Read Online A New Day by Ben Winston - Free Book Online

entered.
    Yolinar smiled. "Please continue," He turned to Gail. "Does everyone here speak Standard?"
    "The Command Center staff and guards do. I have ordered all military forces to learn it, but some have yet to get it done. You should have no trouble either getting information or giving orders," Gail replied. She then turned to the room in general. "Listen up everyone! This is Hyclarion Admiral Yolinar. He is the Commander In Chief of all Hyclarion forces. Please follow his orders as you would mine. Understood?"
    "Yes Ma'am!" the crew replied as one
    "Currently, Mother is in the process of taking control of the planet's data systems. Once she completes that task, you will have a lot more information available to you. Please make sure you will be ready to handle it." She nodded, "Back to work, folks." She turned to the guards at the door. "There are three civilians on their way here at the request of Councilor Carlyle. Please let them in once they arrive and direct them to us down at the table."
    In the center of the room, three techs were still installing a black topped table, but on each of the walls, huge monitors displayed information from different places on the planet and one clearly from a feed in orbit.
    Both men nodded and Gail led the Admiral down to the sunken center of the big room. She knelt and touched a tech on her sleeve. "I'm sorry for the interruption, but can you tell me how much longer you will be?"
    "Not long, Ma'am. Damn thing should be up now, but we had a glitch in the new control system; probably five more minutes maximum, but we'll stick around for a while in case it messes up again," the tech replied.
    "Understood. You guys have done great work here. This is a lot of new stuff in a very short time," Gail replied.
    "Actually Ma'am," the tech replied as she kept working. "It's not so much new equipment, but a new way of handling and formatting the data. Some of the equipment is new, but that was a redesign of something we already had; like this holo-table."
    "Well! There goes our reputation as miracle workers!" another tech joked. "There, that should do it from my side. How ya doing Charlie?"
    The tech that Gail had originally spoke to replied. "Just about got it, Bill. Why don't you start on the laser alignment while I finish this?"
    "Will do, watch your eyes!" the male tech said and crawled out from under the table. "Mother, please initialize the table and bring up alignment grid four."
    Yolinar and Gail waited while the techs finished up their work and put the access covers back in place. While they were finishing up, the people Janet sent arrived and joined them at the table.
    "Admiral, General, I'm Selena Thoms. This is George Arens and Jesus Veracruz. Janet Carlyle sent us," the woman that arrived first said, introducing her companions.
    "Gail Greenwold, This is First Admiral Yolinar of the Hyclarion Imperial Command. Please treat him as you would me. It’s nice to meet you, and thanks for coming. However, you might wish you hadn't. We have a mess to deal with, and we're going to need you three to analyze the incoming data as quickly as you can so we can decide how to deal with it. Treat this as if we are at war, because we are." She gestured around her. "Feel free to use any empty terminal if you need to step away from the table here." While she was talking, she saw an older gentlemen approach them and recognized him. She waved her hand at him. "This is Commander Talbert, Operations Officer. He'll be joining us." Gail quickly introduced the new officer to everyone.
    When everyone knew everyone else, Gail and Yolinar took positions at opposite ends of the big table. "Mother, before we get into the big picture, what is the status of the surface investigation of the Dalphine's landing?"
    "Since nothing was found that indicated anything more than a meteor, the skippers were recalled. It is currently believed the meteor burned up at low altitude or simply fell into the ocean. No further