Solbidyum Wars Saga Book 1: Battle of the New Orleans (22 page)

“
I understand our meeting with the Senators is this evening, Kala if you can find out all the details and prepare us before hand as much as possible I will be greatly in your debt. I don’t want the surprise that we had last night.  One more thing, I don’t expect any of you to do all that I have assigned you by yourselves, you will need assistants and helpers, think about it, if you know someone you trust and is qualified submit their name to Kala.  Any questions?”

Lunnie, with her usual peevish smile raised her hand and I said
, “If this has anything to do with Kala and last names, forget it and lower your hand, otherwise what’s your question.”  Lunnie’s hand lowered and she stuck out her lower lip as though she was pouting, but she winked at me just the same.

“
Okay, well you have a lot to think about, the next few days and weeks will be a wild ride for us I’m sure.  Until we move out of here and into our own estate compound we will be training instructors in martial arts for the Admiral.  Once we have moved we will not doubt be training for some time to come.  None of you are even close to being proficient enough to truly train but I will never the less need your assistance in doing so.  I have a plan that I hope will speed up the process, but I don’t know if it will work or not.  Thanks for your attention, and thanks for sticking with me, I will do my very best to make it all well worth your while.  Kala, could you meet with me after you find out the details of this evening, I have a few other matters I wish to discuss with you.”  As we were leaving the table I heard Reidecor say to someone, he wants four body guards and he’ll most likely be the one saving them, I heard chuckles all around from everyone.

We were still in the underground facility on the military base where the
TRITYTE
and the Solbidyum was being stored and guarded.  The quarters we were in obviously had been set up to be occupied by dignitaries with an entourage and were set up much like the ones on the
DUSTEN
.  Similar to the facilities on the
DUSTEN
there was a gym, a shooting range and a pool of about the same size as the one on the
DUSTEN
that I was immediately attracted to.  I had stripped off my clothing and was swimming laps contemplating the many things that would need to be done when suddenly my feet were grabbed and I was yanked under water.  I had no doubt in my mind as to who the attacker was, by now I knew the feel of those hands very well.  I quickly folded under myself and saw Kala was standing flatfooted on the pool bottom holding my feet, but that meant I could reach hers. A moment later we both were spinning around in the water holding on to each other’s feet and then suddenly, both letting go we popped to the surface gasping for air and laughing.  She swam too me throwing her arms about my neck and kissing me.  I marveled at how her mouth always tasted like the sweetest of fruits.  We broke free and began swimming in tandem matching each other’s strokes; unlike our swims in the past there didn’t seem to be any competition between us as we swam.  After several laps we both pulled ourselves out of the water and lay down on some lounge pads situated under some lamps that may have been tanning lights or heat lamps that felt remarkably like natural sunlight.  I reached out my hand and Kala seeing it reached out hers so we could hold hands.  We lay there calmly for a few moments before I spoke.

“Do you think you will regret your decision to
stay with me as my assistant? “

“Well
, I don’t know,” she said in a teasing voice, “I don’t seem to be getting as much sleep working with you as I was accustomed to, even though I do seem to be spending more time in bed!”  We both laughed at that.  “Seriously though, you’re going to be very busy in the near future and I want you to hire an assistant and begin training them as soon as possible. I will want you with me at all times but you will need someone centrally located who will know your thoughts and styles of working. Your assistant can handle administrative duties and manage everyday affairs of our soon to be empire.

One of the first
things I will need you to do is to get me copies of the personnel files of everyone working for me, yours included.” Kala looked at me strangely. “Don’t worry dear; it’s not what you think. I just want to know all your capabilities. I have great faith and trust in you and the rest of the crew, but I know you all have other abilities and talents that will show up in your personal folders that are important to me, and unfortunately I do not have the time to wait to learn them gradually. I may need to draw on them sooner.  But, do me a favor; don’t tell the others, I do not want them to get the wrong idea.”

“What makes you think that the F
ederation will give you the personnel records?” Kala asked.

“I think you will get them with no problem
at all, because when you request them you will do so through Admiral Regeny’s office.” I said

“Oh
, I see, and you and the Admiral are great friends now I take it!” She teased.

“Something like that
,” I said smugly.

She laughed came over
to where I was laying on the side of the pool and lying on top of me kissed my lips and then rested laying her head on my chest.  “Tibby she said, I feel like all of this is a dream and I’m afraid I’m going to wake up.”

“Well think what it must be like for me then
,” I said.

“I have another job for you to take care of
, not this minute, but when you have an opportunity in the next day or so.” She raised her head and looked at my face, “We are going to need a place, a really big place, an estate with lots space, preferably a place with lots of accommodations for staff.  I need for you to find us an agent who can locate some places we can look at, cost is not a factor.   Oh yes, and this one is important, we were going to need someone to handle our finances, preferably a major banker who will have financial advisors and people accustom to handling multiple transactions and expenses for large businesses and the like. The sooner we get everything set up, the sooner we can start having fun.”

“Wow,” Kala exclaimed
, “I feel like I need that staff now!”

As we showered
and Kala went over with me what she had found out about the meeting with the Senate that evening.  It would be similar to the previous night and there would be a few senators present that had been in the dinner the night before. Kala warned me that unlike the night before, where the Admiral dominated my time, that at the dinner tonight many senators would be vying for my attention.  She told me that she would scratch her wrist if the person vying for my attention was someone I should try to avoid and she would rub behind her ear if it was someone I should talk with. Basically she told me to acknowledge everyone, not snub anyone and to be careful not to let anyone talk me into anything. She also told me that there would probably be a few alien species there as well, something I had not seen thus far.

Alien species brou
ght up another question for me and as we began to walk back to the common room I asked “Kala, I noted that everyone I have seen so far is human or at least like you and I. It seems odd to me that so many planets would have humans evolve the same throughout the galaxy, yet other plants and animal on the planets differ and are not that similar.  Why is this?”

“That’s a question that has perplex
ed our scientists for centuries,” Kala said.  “The current belief is that at some time, a major portion of the Galaxy was seeded with DNA and though that DNA may have combined and recombined, evolving differently on many planets based on its environment, ultimately most of it will end up human like us.” 

“I’ve heard a similar theory on Earth
,” I said, “I think they referred to it as STAR SEEDING.. How would that account for other sentient life forms?”

“I’m not sure,” Kala answered
, “but I guess that life could have evolved separately as well. Or perhaps because of environmental differences evolution took a different course in combining the DNA material.  I do know that on Irribis there are sentient aquatic creatures that live under water and humans that live on the islands there, both originally believed to have evolved there and yet they have totally unrelated DNA.  In fact the DNA helix is completely reversed indicating two differing origins for life there.  Perhaps with all your newly found wealth you can fund your own scientists to investigate the question.” Kala responded.

A few hours later
a military escort arrived to take us to the dinner with the senators, this time the mode of transportation was quite different. I can only describe it as being similar to luxury motor coach similar to those found back on Earth, only a larger.   Inside was plush and lavish furniture, a wet bar, a buffet with hors d'oeuvres, two vid screens, a toilet and a shower, and a small galley.  Unlike the Earth motor coaches, however, the drivers’ compartment was separated from the passenger area.  There were also long windows along the sides that appeared dark from the outside and did not allow anyone to see in, but inside they allowed a perfectly normal view of what was on the outside.  As we were boarding the conveyance I noted several vehicles preceding us and behind us, all packed with troopers, there were also troopers inside our vehicle

The trip was a bit longer than the previous day and at some point we left our underground facility and were moving on the surface.  For the first time I was actually getting to see the surface of an alien world.  For the most part what I
saw didn’t seem all that different from Earth; the sky was still blue, with fluffy clouds like Earth.  There appeared to be plants and trees that from a distance didn’t seem all the different from the ones on earth. Many of the building, however, seemed to be quite different in appearance. For one thing, unlike Earth, lower buildings or one or two stories had dome style roofs instead of peeked roofs of Earth.  I also noted that many of the houses also had dome-like greenhouses attached to them .  I asked Kala about the greenhouses attached to the buildings.

“Here on
Megelleon, the residents are very fond of fresh vegetables and fruits and most grow their own.  Megelleon has two winters in a year and during that time temperatures prohibit growing outside so they have greenhouses. They also use the heat that the greenhouses generate to heat their homes in the winter.”

As Kala was explaining this we were rapidly moving into a more metropolitan area ahead I could see tall
er buildings; like those of the larger cities on Earth.  I saw more and more people along the road many with small children, as we progressed further the number of people and children were growing and they were waving banners and cheering.

“It looks like your fans have gathered to greet you
.” Kala said quietly.

“Our fans
?” I replied, “all of you participated in getting the
TRITYTE
and Solbidyum here to Megelleon, it was not a one man operation.”

“All we did was fly the ship and keep you company,”
Reidecor said warmly.  “You were the one with the plan and you were the one who took out our captors pretty much all on your own, we just tried to stay out of the way.”

We were now getting into the
heart of the city and the crowd outside was as thick as any I have ever seen. Even inside the conveyance the sound of the cheering and roar of the crowd could be heard. Eventually we pulled up at large gates in front of a huge fortress like building that reached up into the sky, numerous troopers and pieces of military equipment were located within the gates. On both sides of the gate heavily fortified guardhouses stood.

“I thought
we were going to a dinner, not prison,” I said to Kala.

She looked out the windows and then replied.  “This is the
Capitol, back during the Solbidyum wars that broke out over the loss of the Solbidyum there were many assassination attempts and kidnappings.   The Systems were feuding and this lead to fights breaking out.  On the day when the Bunem System withdrew from the Federation they made a major raid on the original Capitol that resulted in. thousands dead or wounded.  After the original Capitol was destroyed, this new Capitol facility was built, but with very strong protection.  Even so up until about two hundred years ago attacks on the Capitol were still common; that explains the high security measures taken to this day.”                                                                                                                                              

We pulled up in front of the building and guards in dress uniforms lined the walkway into the
Capitol building. We were led from the conveyance by our escort, past the saluting guards and into the building. From the outside the buildings was immense, but inside it seemed even larger.  The distances between the floors and the ceilings in most places seemed to be at least three to four stories tall.  Like the underground hall, where we met with the Admiral and military officers, this building also had art deco like style and feeling.  We were stopped by security guards just inside the entrance and told that we would have to remove and turn over all weapons we were carrying.  I had not even thought of taking a weapon with me and I was shocked when Kala and the rest of my crew began placing weapons on a table as a guard inventoried them. I was even more shocked at the number of weapons each of them carried.  Marranalis had five, Lunnie had four, Reidecor and Kala each had three, the guard then turned to me and I replied that I had none, to which Marranalis said laughing, “You want him to chop off his hands and leave them here?”

We were each required to walk through a scanner gate that
didn’t detect any additional hidden weapons as our escort led us to an internal transit pod. We boarded and were soon moving through the maze of the capitol at great speed. We arrived at a station area with many other transit pods and people about.  As we stepped out of the transit pod eight troopers took up positions in front and behind us, with our escort leading the way. People in the station were cheering, as we proceeded down a corridor and to the Senate Planetary Event Dining room.  Our entrance followed the same format as the day before except that this time Kala entered beside me. The dining hall was larger than the largest coliseums back on Earth and like coliseums back on Earth there was a central arena area at the lowest level with stepped levels, each with tables, progressing up the inside of the domed interior. There were too many tables and steps to count, and thousands of people inside the place.  Applause and cheering broke out on our entrance and we were led to a central table in the middle of the arena where four other people were already waiting.

Our escort presented us to the four introducing them as
Leader Rieam and his bonded mate Risha, Leader Turaine and her bonded mate Nimatan.  Leader Rieam was a tall thin man with graying hair and a pale complexion; he stood at least 200 millimeters taller than me.  He had a gentle manner about him and a slow grace of movement.  There were lines on his face that suggested a man with great responsibility that was aging him before it was time. He nodded in my direction when we were introduced. I had learned from Kala after having been picked up by the
DUSTEN
that there was no equivalent for the shaking of hands when being introduced and that if any recognition was given it was just usually a nod of the head.  Leader Turaine also had gray hair, hers was long, straight and hung down to the middle of her back, unlike Leader Rieam she was darker skinned that I found reminiscent of many persons from a nation back on Earth called India.  She appeared younger than Leader Riema and if I were to have tried to guess her age I would have assumed she was in her mid-forties where Leader Riema I would have estimated to be in his late fifties. Kala had explained that all three Leaders were never in the same place at the same time, so I was not surprised at the absence of the third Leader.  We were motioned to be seated by Leader Turaine and in a few minutes the cheering and noise died down, while things were dying down, both Leader Turaine and Leader Rieam continued to tell us how wonderful it was that the
TRITYTE
and the Solbidyum and been found and returned. Our food arrived and we could see food being served all around the room by hundreds of servers.  I found it hard to believe that all these people were Senators, some with and some without bonded mates. I could only guess what it must be like when they were in session.  Our meal was served in three courses, after the first course, and while we were being served our second, Leader Rieam stood up and began speaking to everyone in the room.  He briefly related the history of Solbidyum, its value and use, its loss, the search for it and the wars it brought about. Then he sat down and began eating his second course, which by now the rest of us had already finished.  As he sat down Leader Turaine stood and began relating the events from the time of my being picked up by the
DUSTEN
until we safely arrived at Megelleon.  During the time she was speaking our third course was served and nearly finished before she sat down again.  Leader Rieam stood again and began to speak while facing me, his words being addressed to all as images on giant screens around the dome displaying images of our team.

“
Tibby, we cannot express to you the extreme gratitude we have for all that you have done. While we realize that you didn’t do it all alone, we recognize that not only were you responsible for finding the
TRITYTE
and the Solbidyum, but the role you played in returning it safely here to the Capitol is immeasurable.   It is with our utmost gratitude that we present you, here today, with a portion of the rewards of which you are so duly entitled.” Polite applause followed the Leader’s speech.

By now
Leader Turaine had risen to her feet and an aid had come to her side bearing several documents.

Leader Rieam
continued speaking, “First, allow me to present you with Full Citizenship in the Federation with the honorary title of RECOVERER which carries all the respect and benefits of a Federation dignitary of the highest level. From this day forward you will be known to the citizens of the Federation as
‘Tibby the Recoverer’.
 

Second, in accordance with the reward agreement of the
Federation Senate, we present you with the full title to the ship
TRITYTE
as your own. It is fully intact as discovered by you save for the Solbidyum cargo it carried.

Third, we present you with the first installment of
the monetary value of the Solbidyum.  Due to the Federation not having enough money in its treasury to make the full payment, payments will be made in five installments  as the money comes in from the other planets for their shares of the Solbidyum.  It is estimated that it will be nearly fifty years until all payments have been received, we shall be making payments to you in ten years intervals.”

After
Leader Rieam made each announcement Leader Turaine would step forward and hand me a leather bound folder with the proclamation or legal transfer papers in it representing the proclamation and ownership. As he was making the last announcement about the financial reward, another man came forward and stood by Leader Turaine, as she presented me the leather binder Leader Rieam continued.  “ Now Tibby, Federation Treasurer Lionlim will make the official first transfer of funds.”

Treasurer Lionlim
walked up to the table where we were seated and produced a device that looked similar to a laptop computer, he asked me to press my hand to the bottom screen while staring into a retinal scanner located above the hand reader; I was then asked to state my name.  I did as he instructed and noted a strange tingling sensation as I placed my hand on the screen.  As I completed the procedure Treasurer Lionlim concluded with, “Congratulations Tibby the Recoverer, may this reward bless you as much as you have blessed the Federation.”

I was going to sit down when
Leader Rieam came over and bending down, kissed me on my forehead.  Leader Turaine then came to me and, while standing on her tip toes, kissed me on the forehead also.  With that, the entire assembly of senators broke into cheers and applause.  As I backed away from Leader Turaine I noted a huge smile on her face and tears running down her cheeks. I glanced at Leader Rieam who also was smiling and applauding, his eyes brimming with tears.

I turned to my crew mates and I motioned for all of them to stand with me
. Though reluctant to do so at first, I motioned insistently, the roar and applauding in the room increased in volume until they all stood with me, and then, as if taking cue from the Leaders I went to each of them in order, and kissed them on the foreheads.  The roar was deafening and I noted that each of my crew mates had tears flowing down their cheeks as I kissed them. 

When the roar died down I spoke to the assembly,
“I want to thank everyone in the Federation for this wondrous praise and recognition, but in reality I do not feel I am deserving of it. Without the assistance and friendship of these four people here beside me, I would not be here today and you would not have your Solbidyum.  They will not go without their rewards; I personally plan to see to them being rewarded in many ways over the next few years.