Legacy Ch15

Legacy of the Guardians

AJ Marks

Part 15

Jack Cave and Steve Terial sat hunched over several documents that reported the condition of the Seydlitz. Both men, however, were not really reading, they were concerned with how the operation was going down on Earth. They had received a call from Captain Ahmed and they knew that the plan had worked, but they had no idea on how many Skartians were captured.

"Whoa!" Steve said drawing Jack's attention.

"What did you find?" Jack asked him wondering what Steve had read.

"Did you read the report on the power and weapon test?" Steve asked referring to the test where the ship was required to fire its weapons for an hour. The test was a combination of power, weapon and targeting computer tests.

"No, I haven't gotten to it yet, what's it say?" Jack asked extremely curious as to the results. So far the ship had preformed above any set standards.

"There wasn't even a drop in power. The cooks in the gallery were even preparing the evening meal and they asked when the tests were to take place." Steve said reading the report in front of him.

"What were they told?" Jack asked.

"Admiral Dinen told them that the tests were over. He had decided to let them continue to cook for additional drain on the engines." Steve said finishing reading the report and handing it over to Jack.

"Damn, look at that power readout." Jack said pointing to the figures at the bottom of the page. Jack felt much better than he had since the terrorist attack. His design had been justified; so far the Seydlitz had outperformed the new Austin class, which by the end of the month will have added the Paris to the class.

"I talked to General Ginal earlier he said that if the reports are good there is a good chance that a second Seydlitz will be built." Steve told him knowing that once these reports reach the general that there will be a second ship built to the same design.

"Ah, Steve, you've made my day." Jack said with a smile of satisfaction on his face. "Now I can only hope that the rest of the day is full of such good news."

"Admiral Cave, Captain Ahmed is here.." Jack's secretary said over the intercom. "Shall I send him in?"

"Please show him in." Jack replied and they only had to wait a few seconds for the door to open and Captain Ahmed walked in.

"Welcome back captain!" Steve said returning Ahmed's salute then gave him a handshake.

"I'm glad to be back sir!" Ahmed replied.

"You can drop the sir Ahmed." Jack said. "I don't like to do debriefings formally, I find it people tend to leave things out when they are uncomfortable."

"I take it that you are okay?" Steve asked making sure that the captain had not been injured.

"No, the med teams said I suffered a slight concussion, and I am to report back there after my debriefing for observation tonight, but that's it." Ahmed replied.

"This really shouldn't take to long." Jack said.

"So, what happened?" Steve asked wondering what had happened.

"Well, it pretty much went according to plan. It took less time than I thought to get in touch with my brother. I arrived at my house and within a few minutes my brother showed up. It did not take long for me to get some contact with some of their leaders. It was the second time that I was introduced to one of the leader that I noticed he was Skartian." Ahmed said.

"That's what led you to deducting that there was more that there might be several Skartians in places of command in the terrorist organization." Jack said piecing together the thought process.

"Yes, the Skartian I saw seemed to have little power and that made no since to me." Ahmed said. "Why would a Skartian be in such a low level of authority with no real ability to influence the leaders? So the only logical conclusion was that the leadership was probably made up of Skartians."

"Hopefully we got most of them before they could escape." Steve said.

"All I could think about was we might have a situation like world war two all over again." Ahmed said.

"This time there would be no clear cut lines like that war had." Jack said remembering that his dad was in the armed forces for the United States during the Second World War. "That would have made the war very difficult to fight."

"Anyway, I knew then that I had to get as close to the top of the chain of command as possible before brining in the troops." Ahmed said. "I was still wanting to find Osama bin Laden, but that had become a second concern compared to this new information. It was about then that they decided to abduct my parents, that when I sent the signal for the group to get my parent out of the country."

"That operation went without much of a hassle." Jack reported knowing that Ahmed had not heard anything about the operation. "They had to kill two men who were getting to close, but the entire team got out. Your parents are safely in Canada, we took them to your house in Vancouver."

"I thought so, but that operation just solidified my position that I was part of a highly secret organization, which I am." Ahmed said with a slight chuckle. "The only difference was I kept saying that I need to say something to the leaders of their organization."

"It did get me into the compound where I found several more Skartians and bin Laden himself, I decided to go ahead and bring in the troops for capture." Ahmed said. "The rest you know."

"We'll be integrating the prisoners tomorrow, so be sure to rest up, we would like for you to be there." Jack said. "We also have a request by your brother to join. What do you think about it?"

"Well, he did save my life in the compound." Ahmed said turning thoughtful. "He can be stubborn and pigheaded, but he also is thoughtful. I always wondered how they were able to brainwash him."

"They tell them what they want to hear." Steve replied. "We've got to remember that the Skartians are, mostly, clever."

"That's very true." Jack said agreeing with his friend and second in command. Something still bothered Jack about the whole situation dealing with the Skartians. He was sure that they had not heard the last of them. He had been thinking about it ever since the attack, and it seemed to him like something else was going on. That was something he had yet mentioned to anyone.

"Something wrong Jack?" Steve asked, as it looked like Jack was deep in thought, and by the face Jack was making it did not look good.

"Sorry, just thinking." Jack replied and gave Steve a look that he knew meant later.

"Okay, just wondering." Steve said. "I was about to let the captain here go if that was okay with you?"

Jack nodded his head and Ahmed left the room for the med lab for observation for the concussion he had suffered on the mission.

Steve watched as Ahmed left the room and then thought about what Jack could be thinking about. The look on his face was something he was used to, but it always meant something bad. Steve wondered what else could be going on that he did not know about. As far as he knew, Jack had not with held anything news so it must be something he had thought of and would let Steve know as soon as Jack felt like it was time.

"You know I won't push you, but just answer me this, is what you're thinking about related to the Skartian prisoners?" Steve asked.

"In a way Steve, it deals with something much bigger that I can't put my finger on yet." Jack replied knowing that was not the answer his friend was looking for.

"Well, it's getting late, I see you in the morning." Steve said getting up and walking toward the door. "And Jack, get some sleep would ya!" Steve said as he reached the door.

"I will, just going to finish up their reports." Jack said holding up the reports on the Seydlitz tests.

"Okay, see you in the morning then." Steve said and walked back to his office to shut things down for the night.

Jack quickly read through the report even though his mind was still going over the recent events. He had hoped that they had gotten all of the Skartians at the end of the Second World War, but it was now looking like there might have been more than previously thought.

Reading the reports Jack was very proud of the Seydlitz and felt that he had been redeemed by her performance in the tests. The battlecruiser had outperformed any other ship ever designed. He felt that if war was coming that they would need ships like the Seydlitz in order to win. He had no idea that his thoughts would prove to be right.

Steve had gone back to his desk and made a quick list of things that he needed to do when he arrived in the morning. He quickly set up the appropriate stacks of paper ad then shut off the light and walked back to his quarters. He passed the cafeteria and noticed that Greg and Karen were in there having a late supper. Steve thought that it was good to see people getting on with their lives like they were doing. A couple of minutes later Steve had arrived in the living quarters and walked into his quarters.

He flipped on the computer to see if he had any messages from anyone he knew. He had one message from his brother. His brother was just checking to see if he was ok, and that everyone in his family was all right. One of Steve's nieces worked close to the twin towers and although his mind figured that she was all right it was good to hear conformation of that fact. He had been very busy since the attack and had not called his brother. Picking up the phone he dialed his brother's number.

"Hello!" Steve heard the female voice say over the phone.

"Hello Amy, is Richard there?" Jack replied to his brother's wife.

"Just a second Steve." Amy said putting down the phone to search for her husband.

"Steve, about time you called!" Steve heard his brother Richard say. Steve knew that he could not tell him the exact reasons for not calling but he could understand his brother's tone of voice.

"Sorry Richard, I've been quite busy. A lot of top secret operations are underway requiring my attention." Steve said. Richard knew that Steve had some relations to the military and that they were usually top secret.

"I know Steve. I just hoped to hear you call before this, I figured you would be worried about Marnie, that's all." Richard replied.

"I was but I knew that she worked several blocks away from the world trade center so I assumed that she was alright, and then just after the building fell there was a lot of operations that required my attention and there just wasn't time to call you." Steve said to his brother.

"Have you captured that bin Laden character yet?" Richard asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Steve replied jokingly, both men knowing that Steve could not answer the question.

"Fair enough, are you going to be home for Christmas this year?" Richard asked him. He wanted to know so he could tell Amy and Marnie.

"Well, my vacation is still scheduled for that week, but I'll just have to see what happens" Steve replied with a yawn.

"Sound like you're tired, I'll let you go and get some sleep, but let me know if you're going to be here, Marnie would really like for you to be here." Richard said.

"I'll try, but at this point I can't make any promises."

"Fair deal, just let us know before hand, and this time just don't show up on our doorstep like you did a couple of years ago.

"Gotcha, talk to you later bro." Steve said waiting for his brother to say goodbye before hanging up and then went to bed.

Sam had a fitful night and had not slept well at all during the night. Each time he had fallen asleep he saw the mysterious figure in his dreams. He was beginning to think that he was going to go crazy. Several times the figure would lead him to where he had been the previous day.

Sam had finally decided to just read and had found nothing that could help with his sudden interest in the area. He just knew that someone, or something was leading him to this area. Sam just wished he knew what it was.

There was nothing in any of the books he found interesting except the debate in the age and found himself thinking that they were all wrong. The purpose had also seemed vague and he felt that something else was at work in the area. The only thing he had even wished there was more on was in one little paragraph. There appeared to be an underground room according to some findings but that was all. He felt that that was the key, he had to find that room.

Sam decided that he would take a tour of the area and see if anything grabbed his attention.

Ahmed had been allowed to call his parents who were in his house in Canada. One of their first questions was who the men worked for that led them out of the country. Ahmed did not have an answer for them only that they were friends of his and that he had suffered a concussion during his capture and the doctors wanted him to stay at the hospital for observation.

His mother wanted to come to the hospital to see him, but Ahmed had to inform her that the hospital was not in the same city and that he would be back as soon as he could. He also said that Aziz might be showing up at his house, and if he was not there for them to call him. After giving his parents a number where they could contact him they said their goodbyes and Ahmed went to the report he was to write up for the Admiral tomorrow.

The doctor came in and after a quick check up announced that he was still fit and that he could go home tomorrow. Ahmed was happy about that. He was to stay away for the night just as a precaution and that was all right for him, he needed to catch up on his work.

A couple of hours later as he was completing his report he noticed Vice Admiral Dinen walk into the room. He then noticed that his rank had bee changed to Admiral and wondered what had happened while he was gone.

"I see you're doing well Captain Ahmed." The admiral said.

"Yes sir, I see that you have been promoted, congratulations." Ahmed said and they both knew that he meant it.

"Thanks, I came by to ask you a few questions."

"Ok, go on ahead." Ahmed said wondering what type of questions he was going to ask. Ahmed did not think that it involved the operation that he had just been on so he would only wait to see what he had to say.

"I would like to put you in command of the Moscow and her patrol group."

"What about the captain?" Ahmed asked hoping that the man had survived the battle. Ahmed did not think that he had died, his injuries had been bad but not life threatening when he left.

"I'm putting him in charge of the Seydlitz and the fifth Battlecruiser Fleet, you'll both be under my command as part of Fleet R. It will include the first, second and third patrol groups, the Fifth Battlecruiser Fleet and the Saratoga and Midway Carrier Groups. Fleet R is the only fleet that is standing between the neutral zone and Earth Space.

"What about the other fleet?" Ahmed asked.

"They are on station around the moon and earth, last time our fleets were to scattered and if the Ilderians and the first patrol group had not been there to slow down the Ilderians we could have lost Earth." The admiral said knowing that many men and women lost their lives in that battle.

"How long till the Moscow is battle ready?" Ahmed said knowing that the reports of the battle damage were extensive and would probably take a while to complete.

"She should be ready by the end of the week." The admiral said.

"The repair crews did a remarkable job!" Ahmed said in a bit of shock. He really was not expecting it to be that soon. He thought that the Moscow would be out till the end of December.

"Most of the damage was minor, but once they were able to replace the engines they could access the real damage and most of it was not as bad as it seemed after the battle." The admiral said.

"When do you want me to resume my duties?" Ahmed asked.

"Report to your ship as soon as you are done with Admiral Cave. The command will wait for you. I'll send you a list of ships that are without assignment so you can assemble your fleet." Admiral Dinen said and left the room to leave Ahmed alone to think about what had just happened.

'My own command, I wonder if I'm ready for it?' Ahmed thought to himself. He knew that His captain thought that he was capable, and he had just completed a solo mission, but this would mean that several hundred men and women would be under his command. He felt half proud and half scared about the new command.

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