Chapter 33 - Uneasy Truces

Brittany and Kitty relaxed slightly once James had disappeared from the view screen. Kitty looked a bit frustrated. "I want to help him, but I can't move fast right now," she moaned as she put a hand on her very pregnant belly.

"I felt the same the last weeks before giving birth," I admitted. "James understands."

Kitty nodded sadly as she claimed an empty chair and sat down. She quickly rolled the chair next to mine and threw her arms around me as I continued to watch the view screen showing Yvette and the scientist in the teleporter room.

"Tiffany," Terrence called out as he continued to monitor the teleporter controls. "Who is on the automated defense controls?"

"Timothy and Louis are here now," Tamara responded. "They both admit that you could help, but the strange thing is that the cruisers haven't moved since they entered the system. The jump points have closed, but they are sitting just outside the orbit of Kali."

"Motionless?" Terrence asked.

"In space nothing is motionless," I heard Tiffany reply. "But they are holding position for the moment. The question is, what are they waiting for?"

"Have we contacted the Confed ship that was sneaking through the system?" Yvette asked.

"We did that," Tamara replied. "It's Mongolia, an Asian class destroyer. The crew is new and the captain decided to run a stealth drill when they arrived."

"Can they help us against the Sa'arm ships." Yvette asked.

"I'm afraid we can't take on two Sa'arm cruisers and win," a female voice replied. The voice sounded familiar and I looked over at Kitty and Brittany to see if either of them recognized it.

Neither of my sister concubines reacted to the voice. I sat back in my chair for a moment. On the screen, I could see Terrence wave at Yvette and then lean over to whisper her when she approached him. The scientist was engaged in a conversation with a young man who had arrived through the teleporter.

Just then, James voice called out. "Tiffany, what's the status on the Sa'arm visitors?"

"No change," Tiffany replied. "They remain outside the orbit of Kali. They don't seem to be too interested in approaching."

"James, this doesn't make sense," Timothy called out. "Every other time, the Sa'arm have charged in trying to get close to Ishtar almost immediately, why would they remain at the edge of the system and out of range?"

"We can't do anything to them right now," Louis added. "We have a few sensor platforms out that far, but nothing that could get through the defense of one of those cruisers. They have to be much closer to us before we'd have enough equipment nearby to threaten them."

"James, should we stand down?" Yvette asked. I noticed that the scientist looked a bit pensive as everyone continued to wait.

"I'm not." James began

"Shit!" Timothy shouted out. "We just figured out why they aren't moving from their emergence point."

"What happened?" I heard James cry. Watching the view screens, I could see that the scientist was now visibly shaking.

"They must have launched some kind of space mine ahead of the ships. I doubt the mines can harm us thanks the atmosphere, but they just created a huge hole in our defenses. If they do it a few more times, we won't have the weaponry to stop them," Timothy screamed out.

"Can we move the defenses?" the scientist asked. His voice had a lot of panic in it. I watched on the view screen and noticed that Yvette and Terrence remained calm.

James as always immediately took charge, even if only over the communications system. "Louis, move as much of our space-based defenses away from the most direct line to Ishtar. If we're lucky, the Sa'arm will only clear a narrow path and we can try to catch them as they move toward the planet. Tiffany, get in touch with the Confed ship. See if they can maneuver to give themselves a chance to ambush one of the cruisers. It's not much, but if we can support with missiles, we might do enough damage to survive. Terrence, clear the teleporter and then get Chief Scientist Johanes and his men to one of the better rooms. Find someone who is calm and try to have them help organize things."

Terrence actually snapped off a salute before turning to start deactivating the teleporter. The Chief Scientist was now whirling in a circle looking at the walls of the room he was in.

"Are we safe?" I heard the man cry out. "We can't fight them off from here. We're going to die."

There was a sigh right next to me. I turned to see Brittany sinking into a chair. "James will save us," she whispered confidently. "He always does."

I turned back to the view screen, wondering how that might be possible. The chief scientist, who had seemed so arrogant when he arrived, was cowering on the floor. Yvette stood nearby. She was facing the door to the teleporter room and clearly was trying to ensure that the man was not noticed by other members of his staff. I found myself wondering what he might know about the Sa'arm.

The thought refused to go away and I decided that I should see if Tamara or Tiffany could find a way to get Yvette to quietly ask the question of the scientist. My hands were on the arms of my chair and lifting me to my feet when Tiffany's voice rang out.

"Status change! We have a new jump point opening!" she shrieked.

"Calm down Tiffany," my master called out. "Where is the new point opening."

"In line with the Wolf system," Tiffany said. "Sorry, but it took me a bit by surprise."

"They do that," James said. "Now, have the Sa'arm reacted to the change?"

"Not yet," Tiffany replied. "They might not have a good scan. We have set up several dozen remote sensor platforms in the system, so we see new jump points opening quickly. If the Sa'arm haven't sent out some kind of drone, they might not realize that the point has opened. It depends on what kind of scanning they do."

"Mostly light speed stuff," the scientist said. I turned to see him slowly getting back to his feet. "The more advanced scanning requires levels of technology they don't appear to use. What's the distance between the ships?"

"Over a light hour," Tiffany said. "Probably closer to one and a half hours. The Sa'arm are just over one light hour from our star and they and this new ship emerged at right angles."

"What ship just emerged?" Yvette asked.

"I'm waiting for the scanners to tell us," Tamara said. "Or better yet an IFF. The ship hasn't emerged just yet."

"Battle damaged?" I heard Tyson ask."

"I don't, wait" Tamara said. "It's one of ours. The IFF is calling out Sif"

"Hail her now and see how badly damaged the ship is. With two ships, I think the Sa'arm can be driven from the system," James said.

"On it," Tamara chirped.

The scientist was now scowling again. He turned to Yvette. "This is exceedingly unprofessional and unmilitary. Everyone here needs some remedial training."

"As long as it doesn't disrupt our mission to repair damaged navy ships, you can put us through whatever training you believe is necessary," James replied. "Could you allow us to finish dealing with the current crisis? Yvette, I'm going to need you to head to the command post. I'm going to stay in my armor until we're sure the Sa'arm are no longer a threat. Someone needs to be available to coordinate repair duties."

"On my way," Yvette called out, offering a salute. She turned to leave the teleporter room.

"Wait!" the scientist ordered. "I need to talk to you first." He stalked up to her and carefully walked around her until he blocked her from the door.

Yvette said something to him, but I could not hear it clearly. I was about to say something when Tamara called out. "James, I've got the commander of Sif on the line. The captain is Major Theresa Johnson."

"Major," James said. "Has Tamara briefed you on the situation?"

"She has," a feminine voice replied. "And I can see the two cruisers now that we've been linked into your sensor network. I can probably take them, but against two I'll take casualties."

"There is an Asia Class Destroyer skulking through the system," James said. "They can add to your firepower."

"I've heard, but my sensor crew hasn't been able to find her yet. We'll coordinate when we can. What can you tell me about the Sa'arm?"

"Not much," James replied. "They have remained where they were when we first noticed them. They are sending some kind of weapon ahead of them to wipe out our defenses, but that's been all they've done so far."

"Cautious," the Captain replied. "Not normal for the Sa'arm, but we have been hurting them."

"How are the raids on the Wolf system going?" James asked.

"The Sa'arm are starting to have warships near their transports when they leave orbit. It's made the fights more interesting. Fortunately, the Sa'arm have terrible scanning systems so we can usually jump their ships if we are patient and take the time to approach with our stealth systems at max," the Captain said.

"Next question, do you have any casualties? We can probably teleport them off before you head out to fight our visitors," James asked.

"No," The Captain replied. "We caught several Sa'arm transports just short of the hyper limit and made quick work of the single destroyer escorting them. So far my Lady Sif is completely unharmed."

"We'll be ready to repair you after the fight, but we don't carry replacement gunballs," Yvette said.

"Then we better not lose any," the Captain said. "Jared, we better start getting everyone out on the grid. Make sure that one squad is looking for any explosive mines. They did a good job clearing the path back in the Wolf System. We shouldn't have that problem here, but I'd rather be safe."

"James!" the scientist roared out. "I should be supervising this action! Where are you!"

"I'm in my battle armor and preparing to operate one of our defense lasers should the need arise," James replied. "And there is no central point that we use to run our operations. If you're with Yvette and listen to the communications system, you can maintain control."

"I need to see your operations," the scientist growled. "If I'm going to properly administrate this colony that is knowledge I must have."

There was a long pause and then Tamara spoke. "James, I've cut that room out of the communications for a moment. What do we do?"

I heard my master sigh. "Get to the original command post. Hopefully, it will look real enough to confuse this man. Candi and Randi can cover in the main post. AI, please start fixing the original command post so that it functions as a mirror of the main post. Well have citizens work there until we can get the governor off our backs."

"Well go now," Tiffany called out. "Timothy can watch over everything while we race over there."

"Go," James commanded.

We could hear the door to the command post open and close. The silence deepened for a few moments and then James spoke. "Sorry for the delay. We had a few problems that needed to be resolved. Yvette can take you to the colony center and the command post there."

On screen, I could see the scientist nod. He frowned again as Yvette waited patiently. "Shall we go, sir?" she asked. A puzzled expression came over her face. "I just realized. Should we be calling you Chief Scientist or do you prefer another title?"

"Governor will do," the man said. "I already told you that my orders declare me the acting governor for the planet."

"I was under the impression that the position was mostly minor administration," Yvette said. "Our duties concentrate on keeping the repair base in operation and helping get damaged ships back into the fight quickly."

"It's supposed to be much more than that," the man replied coldly. "You should be making improvements to the system."

"Like we don't have all the defenses in space," Kitty muttered next to me.

"You also should be looking for new ways to combat the Sa'arm," the man continued.

"And you came out here because we imagined that we found artifacts while sending probes to nearby planets," Brittany added.

"I also would have expected to see a coherent table of organization and some military discipline. You are all part of the Confederacy Military and should behave like soldiers," the man snapped.

"We are organized," Yvette said. "We just never generated an official organization and gave everyone ranks."

"A likely story," the man scoffed. "You haven't accomplished anything tangible."

Yvette was walking ahead of the man and I saw a murderous look cross her face as she led him into the center of the original colony and the command post it contained. Tiffany and Tamara were sitting in chairs and reviewing displays. Neither turned as the man entered.

"Sif," Tiffany said. "The Sa'arm ships have activated their engines and are moving to engage."

"Understood," Captain Johnson replied. "Any idea where our destroyer is hiding?"

I watched as Tiffany giggled. "Captain Werfel is setting up an ambush for the Sa'arm. She's positioned ahead of you, but out of the direct line. I guess the plan is to attack one of the cruisers when the other is blocked from returning fire."

"How do you know that?" our planet's newly declared governor snapped. "I still am not sure there is even a destroyer in the system."

"It's there," Tamara replied. "But we only talked for a brief moment before they returned to full stealth. We aren't sure how good the Sa'arm are at detecting a ship, and for Captain Werfel's idea to work they need complete surprise."

The scientist nodded and then looked closely at the twins. His mouth opened fully and he gaped at them before drawing breath. "You're pregnant!"

"All of the female citizens on Ishtar are," Yvette replied calmly. "About five months ago James declared our first tour over and allowed all the women the option. We all took it."

"But they're children! And why are they in the command post? And wearing those outfits! One looks like Alice in Wonderland the other like Red Riding Hood!" the scientist screamed.

Kitty and Brittany both giggled. "Observant, isn't he?" Kitty muttered.

"He's still got a lot of power," I whispered. "And he could cause trouble for all of us." On the screen, the twins just shook their heads at him.

"They are the best we have in the command center," Yvette said quietly. "They've worked in here since we landed and have spent time training the others."

The man snorted. "Well, then I need a full report. You!" he shouted pointing at Tamara. "What's going on at the moment?"

Tamara shrugged as she checked the displays. "The Mongolia is stealthed and maneuvering into a position that Captain Werfel hopes will allow them to surprise one of the Sa'arm cruisers. The Sif is moving toward them, but I expect them to turn shortly to allow the maximum number of guns to bear on their targets."

Tiffany jumped in. "We've lost about ten percent of our system defenses. We're trying to maneuver a new set of missile platforms into position to launch on the cruisers, but their initial attack cleared more than a dozen platforms. The rest of the system is clear."

The chief scientist frowned, but said nothing for a moment. We listened in silence for several seconds. The quiet was broken when Kitty gave a small grunt. I turned to look at her and she was staring at her lap.

I stood up to see what the problem was. On the chair underneath Kitty's legs, a puddle of fluid was spreading out and starting to drip to the floor. I gasped.

"Kitty did..." I began to speak.

"Concubine Kitty has gone into labor," the AI Intoned.

"Shit!" Brittany called out. "Meiko, what do we do?"

I sighed and hugged Kitty. "Kitty, we need to take you to medical. You should have no problem walking."

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't notice a thing until..." She blushed deeply and looked down at her lap.

"I didn't notice anything either," I whispered back.

"Meiko!" James' voice thundered "Are you with Kitty?"

"I'm taking her to medical," I responded. "You concentrate on defending us."

"James," Kitty moaned out. "Don't worry about me. You have a job that you have to do. Meiko and Brittany are with me."

I helped Kitty to her feet. She wobbled a bit as she stood up, but once I slipped her left arm over my shoulders, she was able to stand up. We left the conference room following Brittany.

In the command post, we found Candi and Randi watching over the stations. Candi jumped up and ran over to hug Kitty. "Congratulations," she whispered.

Kitty just nodded as I guided her from the command post. Outside, we turned down the hall. Our slow footsteps echoed in the empty hallways as we walked toward the medical bay.