“Leila is taking the call now; Leila, I will take that particular call. Hang on, I’ll be right there.” Leila raised her eyebrows wondering how Danielle knew about these calls before they came into her board.
“Good day,’ Danielle said. “How can I help you?”
Tag explained their conversation with Tgon-Gee and Terl adding their views as Tag finished. “Tgon-Gee is of the opinion that you should choose the fleet commander and not the members.”
“Your majesty, that many cannot make a decision in less than a season. Everyone will want the leader to be from their planet.”
Danielle listened to them and Kosiev remained silent and watched her. “She’s communicating with Tag. I can see it. How; can they hear each other’s thoughts?”
Finally Danielle said, “Tgon-Gee is right, I should make the decision. I’ve been told by everyone that the members trust me so it’s appropriate that they should back whomever I choose. However, I can’t leave my people out of the decision making process. Here is what I want to see happen; I want each member planet to elect a representative to be their voice to the Queen. We will build a structure on Ross, which will become our government center where they will meet and offer their opinions on what they would like the Queen to do in the various decisions that have to be made. The name of their organization will be “The First Family” and they will be charged with protecting all families in our Realm. They will be asked to offer multiple choices for the Queen. I of course will do what our psychics say is the best thing to do to insure our future. If I don’t do what the assembly asks, then I have to explain why, but I think a lot of the time we will be in agreement. Tgon-Gee or Terl will lead those meetings and I think they would listen to their wise council.”
The four looked at Danielle and Terl said, “I am amazed again. Who will make the announcements?”
“I will have my staff do all the things to make this happen. We should have our structures built within six months. We will announce our move to Ross and ask for selections to be done within that time frame. This will give those who wish to campaign for a position in the new Stars Realm government the time to organize. This should also make the new Navy easy to mandate.”
“Thank you, My Queen,” Tgon-Gee said and then Danielle smiled and disappeared from the display. Terl and Tgon-Gee broke the connection leaving Tag and Kosiev with their popcorn.
“Well. Let’s see what we can do to make this happen,” Tag said.
Three months later Tag and Kosiev were on board the Moscow discussing the plans for using the new ships that had been completed.
Tag looked at Kosiev and said, “The fleet academy is moving right along. We need to start putting a list of instructors to be assigned to teach there.”
“I hope you will forgive me but I have a trip to make,” Kosiev answered.
Tag looked at him and said, “Dremel?”
Kosiev nodded and said, “The Plants have not found them yet and we need to get ready for them. I’m taking fifty more Megaships out to Admiral Dorg and I’m going to take a good look at the situation there. The new crews will need some training to fit in with the existing ships and Dorg has told me he can use some help. I’ll jump back if you need me.”
Tag thought a minute and said, “No, go ahead with your plans. I’m sure the military staffs can put together a list that will do a good job. We’re still at least three months away from completing construction. Good luck, Admiral. Stay in touch and keep us up to date on any developments,” Tag Said.
“I’ll be glad to do so. I’ll see you in six months if nothing happens.”
Chapter 6
The Algean sent a message to a ship that had not reported in on schedule. He tried again but received no response. It was troubling. All ships reported on schedule and this particular scout had not answered. He sent another message but only silence answered him. He thought a moment and then decided, “Elder. I have a scout that has missed its scheduled report and it does not respond to my inquiries.”
“Where was it at its last report?”
“It had finished scanning a system out in the third quadrant and had decided to move further out into the quadrant.”
“In what direction was it moving?”
“It did not say, Elder. It was going to report after it entered another system.”
“So now it’s missing and we don’t know what part of the quadrant it went.”
The Fleet Tracker felt nervous, “That appears to be what happened.”
The Elder thought a moment. With more than fifteen million scouts searching for planets to harvest, the chances of accidents happening were miniscule but the odds were still possible. Ships do sometimes blow up or have collisions. “Do we have any other scouts in that quadrant?”
“Yes, Elder; we have more than fifty thousand.”
“Warn them to be careful and to scan for any debris in any system they scan. It was probably an accident but they should be on guard. I can’t see anything that could have destroyed the ship without them reporting unless there was a reactor explosion or nova that destroyed the ship. How old was that scout?”
“Two thousand cycles, Elder.”
“It was an old ship. They are more prone to reactor problems. Keep me informed if anything turns up.”
Yes, Elder.
Admiral Dorg and Kosiev sat on the bridge of the Moscow and looked at the replay of the destruction of the Algean Scout Ship. Kosiev and Dorg had worked for a month getting the fleet organized and the Megaships crews trained which had now grown to a hundred and ninety ships. They now had the time to look at the scout’s destruction. “Slow it down to 500 ^ th speed,” Kosiev asked. The replay started just as the three needles struck the screens of the scout. “There, did you see it?”
Dorg watched closely and said, “I think you’re right. The first needle didn’t penetrate but the other five did. I didn’t notice that before. Their screens are strong but appear to have slow recovery. It makes me wonder if our primaries would have penetrated on the initial salvo.”
Kosiev leaned back in his chair and gazed off into space for a moment then said, “If that small scout stopped one of our Megaship needles, what would their larger classes of ships do against it? It also causes me to question whether our pulse penetrators would get thru their defenses.”
Dorg stared at the display and lifted his two bottom arms straight out which showed his agitation. “We don’t know their capabilities. Our old ships may not be able to match up with their heavier ships; we just don’t know enough.” Dorg leaned back and grabbed a bag of popcorn and replayed the recording again.
“Klas shared his recordings of their fight against the Plants and his ships were only successful when their fleet attacked one of the plant ships with ten or more of theirs and he readily admitted that his fleet was not nearly as strong as ours.” Kosiev paused, “Most of his weapons were nuclear missiles. They didn’t have strong beam weapons.”
“Could the needle have been defective? Perhaps a hornet exploded early.” They slowed the recording even more but it yielded nothing new. “We have to go see,” Dorg said.
Kosiev nodded, “I must reluctantly agree. We must be careful in planning this; we don’t want to lead them here or to our Galaxy. We also don’t want to reveal a Megaship to them or that we can jump into a system close to the star.”
“Ok, then I’ll go and investigate,” Dorg said.
“I don’t think so,” Kosiev countered. “This is your show here and you have fifty new Megaships that just arrived to assign positions in the fleet to bring up to speed on your tactics.”
“Are you saying you’re going to go?” Dorg asked in a strained voice.
“No, for the same reason; it’s time we started trusting our subordinates to handle the dirty work. You and I are needed much more here.”