Chapter 4 Part 2

Cain sat at the console in his office. Nathan paced the floor nervously. Both awaited word of the Raven's interception. "Walking around in circles is not going to speed things up," Cain advised. "We will get the word when it arrives."

Nathan paced on, almost defiantly. The monitor displayed the positions of both the asteroid and the Raven. "Something is wrong," he finally muttered. "This was too easy. We were on guard for this and this is exactly what we should not have seen."

"Maybe the Syndicate did not give us credit enough to realize that the incident on Luna was no natural phenomenon," Bostik suggested.

"That is very unlikely," Nathan countered. "How long have we been sparring with them. They are as devious as devious gets. It is almost as if they went through all this trouble to lure us into destroying that rock."

"What would they gain by having us destroy an asteroid?" Cain wondered.

Nathan stopped pacing and stood rigid. "Nothing unless . . ." he paused. "Unless they used the rock to distract us?"

At that moment, a tone sounded urgently on the com panel. Cain tapped the key and the monitor changed to present the face of a fair haired middle aged woman. "Mr. Bostik," she began. "There has been a meteor strike in the southern hemisphere."

Nathan and Cain looked at each other and already knew the answer to Bostik's question. "Was anyone hurt?"

"Sir, it totally destroyed the deep space early warning station."

Nathan cursed quietly. "The most advanced early warning system in the solar system and it gets bushwhacked by an asteroid."

"All tracking effort had been redirected to looking for inbounds to the inner planets. No one thought we would be a target. No one was watching our own back," Cain responded as he keyed off the monitor. "That is sloppy work."

"What are our losses?" Nathan asked forcing himself to calmness.

Cain sat dejectedly across from him. "We can still monitor planetary space," he answered. "Some of our military craft are capable of assuming the deep space monitoring load, but that will temporarily bind them to their present locations. The Asimov's battle group has a support frigate that is set up for that kind of thing. They are intended to be the flag command and control barges for large military operations."

"Well get a message to it and get them on the job. They are going to have to monitor everything in this area," Nathan ordered. "I will authorize you to commandeer the ship if necessary."

"You think the Council of Commerce will support your authority?"

Nathan scoffed. "If the Market Board of Directors think that one of these things is about to hit one of their regional capitals, they will back the devil himself." Cain understood. The regional capitals were the primary cities of the Free Market. Each was a home to one of the Board of Directors, of the governing body.

Nathan hit the intercom button and spoke to the administrative assistant out front. "Please get me Sol Defense Command Headquarters. They are going to be in a panic, but don't let them put you off. Get in touch with Admiral Fisk. Tell him that MIRA suggests he activate his command frigates and use them as deep space monitoring platforms."

Nathan looked back at Cain who was observing a map of the inner solar system. "Why would they take out the early warning station?"

"To blind us and open us for more attacks," Cain offered.

"How long until the other destroyer reaches the origin of the second meteor?" Nathan asked.

"About twelve hours," Cain answered. "They had to reduce the load on their drive for several hours or it would have gone critical."

"Tell them to push it to the edge," Nathan ordered. "We have to solve this puzzle. And now that we are partially blinded, we have to solve it even faster. If just one of those rocks gets through our sector undetected, we could lose something vital."

The intercom sounded again and Nathan spun it around to face him. He answered. "MIRA, Thomas here."

"Mr. Thomas, this is General Stanton of the SDC. Can I help you?"

"General," Nathan managed holding his temper in check. It was obvious that the general was none too pleased at the demands MIRA was making. "This is Nathan Thomas of the Population Liability Command, MIRA division. As you are no doubt aware by now the deep space tracking station on Mars has been destroyed in a similar manner to that of the Luna Beta Six outpost. I am advising you to order your command frigates into action as deep space tracking and early warning units."

"Nonsense," the general argued. "The redundant tracking station on Deimos can take care of those duties."

Nathan glanced at Cain with an unspoken question. Cain shook his head negatively. "Deimos does not have the range necessary to do that."

"General," Nathan responded, "my sources tell me that the redundant station on Deimos is insufficient to handle the full load by itself."

"Now, Mr. Thomas," the general countered. "I think you are overreacting. There is no need to activate those frigates."

"General I do not have time to argue." Nathan was beginning to get angry. "I am hereby exercising my authority as a MIRA level nine operative and make a formal request for you to comply."

"The MIRA does not scare me," the general barked back. "I told you that you were being overreactive. I see no reason to honor your request regardless of who you are."

Nathan's face went blank and unreadable. "General," he replied coldly. "It is obvious that you do not want me to have those frigates moved. For what reason, I cannot say. Perhaps you are making a personal use of them?"

The general's face went white.

"Perhaps I should request an audit of your personal record. I am sure that it is in good order, but you never know what might turn up. I do hope that you are not involved in something illegal. Charon is so crowded."

"Mister Thomas," the general stammered in a voice thick with honey. "I was not refusing to help you, just expressing my concern that you may be jumping the gun. Of course I will comply with your request."

"I was sure that you would," Nathan commented dryly. "I expect to see those frigates in orbit within the hour. MIRA out."

As the screen darkened, Cain could not help but chuckle. "Wow," he laughed. "You really shook him up. Could you really order up an audit of his records?"

Nathan smiled in return but did not answer.