by Ben Winston
“Hello Admiral, long time, no see. How have you been?” Ariel asked and gave Hs'ean a hidden wink.
Hs'ean Bowed. “I am well, Highness. You are kind to ask. I understand you have a dilemma I may be of assistance with?”
While the two women had been talking, the new people had been staring, wide eyed, at their surroundings. Even Luke and Karen seemed to be a little over-whelmed.
“Well, not so much a dilemma as a potentially fatal case of hard-headedness,” Ariel replied.
“Really? I do hope it's not contagious,” Hs'ean replied with a slight smirk. “I've asked the people you spoke of to join us in my conference room. Will that be acceptable?”
“Perfectly, Admiral. Please lead on,” Ariel replied. However, before they could begin walking, there was an interruption.
“Excuse me, Highness, Admiral. May I take our new recruits down to Marine Country and show them around? It might be wise to plan a training update for them as well. We do use different weapons and armor than they're used to,” Bri'tell asked.
“Of course, Master Chief. Just don't kill them please,” Ariel asked.
“Ahh, then perhaps a trip through medical first then. Gentlemen, please follow me,” Bri'tell said, nodding in a different direction.
Just as the men turned in a different direction, Karen kissed her daughter on the cheek and followed the men. When Luke raised an eyebrow at his wife, she grabbed his hand. “I don't give a good goddamn about your opinion, Mister Major Janis, Sir, I almost lost you to the military many times before. This time, I'm going to be right beside you.”
“Okay, but I've seen some of the female Marines, Karen. Wouldn't you like to fly our shuttle for us instead?” Luke suggested.
“Are you trying to tell me I couldn't handle it?” Karen said getting pissed.
Luke held up his hands in defense. “No! Not at all, it's just... uh, I kinda like you the way you are. Besides, I think Alex might have a hard time with both of us leaving her behind like this.” He nodded to the retreating backs of the Admiral's Party.
“Maybe, I should go talk to her first. I'll give the pilot thing some thought too. But don't think for a second that this discussion is over yet,” Karen said.
Luke bent down and kissed her on the lips. “You kind of ambushed me with it too. Please just this time, go with Alex, and we'll all have a family talk about it later, Okay?”
She nodded. “I love you, come back to us soon.” With that, she trotted off after the women.
When Luke turned back to the Group, Grant was fighting a grin, his son wouldn't meet his eyes, and Bri'tell was chuckling. “Master Chief, I know better than to threaten to kick your ass yet, but I can take solace in the fact that now you know what you have to look forward to... Son!”
Bri'tell opened his mouth to reply, but stopped and thought about it. “Oh shit! Sir, I beg you, please don't say anything to the rest of the boys and girls about me getting' married to your daughter. I'll be kickin' ass for the next Imperial Year, and still won't have an end to it!”
“What? Don't you think the rest of the Marines would like to help you celebrate your promotion? After all Fleet Master Chief Petty Officer to Imperial Prince is one hell of a jump!” Luke replied teasing the Chief.
Luke heard Bri'tell mutter something under his breath that sounded like 'damn officers'. “What was that Master Chief? I didn't quite hear you?”
“I said I'm very sorry I laughed at you, Sir!”
Luke laughed out-loud, and put his arm across Bri'tell's wide shoulders. “God it’s going to be so much fun teasing you, Bri'tell!”
“Well, since you put it that way... Dad; I was a wonderin' how you'd feel when you found out that your beautiful daughter has chosen a mate that is so much older than she is?” Bri'tell said priming his own poke at Luke.
“What do you mean?” Luke asked. Bri'tell didn’t look much older than Ariel did.
“You didn't get much of a briefing about the Empire, but we do have much better medical care which allows us to live a much longer time than those of you born on Terra. For example, the Emperor is over three hundred of your years, and is still quite active,” Bri'tell explained, matter-of-factly.
“Oh? So just how old are you, Fleet Master Chief?” Luke asked arching one eyebrow.
“Well, sir, Let me just say that obtaining ranks in the imperial Marines is actually slightly harder than the American Marines you're used to. Currently, there are forty-seven others that hold an equivalent rank to mine, and as such, I am the highest ranking non-commissioned officer in the fleet. Of the NCO's in the Imperial Marines, only one holds the rank of Imperial Master Chief. He is stationed on Aldus Forward to keep the half-wit officers there under control.”
“Master Chief! Aren't our Commanders stationed there?” Luke asked.
Bri'tell didn't miss a beat. “Aye, sir. So you do see my point then.”
“Yes I do, but it doesn't answer my original question.”
“No, I don't suppose it did. I'm thirty-two imperial years old,” Bri'tell replied.
“Ariel's almost twenty-one. You are a little old for her, but not to terribly bad.”
“I'm really glad you agree sir, because by that same scale, Ariel's only six,” Bri'tell replied.
As Ariel entered the room, everyone stood. “Captains, Ladies, thank you for meeting with us. Please be seated. I'd like to introduce my companions,” Ariel began as everyone had gotten in the room. They were also trying to find seats. “First is my body guard, and close friend, mKail.” the woman nodded her head at the table from where she was standing behind Ariel.
“Next to me is my mother, Princess Karen Janus. On her right is my other mother, Princess Alexis Moran-Parker, next is Duchess Hanya Frie of the Ophuchi Cluster. Next to her is Mrs. Francine Meyers, wife of Marine Captain Grant Meyers. Their eldest child, Gillian is next with her new friend, Ensign Jergen.” Then Ariel turned to the Meyers women.
“Ladies, may I make known to you, Fleet Admiral Hs'ean, Commander in Chief for the third Imperial Battle Fleet and my chief of military operations. Next to her is her Flag Captain, Senior Fleet Captain G'ries, Captain and Commander of this Vessel, the I.S.S. Divine Light.
“Next to the Captain, is Captain Argus Tyrr, his wife and First Officer, Jessica Mathias-Tyrr of the medium freighter Merchant’s Profit.
“Next, is Ms. Kaitlin Collins who is rapidly on her way to claiming a degree from the Imperial University for Theoretical Physics, and is one of our brightest minds that are helping drive our efforts here.
“Lastly, but by no means the least; the Divine Light himself. I mean of course the Artificial Intelligence that is the ship's control and interface construct. Good Evening Divine Light.”
“Good evening, Highness. Welcome back to your flagship,” The male, disembodied voice of the ship replied.
“Thank you. Ladies and Gentlemen, good evening, and thank you for agreeing to this meeting. Jessica and Kaitlin are repatriated slaves that were originally taken from Earth, and Captain Tyrr and the Merchant’s Profit are former slavers.
“My purpose this evening is to convince Francine and Gillian that the threat to Earth does, in fact, include them.” She turned toward Francine and Gillian. “Do you have any questions at this point? Please try to remember that neither Captain speaks English, so their replies will be slightly delayed while DL does the translations.”
“Does the Admiral speak English then?” Francine asked.
Hs'ean nodded her head at Francine. “Yes, Mrs. Meyers, I do. I had far more time for learning it since I knew I would be speaking with Her Highness when we arrived. Both Captains are learning as fast as they can, but even with Imperial teaching methods, it still takes time.”
Francine nodded her understanding. Hs'ean had spoken clearly enough to be understood, but she still had a strong accent.
A chime was heard and a young man entered the room to whisper a message into Hs'ean's ear, as Gillian asked Jess why she had married a slaver Capt
ain when she had been a slave herself.
Ariel only half listened to the conversation taking place at the table, instead she was watching the Messenger and the Admiral. “Cole, any idea what's going on?”
“Divine Light just received a battle report from the ships we sent to the transit lane terminus. Several unidentified fighters and other small warships made transit and attacked the ships building the outpost. Don't worry, our girls are still safe, although Wendy jumped back through the lane to see where the ships are coming from. At the time of this report, she hadn't returned, nor had she sent a message. I imagine Taylor is worried sick,” Cole replied.
“I don't understand. Isn't the protective force we sent as protection enough to handle a few fighters?” Ariel asked.
“Normally it would be more than enough. But we are talking about a lot of fighters. There are other ships too, some of them are bombers that are only used for attacking line ships or larger. And a few are a type of small, very maneuverable ship that is basically a torpedo boat, but with enough defensive weapons to protect themselves,” Cole replied. “Our forces on station may not be enough. We could lose all of them.”
Just as Hs'ean was about to interrupt the discussion, Ariel did it for her. “Excuse me ladies. Admiral, you and the Captain go do what you need to do. I got this.”
Both older women bowed and hurriedly left the room. When Ariel turned back to the now quiet table, she smiled. “I am sorry for the interruption, please, continue.”
“Can we ask what that was all about?” Francine asked.
Ariel shrugged. “I don't know the details, but this fleet is spread out over two sectors, and has elements deployed to a third for a construction project. That's a lot of stuff to deal with, so I assumed they would have to leave us to deal with it, so I simply beat her to the punch.”
“Oh,” Francine said, then turned back to the three people on the other side of the table. “I don't really see the problem with taking the bums, street-people, and maybe even a few of the terminal welfare cases. Hell it would sure help our society out quite a bit. Hell! They can have all of the Taliban!” Francine was trying to be funny, but no one laughed.
“Ma'am, no one should be put through this. Just so you know, I've never been on welfare, been homeless, or been a bum. I was however, a junior at Michigan State University. I had just been awarded a scholarship to attend MIT, and I was engaged to the son of the wealthiest man in Detroit. The night I got the letter for my scholarship, my girlfriends and I went out to celebrate. My fiancé, Paul, was going to meet us at the club, but we never made it,” Kaitlin said, and swallowed past the lump in her throat.
“The woman that I was died later that night when I was savagely brutalized by the slaver crew in just about every way they could think of. They beat all of us so badly that the Captain of the ship got mad and even back-handed one of the men. They brought a doctor in to treat us, but when he left, he took my friend Gina. I never saw her again, but I could hear her screaming for days.
“Another woman was put in our cage with us, she immediately began trying to teach us things, but we couldn't understand her. That night, after none of us had learned what we were supposed to, she was taken out of our cell, chained to the cell opposite ours, and whipped with what looked like a small glowing bullwhip.
“We later discovered it was called a neuro-whip. I've felt it too, I'd much prefer the bull whip. You see, what that little piece of hell does is send electrical impulses of pain to your brain, it doesn't actually do any damage. A person can be whipped to death without a mark ever being left on their body.
“We all really tried to learn what she was teaching us after that, but she was still whipped every night. I have a penchant for learning languages, and it took the better part of a month to get to our destination. In that time, I learned enough of their language to understand the woman, and to help her by telling the others what she was trying to get them to do. The woman smiled, but still looked sad. That night she was taken away to another part of the ship, and all of us were whipped.
“A few days later, my last friend, Pamela, was taken to the Captain. He'd taken a liking to her, and wanted to keep her as his own. As they were taking her away, she told me she loved me, and apologized. Two hours later, the Captain was screaming as he was helped to the medical officer, and Pammy was tied to the cell and whipped to death in front of me. Before she died, she said she'd bit the bastard's manhood off. After she was dead, the first officer cut her open with his knife and recovered his Captain's missing property. They pushed her body into the airlock, and blew her out into space.
“Because of my beauty and intelligence, I was sold as a Concubine. There was a lot of bidding, and I finally sold for thirty-two thousand royals. Don't let the title fool you though, it simply means that I was merely a more expensive whore.
“I don't want to go into any more detail, but I will say my life got worse from there. Finally, after I'd served too long in the brothel, I was given to the Captain of a mercenary ship as partial payment for killing Ariel.
“After the attempt failed to kill her, Her Highness instead rescued, and set me free. I would have gone home but I've learned that my family held funeral services for me after seven years. Paul, was so upset he spent a few weeks on suicide watch. He still hasn't so much as dated another woman. I can't go back to my old life. I'd have to answer too many questions, and honestly, it was a shallow and meaningless life anyway.
“Slavers don't care about social class, money or how much power you have on Earth. They don't care if you have a family, or children. To them, you're not even human. You're a natural resource to be harvested, and sold at their whim. I will do everything in my power to stop these bastards. But the point is, no one on Earth is exempt. No one on Earth is safe.
“If you think this isn't your problem, than I pity you. If you think any of this is fine, or something that should be done to people just because you don't like them, well, I'm pretty sure we can arrange a nice cell for you on one of the slave ships returning to market.”
“Please pardon the interruption,” Divine Light said. “Your Highness, the Admiral begs the favor of your presence on the Flag Bridge regarding a matter of some urgency.”
“Thank you. Please tell the Admiral I'll be there as soon as I can,” Ariel replied. “Captain Tyrr, would you be so kind as to entertain all these ladies while I see what the Admiral wants?”
“Of Course, Highness. It would be my honor if all of you would be our guests for dinner,” Argus replied holding Jessica's hand. “Jess is a wonderful cook.”
That was the last that Ariel heard as she and mKail left the room and headed for the nearest lift.
Very quietly, Ariel leaned into mKail to whisper in her ear. “Something's going on out at the wormhole. We've taken casualties.”
Chapter Seven
Flag Command Bridge
Command Super Dreadnaught, I.S.S. Divine Light
142 degrees north, 62 degrees west trans-solar orbit
Sol System, Horon-A Sector.
Senior Fleet Captain G'ries, Commanding.
As Ariel walked purposefully onto the Flag command bridge, she turned to head for Sean beside the big holotank. “What's up, Admiral?”
“I think we might have a problem, Highness. Several hundred, as yet unidentified, fighters and light attack craft have exited the transit lane and have attacked our people there. We've taken considerable casualties, and they've asked for assistance. Guardian Candidate Wendy jumped into the lane in an effort to discover the origin of the attackers. She returned ten minutes ago but was badly injured when she made an emergency landing on the Anvil.
“She was unable to make the report, so her AI made it for her. The assault had been a probe to determine the defenses on this side of the lane. The AI said there was a still unidentified Super-Carrier class capitol ship with heavy cruiser escort. It looked like they were preparing to make the transit when the Guardian Candidate finally eluded them, and mad
e the transit back. However, her ship had been very badly damaged in the escape and will need to be replaced.
“While our two cruisers returned to the construction ship for repairs, Guardian Candidate Taylor has placed her ship in the center of the exit lane at a distance of only twenty-five hundred of your miles. She will not accede to orders to retreat to a safe distance. She placed herself and her ship there because it is the optimum range for her scanners to detect an incoming transit.
“I would like to dispatch the Grrath and the Dtetant plus their supports. Both are battleships capable of running as separate task groups,” Sean finished.
Ariel looked thoughtful. “This milk run has turned into a very dangerous mission.” She paused to consider. “I hate to ask this of you, but I would like you to consider sending Thorn, Tewney and your daughter out there as well. If you do, I would like them to take an assault team with them. We need to identify those ships,” she got really close to the older woman. “There is something I really need to tell you. Can we use your ready room for a few moments?”
Sean nodded, but instead of heading for the room, she looked up at her operations manager. “Send a Guardian alert to Tewney. Have them report to me five minutes ago for a mission brief. Open a slot in the secure hanger for Tewney. Do a sweep of the hanger, then seal it until she gets here. Double guards. No one in without my direct authorization. Order the Grrath and her escorts to ready for deployment. Copy same to the Dtetant and her escorts as well. Recall the rest of the fleet, stealth approach and parking protocol.” The man nodded, but Sean had already turned and headed for the small room she used as her operational office.
Once the door was secured. Sean turned to Ariel. “What's up?”
“Hanya came here to relay a message from Cr'ale through her Queen.” Ariel told her Cr'ale's message about the potential slaver war fleet.
Sean rattled off a string of curses that would have made every sailor aboard the Divine Light proud of their commander. It certainly impressed Ariel, and she didn't even know what half of them had been.
