Encounters 1: The Spiral Slayers (30 page)

As far as finding places for the officers to sleep, that had
been easy – they had just housed them in five of the ten Battleships. Within
the week the 1000 officers would receive their assignments and they would all
relocate to their assigned battleships.

Radin reached the elevators and pressed the call button. He
was headed for the General’s office. He had made the appointment first thing
this morning and he again went over the proposal in his head. He knew he was
about to double the stress levels of both himself and the General but…they had
a problem, and Radin had come up with a solution.

The problem was that bringing everyone up to speed to fill
the vital ship positions in all ten of the Juggernauts would take at least
another eight months. Add six months of shake-out maneuvers, then say another
six months travel time to Hideaway, and they were looking at well over a year
and a half to coax the ten old Battleships to Hideaway. And by any yardstick,
those timeframes were ambitious.

However, they needed to be out to Hideaway in half that time.
Evelyn Eden said that in ten months, they would need to start moving five of
Anderson’s battleships into the docks in order to test and fine tune the dock’s
systems. According to Mrs. Eden, they couldn’t use any of the thirty ships they
already had out there for a number of reasons, all of them relating to the fact
that those ships were untested…untried. Both Radin and General Burnwall had
told the Edens as well as the President that they were simply asking the
impossible. But obviously…Radin’s subconscious had not given up and had been
working overtime.

Radin was so focused on his pitch to sell his plan that his
ride up the lift and walk to Burnwall’s office passed unnoticed, and he
suddenly found himself in front of Burnwall’s secretary. “Well, hello, Talvin,
how are you?” She was the only one, on this base anyway, who used his given
name.

“Is the big guy in?” he stammered.

Jet had been General Burnwall’s secretary for twenty-three
years and she was a force unto herself. She got to her feet and came around her
desk smiling, “Oh…thanks for asking, Talvin…I’m fine, too.” Radin turned red
and seemed to shrink in size. Jet came up to him and squeezed his arms. “Oh…I’m
just kidding, Talvin… you’re just such an easy target,” she said with a twinkle
in her eye. She guided him to Burnwall’s office door. “He’s waiting for you.” She
gave him a puzzled look, “Since when do you make appointments to barge in
here?” she asked. “This must be important.” She stretched the word important
out making it sound more like “impotent.” She opened the door, guiding a somewhat
verbally bruised Radin Talvin into the General’s office and closed the door.

Burnwall smiled broadly and set aside some papers he had been
working on. “Please!” he motioned Radin to the two plush chairs in front of his
desk, “Sit down!” Burnwall leaned back in his chair and sighed as Radin took
his seat. “How are we doing out there?” he asked.

Radin still wasn’t used to seeing the young, well built kid
sitting behind Burnwall’s desk. Burnwall had finally taken the Loud I-pill and
it had taken him back to his early twenties. The “old man” wasn’t the old man
anymore and Radin was still taken back every time he saw Burnwall. Hiding his
reaction, Radin blinked and huffed, “You mean to tell me you don’t read those
reports I spend hours on each week!”

Burnwall waved his hand, “Of course I do! But I’m busy as
shit and a little behind…besides, if there was a problem, you’d be in here to
tell me about it…” he gestured towards Radin and squinted, “just as you are
now.” He gave Radin an expectant, if somewhat reluctant, look, “I’m almost
afraid to ask.

Radin chuckled and replied, “It’s nothing like that, Joe. In
fact, I think you’re going to like it!” Burnwall’s look didn’t change, but he
opened his hands inviting Radin to go on. “We pretty much have two crews
trained that could begin trials.”

“Yes, but if we let them do that, who will continue to train
the rest?”

“You mean train them in classrooms and simulators?” Radin
leaned forward not waiting for an answer, “Why not in the ships themselves.”

Burnwall barked a laugh, “Are you nuts! They’d destroy
themselves, the ships, and this facility!”

“Not if we left enough empty space between the ships
and…anything else.”

Burnwall’s expression went quizzical and he leaned back and
steeped his fingers, “We’d have to get outside the borders of the planetary
system. They aren’t ready to take the ships out there. And even if they could,
you’re adding the cost of fully stocking and fueling the ships…to what gain?”

Radin got a lopsided grin on his face and he made circles in
the air with his right index finger, “We have tons of empty space on almost the
entire route to Hideaway…and,” Radin held his palms up to Burnwall warding off
the coming objection, “…the Leviathans have this little feature I recently
learned about called…‘slave mode.’”

Burnwall’s head twitched, “Slave mode,” he repeated, and a
very thoughtful look came into his eyes. “That’s very interesting.”

“It sure is,” Radin replied with a grin.

---

Four months later…

Wicker contacted the special team and held a very short
teleconferencing meeting.  He said, “In September, that’s about six months from
now, I will hold a meeting, a large and top secret meeting to discuss our
defense options. I want Hideaway to host it. This is where we will hash out
everything with everyone who will be involved. Information will be coming to
each of you. It will be…” he inhaled, “our first counsel of war.”

---

Two months later…

From her office door in sub-basement five of the capital
building, Jan Parker looked over her domain. The large room was filled with the
sounds of people working, people walking quickly this way and that. To her it
was the sound of happiness.

She saw Lenny and smiled – it was time to put the boy out of
his misery, but she’d make him pay just a little more first. She hid her smile,
put on a serious expression and then got his attention, motioning him over. He
came into her office and Jan started to close the door when she saw Woodworth
and motioned him in as well. It was only fair.

Jan walked around behind her desk and sat down still wearing
her stern expression. She had decided that she was definitely going to drag
this out and play it for all it was worth! She just looked at Lenny and said
nothing.

Finally, he shrugged, “Ah…er…what?” He waved his arms.

Jan slowly shook her head. "Okay Mister…” she said in a
firm voice as if she were going to dress him down. He waved his arms again
looking helplessly between her and Woodworth who had turned away and was
pretending to look at some charts on the wall. However, Woodworth blew it by
turning a little too much—Lenny saw the smile he was trying to hide. He looked
back at Jan, a touch of excitement growing in his eyes.

The game was up and Jan slowly let her stern look start to
slip, “Okay,” she said again with the last trace of forced sternness, “you can
stop your pathetic pouting and mulling around now.” She could not hide it any
longer and her smile broke through.

Lenny suddenly straightened and his eyes lit up. "I'm
going! Right? I’m going…” he looked around and lowered his voice—he was really
not supposed to know, “…out to Hideaway, for the meeting!"

"Yes,” Jan said dragging the word out reluctantly, “you
and Trevor as well.” Lenny was almost bobbing out of his shoes. She shook her
head, her eyes twinkling, "Thank Floyd, he convinced the powers that be
that, like many others, we too needed 'our aids.’"

Lenny, who was all smiles now, looked over at Woodworth,
"Alright!"

Woodworth smiled and said, "Well, I just couldn't stand
to see it any longer…the two of you mulling around here looking like you'd both
lost your best friends."

"Alright!” Lenny repeated. He bounded towards the office
door, "I've got to go tell Trevor!"

Jan spoke up stopping him short, "Did I mention how we'd
be getting out there?” Lenny spun around his eyes widening even further.

"Well, it seems we'll be hitching a ride with the Loud
on one of their Umbrella ships."

"Alright!” Lenny said again. He flew out the door. As he
passed the window, they saw him jump, punch the air, and yell “ALRIGHT!”

Jan looked over at Woodworth, "Did something suddenly
happen to that boy's vocabulary shrinking it to just one word?” They both
chuckled.

---

It had been eight months since Radin had discovered “slave
mode” and discussed it with General Burnwall, a very busy eight months but it
had been worth it.

High above Amular, Captain Radin Talvin strode across the
bridge of the Leviathan Battleship
Lambert
and stood before the
captain’s seat. He looked around the bridge at the various stations and crew,
then looked up and studied the holographic tactical display – a semitransparent
holographic sphere fifteen feet in diameter that floated in the air before him
and over the heads of the eight officers stationed in the nose of the bridge. It
showed all ten battleships in a widely spaced line that extended for twenty
miles, starting from ten miles above the Anderson Shipyards at the Northern
pole and extending into space. The
Lambert
was at the front of that
line. All of the battleships were currently at station keeping.

A fully trained bridge crew of twenty-five including the captain
manned the Leviathan Battleship’s bridge—General Burnwall’s presence made it
twenty-six. A seat had been mounted slightly behind and to the right of the captain's
chair for him. He was there as an observer only—it was Captain Radin’s show.

The bridge was roughly a large rounded triangle with three
levels, all of it encased in twelve feet of battle armor. The front and sides
of the bridge held massive windows made of five-foot thick transparent
poly-steel. When at battle stations, the entire bridge was lowered into the
huge hollow wedge it sat on top of – basically the entire front section of the
battleship. This encased the bridge with almost one million tons of hardened
battle steel intermixed with structural integrity fields and force barriers – a
virtually impregnable nest which theoretically could survive a direct nuclear
hit, though such a hit would likely seal them inside.

On the first level of the bridge, perched on the top of a
five-foot high stepped pyramid, was the large captain’s chair and station. The
ends of the chair’s arms held communication panels connecting him to every part
of the ship. Above his chair, placed so that they did not block the windows or
the hologram display, four large screens formed a semicircle around the chair. They
displayed summaries of all system functions.

To Radin's front right and descending on each of the
pyramid’s broad steps forward into the nose was his first officer’s station,
then the Astrogation station manned by two officers, then just before the large
front view port was helm control where a single helmsman managed the speed of
the huge ship and steered her. To Radin's front left was his science officer,
followed by the two officers at the science stations, and then the master
sensor control station, again, managed by a single sensor specialist. Off to
Radin's lower right and set slightly back, four officers operated the master
weapons control station, and on the opposite side, on his lower left, four more
officers operated the communication stations.

On the second level up, to the left and right, well behind
the captain’s chair, were the traffic control stations for the starboard and
port fighter bays. Finally, positioned directly behind but well above the
captain's seat on the third level up, four officers manned the damage control
and environmental control stations.

Towering over the entire bridge structure, large arches arced
upward from the floor. Four ran from side to side with another running front to
back – all merging high overhead approximately at the center of the bridge. They
encased the bridge in its own dedicated structural integrity and inertial
dampening fields.

Radin studied the hologram for a moment longer, double
checking the position of every battleship, then sat down and cleared his
throat. “Ms. January, please engage slave mode on all ships,” he ordered.

His first officer, Commander Susan January, turned in her
seat, “Slave mode engaged, sir.”

Nothing changed on the holographic display…which was good.

Radin’s aid handed him a cup of coffee. Radin thanked him and
settled back in the captain’s seat. Now he was ready to start the show, “Ms.
January, ease us forward and let’s see what happens.” They had tested Slave
Mode several times before with up to five ships, but this was all ten, and
better safe than sorry.

The main engines came to life and a low rumble could be heard
as a deep vibration ran through the deck plates. On each of the nine ships
slaved to the
Lambert,
the same thing was happening. Slowly they all
began to move forward.

Radin smiled and sipped his coffee.

After twenty minutes, Radin was satisfied and ordered the
ships to half speed. Upon clearing Amular's planetary system, he brought their
speed up to three quarters—their normal cruising speed. He looked over at
General Burnwall and they shared a smile. They were on their way almost a year
ahead of schedule!

---

Six months later…

A scant thirteen million miles from the sun, nestled in the
shadow of the small planet Cinder, work continued around the clock at the
Hideaway Shipyard. All five ship docks were functional and fully staffed now. Evelyn,
Brandon, Harrington and Leewood had gathered in the Eden’s quarters to watch
the monthly communication from Captain Radin aboard the Leviathan Battleship
Lambert
leading the ten battleships to Hideaway. The fleet had been traveling for
months while at the same time training the new crews and conducting exercises. Radin’s
communications still remained one-way affairs due to the response time.