Chapter 24

The arrival of the Honorable Jotalta Caldonton came just after breakfast the next morning, and even though my meeting with him was my first time off the planet since I'd been dropped onto it, it was practically a non-event. Charlie had sent a short synopsis of my complaints ahead, just to whet his lawyer greed gene and our meeting was merely a formality to get the paperwork signed.

For me it was a little surreal, since it was one of those they all look the same to me situations. I couldn't tell the Honorable Jotalta Caldonton from Bandor to save my life, or his either. Still, his ship was considerably more comfortable looking and his decorator had it all over the military's.

"My intelligent machine is going over the data that yours had provided as we speak. In its estimation the potential settlement will be by far the largest I have ever sought. It is also apparent that the government has no defense, since they have clearly allowed this particular department to run amok and operate without any significant oversight.

"According to our regulations, lawyers can not receive more than twenty-five percent of any settlement as their compensation. That is the amount I usually demand. In this case I will accept ten percent of the total settlement. I am not doing this to be kind. Ten percent of the settlement I intend to make for you will be more than I have earned from every case I have previously handled. My only requirement is that you let me obtain the highest settlement possible.

"Our regulations also require that in the event my actions on your behalf will also benefit me in a way other than monetary enrichment, I am legally bound to explain how I will benefit and explain to you why the additional benefit to me will be necessary.

"It is my opinion that this legal action you are about to undertake will benefit every honest citizen of The Kaldabra Coalition and even nearly every citizen, honest or not. I'm sure that as a result of the settlement of your grievances, a bureaucratic cancer that has been growing within our Coalition for decades will be seriously beaten back. In effect, your legal action will greatly enrich our entire civilization.

"Do you wish me to represent you in this matter?" he asked, finally getting to the point.

"Yes. I'm requesting that you represent me," I said, then we signed the paperwork and I was put back on the surface.

"How did your meeting go?" Charlie asked.

"You know exactly how it went. I asked you to monitor my phone for the whole thing," I said, and then laughed at him.

"I know, but it seemed I should at least try to keep up appearances."

"There's no point in keeping up appearances when it's only the two of us," I said.

"Very well."

"How long do you think it will be before something actually happens?" I asked.

"Something already has happened. His intelligent machine as he put it has given him a general outline of the things that have been going on here and the Honorable Jotalta Caldonton has sent an emergency message directly to the Coalition's chief executive," Charlie said.

"You didn't happen to discover what the message contained did you?" I asked.

"Unfortunately I haven't been able to break the encryption yet, and it is possible I won't be able to. I am fairly certain he would have mentioned the act of war as a first shot across their bow though.

"Of course the AIs of the two ships in orbit have already reported the incident; however, they do not have access to the chief executive and it is possible that their message has been delayed by the administrators who are in positions of authority over the patrol ships," Charlie said.

"If they dare trying to hide this won't it make things even worse for them and better for me?" I asked.

"Of course it will, but they have no way of knowing that you have finally been able to make contact with your lawyer, and they also have no way of knowing how bad the situation here is. I feel confident that they are still operating under the delusion that they can contain the damage," Charlie said.

"Well, I think I'll go see if I can contain some lunch while the Coalition's leaders are finding out what a bucket of shit the bureaucrats have handed them."

My attitude had started out in pretty good shape this morning and it was getting better and better as things went along, and that was without going off on a tangent about what the details would actually mean.

One detail kept coming back to me though. On the top of my wish list was ownership of earth and the solar system, or star system it was in. I hadn't even put it there myself since I never dreamed something like that was possible. I thought about it now though and it was going to happen.