The Spindle Station: Book 2 of the Alliance Conflict (21 page)

She then returned to her room and activated the dismounting switch on the picture viewer. Small lasers activated and cut it off of the wall. Jack subconsciously ran his hand against the hull wall where the viewer had been mounted. However, there was little cause for concern. The viewer had detached itself without leaving a trace of discoloration or raised metal.

Jack helped Ella carry the viewer off of the ship and load it onto the hovercart. They guided the cart into the huge, expansive spaceport. The spaceport was broken into several different sections; one for local travel, one for inner planetary travel, and one for interplanetary travel.

The spaceport looked like 30 giant lily pads stacked on top of each other. The landing pads started on a main column and snaked out in every direction. Each pad had a clear path to the sky, but was extremely close to the one next to it and possibly just above it. They had landed in the interplanetary section, the highest of the sections.

There were personal storage units just inside the main building. Ella selected an empty one and they unloaded the cart into the storage unit. Ella closed the unit, selected a time period of one week, and had Jack pay for it. She had verified that the unit was securely locked.

Jack was upset that (a) as a final insult he had to pay for the locker and (b) Ella had chosen to prepay an entire week. He doubted that she would be on the planet for more than a day or two at the most. Jack forced himself to smile though as he realized that he was nearing the end of his time with her.

The guide hoverbot had been patiently waiting for them to secure Ella’s belongings. Once secured, the bot escorted them directly to the Alliance Senate building.

……………………

The full senate session had just ended for the day, so Frank had moved to an ancillary conference room to wait for the freighter captain. The hoverbot had just signaled that he
Vista
had landed, so he knew it would only be a few more minutes until they arrived.

Like the main hall, the ancillary conference room was well proportioned and tastefully apportioned. The room could seat 16, but still maintained a feeling of coziness. Like the main hall, this room contained hues and key design elements from each of the three member races.

Frank supposed that was good, because there were members from each race present. He was joined in the room by Senator Korno from Altian, Senator Amanda Catmeows from Solaria, and unfortunately Senator Figur from Advranki. Admiral Dolen was expected to arrive at any moment.

Frank had only been in the room for 10 minutes, but had already become tired of Senator Figur’s seemingly mindless chatter. Somehow, listening to him talk about his collection of rare types of Advranki sea moss was worse than listening to him botch current affairs.

Frank had tried to maneuver this meeting to only include himself and Korno. However, since both of the secret agents were Solarians, Senator Amanda had demanded to attend. This had somehow caught Figur’s attention and he had invited himself to the meeting. All of the other senators decided to join as well.

Frank couldn’t stand being in the room with Figur any longer and asked to be excused. He walked into the restroom and checked every stall to ensure that he was alone. He then said, “Computer, activate personal privacy screen, maximum security level, and do not record the conversation. Contact the mystery gentleman.”

…Placing call. Contact established…

Like previous conversations, the communicator pad was set to voice only. Frank waited this time for the other person to speak. The man said in a metallic voice, “Your present will be ready in a couple of weeks.”

Frank wondered why the man bothered to disguise his voice. They were at the maximum security level; this conversation couldn’t be hacked or secretly recorded. Frank responded, “Good news, were there any issues?”

“Yes. There were several. Matching the firing pattern of a Hiriculan beam weapon proved to be rather difficult, primarily because there aren’t many examples. I had to get creative to find a way to obtain the signature.”

Frank said, “Excellent news.”

The man responded, “I will set up a meeting in two weeks or possibly 20 days at the latest to deliver the object.”

Frank couldn’t think of any adequate responses, so he simply said, “Stay safe” and smiled.

He realized that without video the man would not see the smile, but Frank didn’t care. Even if the smile was lost on the man, it made Frank feel better. Only another few days until he could be free of Senator Figur. He started mentally reviewing replacement candidates one by one, holding up his fingers to asses each one’s strengths and weaknesses.

His favorite candidate at the moment was probably Colok. Colok was a senator in the local state government, but his stock had considerably risen recently after his daughter Lexxi became a war hero. Also very important in Frank’s mind was that Colok owed him a huge favor. Frank was the one that arranged for Lexxi to be on the
Sunflower
. He was certain that he could use that fact to his advantage later.

Frank’s communication pad beeped and broke him out of his reverie. The hoverbot had just arrived, delivering Jack and Ella to the Senate building. Frank hustled back to the conference room and took his seat. Somehow, it was easier dealing with Figur knowing that the buffoon would be dead in a fortnight.

Frank stood immediately when they entered the conference room. Frank said, “Welcome back. Your report is phenomenal and your mission seems to have been a spectacular success. Please, tell us all about it.”

Frank inwardly smiled at his own wit. He had complimented the Solarians first and had effectively blocked the other senators from doing so. Frank looked over a Senator Figur. Figur looked flustered because he realized that he had been blocked from the chance to talk. Good, Frank thought.

Senator Amanda didn’t seem to care. She walked over and hugged both Jack and Ella and congratulated them for successfully completing their daring mission. She sat back down and Frank quickly waved to Jack to begin speaking.

Jack and Ella stood beside each other at the end of the conference table. Jack was the first one to give his report. Well, technically he gave roughly the first sentence that consisted of “We noticed that the Hiriculans have a new type of warship” when he was interrupted.

Senator Figur said, “What kind of warship is it. Were you able to obtain the ship’s specifications?”

Jack replied, “Yes. The new warship identified itself to us as a frigate. Basically, it is the size of a destroyer, but much heavier armed and armored. I would assume that the armaments greatly reduced the ship’s speed, but we weren’t able to confirm that because we didn’t see it accelerate.”

Frank waved his hand dismissively and said, “The specifications were included in the original information packet. Please, let the Solarians continue their story.”

Jack fast-forwarded a bit. “We docked at the station and explored the interior. There is a commercial shipyard and several business and apartments in the center of the station. The civilian activities appeared to be legitimate. The…”

Senator Figur interrupted, “Do you think the civilians know that there is a secret military base hidden in the station?”

Jack replied, “I think that some civilians must know of base’s presence. It is certainly possible though that many civilians do not. I thought the most interesting thing was seeing Netos on the station. The Netos were…”

Figur interrupted, “There were Netos on the station? What were they doing?”

Jack answered, “The Hiriculan we spoke to said that the Netos and the Hiriculans had signed some sort of agreement. The details were unclear, but it appears that Netos are allowed to leave their planet and work on Hiriculan merchant vessels.”

Ella added, “They called it the Hiriculan / Neto Treaty of Cooperation. Netos can work on merchant vessels, but they are not allowed to own or skipper interstellar vehicles. However, the…”

Figur interrupted, “I thought the Neto race wasn’t advanced enough to be of any benefit.”

Ella answered, “Unfortunately, we were not able to assess that. The interesting point about the Netos is that the ones we saw were missing their lower set of arms.”

Frank had read that in the report. He had wondered at the time what reason the Hiriculans would have to remove them. He briefly thought it would actually be nice to have Lorano near. He was certain Lorano could give an entire dissertation about it in a moment’s notice. Fortunately, he was saved any further reflection because:

Senator Figur asked, “Why do you think they removed their lower set of arms?”

Ella replied, “I have absolutely no idea. Our only guess is that it may be tied to their use as pilots in the Hiriculan Navy.”

Korno asked, “Switching subjects, how were you able to sneak into the secret naval shipyard? The report says that it was nearly invisible and well protected.”

Ella responded, “We were able to disguise ourselves as members of the Hiriculan military and trick the security guard to let us pass.”

Figur responded, “Wow! That was certainly impressive. Your actions were truly a spectacular success.” If Figur realized that had essentially repeated Frank’s comment he didn’t show it. He continued, “Were you able to learn anything that was too sensitive to put in the report?”

Ella answered, “No.”

Admiral Dolen took advantage of the quiet moment to say, “Jack, Ella, thank you for your excellent reconnaissance. Your service was spectacular. One final question, do you think the Hiriculans suspected that you were secretly spying on them?”

At the same time, Jack and Ella both said, “No.” Jack continued, “I firmly believe that they would have stopped our ship from leaving if they had suspected us.”

Admiral Dolen looked around the room to see if anyone else had any questions. They didn’t, so the Admiral said, “Jack, you are free to return to your ship and continue on your journey. Thank you for coming to talk with us. Ella, you are also free to go. You can take a week leave, then you need to go back to Conron and rendezvous with the
Sunflower
.”

Once they had left, Admiral Dolen said, “We cannot let this stand. The Hiriculans cannot have a forward military base so close to Alliance space and in clear violation of the treaty. This is a military provocation and must be addressed militarily. If we don’t show force now, the Hiriculans will not respect us in later negotiations.”

Senator Amanda said, “Yes, but unprovoked.”

Admiral Dolen shook his head and simply said, “Provoked.”

Amanda said, “Yes, but a provoked military action will appear at least publicly like we initiated military contact.” She overstressed the ‘o’ in the word provoked for emphasis.

Frank was impressed. Senator Amanda knew exactly what was at stake. Oh well, he thought, even a sightless wild animal obtains sea moss once in a while.

Frank made a mental bet with himself to see how more sentences Senator Amanda would say before she mentioned the steel plate. During the battle in Hepitila, the cruiser
Sunflower
had destroyed a mystery object. The object turned out to be a large steel plate that the Hiriculans had made for a series of new construction projects.

The primary project planned for the steel, of course, was the new office building on Solaria. As soon as its destruction was confirmed, the Hiriculans had a made point of telling the universe that they had been wronged and now they had no ready raw materials to support the construction project. Ambassador Bline had personally delivered the news to Senator Amanda.

Since then, Senator Amanda had complained endlessly that the pointless destruction of the steel plate may cause a two-year delay on Solaria’s most important project in a century. Sometimes, she wouldn’t even put it in a full sentence; if she disagreed with something she would just stand up and say “steel plate.”

Frank guessed she would make it three sentences. He should have guessed three words.

Senator Amanda said, “What about the steel plate? What if there is a perfectly legitimate reason why the military ships are there?”

Dolen simply replied, “There isn’t.”

Senator Amanda said, “What if we inform the Hiriculan ambassador that we know what is on the station and give him 2 days to remove it or risk military action? That way we can appear tough, but not risk a possible provocation.”

Frank responded, “That is actually a great plan. However, if we do that, we will lose all element of surprise. I think that should be option B.”

Korno asked, “Making option A?”

Frank paused for a moment and drew a long breath. He said, “I think we need to hear more from Admiral Dolen. Admiral, can you tell us exactly what a show of force would look like?”

Admiral Dolen replied, “Well, we would enter the system with enough firepower to destroy the Hiriculan fleet if they chose to fight. Then we would demand that they surrender since they are on the station illegally. We would legally gain 7 ships or force the Hiriculans to scuttle them. It would be a strong, powerful response.”

“How soon would your fleet be ready?” Senator Frank asked.

Dolen replied, “I don’t know exactly, but not long. Let me review it with my staff for two days. That will give me time to create a detailed, operational plan showing the composition of necessary ships and the timing.”

Senator Amanda said, “We aren’t seriously considering this, are we?”

Frank answered, “Not immediately. Let’s wait the two days, review the admiral’s proposal, and make a full senate vote.”

Amanda said, “Agreed. I believe that is the best course of action for the moment.”

Frank gave everyone his ‘I am just a humble servant’ smile. He was going to be very busy the next two days. He had to assure the senate vote would be 4 to 4, that Senator Figur would be the sponsor, and that he would be seen as reluctantly voting for military action.