Chapter 3
Admiral Sethton looked up as Captain Arnold Billings entered the room.
"Ah! Captain Billings. I see you are doing well after your adventure of two days ago." Admiral Sethton said briskly.
"Yes, thank you. We have made repairs to our hyper generator number three, and are ready to depart. I would like to thank you once again for your help and intercession. Without it, I am sure we would not have survived." Captain Billings said gratefully.
"Yes. Well, this brings me to what I wanted to see you about. We have several prisoners from the ship we captured. While we are realizing a great deal of what their technical abilities are like, we still have no idea how to really communicate with them. That's where you come in." The admiral smiled.
"What do you mean?" Asked Billings.
"You are in a position to return the favor we did you. I would like your scientists to start developing a translation program. I am sure with the help of your ships abilities and people; you shouldn't have any problems coming up with something." The admiral positively gloated.
"Now see here. While I said I appreciate what you have done, I can't take the time to do research here. I have to get back to my own world and report our findings from our trip." Billings finished lamely.
The admiral stared at Billings for a moment then responded, "You led a hostile force to an unsuspecting world. A foreign world at that. I think a bit of restitution is in order. It was only luck that we were in system to begin with. You WILL do this for us, or I will impound your ship as payment for violations of treaties and the attempted murder of citizens of the Empire." Admiral Sethton said coldly.
"Murder!? MURDER!? How do you figure that?" Billings exclaimed in astonishment.
"Simply put, you led hostiles to a lightly defended system. It's a fifty/fifty proposition whether planetary command had enough fire power to drive off the aliens; either way, a fight would have happened, and people would have died. Your actions in leading the aliens here are culpable." The admiral stated.
Captain Arnold Billings winced as the facts were driven home. He was had, and he knew it. "Sir, I shall be honored to help out in any way I can." He said through clenched teeth.
"Excellent! I shall notify the captain of the destroyer, the HMS Branbur, that you are participating in the further studies of the captives, and will be developing language translations. Would you care for a drink?" The admiral said, holding out a bottle of fine old earth wine.
"No thank you. I better get back to my ship and inform the department heads we are here for a while longer." The captain said with a sigh.
Emperor Richard Newcastle sighed and sat back in his recliner. Something had actually gone right today in the Assembly of lords. He had finally put through a bill that would redress once and for all the restitution problems of the Raintree annexation.
It had been a pain, since both the Empire and the Caliphate were both interested in Raintree. Unfortunately, for the people of Raintree, they had settled on a world that had recently discovered itself rich in power ores. They also bordered on two fairly large political groups and were forced to choose one or the other.
Richard did not understand how the vote from Raintree had been so close to allow the Empire to annex. The Caliphate was notorious in not giving rights to subject peoples. The Empire had a constitution despite being a monarchy. Richard had been very careful to make sure the state did not subjugate its people.
Richard got up and went to his bar and refilled his glass from his bottle of sixty year old scotch. At 300 credits a bottle it was supposed to be the best scotch from old earth, and as far as he was concerned, it was. Just as he was bringing the glass up for a drink the video monitor chimed.
Sighing, he put his glass down and went over to it. He had told his secretary not to let anything short of the invasion of the empire get through to him this evening. He had been going 18 hours a day since his return from the Battlesphere and it never ceased to amaze him how quickly things piled up when he took off for a couple weeks.
"Yes?" He said as he pushed the accept button.
"Sir? Admiral Sethton is here to see you. He states it is a matter of state security." His aid replied.
"Of course it is. Send him in." Richard said turning off the unit.
He went over to the bar and poured a glass of wine that he knew the admiral liked and had it waiting for the admiral as he entered.
"Your majesty." The admiral said, bowing.
"Admiral. To what do I owe the honor of your visit?" Richard asked, slightly peeved.
"I have already informed the admiralty, but I thought you should know. Look this over. It's very important." Admiral Sethton replied, handing over a chip to his majesty.
Sighing, Richard took the chip and inserted it into his reader. He scanned the information very quickly. Admiral Sethon was astonished at the speed that his majesty viewed the material, but had seen him do this before. Still, it never ceased to amaze him how fast the Emperor could read and absorb information.
"Another alien race, and this one hostile. I just finished a war with an alien race, the Feruthe. Just 20 years ago. Now you have gotten me involved in another war?" Richard asked incredulously.
"Actually your majesty, they started it. I just had it finished." Responded the admiral with calm reason.
Richard snorted. "Oh come on. You had a new toy and wanted to see how well it played, now admit it!"
Admiral Sethton raised an eyebrow at the emperor. "I assure you sire, I am well past that stage in my life... unlike others I might add."
Richard choked on his scotch. "Well struck sir. Let's drink to old men and there toys, shall we? I am sure the admiralty will be calling me shortly. Them or my Prime Minister. Be a race as to who vids me first. Care to make a wager?" Richard asked with a laugh.
Loren Masters presented herself to the Palace and requested once again an audience with the emperor.
"Ms. Masters. I tell you again that it takes somewhat a longer time to get an interview with his majesty. You can't just show up thinking you will get an interview, just like that." Stated the official.
"I will tell you again, I am getting ready to break a story that his majesty will be most interested in. I am only here as a courtesy to let him preview my story and add comments. He will be most aggravated with whomever denies him his opportunity I think." Responded Loren Masters.
"Ms. Masters. Threats to try to get me to let you through will not work. I have your name down, and I will notify you when and if you receive an appointment." The official said sourly.
Loren found herself angrily headed back to the studios of INS. (Interstellar News Service.) Ok, she had repeatedly gone to the palace for the last three days seeking an audience with the emperor and none was forthcoming. Well, the court of public opinion had a way of rearing its head to those who rather wished it wouldn't.
Emperor Richard Newcastle felt as if he had been kicked in his stomach. He stopped the broadcast and reset it back to the point where it picked up with the battlefield footage.
"As you can see, the dead Feruthe sensors had continued to pick up what was going on around it.
Here we see an Imperial soldier, Lt. James Braxton, of the Imperial marines. You see here he shoots an armed man." The scene shows the Soldier shooting an armed resistance fighter. It also shows the Lt. Getting hit and fall to the ground. Another soldier comes up and removes the sensor pack from the downed Lt. Replaces it with a different pack, and hides the weapon that the resistance fighter had been carrying. The name on the plate of the soldier doing this activity was L. Everett.
The scene switches back to the INS studios and the face of Loren Masters. "The L. Everett in that picture, ladies and gentlemen is non other than Lawrence Everett, Count Everett, and the representative to the House of Lords, or the assembly as it is better known.
"What makes this even more troubling is the fact that this shows that Lt. Braxton, who was tried and convicted of murder, was himself killed in prison four years ago. It would appear that an innocent man was not only sentenced to life in prison for a crime he didn't commit, but he himself died as a result of that false conviction.
"I tried repeatedly to get an interview with his majesty about this story prior to it being broadcast, but I was constantly turned away at the door. I left my name several times with a palace official but was constantly told that it was impossible at this time to get an appointment. This is Loren Masters for INS."
Emperor Richard Newcastle felt like strangling the 'Palace official'. But most of his anger was directed at Lord Everett. He went over to his video monitor and placed several calls. One was to Lord Everett. He was not at home or available for comment. The other was to IMP SEC. He gave specific instructions and then went back to his day book and looked to see if he had an opening to speak to a certain INS reporter.
Ten minutes later his com unit chimed. Answering it, he found himself looking at THE orbital control officer at the space station. What was unusual was this was Colonel Anders, the station commander.
"Your majesty. I have been instructed to inform you that Lord Everett's yacht made an illegal attempt to leave orbit. When we boarded, it was discovered that Lord Everett himself was in command, and had ordered his crew to ignore orbital control. We now have him in custody."
"I see. When will he be transferred to a shuttle and brought down here?" Richard asked.
"Next shuttle for Castle city space port leaves in twenty minutes your majesty. I thought you would like to know."
"Thank you Colonel. That was thoughtful of you." Richard said. He
then terminated the call.