Solbidyum Wars Saga 6: Defeat of the Tottalax (8 page)

“Yes, sir.”

“Was there more than one man involved in the attack?” I asked.

“Yes sir, it looks from the vids as though there were five men involved and they all began to move as the first man was shooting guards.  They were all heading for guns as the sleep ray hit them.”

“How did they manage to get the first one to begin with?”  I asked.

“As the last guard passed the table one of the men stood up quickly and punched the guard at the base of his neck just under the helmet lip.  It was enough to render him unconscious instantly.  In fact, he may be in a neck brace for a while.  The sleep suppressors in the helmets of the guards kept them from being knocked out with everyone else when the Tottalax sleep weapon was initiated, by a guard on the mezzanine.  You should have had some yourself, sir.  Everyone in the prison was knocked out except for helmeted troopers.  Most of the prison is still asleep.”

“Marranalis, see if you can find me a meeting room here large enough to hold all the senators.  After they all are awake I want them all brought to the room, including Senator Sipollie.  I don’t give a damn how much pain he’s in.  I hate to say this, Marranalis, but I’m glad that asshole got hit.”

“Right, sir,” Marranalis said with a slight grin.

It was nearly an hour before the senators were all well enough to make it to the meeting.  Many continued to be nauseated, and Sipollie was definitely hurting, and since he was not accustomed to pain, I am sure he felt much worse than most might in the same situation.  As soon as everyone was assembled in the seats in what was more like a small theater than a conference room, I stepped onto the podium.

“Senators, I apologize that your tour was cut short, however, if any of you wish to resume with the tour, we will gladly oblige you.  We don’t wish for any of you to feel we are hiding or covering up anything, and the stars forbid that we may be misleading you as to conditions here.  So if you wish to continue on the tour, or to see anything we may have missed, please raise your hands.”  I heard several moans around the room, but I saw no hands.

“How about you, Senator Sipollie, I know you had specific concerns, I realize you can’t raise your arm very well, but I will be most happy to take you back to the group hall so you can meet with, and talk to, any Brotherhood members there you wish to speak to.  As you have seen we are prepared to handle violent situations there, albeit with some minor injuries from time to time.”

“Are you kidding me?  Sipollie spat,  “Those animals need to be killed.  They're vermin trash.”

“Oh come now, Senator,
after all those are men down there, not animals
.”  I said, tossing his own words from earlier back at him.  Sipollie started to open his mouth to reply, then realized I was using his own words and he closed it again, as he slumped down in his seat with a wince of pain.

“So now you see what we are up against,” I said.  Do you really want the Brotherhood prisoners of war on any of the Federation planets?  Do you think it will be all right to just set them free, and everything will be safe?  We were lucky today.  No one was killed, and everyone will heal.  However, just as easily one of the troopers, or one of you senators could have been hit in the head or heart by one of the shots once the Brotherhood got hold of a gun.  There would have been no coming back from that.  This facility is at one of the most secure places throughout the universe and while no place is ever truly escape-proof, this one is about as close as you can get to one.  As you can see, none of the prisoners here are being abused by the Federation; some of them manage to mistreat each other and we do our best to prevent that if we can.  I told you before that if relatives of the prisoners wish to come and see their relatives they may.  If they do, it will not be as it was for you.  They will meet in small rooms, with guards and separated by shielded transparent panels, but they can come if they wish.”

“Admiral,” one of the women senators stood and addressed me, “what about vid communication, so they can talk without having to come here?  That would be safer, wouldn’t it?”

“It might be safer for the citizens wanting to talk to a relative, but it would not be safer for the Federation.  Right now, there is no communication transmission equipment on this base at all.  None!  All communications are carried in person through a gate and then transmitted.  We do that so no communication equipment can fall into the hands of the Brotherhood prisoners of war, who might use it to make a signaling device that could alert the Brotherhood to this location.  That’s how secret the location of this base is and how secure we have made it.  Even the guards working on this base have no idea where in the universe it is.  They come and go through a single, heavily guarded Cantolla Gate.  Gates that normally are closed at the Federation end most of the time, so if the prisoners here ever should break free, they won’t be able to get through the gate.

“There are no ships here, none ever visit.  Should a prisoner break out of here to the outside, they would die instantly because the environment outside is unsuitable for life of any kind.  The only way in or out is through the Cantolla Gate.  All prisoners, and any supplies arriving here, come through a gate.  You will find no records for the construction of this base, no records for goods being flown here on ships, no workers brought here by ship to build this place.  On paper, this place doesn’t exist and as long as this war goes on we must, for the safety of our citizens, keep the location of this place secret and as secure as possible.  Now, if there are no more questions, we have been here almost seven hours.  If you wish, we all may eat here in the dining room with the non-Brotherhood combatants, or we can return to Megelleon now and you can dine there.  We’ll take a vote; those in favor of eating here, please raise your hand.”  I looked around the room and saw no hands.  “I expected as much,” I said.  “Now let's get back to Megelleon, shall we?”

The entire trip to the lunar prison colony had been vid recorded using cameras situated around the prison.  Admiral Regeny made sure the vid was properly edited and distributed to the evening news services, everything, including Senator Sipollie’s questions and accusations right up to the end when he said, “
Are you kidding me?  Those animals need to be killed, they’re vermin trash
.”  Most of the other conversations I had with the senators in that meeting were edited out, but Regeny felt that seeing Sipollie’s change in attitude after the events in the prison would serve the Federation well regarding the status of prisoners we were taking.

I was quite tired by the time I reached the
NEW ORLEANS
, it was late in the day, and I had not eaten a bite because of all that had transpired.  I could have gone to the
DUSTEN
, but Kala and the twins were on the
NEW ORLEANS,
and that’s where I wanted to be.  When I entered our suite, I was immediately greeted by “DADDY!” and two scraggly-looking twins came rushing me.  I noticed Kala talking with Jenira on a settee in the corner, and toys were scattered around the room.  A vid screen on the wall was playing the news events of the day with the Senate prison visit taking up most of the air time.

“Tib,” Kala said as I swept the twins up and gave them each a kiss, “I see you had quite the time at the Lunar prison today.”

“Yes, but it could not have worked out better, and all because of Senator Sipollie.  If he hadn’t insisted on pushing everything, people in the Federation might not realize how dangerous the Brotherhood prisoners are.  Now they know, and I don’t think many planets will want them released any time soon.”

“You took a mighty big risk to prove that,” Kala said.

“Perhaps, but I think it was worth it.”

“Have you eaten?” Kala asked.

“Not a bite all day, and I am starved.  Can you contact Piesew and get him to order up a big fubalo steak with some vegetables and a really good wine,” I said as I set the twins back down on the floor.

“I’ll do better than that,” Kala replied, “I’ll order dinner for all of us.  None of us have eaten this evening.  Jenira, you will be staying for dinner, won’t you?”  I noticed Jenira looked somewhat sheepishly about before answering yes, and I had a hunch what she really wanted was to sneak off to see Padaran.  Then an idea struck me, “Kala, why don’t we invite Padaran to dine with us?  I have some things I wanted to talk to him about but never got the chance today with everything that happened.”  Kala looked at me blankly for a moment, and then I saw the light in her eyes, and she grinned and said, “Of course, let me contact him and see if he can make it.”  Immediately I saw Jenira’s face light up, and I knew I had scored on that one.  Now all I needed to do was to think up something to talk to Padaran about.

As it turned out it wasn’t necessary, as Padaran was full of questions about the events in the prison earlier that day.  Even though he was talking to me, I noticed he and Jenira glancing at each other quite often, and hints of smiles on their lips when they caught the other’s eye.  They were seated opposite each other at the small dining table and several times during the meal I felt my leg bumped as a foot from one side of the table traveled under it in apparent search for a foot on the other side.  At one point during the meal I noticed Kala staring at me, and when she saw I was looking at her, she turned her eyes back and forth between Jenira and Padaran and gave a knowing grin.

Both the twins had eaten earlier and were playing in their room while we ate; several times one of them would bring something out to show to Jenira.  It was obvious the twins liked Jenira a lot, and they were always seeking her approval for things they were doing.  Lunnie mostly wanted to show Jenira one of her dolls, or to have her help put some clothing on one, while Reidecor would be building something with his toy blocks and wanting Jenira to see it.  At one-point Lunnie came running to me with one of her dolls; she had managed to pull the arm off, and she handed it to me saying, “Daddy, fix it!”  Fortunately, most of their toys just snapped together, so it wasn’t hard to do.

I had a difficult time restraining myself while eating.  I was so hungry by the time the food arrived, I wanted to stuff it in my mouth as fast as I could.  For a moment, I was reminded of Cantolla, who when she was served food she really enjoyed, forgot all decorum and ate it almost savagely while making all sorts of near animal-like sounds.  I had to laugh for a minute as I found myself fighting the impulse to do the same.  Kala must have told Piesew I was really starving, as the steak he had prepared for me was 50% larger than the ones I usually was served; however, I was hungry enough to eat it all without any discomfort.

We had hardly finished the meal before Padaran, and Jenira started making excuses to leave.  “You look like you’ve had a hard day, Tibby,” Padaran said, “I know you must be tired, and I don’t want to keep you up.  I thank you both, “he said looking to Kala and then to me, “for a lovely evening and the meal”, he said as he started to head for the door.  Immediately Jenira began signing to both Kala, and me that she was tired also and that all the wonderful food was making her sleepy, so she would be leaving too.  I saw them both to the door.  They were scarcely out of the door before I heard Kala laughing, “Tibby, I didn’t think those two would make it through the meal.  The way they kept looking at each other.  I think my legs are black and blue from getting kicked by those two as they tried to touch feet under the table.”

“Yeah, I know.  I think I have a few bruises myself,” I said with a laugh.

“I noted you never did have anything special to talk to Padaran about, so I’m assuming you invited him to dinner on purpose just for Jenira’s sake.”  Kala said as she crossed the room to me and put her arms around my neck.

“Guilty as charged,” I answered as Kala pulled my head down and kissed me on the lips.

“Mommy and Daddy kissing.” I heard from the doorway, and I looked as Kala and I broke our kiss to see Lunnie and Reidecor standing there holding hands.  “Time to go to bed now, Mommy,” Lunnie said as she rubbed her eyes.

“Yes,” Kala said giving me a sultry look, “time to go to bed.”

The next morning when I went to the
DUSTEN
and to the War Room, I found Marranalis waiting for me.  “Sir, Rear Admiral Regeny and Admiral Wabussie will be coming here in two hours and wish to meet with you.”

“Thank you, Captain, is there any other news I should know about immediately?”

“No sir, but there is a message that arrived for you from Senator Sipollie.”

“Sipollie?  By the stars, what does that man want now?”  I asked as I headed for my office and activated the message window on my vid screen.  Sure enough there was a recorded message waiting for me with a cover image displaying the Federation logo and a picture of Sipollie.  I placed my hand on the sensor pad for the vid screen so it could scan my DNA, while my retina was also being scanned so the message could be accessed.  Finally, the stationary image of the logo and the Senator vanished to be replaced by a scene of the Senator seated behind a desk in what I assumed to be his office.

“Admiral, I wish to formally apologize to you for my behavior yesterday.  After reviewing the vids on the news and seeing my own behavior, as well as what happened during the attack, I realize that I was totally out of line and my words and actions were inappropriate.  I’ve thought about it a lot since leaving the prison, and I realize now that the way you are handling things are in the best interest of the Federation and its citizens.  To be honest I am impressed at how well the prisoners are being cared for and the efforts you have made to, not only provide security but to see to the prisoners’ wellbeing as well.  I want you to know that henceforth you will have my full support and cooperation in the war efforts.  I’m not a man accustomed to admitting when I am wrong, but I want to assure you, I truly regret my actions of yesterday.”