(Sorry this is late. It is also rough. I did warn you that you’d been seeing the rough draft as it came out of my warped mind. ;-P Anyway, this chapter will wind up being changed (smoothed out and expanded) or dropped. But that’s a decision I’ll make after the draft is finished. Anyway, here it is. Enjoy!)
Eight
“Mom, everyone’s here.”
General Elizabeth Shaw dipped her chin, acknowledging Ashlyn’s comment. For a moment, she continued looking out the window. Below her, the caterers and others worked to put the final touches on the deck, setting out additional tables and chairs, removing the pool cover, checking the lighting and music system. She didn’t doubt her husband stood nearby, making sure everything was perfect. Abe had taken to arranging for the party like he once took to planning a mission.
And heaven help anyone who caused all his carefully laid plans to go awry.
As she turned away from the window, Elizabeth smiled slightly as she took in the scene before her. To the casual observer, those gathered in the family library looked like friends getting together for a drink before heading down to the party. In a way, they would be right. Those gathered were friends, some of them family by choice. Once done here, they’d head downstairs to join others already there: her children and their families, her grandson and a couple of his friends from the Academy, close friends who were family in all but blood and who’d traveled from off-planet to attend.
But, before that happened, there was more pressing business to deal with.
“Will there be anything else, General?” one of the stewards assisting during the party asked as he and another steward finished handing out coffee or tea to those who wanted it.
“Not for the moment, Kier. I’ll send for you if we need anything.”
He nodded and made sure her coffee was topped off before leading the other steward out of the room. The moment the doors closed behind them, General Helen Okafor, Commandant of the Fuerconese Marine Corps, carefully placed her mug on the table at her right elbow. As she did, Elizabeth activated the library’s security features. Until deactivated, no one would be able to enter without her authorization and nothing said inside could be overheard.
“I want to thank each of you for coming early.” She leaned forward, elbows on her knees. “I’ve promised Liz this won’t take long. Neither of us want Abe trying to storm the room because their guests have started arriving and his bride is still locked up in here.” She grinned as several of those gathered chuckled. “Unfortunately, several things have come to my attention that can’t wait.”
Instead of explaining, she glanced at Ashlyn and nodded once. Instead of saying anything, Ash stood. The others watched as she paced the length of the library. Much as her mother had earlier, she stopped in front of the window and looked outside. When she turned back, her expression betrayed nothing but her eyes blazed with an anger none of them had seen from her since the days of the last war.
“What General Okafor hasn’t said yet is that nothing we discuss can leave this room until she gives us the okay.”
Okafor nodded when several looked to her for confirmation.
“This morning, I received a priority message from Major Weller, the Windwalker’s Marine CO. Because it was coded for my eyes only, it was routed here. Several things about the message worried me before I viewed it. The first is that Weller did not follow his chain of command. He skipped straight up the ladder to me. He wouldn’t do something like that unless there’s either a problem within that chain of command, one he felt needed to be brought to my attention, or there’s been a change in status in the
Bennington System requiring an immediate response.”
She moved back to her chair and retrieved her mug from the side table where she’d left it.
“Beyond that, this direct comm is out of character for him. The major’s reputation is one of being pretty much by the book and what he did most definitely was not only outside the book but very much in violation of regs.”
Maria Hernandez frowned slightly. Seeing it, Ash indicated she wanted to hear what her XO had to say.
“Ma’am—Ash, I’ll be the first to admit skipping straight up to you is a breach, but you’re alluding to him doing something more serous.”
“I am.” She sipped her coffee, her expression troubled. “The message didn’t come through the usual channels. He sent it via the Zaqar comms system.”
Hernandez wasn’t the only one to hiss out a breath. The Zaqar comms system was one of FleetCom’s most closely guarded secrets. It allowed Fleet ships to communicate with one another and back to FleetCom at speeds that cut transmission time down to something once thought impossible. What had taken a week to arrive in-system now took a day. That was an advantage that could help Fuercon win if war broke out again. It was also tech that wasn’t supposed to be used except in emergencies.
“I am only going to say this once.” Ashlyn made eye contact with each of the others. “I am not going to file charges against him. In fact, I am forgetting that he violated orders in this instance because he was right to do so. What he reported will impact our orders going forward, starting with this. There’s been a security breach that must be located and dealt with.”
“Ash, you’re worrying me,” Rico Santiago said and several others nodded in agreement.
“Let me start by reassuring you some then, Rico. Weller wanted to give me a head’s up about some things going on with the Windwalker. He assured me there’s no concern with the Marine contingent under his command or with the ship itself. That confirms what I know of him and Captain Locke. They might be nearing retirement age, but both are dedicated—and excellent—officers.”
This time, Admiral Miranda Tremayne confirmed Ashlyn’s statement. But, like the others, her green eyes mirrored her concern about Weller’s report. Something was wrong, but what?
“There are two basic parts of his report. The first concerns activity within the Bennington System and the second concerns activity onboard the ship.”
“That’s my cue.” Elizabeth activated the holo screen on the far wall. “Ash read me in on his report and forwarded everything to me and, in turn, I filled in Helen.”
Okafor nodded. At the same time, the holo screen filled with a display showing the Bennington System. Elizabeth adjusted the image until it focused on the system’s third quadrant. The key feature of the quadrant was the agricultural planet Vostia.
“Major Weller’s report details his concerns, which he says are shared by Captain Locke, about sensor readings they’ve been picking up from this quadrant. Traffic there is normally heavy with transports moving between Vostia and the other planets in the system, especially the capital. However, recently their scanners have intercepted readings similar to those picked up when they’ve intercepted the requests for assistance. They haven’t been able to determine of the raiders, rebel, pirates or whatever they happen to be are based out of Vostia or if they are scouting the planet in preparation for an attack,” Okafor said as everyone studied the holo display.
“What steps have Locke and Weller taken, ma’am?” Hernandez asked.
“Captain Locke has moved the Windwalker closer to the system border and has launched sensor arrays to help monitor the situation. Major Weller has put his Marines on alert. The battle shuttle crews as well as LAC crews are hot bunking in the bays to be able to respond without delay should the need arise.”
“Did he send the sensor readings, Helen?” Tremayne asked.
“He did. Rico, I’ve already forwarded them to you. I’d like your people to take a look at them.”
He pulled his datapad and checked something. Then he looked up and nodded. “I’ll get a crew on it as soon as we finish here.”
“There’s more, isn’t there?” Hernandez didn’t look at Okafor this time. Instead, she turned her attention to Ashlyn.
“There is.”
Ash drew a deep breath, as if bracing herself for what came next. Before she could continue, Elizabeth rested a hand on her shoulder, as if doing so would not only reassure her daughter but calm her as well.
“This next bit goes back to before those bastards Sorkowski and O’Brien tried to kill Ashlyn and her squad. When that failed, they set her up, forging orders she never received and hiding her protests of the orders they did give her. You know what happened. She, along with the survivors from the squad, were courtmartialed, convicted and sent to the Tarsus penal colony. It took us more than two years to prove their innocence and bring them home.”
Hernandez nodded, her expression grim.
“What my mother is trying hard to explain without actually saying it is that before all that happened, I made the very bad decision to get married to a real bastard. The only good thing to come out of our time together was Jake. By the time I was ready to give birth, I knew the marriage had been a mistake and filed for divorce. He didn’t care. He didn’t even want anything to do with our son. As far as any of us knew, he disappeared out of our lives and we were foolish enough not to make sure he couldn’t
come back and cause trouble. That’s exactly what he did.”
Once again, Ashlyn climbed to her feet and paced. Her movements betrayed her agitation. This wasn’t her attempt to give herself time to decide how best to say something. No, she paced to burn off her frustration and anger. She’d been a fool and it had come close to costing her her son.
“I never really believed we’d be convicted. But I did make sure I had things in order just in case. Part of that included naming my parents as Jake’s guardians for as long as I was imprisoned.” Or worse. “My brothers and sister were named as guardians in case anything happened to my parents. What I didn’t anticipate was that my bastard of an ex would crawl out of the dirt as soon as I was shipped off to Tarsus to claim his rights as Jake’s father. The court, thanks to a hefty bribe, granted him custody and he took off with Jake. My parents, Miranda, and others worked tirelessly not only to do whatever it took to free us but to find Jake and bring him home.” She paused and drew in a deep, shaky breath.
“I’ve got this, child,” Elizabeth said softly as she moved to Ashlyn’s side.
“Thanks, but I need to do this.” She gave her mother’s hand a quick squeeze. “Long story short, Maria, because everyone else here knows what happened. They located Jake with my ex’s former lover, one of them at least, and brought him home. They also pressed charges against him once Rico found the evidence proving the bribery, as well as charging him with abandoning Jake. He spent some time in jail, had to make restitution to Jake and my parents, and FleetCom took action as well. It revoked his benefits as a former member of the Navy. It also blacklisted him, making sure he could not have access to Fleet bases or any of Fleet’s interests and would not be allowed to act as a civilian contractor on any Fleet contracts.”
“Should have strung the bastard up by his dick,” Santiago muttered.
Ashlyn laughed. “I seem to remember hearing you tried to do exactly that when you found him, Rico.”
“Just threatened to do it, Ash. If I’d tried, I would have succeeded.”
“I hate to ask, but what does this have to do with Weller’s report?” Hernandez looked between her CO and the intel chief.
“An excellent question,” Tremayne said. “Don’t tell me that bastard has raised his ugly head again.”
“Not just raised it but somehow managed to get himself onboard the Windwalker as a civilian contractor for one of the developers FleetCom has evaluating the weapons and comms systems of some of our older ships,” Elizabeth said.
“How the hell did Kristof Grantham get onboard one of my ships?” Tremayne all but shot out of her chair, anger flashing in her eyes as she did.
“That is the question I want answered,” Okafor said, subtly motioning for Ashlyn and her mother to be seated. “Rico, that’s something else we need you to look into. The president and SecDef have already been informed. They are to be included in the loop when you report back.”
“Understood.” He ran a hand over his short cropped hair, his gaze fixed on something in the distance. “How long has he been onboard?”
“Longer than any of us have known where any of the cadets, much less Jake, would be assigned for their training cruises,” Okafor said. “There is no way he could have arranged this so he could have access to Jake after all these years.” She looked directly at Ashlyn as she spoke.
“This is most definitely above my pay grade, but between this and the situation in the Bennington System, shouldn’t we consider assigning the cadets to another ship, one well away from there?” Hernandez asked.
“Trust me, Maria, I’d like nothing better,” Ashlyn said. “Unless it’s to pack my kit, head out to the Windwalker, and deal with that bastard myself. What no one’s said yet is that Rico and a few others who helped him back then found evidence suggesting Kristof worked with smugglers while he was still in the Navy. Even though it wasn’t enough to present to the courts or a review board, it was enough, when combined with everything else, to force the Navy to cut all ties with him. I won’t have him waltzing back into my son’s life now. Not after everything he’s done.”
“Are the cadets being assigned to another ship?” Tremayne asked.
“No. Much as we’d like to, we can’t justify it enough to avoid questions we don’t want to answer being asked,” Okafor said. “But we are going to take certain steps to not only protect all the cadets, but to make sure Jake doesn’t come into contact with Grantham.”
Everyone listened closely as Okafor said the cadets would ship out as planned. However, until Kristof Grantham was off the Windwalker, the cadets wouldn’t step foot onboard the ship. They would remain onboard the Ulysses. They would receive orders to that effect from General Zachary Degrassi, the Academy’s interim commandant while Ashlyn was on TDY, detailing how they would begin their cruise there and might be transferred to the Windwalker if certain conditions, which will not be named, are met.
“That’s not all,” Ashlyn took up. “I’ve already informed MJ and Faith about this latest development and will be meeting with them after the party to decide what changes might need to be made in who 10Reg sends on the mission.”
Which was the only reason she wasn’t going herself. Adamson would not only make sure the right Marines were sent to assist with the Bennington situation, but also to make sure Grantham didn’t get anywhere near Jake and the other cadets. That was the best she could do. That was the easy part.
The hard part was going to be staying behind instead of going with him to make sure the man she once thought she loved got anywhere near their son.
I’ll be back tomorrow with another installment. Then we’ll get to regular posting again next week.—ASG