“JEVEX?”
No response.
“JEVEX, answer me.”
Nothing.
Something cold and heavy turned over deep in his stomach. He leaped to his feet, fumbled his way into a robe to cover his shorts and undershirt, and hurried into the next room to check the status indicators of the suite’s monitor panel. Lighting, air conditioning, communications, services . . . everything had reverted to emer
gency backup mode. JEVEX was not operating. He tried activating the communications console, but the only thing he could raise on the screen was a message stating that all channels were saturated. It meant that the condition was general and not due simply to some local failure; the complex was in panic. He rushed through into his bedroom and began frantically tearing clothes out of a closet.
He was still buttoning his tunic when a tone sounded from the outside door in the hallway. Broghuilio hastened out and pressed his thumb against a printlock plate to dematerialize the door. Estordu was there with two other aides. The sounds of shouting and commotion came in from behind them.
“What’s happened?” Broghuilio demanded. “The whole system is dead.”
“I deactivated it,” Estordu told him. “I threw the manual override breakers in the master nucleus control room. I’ve shut JEVEX down totally.”
Broghuilio’s beard quivered, and his eyes widened. “You what-” he began, but Estordu waved a hand impatiently to silence him. The gesture was so out of character that Broghuilio just stared.
“Can’t you see what’s happened?” Estordu said, speaking rapidly and urgently. “JEVEX was not functioning coherently. Something was affecting it from the inside. It could only have been VISAR. Somehow VISAR gained access to it. That meant that the Thuriens could have been watching every move we made. We still have twelve hours, and if we move quickly we can still get away. We still have emergency communications channels to Uttan, and the standby transfer system can project an entry port to Jevlen. With JEVEX inoperative and VISAR therefore blind, we can make our arrangements without risking interference from the Thuriens or the Terrans. The nearest Terran ships are still twelve hours away. By the time they get here we can be gone, and they’ll have no way of knowing where to. By the time they think of looking for us at Uttan, we will be well prepared. Don’t you see? It was the only way. With JEVEX running we couldn’t have planned a move without them knowing.”
Broghuilio thought rapidly as he listened. There was no time for erguing, and anyway, Estordu was right. He nodded. “Everyone with their wits about them will go physically to the War Room,”
he said. He looked at Estordu. “Find Lantyar and tell him I want five reliable crews mustered and brought to Geerbaine by eighteen hundred hours today. You. . .” He directed his gaze at one of the two aides standing behind Estordu. “Contact the operations commander at Geerbaine and tell him I want five E-class transports ready for launch not one minute later than then, and power standing by on-line at Uttan to project ports as soon as the transports clear Jevlen.” He gestured to the other aide. “And you, find General Wylott and tell him to mobilize four companies of guards and organize air transportation from here to Geerbaine, ready to leave by seventeen thirty hours. I’ll need capacity for two thousand persons. Commandeer it from wherever you need to, and don’t hesitate to use force. Do you understand?” Broghuilio straightened his collar and went back through to the bedroom to buckle on his belt and sidearm. “I am going to the War Room now,” he called out to them. “The three of you will report to me there not later than one hour from now. Do as I say, and this time tomorrow we will all be on Uttan.”
chapter thirty-seven
The Shapieron had moved closer to Jevien to await the arrival of the Ganymean ships from Thurien, which had begun moving in-ward from the edge of the planetary system but were still many hours away. The main screen on the Command Deck was showing views of Jevlen’s surface being sent back from probes at lower altitudes. The planet seemed to be in chaos. Nothing was flying anywhere, but in many places people had begun leaving the cities on foot and in disorderly streams of ground vehicles that had soon jammed solid on highway systems never intended for more than minor local or recreational traffic. Disturbances and rioting had broken out in a few places, but in most the populations were merely assembling in the open spaces, leaderless and bewildered. Communications traffic from the surface was garbled and revealed no organization for maintaining order or vital services. In short, the Ganymeans were going to have a big job on their hands putting the pieces of the mess together again.
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151