“Welcome back, sir. How do you feel?”
“Pretty good, actually. How about you?”
“I haven’t been looked at yet. Stevens is in the operating room right now. The doctor asked me to tell you they put a nerve block on your lower body. Nothing down there will work, so don’t try getting out of that thing.”
“I have work to do.”
“Admiral Seeton told them you’d hold the meeting right here.”
Waverly spoke without opening his eyes. “Hello, Ray.”
“Hey, how you doing?”
“Just a concussion, nothing serious. I’ll be up and around in a few days.”
Seeton came into the room, and beds and medical equipment started getting shifted around.
“Harry, I need to get out of here,” Trexler called.
“All in good time, my friend. They’re making you a portable restoration tank, but you’ll have to give them a few hours to work on your foot before they let you out. We’ll hold the meeting here. Admiral Taylor is aboard. He’s in the ops center. Chandrajuski and M’Coda will be here in twenty minutes.”
“We all need to be in the operations center.”
Seeton stopped what he was doing and stared at Trexler. “You know, Ray, I watched an amazing thing happen today. You have the whole battle mapped out in your head, and you’ve never once looked at a display.”
“I’m just painting with a wide brush at the moment, my friend. The display is needed for the next step, then we’ll get into the net to fine tune things.”
“That’s just my point. I’m reasonably certain that everyone else’s eyes have rarely left the displays. They’re seeing details while you’re seeing the whole picture. Might it be a technique Chandrajuski and M’Coda would benefit from?”
“Hmm. It’s not the way we trained to manage a battle like this.”
“You’re completely focused, Ray. What more could a commander ask for? Let’s leave the displays out of it for now. You’re stuck in that tank, and I want everyone in a room that’s completely devoid of displays for this meeting. We’ll see what develops. We can always adjourn to the displays later.”
“Well… okay, but I’m certain we’ll end up back at the operations center.”
“They will, but you’re not needed there. By then, it will just be a matter of grinding out work assignments. They can do that. In fact, I suspect they’ll all stay here for a while, and I’m making arrangements. Chandrajuski is not going to give up three more hours before working on ship dispositions. With all of you here, it’s putting all our eggs in one basket, so to speak, but look at the synergy we could develop.”
“There aren’t enough displays and net portals, and there aren’t enough tight beam transmitters in operations.”
“The Chief is working on it. It’s a serious limitation, but we can use the displays and net portals on the bridge in addition to the ones in the operations center. This ship is not going into action, so the bridge won’t need them for fighting.”
While they talked, two chairs were brought in and partitions went up around a fairly large area. Gamordians took up a lot of space. Seeton disappeared, and Trexler reviewed the strategic situation in his head. It seemed fairly straight forward to him, but he was concerned about the Rebel reinforcements. He really wanted to force them in, but he wanted to find a way to do it on his own terms, not theirs.
Chandrajuski came into the partitioned-off area. M’Coda was right behind him, and the moment he stopped, his upper hands went to work on his whiskers. Sam Taylor settled into a chair with a grim expression on his face. Seeton sat beside him.
“Is Steve Brinson coming?” Trexler asked Seeton.
“No. We might need some detailed information from the ops center. He’s our eyes.”
Chandrajuski wasted no time. “What’s this all about, Ray?”
“Let’s see if I can summarize for you. We have 160 squadrons, and they have 500 or so. Am I right?”
“The numbers have stabilized, and you’re very close.”
“The first problem is to identify which ships are carrying Chessori, right?”
“Correct.”
“It’s also fair to say that any Chessori we identify will not be paired with regular squadrons. They can’t function together.”
“Until proven otherwise, that is the basis of our planning.”
“We have 84 Terran-manned squadrons of which 21 are fast. We have 80 purely Empire squadrons, of which 27 are fast. That gives us a total of 48 fast squadrons.”
“Those are the numbers Ray. We’ve been living with them for hours.”
“Okay. Stick with the numbers. We’re just after the big picture here. How are the Rebels organized?”
“Groups of four squadrons. In a few cases, larger groups. I believe the large groups will attempt to push through our defenses.”
“You’ve been out of touch for three hours.” He looked to Seeton. “Harry, would you please check with Steve to see if the wings are still forming?”
“I just came from there. They are.”
Trexler focused back on Chandrajuski. “We call the groupings of four squadrons a ‘unit.’ The larger groups are called ‘wings.’ It appears that all the Rebels are forming into wings. Our battle will be fought against 40 wings. For us in command, we’re not fighting 500 Rebel squadrons, we’re fighting 40 wings.”
M’Coda’s upper hands went still, then started a frantic preening. Chandrajuski just stared at him, but Trexler could see his thoughts were deep and elsewhere.
A smile found its way to Sam Taylor’s face as he considered the implications. “I think our jobs just got a lot easier,” he stated softly.
“How certain are you of these wing configurations?” Chandrajuski demanded.
Trexler looked to Seeton, who answered for him. “Pretty certain, Admiral. Steve Brinson has a very nice display of trajectories if you’d like to go see them. It’s pretty complex, and it’s not easy to decipher yet, but it soon will be.”
M’Coda’s upper hands were still in motion. “Two quick probes by Terran fast squadrons to expose all the Chessori wings, then we can assign targets. It will become an issue of attrition.”
“For the Terrans, yes. For the Empire ships, no,” Trexler said. He nodded to Seeton who stood up to face Chandrajuski’s looming figure.
“I’ve known for a long time that a great battle would be fought here, sir. Some will criticize the path I chose, but none here in this room will today. I’ve gambled everything I have on this battle, as it was foretold I must.”
Chandrajuski’s triangular head lowered on his long neck to within inches of Seeton. “Everything?”
“Everything, my friend. They’re waiting a short jump away. Actually, we’ve already called for some of them.”
“How many, Harry?”
“673.”
Chandrajuski stayed in Seeton’s face for a time, then with all his elegance, he backed away, lowered his back legs, and then lowered his head. It was his method of bowing. “You chose well, Harry. We are in your debt.”
“I told you some time ago that I would stand by my oath to the Queen. That has been my guide.”
“Your example will guide all of us, today and for a long time to come.” He went to Trexler’s bedside and looked down on him. “You promised me that if I came, I would leave here looking down on the battle from a perspective of superiority. You have delivered on that promise, Ray. Thank you.”
His head swung around to take all of them in. “Should we go fight a great battle now?”
Trexler spoke up. “We might want to consider a few of the nuts and bolts first. Our goal is not yet clearly stated, and we have a number of options to choose from to achieve that goal.”
“The goal is quite clear, Ray.”
“It was, but it can be more now. We set out to take Aldebaran Sector from the Rebels. I would restate that goal. We want to defeat them. They’ll have reserves, sir. We want them, too.”
Chandrajuski backed away, deep in thought. “A challenge, but I accept. We will have to position ourselves in
