Milor!

by Thomas DePrima

  Jenetta stared down at the minister for several seconds. Taking a deep breath, she suppressed an urge to tell the minister exactly where he could file his formal protest, along with an offer to help him accomplish the task. "We'll be ready, Minister. What time would you like to start?"

  "The time that you call ten a.m."

  "Very well. The hearing shall commence at 1000 Galactic Standard Time, tomorrow. I'll see that the Selaxians are notified."

  Everyone who had ever worked with or for Jenetta knew of her habit of always arriving early at meetings. So when she appeared just seconds before the hearing was due to start, everyone noticed. Others may have credited a variety of reasons for this departure from the norm, but her intention was simply to avoid contact with delegates looking for a last minute opportunity to lobby for favorable treatment.

  She had tried to clear her mind and separate herself from any preconceptions about the issues, or resentments towards any of the delegates, before her arrival. Captain Donovan of the JAG office, and Commander Blake, who had been charged with preparing the room for the meeting, were standing by with their aides. The Selaxians had brought a few large boxes of documents, while the Arrosians had brought stacks of boxes of documents. Both societies had computers, but still used paper as the only acceptable form for official documents.

  Jenetta moved immediately to the chair at the center of the horseshoe shaped table as she entered the room. After all the protests by the Arrosians, and changes that saw the table shape change from horseshoe to oval, to square, to diamond, and to triangle, it was back to the original horseshoe shape. However, the platform for the chairs was two millimeters higher on the Arrosian delegation side, than it had been when the delegation first arrived. Jenetta took her seat at the center of the table and pounded the gavel twice.

  "All parties will please take their seats," Jenetta said.

  Captain Donovan sat down on Jenetta's left and Commander Blake sat on her right. The aides took seats against the wall, a meter or so behind. Both the Selaxian and the Arrosian delegation took their seats after bowing to one another as a group. The bowing was apparently a custom on their respective planets when parties face off against one another in court. Cameras, mounted in each corner of the room, recorded everything that occurred.

  Once everyone was seated, Jenetta said, "This hearing, to determine ownership of the moon known as Isodow, a natural satellite that circles the planet Selax in the Weitack system of Galactic Alliance regulated space, is now in session. As the supreme military commander in this sector, I, Captain Jenetta Alicia Carver of the Galactic Space Command, will arbitrate. Both parties have agreed to be bound by my decision on this matter, and my decision will be final, with no avenues for appeal. I will allow each party to present their testimony in alternating half-hour segments, and submit written evidence in support of their claim. Each party shall address its remarks to the Arbiter. Should a party ask a direct question of the other party, they lose control of their time and may not interrupt until the second party has completed their answer, but if I feel that the second party is deliberately attempting to exhaust the half-hour time segment of the first party with their answer, I shall interrupt and give control back to the first party. The second party shall not attempt to answer rhetorical questions, and the first party shall refrain from asking rhetorical questions. The two parties drew straws before I entered to determine who would begin and the winner was Arrosa. The chief delegate from Arrosa is recognized for thirty minutes."

  Jenetta pounded the gavel and a large chronometer on each wall began a thirty-minute countdown. The chief Arrosian delegate rose and began his opening remarks.

  The delegates used the first day to relate their particular version of the settling of Selax, and the history of their people. The delegates were true politicians and never used ten words when ten thousand would convey the same message. Owing to Jenetta's inexperience, and the fact that it was only the first day, she allowed the delegates full rein. They used their full thirty minute segments to expound the virtues of their own society, while vilifying the other. Jenetta only stopped the proceeding three times, when one of the parties or the other took exception to remarks and interrupted. She admonished the offender and restarted the proceedings.

  At the end of the day, Jenetta adjourned the proceedings and scheduled them for resumption at 1000 hours the following day. Captain Donovan and Commander Blake followed Jenetta back to her office so they might discuss the hearing.

  "You're letting them go too far afield, Captain," Captain Donovan said. "Keep them to topic. It's not necessary for you to hear about the hardships of the original settlers, or the expense and difficulty of establishing a civilization out of a wilderness. It has no bearing on the case. You have the power to make them keep their statements relevant and material."

  "I agree, Captain," Commander Blake said. "At this rate, they'll have us tied up here for a year."

  "You're both right," Jenetta said. "I hesitated to keep too tight a rein on this first day. I hoped that they would tire of the superfluous verbiage and redirect themselves to the matter at hand, but my leniency only seemed to fuel their desire to hear themselves talk. I'll maintain tighter control, starting tomorrow. Have I committed any other errors?"

  "Hearings like this are usually run rather informally, as opposed to the strict procedures used in a judicial court," Captain Donovan said. "There is no really right or wrong way. You decide what's proper and appropriate, as long as you treat all parties equally. In that respect I think that you did well for your first day."

  "Thank you, Captain. Let's hope that I can keep the parties from dragging this out any longer than necessary."

  Jenetta did a better job of narrowing the scope of topics discussed over the following days, but the hearing still plodded tediously along as the delegates took their turns talking throughout the day. Jenetta tried to focus all her attention on the speaker, but found herself thinking about other station problems if the speaker digressed from the main topic. She looked increasingly forward to the end of the hearing. When the Arrosians began submitting their documents into evidence, Jenetta thought that terminal boredom would set in. The normal rule of half-hour segments was suspended during the submittal as tens of thousands of pages had to be logged in for review. Jenetta's eyes crossed briefly as she thought about the work involved in reviewing the documents. They would first be scanned into a computer database and organized electronically, rather than trying to examine each of documents manually, while translating them.

  After the submission of all documents into evidence, Jenetta addressed the parties.

  "It will take time for my staff to scan all the documents into the computer and verify the accuracy of the scans. Both parties will receive a complete set of the other's documents in electronic form so they may review them and be prepared to contest their content. My staff will translate the documents and we'll study each one for relevancy to this case. We shall adjourn until that phase of this hearing is complete, and both parties will receive twenty-four hours notice before the hearing is set to resume."

  Jenetta picked up her gavel. "I declare this hearing to be in recess." She pounded the gavel base once.

  * * *

  Chapter Eleven

  ~ October 11th, 2275 ~

  The Ottawa arrived at the moon on the twenty-ninth day following their message to Vyx. He was reading in the small lounge aboard the Scorpion when the ship's sensors detected the approaching destroyer and sounded an alarm. Dropping the holo-magazine cylinder that he was using, he ran to the bridge. Once satisfied that the arriving ship was the Ottawa, he calmed down and hailed the ship. The image of Captain Crosby appeared on the front viewer in response to the hail.

  "Hello, Trader. Has your status changed?"

  "Hello, Captain. No sir, my ship is still incapacitated."

  "I'll send out a tug to bring you into our maintenance bay."

  "I'm ready, sir."

  "We're picking up emergency
beacon signals from only two escape pods, not the three that you reported."

  "I saw three eject from the Tsgardi ship. Perhaps one's beacon failed, or was deactivated by the occupant."

  "Is it possible that one was already retrieved?"

  "Unlikely. My sensors should have alerted me to the arrival of any other ships in orbit."

  "We'll continue the search then. It shouldn't take us long to find the third pod. It may simply be on the far side of the moon right now. Prepare to come aboard. Crosby, out."

  Vyx called down to the base and informed them of the Ottawa's arrival, although their sensors had already alerted them when the ship entered orbit.

  An hour later, Vyx stepped from the Scorpion, now resting securely within the Ottawa's large maintenance bay. A Space Marine immediately escorted him to Captain Crosby's briefing room, where the captain and his first officer were waiting.

  "Come in, Trader," Captain Crosby said, waving off the security escort. "Welcome aboard. Allow me to introduce my first officer, Commander Upton."

  "Good day, sirs. I'm happy to be aboard."

  Gesturing to a chair, the captain said, "Please have a seat. Captain Carver briefed us on your situation before we left Stewart, and only Commander Upton and I know that you and your companions are with the Intelligence Section. The cover story is that you contracted to scout out possible locations for resupply depot locations in the Frontier Zone, and that the Tsgardi henchmen of a deceased arms dealer attacked you when you accidently stumbled across a former hideout here. Everyone knows about the cache of arms brought to Stewart aboard the Maid of Mephad. We've located the third escape pod, by the way, and all three should be aboard soon. If you'll verify the coordinates of the new outpost, we'll send down the first groups."

  "Of course, Captain. Someone should also visit the crash sites of the Tsgardi ship and shuttles, just in case someone survived."

  "We'll do that next. Tell us what's happened here since you arrived."

  Vyx spent the next hour recounting the events since he, Byers, and Nelligen had located the base. He concluded by telling them of the fight with the Tsgardi ship.

  "You have rear torpedo capability in that tiny ship?" Commander Upton asked incredulously.

  "Yes. They're not the enormous torpedoes that Space Command uses, but they're large enough to cause some serious problems to many of the ships that I might encounter. The Cheblookans make them for their planetary defense fighters."

  "They were apparently large enough to down the Tsgardi ship," Captain Crosby said.

  "Oddly enough, the Tsgardi ship went down because of its attempt to avoid being struck. So that I didn't alert them that I was preparing to fire, I targeted them in passive mode. I'm sure they didn't expect such a small ship to have torpedoes, and I caught their laser gunners off guard. The helmsman dove the ship to avoid the torpedoes and that trajectory sent them towards the surface. The first torpedo passed over most of their ship and struck their stern, knocking out their Sub-Light engines, and the second torpedo took out their bow thrusters, eliminating their ability to correct their course and reestablish an orbit path."

  "You must have surprised the hell out of them," Commander Upton said approvingly.

  Vyx grinned. "I had the torpedo tubes installed when I first got the ship, figuring that an enemy would never expect it from such a small vessel. It took a tremendous amount of jury-rigging to get the tube racks mounted back there, and keep them both hidden and isolated from the stern engine functions, but we did it. Their emplacement was the reason that I named the ship 'Scorpion.' A scorpion is most dangerous when it can use the stinger in its tail."

  Vyx hitched a ride on one of the first group of shuttles headed down to the base. The flight bay at the new outpost was large enough to accommodate four full sized shuttles at one time.

  As soon as the bay was pressurized, and the crews had begun to disembark, the four occupants of the base hurried in. Brenda raced to Vyx and jumped up, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his torso. Vyx stumbled backward a step before regaining his balance.

  "I'm happy to see you also," he said calmly.

  "I missed my reading partner," she whispered breathlessly into his ear. "Reading alone isn't as nice when you really are alone."

  "I know," he whispered back. "Showering isn't as much fun either."

  "Let's go work up a sweat so we have an excuse," Brenda said seductively.

  "Later, after things are squared away here. There are going to be Marines crawling all over this barn for the immediate future. I don't think that we'd be able to get a moment's privacy."

  Byers, Nelligen, and Kathryn had also reached Vyx by then.

  "Welcome back," Nelligen said pumping Vyx's hand. "It's good to see you."

  "Likewise," Byers said.

  "Me too, Trader," Kathryn chimed in.

  "I'm glad to see that you're all okay," Vyx said.

  "Thanks to you for taking out the Tsgardis before they could attack us here," Nelligen said. "We got ready for a war, and then never saw a bit of action."

  "That's always the best kind of disappointment," Vyx said.

  "What's the deal now?" Byers asked.

  "I only came down to get my things. Go pack your stuff; we're getting out of here today. The Marines are taking over and we have quarters waiting for us on the Ottawa. The Scorpion is also safely aboard the ship, in a maintenance bay. A couple of engineers are already looking at the Scorpion with anxious eyes, and I want to get back before they start making repairs. I completely disabled both explosive charges just in case they can't wait for me."

  "Where are we headed?" Kathryn asked.

  "The Ottawa will be going back to Stewart after a two month patrol here in the Frontier Zone. We might as well hitch a ride with them; it'll give me plenty of time to get the Scorpion fixed up. And since the Ottawa is a much faster ship, we'll probably arrive about the same time as we would if we traveled directly there in the Scorpion."

  "Sounds good to me," Nelligen said. "I bet that I can find someone else aboard who likes spicy food."

  Byers scowled. "Does everything have to revolve around your stomach?"

  "Why not? It's central to my being. It's even centrally located, look," he said, patting his belly.

  Vyx just shook his head and starting moving towards the base's interior with Brenda at his side and Kathryn following. With their audience leaving, Nelligen and Byers trailed along, still trading barbs.

  After gathering the few personal items they had at the base, the five agents took the next shuttle up to the Ottawa. Ship's engineers and Space Marines would continue to prepare the new outpost for occupation. Once aboard ship, the agents were assigned rooms in the guest quarters section. Low-level security passes, typically given to SC civilian contractors, allowed them to enter most non-secure areas of the ship without an escort. As soon as they had settled in, the two women went in search of central stores to have some clothes made, while Vyx headed to the maintenance bay where he had put the Scorpion.

  The bay was the largest on the Ottawa and was large enough to house half a dozen MATs, but if the Scorpion was another five meters longer, it wouldn't have fit. As it was, there was just barely enough room to move around outside the ship. Several ship engineers, not needed for work in the new outpost, were busy dissembling the damaged hull plating and engine covers where the Tsgardi torpedo had damaged the Scorpion. Vyx had arrived back just in time to supervise the work, not that he wasn't grateful for the interest and help.

  Vyx's preoccupation with making repairs to the ship sent Brenda, who wanted him to spend more time with her, into a mild state of melancholy. At dinner each evening he would again explain that they'd have months together later, and that it was imperative that he be heavily involved in the Scorpion's refit. Then he'd leave for the maintenance bay right after the meal, after having already spent the entire day working on the ship. She understood, although it didn't lighten her mood.

  The repairs to
the Scorpion had become sort of like a pet project to the ship's engineers. After working with Space Command equipment all day, they couldn't wait to get their hands on a ship that appeared to have been constructed from a vast collection of incongruous components.

  That assessment wasn't far off, which is why Vyx felt that he had to be involved in all aspects of the repairs. The ship had been repaired dozens of times, at different shipyards, most of which never seemed to have the proper parts. Rather than waiting months, or even longer, for a proper part to be located, Vyx had authorized the use of somewhat similar parts. A couple of Marines, passing by on roving patrol duty, had the effrontery to question if the Scorpion had gotten to the moon under its own power, or had been towed here.

  * * *

  The Ottawa remained in orbit until the outpost was properly established, and then left to begin the Frontier Zone patrol route assigned by Captain Carver. Although Supreme HQ normally established all patrol routes around Stewart, the Ottawa's role in establishing the outpost exempted her from continuing the prepared routing this time out. Their assignment from Captain Carver was to look around and record any ship traffic patterns they observed, but they weren't to engage in interdiction activities unless something unusual occurred. As always, they were required to respond to any distress calls that occurred within the sectors through which they would pass.

  A week after leaving the moon, Captain Crosby sent for Vyx. Since the bridge was a high-security area, a Space Marine escorted Vyx from the maintenance bay to the captain's briefing room during the first watch.

  "Come in, Trader," the captain said, as he waved off the Marine escort. "Care for a beverage?"

  "I'm fine, Captain," Vyx said, as he plopped into a chair facing the Captain without waiting for an invitation to sit. He nodded to Commander Upton, who was sitting in the other chair that faced the captain's desk.