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Reunion: Chapter 24

There was a dozen ships at the new rendezvous point somewhere between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus. It was a meeting that had been predetermined if a particular set of parameters had been met. When the Dominion fleet had jumped out of the system suddenly, all the parameters had been met. The Dominion was weaker now than ever and the Resistance, as it was now being called, was at its strongest with several Admirals and their respective battle groups throwing in support and a steady flow of cash under the table from several colonies.

The meeting was going to be held on the largest ship there, the Trident's Tip, a heavy cruiser. All ship captains and their first mates were invited, and Adrian was as well. The meeting was to discuss actually set up the Resistance. There were no real plans on how to overthrow the Dominion. Some would argue that pure military might would win the day while others would disagree and push for a more covert operation to subvert the government and garner more support from the public in the hopes of calling for a vote of confidence. All would be decided over the next few days.

Adrian stuck close to Captain Riesha and Commander Von as they left the Silver Wolf aboard a shuttle and headed out to the Trident's Tip. From a small view port that Adrian could look through from his seat, he could see the various ships all converging on the cruiser which had to have been three times larger than the Silver Wolf and was bristling with weapons. Massive cannons lined its flat top, and each of those cannons had smaller turrets surrounding it, and those got thicker near the middle axis of the ship, lining its entire hull with guns. Adrian tried to count them all, but gave up after thirty because, at that point, he could no longer see the whole ship, it filled the entire viewport and cast a shadow across the shuttle.

"Stay close to Von," Riesha told Adrian as he messed with his ribbons, straightening them out. "You'll be the center of attention soon enough."

'Why me?' Adrian thought. How he would have loved to have just stayed home on shitty Mars. Even as a Canis, when he was just scraping by, the Dominion mostly left him alone. Dog Catchers never came after him randomly. He worked, ate, slept, hung out with friends... Malcolm. It had been a long time since Adrian had thought about his roommate. Adrian worried for him. They had been close friends most of their lives, and now Adrian wasn't even sure if he was still alive. The situation on Mars had been pretty bad when he had gone on the run. Malcolm was a capable individual, all Canis who lived in the slums were, but it was so much easier with someone you could trust. Adrian made it a goal to find Malcolm the next time he had the chance. That may be in a few weeks or a few years, but he was going to find him.

"They'll pepper you with questions," Von added. Most of the people here never thought that this day would come. Until just yesterday, I wasn't aware of the Resistance and now I'm in the middle of it. I'm sure most of them are in the same or similar boat. They'll want answers, and they'll look to you for them." Von sat across from Adrian with his Captain, his uniform already in pristine condition. Adrian noted the custom made shoes that had a smaller sole to accommodate for a Canis' small footprint and digitigrade legs. He would need to get some of those since he was still wearing boots made for humans. They fit, but not very well and the ankle sometimes twisted if he took an awkward step.

"I don't have answers," Adrian moaned and rested his head against the metal bulkhead, closing his eyes and rubbing them. "I really don't have anything to tell them. I've just been thrown into this, just like them."

"Even so, they'll ask you. Once they learn that you don't have the answers you want, they'll ask you about that bag of yours." Von nodded towards the bag. "You haven't told the Captain or me about it either."

Adrian tensed. Again the question of how much to reveal came up, but he had decided just before getting on the shuttle that he would let Crane tell them what they wanted. He was an AI, after all, surely he knew what they wanted to know.

"It's a surprise." A poor choice of words on Adrian's part and he could feel Dog cringe.

"The military doesn't like surprises," Riesha said bluntly, still fiddling with his uniform. This time, he was picking dust off of his black slacks. A futile effort as the dust just settled back down onto him just as fast as he could get rid of it. "A surprise is a bomb hidden in a shipment of supplies, set to detonate as it was loaded onto a ship, killing over three hundred." He recalled an attack made by pirates on a shipyard three years ago.

It had been a revenge attack after a task force had taken out a deep space pirate base that was beyond the Kuiper Belt. The pirates had been raiding mining operations in the Kuiper Belt, and the Navy had spent the better part of a year tracking them until one of their ships made the mistake of mistaking the task force, an arrangement of six destroyers, for a group of defenseless of mining ships. The pirates were captured and interrogated. It had been a fluke. The operation was expected to last another year.

Adrian stayed silent, feeling heavily judged by the two officers across the small metal aisle. He could hear the thrum of the ship's engine, generally very quiet. It sounded like a rocket engine.

"Let's hope your surprise is more like a party popper from the old day. A pleasant surprise." Von then turned to help his Captain fix his uniform. Sometimes he wondered how the Captain got out of his room each morning in less than an hour.

The rest of the ride was in silence. Luckily it wasn't that much longer, though. In five minutes, the shuttle had set down in one of the cruiser's four main hangars that could take in shuttles. They were greeted by a hurried ensign who rushed them to a conference room where all of the other invited guests were.

Adrian wouldn't have called it a conference room. It was more like an arena. Seats were lined all along the circular room, each row on a raised step, each step going down from the edge of the room to a central table that also acted as a holoprojector that was currently displaying the solar system.

The inside of the room was utter chaos. People in all kinds of uniforms, greens, blues, grays, reds, all of them, were talking and arguing. Captains, Admirals, Commanders, all ranks were represented and all races. There was a fair mixture of both humans and Canis, such a balanced mix that it seemed perfectly even. For every human, there appeared to be a Canis accompanying them like bodyguards. Some were first mates like Von with Riesha, others were secretaries or aides of a sort, but each human had a Canis close at hand.

Riesha asked Von about this and the Canis smirked. "You wouldn't know. Being from Mars and all." He guided Riesha and Adrian to the back of the room where the discussions seemed more civil versus the free-for-all that was taking place near the center. It was horribly loud in the room. There was no order at all. The guards at the entrances weren't doing anything. They were directed to only move to action if a life was in danger.

"What does that have to do with this?" Adrian felt a but insulted. It wasn't his choice he grew up on Mars.

"More than you know." Von sat down and watched Riesha carefully as he went to go speak with another Captain. The Canis was ready to leap to his Captain's aide at a moment notice. "Canis on Mars are oppressed. Canis don't do well under oppression." He pointed to the center of the room where there was an aging Admiral, who should have retired years ago. "You see him?"

"The old one?" He had a walking cane, white hair, and a hunch. He just screamed fragile.

"Yes and now do you see why he isn't afraid of being pushed and shoved by the others?"

Adrian squinted to look. At first, he didn't see what Von was trying to show him. There was a just a smattering of bodies. All pressed tightly together. They were so close together, except none were actually touching the Admiral. There was a younger Canis with snow white fur next to the Admiral. Whenever someone was about to bump into the old Admiral, the Canis would put himself in the way and get bumped into instead. He would then apologize even if it wasn't his fault and repeat, not caring that it was wrinkling his uniform. No one was going to knock down the human accidentally on his watch.

"I see him. The Canis is protecting him." Adrian continued to watch, but started looking at other human/Canis pairs. Similar things were happening. While no one else needed such gentle attention as the Admiral, the Canis were directing the flow of bodies to keep it all under control. "They're herding them."

"A shepherd not only guides the flock but loves them as well," Von said with the first bit of emotion that Adrian had heard. The normally uptight Canis wasn't watching the crowd, but Riesha instead. "There's something in our blood that makes us love these violent fools. He drives me insane at times." He spoke about Riesha. "He's a slob, rude at times, but I can't leave his side. I get this uncontrollable fear that he'll get hurt when I'm not around" He turned to Adrian. "Beyond the tight grip of the Dominion, many Canis will often find themselves attaching themselves to a human. It just happens. There's no real explanation for it other than our four-legged origins, but we all have this urge to protect this one human that we make our family."

"You think this will happen to me?" Adrian asked. He hadn't felt anything for any humans that he had come across.

"Give it time," Von said with a grin. "I'm sure that you'll end up finding yourself following some human around like the dogs of old."

The conversation stopped when Riesha came back with a grin, having just returned from a conversation with an old friend that he had gone to the Officer's Academy with. He hadn't expected to see him here or ever again after leaving. The friend had gone into intelligence, not ship command. The last he had heard, he had been sent to Io to work at a logistics center where experimental weapons were stored.

Von listened carefully as Riesha went over their conversation as the Canis quickly and methodically fixed the Captain's uniform.

Adrian noticed that many other Canis were doing the same for their respective humans as the room became noticeably quieter. A new person had entered, and Riesha nearly jumped out of his chair. But Von quickly stopped him and gave Adrian a quick look to tell him not to ask right now.

The man was in a black uniform with just one bar of three ribbons on his chest and five stars on his shoulders. He was accompanied by a Canis whose fur was just as black as the human's uniform. He stood just behind the human with a data pad held up.

"I want to thank you all for coming." He said and started to walk down a set of stairs to the middle of the room where everyone could see him. "You all know that by being here, you've already committed treason against the Dominion." His blue eyes scanning across the room slowly. "We're all here because of the Dominion. This government is corrupt, and I would want to say, Fascist." Some in the crowd nodded in agreement. They had all seen how the government had become more militaristic and controlling. "It's long overdue that something be done.

Without having to say anything to the Canis by him, a few commands were inputted into the data pad, and the holo display changed, focussing on a point by Venus.

"Less than two days ago, a massive Dominion fleet which had been massing here by Venus for the last six months, jumped." He grasped into the display, his hands piercing the light. "We don't know where they went, but undercover operatives did report that as much as seventy percent of the conscripted Canis and eighty percent of their military was with them, some three hundred thousand in total."

A murmur rose up in the room.

"We need to know where they went and why the Dominion had amassed such a force. Also," He added. The display changed back to an image of the solar system, this time with shades of red and blue with the red fading behind the asteroid belt while everything else turned blue. "The Dominion has never been so defenseless and those who oppose them, so strong. If the time to strike was ever so blatantly waved in our face, it is now."

"Even with the Dominion's fleet mostly gone." The Admiral that Adrian had observed earlier got up with the assistance of his Canis aide. "They still have a significant force. You can't be considering a direct military strike. It would still be suicide. There aren't enough of us."

"What would you propose then." Another one, a Captain, stood up fast enough that his chair skidded back. "A call for a general election? There's a reason why the Dominion continues to stay in power; they control Mars and Venus. Over thirty percent of humanity lives on those planets. Thirty percent of the population which has been brainwashed. We can't win the people. We need decisive military action, not words. I know you to be a coward Admiral Corthan. Ever since the Breach at Titan. You turned tail and ran."

It quickly went downhill from there. Almost instantly the room was transformed into a yelling match.

Von sighed as even Captain Riesha got up and stormed down to the center of the room. The Canis got up. "I guess you should meet the man. He'll want to talk to you."

Von led Adrian down the stairs to the center of the room as all of the officers continued their unruly argument.

At the bottom, Riesha was actively talking with the man in the black uniform. He seemed euphoric, and even the other Canis appeared to be wagging his tail. They stopped when Adrian got there.

"So this is what started it all." The man in black stated and took a step closer to take a closer look at Adrian. He was old, not as old as the Admiral earlier, but not far off. "Tell me your name."

"Adrian," He answered when he saw that both Von and Riesha seemed entirely calm even with the screaming all around them.

"A strong name." He grinned with slightly yellowed teeth that was normal. "A strong name from a strong family." He held up a hand to stop Adrian from saying anything. "I know more than anyone else here." He then pointed at the bag that held Crane, which Adrian hadn't let out of his sight. "That must be the AI."

"AI?" Riesha yelled, but no one heard over their own yelling. "You sent me to get an AI! You know what they did to Earth."

"Of course, I know, boy." The words shut Riesha up immediately. "Don't lecture me. You are well aware that everything I do is thought out. I'm not an idiot, and I hope your mother and I haven't raised you to think so."

"No, sir." Riesha bowed his head down in embarrassment.

"Good." He looked at Adrian. "Yes, I'm Tony's father. Admiral Barrus Riesha at your service."

"You know about Crane?"

"Is that its name?" Admiral Riesha said and then shrugged. "Fascinating. I would like to speak with it."

"You're not afraid?" Adrian asked even though he had already reached into the bag and pulled out the first hard drive.

"Please." He waved a hand. "If there was a reason to be afraid, your ancestors wouldn't have sacrificed so much just to try and get it. Now you've got it, and I'm sure that it has plenty to say." He looked around at the squabbling officers. "Plus, it should shut these fools up."

It was easy to plug Crane's hard drive into the holoprojector and just like Admiral Riesha expected the sudden display of fireworks shut them up. It took everyone off guard as the fireworks that were coming from the holodisplay filled the room. They all watched until the lights died down and the fireworks were replaced with short orange and white Canis.

"Hello." He waved as if he hadn't just given half of the crowd a heart attack. "My name is Crane."