The Battle for Lashmere Page 8

  Hanlon turned her attention back to the large central plot. She started to walk around it, trailing her hand along the smooth, rounded edge. About a third of the way around, a large console was built into the side.

  “New Dawn, can you tell me what all of these consoles are for? All of these tiers and banks of stations?”

  “The upper ring is for maintenance and secondary operations. The second ring is for planetary terraforming operations. The third ring is for scientific activities and research. The fourth ring is for systems operations and the fifth ring is for tactical and defensive activities.”

  Hanlon looked around and counted the rings. There were five tiers. At each tier, a variety of consoles were spaced around the perimeter. Each console was situated with screens, controls and a seat. She returned her attention to the console in front of her. It was built into the side of the main plot, implying it must be integral to the operations of the ship. There were no buttons, only a rectangular indentation roughly a meter across, half a meter high and three or four centimeters deep. Around the shallow opening was only a raised lip and a single large button at the bottom.

  “What about this console?”

  “Which console, Captain?”

  Hanlon resisted the urge to kick the console. “The one I’m standing right next to.”

  “That is the console that allows for programming of the neural wave transmitter. It will become functional once other systems have been repaired.”

  “How does it work?

  “Do you mean the neural wave transmitter, Captain?”

  “Yes, New Dawn, I mean the neural wave transmitter. Tell me how it works.” Was it her imagination or was the damn thing getting even more obstinate, rather than less so?

  “The system uses a specialized transmitter to saturate the area surrounding New Dawn with a wave that interferes with the neurochemical operations of the neo-cortexes of specific species. The wave causes misfires in the synapses of one or more species, depending on how unique the brain chemistry of the subject race is.”

  “Well, that’s pretty interesting. I take it you use the same technology to maintain the link with me when I can’t speak to you directly?”

  “Correct, Captain. The transmitter allows humans with a specific kind of genetic mutation to enter into a mutual interface that allows for communication with the New Dawn’s computer.”

  “Do you have a profile for the Woduur available for the neural wave transmitter?”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  “Well, the first thing I’m going to do is change the name of that thing. How about NEWT?”

  “A newt is a juvenile salamander, native to Earth.” The computer actually sounded offended.

  “It’s an acronym, New Dawn. N W T. NEWT. I can’t very well call it the brain beam. And I’m not going to constantly say neural wave transmitter over and over.”

  “Designation accepted.” New Dawn’s voice once again had that almost tone of resignation to it.

  “Perfect. Now we’re learning to get along.”

  New Dawn sounded confused. “How, so, Captain?”

  “Oh, getting along with me is easy, New Dawn. Just do everything I say, and we’ll be best friends in no time.” Hanlon felt her features stretch into the first genuine smile she’d had in a while.

  “New Dawn computer already obeys all orders provided by authorized operators.”

  Hanlon chuckled and said, “Well, you do try to keep things back from me.”

  Tolon touched her shoulder with one of his tentacles. “Captain Hanlon, I have convinced leader to provide all materials needed to repair the power systems and the transmitter.”

  “That’s great,” Hanlon replied.

  “There is a second piece of information you must be provided at this time, Captain.”

  Hanlon looked at Tolon expectantly and said, “What’s that, Tolon?

  “Leader refuses to provide the materials to repair the propulsion system until we have an agreement with your government to consume one of the planetary bodies within range of the protection of New Dawn.”

  “Well, we have some time to work this out. The repairs are going to take a long time, Tolon. I was hoping to get New Dawn to Lashmere in time to help against the Woduur. Is there a chance we can tow it to Lashmere?”

  “It is impossible, Captain. We have no ships of sufficient size to accommodate New Dawn.” Tolon bounced in place for a few seconds and then added, “I will continue to try to convince Leader to provide the materials to repair the faster than light drive.”

  “I appreciate that, Tolon.” Hanlon meant it, too. Without the Ulef, the New Dawn might as well be an asteroid. It wasn’t going anywhere without a massive influx of materials.

  “New Dawn, what is the NEWT currently set to interfere with?”

  “NEWT is currently programmed for a broad range interference pattern that will affect most races, but will not incapacitate any specific species.”

  So, if the Woduur came here, they might still be able to function well enough to attack the New Dawn.” Hanlon felt a sudden lurch of trepidation wash over her.

  “The NEWT system can be focused for maximum effectiveness against the Woduur, but they may still retain sufficient capacity to inflict some level of damage. In the original agreement with the Ulef, it was understood that they would provide a defense to make up for this shortcoming.”

  Hanlon turned to Tolon. “Do your people still stand by the original agreement?”

  “We do, Captain Hanlon. Leader is quite distressed that you have discovered this piece of information. It will want to be released from this portion of the agreement at the earliest possible moment.”

  Hanlon grinned at the Ulef. “I’m sure we can come to an arrangement, Tolon, but I’m going to want some guarantees. First, I want a solemn promise that the Ulef will not attack humans ever again without extreme provocation. I also want every scrap of material needed to completely repair New Dawn to optimal functionality.”

  Tolon bobbed up and down and then said, “Leader does not agree, Captain. It proposes we kill you and find a new human with the correct mutation, now that we know what to look for.”

  The lights in New Dawn’s command center suddenly flicked from bland yellow-white to scarlet.

  “Defensive mode engaged. The hostile intruder will be neutralized.” Several hatches opened along the ceiling, and small turrets dropped into place. They swiveled to aim at Tolon.

  “Wait!” Hanlon danced back away from the Ulef and said “Wait, New Dawn. Right now, it’s just relaying information. We’re negotiating. If Tolon makes any hostile move, you have permission to fire, but until then, do not attack.”

  “Confirmed,” New Dawn’s voice said in a terse tone.

  “That was rather extreme, wasn’t it, Tolon? I understand your people don’t want to be exposed to the threat of Woduur aggression. By the same token, I want my people to be protected. Surely you can understand that.”

  “We do,” Tolon said.

  “Then, can we just dial this back a notch. You don’t really want to kill me, and, frankly, without my help, the New Dawn will cease to function in a matter of months anyway. A year or two at most. You gain nothing by threatening me. I’m willing to offer a compromise, but New Dawn is under my control, now. Killing me is the same as killing yourselves.”

  Tolon stood motionless for a period of several minutes. Hanlon watched him with a growing sense of uncertainty. The Ulef certainly wanted to maintain control of the situation, but the New Dawn was a human ship, and it wouldn’t respond to them the way it did to her.

  “Captain Hanlon, Leader will provide the needed materials. In exchange, we require that you maintain protection of the Ulef people. As a minimum portion of this agreement, the Ulef must relocate to Lashmere along with the New Dawn.”

  “I think the Lashmere government will agree to that, Tolon. We don’t want your people dying, either.”

  “It is agreed then. Once New Dawn is repaired
, the Ulef will call Lashmere home.”

  Chapter 10

  Theo Cobb stood, staring at the large datapad he held in his hands. It displayed a citation interface, for parking violations. Over the last several days, he had been caught twice by his supervisor working on the disappearance of Karn terrorists. As a result, he had been demoted yet again and was now assigned to patrol the area around the Lashmere Naval Headquarters, looking for illegally parked cars.

  Cobb looked balefully at the datapad and then punched the maximum citation button, issuing a hefty fine for the delivery van parked in a no loading zone. He looked both ways along the street, and, seeing no other cars he could ticket, walked towards the large park located along the perimeter of the naval base. He sat down on one of the benches scattered throughout the area and leaned back, closing his eyes and letting his head rest against the back of the bench. He could see the bright mid-day sun burning through his eyelids.

  He needed to come up with a plan that would get him back into the intelligence team, but, so far, his efforts had done nothing but put him within a hair’s breadth of being terminated from the Lashmere Law Enforcement Division altogether. He brought his head up and looked around. No one was obviously observing him. He reached inside the uniform jacket he wore and pulled out a smaller datapad. He scrolled through the accumulated data. He was certain the Karn resistance had managed to get aboard the Behemoth by hacking the computers where the selectee list was stored and by using fake identities.

  The method they’d used to falsify their identities wouldn’t work in the long term, but it had been more than sufficient to get them aboard. During the few days when the Behemoth completed its assigned evacuation of the selectees, it was fine for the brief period they had actually needed it. No one had thought to complete a background check to make sure the people being picked up were in reality who they said they were.

  Cobb needed to know why the intelligence service had allowed this to happen. The problem now was his complete lack of access – not only to the intelligence mainframe, but to the enforcement computer network altogether.

  Something else bothered him as he sat, considering his situation. He’d worked in intelligence for years before this current debacle. Something about it made no sense. Being removed from intelligence service altogether for a couple of arguably botched investigations was completely beyond the usual parameters of how the division normally operated.

  He decided his overly forcible removal from his intelligence position must have some other explanation. Such a reason would also account for why his new position was under such intensive scrutiny. There must be a way to verify his theory, but the only way to be sure would be to get into the intelligence mainframe and have a look at his own personnel file, which was classified, of course.

  In his current position, that would be impossible. There was one hope, however. With the Woduur invasion of Karn, he might be able to use the distraction to exploit a different kind of weakness. Many of the people who now worked for the division lacked the extensive counterintelligence training he possessed.

  Cobb turned the idea over in his head a few times before he decided he had the rudiments of a workable plan. He tapped out a sequence of numbers on his comm. A few seconds later, a soft female voice answered.

  “Theo? I didn’t expect to hear from you again.” The voice belonged to a low-level filing clerk with whom Cobb had once had a very brief involvement. She’d made it clear she was still interested, but Cobb needed to alleviate himself of the distraction to concentrate on his duties.

  “Elise, I was thinking of you just now. I thought we might spend some time together and catch up.”

  “Oh, well that would be fun. Would you like to meet? Get some coffee?”

  Cobb cringed inwardly at the irrational tone of hope the woman’s voice held. He kept his voice firm and said, “I have some spare time this evening. Can we meet for dinner?”

  “Of course! I mean yes, Theo. I look forward to it. Do you want to pick me up?”

  “Sure, I’ll pick you up at your place at twenty-two hundred.” The thirty hour day of Lashmere put that time in mid evening. Perfect for some food.

  “Great. I’ll see you then.”

  Cobb disconnected the comm. A small part of him truly regretted what he was about to do. Exploiting the attraction of a woman for whom he had no reciprocal feeling was one of the oldest tricks in the operative rulebook. His only real concern was that he would get caught and wouldn’t manage to complete the task he’d assigned himself.

  He needed to get the rest of his plan in place before he met up with Elise. He commed his supervisor next.

  “What do you need, Cobb?” Her voice carried the usual tone of exasperation, irritation and thinly veiled discomfort she always had when speaking to him.

  “I don’t feel well. I’m going to go home for the rest of the day.”

  “Fine.” The comm channel beeped off less than a second later.

  Cobb chuckled to himself. His new supervisor repeatedly demonstrated she didn’t like him at all, but her ways of expressing it never ceased to amuse him for some reason. He turned his thoughts to how he would complete the second, and much more difficult, part of his plan. He walked briskly to his car. It was a short trip back to his small, one bedroom apartment.

  The computer he had in his apartment was deliberately isolated from any local network and was physically incapable of connecting to either the publicly available planetary data network and the covert network maintained by the government. It was the only machine he felt safe using for all of the information he’d thus far gathered about the Karn terrorists.

  The machine quietly hummed to life. The large, holographic screen filled the space above the projector. Cobb quickly scrolled through the various pieces of information. Everything from newspaper articles, to credit reports, was placed alongside the information originally taken from the enforcement network. When put together, it all painted a very neat picture of a coordinated Karn terrorist move to bring along as many of their number as possible, and place them all aboard the Behemoth.

  Cobb rubbed his chin while he considered the information. The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed that the division had simply missed it. Some analyst overlooked a couple of points and came to the wrong conclusion. It was unlikely, but it was also the only way the intelligence service could have missed such an important development.

  He turned his thoughts from the Karn. What he had to figure out now was far more dangerous. Once he’d spent some time with Elise, he needed to move throughout the Lashmere Intelligence facility without attracting too much attention.

  A map, constructed mostly from memory showed the entire facility. The route would need to be perfect. Security systems were designed to prevent the exact type of infiltration he planned to make. He turned the floorplan around on his display and added ventilation, utilities, power, and service areas. He mapped the layout onto a satellite image of the building he’d taken from the public net. He didn’t have a complete picture, but he knew what he needed to know. The air ducts were too small to move through. The utility areas didn’t connect and were only accessible from already secure areas.

  His only two options would be to either fool the building security, both people and automated systems, into believing he was there legitimately or to use some kind of distraction. No amount of subterfuge would be enough to get him into the secure mainframe room.

  He opened the file that contained everything he’d been able to remember from the power systems. There was absolutely no public information, and the only thing he’d managed to add to what he remembered was the obvious, and likely redundant, power connection visible from satellite imagery.

  A complete loss of both external and internal power would not significantly degrade the security in the building. Contingency plans were in place for just such an occurrence and people, armed with battery powered security backups would be put in place in moments.

  Cobb mar
ked the locations of storage lockers containing the backup units. That part he’d been sure he remembered. He mapped out the movements of security personnel and found there was a small window he might be able to slip through. The trick would be to be entering the building at just the right moment. The really difficult part would be to disable the internal power generation systems. Fortunately, he knew exactly how to do that.

  The generators at Lashmere Intelligence employed a principal of maximum redundancy. They tied to the building through a switch that sensed a loss of external power. One generator was always in service, and two others would immediately start if there were a loss of power. Three generators could power everything in the building with ease. The weakness was the switch, itself. If power was shut off and then almost immediately afterward, a massive power surge was fed through the power line just as the two additional generators were coming online; the power regulation systems could be damaged or destroyed. That, followed by a second loss of external power would leave the building in the dark for at least twenty minutes while maintenance crews bypassed the damaged power controllers.

  Those steps would have to be completed by an automated control. With no other people to help him, he would have to build a system to complete these tasks by remote. Cobb pulled open a drawer in the desk his computer sat on and pulled out a small stack of datapads. All of them were identical. He’d used them on several occasions in the past to perform various tasks during field operations. He started programming a timing interface. High power relays and a large energy capacitor were also things he would need. A few hundred feet of copper wire and some high current power control circuits would complete the list of materials he needed.

  A few hours later, Cobb was achingly tired from winding the heavy copper wire into a usable coil and trimming it onto a wooden frame. The bundle of wiring would act as an accumulator once placed in the electrical system. He attached it to the heavy power relays and then connected the far more delicate control wires to one of his datapads.