Free SWEET HOME ALLE BAMMA (SOLBIDYUM WARS SAGA) by Dale Musser Page B

most exciting experience in her entire youth – after meeting you and First Citizen Tibby, of course.”
    “Let me see if one of the staff is available,” said Kala, addressing herself this time to Chanina.  It was only a few minutes later that one of Kala’s staff arrived and took the rather excited youngster on tour.
    With Chanina now out of earshot for the remainder of our sensitive discussions, I decided to take Senator Tonclin into my – or our – confidence.  “Admiral, since you have assigned me the task of training the Special Operations squads and developing the new intelligence division, I’m taking the liberty of briefing Senator Tonclin on our current activities.  We’re going to need support in the Senate sooner or later; and the earlier we bring trusted Senate people into awareness of what’s taking place the better.”
    “Tibby, it’s your show.  I have complete confidence in your decisions on this issue.  I’ve known the senator a long time and have always found him to be trustworthy.”
    “So I am to understand then,” the senator began, “that there is more afoot then just the solbidyum deliveries?”
    “Indeed there is Senator,” I said.  “As you are no doubt aware, the FOI not only failed to uncover the threat of the Brotherhood; but upon investigation within the organization, it was discovered that the FOI itself has been heavily penetrated with Brotherhood members.  While the FOI is actively being purged of the Brotherhood members as we speak, the size of the organization and its distribution of agents over ma ny light years demand that the agency undergo several years of vigorous testing and scrutiny before the subversive presence is eradicated and the agency can again be considered effective and reliable as an investigative organization.  In the meantime, the need for an immediately effective investigative body is necessary – one that consists of known reliable agents who are specially trained to secretly insert themselves into various organizations for the purpose of gathering and filtering data to ascertain dangers and provide intelligence to the Federation military.
    “To this extent we recognize the immediate need to form a new organization tentatively called the Federation Security Organization which will serve as a covert investigative and intelligence agency.  The FSO will not only be tasked with infiltrating organizations and governments that might harbor aggressive intentions toward the Federation, but also placing themselves in key positions within branches of our own government, such as the FOI, to find and ferret out enemy agents.
    Now, having said this – and I am sure you know this better than anyone, Senator Tonclin – putting this before the Senate for approval of funding will take years.  Meanwhile, all of our enemies – meaning the Brotherhood and any others yet to be identified – will most certainly receive information about the nature of this project and proposed agency, as it is guaranteed to be the subject of Senate debate for some time before any decisions are made.  This means every subversive presence will have time to take countermeasures and secure additional levels of secrecy, which will make our task that much more difficult.  To expedite the current efforts I’m personally funding the program until such time that the issue is brought before the Senate and the Federation Legal Review Board.  While we have every intention of ensuring that the formation and functions of the FSO are above board and in accordance with the Federation constitution, we also recognize that questions will arise about its legality. Once it’s discovered what we’ve done in creating the FSO, the Senate and FLRB will demand that a full accounting be made for the organization’s activities.  It is our hope that, by the time the Senate becomes aware of the existence of the FSO, we will have already infiltrated and uncovered Brotherhood cells operating across