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on ethics in her final year at the academy. The more she read the more questions she had. One thing was for sure, if it was a PME device then they were looking down the barrel of a new terror.
    “How long before they finish installing the rogan comms on the Kiev?” she asked her comms officer.
    “Another day Maam.”
    “All right I’ll grab the Admiral while he’s here.” Rihan caught up with the Admiral on F deck where his big fame looked decidedly cramped navigating the engineering facility. “Sir you need to see this.”
    Phil nodded. “Well thanks lieutenant that was most informative” he said to the rogan engineering officer. Phil sighed with relief once he got back into the larger hallway. “Thank you” he said to Rihan “I’m not built for that space that’s for sure. So what have you got for me.”
    Rihan briefed him as they made their way back up to A deck. Phil was grateful to sit down in a chair in the command centre. He read the message himself and sat back pondering. Rihan waited patiently while he pontificated.
    “There could be another explanation” he said finally. He looked into Rihan’s eyes and felt like she was slicing and dicing through his last statement. “You don’t buy it do you?” Rihan shook her head. “It’s hard enough preventing our leaders launching retaliatory nuclear strikes without this” added Phil. “I was counting on that four month reprieve. Once the chief minister hears about this she will demand we launch those strikes now.”
    “The Council will wait for news from Aubrey’s mission. I’m sure of it.”
    “I’m not. In any event her mission was always a long shot. The short run is the liberation of the sleth home worlds. That shows real progress with a much higher probability of success. If we can succeed there I’m sure I can get the Council to pull that directive. But I need those four months Rihan.”
    “What, are you just going to ignore this?”
    “No. We need to check it out and pronto. And until we can confirm it we’ll hold off bothering the Council about it.” Phil looked to see Rihan’s expression which said “really?” Phil shrugged his shoulders. “Well it works for me. We need to buy time. Now who can we get to check out this anomaly?” Phil looked directly at Rihan.
    “We both know there’s only one ship here with a drive fast enough to go that far into rogan space and report back in a reasonable time and has a stealth capability to remain undetected.”
    “Yes and I’ve committed it to a high priority recce.” Phil pondered. “We could send your ship.”
    “The Mailon…” stated Rihan.
    “The Maelstrom, Commander” interjected Phil.
    “Yes the Maelstrom. It could get there in time but would be vulnerable without escorts. No stealth, a crew of questionable allegiance and no escorts to enforce that allegiance or protect the ship from hostile intent. Not a good choice Sir. Besides, you promised.”
    “Yeah, yeah I know” said a frustrated Phil. “Why is everything so dammed difficult?”
    “I’m sorry” said Rihan with a shrug of her shoulders. “So what do you plan to do?”
    “Delay the recon, what else?”
    Rihan nodded.
     

Chapter 13. Kiev over Chelora 1315, 3 August
    “So what do you think?” asked Chief Lisa Oxmore, the senior comms technician aboard the carrier Kiev. But the rogan she was asking wasn’t paying attention. Sgt Peena Kraal, a comms technician from what used to be the Mailon, was staring away, his mind obviously elsewhere. “Kraal” Lisa called louder.
    It had the desired effect, snapping Kraal out of his train of thought. He turned to focus on the diagram on the screen in front of Lisa. “Yes that will work” he replied.
    Lisa gave him an annoyed look and a slight shake of her head but Kraal ignored it. He was playing for time anyway. This could take another week for all he was concerned. What mattered to him was getting the opportunity to send a signal to his controller at the Internal