Prophets

Date: 2526.12.17 (Standard) Khamsin-Epsilon Eridani

It took Al-Hamadi’s tach-comm transmission four days to reach Epsilon Eridani and the capital of the Caliphate. The day after Ms. Columbia’s revelations propagated through the Caliphate government, Muhammad Hussein al Khamsiti, one of sixteen active-duty admirals in the Caliphate Navy, was enjoying the third week of an extended leave.

He was on a nearly eight-month leave while the Caliphate orchestrated a high-level reorganization of the Caliphate armed forces. Admiral Hussein, along with about a half dozen other admirals, had some time off while their new commands were created.

Until a few months ago, Admiral Hussein had been in command of the defensive fleet around Paschal. It was a position he expected to retire from, until he received the orders to prepare for a reassignment of his command. At first he thought he had offended someone in the bureaucracy, and that he was being ordered back to Khamsin to fill some pointless office role until he could be forced to retire. However, when he had tached into his home system, he had been met by the Minister of the Navy himself, who had assured him otherwise.

“You have been chosen to head one of the Caliphate’s newest fleets. Beyond that, all I can tell you is that it’s a great honor—until we call you back, enjoy your leave, spend time with your family.”

So now he stood in the back garden of his third son’s house in the suburbs of Al Meftah, playing catch with his youngest grandson. Little Rahman was barely a toddler and would run after the ball in a lurching gait that seemed always on the verge of toppling over.

Fortunately, the well-irrigated grass in the garden here was forgiving, and when Rahman did fall, which he did frequently, it was followed by a burst of laughter.

When he laughed with his grandson, Admiral Hussein believed that God had specially blessed him. Until two months ago he had not expected to spend any extended time with his family until he retired.

Rahman tossed the ball with a clumsy two-handed overhand throw that landed about a meter short of Admiral Hussein’s feet. The boy fell backward, sitting in the grass, and started giggling.

Admiral Hussein took a step forward to retrieve the ball when he heard his daughter-in-law’s voice from the back of the house. “Muhammad!”

He stood up, holding the ball in his hand, and saw the Minister of the Navy standing next to his son’s wife. He tightened his grip on the ball in his hand.

“Forgive me, Admiral Hussein, but we’ve been forced to advance the schedule.”

“My leave’s been cut short?”

The minister nodded. “We need you for a briefing within the hour.”

“I understand.” He turned toward Rahman, who was still giggling in the grass. “May I have a few minutes to finish playing with my grandson?”

“Of course, Admiral. Your aircar will be waiting out front.”

The minister’s car took Admiral Hussein to the administrative center of the Caliphate in the center of the city of Al Meftah. The center of the city was formed by massive office buildings—trapezoids of mirrored glass reflecting the turquoise sky and the daytime stars of Khamsin’s tiny moons. The aircar didn’t land at the Naval Ministry, but at a smaller building at the fringes of the government center. Admiral Hussein didn’t notice any obvious markings denoting the building’s function, but the roof was dominated by a ground-based tach-comm array and there were very few agencies that would rate their own separate interstellar communications link.

One, of course, was the Ministry of External Relations.

The Naval Minister led him down from the roof, deep into the bowels of the building to a conference room behind several layers of human and automated security. After the third checkpoint, Admiral Hussein looked down at his grass-stained civilian clothes and said, “I probably should have changed.”

“It doesn’t matter,” the minister told him, “Security has a full biometric profile on you.”

That wasn’t exactly what I meant.

Waiting in the conference room, seated at a long table were three other men, all also in civilian dress. Two he didn’t immediately recognize outside a uniform, but one man wore a traditional white cotton thawb. The ankle-length shirt contrasted with the more liberal dress of the other men, but also made the older man more immediately recognizable.

“Admiral Bitar, sir.” Admiral Hussein found himself standing at attention before the smiling, gray-bearded man.

He had met Admiral Naji Bitar several times. He was perhaps the most senior officer in the Caliphate Navy. Bitar had been an admiral before Hussein had even commanded his own supply ship, fifteen years ago.

Bitar stood, laughing, and clasped Hussein’s shoulder. “Well, I’m glad they chose you for this skullduggery. Considering how impromptu this meeting is, I think we can dispense with the formality.” He gestured toward the two other men in the room. “I believe you know Admiral Nijab and Admiral Said?”

“By reputation. We’ve never met.”

Bitar nodded, “I suppose not. Until recently you were serving what, twenty light-years apart?”

The minister cleared his throat. When he had everyone’s attention, he said, “I believe we are all here. If you’d all be seated, I think we should begin.”

The minister gestured and the lights in the room dimmed. As Hussein took his seat, a holo display lit up showing a schematic of some sort of spacecraft. It didn’t seem remarkable at first, until he recognized one of the tiny bumps on the long body as a Scimitar III fighter attached to a docking ring.

That is huge . . .

“You are looking at the newest vessel constructed for the Caliphate Navy. It is an Ibrahim-class carrier. It is the largest tach-capable ship ever constructed. It can move itself along with a battle group of a hundred daughter vessels in a single jump.”

A fleet unto itself . . .

“Originally, a year from now, we intended to deploy six of these carriers. However, events have transpired that require us to cut that schedule by more than half. Each of you will be commanding one of the four carriers that will be operational within the next five months.”

“What events?” asked Admiral Bitar.

The holo display above the table changed to show a star map.

“These carriers were designed for a specific task, a long-range expedition to a cluster of stars near Xi Virginis.”