The Council of Hhearn Trilogy Box Set

by P F Walsh

  “No, no, c’mon in.” He swung the door wider so she could enter.

  Sean and Halkt were watching through the hinge crack in the side room door. Doris paused appearing to make up her mind and then moved to go through the door. As she passed through while he was looking her over, she drew her stun gun and shot him in the chest. He went down in the doorway, out for several hours. Sean and Halkt rushed in and dragged his body inside the bridge, stripped off his pants and shirt, and bound both his feet, arms, and hands. They locked the bridge door behind them and searched the pirate’s clothes finding the usual junk men carry and nothing else. No Identification but he did have a tattoo on his arm that said ‘Noullk.’

  Sean and Halkt searched the bridge and found a wireless detonator sitting on the Captain’s console. Halkt slipped the batteries out of it and put it in his pocket.

  “Y’know, I’m beginning to like these stun pistols. No clean up after.” She said as she put the pirate’s clothes on and grimaced at its odor. This guy was not a fan of personal hygiene. Sean pulled out his pocketcomm and texted ‘fs’ (freighter secured). He got back ‘cs’ (corvette secured), going to step 2.'

  Sean nodded and went to the bridge controls. He had reviewed them while in ‘no-space.’ Freighters were almost universally alike for bridge ops. That made changing crews easy. Her found the tether release and activated it. Then, using local thrusters he backed the freighter out about four hundred strides from the asteroid. The Corvette did the same thing. Now, they would begin a thorough search of each ship for hostile men hiding.

  Four hours later, they were both convinced each ship had only one person aboard. Doris was able to change back into her own clothes.

  In the case of the Corvette, it was a very surprised pirate who was awakened with the words,

  “Time to get up Master Chief.” as he looked down the muzzle of three guns held by Lotma naval crewmen. While he was in a deep sleep from drinking, they found his clothes and searched them, revealing his rank from the Noullk. Despite the guns, he bolted toward the door and was stunned, before he got there, by three stun guns, insuring he would be out for at least a day and a half.

  Aboard the freighter, Welly found some scuttling charges next to the anti-matter containment housing and deactivated them. Identical setups were discovered in the Corvette.

  Now, they had to plan on dealing with the rest of the pirates inside the Asteroid tunnels.

  The limo screeched around corners dodging cars that were trying to get out of the way as the limo’s grille lights flashed and the siren howled. It headed for an overhead door opening in a nondescript, block building like so many in Washington. Shot down a ramp, and pulled into another opening overhead door. Water began flushing down onto the limo as car wash scrubbers began to scrub the vehicle. Power washers showered the undercarriage as the limo moved slowly through the wash down. On the other side, blowers were blowing all the water off the car into floor drains that went to containment tanks. Millie could see a dozen or so men in hazmat suits waiting for the scrub down to end. Once the car had moved forward of all the car wash equipment, hazmat suited men surrounded the car. One opened the door and told her to get out without touching anything.

  “Follow me.” He said and indicated a door. She passed through the door into a white room where a female agent in a hazmat suit was waiting. The door closed behind her.

  “Take off your clothes, all of them, put them in this basket, your purse too. Did you open your purse after you got the envelope?” She asked. Millie shook her head ‘no’.

  “OK, go through that door and take a very thorough shower. The soap and scrubbers are in there. Be thorough. Shampoo three times. Make sure you brush your teeth and rinse. She repeated the whole list.

  Millie, now frightened over all this activity, was concerned that she had been infected with some kind of really bad stuff. She hurried into the shower and began scrubbing every inch. While scrubbing herself down, she thought,

  “Things are a lot more exciting in Washington than back in London! I’m beginning to see why Maejel likes it here, tonight notwithstanding.”

  Later after drying herself and all wrapped up in a luxurious terrycloth bathrobe and hospital slippers, she was led into a waiting room that had a soft drink and coffee machines along with a TV up on the wall showing Fox News. She watched to see if anything about her recent event was being reported but there was no mention.

  She waited for about two hours and an agent came in the room to sit alongside her.

  “Well Ms. Griggs, you’re clean. The lab says there were no toxic substances on the envelope or your clothes. I will have someone bring them in so you can dress. We’ll have the limo take you home. We’re going to station an agent outside your apartment door for a few days. He, or a relief, will pretty much be with you everywhere you go until we find out why someone did this. I am sure it frightened and confused you. I apologize, it’s not a very good welcome to Washington, especially someone coming from the White House.” He said very pleasantly, and without the stiffness one expects from a federal agent.

  “I’ll leave you now so you can get dressed. When you’re ready, go through the same door I’m leaving through, someone will be waiting for you to take you home.

  “Why me?” She asked.

  “That is the question, isn’t it, Ms. Griggs? We’re working on that. We think it just may be a way to get a message directly to the President, who by the way, has called several times to learn if you were OK. He wanted me to ask you to call him when you get back to your rooms, here is the number, please do not share this with anyone, not anyone, understand?” he said as he handed her a plain white card with a number printed on it. She nodded and took the card. The agent got up and left, the female agent came back in asking if she needed any help dressing. Millie declined; the agent left.

  Once safely back in the apartment she shared with Maejel, and with an agent outside her door, she poured herself a stiff drink and sat down to call the President. Agents had already scanned her apartment while she was showering, and found no harmful devices or dangers to prevent her return. That was part of her waiting after her shower, while they used her door keys to check it out. She dialed the number and the President answered.

  “Millie are you all right?” Were the first words he said.

  “I’m quite fine James, but I must admit, life in Washington is exciting. Does anyone have any idea what this was all about?” She asked.

  “Millie, we’re still trying to determine if it is genuine, or just some scam someone thought might be funny. I’ll let you know as soon as we can. In the meantime, you will have personal Secret Service protection for a while. They will check everything to make sure this does not happen again. I apologize for all this. Damn.” He said. “Look, I would like to make this up to you. There is a reception at the British Embassy on Friday. There will be some people from Hhearn there you may have met. Would you be my date?” Millie replied immediately, “Of course I will. What time?”

  “How about we pick you up at seven?” He asked. “It’s black Tie by the way.” Millie broke into one of her huge smiles.

  “I’ll be ready.” She said.

  She wondered if it would be broadcast on satellite,

  “Then I will be even with Maejel. Bloody marvelous. First thing tomorrow, I’ll head for the best shop in town for a knockout evening gown, honey yellow, I think. Then, I need to call mum and have her ship over my gowns and dress-ups. God, I feel so alive!”

  “Mr. President, we are still working on the letter but it’s a tip from an unknown source that says China is about to send a plague virus to Taiwan. The tip is supported by some of our sources that noted two of China’s biological warfare scientists are at a military base near the shore opposite Taiwan. They are planning something. The Chinese always do this, they suffer an embarrassment and look for someone to punish. They lost their ‘A’ team in space and now will turn to something else. They won’t come at us directly but they know our
investment in Taiwan and figure that will hurt us.” The analyst recited.

  “Do you really think they will send a plague virus to Taiwan like the letter says?” The President asked.

  “Well sir, it’s likely they found out Taiwan has signed the Council Charter and is preparing to establish trade. The Council accepting their signing of the charter enhances their legitimacy as a separate nation. So, if the scheme is successful, it kills a lot of people they don’t want, weakens Taiwan’s defense, hurts their exports over contamination concerns, but doesn’t hurt any of the infrastructure they want to take over. There is also the chance the plague could migrate to the U.S.” He answered.

  Eddie Powers cut in,

  “By the way Sir, we found a tracker inside one of the limo’s tires. Very interesting unit, when the tire spins it powers up from a little inertia generator, otherwise it doesn’t transmit when parked. Hard to find. They put it in when we bought new tires last week.”

  “Any idea who?” He asked.

  “Probably the Taiwanese.” Eddie said. “The tech who put the tires on and balanced them quit. His address was fake.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Book Two

  Noomik-Mat the Executive Officer of the Domak and Captain Flynn met aboard the Corvette now secured back into Lotma’s hands. Sean looked around the Corvette and was not surprised at how dirty the whole ship was. Cast off wrappers lay everywhere. Clearly the Pirates did not have an interest in keeping a tidy ship. The ship would need a major clean up.

  “Do you have any suggestions about how to get the pirates out of the tunnels?” Asked Sean.

  “My first inclination is just leave them here, they will run out of food and air in a few lunars.” Said the XO.

  “True, but the shippers will demand to get their cargo back, or at least their insurers will. The pirates hold the cargo of four freighters. If they realize they are abandoned, they may choose to destroy all of it.” Sean said.

  Lt. Hark’m-Sed spoke up,

  “I worked in asteroid mining for a few years before joining the military. If this was a major mining site, there is always a bolt hole to escape through in case the entrance collapses. If none of the pirates have mining experience, they won’t know there is another entrance. The entrance will have an airlock but will be a small one, maybe even for a single person. Let’s find it, and decide.” He said. Everyone was silent.

  “At worst, we could open it and drain the air out of the mine forcing a resolution. On the other hand, we could put an armed team in and come from behind.” He added.

  Sean and the XO looked at each other and smiled.

  The two shuttles, one from each ship, began to scan the surface of the asteroid slowly and carefully. On their first scan, no evidence of such an escape portal was found. On the second scan, Sean decided to descend into one of the larger craters that covered the surface. It was there that he saw the glint of shiny metal near the crater wall as he passed over it. He swung back and set the shuttle down nearby. Sean and Doris got out and found the escape portal mostly covered by dust that had migrated down from the crater wall slope. They brushed away the dust until the portal was fully exposed. It was a small portal with a diameter suitable for only one person to pass into it in a vacuum suit. They decided to open it to see how big the inner air lock chamber was. There was no light inside so Sean and Doris turned on their helmet lights and looked inside. The air lock chamber could hold three persons if they crammed in.

  The Domak shuttled down another five heavily armed men to help with the assault and to crew the Corvette and freighter when they left.

  A six-man assault team gathered at the escape portal and in two sets of three, went in to the mine through the airlock. There was a roughhewn room on the inside with enough room for the team to reassemble, activate their infra-red helmet lights and visors, and begin to walk through the narrow cut to the main mine. Three taps on the airlock door could be heard outside by Sean pressing his helmet against the outside air lock door, signaling that all were in and safe. Their suit radios were turned off so there would be no progress reports. Sean and his team then headed for the main mine entrance while staying out of sight.

  Sean, Welly, and Doris were crouched behind rocky outcroppings on both sides of the main air lock waiting for the door to open. It would either be the Domak crew with prisoners, or pirates attempting to escape. They were ready. They could hear nothing since vacuum does not transmit sounds but they could see flashes of light from the viewing portal in the door indicating energy gun discharges. The pirates had left the inner door of the air lock open so that no one could come in while they were drinking up the crate of Rhhymnet ‘Seep.’ The flashes went on for a long time before they could see the light from the door portal go dark indicating that the air lock inner door was closed and the lock was cycling.

  The outer door opened and a Lotma crewman came out, he reached down to his belt and turned his suit radio commo back on.

  “We lost two crewmen, the pirates fought to the death, they’re all dead. My men are going through all their clothes and kits to secure as much evidence as we can, but this one is over.” He said, and turned to go back in.

  “Allister was right when he counseled me not to be part of the assault team.” Sean thought, “He knows more about human nature than we all think he does. The pirates really had nothing to lose, they would have all been executed. I’m 80 years old, some things I just have to leave to the young guys. Damnit.”

  Sean and his team returned to their shuttle, worked their way through the asteroid field to the Discovery and docked with the ship. Then, Sean sent a courier drone to Hhearn bringing them up to date, and a personal note to Nasht-Mer that all was well.

  Captain Meeshlin-Hek of the Domak and his Executive Officer Noomik-Mat joined Captain Flynn and crew aboard the Discovery for dinner.

  They described how the assault went, despite the many energy shots fired, there was little damage to the cargo stored there except for some scorched crates and the crate of Rhhymnet ‘Seep.’ a few bottles of which they brought to the Discovery.

  “We’re sure the shipper won’t mind a few lost bottles if he gets his whole cargo back.” Captain Hek said with a smile, as he poured everyone a glass after dinner to celebrate a successful endeavor. Sean raised his glass,

  “Here’s to absent crew mates and a just end.” he said to everyone who replied “Hear, hear!”

  “You know Captain, we’re not done yet, right?” Sean asked.

  “True, we still have to find the missing freighters. We can’t be sure that we got all the mutineers, neither one of the captured ones are talking, and you are the only on-site Council Member, so I’m game to continue if you are. Finding those ships may be difficult if they have been sold again through a fencing operation. But it won’t be hard to find the first point of call. The Corvette’s nav system will know the route. Each trip is stored in detail including the hailing frequencies.” He said.

  “I still am having trouble believing that we found the Corvette. This marks the first time a successful mutiny of a Lotma military ship occurred. It’s pretty likely, the pirates spaced the non-cooperating crew, but we don’t know how many until we get the original crew count from the last time she was in port at Lotma.” Sean nodded, and could see how angry the Captain was over all the loss of life and loyalties. He decided to move off the subject.

  “Have you secured the tunnels?” Sean asked.

  “Yes, as best we can. I’ve sent a courier drone to the Rhhymnet shipper listed on the crates with instructions on how to open up the base. They will have to send a loading crew and three freighters at least for the load that is in the mine. The two pirates we have in our brig will come with us until we get back to Lotma. They will receive justice there since they are also mutineers and former Lotma naval crew. Their outlook is not good.” He said.

  After a solar interval, the Discovery, the Domak, and the Noullk ships moved out of the local sector and slipped into �
��no-space’ heading for the coordinates of the last place the pirates had been before their recent hijack. The recaptured freighter was sent back to Rhhymnet with just a two-man crew from the Domak.

  Millie rushed about her rooms making last minutes touches to her makeup and dress. Tonight, she would accompany the President to the British Embassy for a reception to meet the new Prime Minster. Millie was British through and through, but she could not help ruminating about the fact that she had to travel 3,600 miles away from home to meet the Prime Minister. “On the other hand,” she thought, “this whole trip has been a complete marvel, and I am about to be the evening’s social partner of the President of the United States. This kind of ‘do’ just doesn’t happen in London, at least to me. Maejel definitely had the right idea to bolt England and dash to the colonies.”

  She looked herself over in the full-length mirror and liked what she saw. She couldn’t find a honey yellow gown in any of the shops she hunted through, but the pale cream color she bought highlighted her butterscotch color hair. She decided against putting her hair up and allowed it to drape across her shoulders partially obscuring her diamond necklace she always brought with her despite the terrors of losing it. It was her mother’s, and she always felt she was bringing her mum with her when she went out.

  One last look in the mirror,

  “Right, off we go!” She said smiling.

  She picked up her clutch purse and went out her apartment door. The secret service agent stood up from the chair she had and said,

  “You are looking right smart this evening Ms. Griggs.”

  Millie smiled.

  “Thank you, think he’ll like it?”

  “You’re kidding, right?” Said the Agent “He doesn’t stand a chance.”

  They headed toward the elevator, went down, and out the front door with the agent who seemed as though she had her head on a swivel looking in every direction for possible concerns. There were none. The limo was right there in front and her driver was the same driver from the other night. She approached the door and said,