The Fight for Britannia 7: Civil War

by Saxon Andrew

  Heard looked at Abby and ordered, “All ships stop and hold your positions.” He activated a frequency and said loudly, “SIR. WE’VE BEEN TOLD THAT YOU AND PARLIAMENT ARE BEING HELD HOSTAGE AND IF I CONTINUE TOWARD THE PLANET, YOU WILL BE EXECUTED! WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS?!” The Prime Minister looked at the Grang standing next to him holding a shoulder blaster pointed at his head. He hesitated and heard, “SIR, WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS!?”

  Everyone in the room stared at the Prime Minister and he didn’t care one whit about them dying. But if he died, his plan for supremacy would die with him. “Admiral, stop and hold your positions.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  • • •

  The four giant ships moved down and surrounded the city from a mile above it. The planetary defenses were coming online, and thousands of mobile troop carriers were rushing down the roads leading to the city and thousands of aerial attack craft were being launched. Abby activated the main frequency of the defensive forces and said, “Any troop carriers or aircraft that move inside ten miles of the city will be destroyed.”

  The General commanding the land forces watched on his monitor as ten mobile troop carriers continued moving toward the city. All ten of them were vaporized by a single blaster beam. An attack formation of six attack craft moved in toward the city and all six were vaporized. The General immediately ordered, “All aircraft and troop carriers will stay outside the ten-mile limit. Sorry boys, until Fleet can support us, we’re helpless to do anything.”

  Abby blew out a breath, “Thank God one of their leaders has some sense.”

  Cami waited for the all clear from Abby and when she received it, she and Stoney walked out of the lander and walked into the building. She walked down the long aisle and went to the podium Abby had stood at a week earlier. The Prime Minister recognized her and scowled, “I’m surprised you are dumb enough to come here. You’ll never get off the planet alive.”

  Cami raised her shoulders and smiled, “Some conversations are worth the risk Prime Minister.” Cami looked at the DoRen engineer standing at the large device at the rear of the room and he nodded. Cami looked around the room and said, “Just so everyone understands, the device in the rear of the room is a highly advanced communicator. Everything that’s said in this room will be transmitted to every electronic device on all the Colonies as well as every ship in the Colonies’ Fleets. We have ships above each Colony that will be relaying the signal to each Colony.”

  The Prime Minister stared at Cami and said, “Are you saying all of my warships will hear what is said?” Cami smiled and nodded. The Prime Minister shouted, “Admiral Gemini, move half of your forces in on Britannia and destroy it if they don’t remove their forces from New Sydney. Send the rest of your warships back here!”

  The room expected the Grang to execute the Prime Minister and when it didn’t happen, they all turned to Cami. Cami looked at them and said, “Wait for it.”

  A moment later, Admiral Gemini appeared on the main wall monitor behind the Prime Minister’s chair, “I’m sorry Sir but I am unable to carry out your orders.”

  “You traitor! Carry out your orders now!”

  “Sir, every carrier in the fleet is surrounded by undetectable warships and if any of them make a move or open their landing bays, they will be destroyed. Four carriers have already been destroyed for failing to follow the instructions they were given by Britannia. Admiral Grady Henricks is commanding Britannia’s Fleets; we have been trapped and rendered helpless.”

  The Prime Minister looked out at the Representatives and yelled, “I TOLD YOU BRITANNIA IS A THREAT TO THE COLONIES?”

  Everyone turned to Cami and she scowled and pursed her lips, “If you really believed that, you would have never sent your fleets out. You believed Britannia had no chance against your fleets and that’s why you launched them. The truth is that Britannia could have destroyed the Colonies for many years but would never do it. Unlike the Colonies, we take our promises seriously and if any of you had taken the time to read the treaty Abby Dunhan showed you last week, you would have seen that the Colonies, Earth and Britannia agreed to never attack each other. It’s clear which of the three signees of the treaty broke it. But let’s look at an item before we continue.

  The wall monitor activated again, and a younger image of the Prime Minister appeared. “Mr. Henricks, I am ordering all communications between Britannia and the Colonies to stop immediately.”

  The Prime Minister yelled, “This is a lie!”

  Grady’s image was on one side of the monitor and he said, “Mr. Prime Minister, we use the telepathic communicators to share important information along with any technology we develop.”

  The Prime Minister replied on the recording, “I understand that the Aliens in Andromeda can detect telepathic communications and I’m not willing to risk that they will be able to find the locations of the Colonies. I’m also stopping all ships from moving between the Colonies and Britannia. They could be followed thus revealing the Colonies’ locations.”

  “Are you sure about this? We won’t be able to share our technology.”

  “You’ll have to get by on what you invent Mr. Henricks. We’ll do the same.”

  The room was silent, and the Prime Minister sneered, “That is a fake recording you made.”

  Cami snorted slightly and said, “You, the young woman sitting at the communication console.” The woman turned around and saw everyone was looking at her. “Is it possible to fake a telepathic communication?”

  The woman glanced at the Prime Minister before answering, “No. A telepathic communication cannot be faked.”

  “Why not?” Cami asked.

  “Because on the bottom of each transmission is the coordinates of the sending unit and the receiving unit.”

  “And what are the locations of the coordinates on the bottom of that recording?”

  The woman turned to her console and entered the two coordinates. She turned around and refused to look at the Prime Minister, “The sending unit is located in the Prime Minister’s office and the receiving unit is located on Britannia.”

  “Thank you for your honesty.”

  The Prime Minister shouted, “That woman is a spy and is working with Britannia.”

  The woman stood up and angrily replied, “MY FATHER FOUGHT AND DIED FOR THE COLONIES! YOU ARE AN EVIL MAN TO SAY THAT!!” It was clear to everyone present that it wasn’t the woman who was lying.

  The room was silent, and Cami put her index finger to her forehead and tilted her head slightly, “Ummm…I suspect everyone in this room and in the Colonies are wondering why he would stop all communications and then accuse Britannia of doing it.”

  The President hesitated and asked, “Why would he do it?”

  “I would ordinarily recommend that you ask him, but I have no doubt he would lie about it. The answer is clear and I’m hoping one of you might see the reason.”

  A young woman sitting with the Majority Party stood up, “He intended to force a war between the Colonies and Britannia.”

  “And how would stopping communications cause a war?” Cami asked.

  The woman looked at the Prime Minister and shook her head, “He’s been telling everyone that Britannia stopped communications because it was planning something to harm the Colonies and we believed him.”

  All the Representatives started looking at each other and Cami said, “We felt the same way. It’s a natural reaction when a close friend stops talking to you. But notice that Britannia never did anything to the Colonies, and we followed the requests the Prime Minister made. The treaty between us dictated that none of the parties would ever be a threat to each other and we refused to take action on our fears. However, we did prepare for the possible eventuality that the Colonies were not going to honor the treaty we made with them. It should be interesting to note that when the Prime Minister stopped communications, the Colonies had developed a stealth scanner that would allow the Colonies to see our ships through their stealth fields. I th
ink he stopped communications to avoid sharing that bit of technology with us. It gave the Colonies a huge advantage over our fleets.”

  The Prime Minister sneered, “But here you are today violating this treaty you extol.”

  “That’s not why we came here. We could have just left the Colonies alone and destroyed all your warships that entered Britannia space in violation of it.”

  “Then why are you here?” the President asked.

  Cami pressed a button on her communicator and an image of a large shuttle appeared. Everyone watched and they saw three Garrions rush in and open fire on it destroying it. Cami said, “Rory and Abby Dunhan were on that shuttle.” A large gasp was heard in the room. Cami looked out at them, “An angry mob attacked Rory and Abby’s home after she had saved all the citizens of Melbourne from destruction by the Core Aliens and Fagan. She was told by the Prime Minister at that time that it was the darkest blotch on the Colonies History. It appears that he was lying then as well. The only way for me to come here and conduct a safe conversation was to bring the forces necessary to protect me. If I said anything the Prime Minister didn’t like, he would stop me with a blaster just like he did with the Parliamentarian. I notice that he is still Prime Minister and the law dictating anyone bringing a weapon into a meeting of Parliament would be executed has been ignored just like the one making it illegal to combine the Colonies’ Fleets without an attack from an outside aggressor. You don’t follow your own laws much less any promises you make with other civilizations. It’s clear the Colonies are untrustworthy and anything you promise holds no meaning or merit.”

  The Prime Minister stood up and snarled, “How can you listen to her?! She’s killed thousands of our young soldiers in the city in cold blood. Britannia must be punished!”

  Cami looked at the Prime Minister and shrugged, “About two hundred of your soldiers have been killed because they refused to stop moving toward the city when warned. No one inside the city has been harmed. The Grang and DoRen’s weapons were set to stun and there’s been no loss of life in the city. You’ve lost four Carriers and two thousand Garrions because they refused to stop their attacks on Britannia.” Cami looked at the assembly and her expression turned hard, “We do not believe in needless killing and we believe it’s better to prevent a war rather than stopping one. That’s why we agreed to become a Colony. But you refused to honor the rights every Colony has and tried to harm us by passing an exorbitant tax and removing our warships anyway. When it was pointed out you couldn’t do that, you removed us from being one of your Colonies. It’s clear that you planned to attack Earth and Britannia no matter what we did. So, you forced my hand. Fortunately, we didn’t have to destroy your fleets.”

  Cami paused and looked around the room, “I’ve come here to tell you that Britannia will never interact with the Colonies again. Your insane paranoia about any advanced civilization being a threat to you is aberrant behavior and the Colonies will never get over it. If the Colonies are ever attacked by an outside aggressor, Britannia and Earth will come to defend them. I’m too young to remember the war with the Core Aliens and Fagan so I have nothing but loathing for what the Colonies have become. But our warriors remember fighting alongside the warriors from the Colonies and dying together to defend mankind. They see the Colonies as brothers and sisters in arms. Out of respect for their feelings, we will defend you if needed. You don’t deserve it. Abby’s death cries out for revenge, but she loved the Colonies and I suspect she would be willing to forgive you where I’m not.”

  The President looked around the room and stood up, “I’m calling for a vote on whether or not to support the Prime Minister. You will voice vote now.”

  Cami watched as each representative stood up as their name was called by the new Parliamentarian. Every member of the Opposition Party voted no-confidence. The first two members of the Majority Party stood up and voted to support the Prime Minister. The third representative of the Majority Party stood up and looked at the Prime Minister, “When you told us that Britannia was a threat to the Colonies, I believed you. I thought I was doing the right thing for the citizens that elected me. But now I see it was all lies. I not only vote no-confidence, but I vote that the penalty for bringing a weapon in Parliament be enforced!”

  That vote broke the dam and every other member of the Majority Party voted no-confidence including the first two that changed their votes.

  The President of Parliament stood up and Cami thought, “Link with me Stoney!” Before the President could speak, the Prime Minister snatched the hand blaster out of his jacket and pointed it at the President, “YOU TRAITOR!!” Suddenly, the Prime Minister found he couldn’t pull the trigger or move any of his muscles. His mask of rage was frozen on his face until he collapsed to the floor.

  “Don’t leave me now Stoney!” Cami thought. Two doctors rushed up to the Prime Minister and began chest compressions, but nothing worked. After four minutes, one of them looked up and said, “He’s gone.”

  Stoney looked at Cami and thought, “Why?”

  “Some deaths aren’t needless, Stoney. His was one such death.”

  The President’s face was white, and he turned to Parliament, “I was about to call for new elections but with the Prime Minister’s death, they are demanded by law. I suspect that all of us will not be reelected, and that includes the Opposition Party Members. All of us will face the anger of our citizens for what’s happened. I think in hindsight that the Prime Minister was going to dismiss Parliament and become a self-styled dictator over humanity. We’ve been saved from that by what happened today.”

  Cami looked up and said loudly, “Dad.”

  “Yes Planet Leader.”

  “Release the Colonies Fleets and have them return to the Colonies.” Cami looked at the President and said, “I will be removing my forces now. If we are attacked by your Carriers as we withdraw, we will destroy the city.”

  “THAT WON’T BE NECESSARY!” Everyone looked up and saw Admiral Tarangelo walking down the center aisle. He said loudly, “Admiral Heard!”

  “Yes Sir.”

  “You will move your forces away from New Sydney and shutdown your weapons and defense shields.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  Right behind Tarangelo, Maranda and Andrew Connor walked down the aisle and went to the podium where Cami was standing. Cami looked into Maranda’s eyes and stepped away from the microphone. Maranda looked out and said, “I was born and raised in the Colonies. I spent most of my adult life fighting to defend the Colonies against all enemies. I’ve loved the Colonies my entire life. But now I feel nothing but shame for being from them. This evil man could have been stopped but none of you stepped forward to prevent him from carrying out his evil plans. I will never return to the Colonies for the rest of my life!” Maranda’s tears were running down her face and Andrew took her in his arms. He led her off the podium and Cami went back to the microphone, “Commander, withdraw your forces.”

  The Grang touched his communicator and the warriors waited until Cami and the others walked out of the door. They then moved out of the chamber in movements too fast to follow. The Grang and DoRen boarded their landers and moved back into the four giant transports. Richard ran out and stopped Cami, “Please, don’t blame the Colonies for the actions of one man. Our citizens don’t deserve it.”

  Cami looked at Richard and he saw her anger, “Maranda was right. He could have been stopped if the citizens of the Colonies had just stood up and did the right thing. Their paranoia controlled them and for that, they deserve no forgiveness. And where were you during all of this?”

  Richard glanced at Maranda and said, “I wasn’t brave enough to stand up. I knew I’d be executed if I did.”

  Maranda put her hand on his shoulder, “I would have stood up to him even if it cost me my life Richard; you should have done the same; your death would have united the Colonies against him.”

  “I’m not you Maranda.”

  “No but you are a her… to the Colon
ies.”

  Cami and Maranda turned leaving Richard behind feeling shame. The drop carrier lifted, and Richard watched it move into the sky until it disappeared. He took a deep breath and decided that Maranda was right. He squared his shoulders and decided to do something about it.

  • • •

  Gemini sat in his command chair and Devin appeared on the monitor, “Admiral, your fleet has been released and you are free to go back to the Colonies.”

  Gemini sat up straight, “Are you telling me this is over?”

  “The Prime Minister has died from a heart attack and Parliament has ordered that Britannia will not be attacked.”

  “Why did you choose me?”

  “Because I hoped we wouldn’t have to kill everyone in the Colonies Fleet.”

  “I suspect I’ll be executed on my return.”

  Devin smiled, “Let’s hope for the best, shall we?”

  Gemini shook his head and lifted his communicator, “Attention all ships, turn and set course back to the Colonies. Do not activate your weapons or defenses unless ordered otherwise.”

  • • •

  The Carriers arrived at New Sydney and every Fleet Commander was ordered to report to Fleet Headquarters for debriefing. They were met by Admiral Tarangelo and eighty percent of them were arrested and put in prison for their allegiance to the former Prime Minister. Admiral Gemini was brought before an investigative tribunal and questioned extensively. At the end, Admiral Tarangelo entered the room and said, “Admiral, you will remain in command of the Colonies’ Fleets and you will be receiving the Colonies highest award for bravery.”

  Gemini was shocked, “Why?”

  “Because you put your life on the line in stopping the attack against Britannia knowing you would be executed for doing it. You saved the lives of more than a million sailors and pilots and you deserve it. You did the right thing even though there were many of us that didn’t.”