All That Glitters Ch. 14

"Ms. Halle, however, will take the brunt of the courts ire. A drunken, rich, daddy's girl who likely flouted authority before, she will be made an example of in order to discourage others from attempting to come to Liramor-23 without authorization.

"The captain probably has a holo-vid of her insisting that he follows her orders, which will help influence the court. She will receive five to ten years and be required to provide restitution, or daddy will. If none of the injured die.

"Maybe, just maybe, she will learn from this experience," the JAG finished.

Fiona somehow did not believe she would. But stranger things had happened. And they happened a lot to Liramor-23.

Conference Room One, Liramor-23, Piscium System

Fiona was once again sitting in the conference room with a large crowd, this time under much better circumstances. It had been two days since the incident with the PV Scarlet Woman. The Valour and The Valiant had been sent to Liramor Prime with the forty-three prisoners. The Valiant would not be returning as Raymond Clark had finally left Liramor-23. Even though he had never been her lover, Fiona would miss Raymond. But she would see him again soon.

The group in front of her today were scientists from the Piscium Investigation Team, who were about to brief her on the results of the analysis of the two FTL probes.

The scientists were all excited by the events recorded by the two probes on two different planets. They had studied both extensively and sent other probes for specific inquiries and were now ready to brief the results.

"Analysis of imagery from the two systems indicates that we have definitely found the original inhabitants of the Piscium system," Dr. Sylvia Hitron began. "However, the two systems could not be further apart in development and temperament from what we have uncovered." One of the other scientists began showing events on the holo-monitor as Dr. Hitron explained.

"First, we have managed to achieve close-imagery of the inhabitants and have confirmed without a doubt that they did originate from this system," she explained as imagery clearly showed beings similar to those entombed at the cemetery site.

"Data from the two probes indicates that both civilizations are higher level industrial civilizations but that is where the similarity ends. The closer planet to us, which was using space vessels in greenish-gold colours, and which we are refereeing to as Piscium-A, has a problem. Their planet is suffering from extensive industrial poisoning.

"The Piscium-B culture has managed to maintain its high industrial level without the heavy pollution endemic to its brethren," Dr. Hitron stated, the data from the probes confirming her words.

"Secondly, both cultures have extensive networks of extra solar sites, though none of them are common to each other. Most of these sites are around star systems rich in heavy metals and thus likely being mined for their wealth.

"Using sub-light drives, it would take years for these vessels to transit between their home worlds and their extra solar sites. So, it is likely that they are refining on site, and building ships at those locations, though there are indications that ship building is occurring on their home worlds as well.

"Both cultures are using vessels that are vaguely similar to each other, indicating a common ancestor in their vessel's evolution. The major difference being that the Piscium-A culture is distinctly more warlike in that it is showing weapons on their ships, specifically guns."

"We can clearly see the weapons but, so far, we have not captured imagery of them in use, so have no knowledge of their capabilities. The weapons though, are of differing sizes indicating the possibility of something similar to our weapons systems where larger weapons mean larger capabilities."

"You keep referring to them by Piscium-A and B, do they not have named star systems?" Fiona asked, briefly interrupting.

"No, the star systems are only known by a number designation," Dr. Hitron confirmed. "We could name the systems, but once we make contact with the inhabitants, we will have to use their names, so it makes sense to designate them Piscium-A and B until we can confirm a name."

"The Piscium-B culture shows no weapons on their ships," Dr. Hitron said, continuing the brief. "That doesn't mean there on no weapons, just that they are not visible.

"That could indicate one of a few things; first, this culture is not warlike. Second, the weapons are hidden, probably to protect them from the rigors of space flight. Last, the ships we have seen are not warships. We are continuing to work to establish answers to these questions.

"One thing that is certain is that the Piscium-A culture has many more vessels in space than the Piscium-B culture and this may be part of the cause of the industrial pollution seen on their planet. Neither culture appears to be building vessels from scratch in space, though they both seem to be completing the final construction in orbit around their principle planets.

"The probes we are using now are much stealthier than the original pair and are able to get much closer to the targets than their predecessors could. We have established a list of questions that we need to confirm for the scientists and the navy." Dr. Hitron finished.

"We are having several new probes constructed based on the higher level stealth capable probes," Capt. Watt said, taking over the brief.

"We have three criteria we need to confirm; one, what are the capabilities of the weapons that we have seen on the ships of the Piscium-A culture. Two, how many vessels are in each fleet. Three, is there contact between the two cultures and if so of what nature.

"We also need to confirm if the Piscium-B culture does have weapons capabilities as we have seen no weapons on their ships so far," he finished.

"This will take months of quiet research before we are ready to make contact with either culture," Fiona stated, "but the preliminary data indicates that the Piscium-B culture is the preferred first contact.

"Keep working this issue, I want a once weekly brief unless you see something of significance to bring to me, then you can either present it in the platform's morning brief, or ask to see me separately if the issue appears to be time pressing or of exceptional importance.

"Good work everybody," Fiona finished.

"Cynthia, a word please," Fiona stopped her as she headed to the door.

The reporter came over and took the indicated seat.

"I need you to carefully edit the information that you will be sending out covering these briefs," Fiona began without preamble. "They are public briefs on the platform because the rumour mill here is staggering. We do not need miners creating a panic by listen to or participating with wild rumours, so it is best to let them know what is going on during our scientific investigations.

"However, we don't need to be giving anything to The Spider that he can use against us. So, until such time as we have a better read on what The Spider intends, be careful how you present our findings in your news clips.

"Hopefully, we will get back something from your news superiors soon, that will allow us to make better informed decisions," Fiona finished.

Cynthia gave Fiona a smile. The woman could think in layers of strategy that often surprised the reporter. She could not wait to see what she would get back from Terra...

End of chapter fourteen.

Please rate and comment but remember to keep your comments respectful.

Thanks, bigtddybr