Preserving Perfection: Self-obsessing with body augmentation has left the entire planet of Ramos without children. But to acquire children means interstellar war! (Veiled Destiny Book 2)

by Jason Bourn

  Nadia nodded her head. Everything that the admiral said was accurate, even if was slightly misleading – OK, more than slightly misleading, she had to admit to herself.

  The admiral continued, “We were able to speak to the children, but they have decided to stay to help Ramos. All of them chose to stay and they all asked that no one visit. This is in keeping with the quarantine that I have imposed. We ask and they ask that this quarantine be honored.”

  After a silence that showed the vice admiral was taking it all in, the vice admiral responded, “We had such hopes and dreams of getting our children back. That is just terrible. Our entire people will be in mourning.”

  Nadia waited several moments then said, “Yes, it was heartbreaking. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the parents who lost children. We have the video records of each child’s vote to stay on Ramos. These can be accessed, if desired, but only if needed to obtain final closure. The sooner we can put this episode of our lives behind us and look forward to our wondrous future, the better.”

  The entire rest of the trip inbound to Torval 2 was full of communications with distraught parents, where Nadia had to empathize with them, but more importantly had to also paint an upbeat vision of the future. Her message was always the same. The loss of a child was heartbreaking, but nothing could ultimately constrain the indomitable spirit of humanity.

  As expected, some would not ever get over their loss. She took consolation in those that she was able to focus on the spark of a boundless future, rather than on the bleak past.

  When they finally reached Torval 2, she was emotionally drained. She realized that what she really needed was some time off. However, there was one thing that still needed tending to, now that they were back. She needed to deal with Garth.

  They had withheld Garth from any communications outside the ship ever since they had taken him. Now they had to decide now what to do with him. They had put off any decision since they wanted the Periphery’s input. Now that they were back, Nadia set up a meeting with Saul, representing the Periphery; Admiral Badstubner, representing the military; Kadar, representing the old Kingdoms; and Giliad, because Nadia valued his strategic insights.

  Exhausted, but knowing that after this she would be able to get some well-deserved rest, she started off the meeting. “The purpose of this meeting is to decide what to do with Garth. We have held him for the duration of our Ramos excursion, but we have not officially charged him of any crime. Legally speaking, we are stretching both the letter and the spirit of the law. Now that we are back, we have to do something different.

  Kadar said, “Do we have any legal grounds for holding him in custody? I know him. If we let him loose, he will again try to consolidate as much power as he can.”

  Saul quickly spoke up, “I agree. If we can keep him in custody, that would be for the best. I can’t think of any Periphery worlds that trust Garth.”

  The admiral countered, “We would need a warrant for his arrest to do that. Holding someone without a warrant is unprecedented. We cannot get a warrant without convincing a judge, and I personally don’t think that we have the grounds to hold him. At a minimum, I think that he would be let out on bond while he argues his case.”

  Nadia felt so tired, just wanting to get this to be over with. But she knew the stakes and dared not let herself take the easy way out. Summoning up the energy, she said, “Giliad, what can you add from a strategic point of view?”

  Giliad looked at her and smiled. “This is mostly a legal issue. There is no question that once you have an aggressive warrior in custody, it would be exceedingly poor strategy to release him. You have everything to lose and nothing to gain. Conversely, Garth has everything to gain by his release. In fact, he will have a stronger case if he is released in that he can claim that he is the injured party in that he was held without legal cause. Should he choose to use this information against you, this could give him the proverbial moral high ground in the future.”

  Nadia’s head was starting to hurt. How was it possible that someone who had taken over so many worlds through force, deception, trickery and shrewd negotiation could now claim the moral high ground? It seemed unbelievable. Looking back at every step that she had taken in the past to counter Garth, she knew that she wouldn’t have done anything differently.

  She looked carefully at each of the attendees, gauging their dispositions. Both Saul and Kadar looked afraid of what would happen if Garth were released. The admiral was shaking his head, looking like Garth’s release was inevitable. Only Giliad looked calm and relaxed, as if prepared for any outcome.

  Coming to a decision, she finally said, “We should try to get a judge to agree to have the military hold Garth indefinitely, for the good of the state. The only other alternative is to release him, which everyone has agrees would be a mistake. I agree with the admiral that this is a long shot, but it is our only other alternative.”

  Dryly, she resignedly said to herself, “I can’t wait to argue this one in court.”

  – – –

  The court hearing didn’t last long.

  The case against Garth consisted of his previous aggressive tactics and the takeover of multiple worlds. In addition, based upon his past history, he was deemed to be a danger to the state.

  Garth took the stand himself, arguing in his own defense. “Your honor, what you have seen here is an unabashed effort to ruin the name of an upright citizen. Nothing that they have said has any merit. I have successfully negotiated with the legal owners of every planet that I have incorporated into my Kingdom. I have signed documents for every one of them that shows that they agreed to become part of my Kingdom. In fact, I am the injured party here. I have been held against my will with no charges levied against me. I demand that I be released and that all charges be dropped, due to lack of evidence. In fact, I would like a judgment in my favor without bias, showing that the charges are most likely frivolous in nature and would not be likely to succeed if a full trial were to be held.”

  The hearing went on for two entire days, but the content from both the defendant and the prosecutor did not stray far from these two summary statements.

  In the end the court ruled that Garth was to be released, without prejudice. The only small victory that the judge gave to the prosecutors was to give the ex-Kingdom Lords the ability to renegotiate their agreements with Garth.

  Lucia was the first to ask to be released from her agreement with Garth. Trolian, Donald and Kadar quickly followed. Each of the Kingdom Lords that had regained their Kingdoms vowed never to be subjugated again by Garth.

  At the end of the trial, though, Garth walked out, smiling – a free man!

  – – –

  Kadar, Donald, Trolian and Lucia all were able to get their Kingdoms back, along with their allotment of battle ships. Admiral Badstubner sent a large contingent of battle ships to escort Garth back to his home world, at the same time ensuring that these ex-Kingdom Lords were given their Kingdoms back from Garth.

  Each of them in turn were overjoyed, but none so more than Kadar. He had been quite happy with Heather, but every second that Kadar had been forced to be subject to Garth had been his own personal hell.

  The moment Kadar officially had his Kingdom returned to him, he was overjoyed. As he no longer needed, nor wanted, an administrator looking over his shoulders, he called Heather in to talk to her about her future.

  “Heather, I wanted to thank you for the way you carried out your duties. You did it with grace and a soft touch, to which I will always be grateful.”

  Heather looked at him, smiled and said, “It has been my pleasure. When I was studying you before I received the job, I was fascinated by what I saw. Now that I have had the chance to work with you, I feel even more captivated by what I see. I’m sorry it has to come to an end. I am really happy for you that you get your Kingdom back. I’m sure you will be even happier than you were before your Kingdom was lost.”

  Kadar reached out and took her hand. He squeez
ed it affectionately and said, “You know, if you don’t have any other obligations, I could use a good administrator that was working for me. I have grown quite fond of you actually.”

  Heather smiled, “Actually, that would be quite nice. I would enjoy working with you.” She squeezed his hand back.

  Kadar looked at her, finding her more attractive than ever. “There is only one problem that I can see, Heather.”

  Frowning, she replied, “What is it?”

  Not able to see her in any kind of displeasure, he continued quickly, “I’m afraid that I have let my feelings get the better of me. I hope you don’t mind, but now that we are no longer in the old work relationship, I was wondering if we could start a new, more personal relationship to go along with our new working relationship.”

  A questioning look came over her face. He smiled and held out his other hand. She looked into his eyes, then a big smile came over her face as well. “I would be happy to entertain a personal relationship. In fact, I would be more than happy.” She knew that there were dark aspects of her past that she should tell him about, but she didn’t want to spoil the mood.

  With that Kadar took her other hand and pulled her close. “Heather, you don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do this.”

  Heather replied, “And you don’t know how long I’ve wanted you to do this.”

  They held each other and nothing else mattered for a long time.

  – – –

  The drive to create a United Federation of Planets, consisting of all the Periphery worlds, all the Kingdoms and, of course, Torval 2, started immediately. Within days of returning to Torval 2, Nadia, tired as she was, campaigned day and night to make this happen. She knew that this was a one-time opportunity to create the Federation, while the memories of the children and their efforts to save them were still fresh. She wanted to become the leader of the Federation, to be known as the Secretary-General.

  She campaigned as much to make the Federation a reality as to become its leader. She knew that this was the best chance of addressing all the previous problems the Kingdoms and the Periphery had in the past. As the leader of the Federation, she knew that she could ensure the fair treatment of all participants. She also knew that a strong Federation would be the best way to counter the likes of Garth.

  She felt she was running on fumes as she saw her efforts bear fruit. A sector-wide vote was scheduled to create the Federation and simultaneously elect it’s leader.

  Finally, just when she felt she had given all she had, the voting took place and she was vindicated. The new United Federation of Planets was officially established slightly more than 2 weeks after returning to Torval 2 and she was elected Secretary-General in a landslide.

  She knew now that she could finally rest. In fact, she felt she could indulge in a sleep for the dead for days. But, smiling, she knew that she had earned it.

  CHAPTER 26 – BUILDING SMALL

  Garth did the math in his head. He had twenty-five battle ships and Torval 2 had more than four times that number. It didn’t make sense to even consider doing anything in or around Torval 2. Also, even though Kadar and Donald had only ten and five battle ships, respectively, any hostilities there might pull some of the battle ships near Garth’s home worlds into the fight, especially if it was a long, drawn-out affair.

  On the other hand, with twenty battle ships the Periphery had plenty of fire power, but only if it concentrated all their forces. They would only do so to counter an all-out attack. Therefore, it made much more sense to gradually pick away at the Periphery worlds one-by-one. He smiled to himself – or he could use trickery to get what he desired much more quickly and easily.

  But all that had to wait. What made much more sense now was to re-acquire the two smallest Kingdoms. The only question was how to best utilize his resources to maximize his assets at the end. To that end he set up a meeting with the leader of his battle ship fleet, Darian Johnston.

  Garth started off the meeting, “Darian, I wanted to start with bringing back Lucia’s and Trolian’s Kingdoms back into the fold. I’d like it done quickly and with as little use of force as possible. For my long-term plans, I also want to ensure that we get all of their battle ships, intact.”

  Darian scratched his chin, thinking about the various ways of going about this. Finally, he volunteered, “I recommend we set up a trade meeting with both Lucia’s and Trolian’s Kingdoms, and both at the same time…

  He went on describing the plan to Garth. After he finished, he concluded by telling Garth, “My guess is that both Kingdoms will both quickly agree to become part of your Kingdom, and they will offer no resistance and will turn over their battle ships to us with no shots fired.”

  Garth thought about it and smiled. He always liked working with Darian. The man was almost as sneaky as he was. “Excellent plan, Darian. I like it a lot. This has the additional advantage that it will most likely be over far before anyone from Torval 2 knows what has happened. I really like this plan – I think that it is going to work very well.”

  They worked for another hour on detailed logistics, then broke the meeting off. Both smiling, they said their good-byes and moved forward on implementing their plan.

  – – –

  Nadia received the alert right in the middle of her long-delayed vacation. She had just started to relax in the upscale hotel, enjoying the warm sunshine on the beach. She had drifted off and was dreaming she was back in ancient Greece, with a man-servant feeding her grapes and fanning her with a palm frond. She asked him for another glass of chilled guava nectar when her persa interrupted her from here reverie with an emergency interrupt from Admiral Badstubner.

  Her persa indicated that Admiral Badstubner wanted to talk to her right away. Reluctantly, not really wanting to talk to him, but recognizing the necessity to, Nadia agreed to talk live to the admiral.

  “Nadia, the commander of the battle ship contingent near Garth’s main worlds has detected all of Garth’s ships are on the move.”

  Nadia quickly asked, “What direction are they headed?”

  He responded, “Everywhere. Take a look at your persa.”

  The admiral allowed the classified data to be made available to Nadia’s persa. Her persa immediately showed that all the ships going out in different directions.

  Nadia looked for a short time then, frustrated, she responded, “I don’t understand. What this is showing is not very helpful. I can’t tell where they are going or what they are up to. Are they going out on an exercise? Should we have our ships follow them?”

  The admiral said, “As you know, it is simple to follow ships in real space, but when the quantum jump drive kicks in, it is impossible to follow them. We need to rely on sensors at the destination end to tell us where they have gone to. It is impossible to know otherwise. We don’t know what they are up to and I’m not sure what to do. That is why I wanted to talk to you. What do you think we should do?”

  Frustrated, Nadia spoke again, “Garth’s small fleet hasn’t broken any laws, so we really can’t stop his battle ships. In my mind we really only have a few choices. We can stay and put pressure on Garth’s main worlds, but we really didn’t know if Garth is staying there or if he is on one of the ships. Alternately, we can guess as to where his fleet might go and jump there preemptively. As a more middle of the road approach, we can get jump distance from Garth’s main worlds so we have the flexibility to jump wherever we might be needed. I’m leaning towards the latter approach. Admiral, what are your thoughts?”

  The admiral paused, then said, “I’m afraid that you’re right. We unnecessarily risk war if we try to intercede with his fleet. We risk compromising our numerical advantage by breaking the fleet into smaller units if we attempt to guess at the most likely destinations. Also, for all we know, it might just be a legitimate training exercise. They never tell us when they are going to do anything. I think that they do that just to annoy us and make us expend resources unnecessarily. If they gave us advanced notice,
we could schedule our forces the most efficiently. The way it stands now, we have to be in our highest readiness state at all times.”

  “OK,” Nadia said, “We will have all our ships near Garth’s home world go to their closest jump points and wait. I just hope that will be good enough.

  – – –

  Three days later half of Garth’s ships jumped to Lucia’s Kingdom and half to Trolian’s Kingdom. Garth was on the lead ship in Lucia’s Kingdom and Darian Johnston was on the lead ship in Trolian’s Kingdom.

  As the ships moved in closer to each of the two systems, Garth requested a meeting with both Kingdom Lords. As alarms were going off due to the arrival of Garth’s ships, both Kingdom Lords rapidly assented to a meeting. Garth could use regular radio communications to talk with Lucia, since he we so close, but he had to use the quantum communications to talk with Trolian.

  Once both King Lords were ready, Garth began. “Lucia and Trolian, it is good to talk with you again. We have come to discuss trade negotiations with both of you. You both will be sent the details, shortly. I am talking to both of you right now to give either of you the opportunity to get the best trade opportunity with us. Whichever of you two chooses first to abide by our new trade agreement will get the best terms. The second place Kingdom will get by far worse terms. I am sending the terms now.

  Garth sent the terms to Lucia and simultaneously Darian sent the terms to Trolian.