by Jeff Sims
The soldiers held up the Robert and Anna’s palms to their respective palm switches, held them there for a few seconds, and released them.
…Worker change accepted…
Loid smiled. They now had access to an armed EMP weapon. They could now fire it any time that they wanted. Or more importantly they could decide to not fire it when an invasion force arrived later that day.
Loid waved the other two soldiers away from the control panel. He did not want them to accidentally fire the EMP or unlock the blast door.
They now no longer needed the Solarians. Loid had decided long ago that he didn’t want them in the control room after he gained control of it. They could wake up and attack. There may even be a weapon hidden in here somewhere. It was too risky; they needed to leave.
The soldiers dragged the two unconscious bodies back into the bathroom and positioned them over the hole. Loid then placed a rebreather mask over each of their faces. He didn’t want them to gag and suddenly wake up during their upcoming journey.
(The Solarians were still resting peacefully on the hover carts, so dragged was probably a poor choice of a verb. The soldiers carefully pushed the two unconscious…)
He signaled the Hiriculan still standing in the sewer. The Hiriculan lowered the platform down to its lowest position and pulled both hover carts off of the platform. He moved the two hover carts safely out of the way and hung yellow caution tape around them. Finally, he raised the platform back into place.
Loid now had another decision to make – whether or not to weld the floor back into place. If he did, it would difficult for the Solarians to use the same method to retake the control room, but they would be trapped. If he didn’t, it would be easy for them to escape, but also easy for the Solarians to enter via the sewers.
Loid decided that he would rather be trapped than risk having the Solarians use his method to retake the control room. He ordered that the floor be welded back into place. One team member started welding from the top and the other started from the bottom.
The welding process used photons, or quantum particles of light, to fuse the two materials back together at a molecular level. The process, known as photonic absorption, created a weld that was virtually invisible to the naked eye and even basic scanners.
The Solarians would eventually figure out how they had infiltrated the building, but they didn’t need to give them any more clues than absolutely necessary.
Loid’la checked the time. He wanted to contact Ambassador Lone and tell him that they had succeeded, but he had been instructed not to do so. Lone’s exact words were, “I expect you to succeed; therefore, only call me if you die.”
There was little for them to do now except wait for the Hiriculan fleet to arrive. If the fleet followed the timing in the master plan was correctly, they would be here in the next two hours. All that they needed to do now was hold the control room until it arrived.
Loid considered contacting the Solarians and informing them that he was now in charge of the EMP weapon. However, there was little point in making the announcement before the fleet arrived. They wouldn’t be able to get through the massive blast door in two hours, but they might be able to find the sewer system entryway.
As if to punctuate the point, he heard the Solarians banging on the other side of the blast door. He whispered, “I hear you knocking, but you can’t come in.” He smiled, they needed weapons much larger than hammers if they intended to break through those doors.
The sewer was still a possibility, but the Solarians didn’t know where the entrances were. They would have to dig holes throughout the courtyard to try to find it. And if the external monitors showed them attempting to dig, then he responding by blasting them with an EMP pulse.
Meanwhile, the lone Hiriculan still in the sewer finished welding the bottom of the floor back in place. He then lowered the brace to lowest setting and disabled it. Next he pressed the quick return and the extension cord unplugged from the piece of equipment in the office building and rewound back to the cart.
He moved the welding hover cart to the corner beside the rubble and turned it off. He then repeated with the extension cord cart. He gave the area one last sweeping inspection. Satisfied, he removed the caution tape and dragged the two Solarian defense soldiers to the exit beside the obstacle course.
The forewoman was waiting for him at the exit. He climbed out of the sewer and together they hoisted both hover carts up and out of the sewer. The Hiriculan stripped out of his hazmat suit and dropped it back into the sewer. They removed the hazmat suits from the two Solarian soldiers and also dropped them into the sewer. The forewoman then replaced the sewer cover and concealed it with a decorative planter.
The forewoman scanned the area. She heard loud voices and Solarians running toward the defense building. Fortunately, none of them were in the green space between the buildings. That said, she knew that they had precious little time before the Solarian defense forces would arrive en masse and they would be spotted and captured.
Despite the need for speed, they didn’t want to leave the two unconscious beings so close to the obstacle course. Therefore, they drug the hover carts at a fast-paced trot away from the obstacle course and toward the new office building. They reached the rear entrance without being detected and pulled the carts inside.
They checked each occupant to ensure that they were sleeping comfortably. The forewoman noted that the female’s left hand was sitting at an uncomfortable angle, so she carefully adjusted it to a more normal position. The male Hiriculan dithered for a moment, but eventually decided to string yellow caution tape around them again.
They took the electro lift to the upper level and exited on the roof. The view was extraordinary. The backlit buildings with the plethora of on-coming lights seemed beautiful from this vantage point. They admired the view for a moment and raced to a waiting transport.
………..…………
Admiral Lopeq’la saw the two wayward soldiers as soon as they exited the building onto the roof. They were nearly 6 minutes behind schedule. They still had a few minutes to spare because fortunately the Solarian response was much slower than anticipated.
At the moment, the Solarian defense force was still haphazardly flooding toward the EMP building. They hadn’t yet thought to ground all air traffic. More importantly, the Solarian defense fighters were still several minutes away.
Lopeq’la helped them to their seats and said, “You’re late.”
The male Hiriculan replied, “The Solarians took longer to move than we expected.”
The forewoman looked over accusingly at her comrade and said, “Someone didn’t practice how to cordon off sleeping Solarians with caution tape. That was what took longer than anticipated.”
Lopeq’la nodded and said, “Sit down and activate your safety straps. It’s time to leave.”
The forewoman asked, “How did your HAS suits work?”
Lopeq’la said, “You mean the emergency evacuation device. It worked perfectly. As soon as the Solarians fired the EMP, the plate fell to the ground and dragged us out of the suit with it. We were free in just under 20 seconds and able to leave the area undetected.”
The transport flew back to the spaceport and landed in unallocated spot. With luck, they should be able to hide there in relative obscurity until the fleet arrived.
Lopeq’la checked the time; the fleet should arrive in just under an hour.
………..…………
Just under an hour later the fleet arrived.
Lopeq’la was surprised that the fleet arrived exactly on time. However, he technically shouldn’t have been. The physics of hyperspace travel are fairly well understood. Since speed in hyperspace is a constant, time is just a function of distance. The farther one goes, the longer it takes. He knew exactly when the fleet left; therefore he knew when they would arrive.
Unless one bends time of course, in which case speed in hyperspace is no longer constant. However, the occupant in that s
cenario would literally be out of time as s/he would have a serious case of the bends.
At any rate, time didn’t decide to take a bender and the aforementioned fleet of 14 warships and 1 supply ship arrived exactly on time. Lopeq’la’s surprise was, therefore, related more to the fact that the plan actually worked as planned and less toward any inconsistencies in hyperspace travel. Of course, in retrospect, he wondered why he even doubted the High Council’s master plan.
Admiral Lopeq’la climbed into the front of the transport and ushered everyone else out. He used the transport’s controls to contact the fleet. When the connection was established he said, “I need to speak to the admiral in charge.”
The Hiriculan on the other end said, “Please hold for a moment,” and broke the connection. A moment later he reestablished the connection and said, “Admiral Lopeq’la is in charge of this fleet, but he is currently on the planet. I will contact you when he is available.”
Lopeq’la was stunned. How was there no other admiral in charge of this large of a fleet? Without thinking he said, “I am Admiral Lopeq’la.”
The Hiriculan on the other end (HOTOE for ease of typing) responded, “Good news. I have the admiral. I am connecting you now.”
Lopeq’la sighed as the line had an eerie feedback and then went dead. He called back and asked, “Who used to be in charge of this fleet?”
HOTOE: “Admiral Doak’la.”
Lopeq’la sighed again. Well, he figured, it was his fault. The HOTOE had faithfully answered every one of his questions. Apparently initiative wasn’t a requirement for communications. Apparently neither was rational thought or common sense.
Lopeq’la responded, “Can you tell me what happened to him?”
HOTOE; “He died.”
Lopeq’la knew the other admiral. He wondered if he had a heart attack or something. However, he didn’t have another hour to pry the information from this HOTOE so he responded, “Is there anyone else I can talk to?” He hesitated briefly and added, “And can you connect me to that being?”
After a brief delay he was connected to someone else. She said, “Hello Admiral, I am Captain Piad’la. I am the highest ranking captain in this fleet and am currently in charge. When are you going to join the fleet and assume command?”
It was a Hiriculan Navy regulation that Lopeq’la had to be physically present on the ship in order to assume command. That way the person currently in charge was certain that the commanding officer wasn’t compromised in any way.
Lopeq’la responded, “Very soon. Can you tell me what happened to Admiral Doak’la.”
Captain Piad’la answered, “He was killed in the battle of Conron. Thousands died on both sides. This particular fleet had to be reformed from the survivors of 4 other units.” She looked down for a moment and then responded, “I just sent you a recording of the battle.”
He asked, “What are your standing orders?”
She replied, “Our orders were to simply fly here and wait for you to assume command.”
That left Lopeq’la with a conundrum. He couldn’t leave the planet in a transport because there were still Solarian Defense Force fighters flying around. They hadn’t done anything yet, but he was certain a transport filled with Hiriculans would make a worthy target. Further, he couldn’t order the captain to engage the lone Solarian cruiser and force it to resign because he wasn’t in command yet.
He responded, “I am sitting in a transport waiting to come to the fleet, but I cannot launch while Solarian fighters are still patrolling the atmosphere. I need you to assess the situation and act accordingly.”
He hoped that she would act on her own initiative and force the Solarians to surrender. She didn’t though. The fleet just sat in high orbit and waited. Apparently her assessment of the situation was to simply sit there and wait for Admiral Lopeq’la to assume command.
Instead it was Loid’la that came to the rescue. Loid contacted the commander of the Solarian defense force. The odds were that the other being was one floor above him or perhaps even standing outside the blast doors. He laughed at the thought – the Solarians were literally meters away but they may as well be kilometers for all of the good that it would do them.
Once he established communication Loid said, “Commander, please tell all your troops to stop any current and/or planned attacks. Tell your cruiser in orbit to surrender. Tell the fighters currently patrolling the atmosphere to return to base. Order all of the troops on the surface and in space to stand down immediately.”
He paused for a breath and continued, “As you may have already surmised, we have control of the EMP control room and we have a very large fleet in orbit. They haven’t attacked yet as a sign of good faith. However, they will annihilate the military structure of this planet should our negotiations fail.”
The commander asked, “What do you want?”
Loid thought that he had already established what he wanted. Oh well, he supposed it wouldn’t hurt for him to reestablish what he wanted. He figured that perhaps the other being was in shock and not listening properly.
Loid responded, “I want you to tell the entire Solarian Defense Force to stand down immediately and return to base.”
The commander said, “And what do we get if I make that order?”
Loid wanted to scream “You get to continue living you stupid imbecile!” However, he knew that that was impolite. He took a deep breath and forced himself to relax. Negotiating the surrender of an entire planet wasn’t something to be taken lightly – or emotionally.
Loid responded, “Your troops are vastly outnumbered. You no longer control the EMP weapon. If you try to fight you will be annihilated. Please evacuate the defense building and order their surrender and help me ensure that no one gets injured or killed today.”
The commander responded, “You can have the unoccupied half of the planet in exchange for returning control of the EMP weapon to us.”
Loid was getting frustrated. His earstalks rose to their highest level. He really wanted to call the other being a moronic idiot. They already had the entire planet, why would they even consider only taking a portion of it?
Loid responded, “Why did you offer that? Surely you must understand by now that we already control the planet.”
The commander replied, “You said that you wanted to negotiate, so I was negotiating. Now, tell me, what will you really take?”
Loid sighed. He did indeed say that he wanted to negotiate. He made a mental note that the next time he was discussing the surrender of an entire planet to be a little more careful with his wording.
He said, “You get a guarantee from the Hiriculan Navy that if you surrender, no civilian will be arrested, bothered, or harmed in any way without just cause. Further, all Solarian Defense Force and Alliance Navy members will be allowed to resign their commission and will be treated like civilians.”
The commander replied, “I think you can do better.”
Loid sighed. He was about to offer back-pay for resigning military members when one of his Team A members motioned for him to stop. Loid muted the communicator.
The other soldier said, “Loid’la, if you give him more then he will just ask for more. Stop the negotiations here.”
Loid smiled and nodded. He was right. Loid unmuted and said, “That was my final offer. It is a good one. I suggest you take it.”
The commander replied, “Okay, you win.”
Loid and team watched the monitors. Within minutes all of the fighters landed on the space station. The cruiser docked with the space station for an hour and then hauled all of the Solarian Defense Force personnel the short distance back to the planet. All of the soldiers stationed in the defense building left. Finally, all military personnel on the planet resigned.
Peace had been reestablished on Solaria. The overwhelming majority of Solarians slept right through the entire thing.
Loid called Ambassador Lone. He had to wait several minutes to get a connection. When he finally did, he sa
id, “Ambassador Lone, you are correct. It appears that this planet does indeed prefer discarded tree branches over uncooked vegetables.”
Ambassador Lone looked a little sleepy. It was only 5:00 in the morning, early, but not that early. Loid wondered if he was tired because he had just been woken up or if he was tired because he was up all night worried about the invasion. Loid figured it was the latter, but he knew Lone well enough to know that the other being would say it was the former.
Loid asked, “What is your role going to be in the new organization?”
Lone responded, “I will continue to be the ambassador to Solaria in function, though my official title may change to facilitator or something similar. I will still try to help individuals with their problems. From my perspective very little will change.”
Loid responded, “Okay.”
Lone continued, “Over the course of the next few hours we will negotiate a formal peace treaty with the Solarian government. Note that we are dealing directly with the Solarian officials, not the Alliance representatives.”
He paused for a moment, figured that Loid was going to ask why, and continued, “The reason is that only the Solarian government has the right or perhaps better stated the ability to secede from the current Alliance.”
Loid said, “So, we are going to offer peace in exchange for Solaria leaving the Alliance. Then what?”
Lone finished, “They will be required to join a new Alliance led by Hiricula; one with fair and even participation. However, Hiricula will provide the only military for the foreseeable future.”
Next he called Kood’la, the Hiriculan soldier guarding Ponwe and his family and told them that could return to their homes.
Kood’la responded, “They are all asleep. I will wait for them to wake up to before sending them home.”
Loid asked, “Did you have any problems?”
Kood’la said, “No. None, the children woke up when they heard a few loud bangs, but they comforted them and they went back to sleep. Ponwe woke up and wanted to know what was really happening. I told him as much as I knew.”
Loid nodded and cut the communication. He would probably have to apologize for lying to him for 2 years about the real reason for building an office building right next to the defense force. Well, that and stunning him with a beam weapon. He wasn’t worried though, he was confident that Ponwe would understand.
