Talosian Chronicles 3: Talosian Alliance (3 page)

“I’m not trying to argue with you, but what do I need an aide for?” Ian asked.

“Ian, I don’t know if you realize it or not, but you are no longer just the commanding officer of the ship, you are now commanding the military of the entire sector. That job is usually handled by an Admiral. Now, we know you’re not an Admiral, but that’s just paperwork, you’re doing the job, you need the help.”

“I wouldn’t be comfortable as an Admiral. I’m way too young for it.” Ian replied. “But, I thought I’d been doing pretty good on my own. Why do I need an aide?”

She sighed. “Ian, you’ve been doing so well because Talena, Cindy and I have been working twice as hard as we should be to make sure you have the information you need and are kept up to date on the projects you need to know about. Frankly, it's gotten to be too big of a job, and it’s affecting our job performances. Cindy even missed a patrol because she was taking care of something for you. Talena had to cover for her at the last minute.”

Ian looked at her in shock. “I had no idea. Why hasn’t Star...”

“She has her duties as well, Ian. She was the one to suggest an aide. You haven’t noticed, but the Council did, and Luke called me. This is the solution we came up with,” Jenny explained.

“Okay, I’ll meet with her. Until then, how is the Martian project going?” Ian asked.

“On schedule despite having to move the project to the secondary site. They should have the first of the domes finished in another couple of weeks. Once they get the domes finished, the rest of it should go pretty quickly. The research dome will be the next one finished, and then that facility should be ready for habitation in about six months.

“The largest dome, the factory area, and the external storage area will take longer, but the foreman reports that production should begin on schedule. The AI unit should be ready to go online shortly after the research area goes online, and it will be able to assist with the remaining construction on the base.

“The orbital ship yard is going slowly, but the initial frame has been assembled which is quite an achievement considering there are only eight humans on that project so far. It should go faster once the other crews return from Centauri,” Jenny finished. "Admiral Hawkins has asked to speak to you at your earliest convenience, and you have received another demand for communication from the President of the United States.”

“Thanks, I’ll call the Admiral and ignore the President,” Ian said grinning and shaking his head.

“You know, you’re going to have to talk to her sooner or later. If you don’t, she’s just going to keep on trying, and if we ever have to do anything on the ground in that country again, it would help if the government wasn’t actively hostile,” Jenny added.

Ian thought about that for a moment. “You’re probably right, I’ll consider giving her a call. I just didn’t want anyone to think we had a favorite country once we let the whole world know about us,” Ian replied.

“I understand that, Ian, but maybe you should try to let the President know that. You should also consider letting the rest of the planet know about us. There has been a marked increase in hostilities between countries down there since the Caldarian fight. Everyone knows something important happened, but no one knows exactly what it was. Each of the governments down there are pointing fingers and accusing each other of keeping knowledge of the event from the rest of them. In the case of the United States, that is true, they haven’t told anyone, anything.” While they had been talking, they had finished breakfast and left for Ian's ready room off the bridge.

“Okay, I’ll bring it up at the next Council meeting. What are you doing today?” Ian asked.

“I’m helping with the preparations for the Atlantic Base assault. You do know, don’t you, that if there are more Caldarians out there, shutting down their food supply will bring them here in force,” Jenny pointed out to him once again, this was an on-going disagreement between them.

“If it’s their only source of food, it might. However, I again point out to you that the volume of hydrocarbons being taken couldn’t support a population of Caldarians able to man more than three more of those ships. If we detect any other ships coming in on their original trajectory, other than the freighters, we will have time to get assistance here from the Talosian Defense Forces.”

“With all the bullshit going on over there, I’m not so sure I want to rely on them. I mean, Serena will be there for us, I know that. But will the rest? We don’t know any of the others, and from the sound of it, they are a bunch of self-serving ass-holes that could care less about us,” Jenny replied. “Look, it’s my job to point out to you the possible issues that can arise. That’s all I’m really doing.”

“I know hon, and you do raise some really good points. How about this; you keep working on getting the assault ready, and I’ll see if I can contact the Alliance of Races for advice. Would that make you feel better?” Ian asked.

“I don’t know. We don’t know anything about them either. I would say it certainly wouldn’t hurt to talk to them about it,” Jenny replied. “I can’t help but wonder what they’ll expect in return for their help?”

“We’ll, Luke and the Council were already considering speaking to them about a trade agreement anyway. In exchange for a mutual defense pact, we would be willing to assist them in ship upgrades, new fighter design, and production, with priority treatment in emergency ship repairs and possible entertainment facilities for the ships crews during the refit,” Ian explained.

“Well, that should at least get their attention. Let’s just hope it’s in a good way. Now, we both need to get to work; your new aide will be here in about fifteen minutes, and I need to get to a meeting with the planning group. You made a hell of a good choice in picking Alan Carlson to lead this mission. That man can be scary when he wants to be.”

Before he could answer her, she had left the room and closed the door behind her.

Melinda Cruze was a small, unassuming woman that knew exactly why she was there and what she was doing. Before he could blink, she had him sit down and briefed him on his day.

When he mentioned needing to call Admiral Hawkins, she made a note of it and said she would remind him about the call right after lunch. She already knew about the President pestering him for contact, and asked how he wanted to handle it. When he told her, she nodded and said she would see to it.

She told him if he needed her, she would be in the office across the hall from his ready room, or he could simply comm her and she would come straight into his office. The last thing she said was that he could call her Mel. With that, she was gone. Leaving him to wonder just what the hell he had gotten himself into. With a sigh, he turned to the pile of reports that had been building up in his terminal for the last three days.

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A
dmiral Hawkins, I understand you wanted to speak to me. What can I do for you today?” Ian asked when the Admiral’s image came up on his monitor.

“Good Morning, Commander. I hope your trip went well?” Hawkins replied, smiling at Ian.

“It was very instructive. The stations are coming along well, and the first one should be finished soon. The workers families that went with them are building the beginnings of a nice little colony on the planet Atlas. The rest of our projects are going well also. How is your grandson doing?” Ian asked. The Admiral’s fifteen year old grandson had been in a car accident and had barely survived. As it was, it looked like he was going to be paralyzed from the waist down due to a severe spinal injury.

“The doctors say he has turned the corner finally, and we should see improvement from now on. That’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about. Galen is going to be paralyzed. The doctors tell us that there has been too much damage to the spine for him to be able to walk again. You have advanced medical knowledge up there. Could you fix him?” Hawkins asked.

“I couldn’t honestly give you an answer to that, Sir. I’m not a doctor. I do know that the Talosian medical academy is quite a bit more advanced than ours. I could pass your question on to my chief medical officer, but I think she would need more information before she could give you a definite answer. I have seen them regrow limbs that have been blown off in combat, as well as fix other stuff that would have been terminal on Earth,” Ian replied. “The real question would be how would we get him here to treat him? If we simply kidnapped him, we’d have to take his whole family, and then the US Government could accuse us of kidnapping. As it stands now, they are threatening to do just that because of the citizens we’ve already recruited."

“Yeah, I figured as much. Look, I already know I’m going to be out of a job soon. The President knows I’ve been talking to you, and she thinks I'm selling out the United States. She’s going to replace me as soon as she can. After that, I’ll be offered retirement and not another duty station. Not that I really mind, because I agree that what you've done so far has been for the best, and it wasn’t counter to the United States or its policies. Well, except for not allowing us to salvage the alien wrecks, but that’s something for the politicians to deal with.

“I haven’t said anything to my wife, Taylor, or anyone else for that matter, but I’ve been thinking about asking you if we could retire up there with you. If I explain all of this to Galen’s parents, I’m sure they would jump at the chance to help their son. I’ve also been giving your recruiter a lot of names of folks; mostly vets that are waiting to die down here and a few others as well. So far, I’ve gotten very good reports back from those people.

“My son-in-law’s Marine battalion that you rescued from the ghouls at Papoose Lake tell me that they are doing really well, and the wounded have fully recovered. My daughter is over-joyed with the change. She said you have the best accommodations of any military she has ever seen, and the child care and education systems is far superior to ours. Her husband is so impressed, he has been urging me to get permission from you to start openly recruiting for you. He sees joining your forces as the first steps in finally combining all the militaries of the planet into one, and possibly ending wars on Earth. I never thought I’d ever hear something like that from him. He's always been a pessimist about things like that,” Hawkins finished.

“Damn, I had no idea. I guess we’re doing something right then. I take it from the way you’re sort of dancing around here, you would like to know if we can find a place for you up here?” Ian asked, grinning.

“Yes, but further than that, I’m asking for your permission to speak to my family about this. I know you don’t like recruiting people that don't have complete knowledge about what they’re getting into,” Hawkins asked.

“No, we don’t like doing that. We generally leave all of this up to our recruiters. I’ll ask Janet Laskar to call you as soon as she can. I'm sure she would be willing to handle the trickier parts of this for you,” Ian replied.

“That would be very helpful. There is one problem with Galen’s family though, my son is a military test pilot out at the Lockheed Martin Hughes Skunk Works near where your town used to be. I doubt he can just up and leave very easily," Hawkins replied. “He might even be a security risk to you.”

“Well, as I said before, I’ll let Janet handle it. She has an uncanny ability to tell who she can trust and who she can’t. It's spooky as hell sometimes. I feel I should warn you, not because I don’t trust you, Admiral, I do, but just in case, if anything happens to Janet while she’s out recruiting, we have elite teams always on standby to recover our recruiters if something happens to them,” Ian said.

“A wise precaution, and one I would expect. I don’t know if I would be as trusting as you if our situations were reversed. Thank you for that. I’ll do my best not to prove you wrong,” Hawkins replied.

“Sir, if you were in my position and knew everything I knew, I think you’d see that trust was possible in this circumstance,” Ian said. "With luck, you’ll know exactly what I mean once you settle in up here.”

Hawkins face brightened up a little. “You have a job for me?”

“Oh yeah, one that will most likely make you wish you could go back to the mountain!” Ian replied, grinning back.

“Dare I ask what it is?” Hawkins asked.

“I need someone with your abilities to run the Pleiades stations. That position means that you will also be in overall command of the ships that have been assigned to the stations for work, and any ships that have been completed but not yet accepted back by their commanders,” Ian said. "I’ve been wracking my brain to think of a commander for them, and I always keep coming back to you.”

“That’s a hell of a lot of responsibility for someone you so recently recruited, son,” Hawkins replied stunned. “If I were duplicitous, I could cause you no end of trouble.”

“With respect Sir, you would be far more evasive if you were. Besides, there will be an AI on the stations as well. They keep us from making any really major mistakes. You should have seen the look on Major Dancer’s face during the last battle, since I didn't use Talosian doctrine in fighting the Caldarians, she was terrified that I was going to get us killed,” Ian replied. “Of course, I couldn’t blame her, I was too.”

Admiral Hawkins chuckled at that. “Do you want me to give the names of the foreign military leaders it should be safe to approach to your Mrs. Laskar when I speak to her then?”

Ian nodded. “That would be best. All I would be doing is relaying the information to her anyway. As soon as we’re finished, I’ll call her and give her your number."

“Thanks, I really do appreciate it. I’m sure Galen and his family will as well.” Hawkins replied.

“Admiral, that position is still there for you, even if there is some reason Janet won’t approve your son. That is by no means a deal breaker. You and your wife will be welcome up here even if you don’t accept the job,” Ian said as seriously as he could.