Tactical Error Read online

  “This was once Republic space,” he observed, watching her closely with his large, solid black eyes. “Do the Starwolves consider that it still is?”

  “That depends upon the level of ownership you wish to define,” Keflyn answered carefully. She was well aware of all the members of Kalmedhae’s household seated about the table, watching her expectantly. “At this time, the only people living on this world are your own. If your loyalties are to the Union, then the Starwolves will respect that. If you wish to sever your ties to the Union and be independent, then the Starwolves will defend your decision to do so. If you wish to open this world for Republic expansion, we would be grateful.”

  Kalmedhae considered that carefully. “What would the Republic find of interest in this world?”

  “Essentially nothing,” she admitted freely. “The export of wood or other materials, or your own products. But the Kelvessan, my own people, would find it very interesting. This is one of the few worlds cool enough for us to live comfortably. Our metabolisms are so high-powered that they produce excessive heat, and we must be artificially cooled to tolerate human environments. Here, we can live very comfortably.”

  She glanced at Jon Addesin, who was wearing a lined jacket even indoors. He did not notice, still distracted with thoughts of suntan lotion.

  Kalmedhae considered that, arid nodded. “That is well. Kelvessan would make very good neighbors. I had not known that there were those of your kind who do not lead the lives of Starwolves.”

  She shook her head. “There are now several million Kelvessan, but only a few thousand Starwolves.”

  “There are secrets in this world that you should see,” the older Feldenneh announced suddenly, as if coming to some important decision. “But it has a price. The Union must not know these things. Once the Starwolves know the secrets of this world, then they will have the responsibility of defending those secrets. You will agree, when you see for yourself and understand.”

  “You have had that promise already,” Keflyn assured him. “What are those secrets?”

  “Perhaps it would be better for you to see those things for yourself.”

  Jon Addesin looked up suddenly, like a startled animal. He apparentiy had not been in a world completely of his own. “Ah, I’ll be bringing down the Thermopylae’s skyvan, as soon as we get our load on board. I know that your colony has nothing suitable for long, quick trips.”

  “Yes, that is so,” Kalmedhae agreed, and Derrighan’s look of quiet dismay supported that. But the older Feldenneh still had a trick to play for his own side. Although Feldenneh did not smile, he still looked enormously pleased, like a chess player who had just moved his opponent into an unexpected check. “Well, the day grows old, and night is upon us. Derrighan, perhaps you could find a place where your new friend can stay the night.”

  “Kelvessan do not sleep,” Keflyn answered guardedly, watching the two Feldenneh closely. “Of course, I must have someplace where I can stay.”

  Derrighan’s ears were standing straight up with anticipation. “I live alone. I came to this world in advance of other members of my household, who have not yet come.”

  “You’ll not be going back up to the ship with me?” Addesin asked, looking panic-stricken. He knew that she planned to stay, since she had brought all of her bags down on the shuttle with her.

  “I will never return to the Thermopylae now,” Keflyn reminded him. So if you want your chance, she added to herself, you will get your business concluded as quickly as you can manage so that I can be about mine.

  “And I do have to get back to my ship,” Addesin mumbled to himself.

  Derrighan just sat there in silence with the most surprised, frightened, and bewildered expression on his lupine face, knowing that he had won something and not at all sure what, or if he really wanted it in the first place. Keflyn hoped that she could take that as a measure of the sincerity of his interests, that he had been competing for her favor in spite of a logical uncertainty about whether or not he should.

  Now that she had him, she was also facing the question of what to do with him. She wondered about that as the two of them used the transport to move her bags to his house near the edge of the settlement. Both Derrighan and Jon Addesin had stirred her interests, although not to any great extent. Anything that did happen would be nothing more than play. Jon Addesin looked the most like one of her own kind. Derrighan was most like her in thought and spirit. The Feldenneh would spend most of a long night in gentle, affectionate lovemaking. Humans had sex in a matter of minutes and went to sleep.

  She was by no means certain that she wanted things to go that far with either one of them. Her advantage was that the choice was entirely her own.

  The evenings of this world were marked by spectacular displays of light, a constantly changing display of long streamers and sheets of brilliant colors filling the western sky. She had been told that the sun of this system was slightly unstable, fluctuating on a cycle of slight expansion and contraction every sixteen hours, and pouring out a tremendous blast of charged particles and strong magnetics as it did. Keflyn wondered that this world had ever been chosen for major settlement. Unshielded electronic and electrical systems would never work properly.

  They were unpacking her bags from the back of the truck when a vast sheet of lightning rippled across the sky, moving in a complex pattern of interconnected arcs like a blinding spider’s web from the western horizon to the east. Keflyn blinked, waiting for some devastating blast of thunder. Long seconds passed in silence, followed by a dim, distant rumble.

  “Sheet lightning, as we call it,” Derrighan explained before she could ask. “Stratospheric lightning is the true name. Sometimes the ionosphere takes a greater charge than it can hold, faster than the charge can be lost into the lower atmosphere. First one arc jumps the bounds between the layers, and that sets off the whole thing. Sometimes it will leap all the way to the ground with the force of a nuclear explosion. But only in the distant south, where the lands are much warmer, and especially so during the big circular storms. Never here.”

  Keflyn stared at him, suddenly perceiving something. That fitful talent of hers suddenly gave her the clue to something she was too distracted to have seen for herself.

  “You are no settler,” she said, surprising him by speaking in his own language. “Neither is Kalmedhae. None of you are. I think that you are some manner of scientist, or explorer.”

  “No, this is a real settlement,” he told her, considering his answer quickly but carefully. “The Union found this world and considered it unfit for their own use, and they gave it to the Feldenneh. They did not look deeply enough to discover its secrets. When the first true settlers realized what this world was, they sent word secretly. You should understand that my people see the collapse of the Union, and we know that the time has come that we must take a stand. We will no longer help them in any way. We knew that this world would be very important to you. We are holding it for you.”

  “They sent a team of researchers to live with the other colonists, and other officials such as Kalmedhae to supervise,” she assumed.

  “That is so,” he agreed. “The Union watches us from time to time, and we had to wait until the time was right to tell the Starwolves. Your sudden arrival surprised us. I was to tell you when we were alone tonight. That was why Kalmedhae arranged for us to be alone.”

  “I thought you were just after my body.”

  Derrighan looked uncomfortable. “I had my own interests, and Kalmedhae saw that and took advantage of it. Jon Addesin must be frustrated for a while at least. He learned the secret of this world, and he has guarded it well. But he does not know our secret.”

  “What is the secret of this world?” Keflyn asked.

  “I think that Kalmedhae is right, that you must learn that for yourself. You must decide what it means for yourself.”

  - 5 -

  The Alkayja system seemed unusually busy as the Methryn dropped out of starflight, hurtling in
toward her destination at high speed. The Republic had never really recovered from its early defeats, remaining a relatively small and inactive group of underpopulated colonies. That had been changing very quickly in the past few years, due mostly to the sudden expansion of both the size and fortunes of the Kelvessan race, particularly the High Kelvessan. But the Starwolves themselves lived most of their lives apart, and they often had no clear idea what was happening at home. Velmeran had certainly never expected this.

  “Incoming carrier, identify immediately,” the voice of system control demanded imperiously.

  “This is the Methryn,” Valthyrra responded, as surprised as everyone else on the bridge by that cold welcome. She recovered quickly. “My crew and I were responding to your most polite request that we pop in for a visit, as inconvenient as it has been to our busy schedule.”

  “Methryn, you are directed to move into an equatorial orbit of fifty thousand kilometers and await further orders. You are to launch no ships of your own nor engage in unnecessary communication. Bring your running lights to full immediately,” system control directed, abruptly cutting the channel.

  Valthyrra’s camera pod lifted in surprise. “Well, I like that! I get a warmer welcome than that at Vinthra, even after what we did there. So what happened? Did my warranty expire?”

  “Something is wrong,” Velmeran commented. “Why are we being shunted into a holding orbit? Is something happening at the station?”

  “Not that I can tell,” Valthyrra answered. “There are no explosions or wrecks, although they do seem busier than the last time we were here.”

  Long minutes passed as the Methryn whipped around the curve of the planet Alkayja at a speed which brought another curt reprimand from system control, braking hard as she settled into her assigned orbit. Valthyrra inserted herself at a position in orbit where she had a fairly good view of the station. It was a mobile station, complete with its own drives, although it had been in orbit over this world for centuries. Its thick, main body, twenty-five kilometers across, was a large city in itself. This was surrounded by two rings of docking bays, the smaller bays for commercial and military ships, and below that the immense modules that housed the carriers.

  “There are two carriers already in port,” Valthyrra reported. “The Delvon and the Valdayen.”

  “What are they doing here?” Velmeran asked. “Can they tell you what is going on?”

  “No, they ward off my attempts to communicate without explanation.”

  “Well, I have had just about enough of this nonsense. Put me through to system control,” he said, and waited until Valthyrra indicated that the channel was open. “This is Fleet Commander Velmeran. I ask to speak with Admiral Laroose, or whoever might now hold his position.”

  “That is not currently possible,” the reply came immediately, so quickly that it was an obvious refusal to forward the request. “You will be directed to dock shortly.”

  “I wish I knew what this delay was about,” Consherra commented, leaving her place at the helm station to pace the center of the bridge. Like the rest of the bridge crew, she had been watching the image of the station on the main viewscreen.

  “Yes, I know what this reminds me of,” Velmeran declared suddenly. “What do you suppose all other ships do when they come into port, and they have to take their turn to come in to dock?”

  That startled the others, even Valthyrra. In all of her long life, no one had ever told her that she would have to circle while she awaited clearance. No one, not even their own people, ever asked starwolves to wait.

  “Well, how rude!” Valthyrra declared. “The only reason I took this job was for the perks.”

  Velmeran returned to the bridge hours later, responding to Valthyrra’s summons. The Methryn had finally been committed to her dock, a third of the way around the ring of carrier ports on the station’s lower ring from the other two ships, with orders to keep her airlocks sealed with her crew on board and to deny all attempts at communication except from a special Senate Committee or one of the Members of the Triumverate. By this time, Velmeran was very certain that something must be very wrong, and that the Starwolves were being called home to solve it. He was willing enough to help, but he was impatient to be started. With both Lenna and Keflyn away on important missions, the Methryn needed to be free to respond to their calls on a moment’s notice.

  Consherra and Valthyrra were both in the center of the main bridge, staring at the viewscreen. Velmeran wondered about that at first, since the only image was that of the inner wall of the bay. Valthyrra turned her camera pod to glance at him, then turned back to the screen as she magnified the image on the wide bank of windows that formed the bay’s control room and, above that, the larger observation deck. There were guards, dozens of human guards, at both sets of windows, watching the Methryn with the same intensity.

  “They are not trying to board, are they?” he asked.

  “No, not yet,” Valthyrra answered. “All of that milling about does suggest such an intent, however.”

  “Now I wonder why they would be so interested in this ship,” Velmeran mused. “They might be in our own service in theory, but I will not have any humans on this ship uninvited. Any attempt to board this ship, whether by order or by force, is to be denied by any means necessary. I want a pack in armor standing by at each airlock connected by a docking probe, and find some way that you can speak privately with those other two ships. This is now hostile territory until I know what is happening here.”

  “Could the Union be in control here, and trying to trap us?” Consherra asked.

  “If they are, then they are even wearing Republic uniforms.”

  “That, however, is not actually what I called you to the bridge to see,” Valthyrra said. “I took the precaution of putting a drone overboard while we were still in orbit outside, just so I could keep an eye on things from that angle. That helped me to intercept an achronic message from Lenna and Bill. She needs for us to come quickly.”

  Velmeran frowned. “Very quickly?”

  “She says that if we do not get there in a hurry, then it will be the end of civilization as we know it.”

  “That does sound like Lenna Makayen.” He stood for a moment, considering the problem. “Get me in touch with someone willing to talk to me. Tell them that the Methryn is pulling out of this bay in ten minutes unless they can give some very good excuse for remaining.”

  “What if they try to stop us?” Consherra asked.

  “How? There are no doors on this bay.”

  Velmeran’s threat of ten minutes might have seemed a little severe, but it was met with time to spare. Hardly a minute had passed when Valthyrra lifted her camera pod in a gesture of extreme surprise and perplexity. “Commander, I have a call from Central Command. President Alac Delike wishes to speak with you.”

  “I expected no less,” Velmeran said with such indifferent certainty that they had to wonder if he did. “Put him through.”

  “Commander Velmeran?” the warm, friendly voice, more like that of a used freighter salesman than a leader of worlds, responded a moment later. “You seem to have some complaint with your orders.”

  “I have no orders,” Velmeran corrected him briskly. “As Commander of the carrier fleet, I am answerable to no orders except my own unless I receive special instructions from the Senate itself. I have received no such orders, but I do have people out on two very important missions. I must respond to a call from one of those missions immediately, or I might lose both my people and the important information they were sent to collect.”

  “I know that it must seem very important to you, but something has happened here that will make all other concerns inconsequential,” Delike answered in that same cheerful voice, suggesting good news. “I would like for you to come over for a private discussion with myself and a couple of representatives of the Senate. It’s important for you to understand everything.”

  Velmeran considered that briefly. “I have no choice, I s
uppose.”

  “You will not be disappointed,” Delike assured him. “If you would like to come over as soon as you’re ready, I’ll have someone standing by to guide you at your main airlock.”

  Valthyrra moved her camera pod closer, an indication that she had closed the channel.

  Velmeran shook his head slowly. “This is about as strange as it gets, but Delike does seem agreeable enough, even eager. I will discover what this is all about, and then we will do something about Lenna even if we have to send another ship after her.”

  “Another ship and crew would not know what to do,” Consherra reminded him. “Her mission is very important.”

  “This had better be even more important, or certain members of the government of the Republic are going to find out why Donalt Trace fears the name of Velmeran,” he declared. “All the same, I have a suspicion that I am going to be very disappointed. It has always been my experience that they are the most irrational, excitable and socially disagreeable creatures in known space.”

  “What, humans?”

  “No, politicians.” He turned to Valthyrra. “What about it, old chips? Who is this Alac Delike?”

  Valthyrra would have shrugged if she could, and she did a fair approximation as it was. “No information. Elections were a little over four months ago, and this – political creature – must have moved to the head of the class at that time. In my experience, I would predict that you are about to find that we have been used as a pawn in a tactical maneuver known as political grandstanding, an artificially generated crisis or overblown event designed to create favorable notoriety for the party perpetrating the hoax.”

  Velmeran shook his head. “Sometimes you sound like Bill. If that is the case, then we embarrass them thoroughly and publicly and put them in their place, and then we go about our business.”