hall. The hall itself was large enough for three hundred persons, but approximately a hundred were here today. The oval room had two circles of concentric tables, each with information displays. There was also a head table section close to the speaker’s platform where the most senior personnel would sit, and the rest of the inner circle was for high-ranking officers. The inner circle was arranged with one table for each grand admiral and those fleet and vice admirals in his group. Sheppard and any other commodores or fleet captains invited would be in the outer ring, where other lesser dignitaries would also sit.
Desserix and Orlond were at the head table, along with Defense Minister Narthag and Interior Minister Preston. The Betellian, Viess, arrived and made his way, along with two others of his people, to the head table.
The Betellians walked very gracefully to the head table with their unique, three-legged walk. They were non-humanoid, with red to orangeish-brown skin. They had trilateral symmetry, with three arms, three legs, and a three-sided, largish head, and were about two meters tall. They were known for having psychokinetic and telepathic abilities. A few were Star Knights, but none was in Sheppard’s present Star Knight Order. For communication, most Betellians utilized a crystalline translator that produced a voice that spoke in the established language of the Alliance of Worlds. They used this device to avoid invading others’ privacy telepathically.
Shortly after he had arrived, Sheppard had seen one of the Betellian ships with its trans-dimensional drive appear. No doubt, the Betellians sent a representative to arrange the particulars for this meeting. The representative had to be sent as it was determined that at least one of the Alliance’s main encryption codes was compromised, and communications could be deciphered. The coded communications problem was probably an inside espionage, according to snippets Avery had revealed in a specially secured conversation with Sheppard earlier in the week just after Sheppard disembarked from the Endeavour and was assigned officers quarters for his section at Star One
Sheppard and Avery moved to sit at a table with their identifiers flashing on the personal information panel. The meeting would start soon; Fleet Admiral Braddock moved to the inner circle of tables and sat next to Fleet Admiral Renhau and Grand Admiral Pendragon. Sheppard noted the lack of high-ranking officers seated at the inner tables and realized what Brandon had been saying about assassination targets.
Lord Garfield passed behind Sheppard on his way forward, nodded to him, and sent a quick telepathic greeting. He was one of Robert Sheppard’s professors at the Academy, and he was also a fellow Star Knight, although in a different order. Sheppard noted that his former instructor looked pleased with himself. Garfield moved toward the inner circle and sat at the table to the right of the head table.
Fleet Admiral Peregrine, who would be one of the primary speakers, made an entrance dressed in the formal Alliance of Worlds uniform of dark blue with sections of white trim. The admiral had many medal and campaign ribbons, and he was generally thought to be a physically striking member of the Rigezon people. Peregrine was considered one of the Alliance of Worlds’ best tacticians and was one of the few admirals Sheppard actually admired. Years ago, Sheppard had first served with Fleet Captain Peregrine after his promotion to lieutenant commander. Sheppard also had later served under then-commodore Peregrine as the starfighter wing commander of the battlecruiser Valiant, assigned to one of Peregrine’s task forces. Peregrine once had even turned down a promotion in order to stay out in deep space.
Now Fleet Admirals Peregrine’s fleet, the Third Fleet, had returned from a tactical engagement with the Varlon. It had not had a positive result; however, most present knew that most of the other fleet commanders would probably have fared worse against the Varlon.
Sheppard noticed that the room seemed to be quieting, especially after the Betellian Admiral Viess and Admiral Peregrine entered the hall.
Minister Narthag, of the feline peoples of Kyz and the Alliance’s present minister of defense, went up to the podium. “I am honored to be able to begin this meeting,” he said. “I realize that these monthly meetings do not usually have quite as many guests, nor does this group usually hold a promotions ceremony in conjunction with an informational meeting. However, some of those present for both the information in this briefing and for promotion will be leaving the Star One soon. I have been informed that this particular meeting is secure, and no problems such as happened at one of these meetings a few months ago should occur here. I am confident that we are very secure today.”
Sheppard noted that the minister looked at Garfield and Viess at that point.
“Now, if you will be patient, we have some awards to present,” Minister Narthag said.
Sheppard sometimes got slightly embarrassed by being given a medal for doing his job. The defense minister asked several officers to come forward to receive medals, and eventually he got to Sheppard.
“For valor at the Viridian front and the battle in the system of Hedga Five,” Narthag said.
Sheppard thought back briefly to the events that surrounded him saving the valuable mining facility, its crew, and the mining transports. He walked up and received the embellished medal bar signifying valor; to go along with the several other awards he had already been given. Sheppard recalled that he had actually effectively been in command of a group assault of five task forces for most of the battle until the commanding commodore arrived, and when his own ship’s communication system and main drive were damaged, he took a Valkyrie-class starfighter into battle to command from the battlefront while continuing to direct the larger vessels. It was actually something he had learned partly from Admiral Peregrine.
After things settled down again, the defense minister asked that, in order to speed things along, those who were to be promoted were to receive their promotions from the officers in their fleet chain of command superior to them now. Minister Narthag then sat down and waited as several admirals got up and moved to those to be promoted. Sheppard received his second star cluster and was officially promoted to commodore, by Grand Admiral Pendragon, as Fleet Admiral Whyte who had been assassinated, and Vice Admiral Wainright who had an accident that had probably been arranged somehow by assassins were not there to perform the promotion. Applause followed for a brief time, a salute to the Alliance of Worlds’ flag followed, and the informational briefing began.
Grand Admiral Jeroloh, who was chairing the informational meeting, stood up and welcomed everyone and then introduced the speakers of the panel, who included admirals Viess, Garfield, and Peregrine. First, the admirals dealt with some old business.
During the few minutes that fleet deployment reports were given, and any logs to be transferred from personal commlinks to others officers were encrypted and sent, Sheppard was lost in thought about the battles that had earned him this recent medal. He had no presentation duties, so he merely watched. The usual board activities were shortened and some omitted in light of the security situation, the special ministerial guests, and unusual briefings to be given today.
Chief of Staff Orlond stood up and said, "I would like to call upon Lord Garfield of Karro to give a logistics and intelligence update concerning the sabotage of Alliance of Worlds facilities.”
Sheppard remembered that Orlond was a stickler for formality.
“Your Grace,” Orlond said, “if you would please proceed.”
“Thank you, Mister Orlond. I was pleased to be asked to resume duties after an absence of almost three decades,” Garfield said. “I want to thank you for the opportunity to help. I have ascertained information about what and who are behind these acts of sabotage, and, in addition, some information about assassination targets. I have used several devices of my own design, as well as certain mentallic or psionic disciplines to ferret out those responsible.” He paused and briefly looked at the audience. “I have found two contingents that have been
