Chapter 12

"Well done, Commander!" McClintock had insisted on hearing the report himself. "You and your team take a couple of weeks off, Tran, you've earned it."

"Thank you, Sir" Pham returned with a grin, "It will give our armor time to air out!"

McClintock grinned back "Yeah, three weeks is a long time to spend suited up, even with the efficiency of the armor's recyclers. Dismissed, Commander!"

Pham came briefly to attention before turning on his heel and exiting the Yuee Flagship's war room.

"This puts a new wrinkle on things," McClintock addressed the assembled Admirals and Generals. "We may, at some point, have to take the Chofira's advice and destroy the slave ship, but I want first to consider other options. I think that most of those beings, if they really thought death would be a blessing, would have found a way, by now, to achieve it for themselves. Does anyone have any ideas?"

General Mtumbo leaned forward from his seat near the head of the conference table. "The success of Commander Tran's mission gives me an idea, but it needs fleshing out. I think it is insufficient to remove the slaves as a labor source. To win a protracted war such as the Chofris experienced, I believe we must completely neutralize their mining and manufacturing capability, or at least cripple it. Let me work on a strategy, and I'll present my plan the next time we meet."

"All right, Djai." The Commodore scanned the other faces, some only holograms, but looking as if they were present in person. "Anyone else?"

When no one else responded, McClintock continued. "All right, what about the ID ships the Gorz stole from the Chofris? Can we assume the 30 they got are all they have? Would they be able to manufacture more?"

"I think we must assume that they are capable of manufacturing more, even though the MIs don't think there's a high probability of that." Admiral Feldman of Fifth Fleet spoke from the bridge of his Flagship UESS Phoenix. "The ships themselves are not the big problem, though. The Silicon Valley boys on earth and the tech enclave on Johansen's world have come up with a couple of enhancements to the original Chofri design that makes our drives more efficient and about thirty percent faster as well as more maneuverable. It's the other technology the ID ships carry that we need to worry about. We already know the Gorz have the same sort of energy shields we use. If they also have see-through fields, we might have trouble detecting them. So far, only destroyers and larger are capable of mounting sensors that can detect ID vessels. I think we have to assume they have most of the capabilities normally carried in an ID ship, except those that can't reasonably be operated without an MI."

"Ok, so we need to ensure that we keep our sensors tuned to detect see-through cloaked objects and work on getting that capability in our own fighters. What about communications? Can they intercept our communications?" Again, McCormick scanned the room. Before anyone else could respond, the flagship's MI provided the answer through its speakers.

"The capability of detecting the frequencies we use, as well as others, is built into the ID ship's hardware; the encryption and decoding are handled by the MIs, as is the protocol for changing the encryption and decoding. To make it even harder for Chofri technology to intercept our communication, we have begun incorporating encryption techniques developed on Earth, which are based on totally different concepts than those of Chofri."

Admiral Fujimori was first to speak. "So, they may be able to detect that someone using Chofri communication technology is around, but probably can't decipher it. That's not much of a problem for battle situations, but reconnaissance and other clandestine missions could be detected if one of those ships is in the vicinity. So far, they don't seem to have detected our communication, but I think we'd better get those techies working on something that the Gorz won't be able to detect if they decide to listen in on Chofri frequencies."

"You're right, of course." Admiral Aziz agreed, "And even though we know how to penetrate shields with slow moving devices, I think we'd better expect that the Gorz have had time to figure that out, as well, so we'd better have a counter for anything that can be used to penetrate a shield."

"All right, I'll work on the budget for the research. I'm glad I insisted on royalties from those technology contracts. This way, we're funded separately from the government and don't have to go to them every time we need a little money. Anything else we need to take care of here?" McClintock looked around the room.

General Mtumbo spoke up. "There is one thing — until we get the communication issue worked out, I'd like to curtail recon missions in the vicinity of the Gorz ships. I don't think we want them getting wind of the fact that we're spying on them, and I don't want to endanger my people."

McClintock paced for a minute, lost in thought, before responding. "No, Djai. I don't think we can afford that, but here's what we can do. As your reconnaissance missions return, let them know about the communication issues — don't send messages recalling them because that will increase our exposure. I don't want to jeopardize your people, though, so until we get a solid form of communication going, they'll have to go to more old-fashioned methods: Laser line-of-sight where feasible, hand-signals for close proximity communication, pre-arranged rendezvous, that sort of thing. Most of what worked for clandestine operations on Earth before we got all these new whiz-bangs should be adaptable to space reconnaissance. We have seen no evidence of their being aware of us, despite the fact that we've moved pretty freely among their ships, so let's exercise caution, but not throw the baby out with the bath water."

"If there's nothing else, that'll be it. The MIs will notify you if we need to meet again."

"Admiral?" Mtumbo asked, as he was about to leave.

"Yes, Djai?"

"Since we can infiltrate their fleet almost at will, why don't we just plant bombs on every ship in the Gorz fleet while they're in deep space and detonate them remotely?"

"Genocide, whether done at the hands of the Gorz or humans, is to be avoided at all costs, Djai," Colin told him. "If we do that, we're no better than they are. If we execute our plan effectively, we can eliminate the Gorz threat without eliminating the Gorz."

"And the Bandlars?"

"We have already begun relocating them," Colin answered wearily. "The loss of their home planet will not be easy for them to take, but they will survive as a race. If we had discovered them earlier, we might have been able to do more, but it wasn't until the Gorz changed course for their planet that we knew they even existed. We should have been scanning for other races along their trajectory before, but we've been so focussed on our own defense plans, it didn't occur to us that there might be other races in danger."

"I have spent many hours in the sleep teachers," Mtumbo said, "and yet, deep inside, I am still a warrior of the veldt. It goes against the grain to allow the Gorz this victory."

"You know the stakes, Djai," Colin said, "as well as I do. We are not yet ready for a pitched battle with the Gorz, so we help this race survive and continue preparing for our own battle. As cute as the Bandlars are, we cannot afford to put the Human race in jeopardy to save them."

As Mtumbo entered his cabin he told his MI to locate Lt. Oshiro, Pham Tran's second in command. A few minutes later, she stepped through the hatchway wearing civilian clothes.

"What can I do for you Sir?" Since she was no longer in uniform, she didn't come to attention, but stood alertly awaiting his response.

"Sit down, Kimiko" the General indicated a chair near his own. "Would you like something to drink?"

"I would, Sir, but I hoped to get it planetside."

"I understand, and I feel doubly guilty for what I'm about to ask of you." he gazed speculatively at her face for a several seconds before continuing, "I really should be asking this of Pham, but you and I have a bit of rapport, so I'm making an informal shortcut here. I'll fill Pham in if we come to an agreement, of course. Kimiko, you and the rest of Pham's people are my best reconnaissance team, and you've already gone above and beyond the call of duty in getting the Chofira's data and returning safely with it. I cannot countermand the Commodore's order for your team to take two weeks leave, so I must ask for volunteers. I want you to pick a small team to undertake the most ambitious and dangerous reconnaissance mission yet."

"Not without some time off, sir" Oshiro's lips set firmly; "They're dead tired, sir, and stretched to the breaking point. I know you wouldn't ask if it weren't important, but we need to be sharp for these missions, and right now, to get back to being sharp, we need some R&R."

"Of course, Kimiko. I apologize. The time is not that critical, but I have an idea how we might be able to cripple the Gorz logistically, and rescue most of their slaves, as well, and I wanted to get the necessary information to solidify the plans while they're fresh in my mind."

"Djai, you old marshmallow!" Kimiko, having occasionally shared Mtumbo's bed, could sometimes get away with such familiarity, as long as they were alone, and she didn't push it too hard. "I was thinking along those lines all the way back to Earth space."

Mtumbo sat forward in his chair and prodded Oshiro, "And did you come up with any ideas?"

"Actually, I have one, but it's pretty risky," she, too, was sitting on the edge of her chair by now.

"So, tell me about it!"

"Well, in a nutshell, what we need to do is hijack the slave ship." Oshiro was leaning forward, all fatigue gone from her body as she warmed to her topic. "Our tractor beams aren't strong enough to work against their drives, so we'll have to disable the drive, and since some of the warships patrol the area of space around the mining and factory ships, we'll either have to disable communication or kill the crew before a message can be sent. Personally, I think if we put enough Yuees aboard in armor, we can do both, and avoid a possible hostage standoff."

The General's teeth shone in stark contrast to the ebony of his features as his grin threatened to split his face. "Kimiko, you and I have essentially the same idea, but mine is a bit broader, and riskier."

"Really?" her surprise and delight soon gave way to curiosity. "Are you going to tell me about it, uh, Sir?"

His grin still as broad as before, he leaned forward and spoke conspiratorially. "You forgot about the slaves on the mining and manufacturing ships! Our original plan was to destroy those ships early in the conflict to keep the Gorz from regenerating their fleet as we took it apart. Now, I think we need to use your plan — on all the mining and manufacturing ships as well as the slave ship! Obviously, we'll need fleet support to pull it off. There's no way the Gorz are not going notice the departure of their entire non-combatant entourage, so the fleet is going to have to keep their warships out of our way while we do this, but I think we can pull it off. What I don't know is how many Gorz we'll have to deal with, how many slaves are on each of those ships, where drive and communication equipment is located, and a million other details that can only be gotten from inside the ships. That's why I wanted your people to go back out there."

"I tell you what, Sir." Oshiro was now caught up in the sheer grandiosity of the plan, "I'll talk to the team and see if they'll cut their leave short by a week. If they agree, we'll head back out next week. We've got the general layout of the ships from previous missions, so we should be able to find the locations of critical functions fairly easily."

"That would be great, but before you go, get them in the sleep teachers and then do some time in sims of old fashioned communication on clandestine missions. The Gorz might be able to detect the communications our armor and ID boats use, so we're going to have to do this like the old SEAL teams and Special Forces guys did when they didn't want the enemy to know they were around."

"Will do, Sir" Almost forgetting she was in civvies, Oshiro started to salute as she rose from her chair, then thought better of it and headed for the hatch.

"Before you go, Kimiko," he rose and came closer as she turned to look expectantly at him, "what was that word the Chofira used to describe the Gorz? Kulaffers?"

She broke into laughter, "Kulafri, Sir! She called them Kulafri."

"Kulafri," he rolled the word off his tongue, "it fits! Kulafri! Thank you Lieutenant!"

As the last of the furry Bandlars scampered into the transport, the building behind them crumbled into a pile of rubble. The charges set by the engineers did their work thoroughly, reducing what had minutes ago been a busy factory into heaps of dust and slagged metal. The Bandlars, being in the infancy of their world's industrial revolution, were unlikely to add significantly to the Gorz' inventory of stolen technology, but every race developed along slightly different paths, and the Bandlars might well have developed something useful that Chofri, Gorz and Humans had never considered.

We must leave now Dolores, Moira's MI imparted urgently there are at least three Gorz ID vessels approaching!

All right, get me Olsen. It took only milliseconds for the MI to connect to Wing Commander Olsen's fighter through the new gravitic communicator. Her face appeared in the panel in front of the CAG, still suited but not helmeted.

Hey JR, I need you to get the transport and the rest of your wing out of here. I'll stay here for a few more minutes and see what they throw at us. She registered Sangeeta's acknowledgement with part of her consciousness while giving orders to her MI, Get the message drone ready just in case.

Wing Commander Sangeeta 'JR' Olsen relayed the orders to the rest of her fighter wing and to the pilot of the transport, all hidden inside their see-throughs, and their telltales swiftly disappeared from Moira's instruments as her fighter's MI shifted its view toward the approaching enemy. How did you know they were there? I thought only capital ships could detect cloaked ships without telltales?

I first detected the perturbations in the local gravity caused by their poorly tuned ID drives, the fighter's MI sounded smug, then I noticed the disturbance of their passage through the dust of the collapsing building. The see-through only works for energy, particulates are pushed aside as they would be for any vessel.

Moira's ship hovered with its see-through off. She caused the fighter to jig a bit, as if the pilot were having trouble with the controls. This was the same kind of thing that she had observed the enemy ID ships doing. Seeing hers do the same thing might cause them to believe that she, too, had trouble with the controls. Suddenly, energy weapons opened up on Moira's location from three different directions. The ship's shield handled them easily, and Moira began moving the fighter jerkily away as if still having control problems. Suddenly, three small disc shaped objects streaked toward the fighter. Those are ID driven remotes. The MI informed her. We should evade quickly, I am not familiar with this sort of device.