All That Glitters Ch. 23

Ayesha came up and took a hold of his hands. "I was really jealous when those ladies were handling your junk, my husband to be," she told him with a grin. "Just remember, they were handling it for a specific purpose today, while I get to handle it for another purpose later."

"My body is yours, Ayesha," Sean rumbled, his voice coming through the helmet's speaker. "You are the only one who gets to decide who plays with it."

That brought laughter from those around him, as all knew of their threesome with Heyya.

"Go to work, Sean," Ayasha told him, giving him a swat on the ass.

"Hey! Easy there! You wouldn't want me to complain about sexual harassment now!" Sean grumbled, bringing more laughter from the assembled.

Sean stayed closed up in the suit for a full eight-hour shift. They stripped him down and weighed him, to see if he had sweat at an abnormal level, something that can happen in a closed environment. Ayesha took a good look at him medically, doing all the measurements she needed to, to confirm his good health after being in the suit all day. She was pleased when she finished.

"Right, anything else?" she asked of those assembled. "Good. Come along Sean, it's time to take you back to our quarters and show you just how proud I am of what you did today."

"Can I put my clothes back on?" Sean asked.

"Why? Everyone on this ship has seen you naked in the EVA chambers. Besides, you'll only have to take them off again once we get to our stateroom." Ayesha told him, giving him a smouldering look.

Sean's body responded to that look, his cock rising almost immediately. Ayesha giggled and grabbed his rising member, using it to guide him out the door.

"Wow, I knew she could be assertive when necessary, but that was certainly interesting," Kim giggled.

"I think it will be even more interesting for Sean shortly," the Boatswain quipped.

Arlene was given the go ahead to complete the suits on all the other security team members. Imagery and telemetry on the suit's responses that day went to Michelle Laundray who would be interested in the results.

Three days later, The Wanderer was ready for New Hadria, or so they thought.

The Wanderer, New Hadria, Frogus System, Seventy-Four Light Years from Terra

The Wanderer winked into existence high above the gravity well of New Hadria. She was right on time for the seventy-fifth anniversary of the first humans on the planet.

Noor contacted planetary control and received the ship's assigned parking orbit, which was two hundred kilometers from the Handren Orbital Station. The station was massive, more than three times larger than any station that Noor had ever seen. Science told her the station was six kilometers in diameter with at least twenty-seven levels and had towers projected one kilometer up and down from the midpoint.

Pressed up against and in the space around the station were orbiting space vessels of all kinds. The vessels bore the livery of just about every planet and major family in Union space, and a few major families and planets not currently in the Union.

"Sir, Tac O, I count one hundred and thirty medium and large sized vessels, ma'am," the Tac O sang out.

"Busy place," Noor commented. "Nav O, once we are in our assigned orbit, hold at station keeping. I want an escape route plotted at all times and an FTL plotting exercise every three hours.

"Pilot, I want the sub-light engines hot at all times, and the FTL drive ready for immediate use, even if it damages the station should we use it here." Noor ordered.

"Aye, sir," the Nav O and Pilot acknowledged.

Noor opened her comp. "Mr. Clark, we are in orbit, sir. Orders?"

"I'm expecting a call from the Handren Company Rep at anytime now that we are here," Clark came back. "These ships we are seeing are probably here for the same thing we are, the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Festival. So far, I have only met a handful of the major families that are currently in orbit here. The Handren Family is well connected."

"Comms from the planet, sir," the Comms O called out. "Comms is directed to Mr. Clark."

"Right, put it through to his stateroom," Noor ordered closing the link on her comp.

Raymond sat at his com station and opened the link. The representative was none other than Artura Handren himself.

"Do I have the pleasure of speaking with Raymond Clark?" Handren asked.

"You do," Clark replied. "I recognize you from your imagery, you are Artura Handren."

"Correct, Mr. Clark. I welcome you to New Hadria and to our festival. We are pleased that you could be here for our special event," Handren said.

"The Handren Orbital Station is open to your ship's crew. They can find almost anything they might want there. Travel down to the surface requires pre-notice to Planetary Control, and you are only permitted to travel to the capital, New Carthage. Should you not inform Control, or go to a non-designated destination, you might find yourself on the wrong end of our Planetary Defence Grid, so please ensure that you inform Control about your intent to travel to the surface. We do not want any incidents to mar our festival.

"This is a festive occasion and all of the events are in New Carthage, the original location of the first landing. Over the next three days, we will fete our arrival on planet seventy-five years ago and have a grand party for our guests. I hope to get a firsthand look at your vessel, which I hear is one of the more impressive in Union space, though that might have to wait until after the next three days. I hope you and your crew enjoy the festivities, Mr. Clark. Control should be sending you an events schedule from which you can select your appearances, however, the main opening ceremonies will be at noon tomorrow. I look forward to seeing you there," Handren ended.

"Wouldn't miss it, Mr. Handren," Clark returned. "We'll see you tomorrow.

The transmission was shut down from Handren's end. Clark turned to look at Liea, Lynne, Kim, and Analisa.

"Your thoughts?" he asked.

"He doesn't seem like a very nice person," Liea quipped. "He comes over as very controlling, and I get a sense of paranoia from him."

"I agree," Analisa interjected. "His reputation is rock solid. Once he makes a deal, he will stick with it. However, until he makes that deal, he is known to attempt any manner of tricks from theft to threats in order to derive a favourable deal for the Handren Company. Do not trust this man to deal fairly with you under any circumstances that he cannot completely control."

"So noted," Clark acknowledged. "We'll have to make sure we can go to the surface armed somehow."

Just then, the comms unit pinged.

"Comms O, sir. We have just received a signal from Planetary Control with an 'interactive' webpage detailing with the upcoming events," the Comms O reported.

"Dump it into the standby computer," Analisa ordered immediately. "Under no circumstances do we let that into our mainframe."

"You heard the lady, make sure that never touches any of the functional computers on this ship," Clark said.

"Aye, sir. We'll do that and run scan on it to see if there is anything hidden in it. Any other orders, sir?" Comms asked.

"Not for now. Thanks for your work, Chief Polit," Raymond said, shutting down the link.

"Let's go to Handren Station," Raymond said. "I want to see for myself those things that we saw in the briefing from Cdr. Teal on Philemon Phargas' interrogation."

"NOT NOW, NO!" Lynne interjected. "I want to go through the legal notes on the station to ensure that we don't wind up doing something against the local laws, especially where carrying weapons is concerned. In particular, what do they classify as a 'weapon'. Once we have that, we can go to the station."

"Didn't we already receive a note on local laws from the New Hadria embassy on Liramor Prime?" Liea asked.

"Yes," Lynne stated. "However, there has been some issue as to the accuracy of what is provided by the embassy and what is actually on the ground. The Handren Company is scrupulous in its business practices vis-à-vis its contracts with others, but their business practices with those they do not have a contract with are less than stellar. I wouldn't put it past them to not provide correct planetary law information in order to place those who are not under contract in a compromising position.

"It would be prudent to ask for a copy of local law from the station and compare it to what we have," Lynne finished.

Raymond was reminded that his PA, Lynne Ducharme had spent many years working for lawyers. He would follow her advice. He opened his comp and contacted Henadi.

"Capt. Noor," he started, letting her know this was official business. "No one is to receive shore leave to the station until we confirm local law. It shouldn't take us long to do this. Shore leave will likely commence in Second Shift," he finished, referring to ship's time.

The Navy worked under a centuries old tradition wherein ship's time was divided into three eight-hour shifts (with one broken half hour for first bell). It was also from where the tradition of eight bells came from. A designated member of the crew (who could count) would ring the bell every hour and sound out the hour (First shift, three bells!) to let people on and off shift know ship's time. Shifts were from 0800hrs (eight bells Frist Shift) to 1600hrs (eight bells Second Shift) to 2400hrs (or 0000hrs, eight bells Third Shift). Crew would change at eight bells on the new shift (look it up it's a fascinating tradition).

Lynne departed with Analisa to her stateroom where they would conduct the check on a designated computer. Nothing from the local system could be allowed into the ship's main computer system.

**********

Noor sat at her post on the Captain's balcony, slightly elevated over the horseshoe of Ops. She had designated her duty list, ready to check out her subordinate's performance later. Most of those who she designated duties to were old hands and she expected no issues from them, however, some were still new to their ranks or their new duties and she wanted to see how they would deal with the issues she passed to them. Her reverie was suddenly interrupted.

"Captain, Comms, we have an issue with the data from the Planetary Control, ma'am," Chief Polit spoke.

Noor stepped over to the comms station, followed by her Ex O.

"Let's hear it, Chief," she ordered.

"Ma'am, there are at least twelve different bugs hidden within the 'Webpage' data we received. I recognize a couple of the viruses as modifications of those used by the CP in The War to disrupt ship's computers, either to disable a ship, or to gain control of a ship. Old viruses, but still effective.

"I'd have to analyse the other viruses to determine what their purpose is, but this is data from an 'official' source, ma'am. I would say we should not trust any data from the station or planet," Polit finished.

"Thank-you, Chief. Keep working on it and for the Gods sake, keep it isolated," Noor ordered.

She opened her comp to Raymond and Lynne.

"Chief Polit has just confirmed that the webpage provided is riddled with dangerous bugs, and that is from official sources," Noor informed them.

"I would suggest, strongly, that no crew connect to the local comms links under any circumstances," Lynne stated. "They could unknowingly bring back all kinds of nasty bugs."

"Agreed," Raymond stated. "That should come directly from you Capt. Noor."

"Roger, that," Noor confirmed.

"Comms, give me ship wide, please," Noor ordered.

"Ship wide ready, ma'am," the Comms O told her a moments later.

"Yellow Alert! Yellow Alert! All crew are notified that the ship is at Yellow Alert," Noor commanded, as she opened the link.

"All personnel, this is the Captain. There has been an unsuccessful cyber attack against the ship. Unknown entities have attempted to place dangerous viruses into the ship via official sources. We must, as a consequence, classify the local planet as hostile.

"Under no circumstances are you to link to any local comms system for internet data or other purposes. All personnel going on shore leave to the station or planet will lock out their comps to prevent hostile actions against this ship. No matter how tempting something might be, under no circumstances will you link to it. If you are interested in purchasing something, use the old fashioned method of pointing and grunting.

"This ship will consider itself on Yellow Alert for the duration of this visit. No personnel will go on shore leave in groups of less than four. We will look into how we can be armed.

"The next few days is going to be a challenge to this ship. Talk to your crew mates or your superiors if you have issues. I trust this crew will come through this in an exemplary manner. Noor, out."

"Tac O, Weapons O, weapons to stand-by, weapons at ready in ten seconds as called. Keep a lock on anything approaching this ship. Keep the Dorsal guns closed until further notice." A chorus of Aye, sirs, came from the Tac O and Weapons O.

"Shit," Noor spat out, absolutely disgusted with the turn of events.

"Ma'am, leave this to the experts, please," Chief Polit quietly said to the captain as he stepped over from his post. "We'll take care of this."

"Thanks, Chief. It's nice to hear the quiet confidence of a professional," Noor replied. It was going to be a long few days.

**********

Noor stepped into the War Room, situated behind and isolated from the bridge by distance and heavy armour. This was the fighting heart of the ship, where all planning was conducted. The Weapons O and Tac O took their cue from the War Room, though the Captain always had the final say. Maj. Thom was working with several key people.

"Report," Noor ordered.

"Ma'am, we are at Yellow Alert, all fighting positions are manned and ready," her Ex O, Cdr. James Hull informed her. His alert post was now in the War Room along with Maj. Thom, commanding the Marines, and one representative of each of the ship's major teams.

"We have been looking over potential threats and threat scenarios for this ship and its crew," Maj. Thom informed her.

"We can easily spot if something begins to move in on this ship, but the secondary threat will likely be to crew while on shore leave. As such, we are going over battle simulations for our people and rescue plans to get them out of any situation that develops.

"Since the crew is not permitted to link to local comms sources, they will have to stay in direct communications with the ship. That gives us the tactical advantage of knowing where our people are at anytime while off the ship. We are currently going over different rescue plans using regular shuttles, combat shuttles, combat drop shuttles, the Princess Class vessels, and of course the Valour Class vessels and combinations thereof. Everything is listed in escalating tensions and threat levels.

"We already have plenty of plausible threat scenarios and we are currently evaluating the minimal threat response, increasing through the threat responses to the highest threat response which would include using the ship's major weapons, ma'am," Thom finished.

"Good, keep that up. I want three responses to different scenarios from a bar fight, to open warfare on the station or planet. I don't anticipate the latter, but things have gone to shit and quickly mounted to serious levels of late. Best we are prepared," Noor finished.

Lynne Ducharme stepped into the War Room.

"Captain, I've just reviewed what the station has sent out on local law to what we previously had from the embassy on Liramor Prime. There are some major discrepancies," she told everyone in the room.

"First, weapons are allowed on the station. That includes deadly weapons. The locals are permitted to settle disputes with duels.

"The station will normally attempt to confiscate weapons from non-locals, however, that can be overridden at customs by simply bluffing your way through and keeping your weapons. As long as your weapons are openly displayed, this will work. If your weapons are concealed, they will confiscate them. Open carry is the best policy while on the station or on planet.

"Additionally, if you get involved with a local incident, you can wind up charged with interference with local customs. This is in place to refute anti-slavery protestors from other planets. The charges against a crew member can be turned onto the ship. If the ship stands with its crew, the ship can wind up being confiscated under local law.

"The station is more tolerant of ship's crews than the planet would be, but I would not tempt the local authorities or put it past them to attempt to trick our people into taking some kind of stand that they would exploit in order to take the ship.

"We should include this in any scenarios to be considered, ma'am," Lynne finished.

"Shit. We have stepped into a mine field and we effectively have no means of detecting the locally made mines," Noor told those in the room. "Recommendations?"

"Captain, I believe that they will not try anything during the next three days of their festival," Lynne stated. "Too many of the famous families and planetary representatives are here and they wouldn't appreciate the kinds of things that the Handren Company are noted for and are all too aware of how Handren operates. Handren does not want his precious festival to blow up in his face. Once the famous families and the reps leave, however, then options open up for him."

"Anything else in that law package?" Noor asked.

"Oh, yes. As with the webpage, there are several embedded bugs," Lynne replied. "Those nasty beasts have already attempted to take over my stand-alone computer. Fortunately, the latest anti-malware software from Luc Branchette is working quite nicely, its identified thirty-six bugs, half of them listed as high-level threats. We are going to want new stand-alone computers after we leave here as I don't think we will get all the bugs out of the ones we are using now.

"However, we might get a discount on computers from VSC is we give them our old ones, with the bugs still intact," Lynn mused with a grin for the captain.

"Well, we now know just how far the Handren Company will go to get what it wants," Noor stated. "I'm almost tempted to tell the bosses that we should cut our losses and run, but we are here on Navy business as well, so we must remain."

Raymond and Liea came into the War Room and were appraised of the situation.

"Right, I'm going to try to get Artura Handren to visit the ship in the afternoon of the third day," Raymond told them. "We do not want to insult the Handren Company nor the New Hadria Government, which are probably one and the same, but we want to be out of the system as soon as we can after that visit.

"We will put people on the station to see if what Mr. Phargas has told us is true. If it is, then Navy Intelligence will have to initiate a clandestine infiltration of New Hadria and the Handren Company. We are here to confirm that which we were informed of, and nothing more. We stay out of a fight if possible, but if not, I expect this ship to give a full measure of its capabilities in return to any hostilities made against us. Understood?"

Everyone in the War Room snapped to attention and shouted Aye, Sir!

"Henadi, make sure that everyone going to the station knows what they are to look for, the more eyes we have looking for these issues, the more likely we are to actually see them," Raymond finished.

*************

The first two shore leave shuttles from The Wanderer to the station slid into the shuttle bay just after first bell second shift ship's time, or four thirty in the afternoon. On board the first shuttle were twenty-four pre-selected members of the crew and sixteen others, while on the second were thirty-eight additional crew on leave. While they were there to take in the sights, they were also there to do a job. The shuttle bay quickly matched atmospheric pressure with the rest of the station and the shuttle doors opened to let the shore leave crews out.