did not want to tell anyone just now, but he was being promoted and would be reassigned. The admiral hadn’t provided much detail about his future assignment, but upon his promotion to the rank of commodore, he knew he would be required to transfer to a different ship.
CHAPTER 4
An Old Ally’s Arrival
The Karratin starship Zeloc cruised in stealth mode toward Star One on a trans-dimensional vector. Inside, Lord Gar fa’eld, the ambassador from Karro, determined the final destination coordinates and relayed them to the sentient starcruiser Zeloc. Almost immediately, the huge starship came out of translight drive. With its Decawarp slipstream main drive powering down, the Zeloc appeared within the equivalent of a hundred light-seconds distance from the Alliance of Worlds main base station and headquarters, known as Star One. That was closer than the Alliance liked to space traffic but the Zeloc was expected.
The Star One station was a huge, completely self-sufficient community with an internal ecosystem of housing areas, complete with trees and plants. Star One contained all manner of public, corporate, and military facilities and housed the Alliance of Worlds Academy, as well as over two hundred embassies. There were life support systems and areas for several different species, and small communities for their habitation. There were medical facilities for health maintenance, and construction and docking facilities for starships.
The Zeloc closed to ten light-seconds distance and established an orbit. At just over eight kilometers in length, the Zeloc would have to wait to be assigned one of the large docks of the 120-kilometer flattened spheroid station.
Two figures appeared in the command chamber. The first was Pharzon, one of the Hytren, and the second presence Agronius, a Calyx; they were two of Gar fa’eld’s associates. The Karratin Lord seemed to pause and focus or concentrate as the others appeared, his mind connecting briefly with his greater essence or prime self to commune at a higher ascended level with his associate’s primes.
“Do not look so amused, my friends,” sent Gar fa’eld telepathically. “I must prepare for unusual work; after all, I was asked to assist, and I rarely give up the chance to help in some capacity.”
“We thought you would like a friendly send-off,” intoned Pharzon. “You will be occupied with dutiful matters, and as your actions are restricted, with the exception of the Star Knight abilities, we just wanted to state we would miss our regular telepathic discourse.”
“Yes, your insights and humor will be missed,” sent Agronius. “However, you have been called toward a noble cause. May your present percept and form keep the code and hold true to the boundaries.”
“As always, I will try not to overstep my known power,” thought Gar fa’eld. “The Alliance of Worlds is expecting one of the ruling dukes of the Hegemony from Karro., As a Karratin, I was usually punctual, especially since I will be delivering information the Karratins obtained about the Alliance of Worlds’ present dilemma.”
“I believe Kalst will join you eventually as his Cynz percept,” Agronius noted.
“Yes, he is presently occupied elsewhere,” reminded Pharzon.
All three bowed to one another, and with the briefest of mind contact, both Agronius and Pharzon phased away. Gar fa’eld took a deep breath and moved away from the command chamber.
Docking instructions had been relayed to Zeloc, and the ship was beginning docking procedures. “Will you require anything?” inquired Zeloc.
“No, not at this time,” Gar fa’eld responded. “I will gather a few pieces of equipment I will use here. I may send you on a mission, but not for a few days. Zeloc, there is a Betellian starship here and one Estrian starcruiser. You might as well commune with those, if you like, while I am away.”
Before Gar fa’eld headed toward the docking exit, he changed from his more relaxed, one-piece, ship travel suit to his Karratin standard military uniform, embellished with a short, white-and-gold patterned cloak and vest, signifying his status as a Duke of Karro. As he exited the Zeloc, he gathered his belongings, which included several information discs and two multi-purpose devices. Proceeding out from the Zeloc, across the station’s connecting walkway and toward the reception platform, he heard the Karratin anthem and recalled that there was still a ceremonial side of the Alliance of Worlds.
He considered using the gateway system in the Zeloc to enter the station undetected, but there were several political considerations. The Alliance of Worlds’ ceremonial side was something that he had not experienced often, not for over twenty cycles now. It was not something he looked forward to and it would likely be a few hours before he could begin his expected duties.
CHAPTER 5
The Source of the Problem
The entire meeting and conference facility had been sensor-scanned three times by building security before the support crews were allowed inside. Then there were another three separate sweeps with handheld scanners, in addition to area sweeps done by the main internal sensor system in security command. Even the Betellians made a sensor sweep, as one of their senior officers was to give a presentation during the meeting. A pair of large, two-meter-tall battle droids set in guard mode was added to security measures. Lord Gar fa’eld had been appointed the acting chief of security and logistics and was not taking chances. Crew members and support staff noted his personal inspection of the meeting facility area and the surrounding rooms. All told, about one hundred people were going to be personally present; a few not physically present were to receive the presentation portion coded as an alpha platinum alert.
The reason for the high security was that there had been several murders within Star One. At first, these deaths appeared accidental or due to natural causes, but they were later determined to be intentional assassinations. Several ranking officers and other important people died this way, until the security personnel caught on. Eventually, outright sabotage and terrorism began occurring, taking the lives of three of the top security officials, as well as several fleet officers.
This type of sabotage attack was not typical of past enemy strikes against the Alliance of Worlds. Espionage was still a possibility, but nonaligned or hostile groups, such as the Meiosians, usually did not employ such underhanded tactics. It was not typical of the Varlon’s past actions either, as they had the military and technological force to strike directly. The technology used by these saboteurs and assassins was beyond the Alliance of Worlds’ standard technology. It seemed that most of the saboteurs were able to circumvent standard surveillance systems, even those that relied on visual identification, and fool or redirect the scanning devices, including masking or altering their biometric information.
Information transfer and messaging had also been compromised; Vice Admiral N’qert had been in the process of recoding transmissions and had leads about who might be behind all this, when he himself was assassinated. As a result, the security command was in disarray, and the Alliance Governing Council sought help from its founding members and close affiliates.
There were several other problems as well: A computer virus neutralized a section of the main computer core before it was eliminated. Many of the light-absorbing, hexagonal nanocrystals placed on the solar power panels situated on various sections of the vast hull of Star One had been compromised by a more advanced nano-technology similar to the Varlon’s technology. Somehow, small quantities of the Varlon nanobots had been released to damage the nanocrystals of the auxiliary solar power–gathering panels. Someone was needed to help with the various problems—someone who had skills beyond just security and logistics.
The
