Chapter 85: A Confrontational Meeting

Seventeen hours later I returned to the same meeting room. This time I arrived wearing my uniform and without an escort. Aine had requested permission to join, but the messages sent by Admiral Redmill were belligerent and I felt safer leaving my concubines home.

I arrived at the entrance to the administration building to find all of my officers waiting. Ensign Daniels led them in saluting as I walked up.

“Reporting as ordered,” Ensign Daniels barked as I returned the salute.

I returned the salute. “I never gave you a specific order.”

“We know,” Ensign Munfree said as I dropped the salute. “Let’s just say that there were communications you didn’t hear being passed around.”

All of my officers dropped their salutes. I waved to the door way. “I believe the senior officer is supposed to be the last to enter. In that case Ensign Thornton, you first.”

Jessica scowled, but stepped through the doorway. I waited as the others stepped in. As they did, I could hear raised and angry voices. I was too far away to make out the words, but tension filled the air as I entered the building and looked around.

The door I expected to see open was closed. The back wall of the main room had slid out of the way to reveal a massive auditorium. From where I stood I could see several tables set up in a rectangle in the room. There was an empty seat at one of the tables on the right side. My officers were heading there.

I looked up to see Admiral Redmill glaring at me. Immediately I offered my best salute. “Captain Parker of Corsica reporting sir!”

Admiral Redmill returned the salute. “You’re the last to arrive. Take your place for now.”

I forced my face to remain impassive as he dropped the salute. He turned away to ask something of one of his aides.

I felt the frown as I dropped my salute and hurried forward to get to my assigned place in the briefing room. My officers had found chairs against the wall just behind the table. Ensign Daniels had remained standing and he put a hand on my shoulder as I approached.

“We’re early. Don’t let him bait you into an argument with his words,” he said quietly.

“Good advice,” I whispered back. “I’m wondering what he’s thinking though.”

Admiral Redmill looked around. One of his aides stood up and stomped his foot to get everyone’s attention. “Everyone is here, so let’s get the meeting started,” the man barked out.

The room grew quiet as Admiral Redmill leaned forward in his chair. He had an eager gleam in his eye as he scanned the room. “Gentlemen, we have a unique opportunity to strike a strong blow against the Sa’arm. Thanks to the fumbling probes conducted from this planet, we have identified a new Sa’arm colony in a system we have designated Gee One Dash Six Five Nine.”

“Long designation,” someone muttered. Why not call it something like Gafe.”

“What?” someone else called out. Is that a name?”

Admiral Redmill loudly cleared his throat. “For ease of getting through this briefing, we’ll just call the system the Target from now on. The designation doesn’t really matter. It’s a Sa’arm controlled system. There are two planets that orbit within the zone where a planet may have liquid water and support life. The scans we have show that the Sa’arm have claimed the interior planet.”

“There were some signs that they may have also landed on the other one,” Ensign Munfree whispered to me.

I refrained from saying anything as Admiral Redmill continued speaking. “The system has an asteroid belt. It lies just inside where we’ll have to cut our jump drives to safely enter the system. Analysis shows that it has a large amount of heavy metals. The Sa’arm are likely going to mine the belt.”

“Nothing likely about it,” Ensign White whispered. “Has he not read the reports from our second visit?”

I held up a hand to warn my officers to remain silent. Several other officers had started muttering at the same time which prevented Admiral Redmill from barking at one person. He scowled over the group as he cleared his throat for a second time.

“Could everyone refrain from the muttering and side conversations?” he called out loudly. “I’d like to get to the planning stage quickly.”

The chorus of mutters faded out. Admiral Redmill was glaring at one of the other ship captains at the far end of the room. The man had been leaning back to speak to one of his subordinates and ignored the order for a couple of seconds. When he finally turned back the man had a smirk on his face. “Sorry Admiral. I have been dealing with a minor disciplinary issue.”

“Take care of it outside of this meeting,” Admiral Redmill said with another snarl. “Or I’ll find a ship captain who doesn’t have disciplinary problems on his ships.”

The captain’s face paled and the smirk vanished. Admiral Redmill paid the man no more attention as he leaned back for a moment. “Now, I’m sure you’ve all heard the briefing that I had the AI compile. Our goal is to knock out any colony ships in orbit and damage as much of the Sa’arm infrastructure as possible. Zulu will be the primary attacker, using its particle disruption cannons. Corsica and Ipanema will provide close escort. The other ships will be a diversionary force. I’ll be on board Cabra Castle.”

One of the captains raised a hand. The admiral glared at him for a moment. “I was going to ask if there were any questions once I was done.”

The man nodded. “I believe we’ve all read the briefing papers. My question was in regards to what intelligence we have on the Sa’arm ships in the system.”

The admiral looked puzzled. I raised my hand and waited. The other captains all slowly turned to look at me.

I remained silent until Admiral Redmill looked at me. “Ah, Captain Parker. You have something to say?”

“Since my ship has been the one to conduct the reconnaissance of the system, I guess I should answer the good captain’s question. From the scans we performed during both of our visits to the system the Sa’arm have an active presence in the asteroid belt. We’ve seen ships that look like they are upsized Castle class ships, as well as ships that were clearly put together to mine the asteroids. Most of the combat ships travel in groups, which makes them more deadly.”

“How?” Admiral Redmill asked. “Everything I’ve read says that the Sa’arm ships are much less capable than a similar Confederacy ship.”

“I can’t confirm this, but I remember reading that our best scientists now believe that the Sa’arm are a hive mind race. This means what one sees, they all see, and what one knows, they all know. Subject to a maximum distance provision,” I said.

“Maximum distance?” one of the officers asked.

“The Sa’arm hive mind doesn’t appear as well once the Sa’arm spread out. However, I’m not sure what the maximum distance is before they can’t talk to each other. I do know that they can use their ability to triangulate where a ship in space is, and it makes them very accurate,” I said.

“How?” someone asked.

I noticed that Admiral Redmill was watching me closely. I looked up at the ceiling for a moment. “AI, can you project holograms in the middle of the room.”

“Yes,” the AI replied. “What do you want me to show.”

“Try to follow along to what I’m saying. Hopefully you’ll be able to show models of what I describe,” I replied.

“Captain Parker?” Admiral Redmill asked.

“I’m going to try to describe my guess as to how the Sa’arm target our ships when they fight in space. Once you understand how that works, or might work, I think we can adjust our plan to give Zulu a better chance to get in close enough to attack,” I said.

“You have thoughts on that?” one of the captains I had not been introduced to said.

“He does,” Captain Prescott said. “It was something he and I talked about. Once my ensigns heard it they quickly accepted it. Ipanema had the misfortune to discover just how well the Sa’arm can target a ship if they have numbers. Individually their ships are easy to kill.”