Chapter 12

It was near 11:00 on 34^th day of Sevmonth when the shuttle carrying a member of each Command Staff approached Tara Ardchlár. Sarah guided the shuttle so that it flew slowly past the settlement giving them a comprehensive view of progress.

In preparation for their visitors four large tents had been added to Central Square. They were next to each other and next to the western side of the large tent that sat in the center of the Square. The accommodations in this central tent included the Councilor’s offices and meeting space as well as other related activities. All these tents were similar to the fabric covered domes that comprised their construction site accommodations, dining area, and temporary residences. They had translucent side panels that were typically only fully lowered when it was windy or raining. Besides having a reception area, the interiors were divided into multiple work and conference areas. The translucent dividers were designed to suppress noise as well as solid walls would. As on the ships, all areas were monitored for sounds associated with a physical confrontation or distress.

At 1N was a large dome tent that Engineering used for their offices and conference area. Their work areas were set up so that if the dome cover failed the damage to their equipment would be minimal. While a site AI had not been designated there were several AIs housed in a habitat adjacent to this dome. This provided more protection from the environment than was possible under the dome.

In the shuttle Tiff of Siobhan’s Clan said, “I think it looks pretty good for only about 3 months of work. I see that they’ve plowed some of the large fields west of the settlement.”

Sarah of Sarah’s Clan queried, “I wonder if they’ve begun clearing the path on the west end?”

“I don’t know. With everything that is going on it is hard to keep up.”

“I agree. Sometimes I think we get too involved in the details.”

“We do, ‘cause that is where the fun is,” replied Tiff chuckling along with the others in the group.

“If we have time we could take a look as we return to our ships.”

Once they were past the settlement Sarah contacted Tara Ardchlár FOC for clearance into the spaceport. After landing it took them well over an hour to reach Central Square. While the distance wasn’t very far there were a lot of people who wanted to speak to them. In most cases it was only to say hello, but for some the conversations took more time.

Leann and Kerry of Leann’s Clan were waiting for them at Central Square. When they were close Leann and Kerry both said, “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” replied the eight Command Staff members.

Eleánóir of Keriann’s Clan said, “To what do we owe the pleasure of your company.”

“So are you all gun shy after all the questions on your way here?” queried Leann with a smile.

“I wouldn’t say that. There is a lot of interest in our visitors and it seems to be mostly from our newest arrivals.”

Kerry laughed then said, “I think we can attribute much of that to so many of Earth’s films portraying aliens as hostile, or worse.”

“Good point,” responded Tiff.

“To answer Eleánóir’s question, we understand that you are here to check the arrangements we’ve made for the visitors,” said Leann. “We were in the office when we heard you had arrived, so we thought we’d join you. This way we can get any changes you want started.”

Colleen of Maureen’s Clan said, “You are welcome to join us, but based on past experience I would be very surprised if there are any significant changes needed.”

“Thanks,” replied both Kerry and Leann.

After entering one of the visitor areas, Kerry said, “All four areas are identical. Beyond this reception area are three office areas and a conference room. Each office has a desk, small table, and several chairs. A fourth is set aside for their communication equipment as we presume they will want to use their own. Besides this entrance there is an entrance into a corridor leading to the meeting area.”

“How did you do the floor? It’s not quite what I expected,” asked Kathleen of Molly’s Clan.

“Basically the same way the one in the tent you’ve been using. We shaved off the grass and enough soil to level it. This was followed with a thin layer of the same aggregate mix that we are using to coat the tunnels. Once that set a fairly thick fabric was laid over it.”

“It looks great.”

“It does,” replied Leann, “but it isn’t very durable due to the way we did it. However, doing it this way means it won’t take much effort to remove when we get ready to build here.”

They had looked through the four tents and around the outside when Sarah asked, “Do you think our visitors will find this setup acceptable?”

“Considering our circumstances, I would think so,” replied Tiff. “If they are that picky perhaps we should reevaluate whether we really want, or need, a significant relationship with them.”

“Well considering that we are effectively on the frontier, this is a very nice area,” responded Brittany with a smile. “For a frontier location this is high class as the floor is level and covered. There are tables, cushioned chairs and other amenities.”

“It’s just that...” began Sarah.

“We all feel the uncertainty,” responded Colleen. “To us, the only difference between now and when we first met them is that now we know who they are. Primarily we see this as a get acquainted visit, although there are lingering issues to discuss.”

“We just need to relax,” added Molly.

“Oh, we did yesterday,” replied Sarah with a big smile. “We had a great time exploring, including a picnic with the children which is something we haven’t done as often as we’d like to. The children gave us some time alone as well. As to our visitors, well I would like to have the visit behind us, with results that have the potential to aid us in getting settled here.”

Eleánóir said with a frown, “Do you think this unease is more than just the uncertainty of the situation?”

“I don’t think so, but...”

“Yea, whenever anyone in your clan gets edgy, it is time to double check everything.”

“But it’s not like that!”

“Well, all I am saying is that we should be a little more alert and a little more inquisitive when a situation doesn’t seem right.”

Tiff said, “In line with that, Kelly, Sally, and Terry visited Dóchas Security this morning to go over recent Sentinel data.”

“Good. I think I’ll look at what our group has when we return. As to this site, it is much nicer than I would expect if the roles were reversed. After all, we even have large video monitors and computer interfaces to our systems.”

Brittany added, “I agree.”

Shannon said, “Command Staffs, multiple ships are transitioning from FTL at about 2 light minutes from us. We’ll have a better idea of who and how many in a few moments. Preliminary indications are that it is the Iridiens. There is a patrol in that sector that is moving in to get a closer look.”

“Thanks,” replied the Command Staffs.

“We are all on our way up,” said Brittany.

An hour later Rusty said to Zyworki on IGN404, “The IFF codes of the arriving ships don’t match with what we have. Do you have a match for them?”

“No. The format is correct but the content doesn’t match any codes that we have either. Our scans identify them as Iridien. There are two battle cruisers, 6 heavy cruisers, and 8 cruisers like ours.”

“Our count agrees. Did you detect the disturbances behind them when they came out of FTL?”

“No, but if they are ours and cloaked we should be able to detect them. We’ll check the area again. We are a little surprised that we didn’t receive a response to the courier we sent after arriving here.”

“Okay. We are going to initiate a communications link. Do you want to be included?”

“Hmm ... it would be nice to hear the exchange ... but there are some in the chain of command who would not be pleased to learn of our participation, unless it was their idea. Since we haven’t received a reply we don’t know who is coming.”

Chuckling Rusty said, “Okay. In the meantime let’s keep this line active.”

“Fine. I’ll also have our people see if they can determine what caused the disturbance you detected.”

On Dóchas Star said, “We have established a connection with the Iridien Flagship identified as IHBC-12.”

“Thank you,” replied Sarah’s Clan.

With that an image began to form on Dóchas’ monitors, which was mirrored to all the other Órarduine ships. Once the image stabilized Sarah’s Clan said, “Welcome to Celia System. We are Sarah’s Clan.” After a pause she added, “Commander Egulle, Commander Orgaine, it is good to see you again.”

“Hello, Sarah’s Clan. It is good to see you all again. Beside me is 4^th Admiral Trizalski, Off World Secretary Dizantos, and Off World Assistant Secretary Blewzinki.” As he introduced each individual they gave a slight bow. “Admiral Trizalski’s command includes this fleet.”

“Again, good afternoon. We hope you had a pleasant journey. As a group we are known as Sarah’s Clan.”

After introducing themselves Joyce said, “A suggested Ananu orbital position for your fleet was just sent to you. Since we do not have an orbiting spaceport we use shuttles for travel between ships and to the planet, if required we can provide transportation for you. Communication protocols will be provided once you reach Ananu orbit.”

“You could have contacted our Astrogation department directly rather than take up our time with this information,” responded an apparent aide near Admiral Trizalski.

“You are correct,” responded Joyce, “and we would have if you had provided us with contact information when this link was established, or even better, prior to your arrival. Security was a little edgy when your IFF codes didn’t match the last list you provided us.”

While she was speaking the Admiral had glared at the aide but when he heard what Joyce had to say he said, “Excuse me, but a courier should have arrived a week ago with updated IFF codes, communication protocols, and other information.”

Orgaine said, “Our Spec Ops teams here should have received one as well.”

“We didn’t,” replied Sally, “and when we saw that your IFF codes weren’t on our list we contacted them, Captain Zyworki told us that he was having the same difficulty. He did tell us that while your codes weren’t on his list, your ship characteristics were correct. This was somewhat reassuring as it indicated that our identification of your fleet was at least partially correct. Until this contact it wasn’t clear to us who was entering this System.”

“We will take care of those issues immediately by sending both of you a copy of what was on that courier.”

Egulle said, “Astrogation is indicating that we should be in Ananu’s orbit in about 24 hours.”

“Good,” replied Sarah. “Ananu has a 30 hour day. We can give you more details on its calendar when we meet.”

“Thanks. We would like at least a day in orbit before we meet.”

“That is fine with us. The Monque and Atewa are due to be in System about the time you reach orbit here. As to meeting location we have an area setup on Ananu, or we can meet on one of our ships. It is your choice; in either case your staff will have an opportunity to visit our ships while you are here. An advantage of meeting at our settlement Tara Ardchlár, besides more space, is that it has fresh air and blue skies. We’ve set up a private area there for you to use that is adjacent to the general meeting area.”

“Blue skies and fresh air are distinct advantages,” replied Trizalski with the others nodding.

“A question regarding your fleet,” said Sally, “have all of your ships uncloaked?”

After a moment he replied, “Yes. Why?”

“Our systems are showing that your fleet consists of 2 battle cruisers, 6 heavy cruisers, and 8 cruisers similar to ours. However, when you transitioned from FTL we detected a disturbance behind your group of ships. Since then we’ve identified the disturbance to be four cruisers with Iridien Spec Ops characteristics. They are about 2 ls behind you and are currently cloaked. If they aren’t yours then we will deal with them in a few moments.” As she was describing the situation Trizalski had turned to glare at his aide who turned slowly red as the situation was described.

“Captain, is their count correct?”

“Yes, Sir. But only if you include the 4 they see at 2 ls behind us. We entered the System using a new formation. It is for Systems whose security status is unknown.”

“Cloaked?”

“At the time we entered the System, yes Sir. By now those ships should have uncloaked. The procedure calls for a delay in uncloaking for ships in that position. The time delay varies but we are now past the maximum required.”

“Order them to uncloak!” demanded Trizalski.

“Yes, Sir.” A few moments later he added, “Command sent.”

Trizalski said to Sarah’s Clan, “Based on events in Sol we know that the Durale have ships that appear to be very similar to ours. Their attacks here and other places have made it clear to us that they have a lot more of those ships than our Central Intelligence thought. As to those following us, they are ours. The Captain’s comments reminded me of the new protocol for entering a foreign or insecure System. A second group of ships enter the System cloaked, when no hostility is detected within a time limit they uncloak. They’ve just been specifically ordered to uncloak.”

Sally said, “Admiral, we don’t see any change.”

Trizalski frowned then said, “In that case, do what you need to do.”

“It will take us a couple of hours to set up a confrontation with minimal risk to us,” said Rusty. “Once it is set, we will advise you of our intent. While others are taking care of that we have a couple of questions regarding your visit here.”

“Certainly. What are they?”

“Are you planning to question the Durale prisoners?”

After a nod from Trizalski Orgaine said, “We would like to. We understand that you have already interrogated them. If that is the case, we would like to review what you have learnt first. That way we can tailor our questions using what we know from other sources. We will share what we learn.”

“Good. We don’t understand some of the information, so we would appreciate the assistance. We captured their lead ship with minimal damage. Two others were captured but they have significant damage. We have actually only carried out a minimal amount of looking around as we weren’t sure of the status of any self-destruct devices. Based on what we’ve learnt from the crew, we are fairly certain that they did not arm them. While we could have pushed ahead we decided to wait since we knew you were coming.”

“There are people with us who can assist with that. Do you want to start this activity before we meet?”

“We are agreeable to starting both of these activities as soon as you are ready. As to the prisoners, can you take them and drop them off some place when you leave? We would prefer they not stay here.”

“We prefer to hold that discussion until after the Monque and Atewa arrive.”

“Fine. Our intention is to share what we’ve learnt with all of you.”

Dizantos said, “Perhaps this should wait until we meet, but the Admiral and I were asked to gain a better understanding of why IGN404 is being released much sooner than expected.”

“We gather that you didn’t see our report,” responded Aoife.

Dizantos looked at Trizalski and then said, “No. In fact we weren’t aware that there was one. Those who made the arrangements for the ship expressed surprise that its use was being terminated so quickly. They had the impression that your need would last for a year or more.”

“Well until it arrived here that was our intention. However, once we learnt of events occurring on it after leaving Sol, we decided that releasing it was a better choice.”

“I saw a brochure describing the ship’s amenities and accommodations, based on that it looked like a very nice way to travel.”

“The only passenger ships we’ve seen are the three loaned to us and Emprika. IGN404 is quite different to the others. As to our reasons; one reason is its operating condition as a number of its systems are marginal. When it arrived in Sol its propulsion system had significant issues. This had to be repaired; fortunately we had the resources to assist in doing that before departing Sol. The repairs were more than sufficient for it to arrive here safely. However, propulsion wasn’t the only important system requiring maintenance, just the most obvious. As to accommodations, I would describe them as adequate, and just barely at that, certainly not as a nice way to travel as the other ships.

“The mechanical issues we could handle even though it would divert resources. However, the primary reason for vacating it was due to the crew. Shortly after it left Sol the crew began adding a sedative to the passenger’s food. Its purpose was to alter their perceptions so that they would calmly accept receiving minimal rations. We know that their intention was to limit the food offered to what they felt were subsistence levels. Our medical staff indicates that what they planned to offer was substantially less than that. The reason behind this isn’t very clear.

“Another aspect was that some crew members had personal plans for some of the passengers. With the passengers under the influence of the sedative their nefarious plans would be easier to accomplish. One of these was to entice some passengers into joining their ship’s crew as trainees. At face value we don’t have a problem with that, but it is when you use drugs to influence their decision. It became an even bigger issue when we learnt what happened to others who succumbed to their control. It wasn’t something many would do willingly. Captain Zyworki has the details. Fortunately the addition of the sedative was detected well before it had much of an effect.

“Currently the crew of IGN404 are restricted to their quarters. Besides being quizzed about their intent toward the passengers and past activities, they are being monitored by your Spec Ops teams with support from ours. We can either arrange a visit or we can provide the communication protocols so you can contact them directly. Currently there are no passengers on the ship and we are in the process of unloading our cargo.

“Could we have lived with the situation? Yes. Some aspects would be a challenge to manage over a long period of time. To avoid that we set up more temporary quarters at Tara Ardchlár, and by using the space on other ships, we were able to accommodate everyone. So as soon as we finish unloading, it can leave.”

“Interesting. What you are telling us is quite different from what we were led to believe,” responded Dizantos. “We will contact Captain Zyworki and arrange a visit to the ship before we meet.”

“Fine.”

“Once we are in orbit, we can discuss our meeting arrangements.”

“Very good,” replied Sarah’s Clan. “Let us know when you want your security people to visit the meeting site. Have a great evening.”

Shortly after the connection ended the Astrogation Officer said to Commander Egulle, “They’ve sent us a minor course change with a different velocity.”

“Okay. So what is the issue?”

“The change doesn’t make any sense. Either course would bring us to the same point at about the same time.”

“So make the change, it is their System.”

“Yes Sir.” As he walked away he didn’t notice Trizalski’s puzzled expression, but both Orgaine and Egulle did.

Orgaine said, “I suspect they’ve altered our path so it will be easier for them to deal with the four ships following us.”

“So what’s going to happen now?” queried Dizantos.

“Are you asking what they plan to do?” asked Trizalski.

Seeing him nod Orgaine said, “If it was me, I would bring several cloaked ships into position for a frontal intercept. They would not be the only ones. When everyone’s position was optimum, I would paint the unknown ships with a weapon’s acquisition signal. Once I had their attention, I would follow with a demand for them to uncloak and initiate their IFF. At that point the cloaked ships need to yield or fight. The next step would be to board the unknown ships. The Órarduine will not show all of their cards so if our Spec Ops Commander is wise he will yield. If he doesn’t then we could have some damaged ships, and likely quite severely damaged.”

“I agree,” said Egulle causing the others near them to frown.

“Sarah’s Clan, this is Orgaine. I have an idea that may help with the confrontation.”

“Which is?” responded Sally.

“I presume you are going to broadcast a warning once in position.”

“That is in the plan.”

“I am willing to provide you with a message to assist with that. It will include an order for them to initiate their IFF and stand down.”

“Okay. We were going to use video over modulated laser.”

“Good, that is even better.”

“I gather someone is not following orders.”

“That is how it appears to some of us, well at least me.”

“Are you certain that you have contact with them?”

“I have no reason to believe that we don’t but ... you are asking a key question that needs a definite answer. Thanks.” Orgaine then said to those on IHBC-12, “Captain, are you certain that those four ships heard or received your command?”

Looking at the Communication’s crewman he said, “Do you have active communication with the trailing group?”

“We have a data link that we know is active. As per protocol there hasn’t been any voice since FTL. I can tone the line.”

“Do it, and send a request to initiate voice and repeat the uncloak command.”

“Yes Sir.”

Orgaine said, “Give me the sequence for laser com link.”

“They are too far away!” exclaimed the Communication crewman.

“I am aware of that.”

“My apologies, Sir,” quickly responded the crewman as he handed over the information. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

“Apology accepted but this time it wasn’t really necessary as I understood your concern. Now I need to go prepare a video which shouldn’t take very long.”

“Video?” queried Dizantos.

“I’ll explain when I come back,” Orgaine replied as he hurriedly left the bridge.

It was a little over 2 hours later when the receivers of the four trailing Iridien cruisers beeped indicating an incoming message. On the lead ship the communications specialist said, “Sir, we are receiving a message by modulated laser. Header shows it is from Commander Orgaine.”

“They are too far away and at the wrong angle,” replied Commander Mortinski tersely.

“Sir, that may be but the authentication codes are correct. The message is a video.”

After thinking it over the Commander said, “Put it on the monitor.”

A few moments later an image of Commander Orgaine appeared on the monitor. “Good evening Commander. If you are wondering how you are receiving this, let’s just say that it is being relayed. Admiral Trizalski sent you a command to uncloak 2 hours ago which you have not done. According to the new arrival protocol you should have uncloaked before he sent you that command, so the Admiral’s presumption is that your receivers are malfunctioning in some way as we still have a data link with each ship in your group. This is a presumption that could fail upon close scrutiny.

“My presumption is that someone in Central or Spec Ops Intelligence group set this up because they didn’t believe that the Órarduine would detect your cloaked entry. Well they have. They saw you make the transition from FTL. They’ve correctly identified you as Iridien but only have our word that the ships in your group are operated by Iridiens. They’ve had bad experiences with Durale operating cruisers nearly identical to ours. They are requesting you to uncloak within the next five minutes.