The Council of Hhearn Trilogy Box Set

by P F Walsh

  “Councilor, there is an additional matter that was brought to our attention by them.” He opened up a large envelope and withdrew a stack of papers.

  “Councilor, these are copies of the Titles of ownership for all the ships Hhearn claims were stolen from the junk yard for disposable ships. They are actually owned by Heenka-Tol, an honor breaker that was forced to flee because he lost his business, his family, his home, and his ability to earn a way to pay for food. The ships were taken without legal process and have now been returned to him, albeit clandestinely.” Sean said as the Councilor looked over the papers, once again getting an affirmative nod from Maja-Ben. Sean went on,

  “I am given to wonder if there were persons who have been profiting from such asset abandonments, and whether shunning has been used to foster that unethical and perhaps criminal activity. Competitors, personal revenges? It is, I understand, largely unsupervised.” Sean said.

  The Councilor immediately thought of. Tamn-Kar, the senior Councilor who preceded him and was murdered. It was discovered that he had his hands in multiple criminal and unethical dealings for profit.

  “I’m sure I’m going to find his hand in some of this.” The Councilor thought with distaste. Seam went on,

  “There is much more, Councilor. Mutus Colonium grows a food that is called darkplant. This provides most of the vitamin content to sustain life, but not all, and the population suffers from lack of a balanced food supply. All are extremely thin and unable to sustain a healthy weight. Even Murderers in your prisons are fed better. Our ship’s Doctor studied the darkplant from a large sample they gave us, and gave them some compensating vitamins, all he had with him.” By now, the Councilor’s brow was wrinkled from a frown as he listened.

  “After meeting with them, looking at the pirating vid, and sharing some of our food, we began our hunt for the pirates. Ultimately, we located a hidden base in an asteroid cluster with one large asteroid. One of our crewmen had been a miner and thought there was an abandoned mine in the large asteroid. That is where we found the pirates, the stolen Lotma Corvette, and the stolen freighter. The cargo from all the freighters was in the asteroid mine. Two crewmen from our escort, the Lotma destroyer Domak, lost their lives in the assault which killed all but two of the Pirates. Those two Pirates, including the leader, were taken prisoner and were taken back to Lotma on the Domak for prosecution. The charges are piracy and mutiny of a Lotma war ship.” Sean paused to drink some water.

  The Councilor was shaking his head wondering how all this could have been happening. Sean continued,

  “Sir, once we took the base, we were able to investigate the navigation records of the Corvette and learned where the freighters may have been taken. We set our course for there and made contact with a planet called B’eekan. We were allowed to approach their orbiting station but soon discovered that the planet was under self-quarantine from a virulent plague they were unable to overcome. People were dying by the hundreds. Our ship’s Doctor agreed to study their killer virus to see if he could help. His specialty is infectious diseases. By accident, he learned that darkplant kills the virus and with the study sample the Doctor had acquired from Mutus Colonium, he was able to make an effective anti-viral. So, Mutus Colonium has the only known source for the anti-viral resource.” Sean paused, and then said,

  “As for the other three freighters, B’eekan has them, and bought them in good faith to use as an orbital cemetery. The virus regrew in soil burials but does not in vacuum. Those freighters are now populated with dead virus victims. We thought it was best to suggest to write those three off as contaminated beyond recovery.” The Councilor grimaced, imaging rows of contaminated deceased in the freighter’s holds.

  “Councilor, you probably know that Beztl-Tor, a fugitive from Hhearn for his involvement in financing the attacks on the Seekers, was located where he had fled, on Earth. He died there from the very same virus. Earth’s doctor’s and mine were unable to save him. His clothes and remains were incinerated. We have no information on how he contracted the virus, but he was a criminal, and such a virus would be a tool.” Sean said.

  “It is possible he had more, or someone has more on Hhearn. Mutus Colonium has the only source to treat this plague. I do suggest it is time to reach out to those punished citizens, establish some diplomatic contacts, and begin reconsideration of the scope of the shunning. A good trading relationship would be a wise decision. In my cargo hold I have several ingots of precious metals they have mined that were entrusted to me by Mutus Colonium to pay for a shipment of food and vitamins. My ship’s Doctor has a list. Will you trade? Will you help?”

  Sean sat back and was finished. The Councilor looked overwhelmed and sat there for a whole minute. Then, after a deep sigh, he said,

  “My dear Sean, you bring unexpected, but welcome solutions. At the same time, problems we need to urgently address. It appears we have lots of work to do to clean up the mess that was left behind by Tamn-Kar and his criminal associates. I can’t imagine what we have yet to uncover. He has brought shame and embarrassment to our Council. I will convene a meeting of all the Councilors at once. Thank you for an incredible job. We also owe thanks to the Twin Worlds for their help in this, don’t we?” He said as Sean nodded.

  The Councilor looked out his window at the two new buildings under construction by the Twin worlds and thought,

  “We now know of grave errors to correct, but we are building, and have many new friends we did not have an annual ago. The Deity does his work, and I am resolved to do mine. I wonder how we can get the shunning dye off their palms? Looks like, at least the ones on that colony, have suffered way too much.”

  The Councilor rose, came around his desk and clasped hands with Sean in Earth style.

  “I will instruct my people to assess the ingots and convert those into a ship full of food goods and vitamins from your list right away. We will dispatch a medical ship to bring it all to them.”

  He thanked them profusely for shining bright light into places where it had been dark for decades. Then, despite the time of day, the Councilor went to his mini bar poured everyone a glass of American Honey Bourbon to rinse away the recapping of ugly events.

  Sean began a few weeks of rest with Duchess Nasht-Mer at her family estate alongside the lake in the Hhearn City suburbs. While he was still uncomfortable in being addressed as ‘Your Grace,’ now that he was Duke Consort to the Duchess, he drank up the serenity and comforts of this old mansion. They spent every minute together, and while relaxing on a huge couch, Sean shared the whole story of his latest trip while she snuggled under his arm and drank Zang Tea, marveling at this Mate of hers who came out of the deep dark to light up her life.

  Over in another part of Hhearn City, Mother Primitia was in her alcove in the old Mill, sipping slowly on the energy flow from the Energy Nourishment Column recovered from their recently excavated starship. She was also feeling a constant low flow of anxiety that her home was threatened. It wouldn’t go away. She mentally inspected the old Mill thoroughly, then mentally queried the repaired starship that responded ‘all systems normal’, and could find no reason for her fears.

  “This is my home now, and it is safe and without threat.” She thought.

  “Now!!, This is my home now! What of my home and friends we left behind? How have they fared rushing off into the darkness? Do they need help? Should we go to find them?” She dwelled on this for three solars and then thought,

  “If we go, we will need help, and someone we can trust.

  The Council of Hhearn Book 3

  Necklace of JihnBaar

  “People do not decide to become extraordinary.

  They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.”

  Edmund Hillary

  Chapter One - Book Three

  Twenty-seven light years away from Earth, on the Planet Hhearn, where the Council of Worlds maintains their main offices, the sun had long since set behind the hills. In the industrial area of Hhearn City, the high war
ehouses and manufacturing factories were already in deep shadows on the unlit streets that divided them, helping to conceal any movement. These buildings were only in use during the daylight hours and workers had all gone home hours ago, leaving behind locked up storehouses full of inanimate goods, crates, high three-level shelving, and idled machines in the factories. The area employee parking lot was empty. Only exit signs and outside doorway night lights glowed, except for one shabby warehouse where there were no lights at all. No vehicles were in sight, nor figures walking about anywhere near the area.

  Overhead, several, widely spaced, Zelkon Hawks from the old Mill tower circled overhead just above the roof lines looking for the meanderings of small nighttime denizens and rodents circling the trash cans, hoping for bits of discarded worker’s lunch leavings. The Hawks only flew at night, their eyesight being more centered in the infra-red region of the light bands. They could easily find the scavengers and silently swoop down to rid the neighborhood of yet another unwanted resident. Once caught by the hawk’s constrictor tail and carried away to a nearby rooftop, the prey was already strangled before being consumed. The only sound that happened was when another Hawk challenged the successful hawk for its catch. That screeching was usually the only clue another tiny creature had met its demise and was being fought over. Tonight, no challenges were being made. All was quiet.

  Several blocks away, a large all-night convenience store was experiencing a surge in activity as quiet landcars swung into the circular driveway, dropped of a few figures in dark clothes, and drove away making room for the next car. In the store’s parking lot, only one landcar was parked. Inside the store, figures moved into the aisles and disappeared. The display shelves were arranged parallel to the front window wall so anyone outside could not see beyond the first row. The back wall was lined with tall refrigerator and freezer food cabinets. Two figures approached the middle freezer cabinet, opened the door, pushed on the shelves which swung away, and then stepped into the cabinet and out a rear cabinet door.

  The area behind the freezers was a small service area which had a stack of boxes at one end, now slid away to disclose a narrow stairway going down to a tunnel below. The industrial area had utilities distributed by underground service tunnels which networked throughout the area. Dimly lit, the tunnel now had a flow of single file figures, all clad in black, carrying light lamps, and masked. They walked silently for five blocks until they came to the right access ladder. They climbed up into the dark, shabby warehouse, and came up in an inner, windowless room where they began to assemble. No one used names here. All were given random numbers as their permanent ID’s.

  “Why the Hell can’t someone turn on the lights?” Snapped one impatient attendee known as ‘357'.

  “Shut up stupid, if we turn on the lights, the power meter will move from the last time and show that someone has been here.” Came an anonymous answer. Muttering ensued, but no one carried that request further. A large figure with a red mask stepped up to the front and announced,

  “We will begin the pledge now.” He began calling out numbers in random order. As each person had his number called, they were to come up to the front, before all the attendees, and place their right hand flat on a bloodstained, anvil-like, steel pedestal. A wrist clamp snapped down to hold the hand in place. The large, red masked figure held a small sledge hammer and asked,

  “Have you kept your pledge to the group?”

  If the answer was affirmative, and no one objected, the hand was released, and the next number called. If the leadership had discovered a broken pledge however small, the hammer descended lighting fast to destroy the hand. After which, the reason was disclosed, and the group decided on further action including termination and disposal in the vats. Tonight, there were no broken pledges and the last one was released to slink back into the group.

  From a dark corner, another, figure completely hooded, masked, slight in build, and moving slowly, came to the front. The group fell into silence.

  “It seems we have no more applicants to join our group.” The figure said. The whole room broke into laughter.

  Every illicit power group has applicants who want in to get a piece of the action, wealth, power, and satisfaction of dark desires. This group had theirs. Earlier, a few dozen of these applicants, not having any detailed knowledge of the group’s activities or members, had been called to a meeting to be considered for joining. That meeting was in one of Beztl-Tor’s warehouses. The meeting was cleverly leaked to the authorities who rushed in and arrested all of them believing that they had broken up the main membership of a crime syndicate in Hhearn City. All arrested were small time crooks, thugs, fugitives, and as far as the actual crime group was concerned, entirely disposable. Despite that, all arrested knew what the consequences were for disclosing anything about the syndicate. The authorities had arrested none of the actual crime syndicate and had no further leads.

  The leader spoke again, a single word,

  “Report!”

  The figure with the red mask called member numbers for each one to report his area of activity, its profits, and any needs for investment or expansion. All were within expectations except one, number 657 who ran illegal asteroid mining sites. He complained he was not getting enough ‘honor breakers’ to keep up the output he needed before the actual mine’s owner discovered his inactive mine was not so inactive. Like all enterprises, mining yields were based on cost. When the mined minerals fell below a certain market price, mining in a low-yield mine was not profitable due to the cost of labor. But, enslaved ‘honor breakers’ didn’t cost anything except food scraps. Nobody missed them, and nobody was looking for them.

  “I need more HB’s; the last batch was older and they don’t last long.” He complained. “What’s more, the food I’m being sent accelerates their dying, it doesn’t have enough nutrition.” The Leader was silent for a minute and said,

  “We will send you some more workers.” And then directing his icy gaze toward another attendee, he said,

  “788, you know what you’re supposed to be sending of your hijacked food goods, I don’t want to hear this complaint again! Send the proper food. Don’t get greedy, we have solutions for those who do.”

  The words hung in the air as 788 swallowed at being singled out, and nodded his head in compliance. After all business was concluded, the group slipped back into the tunnels and left the way they had come. All except the Leader, who stayed behind until all the others were gone. This shrouded figure left through a concealed door in the warehouse, crossed into another one, and exited on a dark street. The figure looked both ways, and then entered an idling limousine that waited, it quietly drove way. A single hawk circling above had noted the large bio heat mass moving toward the hot machine as too large for its constrictor tail and flew on.

  The next morning’s sun streamed brightly into the glass balcony doors of the master bedroom of the spacious Mer Estate. Nasht-Mer, Duchess of Mer, and the Council’s Director General of Interplanetary Affairs, had awakened just moments before. She raised up on her elbow to look at her life Mate, the Duke Consort Sean Flynn-Mer as he slept beside her. They were in her family estate alongside a lake in suburban Hhearn City. She leaned on her elbow looking at him and marveled over all the events that had transpired in the last year, beginning with his unwanted selection by the explorer ship’s Artificial Intelligence, to be the single representative of the newly discovered planet Earth. That event was the first time in twenty-seven annuals that another populated planet had been found, and the first in her term as Director General.

  She reviewed how different this application to become a member of the Council of Worlds turned out, than those that preceded it. Sean burst upon their Hhearnian scene with a brushed-aside death attack as he was about to step onto the planet for the first time. Arriving unexpectedly as temporary Captain of one of Hhearn’s most powerful starships following an attack the onboard AI could not deflect. All of this happened in front of a huge crowd in the C
ity Platza, and telecast on the world’s vid net. From there, his unique and captivating presentation of Earth’s wares and offerings swept any opposition aside, and Earth gained its membership by acclamation. Those were the initial events that spread his name and Earth’s across all fifty worlds of the Council membership.

  As she looked at him sleeping, she reflected on these past events. His leadership during chaos, the settlement of an unknown planetary war, the hunt for pirates, the discovery of other worlds, the willingness to help. Even the mysterious and ethereal Sisters of Mak’am held him in close trust, and no one on Hhearn could have ever said that before in Hhearnian history. She smiled and shook her head, it was all so unbelievable but all true, including her totally unexpected flush of Sashpet that drove her into his arms. But then, as he stirred, about to awaken, she knew he would soon be setting forth in his starship Discovery to answer another call of others to find lost people and lost worlds in the deep dark of space.

  “Only this time, it will be different. I will see to that.” She thought.

  He opened his eyes and saw her watching him, he started to smile but morphed into a yawn.

  “That’s not very romantic!” She said.

  “You haven’t even tried to learn where my lusts lie this morning.” She chided. Sean replied,

  “And where, my lovely lady, do they lie?” He asked now becoming more awake. She slid her hand down her front seductively, with a mischievous look in her eyes, as her hand stopped on her stomach and she blurted,