Sheppard noted that the minister looked at Garfield and Viess at that point.
“Now, if you will be patient, we have some awards to present,” Minister Narthag said.
Sheppard sometimes got slightly embarrassed by being given a medal for doing his job. The defense minister asked several officers to come forward to receive medals, and eventually he got to Sheppard.
“For valor at the Viridian front and the battle in the system of Hedga Five,” Narthag said.
Sheppard thought back briefly to the events that surrounded him saving the valuable mining facility, its crew, and the mining transports. He walked up and received the embellished medal bar signifying valor; to go along with the several other awards he had already been given. Sheppard recalled that he had actually effectively been in command of a group assault of five task forces for most of the battle until the commanding commodore arrived, and when his own ship’s communication system and main drive were damaged, he took a Valkyrie-class starfighter into battle to command from the battlefront while continuing to direct the larger vessels. It was actually something he had learned partly from Admiral Peregrine.
After things settled down again, the defense minister asked that, in order to speed things along, those who were to be promoted were to receive their promotions from the officers in their fleet chain of command superior to them now. Minister Narthag then sat down and waited as several admirals got up and moved to those to be promoted. Sheppard received his second star cluster and was officially promoted to commodore, by Grand Admiral Pendragon, as Fleet Admiral Whyte who had been assassinated, and Vice Admiral Wainright who had an accident that had probably been arranged somehow by assassins were not there to perform the promotion. Applause followed for a brief time, a salute to the Alliance of Worlds’ flag followed, and the informational briefing began.
Grand Admiral Jeroloh, who was chairing the informational meeting, stood up and welcomed everyone and then introduced the speakers of the panel, who included admirals Viess, Garfield, and Peregrine. First, the admirals dealt with some old business.
During the few minutes that fleet deployment reports were given, and any logs to be transferred from personal commlinks to others officers were encrypted and sent, Sheppard was lost in thought about the battles that had earned him this recent medal. He had no presentation duties, so he merely watched. The usual board activities were shortened and some omitted in light of the security situation, the special ministerial guests, and unusual briefings to be given today.
Chief of Staff Orlond stood up and said, "I would like to call upon Lord Garfield of Karro to give a logistics and intelligence update concerning the sabotage of Alliance of Worlds facilities.”
Sheppard remembered that Orlond was a stickler for formality.
“Your Grace,” Orlond said, “if you would please proceed.”
“Thank you, Mister Orlond. I was pleased to be asked to resume duties after an absence of almost three decades,” Garfield said. “I want to thank you for the opportunity to help. I have ascertained information about what and who are behind these acts of sabotage, and, in addition, some information about assassination targets. I have used several devices of my own design, as well as certain mentallic or psionic disciplines to ferret out those responsible.” He paused and briefly looked at the audience. “I have found two contingents that have been on this station for likely over one standard year. It is highly likely that they have been sent by two enemies of the Alliance of Worlds. There has also been evidence that they are collaborating to some degree, whether to enhance effectiveness or because they were ordered to do so.”
Garfield used one of his devices to interface with the central display projectors, including a secure zone of the Star One’s central computer data interlink system. Those who wanted to could link and get information using their personal interlink devices. The briefing display units portrayed pre-recorded, three-dimensional images of many individuals and areas that had been sabotaged. A recent imaging of the failed attempt on the secondary fusion reactors showed something odd. The close-up of a non-standard security spy device of some sort showed a facial change on an individual who also removed new clothing from a case. In another instance, there was an image of a humanoid leaving an air ventilation shaft and replacing the cover with considerable speed, then jumping down over seventy-five feet and landing with ease, with no apparent anti-gravity device. The fall was recorded by two sources, and the image was distorted and actually disappeared for a moment.
As the attendees looked on, Garfield said, “Many of the data recorders were also sabotaged and sections of data lost. Or in several instances in areas where the saboteurs could not avoid actually being recorded the recording devices later had data deleted or modified.”
He went on. "We are dealing with two groups: the Quarlusian on one hand, and a sophisticated android on the other. For those of you who do not know—and I can sense there are several—the Quarlusian people have a limited shape-shifting ability. They can alter facial muscles and other sections of their bodies to take on different appearances. These cosmetic changes extend to altering pigmentation and even skin thickness, if given enough time. Moreover, they are a subjugate race of the Varlon, one of the few cultures the Varlon will tolerate.”
There were some murmurs in the group.
“Sir, you said androids, but wouldn’t our scanners detect them?” asked Admiral Girok.
“Normally, yes, with ordinary androids,” replied Garfield. “However, these andro-synths are equipped with significantly advanced technology, and have defenses against detection. The one I showed you on my presentation will likely lead me to the others like it. It is being observed now by my operatives. These andro-synths have a sensor filter and sensor pattern shrouding unit, which allows them to mask scans and pass for a variety of individuals. This technology is even more sophisticated than what the Varlon have; these andro-synths posses Jiyarri subsystems. When I discovered this, I contacted the ambassadors that the Jiyarr have at my home world and the ambassador at one of the Betellian world spheres. Both denied knowledge of this. I have known both for over a century, and they have been honorable to their word.”
He continued. “I also probed the andro-synth and found another Jiyarri system, a psionic rebounding interface. I was still able to extract some information, which leads me to the conclusion that the Accadian Empire is involved and has acquired some Jiyarr technology through unusual channels. The Accads were assistants to the Jiyarr at one time. For several of you who aren’t familiar, the Jiyarr are from outside this galaxy, toward the large cluster of galaxies beyond Galaxy M100. I have not pursued further hyper subspace communications, since an answer—even with the Jiyarri version of the hyperspace communications network like our COMNET—would take a few months at the distances of over fifty million light-years.
“At this time,” he went on, “I have gathered enough information to realize that there are several saboteurs and assassins, and I have the Security and Logistics departments involved in capture operations at this time. It will take several more days before we can physically apprehend all of the individuals. I have designed special modules to be adapted to the security scanners and the personal hand multi-scanners. These modules will allow the systems in operation to better detect the andro-synths and the Quarlusians. They are presently being adapted to the multi-scanners and the security sensor grid from the designs and the prototype multi-scanner I constructed. Unfortunately, the security grid for the station will need significant modification, and until that is complete the hand-held multi-scanners will be used.”
The prime minister asked, “When do you estimate the project will be completed?”
“Prime Minister Desserix,” replied Garfield in an ambassadorial manner, “with a station of this size to modify, and with limited staff familiar with the technologic expertise necessary, I will need to personally supervise engineering modifications to the internal sensors and other local sensors in likely or potential sabotage sites. To do this effectively for Star One will take approximately five to six weeks. The first group of modified hand-held multi-scanners