Solbidyum Wars 3: Pirates of Goo'waddle Canals (8 page)

“DSC?
What is that?” Tonclin asked.

“The DSC is a Deep Space Communication system now being installed on Federation starships and frigates,” Wabussie said.  “It allows instant communications between two ships regardless of where they are in space.”

“I had not heard of this.  Is it something new?”

“Yes, very new, and only a small portion of the fleet have it – ships that have been purged of Brotherhood members.  It’s a secret at the moment, so we would appreciate you not speaking of it.”

“I won’t say a word, but how long have you had this DSC apparatus?”

“A few months now,” Wabussie said.  “Two of Tibby’s scientists invented it.  It has limitations, as you cannot send visual data or large packets of data.  It will only carry the direct information between two select persons at a time, sort of like communication over a com link.  The good news is that it can’t be tapped; the bad news is you can’t send the data to more than one person at a time.  Once our meeting here is over, I will need to communicate all the information you have given me directly to
the admiral.  He will need to stop all the GW pod shipments of solbidyum at once, and we will need to find and stop the leak of information from his computer as well.”

“Maybe we can use this leak to our advantage, just like when we lured the Brotherhood in at Plosaxen,” I said.  “A false communication could lead the Brotherhood into a trap once again.”

Wabussie raised an eyebrow.  “How would you go about doing that?”

“They haven’t heard about our DSC system, or, if it has leaked out, the news hasn’t gotten far.  I would identify a cluster of Federation planets and create a fake a message, using the standard communication system, that is transmitted to a nearby Federation starship that a large shipment — let’s say, a thousand grains of solbidyum — is being sent by GW pod to a specific location near this cluster and that the starships should mobilize to pick up the solbidyum and proceed with directly escorted deliveries in that sector of the galaxy.  State in the message that there will not be any reactors in the shipment, only the solbidyum, but sets of plans will be included for building the reactors.  I’d even go so far as to launch a GW pod in that direction, only I would not have any real solbidyum aboard.  Maybe just some capsules with a grain of sand in them.  At the moment, no one has been able to intercept a GW pod while it is
en route, and it’s only when it reaches its destination and slows down or stops that it can be intercepted.  They won’t know until the pod gets to its destination that it’s a fake.  I suspect that the Brotherhood will send out every ship they can muster in the region when they hear of the opportunity to intercept a shipment of that size.”

“You’re right, Tibby, that’s a prize they could not afford to pass up.  But we will need to get as many
Mirage Fighters to whatever Federation starship is used in this ploy to make sure the Brotherhood ships that do show up don’t escape.  The RMFF will make the starship safe from attacks, but it can’t chase after scattering Brotherhood ships.  Your Mirage Fighters can fly faster than the GW pods, so they can get there first and join up with the starship.  It’s a great plan; I will have to convey it to the admiral.  I suspect he will be thrilled at the opportunity it presents.  If I can use your DSC officer on the bridge to convey the message, I can provide them with the DSC contact in the admiral’s office.”

“That can be arranged whenever you like,” replied Stonbersa. 

“If you can do it, I would suggest a location about six weeks out from Megelleon,” I said.  “That way the Mirage Fighters will arrive two weeks before the decoy GW pod.  It would give the team ample time to see that everything on the starship is prepared, assure that there are no Brotherhood members infiltrating the crew, and verify that the ship’s RMFF and cloaking device are working optimally.  I think the team that flies out should consist of at least 30% Special Ops.  Each Mirage Fighter crew should include at least one Special Ops trooper.  If you can swing it, I would suggest that a minimum of 50 Mirage Fighters be present with whatever starship is selected.  I would also suggest that you not deploy all the fighters all from one base or order their departure all at the same time, as the Brotherhood probably has spies reporting on Federation space traffic.  Deploy them from multiple bases — one or two at a time, but not more — and document various false destinations in their orders.  Make the false orders for fairly innocuous purposes, like training exercises and the like.  Until we discover where the leak is in the admiral’s office, we need to proceed with care.”

“That makes sense, Tibby.  I’ll convey all of this to
the admiral.  In the meantime, I’ll be directing my FSO agents to dig for information that will allow us to ascertain where the Brotherhood is planning to intercept a shipment.”

“I have another piece of information that may interest you,” Senator Tonclin interjected.  “A short time ago I spoke with Orcpipin at the shipyard in Nibaria.  He recently journeyed to Gaimse to propose a joint venture to produce some freighters for a client who wants a half dozen.  Since the Nibarian shipyard has been busy turning out
Mirage Fighters for Tibby, Orcpipin’s construction crews don’t have the time to execute other major contracts on their own.  Before his departure, the Gaimseians seemed to be very interested in joining with our shipyard as partners on this freighter project; however, when he arrived, they were anything but interested.  There was a lot of activity going on when he arrived at the facility; they seemed to be gearing up for large project of some sort.  While he was traveling through the yard, he noted a large, partly opened hangar door; and when he glanced in, he was shocked to see a Mirage Fighter inside.  However, it appeared to him that the crews were disassembling it instead of constructing it.  He didn’t give it much thought right away, because he knew you were having a lot of these fighters built at different yards, but later he realized that, to his knowledge, Gaimse was not one of them.  He also recognized one of the men coming out of the hangar and was rather surprised to see that it was the chief arms merchant for the Markazians.  I felt this might be information you would want to know.”

While Senator Tonclin related this story, Wabussie sat forward in his chair excitedly.

“Senator, this is crucial information you have brought to us.  You probably have not heard, but one of the Mirage Fighters under construction on Plosaxen was taken just prior to the scheduled delivery date.  Thankfully, the craft was equipped with only a minimal fusion power source at that time and the secret cloaking device was not yet installed.  However, the new engine that allows the ships to fly at one and a half times faster than the standard GW speed is installed.  We believed that the fighter had been loaded on a freighter and shipped to a location where the Brotherhood could begin reverse engineering, but we had no idea until now just where.  The information from Orcpipin’s visit is exactly what we have been looking for.”

“Commodore Stonbersa, how long will it take for us to get to Gaimse?” I asked.

Stonbersa entered a query into his vid pad.  Suddenly, the vid screen displayed a star chart in which some automated triangulations appeared, followed by a yellow line that traced a path of travel from our current location to another star system.  Numbers appeared on the screen as Stonbersa said, “We could make it in fifteen days, traveling at top speed.”

“The shipyard is clearly disassembling the ship to reverse-engineer it; and the process will be slow – easily a year’s time – if they’re going to determine how everything works.  So if we can get there in another fifteen days, we should be able to either retrieve the ship or destroy it before they glean too much technology.  As far as the propulsion unit is concerned,” I continued, “A’Lappe, can you please make yourself visible to the rest of the attendees?  We need to discuss this issue with you.”  A’Lappe appeared almost instantly in one of the two empty chairs across the table from me.

“Oh goodness! How long has he been there?” Senator Tonclin said in amazement.

“Probably the entire time,” Stonbersa said with a sigh.  “A’Lappe prefers to remain invisible until he is called out.”

“I see. Most peculiar behavior,” Tonclin said with amusement.

“Strange and disturbing is what I would call it,” Wabussie added with a frown, “but A’Lappe has proved himself to be invaluable to Tibby and the Federation, so his antics are generally tolerated.”

“I am at your service, Honored First Citizen,” A’Lappe said with a smile and nod of his head.

“A’Lappe, will the Markazian’s fuel cells be able to power one of the
Mirage Fighters at full speed?” I asked.

“Theoretically, perhaps; but practically, no.  The Markazian power units are too large and bulky to fit into the fighter.  They would need to make the fighter about 40% larger to fit one of their reactors into it.  The best they can hope for is to use their standard fusion batteries or fuel cells.  Those power units will provide only standard flight speeds, at best, and their range will be limited.  They must have assumed that they were stealing a fully operational ship and didn’t realize that the small fusion reactor and the cloaking device were not installed.  What they have now is little more than a fancy shell with minimal flight capability, other than the engine, which they can dissect and duplicate or even reverse-engineer and then sell their version of the design. However, if they ever figure out how to make a smaller and more powerful power source, they would be able to make the fighters fully functional, albeit without the cloaking capabilities.  There is also the danger they may manage to figure out a way to bypass the security system that makes the fighters inoperable to anyone but the assigned crews and use this knowledge to steal another fighter.  Moreover, there is the possibility they could utilize the fighter technology to produce larger engines for their larger ships, which would be just as dangerous.”

“How were they able to get past the security system to steal the ship in the first place?” Senator Tonclin asked.

“The security systems aren’t activated until a ship has been officially delivered and its Federation power source and cloaking device installed and its crew assigned,” Wabussie answered.  “Until then, anyone can access the ship — it needs to be that way so the workers can finish the necessary construction and installations.  I have a hunch the Brotherhood didn’t know this, or they were hoping they would be able to figure those things out on their own.  Tibby, I think that it might be best for me to accompany you to Gaimse.  I will be sending a message to one of my agents in the sector to get there and begin sniffing out information before we arrive.  I took the liberty of having a DSC system installed at my headquarters on Plosaxen and at several other FSO offices throughout the Federation, so we should be able to have an agent active at Gaimse in a few days.  I’ll be better able to direct this situation from your ship than I would on Plosaxen.  Of course, this is with your approval; I don’t want to become another Admiral Regeny for you to deal with.”

I chuckled.  “Regeny you are not, and I will be more than pleased to take you to Gaimse with us.  Now, unless someone else has something new they want to bring up, I suggest we adjourn this meeting and have some lunch.”

After we dined, I asked A’Lappe to meet me in my study.  It was a beautiful wood-paneled room, designed as the exact duplicate of my study back at my estate, right down to the large fish tank that stretched behind the desk from wall to wall and floor to ceiling. 

I was seated at my desk with my back to the room, looking into the fish tank, when I suddenly noted the faint scent of cedar in the air and I knew that A’Lappe had entered.  So far, I seemed to be the only one on the ship who noticed this aroma was noticeable when A’Lappe was in the vicinity, and it alerted me to his presence when he entered a room under the cloak of invisibility.

“A’Lappe, I have a number of projects I need you to work on.  As mentioned before, we need to devise a way to destroy the DSCs if necessary.  I also need you and Cantolla to see if you can find a way to intercept a DSC message.  I know it will be difficult, but knowing either the receiving or sending location of DSCs involved should allow us to tap into the communication somehow.”

I turned to look at A’Lappe, who suddenly showed some interest in what I said, as though it was something he had not thought of before.

“What you are asking may be possible.  I had not thought about the idea of focusing on a single unit to intercept communication before.  Being able to install a self-destruct device that can be activated from another DSC will be very difficult, if it is possible at all.”

“Cantolla tells me that the two of you will be sending out GW pods with sensing equipment to investigate some possible collapsed black hole sites for solbidyum deposits.  I am totally for it and glad that you will be doing so.  If we can find more deposits, we may be able to mine enough of it to power Federation starships. At that point we may even be able to increase the speed of larger ships like the Federation starships and the
NEW ORLEANS
.  You might even be able to develop some sort of dimensional doorways that will let ships move in and out of other dimensions and travel vast distances in just a few minutes instead of months or years.”  I noted A’Lappe stiffen when I mentioned dimensional doors, but he said nothing.

“I know you’ve continued to develop smaller and more powerful fusion reactors for the ships, but have you ever tried to modify the RMFFs so they require less power to function?” I asked.