Chapter 05

Federation Politics

Two months after their twentieth birthday Major Lorna Austin and Lieutenant Colonel Morgan Kesselring board the ship specially built for the trip. The ship Goodwill is built specifically for this journey to house its four person crew and two Raptors with their crews. The design of the Raptors has the crew access enter into the rear of the Crew Room which has a short hall with the four crew personal spaces on each side of it and the ladders to two combat positions above the crew spaces. The Crew Room is a little wider than the personal spaces because it also has the access points for the life support and other equipment, so it’s almost the full width of the Raptor. The rest of the space is taken up with the ship’s equipment. The Goodwill’s design started with two side by side Raptors with a duplication of the Crew Room, personal spaces, and control positions between the Raptors set on the same level. Short halls run back from each of the Crew Rooms to a cross corridor to access them. Each of them has a safety bulkhead which is actually the airlock for the Raptors. This way the three living areas look to be set up as one for each watch.

The Goodwill is four times the length and width of the Raptors and twice their height. This is to make it easier to hide the Raptors and their hangar doors. There’s a separate living and meeting area for passengers as well as a small shuttle in its own bay. The ship has two dreadnought sized defensive screens as well as very extensive detection and stealth systems. There are no weapons included in the construction of the Goodwill as they come when the two Raptors are docked. However, the stealth systems hide the weapons of the Raptors Peregrine and Falcon.

On the twenty-fifth day since leaving Forge the Goodwill enters the solar system with the Federation planet of Congress in it. This system is the seat of the Federation government with the Council House, the main venue of the Council of the Federation of Human Worlds where they have all of their formal discussions and votes. The planet also houses most of the bureaucracies and a lot of smaller meeting facilities for the many Council Committees as well as the embassies of all of the realms with regular relationships with the Federation.

This trip has a number of purposes, one of which is to establish trade and diplomatic relationships with the Federation. Another is to amend the Federation records on the existence of the Forge Federation, the name of their group of five solar systems.

Goodwill stops on the system periphery and establishes contact with the System Control Centre. After a short exchange on the reason for their visit a Customs Cutter is assigned to check Goodwill over and escort the visitors to their assigned berth at a space station. After a checking scan for weapons two of the cutter’s crew shuttle across to conduct a physical check of Goodwill and a review of their documentation. While the two people from the cutter find the internal layout odd they find nothing to be suspicious of, and approve the Goodwill to go deeper into the system.

After they dock Morgan issues his orders for the crews by saying, “I expect trouble, so be very careful. I want four people to stay on the ship at all times, and those on the station are to be be in pairs at all times. Watch out for people to make trouble for you. No one is to be allowed on board without my express prior approval. Dig into the available public records and see what you can find about the beacons we sent as the Federation never responded. Lorna and I will travel to the planet and do all of the silly diplomatic stuff we’re here to do then we’ll establish ways for future matters to be dealt with by the Acadian and Rainbow officials acting for us. Also look for trade opportunities.” They all acknowledge their orders before Lorna, Morgan, and the first off-duty crew walk through the docking tube to enter the station properly. Twenty minutes later Lorna and Morgan are on a shuttle to the planet to do their work.

The Federation State Department

Immediately after they land on Congress Morgan and Lorna travel to the Head Office of the Federation State Department as this is the agency that handles interactions with other realms for the Federation. Why it is called the State Department is lost in the past and the few legends that exist about the creation of the name conflict with each other. On entering the building the couple have to present their identification and state their reason for visiting. After a few phone calls the security guard at the entrance sends them up to the fourth floor to speak with someone.

When Supervisor Clark asks for their documents Morgan replies, “We wish to speak with either the Secretary of State or the Undersecretary of State as they are the two lowest officials allowed, by your laws, to accept our appointments as ambassadors to the federation.”

“They’re both very busy people. Now hand me the papers and I’ll see they get them,” is Clark’s reply.

Morgan hands over a business card with his contact details as he says, “I’ve very strict instructions from my government as to who I can present the documents to and I will obey my orders. Please contact their offices and arrange an appointment for us to present our documents and then send me a message at any of those contact addresses and we’ll be there.”

Clark responds with, “I think you and your tinpot government have an unrealistic appreciation of your importance. You do not rate a meeting with such senior people. So hand me your documents.”

While they talk Lorna is working on her comm pad, as Clark ends his statement she looks up and says, “I’ve just sent an official communique to your government, our government, and those we have treaties with to inform them of your attitude and actions. The Federation now has three days to respond with a time for us to meet the Secretary of State to hand over our documents or the Federation will face a trade embargo.”

Clark laughs then says, “Oh, I tremble in fear about the lack of trade you will inflict on us.”

Morgan gives him a feral smile as he says, “I strongly suggest you look into who our backers are then ask the Federation Admiralty if they like being under a trade embargo by us.” He nods to Lorna as he packs up his briefcase, then the two stand and walk out of Clark’s office.

After Lorna and Morgan leave his office Clark uses his communicator to speak to a senior member of the Federation Council, saying, “They won’t give me the documents, so I can’t lose them in the system. They also threatened a trade embargo.” The other person laughs and they talk about the situation as well as what else they can do to stop Morgan and Lorna from being officially recognised by the Federation bureaucracy.

The official communique Lorna sends as an Ambassador for Forge is addressed to the governments of Acadia, the Rainbow Kingdom, the Federation, and Forge. However, because she includes the relevant tags as to what the communique is about the main Communications Centre of the Federation, the embassies of Acadia and the Rainbow Kingdom make duplicates of the message and direct them to several internal units the Comm Centre thinks should be aware of the contents. In the embassies the various recipients just smile, note receiving the document, and file it as it’s what they expected to have happen. While within the Federation bureaucracies the responses vary a lot.

In the Federation State Department the communique is given a low priority and routed to the various areas it should go to. Due to the low priority it’s unlikely to be seen by anyone important for several days.

At the Federation Trade Department the communique is given a high priority and sent to a number of offices for action. However, on not being able to find any trade agreements with any business in the realm listed the message is simply noted and filed.

The Secretary of the Federation Colonial Development Department notes the arrival of the communique, turns to an aide, and says, “We best hurry up and finish organising that colonial expedition as the people at Forge are here trying to get officially recognised before we can take them over and control those planets.”

When the communique arrives at the Federation Admiralty Offices it’s duplicated and sent to over a dozen different areas. In most areas the staff note the message and file it. However, in one office the communique is seen by a Commodore in the Intelligence Analysis Bureau who knows a lot more about the planet Forge and its history than most of the others know. He takes a copy of the communique and goes to the office of the Admiral in charge of Fleet Purchasing. He has to wait about thirty minutes before the Admiral can fit him into his schedule.

As Commodore Waters enters the office Admiral Collins looks up and says, “This better be important, Waters, and it has to be fast as I have a lot to do today.”

Waters says, “Sir, I think your schedule just got rearranged for you,” as he hands over the pad with the copy of the communique.

Collins reads it and looks up as he says, “We don’t do any trade with that system at all. This is nothing.”

“Sir, you need to understand the history of Forge. However, the most important thing is the majority of the Forge government are also on the Board of Directors for HAK Systems and their registered Head Office is now on the planet of Anvil in the Forge system. The company is now officially registered as a Forge company. The moment the trade embargo goes into effect we lose all access to equipment and technical assistance from HAK Systems. That means we’re on our own with what we have on hand in the way of Primary Beam Weapons and Defensive Screens. Also, Forge has treaties with the governments of the Rainbow Kingdom and Acadia, so I expect there will be follow on political repercussions there too. Then there’s the information about how they destroyed a pirate attack force of five heavy cruisers and over fifteen thousand ground troops. We’re still trying to get some decent information on that, but all we have right now is third and fourth hand reports.”

“How did a start up colony defeat such a large force? Damn, see what else you can find out. I’ll start talking to people to sort this out. We also need to find out why those idiots over in State are causing them trouble.”

When Collins reaches for his communicator Waters leaves the office and goes back to his own office to speak to some of his own contacts.

Over the next two days a lot of important people in the Federation are working at cross purposes with some trying to get State to recognise the Forge group and others trying to have them ignored. There’s also a lot of actions happening while people go about organising to get the best they can out of the situation for themselves as financial benefits or promotions or both. There are also many actions by the people behind the pirate attack while they organise other ways to take control of the system and the important and very valuable work being done there.

Many of the actions being taken are legal, and many are not legal.

Note: A few days later a lot of people are upset by the flow-on effects of the trade embargo by the Forge Federation when their treaties with Acadia and the Rainbow Kingdom kick in to have them also place the Federation under a trade embargo. The people behind the delays of the recognition of the Forge Federation didn’t realise how large a political fiasco they were starting, nor the extent of its affect on the Federation economy due to the extent of transportation and special goods the other two realms involved provide to the Federation. The trade embargo is costing the Federation many millions of credits each day. That has an effect of many people putting pressure on the whole of the Federation political structure due to the financial loses the problem is causing them.

Party Events

The various embassies on the planet Congress regularly hold evening gatherings of a meal and general conversation under the guise of a dance to enable them to engage in unofficial discussions with important people. Once or twice a year they also have a more formal function. The Forge Delegation was timed to arrive a few days before the main annual formal dinner at the Rainbow Kingdom Embassy. This event is held on the evening of the day after Morgan and Lorna visit the Federation State Department, and both of them are invited to this invitation only event.

Lorna and Morgan have on-planet accommodation at the Acadian Embassy, so they travel to the Rainbow Kingdom Embassy with the Acadian Ambassador. However, on arrival they enter a side room and wait there while the Acadian Ambassador enters the main room and is announced. Lorna and Morgan are waiting to be the last to enter the room so they’ll be noticed by all there. The official reason is they’re last as they’re the most junior politicians to attend.

About thirty minutes after arriving at the Embassy one of the staff opens the door and waves the two Forge Ambassadors out to enter the main entertainment room. Already in the room are all of the other realm ambassadors, most of the senior Federation Councillors, many senior bureaucrats, and a number of slightly less senior people who could get an invitation. Included in the throng are each of the Secretaries of all of the Federation Departments and their Undersecretaries as well as most of the Federation Fleet Admirals and Commodore Waters. Naturally, all of the invited guests have their significant other or a friend with them. Thus it’s a very large crowd when the two Forge Ambassadors are shown to the room’s entrance where they stop for a moment to be announced prior to walking down the three steps into the room.

Both are in their uniforms as they stand at the top of the steps while they’re announced as, “Ambassadors-at-large for the Forge Federation, Lieutenant Colonel Kesselring and Major Austin.” Everyone turns to look at the young couple as this is the first time all but a few of them have seen them. It’s also the first time many of them have heard the names of the Forge Ambassadors, and also the first time many have heard of their military ranks.

Morgan leads Lorna down the steps and over to where Ambassador Black is standing. He bows, shakes his hand, and says, “It’s good to see you again, Ambassador. How is your daughter doing? Has she finished her training yet?”

Black smiles as he shakes Morgan’s hand then Lorna’s hand while he says, “Melinda is doing well and has finished her training. She’s now a Junior Lieutenant with the Purple Militia posted to the Mauve City Force. I’ll tell her you were asking after her.” The interaction and conversation is noted by a lot of people, as was intended by the participants. Then the couple moves on to greet and talk to the few people there they know.

When the Forge Ambassadors enter Commodore Waters moves over to where Admiral Collins is talking with a group of Federation Admirals. Before Waters can speak to Collins another Admiral, an officer who owes his rank more to politics than actual military capability, says, “Jumped up colonials giving themselves undeserved ranks.”

Waters says, “Admiral Burrows, if you look at Colonel Kesselring’s left chest you’ll see he wear the ribbon for the White Star. That’s the second highest award for courage awarded by the Rainbow Kingdom and it’s only awarded to people in their military for actions above expectation in action against an enemy during combat. The last award of the White Star was about four years ago to a Senior Lieutenant Kesselring of the Purple Militia for defeating a major invasion by mercenaries when he and a Junior Lieutenant Austin were able to destroy three combat shuttles with a company of mercenaries and a heavy artillery piece on each shuttle. I do think we have the same two people here tonight. Also, when those pirates attacked the Forge System the system defence was managed by a Senior Lieutenant Austin. I suspect we’re looking at two of the deadliest and most capable combat officers of our times. I think anyone who takes any military action against them is likely to end up dead.”

Admiral Milton of the Fleet Medical Corps says, “I happen to know those two young people are a lot more than they seem. Most of our new medical nanobots were designed by them. When we got them I went to the trouble of looking up the creators of the Austin-Kesselring nanobots.”

Turning to the Admiral the Commodore says, “Thank you for that, Sir. I’ve found out a lot about them, but I didn’t connect them with the medical research people of the same names. That helps explain why they were appointed as Ambassadors-at-large by their government.”

The group of officers talk a lot more about the Ambassadors and the government they represent. Their talk breaks up when everyone is led to their seats for dinner.

Waters finds himself sitting down opposite Morgan and before he can introduce himself Lorna says, “Good evening, Commodore Waters. I’m told you’d like to know a lot more about how we dealt with the pirate attack. We’ve a copy of the full recordings of the event with us. If you’d like to arrange for us to give a presentation to a large group of your Fleet officers we’ll be happy to do so. However, you’ll have to find and arrange a suitable venue. Something like the main theatre at the Fleet Academy on Admiralty would be suitable.”

Despite being shocked at being recognised and offered what he dearly wants Waters stays calm and asks, “Considering how hard it’s been to get hold of any information on that battle, why is it now available?”

Morgan says, “We’ve kept it quiet while we rebuilt our defences as we didn’t want our enemies to know how close they came to winning. Now we want everyone to know that an attack on us will result in extremely large losses by their attack force, and if we can trace them back to their home planets and the people behind them we’ll do more heavy damage there.”

“Why does that sound like you expect an attack by the Federation.”

Lorna replies, “We’ve intelligence reports that a faction within your Colonial Development Department intends to claim we’re a Federation colony under their control and are preparing to send a major Fleet task force to take control of our planets. We’d rather convince the Federation Council to not take that action than have to kill many thousands of Fleet personnel while we destroy most of the Federation Fleet, both in Forge and here in the Federation, if we’re forced into a war with you.”

“You sound very confident about winning. How come?”

“Commodore Waters, I’m sure you know about the problems with the HAK Systems Beam Research Project from a few years ago and the team went away. Forge is where we went,” Waters looks up at that statement about them being involved with the project, “and we now have a Primary Beam Weapon that can cut through any defensive screen you currently have. We also have a new defensive screen that can stop it. So the entire Federation Fleet can’t beat us. However, we’d rather not have to kill a lot of people to stop a few powerful scumbags trying to force their will on us. That’s why we’d like to convince you to not force our hand.”

They talk a lot more over the dinner. There are also many more talks in the after dinner drinks and dancing period. A lot of people have a lot to think about when they make their way home after the dinner party.

Note: The evening four days after the dinner is when Commodore Waters can arrange for the presentation of the Battle of Forge. Due to the number of people who want to attend the presentation he has a lot of trouble finding a large enough venue with the required technical support capabilities needed. In the end the time and date for the event is set by the availability of the venue as the only location large enough is the Federation Council House Chamber on the evening of a two day break in the Federation Council meeting schedule. This results in a number of the Federation Councillors attending the presentation as well.

Travel Troubles

Early on the day of the presentation Lorna and Morgan travel up to the space station to go to the Goodwill to collect the records and to enlist the assistance of Melissa Pearson to do the presentation because she’s an exceptional presenter and lecturer. After much discussion Melissa agrees to give the presentation for them. Just before they leave the Goodwill to go to the planet Lorna says, “Melissa, if there’s any trouble as we travel you turn around and watch for an attack from behind us while Morgan and I deal with what’s in front of us. Also, go put on the medium armour you have, and don’t take it off until I tell you it’s safe to do so.”

Melissa asks, “Is it really that dangerous?”

Morgan responds, “Yes. There’s a lot of people with a lot of money and their egos tied into stopping us proving our independence and being recognised by the Federation government.”

A few minutes later Melissa has her armour on and they leave the ship to catch a shuttle down. On the way to the planet Melissa is very busy making herself familiar with the timeline of the reports and files as listed in the After Combat Battle Report prepared by Len Henry.

Once they leave the Arrivals Terminal Morgan leads the way as they walk to the Acadian Embassy. It’s an oddity of how the spaceport and its surrounds are set out that all of the embassies are in a section of the city easily reached from the spaceport by foot, but it takes a lot longer to take a ground transport between the two locations. This is because all of the embassies are built beside an area that was originally a fenced and gated residential suburb. Thus the roads for vehicular traffic go around the residential area. Some years after the embassies and roads were built the fences were removed, but no extra roads linking the residential area to the roads around it have been built. Thus foot traffic has a shorter and faster path than vehicles do.

The trio are almost to the edge of the spaceport when they walk down a street between two large warehouses. When they’re halfway down the buildings three men walk into the street in front of them and turn to them with hand weapons just as two men block their path behind them.

Because the three Forge citizens are in high alert mode and expect trouble they’re fast to react. The speed of the reactions by Morgan and Lorna shock their attackers when they step forward and closer together so they make a human shield between the three front attackers and Melissa. At the same time they also remove their personal defence weapons from their holsters and shoot the outside attacker on their side. Melissa is a little bit slower to react, but seeing Morgan and Lorna move to protect her has Melissa spinning around as she draws her personal defence weapon. She spots the two men behind them as soon as her head turns far enough to see them while her body is still turning to her left to bring her weapon to bear on them.

The three front attackers are shocked by the speed of their targets, but they still fire their weapons as soon as they get into position. However, they’re further shocked by the lack of effect their weapons have on their targets and their targets firing a weapon at them that makes a loud noise.

Lorna and Morgan fire at the same time as their attackers. The rounds they fire hit the chests of their targets and explode. The targets are killed by the direct hits while the middle man is killed by the shrapnel of the two rounds hitting vital parts of his body and head.

The two men behind the trio aren’t expecting to fire their weapons so they aren’t prepared to fire when Melissa starts to turn. However, that’s not the case with Melissa, as her turn to the left has her body bring the weapon in her right hand around while her hand is drawing the weapon for her to use it. As soon as she can see the laser targeting light on the chest of the first attacker she fires. The explosive round kills that man and the shrapnel from the round kills the other attacker. She smiles at getting them both with the one shot.

A moment later, after she has time to look at all five dead attackers, Melissa says, “I did better than you two. I got two for one round while you only got three for two rounds.” They all laugh as they put away their weapons while walking away from the location at a fast walk. They don’t run as they don’t want to draw that much attention to themselves.

Morgan, Lorna, and Melissa are out of sight of the ambush site when a couple of workers in the buildings walk out to see what caused the loud noises they heard. They soon find the five dead and report them to the spaceport security force, who send out a team to investigate the report.

The five person security team soon arrives on site. As soon as he sees what they have to deal with Sergeant Valdez says, “Burrows, you get the DNA and other ID data from the dead. Bacon, Walker, Mason, each of you choose a witness and get their statement.” As the troops act on his orders Valdez moves a little further away while he takes out his comm unit to call his commander, and says, “Captain, you and the Colonel need to attend this scene. We’ve five dead. Two with a hand beam each and three with a neural disruptor each. They all have wounds from weapons I don’t recognise, and it’s all within the spaceport grounds. I’ve no idea how they got those weapons past all of the sensors we have in this area. Also, the monitors for this area have been off-line for twenty minutes. So you need to start an investigation into why that’s not been reported or fixed.” He listens for a moment then he closes his comm unit.

Several minutes later the Colonel in charge of the spaceport security is on hand and reviewing everything they’ve found out. Then he makes a call on his comm unit. Twenty minutes after that a ten person team from the Federation Special Investigations Group is on hand and taking over the investigation. Sergeant Valdez is only too happy to let someone else deal with this incident.

Note: During the next few days the FSIG team identify the attackers and they’re sure they attacked the Forge Ambassadors due to the timing and location, but they have no evidence. The investigators are also frustrated by not being able to identify what the attackers were killed with or what happened to the neural disruptor victims. In the end they leave the case as unsolved due to the lack of information and the lack of evidence.

The Praetorian Guard nanobot changes protects the neural systems of Lorna and Morgan from the neural disruptor charges.

Battle Report

Commodore Waters meets Morgan, Lorna, and Melissa at the Council House Chamber an hour before the presentation to enable them to set up the technical support. They’re all familiar with most of the equipment and the House Technician is on hand to help them with what is new to them while also making sure all is ready to go on time. Once all is set up they take a break and chat while they have a snack organised by Waters.

Fifteen minutes later they’re cleaning up from their snack when the first of the officials attending the presentation arrive and enter the House. Naturally, the Councillors all have their usual seats reserved for them and their immediate aides while the senior Fleet staff go to the special area set aside for them. Then others keep entering and are directed by the House staff to the available free seats in the Chamber. When the starting time comes around every seat is in use and the walls have people standing in front of them. Only the walkways are free due to the House staff keeping them clear for safety reasons. This is the largest number of people to ever be in the House Chamber for any reason at all.

Waters waits until the security staff shut and secure the access doors then he walks to the podium, actives the microphone, and says, “Good evening everyone. Tonight we’ll be seeing a presentation of the Battle of Forge with all of the sensor and monitor recordings made at the time. Senior Lieutenant Pearson will give the presentation and when it’s over Lieutenant Colonel Kesselring and Major Austin will take questions on the material covered in the presentation. Just so everyone knows, these officers have earned their ranks as they started their military careers with either the Purple Militia in the Rainbow Kingdom or the Arcadian Forces. While Lieutenant Pearson gives the presentation Colonel Kesselring and Major Austin will be managing the displays during the presentation.”

As arranged he simply steps down and Melissa walks to the centre of the stage instead of the podium. She has a comm unit clipped to her ear that transmits her voice to the speaker system. She says, “Let’s start with a view of the Forge System.” A huge holographic image of the system appears on the stage beside her as she draws an extending rod to use as a pointer to show relevant locations as she says, “The planet Anvil, the space station, and the moon Hammer. Note how spread apart they are.”