SWEET HOME ALLE BAMMA (SOLBIDYUM WARS SAGA) (41 page)

“Just so you understand
; you will remain under arrest until A’Lappe has administered the loyalty tests and other security checks.  Thereafter you will remain on a probationary status and will continue to be monitored and tested periodically, so that we can be absolutely certain of you allegiance.  So if you’re willing to undergo the intense and ongoing scrutiny, I’m willing to take a chance on you,” I said.

“I think I would like that very much,” she said.

“Good.  Now, the fact that you were never in the Federation military means you are not under military judgment for court martial.  On top of that, the Senate is considering amnesty for Brotherhood members who defect.  So I think these factors put you in a pretty good position,” I informed her.  “Right now the only Brotherhood members who know you have helped us and that you’re no longer part of their program are the ones in our holding cell.  None of the other Brotherhood members know about this development; so as far as they’re concerned, you’re still with them.

“You mentioned that you were only
acting
first officer on the
RUNANA
.  How long did you serve on her?”

“Only a few weeks.  I was on temporary assignment while the regular first officer was away on another assignment.”

“How many bases does the Brotherhood have on Alle Bamma?”

“Fourteen that I know of; but there could be more”

“Do you know how many Brotherhood ships are here on the planet at the moment?”

“I know they had 31 corvettes like the
RUNANA
and over a hundred patrol ships before today’s conflict.  They also have freighters coming and going and a few other miscellaneous ships.  What the status of ships is after today I don’t know.”

“If we can get you to the planet near a base with another corvette like the
RUNANA
,
what are your chances of getting aboard unchallenged?”

“Unless they changed things in the past few hours, I should have little or no problem doing so.  I’m one of but a few person
nel that that is experienced in flying all their ship types.  I’ve also served at a number of bases here, so I will be immediately recognized as an officer of the Brotherhood.  Since my rotation through the major bases was frequent, my coming and going was a routine thing.  If I were to suddenly show up on any base, I don’t think anyone would really notice.  Plus, the destruction of the base where I was stationed creates a situation where the camp’s survivors will have to be displaced to other bases.  So, all things considered, I’m pretty sure I won’t be seen as a suspicious presence anywhere.  Why would you want me to go back?”

“I want you to help us steal another corvette,” I said.

“That’s going to be difficult.  Normally there is a crew of about 50 on each corvette.  They can hold double that; but the Brotherhood has been spreading crews pretty thin, operating ships and bases with fewer staff and two long shifts instead of three shorter ones.  The
RUNANA
was an exception, since the food synthesizer was out of order and all but a few core officers were displaced to barracks.  Any other corvette you may find will be more heavily manned.”

“Is there any way –
easy
way – to disable one for a short period of time without destroying it?”  I asked.

“There may be, but I’m not an engineer.  If there is I don’t know what it would be,” she said.

“I believe there is a way, Tibby,” said A’Lappe.  In his typical fashion he had suddenly appeared in the meeting.  Felenna looked startled.

“You’ll have to excuse A’Lappe.  He likes to make sudden and dramatic appearances.  You’ll get used to it.”

“I’m still trying to get used to it,” said Stonbersa offhandedly.

“Okay,
A’Lappe, how can it be done?” I asked.

“The ship is definitely Markazian-built.  Markazian engineers are notorious for using a Dietyte fusion reactor.  Though it is sufficient for powering the ship, this reactor is cheaply designed and poorly built.  Well-built reactors include a safety mechanism that facilitates necessary shutdowns without killing the reaction potential or the reactor itself, thus making it possible to restart the reactor and associated power distribu
tion without excessive effort.  The Markazians, on the other hand, use a cost-cutting method to lower the price of the reactor, as well as the required construction effort.  Their design employs a simple kill system that successfully stops the reaction; but at the same time it kills the reaction potential and the reactor.  Once the reactor kill switch is activated, that reactor is terminated.  Only by installing a new one will the ship be operational again.”

“Yes, there
is such a kill switch on the bridge,” confirmed Felenna, “but I never knew that the reactor couldn’t be restarted once the switch was activated.  Only the officer in charge on the bridge has the key, which generally means the captain or the first officer.”

“Another thing you should know,” A’Lappe interjected, “the weapons system on the ship is powered solely by the reactor.  If the reactor is down, the weapons are completely disabled.”

“That is good and valuable news, A’Lappe, but why are you here and not working on the cloaking of the
RUNANA
?”

“Ha, like I’m needed to install that thing.  After confirming some simple dimensional parameters, I turned over the installation to the maintenance crew.  While you were away, I had several spare cloaking devices constructed, which are now stored in the hangar; so after I completed the necessary calculations, all I had to do was tell them where and how to install the system.  I assumed I would be of more value to you here,” he said with a grin.

“Oh, before I forget,” he continued, “I was also able to repair the food synthesizer on the ship.  It really wasn’t anything that difficult.  The Brotherhood engineers must be a joke.”

“That’s probably a fair assessment, A’Lappe,” I said with a grin.

“Okay, so now all we need to do is to figure out how to get you on the bridge, get the kill switch key in your hands and deactivate the reactor without getting you killed in the process,” I said.

“There may be another way,” A’Lappe said.  “While that is the only
manual
switch to kill the reactor, the actual kill mechanism on the reactor is sensitive to electromagnetic pulses.  If it’s hit with a strong enough pulse, the mechanism will trigger.  The ship itself is shielded from EMPs, but there is no additional shielding that specifically protects the reactor room.  If you were to place an EMP device of the right strength in the reactor room, it would disable the reactor within seconds, leaving the corvette completely dead.  The crew would have no choice but to abandon ship, as everything in it would stop working – life support, lights, weapons, lifts, everything.  The Markazians cut a lot of corners when they designed and built these ships.  They’re strong enough, but there are no backup systems, reserves or redundancies anywhere.  If you planning to keep or use any of their ships, Tibby, I advise that we modify them rather extensively to include these backup systems.”

“Duly noted, A’Lappe.  Thank you.

“Okay, so if you can provide Felenna with a device that emits an EMP burst close to the reactor with a timed detonator, we’ll have a chance at disabling and gaining a ship.  If we time an attack at a base to coincide with detonation of the EMP device, the crew should recognize that they have to abandon the ship immediately, especially if we hit the base aggressively with a full-on attack.”

“If you really want to undermine them, then I think I know the ship you should go for
– and I think I know how to gain access to its reactor room,” said Felenna.  “What you want is the
MIZBAGONA
, Captain Ruraldo’s ship.  He’s in charge of all defenses for the planet’s surface, as well as all the ships stationed here.  If you can seize his ship, it will seriously demoralize the rest of the Brotherhood on these bases.  The chief engineer on the
MIZBAGONA
has been trying to get my...
personal attention
… for some time, but I’ve had no interest in him.  If I were to stop by the
MIZBAGONA
to visit him, I’m sure he would end up showing me around the engine and reactor rooms, as those are his pride and glory.  He brags about them constantly.”  Felenna rolled her eyes, clearly unimpressed by anything this man had to offer.  “I could carry the EMP device in my duffle and, if it’s is small enough, place it in the reactor room when he’s distracted.  Once it’s planted, I can make an excuse that I need to be someplace else and leave the ship.  Unless I get caught with the device, which is unlikely, I should be able to pull it off with no problems.”

“How small a device can you make that will do the trick, A’Lappe?” I asked.

“The entire device and timed activator would be the size of a flat gun,” he said.  “In fact, I can house it in the flat gun casing.  You carry arms on the ship anyway, so it would be perfectly normal for you to have one.”

“Yes, that would be perfect,” said Felenna.

“Before you go, let’s look over the reactor compartment on the
RUNANA
.  I would imagine the reactor rooms on both ships are much the same, if not identical.  Let’s see if we can plan an optimal place for you to leave the detonator,” said A’Lappe.

The rest of the meeting was spent planning an extensive assault on the bases of Alle Bamma.  On a vid map Felenna identified the general location of the Brotherhood base where we would most likely find the
MIZBAGONA
.  Marranalis said he would send some of our security team in a cloaked ship to scout the area and verify its location.  We were pretty sure the Brotherhood had bolstered their defenses by that point, but it was highly unlikely that they would realize we had personal cloaking capabilities, as well as the cloaking for the ships, which they had already witnessed.  At the moment, we were relatively sure they weren’t going to make an attempt to flee without knowing how many cloaked ships were surrounding the planet.  They would choose to wait for reinforcements to arrive and help them out of their quandary.

Marranalis’ plan consisted of putting cloaked men on the ground some distance from the base to
scout out the layout, manpower and location of the
MIZBAGONA
and other parked ships, as well as the prison and other infrastructure, after which they would return with the information.  It would be a week or more before the Brotherhood ships fleeing Plosaxen would arrive with the Federation in pursuit; and I doubted the rebels had any other ships anywhere near Alle Bamma, perhaps with the exception of a freighter.  This situation gave us some time to deal with things on Alle Bamma at our own pace.

One thing that I felt was necessary was to return to the surface and talk to Jnanara.  For this journey I would be taking Marranalis and Hotyona.  While I didn’t know exactly where their village was located, I had a good idea how to find her.  We would take some of our security forces along to assess
the condition of the base we had destroyed earlier and scour the area for any clues or information that the Brotherhood might have left behind.

Each man deployed to the surface would also carry a small container for collection of any
ruguian eggs they might find in the course of their operation.  With these plans in mind we adjourned for the evening.  I asked Marranalis to provide a security escort and to give Felenna an abbreviated tour of the ship; and then to see to it that she was provided a meal.  Marranalis suggested that it might be a good idea for her to dine with the some of his security team in their dining room.  I got the impression from the way he said it that he had a specific reason for wanting to do so.  I decided to let things play out and see what he was up to.

Instead of returning to my suite after the meeting I headed to the gym for some martial arts exercises and a swim.  I had hoped the exertion would erase some of the thoughts in my mind, but all it served to do was remind me of Kala and how we swam and practiced martial arts together.  Eating dinner alone that evening just intensified the
loneliness; the food seemed tasteless without Kala sitting across the table from me.

Before retiring for the night I went to the ships hospital and stared into the stasis chamber, taking what solace I could from being near her.  I’m not sure that it helped, as I happened to arrive when the fog-like gas that stopped all cellular aging and suspended the spread of the poison in her body was refreshing itself within the chamber, creating a dense mist that glowed with the
chamber lights and obscured the view of her face.

I must have been much more tired than I realized
, because I had no memory of going to bed and I seemed to sleep without dreams.  When I awoke, I felt rather disoriented and unsure of where I was.  It took a few moments for my head to clear and for everything to fall back into place.  Just as I was getting my senses back, Piesew arrived and asked me if I cared for some breakfast.  I was never quite sure just how Piesew always knew exactly when to make an entrance and I never bothered to ask.  To my surprise, I was actually hungry.  I found myself craving Endarin sausages with Yendera flat cakes and gravy, a dish Kala had introduced me to one morning after I described a meal on Earth called buckwheat cakes and sausage.  In his usual efficient manner, Piesew had the meal ready and on the table by the time I finished my shower.  There were times when I wished for a shower like those back on Earth, where I could lounge in a massaging stream of hot water for as long as I wanted, rather than just clean myself in the strange three-minute mist and ultrasonic treatment.