Chapter 11

New Masada
D-Day – 16Months (D-16M)

Tony Chiba felt he had to be the happiest man alive. Upon receiving his SOCOM assignment he had the joy of finding that his cover job put him as an Import/Export manager for Carlson Transshipping on New Texas no less. Getting to New Texas he found out that he would have to go for the job to his world of responsibility New Masada to meet and great with the on world agent.

Under the table his new unit was to train up there and Carlson’s was going to put him up at the Lone Star for the civilian portion of the trip, break his heart!

Ninety-eight days later his opinion had changed greatly! The first week on New Masada had been great, working with Judah Grantz during the day and basically partying at night, he had even met a great Gal from New Texas who was not turned off by his size and build. Megan had been a wonderful person who was not the least intimidated by his size and muscle.

Then they had reported in for training. Megan the party girl was Megan Webb excuse me, Major Megan Webb and his boss! She had not been cowed by his build because every damned male in her family was bigger than he was, at least the two legged ones. From what he had heard as gossip in the last two weeks was the four legged ones made up for it in sheer damn determination, big ass Dobermans were like that. Here he sat after weeks of being beaten into the dirt by a sadistic training Cadre and listening to of all people Master Chief Gunnery Sergeant Dave Roberts outline their last Field Exercise.

“Listen up people,” the Master Gunny bellowed, “this is simple, all you have to do is go from point A to point B without getting tagged. No problem right, well the OPFOR is Team One. No big problem there is there?”

Tony stared at his Commander and saw the same Deer in the Headlights look he knew was on his face. Team One, what had they ever done to the Universe to deserve that. The Master Chief standing in front of them was the Senior NCO on that team, its’ Commander was General Andrew Webb himself. Tony almost laughed out loud as Megan returned his look and mouthed, “Oh God, Daddy’s gonna kick my Ass.”

After a pause Roberts continued, “I will not be here for your planning sessions for obvious reasons, total briefing packages are on your individual Channel 3 e-mails and can be viewed at your leisure. In summation, at 0530 the day after tomorrow you will be dropped at the Eastern edge of area 162 and your job is to get to the Western edge administratively alive. Exercise rules will apply and when tagged the loser on either side will surrender their transponder.”

“You will get one break, you will have the latest issue field combat uniforms minus the sensor array while Team One will be in old style Woodlands Camouflage uniforms. Piece of cake right? Y’all have a nice day!” With that he turned and left the room as the remaining occupants began to babble at a high rate of speed.

Two Days Later: 0915

“Lead, we’ve lost contact with trail!”

“Shit, hold up and check back trail. No more that 50 yards, if Dad’s out there it’s a trap for sure.” Megan finished grating into her sub-vocal microphone and began mentally cussing a blue streak. “Redneck, how did they get on us so fast, we projected first contact around 1130?”

“Lead, I don’t think they were in a mood to wait. I bet they forced marched the first two miles at least and I am willing to bet they ain’t trying to just slip by either.”

“Roger that, I just wish I knew what the hidden object of this exercise is, believe me Dad always has one.”

“Lead, trails gone. No sign of Mike anywhere!”

“OK, we are down one keep your heads up. The Wolves are out for sure!”

The pattern repeated again and again for the next four hours as the team just got smaller and smaller. It did not take long to make anyone not wish to be trail. Down to three, Megan decided to take trial herself hoping she could break the string. Putting Chiba in the lead she dropped back to trail. Putting her head on a swivel she started following the path with more attention to her surroundings than the next person up.

Never the less, just under a half mile later she felt the cold steel of a barrel on her neck and a whispered “Bang, your dead!” Megan turned to see “Uncle” Dave hanging upside down from the tree limb she had just ducked under wrapped in an old style ghille suit with a dismounted silencer in his hand. The other hand was giving her the classic ‘No Noise’ signal. They moved quietly around 500 yards before Dave finally spoke.

“Wondered when you were going to move back and try to get one of us! Had to get you out of the way so we could get to the real purpose of this here exercise.”

“I knew it. What the hell is Dad up to?”

“Well, you can blame me for this one. I have to hang stripes on one of those young potential NCOs and I asked your Dad to winnow the field. But one of them has to be your Senior NCO and I don’t like mistakes.”

“I guess that works but, why not tell me?”

“Because you could have then had an unconscious input by forcing someone up front. You were doing a good job of rotating the jobs around. Besides the number one candidate and you seem to hit it off in the bars.”

“Oh My God, Redneck as a Senior NCO!”

“The Eraser will let us know!”

Last man standing Tony Chiba was in full desperation mode, he had to get to the finish line. Dammit the team just could not get shut out at least one of them had to make it. He was in full stealth mode trying to make no noise at all. He had his head on a full swivel trying to see everything and he got a flash of motion. In the end it did him little good, all it did was allow him to know ahead of time his ass was dead. Laying on the ground with the wind knocked out of him looking up at General Webb. “Oh well, at least I got my butt kicked by the best!”

“Nope, Muriel is technically better than I am. That being said, congratulations Sergeant First Class Chiba!”

Two hours later the Range Controller at the Eastern edge of area 162 sat up in his chair, “Fred what the hell is that?”

Looking at the feed from the surveillance drone Fred commented dryly, “Chuck, that would be General Webb.

I bet there will be a few to follow.”

Sure enough, eleven more figures emerged from the brush and ceremoniously piled up twelve transponders and a voice came over range control frequency, “Team One, ready for retrieval.”

“Range Control, confirm Ready for Pickup!”

“Roger Range Control, ready for extraction. Oh Yeah, you might want to send transport for Team Puppy also. They seem to be short of Comm units and will be straggling to the other side of the Range anyday now!”

Control manged to shut off his microphone before the roar of laughter from the room actually got broadcast!

“Cripes Andy, that was cold. They are never gonna live that one down!” Dave laughed and grinned at the rest of the team.

“Sure they will, they are young enough. Besides Dave, how hard do you think Megan will drive them now?”

Chulmur Space
D-16M

Captain Lyman Bradford on the UN Federation Africa saw these Chulmur had the capture, surrender and taking of prisoners from another ship down to a science. This was something left out of his own training. Maybe the Federation military covered it but he was sure they could take some additional lessons. His instructions from the Alien ship left no room for argument. They ordered him to kill his drive and power down all internal ship’s energy sources to the absolute minimum necessary for life-support and communications. Their second order was to place all of his weapons crew and as many others on the ship as would fit, into his landers and send them inward, back towards Alkes 3.

Once off the ship they were all hostages for his continuing good behavior. He was told to leave his landing bay’s doors open and no one onboard was permitted a pressure suit but for those necessarily exposed to vacuum inside the bay. The empty suits to be deposited in the landing bay and out of reach.

Kenyeta M’Dinka the Federations Governor for the new Colony watched and listened, cursing his fate. But he did it inwardly letting nothing show. Long practice on Earth made that second nature. He was waiting as the single small transfer vehicle eased into Africa’s dock.

“I hope for both of our sakes that waiting here rather than meeting them in the bay is the proper procedure.” Bradford was uncomfortable about the state of the ship but glad M’Dinka was in charge of protocol; inventing it as he went along.

The alien, Heplar Sinktaw, who seemed to be in charge of the Chulmur, stayed aboard his own ship and M’Dinka refused to make the first gesture of approach to a lesser being. “We are forced to concede our ship Captain; we will not concede what status we still maintain without cause. Their instructions are exact. We will follow to the letter but not go beyond.

Bradford did everything as instructed, though he hated leaving the dock hatches open. Better for the alien’s communication—and from their standpoint it kept his ship vulnerable to even the least amount of damage. As if he could fight now.

Four squat, suited figures, exited the alien transfer vehicle. Two of Bradford’s crew stood at attention to meet them. The Africa’s men were unarmed. All four of the Chulmur carried some kind of a blast rifle. Two had them slung over a shoulder and were using both hands to carry what could only be detonation charges. Even powered down the ships internal sensors could detect fissionables.

The two with the rifles pointed at the lock to the ships interior, they knew the internal layout, and went straight about their business. One of the devices was carried to the engine room the other to the control room, an armed guard with each. The devices were each placed in locations where even a small explosion would do maximum damage and the guards took on a watchful air.

“Captain Bradford. You will now ready a course for the planet you call Alkes-3. You will not use your reactionless drive. Governor M’Dinka, you will board my transfer vehicle and attend to me. This shall be accomplished within fifteen of your minutes. Bradford, I will send the transfer vehicle back to your ship with more of my guards on board. They will set up living quarters in your ships boat bay. You will leave the outwards hatch open at all times. You will receive and act upon any further instructions I deem necessary after we are underway. And you will obey at once.” Sinktaw ended the contact.

M’Dinka hated wearing the environmental suit but it was that or die. Without it if the cold inside of the alien ship didn’t kill him the ammonia would. He saw Sinktaw for the first time, an alien in full and without protection. A muscular gray hairless troll? That pretty much fit. The large lidless eyes bored through him. Slightly behind and to the right of Sinktaw was another, taller, suited and obviously human figure the Governor had never seen before. They stood in a large room just the other side of the docking bay’s entry to the ships interior.

“Hello Mr. M’Dinka.” The voice was deep and gravely but easily understood. “The human behind me one of your own former prisoners, Ellis Edgerton is. He most helpful is. You behave the same will.

“That’s, ‘is helpful, and will behave the same,’ “ Edgerton said.

“Yesss,” The ogre said, slurring the word.

“You have much to tell me Mr. M’Dinka. We start now!”

Six hours later, with the Africa in orbit under the Alien ships guns the first group landed on Alkes they could see where the old human base had been and where a newly constructed dome sat. It wasn’t there when they last looked only three days ago. It was almost as large as the original human habitat. The fact that it was erected so rapidly revealed much about the Aliens technological ability, and how thorough their plans. A freshly made track showed where ground car traffic made a path between the dome and three Chulmurian landers parked several hundred meters away.

Federation ground troops supervised as Africa’s humans part unloaded and then sent their lander back upstairs for more people and cargo. Those below started building a new settlement. More accurately a prison.

Captain Bradford and the rest of the Africa’s crew were kept on their ship till last. They were told to shut down all nonessential ship functions and put her into a standby mode. Then they were brought as a unit to occupy one of the newly constructed domes. Contact between them and the other colonists was forbidden upon pain of death. Four crewmembers died learning the lesson.

A week later they were taken back up to the Africa. In just that short a span the ship had undergone some major modifications. Three of the compartments reserved for colonists and all but one of the storage areas modified to support the several hundred Chelmurians now on board. While at their stations, preparing to take the ship away from Alkes-3 and to Chulmu each of one the crew had two additional shadows. One with a ready weapon and the other recording every action preformed and every word said.

After reaching the aliens planet they powered down again, all but for life-support this time. They were herded into the remaining earth normal hold and language lesson and followed by questioning continued for all of their waking hours. Even while eating there was a suited alien present to watch and question the meaning of everything said.

Starting with the least technical portions of the ship all her secrets were revealed. And more and more of the interior volume was made to mimic conditions on the Chulmu home world. In cases where equipment designed for human use failed to function, usually due to temperature, heat was supplied and the new equipment, manufactured to the alien standards installed.

The translation of the Earth based engineering was rapid beyond belief. And the combination of the two technologies led to a number of small improvements and one large one. After reworking the gravitational sensors they discovered a new transit point leading somewhere out system.

“Our old gear this not could find,” Captain Bradford said to M’Dinka in poor Chulmurian while pointing out the symbol for the newly located jump point.

“You will speak English,” Sinktaw said. “I can understand enough.” Truly his command of the Human speech was growing by leaps and bounds. He had all the help he could ask for and all of the computer assistance a planet could provide.

“Very well, our old gear could not have found a Point at that range and our Government will no longer make any modifications to what we do use. We use systems our current engineers sometimes do not fully understand, and fear of failure makes them cowards. They would never have modified the circuitry as you did or put that much power to the detector!”

Sinktaw was suited because this conversation was on the ships bridge and the life support here was not yet revamped. To completely rebuild everything here and in main engineering would take many more months at the present rate, five week having passed already. M’Dinka was useless when it came to engineering work but the alien Sinktaw had hit upon a better use for his talents and inclinations.

Once each ship’s day Bradford and the Governor had a talk, one or two hours. Sinktaw and a team of his own listened and recorded everything for later and additional analysis. M’Dinka had a list of topics he must discuss but he was on his own for how he approached them. After those were out of the way both men talked about the events of the last 24 hrs and were told to then speculate on what would happen next. Especially about what was happening back on Earth. Many days Sinktaw learned more from this informal byplay the official questions.

At the beginning both men tried to say essentially nothing—and give no clues about the situation back on Earth. Over time the surroundings became familiar and the felt need for secrecy faded. Most days Sinktaw would through in questions of his own brought to mind by what the men said. Today was one of those days.

“How hard would it be to plot a course through that new jump point? And where might it lead? If we took this ship through it could we find our way back?”

Bradford turned in his seat, “Not hard at all if you will let us use our Reactionless Drive. With the power available in your mod of the detector; we should be able to synchronize with the point in less than an hour, but all of that is useless without the RD. That drive is what lets us cross through the point.”

Sinktaw paused for a moment, “I shall need to think about this. Tomorrow I shall return!”

New Texas
D-14M

“Send him in dammit! And in the future alert me if you have the time but don’t make Carling wait. I have said this before and he is touchy enough as it is. And you didn’t hear that from me and you’d better not hear it again!”

Andrew was cleaning up the pile of paperwork in his inbox, the trip to New Masada had been quite satisfying but the business still needed running. The quiet knock at the door would have startled him, not many knew he was back and he wondered how Hank had found out; though out of professional courtesy he was not going to ask, but his own security chief was going to hear about it and for damn sure find out.

“Come on in,” he yelled, louder than intended. ‘Temper, temper,’ he thought, ‘We’re on the same side.’ One of only five people that should ever get this far without being announced walked briskly in.

“Hank my friend, what brings you here this time of day? I am always a soft touch for lunch but you seem to be a little early.”

“You’re laying it on a little thick don’t you think Andy? And you never know; I might be here until lunch time or even beyond. I do have a problem though, actually I have lots of problems but one in particular I brought with me; not that a visit with you isn’t always welcome relief from the day to day grind.” Hank smiled for the first time since entering but he did not look like he meant it.

“I decided not to bring this to Liam or Ric. You will see why. Most of the idiots the FG and the League are sending out here I can make go away with simple distraction, smoke and mirrors, or as you like to say ‘Just Lose Them.’ I have a particularly nasty case working Travis right now that I just discovered; one whom I cannot distract and am sure would bring an end to one of my assets if I handled this directly.

“This individual in question is not an Intelligence Agent in anyway, shape, or form, something much lower on the food chain. He is a hitter pure and simple, but disguised as a government undersecretary, he came with targets not a portfolio.”

“Why not send this through Ric, it seems fairly straightforward.”

“Look Andy,” Hank said, “I can take out my own garbage, but this involves you on such a personal level that I think you might want to handle it yourself. If you want I can take care of this, but you needed to know in any event. To do this right will require some help from the ‘alleged’ victims.”

Andy started to say something but Hank caught him, “No interruptions let me finish. Yesterday we got an operative close enough to do a vampire off of the camera he is using for his surveillance work. Let me show them to you.”

Andy turned to his desktop display and began reviewing the pictures that had come over channel three. As Hank had expected his scan stopped on the fifth picture and the face went to stone. “Ok Hank, I will take this one fill me in with all you have.”

They were in fact there until Lunch and not once did the Alpha display ever come off of the picture of Linda and Muriel Webb walking across the Travis Central Park

The following morning there was a business meeting at Webb Enterprises main headquarters. Outwardly it was a simple meeting of the major users of Webb security hardware, normal in the weeks prior to the release of a major upgrade. That this same group of people just happened to constitute Team One was no coincidence at all.

“Anyone here think that Hank is the least bit wrong about this punk?” asked Andy. He was greeted by eleven slow head shakes of NO! “Well then if this scumbag wants a Webb, I intend to give him a shot at a Webb. I merely intend to decide which one that will be!”

“Dave, we need surveillance on this punk around the clock. I can afford better cover on this punk than Hank can and I want it out there. Cross feed anything you get about his contacts to Hank, I am sure he will appreciate anything about his support network and we know he has to have one. Did I mention it has to be locals who don’t care where his money came from?”

The rooms broke into low chuckles as the crowd exchanged knowing smiles, the grin Andy gave them back would have been chilling to probably any other group. “Ric I am sure Mattingly over at the Rangers would love to know about any that don’t happen to get in your way. Might as well clean up the local garbage while we are at it.”

Dave stood up and asked the question that the whole room wanted asked. “Andy, as a friend; what do you intend to do here?”

“If at all possible, I intend to hand him over to Muriel for interrogation. I will base further actions on that result. Just get me those sensors planted before we start setting up his window, they are the key to making it look like a slip from overconfidence and that will be the key to cracking this guy.”

Eleven grins stood up and started moving towards the door! Mid-morning the following day the intercom chimed, “Andy here.”

The voice of Dave Roberts came from the speaker, “Just got a call from the guys, your sensors are in place. They want you to take a stroll over there and see if they are to you liking.”

“Great, I will stroll over and take Muriel to lunch. That way I will just have to walk through there!”

Two hours later Andy exited the front door of Webb Enterprises and donned his stylish wraparound sunglasses as he walked. Moving South on the sidewalk, he came to the East entrance to Travis Central. Turning in, He began to cross the park as soon as he did the scan from the sensor suites appeared in his lenses. Evaluating as he walked he was suitably impressed Visual, Infrared and Radio Frequency Location displays 360 around the park. As he approached the door to Travis Central Research all he could think was ‘Nice work guys.’

Over the next several days a pattern developed, Andy would leave Webb and Muriel would leave Travis Central and they would meet in the park. One or the other would be carrying some sort of package from which they would produce a picnic lunch. They would then spend about forty-five minutes having lunch. Afterwards Andy would amble over to a bench and appear to take a nap in the sun for around twenty minutes. This went on for five days before anything happened, each day Andy dressed casually, with boots, jeans, and a western shirt to enhance the idea that he had nothing major going on. On the sixth day something finally did happen, a figure entered the park and into Andy’s sunglass display, and Dave’s voice chirped in his ear.

“Your boys in the game!”

The reply was a grunted sub-vocal, “No Shit Sherlock!” Andy’s only action was to shift slightly like someone asleep and his right elbow moved from outside the bench arm to inside.

The figure moved stealthy around the perimeter of the park until he was directly behind the supposedly sleeping figure. Pulling a stiletto type knife from under his lightweight jacket He moved directly towards the seemingly sleeping figure. One and a half steps away the figure exploded into action!

Andy pivoted around the chair arm of the arm of the only bench in the park that happened to be bolted to the concrete slab and both feet drove directly towards a form that was in no position to just drop straight down, trying to block two separate strikes the form managed to block neither and both size 15 Triple E’s struck home.

Dave’s voice cracked over the circuit, “Move Muriel, target down. I just hope you are not too late!”

Andy coming to his feet barked, “Nah, He’s still breathing and I pulled the head shot. Dave get Hank on the horn and see if he wants somebody in on the interrogation.”

* * *
Sinktaw took a flight to the planet later that day. He reported to the council and had a decision in hand when he came back to the humans’ ship. It took much convincing. to gather the votes to risk the captured RD ship. Here they had a working example and the math behind it was not understood at all. Even with engineering drawings there was no certainty that they could build another. Yet time was short. The Human ship Africa must be missed by now and at anytime more ships could come through the jump point that connected Chulmur with Earth. It was finally agreed they had to learn what was on the other side of this new point and the risk undertaken.

“Captain Bradford! We will go through this point and see what is on the other side. If we do not come back from this venture those of your people left behind will suffer as a result.”

The ship halted before proceeding, learning everything they could from this first close-up examination of the nexus before preparing a probe to test the central most region beyond before their own jump. This was standard procedure for the Survey Service Bradford explained back at Chulmur. “What we do is download all the probes data so we have a nearly perfect gravitational map of the region from this side. It helps getting the entry right for our return.”

“This is good, to be able to return at once. But it would not be good if something is waiting for us on the other side and is alerted. How is it you send a probe through when such a device is far too small for one of your reactionless drives?”

“It goes out at the front of our bubble but we keep the power down so the ship itself is not affected.”

“This effect, starting a jump without finishing it, is one that our best mathematical philosophers find troubling. We shall skip this probe and the wait. We will jump as a piece and do our own analysis. We must jump in any event and I think this best.”

“As you say Master Sinktaw, we are ready at any time then. Would you like to hit the switch?”

“Hit the switch?”

“Slang for starting the jump. We are ready now.”

Deep space and blackness with pinpoints of light greeted them on the other side. Not a star within lightyears. As the spectrum analysis of the nearer points continued first one then several dozen then hundreds were cataloged and the first match was found. This was done with new equipment built by the Chulmu. As a matter of course the Africa did not carry that type of gear. They would have eventually located themselves but in hours rather than minutes.

They were just over thirty lightyears from where they started from and somewhat further from Earth than was the start point. Not a hint on any sensor indicated an energy source other than those they carried with them.

“What now Captain Bradford?” Sinktaw was clearly disappointed and Bradford took notice. This was the first time he had seen one of the aliens with that particular emotion. Anger and impatience, and something approaching satisfaction he had seen, but never disappointment.

“A survey ship would gather data and report back within hours. More ships would go through and a search for another jump point would start. With the changes you have made to our existing gear I think we should give them some time before we report back.”

“And you are not afraid of finding your way back?”

“We make it or we don’t. Same as any other trip. If we find what we are looking for without needless reporting; it all goes faster and the total number of jumps are minimized. If we go back and send a report you are going to have us come back to this place and look around anyway. I say do it now and get it over with.”

“Very sensible Captain Bradford, very sensible.”

After six clock hours of searching they located another jump point, close to five light hours away.

“Now I must report back,” Sinktaw said and they retraced their track to Chulmur. Another day and they were jumping through the second point.

Bolthole II
D-13M

From the first data scans it was obvious at once to Bradford they had stumbled upon a human colonized system, and via an unknown jump point. This was a major find, something totally unexpected. The Africa’s comm and sensor gear, even though not up to survey standards pulled insystem communication and energy signals out of the background clutter. Using those directional clues the first planet was located in under a minute. But by then his certainty about the signals human nature had started to fade and he began to questioning his own sanity.

Bradford was sure he had never been here before. His practiced eye looked for something familiar in the displayed star patterns and he came up empty. The ships computers running their own pattern recognition program reported a blank as well. How was this possible? There was no way the Federation could have produced this kind of concentrated activity without him being aware.

Sinktaw was hearing from his own and they were reporting the same activity but without the certainty of human cause. These were human type signals. Pulse widths and frequencies, but they did not match either the Africa or the information in her database.
The planet most active, where the bulk emanated from, was a perfect environmental match for human requirements. Its spectrum showed freestanding water and an oxygen atmosphere. An hour more of analysis showed a Chulmu like planet with no sign of activity beyond a heavily populated asteroid belt with back and forth traffic showing at least mining, and probably ship construction taking place as well. Nothing in the way of deep space traffic except what was moving to the other jump point.

“SSSo what is it we have found?” Sinktaw’s hiss being the only sign he was in anyway agitated.

“It’s human, that’s for sure, but not what we should be seeing.” Bradford kept looking at the data. By now bits and pieces of ungarbled disconnected speech were being sorted out, and it was all in English. “We should either go back now or shut everything down and just listen.”

It was at that time that the FG ships comm links exploded from a direct signal strong enough to override the normal volume adjusts.

“Kill your drive and stand by to be boarded you Froggie Assholes or we will blow you out of Space”

Bradford heard a short burst in the Aliens language and one of the Chulmur came onto the Bridge carrying a package that was all too familiar. The bomb package with the self destruct detonator was back in play. Unless they could get out of here in a hurry Bradford could see where this was going to end.

“They are Colonists alright, no other explanation. Froggie is one of their nicer slang terms they call those of us in the Federation.”

“Can we get out of here without revealing the jump point?” Sinktaw asked.

Bradford could make nothing from the aliens tone and started thinking really fast. “No, not a chance. But we on Earth already know how to get to your planet and they must have seen us when we came in or they wouldn’t be here now. No way we can hide the jump point. But if we can get back through they might not follow us at once. They can’t have any idea what waits on the other side. We know where the jump point to Chulmu is on the other side. We can make for it and if they do not follow get back with no one being the wiser. If they follow still not much is lost. We still jump and you can alert your people and I don’t think they will be following at once. Too many unknowns.”

“I am persuaded. Get us from this space.”

Bradford flipped the ship all at once with manual control. Something he had never even considered before, and blasted for the point, feeling something on his back even before any weapons fire could reach them. Catching sniping fire all the way, the KE’s angled, meant to miss and the Energy shots low powered he kept running.

“Is thisss the best these Colonists of yours can do?” Sinktaw was as unafraid as he was unimpressed. “We have heard you talk about your military might. What is going on, can these rebels of yours be so powerless?”

“Not by a long shot. If they can do this, take over a system and have the kind of ships they are showing then they must have weapons to match their other abilities. The only thing that makes sense is if they are not trying to kill us, they want to capture us and oh by the way; what ever the Hell those weapons are they the sure as hell ain’t from Earth.”

The Africa came through the point with a low relative velocity and had been coasting ever since. It was not long and they were back through the first point watching for all they were worth to see if anyone followed.

New Texas
D-11M

Liza was quite confused; normally she got requests to setup meeting rooms at the Lone Star. She was not used to Luncheon invitations to the Webb ranch, especially when it was addressed to Liza and signed simply Linda.

One thing she had learned over the years, anytime a Webb was involved there was more than one thing in play. She could only wonder what she was getting into this time.

The day was wonderful as the pilot landed Liza on the pad at Webb ranch despite his complaints about the security requirements. Linda Webb was standing on the veranda with two of her great-grand children with her. Likewise she was not disturbed when the two ran off of the porch screaming, “Aunt Liza”. Hell half the kids on this planet called her that.

“Please come on in. It’s safe, I’m not cooking, I conned Becce into doing that.”

“I wasn’t afraid of that; your cooking isn’t dangerous…….”

“Just too plain for your tastes. I grew up around a crowd where it was ‘Don’t burns the steak and keep them there ding dang fries hawt.’ Light and tasty never entered their minds.”

“That’s why it’s on the menu, Linda. We cater to every palate. From meat ‘n potatoes to seaweed soufflé and from subtle seasoning to bombs away explode-in-your-mouth spicy! We aim to please.”

“Well, I can’t say that we’ve ever gone hungry at the Lone Star. We always find something tasty to sink our teeth into. Most of your clientele don’t need the sheer calories and protein to drive the engines that most of my kin seem to be. Muriel is no help on one side, what she does not burn in work she burns in the dojo! Becce on the other hand has a pilot’s desire to keep the weight down, extra pounds give the G’s a place to grab.”

Linda gave a short sharp laugh, “Just like someone I used to know!” She wondered at the wry smile on Linda’s face.

The luncheon went wonderfully, Becce did have a fine hand with light seafood plates and the kids were everywhere. Lots of people in their extended group of friends seemed to think that Webb ranch was a great place for their kids while the parents were at work.

They were winding down over a glass of wine and watching the stream of private transports come in to pick up the kids as Linda spoke up. “Not only is everyone secure about leaving their kids here they provide a wonderful testing base for the educational software.”

“Can’t you Webb’s do anything without making money off of it?”

“We don’t try Linda, it just seems to happen, Lord knows we are not making anything off of the big project.”

“Linda I am not part of the inner circle for sure but, how is that going?”

“Better than you would believe, my sons never cease to amaze me.” Linda turned and stared Liza squarely in the eyes. “In fact only one peg needs to be placed into the proper hole. Liza, some time next summer we are going to need ‘Aunt Liza’ to load up all this precious cargo and haul it out to New Masada behind whatever the hell it is that Chris is building out there. Almost every kid you see here has parents who are going to risk their life for the Colonies and they really need to know their children are safe.

“Besides it fulfills the price that the tame Colonial Organization High Governor demanded for his whole hearted co-operation.”

Liza stared and asked, “What was that Linda?”

“That one Liza Morgan be the Hell out of harms way when the Shit hit the Fan!”

“But, why would he ask that?”

“Damn Liza, you tell me after you get out there! Deal?”
Liza’s gaze was unreadable, like the Mona Lisa.

New Texas
D-9M

“What do we have here Em?” Hank Carling asked his Plans and Intentions head. Emmet Clark who had just passed over a data cube and a cup of coffee.

“Black, no sugar. Same as always.”

Hank snorted and took a sip before placing the cube into his viewer’s slot. It took about 10 seconds to convince the viewer it was real and then the screen came to life. On it were the pictures of four men. No, make that three men. Two of the photo’s were the same person just with different colored hair and wearing robes in one view and more western garb in the other.

“I know the older one,” Hank said. “Met him twelve or fourteen years go once when I was at the M’butu estate outside Detroit. I got the impression he was some kind of a messenger. Have the name in my notes somewhere but it’s not the same as the guy in the picture. Where did you get these?”

“They just came in on the diplomatic pouch from Earth. Ollie Magnan says all three men are known to work for the League but he isn’t sure just what they do. He’s been tracking them as much as he could manage. A week ago they all seemed to vanish. Ollie had a suspicion they might be heading our way. — Take a look at this.”

Emmet passed over another cube. “The take from or cameras at the landing field.” Into the slot and they showed a crowd scene then narrowed in on first one figure and then another—walking separately across the open space and then from the departure lounge.
“Two out of three. Hank and we can’t rule out the other. Now we need to find out what they are up to.”

“Do you know where they are staying?” Hank switched off the view screen and began writing rapidly on a desk pad; plain paper.

“The old guy, Ali Olami, is staying at Lisa’s; the other one we lost. Didn’t see Ollie’s cube in time to put a tail on him.”

“Take this to Jamil,” Hank handed over the note which said: ‘I think we need to talk. Meet me for lunch at Government House.’ He had signed it, ‘Regards Hank’. Put it in an envelope with a picture of Olami. Nothing electronic. We’ll see what he has to say. And keep looking for the other two; I think this could be the hook we were looking for to land Jamil with.”

“Are you sure these guys are any kind of a threat to Jamil?”

“No, but by the time we finish our part of this little story Jamil’s going to be certain of it!”

Finished with lunch Hank nonchalantly agreed to accompany Jamil on his afternoon ride. It was an obvious solution to the possibility of them being overheard and Jamil rode for an hour or more most every afternoon in any event. The weather was hot and Hank congratulated himself on predicting the both the direction and path they would be riding upon. Jamil was careful that his prized stallion would never suffer from lack of water or any other material comfort. When it came to fellow humans there was a blind spot.

Pushing the pace Jamil slowed down and stopped five miles from his stables, two guards several hundred yards ahead and another two the same distance behind. A rock hollow collected water from a seep in the bordering hillsides steep slope. Hank was next to him, about three feet away on the hill side of the trail as they started their delayed discussion, still mounted, and insuring the horses cool down a bit before letting them drink.

Crack! — Hank felt the bullet close to his cheek; Jamil jerked up and then looked to the hill. Launching from his saddle Hank hit Jamil in the midriff and took him down. They fell in a tangle on the other side of Jamil’s stallion. Once on the ground there came the sound again. Crack! Crack! The rifle barked and the dappled mare Hank had been riding jerked once and then fell into the pool turning the water red.

From ahead and behind the Federation guards rushed to the middle. Seeing Jamal was safe they called for help then boosted and sped up the hill.

“Are you Ok Jamil?”

“It would seem so in no small part thanks to you.”

“Reflex, that’s all it was. I had to find someplace to hide and behind a couple of horses looked good at the time.”

“And mine survived. Wait for me; I am going to see what is happening.”

Jamil remounted, leaving Hank with the dead animal, and followed his men to the top of the hill. Nothing to be seen. The other side was densely forested and at the bottom a main road leading back to the Capitol, and a suburban housing project only a half mile away. A perfect spot for an ambush. His guards were scanning the terrain to no avail and with a call for assistance already sounded they hesitantly began a cautious decent.

Running from the top of the hill, almost to the car concealed at the bottom, out of breath and hurting from the stain, his robes interfering and slowing him down; Emmet Clark said to himself, “Damn! I’m too old for this kinda’ shit!

Bolthole I
D-9M

Sally Ditmars could not remember when she had been so tired! The glow of accomplishment was the only thing that kept the aches and pain away and still she had never felt so tired. She had just finished final qualifications for the crews of the new freighters and crude carriers they would put in operation even as the D-Day wave left New Texas. She had forgotten it was almost local daybreak. Moving down the hall to the break room and the smell of fresh coffee, she paused for a second, then continued along the corridor oblivious to anything but that heavenly smell. She poured a cup, took several sips, refilled it to the brim and then started back. Leaning against the wall she had the joy of hearing Becce Webb in full Fire and Brimstone Mode!

“You idiots remind me of children in a sandbox, teach you how to use the toolbox and you immediately go back to stirring the sand with your dick or digging canals with your tits. Put you in space and you fly the damn Eagles like a space ship. Put you in atmosphere and you immediately start to fly it like an air breather and give up every advantage you have.

“It is the same damn ship with the same damn propulsion system either damn place. You idiots are barely getting 50 / 50 kills with those Raptor mock-ups we have you flying against! And those fuckheads are as stupid as you! I see grins on stupid fucking faces, you know what those numbers mean? If the FG jocks are only as good as you brainless wonder opposition, then half of you are fucking dead! Now as three quarters of you are married, whose kids are gonna grow up without a mommy or daddy? But I shouldn’t complain—based on what I see here they would all be better off without you!

“Fuck it; I am tired of you jerks. Here are your assignments; you are going up as 12 two man Loose Duce pairs. Major Harris, you are so proud of your skills as the Squadron Commander you get to go in single. You will stage up on the schedule shown, once we are in the swing of operations there will be one group in recovery, one group in the range and one group ready to enter. When you are called to enter you will have three minutes to break range edge or you are dead!

“Trainer, if we are just leaving pattern we can not make it in three minutes!”

“Connors, in a fucking Eagle it is two min 10 sec from pattern to Range edge. You just made your first mistake thinking like a god dammed air-breather jock again!

“First lift in ten boys and girls; I suggest you get off of your asses!” Slamming closed her briefing book she stormed from the room into the hall.

“Damn Becce, that was glorious in all it’s fury. My question is how are you gonna put them up against better if you are standing here?” Sally asked with a questioning drawl.

“I am gonna throw the Dagger at them in an Eagle, wanta’ sit in on the debriefs?”

“God woman that is evil,” Sally said as she suddenly realized she wasn’t that tired.

Twenty minutes later they were sitting in the turnaround facility debriefing room when the first group came in looking shell shocked. “Time in the box?” Becce asked.

“Three min 45 sec until break off! We never saw the bastards!”

“Bastard singular gentlemen, your asses got beat by a single so fast you still don’t know what happened! Ready to listen now?”

By noon the entire crew had entered and the last one was going through debrief. Major Connors was stunned as he talked. “I was getting RWR warnings from everywhere, then this streak came by me faster than I thought an Eagle could go in atmosphere. Then it flipped and came back at me with all the guns and missile ports flashing with those range simulator lasers in a move that an Eagle cannot do in atmosphere!”

“Yet it did it, did it not Major?” asked Becce in a dead cold voice!

“Yeah, I was listening to that damn cartoon voice telling me ‘Dat’s all Folks’ before I could think!”

The door slammed open and in it stood General Christopher Webb, “Damn straight asshole, you idiots get to play with me every afternoon until you learn how to fight; not just fly. Becce set the schedule, I’ll buy you dinner!”

The room hung with silence after his departure until Becce spoke up. “Now Boys and Girls you know what this is all about. You can learn to fly an Eagle the way it should be flown or you can go over to Sally here to fly crude ships! If, she will have you!”

New Texas
D-6M

Liza was busy in the office balancing the books when she heard a racket from the main conference room, strolling out to investigate she saw her friendly Webb Enterprises technician. “Great Jeff, what is Ric throwing into the place this time?”

“Not Ric this time Miss Liza, the Boss said to upgrade your Holograph system for tomorrow night, said this one was on the house! Ric wants to evaluate it for the out colonies establishments.”

“Right,” Liza snorted mentally, “and what new security razzle dazzle will they have out there? Ric is thoroughly infested with the Webb disease; he never does anything for just one reason. Now the boy has a secondary infection of Carling’s Syndrome so it’s probably for about five reasons.”

Late the next afternoon the spread was laid out in the now quadruple sized main conference room. The normal table and chairs were replaced with large overstuffed chairs and the buffet and bar covered one entire wall. Liza could care less, Linda Webb was picking up this tab and that Lady got what she paid for. Her inspection complete and who should walk through the door but the lady herself. “Linda, kick me for saying it but, you look tired!”

“Oh I do Liza, but I get it honestly. Spent the morning out at Houston Range and three hours this afternoon in the dojo with Muriel. I think even my grandsons would be a bit whiffed after that!”

Liza paused where she stood, sometimes she swore she could see things in the future and now she had one of those feelings. Linda Webb, daughter of, wife to, mother of, grandmother of and probably great grandmother of Warriors Born. One of the hand full of people on the whole planet who could last more that 15 seconds against Muriel Webb in a no-holds barred match, was whipping her old ass into shape and using super secret range time to hone her weapons skills. Liza’s one thought was, “Who’s gonna die?”

Rob Williams was the next to wander in; he was looking pensive, like he was worried about something. These days that seemed to be his constant state of being. Linda strode up and asked point blank, “What’s bothering you Rob?”

“Disbelief Linda, all those years ago I thought I had a dream. I really figured at best we would be able to get some modification of the government. I never told anyone before but I didn’t think that this was possible. Now I don’t see any way to stop it.”

Linda just stared for a moment before speaking, “Neither did your great to the something or other grandfather when he was part of starting DEW and the Colonial Organization way back when. They knew that this was going to take a tremendous amount of time and effort.

“They knew that what this was going to take was a culture, not just a dream. They went and found people who thought like themselves and found ways to get those people here. Look at the social structures they founded, industries that would eventually out produce Earth, an education system that left Earths in the dust and the core of a space program that could be expanded like a balloon. You were just looking in the wrong places for hope Rob.”

“There are people on this planet who know something is happening, they are not sure what and they are keeping their mouths shut least they jinx it. Wait until you see the vote tonight before you wallow in the pity pool. You have done so much to bring this about, you deserve a little whoopee time!”

Walt Davis turned to the holoscreen which had just come on with the results from San Jacinto on the far side of the planet. His eyes could not believe what he was seeing. Rob’s party was pulling 92% of the vote!

As the room slowly filled during the remaining part of the afternoon and evening, the trend wavered at times but, continued right around the globe. He was in a chair with a drink in hand when Hank Carling moved into the next chair. “You know Walt, none of this means a thing until the rest of the city vote comes in, most especially from right around Travis. We were always going to take the outlying low population areas.”

“I know Hank, but I think Linda called it, the people know something is happening!”

“Almost have to be Walt, considering the size of the force we have trained or are training up. It gives me nightmares to think that someone somewhere is going to talk to the wrong person about what they think they see going on. The FG could still do a hatchet job on this thing with all of our necks in the way of the blade.”

They both turned as the returns from the suburbs of Travis started coming in and the full scope of Rob Williams’s victory could be seen. “What’s left now Hank?”

“What else Walt, ‘Cry Havoc and let Slip the Dogs of War’, then hope ours are better than theirs”

Walt looked at Hank for an almost painful pause, “Hank, I am going to get seriously drunk!”

As Walt walked away Hank looked at the mounting totals and then the others present and thought, “You, me, and damned near everyone else in the room!”

Page Author | OldDog March 1st, 2009