Chapter 25

“Sam, I need a computer built for a new base. It doesn’t need to be an AI unless you feel otherwise. I want to start to build our outer defenses and Ray’s idea is the perfect beginning. I want a shuttle heading out to Ganymede. That is where I want a new base constructed for the housing and training of the meta-mechs. Until that is finished I want forty meta-mech simulators added to the Mars training facility.

“Now here is the big thing. Because of the multiple functions of the meta-mech, I want them deployed like this, at least when we have pilots trained. I want forty on the moon, eighty on Mars, and five hundred on Ganymede waiting for either shipboard or planet bound installation. For now though, Ganymede is as far out as I want to go. Any further would spread our limited forces pretty thin.”

Ray looked amazed at the scope of what John had just proposed. For him it was an idea, he hoped, that would put him back into combat situations.

“Oh, and Ray?” John said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out something that looked like a jewelry case. “These are for you.”

Ray opened the box, saw the eagles, and looked back up at John as he accepted them.

“I know that ‘captain’ is a drop in rank after I had your status as operational admiral on this last mission, but you did say that you wanted an active roll with your men.”

Ray smiled before he snapped to attention, gave John a salute, and said, “Yes, Sir!”

Then he turned and headed out the door with his laptop and a definite spring in his step.

Sam smiled at Ray’s enthusiasm, turned to John and said she thought he was right about using a computer instead of an AI and then she left too.

That had been nearly a month ago. The base on Ganymede was finished, now, and was a full military facility. The first John had approved. So far, two squads were as trained as they could get them. Ray looked happier than John had seen him in quite a while, the last time they had spoken on the vid-phone. {Editor’s note: video augmented interplanetary cellular telephone.}

John looked at his watch and realized it was time for him to head out to the ship christening. As his door slid open and he stepped out, a small ball of energy struck him in the midsection. He looked down. Mora looked up, sheepishly, and quickly turned her collision into a hug.

“Kiri wanted me to make sure you remember about your promotion and the christening,” she said as an explanation.

John smiled and replied, “You could have used your implant, or even our mental connection to remind me.”

“Yeah,” she responded releasing her hug, “but this was more fun.”

She grabbed his hand and began practically dragging him toward the shipyards. He picked up his pace to appease her impatience. He couldn’t understand her exuberance. His accepting the rank increase, was going to be a quick and simple ceremony with just a few friends attending. Then all of them were going to go from there to the ship launching ... or so he had been led to believe.

He was amazed at how well his wives had been able to guard their thoughts, because he was stunned.

As he stepped into the atrium, both the upper and lower tiers were filled with people. John felt as though he had been sandbagged. Surely not this many people would turn out for a simple ship launching, not if the previous ones were the rule of thumb. Somehow, his wives had let everyone know about his promotion, without a whisper of it getting back to him. Yep, he had definitely been ‘sandbagged.’

Even though it wasn’t done the way he wanted, his promotion was quite painless. The cheer that went up, took some time to calm down again. Then they launched the new ship, dubbed the Banshee Class Explorer, the Marco Polo. Then he went on to give the names of the others that were nearly finished. The Francis Drake, the Magellan, the Balboa, the Champlain, the Estevanico, the Louis Joliet, the Ponce de Leon, the Grenville, and finally the John Cabot. He explained that these were all famous explorers on Earth.

The only thing that didn’t go according to plan was when John pressed the red button that shot a magnum of champagne out of an air cannon at the ship, the shield flared and the bottle shattered against it before reaching the ship. This got some laughter from the crowd.

At John’s raised eyebrow, Sam sent through his implant, ‘I’m sorry John, but you said you wanted the ship to pull out of port as soon as the bottle shattered against the hull. The problem with that is, as long as the ship is powered, the shields are up. Three independent systems would have to go down before the shields dropped. I did have a contingency plan.’

She nodded her head toward the large screen showing the ship. John looked and there was someone in an EVA walking along the hull of the ship. In between the hull and the shield. John’s skin crawled when he thought of what that person must be feeling. As they got to the place where Johns launched bottle should have struck. They gave a thumbs up, pulled a bottle out and struck it against the ship. Again the gathered people cheered as the ship slid out of dock with the person who broke the bottle walking along the hull toward the airlock.

Using his implant John asked Sam, ‘Who is that, and who ordered them to do that?’

Sam didn’t have to ask which ‘who’ John was talking about and answered, ‘John, let me answer those in reverse order. First no one ordered him to go out there, when he heard about the problem, he volunteered. As to who it is, that is Stephen Vargas.’

John had to search his memories for a moment to remember how he knew that name. Then it came to him, the time traveler.

‘Sam, do you know why he would volunteer to do something like that?’

‘John, I don’t ‘know’, but I can make a good guess. Apparently he has grown restless after he finished the report on his first hand knowledge of the past. In his request to join one of the exploration teams, he stated he had no desire to continue to do research. He wished to see new things again, as he had when he traveled through time.’

The conversation took a blink of an eye and the crowd was still cheering. John used his implant and asked Paul, Martha and Helen to join him on the platform. This hadn’t been in the plans, but he figured now was as good a time as any. Paul had to be physically ushered up on stage by Martha and Helen.

Once there John introduced them to everyone and announced that they were to be the first crew of the Marco Polo as soon as two more crew members were selected and all were trained. He felt a tug at his elbow. He looked and Helen leaned in and informed him that using a personality profiler, the other two had already been selected.

“Who?” he said with furrow brow.

She smiled at him and said, “One you already know, Stephen Vargas. The other is from Taiwan, her name is Fei Yen Ng (fay YEN Huang).”

John hadn’t forgotten the young man. To hear Stephen’s name twice in the matter of minutes after having no interaction with him since he went to Mars, had him stunned. He turned back to the audience who were waiting expectantly. Collecting himself he addressed them again.

“It seems I’m out a step today. The crew is complete, though one member you saw a couple minutes ago was breaking the bottle on the Marco Polo, so he won’t be joining us up here. His name is Stephen Vargas, however, can I ask Fei Yen Ng to come up.”

John didn’t see anyone working there way forward and was about to ask again when a small woman emerged from the front of the crowd. She came up on stage, she made an attempt to hide behind Martha, but Martha was having none of it, and pushed her out in front.

Things broke up pretty quickly after that. Martha noted that he hadn’t mentioned anything about her replacement and suggested John needed to check his daily updates because her replacement had been found. It was all explained in the report. His wives surrounded him as he headed to his office. Penny wanted to know who Estevanico was.

“I’ve learned of the others in school, but that one was a new one, who is he?”

“Estevanico,’ John explained as they walked, “He was a North African explorer. He was born in 1500 and died in 1539. He was famous for exploring the area that is now Texas and other parts of southwest America. He has been heralded as having been the first black man in North America.”

“You have men that are black on your planet?” Kiri asked.

No one laughed, because they knew she truly didn’t know; but since this gave Kiri an opening to talk with John, and her sister wives now knew, they slipped away while John explained how the dark skinned people, particularly African, became known as ‘black.’ They were in his office having coffee by the time he finished. Well, he was, Kiri chose water.

After he was finished, Kiri said, “John, I’m pregnant.”

Thinking he had heard her wrong he said, “You’re what?”

This, he realized was the wrong say to say and she burst into tears.

He quickly stood, swept he into his arms and began kissing her tears away.

“Love, I’m not upset, I just wasn’t sure I heard you right. I can think of nothing that would please me more than you having our baby.”

Kiri grabbed him and held him tightly. It was then that John heard a voice he hadn’t heard in a while.

‘Young One, I am sorry.’

‘Sifu?’

‘Yes, John. When I chose not to go where my spirit wished to go, when I chose to join with the programming, I had no regrets. I have none, still. However, when I joined with you to share my vision, I did not see the danger. Somehow, I have passed from you, and into the child you have created. I do not know whether I will retain any of my memories of my past. I only know that I must live life anew. I cannot teach you anymore. I thank you for carrying on with my dream. Fate has a sense of humor. For soon ... I, who you call Sifu, will be calling you ‘father’.

‘I do not know if I will be able to speak with you again, it is taking my utmost effort to send this brief message. Only your close contact with Kiri is allowing it. So live long, Young One and raise me well.’

With that Sifu went silent. One look at Kiri let him know that she too had heard the conversation. So it was Kiri learned of Master Iokee and all that occurred since he had joined with John.

John used the wall screen to check out the progress of the new Leviathan-class Star Destroyers that were being built In Hygiea. Hygeia wasn’t finished, but it was at a point where they could start building ships. As for the Leviathan-class Star Destroyers it had been so dubbed before he could act and change it. The Leviathan-class part of it wasn’t so bad, but he had no intentions of destroying any stars or any star systems. It was always better to protect than to destroy.

Of course, that wasn’t the only change. The ship Initial designations had been changed, as well. Sol System Guardian Forces was quite a mouthful, so it had been changed to Sol System Guardians. All of the ships prefixes had been changed accordingly, SSGF, to SSG. It might and probably would change in the future, but it would do for now.

John gave one last look at the screen, and turned it off. Nothing had been able to hold his attention for more than a moment or two, all morning. Without knowing how he began, he found himself once again pacing the floor of his office.

He was troubled by the feeling that he was forgetting something vital. It was one of those things that he knew if he didn’t figure it out, it was going to be to the detriment of everyone. John had been over everything that he had set into motion, multiple times. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that this was important.

It had nothing to do with the new arrivals from the fleet old ships they had saved. In fact, most had joined in seamlessly with the people from Earth. Of course, there were always those who wouldn’t fit, regardless of where they were. Not unexpectedly, most of them were from Earth. The one group he thought he would have the most trouble with, from Ray’s reports, were the Kyflen. But Quib and the rest of them seemed to understand the great hazard that returning to their own world would be to them, even though John had made the offer to do so. When they discovered the agricultural community on Mars they volunteered to join it, immediately. The reports John had received stated that they didn’t interact much with others of the community, but that their work ethic was surpassed by no other race.

The Hruth on the other hand, wanted to interact with others, but were unable. The area they were being housed had been quarantined with force fields and a different atmosphere was created for them. However an odd thing was occurring. The Hruth that surrendered ... their skin color was changing.

Complete scans were made of the dead Hruth so they had a baseline to work from. Of the Hruth there were many volunteers that offered blood samples if needed. They were pleased that only a scan was necessary. What was found was stunning. The DNA of these Hruth was altering. Seemingly spontaneously. The doctors weren’t certain, but they believe they were morphing into humans.

Katr Piannk, eight females and four males were the lightest. They had began to lighten weeks before the humans rescued them. The atmosphere had been altered twice to accommodate the changes. Katr was still having the strange dreams about the Hruth being humans changing to the Hruth they were and then changing back to humans. The dreams were so close to what Lord Mitz Hron had explained she knew that what she was seeing was the truth.

After talking to the others who were the lightest of them besides her she found they had that dream in common. Another female that over heard them said that she had started having that same dream as was her mate. Although interesting it didn’t answer any of Katr Piannk’s questions. She wasn’t even sure if she knew all the questions.

Katr Piannk couldn’t stop herself from thinking about Admiral Raymond Andrew Jansen. In fact she did something completely out of character for her. She asked one of the med techs, who checked on them daily, to see if they knew Raymond Andrew Jansen. She wanted to know if they thought he would talk to her. The med tech promised that she would see what she could do.

Tor on the other hand was a totally separate problem. John found out very quickly that the remaining Kyflen did not want to even hear his name. When pressed, Lieutenant Quib explained the Tor was terf’ru, and was no longer a part of Kyf’ra; nor could he ever be, again. She kept emphasizing this point as though it explained everything. John supposed, that in their culture, it did.

However, for John, he needed a better explanation. Quib didn’t leave his office until he had his answers. At first she answered grudgingly as if not willing to share the details of her society to John, but in the end she had shared all.

It was odd. John likened the terf’ru to the berserker of Norse mythology. Because of that form of intensity, he approached Tor about recruiting others from the planet where the other terf’ru were exiled.

Tor had agreed and had left with Martha, Paul, Helen, Stephen Vargas and Fei Yen Ng. They had immediately volunteered for the job. They used the extendable claws to clamp a scout ship to it so Tor would have a way back. If Tor didn’t want to learn to fly the scout the AI would fly him back.

John didn’t know how dangerous it might be for the six of them. Tor was going to a planet full of the banished terf’ru, to find out if any of them wanted to join in this conflict. He had to assume it was dangerous, but the entire crew was agreed that they wanted to do this. Perhaps it was that he still felt guilt over Brian, but John couldn’t refuse any of Paul, Martha or Helen’s requests.

The ship was going to have to do a lot of its travel in this dimension. Even though they were gathering extensive star charts, different systems of recording or cataloging were used by each space-faring race, to record them. It had become a full time effort to get them standardized. But none of that caused him any real problems.

In the end it was former first officer, and now senior officer and acting Captain Yashra Femna that gave him the biggest headache. She was the first to complain about her spatial mapping system being disabled, and that was only the first of her complaints. Included was the fact that hers was one of the few ships John deemed worthy of refitting and/or retrofitting.

Oh, she was not complaining that her ship had been chosen, she was all for her ship being upgraded, especially if it meant getting her hands on some of the technology to which John had access, which wasn’t going to happen. They were only going to update what the ship had with new, but the same equipment.

Though she wasn’t aware of that, it wasn’t the problem. The problem was the fact that her ship hadn’t been made a priority. She was the first one who would tell anyone willing to listen that she and her ship needed to get back on station for her people.

She refused to allow any of what she called “her crew” to mingle with anyone else. They were forced to remain in the ship while she complained incessantly. In the end, John had separated her from her crew long enough to find out if any wanted to stay with him and his people, to transfer to another ship, or to stay with her. Two thirds of the crew had had enough of her, packed their things and left the ship. The rest, for various reasons, including feeling honor bound to the acting captain, stayed.

There had been a reason John had acted the way he had, he was putting an end to Yashra’s disruptive influence. One of the new banshee’s used its extendable claws to clamp itself to Yashra Femna’s ship. The procedure had been tested repeatedly, and had been found to do no structural damage to either ship. To say that Yashra was not pleased, would be a gross understatement. Especially since no upgrades had been made.

Though he had a large tolerance for people’s behavior, he’d had all he could take of acting Captain Femna. The last straw had to do with spatial mapping. After John had explained to her repeatedly that Ares Landing and the surrounding bases had to remain secret, she still continued to attempt to activate her ship’s system.

She explained to John that she did not recognize John’s authority to deny her access to any of the ship’s systems. Tammera was kept busy using Ares Landing’s systems to override and or block Femna’s ship’s spatial mapping system. An hour previously John had watched the two ships leave.

Yashra Femna would find her and her crew and the ship exactly where Ray had gone to aid them. It wasn’t John’s duty to see that she got home, although he might have felt differently if her attitude had been more congenial.

Spatial mapping also wouldn’t do Yashra Femna any good for back tracking to Ares Landing. First Tammera had kept it disabled until the two ships vanished. The way the banshee moved, would foil any usefulness the spatial mapping system might have had. The teams working on Paulie had discovered a bit more about his drives. The same drive were used on the banshees with installation being done by Paulie himself. Admittedly though, the drives were for the most part, still a mystery.

Who would have thought that there were multiple universes out there? Not everyone was surprised, John and other Sci-Fi fans like himself that had accepted the concept ages ago, but to the hardcore scientists, it had come as quite a shock. It was through one of these alternate universes that Paulie and the banshees he designed, traveled. However, unlike ours, it is a small universe. It is devoid of stars or anything else that would hamper travel through it. Paulie would go to this small universe, move a small but carefully calculated distance, and pop back into this universe. In this manner, he could move thousands of miles, or thousands of light years, in seemingly the blink of an eye.

The scientists studying it were calling it a dimensional drive. It was above John’s head, technically speaking. However, he did not need to understand the concept, to use it. It did mean that all the ships had to have an AI to manage the calculations needed to accomplish the inter-dimensional travel, though. It explained a lot about the ships that Paulie had designed. John had thought the use of an AI on an exploratory ship ... Overkill? Perhaps, but if turned out to be necessary it would be down right invaluable. Especially if it happened to save a ships crew.

John pushed all these thoughts aside, as he continued his pacing. As he walked by his large set of bookshelves, he pulled a book out at random. He’d had all of his favorite novels replicated, in handsome leather bindings. Of course he could have looked up the electronic version of any of the books, but there was something comforting in the weight, smell and feel of printed books. During his childhood, books had been one of his few friends.

Opening the book, John hoped he would be able to distract himself from the nagging voice in the back of his head. This particular book was the third volume of the eight volume Pantheon series. It had been one of his favorites during junior high when he suffered so much bullying. Books were one of the few things that had allowed him an escape from school, and from his increasingly difficult home-life.

As he flipped through the pages he stopped on the chapter named, the trial of Bethamy (Beth ah me). John started going over the story in his mind. He remembered this part of the story clearly. The Captain of the Pantheon, Jane Bethamy, was being held for trial. The initial charges of treason had been dropped. She was now facing charges of actions unbecoming an officer.

She had proven her loyalty to Confed (the Confederation of Planets) on repeated occasions. Her record of thirty-six successful incursions all over Confed, including her last posting in the out worlds was unequaled.

She and her crew aboard the Pantheon had accounted for the destruction of eighteen meta-class ships, twenty-eight midi-class ships, one hundred sixteen mina-class ships, and an uncounted number of fighters. Because of her record alone it was impossible to press the treason charges. She and her crew had an exemplary record of defending Confed.

However, the Confed council did not like her methods. Or perhaps it was that they didn’t like the fact that during her last assignment in the outer worlds, she had become involved with the ruler of Ky’tan. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem. The Confed doesn’t regulate the private lives of its officers, but when they get involved with the rulers whose connections with Confed are tentative at best and were getting weaker, they became nervous. The only thing tying Ky’tan to the Confed was a trade agreement.

They were convinced that due to her ties with Relagus, if the Ky’tan withdrew from Confed completely; Captain Bethamy would not only join them, but also take the Pantheon and its crew with her. Their nervousness had caused them to bring the charges. Even if in the end they did not stick, they now had her back in the core worlds where they could keep a closer eye on her and the ship. Making certain that she was never posted near the out worlds again. They had forgotten one fact about the Pantheon, Five years previous they had signed ownership over to Bethamy in exchange for her continued service to Confed. Well, that among other things.

John looked down at the page where he had stopped flipping, and began to read. Captain Bethamy was being led into a large cathedral-like chamber. Her wrists were cuffed in front of her. Instead of a chain, the cuffs were connected by a solid metal rod. Her ankles were restrained in a similar manner, making it difficult for her to walk. The two burly guards had to drag the captain into the courtroom. It was clearly evident that those who saw her restrained in such a manner were shocked, by the gasps heard. These were measures normally taken with only the most dangerous of criminals. Then again, from what she knew of military law, there was nothing ‘normal’ about these proceedings.

Bethamy looked straight ahead, and paid little heed to the magnificence of the room she was being dragged into. She saw no beauty in the walls. They resembled polished brass and were burnished at each sharp edge, adding depth and a feeling of importance to the room. She did not seem to notice the gallery. It formed a semi-circle in the room to give the curious, the supporters and the detractors all, a good view of the proceedings.

She was dragged down the isle that separated the gallery into two halves, and she only had eyes for the raised dais in the front of the court. The normal bench that a single judge sat behind had been replaced by a long bench, behind which she counted eleven chairs.

It was an odd configuration considering the charges against her were military in nature. A military tribunal was held with the fleet admiral in charge of the proceedings, two admirals and two of her peers, which would mean fellow captains. She had no idea why there were six extra chairs. She was led to a podium and then chained to it in a standing position. Her escorts then took a step back, and stood at attention.

Her answer came soon enough as the counselor prime, two senior counselors, two junior counselors, two admirals and four captains entered and sat in the chairs. She couldn’t help but notice that the captains selected, were individuals she either did not get along with, or she’d had disagreements with previously. It seemed the Confed council was determined to make the charges stick.

She was not concerned. Contrary to the way she had been treated so far, ‘actions unbecoming of an officer’ was not an offense for which one could be imprisoned. She wondered how they were going to explain away the two weeks she had spent in the brig, so far.

Four years before they’d had her teaching her unusual battle tactics not only to new recruits, but to other captains, as well. It was these tactics that led to her disagreements with three of the captains now present. They believed that two ships should square off and that the better ship and captain won the battle. For the most part they did not agree with her method winning the battle no matter how you did it. Guerrilla warfare tactics rubbed against everything they had come to believe a military captain should do or stand for.

In Captain Bethamy’s mind, there was no glory to be had in battle, nor was there a concept of ‘honor’ during a war. There was only life or death! All else was just a pathway to one or the other. Odd that all of a sudden Confed has decided to charge her for using these very same battle strategies.

The counselor prime cleared his throat. The stir that had begun when the Confed counselors had entered the room did not die down immediately. It was only when Jane looked over her shoulder with a frown on her face that the gallery quieted. That quick glimpse was all she needed, though. The supporter’s side of the Gallery was filled mostly with members of her crew.

Her heart leaped into her throat when she saw one man she did not expect to see. She was quite certain that even Confed had not expected him to be present. Not considering the tension between Relagus and the Confed council. His presence did, however, bring her a certain amount of comfort as she turned to face the eleven men before her.

“This board has been convened,” began the counselor prime when silence fell over the gallery, “to determine the punishment for ‘actions unbecoming of an officer of the Confederation of Planets’. Those actions are as follows...”

“Objection!” a deep clear voice was heard calling from the gallery.

Jane Bethamy looked over her shoulder to see a tall thin man with salt and pepper hair that was pulled back in a braid that reached the middle of his back. He had sapphire blue eyes that had lines on their outward edges making Jane believe he smiled more than frowned. Little more of his face could be made out for the bushy beard he wore other than the thin line of his mouth.

“Who dares interrupt these proceedings?” The counselor prime demanded as he looked to the gallery.

“My name,” the thin man stated as he approached the front of the courtroom, “is Ikpeak Broacher.”

A murmur ran through the courtroom. Ikpeak Broacher was probably THE most recognized barrister in the Confederation of Planets. His name was associated with some of the most major cases, many of which established precedence for other cases.

“But ... what are ... you...” blustered the counselor prime

“Doing here?” Ikpeak finished for him. “The irregularities of this case have been brought to my attention. For instance, you and the board are planning to pass down punishment, when the defendant hasn’t even been convicted of a crime. The advice of a solicitor has also been withheld from the defendant. She has been held incommunicado in a military prison, on an offense for which one is not imprisoned, unless there are severe aggravating circumstances.

“Since there has not even been a trial, there is no way that such circumstances could have been determined. In addition this type of case is normally held in front of a military tribunal. Unless the council members present have recently received a military rank, then these entire proceedings are highly irregular, if not, illegal. I would lean toward the latter.”