Talosian Chronicles 3: Talosian Alliance (34 page)

"Fabulous!" John said, rolling his eyes. "Comms, please get me Pleiades Control."

"Pleiades Control, go ahead Star Dancer!" a young female voice could be heard.

"Thank you, control. We are requesting approach and docking instructions," John said.

"Understood, Star Dancer. Please turn to one-nine-four by seven-seven. You are cleared to dock in gantry six. We show you as seventy-five thousand klicks out and closing, please reduce speed to point zero-zero-one for closure."

"Helm, turn to one-niner-four by seven-seven degrees true, reduce speed to point zero-zero-one," John echoed. "Pleiades Control, we are on approach for gantry six, ETA now zero-six minutes."

"Confirmed, Star Dancer. Reduce speed to five hundred mps at the outer marker," The controller replied.

"Navigation, deploy the nav drones for docking." John opened the ship-wide comm. "All stations, this is the bridge, prepare for docking. Welcome home everyone!"

"Nav Drones away, Colonel. Speed now two thousand mps and dropping," Ensign Hayes reported. Chekhov was off duty. "Outer marker in two minutes."

"Reverse thrusters point one for ten seconds, we're coming in too hot," John said. His eyes were glued to the main view screen which showed all the data he would need to manually dock with the station. "Helm adjust yaw four degrees, bow negative three."

"Speed now seven hundred mps, sir. Outer marker in twenty seconds," Hayes reported.

John nodded, but kept watching the screen. "Thrusters to station keeping, let momentum take is in."

"We've reached the outer marker, speed four-ninety and dropping."

"Secure all flight systems, drop our shields, and turn on our navigation lights. Helm make moorings ready. Reverse thusters point one." John said. The ship was inside the gantry now, gently sliding into position in the birth.

"Kill forward momentum." John ordered.

"Speed now, zero point zero. Thrusters to station-keeping," Hayes reported, grinning.

"Lock us in, Helm," John ordered. "Engines to stand-by, main reactor to station mode. Recall the nav drones." He reopened the channel to the station. "Pleiades Control, Star Dancer is home and docked."

"Star Dancer, this is station control, welcome home!" echoed through the great ship.

The bridge crew clapped for John's handling of the docking, and he bowed slightly to them. "Thank you, folks. Secure all stations! Stand down from combat operations, set repair conditions. Station control; fill 'er up, and please check the oil."

"Good work, John," Jenny said. "I hate to ask you this, but I need to go make nice with the dignitaries, can you hold down the fort for a while?"

"Sure, nothing to do really, just sit here and look foreboding," John replied. "When the requests come in, is there anything you don't want to let them get started on?"

"Well, they'll need to take the main reactor offline to replace the hyperdrive unit, so as long as they can finish a project during that time, allow it. Anything longer, and we'll have to talk about it," Jenny said as she got up from her chair. "You have the con."

John nodded and took her seat. "I have the con. Have fun."

"Oh yeah, loads," Jenny said as she left the bridge through the ready room.

As the door closed behind her, a team of engineers arrived to begin tearing down the bridge stations.

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"H
ow are you feeling, Admiral?" Goya said when Ian and Jenny met him in the debarkation lounge. Admiral Goya, Commander Serena, and another man Ian faintly recognized had been in the lounge waiting for him. The strange man was wearing Talosian Commander Rank, and suddenly Ian remembered the man.

"Better, I guess I really needed the sleep," Ian replied. "I thought Beth was going to tear off chunks of skin when she chewed me out." He looked at the new Commander. "Commander Egran, it is good to see you again! Welcome back!"

Egran bowed to Ian. "It is very good to be back, Admiral. I see you have made some improvements in my absence."

"A few, we heard a rumor that there were some very unfriendly folks about, so we thought we should address that before it became an issue," Ian replied.

"Indeed, they are very unfriendly, I've been briefed on the situation in Beta Hydri, that is not a good situation," Egran replied.

"I'm afraid things are not going to get much better, either my young friend," Goya replied, taking back the conversation and began telling him everything that had taken place while Ian had been away. While Goya spoke, he led Ian and Jenny to the conference room in the VIP section. Ian was surprised to see the entire Terran Council, Maia, and Star waiting for him. After greeting everyone and taking his seat, Luke began the meeting.

"Before we really get going here, Ian, you'll be happy to know that the United Nations Security Council has ratified your promotion to Admiral. However, the General Assembly is arguing over it. They feel that one of their people would have been better suited to the position." Luke waved his hand in the air. "It's all bullshit, they just want to try to get one of their own people in command up here even though we've told them we would never allow it.

"Now, moving on, we do have a lot of business to discuss, but we have urgent matters that need to be decided, and the domestic stuff can wait for our normal meeting," Luke looked at his tablet.

"The Alliance of Races is assembling a task force to deal with our new neighbors in the Beta Hydri system. ARC High Command, which, to be clear, is the Alliance of Races Military, has asked through Admiral Goya, for the use of this station as a support base for the assault. Admiral Williams, could we get your thoughts before we decide?" Luke asked.

"Certainly, Councilor," Ian replied and thought for a moment. "Because of the threat to this entire sector, it would be to our benefit to support ARC as much as we can. However, just so you all know what allowing this will mean, if you decide to allow it, then we will have ships from all the Alliance races coming and going, and sometimes without notice. We will need to keep an alert watch on the hyperspace weapons systems. We will also have to limit their exposure to the Sol system, which means restricting them to this system. We will need a dedicated AI for traffic control. It will also mean that this station will have to operate at close to its maximum capacity. Personnel will have to be brought over from Sol system to run the mining operations as well as fly the ore ships to supply the raw materials we'll need for repairs.

"Basically, we will have to bring this system up to full operational capacity immediately. All the facilities on this station will have to be fully manned and ready to deal with sailors and warriors from all the races. I believe we can, and should, do this. I don't know where we'll get the people from, but if we are capable of it, we need to make it happen," Ian finished.

"Thank you Admiral. That will help us make the decision. In light of this development, I would like to bring forward one item from the domestic issues facing us; immigration. At last report, we had all the people in place to begin large scale immigration from Earth, but not the facilities. Ironically, we need the immigrants in order to build the facilities we need to handle them.

"Minister Laskar has put forward the suggestion that we begin our effort in this area by publicly advertising for the people we need, worldwide. She has suggested we use our land in New Mexico as a screening and embarkation facility, however, that would be counter to our professed desire to use the planet's existing infrastructure. Your thoughts?" Luke asked of the assembled.

A man to Ian's left stood, and Ian recognized him as the man that wanted to turn him over to the American government, back when Star Dancer was still stuck on the moon; Zebadiah Gabriel.

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C
ouncilor Gabriel nodded to Ian, a small, sad smile on his face. "Councilors, might I suggest a compromise? We allow controlled immigration as Minister Laskar has outlined, however we set-up our screening and processing facilities at the existing spaceports as we mentioned to the Security Council. It will require slightly more security and work on our part, but I think in the long run, it would go far to foster trust with the nations of the world. We are under a microscope for them. Anything we do that would deviate from our professed goals would be immediately noted. If we are to gain their trust, it is very important we stick to the original plan we told them about. Thank you," he finished and sat back down.

Helen Michaels, a longtime member of the council, stood next. "I believe Councilor Gabriel is correct, and I support his motion. However, I believe we will have to increase security more than we had planned for these facilities. Perhaps not so much in the United States, but for the EUSA (European Space Agency) facility, and for the planned Asian facility. I do believe the nations of Earth will do their best to put spies among us to capture as much of our technology as possible no matter the cost. We must be cautious and prepared for this circumstance." The woman sat.

When he saw that no one else wanted to speak on the matter, he stood. "Although from the looks on your faces, I doubt we need to vote on this, please do so now."

It was less than a minute before Luke stood again. "I guess I was correct, we are agreed, and the decision will be passed on to Minister Laskar for immediate implementation. However, the decision to allow ARC to use this facility in the coming battle is still before us. Admiral Williams has given us his thoughts on the matter, does anyone have any questions for him?"

Again Gabriel indicated he would like to speak, and Luke nodded to him. When he stood, he faced Ian. "Admiral, first off, I would like to thank you again for our first meeting. Although I do still have strong beliefs, I now better understand what it was you were trying to accomplish and build. Had you not made certain I could not contact the American authorities, I would have ruined this blessed opportunity," he held up his hand. "No, I am not, nor will I push my religious beliefs in anyway, you have given us the opportunity to find common ground, and perhaps an understanding in our various beliefs. I am telling you all of this, so you will understand my question for you, and that I mean no offense by asking it. With all the separate and diverse races that will be coming here, what has been done to see to the spiritual needs of the visiting warriors?"

Ian nodded. "I understand and can appreciate your question, Councilor. Currently there has been nothing done in this area, mostly because we have very little to no information on the spiritual beliefs of the other races. An entire deck of the station has been set aside for this need, currently only Terran and Talosian beliefs are represented there."

"Please pardon the interruption, Admiral. But may I add to that?" Maia asked from her place near Luke.

"Please do, Maia," Ian replied.

"I would add only that, in light of current developments, construction has begun on a Benesian Temple. Construction of this temple will take a couple of months since no automation can be used, but it has started. So there are, technically, three races now represented," Maia finished, and bowed her head to Ian.

"Thank you, Maia. I assume more facilities will be added as we learn of their need. I should mention that the station administrator, Isaak Hawkins, has yet to complete his current commitment on Earth. However, once he does, his wife has agreed to take over the job of managing these areas of the stations. Does that answer your question, Councilor?"

"It does, Admiral, thank you," Gabriel replied. Laura Johnson stood next.

"Maia, we know the station has been built to support a large number of ships at one time, but do you have the capacity for this mission?"

Maia stepped forward to address the Council. "Councilors, even with Star Dancer, now docked in gantry six, I have room for four more heavy cruiser class ships. If Star Dancer were to disembark, and our current construction projects pulled out of the way, I would have the ability to handle four carriers, or six battleships, or up to ten heavy cruiser class ships. I sincerely hope that more room will not be needed, but as Admiral Goya and Pan will tell you, that should be sufficient for this mission. However, if continued support of ARC missions are to be considered, we might wish to reconsider the priority on the remaining Pleiades stations that are planned. We will also need a separate, dedicated, traffic control and customs station equipped with its own AI," she paused. "If we can increase the mining and refining efforts in this system, we should be able to handle the ARC request."

Ian stood, and Maia bowed to him. "Councilors, although I do recommend accepting this request, as an added security precaution, I feel we should add the stipulation that our location be considered 'need to know' and for it not to be allowed to be stored electronically. Only the ship commanders, and their navigators should have our location. Such information can be salvaged from destroyed ships, and I would prefer the Empire not discovering our location by those means."

Admiral Goya stood, asking Luke if he could speak. Luke nodded to him. "Councilors, we of Talos have no voice here, nor should we. However, I would like to request that you seriously consider allowing the ARC into your sector." He sighed, and shook his head. "Most of you are aware of the issues taking place back at our home planet, and I fear that situation will only get worse before it gets better. This will seriously affect our ability to support and contribute to the ARC and the Alliance efforts to repel the invading Empire. It will mean the restructuring of our government, and could very well mean the destruction of the Talosian Alliance itself.

"Be that as it may, we, both of our separate nations, are human, and humans have a vested interest in the outcome of the war against the Empire. If Talosians cannot support the ARC in our own defense, I would hope that Terrans would, not as a favor to us, nor for any other reason than humans need to do this. Ian's actions have done much to restore the ARC faith in our race. But I fear that a Talosian failure to support the Alliance due to our internal problems will severely damage relations. Unfortunately, the Alliance is well aware of the attitude Talosian separatists have for the other races, and that too has damaged our relations with them." He paused, "I guess, I am asking you to support the ARC, not as a Talosian, but as a human. Humans are not alone in this galaxy, nor are we in the majority. As a race, we cannot allow our petty prejudices to destroy our relations with our neighbors, or we will know nothing but war until we become extinct." The tired looking man slowly took his seat, and his aide, Brekka, reached forward to put her hand on his shoulder.