Edgar looked around his office and missed the Vigilant. As captain, he was master of his fate and out among the stars. As squadron commander, he sat behind a desk and watched other men go out where the stars are few and far between. He couldn’t really even accompany one of his ships on more than a brief one day inspection cruise, due to the lack of guest quarters for senior ranks on a Valiant-class scout ship.
Edgar looked up and saw Master Chief Watson standing in the door with the coffee pot in his hand.
“Excuse me, sir, but I know just what you’re thinking. It’s the same thing I’m thinking. Why on Armstrong did I take this promotion and give up my ship?”
Edgar let out a hearty laugh and said, “Is it that obvious, Chief?”
Oh, yes, sir, it’s that obvious, because I see the same look in my eyes when I look in the mirror each morning. I have the answer to the question, though.”
“What is that, Chief, but I think I can guess?”
“We’re here to pass on our knowledge and experience to a new crop of ship’s captains, so hopefully they won’t make the same mistakes we made.”
“Yes, Chief, so they can go out and make new ones. Now are you going to share that coffee or just keep your hand warm with it?”
Laughing, Chief Watson walked over and filled Edgar’s cup.
“Did I hear that LCDR Blake has selected an XO?”
“Yes, he chose LTJG Connie Cortez from the Repair and Refit Directorate.”
“I read something about her in the base notices. She got a commendation for the ion gun redesign we recommended after our run in with that K’Rang torpedo ship. I’ll pull her record for you.”
Chief Watson left and Edgar reflected on what he said. Of course that was why he was squadron commander, but he still wished he could get out in space and have some fun sometimes.
In an inside office in a non-descript office building in a northern suburb of the capital city on the K’Rang home world sat Shadow Lead Agent H’Topa. He perused recruitment reports forwarded to him by his senior source within the Galactic Republic. This was a fruitful source and one he had developed from an initial recruitment report from his former senior source.
H’Topa had worked this source carefully from the start to one of great worth. This source was good at identifying prospects early in their career, but with the right future potential. This was good for H’Topa because he was patient. Haste was not a good quality for an agent handler. The Humans had a saying, “The race does not always go to the swift.” H’Topa believed this.
The case folders before him contained intimate details on prospective sources. He knew their wants, their needs, and their aspirations. He had a knack for finding those unwilling to wait or needing an edge to get ahead. Occasionally he found one that just needed credits, or love, or sex, or commitment to a cause. He could use them all, although he stayed away from those that needed chemical stimulants.
His network was extensive and secure. He had a Human support network of credits handlers, dead drop servicers, transporters, enforcers, and other specialties when he needed them. They helped him service his agents.
Credits handlers ensured payments got to the right people on schedule. Dead drop servicers passed messages, credits, and equipment to agents and picked up messages and bulky items from agents, all with no physical contact between them. Transporters were his mules and moved packages to or from dead drop specialists. They were the only Humans to make contact with the K’Rang, but even they passed packages through multiple cutouts. Enforcers took care of sources that got greedy or who talked to Human security forces, or ones that just got sloppy.
Human remorse was one of H’Topa’s greatest impediments to greater success. Too many times, he spent resources on a source, only to have it run crying to security, commit suicide, or lose itself to gambling, chemical stimulants, or sex. If he ever found a drug that eliminated Human remorse, there was nothing he couldn’t accomplish.
Of course, this would be oh so much easier if he could freely travel in Galactic Republic space. For years, he had urged establishing diplomatic relations with the Humans, but he was always shouted down by the reactionary element within the military. No matter how much value he could show them to having an embassy and consulates with full intelligence staffs, they were just too xenophobic to hear him out. H’Topa suspected they did not want the Humans to see just how weak the K’Rang Empire was in relation to the Galactic Republic. “Our 56 worlds are a fraction of the 150+ Human settled worlds. Perhaps if we spent a little less credits and time on ill-conceived military adventures and more on settlements, we could match the Humans,” he thought in irritation.
Fleet Reporting Officer Alistair Bennett placed his ship in geosynchronous orbit around Shepard and linked into the planetary communications system. He let his computers download the planet’s data buffer containing the last year of data and voice signals to process, and took a nap. In an hour, he had a list of suspicious communications for further study. He discounted a dozen on the list as normal criminal or immoral activity and no concern of his. Two were overly secretive lovers planning and coordinating affairs. Seven were shady business dealings, more of interest to securities regulators than him. The remaining two were possible covert communications to authorities in the K’Rang Empire. Alistair followed up on these.
Both communications sets were similar in that they contained hidden data. One set contained hidden video files in a cooking recipe email. The other contained hidden instructions on placing and receiving something from a dead drop. Alistair had his first clue toward dismantling the cell or cells. Now he searched the data for links from the recipients to others. Pretty soon, he found he had nothing. He had never seen a cell with such tight security.
Alistair ran down the specifics on the recipients. He got their names, photos, addresses, aliases, and all sites that they frequented regularly. He looked for similar interests, friends, and activities, then cross-referenced their known IP numbers against other aliases and email addresses — and found the common link.
Shadow Lead Agent H’Topa reported promptly to Shadow Leader J’Kraul as ordered. The Shadow Leader kept his attention on what he was working as H’Topa patiently stood at attention before his desk. It was a standard trick to put your visitor off balance. H’Topa and J’Kraul had attended many of the same espionage training courses together and knew all the techniques. It did not work on H’Topa.
Unimpressed, he asked in a strong voice, “Was what you called me here for of importance, Shadow Leader, or should I come back later?”
J’Kraul started laughing. “No, my friend, sit down, relax. I wanted to make sure time had not softened you. I have a top priority assignment for you from the Elders. They want the transporter ring technology from the Humans, but don’t want the Humans to know we have it. What can your network do to get it for us?”
H’Topa took a moment to stretch. “Your information exists in five places in the Human space. It exists in the minds of Andrew and Moira Blake. It exists in their notes locked in a triple-sealed safe in their high security lab on the planet they call Gagarin. The notes are in their own coded language that only they speak. It exists in a triple-sealed safe in their Fleet HQ on their main world, Earth, and the production design exists in three parts in three safes at the manufacturing facility on their main world Shepard. No one has access to all three safes.”
“The factory is the easiest to access. I have two agents working there, but they have yet to gain access to any of the three data sets. The humans jealously guard this data. Whoever their security chief is, he is good.”