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The next morning Rick woke up to find Nancy gone. It was not surprising. But he had his own things to do today.
It seemed that Benson was waiting for him to wake up. He walked in with a tray full of food. “Good morning Sir.”
Rick sat up in bed. He was hungry but had never been served breakfast in bed. He was certain this was Benson’s way of showing his regret for yesterday. “Good morning. That looks great.” He was looking at the plate. It had ham, eggs, biscuits and gravy. Along with coffee and orange juice. He started eating.
“Sir, I don’t know your preference, did you want to watch the news?” said Benson.
Rick thought about that for a moment. It came to mind that he already knew what was going on long before the news feeds. “No I don’t think so.” Then turned to a different subject. “Benson, I would like to thank you for last night. You and the cook did a wonderful job with dinner. Nancy was very impressed. Make sure that you thank the cook as well.”
“You are very welcome, and I will pass that along.”
“On that note, I don’t think I’ll be having too many of those kinds of dinners. So unless otherwise notified just simple meals will be fine.”
“Understood Sir, will there be anything else.”
“Not at this time,” said Rick.
Benson turned to leave and then turned back. “I forgot to mention Sir, that we had a delivery yesterday. The tailor Maldor dropped off your suits. The CEO requested that you put one on today.”
Rick couldn’t understand why he was talking to Hobbs, then why would he ask for him to wear one of the suits. “Did he say why?”
“I was not given privileged information, only that you had a meeting to go to.”
“Where are they?”
Benson walked over and opened a door. In here sir.
Rick set the tray aside and went to the door. He looked in and the room was about half the size of his office. The suits were hanging up including socks and shoes. Still the room seemed pitifully empty. “Benson, can you handle this?”
“What do you mean Sir?” Rick could see the confusion on his face.
“I mean it’s empty. You know better than anyone what should be in this room and what someone of my status should be wearing.”
“Yes Sir.” Benson seemed pleased that Rick was starting to be what he should be. “And your clothes, Sir?”
“Put them over in that side of the room.” Rick pointed to the opposite side of the room away from the new suits. “I’m only going to wear them when I want to be a bum.”
Benson smiled, “Very good Sir.”
Rick went back to his breakfast and finished eating. Then went to get a shower. He was still a little overwhelmed by the size of the bathroom. Then went to get dressed in one of the new suits.
Rick was amazed that everything was a perfect fit. Never in his life had anything fit so well. Now he could understand why Maldor was a tailor to everyone that is anyone.
He walked back into the bedroom and the bed was already made. “Benson.” At once Benson was at the door. “I have no idea what time I’ll be in tonight.”
“I’ll have a simple meal kept warm Sir.”
“Thank you Benson.”
“Sir, you do not thank someone for doing their job.”
Rick laughed. “Yes, I do. I got to go. I’ll see you tonight.”
Rick left the house and got into his car and said, “Go to Weller’s hospital.” And the car took off and he was on his way.
Rick was wondering what to do with himself when the car said, “You have a call from CEO Hobbs.”
“Put him on.” It seemed strange that Hobbs called the car and not his phone. A holographic screen came up between Rick and the windshield. “Good morning Director.”
“Good morning, I was just on my to the hospital to get checked out.”
“Yes I know. I had the car notify me as soon as you were headed in that direction. I needed to talk to you before you went into the office.”
That explained why Hobbs was calling him on the car phone. “What about?”
“We have a board meeting at one o’clock and I want you to be there. As soon as you see Weller, come to the admin building.”
“What if he says I still have active tracers?”
“Then I’ll send you home after the meeting, but I need you there.”
“Understood Sir,” said Rick.
“Good, I’ll see you then. Hobbs out.”
Something was going on. Hobbs had been very careful to keep Rick away from the Board. Now he was about to be trust into the middle of it all.
Rick went into the hospital and got scanned and Weller had pronounced him clean of the nanobots. Rick could go back to work. He left the hospital with a feeling of dread. He trusted Hobbs but he didn’t even know the other Directors except for Neman and Graham. Rick didn’t know Neman that well. All Rick knew for sure was that he was the Director of Operations and that put him right under Hobbs. He was certain there was going be some animosity between the two. Neman wanted to be CEO. Graham on the other hand deserved nothing but pity. His mental faculties were in decline, and he always seemed to be out of step with the conversation.
It was just after twelve thirty when Rick stepped into Hobbs office.
“Good Rick you are here. Let’s go to the Board Room.”
Rick followed Hobbs into a beautiful room all lined with wood. The table that had thirteen chairs was lined with wood and had a black lacquer finish on top. The chairs were leather and overstuffed for comfort.
Hobbs went and stood behind the third chair down from the end of the table where he sat. “This is your seat.” Rick went over and sat down. Hobbs went to the end of the table. “I asked you in here because there are jammers lining the walls. No one can spy on the conversations going on in this room.”
“Sir why am I here? I thought you wanted to keep me out of the politics?”
“I did, but you are the only man that knows the whole story. Tell them what you have seen. Tell them what you found. I’ll handle the rest.”
“Yes Sir,”
“Good now I have to go get things ready for the show. Stay here.”
Rick looked around at the other empty chairs.
In just a moment Hobbs came back into the room. “Before I bring in the Board, I wanted to tell you to just give them the facts and nothing else. I’ll handle any questions. I know these people. They are going to twist your words around. It’s never about the subject at hand. It is about the power grab. The last thing I need you to do is fan the flame. Are we clear?”
“Yes Sir,” said Rick. He was actually glad that he wouldn’t be getting into the battle of egos.
Hobbs hit a button on the table and said, “You can send them in now.”
The members of the Board came into the room dressed in all the finest cloths that money could buy. Rick felt underdressed and somewhat embarrassed. He could begin to understand why Collier wanted to remove this smug group of elitists.
Everyone seated themselves. Hobbs stood and leaned on the table. “We have information you all need to be made aware of. But before we do that I would like to introduce you to the real Rick Thompson.” There were murmurs around the table. “Some of you have met his double. That deception was created so he could uncover the information we are about to give you. Rick.” Hobbs sat down.
Seeing that was the way of things, Rick Stood up. “Thank you Mr. CEO. We have a dilemma on our hands.”
“Yeah,” said Neman. “We are at war.” Neman was sitting acrost the table from Rick. Everyone but Hobbs laughed.
“True, but you have no idea with whom. And I going to tell you this, it’s not Rossom!”
Another Director at the end of the table spoke with an air of concern. “If you are talking about Collier, don’t we have him in custody?”
“Yes we do,” said Rick but before he could continue Neman spoke up.
“Well then what do we have to fear?”
Rick could understand why Hobbs wanted to keep him out of the Board meetings. But this was a very important moment in history. “Mr. CEO, it is evident that these fools will not hear a word I have to say. Perhaps we should just play the video. Once they have seen the danger, they might be inclined to be more rational.”
Without a word Hobbs reached out and hit a button on the table. At once the light went dim and screens came down on all sides of the room. It was obvious that this was a wing camera from a ship. The view showed a moon on the left side of the screen and empty space on the right. Collier’s voice was in the background.
“I heard the rumors, but I need to see this for myself. According to my informant, this is where the meeting is supposed to take place. I lost a lot of good people getting this information. Right now I’m behind the third moon of Santina, the home world of the Rossom Corporation.”
In the edge of the view a jump window was starting to form. “Here we go stealth shields engaged.”
The window opened and closed. It looked like nothing came through. A moment later a Rossom ship came from around the moon. As it came closer you could see that it was a Destroyer class ship. For what looked like no reason it came to a stop. The ship was about a thousand kilometers away.
All of the sudden there was an electrical disturbance over a large area, like there was a space storm but there was no reason for it. In the middle of the energy bolts a ship started to appear. Collier’s voice could be heard. “That’s the energy barrier collapsing.” As soon as Collier said that the whole ship came into view. “What the...” Collier moved the camera so that he could see the ship from one end to the other. This ship was massive and made the Rossom destroyer look very small by comparison. The video showed the Rossom ship dock with the larger ship. In shock Collier said, “Then it’s true. Rossom has formed an alliance with aliens.”
The video cut out and the lights came back up. There was stunned silence in the room for a moment. It was Neman that broke the silence. “This is some kind of prank. Anyone with graphic skills could have made that.”
Rick couldn’t believe what Neman just said. “What are you stupid?”
“Rick!” said Hobbs in a warning tone.
Rick couldn’t believe the attitude of the Board yet subsided at Hobbs tone. He knew that he had stepped over the line.
Hobbs continued. “Look Jim, I’ve had our best people going over this video. There is no sign or hint that it is fake.”
The Director at the end of the table asked, “Then why haven’t we seen any other race before now?”
“I can answer that,” said Rick. His anger was still on a slow burn. “Because complacency and comfort have replaced exploration and colonization. We are too interested in keeping what we have to risk it on something new.”
“That’s enough Rick,” said Hobbs calmly. “But he is right. We have only explored sixteen percent of this spiral arm and only a tiny fraction of the galaxy. We have no idea what’s out there.”
Neman said, “If we contact this race we could be the most powerful Corporation in the Conglomeration.”
Rick was starting to despise Neman. Now he understood what Hobbs meant when he said it was never about the subject at hand.
Hobbs said, “At this point I don’t think that is possible.” He hit play again. The lights went dim, and a new video started.
The view was that of an asteroid belt. Again, you could hear Collier’s voice. “I just jumped in. There seems to be a pattern to these attacks on the telepath labs. And oddly enough it seems to be the only thing the Cats are interested in. I guess they don’t want me poking around in their business. If I’m right, this should be the sight of the next attack. I’m 100,000 kilometers away from the station. I want to see if I can get the entire ship in one shot with the camera. I’m going to sign off now and turn the camera back on when they arrive.”
Hobbs paused the video.
“What?” said Neman. “Cats, you have got to be kidding me?”
“No,” said Hobbs. “We are not kidding. From all the information we have been able to gather, it is a feline race. We got information not only from Collier but from independent sources.”
“That’s absurd,” said Neman.
Rick realized that Neman was the voice of opposition to Hobbs leadership. It was time to remove that opposition. “Is it? Are we as a race so arrogant that we believe that we are the only ones in the galaxy? Well, get ready for a shocker we evolved from apes.” Rick stood to emphasize his next point. “Is it so hard to believe that a different planet could give rise to a different evolutionary line. In that case the felines became the top of the food chain.”
“Yeah right,” said Neman. “What’s next rats, goats and elephants?”
He heard chuckles from a couple of Board members. Rick looked around the table. Two men and two women had smiles on their faces. Rick now knew who the opposition was. Neman had a following, but the other seven were taking this seriously. “You guys think this is some kind of a joke. But the truth is that a predator is most likely to be the dominate lifeform, animals that have clawed their way up the evolutionary line. What kind of enemy would they be to fight? What kind of threat would they pose?”
Only Neman still had a smirk on his face.
“Let’s find out,” said Hobbs as he hit play.
“The jump window is forming, it’s huge.” On the screen it was hard to judge size because there were no reference points. Rick could only guess as it was so far away. Rick turned to look at the Board members. He saw the realization of what was happening on their faces.
“It’s fully open but it looks like nothing came through. I know they’re here.”
A half second later an energy bolt came out of what looked like nowhere. It enveloped a small asteroid. They heard a sharp intake of breath, and heard Collier say, “That was the lab. It’s gone.”
A few seconds later the barrier dropped. It was a large triangular shaped ship. A swarm of smaller ships went after what was left of the lab. The video showed a few laser bolts being fired. In less than a minute it was over, and the smaller ships headed back. Collier started to talk about what he had just seen. “What have we done? If that race wants to come in and take over there is nothing we can do about it.” The video ended.
The Director at the end of the table looked at Rick and said, “So, what are we going to do about it?”
At that moment Neman jumped into the conversation. “This is a fake cooked up by Collier so that Rossom can come in and walk all over us.”
Rick could see that Neman’s support was eroding fast. This was his sad attempt to get it back.
Rick said in a thoughtful voice, “What if it’s not? It is now time to give you the final piece of the puzzle. I had my people analyze the wreckage from those labs. It is consistent with what you have just seen on the video.”
“How so?” said the Director at the end of the table.
“With evidence from black hole experiments we have discovered that the barrier is a temporal distortion field. Not stealth shielding, like Collier thought it was.”
A woman to Neman’s right asked, “I’m not up on the science of it. What does that mean?”
Rick could see that almost all the Directors were starting to realize the danger. Neman was still trying to pass it off as a fake. “A temporal distortion field creates a bubble and in that bubble time runs differently. Our tech put forth the idea that it was running faster than normal time inside the bubble.”
“What kind of benefit would that have for them?” this came from a Director that hadn’t spoken yet.
Rick had the attention of the room. “Let’s look at that. First they jumped in, and they were moving so fast we couldn’t see them. From inside the bubble, we would look like we were standing still or moving in slow motion. They had time to study the station and find weak points. Carefully chose the targets to create the most damage. Then they could attack before the station even knew that a ship was out there.”
The room was in an uproar. Everyone was talking back and forth.
Rick found it very informative. He realized that the alliances were showing themselves. Of the thirteen people in the room, Rick noticed four distinct groups. He would have to get their names from Hobbs later.
Rick looked over at Hobbs. Hobbs seemed to be looking at him. Rick nodded then Hobbs yelled out, “Alright people!” when the room went silent Hobbs continued. “Now you know the real story. I want an emergency plan put together from each of your departments by the end of the week. Meeting adjourned. Rick would you stay please?”
Rick wasn’t sure if the frowns on the faces of the Board were because of the news or because that Rick was asked to stay.
Once they were gone and the door was closed Hobbs said, “I’m impressed.”
“How so Sir?”
“You handled yourself well in the meeting. You put Neman in his place and got the job done.”
“I was just doing what you hired me to do,” said Rick.
“No, what I hired you to do was to uncover the threat to our nation. And I might add, that you did that very well thank you. To have an actual Director that could hold his position with this group was a bonus. What did you think of the Board?”
“Well sir while I don’t know their names I can tell you who is allied with whom. And because of the subject and urgency I can tell how dee those ties go.”
“Can you give me an example?”
“Yes, at the end of my side of the table the two women the farthest away from you.”
“That would be at the far end Shery Strivers the Director of Education. One up from her would be Tammy Bell the Director of Health and Safety.”
“Those two have very strong ties.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because every time there was murmuring in the room they turned to each other first.”
Hobbs got up and said, “Yeah those two have had an alliance from the moment Tammy became a Director. What about Neman?”
“Neman is the leader of a small group. When things got interesting he sat upright while the woman on his right and the man on his left both leaned in to whisper at him the same time. Graham is also part of that group, but he was clueless and talked to the woman on Neman’s right only when he could.”
“Interesting that you would notice that. Yes you are right. Jack Ballard is the Director of R and D. Betty James is the Director of Security. The three constitute a third of the corporation and are a serious threat. But we’ll get to that in a minute. Continue.”
“The man at the end on the other side of the table. is a standalone. He only spoke when spoken to, and never initiated communication.”
“That would be Brian Daniels Director of Domestic Commerce. Next to him is Tim Benson Director of Correctional Affairs.”
“Benson was the one that asked questions. He is his own person but can be swayed by others he kind of timid. Now Tim Benson and the man sitting next to me on my left have an alliance. They were giving meaningful looks across the table while everyone else was talking to the ones next to them.”
“That would be Tom Write Director of International Commerce.”
“Both of them had nothing but contempt for Neman. In this one fact they are united. I got the impression that they would back anyone else just to spite Neman.
The two women between you and me really don’t have an alliance but they were afraid to talk to you and they don’t know me. So they talked to each other but only when things seemed most dire.”
“That would be Treasa Chromes Director of Financial Documentation.” Hobbs pointed to the chair next to him. “And Susan Fielding Director of Quality. But why do you say they don’t have an alliance?”
“Because Susan was smiling at Neman’s smirky jokes, while Treasa was looking at the subject for what it was.
Having seen the Board under duress I would say that your main opposition would be Neman. That group only consist of four people. He may be able to sway one or two others but after today I don’t think so. There didn’t seem to be any other animosity between the other members so I would say that their allegiance are as fluid as the issues before them. In summery I’m going to say that you can get what you want passed as long as you are willing to make a few deals. Does that about sum it up?”
“Wow,” said Hobbs in honest amazement. “You got that all from one meeting?”
“Well Sir, in truth I think you have to thank Dr. Weller for that.”
“What has Weller got to do with this?”
“The procedure he used to repair the damage to my brain has significantly increased my obnosis.” Rick could see the confusion on Hobbs face. “The ability to observe the obvious.”
“Like the questioning look?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Remind me never to never play poker with you.”
Both men laughed. “Yes Sir.” When the laughter died down Rick asked, “So the real question is where do we go from here?”
Hobbs was about to answer when a buzzing screech came over the public address system. “All senior staff report to the War Room. All senior staff report to the War Room.”
Hobbs went to the table and pressed a button. “This is Hobbs, what’s going on?!!”
“Sir the planet of Mosely is getting attacked!”