Grandad nodded a little, looking serious. “Exactly.”
We headed back to the lunch room, where the rest were still milling around. There wasn’t even any small talk. It seemed a little tense. Couldn’t they talk about the weather or something? Para usually jumps in to smooth things over.
Oh no, Roll is saluting, and here it comes. Whew. I thought he was going to have a snide remark. At least that didn’t come out, probably owing to the poke to his ribs from Para. The general smiled. Just a little. It was an awkward smile. You been drinking Roll?
Mr. T invited us to sit down. We all sat down. The team had been impressed with how the general had been able to help us so far. And how quickly he could make things happen. I knew Mr. T had told the general some things about the capabilities of Shockwave. But he hadn’t told the general everything.
Mr. T closed the lunchroom doors. He took out a small control unit and punched a button. After that we could hear a quiet buzzing sound, a background hiss. He had activated some kind of machine that would keep anyone from eavesdropping on our conversation. Then Mr. T did tell the general everything.
He explained each of our abilities, in detail. Yeah, Mr. T had gotten a dosing of strength enhancing nanites in addition to his delving ability. It was not the same as with Para. But Mr. T was stronger than your average 5-or-so men, put together. That had been obvious to us of course. And we could tell his aches and pains didn’t bother him like they used too. Mr. T told the general all about our abilities and how we had gotten them. He totally opened up to the general.
When he had finished explaining the capabilities of Shockwave, Mr. T was open for questions. “Any questions general?”
The general didn’t look surprised at all. “Not at this time. How do you want to handle the situation at Darkside?”
Mr. T was ready for that question. “There are still some details that need to be ironed out. It should work out something like this. We need to let the bugs open the portal. Or take the base and open it ourselves. Then Shockwave will slip through and locate the Darkstar Empire. We will need to destroy the other portal gate, the one on the Empire side. That will have to happen quickly, before any Empire ships can traverse the gate.
“We’ll keep the Darkside anchor site for our own use and study, if we can. That mode of transportation isn’t as elegant as quantum porting. But it seems to be the only way to move massive pieces of equipment, like star ships. Fleets of star ships. Eventually, we’re going to want to make our own system of starways; our very own freeway system among the stars.
“First things first. We will need to do something about the bug blockade. I’m still working on that one. We will need to exterminate the bugs at Darkside, without harming the hostages. To do that will require some large but portable life support domes. The kind they were planning to use on future Mars missions. A sufficient number of domes will need to be set up to temporarily house all the hostages. Just for a short time.
“We will need, let’s say, a couple dozen special forces types. They will help to take the base and free the hostages. The spec-ops guys will need spacesuits. Rock and Roll can move the personnel. But the domes will have to be lifted by ship. A couple of heavy lift ships should do the trick. It will need to be well coordinated.
“The bug blockade ships must be neutralized first and we will need to take control of, or destroy the Darkside anti-ship weapons. The operation will have to move along quickly. No room for error. We’ll want to rig Darkside base with a nuke. Just in case we lose control of the portal. We can’t risk having the Empire come through the portal, no matter what. Not even a single ship. I’ll draft a more detailed strategy and have it to you by tomorrow, 08:00.”
Our little lunch room meeting finished like this.
“In the meantime, could you please pull together the special forces team, housing domes for all the hostages, and get us a couple of heavy lift ships? Oh, we’ll need some of those new descent pallets, the new units with rocket assists, to drop the enviro-domes to the Lunar surface.
“I don’t think we will need the transport ships to land on the Moon, not with the descent pallets. That should help in putting together an emergency launch. Or, I understand from our engineers that we will be able to fly a bug ship by the time we need one, 100% guaranteed. They were working on a ship for the Nemesis 12 rescue, but flying a bug ship at that time would have been touch-and-go.
“Now the engineers and pilots should be far enough along the learning-curve to pick up the hostages using a bug ship. Come to think about it, we may be able to use a bug ship to transport the housing domes too. But I think we keep that as a contingency option. Your choice. Thoughts?”
The general was stone faced. “I’ll pull some strings. I’ve been thinking along a similar line. Let’s talk tomorrow about the blockade. I may have something that will help with that.”
Who is this general? He must have closer ties with the president than only an advisor. I suspect the general will have another meeting in the afternoon with the same crew we
