Talosian Chronicles 5: Raptor Squadron Read online

  "How do you mean?" the girl asked.

  The woman winked at the girl, "Watch, you're about to see what I mean." She nodded toward the entrance to the gate area where several armed soldiers could be seen approaching the gate. They were being led by a man in a dark jumpsuit that was grinning smugly. However, when he tried to walk past the gate, he found he couldn't. One of the soldiers walked forward and slammed the butt of his rifle into the invisible barrier.

  One of the gate personnel walked up to him on the far side of the barrier. "Excuse me, Sir, can I help you?"

  "You can lower this fucking shield right the fuck now!" the man snarled.

  "I'm sorry, Sir, but I cannot do that. You are not authorized to proceed past this point with weapons or without an invitation from Terran Recruiting," the gate attendant replied.

  "I am with the Office of Homeland Security, and we are here to arrest all of you and seize your equipment. You are in violation of several articles of…" the Agent began but was interrupted.

  "I'm sorry, Sir, but you have no authority here. As these people are currently leaving, and in fact have legally already left the United States, you have no authority to arrest anyone. I would also ask you to please watch your language as there are several children present," the gate attendant asked politely.

  The man turned slightly, "Major, if this asshole doesn't open this gate immediately I want you to blow your way in," the Agent replied, and turned back to the attendant. "You are still on United States soil; therefore you are still subject to its laws. You are all terrorists and we will treat you as such."

  Major Hiro of the Raptor Samurai joined the attendant and bowed to him. "Thank you, Sir, we will take care of this issue from here. May I suggest you begin the boarding process?"

  "Of course, Major. Thank you," the attendant said and retreated quickly.

  Hiro then turned to the belligerent agent. "Mister Fergus, by order of the President of the United States and the Director of National Security, you are to be placed under arrest for exceeding your authority and violating several international agreements. At this time, you are required to place your weapons on the floor and prepare to be taken into custody."

  The agent laughed and the soldiers behind him smiled. "Just how are you going to do that? Besides, we have the authority here, not you!"

  "I am afraid you are mistaken, Mister Fergus. Twenty minutes ago, while you were trying to shoot down our shuttle, the Director of the NSA, acting on orders from the President, declassified you. We have been asked by the NSA to detain you until you can be retrieved. Please, Sir, drop your weapons and comply with these orders," Hiro said.

  Fergus turned to the Major beside him. "I've had enough of this shit Major, blow this open." When he turned back to Major Hiro he found himself looking down the barrel of a laser pistol. The force field was only one way, and Hiro had stuck his arm through it to put the pistol in the man's face. On two sides of the small group of soldiers, two Raptor officers dropped their camouflage and raised their pulse rifles at the troops.

  Hiro spoke, but did not take his eyes off of Fergus. "Major Grey, please drop your weapons or we will be forced to stun you and your men. Weapons fire in this area would place too many civilians in danger."

  The soldier nodded his agreement with that. "I understand and agree, but I have orders to obey Agent Fergus. I'm sorry, but may I ask who you are?"

  "I am Major Hiro, Commander of the Samurai. I am certain you have been briefed as to what that means, Major." Hiro replied.

  Again the man nodded. "I do. I also know I'm supposed to avoid hostile contact with you. So, I'm kinda stuck here. We can avoid all of this if you would just surrender and do as the Agent asked."

  "The 'agent' has been fired and is pending criminal charges by his former superiors. At this point, I am willing to let you and your men get back on your helicopters and go home. However, if we are to continue this, we will have no choice but to detain all of you. You have not done anything illegal yet, Major. I give you my word of honor that nothing will happen to you or your men as long as you retire now," Hiro replied.

  The Major put his hand to one ear letting Hiro know he was receiving a call. "Excuse me Major, but this is my command section. Perhaps this will help clarify my orders, may I take the call?"

  Hiro nodded to him and the man told the rest of his troops not to move at all as he stepped away.

  It only took a few moments before he was back. "Major Hiro, on behalf of the United States, I apologize for this entire incident. I have been ordered to detain Mister Fergus and also arrest the Director here, a Mister Fredrick Danes. With your permission I would like to send two of my men to do so at this time. We will not interfere in your operations any further." He turned to one of his men. "Rawlings, put some flexes on this asshole and make sure he doesn't have any weapons."

  Hiro nodded. "You may carry out your orders, Major. I hope the rest of your day is much less eventful."

  "We are to return both Fergus and Danes to Holloman Air Force Base to await transportation to a secure holding facility. I wasn't told where that will be, which tells me they're going to bury this" Grey replied. "In either case, with your permission, we'll get out of your A.O." (Area of Operations)

  Once the cuffs were on Fergus, Hiro holstered his weapon. "Have a safe trip home, Major." Hiro motioned for his men to let the soldiers go.

  TDF Star Dancer

  High Orbit

  Planet Atlas

  Centauri System, Sol Sector

  Commander Jennifer Williams, Commanding.

  On arriving back home, Ian found that routine reports and other 'paperwork' had piled up on him. There was a huge amount of information he needed to get caught up on in order to get back up to speed on what was going on in the sector and all the projects that were currently underway. He did gain some consolation from the fact that Luke and the other Councilors that had gone with him were in the same boat.

  When he saw the Spaceport America incident report, he added a recommendation that the Council work on adding their own security to the Earth facilities. He added a note that much could be done to help secure those facilities without using or even issuing lethal weapons. Force shields and stunners should be plenty of protection.

  There was a request from the Council for his personal assistance with an issue involving the United Nations. The Security Council was opposing the building and installations of orbital fortresses for the defense of the planet. The request cited that the countries involved did not want weapons that could be used against them to be placed in orbit. Idiots. If Ian had wanted to take over the planet or attack any of them he could have done that easily. What was their real issue with this? Control of course; they wanted to have control of those weapons. Since that would also give them access to that technology, it wasn't going to happen. Besides, they hadn't been asking the United Nations for permission to build the fortresses, they were telling them the devices were going to be built. Ian sent the request to his Aide to have her schedule the appointment. He needed to tell them of the plans for defending the planet in a worst case scenario anyway.

  The day after Ian arrived home on the Tiamat, the new workers and builders began to arrive. Serena and Jenny did a great job on providing security to screen the massive influx of workers, but when dealing with that many beings, Ian knew it was only a matter of time before someone got overlooked and a spy slipped in. It was for that reason that he wanted the orbital forts and all the other defensive precautions they had planned. Eventually, the Empire will find the Sol Sector and because of the ship yards, the research being done here and the academy they were building: it would be a priority target for them. They had to be ready for when, not if, that happened.

  Ian opened the file he maintained for planning the sector defenses and looked them over. At any given time, there was a considerable number of warships in the system either having just left the ship yards or awaiting their turn for repair or upgrades. Originally, Ian thought that would b
e plenty of fire power in the event of any unwanted guests arriving. However, a good argument could be made that those ships might not always be there. They would need a large, heavily armed fleet in order to defend the sector. He added a number of ships to the list of defenses for the sector as well as two divisions of ground forces.

  It would mean that more people would have to be recruited from Earth for the military, which might be a problem. While recruitment was very heavy, and they always had full shuttles running from the planet daily, fewer and fewer of the new people were signing up for the military. Ian thought that he might have to recruit from New Talos or some of the other Alliance races in order to fill out the crews of the defensive ships, which, he thought to himself, might not be a bad idea anyway. If we are going to espouse the virtues of working together and disregarding the boundaries of nationalism, then they should practice what they preach. He added a note to the file to begin working on creating multi-racial, integrated crews for the defense fleet.

  He noted the progress being made on the goals already in the file, and nodded to himself in approval. Alan Carlson and his team were certainly doing their part. Alan had even left a note in the file recommending the 'kits' containing the shields for the major cities be placed in drop pods and mounted on the orbital fortresses for rapid deployment. The only problem with that was how much it would increase the mass of the already heavy forts. Ian tentatively approved, but noted that the alteration would have to be run past the designers before final approval.

  On Atlas in the Centauri system, the planetary defenses were already being built and integrated into the structure of the population centers. There would be orbital forts there as well, but at least on that planet they didn't have to be sneaky about what they did or how they did it. The ground force training base, gunnery range, and impact areas for the bombers had been relocated to an arid planet in the Proxima Centauri system. The planet didn't have much for an atmosphere, being much like Mars had been before his people had begun terraforming it. The planet Minerva was actually a poor candidate for terraforming because of the primary it orbited. Proxima Centauri was an old red dwarf that was classified as a flare star. The flares, along with the high magnetics emitted, would prevent the terraforming of Minerva. In fact, anyone on the planet during a flare would have to be shielded from the heavy x-ray emissions.

  Sighing, Ian closed the file and moved on to the next item on the long list. He needed to get to work finalizing the attack on Hyperion, but he had to get caught up on all of this first. Granted, most of it was simply reading up on the progress of projects and construction, but he had to be kept informed so he knew what assets he had to call upon if and when they were needed.

  Seeing a follow-up report on the action at New Talos, Ian remembered his visit with Cindy when he got back. She was doing much better, although the doctors had not released her yet. They had determined that she had been suffering from a form of combat fatigue brought on by the situation she had found herself in on New Talos. She was aware of it, too, and was able to talk about it, which to Ian seemed pretty miraculous.

  "I'm okay now, Ian," Cindy had told him. "When I saw what those monsters were doing to those children, I couldn't help but think of our kids. I just lost it then. I don't really regret what I did to those… people, but I do regret how I did it. Will I be able to continue as a Raptor Team member? I think so, but Ty wants to re-evaluate me. I can't really blame him. What I did was something that shouldn't have happened, but it did."

  The doctors told him that she had about a fifty-fifty chance of recovery. She would either come back stronger than ever, or she would fold at the first sign of combat. The problem Ty had with that was that there was no way to test it without actual combat, because the soldier knew a test was only training.

  "Admiral, General Anders is here to see you. I contacted the Council administration about meeting with the UN, the next meeting is tomorrow at ten-hundred our time. Councilor Belden would like to get this issue resolved quickly. He asked if you could be ready to speak at that meeting," Alex said over the comm.

  "Tell Luke I'll be ready, and please send Ty in," Ian replied.

  Ian got up and went to the replicator for a fresh cup of coffee as Ty entered. Ian got him a drink as well and motioned the man over to the casual seating area. "I still have a ton of reports to go over, but if I sit at the desk anymore right now I'm gonna go batty."

  "You need to take breaks from time to time," Ty replied. "That's one of the reasons I come to see you in person instead of talking to you over the comm."

  Ian nodded. "So, is this a social call then, or did you have something on your mind?"

  "Actually, I was coming here to talk with you about how to recertify Cindy for duty; I think I have an idea. It'll take some doing, but I think we can pull it off," Ty replied. "You have that meeting at the UN tomorrow; since you've been gone for a while, why don't you take the family with you and spend some time together on planet?"

  Ian narrowed his eyes at Ty. "Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like this idea of yours very much?"

  "Because it will involve your family," Ty replied. "Keep in mind that, at no time will anyone be in real danger. Most of what will happen is will be in a virtual simulation." Ty said and took a sip of his coffee. "When you go down tomorrow, I'll assign the Damocles as security with a newly released Cindy at the helm. While she protects you and the Councilors at the UN, your family will be 'kidnapped' in order to force you to surrender or something. That's when Cindy's test will begin. I'll wait until after your address to the Security Council before I call you and tell you what happened. We can simulate any evidence we need to convince her this is for real, but in reality, your family will be perfectly safe back on the ship. Once you and Cindy board the Damocles and she gets her armor on, it'll go into simulation mode and run her through the test. The Damocles will return to the ship, but you won't be able to make a jump until the test is completed, since she would be able to feel a jump through the simulation. At that point, everything that happens will happen only in the computer realm. In her mind, it'll all be real. She'll be pissed once it’’s over, but I can deal with that."

  "Everyone but Cindy will have to know it's not real," Ian replied, thinking about it. "And I'm not happy using my family this way."

  "Major Hiro of the Samurai and the Ambassador can explain the situation to the Security Council after you leave. That way, if they happen to overhear something, they don't panic and do something rash themselves," Ty explained.

  "Can you get it all set up that fast? The meeting is at ten-hundred our time tomorrow."

  "I'll have to jump through my ass to do it, but I think I can. The hardest part will be convincing the doctors to release her under these conditions," Ty replied.

  "Offer to bring them along to monitor her. The armor should be more than capable of transmitting the data they'll need. I'm sure Beth will want to be actively involved as well," Ian said and nodded. "Do it. Get it set up. I'll call and let Luke know what's going on so he can be prepared for it. If you need me to do any 'pushing' for you, just let me know."

  Ty nodded and began issuing orders over his data pad. Ian sat and quietly sipped his cappuccino while he waited. Ty looked back up. "I'll brief the Damocles team before I leave the ship."

  Ian nodded his understanding. "I'll talk to Jenny and Beth about it tonight."

  Ty was hesitant. "You'll have to send your kids to Phoenix Base. There is no proof, but I think she can sense them when they're close by. We can bring them back aboard as soon as the test progresses to the point where she gets close to them, that will help her believe the simulation."

  Ian looked thoughtful. "It'll be difficult, but we can do it. I can ask their grandparents to watch over them and get them back here in time. You won't be able to use normal humans from Earth though. Our technological advantage would make it a very short test."

  "Yeah, you're right. We could always use a scenario involving a left over faction of
the Talosian Cadre. That would stress her even more since it was those assholes that forced the breakdown to begin with." He paused. "Sir, I'm not going to lie to you, what I'm going to put her through will be brutal. I'm going to do everything I can think of to cause her to break again. It's the only way we can be absolutely sure of her. Our only other alternative is to have a telepath work her over, and I'm not a fan of doing that. She is my best officer and has become a very close friend. It has to be done this way," Ty replied sadly.

  "I understand they are dangerous, Ty. But is it really necessary to go to these extremes?" Ian asked.

  Ty nodded. "Sir, let's say that Cindy does break again. Only this time, she decides that the UN is to blame, or worse, ARC High Command. What do you think would happen? What if she decides that everyone on Earth or New Talos is at fault?"

  Ian frowned. "She'd be killed trying to fix the issue."

  Ty snorted. "Only if we were very lucky. That would be the best case scenario, I'm afraid." He leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees and was as serious as Ian ever saw him; he even dropped the usual 'sir'. "Ian, if she wants to, she can become invisible; especially in a society that has humans in it. She has extensive knowledge of chemicals and explosives, is an expert marksman, and can walk past any ID scanner we know of without it detecting her. If she needed to, she could very easily and successfully hide from us. If she decides that someone needs to stop living, they will. Ian, she's better than I ever dreamed to be. We have to be certain about her, and we have to do it in such a way that we can control her or stop her if it fails. If we were still on Earth, the community would have already put a bullet in her head." Ty leaned back. "In my opinion, she is far and away the most dangerous and effective weapon system we have ever developed. We are the elite, Admiral, and she is the best of us."