Chapter 33: Uneasy Truces

Brittany and Kitty relaxed slightly once James had disappeared from the viewscreen. Kitty looked a bit frustrated. "I want to help him, but I can't move fast right now," she moaned as she put a hand on her very pregnant belly.

"I felt the same the last weeks before giving birth," I admitted. "James understands."

Kitty nodded sadly as she claimed an empty chair and sat down. She quickly rolled the chair next to mine and threw her arms around me as I continued to watch the viewscreen showing Yvette and the scientist in the teleportal room.

"Tiffany," Terrence called out as he continued to monitor the teleportal controls. "Who is on the automated defense controls?"

"Timothy and Louis are here now," Tamara responded. "They both admit that you could help, but the strange thing is that the cruisers haven't moved since they entered the system. The jump points have closed, but they are sitting just outside the orbit of Kali."

"Motionless?" Terrence asked.

"In space nothing is motionless," I heard Tiffany reply. "But they are holding position for the moment. The question is, what are they waiting for?"

"Have we contacted the Confed ship that was sneaking through the system?" Yvette asked.

"We did that," Tamara replied. "It's Mongolia, an Asian class destroyer. The crew is new and the captain decided to run a stealth drill when they arrived."

"Can they help us against the Sa'arm ships." Yvette asked.

"I'm afraid we can't take on two Sa'arm cruisers and win," a female voice replied. The voice sounded familiar and I looked over at Kitty and Brittany to see if either of them recognized it.

Neither of my sister concubines reacted to the voice. I sat back in my chair for a moment. On the screen, I could see Terrence wave at Yvette and then lean over to whisper her when she approached him. The scientist was engaged in a conversation with a young man who had arrived through the teleportal.

Just then, James voice called out. "Tiffany, what's the status on the Sa'arm visitors?"

"No change," Tiffany replied. "They remain outside the orbit of Kali. They don't seem to be too interested in approaching."

"James, this doesn't make sense," Timothy called out. "Every other time, the Sa'arm have charged in trying to get close to Ishtar almost immediately, why would they remain at the edge of the system and out of range?"

"We can't do anything to them right now," Louis added. "We have a few sensor platforms out that far, but nothing that could get through the defense of one of those cruisers. They have to be much closer to us before we'd have enough equipment nearby to threaten them."

"James, should we stand down?" Yvette asked. I noticed that the scientist looked a bit pensive as everyone continued to wait.

"I'm not..." James began

"Shit!" Timothy shouted out. "We just figured out why they aren't moving from their emergence point."

"What happened?" I heard James cry. Watching the viewscreens, I could see that the scientist was now visibly shaking.

"They must have launched some kind of space mine ahead of the ships. I doubt the mines can harm us thanks the atmosphere, but they just created a huge hole in our defenses. If they do it a few more times, we won't have the weaponry to stop them," Timothy screamed out.

"Can we move the defenses?" the scientist asked. His voice had a lot of panic in it. I watched on the viewscreen and noticed that Yvette and Terrence remained calm.

James as always immediately took charge, even if only over the communications system. "Louis, move as much of our space-based defenses away from the most direct line to Ishtar. If we're lucky, the Sa'arm will only clear a narrow path and we can try to catch them as they move toward the planet. Tiffany, get in touch with the Confed ship. See if they can maneuver to give themselves a chance to ambush one of the cruisers. It's not much, but if we can support with missiles, we might do enough damage to survive. Terrence, clear the teleportal and then get Chief Scientist Johanes and his men to one of the better rooms. Find someone who is calm and try to have them help organize things."

Terrence actually snapped off a salute before turning to start deactivating the teleportal. The Chief Scientist was now whirling in a circle looking at the walls of the room he was in.

"Are we safe?" I heard the man cry out. "We can't fight them off from here. We're going to die."

There was a sigh right next to me. I turned to see Brittany sinking into a chair. "James will save us," she whispered confidently. "He always does."

I turned back to the viewscreen, wondering how that might be possible. The chief scientist, who had seemed so arrogant when he arrived, was cowering on the floor. Yvette stood nearby. She was facing the door to the teleportal room and clearly was trying to ensure that the man was not noticed by other members of his staff. I found myself wondering what he might know about the Sa'arm.

The thought refused to go away and I decided that I should see if Tamara or Tiffany could find a way to get Yvette to quietly ask the question of the scientist. My hands were on the arms of my chair and lifting me to my feet when Tiffany's voice rang out.

"Status change! We have a new jump point opening!" she shrieked.

"Calm down Tiffany," my master called out. "Where is the new point opening."

"In line with the Wolf system," Tiffany said. "Sorry, but it took me a bit by surprise."

"They do that," James said. "Now, have the Sa'arm reacted to the change?"

"Not yet," Tiffany replied. "They might not have a good scan. We have set up several dozen remote sensor platforms in the system, so we see new jump points opening quickly. If the Sa'arm haven't sent out some kind of drone, they might not realize that the point has opened. It depends on what kind of scanning they do."

"Mostly light speed stuff," the scientist said. I turned to see him slowly getting back to his feet. "The more advanced scanning requires levels of technology they don't appear to use. What's the distance between the ships?"

"Over a light hour," Tiffany said. "Probably closer to one and a half hours. The Sa'arm are just over one light hour from our star and they and this new ship emerged at right angles."

"What ship just emerged?" Yvette asked.

"I'm waiting for the scanners to tell us," Tamara said. "Or better yet an IFF. The ship hasn't emerged just yet."

"Battle damaged?" I heard Tyson ask."

"I don't ... wait..." Tamara said. "It's one of ours. The IFF is calling out 'Sif'"

"Hail her now and see how badly damaged the ship is. With two ships, I think the Sa'arm can be driven from the system," James said.

"On it," Tamara chirped.

The scientist was now scowling again. He turned to Yvette. "This is exceedingly unprofessional and unmilitary. Everyone here needs some remedial training."

"As long as it doesn't disrupt our mission to repair damaged navy ships, you can put us through whatever training you believe is necessary," James replied. "Could you allow us to finish dealing with the current crisis? Yvette, I'm going to need you to head to the command post. I'm going to stay in my armor until we're sure the Sa'arm are no longer a threat. Someone needs to be available to coordinate repair duties."

"On my way," Yvette called out, offering a salute. She turned to leave the teleportal room.

"Wait!" the scientist ordered. "I need to talk to you first." He stalked up to her and carefully walked around her until he blocked her from the door.

Yvette said something to him, but I could not hear it clearly. I was about to say something when Tamara called out. "James, I've got the commander of Sif on the line. The captain is Major Theresa Johnson."

"Major," James said. "Has Tamara briefed you on the situation?"

"She has," a feminine voice replied. "And I can see the two cruisers now that we've been linked into your sensor network. I can probably take them, but against two I'll take casualties."

"There is an Asia Class Destroyer skulking through the system," James said. "They can add to your firepower."

"I've heard, but my sensor crew hasn't been able to find her yet. We'll coordinate when we can. What can you tell me about the Sa'arm?"

"Not much," James replied. "They have remained where they were when we first noticed them. They are sending some kind of weapon ahead of them to wipe out our defenses, but that's been all they've done so far."