Chapter 11

The officers on the bridge of the WS Scout kept their heads down over their instruments. Captain Marlon was in another of his towering rages — a common occurrence these days. This latest tantrum had been occasioned by the discovery that Simeone was missing.

The ship's AI had scanned the entire vessel and had confirmed that Simeone was no longer aboard. It had also verified that none of the Scout's shuttles or emergency pods were missing. Simeone had either: leapt from a docking port to his death; disappeared into thin air; or somehow been tele-ported from the ship.

The fact that Simeone had been under close arrest, with armed guards on his door, convinced Marlon that the third possibility was the most likely. He had already torn strips off of his Security Officer for the 'escape'.

"It's not supposed to be possible for someone to tele-port either off or on to this ship without proper security verification by the ship's AI. Can you explain to me how this could have happened?" he demanded.

The Security Officer looked as if he was about to faint under Marlon's angry glare, but he somehow managed a response.

"The AI denies that tele-port facilities were used, Captain. What you say is correct, there are protocols that stop tele-port activity within the confines of the ship — I can assure you that the security of those protocols hasn't been breached."

"Well you pea-brained idiot, how do you explain the fact that this pilot somehow managed to get past your pathetic guards and make his way off of the ship? Come on, tell me. Explain that to me, because I'm finding it a little hard to understand!" snapped Marlon.

The Security Officer's knees were physically shaking and he had to put out a hand to steady himself against the back of a nearby chair.

"I've personally reviewed the recorded images of the pilot's cabin, Captain. One instant he was there walking around his bed and the next he was gone. It looked for all the world as if he had tele-ported, but the AI is categorical that no tele-port activity took place. I'm sorry, but I can't explain that."

Marlon dismissed the man and swung stony-faced to look at the screen at the front of the bridge. He was absolutely positive that Ben had somehow whisked Simeone away — in the process scoring another victory. The Captain's only consolation was that he was leaving the little pip-squeak far behind him now as he headed for Woden. With any luck he wouldn't ever have to deal with Ben again.

Marlon's suspicions about the upgraded technology having been tampered with, to allow Ben to override it, were being cemented in his own mind as each day passed. Everything was working perfectly now that Ben was out of the picture. The scanners, the shields, the engines and even the weapons. He had test fired several torpedoes at passing asteroids and they had performed exactly as they should.

"No, it's quite clear that he cheated on every occasion we came up against each other. I am the superior pilot and he's nothing but a low-life savage who pulls cheap tricks to try to make himself look good!" Marlon thought to himself.

The Captain knew that there were mutterings all over his ship. The crew had been brought back up from the planet's surface without any warning and his decision to set course for Woden without delay had more than a few of them worrying about their chances of survival.

The weeks and months of mixing with the tribes of New Woden had brought home to the Wodenites just how poorly prepared for war they were. At least there were now four companies of fully trained troopers onboard, but that still left the better part of three thousand crew members who were still close to being useless.

As each day went by and Woden came closer, the vast majority of the crew were growing increasingly panicky about what they were going to have to face.

The stories of how Marlon had been made to look incompetent by Ben were also quick to circulate and it wasn't long before a large part of the crew had little faith in their Captain's abilities.

Marlon picked up on the mood whenever he visited different parts of the Scout. Conversations came to a dead halt when he entered a room, ordinary troopers openly assessed him as he passed by and many refused to meet his eye when talking to him. It was a measure perhaps of the Captain's degree of self-delusion that even this knowledge did little to dent his belief that he was a great pilot and that he would single-handedly liberate his home planet.

The Rebecca took the same twelve days to return to New Woden as it had to make the outward trip. Ben, Sarah, Leona and Nathan were in a business-like mood, buoyed by the success of the scouting mission, but keenly aware of the scale of the task that faced them now.

It was true that they taken the measure of the Zytol ships, they had struck a blow at the invaders on Woden itself, and that might serve to give the Wodenites some hope for the future, but there were a lot of Zytol to deal with.

Ben in particular was focused on what needed to be done and he had quite a few worries.

Elise had informed him that there had been absolutely no trace of the metals of power in any of the galaxies they had crossed — six hundred galaxies and not a trace of the metal they needed.

Even if Thomas managed to build the ships that Ben had asked for, that would still leave only four New Woden ships against the hundreds of Zytol craft that he knew awaited them.

There was also the problem of dealing with the thousands of Zytol already on the planet of Woden itself. Elise's scans showed that many of them were too close to Wodenite populations to attack using the ships. They would need to be taken out by ground forces — of which Ben had precious few. Added to that, he had now discovered that the air quality on Woden would require his troops to wear some kind of breathing apparatus — unless of course the repairs to the ozone layer helped in that respect.

The scouting expedition had also identified a new challenge that they hadn't considered before — the need to liberate the thousands of Wodenites that had been transported to Zytol as slave-labour.

It seemed like there was so much to do and so little time to prepare.

The Rebecca was no sooner in orbit than Ben had transported down to check on progress with the ship building. He was cheered to see that the second ship had been completed and a third was already well on the way to being finished also.

"How are things going?" he asked a tired looking Thomas.

"As well as can be expected. I've managed to trim some time off of the production by having things taken forward in parallel. Those engines over there for example, they're the engines for the fourth ship and they're ready to fit as soon as we can get the shell up in the dry-dock."

"Excellent! Have you had time to look at the harvesting ship?" Ben dared to ask.

"Briefly. I took the second ship up for a test flight and had a look at the outside of the harvester. The best that I could see, the drones have done a fine job on repairing the hull," said Thomas. "How did the Rebecca do on her extended trials?"

Ben mentally kicked himself. He had forgotten that no one would have the capacity to actually transport themselves up onto the harvester in his absence. Thomas' question also reminded him that he had explained his expected long absence by telling people that he planned to put his ship through her paces on a longer trip.

"I'm calling a meeting of the twins and Simeone tonight to explain what I've been doing for the past month or so, I'll reveal how well the Rebecca did then," Ben advised. "You and Elizabeth need to be there."

"Wouldn't miss it," Thomas replied.

Ben's next trip was out to General David's training camp to see how things were progressing there. David and Beckie were out in the field watching an exercise and rather than try to find and join them, Ben put his feet up in their quarters to rest his weary bones.

Several hours later David and Beckie returned, surprised to find him slumped on one of their sofas.

"So, the wanderer returns! How did your ship handle? Any problems?" asked David.

"The Rebecca is better than fine, but I'll explain that tonight. I want all of the original twins and Simeone over at the great house tonight for a meeting. Meantime, I wanted a quick update on how things are going here," said Ben.

"You should be able to have your crew in about two weeks. They're good, very good. We've managed to shave two weeks off of the time it took to train the Wodenites. The other group will be ready about two or three weeks after that," advised Beckie.

Ben shook his head. It looked as if things were going to be very tight and it would be touch and go whether they were able to make it back to Woden before Captain Marlon arrived there.

David and Beckie could see the look of concern on his face.

"I know you want things quicker than that, Commander, but we're pushing these people as hard as we can. If we cut the time by much more, they'll have to miss huge chunks of what they need to learn," said David.

Ben sighed and tried to muster a smile.

"I'm sorry, I realise that, and making sure they're fully ready is the most important thing. To be honest, I'm tired. I think I'll head back to Aetherkraal for a few hours of rest before our meeting," he said wearily.

Ben did manage to snatch a few hours of sleep before the meeting he had called and felt much the better for it. When he entered the dining room of the great house, he found that Sarah had prepared food for their guests and the large screen that he had requested had been set up covering one entire wall.

"I didn't realise just how hungry I was until I saw all of this food!" he exclaimed, grabbing a plate and loading it up with choice cuts.

The five original twins and Simeone were now extremely comfortable in each other's company and Ben allowed some time for simple conversations about family and day to day events before getting down to business.

Sarah knew that Ben intended to share what they had learned in the past few weeks with the others and she hurried to help him clear away the food and empty plates so they could begin. Once that was done, Ben indicated that they should all find a comfortable chair and pull it over in front of the large screen.

"I told you all that I was taking the Rebecca out for extended trials," he began, "that was true, I just left out where I was planning to go.

"In the past three to four weeks myself, Sarah and two other Benite officers have been to Woden and back."

His delivery of that news was intentionally dramatic and he got the reaction he expected.

"Impossible! You couldn't possibly have made that round trip in four weeks. It would take almost four months to get from here to Woden, never mind the return leg," asserted Simeone, the most knowledgeable about space travel of those gathered.

"Elise, the visuals if you would please?" Ben asked.

The giant screen sprang to life with the image they had first had of the planet of Woden — Elise had recorded everything of course.

"This was our first sighting of Woden. As you can see, the planet looks to be in a sorry state. Elise advises that the air quality is so poor that even an hour or two on the surface would give rise to respiratory problems. David, you need to take note of that and figure out what it might mean for ground forces.

"Thomas, take note of the Zytol ships orbiting the planet. We estimate that there between two and three hundred of them — so every ship that you can build for us will make a huge difference!

"Simeone, I'm afraid this is going to be especially painful for you, so I apologise in advance, but we all need to see this, we all need to know what we're facing.