The Hiriculan Imposition: Book 4 of the Alliance Conflict

by Jeff Sims

  Finally, Loid contacted Admiral Lopeq’la and told him he could leave the planet and that the Navy could land their Neto occupation troops.

  Nearly all of the 800 million Solarians lived in one of 30 very large cities. Over the course of the day, the Hiriculan Navy dropped a garrison of 100 Neto troops in every major city. Each squad of 20 soldiers had a Hiriculan commander. The entire garrison had an overall Hiriculan commander and a small support staff of 5 Hiriculans. Each garrison commander reported to Loid’la.

  Each garrison moved into an existing Solarian Defense Force or Alliance building since these had been recently abandoned a couple of hours ago. One hundred troops sounded infinitesimal to properly hold a city of 20 million beings, but it worked because the unarmed populace was no match for HAS units.

  Besides, the troops remained inside their new armories. Because they rarely left it was relatively easy for most citizens to simply ignore their presence. Life was basically unchanged from what it had been 6 hours ago.

  Chapter 12

  Crista Bullpeep woke up at 6:00 am, about an hour earlier than normal. She and Victor still had several hours before they had to open their archery range and International truck exhibit in Human Town. They also had meetings planned with a couple of plumbing contractors to install their actual functioning human toilet that was due to arrive in a couple of weeks.

  Human Town is an entertainment and dining district located on the far, far southern outskirts of Solaria City. The catch or shtick to the place was before one could enter the district, one had to paint their exposed skin a legitimate human color. Patrons could choose either white, black, brown, or yellow.

  Victor was still sleeping beside her. She tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t. A few minutes later she realized that she was awake for the day.

  She got out of bed and tiptoed to the bathroom in the dark so that she wouldn’t wake him. She made it exactly six steps. On the seventh step she stumbled over one of Victor’s shoes and fell rather loudly to the floor.

  Most of the impact was absorbed by her forearms, but she still managed to bump the left side of her head. She stood back up and held her left hand to the left side of her head. She scanned the area with her toes and realized that Victor had carelessly laid his clothing all over the floor.

  She now no longer cared if Victor was still asleep. She yelled, “Clean this shit up!”

  Victor didn’t acknowledge her, so she grabbed one his shoes and threw it at him. Her aim was on target; the shoe hit Victor square on the right side of the head. Unfortunately, her control collar activated and she now felt a sharp pain on the right side of her head.

  Crista’s control collar was a punishment for stabbing a clerk in a shopping mall. Originally, it was programmed to inflict to her four times whatever pain Victor felt and to poison her should Victor die. Victor’s friend removed the poison from the collar and set its pain threshold to its lowest setting, roughly equal to what Victor felt.

  Crista yelped and grabbed the right side of her head with her right hand. Her eyes had now become adjusted to the darkness and she could see somewhat. She bent down and scooped the discarded clothing into a pile.

  Victor rolled over and said, “It serves you right.”

  Crista responded with a very inappropriate hand gesture. However, she realized that Victor couldn’t see it in the dark, so she said, “Well, now we are truly sole-mates.”

  Crista watched Victor for a moment. He groaned and rolled back over. It was clear that Victor intended to sleep for another hour, so Crista wandered into the living room and turned on the main monitor. She flipped through a couple of channels and eventually settled on a morning news program.

  The broadcaster was almost shaking. Crista couldn’t tell whether it was in fear or joy. She turned up the volume just enough so that it would be loud enough to bother Victor, but not so loud that he would bother to do anything about it.

  The broadcaster nearly-yelled, “This is Roger Duckdive. Today’s top story is unbelievable. We have an exclusive video of Kima Katdashs rocking a skin tight bikini at Solar Beach. We can’t quite tell who that is with her though. Does anyone know him? Oh wait, we are going live to Lena Wormsilk at Solar Beach for an update.”

  Lena: “She is definitely wearing a new designer bikini that we haven’t seen before. I can’t tell who the designer is yet. Also, I can confirm that she is being escorted by a new man. No one has been able to ascertain his identity yet, but he looks young and handsome. I am going to try to get close to him and get a DNA sample. Back to you.”

  Crista looked down at her flattish chest and thin hips and grimaced in comparison to the celebrity. Kima’s figure didn’t seem like it was proportionally possible. Crista briefly wondered if the woman came by her assets naturally. Maybe she was actually a human masquerading as a Solarian?

  Crista said to the monitor, “Well, that certainly sounds like a developing situation.”

  The broadcaster continued, “We will keep you apprised of any updates.”

  He paused for a moment, let his voice calm down, and continued, “In other news, the Hiriculans launched a daring raid on the Solarian Defense EMP building early this morning. The Solarian Defense force reacted quickly and killed 30 of the attacking HAS units. However, the Hiriculans were able to penetrate the building and capture the EMP intact.”

  The view shifted to outer space and the broadcaster continued, “The planet is now surrounded by 14 Hiriculan warships. Negotiations between the Solarian government and the Hiriculan Ambassadorial staff have been on-going for several hours now.”

  He paused and pressed his hand to his ear. He said, “This just in, the two sides have reached a tentative agreement. We now go to Lena Wormsilk live at the capitol building with an update.”

  Lena: “Yes, thank you. After intense negotiations both sides have agreed to the original Hiriculan demands exactly as they were originally stated. Basically, the Alliance Senate will be eliminated and replaced with a new Alliance Council. Each member race will have one voting member. This voting member will be responsible for all of their respective citizens, regardless of their location.”

  Lena paused and smiled for the camera. She continued, “It is recommended that larger population races such as the Advranki or the Altians create sub-councils to draw consensus for a particular subject and advise their lone representative. Unlike the old Alliance, this new Alliance will not be dominated by one race. Everyone will be treated with dignity and respect.”

  Roger asked, “Have we heard anything from the Advranki and Altians and the status of our existing Alliance?”

  Lena responded, “No. We haven’t heard from either government directly. However, the Hiriculans have stated that they also have relieved both races of their naval duties and have invited them to join the new Alliance.”

  Roger said, “Well that certainly sounds nice. What about the military? How will the new military function now that the Hiriculans have disbanded the existing Alliance Navy?”

  Lena responded, “All current members of the Alliance Navy and the Solarian Defense Force will be asked to retire. The police force will remain intact though.”

  She continued, “The Hiriculans, in concert with the Neto, will provide military protection during a proposed cooling down period of a decade or so. Solaria and other member races will pay a small tax to help finance the on-going costs of this navy. After the decade has passed, any New Alliance member that wants to join, or even rejoin for that matter, can do so after an extreme vetting process.”

  Roger said, “I just noticed that you said New Alliance. That seems rather confusing. How are we going to differentiate between the old Alliance and the new one?”

  Lena: “Well Roger, they are going to call the new organization a Republic to help ease the transition from a verbal standpoint.”

  Roger: “So, does that it mean it will be called the New Republic?”

  Lena: “Wait, I am getting new information. They have switched it to
The League of Neutral / Gas Planets and/or Inhabited Star Systems, or LONGPISS for short. It appears that they don’t want to exclude anyone.”

  Roger nodded his head in agreement and said, “Well Lena that makes sense. It would certainly seem insensitive to exclude beings from representation simply because they live on a space station instead of a planet. Perhaps we can simply call it The Star Federation.”

  Lena: “Wait, I have yet another update. Apparently updating all of the computer systems with a new name and sending commemorative brochures to every being in the galaxy is too expensive. They have decided to just call it the Alliance.”

  “I see,” said Roger. “Now that the new treaty has been negotiated, it has to be ratified by a majority of the citizens of Solaria. The choices are quite simple – we can either (1) leave the current Alliance and form a new one with Hiricula, Neto, and possibly Advranki and Altian or (2) not join the new alliance and face severe consequences.”

  Lena added, “Please grab your communication pads and vote by the end of the day.”

  Roger nodded and smiled. He paused and said, “In other news…”

  Crista turned off the monitor and grabbed her communication pad. She scanned her messages until she found the one that she wanted. She opened it and started reading. The message included a preamble and a lot of legal jargon. She skipped past all of the big words and scrolled down to the bottom where the voting buttons were located.

  O YES – A Yes vote here implies that you want to leave the old Alliance that was unfairly dominated by the Advranki and join a terrific new Alliance as a full and equal voting partner.

  O NO – A No vote here implies that you want to remain with the old Alliance and suffer the consequences.

  O OTHER – A vote here means that you want to see the list of the consequences before deciding.

  Crista’s finger wavered between the yes and no buttons for a moment. Finally, she moved her finger down and pressed the other button. She said to no one in particular, “I want to see what the Hiriculans are planning before I decide.”

  …The import and export of Advranki sea moss will be halted by a naval blockade…

  Crista whistled softly and said, “Wow, the Hiriculans are serious.”

  “About what?” Victor asked.

  Victor had gotten up and joined her in the living room. Crista paraphrased the recent events concerning Kima Katdashs and then mentioned the annexation of the EMP building and the arrival of the Hiriculan fleet.

  Victor pressed the other button as well and said, “I don’t think they can break the will of the Solarian peopleC2L2 that easily. Let’s see what other hideous things they have planned.”

  …Everyone will be forced to take a 3 day weekend…

  This time Victor whistled softly. He said, “Man, they are really being mean. What if I only want to take 2 days off?”

  …Everyone that votes yes will be invited to a really cool party on par with the Solarian Celebration. Those voting no will not be on the attendance list…

  Crista asked, “Can they really do these things to us?”

  …Human commercials will be banned from broadcasts…

  Crista exclaimed, “That is my favorite part of the show!”

  She paused for a moment and then squished her finger down on the yes vote. After seeing the harsh consequences, there was little doubt in her mind that the treaty was going to pass overwhelmingly.

  Besides, there was a Hiriculan fleet in orbit around Solaria. With the EMP gone, the Solarians were powerless to keep the Hiriculans from doing whatever they wanted to do. And the concept of a new, far more equal Alliance seemed like a fairly benign outcome compared to a full-scale invasion.

  Victor voted for the new alliance as well. The decision felt wrong to him somehow, but he knew that he had little choice in the matter. He supposed that was why the decision felt wrong to him. However, if the new alliance was inevitable, he certainly didn’t want to miss the commemorative celebration.

  ………..…………

  Lorano watched the same telecast as Crista. He was sitting on the floor of the third, unused pyramid on Solaria and watching it on his communication pad. Carank, Clowy, and Lexxi were sitting beside him. They each could have viewed it on their own com pads, but it somehow seemed fitting to watch the news as a group.

  Besides, the wireless websphere service wasn’t very good way out in the middle of the isolated area where the pyramid was located. There would have been a significant lag if everyone had tried to use their own communication pads to watch the broadcast.

  They watched the program in relative silence. During a commercial break, Carank commented, “It sounds like Advranki Prime has fallen. Altian too for that matter.”

  Clowy asked, “What about Altian 1 and 3?”

  Lorano responded, “More than likely all three Altian planets and all three Advranki planets were forced to surrender. It appears that Hiricula has won the war and the Alliance as we know it has ceased to exist.”

  Lexxi waved her light-green hand dismissively and responded, “More importantly, who was the mystery man with Kima Katdashs?”

  Carank said, “We have to get off of this planet as soon as possible. We cannot get captured and questioned again.”

  Clowy asked, “Why not?”

  Carank said, “Because we know the location to a brand new, habitable planet.”

  He looked at Clowy and saw her forming the word what. Before she could ask he clarified, “The one that we cleverly named C2L2. In addition, we have discovered a new hyperspace route from Solaria to the new planet currently named C2L2 and from C2L2 to Earth.”

  Lorano said, “Carank, returning to your original statement; it is too risky to try to leave right now. The Hiriculans probably have the spaceports heavily guarded. We need to wait a few days for everything to settle down before attempting to leave.”

  Lexxi said, “I don’t understand. What makes you think that they will detain us, or even care about us for that matter? Since they don’t know that they don’t know, how could they possibly know, or even suspect, that we know what we know and that we don’t want them to know what we know?”

  Lexxi put her finger on Clowy’s lips. Lorano responded, “Excellent question. I don’t know if I know the answer. However, I do know that the Hiriculans have relentlessly pursued Admiral Solear and the Sunflower in an attempt to bring him to justice for the attack on the Spindle Station. What do you think they will do when they find the bridge crew that was responsible for the attack?”

  Clowy moved Lexxi’s finger from her mouth and said, “Ooh, I know. They will arrest us and take us back to Hiricula for a trial.” She smiled brightly.

  They continued to watch to the broadcast. Roger Duckdive said, “This is Roger Duckdive. We interrupt what we were just talking about a minute ago with an extremely important update…”

  Lena interrupted, “Thank you Roger. This is Lena Wormsilk outside the main polling office. I have the results of the DNA test. The mystery figure accompanying Kima Katdashs was none other than Solarian Senator Baxter Bunnyhop. I tried to interview him, but he was not immediately available. His publicist released a statement stating that they are just friends.”

  Roger: “Thank you Lena for that informative update. Now, let’s go back to the original important update. The first 10,000 votes have been cast; representing .001% of the population. So far the vote is 8,200 for the new alliance versus 1,800 against.”

  Roger continued, “With that much of the vote counted, the election committee is now able to call the vote in favor of joining the New Alliance. Further, the Hiriculans have relented and stated that everyone is invited to the commemorative party regardless of how they voted.”

  Lena: “Well, that is certainly great news. Now, the citizens of Solaria have to elect a new Senator. I understand that the decision needs to be made as soon as possible. Hiricula wants to form the new Alliance Council as quickly as possible to return stability to the galaxy.”

&
nbsp; Roger continued, “Therefore, a single debate will be held tomorrow evening and the vote will occur the following day. At the moment only two candidates qualify – Baxter Bunnyhop and Amanda Catmeows.”

  Lena said, “Amanda Catmeows certainly makes sense. For the last 5 years she has humbly represented Solaria in the old Alliance Senate. Further, for the last 30 years she has been in public office helping people, especially children.”

  Roger said, “Baxter Bunnyhop is relatively new to politics and is serving his first term as a Senator in the Solaria government. Before serving in politics, he built a real estate empire after receiving a small loan from his father and even hosted a television show. His status as a celebrity and as an outsider to politics really resonates with the masses.”

  Lorano turned off his communication pad and said, “We will leave during the ceremony. That should provide the greatest opportunity for a distraction and the least amount of Hiriculan soldiers at the space port.”

  Carank said, “It was a mistake to come back to Solaria, even if the investigation did lead us back to this pyramid.”

  Lorano responded, “Well, clearly if we had known that the Hiriculans were going to conquer the galaxy this week then we wouldn’t have made the trip.”

  Lexxi said, “Well, since we’re stuck here we should investigate the pyramid thoroughly and try to find your missing link.”

  “Missing what?” Asked Clowy.

  Lorano sighed slightly. He said, “Recall that we found the remains of both Humans and Altians on our planet C2L2. We were able to accurately carbon date them to 4,000 years ago - roughly the same time that Solaria was settled. For some unknown reason they abandoned the other planet and relocated everyone here.”