Solbidyum Wars Saga 5: Desolation (2 page)

“Thank you, both of you.  I just hope I am doing the right thing, and that you aren’t all making a huge mistake giving me this position.”

“Tibby, believe me,” the Admiral beamed, “there is no one whom I think is better qualified to have this position than you.  In fact, I think you’d be more than qualified to have my position, but don’t tell anyone I said that.”  Both Regeny and Tonclin chuckled at his comment.

“But now,” Regeny continued, “we need to get you into proper attire for your swearing-in before the Senate this afternoon.  I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of having uniforms in your size and suited to your rank made up for you.  A set of formal ceremonial whites are waiting for you in a room just down the hall, but first I think we should get something to eat.  I discovered over the years it is best to eat before donning your whites.”

“Admiral, in my case it’s not only wise, it is expedient.  I swear I can never eat anything without dripping something down my front.”  Both Regeny and Tonclin laughed at the remark, and Regeny said,

“Remind me sometime to tell you about my first experience speaking before the media after I dined on a dish of heistpag with a rich moatat sauce.  It wouldn’t have been as embarrassing if the cameras hadn’t kept zooming in on the stain.”

By now, a small crowd of senators gathered behind the Admiral wanting to congratulate me, and I had an idea I would be missing lunch.  Fortunately, after the first 20 or so senators, I was rescued by one of the Senate guards who came bearing a message that I was needed elsewhere.  I immediately followed him to a small room outside the Senate Hall and was surprised to find it empty other than for some furnishings, and a dress white admiral’s uniform with pale blue piping that signified it was a fleet admiral’s uniform.

“Who wanted to see me?”  I asked the guard.

“Actually, no one wanted to see you.  Leader Tonclin suggested that I should come and rescue you before it was time for the afternoon session to begin.”

“I guess I owe Leader Tonclin my gratitude.  I had no idea how to get away from that crowd.”

“I suspect that you will have a lot of senators wanting to congratulate you once the day is through.  I would suggest before you dress that you meet with the Admiral in the adjoining room; he and a few of his officers will be dining in there, and he asked me to have you join him,” the guard said as he indicated a door across the room.

As I entered the room, Admiral Regeny saw me immediately.  “Ah, there you are Tibby.  I was afraid you might be held up until it was time to reconvene again this afternoon.  Come and get yourself a bite to eat,” he indicated a seat next to himself.  “You remember Lt. Commander Goncest, my aide?”  He indicated an officer to his left.  “And of course Wabussie needs no introduction,” he continued with a grin.

I nodded to Lt. Commander Goncest and patted Wabussie on the shoulder as I passed him.

“Congratulations Tibby, I’m glad you will be joining us officially in this fight.”

“Thanks, I think.  It’s not exactly a job I cherish, but I feel I need to protect Kalana and my offspring, and this will be the best way I can do that.”

“Commander,” I began as I turned facing Wabussie, “do you have any new intel on Roritat or the Brotherhood?”

“Nothing on Roritat, but I do have some news on the Tottalax.  We’ve been able to decipher some communications between the Brotherhood and the Tottalax using the information you gleaned from the Brotherhood prisoner, Commander Gatsner, whom you captured on your return from Earth.  We still haven’t been able to completely understand all the complexities of the Tottalax language, but we learned enough to know that you apparently got pretty close to the Tottalax home world when you trailed them, and they headed into the nebula.  We also know that the Tottalax were asked to provide more of their ships to assist the Brotherhood, but we don’t know how many for sure.  It could be one or it could be 1,000; we're not sure of their numbers at the moment.  So far the Tottalax have not replied.”

“In either case that’s not good,” I replied.  One ship is bad, 1,000 would be a disaster.  Is there anything else you can tell me?"

“Yes, as part of their agreement, the Brotherhood is to deliver five freighters full of the refined drug, God’s Sweat.  That much is going to impact the amount they can deliver to addicts here in the Federation, so there will be some hard feelings about the Brotherhood from drug users with short supply.”

“If we can intercept and destroy the shipments before they are delivered to the Tottalax, it could sour feelings against the Brotherhood from both sides,” I said, “the Tottalax and the drug users in the Federation.  Do you know where and when the deliveries are to be made?”

“Not yet, it was an issue to be decided.  We’re hoping to be able to intercept the message when they set up a time and place for the exchange.”

“If you can get that information to us soon enough,” Admiral Regeny joined in, “We can have a fleet of cloaked ships waiting there for them and destroy the God’s Sweat before it can be delivered.  As soon as you hear something let Tibby know, Admiral,” he said looking at me,” I expect you to deal with this with your usual efficiency.”

“I’ll give it my best effort, sir.”  I replied.  “But first we need to deal with Roritat and Ming at Plosaxen.  I think that as soon as the ceremony is completed this afternoon I need to get to Plosaxen and join the
NEW ORLEANS
in protecting the planet.  Once the threat to the planet is gone, and we can get a starship here, I will need to transfer and set up my command and the fleet.”

“See Tibby, you're already one step ahead of me.”  Regeny said.  “However, I have had Goncest here working with a list of all the ships in the fleet and their last-known positions and destinations.  You’re going to need to review the information and decide how you want to divide up the fleet and who you want to be in command of each fleet.”

“Admiral I know who I want for fleet admirals; both men have combat experience against the Brotherhood and know and understand my methods and thinking.  I know I can trust them and depend on them to do the right thing in a crisis.”

The Admiral leaned forward with an intense look.  “Now you have my interest.  I'm not aware of you having met more than one or two of the admirals in the fleet, let alone knowing any that have been in combat against the Brotherhood.”

I smiled, “Well one of the men will need to be reinstated in the military and given a promotion.”  Regeny raised an eyebrow, but he remained silent.  “I was thinking of Commodore Stonbersa.  He’s been with me in every battle against the Brotherhood from the start, and he certainly has performed excellently, plus he has experience commanding my fleet operations for all my ships.”

“Hmm, an interesting choice, he also has lots of friends in the military, and he was well thought of by most of his fellow officers.  The man who forced his retirement is gone now; he was killed in the first attack upon the capitol when the Brotherhood took the
DUSTEN. 
So who is your second choice?  Not Captain Felenna, I hope.  I don’t think she would go over well with the rank and file in the Federation military.
”

“No,” I responded, “I need her to stay on station at Alle Bamma protecting the planet from the return of the Brotherhood.  I was thinking of Captain Wanoll.  He helped recover the
DUSTEN
from Thimas and Lexmal and is a good man with an excellent battle head on his shoulders.”

Admiral Regeny tugged on some lose skin beneath his chin a moment and then said, “I’m afraid I can’t do that Tibby.  It would not sit well with most of the other Admirals if everyone assigned as fleet admirals came from outside the existing fleet.  I can get away with you, and Stonbersa was a long-standing and well respected captain, close to being promoted to admiral before he was forced to retire.  However, if I make Wanoll a fleet admiral, by-passing all the existing admirals, it would not sit well at all and might cause dissention in the fleet.  I am willing to assign the
DUSTEN
to you for use as your flagship and then Captain Wanoll would be under your command and would be captain of the fleet  flagship.  That should put him in line for earlier advancement when the time comes.”

“Okay, I see your point.  Who do you recommend for the third fleet admiral?”  I asked.

“I was thinking of Admiral Kophious.  You’ve never met him as he’s been at the far end of the Federation for the past eight years.  He serves as an unofficial fleet commander there, and he’s had some battle experience, though nothing compared to what you and the Commodore have.  Still I think he would be the perfect choice.  Wabussie, what do you think?  You served under Kophious for a while.”

“He’s a good choice,” Commander Wabussie responded, “I was actually thinking of him myself.  He certainly knows how to command a fleet of ships and organize them, and he’s not afraid to commit to battle when it’s needed.”

“How long will it take to contact him and give him orders?”

“That’s the bad part.  We still do not have any ships that far out with Deep-Space  Communication systems, so we’ll have to relay the message to the closest Federation ship that does have one and have them send a GW Message pod to where we believe he and his ships are.  We’re not sure where he is.  If he’s where we think, it will take five or six months, if he’s not there and the message needs to be passed on, it could take up to a year,” Regeny said with a glum look.

“A’Lappe and Cantolla have been working on some new technology that may help us out, but it requires all the energy of a solbidyum reactor to operate.  If we can find a way to power it, we could travel from here to the far end of the Federation in just minutes.”  Everyone in the room got quiet and stared at me intensely with questioning looks.

“I don’t really understand exactly how it works; somehow their system generates a field at two places while sharing a common plane between their points that is the same space, even though to us they seem light years apart.  You could simply walk through the field here and instantly be in a room onboard a ship anywhere in the universe.”

“Is this some crazy theory they have, or have they built one?”  Regeny asked.

“They’ve actually built a very small model.  I've seen it work,”  I replied, “but it’s only large enough for very small objects, not much bigger than this fruit,” I said picking up a small fruit similar to an Earth strawberry from a plate on the table.  According to A’Lappe the small apparatus they used required most of the power generated by a solbidyum reactor.  A fusion reactor would not be sufficient to generate adequate power to open a frame large enough to pass anything through."

“Could it open a space big enough to get a message through?”  Commander Wabussie asked.

“Maybe, I hadn’t thought of that, and I don’t know if A’Lappe or Cantolla has or not.  You would only need a very small opening to send a thin focused beam through to establish an instant communication system,”  I said, “but it could only exist between two precise points if I understand it correctly.”

“That still would be a huge leap for us,” Regeny said.  I noticed in his excitement, Regeny had managed to dribble some food on his white uniform jacket.  He saw me staring at it and looked down… “By the stars… I knew this would happen, Goncest, see if you can locate a new jacket for me before we need to return to the Senate Chamber!”

Goncest rose from his seat, “Yes sir, I should be able to get one from the replicator where I got Tibby’s uniform.  I’ll be right back.”

“I’m going to have to leave you,” Commander Wabussie said.  “I have some pressing business to attend to this afternoon.  Congratulations again, Tibby, I’ll be looking forward to working with you.”

“Good,” I responded, “I’m going to be relying on you and the FSO to provide me with as much intelligence as you can get about the Brotherhood and their movements.”

By now everyone had finished eating, and I realized I needed to be getting dressed in the uniform I was to wear at the swearing-in ceremony.  I gulped down a few bites of whatever it was they had set out for me, and I have no idea if it was good or not.  I have no recollection of what we were served; I think the excitement at the moment was overriding all my other senses.

I dressed in the uniform provided me.  Unlike my honorary vice admiral’s uniform that was trimmed with gold piping, the fleet admiral’s uniform had a pale blue piping.  Medals and ribbons were unknown on uniforms for the Federation military, and the unique thing that distinguished my uniform from any uniform of any other rank of admiral was the color of piping.  Rear Admiral Regeny was the sole admiral with a completely white uniform.  The lowest ranking of Admirals all had a thread of light green piping on their uniforms.  When not in formal whites, the uniform of admirals was the same color as the piping thread in their formal uniforms and the piping on their uniforms would be gold.  Admiral Regeny’s uniform for all occasions was white.

As I walked out on the platform where I was to swear my oath before the Senate, I found myself wishing Kala was there.  I recalled my first encounter with the Senate years earlier when Kala and I, along with the others of my crew assisted in delivering the
TRITYTE
and its solbidyum cargo back to the Federation.  I remembered also a few weeks later, we were honored before the Senate when Kala, and I were given the honor of First Citizens in the Federation.

History should have given me a warning, or at least prepared me for what happened next.  In the past nearly every time I appeared before the Senate I ended up either in a martial arts demonstration at Admiral Regeny’s request, or in a life-threatening experience.  I should have been wary walking out on the stage to be sworn in as fleet admiral, but all that I really felt was nervous and I wanted the whole thing to be over and done with.  I was still muddling things over in my mind as I walked out on the platform where Leader Tonclin and Rear Admiral Regeny stood waiting, deliberating if it was possible to retract my acceptance, and wondering if I had made the right choice or not.  I was only a few steps from Leader Tonclin when I happened to glance off the platform and out over the audience.  My eyes moved up to the balcony, traveling quickly along it with no particular object in mind.  The entire distraction of my vision was only a second, but in that instant, I noticed a figure concealed from most everyone else in the large auditorium, in a location that could only be seen by a few on the platform.  The location was at most about 80 meters from the stage. My eye was instantly drawn back to it as I realized it was one of the troopers whom Roritat had take me into custody when I arrived at the Capitol days earlier, and who had guarded me until I was brought forward to face the Senate for questioning.  Alarms started going off in my head, why was he here?  Why hadn’t he left with Roritat and the other traitor senators?  What was he doing?  What was that object in his hands?  A gun!  He had a gun, and he was aiming at Leader Tonclin.