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Alternity 2 - Chapter 2
An hour later they were in the Andromeda's flag conference room, and with the exception of Harper all of them freshly showered. True to Tyr's prediction, Dylan wrinkled his nose in distaste when he smelled his chief engineer.
"What's the status of our new crew members Andromeda?" asked Dylan.
The twenty three planets and drifts that now composed the New Systems Commonwealth were still squabbling over how to man the Andromeda. A compromise of sorts had been reached with each member sending 20 beings to serve as part of the crew. The crew left something to be desired for as Harper put it 'Fifteen of each twenty are spies, the other five are thieves'
"Our crew members," said the image in the viewscreen, the way she said crew seemed to indicate that she was referring to a disgusting lump of foul smelling slime, "have been quite busy. The Perseid contingent has been requesting astronomical data ostensibly to study stellar evolution, however one of the parameters of their search algorithm is that the stars have planets that once had High Guard military installations on them. The Castillians and the Mobians have been trying to access my data bases for information on the construction of nova bombs. The Halconians simply tried to break into my nova bomb armory"
"Did they succeed?" asked Harper.
"It turns out," replied Andromeda's holographic image as she appeared beside the viewscreen, "that there was an unnoticed leak in the seal of one of the launch tube doors and the entire space had been depressurized. The resulting drop in air pressure when the door was forced was quite spectacular. Trance and her medical staff spent a busy afternoon dealing with ruptured eardrums."
"I see," mused Dylan. "and the others?"
"Unfortunately it seems that the only stars that meet the Peresid requirements are either located deep within Drago-Kazov territory or were the sites of major battles and the High Guard bases on the star's planets were totally destroyed. I also regret to inform you that it seems my files on the construction of nova bombs are somewhat incomplete. They appear to be fully intact but should someone try to build one using the specifications in my data base the weapon will simply self destruct. Those were just the most notable examples of what our new crew members have been up to. Shall I continue?"
Dylan shook his head 'no', making it clear that she had made her point.
"Well at least our new Commonwealth members have insured that their crew contingents have hobbies that keep them entertained during their off hours," muttered Tyr sotto voce
"On to other business," commanded Dylan, slipping into his best military senior staff officer mode. "You've all read the reports on Doheney and talked to their representatives. Now I want your opinions. Should the Commonwealth invite Doheney to join?"
"A planet of peaceful philosophers and artists," murmured Beka. "Certainly a change from whom we usually invite."
"They are a pacifist society," conceded Dylan, "and have suffered an increasing number of raids because of it, which I suspect has something to do with their request to join. But, before the Fall they produced some of the greatest philosophers, artists and mathematicians in the Commonwealth." He turned his attention to the Andromeda's chief medical officer, "Trance, what's your opinion?"
"No!" The vehemence in her voice startled everyone at the table.
"Would you care to explain?' asked Dylan somewhat nonplussed by her response.
"We're not strong enough to take on the job of being their guardians. At present just about every one of our members have joined solely because they think they're going to get something for nothing. Before they help us, they're going to want to know what's in it for them. If we ask them to defend this planet, telling them that someday it might produce something or someone of importance, at best they are going to simply refuse and at worst decide to leave. We can't afford that so we can't afford to invite Doheney no matter how desirable we may think their peaceful life style is."
"I see" said Dylan noncommittally. "Tyr, your opinion."
"I agree with the girl," said the Nietzschean. 'Wasting resources on a planet that produces nothing but pretty pictures is counter productive."
"Harper, your opinion," requested Dylan, his voice still carefully neutral.
"Well Boss, I think that....."
What ever else he was going to say was interrupted by Andromeda's image appearing on the conference room view screen.
"Captain," she said. "The courier vessel Alacritous Missive is hailing us. They have a code violet message from Commonwealth High Guard headquarters. They're transmitting it to me now."
Dylan raised an eyebrow. "Code violet? That's our highest security classification. Andromeda, are they close enough for real time communication?"
"The courier vessel is currently two light seconds out. That will create a communication delay of four seconds Is that satisfactory?" asked Andromeda.
"Good enough," answered her captain. "Andromeda Ascendant to courier vessel Alacritous Missive. What can you tell us of the nature of this message? Over"
Four seconds later the image of Andromeda was replaced by the image on a young woman with the quarter moon rank pin of an ensign on her lapel. She looked tired and to Dylan's eyes a bit frightened "Alacritous Missive to Andromeda Ascendant, I'm sorry, Captain but I'm not authorized to divulge that information. You'll have to view the message to get the information. Over"
"Well in that case the least we can do is let you come aboard and get a hot meal and shower before you return to base. Over"
Four seconds later the woman shook her head no. "I'm sorry captain. My co-pilot and I would love to take you up on the offer but our orders are to give you the message then return immediately to base. Maybe another time. Alacritous Missive, out.
At the word 'out 'the image of the ensign was replaced with the image of Andromeda. "They have cut communications Captain," she announced, "and my sensors indicate that they are opening distance from us. I suspect they are heading back to slipstream jump distance from this systems primary"
"Something major must be going down. Show the message please Andromeda"
The view screen remained blank.
"Andromeda," said her captain a bit more firmly. "Show the message."
The image of the ship's core artificial intelligence appeared on the view screen "I'm sorry Captain but under the present circumstances I cannot comply with your order."
"And why not?"
"Because, Captain, the message is security classification violet and with the exception of yourself none of the other crew present in the conference room have a violet security clearance." It's very difficult for an image in a views screen to appear to be looking down its nose at someone but Andromeda managed to accomplish the feat. "In fact they are not even cleared for code red security."
"Andromeda," snapped Dylan "I don't care if they are only cleared for infrared. Your objections are noted. Now display the message."
With an audible sniff, the image disappeared to be replaced by her holographic self who positioned herself beside the view screen, arms folded across her chest and a look of disapproval on her face.
A scene abruptly appeared on the view screen. It appeared to be nothing more than a bright light, probably a star surrounded by a ring of other fainter lights. There were a scattering of other stars in the background but Dylan assumed that the central image was what he should be studying. The ring around the star was unusual he concentrated on that and missed the first few words of the message.
"..... imaged by the free trader Serendipitous Voyager as it emerged from slipstream at the Rodao system in the Draco galaxy. The Serendipitous Voyager was almost immediately attacked by Magog swarmships upon arrival in the system but was able to reenter the slipstream and escape. The data recordings were turned over to the High Guard command at Mobius for analysis."
"Analysis of the data revealed that the central light you see in the center of the image is actually a class M4 star. The smaller lights surrounding it are planet sized objects approximately 7,000 kilometers in diameter arranged in a spherical array eight light seconds in radius around the central star. Further image enhancements revealed that the planetary objects are physically linked together in some sort of grid and the presence of immense ion reaction motors on the planetary objects and embedded in the grid. Magog swarmships were detected entering and leaving the planetary objects. In effect the structure is a solar system sized spacecraft exhibiting technology far beyond anything possessed by the New Systems Commonwealth."
"In view of the fact that this craft appears to be under Magog control a fleet wide alert has been declared. By order of the Triumvirate the Andromeda Ascendant is ordered to return to Mobius for crew augmentation and await further orders."
The display on the viewscreen abruptly shut off to reveal a shaken looking Andromeda and leaving the viewers in various stages of shock. Dylan was stunned at the thought of just how many Magog must be on board the gigantic structure, Beka was sitting in open mouthed shock, Trance had tears running down her cheeks while Rommie was sitting rigidly in her seat gripping the table as if it was an anchor in a sea of insanity. Harper who had the most experience with Magog raids was so pale he looked like a corpse. In the end it was Tyr who broke the spell. Doing a very creditable imitation of Dylan he drawled, "It's never easy."
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