Galen looked inside the three meter square hut. One bed and two lockers. “Crap.”
Tad put his bag in the first locker. “We’ll fix it up. I’ll scrounge or build a desk and chair. You can find a flat screen or something. It’ll be fine.”
“Well at least we’re right by the office and the shower house and chow hall aren’t too far away.” Galen tossed his bag onto the bed.
“Oh hell no. We have to share. When you leave this area all your stuff needs to be in your locker and the place has to be clean. Hot-bunk rules.”
Galen put his bag in his locker. “Okay, hot-bunk rules.”
They went to the TOC and entered through its only entrance, a steel door at the base of the steps that led down a meter and a half from ground level. The guard post was still vacant because the TOC was not yet operational.
Major Ross met them and led them into the central room. “The tactical control equipment gets put in tonight so this is where you’ll be working. Through that back door is my office and my quarters behind that. When you’re on shift I might or might not be working. When I’m here in this room, I’m the boss. When I’m not, it’s you. Understand?”
Galen said, “Yes, sir. What is the limit, I mean, what kind of decisions can I make without consulting you?”
Major Ross stared at Galen. “I’m paying you to make decisions. Deciding to ask me about something is a decision, but not always a good one. When time is of the essence it’s better to ask forgiveness later than permission now. I’ll cash any checks you write and then deal with your ass later. You’ll get a feel for the limits of your authority as we go along. Right?”
“Right.”
“Okay. A team is coming to set things up. You and your buddy will tell them where to put everything and will stand by until all the systems are up and running. Here’s my sketch of how I want things arranged. It’s sketchy on purpose because you two will be the ones working in here. Set it up the way you want it.” Major Ross handed a half sheet of paper to Tad. There was a sloppy diagram of a table in the middle of the room, two desks against each of the left and right walls and a thin line labeled ‘main screen’ on the wall right beside the entrance door. “Have fun with it. I’m going to sleep.”
Chapter Twenty Two
Major Ross came out of his office and stood at the head of the steel conference table bolted to the floor in the middle of the Tactical Operations Center. “Gentlemen, we’ve been here two weeks and today we go operational. Congratulations.”
Four commanders sat around the table in metal fold-up chairs. Galen stood by the entrance door with Tad, who was there a few minutes early for their shift change. They recognized Master Sergeant Sevin but the other three commanders were new. One wore a fleet uniform.
The Major continued, “Okay, around the horn starting with fleet. What you got?”
The commander in fleet uniform wore the naval rank of Commander and said, “We have six 240mm automatic guns deployed on this island, removed from that scow we found stuck in the rings. They’re old but effective. Also, we have twelve air defense lasers and eighteen ground-mobile rail guns capable of direct support, air defense or attacking ground targets. They are currently parked in hardened positions around the air strip and have live crews rotating through them on shifts.”
After a sufficient pause the next commander, an infantry Captain, reported, “We have thirty machine gun crews and two platoons of rifle infantry available to repel dismounted landing forces, if all else fails. We’ll drill and patrol and train on a three, three, four schedule until the threat condition changes.”
“Okay. Next?” said Major Ross.
Master Sergeant Sevin commanded the Aerospace wing and said, “We have twelve interceptors parked along the air strip. I’m pushing to get the hardened bunkers built and then the simulator. Until that happens I want to send up one pilot in one interceptor every day so they don’t forget how to fly.”
The Major said, “If it were anyone else I’d accuse them of wanting to goof off. Next?”
The fourth commander was a Captain. He said, “Civil Affairs is working to get a tighter grip on the worker population. They have only eight security personnel to police their twelve hundred workers. So far it’s been easy because the workers have been busy but that will change when everything is built. My fifty four military police and six civil affairs specialists will set up police substations and coordinated patrol routes over the next three days, in time for us to take control of judicial affairs for the entire population of Alamo.”
Major Ross said, “You’ll have your hands full soon enough. There is not one woman on this entire planet right now. Getting some here, that’s your lane, civil affairs. Make sure you get enough to go around.”
“Roger. We can bring in about two hundred as legitimate civil servants, and later about fifty entertainers and bar girls.”
Major Ross said, “Good. Make sure you have tight control over that bar girl income stream. We’ll need a slush fund of some kind to take care of their medical needs. If there’s nothing else, you’re dismissed.”
The four commanders stood and saluted the Major before leaving the TOC. Major Ross went back into his office and closed his door. Galen moved a chair so that it faced across the conference table toward the main screen and motioned for Tad to sit down. He then went to the desk on the left and pushed a couple of buttons and pulled a small toy pistol from the drawer. “Watch this.”
The main screen faded for a moment and then came back as a recessed three dimensional hologram. It gave a view as though one were looking out a window. Through a dense forest, small creatures appeared. Galen aimed the toy pistol and shot at them.
Tad said, “That’s stupid.”
“It passes the time. There are different environments and different challenges. You can shoot at a million Mosh attackers charging at you across a desert if you want.”
“I’ll figure it out. See you at shift change.”
Galen handed the plastic gun to Tad and left. Outside the bunker he turned right and walked toward the chow hall. Above him the planet’s rings looked solid and reflected so much light he could hardly tell it was evening. The main difference between day light and night light was the reduced amount of mid-range hues and the heat. Nights were cooler and less colorful but still bright. Galen stopped and looked up and was just able to make out the slight grey smudge where an old battle cruiser had gotten hung up in the rings. Of course the ship was too far away to see but it disrupted the pattern of the rings just enough to show where it had wrecked.
The planet made a shadow across the middle part of the rings, an area made impossibly dark because the stars didn’t show through. That gave the dark portion a solid look as well. But then Galen noticed a tiny white speck growing in size the way a headlamp would seem to grow as it gets closer to its observer. The entire sky flickered and took on a pale shade of green as the eerie tone of sirens made Galen realize his base was under attack. Galen decided to skip dinner and ran back to the operations center. The guard waved him on in. When he entered he saw Major Ross standing at the head of the conference table and staring at the main screen. Tad was seated at the aerospace auxiliary control terminal.
The Major said, “Welcome back. Now take a seat at the sky battery terminal.”
Galen did as he was told. He observed that the laser batteries found their target was a single Mosh destroyer but they couldn’t fire on it with the base’s defense shield in the way. Galen ordered a single rail gun to fire a two second burst of projectiles at the destroyer. The defense shield only blocked energy weapons, so the rail gun’s bullets could get out but would not reach their target for about two days. And after escaping the planet’s gravity their velocity would be so low it would make their effect on the target negligible at best. It was more of a gesture than anything else. Anyway, it made Galen feel better to shoot back with something. A technician in fleet uniform tapped Galen on the shoulder. “Nice shot, Sergeant Major.”