SWEET HOME ALLE BAMMA (SOLBIDYUM WARS SAGA) (29 page)

I carefully watched Halfredies for his reactions while I spoke, but he displayed no physical reaction to anything I was saying.  He obviously had a tremendously stoic control over his emotions and reactions.

“We also believe that there is a strong infiltration of Brotherhood members within the FOI that stretches all the way into the higher ranks, which is why the Federation military forces never received warning about the growing threat of their presence.  It’s also the reason I believe his file and case information have been withheld from you.  My guess is that they have kept you away from a lot of stuff recently.”

“I must confess that what you’re telling me is nothing I haven’t surmised on my own; but I don’t think you have gone to all th
e trouble of getting Galetils’ file for me just to tell me this.”

“You’re right – and now we come to the part that I must ask you to
not
reveal to anyone.  A great deal is at stake for the Federation’s security and your secrecy is required.”

“I’ve sworn my allegiance to the Federation; it was required when I joined the FOI,” Halfredies said a bit stiffly.

“Yes, and so did a lot of Federation troops and many of your associates in the FOI who have been working for the Brotherhood.  I want your personal word, on the honor of your brother, that you will keep secret what I am about to say.”

Halfredies again adjusted himself in his chair and looked me in the eye.  “I’ll swear on my brother’s honor, so long as there is nothing illegal in what you say.”

“Good enough for me,” I said.  “As I stated earlier, we believe there are a number of Brotherhood operatives within the FOI, so many and so strategically placed as to make any intelligence reports coming to the Senate or the military’s High Command highly questionable and nearly worthless.  The military would like to clean up the FOI – test and weed out the Brotherhood, I guess is the plainest way to say it.  Admiral Regeny’s teams can’t get at them because of the structure within the FOI organization.  For this reason a new covert group has been set up independently of the FOI to collect intelligence and ferret out Brotherhood operatives in all branches of government,
without
those branches and the Brotherhood knowing about the agency’s existence or its activities.”

I could see Halfredies reacting to this news with interest.  I continued, “In light of everything I’ve just told you, I believe that once you see the information in your brother’s file, you will see that we share a common interest.”

“So what is it you want?” Halfredies asked.  “Do you expect me to resign my position with the FOI and go to work for this new organization you’re forming?  Don’t you think the FOI will find my actions suspicious and realize that I’ve left to work for some new agency?  For that matter, why not just dismantle the FOI completely and recruit and test into the new one?”

“For one thing, we want to find out who the Brotherhood agents are in the FOI without them realizing we are on to them.  With that approach the infiltrators are sure to lead us to their higher-ups. Secondly, we want to find leads into their organization to get operatives inside the Brotherhood.  Ultimately, we hope to clear out the Brotherhood presence from the FOI, while still keeping the second agency operational and secret as long as possible.”

“Oh, I get it now.  You want me to spy for you within the FOI, to be an undercover agent for your new agency.”

“Something like that, yes,” I said.  “We’re not asking you to do anything illegal or to divulge any classified information, because all the people you
would report to already have the highest clearance granted by the Federation.  Any information being withheld from them would be in violation of Federation laws; so if you find that agents within the FOI are violating that law, your clandestine actions to make the High Command of the Federation aware of such matters would be within your duties and moral code.  All we’re doing is asking you bypass the regular chain of command where Brotherhood members might intercept and divert your reports.  Of course, you would still report things to your superior at the FOI on your regular assignments as expected; but you would also be looking for anything that might indicate Brotherhood cover-ups or activities within the FOI.

“Why don’t you look over the file I gave you?  You still have two and a half hours before your return to the surface.  You should be able to review the file in its entirety by then.  Just be sure to leave the file with Commander Wabussie before you leave – and we would also like your answer before you leave.  You can provide that to Wabussie as well.  Regardless of your decision, we ask you to keep the information we have shared with you a secret.”

Halfredies took the file cube I offered him, “I’ll consider what you ask and I will keep your secret.”

“It was a real pleasure meeting you
, Halfredies.  Regardless of your decision to join us or not, I hope that, when things are less tense, I can get back this way and entertain you in a more polite and proper fashion here on the
NEW ORLEANS
.”

“Thank you, First Citizen.  I would consider it a great honor.  It was a great pleasure meeting you
; and thank you for allowing me to see this file.”

After Halfredies left with the file in hand, I reviewed the status of our first delivery of fighter ships.  It appeared that the
NEW ORLEANS
could plan to be underway to Alle Bamma about 20 hours later.  I was delightfully surprised when Admiral Regeny suggested that Cantolla and some of her team take up residence on the
URANGA
where they would be safely protected by the RMFF field.  The admiral’s gesture also meant it would be unlikely that she would need a Mirage Fighter to bring her back to the
NEW ORLEANS
or that we would need to retrieve her at all; as I anticipated that, as soon as the Federation finished with their encounter with the Brotherhood at Banur, the admiral would immediately direct the
URANGA
on a heading for Alle Bamma in anticipation of my team finding a Brotherhood presence on the planet at some point during our excursion.

I found it impossible to go to bed without Kala by my side, so I made a fire in the fireplace and reclined in one of the oversized chairs to rest and wait for news from the bridge that we could prepare for departure.  The heat and fragrance of warm cinnamon that radiated from the flames lulled me into a few hours of much needed sleep, which was broken by a
status message from the bridge.

The arrival and stowing of ten
Mirage Fighters on the
NEW ORLEANS
signaled the moment of our departure.

Kerabac, Hotyona and I boarded the
ALI
and we were quickly underway with the
NEW ORLEANS
following behind.  We would arrive a week before the
NEW OREANS
and would hopefully have located the ruguian eggs by the time they arrived.

I hadn’t had the opportunity to meet Hotyona before our departure on the
ALI
.  He stood almost two meters tall and had an athletic swimmer’s build, blue eyes and nearly straw blond hair.  There was an air of intelligence about him that was slightly intimidating but not threatening; and he had a broad smile and good sense of humor.

“First Citizen, it is a true honor to be going to Alle Bamma with you,” he said.

“Just Tibby, please.  I prefer not to have all the honorifics, especially with my team members.”

“Very well, Tibby.  I hope you don’t mind; but I met with Kerabac to discuss the best possible place for us to search for
ruguian eggs.  Although they’re found all over the planet, they are concentrated in some areas more than others.  Kerabac seems to recall an area he visited when he was there 15 years ago that seemed to have a fairly significant concentration of them, though they may not be as heavily concentrated now as they were at that time.  The ruguian population levels seems to be based on food availability; and when the population density gets too high the food levels fall and the population of ruguians decreases correspondingly.  I suspect we will be pretty much relying on luck to find a good spot to secure eggs,” Hotyona informed me.

“The weather is an issue, too,” added Kerabac.  “The planet has a strange wobble to it that affects the weather patterns.  Technically you can say they have seasons, but those are mostly described as
wet
and
wetter
and not really characterized by any substantial change in temperature.  During the wettest seasons, rain storms pass through the same locales several times a day.  There a day is 28 hours long; so you can expect to experience at least five to eight storms in that period, which last from a few minutes to several hours.  During the less stormy season, rains that are less severe in nature occur on average about three to four times a day.  The humidity stays pretty close to 100%.  It’s not the most comfortable place in the galaxy; I can tell you that for a fact.”

“Wow, with weather like that I can understand why the people there are so primitive, they probably have never developed fire because everything is too wet,” I said.

“They have fire and use it in their camps and homes,” said Kerabac.  “There are a number of plants dispersed throughout the planet’s vegetation that produce flammable oils in relatively large quantities.  The natives harvest these plants and extract the oil to burn in lamps and small cooking pits.  Throughout the jungles grows a large nut-like fruit with a hard fireproof and waterproof shell.  The meat of the fruit is removed and eaten and the large shells become fire pit liners – to act as a barrier, of sorts, from the moist earth.  The smaller shells are utilized as cooking pots.  They also burn the oil in these smaller shells for light.”

“This place is sounding more and more complex all the time. I can see where I’ve got a lot to learn before we arrive.  I need both of you to tell me everything you can about the planet and the
ruguians.  It sounds as though Alle Bamma is a dangerous place and I don’t want to get eaten or poisoned by something while we’re there,” I said.

“About the only creature you need to worry about in that regard is a large reptilian creature called a drodoceal, which grows to about six meters in length,” Kerabac said.  “It spends a great deal of its time submerged just below the surface of the water, where it looks like a saturated log.  Whenever prey comes near, it snatches the unwary victim in its large and powerful jaws with lightning speed
, drags it underwater, and holds the pray there until it drowns.  Once the prey is dead, the drodoceal makes a meal of it.  A drodoceal is large enough to eat a whole human and it has been known to do so.”

“That sounds amazingly like creatures we have on Earth called alligators and crocodiles.  Alligators were indigenous to the swamps where I grew up.  We used to hunt and kill them for both their skins and the meat in their tails.”

“It’s quite possible that they are close in nature,” said Hotyona.  “On planets of similar atmospheres and environments evolution of life has been demonstrated to be very similar.  As far as poisonous life forms, they’re easy to identify on Alle Bamma, as every poisonous species has bright, nearly fluorescent blue color on them – plants and animals alike.  Anything that doesn’t have blue on it is safe to eat or touch, unless, like the drodoceal, it has teeth with a bite that can injure or kill.  It might help you to review the flora and fauna of Alle Bamma that I brought along on my vid pad.  I can download it into the ship’s computer if you like.”

“I think that’s
a very good idea.  I also think it would be a great idea if the main topic of conversation from now until we arrive at Alle Bamma is about the planet and its life forms and tribal customs.  I want us to be as prepared as possible when we arrive.”

Since my arrival in the Federation territor
ies, there had been only a few instances where I had been away from Kala for more than a few hours.  Even then I felt her absence and found myself eager to be with her as soon as possible.  When I first saw Kala in the stasis chamber, the short space between her and the casement window felt like a million galaxies between us; and I didn’t think the longing to touch her and hear her voice could get any greater.  But now I couldn’t even see her or be near her, and as soon as Kerabac, Hotyona and I left in the
ALI
, the separation from Kala redoubled the depths of my anguish.  She would remain on the
NEW ORLEANS
while I sloshed about in the jungle on Alle Bamma, looking for the cure that would release her from the poison that was killing her.

To keep the pain at bay and stay focused I spent as much of my time as possible talking to Kerabac and Hotyona about life on Alle Bamma and looking at the vids of the flora and fauna of the planet.  I was indeed surprised to see the similarity between Earth alligators and the drodoceal.  I was also surprised to see how much the
ruguians looked like the giant mudpuppies of Earth.  The ruguian grew slightly larger than its Earth cousin, often reaching a length of half a meter.  Its tail and belly were bright blue; and it was not a venomous bite that posed the threat, but a chemical secreted from their skin that was poisonous.  Even their eggs were blue in color and looked like a bunch of blueberries stuck in a slimy clear gelatin blob.  Usually the eggs were laid under leaves or fallen logs, but they could just as easily be found lying anywhere.  It was advisable not to allow the eggs to come in contact with the skin on a person’s hands – not because touching them was harmful, but because the toxin on the eggs could contaminate any food one touched; and just the smallest trace of ingested poison was almost always fatal.  Those who survived generally went blind or became partially paralyzed from the toxin.