Chapter 11

We had been under their control for a month, when I received a coded burst transmission. It was from my old friend, Cadet Jeremiah Lawson.

“Captain Sheridan, this is Jeremiah from the Yankee Fork. We are approaching your location now. The cavalry is on the way sir. We’ll be there in 48 hours.”

sweeter words have never been heard. It was now time to force the issue. The countdown had started.

The event that I had been waiting for happened the day following Jedidiah’s message. Aga Khan had been making increasingly desperate calls for his fuel tankers, which were still 3 days out and that morning had not responded to his calls. It looked like Khan’s day was going to get worse when he had an incoming priority message that demanded his personal attention. It was his boss Kashamir Singe. We had finally identified Singe from pictures of him on the Fortune 500 website. He was the CEO of the Kennedy/Morrison mining concern. They had laid claim to large sections of the asteroid belt. This was a direct violation of the Federated Nations treaty concerning the belt. Unfortunately, there was no one to challenge K/M’s claims. Nor was there a court that was willing to accept jurisdiction.

Singes message to Khan did not start out nice. Singe was demanding action from Khan, He wanted an end to Khan’s occupation. He wanted the crystal found, and he wanted all of this NOW. It was during this diatribe that they were both interrupted with an incoming message. This was unusual for both parties to be called. When the message was accessed, Both Singe and Khan were dumbstruck. This was their big boss and I didn’t need the internet to figure out who it was. This was High Senator Lincoln Johnson. The senior sitting senator for Earth’s north American sector of the Federated Senate. He was the committee chairman for outer planetary relations as well as military appropriations. It was rumored that he held more power than God himself. Something that Johnson would, when asked about it, Chuckle and change or deflect the conversation. But woe to the reporter that asked the Senator a difficult question. Several famous investigative reporters had been transferred to reporting the Martian polar weather after questioning his honesty.

Johnson started the conversation in his usual manner when addressing the public. “Well Gentlemen, it’s a pleasure to talk to you today. Perhaps you could update me as to the situation on Mosley? In other words, why are you still there? The plan for this mission had you already back to base and our new ‘Employee’s’ busily at work. There was also the question of this mysterious crystal that you two were all a twitter about. Does it really exist? Is it of any use to me?”

Singe started stuttering and hemming and hawing. “Well your Eminence, we have experienced several setbacks to our original schedule. SOMEONE, neglected to plan for a fuel shortage. We are currently sending replacement supplies to our battle group.”

A thoughtful look crossed Johnson face, “Is that correct Khan? Did you forget to bring sufficient fuel with you and this adventure?”

By this time Khan was prostate on the ground. “Merciful Master, please forgive this dog. I had made recommendations during the planning phase of this mission for emergency fuel reserves. But I was told by others that it was unnecessary, that this miserable dung pile of a space station would have sufficient supplies on hand for our needs with a surplus for any war prizes that we could secure.”

“Well Khan, it appears that you seriously miscalculated. Didn’t you?”

Singe had a sneer on his lips, while Khan started wailing. “Oh, shut up Khan. Quit acting the child. It is my understanding that your requested fuel is soon to arrive at your location and we can finish this adventure. I will say, though that I am less than satisfied with both of your performances. I shouldn’t have had to expose myself this way, just because you two are incompetent.”

“Which brings me to the next issue. What about this crystal? Between the two of you, you seemed to make this a priority of the whole mission. Where is it? What is it? how valuable is it?”

Before either could answer, Khan received an emergency alert. This is when he learned that the fuel tankers in route had been attacked by a group of ships from independent mining operations. Khan tried to isolate this message, But I overrode his control. Not only did Singe and Johnson hear the same message, so did the entire station. I had it broadcasted on all monitors and entertainment videos. I’d even hijacked the jukebox and slot machine videos.

Within the half hour, I received more calls from our allies. Khan’s fuel tankers had been intercepted and were in the possession of an independent mining operation that had been responding to our request for aid call. Their rock haulers had ambushed the tanker, boarded her and after a short, hard battle, took control of it.

Soon after that I got a personal call from Jedidiah. He and approximately 200 rock haulers were in position just outside of sensor range. They were waiting for word from me to come in. I let our tech on the queen Anne know that it was time to disable their sensors and alarms. I also disabled our station sensors. As soon as that happened, I called in the rescuers.

Khan, Singe and Johnson were still arguing and fighting when I broke into the conversation.

“Good Morning Gentlemen. I say morning because this is the dawning of a new day. At this moment an ad hoc belt Navy is coming to the rescue of Mosley Station. They will be here in less than 30 minutes. Now the situation that allowed you to gain control of this station is still in effect. Mosley has no defensive capabilities. And in all the time you’ve been here, that hasn’t changed.”