approval to the Supreme Commander, started preparing a package of documents…”
“That’s enough, Rear Admiral, I hear you. That doesn’t excuse you at all, don’t get your hopes up, but there’s logic to what you’re saying. Wait a few minutes, I haven’t quite read your document yet.”
Five minutes later Bronstein looked up at me.
“You…” he could barely bring himself to continue. “I don’t know the word for it, Rear Admiral. I’ve had enough of this circus. Your idea of attacking the quarg shipyards was an adventure. The counterstrike on Groombridge was a major Adventure with a capital A. And here, I guess all the letters have to be uppercase.”
“I beg your pardon, Mr Minister, but both of these events were successful, at least in part. Can you imagine what the consequences would be if things work out right this time?”
Bronstein looked at me in silence. In his eyes, there was a struggle of many conflicting feelings, and none of them could take it up. Finally, still silently, the Minister pressed the pictogram in the corner of his tablet and placed his finger on the DNA-code sensor. The tablet quietly tinkled, informing its owner of the opening of a secure communication channel.
“Good afternoon, Mr Minister,” I heard Tobolsky’s voice, “You’re not with bad news, are you?”
“I don’t know, Mr President,” Bronstein sounded uncertain, “I received a report from Rear Admiral Lavroff. He’s here, too, sitting across from me in my office. I’d like to ask for a meeting, there’s a difficult and urgent matter.”
“And you yourself can’t solve it for some reason,” Tobolsky grinned tiredly.
“I’m afraid that’s out of my league, Commander-in-Chief, Sir,” Bronstein responded firmly.
Chapter 3
Lieutenant Colonel André Mbia and his men never returned to the 105th Infantry Division. He now served in my department, and he was in charge of testing all ground combat equipment related to reconnaissance. Captain Yoon Gao met a similar fate, but he was responsible for space intelligence. Now both scouts were standing next to me at the command post of cruiser Moscow, trying to see something on a tactical projection.
Our scanners were silent, although I thought they should have spotted a reconnaissance ship on an oncoming course a few minutes ago. But nothing happened at all. Only a few minutes later, the space control operator gave a report of a faint signal slightly distinguishable against the background of natural noise. We only confidently spotted the reconnaissance ship when it was so close to us that it seemed to be observable to the unaided eye, and cruiser Moscow was equipped with the best scanners of the latest improved series, but still they were serial samples. And on the reconnaissance ship, Jeff and his crew worked individually, tailoring the EW complexes to the kind of precision no serial product could ever dream of.
“Take the command of the ship, Captain,” I told Yoon Gao, “You’re the first one to have the honor to be the commander of a hybrid reconnaissance ship with a mixed crew. Now, Officers, Sirs, I’ll introduce you to the crew.”
“This is my ship?” The Chinese, usually calm, looked shocked. He stood silently in front of the projection screen for a long time, looking from different angles at the ship, which was developed jointly by Jeff’s engineers and Lit-ta’s lizards. This small ship had some of the familiar outlines of a medium recon ship, but if the fore part differed slightly from the standard pattern, the changes were increasing closer to the stern. Smooth matte armor sheets made by people have merged into a single whole with bumpy shell plates. Almost all of the ship’s stern, except for the marching engine made by humans, was raised by reptiles, it irritated the eye of a fleet officer, accustomed to smooth surfaces, with its bumps and irregularities characteristic of the lizard ships.
“Rrrearrr Admirrral, Sssirrr,” I heard a voice behind me and turned to the lizard who entered the command post, “Thisss isss Engineerrr Dirr-go, rrreporting forrr prrresentation to the ship’sss commanderrr.”
I stood just a little bit away, I looked at Yoon Gao, and I could hardly stop laughing. I’ve already seen the Chinese like this, it was the first time we met before the raid on the asteroid in Gliese 338 system.
Marshal listened to Bronstein’s report without interrupting or asking questions, read my report silently and said quietly:
“Rear Admiral, you’ve gone too far this time. Your military successes have made your head spin, and you’ve lost your perspective. I understand that your service to the Federation gives you the moral authority to behave a little more freely than your rank and position allow, but there are limits to everything. By your actions, you have destroyed the work of a team of specialists from another ministry and have messed up our diplomats’ plans. Not only have you displayed our diplomatic service to the Allies in a very unflattering light, you have shown them that there is no unity and order in our system of power. By doing so, you have damaged the reputation of the Federation at the most critical moment of its first official contact with the new race. Are you aware of the consequences of your actions?”
“I’m aware that all this looks very bad, Mr President. I stand ready to apologize in person to every member of the diplomatic service whose work I have disrupted, and I will do so, no doubt, but in the circumstances I saw no other solution then, and I do not see any solution now. We don’t have time, not at all. I’ve already told the Minister,” I nodded towards Bronstein, “and I’m ready to tell you again. I have a strong feeling that we are already late with the steps I outlined in my report, and if I decided to wait until the diplomatic office’s plans were realized, we would be late forever.”
“I’ve heard it before,” said Tobolsky with a vague mirthless grin, “That time with the quarg shipyards, you were in a hurry, too, Rear Admiral, but then you weren’t listened to… By the way, did you recover your own 1.5 billion rubles spent on manufacturing drone torpedoes?”
“Somehow, I hadn’t time for that, and my mom and I have more than enough royalties to live on…”
“Mr Minister, please follow up on this matter,” Tobolsky told Bronstein, and then turned his eyes on me, “Seven and a half trillion rubles and 30 per cent of the Federation’s shipbuilding capacity. Do you know what you’re asking for, Rear Admiral? The amount you gave me last time you tested your transport ring was three times smaller.”
“But the scale of the project is different now, Mr President. Circumstances have changed, a terrible threat looms over us, and at the same time a rare opportunity has emerged that must not be missed.”
“Well, I understood about the chance in your report, but the threat… Like last time, it’s not very specific.”
“Last time? Groombridge 1618 is now in the hands of the quargs. How can I be more specific, Mr. President?”
“Do you think that if you were right then, it should automatically mean that now any sensation you have will be a sufficient reason to reconfigure the entire Federation’s defense policy, Rear Admiral?” Bronstein entered into the conversation.
“I gave my opinion in my report, Mr Minister. It doesn’t matter what I think about my premonitions. My department will do deep reconnaissance of the central areas of the quarg star systems, but it will take time, and we don’t have it. It’s up to you, gentlemen, whether we wait and do nothing or take preventive steps.”
“Rear Admiral Lavroff,” the President turned to me, “I point out once again that your actions are unacceptable. I expect you to settle the issue with the diplomats
