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.