Solbidyum Wars Saga 6: Defeat of the Tottalax (42 page)

“We’re not sure about the details at the moment.  I think there is some flexibility, but I doubt they will allow too many individuals to go.  I would think they would allow you to bring First Citizen Kalana with you because of her fame and ranking in the Federation; we may be able to get Leader Maragon, whom you have never met, to go also.  Now that we have the Cantolla Gates, it will be easier for Leaders to attend events such as this.  A gate was just set up last week at Leader Maragon’s offices on Uescure.  I’ve had the opportunity to meet with him and update him on all that has been happening.  Now that we have the gates and the new gate communication devices, the Federation is slowly getting synchronized with the latest information on what’s happening around our territories.”

“Are you sure that Maragon is Maragon, and not an imposter like Roritat was?” 

Tonclin laughed his high-pitched laugh, “Yes, Tibby.  He was most willing to allow us to test him using the truth bands to determine his true identity.  I think it would be good for the two of you to meet, and this venture to Weccies might be the best time for that to happen.”

“This isn’t going to turn into some multi-day event with all sorts of parades, and ceremonies, is it?”  I asked.  “Do you think my not going at all would be suitable,?” I said halfheartedly.

Regeny laughed, “Not likely, Tibby.”

“Well, how bad can it be; just as long as I don’t get asked to put on an impromptu martial arts exhibition, I guess I can take it for a day,” I said looking at Regeny.

Regeny reddened slightly and cleared his throat, and from the other side of the table I heard Tonclin laugh in what sounded like a high-pitched giggle.

“When I returned to the
NEW ORLEANS
later, the twins were already asleep. They each had their own rooms now, even though they had just turned four.  It was Reidecor’s idea that he and Lunnie should have separate rooms.  Since they had started playing with James, and he had his own room, Reidecor thought that he also should have his own room.  Trying to tell him that James didn’t have a brother or sister to share a room with didn’t matter to him, he wanted his own room.  Lunnie didn’t care at all so long as her room had an aquarium or a terrarium with some sort of life in it.  I peeked in on each of the twins before going into the bedroom that Kala and I shared.  Reidecor was tucked in, but his hand still clutched a pieced of some apparatus that A’Lappe had given him.  Ever since the twins had gotten lost and were found in A’Lappe’s suite, and Reidecor had fixed whatever it was A’Lappe had been doing, A’Lappe had been giving Reide pieces of stuff to take apart and reassemble.  It seemed the boy had a natural instinct for things mechanical, and to some degree electrical as well.  As an engineer, I had some mechanical aptitude, but nothing like Reidecor seemed to possess.

Lunnie, on the other hand, had a vid pad clutched in her hand when I looked in on her. She was sound asleep while the vid played on discussing the life of lulupants on the grasslands of Puryces.  I wondered if Cantolla had given Lunnie the vid, or if it was merely a coincidence, as Puryces was Cantolla’s birth place.  It’s amazing how beautiful and sweet kids can look when they are asleep.

After checking on the twins, I went to my bedroom expecting to find Kala asleep, but she was sitting up watching the news on the vid screen.

“So, how did it go this evening?” she said as I entered.

“They want me to go to Weccies for some political crap,” I replied.

“Oh, you mean the Weccies wanting to honor you for saving them?”  Kala said.  “I was just watching the news about that.”

“It’s on the news already?” I exclaimed, “It’s been less than twenty minutes ago I told Regeny and Tonc that I would do it.”

Kala laughed, “All the news said was that the Weccies were requesting you to return to the planet, so they might honor you for saving them.”

“Ah, I see.  Well both Regeny and Tonc seem to feel pretty strongly that I should do it for a number of reasons,” I sighed.  “Tonc and Regeny think the Weccies are using the visit as an excuse to negotiate an alliance against the Brotherhood.  I have to admit they have some very strong reasons I should do it.”

“Isn’t this what you were hoping would happen all along, that the Weccies would ask for an alliance?  I seem to recall you using that as an argument for why we needed to help the Weccies to begin with.”

“Well, yes.  However, I thought it would all be in the hands of diplomats and politicians, not that I would have to do it,” I said grumpily.

“Well, I think you should do it.  You have no idea what a huge thing this is.  You’ll be the first person outside of the Weccies to set foot on their planet in hundreds of years.  I’ve even heard there are many Weccies that never get to set foot on their own planet, but live on stations in the outer defensive ring all their lives.”

“Well, if I go, you’ll be going too, so you and I will be setting foot on Weccies together,” I said as I slipped my shoes off.

“Me?  Why will I be going?”  Kala said with a shocked look.

“You don’t expect me to go down there alone, do you?

“At the moment, it is you, me, and possibly Leader Maragon.  We’re not even sure whether we will be allowed personal guards or not.”

“Maragon?  Leader Maragon will be going too?  Isn’t he on the far side of the galaxy at the moment?”  Kala asked.

“Maybe he will be going.  He will definitely need to be there if there is ever a treaty.  They've just got a Cantolla Gate set up at his office on Uescure, and he will be able to travel here with just a few transfers.”

“By the stars, Tibby, I never dreamed that in my life, I would get to meet so many Leaders of the Federation.  If you get to meet one in a life time it’s a wonder, but to have met them all is, well it’s... it’s beyond my wildest dreams.”

“Well just think how it will be for the Weccies.  They will have a Leader and two First Citizens as guests; and even though they are not a part of the Federation it will still be a huge deal to them.”

“You’re right.  I didn’t think about that part.  Being a First Citizen doesn’t seem like all that much to me, now that I am one.  However, before that, First Citizens were almost godlike to me.

“Do Tonclin and Regeny think the Weccies will ask to join the Federation?”

“No, but they do believe the Weccies will ask for an alliance, one that could be highly beneficial to both the Weccies and the Federation.  If they are right, it will be a big blow to the Brotherhood.”

“Wow, Tib, if that were to happen it would shake the universe from one end to the other.  The Weccies have always been very adamant about not allying themselves with anyone and staying neutral.”

“There is an old saying from back on my home world of Earth that goes something like,
‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend,’
or something like that.  By attacking Weccies, the Brotherhood has become the enemy of the Weccies, and since we are enemies of the Brotherhood also, the Weccies now see us as friends.”

“There is a similar saying in the Federation,
‘He who fights with me and also with another will one day have to fight us both, standing as brothers,’
Kala said.  “Funny I never really thought about its meaning until now.”

“Tib, this will be very exciting; I can’t wait.  Imagine, we will be seeing something no outsiders have seen in several hundred years.  I wonder what it will be like.”

“Well, it’s not certain that it will happen at this time.  All of this is preliminary, and it’s going to take time for arrangements to be made, I think,” I said, but inside I was hoping more than thinking.

I was awakened early the next morning by a message from Marranalis, “Admiral, there is another message that has come in from Ming, by GW pod to the Capitol.”

“By the stars, what now?  Do Regeny and Wabussie know about this?”  I exclaimed as I got out of bed.

“I don’t think so, sir, but I don’t know what information channels they have available to them.  Ah, sir, there are two messages just now coming in from Both Rear Admiral Regeny and Admiral Wabussie.”

“Crap!  Tell them I will meet them on Megelleon at Admiral Regeny’s office in about 30 minutes, and I’ll activate the message then.”

“Yes sir,” he replied.

“As always, you’ll be in command until I get back,” I said to Marranalis.  “Oh, and if I haven’t told you lately, you’re doing a great job.  I wouldn’t know what I would do without you.”

“Thank you, sir, I do the best I can.”

“That’s all I can ask for,” I replied.

By now, Kala was sitting up in the bed and looking at me, “I hope it’s nothing bad, “she said.

“When has Ming ever sent a message that wasn’t bad? I asked.

“There can always be a first time,” Kala answered.  It turned out that it was not that day.

I arrived at Regeny’s office to find he had only arrived moments before me.  He motioned to the locations of the
Ginuluvti-Neusser-rufous
fungus, as a way of reminding me to be careful what I said.  I nodded as I entered and said, “Admiral, I understand there is a new GW message pod that has arrived with a message from Ming?’

“Yes, Tibby, come in.  Admiral Wabussie is on his way here and should arrive shortly.  I thought it best we all listened to it at the same time.”

“I agree, sir.  Do you have any idea what might be in Ming’s message?”  I asked, playing along.

“Making new threats no doubt, and probably pissed that you destroyed their base on Irribis.  It's about the right timeframe for him to be responding to your actions there,” Regeny replied.

“I just hope he hasn’t gone and hurt a lot of innocent people again.  People who hurt the innocent as a means of revenge are not only cowards, but they are fools as well,” I said fully hoping my words would get back to Ming and get him even more enraged.  Regeny laughed silently and nodded.

There was a knock at the door, and then it opened and Admiral Wabussie entered.

“Ah, Wabussie, just in time.  We’re about to access Ming’s message to Tibby.”  Regeny said as he once again pointed to the locations of the
Ginuluvti-Neusser-rufous
fungus.  Wabussie nodded as he replied, “Good, I was afraid I might be late.”

“No, not at all.  Let me access the pod, and Tibby, if you’ll do the honors of saying your name so this thing activates.”

After the vid screen was on and connected to the GW pod in orbit, I said my name and almost instantly Ming’s evil countenance appeared on the screen.

"It seems you like seeing the people of the Federation suffer almost as much as I do, Tibby, otherwise you would stop doing things to anger me.  Did you think I would not retaliate for your destruction of our base at Irribis?  Do you not realize, I will always make others suffer for every attempt you make to hinder me and the Brotherhood?  You make it very difficult for me to decide on how to make you suffer enough to understand the folly of your actions.  This is only a small example of what will happen to others if you continue with these actions.”

The vid screen switched to a view of a gigantic space station in orbit around a lovely planet, with a beautiful nebula in the background.  “This is the resort space station at Uiah Wamui, a rather attractive place, don’t you think?  A beautiful planet below, with blue oceans and white wispy clouds, and that lovely multi-colored nebula in the background.  Did you know, Tibby that these resort space stations are nearly defenseless?  Other than for a police department onboard that deals with petty crimes, there are no defenses at all.  Pity!  We had no problem at all capturing and securing the station.”  Ming said cruelly.  As he spoke, scenes of chaos, murder and mayhem played out on the screen as men, women, and children were killed.  Some women, stripped nearly naked were paraded onto the starship Ming was commanding, to be “used and sold as slaves,” Ming said with a smile.  “I didn’t feel it was necessary for us to take them all,” Ming said, “So we left many behind, still alive, of course.  I hated leaving such a damaged and disgusting space station in orbit around such a lovely planet,” he said sarcastically.

“Oh, did I forget to tell you.  We disabled the station's thrusters and then we gave the station a nudge in the direction of the planet's sun.  Well not actually a nudge,” he said softly and then added with a loud voice, “We towed it as near to the sun as we could get it, and shoved it into the sun.  We left the cameras on in the station broadcasting so we could record their final moments for you, Tibby.  I do hope you enjoy it.”  On the screen people in the station can be seen frantically running about as the station heated up.  For nearly an hour we watched as people began to succumb to the heat and drop to the floors about the station.  Finally, all was still and gradually the walls began to glow red, then yellow and finally the station began to disintegrate as it drew ever closer to the sun.  In the last moments before the camera died, you could see the bodies of the people on the floors burning, just as a large section of the hull melted away, revealing the sun and space.  The image then switched back to Ming. 

“I have only begun, Tibby; interfere with me and the Brotherhood plans again, and it will be far worse the next time.”  Then the message ended.

“By the stars, Tibby, I have never hated anyone so much in my life as I hate that Korgian blood sucker.  If we killed him yesterday it wouldn’t be soon enough.  What do you think we should do?”