Dark Vengeance (34 page)

We found our way to Provose’s office. The very fit and precise secretary ushered us right in. He was leaning back at his desk looking out a window like a man with a lot on his mind.

“Adrian, Mr. Smith, thanks for coming right up. Did the briefing answer most of your questions? Please …sit.”

“It answered questions I had not thought of, Admiral,” I replied as I sat. R.J. held his hat in his hands and sat nearby.

“Quite a good team, you two. Commander Smith seems to have an uncanny ability to see things others don’t, and you, Adrian, seem to find ways to escape them.”

“Admiral, are you absolutely sure you want me at Electra’s helm for this?”

“I couldn’t be more certain, Captain Tarn. Even with the stealth substation relays being set up, communications will be sorely delayed. We can’t have a leadership that waits for permission from higher authorities. It has to be someone who makes their best bet, and you, Adrian, have an extraordinarily good record at guessing your way through things.”

“Oh, well that’s reassuring,” remarked R.J.

Provose smiled back at him. “No one knows that better than you, Rowland.”

R.J. raised his eyebrows in wonder. There was an extended pause in the conversation.

Provose began again. “Yes, we’ll need your best guesses this time, Adrian. All of the deployments will happen on your orders. That wasn’t mentioned in the briefing but it was implied. The delay between you and the command post will be too great for me or my associates to issue orders in real time. But as it stands, the decision making process should be easy. As each phase of the attack occurs, if it is successful, you simply authorize the next deployment. We will be monitoring everything, of course, but we’ll be a minute or two behind. It will be completely up to you if the operation needs to be halted long enough for command to make a decision. That will greatly compromise the element of surprise, of course. It would be best of the op ran in rapid fire before the enemy had time to anticipate anything.”

“And because all of these deployments are based on silent running, we will be guessing our forces are in position. We won’t know for certain,” said R.J.

The admiral nodded. “That’s where the split second decision making will come in. But you want to know what I think? I’ll bet you there wasn’t a Captain at that briefing who won’t have his ship on station, on time. You two care to make a little wager on that?”

R.J. laughed. It surprised me.

“There’s one other thing, Adrian. We need every ship we can lay our hands on that has the capability to reach XiTau. Let’s talk about your personal spacecraft, the Griffin. It’s the only other ship with stellar drives and it has some formidable weaponry. We’d like to use the Griffin to escort the carriers that will be bringing back hostages. Our agreement with the Nasebians requires us to have your permission to use the Griffin, even in times of war. So how do you feel about that?”

“Admiral, with all due respect, I wouldn’t want just anyone having bio-keys to the Griffin.”

The Admiral nodded but did not seem disappointed. “I thought you’d say that. How would you feel about Danica Donoro taking command of the Griffin?”

The name sobered me up. “Danica? Have you spoken to her about this?”

“She’s on board and ready, Captain.”

It took me a moment to get my mouth to actually form the words. “I would have no objection to Danica commanding the Griffin. In fact, she already has keys.”

“We know, Adrian. She’s on her way here for a private briefing. She’ll be delivered to KSC immediately after. That’s all I have, Gentlemen, unless you have any additional questions.”

My overloaded brain was not able to form any queries of itself. R.J. remained silent as well.

“In that case, you are dismissed, Gentlemen. I’ll next see you… out there.”

Chapter 22

Outside of Provose’s office, R.J. and I stopped to collect ourselves. “Where are you headed now?” he asked.

“They’ve offered to shuttle us home if we need to. I’m going to head there to get my Nasebian crystal. We may need the luck.”

“Speaking of luck, there’s something maybe we should discuss.”

“Like what?”

“The skull.”

“I doubt there will be an occasion where it will be of use to us.”

“Still, the ability to take over someone’s body without them knowing is a radical asset.”

“It’s dangerous.”

“So is war.”

“It’s still hidden aboard the Griffin. Since Danica will be commanding her, we’ll have access to it if we need it. She’s still the only other person who knows about it. Remember, the three of us agreed; that thing must be kept absolutely secret.”

“Fair enough,” he replied.

“So where are you headed?”

“I told Elachia I’d show her where I live. I’m kind of nervous about that. I have an apartment, she owns a damn castle.”

“Believe me, buddy, it’s to your credit.”

“Yeah, at least I’ve always thought so.”

“You’re not letting all this change you into a Lord of the Rings, are you?”

“Hey, I love that series.”

“Where are you going to meet her?”

“She’s waiting out front with an Electra shuttlecraft and pilot.”

“So we’ll meet back up aboard Electra, then?”

“Okay.”

We made our way back to special parking, got lost in the maze of shuttlecraft for a minute or two, then spotted Elachia in yet another shimmering blue gown that dragged on the ground. She had genuinely affectionate hugs for me. We said our promises and split up.

It was just me and a single pilot on the way south. I rode copilot. The man’s name was Davis. To my surprise and relief he was not talkative. It made for a pleasant ride to Florida, clouds below broken at 2000. Davis was probably showing off when he put us down just a few feet from my quad-plex front door.

There were ghosts waiting inside my place. They were accusing me of having allowed myself to be changed. I took a seat at my 1950’s Ozzie and Harriet kitchen table and chairs and reassured myself of how wrong they were. They persisted, so I moved into the living room and plunked down in my favorite recliner. The ghosts followed.

The placed smelled stuffy. It needed dusting. The only thing that I had covered was the Vette. I headed into the garage and pulled back enough of the cover to be sure the black paint was still as deep as it should have been. It was. From there I went to my bedroom, pulled the fake cable wall jack off the wall and removed my Nasebian crystal. I held it up to the light. It was swirling excitedly with new colors.

An alien on a distant planet had once told me that a Nasebian crystal was linked directly to a person’s higher self, making it almost a direct connection to God. Ironically, this one had been given me by a Nasebian emissary aboard the Electra back when the ship was being taken over by malevolent aliens. The crystal had saved me on several occasions since then. I had been a fool to leave it behind this time, a mistake I would not repeat.

It suddenly bothered me that there was nothing else of my old life that I needed to bring along. The ghosts began taunting me once more. Back in the living room I sat on the couch for a moment and sought Fantasia. Perhaps she would ward them off. She was in the middle of some sort of intense business meeting and could not have her concentration divided. At the door, I paused and took a long last look at my past life, locked up, and hoped it would keep.

When we arrived on orbit, there were two new armed troop carrier shuttles and two shiny new short range fighters in the main hangar bay. The three human pilot accessories delivered with them were busy climbing about, inspecting every inspection door and movable part. A truly dignified Captain would have briefly noted the new acquisitions and turned away to more important affairs. In my case, I was drawn to the fighters like a moth to a light.

Cochran, Jarvis, and Hanson were my new pilots. It took about ten seconds for our discussion to become one of equals, not rank. We walked around the birds using every aviation cliché known to man and below the cockpit area on one of them Cochran flipped open a panel and popped out a pole ladder. He motioned me up and I gladly obliged.

I lowered myself into the cockpit and immediately fell in love. It was left-hand side stick with weapons triggers; thrust lever on the right. I barely had time to scan the panel when my wrist communicator began buzzing.

“Captain Tarn, you have an incoming message from Headquarters.”

“I’ll take it in my quarters, thanks. I’m on my way.”

I had to force myself out of the cockpit then quickly express my thanks, and dash off to my stateroom. My view screen was on and waiting. It was Admiral Provose.

“The slower elements of the fleet are departing, Adrian. They are all on different flight plans as outlined in your documentation. We’ll be dispatching ships for the next three days on various out of the way flight paths. The time has come for you to begin buttoning down Electra and making sure you have everyone you need aboard. I’ll contact you again when the command vessel is set to depart. Provose out.”

His message was unnecessary, a formality of war, but it did remind me of one thing I still needed to do. “Captain to the Comm.”

“Lieutenant Troy here, Captain.”

“Elise, would you make a few calls for me and see if you can find out what ship Special Ops Engineer Wilson Mirtos is assigned to?”

“I’m on it, Sir.”

I sat back in a chair with a tablet and began putting ship’s readiness block diagrams up on the main screen. It was more a check to see if any sections had gone to not-ready since the ship had been made completely operational before leaving space dock. The next reports surprised me. They showed we were at or near full crew complement. We had been taking on more crew since we arrived but for some reason I had not expected the ship to be so full of people quite so fast. As I sat considering the reality of it, Elise called back.

“Comm to Captain.”

“Go ahead, Elise.”

“Special Ops Engineer Wilson Mirtos has not been assigned to any fleet vessel. According to headquarters, they have not been able to reach him and are unable to establish where he is. They have been trying for several weeks. Is there any place in particular you would like me to contact for answers?”

“Elise, set up a cell phone call to this number and be sure it shows my name as the caller 11-867-88456. If you get through, patch it to me here.”

“It will take just a minute, Captain.”

It actually took her about thirty seconds. “Captain, I’ve located a satellite and the line is ringing.”

“Thank you, Elise.”

Someone picked up after the sixth ring. “Adrian? Is it really you?”

“Wilson, where the heck are you?”

“Wow, that’s great. I haven’t been taking any calls. I thought maybe this was a trick.”

“Where are you?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m on the Samana Cays in the Bahamas. I wanted to get away.”

“Isn’t that one of the westward ones that take the brunt of the Atlantic? There’s nothing there, Wilson!”

“Yeah, but it’s no fun if it’s one of the safe ones.”

“Why haven’t you been taking calls? You nearly missed out on a party you’d just love.”

“What kind of party you talkin’ about, Adrian?”

“Never mind. I’m coming to get you. Which part of the island are you on?”

“The beach.”

“Can you be a little more specific? Oh, never mind. Stay on the beach. I’ll find you with a shuttle.”

“When you comin’, Adrian?”

“Right now, Wilson.”

“Really? Okay, I’ll get my knapsack.”

I clicked off, then switched the comm to intership. “Captain to main hangar bay.”

“Arnes here, Captain.”

“Lieutenant, would you ready a shuttle for me for immediate departure? I’ll fly myself.”

“Yes, Sir. We’ll have one warmed by the time you get here.”

“Thanks, Tarn out.”

I switched to gray flight coveralls and took the fastest path to the main hangar. As promised, a shuttle was pulled out of parking and idling facing the hangar bay doors. The controller in the glass control room above saw me enter and waved. He sounded the clear-hanger warning. Arnes was standing by the open shuttle side door.

“Will you be gone long, Captain? There’s just standard stores aboard.”

“A few hours or less, Lieutenant. Thanks for asking.”

I stepped up and in and made my way to the flight deck. The hatch closed behind me. It was a standard center stick arrangement. Strapped in the left seat, I woke up the navigation screen, tapped Florida on the world map, then on the Bahamas, then on Samana Cay. I hit the OTC submit key, waited for no more than a minute and a “flight plan approved” began flashing on the screen.

“Electra Control, Shuttle Gideon ready for departure.”

“We see your flight plan approval, Captain. The hangar is clear. Bay doors opening.”