Shepherd Moon, Part 5

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Shepherd Moon
by Bobbie Cabot
 
PART FIVE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WHEN THINGS START TO FEEL REAL

 

- with a nod to the masters of space opera: J. Michael Straczynski, Larry Niven, David Brinn, E.E. (Doc) Smith,Iain M. Banks, and, of course, George Lucas.
My thanks. And my apologies.

 

“In the history of humanity, there have only been a handful of events that equal today - the establishment of the Greek and the Roman Empires, the births of Jesus and Mohammed, the unification of China, the Italian Renaissance, the discovery of the New World, the first circumnavigation of the Earth, the beginning of spaceflight, the colonization of the Solar System, the Global Armistice, the inauguration of the New United Nations, the commissioning of the first of the Seren stations, and the launch of Earthship II.

“Today will go down in history as momentous and as significant to mankind as these have been.

“But in truth, today was not un-anticipated. It all began with that first intercepted signal from our neighbors, which turned out to be humdrum housekeeping traffic between a Dixx signal operator and an Elyran shuttle pilot.

“Those two individuals probably had no inkling about what they would set in motion, but here we are, at the conclusion of what they had started.

“We are here now. We are here to officially recognize and acknowledge our neighbors, and to welcome their representatives.

“Please join me in welcoming our new friends to the home of humanity.”

- excerpt from the welcome speech of Alexandra Romarkin,
Secretary-General of the New United Nations,
during the arrival rites for the first GFA, Earth, 2302

 

 
Shepherd Moon, Chapter 18: Blue Skies

 
Speeches -

The Secretary-General, her group and her visitors walked a little behind Queen Margaret and Admiral Dax to give them some privacy. By the look of things, they seemed to have hit it off and were having a good time getting to know each other.

The queen looked positively diminutive walking beside the tall Dixx admiral: Dixx were extremely tall creatures, typically as tall as Detterex. As Earthers will find out later, the Dixx and Detterex were the tallest among the known oxygen-breathing bipedals. There was more than three feet of difference between the Dixx and the queen, but the pair didn’t care, and continued on with their boisterous conversation.

Various delegates stopped to greet them. The aliens were unfailingly cordial and shook hands with everyone.

“That was a wonderful speech,” Marc said to Romarkin as they walked the hallways of the UN towards the Assembly Hall.

“Thank you, Marc. I hope it went over well with the people.”

“I’m confident it did. Where is... Amelia?”

Romarkin looked back at Marc.

Marc shrugged. “Sorry, I’m still not used to... her.”

Romarkin nodded understandingly. “I know... It took me a long time to get used to her, too. Well… I think she’s just a little delayed. The last word was that she was getting her, ummm, entourage together. I guess she thought she wasn’t going to be part of all this pomp and circumstance.”

“Well, she was wrong. Everyone knows what she’s done to make this happen. People are expecting her.”

“I know. Sahsha said she’d be by shortly. We just have to proceed with everything until she does.”

Pretty soon they were entering the UN Assembly Hall, and all the UN ambassadors were in attendance - a rare occasion. Romarkin made her excuses, left them and entered the Hall via the back way.

The delegates whose seats were next to the isle were much envied, as they were able to see the visitors up close. The Federation representatives were gracious and nodded to everyone cordially, and shook hands with the few who offered.

They were preceded into the hall by their security, which doubled as their honor guard. For the First Ambassador, his colleagues play-acted as his honor guard since there were no others to do it, carrying short dress swords borrowed from some of the Seeker’s crew, and several banners Seeker’s quartermaster had hastily stitched together based on his drawings.

They made their way to the new, hastily installed seats in the front row, with a few specially constructed to suit Arachnians.

As they settled in, the queen then followed with her own honor guard, and sat beside the Princess and Prince, as befitting royalty. As for the Secretary-General, she was already on the stage. She went to the podium and began with some welcoming remarks, echoing the themes when covered in her earlier speech, and invited the representatives of each of the three ambassadorial races from the Federation to speak.

The entire Assembly was never more thankful for the human translators that the UN had commissioned for the occasion, as each of the visitors waxed lyrical and effusively thanked Humanity for all that they had done. Electronic translators would never have captured the lyrical nuances of the aliens’ speeches the way the UN translators did (on special loan from CETI) as the Admiral and the Princess took their time and indulged their poetic, oratorical side. Neither were, however, as poetic as the First Ambassador. He was the last of the three to speak, and took the longest. He ended his long and rousing speech with a heartfelt thanks to the “Earthers,” and in particular, the Lady Amelia and her crew.

Mia being mentioned last was pre-arranged, so that there would be a natural segue to bringing in Mia to the podium to speak. Quiet descended in the hall after the First Ambassador had requested the honor of her presence.

And as the silence stretched out, they heard the sound of marching.

- - - - -
(bookmark 1)

On the trip over, Sahsha had briefed Mia and her people via their CC’s on the expected protocol, but Mia’s Marines were old hands at this (they were part of the Second Marine/Infantry Squad after all), and picked up the routine quickly.

They stepped out of the limo after it had pulled over, and they made their way to the Assembly Hall. Mia’s Marines marched with precision and she and her people just followed them.

They halted just outside the hall, politely waiting for their cue. And when the First Ambassador finished his speech, the Marines resumed their march, making their footfalls especially loud.

At the entranceway, the lead Marine called loudly, “Admiral on deck,” and the Marine beside her raised the Seeker’s colors.

With precision, they marched down the aisle and arrayed themselves at the foot of the stage. The officers filed by the aliens and the queen, saluted, and continued on. Mia, being quietly coached by Sahsha via her hidden CC, stood in front of the alien delegates and bowed in the Elyran style. She then stood in front of the queen, saluted and waited for her liege to acknowledge her.

She then proceeded up the stage. She bowed to the First Ambassador, and the Ambassador relinquished his position.

The Marine with the Seeker’s colors raised it high, and though it wasn’t arranged, everyone broke into spontaneous applause.

“Honored delegates of the UN,” Mia began, “ambassadors from the Galactic Federation, Madame Secretary-General, your Royal Highness. Thank you for your warm welcome. It’s great to be home.”

And this was met with thunderous applause.

 
Jetsetters -

After all their plans, after all their worrying, everything went as smoothly as Mia and her people had hoped. After days of speeches and ceremony, copies of the draft treaty were circulated amongst all the delegates, and Sahsha provided all the news outlets with copies as well. Mia, the Secretary-General, and all the “Earthers” involved in its creation, thought the document good, and that it was uniform and generic in its language that no special interest group would have any objections, and there were no security-sensitive material in it. It was actually on the instructions of the Secretary-General that Sahsha gave the copies to the public.

For the coming weeks, the aliens and the draft treaty was the main topic of discussion almost everywhere. All the humans seemed to have opinions about the treaty, and almost every news program had at least a piece on the treaty, or the aliens, or both. And several fan clubs dedicated to either Ren or Tasha sprang up (although they were respectful enough to not call them “fan clubs”). And any show that had new video or pictures of the aliens or Mia got the highest ratings for that day.

Secretary-General Romarkin had several marathon meetings with the Security Council, the representatives of the Spacers and all the major-power countries on the planet. And, in less than a month, they had come to a consensus: the treaty was acceptable, and the EDF was instructed to proceed with the plan. What was called the Harbinger Program was given the green light.

In that month, while the politicians did their thing, the Federation representatives were given a whirlwind tour of the planet Earth with Sahsha as their personal tour guide. They couldn’t see everything, of course, especially with only a month, but Sahsha made a special effort to show them the most interesting places, and those that she believed showcased the humans and their home planet at their best.

The rest of the alien crews also had an opportunity to see the planet as well, though they did not benefit from Sahsha’s personal touch - during their free periods, and with passes in hand, the aliens, in small batches, had time to go around New York City while some were lucky enough to win government-arranged week-long twentieth-century style sightseeing Caribbean cruises via ship-board lotteries.

Sahsha had messages delivered to the Keeper of the Heritage and his staff, inviting them to join the crew people joining the cruises, but Cale, the Dravidian who participated in their lectures, politely declined the invitation, and said they would prefer to stay onboard the Dixx flagship. He said Earther “TV” would be more than sufficient entertainment.

Sahsha took the hint, so she had the UN PR office make special arrangements to give them just that. Within that same day, Federation communications people were able to tap into all the local TV programs via recoded radio signal.

The new channels replaced what the Federation people were getting before, but with appropriate Elyran subtitles and dubbing. The PR people were apologetic that the programs would be delayed by two Earth hours because they needed the time to add the subtitles. That, however, wasn’t true: the subtitling and the dubbing were automated. The reason for the delay was that he ATAC people, supplemented by Jerry Bhavnani’s CETI analysts, needed to edit all the feeds to make sure that stuff the government doesn’t want transmitted were taken out. And, with over a thousand channels, this was not easy, to say the least. Thank goodness the by-subscription channels weren’t included.

This was very obvious to the aliens that they were doing this since static-filled blank screens replaced the deleted portions. The aliens didn’t mind this much as it was expected, but their science staff was ecstatic. This was the best way to learn about the Earthers in the shortest time possible. And with selectable subtitling and dubbing, they were even making headway in learning Earther speech, not just in the “dialect” they found out was “English” but in other Earther tongues as well. Though the references provided them by Seeker’s crew didn’t include language manuals, they did include a couple of dictionaries. The crew of the Talon started using common Earther phrases: “hello” became as much in use as “t’chahn” was. And watching Earther TV programs became the thing to do during off hours.

“Earther-speak” became the in thing onboard Talon. Never was mess hall talk more fun than peppering the discussions with Earther words, and the most popular people were those that could recite whole passages from their favorite shows’ dialogue. And because of a CETI decision to not edit the language, the Earther’s transmissions were embarrassingly rich in colloquial swearing and other... And common throwaway words like “gotcha” or “dude” became part of common on-board ship-talk. It was good Reena did not stand for profanity, whether in Elyran or English, so Elyrans avoided the racier Earther words and phrases, and ship-board life did not degenerate into a polyglot mishmash of bad behavior and alien swear words.

Talon’s two scientists who doubled as their linguists suddenly became the most popular people on-board, and were pestered for language classes. But despite all of the information they were getting, they told everyone they won’t be ready for months. So they finally buckled, put pride aside and finally asked the Earthers for help. And they said they’d be sending their best. Jennifer Priestly would therefore be on her way via a Type Two cruiser just finishing her shakedown, and should be back in a week. But even while in transit, she had already started her classes, in the same manner as their old Channel A, B and C meetings.

- - - - -
(bookmark 2)

In the meantime, the Federation ambassadors continued with their sightseeing.

The Earthers found that, for the most part, the Elyrans liked the same things they liked, and trips to the beach and amusement parks were highlights. As for the Dixx, they liked going to parks, and going on walking tours through Yosemite’s forests, but they didn’t like going to the Amazon - they had trouble with high humidity - they tended to overheat, somewhat like heatstroke.

And for all the theories of the exobioloigists, the aliens weren’t too alien that the people couldn’t relate to them. It was mostly because they have had experience dealing with alien peoples and cultures, and made it easy for the Earthers.

For Ren, Tasha, Dax, the First Ambassador and their staff, first on the agenda were all of the things that Mia and the others promised them - in-depth tours of manufacturing plants, farms, electronics factories and the other things they had discussed in their long meetings onboard Seeker. The host governments were more than accommodating and arranged everything.

Two Airbus A-3300 Hypersonics were spruced up specifically for use by the visitors. No one said that was overkill. They needed the suborbital shuttles, otherwise they would have needed to commandeer a Type Two or something, just to get around the planet. And that was patently ridiculous.

The enormous ballistic passenger planes were fast enough to keep up with time zones, and the ride they gave was smooth and comfortable enough that they allowed the passengers to do their sightseeing during the daytime and rest during the night-time: Sahsha had set up their itinerary such that their schedule allowed them fourteen solid hours (with slight variations) of “sightseeing time” followed by ten hours of “night time” that the pilots used as their flight window, and the passengers used for downtime - for resting, for quiet, relaxed conversations, for reading, sleeping or their equivalents, with about an hour snuck in there for any interviews the news outlets wanted to conduct.

It did, however, require meticulous planning so that their tours coincided with local daytime via Mach 5-plus suborbital flying. If a diagram of their flight plan was traced on a map, it would look like spaghetti.

Their transportation felt more like apartments rather than planes: when they stepped out of the plane, they were always greeted with sunshine, and when they were done, it was always evening. And the inside felt just like apartments unless one chances to peek out of the large round windows and see the clouds as they passed by below them.

All of the aliens were given tiny translators so they didn’t need anyone to translate for them. In reality, though, they were, however, just radio-based relays that interfaced with the UN VOX translator system. That way, any enterprising Elyran or Dixx who tried to open them and study their innards would have just been disappointed to see nothing special other than a voice-activated radio transceiver - they weren’t even Phase-Wave. Sahsha regularly replaced translators that were “accidentally” damaged, no questions asked.

A large advance contingent from the UN protocol office also made sure that the places the aliens were going to visit were all environmentally okay, courtesy of squads of UN inspectors equipped with lifesigns belts with Elyran-style yochus from the Talon’s stores. And several covert security personnel (provided by the US Secret Service, the SAS, MOSSAD, the Lunar Defense Corps and the Muslim League) accompanied them, providing unnoticed, unobtrusive protection.

So the Federation’s first ambassadors to Earth got to see the enormous shipyards and spaceports of Singapore, the enormous manufacturing and electronics plants of Beijing, the large research facilities in Bonn, the underwater farms in the Aleutians, the sprawling urban “ghetto farms” of the Bronx, the cattle and animal farms of New Zealand, the plastics and synthetics labs of South Africa, and the largest military training camp in US territory which was located in Washington State.

The highlight of these tours were at the end, of course - their two-day visit to the Isles of Scilly, and everyone of the Federation ambassadors were happy and excited to see their new “home away from home” in person instead of just in pictures.

The locals seemed quite proud of their little corner of the Earth, and eagerly showed their visitors around the islands. And as they were conducted around, Ren and Tasha had an opportunity to observe how the Lady Amelia treated her subjects.

To them, it looked like the islanders seemed excited to see their duchess, which wasn’t unexpected since she has been away for a while. For her part, Mia didn’t seem to believe in stressing her power over her subjects. She would acknowledge the ritual obeisance of her people in a familiar, matter-of-course kind of way (the bowing, the “My Lady’s,” “your Highnesses” and so forth) and was quite friendly with them, even calling some of them by their first names.

In truth, of course, Mia’s actions were a result of practice and a lot of preparation. She had tried to commit all of the material the Cornwall Tourist Board provided and was therefore familiar with her new duchy, and she had also studied the personnel file of key people on the islands, memorizing their names, faces and personal histories.

So the islanders were impressed and accepted Mia as something akin to their new Mayor, and happily followed her “requests” the few times she deigned to ask.

- - - - -
(bookmark 3)

The aliens already knew most of the facts and figures of the islands and just tried to soak in the place. The air was crisp, cool, and, above all, it was dry, so Dax and her staff didn’t feel uncomfortable walking on the verge next to the strip of sand that circled Tresco, the largest of the islands they would be allowed to lease. And despite the occasional spray of water, Dax actually felt quite at home.

The locals talked about the kind of weather they had, and the kinds and quantities of Marine life that abounded in the surrounding waters.

The First Ambassador commented that he thought there was a lot of it, and probably yield catches large enough to support the islanders.

“Actually, Ambassador,” Mia said, “nothing from the sea was really farmed. True, the locals would occasionally catch something but mostly for sport, or if they had a hankering for something fresh, or it was for a special occasion, like tonight.”

“Tonight, My Lady?” The Arachnian politico asked.

“Tonight, the county council will be hosting a special meal in your honor, using the catch of the day, and local game and produce. Scillonians are quite proud of our cuisine.” Mia smiled down at the Ambassador.

They spent the entire day roaming the islands, and many of the islanders got to meet them. It was fun for all involved, although the Elyrans and, most especially, the Dixx got worn out pretty early in the day, and decided to end the tour at around three in the afternoon. Nick suspected that it was because of the unaccustomed higher gravity of Earth (Earth gravity was eleven percent stronger than the Federation average).

In the evening, a special black-tie affair was hosted by the Sciollian Council. The ambassadors insisted that the affair be conducted like a normal Earther event, and the protocol officer went though how such an event was conducted. The aliens again wore their formal attire except that Tasha wore her ship commander’s uniform instead of her ceremonial warrior’s armor.

As for Mia, she was wearing a simple, long black dress and high heels. It was a simple sheath dress but, with her fabulous figure, the sheer, stretchy material and the bare back and shoulders made her the center of attention. The Elyrans just gravitated towards her, but the Earthers sort of kept their distance. She was the Lady Amelia after all, and was the Admiral of the Fifth Fleet.

The event itself went over without a hitch, and their guests enjoyed the dinner in the dining room of the Council’s Main Hall, surrounded by a lot of local memorabilia, mounted armor, mounted heads of animals on the walls, and large paintings of military victories and other significant events of the Islands. Their host apologized that much of their memorabilia was reconstructed and took pains to point out the ones that were still original.

Their guests enjoyed the event largely because of the novelty and the ability to openly chat with the locals. Sitting and having a formal dinner was fun, and the food was quite good. Nothing over the top but very traditional nevertheless. The aliens found eating the meal with Earth eating implements manageable but very unorthodox. Slicing up their food themselves was unusual, but they rationalized that, by doing so, they could eat bites in sizes that they wanted. Mia and the others nodded at that, like they knew, but Mia was telling herself that she hadn’t thought of that

It was explained that the practice of scanning and exchanging food before the meal wasn’t normally done, so they didn’t expect it, although the Elyrans’ scanners were discretely placed beside their plates in case they wanted to scan anything.

Talking during the meal was something that they expected, and the subject matter included a wide range of topics, as usual, although the discussions were less fact-finding than it was a getting-to-know you kind of thing.

After the meal, they retired to the Main Hall’s library for more talk and after-dinner drinks. The Arachnians found a growing fondness for coffee – plain black, as usual, while the Dixx liked Earther desserts – the sweeter the better. As for the Elyrans, they loved Earth-style wines and champagnes even though they learned that they couldn’t hold their alcohol as well as the Earthers. As for the Arachnians, they loved vegetable juices and drinks. Their all-time favorite Earther drink was Bloody Marys.

So the Elyrans and Earthers enjoyed flutes of champagne and glasses of port, the Dixx with cups of fruit cocktail in syrup, and the Arachnians with tall Collins glasses of Bloody Marys with the prerequisite stick of celery. The evening ended companionably when they realized that Tasha had actually fallen asleep. With Ren’s permission, Mia volunteered to carry her to their room. Ren’s and Tasha’s personal guard were scandalized that Ren agreed, but they could not go against His Highness’ wishes.

Ben let them into the Royals’ suite. As Mia walked through their door, their guards bowed and took positions by the door. Mia went to their bed and put the Princess down on their bed. Ren bent over and tenderly gave her a kiss. He turned to Mia.

“So, I guess I will see you guys tomorrow, then?” Mia asked.

“Yes.”

“Ummm, well,” Mia said awkwardly, “good night then.”

Ren went to her and gave her a hug. Mia didn’t know how to react. But out of ingrained instinct, she hugged him back.

“Thank you Mia,” he said.

“Oh, it was nothing, Your Highness” she pshawed.

“No, it is not.” He sighed, and let go. “These past few weeks – they have been like a dream, like the culmination of all that we have worked for. We paid for this with the lives of our people and our friends. For their sake, this expedition must succeed. We cannot let their sacrifice be for nothing. And thanks to you, it has.”

Mia looked down at the little Elyran.

“Never think that you are alone in this, Ren. I will do all I can. And I will be there for the two of you. Whatever happens.”

Ren started to cry. “I know that, Mia,” he whispered, and gave her a fierce hug. “I know.”

Mia had to bend down, but she didn’t feel too awkward doing that. As for Ren, he didn’t feel too awkward at all. Normally, he wouldn’t be hugging any random female, but he trusted the Lady Amelia, and he trusted in the depth of his connection to his bridge, Tasha. He wasn’t partner-less, like Ben. That reminded him.

Ren hastily let go of Mia. “Ben?” he called. “Would you please show the Lady Amelia out. I, ummm, have to get Tasha ready for bed.”

Ben bowed. “Of course, My Lord.”

As they stepped out, Ben had a whispered talk with one of the guards, and walked Mia back down to the library.

“I told them that the Prince and Princess need some rest so they should not be bothered,” he explained to Mia.

“We missed you at dinner,” Mia said.

“I apologize, My Lady. It was just... I decided not to join. I am not feeling quite myself tonight.”

After a moment of silence, Mia stopped on the stairway and faced Ben. “I cannot pretend to understand what is going on, but I will do anything I can to help. Just tell me how.”

Ben sighed, and smiled sadly. “It is strange that Elyrans and Earthers are so alike. It is like we are the same. But there are differences. Tonight is a case in point.” He reached for her hand. “Thank you for the offer. I would ask for help if I need it. Believe that.”

Mia smiled at the Elyran. “All right.”

They continued to walked down the stairs. “So...”

Mia giggled a little. “So.”

“Did you notice?”

“Notice what?”

“The Prince called you by your name.”

“Ummm, he always does. I don’t...”

Ren shook his head impatiently. “No, no. What I meant was, he called you Mia. Not ‘Admiral’ or ‘Lady Amelia.’”

Mia looked at Ben. “I don’t...”

“Perhaps Earthers are more casual in how they address each other. Quite unusual in this day and age. Most races are not. To be addressed with one’s proper title and name is only appropriate. None may presume to call another so casually as the Lady Tasha did you, since this is a right reserved for family and close friends. On Elyra, indeed most everywhere else, no one else may presume to. To do so is considered quite a substantial breach of etiquette in most Federation societies.”

“Oh...”

“The feelings of My Lord and Lady have changed towards you. Much in the same way as the First Ambassador’s have. You have buried yourself into their hearts. You are much more than a colleague to them now. More than a friendly, helpful alien. To use an Earther phrase, you have shown your true colors to them. You have shown where your heart lies, and where your loyalties lie. For most of us, doing that does not come easy because whom can you trust to show your true self? So it is not easy to divine the hearts and intentions of others. But with you, it seems that we can do that quite easily. If that kind of character is normal for Earthers, then thank the Messiah that our peoples have become friends.”

“You know, you remind me of the First Ambassador...”

Ben giggled. “Yes, I know what you mean. He does talk a lot.”

They were nearing the library.

“Then what are you trying to say?” Mia said.

Ben sighed. “The Arachnians have a tradition of adoption – that, for whatever reason, those that are worthy of the family or clan, or have an extraordinary need, are adopted. A whole ritual is devoted to it. Nothing too complicated – nothing as formal as the ceremony you went through with the Torch of Freedom. And I see you wear around your neck the First Ambassador’s family crest. The First Ambassador has bestowed upon you a great honor.”

“Ben...”

“As for us Elyrans, there is no such ritual or ceremony. Except, perhaps, through marriage.”

“Ben...”

“My Lady, the Prince called you Mia! He allowed you to carry the Princess to her bed!”

They had stopped right at the library’s door, and people looked at them curiously.

“Let’s take a walk,” Mia said. They stepped out through some sliding doors and onto a verandah that overlooked the beach, and further on, the Atlantic Ocean.

“Ben...” Mia said.

“My Lady, he allowed you to carry his love to bed. He called you ‘Mia.’ You are part of their inner circle now.”

“Ben...”

“You are family to them now, in all but name. It...”

“What’s wrong, my dear?”

“Oh, nothing. It’s a good thing. And I am proud of you, if you will forgive my impertinence in saying so.”

“Oh, Ben,” she said in mock exasperation, leaned down and gave him a hug.

Ben stiffened in her embrace and started to tremble.

“Oh no!” She let him go. “I hope I didn’t do something wrong again?”

Ben took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. “No, My Lady. I am fine.”

“Well, all right.” She leaned on the railing. “I appreciate what you’re saying. I guess I didn’t get the nuances of what’s happening. I suppose my confusion is a cultural misunderstanding...”

“Perhaps. However similar we appear and seem to be, Elyrans and Earthers are not the same.”

Mia nodded. “But you know,” she looked at him, and smiled. “I disagree. I think we are more alike than not.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you watch TV?”

“What?”

“Earth TV. Do you watch it?”

He giggled. “What? TV? Yes! It’s my most favorite thing!”

“I have a suggestion. Have you tried watching old television classics? Shows and movies from the twentieth century, I mean.”

“Well, I haven’t come across any. There are too many channels...”

Mia smiled. “Talk to Sahsha. I’m sure she can help you find the right ones.”

“I do not understand you Earthers,” Ben grumbled under his breath. “Sixteen thousand channels. And many of the programs are repeats or duplicates.”

Mia shrugged. “You’re not the first to say something like that.”

“Why are ‘television classics’ so special?”

“They were made over three hundred Earth years ago. The style of the shows are a little dated, but they have the virtue of being sensitive to many of the proprieties that we still hold to. Watch some of them and you will realize that we are more alike than not.”

Ben bowed. “As My Lady commands.”

- - - - -
(bookmark 4)

The following morning, all parties were up early, eager to tour the islands some more, except for the Lady Tasha, so Ben decided to remain behind to help her through what the Elyrans coyly called the “morning ailment,” leaving only Ren to join them.

After Ren tried explaining what it was in a very long, evasive, vague and roundabout way, Nick went, “Ah! A hangover!” And all the humans in earshot laughed. Nick blushed in embarrassment.

With a questioning look, Ren asked why that was funny, and Mia, still giggling, waved it away, saying she will explain later.

Before starting the day, Ren handed Mia a note from Tasha. She broke the wax seal and unfolded the note.

“Dearest Mia,” the letter began, “I apologize for last night. I suppose I felt more tired than I realized. I believe that it was your fault, that you did not warn me sufficiently about the potency of your Earther ‘champagne.’ “

The word “champagne” was followed by what looked like an squiggly equal sign, except that it used tildes in place of dashes. Mia asked Ren what that symbol meant and apparently that was the equivalent of an LOL emoji. Mia chuckled and read on.

“My Ren and I thank you for your discretion. We were not wrong when we decided. You are a soul that we can trust. Ben thinks so as well, Amelia eem zheh t’aime. I will see you and Ren later – with much love, Tasha li zheh t’aime.”

Mia didn’t want to expose her ignorance, but the phrase “li zheh t’aime” seemed to be a variant of “eem zheh t’aime,” which, she knew meant “my beloved.” An educated guess told her it probably meant “your beloved,” but she’d have to leave finding out if she was correct for later.

She looked up to Ren, and his expectant and happy face telegraphed to her his feelings, and she enfolded him in a hug. “Thank you, Ren,” she whispered into his ear, and let go.

Ren let her go, and after Mia straightened up, Ren reached for her hand and kissed her palm. Ren’s smiling eyes were bright with unshed tears.

The cues were different, Mia acknowledged, but she couldn’t be wrong with the sentiment.

“Let’s go, my dear,” Mia said. “Time to show you your new place.” She crooked her arm and waited.

Ren had seen this in some of the Earther TV programs he’d seen, and put his arm through it, and they walked out into the morning sunshine.

- - - - -
(bookmark 5)

People from the Army Engineering Corps accompanied them and discussed some construction ideas while they waited for the submersible. The federation envoys talked about their preferences for living quarters, and the engineers dutifully took down notes.

After a bit, a couple of large “sea skimmers” – flying saucer-shaped submarines designed for shallow underwater operation rose from underneath the water. They were used a lot in underwater colonies and farms, like the ones they had visited in the Aleutians. They all climbed aboard and the skimmers sank into the sea.

The panoramic windows allowed them to see the islands from under the sea. The shallow rock and coral formations were ideal for building underwater living quarters for the aquatic members of the Federation. The engineers tried to get some ideas but the aliens weren’t being too cooperative. What frustrated the SeaBees was that the aliens focused more on the sea flora and fauna rather than on the rock formations.

But it was fun, especially how Mia and Nick made the tour more than just about construction.

It ended all too quickly for everyone, and their Federation guests were acting a little melancholy. That was understandable - it was the last day of their month-long global tour of Planet Earth.

The Sciollians wanted to arrange another dinner but made do with a simple afternoon meal served out on the beach. And after a quick exchange of gifts and short speeches, they took a launch to their planes, and made the quick trip back to Kennedy Spaceport in New York. They arrived late evening.

Instead of disembarking and checking into a hotel, everyone decided to stay onboard their planes, and the people from Kennedy shut down the landing strip they were on and rerouted all the planes around them, letting the two large Airbus shuttles stay on the landing strip overnight.

- - - - -
(bookmark 6)

Yet another round of speeches had to be made, and everyone dutifully did what was expected of them. They then had a series of closed-door meetings to plan out the Harbinger Programme, breaking it down around the important parts of the plan. There were several things that the “Earthers” proposed that did not go down well with the Federation people but they knew that there really was no choice but accede to their suggestions.

So, after completion of the thorough month-long repair, refuel and refit of the five remaining Federation cruisers, courtesy of the people from the New Copernicus shipyards, all of the Federation ships were one hundred percent ship-shape, and everyone was raring to go.

 
Shepherd Moon, Chapter 19: Colossus

 
Bubbly -

In yet another ceremony, because of their upgrade to Type Ones, the former Type Two cruisers of Captains Dupont and Okonkwo were rechristened as “DSC” instead of “DSR” cruisers. They were also given new hull numbers – Hermes was now DSC 60 and Constellation was now DSC 74.

Four other new Type Ones were added to the Fifth Fleet. This made the fleet almost complete - Mia now had six Type Ones under her command. She was still waiting for another one, but it wouldn’t be ready for a while. But this was all news B-roll. The bigger event was the Seeker.

Seeker’s refit was formally certified and all modifications were logged and catalogued. And because of the extent of the refit, according to military protocol, she was given a new classification (she was now a J-One Class interstellar cruiser), a new name and a new hull number.

The exploits of the Seeker and the rest of the Fifth Fleet had captured the attention and imagination of the entire system. It was the first time that a space battle of this complexity and magnitude and this... exciting had ever happened in the system. It was like some adventure movie. Some even said that it even overshadowed all previous battles, even the ones from the Satellite Wars. And it was only possible because the new ships and their new capabilities matched up with the alien ships. Pre-FTL chemical ships, the so-called “blimps,” like the Orion-class and Daedelus-class ships, and especially the massive Dreadnoughts, would not have lasted a minute, though the non-chemical Enterprise-class and Jovian-class ships might have been able to cope. After all, Saturn’s three K-class ships more than held their own. The idea of re-tooling Enterprise and Jovian-class ships in the same way the PRC re-tooled the Seeker was being given serious consideration.

In any case, given the Seeker’s exploits among the rings of distant Saturn, some of the bright kids from NASA and the ESA suggested a new name for her that everyone thought appropriate.

Moons that orbited near planetary rings have the effect of repelling the material of the rings. This effect confines the rings to their current formations. And, sometimes, two of these moons would work together and confine the ring particles to a narrow band between them. A single would-be ring would then be divided further into separate rings on the same plane, a spectacular example of this was Saturn’s multiple rings. This effect could also be seen on the other two ringed planets in the Sol system – Uranus and Neptune, though their rings were paltry affairs compared to Saturn’s. Astro-scientists call these satellites “shepherd moons.”

A bunch of NASA and ESA interns suggested this as Seeker’s new name. This got back to the Fleet Admiral somehow, and Silverman thought it was a great name.

So DSR Seeker was now rechristened the Shepherd Moon, with hull number DSC 05 (after all, she was the flagship of the Fifth Fleet).

A large group of VIPs, along with the Federation envoys, gathered in the large observation blister of New Copernicus’ orbiting dry dock to listen to more speeches and witness its official rechristening and re-launch.

After everything was said, Her Royal Highness, Queen Margaret II, pushed a button and an expensive magnum of champagne was ejected towards the ship. A little conduction heater tab the size of a penny was taped to its bottom to prevent its contents from freezing.

Nick had explained to the aliens the background of the little ceremony that they were witnessing, and the aliens watched it with great respect and anticipation. After the ten year-old bottle shattered on the Shepherd Moon’s bow, and its contents fizzed out and away, everyone cheered. Commander Kajima then engaged The Shepherd Moon’s parking engines at their lowest power setting and the ship glided out of Copernicus’ dry dock at a stately five kilometers per hour, slow enough to get everyone to oooh and ahhh as she cruised by the observation blister.

“Such a waste,” Princess Tasha said, watching the ship cruise by. Most of the conversation around her stopped.

“What do you mean, your highness,” the First Ambassador asked.

She gestured towards the ship. “All that champagne... what a waste.”

Everyone erupted in laughter. Tasha sheepishly smiled at that, and when everyone’s attention moved on, she leaned close to Ren. “I do not understand,” she whispered to her husband. “Why did they laugh? I was being serious.”

Ren giggled and hugged his Princess wife. Her growing fondness for Earther wines and bubbly was something that everyone on Talon knew by now.

“Oh, my dearest,” he giggled and squeezed her playfully.

 
Hitching a ride -

Harbinger was a very ambitious plan, but a plan that the Earther’s leadership had decided was absolutely essential for the Human Race, indeed for the larger galactic community as well.

The plan called for many things. Two of the first things called for was, one, to raise the alarm about the escape ship of the Defiant, at present making its way to the Detterex homeworld. It would be arriving there in about one Earth year, presumably to initiate retaliation plans against Earth and the Federation.

In order to raise the alarm, the Fifth Fleet needed to transport the Federation representatives back to Colossus to brief the various planetary representatives and ambassadors, and after they have been briefed, to then help get word back to the Federation home planets.

And this was the second thing - to arrange for a coordinated defense plan among the various Federation planets in case of attack. Owing to their lack of instantaneous communications, such a thing could normally only be accomplished in about five years. So it was difficult, to say the least. But all things being equal, the Empire would also need roughly the same amount of time to mount an invasion or retaliation plan.

As usual, the Earthers had a suggestion: Harbinger called for a message similar to the first transmission Earth sent to the Federation, specifically to Colossus, and inform them of the pending arrival of the Fifth Fleet. To avoid burning out Colossus’ systems, the communication will have to be less than two minutes. A “disposable” transmitter will have to be used to accomplish this.

Also, the Prince and Princess, the First Ambassador and Admiral Dax will hitch a ride on the Shepherd Moon for the trip to Colossus. The trip, all told, shouldn’t be longer than a couple of months. That would give them a jump on the Tirosians. The aliens knew about the performance capabilities of the Earther ships, but this was totally unprecedented. As for the Elyran and Dixx ships, they would follow at their best speed, escorted by a couple of the Fourth Fleet’s Type Ones.

Reena’s crew, not to mention Admiral Dax’s, did not like it. But they were soldiers that knew how to follow orders. The plan only merited a little bit of grumbling.

So, with much fanfare, Mia and the Shepherd Moon’s personnel who were there to witness the ceremony lifted off from the New Copernicus observation bubble via the retooled Mud Turtle shuttle that the Shepherd Moon’s people were now calling the “Admiral’s Barge.” The Federation envoys joining them were onboard two other shuttles – an Elyran and a Dixx. They simultaneously detached from inflatable bridge tunnels connecting them to the bubble. And as the three shuttles made their way to the Shepherd Moon, eight alien interceptors – four Elyran and four Dixx, provided escort. The barge entered via the normal airlock while the two alien shuttles and eight fighters docked to the Shepherd Moon’s large cargo booms in pairs, and were winched onboard.

So it was that the Earth’s Fifth Fleet, composed of six EDS Type One cruisers and one refitted J-One class cruiser, left the Solar System on its trip to the heart of the Galactic Federation.

 
Arrival -

Everyone had a lot to do during the trip so the two months went by very quickly. Though it wasn’t at a breakneck pace anymore, cultural and technology exchange continued. And with Phase-Wave links, the Fifth Fleet, the Federation fleet and the CETI people were still able to collaborate.

A small wrinkle was introduced, however. Before they had left the Solar System, they got a call that the Keeper of the Heritage and his staff was insisting on joining them. That was a bit troubling, but they had no choice but agree. A Type Two had to catch up to them to drop them off onboard the Shepherd Moon. The Dravidian from his staff, Cale, however, remained on Earth to join the new Galactic Federation Embassy being constructed on the Sciollian Isles.

Together with a small contingent of Elyran, Arachnian and Dixx representatives, the Embassy they started operations and performed all the necessary ambassadorial work that a new Embassy had to take care of. Cale and his two Erocii assistants produced credentials that showed them to be empowered to represent the Dravidians and Erocii in any negotiations, at least to the same extent that the Elyran, Arachnian and Dixx representatives were. In a matter of days, the new Federation Mission to Earth moved into their new offices on St. Agnes and St. Martin’s Islands in Mia’s Duchy.

To offset the loss of his staff, The Keeper had asked, via his staff, for volunteers to help him with his temporary manpower shortfall. Many of the people from CETI volunteered, and after Mia approved it, the Keeper selected three from the Shepherd Moon’s crew, and they then started reporting to him as his staff. Mia and Jenn suspected that the Keeper wasn’t really under-staffed, and was only using this as an excuse to have some humans up close to study. But they didn’t mind - they could also benefit from this. That’s why they had briefed the three CETI staff beforehand and be sure to gather as much data as they could.

The Keeper was more visible onboard the Shepherd Moon than he was among the Dixx, as he was always touring the ship with his staff, and joining the Earther crew during mealtimes. He did not mind that certain areas were off limits and that he and his people had to submit to inspections from time to time. But other than that, he stayed out of everyone’s way, and spent most of his time in his quarters.

Having gone through the same thing with the Arachnians, the crew knew how to manage the Dixx and Elyrans and make them feel at home. And it helped that Sahsha was onboard. Sahsha made some suggestions to the Princess and the Admiral. She suggested that their security people and fighter pilots join the Marines’ workout and training sessions. They had agreed, and the Princess had her warriors train and work out with the Earthers in shifts. Dax followed suit for the Dixx personnel, and in the trip to Colossus, Talon warriors and Dixx soldiers learned of Marine techniques and methods.

For their part, the Elyrans and the Dixx also taught the Earthers their own methods and, aside for some things that were specific to alien physiologies, the Earthers were able to adopt many of them to their regular routines. The lead Marine drill instructor reported to O’Connell, Tasha and Dax that many of the Elyran routines helped them to be better at close-in fighting while the Dixx showed them a thing or two about managing in low-gee situations.

However, Ren laughingly told them about how their warriors would limp back to their quarters exhausted from their workouts. Mia gave O’Connell a significant look, and O’Connell picked up on that right away. She then said that the joint workouts will now be done in Federation standard gravity.

The fact that Sahsha was onboard as the official expedition secretary and the representative of the Secretary-General bothered Mia greatly. Not that Sahsha had an important role to play, but rather that she was there at all. Though they haven’t consummated the relationship, Mia was still in love with Sahsha regardless of her gender switch, and that Sahsha had served notice that the switch hasn’t changed her feelings. Mia was glad of that, but how can she feel good that Sahsha was in harm’s way? The expedition wasn’t completely a diplomatic mission – there was a distinct possibility of another encounter, or even several encounters just like the one in Saturn. But she made no move to stop her from joining: she knew it wouldn’t have made a bit of difference.

It was also such a temptation and distraction for Mia that Sahsha was around, but she had to keep things professional. Otherwise, it would have made things difficult, and maybe undermine her authority with her crew. Mia tried to explain it to Sahsha once, and she seemed to understand, but wasn’t too happy about it. As a result, she had been very standoffish throughout the trip from Earth to Colossus.

Life went on.

- - - - -
(bookmark 7)

When they were a day out from Colossus, a fleet-wide call went out and everyone started getting ready.

They weren’t below sublight yet so Colossus wasn’t aware of their approach. As arranged, Captain Okonkwo transmitted the pre-recorded two-minute signal they prepared. They used one of the disposable Phase-Wave interpolator transmitters they brought and fired off the directional signal directly at Colossus using the general Federation communication frequency. They had several dozen of the transmitters onboard, as did all the ships in the Fifth Fleet, so that meant they could communicate with the aliens anytime they needed to. But, unless approved by the Admiral, they were to only use radio to communicate with the aliens, and conserve these transmitters. In the Shepherd’s hold, though, aside from the several dozen disposable transmitters, there was a large crate half the size of a Shrike fighter. It was something that no one knew about except for Mia, O’Connell and the Chief Engineer.

Onboard Colossus, the communications people suddenly found all incoming transmissions cut off. They, as well as everyone, were puzzled at the loss of radio communications. One of the technicians in Comms spun her radio’s dial and frantically scanned through all of the regular frequencies. And there was only one signal she found.

“Sire!” she said, and turned to her Dravidian supervisor. “All radio frequencies have disappeared!”

“What! Check all bands!”

“I already have! All of them are gone, sire. UHF, VHF, AM, FM – everything! All gone! Except...”

“Yes?”

“There’s one remaining... on the regular communications frequency...” She pressed a button and they heard it over the room’s speakers.

“Oh, gods! Do you think...”

“Do you think what?”

“It’s them! Record it! Quickly!”

One of the Telcontari technicians scurried to the main control board. The little, furry Telcontari pressed one of the buttons and their equipment started recording the signal.

On the speaker, a computer voice replaced the carrier tone and started counting down in fluent Elyran.

“Ten... seven... six... five... four... three... two... one.”

“It’s Earth!” the Dravidian communications chief whispered in awe. They had been waiting for this call for weeks. It’s finally here.

Another voice spoke. A male voice. “Great rulers, My Lords and ladies, noble born. T’Chahn. I am M’klele Okonkwo, a captain of the Fifth Fleet, United Earth Defense Force, and I bring greetings of our leader, the Secretary-General of our United Nations. We are a day away from Colossus and request permission to approach. We come in peace. We are conveying our new friends from Elyra, Dixx and Arachnia, back home, and wish to speak with the Assembly. Further communications will be via regular channels. Please stand by. Thank you.”

The tone came back and slowly faded away.

“By the gods... Contact the Lord Chamberlain now!”

- - - - -
(bookmark 8)

Soon after that transmission, the seven ships of the Fifth Fleet slammed into Federation space. In a matter of nanoseconds, all seven ships decelerated from light-speed to sublight, and well on the way to being ship-maneuverable. Beth ordered all radio jamming lifted at that point (they had instituted the jamming onboard so that their passengers would not be able to use their instruments to see how the inertia converters worked, and how quick the deceleration was). Ten minutes after that, O’Connell had a radio beacon started, on the frequency they knew the Federation used.

A few hours later, the envoys went over to the bridge and looked at the main screen. Beth asked her people to magnify the image and they saw the large cylindrical station spinning in orbit.

“Look at that, Mia,” Sahsha whispered. “Wow...”

The Earthers were impressed by the size and complexity of the station – the length of its long axis was about three hundred kilometers long – which was about two percent of the Earth’s diameter. It was truly vast, and it bristled with antennae, radar and microwave dishes, as well as several little solar panels sticking out of its surface. Six large rings dominated the structure, the middle one with flat platforms sticking out like the wings of a dragonfly. On the platforms were several ships mounted on top of them (that is to say, the leading side in the direction of the station’s spin).

Tasha held Ren’s hand. He was crying silently.

“We’re back, my love,” Ren said. Tasha hugged him to her and kissed his cheek. Mia put her hand on Tasha’s shoulder.

“Has Colossus contacted us?” Dax asked quietly.

“Not yet,” Mia said, “but we are still a bit far away.” Mia calculated turnover rates in her head and determined that they will be pulling beside Colossus in a little below twenty Earth hours. “Still some time to go,” she said. “And it will take around four Earth hours for radio signals from Colossus to reach us.”

“Oh.”

“Actually, Admiral,” Shepherd’s comms officer said, “we just found a radio signal being beamed to us. It’s on a repeating cycle so it’s being sent constantly.”

“There is? Let’s hear it, Lieutenant.”

“They’re not expecting us to receive it yet, given the four hours’ radio time lag.” She hit a button.

“T’chahn, honored visitors,” a Dixx officer judging by the voice, said. “The Galactic Federation welcomes you and the Fifth Fleet of Earth to the Zeos System, and anxiously await your arrival at Colossus. In the meantime, may we speak to Admiral Dax if she is available? One of our colleagues, Ambassador Bilar, is anxious to find out how she is, and how their mission has gone.”

The Federation people knew they wouldn’t get the response until four hours later but, nevertheless… O’Connell gestured Dax to one of the available consoles. Dax bowed and sat in front of the console.

One of the officers set the controls. “Just press this before you speak, Admiral,” the officer said.

Dax nodded and depressed the switch.

“T’chahn, my dear Bilar. This is Dax. I hope you have time. Because I have much to tell you...”

- - - - -
(bookmark 9)

The people on Colossus didn’t expect to hear from them hours ahead of schedule, but was happy to hear from Dax nevertheless. Calculations showed that the timing of the radio signal wasn’t what it should be. They chalked it up to the Earthers. Her transmission was recorded, however, and everyone on Colossus listened with rapt attention as Dax reported.

The Dixx, Elyran and Arachnian consulates were dismayed to hear that many of their countrymen perished in the mission, but were moderately cheered by the accomplishments that their people had achieved. The news of the loss of so many ships was a blow to their military, and needed to be reported to the homeworlds immediately. They immediately dispatched courier ships to Elyra, Dixx Prime and Arachnia Prime, and the other races followed their lead. There was a small exodus of small courier ships from Colossus, and many of them streaked past the Fifth Fleet ships.

Mia’s people informed her that several detection beams had been going over the Fifth Fleet ships in waves, and they had been coming from the courier ships. Captain O’Connell said that she suspected that they were deliberately detouring their ships to pass closely by and get data on their ships but O’Connell said it was an easy matter to block their beams. All they got for their trouble were very nice close-up pictures.

- - - - -
(bookmark 10)

Dax had told them to monitor a specific frequency she specified and, after several hours, they received the Earthers more-detailed compiled video mission report via a tight-beam radio transmission. The people of Colossus watched and listened, slack-jawed, at the information they started receiving, and saw how many of their comrades had died. They then saw their comrades’ escape to Earth and how the Earthers staged their final confrontation with the Empire invaders. Everyone that had sent out courier ships felt a little frustrated since they could have waited a few hours and have included this. In any case, some of them, including the Dravidians, Dixx and Elyrans sent follow-up courier ships.

They were also amazed because the communication implied that the Earthers were in continuous contact with their homeworld as well as the two Elyran and three Dixx cruisers on their way to Colossus. Dax confirmed this in her next signal, and the Dixx excitedly sent back messages to be relayed to the others onboard the remaining three Dixx cruisers. The Elyrans also sent their own messages. Mia’s crew dutifully relayed their responses, which Colossus received about four hours later.

- - - - -
(bookmark 11)

Through another radio message, the Earthers were informed that a reception was being arranged to welcome them. Truth be told, Mia was starting to get real tired of these things. But this time, she was going to meet a whole lot of other aliens, so she was very excited. For example, the Telcontari were hosting the reception.

It was the first time for the Earthers to hear of Telcontar, and the First Ambassador blamed himself for this oversight – most Federation members tend to overlook and discount the Telcontari. Telcontar was one of the newer member planets - the newest, in fact. They had just discovered interstellar spaceflight when Dravidians stumbled over them about fifty thousand Earth years ago, but it was the consensus that they were quite qualified to be members nevertheless. Still, the senior and most powerful races tend to overlook such junior members. The Elyrans could identify with this since this happened to them early in their apprenticeship as a Federation member race, but they still tend to overlook the Telcontari. This prejudice seem to have infected them, too, and Ren and Tasha felt shame for this, so they tried to rectify this deficiency.

Ren explained that, per the practice on Colossus, many of the administrative posts were given to Telcontari. It was their way of familiarizing new members with the inner workings of the Federation government. This was one of the many intricate things that the allied races have learned to do over the eons in learning to administer the Federation, and as part of learning to live and adjust to each other. So, it was not surprising that the Telcontari will be their hosts.

This started a flood of questions from everyone, so Ren and the First Ambassador decided to conduct a short briefing for Mia and her officers.

Ben and Nick arranged for the briefing in Mia’s office, Ben had decided to start the briefing with a short geography lesson.

- - - - -
(bookmark 12)

Ben had a diagram displayed on Mia’s 3-D conference screen. The Federation’s territory was marked red while the Tiros Empire was in blue. Roughly speaking, the Federation’s territory was shaped like a somewhat elongated egg, with Colossus roughly in the middle the thickest part of the egg, and the Earth at the farthest edge of the round part of the shell. The Tiros Empire’s territory was a shapeless mass that was on the far side of the Federation, with Earth between them.

“I believe Telcontar is here,” the First Ambassador said, pointing to a spot that was at the edge of Federation territory directly opposite of the Earth. It was right at the pointy tip of the “egg.” An almost straight line could be drawn from Earth to Colossus to Telcontar, which made it the farthest Federation planet to Earth.

“As you may know, the Federation has been expanding its territory and sphere of influence in this direction.” He traced a line from Colossus to Telcontar and further on. “But we have not been having luck finding habitable planets. Telcontar was actually the first that we have come across in about fifty thousand Earth years. It was both a blessing and a disappointment when we found Telcontar. For, although they provided additional diversity and new capabilities and skills to Federation culture, their civilization was still confined to their home system. Other new planets remain to be discovered.

“Telcontari are not foremost in Federation culture, to be sure. They are, after all, the youngest among all the member planets. But they do provide a unique perspective that have yet to make an impact on our worlds.”

“What perspective is that, Ambassador,” Mia said.

“The Telcontari are much like us Arachnians in that we give importance to family and clan, that to be a member of a family is a high honor.”

“I suppose that perspective is something most races can claim.”

“True, but for the Telcontari, they believe that becoming part of a family is not a privilege available only to a few, but something that should be available to anyone.

“To be sure, Telcontari demand fealty to one’s family and clan, and to not bring dishonor to them. Their penalties are far greater than even Elyrans, Dixx and we Arachnians impose for those that do. No, the difference is that, despite this, the Telcontari are not miserly in terms of family. They welcome all comers, and evaluate them in a very impartial and unprejudiced way, on a level unprecedented for any advanced society, and they expect the same from others. No other Federation race is as open.”

“I don’t understand, Ambassador,” Nick said. “Wouldn’t an advanced people recognize the value of new things and new ideas?”

“Of course,” the Ambassador said, “but in order for a society to exist, a set of norms, of rules, of ethics, even of aesthetics, has to be observed and imposed, otherwise there would only be chaos. I suppose, we are too set in our ways. As for the Telcontari, they are willing to put aside rules, ethics – whatever, and consider another perspective, so long as it furthers the common good.”

“But, Ambassador, surely the idea of a common good that requires the application of rules and ethics...”

“That is absolutely correct, Lieutenant. I suppose, like all sentient beings, they still have fundamental, visceral biologically-driven needs that give rise to ideas of a fundamental right and wrong. The need to live, for example, and to procreate. But to them, everything else that accrues from that, like not to kill another, or the ideas of beauty – they are fair game. So long as they themselves survive, and they are able to procreate, anything else is worth considering.”

“That doesn’t make them sound like good people.”

The Ambassador windmilled his arms – the gesture of Arachnian laughter.

“I apologize, Lieutenant, if that was the impression I gave. They are actually a very likeable people. Almost to a fault. They like to be friends, with the hope of being included and be made part of another group or family, so to speak. And they don’t understand the reaction of the more, shall we say, clannish, races, who are not as open.”

“Ahhh.”

“As a result, Telcontari find it difficult to find advancement in many areas of society dominated by more clannish races like, say, the Dravidians or the Erocii, and, until recently, the Dixx and us Arachnians. And as you know, these are some of the most influential races in the Federation.”

“Then why are they hosting us now?”

“Management of the Federation government is via rotation. A race’s place in the rotation is determined by drawing lots, which is performed every hundred millennia, and the time apportioned to each is divided equally so that each race will have about an equal chance to govern – about four times between each new rotation, each time about twenty years. This is called ‘custodianship.’

“But because Telcontar is new, she will only have a chance to become part of the rotation at the next lottery, which will happen ten Earth years from now.

“Telcontar is not the only race to find itself in this position – all of us had gone through that. Federation society feels bad for these people because of this. As a sort of recompense, administrative duties and ceremonial events like this have been put under their purview, so welcoming newcomers, at least this time around, is going to be managed by the Federation’s youngest children.”

“Well, I’ll be glad to meet them,” Mia said.

The briefing continued and they learned more of the Telcontari, and the inner workings of the Federation government, but they had to cut it short since they were nearing Colossus.

- - - - -
(bookmark 13)

Earth’s Fifth Fleet arrived in Colossus’ sphere of responsibility with much fanfare. When they were about a few hundred thousand kilometers from Colossus (therefore within visual reception) missiles were fired at them. But Prince Ren said they were not meant to harm. They all exploded well away from Mia’s seven ships, and a lot of multicolored lights exploded around them.

“Fireworks!” Mia laughed delightedly.

The gases and trace metallic dust that the exploding missiles spread caused a multicolored cloud of sparks to surround the ships.

O’Connell asked Second Engineer Haskell if their little display might interfere with their comms and navigation. Haskell checked and, aside from the pretty light show, the Shepherd Moon and the other ships were not bothered.

“Captain,” the officer manning Navigation said. “Reception committee approaching.”

What Earthers were told to be Dravidian capital ships met them and imposed themselves between Colossus and the Earthers. It was a blunt gesture – to show that they were there to protect Colossus. But Earthers didn’t take it against them, knowing that they were just fulfilling their role.

In Engineering, the Shepherd Moon’s chief engineer looked over the Dravidian ships via long-distance video. The ships reminded her of the old-style Dreadnought-class ships - extremely large and bulky. But these were not “blimps.” They were, in fact, twice the size of the dreadnoughts.

The Phase-Wave pulses and radar beams that she showered them with revealed that massive electromagnetic shield generators were the main reason for their enormous sizes, which gave a clue to the kind of gravity fields they could produce. These were very powerful ships. And all of that power which was needed to run those generators could make their offensive and defensive capabilities very impressive, indeed.

Their computers had started to churn the Phase-Wave data that they were getting, but that would take maybe an hour or so of processing. So, for now, they made do with visual analysis.

“What do you think, Haskell,” she asked her Second Engineer as they reviewed the pictures.

“Well, look at these, Chief.” He pointed at a row of turrets. “Some kind of pulse emitters.”

“They aren’t detectors. They’re offensive weapons. And there are a lot of them.”

“Too many, I think. And look at those open ports on both the dorsal and ventral sides. Missile ports?”

“Probably.”

“And look at those.” The ships were mostly sharp edges and flat angles made up of thick, bolted-together metal plates. Most of them were sticking out from the deck. “Didn’t they bother to trim those back? It’s like they just bolted a bunch of plates and bulkheads and left it at that.”

“Yeah. Those ships are the ugliest sons of bitches I’ve ever seen. But those plates would make these ships extremely strong, too. With the hull so thick, these ships don’t need any load bearing structures.”

“It’s not just that, Chief.” He adjusted the controls and zoomed in on the plates.

On the thick edge of one of the untrimmed plates, they could see pipes that ran through them sticking out, and then going back into the metal. “Those have got to be structural integrity field conduits. If they are, those ships will be motherfucking strong!”

The chief nodded. “Language, Commander. But, yes, I agree. If we go up against them, it’ll be like trying to beat up a lump of rock with bare knuckles. Start making notes, Haskell, and be sure to pass it back to the captain.”

Haskell moved the picture around further. “Lots of maneuvering jets.”

“Yeah. Don’t they use antigrav thrusters or even inertial flywheels for God’s sake?”

“Maybe they do.”

“Then why all of those chemical thrusters?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, keep on making those notes.”

 
Uniforms -

Mia, along with Sahsha, Nick, Beth O’Connell, Ren, Tasha, Dax and the First Ambassador, boarded the “Admiral’s Barge.” Two squads of soldiers made up of almost equal numbers of Earther Marines, Elyrans and Dixx followed, all wearing United Earth Defense Force uniforms with the Fifth Fleet’s insignia patch on the left shoulder and their individual ship’s patch on the right. The uniforms of the Dixx were specially tailored, of course. Several Arachnians followed, wearing their own Earth “uniforms,” as well.

The idea of an integrated crew was first brought up by Dax’s Exec a few weeks into the trip and, surprisingly, all the Dixx and Elyrans were enthusiastic about the idea. It had all started with Tasha’s security people working out with the Shepherd Moon’s Marines, and the idea of really becoming part of the Fifth Fleet and not just in name had spread. The Shepherd Moon’s quartermaster had started fabricating equivalent Fifth Fleet uniforms for their visitors. The quartermaster even put nameplates on their lookalike EarthForce uniforms except, with theirs, their patches were bilingual – in both Earther Roman script and Elyran script. The idea of uniform insignias and patches were new to the Dixx and Elyrans but they thought them wonderful innovations and adopted them wholeheartedly.

Mia had heard all about the thing with the uniforms, and put in a priority call to Jennifer Priestly asking for advice.

Jennifer said that something like this was sort of anticipated, given the feudal nature of Federation societies. Their Elyran, Dixx and Arachnian friends were eager to be part of the Fifth Fleet “family,” and like many cultures, symbols and accouterments were an important part of that. It was similar to a video fan copying her idol’s clothes, or an Anglophile trying to speak with an English accent. Her advice was to let the Federation people do what they wanted. In fact, if the Earthers don’t, the aliens would lose great face, and that was to be avoided as much as possible.

So Mia called Silverman and explained their situation. The Admiral, following Jennifer’s and Mia’s advice, then made arrangements for all the crewmembers of the five remaining Federation ships to be made official members of EarthForce’s Fifth Fleet.

So, using the elective conscription provision under the United Nations’ Conscription Act of 2299, the remainder of the Federation’s expedition to the Earth System were now an official part of the Fifth Fleet, including their ships. For lack of a better word, a “contract” was drawn up to the effect that the Federation crew were to observe four things: (1) that they are to put themselves under the command of the Fifth Fleet’s commander, and to observe the Fifth Fleet’s integrated chain of command (this chain of command was spelled out in the contract as well. In essence, the equivalents of ranks used by any of the four species were observed, except that Dax’s and Tasha’s ranks were to be considered below the Fleet Admiral’s);(2) that they shall obey all lawful commands, as reckoned by Earth law and their own homeworlds’ laws (Earth laws taking precedent); (3) that they treat everyone in the fleet with dignity and respect, and (4) if they are unable to do either of the three provisions for whatever reason, they have the option of collectively terminating the contract, as well as all of its provisos and penalties following a period no shorter that 9.3 Earth days (the equivalent of one Elyran week) after the Fifth Fleet’s entire command staff was so informed. These rules would not apply to any other Earther forces, however – the Federation crews’ loyalties would only be to the Fifth Fleet.

For their part, the Fifth Fleet Earthers would follow the same rules as well. It wasn’t that big a departure from their current way of doing things, except that many of them found that, under the new chain of command, they were now under a bunch of aliens, and some of them now had aliens as part of their crew.

That wouldn’t be a problem for Mia for a while, though, since the three Dixx and two Elyran ships were still on their slower route to Colossus.

- - - - -
(bookmark 14)

It was a big deal to Dax’s and Tasha’s Dixx and Elyran crews. Everyone quickly traded their old uniforms for Fifth Fleet ones (They weren’t required – it was just something they wanted to do) and put their other suits in their lockers. As for Tasha and Dax themselves, and the other aliens onboard Shepherd, up to that point they still wore their old uniforms, but Mia thought it was the appropriate time to start making up uniforms for them, and the first sets came out just in time for this little ceremony. The uniforms were in styles and accouterments appropriate to their equivalent positions (Tasha, Ren and Dax got Admirals’ uniforms). Of course, the Arachnians couldn’t wear humaniform (or more appropriately “Elyraniform”) clothes so O’Connell’s quartermasters made arm brassards for them that had the appropriate names, titles and emblems.

In deference to the aliens’ new uniforms, Silverman required all of Mia’s people to make slight adjustments to their own as well – specifically, to make their name patches bilingual, too. That was easily done, and it didn’t ruin the look of their clothes – something that navy people put a lot of importance in.

- - - - -
(bookmark 15)

The “Admiral’s Barge” lifted off the Shepherd’s deck and were followed by the eight Elyran and Dixx fighters.

Mia’s pilot followed the directions radioed by Colossus, and they drifted into the Colossus’ main landing pad shortly. All nine landed almost simultaneously.

When the big pressure doors closed, jets of air were directed at the eight fighter ships to blast away the remaining chemical fumes from them. Exhaust fans took the fumes away and the deck filled up with fresh air. As for Mia’s shuttle, it lifted off using its antigravs again, but this time just six inches off the deck, and it moved closer towards the passenger airlock doors. It pirouetted around so it’s loading ramp faced towards the doors, and settled down.

This maneuver surprised the Federation people. They thought the Earther shuttle to be a conventional ship, but it actually had antigravs. It wasn’t unheard of for small ships to have antigravs, but there were only a few of them around due to their expense.

The eight pilots climbed down from their fighters and rushed to the side of the Earther shuttle. They formed in two rows of four, the Elyrans in the front row, the taller Dixx in the back, and they stood at attention.

From the shuttle, a boom was raised – almost like an antenna, except it was thicker. At the top of it was a little cage with a yochu grub inside. After a moment, the little yochu’s skin rippled with bands of multicolored hues. The effect was like that of a squid, octopus or cuttlefish trying to blend in with the background. But after a moment, its colors went back to its usual pasty hue. To the shuttle’s occupants, that meant that the environment outside was safe. The boom was retracted and Mia’s party debarked from the shuttle. They formed into one line with three of their “Marines”, plus one Arachnian, carrying The flags of the UN, the Fifth Fleet, the Shepherd Moon’s colors, and a red triangular banner with the Federation’s sigil. They formed another wide-spaced line in front of Mia, and the other soldiers took ready positions around the entire party, with weapons drawn.

The symbolism was clear – those carrying the flags were made up of an Earther, an Elyran, a Dixx and an Arachnian, which meant that the new arrivals were representing Earth, Elyra, Dixx and Arachnia, and though they come in peace, they also came with weapons drawn and prepared to defend themselves.

Slowly, a band of Federation officials came out. It was a motley mix of Dravidians, Axons, Erocii, Daemons, Kembels, Elyrans, Dixx and Arachnians, plus half a dozen representatives from star 453-A. At their lead were Telcontari.

To the Earthers, the Telcontari looked like little, white polar bear cubs with very thick and fuzzy prehensile tails that walked on their hind legs. Their arms were as thick as their legs but were clearly arms that ended with prehensile three-fingered hands.

“They’re sooo cute!” whispered Sahsha to Nick and Mia, and they all couldn’t help but grin.

The bear-like Telcontari went over to Mia’s party, bowed in the Elyran manner and proceeded to put medallions around everyone’s necks. The Earthers took their cue from the Dixx and bowed so the little bear-like sophonts could slip the ribbons around their necks.

After the Telcontari scurried back, the Dravidian in the lead, the Lord Chamberlain of Colossus, stepped forward and made a short five-minute welcoming speech that he read from a scroll. Mia bowed and gave her own five-minute speech, but hers was off-the-cuff. She’d gotten a lot of practice over recent months and was easily able to make up the speech.

Thankfully, after that little ceremony, there were no more... rituals, and everyone moved forward to greet them. The Federation representatives were relieved that the Earthers all seemed to know Elyran, and were freely able to converse. The Earther style of greeting, i.e. shaking hands, was a little unusual but everyone gamely tried it.

One of the reasons that the Federation welcoming party was so large was because they didn’t know who were coming. And they had to have people of the same social standing as each member of the arriving party so that they would have someone to converse with. Since Federation culture was so socially stratified and class-aware, this was the only way they knew.

The First Ambassador had explained during their briefings earlier that this would most likely be the case. Such a thing was a Dravidian practice, and it would have been the norm at the moment, since Colossus was currently being managed by the Dravidians (it was the Dravidians’ time, after all, to manage the Federation government. The Lord Chamberlain of Colossus was a Dravidian, in fact).

It was like a little cocktail party, complete with fluted crystal glasses of Krahnng that the little Telcontari helpers handed to everyone. Everyone sipped at their cold, fizzy Krahnng and got to know everyone else. (In deference to Elyran custom, everyone was offered small lifesigns detectors that they could use to test their beverage, or anything else they wanted to test. The visitors politely declined them, however, preferring to use their own).

One of the First Ambassador’s staff had helpfully explained to the Colossus reception committee who was who, as well as the social standing of each visitor, as they currently understood them. Various Federation aliens came over and made beelines for specific people – those that they deemed were of equal social standing as them. The Dravidians felt a little scandalized, however, since the Telcontari was unmindful of any social borders and freely mingled with everyone. Because of that, however, Mia had an opportunity to observe the little, furry aliens up close.

Though the Dravidians looked superficially similar to the Telcontari, in that both had a bear-like aspect to their look, the Dravidians looked more like the large, ten-foot tall brown bears native to the North American continent, whereas the Telcontaris looked more like small, white, upright polar bear cubs.

Also, it was automatically evident that, unlike the Dravidians, the Telcontari had some trouble with the Elyran language. Because of the way their mouths were constructed, they had problems with the plosive consonants that Elyran and Earther English use. Because of which, Telcontari speech was full of “F” sounds in place of “P,” and “V” in place of “B.” Plus their vocal cords and smaller speech parts made their voices sound like puppies. And, because they were small, childlike and seemingly helpless, this made Elyrans and Earthers genetically predisposed to like them. Earthers even had a word to describe them – to Earthers (and Elyrans), they were “cute” –yet another word that the Elyrans co-opted into their language. Of course, the Telcontari’s helplessness was largely an illusion – they were capable space-farers with a civilization older than the Earthers’.

Though stilted at the beginning, the little cocktail party quickly developed into an enjoyable though not boisterous time. And much of that was due to the representatives from Star-453. Despite how they looked, it was explained to the Earthers that these were not intelligent robots. They were inhabitants of several planets that orbited a red giant star not too far from Earth, as galactic distances go.

In their distant history, the people from Star-453 had to find a way to survive their situation – their star had started the process of becoming a red giant and, as a consequence, their planet’s global temperature started increasing, its water reserves started disappearing and large parts of its ecosystem slowly started to shut down and die off. And since they didn’t have the option of relocating, they did the best they could and moved underground. For over a millennia, it worked. But through succeeding generations, their physical forms started to become less viable. They were able to arrest the slow decrease of their lifespans by replacing failing organs and body parts with artificial substitutes. In time, they found it easier to replace almost all of their major body systems with artificial robotic replacements immediately after birth. After several more hundred thousand years, the developing red-giant star would swallow all the planets of their system, but they already have several colonies in other systems and were prepared to relocate once they had no choice anymore.

So, although they were technically biological beings, the means by which they interact with the outside universe was via their robotic bodies. As a consequence, their species was the most technologically advanced in the Federation, though Ren privately thought that distinction was soon to be supplanted by the Earthers.

In any case, these robotic aliens were very fascinating to the Earthers and most Federation citizens, and they helped to break the ice of first contact.

- - - - -
(bookmark 16)

After a while, when drinks and conversation started to get low, the party broke up and the visitors were offered guest quarters as well as facilities to contact their ships. They were formally informed that, in ten and one-quarter hours, they would be invited to attend the next Galactic Assembly, and they might find it more convenient to stay onboard.

This was one of the goals, after all, so Mia quickly and formally received the invitation from the Lord Chamberlain, bowing low in the Elyran fashion. Later on, she would find that Dax’s friend, Ambassador Bilar, engineered it. It was unheard of that an invitation would be extended so quickly.

Bilar herself was supposed to personally extend the invitation but the Chamberlain used his position to supersede her and took the honor of extending the invite himself. Bilar couldn’t take offense since, per the Chamber Rules, the Lord Chamberlain had the responsibility for arranging for the actual invite. Of course, the reason for this was because, such invites usually required arranging for courier ships to be sent to the dignitary’s home planet.

As they were ushered into their quarters, they were discussing that particular thing.

(Unbeknownst to anyone, some of Mia’s people surreptitiously turned on some devices to mask, block or jam any recording or spy devices. The Earthers felt secure enough to talk freely.)

As they sat down, the First Ambassador explained that the time interval specified by the Telcontari was in the following morning, Colossus time. Tasha said that it may be a ceremonial kind of assembly since it wasn’t on the schedule for the year. She showed Mia her copy of the Federation’s council schedule, and Mia didn’t see it.

So Mia had a contingent of four go to her shuttle to pick up their dress uniforms. Tasha sent a message back to the Shepherd Moon to explain the situation. The First Ambassador went to the wall intercom and called the Chief Protocol Officer, asking if tomorrow’s meeting was ceremonial or a conference. They were told that it was actually a real conference, to ask the Earther representatives for a report, but that it would be a formal one, as well.

They were expecting that and they came prepared. With the help of the First Ambassador, Ren, Tasha and Dax, Mia had prepared a presentation, which they rehearsed well. The Earthers had even fabricated Elyran-style data cubes to allow them to interface with Colossus’ equipment so that they could display their presentation properly.

To the side of their quarters’ lounge area was a bank of what looked like vending machines, and to the right of them were several bowls with what looked like pens. Dax explained that they were actually lifesigns detectors. The ones with red tips were for Elyran physiology while the others were for Dixx and Arachnian.

Mia nodded. She scanned through the little labels they had, and selected a large tumbler of iced Krahnng and an Arachnian “vegetable custard.”

The First Ambassador pinwheeled his upper arms.

“Now what,” Mia said in mock exasperation. “Why are you laughing again?”

“You realize, of course, My Lady,” the First Ambassador said, “that Arachnian dishes are mostly savory.”

She looked at him. “You’re saying that this isn’t a sweet custard?”

“I like it myself. But I cannot vouch for Earther palates.”

Mia experimentally got a spoonful of the “custard” (with what looked like a spoon), and put it in her mouth. And, though the look and texture of the “custard” was what she expected, it was very bitter, spicy and salty.

Everyone looked at Mia expectantly.

“Well,” she said, and chased it down with a big gulp of Krahnng. Everyone laughed. After that, all the Earthers started asking what the dishes in the vending machines were, selected those that sounded tasty, and it turned into a kind of picnic.

- - - - -
(bookmark 17)

The following “morning” found them in the main Assembly Hall of Colossus, which was called the Shihayn. Mia couldn’t help but compare it to the UN General Assembly Hall. This one had steeper tiers and bigger places for the delegates (some enclosed by a kind of transparent dome), which allowed everyone a more unrestricted view of the people speaking. But then again there were only about eighty delegates and their missions as opposed to about two hundred twenty in the New UN. Mia couldn’t help but think how much better and more high-tech the Shihayn was than the GA, but then again the UN building was designed circa 1947 Earth.

The First Ambassador and Tasha elected to join their Federation mission colleagues so that their embassies would be properly represented. This would be doubly important if ever there would be a vote called, which they would be able to influence if ever that becomes necessary.

Still, the First Ambassador wore his EarthForce brassard proudly. And since Ren and Dax were not officially part of their embassy staff, they elected to stay with Mia, and stood proudly with the Earthers on the dais – a move not lost on the gathered Assembly.

Mia was chosen as the sole speaker for the Earthers and stood in front of her group. She looked very professional and formal in her dress jacket, white tights and boots, with her glowing ceremonial sword adding a further visual touch to her look that was intriguing and unique, Ren, Dax, Sahsha, Nick and her colleagues stood behind her. They were not expected to speak, but that was the style. She found this style of presenting a little different from what they’re used to, but she didn’t mind.

Following the Telcontari assistants, their Earther, Elyran and Dixx “Marines,” in ceremonial armor, surrounded her group,
the ones in front standing on the conference floor itself instead of directly in front of her on the dais. Otherwise, they would block her and the delegates would not be able to see her. On either side of her were two Arachnian “personal guards,” actually two scientist colleagues of the First Ambassador wearing their EarthForce “uniforms,” with ceremonial Arachnian swords drawn and “ferociously” surveying everyone coming near, seemingly prepared to attack anyone who approached Mia. (Later, Tasha and the First Ambassador would say that they had a hard time controlling their laughter, seeing these two gentle academicians trying to act like a couple of heavies, but they were the only two Arachnians from Shepherd Moon that could be spared.)

Mia got a storage cube from her jacket’s pocket and handed it to a Telcontari clerk who installed it in the dais’ display controls.

Another Telcontari then approached her, bowed in the Elyran way, and handed her what looked like a microphone on a long cord. In her earpiece, she heard the First Ambassador explain that it was indeed a microphone with simple button-controls on the side to trigger and control her presentation file, which would be presented on the large screen mounted over their heads and on the wall behind them.

She gazed at the massed alien delegates looking at them. She was itching to start, but the First Ambassador said in her earpiece, not yet.

After a while, she heard the start of what she thought of as applause, and she was cued by the First Ambassador to bow. The applause continued and she straightened up. She gestured at her colleagues behind her, and they bowed together. It continued for an embarrassing two minutes, but it eventually faded away. Before it completely faded away, Mia was cued.

In consideration of those who could not clearly see her, they had decided for something to clearly identify her as an Earther and not an Elyran, and she had come up with a gesture.

She brought up the hand not holding the microphone, fingers splayed and palm facing outward. Ren and Sahsha cooked up the gesture. It highlighted the fact that, she had five fingers instead of four, that, despite the fact that Earthers looked like Elyrans, they weren’t.

A hissing kind of murmuring spread amongst the observing delegates, somewhat like how a crowd of humans would go “ahhh” when they saw something amazing or something of great import.

When the crowd settled down, she brought up the microphone, pressed a button and the first frame of their visuals was displayed on the overhead screen. So she began her prepared speech, accompanied by the images and sounds they had so painstakingly prepared and compiled.

Lecture –

Terran translation of the speech of Lady Amelia Catherine Steele, Admiral of the Fifth Fleet, to the Galactic Federation:

“My Lords and Ladies of the Galactic Federation, thank you for your warm welcome. I am Lady Amelia Catherine Steele, Admiral of the Fifth Fleet of the United Earth Defense Force. I come in place of my commander, Fleet Admiral Benjamin Silverman, and in behalf of our leader, Madame Alexandra Romarkin, Secretary-General of our United Nations. I am here in their place to speak for the Humankind of Earth, and to tell you what has recently taken place in Earth System.

“As you know, several months ago, an expedition composed of representatives of the Galactic Federation, from the Elyrans, Dixx and Arachnians had come to the Sol System in answer to our invitation, and to extend the hand of friendship from their peoples to ours. We knew of their coming, and traveled to meet them halfway at a location seven billion and five hundred million kilometers from our homeworld. But we were unable to meet them. A fleet of twenty-two spacecraft from the Tiros Star Empire, led by their Detterex flagship Defiant, had intercepted them, on a mission to eliminate them before they made contact with us. Hear now the images and voices of Defiant.”

(“Coming out of light-speed, and ship-maneuverable in eight and three-eights minutes. Prepare to launch attack according to plan as soon as able. By order of Princess Arvan.” “Commence attack. All warriors, launch.”)

“As you heard, the Lady Arvan, Crown Princess of the Ruling House of Detterex, helped to lead the enemy’s forces. There is no doubt that the Detterex Empire at least in part, orchestrated this attack. It is a foregone conclusion that the Tiros Star Empire and the Detterex Empire has entered into war, albeit covertly, against the Elyran, Dixx and Arachnian peoples, and, therefore, against the Galactic Federation itself.

“We had endeavored to protect the Federation representatives without engaging in hostilities with either party, but the Tirosians had fired upon us. We therefore defended ourselves, as well as your comrades. See and hear now our images and voices.”

(“Shit, that’s Peebo. Goddamn.” “Seeker squadron, fire at will!” “Attention Elyran spacecraft, attention Elyran spacecraft. This is Captain Steele from the Earth battleship Seeker. We are coming in to help you. Do not fire on our ships. We are friendly craft, repeat – we are friendly ships. Hold your fire.” “Those are Earth ships! Pilot, they are Earth ships.” “Princess! Did you hear that? They are Earth ships. They’ve come to help us.” “The Earthers have drawn away the Empire vermin for the moment. We can launch our fighters now.” “B-team, incoming friendly ships. Repeat, incoming planes. The Elyrans are here. Hold your fire.” “There’s an emergency. The other cruisers in your fleet are taking a hard beating. We are going over to help.” “B-team. Disperse and attack second group of spacecraft!”)

“In the Battle of Pluto, four out of the nine Elyran, Dixx and Arachnian ships perished, but we and the Federation expedition were able to exact a higher toll on the enemy. Eight of their twenty-two ships were eliminated.

“We then accompanied the remaining five Elyran and Dixx cruisers as they made their way to Mother Earth, but, while en route, the enemy tried to intercept them again near the planet Saturn, deploying a new, insidious weapon they called the ‘Curtain of Light.’

“In a pitched battle, with the able assistance of Earth’s colony on Saturn, my forces were able to fend them off, eliminating eleven of their remaining fourteen cruisers. See and hear now our images and voices.”

(“It’s moving towards Saturn fast, and decelerating.” “Maybe it’s a natural phenomenon?” “This phenomenon has jammed all electromagnetic signals in the system? No radio, no radar? The only thing I can think of that could fit this is... Your Highness, does the phrase ‘curtain of light’ mean anything to you?” “Navigation, set a course for Titan Colony, best speed.” “We’ll take care of locating the missing ships. In the meantime, protect Titan.” “Commodore Oshiro, we are sending you telemetry. The data transmission via laser comm.” “Getting it now, Captain.” “They’re on continuous deceleration and heading for the rings, sir, on a direct line to Titan.” “We’re seeing it here, Captain. And they’re not being shy about it, either.” “They’ve just launched their fighters.” “How close will they pass?” “If the enemy is going to attack Titan and does not care about not disturbing the rings, or worried about reprisals, they should make a direct line to the colony. That means they’ll be passing close.” “All right, it’s our turn. Weapons – fire tubes four, eight, nine and thirteen.” “Captain, the enemy has fired. Distance closing rapidly.” “Get ready to fire anti-missiles...” “Helm! Are you ready?” “Controls are set, Captain. Awaiting your order.” “Execute!” “Weapons, fire all forward tubes straight ahead!”

(“A great warrior race, made in thy image, will come from over the horizon, to herald the coming of war, and do battle against thine enemies. Kingdoms will be cast asunder. Fire and destruction will rain from the heavens...’“ “The warrior race of legend… what if the Earthers were that race?” “… woe to those who stand against the light, for they will be cast in eternal darkness. And from their ashes they will let emerge a new age, renewing the eternal cycle, and these Warriors will protect thee from those who would harm thee, until the coming of the Great Ones.’“

(“Captain! Phase-Wave and all systems are back! Deflectors are back!” “All right! Contact all our Shrikes and Turtles. Have them execute the same maneuver as Kajima and Lassiter. Go!” “Seeker to Yamato, Musashi and Shinano – be advised, we are returning to re-engage the enemy.”)

“We then continued on to Earth, having taken out eleven of the enemy’s ships. We believed that was the end, and we were safe from further attacks, but our systems tracked the remaining three enemy ships and they were closing in on us. We were forced to engineer an engagement at Luna, Mother Earth’s lone moon, to stop them from continuing on to Earth.”

(“Dear old Seeker has been through a lot these past months, and I am sure the Admiral will agree with me that she has performed most exemplary. And that is largely because of all of you. The Admiral told me once that Seeker’s crew is the best in the fleet. I happen to agree. And if we do not get through this, I just wanted to let you all know that it has been a privilege serving with you. But I believe we will get through this, and it all depends on you once again. Everyone stay sharp, stay at your posts and we’ll get through this.” “Fifth Fleet and Federation cruisers are two minutes from Lunar orbit. The Enemy ships are behind and below us. They’ve slackened acceleration more to compensate for their course change...T minus one minute thirty now.” “Sound collision alarm.” “That’s it! The lunar launchers got them dead on!”)

“And, although we found their ‘Curtain of Light’ still functioning, we were successful in bringing down their three remaing ships, and quickly proceeded to take all survivors.”

(“Okay. That means their EM device is still live. Have Commander Kajima launch all Shrikes and Turtles as soon as our Marines are onboard the Turtles. Weapons, do not fire on the enemy, but maintain anti-missile defenses.” “This is the Admiral to all Turtles – make for the crater rim two kilometers to the right of the lead cruiser. All Marines to disembark on the far side of the crater rim and make their way to the nearest cruiser on foot. The mission is to capture the ship intact. All squad leaders will take command of their own squads but will coordinate their movements with the Captain onboard Seeker. All Shrike pilots will provide air cover and relay all observations to Seeker’s Comms.” “All right people, execute!” “Ladies and gentlemen of the Seeker. This is the Admiral. We shall be boarding the cruiser through this hull breach. Our mission is to locate the EM suppression equipment and disable it, and to hold our ground until reinforcements arrive to help us capture the ship intact. Everyone is to take their instructions from their squad leaders. Squad leaders, get your squads organized and get them in there. Is everyone clear?” “Aye!” “Yes, sir!” “All right then, Execute!” “Fire on those things! Fire!”)

“We were successful in deactivating the device, as well as capturing all the survivors of the enemy vessels.”

(“This is the Admiral! Come in, Seeker!” “Aye, sir! This is the Seeker!” “Glad to hear you, Seeker. Am pleased to report that the EM Suppression Field has been deactivated, and we have captured the generator intact.”)

“We were, however, unable to capture the Detterex leader, and she was able to escape.”

(“Yes indeed, she did contain the ‘Curtain of Light’ generator, and we were able to capture it intact and switched it off. But, checking through all the crew and survivors, and checking the entire ship itself, we were unable to find Lord Norga and Princess Arian.” “Unfortunately, this ship was found after the EM field was switched off, and was already flying at speed before anyone noticed it. This spacecraft is now already too far away for anyone to be able to do anything.” “Lady Amelia, are you saying that the Detterex Princess has been able to escape?” “That’s correct, Your Highness. It is our conclusion that, while the remaining three Empire ships were pursuing us, she launched her escape craft under the cloak of the EM suppression field. Analysis of its trajectory indicates that it is on its way to Detterex, where Princess Arvan will undoubtedly raise the alarm.” “What are the turnover times, My Lady?” “We don’t have precise numbers yet, but we believe Princess Arvan should be arriving in Detterex in approximately twelve Earth months.” “Well...” “I know, Your Highness, and you are right. Our problem is clear-cut, but there is still time.”)

“Indeed there is still time. But nevertheless there is still much to do, and they must be done quickly and decisively. If we assume that they have prepared for an outcome where their forces are defeated, they may just waiting for a signal to activate such plans. The arrival of the Lady Arvan may be such a signal. Word must be sent to all major planets as quickly as possible.

“My people, together with the Elyran, Dixx and Arachnian nations are formally declaring war against the Detterex and Tirosian Invaders. A communique to this effect has been prepared, and will be dispatched to the two empires’ homeworlds through official channels. Earth has commenced preparations for war, and we will soon be ready to defend our world against any attack. And once word gets back to their homeworlds as well, Elyra, Dixx and Arachnia will be as well. We believe we have no choice. We do this for the sake of those we lost, for honor’s sake, and for the sake of freedom…

“But our news is not all dark. We also bring glad tidings. I am privileged to announce that Earth Government has entered into a comprehensive alliance with Elyra, Dixx and Arachnia, guaranteeing the protection and safe passage of all Earth and Federation citizens on any of our worlds.

“We have also entered into an agreement that guarantees free and unempeded commerce and tourism, and a mutual defense treaty for mutual protection between Earth, Elyra, Dixx and Arachnia. We were unable to make the agreement universal because, as you know, there are many considerations that will require individual agreements with any worlds who wish to engage in commerce with us.

“We have also begun sharing cultural, scientific and technical knowledge thereby enriching our four peoples both materially and culturally, and taking the first steps to becoming closer as people. Technology relating to space travel, computing systems, electronics, construction, food production and communications are part of what we have been sharing, so that we may benefit from each others’ ma material gifts. Our new friends gifted us with the technology behind your life detectors enabling us to start our own yochu breeding program. We, in turn have shared our Seren communications system, which would allow our new friends to improve their communications fourteen-fold.

“We have also started sharing our customs and traditions with each other in an effort to become better friends and neighbors. As we learn more and more about each other, we have learned that we are more alike than not. We have enjoyed, for example the historical dramas that the Elyrans and Dixx have introduced us to, and we are all fans of the First Ambassador’s poetry. We have in turn introduced Earth television to our new friends, and Admiral Dax has become an avid viewer.

“We have also outlined agreements relating to commerce and travel between our worlds, and, as soon as our treaties become recognized and accepted across all of our worlds, we can expect commerce to beginin earnest. We are awaiting our first shipments of Krahnng, and we shall, in turn be shipping wine, rocky road ice cream and cheese, the favorites of Admiral Dax, Lady Tasha and the First Ambassador.

“We have also dedicated an embassy on Earth for their use as ambassadorial offices and quarters for the Earth diplomatic missions of Elyra, Dixx and Arachnia. Representative Cale of the Dravidian Republics and Dr. Autumn-Sun-Rising-in-the-East from Eros Prime have also set up interim diplomatic residences as well while they explore the possibilities of permanent diplomatic and commercial relations with our government. In future, however, the ten square kilometers of the facility will be more than able to accommodate other missions from the Federation.

“There is much to celebrate, even as we mourn the loss of so many friends and comrades. But, as I said, there is still much to do before we can. In earnest of this, I bring a plea from my people. The Terrans of Earth formally apply for membership to the Galactic Federation. We submit ourselves to the honored gentlebeings of the Federation Assembly, and hope to have an audience with the Chamber of Migration and Peerage at its earliest convenience. We pray that it be soon as we have many pressing matters of security and race that depend on the outcome of our application.

“In behalf of my party, I thank this honored body for this opportunity to speak before the Federation Assembly, and may the spirits of all our ancestors smile and bless us in all our endeavors.”

Deliberations –

Mia and her party retired to their assigned quarters where they were met by a pair of Telcontari. They bowed and introduced themselves as Mumu and Pinpin from the Protocol Office, assigned to provide them a tour of Colossus. They reached forward and shook hands with Mia and the other Earthers. It seemed that they had done some research since they knew about handshakes. Mumu and Pinpin informed them that later in the afternoon, there would be another plenary session where members of the Assembly would be discussing her “report,” and she would be requested to sit in to answer questions. But that would be several hours later, so they had time for the tour.

The two loaded the Earth Party into a small tram that ran on tracks on the skin of the station, and they saw most of the facilities of Colossus. Their tour occupied most of the morning but given how large the station was, most of their time was used up by travelling from location to location despite the quick rail transport they were provided. During these lulls, and Mumu and Pinpin were preoccupied with answering questions from Mia’s Marines, Mia, and the others discussed her speech and the reaction of the gathered assembly. Tasha and the First ambassador weren’t with them, however, since they had joined their embassy staff.

It was their consensus that Mia’s half-hour speech went over well, and there were many particular parts that seemed to catch the attention of many of the aliens, while causing consternation to others. The many video and audio clips that they included made her speech very interesting indeed.

As usual, the Protocol Office had a closed circuit feed going to all the diplomatic missions of all the delegates so that their staff could listen in, and watch Mia’s presentation. However, in the Arachnian Mission, the First Ambassador’s staff had plugged in a “vampire transmitter” to their control panel. Using this device, they were able to send the feed to the Shepherd Moon via an encrypted high-frequency radio signal (the encryption algorithm provided by the Earthers), and the Shepherd Moon then, in turn, relayed it to the other ships and to Earth via Phase-Wave.

Mia reiterated her uneasiness in including intercepted Detterex communications, most particularly the ones where they recorded the Detterex quoting Elyran scripture. It seemed self-serving and in poor taste.

Ren had had agreed that it would be useful to include the quote but he didn’t know how appropriate that would be. So they followed the First Ambassador’s advice on that. They had agreed with him on the impact it would have. It would resound with the Elyrans and the Dettererex, and with any of the other races that had similar legends. Nick said that there cannot be too many of them, but Ben said that, surprisingly, there were a lot of them. The commonality of many Federation legends was part of the reason for the cohesiveness of the Federation’s collective culture. Ren asked about Earther culture and if they had legends similar to the Savior Race legend, but, offhand, Mia and Nick said they couldn’t recall any such legend in Earth lore that matches the Elyran scripture. Ren found that curious.

They again discussed the possible questions the delegates might have and prepared for them, and by the time the tour was over, they felt they were ready.

- - - - -
(bookmark 18)

While the Earthers were on their tour, the Federation Assembly delegates had gone back to their various embassies and started discussing Mia’s report. The rest of the Assembly’s agenda for the day was suspended to allow for the delegates to prepare for the follow-on discussion of the Lady Catherine’s report in the afternoon. She had already been informed by the Protocol Office to come back later in the afternoon, and she had sent back her confirmation that she will attend.

In the diplomatic mission of the Dravidian Republics, the Dravidians were, at that moment, in closed-door session. Though a little unorthodox, the Lord Chamberlain of Colossus had joined them. Some may have commented that the Lord Chamberlain attending and influencing the decisions of a diplomatic mission may be inappropriate, even if it was the Dravidian Mission, but since it was not against any rules or conventions, it was allowable. Far be it for a Dravidian to go against the rules – Dravidians were known for remaining within the letter of the law, even if not always in the spirit of the law.

Councilor Cor and all the Dravidians were aghast that Cale had been interfacing with the Earthers all along, and had actually already initiated diplomatic discussions. Most of the other Dravidians said that he had no authority to do so, but a quick check showed that he did: the duty rosters showed that Cale had full ambassadorial credentials.

What was actually troubling, though, was that Cale was on Earth at all. His last assignment was to be part of the staff of the Keeper of the Heritage. The last they knew was that Cale was part of the Curia of the Heritage Trust – a great honor and responsibility. The Erocii scientist, Autumn-Sun-Rising-In-The-East, was also with the Keeper’s staff. That Cale and the Erocii were on Earth implied that the Keeper either accompanied the Elyran/Dixx/Arachnian expedition there, or had been on Earth ahead of them. That the possibility the Keeper may be allied with the Earthers might sway the other Federation delegates to their cause.

The Chamberlain and the other Dravidians desperately wished that they could talk with Cale and find out what was really happening, but they couldn’t. As Councilor Cor, the Dravidian Ambassador said, they had no choice but to take the Earther at her word, and that the facts were as she painted them.

They had also discussed the images that the Earther presented, and these gave the Dravidians an overall picture of a situation that was troubling – at least to them. In true Dravidian form, they ignored the Earther’s warnings of an oncoming storm, but rather were more focused on the fact that the troublesome Elyrans had beat them again, this time to a rich and untapped market, one that also showed to be the source of new and unique resources and technology that could allow them to maintain their dominant position among the races.

They were intrigued with the “Curtain of Light” – something that they heard rumors about but didn’t know what it was until now. There must be some way of acquiring it. That and the Earthers’ magical communication technology, Sel, Cor’s right-hand man, reminded everyone.

Many of the other leading races had similar thoughts and concerns but, unlike the Dravidians, they were more on the simultaneous declarations of war by Elyra, Dixx, Arachnia and Earth. It was a foregone conclusion that the declaration was justified – the evidence that the Earthers brought with them was incontrovertible, and even if the Federation doesn’t back up their declarations of war, the Federation covenants they had made all of them duty-bound to protect the Dixx, Elyran and Arachnian homeworlds and colony worlds. Only Earth was not included.

But the more… “religious” of the races had more concerns.

Dr. Autumn-Sun and Representative Cale were on Earth. Does that mean that the Keeper of the Heritage was there as well? What would that mean? Is the Keeper allied with the Earthers? Why wasn’t he in Chaisteal An Linn Arsaidh? Those that revered the Keeper of the Heritage may be swayed by that.

Plus the images that they saw – it depicted a race of formidable warriors who were able to repel an invasion of twenty-two capital ships of the despised Tirosians and Detterex, with weapons and technology rivaling the Federation’s.

Most knew that turning back twenty-two capital ships with a lesser number of ships was a near impossibility. And the Federation would be hard put to muster ten ships of equal capability, much less twenty-two. And if Dax and the Earther’s reports were true, these Earthers were able to do it with only three of theirs. That really put the fear in many of the delegates.

But with the Curtain of Light in play, that has jumped the fear factor up even higher. No one really understood what the Curtain of Light was but that didn’t seem to matter at the moment. It just added another layer of mystique to the Earthers’ already mystical reputations.

That mystical reputation was largely because of the recordings of the Detterex. When they heard the Detterex quote the passages from the Elyran Holy Book of the Ages… Most of the delegates were academics, so they were familiar with the quote. The Elyran and Detterex legend of the “warrior race” had echoes in their own legends, and that went a long way to convince them to at least give the Earthers a fair hearing because, what if the Earthers were the warrior race of legend?

As for the Dixx, Elyrans and Arachnians, their intentions for the upcoming session were a little different. If the gathered delegates do not call the question of a declaration of war, or open up a discussion of the matter of the membership for the Earthers. They were also set to derail any machinations of the Dravidians to push their own selfish agenda because, at this point the Federation couldn’t afford it.

This was one of the most exciting things to happen in the Federation for many megayears. Those that were not intending to attend changed their minds. The plenary session that afternoon was the only Federation Assembly that had full attendance in an eon.

 
Shepherd Moon, Chapter 20: Treaty

 
Plenary Session –

A long, slow tolling echoed through the station, signifying that the next session was starting shortly, so Mumu and Pinpin cut the Earthers’ tour short and started escorting their charges back.

Mumu said that the afternoon session was being moved from the Shihayn, the Main Assembly hall of Colossus, to Aonta, the Main Debate Hall, but only Mia was required, so he was to escort Mia plus a small handful of her “Marines” to Aonta, while Pinpin was to escort the others back to their assigned quarters.

Before they split up, a large version of what an Earther would say looked like a clunky CC, was offered to Mia. The device was meant for Mia to keep in touch with her people. For Nicky, he thought of the device as a glorified World War II-era walkie-talkie. Nicky asked if it was allowable for them to use their own device (skipping, of course, the fact that Mia already had a Phase-Wave earpiece already in her ear).

Mumu squeaked in what was unmistakably laughter, and gestured at Mia’s earpiece. He said that they could continue using the device that they have been using – that was allowed, of course. He was just required to make the offer. Mia and Nicky looked at each other, chagrined.

- - - - -
(bookmark 19)

Aonta was about the same as Shihayn except that the Main Debate Hall was arranged in a circular manner, allowing the representatives to have discussions and debates. In fact, most sessions were held in the Debate Hall.

Mumu gestured to the hall’s main door, handed Mia a microphone similar to what she used earlier but wireless this time, and left he left her. He said that she needed to cross the threshold by herself. She looked at him a little quizzically as he started walking away.

“It’s a tradition,” he said, bowed and left.

She took a breath and walked through the doorway. “This could be it,” she thought, while Nicky and the other Earthers, as well as Ren, Admiral Dax and the other people in her party were escorted back to their assigned quarters. “If this goes as planned, maybe I can give all this up and pass it back on to Admiral Silverman,” she joked to herself.

As the main resource person for the discussion, Mia was asked to come in early but alone. So, except for four of her “Marines,” Mia entered the still-empty Debate Hall. She walked over and stood on a large, circular dais in the middle of the hall. A large dais slowly spun around. The speed of the turning stage was slow enough that she hardly felt it nor did she feel dizzy or disoriented. As for her “Marines,” they didn’t stand with her on the slowly-revolving stage but on the floor immediately surrounding it – one tall Marine from the Second Combined Marine/Infantry Squad, one of Dax’s personal guards, one of the Elyran fighter pilots, and one of the Arachnian scientists made up her little squad of four. They stood and faced outwards and put their hands on their sidearms, whether they be pistols or swords, and practiced “looking fierce.”

She switched the video pickup on and allowed everyone back in their quarters to see.

Nicky had set up a small macro projector to project Mia’s images into the middle of the room. The images floating in the air were coming from the tiny video cameras in Mia’s and her four Marines’ lapel pins. There were even cameras mounted in the back of her collar, and the collars of Mia’s Earther and Elyran Marines so that they’d get a choice of shots.

Nicky had all eight cameras on-line and transmitting video. He apologized that they were only two-dimensional video feeds instead of 3-D. Ren, Dax, Ben and the other Federation people looked at each other, shrugged and just accepted the amazing view of a moving image projected into empty space – yet another piece of magic from the Earthers’ seemingly-bottomless bag of tricks.

“Nicky, can you hear me,” Mia said in Elyran, relying on the translators to translate for those who couldn’t speak it.

“Five-by-five, Admiral,” Nicky said.

“Image okay?”

“Perfect.”

“How about Lady Tasha and the First Ambassador?”

“We hear you fine, Mia,” Tasha responded.

“Likewise, Admiral,” the First Ambassador responded.

“This is Bilar,” the Dixx Ambassador responded as well, although a little hesitantly. “We hear you as well. I hope I’m working this device properly. Is Admiral Dax there?”

“I’m here, my friend,” Dax said. “I’m here. Do not worry, you will get used to this. Trust me – we are old hands at this.”

Everyone, except Bilar and her people in the Dixx embassy, broke into laughter.

“I apologize for my friends, dear Bilar,” the First Ambassador said. “But we have been meeting for months in this manner. I guess my friends are a bit tired of this. But I think one last time is all right.”

“That’s fine, Ambassador,” Bilar said, laughing. “We understand.”

“Secretary-General Romarkin, Admiral Silverman,” Mia called. “Are you on-line?”

“Yes, we are, Lady Amelia,” Romarkin responded. “We are all here.”

“She called me ‘Lady Amelia,’” Mia thought, both irritated and amused. “She just had to get that in the record, the rotten, little fink.”

“Mia,” Jennifer Priestly came on. “Jerry, Phil, Mark and I, as well as the entire CETI team is on-line as well.”

“Before you ask, Bilar,” Dax interjected, “I will introduce everyone else later, and, yes, you did hear Her Excellency, Secretary-General Alexandra Romarkin, the leader of all Earth. Yes, our new friends have the ability of instantaneous communication over the void.”

“By the gods,” Bilar murmured in Dixx.

“I know, my friend,” Dax responded, also in Dixx. “But hold that for later. Let us focus on the here-and-now. We have a job to do.”

“Thank you, Admiral,” Mia said, also in Dixx, and then shifted back to Elyran. “This is about to start. If anyone have anything to say, now’s the time.”

“Actually, Mia,” Jennifer said, “I have a confession. We transmitted your speech earlier over the system network, and because of the great interest everyone has shown, there was a great clamor for us to broadcast this session as well. Live this time.”

Mia paused. “Jennifer. That’s a mistake. What if the session goes badly?”

“I know, I know, but the oppositionists have made a big deal about the nature of our dealings with the Federation. They’ve been insisting on more transparency instead of more closed-door meetings. They’ve also been threatening to file a motion to repeal the communications secrecy act despite concerns about security, and open up all the Phase-Wave bandwidths. They’re a minority, I know but they’re a very vocal minority. There is a real danger that our plans are in jeopardy, and along with that, the future of the Earth and the Federation. We have no choice, Mia.”

Mia sighed. She wasn’t one to rail against the things that she couldn’t change do, in typical Mia fashion, she decided to push on.

“All right,” Mia said. “When will this general broadcast start?”

“As soon as you signal us.”

“Okay. Stand by.”

Mia stood and waited. Belatedly, she noticed that her sword was accidentally turned off, so she switched it back on to standby mode.

In a while, the delegates had started to come into the hall. “All right, Jennifer,” she whispered. “Better start now.”

Aonta looked like a big tiered bowl, with the delegates occupying the tiers. Mia looked at each of the delegates as they came in. All of the delegates looked down at her, and she couldn’t blame them for being curious. She bowed to those that were very curious, not knowing that they would bow in return.

After everyone had settled down, the Lord Chamberlain walked in. The nearest two of Mia’s “Marines” – the Dixx and the Arachnian – drew their sidearms and interposed themselves between Mia and the Chamberlain.

The Dravidian stopped short and bowed low. Mia’s protectors re-holstered/re-sheathed their sidearms and went back to their places.

The Lord Chamberlain then continued forward and stood at the foot of the stage. At that point, it stopped spinning. Silence descended, and the Chamberlain waited.

“My Lady,” Ben whispered to Mia via her earpiece, “you are expected to bow.”

Mia turned to the Chamberlain and bowed deep in the Elyran fashion. This time, it was her turn to wait.

The Lord Chamberlain also bowed. As he did, the dais started to turn again. And as it did, something that sounded like the beginning of a rainstorm echoed in the hall. Mia looked up, and saw that everyone was applauding. She didn’t know what the implication of that was. So, she just bowed, allowing the stage to turn her around to face everyone.

Mia had to reciprocate. “In behalf of my people,” Mia said, “I thank you.”

- - - - -
(bookmark 20)

After the very specific rituals to welcome their visitor, the discussion of the speech that Mia gave began in earnest.

Certain particulars were discussed. First off was the declaration of war by the four races. One of the more junior races pinged his bell, and asked Mia to elaborate on the basis of their declaration. Mia was expecting this and again reiterated the rationale for the declaration.

Someone from a species that Mia didn’t recognize pinged and asked if they had the authority to do so, and Mia explained that the three leaders of their expedition – Admiral Dax, Princess Tasha Liaran-Kerr and the First Ambassador of the Arachnian Republic, when acting together, were empowered by their leaders to do so. As for Earth, Mia went on record that their United Nations had voted on the matter.

Another one, the representative from Eros, pinged and then asked the question about what the repercussions of the declaration were to the rest of the Federation. The First Ambassador pinged to take up that question and explained that the Dixx, Elyrans and Arachnians were expecting their fellow Federation members to just honor the covenants of the Federation. He explained that he was referring to the Federation treaties for mutual protection – that the homeworlds and colony worlds of member races will be protected against invasion or attack from external entities.

The Erocii pinged again to express the opinion that such a situation seemed unfair. Why should other races not involved in their conflict help them?

The rest of the delegates were shocked to hear that. Murmuring among the others started to build.

He pinged again. He went on to say that if they did assist, then any future possibilities of commerce with the Tirosians and Detterex would have been lost.

That triggered an explosion from the rest of the assembly, many of the delegates openly protesting. A few supported the Erocii’s view, so the argument grew. Per council rules, the tumult went unabated for about seventeen minutes. After which, sound suppression beams kicked on and everyone had to discontinue their discussion.

After another seventeen minutes, the beams switched off. Usually, that was enough to end debates before they became full-blown arguments, and in this case, it was.

Lady Tasha took up the discussion, pinged and said that the same covenants are applicable to all Federation members. If the others found themselves in the same situation, all members must answer the call. Tasha said that they would be first to provide assistance, if ever the situation was reversed.

This discussion went back and forth for a long time, with the discussion becoming more and more loud and confrontational until the representative from Star-453, who was also the sole member of the Council of Custodians among all the representatives, asked a question.

“I would like to pose a question, if I may?” He said mildly, and everyone paused to listen.

“I would like to pose the question to our guest, Lady Amelia. It seems to me that someone who is from a world not allied to the Federation may have a fresh perspective on the subject. Lady Amelia?”

Mia bowed. “My Lord,” she said.

“Do you believe it is an equitable situation, that Federation members should endeavor to protect the Elyran, Arachnian and Dixx worlds from attack even though they have not declared war on their enemies?”

Mia bowed again. “It seems to me, My Lord, that such considerations are immaterial. For us Earthers, we judge ourselves by how well we abide by the covenants we undertake, and how well we honor our commitments. If the people of the Earth become members of the great Federation, we will honor our commitments as members regardless of our opinions. If we were not prepared to do so, we should not have sued for membership.”

The robotic alien nodded.

“There you are, gentlebeings. The representative of the great warrior race of Earth has expressed an opinion that I am in agreement with. Thank you, My Lady Amelia, for your wise insights. You remind us all, and have gently tweak our collective noses about what it means to be a member of our Federation. My compliments to you.”

Mia bowed low.

“With all due respect, sir,” the Erocii said, “but our honored Lady Amelia is biased. Her race has an interest in the outcome of this discussion.”

A Daemon pinged next. She combed her very luxurious mane away from her face in order to speak into her microphone. The hair and the general features of her face reminded Mia of a male African lion. “That is a fact that is not in question, My Lord,” she said, “but another thing that cannot be questioned is that, regardless, her point of view is correct, whatever one’s sentiments of on the matter may be. I also commend the Admiral of Earth.”

She stood and bowed to Mia. Mia bowed in return.

“I therefore call for a vote,” the Daemon ambassador continued. “I move for a resolution, that the Galactic Federation acknowledge the declaration of war by the Dixx, Elyran and Arachnian nations, and declares that they have complied with the provisions of the Articles of War of the Federation, and that the Federation further resolves to honor its commitments to our fellow Federation citizens from Elyra, Dixx and Arachnia, as outlined in the Federation charter.”

This was greeted with applause from most of the representatives.

“My fellow Daemons and I express our sorrow at the loss of your comrades. May the Ancient Ones find justice for them.”

This was again greeted with applause.

“My Lady,” Mia said, “in behalf of my new friends, I thank you.” She bowed low and remained so.

This forced the entire assembly to respond in kind, and they all rose to their feet and bowed.

- - - - -
(bookmark 21)

Per the rules, as the delegate who made the motion, the Daemon ambassador conducted the vote and the resolution was voted unanimously. Clearly, some were ambivalent, but since they would be the odd man out if they didn’t vote for the resolution, they voted along with everyone, even the Erocii.

As the delegate who made the motion, it was the Daemon Ambassador’s responsibility to draft the resolution, and she said that it would be circulated among the delegates by the next day.

She then declared that this matter was resolved, and the discussion continued.

The next few questions were a discussion of the treaties that the Earth had entered into with the Elyrans, Dixx and Arachnians.

Mia outlined the main provisions of their treaties, which essentially allowed their citizens safe passage on all their worlds, and to allow them to engage in trade and commerce.

“Does that include all products, services and technologies of all four races?” one of them asked.

“Anything that any of the races are willing to trade, and are not inimical to the well-being of the other race.”

“Are there any provisions to safeguard this?”

“Yes, indeed, your excellency. All four of the races have wholly adopted the Protocols for Commerce and Trade of the Federation, which allows for equitable, free, safe and secure trading.”

“Will you be establishing a common currency or mode of exchange?”

“We will essentially be conducting a barter-trade method of commerce. Given the current problems the Federation is currently facing with inter-economy trading, we believed a barter-and-trade method will insulate us from these concerns.”

That made everyone pause for a while, and then they sort of shelved the topic.

Someone else pinged, and asked about the embassies that have been established on Earth. Mia told them about the kinds of activities the embassies have been conducting, and that the Earth had high hopes the relationship between the four races will grow. At the urging of some of the delegates, Mia took some time to discuss the Isles of Scilly, what facilities have been provided, and the fact that it was her duchy.

Someone commented that he was excited to see the islands himself. Mia said that if he would be most welcome.

Someone then pinged to ask about their treaties regarding security and mutual defense.

Mia said that they have adopted most of the provisions of the Articles of War that the Federation.

“You say most provisions. Which provisions did you not adapt?”

“The provisions that extend the same benefits to the other members of the Federation, and the provisions regarding the ‘limited protection’ clauses and conditions.”

Everyone paused at that.

Someone else pinged. “Lady Amelia,” the new speaker began, “your agreements with the Elyrans, Dixx and Arachnians seem to be faultless, and well thought out. But are you Earthers even capable of providing the level of mutual protection that is demanded by the Articles of War? I apologize for the question, but it is something that I am sure the other delegates would want to know about.”

Mia bowed. “No apologies necessary, your excellency. To answer your question, all of our populated planets and colonies have between Class Four and Class Seven planetary defense facilities. Not counting other ships, we currently have a fleet of more than one hundred and forty-three capital ships (using base-eight) equivalent to Talon-class cruisers. We will be dedicating twenty percent of this fleet to mutual defense, with the rest held in reserve.”

This was greeted with silence. Class Six was currently what Colossus’ own defenses were rated at. In fact, there were only two planets whose defenses were rated as Class Seven – the Dravidian home planet and Star-453. Who can believe that?

“We, of course, know that the Council of Custodians will need to confirm this. We are prepared for their inspection.”

That sort of ended that train of discussion.

The next one to ping was the Kembel representative. It raised the discussion of the Earthers’ application for membership. It started quizzing her if she knew the requirements for membership.

Mia replied yes, and quoted the beginning preamble of the charter of the Chamber of Migration and Peerage. She then outlined the basic steps for processing a membership application, and acknowledged that it was indeed a lengthy process. However, she explained that a probationary member status may be awarded by the Council of Custodians pending the results of the application.

She was then asked if she knew how the Council went about declaring a probationary membership.

Mia then explained the rationale for probationary membership – that a temporary membership may be granted if a race would be able to provide resources, technology or other things that may be of great value to the Federation. Mia then expressed the idea that this is not necessarily an inequitable kind of situation since the prospective member would enjoy all the privileges of a full-fledged member except that they cannot be on any board, council, committee or other governing body of the Federation, and cannot have representation.

The alien then asked if Earthers are ready for this.

Mia explained that they were ready for the representatives of the Council and the Chamber to come and do their examination.

The Dravidian, Cor, then pinged. “I have to ask what do Earthers have to offer the great Federation?”

The other delegates reacted to that.

“I am sure the Custodians will be able to tell the Ambassador after they have completed their examination,” Mia replied

The Dravidian would not let it go. “Will this include the Earthers’ instantaneous communication technology? Or information on the Curtain of Light?”

“That is not for me to say.”

“I would put this on the record, that the Dravidian Republics would not be in favor of probationary status for your Earth if these were not made available to us.”

“As I have said, Your Excellency, that is not up to me. It is up to the Council of Custodians to negotiate with Earth and determine what they may be. It is improper for me to make any premature announcements.”

The Dravidian was surprised to be receiving backtalk from this Earther. “Are you saying you have not been empowered to commit your Earth to an agreement? If not, then why are we wasting our time on you?”

This caused another explosion among the delegates.

Mia, clearly feeling antagonized, kept quiet, and waited for the hubbub to die down. When there was silence, she answered the Dravidian.

“Your Excellency, to answer your questions – yes, I have been empowered to negotiate with the Federation, and am empowered to commit the Earth to any treaties, covenants or agreements. And I believe you are not wasting your time.”

The Dravidian was more than surprised. This Earther was not being intimidated.

After a moment, he responded. “My question, Admiral, was that why are we wasting our time?”

Mia bowed. “My apologies, Your Excellency. I did understand your question. However, I do not agree with the premise of your question. Therefore I cannot answer that question.”

“Premise? What do you mean? Perhaps your command of Elyran is not as well as you think.”

Mia bowed again. “I am sorry Your Excellency is having trouble understanding me. If I may use an example. It is like I asked Your Excellency, ‘why, sir, have you not stopped stealing from your neighbors?’”

The Dravidian stood in anger. “This is an outrage! How dare you say such a thing? We have never stolen anything, nor will we ever steal anything from anyone!”

Mia bowed very low. “I am sorry that my words have given hurt. I only said it as an example. I, too, do not believe that the honorable Dravidians have stolen from their neighbors. But as you so violently disagreed with the premise of my question, so do I vehemently disagree with your question. We are not wasting this honorable body’s time.”

The Dravidian stood, with mouth agape. And the rest of the assembly clapped and cheered the Earther. Rarely has anyone stood up against a Dravidian in public and taken them down at their own game.

Mia then bowed very low, and waited for the Dravidian to respond. After a long moment, knowing he had no choice, the Dravidian responded and bowed as well, although his bow was quite shallow.

The Assembly’s applause echoed in the hall as they roared their approval and congratulations.

The representative from Star-453, who was also a member of the Council of Custodians pinged for attention.

“Well said, Lady Amelia. My congratulations. You do your fellow Earthers proud.”

He stood and addressed the rest of the assembly. “My Lords and Ladies, never in the recent history of the Federation has someone such as the Lady Amelia come and show us the true blessing and power that is the basis of our united races. Based on the performance of our Admiral from Earth, by the power vested in me as a member of the Council of Custodians, I am hereby granting the status of probationary membership to the Earther System.”

This was greeted with high acclamation. Cor knew that it was in the Ambassador’s power to do this so he decided not to raise any objections at this time. He subtly signaled the Erocii Ambassador to not react as well.

“My Lords and Ladies, I hereby present you Lady Amelia, representing the newest member of the Galactic Federation of Free Races, Earth!”

The din that echoed through the hall did not die away for a long time.

Spreading the Word –

The mission that they had set out with was largely accomplished, even though the Federation had not supported their declaration of war with a matching declaration of their own. But Mia and all the others knew that particular one was a long shot. Back onboard the Fifth Fleet ships and in the Elyran, Dixx and Arachnian embassy offices, they were all flipping for joy, figuratively-speaking at least. And as soon as the relays hit the Dixx and Elyran ships still on the way, the celebrations onboard were even more boisterous.

Back on Earth and in all Her colonies, the celebrations were less boisterous but were almost as joyous. Video on their arrival rites and reception, Mia’s speech, and the following plenary session, were transmitted in full, but the plenary session was artfully switched from camera to camera to maximize the dramatic impact. They had not had the same opportunity to do so with the footage of their arrival nor with Mia’s speech since they got their footage from Colossus’ Protocol Office.

The noisy minority that had been challenging the Secretary-General had finally been silenced, not because of the facts of the situation but mostly because of Mia herself. Her popularity among the population had been going from strength to strength, and it seemed insurmountable now, especially with this latest new victory for hers, even with the looming prospect of war.

It was largely the rabble-rousers’ fault since they insisted the coverage of the Fifth Fleet’s arrival be transmitted back through the general Phase-Wave frequencies. With the reception of Mia’s speech, both by the aliens and the people back home, it seemed Mia could do no wrong. And since Romarkin and Silverman were openly affiliated to Mia, it would be political suicide to go against them.

The race’s leadership had been coalescing from quite some time already. Even the rivalry between the old eastern and western alliances had all but disappeared. But Mia’s speech was the final catalyst that forged a true unified voice from the various political parties and leaderships of the different Earth groups, nations and colonies. Never mind that it was actually mostly just for political expedience. What the people will remember was that the voice of all Earth was now unified for real.

Some will later say that the effect of Mia’s speech was analogous to that of the invention of star travel to the Tirosians, or the coming of the Messiah to the Elyrans, that it provided the last step to finally unify them and achieve racial unity. Most political analysts and historians will argue that it actually didn’t give the “final push.” They firmly believed that, like Dixx and so many other races, it was an eventuality that would have happened in its own time,” that any system-wide event would have triggered it. If at all, Mia was just at the right place at the right time.

From then on, with the absence of any significant opposition, most of the programs of the government had an easy time being executed, and though debate between the Earth nations and colonies continued to be as contentious as before, and bills and resolutions were still difficult to pass (even more now, since now there were new concerns and topics of contention), the length of time to debate, discuss and vote were not unduly extended (filibustering and delay tactics were rarely done now), and once voting was concluded, the population got behind whatever it was and the Earthers pushed on.

- - - - -
(bookmark 22)

With regards Mia’s speech and the just-concluded plenary session, there were many points of clarification that needed to be made, so Mia, Nick and Sahsha onboard Colossus conducted Phase-Wave interviews with the major networks, with some of the interviews being fielded by Ren and Dax, in their capacities as Fifth Fleet crew, of course. It went a long way to clarify things for the Earth population.

A few of the questions raised had to do with how the Federation home planets would be informed of the events that have happened, and what would happen next. Dax said that it would conceivably take several months, in the case of some worlds, maybe even years, before they get the news since information is sent via courier ships.

After that, each individual race’s leadership will have to inform Colossus and their Federation ambassadors, via courier ship again, and from there, the Federation, as a body, can decide on the next steps. And this will probably take longer than just informing the homeworlds.

Ren said that, unfortunately, the Federation was not familiar with Phase-Wave technology. Earth can assist by transmitting the messages using their magical Phase-Wave, or EarthForce can ferry Federation people to their homeworlds using their faster ships, but, as probationary members, Earthers would not be allowed to offer, or even suggest to offer, assistance.

That brought up some interesting questions about Federation procedures and protocol. As the group’s de-facto expert on Federation history and politics, Ren fielded that. He began by saying that he was very impressed with the Earthers’ general level of knowledge of Federation rules, procedures and traditions, and they only need some polish and some more information about the arcane details that non-members would not know about, and learn the nuances of what it is to become a Federation member. He was confident, however, that they would pick them up very quickly. For now, he answered the curious questions of the Earthers.

When they were through with all the interviews, and had already moved back onboard Shepherd, Dax, ever the strategist, had a brainstorm. Since there was no information discussed that was confidential or strategic in nature, it was Dax’s suggestion to have these interviews “leaked.” That way, the rest of Colossus would pick up on how up-to-date the Earthers were, that they weren’t dealing with provincial outbacks or rubes, and were as sophisticated as most Federation citizens. And this will again bring home the fact that Earthers had instantaneous communications, and that it was called “Phase-Wave.”

That, and that the Earthers were open to assist getting word back to the homeworlds.

- - - - -
(bookmark 23)

In order to engineer the “leak,” the Earthers asked for assistance from the Protocol Office to send three data cubes back to the Elyran, Dixx and Arachnian missions.

A message gig pulled up to the Shepherd Moon, and two Telcontari, their old friends Mumu and Pinpin again, were conducted to the ship’s bridge.

Knowing that everything that they would see and hear would probably be recorded, O’Connell ordered general quarters, and asked the Second Combined Marine/Infantry Squad into armor, and to escort the Telcontari to the bridge. She had also ordered all Elyran and Dix “Marines” into armor as well, and to stand post with the Second Squad at each of the major bulkhead airlocks leading from the landing deck to the bridge.

She had also ordered runners to ferry supplies and materials from the quartermaster’s to the various section chiefs. The section chiefs were puzzled why they were getting office supplies they didn’t ask for so they sent them back.

To the two diminutive Telcontari, it felt like they had stepped onboard what was a busy ship, with the Elyrans and Dixx fully integrated into their crew complement.

When they stepped onboard the bridge, there were several Elyrans, Dixx and Arachnians mixing freely with the Earthers, and the bridge was full of coordinated chaos – control panels and screens displaying incomprehensible symbols and glyphs. In the style of Dravidian, Dixx, Elyran, Tirosian and Detterex ships, a large view screen dominated their bridge. On it was displayed an image of Colossus, with half of it looking like a wire-frame schematic. They noticed it wasn’t a static projection but a live display given there were small figures walking around the transparent half.

The Telcontari had to blink several times because of the unaccustomed number of flashing lights and bright computer screens. There was also a continuous susurration of sound made up of Earther speak and a little Elyran. Sitting in the middle, in what looked like the main command position was the Lady Amelia, clearly the center of all this activity.

The two made a beeline for her, and bowed low – the proper Telcontari thing to do: introduce themselves to the leader before doing anything else.

Instead of bowing as well, Lady Amelia stood and held her hand out.

Having been briefed beforehand, the two knew to respond by extending their hand as well, and the Admiral shook their hand. They smiled and squeaked in the simple pleasure of being acknowledged by the Earther queen, and to actually experience a “handshake” from her.

Mia, playing the role to the hilt, excused herself, said that she was busy, and directed her second-in-command. She signaled to O’Connell, who stepped up and saluted. Officiously, Mia instructed her to assist their visitors, and then turned back to her “work.”

O’Connell then shook hands with them as well and introduced herself. She handed them tree identical data cubes saying they were to be delivered to the Elyran, Dixx and Arachnian missions. She then said that Admiral Dax, Princess Ren and some of the Arachnians also had some correspondence to be delivered.

The two bowed to acknowledge the instructions, whereupon an Arachnian sporting its Earth uniform of a bright-blue vest and a brassard stepped up.

The Arachnian bowed and said that he had some correspondence that needed to be delivered to the First Ambassador.

The two bowed and accepted yet another data cube, but this one had a diplomatic seal tied around it. Pinpin gestured to the brassard and curiously asked what it was.

The Arachnian explained that it had his EarthForce rank and name printed in Earther English so that people could easily identify who and what he was. He explained that he was a Captain in the Fifth Fleet, and was one of the officers assigned to communication and astrogation.

The two murmured their awe at that, and asked how he ended up as an Earther officer.

He explained that he was now off-duty as his shift had just ended. He was glad to tell them and offered to bring them to the offices of Admiral Ren and Admiral Dax so that they could give them their own packages for delivery to Colossus.

The two accepted with gratitude. They bowed to O’Connell, who responded with a bow of her own, and they bowed to Lady Amelia, who responded by “waving goodbye” – yet another new thing they had learned. They hugged each other and giggled.

Once the Arachnian and the two Telcontari had walked out of the bridge, everyone stopped talking.

“Thank God,” O’Connell said, and everyone burst out into laughter.

“Okay, everyone,” she said, smiling. “Hope we put on a good show. Relax and terminate all diagnostics and diagnostic sweeps. Shut down all non-essential programs and displays.” Everyone applauded and laughed.

Many of the bright displays were shut down, and the unnecessary lighting was dimmed back down to normal. O’Connell had ordered all bridge diagnostic routines to be executed just as the little gig from Colossus landed, and changed the normally staid bridge into a place full of bright displays and blinking lights.

To assist in the charade, Mia had also ordered her navigation chief to conduct a briefing on astrogation processes for their Elyran, Dixx and Arachnian officers. Hopefully, this would give the impression that Shepherd’s crew was surfeit with Elyrans, Dixx and Arachnians.

“Beth,” Mia said to O’Connell,” here’s your chair.” She got up from the command chair and started walking to the bridge’s main door. “Keep the Marines at the airlocks and keep the, ummm, delivery of supplies going. If anyone needs me, I’ll be in my office.” She waved to everyone and walked off the bridge.

“Aye, Skipper.” Grinning, O’Connell turned to her intercom and sent out her instructions to keep the farce going.

- - - - -
(bookmark 24)

After being escorted to Admiral Dax’s and “Admiral” Ren’s offices, they received the small, sealed personal letters that they gave. They received the packages, bowed and went back to the landing deck with the Arachnian and their security people, which they found were called “Marines.”

They bowed to the Arachnian, got into their little gig and waited while it was winched out into open space. From there, they made their way straight back to the Colossus.

The Lord Chamberlain of Colossus called them even while they were still far from the station. He asked them what they received and Mumu explained that they received four data cubes and two sealed diplomatic pouches.

“Are all of them sealed?”

“No, My Lord,” Pinpin said. Only the packages from the Elyrans, Dixx and Arachnians had seals. The three data cubes from the Earthers are not.”

“In that case, per the rules, those data cubes are not confidential. Copy their contents immediately.”

The two looked at each other.

“But, My Lord,” Pinpin said, “I’m sure the Earthers meant for their recipients to be the only one to…”

“Young one, does it not say in our protocols that for the confidentiality of such messages, they must be clearly marked as such, or sealed, otherwise copies can be distributed to any official representative to the Federation who asks for a copy.”

“Yes, My Lord, but the Earthers might not be aware of the protocols…”

“Their ignorance is not my concern. As officers of the Protocol Office, it should not be your concern as well. Perform your duty. Do as I say.”

The two looked at each other. Strictly speaking, the Lord Chamberlain was correct. They did as they were told, and made a duplicate for him.

“Our Lord Chamberlain is correct,” Pinpin said to Mumu as their little gig’s computer started the copying. “But if the Dravidians get the information in these cubes, the other missions may be put at a disadvantage because they are not able to share in the information…”

Mumu nodded in agreement. “… and that is against the protocols as well…” He looked thoughtful. “Don’t tell me,” Mumu giggled. “I think I know what you’re about to suggest.”

Pinpin shrugged. “We are just fulfilling our role as protocol officers, after all. Even Our Lord Chamberlain will not fault us for doing our duty, and help him to not break the rules.” He pointed to their gig’s comm panel. “We have very little time before we dock. I suggest you start contacting the various delegations. I will slow the progress of our gig, and will take care of the duplication.”

Mumu nodded and started making calls.

- - - - -
(bookmark 25)

Several hours later, the Shepherd Moon’s comm officer called O’Connell to say that he had the Kembel ambassador on the line, and it was asking to speak with her.

“Here we go,” O’Connell muttered, sent a message to Nicky and took the call.

Several hours later, O’Connell and Nick had fielded several dozen similar calls, all asking about Phase-Wave, and if they could help them send messages. She explained that they can indeed help transmit messages to their homeworlds in real-time, but only messages up to two-minutes long, and she explained why. That made them rethink their plans. As expected, they would call later and say that they intend to a message that would include a compressed-data encrypted message.

O’Connell would then respond that they were familiar with most of the data-encryption algorithms used by the Federation, and will require about ten minutes to compress a three-hour message, which, by their calculation, is the longest compressed message that would fit in a two-minute transmission.

After a short moment, the person on the line will agree with that computation (obviously having taken time to do some computing as well to confirm her numbers), and would sign off to call again later.

Obviously, they’d prefer to do the encrypting on their own, but encrypting a three-hour message would usually take them about two weeks. So when they call back, they’d say they have their recorded message ready for encryption. Typically, it would be made up of a recording of Mia’s speech, a full recording of the plenary session, the joint declaration of the Federation as drafted by the Daemons plus recordings of Dax’s transmissions and a long voice report from the ambassador to the his homeworld.

O’Connell would explain that it would cost 11,610 Elyran Crowns (in Base-8) or their equivalent in any other Federation-recognized currency to transmit the message, and the encryption would cost 1,760. (Later on, O’Connell would ask why the oddly-specific amounts, and Nick would explain that 1,760 in Base-10 would be 1,000, and 11,610 would be 5,000. It was a subtle way of communicating to them that Earthers preferred to deal in their own numbers and measurements).

Being charged would surprise them but since the fees were not large, they’d pay up. A long queue of shuttles, sloops and gigs would start pulling up by the Shepherd Moon. O’Connell had to deploy a picket line of Mud Turtles to maintain a perimeter, and Mia had to borrow Cobras from the other ships to help.

The little ships were winched onboard five at a time, and the operation to get them onboard and exchange packages took about twenty minutes. More than eighty boats would take a long time so they processed their visitors according to their consumables. The following day, Shepherd Moon started their transmissions.

- - - - -
(bookmark 26)

Shepherd Moon Transmission 1423/231/1231-22, to Elyra Prime:

“T’Chahn, honored peers and fellow citizens, I am Princess Tasha the Forty-Third, by Grace of the Messiah, of the Great Plains of the Kingdoms of Elyra and Her Dominions beyond the Rim, and leader of your forces to the Earth System. I bring tidings from Colossus, but I require you to commence recording my transmission in twelve seconds. Stand by… stand by… Compressed message commences now!”

- - - - -
(bookmark 27)

Throughout the galactic arm, consternation spread throughout the Federation colonies and homeworlds, but they had responsibilities, which took precedence over everything.

Per Federation treaty rules, the homeworlds needed to prepare for deployment of ships for the defense of the Elyran, Dixx and Arachnian homeworlds. Each needed to commit to send at least one capital ship to one of the three home worlds, as per the Daemon-drafted resolution. As to where they were to send them, the resolution was clear. The result was that over fourteen ships (or twelve in Base-10) were on their way to each of the Elyran, Dixx and Arachnian homeworlds and some of their major colonies.

The homeworlds then sent high-speed courier ships to their colonies to spread the word.

As for the Elyrans, Dixx and Arachnians, the message was slightly different. After they received their transmissions, high-speed couriers were sent to their colony worlds, as pre-arranged, to trigger their plans for defense and invasion, but with updates care of Tasha, Bilar and the First Ambassador.

With the news of Federation ships being sent to their homeworlds, the decision was to beef up the protection for the colonies. Ships from the homeworlds were immediately dispatched.

An offensive against the Tiros and Detterex themselves were still being planned, but at this point that was still in the air.

They knew that the Earthers were committing their entire Fifth Fleet of seven capital ships, including the Shepherd Moon. Dax, as the strategist for the “Earth Alliance,” had decided to split the Earther ships and to deploy four of them to beef up the picket line around Arachnia. Arachnians had the smallest and weakest navy among the Federation, weaker even than the Telcontari, and they needed the assist. The other three would be deployed to Elyra since, given the bad blood between the Detterex and the Elyrans, it was expected that Elyra would bear the brunt of the attacks. Furthermore, it was a strategic: Star Harbor was in orbit around the planet, and the Elyran fleet, the largest single naval fleet in the Federation, uses it as their homeport. Knocking it out would seriously compromise the Federation war machine.

The hard fact to accept, however, was that, despite the new status of Earth, no ships will be sent to Earth. Until all the member races have sent acknowledgment of Earth’s status from their home planets, and they have had a chance to reallocate their resources in consideration of this, Earth cannot expect any assistance. Fleet Admiral Silverman therefore adjusted his plans accordingly. If Silverman was being truthful, however, this didn’t make much of a difference to him. The ships that have arrived from Elyra, Dixx and Arachnia didn’t impress him much, and he preferred to have Earth FTLs. As it stands, at the moment, he now had seventeen Type-Twos and two Type-Ones available, all of them manned by experienced crews. He was expecting five more to be returning from a short shakedown cruise shortly, and there was another five scheduled to be completed soon. Earth’s FTL Fleet was now made up of seventeen Type-Twos, thirteen Type-Ones, and the refitted DSC Shepherd Moon. This was supplemented by a dozen of the older pre-FTL ships now assigned to the Second Fleet, and, in a pinch, he could recommission the now-beached pre-FTLs parked down in New Copernicus. If he didn’t need to spread his resources too much, he knew he could put up a credible defense of the homeworlds.

Now, it was a waiting game, waiting for all the ships to be in place, which would roughly be in an Earther month or so.

Meanwhile, the Elyran and Dixx ships with their Fourth Fleet escorts were nearing Colossus, but were still several weeks away. Nevertheless, they were appraised of all the latest developments and knew that they were destined for their homeworlds. It was decided that the Fifth Fleet would wait for their arrival before departing.

In that short, intervening time, Mumu and Pinpin assisted the Earthers to get the necessary licenses, patents, registration and other paperwork to get their delegation up and running. They also purchased all the necessary references, manuals and documents they needed to get themselves familiarized with the rules, regulations and processes of Colossus in order to master the necessary red tape. They also talked with the Office of Habitation and Lodging and rented a very small suite of offices located at the very end of the deck where all the administrative offices were. Because Earth’s status was still probationary, the Earthers were not allowed to put up an actual “mission” on the deck that everyone called “Embassy Row.” Instead, they were only allowed to have an “office.”

They were given what everyone thought of as the worst available space in Colossus, but at least it had the virtue of being very cheap, and the lease was valid for roughly twenty years.

The distinction between “office,” “embassy” and “mission” was totally lost to O’Connell, but she just accepted it and facilitated the setup of their new office. She had all the life systems specialists and quartermasters’ officers of all the crews of the Fifth Fleet to collaborate, and to start re-outfitting their new “digs,” as Nick called them.

Their offices were near the “south pole” of the station, where the cargo airlocks were, and was actually under one of the “gravity booms” of the station, which made the space the least ideal anywhere on Colossus (gravity booms were like towers attached to the hull. Their position and height helped to balance the spin of the station). The people who showed them the space apologized its tininess (it was roughly 1,600 livable square feet, whereas the standard embassy office was at least 10,000.). Nick asked why they couldn’t get one of the larger available offices that they were told about, but the little Telcontari couldn’t answer.

Chief Haskell asked what they could do to physically spruce up their place, but the office people said that they could do virtually anything so long as they don’t affect the environmental systems of the station or the spin-induced gravity. He asked about the boom, and it was explained that the boom wasn’t necessary anymore since the thrusters of the station had moved it to its present relative position around the Zeos System’s primary centuries ago. If the Earthers wanted to remove it, that would be fine.

They had also been referred to several sub-contractor companies that specialized in retrofitting living and office spaces on Colossus (it was a necessary service given the many different environmental requirements of the delegates), but they decided not to ask for their help – between the engineering crews of their seven ships and their stores of spares and supplies, they said they could manage on their own.

The Telcontari clerk from the Office of Habitation and Lodging shrugged, and said that was their option.

The Earthers applied for the necessary construction permits and, under Haskell’s direction, large prefabricated living units were towed to where their new office was. The boom was taken off and towed away, and in it’s place, the living units were grafted onto where it used to be. Twenty prefabricated living units were stacked on top of each other, and from the outside, the living units looked almost like the boom it replaced, and it did not change the gravitational geometry of Colossus at all.

The effect of their construction was that, when entering the new offices of the Earthers, one would enter what amounted to a reception area. From there, they would enter an elevator which could bring them down to any of the twelve “floors” that contained offices, meeting and conference areas, libraries and other rooms. The other four floors were dormitory and guest areas, and environmental and “equipment” areas. That gave the Earthers the equivalent of over 30,000 square feet of usable office space, with each floor having a head clearance of twelve feet per “floor.” Theirs was now officially the largest living space in the station.

And, though it wasn’t an embassy, it was treated as sovereign territory of Earth, with all the implications that had.

It was good that they had charged for the transmissions, otherwise they wouldn’t have had the cash to pay for all the paperwork. They had collected close to 500,000 Crowns, and had only used up around 15,000. They had also pre-paid their twenty-year lease, which cost them 240,000 Crowns, which left them about half of their original collection. They had asked Mumu and Pinpin some assistance to open an account with the Paymasters’ Office onboard Colossus with their remaining cash, the closest that the Federation government had to a bank on the station. True, the interest rate was very low, but they were okay with that – they weren’t really looking to make money, after all. Otherwise, they’d either have to keep the cash themselves, or deposit it with one of the Dravidian or Erocii banks. And they didn’t trust the Dravidians and Erocii much at the moment.

- - - - -
(bookmark 28)

As soon as their offices were ready, they started receiving a long line of visitors that came calling to say hello and to consult. Mia drafted the seven captains of her ships to take care of the visitors, and the captains foisted off the job to their staff.

After some effusive hellos and t’chahns and a little chitchat, the visitors would usually extend their welcome and to extend offers to “assist” the Earth delegation in any way they could. It wasn’t too different from how politicians behaved back on Earth, and the Earthers were able to properly deal with them. However, it was clear that they had a hidden agenda.

No one could blame the aliens, of course. The idea of instantaneous communications was so powerful, especially with such a widely spread community. The benefits of such technology couldn’t be overstated. But what had become obvious to everyone was that the Earthers were not ready to share it. Many understood the reason. After all, in a situation where they needed every advantage they could get, many agreed that keeping the Phase-Wave technology under their belt was only a proper strategy.

Of course, it was an article of faith among the delegates that the Earthers’ advantage was a temporary one. Eventually, the technology would be discovered, given that the Federation knew about its existence now. After all, every other technology has been. So, many didn’t push as much as they wished they could. However, when the Dravidians came over, it was different.

First off, they came in full force. Twelve Dravidians crowded into the office, obviously thinking to intimidate the Earthers

Councilor Cor, The Dravidians’ ambassador, bellowed and demanded to see the Earth ambassador. Prince Ren, who was there at the time, commented that Earthers do not have an ambassador yet as their membership was still probationary.

That took away some of the wind from Cor’s sails, but he persisted. He questioned the presence of Ren as well as several other Elyrans, Dixx and Arachnians, and Ren explained that he was part of EarthForce, as was Admiral Dax and several others from their expedition to Earth. He also asked the ambassador what specific rule said that they were not allowed to be there.

Cor ignored that and demanded to see Mia. Ren shrugged, went to an intercom and spoke to someone. He then pressed a button and an elevator door opened. He gestured Cor into the elevator, and all twelve of the Dravidians crowded inside. The door closed and the elevator started moving down.

From the large glassite window, they could see the elevator passing six levels. Cor didn’t know that their office even had levels, let alone this many. At the seventh one, the elevator opened and they found themselves in a large conference room where Mia was conversing with Admiral Dax and the First Ambassador.

Mia looked up. “Ahhh, Councilor Cor, a pleasant day to you. Welcome.”

“Lady Amelia, I will speak with you alone. Excuse these two.”

Mia raised an eyebrow at the Dravidian’s rudeness. She shrugged apologetically at her friends, and the two walked to the elevator.

Without being asked, Cor sat across from Mia and made himself comfortable. Mia, being a good host, poured a large goblet of Krahnng and set it in front of him.

As Mia took her seat, Cor’s companions stood behind him with weapons at the ready.

Mia raised a suspicious eye at that. She picked up her CC and spoke into it. In moments, two squads of Marines in full armor came in. One squad deployed themselves around the room, and the other stood behind the Dravidians with weapons drawn. The ominous clicks indicated that their weapons were just armed.

“If you wish to speak to me,” Mia said, “I would appreciate it if your friends left us. There are refreshments available at the second level. Perhaps my Marines can escort them there?”

Cor looked at Mia’s Marines, and after a few moments, he nodded to his people. The Marines accompanied the Dravidians to the elevator. They had to go up in two groups, but eventually they were alone.

As soon as they were alone, Cor pulled out his sidearm. As he did, half a dozen laser lights focused on Cor’s weapon, lighting it up with several red laser dots.

Cor, seeing this, gently put the weapon on the table. A Marine came out and took it away.

“Your weapon will be returned to you before you leave,” Mia said, putting away her CC. As to who she was talking with, she didn’t say. She turned to the Dravidian. “Perhaps we can talk like civilized beings now? What has brought you here?”

“The Dravidians will purchase from you your Phase-Wave technology.”

“I see. I’m afraid that you have wasted your time, Councilor. Earth Government is not prepared to share our technology at this time.”

“No! I demand you give us your technology. Name your price.”

“I am deeply sorry, but my hands are tied. I cannot.”

“Then we will trade. We have unique technologies of our own, as well as resources and information you will undoubtedly want. What we want in return is your Phase-Wave.”

“There is nothing you can offer, Councilor.”

“The covenants of the Federation demand that you treat all races equally! It is not to be permitted!”

“What do you mean?”

“It is unfair that your so-called Earth Alliance enjoy the benefits of your Phase-Wave while the rest of the Federation have to do without!”

“I believe you are mistaken.”

“Your ignorance of the protocols is to be expected. Young ones without a mentor will always have difficulty navigating the morass of council relations and procedures. You Earthers would do well to establish a relationship with a senior race such as us.”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” Mia chuckled. “We have reviewed all the available material the Office of Protocol have provided us, and we have adhered to all of the Federation’s rules. Also, we have indeed affiliated ourselves with several senior races. I am sure you have met our Elyran, Dixx and Arachnian friends. They have been greatly helping us so far.”

The Dravidian looked at Mia in offended surprise and couldn’t speak.

“Furthermore, as probationary members, we are exempted from many rules and conventions, and that includes conventions on trade and commerce. Surely a member of a senior race would be aware of that.”

“Such impertinence cannot be tolerated! Watch your words, youngling. I will have the Lord Chamberlain chastise you. Know your betters.”

“There is no need to tell the Chamberlain. I am having our conversation recorded. My adjutant is now parsing out a letter of protest to the Lord Chamberlain, protesting the high-handed manner by which the Dravidian ambassador has treated me and my fellow Earthers, and will request a redress.”

“But… you cannot! It is not allowed…”

“Per the two hundred seventh protocol of the Office of Propriety and Etiquette, I mean three hundred seventeen in Elyran Base-8, we are allowed to record conversations provided that we are one of the parties in that conversation. “I am sure you are aware of that as well.”

After an initial expression of surprise, Cor calmed down. After all, the Lord Chamberlain was a fellow Dravidian. It couldn’t go that far. But Mia’s next words started to worry him.

“Also, per protocol,” Mia continued, “I am also going to send a copy of our protest to the Council of Custodians. Per the Council’s standing rules, we are, in fact, required to do so with things such as this.”

Cor look chagrined. Actually, he didn’t know that. There have been no probationary members the whole time he was the Dravidian ambassador. He needed to study up on the rules.

Since he didn’t know, he decided not to react to that.

Mia continued. “Although Earth’s treaty with Elyra, Dixx and Arachnia fully gives us the right to share our technology with them without sharing it with all Federation members, for the record, we have not shared the secret of Phase-Wave with them. Therefore, regardless, you have no basis for your complaint.”

Cor looked at her with increasing desperation.

“I must say, Councilor,” Mia went on, “we have been told that Dravidians are one of the most courteous among the races in the Federation, that their considerateness and politeness is known throughout the planets, and their behavior is beyond reproach. I can only hope that your behavior is an anomaly.”

Cor sighed. His colleagues had said to not use the usual blustery, arrogant tactic that Dravidians normally use to intimidate neophytes, but he had not paid attention. Now they have to pay for his mistake.

“I apologize if I gave offense,” Cor said contritely, turning on the legendary Dravidian charm, but it was too late. The artifice of it was all so obvious given his previous behavior. “I had not meant to overstep my bounds. I hope you accept my apology.”

Cor waited for Mia to react. If it could be on record that Mia accepted his apology… But she wasn’t talking.

After a while, Cor continued. “I have also come to extend the welcome of the Dravidian people, and an offer to be of assistance to our new brothers, as they integrate into the great Federation family…”

Even with his friendly smile, his words fell flat, and Mia did deign to respond in kind. Instead, she was cold and distant.

“As the temporary representative of my government,” Mia said, “the Earth officially says thank you, and acknowledges the ambassador’s welcome.”

Mia’s cold and distant words were too obvious for him to miss. He decided to switch tactics, and resort to some pleasant chitchat.

“Your embassy office is quite pleasant. It is lucky that you had brought the necessary materials for the construction. We are all amazed at the quickness of the construction.”

Mia just looked at him coldly. “Yes,” she said.

“They are quite luxurious, actually. The idea to construct structures stacked one on top of the other to increase living space vertically – the idea is creative. I am wondering why you had thought to revamp your new offices so heavily.”

Mia shrugged. “We had no choice. The space we were allocated was very small.”

“I am sure the Office of Habitation and Lodging could have found alternate spaces. I, in fact, know of some spaces available near the Dravidian offices. You should have told us – we could have assisted you. Or we could have asked our people to help you in your construction. Several Dravidian companies that specialize in customizing living structures are based here on Colossus.”

Mia just looked at him. “I am sure we would not have been able to afford your fees.”

Cor gulped. “I am sure we would not need to charge you. Some kind of arrangement could have been made to waive the customary fees.”

“I would not want to owe any Dravidian a favor. Most in the Federation know the reputation of Dravidians when it comes to debts.”

Cor looked shocked at the implied insult. Eventually, he got the message, and took his leave, this time more politely than when he came in. Mia used her CC and several armed and armored Marines came out to frog march him to the elevator. Before he stepped in, though, one of the Marines handed him a listening device that he had accidentally “dropped.”

After the elevator closed, Mia sighed. “This is hard,” she thought, and couldn’t wait for the real diplomats to arrive and take over.

Within the day, the letter she had threatened Cor with was sent to the Lord Chamberlain and the Council of Custodians. Mia sent it via official messenger from the Protocol Office. Again, she had “neglected” to put a seal on the message, so the contents of the letter had “inadvertently” leaked.

With incontrovertible video proof, the Chamberlain had no choice but to publicly chastise Councilor Cor during the following session, and required him to pay reparations. Many thought it was a little improper for him to chastise Cor personally instead of chastising the entire Dravidian Mission, and that the payment of reparations was a dodge. After all, what was money to the Dravidians. But then 200,000 Crowns (or 108,807 in Base-10) was a serious amount of money. The Chamberlain said that was due to the gravity of the Councilor’s infraction. Cor was required to publicly apologize to Mia as well.

From then on, those that believed the Earthers were nothing but clueless provincials changed their minds, and paradoxically, the queue of visitors to the Earther offices had become longer.

There was one beneficial thing that Cor’s mistake had started: being surrounded by military escorts and security staff fell out of fashion, as well as the carrying of arms.

Invitations to visit were left at the Earthers’ offices, and Mia and Nick took them up on it, especially from those that were considered underdogs in the assembly. They had a good time getting to know these friendly and well-meaning sophonts, especially since everyone was bending over backwards to show their friendliness and affability. They wouldn’t want to do what Cor did.

Mia had also accepted invitations from the more known and powerful races, such as those from Star-453, the Daemons, and others. Of course, they had standing invitations from Ren, Bilar and the First Ambassador, and Mia and Nick were often at their embassy offices as often as they were over at their own. This only helped cement the idea of the “Earth Alliance” that many now wanted to be part of.

One thing that Mia and Nick did during their visits was to return devices that were “accidentally” left in their offices. They handed them over themselves so that it wasn’t embarrassing. As for transmitting devices, they were disabled right after they were brought into the reception area, and any sensors that tried to see inside of the offices just bounced off. It just frustrated everyone. As for the Earthers, if the delegates found out how easy it was for the Earthers eavesdrop into their own offices, it would cause utter consternation.

As for those that didn’t extend invitations, Nick had Mumu and Pinpin pick up and deliver little sealed parcels to them containing the devices that they had “accidentally” left. A friendly little paper note was included, explaining that the devices were discovered left in the office, and were just being returned to them.

Truly, everyone was now aware of the new beings in their midst.

 
Shepherd Moon, Chapter 21: From the Far Side of the Sun

 
Top-Up -

“This is Reena, shieldmaiden of the royal Elyran flagship Talon, battleship of the Earth’s Fifth Fleet. I am calling in behalf of EarthForce. Greetings to all of Colossus and the Galactic Federation of Free Races, and request permission to approach.”

“This is Colossus Control to Talon. T’Chahn, shieldmaiden. From all of Colossus, welcome to the Zeos system. But our detection systems do not see you yet. Are you ship-maneuverable?”

“I am aware of that, Colossus. We are still about fifty Earth hours out. You are receiving my signal real-time via a radio relay from the Earth Embassy. Please inform the Lady Tasha of our impending arrival.”

“We understand, Lady Reena. We shall be contacting the princess shortly.”

“Thank you Colossus. Reena of the Talon signing off.”

- - - - -
(bookmark 29)

The arrival of Talon and the other ships wasn’t going to be met with the same pomp and pageantry that the Shepherd Moon and her six ships received. Many assumed this was due to the machinations of Councilor Cor, who was rapidly becoming one of the Earthers “favorite” people, but that didn’t stop the Fifth Fleet from doing its own reception ceremony.

Through Tasha, they were able to secure permission to use a landing field in the long-abandoned Zeos Three, the only planet in the Zeos System.

Of course, there were no running electronics and other systems in the abandoned spaceport. It had remained unmaintained and unused for several thousand millennia, after all, as was the rest of the structures on the planet. In fact, the structures on the planet only survived because of the unvarying weather and nearly-constant 32 degree fare height temperature of the planet – an effect of it’s near-circular orbit around its primary and it’s tidal locked synchronous rotation, and the absolute absence of any volcanic or tectonic activity. For the Federation, the planet was a useless and inhospitable planet, and remained abandoned and untouched.

DSC Mikasa, the Fifth Fleet’s newest ship boasted the most advanced electronic systems amongst all the seven Fifth Fleet ships. She had therefore landed at the edge of the ancient landing field and used its systems as a temporary spaceport tower, beacon and ILS system. She was, actually, the first ship to ever enter the planet’s atmosphere and actually land.

DSC Kirov, the one designated as the fleet’s landing craft, carried the least number of shuttles and fighters in order to maximize deck space. Like the Mikasa, she also landed, and was used to provide temporary facilities where an authentic Elyran, Dixx, Arachnian, Earther and Telcontari welcome meal would be served.

The crews of both ships had spread out and started melting the excess ice off the tarmac to prepare for the arrival of twelve more ships. They had to do it slowly so that they wouldn’t have explosive melting or crack the tarmac. They couldn’t do much to melt the permafrost under the ground, but that was not necessary since all they needed was a semi-dry surface.

The five Elyran and Dixx cruisers, escorted by the EarthForce cruisers Gibraltar and Windsor from the Fourth Fleet, arrived in Colossus’ area of responsibility. It was met by several traffic control shuttles from Colossus traffic control instead of the big Dravidian warships that met the Shepherd Moon. But that was fine. As soon as the ships entered Colossus’ traffic pattern and after the fly-over inspection of the shuttles, the Shepherd Moon, Constellation, Hermes, the Bismark and the Victoria met them and escorted them to Zeos Three. Those onboard Colossus that couldn’t get to the monitors crowded around all the available transparent ports so that they could see the ships as they passed. As the Federation ships passed near Colossus, many could see that they had gone through a lot: large areas of their hull were replaced with new plating, and there were lots of dinged and scorched sections. Many commented that what happened in Earth System probably was as bad as was reported.

After all the ships had landed on the de-iced landing field, there was yet another ceremony on the ground, what the Earthers call formal guard mounts, but much modified and abbreviated in consideration of the ambient temperature and the unfamiliarity of their Federation comrades with Earth protocols.

There were a few guests that had asked if they might attend, and these were the Telcontari, Kembels, Daemons, people from Star-453, and some others. Most surprisingly, people from the Erocii Mission had also asked to come. With the Elyran, Dixx and Arachnians, their visitors represented the most powerful and influential races in the Federation, with the exception of the Dravidians.

Subtle questions circulated, but Mia had briefed her people really well so she was fairly confident that no one would commit any gaffes, which allowed everyone to enjoy the “welcome dinner.”

Mia had required all of her senior staff to circulate, and make sure everyone got to have some face time with the leaders of the Fifth Fleet. That included Reena and Areeya – the commanders of “her” two Elyran crews, and Tolar, Rexx and Ehlar from her three Dixx crews. Mia was pleasantly surprised that the first thing her alien commanders did upon landing was to report to her. The espirit-de-corps was at an all-time high.

At the end of the day, when everyone had returned to their ships (except for several curious Telcontari), her twelve commanders reported to her, Dax, Tasha and the First Ambassador. She told them how pleased she was, and had brought up the idea that perhaps Dax and Tasha’s people could already be tired of the company of provincial Earthers. Everyone smiled but Captain Tolar laughed out loud. Reena inconspicuously hit the tall Dixx captain in her side with her elbow, and Tolar let out a small, aristocratic “ooof!”

“I apologize, My Lady,” Reena said. “What the captain meant was that we are far from being tired of our Earther comrades. Rather we are very pleased to be in the company of the doughty and gallant warriors of Earth, but we shall comply if Admiral Steele would rather terminate our affiliation with the Fifth Fleet, with the concurrence of Lady Tasha, of course.”

Mia smiled in delight, approached Reena and put her hands on her shoulder. “No, my dear,” she said. “I would not.”

Reena blushed at the touch and at her words. “If she only knew how we feel about her…” she thought.

“It is settled, then,” Tasha said. “The Talon and Blazing Star shall remain with the Fifth Fleet until further notice. Admiral Dax?”

“Indeed,” Dax replied. “The Flying Cloud, Crimson Sun and The Protector will likewise remain with the Fifth Fleet… with the concurrence of Lady Amelia, of course.”

“But what would your homeworlds say,” Mia said.

“We have full authority to do this, My Lady,” Dax said. “Worry not.”

“Indeed,” the First Ambassador said. “In fact, I have gotten instructions from the homeworld…”

“How did you get word from…”

The little Arachnian shrugged his upper shoulders at the Dixx admiral. “As usual, it was relayed to us by the Shepherd Moon…”

“So what did they say?”

“The hive masters were dismayed to find out that both of the ships that Arachnia sent perished in the Battle of Pluto. Our people have been so incensed that they petitioned our leaders that we Arachnians must participate more fully. Our leaders have commanded that one of the two battleships presently assigned to the Colossus squadron be transferred to the Fifth Fleet as well. I have been instructed to inform Colossus Command of this, and that we convey this request to the Secretary-General, to Admiral Silverman and to Lady Amelia.

“We believe we can offer a distinct advantage to the Fifth Fleet, in that our ships move more quickly than other Federation vessels. Our Arachnian constitutions are more resistant to the effects of acceleration and deceleration so Arachnian cruisers are ship-maneuverable at higher velocities, and can fly faster and are more maneuverable in-system than any vessels in the Federation fleet.”

“There is no need to wait, Ambassador,” Mia said. “EarthForce accepts your offer, with thanks.”

All the other captains murmured their thanks and congratulations as well.

Captain Tolar bowed. “Your countrymen will be truly welcome, Ambassador.”

The Arachnian bowed as well. “My thanks, Captain Tolar.”

“I hope you don’t mind, Ambassador,” Captain Dupont said, “what is the name of the ship?”

The Arachnian made the gesture for apology. “I am afraid we are not as lucky as you. Arachnian ships are like Erocii ships in that we do not give our ships poetic, meaningful names. Our ships are just referred to by a number. We are assigning you Arachnian cruiser one hundred forty-three, but in Base-10, that would be Cruiser ninety-nine.”

“Well,” Okonkwo said, “… ninety-nine. Admiral? Is there another ship designated ninety-nine?”

“None yet,” Mia answered. “I’ll tell Admiral Silverman. In fact, perhaps the other ships should be given their own hull numbers. What do you think?”

The group had responded positively to this. Before they departed for their individual ships, they made arrangements for the departure of the Fifth Fleet for Elyra. Cruiser 99 would join the fleet shortly, as soon as it had topped up its supplies.

Acquiring consumables from suppliers based in Colossus was a worry for Cruiser 99. She had been on duty around Colossus for a time already, and her supplies were already half gone. And knowing that they would need to top up supplies, they were fairly sure that the suppliers would be gouging them in terms of price. Not that the Arachnians wouldn’t be able to afford it, but it would definitely eat into the Arachnian Mission’s funds.

Kapitan Tereshkova made a suggestion, however – that they resupply Cruiser 99, as well as all the other Fifth Fleet ships.

So, with the help of the Kirov and Mikasa’s equipment, the Earthers were able to use water sourced from the surface snow and ice of Zeos Three, electrolyze it to get hydrogen and oxygen, and purify it for to get pure water to top up Cruiser 99. And since there were consumables to spare, they decided to top up everyone’s supplies. As for carbohydrate, yeast and protein supplies, using minerals and water, as well as salvaged tankages from the ancient equipment on the planet’s surface, Kirov’s crew were able to force-produce enough to supply all the ships as well - even though Earth’s allies weren’t used to wheat-based cellulose or soy-based vegetable protein, they were close enough to what they were familiar with, and could make do. And with yeast, carbohydrate and protein bases, they could synthesize most of their basic foodstuffs. The food might not be fancy, but the supplies can allow their crews to last for a long, long while.

These efforts of the Kirov and Mikasa therefore allow the new 13-ship fleet to be completely resupplied without spending one cent (or crown, rather).

Their Telcontari visitors, curious like children, were running around looking at what everyone was doing. The cold didn’t seem to bother them much, which reinforced the impression of little polar bear cubs, and they were looking into everything that the Earthers were doing.

They were very polite, however, asking permission first before approaching and observing, and they weren’t touching anything, nor overly buttonholing people nor actually getting in the way. They were curious, though, to know if all the ships from Earth were well as well equipped. Chief Engineer Amazova of the Kirov didn’t understand the question, though, since they were just using slap-dash makeshift equipment.

The Telcontari looked at each other, squeaking and growling at each other in surprise and consternation. One of them asked if they were taking apprentices, but the chief, chuckling, had to say no – the Fifth Fleet was a military fleet, after all, and were on their way to war.

The Telcontari also asked about the so-called “Earth Alliance,” but the chief explained that no such alliance had officially been declared. But since Earth, Elyra, Dixx and Arachnia had all declared war against the Detterex and Tirosians, it was unofficially there.

He asked a little bit about the commerce and trade alliances that they had made, but the chief said that they weren’t really “alliances” so much as conveniences that their governments have arranged to keep “red tape” at a minimum. (She then had to explain what she meant by red tape.)

The little Telcontari who asked, apologized for the question, and moved on to watch another group of Earthers who were loading Arachnian pressure containers onto some tractors. They had just finished filling up the containers with pure liquid H2O and were about to transport it over to Cruiser 99.

The other Telcontari had asked the same sort of things, and the officers, commanders and leaders said much the same things, although the rest of their crew practically confirmed the Alliance. This only confirmed the view of the Federation to the Telcontari – that the “alliance” that most expected and some feared was a de-facto actuality, even if it wasn’t official.

They had also asked about the technology that the “alliance” were using, and they found that most of the Earther technologies were known in the Federation, though the Earthers’ approach seemed more refined and advanced. For example, they made more use of very expensive integrated circuits, microprocessors and helium-bubble systems, and it was a generally accepted thing that Earther equipment were generally the best. However, it was very frustrating that they weren’t able to get any kind of information about Phase-Wave.

Eventually, the Telcontari said thanks and made their farewells (they were the last of the Federation visitors to depart), and everyone watched their rocket blast off into outer space.

On the thirty-minute trip back to Colossus, the Telcontari twittered, squeaked, chirped and growled to each other as they compared notes.

They were disappointed that they were unable to unearth any information about Phase-Wave, but they did establish that the Elyrans, Dixx and Arachnians were actually clueless of Phase-Wave, too. Also, besides Phase-Wave, the Earthers had no fundamental advantage in technology in that what they know and have are technologies that the Federation was familiar with. What made Earther technology better was that they’ve pushed the technology to unprecedented levels of miniaturization, production and excellence. Though the Federation could produce the same, the cost and resources required would be unprecedented. The Earthers must have access to unheard of resources and a level of industrialization that perhaps only the Dravidians had.

Among all the Federation, it was only the Telcontari that had thought to ask – how did the Earthers become so fluent in Elyran, and so knowledgeable with the Federation, and its’ laws and customs? Though they did see the in-ear devices and the little electronic buttons pinned to their collars that translated for them, many seemed fluent enough to converse freely in Elyran without electronic aids.

The Earther crews just said that they were well briefed, and that they had full confidence in Admiral Steele to steer them in the right direction. As for the Elyrans, Dixx and Arachnian crews, they assumed that the Earthers were just quick studies. They were largely basing their opinions on the interactions they had with the few Earther crewmembers that they had the good fortune of interacting with, and how fast they picked up on things. But mostly, they based this opinion on their perception of the Lady Amelia.

The only thing that the Telcontari could conclude was that the Earthers were unprecedented linguists and sociologists. And that their leader, Lady Amelia was a very capable leader.

Those that they talked with felt that the Lady Amelia was very gracious, friendly, very competent and very, very smart, and she was held in high esteem. But for the Elyrans, their feelings were more than that - it amounted to something akin to hero worship bordering on fanaticism.

The similarities between Elyrans and Earthers were such that their ideas of aesthetics and beauty seemed almost parallel. The Earthers thought of the Elyrans as universally physically attractive, but to the Elyrans, the Earthers were something that they had not seen the like of. Most of them were physically very attractive to the Elyrans as well, but they also exuded a kind of telempathic aura that made them extremely sexually attractive. The Telcontari had surmised that this had something to do with the so-called Elyran “bridge effect” that they had heard rumors of. And if to the Earthers, the Lady Amelia was physically beautiful, to the Elyrans, she was more like a goddess.

The Telcontari wondered how it would be if they got to work with her onboard the Shepherd Moon, and chittered happily at the prospect.

 
Blind Spot -

After the Telcontari had left, and while the top-up operations were ongoing, Mia took the opportunity to go back to her quarters on the Shepherd Moon and have a rest. The work will probably take about twenty more hours, and then maybe a shift to rest, so that would give her twenty-eight to thirty hours to rest and recuperate a bit. She nodded to the two Marines outside the door, and told them to take the night off. No one would be bothering her tonight so she said it was okay.

Going inside and closing the door, she sighed, took off her belt with the sidearm and sword, and then and took off her dress uniform. She had two dress uniforms, and she has given both of them a workout these past days. Maybe she needs a couple more. She made a mental note to contact the quartermaster’s later.

Underneath, she had worn her skintight blue pressure suit, which was great for protecting against the zero-degree centigrade temperatures outside. She unzipped it and ran it through the suit cleaning unit. It was very fast process since it just involved dunking the suit in a cleaning solvent solution, rinsing it quickly in water and then drying it. The process wouldn’t have worked with other clothes since it would have dissolved them completely. It was only meant for pressure suits.

In a minute, it was clean and dry. Mia hung it in her clothes closet and then stepped into the shower. For the past week, she had been wearing the suit almost twenty-four-seven. Many of her people had followed her lead and done the same. It was a reflection of the Earthers’ uneasiness to not be in Earther territory, but more because they knew some of the Federation representatives were not exactly friendly to them and their cause.

Since the ship’s water supply was being topped off, Mia decided it was okay to take a long water shower and spent almost half an hour luxuriating in the hot water.

Stepping out, of the bath, she rubbed her now-platinum-blonde locks dry. The doctors in Bethesda warned her that the cloned hair follicles may yield lighter-color hair, but she didn’t mind that. What she did mind, though, was that her hair was now up to the middle of her back. She hadn’t gone to the ship-board barbers’ shop yet (it was a unisex service) since she left Bethesda. She still felt a little shy about it, but she noticed the ends of her hair were looking a little frayed. “What a time to worry about split ends,” she thought, and giggled. To her, such worries felt very girl-like, and kidded herself that she was adjusting well to her new gender.

But she was a little worried that her behavior might still be too much like the old her. Others might be getting the wrong cues. She had thought that she had adjusted her behavior sufficiently, but maybe she needed to change her behavior more. She had already tried to tone down her physical expressions of her emotions, especially with the men, since she knew they might misconstrue such physicality. If he were still a man, if a girl was like that with her, she knew she would. One of her “theories” was, since females are supposed to be more expressive, she was free to be more expressive with them, but apparently her physical behavior was still too masculine. It was not to say that she didn’t walk, move or make gestures more femininely and speak with more feminine inflexions (she had taken to heart the lessons the people at Bethesda gave her), but she would revert to her old ways during high emotions. She was doing her best but she feared this was the best she would ever be. She sighed.

She looked at herself in the mirror and shook her head. “If only my brain matched the rest of me,” she thought. At least she was used to her new physical self now. Although she still got a little bit of a thing for the girl in the mirror, at least it wasn’t as bad as before.

She sighed. She felt lonely. She knew that being in command will always be a little lonely since she had to maintain some distance with those she commanded, and she didn’t mind that. But she didn’t anticipate the pressure of having be the one to always be responsible, and the one to make the decisions. She supposed people like Allie Romarkin and Admiral Silverman felt these things, too, but the main difference was that they were on Earth, and the Admiral had Allison and Tara, and Allie was surrounded by friends. Out here, all the friends she had were also people that she was responsible for, and she couldn’t really be close to them. At the moment, the ones that she felt closest to were aliens. In fact, if asked, she would probably say that her best friend now was the First Ambassador, her new Arachnian friend. And if she was being brutally honest with herself, she had a growing infatuation with Tasha. She was one of the most incredible-looking woman she had ever seen, and was the crown princess of the Elyran Empire. That wasn’t a bad thing, of course. She wasn’t a racist (she had to laugh at how appropriate that word was), but she needed to be close to someone more like a human. Maybe it was a genetic thing. What was bad, though, was that Tasha was married already, and even if she wasn’t, she was a god-damned princess! If ever Mia made a move, it might cause an interstellar incident. Mia thought that she might be cursed, always falling in love with unreachable, married women.

And Mia was still carrying a torch for Miriam, but that relationship was clearly an impossibility. First, Miriam was married to Marc, one of Mia’s best friends (though Mia wasn’t sure how Marc felt about her now that she wasn’t Bill anymore). And, also, Miriam told her on the day Mia said goodbye, that she was completely heterosexual. Mia could have argued that inside she was still the old William Steele, but she decided that it was best to let her go no matter that her heart felt like it was breaking.

And then there was Sahsha.

Mia and Sahsha (when Mia was still Bill) had a kind of love that was every bit as strong as Bill and Miriam’s, but it was as doomed to fail, too, although instead of an unresolvable love triangle, what was between Mia and Sahsha was more a conflict of careers, or perhaps a conflict in priorities. Sahsha was bent on following her career while Mia had a savior complex that was bent on saving the human race from the hordes of giant alien amazons and alien monsters coming their way.

But if both of them ignored these, and if ever anything really developed between them, it wouldn’t go well for Sahsha’s career. Mia knew her career was important to her. And if it really does become serious, it couldn’t be anything but a long-distance relationship. Mia wouldn’t expect Sahsha to abandon her career and put herself at risk by accompanying Mia (if that was even possible), and Mia wouldn’t want Sahsha to wait for her to finish her tour of duty with EarthForce, whenever that would be – at the moment, it doesn’t look like that would be anytime soon. No - despite their mutual attraction, Mia knew it couldn’t go further than that.

But it had suddenly become complicated when Sahsha ended up getting assigned to the Shepherd. Mia told her at the beginning of the journey that they needed to keep their distance. Sahsha agreed but she seemed to have been offended given how she had pointedly ignored Mia from then on.

Mia couldn’t help but wonder if Sahsha really understood or it was her gender change that was affecting her. She said she understood so she should be a little more friendly. Almost everyone nowadays didn’t think much about same-sex relationships or other kinds of relationships but maybe Sahsha was exclusively hetero. Mia thought that she was so extraordinarily unlucky to have fallen for two of the few remaining exclusively-heterosexual people in the system. “I mean, it has to be that,” she thought. “Has to be. How else can Sahsha possibly resist this?” she giggled as she primped in front of the mirror, posing, vamping and showing off her spectacular curves.

The buzzing of her doorbell interrupted her and she hurriedly put on a bathrobe and a couple of bath slippers. “Open!” she called, and her door unlocked.

“Hi, Mia,” Sahsha called as she opened Mia’s cabin door. It was Sahsha!

“Oh, hey,” Mia responded, trying to be nonchalant. “What’s up?”

“Can I come in?”

Mia gestured her to come in, and pointed to a chair. “Of course. Have a seat. What can I do for you?”

She shook her head. “No, nothing. I just wanted to apologize.”

Mia went to her other guest chair in front of her desk, and sat across from Sahsha.

“Well. No chit-chat? No ‘how are you?’”

Sahsha smiled wanly. “I’m sorry, Mia. I guess this has been on my mind for a while.”

“Well, okay. But apologize for what?”

“I guess for not being too… you know. For being distant. And for… for…”

“For being cold? For ignoring me?”

“Mia, don’t be like that. You did say we had to be discrete. That our relationship might make it difficult for you and your job, and me and mine.”

Mia looked away. “I didn’t mean for you not to return my calls, of for you to ignore me.”

“I made sure it didn’t affect my work, though.”

“Yes, you did,” she sighed. “But you said you understood.”

“I did. It’s just that…”

“In that case, why all this passive-aggressive crap?”

“I was mad! What else did you expect!”

“But I explained! And you said you understood!”

“Oh, shut up!” Sahsha said and started to cry.

Mia didn’t know what to do? Should she come over and comfort her? She was torn.

“Is it because I’m a girl now?” she asked in a whisper. She was scared of her answer, and she cringed.

In response, Sahsha cannonballed into her, and gave her a kiss like no other.

“Sahsha…”

The little administrator reached down and undid the belt of Mia’s bathrobe, and slipped her hand inside. She caressed Mia’s sides and waist, and Mia shuddered.

“Oh, Sahsha…”

“Be quiet, my love,” Sahsha said. She pulled off Mia’s robe and pulled her to Mia’s bed.

Mia found herself lying flat on her back, nude, with Sahsha straddling her and pulling off her blouse.

After Sahsha divested herself of her shoes, top and bra, she leaned down and started giving Mia butterfly kisses on her face, lips, shoulders, chest and breasts. Sahsha started massaging Mia’s breasts while giving her a French kiss. Mia’s heart felt like it was about to pound itself out of her chest.

But Sahsha was just getting started. She resumed kissing Mia’s body, slowly working her way down but keeping her hands active on her breasts. Mia wanted to reciprocate but Sahsha wasn’t giving her the chance. Soon, she reached Mia’s waist and started caressing her vulva. Eventually, she zeroed in on Mia’s most sensitive parts and started licking around her clitoris, just underneath her clitoral hood and around her outer vaginal lips. Mia thought Sahsha was teasing her because she wasn’t touching her clitoris itself, but then when she did, Mia exploded.

Sahsha was relentless and kept her grip on Mia’s thighs as Mia bucked and writhed. Mia moaned and cried out as her orgasm raced through her while Sahsha used her tongue and lips to suck on her clitoris, relentlessly vibrating and licking, and keeping Mia vibrating on the edge of a precipice.

For Mia, the orgasm was unlike any other she’s had. Sure, she’s played around in the shower, and she’d had her share when she was still a man, but this was different, and so much better by several orders of magnitude. It didn’t necessarily last longer, nor did she come harder, but it was more… satisfying. Sahsha knew how to keep her on a knife edge instead of just taking her directly to the summit and then just let it fade away. And though the intensity wasn’t as strong as when she was still a “he,” it was so much better, so much more all-enveloping.

Mia continued to buck and Sahsha went through it with her. And as Mia’s main orgasm subsided, her contractions continued to make her buck. But that eventually faded, too, and Sahsha stopped her ministrations. She knew that Mia was about to reach that point of over-sensitivity, and didn’t want to make her uncomfortable.

When Mia had calmed down, Sahsha climbed back up, kissed Mia and hugged her like she would never go.

As one of the best doctors in the world, Mia knew that her hypothalamus was just releasing oxytocin into her bloodstream, the so-called “cuddle hormone,” but she didn’t care. She felt such love for Sahsha, and just hugged her.

Sahsha felt her pants were in the way, and despite Mia’s protests, Sahsha giggled, fended her off and took off her trousers and panties. She then hurried back to the bed. She sighed as she let Mia cuddle her from behind, spoon style, and settled in for the night, with a smile flitting around her lips.

Later on in the night, she found herself gently awakened by Mia. Mia’s hands were all over her, and all over her breasts. She didn’t know if being turned into a girl has upped Mia’s game, but she couldn’t complain. She tried to reach back to reciprocate but her position wasn’t ideal. Mia, however, was all over her. Mia’s hands were gently kneading her breasts and gently pinching her nipples while she nuzzled her neck.

“Mia… Mia… Oh!” Clearly, Mia hadn’t forgotten about the sensitive parts of her neck, and she knew just where to kiss her. She had tried to rub her thighs together, but Mia had one of hers in between them. She was about to moan in frustration but then Mia started to move her thigh back and forth, rubbing her pubic bone and gently rubbing her clitoral hood over her magic button, and Sahsha hovered on the edge. She had her hands over Mia’s restless ones and her thighs involuntarily clamped hard on Mia’s thigh, but Mia persisted and Sahsha trembled on the edge for what felt like a long time.

“Oh, Mia!” Sahsha moaned. “I can’t stand it anymore! Do it, Mia, do it!” And Mia responded by raising her leg a little bit more, making the contact stronger and harder, and, like a roman candle, Sahsha’s brain exploded in fireworks. She shuddered as her orgasm raced through her, and Mia just kept piling it on and on, and she felt like the top of her head was about to fly off.

As Sahsha started coming off her orgasm, her thighs unclamped and Mia stopped. Sahsha turned around and gave her a hug. But she was so tired, she fell asleep almost immediately.

- - - - -
(bookmark 30)

That night, Mia and Sahsha did it several times, and Sahsha introduced Mia to other sexual positions that she didn’t know about. Mia gamely tried them all, under Sahsha’s loving tutorship, and she had definitively put to bed the question if whether her sex change had affected Sahsha’s feelings for her or not.

Mia and Sahsha programmed their electronic concierges on their CCs to screen out all the unimportant calls, and they spent the rest of the day in Mia’s quarters, raiding Mia’s emergency supplies instead of going to the officers’ mess when they got hungry. Sahsha remotely activated the “do not disturb” light on her door to not give others any ideas of where she really was, and no one bothered them until thirteen hundred hours the following day.

Until then, they got caught up with each other, with Sahsha talking about her little day-to-day struggles, and Mia talked about her struggles to adjust to being a girl. Sahsha said she was doing well as a girl, but did say that she was a little too flirty with the women. Sahsha trimmed the frayed ends of Mia’s hair as they chatted and hugged, and relaxed in each other’s company.

Mia thought she wasn’t flirty with women, but Sahsha gave her a few examples. Mia tried to understand why she was doing so, and she was open to suggestions, but Sahsha couldn’t pinpoint it. And besides, Sahsha said it’s who she was now. Sahsha said she just has to stop being jealous of the girls that were fawning all over her. And the boys, too, she giggled.

Mia turned over and put her arm over Sahsha’s waist. “I didn’t mean to make you jealous,” Mia said. “I’m sorry.”

Sahsha lifted Mia’s hand, and kissed her palm. “I know, my love,” she said. “But what else is new? Even as Bill, you were like that, as well. I guess I just have to keep my jealousy in check. The thing is, before, I was Just in competition with the girls. Now I have to deal with the boys, too.” She giggled again.

“You have nothing to worry about,” Mia said.

“Really?” Sahsha said humorously. “Not even Her Royal Highness, Princess Tasha of Elyra?”

Mia cleared her throat. “I don’t know what you mean,” she said.

“Oh, come on. It’s so obvious. Except maybe to you, Tasha and Ren. I don’t know what it is about you royals. You’re all so clueless.”

“What do you mean, ‘you royals?’”

Sahsha giggled. “Oh, nothing, Lady Amelia.”

“Why you…” Upon which, Mia tickled her mercilessly until she begged for mercy. And that devolved to another bout of lovemaking.

- - - - -
(bookmark 31)

Mia’s CC pinged, and knowing that “unimportant” calls were being screened, she knew this was important. She put on her robe and made sure Sahsha wasn’t in range of the camera before turning it on.

“Yes, Lieutenant?”

“Sorry to disturb you during your rest period, sir,” the duty officer on the bridge responded. “We just had a priority call from the Fleet Admiral’s office. His secretary has said he’d be calling in fifteen minutes, and he’ll want to speak to you and the rest of the Fifth Fleet commanders.”

“All right, Lieutenant. I’ll be there shortly. Please page all the commanders, and tell them we’ll be in conference call with the Admiral. Also, page the First Ambassador, Admiral Dax, and Princess Tasha and Prince Ren as well. Ask them to meet me on the bridge.”

“Acknowledged, sir.” And he signed off.

Mia turned to Sahsha. “Looks like it’s back to the old grind for me.”

“That’s okay. I should get used to things like this. The woman I love is the boss, after all.” She reached for Mia, and gave her a kiss. “You get ready, and get a shower. I’ll sneak away to my cabin.”

“See you later, then.”

- - - - -
(bookmark 32)

Mia was on the bridge in less than fifteen minutes, in uniform and carrying her pressure suit in a fabric bag. She handed it to Nick to put away, and faced the main screen. O’Connell came over and saluted, and Mia nodded. In a bit, Ren, Tasha, Dax and the First Ambassador also entered the bridge, and Mia smiled and nodded in their direction.

Last to come in was Sahsha.

“Hey, Sahsha,” Mia said a little nervously. “What are you doing here?”

Sahsha gave her a merry, slightly mischievous smile. “Oh, the Admiral’s secretary called and asked me to attend, to represent the Secretary-General.”

Mia sighed.

On the screen were Captain M’klele Okonkwo of the Hermes, Capitaine Alain Dupont of the Constellation, Capitan Perdita Alvarez y Zaragoza of the Victoria, Kapitan Anna Valeriya Tershkova of the Kirov, Kapitan Marlena Koch of the Bismarck, Captain Masako Nobunaga of the Mikasa, Captain Tolar of the Dixx battle flagship Protector, Lady Reena, Ship’s Pilot and Mistress of the Elyran flagship Talon, Lady Areeya, Ship’s Pilot and Mistress of the Elyran cruiser Blazing Star, Captain Rexx of the Dixx battleship Flying Cloud, Captain Ehlar of the Dixx battleship Crimson Sun, and the Second Cruiser Commander of Arachnia.

“Good afternoon, everyone. I’m sorry to bring you all here on your rest day. Admiral Silverman has called us all in. But before the Admiral calls, I’d like to formally welcome Arachnia’s Second Cruiser Commander, the captain of Cruiser 99.”

The Arachnian bowed in the Elyran manner, and everyone murmured their welcome.

“You know, pretty soon, we’re going to need a bigger screen,” Mia said, and everyone laughed.

In a short while, the Fleet Admiral logged on.

“Good evening everyone,” Admiral Silverman said as he came online.

“Good evening, sir,” Mia said, saluting.

“Hello, Lady Amelia, everyone,” Silverman said. “I will cut to the chase. We have spotted another of those ‘smudges’ approaching the Zeos system.”

The Second Commander cut in. “Excuse me, Admiral. What is a smudge.’”

“Lady Reena, can you summarize for the commander?”

Reena bowed. “The admiral is referring to the Phase-Wave footprint that the EM-suppression field generated by the Empire’s so-called ‘curtain of light’ leaves. This means that there is one or more Empire ships approaching Colossus hiding within that field.”

“Exactly. At its rate of approach, it should be within the Colossus area of responsibility in about seventy-two Earth hours. We will be transmitting all the information we have shortly. Lady Amelia. I would like for the Fifth Fleet to intercept this incoming enemy force. You have carte blanc in repelling the enemy. If you need more reinforcements, the Windsor and the Gibraltar from the Fourth Fleet have been put under your temporary command. They have currently been ordered to remain in close proximity to Colossus, to act as a secondary line of defense. Where is Ms Delyer?”

“Here, Admiral,” Sahsha said, raising her hand.

“Miss Delyer, the Secretary-General has asked me to ask you to take care of raising the alarm with the Federation. She has given you the authority to do whatever is necessary. Do it, and do it quickly. And coordinate with Lady Amelia.”

“Of course, sir. But why is the Secretary-General not online with you?”

“She apologizes, but she is busy. We are all busy, actually. That’s because we have detected another of those smudges approaching the Solar System. It’s about a hundred hours from Saturn, so we are starting to mobilize. I cannot give you much detail about it since we have just found out. We’ll send you information as we get it.

“Furthermore – Lady Amelia: we have detected similar smudges approaching Elyra, Dixx and Arachnia but they are still months away. We are transmitting all information to you. Where is Nick?”

“Sir!”

“Lieutenant, take care of warning the ships en route, as well as the three planets. Coordinate with the Admiral and Miss Delyer.”

“How about the other Federation planets, sir?”

“There are no other smudges near, or approaching, any Federation colony or planet, other than the five I have told you. If ever there is a change, we will contact you.”

“Lady Amelia? Are we clear?”

“Aye, aye. We won’t let you down, sir. Good luck.”

“Good luck to us all, Lady Amelia. Silverman out.”

When Silverman left the conference, Mia turned to Sahsha and Nick.

“Okay, you guys. Do what you need to do. Nicky, use my office if you need it. Now go send out the word. Okay?”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

Sahsha approached Ren and, after a few exchanges of words, she, Ren and the First Ambassador left with her.

As for the rest, they started discussing strategy.

- - - - -
(bookmark 33)

The incoming enemy was approaching Colossus from the other side of Zeos System’s sun, and they had no ships over there.

None of the other Federation people wanted to believe them, especially Cor, who accused the Earthers of rabble rousing.

Cruiser 99 was the fastest Federation ship the Fifth Fleet had with the best optical systems, so Mia dispatched it to visually assess the situation. Using her array of optical telescopes, they had to track back from the coordinates that were given them since the coordinates were real-time. Eventually, Cruiser 99 were able to spot them visually, knowing that the images were several hours behind the data from Earth. Based on Cruiser 99’s images, they found out that it was a squadron of twenty-two ships, with two of them fuel carriers. The fleet had the same numbers to the one that was sent to Earth, except these were all Detterex ships.

Cruiser 99 hung back to relay more data.

The pictures that Cruiser 99 sent back convinced the Federation representatives, and they started deploying their ships. Per protocol, they need to send an emissary first to give the invaders a chance to reconsider their actions, or perhaps clarify their purpose in coming to Colossus. But the fact that the enemy was coming from the far side of the sun showed that their motives were less than straightforward. The only reason to approach Colossus that way was to hide their approach.

Sahsha warned them of the EM suppression field, but the Federation people said they couldn’t detect anything.

Their fastest courier ship sped towards the twenty-two Detterex cruisers, while a fourth of the Colossus squadron, about thirty ships from several different races, was deployed. With a fifty percent numeric advantage over the enemy, Federation strategists assumed that was more than enough to beat the enemy back if necessary.

Mia had informed them of the plan of the Fifth Fleet, which was to hide their ships behind the sun, and wait until the very last moment before attacking. The Erocii squadron leader scoffed at their very cowardly strategy and left them to it while they proceeded to the enemy. Following the flight plan of Cruiser 99, the thirty ships moved around the sun, and started to directly make for the Detterex ships. Cruiser 99 asked for instructions, and Mia told them to move to a higher solar orbit and stand by for the rest of the Fifth Fleet.

Mia had explained about the Curtain of Light, but the Dravidians said that they weren’t worried. They just have to search for the appropriate frequencies that were not affected by the EM disruption. Mia said that was very unlikely, but the Dravidians ignored her.

By the time the courier was near the lead ships of the enemy, the enemy was already down to ship-maneuverable speeds. Telemetry and communications from the courier disappeared, which meant that it had crossed the field’s boundary, and when that happened, the lead Detterex ships opened fire with their missiles and the courier exploded.

It was clear what that meant, and the fact that they lost communications meant that the EM suppression field was in effect. The communications people on the two Dravidian ships started beaming EM probes to get clues about the field but the beams all seemed to just disappear.

The Detterex made adjustments to their course to intercept the Federation ships directly.

Mia radioed that the boundary of the field was about to close over them, but the Erocii commander said not to transmit again as they were disrupting their communications. It was like a slap, so Mia just switched off before she said anything she’d regret later.

With the Detterex fleet moving towards the Federation ships, and the Federation ships moving towards the Detterex fleet, the distance between them disappeared very rapidly.

Several of the lead Detterex ships deployed what looked like shuttles, and with their thrusters on full burn, they rapidly accelerated towards the other group of ships, but after a few thousand kilometers, they decelerated rapidly and just cruised at the same pace of their fleet. The Federation cruisers started firing at the incoming shuttles but their energy weapons just fizzled out when they hit the EM field. Given the information that the Earther ships had been constantly transmitting about the location of the field boundary, the Dravidians calculated that the shuttles were riding the very edge of the field. The Dravidians used every sensor they had but nothing they used seemed to do anything. As a last resort, they radioed the Earthers and asked for advice. Mia responded and told them to pull back. Laboriously, the two extremely large Dravidian cruisers pulled up. They couldn’t reverse if they wanted to – As far as Mia knew, only Earther ships could – so they changed their so-called “angle of attack,” and started angling out and away. The slow and ponderous movements of the Dravidians just confirmed what Mia had thought – the Dravidians had traded their ships’ maneuverability and acceleration for solidity and strength.

“Everyone! Spread out! Move away from each other! The Detterex are closing in! If you don’t, the enemy will be able to get you in one shot. Come on, come on!”

“Earther,” an electronic-sounding voice came on. It was the Erocii commander’s translator. “I have told you before. Get off this frequency. You have been warned.”

“But, commander! You have to spread your squadron. You’re making it easy for the enemy to target your ships.”

“I know strategy better than you, Earther. You should be quiet and pay attention to how your elders do it.”

Like the Dravidians, a few did listen to Mia and, following the Dravidians’ lead, started to move out of formation.

By that time, the six enemy shuttles that were leading the Detterex fleet suddenly accelerated. They started making for the Federation squadron, which triggered the Federation commanders to react. Since the shuttles were out of the EM field now, that meant that they were now vulnerable to energy weapons. However, the surprise at the sudden maneuver didn’t help the Federation ships with their targeting so the shuttles were able to get through. The six streaked through and in between their ships, and when they were well within the squadron and spread out, they detonated simultaneously.

The shuttles were nuclear suicide bombs.

In that one shot, the Detterex took out twenty-two of the Federation ships. Only the leading ships, which included the Erocii cruiser, and the trailing ships escaped the atomic explosions. As for the Dravidians, they were well away from the blast and were just overcoming their inertia and moving up and over to return to the fight. In the future, such maneuvers would be called “Earther tactics,” or, more commonly, “mentally deranged Earther tactics,” but one thing they had to agree about – if executed properly, “Earther tactics” are the most useful when large battle cruisers go toe-to-toe with each other.

But for this particular situation, the tactic didn’t help much since the Dravidians were incredibly massive and incredibly slow.

Once their kamikaze shuttles had completed their deadly mission, the Detterex did something and turned the EM suppression field, or their “curtain of light” to maximum effect, rendering the entire Federation fleet, as well as Colossus deaf and dumb. It was only then that they realized everything that the Earthers said was true. At least they weren’t as dependent on non-wired communications as the Earthers, and they’d probably last longer than them.

In the deadly comms silence, the Detterex streaked by the remnants of the Federation squadron, and continued on and started to round the sun. The solar winds and waves never wavered so it seemed the EM suppression field didn’t affect the sun, which was not unexpected.

What was unexpected by the Detterex were the Earthers lying in wait.

As the Detterex ships started their run around the sun, they ran into a virtual curtain of missiles that were fired by the Earthers seconds earlier. Three of the leading ships, and another three plus one of the tanker ships immediately behind them were hit. No doubt they were wondering where the ships that launched them were, but they weren’t around. The EM field was working against them in this instance because they had no sensors to use to look for the Earth fleet. The trailing Detterex ships made adjustments to avoid the suddenly-crippled ships. Those that were hit had lost most of their angular thrust since their engines seemed to have been compromised, and they stopped going around the sun and, instead, just continued in a straight escape trajectory away from the sun.

As for the remaining ships that were undamaged, they continued on in their journey around the sun. Again, not expecting it, they walked into yet another curtain of missiles. Another seven of the ships were hit. Like the first group, five of them couldn’t maintain their course and drifted away, with one of them having a complete power systems failure. The remaining ships continued on, but this time they tried to retaliate, firing blindly, but since there were no ships to hit, it was in vain. As their missiles flew away ineffectively, the twelve Fifth Fleet ships came up into view. The three Earther cruisers in front – the Kirov, Hermes and the Bismarck fired their rail guns while the Blazing Star, the Flying Cloud and the Crimson Sun fired yet another brace of missiles. Another six ships were hit, and two of them couldn’t stay on course as well. Only seven of the original twenty battle cruisers, and one tanker, remained on course for Colossus, and they roared past the Fifth Fleet without firing even one missile.

“I guess we need to activate our plan now, Admiral,” O’Connell said to Mia.

“Yes, Captain, but before that, we need to send out a shuttle past the EM field and transmit a copy of our logs and telemetry records back to EarthForce via Phase-Wave.”

“What? Now, Admiral?”

“Yes, Captain. Now. The Detterex is nearing striking distance of Saturn. If they pull the same gimmick they just pulled here…”

“You’re right.” She turned to the communications officer. “Lieutenant. Get on that. Send out a shuttle quickly. And tell the pilot to stay out there and wait for a response.”

“Aye, Captain.”

Having done that, they turned back to their current predicament.

Per their plan, the Hermes, Bismarck, Kirov, Mikasa, Talon, and Flying Cloud went into full acceleration, and flashed around the sun. Midway around the sun, on the side opposite to Colossus the six would start maximum braking and, if they timed it right, they’d get to Colossus before the Detterex. The rest of the Fifth Fleet made for the runaway enemy ships – the Constellation and Blazing Star made for the closest ones while the Victoria, Crimson Sun and the Protector made for the next ones, and the Shepherd Moon would rendezvous with Cruiser 99 for the last group.

O’Connell left the others to their own missions and concentrated on her own. “Accelerate to maximum speed and bring us to the last location of the first breakaway group, Lieutenant,” she said to the Shepherd’s pilot.

“Aye, sir,” he responded. “Have computed for their last location using dead reckoning. Setting course.”

“Execute.”

He activated the ship’s engines and in a minute, they were there. He blipped the inertia converters and they came to a virtual standstill.

“Okay, find Cruiser 99 and the enemy. They’ve probably moved already.”

In a few moments, a tactical display was put on the main screen, and they found Cruiser 99 already engaging the enemy ships several hundred thousand kilometers away. Apparently the enemy had already recovered and were now harassing Cruiser 99, and she was valiantly turning away missile volley after missile volley with her anti-missile defenses, but a seven-to-one ratio meant that it was just a matter of time. She was in desperate need of help.

“All right, get us fifty kilometers to the rear of Cruiser 99.”

“Wait!” Mia called. She tapped the comms officer. “Get the chief engineer on the intercom.”

“Engineering here,” the chief engineer said.

“Chief, this is the admiral. I have a question?”

“Yes, Admiral.”

“Can you modify the output of the inertia converters into coherent beams?”

“Lasers? But, Admiral – I thought the whole point was to disperse converted energy in unfocused visible EM light waves…”

“I know. Just answer my question.”

“Sure. It can be done. They’re pulse emitter turrets, after all. In fact, I can do it from here, provided that we can power them up properly.”

“If we can, can you change them into weapons-type lasers?”

“Admiral, current energy shields make lasers obsolete, and even without shields, the structural integrity fields would render such coherent light emission weapons as effective as flashlights.”

“They would?”

“Yes, except if you pump the wattage up by a whole hell of a lot. Wait…” The chief engineer paused. “Aye, sir! I’ll have them ready in a minute. We’ll need to charge them, though.”

Mia grinned. “We’re on it, Chief.” She turned to O’Connell. “Captain, you now have one more distance weapon.”

O’Connell grinned. “Aye, sir. Lieutenant, lock the energy converter turrets onto the enemy, and keep it locked in.”

“Which ship, sir?”

“Any of them. The closest.”

“Aye. Standing by.”

“Execute.”

The Shepherd activated its FTL for about ten seconds of point-5 C, and then came to a virtual stop at a point about fifty kilometers off the rear of Cruiser 99.

“Chief!” O’Connell called. “How are we on the energy converters?”

“The capacitors are at two hundred and ten percent, Skipper. Need to get rid of the all that power now or we may be in trouble.”

“Lieutenant, are the turrets still on target?”

“Aye, Captain.”

“Okay, full discharge. Execute!”

The Shepherd’s navigator pressed the button that would normally discharge the energy converters, but instead of a flash of light from the sixteen converted turrets, four bright fingers of light came out of the top-most turret - one sapphire blue, one ruby, one emerald green and one pure white – and they speared out into space and directly into the nearest Detterex ship. Each beam had about three petawatts of power behind it, and they punched through the ship like a bullet through tissue paper. Whatever they hit caused several explosions and the ship shuddered as it broke apart. A large set of explosions on the lower starboard hull caused it to spin counterclockwise, and the other ships had to scatter. Not that they were bumper-to-bumper, but even with clearances of at least five kilometers between them, they weren’t taking chances. This gave Cruiser 99 a chance to break away and escape the barrage.

The Shepherd started maneuvering, picked the next closest Detterex cruiser and started bombarding it with her forward rail guns. Aside from that, she deployed her complement of shrike fighters and they made for Cruiser 99 to give her cover long enough for her to launch her own fighters.

Since the Arachnian fighters didn’t have communications they took their cue from the Earther fighters and backed them up in shooting down missiles.

- - - - -
(bookmark 34)

The arrival of the Shepherd was totally unexpected, catching the Detterex unawares. The laser attack and the follow-up rail gun bombardment netted the Shepherd two more wins.

As for the remaining ships, O’Connell tried the lure-and-attack gambit that worked before, but though the enemy had recovered a little bit from the original missile attack, the enemy ships weren’t capable of following. With the EM field, the Shepherd had very few advantages over the enemy at the moment, and since they were in open space, O’Connell was completely out of any crazy Earth maneuvers. It would be a war of attrition, and the one who lasts longest wins. And with a five-to-two ratio, it wasn’t looking good. Although one of them was a tanker.

That gave O’Connell an idea.

“Is that laser comm receiver on Cruiser 99 working?”

“I believe so, sir.”

“Okay. Send the commander a message and tell them we will try to maneuver their tanker closer to the other ships. Tell them to target the tanker as soon as we’re away. Wait for an acknowledgement.”

“Aye, sir. They’ve acknowledged.”

Okay, then.” She turned to the pilot. “Lieutenant, pull away from the bulk of the enemies and maneuver us nearer the tanker.”

“Aye.”

Using her flywheels, the Shepherd pivoted thirty degrees and fired her anti-gravs. She was then moving around the somewhat-clustered Detterex, out of the range of their anti-ship weapons. Her rail guns were enough to turn away any missiles fired at her, and was soon able to approach the tanker ship unscathed, which was flying several thousand kilometers away from the Detterex warships.

As the Shepherd got nearer, the tanker crew probably started to panic. They fired a large wave of missiles at her, and started moving their tanker closer to the other Detterex ships looking for cover. But the other Detterex cruisers didn’t want the tanker to get closer to them and opened fire. Shepherd found herself protecting the tanker, and used her rail guns to knock out these missiles aimed at it.

But the Shepherd’s approach was relentless and the tanker was pushed closer and closer to its sister ships. The Detterex ships shifted their target to the Shepherd, which forced her to turn away.

At that point, Cruiser 99 came into the fray, travelling faster than the Shepherd could manage under sublight, and started firing her missiles at the tanker. The sheer volume of missiles, and the fact that the Detterex ships’ focus was on the Shepherd allowed Cruiser 99’s missiles to hit the mark, and the tanker’s liquid oxygen and hydrogen mixed together in an explosive manner. Though a lot of the explosion was towards empty space, most of it was towards the Detterex warships. Three of the ships were caught like moths in a flame, and they were taken out of the fight. And with only two left in the fight, it was more of an even match.

By that time, the Federation ships that escaped the nuclear blasts were now within weapons range. O’Connell made the decision to leave the Detterex to these incoming ships and started recover their Shrikes, preparatory to moving on and helping the rest of the Fifth Fleet. She sent a laser message to Cruiser 99 and their commander said they will do likewise.

In under ten minutes, they had recovered their fighters and made for the other ships. The Shepherd easily kept up with Cruiser 99 and was soon in laser comm range of the Victoria. O’Connell asked for a sitrep. It seemed the five ships were more damaged than expected and the Victoria, the Crimson Sun and the Protector had quickly took out their ability to fight anymore. O’Connell, congratulated them and ordered them to leave the enemy to the Federation ships, and to proceed to the vicinity of the Constellation and Blazing Star.

Once they were near enough to the Constellation, they found the situation much the same, and O’Connell ordered them to join the convoy towards Colossus and the rest of the Detterex ships.

Since it would be over eight hours before they had to get ready, O’Connell initiated a full inspection of all systems. She then had Mia paged via the intercom.

She sighed. Having to use the intercom was starting to get tedious.

“Admiral Steele here,” Mia replied.

“Admiral, I have initiated a fleet-wide inspection. Initial reposts show that we are mostly unscathed.”

“Excellent Captain. Please extend my compliments to the commanders. How about the enemy?”

O’Connell then gave her a report.

“Good work. I concur with you. Leave the remains to the Federation ships. Right now, we have a bigger concern.”

“Aye, sir. Thank you. Pardon me for asking, Admiral, but where are you?”

“I am in the rear starboard hold, Captain. I’m assembling that package we brought over from the PRC.”

“I’ve been wondering about that, actually. What is it?”

It’s Dr. Running-Stream’s version of the ‘Curtain of Light.’”

“What? We have our own EM suppression field?”

“Yes. Can you arrange for this to be moved down to Engineering?”

“Aye, sir.” O’Connell gestured and the comms officer started to make the arrangements. “But why would we need one now?”

“I’m worried that the Detterex might pull the same trick they did before. A couple of nuclear bombs right on top of Colossus could finish off the Federation as any cohesive entity, and then we’d all be up the creek without a paddle. With our own field, we can prevent any nuclear explosions.”

“Got it.”

“I’ll take care of this. You take care of the ship, Captain. I’ll join you as soon as I’m done.”

“Aye, sir.”

- - - - -
(bookmark 35)

After several hours and they had rounded the sun, they now had a clear view of the enemy. And the other half of their fleet.

The rest of the Federation’s ships had also been deployed and had arranged themselves as a picket line. After the enemy had emerged from around the sun, the Federation ships had divvyed themselves up, with about eight ships per Detterex cruiser. The numbers were so lopsided that the Detterex was guaranteed to lose. There was also the Fifth Fleet on their tails plus Mia’s convoy approaching from the other side.

It was an impending slaughter, and the Detterex surely knew that. But, like the Defiant back on Earth and the strategies they implemented back there, they went for broke. They reduced acceleration and went for broke.

Like arrowheads, they made for Colossus, and flew through the ships that tried to interpose themselves between them and Colossus. Several were hit by explosions but they just powered through. They knew no ship would deliberately sacrifice themselves by literally blocking them, so they just knifed through, trusting in their velocity to avoid any damage that would stop their progress to Colossus. True, the damage may be crippling, and they might not escape alive, but that was not the mission anymore – the mission was simply to destroy Colossus at any cost.

As each Detterex cruiser speared through their own individual cloud of ships, they deployed several shuttles and fighter ships, as well as a brace of anti-ship missiles.

As for the lone remaining tanker ship, as soon as it reached its cloud of intercepting Federation cruisers, it detonated itself, catching most of its pursuers in its fireball.

Soon, their tactic became apparent. Each of the Detterex ships sustained extreme damage but were still flying straight and true, directly towards Colossus like seven arrowheads trailing flame, smoke and debris, to slam into Colossus with disastrous effect.

Mia made the decision and ordered Constellation and Victoria to go to full acceleration, and target one Detterex ship apiece. The Hermes, Kirov, Mikasa and Bismarck saw them and went into full acceleration as well. The Federation ships observing them didn’t understand the tactic. In moments, the Earthers went past ship-maneuverable, and now were beyond maneuvering.

But the Earthers had a trick up their sleeves.

As soon as the Shepherd, Constellation and Victoria were near their targeted ships, they fired their inertia converters, and then fired their engines again to match their chosen enemy ship’s trajectory. Each then slowly closed in, inch by each, and used its complement of rail guns to target the weapons of each. When the captain of the Earther ship was fairly sure that the enemy ship was more-or-less fully disarmed, it then inched slowly towards the Detterex cruiser. It then used its thrusters to solidly push itself against the enemy ship, and then fired its inertia converters to maximum discharge.

This had the effect of bringing both ships to a virtual standstill. And as soon as they were, the Earthers used their thrusters and flywheels to peel out and away from the enemy, giving them enough distance to start firing.

Mia had seen the deployment of the enemy’s shuttles so she had Engineer Haskell activate the Shepherd’s EM suppression field generator. And, like any ship, the enemy was struck deaf and blind, and any nuclear weapons they thought to deploy were rendered inert.

Seeing the tactic, the Hermes, Kirov, Mikasa and Bismark did the same thing – made sure that the enemy couldn’t fire back at them, get in solid contact with the enemy long enough to be able to get rid of its inertia and then pull back.

In less than fifteen minutes, the seven Earther ships had rendered the enemy ships dead in the water.

Whatever fight the Detterex had left were quashed. Some of them still had enough capacity to release their fighters and shuttles, however, and the Earthers deployed their own Shrike and Eagle fighters. Now equipped with rail guns to compensate for the loss of their energy weapons, and laser comms (limited though they were) to compensate for the loss of Phase-Wave and radio, they had their advantage back. As before, during the battle of Pluto, they dominated the Detterex fighters once again, and were able to win the day again. The enemy fought more furiously than ever since they had no option to retreat, but like before, none of their fighters were shot down.

The farthest ship – the one that the Hermes had targeted - had also deployed fighters, but not as many. It could be assumed that it was more heavily hit and therefore had less fighters to deploy. Hermes deployed its own Eagle fighters, and as the fighter-to-fighter showdown started to go into its peak, the Hermes’ underside – the side closest to the Detterex cruiser, exploded.

Later examination of the footage from Hermes and long-distance video from the Talon, Blazing Star and the Protector showed that the Hermes was hit with a barrage of anti-missile ships. In the Talon’s video, one could see the Hermes actually bend a little, and buckle horizontally amidships.

After which, another escape ship, just like the Defiant, emerged from the scarred and battered Detterex cruiser, and it made a run for it.

The Gibraltar, one of the Earth cruisers from the Fourth Fleet, which was still hanging around Colossus, went into full drive and chased the escaping ship down. Before it could engage its FTL drive, Gibraltar was upon it and fired its entire complement of missiles, even as both were accelerating well above ship-maneuverable and bordering light velocities. Some kind of relativistic effect simultaneously detonated all of the Gibraltar’s missiles. The Gibraltar had fired its converters immediately, and escaped any damage from the explosion.

As the explosion and debris fell away, the escaping Detterex ship had disappeared.

 
Shepherd Moon, Chapter 22: Surprise!

 
Foot-In-Mouth Disease -

The Federation ships that had escaped the nuclear bombs and then went on to clean up the dregs that the Fifth Fleet ships had left had stories to tell as well, but their odyssey paled in comparison with what the Earthers went through. And the Earthers seemed to have yet another magical device that had been able to stop the enemy in its tracks. It was what had saved the Colossus from harm.

And even though all the enemy ships had all been captured, the EM field was still there. But Mia wasn’t letting on that it was the Shepherd Moon’s EM field generator that was running.

The reason for this was that because of the presence of the enemy shuttles.

The Gibraltar made a sweep of all the areas where there were Earth and Federation personnel, and deployed shuttles to tow away some of the derelict Detterex ships.

When the Gibraltar signaled the Shepherd Moon with a flash from its inertia converters, Mia ordered her EM field generator turned off.

It was a good thing that the enemy shuttles were moved because, between ten minutes and an hour from that point, several of these shuttles exploded in nuclear fire. There were no Federation or Earth personnel around them so there were no further casualties.

As a precaution, though, Cruiser 99 and her smallships took care of all the rest of the derelict shuttles and fighters, towing them to a single location far enough from everyone that no one would be in danger if any of them explode.

As this was being done, to decide on the fate of the surviving Detterex, and the conduct of the cleanup and recovery, a session was called. All representatives attended, and although they were probationary members, the Earthers were invited, as well.

As the most junior members, the Earthers were given a place at the highest tier in Aonta. They found themselves beside the Telcontari and other junior members, but they didn’t mind. And the session commenced as soon as all race representatives had come in.

The Dravidians tried to make up for their perceived cowardice by volunteering to collect the surviving Detterex in their large ships. But the question came up of where to house them. A call went out and the two Dravidian dreadnoughts that were involved in the battle were dispatched to perform this activity.

Given the distrust of the Detterex, especially after their trick with the bombs, no one wanted to imprison them onboard Colossus. But that was academic, though, since the brig was far too small to contain what ended up to be 1,132 Detterex survivors, (or 602 in Base-10). An Erocii suggested summary execution, but he was shouted down.

The decision was made to imprison them down on the surface of Zeos Three until they can be repatriated to the Detterex Empire, and they looked for volunteers to construct temporary living quarters. Still trying to save face, the Dravidians volunteered to provide all the necessary supplies and equipment while the Telcontari, saying that they were the most resistant to cold, volunteered to do the construction. It was argued that they might not have the expertise and numbers, and perhaps someone else should help the Telcontari.

Captain O’Connell, stood and waited to be acknowledged by a senior race. She was briefed on the protocol, and knew that she was not entitled to ping her bell.

As the discussion raced up and down the debate hall, the Daemon representative noticed O’Connell, and pinged.

“My Lords, ladies, and fellow representatives,” he said after the Assembly quieted down. “It seems we have reached a dead end in the discussion. I would like to call our friends from Earth to speak. Perhaps they may have a suggestion to progress our session.”

O’Connell bowed, as per protocol. “My Lord, my name is Elizabeth O’Connell, captain of the EarthForce flagship Shepherd Moon. I would like to volunteer my people to assist our esteemed colleagues from Telcontar in the construction of the temporary habitats on Zeos Three. We have much experience doing such labor, and our present crew are professional explorers, who we call ‘breakers,’ who are especially trained to break trail and explore. These are the kinds of activities that are part of their training.”

“Thank you, Captain. In behalf of this Assembly, I accept your generous offer.”

“We are honored, My Lord.”

O’Connell let out a sigh as she sat down. “It was hard to keep to the rituals and protocols,” she thought.

The session continued and the cleanup was discussed. It was suggested that each of the races would recover their own ships but the Dravidians offered to do the cleanup and salvage, but the Dravidians magnanimously offered to recover all of the derelicts for hauling back to Colossus’ salvage yard. They even said they’d do it for the Detterex and Earth derelicts.

This time, the first officer of the Hermes stood, and waited to be noticed, but the Dravidian speaking pretended not to notice her and continued to speak, but at a break in his speech, Tasha pinged.

“I would like to invite our Earther colleagues to speak.”

Commander Iyanda bowed. “Thank you, Lady Tasha. My name is Commander Ndidi Iyanda, first officer of the EarthForce battleship Hermes. I speak in behalf of my valiant crew, and of my captain, Captain Mklele Okonkwo, since, as many know, he along with about forty of my comrades, perished in the just-concluded battle.”

Tasha bowed. “I and the peoples of the Federation share your sorrow, Commander Iyanda. You and your valiant crew fought so bravely for us. I have met Captain Okonkwo and, although we had not had the opportunity to truly get to know each other, I knew him to be an honorable and gracious being. I am sad to know that he is not among us anymore. We are in your debt. How may we be of service, Commander?”

The commander bowed again. “I thank you for your kind words, My Princess. I beg leave to the Federation to declare that the Hermes is not a derelict ship. She may be grievously damaged but she survives still.” She started to cry silently.

“My dear, take heart. You honor their memory by speaking for your friends and comrades. Please continue.”

“My Princess,” she continued, fighting against tears, “The Hermes has not been abandoned. More than sixty of my shipmates are still there, performing repairs. We apologize but we serve notice that we will repel all boarders. No unauthorized personnel will be permitted to set foot on her until we have her back in fighting condition.”

“My dear, your point is eloquently made. The Federation takes note of your declaration, and the Hermes will not be included in recovery and salvage.”

The Dravidian pinged. “The commander is mistaken. The Earther ship is not functional and is a menace to navigation. It must be towed away and scrapped.”

“Then what do you intend to do with the sixty, I mean seventy-four Earthers still onboard?”

The Dravidian nervously looked away. “We will assist be transporting them to safer environs prior to our plundering, I mean towing their ship.”

Commander Iyanda bowed again, and Tasha noticed.

“I see. Commander Iyanda? How would you respond to this kindness?”

“My Princess, I apologize to Councilor Cor if I offend. Though it may be claimed to be a kindness, if we are forced off our ship, we will, with utmost regret, repel these boarders and the Councilor must know this. I apologize that he and his comrades will have to wait another day to have a chance at examining our technology.”

Someone else pinged – a large and spindly creature that the Earthers did not recognize.

“I applaud Commander Iyanda,” the creature said. “I and my people will be on hand to enforce the rights of the crew of the Hermes, and assist in repelling any boarders. I believe that we owe the Hermes and all the members of the Fifth Fleet anything they might ask, for they have helped to fend off the Detterex, in a manner that none in the Federation can duplicate. I also make an official motion of censure on the Dravidian Mission for putting their desire for commercial advancement ahead of the welfare of Federation citizens.”

“I second!” several delegates called and pinged, and, shortly, the motion was passed overwhelmingly, requiring the Dravidian Mission to pay reparations. The maximum penalty of one million crowns (or 262,144 in Base-10) was levied on the Dravidians.

After that was concluded, another motion was made to offer the crew of the Hermes a berth in the Colossus shipyards so that they may repair their ship.

The Lord Chamberlain (who was a Dravidian) stood to “regretfully” say that there were no available berths at the shipyards.

Commander Iyanda stood again. This time, it was the Telcontari who gave them leave to speak. The commander said that was all right since they prefer to land on Zeos Three instead, and make repairs planet-side. They can do their repairs by themselves. All that they ask is permission. She said they will need about one square kilometer of flat space.

A motion was made to give the Earthers permission to land and occupy any area of their choosing on Zeos Three, with a space up to about twenty-five square kilometers, for them to use in any manner they wish for as long as they want (Zeos Three was considered an unusable wasteland anyway, so no one questioned giving the Earthers so much).

The Lord Chamberlain, however, made a point of order, and said that such permits require specificity.

It seemed small of the Chamberlain and his motivations were questioned. But it couldn’t be denied that the rules did require it.

In the end, after several incredibly-long and tedious hours, with the Chamberlain’s constant kibitzing, the wording of the motion was parsed down to a very specific list: the area will be exactly 21.4212416121 square kilometers (as translated to Base-10 metric), and shall be used for facilities for repair of EarthForce spacecraft, facilities for producing fuel for their spacecraft, facilities to produce food and other consumable supplies, facilities for defense, living space and an embassy. They will also be given a twenty thousand-year leasehold (or 8,192 in base-10) for the amount of one crown, the leasehold to be granted immediately with all requirements and documentation to be accomplished later, provided that it be accomplished within one Zeos Year.

Again, the Lord Chamberlain said that it was required that a specific individual be named as the one responsible for the leasehold. Several beings pinged, one of them being Councilor Cor, but the First Ambassador was the first to speak. He said that it be held in trust for the Earth, and administered by, the Lady Amelia.

The motion was passed in acclamation.

Now that the housekeeping items were concluded, a motion was made to have the Lord Chamberlain immediately execute the motions just passed.

The Lord Chamberlain bowed. Much to his chagrin, his Telcontari assistants promised to have it done by end-of-day.

Next to be discussed were the actions of the Detterex.

The facts were that: the Detterex opened fire first on their courier ship, that the Detterex used subterfuge in order to detonate several nuclear devices, which was outlawed by the Zeos Convention; that the Detterex deliberately detonated these devices in order to bring harm to Federation citizens and destroy Federation property.

Each action was more than a sufficient justification to declare war on the Detterex, so there was no question. Even the “party-pooper” Dravidians didn’t even question it. The motion was passed unanimously and the First Ambassador, known to be the best in the current Assembly in creating such documents, was drafted to write the declaration.

The next item was if it was allowable that they also declare war on the Tirosians. There were many in the assembly that were not in favor of this, that even if the circumstances clearly indicate that the Detterex and Tirosians were in collaboration, there was no objective proof of this – it was all circumstantial. Even if they get the Detterex prisoners to corroborate their suspicions, this would not be considered definitive proof, according to current galactic jurisprudence. But as pointed out by the Deamon representative, it might not actually be necessary to do so since they already had a squadron sent to Elyra, Dixx and Arachnia, where attacking fleets were identified to be en route to.

By a narrow margin, the motion to declare war on the Tirosians was defeated.

A new motion was raised, to ask the Earthers to provide warning if any other worlds were in danger of invasion or attack. It was further amended to ask the Earthers to provide a service to send communiqués to the homeworlds when needed, and to relay communiqués from the homeworlds to Colossus. The Erocii representative pinged and asked if it was necessary to even ask – that, as Federation citizens, were they not required to assist?

No one deigned to respond to that. He was ignored and the discussion continued. (A respectful little Telcontari from the Office of Protocol discretely went to the Erocii, and explained in whispers that none may be compelled to do anything unless the matter is directly in connection with the relocation of people, with transport, and with the use of weapons.)

O’Connell answered for the Earthers saying that they agree, however the particulars of the service, as relating to the administrative component, will have to be ironed out later.

Again, Councilor Cor pinged, asking why she was speaking instead of Lady Amelia. He said this was bordering on an insult, that Lady Amelia did not see fit to attend an important assembly.

O’Connell bowed and responded that she was assisting with the recovery and repair of the Hermes, and conducting the memorial ceremonies for their dead comrades.

After a long, awkward silence, Cor then said that it was insulting that they were not invited to the ceremony.

O’Connell bowed, and said that they had sent a hand-written invitation, as per the custom onboard Colossus, but his executive assistant refused to accept the letter.

He then asked why were others not invited.

O’Connell bowed again, and said that all the delegates accepted their invites except for the Dravidian and Erocii Missions, and are currently attending the memorial ceremony.

He then said that the captain might be mistaken as all the Federation representatives were in Aonta.

O’Connell bowed yet again, and said that they expressed regret that, though the heads of their missions could not attend because of today’s session, they will send representatives.

Cor then said that it was unfair that the Erocii were singled out because they were friends of the Dravidians.

O’Connell then bowed again, sighed and said that, when the messenger approached the Erocii Ambassador with their invitation, he asked the if the Dravidians would be attending. The messenger then explained that the Dravidians didn’t accept the invitation, whereupon the Erocii Ambassador rejected the invite.

Cor scoffed at that, saying that she was mistaken, that it was not in the Erocii ambassador’s character to do that.

O’Connell again bowed, saying that the message was delivered in the Ambassadors’ Lounge, that there were several witnesses.

The rest of the assembly was about to break down in laughter by then, and then Cor said that it was an insult that such important correspondence was delivered in such a place. He made a motion, in behalf of the Erocii, for the Earthers to be censured for ignoring protocol. At that point, the entire Assembly did break out in laughter.

The motion was passed, however, although it was agreed the censure will not be recorded in the archives, and that the penalty was the payment of reparations amounting to one crown, which was to be donated to the revolving fund of the Office of Protocol.

Another motion was passed as well, to censure Councilor Cor (not the mission but Cor himself) for willful slander of a fellow sophont, and to pay the maximum allowed for reparations, which was one million Crowns (or 262,144 in Base-10), and that Cor be expelled from Colossus.

 
Gibraltar Base -

After that session, the news of the defeat of the invading forces back on Earth started making the rounds in Colossus, care of the transmissions received by the Fifth Fleet (Lady Reena and Lady Areeya had “mistakenly” leaked the translated transmission as well as terabytes of video).

It seemed that the invaders, this time exclusively made up of Tiros forces, were easier to defeat despite it being four times the size of the one that attacked Colossus. In fact, the size of the invading force rivaled the size of the combined Federation Fleet. It was made up of 170 capital ships and support craft (or 120 in Base-10), many of them just newly-constructed.

Having been warned of the tactic of the Detterex of using the EM suppression field and Trojan shuttles with nuclear weapons, EarthForce took out all of the smallships first, and then, almost leisurely, took out the capital ships.

The strategy that the Tiros forces intended to implement was “standard,” which was to say, attack with overwhelming force and win by outlasting the enemy. It was to be a war of attrition again, but the thing that they did not anticipate was the Earthers had a virtually unlimited amount of ammunition. Only missiles and similar weapons were found to work in the EM suppression field, so the invaders only had a finite number, whereas the Earthers had rail guns aplenty, with ammunition just lying around to be picked up. The Earthers were literally firing rocks at the enemy, but at enormous velocities. The kinetic energy or each of their rail gun projectiles more than equaled the explosive power of the missiles that were being fired at them. And the Tirosians’ secret weapon – the “Trojan horse” of nuclear bombs hidden in smallships, only worked if the enemy didn’t know about it.

In this war of attrition, the Earthers easily won. In fact, with the brilliant and judicious use of Earth’s FTL ships by Silverman, none of the enemy’s forces were able to get past the orbit of Jupiter. Silverman had used his pre-FTL ships as his main rail gun platforms and used the FTLs as the equivalent of corvettes and aircraft carriers – luring, steering and pushing the enemy closer to the pre-FTLs and harassing and shooting down the enemy’s smallships with the FTLs’ Eagle fighters. The pre-FTLs then just opened fire with a never-ending hail of rail gun projectiles that was like rain in their density. There was, however, some damage on the EarthForce ships from what was called “friendly fire,” but they had coordinated their rail gun volleys sufficiently that this was minimized.

When there was no more resistance, Saturn’s massive freight ships supplemented the EarthForce warships to tow all the enemy derelicts, especially the shuttles and smallships, to the L4 and L5 Lagrange points of Jupiter. At that point, the Lunar EM field generator was switched off, and there were multiple nuclear detonations within these Tiros dumpsites. These detonations happened between fifteen minutes and four hours from the time the EM suppression field was deactivated. Ultimately, the booby traps were useless.

There were very few Tirosians that were rescued since most had committed suicide when their defeat was inevitable already, and even so, the few that were rescued, found ingenious means for self-immolation.

In the end, there were no Tirosian survivors.

- - - - -
(bookmark 36)

Several Dravidian cargo ships landed in the area selected for the Detterex Prisoners-of-War camp, bringing with them the materials needed for its construction. The ships disgorged the supplies and took off. Construction started immediately. To protect them from the extreme weather, all of the Earthers from DSC Gibraltar that were assigned to construction work were required to wear their pressure suits underneath their regular duty clothes. The suits were not noticed, and everyone made comments about the Earthers’ endurance and ability to weather the extreme cold. And with the standard gravity of Zeos, the work wasn’t as bad as expected. As for the Telcontari, they needed no special protection against the cold.

Prior to construction, the Earther-Telcontari crew melted the snow down completely until the bare ground could be seen, and from there sunk foundations made from rebar-reinforced concrete, and from there, laid down a large, flat, concrete platform from which they would build the one-story structures on.

The materials the Dravidians provided were very basic – massive sheets of aluminum and steel, sheets of insulation, large tanks of various chemicals, resins and liquid polymers, large drums of silicon and quartz, and ingots of various metals. So the Earthers had to use their ingenuity to fashion what was necessary. The little foundry, plant and the various machine shops that the Gibraltar’s crew had erected went into full use, and there was no shortage of material to create the required nineteen hermetically sealed barracks and the required facilities for each. One could say that the Dravidians didn’t really think of what was needed and just got what was available from their shipyard construction supplies and dropped it down on the planet. The Earthers had to practically fabricate everything. But with the perpetual sunlight, there was power to spare for any equipment they might need to use, and there was no shortage of manpower, or rather Telcontari-power.

The Telcontari were helpful as trained labor - although they were technically capable, the training that the Earthers had for building such kinds of structures made them better at it. The Telcontari were capable helpmates, however, and in less than a week, the prisoner camp was completed, just in time for the arrival of the Detterex prisoners. They were moved into their new homes immediately, with thirty-two to a barrack. From that point on, personnel from the Colossus police force took charge.

The nineteen one-floor barracks were spread out on a large, featureless concrete expanse surrounded by a tall, smooth, temperature-variance-proof, impact-proof, pressure-proof and totally transparent glass dodecagon wall. Outside, it was surrounded by a series of moats alternately filled with glass-smooth frozen water and razor-sharp broken boron-silicate ceramic shards.

At each of the twelve corners of the dodecagon wall were extremely tall watchtowers topped by pulse and rocket emplacements.

It was the most extraordinary, innovative structure the Federation people, as well as the Detterex, had ever seen. Although the barracks themselves seemed conventional, that’s where the conventionality ended. Though the Dravidians scoffed (typical of them) at the structure, saying there were no new innovations, the others just ignored them and marveled at the use of the provided materials in this manner. They asked the Earthers that were packing to leave to explain the logic behind the structure.

They explained that the glass walls were transparent so that there were no places for any escaping Detterex prisoners to hide. The vitreous surface and interlaced molecular crystalline structure would prevent anyone from climbing it or busting through it, and even if they could, the ice in the moats outside were so hard and smooth, they won’t be able to get traction, and the ceramic shards were so sharp, just bumping into them would cause cuts.

As to tunneling down, the camp was built on top of solid granite, and there was a full EM detection web extending to a thousand kilometers in all directions to prevent any vessel from approaching the camp.

There was a lot of leftover material, however, and the Earthers radioed the Dravidians, saying that the material can be picked up any time, but the Dravidians replied saying there was no need to return the excess supplies – they were theirs now, and they can do whatever they want with them. O’Connell replied for the Earthers and thanked them. Sarcastically, the Dravidians said, “you’re welcome.”

The Gibraltar transported all this “leftover” material to their new selected site. The supplies would allow them to get a jump on the construction.

The site, which would later be called Gibraltar Base (because the people working the site were from the Gibraltar), was a large, flat plateau that the Fifth Fleet commanders had picked – Lady Reena, Lady Areeya, Captain Tolar, Captain Rexx, Captain Ehlar and the Second Cruiser Commander had highly recommended the location. It was a flat granite plateau of over fifteen square kilometers that was raised about a thousand kilometers above the plains below by ancient volcanic action, with sheer granite escarpments surrounding it. Their leasehold also included the six square kilometers around it, as well as all approaches to the plateau. The six had gotten together and researched the entire surface, and knew that this was the best location for their new base. (Mia didn’t tell them, however, that the undeclared five square kilometers still remaining on their leasehold would be at another location, and she wasn’t telling them where.)

The Hermes was still not there, but the construction had already started. The Fifth Fleet had taken turns to land dirtside so that they could repair whatever damage they had incurred during the battle, which was mostly mind. The most significant damage was when they nudged the Detterex cruisers away, and this only required a bit of hammering and a bit of spit-and-polish, and they were okay. They had quickly vacated the “facilities,” such as they were, allowing the Elyran, Dixx and Arachnian Fifth Fleet ships their turn.

The Earther FTLs were resupplied except that they had missile holds that were now about one-fourth empty. They had no stockpiles anywhere in the Zeos system so there was no opportunity for resupply. As a compromise, they had filled the empty holds with ammunition for their rail guns manufactured from the supplies left over from the camp construction.

As for their other non-Earth ships, the Elyrans, Dixx and Arachnians did have their own depots on Colossus, and were able to restock and resupply their ships with the ordnance they needed.

After Cruiser 99 lifted off, this left Gibraltar Base vacant, awaiting the arrival of Hermes.

Later on in the day, the Hermes had arrived in orbit, towed by the Windsor. The Shepherd Moon and Constellation took over the towing, and Windsor lifted away to go into a synchronous orbit above Gibraltar Base.

Thankfully, some of Hermes’ anti-gravs were still functional, and Constellation and Shepherd therefore didn’t have difficulty towing her. The four dozen or so cables that each ship had tethered to the Hermes were more than enough for the job.

The Federation observers that had been tracking them were dumbfounded – to tow ships using actual, physical cables was unheard of. How primitive, they thought, but then, when they thought of the effects of tractor fields and how they could affect the seriously-compromised structure of the Hermes, they thought it was a simple and ingenious solution to a very tricky and complicated problem. They quickly made a one hundred-eighty-degree turn in their options, and they avidly observed how the Earthers would manage getting Hermes down to the surface.

First, the Hermes was surrounded by her sister ships, all of which had extended their gravity fields around her. As they entered the atmosphere, the surrounding wind and ambient air was not a factor anymore. They entered Zeos Three’s atmosphere slowly, and descended at a very, very slow twenty meters a second.

The trip down was excruciatingly slow, but it was free of incidents. The damaged Hermes creaked ominously all the way down, but she didn’t break, and in about an hour, they were setting her down on Gibraltar Base’s new shipyard intact. At the moment, though, it could hardly be called a shipyard – it was more an empty piece of extremely hard granite.

As the dozen or so spotters declared Hermes secure, all the mooring cables were released and the Shepherd Moon and Constellation pulled up and away.

On the ground, seven Marines fired grenade launchers into the space above Hermes, with the grenades exploding directly above her. They did this three times. The grenades were not dangerous – they were training grenades, with more bang than actual explosive force.

Subtly, and with respect, the Daemon representative leaned over to the Earther beside him and asked what that signified.

The Marine explained that it was called a Three-Volley Salute, which signified respect for the dead that they had been put to rest, and that life can resume again.

“A most appropriate tradition,” the alien said. “My condolences to you and your comrades, warrior.”

“Thank you, My Lord.”

At that point, the Mud Turtle shuttle that everyone knew as the “Admiral’s Barge” came and landed near the Hermes.

Mia stepped out and acknowledged the salute of the officers that met her. She went to the remaining crew of the Hermes that were standing at attention and in parade formation.

Mia acknowledged the salute of her first officer, Commander Iyanda. Mia embraced her and continued down the line. She had a few words with each, and at the end of the line, she saluted the gathered assembly.

With Nick and Commander Iyanda, Mia then went to the gathered observers and gave the representatives a bow. Those that knew about it extended their right arms and “shook hands” with the Admiral, Earther-style. After a few pleasantries with each delegate that was there, she took her leave. She asked the two little protocol Telcontari officers to be summoned.

Mumu and Pinpin, the two officers from the Office of Protocol ran over and stood in front of the Admiral. They saluted in the manner that they saw the Earthers did. Mia chuckled, but seriously returned the salute.

“Dear friends,” she said to the two diminutive Telcontari, “I and my crew take leave of you and the wonderful people of Colossus. As you know, EarthForce’s Fifth Fleet has been drafted to participate in the defense of Elyra. In order to rendezvous with the Federation squadron en route to Elyra, the Fifth Fleet must leave now.

“I therefore leave the responsibilities of our diplomatic office and all diplomatic matters to my right-hand man and adjutant.” Nick stepped forward and bowed.

“In matters of defense and military matters, I leave that with Commander Ndidi Iyanda, acting commander of the Hermes.” Ndidi bowed as well.

“Know that my friends are fully empowered and are ready to represent the people of the Earth, and shall have full authority to act as my representatives.

“As for Earth’s contribution to the defense of Colossus, I leave EarthForce battle cruisers Windsor, Gibraltar and Hermes, and they all shall be reporting to Commander Iyanda. Commander Iyanda and her crews will do their utmost to defend Colossus and her people.

“I am communicating this to you now in your capacity as representatives of the Office of Protocol. Please take this as my formal notice.”

The two bowed, and Mia turned to leave.

As she, Nick and Ndidi started walking to the Admiral’s Barge, she felt a tug on her sleeve. She stopped and turned to see Pinpin. Her companion, Mumu, was trying to stop her and was pulling her back.

Mia stopped and gestured for the other two to continue on.

“Hey, Pinpin,” Mia said. “What’s going on?”

The two knelt on one knee, with heads bowed.

“My Lady,” Mumu said, “forgive my partner for her impertinent behavior. I will chastise her immediately…”

“Hush, Mumu. Pinpin, what is it?”

“Mistress, I apologize. After all of the service your people have given us, the sacrifices you made, and the insults you have had to endure, I am ashamed. As apology, I would like to offer the services of my people, and, in particular, of myself and my partner. I am so desperate to show you that you are loved, that you are honored, that you are respected. Mistress, you must not leave thinking otherwise. Please let us come with you and help you. We will not disappoint. We will do our best to be a credit to you. Please, Mistress!”

“Stand up, my dears. Please.”

The two of them stood and looked up at her. “She is crying,” Mumu said to Pinpin in an awed whisper.

She went to the two and embraced the little Telcontari.

“My dears, you have touched my heart. I am full to bursting. Bless you two. To have found friends in a place where we didn’t expect to is like a drink in the desert. I am so honored and humbled…” She let them go.

“I am so happy, Mistress.”

“But, dearest child, do not be hurt when I say that I cannot accept your service.”

The two looked at each other and hugged. They keened like crying little children.

“My dears, my dears, listen to me. Do not forsake your current task. It is important and necessary. You must continue on. If you are not there, then those that would seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the people will have free reign. You, my dears, are the gatekeepers. You must be there and protect. And… other than that… the reason I cannot accept your service is because we do not want to put others in harm’s way. It is how we Earthers are. Know that it is our honor to protect and you.

“If you wish to be of service, please assist Nick and Ndidi. Help them navigate the morass that is the Colossus and the Federation. We are mere babes to the Federation, and we need a mentor and a teacher to guide us. Promise me.”

“We are honored, Mistress,” Pinpin said. “We promise.”

Mia hugged the two again, leaned down and gave each a kiss on the cheek.

The two held hands as they watched Mia climb aboard the shuttle they called the Admiral’s Barge and take off.

“I promise, Mistress,” Pinpin whispered. “Hurry back.”

 
Peek-a-Boo, I See You -

As the five Elyran cruisers from the Colossus squadron and Mia’s Fifth Fleet of combined Earther, Elyran, Dixx and Arachnian cruisers (minus the Hermes) started to fall into formation prior to their departure for Elyra Prime, alarms blared onboard Colossus. Early-warning buoys had detected a fast-moving unidentified object.

The warning was extremely delayed because none of the Federation and Earther detection systems were able to detect it. Only the buoys that used visual tracking were able to detect it.

They all thought that it was some celestial body, like a captured asteroid or something, but analysis of the pictures indicated it was the escape craft that had disabled Hermes. Everyone thought that it had been taken out by Gibraltar, but apparently they were wrong. In Mia’s mind, she could imagine the Detterex commander going, “peek-a-boo!”

Mikasa used her Phase-Wave equipment and found that the ship masquerading as an asteroid had an EM suppression field around it. But the field was so small, and the fact that it was flickering showed that their systems weren’t functioning properly. Gibraltar had obviously done a lot of damage.

None of the Federation cruisers were ready except for those that were already deployed, and they were scattered all over. The Elyrans and the Fifth Fleet were the only ones that had a chance of intercepting the enemy, so they delayed their original plans and took off after the intruder.

As before, it was moving around the sun, at incredibly dangerous velocities. It was well above ship-maneuverable speeds, just slow enough that no significant relativistic effects would affect it. They could only assume that the ship had no working FTL drive anymore, and this was the fastest it could travel without an antigrav field.

O’Connell had her people do some turnaround times and it seemed that they can only do one quick pass. The Earth ships could actually use their FTL and inertia converters, and do stops-and-starts several times and they’d get close enough to the enemy, but that would absolutely compromise their FTL systems.

At least there was full communications, and they had organized their ships according to their acceleration profiles, each making a pass and fire a volley of missiles. Before starting for the enemy, Mia and several squads from all ships had left for Colossus using their shuttles.

So the seventeen ships had arranged themselves according to their acceleration profiles.

The first over the line was the lone Arachnian ship, followed by the Shepherd, then the five Earther ships. After them were the seven Elyrans, and then the three Dixx cruisers.

As each ship zoomed past the Detterex intruder, they fired off a brace of missiles with proximity fuses, but what they had learned was that if a ship was travelling sufficiently fast, the missiles were useless. Even if the missile detonation was timely and correct, the ship would have passed already for the explosion to have any substantial effect. They could see the fireballs and explosions but the enemy ship would just flash right through them.

Mia had little hope that the missile attacks would have finished off the enemy, but they still had to try. But even if they were successful, the giant station would still have to avoid being hit by the wreckage. Now that she knew that the ship was still incoming, and completely intact, she had to either evacuate everyone, or find a way to move the entire station out of the way, but the enemy might just correct their course to adjust to any movements of Colossus.

Then she had a brainchild.

She brought out her CC. “This is Admiral Steele to the Shepherd Moon, come in. C’mon, Beth! Pick up!”

“This is O’Connell,” came the response. “Sorry, Admiral. No joy. Our missiles didn’t even slow it down.”

“We saw, Beth. But I have an idea. This is what I want you to do: maneuver the Shepherd to a position that’s at an angle to the trajectory of the Detterex. Use FTL to maneuver, and then use the lasers.”

After a while, O’Connell responded. “You mean…”

“Yes, Captain. Now, do it! Execute now!”

“Aye, aye!”

Using her barge’s systems, she kept close track of the Shepherd’s progress. At that point in time, the Earther ships hadn’t used their converters yet, since it would have been pointless, so they had been decelerating in the conventional way and not tip the other ships about their converters. And as she was looking through her scope, Mia saw the Shepherd stop deceleration, maneuver so that she was now pointing her nose one hundred thirty-five degrees from her current trajectory. She turned the turrets of her energy converter away from Colossus so that she’d hide the flash, and then blipped her converters.

Mia lost her image for a second because the Shepherd suddenly braked and Mia had to track back to find her again. When she found the ship again, the ship had powered up to full acceleration and was now moving in her new trajectory.

O’Connell sent her the coordinates where the Shepherd would be breaking again, and Mia hurriedly adjusted her equipment to point at those coordinates. In moments she was looking at an area of empty space. On a second screen, she focused on the fast-moving Detterex ship, and she waited.

In a few minutes, she saw the Shepherd slide in, and then stop on a proverbial dime. It actually looked like the Shepherd appeared out of nowhere. A few seconds later, it fired the top two turrets of its energy converters. Eight incandescent beams speared out: a sapphire blue, a ruby, an emerald green, a neon yellow, a purple, an orange, a violet and a pure-white. At the same moment, Mia saw in the other screen a brief flash of color. It was too fast to register in the eye except as a flash. There also seemed to have no effect, but after ten or fifteen seconds, a series of explosions wracked both the port and starboard sides of the ship, and, after the explosions had died down Mia noted that all her running lights, and all the lights in all her ports, windows and engines disappeared.

“She’s dead in the water,” Mia whispered to herself. “Good work, Beth.” But the enemy ship was still coasting at high sublight: her inertia still carried her forward in a high-speed fall towards Colossus.

Mia turned back to the task at hand, and organized a proper debarkation into Colossus.

- - - - -
(bookmark 37)

A slowed-down playback of Mia’s video showed that the Shepherd’s beams had punched through the enemy cleanly, and had caused her to lose all power. Phase-Wave had confirmed that the EM suppression field had also disappeared, and further sensor sweeps showed that the ship was indeed dead.

There was no hope of stopping the ship, however, so, to paraphrase Occam’s Razor, if you have eliminated the impossible things that cannot be done, what’s left, however improbable and difficult, are what you have to do. So that means, Colossus has to be moved.

Per her calculation, the Detterex ship would impact Colossus three-fourths down its length towards the “south” side. Mia therefore deployed her crew to all the places where they thought people were congregating and instructed them to try and move the people to the North side of the station. Mia knew she would need help, but she didn’t know anyone. She went to a wall console and tried to decipher the controls, and was eventually able to connect to the Office of Protocol.

“Office of Protocol,” a friendly-sounding Telcontari answered her call, “how may I assist you today?”

“Good day,” Mia replied hesitantly. “I am Lady Amelia Catherine Steele of the…”

Mia couldn’t continue as the Telcontari started to squeal and squeak in excitement. In a bit, Mia could see the little thing wave to more of her friends, and more of them crowded around the video screen.

“My friends, my friends, please!” Mia interrupted.

The furry little aliens quieted down.

“I have a serious matter to discuss. I need to speak with either Pinpin or Mumu. Are they there?”

Those behind the operator rushed away, and in moments they had the two dragged in front of the screen.

“Damn it! Let go of me,” Mumu shrieked. “I was doing something! Stop it! Oh…” Mumu had seen Mia on the screen.

“Mistress!” Pinpin exclaimed, but she calmed herself. Together, Pinpin and Mumu bowed, Elyran style.

“It is wonderful to see you again,” she said. “We had been following the developments of your cruisers’ chase of the rogue Detterex ship. We have been wondering how it has been going…”

“My dear, my dear! Please stop! I have something of great urgency to discuss. It’s a matter of life and death.”

Pinpin stopped, and bowed in apology. “I apologize, Mistress. Please continue.”

“EarthForce has been successful in disabling the enemy ship…” The Telcontari cheered. “But! The unpowered ship is still flying towards Colossus at an unstoppable speed. We are still trying to see if we can take it out, but I am not too hopeful. So, what I need you to do is to help me find a way to move the station out of the path of the enemy. Do you understand.”

The Telcontari squeaked and chirped at each other.

“We understand the dilemma, Mistress. What you want is easily done. Colossus can be moved by using the station’s rockets.”

“Then do it. Now, my dear, now!”

“As my Mistress commands,” Pinpin bowed and rushed away.

“I need more help, however.”

“I am at your service, Mistress,” Mumu said.

“Just in case, we need to have as many of the people moved to the northernmost sections of station, and be ready to secure all airtight bulkheads. We still have some time but I fear it will not be enough. We need to execute now.”

Mumu was on the verge of crying in panic.

“Mumu. Mumu! Look at me!”

Mumu looked up at her.

“We have no time for that now, my dear. You must dig deep and find your courage. People need you now. I believe in you. Do you?”

“My Mistress…”

“You have the heart of a warrior, Mumu. I know it. Remember what you and Pinpin told me earlier back on Zeos. Were those things true?”

Mumu took a deep breath. “They were true, my Mistress.”

“You are my rock, dear child. Go, then. The Federation needs you.”

Mumu bowed deeply, and ran out of video range.

Mia sighed in relief, and faced the others in the screen.

“All, right, then, children,” she said. “Who among you is in charge?”

“I’m sorry, My Lady,” the operator said. “Those were Mumu and Pinpin. They are the directors of the Office of Protocol.”

Mia was extremely surprised. “They’re the directors? You’re kidding.”

“Yes, they are. But the office is answerable directly to the Lord Chamberlain of Colossus, as are all the officers, administrators and personnel of Colossus.”

“I see… Then who among you are the deputy or assistant directors?”

An even more diminutive Telcontari moved forward.

“I am their apprentice, My Lady.”

“What is your name, my dear?”

“I am Chi-Chi, My Lady.”

“I am glad to meet you, Chi-Chi. I am Mia.”

The gathered Telcontari giggled.

Chi-Chi smiled. “I am pleased to meet you as well, Lady Mia.”

“I apologize for my abrupt manner, and for taking your directors away. The matter was extremely urgent.”

“No apologies are necessary, Lady Mia.”

“Have I compromised the operation of the Office of Protocol?”

“Not at all, My Lady.”

“I am relieved. I must take my leave as I have much to take care of.”

“Please do not let us keep you.”

“Well, I have another mission, Chi-Chi, and I need you and your staff to take care of it.”

“We are just the Office of Protocol, My Lady. We have no real authority to…”

“I understand that, child. If you need to pass this on to others, please do. Just know the urgency.”

Chi-Chi sighed. “All right, My Lady. I understand. What is it you require?”

“I need you to communicate the situation to everyone, Chi-Chi. Call the necessary people and explain what is happening. Get us the necessary permission. Tell them that, regardless, we will proceed to do what is necessary so that we all survive this crisis.”

“I understand.”

“Good child. Now, is there a way for me to be able to reach you, as well as Mumu and Pinpin without the need of these consoles? Something portable?”

“Please take the portable communicator clipped to the side of the console, My Lady, and bring it with you. We are programming Keys One, Two and Three of the one there with you for Pinpin, Mumu and this office. Just press the necessary key to contact us.”

“Many thanks, Chi-Chi.”

“Just call us anytime if you need assistance,” Chi-Chi replied.

Mia switched off and took the portable communicator. It wasn’t that portable since it was as big as a loaf of bread. She did notice that it had a built-in strap tucked in the back so she used that to sling the device over her shoulder. She walked down the hall in a direction she hoped was towards Aonta and brought out her CC and contacted her people. She started coordinating moving people.

With the assistance of Mumu and his people, the people of the Federation finally started moving. To help them, Mia coordinated with Nick and Sahsha over at the Earth’s office on the south side of the station and fired regular Using Phase-Wave pulse sweeps through the station to pinpoint stragglers. Mia then rushed over and got them moving. Slowly, the south side was starting to empty of people.

As she finished up with one of the inner decks, she heard someone running. She looked and it was Pinpin.

“Mistress!” the little Telcontari called in distress. She cannoned into Mia and hugged her around the waist.

“What is it, my dear?” Mia said as she petted the furry little alien and tried to calm her down.

“I have just discovered that the reaction jets of the station aren’t working, as are the main attitude control jets.”

“What does that mean?”

“I means the Colossus cannot be moved, Mistress!”

“Is it some kind of fault in the engines or some kind of equipment failure? I can have my people go over and check them out.”

The Telcontari shook her head.

“There is no defect, Mistress. The problem is that there is no more fuel!"

“What!”

“I do not know why, Mistress, but all the tanks are drained.”

“All right. Take this.” She handed the large communicator she got to Pinpin. “I will ask Sahsha and Nick to coordinate with you so that you can evacuate this side of the station. Can you do this?”

Pinpin took a deep breath. “I can, Mistress.”

“Good child.” Mia gave the little furry alien a hug. “Now go!”

The Telcontari ran down the hall and contacted her office.

Mia brought out her CC and called Sahsha and Nick to relay their sensor data to Pinpin instead, and then she called O’Connell, explaining the problem with the engines.

“Any ideas, Beth,” Mia asked.

“Essentially we need to strap thrusters onto the station’s surface. Are there any ships out there that you can use like boosters?”

“Lots, Beth, but the time I can get them, Colossus would be gone by then.”

“You can’t say that we should be the ones…”

“I’m just laying out the facts.”

“We can’t send a missile because we don’t have time to reprogram…”

“Yes. How about a shuttle?”

“Can you get the barge out, or the other shuttles you brought?”

“They’re way down inside Colossus’ hangar bay. It’ll take half an hour to get them out. No, it has to be one of yours.”

“Admiral, in order to get there ahead of the intruder, we have to max out the shuttle’s acceleration and then decelerate on max as well. No one will survive that.”

“How about remote control, Beth.”

“That’s an idea. But how do we moor it to the station?”

“Harpoon missiles on tether cables. Fire them into the hull.”

“All right. You have to find out where we’re supposed to fire them at.”

“Leave that to me. Now, get on it, Captain.”

“Aye, sir!”

Mia then contacted Chi-Chi, and asked for assistance again.

“Chi-Chi, I need you to find the strongest structural areas on the station where mooring cables can be attached to.”

“My Lady, I do not understand…”

Mia explained what they needed, and Chi-Chi said she finally understood.

“All right, child. Time is of the essence. Get me the information as quickly as you can.”

“As My Lady commands.”

Mia hurried to the Earthers’ quarters to get a pressure helmet and tanks because she had a suspicion that she was going to need it.

Nick, and Sahsha were in pressures suits too. She had Nick begin evacuation of the Earth offices as well, and after a desperate last kiss with Sahsha, Mia ran out to rendezvous with Chi-Chi.

They met in the main passageway somewhere in between the Earth offices and Chi-Chi’s offices.

“My Lady,” Chi-Chi and several other Telcontari, followed by Pinpin, all in pressure suits as well, bowed.

“Are those the plans?” Mia pointed at several rolled up sheets of paper under Chi-Chi’s arm.

Chi-Chi nodded. She knelt on the passageway floors and spread the topmost sheet. Her companions held the corners down.

“These,” she pointed at several concentric circles running through the station, “are load-bearing rings mounted to several spines that run through the station horizontally. The engineer I talked with said that the best place to attach is your cable at the point where a ring actually attaches to a spine. Any of these rings,” Chi-Chi pointed, “are far enough that there is reasonably low centripetal force but near enough to maintain structural integrity.”

“I see.”

Chi-Chi then gave her a small piece of paper with some writing with Elyran mathematical script and symbols, and the Mia puzzled it out. She looked at the blueprints and then at the piece of paper, trying to figure it out.

“So if we attach here,” she mumbled, “we would need about 343,000 newton-meters, which translates to roughly 35,000 kilopond, and that will allow a movement of about twenty kilometers per minute from the topmost part of Colossus, and the structure of the station will remain intact. Now a mud turtle or a cobra shuttle is rated at…”

“What are you saying My Lady.”

“Sorry, Chi-Chi. I was just doing some calculations. Which ring is the closest to where we are now?”

The Telcontari pointed.

“Okay. Where is that ring?”

She looked around for a bit and pointed down the hall. “There’s the ring. And the rib is there.” She pointed again.

Mia brought out her CC. “Captain O’Connell?”

“O’Connell here. The shuttle is on its way, Admiral. It’s on final deceleration and should be there in ten minutes.”

“We’ll need the mud turtle to go on full thrust once moored to the station.”

“We sent a Cobra, sir, from the Kirov.”

“Even better. Cobras have more legs to them. Okay. Track my CC. When I say go, the CC will be your target.”

“Aye, sir.”

Mia turned back to Chi-Chi. “Dear, if I were on the hull, how can I tell where the ribs and the rings are?”

“The engineer told me they are marked on the hull with diagonal white stripes. There are handholds bracketing the markings.”

“Good. Now all of you get behind those bulkhead doors and close them. I’m going to cut into the hull here, so prepare for depressurization. Pinpin, come here.”

Pinpin approached. Mia gave her a hug and a kiss on top of her head. “Get your people to safety.”

“Mistress…”

“I will be all right. Now, go. Protect your people.”

Pinpin bowed and motioned all of them to move back. At the end of the passageway, Pinpin tripped the emergency locks and the pressure doors came down.

When Mia could see the safety lights winking, took her uniform off leaving her in her pressure suit. She donned her helmet, slipped the little rebreather pack she got from the office, attached its hoses and cables to the helmet and turned the pack on.

Waving to the little Telcontari that peeked through the pressure door portholes, Mia turned on her dress sword to full.

With a modified Passata Sotto, Mia lunged at the wall with her sword, and it went through the wall like butter. As soon as she did, the passage depressurized rapidly.

Mia braced herself against the wind, and as soon as all the air had escaped, Mia used her sword to make a large human-sized hole. She peeked outside and looked for the handholds. Seeing several nearby, Mia, an experienced spacer, calculated her jump, and then leaped into space. She reached out and was able to grab a handhold at the very last moment.

Mia had to hold on very strongly because the centrifugal effect was threatening to throw her off into space. But she persevered. It was one of the times when her less-massive body was an advantage since her muscles were still her old ones. She started making her way to where the marks indicated that the rib and the ring intersected. Looking back to the hole she had just jumped through, she saw the Telcontari looking through it, and at her. Mia waved to them, and proceeded.

She thought it wasn’t too far away, but it seemed farther and farther away as she got more and more tired. But eventually, she made it. She hooked her right arm through one of the rungs and paused to rest. She looked down, and past her feet. The sunlight glinted off something, and she knew that was the approaching Eagle shuttle.

With superhuman effort, she pulled herself up and hooked her feet into the rungs.

Quickly, she then slipped her left hand in her suit’s utility pouch and brought out her CC. Looking down, she noticed that the Cobra was rapidly coming closer and closer. “Dammit,” she muttered.

She looked at the hull’s surface and found no way of mounting her CC on it.

“Admiral!” O’Connell warned. “We have a proximity warning here! Turn on your CC now, Admiral. Please!”

Mia didn’t know what to do anymore, so she stretched her left arm as far as she could. And After a deep breath and a short prayer, she pressed the GPS transmit button on her CC, and looked away.

The remotely-controlled Eagle shuttle’s computer started beeping away, warning of an impending crash, but there was no one in her cockpit to hear it.

When Beth and her crew received Mia’s signal, they triggered the Eagle’s harpoon missile. It flew off and zeroed in on Mia’s CC. The targeting was a little off so, instead of hitting the CC squarely, the harpoon sank into Mia’s left forearm.

Mia screamed in pain. A one-inch diameter steel pole punched through her suit and arm and into the hull. The barbs on the end deployed and locked the spear solidly into the hull.

Mia’s suit’s repair systems were triggered and more than half a liter of fast-forming foam sealant sealed the rip and prevented her suit’s air from bleeding away. The suit also chemically cauterized the massively traumatic wound, preventing total blood loss. Mia knew this would happen, but her mind was filled with so much pain, she couldn’t think or do anything but scream into space.

The Eagle shuttle flashed past her and the station, and the massive tow cable connected to the harpoon grew taut. Mia could feel the vibration in her arm.

The ship’s engine power spooled up until Mia was silhouetted in the electric-blue light of the Eagle’s engine, and the Shuttle started making some progress in overcoming the inertia of the station.

Mia’s right hand had come unhooked from the handhold, and she pounded it into the hull. She couldn’t help it because of the unbearable pain in her arm.

The harpoon bent, but it, and the cable held, and, inch by inch, the massive station started to turn.

The shuttle continued to run it’s engines and the inches turned to feet, and in a while the station’s movements could be felt.

The cable started to change direction as the station’s spin started to affect it. In another fifteen minutes, it would start wrapping around the hull, but by then the enemy ship would have hit the station.

“Admiral!” O’Connell called. “Admiral! What’s happening!” She had a sneaking suspicion what had happened, but it’s too late by then.

Mia couldn’t hear her through the cloud of pain, but O’Connell continued on. She needed to let her know that the plan was working, and justify this.

“Admiral! Admiral! It’s working! Mia, it’s working! T-plus five meters. T-plus ten. Fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, fifty! Mia it’s now over fifty meters! We’re fine! The Station’s saved! Mia!”

But by then, Mia had fallen into unconsciousness.

- - - - -
(bookmark 38)

Over thirty hours later, Mia found herself waking up in the Earth Office’s clinic. It took her a few moments to collect her thoughts and recognize where she was. She looked at her heft arm, and a large, tubular device covered it. She recognized it as a force-growth tank. She had remembered having such devices attached all over her during her gender change at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda oh, so long ago. This one wasn’t as fancy and complicated – just a standard tank used in most trauma centers now. She sighed. At least the damage wasn’t so bad that it couldn’t be fixed and regrown.

She felt no pain in her arm. She actually couldn’t feel anything in her arm. She sighed again. Looking around the little clinic, she saw Beth, Ren, Tasha and Sahsha, all sleeping quietly. She didn’t know that Elyrans also practiced the habit of Earthers watching over loved ones. She giggled.

But then she noticed little furry puppies surrounding her bed. She shook the meds and sleepiness from her head, and focused better.

There were three Telcontari around her, with their heads on her bed, also sleeping. She looked closer and recognized Mumu, Pinpin and Chi-Chi. Mia smiled, and sighed. My little children, she thought.

A medic came in.

“Good morning, Admiral,” the nurse said. “We noticed that you were awake already, and we wanted to check on you. How are you feeling?”

“A little thirsty…”

“No problem. Here you go.” She held a glass full of water to her lips, and she took some sips.

“That felt good,” Mia said. “Any chance of pancakes or something.”

“Easily done. I’ll buzz the doctor, and then I’ll bring you some breakfast.”

“Breakfast? How long has it been?”

“Since the Detterex ship narrowly missed us? About thirty-six hours.”

“Oh… Has the Fifth Fleet left for Elyra already?”

“No, actually. Captain O’Connell has ordered the fleet to stay until she could consult with you. Or so she said.”

“She shouldn’t have done that.”

Mia reached down with her right hand and petted Pinpin. That woke her up.

“Mistress,” the little bear chirped and smiled. “It is so good to see you well and awake.”

“You shouldn’t have worried, my dear.”

Pinpin held Mia’s hand in her soft paws, and affectionately rubbed it on her cheek.

“Can you wake the others?”

Pinpin nodded. She gently shook the other two awake, and proceeded to gently and respectfully wake the others.

Sahsha was first to come over. She awkwardly hugged Mia, and gave her a gentle kiss on her cheek.

“Hello, my love,” she whispered.

“Hey, Sahsha.”

“You’re one crazy bitch, you know?” She giggled.

Mia laughed. “Oh, certainly. I’ve always known I was crazy.”

“Admiral,” O’Connell said. “Glad that you’re okay.”

“Hello, Beth.”

In a while, everyone was milling around her bed.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” the nurse cried. “This will not do! My patient needs room and rest! Out! Now!”

The non-Earthers looked around worriedly, fearing that they had done broken some kind of rule, but seeing Sahsha’s and Beth’s reactions, they sighed in relief. Still, under the less-than-gentle insistence of the nurse, and after a final kiss between Mia and Sahsha, everyone left.

“Beth, hang around a while. Okay?”

“Aye, sir.” And both waited for everyone to leave.

“Please brief me on what’s happened since yesterday.”

O’Connell nodded, and while the nurse fed Mia breakfast, O’Connell told her everything that had happened.

Mia’s instructions had been very clear and the CC signal was at the right spot. The harpoon missile hit where it needed to. The remotely-controlled Cobra shuttle was therefore able to start the station moving, and about fifteen minutes later, the Detterex ship whispered through and narrowly missed the station with only a few hundred meters of clearance. Pinpin and Chi-Chi then laboriously clambered to where she was and cut her from the harpoon with her own sword. They then brought her in and waited for Sahsha and the others to come and help her.

As the Fifth Fleet’s fastest, O’Connell had Cruiser 99 chase after the unstoppable runaway, and when they were in close enough proximity and had matched velocities, they bombarded the Detterex ship and broke her up into extremely small pieces of rubble. In its present state, any ship with a deflector field, or even just a structural integrity field, wouldn’t be hurt by it anymore. Cruiser 99 was now on a return course, but because of the distance they had traveled, she wouldn’t be back for another four hours. That was actually the reason O’Connell had delayed departure (or so she said).

As for the station, there was no damage, except for what they had to break in order to get it tethered and moved.

By the time Cruiser 99 was able to chase down the intruder, various shuttles from the Federation had been able to coax the station back into its former position, and the little damage it sustained had been repaired. The pedantic Dravidians had insisted that the Earthers be required to repair the damage they had caused, and this was met with much derision from the Assembly. But, instead of dragging it all out, a small Earther crew was dispatched, and with help from the Telcontari custodial and repair crews, this was fixed in short order.

A short investigation was conducted regarding the missing fuel, and it was discovered that the Dravidians and Erocii had been siphoning off the station’s hydrogen and oxygen supplies for decades now, and using it to fuel their ships. No one had noticed since its engines had not been used for centuries, so checking the fuel levels was not considered a critical activity. This made it easy for them to cover up the theft.

A loud furor had broken out then, and the beginnings of a move to impeach the Lord Chamberlain and have all Dravidians removed from all Federation boards, councils and ministries started to circulate. The Lord Chamberlain tried to use the fact that the fuel was not needed since the engines hadn’t been used for centuries, and actually posed a large danger – the fuel was quite dangerous, after all and he was just doing his duty to protect the station’s citizens. He said there was even a motion several decades back to drain the tanks, remove the engines and use the space for more living areas. This didn’t help put the controversy to bed because the Office of Protocol was able to unearth the fact that this motion to reallocate the space was actually sponsored by the Dravidians. Furthermore, the Office of Lodging and Habitation showed documents that the Dravidians had reserved the areas of the engine sections of the ship for future Dravidian living space.

Normally, such reservations were ignored since there was no way to claim them. But with the new information unearthed, this indicated a conspiracy. Adding fuel to the fire, the Office of Protocol also showed records that the motion to convert the station’s engine space into living space was again on the Assembly’s calendar in several months’ time, with the Dravidians sponsoring it again. There were also new questions raised about where the fuel that the Dravidians had siphoned off went. Questions also started to circulate about the fuel that Dravidians regularly give to any who found themselves short of fuel for their ships. It was general knowledge that the Dravidians were easy marks in this area, and would gladly provide fuel in exchange for small seemingly-inconsequential favors, such as voting for or against certain legislation, shifting transport schedules, moving meeting schedules or adjusting the Assembly’s calendar. Such things were patently illegal if it could be proven that these were done under surreptitious circumstances. These suspicions would, however, require further investigation to substantiate.

Needless to say, the position of the Dravidians started to become precarious. Many delegates reserved time in the Colossus’ huge library in order to research any precedents that were in the books so that they can remove the Dravidians from Federation office, and had ordered the Office of Protocol to conduct the investigation.

This was all unimportant, compared to the fact that the station was still stuck in place. So Commander Iyanda of the still-grounded Hermes volunteered to electrolyze oxygen and hydrogen for the station. To prevent the appearance of any impropriety, the Earthers had quickly disclosed that this was being done in payment for processing and other administrative matters required for their leasehold’s documentation. Such arrangements were actually an accepted mode of transacting business in the Federation – a barter-trade mechanism that was the fallback mode of commerce for economies without a common currency. The Office of Supply and Logistics had thankfully accepted the deal, with the added proviso that the Earthers also check out the long-unused engines as well. However, though the engines seemed familiar, the station’s tanks were very large, so they might take months to fill them up.

There was a bit of bad news, however. Apparently, Hermes couldn’t be repaired and therefore couldn’t be recommissioned. Sure, the ship could be re-assembled with new components, but they’d have to wait for spares from New Copernicus, and it would be tricky doing it this far away from home port. The decision was therefore made that they would not try anymore.

The components from the Hermes would make excellent components for Gibraltar Base, though - their turrets and rail guns could be repurposed into excellent gun emplacements, and the Hermes command tower could be the base’s control tower and command center, and her FTL engines would make for a great power station and a land-based EM suppression field generator. The Hermes’ complement of Eagle fighters and Cobra shuttles could become the Gibraltar Squadron as well.

Mia asked if Commander Iyanda was informed of this, but O’Connell actually said it was she who made the suggestion. Hearing that, Mia gave her approval.

O’Connell then broached a sensitive subject, which was, would Mia be going with them when they depart for Elyra, and Mia relied with an emphatic “of course!”

O’Connell sighed because Sahsha Delyer had given notice that, if Mia was going with the Fifth Fleet, she was going, too.

Mia sighed. “Guess we have no choice, then.”

“So, it’s you and Sahsha, huh?”

“Oh, Beth… it’s not like that. Sahsha and I have known each other for years. There were just too many complications. You know…”

“Well, there are definitely hearts breaking out there.”

“Oh, shut up.”

“We can, you know, strand her here.”

Mia chuckled. Yes, we could do that,” she said, “but can you imagine Sahsha on the warpath, which is what we’d get if we do this.”

O’Connell laughed. “Okay, if you say so.

“Oh, Chief Haskell has also repaired your suit by grafting a pressure cuff above the elbow and then grafting a regular suit sleeve and glove to it. He’ll make you a new one from scratch when you get rid of that.” She gestured at the device on her arm.

“Before all of this is over, I might need several suits.”

“Okay.”

“That was a joke, Beth.”

“Oh.”

“Wait. What did the doctors say about me? Do I have to stay in bed or something, or can I go?”

“Nothing new. Major damage to the brachioradials and flexors, completely crushed radius but the ulna is mostly okay. Your brachial artery was totally shredded as well as most of the tendons and nerve clusters so they’re practically regrowing you a new arm. Will probably take two weeks.”

“That’s it?”

“You also lost about two liters of blood. Thank God for your suit and your little Telcontari friends, or you might have bled out.”

“Okay. So I can transfer out to the Shepherd?”

“Aye, sir. As soon as you’re ready. Today if you want. Just take it slow.”

- - - - -
(bookmark 39)

“You sure you wanna do this?” Sahsha asked. She helped Mia shrug into her dress blues jacket. It was a little difficult to get the metal tank on her left arm through the sleeve.

“Yeah. And who had the idea of me wearing dress blues?”

“That was me.”

“Why, for God’s sake?”

“Trust me. You’ll understand.” She helped her with her dress sword and belt, and then over the belt went the red sash.

“Okay, sexy. You’re all set. Let’s go.”

“Let’s go,” Mia agreed. “But go slow. Us grannies need to take it easy. Can I lean on you while we walk to the barge?”

“Lean on me all you like, Mia.”

With Sahsha’s help, Mia got up off the bed and made their way to the lounge.

As they were about to step out into the passageway, Sahsha switched on Mia’s dress sword. “For effect,” she said to Mia. And they stepped out.

Outside, they couldn’t help notice that the passageway was lined with people.

“I told you to keep my leaving quiet.” Mia whispered to Sahsha.

“It’s not my fault. I think it was your little friends, Mumu and Pinpin. They leaked the news.”

“I should have known.”

Mia looked at the people lining the aisles and they all broke into applause.

“Who taught them about clapping?” Mia whispered.

“Wanna guess?”

Mia Sighed. She turned to them and bowed. It was more like a short bob but that was all she could manage, and the applause and cheering doubled in volume.

Mia and Sahsha walked their slow, frail way to the nearby airlock, and the people would bow as they passed, almost like a curtsey.

“That’s probably Ren’s handiwork,” Sahsha whispered to Mia.

They saw Ren and Tasha, both in spacesuits, but without the helmets.

Mia smiled. “What are you two doing here,” Mia chuckled. “Pray tell me you are going with us.”

“What else, Mia,” Tasha said. “You don’t think you’re getting rid of us that easily.” The both of them gave her hugs.

“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m actually glad.”

“Reena isn’t too happy about it,” Ren said.

“Why, for goodness’ sake?”

“Well, it won’t help her having the boss looking over her shoulder again,” he nodded toward Tasha. Mia and Sahsha chuckled that Ren was learning new Earth terms and idioms.

“How about Dax and the First Ambassador?”

“You couldn’t keep them away if you tried,” Tasha nodded down the aisle to the two mismatched sophonts walking towards them. They were also in their suits.

“I am pleased to see you, my friend,” Dax said and bowed. Mia bowed as well.

“Admiral,” the First Ambassador said, arms akimbo in what they knew was a gesture of happiness. “I am so pleased to see you ambulatory.” He proffered an antenna and Mia touched the tip with her finger.

“All of us together again, eh?”

“The Tirosians and Detterex better watch out,” Dax said, and they all laughed.

“True.”

A Daemon approached the group.

“My Lords and ladies,” the Deamon said and bowed.

Sahsha couldn’t help but be reminded again of lions from the Serengeti, and wanted to reach out to stroke the alien’s silky-looking mane.

“My Lord,” Mia said, and bowed.

“If I may express dismay at your injury, and that you incurred it in service to the Federation. I believe you have rescued our galactic alliance from shattering into pieces. You have accomplished what none in the Federation could do, and here you are, again flying into harm’s way, in defense of our Federation citizens. I do not wish to keep you from your appointed destiny, but I wanted to say something that will no doubt please you, and perhaps help you in your mission. I wish to say that I have received word from the homeworld, courtesy of the crew of the Shepherd Moon. With all the recent events, and the immeasurable debt we have to you, My Lady, and to the people of the Earth, all of the Daemon Territories declare its fullest support for your cause. In the next Assembly, I shall announce that we are declaring war on the Tiros Empire. Our forces are yours to command to end the dual threat of the Detterex and the Tirosians.”

The people that were crowding around them fell silent, and a quiet murmuring spread hearing the Daemon’s announcement.

Mia bowed and extended her uninjured right hand.

For the first time, an Earther and a Daemon shook hands.

“I am pleased, My Lord. Thank you.”

The Daemon grinned in satisfaction and stepped back to allow the little group to move on.

Eventually, they reached the airlock at the end of the passage. Mia’s admiral’s barge was just outside, moored and waiting. Standing by the airlock waiting were the representative from Star-453, and Mumu and Pinpin.

Mia and Sahsha paused and bowed.

“My Lord,” Mia said. “It is pleasant to see you.”

“It is most pleasant to see you as well, Lady Amelia,” the cyborg said.

Mumu and Pinpin moved to the front and gave Mia hugs.

“Careful, my dears,” Mia laughed. “You’re liable to tip me over.”

“Sophonts,” the tall robotic alien chided gently, and the two let go, a little chagrined, and stepped back.

“I know you need to depart, but I have momentous news from the Council of Custodians that I am sure you would want to hear before you leave us.”

Mia bowed. “We are listening, My Lord.”

He raised a robotic hand to the crowd, and they all quieted down to listen.

“Friends and fellow sophonts,” the cyborg said in formal tones, “I am deeply sorry to do this not in Assembly, but we had no choice. The Lady Amelia is on her way to again fly to the defense of Federation worlds, and we did not wish to delay her, hence this hastily-organized announcement.

“Upon consulting with my peers in the council,” he announced to everyone present, “and upon consulting with the Office of Protocol, we have judged the character of the people of the Earth by the example of the members of their race that have helped the Federation in such an immeasurable way. Their adeptness in navigating the maze of the Federation’s rules and principles speak well of their knowledge of Galactic culture, and their cleverness in adopting to them. Their unfailing politeness and considerateness in their interactions with the Federation’s representatives, as well as their sophistication in interpreting, appreciating and understanding complex issues of culture, commerce and war have shown that these sophonts are more than ready to join the Galactic Federation of Free Races. And in consideration of this, after an unprecedentedly short sixteen solar days, the Council of Custodians therefore unanimously declare that Earth’s probationary period is now ended.”

A roar of approval and applause greeted this. The cyborg raised his hand again.

“Know that we have already informed the Chamber of Migration and Peerage of this. This means that the Earth now has the full right of representation in the Assembly. They also have the full right to establish a full diplomatic mission on Colossus, and the right to request the establishment of embassies on any Federation world. The Chamber of Migration and Peerage shall therefore be reviewing our findings and recommendations shortly, and hopefully, before next Rotation, we shall be able to welcome the Earth and her colonies as full and permanent members of the Federation. Dear gentlebeings, please express your congratulations to our Earther friends, and welcome them into our ranks!”

In deference to Mia’s frail condition, the people kept their distance and satisfied themselves with Earther-style applause. Others bowed while a few knelt.

Mia, despite her condition, bowed to the crowd, Elyran style, bowing low with her fist on her heart. She bowed to the Cyborg, and hugged the little Telcontari.

“We wish that you reconsider, Mistress,” Pinpin said to her.

“Yes, Mistress,” Mumu said. “Please let us come with you.”

“My dears, no. You have work here. With everything that has happened, your role is even more vital.”

“Chi-Chi is sufficiently in authority to take over for us, Mistress.”

Mia grunted a bit and knelt on one knee so that she would be eye-level with them.

“Pinpin. Mumu. There really is nothing to be done. If it were left to me, I would welcome you to my crew with open arms. But Telcontari have a larger role yet to play. Tell your fellows that fate has given you and your fellow Telcontari an important role. You are the gatekeepers of the Federation. You must make sure that none will abuse their power to the detriment of Federation citizens. You must make sure that the Federation’s rules are complied with, but more than that, that the spirit of the Federation is observed, cherished and celebrated. You did not ask for this responsibility but it is yours now. There are no others that can do it.”

“Mistress,” Pinpin cried and keened like a little child whose heart was breaking.

Mia looked up at the tall cyborg.

“My Lord,” Mia said, with eyes shining, “I have no right to ask, but… will you look after my little friends? They are but babes, thrown into the wilderness. Will you take them under your tutelage and protection?”

The tall robotic alien approached her. He put his robotic hand on her shoulder and nodded.

“You may count on me, noble warrior,” he whispered in his electronic-sounding voice. “I am humbled by your example. Do not worry. We shall be there for them.”

He gently pulled the two Telcontari away.

“Let go, children. Let your mistress go. She has places to be.”

The two moved back and Mia stood.

After a final wave, she and Sahsha stepped into the airlock, and then into the barge.

In minutes, the modified shuttle pulled away slowly, and gracefully spun. As soon as it was oriented properly, its engines fired up and emitted an electric blue glow. Everyone watched it move up and away to rendezvous with its mothership.

- - - - -
(bookmark 40)

The Fifth Fleet and the five Elyran cruisers started on their month-long trip to Elyra prime. They flew in close formation such that they could remain in contact with each other. Of course “close formation” is relative – they maintained over a thousand kilometers of distance between each.

They had over a month to travel to Elyra, but having worked with Reena during their weeks-long sublight trip from Saturn to Earth, the Earthers knew enough of Elyran systems now so they were able to fine-tune the Elyrans’ engines and improve their performance. As for Cruiser 99, it was an Arachnian ship. So the First Ambassador facilitated the transfer of information and the Earthers were able to do the same adjustments with them. After the “tune-up” was completed, Cruiser 99’s systems were increased by at least thirty percent. The twelve Fifth Fleet ships and the five Elyran cruisers were able to reduce their travel time to about three weeks instead of a month and a half.

Three weeks was enough, however, for the Fifth Fleet veterans to familiarize the other ships, including Cruiser 99, with how “EarthForce” does things. Also, during down-time, they were able to share Earth music and Earth “TV,” along with an eclectic mix of Dixx, Arachnian and Elyran entertainment. Such things were part of how they are able to gel the crewmembers into a more cohesive and cooperative team. But what everyone wanted to hear about during breaks were stories about Earth and the Earthers. The First Ambassador, Ren, Ben and Sahsha took it upon themselves to talk about their time together on Earth, with Tasha, Admiral Dax and Mia herself sitting in on a few of these late-night “talks.” Mia couldn’t do much while she was recovering, so it was a way for her to keep busy.

- - - - -
(bookmark 41)

Much of the Elyrans’ time was spent on drills. For the Earthers, it was an eye-opener dealing with seven whole Elyran crews all together. They learned how mission-focused the Elyrans could be and it upped the ante for them. They found themselves drilling and practicing more, lest their more laid-back attitude reflect badly on them.

Given the hyped-up status of their people, O’Connell and the other sixteen ship commanders decided to capitalize on the high esprit de corps and and instituted simulated joint formations and joint missions based on scenarios that Mia and the strategy teams formulated, and before they arrived in Elyra, they were quite familiar with the capabilities of each squadron, their machines and their people.

Meanwhile, Earth continued to send updates on the invading fleets. Their telemetry showed that the enemy was on-track to arriving in the Elyran system in about two months’ time, whereas the ones en route to Dixx and Arachnia would be arriving between six to eight months. This indicated that these ships came from one massive fleet that split up into three. Given Elyra was the outermost of the three targeted planets and therefore the closest to the enemy, naturally, it would be the first to come under attack.

Their turnover times meant Mia and crew would be arriving about a month ahead of the enemy. Which might give them sufficient time to regroup and compare.

All of these timing issues and things like improving engine efficiencies were a bit confusing to Sahsha so, during O’Connell’s break periods, she tried to explain it: In normal space, Newtonian physics allowed travel by the application of force in one direction, forcing an object to move in the opposite direction. Earth’s pre-FTL ships, as well as Federation and Empire ships, do this by the ejection of some reaction mass, whether that be in the form of the combustion of hydrogen, ejection of ionized plasma or whatever. This method was effective for accelerations while below light speed. However, while in normal space, travelling faster than light was not possible because of ever-increasing mass, and infinite mass required infinite energy, which wasn’t possible. What the FTL drives do is that it reduces the “perceivable mass” of an object travelling at the speed of light to their sublight dimensions, and therefore keeping everything within their field in the same relativistic plane as normal space allowing the ship to travel faster than light, i.e. time does not speed up or slow down while they are flying FTL. Space-time is therefore “folded.” For someone in normal space floating outside the ship, she would see the ship travelling very, very, very fast. (Of course, the person wouldn’t really see anything.)

The thing about it was, this effect will not work below light speed. When the engines are engaged while in normal space, the ship’s relativistic aspect is already at normal mass, so the drive, in effect, doesn’t do anything. The FTL will only work at velocities when there’s sufficient relativistic effects. For the current technology, this is about sixty percent the speed of light, although the Earth version can work at somewhat lower velocities by virtue of more precise controls.

Similarly, the Earther inertia converters also only work within a certain velocity range, but more than that, it will not work if the ship is under acceleration.

O’Connell also explained that because FTL engines are ineffective below light speed, Federation ships use more conventional thrusting systems at that point: mostly they use variations of ion drives. Such engine technologies were the same used in the old J-class cruisers (which was what the Shepherd Moon was before being upgraded) and the so-called “Enterprise-class” fusion-ion ships. Federation and Empire ships therefore had two kinds of engines – the FTL for light-speed travel and the ion engine for normal-space sublight velocities.

On the other hand, Earth FTL ships actually use their FTL engines for sublight. During sublight, they generate artificial gravity similar to what gravity plates generate instead of gravity fields that “fold” space.

Sahsha couldn’t follow her at that point anymore, so she just raised her hands in surrender. “I’m more confused,” she said. “I give up!”

O’Connell laughed at that.

- - - - -
(bookmark 42)

While en route to Elyra, the Earthers got regular updates from the Telcontari about the goings-on in Colossus. Mumu and Pinpin asked Nick and Commander Iyanda to relay their messages up to the Shepherd Moon.

The latest news from Colossus showed that there were a lot of things happening over there, the likes of which no one had seen in in a long time, the biggest piece of news having to do with the Dravidians.

The move to impeach the Dravidians was starting to gather steam, and if it pushes through, it would be the first time for such a thing to happen in eons. Even the possibility of such a thing had the Dravidians in a panic, so, in a move never seen in the history of the Federation, the Dravidians had voluntarily resigned their custodianship of the Federation government. No race has ever voluntarily given up their custodianship, probably because it would be a long while before they get the chance to govern again – they’d have to wait for the raffle for the next rotation.

But since the Dravidians were the last in line for the current rotation and had only ten more Earth years to go on their current tenure, it was a natural assumption that the timetable for the next raffle would just be moved up. However, the officers from the Chamber of Migration and Peerage said it was impractical to do so: after so many eons, the schedule for the raffle and subsequent rotation and turnover was already so intertwined in Federation life, it would be very disruptive if the schedule was changed. Nick told Pinpin it was sort of similar to someone trying to change the date for Christmas or something. Pinpin didn’t understand it but she said that being around Nick allowed them to learn more about Earthers everyday. Mia laughed at that.

The representative from Star-453 had a suggestion, which was met with very strong opposition by the Dravidians and Erocii. This was to allot the remainder of the Dravidians’ remaining time to the Telcontari. After all, they were already doing much of the work to administer the Federation government so it wouldn’t change things much, and it was only for ten years.

The Erocii representative said that there were no precedents for such a motion.

The cyborg agreed, therefore only a unanimous vote will do. He called the question and asked for a vote. After an impassioned speech by Nick (it was the first time for the Earthers to speak before the Federation) lauding the bravery, commitment and ability of the Telcontari, but mostly their impartiality and commitment to uphold galactic traditions and law, the vote was unanimous, although the Dravidians and Erocii were the final ones to vote.

The Erocii representative then brought up the question of who will take over as apprentices since the Telcontari would vacate that position. Surely no race would want to assume so menial a role.

The cyborg responded to that for now, perhaps it might be well to see if the Earthers would consent to take up the role. This would be beneficial in two ways – that the Earthers would have practical experience with Federation processes, methods, protocols and institutions, and would shortcut their period of acclimatization.

This time, the Telcontari Ambassador, Lulu, spoke up for the Earthers. He said that though the Earthers may feel the role to be beneath them, he agreed that this was the quickest opportunity to integrate their newest members into the Federation family. He went on to say that, as the interim administrators, he and his fellow Telcontari would be honored to be able to work side by side with the Earthers. He could only imagine the kind of heights that the Federation could reach with the Earthers as part of Colossus administration.

The motion was again passed by acclimation with only a dozen races abstaining. Not surprisingly, the Dravidians and Erocii were the final ones to vote again. After the vote, the Telcontari then asked the Earthers to speak.

Nick stood and bowed deeply. He spoke eloquently, and expressed how humbled and proud that he was for the support of the gathered assembly. He promised to contact Lady Amelia and Secretary-General Romarkin immediately, and will have a response for the Assembly shortly.

As to the question of declaring war on the Tirosians, many of the members were of the opinion that, insofar as all the events that have unfolded so far, no direct attacks have been waged on any Federation world and they could not justify a declaration of war. A few expressed the point of view that the Tirosians have essentially done this when they invaded the Earth System and opened fire on Elyran, Arachnian and Dixx spacecraft.

The cyborg representative of Star-453 asked if the Telcontari could hazard an opinion.

The Erocii protested that the Telcontari were not competent to hazard any opinions.

The cyborg replied that, on the contrary, Pinpin and Mumu, the directors of the Office of Protocol, have shown their expert knowledge on Federation rules and conventions, and invited them to speak.

Mumu, the more junior of the two, stood and explained that, using the resolutions of the Assembly over the past one hundred Elyran years as precedents, the circumstances could be rationalized either way. Ultimately, it would be a personal decision of each individual representative, using her wisdom to divine the proper path for her people.

The cyborg asked what his personal assessment was. Mumu deferred to the ambassador and said that it was improper for him to preempt him. Lulu pinged to say that he was giving him leave to speak.

Mumu bowed deeply in deference and gratitude. He then expressed his sorrow, but he would have to say that he is more inclined to defer the decision to declare war by the Federation. Such a motion would have wide-ranging repercussions. Unlike the decision to declare war on the Detterex, which was fairly straightforward, declaring war on the Tirosians on the other hand was not too clear. Even the invasion of the Earth system could be argued that it happened before the Earthers became members, and the Federation may not be involved in the circumstances that precipitated the invasion.

He did say, however, that he would recommend to his leadership that, like the Daemons, Telcontar should declare war on the Tirosians, based on circumstantial evidence of collusion between them and the Detterex, but more to express solidarity with Dixx, Elyra, Arachnia, Earth, and Daemon as well.

The entire Assembly applauded his small speech, and a call to defer the matter was passed in acclimation.

 
Shepherd Moon, Chapter 23: Elyra Prime

 
The Death of Arvan -

Naturally, of course, the news was also received on Earth. And after in-depth consultation with the leadership, and a long consulting session with Mumu, Pinpin and the Telcontari ambassador (Mumu and Pinpin were beside themselves in excitement), Secretary-General Romarkin informed Nick, and Mia later on, that the Earth had decided to accept the role. Nick was to announce this decision during the next Assembly.

As of that time, the Elyran-bound ships had reached the end of their short, three-week journey.

After a short forty-hour sublight trip, the fifteen ships arrived at Elyra Prime, the second planet of fifteen around their yellow primary. The system was unusually crowded, and it only had one gas giant – the tenth from their sun. But the one thing it didn’t have much of are asteroids and other rocky flotsam that were common to most other systems.

Elyra Prime itself had eight moons, and Star Harbor was based on the second largest of these moons.

Star Harbor was Elyra’s main garrison and main port for their military, and as such, was the home of the single largest fleet in the Federation. This was where Mia’s ships were escorted to. At the moment, a fourth of the Elyran fleet were moored in Star Harbor, plus the ships sent by the Federation. With all of the ships now on Elyra, it made everyone feel invincible.

The seven Elyran crews took their instructions from Princess Tasha, and she had deferred to Mia. Mia, knowing her need to maintain cohesiveness in the her little coalition squadron, made sure to course all her instructions through Tasha, the First Ambassador or Dax, except when they directly asked for instructions. But she didn’t have much occasion to do that since most asked instructions directly from her or O’Connell, and her friends did not resent it, which was good for her.

The first order of business was to brief all the leaders of Elyra Prime, so she asked all the commanders to accompany her planetside. The planetary government had set aside the largest coliseum on the planet for a special summit, and they got there before the bulk of the attendees.

All of the commanders of all the ships and their first officers, plus Mia, Tasha, Ren, Dax and the First Ambassador, met with the gathered planetary military and civilian leaders. For the sake of time, many of the normal civilities that Elyrans were so fond of were dispensed with, though they did have the ceremonial drinking of Krahhng, wine or their equivalents, and they began their briefing.

Mia was asked to speak first so that she could brief the gathered leaders about the approaching enemy. Thank goodness the tank on her arm had been taken off already, otherwise, she’d be deathly embarrassed.

Because of the limitations caused by the Curtain of Light, Mia explained that they couldn’t get much information about the enemy, but at least they could see the general proximity of the enemy to the system in real-time. Tasha then took the floor and briefed everyone about the enemy’s new tactic of using suicide shuttles with disguised nuclear weapons. Also, with the reports from EarthForce, Tasha reported that they seemed to have updated this tactic during the attack on Earth, that it wasn’t just shuttles that could be made into a bomb but any kind of smallship, even the comparatively tiny fighters.

Admiral Dax then took over and briefed everyone about the force that they have just brought over from Colossus: seventeen capital ships - seven Elyran, six Earther, three Dixx and one Arachnian. Together with the twenty-one Elyran capital ships (or twenty-five in Base-8) already moored in Star Harbor and the twelve other assorted ships (or fourteen in Base-8) that the other Federation nations had sent, Elyra Prime now had fifty capital ships at her beck and call (or sixty-two in Base-8). It felt like Homecoming Month to most of the population. The impending attack wasn’t too talked about yet.

After which, Princess Mara Dorian-Kerr briefed everyone of the state of affairs in the planet, outlining the defenses that they had at the ready, which included all the capital ships available, and all the planetary defenses they had set up.

They then took a two-hour break for rest and a meal, and so that everyone could absorb all the information they had just been given.

During the break, Tasha brought her friends over to Mia’s location, and introduced them to Mia and O’Connell.

Tasha was making a special effort at rapprochement with Princess Mara Dorian-Kerr, the leader of the Great Northern Kingdom, the second most powerful kingdom on the planet, so she introduced her first. She had then introduced Ambassador Fal of the First Colony and her husband, Micah. Though Fal wasn’t a royal, she was Tasha’s best friend. Beside her was Princess Elaan, the ruler of the Everon, their largest and most powerful off-world colony. Princess Thalassa of Harcon the next most-powerful kingdom on the planet also came over bringing her mate and with Princess Rahda of Petri in tow.

Mia bowed Elyran-style but it seemed Tasha and Ren had briefed her Elyran friends. They all held our their hands for an Earther-style handshake. It became oddly quiet after that, and it made Mia nervous. Especially with Tasha on the side giggling.

“All right, Tash,” she said, “what’s so funny.” Mia paused, a little chagrined. She didn’t mean to call her “Tash.” Mia didn’t know if Tasha was offended. She just continued to giggle.

“Oh, Mia,” she said, smiling. “I will not tell.” Mia humorously put her hands on her hips and huffed theatrically. The byplay was not missed by the gathered leaders.

“If I may, My Lords and ladies,” Mia said, taking her turn, “I would like to introduce Elizabeth O’Connell, captain of the Shepherd Moon and my second-in-command.”

“Greetings, Captain,” Mara said and shook hands with her. “Would it be allowable to ask, if you are mated to the Lady Amelia?”

“No, My Lady,” O’Connell replied nervously. “She is my commander, but also my friend.”

Mara looked slightly confused.

Ben moved forward. “If I may, My Lady,” Ren interjected, and waited for permission.

Mara nodded.

“My Lady, unlike us, in Earth military organizations, it is actually not an accepted practice for subordinates to be married or partnered with their superior.” He then bowed towards O’Connell. “Pardon our question, Captain. In our culture, married couples are partners in almost all things. So, in military hierarchies, it is extremely common that leaders would have reporting to them their partners. It is extremely uncommon for leaders not to have their partners with them.”

“I see. Thank you, Ren.”

Ren bowed.

Mia then introduced the rest of her command staff, and as they exchanged pleasantries and shared wine and Krahhng, Sahsha came over. Mia leaned down and Sahsha whispered to her.

“My Lords and ladies,” Mia said, “they’re ready to begin again,” and she followed Sahsha back to their area.

“So…” Mara quietly said to O’Connell, and gestured to the two of them. “Are they…” She left it hanging,

“Ummm, yes,” O’Connell said, “but they aren’t really spreading that around?”

“It is a secret?”

“Well, no… It’s just something that they’re not telling people as a matter of course.”

“Is it because the little one reports to the Lady Amelia?”

O’Connell chuckled. “Oh, no. Sahsha’s a civilian. She reports to the Secretary-General, not to the Admiral.”

Mara nodded. “Is it because they are both female?”

“Not at all! Ummm… are same-sex relationships not accepted in Elyran society?”

Mara looked at O’Connell, not understanding the question. “What do you mean? Why would that matter?”

“But you were asking about…”

“I was just wondering. Because there will be no children from this union. Does Lady Amelia not want heirs?”

O’Connell shrugged. “I think that’s not something they’re worried about at this point. Right now, everyone is focused on the Detterex and Tirosian menace.”

“Well spoken, Captain.”

“But I’m curious, My Lady: how did you know?”

She shrugged. “I do not understand the question. Isn’t it obvious?”

O’Connell felt she wasn’t understanding the situation. She was clearly out of her depth. At times like these, Nick would have been great to have around right about now. She tried to change the subject.

“I guess I was wondering how an Elyran picked up on it… Anyway, I think we need to get back. It’s time to strategize. We have less than a month before the enemy arrives.”

“True. It was indeed a pleasure to have met you, Captain. I am pleased to have a fellow warrior and sword maiden with us to help us guide the people to victory.” She held out her hand and, when O’Connell reached out as well, Mara didn’t go for her hand in a handshake but rather gripped her forearm. O’Connell did the same. After a little bit, Mara let go, and O’Connell did likewise. She didn’t know the significance, and just nodded to the alien and continued on to her seat, just as Mara did to hers.

- - - - -
(bookmark 43)

As planning for the impending invasion continued, there were many ideas thrown about. The main stumbling blocks were the EM suppression field and the use of “atomics” (as the Federation people called them).

The first thing they decided to accomplish was to establish the size of the enemy squadron. Capitaine Dupont explained that there is no way for Earth tech to determine that since the “curtain of light” disallows radio and other detection. The only way to know is via optical inspection, which is not possible while above sublight, and when below sublight, one needs to get close enough. However, there are a handful of “educated guesses” they could make. One was that, since the apparent size of the EM suppression field was roughly the same size of the one that they saw in Colossus, it was reasonable to assume a squadron of the same size. Another was that since there was only one EM suppression field, the enemy would be coming in from one direction only.

Capitaine Dupont stood and used a long stick pointer to point at the image on the large screen where an animation of the Elyran system and the incoming enemy was shown. Dupont would have preferred a laser pointer but he managed with the stick.

He explained that, given the trajectory, the enemy would be approaching in the direction of an empty part of the solar system that was in direct line to Elyra Prime. At this time of the year, there were no planets or other planetary bodies in that vicinity of space where the enemy was going to go through. The nearest planetary body was about thirty million kilometers away. That means another assumption could be made – that the enemy intends to fly straight to Elyra Prime instead of going around Elyra’s sun or some other strategies they’ve seen the enemy do before. A fourth assumption could be made, though it was a bit of a stretch – that their target was Star Harbor. And, given they were attacking the heart of Elyra, one of the most powerful Federation races with the largest single fleet, a fifth assumption was that this was a suicide mission – the enemy was not expecting to get out of this. In other words, it was a suicide squadron. That gave everyone pause.

Princess Elaan, the ruler of the Everon Colony, then took the floor to say said that, regardless of the EM suppression, all of the enemy’s smallships need to be terminated on sight, so any strategy must be designed around that consideration.

Princess Rahda took the floor this time, and brought up a very disturbing thought. She said that, since the enemy squadron was a suicide squadron, why would they not use their cruisers themselves to deliver the atomics. This therefore meant that none of the enemy ships must be allowed to approach any population center.

Mara therefore declared that a perimeter must be established, and the enemy must not be allowed to breach that perimeter.

Mia then brought up another unsettling idea – that they might need to use atomics themselves. An uproar greeted this idea.

Ren called for order, and most of the Elyrans settled down. Tasha was a bit irritated since Ren caught the eye of many of the people in the crowd. It was a common thing but Tasha had never really got adjusted to it. One of the words that Tasha had learned from the Earthers was “hottie.” Her beloved Ren was an incredible hottie and she just had to learn to accept it.

After order was restored, Ren turned the floor over back to Mia.

Mia had several ideas. They were all extremely unorthodox and everyone marveled at the genius of them. Mia’s audacity and bold and imaginative approach to the problem was first greeted with suspicion but as they discussed them, they thought Mia brilliant, with an almost-instinctive grasp of space battle tactics and an almost encyclopedic knowledge of theirs and the enemy’s ships and technology. For the rest of the night and the following day, they had documented their strategies and appointed and assigned roles. By the third day, they were ready to organize.

They knew that they won’t be able to communicate through the EM suppression field, and none of the other ships except the Fifth Fleet had laser comms. Mia had therefore made up a code using the six visible spectral colors – violet, blue, green, yellow, orange and red, plus white. It turned out the others could see other colors of the spectrum but the Earthers’ spectral everyone could see colors The plan was they would signal each other using rocket flares in these colors fired in specific patterns and towards specific directions. None of the aliens had thought of using such an archaic, some even said primitive, way of communicating, but they all thought it was brilliant.

At the appointed time, Operation Messiah was put in effect and all of the ships flew off in their assigned directions - all except for the Talon and the Shepherd Moon, which remained.

The Federation ships flew away, pregnant with missile ordnance they had requisitioned from Star Harbor’s stores. The Earther ships had to make do with the ordnance they were already carrying since they couldn’t adapt Federation missiles to their systems.

The Shepherd Moon and the Talon stayed in Star Harbor’s docks being coated by a layer of black powder that stuck to the surface of the ships via a static field. At the same time, the largest number of rocket-powered orbital missile gunships the Elyrans could muster were brought up from the planet’s surface. At the harbor, they were all coated with the flat-black in the same way, and their rockets were replaced with ion thrusters.

It took several weeks for the work to be finished, and the Talon and the Shepherd Moon eventually took from Star Harbor with the largest fleet of missile gunships the Elyrans had ever seen. They used the moon to slingshot the gunships in a fast trajectory towards the enemy. The trip was interminably slow since Talon and the Shepherd Moon had to pace themselves so they’d be able to accompany the gunships, but everything was so meticulously planned they got to their appointed place in plenty of time.

As soon as they arrived at the predetermined area, they all maintained station-keeping, arrayed themselves like an old-fashioned roadblock, and put themselves in the way of the enemy.

In the meantime, Star Harbor, Elyra Prime and all the Elyran colony worlds had deployed their planetary defenses, and hunkered down for a siege.

- - - - -
(bookmark 44)

Eventually, The enemy arrived. Talon and the Shepherd Moon, and their fleet of repurposed orbital gunships were arranged in front of the enemy, blocking their path. Their color-absorbing flat-black color had camouflaged them from the enemy. Normally such a trick wouldn’t have worked, but in the absence of sensors, the enemy was reduced to visual detection. And to the enemy, it was like Talon, Shepherd Moon and the gunships weren’t there.

They opened fire as soon as the enemy was in range. As expected, at their lead was about half a dozen shuttles, the suicide nuclear bombs, so Talon, Shepherd and their gunships opened fire on them. As soon as they turned the static off, their coating fell away in patches, but the camouflage had already fulfilled its purpose.

What Mia didn’t tell her allies was that, at that point, the Shepherd would activate her own EM suppression field as soon as the enemy came into range. The danger of the enemy using atomics against them was therefore removed. Of course, to everyone, the disappearance of their deflector fields and communications was because the enemy activated their “curtain of light.”

As soon as the shuttle-bombs were obliterated, their entire squadron shifted targets and opened fire on the cruisers. The sheer density of the missile attack was such that the enemy was forced to brake, which was possible by then since they had already decelerated sufficiently. They valiantly tried to protect themselves against the onslaught but the surprise attack and the volume of missiles got through their defenses and did terrible damage to the ships at the leading edge.

But the enemy, which turned out to be a fleet of twelve Detterex and twelve Tirosian cruisers, plus one tanker ship, were eventually able to regroup. As soon as the first wave of missiles passed, they returned fire. Shepherd Moon used her rail guns to shoot down all the enemy missiles that she could while the rest continued their bombardment. The enemy was hard put to defend against the extremely dense waves of missiles.

This impasse continued for several long minutes, with the Elyrans losing several gunships while the enemy sustained severe damage. By then Reena’s people reported that they could see the other Federation-Earth ships approaching, as planned.

As planned, these reinforcement ships approached the enemy in four directions: the enemy fleet’s port and starboard sides as well as below and overhead. Emulating the intruder that attacked Colossus, they were travelling at their highest sublight velocities. As soon as the enemy was in range, they let fly the maximum number of missiles that they could deploy, in as many waves as they could, catching the enemy unawares as they zoomed past.

The two-way pincers attack was totally new to the Empire commanders (and Federation commanders, actually), and they could not defend against it. The Detterex and Tirosian ships did their best to shake off the new missiles but they weren’t able to fire their anti-missiles in time, and their ships reeled from the enormous attack. They were, however, able to fire missiles at the rapidly-escaping Federation and Fifth Fleet ships, but they were flying too fast. Just like the intruder that attacked the Colossus, the ships just cut through the exploding missiles unscathed. The same effect also protected them from friendly fire, and flew through the Talon’s and Shepherd’s own missiles with the same indifference.

At that point, most of the enemy ships were faltering, and Talon, Shepherd and their gunships poured it on. Seeing an opening at their rear, the one vector that had not been covered, the ships that were still capable of it, pirouetted one hundred eighty degrees. But the last group of Federation and Fifth Fleet ships had been approaching from that end.

Not moving as fast as the other four groups, this last one approached at more normal speeds. This was a larger group, too – this one constituted a third of their fleet.

They had let lose their own missile wave in yet another pincer attack with the Talon and Shepherd’s group, The concern was, however, not getting hit by friendly fire. But, by positioning their ships in a predetermined pattern, and using pre-set firing patterns, they were able to continue their attack full-throttle without hitting each other. The Shepherd fired colored signal flares to signal which patterns to use, and they continued to decimate the enemy.

Eventually, there was no more return fire and the Fifth Fleet and Federation ships deployed their fighters to administer the coup de grace

But from the middle of the now-derelict ships, two of them suddenly emerged from the broken sea of Detterex and Tirosian ships.

Because of the suddenness, none of them were able to react, and by the time they were able to send ships after them, the two enemy ships were already accelerating fast, and fast approaching transition to light speed.

Knowing Detterex and Tirosian physiologies, they knew that their crews were probably suffering, if not already dead. Artificial gravity systems would not be able to cope at such accelerations. So what they were doing was totally lost on Mia.

The enemy ships were non-reactive anymore, sitting there like derelict ships, but Mia and the others weren’t taking chances. Earther Eagle fighters, along with dozens and dozens of Elyran, Dixx and Arachnian fighters flew over, around and through the enemy ships, looking for any more resistance, but there was nothing anymore. Mia felt it was safe enough to turn off her EM suppression field, and it seemed that the enemy had also lost its EM suppression field as well. Communications were suddenly restored, and deflectors started to work again.

Still, as the fighters were inspecting things, yet another ship burst through.

This one, a Detterex “corvette,” small, maneuverable and lightly armed, roared through the Shepherd’s and Talon’s formation of gunships, and made straight for Elyra. With newly-activated deflectors, the cruiser just barreled through the gunships and ignored everything.

With communications restored, the Shepherd used one of its disposable Phase-Wave transmitters and sent a message to Star Harbor that one enemy ship had survived and was on its way to Elyra Prime. Shepherd Moon and the Talon were about to give chase, but the Elyrans should prepare.

The thing was, even with the enhanced engines of the Shepherd Moon, and with the Talon’s tuned-up systems, they had no hope of getting ahead of the enemy, which was traveling headlong in a suicidally fast trajectory towards Elyra. Patrol boats were therefore deployed from Elyra and all the lunar bases.

Hours later, at the midpoint between Elyra and the remnants of the enemy fleet, Mia and her people were expecting the Detterex ship to start decelerating, but it continued to accelerate.

Mia discussed the situation with O’Connell, Tasha, Ren, and Reena. O’Connell reported the intruder was still continuing its acceleration. It was like they were trying to transition to light speed, but if they don’t adjust their trajectory, they’re just going to slam into Elyra at incredible speeds. Tasha asked what the implication of that was. Mia said that such an impact would definitely cause several geological and weather effects. It could definitely disrupt the planet’s ecosystem that in the long run could cause incalculable damage to the biosphere.

She went into lecture mode and told her alien friends about what Earth scientists called the Chicxulub Impactor, and how it crashed into their homeworld about 66 million Earth years ago, causing the extinction of the dinosaurs. That might happen to Elyra, too if the enemy ends up crashing into it. And with the higher velocities that it could reach, the cataclysm might end up being even worse.

Ren was familiar with the theory of the effect of such large planetary impactors on thriving biospheres, and wanted to hear more about it, as well as the dinosaurs. But Tasha told him to concentrate on the problem at hand.

Reena shrugged and smiled ruefully in the direction of Mia and O’Connell.

“Truth be told, Tasha,” Mia said, “there is no way to prevent the impact, but we can prevent an extinction-level impact. What I need is your advice on how?”

“What are you thinking, Mia,” Ren asked.

“As I can see it, we need to break up the intruder into smaller fragments so that even if the fragments enter the Elyran atmosphere and impacts the ground, the kinetic energy of the fragments would be so much less.”

“I agree. How do we do this?”

“Well, we could use atomics…”

“No!” Tasha said.

“But…”

“Mia, there are two reasons not to use atomics,” Ren said, “the least of which are the conventions against their use. The more important reason, however, is that the debris will be radioactive, and that may be as dangerous as your Chicxulub impactor.”

“We have technology that can remove radiation contamination…”

“I know. Nevertheless, it may take time to bring it to the planet.”

Mia looked stubborn.

“Do you have other options, My Lady,” Reena said.

“Well, we can’t really bombard the enemy – it’s travelling too fast. The Colossus effect…”

“Colossus effect?”

“The effect the Colossus intruder exhibited when it was traveling in high sublight – it was practically immune to missile attacks.”

“So what can we do?”

“We can put something in its way. Preferably several somethings of high density and mass.”

“I suppose we can contact Star Harbor, and ask them to assist.”

“All right. Captain?””

“Aye, Admiral.”

“Get your people to crunch the numbers and pass it on to Tasha.”

“Aye.”

- - - - -
(bookmark 45)

Tasha, care of the Shepherd Moon, sent a message to Star Harbor, with all the information that Star Harbor needed. They also warned that another EM suppression field will come on shortly. They needed the field to deactivate the enemy’s sensors and defense fields in order for the plan to work.

Because of the short time available, the people of Star Harbor got to work right away. In the short time that they had, they were able to tow their entire supply of battleship-grade steel plates to the predetermined coordinates (it wasn’t too far away from them, only a thousand miles away, so it wasn’t too difficult) and riveted them together into plates a half-square mile wide each. What took time was bolting them together to creating as many half-mile square plates as they could make. They were then arranged like a stack of cards in a deck, with about twenty miles of space in between each. But they didn’t have too many of the plates so, to supplement them, they towed the hulls of the four ships presently under construction in Star Harbor. As the hulls were being towed in place, another crew used the remaining powder coating they had left over and painted the first of the plates in flat black.

So, in the middle of empty space now floated four steel plates a half-mile square each, all in a row. At the end of the row floated four empty ships’ hulls, also arranged in a row. And they did all this work without the benefit of radio communications.

All of this had depleted Star Harbor’s stores so the storesmaster hoped this was all worth it.

And, as soon as they were done, the Elyran crews vacated the area. They hoped the enemy would arrive soon because the plates and ship hulls had already started to drift, but they didn’t need to worry.

The intruder arrived and, as per the plan, the intruder smashed into the first metal plate with a detonation like a fairly-large nuclear device. But that wasn’t enough to completely stop the intruder.

In quick succession, the ship smashed into the other three plates, and eventually plowed into the four ship’s hulls, each time detonating as more of its kinetic energy was released by each collision. By the time it had smashed into the fourth hull, the ship had fragmented into small pieces of flotsam and jetsam.

Though a substantial amount of the rubble still flew towards Elyra, they didn’t pose the same threat as before. The fragments were small, and their velocity was now just a few hundred kilometers per hour. After a month, they should provide very spectacular meteor showers. This was not a dinosaur killer situation anymore.

As planned, Shepherd Moon switched off the EM field, and they could use their Phase-Wave sensors again.

The Shepherd’s detection officer whooped and turned to her captain with a thumbs-up. “We’re free and clear, Skipper!”

O’Connell sighed.

“Inform all the other ships,” she said to her comm officer. “Tell them…”

“Captain!” the detection officer called.

O’Connell turned. “What is it?”

“I’m seeing something. I don’t know what it is…”

“Call the admiral to the bridge, and give me a close-up of that thing, whatever it is.”

When Mia arrived on the bridge, she went straight to the detection area.

“So, let’s see this mysterious thing,” Mia said.

O’Connell stepped back to let Mia see the screen.

“That looks like a lifeboat or escape pod.”

“Several lifeboats, actually,” O’Connell said.

“Show me a tactical projection.”

The detection officer pressed some buttons and it showed the clustered lifeboats moving towards Elyra, but instead of a direct course, it was on a curving path around the planet. It was a masterful piece of astrogation as it allowed the planet’s gravity to capture it and help reduce its velocity.

“Change the resolution to ten minutes per frame,” Mia instructed, and they watched the speeded-up computer animation show that the lifeboats would circle the planet several times but eventually would come down.

A close-up map showed that the lifeboats would land somewhere in the middle latitudes.

“Beth,” Mia said. “I think you should call the other ships, but the first one should be Talon.”

“Aye.”

- - - - -
(bookmark 46)

The Shepherd Moon and the Talon continued on to Elyra, the whole time tracking the progress of the enemy lifeboats. Several patrol boats were dispatched from Star Harbor and the other moons. . No one could have survived the collision so everyone had assumed that the eight lifeboats were empty, and it was a malfunctioning ship that caused them to be ejected. But as the patrol boats got close, the lifeboats opened fire with pulse guns. When the first ones were shot down, the others moved back.

It was assumed that the proximity defenses of the lifeboats were damaged, so they gave them a wide berth and decided to take care of the malfunctioning ships after re-entry, that is if they didn’t crash land or burn up.

But the lifeboats executed a controlled re-entry, and they started to purposefully move in a specific direction. As best as they could tell, the boats were making for the Great Plains Kingdom.

The authorities were still not ready to give up on the idea that the lifeboats were empty, but O’Connell sent a message saying they were receiving signals from each.

Police and rescue craft were dispatched to where the boats had soft-landed, and everyone waited with bated breath for the officers to report, but after twenty minutes of silence, and their vehicles started moving, it set off alarms over the entire region.

A kind of high-speed chase ensued. However, the civilian police force was outclassed. These were well-trained Detterex warriors and, even with air support, the intruders were able to weave through the capital city with impunity, causing casualties where they went through, and shooting down their air pursuers.

A call went out to the nearby military garrisons, and they sent out several squads to capture the enemy. It was especially urgent since the enemy seemed to be making for the Royal Palace.

By that time, the Talon and Shepherd Moon had arrived.

Showing great skill, Reena was able to maneuver the Talon into an orbit similar to the ones the lifeboats executed, and the ship zoomed around and around the planet as the centrifugal-centripetal effects of the orbit and its thrusters slowly bled off her velocity.

As for the Shepherd Moon, since she had been travelling at sufficient velocities, she was able to engage her inertia converters (making sure that their turrets were facing the appropriate direction so no one would see the telltale flash).

By that time, Mia and O’Connell, accompanied by a squad of fully-armored Marines left the Shepherd onboard the Admiral’s Barge. Tasha and a squadron of her fighters also roared out of the Talon and made for the palace.

An overflight of the palace showed that it was in an uproar, and the enemy seemed to have been cornered in the southern tower given the people surrounding it. Mia, Tasha and her squadron landed in the middle courtyard, where the hijacked police vehicles were abandoned. Mia and O’Connell ran down the barge’s ramp and ran towards where Tasha and some of her pilots were milling about and going through the police cruisers.

“Princess!” Mia called, and ran up to Tasha. She saw her pained expression. “What, Tash! What is it?”

“Mia,” she said, and held up several chrome tubes and components. “The Detterex have a nuclear weapon.”

“Are you sure?”

“These are the parts of a Tirosian atomic bomb. They assembled it right here and have probably brought it into the palace.”

“If it’s a bomb, why not detonate it right away?”

“I don’t know, but Mia. But if there’s even a possibility that they have atomics…”

Mia nodded, dug into her armor and brought out her CC. “Commander Kajima.”

“This is Kajima. Yes, sir.”

“Activate the EM field, Commander. A five hundred mile diameter field. Do it now.”

“Admiral?”

“No questions, Commander. Now!”

“Aye!”

A few seconds later, her CC’s comms cut out.

Mia faced Tasha. “An EM suppression field is in effect now, Princess. If they have a bomb, it won’t work.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask about that. Earthers have the Curtain of Light?”

“Yes. Just like the Elyrans have it.”

Tasha laughed at that.

“Okay, what do we do about the Detterex?”

“They went to the South Tower. The Queen is usually there. It’s my thought that they are after her.”

“The queen?”

“Ren’s mother. The queen of all Elyra.”

“Let’s go, then.

The Earther and Elyran warriors sprinted for the South Tower’s entrance.

The milling Elyrans, many of them part of the royal court, moved aside to let them through and they pounded up the stairway going up to the upper chambers, passing several of the elite Elyran guards and some Detterex soldiers dead or dying. Clearly the fight was fierce and brutal.

At the top, they met with several of the guard who were stopping people from approaching or going through. An elder Elyran male was struggling with some of the guards.

“Warriors!” Tasha called. “What are you doing! Enough!”

The soldiers looked towards them and recognized Tasha.

“Lady Tasha!”

“Warrior. What’s…”

“It’s His Royal Majesty, Princess. He’s…”

The old man turned and saw her.

“Tasha!” the man called. “Daughter, tell these soldiers to let me pass!”

Tasha re-sheathed her sword and ran to embrace him.

“Father.”

“The Detterex have her, Tasha. I must go to her! I must…”

“I understand, Father. But you should not. You will only put her in danger.”

“But…”

She kissed him on his cheek. “I will go and bring her back, My Lord.” She turned to the guards. “Are there any other Detterex in the palace?”

The lead guard shook her head. “None, My Lady. Only the ones in there remain.”

“How many?”

“Two eights and two, My Lady. They are holding the Queen and her lady-in-waiting.”

Tasha nodded. “Warriors, keep your liege safe. I will rescue the Queen.”

They bowed.

“That woman with you…” the king gestured to Mia.

Tasha gestured towards Mia. “My father, this is the Lady Amelia Catherine Steele of Earth. She commands the Fifth Fleet of EarthForce, a friend of all Elyra, and my kinswoman.”

Mia knew this was an important moment, and had to make a good impression. She bowed in a stylized form that she’d seen on an old movie. She knelt on her left knee, held the hilt of her sword in her left hand with tip of her glowing blade towards the floor, and bowed.

“Your Royal Highness,” she said.

The man ran to her.

“You are the Earther warrior,” he said. “Save my wife, My Lady. Please.”

She stood. “Tasha and I will, Your Highness.”

Tasha and her pilots, and Mia and her Marines, split into two groups, and crept up the sides of the passageway. Eventually, they reached the doors at the end. Carefully and quietly, Mia’s soldiers hunkered down and slowly pulled away the bodies of Detterex warriors and Elyran guards piled against it, and pulled them to the side.

Tasha then carefully pushed the door open with her sword blade.

Just as the door started to move, a very loud detonation reverberated down the hallway, and a three-foot wide hole in the massive wooden door appeared.

“This is Tasha, Royal Princess of Elyra!” Tasha called. “You have our mother. Give her up and we will let you live.”

A female Elyran-sounding voice laughed.

“So, it’s the little princess,” the voice answered. “You are here. I thought you would still be with the Earthers. How is your ship, Tasha? The last time we met, your little rag-tag squadron was up in flames. Did you have to hitch a ride?”

“The Talon is quite fine. She is overhead, in fact. Unlike your fleet. Do you know none of your ships survived the battle? The same as on Earth?”

That was greeted with silence.

“Speaking of which,” the voice said, “no doubt your very inventive strategies were courtesy of the Earthers. Tell me, is she here?”

“Who are you referring to?”

“You know who – the Earther captain. Is she with you?”

Mia signaled to Tasha and pointed to herself. Tasha nodded.

“Yes, Princess Arvan,” Mia said. “I am here. Please let the queen go. I promise we will be lenient.”

The Detterex princess laughed in derision. “Clearly, you do not know your Elyran friends as well as you think you do, Earther.”

Mia made several gestures to her Marines and half of them quietly crept backwards and then presumably back down to the courtyard.

“You must know you cannot get away, Princess,” Mia said. “There is no escape. At the very least, allow us to help you survive this ordeal.”

“Is this Lord Norga’s idea, Princess?” Tasha said. “Such a despicable act can only be the idea of your husband. A Royal would never do this.”

“Shut up, Elyran!” Arvan grated. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“You have no way out. Your weapons are useless, you have no communications, and your bomb does not work.”

“Ahhh. You haven’t heard about my plan. “ Mia and Tasha grimly nodded to each other. Arvan didn’t deny it. Mia signaled her people to don their helmets.

“What IS the plan?” Tasha asked.

“That you will provide us with an FTL-capable craft. That you will allow us passage, that you will do all of this, otherwise, say goodbye to the queen.”

Mia looked at her wrist, and nodded to Tasha.

“Another of Lord Norga’s brilliant ideas, no doubt,” Tasha said.

“You Elyran bitch!”

“Now!” Mia cried in Earth English.

Mia and her Marines rushed through the broken doors and winged the Detterex soldiers with their guns while the Marines that scaled the walls of the tower fired through the windows. The Detterex were extremely surprised that the Earthers’ weapons were still working, so they were easy targets. Many of them were downed with capped knees while others suffered from fatal wounds to the shoulders and the arms. Earth Marines knew enough that their armor completely protected their torsos.

“Weapons down!” Mia yelled to the Detterex while Tasha and the others rushed through the doorway with swords out. Before the Detterex knew it, they had all disarmed and were now gathered in one corner of the room at gunpoint. The Detterex princess remained in the middle of the room holding the Elyran queen. Over on the far side by a window was Norga, holding the queen’s lady-in-waiting by the tip of a sword.

“I am sorry, My Mother,” Tasha said.

“There is no need, my child. You have made me so proud, and I cannot love you any more than I do now. My Ren chose well.”

“Quiet,” Arvan growled.

“You be quiet, rebel,” the queen said, referring to Arvan in the old slang for Detterex. “You cannot stop me from speaking, and you cannot stop my daughter. You will not live past today. Know that, and set your mind to that inevitability.”

“Well, you will not survive the day, too, old hag,” Arvan said and buried her sword in the queen’s belly.

The queen screamed in agony.

Arvan threw the queen at Tasha and jumped through one of the windows. Norga threw the queen’s assistant at Mia and did the same – he jumped through the window.

Mia ran to the window. She looked below and saw the two standing already. Many of the guards had rushed to them and were now dueling it out with the two Detterex. Like all Detterex, the tall couple was about 2.2 meters tall while the Elyrans was just a trifle over 1.5 meters. With their reach, the Elyrans weren’t able to get close enough. Mia was only a little over 1.8 meters herself. If she had to go into a sword-fight with these two, she’d be in a heap of trouble. At least the Elyrans seemed to be holding their own.

She calculated things. If the Detterex standard gravity was 1.9 G while Elyra was 1.8 G, and if these two survived their jump, then she’d probably survive. She jumped.

- - - - -
(bookmark 47)

Tasha cradled the queen and told her soldiers to fetch the medical people.

“Mother,” she sobbed. “Nooo...”

The old woman chuckled feebly. “There you go, again, Tasha,” she whispered hoarsely. “Always jumping to conclusions. I am yet alive.”

Tasha touched her face. “Quiet, Mother. Conserve your…”

“Oh, do be quiet child, and fetch my husband.”

It wasn’t needed. The king had rushed through the doors and went directly to the queen.

“My bag!” he screamed and one of the guards handed him what an Earther would have called a “doctor’s bag.” He was a licensed healer, after all, and it was a standing order for someone to have his bag close by at all times. In fact he was the dean of the Royal Institutes of Health and Medicine.

“You old woman,” the king said. “You never could say quiet.”

“You love it,” she said, and chuckled weakly.

“I love you. Now be quiet.”

“Father…” Tasha said.

“Hush, child. Keep her steady while I work.”

“Please hurry.”

“Oh, Tasha,” the queen said, “allow the man to work.”

“All right, mother,” she said, and continued to talk to distract her. “I’m sorry. Ren will no doubt be here soon. And the Lady Amelia is after the two Detterex. She’ll get them. Mark my words. After all this, I want to introduce you to her. I think you’d like her. Would you like that? Mother? Mother!”

The king put his hand on her arm. “Tasha, I’ve put her to sleep. I’ve stopped the bleeding for now. Now, we need to get her to the hospital.”

“A moment, Father.” She gestured to one of the Marines. “Warrior,” she called. “Come here!”

The soldier rushed to her. “Yes, My Lady.”

“Is there a way to contact the Shepherd Moon? We need to turn of the EM field now. There’s no danger anymore.” She pointed to the abandoned nuclear weapon.

The soldier saluted. “Aye, My Lady. I’ll go to the shuttle and have them transmit a laser comm. Can I bring that?”

“Why?”

“We’re under orders to space the bomb, just in case it’s been booby trapped.”

She was glad Ren had been teaching her Earther phrases and idioms, and understood what “spacing” something was, and what a “booby trap” was. “Go ahead, warrior,” she said. “But do it quickly.”

The soldier saluted. He pointed to a couple of other Marines and, together, they gingerly lifted the crate-sized bomb and walked out.

“Guard,” she said, and pointed to one of the Royal Guards. “Help your Earther comrades bring the bomb to their ship. Clear the way for them. Do it quickly. Do it well.”

“As My Lady commands.” She bowed and rushed after the Marines.

Someone brought a gurney and they slowly walked to out the room with the queen.

“Warriors,” Tasha said to the Marines. “Who is the most senior?”

A sergeant raised her hand.

“You are in charge, then. Watch over the prisoners. Someone will be by to take them off your hands. Is that clear?”

“Crystal clear, My Lady!”

Tasha saluted Earth-style and rushed after her father-in-law.

- - - - -
(bookmark 48)

Mia landed with a loud thud, but she miscalculated. She would surely have broken her legs or her knees, but it was the ground that saved her from injury – it was extremely soft, porous and springy. She fell on her side, and worried if she damaged her sword.

But she couldn’t worry about that for now, because Norga saw her and was running towards her headlong.

He had a mace and a large broadsword. He was swinging the mace around over his head, and with a movement of his wrist, the mace started descending towards her. Mia rolled to her right and the spiked metal ball buried itself in the spongy ground where she was.

Mia stood, bringing her gun up. Norga struggled to pull his mace out of the sod but the mace was stuck like it was buried in soft clay. He decided to leave it and, with a warrior’s scream, he charged Mia.

Mia instinctively fired her gun and hit Norga squarely in the face.

“Nooo!” Arvan screamed as she saw her husband fall. She swept the Elyrans harassing her with her sword and they all fell back and she rushed to her husband’s side, literally throwing Mia away.

She grabbed Norga by the shoulders and shook him. “Don’t die!” she screamed. “Don’t die! Bastard, don’t die!”

But as she held him up, she felt the life leave him. “Nooo!”

Mia looked at her in sympathy. “I didn’t mean to kill him,” she thought. “But this is war…” She didn’t know how to comfort the woman.

“I’m sorry, Princess,” she said.

“Kill me,” Arvan grated.

“There’s nothing that can be done.”

“Kill me!” she said.

“Princess, don’t say that.”

“Kill me now. Before the madness begins!”

“Madness? I don’t…”

“If you don’t kill me,” she screamed, “I’ll make you!” With a wild yell, she rushed Mia with her sword extended.

Mia didn’t have a choice. She raised her glowing sword, tried to parry the tall alien’s sword only to cut the sword blade off, and stabbed her through the abdomen as she fell headlong into Mia.

Unnaturally, there was no gout of blood. Her sword’s laser cauterized the wound, but it was fatal nevertheless. Her thrust hit several organs, and severed the spine. Arvan fell over backward at the break and hit the ground.

Mia rushed to her side.

“I’m sorry, Princess,” Mia said. What else could she say?

“I’m not,” she said, barely audible. “You have freed me from bondage.”

“I’ll get you to the healers…”

“No need,” she whispered. “It’s too late. But thank you.”

“… But I…”

“You killed that pig, my husband.”

“Your husband…”

“You are a worthy adversary. Well met, Princess.”

“I am not a…”

“I would ask a boon, Princess. After all of this, will you bring me home?”

“No. Hold on. The healers will be here in moments.”

Arvan reached up and pulled her closer. With her hand on the back of Mia’s head, Arvan pulled her down and kissed her.

Mia’s eyes flew open. She was surprised to say the least. But she didn’t dare pull away. The woman was dying, after all.

“They were right. You are a very strong bridge, and quite attractive. If only I had met you before Norga…” She kissed Mia again. And as they were kissing, the Detterex princess passed away.

Minutes later that was how the healers found them, with the dead princess in Mia’s arms, and Mia quietly crying and holding her. The medics gave her space while they took Norga away and took the dead princess from her arms. A couple of Marines stood by and waited patiently. After a few moments, she shook herself, walked to her people and asked for an update.

As the medics drove away, they were talking to each other.

“So that was the Earther princess,” the driver said to his partners.

“Indeed,” one of the medics said. “She was as impressive as I’ve heard. One against two. And against the Detterex princess and her gladiator, no less. And the duel was quite short as well.”

“It was?”

The other nodded. “The witnesses said that it lasted barely a few moments. And…”

“And?”

“The Earther princess. She was holding the Detterex princess in her arms as she died. She was crying.”

They drove on in silence.

“The Earther was merciful.”

The other nodded.

 
Princess Amelia -

The entire system was in a party mood as they celebrated the unmitigated victory they just had over the Detterex and Tirosians. Only the Elyran leadership really worried about the fact that it wasn’t over yet. But, for now, it was a time of rejoicing.

The handful of Detterex soldiers that they were able to capture at the South Tower were the only survivors of the invasion. Over 6,000 had died on the enemy’s side compared to about a hundred gunship pilots, and the fifty police, royal guards and citizens that perished trying to stop Arvan and her people after they landed.

Included in the list of casualties were the Detterex Princess Arvan and her husband, the Lord Norga, at the direct hands of the Earther princess. These Arvan and Norga were the heirs apparent to the Royal Detterex Family. To the Elyrans, Mia was like a hero, even more than she was before, because it was at her hand that the queen- and king-to-be of the Detterex were killed.

But the details of the last moments of Arvan had circulated. That she had shed tears for her enemy showed that she did not kill with impunity, but had tried to preserve the dignity of the enemy. Rumor had circulated that she had actually killed the Detterex princess out of mercy: the pain of separation from her bridge could actually drive the princess to madness, and ending her life was a kindness. She knew she had to, but was reluctant. Her kindness to the enemy was close to the teachings of the Great Messiah, that it rang with the mythos of what it is to be Elyran.

The people’s hearts had gone out to the Earther princess, and many came calling at the royal apartment that was allotted to her. The Marines at the door were forced to turn them all away, but they did accept the gifts they left in her behalf of the princess. Another apartment right beside hers had to be cleared and used as a storage area for all the gifts.

Mia had locked herself in for the moment because she didn’t know what else to do. She had made a mistake yet again, though she didn’t exactly understand what it was. This was not the way to maintain a low profile.

She was virtually trapped in her room, now, since she wouldn’t be able to step outside without being mobbed now, and she so wanted to see the sights of Elyra.

Still, with Phase-Wave and the portable comms system from the barge, she was still able to do her work.

Earlier on, their people had taken the non-working bomb out into orbit. They had then ejected it towards open space, and then sent a laser comm flash towards the Shepherd. They sent a message back and said they’ll wait until the bomb was far enough away to not be a danger to anyone. They sent their remaining complement of mud turtle shuttles out to establish a perimeter around the bomb and make sure no one crosses it. When it was judged far enough away, the shuttles were all recalled and the EM suppression field was turned off.

And, as they feared, there was an electrical trigger in the bomb. Once the field was gone, the trigger switched on and the atomic bomb exploded.

That was the last of the tricks that the Detterex had up their sleeves, and everything had started to return to normal. Tasha was praised for her quick thinking, and that her EarthForce rank of Admiral was quite fortuitous as it allowed her to instruct the Earthers properly and on time. She, of course, said that it was really the Earthers that thought to bring the bomb out into space, but that didn’t diminish the reputation she had started to gain.

As for Mia’s part, she had to document the detonation as complete as possible, and to transmit it to the Federation ASAP.

The fleet of fifty ships had returned to Star Harbor, and its stores were again strained to resupply all the ships. As for the Earth ships, all they requisitioned were billets of iron or steel, and they would manufacture their own ammunition onboard, which Mia had arranged for them. This, however, opened another surfeit of rumors. The storesmaster asked what all the steel would be used for, and they had to research what an electromagnetic projectile launcher was.

There were other things that needed to be done, but most of it were just the minutia of command. Mia missed Nick since he would normally take care of all of it. But he was currently back on Colossus acting as the Earth’s interim ambassador, so Mia had to do for herself.

When she had a bit of a breather, she called Sahsha, asking if she could pass by. Also, Mia asked if she could bring Ren along.

Ten minutes later, Sahsha and Ren were delivered to her doorstep by royal carriage. Mia marveled at the splendidly-appointed vehicle, and the fact that they were brought here in ten minutes. Mia supposed that this was normal for life in the palace, and welcomed the two in.

She plied the two with what was available in her little pantry, and tried to ask what the entire thing with the Detterex was - what all the hullabaloo was about the death of Arvan and Norga, and how it related to her.

Apparently, Ben and Sahsha had been getting along well and had been sharing insights and information, because Sahsha took it upon herself to explain.

As Sahsha explained it, at the core of the situation is the idea of “bridges.” It seemed that Elyrans had a sense or an ability that Earthers seemed not to have or to be ignorant of. It was a kind of telempathic aspect of Elyrans that they are able to sense in each other, and the quality of this aspect has a direct relation to their attractiveness to each other. The entire population all have this aspect to a certain extent, but is usually very minimal. However, about a fourth of the population’s telempathic sense was so strong that it was almost physically palpable. These were called “bridges, and partnerships or “marriages” (for lack of a better word) with such individuals are highly sought.

Naturally, however, bridges look for matches with fellow bridges. Such partnerships are usually between a “dominant bridge” and a partner “submissive bridge.” Sahsha supposed that the “dominant” bridge is the more active or perhaps more masculine kind of bridge whereas the “submissive” is the more passive or feminine. Such partnerships are considered matches made in heaven, but the negative side of this is that kind of emotional dependence develops between the pair. For those with very strong telempathic powers, losing one’s partner is extremely traumatic that the person would descend into a kind of violent madness. Death is much more preferred so that the person is spared the loss of her mind, and the loss of her dignity.

“So that’s what Arvan meant…” Mia thought.

Therefore, everyone viewed Mia’s execution of the Princess Arvan was a kindness - something that others might not have done for her given that she’s a Detterex. Mia has shamed Elyrans by her example, that she spared the Detterex princess the madness when they might not because of a sense of spite or prejudice.

But Mia didn’t really do that for her. Mia felt fresh tears roll down her eyes. If she only knew…

Ren came over and hugged Mia. “You did what you had to do, My Lady. And you spared her.”

“But I killed Norga… If I didn’t…”

“This is war, My Lady. You did what you needed to do, but instead of leaving the princess to suffer her madness, you spared her. Others would leave Arvan to the madness, out of a sense of revenge, perhaps, or as a way of venting their anger. You did not.”

“I didn’t, Ben. I didn’t know…”

Ben kissed her on the cheek. “But you did, My Lady. Believe.”

Ben gestured to Sahsha, and she took over. She wrapped her arms around her lady love.

“Mia,” Sahsha said. “The Elyrans say you’re a bridge. A dominant bridge, in fact. So you knew. You couldn’t help knowing. That you did what you did may be instinctive, but you knew.”

“Sahsha…”

Mia kissed her on the lips to stop her from speaking.

“We’re all proud of you, Mia,” Sahsha said. “The king and queen have even asked to meet you again, when you have the time. But they will not pressure you. In fact the entire planet would like to see you again.”

“Is the queen all right?”

“She is still bedridden, but she is not in danger anymore.”

Mia hoarsely cleared her throat.

“That’s good. Maybe we should plan on visiting her soon.”

“Maybe,” Sahsha smiled at her. “But it’s your decision.”

Mia gave her a tight hug and a kiss.

“Thank you, Sahsha,” she said. She reached for Ben and gave him a hug as well, including a kiss on the cheek.

“Thank you, Ben.”

Ben shrugged. “it was of no consequence.”

“I guess you have to go already. No doubt you have stuff to do.”

Ben nodded reluctantly. “Yes, My Princess. But if you need me, call me anytime. I shall be here straight away.”

“Oh, stop that, Ben,” Mia said. “I am no princess. I don’t even know how that got started.”

“Of course, My Princess,” Ben said mischievously. Sahsha laughed.

“Oh, shut up!”

Giggling, Sahsha and Ben stepped out, and closed her door. They made their way to their vehicle.

“Ben,” Sahsha said, and put her hand on his arm. “I’m going back. Mia needs me. She didn’t want to say it because she wanted to put up a brave front. But I don’t care. She needs me.”

Ben looked at her. It took a while as it does with submissive bridges, but he finally saw. Sahsha was actually an incredibly powerful submissive. It was highly unusual for a female to be a submissive but not unheard of.

Realizing that, Ben just wanted to cuddle and kiss her. He knew he was a submissive himself, but it didn’t matter. Ideally, it should be a dominant and a submissive together, but given their disparate levels, they could become partners. Of course, despite both of them being “submissives,” Sahsha would be the passive one in their relationship gives her stronger telempathic level, but it would be her to be the one in control of the relationship. Many would assume that the dominant bridge would be the one in control of the relationship but it was actually the more powerful bridge regardless of whether she was a submissive or a dominant. “Control” after all, was with the one that had the greatest influence in the relationship.

Ben gave her a hug. “Of course,” he said. “Sahsha? Can I ask? Are you and her…”

Sahsha gave him a nervous little smile. “I don’t know. I think so.”

“Well, you watch out. She is an incredibly powerful dominant. You don’t know what you’re letting yourself into.”

She giggled. “Oh, I think I do. But…” She became serious again. “But maybe nothing like that this time. Mia needs support. I’ll just hang around and be there if she needs help. I can say I just wanted to help with her paperwork or something. Can I call you if she needs help?”

“Any time. You have my number, Sahsha?”

She nodded and went back to Mia’s apartment while Ben was driven away.

- - - - -
(bookmark 49)

The following day, Mia and Sahsha decided to go visit the queen at the hospital facility just outside the palace. Elyran castles weren’t surrounded by a moat or anything like that, so it was easy to go across to the hospital. What they did have in common with Earth castles were tall, strong walls, spires, towers and a large gate.

Mia had worn her dress blues again, but wore the matching pleated white skirt instead of the white legging-style pants this time. She was informed that it was actually the summer season, so Class Bs were the appropriate combination. Someone at the quartermasters might have goofed since she felt the skirt a little too short. She’ll have to get a new one sometime later.

Because of the slightly-denser atmosphere, the Elyran sky was of a much lighter color than the sky on Earth. Instead of sky-blue, the Elyran sky was almost white but with a tinge of blue. She therefore had to wear her military-issued dark glasses. Nick would have called them aviator sunglasses, but Mia didn’t care whatever they were called. All she wanted was that she could see better. As for Sahsha, she preferred her high-fashion round sunglasses.

So they stepped out for the short 20-minute walk to the hospital. Sahsha would have preferred to ride a car, but Mia insisted. She said it was a way to see more of the place. But, as expected there were several people who stopped to say hello. Most just bowed as what Elyrans usually do. But some had seen the news videos and have learned about handshakes. It was a way to practice Earther customs and, for most, an excuse to touch the Earther princess.

Elyran palace guards supplemented her Marines, and politely kept all but the most insistent well-wishers away. None persisted too much, especially with the tall Marines – the tall, armored Earthers intimidated simply with their mere presence.

Nevertheless, Mia and Sahsha were very gracious and polite as they greeted the people.

The news raced through the Elyran media channels that the tall, beautiful Lady Amelia of Earth had finally come out, and was walking to the medical facility where the queen was presently. Much attention was focused on her companion, the short Earther female administrator, Sahsha Delyer. Per the information they were able to dig up, she was the liaison for the Earther ruler, “Secretary-General” Alexandra Romarkin, and was, shockingly, not a royal. Much was made about how freely Earther royals and commoners seemed to mingle, and this speculated partnership between Mia and the “commoner” Sahsha seemed to be the epitome of this liberal society.

Though their relationship didn’t seem to be documented, the bystanders were able to confirm it, and the growing hordes of Earth-obsessed fans were very curious about the diminutive Earth bridge. She wasn’t really diminutive – she was average by Elyran standards, but not when she was standing by Mia. She wasn’t fluent in the language, however, but her translator more than made up for it. And she was very open and friendly.

When they got to the hospital, they were quickly passed through and sent to the royal suite. Only a couple of Marines accompanied her while the rest

“Mia!” Ren said and rushed to give her a hug. “It’s good to see you out of that apartment.”

He pulled both of them to the king and queen, and made introductions.

“It is good to see you again, Lady Amelia,” the king said and embraced her.

“Thank you, Your Highness,” Mia said. All of her study of the Elyran rules of etiquette seemed useless. She wondered if she should still bow.

She was ushered to the side of the queen.

“Come here, child.” She called.

Mia was too tall, so she knelt by her bed.

“Your Majesty.”

“Thank you for saving me.”

“It was but my duty.”

The morning was mostly taken by pleasantries, and Mia and Sahsha got to know the royal family a little more. The queen’s husband constantly hovered around her, but she took it in good humor. With such excellent care, she joked, she knew that she’d be up and about soon, and making life difficult for her court. Everyone laughed.

Mia and Sahsha were treated like family, but they tried not to be too familiar, and carefully referred to the king and queen as “Your Majesty.”

Several callers came to wish the queen well, or to have a short visit, and met Mia and Sahsha. Later on, on the strength of that short introduction, some of them would claim to know Mia quite well and were close friends. Later, this would be useful in bolstering her political image on Elyra.

It was a very pleasant morning, actually, but they had to cut it short because she and Tasha had a meeting.

Mia and Sahsha marveled at how basically similar things are between Elyran and Earther families were. Or at least the royal ones, she laughed.

The five of them went down to the next city via surface vehicle for the new summit. Mia insisted. Besides, it was just an hour’s ride, and it was a way of seeing more of the planet, she said. Ben said that it was probably a mistake. News has probably already spread and they’d probably encounter a bunch of people wanting to get a peek at the Earther princess.

Mia pshawed that away, not believing anyone would go through the bother. But when they found their progress impeded by the crowds of well-wishers that lined the streets and roadways they went through, Mia finally believed it.

She didn’t want to disappoint the people who’ve no doubt been waiting for a while for them to pass so she asked the windows’ tint to be taken out. She waved through the windows and the people cheered her and the others as they passed.

She became silent as she waved. “Such nice people,” she mumbled.

“What are you thinking, Mia?” Sahsha said.

“Oh, nothing much. Only that Elyrans and Earthers are basically the same. Our differences are really only skin deep.”

Tasha and Ren looked at her, and smiled gently.

“Only skin deep,” Ren said, savoring the Earther idiom. “I agree.” He reached out to Mia, and Mia smiled, returning the gesture.

“Oh,” Mia said. “I think I know who started that thing about me being a princess.”

“Who cares, Mia,” Sahsha giggled. “Just get used to it.”

“Ha-ha-ha.”

They arrived at the venue late. Mia extended their apologies to everyone, and they got into the swing of the meeting.

- - - - -
(bookmark 50)

The first thing that was discussed was the health of the Queen. Ren thanked everyone for their good wishes, and said that she is well on the way to a full recovery. Ren said that it was because of the quick thinking of his beloved wife and Elyra’s newest and greatest friend, the Lady Amelia, that she was rescued, and that the capital was saved from atomic destruction.

This was greeted with a standing ovation.

Mia and Tasha, the two best friends’ arms around each other’s shoulders (or rather, Mia’s arm around Tasha’s shoulders, and Tasha’s arm around Mia’s waist), stood and bowed to the gathered people.

Next was a summary of the system’s current status, the status of the fleet, and the status of the enemy. Essentially, everything was “a-okay,” as the Earthers would have said, with comparatively minor injuries and fatalities. All of their hopes were met, and in fact were exceeded.

Inspection of the wreckage of the enemy ships did not reveal any surprises (they were obviously looking for traces of the EM suppression field technology but didn’t find any, although they discovered several booby traps. They ignored the big elephant in the room – the fact that the Earthers had the EM suppression technology. They decided to bide their time, and find out about it later. After all, if the Elyrans weren’t asking about it…

With regards the wreckage of the enemy fleet, after inspecting and documenting everything, and after getting clearance from the various squadron commanders, Constellation deployed a nuclear warhead. They used a thermonuclear warhead instead of a run-of-the-mill atomic weapon, and it was able to get rid of all traces of the enemy fleet. They didn’t need to worry about it anymore.

Star Harbor was slowly recovering and its stores were being replenished as fast as Elyran industry could, but they did have enough to replenish all the stores of all the ships.

So, it was mostly back to normal.

And that brought them to the main point of the meeting – to discuss what to do next.

Mara took the floor and said that the danger has passed, so it was her opinion that the fleets sent by Earth and the Federation should be deployed to the next targeted planetary systems. The Elyrans must not monopolize the resources that their friends have shared with them, and allow them to go to those who need the most help. Furthermore, in fulfillment of their commitments, they must provide their own share.

This was met with great applause and, the Elyrans decided that the five Elyran ships sent from Colossus would be supplemented by nine more, and that these fourteen cruisers would be assigned to the volunteer fleet. In total, the volunteer fleet was now twenty-six in total.

As for the Fifth Fleet, Mia said that they will add their strength to the volunteer fleet, as well, with only two provisos – One was that the Earth cruisers must remain on Elyra until relieved by EarthForce, and that the Shepherd Moon must return to Colossus.

Mia explained that the Federation requires the regular business of life must continue regardless, so they must return and fulfill the role that they accepted, which is to take over the role that the Telcontari will be vacating. Further, they intend to formally update the Federation of recent events, and to provide evidence of the involvement of the Tirosians, and that there was now sufficient cause to include them in the Federation’s declaration of war, and to provide them the means to communicate with the Federation homeworlds.

She did have a suggestion, which was to ensure one of the Earther cruisers were with the group so that they can remain in touch. Other than that, she said that EarthForce will follow the collective decision of the gathered commanders for now.

And the decision was for the amalgamated squadron to split into two groups, one to proceed to Dixx and the other to Arachnia.

The Elyrans will have 11 of their cruisers remain in the system, which was judged adequate enough to protect the system for the moment, while the Shepherd Moon would return to Colossus.

As they were firming up these plans, the palace issued an announcement. The queen and king had called a conclave of all rulers and noble-borns of all the kingdoms, fiefdoms and colonies of Elyra, to discuss a matter vital to the race. Lady Amelia was invited as a “famiriel,” which is the Elyran word for a foreign ruler who will be accorded all the rights and privileges given to members of the royal bloodline.

Gathering all the rulers of the seven kingdoms of the planet was easily done, especially since Tasha was here. For the sixteen colonies, eleven were represented by their rulers. For the remaining five, the royal family asked the assistance of the Earthers and their help contact them. (Perhaps that capability of theirs was one of the reasons why Mia was declared famiriel.)

Responding to their queen’s summons, the rulers of these last five colonies were now on the way.

As for Mia, in order to justify delaying the trip back to Colossus so that she could attend the conclave, Mia asked Ben its purpose. Ben said that it wasn’t officially being announced, but it was the intention of the queen and king to step down from the throne.

Mia wondered why it was even necessary, but based on the current statutes, this can only effected by a joint act of the council. Sahsha explained that Elyra is a parliamentary monarchy, and part of the current statutes say that the heir apparent cannot automatically assume the throne. History has shown how political infighting between the royals almost tore their civilization apart. Now, before the next in the line of succession could assume the throne, all the rulers from the royal clan must confirm her ascension. If not, a steward will be elected by acclamation, will act as the sovereign for a year, and then the next in the line of succession would try for the throne, and so on.

Sahsha said that it was the closest to a democratic monarchy that she had seen, as oxymoronic as that sounded, and the Elyrans have been making it work for countless millennia.

Mia decided to delay the Shepherd Moon’s departure until the remaining rulers arrived and the conclave was concluded. In the meantime, all off-duty personnel were given an opportunity to see the sights. O’Connell authorized the use of the shuttles to bring all the sight-seeing personnel to their appointed destinations. Everyone was, however, required to leave all their CCs and other Phase-Wave equipment onboard, but were temporarily given radio-based communicators as well as translator buttons and lifesigns detectors. They were also given vouchers in case they wanted to buy something. None were allowed any sidearms, however.

The Earthers were instructed to be on their best behavior, and everyone would be directly answerable to the Admiral for any infraction – anything at all. This made everyone extremely polite and careful, especially after some of the crew from Engineering were caught being “disrespectful” of the spouses of some of the women they encountered. It was hardly necessary since the women took care of matters quite efficiently. Captain O’Connell herself personally went planetside to apologize for her people, and accepted all penalties levied on them, which amounted to spending the night locked up. The Elyrans just chalked it up to the Earthers not being able to hold their liquor. It’s partially because of that incident that Earthers got their reputations as lightweights.

The Elyrans involved held no grudges, however, and were as cordial as ever. In fact, the crew that instigated the disturbance said that the Elyrans were acting quite friendly, in fact flirty, the whole time.

The Admiral ordered the maximum allowable penalties for the offense, plus back-to-back shifts for a week, “bread-and-water” (not that the offenders were literally restricted to bread and water – it was just a term inherited from an older time), and being restricted to duty stations and quarters while in the Elyran system.

Mia’s penalties could be considered excessive, but they were far from inhumane. Besides, everyone got fair warning. No one wanted to lose the chance of seeing an alien planet so there were no further incidents.

- - - - -
(bookmark 51)

Mia, Sahsha, O’Connell and many of the Earther officers were asked to give interviews, and they obliged. They were very open and frank in their interviews but they were also up front about not being able to talk about certain topics. No one really minded (except perhaps for Lady Mara and the others).

The Elyrans were very fascinated about their visitors, especially about Mia and Sahsha. The two tried to be as normal as they could, and went about their days as normally as possible until the conclave.

Ben said that the conclave could be messy. The Lady Mara of the Northern Kingdom could end up blocking the proceedings, given the bad blood between her and Tasha. But it turned out to be “much ado about nothing,” as Earthers might say.

At the conclave, the Queen and King had explained their reasons for stepping down – they feared that they were not in touch with the pulse of the people anymore, and she feared that they did not have what it took anymore. Their recent brush with death just emphasized this. It was time to pass the mantle.

Princess Radha stood and expressed respectful disagreement, that her aunt and uncle were as close to the people’s heart as ever, and was as capable as Elyrans half their age. But if it was their will, then she will respect it.

Tasha and Ren were confirmed in acclamation. Surprisingly, their fiercest advocate was the Princess Mara of the Northern Territory, and it was her support that swayed those that were not fully convinced of Tasha.

In five years, then, the reigning Queen and King will step down and the heirs-apparent, Princess Tasha and Prince Ren shall ascend the throne.

At the end of the conclave, the queen and king made the official announcement, which was broadcast to all Elyran news outlets. As for the sixteen off-world colonies, Mia and her people used their disposable Phase-Wave transmitters to send compressed messages to them announcing the conclave’s outcome. Though Ren and Tasha, by virtue of her marriage with Ren, were the next in the line of succession, they could not declare themselves as the “heir apparents” but now that the conclave has concluded, they could. It was just a title, but it was a harbinger of many things to come.

By that time, the Shepherd Moon was ready to depart. The Talon was also departing for Colossus. The Elyrans (namely Tasha and Ren) had decided to go to help the Earthers in providing evidence and witnesses to the Dravidian-Tirosian invasion, and to install a new ambassador to replace Tasha.

- - - - -
(bookmark 52)

The cruise back was old hat by now, and the three weeks back to Colossus was totally uneventful.

Mia and Tasha regularly kept in touch with their ships while EarthForce continued to track the enemy. The most troubling were the two ships that had escaped Elyra, and they paid special attention to that. With their initial acceleration, it was almost a hundred percent certainty that the people onboard the ships were already dead. But that was suddenly in doubt because, sometime during their FTL flight, their FTL engines cut off, and they dropped into sublight – the nearer one first followed by the other one.

Their direction of flight intersected several interstellar bodies, notably a couple of rogue asteroids. These asteroids were pretty near the paths of the two enemy fleets. When the ships hit these bodies with velocities just below light speed, they detonated with the power of several dozen or more nuclear weapons of the size that was left in the Elyran palace.

That they both encountered asteroids was too much of a coincidence. The only thing they could have been were signals to the fleets traveling ensconced in their EM fields in light speeds. Soon after these “signals,” the first group, and then the second seemed to decelerate to sublight. After which, they then changed their directions of flight. The two fleets seemed to be headed back home – one to Tiros, and the other to Detterex.

This information was communicated to everyone. It seemed that a re-planning and a rethink was in order. Mia’s and Tasha’s return to Colossus seemed more appropriate now.

 
Shepherd Moon, Chapter 24: Endgame, One - Tiros

 
The Passing of Ren Tevann-Reshanii -

Mia and Sahsha disembarked via the Admiral’s Barge, and headed for their newly-reclassed “embassy.”

Nick met them halfway and they had a short confab in the hallway. It wasn’t necessary to be briefed since they were updated so, instead, Nick insisted on visiting the Elyran Embassy so that he could personally greet the new heir apparents.

Mia and Sahsha were game so they decided to go pass by the Elyran Embassy.

It was the equivalent of midnight onboard Colossus, so the halls and passageways were practically deserted. Pretty soon, they were in Embassy Row, and they saw Ren and Tasha at the entrance of their embassy.

There were hugs all around and it was a reunion of what had become fast friends. Tasha’s and Ren’s guards shrugged. They were used to this kind of thing, especially when the Earther princess was around, so they just stepped back to allow the friends room.

But Ren, being worried about the proprieties as usual, suggested that they continue inside the deserted embassy. He jogged on ahead, and started punching his numbers into the embassy’ s door lock.

Immediately after he pressed the “accept” stud, the door lock exploded, knocking him across the passageway and against the wall. The explosion was so strong that many of the viewports on the floor started to crack, spiderwebs of stress factures started to spread across many of them.

“Ren!” Tasha screamed. “Nooo!” She rushed to his side only to discover that his neck was broken. He was already dead.

“Ren, my love,” Tasha sobbed. “You mustn’t do this. No, no, no…” She held his face between her hands. “Look at me, my love. Open your eyes. Look at me, dammit!”

Her guards approached her cautiously.

“My Lady…” one of them began.

Tasha roared and, using the butt of her sword, hit the guard directly in the face.

The others closed in and managed to pull her away and rip her sword and sidearm from her hands, but she just backhanded the soldiers and ran back to Ren.

“Nooo!” she screamed as she held the lifeless body in her arms. “You will not take my beloved from me!” The soldiers backed away.

“It’s the madness,” one of them said. “It’s too late.”

“But she’s the crown princess now…”

“That doesn’t matter. Prince Ren has died…

“Shut your mouth!” Tasha screamed. She had overheard. “Ren is not dead!” She leapt to them but the soldier nearest instinctively hit an emergency button and pressure bulkheads slammed down. This effectively isolated Tasha from everyone. At least the station won’t depressurize after the stressed hull and viewports inevitably implodes-explodes.

The only one that was trapped in there was Sahsha. She had jumped away from the descending bulkhead and now it was only her and Tasha in there.

Sahsha looked at the princess, both in panic and sorrow. The Elyran was in hysterical grief. “It’s the madness,” she thought.

She was desperate to help the princess, but basing it on what she now knew, only death would be preferable. But could she even attempt to do what Mia did? Could she even contemplate taking a life? She looked at the poor princess, and she was still screaming. There were tufts of hair in her hands, and her head was bleeding in places. Sahsha was shocked – Tasha was literally tearing her hair out.

She trembled. She had to try.

Shaking, she walked slowly towards Tasha.

“My Lady,” she said hoarsely. But the madwoman didn’t hear.

“My Lady!” Sahsha shrieked. “Stop!”

Like a feral wolf, Tasha turned to her. Initially, Sahsha thought there was a glimmer of recognition in her eyes, but there was only madness.

Tasha leaped at her, knocking her on her back. Pain shot through her head as the back of her skull whapped against the floor.

She shook the stars from her vision and saw the princess looking at her with feral eyes.

“Please, no,” she whispered in mortal fear. And then Tasha tore her clothes off, leaving bloody prints in the cloth.

When Sahsha was mostly divested of her clothing, Tasha started to brutally caress her. The mad Elyran brutally and painfully squeezed her breasts and roughly caressed her sides. Sahsha started crying. She mashed her lips against Sahsha, but Sahsha resolutely kept her lips pursed and mouth closed. Still. The madness within Tasha was like tides washing over her. It was like acid or oil on fire. It seared Sahsha’s spirit, like her soul was being raped. And the thing was, she didn’t know how to stop it.

“Please, Princess. It’s me. It’s Sahsha…”

Tasha tore her panties away with one savage tug, and then roughly and brutally caressed her vulva. She started to laugh like a crazed creature, and lunged down to brutally kiss her again.

It was rape. There was no other word for it. And Sahsha sobbed. No one would be able to rescue her.

In the parts of her mind that were paying attention to the outside world, she saw the spiderwebs spreading in the viewports and could hear the cracking of glass. At least it will end soon.

“If only someone could rescue me,” she thought. “Mia…” She tried to push Tasha away again but Tasha punched her across the jaw and knocked her out.

At the far end of the sealed passageway, there was a minor explosion and the bulkhead there started to retreat upwards.

It was Mia. She had used her glowing sword on the lock and was now pushing up the massive metal bulkhead.

When it was raised high enough, Mia threw herself into the threshold and allowed the bulkhead to crash back down.

She saw Tasha at the far end, and what she was doing to Sahsha. She was shocked. Tasha was caught in the madness. But… Could she even do to Tasha what she did to Arvan?

The sound of cracks were starting to become louder and louder, and the sound galvanized Mia into action.

Mia sprinted towards the two. She reached down and grabbed Tasha by her collar and physically dragged both her and Sahsha to the Elyran embassy. Once through, she turned back to the door. The main lock was broken so Mia reached up and manually pulled the door closed. She then spun the manual pressure wheel lock until she felt the click. The damage to the passageway finally caused the violent rapid depressurization they were all fearing but she had locked the door in time.

She called her people to say that the princess and Sahsha were secure.

Something hit her on her back.

She turned and found Tasha. She was attacking her, maybe for closing the door.

Mia turned and gabbed Tasha by both her wrists and pinned her against the far wall.

Tasha screamed and growled, and lunged at Mia with her head, mouth frothing and trying to bite her, but Mia had long arms and Tasha didn’t even come close.

Mia turned to look at Sahsha and found her lying in a heap. She was alive but unconscious. She turned back to Tasha.

Seeing her this way broke Mia’s heart. The beautiful, confident and kind Tasha reduced to a cavewoman.

“Tasha,” Mia said. “Please. Listen to me. Listen to me.”

But she wasn’t. Mia looked at her and was crying silently.

“Please, my love,” Mia sobbed. “Stop… Stop…”

In a way, she understood what Tasha was going through. A loss that was so devastating, so complete, with no way back. But there must be a way back.

Mia could still see Ren in her mind’s eye – the gentle Ren. Always there helping. Always there with a kind word. Always there sharing. Always there…

The light that was Ren was extinguished, and there’s no way to get him back.

“I know what you feel, Tash. Ren is gone. I loved him, too.”

My words penetrated the madness. Tasha paused. And then she exploded again.

“How dare you! How dare you say you loved him! He was mine! Mine!” With a force that Mia had not seen from Tasha before, she ripped her arms away from Mia’s grasp.

With fists balled, she hit Mia in the abdomen.

“Mine!” she cried.

She then punched Mia again. “He was mine!”

Mia just took it. There was nothing else that she could do for Tasha.

“Mine!” Tasha cried and hit Mia with a punch on the jaw. “Mine!” She hit her on her jaw again, but from the other side.

Mia was willing to endure this and more, if it meant that she took away her friend’s pain.

As Tasha hit and hit and hit her, Mia enfolded the tiny Elyran in her arms.

“Nooo! Let me go!” But Mia wouldn’t, pinning her arms and stopping her form hitting her further.

“You alien monster! Your powers will not take Ren from me! Stop it! Let go! Let go!!”

Mia’s tears were flowing now, and her heart was breaking for Tasha.

“Let me go! Let me… let me… go…” Tasha could feel Mia’s heart beating, so much slower than her own. In some magical way, it calmed her. Tasha’s pounding heart slowed, and started beating in counterpoint to Mia’s. “Let me go…”

Mia felt Tasha become calmer, and she hugged her closer. “Shhh, my love. Shhh…”

“Hold me, Mia,” Tasha whispered, and sobbed.

Maybe twenty minutes later, Tasha woke up in Mia’s arms.

She felt the hole in her soul, raw and fresh, and could not bear to think of Ren. She felt lost and alone. Like a mother who lost a child. Ren wasn’t her child, but it was the closest she could come to in describing her feelings. She whimpered.

Mia heard her and tightened her arms around Tasha.

“I miss him, too, Tash,” Mia whispered. And Tasha felt her tears flow again.

Mia’s scent surrounded her and she felt comforted. Through the fog of her depthless sorrow, she could sense Mia’s caring, and she felt grateful. And she felt the gates opening.

She was familiar with this. It was like how it was with Ren. But it was different, too. When the gates opened, she saw into Mia’s soul, just as she knew she was bared open to Mia as well. And she felt powerful. Like she could do anything, be anything, survive anything. Everything seemed possible now, but only if she had Mia by her side.

What a power Earthers had. It took Tasha’s breath away. Or maybe it was just Mia. Though she still felt sorrow, she felt comfort in Mia’s arms.

Then she saw Sahsha being taken away on a stretcher.

Then it dawned on her what she did. Reluctant though she was, she disentangled herself from Mia and went to Sahsha. She saw her state and her mind cringed in shame.

“Where are you taking her?” she asked the medics.

“To the sickbay on the Shepherd, ma’am.”

- - - - -
(bookmark 53)

Sahsha woke up from the sedative. After a bit of confusion, she recognized one of the recovery rooms in Shepherd Moon’s sickbay. It was cramped to say the least. Space was always at a premium on ships.

She looked around and saw Tasha sitting in a recliner beside her bed, sleeping. At first, she felt fear. But she guessed the sedatives and tranquilizers haven’t completely worn off. They helped to keep her fear and anger sublimated, at least for now. But why was she here? How?

Ben had told her that the madness was all-encompassing, and those that succumbed to it were so violent that they were a danger to everyone. Sahsha had first experience of that now. But it only happened to people who had bridges for partners, and once they succumb, it’s irrecoverable. There was even legislation proposing that these unfortunates should be euthanized since the practice of isolating and imprisoning them was barbaric and ultimately futile. But there were only very few who actually expressed official support for the legislation. Few Elyrans believed in taking the life of another, and should do so only as a last resort. Those that supported the legislation said that it was actually the last report for these people, but many didn’t agree. Having gone through what she did, Sahsha would vote for the legislation if she could.

She looked at Tasha, and she was sleeping peacefully enough. Poor princess…

As she was looking, Tasha yawned and stretched, and when she opened her eyes, Tasha saw her.

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and, like Ren had taught her, just after she woke up, she combed her hair first. “Good evening, Sahsha,” Tasha said quietly.

Sahsha moved to the edge of her bed, trying to get the most distance between her and Tasha.

That broke Tasha’s heart a little.

“I’m sorry, Sahsha. What I did to you – I am so sorry. I did not mean it.”

Sahsha’s eyes grew large in surprise. “What did you say?”

“It was the madness, Sahsha. I could not stop myself. If I could have…”

“Is it gone? Are you back to being you?”

“I believe so.”

“But, how? I thought…”

“I do not know myself. I was at the edge of the precipice, but I was pulled back. I think it was Mia. Perhaps she knew there was still much to be done. Perhaps…”

“Mia…” Sahsha sighed.

“I know Ren was your close friend. It gave me so much sorrow that I had hurt you so much. If I could take it back, I would.”

“How?” Sahsha asked. How is it that you’re back? How did Mia…”

“I do not know, my dearest. All I know is that I would like to redeem myself in your eyes. I am so ashamed.”

“Are you sure you’re back?”

“I am.” She stood up and started approaching her.

“Stay back!”

“I need for you to see. Please.”

But Sahsha remained skittish and wouldn’t let her approach. In frustration, Tasha grabbed her gently by the shoulders. She laid Sahsha back on her bed. The Earth girl pushed herself back into the mattress, trying to get away, but Tasha leaned over her, gently insistent but not forcing her, and kissed her gently on the lips. It was the most gentle and most chaste of kisses, with their lips hardly touching, but something that Sahsha had never felt before passed from the Elyran princess through her.

It wasn’t a feeling, like the sense of touch or a smell. It was more like emotions. And through these emotions that cascaded down over her, Sahsha knew the shame that Tasha felt. And she rifled through the emotions cascading over her, there was no trace of madness. Tasha was indeed free of that.

As Sahsha shivered with the sheer strength of the emotional deluge, she also sensed Tasha’s capacity for love. It took her breath away. Somehow, Sahsha found herself opening up as well.

It was her turn to pour out her own feelings, her own emotions, straight from her heart and to Tasha’s. Tasha shivered as well, and, experimentally, she opened her mouth a little. Unexpectedly, Sahsha took advantage, and the kiss blossomed like a flower blooming. It was amazing and so exciting.

It would have continued if the allowed it, but her sorrow for Ren was still fresh. Sahsha seemed to sense it and didn’t insist. She understood.

And the fire that had blazed like a brush fire slowly died down. Tentatively, Tasha pulled away and found Sahsha looking at her with a gentle smile. She reached out and put her hand on her cheek.

Tasha smiled sadly, and burst into silent tears. Sahsha reached out and pulled her into a hug.

Sahsha felt Tasha’s sadness, and yes, it felt like it was never-ending, but somehow, it wasn’t claiming her soul anymore. Tasha found a reservoir of strength that Sahsha knew wasn’t there before. And she felt Mia. Whatever it was, Mia had rescued Tasha from a never-ending death.

She sensed Tasha’s feelings for Mia, which were very close to what she felt for Mia herself. But it wasn’t a selfish kind of thing. It actually comforted her that they shared the same kind of love for the same woman.

“I will be here for you, my love,” Sahsha said. The words seemed to come naturally. “Always and forever, Tasha, I will be there for you.”

“And I you,” Tasha said. “Always and forever.”

Sahsha would never have known, but the words she uttered were like the vows that Elyrans exchanged during their nuptials, and in a sense, they were married now.

 
Spies in Colossus -

Courtesy of the Earthers, transmission was immediately sent back to Elyra, directly to the queen and king, and the death of Ren spread like wildfire. The royal couple was shocked, that their beloved son has passed on. In their mourning, they couldn’t help but think of Tasha, and if she passed away mercifully quickly.

They sent back a reply, knowing that the Earthers would pick it up. The Elyran rulers were still on the planet, taking full advantage of the fact that all of them were gathered together. Much new business was being conducted. But the news of the tragedy has spread. The queen and king were beside themselves in grief, but for the sake of Elyra, they are organizing a new conclave. As the next one in the order of ascension, Princess Mara will be declared the new heir-apparent.

This merited a new transmission. This time, it included an embedded compressed file.

“Good day, my beloved mother and father,” Sahsha began her pre-recorded and compressed video message. In the video, she was sitting in Mia’s office facing the camera. Sitting beside her was Mia, and just standing over her shoulder on the opposite side was Sahsha.

“It is I, Tasha. I am so sad, sad beyond words that your son, my beloved Ren, has passed away. Please believe that I would have given my life for my beloved. But it is now too late.” Impatiently, she swiped at her tears and continued.

“As you see, I am not in the grasp of the madness. I was rescued by my beloved Lady Amelia and my brave and gracious Lady Sahsha. Without them I would be lost to the world. It is but another thing that we owe Mia and the Earthers. I beg your indulgence, Mother and Father, but I name these as my partners-in-life. As non-Elyrans, they know not what that means. I suppose I will need to explain to them, and give them time.” Tasha laughed a little at that.

“I wish to announce that Mia is to me as I was to Ren, and Sahsha is to me as Ren was to me. I know not what the future holds for myself, but I know that I shall face it together with my beloveds. I ask your blessing in this, my mother and father.

“The authorities of Colossus have started an investigation to ascertain who had sabotaged our embassy and caused the death of my beloved. I will communicate with you immediately once this has been determined.

“My mother, I will bring Ren home, perhaps in three months’ time. There is work yet here, but please let me know if you prefer otherwise. Also, if I may ask for instructions from the homeworlds with regards the enemy, and the disposition of our forces.”

Tasha paused.

“Beloved mother and father, please do not worry for me. I am beyond the madness. I am…” She had to pause to collect herself. In the video, Sahsha put her hand on Tasha’s shoulder, and Mia moved her chair closer. Perhaps to others, it was just a normal kind of concern for a friend, but for Elyrans and Earthers, they knew it was more than just sympathy.

Tasha cleared her throat. “I am glad to hear that a new conclave is being convened. Whatever the family decides, I will follow. But, Your Majesties, the welfare of the people is paramount, not your love and concern for me. As I said, I will follow the will of the family, whatever that will may be, and will be content.

“Mia and Sahsha will be attaching to this message several other compressed files, which are copies of Federation security footage of the events that precipitated Ren’s passing… perhaps it will assist the conclave in its deliberations.

“Mother and Father, please tell my aunts, uncles, cousins and peers that I wish everyone well, and I beg for your prayers that I may pull through this with mind and sanity intact. As always, my love to you.”

- - - - -
(bookmark 54)

It was a simple matter to look through the security footage, and, though at the face of it, it was useless footage. But the perpetrator or perpetrators did not count on forensics scientists from Earth.

Analysis and enhancement of the video showed that the last one to leave the embassy, a mid-level clerk, had done something highly suspicious. A digital close-up of the individual’s hand as she punched her security number showed that, besides typing, she had attached a rectangular device to the side of the touchpad’s panel.

Further enhancement and a close-up of the picture showed that the device had Detterex printing on it. By the color reflection of the device, it indicated that the casing was made out of a magnesium alloy that would burn up in any resulting explosion at an extremely high thermal level. By going through the Colossus’ library of recognition patterns, the device was identified as a Detterex military-issue detonator. And, though there was no secondary explosive, the detonator was enough to blow up the oxygen lines running beside the doorway.

The resulting explosion would be extremely powerful and fatal, and given the timing – that no one else would be in the Mission, the target was definitely Tasha and Ren.

Tasha asked for that particular clerk to be called, but she wasn’t responding. She then asked the station’s security, now under Telcontari management, to locate and detain her. As the apprentices, the Earthers assisted them and quickly located the clerk. They found her attaching a device to one of the main power conduits that went directly to one of the main distribution points of the station’s power system. Damage there could conceivably cause a short, and that could cause most circuit breakers on the station to pop (at best) or actually cause the capacitor batteries to explode.

In either case, the Colossus could be put out of commission for a lengthy amount of time.

A long, epic chase ensued as the Earthers and Telcontari chased the Elyran throughout the living areas of the station, and several bystanders were injured. At the very last moment, one of the Telcontari security people thought to short-circuit one of the emergency bulkhead doors and trapped the Elyran. Sleeping gas wasn’t available so the Telcontari reduced the oxygen content until the Elyran fell unconscious from hypoxia.

The Telcontari rushed through the isolated compartment and put restraints on the unconscious clerk. They then administered oxygen and the woman woke up.

She was extremely tight-lipped and wasn’t giving away any information. What was discovered, however, was that she wasn’t Elyran: there were several antigens found in her blood that showed she spent a lot of time in Detterex, and her blood carried components unique to Detterex. This was a plant – a spy.

Tasha talked it over with Mia. This individual was vouchsafed at the very highest levels. Princess Mara herself actually recommended her for the position. Furthermore, she had references from many senior Elyrans and royalty in the Northern Territory. What could this mean?

Mia said that it was necessary to take things one step at a time. The first thing was to ascertain if there are other Detterex masquerading as Elyrans. Mia asked Commander Stevens, the Shepherd’s CMO, and Chief Haskell, her assistant chief engineer to work with Tasha’s master healer.

There were certain components in a Detterex’s blood that were not present in Elyran blood, and this can be screened without the need for an actual blood type. This involved utrasonics. There were also other ways – like there were certain body ratios that were atypical for Elyrans by normal for Detterex. And their voices resonated slightly differently.

This allowed the Earthers to create passive detectors. Chief Haskell, using the “grease monkeys” – the nickname for the Shepherd’s top-flight artificers and engineers, were able to machine-shop and assemble a detector assembly that was contained in a six-foot long metal tube. These were very unobtrusive and could be mounted anywhere they were needed. With an estimated 90% accuracy, Tasha now had her Detterex detector.

Mia requested for the necessary raw materials, and paid for them well above the guild standard, and proceeded to construct more.

Mia asked Pinpin to help facilitate installing the tubes at main entrance points, such as the main entryways of Aonta and Shihayn as well as areas that Elyrans frequent – such as the Elyran and Earther embassies. The installation was done under the guise of repairs and, pretty soon, they were working. Tasha had also requested for several to be shuttled to the Talon, where she had them installed in many critical accesspoints.

O’Connell and Reena then proceeded to test All Elyrans onboard Colossus and Talon, and they were able to find five more. They didn’t capture them immediately and just put them under surveillance. Given enough time, they now knew the pattern of these spies. Additional detectors were then put in these locations. Tasha was confident that this conspiracy will soon be rooted out.

Aside from being a hotshot cruiser pilot, Reena was also a trained interrogator, and under her instructions, they were able to identify their common contacts on Elyra Prime.

What was shocking was that, apparently Mara was a spy. Either she was masquerading as Mara, and the princess herself has been dead for a while, or she had always been a spy or a sympathizer. Either way, this spoke of espionage at the highest levels of Elyran society.

Tasha then sent another transmission to Elyra addressed to the conclave. There were a bunch of housekeeping reports included, but Ren’s mother and father were tipped off that there was something extra in there because Tasha called the queen “great mother,” something only Ren ever called her when he was making fun of her.

The queen asked her most trustworthy people to go through these compressed files and found one that was compressed using the queen’s secret cipher, known only to the royal family. In secret, the queen and the king

So, she started making moves to shut out Mara from becoming the next heir apparent. And she did it in classic Ren fashion.

She had Mia and Sahsha declared royal family, and said that they had accomplished what only legends say was possible – that they had redeemed an Elyran from the abyss. If just for that, they should be forever grateful. Also, she had Tasha declared as competent, and therefore there was not reason for her to not be their heir apparent.

Mara respectfully disagreed, saying that the princess must have a consort to hold the throne. No one had taken power in the history of all Elyra without a partner.

The queen agreed, and said that the Lady Amelia and the Lady Sahsha were more than suited to be Tasha’s consorts. It would be a monarchy for the history books. Never had there been a triumvirate of bridges on the throne since long ago, and that was shrouded in legend.

“Think on this, my dears,” the queen said, “Tasha was snatched from the edge of madness by the Warrior Queen of the Earthers, and her bridge. They love my Tasha enough to open a bridge with her. Tasha is both the dominant and the submissive. Imagine it! She will be the most envied among the people.”

“My dearest aunt,” Mara said, “that may all be true, but Tasha is not the dominant one of the triumvirate. It is the Earther. Do we submit to the rule of an offworlder?”

“I have heard from Tasha. Mia and Sahsha know the ramifications of ascension to the throne. Mia and Sahsha would be willing to enter into a contract that they shall not seek the throne, binding until the end of time.”

This was received with silence.

“I believe these two, my dears. They are honorable women.”

There were a few that had started to nod.

“Even their names are Elyran. Mia… Sahsha… Such wonderful, lyrical Elyran names. Do you know what Mia is in old Elyran? ‘Emeleeyah’ – ‘a light in the darkness.’ ‘Sashalee’ – ‘beloved of the world.’ It is a sign, my dears. I think we should signal our approval of this union, and reaffirm that Tasha is the heir apparent.”

“Your Highness,” Mara said, “what would stop the alien,” (she had used the word “alien” deliberately) “from enacting legislation that will favor her own Earth rather than Elyra? Why would she want to help?”

“In the short time that we have known her, not once had she given us worry that she did not have the interests of the Elyran people as well as the peoples of the Earth in her thoughts. And it is because of her that we are even here talking, that we Colossus is still intact. It is my opinion that the Earther queen will not betray us. And we have Tasha to tip the scale towards our favor if it becomes necessary.”

“She has not given us Phase-Wave nor the Curtain of Light, nor their magical deceleration technology.”

“Neither have we shared our information on the Curtain of Light. I do not fault her for doing what she needs to do for Earth. Neither does she fault us for doing the same. She is conscientious warrior.”

Mara shrugged. “Contract or no, there is no stopping her from asserting her influence on our Tasha.”

“We must trust Tasha to use her judgment and her heart to make the correct decisions.”

Mara shrugged. “A brain-damaged bridge…” she muttered.

Everyone gasped.

The queen sighed and stood.

“I have let this farce go on long enough. I have been using our discussion to distract you, that while we talk, the palace guards have gone on to the Northern Territory and captured your comrades. You! Whoever you are. You are not my Mara. You are an impostor!”

The others stood in shock.

“Whatever you and your compatriots have done to my Mara, I will find out eventually. But you will not continue your role as an agent provocateur. You are hereby arrested, Detterex spy!”

People could see emotions play on “Mara’s” face, deciding on what to do next. She decided to pull out her sidearm and aimed for the queen.

As soon as she did so, sharpshooters at either end of the coliseum fired their crossbows and hit the fake princess in the arm. She dropped her gun and decided to pull out her sword.

Several of the royal guards converged on her and disarmed her.

She sighed. “How did you know?”

The queen chuckled. “I am not telling you. But know that many of your compatriots are also being apprehended. Soon we will have you all rounded up and you will all join Arvan’s soldiers shortly.”

They watched the false princess marched out.

“If that was not Mara, My Queen,” one of the others said, “then who is she?”

“I know not. All that could be ascertained was that she is Detterex.”

“A Detterex…”

“Yes. It is our enviable condition as well as our unique peril that we and our mortal enemies are images of one another. Our information has uncovered about forty more of these posers. And we are still on the lookout for more. It pains me that there may be more of them, and it is impossible to unmask all of them.

“I therefore encourage you all to investigate and to verify. These are precarious times when all of us need to be vigilant.”

“My Queen,” one of the others, this time, Fal, said, “pardon me for speaking out of turn. I am not family…”

“Nonsense, Fal. You are family. Speak your mind, my dear.”

“What of the Northern Territory?”

“It shall be under the stewardship of the kingdom’s high regent for now. But we must look for Mara. Even if all we do is ascertain that she has been put to death, we must. “

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(bookmark 55)

Tasha and Mia listened to the queen’s response to her. It was encrypted as well, but Tasha had given the decryption key to Mia. It seems that she, Sahsha and Tasha are now jointly the heirs apparent to the throne of all Elyra.

“Well, I’ll be…” Mia said. “That was fast…”

“Ren’s mother has always been like that. The need to finish things quickly and decisively always seems important, especially when she is around. Quite an irritating trait, actually, one that Ren shared with his mother…”

Mia sensed the tears, and swept her up in her arms. “Learn to grieve for him, Tash,” Mia said. “Let it out. Sahsha and I will be with you. Let us take some of the load.”

Mia pulled her head towards her and gave her a gentle kiss. “My love,” she said.

She stayed in her arms for a while. Eventually stirred. “Mia…”

“What is it, Tash?”

“When do we get married? Is that the right word? Married?”

Mia grinned. “Whenever you want.”

Tasha grinned in delight. “I’ll go find Sahsha.”

“Hmmm,” Mia thought, and chuckled. “That might be awkward. Good thing Tasha’s doing it.”

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(bookmark 56)

The information rocketed back to Earth, and the whole population was goggle-eyed with the news. Earth was a little hazy with the circumstances on how it happened. All they knew was that an assassination attempt on Elyra’s heirs apparent had resulted in the death of Ren Tevann-Reshanii-Kerr, prince and husband to the princess, Tasha Liaran-Kerr, and Mia and Sahsha had become co-heirs along with Tasha.

At the very highest levels, this matter was discussed. Professor Jennifer Priestly was given a copy of the contract, and she tried to explain it properly to Mia’s friends, Admiral Silverman and the Secretary-General, given she only knew a little bit about Elyran and Detterex bridges, but it seemed that Mia had managed to prevent a suicide situation with the princess, and because of this, the Elyrans had made her a co-heir.

She tried to understand the draft of the “contract” that the two were to sign. It essentially said that the three of them, acting in conjunction, would represent the race in all matters. The one that would be empowered would be Tasha, of course, but the others will also wield powers to command and to legislate, but any of their actions or pronouncements may, for any reason, be subject to censure or veto by Tasha. Also, unlike Tasha, their titles will not be hereditary, so, upon their deaths, their titles shall not be passed on.

As to a dynastic heir, Tasha has the option to find a surrogate father to allow her to bear a child, or to adopt, but whatever she does, it must be with, or within the current royal clan, and the child must be an Elyran native. As for any children that Mia or Sahsha may bear – they shall not have any royal powers, nor will they be able to inherit any kind of title. But while they were alive, they will have all the privileges of royalty but without the power.

It was very detailed and very Victorian, but the Earthers were not competent to criticize. Besides, this was giving them a great opportunity and would not want to look at a gift horse in the mouth. They told Mia that they wholeheartedly approved.

They also read the portion about concurrent titles and rule, and the contract allowed the royal spouses to hold other positions and titles separate from their royal titles and roles, and they shall be absolved of any accusations of conflicts of interest – that would be left to their own cognizance and conscience.

Mia can therefore remain the Duchess of the Sciollian Isles and remain as the Admiral of the Fifth Fleet, and these will not be deemed in conflict with her Elyran titles or responsibilities, and the same goes for Sahsha.

In years to come, Mia and Sahsha would be judicious on the few occasions that they wielded their powers as heirs apparent. History will show that all their actions as Elyran royals will progress the cause of peace among the Federation, the Tirosians and the Detterex in ways that no one has and will ever do. History will show that these were the beginnings of what would eventually be called the Elyran Republic.

But that was still years away. And in the meantime, there were other things that needed to be done.

At the embassy, more and more things needed to be taken care of, so to facilitate things, Nick’s temporary position as ambassador was made permanent. He would hold the office quite competently, and would in time be considered one of the best ambassadors to hold the position.

As for Commander Ndidi Iyanda of the Hermes, Mia gave her a brevet promotion to Captain, and this lasted less than a day. Her promotion was confirmed by Admiral Silverman immediately, and was appointed the commander of New Gibraltar Base.

More ships from the Fourth Fleet arrived and their entire store of spare parts and supplies were ferried down. It wasn’t something they were expecting to need, but Gibraltar Base needed the supplies. Their storage holds were emptied out very rapidly.

Their engineers, fresh from training at the PRC, were also shuttled down to help with the construction of Gibraltar. A four-berth drydock facility was soon completed, as well as full spaceport facilities. A special section was allotted for what would be called the Hermes Squadron. This squadron was made up by the Hermes navy pilots, and used Hermes’ four wings of Eagle fighters plus two wings of Cobra shuttles, repurposed for use by the base.

Full conversion and manufacturing facilities were also put up, making Gibraltar fully self-sufficient. The fact that the base also boasted a full-function FTL plant from the Hermes meant that Gibraltar Base now had planet-side deflector fields - the only base located on a planet’s surface that had an honest-to-goodness deflector field.

What made this possible was the assistance of Dr. Running-Stream’s people from the PRC that allowed them to repurpose Hermes’ inertia converters to convert radiant heat energy to passive light energy. It was actually an easy conversion. The effect of this was that, when Gibraltar Base switched on her shield, she would be surrounded with what looked like a glowing crystal dome, with lambent ribbons of ruby light coruscating like light reflections on a soap bubble.

The base also boasted the most impressive firepower of any planet-based station, with several dozen pulse turrets, almost sixty missile launchers and four rapid-fire rail guns.

And with the shield on, and the massive missile and rocket defenses at her back and call, the base became the most impregnable fort in the Federation. Her nickname, the “Rock of Gibraltar,” or “The Rock” as the Fifth Fleet flyers preferred to call her, had become synonymous with Earth power and strength.

After the initial test runs, Mia had looked at the specs of the base deflectors. As usual, it gave Mia some new ideas, and she decided to improve the Shepherd Moon’s own systems as soon as she had some spare time.

A new addition was also installed: Gibraltar Base now had its own EM Suppression Field generator (though none in Colossus knew).

Earth had Phase-Waved the plans for several all-purpose manufacturing plants, and the engineers started their construction. When they finish, Gibraltar Base will become one of Earth’s nexus for manufactured goods and systems. To make them a fully-independent manufacturing center, plans were put in place to ship them a sealed, prefab semiconductor manufacturing plant. And when that plant arrives, the station will become one of the main profit centers of the government, and make Colossus and Zeos Three a main commercial stop for races that needed specialty or high-performance electronics and products.

Also courtesy of the plans sent from Earth, the base now boasted the most comfortable Earth living quarters this side of the Milky Way, with glass domes that mimic night-time and “shirt-sleeve” weather at will.

Captain Iyanda took her new assignment as base commander seriously. Once it was completely operational, she initiated regular overflights of the planet as well as Colossus. She had also sent out regular shuttle patrols, not so much to really patrol, but to extend Federation presence out there in case of any emergency.

The captain also sent notice that Earth’s presence around the system will now be on a permanent basis, and that they will permanently assign a portion of their base’s forces to Colossus.

Mumu and Pinpin said that it was always a struggle to get the planets to volunteer ships and personnel, but with this, they felt these problems alleviated a little.

Since the Dravidians have basically claimed squatter rights to almost all available berths in Colossus’ landing platforms, the Shepherd Moon never even tried to ask for a spot, and just went directly to Gibraltar Base. Some new arrivals also had the same problem, and asked if Gibraltar had extra berths available. There were fifteen extra spots and the ten ships that needed a berth to land for minor repairs and resupply were easily accommodated.

The Dravidians thought that the “lack” of parking space would allow them to secure more “favors” and concessions from new arrivals, as usual, but things were far from usual anymore.

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(bookmark 57)

Ndidi now had “guests” at her spaceport so she had to stay on her toes.

Mia did a quick inspection of the base, and confirmed the base fully operational. She instructed Captain Iyanda to send a message to Earth, Colossus Spaceport Control, Elyra, Dixx and Arachnia.

“Fellow Federation citizens,” Ndidi said in her short message, “New Gibraltar Base is now open for business.” Not much, but it did the job. The news spread throughout Colossus like wildfire, and in time throughout the Federation as well.

The production of hydrogen and oxygen for the Colossus tanks continued, and a regular shuttle schedule to transport the fuel up to Colossus was set up. And in a few weeks, Colossus’ tanks were now one-fourth full.

Aside from fuel production, as the Earth’s newest Phase-Wave base, their production of one-shot Phase-Wave transmitters was also on full swing. Anytime someone from Colossus needed to send a message, they would able to do so. For a nominal fee, of course – it was a requirement of their lease.

The business of the Federation continued. The Dravidians claimed that it was refreshing that they need not take care of the picayune details of station management, and comported themselves as people who have been set free of an onerous task. But, in reality, they found many things they used to take for granted a little more difficult. Firstly, they found that they had to pay for all the services they used to take for granted. The most painful for a Dravidian is parting him from his money. And they found that many of the things they used to consider easy were actually hard, especially since they didn’t have the Telcontari at their beck and call anymore.

Most Federation personnel managed to continue with their day-to-day work by ignoring the blustering Dravidians and the supercilious Erocii. From being the most influential of the delegates onboard, in days, they suddenly found themselves irrelevant. And whatever they were trying to do to be relevant again didn’t seem to be working.

Everyone was gearing up to prepare for discussion and debate of the activities they needed to take care of in the face of Tirosian and Detterex aggression. The Dravidians wanted to participate but since they were the two major races to argue against a declaration of war, the delegates just ignored their contributions in Aonta. Furthermore, with the absence of Counselor Cor, their Mission Office was in disarray.

The Dravidians started spreading rumors that they were thinking of taking their dreadnoughts from the Colossus volunteer fleet since they might be needed elsewhere, but the Telcontari said that was all right. Several corvettes from Telcontar were soon to arrive, not to mention more ships from EarthForce’s Fourth Fleet. Pinpin told her former masters thank you for their past service, and wished their crews good luck.

The Dravidians were caught a bit flatfooted. The pleading that they were expecting for them to stay never came. So to save face, they had to make good on their threat to depart. But with no destination really planned, they said that they will wait until the Federation have come to a decision on the tactics to be implemented with regards the Tirosians and the Detterex. After all, they did not want to deprive the Federation of their experience and advice, especially with the most pressing matter at the moment – the Tirosian-Detterex defense strategy.

Commander O’Connell was invited to speak in Aonta, and, by using a very large 3D projection using Earther tech, she was able to share her information quick and efficiently.

First, they discussed the locations of each of the enemy “fleets.”

O’Connell explained that Earth’s long range telemetry showed gargantuan fleets were now already orbiting both Tiros Prime and Detterex Prime – over a hundred and fifty capital ships per system. Many said they didn’t understand how they were able to amass such a large number of capital ships.

O’Connell then showed a list of Detterex and Tiros planets and systems, and the number of ships that were orbiting each. (In deference to the Federation delegates, the text was in both Elyran and Earth English.) The list showed that there were now about one or two capital ships remaining per system. In some cases, there were none.

So, apparently, what the enemy did was to strip all their systems of capital ships and moved them all to Detterex and Tiros Prime.

As to the fleets sent to invade Dixx and Arachnia, O’Connell explained that, originally, EM fields surrounded these two groups of ships. The fields have now been deactivated and they have now “de-cloaked,” probably so as not to disrupt communications on Tiros and Detterex. They now know that these groups were of similar size and composition to those that were sent to Earth, Colossus and Elyra.

They joined the cruisers already orbiting the planets, thereby bolstering their numbers even further. The density of capital ships flying overhead must mean that anyone on the ground on Tiros Prime or Detterex would see at least two ships flying overhead at any given time. Tactically speaking, O’Connell said there would be no safe approach to either planet.

The Deamon representative therefore asked what the tactical options were.

O’Connell bowed, acknowledging the question. “The objective has remained the same, My Lord. Occupy their home planets and remove the ability of the enemy to carry out any aggression with any planet with any of the peoples of the Federation, the Tiros Empire, and the Detterex Empire.”

“Why include the Tiros and Detterex empires, Captain? Are they not our enemies.”

“My Lord,” O’Connell said, “our charter says that the Federation’s goal is to share the benefits of civilization, cooperation and fellowship to all sophonts, so that all may have the opportunity to flourish and to contribute to the Federation as well. Earth believes that if we are able to assure peaceful coexistence, this must be made to apply to all sophonts.”

“What of justice, Captain, and the application of penalties?”

“We Earthers believe in justice, My Lord, however, as a famous doctor from Earth’s twentieth century said, ‘punishment may make us obey the orders we are given, but at best it will only teach an obedience to authority, not a self-control which enhances our self-respect.’

“Elyra’s Great Messiah said once, that there are two kinds of power - one comes from the fear of punishment and the other comes from acts of love. Power from love is thousands of times more effective and permanent than one derived from fear.

“Yes, we believe in justice, but we also believe in a more permanent solution that will benefit us all – not just benefit our friends, but even our enemies. Would it not be the greatest thing if our enemy was not our enemy anymore but our friend?”

This was greeted with applause, and the Telcontari looked upon O’Connell with great pride. “Did I not say, Mumu,” Pinpin said to her partner, “the Earthers are worthy of our loyalty and our service.”

Mumu nodded.

The representative from Star-453 that stood behind them nodded as well. “Indeed, child,” the cyborg said. “These are but mortal creatures like us, who have faults and frailties like us. But they aspire for so much more. I wish them well. And I hope they succeed.”

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(bookmark 58)

The original two fleets headed for Dixx and Arachnia were contacted and diverted to Tiros Prime. The Elyran/Fifth Fleet fresh from Elyra supplemented this. But even combined, they weren’t even a fourth of the fleet around Tiros.

The Tiros System was similar to the Earth’s system in that there were a lot of asteroids and other leftover detritus from its planet building epoch. There were asteroids galore as well as other space junk. And that was just fine for the Earthers’ plans.

The six Earth cruisers went ahead of the combined fleet, following a path that hid them from view of planet-based observers. They kept behind the large Tirosian gas giant until the very last moment. And when they were near what they designated C-57D, a very large rocky, irregularly-shaped asteroid with a mean diameter of around 500 miles, they made a break for it and landed on the asteroid’s dark side.

The Earther ships took out half of their rail guns and modified them so that they’d accelerate metallic rocks about 50 meters across to speeds of up to 60 to 70 meters per second towards Tiros Prime. As for their “ammunition,” they blasted rocks from the asteroid.

In less than a week, they started bombardment of the Tirosian planet, hurling the projectiles at around 62,000 kilometers per hour, or the equivalent of Mach 50. The metallic objects would take about five months to reach their target 224 million kilometers away. Hopefully, the enemy wouldn’t detect them until the meteors were too close for anything to be done.

In that intervening time, the rest of their “small” fleet of about forty ships duplicated the Earth cruisers’ path, and by the time they were near the asteroid, it was only then that the enemy detected the wave of meteoric projectiles coming their way. By that time, the Earthers had fired over 220,000 projectiles, and the asteroid had started to look like a big cookie that’s been constantly nibbled at by mice.

The Tirosians, of course, tracked the projectiles back to the asteroid, and they looked at photographs of the asteroid over the previous months. In the photos, they did find the Earth ships and realized that they’ve been there for over five months already, and have been firing off the metallic rocks at a rate of about sixty or more per hour.

The Emperor’s staff looked for people to blame and the astronomers were the ones that were picked on. Summary executions followed, and the royal court started making plans to repel the incoming meteors. At that point, the Earthers activated an EM suppression field. Now they couldn’t use energy weapons to cut them up, nor have any communications.

Their problem was an enormous one. They were going to have to shoot down or prevent meteors from causing too much damage, at the rate of about one meteor a minute, with each one having about fifteen megatons in kinetic energy. They had the same problem as Elyra except that instead of worrying about just one, they had about one a minute.

Just like in Elyra, they couldn’t use atomics since, instead of meteors, they’d convert them to radioactive fallout. That is if they could use atomics at all. So they would need to use missiles and other explosive munitions to break them up into smaller fragments that, hopefully, will burn up in reentry.

All of their capital ships, missile gunships and any platform that could fire missiles were pressed into service, and in the beginning, they had some coordination problems due to the lack of communications. Nevertheless, their defense seemed to be effective. Each meteor required several dozen hits to fragment them enough but they had enough missiles to manage that.

Into the second week, they had sort of found their rhythm and were mechanically shooting down the meteors in a regular manner. The problem was that their grace period to shoot down the killer rocks had started to narrow from day to day. They would lose ground of maybe a few thousand kilometers each day. And that meant they had less and less time to shoot them down.

Tirosians would look at their night sky and marvel at the continuous meteor shower. But they knew what this really was about. They knew that the moment the meteor shower disappears, a disaster would follow. The government started activating their emergency plans, and bomb shelters and other emergency facilities were opened. This wasn’t done as rapidly or as efficiently as they liked because they didn’t have communications.

By the third week, the munitions of the ships overhead had started to run out, and they were starting to have problems resupplying their ships. The absence of communications was starting to hurt them in a very real way.

But more than just supply problems, the planet itself was in turmoil. The economic and social infrastructure of Tirosian society had started to break down, and many portions of the planet’s large disaffected and suppressed population had started rioting. Food supplies were dwindling fast. The larger portions of Tirosian society – the slave classes and labor classes, were ready to revolt. Normally, the police and military would put down such seditious actions but the EM field had prevented them from properly mustering their forces – the lack of communications and and energy weapons were a real concern.

Most of the Tirosian elite had retreated to the royal palace and barricaded themselves in. The emperor himself had retreated to the main level below ground and tried to conduct the business of the empire from his private apartments. The palace itself was fully wired and this allowed him to give instructions. Government was able to scrape by, and the planet itself was coping just enough not to implode. At least for now.

As for the situation out in orbit, some of the meteor projectiles were starting to get past the defense line, and several of the main settlements in the middle latitudes were hit with fifteen to twenty megaton explosions. Civil services had trouble coping and the casualties and the list of injured citizens had started to climb into the hundreds of thousands.

The impact areas were not restricted to the middle latitudes, however, though that was where the bulk of the impacts were landing. But even those at higher latitudes were also hit. Those that thought to escape the bombardment knew that they weren’t safe there as well. The fleet of ships in orbit redoubled their efforts.

It was then that the Federation forces started their run.

Using the technique that people had started to call the “Colossus Effect,” their ships made repeated passes through the gathered ships, firing anti-ship missiles. The Tirosians could do nothing but take the hits, and they couldn’t chase after them because they were continuing their defensive fire against the meteors. The number of their ships were being cut down.

In the meantime, the deterioration of the home planet’s civilization continued. To ascertain the situation, EarthForce shuttles did many overflights of the planet’s population centers with impunity. The enemy defenses could not shoot down the little Federation flyers. They could not cope without communications and other systems that they lost with the EM suppression field.

The Earthers did come close to being shot down when a few of the Tirosian citizens were able to fire off a few anti-aircraft missiles. But without automated tracking, the Earther ships were able to evade them with ease. Several aircraft took off and tried to chase them down, but Tirosian technology was just completely outclassed. Several tried to catch up and cut them off – a classic air combat tactic. But the Earther ships were just too fast. One of them used his ship like a guided suicide missile, and rammed a mud turtle. The Earth shuttle didn’t burst into flame but was forced down. It crashlanded in the outskirts of a mangrove forest almost 10,000 square kilometers in size, which, in a way saved the stranded crew – the Tirosians couldn’t get to them right away.

A couple of the other Cobras swooped down and rescued the crew of the downed shuttle. But when the crowds of Tirosians started to surface from the water and come out of the jungle, the Earthers had to blast off in a hurry. They were able to escape unharmed and as soon as they were away, the shuttles bombed the crash area to prevent Earth Tech from falling into enemy hands.

As for the battle overhead, the Earth cruiser Victoria documented what had been happening, and sped out of range of the EM suppression field to beam a message to Colossus. Together with the reconnaissance information from the shuttles, Capitan Zaragoza was able to provide a reasonably complete report to the Federation, which was now the subject of a debate in Colossus.

In Colossus, after they’ve listened to the report, the representative from Star-453 spoke and argued for the cessation of the operation.

“My Lords and Ladies,” the cyborg said, “the mission has so far been breaking our way. Captain O’Connell’s tactics have so far been very successful, and we are days away from the fall of Tiros Prime. In one fell swoop, the Federation can claim to have won the war with the Tirosians. But, My Lords and Ladies, we are also days away from bringing to extinction a culture that has been eons in the making.

“As a race, the Tirosians are as old as any in the Federation. If we are to do this, we will be causing the extinction of a culture and a civilization that the universe will never see again.”

The Daemon representative pinged. “But, My Lord,” the lion-like alien said, “since its first encounter with the Federation, this race has been at war with us, with the goal of subjugating our peoples and annexing our territories. Should they not be eliminated?”

The cyborg paused. “I hear what you are saying, My Lord,” he said. “My own family cell perished in an attack on my colony world some hundred years ago. I have more reason than most to see the predations of the Tirosians definitively halted. But my eyes have been opened. As our honored colleagues from Earth have said, and as Elyra’s Great Messiah has said, there are two kinds of power, and only one of them can make lasting, permanent changes. I am in search of permanent change – a change that will redeem us all from the edge of ruin, not just from the Tirosians. What we do now will show us if we are on that same journey.” In the silence of the great hall, the cyborg sat down, and like the murmuring of water coursing though a forest stream growing into a torrent falling from a great waterfall, the applause rained down.

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(bookmark 59)

It was within the ability of Federation forces to save the Tirosians from demise, but it was decided that they will only do so if they are able to get an unconditional surrender. So a plan was hatched: a task force was to be sent to the Imperial Castle to locate the Emperor and lay out their demands.

A mix of warriors, mostly Earthers, Elyrans, Daemons and Dixx, with a pair Arachnians acting as their pathfinders and breakers, was transported down by a pair of Cobra shuttles accompanied by a large escort of Kembel and Axon fighters.

In a ballistic flight path that had their little squadron coming out from under the horizon, they were able to punch through the disorganized defensive line surrounding the castle. The two shuttles touched down on the castle’s enclosed roofdeck courtyard. The rear ramps slammed down and the Federation soldiers jumped out. In less than five seconds, the shuttles took off again.

Under the directions of their Arachnian breakers, the group made for the main entrance.

The Earthers turned on the lamps in their helmets and lighed up the dim corridors. For the Dixx and the Earthers, the light was very useful, while the others didn’t have any trouble with the dim, reddish light preferred by the Tirosians.

The many turns and blind alleys made the castle almost like a labyrinth, but the Arachnians were leading them unerringly. They were able to get through twenty levels and were able to reach the below-ground level royal apartments fairly quickly, despite the fact that as they got down deeper and deeper into the structure of the castle, there were more and more Tirosians in their way.

With the EM field, they were mostly reduced to using bladed weapons. Among all the Federation warriors, the most effective with their bladed weapons were the Elyrans, and they took the lead and cleared the path for them. The Earthers, the only ones among them with working sidearms worked as the group’s sharpshooters. It helped that the Tirosians weren’t the best sword-wielders but their numbers worked to their advantage. The small group was hard pressed to hold their own.

The Federation task force really had nowhere else to go but forward. There was no option to retreat. The Tirosians were fighting them with every bit of their skill and strength, and in the last few meters, there really was no moving forward. In the last passageway, the Earthers ordered everyone to hunker down and they threw grenades both up and down the tunnel. The detonations were enough to to echo through the entire length of the tunnel and stunned most of the defending Tirosians. Despite ringing ears, the Elyrans cut through the Tirosians and they all leapt past them and panetrated further down the tunnel. A couple of the Earthers played tail-end Charlie, and as soon as the enemy started to recover, they threw a couple more grenades. Before they detonated, the Earthers raced after their comrades and crossed the threshhold into the royal apartments.

None of the Tirosians followed them in there seemed to be some rule that forbade them, and this allowed the Federation warriors to slow down, catch their breath and regroup.

The passageway split into three, but at this point, the Arachnians couldn’t point them to the right path. The Deamons among them suggested picking the center path, and that’s where they went.

The Elyrans pulled back the heavy black curtains that obscured the center passage and this revealed the Emperor.

He was sitting on his large, polished-wood throne. It was on a tall dais, with a ruby-red spotlight on it, and the Emperor sat there, looking at them with an unearthly calm. The green emerald rock, the Star, set within a gold cage, hung from around his neck. He turned towards them and sneered.

“So the vermin are here,” he said. “What is it you want?”

The most senior among them, the lone Axon, stepped forward and bowed.

“Your Royal Majesty,” the tall alien said. “We are emissaries from the Galactic Federation of Free Races…”

The Emperor laughed sarcastically. “Free races!” he said. “Such nonsense. You can only say that because you have yet to be subjugated by my Tirosians. Kneel, slaves!”

The Axon just closed his eyes and kept calm. “Your Royal Majesty,” he said again. “We bring word from distant Colossus. It is upon the will of the peoples of the Federation that we are here. We are here to demand that, as the leader of your people, that you submit to our authority. That you surrender your forces and…”

“Surrender!” he scoffed. “Your arrogance is not to be believed, Axon. It is you that must submit. My fleet will overcome your forces in mere days, and once they do, we will march on Colossus and force your beloved Federation of ignorant races to submit to the power of the Tiros Star Empire!”

The Axon sighed. “As Your Majesty must know,” he said, “Tiros Prime is mere weeks away from total collapse. Your government is beset with multiple riots and revolts, and your planet is under constant threat of bombardment from space.”

The emperor waved that away. “Details! Those are just details!”

“Where is the Prime Minister?”

“Prime Minister?” the Emperor asked sarcastically. “I know not who you refer to.”

“My Lord,” one of the Arachnians called. He pointed to a figure crumpled somewhere in the back of the throne room.

It was the Prime Minister. The tall Detterex had a jeweled dagger buried in her chest, murdered, no doubt, by the Emperor.

The Axon turned back to the Emperor. “My condolences, Your Royal Highness. We have heard that the Prime Minister was an exceptional individual, and has…”

“Hah! The Prime Minister was a figurehead. If I did not need her to keep the Detterex in line, I would have done away with her years ago!”

The Axon was doing his best to control his anger. “I see…”
f
“Now say your piece and begone!”

The Axon took a calming breath. “As I said, Your Majesty, the collapse of Tiros is inevitable. We can offer your people salvation, but we require your surrender.

“I will never surrender!”

“It is your privilege,” the Axon said. He nodded to his comrades and prepared to leave.

“Wait,” the Emperor said. But they ignored him.

“Wait!”

They turned to leave his throne room, but the Emperor raised his scepter, pleading.

“Please!”

In a way, that one word was all that they wanted. The fact that there was no word in Tirosian for “please,” the Emperor had used the Elyran word, and that spoke volumes about the Emperor’s desperation.

“Tell me what needs to be done,” he whispered. “Tell me what must I do to save my people. I will do anything. Help me…”

- - - - -
(bookmark 60)

A flare was fired from the castle’s roof. The magnesium-bright flash could be seen for hundreds of miles, and was easily seen from orbit as well. This was the signal that they wanted.

With the signal flare, the Earthers knew to turn off the EM field. Minutes after that, a radio message was transmitted from the Imperial Castle. It was the Emperor ordering the fleet to surrender to the Federation forces. Knowing that it was the only way for the planet and its people to survive, the Tirosian cruisers ceased firing at the Federation ships. Once it was apparent that the Tirosians weren’t firing at them anymore, the Federation cruisers used their now-available energy weapons to cut up the meteors.

But, apparently not being able to control themselves, close to half of the Tirosian commanders ordered their crews to open fire on the nearest Federation ships. That made the Federation ships retaliate.

But such a situation was considered a possibility, and they planned for it. After a short exchange of fire, the Federation cruisers ended it quickly, pulled up and away and returned to their previous strategy. As they cruised away, the EM suppression field returned. This forced the Tiros cruisers to return to their old plan.

In that short skirmish, several dozen meteors had gotten past them, and they saw the rocks impact the planet. Massive explosions visible from space started blossoming on many of the land masses. However, there were a few miscalculations, and maybe a dozen of them impacted in Tiros Prime’s oceans.

These triggered massive tsunamis, and many seaside cities were either washed out to sea, or sank under the waves.

At that point, some of the ships opened fire on the Tirosian cruisers that fired on the Federation ships. But as that continued, more of the meteors got past them.

The EM field switched off and many of the Federation ships turned back.

This allowed the Tirosian defenders to use their energy weapons to start cutting up the meteors more rapidly than their missiles could break them up.

The five Earth cruisers then approached. With a firing system more sophisticated than any of them had seen, each ship used their weapons and fired them in such rapid-fire pulses, it was like a massive searchlight beam instead of individual thread-sized pulses. Each ship was able to disintegrate a meteor in seconds.

Many of the other Federation ships were shooting down the other meteors as well, but the others remained in the background, providing cover for the others.

Minutes into the joint defense of Tiros, several of the Tiros cruisers started to turn. But as they were, Cruiser 99 and the Elyran ships started bombarding them with their missiles. Many of the other Tirosians saw the same thing, and fired on them as well.

These ships, under that kind of combined attack, just collapsed. And as everything settled back down, a large part of the Tiros fleet, more than half, just picked up and flew away. Inquiries were transmitted, and apparently these particular ships have just committed mutiny.

Emergency messages were sent to Colossus and Earth, and as the orders were, to let them go for the moment, and continue with the current operation.

 
Occupation Force -

Once the threat of the meteors were done, the remaining Tirosian ships were boarded. There was no resistance – after all, the Emperor had already spoken. One of the bigger problems that they had was that, although there was no active resistance and they were actively cooperating, they found that many members of the crew had committed suicide. In fact, some of the ships didn’t have enough crew to muster for operation much less for battle.

Suicide was the problem. Only five percent of the crews were left, and their ships were practically inoperative because of this. But, in any case, they were able to move the ships into orbits around the large gas giant about 200 million kilometers away. Once in secure orbits, they disabled all of them and abandoned them for the moment. Three Federation ships, plus DSC Mikasa were deployed to act as patrol for the big parking lot of ships.

As for Tiros Prime, the occupation forces did a thorough survey of the planet. Best estimates showed that more than forty percent of their industrial capacity was gone, and large tracts of land and coastal areas were lain waste. Weather patterns were disrupted, and though there was no chance of anything like a nuclear winter, if weather control isn’t applied properly over the next several months, hurricanes of unprecedented violence, drought in places where there never was, and snowstorms and ice storms on a planet that had never seen snow and ice, will be in their future.

Over a hundred million perished in the bombardment, or in collateral effects of the bombardment such as the rioting and the civil disturbances, or was part of the communities that were washed out to sea. That was an incredible number. Earth historians would refer to this as a holocaust, a term that was adopted by the rest of the Federation. But what was even more incredible was that over 6 billion of the population had committed suicide.

This was the great shame of the Federation. Many will contend that the mass suicide was not their fault. Others will say that if they didn’t invade, then that wouldn’t have happened. But if they didn’t then the Tirosians would have come for them. And the argument continued.

Long after things have settled, the argument would continue. Many would say that the argument will never end, and they would be proven right.

Three hundred million out an original planetary population of six billion was incredible, and even more incredible was that these survivors would only be children – none of them even fifteen planetary years old. The occupation force would not exactly be an occupation force but more a humanitarian mission (although when run through the translator, the word “humanitarian” did not sound too racist).

Actually, the problem was more because the slave labor force on the planet were itching to take over. Looting and rioting were the things that the Federation forces had to deal with, and though they understood, they would not stand for any violence of any form nor any kind. Those that cooperated were given positions in the occupation government, mostly clerical and administrative, but they had to say that it was more preferable to work for these aliens than their former masters.

A call went out to Colossus and all the Federation planets, and all the member races pledged to send assistance. Over the next year, a constant stream of sophonts would arrive and the situation on the planet would be stabilized. “Missionary” schools would be set up to assist in the education of the youngsters, and government was running again. It would be decades away before Tiros would be in a position where Federation assistance wouldn’t be needed anymore, and, incredibly, by that time, The Tiros Star Empire would be offered a seat in the Galactic Federation Assembly.

That was, of course, still in the future. For now, it was still the beginning of things.

The reports were sent to Colossus, and, over the months, it would be discovered that the reports had leaked out to the rest of the Tiros colony worlds. How that happened, no one really knows. But what happened to these planets were the same as what happened in the homeworld.

Not having instantaneous communications were working in their favor this time. But it was just a matter of time before the news gets out, so a race was on to save these colonies, and the Federation members, except for a few, pledged one or two ships to the effort. The Dravidians and, of course, the Erocii as well, didn’t.

Records from the Tiros archives showed the location of these planets, and with Phase-Wave telemetry and radio reception, they knew which needed assistance right away, and what kind of assistance would be needed.

Jennifer Priestly, studying the events and the circumstances of what happened to the Tirosians, definitely knew something was wrong. This counter-survival behavior indicated either a genetic cause or perhaps a cultural one. The automatic assumption was inbreeding could cause this, but this was just a shot-in-the-dark theory. They needed information. It must be solved soon, otherwise, the Tirosians may be destined for extinction regardless of what they did to try and help them.’

 
Shepherd Moon, Chapter 25: Endgame, Two - Detterex

 
An Engineered Escape -

The Detterex spies that had been caught had long gone through interrogation, all at the hands of the Earthers. All the information they would ever get from them they already had, and they discovered a few things: first was that the individuals they had captured were not really part of a coordinated espionage operation, that they were employed by individuals that needed specific information from the Federation; second was that the individuals that they selected were not specially trained or anything like that – they were selected because they were “throwbacks” – that is to say, they had the look the sound and the height of regular Elyrans; third was that there was no organized way to extract these individuals – they were to use their own efforts and make their own way back.

Colossus security was a little disappointed, actually, since they didn’t get much. These were basically run-of-the-mill Detterex citizens. Useless as security resources.

These spies weren’t really great spies, really, since in all this time, they haven’t really gotten much information, but they did have information about the “Battle of Pluto,” the “Battle of “Saturn,” the “Attack on Colossus,” the “Invasion of Earth” and “Invasion of Elyra” – names of events that will go down in the Federation’s history books.

It didn’t matter, though, since they were yet to report in to their masters, and now they won’t be able to anymore.

As usual, Mia had an idea on how to make use of these “useless” spies, and hopefully avert a tragedy similar to what befell the Tiros Empire.

The first thing that they did was to give them full physicals prior to being sent to Elyra Prime for further interrogation (the prisoners “overheard” this from their keepers). What they didn’t know was that, during the exam, they were all implanted with “passive” Phase-Wave transponders. Each was the size of an old-style “penny,” but as thin and flexible as a piece of plastic from a plastic bag. These were implanted into their chest wall, just over the ribs and below the muscle. After a year or so, these devices would have dissolved.

Second was that, under the eagle-eyed attention of “incompetent” Telcontari security, they were going to be transported to Elyra via an automated Telcontari mail courier ship. Courier ships were small, fast interstellar ships that have crews of four or five, and all they were meant to do was to ship messages between planets.

Along with the prisoners, a confidential packet, as well as a lot of standard mail destined for Elyra will be in the ship.

After the prisoners were transferred into the courier ship, they were sat in acceleration couches, with manacled wrists.

They patiently waited for the crew to come in, but after over half an hour of waiting, the Telcontari pilot got fed up. He unbuckled and stepped out of the ship in search of his crew.

The prisoners waited for over an hour, and, eventually, they got the idea of escaping. They laughed at the Telcontari for putting them in manacles but not securing the manacles on anything.

They found it easy to close the main hatch, and, looking at the simplified controls, knew what to do to run the ship. They saw the breakaway gates in front of them, and started activating the ship’s sublight engines.

The little courier ship blasted through the breakaway gate and roared away from Colossus.

The police launches that were always patrolling the outside of the station took up the chase. But the prisoners had opened the courier ship’s engines to maximum. The police had no hope of catching them. Several ships started prepping to follow but, because it was a courier ship, it was able to transition quickly to FTL. And it was too fast by that time for the Colossus’ tracking systems to follow, much less fro the other ships to follow.

Back in Colossus, Pinpin, Mumu, Mia, O’Connell and Tasha had a good laugh as the courier ship’s “pilot” recounted what had happened. It was Chi-Chi, the now-head of the Office of Protocol.

“I was actually afraid that they were actually going to wait for me to return. They stayed there for half an hour! How can they not take the opportunity to escape!” They laughed again.

“Well,” Tasha said, “we Elyrans are renowned for our patience, after all…”

That triggered another bout of laughter.

- - - - -
(bookmark 61)

It was easy to track the former-prisoners, after all. The passive Phase-Wave transponders worked beautifully, and tracked them easily.

Phase-Wave tracking also showed that the courier ship, after decelerating to ship-maneuverable speeds, rendezvoused with a Detterex cruiser. After that, the courier ship accelerated back into FTL. A few days later, an Elyran colonial outpost reported an explosion on one of the other planets in their system. Fragments of the courier ship were found and was reported immediately to Elyra and Colossus.

It was actually a little suspicious since the colony was in the general direction of Elyra, as seen from Colossus, “general” meant a deviation of at least a couple of light years.

In any case, the transponders were working fine, and once they saw that had reached a planet that the Federation knew as “Detterex-1543,” they knew that their planted information had finally been delivered.

All the material in the “mail” were all factual and real, even the reports about Detterex. What wasn’t was the special sealed packet addressed to the queen.

That special packet was supposedly a summary of EarthForce’s resources and strengths. In it, the packet of information said that the entire fleet of EarthForce was made up of around a thousand capital ships plus various other support craft, and that Earth had thirty colony worlds, but mostly out in the unmapped portions of the Galactic Arm, naturally.

There was also a “psychological profile” of the Terran Race, and it spoke of their implacable resolve and their unforgiving nature, that their nature was basically violent, but they try and hide it. It spoke of their need to win at any cost. It sounded, curiously, like the profile of the Tirosians, except that they didn’t have slaves in their society because their violent natures precluded that.

All-in-all, it painted a very terrifying picture.

In the final part of the report, it spoke of the disappointment of the race that the Tirosians did not put up a fight worthy of the Earthers, and that they are hoping that the Detterex would be a little different.

“Now, if that doesn’t have the Detterex shaking in their boots,” Mia was telling O’Connell, “I don’t know what will.”

- - - - -
(bookmark 62)

A few months later, the information had started to make the rounds in Detterex Prime.

In the halls of the Detterex Senate, the Prime Minister, the Senate President, the Minister of War and the Queen and King of All Detterex were meeting.

They had discussed the various pieces of information that they retrieved from their spies as well as the packets of mail that they got from the courier ship. Even without the “profile,” the rest of the information was very depressing, to say the least.

For the Queen and King, it was actually devastating.

It seemed that, because of the Earthers, their attacks on Earth, Colossus and Elyra were failures. They knew about Elyra already even before the spies arrived because of the “signal” that they got. It was, actually, the reason that the fleet was recalled, and was it was now flying overhead. They were a little disappointed that Tiros had fallen despite the overwhelming resources they had at their fingertips. But then again, it was the Tirosians.

As for the Queen and King, they were devastated to hear that two of their daughters had perished. The “prime minister” of the Tiros Empire was actually their second-oldest daughter, and they couldn’t help think about her death at the hands of that vile Tirosian emperor.

As for Arvan, their oldest daughter and the heir apparent of the Empire, they were beyond tears to know that she and her husband perished at the hand of the Earther warrior princess. But from what they have seen and what they know about the Earther, they thought that Arvan had died well - at the hand of a fellow royal an a worthy adversary. At least Arvan was able to kill the husband to Elyra’s heir apparent, and that meant that surely Tasha had perished by now. However, as they listened to the spies’ report, the Elyran princess was still alive, and, apparently, free of the madness.

The spies said that they couldn’t confirm it but it was said that the Lady Tasha now had the Earther princess and her partner for her bridges.

But the Earthers were aliens. They were not Detterex nor Elyran. How could they be bridges? Either the spies’ information was faulty or… Could they be the warriors of legend?

But the information from their other spies seem to corroborate the report, and confirmed that Lady Tasha was still in command of their forces, and was still free of the madness.

What could it all mean? As far as everyone knew, no one had been rescued from the madness in recent memory, whether Detterex or Elyran. And there had been no triumvirates since the time of the Messiah.

They called in their Minister of Information, and asked if the people they had just retrieved at great cost and effort were reliable.

The minister gulped. She knew that she could only answer in one way.

“Yes, Your Royal Highness,” she replied. “They are reliable. Our sleeper agents are top agents, and have been highly trained in espionage techniques. As you see, they were able to capture a ship on their own and were able to escape before being deported to Elyra. Yes, Your Highness, you can rely on their information.”

“I hope you are right, Minister,” the queen said.

The Minister of Information bowed and quickly retreated out of the room, lest she be asked other hard questions.

They looked at each other. It seems they had no choice but to believe the information

And if it was true, whatever was happening there in Colossus and on Elyra, it was something near-miraculous.

As to the information they found about the Earthers, it was so devastatingly overwhelming. The Earthers’ fleet was three times the size of the Tiros, Detterex and Federation fleets combined, and their “profile” was quite intimidating. What worried the queen was the last part of the report, because the Earthers were spoiling for a fight.

They then listened to the report regarding the events that have happened on Tiros. The report was totally factual, after all, but the figures ware mind-boggling. Again, the Earthers had played a key part in the downfall of the Tirosians. The one thing that was left out of the report was the fact that the casualties were mostly because of the mass suicide of the Tirosian race. By omitting that one fact, the deaths of the Tirosians were all due to the invasion of the Federation.

The report also said the emperor was still alive. Having heard that, the Queen asked the Prime Minister to have a clandestine force be sent to Tiros Prime and have the emperor assassinated.

The remaining Tirosian fleet of about sixty capital ships were now orbiting the Tirosian gas giant, essentially abandoned, and they wondered about the “mutiny fleet” - where were they now, and what was their ultimate objective.

The Minister of War wondered if they should keep their options open with regards the Tirosian mutineers, because sometime in the future, it may be useful to have them on their side.

The Senate President, Prime Minister and the King greeted this idea negatively. It seems, in their mind, they were already thinking of the Earthers as the warriors of legend. Whether they were correct or not, it colored their deliberations.

- - - - -
(bookmark 63)

What was now being called the “Mutiny Fleet” - the forty or so ships of the Tirosians that abandoned Tiros Prime, was being tracked easily by Earth’s CETI network, and no one was worrying about them for the moment.

As for Detterex and its almost-two hundred-strong fleet, this was also being tracked.

For the moment, it wasn’t a big concern, but decisions had to be made.

Shihayn was constantly in use at the moment – a large 3D display was set up in its large, spinning dais, which showed the location of the “Mutiny Fleet,” and the space surrounding Detterex, Tiros and Colossus. People would come in and take notes. It was the best tool to have to picture the situation properly.

And, from time to time, when one of the delegates wanted to present a plan or alternative to the current emergency , the display would be removed and they could then present their proposal. There was at least one group presenting per day.

As for Aonta, there were back-to-back sessions happening. The morning was taken up by Colossus’ normal calendar, while the afternoons were dedicated to debates about the current crisis.

The Assembly was slowly zeroing in on a consensus, which currently was to refurbish the mothballed Tirosian fleet to supplement the force currently on its way back to Colossus for repairs and resupply. Once ready, they would then proceed to Detterex Prime in full force. If that was the decision, then they’d need the appropriate tactics given that the Detterex system was a different one, which offered different advantages and disadvantages. Unofficially, they were expecting Mia and the Earthers to take point on that.

The Dravidians magnanimously offered to do the refurbishing of the Tirosian fleet, saying their price would be reasonably low, but they were shouted down. Instead, it was suggested that the Arachnians take over the refit of the ships. That was because the Arachnians were considered to be the best when it comes to intricate projects like this. The First Ambassador requested for assistance in contacting Arachnia Prime to arrange for engineers to be transported to Tiros, and the Earth contingent offered the communications assistance.

Jokingly, the Axons made a joke and asked how much they would be charging, and everyone laughed. The First Ambassador pinwheeled his arms laughing in his own way.

The Dravidians then pinged, and asked, seriously, what they would be charging.

A silence spread throughout the hall.

Equally seriously, the First Ambassador bowed towards the Dravidians, and replied to say that, since this was a crisis, they believed that it would be very inappropriate to actually charge the Federation. After all, what they would be doing was to the benefit of all the member races.

The Dravidians thanked the First Ambassador for their courteous answer and did not ask any further questions.

At the end of the day, the Erocii representative had approached the First Ambassador. As it approached him, Mumu and Pinpin rushed over, and listened in on the conversation. As the Lord Chamberlains, it was their privilege to listen in to conversations between delegates that had to do with official Federation matters.

Embarrassed, the Erocii apologized for their Dravidian friends and said that they would like to offer their assistance. It explained that their motivations may be suspect so they are not offering manpower assistance. They couldn’t also offer transportation assistance because of fear of something going wrong. So they decided to offer supplies and other materials that they may need.

The First Ambassador expressed his gratitude and said that they will indeed accept their assistance, specifically, transportation.

The Erocii bowed and moved away.

Mumu and Pinpin wondered why they waited for the end of the session before making their offer, and the First Ambassador said it was to reduce the possibility of embarrassment for both the Dravidians and the Erocii.

But while that was all happening, someone, an Earther, rushed to Aonta, looking for Nick. She eventually found him and handed him a long note as well as one of those four-by-four data cubes.

Nick pocketed the cube, tuned to the English version of the note and read it. After he finished it, he pressed one of the big call buttons on the wall.

Telcontari clerks came to Aonta, and went to Nick, who was by then waving to them frantically.

He demanded that an emergency session be called now. He understood the repercussions for him and the Earth Mission, but he was prepared to pay the penalty, or to accept any punitive action the Lord Chamberlains may choose to apply.

Mumu and Pinpin were paged, and they rushed over.

Without saying anything, Nick handed to them the Elyran-translated page of his message, and the two read it with growing shock and surprise. Pinpin went to the wall intercom and initiated the process of calling an emergency session in seventeen and a half minutes.

While she was doing this, Nick called Mia and O’Connell on his CC. He asked them to contact Jennifer over in CETI, and to get Tasha as well. Mia nodded and signed off.

Nick nodded to Mumu and Pinpin, handed over the data cube to be plugged into the speaker system, took the paper back and went back to the place assigned to the Earth Mission.

The rest of the Assembly slowly filed in, in small dribs and drabs, and Nick waited patiently.

Once the Assembly was complete, Mimi and Pinpin spoke, apologizing to everyone for being recalled, but said that the matter was quite important. They then invited Nick to speak.

Nick stood, and then bowed.

“My lords, ladies, and fellow delegates,” he began, “I would like to share with you a message that we received a little while ago.” He nodded to the Telcontari standing by the public speaker controls. They activated the recording, and the entire Assembly was assaulted by static from the speakers.

Nick had a serious case of déjà vu. This felt just like that time when Mia was still Bill, and he had announced Phase-Wave at the UN, and shared to the world the world the first recording of an extraterrestrial conversation.. But, this time, it was him doing the announcing.

Soon, the static faded and was replaced by a voice.

“To the members of the Federation Council,” the voice said. “T’chahn.

“I am Sovann, Queen and Empress of the Detterex Empire. I have been appraised of the events that have transpired in Tiros Prime, and the fall of the Tiros civilization. I send my congratulations to the Federation for your victory over the vile Tirosians.

“I also extend to the people of the Earth my congratulations for becoming the newest members of the Galactic Federation of Free Races. And also for their victories, both at home and at Colossus. I say well met to a worthy adversary.

“I also send my greetings to the new Lord Chamberlains of Colossus – a magnificent achievement for such young people. I know how proud their Telcontari brethren must be. Congratulations to you.

“I also extend my congratulations to Crown Princess Tasha Liaran-Kerr, and her people’s victory in her homeworld of Elyra. Though I could only wish the outcome was otherwise, nevertheless I say well met, and extend the hand of reconciliation.

“I must also express my sorrow at the Princess’ loss. Prince Ren Tevann-Reshanii-Kerr was a brilliant, resourceful, charming, and beautiful soul. I wish him well in his final journey.

“The past year has been a year of turmoil not just for the Federation but also for the Empire. The reason I send this message out is so that we may find a resolution and bring order once again to the Arm. In behalf of the Empire, I declare that the Detterex Empire surrenders to the Galactic Federation of Races, and would like to meet with representatives of the Federation to discuss terms of our surrender. In earnest of this, to show the seriousness of our resolve, a small flotilla of three disarmed capital cruisers, led by the Empire’s flagship, the Predator, shall be leaving Detterex Prime within the week, and shall make their way to Crystal Shoals, the planet at the center of the known universe.

“Onboard the Predator shall be my lady-in-waiting. She shall be carrying with her the Queen Mother’s Torch of Freedom, waiting to turn it over to a representative of the Federation. By turning over this precious symbol of peace, this precious relic of our civilization to the Federation, we show our sincerity and resolve.

“They shall not be accompanied by other ships. If they are, we ask your assistance in removing them for they shall not be from the Detterex Empire.

“Once the Federation has been assured of our intentions, we would request to meet with the Lords Chamberlain of Colossus, representatives from the Council of Custodians, representatives from the Chamber of Migration and Peerage, the Keeper of the Heritage and his apprentice, and Elyran heir to the throne, Princess Tasha Liaran-Kerr and her Earther consorts, and representatives for the Earth Alliance.

“Be assured that I and my Royal Court shall be present, at a time and place of your choosing, under any conditions you specify. Together, we shall be empowered to discuss and negotiate a contract for the surrender of all Detterex to the Federation and the legendary Warrior Race.

“I send this message to you that I may save my people and empire from death and ruin, that we may be judged by the Great Ones as worthy. I ask your assistance in sending out this message to the rest of my subjects. Attached to this message is my Imperial Seal so that my subjects can assured of its authenticity, and that the Detterex Empire can act as one and show the Great Ones and the Warrior Race that we are worthy of their trust and their patronage.

“Until we meet again.”

- - - - -
(End of Part Five)


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responding to mhalpern's comment

bobbie-c's picture

With regards mhalpern's comment in the eplilogue with the title "more a reply to part 5," ( http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/comment/455139#comment-455139 ) -

I think MH Alpern's comment was correct, that depleted uranium would be better material for rail gun projectiles. It is a dense metal, after all - 68% denser than lead, for example.

I think the reason it's not used is probably because the material is not readily available in the 24th century, especially in the megaton quantities needed. Depleted uranium, after all, comes from the production of enriched uranium used in 21st-century-style fission reactors.

Though not explicitly stated in the story, we can assume that, in the 24th century, fission reactors, especially in the style used in the early 21st century were not used anymore, because of their inherent danger and their high amounts of nuclear waste as their main byproduct. And coupled with the "distaste" that Earthers had for nuclear fallout, nuclear waste and anything connected to the nuclear war that laid waste to the planet decades before, they would definitely not be in use. In fact, we can even assume that the only industry left that even dabbles in this is the one that produces nuclear/thermonuclear weapons - and the factories/fabrication plants for these would have a limited production capacity - the nuclear ordnance that Earth ships carry is quite miniscule. I think there was a significant part of the story that was dedicated to describing this distaste of theirs, and that their nuclear arms were very few and never used. Mia even made a point of that during her interview.

Anyway, the point is that depleted uranium isn't exactly just lying around to be readily used for rail gun ammunition, especially not in the megatonnage needed.

As to using chemical explosives to enhance the effectiveness of rail gun projectiles, I would assume that they would use this in what is called a "tandem-charge" or "dual-charge" configuration - one explosion first, followed by the second one a split second later. The kinetic energy released would be extremely devastating, but its effect would be further enhanced if, microseconds after impact, the chemical explosive releases its chemical energies, too. Timing between these explosions would require precision to maximize the two-step explosion, and this would be very difficult to manage since you're talking about infinitesimal amounts of time, but with the Earther's wizardry in their electronics, I'm sure they can manage this. They may just even leave the chemical detonation to the compression effects of impact, or the kinetic energy released. Yes, perhaps the explosive contribution may be so much less compared to the kinetic release of energy, it is not insignificant. In any case, it would not weaken the projectile it but rather it would enhance its effects.

Anyway, just a few thoughts - the story is, after all, a fictional account instead of factual. Though the account is grounded enough in real technology for the purposes of the story, the objective isn't to prove tech or to recount tech, I don't want to get caught in arguments about what tech is wrong and what tech is right. The tech is a major component of the story, true, but they are means to an end, not an end itself.

Thanks to MH Alpern's comments.

Keep 'em coming!

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The nerd in me forces me to comment on tech,

I don't take points off for unscience, otherwise I'd be a hypocrite for loving Star Wars (OT and 7, podracing, maul, 2/3 Obi-wan, and the second half of Revenge (would love it more if Vader killed Jar Jar but you cant have everything)
But what about the leftovers from the old reactors, or even unrefined uranium (that of course would have to be diluted with other metals to eliminate the already exceptionally low risk of kinetic impact induced fission and should have a bit of lead to shield the natural radiation) a tantem charge might work, like an HEAP round, but it would make the ammunition significantly bigger compared to the damage each round represents, the thing with rail guns and (if you were to find a electro-magnet core material that was both effective and can switch polarity quickly) coil guns/mass drivers (magnetic induction launchers) (which in theory would be much harder wearing than all but the most theoretical of rail gun technologies) is that provided the round doesn't go through and through it is possible to equal or even surpass the damage potential of nukes. One thing you could do is, if space and mass aren't a problem, engineer the rail slugs to behave like hallow-point ammunition or perhaps even mix alloy. The ideal slug would would be designed to transfer as much of the kinetic energy as possible, perhaps going as far as to make the impact side of the slug (or each layer of the slug) micro-abrasive to keep it from bouncing off. I imagine THAT would become the theme for advanced rail gun ammo, everything possible to keep the projectile from bouncing or penetrating.

Another interesting fact (that you kinda covered) is that the ultimate weapon is a propulsion system that doesn't need reaction mass, a relativistic impacter is far more effective than a planet destroying super-laser in theory you could litterally crack a planet with one, and if you missed, the Cherenkov Radiation would still be enough to fry all life on said planet should you skim the atmosphere. the fact that in theory a railgun fired projectile could reach 0.3C

Tech talk...

bobbie-c's picture

Well, I see you are very into the the technology. But contrary to any impressions the story gave, I would want concentrate on the story first before the tech - much of the tech in Shepherd came about as a way to progress the story, not as a focus, though I am also a technophile as all sci-fi fans are. The only reason the tech's so involved is so that technophiles (like me) have more "meat" to sink their teeth into and not call me to carpet for not thinking things through (I've learned my lesson heehee)

Also, I don't much like the term "unscience" as it's quite derogatory. I think most of my tech are plausible enough and well-thought out enough that they're reasonable and I deserve a better descriptor. :) For example, I prefer the term "speculative science," if that's okay :)

I suppose you can posit a situation where there would be enough depleted uranium lying around to make it possible to make its wide usage as rail gun projectiles plausible. But I am thinking that this is not the case, for all the reasons I mentioned in my previous comments here and in the other installments of the story. So. I will use my superpower now, as the author, and declare definitively and incontrovertibly that this was not the case. Hope you don't mind :)

And if you are REALLY splitting hairs and say that augmenting rail gun projectiles with explosives will make them too big, you know that will not stand, since, of course, this is speculative science - what's our basis for saying the the projectiles are too big?

As to increasing the yield by increasing their velocity - you are absolutely correct. I suppose all I can say is that Earth just hasn't done that yet. Though it is possible, it doesn't mean it was done. Perhaps now that the Earthers know that what they thought was obsolete old-fashioned rail gun tech is actually cutting edge and indispensable in the world of the Galactic Federation, they'll start making rail gun weaponry more a primary weapon, and start updating the tech ASAP.

As to bladed weapons and impact armor suits - you have to remember that only the Elyrans, Detterex and Tirosians have a living dueling tradition, where bladed weapons and impact armor are considered legitimate weapons. But even they only carry them around because of tradition, or for ceremonial use, or for dueling - they don't actually use them to fight.

For the rest of the Federation and Earth, short knives used as utility weapons are the only bladed weaponry that's standard - main sidearms for them are their guns, their rifles, etc etc.

The only reason blade weapons found legitimate use in the story was because of the EM suppression fields - a late-developed technology. As for Mia's "glowing sword," it wasn't really designed to be a primary weapon, but was just just a convenient prop as most of the swords etc. of the Earthers were. I suppose, because of Mia's extreme popularity, such swords will have a big novelty appeal, so people will want their own.

But now that everyone is aware of the EM suppression technology, the idea of blade weapons becoming main weaponry might come true, although I would think that the military would just update their sidearms the way the Earthers did - perhaps they'd have projectile weapons (i.e. guns using bullets), or maybe high-tech versions of crossbows, or whatever. I seriously doubt if swords, etc. would become a main weapon again. Just as the longbow made swords and armor obsolete in the 1300s, distance weapons will always be much more preferred.

As to your idea about commercial FTL ships, yes, of course, that will come for Earth as it has for the Federation and the empires. But at the moment, for the Earthers, the FTL tech hasn't trickled down yet to regular industry. I am sure, in the near future, when commercial needs start rearing its head, and the need for transportation comes, then it will. But that's not the concern of EarthForce. That would be the concern of the Richard Bransons, Tony Fernandes, the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Carnegies and Henry Fords of the time. And, yes, I'm sure that can be the topic/subject of future Shepherd stories.

The idea of creating a story universe for the Shepherd Moon that you are suggesting, just like the MAU, MORFS, Bikini Beach or Spells 'R Us stories, is very appealing, but I don't know how to go about setting that up here. Guess that is for the far future. I'll just make up more Shepherd stories for now.

Seems you're one of my "best customers," MH Alpern. Keep em comin.

BTW, it would be nice to have a better name to call you, although you're clearly using this alter to maintain anonymity (I suppose you don't want to connect your comments to your "real" profile). But maybe you can make a more personable name?

Anyway, like I said, keep 'em comin!

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You can call me

Mike. I don't remember talking about the commercial FTL actually I would bet that they would intentionally limit such ships, for a few reasons, 1 proscribed tech, 2 being overwhelmingly faster might hurt federation economy. The mobile space-port idea could more accurately be described as an FTL capable base/station- I refuse to call it a "Battle Station" unless its armed with a relativistic projectile launcher or energy weapon equivalent, and there is NO justification for such firepower unless its to blow up a rouge planet before it hits something important, like an inhabited planet, and that would only work if the rogue planet in question was a rocky planet rather than a gas giant, there are after all far easier ways to kill a planet, such as what they did to the Tiros empire) the main point would be to enable the transport of Type 2s, provide limited ability to repair the smaller warships on the go, and to help the slower ships in a joint mission reach a destination.

Back to commercialism, I would bet that Earthers would (outside of foodstuffs) just be supplying integrated circuits and related things, allowing pre-existing companies to make money off of the transportation, from places like Gilbraltar Base, and Earther cargo ships primarily going between Earth owned destinations, you DON'T want to tank an economy by joining it, Which brings me to my new suspected fate for a portion of the blocky Type 1s, seeing as there's too many to melt down in decomminsioning as they move to more suppression resistant designs (that may have striking resemblances to the Legacy-One ships), in time to essentially capitalize on the imagery of the Seeker/Sheppard Moon, I suspect many of them will end their lives as planetary outposts, supply depots and fuel stations, providing the infrastructure to support deep space exploration, and others will be re-purposed for "milk runs" keeping much of their armament but modified to provide added cargo capacity (to supply exploration and "humanitarian" missions) their type 2 counterparts have a longer life expectancy in my mind, both because they don't have the same image concerns at home and because they could act as excellent training and testing platforms for technologies that don't require the presence of an FTL.

Of course, there's always the question/debate "If you have a portable power source capable of making handheld/shoulder mounted, energy weapons feasible, why not just use that power source to propel a projectile?" which in theory should be MUCH more energy efficient for the damage dealt, the trick would (ideally) be to have just a tad more energy than you need to launch all your projectiles in a mag to be space efficient.

Speaking of space efficiency, to an extent, you might not need much "prefab" ammunition, provided you can manufacture it on site quickly, you might be able to get away with a buffer of ammo and more condensed stores of refined material. essentially printed ammunition.

Back to Rail Gun tech, I actually wouldn't be surprised if they looked into coil guns instead of just rail as primary weapons, as I said with the exception of the rail gun designs that use plasma to complete the circuit, instead of metal contacts- the plasma of course might be lost over time, can only be used so much before you have to replace the barrel, after all, friction is a bitch, coil guns however dont have that contact at all, the problem is the speed at which one can change the polarity if the coil rings, or something to that nature, which at the end of the day, is a material science problem, and something that if they haven't solved someone else in the Federation might have, heck if they could crack the monopole magnet problem that sort of weaponry is even easier, and by the nature of all coil gun concepts would spread the power requirement over several circuits which provides several unique advantages, 1 more precise control, 2 redundancy (if damaged it can still function though with lower velocity, 3 (this can be argued as a disadvantage) the power requirement has more to do with the coils used, rather than the velocity, this also makes them very hard to overload and in theory eliminates need for capacitor banks on almost any scale, 4 you dont have to use all the coils at once, you can let a set cool between rounds, 5 if need be the coils themselves can be used for EW, they could after all make for nice radio jammers if you wanted them to. Seeing how the EM Suppresion field does not cause the motors that actuate ship turrets, fly wheels, or anything else that uses electromagnets for mechanical motion to cease to function, coil guns should work as well, as they operate on the same principles just scaled up- or would that be suppressed?

more tech, huh? lol

bobbie-c's picture

Hello, Mike.

Re commercial spacecraft, my apologies. I guess when you started to talk about spaceport vessels in your other thread, I assumed you were talking about commercial ships. And apologies for mixing up your comment threads. If we’re going to continue with this discussion, I think it’s best to put your threads together into one so it’ll be easier for me to reply (as well as for others who’re reading and would want to join, perhaps).

Going back to commercial traffic, I don’t think Earth would limit these ships in any way. Earthers aren’t militaristic, so in future, commercial Earth traffic will eventually outnumber military Earth traffic - most space vehicles will be non-military. I suppose, because of the locales and the events covered in the story, I might have give the impression that space traffic is military in nature, but it’s not. If we have other stories in the Shepherd universe that’s not about the military, I’m sure that can be showcased.

As to your two reasons - (1) proscribed tech - why should it limit anything? All it means is that the proscription of tech also applies to Earth ships - All commercial Earth ships will not have the inertia converters and the EM suppression devices, and their smallships will not have any of the “gravity plate engines” but will have more conventional generators. After all, the rest of Earth Tech is not new to the aliens so there’s no need to hide that. Conventional Earth tech just happens to be more miniaturized and more sophisticated: the aliens already know about semiconductors, ICs and memory bubbles - they just don’t make them because it would be too expensive for them. As to Phase-Wave tech, perhaps all Earthers will be required to use regular comms when they’re off-ship and just rely on relayed comms to and from their ship and then relayed to the rest of Earth. That way, their Phase-Wave CCs won’t be pickpocketed while they walk the streets of Arachnia or Tiros. .(I’m sure these practices will also be applied to the military, too, to a certain extent, but that’s for future stories)

As to your (2) - about being overwhelmingly faster, why would that necessarily hurt the Federation’s economy? We Americans, for example, subscribe to the idea of survival of the fittest in commerce. Why can’t that be the same with the aliens? A prime example of this cut-throat commercialism is the Dravidians. I am sure the aliens, though stodgy fuddy-duddies, are plenty sharp, and will give the Earthers a run for their money. And with Dravidians around, the Earthers will have plenty of competition from the Federation’s business sharks. The aliens are, after all, the incumbents, and have the advantage of pre-existing business relationships with each other, right-of-way in commercial trade routes, established commercial outlets, in-country warehousing, distribution facilities, etc. etc. In fact, I would think that the sharper business-minded aliens might even hire the Earthers to do cargo transportation for them. Earth can become the cargo and transportation moguls of the Federation - the Delta Airlines, United, Maersk, and UPS of the galactic arm.

Furthermore, with Phase-Wave, the Earth can be the AT&T and Verizon of the Federation, or maybe, since the Earth won’t be selling Phase-Wave cell phones to the aliens anytime soon, they would be more like Western Union, providing the equivalent of telegrams, as Gibraltar Base is already doing for Colossus.

And this technology of theirs can be made to apply to so many things - space traffic control, planetary weather and space weather bureaus, news and entertainment providers, galaxy-wide internet, and so forth.

The point is, I think for commerce, we have to think wider instead of limiting our ideas to just the exchange of hard goods.

I wanted to ask, btw, what did you mean with tanking an economy by joining them? I didn’t understand.

As to a mobile base station, I think that will not happen - a sufficiently capable interstellar ship and crew will primarily be fully independent, able to fix itself when necessary, and if they can’t then that would usually amount to some kind of catastrophic failure that will necessitate rescue instead of just repair. These are just my thoughts about that, of course.

As to your definition of “battle station” - I have to disagree. Yes, I am a fan of Star Wars, but such an uncompromising stand on what is just nomencalture after all… :) Seems to me, any vehicle who’s main job is to travel to a specific location, stay there and project military might qualifies to be called a battle station, even if it’s not designed to be a planet killer.

Again, why build a ship to carry another ship? Why not build the ship right in the first place? As I mentioned before - why is there a need to carry another ship for a joint mission? I mean, if you’re part of a joint mission, you have to be able to carry your own weight and not require everyone to bend over backwards just to be able to accommodate you? I would suppose, in deciding on the makeup of an expedition, such things should be considered. And if they really are needed in the expedition, then they should ride with the others, right? After all, with the yochus, and the fact that they are living together on Colossus, there’s really no question about them being able to live in the same space.

Also, Type 2s are meant to work in-system. Think of them as patrol boats patrolling the solar system. That’s their entire purpose. They were never meant to travel to other systems. Remember the distinction between DSC and DSR? The creation of Type 1s versus Type 2s isn’t much more difficult or more expensive. Remember how easy it was to upgrade the Hermes and Constellation from Type 2 DSRs to Type 1 DSCs? If they need more interstellar ships, then why not make them? In any future stories, I would nix the idea of actually trucking Type 2s all the way across to Elyra or Detterex just so they can do whatever. And if a ship breaks down wherever, they will have to be fixed by their own crews or a rescue ship will be sent to rescue the crew, or just get them to run just enough to get them to the nearest port for repairs. Otherwise, they’re going to be junked. Recovery of the ship or the material they have will be too insignificant compared to the cost of having to salvage them. They’ll probably be left there after they’re gutted of whatever secret stuff might still be onboard or are worth it to salvage and the rest will be deliberately disabled.

As to the fate of the blocky ships, I’m sure they have 50, 80, even 100 more years of life left to them. So maybe it’s a little premature to talk about their demise yet. But your ideas sound good. For my taste, I think they’d make a final cruise back to home port for a decommissioning ceremony. Given how fast the tech is progressing, by that time, the ships might not be useful except for their hulls. And given the amount of material that Earth has onhand, this would be a minor thing, at best. Perhaps what can happen is that the aliens might want to buy them, much as you might buy junkers from a car boneyard. However, I can’t imagine EarthForce will allow that. Perhaps this can be how it will be for decommissioned commercial ships. No, for my taste, the military ships will go back to Earth System for a decommissioning instead of being repurposed. But this is all conjecture for now.

What may be more relevant to think about is that the Shepherd is now more than 80 years old. Maybe she might be mothballed soon.

But if your imagination has been captured by the idea of better-looking ships, maybe after the contracted 100 first generation ships have been completed, they can start with the second-generation FTLs, which, I’m sure, the PRC will design to have more aesthetic touches, or maybe Marta Running-Stream can actually update the design of the ships still to be manufactured. It all depends on the contracts that EarthForce signed and if this will be allowed, and if Admiral Silverman will even consider it.

As to portable power sources - why not? That’s all I can say.

Now, again about rail guns - as to prefab ammo - if we again go back to rail guns, manufacturing ammo in situ is feasible. Why not? But I’m sure they won’t be made out of depleted uranium. Rather they’d probably just grab whatever debris they find out in space where they are and extract whatever metals are usable.

As to your question of the EM suppression fields affecting electromagnets - I don’t know. Probably not, otherwise a lot of their tech wouldn’t have worked.

BTW, it’s Shepherd Moon - it was named after the scientific concept of “Shepherd Moons.” Sheppard was an astronaut.

Anyway, thanks for the speculations, Mike. Appreciate it.

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By tanking an economy I mean

By tanking an economy I mean being so signficantly better and being able to provide a product so cheaply that the competitors cant get any income, for instance, high quality electronics trade if they were to price it comparatively to the sol system prices, everyone would replace their vacuum tubes with ICs.

The in situ ammo wasn't involving depleted urainium, the idea was basically have crates of metal powder, and use that as a 3d printing medium (hey, SpaceX makes their rocket engines that way) theoretically being more space efficient, assuming it can keep up, this way as ammo structurally changes with new developments, (and you can do a LOT by structurally altering your ammo) its just a software update to acquire it, and if you need to use speciallised rounds, you aren't wasting space with ammo you might not use.

The mobile spaceport idea was basically a stripped down version of the UNSC Infinity from Halo, a warship capable of servicing and transporting 10 frigates (with enormous additional space for other facilities, the frigates only take up about a 5th of her belly) while in slipspace. while the frigates are FTL capable, the infinity protects them at the start of an engagement, though their presence may be more to justify such a large vessel, I was thinking more on the lines of a ship capable of transporting 4 smaller vessels, and little else. Advantage would be if you only have a few earther ships, the ship carrier, and a few non-earther ships to work with, and a limmited window to engage, you can take the other ships on the ship carrier, and come with more force, or you can act as drydock if you are far from any suitable planet

spelling error when tired

Hello again...

bobbie-c's picture

Hey, Mike. This is becoming a habit, huh? lol

As to your point about tanking an economy, I finally understand, now.

With regards that, I think there are a couple of items that you are not considering -

First is that Mia has arranged things that any “income” coming from their interactions with the Federation will be plowed back into the Federation economy (see the epilogue), and this is workable because the Earthers are the most affluent of the races now, and they don’t really need the trade.

Second is that there are no prices really as the Secretary-General has restricted trade to barter-and-trade, insulating them from the vagaries of exchange rates, currency protection practices, strategic buy-outs or market positioning, and to a certain extent, supply-and-demand.

As to your idea of printing the ammo in situ, I have had to reconsider the idea. Think about this:

I think that isn’t how the military works… They can’t pause just so they can “print out” their ammo. Ammo has to be ready when needed. Also, I think you will lose a lot of the kinetic effect of the rail gun ammunition whatever printing technology you use, regardless of the method (whether its the lamination, granular binding or extrusion deposition method) - any of these techniques would produce objects which have less structural solidity than a solid piece of metal. The cross-sectional crystalline structure of printed ammo will be so fragmented that they can reduce the kinetic transfer/release of energy in ranges of from 20% to as high as 80%. It would be analogous to throwing compacted snowballs versus throwing ice cubes. Which would have a more painful impact?

But in any case - have you heard of square watermelons? They’re watermelons grown in boxes so that, as they reach maturity, they take the shape of the box. And this is done so that they maximise the shipping space for the watermelons. I guess what I’m saying is that, if you use slugs shaped as either cubes or cuboids, then you utilise your storage space 100%, with no wastage. (FYI, as to what cuboids are - a cuboid is to a rectangle as a cube is to a square).

As to using the debris around the ship, that’s only when they run out of the ammo they brought, or have a situation like what they had in Tiros and asteroid C-57D.

As to the idea of the “mobile spaceport,” yes I am familiar with Halo. But I don’t see the utility of it versus the cost. Why make a gigantic carrier which would cost a lot instead of just using a lot of speedy ships. Again, I don’t really see the need for it. I will again bring up my points:

(1) when you’re making up a joint mission, you only include those resources you need. If you need ships, and need them there right away, or need them to be fast, then you bring Arachnian and Earth ships, and you load them up with the people you need. If speedy ships aren’t required or you had enough lead time, then you can deploy any kind of ship, even the speedy-as-a-turtle Dravidian ships.

(2) As to a mobile dry dock, I think a mobile dry dock is superfluous - any interstellar ship must, by necessity, be fully independent, with it’s crew able to fix it when necessary. and If it’s crew cannot fix it, then all that means is that it’s a catastrophic failure that will necessitate rescue instead of repair.

I’m sorry for disagreeing. To me, the idea of a mobile space dock/dry dock is not enough to justify the effort, resources and cost of making what is essentially a white elephant, with purposes that are redundant to what is already available at a fraction of the cost.

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Niven/Pournelle

In one of their books, possibly the Mote series, they make a convincing argument for handheld bladed weapons, at least for ship boarding purposes. The idea is that projectile or beam weapons could strike something essential on the ship you're boarding and wreck the ship or cause an explosion that could destroy both ships was all too likely. This brought about a resurgence in swords, hand knives, and boarding axes derived from those the Vikings used. Bladed weapons are more suited for melee-type fighting, the kind of fighting that occur in hallways and corridors. Of course they wouldn't be the weapons of choice for all engagements, but the Marines would look even more intimidating with a boarding axe and a short sword on their belts, along with their normal weapons.


"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin

Kinetic impactors

In an atmosphere, density is important. In a vacuum, not so much.

More important are hardness, pointiness, and cross sectional area.

atomics

Sadarsa's picture

Speaking of "Earther" distaste for the use of nuclear weaponry.... what was with Mia's attitude when they were fighting in that one battle. Not once but twice she sugested the use of atomics and i found that to be way outside her character. *shrug* sorry but i mentally hit the backbutton and deleted that, pretending that conversation never took place.

~Your only Limitation is your Imagination~

Sorry you feel that way.

bobbie-c's picture

I'm sorry that you feel that Mia wasn't acting in character.

Consider that Mia is not a typical Earther. She thinks outside of the box and thinks of things no one else would even consider, which is at the heart of her inventiveness and brilliance. Perhaps that allows her to consider something that would be distasteful to another person, if she feels it's needed.

Also, isn't it IRL sometimes someone you know surprises you and does something she normally wouldn't do?

Give the character a break and be willing to consider her doing things outside of her own psychic box.

After all, if people only ever do what others expect them to do, then the world would hardly change, whether for the better or the worse. Your only limitation is your imagination, right? lol joke!

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It's nice to see...

That the Queen shows she knows when best to cut her losses to save her people. Great chapter, thanks

mmmmm....

GREAT!! GREAT!! Great!! Grrrr8!!
So sad the death of the prince!
Thanks
a

alissa

Nice

Apparently earthlings are very scary. They need to fix the Tiro people that kind of attitude is unhealthy. The wedding will be awesome.

hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna

On Character Death

     I seriously feel obliged to voice my personal objection to the bad taste left in my mouth by Ren's death here; his murder felt…ill-conceived at best and in bad faith at worst. It also nearly broke my willful suspension of disbelief and interfered somewhat in my enjoyment of this story. The morbid humor involved in 'Die for Our Ship' is only funny when the culprit fails in their attempt at dispatching their intended victim. Couldn't a less important member of the Elyran embassy have stumbled into that trap?

Always with a song in their heart.


Lyrical magical, confound it all; I've gone and gotten myself stuck lost somewhere deep in the Infinity Library again…

Sorry to have lost a reader

bobbie-c's picture

Hello.

As you felt obliged to voice out your objections, likewise did I feel obliged to respond to your pronouncements on my story, for, though you couched your sentiments in high-minded-sounding phrases, it could not obfuscate the very distressing nature of your pronouncements.

Let us tackle them one by one:

I am sorry that you are personally offended by a detail in my story, namely the death of the character of Prince Ren Tevann-Reshanii. It is your privilege as a reader to pronounce that this particular detail was ill-conceived. That is your right. You have the nuclear option, always, of course, of not reading the story further.

I do take exception to your stating that it is "bad faith."

Bad faith is doing something "in a dishonest way with the intention of tricking someone" (you can look this up in the Cambridge English Dictionary if you so choose), or (in existentialist philosophy) refusal to confront facts or choices. This phrase speaks of someone doing something to lead someone on but not really intending to follow through, and thereby deceiving someone.

I think your choice of words was, perhaps, ill-conceived, since, it is a non sequitur in this case. How can one even assume that I was tricking you, or that I was denying something? How can that be? This is a story, after all. The readers' preconceived notions do not play a factor in the construction of any story, so how can your preferences have even had any connection with the development of my narrative. How can it therefore be bad faith?

This detail that you so vociferously objected to was a story element that I needed in order to progress my storyline: through Ren's death, I was able to dramatize the effect to an Elyran of losing her spouse, especially if her spouse was also her bridge, thereby exposing some of the motivational drives of Elyrans. Furthermore, plot-wise, Ren's character had no place in subsequent parts of my story anymore - there are no more parts for him to play in my narrative.

Also, how can this have any connection to your suspension of disbelief? Was it so inconceivable that a central character would die? Why does that even need any suspension of disbelief, or affect it? It is but a fact of life that people can, and will die. What has suspending disbelief have to do with it?

I am glad of the emotional investment you have with Ren, but his death cannot be construed in my insulting you or breaking faith with you: you may not like the turn of events in a story but you have no right to say that I broke faith with you.

As for your declaration of saying it is morbid humor, I do not believe it is so. It is actually a common plot element in classic literature. For example, most of Shakespeare's work features this in some form or another, the most direct of these is Romeo and Juliet. It is tragically romantic but not morbidly humorous. I believe it is, rather, your own personal distaste of it that colors your statement. The building blocks for this state of affairs between Elyran bridges has been painstakingly laid out since Part 2 of the story, and the consequences of an Elyran losing a bridge-spouse was explained early on. So how can you say I did this in bad faith?

As to your question, couldn't a less important member of the Elyran embassy have stumbled into that trap? Sure could. But then again, pigs can have wings, hell can freeze over, the Chicago Cubs can win the World Series, and frogs can grow hair. in other words, I'm saying anything could be possible in fiction, and this is the particular path I chose. And that has nothing to do with breaking any covenants with anyone.

I'm sorry that this does not suit your palate, and unfortunately, there's no literary Listerine for you to use. But one cannot please everyone so all I can say is that I am not apologizing for my choice. Though I'm sad to have lost a reader.

shrug-2.jpg

 

Shooting themselves in both feet

Jamie Lee's picture

Seeing is not believing for the Empire, getting their butts kicked at each turn of their attacks. Their arrogance at being undefeatable, and not believing the "upstart" Earthers would be hard to defeat, lead to how this chapter ended.

The Detterex Queen saw the writing on the wall, or the writing Mia and others wanted her to see, and decided saving her people was more important than dominating the Federation.

But the question is, was she speaking truthfully? Or was she planning a trap to take out the leadership of the Federation and Colossus? Might these very thought be running through Federation minds as well? And might there be plans in place to ensure that doesn't happen?

The Dravidians sure like to shoot themselves in the foot often. Cor thought he was someone to be reckoned with, until meeting Mia. And until Colossus had to be move, only to discover the Dravidians had stolen the needed fuel. Then tried to make excuses why it was taken. Cor needed to be kicked out, as did the Chamberlin.

Maybe it's time to review Dravidian commitment to the Federation, instead of their own selfish interests? Unless it's escaped their notice, no one trusts them enough any more to let them do anything for anyone.

By the way, what started all the fighting? Was it the Trios Empior thinking he could conquer everyone? Or the Detterex Queen? Or because of other reasons?

Others have feelings too.