Andrew Wilson
6th February 2005, 07:09 PM
Previous chapters are at http://templar.anifics.com/
Disclaimer: The characters within belong to Pioneer, Harmony Gold, and a
couple to Palladium books. No profit was made from this work of fiction
Need For Protoculture: The Sentinels
by Andrew Wilson
Chapter 4: Heirs to Strife
While the man that entered the SDF-3 briefing room was aged, he was
broad shouldered and physically fit. The younger man behind him looked
incredibly uneasy, which actually sparked a touch of sympathy in
Tenchi. Something about the blue-haired boy was familiar...
"Is that you?" Doctor Lang breathed. He had entered a few moments
before the Tiroleans and only now got a look at them. He also seemed
intent on the young man. "Zor?"
"Definitely not," the elder insisted. Behind him, the doors again slid
open and Exodore entered, followed a moment later by Breetai. "There is
a little resemblance about the nose and chin, but Zor has been dead for
centuries. This is my assistant, Rem."
"You always were a bad liar, Cabel." Exodore took his seat at the table
with his customary dignity. "But that is beside the point."
Cabel's eyes were on the verge of popping from their sockets as he
beheld the short Zentradi. The Tirolean's mouth flapped open and closed
several times before he was brought back to reality by a huge hand
slapping his shoulder.
"It is good to see that at least one colleague of Zor still lives,"
Breetai rumbled.
Tenchi hoped that there weren't going to be any more shocks. It didn't
look like the old man could take much more. Luckily Lisa - whose
command of Zentradi was strongest in the room (besides Exodore and
Breetai, of course) - took hold of the situation and quickly made
introductions.
"Earth, you say?" Cabel said. "That could be most unfortunate. Ten
years ago the Masters took the last five motherships and departed. They
took a sampling of the greatest of the population."
"Meaning the most easily controllable of their breeding program," Rem
added darkly.
"Ten years?" Lisa asked. "Then why was there no sign of them before we
departed?"
Cabel shook his head. "Protoculture reserves have been dwindling for
decades. They would not have used fold drives, but slower superlumina
drives. It will take them another ten years to reach your home. More,
if the Invid catch up to them."
Breetai stiffened. "The Invid know of Zor's ship and the location of Earth?"
"No," Cabel quickly replied. "Definitely not. They will be following
the motherships and their support vessels."
"Admiral-" Breetai began.
"I know," Lisa quickly replied. "We have to get back as soon as
possible. We can't give either group a shot at Earth."
"You cannot hope to defeat the Invid," Cabel said. "Even Dolza's Grand
Fleet was only able to hold them back."
"They defeated the Grand Fleet," Breetai noted.
Cabel brightened. "Then you have the Protoculture Matrix!"
"No," Exodore said through the confusion encompassing the rest of the
table. "The Matrix does not exist. We conducted a thorough search."
Cabel rubbed his chin and finally shook his head. "I believe you are
mistaken, but it had been to long for me to remember immediately."
"You are sure the Robotech Masters are on their way to Earth?" Lisa
asked in an attempt to get the conversation back on track. At Cabel's
sad nod, she turned to Lang. "How long before we can fold back?"
Lang calmly tapped his stylus on the electronic pad in front of him. "I
am not completely sure. After this meeting I will be meeting with my
engineers to determine the precise protoculture drain from the fold.
From there we will begin calculations for the return fold based on-"
"How long?" Rick asked amid several glares directed at the scientist.
"Two to six weeks," Lang replied. "We also have a firm estimation of the
current date. November nineteenth, twenty-twenty."
Lisa nodded with a smirk. "That will help log entries."
"You're leaving already?" Rem asked incredulously.
"Settle down," Cabel advised. "This isn't their war. Enough of their
people died chasing the Invid out of the system, we can't ask them to do
more."
"That's about the size of it," Lisa explained. "We came here
to...discuss things with the Robotech Masters-"
Cabel's sudden eruption of laughter cut of Lisa's statement. "Admiral, I
saw your ships. Rem and I witnessed the explosions in space that
heralded your arrival. I know exactly what you wanted to do, and I can
hardly blame you."
"Thank you," Lisa said.
"Question," Tenchi ventured. "How adept are the Invid at tracking folds?"
Cabel shrugged. "If they witness your fold, they can track you easily to
your destination. They have a unique understanding of hyperspace, which
even the most advanced navigational systems cannot match."
"So they could follow us to Earth." Tenchi leaned back in his seat and
quickly ran through ways to phrase his arguments. He could already see
what needed to be done, but convincing the others was a different story.
"The Invid are an unknown factor in the grand scheme of things. The
last time Breetai fought them was almost two hundred years ago, and he
did not recognize some of the mecha we encountered today. We have to
assume that they have numbers comparable to Dolza's fleet, as well."
Tenchi paused, took a breath, and locked gazes with Lisa across the
table. "We can't let them know about Earth, Lisa. We can't allow a
second Rain of Death."
That brought the others around, he could see. Not totally, though.
"What about the Masters?" Rick asked.
"The motherships will be weak," Cabel said, "and their mecha depleted.
From what I've seen today, your people should be able to hold."
"Ten years," Rick mused. "We can give it a shot. Maybe give the Invid a
bloody enough nose to leave us alone before we fold back to Earth."
Tenchi saw Cabel and Rem stiffen at Rick's statement. Neither Tirolean
said anything, but Tenchi knew what they were thinking. He was thinking
the same thing, and it sickened him. *They were like insects. We either
have to find a way to make peace...or we'll have to kill every last one
of them. Earth is doomed if we don't.*
Lisa nodded again. "Doctor Lang, I'm sure you have work to do. Breetai,
if you could take care of our guests, please see that they are shown
every courtesy."
The dismissal was clear, as was the unspoken order for Rick and Tenchi
to stay. When the others had left, Lisa fixed Tenchi with one of her
most blistering look. "As for you, mister, where did you learn to play
people so well?"
Tenchi smiled. "From a person that spent several centuries suckering the
Jesuits. For fun."
Lisa shook her head. "I'll buy that. While you two were wrapped up with
the battle dirt-side, I received a message from Heinlin."
"The lifepod?" Rick asked.
Lisa said one word that managed to inflame Tenchi's anger at the same
time it caused the room's temperature to drop. "Minmei."
*******
During the fight with Kagato over a decade before, Tenchi had been given
a suit of Juraian battle armor. He still used it instead of standard
REF vacuum suits because it provided mobility and protection that Doctor
Lang had not (yet) been able to match. The armor was stored in a
sub-space pocket until Tenchi activated it, but his non-Juraian biology
meant that the triggers were sometime's a little twitchy. This was
usually a good thing, as it meant his armor would appear before he could
consciously summon it. It also meant that in times of great anger or
stress, it would appear without prompting.
Ayeka was very familiar with this trend, having witnessed the triggers.
So it came as little surprise when internal sensors registered a power
surge in the command tower's main briefing room. She gave it no mind
except to request a maintenance team to check for damage after the
Admirals had finished. That done, she returned to supervising the
salvage teams gathering scraps of the Invid vessels for analysis.
*******
Lisa showed no reaction to Tenchi's sudden outburst save a single raised
eyebrow. Rick glanced around the room to both confirm that the hull was
not breached and to avoid looking directly at Tenchi. Tenchi himself
was seething, unsuccessfully trying to bring his temper back under
control. He had years of practice staying calm in the most stressful
circumstances, yet something about Minmei turned what others described
as a block of ice into a raging inferno.
"That was a little more dramatic that I expected," Lisa calmly observed.
"I guess we can't space her," Tenchi ground out.
"No," Lisa replied. "Not that it wasn't tempting. But I think we can
use her."
"Morale," Rick mused. "We need a boost, with the losses in combat and
the fiasco with Edwards."
Tenchi nodded, and forced his armor back into its storage pocket. That
was certainly true, no matter how hard he tried to deny it. He already
had two wing commanders and seven squadron leaders ready to ignore the
JAG and the council and take 'justice' into their own hands. He had his
work cut out for him, in addition to filling the new holes in his
roster. "If there's nothing else, I'd better see to my people."
"One more thing," Rick said before Tenchi could leave. "Those two that
found the natives, I noticed they were assigned to Spitfire by you,
instead of the normal selection process."
Tenchi nodded. "Penn is a good pilot, and a great tactician. But she
tends to get lost in the problems and loses her situation awareness. I
figure Baker would be able to keep her alive, and maybe calm him down at
the same time. Putting them under Miriya keeps them close without
appearing to favor them, as a position in Hurricane and Skull would."
Lisa raised an eyebrow at Tenchi's explanation. "And why would you be
favoring them."
"Penn is the daughter of Lang's number two man, but she's a byproduct,"
Tenchi said simply.
"Baker?" Rick asked incredulously. "Penn I can understand, she'll make a
hell of a commander when she gets straightened out, but *him*?"
Tenchi smiled sadly. "His mother's maiden name was Dixon."
Rick blinked a couple of times as the information sank in, then nodded
slowly. "Good call, Tenchi. You always were better with people than me."
Tenchi smiled sadly. "Had to do something with you and Max flying
circles around me."
*******
[December 5, 2020*]
Rem glanced again at the handwritten directions in his hand and up at
the featureless door in front of him. The directions were rather
specific, and the codes he had used so far worked perfectly. But this
was the end of the directions Dotor Lang had given him, which meant that
whatever the Earth scientist wished Rem - and only Rem - to see was
behind that door. Rem entered the last code on the list and waited. A
moment later the door slid open to reveal a tall woman with a decidedly
unpleasant expression on her face.
Rem twitched under her gaze, but held his ground. "I must have the wrong
lab, excuse-"
"You're expected," the woman said in a cold voice.
From further inside the lab, a second voice called out. "Zaria, show
the kid in before you destroy what little good humor is left."
Rem was quickly ushered into the lab. He paused a moment in the
entryway to admire the work space. Some might label it as 'cluttered'
due to the diagrams, models, and equipment. Rem, on the other hand,
immediately saw the method and organization below the clutter. His
attention was drawn to a woman sitting on a cushion that floated above
the deck. She looked up from the holographic display and studied him
for a few seconds.
"So what do you know of mecha design?" she asked sweetly.
Rem shrugged. "I know a bit of Zentradi designs and bioroids-"
"Perfect!" The slim redhead exclaimed. "You're just what we're looking for."
"Washu," Zaria said in a low voice, "when I suggested outside opinions
for the current impasse, I didn't mean someone outside the REF entirely."
Washu waved the other woman off and turned to Rem. Her face was
dominated by a smile that Made Rem nervous for a reason he couldn't put
a finger on.
"So, Mr. Rem, would you like to help me with some experiments?"
*******
"Are you alright Commodore?"
Tenchi nodded as the shiver finished its path through his body. "Yeah,
just a chill."
"As I was saying," Tom Forsyth continued, "we could easily modify the
Tokugawa-class to hold up to four squadrons of Veritechs."
"Split the fleet?" Lisa asked.
"Given Invid tactics," Rick noted, "it is the best solution. I doubt
we'd do much heavy fighting, so a lot of the anti-ship weapons on our
battle cruisers are going to waste."
"Keep the spine-mounted lasers," Forsyth added. "And half of the heavy
missile launchers. Strip the heavy cannons from the broadsides, and you
have instant hanger space."
Lisa nodded slowly. "Like you said, those guns are wasted against Invid
tactics. Looks like we could form up to six strike groups. But I want
to keep the SDF-3 here at Tirol."
"The shipyards," Breetai rumbled.
Lisa nodded. "Precisely. They're not as efficient as a factory
satellite, but unless we can figure out a way to recall one of the
remaining ones, we're stuck with the old Fantoma yards. So we will keep
SDF-3, Merrimack, and Monitor on-station while the other groups scout
the local systems."
"Still pretty exposed," Tenchi commented. "On the other hand, a lot of
the natives are expressing interest in joining. I say let them test and
train."
Rick nodded. "No command positions yet, but we will be strapped for
people before too long."
"Agreed," Lisa said. "If there is nothing else we'll meet again next week."
*******
"Commodore Masaki?" came a deep voice in the hall way.
Tenchi twitched slightly and turned toward the voice. "Yes, Ms. Em?"
Janice Em slid to a halt in front of Tenchi and stood in what could pass
for a parade rest. "I understand you're accepting applicants for
Veritech training."
"Yes," Tenchi said cautiously as he eyed the singer.
"I wish to sign up, sir."
"I figured that, Ms. Em. What does your partner think of this?"
Janice snorted. "Lynn is too busy getting drunk to care about what I
do. One of your wing commanders has seen her more than I have since the
fold."
*That would be Jon,* Tenchi noted. He gave Janice a measuring look.
"Alright, lets go."
Janice blinked in surprise. "Where?"
"Simulators. I have an hour free. Let's see if you're worth training."
*******
Anna Mitchels looked up from her desk as Tenchi staggered into the
office. Judging from the sweat patches, the Commodore had been through
a frantic sim session. A single data chip was dropped onto Mitchels' desk.
"Process this when you get a chance. Put the applicant in the
accelerated program."
Mitchels raised an eyebrow. "I sent the singer to talk to you. Was she
that good?"
"Better," Tenchi replied as he turned and exited.
*******
[December 31, 2020*]
It was a dance.
It was a dance in the grandest of the repaired buildings on Tirol.
Topping the attendance list, besides as many REF personnel as could fit,
were many of the remaining Tirolean leaders that the Hunters were trying
to turn into allies. That task was largely successful, especially
considering the REF's role as saviors. Relieved tension combined with
military personnel in need of leave led to the largest party in Tirolean
history (what little they could glean from half-destroyed data banks and
libraries).
The hall was dominated by the dance floor. Music was provided by an
impressive synth system that a communications tech worked like a concert
pianist. Over in one corner, a poker tournament was underway with an
intensity usually reserved for combat. A bar had been set up, with a
pair of Tyrolean women were drinking half the marines under the table.
On the plains outside the city, Wildcard and Wolf Pack squadrons were on
hovercycles and playing a game of their own devising that was a
combination of American football, polo, paintball, and a demolition derby.
Tenchi paused and looked over at the two 'tirolean women'. Something
about them was not right. As he approached, their true identities
became obvious. As another marine was dragged off, Tenchi sat across
from the pair. One had short, purple hair done up in a bun, while the
other's face was framed by a mass of midnight-blue curls. The hair and
different clothing was just enough to keep most observers from noticing
that the two women had the same face.
"So where's number three?" he asked. "The one you're shunting all the
alcohol to?"
"Three, four, and five, actually," Ryoko replied through her disguise.
The other Ryoko belched quietly and continued. "These guys can toss it
back. Must be the bio-enhancements. Lang went overboard with the marines."
"You might want to create another," Tenchi suggested. "It's starting to
leak back."
"Nonsense," Ryoko #1 insisted.
"It's just an act," Ryoko #2 continued.
Tenchi laughed. "How about you pull yourself together and I take you
somewhere you can crash?"
The Ryokos smiled in unison and leaned forward. "Just crash?"
"You and your one-track mind," Tenchi sighed. "Come on."
*******
Sue Graham smiled to herself as Commodore Masaki practically dragged a
pair of women out of the hall. The fact that the women were pawing at
him made the pictures even better. The CAG was the most drooled-worthy
of the unattached officers on the command staff, especially after
Hunter's marriage. Possibly the entire fleet, but Graham did not want
to make that assessment quite yet. She was a journalist, after all, and
had a responsibility to gather facts.
And this was almost too juicy a story to pass up. Graham knew something
was up with Commodore Masaki. Rumors bounced all around the fleet about
him, but Graham had never been able to acquire anything substantial. It
stank, really, that the stories she had hoped to gather as the sole
'attached' journalist in the REF were turning out to be for nothing.
The fleet personnel were the most boring military force in history.
Where were the scandals, the corruption, the drama? Instead of finding
the twenty-first century's version of Douglas MacArthur, she got Chester
Nimitz. The closest to any action was the scuffle over T.R. Edwards.
Graham had made sure to get all the details of that. Imagine the gall
of the Hunters, wanting to kill such a fine officer over an equipment
failure.
Speaking of the happy couple, Graham spotted the pair on the other side
of the hall and directed one of her small remotes there. The little
robots were hard to spot, contained the best recording equipment that
could fit on the frame, and cost her half the profits from her last
book. She had given up on trying to get one close to Masaki, but the
Hunters were never able to spot them. Graham maintained an air of
observation as the rest of her mind focused on the conversation.
She sighed a moment later and directed the remote elsewhere. Mixing
military business and newlywed innuendo. That took some effort. Then
again, Graham would not be surprised if war was a turn-on for those
two. She was pretty sure it was for the wife, but the husband always
struck Graham as being more sensible than that.
This was getting her nowhere. Sure, the story could be sold as a series
of fluff pieces, or some kind of war chronicle. But to really make the
sale, to put her name on top of everything, she needed a controversy.
She needed scandal, incompetence, conflict in the ranks. She needed
something to happen!
With a synchronization that could not have been coincidence, every
military individual in the hall froze. Graham knew she had a story as
she flipped her earpiece over to the security channel (getting that
frequency and the codes had taken some doing).
"-Repeat, all personnel report to battle stations. Unidentified contact
in the outer system. Repeat, all-"
Graham switched the earpiece off and smiled. Obviously not Invid
trouble - that would not have been 'unidentified'. But it was something
interesting, and a nice distraction from the latest rebuffed attempts to
get the real story on the REF.
*******
"What are we looking at?" Lisa asked.
"Still unknown," Ayeka replied. "Nothing in the computer matches these
readings."
"And what about the computers we recovered from the Masters' old
hangouts?" asked Rick.
Ayeka shook her head. "Those are stranger still. Depending on what we
look at, the ship could be one of a number of origins. I can say that
it is not an Invid vessel."
Exodore studied the reading for several seconds as the bogey crawled
across the plot. "Several readings seem familiar. The main emissions
seem to be from a Carbonarite heavy transport, but the supra-light drive
seems to be Spherian."
"And those are?" Lisa prompted.
"Two separate races in the local group. They had approximately the same
technology of pre-protocultue Tiroleans. Zor's original explorations
met up with them." Exodore paused. "They became subjects of the Empire,
and were later overrun by the Invid."
"Would the Invid use their ships?" Rick asked. "As a kind of Trojan horse?"
Exodore laughed. "Admiral, you utterly destroyed the Invid fleet. At
best, they know that the system was taken. The strategic and cultural
information required for such a deception-"
"So they don't know enough about us to try this," Rick interrupted.
"Communications?"
A communications rating handed Lisa a memo board and departed without
comment. Lisa studied the flat screen for a few moments and nodded.
"We're getting something, but our translators can't make heads or tails
of it. We're checking it against the Tirolean linguistic databases now."
Rick nodded and turned back to the display. Lisa looked to Rick and
jerked a thumb in the general direction of Rick's command station. "Get
Tenchi out there. He's to take one squadron and guide the ship in. I
want close-in readings and hull shots while he's at it."
Rick nodded and set to work. He knew Lisa's line of reasoning as well
as his own. The contact was still ten light-minutes out, and they
needed more information. Having Tenchi out there was like having
themselves.
*******
Tenchi clicked the com. "Hurricane form on me. All other squadrons
maintain formation. Command wants us to take a look."
Acknowledgments came from the other squadron leaders. The entire
fighter group had been scrambled with the alert, and it looked as though
they were not being recalled anytime soon.
Hurricane squadron formed around Tenchi's fighter as he locked in an
intercept course. The ship was moving slow for a starship, barely ten
percent of light. The capital ships of the REF were capable of half
again that speed.
"Match my course," Tenchi instructed. "Maximum speed. Boost on my
mark." The squadron quickly did as directed while Tenchi's Beta crew
confirmed his course calculations. "Boost."
The oversized Beta engines flared as one and rapidly accelerated the
squadron to fifty percent of light speed. While the inertialess drive
thumbed its nose at theories on time dilation at such speed, the Doppler
effect was quite real and produced an amazing view for the pilots. The
stars ahead intensified as the blue-shifted and many vanished as they
crawled up into the ultra-violet range, while the further from
center-line the effect lessened. Behind them, Tenchi knew, the reverse
was happening, as stars shifted down through the spectrum to infrared.
Tenchi turned his eyes away from the stars and studied his instruments.
At these speeds, a fraction of a second or a fraction of degree and the
squadron would be horribly off course. Even if this was not a
first-contact situation, he would not be happy if the squadron messed
up, especially since it was *his* squadron.
But the course was correct. Hurricane squadron overshot the bogie by
several thousand kilometers before cutting their engines. They quickly
hauled their Legios units around and approached it from behind. Sensors
located in the Beta units reached out and tickled the oddly-shaped
craft. It appeared to match Exodore original assessment. The ship was
a hodge-podge of different designs. Total mass was comparable to a
Tokugawa-class battle cruiser, though this ship was not a warship. The
few weapon turrets mounted on the ship seemed to have been bolted on
with little thought for effectiveness.
"Unidentified vessel," Tenchi hailed in Zentradi, "you are in restricted
space. Identify and state your intentions."
There was a burst of static from the radio, but nothing more. Tenchi
repeated his hail as the ship traveled closer to Fantoma. Tenchi sighed
in his cockpit and painted the ship with his targetting radar. The
others in the squadron followed his lead within a matter of seconds.
Unless the unknown ship was completely blind, they knew they were in
trouble.
"Unidentified ship," Tenchi broadcast, "respond immediately or you will
be considered hostile and fired upon."
The channel hissed with static again and a cultured voice began speaking
in Tenchi's ear. "Apologies. We were having technical and linguistic
problems. This is Farrago, and we seek assistance."
"What kind of assistance?" Tenchi asked warily.
"Assistance in destroying the Invid conquers," a second, harsher voice
growled. "What else would be worth doing?"
End Chapter 4
Notes:
Those familiar with the Sentinels story can probably guess what the *
next to dates is for. For everyone else, all will be explained in time.
On a creative note, I hate writing filler. This entire chapter
accomplishes little, but like many similar chapters in this saga, it
does establish how the story goes from point A to point B.
And when I outlined the story, everything from the defold until now was
1 chapter. Just goes to show how effective those are.
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Disclaimer: The characters within belong to Pioneer, Harmony Gold, and a
couple to Palladium books. No profit was made from this work of fiction
Need For Protoculture: The Sentinels
by Andrew Wilson
Chapter 4: Heirs to Strife
While the man that entered the SDF-3 briefing room was aged, he was
broad shouldered and physically fit. The younger man behind him looked
incredibly uneasy, which actually sparked a touch of sympathy in
Tenchi. Something about the blue-haired boy was familiar...
"Is that you?" Doctor Lang breathed. He had entered a few moments
before the Tiroleans and only now got a look at them. He also seemed
intent on the young man. "Zor?"
"Definitely not," the elder insisted. Behind him, the doors again slid
open and Exodore entered, followed a moment later by Breetai. "There is
a little resemblance about the nose and chin, but Zor has been dead for
centuries. This is my assistant, Rem."
"You always were a bad liar, Cabel." Exodore took his seat at the table
with his customary dignity. "But that is beside the point."
Cabel's eyes were on the verge of popping from their sockets as he
beheld the short Zentradi. The Tirolean's mouth flapped open and closed
several times before he was brought back to reality by a huge hand
slapping his shoulder.
"It is good to see that at least one colleague of Zor still lives,"
Breetai rumbled.
Tenchi hoped that there weren't going to be any more shocks. It didn't
look like the old man could take much more. Luckily Lisa - whose
command of Zentradi was strongest in the room (besides Exodore and
Breetai, of course) - took hold of the situation and quickly made
introductions.
"Earth, you say?" Cabel said. "That could be most unfortunate. Ten
years ago the Masters took the last five motherships and departed. They
took a sampling of the greatest of the population."
"Meaning the most easily controllable of their breeding program," Rem
added darkly.
"Ten years?" Lisa asked. "Then why was there no sign of them before we
departed?"
Cabel shook his head. "Protoculture reserves have been dwindling for
decades. They would not have used fold drives, but slower superlumina
drives. It will take them another ten years to reach your home. More,
if the Invid catch up to them."
Breetai stiffened. "The Invid know of Zor's ship and the location of Earth?"
"No," Cabel quickly replied. "Definitely not. They will be following
the motherships and their support vessels."
"Admiral-" Breetai began.
"I know," Lisa quickly replied. "We have to get back as soon as
possible. We can't give either group a shot at Earth."
"You cannot hope to defeat the Invid," Cabel said. "Even Dolza's Grand
Fleet was only able to hold them back."
"They defeated the Grand Fleet," Breetai noted.
Cabel brightened. "Then you have the Protoculture Matrix!"
"No," Exodore said through the confusion encompassing the rest of the
table. "The Matrix does not exist. We conducted a thorough search."
Cabel rubbed his chin and finally shook his head. "I believe you are
mistaken, but it had been to long for me to remember immediately."
"You are sure the Robotech Masters are on their way to Earth?" Lisa
asked in an attempt to get the conversation back on track. At Cabel's
sad nod, she turned to Lang. "How long before we can fold back?"
Lang calmly tapped his stylus on the electronic pad in front of him. "I
am not completely sure. After this meeting I will be meeting with my
engineers to determine the precise protoculture drain from the fold.
From there we will begin calculations for the return fold based on-"
"How long?" Rick asked amid several glares directed at the scientist.
"Two to six weeks," Lang replied. "We also have a firm estimation of the
current date. November nineteenth, twenty-twenty."
Lisa nodded with a smirk. "That will help log entries."
"You're leaving already?" Rem asked incredulously.
"Settle down," Cabel advised. "This isn't their war. Enough of their
people died chasing the Invid out of the system, we can't ask them to do
more."
"That's about the size of it," Lisa explained. "We came here
to...discuss things with the Robotech Masters-"
Cabel's sudden eruption of laughter cut of Lisa's statement. "Admiral, I
saw your ships. Rem and I witnessed the explosions in space that
heralded your arrival. I know exactly what you wanted to do, and I can
hardly blame you."
"Thank you," Lisa said.
"Question," Tenchi ventured. "How adept are the Invid at tracking folds?"
Cabel shrugged. "If they witness your fold, they can track you easily to
your destination. They have a unique understanding of hyperspace, which
even the most advanced navigational systems cannot match."
"So they could follow us to Earth." Tenchi leaned back in his seat and
quickly ran through ways to phrase his arguments. He could already see
what needed to be done, but convincing the others was a different story.
"The Invid are an unknown factor in the grand scheme of things. The
last time Breetai fought them was almost two hundred years ago, and he
did not recognize some of the mecha we encountered today. We have to
assume that they have numbers comparable to Dolza's fleet, as well."
Tenchi paused, took a breath, and locked gazes with Lisa across the
table. "We can't let them know about Earth, Lisa. We can't allow a
second Rain of Death."
That brought the others around, he could see. Not totally, though.
"What about the Masters?" Rick asked.
"The motherships will be weak," Cabel said, "and their mecha depleted.
From what I've seen today, your people should be able to hold."
"Ten years," Rick mused. "We can give it a shot. Maybe give the Invid a
bloody enough nose to leave us alone before we fold back to Earth."
Tenchi saw Cabel and Rem stiffen at Rick's statement. Neither Tirolean
said anything, but Tenchi knew what they were thinking. He was thinking
the same thing, and it sickened him. *They were like insects. We either
have to find a way to make peace...or we'll have to kill every last one
of them. Earth is doomed if we don't.*
Lisa nodded again. "Doctor Lang, I'm sure you have work to do. Breetai,
if you could take care of our guests, please see that they are shown
every courtesy."
The dismissal was clear, as was the unspoken order for Rick and Tenchi
to stay. When the others had left, Lisa fixed Tenchi with one of her
most blistering look. "As for you, mister, where did you learn to play
people so well?"
Tenchi smiled. "From a person that spent several centuries suckering the
Jesuits. For fun."
Lisa shook her head. "I'll buy that. While you two were wrapped up with
the battle dirt-side, I received a message from Heinlin."
"The lifepod?" Rick asked.
Lisa said one word that managed to inflame Tenchi's anger at the same
time it caused the room's temperature to drop. "Minmei."
*******
During the fight with Kagato over a decade before, Tenchi had been given
a suit of Juraian battle armor. He still used it instead of standard
REF vacuum suits because it provided mobility and protection that Doctor
Lang had not (yet) been able to match. The armor was stored in a
sub-space pocket until Tenchi activated it, but his non-Juraian biology
meant that the triggers were sometime's a little twitchy. This was
usually a good thing, as it meant his armor would appear before he could
consciously summon it. It also meant that in times of great anger or
stress, it would appear without prompting.
Ayeka was very familiar with this trend, having witnessed the triggers.
So it came as little surprise when internal sensors registered a power
surge in the command tower's main briefing room. She gave it no mind
except to request a maintenance team to check for damage after the
Admirals had finished. That done, she returned to supervising the
salvage teams gathering scraps of the Invid vessels for analysis.
*******
Lisa showed no reaction to Tenchi's sudden outburst save a single raised
eyebrow. Rick glanced around the room to both confirm that the hull was
not breached and to avoid looking directly at Tenchi. Tenchi himself
was seething, unsuccessfully trying to bring his temper back under
control. He had years of practice staying calm in the most stressful
circumstances, yet something about Minmei turned what others described
as a block of ice into a raging inferno.
"That was a little more dramatic that I expected," Lisa calmly observed.
"I guess we can't space her," Tenchi ground out.
"No," Lisa replied. "Not that it wasn't tempting. But I think we can
use her."
"Morale," Rick mused. "We need a boost, with the losses in combat and
the fiasco with Edwards."
Tenchi nodded, and forced his armor back into its storage pocket. That
was certainly true, no matter how hard he tried to deny it. He already
had two wing commanders and seven squadron leaders ready to ignore the
JAG and the council and take 'justice' into their own hands. He had his
work cut out for him, in addition to filling the new holes in his
roster. "If there's nothing else, I'd better see to my people."
"One more thing," Rick said before Tenchi could leave. "Those two that
found the natives, I noticed they were assigned to Spitfire by you,
instead of the normal selection process."
Tenchi nodded. "Penn is a good pilot, and a great tactician. But she
tends to get lost in the problems and loses her situation awareness. I
figure Baker would be able to keep her alive, and maybe calm him down at
the same time. Putting them under Miriya keeps them close without
appearing to favor them, as a position in Hurricane and Skull would."
Lisa raised an eyebrow at Tenchi's explanation. "And why would you be
favoring them."
"Penn is the daughter of Lang's number two man, but she's a byproduct,"
Tenchi said simply.
"Baker?" Rick asked incredulously. "Penn I can understand, she'll make a
hell of a commander when she gets straightened out, but *him*?"
Tenchi smiled sadly. "His mother's maiden name was Dixon."
Rick blinked a couple of times as the information sank in, then nodded
slowly. "Good call, Tenchi. You always were better with people than me."
Tenchi smiled sadly. "Had to do something with you and Max flying
circles around me."
*******
[December 5, 2020*]
Rem glanced again at the handwritten directions in his hand and up at
the featureless door in front of him. The directions were rather
specific, and the codes he had used so far worked perfectly. But this
was the end of the directions Dotor Lang had given him, which meant that
whatever the Earth scientist wished Rem - and only Rem - to see was
behind that door. Rem entered the last code on the list and waited. A
moment later the door slid open to reveal a tall woman with a decidedly
unpleasant expression on her face.
Rem twitched under her gaze, but held his ground. "I must have the wrong
lab, excuse-"
"You're expected," the woman said in a cold voice.
From further inside the lab, a second voice called out. "Zaria, show
the kid in before you destroy what little good humor is left."
Rem was quickly ushered into the lab. He paused a moment in the
entryway to admire the work space. Some might label it as 'cluttered'
due to the diagrams, models, and equipment. Rem, on the other hand,
immediately saw the method and organization below the clutter. His
attention was drawn to a woman sitting on a cushion that floated above
the deck. She looked up from the holographic display and studied him
for a few seconds.
"So what do you know of mecha design?" she asked sweetly.
Rem shrugged. "I know a bit of Zentradi designs and bioroids-"
"Perfect!" The slim redhead exclaimed. "You're just what we're looking for."
"Washu," Zaria said in a low voice, "when I suggested outside opinions
for the current impasse, I didn't mean someone outside the REF entirely."
Washu waved the other woman off and turned to Rem. Her face was
dominated by a smile that Made Rem nervous for a reason he couldn't put
a finger on.
"So, Mr. Rem, would you like to help me with some experiments?"
*******
"Are you alright Commodore?"
Tenchi nodded as the shiver finished its path through his body. "Yeah,
just a chill."
"As I was saying," Tom Forsyth continued, "we could easily modify the
Tokugawa-class to hold up to four squadrons of Veritechs."
"Split the fleet?" Lisa asked.
"Given Invid tactics," Rick noted, "it is the best solution. I doubt
we'd do much heavy fighting, so a lot of the anti-ship weapons on our
battle cruisers are going to waste."
"Keep the spine-mounted lasers," Forsyth added. "And half of the heavy
missile launchers. Strip the heavy cannons from the broadsides, and you
have instant hanger space."
Lisa nodded slowly. "Like you said, those guns are wasted against Invid
tactics. Looks like we could form up to six strike groups. But I want
to keep the SDF-3 here at Tirol."
"The shipyards," Breetai rumbled.
Lisa nodded. "Precisely. They're not as efficient as a factory
satellite, but unless we can figure out a way to recall one of the
remaining ones, we're stuck with the old Fantoma yards. So we will keep
SDF-3, Merrimack, and Monitor on-station while the other groups scout
the local systems."
"Still pretty exposed," Tenchi commented. "On the other hand, a lot of
the natives are expressing interest in joining. I say let them test and
train."
Rick nodded. "No command positions yet, but we will be strapped for
people before too long."
"Agreed," Lisa said. "If there is nothing else we'll meet again next week."
*******
"Commodore Masaki?" came a deep voice in the hall way.
Tenchi twitched slightly and turned toward the voice. "Yes, Ms. Em?"
Janice Em slid to a halt in front of Tenchi and stood in what could pass
for a parade rest. "I understand you're accepting applicants for
Veritech training."
"Yes," Tenchi said cautiously as he eyed the singer.
"I wish to sign up, sir."
"I figured that, Ms. Em. What does your partner think of this?"
Janice snorted. "Lynn is too busy getting drunk to care about what I
do. One of your wing commanders has seen her more than I have since the
fold."
*That would be Jon,* Tenchi noted. He gave Janice a measuring look.
"Alright, lets go."
Janice blinked in surprise. "Where?"
"Simulators. I have an hour free. Let's see if you're worth training."
*******
Anna Mitchels looked up from her desk as Tenchi staggered into the
office. Judging from the sweat patches, the Commodore had been through
a frantic sim session. A single data chip was dropped onto Mitchels' desk.
"Process this when you get a chance. Put the applicant in the
accelerated program."
Mitchels raised an eyebrow. "I sent the singer to talk to you. Was she
that good?"
"Better," Tenchi replied as he turned and exited.
*******
[December 31, 2020*]
It was a dance.
It was a dance in the grandest of the repaired buildings on Tirol.
Topping the attendance list, besides as many REF personnel as could fit,
were many of the remaining Tirolean leaders that the Hunters were trying
to turn into allies. That task was largely successful, especially
considering the REF's role as saviors. Relieved tension combined with
military personnel in need of leave led to the largest party in Tirolean
history (what little they could glean from half-destroyed data banks and
libraries).
The hall was dominated by the dance floor. Music was provided by an
impressive synth system that a communications tech worked like a concert
pianist. Over in one corner, a poker tournament was underway with an
intensity usually reserved for combat. A bar had been set up, with a
pair of Tyrolean women were drinking half the marines under the table.
On the plains outside the city, Wildcard and Wolf Pack squadrons were on
hovercycles and playing a game of their own devising that was a
combination of American football, polo, paintball, and a demolition derby.
Tenchi paused and looked over at the two 'tirolean women'. Something
about them was not right. As he approached, their true identities
became obvious. As another marine was dragged off, Tenchi sat across
from the pair. One had short, purple hair done up in a bun, while the
other's face was framed by a mass of midnight-blue curls. The hair and
different clothing was just enough to keep most observers from noticing
that the two women had the same face.
"So where's number three?" he asked. "The one you're shunting all the
alcohol to?"
"Three, four, and five, actually," Ryoko replied through her disguise.
The other Ryoko belched quietly and continued. "These guys can toss it
back. Must be the bio-enhancements. Lang went overboard with the marines."
"You might want to create another," Tenchi suggested. "It's starting to
leak back."
"Nonsense," Ryoko #1 insisted.
"It's just an act," Ryoko #2 continued.
Tenchi laughed. "How about you pull yourself together and I take you
somewhere you can crash?"
The Ryokos smiled in unison and leaned forward. "Just crash?"
"You and your one-track mind," Tenchi sighed. "Come on."
*******
Sue Graham smiled to herself as Commodore Masaki practically dragged a
pair of women out of the hall. The fact that the women were pawing at
him made the pictures even better. The CAG was the most drooled-worthy
of the unattached officers on the command staff, especially after
Hunter's marriage. Possibly the entire fleet, but Graham did not want
to make that assessment quite yet. She was a journalist, after all, and
had a responsibility to gather facts.
And this was almost too juicy a story to pass up. Graham knew something
was up with Commodore Masaki. Rumors bounced all around the fleet about
him, but Graham had never been able to acquire anything substantial. It
stank, really, that the stories she had hoped to gather as the sole
'attached' journalist in the REF were turning out to be for nothing.
The fleet personnel were the most boring military force in history.
Where were the scandals, the corruption, the drama? Instead of finding
the twenty-first century's version of Douglas MacArthur, she got Chester
Nimitz. The closest to any action was the scuffle over T.R. Edwards.
Graham had made sure to get all the details of that. Imagine the gall
of the Hunters, wanting to kill such a fine officer over an equipment
failure.
Speaking of the happy couple, Graham spotted the pair on the other side
of the hall and directed one of her small remotes there. The little
robots were hard to spot, contained the best recording equipment that
could fit on the frame, and cost her half the profits from her last
book. She had given up on trying to get one close to Masaki, but the
Hunters were never able to spot them. Graham maintained an air of
observation as the rest of her mind focused on the conversation.
She sighed a moment later and directed the remote elsewhere. Mixing
military business and newlywed innuendo. That took some effort. Then
again, Graham would not be surprised if war was a turn-on for those
two. She was pretty sure it was for the wife, but the husband always
struck Graham as being more sensible than that.
This was getting her nowhere. Sure, the story could be sold as a series
of fluff pieces, or some kind of war chronicle. But to really make the
sale, to put her name on top of everything, she needed a controversy.
She needed scandal, incompetence, conflict in the ranks. She needed
something to happen!
With a synchronization that could not have been coincidence, every
military individual in the hall froze. Graham knew she had a story as
she flipped her earpiece over to the security channel (getting that
frequency and the codes had taken some doing).
"-Repeat, all personnel report to battle stations. Unidentified contact
in the outer system. Repeat, all-"
Graham switched the earpiece off and smiled. Obviously not Invid
trouble - that would not have been 'unidentified'. But it was something
interesting, and a nice distraction from the latest rebuffed attempts to
get the real story on the REF.
*******
"What are we looking at?" Lisa asked.
"Still unknown," Ayeka replied. "Nothing in the computer matches these
readings."
"And what about the computers we recovered from the Masters' old
hangouts?" asked Rick.
Ayeka shook her head. "Those are stranger still. Depending on what we
look at, the ship could be one of a number of origins. I can say that
it is not an Invid vessel."
Exodore studied the reading for several seconds as the bogey crawled
across the plot. "Several readings seem familiar. The main emissions
seem to be from a Carbonarite heavy transport, but the supra-light drive
seems to be Spherian."
"And those are?" Lisa prompted.
"Two separate races in the local group. They had approximately the same
technology of pre-protocultue Tiroleans. Zor's original explorations
met up with them." Exodore paused. "They became subjects of the Empire,
and were later overrun by the Invid."
"Would the Invid use their ships?" Rick asked. "As a kind of Trojan horse?"
Exodore laughed. "Admiral, you utterly destroyed the Invid fleet. At
best, they know that the system was taken. The strategic and cultural
information required for such a deception-"
"So they don't know enough about us to try this," Rick interrupted.
"Communications?"
A communications rating handed Lisa a memo board and departed without
comment. Lisa studied the flat screen for a few moments and nodded.
"We're getting something, but our translators can't make heads or tails
of it. We're checking it against the Tirolean linguistic databases now."
Rick nodded and turned back to the display. Lisa looked to Rick and
jerked a thumb in the general direction of Rick's command station. "Get
Tenchi out there. He's to take one squadron and guide the ship in. I
want close-in readings and hull shots while he's at it."
Rick nodded and set to work. He knew Lisa's line of reasoning as well
as his own. The contact was still ten light-minutes out, and they
needed more information. Having Tenchi out there was like having
themselves.
*******
Tenchi clicked the com. "Hurricane form on me. All other squadrons
maintain formation. Command wants us to take a look."
Acknowledgments came from the other squadron leaders. The entire
fighter group had been scrambled with the alert, and it looked as though
they were not being recalled anytime soon.
Hurricane squadron formed around Tenchi's fighter as he locked in an
intercept course. The ship was moving slow for a starship, barely ten
percent of light. The capital ships of the REF were capable of half
again that speed.
"Match my course," Tenchi instructed. "Maximum speed. Boost on my
mark." The squadron quickly did as directed while Tenchi's Beta crew
confirmed his course calculations. "Boost."
The oversized Beta engines flared as one and rapidly accelerated the
squadron to fifty percent of light speed. While the inertialess drive
thumbed its nose at theories on time dilation at such speed, the Doppler
effect was quite real and produced an amazing view for the pilots. The
stars ahead intensified as the blue-shifted and many vanished as they
crawled up into the ultra-violet range, while the further from
center-line the effect lessened. Behind them, Tenchi knew, the reverse
was happening, as stars shifted down through the spectrum to infrared.
Tenchi turned his eyes away from the stars and studied his instruments.
At these speeds, a fraction of a second or a fraction of degree and the
squadron would be horribly off course. Even if this was not a
first-contact situation, he would not be happy if the squadron messed
up, especially since it was *his* squadron.
But the course was correct. Hurricane squadron overshot the bogie by
several thousand kilometers before cutting their engines. They quickly
hauled their Legios units around and approached it from behind. Sensors
located in the Beta units reached out and tickled the oddly-shaped
craft. It appeared to match Exodore original assessment. The ship was
a hodge-podge of different designs. Total mass was comparable to a
Tokugawa-class battle cruiser, though this ship was not a warship. The
few weapon turrets mounted on the ship seemed to have been bolted on
with little thought for effectiveness.
"Unidentified vessel," Tenchi hailed in Zentradi, "you are in restricted
space. Identify and state your intentions."
There was a burst of static from the radio, but nothing more. Tenchi
repeated his hail as the ship traveled closer to Fantoma. Tenchi sighed
in his cockpit and painted the ship with his targetting radar. The
others in the squadron followed his lead within a matter of seconds.
Unless the unknown ship was completely blind, they knew they were in
trouble.
"Unidentified ship," Tenchi broadcast, "respond immediately or you will
be considered hostile and fired upon."
The channel hissed with static again and a cultured voice began speaking
in Tenchi's ear. "Apologies. We were having technical and linguistic
problems. This is Farrago, and we seek assistance."
"What kind of assistance?" Tenchi asked warily.
"Assistance in destroying the Invid conquers," a second, harsher voice
growled. "What else would be worth doing?"
End Chapter 4
Notes:
Those familiar with the Sentinels story can probably guess what the *
next to dates is for. For everyone else, all will be explained in time.
On a creative note, I hate writing filler. This entire chapter
accomplishes little, but like many similar chapters in this saga, it
does establish how the story goes from point A to point B.
And when I outlined the story, everything from the defold until now was
1 chapter. Just goes to show how effective those are.
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