Kruger and Tolwyn looked up as Ian and Jason came into the room.
'Glad you're alive,' Geoff said.
'So am I.'
'But you lost a Sabre,' Kruger interjected, 'a first line ship in return for one Kilrathi Stealth, not a good trade in my book at all.'
'Return with your shield or upon it, is that it?' Ian said dryly.
'Something like that,' Kruger retorted. 'You Confed boys might think it's all right to blow a ship apart or prang one up on a bad landing, get out, and then have another one handed to you, but out here it's different. We're at the butt end of any supplies. With your asinine Confed signing that article 23 of the armistice forbidding the resale of fighter aircraft, a Sabre is precious.'
'Sorry,' Ian replied, 'next time I'll make sure to blow up with my ship.'
'At least we know about their new missile,' Tolwyn interjected, while pouring himself a cup of tea and motioning for Ian to come over and join him.
'You go too easy on your boys,' Kruger said, looking over at Tolwyn. Jason found it hard to suppress a low chuckle.
'Something I say amusing to you, mister?' Kruger asked, looking back at Jason.
'As a matter of fact, yes, sir,' Jason replied.
Kruger looked at him coldly and again Jason found himself wondering if his honesty would get him into hot water. Whether Kruger could really discipline him or not was problematic, he was after all a 'volunteer' in the Landreich's Free Corp, not even officially sworn in, but he did suspect the gaunt one-eyed leader could make life difficult.
'We've got a little surprise for you two,' Tolwyn said handing a cup of tea to Ian and moving to get between Jason and Kruger. Glad for the excuse to break eye contact Jason focused his attention on Tolwyn.
'What is it, sir?'
'The special equipment we were hoping to get made it out of the Confederation and will arrive here tomorrow. It's the real reason I wanted to get these carriers out here,' and he looked over at a frowning Kruger and smiled 'besides helping out our allies in the Landreich.
'Therefore Tarawa and Normandy aren't going out on forward patrol with the other three carriers.'
'Why, sir?' and the disappointment in Jason's voice was evident.
'I couldn't let you in on it till now, but your ship has been selected for the real mission. Let's head up there now, Paladin's moved over from Normandy and he's already on board waiting for us.'
'What is it, sir?' Jason asked, feeling like a child who was being held back from looking under the Christmas tree.
'Let's just say we've decided to add to Tarawa a little something special that just came in.'
CHAPTER SIX
Hard docking completed, Jason followed Geoff Tolwyn to what usually served as the entry bay for his fighters and was now blocked by the side of the heavy transport which was almost as big as Tarawa.
The crew worked around him, extending the docking collar through the magnetic field which separated the pressurized flight deck from the vacuum of space. The collar snapped onto the side of the transport and the deck officer turned to Jason nodding that an airtight seal had been secured. The side of the transport popped open and a thin, nearly bald man, who Jason judged to be in his early sixties, came through.
'So the Cats have been snooping around?' the man asked, coming up to shake Tolwyn's hands.
'They know we're here.'
'And they'll be back for a closer look. I think I managed to get here without their knowing and I can tell you what's inside my hold is secure.'
Tolwyn looked back at his companions.
'Admiral Vance Richards, I'd like to introduce you to Captain Bondarevsky.'
Jason came to attention and the Admiral motioned for him to stand at ease.
'Everyone here's retired at the moment, Captain, so let's cut all the saluting crap.'
Jason took Richards' hand, surprised at the firmness of the grip. Tolwyn went down the line introducing him in turn to Hunter, Doomsday, Kevin, and finally Paladin.
'Ah, Vance, tis good to see ya again,' Paladin said with a laugh, the two slapping each other on the shoulders. 'Did you bring me my new toy?'
'That I did,' Richards said, 'it's tucked into the forward cargo bay.'
Paladin grinned with delight
Jason watched the familiar greeting with surprise. Admiral Richards, until his retirement only days before the armistice, had been head of military intelligence for the entire Confederation. He was, to the members of the fleet, a shadowy figure, a name without a picture, an individual never seen — though it was often rumored that he traveled into more than one action, hidden away as a staff officer under an assumed name.
'Let's start unloading and get to work' Richards said with an almost boylike enthusiasm, and he motioned for the group to follow him off the deserted hangar bay.
The group started down the corridor back to the bridge and Jason looked back to see a team of black cover-alled personnel emerging from the transport ship, each of them saluting the lone Marine guard by the hatch and requesting permission to come aboard.
'Who are those people?' Jason asked, motioning back towards the stream of personnel filing off the transport.
'That's part of our surprise,' Tolwyn said with a grin.
The new arrivals started to maneuver long black canisters from out of the transport, moving them with small hand-held null gravity units. They had a certain look to them, tech personnel he could almost guess out of hand, but beyond that a cold professional look as well.
'Since I am captain of this ship, sir,' Jason said, looking over at Tolwyn, 'can you finally let me in on what's going on? You've been looking like a cat that just swallowed the canary.'
'We're installing a D 3S 5 on board your ship, Jason,' Richards said, motioning for Jason to turn into the wardroom off the bridge and indicating that Ian, Doomsday, Paladin, Geoff, and Kevin were invited to join as well.
'Just what the hell is a D 3S 5?' Ian asked.
'Deep Space Surveillance System Five,' Richards said quietly, closing the door behind them.
'Something then with signal intelligence, is that it?'
Richards smiled and sat down on the small table that filled most of the room, motioning for the rest of group to sit down. It suddenly caught Jason that Richards was awfully familiar with light escort design, having made it straight from the hangar to the bridge wardroom without a single false turn.
'The sig intel department's been working on this new design for years, in fact they were just getting set to deploy it when the armistice hit. This system was a black project. The only ones who knew about it were the chiefs of staff and several hundred design and research techs working on a base buried inside one of Neptune's moons, and that was it. Security was so tight that the techs were only allowed to bring their spouses and children with them and then were listed as killed in a transport accident.'
Jason noticed that Richards had neglected to say if anyone inside the civilian government knew of the project. Chances were not even the president fully understood it, nor perhaps did he want to.
'I should add it is strictly a military project,' Richards said, as if reading Jason's thoughts. I think it's fair to tell you that we've suspected a mole in the inner circle of government for some time now. The money for this project has therefore been buried, and no one else knows about it.
'So what's so important about all of this?' Ian asked.
'Since this war started, signal and photo intelligence has been crucial. From the little bits of information that we've been able to occasionally get, victory or defeat in some of the major battles of the war has often been decided. Vukar started because of a recon survey and in a lot of those missions good people died as a result.
