Chapter 60 - The Tensions Grow even Higher

"I'm still trying to figure out what just happened," the admiral replied. "It sounds like there was a battle down there."

"You might call it that," Yvette replied with a sniff. "Heck, if you want we could provide video of most of it."

"That would prove nothing!" Colonel Johanes snapped. "It would be doctored before you sent it."

"How?" Tamara asked. "You know, you are frighteningly inconsistent. First you claim we are untrained and have no rank but now we are supposedly able to create faked video of what happened in our entry hallway. Who do we have who even has that kind of training?"

"That Brad character could do it. And he still should be under arrest for assaulting my marine!" Colonel Johanes growled.

"What's this about an assault?" Admiral Timmons asked.

"Meiko," Yvette broke into the conversation. "Use the teleport to bring Brad back from the laser pods. He'll cover for you for a short time. I'm sure you want to check on Janice and James."

"Yes Ma'am," I replied. The AI released the controls of the console and I was quickly able to summon Brad from the laser ready room. He popped his helmet off as he stepped from the pad and walked towards me.

"Hell of a day," he said with a smile. "Now go and give that noble lug who orchestrates this chaos a huge hug and kiss for us. And remind him to keep his head down."

I giggled. "He got hit in his lower leg. Maybe he should have been doing jumping jacks."

Brad snorted. He stepped around the console and hip checked me so he could center himself at the controls. I stumbled a step to my right. As I was regaining my balance, his armor covered hand whipped out to slap my ass. It was surprisingly gentle, but propelled me forward three steps.

"Begone wench!" Brad thundered. "Your knight, Sir James, needeth thy gentle fingers and cheerful countenance. Go forth and assist him to the apothecary post haste!"

"Bad old English grammar," I said with a giggle as I turned to head to the door. "Just what Ishtar needs."

Brad merely waved his hand and concentrated on the controls, leaving me to dash through the door. Once I was in the hallway, I ran towards the main entrance of the enclave.

I arrived at the entrance to find Craig, Nathan and Robert working to clear bodies from the open doorway. They were dragging them into the enclave and laying them on the floor. I paused to watch and then started looking around for James and Janice.

"They all headed to the medical bay," Craig said when he noticed me watching. "You can find them there."

I took off towards the medical bay. Part of me was terribly worried. I knew that Janice's injuries meant that getting here there quickly was a priority, but James only had reported a minor wound. The thought that something might be wrong gave speed to my feet as I tried to catch up to my master.

The halls were dimly lit. My path led around one corner and I jumped as I noticed two flechette rifles pointed towards me. In the dim light, I could not recognize who was guarding the hallway, but they waved me past. The rest of the run, I paid closer attention but saw no one.

Overhead, the speakers were silent as I continued through the halls. It seemed like the last flurry of gunfire had shocked everyone. The extended quiet worried me, but I was afraid to speak up to ask what was happening. Unfortunately, this only meant my unease kept increasing as I made my way to our medical bay.

I did not slow down when I entered the room. This meant that I was charging directly at Shawna when I finished my turn. I tried to stop, but was stumbling into a collision when two arms flashed out, hands grabbed my arms and brought me to a halt.

"Slow down," Brittany said as she gripped my right arm. "If you get hurt, James will really get upset."

"Is he ... ?" I asked.

Kitty was holding my left arm. She reached out and pointed to my right. "He'll be fine. Lindsay is bandaging his leg right now. We had to get him out of his armor."

I looked over and could see James sitting on a raised examination table. Someone, I guessed it was Lindsay by her long blond hair, was wrapping a bandage around his right leg.

I took a step toward him. He had his eyes closed and was leaning back as I approached. When I arrived, I put my hands on his right hand. His eyes popped open and he looked at me.

"Brad has the controls?" he asked.

I nodded, too nervous to actually speak. He pulled his hand from under mine and used it to tease my hair. "I'll be fine," he told me.

"But your leg, and Janice," I said. Tears were now pouring from my eyes and I felt my whole body shake.

James put his arm around me. "I'll be fine, little one," he told me. "And Janice will recover. She is already in a medical pod."

I gazed up at James and noticed he had a tired smile on his face. I reached up to touch it, only for Lindsay to grab my hand. "Not quite yet," she told me. "James needs to lie down and rest."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because that leg is broken in two places and we don't have an available medical pod," Shawna said as she walked over. "That jackass Colonel Johanes and his suicide squad managed to do some damage to the power grid. I only have enough power to operate four pods and they all have more serious cases."

"But will he ... ?" I asked. I could not finish the thought.

"He will be fine," Shawna said. "But he's not going for any walks until after we get him in a pod."

I nodded. Just then, the speakers crackled back to life. "Is James available?" the voice of Admiral Timmons growled.

"I'm not leaving the medical bay for several hours," James replied. "And I refuse to leave this planet without proper orders from General Montgomery."

"Who?" the admiral asked.

"He's the commandant for all marine units in this military district," James replied. "We probably talk more often to Admiral Himmel, since our main duty is to maintain and operate Ishtar as a repair station for visiting ships, but technically we are all marines."

"That's stupid," the admiral growled. "Almost as stupid as Colonel Johanes' excuses for why he started that fight. Seems the guy got some idea that he should use his marines like some tactical police squad serving a warrant on a drug dealer."

"Who knows," James said quietly. "The man has been a problem since the day he arrived and tried to take over as governor."

"About that," Admiral Timmons said. "I've seen the signoffs on the orders appointing him governor. They include the Naval Chief of Research and Development."

"Wonderful," James said with a groan as he swung his body around. He put the injured leg on a pillow and then leaned back again. "How about you explain to me how someone who is responsible for research and development can appoint a governor to a planet that is already under the administration of a military district? I would imagine that Admiral Himmel is the only one supposed to be making such an appointment."

"I've analyzed the situation," Admiral Timmons replied. "I'm not sure I agree with you. Central Command must have some ability to suggest changes."

"Suggest," James snapped back. "I'll agree with the idea that Central Command would under some circumstance need to be able to make personnel suggestions. Central Command would most likely have a better understanding of the big picture. However, while Central Command most likely has more information about the big picture, with communication lags and distance, the local commanders definitely know what their units and people need. What happened here is as if the Pentagon back on Earth decided that a company commander in an army division needed to be changed."

"I don't agree," Admiral Timmons replied. "Central Command must have the authority to remove an underperforming governor or commander."

Everyone in the medical bay sighed at the same time. "Admiral," James replied icily. "Do you care to ask the AI if it believes I've underperformed? How about any of the ship commanders in the district? That statement from you sounds like someone looking for an excuse to back up Colonel Johanes."

"I report to Central Command. I have to consider all the angles," Admiral Timmons replied. "Right now I'm willing to accept that no matter what orders Colonel Johanes had, he exceeded them."

"I did not!" Colonel Johanes screamed. "My orders were given to me personally by General Holdsclaw. He told me that Ishtar was populated by renegades who were in a state of insurrection against the Confederacy. I am supposed to arrest everyone and take them to Rathlinat for trial."

"Make a decision!" James said. "First you were here to be acting governor, but you didn't try to learn anything. Then you wanted to try Brad after he forcibly removed one of your marines that was interfering with our rescue operations. Then you said you had a warrant for my arrest. Now you have orders to arrest everyone."

"You have no right to question me," Colonel Johanes screamed.

"He doesn't, but I need to do that," Admiral Timmons cut in. "Your actions here have left a mess. We have marines who are likely going to require retraining. And that's before we consider what to do with James and his people."

"You will not remove them from the planet," a new voice cut in.

"I'll do what I need to do," Admiral Timmons snapped. "Who are you to contradict me."

"Captain Monique de Wynter, commander of Athena," the voice replied again. "If you try to remove James and his people, we will stop you."

"You do not have the rank to countermand my order," Admiral Timmons said with a hiss.

"Who cares about rank," another voice called out. "If it wasn't for James and the others, half the ships in this district would have been destroyed fighting the Sa'arm. The only reason we've been able to start to push them back has been having the refuge here where we can go for repairs."

"That cannot be a consideration," Admiral Timmons replied. "If James and his people are renegades and not supporting Central Command, they need to be tried."

"And can we expect that to be a fair trial?" Yvette asked. "More importantly who will be taking care of the duties we have here if you take us all so you can have your show trial?"

"It would not be a show trial," Admiral Timmons growled. "I may not be the best informed admiral in the fleet, but I can assure you that the human command adapted the Code of Military Justice used by the United States. You'll all receive a fair trial."

"In front of generals and admirals who might be part of whatever group seems to have decided we are involved in an insurrection," Tiffany replied. "I want to ask who the fuck filed charges? I know it wasn't anyone from the district."

"And how would you know that, child?" Admiral Timmons growled back condescendingly.

"Because there isn't a ship from the district that hasn't been helped by the colony," Captain de Wynter replied. "Hell, if anything, I'd want to put those people in for medals."

"For what?" Admiral Timmons snapped. "Captain, you seem to have a very poor attitude here. I'm trying to fix a mistake."

"The only mistake is that you are here," Captain Gates spoke up. "If you'd been paying attention since you arrived, you would have seen my ship as well as Athena being guided into repair docks. These people are faster than Borneo at bringing ships in and repairing them."

James perked up. "Terrence, are Cancun and Athena in docks?"

"Cancun is," Terrence replied. "We'll have the sensor runs repaired in ten minutes. Then we can start replacing all of the lost armor. Current estimates give us one hour to turn her around. Athena is not at the dock yet, but I have some mobile repair units clearing away damage to make the installation of the replacement section go more smoothly. It's probably going to be four hours to return her to operation."

"Four hours!" Admiral Timmons shouted. "That's a six day repair back at Frikat. You can't repair that in four hours and have it hold up to combat."

"I've seen them repair worse damage in less time," a new voice spoke out. The silky tones made it clear that Captain Walker from Freya was joining the conversation. "They are the best at what they do."

"That's immaterial to the case against them!" the admiral insisted. "If there is a sworn warrant against them, it must be served and they must be tried at the court that swore out the warrant."

"A court that doesn't have jurisdiction here," James said. "Look, Admiral, I have no idea why you were sent here " No, actually I'm beginning to get an idea of why you are here. That isn't important though. The thing you need to consider is that the officers who are directly responsible for this colony and this military district have not been a party to the swearing of this warrant against my friends and me. Now, you may want to talk to him about that warrant before you enforce it."

"It's a legitimate warrant. I checked with my AI after discussing the situation with Colonel Johanes," the admiral replied.

"The same Colonel Johanes that initiated an illegal and dangerous attempt to force open a pressure door? The same Colonel Johanes who ordered an attack that left four citizens in medical pods? The same Colonel Johanes who was told to get off this planet? Are you talking about that Colonel Johanes?" James asked. He looked up at the ceiling. "AI, is Colonel Johanes still on the planet?"

"Colonel Johanes has teleported back to Sir Paridell. The marines and scientists he came with have also teleported to the transport," the AI informed us.

"So there is no governor on the planet then?" Admiral Timmons sneered.

"Incorrect, Ishtar has had a governor since colonists first set foot on the planet," the AI replied.

"Who is claiming that?" the admiral screamed.

"I can't believe you can't recognize an AI voice," James replied. "Surely, you've heard one speaking during your rise to admiral."

"Do not mock me!" the Admiral growled. "I'm trying to make sure this gets settled quietly. I could make this nasty if I wanted to."

James sighed. "AI, can we block all incoming teleports? Make it so the only way to teleport would be to have one of our operators at the controls and actively accepting a teleport."

"Affirmative," the AI intoned. "Until further notice only your three registered operators can initiate a teleport on the planet."

"You have no authority to issue such an order! I demand that you rescind that order and allow my marines to come and detain you," Admiral Timmons said.

"Demand away," Yvette replied. "We aren't going to allow the arrest. We formally protested the appointment of that maniac Johanes when he arrived, and now we discover that he had an agenda beyond inspecting the artifacts."

James reached out to feather his fingers through my hair. I leaned against him. Part of me wanted to climb up onto the examination table, but he put a hand on my shoulder. "You better go and relieve Brad," he whispered to me. "I get a feeling we'll need him back at the lasers shortly.

I nodded. "Why can't the admiral just back down? He has to realize that the warrant isn't valid."

"Pride," Donna replied. "He can't imagine being sent out for no reason so he is trying to make the fake reason real. The problem is, he's talking himself into a corner."

James nodded. "And somehow I'm pretty sure it won't turn out well."

My master looked up at the ceiling. "Tamara, can you give me a status on all of the ships from Borneo? We've got nine ships here, right?"

"No fair, you remembered the count," Tamara replied with a giggle. "Let's see. Athena is in a dock, we'll have the damage patched in about four hours. Cancun should be out in about an hour. Sif has a short in her grid. Randi believes she's found it during a scan. If she's right, Louis says we can turn the ship in less than an hour, but she's about thirty minutes from a dock. Morrigan and Freya just need panels of their grid replaced. We can have mobile repair units take grid material to them if you want. The repairs will be very quick, no more than fifteen minutes or so."

"Fifteen? How can you replace grid sections that quickly?" the admiral called out.

Tamara ignored the interruption. "Beowulf, Mongolia and Aspen are all undamaged. Siberia needs three turrets replaced. The information coming from their AI suggests that all three should go quickly. Internal damage control units have already uncoupled the turrets. We just need a repair unit to pull out the wreckage and insert the replacement units."

"Good," James replied. "Brad, I'm going to be sending Meiko back to the room in a moment. We need to have everyone who can stand down and rest."

"I am in the middle of an investigation," the admiral growled out. "You need to attend to me."

"I need to get into a medical pod and have two broken bones mended," James replied tiredly. "But we only have four functioning medical pods at the moment. Hopefully power will be fully restored in the near future, and then I'll get my leg fixed."

"You can always teleport to my ship," the admiral replied. "We have several empty medical pods."

"Come visit my web, said the spider to the fly," James said with a mocking laugh. "Sorry, I'm not leaving Ishtar. The pod will be ready soon."

"The rockets into the floor of the colony severed three important power conduits. Repair systems will restore full power within the hour," the AI intoned.

"The AI has it," James said. "Look, Admiral, why don't you take some time to talk to the ship captains here. With the exception of Beowulf and Siberia, every ship out there has visited Ishtar at least once before. They know what we do and I am positive that their testimony will contradict any evidence provided with that mockery of a warrant you keep referring to."

"That's not how it works," the admiral hissed.

James reached down to pat my head one last time. "Go to the teleport room," he told me. "I know you probably want some sleep, so you can lie down there unless we need you. I'll be here for a few hours."

"What about the babies?" I asked.

"Bethany has them," Kitty responded. "Well, I think Madoka is back in the teleport room. Tina was going to join Bethany."

I nodded and headed out of the room. Overhead, I could hear the admiral continue to fume. "Look James, I'm a reasonable man. I can guarantee that you'll be treated well while we take you to your trial."

"A trial that would in no way be fair," Yvette snapped back. "Not to say that we don't trust you, but we have no trust left for Central Command. They dumped us here."

"Actually, that was my fault," Captain Gates cut in.

"No it wasn't," Yvette said. "James and I read the unsealed part of the investigation file. You were only guilty of not catching the fact that your subordinate made a deal with a few training camp commanders. In fact, no human actually selected us for delivery to Ishtar. The conspirators who arranged it automated the process in an attempt to hide what they were doing."

"What?" the admiral snapped.

I was running through the hallways. As before, the halls were quiet. Overhead, the lights were slowly brightening. I guess the dimness was caused by the damage to the power system.

It ended up that I arrived back at the teleport room before I ran into anyone. I popped into the room and found Candi and Randi helping Brad out of his armor.

"Hey Meiko!" Randi called out. Brad was sitting on the floor and the duo was pulling the chest and back plates of his armor away from his body. "Madoka is sleeping over in the corner."

"You knew she was here?" I asked as I hurried over to check on her. She was curled up in a stroller. Her serene face reminded me of all I had to fight for.

Candi giggled. "You've got that look," she said. "However, I'm sure you want to lie down at least. Randi and I set up an impromptu bed over there. Why don't you lie down and we'll be out of here as soon as we get the legs of Brad's armor off."

"You aren't going to steal his pants as well?" I asked with a giggle. I found the pile of blankets set up on an air mattress and lay down.

"That's for once we get him home," Randi giggled back. "He owes us some loving."

"I want time with my sons," Brad mock complained.

"You'll get it, too," Candi said. "But let's hurry. The admiral up there appears to be methodical about things, but I bet once he reviews everything, he still insists that he has to arrest James."

"It won't help him," Randi said back. "None of the ships from Borneo is going to allow him to take a single person off this planet. I'm surprised they have tried to force Sir Paridell to leave."

"Too much effort," I said with a yawn. "They probably figure that Sir Paridell will leave on its own."

I lay down on the mattress and pulled the blankets up to cover my body. Uncertainty should have prevented me from sleeping, but the pressures of the last few hours seemed to slip away as I closed my eyes and, moments later, I was asleep.