by DN Farrell
Sitting around the circular table in briefing room A, were the senior officers, still left on board the Bryant. Colonel kell, Head Marine, Lieutenant Chandrima, Security Officer, Commander Karatio, the Chief Engineer and Lieutenant Pylor, Communications Officer.
The captain was late, but then again he was always late, in the meantime kell was busy talking with Chandrima and Pylor, while Chief Engineer Karatio appeared to be completely disinterested, as he sat there flicking through his tab, working out calculations for fixing a recurrent Xeron containment leak, which they were having in reactor B.
"We go down there in disguise and do a recy, then when we find them, we bust them out of there and beam them back to the ship, it's that simple." Declared Kell, while he animated his speech through his aggressive hand gestures and his ever self-assured persona.
"Kell don't be ridiculous." Retorted Lieutenant Chandrima, as she wiped some spilt coffee of off her right hand. "Even if we "bust them out of there", as you say, we still have a galactic incident on our hands."
"We let the captain and Space Command worry about politics, let's just get them out of there first, or are you happy to let them sit there and rot Lieutenant?." Kell shouted his answer back to Chandrima, who quickly countered kells assertion.
"Kell everything can't be solved with a balls to the walls aggressive approach!" She exclaimed, while Pylor sat forward in his chair and decided to put forward his viewpoint.
"Well there's no harm in sending some officers down there and doing a recy and if things get hairy then we teleport the away team out of there, after all Chandrima, it's not exactly like were receiving much love out here, in the Kolatian Quadrant, now are we?"
Chandrima just stared at him, with an intense look, not sure what to say, as Kell and Pylor seemed to be dead set on an aggressive approach, for dealing with a political problem.
"He's right Chandrima." The voice of Captain Jobi suddenly floated over her shoulder. With a start, she looked around and saw the bald headed patriarchal captain looking down at her, as if he were about to chide her for her maths homework been late, but instead of being the school principal, Jobi was the captain of a star ship and he had obviously already made his mind up on the issues involved.
"I have every reason to believe that the away team have been entrapped in the political machinations of local Artemesian politics." The captain remarked, then taking a seat at the head of the table, the group, including Chief Engineer Karatio, sat around and waited for him to address them.
"I do not one hundred percent endorse kells careless approach to exo-politics." Said the captain, while he slowly moved his gaze from left to right, across the officers who sat in front of him. "But they very well could end up getting executed, all so that some conspirators can gain a foothold in the planet, stop the forward motion of the Kings administration and further help to destabilize the Kolatian Quadrant."
"So you think we should just go down there and break them out captain?" Chandrima asked with a curious expression on her face.
"No Lieutenant, I think we should send down a couple of officers and they should carry out a recon of the castle and its reinforcements and if diplomacy doesn't work, within the next few days we get them out of there." Answered the captain, who went onto elaborate his position, "Chandrima we want to make friends here in the Kolatian Quadrant and this hand of friendship, which has been handed out to us by the King, is much appreciated. However, if I am correct, and I think I am, the king is about to be overthrown and the planet Artemis 11 is going to be railroaded into becoming a rebel stronghold, so why for the sake of diplomacy should we sacrifice four of our officers?"
"Right on captain!" Exclaimed kell, who looked like the cat that just got the cream.
"Kell!" The captain raised his voice and looked over at the Colonel, with a stern expression on his face. "If I send you down there, I don't expect to hear a body count when you come back, understood?"
"Of course captain, I'll be the very soul of discretion." Replied a contrite looking Colonel kell.
"Ha, I don't think you know what the word even means!" Pylor gasped out his words, holding back his laughter at the very idea of Colonel kell quietly searching the castle, without ever discharging his weapon, or using his fists as weapons in the process.
"Of course I know what the word means Pylor." Retorted Kell. "It means not killing anybody, unless they want to kill either me or the other officers."
"Yes I think your right there." Responded the captain, who might as well have been talking about the ships plumbing, for his complete lack of emotional interest, which was quite famous throughout space fleet. "Get in and see what you can find, try not to kill anyone, unless you absolutely have to and if need be, get the away team out of there." He continued. “Pylor whats your findings on the video footage of Commander Trellon killing the princess?” The captain asked with an expectant look on his face.
“Obviously edited captain, they have cut and pasted the footage; yes Commander Trellon fired at someone and someone’s hand is seen firing at the princess from left of screen, while Trellon is right of screen. He could not have moved across that area of space, maybe seventy five feet within less than a second…” Pylor stated calmly and coolly only to be cut off by Colonel Kell.
“Clearly rigged captain.”
“I agree, what about your input Chandrima?”
“Well captain I looked at the footage, it is obviously edited, but we can’t just blast them out of there.”
“It’s not going to be a fair trial Chandrima. “ The captain retorted.
“We can send down legal representatives to represent the away team and…” Chandrima said only to be interrupted this time by the chief engineer.
“Engines are more my forte Chandrima, but I don’t think they will listen, these are tribal cultures.” He said quietly, then with a brief nod seeking the captains approval he resumed his maths calculations on his tab.
“He’s right Chandrima,” the captain spoke up, “I spoke with the chief minister and he was more than unhelpful, furthermore Intel suggests that the king is compromised.” The captain looking pensively once more from right to left and then said, “We do a recy and like Pylor said, if need be we break them out prior to execution. According to Artemisian law the away team will go through a brief kangaroo court and then be executed via hanging, within a day or two.”
The chief engineer at last added the comment. "Sir, fellow officers, we are having a slight issue with the containment field of reactor B, so I would strongly advise not doing anything to upset the apple cart, in anything less than twenty four hours, by which time we will be good to go." He paused and with a quick flick of his eyes back and forth between his fellow officer,s before staring into outer space and declaring that “Just in case we have to make a quick getaway Gov.”
The captain simply nodded affirmatively, while Candrima asked him the obvious question. "So captain, who are the lucky officers who are allotted this task?"
The captain simply nodded over towards Chandrima and kell, who were seated beside's each other, then at last he spoke. "Why Chandrima you and kell are the perfect choices. Chandrima, as the ships security officer and kell as Head of the Marines, you two are the perfect choice for a recon and possible extraction team."
Chandrima just nodded slightly, knowing full well that she was of course the correct choice, while kell smiled broadly. Things had been boring lately, so any chance to get his fingers dirty, was much appreciated.
"Bearing in mind what the chief engineer has just informed us, you have twenty four hours to go down there and assess the situation, then report back to me and we will see what we have to do." Elaborated the captain. Chandrima and Kell simply nodded and with that the meeting was over. The captain got up to leave and Chandrima and kell continued to discuss the best approach to take, towards their recon mission.
"Best of luck guys." Lieutenant Pylor added as he walked out the door.
"Luck, here's my luck Lieutenant!
" kell exclaimed back at him, while he took out his blaster and put it up in front of his face in a James Bondezque pose. While Lieutenant Chandrima slapped her forehead, as always appalled by the testosterone infused actions of the irrepressible Colonel kell.
Chapter Ten – The King of the Murcu
The trio walked along in a tense silence as the Murcu lead them along passageways, which went deep into the cave system. Finally after half an hour or so, the narrow caves systems started to broaden out into a series of wider chambers. Many of these chambers were occupied by other Murcu, who stopped what they were doing upon sight of the surface dwellers. Each time they came across them, the Murcu simply stood there and stared at them silently, with the same dull witted vaguely curious expression on their faces.
Finally they came to the entrance of a great chamber and outside of it two giant crystals where placed at its entrance, one each side of a great door. Up until now the group had just come across tunnels and chambers, but no sign of furniture or industrialisation were present; but now for the first time they had come across a great door. As for the crystals, they were huge, being about ten feet in height and three or four feet in width. Also they appeared to radiate some kind of incandescent bluish light of their own.
The group passed through this great door and clearly they were now within the Castle of the king. A Castle hewn out of sheer rock, as several large chambers interconnected with each other. Also this building contained furniture, which appeared to have been made out of the rock itself. There were rock tables and rock benches here and there. There were lots of Murcu, some of whom were naked whilst others wore clothes of various descriptions. Also officials appeared to be at work, as they sat at their desks and wrote on some papyrus like material.
Finally they came to yet another great door, which was even bigger than the first one. Once again two giant crystals where positioned outside, but this time they were placed into two large poles, one either side of the great door, which was about fifty feet in height, with each crystal been a good fifteen feet in height and five or six feet in width. The crystals this time where of a red colour and they gave off a red incandescent light.
Also unlike the first door, this door had two burly guards who stood outside, wearing a sort of black leather uniform with scabbards and large curved swords at the ready, in case anyone wanted to overthrow the king.
Habs, the lead Murcu in the little group had a word with one of the guards, who then disappeared behind the door, only to come back five minutes later along with a tall skinny Murcu, who wore a long red and black cape and who wore a sort of black and red colour top hat. He introduced himself as Advisor Rag and after looking briefly at the group, a smile struck his face and a look of delight, maybe at having a little diversion form the usual boring run of events.
"Who are you and where do you come from?" Asked Advisor Rag.
"This is the Princess Harahan, the daughter of the king of Artemis 11 and Saron, her Champion, " said Trellon, adding "and I am Comander Trellon of the space ship "The Bryant"."
"Oh I see, I see, how interesting, the kings daughter indeed." He said, then looking over at her and then back at Trellon, he spoke once again. "Princess, commander, you are about to be introduced to the king of the Murcu's, it would be unwise of you to address the princess as the daughter of the king of Artemis 11, for King Kegimon III is not the king of Artemis 11, rather he is the king of the earth dwellers and King Raginon is the king of the Murcu and the underworld, is that clear?"
"Very!" Retorted Trellon, not wishing to say or do anything which may offend their new acquaintances.
With that two guards came from inside the great hall and escorted the group into the abode of the king of Murcu. As they walked through the fifty feet tall golden braided doors, they found themselves inside a huge cavern, many hundreds of feet in diameter and studded with the red and blue crystals all over the walls, floors and ceiling of the cavern, lighting up the Great Hall in an eerie red and blue light. The light was so intense, that Saron could extinguish his green flare, whose light was now overwhelmed by the blue red glow of crystals instead.
The hall was filled with hundreds of Murcu citizens, of every shape and variety. As Trellon walked through the great doors and into the hall, it occurred to him that to the Murcu, who could see in the dark and who were adapted to darkness, the dull red, blue glow of these crystals must have made the hall look intensely bright and magnificent, to their nocturnally adjusted eyes.
The Various Murcu either sat on the floor or on stalls built out of natural rock, which reset back into the walls of the great cavern. Away of in the distance a small yet majestic figure could be seen, the king of the Murcu's!
At first it was difficult to make him out, but they kept on walking in tandem with the escort of burly man apes. They were taken down a central isle, with many spectators from either side of the isle, watching in fascination as the surface dwellers trod past them.
When they initially entered the great hall, there was a furore of talking and noisy activity, but as they strode down the great isle, silence descended upon them like a great blanket. And as they drew nearer to the podium, where the king was sat, Trellon could start to make out his features. The king, a great big black haired man ape, appeared to be dressed in a great black and red cape, with a large golden crown, which had been placed upon his head and he sat on a large golden throne with red upholstery.
As they reached the podium, advisor Rag climbed the steps onto the podium and bowed towards the king and then each of the three, the princess, Saron and Trellon did likewise. Following the hand directions of the advisor, they stood directly in front of the king, about twenty feet away from him.
Unlike the regal looking court room of king Kegimon III, this great hall seemed to focus more on size and numbers of people, than on looking particularly beautiful. The hall itself was beautiful, but the podium was quite sparse. The king sat on his great chair and a few advisors sat on smaller golden chairs or couches beside him. But other than that, there appeared to be a good fifty or so Murcu who just appeared to be lying or sitting here or there, just for the hell of it. Murcu society was obviously a very public affair, Trellon thought to himself, versus that of the more formal surface dwellers.
The Herald addressed them. "Men and woman from above the earth ,address yourselves to the King Raginon, the great ruler of the underworld and all creatures and species that lie therein."
Trellon spoke up on bahalf of everyone. "Your Majesty I am Commander Trellon of the Galactic Federation space ship, "The Bryant", and this is the princess Harahan, daughter of the king of the earth dwellers, King Kegimon III and this is Saron, her champion."
The king looked up, his head a big burly headed man ape and he asked Trellon. "Spaceman why are you here and why is the princess and her champion here?"
"We're here Your Majesty, because there is a conspiracy to overthrow the king. We were walking through the forest, with the royal guard, when suddenly they turned upon us and tried to assassinate the princess." Replied Trellon, who spoke slowly and calmly, so the king could clearly understand what was been said.
"Ah so intrigue there is in the great capital of Tar Palin!" Exclaimed the king, who then raised his two long arms in the air and made a great "Hrrhrh" sound. Trellon could not work out whether this was good or bad, so he just stood there along with the princess and Saron and kept quiet.
"HA!" The king exclaimed again and then leaning forward in his chair, he spoke once more to Trellon. "Well spaceman, why have you come to our fair planet?"
"I am a Commander serving upon a Galactic Federation ship. We are policing this Quadrant of space, in an effort to prevent the Argillean war from spreading over into other areas of space." He said and then elaborated. "We have specifically come to the planet Artemis 11, to assist the king in fighting Comarin’s Fever."
"Oh I see commander, yes the surface dwellers suffer from some strange diseases, not like us Murcu, our immune systems are far strong
er." He said, then looking around at his courtiers and then back at Trellon he added. "We have to be, living in our under earth conditions like this."
Trellon simply nodded, which was good as the king had more questions for him. "So spaceman this Galactic Federation, what exactly do they do?"
"The Galactic Federation of Autonomous Species, is a collaborative trans galactic initiative to collaborate, as different species on different planets, to work together to make a happier and more peaceful galaxy." Trellon replied, in as even toned manner as possible.
"How gallant of you commander, but I think you have picked out the wrong planet to come to, the surface dwellers, unlike us Murcu here, are known for their treachery!" Exclaimed the King, who then decided to address the princess.
"Princess Harahan, I believe?" he enquired.
"Yes Your Majesty." She replied, now for the first time looking over at the king, with a sad expression on her face.
"Yes I recognize your visage, you appear all to like your mother, the Queen." The king noted and then continued with his interrogation. "Well princess you have felt the bitter taste of treachery for the first time, well it won't be the last time." He said and once again he made a "Hrrhah" sound and the other Murcu applauded him and shouted and screamed, for a few seconds.
