“Femi, there was a time that would have mattered to me. The sad thing is, if you knew what was out there, beyond the corporations, you would leave corporate space and never look back. You have always been my father’s right hand, take over the corporation if you can and make it a better place. If you are interested, send a message capsule to Petrovia and they will contact us. We could all benefit from the trade and peace the Romani have to offer. I have a husband, a child, and a real father who adores me and I adore. Unless we come to a trade agreement or we continue to wage war, this will be the last time you see me. Be wise, Femi, and do what is requested. Pull all Sinclair assets out of Petrov space.”
Alaya and Christopher turned and left the room. Femi told the guards to let them leave, unhindered. They went to the roof, boarded their shuttle and left the Sinclair home world. They landed on the destroyer and were given clearance to leave orbit. As they moved to the slipstream home, Alaya watched the rear-facing camera as her old home receded into the distance. How she once always longed to return home after a long scouting mission. Now she looked at it recede and it was alien to her. As she stood on the bridge, Captain Rand came over to her and Christopher. “While you two were doing your mission on the planet, I took the risk of doing a little exploring. The reason they didn’t want us to enter their space dock is because they have three more of those battleships in there.”
That perked them up. “That is not good news,” Christopher said. “We will have to get that news back to Consul Lorenzo. We will have to build some to keep up.”
“I just hope they don’t have a fleet of them hidden somewhere.” Oskar Rand continued, “Building them must have put a lot of strain on their corporate balance sheet.”
“I agree. If they are in the space dock, they can’t be a secret within the corporate navy.”
While this discussion was going on, Christopher looked over to Alaya and saw a tear in her eye. He knew she hated her stepfather for what he did, but humans were complicated creatures. They could hate and love at the same time. Horatio Sinclair was the only father she knew and idolized for most of her life. Feelings can be repressed but not eliminated.
Slone went over to his wife, “Are you alright, Hon?”
“I will be, once I give Olivia a big hug.”
Christopher put his arm around his wife and looked at the star field in front of the ship. Soon they would be in the slipstream and do all future transits invisible, just in case some treachery was afoot. Home beckoned and war was on hold.
Epilogue
A month and a half after the meeting on the Sinclair home world, four large freighters entered the Petrov system. Aboard one of the freighters was thirty tons of gold. There was also a message for Alaya. It was from Femi Okar and sadly informed her that her stepfather, Horatio Sinclair, died suddenly of an unknown condition. Her sisters and brothers-in-law were working on the succession, but none appeared able to achieve a consensus. For now, they all agreed to let Femi take charge and keep them in their lifestyle. Alaya knew Femi was quietly ruthless. She had no doubt Femi would consolidate her position and become the leader of Sinclair Corporation. That didn’t bother her in the least.
Old friends also got together at the home of Igor Perminov. He had sent some servants ahead to clean up the place and the Romani brought the Vodka and food. Until deep into the night, they enjoyed telling war stories and Ambassador Perminov loved telling General Golov about Nova Romae. This was backed up by Captain Abramov who had to visit the home world to get the dreadnoughts. The Slones, Centurion Marshal, and the Petrovian leadership agreed to get together again on Nova Romae in the future.
They arrived home ten months after the battle. Jack Dalton returned with them and was pleased to find a delegation from Lagarde Corporation had arrived in New Wales and was going to be transported to Nova Romae by a Romani naval vessel. Since the Lagarde representatives were not arriving for a while, the Slones invited Dalton to stay with them at their lake house. To say he was impressed with the Romani was an understatement. Never in his travels through corporate space had he seen a city as beautiful as the capital, Roma. The lake house was idyllic. The Marshals were there a lot and the Gardners lived in a wing of the house so their son could play with the Slone’s daughter. He also met Sly and could not get over that he now knew the leader of an entire alien race. He was so used to the serpents now; he hardly saw them as in any way unusual. He even tried some of their live food, with mixed results. Dalton also was able to meet Alaya’s real father, First Consul Strabo. Again, he was surprised at the circles he was traveling in. Usually he just found out what the route to the top was and the diplomats took over. Eventually the representatives from Lagarde Corporation arrived and the Slones took Dalton to meet up with them to see the Primary Consul. The representatives were welcomed and were surprised that Dalton was known by name to the leader of the Romani. After the preliminary discussions, they were told to present their case to the actual governing body of the Republic, the Senate. This they did, though they still had no clue what a Republic was. It was decided there would be a trade agreement between Nova Romae, the Lagarde Corporation and its protectorate, Tudor Industries. The Lagarde representatives were also relieved that Sinclair was no longer in control of Petrov space and they signed a non-aggression treaty with both Petrov and Nova Romae. There was also an exchange of ambassadors, and much to the Lagarde diplomats surprise, the Romani asked that Jack Dalton be the ambassador to them. Since Dalton had no family back in Lagarde space, he was happy to stay with the many friends he made among the Romani.
While the Romani were still cleaning things up on Petrovia, Alaya was given some sad news. Her friends, Ann and Greg Stout had shown the tap node with the crimes of Sinclair Corp to Ann’s father. Rather than being appalled, he knew all about it and told the Stouts they could never tell anyone. He also wanted off the planet to warn Horatio that Alaya was not dead and knew the truth. Ann was shattered and Greg unequivocally told Ann’s father, he would never condone that action and all corporations needed to know the truth. To Ann’s shock, her father pulled a pistol and shot her husband in the chest. As he was about to finish Greg off, Ann grabbed the gun and it went off and shot her in the stomach. He would have finished them both off, but just then, shooting started in the area of the spaceport where they were and Alfred Maxwell saw the mercenary leaders running to the scout ship that was his ticket off the planet. He left Greg and Ann to die and ran to the scout. He just made it as they headed up the ladder and took off from the planet. Unfortunately, for him, in the next system, Alaya added him to the debris floating in the uninhabited system.
When Alaya heard what happened, she had Ann brought aboard the Invicta for medical treatment and she survived after surgical intervention. At least her body survived, Alaya was not sure if her mind would. Ann went with her friend back to Nova Romae, where she was given intensive psychological therapy to help her cope with her husband’s death at the hands of her father. Alaya was not sure she would ever be the same Ann she knew.
There was also a large ceremony at the Mountain of Remembrance as the dead were laid to rest with honors. Ominously, they could see new chambers being excavated in the mountain. The Romani expected many more deaths to come.
Diana Garner was detached from the Invicta to help design battleships. Within a few months, four keels had been laid for battleships. The Rising Star was rechristened the NR Tempestas. Christopher Slone and the bridge crew from the Invicta would be her first commanders and the part dedicated to the cruise ship was stripped away and turned into a large hanger capable of storing twenty serpent ships. Alaya and her scouts were assigned to the ship and she had a new scout ship, the old pirate corvette, Mary Rose, a name she liked and kept. Alaya bought it and had it repaired and upgraded. She now had a scouting force of twenty-five mixed serpents and humans and a ship that could fight and land on planets. She was ecstatic.
On the Tempestas, the regular hangar deck was maintained near the bow with the rear han
gar deck built over for more quarters for the military. The ship could be managed with the usual 400 naval personal and 100 marines. It was so large that it could hold an entire legion and it was planned as a rapid deployment force. It would be designated LEG CELERI, meaning “The Rapid Legion”, and they would always be ready for deployment. The four new battleships, when they came on line, would be set up the same way. They would go in first wherever there was trouble and Centurion William Marshal was promoted to the primary centurion of the legion. The legion was half serpent and half human as was the crew of the ship. All of the gunners were serpents. They had a natural ability when it came to aiming cannons.
It had been a busy year with the promise of more to come. New friends were made and old ones lost, but the Slones and their inner circle continued to enjoy life on Nova Romae.
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As soon as the Mary Rose was repaired and modified by the Romani, Alaya asked permission to test out her new ship by investigating what Horatio Sinclair wanted on the methane moon that he was willing to send Petrov Corp against its ally, Balin Corp. Permission was granted, since the Tempestas was still undergoing conversion. After a trip of close to a month, she was in the last slipstream to the system containing the methane moon Sinclair was after. They knew this from the Petrov computers. This was the only system Sinclair wanted after the successful takeover of Balin Corp.
“What do you think we will find, Hon?” Christopher Slone asked his wife. Since it would still be close to a half year until the Tempestas was altered into a full combat ship, Consul Lorenzo gave Christopher Slone permission to accompany his wife to check out the moon that started the domino effect leading to Romani intervention into corporate space.
“I have no idea. But considering all the deaths and sadness it caused, it better be worth it.”
“Exiting the slipstream now,” Tavia said and the bridge crew watched as the system came into view.
“Balin was too poor to exploit this system, so there should be nothing here.”
“Data on the system is coming in now.” Raul said. “It is uninhabited. There is a single primary white star, spectral class F with five planets. There are three gas giants and two ice balls farthest from the star. The only methane moon is one of the satellites of the third gas giant.”
“Take us to that moon then. Deadeye, load a mining probe into the missile tube and fire it when we are two hours out from the moon.”
“Sss. Yes captain.”
The seven hours to the moon passed quickly and they orbited it after the probe had done a complete scan of the mineral assets.
“Ok Raul, what do we have on the scans?”
“Mostly the usual stuff. It is mineral rich. There is one odd analysis. Looks like some type of crystal.”
Alaya perked up when she heard that, “Horatio Sinclair talked about a crystal on a methane moon. What does it analyze as?”
Raul looked at his readouts. “We have nothing in our data banks that fit the profile.”
“We need to get a sample of it. Will the Mary Rose tolerate the sulfuric acid rain on the moon?”
“For a short time, perhaps a few hours, but the vein is on the surface, so we should be down and back in little time.”
“Ok, let’s do it.”
The Mary Rose landed on the moon near the crystal vein and Alaya took a sample. They were on and off the moon in less than an hour. They dumped the crystals they collected on the table in the mess hall. “These are beautiful,” Tavia said as the crystals shimmered in all colors.
“Yes, but why would Sinclair want these?” Let’s have a closer look.
Alaya took out her light and shined it at the crystal. As soon as the light hit the crystal, a solid beam came out of the other side that burned right through the tabletop. Alaya quickly shut off her light and looked at the crystal. She didn’t have to tell anyone what this meant; these crystals could make energy weapons possible. They were the Holy Grail of weapons and sought after for a millennium. Now Alaya finally realized why the crew of the Hayden and the residents of Purgatory died. This discovery could change the balance of power in space forever...
Rising Star Page 31