by P F Walsh
They all went into the nearby large government building to a large conference room. There was a table in the center of the room with chairs. More chairs were lined up around all the walls. Nan-Cee went immediately to the chair at the head of the table surprising another diplomat who was intending to take that place. She sat down as all the others did and the displaced diplomat scurried to find a seat.
“Gentlemen and Ladies, I have traveled twenty-seven light years to be here to assess your claims and pleadings. Please begin.” And with that she leaned back in her chair and listened as four of the men seated at the table put forth various versions of a charter member being slighted of opportunity. This went on for just over an hour. Then Nan-Cee began to speak. Her voice came through the ceiling speakers in the room in Chinese, startling the room occupants since no other person had used the sound system. Martin had hacked into the conference system in the hall. Her voice was now the loudest in the room as translated and transmitted by Martin.
“I have listened to your petitions without interruption, and have recorded it all for archiving at The Council Records on Hhearn. Yet not once did I hear any person read from the Charter that you signed. Let me do that for you now.” She reached into her large purse and drew out a copy of the charter.
“Under Section twenty-nine entitled ‘Multi Nation Signer Defaults, Abuses, and Penalties’ it reads,
“A-1 All Charter nation members are equal before the Council. Notwithstanding that condition, the Council reserves the right to assess which signatories met the Council’s requirements for trust in transactions, use of transferred technology, given or taken, and the concerns thereof. Additionally, the Signatories are bound to treat each other Charter signatory with fair and just behavior. Any signatory who commits abuse of another signatory through the use of force or criminal pursuit, under the common laws of the World in question, are to be denied trade rights for a period to be determined by the Council of Worlds Ambassador. The Injured party may raise a claim, and demand trade rights be suspended. The party who is accused or denied trade rights may demand an on-site hearing by the Council Ambassador to appeal their circumstance. The Ambassador’s decision is final.” The room was silent. So, she continued,
“It was the Council’s initial assessed opinion that China as a Charter signer was not ready to function in a manner which met the terms I just described. You have attempted to spy on other members, kidnaping, and in one case, tried to seize the starships of another member who, by the way, did not file an official complaint. Since the ships at that time were staffed with other Council of Worlds Affiliate Member staff, the complaint was entered as a military offense against the Council at large. All of those behaviors are dishonorable!” She sat there shaking her head back and forth with disappointment.
“If we had considered the full weight of the unsuccessful attempt to seize a vessel of another member, we might have responded by sending another world’s military starships to extract punishments as described in the charter. If it had been the Zakarians that were sent, well, I can assure you it would take you years, perhaps decades, to repair the damage.” She said.
“Because you are new to the Council of Worlds this episode was classified as simple ignorance of the possible retribution that could occur.
An injury caused by one nation member to another will be adjudicated by the Council. The next time, we will send a military ship to apply punishment.” She paused.
“This hearing is ended. I have decided that trade suspension will continue for three years and your inter-member behavior will be reviewed at that time. It will be your responsibility to request lifting of the suspension at that time. We’re done here.” She said, and got up.
As everyone silently got up, she went over to the one woman that Sister Lamikk told her had a clean and generous heart and said.
Nín yuànyì xiàng w zh nshì nín de chéngshì ma? (“Would you be kind enough to show me your city?”)
The lady graciously smiled and bowed, but Nan-Cee caught the slight affirmative nod from one of the men.
“Ambassador, they have planned an abduction of you if they were not successful. Be careful! They wish to separate you from your ship.” The Sister whispered in her mind.
The Duchess replied silently,
“Who is the leader here? None is behaving as such.”
“He is the one who has not spoken. He wears a red tie and a small pin on his jacket. He is full of anger and malice. His name is General Fei Hong. He can speak and understand English. His mental descriptions of you were mostly curses and hopes for great pain.” She answered.
The Duchess and the Sister posed to begin walking toward the door with the Chinese lady and then stopped suddenly. The Ambassador turned back with the Sister and walked through the group of men who shied away from the Sister. She walked directly to General Hong who had not identified himself.
“General Hong, I know you speak English, and I know you plan to try to abduct me and torture me for information. You are nothing but a child to me. You did not have the courage to appear as leader but hid behind others. I see all your thoughts as though they were written on the wall. I have therefore added another two years of trade restrictions to my ruling because of your personal contempt.” She stared at him. His eyes widened and he thought silently and angrily,
“I will see you enslaved in a pleasure den.”
She smiled, and recited his threat,
“You will never see me enslaved in a pleasure den General, for when I am here with my ship, I rule your nation. Your thoughts are disgusting and full of hate. You are a sick man. I fear no one. Because of your deceit and personal threat, the building where you spy on the other Nation Members is now gone. I will refer to that, as ground zero.” She stood there reading his face full of astonishment and now, a trace of fear.
“I will take the tour of the city now with Yu Yan to see what your nation is like and I will be unharmed. My ship has located ground zero, if anything happens to cause me the slightest discomfort, my ship will destroy everything around it, out to a one-mile circle. It will all be gone.” She said with a firm unwavering voice staring at him until he dropped his eyes. She then turned with the Sister to go back to Yu Yan who stood there trembling with surprise and fear of this small woman who commanded such power and could look into minds including hers.
“She is an Empress from her world! She travels with and commands powerful spirits!” Yu Yan thought fearfully, as she bowed deeply as the Duchess and the Sister approached.
“Come Yu Yan, let us leave this room of snakes and tell me of your teas and your flowers.” She said in English, already knowing she spoke multiple languages.
“Where shall we go?” Nan-Cee asked.
“I have a home nearby with a small garden, I have many flowers, I would be honored to share tea with you. Please do not destroy our city!” She pleaded.
“Yu Yan, you have nothing to fear from me, it was only one building full of snakes and spies conducting dishonorable deeds. You have a kind heart, let us go and share tea.” She answered.
They left the building trailed by security people who dared not get close and walked through the city to a small section of better homes of officials and entered one, slipping off their shoes. Yu Yan took her through her garden and named all the flowers that she had so patiently cultivated. Then they took tea, served gracefully by this sweet, slim woman. As they sipped, the Sister said silently,
“This is a harmonious house. There is much love here but the old one is sick and in pain.”
“Yu Yan, there are pain and sickness here, who?”
Yu Yan’s eyes widened in surprise,
“You see all! That is my father who lies in another room. He has been diagnosed with stomach cancer, there is nothing that can be done, they said.”
“Take me to him.” She said as they got up with the Sister to see her father. He lay upon a sleeping pad his face grimaced in pain. The Sister spoke to Nan-Cee,
“He
is in great pain from stomach disease. I can quiet the part of his mind that perceives pain, if you wish.” Nan-Cee nodded.
“We have quieted that part of his mind that perceives pain. This has not cured the disease he suffers from.” As they watched his face relax and his eyes open surprised that the pain had gone. He reached and held the hand of his daughter and asked who their guests were.
“She is an Empress from a great world beyond the stars. She has taken away your pain.” She told her father who did not believe such a thing was possible. She reassured him it was. He looked at Nan-Cee and thanked her in Chinese. She bowed slightly in acknowledgment.
“Yu Yan, our relationship with your leaders has not gone well. I would like to do something to demonstrate that violence and deceit is not the way to friendship and show what is possible from friends. Let us take your father to my ship and see if he can be healed, our medical capabilities are far beyond yours. Is this something you would agree to as well as your father?” She asked. Yu Yan’s eye widened again,
“You can heal him?” She asked, excited for the first time.
“I am not sure until he is diagnosed, but it is likely that we can.”
“Then please take him!” She explained to her father that they would take him to the great spaceship and try to heal his disease. Was he willing?
He looked at her and told her that if it would please her, he would be glad to go. The gift of pain relief alone was more than he expected today.
Nan-Cee stood outside the home and called four security guards in Chinese to come and carry a sick man. At first, they did not move, fearful of this magical Empress who brought down their leaders with a glance. Then she yelled,
“Xiànzài! (Now!”) They fearfully rushed inside the house to carefully lift the old man on his bedding mat and carry him. They all left together and placed the old man in a security car as Yu Yan, Nan-cee, and the Sister walked alongside the slow-moving vehicle back to the massive ship which was hovering above at one hundred feet. Nan-Cee spoke to Yu Yan and her father in Chinese,
“Yu Yan, I would gladly invite you into my ship, but I fear your leaders will hold you in suspicion if they cannot keep you in observation. I will only take your father to my ship’s medical center. Once we have healed him, if we can, I will return him to you. Be patient. This may take a day or two.” She stepped forward, and raised her hand in a gentle beckoning. The massive ship commenced to silently settle back down onto the ground, and the ramp began to extend. Immediately, a floating autocot came down the ramp to where they were standing and hovered three feet off the ground. Yu Yan watched in amazement as a mere wave of the Ambassador’s hand brought the huge ship silently to her feet. Such power was magic as told in mythical stories.
“Please help Yu Yan’s father onto the autocot. We are taking him to our medical center for treatment. He is ill.” She said to the security men. They helped him onto the autocot and it immediately began to float back up the ramp with the Duchess following as Yu Yan and the others watched. The ship closed up and rose to one hundred feet again. Yu Yan stood there and waited. Others closed in around her and asked what happened. She told all of them everything that had occurred, and that she was instructed to stand there and wait. Darkness came and someone came and gave her a heavy coat to protect against the night chill, something to eat, and a chair.
She waited.
General Hong stood at the deep, square hole in the ground, still bubbling with what looked like molten glass, where his military intelligence and spying operations were once housed. It had been a large, multi-storied building full of hundreds of computers and talented hackers who spent all day and night hacking into western systems to steal industrial and State secrets. It was gone! Even the concrete vault where backups were stored was gone. There was nothing but a hole filled with a scalding, molten mass.
“That alien bitch! They will surely come for me now. She has defeated me with a wave of her hand.” He thought, as he slumped down onto the sidewalk looking at the hole. Astonished onlookers, and the perimeter guards who tore off their smoking uniforms burned from the heat generated by the laser strike, began gathering. A few of the nearby buildings were burning. He could hear the fire department sirens coming, or was that internal security coming for him?
“Hey Mickey, you seein’ this?” Tom Norton asked as he pounded on his keyboard in the NSA’s Foreign monitoring service center.
This floor had hundreds of monitoring computers watching the whole world and its communications, especially from adversarial countries. Tom’s, and ten other stations,’ job was to watch and monitor what the Chinese hacking Center was doing. They had wiretaps into their main line in and out, and could monitor, in general terms, what they were trying to hack.
“What?” Mickey asked who was not looking at his monitor at the time.
“The whole center has gone silent, like someone pulled the plug. Man, they’re down.” He said. Mickey swung around and began tapping on his keyboard.
“This is a high interest event. Tom, send a report to the Super.”
“Got it.” Tom said and sent a red flag e-notice to his supervisor who immediately came over to their terminals. Once he certified that the Chinese hack center was down, he notified the next level up the chain. Eventually, someone notified the White House. Typically, any time a major military center like this goes down, U.S. forces go on alert, and that is what happened on this one. Internal revolts, explosions, all manner of potential happenings could affect how another state responds. Many times, they immediately look to place blame. It was expected the Chinese would blame the United States. But, so far, the chatter wasn’t doing that. An Army Major stationed at the White House came into the President’s office and advised him what was happening,
“Mr. President, the Chinese military hacking Center just went silent. I mean totally silent, not a peep. Not much could cause that, especially with their power backups like we have. Whatever it is, it’s a major event and I thought you should know. We have placed our forces on low level alert.” The Major said.
“Thanks Mike, let me know when something comes clearer.” He said as Secretary Lewis sat listening.
“John, looks like something is going on there. You know anything?”
“No sir, they’ve been quiet. I do know the Council has dispatched an Ambassador, we have not yet met, to go there and respond to their complaint of trade isolation.” He said.
“Hhrumpf.” Grunted the President, “Lot of good that will do them.”
“What do we hear from Captain Flynn?” The President asked.
“There was a message drone to the IRO with a copy to us. He’s on his way back from another world no one knew where it was, called New Mak. He was, or I should say his Mate Duchess Mer, was involved in unseating a false Queen and finding the true heir. Things were looking good when they left. The world is not ready for Council Membership, but there’s certainly trade possibilities with us. They have a lot of rare earth deposits, something China won’t like to hear about. China has the major deposits on Earth, and they have a tendency to leverage the withholding of it whenever they don’t get what they want.” He said.
“That’s good. When he gets back, let’s set up a trade freighter to go there. They will probably need something we can provide. Sean will tell us.” The President said. Secretary Lewis chimed in,
“He’s also bringing back another starship he found abandoned, as well as five new ships that are sentient. Now, that’s a new bag of worms. How the UN will see those are anybody’s guess. Of course, if he keeps them at his planet, they don’t have any jurisdiction. Are they people or machines? Glad I won’t be part of that discussion, I have met Allister, and even I’m not sure how to go on that question myself.”
“By the way, how are things going with Maejel?” The President asked.
“Really well, but we’re ‘worlds apart’ as the saying goes. I wish I could see her more often. She’s now a blood sister to a Zakarian Warrior, did you kno
w that?”
“What? You’re kidding.” The President said, surprised.
“No, the story has been massaged by the time I got it, but she stood up to a threat from one of their younger warriors and won his friendship. He made her a blood sister, so now everyone is afraid to offend her.” He laughed, “Including me!” He went on,
“You’re lucky Mr. President, Millie is based here mostly.” The Secretary said.
“She’s amazing John, I am always surprised at how she rises to challenges like Maejel, and just gets it done. If I could get 10 percent of my administration to do that, things would be fantastic.” He said as the Secretary nodded, and added,
“She’s gone right now to Hhearn accompanying another concert orchestra and conductor. He was afraid to go. She promised to hold his hand. I think once he gets to ride on that starship palace, they call a Seeker, he will be a regular. Some are talking about emigrating there’s so much demand.” He said.
“You mean, like Kevbit-Pak, Director General of Economic Development for the Council of Worlds? I’m betting he’s staying here. He loves our restaurants. He’s a financial wizard. We’re glad to have him. He’s helped a lot on financial policy issues.” The Secretary added.
“By the way, did you provide some protection and guides for the Duchesses from Hhearn that Wally warned us were coming?” The President asked.
“Yes, I did. My feedback is they are spending like sailors and can’t stop eating. One of them wanted to buy one of the bungalows at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The Hotel declined and then sent up a cart full of desserts. She forgot all about it.”
Chapter Twenty
Book Three
“Flynn’s Fleet” as it was becoming known, arrived at the outer edge of Earth’s solar system, and began the trip toward Caerus on thrusters. The trip in ‘no-space’ had been smooth and quiet, except for the faint thrum of the engines powering the ‘no-space’ bubble. It gave everyone a chance to rest and reflect on the events at New-Mak. Sean and Nasht-Mer treated it like a small vacation and spent most of their time together. The sentient ships were now chatting endlessly since they could not communicate during ‘no-space.’ As Allister described it, the transmitted waves were washed away instantly as soon as emitted, and could not travel through the stream to another ship.
