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Tom Parkinson had also become increasingly anxious about the wellbeing of his agent Peter Summers, and he was even now speeding towards New Terra aboard the space cruiser Indomitable with Captain John Stalker in command. He was on the bridge of the ship at the moment and speaking to the captain.
“Captain, how much longer is it before we reach New Terra?”
John Stalker was thirty years of age, young for a captain of the space fleet, but he was one of the fleet`s most ablest of officers and had seen many skirmishes with space pirates in the many parts of space which had been colonised by Earth over the last one hundred and fifty or so years. He was tall, blue eyed and handsome with a shock of brown hair that was in need of a cut to get it back under control; however the Indomitable of late had been too busy to allow him the time as the ship had become increasingly involved in the skirmishes with the planet Lyre.
“Another two hours should see us in orbit around the planet Director. We will drop you off there and then continue on our way towards the Ragdalian system, that is currently the area in space where we are trying to control the urges of the Lyren Federation to enslave even more of the galaxy.”
The Ragdalian system was quite small with only one planet currently occupied and its population was still relatively small, being only two million strong spread out across the planet, with a very low level of technology, not having had as yet their own industrial revolution. This made them a perfect prize for any planet wanting an abundance of free slave labour, and as the planet was filled with a wealth of mineral assets, it was too tempting a prize for the Lyrens to pass up. Unfortunately, the space fleet of Earth had taken up residence near to the planet and was currently engaged in stopping the Lyrens from enslaving the planet.
Tom Parkinson was going to New Terra to ask for the assistance of the planet`s law enforcement agency to locate his missing agent. If necessary, he had a cover story that he could use, that Peter Summers had been on the trail of a Neo Nazi group whose aim was to destabilise the planet and take it over during the resulting crisis. This wouldn`t be too far from the truth and quite believable to some of the ruling council on New Terra. They were getting increasingly worried by the trading ties that the planet currently held with the Lyre Federation, especially with a full-blown war about to erupt between Lyre and Earth. Travelling along with Tom Parkinson was a squad of space marines led by Colonel Ronald Michaels, they were there to give him protection from the planet`s rival faction who were making a good profit trading with Lyre, and so were in direct opposition to Tom Parkinson`s own aims.
Galaxy Spies Page 5