also wanted someone who had had experience as an administrator at Star One in the past. Eventually, the Alliance of Worlds governing council committee settled on a noble member of the Karratin Hegemony whose reputation was beyond reproach. They settled on Gar’fa eld, since he had the relevant experience, having been the chair and professor of the Council Academy Sciences Branch. He also possessed experience in the military; he was a retired vice admiral in the Karratin Defense Force and, more recently, was an ambassador for the Karratins for more than two decades.
Perhaps almost as importantly, Gar’fa eld was known for being generally helpful, though not all Karratins were known to be interested in assisting the less technologically advanced civilizations.
The Karratins were descended from some alternate, primate-like species from their own home world; however, s a species, they were generally more genetically advanced or evolved than most of the members of the Alliance of worlds. Essentially, the Karratins possessed high mental aptitude as a racial trait. The Karratins resembled humans somewhat, although they had slightly longer, tapered ears and perhaps a hint of green to the skin. Like humans, they possessed head and facial hair.
As a Karratin, Gar’fa eld belonged to one of the most advanced of the space-faring civilizations, and as a result of his racial genetics and technologic cellular regeneration he had, according to record, lived for a few thousand standard years already. Presently he had long sideburns and hair growing down in front of his ears.
During his time as an instructor at the Alliance of Worlds Academy, Gar’fa eld not only taught science and engineering classes but also some classes on psionic disciplines. Over time, many of his students had taken to calling him “Garfield,” the easiest phonetic pronunciation of the versions of his name. He accepted being called Professor Garfield, and it stuck.
The security sweeps and scans done prior to the briefing revealed nothing subversive. The meeting itself was scheduled for a certain time frame, but to throw off potential sabotage, no official times or places were announced, and those who were to attend would be given instructions thirty minutes beforehand.
Lord Garfield would also be presenting information at the Admirals Board meeting this morning, and he arranged that the exact room of the complex was not to be determined until one hour before. Any would-be saboteurs would be thwarted, and to increase protection, there was an independent force field generator borrowed for the meeting from the Betellians, in case someone wanted to crash a cloaked starfighter or transport vessel with explosives into the area.
It was approximately five hours before the Admirals Board as Garfield drew himself into a meditation position. Using several disciplines, he set a mentallic protective barrier and then, let his perceptions expand. His consciousness flew about, wandering from area to area, sensing and scanning.
Just outside the periphery of the headquarters complex, not far from where the Admirals Board meeting would take place, an individual uniformed as an environmental maintenance crewman emerged from an air duct, then quickly exited and replaced the cover. His movements were casual, seemingly normal for someone in his uniform. He looked around. There were only a few distant personnel. He removed a communication device, not standard issue; it concealed greater sophistication.
Garfield perceived and examined the individual; he possessed an unusual aura, not fully humanoid but more mechanical. There was also a device at work from the sensation; it was some form of short-range sensor jamming of a sophisticated nature.
Garfield psychically moved to make a telepathic mind scan, and at that point a barrier presented itself, which he easily passed. Moments later, a powerful, short-range psionic shockwave was released, forcing Garfield’s consciousness back to his quarters. Anyone of lesser strength and skill would have been injured or incapacitated by the device, a Jiyarri tool. The short meld had been enough to provide Garfield with some useful information; his light touch allowed a moment to access data before the defense system activated.
Garfield stood in his private office and said out loud, “Now, I know more about who else is behind this.” He activated a communication terminal to give orders to Commodore Brandon Avery, one of his senior officers.
“Commodore Avery, I have detected a potential environmental problem, and it is likely part of larger ruse to distract our security teams. We will need to send some maintenance crew, along with an explosives and toxic substance removal team. I will instruct the team personally. I will also be making contact with my home world, so keep any nonessential communication to a minimum.”
“Yes, Your Grace, you have no alpha graded communications waiting,” replied Brandon, looking quizzically at the Karratin’s image on his computer interlink display. He wondered how the Karratin had detected this problem.
CHAPTER 6
The Admirals Board
About thirty minutes before the board meeting, a security officer met Fleet Captain Robert Sheppard at his quarters. Sheppard was in full dress uniform for this occasion. The alliance dress uniform had a longer and more tuxedo-like jacket but was otherwise similar to the duty uniform.
The security officer informed Sheppard he would be receiving a formal promotion to commodore as well a medal for valor in combat. He had been on Star One for seven days now and had already done some preliminary investigation as to what starship he would select as his new command vessel. Ranks of fleet captain and above received some selection privileges.
Just outside one of the mag-rail stops for the headquarters complex, his old friend Commodore Brandon Avery met him at the mag-rail station. Brandon still looked fit, though he was getting some more white in his auburn hair. His green eyes had a cautious look.
“I thought I should escort you personally, now that you will soon have the same rank as I,” stated Brandon.
“It’s kind of you to come and meet me like this, Brandon,” replied Sheppard. He looked around at some of the other people nearby.
“Bob, you deserve the promotion for your exploits during your recent tour of duty,” Avery said. “You should be commended after you and Fleet Captain Larthe drove a wedge into the Viridian fleet.”
Sheppard nodded, thinking back on the past few years.
“I heard you took over when Commodore Pilat was on medical leave and had to go to the med center,” continued Brandon. He also commended Sheppard for, more recently, leading his own and four other task forces to a tactical victory, in addition to reclaiming an area of Alliance of Worlds space from the Viridians.
Sheppard said, “Command of several task forces came easy to me, and I had good officers to work with. The whole thing was strange—that battle near the mining station and, not long afterward, the incident with the Starbase 301. Most of the problems all seemed to stem from overzealous Viridian leaders, and unfortunately those commanding at the time were supposedly killed in battle. It’s like fighting individual warlords.”
Sheppard knew that few of Alliance of Worlds’ largest ships were needed to patrol the borders, as the Viridian worlds did not generally possess the level of technology or shipyards necessary to build extremely large starships. Alliance battlecarriers and dreadnaughts, however, were close to five kilometers in length. Moreover, the Viridian would not win against the full might of the Alliance if it came to a full war as opposed to the occasional border skirmish.
“Now I’ve heard that Commodore Pilat, along with a few of our and their diplomats, has finally signed a standard nonaggression treaty,” stated Avery.
Sheppard nodded as they passed
