, you are all part of the Fleet’s newest and best kept secret. She’s a lovely craft and she’s going to surprise the crap out of the rogan. Let’s make sure they don’t know anything about her.”

They were soon on their tour of the inside. In many ways, it looked like a similar fit out to the Resolute. Same surfaces and finish, but in general everything felt …closer.

Aubrey opened her cabin door and immediately missed her more spacious one on the Resolute. Aubrey reminded herself that this was the best cabin on the ship. It was a little bigger than her old Hermes cabin. ‘I’ll get used to it’ she said to herself.’

Chapter 20. Nova Vista 0900, 9 June

Dave got in the cab that would take him off to North Shore Hospital. He waved to Rihan and Sue who smiled and waved back as the cab pulled away.

“Thanks for this Rihan” said Sue.

“It’s Dave you need to thank” said Rihan.

“I will. Centrepoint?” said Sue, referring to the big shopping centre in the centre of the city. Rihan nodded as they got into the next cab in the rank and Sue gave the driver their destination. Once underway, Sue added “It’s just so good to get away from that hospital.”

“How much longer?”

“Art wants out now but he has to wait to get the all clear from his surgeon and he’s been tied up. Hopefully tomorrow he’ll see him.”

Art was indeed champing at the bit, when Dave arrived. Dave followed Art as he led the way down the corridor, his arm in the cast and the cast in a sling. They headed towards the noise, the unmistakable noise of pre-match commentary that blasted out of what was supposed to be a common waiting area. The room was occupied by four other patients. Art introduced Dave to them but most were preoccupied with the commentary blaring out from the screen on the wall.

The others were all marines recovering from various conditions. Here rank had no hold. The undisputed commander was Tom Whistle who had somehow convinced the nursing staff to grant them this little privilege. He was recovering from having most of his thigh muscle shot away. He’d been recovering for quite a while now.