I looked down at the little wheeled robot that was by Feta's side and winked. I had to chuckle at myself for giving the robot such a gesture. It had no feelings; its reasoning was a program. The wink I had given was meaningless.
When we arrived on the bridge I sat in the form fitted chair that had been constructed for me. It was indeed comfortable. I then got down to the business at hand, "It has come to my attention that the Milgari... the Torrians have not lived up to their agreement with the Dakar. I would like to propose another round of cooperation between our nations."
"First, I would like to give you a vital piece of information. The Milgari's time is limited. Their entire existence was dependent on a vast ship that contained the equipment and manpower needed to sustain their population, essentially a giant birthing chamber. We were recently able to find and destroy that vessel."
"The Milgari that are alive today will be the only Milgari we have to defeat. With each death will come a smaller force to fight. But as you are probably aware, the Milgari ships currently number more than 20,000 strong. It is a force that the Dakar, nor the Humans, nor any other like-minded species can defeat. If we work together however, I believe we have a chance."
"We have another species, the Prassi, that we are in discussions with as we speak. They will be committing forces, along with us. The plan will be to feign an all-out assault in one area to draw the bulk of their fleet in. Then, together with the Dakar and the Prassi, we will hit the Torrians home-world with all we have."
Feta spoke, "Torrus is heavily defended Mr. Grange. If we failed it would almost certainly doom us all." I replied, "But aren't we already doomed now? The Torrians took another one of your planets, they raised the tax they are extracting from you for peace. Do you not believe that they are only going to continue this practice, weakening the Dakar as they continue to close the vice of oppression?"
Feta glanced away, "If it were up to me Mr. Grange, I would join with you. But our command has a way about them that makes change difficult. They do not see the slow bleed of our people as a threat because it has not had much of an effect on our home-world. It is the lower classes who suffer first. Only when that pain trickles up to their level do they take action."
When I had completed my speech Feta connected to the closest command ship to relay the message. When word came back for me to deliver it to the council I again sent Frig back to the Helix with the Swift. This time, Feta was given instruction to take the Paswari and its guest directly to Regents Towers to once again stand before the Council.
Upon arrival I was immediately escorted to the great hall and once again out onto the deck before the podium. I delivered my speech. It was filled with references to the great Dakar people and to their accomplishments and great power. We sought their assistance in confronting our mutual enemy. Discussions became heated when I suggested the attack on Torrus.
I then turned up the heat on a Council that was driven by greed and power, "Great Council! If you choose the path that has been placed in front of you, you will not only be rid of the Torrians and their constant threat, you will gain the wealth of Torrus! For a decade the Torrians have pillaged and raped this sector of her resources, your resources! Here before you is the opportunity to reclaim a decade’s worth of spoils!"
The clamor in the chamber continued to build until the usual set of fights broke out. When the first council member was thrown over the railing to his death I took the queue to begin my chant! "Torrus is ours! Torrus is ours! Torrus is ours!" One by one the council members fell in line and continued the chant.
When I left the podium the thunderous chant was heard echoing through the chamber. I was then escorted into a meeting room with the high councilmen. Their elected leader spoke, "Impressive speech Mr. Grange. From the tone of the chamber out there you will have your cooperation. When you have your plans firmed up, deliver them to Mr. Lunge and he will relay them to his command for evaluation."
"And Mr. Grange, this is an aggressive action you have laid out before us. The Dakari will be hesitant when the time comes, but they will act as instructed. We have a difficult task before us Mr. Grange. May the Squires of the Towers be with us on our journey."
With the blessing finished I rose from my seat and was escorted back to the space port. I was soon on the Paswari and headed back towards the Helix and the Humphrey. Feta was elated, "You will bring great honor to the Dakar Mr. Grange. A planet with the wealth of Torrus will bring all Dakar forward if it can be overtaken. I will do my part Mr. Grange, I just hope this other species, the Prassi, will do theirs.
I couldn't believe my luck with the Dakar. It seemed that a cheesy inspirational speech was all that was needed. I wondered if the right politician could not take over the entire Dakar Expansion with nothing more than fiery rhetoric. I was just glad that it had worked.
When we arrived back at the Suppressor the Admiral shared his equally good news. The Prassi were on-board. I had given a goal of six months to solidify an attack plan with both species. During that time each would be asked to reposition ships towards their borders with the Torrians so that they in kind would move their ships closer, thereby spreading themselves out.
When the Colonel returned from his trip to the Grid he had the contract signatures of another 20,000 troops with 40,000 more in the works. The Colonel's news came with some hooks, "Grange, Admiral." The Colonel nodded, "I believe the recruiting went better than expected. But it also drew the attention of SCore. There were at least a dozen agents snooping around. And those were only the ones that Doris could identify, I'm sure there are more."
"That brings me to the next issue. When we bring these men here for training, and they see what we have going, word is going to leak back to the Grid. The politicians will be in an uproar. I have no doubt that SCore is signing some of those men up as informants right now."
The Admiral spoke, "They are going to be livid that you have managed to stay undetected for so long. This nation you have founded, that world down there that is being terraformed, and all the fighting that has been going on with the Milgari, it doesn't matter what your intentions are, there are those who will perceive it as sharing power, power they do not want to give up."
I rocked slowly back and forth in my chair as I pursed my lips, "Well, perhaps it's time for the big reveal. If we break the news in a manner that is under our control we might just be able to steer the coverage of all this in our favor. For that I turn to you Admiral. Are there any reliable team players in the Grid media that you could count on? If we can roll this out right we could come out on top."
"The vast majority of those here that are working, fighting and dying are from the Grid. We are citizens. And I think if we show the rest of the citizens who we are and what we stand for, they will let their politicians know where they stand. But it all relies on us being able to control the flow of information."
The Admiral replied, "I will have my connections work on this. I think that is a brilliant idea Don. You continue to impress me." I stopped rocking my chair, "Well Admiral, to be honest that was Frig's idea. Part of his training so many years ago was learning to control what people believed through releases in the media. He thought it might be a good way to expose us to the masses in a good light."
The Colonel then spoke, "This might be a good time for you to reveal yourself to Ashley Elizabeth Don. From what Doris has told me you two used to have a thing." I replied, "Well, not much of a thing Colonel, I was forced off of the Grid after a handful of dates. We were just getting to know each other when the warrant came out. And as long as that warrant is hanging over my head I don't think I can expose anything."
The Admiral was in deep thought before he spoke, "Maybe it's time I pulled in a few markers and got to the bottom of that warrant. Michael Felix is on the Justice committee, I may be able to get him to reopen that investigation." I rolled my eyes, "Fat chance of that Admiral, Michael Felix hates my guts. If he sees this as a way to keep me out of the way without him having to lift a finger he would not budge on this."
The Admiral responded, "Yes, yes, I'm aware of the history between you, but I put Michael Felix where his is today and I believe that calling in this marker will be something he is willing to take on. Remember, if he comes out in support of all this and the public perception falls on our side, he will come out on top. It will very much be to his benefit."
I moved uncomfortably in my chair at the thought of Michael Felix being involved. In my eyes he was still suspect after having dealt with the fake Admiral for almost a year. I would take the time to question Rodney Turk about his dealings with Felix. A part of me hoped that he was indeed dirty, but deep down that seed of him being one of the good guys had already been planted.
In the following days the Admiral made a trip to the Grid. Within a week the warrant for my arrest had been withdrawn and the real killer placed behind bars. Michael Felix was all too happy to correct the error as it meant taking one of his chief rivals down a peg in the people's eyes.
For me the news was incredibly powerful. My spirits were soaring at the thought of once again being Don Grange on the Grid. I made a bee-line to see George in his office and asked to have the surgery reversed, "I can do that if you really want. You just have to keep a few things in mind. Your people here, they know you are Don Grange and they know that face you are wearing is Don Grange, you change it and you take away something they are familiar with."
"Along that same line, the Dakar are also familiar with that face, you change it and what are they going to think the next time you show up there, "Who is this cat and what is he trying to pull on us?" If you want my advice, keep the face and just make it the new Don Grange. If they liked the old you they will like the new you."
George was right. It would probably be easier to sprout wings and fly rather than to have my appearance changed back to what it was. Everyone here knew Rex Bumbalee was an alias for Don Grange. Changing my face now would only cause confusion.
By the time I had left George's office I was again on a new high. It was the first time I had fully accepted the face that I called my own. I headed to the mess hall for a beer.
When the Admiral returned we had a surprise waiting for him. The station known as OpCon was again operational. All automated systems had been pulled out and replaced. During the refurb process another four Durian beacons had been removed and destroyed. Two weeks of intensive scanning had shown the ship to be clean.
Along with OpCon came two additional automated construction docks. We were soon producing 15 new Hawks a day. Our small fleet continued to grow.
The Colonel was busy picking through his new recruits for those capable of flight training. We needed pilots if we were going to conduct the hit and run raids against the Milgari ships with any level of success. We were only a month away from putting the new strategy to work.
With the warrant lifted and the Admiral's media campaign underway I decided it was time for a trip back to the Grid. As I stepped out of my office to begin the process of arranging the trip I was met in the hallway by Frig, "Sir, you must come immediately. The cracker program that has been running against your father’s data store has broken the encryption down to the last two remaining levels. I believe they will fall within the hour."
I turned and hurried down to Frig's lab. The cracker was running with a single layer of encryption remaining. I spoke, "I thought this was going to take years." Frig replied, ordinarily it should have, but there is always the chance that it will stumble upon the proper sequence. When that happens, the entire decryption process is accelerated."
"I've called in the Colonel and the Admiral too if you don't mind Sir. Since whatever this store contains came from their era in the service they might have something to offer." I nodded in approval.
The Colonel stepped through the lab doorway, "I heard the store has been cracked?" Frig replied, "We are down to a single layer Colonel. We should have access to the data at any moment." The Colonel took a seat.
Just as the Admiral arrived a chime sounded on Frig's console. The decryption was complete, "Sir, I believe this is your data, you should have the benefit of being the first to look upon what it was that your father gave you. From a summary view the store contains a large amount of data. It appears to be organized in the standard military pattern so you should be familiar with how to search through it."
The next half hour was spent looking through a data folder titled personal. It contained each of the video chats he had called home with when stationed off Grid. I listened to several and for a moment I was once again ten years old. My father was one of those people who was always solid and stable. You knew where he stood on any issue and he always seemed to be standing in just the right place, with the right arguments to back up his position.
After watching several of the chats I turned to the others, "Sorry for the personal stuff, it was something I needed to see. I'll take the rest of them with me for viewing later by myself." The Admiral placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed.
The next folder sequence was Grid->Security->Breaches. Under this folder were a number of video recordings of various Grid personnel. Some communications were off-Grid to other planets, some were to ships docked nearby and others were to some of our warships, including several from visitors to the Grid who were in discussions with the captain of the Tantilis.
As I played the first video we listened intently. Ten minutes into the recording the conversation turned chilling,
Captain, you have been paid a fair price. We will honor our commitment to move your family once the deed is done. A commission in the Milgari navy and a governorship over the Grid will be yours. You have my word.
We could not believe what we were hearing. The Captain of the Tantilis, a respected man and soldier, had sold out to the enemy. But there was much more than the single conversation of a traitor. There were numerous recordings of Senators, Representative, Councilmen and others including shipyard workers and several Humans who operated the gravity drive.
What my father had uncovered was a grand conspiracy to overthrow the Grid’s government and to turn the great ship over to the Milgari. The earlier plot had been abandoned but those who had initially been involved were never brought to justice. It was believed that the data store had gone missing with the Tantilis.
I looked at the lists of names of those who had been identified by my father. Many were familiar faces that were heavily involved in the Grid political scene. Two had become powerful, long term Senators. Another four were representatives. There were even two names that were now in the higher echelons of SCore. I wondered who on the Grid could be trusted.
The Admiral spoke, "This, this is troubling. I know a number of those names personally. They have families and have had every appearance of being patriots. Andria Amoli and Antoine Duvalier are two that I have dealt with many times. They have had liberal leanings on social issues, but their actions when it came to defense votes were spot on. Both of these individuals have been fully briefed on my work off of the Grid and both have been very supportive."
The Colonel threw in his thoughts, "They have been supportive alright, supportive of our biggest enemy. What I don’t get right now is why the Milgari have not attacked. With just what we see here our defenses could have easily been crippled and the Grid lost. There must be something else they were after, maybe something else in that data."
As the afternoon progressed, the shackles of doubt about my father, the shackles that I had worn since being ten years old, were removed. My father was not the traitor that he had been made out to be, it was quite the opposite. He had uncovered a network of spies and turncoats that was threatening our very existence. His work had surely gotten him killed. But he had been fighting for the right side.
We broke for a short dinner and then made our way back to the lab to continue our efforts. We soon found a file that we believed possibly contained the reasoning as to why the Milgari had not attacked. There were two scientists on the Grid whose task was to study the gravity drive. It was the first team to have any real breakthroughs in understanding how it worked. The same two scientists were still hard at work with their research. It was possible that the Torrians were waiting on the results.
The Colonel spoke, "If they have those scientists in their pockets or at a minimum have them surrounded by their operatives then they will have what they want. The secrets of that drive are what is desired, not the drive itself. With that knowledge they could possibly build their own."
I replied, "I don’t get why they would wait Colonel. If they took the Grid they could study that drive all they wanted." The Admiral responded, "Perhaps I can offer a reason why. If the Milgari attack they may end up destroying the station and the drive before they get their hands on it. That and the fact that we do have a self-destruct built into all the systems. If the Grid were to be captured the self-destruct would be detonated. With an attack they put their prize at risk."
The Colonel continued, "We need to define this list of compromisers and find out how far this web reaches. I think we then perform a purge of that Milgari influence. It has to be a complete sweep of anyone involved or even those who may be involved. I can tell you now that is going to be a wide net we are casting and our catch could potentially be very large. This Milgari influence has got to be removed and removed completely."
The Admiral replied, "The timing of this could not be more difficult. If we do this purge we run the risk of the Milgari deciding that it’s past time to attack. We cannot defend against a fleet that size. We need time for our hit and run strategy to work. With a weakened Milgari fleet we just might stand a chance."
I spoke, "We always have the jump Admiral. I know that no one wants to do it, but as a defense it is always there. As far as sweeping the Grid of its spy networks I think a lot of planning needs to be done first. And Colonel, you and the Admiral both have men who report to you that are or were in the intel corps. You might start them on a planning or training session. If we do perform a sweep we will need a lot of trusted agents of our own. We would also run the risk of this appearing to be a coup."
When the meeting had adjourned I took the recordings from my father back to my office for a listen. The memories came flooding back as I listened to each and every one. My father was my idol and my attention hung on his every word. When I finished with the last of the recordings it was late into the night and I was emotionally drained.