happy, professor,” I forced a smile, “You guys are great, and I’m proud to have people like that working with me. We just don’t have time. Something’s about to happen. Do you remember what I said when I told you about the ten superbattleships almost completed by the quargs? I said at the time that it was a sure defeat for our fleet and I could feel the threat looming over us. Now I’m feeling something similar, but the difference is, I don’t know what’s coming over us. I urgently need a reconnaissance ship capable of penetrating the central areas of enemy star systems without being detected, but what we need now even more, that’s a transport ring capable of passing battleships and large troop transports through itself. The quargs outnumber us in quantity of ships, especially of heavy ships. The only thing to counter the quarg fleet supremacy is the previously impossible mobility of our fleet, which will allow us to be everywhere and nowhere, to concentrate all our forces at the right point for a powerful strike and to respond just as quickly to emerging threats, moving ships instantly to the systems under attack. But we can only do that with transport rings.”
The word «hyperportal» somehow did not take hold among scientists and officers of the Federation. No one remembers who first called it a transport ring, but the term was well established and no one has called our new development any different.
“Igor, nothing is impossible in what you say,” Stein said after some thought. “We are ready to speed up the work, but we need to significantly increase staff, equipment and, of course, funding. We’re already working on a reconnaissance ship, but we can’t begin to integrate allies’ technology into its design until you and the lizard ship arrive in the Solar System.”
“Ivan Gerkhardovich, please prepare a list of everything necessary to speed up the work by the time I arrive. The rest is my concern. But don’t forget, in about a month, a group of ships will arrive from the Allies with their scientists, engineers and military specialists, and with a large supply of the substance from which they grow all their products. We’re going to build hybrid ships using technology from both races, not recon ships anymore, but battleships and aircraft carriers, and our department will be directly involved in the process.”
“Chief Engineer Jeff will be thrilled,” grinned the Professor, “if, of course, he survives after giving this good news to Lieutenant Yakovleva.”
The Minister of Defense frowned at me, looking up from the tablet.
“Rear Admiral, this is getting out of hand.”
“I agree, Mr Minister, this is an intolerable amount of insolence and defiance of all the bases of the chain of command. Except… I’m afraid we’re too late anyway.”
“Well, you stopped paying attention to chain of command when you were a captain, or maybe even before, I just don’t know, I guess. But do you have any idea what you’ve done this time? The authorized representatives of the Federation conducted the most difficult official negotiations with the Allies for ten days, they were building up a system of taking into account the interests of each party, a scheme of mutual balances that gave the system sustainability, they were preparing a package of proposals for the Lizard ruler. The reptiles, for their part, were also working hard on the subject and politely bargaining. To the mutual satisfaction of the parties, a consensus seemed to be emerging. And then Rear Admiral Lavroff came, snatched the main lizard from the diplomatic residence, took her arm, I beg your pardon, her fore limb, dragged her off to Kruger 60, whatever the hell he was doing with her there, only to give security notice after the fact, and then casually negotiated a hybrid warship fleet with mixed crews. And all of this without any kind of coordination with anyone. Are you in the army, Rear Admiral, or do we have an anarchist fellowship here?”
“My faults are heavy indeed, Mr Minister, I admit it. I’m ready to carry out any punishment, including demotion to private and dispatch to Kapteyn to patrol the desert, but I’m asking you to read my report carefully, forgetting for a while about the scoundrel Lavroff.”
“I wouldn’t even be reading this crap if it wasn’t signed by this Lavroff,” Bronstein, who calmed down a bit after his anger attack, kept his voice down a bit, “I mean, it’s pretty brazen, to come to the Minister of Defense for money to finance this…” Bronstein shook his tablet, which had the page of my report on the screen, in front of me, “Rear Admiral, I understand, and I remember your services to the Federation, but why this was not agreed at least with the President, whom you can contact directly?”
“Mr Minister, would you believe me if I tell you that under the circumstances, the decision had to be made immediately? There are moments that can’t be missed. The most scarce resource in our situation is time. If I started building a system of checks and balances, ran for approval to the Supreme Commander, started preparing a package of documents…”
“That’s enough, Rear Admiral, I hear you. That doesn’t excuse you at all, don’t get your hopes up, but there’s logic to what you’re saying. Wait a few minutes, I haven’t quite read your document yet.”
Five minutes later Bronstein looked up at me.
“You…” he could barely bring himself to continue. “I don’t know the word for it, Rear Admiral. I’ve had enough of this circus. Your idea of attacking the quarg shipyards was an adventure. The counterstrike on Groombridge was a major Adventure with a capital A. And here, I guess all the letters have to be uppercase.”
“I beg your pardon, Mr Minister, but both of these events were successful, at least in part. Can you imagine what the consequences would be if things work out right this time?”
Bronstein looked at me in silence. In his eyes, there was a struggle of many conflicting feelings, and none of them could take it up. Finally, still silently, the Minister pressed the pictogram in the corner of his tablet and placed his finger on the DNA-code sensor. The tablet quietly tinkled, informing its owner of the opening of a secure communication channel.
“Good afternoon, Mr Minister,” I heard Tobolsky’s voice, “You’re not with bad news, are you?”
“I don’t know, Mr President,” Bronstein sounded uncertain, “I received a report from Rear Admiral Lavroff. He’s here, too, sitting across from me in my office. I’d like to ask for a meeting, there’s a difficult and urgent matter.”
“And you yourself can’t solve it for some reason,” Tobolsky grinned tiredly.
“I’m afraid that’s out of my league, Commander-in-Chief, Sir,” Bronstein responded firmly.
Chapter 3
Lieutenant Colonel André Mbia and his men never returned to the 105th Infantry Division. He now served in my department, and he was in charge of testing all ground combat equipment related to reconnaissance. Captain Yoon Gao met a similar fate, but he was responsible for space intelligence. Now both scouts were standing next to me at the command post of cruiser Moscow, trying to see something on a tactical projection.
Our scanners were silent, although I thought they should have spotted a reconnaissance ship on an oncoming course a few minutes ago. But nothing happened at all. Only a few minutes later, the space control operator gave a report of a faint signal slightly distinguishable against the background of natural noise. We only confidently spotted the reconnaissance ship when it was so close to us that it seemed to be observable to the unaided eye, and cruiser Moscow was equipped with the best scanners of the latest improved series, but still they were serial samples. And on the reconnaissance ship, Jeff and his crew worked individually, tailoring the EW complexes to the kind of precision no serial product could ever dream of.
“Take the command of the ship, Captain,” I told Yoon Gao, “You’re the first one to have the honor to be the commander of a hybrid reconnaissance ship with a mixed crew. Now, Officers, Sirs, I’ll introduce you to the crew.”
“This is my ship?” The Chinese, usually calm, looked shocked. He stood silently in front of the projection screen for a long time, looking from different angles at the ship, which was developed jointly by Jeff’s engineers and Lit-ta’s lizards. This small ship had some of the familiar outlines of a medium recon ship, but if the fore part differed slightly from