Ep.#6 - "Head of the Dragon" (The Frontiers Saga) (25 page)

“What makes you think that?”

“Trust me on this one,” Nathan assured her. “I’ve got a lot of experience with politicians.”

* * *

Mister Willard had been on board the Loranoi for more than four days now. In that time, he and his team had scoured every corner of the ship in search of anything and everything that might be of use to the Aurora and the Alliance in general. It had been a difficult job, but as more and more technicians arrived from Corinair, the work load had begun to ease up a bit and had become less hectic.

His most recent task was to go through the Loranoi’s electronic countermeasures system in search of ways to inhibit or even defeat it during battle. So far, other than learning the exact frequencies that the system was using, he had found little of use. Nevertheless, he documented everything he did find, no matter how trivial it seemed, on his data pad for later review.

“That’s odd,” the man nearest him on the Loranoi’s bridge declared.

Willard looked away from his work and the ECS station. There was no one else near the two of them, so Mister Willard assumed that the man was talking to him. “What’s odd?”

“There’s a strange entry in the comm-log, right after Corinair transmitted their statement of independence but before the Aurora attacked.”

“What kind of entry?” Mister Willard asked.

“They transmitted an encrypted burst transmission to Corinair.”

“To where on Corinair?” Mister Willard asked. He had worked as a communications technician on the Yamaro, and he knew that most transmissions from an imperial warship were targeted at a specific location, usually through a laser transmission system.

“To the whole planet,” the technician responded. “It wasn’t even using the laser-comm. It was radio frequency.”

“What? What was in the message? Can you decrypt it?”

“I already did,” the technician told him. “The Loranoi’s captain gave us the encryption codes. It’s an action alert code of some sort. ‘Baka, one-one-seven, Rondall-Corpa five-three-nine, Topa Zeta fourteen ten.’” The technician looked at Mister Willard. “What the hell does that mean?”

“Topa Zeta fourteen ten refers to the time. Fourteen ten is probably the message time stamp.”

“No, the time stamp on the entry is fourteen zero five.”

Willard thought for a moment. “Did you run those codes through the system to see what they mean?”

“I was just doing that,” the technician assured him. “Got it. Baka is used to signify a battle message. It’s supposed to be followed by a number representing a battle plan or a targeting package.”

“What about the second one, Rondall?” Mister Willard asked.

“Rondall means respond, retransmit, or repeat. Corpa means… oh, wait… when Rondall is followed by Corpa it means redirect and retransmit at coordinates. I’m pretty sure five-three-nine are the targeting coordinates for a laser transmission.”

“They were sending out a planet wide hail, notifying someone on the surface of an upcoming laser transmission.”

“Did anyone reply?” Mister Willard asked. The mystery was becoming more intriguing by the moment.

“No, at least not according to the comm-logs.”

“Did they retransmit later?”

“Yes,” the technician told him, “at fourteen ten hours they sent another message via laser-comm to coordinates five-three-nine on the surface of Corinair. The second message was a warning to get to assigned safe coordinates.”

“They were warning someone that they were about to attack Corinair,” Mister Willard surmised.

“But the Loranoi didn’t attack the planet,” the technician pointed out.

“You said this was before the Aurora attacked?”

“Yes, sir,” the technician confirmed. “A few minutes after the second message, they went to battle stations. A few minutes after that, they dispatched a high-speed comm-drone to Takara informing them of the Aurora’s attack on them.”

“Then this was all before the Wallach arrived,” Willard surmised. “The Loranoi intended to begin bombardment of Corinair as a show of force after the Prime Minister announced their independence from the empire. They didn’t even know the Aurora was out there yet.”

“What did they mean by assigned safe coordinates?” the technician wondered.

“I’m not sure,” Mister Willard admitted, “but I have an idea.” He moved to one of the many weapons stations on the Loranoi’s bridge and began frantically scrolling through screens. “I saw something before, when I was looking at their targeting packages.”

“Targeting packages?”

“It appears they have prewritten target lists, probably for every planet. For all we know, there could be different lists for the same planet but for different scenarios.” He continued scrolling until he found what he was looking for. “There, package four. It was already selected to be sent to the orbit-to-surface batteries, but once the Aurora engaged them, it was canceled.” He continued scrolling through the various screens, stopping abruptly again a few moments later. “Here it is, the assigned safe coordinates list.” He looked it over for a moment, then collapsed back in his chair in frustration. “There are over two hundred safe coordinates on this list, arranged by priority.” Willard sighed. “I don’t get it, why would they retransmit the message to specific coordinates? If they just wanted to warn all of their people about the impending attack, the first planet-wide broadcast would’ve accomplished that.”

“Maybe they wanted to make sure one particular person got the word. Perhaps someone important,” the technician speculated.

“Maybe, but how could they expect him to be in that location so quickly?”

“A relay set?”

“Of course,” Willard realized, feeling silly for not thinking of that himself. “The guy must have a relay set to forward laser-comm messages to him. Probably using something as simple as the public planetary comm-net.” Willard’s brain started clicking, and he suddenly started snapping his fingers. “We need to find out who lives at coordinates five-three-nine,” Willard ordered.

“First, we have to figure out where five-three-nine is,” the technician corrected. “The Ta’Akar use a different planetary location reference system than we do. We have to translate it into our own coordinate system.”

“Well get on it,” Willard insisted as he rose from his seat.

“I have no idea how to do that,” the technician admitted.

“Contact flight ops on the Aurora,” Willard instructed. “They’ll know how. Then figure out where it is and who lives there,” he added as he headed for the exit. “Once you do, call me on a secure channel and let me know, and do not tell anyone about this, understand?”

“Yes, sir,” the technician promised, “but where are you going?”

“To talk to Lieutenant Commander Nash,” he announced as he came to the exit hatch. He stopped and turned back to the technician. “Get it done, and call me,” he ordered sternly as he turned back and exited.

“Aurora, Dawton, onboard the Loranoi,” the technician called over the comm-set.

“
Wilton, Aurora. Go ahead,
” Naralena’s voice answered.

“Aurora, please patch me through to flight ops.”

* * *

The shuttle carrying the Prime Minister of Corinair rolled into the Aurora’s main hangar bay. As soon as she came to a stop, her boarding ramp deployed, and the Prime Minister and his translator, Mister Briden, came bounding down the ramp followed by a civilian security guard.

“This doesn’t look good,” Nathan commented, noticing the expression on the Prime Minister’s face. Although he had obviously changed into fresh clothing and had taken care to clean himself up after being rescued from the rubble, his appearance was not of the usual polished and dignified politician. He was obviously shaken, and he appeared impatient as well, which was behavior Nathan had never seen from the Prime Minister in the past.

As the acting commander of all Corinari forces, Major Prechitt greeted the Prime Minister in proper military fashion. The response was not what he had expected.

“What is he saying?” Nathan asked Tug.

Tug listened intently for several moments. “I believe he is challenging the major’s right to take command of the Corinari…”

Nathan wasted no time before intervening. He did not need the two most powerful men on Corinair arguing in the middle of his hangar deck, especially in front of the numerous members of the Corinari working around them. “Gentlemen,” Nathan stated sternly, “this is not the place for such discussions. We should take this to someplace more private.”

“Perhaps my briefing room,” Major Prechitt offered, ignoring the Prime Minister’s continued protestations.

“That sounds like an excellent idea,” Nathan agreed, gesturing to the Prime Minister. “Prime Minister?” The Prime Minister began a new argument, this one aimed at Nathan yet still in his native language. “That was not a request, sir,” Nathan added.

The Prime Minister discontinued his tirade, noticing the look of conviction in Captain Scott’s eyes. Frustrated that he had little choice in the matter, the Prime Minister fell in step and began to follow the guards out of the hangar deck.

Nathan moved closer to Major Prechitt. “You’re sure about this?”

“I have followed regulations to the letter in this matter, Captain, I assure you,” Major Prechitt answered as they followed the Prime Minister and his party into the corridor.

“Good enough for me,” Nathan stated.

It took less than a minute to reach the flight operations briefing room and even less time once they entered for the Prime Minister to resume his argument.

“The Prime Minister insists that Major Prechitt is not qualified to take command of all Corinari forces,” Mister Briden translated on behalf of the Prime Minister.

“I was completely within military regulations in my assumption of command,” Major Prechitt argued in Angla out of respect for Captain Scott. The major was a firm believer that, on board the Aurora, the primary language should be Angla. He had held his own men to this requirement as well as himself.

“You are a pilot,” Mister Briden protested. “Your command experience is almost nonexistent, and your tactical training is limited to matters of aerial combat. You are not fit to lead the entire military…”

“Show me someone who is,” Major Prechitt interrupted, “and I’ll gladly step down. But until then, regulations state that it is my duty to assume command. The very same regulations that the Prime Minister and the joint nations military council put into effect twenty-five years ago, I might add.”

“The Prime Minister will take command of the Corinari,” Mister Briden announced.

“Are you joking?” Major Prechitt asked. “How is the Prime Minister more qualified? What military training does he possess?”

Nathan scowled. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

Tug said nothing as he observed the Prime Minister’s lack of contribution to the conversation. He nudged Nathan, pointing with his gaze at the Prime Minister, as Mister Briden and Major Prechitt continued to argue.

* * *

“Excuse me, Lieutenant Commander,” Mister Willard stated as he entered the Aurora’s intel shack.

“Mister Willard,” Jessica responded, somewhat surprised, “I thought you were still on the Loranoi.”

“I was, but I discovered something, something I think you might find of interest.”

“You came all the way back to Karuzara just to show me something? Have you heard of comm-sets?”

“I do not yet know enough about your communications systems and their security features. I thought it best that I present this information in person.”

“Very well, spit it out then,” Jessica told him, growing impatient.

“We discovered entries in the Loranoi’s communications log. They transmitted a planet-wide alert to all of Corinair.”

“When?”

“After the Prime Minister openly declared their independence but before the Aurora attacked the Loranoi. The message they transmitted was a warning of a message to follow a few minutes later. While the first message was over radio frequencies, the second message was via laser comm directed at specific coordinates announced in the first message. The second message was a warning to a Takaran operative on Corinair that they were about to bombard the planet. They were warning the operative to get to safe coordinates.”

“We already knew there were Takaran operatives on Corinair. They had an entire Anti-Insurgency Unit stationed there the whole time.”

“Yes, but the coordinates they were transmitting to were not at the location that Mister Dumar indicated as the command center for the Anti-Insurgency Unit.”

“Where were they?” Jessica asked.

“At first, I did not know. Then I remembered a list of coordinates that were on a ‘safe list’ in the Loranoi’s targeting system.”

“What, like a ‘no-strike’ list?”

“Yes,” Mister Willard confirmed. “The coordinates for the laser comm message were on that list.”

“Who did the message go to?”

“I had one of your technicians run the location through flight ops. They still have access to the master database that the Corinairan navigational system used before the network was destroyed…”

Jessica grabbed Mister Willard by the shoulders and shook him. “You’re killing me here! Who already?!”

“Mister Briden. The coordinates are Mister Briden’s residence. I figure he has a comm relay in place there.”

“Of course he does,” Jessica agreed, throwing her hands up as everything fell into place. “All spies have a comm…” Her expression soured. “Oh shit!” she exclaimed reaching up to her comm-set. “Stay here!” she ordered as she tapped her comm-set and headed out the door. “Comms, Nash! Location of the Prime Minister and Mister Briden!”

* * *

Nathan’s gaze shifted between Mister Briden and the Prime Minister as Major Prechitt continued to argue over the major’s assumption of command over the Corinari. He too noticed that the Prime Minister was not saying much.

“Excuse me, Mister Briden,” Nathan interrupted. “I can’t help but notice that the Prime Minister isn’t saying much.”

Mister Briden stopped speaking for a moment, caught off guard by the captain’s statement. “What?”

“I mean, you are a translator, right?”