Audacity (Warner's World Book 5) (38 page)

He knew it was late but he hailed Fegelk anyway.

“Yes Adrian is everything all right?” said Fegelk.

“I have just received news that we have secured a base within the rogan systems. Surely that is proof enough of our commitment and our capacity to win this fight. Are you going to continue sitting on the sidelines?”

There was a period of silence. Then Fegelk said “Send me your report. I will take this up again with the President and the whole cabinet tomorrow.”

“Thank you Fegelk.”

Chapter 18. Rollinium 0900, 23 August

Art read the message a second time. He had mixed reactions. On the one hand he agreed that Sallusam must not get access to the device and that he should be apprehended or taken down but he had grave misgivings about trying to pull this off on Dyritka.

He would have felt more comfortable if they had a stealth shuttle. He had no intel on the likely detection and intercept capabilities on Dyritka but if it was like this place he assessed their chance of a free unmolested run in as next to none. “What were they thinking?” he asked out loud.

“Who?” asked Sue, as she came into the room at the spaceport that had been assigned to them as their office. She had just come back from her rounds, checking on the status of the droids. She liked to get it over first thing, so she could have the rest of the day off.

“Here check this out” said Art.

She read the message. “Who will look after the droids?” she asked.

“Is that the first thing you thought of?” asked Art.

“Well yeah! I mean no one else here knows how to.”

Art shook his head. “You’re like a mother hen with those droids. You do know honey that these metal boxes of yours have no flesh and blood and are self-maintaining. They don’t need mothering.”

“You can be a patronising bastard at times Art.”

“Sorry honey but I just think that a mission as dangerous as this one would rank higher in your priority list.”

“What’s so dangerous? We go in, we lure him to some deserted wilderness, we plug him and we come back. No dramas, piece of cake.”

“You missed the bit about ‘apprehend’.”

Sue tilted her head and gave him a look which said ‘really?’ Art turned his hands, palms up, as if to say ‘well yeah!’

“That isn’t going to happen. He’s not worth the risk” she countered.

Art waved his hands in front palms out to stop her. “OK, let’s leave that aside for now…”

“No, there’s not going to be any apprehending, full stop, end of story.”

“As you say” said Art not being deterred. “Have you given any thought as to how we may get there….undetected….unmolested?”

“Mmm…no warthog.” Art gave her an expression which said ‘yes…’ “Bummer!” she added. “What if we came on a craft carrying refugees from this place?”

Art raised his arm with his hand horizontal till it went past her head and then up to the top of his.

“Mmm…bummer. I never thought I would want to be shorter” and she gave him a smile.

“Not to mention the angled eyes and a …” said Art and he moved both hands downwards in a curving wave.

“Well I’m certain I’m not going to want to flatten these” she said as she cupped her hands under her breasts and gave them a little lift.

“Me neither” said Art with a smile.

“And I’m not going to make them any bigger either” she added.

“It’ll probably happen when you have kids you know” said Art playfully.

“Dream on big fella. Mmm, we could stow away on the craft.”

“Thermal scanners.”

“Oh yeah…another bummer!...heat shielding?”

“Maybe…yeah might work. You’re not just a pretty face.”

“And you’re still a misogynist, darling. What am I going to do with you?”

“Gotta love me” he said with a big grin.

She leant forward and gave him a light tap, tap, tap on his cheek with her open hand. “I think I did that last night didn’t I?”

He took advantage of her position and pulled her towards him. She kissed him on contact. He kicked the door shut with his long leg, while continuing to pull her into him with his hand on her buttocks.

It was a small chair designed for a much shorter rogan body and not two tall and much heavier human bodies. It succumbed in spectacular manner. Thankfully with its short legs (relative to those on a normal human chair) Art had only a short distance to fall before he hit the floor. Sue collapsed on top of him. Both began laughing out loudly.

Art looked up at the face of his lover and felt a wave of gratitude wash over him. She kissed him lightly on the lips. “At least it’s bigger than a broom closet” she quipped, referring to the location where he had proposed to her.

“Ooh I remember that broom closet” he replied as he pulled out her blouse from her pants.

She pulled her torso up and he unbuttoned the blouse. “You do this so proficiently…better than me” she said.

“Years of practice” he replied and the blouse was pulled off entirely. Art struggled, though, with the fastener at the back of Sue’s bra. “Well that’s a bit of a worry” she teased “and I thought practice makes perfect.”

He finally succeeded. “Obviously I still need a lot more” he said with a wicked smile and pulled her voluptuous form to him.

Chapter 19. Resolute to Chelora 0930, 23 August

Dave was nearing the end of his rounds of the med bay. He had made a point of coming down each morning. More and more beds had been freed up but those still remaining affected him the most. Last on his list was Kat. He found Chase there. They were both talking and by the sound of it she was in better spirits than yesterday.

“Morning Kat, Chase” he said as he came in. Chase nodded.

“Sir” said Kat. She was sitting up now albeit in a cast which prevented her moving her head.

“How are you this morning?” asked Dave as he pulled across the visitor chair from the other, now empty, bed in the room. He sat down and looked at Kat’s eyes. The melancholy that had surrounded them had gone.

“Not bad” she said. She had to be really conscious of not trying to move her head like she normally did during conversations. She was naturally an expressive person and found this constraint difficult. “Mary says my test results are really good.” Dave nodded. “They’ll never be good enough though to fly again.”

Dave was thinking hard of how to respond. He had a bad track record when it came to this and he was determined to see it right this time. “Mary said that?” he asked.

“Not exactly but plastic’s never as good as the real thing.”

“Wait and see?” he asked.

“Chase wants me to get out anyway.”

“She’s done enough” contributed Chase.

Dave nodded. “Well it’s so good to see you sitting up and making such good progress Kat. I better be off.”

Outside he caught up with Mary and asked her about Kat’s diagnosis.

Mary gave a shrug. “The artificial vertebrae would be able to cope but that’s not going to be the deciding factor. It’s her will. Right now it’s not there. Who knows down the track? What I do know is that even if she wanted to she can’t get back in the saddle for at least six months. She’s got a lot of work ahead of her and that therapy can wear a lot of people down. By the way, you did well in there” added Mary “Your best effort to date” and she smiled at him.

“You’ve got big ears Mary” said Dave.

She shook her head and pointed to the cam views on her monitor.

Dave gave a light chuckle. “I’m standing by that assessment big brother.”

“Big sister if you please” and she laughed.

As Dave left her to take the elevator back up to his office he reflected on the fact that these patients would all have to be offloaded later today when they arrived at Chelora. Most would be taking the next transport back to Polaris. He felt a pang of pain knowing that for many they would soon be discharged as unfit for service from the only profession they had known. It was a cruel way to treat those who had given so much.

He thought about Kat and the fact that the odds were stacked against her from ever flying in high G manoeuvres. Another thought crossed his mind. ‘Maybe…yeah maybe’ he said to himself.

Chapter 20. Muntikis 1100, 23 August

Evie read the signal from Admiral Yomoto a second time. She was astounded. But after the excitement died down a new emotion overtook her. ‘There’s so little time.’

“Felis.”

Felis turned his head to Evie “Yes”.

“You need to see this.”

“Just a second.” He stood up from the lounge chair where he had been reading and paced to where Evie was sitting at the table and looked over her shoulder at her console screen.  “Yomoto?” he asked. Evie nodded. He leaned over and scrolled up as he read. “Wow. They’ve liberated Qwantum.”

“It gets better.”

He scrolled some more. “Gee, Meelanda needs to see this straight away.”

Ten minutes later Meelanda, Erkum, Evie and Felis looked around the table at each other. Each was waiting for someone else to say something.

The whole thing had come as a shock to Meelanda. It was as though a giant spanner had been thrown into the mechanics of her current plan. This would require the whole tempo to be dramatically increased. The slow burn would no longer do. Yomoto had just applied a blow torch.

Yes she could ramp up the formation of Resistance cells, but with all the will in the galaxy she could not see her way to mounting an effective armed resistance in the time available.

As for the space station she was at a complete loss. She knew the Likta Corporation had the logistics contract for it but she had no real influence over the people who were now in charge of that. Maybe Bakun would know how to tackle that.

Slowly her mind was coming to realise that what she needed most now was a military commander and that is why her gaze stopped at Felis. As her gaze fixed on Felis so too did Erkum’s and Evie’s.

Feeling the pressure Felis finally broke the silence. “What?” he asked.

“I, I mean we” said Meelanda looking at both Erkum and Evie and then back to Felis “need someone to take charge of the military aspects.”

“What me?” asked Felis incredulously. “You need an Army General or a Fleet Admiral not an ex-Fleet Commander.”

Evie reached over and put her reassuring hand on his. “You can do this. I know you can.”

Felis looked at her with mixed emotions. He was pleased for her physical reassurance but he wasn’t happy about having a ton of responsibility dumped on him. A gentle squeeze from Evie tipped the balance. “All right” he said “but just until we can convince some existing senior officer to take on the job.”

“Agreed” said Meelanda before he could change his mind. “And I will speak with Bakun about the space station. Likta has…well up until a few days ago had the logistics contract for the space station. He may know who to contact re the plans.”

“Good idea” said Felis “but what we really need is trained troops on our side. Where do you propose we get those?”

“I don’t know” replied Meelanda. “We need to convene our council, bring more minds to this. Someone will have some influence we can leverage.”

Chapter 21. Slidwon 1200, 23 August

Jebna entered Angina’s office a worried rogan.

“What’s the matter” asked Angina. He sat down without answering her. She could see he was trying to form his words. “Well?”

“We’re in grave trouble Angina…grave trouble.” He went on to explain how they had intercepted communications from Raitah and one of them had a list with their names on it.

“And?” asked Angina.

“It’s a hit list Angina. Raitah’s planning a coup and we’re on her hit list.” Jebna got up from his chair. He was so agitated, he just had to pace. He paced to the wall and back twice before Angina said “Oh enough of that Jebna. Please sit back down.”

Reluctantly he obeyed. “We need to do something.”

“First we need to verify that this is indeed what you say it is.”

“Of course it is. Here have a look for yourself.” He passed over the ePaper transcript.

“All right, I see. Mmm…We need to determine who this went to. How long before they crack these addresses?”

Jebna shrugged his shoulders. “24 hours maybe.”

“There is no time frame mentioned” said Angina. Jebna shook his head.

Chapter 22. Chikita 1230, 23 August

Adrian Yohansen emerged from the entrance of the Parliament building in a mood not quite ecstatic but nor far from it. He looked out into the bright sunshine and it mirrored his inner state. The tall manicured trees that lined the great boulevard seemed to dance in the light breeze.

His aide, Angelica Moritious, was waiting for him and a smile erupted on her face as she saw the Foreign Minister.

“Yes” exclaimed Adrian “we have it!”

“Very good Minister.”

“You know Angelica there is nothing more satisfying than turning defeat into victory. Forget the car, let’s walk!”

As they strolled down along the gentle slope Adrian seemed unperturbed by the volume of people on the walkway. He smiled at everyone and while the sight of a human wasn’t uncommon, the sight of one beaming as he was caused a few heads to turn.

“So Minister” asked Angelica “what did they end up committing?”

“A whole god dammed fleet” he replied as he smiled at an oncoming business person. Then he turned to look at Angelica and added “thirty ships, including a carrier and 100 fighters. But wait there is more…” and with a flourish of his hand and a big smile he continued “and…and their Gondo Corps. Crack troops they are. Marvellous isn’t it.”

“Indeed Minister. But when will they be ready?”

“Oh” said Adrian. His face drained of some of its enthusiasm. “They say it will take a month to martial the forces.”

“A month is a long time Minister. And there will be at least another month of transit.”

“Probably more actually” said Adrian matter of factly and then added more emphatically “but better late than not at all I say.”

“Indeed Minister.”

Chapter 23. Spectre in Casaverie, 1700, 23 August

It had been a very tense time coming out of warp. Sheldon Brice had been relieved when his crew performed their duties better than they had done during the earlier training. ‘Nothing like the real thing to sharpen the focus’ he said to himself.