Solbidyum Wars Saga 7: Hunt for the Reduviids (2 page)

“Anything more?” I asked Marranalis.

“No, that pretty much covers the important stuff.  Oh yeah, A’Lappe said that when you get a chance, he’d like to talk to you.”

“I wonder what innovation he’s come up with now,” I said.  “I guess I had better go meet with Regeny and Wabussie and get that off the list.  You know where I am if you need me.”

Since Admirals Regeny and Wabussie moved their offices to the
DUSTEN,
the ship’s corridors and meeting places had become rather crowded.  The protocols established by Regeny shortly after the attempt on his and Leader Tonclin’s lives required that four bodyguards accompany each admiral during their movements; one stood at attention near the officer during closed-door meetings and the other three positioned themselves outside.  The congestion resulting from this protocol finally became apparent to Admiral Regeny when the entire admiral staff gathered for a meeting.  The corridor outside the conference room was completely blocked by the 44 trooper bodyguards standing in formation, shoulder to shoulder, row by row.  I had complained for years to Admiral Regeny about this problem; but it wasn’t until that moment that he realized the folly of it.  After some lengthy discussions, an agreement was reached to assign only one bodyguard to each admiral while onboard a Federation ship, two guards when visiting surface bases and facilities, and four guards when movements included off-base travel or locations outside of secured government facilities. 

So, with my singular bodyguard leading the way, we headed to the Cantolla Gate that provided
a
ccess to the
DUSTEN
.  Moments later, I seated myself in the small meeting room adjacent to the
DUSTEN’s
War Room, where Rear Admiral Regeny and Admiral Wabussie awaited my arrival.

“I assume both of you have been apprised of the events at Klarkac, Quarmac, and Udandaf Prime,” Regeny began.  Without pausing he continued, “It’s getting to the point where there are multiple attacks every day across the Federation and non-aligned territories and we’re under mounting pressure from the Senate, who demands to know why we’re not doing more to prevent these events.  I’ve tried to explain the obstacles that keep us from developing reliable terrorist and bomber detection techniques, but they aren’t interested in our problems. They only want to see positive results.  So I’m open to suggestions as to what measures can be implemented to reduce the number of attacks.”

Wabussie spoke up.  “Admiral, I don’t know what we can do that we aren’t
already
doing.  There is simply no way of detecting the capsule bombs or identifying the body bombers.  The concealed devices are specifically engineered to prevent detection by way of scanners.  We have only one type of scanner that is even remotely useful, and even with that the capsules are most likely to be missed.  Likewise, most of the body bombers appear to be completely unaware they are even carrying the bombs, so the truth bands are likewise useless.”

“Perhaps we can develop a device that detonates the devices before the bombers reach their target areas,” I suggested.  “If we can determine the frequency or frequencies being used for remote detonation, we can implement a mandatory screening process outside of gate stations and other potential target facilities.  Each individual would pass through an explosion-resistant box, where they are subjected to the detonation frequencies while also undergoing the usual scans.  It’s not exactly a friendly solution from the perspective of the unwitting carrier, but at least in this scenario only the bomber will be killed.”

“Hmm, that might work at Cantolla Gates and government buildings, but what about public events?” Regeny asked.  “It’s simply unrealistic to require everyone at a sports event pass through one of these contraptions.  And what about shopping centers and other places where there are large numbers of people?”

“I don’t know, Admiral, but at least it would be a place to start,” I said.  “As you stated, the objective right now is to
reduce
the number of successful attacks.”

“Yes, I suppose so.  Let’s at least give it a try.  We’ve got to start doing something before the Senate starts asking for our heads instead,” Regeny replied.  “Wabussie, this also means you need to develop more avenues of intelligence that effectively reveal the terrorist attack plans and camps, as well as their larger bases of operations.  As the Senate was so kind to point out to me, the number of Brotherhood planets and bases we’ve been attacking is waning, while their strikes against the Federation are on the rise.  Needless to say, the senators are not very happy about our performance.”

“I’m afraid we’ve pretty much exhausted the useful data extracted from the Brotherhood computers confiscated at Windsor,” replied Wabussie
.
  “It was virtually that information alone that provided us with the locations of those targets.  We had a good initial run of success with those sites; however, the Brotherhood abandoned the remaining centers after the first three strikes and relocated elsewhere.  Since the Windsor operation, they’ve also developed more effective self-destruct mechanisms to shred their electronic records and destroy their computers in the event that a facility was captured.  We’ve pretty much exhausted all available information on base locations and Brotherhood plans, sir, in spite of our uncompromising efforts.”

“What about Epsirt and that Brotherhood agent, Sisopan, from a few years back?  At that time, it looked as though Brotherhood had something underway at Epsirt and you were trying to install an agent there.  What happened to that lead?” I asked.

“We’ve been stonewalled in our efforts to plant an agent on Epsirt.  The only way you can get to the planet surface is by invitation from an existing landowner; the planet is completely closed to outsiders.  Even the few resorts on the planet are attended by invitation only.  Despite ongoing efforts, we have yet to find an agent who can develop a strong enough relationship with a landowner to secure an invite.”

“Do you have access to a list of landowners?” I asked.

“Yes, we’ve managed to compile a list of at least some of the more prominent owners, but it’s not much to work with.  Nearly all of them are rich industrialists and shipping magnates, most of whom are not Federation citizens.  The only names on the list you would recognize, Tibby, are Eulshod Rendoid and your old friend,
Wrinkles Half Job
,” Wabussie said, as he started to laugh.

“Wrinkles?  I mean, Rinncal Haf-joab has an estate there?  I thought he said he was from Bothex,” I stated in amazement.

“He
is
from Bothex, but he owns estates on several planets throughout the galaxy.  I think it’s safe to say he hasn’t been to the Epsirt estate in quite a few years, though,” Wabussie replied.  “He was convicted of his crimes and eventually given a 20-year sentence for treason.  He’s still serving his term in prison.”

“He was the guy who accosted you a few years back, when you wouldn’t turn the
DUSTEN
around for him,” Regeny said with a burst of laughter.  “I remember that…
Wrinkles Half Job
!  By the stars, Tibby, that had me cracking up for weeks.  I’ll bet they’re still calling him that in prison.”

“Is there any way we can use his estate as a means of entry?” I asked while trying to ignore Regeny’s comment.

“Not unless he decides to offer it up for sale, in which case you could get a visa to visit the property for inspection,” Wabussie responded.

“Can get him to do that?” I asked.

“Knowing his love for you, I doubt it,” Wabussie answered.

“What if he doesn’t know I’m the buyer?  Say someone approached him through legal channels, saying they were interested in his property and were willing to pay a handsome price for it.  Rinncal has a real love for money; and if the price is high enough, I’m betting he’ll jump at it.  Besides, the estate isn’t doing him any good while he is in prison.”

“It’s a possibility.  I'll put a man on it,” Wabussie answered.

“I don’t understand,” Regeny said.  “Why don’t you simply put a man down on the planet using a cloaked ship and pick him up again later?”

“It’s not that simple, Admiral,” said Wabussie.  “The planet is over two thirds ice.  Only the equatorial region offers a habitable, temperate climate.  That region is so heavily monitored that even in a cloaked ship it’s nearly impossible to get past the secured zone.  If you
were
lucky enough to make it through, you’d immediately be recognized as an intruder.  There aren’t many people on the planet at any given time, so everyone pretty much knows or at least recognizes each other.  A stranger would stick out like a feather on a gainga.”

“So if the planet has so much ice on it, why can’t you land someone in a cold region and let them trek in, cloak and snoop about, then rendezvous for retrieval after they complete their mission?” Regeny added.

“It won’t work.  They monitor the remainder of the planet’s surface with satellite technology.  They would spot signs of life moving through the frozen tundra with little effort.”

“Couldn’t you have a cloaked agent parachute in and send a signal when he’s ready to be picked up? he could remain cloaked while on the surface, so he wouldn’t be seen.”

“The cloaking devices don’t last that long.  Besides, we have no idea where anything is down there; we’re talking about thousands of square kilometers of planet surface that need to be searched.  It’s not like we’d be able to approach someone to ask directions or get our questions answered.  A standard agent operation of any kind could go on for years and never find out much.  Meeting even the basic needs of such agent is an unrealistic prospect; just securing reliable food and shelter is next to impossible without putting the agent at extreme risk.”

Regeny sighed.  “I see your point.  I guess your approach is the best bet, Tibby; that is, if we can get
Wrinkles Half Job
to sell his place.”

I turned to Wabussie and changed the subject.  “Have we received any new information as to where the Brotherhood has been building their asteroid-ships?”

Wabussie replied with a growing look of defeat on his face.  “We’ve searched the asteroid cloud you originally thought was their source location and have found nothing.  We managed to get some pieces of the asteroid-ship used in the attack at Weccies that were broken off when our missile pierced their RMFF shield and exploded.  Analysis of the debris indicates this asteroid could not have come from the local asteroid field.  We’ve been trying to determine the true source, but we’ve had no luck so far.  We can only conclude that the Brotherhood planted the ship shell near that field to mislead us.”

“How about the other asteroid-ships we’ve managed to strike?  Have you analyzed pieces from them?” I asked.

“Yes, and indications are that they come from the same field as the first one, but where it’s located remains a mystery.  The galaxy is a very big place, Tibby, and there are a lot of asteroid debris fields out there.  We’re essentially looking for a ruzi fleck in a jabba tank until we get some more definitive leads.”

“Well, unless they started building the ships years ahead of their attacks, we should be able to narrow that area down to something more manageable than the whole galaxy.  It’s unlikely the asteroid came from anywhere that’s located more than two years travel time from Weccies, considering standard GW speed.  More likely, it's somewhere within a nine-month travel time from there.”

“We’ve pretty much searched everything inside Federation space in that area,” Wabussie replied.

“What about outside Federation space?” I asked.  “How about in the direction Roritat took that asteroid-ship when he fled Weccies?  That ship headed into space somewhere beyond Federation boundaries.  How far have we checked in that direction?”

“We haven’t explored much beyond our boundaries in that region.  We did some preliminary searches, of course, but you don’t think they’re out
there
, do you?  Why would they go directly to their base from Weccies?  Surely they wouldn’t want us to follow them!”

“Maybe they did,” I answered.  “Perhaps they laid a trap out there that we never walked into.  Ming and Roritat are not easy minds to fathom and their reasoning isn’t always logical, at least not to us.  I think we need to expand our searches in that direction.  Let’s move to the War Room; I'd like to review the locations where all the attacks involving asteroid-ships have occurred in the past few years.  We may be able to uncover some clues.”

Once in the War Room, I instructed the War Room lieutenant and technician to activate the holographic display of Federation space and surrounding areas and tag each planet where attacks or encounters involving asteroid-ships in brilliant red.  The technician worked quickly to retrieve the applicable data; in moments 200 bright pinpoints lit up within the three-dimensional representation before us.

“What are we looking for, Tibby?” Regeny asked.

“Well, for one thing,” I began, “you’ll notice the majority of these encounters are clustered in Sector 3.  Only a few spill over into Sector 2 and absolutely none have occurred in Sector 1.  You can also see that the tags seem to radiate out from one area.

“Lieutenant, delete all incidents that occurred within the past year.”  The size of the red pattern decreased significantly.

“Wow,” Wabussie exclaimed, “I think I see where you’re going with this, Tibby.”