The Earth Conundrum: Book 1 of the Alliance Conflict (47 page)

Korno nodded and said, “And the fighters?”

Arean said, “The fighters got credited with all 48 kills. They are now the most decorated squadron ever.”

Frank asked, “What is your final assessment of the humans?”

Arean answered, “They are definitely worth the trouble.”

Korno said, “That needs some further explanation.”

Arean answered, “The humans are without question slightly better pilots than any other species in the Alliance. I don’t think Advranki, Altian, or Solarian pilots could have won 12 duels with no losses.”

Korno said, “Your original answer made it sound like there was a downside.”

Arean answered, “They are humans. You can’t forget for one minute that they come from a culture where violence and threat of violence is commonplace.”

Arean paused for a moment and scanned the room. It was clear that everyone was waiting for a specific example. Arean said, “They had a disagreement with maintenance about the fighters’ ordinance and threatened bodily harm.”

Korno said, “That doesn’t sound good. I assume it was just an argument.”

Solear waved his hand and said, “The details don’t really matter. The humans were able to work out their differences without violence. I personally like having the human pilots aboard.”

Frank wasn’t smiling. He asked, “Was it a real threat?”

Solear said, “The humans indicated that they would hang the maintenance worker in question on a wall, slit his wrists, and watch him bleed to death. However, in the humans’ defense, the gesture was nonverbal and has a much gentler meaning on Earth than it does on Advranki.”

That answer seemed to somehow appease everyone. There were no further questions, so Arean, Solear, and Kornal exited the conference and returned to their respective ships.

Admiral Dolen stayed in the conference room with the Senators. Frank scanned the room to judge everyone’s emotions. They had just received disturbing news and were still processing the information.

Frank broke the silence by saying, “The Hiriculans are going to be furious. Even though the destruction of the destroyers was technically their own fault, they will still want Solear and crew to stand trial for murder.”

Admiral Dolen said, “Computer, display star chart on the main monitor.”

Dolen waited until it was displayed and continued, “I don’t think so. I think the Hiriculans will respond by trying to destroy a few of our ships. I recommend that we immediately scale back lone ship operations above this line.” He drew an invisible line across the monitor just above Opron.

Frank added, “I also think they will target the
Sunflower
. We should send it somewhere far from Hiricula for a while.” He paused for a moment, flashed his award winning smile, and said, “I have an idea. Let’s assign the ship to help Lorano search for Old Solaria.”

Korno said, “I agree. Apparently we were too late to save the
Peerless
. Lorano and Carank are stuck at the supply depot here in Conron.”

Everyone agreed and the motion quickly passed. Frank applauded his problem solving ability. He thought it was like striking two flying objects with only one thrown projectile.

Frank said, “We need to discuss what to do with the humans.”

Korno said, “They performed well above expectation. Does anyone want to change their vote and make them full members in the Alliance Navy?”

The stony silence indicated that no one did. The Solarian Senator summarized the opposition by saying, “Perhaps we should just drop them back off on Earth.”

Frank responded, “No. I think we need to observe a larger sample size before making a decision. I propose that we return to Earth and get more volunteers. This time we should get maintenance and engineering crew members in addition to pilots.”

Korno said, “We should get enough humans to completely fill one entire cruiser crew.” He looked at everyone staring at him and quickly clarified, “I mean only the crew positions. The bridge personnel would still be properly trained Alliance Navy officers.”

The motion to increase the human presence in the Navy passed four votes to four. The Senate was still deadlocked, meaning the bill remained in temporary review / pass. Senator Korno was still responsible. The Senate members concluded their remaining items and moved back to their individual ships for the journey back to Advranki Prime.

Frank had politically outmaneuvered Korno again. The humans had shown to be above average pilots and Frank was on record as saying he was Humanity’s greatest supporter. However, by expanding the humans’ role into maintenance and engineering he was effectively making the measurement of success much harder. Either the humans would fail as engineers and Korno would suffer politically or the humans would succeed and Frank would take the credit.

It had been over 10 hours since the
Sunflower
entered Conron and it was now clear the Hiriculans were not pursuing them. Admiral Doren issued a series of orders to the ships in the Conron fleet and special orders to the
Sunflower
. There was a flurry of activity as personnel transfers were performed, ships were reassigned, and supplies were redistributed.

When everything was complete, Admiral Dolen signaled his fleet and they returned to Advranki Prime.

Chapter 21

Captain Solear read his orders with mixed emotions. Actually, saying that his emotions were mixed was incorrect. He felt a tiny amount of joy, but the remaining feelings were a combination of dread and unmitigated, looming disaster.

Solear had written a wonderful letter of recommendation for each member of his bridge crew. He had hoped that after the success of the battle, the Admiralty would see fit to promote them and in a few particular cases, moved to other ships.

Unfortunately, that hadn’t exactly gone as planned. Arean was given his long overdue promotion to Captain and was assigned to a newly constructed cruiser. The Advranki Fleet headquarters again allowed the public to name the ship via the Websphere. However, this time there were no pre-selected choices; entrants had to type in the name. The winning name was
Dandelion
and had been chosen by an overwhelming margin. Somehow, he found this name fitting.

Arean was taking all 25 of the crewmembers with him. Admiral Dolen felt it was critical to keep a well performing crew essentially intact. Plus, they had experience launching a new ship.

Clowy had been promoted to First Officer. Unfortunately for Solear, she replaced Arean and remained on the
Sunflower
. Solear had thought that the Altians would want her back to serve on an Altian cruiser. However, the Altians had been very welcoming of the species integration policy and had gladly left Clowy on the
Sunflower
.

Lexxi was a victim of Navy regulations. Since civilians are not allowed to fight in a battle, the moment she pressed the fire button she had technically volunteered for a two year commitment to the Navy. She had been given a commission as a lieutenant and assigned to the
Sunflower
permanently as its weapons officer.

Ella had been given a promotion to 1
^st
lieutenant and was staying aboard until they docked with the supply depot. Her orders were ambiguous. She was to stay on the supply depot and wait for further orders.

The 20 human pilots were also staying. Solear was glad he was keeping the pilots. If they ran into trouble, they were his only option. He no longer had the manpower to fire the missile launchers or monitor the ion cannon. After the last battle though, he was confident the humans would launch in any situation and fight for him.

Solear’s orders were relatively straightforward, the
Sunflower
was to go to the Conron depot, pick up Lorano and his supplies and take them to Waylon. The
Sunflower
was then supposed help Lorano set up the experiment and assist with the launching of the missiles. Finally, they would return to Conron and obtain a new crew.

The orders sounded important, but Solear knew what they really meant. They wanted to hide the
Sunflower
in an unused corner of the galaxy until the furor from the battle died down.

Also, he was concerned about this so called replacement crew. Admiral Dolen hadn’t specifically said that they were humans, but he certainly implied something was out of the ordinary. Solear tried to remember the admiral’s exact words.

He thought it was something like, “Your leadership has proven invaluable in training, evaluating, and mentoring the human pilots. It is time to expand your horizon by continuing to lead in trying circumstances. If you excel in this opportunity you will make admiral in no time.”

Captain Solear went to bridge proper and said, “Ella, set course for the Conron supply depot. I want to micro jump as soon as we are clear of the gravity.”

Ella said, “I am plotting the course now. We are now allowed to make a micro jump around the edge of the system, but the supply depot is well within the system’s gravity. At .06 light we will have to travel 2 hours to get there.”

Solear nodded in understanding and indicated for her to proceed. He said, Clowy, I need to make a broadcast. Connect me to the com ship wide.”

When she signaled it was ready, Solear announced all of the promotions and ship transfers. Arean and the other crewmembers hastily packed and said their goodbyes. They were heading back to Advranki Prime with Admiral Dolen’s fleet.

Solear walked Arean to the hangar and stood and watched as the shuttle ferrying his former crew left. He now had to choose between two very bad options; run a cruiser with only two crewmembers or teach the pilots new jobs and give them free access to the ship.

Solear wanted to return to the bridge, but he had made his decision and knew that he had to make one more stop first. He walked to the humans’ quarters, deactivated the force field, and stepped over the threshold into the cabin.

He clinched his teeth, pinned his arms at his sides and waited for the humans to spot him and come running. They didn’t disappoint. It only took a few seconds until they were standing in the eerie twin lines with their hands on their heads. He thought at some point he would get used to the ritual, but watching 20 humans rushing toward him was just downright creepy.

Solear said, “At ease.” He waited until they moved to the second position. Watching them move in unison was strange. He briefly considered ordering them to attention just to see them move again. He wondered if they did it telepathically or if they had to practice. And if they had to practice, why did they practice that?

Solear said, “We have a new mission. We are going to a system called Waylon and are going to search for a missing planet. The crew has been dramatically reduced because we are now on a humanitarian mission instead of a military one.”

He paused and waited for a moment, then continued, “In addition to your duties as pilots, you will each learn a new skill. I need 4 of you to report to engineering and 16 to maintenance. You will now be in charge of maintaining your own fighters as well as the rest of the ship.”

One of the humans raised his hand. Solear thought it was Jim Donovan, but all of the humans looked alike to him when they were standing in the line. Solear said, “Yes.”

Russ said, “How did you lose a planet?”

Solear answered, “Well, it was lost a long time ago, about 4,000 years ago.”

Russ asked, “Then why do need to find it now?”

Solear answered, “Good question. I really have no idea why we need to find it now. I guess I can summarize it by saying the planet has sentimental value to the Solarians.”

Blaze said, “Like the holy grail perhaps?”

Solear noted that all of the humans nodded their heads in understanding or agreement. He had absolutely no idea what a grail was, so he simply said, “Yes.”

Blaze said, “Captain, about the maintenance thing. We don’t know how to do those jobs.”

Solear said, “There are some excellent manuals. You can ask the computer or the bridge crew if you have a problem. Fortunately, there is very little that needs attention at the moment.”

Jim Donovan stepped out of line and approached Captain Solear. Jim said, “Thank you for this opportunity. When do you need us to report?”

Solear answered, “As soon as you decide what role each of you is doing.”

Solear turned to leave, then turned back and said, “I also want one of you to learn how to fly the cruiser as a backup.”

Solear returned to the bridge and released all of the force fields except the one leading to the bridge. He believed that the humans probably wouldn’t attack, but it didn’t hurt to be safe. Solear noticed that Lexxi had stopped rocking in her chair. Lexxi had turned and was staring at him.

Solear said, “The humans are the only beings on the ship outside of this bridge; they may as well be free to walk around.”

Clowy asked, “What humans?”

Solear responded, “The human fighter pilots are now free to roam around the ship. The only place they can’t access is the bridge.”

Lexxi asked, “Are you sure that’s safe? What if they destroy the hyperdrive or something?”

Solear hadn’t mentioned the second half of his orders to the bridge crew. If they thought having 20 humans roam around unchecked was bad, he could readily imagine how they feel about having 45 humans aboard.

Ella received final instructions and docked the cruiser at the Conron supply depot. She hugged everyone on the bridge, including Solear, and exited the bridge. Crews immediately began loading the cruiser with machinery, electronics, spare parts, the hyperspace communication satellites, and the three shrink-wrapped pallets.

A cruiser is approximately the same size as a mini-freighter, but has much less storage space. As a result, the entire hangar was full. The fighters were trapped in the elevator below deck. The small hold in the front was completely full. Any spare bedroom was full. The maintenance area was full. The corridor in the missile room was full.

Lorano was watching the crews load the equipment when he saw Ella exit. He and Carank approached and greeted her. Lorano said, “Hello Ella. It appears you are staying here in Conron. What’s your new assignment?”