SWEET HOME ALLE BAMMA (SOLBIDYUM WARS SAGA) (24 page)

“Then we luck out twice,” Admiral Regeny said.  “The star ship
SALNA
is scheduled to arrive tomorrow from the Halpfice System.  Its crew has not yet been vetted as loyal, so I can issue orders to the captain to announce that they will be reporting for a top-secret security detail at the Banur space port.  We’ll test the crew and weed out the Brotherhood members
after
the announcement and, when the dismissed troopers are released, word will quickly spread through their organization’s channels about the
SALNA
’s assignment.”

“Why is the
SALNA
arriving here at this time with the
URANGA
and the
CACHATORA
are
both scheduled to be here this week?” asked Commander Wabussie.

“The
SALNA
is returning with a number of diplomats and dignitaries that were on a mission to the Halpfice. I had neglected to take into account its return when we made the plans to meet with the other two ships but I am now including it in my orders to rendezvous with us here.  Once the
SALNA
arrives, I’ll meet with all the captains to brief them on our plans for accelerating these deliveries and disseminating news to other systems about the Federation’s ability to prevail over the Brotherhood.  Before they’re redeployed, they should be securely staffed with loyal troops, fitted with 10X fusion reactors and RMFFs, and bolstered with at least a small contingent of fully functional Mirage Fighters.  But that part we want to keep secret from the Brotherhood, of course; so the captains will not know any of those details until they and their crews are tested and cleared of Brotherhood members.”

“Admiral, I have one question,” said Wabussie.  “You’re clearing the ships’ crews of Brotherhood members, but what of the thousands of civilians, ambassadors and dignitaries?  Surely there are Brotherhood members among them, as well; and I don’t think Federation law permits you to forcefully test them or remove them from the star ships, unless there is strong evidence against them that proves their involvement in subversive activities.”

“True, which is why I want you to place at least one or two undercover FSO agents on each star ship to pose as civilians in some capacity or another – positions that facilitate broad interaction with the civilian population and allow them to look for possible Brotherhood operatives among the passengers and service crews.”

“Admiral,” I interjected, “that might be a good place for us to insert some of the Nibarian FSO agents.  We should place a minimum of one Nibarian and one human agent in civilian roles on each star ship.  If the Brotherhood is looking for a spy in their midst, they will most likely assume them to be human, so to blend in with their ranks – which is true to some degree.  So we have to expect that the human agent will eventually be identified as a mole.  In the meantime, the Nibarian will largely be overlooked, especially after the human mole has been identified.  It’s very possible
that the Brotherhood will retain the human mole as a means of feeding false information through our intelligence channels; but the Nibarian agent is likely to get closer to the more secretive discussions and meetings.  The Brotherhood is going to be more suspicious of human service staff, for instance, so they’ll probably bring non-human servants into their closer circles.  Their members don’t think much of non-human races, from what I have been able to discern, beyond finding them useful in what they consider menial service positions; so they would never suspect a Nibarian personal servant to be capable of spying.”

“Great idea, Tibby, how many Nibarians do we have in the FSO at the moment?”
asked the admiral as he looked from me to Wabussie.

“Ten, Admiral,” answered Wabussie.

“Ten!  Hmm, well that’s a start.  We will only need three for now.  The more urgent issue is that you need to get some local Plosaxen recruits trained and in place.  I expect you to have several agents inserted here as operatives before we move on.  You need to establish an office here as well.  I’m bothered, though, that these agents are simply too inexperienced.  Even with the accelerated learning device and Tibby’s tutelage, I’m concerned about the lack of training, which really amounts to only a few weeks.”

“You have one thing in your favor though, Admiral,” I said.  “In the past you haven’t had
any
agents trained or operating as these will be.  Besides, the headband device has advanced many areas of their training to a level equivalent to a year or more of conventional training – even more so when it comes to martial arts.  Your concern is legitimate, Admiral.  I agree that the lack of experience is an issue; but the military simply has to act now.  In the end, I think the related risks are low compared to not using these recruits at all – especially since the FSO is a secret organization at the moment, known only to those who are employed in it and to your staff and my security team.  Oh yes, and Senator Tonclin.”

“How long do you think we’ll be able to keep the FSO a secret?” the admiral asked.

“I hope for a few years.  For the time being, any information we uncover that reaches the general public will be assumed by just about everyone to be intelligence gained through the operations of the FOI.  The FOI doesn’t even know of the existence of the FSO, so they will assume that we obtained the information by interrogating a prisoner or a Brotherhood traitor.  With luck, the FOI won’t know about the FSO until that entire FOI is cleared of Brotherhood infiltrators.”

“Speaking of the FOI, Commander,” I said, “have you located Galetils’ brother?”

“Yes I have, Tibby, and I have made arrangements for you to meet him.  I talked to his boss here on Plosaxen, a man named Sanuk.  I told him that you recently purchased Galetils’ ship and that, since you didn’t have the pleasure of meeting Galetils directly, you were interested in meeting his brother to learn more about him.  I also suggested that the FOI might want to provide one of their agents to join your personal security team and that Admiral Regeny and that I felt Galetils’ brother might be a good choice.  Sanuk jumped at the opportunity, with the condition that he personally gets to meet you as well.  I assured him that he will be seated with you and the admiral at the banquet table tonight.  So I’ve secured verbal authorization to add Galetils’ brother to your security team.  I think if you were to suggest to Sanuk during dinner that you would like Galetils’ brother to accompany you back to the
NEW ORLEANS
to see the ship, he will be more than willing to allow it.”

“Excellent.  I just have one more question; what’s Galetils’ brother’s name?”

Wabussie and the admiral both laughed.

“I guess
that
would be a good detail for you to know!  His name is Halfredies.  Here, let me pull up his file for you on the vid screen.”  The screen lit up with an image of man whose features are hard to describe.  I had seen vids of Galetils; and other than for the overall roundness of their faces, the brothers bore little resemblance to each other.  Galetils’ hair was reddish brown with matching eyelashes and eyebrows and Halfredies’ hair was jet black.  Galetils’ complexion was somewhat ruddy and Halfredies’ was more like smooth, white porcelain.  Where Galetils’ eyes were amber, Halfredies’ were startlingly dark, so much so that I couldn’t discern the pupil from the iris.  He had thin, pale lips, which at first glance made his mouth appeared to be little more than a slit.  But even these few odd facial features would not make him stand out in a crowd; to the contrary, he had an overall quality about him that might even cause others to ignore his presence as irrelevant, a quality that was certainly conducive to being a spy.

Commander Wabussie went on to review some facts about Halfredies background and relationship with his brother.  “Halfredies and Galetils were quite close; in fact, Galetils purchased and gave him a rather nice estate on the southern continent here on Plosaxen.  Galetils also set him up with seed funds, from which he has benefited nicely as a result of some good investments. In fact, he wouldn’t have to hold a job, if he so elected.

“Halfredies made an offer to Galetils to help get him back on his feet after the destruction of Astamagota and, although he hadn’t accumulated anywhere near the wealth that Galetils once had, that assistance would certainly have helped Galetils to restore his finances and business operations.  It’s one of the reasons that Halfredies is convinced that his brother’s death was not a suicide.  Although he’s been assigned to other cases, I believe he is secretly trying to track down and find his brother’s killers.”

“Interesting,” I said.  “That’s the kind of information we can use to swing him to our side as an undercover agent inside the FOI.  His search for his brother’s killers will coordinate well with our search for the Brotherhood members within the FOI, since there is every reason to believe the two are connected.”

“Oh?” Wabussie asked.

“A’Lappe told me the Brotherhood learned that Galetils was developing the 10X fusion reactors and that someone among their ranks had been pressuring him to join their ranks and surrender the plans to them.  Galetils immediately went to the FOI to advise them of the situation; and just a few days later he was found dead of an
apparent
suicide.”

“I’m curious as to who conducted the investigation and determined the cause of his death,” pondered Wabussie, as he typed some commands and looked at another screen on his desk.  “This is odd,” he said.  “The file is sealed and encrypted; and it’s labeled for viewing by only those with the highest authorization.”  He typed a few more commands, “Lucky I have such clearance.  Ah, here we are.  According to the official file, it was the FOI that conducted the investigation and determined the cause of death.”

“Let me guess… Halfredies doesn’t have clearance high enough to view the file, does he?”  I asked.  Wabussie typed a few more commands and looked up again.  “No, he doesn’t, though it shows here that he has requested access to it several times through different channels but has never been able to see it.”

“Admiral, the clearance that was given to me by the Federation granting me access to all top
-secret information… it is still in effect?” I inquired.

“Why, yes it is,”
said the admiral.

“Good.  Commander, I would like a copy of that file forwarded to me, if you don’t mind.  I think I may have
an immediate use for it
and
it will serve as a good starting place for tracking down the top Brotherhood infiltrators inside the FOI.”

“I don’t understand why we can’t just pull all the FOI agents and personnel and test them like we do the rank and file of the military,” said Commander Wabussie.

“Well, much of the FOI is operating undercover, so it would be difficult to locate all its agents.  Depending on how deeply the Brotherhood has infiltrated the organization, the FIO employee files may have been altered or forged, so even their records and databases are unreliable.  Of course, we can’t let them clean their own house, like they will want to, because the loyalty of the entire organization is dubious at best, aside from Halfredies,” I said.  “At the moment, they have no knowledge of the FSO.  As a ranking officer and member of the High Command, you’re able to access information and files in the FOI database without raising suspicion of the FSO’s existence.  Approaching the corruption in the FOI this way may not be the most satisfactory tactic, but it’s definitely the best way to achieve our objectives while maintaining secrecy about the military’s secret operatives.”

“I see where you’re going with this, Tibby, and I agree with you.  I trust you’ll be able to sway Halfredies to join our operation with the information you find in this folder.  He certainly has a personal motive for enlisting in this cause.”

The trip back to the
NEW ORLEANS
was equally as guarded as the trip to the underground facility; and we returned without incident.  I found Kala in her administrative office surrounded by several of her staff.  As soon as she saw me, her face lit up with a beautiful smile that electrified me from the tips of my toes to the top of my head.  I felt like I hadn’t seen her in ages.  She excused herself from her staff to join me.

“How about a good swim?”

I had to agree I needed the exercise and the swim would remove some of the tension that had accumulated over the course of the day.  I had pretty much healed from the knife wounds I received at the hands of Lexmal; but the absence of my usual exercise allowed some stiffness to creep back into my limbs.

We arrived at the pool and Kala quickly undressed and dove in.  She gave me a grin and I quickly realized that she intended to race me.  Kala was very competitive
; and most of the time I had to put forth my best effort just to manage a tie when we raced laps in the pool.  A few times I managed to beat her, but not by much.

“Come on, Tib, I think I have the advantage today,” she said.

“Oh you do, do you?  We’ll see about that,” I replied as I dove in.  I stayed under water and raced with all my strength to the far end of the pool.  I fully expected to beat Kala to the wall, since I had the speed and momentum from the dive as an advantage; but when I surfaced just a foot short of the wall with my hand out to touch it, I saw Kala at my side with her hand reaching forward as well.  We slapped the wall in unison and did a quick flip, speeding toward the opposite end as fast as we could.  I could feel the stiffness in my muscles around the site of each knife wound; but I ignored the pain and pushed on.  We both hit the wall at the same time and surfaced laughing.  Kala threw her arms around my neck and kissed me firmly and passionately on the lips.