Chapter 2

The Queen waved the men to the spindly appearing chairs at the low table off to the side of the office, and asked

"Slow?"

Aggy seated himself seconds after the Queen seated herself before answering

"I want to divide 119 so my tasks will be a bit more manageable and not bogged down in minutiae. I've slotted Slow as Captain D (Grendles) which will probably include "Vector", Denny to take "Warburton" as Captain D (VWs) and Timothy Avers to be Commodore FURS; and before you ask, you are our Commanding Admiral and I need your rubber stamp."

"Blue Hills raised this point after the raid's washup; he also said that you were onto it. It is a comfort to have competent people. Approved. Thoreau? Apart from the fact that I'm serving him Comalee tea!"

Positively overflowing his chair, Thoreau managed to squirm and a slight flush of embarrassment passed across his features; the Queen just smiled gently at him. Aggy continued

"Marcel is my unofficial Intelligence Officer and he has information which he wanted to get to you urgently and discretely, but I've blown that with a vengeance."

He passed the chip across and as the Queen slotted it into the portable reader, she said

"As a trusted servant, I'd better bring you up to date, Aggy. Since your first arrival at Gorgipest the Commander has been just as unofficially attached to my DNI. We have not been formal in our connections and its probably about time that we formalized that. Or perhaps not?" as she saw Thoreau's shake of head.

"At present, Ma'am, I appear to be totally unconnected to your Government despite my now friendly contact with Aggy, and that is much to my advantage. Neutral people speak readily to me. As far as I knew, only Sir Laurence and my contact knew of my connection. I am apprehensive about spread of that knowledge."

"I am only in the loop because at a Navy Board meeting, discussions got a bit heated about the source of certain information. Sir Laurence passed your name to me at a private meeting in this very office on a flammable strip which I immediately placed in that document flamer over there. I later squashed that argument using prerogative. There is no surveillance in here; I have the PGS' word on that. Now the explanation of this?"

Thoreau obliged and the Queen's face became sombre as she spoke,

"And your appreciation?" listened intently to the opinion, and then

"And your advice?" Her face unguardedly showed surprise at the response. Thoreau's was a most definite shake of his head; McCock's was vocal,

"Ma'am, that's so far above my pay scale I'll get nose bleed!"

The Queen looked from one to the other and mused out loud,

"What else then? You could have given that chip to 'Uncle Rupert'. Changes in command could have been done by com or PDA. I'll give Slow a 'rah rah' as she is here. But! Aggy?"

"Ma'am, that chip germinated an idea which I had been swirling around in my brain for a while. We have tactical FTL coms but unless we 'planet hop' as we have to Gorgipest, word only travels as fast as the fastest vessel. We can only push a signal so far even through hyperspace and about a tenth of that in n space. This range is a function of spatial molecular density. I think a chain of UVAs in hyperspace at least to Renmark; Amranti should be easier as we can use Wormhole Control coms for part of that link

I have also been thinking of using UVAs to explore the com range outside the epsilon layer of hyperspace and to do that, I will need to use the Grendels ... second thoughts "Shriek" is ideal but there is a risk going through that turbulence layer into hard vacuum. If it works out, and it probably will, then you will have instant com with the Emperor and the Lord Protector. You would be able to speak directly with anyone in Sol.

We would run your forces nearly dry of UVAs particularly so if we go to Sol and Harbouria at a time when the UVAs are absolutely critical to the defence of the Realm. I'd like to trial local space to Amranti and Renmark and assess."

McCock paused for a moment collecting his thoughts;

"The ability to communicate instantly across the galaxy will be a two edge sword; access is immediate and matters will be raised without time for consideration and answers could be demanded and egos ruffled and relations strained. Bad!

A further corollary is secrecy. If word of the system gets out then all and sundry will want it — their work is just so important according to their egos and naturally having access will be a cachet to their importance. Once the secret is out then our enemies will develop it — it just needs the idea to float and our enemies are not stupid; at least, not the professionals. I won't speak for the politicians and they should never under any circumstance no matter who they are be allowed access to the secret let alone the system."