The Asteroid Belt

by Stephen Brandon

Chapter 5 The meeting and results

  Day 4560 Friday

  To:Fleet Admiral Brandon

  From:Fleet Admiral Shemeka, Earth Defense Force

  I have received your transmission. A radio conference can be arranged. I suggest a distance of 1 light minute be maintained. I will be in an orbit around the Sun near the Sun Earth L3 point in 240 hours. I will be accompanied by several warships. You may bring any forces you so desire. Only a portion of my chain of command will be present. I will give orders to all my security ships that they are to destroy your force if anything happens to me or my chain of command. We will be in at least 5 different command ships. Is that agreed to.

  xxx

  Day 4561 Saturday

  To:Fleet Admiral Shemeka

  From:Fleet Admiral Brandon

  Acknowledge your transmission.

  I have ordered a 90 day hold on all military action except for self defense.

  Location and time of meeting approved. I will be on station in 59 days.

  xxx

  To:Fleet Admiral Brandon

  From:Fleet Admiral Shemeka

  I have issued orders for a cessation of military actions against the Belt Defense forces for 90 days. I also ordered our surveillance forces to hibernate for 90 days. My fleet will be near meeting point on time.

  xxx

  Day 4590 Sunday

  Catfish to HQ: Radar target detected, telescope shows remains of Enterprise however am receiving suit distress signal from same location. Rendezvous possible in 2 days. Advise.

  Day 4591 Monday

  HQ to Catfish: There was 1 of the new suits that contained a 30 day environment aboard the Enterprise. Use same frequency to signal the suit and tell them to meet you an not less than 30000 KM from Enterprise wreckage under their own power.

  Day 4594 Thursday

  Catfish to HQ: Almost blasted Capt. Fredericks because he was towing an old type suit when he came out. The weapons master needs more medical aid than we have aboard this fighter. Am proceeding under top emergency acceleration to nearest station. Will notify you in 17 hours if we need a catcher. Inform Gearbox ETA 19 hours.

  Day 4710 Monday

  0319 hours Conference fleet consist of Enterprise 2, 4 new fighters, 4 old fighters and 1 cargo ship. Enemy fleet has been located. We are re-positioning our location because their trajectory will bring them less than 1 light minute from our trajectory.

  0815 hours Our trajectory is now parallel to theirs. Communications have been initiated. Admiral Shemeka wants video, not just voice. Video rigged using laptop. Admiral Shemeka turns out to be a woman. After a few pleasantries I outlined my Fleet order 1 and the wishes of the Belt Assembly. I then told her that we needed to define some rules of engagement and general rules of war. Otherwise we would just be two barbarians fighting to the destruction of every human being in existence. She pondered this and requested a 3 hour recess. I informed her then that I was going to re-position my fleet and she might desire to do the same. Ballistic weapons were a problem because of size and hardness to detect.

  I then ordered our original formation to be changed to formation 2 that looked like a flat platter with all ships 5000 KM apart. As expected the Earth fleet went on high alert and all ships reported they had been targeted. I told them to continue to drift to the new formation and maintain passive targeting. I then called Admiral Shemeka and asked why we were being targeted after informing them that we were re-positioning our squadron. I knew that using the word squadron instead of fleet would cause many to scratch their heads and contemplate our capabilities and number of warships.

  Ensign Louiski reported that one of the enemy fleet ships was moving backwards with no thrustors detected. I used the command channel to order all ships to emergency thrust and change trajectories. I then ordered arc formation 10000 KM to solar south.

  As I finished the order Admiral Shemeka radioed that one of their gunners had gone rogue and fired upon your formation using a rail gun.

  I informed her that we had taken evasive action as soon as we detected the weapons launch. If any of our ships were destroyed we would expect to observe the results of the gunners treason carried out on camera or the launching ship would be targeted and destroyed using secondary weapons from one of my fighters.

  Our commo listened and played over our intercom the orders from Admiral Shemeka to the Captain of the offending ship. Disobeying orders is a crime under space regulations punishable by death. Breaking a truce conference under space regulations is punishable by death. Attempted assassination is a crime under space regulations and is punishable by death. The Captain would proceed to move his ship outside the formation by 1000 KM. While in-transit he would inform the prisoner of the 3 death sentences he was under. Upon assuming new station the prisoner would be placed in an airlock and expelled into space without a space suit. The Captain pleaded with the Admiral because the gunner was his son. The Admiral then informed the Captain that they had better get the camera turned on and carry out the sentence. The Captain refused and ordered his ship to full thrust to make a run for it. Admiral Shemeka then told all her ships to stand down all weapons and radars.

  It took a minute to verify. She then requested me to have her order carried out, and then added the word please. I ordered one fighter to parallel their course and start cutting parts off the ship starting at the engines until the they were incapable of powered flight. If weapons were launched against them just punch a hole where the launch site is. Broadcast all actions on VHF frequencies and try to keep the fleeing ship centered in the picture. I informed Admiral Shemeka that the action she requested would be broadcast on VHF frequencies and she might want the Ship Captains and Staff to observe.

  Lt Jg Lee Merryweather flying the Dog Catcher caught the fleeing ship in 15 minutes and was able to assume a good angle of attack in less than 8 minutes more. He reported ready to carry out the request by Admiral Shemeka as soon as she gave authorization.

  Her authorization comment was to ask Lt Jg Merryweather to try not to kill to many of the crew of that ship. She really wanted the gunner and the Captain to execute in person.

  Lt Jg Merryweather cut off the near rocket nozzle. He then orbited the ship 100 degrees clockwise and cut off the second rock nozzle. He then moved another 80 degrees clockwise and cut off the third rocket nozzle and started cutting upward toward the ignition chambers. The pieces coming off the rear of the fleeing ship were disquieting. Finally he cut into one of the ignition chambers. Flames started shooting out the cut and the camera image showed the side of the ignition chamber melting. The operation had been going on over 30 minutes and yet the captain of that ship still had not cut his engines even though he must have realized that his rocket engines were no longer fully operational. Merryweather re-positioned his ship and cut straight through the whole rear of the ship at the level of the ignition chambers. The whole rear of the ship blew away and the flames appeared to jump to a distance of about 5 meters from the cut end of the ship.

  Merryweather called Admiral Shemeka and told her that he was hesitant to cut any higher for fear of cutting the fuel lines and the control valves. This would cause uncontrollable fuel venting and probably an explosion that would kill everyone aboard.

  She called the escaping ship one last time and ordered the captain to shut down his engines. He told her to go to hell. She then ordered Lt Jg Merryweather to remove his ship from the vicinity of the fleeing ship. As soon as he was clear one of the remaining Earth ships launched 2 missiles. They went straight to rear of the fleeing ship and detonated. The nuclear fireball was blinding.

  She then came back over the open radio band and instructed the Captains of all ships to lock down all weapons because she didn't want any more incidents.

  She admitted that there was a lot of hate on both sides due to the loss of life from the earlier attacks. We agree to not target civilian habitats and stations withi
n the Belt. We will however start launching massive numbers of missiles at your military ships when ever a battle is joined. We will ambush your military ships whenever possible to reduce our casualties and loss of ships. Since you did not occupy the area in the Belt near Ceres that area will be our first conquest and we will attack from there in both directions until we control the complete asteroid belt. Your Belt government can surrender at any time.

  I then informed her that nuclear explosions within the asteroid belt would destabilize the orbit of many asteroids. Once their orbits were destabilized and they entered the inner solar system they would be attracted to gravity wells, in other words the planets including Earth. She should check with the experts about the effects of asteroids entering any of the Lagrange points for any of the planets. If that wasn't enough to give her pause she should look back to the Shoemaker-Levi incident with Jupiter back in the early 2000's. Any large asteroid would bring the Earth's civilization to it's knee's about as fast as a world wide nuclear war. She had a copy of my Fleet orders 1 & 2. When I returned to the Belt I would let her decide if she needed a demonstration. Since Mars was uninhabited I would launch 1 asteroid massing approximately 200 metric tons and let them know when it would strike. That would be the proof that a full scale war between the Belt or another planet was a form of suicide. I would contact her be long range radio in 25 hours unless she had anything else to say now.

  Admiral Shemeka replied that she had no comments for now and would await my call.

  I ordered my small fleet to head directly toward the asteroid belt.

  Her fleet remained where it was.

  Day 4712 Wednesday

  Received message from Admiral Shemeka that they would be in position to observe Mars whenever we decided to start the demonstration.

  Day 4753 Tuesday

  Finished refueling all the fighters. They found a nice mixed composition asteroid massing a little over 200 metric tons. They also found a dozen icy asteroids for me to gobble up and turn into fuel on the way. I got the asteroid into the basket and latched down. It took 23 hours to exit the belt and start the trajectory that would take the asteroid to Mars. After accelerating at 1 G for another 20 hours we went into free fall. I sent a message that the asteroids trajectory would take it close to the Sun Mars L4 point so I would not release it until I was absolutely sure it would hit Mars and not miss. The reason was Earth's orbital position. Impact would be in 19 days.

  Admiral Shemeka requested the best location for observing the impact.

  I told her anywhere in a cone 70 to 90 degrees out from the planets direction of orbit calculated using the L4 point as the incoming trajectory.

  Day 4863 Sunday

  Admiral Shemeka informed us all her ships were in position and were recalculating our trajectory. We would hit Mars almost head on.

  Day 4868 Friday

  My navigator and Admiral Shemeka's navigators all agree the asteroid cannot miss Mars.

  I disengaged from the asteroid and using thrustors to distance my ship to 1000 KM.

  Day 4869 Saturday

  After checking trajectory of asteroid we fired up our main engine to change our orbit. I requested Admiral Shemeka transmit live because I wanted the Belt assembly to also see why I was so opposed to any direct attack on Earth.

  Encrypted message from Admiral Shemeka to Admiral Brandon: Are you telling me that the Belt Assembly wanted to use this type of weapon against Earth?

  Encrypted message from Admiral Brandon to Admiral Shemeka: Yes, 99% of civilians do not realize the destructive power of nuclear or ballistic weapons. If I had not been firmly in charge of the Belt Defense Military Forces before the 2nd attack where we sustained our large groups of civilian casualties, Earth would be the target of several of these rocks. Why do you think I waited until the last minute to release this rock. I don't like accidents.

  Encrypted message from Admiral Shemeka to Admiral Brandon: I have just notified Earth astronomers to train all telescopes on Mars. I have telescopic pictures of your ship releasing the rock and changing your orbit. This will give a perspective of size between your ship and the rock aimed at Mars. One of my physicist estimates that a rock massing 200 metric tons will be equivalent to 170 mega tons of TNT at its present velocity.

  Encrypted message from Admiral Brandon to Admiral Shemeka: I don't have anyone aboard to do those type calculations. All my weapons master says is that he doesn't want to be within 100,000 KM of impact.

  Message in the clear from Admiral Shemeka to Admiral Brandon: We will start transmitting in 18 hours. My navigator tells me that will 30 minutes before impact.

  Message in the clear from Admiral Brandon to Admiral Shemeka: Remember, cooler heads have so far controlled this war. I hope it continues. Nuclear explosions in the asteroid belt will destabilize the orbits of to many asteroids and they will all be wild cards in the inner solar system and hit where the gravitational forces take them. The whole inner solar system could be devastated. Call me in a few weeks.

  Day 4870 Sunday

  Started our cameras. Had both Mars and the asteroid in the same frame. Radar indicated that we would miss the nearest Earth ship by over a 2000 KM. I informed the pilot that I wanted 3 course corrections before we passed them in the next 22 minutes and a full radar sweep of all trajectories to insure we didn't run into anything. The filming went according to what I expected.

  When the rock hit the surface of Mars we no longer had a good camera angle, but we saw the impact plume and the dust in the atmosphere that showed the compression waves going around the planet. When they met on the back side of Mars they pushed an atmospheric plume almost half a diameter out.

  My weapons master said he miscalculated. Make that a million KM or more. I told him to continue filming as long as possible because I wanted to see what happened to the atmospheric plume.

  Message in the clear from Admiral Brandon to Admiral Shemeka: Did any of your ships get a picture of the atmospheric plume on the back side of Mars?

  Message in the clear from Admiral Shemeka to Admiral Brandon: Yes, two of our camera angles recorded it. We are continuing to film because the destruction on the surface is continuing to develop.

  Day 4872 Tuesday

  Admiral Shemeka called a halt to filming Mars. She had transmitted over 40 hours of live images from 1 impact of a 200 metric ton asteroid hitting Mars.

  Her fleet left for Earth while Mars was still in major turmoil.

  Day 4880 Wednesday

  Intercepted message from Earth HQ to Admiral Shemeka's flagship Captain: Admiral Shemeka is to be arrested for treason for consorting with the enemy.

  Her courts-martial in absentia resulted in a verdict of guilty. You are ordered to execute her death sentence immediately.

  Day 4881 Thursday

  Three of Admiral Shemeka's fleet changed course for the Belt. That left 2 ships headed for Earth.

  Two hours later another one also changed course. The radar tracks indicated intersecting the belt in sector B5.

  Message in the clear from Admiral Shemeka to Admiral Brandon: We are 4 ships of soldiers requesting asylum in the Asteroid Belt. We have 83 day food supply. We surrender all military equipment in our possession to the Belt Assembly Government. Request location for us to proceed to.

  Day 4885 Monday

  I instructed Admiral Shemeka to proceed to Ceres and await further instructions.

  Day 4886 Tuesday

  Fleet Admiral Brandon to Admiral Shemeka: You will proceed to Ceres and follow the orders from my fighters. Their orders are to observe you land and secure your ships to the surface. No close contact is allowed.

  Fleet Admiral Brandon to Alice, Bluebird, and Jackal 2: You will observe the Earth Fleet land and secure their ships to Ceres. No close contact is allowed.

  Day 4996 Sunday

  I was called to report to the Assembly as soon as I docked at Gearbox station
. Jackal 1 was waiting. When I got transferred and we started to Wonderland and I looked at Doug and the guards he had with him and asked him, are you an escort or a prisoner guard detachment. He said he really didn't know. He had been instructed to pick me up and bring me to the Council Chambers ASAP. Then he handed me my rank tabs and suggested I put them on.

  I felt like a prisoner even if this was a military escort. When we arrived in the Assembly council chambers the Commander in Chief called me to attention. She stated that Earth had the right idea about dealing with Fleet Commanders that didn't do as the Civilian Government directed them. These proceedings are being transmitted live to all the Belt and using the high power transmitter and to Earth on VHS frequencies.

  Charge 1: Consorting with the enemy.

  Charge 2: Making private deals with Admiral Shemeka.

  Charge 3: Unauthorized use of Belt Defense Military equipment.

  Charge 4: Allowing an armed enemy militarily force to enter the asteroid belt unopposed.

  Charge 5: Unauthorized transmission of effects of our military weapons.

  Charge 6: Allowing the enemy to direct one of our fighters to perform a military action.

  Charge 7: Appearance unbecoming an officer in the Belt Defense Military Force.

  Then she asked me how I plead. I plead not guilty to all charges except charge 7.

  She then informed me that my courts martial had been held by the Assembly and the decision would be read.

  Charge 1: You were acting with the approval of the Assembly. Not guilty

  Charge 2: You were acting with the approval of the Assembly. Not guilty

  Charge 3: As Fleet Admiral you are authorized to direct all use of Belt Defense Military equipment. Not guilty.

  Charge 4: As Fleet Admiral of the Belt Defense Military force it is within your discretion to allow defecting military forces to seek sanctuary. Not guilty.

  Charge 5: As Fleet Admiral this was a judgment call. The Assembly is not real happy about your disclosure of one of our weapon systems. However the results of the weapons test needed to be made public. Not guilty.

  Charge 6: As Fleet Admiral of the Belt Defense Military force it is within your discretion to allow orders be relayed and followed by Belt Defense Military personnel from an enemy Fleet Admiral. This is not a procedure that is approved of, but as Fleet Admiral it was a decision call that will not be lightly overlooked. Not guilty but a reprimand will be placed in your file.

  Charge 7: Your appearance is unbecoming an officer in the Belt Defense Military Force. Guilty, prisoner will be discharged from the Belt Military Defense Force and confined to quarters under guard until 0900 tomorrow morning and brought before the Belt Assembly.

  She then instructed Doug to have the guards escort me, the prisoner, to my quarters.

  Day 4997 Monday

  I was escorted to the Assembly Chambers and the guards lined up behind me like a firing squad only they were armed with swords.

  The Commander in Chief stopped conferring with the other members of the Assembly and called me to approach the dais. When she was assured that the broadcast was going out live she called up the senior Assembly Woman.

  She started by saying that even a democracy could pull traditions from history. You have been court marshaled and found guilty of one charge. As a result of that you were sentenced and discharged from the Belt Defense Force. You have completed your sentence. The civilian government has made a decision that you have faithfully served the civilian Belt Government so the civilian Belt Government authorizes the following. You will be knighted an henceforth be know as Sir Brandon. This authorizes and requires that all persons henceforth may refer to you by the honorific of Sir, Knight of the Belt. You have authority over all men within the Belt except the Belt Military Force and don't forget Romans 12:17 to 21. Have a good day Sir Brandon.

  I stood there like a moron when the Commander in Chief stepped back up to the dais. Sir Brandon, you realize that when you were convicted you lost all rank and privileges and were discharged from the Belt Defense Military force.

  As soon as I acknowledged the fact she pulled a piece of paper out, signed it, and started reading. Basically it was a draft notice approved by the Assembly this morning. I was drafted into the Belt Defense Military Forces with the permanent rank of Fleet Admiral and instructed to report for duty. She then handed me Fleet Admiral shoulder boards. Doug stepped up and helped me put the 5 star boards on. She then handed me the orders and I saluted. I was then dismissed and she said to see her at 1300. Doug's guards escorted me to the cafeteria and they brought me a full breakfast, even though it was after 1000 hours.

  At 1255 hours I got up and headed under escort back to the Assembly Chambers. Just beyond the chamber door Doug stepped into the hall and waived for me to come there. I entered the room and the Commander in Chief waived for me to have a seat. After she got off the phone she looked at me and said you are a popular son of a bitch. Do you know I got 218 death threats last night from Freedom Station One because of your court martial. Sixty two of those were from children over the age of 10. To damn bad you ain't a woman, we could use you on the Assembly. That's why you were knighted while you were a civilian this morning. The knight idea actually came from a 13 year old female. I do read my e-mails no matter what some of those idiots on the stations say. Also there was some unauthorized fighter movement detected by Doug last night. I talked to Brenda, Paulette and Wanda over in your HQ and they reported that over ¾ of the fighter fleet stopped acknowledging orders from HQ. You have a discipline problem there. Also last night the scout at Ceres reported that Fleet Admiral Shemeka communicated with somebody on Freedom Station One and Gearbox asking if they needed any assistance freeing one prisoner named Brandon. Shall I have Doug dig out the mole or will you talk to Frederick and Wendel. I guess we were lucky that both of them said they would handle it without her needing to put her personnel in peril and that is a quote recorded last night. We are a very young republic and we need some traditions ingrained into the fabric of our society to preserve our freedoms. Jackal 3 is now your flag ship. I think you will have more loyalty now from any crew selected by your staff than Julius Cesar had at his high point in his military career. Here is a pardon signed by the full Assembly dated today giving you a pardon for any actions whether as a civilian or while in the military in the past or future. Doug and Sissy are the only others that have the access code to bring up a picture of this document. Elections are coming up soon and I think that the Assembly will have some new members. This should give you cart-blanch if any of the new members are insane, stupid, or not true believers. Go get Fleet Admiral Shemeka and insure their loyalty to the Belt Government. Paulette found an old oath of fealty and said you knew what to do with it. Dismissed.

  Day 4998 Tuesday

  0900 Doug picked me up at Freedom Station One where I had been in conference with Lieutenant Commander Frederick P. Cole. He said that he had been contacted by Shemeka and she offered to put all her forces under his command to free me. Then I told him that charge 7 was a bull shit charge so they could convict me and dismiss me from the service. The knight business was to elevate me in the civilian society. As he saw on the net broadcast this morning after I was given the civilian status I was drafted back into the service at my old rank Fleet Admiral. Those old girls in the Assembly do know something about politics and public relations. I'm glad that you and Wendel didn't do anything stupid last night. I'm going out on an Assembly mission so keep an eye on those 218 killers you have on this station. Let them know that the whole courts martial was a political move by the Assembly. Doug and I stopped by my office and I asked Wanda if contact had been restored with all elements of the Belt forces. When she said yes I told her to e-mail me a list of those that we lost contact with last night. I also told her to get Fredrick down here sometime today to brief them on what I told him this morning about political moves.

 
Jackal 3 was beautiful. It was even bigger than Enterprise II and had more weapons than a gun shop. There was a crew of 15, 3 pilots, 3 radar/navigators, 3 weapon masters/radar, and 3 communication specialist with 2 long range and 2 short range radio's plus a communication laser array. There was a full operating room with a nurse and slot for a doctor when needed. There was even room for a staff of 3 for the Fleet Admiral and 2 passengers. The ship even had ½ the fuel making capacity of a regular fuel ship plus another feature. Whatever asteroid is fed into the mall, if any metal is detected, it is smelted out and formed into sabots for the rail guns and the leftover is formed into ingots. Nothing goes to waste except pure rock. There was docking for 3 of the new fighters, but their crews had to live aboard their fighters.

  Environmental capacity for 50 adults so it could also be used for limited rescue. It also was structurally designed for sustained 6 G acceleration. Anyone that wanted to survive 6 G's without injury had to be in a jell acceleration bed and the one safety above 2 G acceleration was 2 of the 3 pilots had to be at the controls. The gym was compact and would only hold 3 persons at a time and everyone was required to exercise 2 hours per day except when under acceleration. Minutes of acceleration at 1 G or more counted as 1 minute of exercise. After the tour Doug bowed out and we launched. I was surprised that the fighter engines were also firing. I asked the pilot and he said that the design allowed up to 6 G acceleration with no fighters, 3 G with them docked. They drew fuel and engine control directly from the main cockpit here when docked. He could control their engine program, their initial course and un-dock them automatically if there was a crew aboard whether at rest or accelerating. While you were gone Wendell and Brian built another work station and then this ship. There are 2 more being built right now. The new work station is named Sugar Plum. They put some gal in charge named Gulab Yadev. When I met her she looked like she was lost until one of her workers asked her a question. Talk about an encyclopedia. Later she caught another woman goofing around and chewed her out like a marine DI. The station was activated the day before I reported and within 3 days she had that crew doing back flips. I don't know where she came from but somebody knew what they were doing when they put her in charge.

  I then told him that she was on one of the original 4 ships to the Belt.

  Day 4999 Wednesday

  We were now outside the belt and the pilot asked me what acceleration I wanted to our destination. I told him 1.2 G would be fine, that way no one would have to exercise. He then informed me that he had enough fuel for continuous acceleration of 2 G's all the way to Ceres. I told him 1.2 was fine and fast enough, I needed to catch up on my reading. I then asked the commo guy on duty to contact Admiral Shemeka and request her transmit the personnel files for her officers to me. He pulled 3 disk from his file and said here they are. Lt Fritsch thought you might want them. I have a full copy of all files from HQ and every time we are in contact all new data files are cross transferred to keep us and them up to date.

  Day 5003 Sunday

  Started into the belt near Ceres. Pilot called for alert status 1, everyone is to put on skin suits and carry their helmets with them. The nurse came by and explained that the skin suits with helmet were to simply give someone protection from explosive decompression for 15 minutes until they could get in a hard shell suit. As soon as she saw me properly suited up and had checked out the helmet she led me to the hard suit section. There are 30 hard suits. Everyone has an assigned section and suit. Here is your suit in this section and on the other side of the ship is the other section and your other suit. The Fleet Admiral is the only person aboard that has the privilege of having 2 suits. Just then the ship gave a small lurch, and the nurse said they must have fired all the rail guns on one side that time. The weapons master and his to gunners are always finding things to shoot at. Then there were 2 slightly stronger lurches. She rushed to a wall screen and keyed to control room. She just said put it on the screen and a picture appeared showing 2 fighters approaching a shattered asteroid. They each grabbed sections of it with articulating arms and jetted back toward the ship. The then told the control room to show the intake. I watched as the asteroid pieces were fed in. As the ship started vibrating she commented, there's more than just ice and rock in those. I think they will have a full magazine when they finish. I have time to take you up to the control section so you can watch everything as it happens. It's boring around here, I've only treated 2 sprains since being assigned. Maneuvering 1 minute, everyone to stations. We entered the control room and she pulled down 2 seats from the wall and showed me how the 5 point harness was fastened and where to attach my helmet to the seat. While I watched the screens she mentioned that even though all the suits and helmets were interchangeable they were keyed and would buzz if separated by more than ½ a meter. We came around Ceres and were facing the sides of 4 spacecraft, all attached to Ceres by cables. The scene reminded me of 4 bullets sitting on a sandbag. After a few minutes of maneuvering I saw 3 small rockets launched. They penetrated the surface of Ceres and then we were winched down to a soft landing.

  A suited figure jumped off the nearest ship and landed on ours. He then disappeared and I heard the airlock cycling. The camera in the airlock showed a middle age female when she took her suit off and placed it on the rack. Then turning she demanded permission to come aboard. I looked at the pilot and said ask her for identification.

  She said I am Fleet Admiral Shemeka formerly of the Earth fleet and who am I talking to. I told the pilot to inform her that Fleet Admiral Brandon would be down in a minute to open the door, then she would have permission to board. When we got to the inner airlock door the nurse keyed the pad by the door and asked the pilot if she had made any moves since entering. The pilot replied the only thing she's done is scratch a few places. She keyed the door to open and I got my first good look at Fleet Admiral Shemeka. She was only 5 foot tall and slim. I put out my hand and said welcome aboard Admiral. When she stepped forward and took my hand with a firm grip. I then said if you will follow me to my office we have a lot to talk about. She then said the last I heard you were given court-martial for consorting with the enemy and a lot of other bull shit charges.

  I replied, you know how politicians are, some are good and others are stupid. Fortunately we have some good cagey ones in the Assembly. I'll play you the tape of the day after and by the way this is my new toy for being a bad boy.

  She grumbled that she wished Earth had some smart politicians. She was worried about what those idiots were going to do.

  I commented that our original planners figured we would have almost half a century before the Earth politicians got this stupid.

  She didn't even blink. She just sat down in front of my desk as I went around and took my seat. As I fastened my lap belt I suggested she do the same. I asked the nurse if she could rustle up some refreshments.

  As soon as she was out the door the admiral said call me Sam, short for Samantha. All my friends do and I consider you a friend because you saved the lives of my crews. You can make up your mind about me later.

  OK, I said first things first, can you in good conscience sign a blood oath of fealty to the Belt Government and Community?

  Sam said, I see you don't screw around. No wonder you kicked our asses on the moon. We spent 2 years planning and building those installations and setting the traps your people evaded. Only one trap sprung and it didn't work to well because that cargo ship we ambushed out by L1 took out 3 cruisers and 179 nuke missiles before we got it. From what one of your boys told me the whole crew survived, although 2 of them rode the nose in spacesuits all the way to the belt. They did something I couldn't do.

  I'm sure about the crews of my 3 ships because they are 100% loyal to me. The 4th ships crew I have locked up because I'm not sure where their true loyalties lie. They were forced upon my task force at the last minute by the UN. Most of that crew is Israeli.


  I was sent out to the conference point with orders to kill you no matter what, and I was determined to do so. Every member of my three original ships that accompanied me also swore an oath to me to follow my orders no matter what I decided. Then the high command added three war ships right at launch time. After talking to you I had a change of heart. Yes, I can sign an oath of loyalty to the Belt government but it will be second to a blood oath that I already made to you. She then slid her left jumper sleeve up and showed me a cut on her left wrist. I'm yours to command.

  Day 5012 Tuesday

  Arrived back at Freedom Station One and turned her over to Doug for full debriefing. Frederick had a brig set up and from the looks of it, it could have been a hotel room on earth. She carried herself with an aura of authority and self confidence as she entered the brig.

  Day 5022 Friday

  2200 hours: Scout in B5 reported 1 ship approaching on ballistic trajectory. Hull appeared damaged and cold. ID on side of ship was 2173. ETA 201 days. Requested instructions.

  2235 hours: I paid a visit to Shemeka and asked if she knew anything about a ship with the tail number 2173.

  She said it was the one in her fleet that went back to Earth.

  I showed her the long range pictures and the orbital calculations. There was a 50 hour discrepancy as if it just used the Earth as a pivot point to launch itself to the belt.

  She agreed that it was probably dead and a booby-trap.

  2320 hours: I ordered an evacuation of sectors B4, B5, and B6. It was headed straight into the belt and would probably hit an asteroid. If it made it through it would come close enough to Jupiter's L5 point that its orbit beyond there was unpredictable.

  ~(ToC)~