Chapter 7: Rescue and Discovery

On the planet Clavis, a shuttle descended through the atmosphere and headed to the large island in the center of the ocean. Coming in over fields of corn and wheat, it headed towards the governor's house. Flying up and over the transplanted redwoods from North America on Terra, the three hundred foot tall trees stood like giant soldiers marching in formation. It flared its engines as it set down on the landing strip outside the main house.

Once on the pad, the engines shut down and the door opened. A Tall muscular man walked down the ramp wearing a solid black uniform. On his collars were six gold stars in a circle. In his left hand was a silver cord that stretched from his hand back to a collar around a woman's neck, her long brown hair hung to her waist in a ponytail. She was wearing a brown shift, her wrists had silver cuffs on them and her face showed no emotion as she followed him down the ramp. She seemed to be in her mid forties. As he reached the bottom a young ensign walked up, came to attention and he saluted his superior officer.

"Sir, may I show you and your companion to your quarters?" Holding attention, he waited for an answer.

He returned the young man's salute with a quick salute of his own, "Ensign, do you have a kennel on the property?"

Confused by his request he responded, "Yes sir, we do."

"Good take it there and lock it up. Give it a bowl of water and some scraps," he snarled as he handed him the leash, and he continued, "After my meeting I will get it back and then I must be back aboard my ship for departure. No one is to speak with it. If anyone does and I find out I will flay you alive."

Taken back by the Admirals orders "Sir..."

"Do I make myself clear Ensign?" he said as he leaned forward until his nose was inches from his face.

Snapping back to attention he shouted, "Sir, Yes, Sir."

Taking the cord, he led her around the side of the house and past some prisoners tending the grounds. Walking the woman towards the back of the compound where the kennels stood. Crossing in front of the dogs one of them raised his head and thumped his tail.

"Not now Adolf, I will take you for a walk later," Ensign Manual Hector said as he walked by his dog and to the empty kennel.

Unlocking the gate he opened, "I am sorry miss you must get in. I will get you some food and water."

She nodded her head and crawled into the small animal pen. Going to the back of the pen she curled up in a ball, where she started crying. Crying for something, she knew she would never see again.

Talon walked over and dumped the weeds in the bucket, and walked back and knelt and continued pulling the weeds out of the yard. Suddenly the noise of a shuttle descending was heard and he looked up and saw it descending to the shuttle pad.

"Damn I wish I could get on her and get the hell back to Alderia. I wonder how Kyla is doing. I hope she's moved on and married someone else instead of waiting for me." Suddenly a searing pain shot through his body.

"Get back to work slave!" The guard walked by his finger playing over the small black box he carried.

Quickly he started pulling more weeds, around the corner of the house came an Ensign leading a woman by a collar. Quickly he shook his head, "It can't be! Arggggggggg" he screamed as pain radiated through his tortured body.

"I told you to get back to work!" With a kick in the slaves ribs, he continued, "Now do it and no talking."

Glaring hate at the man, he said quietly to himself. "Just wait asshole. I will get that laser one day, and when I do, I will shoved it up your ass and fry it."

Inside the building, Admiral Mark Thomas walked through the doors into the Governors office. "Governor I have dispatches from the capital for you. They need your DNA print for you to accept." Holding out a case to the fat balding man, he waited.

Governor Tobias looked up as his door was flung open seeing the black case and the Admiral he does not say a word in anger, "Of course Admiral."

Placing his hand on the box an electrical charge shot through his hand as the box recognized him. A small chip appeared on the side of the box and he took it. Placing it in the viewer, he started reading, and he gasped out, "They can't be serious they want me to start killing the prisoners?"

"We are deadly seriously we have declared war on the Confederation and we don't want them rescuing any large amounts of them. As they say, dead men tell no tales." With a cackle, he turned towards the door and walked towards it, stopping at the door, he turned and said, "Follow your orders Governor Tobias or you and your family will join their fate." He then turned and walked out of the room.

"They are fucken nuts, I cannot kill eight hundred thousand POWS, and the free systems will go nuts if they get wind of the massacre. Every system will declare war on us. What are they thinking." suddenly a voice came over his computer.

"Governor! Do your duty. We are watching. You have forty-eight hours to start."

Admiral Thomas walked out the door of the huge three-story mansion and down the steps to where the young officer waited for him.

"Sir, do you wish me to have quarters prepared for you?"

"No thank you Ensign, go get my slave for me. Did it eat and drink? No one talked with it correct?" Mark said as he examined his nails.

The young man came to attention "Yes, Sir and she..."

Glaring at the young man, he said in a calm voice, "It's not a she. It is an it. You will address it as such."

"Yes, Sir, it ate and drank and it hasn't spoken to anyone. I will go get it for you." with a nod from the Admiral, he ran around the house and to the back of the kennels. The woman, he cannot help but see her as such lay curled up. Grabbing the leash, he opened the door, and said, "Miss come on get out of there. He is waiting for you. If I could, I would let you go. No one should be treated this way."

She laid there as she heard the young man run up. He spoke the first words of niceness she has heard in years. Crawling out of the low pen, she stood up and looked him in the face. Mouthing the words, she said thank you to him and touched his cheek. Taking the end of the leash, she attached it to her collar.

Ensign Manual Hector looked at the woman, and smiled, for she was a beautiful woman, and he replied, "Your welcome. Now please follow me." He led her around the building to her master.

Walking around the huge house, he said, "Here it is Sir."

Mark took the leash and led it back to the ship giving the leash a sharp pull that knocked her off her feet. Mark stood there and snarled, "Get up slut! Or do you want another mind whipping?"

Shaking her head no she staggered to her feet and let him led her into the shuttle. The ramp quickly went up, and the engines fired and it quickly lifted off and was soon out of sight.

"Fucken bastered should be shot for treating her like that. Especially her!"

Looking around the Ensign saw one of the yard slaves watching the shuttle, and said, "Slave come here my shoe is dirty." The man crawled over and pulled a rag from his pocket and started cleaning his shoe as he asked, "Slave, do you know her? Who is she?"

The slave looked up at the Ensign and quickly glanced around. Seeing that the guards were not paying attention, he replied, "Sir, she was a captain in our navy, and from what I heard she took out seven of your battle-cruisers with her damaged battle-cruiser.

"Are you sure?" Manual asked.

"I am pretty sure it's her, she kind of looks like her, a little thin, but I thought she was dead for the last ten years." Buffing the shoe to a bright shine, he started on the other.

"Who is she? Don't worry. No one will hurt you over it. I personally think this is so wrong. You are prisoners of war, not slaves, but I must act the part."

Nodding his head, "I understand, Sir, us slaves always thought the best of you. You never treat us like the other bastards. Well if it is who I think she is, she is Captain Maria Tallfeather wife of Admiral Howard Tallfeather. We thought she was dead at the battle of New Singapore."

"Well I have studied Admiral Thomas records and he did fight there, he had command of the battle-cruiser Goeben. If that is her, she shot his ship to Swiss cheese, but the rest of the fleet was able to destroy the Inflexible. How do you know her?"

Doing a last brushing on one of the man's shoes, he replied, "I was on her first ship the cruiser Tigress as a marine guard. It sure looked like her, but I could be wrong," The sound of the shuttle-breaking orbit stopped their conversation and then he continued, "I better get back to work."

Deep in the Clavis system, a lone cruiser came out of warp, at the edge of the system, and went quite. Two days of sneaking into scanning range, was nerve wracking for the crew as they searched for the enemy. Fourteen planets circle a single G2 star with three of the planets and two moons being able to sustain life. The Primary planet called Clavis with a population of six billion before the invasion was down to roughly half of the prewar population. Round ups, force labor and the nuking of several major cities during the invasion had caused a dwindling the population.

Around the planets, nine construction docks worked at repairing and building new ships of the Gormarian fleet. On the planet, thousands of fighters, bombers and assault shuttles were being built by slave labor. The cruiser searched and found twenty defensive stations and over one hundred warships ships moving around the system. In orbit around one of the moons, three huge monitors sat watching the surface of the moon. Guarding over the many prisoners of war held there in giant POW camps.

On the bridge of the ship, Captain Jonathan Hicks walked around as the crew did its job.

"Captain I am detecting about one hundred ships, and twenty defense stations. I am not sure of fighter strength on the planets or other hidden defensive stations. I have three Gamma class monitors circling Clavis primary moon. Nine construction docks in orbit around the planet with lots of construction activity."