In orbit over North America…
"A SKY BURNER?!"
"Aye," Sheko said as he relaxed in his personal quarters aboard the star galleon Eternal Oath, which was now in geosynchronous orbit over Colorado Springs and the underground headquarters of United States Stargate Command. "Perhaps one of the largest I've ever seen any of the Federate worlds deploy, Alko. If it had gone off, the Lady Warrior Gizgihfna swears on the grave of her parents that it could have rendered all life on Earth extinct in a very short time. Certainly, Nihon itself, plus a good portion of Han'guk, Zhōnghuá and Rossiya, would have been totally obliterated."
The man on the other end of the communications link blinked as he took that in, and then he sighed. "I can see why you're now demanding the cessation of all trade between the Royal Kingdoms and the worlds of the Galactic Federation," Alko of Dysos, the Lord Protector and the nominal head-of-state and head-of-government for all Yehisrites that lived within the borders of the Royal Kingdoms of Yehisril, then noted.
"I would be willing to amend my proposal."
An eyebrow arched. Ever since he was nominated to the post from a minor barony by the previous prince of his home principality forty years before, Alko had always found it quite easy to work with the leader of Kyotos. While Sheko's fellow princes always had a difficult time trying to equate his actions to what was normally expected of one of the Sixteen of the Council of Princes — hence the usual appelation applied to him, the "Mad Prince of Kyotos" — the Lord Protector knew Sheko possessed a finely developed logical and rational outlook of life both within and beyond his area of responsibility. And while there was the odd grumbling threat of war between the principalities from those who just couldn't twist their minds away from the typical "beat it down and kill it to make your point" attitude Yehisrite leaders often had, none had ever lived up to that threat. One never disagreed with success and many gladly argued Sheko had been one of the most successful princes in all of Kyotos' long history.
"What is your amendment?"
"That those worlds of the Federation willing to openly foreswear any relations with the current government on Phentax Two will be excluded from the trade embargo," Sheko said. "We can't honourably punish people because their leaders are cowards, Alko. And this approach may finally force some of the more disagreeable regimes we've dealt with in the past to either amend their ways or face being overthrown. Uru, for example."
A nod. "Indeed. I thought the Empress of Noukiios was joking when she made light of how the Urusian Imperials tended to look on every other race they deal with," Alko noted. "After meeting some of those creatures, I then personally told her that she had understated the case. You wouldn't believe how CLOSE Varanko was to beheading that slug Yethis when we had that one state visit three years ago."
"Really?!" Sheko hadn't heard of that. "Well, I'm sure it would have been justified in the end if he had done it. And Hozan Lana strikes me as a level-headed fellow even if his current coalition is built on a foundation of sand. Maybe we should push it."
"I would be wary of such."
"Alko…"
A hand was instantly raise. "Please don't misunderstand me, Sheko. The oath the Lady Hiromi made to you will always be respected. But surely you must agree that we can't be TOO overt when it comes to dealing with regimes that we don't like." Alko's lone eye — he had lost his right eye in a duel a century ago; he and Sheko were about the same age even if the Lord Protector's hair had gone totally silver — then narrowed. "And while Ōgi's insane government will get no leeway from us anymore due to their constant lies and abuse of all around them — especially given what they've done with these Avalonians we now know of — we can't break away from centuries of tradition just because other races aren't as enlightened as we."
A nod. "Agreed. Will you be the one delivering the news to the Federation?"
"And deny you the right to behead more of those animals?!"
Sheko laughed…
Meanwhile, several hundred kilometres away…
"Kaep'?"
Kaep' perked on hearing that voice, and then she turned, smiling as she spotted her oldest and dearest friend standing at the doorway of her private quarters aboard the K'ekseuk. "Come in, Kyek. What news from home?"
"All planetary governors have been informed of the Declaration of Impounding," Seu-U Yesu-A Hechnich'-T'achseu, the green-haired, brown-eyed and bespectacled chief of staff to the Imperial Chancellor of the Outmarches, said as she walked in to sit down at the fire pit beside her friend. "It's been initiated. It actually gave Hep'p'yech the excuse to seize a half-dozen Niphentaxian freighters that were passing through the Slot between Toshitto and Neptune close to Kesei." She then smirked. "Nuo was able to liberate over two hundred of our sisters. Some in the same physical condition the Lord Healer Kaechseu stated Hiromi discovered a couple days ago."
"I trust it was totally kept quiet?" Kaep' asked.
Kyek nodded. "Yes. All the ships were impounded and the crews jailed, all ready for T'yekp'it' and her interrogators to get their hands on." A sigh. "I just don't understand it, Kaep'," she then breathed out. "It's so obvious. Many people in the Federation MUST know about the Avalonians. Why haven't they…?!"
"Fear makes even the most rational being react in ways that ultimately do more harm than good," Kaep' said as she stood, stepping out of the fire pit to walk over to one of the portholes to gaze out into space and the curvature of Earth below K'ekseuk's keel. "All the races we know of have seen this happened. We actually lived in a time when leaders came to fear their loss of control over the population so much that my marching on Ryekkyuk had them all quaking in their boots instead of either openly engaging me in warfare or trying to form some type of conciliatory dialogue." She closed her eyes. "We've seen a lot in our two lifetimes, old friend."
"We have," Kyek affirmed with a nod. "But will we win?"
Kaep' blinked, and then she reached over to take up a cup of spice tea and sip from it. "We will. We're all blood-related to the Maidens. Especially after what Tsukihana and Ayami did, they simply can't stay silent and make no effort to contact Ataru. Those of us who meditate within the mists of the Te'a have felt presences similar to our own somewhere out there. And we know those presences aren't our own sisters still in slavery, so they logically HAVE to be the Maidens!"
"Couldn't we try to probe the Barrier at least?!" Kyek asked. "Any of the Earth ships have the capability; Tsukihana and Ayami built them that way! Surely…"
A hand was raised to cut off the oncoming rant; Kyek had been proposing something like this since the day the senior members of the Flower Youth had met the King of the World of Holy Reincarnation as a group on the Morningstar Plain of Okusei. "I'm expected to have further discussions with the Lord General Hammond sometime soon. He actually asked me to come down in a few hours — once they get some sleep after today's fun in Tomobiki — to discuss an exchange of knowledge concerning how far they've expanded their knowledge of the Stargate network with what we've discovered over the year."
Kyek blinked. "Do you think they've discovered how to use the Eighth Chevron?!"
"Possibly. It's the one thing that's eluded us all when it comes to exploring the Ancients' system beyond the bounds of the Barrier. Perhaps if we agree to pool ours and the Yehisrites' research together with what the Terrans have done…"
"We could actually use the Stargate to go to Sagussa instead of waiting for the Great Dragon Ship to come pick up our corpses to take us there," Kyek finished.
A nod. "Exactly."
Outside Colorado Springs…
"Colonel O'Neill?! You in?!"
"Who's asking?!"
A dry chuckle. "Who do you think, Scalphunter?!"
Jack blinked on hearing his old Air Force call sign, and then he turned to see the quite handsome dark-haired man in the stylish civilians standing at the front door to his cabin. Noting the aviator's glasses over his eyes and the calm, almost cold, look on the man's face, he then chuckled. "Get in here, Iceman!"
The door opened and the other man walked inside. "Good to see you again, Jack!"
"You, too, Tom!" Jack said as they shook hands. "So what brings you here to see me?!"
"Oh, just a few shocking revelations about what my favourite Air Force special ops soldier's been doing over the last few years," Thomas Kazanski said as he accepted Jack's invitation to sit down in the living room. After the colonel had gone into the kitchen to get a couple bottles of beer for his guest, Tom added, "CNO briefed me about SGC and everything you've done so far. Couldn't believe it when I first heard of it." He then smirked. "Then I remembered what's been going on in Japan this last year or so. Can't deny the fact that aliens aren't real in the face of all that!"
"You being shifted to SGC?" Jack asked, and then he nodded at the idea. Tom Kazanski had been one hell of a good F-14 Tomcat driver back in the dying days of the Cold War and the early years of the "New World Disorder." Last Jack O'Neill had heard of the man people in the fighter pilot community still respectfully called "Mister Iceman," Tom was Commander of Carrier Air Wing One, assigned to USS Enterprise. That had been five years ago, before Jack's work with Stargate Command had taken over all his life and temporarily driven him out of the Air Force after the first mission to Abydos. "Or with the development of the X-302s?! We can use a good pilot like you, Tom!"
A sigh. "I got the big down-check, Jack. Just last year."
Silence.
"Oh, Tom! You're kidding me." The medical check-up that forever denied flight status was the most feared thing all combat pilots had to face in their service careers.
"Arthritis," Tom confessed as he flexed his hands. "Just the beginning stages of it, but it was enough for the Navy docs to put me permanently on the deck."
"So what've you been doing?!"
A smirk. "Teaching fighter tactics at NSWAC." Tom pronounced the abbreviation for the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Centre, currently located at Naval Air Station Fallon in western Nevada, as en-sock. "Working with both Maverick and Hollywood."
Jack gaped. He had remembered all of Tom's tales concerning Peter Mitchell and Richard Neven, especially when they attended TOPGUN and a rather nasty incident with the North Koreans in the Yellow Sea right after they graduated. "Hey! How are those guys?!"
"Pete's settled down with Charlie Blackwood; you remember her from TOPGUN."
A nod. "Yeah, pretty good teacher. What about Rick?"
"Still driving himself hard." A smirk as Tom gave Jack a knowing look. "He's going to be CAG-72 when it's stood up in the next couple of weeks."
Silence.
"CAG-72?" Jack asked. He had never heard of such a high-numbered carrier wing before.
"It's actually PCU CVW-72 right now." That term, Jack knew, meant "Pre-Commissioning Unit Carrier Air Wing 72," which was the term applied to a Navy combat unit (or higher formation) that had yet to be fully commissioned. "Just got the go-ahead from the Pentagon four days ago." Tom smirked. "Yours truly was made CO of PCU Arizona at the same time. Wouldn't have minded being there when you went aboard yesterday, but I was still absorbing all the stories about these snakes you deal with."
More silence.
Jack then smiled as he stood up. "Captain Kazanski, may I extend my congratulations of you receiving your command," he said as he extended his hand.
Tom shook it. "I thank you very kindly, Colonel O'Neill."
"But why a pilot? Arizona's a battleship."
"She also has a full air group of space-capable planes," Tom reminded him as they took their seats. "NASA and the NSA detected the crew now manning Arizona launching and testing the fighters that are attached to them while she's been in orbit south of Pearl. I'm sure you guys have seen it too. Navy Regulations are pretty strict about that."
"She's a battleship AND a carrier, you mean?"
"Yeah."
Jack nodded. He personally thought it was rather odd to ask a man who normally drove an airplane for a living to eventually take command of a surface warship the size and the complexity of Enterprise, any of the Nimitz class or the upcoming Ford class ships. Given that both the ship's captain and the commander of the air wing were of the same rank — and both were qualified combat pilots, of course — there had to be some sort of envy the former might ultimately feel for the later, being forced to stay on the deck while the latter led his troops into the sky. Would it be even worse dealing with a starship? Or better?
"Well, if anyone can figure something like Arizona out, you're the man," Jack said as he toasted his guest with his beer.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Tom said as they clinked bottles.
They drank, and then Jack breathed out. "So what brings you to see me, Tom? Why not report straight to General Hammond in the bunker? Even if she's part of Fleet Forces Command, Arizona's ultimately part of SGC."
"I need to understand everything about this — 'bioroids,' I think they're called?! — that are aboard this ship. How am I going to deal with that?"
Jack blinked, and then he nodded. "Gotcha."
As the two veteran pilots began to talk, we now…
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Tue, 08 Jun 2010 04:45)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.