The Taleweaver
Prelude

... and yetArthur Wallman never knew the events as they occurred, closer to thetruth than anyone before him as he was.

"Steadynow. Steady. There she goes. Commander, we have a shuttledrop. Estimated time to surface is thirty seven standardminutes."

Launchreports were coming in from all shuttle bays. They had dropped thelast two hundred shuttles in less than a minute. Almost perfect. RearAdmiral Hirotaka Ashakawasmiled. He was running a well trained crew on the TSS Indomitable.Better trained than the one on the flagship, the Shieldbreaker, butDimitri Panopilis, his fellow commanderwould never agree to that of course.

LieutenantErwin Radovic checked his com unit one last time.Everything was in order. They shuttle dropped.

"Listenup now! This is what we've trained for. Secure perimeter first.Equipment shuttle will come in with body walkers and drop tanks. Droptanks are parachuted one klick fromtouchdown. Equipment shuttle lands within perimeter so you haveexactly one seven five seconds to take a position one fifty metersfrom touchdown. Any questions?"

They wereall silent.

"Good!Goldberger, you're first. Remember, climbyour body walker and wait until the next man is inside the equipmentshuttle before taking your position again. Clear?"

"Clearsir!"

CaptainVivian McAdams, acting commander of Theta 47, glared at the holoscreen. The station was far from ready to be usedas an orbital station, but the mining plant was the only thing bigenough to use, and the TSS Shieldbreaker had towed it togeostationary orbit. Now she was responsible for making sure thethrusters kept it there during the conversion from mining plant toorbital station.

Since thearrival of the carriers it had been used as a supply depot, and allunused space was filled with food, spare parts, munitions, powercells and other items the ground forces could need. Those troops wereon their way down now, and she was ordered to follow the deploymentof an affair she considered foolhardy. She gave the screen a secondglare.

At least herquarters were in order now, and in a couple of weeks the mag trainbetween the docking cradle in the center of the disk and the livingquarters at the rim would be converted to carrying humans not wearingpressure suits.

Vivian satback in her chair and waited for reports to come from planet side.There wouldn't be any for another twenty minutes, and she idlywondered if she dared to take a nap. She decided against it and setthe primary com channel to watch shuttle 27. Her only son was on thatshuttle.

John McAdamsread the data in disbelief. "Lieutenant, problems."

"Whatis it?"

"Hull'sheating up, sir."

"Checkit again! Shields shouldn't have any problems at this altitude."

John obeyed.He set the sensors to display data from the shields only. It onlytook a couple of seconds. There were no readings.

"Sir, Idon't understand, it's as if there are no shields."

"Impossible!Check again!"

John wasabout to do so, but the console burned his fingers as he tried.

We'reburning up.

He turnedand met panicked expressions all around him.

"Oh myGod!" A faint memory from childhood reached him and he had justenough time to voice it. "Momma, a shooting star. Make a wish!"

Hirotakagrowled at the holo screen. "Get me Admiral Panopilis, now!"

"Immediately,sir."

There was aslight tone of fear in the voice, and Hirotaka disapproved of it. Hewould discipline the lieutenant later. Currently they requiredconfirmation of whether they were losing shuttles or not. Incomingdata indicated an impossibility. Shuttles, all of them, flared up asfriction burned them to cinders on their way down.

A singlelamp suddenly flashed red in front of him.

Whatthe bloody hell?

"Sir,reactor breach sir!"

The lastthing Rear Admiral Hirotaka Ashakawa saw was the bright white sun inthe place where the TSS Shieldbreaker had been just a moment ago.

"Sir,contact down."

Erwinfrowned. "Down?"

"Yes,sir. Nothing."

"Callthe Indomitable! See if they know anything!"

"Yessir."

Somethingwas amiss. He corrected himself. Everything was going to hell. Erwinwas trained to handle emergencies, not hell. He silently prayed thiswas only an emergency.

"Sir?"

"Yes,Goldberger."

"Nothingat all. The only signal is from Theta 47."

"Patchher in!"

Theloudspeakers blared. At first Erwin was unable to make any sense ofthe wailing. Then he realized it was a woman's voice, and she wasscreaming, and screaming...

... andscreaming. There was nothing in the universe that could stop her fromscreaming now.

Shieldbreakergone, Indomitable gone, almost twelve hundred shuttles gone. Her onlyson gone, and his last gift to her would never come true.

A few hourspassed before they tried to reestablish contact with Theta 47, butErwin had the distinct feeling he commanded the only remainingassault group. It did make sense in a horrible way. They had beenordered to land within an area specified by some kind of governmenthere. He had orders to do just that. Not to follow any directivesgiven, but rather to replace out what made this small spot of land sospecial. There was no answer to that question. A flat piece of land,a mountain ridge a klick to the west and not a single living being insight. It was simply a perfect landing place for an untrained dropshuttle pilot even without proper landing strips laid out.

He had tomake contact with Theta 47 now. He could no longer prolong theinevitable. Erwin stared angrily at the mobile holo screen before heswitched it on.

"Orbitone, IG seven calling."

No answer.

"Orbitone, orbit one, IG seven calling."

He waited,and then, finally, "Orbit one, here."

"IGseven establishing holo connection, over."

"Orbitone, confirming holo connection, over."

Erwin stoodin the command center of Theta 47, or rather it looked as if he was.Captain McAdams faced him. Traces of tears lined eyes ringed with redno water could wash away.

"Ineed... ," he faltered. A superior officer was where he foundstrength, not grief. "I need orders sir."

Anuncomfortable silence followed, and he could only patiently wait foran answer.

"I havereceived orders for you. Dismantle your shuttles and prepare to beginconstructing a launch port."

Erwin staredat the captain in disbelief but kept his silence.

Nothing,nothing at all about what's happened. It's like it never occurred.

"You'llhave shuttles with construction units and material sent to you withina standard month. I'll strip this station of anything that can beused as a drop shuttle in order to keep you supplied."

He notedgrim determination in her face and allowed himself to smile inrelief. They weren't going to be abandoned. One last question then,just to confirm that the federation was playing out a greatmaskirovka.

"Isthere anything more we need to know, sir?"

"No,that would be all, Lieutenant."

"Confirmed,sir. IG seven, over."

"Orbitone, over and out."

After he hadstowed the holo screen away he called his men.

"...andwe are responsible for guarding this installation until we arereplaced. Any questions?"

"Thereisn't one scheduled, is there?"

Erwin smiledat the man. "No, not really. I guess we are staying here for awhile."

"I havea question, sir."

"Yes?"

"Whatabout the others? Do you know what happened to them?"

Erwin wasprepared for the question. There had been no communications apartfrom the one with Theta 47, and even though he knew what that meanthe still refused to acknowledge it. The most obvious answer scaredhim the most, and he was useless to his men if they felt his fear.That alone decided his response.

"Others?What others? I have received no information, what so ever, concerninganyone but the members of this group. Any more questions?"

He didn'tknow it at the time being, but with that single sentence he waspaving the grounds for a stunningly brilliant career.