Star Man 1: Star Bourne

by I. G. Roberts

  Suddenly there was a bang, I smelled smoke and heard shouting as my tormentor glanced quickly towards the door, a look of hatred on his face then he spun and started swinging at me with his baton. The baton was aimed at my head and when it connected, the lights went out. I don’t know what happened after that for some time. Nobody has ever told me what went on in that room other than they were able to restrain the officer who attacked me, and people immediately started working to free me and help me as much as they could. Apparently, the interrogation of the traitor, when it eventually happened, proved to be very productive indeed and gave Naval Intelligence a way into the pirate network within the Federation so my pain was not wasted, we’d achieved everything we set out to do.

  FUTURE DIRECTIONS

  It seemed history was to repeat itself. The Troopers who rescued me found it necessary to place me in a stasis pod immediately after they were able to release me from the chair. A decision was made at high levels within the Federation to transfer me directly to a medical facility near the Capitol where I could be given whatever medical treatment was deemed necessary by the medical team assigned to look after me. It seems they wanted me well enough to be able to stand trial. The Federation Capitol is on a planet called Sankarah. This planet was terraformed when the Federation was first formed solely to be the centre of the Federation government. The founders of the Federation lived in a very hostile universe, indeed this was one of the main reasons they formed the Federation in the first place even though some of the species who made up the Federation didn’t get on particularly well. At best, it could be said they tolerated each other. Sankarah was chosen to house the Capitol because it wasn’t claimed by anyone and was reasonably close to the centre of the new entity so it turned out to be the only place everyone could agree on.

  As soon as the order came to take me to the Capitol they transferred me to a destroyer which in turn transported me, along with Lady Conti and her retinue, Eri and a few others from FNS Destiny’s crew to Sankarah. A destroyer was chosen to transport us because these are very powerful ships, fully capable of defending themselves if someone chose to tangle with them. Lady Conti was captured by the pirates once, there was no way the Federation authorities were willing to risk her being captured a second time. When we arrived on Sankarah, I was immediately moved to a military hospital on the planet for the medical attention I so desperately needed. As it turned out, both my arms were broken, I’d sustained four broken ribs and a fractured skull from the baton attack. Without the prompt medical assistance I received, I may very well have been severely handicapped when I recovered, if I recovered. Most likely, I would never have made a full recovery, at least that’s what Eri told me later when they eventually woke me from the coma I was in. Right then however, I was completely oblivious to what was happening around me, being unconscious and ensconced in a stasis pod.

  After we arrived on Sankarah, Conti apparently spent quite a lengthy amount of time in conference with her father and a number of other Federation councilors. Of course, I was not privy to any of those discussions, not then but I’ve been told since that I, and my actions figured prominently in them. She told them how I’d kept everyone on track for the trip back into Federation space, how it was me who kept our prisoners in line while making sure they helped repair the damage they’d done to the ship. I was informed she even told them I’d effectively converted some of those pirates to lead a more honest life when the Federation released them from prison. Among other things Conti found out Hersi was not sent to her by her father as a replacement for the aide who’d fallen ill. In fact, her father was never even aware a replacement was needed, not till after we returned in FNS Destiny and he began receiving the first reports of the events that had transpired. Till then, all he’d known was that his daughter disappeared between scheduled stops and the wreckage of her yacht was found with some bodies still on-board.

  FNS Destiny’s return to the Federation, the loss of the colony at Zafar and my part in all of it were all big news throughout the Federation. Apparently the news organisations couldn’t get enough of the story. Some news-people went to great lengths to find another angle to the story, even going to the extent of trying to sneak into the hospital where my injuries were being treated. It seems they wanted images of me even if I was unconscious. Of course, they were caught by the guards because I was in a military hospital and the security around me was tight. The courts handed down stiff fines for trespass which the news organisations they worked for simply paid. It seemed the predictions I’d been given about the future when we were still on FNS Destiny were already turning out to be true even if I didn’t know about it at the time. In any case, whatever else I’d achieved, I was presenting a bit of a headache for the Federation council. They didn’t want to send the wrong message but the law was written the way it was for very good reasons.

  For my part, when I arrived at the hospital, I was left in the stasis pod, under constant guard for several weeks while Eri and other medical staff discussed how they should proceed with my treatment. In the end, they removed me from the pod, keeping me in the coma while they dealt with the damage to my skull. As it turned out, they then needed to work on repairing the fractures to my ribs and arms. When everything was in place, they used Nano-tools to deal with the small amount of brain damage I’d sustained from the blow to the head. Over the following weeks, the swelling in my brain gradually subsided till the medical staff felt it was safe to wake me. When I woke, I had a genuine feeling of Déjà vu, I was once again in a white room, an antiseptic smell in the air, and Eri standing beside the bed with a couple of other people nearby watching as I woke. As soon as my eyes opened, Eri smiled and asked how I was feeling. I told her I felt OK but she just told me I was a liar before telling me someone needed to speak to me urgently. By then, the Federation Council had decided that whether they liked it or not, there was no way around charging me with piracy and putting me on trial.

  I just nodded weakly, mainly because I couldn’t manage much else at the time. One of the bystanders stepped a little closer. He told me he was my legal representative, appointed by the Federation Council and needed me to tell him about how and why I took over command of FNS Destiny. When he told me this, I asked what he needed. He told me he wanted to hear the entire story about my time on FNS Destiny in my own words, from the beginning when I woke in the ship’s medical bay, till when I eventually handed over command to the Federation Navy at Cotoni Station. As requested, I launched into the story, starting at the beginning. From time to time he would interrupt me, asking for clarification on one point or another but mostly, he just let me talk. Of course, the story was a lengthy one, two long to tell in one go, especially with the detail he was after and after a couple of hours he left me to rest. We repeated this pattern for over a week till he was satisfied I’d told him all I could remember. After I’d finished telling him about my time on FNS Destiny, he began asking me about my time on Cotoni Station, asking why I’d acted the way I did, why I argued with the Admiral, why I’d deliberately provoked the Trooper Officer when he had me helplessly restrained to the chair. At first I was hesitant to tell him anything about all of this but eventually Anne came to see me and told me it was OK for me to tell him everything so I relayed all the events to him, including the fabricated argument between the Admiral and me.

  When I’d finished relaying my version of events, he asked me if I would agree to become a Federation citizen and if I would also agree to join the Federation Navy should these requests be made. He explained to me he thought my agreeing to these two things, would make the piracy charges go away fairly quickly and I would be a free man. Of course, I really didn’t feel like I had very much choice in the matter, I either had to agree to requests like these or at the very least, go to jail. I remembered a conversation earlier where I was told that if the Federation authorities had any sense at all, they would try to recruit me. It was not necessary for me to actually do either of these things now, not immediately at le
ast, I just needed to verbally agree so the processes could begin to make them happen. Of course, I agreed and he gave me a curious little bow before leaving with his assistants who were standing nearby. His assistants never said a word in my presence, apparently, they were only there to witness my responses.

  After my legal representative left, Eri told me some of what’d happened after I lost consciousness on Cotoni station. The Troopers burst in just as the officer struck me in the head with the baton he was wielding. They immediately stunned him then called for a stasis pod which arrived while some of them were still working to free me. Admiral Hanadon did not feel at all confident he would be able to guarantee my safety on Cotoni Station so he requested permission from the Federation Council to send me to Sankarah. Permission was quickly granted and he made immediate arrangements to transfer me along with Lady Conti and a few other critical personnel to Sankarah. After Eri finished telling me all this, she sedated me again to let me heal a little more and as the fog descended on my conscious mind I wondered what the future would bring. As it turned out, I was in the hospital recovering for quite some time. During all this time, the medical staff continued working on my injuries and helping me to heal properly. Eventually, I was able to walk around the room under my own steam though only barely at first. If I could say one thing about the Federation medical staff, it is that they have both the skills and the tools needed to heal someone’s injuries far more quickly and completely than we are capable of here on Earth.

  Anne came to visit me on a number of occasions during my recuperation and I saw both Shasi and Ani as they were part of my security. As I continued to heal, I soon started physiotherapy to begin the process of building up my mobility once again. Day by day, my strength, my stamina and my mobility began to gradually improve. Then one day Anne came and started to coach me on what would take place at my trial. She explained to me how the trial had to take place because justice must be seen to be done. She also started teaching me some Federation history and a whole lot of other things I would need to know if I was acquitted and became a Federation Citizen. My implant was connected to various teaching modules and I slowly began to understand so much more about the society I now found myself trapped in. This is not to say it was a bad place to be, or that I was treated badly, but it wasn’t home and it would be a long time before I could go there.

  As the days wore on, I continued learning and Anne spent a lot of time explaining to me how things worked in the Federation. She also explained to me how apparently, I’d already been paid a handsome sum of currency by the government of Tarilyn for the safe return of FNS Destiny, in effect, I was paid a salvage fee. This money was however being held in trust till after my trial. The Federation had similar laws regarding proceeds of crime as some Nations on Earth so if it was paid to me and then I was later found guilty, the Federation would seize the money. Still Anne told me, if I was found not guilty, this would be enough for me to live on, for a while anyway but I would not be able to access any of it till after the trial and I became a Federation citizen. For now, I was apparently living off someone else’s charity. I found out eventually, Conti’s father was picking up the tab for my upkeep out of gratitude for the part I played in rescuing his daughter. Normally, the Principal Federation Councilors would sit in judgement of my case, but Conti’s father had a vested interest in me because I’d rescued his daughter so he voluntarily stood down for this case and another Councilor was elected to fill his place during my trial.

  During one of her visits, Anne asked me once again if I would honour her by accompanying her to Cambridge to meet her family. Of course I agreed because it seemed to mean so much to her though I didn’t know if I would be able to afford the passage yet, still I thought, one step at a time. She told me her family were keenly anticipating meeting me. I really couldn’t understand why, but then one day Anne showed me some of what the media was saying about FNS Destiny’s miraculous return. The media were portraying me as the hero, almost as some kind of superman. Both full motion and still shots of FNS Destiny’s aero-breaking manoeuvre had indeed gone viral throughout the Federation, just as predicted. Some of the helmet camera footage from both Zafar, and the final action on FNS Destiny when we captured the remainder of the pirate boarders was also released by the authorities to feed the media frenzy. Of course, I was prominent in that footage. People were sending me good wishes almost on an hourly basis. Apparently I even had a fan club going. I found the whole situation to be overwhelming.

  FNS Destiny’s return, and news of the destruction of Zafar had completely galvanized the Federation. The citizenry was demanding action and they wanted it soon. In hindsight, this was never all about me, it was about people being frightened and angry and seeing a ray of hope in my achievements. They were frightened these bad things might happen to them, or to friends or relatives they had on colony planets. Even when people didn’t have friends and relatives on colony planets, they were still angry. The people in the Federation had been suffering under the deprivations of the pirates for too long and my accomplishments, and those of of FNS Destiny and her crew galvanised them into demanding decisive action. The Federation fielded a large and strong Navy but till we came along, it seemed the Navy was completely failing to keep the pirates under control. I already knew at least some of the reasons for that, and I also knew by now the Navy was already in a position where it could begin having more success with its efforts to fight the pirates. The officer who’d tortured me, turned out to be an absolute intelligence goldmine when he was interrogated. It seems he was a coward and a bully who was only tough when he was dealing with unarmed prisoners who were restrained and chained to a chair. When the shoe was on the other foot, he quickly broke down and told his interrogators everything he knew about the way the pirates had wormed their agents into the Federation’s Navy and even some other institutions.

  Based on his intelligence, over one hundred and fifty arrests were made across the Federation almost immediately. That operation, along with the arrests was still continuing because everyone who was arrested was interrogated and some of them gave up knew names. In a few cases, the names of innocent people were given to the interrogators but it usually didn’t take too long to deal with that situation and most of the time, the innocent people never even knew what happened. So it seemed the pain and suffering I’d been through was all worth it in the end. When I heard about that, I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, I’d be able to move on with my life and concentrate on taking the next step of trying to clear my name. Every few days, my appointed legal representative came to visit, discussing my case and the strategies he was planning to use at my trial to help him free me.

  One day, Jack Lanning came to visit me. He looked a very different man to the malnourished freed prisoner I met on FNS Destiny. He exuded command presence and power and he came to talk to me about my future. We spoke for several hours before he left. He told me how the Navy was organised, what it needed most in its people, a whole lot of different things. He told me he thought I was best suited to ship command. It seemed, he’d been observing me and talking to the crew while he was on FNS Destiny. He told me he’d chosen to keep a low profile on the ship because he thought taking over command would be too disruptive to the crew and he wanted to see how I performed with the command. As long as the crew were telling him we were still heading towards the Federation, he was happy to sit back and see how I handled the ship and her crew. It seems he was impressed. He told me it was clear I was a talented commander and tactician, and all I needed really was about six months of intensive training and I would be ready to command a ship. In the end, it was his advice, both to me, and to the Navy board that would decide my future direction if I was acquitted. He asked me if I would allow him to show me around when I was free to move around, as he was sure it would be when, not if. Of course, I accepted his invitation because I liked him and thought I needed to make friends in the Federation since I was there and would be for some time.

  I
continued to improve and gain strength till one day, Anne arrived to visit with a change of clothes for me. These were formal clothes and she explained it was time for my trial to begin. By now, I understood what was happening and knew what I needed to do and say. After Anne gave me a little privacy, I changed out of the hospital garb and into the new formal clothing. When I was ready, she straightened a few things for me before smiling and indicating the way to the door. We exited the hospital building and both the guards posted there gave us a smart salute as I passed them. I wasn’t quite sure how to respond but in the end I saluted them in return. We exited through the hospital reception area and crossed the drive to a ground car that was waiting for me outside the front entrance.

  As soon as I exited the building I took a deep breath, savouring the clean, fresh smell of the air here, much fresher than I could remember from back home, there was less pollution. A light fresh breeze tickled my senses, enticing me to wander off and explore my surroundings. Of course, I couldn’t do that, not yet, I had a very important appointment to keep. We climbed into the ground car and the driver started us on the way to the Federation Council Palace. The plants in the gardens we passed as we drove down the road were lush and healthy looking with rich, vibrant green foliage and many had brightly coloured flowers in reds, blues, whites and pinks. I couldn’t see any insects, they would have been too small and I could only take in fleeting glimpses as we passed. I did see a few birds but again, my glimpses of them were only fleeting. I looked up at the sky and it was a beautiful pale blue with a few fluffy white clouds. I thought it was an absolutely beautiful day to be out here in the open.