Authors: Max Feinstein
Message received, Xwai slowly stood and casually adjusted his white on gray naval uniform. They had long since been manufactured with wrinkle free materials, making for one less thing to be concerned about. The admiral turned toward and proceeded to one of the two exits on the observation deck, taking no notice as the chair he had been sitting on retracted back into the floor.
A series of armored shutters closed around the observation canopy just as Xwai started his way down the slightly curves staircase, that led to the level below, and the shuttle entered the tunnel that had opened for it.
Within a minute the shuttle had traversed the entire depth of the large tunnel and immerged
at a massive cavern, which was in fact a large underground hanger. The hanger itself was of a semicircular construction with curved walls that slanted forward as they rose towards the domed ceiling. These walls were lined with smaller docking bays in a grid light pattern. Some of these bays contained shuttles and freighters, while others were packed with a mix of fighter and bomber craft that could be deployed on a moment’s notice.
Most of the ground below the shuttle was crisscrossed with military personnel heading to and from the many different docking bays either on foot or by a small network of HTrams. Two sections, one on either side of the large hanger, were designated landing pads and
Admiral Lin’s shuttle swung around to settle on the closest one to the left. Normally every incoming ship would turn over its control of the local Traffic Control Center and allow the TCC to automatically guide the craft wherever they saw appropriate, but being as the admiral was a VIP they allowed the pilots to manually land the shuttle. When the craft touched down a large magnetic grapple descended down and clamped onto it, slowly raising the shuttle into the air before accelerating towards an open docking bay.
Nor
mally, at other hanger or spaceport facilities, tractor beams would be utilized to guide ships to their berths instead of grapples, but because this was a secure facility all precautions had to be taken. Besides moving ships around the hanger, the grapple was also able to scan the ships for any malicious substances, such as explosives or biological weapons, as well as monitor any crafts power levels. Should anything be detected the system would automatically administer a large electromagnetic pulse into the vessel to disable it until the situation could be resolved.
When the shuttle finally settled into its assigned docking berth an opening appeared in one of the angular
section along the bottom, allowing a platform to be lowered to the ground. On the platform, with hands behind his back, stood the admiral between a pair of uniformed soldiers, who happened to be members of his personal staff as well as on occasion his bodyguard detail. Both stood expressionless as the lift touched down on the deck, surveying the entire area around them as Admiral Lin made his way briskly towards the pair of officers that came out to receive him.
“Sir, welcome to Tesagia,”e
xpressed the office standing on the right as he stepped forward and offered a brisk salute.
Admiral Lin
smiled at the salute and returned it quickly before pushing his hand out to shake the others hand, “thank you Ba’ash. It’s great to see you again my friend, it has been far too long.”
“That it has Xwai. We shall have to catch up later if you still have time
,” Admiral Ba’ash Sharikki said as he smiled at his old friend, “everyone is assembled and ready for you. We are all very curious as to what this is all about.”
Ba’ash paused for a second and looked back towards the other officer standing behind him before leaning towards Xwai and adding with a whisper, “
this isn’t just a communications problem, is it Xwai?”
IT WAS
only a short HTram ride to Section One, which contained Central Command and was located in another underground construction some kilometers away. During the trip Xwai and Ba’ash reminisced about the days gone past when they actually commanded ships of their own and were directly involved in combat operations. There were no shortages of good stories from all those years gone by and Admiral Linn was somewhat glad to be distracted from the thoughts that threatened to consume him. He would have to put these thoughts and doubts aside if his plan were to work.
At one point they had even stopped speaking as they passed through a transparent tunnel that spanned one of the large underground rivers. It was exciting to see creatures he had never seen before surround them. One of them even looked like a large
manta ray from Earth, only with four wings instead of two and a long wide head with shark like teeth. There were also schools of phosphorescent fish that flashed on and off as they swam past to destinations unknown. The sightseeing lasted only seconds, however, before the HTram pulled into the Section One terminal and the passengers had to get out. It was back to the business at hand.
Admiral Lin
followed Ba’ash as he led them towards the large conference room that awaited them close to the center of Section One. Since this section contained the central command and control facility for the entire Fringe Sector it was under heavy guard with restricted access in and out. There were Army security personnel in most corridors and rooms were kept under secure lockdown. The whole facility was actually isolated from the rest of the underground complex, connected with only three tunnels, and had the ability to become complete sealed off should the need arise.
They finally came up to a large arched doorway being guarded by two heavily armed soldiers. Both stood completely mot
ionless as the pair of admirals made their way to the secure entrance. Xwai stopped short and turned towards the two officers that had come with him, giving both a nod to wait for him outside, before continuing forward with Ba’ash. Having been implanted with the neural interphase, Admiral Sharikki was instantly recognized by the facility’s security system and within a second the locking mechanism spun open and the double doors quickly slid open to reveal an oval shaped conference room. Huddled on one side of the room was a group of men and women in different colored uniformed. They had been conversing, but stopped and turned quickly just as the doorway opened to admit both Xwai and Ba’ash.
Before any of them responded with a salute,
Admiral Lin took the initiative and moved towards the group with his hand stretched out. He smiled at all his old friends and shook their hands in the traditional two handed way. As the greetings progressed Xwai wondered why they all seemed younger than the last time he had meet them in person, perhaps it was just because he was getting older, he thought to himself. Some of them he knew from all the way back when he just a Captain, watching them rise through the ranks, while others he had only gotten to know during the selection process for their current positions.
With time most certainly not on their side, Xwai gently motioned all of them to take their seats. The conference room contained a special seating arrangement with a series of five slightly curved tables located at the center of the large room. These five tables were made so that from afar and above they together created a large oval with an open center. This arrangement allowed
every branch of the military to have their own table and all to address each other face to face. At one end, however, was a table smaller than the rest and positioned in the exact center of that section. It was reserved for the Armed Services Chief.
As such,
Admiral Lin moved slowly to take his proper place at the head of the meeting and watched the rest take their seats before speaking. There, at the first table to the right, was Admiral Sharikki, the FrinSecCom or Fringe Sector Commander, sitting at the table reserved for the Navy. Beside him sat the large imposing figure of Admiral Nikoli Kolhov whose duty was to manage and command all the naval assets detached to the Fringe Sector. At the next table sat two individuals wearing green camouflage uniforms, General Fredrik Reverton, the commander all Army units in the sector, and his second in command, Lieutenant General Zahira Hamzali whose job was to command all Army personnel in the Tesa System. The Marine commanders had the next table, which was located on the other side of the arrangement and faced the previous two tables. General Cicero Belinia, Fringe Sector Marine commander, had a seat beside Lieutenant General Benjamin Sturnvitz, who directly oversaw that General Belinia’s orders were carried out by the Marine units scattered on almost all naval vessels in the sector. Finally, Xwai’s eyes settled at the last table where the lowest ranking, but usually the most important, member of group resided. Brigadier General Tokumo Hiroto of the Military Intelligence Service, MIS, shifted his eyes towards the admiral and wondered why he had not received prior knowledge about this meeting, given its obvious significance with the gathering of all the Fringe Sector military heads.
“I wish we could all have
more time to converse, but it seems that a more pressing matter has emerged,” he paused and set his palm flat on the table in front of him, seeing Tokumo fidget a little in his seat from the corner of his eye, “lights please.”
At his command all of the lights in the room dimmed and
a holographic emitter silently emerged from a hidden compartment within the ceiling, directly over the middle of the seating formation. It powered up instantly and projected a large three dimensional image of the galaxy across the entire room. The image quickly grew smaller to only encompass the area were everyone sat and as it did, the display zoomed in from the galaxy as a whole to first the area occupied by the UPF and then focused solely on the Fringe Sector. Amid the sector multiple stars coalesced into view, representing the inhabited star systems throughout the Fringe, but one of them was surrounded by the blue pulsing aura. Everyone knew that this was the Tesa System.
“Around five hours ago
the Emergency Response and Assistance station at Ardigo detected an emergency beacon emanating from deep space, around eighteen LY from Frontiera.” Xwai let the words sink in as he looked around at the other tables while the image before them moved towards the outer edge of the sector where the barren world of Ardigo was located and below it, at the very edge of UPF space, the planet of Frontiera. Slightly outside of the Frontiera system a tiny blinking dot appeared, representing the beacon, 18 light years from the latter system.
“
An ERAT vessel was immediate dispatched,” Admiral Linn continued, “what they found on-site was a damaged Edrone from the FNV
Bhrami,
which, as you know, is attached to the
Fredriksburg
defense group guarding Frontiera. Upon further inspection massive radiation damage was noted and it was confirmed that the drone had been launched towards Tesagia, but was too heavily damaged to complete the jump. The radiation seemed to also affect the drone’s data storage unit, making recovery of any stored data impossible. An effort was made immediately to contact both the
Fredriksburg
and Frontiera…”
“Why wasn’t the MIS informed the moment the drone was discovered?” General Hiroto, usually a reserved man, interrupted in a confrontational tone. He was a man of procedures and they had been blatantly violated in this instance.
“Tesagia Naval Command should have been the one to receive ERA’s detection immediately, not Athenia!” Admiral Kolhov objected almost at the very instant as Tokumo. “We oversee the entire sector and are in a better position to respond to emergencies. Why were procedures….”
The admiral’s voice trailed off as Ba’ash placed his hand on
the other man’s shoulder and gave a slight squeeze, indicating for him to calm down, “I was informed the moment CAS was apprised of the situation. His office had already begun the investigation and we agreed that it should continue in order to resolve the situation as soon as possible.”
The CAS, Chief of Armed Services, raised his hand at this moment in indication for all to quiet down. He knew it was inevitable that most of these high ranking individuals would object to others taking over their principle duties. Recovery of that drone or any other ship that broadcast a distress beacon always fell under the purview of the Federation Navy. As such, all distresses wer
e to be immediately reported up the chain of command all the way to Sector Command. Sector Command would then decide whether the situation warranted the involvement of the CAS, which it seldom did. Having ERA simply bypass normal protocols was unheard of and would be grounds for punishment. Why such an occurrence had taken place in this instance would never be revealed to the men and women sitting in this room.
“As I was saying, while we were still trying to recover any possible data from the Edrone, we made several attempts to contac
t the forces stationed on Frontiera. All of those attempts proved fruitless. It was decided to proceed with a trial Gate activation. The Frontiera Gate activated without fault and established a stable connection. A self-diagnostic run was ordered and turned up zero problems, but long range scanners on the Gate did note a number of radiation pulses originating from within the system.”
Xwai paused
once more and reached down into a small compartment build into the desk to pull out a glass of cold water. As he took a long drink, the holographic display changed once more, this time focusing on the Frontiera System. Instead of just showing the star itself, the image was of the system as a whole with the large yellow-orange star at the center of six orbiting satellites. Between the orbits of the first and second planet a large object resolved, indicating the Transit Gate that had been positioned there.