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.