Chapter 5
Eric looked at the screen and marveled at the hugeness of the "engine" that had appeared with it's accompanying ships it had given a lift to. The LP was as good as it's word.
League of Planets freighters were even now separating from the hyper engine, and making their slow ponderous way to orbit. The engine had shortened an otherwise much longer trip for the majority of these ships. It also carried within it an interstellar communications suite.
Eric marveled at how much space the equipment took, for these people to talk over interstellar distances. He had installed one of his spare units in the Misty, and now had contact with Alex where ever he went.
One of the freighters was filled with equipment for the LP to start construction on it's own headquarters on the planet. They would occupy a portion of base Caston, which was located on continent B.
Eric had instructed CCS-14 to get as much information as possible on the military ships which had already detached. They were setting up in positions advantageous for the interception of incoming traffic.
Longreach now had three corvettes, two destroyers, and a cruiser as defense, in case they were needed.
"Commander, I have accessed the cruiser's data base. The three corvette's are the Fisk, the Trask, and the Dodger. The two destroyers are the Walker and the Basford. The cruiser is the Sanchez," CCS-14 stated.
What followed was a list of weapons and defensive capabilities of each ship. He shook his head. While as a group they were impressive, still, his ship could destroy all fairly easily. These were supposed to defend the planet?
In all fairness, they were on par with all the other military ships of this universe. So the LP had indeed delivered what they had said they would. The question now, was how long these assets would stay in-system.
Eric sighed. He had wanted the spy killed outright. This would have given them a lot longer to prepare for eventual discovery or revelation. Alex however, was not as hardened by necessity as he could be.
Alex had stated he did not want to start out as a murderer. Despite his better judgment, Eric acquiesced. Now they were being forced to deal with the rest of the galaxy under conditions not to his total liking.
"Incoming transmission from the Sanchez. An Admiral Harold Lofton requesting a meeting at your earliest convenience," CCS-14 stated.
I was not a happy camper. Every port I went to had a rep from the TF hounding me. Oh, I stayed away from the TF, and ports that would allow the TF to seize my ship; and incidentally, me.
"Alex, I think we have worked all the free ports to the point of exhaustion. We might try some of the major League ports, now that we are members in good standing," Trish said to me while we were sipping coffee.
"I know. I just wanted to get as much from the free ports as I could. I also guess I have been stalling the confrontation that is forthcoming. Once we hit a League port, the TF is going to try legal maneuvers to get me, us.
"While I am sure we will win, the time spent in court could be better served procuring needed materials to build up Longreach," I said, sighing.
"True. They could tie us up for weeks I guess," Trish said slowly.
"Weeks hell! I am thinking months, years! And they would do it, just because they could!" I said harshly.
What I feared came to pass. Two ports later, the TF tried and got an injunction against the Misty and myself from leaving port at Waldon until complaints by the TF went through the interstellar court.
The LP moved to quash the injunction, but the TF had enough clout to keep it alive in the courts. While the LP afforded me head of state status, the TF did not recognize me as anything other than a deserter. I had been informed that I had been recalled and had refused to respond.
Since I had never stepped foot into TF territory, they had no jurisdiction on me. Waldon was well outside the ability of the TF to claim me. Still, here I was, going to court and listening to the lawyers wrangle.
The TF tried to get me to answer questions about Eric and his ship, which my lawyers objected to as immaterial to the case at hand. The judge upheld the objections, albeit reluctantly. Everything was procedural and positioning at this point.
I started to smell a rat. I had Kalia do a mental scan on the judge. It was worse than I thought. He was, in fact, in the pockets of the TF. As soon as a strong enough piece of evidence was put before him, he was going to rule in favor of the TF.
Kalia had already done a scan of the TF rep. This case was really about Eric and the technology he represented. The problem was, how to get the Judge and my lawyers clued in, without giving away the fact that my new home planet had mental abilities that any government would kill to control.
I discussed the problem with Kalia, and she said nothing was simpler. I asked her what she meant. She said she could suppress certain parts of both the TF rep's and the judge's brain, that stopped them from blurting out the truth.
I was curious about this. She said that all I had to do, or my lawyer, was to get the TF's rep going on about a certain subject. She could then influence him to tell what he really meant.
"It is not mind control, so much as a nudge to tell the truth," she responded to my exclamation.
"Are you sure you can do this to both of them?" I asked, concerned.
She nodded.
"Definitely. It is simple really. As long as they are concentrating on a specific subject matter, I can get them to blurt out the actual truth. The TF rep gets enraged during parts of the hearing, but is keeping tight reign on his temper. I can use that, and goad him," Kalia said brightly.
I shuddered. I was glad she was on my side! I had been a bit enraged over some of the statements the TF rep had said and made in court, myself! The judge, while trying to maintain a look of impartiality, was siding more and more with the TF in some of it's procedural requests. It was beginning to look like a 'kangaroo court' was in the works for me.
That is, until Kalia started in with her magic. To make this work, I had to take the stand for questioning, which I had avoided until now. Both my lawyer and the league lawyer tried to dissuade me, but they did not know of my 'secret weapon'.
Kalia was magnificent! While the TF questioned me, I dodged their questions to the point that he was becoming obviously agitated. Later, Kalia told me it had been easy to do. He had barely been under control anyway.
His superiors were coming down on him to win this at all costs. The TF wanted me in their custody, and failure was not an option. She nudged a few times, and he almost foamed at the mouth with his accusations, charges. He stated he was tired of this farce, and told the judge to decide in his favor, and decide now.
The judge reminded the learned council from the TF that the court would make it's decision based on facts, not orders from a TF official. The official, still being nudged by Kalia, went off on a tirade that made the first look like practice. He stepped over the line saying,
"Damn it! We already paid you for this decision! Now rule in our favor or give the money back!"
His eyes widened as he realized what he had just said.
My lawyer, the League lawyer, and the second seat lawyer for the TF, all jumped to their feet and objected. I sat in the chair and pretended to be stunned... which was not hard to do, as I was! The judge banged the hearings for the day closed, and told everyone to come back tomorrow morning at 9:00AM.
The hearings never resumed. A senior judge for the Interstellar courts had been following the proceedings closely, and entered a decision based on the evidence given in the statement, or furious ramblings, of the TF rep. The case was 'dismissed, with prejudice'.
I knew enough about the law to know the TF would find it practically impossible to bring up those charges against me again. Just to rub it in their faces, I filed a request that reimbursement of all fees incurred by me during this farce be paid by the TF. It was granted.
Eric looked at the approach control station that the League so thoughtfully provided. It would be months before anyone from the planet was trained well enough to board it, and operate all the functions.
In the interim, the League was providing trained personnel to man and operate the small space station. There were several people from the repair ship, and the mining ship, who were being trained up in the meantime.
Eric was also keeping an eye on several battle arenas, with his few remaining probes. The PU and the TF had been heavily engaged in several non-conclusive fights. Also, there were skirmishes between the TF and a several planets that seemed tired of TF control.
Because of the unrest within the TF, it was unable to field a larger assault force, which meant that the PU had enough manpower and ships to fight the TF to a stand still. At least for now anyway.
The TF had thought it was going to swat the PU aside, but the reality of it's internal problems dictated otherwise. That, and several belligerent nations bordering the TF kept a lot of assets in rear areas, to keep said belligerents in check.
Eric shook his head over the myriad governments. What a waste. These people had a chance to be great, but all this wrangling over how to control people (which is what government is really all about), was taking more time and manpower than he could believe.
It was after yet another non-conclusive battle between the PU and the TF that Eric decided to trim the odds a bit. As both sides were retreating from battle, Eric had CCS-14 jump into position.
"To the ships of the Terran Federation. You will stand down, and abandon your ships. You have twenty minutes to comply with my orders, or you will be destroyed," Eric radioed.
Eric was facing eight ships. He did not have long to wait.
"This is Commodore Powell of the Terran Federated navy. You are ordered to power down, and stand by for boarding. Any move of your ship from it's current course will be taken as a hostile act, and you will be destroyed. You have five minutes to comply. Powell out," snapped the voice of an angry sounding man.
"I have targeted the two larger ships with torpedoes, the three cruisers are targeted with the 400cm Ion cannon. After destroying these three I calculate an 83.34 percent probability that the remaining ships will surrender," CCS-14 stated.
"Well, lets nudge em a bit. Power up the Ion cannon, and don't hide it from them. Let them see it being powered," Eric told his ship.
That was all it took. While over 800 thousand kilometers apart and closing rapidly, the TF forces fired a barrage of missiles at CCS-14. Eric's ship responded with firing two torpedoes that were nuclear tipped.
At the same time, the Ion cannon fired, cycled, fired, and cycled for a final shot. All three shots went home, and all three cruisers were bleeding air and debris. Each time the cannon fired, the duration lasted almost a full second, which allowed CCS-14 to slice through the targeted ship. A few seconds later, the two torpedoes slammed into the two battleships. They ceased to exist in rapidly expanding balls of fire which then dissipated, almost as quickly as they had bloomed.
While the TF ships had tried to intercept the incoming torpedoes, they had not been able to react fast enough. The speed of the torpedoes that CCS-14 had launched was incredible!
Then it was Eric and CCS-14's turn to contend with incoming missiles. While the ship took care of most of the incoming a few got through, since he was still bow to the enemy. Several missiles exploded, their nuclear fury wasted on the shield of CCS-14.
"Send my offer of surrender again, and this time tell them I will destroy them totally unless they comply," Eric instructed his ship.
Edited By TeNderLoin