Solbidyum Wars Saga 6: Defeat of the Tottalax (13 page)

“Stand back,” I said to Kala, who was now standing on the access cover. She stepped back two steps, and I pressed the button.  Slowly, the access hatch opened, revealing the tunnels below.  Kala gasped and looked down; there on the deck below lay a small sock that belonged to one of the twins.

I quickly used my wrist com and contacted Padaran, “Get men down into the access tunnels immediately.  The twins are down there wandering about somewhere, and they may be hurt.”

“Tib, how did they get down there?” Kala asked?

“They probably fell.  One of them most likely was sitting or standing on the hatch when it opened and fell down there, the other one went to help them and fell down as well.”  I said.

“Tib, that’s over a meter drop, they would have been hurt,” Kala said.

“We don’t know that.  I’m going down there to look for them.”  I said.  As soon as I had lowered myself below the deck I began searching for Lunnie and Reidecor, calling out their names and stopping to listen for them every so often.  Moving about was difficult, because I had to stoop in order to move through the tight space and the low overhead.  I contacted A’Lappe on my wrist com and told him what had happened.  A’Lappe knew these tunnels better than anyone, and his own secret quarters were located down here.  I was beginning to think I was going in the wrong direction when I came across another sock, either one of the twins was now completely barefooted or both were only wearing one sock.  While most things in the maintenance tunnels were designed to protect the crew who might need to work there, they were not designed to protect children or prevent them from getting hurt.  They could easily get stuck in some small ventilation duct, or electrocuted if they crawled around a protective screen and into some electrical switchgear.  I was wondering which twin had pushed the button and which one fell in the tunnel first.  They could not have been hurt too badly if they were walking about, and I saw no signs of blood anywhere.  I was starting to panic when A’Lappe’s voice came over my wrist com.

“Tibby, I have found them.  They are in my quarters if you remember how to get here,” he said.

“Are they all right?  Did they get hurt?”  I asked.

“Reidecor has a knot on his head that looks bad, but he doesn’t seem to mind it, as he’s busy playing right now.  Lunnie had a scuffed up knee, something the med unit will fix in no time.  Otherwise, both seem happy and well.”  A’Lappe replied.

I quickly notified Kala and heard her sigh with relief.  Then I notified Padaran, who called off the search team.

A’Lappe’s quarters were not the most comfortable place for me.  The overhead was too low, and I kept bumping my head.  Everything was scaled for his 1.4 meter height and worked well for both, him and the twins, but it left me stooped over and very uncomfortable.  When A’Lappe let me into his quarters, I immediately saw Reidecor sitting on the floor taking apart something while Lunnie sat at the control console in front of a vid screen searching through vid programs.  I could see the bump on Reidecor’s head, and it had begun to shade a bluish purple, but he seemed oblivious to it.

“There you both are,” I said to the twins as they both turned to look at me. 

“Reide fall and bump his head,” Lunnie said.

“Yes, I see,” I answered as I approached Reidecor and looked at his bruise.  “Did you fall too, Lunnie?”

“Yes, I ouched my knee,” she said pointing to her abrasion.  From the conversation I deduced, it had been Lunnie who had found and pushed the button.

“Well I think we need to be going home now,” I said, “your Mommy is worried about you.”

“Where did you find them?” I asked A’Lappe as I picked up both Reidecor and Lunnie.

“Believe it or not, Tibby, I found them here.  I don’t know how they got in as I have a security lock for my door only I can open.  When I asked them how they got in here, all they told me was about falling and Reidecor bumping his head and Lunnie skinning her knee.  They don’t say anything about coming here or getting into my quarters.”

“Daddy,” Reidecor asked, “can we come back here and play again?”

“Why do you want to come and play here again?”  I asked.

“Lap has nice toys!”  Reidecor said.  A’Lappe grinned and replied, “I let him have one of my old projects that didn’t work out, and he was disassembling it when you arrived.  He picked up the object and then got an amazed look on his face.  By the stars, Tibby, he didn’t take it apart.  He FIXED it!”

Of course, like all concerned mothers would do, Kala immediately demanded that something had to be done about the button for the access tunnel.  Since the access might be needed sometime in the future it was felt the best solution was to replace the button with an electronic device that needed a magnetic key to open.  After having witnessed some of the twin's accomplishments, I wasn’t so sure how much protection that would really be, but I didn’t mention that to Kala.  Jenira was most upset when she heard about what happened and berated herself for not having been there at the time.  She had been working out with some of her women warriors when the event happened and vowed that in the future she would be selecting better hours for her training and work outs to assure the twins were always scrutinized.  I wasn’t sure I liked that idea either.  I think kids will be kids, and they need opportunities to investigate and explore on their own, even if there are some dangers involved.  Albeit those should be moderate dangers, like bumping one’s head, and not life-threatening ones.  Padaran suggested putting vid cameras in the tunnels to monitor them in the future.  A’Lappe argued against it saying with all the twists and turns in the tunnels it would take millions of cameras to provide coverage of them, and an impractical number of people to monitor all those screens.  I had to agree with him on this point.

It was a few days later when reports came back from Windsor.  The recon teams used the Cantolla Gates to travel to the
DUSTEN
to report, and I had Rear Admiral Regeny, as well as Admirals Kophious, Stonbersa, and Wabussie, and Captain Slater there..  The head of the recon mission was a sharp middle-aged officer, Commander Cefvoux.

“What do you have to report, Commander?” I asked.

“Sir, the planet is a hive of Brotherhood movement.  There are several cities on the planet, and all of them are engaged in some form of Brotherhood activity, ranging from small ship building, repair, and weapons production to drug production and distribution.  From our recon, we discovered the Brotherhood is expecting a fleet of their ships to arrive to resupply and take on new weapons, as well as drugs they will redistribute on their missions once they leave Windsor.”

“Just how many ships are they expecting, and how soon?”  I asked.

“From what we could gather they anticipate as many as 200 ships arriving in two days.  They are traveling together, and many of the smaller ships and freighters are being transported aboard one of the starships they captured from the Federation a few years ago.”

“What ship would that be?” I asked.

“The
BELLAS,
sir, I believe it was assigned to one of the outer areas of Sector 3 and was taken over by the Brotherhood four years ago,” he said.

“Four years ago,” I replied, “then unless the Brotherhood has figured out how to make an RMFF and a 10X reactor, it probably won’t have any RMFF shielding on the ship and maybe not even cloaking.”

“I wouldn’t know, sir,” Commander Cefvoux answered.

“The
BELLAS
was one of the ships in my sector,” Admiral Kophious spoke up, “its captain was Ainton Dummulac.  It would not surprise me if he didn’t mutiny the ship and join the Brotherhood.  He was a strange fellow and believed in the exploitation of those he thought to be lesser races than his own, and wouldn’t allow any nonhumans to serve under his command.”

“I recall that man,” Regeny added quickly, “it was those very attitudes that got him assigned to the outer rim to begin with.  I wanted to bust him down a few grades, but some senators got wind of the situation and intervened on his behalf, and we kept him onboard and reassigned him to the outer rim.  He was nearly court-martialed once for not wanting to allow an ambassador from Viedek to set up an office aboard the ship.”

“Let me guess,” I said, “those senators and their worlds are no longer part of the Federation, and they were with Roritat when he left.”

“Hmm, I don’t know to be honest.  It was several years ago and a lot has happened since then,” Regeny answered.

“I think I can help you there,” Wabussie interjected.  I had noticed him consulting his vid pad while Regeny had been talking.  “According to the files on Ainton Dummulac, and records at the time, three of the five senators involved in interceding in his behalf did defect with Roritat.  The other two are now deceased, one killed on Megelleon when the Roritat and Ming attacked the Capitol, and the other died mysteriously right after Captain Dummulac was reassigned to the outer rim worlds.”

“Died mysteriously?” I said.

“Yes sir, that’s all the reports say.  Cause of death listed as heart failure due to unknown causes.  The records say, “He appeared to have suffered some kind of panic attack and died from terror.”

“Was he tested for traces of God’s Sweat in his blood?”  I asked; my curiosity tweaked when I heard he’d died of fright.

Wabussie glanced at his vid pad again, “There are no indications any testing for drugs were performed.  Furthermore, at that time we had no way of testing for God’s Sweat in someone’s blood.  It’s a very tricky compound to detect, as it passes through ones system quickly, leaving no trace.  However, the impact from the drug lingers for hours just the same.”

“Do we have samples of this senator’s blood or tissue?”  I asked.

“No sir, everything would have been destroyed when he was cremated.”

“I have a feeling that if we could check we’d find he was addicted to God’s Sweat and there would be traces of it in his blood,” I said.  “So, Commander, there are a lot of supplies ready for pick-up at Windsor?”

“Yes sir, they have close to 2,000 fighters and a lot of arms in containers ready for loading.  We observed a number of containers that we believed hold the headsets the Brotherhood uses to neutralize the effect of the Tottalax sleep weapon as well.  They have several thousand troopers on the planet that look like they are getting ready to ship."

“I think we need to act on this immediately,” I said.  “Stonbersa and Kophious, I will need you to each send one-third of your fleets and troopers here tonight through the interstellar Cantolla Gates.  I’m going to take half the fleet from here and tomorrow morning we will move through the Cantolla Gate connecting to the one at Windsor.  I want combat-ready troopers sent to the surface before the Brotherhood has time to organize.”  Both admirals nodded their consent as I continued.

“Commander Cefvoux, did you see any indications that the Brotherhood suspect or are prepared for a possible attack from us?”  I asked.

“No sir, in fact, their security and defenses all seemed pretty lax.  We observed several defensive posts with sentries asleep at their stations, and we even found two posts where there was no one present at all.”

“Did you notice any troopers that looked like they were forced or coerced into serving the Brotherhood against their wishes?”

“The only ones we observed were at the drug production facility, and at the plant where the Brotherhood manufactures military supplies and equipment.  They were heavily guarded and most wearing slave collars.  Sir, might I add there are civilians, women and children living upon the planet as well, most of them are in small villages and towns in outlying areas and subsist by farming and producing other perishable items the Brotherhood likes to consume.”

“I appreciate your calling that to my attention, Commander; please have that information passed to us as soon as possible.  I don’t want any of those areas targeted during this raid.  Likewise, I want to know the facilities using forced or coerced labor.  I only want those facilities taken by troopers, and I want the civilians and slaves spared at all costs.  It may not be easy, but we’re not blanket killing here, this is a surgical strike to cut out the Brotherhood, not kill everyone in sight.”

“Captain Slater,” I said as I turned facing him, “give me your thoughts.  Is there anything you can suggest, or anything I am overlooking?” Until this point, Slater had been sitting on his chair just listening to the information and plans being made, but now he seemed eager to speak.

“Your plan sounds good, but I wish you had more time to prepare.  It’s going to be difficult to coordinate all these men and ships with so little time.  “I would suggest you send some military vehicles in with your ground troopers, laser tanks and magnetic rail gun tanks, or as I like to call them, MRGT’s.  A’Lappe has developed a cloaking system for both pieces of equipment with sound suppression units, so they cannot be heard approaching.  We can group this hardware near Brotherhood strongholds and once the attacks begin, move in quickly and take out any defenses they have.”

“Excellent suggestion, Captain,” I said.

“Tell me, Commander Cefvoux, during the recon mission did your men find any places suitable for holding prisoners?  We’re going to have a lot of prisoners after this battle, and we will need to house them temporarily until we can transport them to L-1.”

“Tibby,” Admiral Regeny spoke up, “Do we have enough space at L-1 to house all these prisoners?”