Guardian Stone 1: Stone Genesis (31 page)

Meri spoke, "General Hank, Lord Dranz has told me in great detail of your visits to him while he was in command of his fleet and of the events following his capitulation. He has spoken of the many positive things you have done for him and our people. Never have I heard him speak of negative things concerning your dealings with him. You could easily have destroyed him and our people yet due to your restraint none of our blood was spilled at your hands. How did this come to be? How do you act thus?"

"Lady Meri, you are kind to say so. My telepathic abilities have generated insights to which I have learned to listen. When we were having our little visits with Lord Dranz that I am certain were discomfiting to him at the time, we were also gathering as much information about your people as we could. At this we are fairly effective. I noticed during that time that there were unexplained conflicts with the intent of that fleet and the honor code that is prevalent in your society. I felt that destruction of such an honor system would be a tremendous loss to the galaxy so I determined how to best protect my people and avoid destroying yours. Your people deserved the opportunity to become more in accord with that honor system and due to the technology we had available we were able to advance that notion. I am very glad that we did because now we believe we have the true picture and intend to resolve this very soon. I believe that not only are we fortunate to have so many disparate species in our galaxy, but each has attributes and talents that complement the others. I would like to advance that opportunity. You see before you an example of that. The Glarin people are certainly different from us but more steadfast friends are difficult to find. I see that also happening with our races."

Meri said, "Somehow, that is very much what I expected to hear. If Lord Dranz so wishes, I would be delighted to accept this gift."

Dranz was grinning widely and said, "That also reflects my thoughts on the matter. I hope we will be sufficiently adept by the time you arrive. We will certainly be trying our best. I do believe that this will be most interesting."

"We will contact you again in a few days. It will take us about 5½ days to physically reach Gar. Trilx can let Gloriana know how his discussion goes with his mate and we can proceed from there. There are some T Raptor teams on Station 5 that can give you some practice sessions before we arrive." If there are any unusual happenings, you can reach us through Gloriana. See you soon." With that they disappeared.

Dranz turned slowly in a small circle stretching and grinning. As he turned back to see Meri and Trilx returning his grin he said, "this is wonderful. What an amazing turn life has taken. Trilx, you must go to your lady now and discuss this with her, perhaps we can all start our training together. I like these humans more and more and would be glad to meet more of the Glarin. It is like a door opening to let in the sunshine. This is an amazing time."

Station 16 entering the Arber system –

April 17 – C Day 230

General O'Connor said, "Well Maudie, are we optimal?"

<
Aye Sean, we are. All of our guests from Gar have been provided with a nanites package that negates any symbiotes and includes the weapons armor package. We have the maps from the scans done when Division 10 was here. All stations have their assignments and in fact are already working them. Stations 145, 116 and 176 are checking out the areas that Division 10 did not have time to complete. Full mapping of the entire system will be completed in 24 hours. That will give us the location of all of the warships in the system. This will also give us the location of all of their energy cannons. After we have identified those items we will systematically begin to eliminate all capacitors that should take about an hour. Then we have to wait for our backup and contain the situation. We will also be gathering evidence and preserving same. We are also advised to deactivate all symbiotes in the system. That should be interesting because I think that is how this General Brondin controls the population. In any event, barring major surprises we should be able to reach closure on this pretty soon.
>

"Tis truth. I will be happy when we can locate all these super cannons and dispose of them. Hmm, can we fry their communications system aboard those warships, both send and receive along with any spares they might have? Can we effectively cut off communications between the planet and all those ships?"

<
Aye, we can do that. It might make the leaders on the planet a bit antsy, but I think I see where you are going with this. Remove the opposition by attrition without their knowing it. That will give us a busy time until the backup arrives. The leaders on the planet will not know what is going on and I think I can come up with a distraction that will lead them to some false assumptions about what is really going on. The larger force can then deal with the planet. From the data we have, it appears that these warships have a crew capacity of about 50 persons. Our shock troops should be able to easily overcome any crews and we can put the crews in stasis until the fleet arrives. If all the ships are manned, it may be tight to have that completed by the time they arrive but I think it is worth doing.
>

"OK, lets get the mapping done first and then we will start having some fun with these creeps. First we have to know where everything is, next fry the capacitors, kill the symbiotes and then lock out their self-destructs. From there it's a race."

Eight hours later the mapping was complete. No additional ships were identified anywhere in the system. All of the projector cannons were located on the warships and at points on the planet. The ships were run on three types of capacitors, one for weapons, another for drive and a third for life support. On General O'Connor's signal, a disturbance was created on the surface of the sun and as the disturbance went through the system, the weapons and drive capacitors including spares were all fried beyond repair. At the same time communications components were fried.  The disturbance from the sun was the cover for the destruction leading the Arberites to believe that was the source of their problems. Happily for the ruse, the life support capacitors were shielded differently lending credibility to the ruse.

It was noted that a great number of the vessels had work crews working on their drives. Only small skeleton crews manned the Arberite ships. About 150 ships were fully manned. General O'Connor decided to capture those first. Each ship was boarded via teleportation by Human, Glarin and Gar shock troops armed with heavy stun weapons. The ships were carefully decontaminated and the stunned opposition transported to stasis units housed in the core of Station 16. That part of the operation took two hours. Over the course of the next three days, every Arberite in space had been captured and placed in stasis.

General O'Connor reported progress to General Stone who had just arrived at Gar. "Well done Sean and Maudie. I want you to lock down that planet, nothing gets out, and nothing gets in. When you are ready, I am going to pay Brondin a little visit that should rattle his cage a bit. Be ready for a reaction. Barana will send you a live feed to that event. I think you are going to enjoy the feed. Sean, you really have done a great job. I rather suspect our troops are happy, particularly the Gar. I particularly like the low casualty rate. I understand our losses were zero and I fully expected a higher opponent casualty rate than 15."

### April 22 – C Day 235 ###

Station 1 arrived in orbit above Gar and sent the rest of the fleet on to the Arber system. He then sent an invitation to Lord Dranz and Meri as well as Trilx and his mate Gara. General Tanaka advised Hank that the four were formidable telepaths and were more advanced than some of his T Raptor teams. This was not a particular surprise but good news. Hank briefed them on General O'Connor's results in the Arber System. All were impressed. He noted that the 7 stations were presently blockading the planet from a distance of about 100,000 miles with three wings of warships distributed about the planet. Hank said, "Your Majesty, It is time for us to have some fun. We are going to enter into a 17-person rapport including my best T Raptor team along with General Joe Carson and his wife June and Barana. To make this easy, I will lead and all will be visible. Are you ready for this?" All indicated that they were ready. Hank said, "Ok here we go." With that they entered the rapport state. Several noted that this session was the strongest they had ever experienced. "We are now going to General Brondin's office."

Brondin reacted, "What is the meaning of this intrusion." He pulled out a pistol but before he could discharge the weapon, Hank melted it in his hand.

"Nasty burn there General, you will probably want to have that looked at. General Brondin, you have been a naughty boy and we have come to take away all your toys. Your puppet master days are over as of now. I hope you enjoy diversity because you are about to find a new occupation, that of prisoner. My friends here will look around at their leisure. By the way, High Ruler Lord Dranz has a little bone to pick with you. Seems you painted his people as the nastiest race in the universe. Of this, we have all the evidence needed, we just have not decided where you should be tried. Maybe the trial should be on Gar. I understand that death by starvation is somewhat unpleasant. Sean, would you have this man tagged so we will always know where he is and what he is up to."

"My pleasure General Stone."

Maudie said

"You should know that we have confiscated all of your warships. It was nice of you to install new drives in so many of them. We will re-outfit them as merchant vessels and distribute them to the races you have decimated as partial reparations. We will be conducting a thorough analysis of everything and everyone on this planet to see who is culpable and who is not. Your planet is barred from space until further notice. You have earned an Antoran presence in this system for the foreseeable future. It would appear that your deception extends to your own people. Perhaps we will just leave you to their justice. Hmm, yes that would be fitting. Now where is this Colonel Forrom. Ah there he is. Maudie please tag him as well."

"Maudie please issue a 5 minute warning to all gun emplacements on this planet and then eliminate those emplacements. Nothing bigger than a pebble left."

"Your Majesty Lord Dranz do you wish to say anything to these two monsters."

"I do. A few months ago I would have ordered their immediate execution. For them this would have been an escape. I think justice might be better served in another way. Maudie does the planet have a high security prison?"

"Please install these two as permanent residents in their own separate cells. Please also install the rest in this room as temporary residents until their culpability can be determined."

"Nicely done Your Majesty, that was a very wise decision. General O'Connor and Maudie, help will be arriving in about 2 days but it looks like you have things very much under control. Close down all military and space operations for Arber. Remove any space going vessels from the planet. Continue to search for anyone involved in this exercise and send them to the same place as Brondin and his cronies. Lock down all records until they can be thoroughly examined. See what is salvageable with their civil government. Secure all databases for thorough analysis. I want to know if anyone else was involved in this and if so identified. Enough is enough. When help arrives I want all spacecraft sent back to Gar and we will start work on them. Review each case of those in that prison to be sure that they belong there. Make sure that others already imprisoned really belong in incarceration. I think we are done here for now." They arrived back on Station 1 and exited rapport.

Dranz said, "Henry, thank you for that. What an amazing experience. It is good to reach closure."

"I would have found a way for you to experience that even if you were not so strongly talented. Those ships from Arber will be your new merchant fleet, at least half of them for sure. When we are done with them, they will be capable of 10,000xSL or more without some of the disadvantages those capacitors represent and that should put our civilizations in fairly constant contact. We will be here for a while until we are satisfied that Arber is fully under control. We will be looking to see if there are any more puppet strings to be cut but the evidence we have points directly and unequivocally to Artus Brondin as the puppet master. Today was very satisfying. Would it be ok if Sam and I took some time to wander about and get to know your people. I think we can expect to be here for several months. We may be able to help with those suffering from the long-term effect of symbiote exposure. Oh, I almost forgot, Barana, please release the data about the Arberites and Brondin now instead of waiting any longer as originally planned. The rest of civilization deserves to know the truth and that a conclusion to this has been reached.."

<
It is done boss
.>

Dranz said, "I can think of several hundreds of my former shipmates who would love to be your guide, but I too intend to participate. I too need to get out and meet my people. I just realized, this means you will be here for our wedding. This is wonderful. I would wish that you consider being in the wedding party. Since weddings on your world are likely to be different than on mine, I will have the entire script and ceremony described for you so you can determine if you would be comfortable participating."

"Thank you Barana. Your majesty, I would be deeply honored to accept whatever role in your wedding you deem appropriate. This is outstanding."

### Station One in Gar Orbit – May 2 – C Day 245 ###

A few weeks later, Hank and Sam were enjoying a comedy show from Earth when Barana interrupted with <
Hank and Sam, your presence is requested at the Mt Denali II lodge and I was instructed to say that you are to come as you are if presentable, unless you are naked.
> Hank looked over to Sam who shrugged and nodded acceptance. They were transported to the lodge. There were about 60 persons already gathered and the numbers were growing. On a table on the deck, there was a huge birthday cake with candles and all kinds of other goodies including beverages, pastries and finger food. There was even some roasted Griffor that tasted remarkably like chicken. Dranz and Meri, Trilx and Gara were there with about another dozen Gar, most of whom Hank and Sam recognized. The party grew rapidly grew to several hundred with new faces replacing those that left. Dranz surprised all when he asked for a moment of quiet relayed to all by Barana. "Does everyone have a glass for a toast?" He paused for a moment and then continued, "This is a day I am delighted to see and had never imagined would see. We are gathered here to celebrate the birthday of two who have become fast friends in the company of a human from Frote who wins the prize for coming the farthest, Antoran humans, Earth humans, Glarin and Gar. Due to the machinations of General Brondin this would not be possible but for the amazing work of the two before us and their team. You have given all in this sector of space a reason to live and work together. I ask you all to raise your glass and toast Hank and Sam on their birthday. This is a celebration that the people on my planet have in common with yours and we are honored that you let us share it with you. In the words of your people and mine, we wish you long life and happiness. In your parlance, down the hatch." It is not everyday you have your 41st birthday.