When Taylor arrived, he looked truly exhausted. “How long have you been at this, Sam?”
“Days. I caught a few winks on the way over from my ship. I’m taking a break now before the fighting gets started, then Seeton can take a break. We’re still positioning, but it’s going well. It’s strange though, all this waiting to get into position. I don’t think a shot has been fired yet.”
“Is the plan working out?”
“Beautifully, and if they break up their wings, all the tags are in place. We’ve marked every single cruiser. All our fast ships are manned with Terrans, and we’re almost done manning the rest of the capital ships with our guys. We’re holding the fast ships back for the moment. They can get into position quickly enough that we don’t want to give away our strategy. The slower ships will be as positioned as they can be by tomorrow. The attack will happen all at once, all over the system.”
“Sounds like a good plan.”
“It is. We give little away until it’s too late for them to do anything about it. I feel real good.”
Waverly spoke up. “How’s it going on the surface, sir?”
Taylor turned to him. “I really can’t say, but they’ve released some 250 gunners to our fast ships, and they’ll give us another 120 tonight for the cruisers you brought from Orion III.”
“Then they’re just about done. Is there any way I can get in touch with them?”
“Not at the moment. We can’t use normal communications or we’ll give away our position for sure, and the tight beams are in continuous use. Once the fighting starts, a lot of our communications will be in the clear and you can call then, but the tight beams will be very busy. I think we’ll take a hard look at our communications requirements after this is all over.”
“Do you need me up there?” Trexler asked.
“It’s pretty crowded with Chandrajuski and M’Coda in the operations center. I’ve been working from the bridge, but it’s crowded there, too. We might be able to squeeze you in. When you’re ready, we’ll take all the help we can get.”
“Okay, go take your break, Sam.”
Sam looked around the vast room and spied an empty bed. He went to it and appeared to be out cold before his head hit the sheets. Lieutenant Stevens got up from his bed and covered Sam with a blanket.
Trexler thought for a moment, then said one word: “Ship.”
A light on his communicator began flashing, and the unit started an angry vibrating. He picked it up and said, “Trexler.”
“General transmission is not permitted in sick bay, Admiral. How may I be of service?”
“Is there a hook-up to the net in here?”
“No.”
“Are there hook-ups elsewhere that are not in use?”
“Seven on the bridge, two in the captain’s quarters, three in Engineering, one in the landing bay, one in each gun battery, one in the officers mess…”
“Okay, stop. What if the captain is sick? How does he communicate from sick bay?”
“There are provisions for six input stations in sick bay.”
“How do I get them activated?”
“Only the captain or executive officer can authorize activation.”
“Connect me with the captain, please.”
A moment later, “Bridge.”
“This is Admiral Trexler. I’d like to speak with the captain.”
“Standby.”
“Captain Klipgg. What can I do for you, Admiral?”
“Are you busy?”
“Not at all. I’ve been ordered to stay out of things for the time being.”
“I’m in sick bay. Can you activate the net connections in here?”
“I’d be happy to, sir. Someone will be there shortly with the necessary equipment. What kind of helmets do you need?”
“Uh, probably just one for myself, but there could end up being a meeting in here. I guess one for each Admiral, and maybe a few spares just in case.”
“I’ll take care of it, sir.”
Ten minutes later, the Chief of the Boat showed up with two gravity carts in tow. One was loaded with some expensive looking cases, and the other was loaded with cables.
“How’s the bed, sir?”
“I take it it’s a new invention?”
“Yes, sir. It’s as small as we can make it.”
“Aren’t you a little busy to be running errands?”
“No, sir. The guns and shields are perfect, and there’s little else to do except normal shipboard routine. We’re ready to hop if things change.” He started running thick cable from a housing on the wall, bringing it to Trexler’s bed. He attached it to the bed, then brought a helmet to Trexler and plugged it in. “Here you are, sir. Where do you want the others?”
Waverly spoke up. “Mind if I join you?”
“Sure, if you can get one of these on.”
Waverly looked at the Chief. “Will the helmets work over bandages?”
“They will. Let’s see, you’ll need about a size four.”
Stevens and Walters were looking hopefully at Trexler, and he sighed. “Are you guys checked out on the net?”
“Yes, sir!” they both answered at the same time.
While the Chief got them plugged in, Trexler said, “Ship.” His communicator started flashing and buzzing again. He put it to his mouth and said, “Trexler.”
“General transmission is not permitted in sick bay, Admiral. How may I be of service?”
“I’m coming into the net. I want a broad view of the Aldebaran system. Three others here in sick bay are coming in with me. They are restricted to communicating only with me. Otherwise, they have full access, provided it does not limit the activities in the operations center or the bridge.”
“Established, Admiral.”
Trexler pulled his helmet on. A few seconds later, he found himself positioned in the center of the system, right at the center of the sun. He looked outward, and many, many symbols denoting ships stood out far in the distance, too far away for him to distinguish the tags Sam Taylor and his staff had applied to them. A tiny planet came into view as he rotated his head to the left, and he zoomed in on Aldebaran I. There were a few friendly ships there, but no Rebel or Chessori ships, so he backed out and continued turning left until he’d made the whole circle. He sensed Waverly, Stevens, and Walters joining him.
He thought “strategic view,” and he was instantly looking down on the Aldebaran system, all of it spread out below him. He moved in closer, and ships and their tags came into clear focus.
He studied the view for a moment, and thought, “trajectories, Rebel wings only.” Individual ship symbols vanished, to be replaced by snowflake symbols that someone had used to designate wings of Rebel ships. He moved closer in to one snowflake, and it expanded to show twelve Rebel squadrons. He thought, “move to next wing.” The view shifted to another wing and moved in. Again, there were twelve squadrons. He repeated the process 39 more times to assure himself that all the Rebels had formed into wings.
He thought “display Empire ships assigned to attack this Rebel wing.” Two fast cruisers instantly sprang into view, but they were far from the attacking Rebel wing. He repeated the process of examining each wing. Each wing had at least two friendly ships assigned to it, and some had as many as six. Had he not known that some of the cruisers were fast, he would have thought Chandrajuski was holding many ships in reserve. In other cases, it was obvious which enemy wings he was setting up to attack, a consideration the Rebels could not miss. Was Chandrajuski tempting them to commit their reserves?
He had another thought, wondering if Chandrajuski had chosen to hide the fast ships. As he explored, he discovered that all the fast ships were, indeed, tucked in with slow ships that were assigned to completely different wings. Once the attack began, some of these fast ships would leave their group and hit a completely different
