“I’ve been ordered to send you an information packet on the possible locations of the prisoners and lizards in the quarg rear,” my tablet vibrated announcing the receipt of the file, “As a direct participant in the interrogation of prisoners, I may add that the information is incomplete and quite contradictory,” continued Karjalainen, “It appeared that they were places of temporary detention, but they had been in operation for many years. What’s going on out there, none of the prisoners know or remember because of the memory loss.”

“Thank you, Major, you’ve been very helpful, tell me how the quargs have behaved after the removal of the block?”

“They behave very differently, Rear Admiral, Sir. Some of them don’t talk, and then we have to use chemicals. Others speak for themselves, sometimes without even waiting for questions. There have been four cases in which the quargs have volunteered to help us and have expressed their willingness to cooperate if this would help to remove the blocks of other prisoners.”

“Who gave them these blocks?”

“Their authorities. This is done in special centres, which are quite numerous throughout the territory of the quargs. The block needs to be renewed every ten years, otherwise it kills the host. They told me why it was done. If a quarg deviates from the correct behavior, the blocks of such a quarg and his whole family are not renewed. Surrender is also considered to be a deviation, with all the consequences, if it becomes known. Therefore, quargs surrender only when they realize that the information will not reach their superiors.”

“The blocks are for ordinary quargs only?”

“No. All the prisoners have them, and many of them are officers, but they’re not above the average of a major.”

“Thank you, Major, I look forward to the completion of your work.”

“Rear Admiral, Sir, if we learn anything of real importance, I will contact you immediately. The order to keep you informed comes directly from our Chief.”

* * *

As we flew to Earth, I had time to think about the situation. A lot of things have happened recently, so it was clearly necessary to think them over carefully. Despite the seemingly good overall picture, I didn’t feel comfortable. There’s been too many unknowns in this equation called the war on the quargs.

I tried to analyze what was most haunting me. First of all, I didn’t like the calm on the front lines. There were no preconditions for it. Of course, our encounter with the lizards and the collapse of the quargs’ capture of another star system of reptiles could not be pleasant news for the enemy, but these events were not catastrophic for the quargs, at least in the short term.

Our recon ships have been snooping around the outskirts of the quarg rear systems, not too afraid of the mass detectors that the enemy has been actively using in recent months to defend their possessions against the sudden attacks of our ships. The recon ships could feel relatively secure, as the mass detector network could only detect ships larger than the destroyer. However, our intelligence has seen nothing extraordinary. Although the scouts did not venture into the central parts of the star systems because they were patrolled too tightly, and unmanned reconnaissance probes, even those launched from a long distance, were usually intercepted by the quargs before they could gather and transmit the necessary information.

Every day, I grew confident that the enemy was preparing something big and unexpected that could make us all very sick.

The second thing that was of no less concern to me was our failure in the Delta Trianguli system. I am not saying that we failed, but we did not achieve the planned result. The quargs have found truly effective means to combat the drone torpedoes. Of course, the torpedoes remained a formidable weapon, but they could no longer give us a decisive advantage, because too many of them were destroyed as a result of employment of unmanned scanner networks and the massive use of pursuit planes to shield heavy ships from a torpedo strike. And the enemy battleships and cruisers themselves have become different. The density of anti-aircraft weapons tripled, making heavy enemy ships difficult targets for torpedoes. It was time to bring something new to the stage that could make up for the shortfall seen in the number of battleships in the Federation Fleet, especially those like Titan. We have not yet learned how to build such ships. In this regard, I had some hopes for cooperation with the lizards, but we haven’t even started it yet, and the fleet desperately needed to replenish the heavy ships now, already yesterday.

The Federation industry has not been able to make up for the shortage of ships quickly. The recent Tobolsky’s Decree on Enhancing the Role of the State in the Management of the Military Industrial Complex was only the first step towards the militarization of the economy, but we still had a long and arduous road ahead, and the results were urgently needed.

The only thing that could be done relatively quickly was to increase the production of rather simple «Invisibles», drone torpedoes and unmanned pursuit planes, hoping to solve the problem if not by improving product quality then at least by increasing the quantity of products. At the same time, these ships needed commanders capable of responding flexibly to frequent changes in the environment that forced constant modification in the tactics of using drone torpedoes.

Stein’s call caught me before the last jump to the Solar system.

“Igor, I have good news,” the Professor smiled, “a prototype of a full-size transport ring is almost ready. We can start testing in a couple of days. It is true that we have not yet managed to overcome the limitations of the range, but everything is much better regarding the size and mass of the object being transferred. We’ll try to transfer a small recon ship. What’s wrong, Igor? You don’t seem happy with my message.”

“I’m happy, professor,” I forced a smile, “You guys are great, and I’m proud to have people like that working with me. We just don’t have time. Something’s about to happen. Do you remember what I said when I told you about the ten superbattleships almost completed by the quargs? I said at the time that it was a sure defeat for our fleet and I could feel the threat looming over us. Now I’m feeling something similar, but the difference is, I don’t know what’s coming over us. I urgently need a reconnaissance ship capable of penetrating the central areas of enemy star systems without being detected, but what we need now even more, that’s a transport ring capable of passing battleships and large troop transports through itself. The quargs outnumber us in quantity of ships, especially of heavy ships. The only thing to counter the quarg fleet supremacy is the previously impossible mobility of our fleet, which will allow us to be everywhere and nowhere, to concentrate all our forces at the right point for a powerful strike and to respond just as quickly to emerging threats, moving ships instantly to the systems under attack. But we can only do that with transport rings.”

The word «hyperportal» somehow did not take hold among scientists and officers of the Federation. No one remembers who first called it a transport ring, but the term was well established and no one has called our new development any different.

“Igor, nothing is impossible in what you say,” Stein said after some thought. “We are ready to speed up the work, but we need to significantly increase staff, equipment and, of course, funding. We’re already working on a reconnaissance ship, but we can’t begin to integrate allies’ technology into its design until you and the lizard ship arrive in the Solar System.”

“Ivan Gerkhardovich, please prepare a list of everything necessary to speed up the work by the time I arrive. The rest is my concern. But don’t forget, in about a month, a group of ships will arrive from the Allies with their scientists, engineers and military specialists, and with a large supply of the substance from which they grow all their products. We’re going to build hybrid ships using technology from both races, not recon ships anymore, but battleships and aircraft carriers, and our department will be directly involved in the process.”

“Chief Engineer Jeff will be thrilled,” grinned the Professor, “if, of course, he survives after giving this good news to Lieutenant Yakovleva.”

* * *

The Minister of Defense frowned at me, looking up from the tablet.

“Rear Admiral, this is getting out of hand.”

“I agree, Mr Minister, this is an intolerable amount of insolence and defiance of all the bases of the chain of command. Except… I’m afraid we’re too late anyway.”

“Well, you stopped paying attention to chain of command when you were a captain, or maybe even before, I just don’t know, I guess. But do you have any idea what you’ve done this time? The authorized representatives of the Federation conducted the most difficult official negotiations with the Allies for ten days, they were building up a system of taking into account the interests of each party, a scheme of mutual balances that gave the system sustainability, they were preparing a package of proposals for the Lizard ruler. The reptiles, for their part, were also working hard on the subject and politely bargaining. To the mutual satisfaction of the parties, a consensus seemed to be emerging. And then Rear Admiral Lavroff came, snatched the main lizard from the diplomatic residence, took her arm, I beg your pardon, her fore limb, dragged her off to Kruger 60, whatever the hell he was doing with her there, only to give security notice after the fact, and then casually negotiated a hybrid warship fleet with mixed crews. And all of this without any kind of coordination with anyone. Are you in the army, Rear Admiral, or do we have an anarchist fellowship here?”

“My faults are heavy indeed, Mr Minister, I admit it. I’m ready to carry out any punishment, including demotion to private and dispatch to Kapteyn to patrol the desert, but I’m asking you to read my report carefully, forgetting for a while about the scoundrel Lavroff.”

“I wouldn’t even be reading this crap if it wasn’t signed by this Lavroff,” Bronstein, who calmed down a bit after his anger attack, kept his voice down a bit, “I mean, it’s pretty brazen, to come to the Minister of Defense for money to finance this…” Bronstein shook his tablet, which had the page of my report on the screen, in front of me, “Rear Admiral, I understand, and I remember your services to the Federation, but why this was not agreed at least with the President, whom you can contact directly?”

“Mr Minister, would you believe me if I tell you that under the circumstances, the decision had to be made immediately? There are moments that can’t be missed. The most scarce resource in our situation is time. If I started building a system of checks and balances, ran for approval to the Supreme Commander, started preparing a package of documents…”

“That’s enough, Rear Admiral, I hear you. That doesn’t excuse you at all, don’t get your hopes up, but there’s logic to what you’re saying. Wait a few minutes, I haven’t quite read your document yet.”

Five minutes later Bronstein looked up at me.

“You…” he could barely bring himself to continue. “I don’t know the word for it, Rear Admiral. I’ve had enough of this circus. Your idea of attacking the quarg shipyards was an adventure. The counterstrike on Groombridge was a major Adventure with a capital A. And here, I guess all the letters have to be uppercase.”

“I beg your pardon, Mr Minister, but both of these events were successful, at least in part. Can you imagine what the consequences would be if things work out right this time?”

Bronstein looked at me in silence. In his eyes, there was a struggle of many conflicting feelings, and none of them could take it up. Finally, still silently, the Minister pressed the pictogram in the corner of his tablet and placed his finger on the DNA-code sensor. The tablet quietly tinkled, informing its owner of the opening of a secure communication channel.

“Good afternoon, Mr Minister,” I heard Tobolsky’s voice, “You’re not with bad news, are you?”

“I don’t know, Mr President,” Bronstein sounded uncertain, “I received a report from Rear Admiral Lavroff. He’s here, too, sitting across from me in my office. I’d like to ask for a meeting, there’s a difficult and urgent matter.”

“And you yourself can’t solve it for some reason,” Tobolsky grinned tiredly.

“I’m afraid that’s out of my league, Commander-in-Chief, Sir,” Bronstein responded firmly.