Total Betrayal (Deep Space Endeavor) (41 page)

             
"That's great," Jesse started and then Serge commed in. "Chairman, could you excuse me for a moment." Tarrick nodded and Jesse answered Serge. "What's up, Serge?"

             
"My scans have picked up that they have very little in the way of planetary defenses. I just wanted to remind you that we have an extra planetary shield and forty older model plasma cannons that we liberated from Caracas. They aren't as good as the new ones, but certainly far better than anything they have now."

             
"Great idea, Serge," he replied, thankful once again for the generous people in his life. "Chairman Valinor," Jesse began again. "It would seem we have an extra planetary shield and forty of our older model plasma cannons. I propose we set them up to give Kaldor and your fleet some cover. If it's alright with you, we'll begin as soon as our cargo haulers land. My people know exactly where the equipment is."

             
"That would be outstanding, Admiral. This might go much better than I expected."

             
"I have a plan, too." he smiled. "I'm going to take my fleet to a system just out of sensor range and jump in after Tovanoras has committed his forces. This will enable Qualoosh, Julan and Sollonia to send their ships to Kaldor because Zelanott can get to any of those worlds quickly if Tovanoras attacks them with his wandering fleet. If we can get three of those four fleets here with us, it will be a rout."

             
"I believe you are correct. What of Ginderbar?"

             
"Your other allies will have to reinforce them. I'm fairly certain Tovanoras will be launching his wandering fleet from Chawanas, which means he doesn't want reinforcements coming here. This is his main objective."

             
"I shall contact our allies immediately and let them know the plan."

             
"Don't let anyone except Chief of State Enosal know we are here, though," Jesse cautioned. "The best way to plug a leak is not to feed it. The two of you, King Dominus and your top military guys are the only leaders I know I can trust. Our arrival can't go past us. I'm taking the fleet now, and leaving
Endeavor
with some extra teams to get your planetary defenses set up."

             
"Sounds good. Our allies will be ready to mobilize, and no one outside of the people you have specified will know of your arrival. I will talk with you soon, my friend." Tarrick ended the transmission.

             
"Get me fleet-wide," Jesse called to the
Vanguard
communications officer. "Attention, this is Fleet Admiral Jesse Marcos. We will be stopping on our way to our new home for a few days to help a friend. All of our cargo ships and space liners will be landing here. Please stay with your ship; it will only be a few days." He went on to briefly explain Garrinoras and Tovanoras to his people, after which he continued with the fleet instructions. "The rest of the fleet will be jumping to a system nearby in hopes of ambushing our enemy when he arrives. Everyone on the surface will be safe as Serge, Jason and several other techs as well as the crew of
Endeavor
will be setting up Polisia's planetary defenses. We will be back when the battle begins. Please be gracious guests to our Kaldorian hosts." When he had finished his announcement, the fleet jumped to a nearby system, just out of sensor range.

             
Josiah and Collin led six men to the site where they would be setting up the first shield generation station while Jason and Irina led six men to the second. The work would go much more quickly with teams of eight and the planetary shield would be functional within a day, maybe a day and a half. After the generation site had been hooked up, it needed to be linked to the other site. The power supplies then had to be loaded and the data pad had to be checked to make sure they were still linked. Occasionally, installing the power would sever the link, but it was rare. Still, it needed to be checked. Once both stations were powered up and linked, the shield could be formed around the planet. Jason and Collin each had an extra power supply for the shield, remembering how much that had helped during the recent invasion of Polisia. Once the stations were up and running, a secure facility would need to be built around each, otherwise they would always need to be running for their own protection and that would drain power.

             
Meanwhile, Maria, Serge, Ariel and Sanjay each led a team of twenty-four tasked with setting up ten of the plasma cannons each. Serge and Ariel each took a moon while Sanjay and Maria each set up their plasma cannons on Kaldor. Kaldorian soldiers were on hand to quickly build fences around the cannons to keep the people away. They had even built a small but functional guard station along the west side of the fence. The cannons on the moon didn't need such precautions as no one lived on the moon. Each cannon had to be powered up with a specific power supply which could not be easily duplicated. It then had to be networked in to the defensive grid so they could all be controlled at one location. The schematics of the friendly fleet groups then had to be inputted into the grid to reduce the chances of friendly fire taking out any of the ships protecting Kaldor. Once this was all finished, they had to move on to the next one. Each installation took between two and two and a half hours, so this was likely to take a full day.

______

             
Jesse sat in the mess hall on the
Vanguard
and this was the first time that it had really hit him that he wasn't likely to be joining his friends on these little outings anymore. The thought of that depressed him as he remembered the good old days. He was tempted to wallow in his new reality until Kimi came in with Lana and Sun. He still couldn't believe he and Kimi were married and he silently vowed to spend the rest of his life showing her how much he loved her.

             
"We figured you might be wallowing about missing the fun," Lana said with a smile.

             
"So we figured we'd cheer you up." Sun added as she hugged him.

             
Jesse leaned over and kissed Kimi and then looked at the girls and said, "Thank you; this was just what I needed. Becoming the guy that sends people out on missions instead of the guy that goes on missions is a tough transition."

             
"We know, and we're proud of you for it." Kimi replied.

             
"You know, you can still go on those missions if you would like, Kimi. Just because I'm sort of grounded, doesn't mean you are."

             
"I know, but I prefer to stay here with the three of you. I think I will only be going on rescue missions, and only if it is a personal matter. Other than that, I think I would like to take a few students and train them."

             
"I would love that," Lana replied excitedly. "Raina, too."

             
"No, I think I'm going a different path," Raina replied as she and Suzy both walked up to the table with their food. They were both wearing medical scrubs and Raina never looked happier.

             
"Wow, look at you, Medical Intern Cheng." Jesse applauded as he saw Raina. "Doctor Baker has already given me a very good report about you." Jesse said as he slid closer to Kimi to make room for her.

             
"I've only been interning for four days," Raina laughed, but she was beaming with pride.

             
"Well apparently, you have made quite a good first impression." Jesse replied as Lana hugged her best friend.

             
"She is going to be quite a talented doctor, Admiral," Suzy added with a smile. She hated being so formal with Jesse, but while they were on the
Vanguard
, she felt she needed to be.

             
"I finally found something I love that I'm good at, like you and Dmitri," Raina said to Lana with an air of excitement.

             
"And I'm really happy for you, but this means we're probably gonna see each other even less," she added sadly.

             
"Maybe at first, but not forever, when you're a famous ship's captain, I'll be the ship doctor and Dmitri will be the engineer." Raina replied with a twinkle in her eye.

             
"I would take that crew any day," Jesse laughed as they continued to eat. He had completely forgotten that he was not out setting up planet saving tech with his friends.

______

             
Josiah and Collin met Jason and Irina and made their way back to
Endeavor
. Josiah had been up for almost forty hours straight and needed some sleep. "Alright guys, go get some sleep. SAMMI, wake us in six hours, not before unless Kaldor is attacked.

             
"Six hours it is, Captain Jackson." SAMMI replied in her feathery voice. Nina smiled as Frost barked at SAMMI's voice. She couldn't figure out where it was coming from and somehow it bothered her.
It's a good thing we're not gonna be on
Endeavor
for the long-term
, Nina mused.
Because while the barking is cute now, it would get old really quick
.

             
"SAMMI," Josiah called again. "Same protocol for Maria, Serge, Ariel and Sanjay when they get back to the ship." With that, he began to make his way to his quarters without awaiting a reply. Four hours and forty-seven minutes later, SAMMI woke him from a deep sleep.

______

              Captain Snyder called down from the bridge of the
Vanguard
, "Transmission from Admiral Togglasem for you, Admiral."

             
"Thank you, Captain. I'll take it in my quarters." He replied quietly as he sat up in bed. He hoped he hadn't disturbed Kimi as he made his way over to the transmission console. It was unlikely that she was still asleep because her training allowed for her to wake very easily.

             
"Admiral," Jesse whispered. "What can I do for you?"

             
"I thought you would like to know that a large fleet has just left Chawanas heading in our direction. A smaller fleet has also left and seems to be heading towards Julan."

             
"So it's begun, what about the fleet at Zinnebulous?"

             
"We don't have any intel on that yet, but it would seem that it's only a matter of time."

             
"I agree, but I would feel a whole lot better jumping into Kaldor if I knew Tovanoras other fleet was at Ginderbar. I'd hate to be surprised."

             
"I agree." the Admiral replied.

             
"Either way, just stick to the plan. Keep the fleet behind the planetary shield, but don't turn the shield on until Tovanoras fleet opens fire. Take as many of his ships out from behind the shield as you can, but do not use the cannons until we show up. We're gonna give it about twenty-five to thirty minutes before we join you. I want Tovanoras to get used to the idea that the only surprise you have up your sleeve is the shield. If invading Kaldor is truly his goal, he will think the shield is only a temporary obstacle to his conquest. If he suspects we have a lot more surprises waiting for him, he might turn around and send all of his ships to Ginderbar. We won't have the same advantages there."

             
"What if his plan is to send all of his forces here? Ginderbar is almost seven hours away, we'll never be able to hold out that long."

             
"We won't have to. We can expect approximately one hundred fifty ships to reinforce Kaldor within an hour, plus our one hundred ninety-seven. Add to that the two hundred thirty-seven ships already defending Kaldor, plus the shields and cannons and we'll give Tovanoras all he can handle. Remember, Hyperian ships and my
Leviathans
and
War Hawks
are designed to take on greater numbers and win. He'll barely have a one and a half to one ratio. We can survive that. Still, I think he's going for it all. It's riskier, but if he's anything like his brother, he wants to make a huge splash and take the fight out of everyone right off the bat because he knows he doesn't have enough to win outright. He also knows he will never have enough if he waits, thanks to the new shipyards here, Ginderbar and Sollonia."

             
"I wish I had your confidence, Admiral Marcos." Togglasem said with a sigh.

             
"It's easy to be confident when it's not your home on the line, you should have seen me a few weeks ago, my friend, my face looked a lot like yours."

             
"Is it true that you can no longer fight and that is why you lead?" he asked, changing the subject to something that Jesse really didn't want to talk about.