The President touched a button on his desk, running the message through again in its entirety. He switched the screen dark.
"The Outer Region's target might be the depot, but I wonder." Ram said. "Perhaps destroying the depot's spunnel transmitter is prelude to an attack. If it is, they must realize that the incident set off alarms throughout our defenses. They'll also know we can maintain spunnel contact and relay messages to and from our patrollers and other craft through the construction site."
"Considering Hanno's report on what happened, the attack on his spunnel transmitter focused on keeping this message from getting through, not to merely destroy the machine. That alone would not have been worth the effort."
"We're down to one comm spunnel link in the Special
Zone," Dynal added. "The one we built on Planet
Pluto is controlled by Narval's people."
"Does Sentinel have access to the transmitter at the Terminals?"
"The sender would need to personally key in the clearances as well as the text," said Ram, "otherwise the message would be compromised. Sentinel would be compromised. We do have the last resort."
"Have you checked it lately?"
"We run random tests from this end to be certain that it's ready to function. As you know, sir, it has its uncertainties and imposes a high price."
"Back to the message," Camari sighed and rubbed his temple gently as he pondered. "Their combined forces, and the distances involved, place us at an enormous disadvantage."
"Without question."