With the destruction of the last of the Pirate fleet, the Battle of Lahoshar was over, save for the clean-up. Cusi and Haliban sat in front of the sensor station on Lahoshar, completely dumbfounded by what they just witnessed. These new ships Cambridge were fielding were devastating. Haliban’s mouth was dry, he knew there would be a catch, but he also knew Lahoshar had to have enough of these ships to protect his home world. He found himself hoping he could arrange fair terms with the Cambridge people. FNS Samurai and the other Federation Warships began picking up escape pods and incarcerating the occupants. Cusi realized they would need help, so she sent their Ore Freighter out with a detachment of Troopers for security to find pods as well. Colin watched the final engagement between the Pirates and the Federation ships. He was extremely impressed with the performance of the Cobras and Taipans. All in all, the Cambridge Patrol Boats had proven themselves admirably. They had been punching well above their weight and still prevailed against what should have been a far superior force. He could feel the pride building in his chest for his colleagues in the other ships and for his own crew. Even Sam seemed to have kept a lid on his self-doubt. If the man kept this performance up, he would have his own command soon. Colin thought he should ask Anne for her opinion before then, though.
Two days later, the entire fleet was orbiting Lahoshar. When news of the invasion by the Pirates, and the work of the Federation Navy to stop them before they even made it half way from the Jump-Point leaked out, spontaneous celebrations broke out all over the planet. The people here knew how close it had been, but they were saved by the humans from Cambridge. From this time forward, there would always be a special bond between the two planets, even though they were different species. The Federation ships that were involved in the fighting, all replenished their magazines. Colin managed to talk to the Captains of the four ships that finished the last four Pirates and congratulated them on a well-fought battle. They were all extremely proud to be given this praise by Colin. They all knew Carl, and he’d already told them about how just two Cobras destroyed nine enemy ships in two actions in this system. Admittedly, Theseus and Thor didn’t have enough missiles left to finish the job, but still, their achievement was a spectacular one.
During this stop at Lahoshar, Colin couldn’t get out of visiting the surface. This time. Sonya ordered both Carl and Colin to go with her and the Cambridge diplomats to give the Lahoshans a chance to honour them. Colin didn’t feel at all comfortable with all the attention but knew he would just have to grin and bear it. He sat through the state dinner the Prime Minister insisted on, tolerating the praise they heaped upon him, shook the hands of various politicians, all the time telling them how wonderful the Cobras and the Taipans are. Colin had a long conversation with Cusi, telling her they should aim for an eventual fleet of six Taipans and Four Cobras. This would give them a large enough force to have a reasonable chance of defending the planet against the most likely threats. These included an invading force somewhat bigger than the one they’d just defeated and allow them room to interdict surrounding Systems with the Cobras, making the entire area safer, especially when their force could work with the one Cambridge was planning on fielding. He explained they could make the whole sector much more secure, if the Sector were more stable, Lahoshar would benefit economically as well.
Cusi relayed everything Colin told her to Haliban, including the economic analysis. Haliban was a very astute politician and had no trouble understanding, even believing what he was being told. All he needed to do was find the money to pay for the suggested fleet. The Cambridge diplomats started talking about Lahoshan’s security requirements. From the perspective of the Cambridge government, there were a lot of reasons to negotiate an attractive deal with Lahoshar for a fleet of Taipans and Cobras. Apparently, Cambridge would not need to build its own forces up quite so quickly because they wouldn’t need to be able to project quite so much power to secure the sector. The Lahoshans could and would shoulder their share of the burden. Cambridge would also not need to recruit and train quite so many ship’s crews which would ease the strain on Cambridge’s economy a little. In the end, they very cleverly offered a highly attractive deal to Lahoshar, they would leave the four Taipans and two of the Cobras here for one year to provide security while the Lahoshan government came to a decision. If a contract were signed within that year, the six ships would be kept here, only returning to Cambridge as they were replaced by the ships delivered to Lahoshar under the contract. The proposed agreement also provided for extensive training of the crews for Lahoshar’s new fleet. In the end, the contract was signed within only two days of the proposal being put forward. There were other political benefits for both Lahoshar and Cambridge when they signed the deal. Among other things, it would bring both Systems so much closer to being given a voice on the Federation Council.
With the deal signed, Sonya readied her fleet to return to Cambridge the following day. This trip turned out far better than any of them dared hope. She’d sent Colin and Carl on an interdiction mission and not only did they bag nine Peschal Alliance ships, on their own without any outside assistance, but they had also effectively convinced a System government to purchase ten Warships from Cambridge. Her two Captains achieved that mostly by demonstrating exactly how devastatingly effective those ships could be in the right hands. Colin Gordon never ceased to amaze her. She decided he needed some leave when they returned home. There were a few enhancements to be fitted to his ship so FNS Theseus would be in the dock for a few weeks anyway. She’d even been able to convince the President to sign off on the preliminary design for the new Freighter type Colin suggested. This one would be able to carry four Taipans docked to her through the Jump, then rapidly release them on the other side. This meant they could quickly move a small force to another system if the need arose and replenish them while they were there.
Chapter 7
When the Fleet arrived back at Cambridge, Commodore Nicholson ordered Colin and Carl to proceed to the shipyard hand their ships over to the yard staff then the crews were to be given three weeks’ leave. When they had done that, Commander Gordon and Commander Fraser were to meet her at Headquarters. Colin and four of his Troopers were to bring his two prisoners with him. While they were still at Cambridge, they’d recovered the spy ship, mostly to see if there were any exciting new technologies on board. They loaded it on the Freighter and transported it back to Cambridge to analyze the capabilities it possessed. They wanted to question the two prisoners about the spy ship’s capabilities. Colin reported the woman really was a slave, but his Troopers thought the man seemed to genuinely care about her. The only time the man had shown any sign of giving them some trouble was once when he thought a Trooper was going to hurt her. When Colin heard about this, some things began to make sense to him, like the stumble about her status when Dave was asked how many people were on board. He saw the look in the man’s eyes then and wondered. When they arrived at Headquarters, he handed the two prisoners over to DNI.
He pulled the DNI agent aside before the man could leave and gave him a warning, “Don’t harm the woman, the man is more likely to cooperate if you treat her well. She’s only a slave, has been all her life, but he has a connection with her. If you hurt her, you’ll have me to answer to. You know my reputation; do you want me gunning for you?”
Colin saw him swallow as he replied, “No Sir, I don’t want you after me, I don’t think anyone does.”
“Good, make sure your friends in DNI know about my interest. I want to put the Pirates out of business, not be torturing their slaves. I understand that you guys have to operate in a grey area, but as a society, we must be better than that, and we must be seen to be better than that.”
The DNI agent nodded then he and his security left with the two prisoners. When they were gone, Colin sent his Troopers off on leave, then he and Carl followed Sonya into her office. When they were seated, Sonya regarded Colin in silence for several minutes, to the point where he started to become a little
uncomfortable.
Finally, she broke the silence, “You were entirely confident when you made your comments to the DNI agent weren’t you?”
“Yes ma’am, back home, intelligence agencies have been known to step over the line on more than one occasion. When they do, some innocent usually ends up being hurt. Our job and theirs as well, is to do everything we reasonably can to protect the innocent. The man has admitted to working for the Peschal Alliance, he is pretty much open season. The woman, on the other hand, is his slave, his property. As far as we can tell, he cares very deeply about her, he may, in his heart consider her to be free, but in that society, she is still deemed to be his property. If he dies, we will be responsible for her, for making sure she understands what freedom is, and to help her make her way in our world as a free woman.”
Colin could see the compassion building in Sonya’s eyes as he spoke and when she replied, “I’m glad I have you around to remind me what’s important sometimes. I was a slave, even if only for a few days and I was only a child at the time, but I should remember. That experience is one of the reasons I joined the Navy. I’ll make sure I reinforce your comments with DNI. In fact, I’ll do that now.”
She then picked up her communicator and contacted the DNI station chief. She used somewhat more diplomatic language than Colin but still managed to get the point across. DNI owed Colin anyway and knew he didn’t ask for anything when they tasked him in the first place. If they wanted his cooperation in the future, they needed to work with him. That was consistent with his psychological assessment as well.
After she had reassured Colin about the girl, the three of them went over their logs from the previous cruise, point by point. She asked the two Captains why they made some of their decisions and made her own notes in the log files. The debriefing took three days in the end. While she tried to keep things very professional, Colin could tell Sonya was highly amused at some of his innovative tactics, especially when both ships used their primary drives as a weapon against the Pirates. The Commodore knew she would never have thought to do that. When she considered it, Sonya realized it was a logical extension of the technology. Once you knew how the drives worked, compressing space in front of the ship and stretching it behind, the spatial distortion could be quite devastating to an enemy if you passed close enough. She realized Colin did nothing more than to use the tools on hand to achieve the required result. He even had a Lahoshan Lieutenant Commander observing the entire thing. She came back wide-eyed at how close they passed by the Pirates on each of the passes where they used the drives as a weapon. But she learned, there are more ways to achieve a result than to use conventional tactics. The Cobras and two of the Taipans she took to Lahoshar with her also performed well. Apparently, they had been taking lessons from the book of St. Colin. She didn’t mind, he was helping to make the local military more efficient. Honestly, Sonya was willing to concede, he wasn’t helping, he was doing it all on his own. When the debriefing was finally finished, Colin left Headquarters with Carl, and they made their way back towards his home. Colin decided he couldn’t continue sponging off the Fraser family for much longer, it was time to find a place of his own. He decided to go see his banker there in Harmon the next day to see how much he could afford to pay then he’d go house hunting.
When they arrived back at the Fraser house, Siobhan ran out to hug and kiss Carl. Colin looked on briefly, feeling a pang of loss for Katherine then hurried inside to give them some privacy. Anne was waiting inside, and when he’d taken his duffel into his room she informed him they were all going to the coast for a break, and he was included in the ‘they.' Colin protested that she needed some time alone with her family and she sat on his bed and told him as far as any of them were concerned, he was family. Then Colin informed her he needed to do a little business over the next few days because he wanted to buy a home of his own. Her face took on a serious expression as she regarded him. About then Siobhan came into the room and hugged him and kissed him on the cheek, thanking him for bringing her husband home safe and happy. She also informed Colin he was coming to the coast with them the next day. Colin explained his intention to buy his own place to Siobhan and how he needed to see how much he could afford.
She looked into his eyes and said, “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
He just nodded, so she told him he’d better go see the bank now because he was still going with them the next day. He could look at properties online she said. Anne took him by the arm and dragged him to a ground car so she could take him to the bank. It turned out he had plenty of money to buy a property, he’d received his share of the prize money from the Freighter he and Carl captured, so his bank account was looking very healthy. Both the banker and Anne told him he could afford a very nice property with the money he had available.
The next day, the four of them went down the coast for a little rest. The Navy maintained a facility there so people could de-stress and Siobhan booked three suites for them as soon as she knew they were all home safe. Colin was idly looking through the real estate listings when he found a beautiful house set into a cliff face, high on a bluff overlooking the ocean. The price seemed affordable, so Colin contacted the agent to arrange an inspection. He fell in love with the place as soon as he walked through the door. The contracts were signed for a cash sale then arrangements were made for a legal representative to take care of the business side of things, especially as he might be called away at a moment’s notice. When all this was done, he could sit back and unwind. As was quite usual for Colin, he did a lot of sleeping during the first few days as his body wound down. The Medical Officer there checked both Colin and Carl, prescribing something to help them relax a little more. They tried their hand at fishing and bought home that evening's dinner. They did a little boating, exploring some of the local estuaries, and a little swimming. In many ways, the entire vacation reminded Colin of some of the vacations he had as a child and young adult.
They’d been on vacation for about a week when DNI arrived, asking to speak to him. He invited the two agents into his suite, and they started telling him about the young male prisoner he’d brought back from Lahoshar. Dave, it seemed, was being very cooperative but was now asking them to let Julia go, at least for a while so she could see something in this world other than the inside of a jail cell. Colin asked them why they were talking to him about this and their reply was that she had no money, nowhere to stay and wouldn’t be safe if they just pushed her out the gate of their facility. He closed his eyes for a moment, wondering about the way he seemed to be making a habit of picking up waifs and strays. Colin called Anne, asking her if she could come in. While he had room in his suite for a guest, he didn’t feel comfortable about taking the woman on without some help. Colin didn’t care about the money, though DNI were happy to pay any reasonable expenses she incurred. It was more concern about what others would think if he was in here alone with her, especially at night.
When Anne arrived, he told her about the problem. Without hesitation, Anne said she had a spare bed in her suite that the girl could use. Colin said to the DNI agents they were willing to bring her here with them but only if Julia and Dave both agreed. He could see a satisfied look on their faces as he and Anne prepared to head back to the DNI facility with them.
When they arrived there, Colin said to them, “Let me talk to Dave first.”
When Dave was led in, they sat him in a chair facing Colin. He didn’t seem to have any bruises and appeared reasonably happy and healthy.
Colin said to him, “DNI tell me you would like them to release your lady. They say she has no money and wouldn’t have anywhere to stay. They also told me she wouldn’t be safe if they just pushed her out the door. Anne here, and I have agreed to take her, at least while we’re still on the planet. If Julia comes with us, we’ll do all we can to keep her safe. I need both of you to agree this is an acceptable option. I will not drag the girl kicking and screaming out of here. Julia needs to come willingly, and we’ll see
how she goes. While she’s with us, Julia will use a spare bed in Anne’s apartment. Be aware, we will be taking steps to help prepare her for life as a free woman. Is this acceptable to you?”
Dave replied, “Yes, thank you, it is acceptable.”
After this, they showed Julia in, and Dave patiently explained to her who Colin and Anne were. He told her they would take her away from this place for a while anyway, but she needed to agree to go with them. Colin could see that she was torn, there was no point pushing it. He noticed how gentle Dave was with her, how much the man seemed to care. She looked back and forward, a slightly confused look on her face.
Finally, with a sorrowful look on her face, and the beginnings of a tear in her eyes, she asked, “Are you selling me to this man Dave?”
Star Man 2: Star Rise Page 13
