Then the invaders disappeared somewhere in the middle of the Moraz Cloud, after which the REF lied about destroying them. Soon after, the area was declared a No-Fly Zone, the REF disappeared as well, only to reappear, at least some of them, with their hulls painted red, to wreak havoc across the Milky Way. A war soon erupted between the SF and the SG, and in the middle of a battle between the two services came this report that one of the rebel ships had suddenly reappeared out of nothingness.
A question popped into the Secretary's head: Are the REF Red Ships appearing out of nothingness, too? From the same spot as this stolen rebel ship? Is that the reason the REF declared the No-Fly Zone in the first place?
He snapped his fingers and called up a device known as the Fourth Analytic Bubbler, or more simply, the FAB4. This highly secret el tuti of bubblers could take in trillions and trillions of bits of information from all over the Empire and, in a microsecond, coalesce them into an information globule that was both concise and sensible. This gave it a kind of prescient quality.
He asked the device a question: "Is there a connection between the No-Fly Zone and the REF's recent activities? In effect, is the REF using the No-Fly Zone as a safe haven from which to appear and disappear?"
The answer took a long time to come back, but when it did, it read, " Possibly."
The Secretary asked the FAB4 a second question: "Does the REF's recent atrocities have a goal in mind, or are they meant to simply inflict pain on innocents?"
The answer that came back was surprising: " Both."
A third question: "With the recent spate of atrocities in mind, would the REF strike again?"
Definitely " Yes."
"Is it possible to determine where in the Galaxy the REF would strike?"
This time, a definitive "No." Just like the SG officers who had no idea they were being bugged, when it came to divining the REF's next victims, the FAB4 didn't have a clue, either.
The Secretary hesitated a moment before he asked his last question. The FAB4 could be accessed from all over the Empire, and its use could be traced back to him. For this reason, he didn't want to leave the impression that he was beginning to panic or even becoming disloyal. But there was no way to put the words nicely, no way to finesse them or obscure their meaning. So he just took the direct approach. " Is the Empire in danger of collapse?"
The FAB4 didn't take more than a second to spit out its reply: a definite " Yes"
The Secretary drained his drink and thought about this for a long moment.
Then he floated over to where his emergency trans-bag was packed and opened its electric clasps.
True, he'd had centuries of intelligence work to rely on, and he still possessed a very sharp mind, especially for someone his age. But he knew that when in doubt, it was best to seek out some unorthodox help. And while the SF Intelligence network had thousands of analytical bubblers, as well as billions of string comms at its disposal, sometimes simpler was better. And more discreet.
So he reached into his bag and came out with his trusty quadtrol.
Making sure no one was watching him, he did a quick link from the FAB4 to the small handheld device, technically a violation of SF Intelligence rules, but at this point, the breach was of little concern to him. Once it was filled with all the latest information, the Secretary punched in the ultimate question, something he would never have asked the FAB4, as such a politically dangerous inquiry would undoubtedly come back to haunt him.
He asked the quadtroclass="underline" "How can the SF save the Empire?"
The quadtrol beeped and burped and took a long time before it came up with an answer, but when it did, its conclusion was very unexpected. Strangely, its reply had little to do with the REF or the war between the services. Instead, it had to do with the case of the Resonance 133 suddenly showing up in the midst of the battle between the SF and SG. Though it was still highly secret that the stolen 'crasher had reappeared, the quad-trol determined that not only was the ship still out there somewhere, there was a good chance that the rest of the rebel fleet might reappear, too.
Why? Because when all the bits of information were considered, it really came down to one thing: regardless of how they were able to do it, ever since the nonbattle against the rebels, the REF had been appearing and disappearing at will. And now at least one of the rebel ships had done the same thing.
Therefore, there was a high probability that all of the rebel ships would return shortly as well. That's why the device suggested the Two Arm be thoroughly searched, not for the REF, but for the rest of the rebel fleet. In fact, the quadtrol said, doing so should be the SF's number one priority.
It was a strange response, because at the moment, it might have seemed the number one priority for the SF would be the dual crises at hand: the war between the services and the REF's nonstop rampage.
In fact, events and recent history had relegated the short-lived invasion of the Two Arm to the back bubbler, so to speak. But there was a subtle beauty in the quadtroFs conclusion. By the strictest interpretation, protecting the Emperor and the Empire was the number one priority of the Space Forces, and at the moment, only the rebels had the stated purpose of disposing of O'Nay. The interservice war and the REF's activities, while extremely troubling, were actually sideshows. It was detecting the return of the rebel fleet first that would give the largest political advantage to the SF.
It would show that while the SG was in effect running wild, it was the SF that had to be called on to deal with the enigmatic invaders.
In other words, for the ultimate big bang, if and when the rebel fleet reappeared, the SF should be there to meet it, attack it, and utterly destroy it.
And if they did this, when everything else settled out, the SF would be credited with nothing less than saving the Empire.
21
There was an empty piece of space located halfway between the bottom of the Two Arm and the entrance to the One. It was called the Andromeda Zee.
The Zee was astride the main star road leading to the original Solar System. Traditionally, this was a place where civilian cargo vessels parked while awaiting authorization to enter the One Arm. Most of these ships could be found floating around a string of artificial moons. These big satellites had concessions for necessities such as water, food, power spikes, and of course, slow-ship wine.
Usually no more than several hundred ships would be lingering in the Zee at any given time. But now there were more than 50,000 ships here. Many were crowded inside the Zee's ill-defined border, but many more were hanging on the outskirts, hoping to get in, both for the proximity to provisions and the relative safety in numbers. Small pirate gangs had been nipping at the edges of this outer mob for weeks.
The 50,000 ships were part of the same makeshift fleet that had recently carried millions of civilians away from the Two Arm. Starting about a month before, those who hadn't fled in the panic surrounding the Two Arm invasion were forced from their homes after the SG declared a large part of the Moraz Star Cloud a No-Fly Zone. Once they'd been herded from the verboten area, the SG had left all these civilians high and dry, with no protection, only orders not to return to their home systems in the Two Arm under penalty of death. Hundreds of thousands had reached the Zee, exhausted and out of money. Many had no choice now but to remain there.