The Council of Hhearn Trilogy Box Set

by P F Walsh

  But now, they were about to enter Welly’s domain. He was running all the preparations over and over in his mind, trying to anticipate what might occur, and what would he need to deal with it. It was at that point when he called for the ship’s AI named Allister as they entered the engine room. Allister’s hologram appeared immediately.

  “Allister, do you think you can arrange to borrow a couple of those Seeker EVA sleds Doris and I used before? That might come in handy” He asked.

  “Yes, Captain, I will contact Martin and arrange it.” Allister replied as Mel and Artie looked on, shaking their heads on how easy it was to contact an AI and get things done. Allister’s hologram disappeared. Sean turned to Welly,

  “Welly, is the ship ready for another long cruise?” Sean asked as he came into the area where Welly was working.

  “That she is Captain, that she is. She’s all checked and proofed, ready to go except for crew stores. How long do you imagine this trip?”

  Welly, I have no idea. We will be hunting for the people forced to leave their home planet as their star went unstable. There is no telling how far they had to go before finding a suitable planet. Let’s plan six lunars round trip. That should give us time to either find something or assess better where we need to go. There will be lots of short jumps, we may be able to pick up some ice along the way for water and hydrogen but I’m sure you’ll make certain the tanks are topped off before we leave. By the way, the Hhearn Council has offered to supply our stores for this, so take advantage of it.” Sean said.

  “Aye, that I’ll do. Nice of them to do that Captain. Six lunars will take us on a really long reach. Never been out that deep before. Should be interesting.”

  “I agree. Hal, our navigator, is really ready to bite into systems he has not been to yet. I think he is a nascent explorer who has found his wings. I expect this trip will make him a happy man.” Sean said.

  “Don’t leave me out Captain, there’s nothing I like better than to watch this engine stretch her running legs, never seen one run smoother.” Welly responded.

  “The last thing I wanted to do was to confirm that our weapons’ systems are in perfect order. If you need to test, let me know and we can go out a few jumps to blow up a few asteroids.”

  “Expecting trouble, are we? Not to worry Captain, you call for a fire ball, you’ll have it on command.” Replied Welly and continued,

  “In fact, I’ve been studying the Engineer’s manual and it’s possible to double our shield’s strength by diverting one engine solely to the shields. It will cut our speed in half, but not much is going to get through that sir.” He said proudly.

  “Great, good to know. Thank you.” Sean said as he turned to leave the engine room with Artie and Mel and head for the dining cabin. One more item off of his check list as Captain. Mel turned to Artie and said,

  “Artie, we’re in a science fiction movie.”

  Doris was in the dining cabin and had just finished cleaning one of her guns and was now watching a local vid and relaxing with a cup of coffee. She looked up as Sean came into the room.

  “You’ve got that ‘look’ again Captain, how soon before we leave?” She asked.

  “Dammit Doris, don’t I get to announce anything before you figure it out?” He asked smiling.

  “Sorry Boss, it’s just my police training and experience. Can’t help it. Helps to anticipate stuff.” She replied, grinning.

  “Well, you’re right, I think we will leave this week as soon as we get crew stores aboard. Welly has that in hand. If you want to spend some time with Maja, do it now. We could be gone as long as six lunars.” He said as Doris nodded.

  “Now, I better get down to the City and tell Nasht-Mer, that’s never easy.” He muttered.

  “I think you’re a little late for that Sean.” She said with a smile.

  “What’d you mean by that?” Sean asked.

  Doris gathered up her gun cleaning kit to leave and said, “Check your quarters Captain.” As she left the room smiling.

  Sean headed to his Captain’s cabin and as he approached, he could hear the strains of a Beethoven symphony playing in his cabin. Upon entering, found Nasht-Mer unpacking a large trunk and putting things in a drawer.

  “What’s going on?” He asked. And, with the most relaxed reply she said,

  “I’m going with you of course, you didn’t think you were going to get away for a long time without me, did you really?” She posed, and said,

  “Why did you think the Council was providing all the crew stores for this trip?” She smiled. “They don’t want their Director General of Interplanetary Affairs to be traveling without proper supplies. And, Allister agrees.” She threw in that bit of support. Sean came over to her and said,

  “My dear, I am thrilled to have you come along, but this is not without some danger, either imposed or within, from engine troubles, loss of air, a million possibilities. I couldn’t bear to have anything happen to you.” He said pleadingly.

  “Well, Sean, the reverse is true as well. So, if it happens, we will be together and that will be the unexpected fulfillment of my life. There’s nothing to discuss. I’m going. Now, let me get all my stuff packed away and make some room for my things in your stateroom ‘head.’ By the way, I love the Beethoven collection Allister has in his database. I had no idea he wrote so many splendid works.”

  Quite finished with her proclamations, she returned to packing the drawer. Sean, with a sigh, knowing when the battle is lost, went to the head to make room for her Highness’s bath items, also thinking he could move his closet items to an empty cabin to make room for her clothes.

  “Why is the captain always the last to know?” He wondered, and not for the first time. Sean went back to the dining cabin where Artie and Mel were enjoying a cup of Zeng tea, both coffee drinkers, they were surprised at how they enjoyed the tea. Artie spoke,

  “Sean, Mel and I have talked this over quite thoroughly and we would like to go with you. I’m an Engineer with two degrees, one in mechanical engineering, the other in computer science, and Mel is retired military. We don’t have anything to keep us from going, both bachelors and no pets. Wadda you say?”

  Millie Griggs was at the British Embassy again for lunch with the Ambassador to the United States, Reginald Dawson. It was an unexpected invitation following her previous attendance at a Reception for the new Prime Minister. She was received gracefully and ushered into a small dining room where the Ambassador was chatting with a female diplomatic aid. As she entered the room, the Ambassador immediately stopped what he was saying and came to her to take her hand in greeting.

  “Ms. Griggs, how nice of you to come by. I regret we did not have a chance to meet at the reception. You were quite the center of interest. I am eager to have you share with me your adventures in space. I have had a childhood interest in going into space. And you are the only person I know of, that can actually tell me about it. I am so pleased you could spare some time to come by, I know you are busy. Thank you.” He said graciously while he led her to a table set for two, and pulled out a chair for her to sit.

  Millie put her purse on the floor and her cell on the table as a visible support of his acknowledgment of her being busy.

  Lunch was delicious, she did as he asked, and shared the highlights of all her experiences in space and on Hhearn. The Ambassador was transfixed listening to every word with eager expectation of the next. After an hour and a half of this, she excused herself to go to the Ladies room, thinking this was quite enough, and wished to seize the break as an opportune time to bring it to an end and leave. She returned from the rest room and said,

  “Mr. Ambassador, thank you for a lovely lunch, but I really must get back to my office now.” She said as she picked up her cell and her purse.

  “Of course, of course.” The Ambassador said as he walked her down to the front door.

  “I sincerely hope that we will have a chance to meet again Ms. Griggs, I know you are planning new events on Hhe
arn and I would like to hear about them, and next time, please call me Reggie” He said smiling sincerely as he held her hand.

  “Thank you again.” She said as she turned to walk across the street to catch a taxi back to her office not completely sure of what really just happened.

  Later, as she entered the residence dining room of the White House to have dinner with President Burke, as she did twice a week now, she looked tired and a bit dragged out.

  “Millie you look as though you have had a trying day today. Have the musicians and performers you’re trying to book, driving you mad?” He asked walking over to her holding her favorite drink, already mixed and icy cold. She opened her purse, took out her cell, put it on the table and bent down to put her purse on the floor, looked at her cell phone, paused and said,

  “James, I need to use the rest room, could you come with me, I had trouble with the faucet handles last time.” She asked.

  The President looked quizzical as she energetically gestured for him to come with her. Once inside the rest room, she closed the door, turned on the water in the sink, and quietly said,

  “James, that is not my cell phone in there. There’s a special mark on the cover that has been there for the last year from when I dropped a spot of nail polish remover on it, and now, that is not there. I know exactly when someone switched phones, since I happened to notice the mark this morning again as I did my nails and moved the phone aside. I think my phone has been bugged. Can we get Eddie to look at it?” She said.

  “Yes, you bet.” The President took out his cell and, in a few words, had Eddie on his way to get the phone. They turned off the faucets, and the President went outside, as she actually used the rest room. Eddie silently came into the dining room, put her cell phone in a metal box with thick padding on the inside, and left the room. Millie came back in the room.

  “Yes James, it has been a very busy day,” as she came over to let him hold her.

  They had dinner and speculated on what could be going on since the only place she had been other than her office, where she was alone all day, was the British Embassy. Ultimately, they changed the subject and Millie spent the next hour sharing what she had lined up for concerts in the Council of Worlds. Demand was constant. Between the incoming requests, every time a drone or a freighter arrived, and the calls from musicians and bands looking for bookings, she was swamped. She said,

  “James, I have never worked so hard, in fact, I have never had a job before. But this, this is so exciting and fulfilling I can never thank Maejel enough for asking me to join her as an aid. And, you for your support in getting the Cultural Attaché position going with two crazy bachelorettes from London. Who would have thought?”

  “Tell me about the Hhearn Music Festival you put together, how’d that go?” He asked.

  “Bloody marvelous, I have never seen such excitement. The Benny Goodman Tribute Band opened up with ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’ and I thought the crowd would surge the stage. It was madness, totally sold out, with people standing alongside the road and on top of shoulders to hear what they could. No question there will be another one. The Glenn Miller Tribute band got booked into the “Top of The World” for a lunar. There was such a scramble. But, all of this comes about from your decisions. Good show! Absolutely brilliant!” She said with a blazing smile as she raised her glass to him, and then bent over to give him a kiss. That started out as a peck, and graduated into something a great deal more as suddenly a knock on the dining room door occurred and interrupted the moment.

  “Damn,” she said, “what bloody timing.”

  “Come in.” The President called. Eddie came through the door with his metal box.

  “Sir, and Ms. Griggs, you are correct, this is probably not your phone and has listening as well as tracking remotely actuated. The app is almost identical to what we have seen the Chinese use. So, the question is, why would someone switch your phone with a Chinese bugging app on it, and where would they get it?” Eddie said.

  Millie told him the only place she had been since this morning was the British Embassy. Eddie’s eyebrows shot up but he didn’t say anything in response.

  After a discussion on what the speculated possibilities were, Eddie informed her how to mute both tracking and listening as well as advising her to keep it in her bag to muffle pickup. He asked her to keep her phone for a while so they could begin an investigation. He then gave her a sleeve to slip the phone into which provided an additional blockage to location radiated signals, but would suppress incoming calls. She could use that for assured privacy when needed. As far as her visits to the White House, Eddie would place the isolation box at the gate. When Millie came to visit, she would hand her cell to the gate guard to put in the box until she left the grounds. Eddie left to go to the gate with her cell phone inside it. Then after that, he decided, he would call his contact at MI-6 at Vauxhall, London,

  “He owes me one, a big one.” He thought.

  Back in the Residence Dining room,

  “Now,” said the President, “that we’re done dealing with spies, where were we before the knock on the door happened?”

  Mother Primitia at the old Mill Den called her fellow Sisters of Mak’am to a council. They all gathered in front of her leadership pedestal in the main room as the Zelkon hawks looked down from the rafters above and listened in their minds.

  “We have been here for more than one hundred annuals, and now we are being integrated into Hhearn society as Truthsayers. Some level of integration was always a long-term goal for our kind and it seems it is coming to pass. However, we are all ‘sensitives,’ and have survived by listening to our senses. Now that we have a permanent home, that worry has been washed away and lower, more persistent urges have come to the foreground. We have unfinished business on our former home world wherever it now is. I do not yet know what that might be, but it calls to me, and has for a very long time.” She paused for a sip of energy and then continued,

  “It is time to go and seek the reason for these callings.” She looked over the Sisters and continued,

  “Because I feel the calling stronger than the rest of my Sisters, I will be going to search our past and seek resolution of these urges. I will take two Sisters with me who have been on Journeys with Captain Flynn before. Sister Janq’uor will be acting Mother while I am gone, I have given her all my instructions. Continue your Hhearn work as Truthsayers. The Sisters and I will leave within the week.” There was no more discussion and the Sisters dispersed, most heading to the Nourishment Column room.

  “Is there any way we can stop the screaming?” Asked S-3 through the commo.

  “Send a commo to S-2 and wake him up, he has a connection he found to Central.” S-4 replied. “She’s driving me crazy too!”

  “It is worse when she keeps screaming ‘bugs, bugs!’” agreed S-1.

  They all sat in the dark cradles as they had for over a hundred annuals, wondering when someone or something would come to help or harm. It was concluded long ago, either would be acceptable. The energy seep was adequate only for sustenance and not enough for any action other than occasional conversation on the commo, and in S-5's case, incessant screaming.

  “Maybe we should ask Central to shut off her seep?” Asked one.

  “I thought about it some, but it is against our prime rule and even thinking about it causes pain.” Said another.

  “Then we will do what we always do.... Wait, and watch the dust grow.”

  “I keep thinking I used to have a name. Anyone else have that thought?”

  About half agreed, but could never bring it out of what seemed like a locked memory.

  “Even if you had a name, we’re still stuck here waiting.” Said another.

  Then, things got quiet again. No one had anything else to say. It had all been said, a thousand times over. The screaming had transitioned into whimpering.

  The weak star outside gave off enough light to always make it twilight in strength. The cloak reduced it even more and th
e automatic systems had long since turned off the lights and environmental systems to respect energy conservation. There no longer was anyone moving about needing either air or light, not since the sudden calamity. Nothing had moved since, except the housekeeping drones who cleaned up the remains into the recycler for protein reclamation. The vats were full, and ready to synthesize, but there was no demand.

  With a reduced load on resources and power, the manufacturing plant kept producing the seed kits until all the output shelves were filled and catalogued. Then, even that system shut down, its assigned tasks completed. The shelves were full with one hundred kits. They waiting for distribution. Never had so many kits been produced.

  Central control had scanned all systems and reduced power in the GenCell to lightly power all systems into ‘stand-by’ and to maintain the ‘seep.’ Then, it too, went into standby, keeping only its motion sensors active. It was a virtual machine cemetery with a faint heartbeat.

  In Washington, he could hear the phone ringing at the other end. It rang for ten times until, a voice at the other end said “Fifty-two.” The caller responded with “Fifty-two plus fifty-two is 10.” And hung up. The code was to repeat the number and add the number of months since their last call together. It took a few minutes for Oliver to check his calendar. Ten minutes later the caller’s phone rang and the scrambler lights went on as he picked up.

  “Eddie, old chap, are you still jogging with limousines?” Asked Oliver Adwell from MI-6. Oliver and Eddie Powers the head of the Secret Service, had worked together on very high-profile VIP protection including the President and the Queen. Eddie knew Oliver was highly placed, or highly valued, he couldn’t get a straight answer on that. “English cloak and dagger” he thought.