The Shadow Within by Jeanne Cavelos

Author:Jeanne Cavelos [Cavelos, Jeanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

chapter 11

General Lochschmanan turned away from the weapons control system, his aide following without making a notation on her comp-pad. John held in his smile and gave a tight nod in Ross's direction. Ross stood stiffly at attention, but there was a certain set to his shoulders that told John he was proud. John felt the same thing in his own stance.

Beside Ross, Spano stood with hands clenched. He remained a problem, but John wanted to give Ross a chance to handle him. The general and his aide preceded John and Corchoran out of the weapons bay, the inspection completed, and they returned to John's office.

"You have my congratulations, Captain. The inspection was outstanding."

The smile broke over John's face.

"Thank you, sir."

Lochschmanan reached into his jacket.

"I have some more information on your mission to share with you at this time. You may fill in Commander Corchoran after I leave. This data crystal contains the scheduled time and place and the few other pieces of information we have regarding the explosives buy. It will occur in approximately thirty hours. You will make way to that location as soon as I leave. The plan of this Homeguard faction is to load the explosives onto their ship, travel to Babylon 5, and then, during the dedication ceremonies, to make a suicide run at the station, exploding on impact. Those dedication ceremonies will take place in three days. You are to observe the transfer of explosives, using the new stealth technology we have installed to remain undetected. Wait until the Narns selling the explosives have left the area. We don't want to provoke them and create an incident. Immediately after they have left, you must disable or destroy the Homeguard ship. It must not reach Babylon 5."

"Yes, sir."

The general made a regulation turn toward the door, hesitated.

"Captain," he said, his back to John, "I need not remind you of the power and influence of the Homeguard."

"I understand, sir."

"Very well."

The general continued out, his aide following. Corchoran turned his glum expression on John. His frown made his dark brows even more pronounced.

"He's sending us out on a critical mission when we've barely learned how to pass inspection?"

John laid a hand on his shoulder.

"That's what I said. But I think we're ready now. We can do this."

"Tell me about this Homeguard group. What's the general's source of information?"

John waved him away.

"I'll explain later. Right now we need to get underway. And as soon as we do I want you to initiate radio silence. I don't want any specifics about this getting out to the crew. But just in case word of this does get out, and any of them happens to be a Homeguard sympathizer, I don't want to take the smallest chance that information might somehow get back to them."

"I understand, sir."

John clapped Corchoran on the shoulders. "Cheer up, Commander. The days of drilling are over!"

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.