Deep Space Endeavor 3 Death Match (42 page)

“Very good, Captain, what was their response time?” Dobar inquired.

“Just over forty-seven minutes. We ran as soon as they showed like you told us to. We even let them destroy nine useless vessels to sell the ruse.”

“Ah, the decoy vessels worked out for us, then?”

“Yes, Sir, I believe they did. With enough of the useless shells, they will never know the true size or power of our fleet.”

“You have done well, Captain.” As the transmission faded, Dobar allowed himself a smile. The first move in this deadly game had been made. The human fools had no idea what his real plan was. The Syndicate was now one step closer to dominating the galaxy.

______

President Sandoval was on his way to meet up with Admiral Bliney and he had some good news. The Secretary of Defense had just let him know that the space dock was going to be finished a full three months ahead of schedule.
This will put another twenty ships into the fleet ahead of time
. He excitedly thought.
The implications of this development have to be addressed and our people should be rewarded for their diligence
. The President entered the conference room with a spring in his step. He left his protection detail just outside in the hall. Minutes later as he was still waiting, he heard a commotion outside in the hall. He commed his security chief to ask what the problem was, but received no answer. He commed his detail supervisor, but again, received no answer. He was about to stand to speak to the guards posted outside the door when Admiral Natora sauntered into the room. He had a blaster on his hip and President Sandoval did not like the look in his eyes.

“What is the meaning of this, Admiral? You were not invited to this meeting. Why have my guards let you pass?”

“Your guards didn’t let me pass, Sandoval, they died by my hand.” He smiled as he slowly drew his blaster.

“Why are you doing this, Natora? What will you gain?”

“I am doing this to put an end to your ineffective rule. I will gain a position of great importance among the Enclave when they arrive to subjugate your precious Coalition.”

“What are you talking about? The Enclave is all but dead. You and the mystery member are all that remains.”

Natora laughed a mocking laugh as the President was trying to make his way to the exit. “The twelve were just sleepers for what I believe you referred to as the Human War Machine. My people are heading this way. We need Marcos’ technology in order to defeat the Human Suppression Syndicate. They are not heading here; they are heading to the Enclave. If, however, we strike an alliance with the Enclave, the aliens will attack here. They have no wish to fight the
Leviathans
and
War Hawks
en masse, so they will seek to destroy the planets on which they are built. By that time, the Enclave will be in possession of a couple hundred of the ships, and we will be well on our way to building our own. With that technology in our grasp, and the Coalition taking a large enough chunk out of the enemy fleet, we will dominate the galaxy. We will rid it of all aliens, and any humans that will not bend their knee. This is what the Coalition has to look forward to.”

“I cannot believe you would betray us like this, Natora, we are your people.”

“No, you are not,” he replied sadly. He lifted his blaster and pointed it at the President. He smiled one more time and fired.

Admiral Bliney was entering the conference room as he saw Natora lift his blaster. He shouted, “No,” as Natora mercilessly executed the elected leader of the Coalition. Before the President had even hit the floor, Bliney had his blaster out and fired three times. He hit a shocked Admiral Natora twice in the chest and noticed his smile was gone as he rushed to the President’s side. President Sandoval was gasping for air as Admiral Bliney commed a med-team and called for the Marines to surround the capitol building. He could not believe what Admiral Natora had done. This could very well plunge the Coalition into chaos at a time they needed to be focused.

President Sandoval knew he was going to die, but he had to let Admiral Bliney know what was to come before he did. “Admiral,” he coughed.

“Don’t try to speak, Sir. Help is on the way.”

“Admiral, don’t let the Enclave take the Coalition.”

“What? Sir, what are you talking about?”

“The human army we saw…they are the Enclave.” He coughed up some more blood as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. A moment later, he breathed his last. Bliney was shocked by what the President had just told him.

Only moments later the med team arrived; the emergency personnel began to feverishly work on President Sandoval’s body, but quickly realized they were too late. The President was dead.

Admiral Bliney stood nearby, shocked at Sandoval’s dying words. He wondered if anyone else knew about this or if it had been something Natora had taunted the president with in his perceived moment of triumph. He needed to find out if anyone else knew. This kind of information could be problematic if the general public were to get a hold of it.

______

The death of President Sandoval had shocked the Coalition. No one could believe it was real. It had been hundreds of years since anyone had tried to assassinate the elected leader of Earth. All of the news stations were reporting the President’s death nonstop. The coverage, the theories, there was no end. One reporter had even posited that President Sandoval’s death had something to do with the prominent mystery deaths that had recently dominated the headlines. Mourners filled the streets in support of their fallen leader. Admiral Bliney was now seen as an even bigger hero. He would forever be the man that killed the President’s assassin. He wasn’t held entirely blameless, though, the question was raised as to why he was late to the meeting, and it was also implied that he should have known the whereabouts of the military’s second-in-command. These criticisms were minor and few people were raising them, but they rankled Bliney to no end.

Nina felt nauseous as she heard the news.
Jesse is not going to take this well when he returns from the Kalephi Galaxy. He’s been friends with Sandoval for a long time. He was close enough to the man that we have always had a direct link to our leader. This is now one more thing the Enclave will have to answer for
. As she thought about her brother’s reaction at losing another friend to the Enclave, she felt even worse when the realization hit her like a slap in the face that Vice President Rhodes was now in charge.
Ladyhawk had been pretty sure the Vice President was the last member of the Enclave. She could not provide me with proof, but I trusted her feeling. If she was right, the Enclave has won. Their last man is now not only Earth’s leader, but the leader of the entire Coalition. What does this mean for us?
She hated to be thinking about herself and her people at a time like this, this business with the Enclave had robbed her of her time to grieve. As she thought about how hard Serge had taken the news of her own recent actions, she thought,
The Enclave has robbed me of a lot more than that
. Her thoughts quickly returned to her company and her people,
how will this affect SSE? Should we continue to build our new facility on Polisia knowing that we could be putting weapons into the hands of our enemy?
Her mind was filled with questions of the future while her heart mourned the loss of the Coalition’s leader. She needed to get everyone together quickly. They needed to discuss what all of this meant. She went to her transmitter and reached out to Ariel. Her face was a picture of sorrow as cousin’s face filled the screen. “I’m assuming you’ve heard the news, Ariel.”

“Everyone has, it’s unbelievable. What are we going to do?”

“That’s what we need to discuss. We need to meet with everyone. Everyone that has top level SSE clearance needs to be on Polisia tonight. Manny, Jason, Sanjay and Liam are already here with Serge and I. We need Vee-Fleet to meet up with us here. I will need you, Snyder, Briggs and Irina from the
Vanguard
as well as the Chief Operating Officers of our other three SSE divisions. Rodriguez from construction, Doctor Tally from medical and Jordan from entertainment all need to be here. This affects them as well.”

“I’m sending a shuttle for them now. What about the rest of the ship captains?”

“You and Manny will brief them when we are finished unless you have anyone you think you need there.”

“No, a briefing will be fine. With Snyder and me on Polisia, I want people who know what they’re doing watching over us. I don’t want Rhodes to try and bully someone that can’t say no. Make sure all of Manny’s people know that he has no authority to call them to Earth.”

“I will, and you make sure your people know to contact you immediately if he contacts them. I want everyone on the same page. I don’t think we’re going to like what is coming and I don’t want to get caught with our pants down.”

“We’ll depart as soon as our shuttle arrives. See you in fifteen hours, Cousin.”

“Safe travel, Ariel.” The transmission ended as Serge and Manny entered the room. “What are we going to do, Serge?” She put her head on his shoulder as he rubbed her back.

“I do not know, my love. One thing I do know is nothing should be discussed without a jamming field. We must be very careful until we know what we have in our new leader.” He comforted his wife even as he thought about how disappointed he was in her recent choices.
It wasn’t just her choice I am having trouble with, it was the fact that she did not discuss it with me first.

“It might not be such a bad idea to stealthily begin moving everyone we care about to Polisia.” Manny added.

“Most of them are already here. Nina was able to talk them into living on Polisia during their time on the
Vanguard
.” Serge replied.

“Bribed them is more like it, Serge,” she corrected. “Either way, we just have to worry about a few now: Josiah’s family, Jason’s family, Charlie’s family, Liam’s family and Carmine.”

“Carmine?” Serge raised an eyebrow. “Now we are wanting to start a crime wave on Polisia?” He asked incredulously. He couldn’t believe his wife had even suggested it.

“Yes, Carmine. Jesse’s shady, not quite legit friend. Ariel loves him to death and Lana feels the same way after he saved her life. If we can talk him into it, he comes, too. Jesse would be very upset if we didn’t at least offer.”

“We should bring his chef, too.” Manny started as they both gave him a look. “What? I’m just saying, good Italian food is hard to find here.”

Fifteen hours later, Ariel arrived and they went right into their meeting. They began to hammer out a plan to deal with what this new President might throw their way.

“If President Rhodes is the last remaining member of the Enclave, do we want him in control of our ships and facilities? He will have the power to take them from us.” Serge stated as he looked around the room and noticed expressions that ranged from resigned to shell-shocked.

“Serge’s right,” Ariel added. “But we have to ask ourselves the question: what does Rhodes get out of it if he does take our facilities? He’s already our leader, so he doesn’t need our ships to take power, and he has to know that if these alien threats are legit, swooping in and removing us from the picture is a bad idea. It would just take too long to get anyone else up to speed on how we do things and the Coalition wouldn’t be able to afford the drop in production, so why would he take our facilities from us?”

“How about spite,” Jason cut in. “He has to know we’re behind the death of his cabal members. Or have we considered that this Enclave may actually be working for someone else?”

“What do you mean, Jason?” Manny asked, interest suddenly piqued. He hadn’t thought about that at all, even though it did seem unlikely.

“I don’t really know. It’s just something we haven’t mentioned yet. I’m just putting it out there. What if the Enclave is working for one of the threats facing us? What if they are working for someone who wants to take over the galaxy, or at least a large part of it?”

“That’s a good thought, Jason, and a scary one. If there is another power behind the throne, it’s doubtful they will be satisfied with our thirty-two worlds, especially given how easy it was for them to take control of them.” Nina added, praying they were not right.

“If Jason is right, then they have every reason to take Sea Side Enterprises away from us, and probably kill us all in the process.” Sanjay added with a grimace at the unsavory thought.

“I know I’m the junior member here,” Liam began apprehensively. “But it would seem to me that we need a lot more information before we jump to these types of conclusions.”

“You’re right, Liam,” Nina replied. “And if you’re in this room right now, it’s because we value your opinion, so don’t be afraid to give it. We may not know anything for certain yet, but we do need to prepare for all contingencies. On that note, let’s begin to talk about our next steps. Step one is to slow down the construction of the Polisian facilities until we knew more.” Nina continued to lay out the steps with plenty of input from the rest of the team as they spent the rest of the night discussing what might come next.