armed troopers left the area with the case and boarded the shuttle that was to take them to the reactor location on Megelleon. Since no one outside a handful of people aboard the NEW ORLEANS knew anything about the delivery of the solbidyum and since we were certain of the loyalty of the personnel involved in the transport, we felt relatively secure in the delivery.
Our precautions and efforts were rewarded a few hours later when a coded message arrived for the admiral saying that the reactor had been installed and commissioned and that the system was now successfully distributing power to the planet. A cheer erupted in the High Command conference room when the admiral made the announcement.
It had been decided that public statements and press releases would be withheld until the system was also operational on Nibaria, in order to demonstrate to citizens on other planets that the solbidyum was not being hoarded and that deliveries were underway. By the time word reached most planets, subsequent deliveries would already be complete, resulting in a chain of reports that additional power plants were also online. There were bound to be planets that felt they should have received their shipment as a priority; but by the time they would be prepared to issue a formal complaint, their deliveries should arrive – at least that was our theory.
Megelleon’s reactor site was actually located under the middle of the capital city in an area which had once been part of a planned underground transit system that was abandoned after a fault zone discovered in the path of the system brought an end to the project. The area where the reactor was located was solid and remote from the actual fault zone by many miles, so it was deemed safe and structurally sound. The site was surrounded by solid rock and accessible by only one tunnel. Sensors were installed in the surrounding rock that would detect any attempts to excavate other passageways long before reaching the reactor chamber. The reactor itself was hauled on an open flatbed transport in a common crate marked as Ventilation Fans and the grain of solbidyum was concealed in a small container made to look like a standard bolt, which was carried inside a worker’s toolbox. By the middle of the second day the reactor was installed and operating.
Our second day in orbit around Megelleon was the day that the FSO trainees were due to turn in their spying results for evaluation. Nearly all the individuals and teams were disqualified when their spy bugs were detected. Three teams and two individuals managed to avoid detection; but of those three only two actually obtained any information. I was a bit surprised that our chameleon candidate had failed; in fact, he was one of the first to be detected. Of the two remaining candidates the first managed to glean some information from the admiral’s staff headquarters on the ship that certainly would have been useful if it had been information gained from reconnaissance of a hostile source. Even so, it was nothing in comparison to what the remaining candidate collected. What he revealed was the entire conversation that the admiral and I had with Senator Tonclin over dinner regarding the delivery of the solbidyum, as well every other conversation that took place in the dining area that evening. A complete sweep had been made of the dining room before, during, and after the meeting while the senator was present and nothing was found; so we all were quite eager to know how he had achieved this feat.
The trainee’s name was Geston. He was a rather ordinary looking individual, the kind of ordinary that was perfect for spying.
“So, Geston, how did you manage to get this information without being detected?” I asked.
“Well, sir, I knew that any sweeps would reveal electronic devices in the room, so I decided to use an optical system instead. I placed a fiber optic lead through a wall and aimed it at a light fixture
Our precautions and efforts were rewarded a few hours later when a coded message arrived for the admiral saying that the reactor had been installed and commissioned and that the system was now successfully distributing power to the planet. A cheer erupted in the High Command conference room when the admiral made the announcement.
It had been decided that public statements and press releases would be withheld until the system was also operational on Nibaria, in order to demonstrate to citizens on other planets that the solbidyum was not being hoarded and that deliveries were underway. By the time word reached most planets, subsequent deliveries would already be complete, resulting in a chain of reports that additional power plants were also online. There were bound to be planets that felt they should have received their shipment as a priority; but by the time they would be prepared to issue a formal complaint, their deliveries should arrive – at least that was our theory.
Megelleon’s reactor site was actually located under the middle of the capital city in an area which had once been part of a planned underground transit system that was abandoned after a fault zone discovered in the path of the system brought an end to the project. The area where the reactor was located was solid and remote from the actual fault zone by many miles, so it was deemed safe and structurally sound. The site was surrounded by solid rock and accessible by only one tunnel. Sensors were installed in the surrounding rock that would detect any attempts to excavate other passageways long before reaching the reactor chamber. The reactor itself was hauled on an open flatbed transport in a common crate marked as Ventilation Fans and the grain of solbidyum was concealed in a small container made to look like a standard bolt, which was carried inside a worker’s toolbox. By the middle of the second day the reactor was installed and operating.
Our second day in orbit around Megelleon was the day that the FSO trainees were due to turn in their spying results for evaluation. Nearly all the individuals and teams were disqualified when their spy bugs were detected. Three teams and two individuals managed to avoid detection; but of those three only two actually obtained any information. I was a bit surprised that our chameleon candidate had failed; in fact, he was one of the first to be detected. Of the two remaining candidates the first managed to glean some information from the admiral’s staff headquarters on the ship that certainly would have been useful if it had been information gained from reconnaissance of a hostile source. Even so, it was nothing in comparison to what the remaining candidate collected. What he revealed was the entire conversation that the admiral and I had with Senator Tonclin over dinner regarding the delivery of the solbidyum, as well every other conversation that took place in the dining area that evening. A complete sweep had been made of the dining room before, during, and after the meeting while the senator was present and nothing was found; so we all were quite eager to know how he had achieved this feat.
The trainee’s name was Geston. He was a rather ordinary looking individual, the kind of ordinary that was perfect for spying.
“So, Geston, how did you manage to get this information without being detected?” I asked.
“Well, sir, I knew that any sweeps would reveal electronic devices in the room, so I decided to use an optical system instead. I placed a fiber optic lead through a wall and aimed it at a light fixture
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