by D. J. Holmes
James wasn’t surprised by Suzanna’s awe. He had grown up in the Sol system and yet even he was impressed every time he came back. There were many solar travel companies that made their fortune solely by flying tourists from outer colonies to the Sol system to take this sight in. Yet, they had all grown up at least knowing what Sol looked like, Suzanna had not been prepared for the sight before her.
To let her see earth better he zoomed in the holo display. “Here,” James said, “have a look at your homeworld, it’s hard to imagine your ancestors left here almost 200 years ago.”
“It’s so green,” Suzanna said as Earth came into focus. “I always thought Haven was pretty but this, this is something else.”
“Just wait until you get to the surface,” Mallory said. “The holo projector doesn’t do it justice.”
“It looks like Earth is even busier than normal,” James said as he studied the screen.
“Aye, I imagine Pemel is drawing quite a crowd,” Mallory replied.
“Take us in,” James ordered the Sub Lieutenant at the navigation console.
Six hours later Suzanna was still on the bridge gazing at the Sol system, taking in every detail. James had left a few times but he too had been studying humanity’s home system. He had been particularly interested in all the warships in orbit around Earth. Most of the Earth powers kept a significant proportion of their fleets around Earth but it looked like there was more than usual present. He guessed that many of the smaller Earth nations were trying to impress Pemel.
It was no surprise to see the Brazilian warships off to one side, keeping their distance from Earth. It had taken James and Mallory two days to carryout enough repairs on Endeavour to allow her to jump into shift space. That had been plenty of time to allow some of the freighters who had been in the Alpha system and observed the battle between Admiral Harris and Endeavour to jump to Sol and report the battle to the news outlets. James knew that Pemel would have assured the Earth governments that he didn’t hold the Brazilians accountable for the attack, but the news reporters were unlikely to let the Brazilians off the hook so easily, especially if there were multiple freighter reports of Brazilian ships carrying out the attack. James had asked Pemel to keep the real identity of the attackers a secret and he was sure that there were a great many conspiracy theories running around Earth at the moment.
“Captain, we have just received a message from HMS Vulcan, you are to repair on board and report to Admiral Somerville forthwith,” Sub Lieutenant King said from the COMs station.
“Acknowledge the message,” James ordered, not in the least surprised. No doubt his uncle was dying to know just what had happened in the Alpha system. As soon as Vulcan’s sensors would be able to make out Endeavour’s battle damage he would know that whatever it was, it had been serious.
“Mallory, set course for Vulcan, alert me when we are thirty minutes out. I’m going to retire to my quarters,” James said once King informed him that the acknowledgment had been sent.
“Aye Sir,” Mallory said as James stood up and left the bridge.
*
Five minutes after Endeavour had docked with HMS Vulcan the RSN’s main construction yard, James stepped into his uncle’s office. Behind him Suzanna followed eagerly.
“Let me tell you boy, this is getting to be a jok...” Admiral Somerville began but when Suzanna stepped out from behind James he stopped mid-sentence. James saw a brief look of surprise cross his face before he got himself under control again.
“Councilwoman Rodriguez I presume,” he said instead in a much more formal tone. “It is indeed a surprise to see you here. You are most welcome however, please take a seat.”
“I’m sorry for the shock Admiral,” Suzanna said, “but I needed to come to Earth urgently. Thank you for your welcome.”
As James walked past his uncle to take a seat the Admiral shot him a questioning look. “We will explain everything,” James assured him.
“I’m all ears then,” Somerville said as he sat behind his desk. “I presume this ties in with the attack on Pemel’s ship. He said you came to his rescue once again.”
“Indeed we did,” James said as he launched into an explanation of the events that led up to the battle in the Alpha system. He had already agreed with Suzanna that he would do the initial talking.
“So you see uncle, we really had little choice. We didn’t quite know when Pemel would arrive and I thought that if we left the Alpha system to go and look for help we wouldn’t be back in time to intercept Admiral Harris. In the end, it worked out, although I’m afraid Endeavour is going to need another stint in a repair yard. Our nose section has taken some serious damage. I wouldn’t want to take her into another fight in her current condition,” James finished.
“I have seen the visuals of Endeavour as she approached Vulcan, you’ll be happy to know I have already put her at the top of the repair list. We have finished enough ships over the last two months that there should be a berth available for Endeavour. I don’t plan to let you out of my sight just so quickly this time,” Admiral Somerville said.
“You’ll not be surprised to hear that I approve of your actions,” he continued. “Though taking your ship into an unknown gravitational anomaly is going to raise a few eyebrows among the other admirals. You may have to face a disciplinary hearing for that.”
James was about to protest but before he could say anything Suzanna had beaten him to it, “But Admiral, that is hardly fair, James..”
“No, it’s not fair,” Admiral Somerville said, breaking her off, “yet it is necessary, even if it will likely just be a formality. In light of the circumstances I think James made the right decision. He had to intercept Admiral Harris and he fought very well when he did. Nevertheless, we can’t have RSN Captains running around risking their ships wily nilly so James’ actions will have to be assessed by a disciplinary hearing. If only to warn other Captains that such risks will only be tolerated in the most extreme circumstances.
“What concerns me is the repercussions this will have for our plans with Haven. The King and the Prime Minister have been winning over support in the Houses of Commons and Lords for a vote on offering protectorate status to the Haven colony and its surrounding systems. Once this attack gets out I fear all support will evaporate. There will be calls for an armed intervention, not a peaceful alliance.”
“That is why I am here Admiral,” Suzanna said. “I want to assure you and your government that there is still a peaceful solution available for our future. First Councilor Maximillian does not represent the majority of the population of Haven. If he can be removed from power, then I think the way will be open for us to open friendly relationships. I hope to play a key role in beginning such relationships during my stay here on Earth.”
“And just how do you plan to remove the First Councilor?” Admiral Somerville asked. “From what James has told me your attempts have failed to have any real impact on his power base.”
“That is correct Admiral,” Suzanna conceded begrudgingly. She shot James an accusing look which James returned with an apologetic shrug.
“Yet Admiral Harris’ attack on Pemel’s ship is the last mistake Maximillian is going to make,” she continued. “If we can get the images of the attack back to Haven, the people will rise up and overthrow him. There is no way he can stay in power. As soon as the other councilors learn that he attacked a friendly alien race and that he lost almost all of Haven’s surviving military ships, they will remove him from power. His actions have thrown the freedom of every colonist on Haven into jeopardy. Haven will recognize this and act swiftly. I firmly believe that if we can get the images of this attack to Haven then you will find a much friendlier government in power ready to negotiate with your leaders.”
“That’s as may be,” Admiral Somerville said. “Yet it doesn’t change things here and now. As soon as the King and Prime Minister hear that it was Haven who attacked Pemel they may decide to abandon all plans of offering a protectorate. E
ven if Pemel says he is ok with the attack, my government may not want to take the chance of associating with elements of humanity who have openly attacked what may well become our most important trading partner.
“However,” Somerville continued. “Nothing has been decided yet and I assure you, you will get a chance to present your ideas to our leaders. In fact, even if we decide to take another approach to Haven we may well send an envoy ship to your colony to inform your populace of Maximillian’s actions. Even if we don’t offer you protectorate status, I imagine we would still like to remove Maximillian if we can.
“For now though we have a few other things to sort out. First, James, Pemel has requested that you accompany him on his tour of Earth as soon as you arrive in system. We will have to arrange for you to join him.
“Second, we are going to have to find a way to explain away your involvement in the battle in the Alpha system. For now, it is best to keep the Havenite involvement in the attack a secret as well as the presence of Ms. Rodriguez. Yet we need to have a good explanation of how you came to be in the right place at the right time. And we will need to come up with some sort of story for why you weren’t able to identify your attackers. I imagine we can concoct some story about how your long-range sensors were damaged.”
“That won’t be too hard to fake,” James said, “we took quite a lot of damage in the battle. I’m sure I can get my sensor technicians to alter our battle feed to obscure the identity of the attacking ships.”
“Good, well get right on that as soon as you return to Endeavour,” Somerville said. “No doubt you’ll have a lot of debriefing sessions to go through and I imagine you are going to be very busy for the next few weeks.
“As for you Councilwoman, for now, I think it is best you remain on board Endeavour. The less people that know about your presence here on Earth the better. You have my word that I will try and make sure we come to an agreement that will help your people, I can make no promises however. In any case, whatever will happen now, the world becoming aware of your presence will not help anyone.”
“I understand Admiral, I will stay on Endeavour and make myself available to anyone who wants to speak to me from your government,” Suzanna said.
“Very good,” Somerville said pleased. “No doubt I’ll be summoning you back here in a couple of hours but for now I need time to think things through and contact the Prime Minister. You can both return to your ship.”
“Aye Sir,” James said as he stood up and escorted Suzanna out of his uncle’s office.
“Oh and one more thing,” Admiral Somerville said as James was about to leave his office. “Your crew are going to be confined to their ship. I don’t want even a whiff of the Gift or the fight with the Haven warships getting to the press. I’ll be holding you personally responsible for your crew.”
“I understand Admiral, I’ll make sure everyone knows how important secrecy is,” James said before he stepped out of the office.
*
21st March, 2467AD, UN Interplanetary Committee Chambers, New York.
As James dropped down into one of the Committee Chamber’s seats he let out a long sigh. The last six days had been a rush of meetings. It seemed that Pemel had wanted James to accompany him everywhere he went. As the alien was meeting with almost all of Earth’s leaders it meant James was dragged all over the world. At the same time, he was expected to be present with Suzanna when she met with the King, the Prime Minister and other select Members of Parliament on a number of occasions to discuss the future of Haven. As if that hadn’t been enough, he had been grilled several times by a number of senior Admirals and RSN legal aides about his actions in the Alpha system. They were all gathering evidence for James’ impending disciplinary hearing and so James had been forced to go over the battle again and again. On top of all that, his uncle had been true to his word for no sooner had he left his uncles’ office than the Chief Engineer of HMS Vulcan had contacted him. A repair berth had been cleared for Endeavour and his ship was currently being swarmed over by hundreds of engineers as they got to work repairing Endeavour’s battle damage. James had been so busy he had been forced to leave most of the supervision of the work to Mallory.
The only moments of calm had been the breakfasts he had been able to share with Suzanna. As she was still staying on board Endeavour to help keep her presence on Earth a secret they had been able to share their mornings together before their busy schedules began. On the first morning they had mainly talked politics but on subsequent mornings their discussions had turned to more personal matters. Both of them had opened up much more about their past than they had before and as a result, James felt he knew a lot more about Suzanna’s inner life. Another result had been that James had promised to show Suzanna around his family’s historic home. Coming from Haven, Suzanna had grown up without all the historic buildings Earth was covered in. In her short trips off Endeavour she had been able to get glimpses of some things, but they had been limited. When he had offered to show her around his family’s home she had been very excited.
Since the late 17th century, Badminton House had been the home of the Somerville family, being passed down from Duke to Duke. James hadn’t been back to the estate since his father’s suicide. His mother had died when he was still in his early childhood and all throughout his childhood and teenage years his father had made it plainly clear that his elder brother was not just the heir to the Dukedom, but also the favorite. As a result, Badminton House, despite all the history it held for his family, never really felt like home to James.
Currently, it was still being run by John Grimshaw, his father’s butler. Butler was a very old fashioned word for what Grimshaw did, yet the aristocracy liked to keep their traditions. Rather than waiting on his father hand and foot Grimshaw had been in charge of overseeing the running of the estate grounds and the stately home. James remembered the elderly man as a kindly soul who had looked out for James when no one else had and so upon his father’s death, he had kept Grimshaw in his position overseeing the estate.
James’ thoughts of the past were interrupted when Suzanna nudged him with her knee, bringing his attention back to the present. “It’s beginning,” she whispered.
James smiled at the look of excitement on her face. He was glad his uncle and the Royal Space Naval Intelligence officers in charge of keeping her presence on Earth a secret had agreed to let her attend this historic meeting of the UN Interplanetary Committee. Suzanna had insisted that she needed to attend to form her own opinion on the rest of Earth’s leaders. His uncle had reluctantly agreed, aware that he couldn’t keep her prisoner if she really insisted on going.
RSNI had hastily made up a fake alias for Suzanna and so she was posing as a minor assistant to Admiral Somerville. As James looked around he guessed that there were over two thousand people crammed into the large Committee chambers and so there was little chance anyone would pay much attention to Suzanna. All the focus would be on Pemel after all. This was the first public speech he would be making. So far all his meetings had been private, everyone on Earth was therefore waiting with bated breath to hear what he was going to say.
Nevertheless, there was no need to risk drawing too much attention. “Calm down,” James whispered back. “You are supposed to be an Admiral’s aide who has been to hundreds of Committee meetings. If you look too excited someone will notice you.”
“Of course,” Suzanna said as she put on a bored expression. “Is this more suitable?”
James shook his head and turned his attention to the podium, squishing down into his seat to get more comfortable. As a RSN Captain James had only come before the UN Interplanetary Committee twice before, once to report his discovery of the Void and a second time to answer for his attack on an Indian mining station. Despite the significance of both occasions, a number of the Committee members had taken the opportunity to present long drawn out speeches. James suspected Pemel’s address to the Committee would be no exception.
It was over an
hour later when the last Committee Member stood to give his speech. Currently the Indian representative was chairing the Committee and he got the pride of place, having the honor of officially welcoming Pemel to the podium and speaking just before Pemel got up.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the Committee,” Representative Pawan said to his colleagues who were sat to either side of him, “and to all those present this morning, either in our prestigious Committee chambers or watching this event from around the Sol system, and especially to you Viceroy Pemel. It is with great pleasure that I stand before you to address you all as the sitting President of the Interplanetary Committee.
“However, as many of you know a Committee member sits on this council as a representative of their nation’s government and as stipulated in article fourteen point three of this Committee’s constitution, the ruling head of state of any nation may take the place of their Committee representative to address the Committee. Therefore, I introduce to you Prime Minister Slaman Devgan of the Indian Star Republic.”