Star Dancer
Chapter 14
 
 
            Ty’s friend, Alan Carlton, Had gotten some pretty screwed up assignments when he worked for the NSA, which was why he finally dropped out. Usually, his assignments had made sense, go into this country and find out if the leaders were developing chemical weapons, go into that country and steal research or kidnap some scientist. But when they began using him to spy on, and eliminate - no murder - seemingly innocent people, he had finally had enough. Given the level of work that he did for them, when it came time to retire, his severance package would normally have been arranged by the law firm of Smith and Wesson. For ten years the NSA had trained Alan to be invisible, he was very good at his job, so when he decided to quit. He simply disappeared.
            Alan was a ‘spook’. He maintained contact, very discretely of course, with some people that he knew to be trustworthy. In his line of work, making friends was usually a mistake and trust was a very expensive luxury. However he needed information if he wanted to stay alive.
            One day, Ty Anders, a seal team commander he had befriended, offered him a job. Normally, he would have turned him down flat, but Ty had convinced him to at least come and listen.
            Against his better judgment, he did. The moment he stepped foot in the town, he knew something was not right. Not that it threatened him; just that something about the place was off. He poked around some more and finding nothing definitive, he sought out his friend.
            Alan had used ever trick he knew, to ‘infiltrate’ the town, his awareness of something not right heightening his caution. The one thing that shook him up the most, was when he found his friend in his office, not only was he not alone, but Ty and the woman had been expecting him.
            He immediately thought it was a trap. He began looking around, looking for means of escape, weapons, anything to keep him alive.
            Playing it cool, Ty indicated a chair across from him and began speaking. For the next hour and a half, Alan listened. To say that the story his friend told him was unbelievably fantastic was an understatement. Starships and aliens? Please! But then Ty did something that rocked Alan’s belief in the fantastic. Ty and this woman he had introduced as Janet Laskar, led him to an elevator. It went down and opened up into a cavernous area. Alan looked around and saw things he had never seen before. He saw a big stubby winged craft Ty had called a shuttle, a smaller but much deadlier looking craft called a Hornet. The cavern stretched off into the distance, in what could only be called a runway. They led him around and showed him many things he knew simply didn’t exist. If what Ty had been telling him were correct, the United States government would kill to get its hands on this facility.
            After the tour, Ty led them back to his office on the surface. He then told Alan about the attacks. Alan’s ears perked up when Ty explained that two F-16’s had ‘attacked’ the town. He began to understand why Ty had asked him here.
            “Ty, I think I know where you’re going with this. Okay, the shit you’ve shown me is real. But if you’re planning something against the United States, count me out. I may not like what I had to do for the assholes in charge, but I do still love my country.”
            Alan glanced at the woman who had been with them the whole time, but had yet to speak. I wonder who she is? He asked himself.
            “Ian, couldn’t be here himself right now to meet you, but he did ask our head of recruiting to talk to you, so you know what we are trying to do here. Janet, you’re on.” Ty said, nodding to the woman.
            She smiled, “Alan, Everything Ty has told you is true, but he did leave out a few details.” Then she told him the history of Star Dancer, and the threat of the enemy. She also told him about the missing oil, and what they had figured out so far. “So, what we would like you to do isn’t against the U.S. but it will probably be against her government. One of the first things we would like to find out is how two F-16’s could have been used to attack this town. It’s obvious that the government doesn’t know the truth about us, or we would’ve been attacked by more than that. We would like you to find out why. Ty told you what we are trying to do here; we want to help save the planet, and hopefully improve the lives of people at the same time.”
            “I think that’ll be ok. But before I start this, I’ll need more information, and to know what resources I have.” Alan said.
            For the next couple of days, Alan and Ty went over the information Ty had on the attacks. Alan asked a lot of questions, and got the answers he wanted. He finally agreed fully to work with them, and asked if it would be possible to perhaps alter his appearance. After all, the NSA did have a description, as well as his prints on file.
            “Probably not anymore, my friend.” Ty told him. “Let me introduce your new best friend. “Star, please come out.”
            Ty had, what looked to be one of those new high definition, flat screen TV’s in his office. It was on this that Star chose to make her appearance.
            Alan didn’t quite know what to make of Star. At first he just thought it was some really neat video conferencing thing. But he soon learned that the beautiful woman on the screen was an Artificial Intelligence Construct, that is to say, she wasn’t a real person. She was a computer. Alan couldn’t help but chuckle to himself about the new meaning of virtual sex.
            As the interview progressed though, he learned that Star was certainly no toy. With a computer hacker like her working with him, he should have very few problems.
            He left for Colorado Spring the next day, a new watch on his wrist and contacts in his eyes. He had all the resources he could think of at his disposal. His first (and to him, a warm up) mission, was to find out about the two F-16’s that had almost attacked the town.
            Star had already found out that the incident had been ‘officially’ labeled a logistical error. That didn’t make sense to Alan, the fact that Ty had told him they scared the fighters off by locking on to them with a missile battery should have brought investigators by the score to the little town. None had shown up. Which, in Alan’s mind, meant that the attack was intentional and the outcome had been expected. But how and why would the government choose to test the defenses of a little town like Talos? If it was the government it would have been a much larger test, and there would now be thousands of ‘inspectors’ probing every orifice of every person living in the little town. The whole thing made no sense at all.
            It took him about two weeks to find out what really happened. There had been some first class cover-ups going on here. Though the orders were signed by the commanding general; all such orders were. The actual instructions for the flight and the authorization of the weaponry had been handled by a Captain Smith in the fighter wing’s intel branch. By the time Alan found this out; Captain Smith had since gone AWOL.
            He made his report to Ty, and headed out for Norfolk, VA. That was the U.S. end of the trans-Atlantic pipeline. He began to dig. He loved this part of his job; he had always preferred the analytical side of his duties when he worked for the NSA. Now, working for Ty and Ian, he was relieved that he wasn’t required to kill anyone. He was of course able to defend himself, and he could always ask if he came across something that really needed to be handled. He honestly believed that he would never be asking for that.
            Over the next few months, he began to slowly revise his opinion on that. He found out that oil wasn’t only thing being taken from Earth. He had no definitive proof as yet, but things he was finding led him to one conclusion; The Enemy was also taking people.
            He had always had a fascination with the mysteries of world, the Lock Ness Monster and the Bermuda Triangle being at the top of that list. During his leisure time in hotel rooms, or waiting for a flight, he had asked Star to check into some thing’s for him. He had explained to her that it was simply a hobby, and in no way had any sort of priority to it. By this time, he noticed Star was beginning to get a little over-loaded; he had noticed a lag in some of her communications. He caught himself worrying that his friend was working to hard.
            However, one curious fact was generated by this hobby; all the investigative reports all ended in one office deep inside the CIA. In and of itself, this wasn’t that unusual. But after Star hacked into their computer systems so he could get a look at the reports, he found a dead end. Every bit of information regarding the disappearances in the triangle was in the computer except the reports themselves. Odd… If someone had gone to the trouble of entering in all the information into the computer, why didn’t they also include the investigative reports and their findings? It smacked of a cover-up and began to take more of his attention than he had time to give. He reluctantly dropped his line of investigation, and concentrated on his task at hand.
            He, with Star’s help and through bribery, and some coercion, began to trace the ownership and ‘command structure’ of the oil company in question. It took him longer than he thought it would take because the owners apparently didn’t even know they owned the company in question. He tried to follow the chain of command back to it’s source, what he found really sparked his curiosity; Every order issued to the pipeline crews had originated in the very same office deep inside the CIA that had handled the Bermuda triangle investigations!
            It was very early in the morning when he learned of this twist, and he was about to ask Star to forge access for him into the CIA, when she suddenly vanished. She had told Alan about the arrival of the big Caldarian ship, and of the few ‘battles’ that had taken place, so he figured that she was simply dealing with something like that. He decided to relax and wait. It had been a long night. He was tired, hungry and needed a shower. He ordered food from room service and took a shower. By the time he had finished his dinner, Star still hadn’t returned. He was about to lie down and take a nap, when he got a message, text only, in front of his eyes:
 
            “Talos has been attacked by a Caldarian strike force. Though casualties have been light, the damage has been considerable. The Enemy didn’t attempt to conceal its presence once close to Talos, and a United States fighter wing was scrambled to intercept them, as well as our own fighters. All but two of the F-16’s were destroyed. We are sure an official investigation into the activities of Talos and its people will now begin. To avoid suspicion, you are requested to avoid Talos for the time being. We will relay more information as is possible; however, Captain Ian Williams has ordered an immediate attack on the Caldarians. Wish us luck.”
 
            So much for sleeping.
 
            Later that day, Ty contacted him directly. “Alan, things are not going good here. We’ve government investigators poking their noses into everything. Ian recommended we continue to play dumb about the whole thing, but I don’t know how long that’ll keep them at bay. I have the sneaking suspicion that he will pull us outta here. If that happens I’ll need you in a position where we could pick you up. I won’t leave you unsupported.”
            Alan wasn’t surprised, he had been thinking along those same lines. “Ty, I appreciate the offer, but I’m onto something here. I think this thing is a lot bigger than you guys knew about. I need to stay here and see this thing through. I have a lot more questions now than I did when I started this. I don’t think it would be a good idea to just leave it. Besides, I can always call for help if I need it. I’m used to operating on my own.”
            “I still don’t like it. Tell you what; just sit tight for a day or two. Enjoy room service, take in a movie or go get laid. Let me see what I can come up with. I’ll have a talk with Luke and Ian. I just got a message that there is gonna be a meeting shortly, so I gotta go. I’ll call again as soon as I know something.”
            “Please don’t pull me off this Ty, I can feel it’s pretty big.”
            “I’ll see what I can do. Talk to you later.”
            Alan sat in thought. Ty must be really harried; he didn’t even tell him how the battle went. He also hadn’t asked what Alan had come up with.
            “Star, you gotta minute?” He asked the silence.
            “I can spare a moment or two, However, I may need to leave you again suddenly.”
            “I understand. Do you have time to tell me what’s happened?”
            “I think I can give you a short briefing.” Alan lay back on his hotel room bed, and listened as Star began to speak.
 
            “Hold it gentlemen, you wanna do what?” Ian said as if he hadn’t heard Ty, Luke and Bill Lasker correctly. Star stood silently in a corner, listening to the conversation.
            “We want to modify a shuttle, put the A.I. unit designated for Talos aboard, and outfit it with living quarters for five people. Alan is staying on Earth because he thinks he’s onto something pretty big. I don’t want to leave him eight hours from help. Yes, he’s used to operating on his own, and unsupported, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t support him.” Ty said.
            “It just seems like over kill to me; dedicating an A.I. to basically a one man operation. Well I suppose it won’t be a one man operation anymore, since you are going to add some marines to it.” He thought about it for a few minutes, “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. Modify the shuttle to hold as many living quarters as you can after putting the A.I. aboard. You can also have the marines as soon as you get them trained, but I want every person aboard that ship trained to fly it. I also want at least one of Janet’s people to use it as a base of operations as well. Make it two; I don’t want the stalking incident to happen again. I’m assuming that you have figured out the power requirement issues?” Ian asked.
            Bill grinned, “Actually Sir, we have. We want to coat the ship in the new armor, and use the extra power to supplement the main reactor on board. Granted, the shuttle still has a cloaking field, and will use it, but replacing the existing armor with the new, will reduce the over all mass, while adding to the available power. Dr. Benson has informed me, that she can rig a discharge system that won’t make a lot of racket when it lands. It will also have a weapon; the same gun on the nose turret of the Shadows.”
            Ian nodded in agreement. “Okay, get to it. But once this operation is done, we need that A.I. somewhere else; I’ve got plans for it.” He grinned, “I also have plans for you too, Luke.”
            As the other two left the room, Luke Belden raised one eyebrow at Ian in silent question. Ian smiled, and waited for his ready room door to close.
            “You did a remarkable job administering the operations on the planet. I would like you to consider that, we’ll shortly have a few positions opening up that will need a good person to fill them. Like Sector Administrator, Colonial Governor, and Sector Research Director. Would you consider giving them some thought?”
            “Sector Administrator? You’ve got to be joking! I don’t know the first thing about being a Sector Administrator. Hell, I don’t even know what one does!” He said with a shocked look on his face.
            “I’m told it’s the same thing you where doing at Talos, but on a larger scale.”
            “Let me think about it ok? After what happened… Just give me some time.”
            “Fair enough. You have until we get to the main Alliance home world. We’ll probably be leaving soon. I have to go before the High Counsel, I’d like to have you by my side when I do.” Ian told him.
            Luke nodded his head and left. After the door closed Ian glanced over to Star. “I have a favor to ask of you.”
            “Sir?”
            “It concerns the new A.I. we were just discussing?” Star nodded at him in understanding as he told her what he had planned.
 
            One thing was bothering Ian as he went back over the reports of the last two days: The United States Government had recovered crashed Caldarian ships. This was going to be a major problem. Given enough time to analyze the wreckage, they would discover enough technology to build weapons vastly superior to anything else on the planet. The power systems alone would be enough to spawn a whole new breed of nuclear weapons. They had to be prevented from examining the ships. A strike against the compounds would result in the deaths of a lot of people, but if nothing was done, a lot more would die.
            The reports stated the wreckage was taken to Falcon Air Station in Colorado and White Sands in New Mexico. Ian wondered why they didn’t take them to Area 51, but perhaps Nevada was too far away. However, no scenario that Ian could think of would result in zero human casualties.
            “Commander Anders, please come to the Captains ready room.” Ian spoke over the intercom.
            “Be there in a minute, sir.” Ty replied.
            “Star, please search the media for information related to the night of the attack.”
            “Sir, several news services are carrying stories about the atmospheric events of the evening. The official government position is that it was a semi large meteor that broke up upon entering the atmosphere. There is no mention of the events taking place at Talos.” She reported.
            Ian sat in thought until Ty arrived. “Please sit down Commander.” Ian began, and outlined the problem as he saw it.
            “I came to the same conclusions, sir. I don’t know exactly how to fix this problem either. I believe Falcon Air Station is somewhat remote, but White Sands isn’t. Even if we just used ground troops, there would be a high casualty rate. As a seal I specialized in this kind of operation. However, never against an installation as heavily defended or as modern as these two are. We’re going to get bloody no matter how we do this. I’m really surprised that they’re keeping the stuff in those locations though.”
            “What do you mean?” Ian asked.
            “Well, generally, things like this are taken straight to Groom Lake because of security reasons.” Ty answered.
            “Groom Lake? Where the hell’s that?”
            “You’d know it better as Area 51. It’s a base about 90 miles north of Las Vegas. It’s way out in the middle of nowhere and security is so tight that an ant can’t fart without the C.O. knowing what it smelled like. If they had the stuff there it might be easier to destroy it, but we’d still kill a lot of people.” Ty explained.
            Ian thought a moment. “Star, can you hack into the computer systems of those bases and maybe find out what’s going on with them?”
            “Yes sir. It will take me a moment; my ‘super-user’ password doesn’t work.”
            “If they don’t know that what they have is non-terrestrial, then they may just move it as soon as they figure it out. By the way, how do you know about all this?” Ian asked.
            Ty chuckled. “Well, sir. I’ve always been curious about that base, since the government refuses to admit it’s there. So, I had Star do some checking a while back. It seems that they already have one non-terrestrial craft there. They’ve been trying to figure out how it works for the last 50 years or so.”
            “Huh?” Ian asked, stunned.
            Star interrupted, “Sir, I believe I told you about the crashed probe craft before. It was a Benisian archeological probe. It crashed outside Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.”
            “Yeah, I remember now. They took it to this Area 51 then? If they’ve been tinkering with it since then and still haven’t figured it out, are we worrying over nothing then?” Ian asked.
            Again Star answered. “Sir, the Benisian probe craft have a number of failsafe devices in them to prevent their technology from falling into the wrong hands. The power unit in the craft destroyed itself by burning all available fuel. The craft should have entered hyperspace without the usual interface we employ, thus effectively destroying the craft. However, for some reason it did not. The power unit did burn itself out, but the craft remained intact. A probe has no weapons and with no idea how to rebuild the reactor, all they got was a rather large paperweight made of an alloy they cannot duplicate.”
            Ty picked up for her at this point, “Whereas in this case, they have functional power units, and weapons. They might not be able to duplicate the material the craft are made out of, but they will learn how the power units and weapons systems operate.”
            “Sir, I have the information you asked for. Two C-141 Starlifter aircraft will be departing the Groom Lake facility at 0600 tomorrow morning. They are to collect the components of the ‘crashed experimental aircraft’ and transport them back to the base for analysis.”
            “I wonder if any of the reactor cores on those craft had cracked?” Ian wondered aloud.
            “No sir. If they had I would be able to get a clear reading on them. They are either shut down, or still intact, but at idle.” Star informed him.
            “Star, give me an aerial photo of Falcon.” Ian ordered.
            A picture of Falcon Air Station appeared on the wall monitor. Both Ty and Ian looked at it.
            “Is that hanger big enough for a C-141?” Ian asked, pointing to a structure on the screen. Star zoomed in on the area.
            “I think so sir. Why? Do you have an idea?” Ty asked.
            “Possibly. Star, let’s see White Sands.”
            Again a photo showed a large installation; only this time it had several large hangers, each obviously large enough for the big plane.
            “I think I might have a way outta this.” Ian said after studying the screen for a few minutes. “Star, if we had a drone close enough, could you tell which hanger the wreckage is in?”
            “Yes sir.”
            “How many construction drones do we have left aboard?”
            “Only one sir, however, there are ten at Phoenix Base.”
            “Okay. Ty, how about the old bait and switch?” Ian suggested while typing on his terminal keyboard. Smiling, He looked up.
            “Sir? I’m not sure I follow you.”
            Ian chuckled. “Okay. How about…” he quickly out lined the plan he had just hatched.
 
            One hour later, four Shadow fighters launched from Star Dancer followed by two shuttlecraft. Two fighters escorted each shuttle as they flew off on their missions.
 
            The two guards slowly walked their post. Both were dressed in the black fatigues that marked them as part of the special operations branch of the military. They had no idea what was inside the hanger, but Satan himself wouldn’t get past them without authorization.
            It took them by complete surprise when two silvery objects slowly closed on their well-lit position. They had no idea what the strange objects were, but both were certain they didn’t have to ask to see their ID cards. Both guards began firing their weapons as the big hanger doors began to slowly open behind them.
            The firing of weapons alerted other guards, who in turn triggered the alarm. The big doors had opened about four feet by the time more soldiers arrived. Though the bullets seemed to be bouncing off, the added fire of the other soldiers seemed to drive the two strange objects away. One man ran into the hanger to shut the huge doors, running back out before they had closed completely.
            For the next few minutes, the objects that soldiers had finally figured out were craft, tried to get into the hanger. The soldiers could tell they were trying to draw them away from the big building. They stood fast. Finally, they two craft tried one more time, this time the doors opened before the two craft came back into the lighted area. They stopped abruptly however, as the twenty men fired round after round at them. They turned and flew off. The commander of the guard detail left half his men on guard the rest of the night. He then went to file his report and call off the fighters scrambling from Peterson Air Force Base. This was one for the ‘weird shit’ file.
 
            Hundreds of miles away, in New Mexico, the same scene had played out. As the two Shadow fighters formed up beside the shuttle, it recovered the two cloaked drones it had launched a few minutes before. “Snapper One to Command. Mission accomplished, returning to base.” Corvis reported. Chuckling, he clicked on his intercom. “Hey Jelling! You think those idiots will ever get that mess put together?”
            “I dunno, Bossman. Have they even built the original X-33 yet?”
            “I don’t know, but we just gave them the pieces to 5 of them so maybe they’ll get the chance!”
“I don’t think so Boss, those weather balloon pieces the Captain ordered put in there will throw them I think!”
They both laughed as they set course back to Star Dancer.
 
Three days later Ian received a report from Stellar Cartography. The shuttlecraft had arrived safely at Alpha Centauri and an initial scan of the system had revealed a number of possibilities. One planet was shown to be an excellent candidate to support human life. Three probes had been sent to survey and explore it. In addition, one of the moons of the planet seemed to have an atmosphere as well, and two more probes had been sent there. Since Alpha Centauri was a binary star system, there was ample solar energy available. The planet was roughly twice the size of Earth but had gravity only slightly higher than Earth. A more detailed report would be forwarded to him as soon as the exploration and evaluation was completed. However a request for assistance from Medbay for biological evaluation was attached to the report and Ian noticed it had been sent to Beth as well.
A report from Phoenix Base informed him that the computer memory core had been completed as well as the activation of the base A.I. The name Elias had been selected for the construct by Star. Kyle, Stephanie, Laura, and Andrea all approved and thanked Star for naming her first born after their husband and father.
Elias was now beginning the task of gathering the information that the memory core had been built to contain, as well as assuming his responsibilities as Base Controller.
Construction of the original base design had been completed but an annex had been added, and was also nearing completion. Except for the new quarters and storage facilities, Phoenix Base was fully operational.
Various reports of different projects being undertaken by different teams followed. The new engine design to replace the internal combustion one currently used on Earth had been completed but the assembly facilities had been destroyed. The inventor, not one to be stopped by the destruction, sat about designing the adapter kits that would be needed to install his device into existing vehicles. Another design team asked for, and received the designers’ permission to adapt the principles of the engine to saltwater, with an eye to creating a new type of power station for cities.
Ian noted one report from Kyle’s team. The new fighter craft was being released for general use, and they were pursuing a few new ideas created during the refit of Star Dancer. A challenge by his team to the rest of the community was to engineer a new dry-dock facility capable of not only servicing the heavy cruisers, but full scale construction of new ships. A rough design of a new class of ship was attached. The design gave Ian goose bumps. It was almost twice the size of Star Dancer and her sister ships. It was a spaceborn weapons platform, capable of handling 400 Shadow fighters. Its armament included heavy pulse cannons, hundreds of hyper missile launch racks, and something called a ‘torpedo launcher’ but the most awesome weapon of all was mounted along the spine of the immense craft. A huge Mason cannon, whose only purpose could be to destroy a planet. The entire vessel was sheathed in Dr. Benson’s new armor. A class designation was listed: Battleship.
Ian was really glad he hadn’t been asked for permission to build that monster. He hoped that it would be up to the High Counsel. He took a deep breath; he needed to send a message to the Talosian Counsel at least. He couldn’t leave yet, too many things needed to be decided and set in motion. It may be another month before Star Dancer could leave the system.
Ian really didn’t feel comfortable leaving at all. New Talos was 18 days away, which meant a minimum of 38 days of leaving the system unprotected. Probably more, Ian had learned enough of politicians to know nothing went as quickly as that. Serina was due to visit again tonight, so Ian thought he might talk with her about it.
His wives had been bugging him repeatedly about when Serina would be coming back to visit, so he finally told them to ask her. She had laughingly agreed to come as soon as she could, admitting to wanting to come back again anyway. Serina had confessed to Ian that her crew had taken to Earth food and had began practicing its customs (as they learned them) like Earth was their new planet. Her people seemed to devour every scrap of knowledge they could get their hands on about the planet and its people. Ian looked forward to her visit.
“Security to Captain.” The intercom announced.
“Captain here. What’s up?” Ian replied.
“Well, sir. As you know I left a small surveillance drone at the Talos town site, it’s showing something you might want to see.” Ty reported.
“Okay, I’m in my ready room. Come on up.” Ian replied.
The door opened to admit a chuckling Ty, “I knew you were sir, I just didn’t know if you could see me right now, but I came anyway.”
Ian chuckled at him, “Okay so what have you got for me?”
Ty turned toward the wall monitor, “Star, could you put the Talosian drone feed up on this monitor?”
In response the monitor lit up with a view of the bare desert that had been there before they had begun construction almost two years ago. The one notable exception was a small olive drab helicopter tied down against the wind and the tent that was set up.
“Who is it?” Ian asked.
“That’s what made me bring this to your attention. There are two people; one is an Air Force Major and the pilot of the helo. The other is none other than Admiral Isaac Hawkins, Commander of U.S. Space Command.”
“Okay, any idea what the hell he’s doing camping out in the middle of the desert?” Ian asked.
“I watched the whole recording of his arrival. You see, after setting up the camp, he walked a bit away from it and yelled: ‘I have some questions.’ He then turned and walked back to the tent. He and his pilot set up a table and began playing cards. I think he intends on staying for awhile.”
“Where are the marines?” Ian asked.
“Almost a mile away near where the gatehouse had been. A HummV arrived shortly after the Admiral landed, but the Admiral went off on the driver, sending him running back to the command post. Since that time, no one has approached him.” Ty finished.
“That drone doesn’t have holographic capabilities does it?” Ian asked.
“No sir, it’s just a small standard surveillance drone, with cloaking only. You don’t mean to answer his questions do you?”
“I think it might be interesting to see what the man has to say. He is an Admiral after all.” Ian chuckled.
“Not to question your orders sir, but why bother? He’s the very type of person we are trying to keep away from this technology. We really don’t need any more contact with any Terrans.”
Ian smiled at Ty. “Ty, I’ve never asked you to follow orders blindly and never will. I rely on you to help keep me from making mistakes. The main reason I would like to talk to him is because we are going to need him, or at least someone like him. We still need pilots; you are going to need marines. We still have a mission down there and we’ll need someone looking out for us to make sure we don’t step on the wrong toes. If he’s an honest man, a good man, capable of seeing the big picture, he’d be invaluable. I intend to talk to him and see if he can be trusted.”
“I certainly hope you plan on taking some insurance along in case he can’t be.” Ty said.
 
“Okay Cindy, let’s land here. You and Talena stay with the ships. Janet and I will go talk with the Admiral. Remember, keep everyone else outta site unless we need them.” Ian said.
“Affirmative, just like you told us.” She chuckled in reply.
Ian waited for the armor to discharge before climbing out and removing his helmet. He put a small wireless headset on so he could privately hear communications, and as an open display that their conversation was being monitored.
He looked over to see Janet Lasker getting out of the other Shadow Fighter. They walked towards each other, then turned and headed for the Admirals camp.
“You really wanna go through with this?” She asked.
“Yep. You haven’t had any premonitions have you?” Ian asked.
“No, other than a feeling it will be ok, but there is a feeling of something not… right.”
“I’m betting that pilot of his is wired and as soon as we get close enough, he’s going to try to capture us.” As he spoke she got a glassy eyed expression.
“You’re right. That’s what I was feeling. How’d you know?” She looked up at him.
He smiled and looked back at her. “It’s what I would do, if I wanted to catch an alien.”
The Admiral noticed their approach and rose to meet them. His pilot stopped him as he was about to walk out to meet them. The young major looked very nervous. The Admiral listened to him and slowly nodded, turned and watched them.
Ian and Janet stopped about 20 feet away. Janet stood respectfully to one side, but Ian came to attention and saluted the Admiral. He was dressed in his flight suit and wore the single golden star on his collar of a Talosian Captain.
“Good afternoon Admiral.” Ian said. “I understand you have some questions.”
The Admiral, momentarily caught off guard was slow to return the salute. “I’m afraid you have me at an advantage sir, you wear the rank insignia of a general in our military.”
“Sir, the Major just activated that call button. As per your instructions it’s jammed for now. He is also carrying a gun. I have him targeted; if he tries to draw it, we’ll find out what this new weapon will do to a human body.” Cindy reported during the Admirals reply.
“My apologies Admiral, I hold the rank of Captain. My Name is Ian Williams. Before we go any further sir, I must ask that your pilot please remove his firearm very slowly. Something very unfortunate might happen.” The warning was clear.
The Admiral turned to his pilot. “I told you not to bring any guns! Do as he says!”
“But sir... “
“Captain, there are 200 marines less than a mile from here. He got here without letting them know it. If he wanted to harm us, do you really think we would be having this discussion?” The Admiral almost yelled at him. Turning back to Ian, “My apologies Captain.”
Ian bowed his head slightly in acceptance as the Major slowly removed his pistol, and threw it to the ground a few feet away.
“I think I should also tell you the call button the Major triggered a few minutes ago won’t work either. It’s being jammed.”
The Admiral turned again to the pilot, “Major, we are going to have a long talk when we get back.”
Star relayed a report on the identity of the pilot again while the Admiral was talking; he placed a finger to the earpiece to let the two men know he was receiving a communication.
“I doubt it would do you much good sir. Records show this man to be Major Adam Fey, Special operations group; currently on special assignment. It would seem that your own government doesn’t trust you sir. The NSA planted a spy on you.” Ian told the Admiral.
“He was a last minute replacement, my usual pilot was unfit to fly. Since he’s a spy, does that mean we can’t talk?” The Admiral asked.
“No, it doesn’t. His record indicates he might actually be one of the people we need to listen. Later however, it might be advisable for him to take a short walk.” Ian replied. “Let me introduce my ships counselor, Janet. She has asked her last name not be revealed. She is also a civilian with an honorary rank of Commander.” Janet bowed slightly. “Now, to your questions Admiral.”
“Well, I can see you’re human, may I ask what planet you’re from?”
“Don’t beat around the bush do you sir?” Ian chuckled. “I know you probably won’t believe it, but most of us are from Earth.”
“Earth? You mean you really are human?” He asked, somewhat stunned.
“Yes sir, we are. I brought Janet along because I thought you might ask that question, and she is a lot better at telling the story than I am.” Ian nodded to Janet, who chuckled and told them the story of how the Talosians came to be on Earth.
As she finished, Ian jumped in before either men could begin asking questions; “Before either of you ask, no, we don’t want to take over the planet. No we don’t want to form an alliance with you. We mean no one on the planet any harm, in fact we all have taken a vow to protect Earth, even from itself.”
“That sounds a little sinister to me Captain. ‘Even from ourselves’. What exactly do you mean?” The Admiral asked.
“Mostly what it means is we are going to start to introduce some of the technology that has been repressed on this planet to try to straighten out the damage done by greed. That’s what the facility that was built here originally was intended to do. The oil companies will be going out of business. We’ve already stopped the wholesale destruction of the rainforests in South America and are financing re-forestation programs. I know, it sounds like a pretty liberal view of things. Quite frankly, the human race is killing this planet and we intend to try to stop it. We have also tried to bankroll a number of retraining programs for the people that will be displaced by our actions.
I also will tell you we will eventually begin hunting down terrorists and will intervene to prevent large-scale war. Not that we are trying to tell anyone what to do, but hopefully it’ll make them seek less destructive methods of resolving problems.” Ian finished.
“How much force do you have? Honestly, I see no reason to believe a word you say.” The Major replied.
“Major, even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand, you have no frame of reference. Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not withholding the information, you simply would have no idea what I would tell you.” Ian said.
“Surely you could show us at least one ship?” The Admiral asked.
Ian chuckled softly, “Actually gentlemen, ten of them are within a half mile of us right now.” Ian said. Putting a finger back to the earpiece “Gold one, move in and set down 25 feet from our position.” He turned back to the two, “Please don’t touch the craft until the pilot opens the canopy.”
Ian tuned back to watch Cindy lift off and move up. No dust was stirred up, since the maneuver only used the magnetic stabilizers. He couldn’t actually see the craft right away; it blended in with the background until it started to move.
“Oh my.” The admiral softly said as the craft settled back to the ground. “We didn’t even hear the engines!”
“No sir, she didn’t need to use them.” Ian left the explanation unsaid.
The group stood to get a closer look and Ian repeated his warning about touching it.
“Why?” The major asked.
“Safety precaution. The hull can pick up a pretty big static charge from the atmosphere.” Ian explained.
The major snorted and reached out to touch the ship. Ian grabbed his arm, “Major, it really would be a bad idea to do that.” Ian said warningly.
The Major flinched as Ian grabbed his arm, but stopped his reaction as the nose turret swung back around to point at his head.
“That cannon fires 3000 rounds a minute, Major. It is used for ship-to-ship warfare in space. It could tear through a tank’s armor from 30 miles away in less than a second. I don’t want to think about what it would do to you this close.” Ian said.
Cindy raised the cockpit canopy, but left her helmet on.
“It’s an amazing craft. Now what exactly happened here a few days ago?” The Admiral asked, obviously trying to change the subject.
“Well sir, you remember the reason my ship crashed on the moon?” He paused as the Admiral nodded. “That enemy is still out there. What happened was they attacked this facility. We pulled our people out of here, because people like the Major here, were beginning to push too hard. I also ordered the area cleaned up. Which is to say, I ordered all enemy equipment destroyed, which included crashed fighters. We won’t allow any government to get their hands on advanced non-terrestrial technology. Sorry, sir.”
“You have to know then that we recovered a few anyway. I think I can safely say there is no way in hell you’ll be getting it back.” The Admiral said.
“We are aware of that Admiral.” Ian replied.
“Hold it, the hanger at Falcon was assaulted the other night. Was that you? Trying to recover those craft?”
“Yes sir, it was.”
“Then if you have equipment like this and can’t allow us to keep those craft, why didn’t you just take them?” he asked.
“We didn’t need to.” Ian replied. “Admiral, there are things I’m not telling you. I assure you I have reasons.”
Ian stepped up on the craft and grabbed his helmet. He handed it to the Major, “Put this on and climb in. The Lieutenant is going to give you a ride.” He glanced up to Cindy, “Give him a dead cockpit and maybe demonstrate the weapons on an iceberg or something.”
She nodded to him, as the Major began to protest. “I don’t think I should leave…”
“Major, do as he says. No ones going to kidnap me, or force me to give up any secrets. Hell, he probably knows them all anyway. I’ll want a report when you get back.” The Admiral ordered.
Hesitantly, the Major nodded and climbed aboard. Cindy closed the canopy and prepared for take off.
Ian, the Admiral, and Janet stepped back and the Shadow fighter leapt for the sky.
“Amazing, what do you call that thing?” The Admiral asked.
“We call it a Shadow. It’s a ‘heavy’ fighter craft.”
“Aptly named, it’s all but invisible. You know, your taking a hell of a chance. After all he is a spy. Stealing things like that is what he’s trained to do.”
Ian chuckled, “Sir, do you know what being ejected at roughly mach 20 would do to a human?”
“I see your point. I assume you wanted to speak to me alone?” The Admiral asked.
“Yes sir, I did. I’ve only told you about half of the story.” Ian quickly filled the Admiral in on the rest of the fighting that had been done, the appearance of the other Talosians and the Empire. He also told him about joining the Alliance.
“Son, exactly how big is your ship?”
“Very big, Admiral. Star Dancer carries 90 of those Shadows, 60 Hornet light fighters, 6 Centurion frigates and 6 shuttlecraft in addition to her own, on board weapons systems. The ship is slightly over a mile long.”
“Jesus Christ! And there are more of those out there?” The Admiral said in awe, as the amount of raw fire-power began to register to him.
“Yes sir, but at least they’re on our side. The Caldarians had sent a SuperNova class destroyer. More than enough to wipe out one or two ships like mine. Easily enough to take over the planet.”
Ian watched as his words sank into the Admirals mind. “Sir, the reason I’m telling you this, is we need someone on the inside. There are Caldarian spies in the government. We don’t know how many, but from the sound of it, there are a lot in the intelligence community. The Caldarians have been stealing crude oil from this planet for years. I have a man digging to find out whom, when and where. He also thinks that there is a lot more going on here then we originally thought. We are also in need of people. Pilots and soldiers mostly, that we’ll need to recruit from here. Now don’t get me wrong, we are not asking you to do anything against the United States. Just listen for things we might need to hear and to point us in the direction of people who might like to transfer.”
“Son, how old are you?”
Ian grinned, “19 sir. Going on 100.”
“I imagine so. You got your command because of genetics, not because of experience. Do you know how easy it would be to slip spies in on you with that offer? Not to mention, you’re asking a senior member of this nations armed services to feed you information. You’re either new to the espionage trade, or an old pro.” The Admiral said. “You’re asking me to choose between the human race and my country.”
“Not exactly, sir. I’m giving you the opportunity to help more than just your country. You can stop at anytime, if we ask you a question, you can refuse to answer it, or ask us why we need to know. We will not knowingly ask you to do anything against your country. We’re not loyal to the United States. We are loyal to the human race. Hell, when you choose to retire, I’ll even throw in a few relocation options.” Ian grinned.
The Admiral chuckled. “As long as it has good fishing. Seriously though, I’ll need to think about this. How do I go about getting back to you? My coming out here today is going to require some answers. I can’t see coming back.”
“Simple, just send me an email addressed to fssstardancer@hotmail.com. We’ve set up a secure bypass in your computer system that will grab it before another computer can intercept it. If that fails, I’ll just call you.” Ian told him, “However I do need to be getting back, I have a date tonight.” He grinned.
“How long will the Major be gone?”
“They should be landing in a couple of minutes. My pilot says he’s pretty shook up.” Ian chuckled.
“Why is he shaken up?”
“Well sir, she took him up to the North Atlantic and blasted an ice berg that had drifted into shipping lanes. Then she buzzed a couple of F-14’s out on patrol and returned here.” Ian replied.
“The North Atlantic! They’ve only been gone a few minutes!”
“Just over an hour, Sir.”  He turned to Janet, “You can head back to Gold two. We’ll head home in a sec.”
“Okay, Nice to meet you Admiral.” She bowed her head to the Admiral and walked back towards Talena.
The admiral and Ian watched her walk away. The Admiral turned to say something to Ian obviously about Janet, Ian quickly put a finger to his lips to indicate silence, then pointed to his headset. Ian heard a chuckle over the comm. and the Admiral nodded his head, mouthing the word ‘thanks’. Ian smiled and winked at the Admiral.
“I must say Captain; you are not what I expected. Many will argue that if you had nothing to hide, you wouldn’t have pulled out like you did.”
“We do have things to hide Admiral: Technology that could destroy the planetary economy, weapons that could kill a lot of people if used in the wrong hands. We have to remain a secret. The current administrations of the world are simply too immature to be trusted with this knowledge. I know that sounds crass and I am sure you’re wondering, ‘who are we to judge?’ I’d like you to think about what would happen if the United States Government ever got their hands on even one of those Shadow fighters. Hell, any government for that matter. I don’t think you are so blind to think a government wouldn’t use that advantage for its own ends. Even our medical technology could be used as a weapon. That was one of the most painful decisions I’ve had to make since taking command.” Ian said as Cindy slowly set her craft down to a landing near the tent.
“The burden of Command never gets any easier my young friend.”
“Admiral, we lost people in that attack as well. I want you to know, we also honored the fallen pilots. They had no idea they didn’t stand a chance, but still tried to do their best.” Ian told him.
“Thank you for that Captain.” The Admiral said as he shook Ian’s hand.
Cindy had released the canopy, Major Fey scrambled to get out of craft as fast as he could.
“Major, I assume my pilots’ explanation of the ejection system met with your approval?” Ian laughed at the comical way the Major was working get out of the craft.
“Captain, that pilot is insane! We damn near caused two F-14’s to crash because she buzzed them at mach 3. Then she dropped us down to about three inches above the waves and accelerated! We must have been kicking up a thousand foot rooster tail!”
“Relax Major. Even if she would have lost control the only thing that would have happened is you would have gotten shaken up. No, the craft is not designed for use underwater, but it can still function and would have been able to re-surface and take off. You were never in any danger.” Ian told him.
“You could have told me that before she scared the piss out of me!” The Major replied.
“Well, I’ll be going. I’m sure that we’ll meet again, Major. Please try to remember; I am not a threat to you or the Country. Admiral, have nice day.” Ian put his helmet on, and climbed into the fighter. Cindy was already into the launch sequence, so she closed the canopy, and lifted as Ian was getting strapped in.
“Well? Did you get anything figured out?” Cindy asked him.
“Not really, but I think we made a new friend.”
“Why did we need to? Don’t we have enough friends?”
“You can never have enough friends, Cindy. Besides, he happens to be a fairly important member of the armed forces. He should be able to assist with recruiting if nothing else.”
“Okay, I don’t understand it, but you do seem to know what you’re doing.”
Ian chuckled as he took control over from Cindy. After ordering the rest of Gold Squadron back to base, he asked her; “What’s the matter Cin? Are you getting bored of being a Wing Commander?”
“No, not really. I’ve just gotten a little… I don’t know.” She paused, searching for the right words, “I’ve been busy with the retraining of the Prometheus pilots and the refit of Star. I just feel, kinda, empty now that I don’t have all these projects filling every moment of my time. I’m used to always doing something. I haven’t gotten a hobby yet, though I’ve been reading a lot. I’ve been studying the tactics used by the Empire and how the Alliance has been fighting them. I’ve a few ideas, but I don’t think anyone will want to hear them coming from someone so inexperienced.”
“Are you kidding? I’ll listen! I’m pretty sure Serina would listen as well. I’ve been told by every Talosian authority that has reviewed what we’ve done, that what we did here was impossible. I personally think we just got very lucky. The point is, we didn’t follow the tactics used by the Talosians to fight the Caldarians. We used our own methods and ideas and we WON. I will always listen to any new ideas any of us have. Granted, the Alliance has been fighting for a lot longer than we have, but they almost seem too set in their ways. They don’t have time to develop new ideas. Do you realize that their technology has virtually stalled for the last 500 or so years? They have been fighting a holding action against the Empire, and now they are starting to loose. I’ve seen the spy reports from the captured planets; I know what happens to a world after it’s been taken. I would rather die than to see that happen to anyone. I’ll take all the help I can get. We’ve got some time to kill, why don’t you tell me about it?”
“Well, I’d have to talk to Ty, and some others before refining it, but here is my idea; Everything I’ve read shows that the idea of guerilla warfare hasn’t occurred to anyone but the Empire, which is why they’re starting to win. If we formed several small elite units, composed of pilots as well as marines, I think we could take the empire by surprise.” For the next hour and a half Cindy explained her idea to Ian. He listened. He would occasionally through a question or a problem at her, and she usually had an answer for it. She couldn’t answer questions involving mission specific items involving a lot of tactics, because she didn’t have enough information on how LIC, (Low Intensity Conflict) worked. However, Navy Seals are trained almost exclusively in those tactics. Her idea was very well thought out. The one thing that bothered Ian the most was that most LIC missions, by their very nature tended to be suicide missions.
They arrived back aboard just after 1800 hours, or 6:00pm. Serina had already arrived, so Janet said her goodbyes and headed for her quarters. Ian and the girls changed clothes and headed home themselves. Ian called Ty and asked him if he could spare a few moments in the morning for a brief meeting, Ty agreed. Ian would ask Serina to stay a few minutes also.
 
 
He arrived at his quarters to find Serina’s youngest, Kali, playing with the four toddlers on the living room floor. Serina, Beth and Jenny were sitting around the table talking.
“Welcome home!” Beth said, as they walked in. The three of them went over to the table to give welcome home kisses to the three ladies.
“How’d it go?” Jenny asked. Talena and Cindy excused themselves to go take a shower and change.
“Well, I think he’ll decide to help us. He struck me as a decent person and Janet didn’t detect any deceit on his part. His pilot, however, might be a problem. He was an NSA plant. I had Cindy take him for a ride in her ship so I could talk to the admiral. She scared the hell outta him. Too bad too; Cindy’s had an idea that would be right up his alley. But that’s for tomorrow, Serina, can you spare us some time before you head back in the morning?” Ian asked
“Yes, I can. The re-fit’s almost complete, so we need to discuss patrol routes anyway.” She replied.
“Good. I also wanted to talk to you about The High Counsel. I don’t feel comfortable leaving here. I know you’d be staying here to protect the sector, but I just get a really bad feeling about Star Dancer leaving right now. Please understand, I know that you’re capable of protecting Earth. It’s just that there are so many things yet to do. However, if we are to be accepted into the Alliance, I need to go before the High Counsel.”
“I do understand Ian. I would find it hard to leave here now myself. With your permission, I will contact a friend on the Talosian High Counsel. I believe we can make an argument for you to stay here. I would also like your permission to ask that I be allowed to request permanent assignment here. My crew already accepts this as their new home. I… I also don’t want to be parted from your family. Though it’s only been a short time, I’m growing quite attached to all of you, as are my children.” She nodded toward her daughter in the living room.
“Of course Serina, I think we’d be happy for any help and advice you can give us. Which also reminds me; where’s your son? He wanted me to teach him how to swim.” Ian asked.
She chuckled. “He’s down in the Holodeck, Your Stellar Cartography is putting on a show of the new planet. We rode over on a full shuttle. People are very curious about it. You might even get a few requests from people on other planets. Stephanie Johnson volunteered to go with him to the show.”
“Damn, I’d have liked to see that too. Oh well, I imagine I’ll be seeing it in person sooner or later. I need a shower too, so if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna join the girls.” Ian said.
“Well don’t take to long; the rest of us might be hungry.” Beth teased. Ian grinned and left to shower.
 
 
“That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking about!” Ty said as Cindy finished explaining her idea. “I just hadn’t figured out the transportation aspects yet.” He smiled approvingly at her and she blushed.
“It is a good idea; however, I don’t believe any of our marines have had that level of training. I’m sure Commander Rav would love it though. I believe I also have a few pilots that would volunteer for such an assignment.” Serina said.
“My main concern has been the thought that such types of missions are inherently suicidal. Granted, I don’t know much about covert operations, but wouldn’t we lose a lot of people?” Ian asked, voicing his concerns.
“No, sir.” Ty responded, “Low intensity conflict warfare isn’t like that. Sure we will lose people, but not as many as in a full-scale attack. Besides, we would use these teams for surgical strikes to cripple the enemy, not destroy them. As a Seal, our mission was to ensure the security of the United States through covert operations to prevent or remove a specific threat. During wartime, we would’ve been used to disrupt supply lines and perform sabotage, not to mention the occasional assassination. I’m sure I could adjust the training to be more useful to what we have in mind. The question is: what about the special ships? We would need something that was small enough not to attract a lot of attention, yet be large enough to be home to a six-man team plus their equipment, the pilot and weapons officer and any special vehicles. The craft would also have to be jump capable. We couldn’t have a large ship jump into a system and then jump out again. The enemy would catch on to that pretty damn quick.”
Ian responded, “We have a couple of research teams working on new craft design. Perhaps we could convince one of them to take up the challenge.” Ian suggested.
“One other thing sir. I’m going to need training room. I’ll want to train them in a vacuum as well, but the basics should be done on a planet with an atmosphere.” Ty said.
Ian thought, “Hmmm, right now that might be more difficult than getting the ships designed. Would a really large Holodeck be good enough? I think we will be building a shipyard in the Centauri system no matter what, so we could just as easily build a structure on an airless moon for you. That way, you could simulate almost any environment.”
“That would be great, I didn’t think of that. One question though; how many teams will I be training? Will all of them be human? Do all the races have basically the same capabilities? Plus every now and then we’ll want to bring teams back to refresh. It’ll give everyone the benefit of the knowledge gained by the other teams.”
“Good questions. I’ll want at least two teams for the Star Dancer.” He glanced at Serina, who nodded her agreement. “So that’s four so far. The rest will probably be up to the High Counsel to decide, but I would originally plan on at least two teams for every Heavy Cruiser we have. Try to work up an idea of what you might need based on that. We’ll work on getting the High Counsel’s decisions.” Ian said. “I think we should leave enlistment to this as volunteer for now. Ty, I want you to stay on as head of security, but you’ve leave to get this operation up and running. If you think you might know any more Seal that might want to join up, get their names to Janet. I’ll also talk to the design teams about the assault craft. Anyone have any other questions or concerns?” No one said anything and the meeting broke up.
“Ian, I would like to volunteer to be one of the pilots for Star Dancer. Talena can head up Gold Squadron.” Cindy said after everyone else left.
“Are you sure? I know we are a ways from the front lines here, but this could be a damn dangerous assignment.” Ian asked her.
“Yeah, I’m sure. I’ve been thinking about it, as long as I’m still stationed on board it’ll be okay. Though I’m sure I’ll miss all of you during training, I really want to do this.”
“Okay love, but I think you need to talk to our other wives about it too.” Ian suggested.
“I will, I’ll talk to them tonight.” She agreed.
“Okay, see ya this evening then.” Ian kissed her before she left.
He returned to his desk to get things in motion for the dry dock facility, once it was designed. He put in a request for a cargo and transport ship, ordered 10 new shuttles and 100 more construction drones; they were going to need them.
 
 
Alan Carlton was surprised when Ty finally got back to him, three days after asking him to sit tight.
“Alan? It’s Ty.”
“Damn! Took you long enough. Where’ve you been anyway?”
“Working my ass off, brother. I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“Uh huh, what is it?”
“Open the door.” Ty said, as a soft knock sounded.
Alan opened the door to see a black haired wonder. She stood about 5’3” and weighed maybe 115 pounds. She looked to be about 20 years old. Her lovely frame was wrapped in blue jeans, and an Aerosmith t-shirt. She had a pretty, almost pixie-like face framed by straight black hair, pulled back behind her ears.
“Hi. My name is Andreya. Ty asked me to bring this to you.” Her voice was almost musical to Alan. She extended a laptop case she had been carrying.
Alan realized he was just standing there staring when Ty’s voice said, “Well? Are you gonna to let her in?”
“Uh, sure. Sorry about that, I just wasn’t expecting... Oh, never mind, please come in.”
As Alan closed the door, he could hear Ty chuckling. “Down boy. Andreya is your new best friend. She is also an android. Her main processors and memory units are aboard a shuttle along with four Talosian marines that are at your disposal. The shuttle is currently looking for a place to set down.”
“An android?” Alan was quickly becoming confused.
“Yes, an android. Star was becoming too busy with everything she had to do. Since we pulled out of Talos, we had an extra A.I. unit. So I talked Ian and Luke into loaning her to you. Engineering came up with the idea of adding the android. They were originally going to build one for Star, but she said she didn’t want one. So I have a new mission for you. The bright boys have come up with a small hyperspace locator device. Ghost Squadron is going to plant it on the next freighter leaving Earth. Once that’s done, no more freighters will be allowed to enter the system. Your job will be to ferret out and eliminate all the bad guys on the planet. That’s why we gave you some marines. If you need anything else, just ask.”
“Any clue as to how many people we’re talking about here?” Alan asked. He was hoping he wouldn’t have to kill again.
“Not really, less than a hundred we think. Look, according to forensics, they are basically human, but have been modified or implanted with a device that forces them to do these things. You can’t look at it as killing innocents. These people, even if we could capture them, can’t be fixed. If we scan them, they have a device in their heads that’ll detonate. In fact that might be a good thing for you to use; just do a medical scan on them. That way, you’ll know for certain that you’re not getting the wrong person. I should warn you though, stand back when you do, it’s not pretty.” Ty finished.
“Okay, I’ll try that. Thanks for all you’re help. I’ll let you know when I think I’ve finished.”
“Great. I’ll leave you two to get acquainted. Keep the faith, my friend.”
As Ty broke the contact, Alan looked at the coyly smiling Andreya. “I guess we should get to work.”
 
“Serina to Ian.”
“This is Ian, go ahead.”
“I just got a reply to the message I sent to the High Counsel. They agreed to your request for special consideration and have accepted your proxy request for membership. A representative of the Counsel will be coming here to swear you in as soon as time can be made. They do ask that you appoint an ambassador to be sent to New Talos, as well as appoint a Governor for the sector. Until that time, they consider you the acting Governor. I have instructed my A.I. to give Star all the communication protocols for the Talosian High Command. I have also been informed that my request for assignment has been granted.”
“Well, congratulations! That is good news. Did they give any idea about when the representative will be coming?”
“Not really, I got the impression that it may be a couple of months though. However, High Command is sending someone to talk to you. The war is not going well: the Empire has taken a number of worlds in the last wave. The Alliance has lost most of our remaining shipyards and repair facilities. If they launch a major offensive now, we’ll be finished.” She sounded depressed.
“Serina, we’ll make it. There is always hope. Hell, just look at what we’ve been able to do here. I’m glad they’re sending someone from fleet; I have a few things to talk to them about.”
“I hope your right Ian. If it wasn’t for the fact that the bulk of the Empire’s fleet is needed to maintain control in their galaxy, I’m sure we would have lost already.”
“What I don’t understand is why they need slave labor to do all the building and mining. With that many people, someone would have figured out how to build a computer control system by now.”
“They might have, Ian. If you had developed such a system, would you want to give it a ruthless, sadistic regime? With that kind of knowledge, they would be unstoppable. We would have the Caldarians all over again and on a larger scale. They would subjugate other races for the sheer pleasure of it.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Speaking of the Caldarians, Ghost flight planted that new tracker on the freighter that left yesterday. We should get a signal from it as soon as the ship comes out of hyperspace.”
“That’s good. Once we know where they are, we can figure out what to do about them.” Serina said.
“Until then, how ‘bout you and I set up a new colony?” Ian asked playfully.
“I thought you would never ask.”
 
 
Epilogue
 
 
“I must say Ian that this is a most impressive group of people, not to mention the facilities you’ve managed to build.” Admiral Pan said. The Chief of Staff had arrived two days before and had been touring the facilities of Sol sector. He had yet to learn English though.
“Thank you, Sir. We don’t have much here yet, I had worried that ordering the construction of the shipyard and the training facility might be overreaching my authority. But I had been led to believe that we might need them.” Ian replied.
“Very true. I was going to ask you to undertake such an operation anyway, so you only anticipated the order. Very well done. However, I do have a couple of questions; I noticed the framework of the gantry is rather large for heavy cruisers. You are also only building two. Why?”
Ian smiled, the Admiral pulled the conversation right to where he wanted it. “Well sir, my design teams have created plans for two new classes of ships. The gantries need to be that large to accommodate the new designs. Also they will be able to service five heavy cruisers apiece at one time. A refit, like the one done to the Star Dancer and the Prometheus should take only a few days instead of the two weeks it took without a dry dock. I’ve instructed Star to release the plans to you so you can examine them at your leisure.” A 3-D hologram of the battleship appeared to hover over the table, along with a destroyer class ship, and the design for the assault teams tagged the Raptor.
“New ships? You have been busy. What’s this small one? It looks like a shuttle.” He pointed to the Raptor.
“It’s designed roughly on a shuttle. However, it’s far more deadly.” Ian went on detailing the plans for the special commando teams and outlining their possible uses.
“Amazing. I’ll forward that idea to Fleet Admiral Goya immediately. However, I know he’ll approve so go ahead with development. You’ve certainly created a lot of work for yourself young man. With the development of some many new weapons systems here, I would like to assign two more heavy cruisers to your sector. However, we simply don’t have any to spare. We will begin rotating the Heavy Cruisers through your facility once you get it completed though. I would like you to upgrade all of them as you have done your ship. In addition, I would like you to build at least one each of the other two ships. I imagine you’ll be asked to build more, but at least it will give you more security for this sector.”
“Well, I have a small problem sir. I don’t have the people to staff them. What you see has all been done with just over three thousand people. The crew of the Battleship alone is more than that. I’ll need more people.” Ian confessed.
“Three thousand! That’s all you’ve had to work with! Gods! I didn’t realize… Well, no matter, we’ve got eight over-populated planets, not to mention the rest of the races. Alliance Command will want a say in this too I think. I’ll get you people; just let me know what you need and when you need it. Which brings me to another matter, Ian, I have reviewed the reports of the action taken to defend your home world. I have also seen what you’ve accomplished and what you have planned. There is one thing you will need that you might not be anticipating, an Admiral. An undertaking of the scope you have outlined needs to be overseen by a fleet officer. So I am going to promote you. I will have to admit that I never believed I would ever give a cluster to one so young, but you do deserve it. Your first officer will be given command of Star Dancer, you will have command of the military portion of this sector. Senior Captain Serina will function as your adjutant. We can hold a ceremony on one of your flight decks before I leave. Congratulations Admiral.”
“Uh, th… thank you sir. I never… Me? An Admiral?” Ian was totally shocked.
“Yes, you. You have been the driving force here. You were the one to take the responsibility of defending your planet and making the choices to accomplish all this. You do deserve it. I can’t see a reason to put another person in charge here when you are doing such a good job.”
“Okay, if you think I need to be an Admiral, I’ll be one. Though I should warn you, I have a tendency to do unorthodox things. I didn’t follow set procedures for fighting the Caldarians. I’ve only loosely followed Talosian protocols and traditions. I modified the rules to fit the situation.”
“Exactly what we need in our fleet; flexibility. We have been fighting for so long we’ve gotten stale. No one is willing to try new things because we’ve seen too many of our friends and loved ones killed. I only wish there was a way to ‘refit’ our captains as well. Perhaps their spending time here during the refit will help. We need new thinking, fresh ideas, but most of all we need hope.”
“I’ll do my best, Admiral.” Ian said.
“I know you will Admiral. Now, let me call in my orders to High Command, then you can take me for a ride in one of those new fighters of yours before we pin your rank on.” Admiral Pan replied.
 
 
“…I hereby promote Captain Ian Williams to the rank of Admiral. He is assigned the Command of the Sol research sector.” Admiral Pan turned to Ian, who saluted. He returned the salute and removed the Captains rank, replacing them with those of an Admiral. “Congratulations Admiral.”
“Thank you, Sir.” Ian said, stepping back after the Admiral finished.
“Admiral Ian’s promotion creates an opening of Captain for the Star Dancer. It would also be my pleasure to promote Commander Jennifer Williams to the rank of Captain, and give her the Command of Star Dancer. I understand that the protocols for command have changed somewhat and that Star Dancer will be remaining the ships name. The remaining protocols are in place and will be placed into effect right after this ceremony.” He turned to Jenny, returned her salute and replaced her rank insignia. “These promotions are really a reflection of your hard work and dedication. I look forward to seeing what you can do now. On behalf of High Command and the Talosian High Counsel, I would like to thank you for your efforts and ask that you continue your amazing work to aid us in protecting our remaining worlds. Thank you.” He stepped back as applause filled the hanger. He gestured to the newly promoted Admiral and Captain, and then joined in the applause himself.
 
 
Author’s Note
 
I would like to thank my Editors, LVWolfman and Black Rose for the hard work they put in to get my writing style into something more presentable. My proofreader, Lansharra, for keeping me in the right path. But most of all I would like to thank my readers for all the kind words, comments and advice. Though all the email has been directed to me, I would like to point out that I do consider that this project was a team effort. If you see any of them, be sure to thank them as well.
I would also like to thank the staff at Electronic Wilderness Publishing for posting my story and helping with its development.
The email address in the last chapter does work, and I will try to answer all messages sent to it.
I will be continuing this story with another book:  Raptor Squadron. I will begin work on it after a short break. Again thank you.