|
|
|
|
Just outside the grand hall of the chancellery building, Uspa paused to collect his thoughts. He needed to turn circumstances back to an advantage, but at this moment all he seemed to see was his failure to carry out his assignment. He could not be personally held responsible for the inability of his nonsent forces to distinguish an obvious decoy ploy, but the General still felt that the culpability rested on his shoulders. Already he was planning a major upgrade to all nonsent tactical programming to include small-scale decoy tactics. Touching the small dataclip on his belt, he hoped that the new combined arms would be acceptable to his old friend. Up to this point Spar had supported him in very nearly all of his recommendations, though more recently a kind of rift had developed between them on the Haiden issue. Recent events, though certainly not his direct responsibility, had served him his first defeat. The unfamiliarity of failure tasted acutely bitter to one trained only to savor success.
Uspa glanced at the praetorian in the alcove behind him. Ebony eyes stared straight ahead, apparently unaware and yet somehow alert, limbs flexed slightly as if perched on the edge of movement. Its kindred aboard the transport had been too blunt a tool for the precise business of capturing a lone rogue android; he would learn to employ precision where precision was required. He caught himself unconsciously tapping a finger against the dataclip; that would wait. Chancellor Spar would have to be—convinced—that the next move in this increasingly convoluted game belonged to the military, and to General Arak Uspa. Pushing himself into motion once again, he nodded to the twin preliators as he strode into the grand hall for the second time this week.
Standing near one of the windows, Chancellor Spar stood talking to Security Head Letaran. Both men glanced at Uspa as he walked across the marble floor towards them. Spar wore a slight frown, perhaps of concern or irritation, while Letaran looked positively smug. Clearly both individuals anticipated the content of this meeting, but Uspa suspected that news of the mission’s failure had elicited a very different response from each man.
As the General neared, Spar nodded his head in greeting. Uspa returned the movement, and if Letaran wished to believe he had been included in the gesture, so be it. The man was clearly pleased at the seeming smudge on Uspa’s otherwise spotless record, a fact that needed to be dealt with firmly and finally, but not here—not now.
“Chancellor, I am ready to make my report.” The General stood with his feet firmly planted, arms behind his back; he presented an image of confidence, he hoped, that covered the frustration he felt at having to do this in front of Letaran. Still, this might be made to work in his favor. Even as he began relating Haiden’s escape, Uspa calculated how best to spin the information to elicit the reaction he would need.
“So,” Spar began soon after the initial report was finished, “this rogue is capable of advanced deception. You are right, General, of course; there was very little that could have been done to prepare for this.”
“I am reluctant to directly involve unprepared security forces, as Max Haiden has demonstrated the ability to think and to kill,” Uspa stated flatly. Letaran looked positively apoplectic at that last, taking it as a sleight on his security forces. Forestalling the man’s protest, the General continued. “I have prepared the following plan of action that will require your approval, Chancellor. First, all security personnel assigned to the search will be returned to their regular functions. They will be on standby alert, however, and I will forward an update regiment to each Watch Leader in case they need to be deployed.” Letaran opened his mouth as if to comment, but an intent study of Uspa’s face—a face that brooked no argument—decided his silence.
“Of course, military alert and deployment will have to be stepped up, but my personnel are prepared for this type of contingency, once certain safeguards are removed. Haiden must be officially classed an Entia condition—on the record. This will allow us certain courses of action that would be otherwise unavailable if we were to continue simply treating him as a rogue.”
Spar frowned slightly. “I still want him alive, Arak. Yes, I see the necessity of the classification. The fellow certainly doesn’t seem to be in full faculty, and yet he is obviously functioning at a very high intellectual level. Even our training designates could not blatantly kill, though his level of deception exceeds many of our highest training standards.”
Uspa conceded the point with a nod. “I will make sure all under my command understand the situation, Chancellor.” His hands unclenched only slightly behind his back now that things were fully on track. “I will also pair up both mech and android for these efforts, just as if it were an extra-planetary military action. Might of arms as well as adaptability will ensure Haiden’s capture. I foresee us having him in our custody within the day.”
“But surely we can pool our efforts, General,” Letaran interjected hurriedly. “After all, one of my men was killed by this…this madman.”
“Which is precisely why your forces should be removed from direct involvement,” Uspa replied. “I have already begun preparing the military for this incident; there’s really no need for your personnel to take unnecessary risks.” The General paused, looking directly at Letaran for the first time. “No need for such an unfortunate incident to repeat itself. I will have matters well in hand very soon.”
Letaran was positively fuming, taking this as a disparagement on his troops’ abilities and, by extension, his leadership. Watching the other android’s face closely, Uspa detected the faint traces of an involuntary grimace; Letaran’s thoughts must be positively murderous if they were causing his geas to intervene. Spar, aware of the Security Head’s irritation, raised a hand in a placating gesture.
“No need to take it personally, Letaran.” The Chancellor smiled, comfortable with this familiar role of smoothing things over. “This will give you ample opportunity to update your personnel and tactics, as the General here has done, so that we can make best use of all available personnel. I want this Entia condition brought to me. We need to stop this at the source, and make no mistake: Max Haiden is the source.”
Uspa nodded, and the Security Head relaxed somewhat, though his dissatisfaction at having been seemingly put to one side by General Uspa was very evident. Taking the opportunity to make his next move, the General removed the data clip from his belt.
“Gentlemen, let me bring you up to speed on a recent technological development the military has come up with.” He very nearly smiled at the surprised looks on both faces.
“New development?” Chancellor Spar’s face displayed a rare scowl, caught off guard by the unexpectedness of the claim no doubt. “I have been reviewing your last submission for the past few decades, of course, but I think it might be a bit hasty to…”
“This is something entirely different, Chancellor.” Uspa hated interrupting his friend—and his superior—in front of the blond Head of Security, but he needed to maintain control of the situation. “It is still in the planning stages, but it should help alleviate a certain—gap—in capability between sent and non-sent. More importantly, I think it will give us a greater measure of control over some of the more potent small-to-medium arms capable mechanicals.”
Uspa motioned for the two men to have a seat around one of the nearest tables. Placing the dataclip on the table, he also sat before activating the projection. A reaper, its triple-jointed elbows and bird-like legs, was a distinctive model. Initially employed to harvest over-growth of the foresting program, the few that remained were used in various roles where other mechanicals could not be allocated.
“The basic reaper has been out of manufacture for several centuries.” Uspa kept a close eye on the faces of both men, who themselves were looking intently on the image hovering above the table in front of them. “I have been running tests, taken from my personal allocation budget, that would allow a soldier to perform a geostat link directly with the mechanical.”
Moving one hand slightly, the dataclip chirped and obeyed the command by zooming in on the wireframe chassis. The basic outline of an android figure could be seen imbedded in the body of the large non-sent.
“I have had to increase the overall chassis size in order to accommodate a soldier, and some power was lost while minimizing servo-motor volume, but this will be a formidable weapon when it’s ready. I think that this Max Haiden incident will provide us with the perfect opportunity to test its full capabilities.”
Chancellor Spar was chewing his lip in obvious consternation.
“Leave us please Letaran.”
The Head of Security was clearly surprised; a spasm of a snarl briefly flashed across his face before being wiped away. Nodding, Letaran stood and, bowing only fractionally to the General, walked briskly out of the chamber. Spar waited for the sound of the door coming to a full close before he looked at Uspa.
“Arak, are you absolutely certain this is necessary? You are talking about a substantial budget-impact decision.”
Uspa expected this tack from the Chancellor. Reaching out, he put his hand on the shoulder of his oldest friend.
“I’m not trying to make things difficult for you—far from it. This is something I’ve been planning to tell you about for a while; I even thought that the testing and implementation period would need a few more decades. But there’s no time, Hedrick. The potential danger of the Max Haiden situation necessitates a more adaptive approach.”
Spar’s brow furrowed thoughtfully. Finally he nodded, gripped Uspa’s hand with his own briefly as if to reaffirm the clasp as one of close friendship.
“I was a little…surprised, of course. But you outsee me, Arak. You always have.” Looking directly at Uspa, Spar continued, “Do what is necessary to prepare, but inform me directly of all progress and operations. I authorize one Lance, and will see that the required funds and materials are allocated to you within the hour.”
General Uspa nodded, and not even a trace of a smile marred his features as he accepted his superior’s proposal. Upon leaving, he glanced over his shoulder at the reclining Chancellor, a drink in his hand. Uspa silently urged his friend to see things his way, then turned to face the requirements of impending duty.
Copyright © 2004-2005 Jay and David Steele. All rights reserved.
FINALLY!!!! It has indeed been a long summer. Excellent job guys!! Looking forward to more!
Posted by: Jill Buliziuk | September 28, 2005 at 08:04 PM
It's nice to see the episodes have started again. Summer vacation is just too long...
Great work, by the way.
Posted by: David Steele Sr. | September 16, 2005 at 08:29 AM