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The group roared with delight as the old pilot came up to stand by
Tolwyn, "How the hell did you get out of that last scrape?" Ian asked. "They
said you were reported long overdue and presumed dead. Hell, man, you owe me a
drink 'cause I bought a round at the Vacuum Breathers in your honor. Old
Gallagher even gilded your mug."
"It's a wee bit tied up in all of this here talk the Admiral's giving."
"So what's this Hari?" Doomsday grumbled.
"The Hari Empire," Tolwyn said, "once existed in what was the realm of space
on the other side of the Kilrathi Empire in relation to us. More than two
hundred of our years before we first made contact with the Kilrathi, they
fought a war with the Hari and annihilated them. So bitter was the struggle
that the Hari, in their pride refused surrender and committed suicide."
"All of them?" Sparks asked.
That's what we've been told by prisoners," Tolwyn said. "It is a vast empty
reach of space, a good thirty jump points out from Kilrah. The Hari never knew
of the jump points, and traveled at speeds slower than light.
They made great ships that could journey between worlds in trips that took
lifetimes. When they found a world with resources they multiplied quickly, in
a hive-like manner. They quite literally wrecked the planet's biosphere with
overpopulation and exploitation of every resource they could find. When the
planet was used up, selected members were loaded back aboard their ark ships
and moved on, leaving the rest to die. Thus there was little on their worlds
worth the taking, the planets they occupied nothing but mined over and scarred
barren wastelands when they were finished.
"It's believed that the Kilrathi moved some of their ship construction
deep into Hari territory and for at least the last four years have been
working on a secret project. This information comes from bits and pieces of a
puzzle, made up of thousands of little details we've found over the years a
captured shipping report, a stray transmission coming from where it wasn't
supposed to. In part this might explain the anomaly of their transport
shortage which appeared to be even more acute than our figures suggested,
since part of their transport fleet appears to be committed to hauling
material out into Hari territory for the building of this secret fleet."
"Look, sir, if this is the case, then what the hell is our government doing?"
Round Top snarled. "What you're telling us is that the Kilrathi called an
armistice to get over a potential gap in numbers, and once they've closed it
and gotten ahead and get this new fleet ready, they'll come out kicking."
Trove it," Paladin said quietly, "that's the problem. All I can tell you is,
getting into Hari territory reminds me of this lass I once knew who was so& "
He looked at the females in the audience and stopped.
"As I was saying, it's impossible and believe me, I know. You have to cross
all of Kilrathi space, hit into transit jumps that we don't even have charts
for, and then go a good thousand light years beyond I think it's fair to
assume that this here system is wired with security from one end to the other.
We might be able to put a concealed Kilrathi transport or trader inside their
own territory when there's a war on and a lot of traffic to blend in with, but
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out there, it's military security all the way in and out."
He hesitated for a moment.
"Believe me, I know," he said softly as if recalling a nightmare that still
troubled him.
"So how do we know about this then?" Ian asked. "We might just be chasing
shadows, our own fears and nothing more."
"That I cannot say either," Paladin replied. "Not even the Admiral here is
cleared to know some of it, and remember, I worked for him before, same as
you, laddie. All I can say is, the information is good, and a lot of our
friends, who are listed as missing, in fact died to find out."
"Well, doesn't the civilian government know this?"
Tolwyn blew out noisily and nodded.
"A week before the armistice was agreed to, there was a meeting with
Rodham, Foreign Minister Jamison and the Chiefs of Staff. The information was
presented and Jamison said that it was unconfirmed, that the intelligence
community and military were conspiring to keep the war going and as much as
called the Chiefs of Staff a bunch of liars.
Rodham finally sided with Jamison, saying that at best it was rumor, and there
were always such rumors that could keep a war going, countering with the
statement that Jukaga had claimed the same thing was being done by us."
"So they accuse us of it, and that balances it out, is that it?"
Vanderman asked.
That's about it," Tolwyn replied. "I'd have to add that Jamison does have the
weight of history on her side. In the past, in the old Earth wars, there were
always such charges of secret bases and construction sites or hidden redoubts.
They usually proved to be false," he paused, "but then on occasion they proved
to be true."
Tolwyn paused, realizing he could say no more in front of this group, for in
fact the Confederation did have several secret projects in the works.
Jukaga's accusation had caused a flurry of concern on the part of the
Chiefs of Staff and intelligence, but in the end it was surmised that the
Baron was merely smoke screening and had not stumbled on any hard information. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]