Talosian Chronicles 2: Star Dancer (30 page)

Alan nodded. “Can I have a moment in private, Colonel?”

“Certainly Agent Smith.” He turned to the Captain, “leave Grant here, but the other three can head back. I’ll be along in a minute.”

“Yes Sir,” the Captain replied and left to relay the orders.

“Trooper, we are going to use your shack for a moment. Please stay out here,” Alan said to the guard.

The guard nodded nervously and stammered out a ‘yessir’ that was barely audible.

When they got inside and closed the door, Petrie chuckled. “That guard is terrified of you.”

“He thinks I’m a shark and doesn’t like it when I swim in his pond,” Alan replied, with a shrug. “It’s a common reaction.”

Petrie nodded. “I can imagine. What did you need to talk to me about?”

Alan seemed to be thoughtful for a moment. “What I’m about to tell you cannot leave this room. I’m taking a hell of a risk disclosing this to you, but I don’t want to see your troops hurt.”

“Okay, now you have my undivided attention,” Petrie replied looking at Alan directly.

“You know that DARPA is involved in some strange projects. Stuff no one would believe if they actually knew about it, right?” Alan asked. When the larger man nodded he continued.

“Okay, I need to know how quickly you can get your men out of here, if it was needed,” Alan asked.

“Ten minutes if we leave our gear, forty-five if we take it. What’s going on here?” Petrie asked carefully.

“Some of the stuff we are working on here was taken from some rather exotic circumstances, which is the main reason we’re out here in the middle of nowhere. From time to time, the people that left the material we are working with try to come and take it back,” Alan replied.

“Agent Smith, are we talking about Martians?” Petrie asked.

“Colonel, these people are from a lot further away than Mars. Our normal weapons, the weapons you and your men are equipped with, are virtually useless against them. If they attack, you and your men could be killed without being able to defend yourselves. I cannot risk exposing your men to what’s in the compound, so I can’t bring you in under our defenses. That leaves getting the hell out of here as fast as you can.”

“Agent Smith, I don’t believe in little green men,” the Colonel said condescendingly.

“I can understand that, Colonel, and I can even envy you, but that will not alter the outcome if those fuckers attack while you’re still out here on the ground undefended,” Alan said.

“You honestly expect me to believe this?” Colonel Petrie asked.

“No Colonel, I expect you to think I’m completely off my nut, ignore my warning, and die with your men when those assholes attack us, but I had to try to warn you. Semper Fidelis, Colonel.

”Oouwah!” Petrie replied. “Look, I’ll think about it, but you have to admit that this is pretty damn hard to swallow.”

“I know, Colonel. But if you’ve seen half the things I have, you wouldn’t even blink at this,” Alan said.

“Son, I’m starting to think I can understand why that guard is afraid of you,” Petrie replied as he headed for the door.

“Remember Colonel Petrie, you can’t tell anyone of this. This information is classified eyes only. I felt you had a right to know,” Alan replied.

“I appreciate it, Smith. I’ll let you know if I hear anything more from Command,”

Alan nodded. “Thank you, Colonel. Anytime you want to speak to me, you can simply tell the guard, and he can call me.”

When the two men left the building, Ty and a couple of others were standing there beside one of the heavy duty quads used by the grounds maintenance folks, with a large plastic trailer full of water behind it. Hooked to the back of that trailer was another trailer with what looked like an ice machine that had a generator mounted on it. There was a hose running from the water tank to the ice machine, and the generator was running.

“Now that’s a handy looking device for the desert!” the Colonel said when he saw the set up.

Ty nodded and offered the man his hand. “Alex Carlton, Colonel. I’m the head of security here. I’ll make sure they keep the tank full for you and the boys.”

While the Colonel wasn’t looking, Alan gave Ty a glare for using that name, so close to his own.

“I can tell you right now that we sure appreciate it. Commander. Thank you for thinking of us,” Colonel Petrie said.

“I’ll try to get you all some porta potties out there too, so don’t be surprised if you see another quad bringing them out!” Ty said hamming up the hick routine for the Colonel. “I guessed about the number, and asked for all twenty of them. I’m waiting for approval on that.”

“Wow, you keep this up, Commander, and I’m going to have trouble getting these knuckle draggers back to the base!” Colonel Petrie said. “Just have your man follow us out, and I’ll find a place to park it. Thanks again, Commander.”

“Our pleasure Sir,” Ty replied, and nodded at the trooper driving the quad.

As Alan and Ty watched the Colonel drive away, Alan looked at Ty. “Alex Carlton?”

“I just had to fuck with ya. Now, what did he say?” Ty asked.

“OHS sent them out here to bust up a terrorist training and explosives manufacturing facility. I got OHS in hot water with the Marines by posing as a deep cover DARPA agent that was in charge of this facility. I also warned him about the alien attack, but we’ll have to see how that plays out,” Alan reported.

“Sammi, set the shield to minimum power, but don’t shut it down. Maybe that’ll help keep it from being detected,” Ty told the Command Center, then looked at Alan. “You are really smooth, Alan, I’ll give you that. Smooth as silk.”

“It’s what I do,” Alan replied and shrugged.

Ty nodded back to his office. “Come on, let’s go get some breakfast. The Enemy ship just arrived, so it might be the last chance we get to eat for a while.”

“Well, they say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, lead on my friend.”

––––––––

F
.S.S.
Star Dancer

Selene (Earth’s moon) Orbit

Sol Sector.

Combat location:
Dark Palace

––––––––

I
an walked out on the bridge with an hour left on the countdown clock that showed when the Caldarian was either just entering the system, or would be shortly. A glance at the plotting board showed it to be just inside the Oort cloud which officially put it in the system.

It was still technically night watch since it was so early in the morning. Ian hadn’t actually gotten any sleep since shortly after he had went to bed after talking to Beth, Ty had called him. That was a situation he would still worry about, but for the moment, his attention was focused on the object entering the system displayed on the main board. Doing the math in his head, he realized that the data being displayed was wrong.

“Ensign, get me hyperspace tracking please,” Ian said as he relieved the third watch officer, a senior lieutenant Ian didn’t recognize.

The Ensign sitting at communications had jumped when Ian spoke, causing him to grin. But responded quickly enough to Ian’s order.

Looking at the Lieutenant he relieved, Ian smiled. “Thanks Lieutenant, I’d try to get a quick nap if I were you, but from the looks of things, it’s gonna get busy around here pretty quickly.”

“Sir?” the young man asked, confused. The board said there was still over an hour before the enemy ship arrived.

“Tracking is on the comm for you, Sir,” the Ensign called.

Ian held up a finger to the lieutenant and thumbed the comm on the console. “Tracking, this is Command. Please recheck your math on the ETA. It looks way out of line to me.”

“Right away, Sir.” The voice that had replied sounded like he was about twelve. Since Tracking was a non-combat department, he might have been.

Ian could hear him typing away furiously on his terminal, then he heard a soft, “Oh shit” followed by furious typing again. Then “Shit-shit-shit!” the boy came back to the comm. “I’m really sorry, Sir, I thought it was set to automatically recalculate every thirty minutes, but it dropped off an hour ago. Updating now.”

The numbers on the board flashed a few times, then changed to something a lot less than even Ian thought there was.

“Thank you,” Ian replied, and closed the comm. “Sorry folks, no nap for any of you. Ensign, sound general quarters and take us to Yellow alert. Day watch on deck, night watch stand down. Mid watch to stand-by. Engineering bring the reactor up to thirty percent but try to keep the plasma chambers cool. Weapons control, activate all weapons system, master safety is on. Flight control activate all systems and stand-by. Enemy ship will arrive in fifteen minutes. I say again, Enemy ship will arrive in fifteen minutes.” Ian ordered.

Just as when they lifted off the moon, Ian could feel the great ship coming to life. It was faint at first, but it built quickly as the people on her ran to get to duty stations, or secured their homes for combat. Ian could feel an anxiousness and a good deal of worry, but there was a fierce determination building. Ian could recognize it now as an implacable resoluteness. Not hatred, not fear, but a determination not to let the enemy destroy this system like they did to Talos all those millennia ago. Not to let them come here and rape the planet and enslave the people. Ian was relieved to feel that, he knew he would lose people today, but he would do everything in his power to not let that happen.

Jenny came running onto the bridge, buttoning up her uniform and talking on her communit. “All departments, report readiness to operations. All non-essential personnel report to your designated safety areas. Medical department, prepare for casualties.”

She stepped in front of Ian and saluted. “Sir, all guns are manned and ready, at one minute forty-five seconds. Missile command reports an autoloading malfunction on tube thirty-one portside. Engineering has been notified and the tube is offline.”

“Very good, Colonel. Carry on,” Ian replied. That tube was worrisome, considering how badly they were outgunned every tube was going to count if this turned into a slugging match.

Ian again thumbed his comm. “Armory, prepare four hyper-missiles with heavy AM warheads, but do not activate the warheads.”

“Will do, Commander!” came the rushed response.

“Star, bring up a system holo, I want to see where everything is right now and activate the battle boards,” Ian ordered and the hologram took form in front of Ian, but above the heads of the Communications officer and the navigator.

Ian watched as the area filled up with the assets and ships that were still out there. The drones, weapons platforms, missile launchers, and Centurion picket ships. Ian would have ordered them to cloak, but the icons in the display said they already were. He noticed that one of the small ships was near Venus, the projected final destination of the Caldarian.

“Who ordered the
Odin
to post near Venus?” Ian asked.

“They are on an Intelligence mission. We’ve set up a secure laser link for communications with them. They’re going to remain cloaked and dark, except for that laser link,” Jenny reported. “I didn’t think you’d mind, so I approved the mission. I did send you a note about it.”

Ian nodded. “It probably got lost in the never ending pile of reports I’ve been reading. One of these days I’m going to have to get myself one of those too-cute-to-be-believed secretaries so I can drive you insane flirting with her!”

“Nah, I’d just warn her about you. Once she knows the truth, she’ll stay away from you all on her own,” Jenny replied.

Their banter was easing the stress that had been building in the bridge crew. Ian winked at her, and she smiled back.

“Pass the word to go dark. Colonel, please ask the moon base to put their camouflage up. Major Dancer, silent running if you please,” Ian said, once again watching the hologram.

Ian could hear the comm officer and Jenny talking on their respective comm systems. Star looked up at him. “Silent running systems engages zero emission in twenty seconds. Cloaking system is engaged and is optimal.”

“Thank you, Major,” Ian said glancing at her and winking. She smiled nervously at him.

“Relax Star, these asshole will never know what hit them,” Ian said.

“I am Sir, I’m a little nervous because none of these tactics follow standard Talosian Doctrine,” Star replied.

Ian frowned and shook his head. “I know, but if we would have followed what the book had to say about this situation, we wouldn’t last very long. I chose this approach to minimize our losses while maximizing enemy confusion. If we kill them off, great, but if they flee in confusion, that’d be good too.”

“If they leave, Caldarians never flee, they would be simply backing off to call for more forces before returning,” Star said. “Should we not focus on destroying them?”

Ian sighed. “No, because that will most likely end up getting us killed in the process. If they do call for help, which is unlikely, that’s fine, it’ll give us more time to get ready to deal with them. Just look at what our people have accomplished in the short amount of time we had for this? With the extra year we would gain by them retreating and calling for assistance, we could make this system into a lethal gauntlet that they would never survive.”

On Ian’s terminal the message appeared. ‘I am asking these questions, because of things I have overheard from the crew. I know, and understand the reasons for what you have done. – Star.’

Ian read that and winked at her, nodding his head slightly. She gave him a twitch of a smile. “Thank you, Commander. I think I understand better now.”

“No problem, Star. If you ever have a question about something, feel free to ask me or the XO if time allows,” Ian replied.

“Thank you, Sir. I’ll use the email system if I have any other questions,” Star replied. On his screen she wrote, ‘I have sent that part of the conversation to the people I heard talking about it, with a note apologizing for eavesdropping on them, and assured them that their identity has remained confidential.’

Ian typed back. ‘How was it received?’

‘With shock and a little fear at first, but with thanks after the text message,’ Star replied.