Amara Vance was left alone in her private office. She pushed the chair back and stood up, turning to the windows overlooking the city below. She always thought better standing or walking. In the distance she could see the spaceport. The Felindar were still there. And, somewhere, a pirate ship with a cargo that got at least four races interested. They didn’t have the name of the ship. The intel came from an intercepted call the pirates had made, and they hadn’t mentioned it, of course not.
She leaned her forehead against the window and stopped her right hand from tapping nervously on it. She turned around and switched on the video wall, calling up the data that was pouring in from around the planet.
Twenty-three points were marked on the map of Erulas. With a population that would cross the half-billion threshold in a few years, there wasn’t just the capital city spaceport. To lock down the whole planet was a major logistics operation. At the moment, only five of the markers were green, indicating that all preparations were complete. Sixteen were yellow, in progress. Two were still red, they had not yet reported any progress back.
„Where are you hiding?“, she mumbled to herself while scanning the map. There was an isolated spaceport on the northern sea islands. Maybe there? Or in one of the major cities, to blend in with the crowds? Or at the cargo port in the mining regions, either the southern or the central mountain range?
To the left side of the screen was a list of police units and their status. Almost fifty of them, about half were green.
Amara remembered the meeting two hours earlier. „Searching the whole planet“, she had said to her ministers,“for a small crew is a waste of time. But searching for a spaceship, there’s only so many places one could land.“
She tapped on the tablet on her desk and an overlay faded in over the world map. Split up into the sectors of the airspace monitoring stations. A few floors down, and in three other offices around Erulas, data scientists were pouring over the monitoring log data of the past two days. That was a bit longer than the time window given by the Felindar ambassador, but she wanted to be certain. Erulas was an inhabited, civilized world. You couldn’t just set your spaceship down on a random field. But if you really, really wanted to, you might try to slip by the traffic controllers. It was worth the effort, because if they found someone had landed not on a spaceport, that was very likely who they were looking for.
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A few sectors had already been checked. This process, also, would take at least a few hours to complete.
She looked back towards the police units that were getting ready to search any spaceship that had touched down within the past two days and not already left again. She had already given orders to keep any ships not belonging to a company or individual on Erulas on the ground.
Her specialists were working on narrowing down the possible ships so that they would only have to search a few of them. In the meantime, it was her responsibility to not lose sight of the bigger picture.
She slowly sat down at her desk, calmed herself down with three deep breaths, and called the Aegis Prime.
„Vance“, she said as soon as the connection was established, „Give me General Norge.“
A short moment passed and the call was transferred to another comm unit. „Madam president.“, the general greeted her, without further smalltalk.
„General“, Amara answered in the same style, „I’ve seen the data and summary of your recent encounter. But I want to get some more personal insights from someone with your experience.“
The latency to the Aegis Prime was about double that to the other planets, too much for the AI to compensate. The conversation with the general had noticeable delays. So Amara switched to another manner of speaking - longer parts, more complete information in each speech act.
She continued with almost no pause: „I received your report about the attack on Binary Bloom. I don’t see how the Qyrl could bring a fleet of ships there between the Aegis Prime taking up position nearby and the attack. What are your thoughts?“
About five seconds later, she received his response: „Madam president, I’ve come to the same conclusion. We are currently operating under the assumption that they had no time to waste and are analyzing their approach vector for possible clues. My working theories are a forward base near the edge of the Junkstorm combined with an operational beginning before the Aegis Prime arrived at the pirate outpost or alternatively a base inside the Junkstorm and the Qyrl having discovered a way to shield themselves at least partially so they can man such a base. We currently have not enough information to rebuke or support either theory.“
Amara made sure that the encryption was set to high-grade military. Even if the Qyrl could break it, as she assumed, it might take them some time. Then she informed the general: „The following is currently top-secret, to be shared at most with Commander Frason. I want the Aegis Prime back to the pirate outpost. As quickly as you can manage. Search the place, top to bottom. I will send you more details when you arrive. And on the Qyrl, let me know as soon as you have something I can start working with from here.“
The general acknowledged and Amara concluded the call. She stood up again and slowly walked over to the window, looking out over Erulas’ capital once again. She would have loved to tell him about the Qyrl collaborators, but she could not risk tipping them off.