"We only have a few hundred ships at the moment, but that number will explode when we convert our production over to a new, small but very capable fighter. We plan on having several thousand of these fighters within another six months. They are small, but they are every bit a match for a Milgari battleship. That is, unless the Durians have one-upped us again."
The Admiral spoke, "The Durians have been a big help to us in selling us some of their technology. We are barely keeping up with the Milgari advances. I have a regular Durian trader here on Opcon that I deal with personally."
I leaned forward, let out a long sigh and replied, "The Durians have been playing us all for fools. They sell you tech and then they turn around and sell tech to the Milgari and the Torrians. The tech they are selling them makes what you bought obsolete or in need of other enhancements. The Durains have been selling to both sides since we arrived in this sector."
"I thought we had the Torrians on the ropes with their supply issues when we took out most of their Tantric supply. That all changed when the Durians began selling it to them. I know that for a fact as we confiscated one of those ore ships that the Durians had only just delivered. They are playing a dirty game Admiral, a game that only they will win."
"We are in the process of sending scouting teams out to the Delvin sector. If the Milgari are building ships it must be there. If we can find a location or locations where that is happening we will hit them hard. We don’t have the manpower or ships needed to attack and take possession of any significant amount of space, but we can make their lives there miserable."
The Admiral was in deep thought. He then turned his gaze back towards me, "We have about 1,800 ships at our disposal. The Prassi have managed to scrape together about 5,000, but the Milgari ships are superior to theirs. I like the strategy of choking down their supply routes. We can make life in this sector difficult. My only issue is… what if they decide to do the same to us? The Grid is largely self-sustaining, but the other worlds in this sector rely heavily on trade."
I replied, "I don’t think the Torrians are interested in that, or maybe they just haven’t figured that out yet. They seem to be consolidating their forces for an attack. If the Dakar are out of the picture the Prassi are next. After the Prassi it’s the Grid. If we can consolidate forces with the Dakar and the Prassi we might be able to push the Torrians out of the sector."
"That would only be feasible if we can disrupt their ability to build and repair ships. We can’t wage war against that massive fleet, but we can pick away at the edges and force them to defend their planets and bases. Our biggest threat is the Durians."
"Admiral, when you mentioned the Durian trader, they are not there on OpCon are they?" The Admiral replied, "They are and they have been for some time. With the information you have provided I will be asking them to leave." I leaned forward, "Have they been in your office?" Zimmerman replied, "Yes, why do you ask?"
I replied, "Because the levels of technology they possess are far above ours and they are masters of deception. I would have the Durian escorted off the ship without reason. Have they given you any personal gifts? Is there anything in your office?"
Zimmerman nodded, "I have an unusual lamp. I had our signal team check it out before it was plugged in. A number of our officers have unusual items that the Durian has given them. We checked them all before accepting them."
I shook my head, "All I can say Admiral is that with what we have run into I would round up every piece of anything that they have given you, including any physical tech, and I would vaporizer it as soon as possible. Your OpCon here has probably been violated a thousand times over. If you move that station to a new location, they will know it. If you have a high level meeting and discuss plans, they will know it. I would perform a Durian purge as soon as possible."
Zimmerman had a concerned look on his face. I turned back to my console, "Hang on Admiral. Let me do a signal scan with frequencies that we have discovered that they attempt to use." I began the scan and brought it to an end when 16 signal detections showed on the screen.
I spoke, "They have you pegged Admiral. This boat is dirty. And I would bet what I detected is only the tip of the iceberg. Even with our best gear and a couple months to look, I don’t think I would have confidence in this station again. If they made it into your computer systems you will not be able to get them out."
"Their code is quasi-intelligent and self-replicating. If it determines that it has been detected it copies itself somewhere else and then leaves a false trail for you to follow. It is extremely sophisticated stuff. We only stumbled upon it and luckily our engineer had taken the precaution to isolate the system it was on."
"I have the systems on this ship setup so that they do not accept any incoming requests. I’m sure your people were unhappy with my minimal response upon arrival. No ship data was passed or landing handshaking done. I can’t afford the Durians finding out where we are. We took down one of their destroyers in a recent battle, but the ship self-destructed before we could take possession. We had annihilated all but a few of their crew."
The Admiral again looked uncomfortable, "So, my station is infected and probably all of my fleet too." I replied, "And you will have to rip out every piece of automated gear on each of them. We are still trying to get a handle on the isolated system we have. If we can break it, we may be able to devise defenses against it, or better yet, we may be able to use it against them."
"My engineer, Frig, thinks we could possibly use it to feed them false information. If he can construct a counter virus, he thinks we may even be able to infiltrate their systems with it. This is all speculative of course as we haven’t even trapped out the intelligent part of the code yet."
I continued to discuss the situation with the Admiral late into the night. He was in a foul mood. After our discussion it was decided that he himself would go with me as well two top computer scientists. The scientists would assist Frig with the Durian code. He would also leave the Durian right where he was so that we would not have to tip our hand until we were ready. The Admiral was a strategist, he played the game hard and always to win.
I allowed a scan of OpCon to run all night and turned the data over to the Admiral’s team on paper for evaluation. They were given a shipping container as an office and were not allowed to speak of what it was that they were doing inside. The four man team would study the data to no end in an effort to determine what the Durians already knew. From there, the initial plans could be made for how to deal with the incursion. They were in a difficult position.
When the Admiral’s two scientists had boarded the Wren I lifted off for home with the Admiral still aboard. The scientists, along with Admiral Zimmerman, were only allowed a single change of clothes for the journey, no electronics, no data or credit stores. All of their needs would be provided for by us.
The Admiral spoke, "Don, I just want to say that I am floored that you are heading up such an outfit. Given your father's record I should have expected it. He was a heck-uv-a soldier that one. I didn't tell you before, but he was into some major black-ops. It had a lot to do with the Grid and her politics."
I replied, "Well, was there ever anyone you suspected back then? Would any of those politicians have had anything to do with the betrayal? And as far as that goes, are there any politicians on the Grid now that you suspect are allied with the Milgari or anyone else?"
Zimmerman pursed his lips before he spoke, "There are at least a half dozen that I am sure are dirty. I have a dozen that I thoroughly trust, but I haven't been able to bring any others into that circle because so many have had contact with known agents. They may not have known who they were dealing with, but we can no longer trust them just the same. We have been trying to recruit our own and move them up the ranks of power. You might know one of them..."
I raised my hand, "Please don't say Michael Felix. He has been a canker on my ass for ten years!" The Admiral nodded, "OK, I won't say it, but Michael has been a stable and trusted addition to our team." I replied, "There is no Michael Felix in team Admiral. If he is with you it is to suit his own purpose."
Zimmerman replied, "He was a little headstrong at first, and power hungry as you are suggesting. But he has come around as a team player now with his sights set on the Grid defense. He has put his life on the line a number of times for us. And keep in mind Don; I don't give credit unless it is due."
I sat back in my chair and sulked. Michael Felix was doing the work of a hero? Michael Felix was thinking of others? How did someone I despise turn out to be one of the good guys? My world of hatred for Michael Felix was in shambles.
I spoke, "Admiral, when we arrive at the point of cooperation where we believe the Durians are no longer privy to your information, we will share our technological advances with you. Unless we can unite, I don't think we stand a chance against the Milgari and the Torrians, or against the Durians for that matter."
On our ride back to the Suppressor from OpCon I showed off the Wren to the Admiral and his men. I pushed the throttle full and we zipped along at 320 SOL. I targeted an asteroid and the Admiral was elated at how it was shredded by our ion cannon. I told of our armor and its abilities and of our image projection technology that allowed us to go unseen. As a last show of our abilities I entered the Fasture nebula and switched the engines to negative. With each ion wave that struck the Wren accelerated, topping out at 540 SOL.
When we arrived at the Suppressor the Admiral was still in awe of what we had accomplished. "Don, I am just… I don’t have words. The things you have done in such a short time. They are truly unbelievable." I replied, "Tell me about it Admiral. I ask myself almost every day how this came about. Everything just seemed to fall into place. I lucked into top notch people from the beginning that made all this possible."
We landed in the docking bay and stepped out onto the deck. I dropped the two scientists off with Frig and headed back to my office to meet further with the Admiral. I was sure the Durians would be going insane trying to figure out where the Admiral had gone and who owned the mystery ship that had whisked him away.
Ten minutes later I was showing the Admiral my office. "I spend a lot of time looking out this window Admiral. That planet down there, we named it Jarhead in memorial to the Marines that have died for this cause. I hope it to one day be a haven for Humans. Firm ground for our children to claim as home."
The Admiral put his hand on my shoulder, "Don, I can’t think of a finer and more honorable goal than what you have set out to do here. If we were able to somehow secure peace and stability in this sector I am certain there are about 600 million Humans that would love to relocate. You know, most of them have never set foot off of the Grid, but it is all anyone dreams of. Maybe as a team we can make this happen."
I next took the Admiral on a tour. We visited Frig in his lab where the Admiral was shown the setup for the isolated Durian virus. I then turned towards the wormhole experiments Frig had been conducting. "Hmmm, sorry Admiral, I left off one of the most important discoveries we’ve made."
"In our travels we came across a derelict ship, it was very old and had been adrift for some time. An internal explosion had done it in, from what I couldn’t say. The entire front of this vessel was a massive array of antennae. The ship as it turned out had a wormhole drive on it for its long distance propulsion."
The Admiral tilted his head slightly, "Are you talking of wormhole travel instantaneously between two points?" I replied, "That I am Admiral, we connected one of our ion generators to the ships power and while we were checking her out a nearby fleet of Milgari ships surrounded us. We were so fascinated with what we had found that we neglected to keep a watch on the area."
Essentially, we were left with no choice but to attempt to use the wormhole drive to escape. The Milgari didn’t have a clue as to what we were doing as to them all they knew was this derelict ship had power. We managed to open a wormhole and travel more than 20 light years in an instant. Unfortunately the Milgari opened fire on the tail end of the ship as it came through and it was completely destroyed."
"Frig managed to get some of the data off of the ship’s computer, but we have nothing that shows how the antenna array actually produced the wormhole. Frig has made some progress on attempting to create the same effect on a micro scale, but we lack the RF and physics expertise to move the project forward at any kind of speed."
The Admiral responded, "You need RF engineers and physicists, I can get you those. We have a top notch science team on OpCon. You send a transport and I will transfer the lot of them here to work on this. A drive like this would put an end to all of our worries."
"I studied this very thing back in training many years ago. Not only could you travel from one point to another, you could open a hole beside another vessel that was located elsewhere and then begin blasting it from your distant location, same thing with planets or stations. You could have a massive gun down there of your planet and attack anywhere in the galaxy in an instant."
"We even went so far as to speculate that even with a small wormhole you could send and receive distant communications immediately. Imagine your ships in the Delvin sector being able to report their findings in real time. The possibilities with this technology are near limitless."
I replied, "Well, it is true that it would be a game changer Admiral, but the reality is that we don’t yet have it." From Frig’s lab I took the Admiral to meet the Colonel. When we entered the Colonel’s office he stood at attention. The Admiral commented, "No need for the formalities Colonel, we are all civilians and patriots here."
I spoke, "Admiral, this is Colonel Tom Harper. I believe he served under your command at one time many years ago." The men shook hands. "Colonel, I want to give the Admiral a tour of our facilities, show ‘em what you got."
I followed the two as they talked. "Admiral, we needed a way to board a Milgari ship and to take control of it. Our guys here figured out that with the negative pulses from our ion cannons we could temporarily knock an ion engine offline."
"We then set off a negative ion bomb to destabilize the static field surrounding it for let’s say, ten minutes time. We board the vessel and use conventional kinetic weapons to take control." We rounded the corner into the gun range where a number of soldiers were honing their skills.
The Colonel continued as he held up a bullet, "We use a combination of materials to create gunpowder which is then loaded in a cartridge. A slug is put in place in the end and when a small charge is ignited the slug is propelled down the gun barrel and into the target beyond. Very simple, no electronics needed."
The Colonel then picked up an AK-47 and handed it to the Admiral, "Go ahead. Squeeze off a few rounds. You will love how it offers feedback right from the start. Personally, I prefer the shotgun. I like the damage it does with the pellets versus the slugs. Both weapons are highly effective in close combat."
"The sweet thing about these weapons Admiral, is that we can fight very effectively with them while the enemy is limited to swinging knives and throwing chairs. We can board and clear a Milgari cruiser in less than half a day. I have six of them parked outside as we speak. They are in various stages of retrofit after we captured them."
I cut into the conversation, "What we are finding with the ships Admiral is that bigger is not always better. With the way we fight, a small agile ship can be constructed that offers similar firepower at a fraction of the size. That is the reason we are converting our production to Hawk fighters, that and the fact that we don’t have the men to man cruisers. We are a bit limited in our supply of bodies."
The Admiral responded, "I could begin supplying you with pilots. I still have direct access to recruiting from the Grid and as such can get the bodies you need for that aspect. Pilot recruitment is easy as the younger set fancy having a fighter craft. It is the ground assault troops we have trouble bringing in. With the mixed signals being sent out on the Grid every day it is becoming ever more difficult to convince them that it is a worthy cause. There is nothing much worse that corrosion from within."
We then moved the Admiral on to the automated docks and then finally to the living quarters on the Suppressor. The Admiral spoke, "Most impressive Grange. What you have accomplished here is beyond compare. I thought I knew this war, but you have really opened my eyes. I feel like I have only been a pawn for bigger players to move around a chess board up until now. I can see the job that stands before me is of a much bigger scope than what I have been busy with. Just buying time is no longer an option."
I told the Admiral of the fleet of commodity transport ships we held. Any new ships that were captured now had their cargoes transferred and were then destroyed. There was too high a chance that one of those transport ships would have a hidden beacon aboard.
The Admiral spoke up, "I have no doubt that the level of security you seem to have in place has kept this place a secret. My biggest concern would be a leaking of that information and a subsequent raid by the Milgari or the Durians. I know you have thought this over many times, but you may want to mobilize your command center here and keep it moving about. That was my intent with OpCon, before learning that it had already been compromised."
"I think it is time you took me back to my station Don. I have a lot of planning work to do to begin the purge of the Durian infiltrator. It is very disheartening to learn that all of what you thought was secure has been compromised to the extreme. It feels like a major defeat, but it is only one battle in the much larger war. I now have to begin the task of salvaging what I can or somehow turning this all around in our favor."
I could tell that Zimmerman was struggling with his situation. I offered a ray of hope, "Sir, I think what you need at the moment is a break, something to hold on to. I’m not going to fly you back to OpCon. You can do that yourself. What I am suggesting is that we train you on one of our new fighters and then we send you home in it."
"Once you are back on the station you can use the Hawk to go out beyond the eyes and ears of the Durians. You just have to figure out how to keep them away from your ship. If they get wind of it they will attempt to track it or infiltrate its systems. I know I am taking the risk of compromising all of our technology, but you need a secure place to enact any plans from. All I ask is that you do your best to protect it."
The Admiral replied, "Ordinarily I would say that was a good idea Don, but I don’t think we are prepared to conceal a fighter craft, not if their level of intrusion is as you say. I’m afraid I will have to decline that offer for your own security. I can find a way to plan a purge. I will just have to be careful."
I nodded in agreement with the Admiral and then made another offer, "How about this Admiral. We have those automated repair docks out there. It would only take a day to crank out a ship that does not have our entire set of tech on it, but we can load it down with signal detection and rejection gear. That would give you a secure place to work from and at the same time not risk our tech. It will have the appearance of a small boxy transport, but that may make it much less conspicuous."
The Admiral agreed to the transport idea and I had an aide get to work on making it happen. I would have Rita add a system DNA encryption algorithm to it that would only allow it to function if the Admiral was present. If anyone else attempted to access any system on-board it would set off alarms and then set a self-destruction timer. The ship would not be ready for three days.
I had a meeting with the Colonel and the other available council members to discuss the Admiral’s problems. "Colonel, they are in a world of hurt over there. They have a Durian who has set up shop on their station. Their entire system has to be compromised, including all of their ships. The Durians have to know exactly what they are doing as well as what they are planning."
The Colonel replied, "With bringing the new Hawks online we are going to have a lot of training to do. If there is any way we can help the Admiral to clear the bugs out of their systems I say we put a full effort forward on it right now. Anyone with an idea of how we might do such please speak up."
Rita responded, "I have a thought. What if we have the Admiral send out his ships one at a time into the Fasture nebula? We can have a signal ship sitting in there listening for any external attempts at communications. We would log them, ion bomb the ships and then move a team in to clean it up, all under cover of the nebula. As far as the Durians would know the ship was destroyed. If it works we can then look at moving it out to free space for a similar exercise."
"I realize that this first ship would need several weeks of testing to determine if it was clean. After that the testing should go quickly. We will never be 100% sure, but I believe we can get close. I realize that it's not a rapid solution. I think we can verify the result though."